Princess Luna's bored with the video games she's played, so what does she do? She kidnaps ponies and dumps them into a video game of her own design. Can these ponies survive the terror of a bored Princess?
Warning: Full of Gamer Luna goodness.
Princess Luna’s growing bored of powning the same newbs over and over. So, in an effort to rekindle her passion, she sends out an invite to several ponies, requesting them to join in a very particular game. When they accept the invite, all of the participants are pulled into their viewing systems and fall into a strange world. Luna appears on a screen telling them that they've been recruited into a real life video game by her and several other mysterious ponies.
With their gamer pride on the line, can the players figure out the identities of the other ponies running the show, and worse... beat them at their own games?
<Yeah! I don’t gotta do nothin’ with this dude around.>
Luna sat back and sipped on her soda as she watched the last of the enemy’s titans blow to smithereens. She listened as her entire team began cheering in victory despite not really doing anything. She also listened as the enemy team, as usual, all either rage quit or spat out nonstop insults. Not even original ones either. Just the usual accusations of cheating and bots. Luna shook her head sadly.
“Noobs,” she sighed. “New game, same players.” Luna decided to switch game modes. Leaving “the last titan standing” lobby, she joined one that said “attrition”. “Perhaps this mode will be better.”
~Several minutes later~
<Retreat to the ship!>
<Somepony stop her! She’s headed for the ship!>
<Calm down! As long as it’s just her she can’t—>
<SHE TOOK DOWN THE SHIP!>
<WHAT THE BUCK?>
<WHO THE HELL IS NOCT3RNAL?>
“Second verse, same as the first, as the saying goes.” Luna lowered her head and sighed. “Or rather, fifth verse. I’ve played every game mode this game has to offer and yet none have managed to entertain me.”
Quitting the game, Luna sat back in her easy chair and made casual slurping sounds with her near-empty soda cup. Looking around, she examined her custom game room. A private section of the castle, home to three large flat screen HDTVs, several chairs, and just about every game system to date. One section of the large room was completely devoted to first person shooter games. Every Battlefield, Colt of Duty, Halo, Maretroid, or Doom game sat on a pedestal, as they were part of her favorite game genre. Next to them sat a life size standee of Master Chief standing tall near her standee of Samus Aran.
“Still can’t believe he was a colt in disguise,” she muttered. Turning, she looked in the opposite direction. On the other side of her marecave sat every other game she held an interest in. Games like Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Princess of War, Tirek May Cry, or The Tails Series. Luna chuckled when she realized that those games alone covered almost half of the eastern section of her room. It’s just as well, If she had an interest in one game she would end up with the entire series. She assumed that it just good consumerism.
Luna looked at her games with a curious eye. “I wonder if I beat all the secret bosses in the seventh Final Fantasy yet.”
“Oh you know you have, Lulu.” Spinning around in her chair, she noticed that Discord was in the corner playing Solitaire.
Without taking his eyes off the game he continued. “You’ve also beaten all of the Organization members, transformed all the worlds into peons, and even upgraded every weapon to max. I was there when you beat dear Twily in Science the Gathering.” He sighed in nostalgia. “Oh, how she freaked out that day.”
“Discord! I told you to knock first…” she hesitated for a second. “but, um, since you’re here… would you like to play a game with me?”
Discord looked at her, smirking. “Oh Lulu, you know that I don’t use those virtual contraptions. My entire life is one big video game. As you can see.” Discord gestured to his playing cards. Whenever he sat one down in the wrong place the image on the card would come out and battle another image to secure it’s rightful place in the set. Needless to say, his entire area was one big war. Hearts, Spades, Kings, Queens, and even the Jokers were battling it out.
Luna lowed her head, dejected. “Yeah, I know.”
Discord looked up and teleported himself so that he sat wrapped around Luna’s chair. “Now, now. Don’t looks so glumpy. Tell uncle Dissy what’s wrong,” he said, staring at her with caring eyes.
Luna sent half a glare at him before relenting. “I just--”
“Oh, hold that thought!” Snapping his paw Luna’s easy chair turned into a lounging couch while he himself sat in a beanbag chair with smarty glasses and a notepad. “Okay, go!”
“Umm, well I--” Discord held up a claw, interrupting her.
“One sec!” Discord materialized a fez on his head and a bubble pipe in his mouth.
Luna deadpanned. “Really?” Discord merely motioned for her to continue. Rolling her eyes, Luna did so. “As I was saying… I can’t seem to find any more enjoyment in the games I play. I used to relish in the destruction of noobs, and laugh at their insults and accusations.” She sighed heavily. “But now…”
Discord wrote something down. “I see. When do you think you started to feel this way?”
“Hmm." Luna thought for a moment before continuing. "I guess It would probably be a few weeks ago when I was playing the fourteenth Final Fantasy game; the second online one. I was--”
Discord lowered his pen and looked at her with excited eyes. “Ohhh! Are you about to have a flashback?”
“I... I suppose so,” she replied.
“Excellent!" Discord began rubbing his hands together. "I saw somepony doing this a while ago and I’ve been wanting to try it.”
Luna raised an eyebrow. “Try what, pray tell?”
Discord raised his arms and began wiggling them around in circles in front of him. He made a strange warbling noise with his mouth.
“What in Equestria are you--” Luna stopped when her vision began to swim. Like an ocean, everything she saw wiggled and moved. She began to feel nauseous until it finally stopped.
I am not sure what that accomplished.
Don’t worry about it. Keep going.
All right. I had been playing the game for some time already. I had just unlocked the dragoon class after spending some time getting two other jobs to level 30. But afterwards, I just didn't know what to do. I know that there are other classes to unlock, and more jobs to level. However, I just couldn't summon up the motivation to do either. It was almost as if I suddenly lost interest in the game.
Luna’s vision began to swim once more for a few more seconds.
“Stop that, Discord!”
Discord wrote more things down. “Well that was a bust, won’t be doing that again,” he muttered. “Continue.”
Luna stared at him but continued nonetheless. “Anyway, I joined a party thinking that I was just bored of soloing. I ended up leaving the party after thirty minutes. I felt that a break was in order so I left to attend to my royal duties.”
Discord nodded in understanding. “Eating cake and seducing guards. I know. After that?”
Luna sent him a irritated glare. “That’s my sister. I actually do things when I’m on duty.”
“Didn't see you when we had that bug infestation,” he smirked.
“Halo 3 had literally just came out at the time!” Luna yelled.
Discord smirked. “Good, It seems that you haven't lost your passion at least.”
Luna’s eyes widened as she realized what just happened. “Wait, how did you even know about that? You weren't there.”
A piece of parchment appeared in Discord’s claw. “Sunbutt isn't the only one who likes to exchange letters.” He dropped the paper and it fell into the ground. “So, you’ve lost interest in single players, how about multi?”
Luna lowered her gaze sadly. “Well, like I said, partying with others I found boring as well. After returning from my duties--”
“Hope you remembered to wipe,” he snickered.
Luna continued, ignoring him for the sake of her own stress levels. “I turned on Colt of Duty, the newest one. Once again, I got bored halfway. I couldn't even take joy in the rage quitting of others. Tell me, Discord, and be serious, just for a second… Am I getting bored of video games?”
Just as Discord opened his mouth to reply in his typical snarky fashion, only for an image of a frowning Fluttershy to appear in his head, urging him not to. Frowning himself, he threw his notebook filled with snarky and witty remarks away, and spoke truthfully. “It seems to me that you’ve simply lost your competitive spirit.”
Luna lifted her gaze and gave him a shocked look. “What do you mean?”
Discord sighed and took his glasses off to clean them. “Luna, when was the last time you got together with a few friends and competed against them.”
Luna hung her head in shame. “I tried that a few days ago. It was fun, but in the end I still had to pretend that I wasn't getting a little bored.”
Discord stroked his beard thoughtfully. “I see… Did you defeat them?"
Luna lifted her gaze slightly. "Of course."
Discord threw his arms up in discovery. "Well then. Therein lies your problem, Luna. You can no longer derive any enjoyment from defeating those that pose no threat to you."
It took Luna a few seconds to translate what Discord had said. But when she did she gasped in shock. "Are you saying that I'm… too good of a player?"
Discord rang a small bell that make chicken noises. "Correctamundo!"
Even though Luna was now aware of what her problem, the mere idea of her being too good still sounded foreign to her. "I must ask; how can being too skilled cause me to lose my passion for the thrill of competition?" she asked.
"Well let me ask you a question." Discord leaned back and smirked. "Have you ever watched another group of ponies compete against each other?”
Luna lifted her head back up, then tilted it in confusion. “Like a game show?”
He shook his head. “No, it’s the same as playing with your own friends here in Colt of Duty. Except you aren't playing with them. You watch them play and watch them try to outdo each other.”
Luna went from confusion to outright shock. “Why would I not participate in the group’s merriment?”
Discord leaned back into his beanie chair and blew a few bubbles from his pipe. “Whenever I find myself bored of playing games with others, I tend create games for others to play. I enjoy watching them complete the challenges I set. I believe that somepony even made a game of it, Dragons and Caves or something. Anyway, the point being, is that I suggest that you go about doing just that. Rediscover your joy of competition through another’s eyes.”
Luna sat up straight in her chair. “Alright, I shall gather my friends. I hope that they aren't too busy.” Now that she knew how to fix her problem, she couldn't fathom waiting any longer the way she was.
Discord shook his head. “Moony, Moony, Moony. Must you be so dull?”
“What!? How darest thou calleth me--” Discord appeared in front of her and pinched her lips together.
“Allow me to make a suggestion,” he moved closer, still pinching her lips shut, and whispered into Luna’s ear. Her expression remained angry at first but soon morphed into one of curiosity. Then finally, into one of excitement. She had a full blown smile on her face by the time Discord released her.
Luna looked up to him with glittering eyes. “I agree wholeheartedly. You will assist me, correct?”
Discord mock sighed. “If that is your will, than it shall be done, my princess.” He looked to her with a mischievous smirk, which she returned in kind.
“Spike!” Twilight called out, “Can you come here for a sec?”
Spike came around the corner and walked into Twilight’s room, “Jeez, I swear this castle is like a maze. What’s up.”
Twilight turned around from her game and looked at her assistant with a smile, “We’ll get used to it eventually. But for now, I need some help with this question.”
Spike examined the game she was playing, “What is Hum Drom’s secret identity? Another trivia game? Well… at least this one’s got good taste in questions,” he said proudly.
Twilight rolled her eyes playfully. Spike noticed and crossed his arms. “Why don’t you play something more fun, like Mass Effect or Fallout: Equestria?” Spike asked.
“Because these are more intellectually stimulating," Twilight shot back. "So, do you know the answer?”
Spike's eyes drifted to the top of the screen, “Of course I do. Hold on, what’s that?”
Twilight looked back to her screen. “Oh, I got a new message from somepony named Noct-3-r-nal.” Spike slapped a claw to his face. “Oh! Nocturnal! I get it, how clever. Though there isn't an 'e' in Nocturnal.”
The young dragon finally revoved his claw and leveled a deadpan look her her. “Twilight… it doesn't matter. That’s Princess Luna’s username. What's it say?”
“It’s an invite to a brand new trivia game," Twilight squealed. "She’s offering to gameshare with me!” she gushed. Suddenly her face twisted in confusion, “Wait, I didn't know you could do that over the net.”
This time it was Spike's turn to eye roll. “Maybe it’s some new feature? I don’t know. Personally, I would still recommend something else like--”
Twilight was already in the midst of accepting the invite. “You have your games Spike, and I have mmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Spike hel--”
The second she finished accepting the invite a large wind began blowing throughout the room. Spike covered his face to protect himself, so he couldn't see Twilight being dragged into her television set until it was too late. He ran up to the screen in fear.
“Twilight? Twilight!” Spike pounded on the screen.
~~~
Pinkie hopped off her bed and rushed to the screen. “Oh! OH! Run, Dashie! Run!”
“I’m trying! They won’t stop chasing me!” Rainbow Dash twisted her controller in a futile effort to wring more speed out of her plane.
“Well of course they’re gonna chase you. You have 5 stars up there.” Pinkie pointed towards the top left of the screen at the five little white stars, then at the multitude of police behind Rainbow's characters.
“All I did was rob a bank!” Dash whined. Slamming the control stick in order to dodge a magic missile from the airship behind her.
“You also had me lift your tank into the air while you blew up the choppers that were chasing us!” Pinkie cheered happily.
Rainbow chuckled, “Yeah, that was pretty awesome!” A loud explosion noise came from her screen. “OH COME ON! How the hay did I explode?”
Pinkie leaned closer into the screen, “I think you reached the height limit, Dashie.”
Rainbow Dash’s eye twitched. “Seriously? I was thiiiiiiiiiiis close to getting away. All I had to do was reach that mountain over there, and I would have been set,” she sulked.
Pinkie looked away and gave a sly smile, “Well, maybe if you hadn't shot me in the back as soon as we reached the plane I would still be able to carry out the plan.”
Rainbow Dash oppened her mouth, though about it, shrugged and answered, “...Point taken.”
Pinkie pushed Dash aside and shoved her face into the screen once more, “Oh look! You have an invite. It’s from Luna!”
Dash pushed the pink pony aside and read the invites contents. “It’s for a heist. Count me in!”
The second Rainbow hit the accept button an incredible wind began sucking everything into her TV screen. Taken by surprise, she had no choice but to succumb to the suction of the screen. Not willing to be left out, Pinkie hopped in along with her, leaving the party pony’s room completely empty.
There was a light knock on her door before Mr. Cakes voice sounded through, loudly. “Keep it down in there! The twins just fell asleep and--”
‘WAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHHH!!”
Mr. Cake sighed.
~~~
Sweetie Belle turned to the colt next to her, “Hey, Button?”
Button stopped what he was doing and glanced over, “Yeah?”
“Did this come out crooked?” she asked, gesturing to the structure on-screen.
“Sweetie Belle,"--Button shook his head-- "we’re playing Minecraft, nothing can come out crooked in this game.”
Sweetie looked towards the screen and back, still not fully comprehending the curious physics of the game. “Well, what if I put the block in the wrong place?”
Button deadpanned, and said, “Then you would know, because it would be sticking out.”
Sweetie Belle’s eyes lit up in understanding, “Ohhhh.” The two foals continued to play together in silence for a few more minutes. “Hey, Button?”
“Yeah?”
Sweetie smiled softly before lowering her gaze. “I like playing these games with you, they’re so much fun. Even if I am a complete noob at most of them,” she said sadly.
Button patted her on the back and nodded sagely, “It’s not your fault.”
“Yeah, it is," she insisted, giving him a wide eyed look. "It took you almost two weeks to help me get the hang of this. You could've used that time to build any number of awesome things.”
“Sweetie, being a noob doesn't mean that you’re bad at the game. It just means that you haven't reached your potential yet. That’s something mom and dad taught me.”
“What do you mean?”
Button Mash paused the game and sat his controller down. “Playing video games and being skilled at them, is the same as getting a cutie mark. You don’t have one when you’re born do you?”
Sweetie looked at her still-blank flank, “No.”
“Exactly, you grow into it and gain it when you discover the ability you’re best at. You’re only a noob until you find that one skill or ability that you can specialize in. Like for instance, in Minecraft, you’re ridiculously good at finding things when we go underground.”
Sweetie blushed slightly, “You really think so?”
“Of course! We made so many things since you started! I--”
“Button!” a feminine voice sounded out from somewhere in the house, “Could you come here for a second?”
“Sure, Mom!” He turned back to Sweetie Belle, “I’ll be right back.”
Button immediately ran out of the room. Alone, Sweetie unpaused the game and continued to build. A few minutes later a message appeared on top of the screen reading invite. Sweetie turned back to the door.
“Button? Somepony’s inviting you to join their world. Should I accept?”
Receiving no answer, Sweetie contemplated on what she should do. “Button would want me to join,” she reasoned. Accepting the invite Sweetie shrieked when she found herself being dragged into her screen. “BUTTON! BUTTOOOOO--”
~~~
Bon Bon inched fearfully away from her room mate and best friend. “Lyra… stay away from me. Or I swear to Celestia I will--”
Lyra scrunched her muzzle tightly to try to hide the wide grin on her face. “Come on, Bonnie, it’ll be fun. I swear!”
Bon Bon threw her hoof forward in an accusing gesture, screaming, “You said that about the last three games you wanted me to play! Now I don’t know what this ‘Slender’ is, but it sounds like some kind of horror game!”
Lyra’s face puffed with barely contained laughter. Swallowing it she continued, “No… I promise -hehe- it’ll be fun!” he voice was squeaky by the end of her sentence as she desperately tried to contain her laughter.
“And that! You keep saying that it’ll be fun! Why are you laughing? It’s really creeping me out!”
Lyra did a few motions to calm herself down. Still standing near her computer, she tried something different, “Fine, we won’t play Slender. Let’s watch some anime instead.”
Suspicious, Bon Bon slowly made her way over to her roommate. “Which one?” she asked with narrowed eyes.
Lyra’s face puffed up with laughs again, but she quickly pushed them down. Leaving only a wide smile in it’s place. “Oh, nothing popular. Just a little anime called… School Days.”
Bon Bon’s eyes shrank to pinpricks. She jumped far back in alarm, “NO WAY! My sister showed me that when I was younger and it scarred me for life. I still can’t watch school related anime!” Bon Bon bolted out of the room.
Lyra, however fell to the ground laughing. It took a full ten minutes before she could stand again, and even then she still had the giggles. Behind her, she heard a ding sound come from her computer. Turning around, she noticed that she had received an invite to play something.
“You’ve been chosen as a beta tester for the new game… Half Life 2: Episode… 3” Lyra’s jaw hit the ground so hard it made it’s own crater. Stars in her eyes she wasted no time in clicking the accept button. When a large wind sucked her into her computer screen she screamed at the top of her lungs, “NOT COOL!!!”
~~~
Octavia slammed her hoof if the final button. She grinned when the K.O appeared in the middle of her screen and she saw her character stand tall, victorious. “Well, that’s 10 wins in a row, Vinyl. You now owe me 20 bits, as per our agreement.”
Vinyl’s signature smirk had long since fell into a deep frown, “I never should have made that stupid, bucking.... ONE MORE MATCH!” she demanded.
Octavia chuckled lightly, “Vinyl, as much as I enjoy trouncing you in these games, I do still have practice to attend to.”
Vinyl stared up at her with ruby red eyes, sparkling and sad, “Please, Tavi…”
Unable to resist those orbs, Octavia relented, “Fine,” she sighed. “One more match, but that’s it!”
Vinyl hoof pumped and hit the rematch button, “Same characters?”
“It wouldn't matter either way," the earth pony scoffed, "I would still win.”
Vinyl bit her lip in concentration. “Jeez... I used to be so good at Banished or Alive," she muttered. "What happened to me?”
“You messed your hooves up spinning records, that’s what,” Octavia commented snidely.
“Oh, ha-ha! At least I don’t have to get a hooficure every time I scuff mine on my own instruments.”
Octavia;s face lit up in offence before lowering in determination. “Why you! This time I’m not holding back!”
Octavia picked Eliot for this match while Vinyl picked her favorite character, Rig. Once the match started, Vinyl couldn't even get a single attack in during the barrage of combos, throws, and attacks Octavia sent her way. Dodging and blocking was all she could do, and even that wasn't very effective. Within two minutes, Vinyl was soundly trounced in two out of two rounds. Octavia grinned victoriously and sat her controller down.
Just as Octavia did so, however, an invite flashed at the top of the screen. Vinyl pointed at it and turned back to Octavia. “Hay, Tavi, Luna invited us to play a game!”
Octavia, meanwhile, was currently straightening her mane and bow tie in the mirror. “That is an honor, Vinyl, but I really need to leave now. You’ll have to play with her alone this time.”
“Suit yourself,” she said as she accepted the invite. A loud wind whooshed through the room, and began dragging Vinyl in. “Octavia! Octavia! Help!”
“Vinyl!” Octavia screamed as she saw what was happening to her friend. Leaping forward, she grabbed the unicorn’s hooves, but without any leverage she simply got dragged in screaming along with her.
Octavia nauseously woke up to the feeling of being shaken back and forth. Due to the increasingly rapid motion, Octavia found herself fully conscious within seconds. It didn't take her long to discover the source of the shaking.
“Tavi! Tavi! Come back to me!” screamed a white coated unicorn mare. She had her hooves wrapped tightly around Octavia and swung her back and forth in a tight hug.
“Vi-i-i-nyl-l-l Sto-o-o-o-p sha-king me!” Octavia screamed, fiercely trying to escape the unicorn’s hold. It was no use, her body was rapidly going numb. Luckily Vinyl released her voluntarily a few seconds later.
Vinyl dropped her harshly and put a hoof to her head dramatically, crying, “It’s no use! She needs CPR!”
Octavia's eyes shot wide open and she backed away quickly, “Don’t you try it!” Bumping into something, she turned around just in time to be held back by another unicorn.
Lyra called on her magic to tighten her grip on the earth pony. She leaned to the side and glanced mischievously at Vinyl. “Do it! Vinyl! Save her with the kiss of life!” Lyra pleaded.
Octavia fought against her bonds, screaming, “What? Lyra? What are you doing here? Let me go this instant!”
Vinyl put on a seriously look and nodded, seriously at Lyra. Seriously, she whispered, “Thanks, Lyra. I’ll save her. I promise. Just hold her still…"-- she cracked a serious smile--"You know, so I can save her!” Vinyl started trotting over to the still bound earth pony. As she got closer she made kissy faces and smooching noises.
Octavia fought with all her might, but alas, it was no use again the magic of the unicorn that held her. “Vinyl! Stop!" she began pleading. "Don’t you come any closer, or I’ll wipe your hard drive!”
Vinyl stopped momentarily to give it some thought. Eventually she shrugged and said, “Ehh. I’ve got a backup.” She then resumed her kissy faces.
Octavia began to sweat nervously when she began to hear Lyra’s mischievous giggles behind her. “Vinyl I’m not comfortable with this!”
Vinyl leaned into her ear and whispered, “Quiet, Tavi. I’m trying to save you.” Vinyl was right in her face now slowly leaning forward with puckered lips. Octavia closed her eyes, turned her head, and accepted her fate. All seemed lost for her until...
“Alright, that’s enough you guys.” Octavia finally opened her eyes when she felt herself being released. Both unicorns were now hovering above her in the same purple magic aura. Next to her stood the princess of friendship herself, Twilight Sparkle.
“Oh what the hay, Twi,” Rainbow Dash called from a few feet away, “It was just getting good.” She took a hoof full of popcorn from Pinkie’s bag and munched on it.
Twilight turned around and leveled a glare at Rainbow. “Be that as it may, it was blatant sexual harassment.”
Vinyl scoffed and waved a hoof. “Not if she enjoys it. It’s just a little game we play.”
Lyra raised her hoof and said, “It’s true! I’ve seen them do it!”
Octavia blushed before glaring harshly at the both of them. “It is not! What are you talking about?”
Lyra smirked and turned back to Octavia. She crossed her hooves and raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, remember last week when we got together to play Mareo kart?”
Octavia met her raised eyebrow with a deadpan glare. “I remember you restarting the whole match just so you wouldn't come in last... several times!"
Lyra flinched, “Okay, not that last week. I’m talking about when--”
“Um.. girls?” Everypony looked towards the small white unicorn sitting next to Rainbow Dash and Pinkie. Sweetie Belle fidgeted from the sudden attention but continued anyway. “Shouldn't we find out where we all are?”
Twilight lowered Vinyl and Lyra to the ground, turned, and addressed the group of rag tag ponies around her. “Sweetie’s right. We need to find out what happened and why we’re all here.”
Nodding, the group began to examine their surroundings. However, the only thing that they could see was the tiled violet floor and dark blue walls. Nopony could see the ceiling due to the blue mist blocking it from view.
“Alright… that was a waste of time,” Rainbow remarked, rolling her eyes.
“Maybe it’s some kind of secret surprise party!” Pinkie cheered.
Octavia turned in a circle, re-examining her surroundings, this time, in detail. Unfortunately, her reexamination proved useless. “If it was, why are we the only ones here?” asked Octavia.
“Alright. Let’s think,” said Twilight. “We’re in an enclosed room with no discernible exits. How many of you were dragged into your television screens?”
Everypony except Lyra and Pinkie raised their hoof.
Twilight smiled and gestured to the two of them. “Lyra, Pinkie, how did you two get here?”
Pinkie hopped in place and said, “I followed Rainbow Dash in!”
“I got sucked into my computer,” smiled Lyra, shaing her raised hoof.
Twilight frowned and turned back to the rest., “Alright, that’s no help. Next question, how many of you received an invite from Noct-3-rnal?” Her question was met with various confused gazes.
“Noct… three er nal?” Vinyl asked, confused.
Rainbow slammed a hoof to her face.
“It’s Nocturnal!" Everypony jumped when a large floating screen appeared in front of them. Princess Luna appeared on it looking distraught, “It’s Nocturnal with a 3 acting as the e. I was told that it was clever.”
Twilight recovered and gazed up at the screen, “Princess Luna, ‘nocturnal’ doesn't have an ‘e’ in it.”
She pointed at Vinyl. “Neither does ‘pony’, but Vinyl Scratch uses it anyway!” she countered.
Vinyl shrugged, “Hey, mine sounds cool no matter how you say it,” she stated.
Princess Luna groaned in a very un-princess-like manner, “Ugh, I’m changing my name back after this.”
Vinyl chuckled, “Oh I remember that old one. It had all caps but it was so long that nopony could see it. Everypony called you blank because your name didn't appear on their screens.”
Princess Luna reeled back, clearly offended. “Well I for one thought for certain the name I chose accurately displayed my skills to anypony that read it. ~XXX360PRONOSCOPEMASTERCOMBOKILLERPRINCESSLUNATHEKINGXXXPS3~ was a great name!
Rainbow Dash leaned back and, unlike the Princess, did it in shock, “How were you even able to type all that in?”
Octavia coughed in order to regain everypony's attention. Once received, she raised her voice and said, “Alright! We are getting off track here. Princess Luna, were you the one who brought us here?”
Luna shook her head. “I’m afraid not, my little pony. However, I am the one who sent you the invites, and I am the reason you are here.”
“Alright. So what’s the dealio?” asked Pinkie.
“With the assistance of Discord, I have recruited you all into a competition of sorts,” Luna answered, nodding.
“Wait! Discord is involved?” interrupted Twilight. While the spirit of chaos called himself reformed, his constant suspicious actions still sometimes caused a slight uneasiness, a slight suspicion, in Twilight. She could never help but expect something bad when he was involved.
Discord shoved his smiling face against Luna’s cheek. “Hello!” he greeted waving a claw.
Luna immediately shoved him away and glared off-screen. “Rest assured, Twilight Sparkle. Discord is only here to assist now and then. This is all my doing.”
Twilight looked at her suspiciously for a second but didn't say anything more. The Princess turned her gaze back to everypony else and resumed. "Now, the reason I’ve called you here is as I stated previously. The seven of you; Twilight Sparkle, Octavia Philharmonica, Vinyl Scratch, Lyra Heartstrings, Rainbow Dash, Sweetie Belle, and Pinkie Pie. You have all been selected by us to participate in competition of my own design.”
“Um, Princess Luna,” Octavia interjected, “I’m sorry, but I don’t have time for this I have a concert that I absolutely must practice for.”
“Do not worry, Ms. Octavia. Precautions have been taken for each of you. Any and all responsibilities that you had before hand are waived with no repercussions. Your roommates and family have also been notified.”
“So… the concert...?” she asked nervously.
“Has been rescheduled,” Luna finished
Octavia looked around, obviously still nervous. “Oh, alright then.”
Twilight stepped forward, “Alright, but what kind of competition is this?--" she gestured to everypony around her "--Not to mention, I’m pretty sure we didn't agree to participate in this.”
Luna looked shocked, “But you all accepted the invites of your own free will. The terms of the agreement were as plainly stated. Did you not read them before accepting?”
Everypony fidgeted nervously, none able to look directly at Luna’s screen.
Luna turned a weary eye to her sisters formor student. “Twilight?”
“I was talking to Spike at the time," she blurted. "I was distracted. Plus, I had read it at least 74 times before then. I… I just assumed that it was the same as the others."
Vinyl spoke next, waving her hoof off in a nonchalant manner. “I never read those things.” Pinkie, Lyra, and Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement.
Sweetie Belle tilted her head in confusion, “There were terms of agreement?”
Octavia sighed and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Princess," she said, "I normally read them but I was preparing for my rehearsal at the time when Vinyl accepted.”
“It is alright. I will explain it further. Everypony listen carefully. As stated in the invite, none of you are at liberty to leave until you lose or win. As you have probably guessed by now, the common trait between you all is that you are all high level gamers in some category. Therefore, you have all been selected to participate in a competition, where the challenges take place in the video games themselves.”
Vinyl and Lyra gasped and high hoofed. “Alright!” they cheered.
Sweetie Belle raised her hoof, “Um, Princess Luna?”
Luna nodded down at her and answered, “Yes, young one?”
“I’m not high level," Sweetie admitted shamefully. "I only recently got into video games. Are you sure you didn't mean to suck in Button Mash instead?”
Luna grimaced, “No, Sweetie Belle. You were selected specifically. Button Mash’s extensive knowledge of gaming and cheat codes would give him an unnatural advantage in most of the prepared challenges.”
Vinyl's eyes nearly popped through her shades. “Hold up!" she stopped. "We can use cheat codes here?”
“Indeed, Vinyl Scratch," Luna smiled, proud that interests had finally been gained. "Any and all cheat codes that you know of can be used in any challenge should I say that they are allowed. The only exceptions are infinite life, and infinite stamina for certain reasons I will reveal later.
Vinyl hoof pumped and high hoofed Lyra once again, “Sweeeeet!”
“Wait,” said Twilight, “I don’t know any cheat codes!”
Luna shrugged, uncaring, she continued. “As I was saying, each challenge will take place in a different game setting where different rules will be enacted.”
“This sound fun!” Pinkie bounced, “What are the rules?”
“This is the fun part,” Luna smiled, “For you see, I am not alone in this venture. There are four other ponies that have joined me on this side. They, alongside me, are called the Gamemasters. We are responsible for choosing the challenges that you will all compete in, as well as which game world. Before I elaborate further, I would like you all to examine this chart.”
Next to Luna’s screen another appeared. On it sat four columns. Picture, Category, Specialty, and Starting Score. The list was as follows:
“This list represents what kind of gamer you are. Using this information, I have painstakingly calculated an appropriate amount of points to start you off with. In order to win you must either reach the maximum 100,000 points or--”
Rainbow Dash spoke up, “Only 22,000? Why am I so low compared to Twilight? I play at least twice as many games as her!”
Princess Luna conjured up a sheet of score statistics that she had used in creating the scores. “Well, strategy games are known to give more rewards for discovering multiple ways to solve them. Twilight is a completionist by nature so she strives to find every possible solution. You, on the other hoof, basically run straight through most of your games. You don’t stop to explore like others.”
Rainbow wanted to retort, but after thing on it, she realized that he she couldn't find any flaw in the Princess logic. “Alright, but why am I so close to Sweetie Belle? She said it herself that she just started?”
The princess continued to read from her sheet. “Sweetie’s specialty is open world games. Similar to strategy games, open worlds give rewards for exploration and side questing. It also didn't hurt that she was assisted by young Button Mash. Sweetie Belle’s score is only low due to the fact that she’s a beginner. Were she given a few months, I would wager she’d be at least 70 thousand.”
Sweetie blushed from the praise. Rainbow sulked. Lyra raised her hoof, “Princess, I also have a question. Why do Vinyl and I have troll in our category?” Vinyl nodded.
Everyone deadpanned, though Octavia somehow managed to deadpan slightly deeper than the rest. “You know why,” she answered simply. “You two spend more time screwing around and messing with other players than actually trying to beat the game,” Octavia added.
Rainbow flew up to the screen once more, “Then how do they both have such high scores!”
Luna shrugged and put down her sheet. This question was an easy answer that she didn't need it for. “Vinyl plays a lot of solo and rhythm games. Lyra plays a lot of games period.”
Rainbow turned her glare at the two smirking unicorns.
“Sorry dude,” said Vinyl, shrugging.
Lyra, however, felt no shame in her classification. She proudly gestured to herself. “I play, therefore I am; and what I am… is unemployed.”
Rainbow ignored her and turned back to the screen, “Princess Luna these scores are ridiculous!”
Princess Luna looked at her, offended, “They are not! I worked really hard and--”
Twilight spoke up, “Actually, Princess, I’m not a fan of this either.”
Luna and Dash turned to look at her, confused, “Really?”
Twilight blushed slightly, but continued, saying. “Yes. If I win, I don’t want to win because I had an advantage. I’m already so close to the limit anyway.”
Octavia stepped forward, “I agree. I think we should all start of with equal scores.”
Luna lifted her hooves in a pleading gesture. To her, it seemed as if everything was falling apart around her. “But… I.... Lyra Heartstrings, Vinyl Scratch? How do you two side?” Luna asked.
Lyra scrunched her muzzle in thought, “Eh, I’ll side with them. The game’ll last longer if we all start out at something like 50,000.”
Vinyl shrugged once again. “I’m cool with anything.”
Luna turned one more pleading look at the small filly. “Sweetie Belle...?”
Biting her lip, Sweetie Belle nodded weakly, “I’d probably have a better chance of winning… maybe.”
Luna groaned loudly, and threw her hooves in the air. Because of this, random papers flew everywhere. “Do you ponies know how much math was required to get those scores! I had to factor in your gamer level on two different systems with two different rating algorithms. Not to mention, I even had to make one up for Lyra’s pirated computer games. I even factored in gaming patterns and categories and…” she trailed off.
Everypony shuffled awkwardly. None of them felt right for pretty much causing the Princess of the night to rage quit after having apparently spending so much time composinng the scores. Eventually Twilight took a hesitant step forward. “Umm… Luna?”
Luna’s outburst interrupted whatever Twilight was bout to say, “You know what? Fine! Every pony starts out with the median 50,000 points. Happy?”
Everypony once again shuffled shamefully but nodded. Silence reigned for a few seconds while Luna calmed herself. Sweetie broke the silence with a weak voice. “Princess Luna?”
“Yes,” she huffed, still calming down.
“Since gamer scores don’t matter anymore, can Button join in? I really think he deserves it more than I do.”
Luna regained her composure and shook her head, saying, “No. I am sorry, Sweetie Belle, but you were chosen specifically for this. In fact, all of you were chosen by somepony you know.” Four other screens appeared in a circle around the group. Each of them held a shadowy silhouette of a pony. “Alongside me, four other ponies will act as gamemasters. Each one of them had a hoof in selecting you. Your main challenge in this game is to discover the identities of these ponies. Not only that, but you have to accurately guess which of them chose that day’s challenge.
"After each challenge, you will meet with me privately to guess who picked that day’s challenge. If you pick correctly, that pony will be revealed to you and only you. You may not inform the others, nor give them hints as to who it is. By the way, I will be going by a different username. So you will have to guess my new one to be able to pick me. Everypony else will use their regular names. If you reach 100,000 points and have found out all five of our names, you win the prize.”
“Oooh!!” Pinkie squealed excitedly, “What is it! What is it! Is it a lifetime supply of things? I like things! Especially shiny things! But I do like dull things too. I don’t discriminate.” Pinkie surprisingly stopped talking, leaving only a wide smile on her face.
“But seriously. What is it?” Lyra asked.
“The prize, my little ponies, is the grandest thing I can think of.”
“A lifetime supply of wubwiches?!”
“A giant foam finger?!”
“A golden cello with alicorn hair strings?”
“My old treehouse back?”
“The original Sonic the Wonderbolt game?!”
“Button’s hat?!” Everypony looked at Sweetie Belle, confused. “What? I think it’s cute.”
“IS IT THINGS?!”
“Um… no… I think Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash are the closest. The prize is 1000 bits, any one existing video game of your choosing, either now or in the future, and a brand new golden game system. This game system and anything that you get on it shall be free. Online purchases, free. Premium membership, free. Netflix, free. It is also enchanted to play any and all disks that enter it.” By this point almost all jaws had been dropped and all eyes had gone wide. Lyra was literally drooling. Luna continued; she knew that this last one would motivate them even more and seal the deal.
“Also, the winner shall gain the honor of challenging me for control and top rank. Should they defeat me, they have the option of continuing the competition from the beginning with all new players…. Now are you all interested?”
“Hell yeah we are!” Vinyl cheered.
“What’s the first challenge?” Lyra added.
Octavia put a hoof to her chin, hiding the small smirk she gained. “I must admit, I am pretty excited for this.”
“I may not need the bits,” Twilight began, "but I still don’t intent to lose.”
Rainbow DDash hovered in the air and clapped her hooves together. “Bring it!”
Pinkie stood up on her hind legs and pounded her chest twice, “Come at me, bro!”
Sweetie Belle was the only one to shrink back. All of the others’ competitive spirits and confidant demeanors actually managed to lower her own confidence. Luna however, didn't notice. All of the screens besides hers’ disappeared as she clapped giddily. “Wonderful! There are a few more rules, but we’ll cover them in the tutorial.”
“Ehh,” Lyra gagged, “there’s a tutorial?”
“Of course! And what better tutorial, than an old classic.” She faced off screen, “Discord, if you please?”
There was a snap and a flash. After everypony shook off their blindness, they gaped at their surroundings… or rather, the lack thereof. From their point of view the only sight of anything lie in front of them. A straight line of blocks about 3 feet wide, with a few floating in the air. Off in the distance sat what looked like a small mushroom and green tube shooting out of the ground. Further back sat a castle of some sort.
“Oh… my… Celestia,” Twilight breathed, figuring it out, “We’re in a 2-D platformer!”
Pinkie hopped over Twilight, her eyes glittering in delight, “No! Way! We’re in one of my favorite games of like, ever!”
Pinkie wasted no time in bouncing off to enjoy her new playground. It was clear to just about everypony that she had a profound advantage in this game. As everyone already knows, jumping ability is a large requirement in any Mareo game. Of course, Rainbow Dash thought otherwise.
“Whatever,” she said, shrugging Pinkie’s lead off, “Princess Luna said we could use cheat codes, and I’ve got one right here.” Flapping her wings she took off. Invisible barriers kept her from moving side to side, causing her shoot straight forward down the path. Vinyl and Lyra began trash talking each other and both took off in a race soon after.
Twilight, Octavia and Sweetie Belle didn't move, and instead looked at the sky. “Princess?”
Said lunar princess reappeared with a sly smirk. This time her entire body appeared as a hologram.
“You said that this is a tutorial challenge… are there any further rules that we need to know? In fact, can only one pony win this challenge?”
“To answer your second question, no. This challenge can be won by anypony that makes it to the end. Thank you for asking, Twilight. Secondly, yes. There are other rules that you should be wary of. Raise your heads toward Rainbow Dash in the distance.”
Rainbow looked below her realizing that she had just passed Pinkie Pie. “Aww, yeah. I got this one in the… wait what’s going on. Woooooaahhh!” Rainbow Dash’s wings suddenly began to feel numb. Eventually, like a plane out of gas, she had no strength to keep flapping her wings and nose-dived towards the ground, falling face-first into a pit.
“Rainbow!” Twilight yelled. She began to run after her untill the Princesses voice sounded out once again.
The holo-princess gestured towards the hole that Dash had fallen into. “It is as you see. Now, look directly above you.”
Everyone did so; above each of them sat a small bar. Twilight’s was purple, Octavia’s was gray, and Sweetie’s was white. Luna continued. “That is your stamina bar. It will slowly regenerate over time. For unicorns, it represents how much magic you can use. For pegasi it represents time allotted to fly. For earth ponies, how long you can run at top speed and lift heavy objects. In this world, in exchange for all of your natural abilities being amplified, you have a set amount or time that you can use it. Do you all understand?”
Twilight raised her hoof. Luna anticipated her question and answered it preemptively. “Your magic and flight both share the same bar, but in exchange, is slightly longer than the others. So be careful what you do with it.”
Twilight nodded. “Good. Now as I have said before, the object of this challenge is not a race, but to simply make it to the end and slide down the flagpole. If you die, you lose, just as Rainbow Dash has. If there are no more questions, you may begin.” Luna disappeared and Octavia took off running.
~~~
Vinyl shoved Lyra to the side as she ran down the narrow pathway. “Give it up, Lyra, you can’t beat this!”
Lyra took the blow and returned it with an even more forceful shove. “Shut your disk hole, jockey. You might catch a fly in it,” Lyra retorted.
Both unicorns raced each other down the stretch of path. Since it wasn't very wide, and neither could be pushed off, they ran shoving each other shoulder to shoulder. Surprisingly, they also jumped in sync when they had to jump over pits. Once or twice they would try to push each other down a hole, but the other would use her magic to save herself.
Neither one of them cared about killing enemies nor hitting the blocks above them. Both of them just ran straightforward, speedrunning the entire stage. Eventually, they both made it to the long staircase at the end… only there was one problem. The staircase was only one block wide, so only one pony could go up. Sharing a glance at one another, Vinyl immediately bucked Lyra back and began running up until she was grabbed by magic and hurled backward.
Lyra jumped the first few steps, but before she could hop another two she was yanked back by her tail. Turning around she saw a smirking Vinyl with her tail in her mouth. Her horn fizzled out when she tried to use her magic so she simply resorted to flinging her legs at the white unicorn. Unfortunately her tail was longer than her legs and couldn't reach Vinyl’s face. Vinyl slowly dragged her down the stairs, causing Lyra’s chin to slam against each one. Suddenly, Vinyl jumped forward onto Lyra’s back and sped up the stairs. Lyra instantly tried to copy Vinyl’s move but fell short when she realized that Vinyl’s tail was far shorter than her own, and was already out of reach.
Vinyl reached the top of the tower and hopped as far as she could. Landing on the side of the pole she slid down in a circle to the bottom and began dancing. “Uhuh~ Who’s got it? Who’s the winner? That’s me! All right!”
“Hey ,Vinyl! Wasn't this just the funnest thing ever?!” Vinyl stopped her cheering and looked up at the castle in front of her. On top of it sat none other than the living spring herself. Pinkie Pie waved at her energetically.
Vinyl had to remove her shades to fully understand what she was seeing. “Woah, Pinks... how’d you get up there?” Lyra slid down the pole and stood next to her, also gaping at the sight.
Pinkie put a hoof to her muzzle and thought, “I don’t know. I was at the staircase thingie and I remembered that you had to jump really high to get all the points. So, I jumped. Only I ended up over here.”
Vinyl smiled and shook her head playfully. “Well then get down. I’m pretty sure being up there isn't part of the game.”
Pinkie looked around nervously, “I can’t… I’m stuck.”
Lyra raised her eyebrow in confusion. “What? Are you like, afraid of heights or something?”
Pinkie raised a hoof to how mouth and giggled. “No, silly…. I think I glitched, because I can’t move from this spot,” she tried to move, only to faze out of sync and blur until she returned to her previous position. “My back legs are stuck in the roof. It actually kind of tickles.”
Vinyl trotted closer towards the tower. After tapping it with her hoof, and recieving a metal gong noice in return, she shrugged and smiled up at her sympathetically. “Well sorry, dude. You’re gonna have to chill there for a while until we get our magic back.”
Lyra looked disgusted, “What? I’m not touching her with my magic. What if we get glitched too?”
Vinyl opened her mouth to say something but stopped when she saw the reasoning in Lyra’s words. Looking up at Pinkie, she just shrugged.
~~~
After Octavia took off Twilight simply walked forward at her own pace with Sweetie right behind her.
Sweetie looked up at the alicorn curiously. “Hey, Twilight, why are you going so slow?”
Twilight glanced back at her in surprise, and said, “Oh, I’m sorry. Would you like to pass me?”
Sweetie Belle shook her head, and said. “No, I’m just curious.”
Twilight smiled down at the small filly. “Alright. Well since this isn't a race, we can take our time. No reason to rush forward blindly. In fact, if I could be honest. I’ve never played any of the Mario games.” As she trotted, Twilight took the opportunity to observe her surroundings and analyze the recreated feeling of '2D' by not being able to move side to side.
“Really?” Sweetie squeaked. “But you can’t be called a gamer if you haven't heard of Super Mareo Brothers. It’s legendary. Button had me beat the entire first world as an initiation to gaming. It was really hard.”
“Mario. Plus, I didn't say that I've never heard of it," Twilight assured. "Everypony’s heard of it. I've just never played this one before. I don’t play platformers very often, unless it’s something like Fez.” Twilight, rather than jumping on top of the mushroom, jumped over it, “But I think I can see why it’s so fun.”
Sweetie tried to jump over the goomba but jumped to high and hit her head on one of the blocks above. “Owwwww,” she groaned. When she opened her eyes she noticed a small orange mushroom lying on the ground in front of her. Instantly recognizing it, she grabbed it and felt a weird, tingly sensation on her flanks.
Twilight stopped walking and turned around. Looking at Sweetie, she gasped lightly. “Sweetie Belle?”
Sweetie belle raised her hoof and cheered. “I got the growing mushroom! I’m tall now…. Wait, my voice sounds weird. Twilight, what happened?” Looking at Twilight she realized that she was now the same height as her.
“Um… well you've sorta… become an adult.” Twilight examined Sweetie Belle’s new body. Everything about her was… curvier, to say the least. Her mane had more curves, her body had developed nicely, and she had a smooth, more melodic voice, almost as if everything she said was part of a song. Twilight’s eyes wandered down to her flank before she giggled slightly.
“What? What’s wrong? Twilight?” she whined. Twilight merely pointed at her behind.
Sweetie Belle gasped loudly. “Did I get my cutie mark! I told Apple Bloom mushrooms were the--” Sweetie Belle stopped short when she looked behind her and saw that her cutie mark was the mushroom that she had just taken.
Sweetie Belle deadpanned and trotted forward in silence. Her strides were longer now that she had mare’s legs. Twilight giggled as she trotted along after her.
~Sometime later~
Luna appeared on screen once Twilight reached the bottom of the pole. Pinkie instantly began waving at her. “Hi, Twilight!” she said. Looking around her smile faltered. “Where’s Sweetie Belle at?”
Twilight looked around nervously before blushing slightly, “She fell into one of the pits by accident.”
“Twilight Sparkle,” Luna commanded. “do not lie. Thou clearly pushed her.”
Everypony looked back at Twilight with a mixture of surprise and slight admiration. “I’m sorry. It was an accident. She stopped so suddenly. I didn't know there was a pit when I bumped into her.”
“Why didn't you use your magic? You have a full bar,” asked Octavia.
Twilight lowered her head slightly and shuffled her hooves in embarrassment."I was being conservative! I reached out to her instead, thinking I could lift her up.”
Pinkie shook her head. “For shame, Twi. For shame!”
Luna shook her head sadly, trying to hide her growing smile. She was quickly coming to realize how much fun this was going to be. “Nevertheless, we have our winners of today’s tutorial challenge. Unfortunately, no points will be awarded. Now, let us to return to the Velvet Room.”
Another flash and seven ponies and one halo screen appeared back in the same ceiling-less room from before. Pinkie was already moving around and enjoying her mobility again. She hopped over and grabbed Rainbow into a tight hug. “Dashie, you’re not dead!”
Twilight ran up to her and examined her for injuries. “Rainbow, are you alright? Where did you go after you fell into the pit?” Twilight asked. She decided not to ask the filly, whom she could swear was glaring at her.
“I didn't go anywhere,” she replied, prying Pinkie off of her, “I fell, there was darkness for a few seconds, now I’m here,” Rainbow grumbled.
“Whoever loses shall be placed in stasis until the match is over,” Luna announced from behind the group.
"Cool,” said Vinyl.
“By the way,” Rainbow said, facing Luna, “what they hay happened to my wings back there!”
Octavia stepped forward, “If you had stayed to listen, you would have heard the rules. Just like any well balanced game, each of us has a set amount of time that we can use our natural abilities. You simply used up your flight time halfway through. Please listen next time.” Rainbow glared at Octavia but remained silent.
Luna cleared her throat, “Indeed. Now, we shall discuss sleeping arrangements.”
Octavia glanced at the rather drab environment. She wasent a stranger to muted colors, but the lack of beds was beginning to concern her. "Wait, we’re not going to sleep in this dreadful place, are we?”
Luna smiled, proud that somepony finally asked. “Fear not, Octavia Philharmonica. I have a solution. This will be simple. I will ask one of you to choose a setting from any video game that you would like to slumber in.”
Pinkie leaned in close, “Anywhere?”
Luna nodded. “Anywhere that has a bed and is not too dangerous to sleep,” Luna acknowledged.
Octavia put a hoof to her chin and lowered her gaze in thought. “Interesting. Who will you pick?”
“I--Agh!” Discord quickly shoved Luna aside and took the screen space for himself. “I’m thinking of a number between one and fish. Guess it!” he said quickly.
“42!” Pinkie screamed before anypony else could respond.
“Correct. Sweetie Belle, you get to pick. Congratulations!” Discord began laughing and Luna could be heard screaming in the background. The screen disappeared, leaving a large percentage of the ponies present seriously confused. Pinkie was the only one cheering.
“What?” Vinyl asked.
“Hold on, what just happened?” Lyra muttered, her head spinning from the rapid question answer set.
“I’m… not entirely sure,” Octavia responded.
Twilight quickly pulled herself together with a few calming hoof motions. She simply decided to leave it and move on, “I.. I guess Sweetie gets to pick then.”
“Hold on a second!” Lyra fumed. Her head finally caught up to speed. “That’s not fair. For one thing--”
Vinyl sat a hoof on Lyra’s shoulder and shook her head, “Not worth it.”
Lyra visibly deflated. “I wanted to sleep in a Sims’ house,” she sulked.
Twilight rolled her eyes and looked back at Sweetie Belle, who was still thinking. Eventually her eyes lit up and she raised a hoof, “I got it! Let’s all sleep in Minecraft beds!”
“Minecraft beds?” Twilight asked, shocked. She had heard of the game, but never had much of an interest in it.
Sweetie Belled hopped in excitement. She went around to each pony and explained her idea. “Yeah, if we all sleep, we can completely bypass the night and get right to the next challenge. Plus, it’s safe.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” Octavia muttered. Vinyl, on the other hoof had a problem.
“Hold on a sec," she interjected. "I’ve played Minecraft, everything’s flat as a disk and made of blocks. Won’t that be really uncomfortable?”
Sweetie deflated slightly, not having a good answer. Twilight stepped up for her, “I’m sure they won’t let something like that get in the way of having a good night’s rest. Luna and whoever else is with her would want us in top shape, right?”
Pinkie jumped in the middle of the group, “It’ll be like a sleepover! Twilight didn't invite me and Dashie to the first one she had, but now she can. Plus, we have all of you guys, too!”
Dash landed on the ground and trotted over to pinkie. “I don’t mind a sleepover as long as we don’t do anything to fru-fru-y. Like makeovers and junk.”
Vinyl threw a hoof over Dash’s shoulder, “I’m sure nopony here is in the mood for makeovers.”
Octavia frowned disappointedly, “I would. I like makeovers,” she muttered.
Lyra trotted over and put a hoof around Dash’s other shoulder. All three of them sent a smirk Octavia’s way, “Well, sucks to be you. I wanna play truth or dare.”
Octavia fumed slightly but stopped when Pinkie tossed a hoof around her shoulder. “It’s alright, Octy. Me, you, Twilight, and Sweetie Belle can have a makeover by ourselves.”
Octavia gained a small smile and returned the gesture. “Thank you, Pinkie Pie.”
Twilight decided not to be a killjoy by asking about the location of the supposed beauty supplies. Instead, she turned her head up to the sky and shouted. “Alright! We’ve decided to go with Sweetie’s idea about Minecraft houses. Just please make the beds comfortable! Please!”
There was a muffled, slightly strained snapping sound. Suddenly, the blank ‘velvet room’ was replaced with a large generic wooden home with seven identical beds spread around. There was also a bookshelf, a television, and a few other pieces of furniture.
Vinyl went over and examined her bed, “See, flat as Tavi’s sense of humor. There’s no way I can get comfortable on this.”
Pinkie hopped over her and onto the bed. She instantly sprang to the ceiling and accidentally busted a block with her head. However, she continued bouncing as if she didn't feel anything. “Seems… springy… enough… to me!” she said, bouncing with each word.
Vinyl ran over to the next bed and hopped into it. She sank into and moaned comfortably. “Oh yeah… scratch what I said before. This stuff is the shiznit!” she said, her face already deep into her pillow.
“I’m not going to forget that jab at me, Vinyl,” Octavia gingerly laid back in her own bed, “Mmm, this is comfortable. Sorry... Pinkie,” she said, yawning, “we might have to reschedule our slumber party makeover session. I’m feeling a bit tired from today’s events.”
Twilight curiously ran her magic over her own bed. “There seems to be an enchantment on the beds that causes instant drowsiness to whomever lays in it. I suggest that--” Twilight was cut off by the sounds of other ponies snoring. Looking back, she noticed that everypony else except Rainbow Dash, had already fallen asleep.
“Boring ponies to sleep again, Twilight?” she snarked.
“Oh, ha-ha. I just told you. These beds cause instant sleep for at least until sunrise. Are you going to sleep?”
Rainbow flexed her wings. “Nah, I’m a cloud pegasus. Can’t get a good nights rest unless I’ve got a nice puffy cumulous under me.” Rainbow made for the door, but found herself surprised when she couldn't open it. “What’s going on?!”
Twilight went over and examined the door. “I’m guessing that we’re still in the same room. It just changed appearance. This door is the same as the wall.”
“Ugh! Fine. I’ll try out these stupid beds,” she said, trotting over to a bed in the corner of the room. “It can’t be that--*snore*” Dash was out like a light the second she flopped into bed.
Twilight smiled and playfully rolled her eyes. She glanced at the bookshelf for a few seconds but soon thought better of it. Climbing into bed herself she felt the spell’s effects lulling her own body to sleep. Soon, only the sound of snores and light breathing could be heard from the room’s occupants.
~~~
Luna’s screen closed on the sleeping ponies. Climbing off Discord’s mangled head, she trotted to the center of a dark room. Four ponies’ silhouettes surrounded her. “So,” she began, “how’s everypony doing so far? Enjoying my little game?” she said, smiling.”
An excited mare’s voice sounded first, “Can we see the fight between Vinyl and Lyra again! That was definitely my favorite part,” she gushed cheerfully.
"Oops, hold on,” Luna said. “I forgot to disguise your voices.” her horn glowed momentarily. “There we go.”
“Why do we need our voices disguised?” the pony’s voices now all sounded exactly like her own, making it seem like she were talking with copies of herself.
Luna turned to the second voice. “So the viewers don’t get any hints on your identities.”
“I kinda like it. Makes me sound like you. ‘By thee and thou! Post with thy squire and anon!’” the pony began laughing uproariously.
Luna deadpanned, “I don’t talk like that anymore. And even when I did, I still didn't talk like that!”
Another voice, “We have viewers? Oh my goodness, how’s my mane? I wasn't ready for this.”
“Of course. This is being broadcasted all over Equestria. It was stated in the invite. Also, you’re shrouded. Nopony can see your mane.”
“Oh… that’s right.”
The other pony finally stopped laughing, “Hold on! I wanna try the royal canterlot voice!”
Everypony else ignored them, “Anyway, I’m liking how this is turning out. I can’t wait to see them do my challenge.”
"Oh yeah. Who is going next anyway?”
Luna smiled, happy to see her companions excited, “Well, I do have plans, but this game does offer viewer suggestion. So if somepony sends in an idea, I won’t hesitate to use it.”
“I like it. That’s good for variety. Plus, unexpected challenges could be fun to see.”
Luna nodded, “Indeed. A very skilled gamer I may be, even I haven't played everything.” Princess Luna turned to the screen and addressed the viewers and readers.
“That’s right, everypony. If you have any ideas or suggestions for a challenge, please leave them with my secretary, either in a PM or comment. His name is Spirit Shift and he’ll be more than happy to send them to me so I can use them.
“Your ideas for challenges can consist of anything from any game. So be creative and clever,” she continued. “If we use your idea, you’ll get a shoutout during the game. If it’s a really good idea you may even get a brief cameo as a NPC. So if you want to see this motley crew of ponies take on your challenge, simply send those ideas in.”
“Ugh! Fine. I’ll try out these stupid beds,” she said, trotting over to a bed in the corner of the room. “It can’t be that--*snore*” Dash was out like a light the second she flopped into bed.
Twilight smiled and playfully rolled her eyes. She glanced at the bookshelf for a few seconds but soon thought better of it. Climbing into bed herself, she let the spell’s effects lull her own body to sleep. Soon, only the sound of snores and light breathing could be heard from the room’s occupants.
Until everypony immediately bolted upright in their beds, gasping in unison. Everypony began glancing around, nervous and confused. Sweetie Belle was the only one to act like this wasn't unusual.
Vinyl stared forward blankly, “Woah… I’ve closed my eyes and woke up before, but this was just… woah.”
“D-did we really sleep for six hours just now?” Octavia asked.
Sweetie got out of bed and trotted over to a window that Twilight swore wasn't there before, opened it, and answered Octavia’s question. The sudden barrage of daylight forced everypony to cover their eyes. Sweetie turned and smiled at the group, “See! We completely skipped over the night!”
Vinyl chuckled a bit, “Luna’s not gonna be happy with that one.”
Octavia’s face conveyed a myriad of emotions, “I am not sure how I feel about this…”
Pinkie hopped up and landed next to Sweetie, “Yeah! I like having dreams at night. Sweet sugary chocolate covered dreams,” Pinkie began drooling and licking her lips feverishly.
Dash stretched and scratched her back, “Actually, I think I’m fine. I never remember my dreams, anyway.”
Sweetie pointed around, “But look! You wake up completely rested. Just like I said.”
Twilight climbed out of bed and moved around as everypony else did the same. “Sweetie’s right. My body feels completely healthy.” Twilight moved her front and back legs in a circle. “None of it’s asleep, and I don’t feel any sort of fatigue at all,” she surmised.
“Still though,” Lyra began, “I think we can all agree that waking up this way is weird.”
There was a chorus of silent nods. Sweetie Belle lowered her head, disappointed that her idea didn't go over so well.
Vinyl reached over and tossed on her trademark shades. “So, when do we start today's challenge?”
Lyra hopped out of bed and began hoof punching the air. “Yeah! I’m ready to kick some flank and win me some bits!”
Rainbow joined them on the ground, "Puh-leaze. Nopony has a better chance at winning this thing than me."
"Sure," scoffed Octavia, "that's why you fell face first into a hole." She sent a wry smirk at her, "During the tutorial level, no less."
Rainbow sent a hate-filled glare at the earth mare, "You got something to say to me?"
Twilight stood between them, “Girls, please don’t fight. We need to be ready for whatever Luna throws at us.”
Vinyl raised her hoof, “Still wondering when that’s happening, by the way.”
“In time, ponies. In time….” Everypony turned to the source of the voice. Standing in the open door was none other than Discord himself, smiling his usual monofanged smile. Rainbow immediately flew over to his face.
“What are you doing here?” she said. Then she looked behind him and continued, “And how did you get that door open?”
“Please, Rainbow. Everyone knows you don’t mine at night. The doors are automatically locked during that time. Feel free to explore now, though.” Discord stepped out of the way and let the sunshine pass through.
“Thank Celestia!” yelled Rainbow as she flew out of the cabin and into the world. Twilight nearly ran out with her, only for Discord to block her way.
“Rainbow, wait! What about the challenge?”
Discord quickly shooed her back inside, “Calm down, Twily. Little Luna has an influx of fan-mail suggestions to go through so she sent me here to keep you all company until she can announce the next challenge.”
Lyra tilted her head, “Fan-mail?”
“Hmm? Oh…” Discord blanked, remembering that they weren't supposed to know that little detail. “Oh, you know, little colts and fillies who adore their pretty, pretty princesses. In fact, there’s a surprising amount from one called Pipsqueak.”
Everypony's curiosity seemed to be satisfied with the made-up answer.
Octavia stepped forward, “Alright, so we’ll have to wait a bit. Is that all you came here for?”
Discord opened his mouth to say something but closed it when he realized that he'd forgot what it was. Reaching behind him, he pulled out a long sheet of parchment. Putting on his reading glasses, he glanced over a few sentences before rolling it up and returning it to backspace. “No, I am also here to act as a ‘central information hub’,” he answered, air quoting the words.
Lyra tilted her head and scratched the side of it in the basic gesture of confuzzlement. “Infor-what?” Lyra asked.
“It means he’s supposed to answer our questions,” Twilight clarified.
“Correct, Twilight Sparkle. According to Luna, I’m here to provide you with information should you require it. Clarification on the rules of a particular challenge. Why you lost. What’s going on outside of here. How many points you currently have. So on and so forth.”
Vinyl smirked and sauntered up to the draconequus, “I don’t suppose you mind giving us a hint on who the game masters are?”
“Nope! But I can give you a hint as to what the next challenge will consist of.”
“Really?!" squealed Lyra "Is it GTA?”
Discord turned around and crossed his arms, “Nu-uh. I’m only allowed to tell you who is most likely to win, and whom to watch out for. Plus, I’ll only do it my way.”
“So tell us already! The suspense is driving me even more coco in the loco!” Pinkie cried.
Discord immediately drew them all into a tight huddle and began to whisper in everypony's ears simultaneously, “Listen closely. This isn't that important.”
“Beware the one with the two-legged stance.
Watch for the one who knows the bow’s dance.”
Discord released the group. “And that’s that. Short, sweet, and to the point. Shouldn't be too hard to figure out,” he said, sending a smirk to the ponies.
Twilight looked up at him curiously. “But the only pony that I know who knows how to use a bow is my brother. Who else could it be?”
Discord, still smirking, glanced behind her. Following his gaze, Twilight gasped as she saw Vinyl and Lyra viciously staring down Octavia while slowly advancing on her.
“Hey, Tavi…” Vinyl began, advancing on the scarred earth pony, “mind doing us a favor?”
Octavia took a hesitant step backwards, “Wh-what? What are you two glaring at me for?”
“Throw the match, Octi,” Lyra ordered, calmly advancing closer.
Octavia cautiously eyed the open door. “What? Why me?”
Vinyl continued to move closer, “You know why…”
“Bow’s dance? Oh yeah, you know full well what we mean," Lyra added.
Pinkie joined them, the only difference was that she had a smile. Though, in this this situation, it was not at all comforting. All three began to chant in unison. "Throw. The. Match! Throw. The. Match! Throw. The. Match! Throw. The. Match!"
“Leave me alone!” Octavia burst away from the group and ran straight out the door. Vinyl quickly bolted after her, followed by a grinning Lyra and a giggling Pinkie.
“After her!” ordered Vinyl, running after her.
“Eliminate the threat!” yelled Lyra, following Vinyl.
“Wheeeeeeee!” cheered pinkie, hopping after them.
Twilight watched the entire scene with a confused look until, finally, realization slapped her upside the head. “Ohhhh! That’s right. Octavia stands on two legs when she maneuvers her bow to play her instrument! Wait… I don’t get how that’s going to help her in the next challenge.”
Discord shrugged, “It might, and It might not. Honestly, I have no idea what that rag tag group will choose.”
“Then why did you do that?!” Twilight asked, giving him a suspicious look.
“Practice, Twilight Sparkle. I need to flex my riddle muscles for something I need to do later. Hm. Perhaps I’ll visit your little zebra friend later for some assistance.”
“You stay away from her!” While Discord and Twilight made more small talk, Sweetie Belle silently exited the wooden home. Once outside, Sweetie’s eyes widened as she gazed at the landscape in awe. Everything about this world was just as it looked in the game.
Blocky. Everything was either a square, or a cube. The sun was just one big radiant square that sat high in the sky. The grass was smooth and as even as could be; with not a pebble out of place. Even the sky, if one looked closely, resembled one large gridscape. Sweetie slammed her hoof on the ground a few times experimentally. Lo and behold, the block popped and disappeared, a small cube floating in the hole in its place.
Sweetie picked up the block and stared at it in awe for a few seconds. She placed it back down and watched it instantly replace the block she broke and fill the hole completely. Sweetie took another long look around. She could see Rainbow flying in the distance, pulling off amazing feats just for exercise. Out on the fields, she saw Pinkie and Vinyl chasing Octavia around. Lyra teleported in front of Octavia trying to catch her by surprise, only for Octavia to jump clear over her and continue running. After observing the other ponies Sweetie came to a singular conclusion.
“I’m not the one who’s meant to be here…”
~~~
“Welcome back to the Velvet Room, everypony!” Princess Luna cheered, staring down at the row of ponies from her holo screen. Luna took a second to scan the contestants and curiously observed the fact that everypony present conveyed a different emotion.
Twilight sat indifferently, cautiously anticipating what would happen next. Octavia sat slightly annoyed, somewhat because of Discord’s trick, but mostly because of the two unicorns to her side. Vinyl sat comfortably, ignoring the lump on her head. One would think from looking at her that she was used to such things. Lyra, however, wasn't, and sat writhing on the floor in pain, sporting a similar bump and even a few bruises. Pinkie bounced in place, simply happy to be here. Rainbow stood at the ready, nearly jumping from hoof to hoof and eager to face anything. Although, Luna noticed that, every once in a while, she would shoot a dirty look Octavia’s way. Sweetie Belle also stood at the ready, though she looked slightly withdrawn.
Seeing her contestants lack of energy caused Luna's smile to fade until Twilight raised her hoof. “Princess Luna, I’ve been meaning to ask--”
Luna immediately perked up, “Yes, go ahead.”
“Why is this place called the Velvet Room?” Twilight asked.
Luna looked at her curiously, “Is it not obvious? The floor is velvet colored. Also, the ‘Velvet Room’ is a popular setting in the Ponysona series. I thought it was fitting.”
“Excuse me, Princess, but velvet is not a color,” Octavia explained. “Velvet is a closely woven fabric of silk cotton or nylon that is short and dense. Now it could be violet, depending on your preferences, but is usually a shade of purple or red.”
Rainbow Dash scoffed and rolled her eyes even as Luna seemed to be enraptured in the explanation. “I see.” Luna conjured up a quill and paper and began writing down what she was told.
Twilight gave Octavia and impressed look, “Wow, you know a lot about fabric.”
Octavia turned and nodded in appreciation. “Why thank you, Twilight. Fabric weaving was a hobby of my mother’s. Sometimes she would--”
“Come on! Let’s announce the challenge already!” screamed Rainbow.
“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight scolded.
Luna held up a hoof to silence everypony, “No, she is right, Twilight Sparkle. I should move on. I’ll fix this error later.”
“Finally!” Lyra called out.
Luna continued, “Today’s challenge will be a survival match. You will have a health bar this time. If it empties completely, you lose. You won’t have a stamina gauge though.” Everypony looked up to see that, instead of their stamina bars, a green bar hovered over each of them. Unlike her stamina bar, however, Twilight’s health was the same size as everypony else’s.
“There can only be one winner this time. Cheat codes and combos are allowed. Let us relocate to the match site. More will be explained there.” Luna powered up her horn and, with a flash and a pop, everypony disappeared from sight.
One by one, each pony appeared by themselves in separate locations. Lyra appeared in a jungle. Octavia appeared in a blank white room. Rainbow appeared in a Chineighs town-like area. Vinyl appeared in a metropolis. Soon, all the ponies were relocated to different areas.
“Welcome! To Super Street Fighter IV!” Luna announced from the sky.
“Buck yeah! Vinyl cheered.
Lyra began to panic slightly, “Damn… I haven't played this one yet!” she muttered.
“Another 2D side-scroller?” Twilight observed, seeing that she couldn't move side to side once more.
“Alright!” Dash hoof-pumped.
Sweetie’s expression brightened instantly when she heard the title, “Oh, I’ve played this one once!”
Octavia simply smirked. A thought quickly passed through her head, however, causing her to look up curiously.
Pinkie continued to bounce energetically.
Luna continued, “Indeed! Today we will--”
“Ultra or regular?” Octavia asked.
“...Does it matter?” Lyra asked in return.
Octavia looked at the sky as though a bird dunked on her, “Ai--wah--Does it matter? Of course it matters! Ultra is the--”
“Fine! Let’s say it’s Ultra,” Luna declared, not wanting to waste time. “Moving on. Like any good fighting game, you will face an opponent one on one. There will be no time limit, only one match, and you must continue to fight until you lose. If you defeat an enemy, some HP will be restored but your new opponent will have a full bar, and in addition, will be stronger than the previous enemy. Last pony standing wins!”
Sweetie Belle raised a hoof, “I don’t know how to fight in real life.”
“A valid concern, young one. Luckily, through the use of memory magic, I have imparted to you all, the knowledge of every combo in the game. Thereby making this a match of stamina, above anything else. Be conservative, but also forceful. Use your moves wisely, as you have many to choose from and the wrong moves could be your downfall. Are there any questions?”
“What happens if we lose?" asked Twilight. "Do we go into stasis? Because, after having some time to think about it, I’m not too fond of that.”
“Good question, Twilight Sparkle. After some debate, we’ve decided that it was too harsh of a penalty. Instead we opted to use spectator mode. While defeated, you will be able to watch others progress as punishment, as well as the standard point deduction. Now, if that is all, you may begin!”
“FIGHT!”
Everypony took a defensive stance as the first opponent teleported onto the field. It was none other than Street Fighter classic character, Ryu. Being one of only four pony characters to be able to fight while standing on his hind legs, he was a formidable foe to begin with. The earth pony wore a red head band under his brown mane. His cream coated forehooves were covered in red gauntlets. He made small hops back and forth to keep his balance.
Twilight instantly came up with what she believed to be a winning strategy. Pointing her horn forward, she began letting out a constant stream of horn blasts. “This will keep the enemy from coming closer and damaging me,” she reasoned. Her assumption proved to be accurate, as the the AI couldn't manage to come anywhere near her. Soon, he was defeated and the next pony appeared, only to instantly take a blast to the face.
Oppositely, Rainbow Dash choose to meet Ryu half way. Both engaged in a brutal fist fight, with Dash spending bursts of stamina to keep herself aloft in the air. It wasn't more than 20 seconds before Rainbow’s incredibly fast strikes depleted Ryu’s health bar. Ken stepped up to take the next barrage soon after.
Sweetie Belle used her small stature to avoid most of Ryu’s attacks. However, being the pacifist she was, she couldn't think of a way to defeat him. Eventually, a thought popped into her head. She quickly dodged a kick from Ryu and jumped up to his neck. Before he could throw her off, Sweetie Belle puffed out her bottom lip, opened her eyes wide, and gave him the biggest puppy dog eyes she could. “Mister… could you please just let me win? Pwease?” she whispered.
A few seconds passed before Ryu’s health bar began dropping considerably. Eventually, Sweetie fell to the ground, rubbing her eyes and breathing hard.
"Good to know I can still do that,” she muttered. Ryu disappeared, defeated. Soon, the next enemy appeared and Sweetie resumed dodging, simply buying time to use her move again.
Vinyl took a curious approach. First she called her magic, then she used that magic to pick up a knife from somewhere. She fought by constantly swapping between slashing from the knife, and her own physical attacks. A few times she had dropped her knife and had to rely on her own skills. To her surprise, it seemed that her magic worked on other things. She defeated Ken pretty easily just by hurling a volley of rocks she picked up off the ground.
Lyra, having never played this game, simply went with the most logical strategy for beginners. In her mind, this translated to 'go buck wild crazy'. She did anything and everything she could think of, then even intentionally stopped thinking just to add a new set of attacks. She punched, she jumped around randomly, she spun with two legs stuck out, she flung random objects, she sent out horn blasts, and kicked like crazy. She did all of it while screaming like a maniac.
The worst part was that it seemed to be working. She was already fighting a dark coated earth pony with red tribal markings and a flame wisp cutie mark. Despite his annoying habit of spitting fire and stretching his limbs, Lyra had gotten him down to nearly nothing while she still had slightly less than 75% health. It wasn't long before he fell and the next fighter took his place.
Pinkie spent her time hopping around and distracting her enemy. Only, due to her excessive nature, she accidentally hopped out of bounds in the first round. Pinkie materialized in a dark room. A large screen had been placed in front of her so that she could see everypony’s battles simultaneously. Luna appeared in the flesh and deadpanned, “I would very much enjoy it if you’d stop breaking game physics, Pinkie Pie. There isn't even an out-of-bounds in Street Fighter!”
Pinkie blushed and rubbed the back of her head, “Sorry, Princess Luna. I’m just so superly-duperly excited to be here!”
Luna nodded in understanding, “Be that as it may, I hope that you will restrain yourself after this, just a little. This is the second time you glitched.”
“Don’t worry, I will!” she saluted. “Ohh, look at Twilight! She just letting those balls go at him.”
Luna looked at Twilight, now on her fourth enemy, and chuckled, “Indeed. Twilight believes that if she keeps her distance and keeps the enemy from attacking, she will prevail.”
Pinkie tilted her head, “Is that bad? Sounds like a neat idea. Oh, hey! What's that number?” Pinkie pointed to a small green number that sat next to each pony’s names.
“That is the win count. While it does not matter who has the most kills, I thought it would be nice just to know.”
“Neat! Who has what?” Pinkie asked, leaning closer.
Luna scanned the numbers. “Let’s see. Twilight has five and is currently doing battle with number six. Rainbow is already on her eighth. Vinyl just took down her eighth and is on her ninth. Sweetie is still regaining her stamina after beating her fourth. Lyra is doing well as she is also on number nine… Oh my… Amazing! It seems that Ms. Octavia is already on her 12-- no 13th enemy. She’s defeating them all with such skill.”
“Woah, nelly! How did she do that! She just flipped that big fat guy like he was a pancake!”
“I see. She has her own two legged stance that allows for greater maneuvering. It also seems that she knows this game’s combos inside and out. She’s a natural, if I do say so myself.”
~~~
Octavia knew she had an advantage from the second Luna uttered the game’s title. The first thing she noticed was that she had absolutely no problem standing tall and moving around on her hind legs. Whereas before, she needed her instrument to balance herself.
Before she met Vinyl, Octavia was always stressed due to the uptight and proper attitude that Canterlot jobs usually required. Instrumentalists were paid not to talk, but to make soft background music for the idiotic nobles who irritated her to no end. Always, they offered useless criticisms on her playing even though they most likely had no experience even touching a piece. Octavia couldn't even remember the number of times some stupid pony complained about her playing, and she was forced to simply accept it.
Then she met Vinyl, and the video games that came with her. All of her stress vanished immediately upon beating up her first enemy. It would be a lie to say that she didn't deliberately imagine a few faces during her fights to give her that extra push.
Octavia fell back onto the ground with her opponent’s head in her grip. The blue mare with the unnaturally wide hips struggled desperately, but with the last of her HP depleted, she disappeared and the K.O. voice yelled out. With her gone, Octavia’s own health was restored to full… Well, it would be if it wasn't already full. Since the beginning of the game Octavia had only lost a sum total of half her health, most of it during the first few matches when she tried out a few combos. By match number five, she the entire game down pat and had decided to fight seriously. She hadn't received a hit since.
“It seems that Princess Luna was telling the truth when she said that our natural abilities are enhanced here,” Octavia muttered as she hopped back into her stance. She watched as the next enemy appeared and got ready to strike.
Twilight on the other hoof was also nearly untouched. Her only screw-ups were the few enemies who were able to bypass her volley and land a hit on her. Currently, she was on match number nine, against a unicorn mare with a long dark mane and crimson coat. She wore a golden scarf that also doubled as her cutie mark.
“Ugh!” Twilight groaned mentally. She quickly jumped into the air to dodge a strike from the mare. Her health bar said her name is ‘Rose’. “That stupid scarf of hers! She keeps reflecting my attacks back at me. It took me by surprise earlier, and now I’m down to half my HP. I have to end this fast. Let’s see.” Twilight began to mentally scroll through her list of moves. She saw the one that allowed the other mare to reflect her attack, but Twilight figured that it wouldn’t be enough. Finally she found what she was looking for. “Looks like there's a higher tier form of this attack. Let’s try it out.”
Twilight landed on the other side of the screen. She lifted her hooves and stomped down, hard. She quickly gathered a large amount of power in her horn all at once before stopping abruptly. Thrusting her head forward, she sent all the energy in one large blast, “HORNRUKEN!!” she called out instinctively. The large attack found it’s mark, hitting Rose and knocking out the rest of her health.
“Whew,” Twilight sighed. Taking some time between fights she caught her breath and watched as her health returned some. “Looks like the health return is getting smaller. The time between fights is growing, though. I wonder how the others are doing.” Unfortunately, she didn't have much time to wonder before the next opponent appeared. She was a young looking, blue pegasus mare with her hair tied up in twin Chineighs buns. On her flank rested the image of a whirlwind. “Her flanks are huge!” Twilight noted. They were both large and muscular, as if they were sculpted for fighting.
“Ni hao,” she greeted. “Let’s have a good fight, shall we?”
“FIGHT!”
Twilight only stopped staring at the mare’s flanks when the proverbial bell rang. She immediately resorted to shooting out horn blasts like usual. Only this time, the blue mare, apparently named Li Wind, hopped into the air and cleared the distance between them easily. Twilight didn't falter and continued shooting. The mare crouched and glowed yellow for a second, absorbing Twilight’s attack and charging her own. Li shot her front hooves forward and caught Twilight in her chest with brutal force, stunning her and forcing her to fall forward. However, before she could hit the ground, the mare reared back on her back legs and began kicking Twilight furiously while standing on one leg.
Kick after kick struck Twilight, rapidly depleting her health until one kick tossed her into the air. Twilight, surprised by this turn of events, hesitated while trying to think of her next move. She quickly opened her wings and jumped to the other edge of the stage. She struggled to think of a new strategy. Unfortunately, this allowed Li to run up and meet her with another volley of kicks, ending with a special move where Li opened her wings, flipped upside down, and began spinning her legs in a whirlwind, repeatedly roundhousing Twilight in the face.
“K.O!!”
Twilight fell to the ground, defeated. Soon, she was forcibly teleported to meet up with the other fallen players. Twilight held her head in anguish.
“Ughh. What the hay was that!” she groaned, holding her head.
Luna trotted up to her, laughing jovially and leaning down to meet her gaze, “That, my dear Princess Twilight, is how we deal with ponies who spam the same move over and over.” Luna trotted away with a mischievous smirk, leaving Twilight to lean her head down in shame.
“Well, we were supposed to survive, right?” she argued.
Luna continued to trot away, a chipper tone evident in her voice, “Yes, but you were so used to that one move, that when it didn't work, you failed to have a back-up combo set if said move failed. It’s fine. Come, sit with us.”
Twilight got up and found Sweetie Belle, and Pinkie watching the five remaining players.
Pinkie tore her attention from the game and finally noticed her friend, “Hi Twilight!” she yelled, waving a hoof. Sweetie noticed her too, and waved her over.
“Come check this out! It’s awesome!”
“Pinkie, Sweetie? How did you two lose?”
“I broke the game!” Pinkie cheered.
Sweetie giggled sheepishly, “I tried my special move on this big green pony…. It didn't work and he got me.”
Luna reached down and petted her. “I’m sorry. Charm moves don’t always work, young one,” she comforted. Sweetie gave a small smile in response before turning back to Twilight.
“Come look! I think Vinyl’s about to lose.”
“Seriously? Scoot over!” Twilight sat now in between her two friends and stared up at Vinyl’s screen.
The DJ in question currently landed some distance away from her opponent. She was breathing heavily while also hissing in pain from her multiple wounds. Her opponent was in a similar situation. He was a large gray unicorn with a blonde mane. On his forelegs, he wore chained iron hoofcuffs, and in his magic he held a sharp knife. His cutie mark was a symbol that depicted the former wrapped around the latter. The stallion, apparently named Cody Trotters, seemed to use the same method of fighting as Vinyl, except for one major difference.
He used it better.
Instead of relying solely on his knife and occasional hooves like she did, Cody also used a few techniques that Vinyl didn't think of using, such as the act of using his magic to fling massive amounts of dirt at her as a distraction. Every so often, he would also drop his knife on purpose and attack full on just to throw her off.
Vinyl hastily threw up her guard when the mad pony called on his special attack. He came at her fiercely with a pipe wrench and and iron pipe, but Vinyl held fast with her guard, waiting out the move. She retaliated with her own version of the move, only for Cody to dodge by jumping clear over her. While her back was turned, Cody came at her with a few more attacks that cut her HP down to only a fifth of her full gauge. Once Vinyl broke free, she glanced up at both bars. Cody’s was around a little more than half.
“Damn,” she cursed, “Heh. Maybe I’m the only one left and I’ve already won,” Vinyl chucked. “As if!”
Vinyl picked her knife back up and charged back in.
~~~
“Yeah, Tavi’s probably gonna win. I bet… 50 bits.”
“Hold on, Vinyl. I don’t want to count Rainbow out yet, either. She’s taken martial arts before and knows a thing or two about fighting. I’ll bet 25 on her.”
Pinkie randomly produced a bit sack from her mane and sat it down on the pile. “However many bits for Lyra!” she cheered.
Sweetie looked up at Pinkie curiously, “Why?”
Pinkie threw her face close to Sweetie's, “Don’t underestimate the power of CRAZY, Sweetie Belle. It’s Super Effective!”
Sweetie Belle scooted away from the pink mare, “Well, Scootaloo always talks about Rainbow Dash… But Ms. Octavia hasn't even taken any real damage yet. So, I’ll put my 10 bits in for Ms. Octavia.”
Luna trotted over to them curiously, “What are you ponies doing?”
Vinyl raised her shades to look at her, “Illegal gambling with a minor!” she said with a smirk.
“Vinyl!” yelled Twilight, “No, Princess. we’re just placing friendly wagers and discussing who we think is going to win and why.”
“Where did you get those bits?” she said, pointing to the golden colored pile.
“Oh, these aren't bits. They’re gold pieces of wrapping paper that I transmuted to look like bits. See, look” Twilight lifted one and flipped it over, showing off the blank backside, “No gambling.”
Pinkie carefully slid her bag behind her, grinning sheepishly.
Luna continued to give them strange looks, “But why? You all lost, shouldn't you be upset?”
Pinkie tilted her head curiously, “Why would we be upset? We still have plenty of chances to win the game, right? Plus, I had so much fun!”
“Well don’t speak for everypony, Pinks. I’m pretty sure if Dash loses she’ll be pretty pissed off,” Vinyl smirked.
“Well, we’ll deal with her later,” said Twilight before she turned back to Luna, “Whom do you think is going to win?”
Luna put a hoof to her chin and thought deeply. After a few moments, she came up with a response. “In light of Octavia’s considerable skills, I feel as though Lyra’s unpredictable nature will take her further in the long run. In fact, look at her now!” Luna pointed at Lyra’s screen.
Lyra currently had her opponent, a large minotaur wearing a mexicolt wrestling mask, in a tight hold before slamming the guy to the ground. She then got up and began taunting her frazzled opponent.
“Come on! Get up!" she screamed, "Use your super move! Fight me! HIT me! GIVE ME YOUR HANDS!” Lyra nearly foamed at the mouth as she jumped on her fallen prey to continue her crazed rampage.
Luna chucked while the others reeled back in shock, “Oh, this is fun! I’ve never thought about another player’s abilities in this way before.”
~~~
Rainbow Dash got up and stretched. “About time,” she said, referring to the apparent fact that there was a long break period between fights. Currently, she was on her 28th match and going strong. Dash flapped her wings a little to make sure that they were alert and checked her life bar. Currently, it sat around 40% full.
“No biggie, I’ll gain more after I win,” she smirked. “Come on!” she yelled, “Bring in the next victim!”
The next pony to come out wasn't even a pony, not that she cared. He was, in fact, a large red minotaur with odd turquoise hair that had been styled in circles. He also had a matching mustache and golden lion’s head belt buckle. He quickly grabbed a large tub and dumped its contents all over himself, throwing it away afterwards.
Dash smirked, “Don’t celebrate yet, ugly!”
“Do not underestimate me, little mare!” he yelled, his voice a deep foreign accent.
“What’d you call me?!” Dash yelled.
“FIGHT!”
Dash rushed forward and delivered the first punch, the minotaur took the punch head-on and grabbed the pegasus, causing both of them to lose a bit of HP.
“Ehhh, what the hay is this gunk?” Rainbow yelled, feeling the slimy substance that covered the red beast’s body. Try as she might, she couldn't get the stuff off of her hoof.
Instead of answering, Hakan simply used her confusion to grab her and hold her in a tight bear hug, smothering her in the gunk.
“I-is this…” she sniffed, “oil?!”
“Olive! The best kind!” Hakan yelled as he jumped into the air, still holding on the the pegasus. Twirling, he fell to the ground and began sliding back and forth around the arena, causing loads of damage to his passenger. By the time he released her, Rainbow had only 10 percent of her HP left.
After finally getting a hold of her frazzled senses, Dash glared at the minotaur fiercely. “Oh, that’s it buddy! You’re done!” Rainbow stomped down hard, activating her ultimate combo. She jumped and flew high into the air, and with rainboom-like speed, she rocketed down like a bullet, straight toward Hakan.
Smirking, Hakan activated his own ultimate move. He held out one arm completely straight toward Rainbow. As she came down on him he used her momentum and his oily texture to redirect her attack toward the invisible wall. This alone was enough to KO her, but Hakan wasn't finished yet. He immediately lept forward and caught her from the air, squeezed her as tight as he could until the oil caused her to squirt her back into the air.
As she came down Hakan used her momentum once more to spin her around his body relentlessly. Finally, he slammed her into the wall one final time.
“ULTIMATE COMBO K.O!!!”
“Now you see! Iz good. Come see me and I sell you some oil and oil accessories.” Hakan began laughing while Dash grumbled and picked herself up. She was now completely drenched in the monster’s vile ooze. Before she could curse out the beast, she was teleported out of the area and back with her friends. Luckily, oil-free.
Dash sulked as she sat with the others, watching the final two ponies fight their hearts out. Lyra was already reaching her 29th fight, while Octavia was still stuck on the 33rd. Both were reaching the end.
“How many fights are there in total?” asked Twilight.
“If I remember correctly, Super Street Fighter IV has 35 characters,” Luna explained, “I’m guessing that they would begin fighting repeat characters.”
“Can’t we just end it if it gets that far?” Vinyl asked, “Nopony likes reruns.”
“Well, won’t they still get stronger?” Sweetie asked curiously.
Luna nodded, “Sweetie Belle is right. With each match, the opponent chosen is designed to fight with more strength than the one before it. Eventually, one just has to lose. So the game will continue. Are you not having fun anymore?”
“I am!” Pinkie cheered.
“No, we are,” Twilight assured. “I just think that we could just have them fight each other to end it. Or just have both win.”
Luna shook her head sadly, “While the thought was discussed with my companions, the one who chose this game specifically wanted only one pony to win. They were quite insistent upon it.”
“So it wasn't you then?” Twilight asked with a wry smile.
Luna flinched, “I never said that! It could very well be me! You never know.”
“Going by the tone of your voice, I can assume that you were disappointed that you were not able to overrule their decision, which means that it had to be somepony besides you.”
“Ohhhhhhh!” Vinyl cheered, “She’s got you there, Lulu.”
Twilight and the others giggled at the Princess’s accidental hint. Luna wisely looked away and kept quiet. Secretly hoping that some ponies would still waste their vote on her.
~~~
“Whoa,” Lyra said, arching her back. A few ribs popped and she let out a contented groan. “That last guy was a doozy. Seriously, it’s gotta be a cheat code to have that much fat.”
Lyra began prancing back and forth in anticipation. Through what was probably a string of dumb luck matches, she somehow made it to match number 29 with a little more than 75 percent of her health still intact.
Finally, break-time ended, and the next character appeared on screen. He looked to be an elderly, grey earth pony stallion, but even so he was fit and clearly strong. He had a rather long white mustache, and whatever mane he had was tied up under a black Chineighs bun. On his flank sat a foreign letter of some sort. The stallion took one look at Lyra and scoffed, “Who are you? Where is my opponent?”
Lyra looked at him, offended, but soon cracked a smile instead. “Hello, good sir," she bowed, "I’m here with your fresh serving of flank-kicking. Please don’t be a prick and just come take it.”
“Point proven," said the stallion, "A real fighter as no need for such trash-talking. I will wait until they decide to end this joke and arrive.”
“It’s cool. I’m pretty sure if I won, you’d just lie down and die anyway. Go ahead, real fighter, take the loss so I can move on.” Lyra sat and leaned up against the invisible wall.
One of the stallion’s ears flicked in annoyance. “Do not test me. You are not too young to know the truth about the inevitable end to all things.”
“Noooooo,” she breathed, “Really? Alright then, tell me about it-- in fact, show me. You’re what, 120? Hah, AJ’s grannie is younger than you.”
The stallion let out a small growl but otherwise remained calm, “Is your friend’s grandmother a trained assassin?”
Lyra picked a booger and flicked it in boredom, “No, are you?”
“I am, and I will continue to be one until my passing. Do not add yourself to my already long list.”
Lyra scoffed, “You carry a list around with you of the people you killed? What are you? A necrophiliac? I thought about trying it this one time, but just going to the morgue set me straight for years.”
“What are you prattering on about?”
Lyra smirked, “I’m saying you have a thing for dead people, pops.”
The stallion took an angered step forward, “I do this to honor the dead!”
“I bet you keep their corpses in your house.”
“I do not!”
“Pfft, some ‘true fighter’ you are," Lyra teased, "Can’t take on a single mare, can’t let go of the dead. I bet you can’t even throw a punch. I don’t know, maybe I already won this challenge. I think I’ll leave.” Lyra got up and prepared to call for Luna.
“No, you will stay,” the stallion ordered, “You wish to fight me, then you shall have your wish.” Rearing up on his hind legs, the stallion took on a strange stance that revealed himself to be one of the four bipedal standing ponies of the game. Lyra smirked, happy that her taunting worked.
“Just know that you may not survive this match. I am Gen!”
Finally the stallion’s health bar appeared and the voice rang out.
“FIGHT!”
“I am Lyraaaaaa!” she screamed, rushing forward and jumping into the air. Gen watched her and prepared a guard for a mid-air strike. Instead, Lyra landed just in front of him and crouched, and sent a strike at his back-legs. Gen was fast though, quickly switching guards to block her. Lyra continued to attack in weird ways, sometimes attacking from above, only to combo from below. Sometimes, she would even fake a fake-out, and not attack at all. During one particularly random combo, Gen caught her off guard and began thrusting his hoof at her with blinding speed. Lyra blocked what she could but the old stallion caught her off guard once more when he kicked her into the air.
Lyra fell to the ground and immediately activated one of her special moves. She twisted the front of her body back before flinging herself forward in a series of flaming spin kicks. With assassin like reflexes, Gen jumped high into the air to avoid the attack. Not finished yet, Lyra activated another special move. She backflipped into the air and began hurling a bunch of ninja kunai knives at the spot where Gen landed, only for him to block each and every one.
Now, beginning to get frustrated, Lyra reached off screen and grabbed two bottles with her magic. Dumping the oil on herself, she lept for for opponent. Gen recognized what was about to happen and swiftly countered, jumping into the air and drop-kicking Lyra back to the ground.
Lyra growled and launched herself at him headfirst, hoping to bum-rush him at the very least. Gen easilly blocked her attack, but was caught by surprise when the crafty mare revealed a knife that she had picked up while she rushed towards him. She began slicing and slashing him. Unfortunately, Gen ended the combo before it could do very much damage by countering and sending Lyra hurdling back halfway across the stage.
As soon as she stood up, Gen rushed forward, activating his own ultimate attack. He pierced through the mint unicorn with one hoof; the other held behind his back. From Lyra’s view point, he had simply dashed right past her. She stood motionless, waiting for the attack to hit. She examined herself and began to laugh. However, before she could get out so much as a giggle, she felt herself being stuck in dozens of different directions. She fell to the ground, defeated.
“ULTIMATE COMBO K.O!!”
“I see you are still alive. You are fortunate,” Gen noted.
Lyra groaned, “Buck you, old man. I’ll wreck your… ugh.” Lyra fell limp, finally unconscious. her body quickly disappeared and reappeared in Luna’s penalty box, fully healed and awake.
She was quickly brought into a half-hug by Vinyl. “Dude that was epic!” she cried.
“Yeah, but I didn't win.”
“So what, we got another chance tomorrow. Plus, you beat all of us at least.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, man. Look,” Vinyl pointed a hoof to every pony who saw her match. they all wore comforting smiles.
Luna stepped forward, “Excellent performance for one who has never played before. Though I would pull back on the foul language.”
“Sorry," said Lyra, "So I guess if we’re all here, Octi wins?”
“Indeed, I will go announce it to her.” Lina activated her magic and disappeared in a flash of blue light.
~~~
“K.O!”
Octavia wiped her sweat away, gasping for air. All over her body sat various injuries from where opponents landed hits. Her mane was matted and her bow tie was discarded. She couldn't have had a wider smile on her face.
Octavia watched as the green beast of a stallion disappeared after being defeated. “Just what I expected from Bolt Blanka. That lightning shield of his is really annoying.” Octavia looked up and watched her HP slowly recover, stopping at the 90% mark. She decided to use this break between matches to catch her breath. Lowering back down to four hooves, she sat and leaned against this invisible wall.
Soon a Luna hologram appeared before her, a wide smile covering her face. “Having fun?”
“Most certainly!" she answered, "This is the most fun I’ve had in years, Princess.”
“Excellent! Well then, you will be joyous to know that you have won today’s challenge. Congratulations, Octavia, you have outlasted everypony else.
Octavia stared at her blankly for a few seconds before reacting, “Oh! That’s right,” she giggled, “Sorry, I guess at some point I forgot this was a challenge. Not that it wasn't hard or anything,” she quickly added.
Luna smiled wider, “No need to explain. I too know the feeling of forgetting one's purpose during the excitement of a tough match. Just know that you are free to stop now should you so choose.”
Without any prior thought Octavia shook her head, “No, thank you. I plan on playing this at least until I’ve defeated everyone on the character roster. By my count I should at least be getting close.”
“Correct, with the defeat of Bolt Blanka, you are at 34 wins. I trust you know who’s last?”
Octavia grinned and nodded.
“Very well, then. As a reward for making it this far, would you like me to restore your health? This will be the toughest match.”
Octavia stood back up and stretched, “That’s alright. It wouldn't be survival mode if you did that.”
“A perfectionist, indeed. Well then, your break is nearly over. Good luck.”
Luna disappeared, and soon after, her final opponent stepped onto the stage. He was a tall, black earth pony with a deep red mane. He strutted out on two legs like he didn't even consider the option of using four, and held a posture that radiated an evil aura around him. He had completely pitch black eyes with deep crimson pupils, and wore a large set of prayer beads around his neck. On his flank sat what Octavia knew was the Japoniese symbol for heaven: 天; made entirely of flames.
Opening his mouth to reveal several pointed teeth, he addressed Octavia, “Welcome… to the end!” He turned his back on her and swung one leg back around. Stomping his hoof down, he let out a surge of murderous energy that produced cracks all around Octavia’s stage. The demon’s voice boomed out once more, “Turn back now unless you have made peace with your gods.”
Octavia brought herself up and took her own stance, “I am not afraid of you, Akuma! I’ve come this far, and I will not back down!” she stated.
“Then you deem yourself worthy? Alright, then. I will fight you. Prepare to feel a pain worse than death!”
“FIGHT!!”
Akuma zoomed forward and immediately threw the first punch. Luckily, Octavia expected this and set up a charge strike, countering Akuma’s blow and forcing him back some. Using this chance, she came at him with a series of expertly woven combos.
Akuma blocked a few then somehow phased right past her. Before Octavia could react, Akuma delivered a painfully devastating uppercut to her back, tossing her high into the air and knocking off a good chunk of her health. Regaining her balance in the air, she rocketed back down at him with a dropkick that tore off some of his health, as well.
Nearly completely unfazed, Akuma unleashed a devastating spin kick that, if Octavia hadn't blocked, would have probably knocked out the majority of her HP. She tried to counter the rapid spinning strike, but found that she couldn't, forcing her to wait the move out and pray that her block held.
Unfortunately, the worst came to pass and Octavia’s guard broke, causing her vision to swim and her head to feel light. “Damn!”
Akuma seized this opportunity and activated his special move. He began charging a devastatingly powerful roundhouse kick. Octavia merely watched in horror, too stunned to do anything. When it connected, it sent her soaring into the air. Not wasting any time, Akuma prepared the second half of his move. Sticking his leg out he began to spin so fast that a small whirlwind formed around his body. Hovering just above the ground, Akuma flung his spinning self directly at Octavia's falling form.
His leg caught her right across the gut as he let all the force of his spinning kick on her. His physics-breaking attack dug itself into her body, forcing her to release any breath she had in her and then some. Octavia swore felt something break when, instead of her being flung away, Akuma’s leg passed right through her, seemingly ripping her body in half.
She landed with a crash and, if the pain was any indication, still whole. Akuma landed behind her. Ready to continue the match. Octavia struggled to pick herself off of the ground. Just as she expected, her health was on it’s last legs thanks to that combo. It was now or never for her.
"In exchange for his massive strength, Akuma has a very fragile health bar," she thought. "If I can just use my ultimate combo I can still win. Heh.... I just realized that I haven't even used that this whole challenge yet."
Octavia took deep breath and retook her stance. Rushing forward, she jumped into the air and came down hard with another dropkick that Akuma blocked easily. However, Octavia expected this and lowered herself to attack his legs.
"Weak!" he yelled, using a charge counter to absorb her attack.
"Now" Octavia instantly threw up her guard and the very second his attack connected she activated her Ultimate Combo. Crouching low she focused energy into her hoof and delivered three fierce uppercuts in rapid succession, followed by a complex series of punches and kicks, all ending with another, stronger, flaming uppercut that launched Akuma high into the air. Joining him in the air, Octavia unleashed a skull shattering drop kick that caused her opponent to bounce off of the hard ground.
Not finished, she stomped down on him and flipped back to the other half of the stage. Back there, she focused all of her remaining energy into her hoof. Once charged, she zoomed across the stage in a gray blur and instantly, dug her other arm's elbow deep into Akuma's chest. Using her charged hoof she slammed it together with her other one, digging her elbow even deeper and releasing all of her pent up energy into one piercing strike that sent her opponent rocketing towards the stage wall. As soon as he crashed against the wall, the energy that Octavia spiked into him expanded and exploded, ending the attack and winning her the fight.
Or so she thought…
Octavia gave a stunned look to the empty health meter. "How is he getting up? He has no--" her eyes widened wide in horrible realization. "He's got one point left. I've got to get him before he--"
It was too late. Akuma stood tall on one hind leg with the other one lifted slightly above the ground. Octavia's blood ran cold when she recognized that stance. Frantically, she dashed across the stage to stop him.
"Nonononono!" she screamed.
It was no use, Akuma's body became shrouded in a deadly red aura. Like a demon from the pits of Hell, he surged forward, passing right through Octavia's guard like it wasn't even there.
“Damn..." was the only thing she could say before her vision went dark. Octavia long since guessed that the only reason everything went dark, was that the character’s mind was protecting them from the horrible scenes that happened during the move's execution. Right now, however, every other sense was currently on the process of being overloaded with the worst pain imaginable. By the time her vision returned, she felt like every bone in her body had been broken one by one. All she saw before she passed out was Akuma's back, and the flaming heaven symbol that blazed on it.
“K.O!!”
Octavia opened her eyes back up to find that she was no longer in the fighting stage, but rather in a dark blue space. Aside from a small soreness covering her entire body, she was no worse for wear. Just as she began wondering where she was, the entire space lit up with the sound of energetic applause filled her ears. Simultaneously, the world turned from bleak to bright causing her to rub her eyes some. When she opened them, she found the entire group standing in front of her cheering her name.
Overcome with excitement and happiness, Pinkie Pie had been the first to hop up and congratulate Octavia, and she did so by giving her an enormous bone-crushing hug. “Oh my gosh, that was so super amazing, Octy!” she cheered.
Octavia struggled to extract herself from the pink mare's grip. With the last of the air in her body she wheezed out, “Yes, thank you-uhf-Pinkie Pie. I--”
Pinkie Pie squeezed harder and cut her off. Her excitement growing, Pinkie began exclaiming her points by shaking her captive around, “I mean, you were just about to lose, but you were like, ‘no way I can lose now’, and then you were all like, boom! Punch! Kick! Super move! It was the best thing ever!”
Octavia’s lack of air became more and more evident as she felt her consciousness slipping away. ‘I went head to head with the demon fighter and survived… only to die at the hands of an overexcited pink pony,’ she thought, ‘Honestly, I always thought it’d be Lyra finally going insane.’
Once again, she felt herself being saved as somepony’s magic finally managed to wrench her away from death’s pink grip. Coming back to her senses, Octavia managed to make out the familiar sounds of Twilight lecturing Pinkie Pie in the background.
“Yo, Tavi, you alright?” asked Vinyl, trotting up and patting her gently on the back.
Octavia struggled to reinflate her lungs. “Why didn’t you stop her?” she wheezed.
Lyra and Sweetie Belle moved to join the two, “Rainbow Dash wanted us to hang back and see how funny this would be,” said Lyra.
Octavia screamed, “Why did you listen to her!” Eventually though, her wheezing began to cease, and she was able to stand properly again.
Twilight and Rainbow Dash finally trotted up with Pinkie Pie in magical tow. “I am so sorry about these two, Octavia. Girls apologize,” she ordered.
Rainbow's eyes widened in surprise. “Wait, why do I have to apologize?” Dash exclaimed.
“Because you laughed,” Twilight answered, giving her a dense look.
“So did Lyra!” Octavia turned an annoyed gaze towards the accused, only for Lyra to avert her own. Twilight did the same to Rainbow until she relented. “Ugh, Fine. Sorry I sicced Pinkie Pie on you. Happy?”
“I’m sorry too!” Pinkie added shamelessly.
Octavia rose to her full height and stuck her nose even higher. “I suppose that I’ll be the bigger mare this time and accept your apology.”
Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to say something, but shut it when Princess Luna stepped into the group. “Excellent display of sportsmanship, ponies,” beamed Luna. “I am proud to formally declare Octavia the winner of this challenge!” With that, everypony broke into loud cheers, congratulating Octavia on her spectacular win.
“Really, Octavia, that was an amazing fight,” said Twilight, trotting up to her side and patting her gently.
Octavia gave her a sad smile, “But I lost.”
Vinyl grabbed her in a sudden one-legged hug, “Whatever, you were awesome. Doesn't matter if you won or not.” Octavia rolled her eyes but smiled anyway.
“How did you beat Gen?” asked Lyra, “He was like, crazy strong!” Lyra began making wind gestures that were apparently meant to imitate Gen.
“Oh, well the secret to beating Gen is in the timing,” she replied. “You need to know when to block and when to counterattack. If you manage to get the timing down, you can successfully combo him without letting him block you.”
“I am so downloading this game when I get home,” Lyra squealed.
Princess Luna cleared her throat, causing everypony to direct their attention towards her, “Octavia, in addition to the 5000 points that you’ve obtained from this challenge, you also gain the opportunity to guess the name of the pony that created this challenge. Let us be off then.”
Luna lit up her horn, and the resulting flash caused Octavia to shield her eyes. When she finally opened them, she realized that she was now sitting in a large circular white room surrounded by five pillars of various heights, each topped by a dark cloaked figure sitting in a chair.
“Octavia Philharmonica, you have succeeded in beating the Street Fighter challenge,” said one of the figures in Luna’s voice. Octavia tried to pinpoint the direction it came from, only to turn in a complete circle. She soon came to the realization that there must have been a spell in place to prevent that, “State your guess.”
“Oh… Umm,” Octavia put a hoof to her muzzle and sat down, “Alright,” she muttered, voicing her thoughts, “Who do I know that enjoys fighting games...? Well, it can’t be Vinyl because she’s a participant. I could choose the Princess. Although, she did say it was somepony I know.... Well, that narrows it down. I know ponies in Ponyville and Canterlot, plus I grew up in Trottingham, so it could be anypony in Equestria for all I know!” Octavia groaned in frustration, silently shuffling through the list of possible candidates in her mind.
Finally she stood up and addressed the figures, “I choose the mare Berry Punch due to the fact that, out of the many ponies I know, she’s one of the only ones that like fighting games. Even though she doesn't play very often, I believe that this would be the first game that she’d choose. Am I correct?”
There was a beat of silence before a voice spoke up. This time she was sure it came from the topmost pillar. “That guess is wrong. I do, however, admire your attempt at deduction and your reasoning. You will still receive your points.”
“Bugger,” she cursed. “Oh well, better luck next time, then.”
“Very nice try, though.” Octavia jumped when Discord suddenly whispered in her ear. Without waiting for a response, Discord snapped his talons, teleporting both of them out of the room.
~~~
Octavia appeared back in the group’s Minecraftian home, startling everypony. Vinyl ran up to Octavia and greeted her. “Tavi, ‘sup!” she said.
Twilight also trotted up to her, though she had a worried look instead of Vinyl's cheerful one. “Did you guess correctly?” she asked.
Octavia turned to her and shook her head sadly, “Unfortunately, no.”
Lyra pumped a hoof in victory before turning to her as well. She had a michivous glint in her eye when she talked. “Can you tell us who you guessed..? I mean so that we don’t guess the same pony of course,” asked Lyra.
Discord appeared in a flash of light in between the ponies and began wiggling his claw at them. “Well, that’s a big no-no, my little ponies!” he said, “We can’t be giving out undue advantages, now can we?”
Rainbow Dash quickly flew up to meet his eye. Jabbing him in the nose, she growled, “What are you doing here?”
Discord calmly nudged the pegasus away before making his way around the room. “Well, you all still look so energetic even after you’ve just finished a challenge. So I got to thinking, we wouldn't want that energy going to waste, would we?”
“Your point?” Twilight asked, glaring at him suspiciously.
“You see,” he continued, “I’ve been given the special authority of providing extra entertainment for our contestants. In other words, I get to hand out bonus challenges as I see fit.”
“Seriously?” asked Lyra. At first she had been disinterested, and her attention lost. But at the mention of a bonus challenge her attention span gained the life of a phoenix.
“Indeed, Ms. Heartstrings. Special bonus rounds for a few extra points. Interested?”
“Hell, yeah!” Vinyl cheered. She quickly turned and high hoofed Lyra in excitement. Even though she and Lyra were excited, everypony else seemed to be silently debating it, almost as if they were suspicious of his motives. Eventually, the rest of them nodded in agreement.
“Wonderful!” Discord cheered. He clapped for a few seconds before putting a paw to his beard. “Now… I wonder what I’ll have you do.”
“You mean you don’t actually have an idea?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“Well, honestly, I thought you all would have run me out by now,” he admitted, “Hmm. Ah, I know.” Discord snapped his talons, teleporting everypony into a wide-open brown room filled to the brim with objects. Each section of the room held a large framed portrait of Discord. “How many of you like puzzles… Twilight, put your hoof down.”
After Twilight put her hoof down, Sweetie Belle and Octavia raised theirs. Everypony else simply began looking around at the various objects in the room.
Sweetie nearly began hopping in place alongside Pinkie Pie. “I do puzzles with my mom sometimes,” she announced.
“I don’t get to do them often,” said Octavia, raising her's slightly, “but I do enjoy a slight brain teaser every once in a while.”
“Wonderful,” clapped Discord. He began gesturing to every object in the room. “Because, you see, everything in this room is a type of puzzle. In order to win my challenge, you need to be able to find, and solve, the one puzzle that wins the game.”
Twilight raised her hoof as well, “How do we know which one it is?”
Discord smirked and turned to walk towards a corner. “When you solve it, you’ll know.”
Rainbow Dash did a small flyby, taking a glance at the various objects scattered around. Some were traditional puzzles such as number games or picture puzzles, some were off-the-wall, bizarre types like 5-sided circles and mismatched, color-coordinated pictures, and others hung on the walls as riddles and brainteasers. Rainbow stopped for a second to look at what seemed like a large portrait of Discord’s face. “Nope,” she announced, “I give up. I’m not enough of an egghead to solve even half of this stuff.”
Discord slithered back on over and gave her a sad look, “Oh, what’s wrong Rainbow Dash? You don’t want the extra thousand points?”
Rainbow shrugged him off, “No way." she crossed her legs in front of her defiantly. "I’ll just win the next challenge tomorrow. I’ll save my brain power for then,” she bragged.
Discord shrugged and snapped his paw, sending her back to the house. “Anypony else?” he asked. Hearing nothing, Discord turned back to the group. “Now, before we begin, I do need to mention that if I get bored, everypony loses. So I’ll set the time limit for, oh… 10 minutes.”
“Wait!” Twilight yelled! “That’s not fair! Puzzles need meticulous amounts of time and effort to solve correctly.”
Discord conjured a clock in his paw and began to set the time. “Well, I’d solve the simple ones first, then. You have plenty to choose from.”
“But--” Twilight’s protest died in her throat when she was unceremoniously shoved out of the way by Vinyl and Lyra on their way to the closest puzzle. Assuming the the race had begun, Sweetie Belle, Pinkie Pie and Octavia also trotted off to separate sections of the room.
Eventually, Twilight got up and began wandering around, desperately trying to see what she could solve first. The first thing she came across was an ordinary picture puzzle. Figuring that it would be a good place to start, she sat down and began solving it. Just by looking at the individual pieces, she could tell that it was a picture of the sun and moon. She started at a fast pace, carefully moving each piece to where it needed to be while also moving others to positions that they would need to be in order to move others to their correct positions.
After a few seconds, Twilight gazed down with a curious expression at a puzzle that should have been completed by now, nearly glaring at a piece that had gotten mixed up with a piece near the bottom. Both were in each others rightful space even though Twilight could have sworn she moved them correctly. Shrugging, she disassembled the puzzle and began redistributing the pieces into their rightful spots, slowly this time.
A few minutes and several attempts later, Twilight, on the verge of rage quitting, nearly threw the puzzle at Discord. “Discord!” she growled. “You cheated! This puzzle rearranges its pieces whenever you’re not looking directly at them!”
Discord picked up the puzzle and gave it an amused glance. “Well, it wouldn't be much of a challenge if I didn't… well… challenge you,” said Discord, shrugging. “It’s your job to tell the real ones from the fake ones in order to not waste time.”
Twilight growled and rubbed her temple in frustration, “But that’s not how it works. Puzzles are meant to be solved, you can’t just--”
Discord tilted his head side to side, imitating a clock. “Tick-tock, Twilight. You do have a time limit you know.”
Twilight threw up her forelegs in the classic rage quit gesture. “No, you know what? I can’t do this. Puzzles! Are meant! To be solved! I give up, please take me home.” Before Discord could snap his claws, Twilight grabbed the puzzle back in her magic. “I’m taking this with me so I can dispel whatever enchantment you have on it. It’ll give me something to do in between challenges.”
Discord shrugged and snapped his claws, teleporting her back to the room. After a few seconds, he fell out laughing. “She’ll never figure it out!” he cackled.
Luckily for them, most of the other ponies in the room heard the outburst and adapted to the new situation. Vinyl, who had been trying to complete three plain 30 piece picture puzzles, smirked. “So that’s what’s up,” she muttered. Tossing away the pictures, Vinyl jumped back into the mountain of objects, determined to find the simplest puzzles she could and marathon them.
Lyra, however, had been doing that from the start. Having always been weirdly good with Rubik’s cubes, she tackled those first, solving each one she could find. After the fifth one, she gave up and tried other kinds. Eventually, she trotted over to the puzzles hanging on the wall. There were various riddles hanging there to solve, however, one particular riddle caught her eye. Curiously, she read it over a few times before giving up.
“Hey, Octi,” she called. “Come here for a second.”
Octavia groaned before yelling back in frustration, "Don't call me Octi!" Almost reluctantly, Octavia made her way across the room to meet Lyra.
“Can you figure this out?” Lyra asked, gesturing to the riddle.
Octavia peered over and began to read it aloud: “Three ponies check into a hotel. They pay 30 bits to the manager and go to their room. The manager suddenly remembers that the room rate is 25 bits and gives five bits to the bellcolt to return to the guests. On the way to the room, the bellcolt reasons that 5 bits would be difficult to share amongst three ponies so he pockets two and gives one to each guest. Now each guest paid 10 bits and got back one.
"So they paid 9 bits each, totalling 27. The bellcolt has two, totaling 29 bits. Where is the missing bit?”
“See?” said Lyra, throwing her hooves up in frustration. “I think the bellcolt stole it, but apparently that’s not the right answer. Can you figure it out? Or is it another trick puzzle?”
“No… I don’t think so. Although something is definitely wrong here.” Octavia gave the riddle another curious read before mouthing off a few numbers. Finally, her eyes lit up in realization. “I understand now! The math is wrong here. Think of it as if you were making change. If they paid 30 bits originally and each pony received a bit back, they only really paid 27. 25 bits for the room and two for the bellcolt!”
With Octavia’s spoken answer the riddle lit up and flashed with a bright light. After the light died down, Lyra and Octavia deadpanned at the smiling picture of Discord that replaced the riddle. Written on the frame was: “Nice Try”
Lyra sighed and turned back towards Octavia, “How much time do we have left?”
Octavia turned back towards Discord and examined the clock sitting next to him. She quickly turned back and panicked. “We only have two minutes left!”
Octavia hurried back towards the puzzles she had been doing while Lyra continued to solve the riddles on the wall. “What day would tomorrow be if yesterday was five days before the day after Sunday's tomorrow?”
Lyra’s face scrunched up for a few seconds before gasping loudly. “I know this one! Saturday!” The page lit up and turned into a picture of Discord eating ice cream with the words ‘Sweet Loss’ on it. Lyra simply growled and moved to the next one.
Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie threw down a die in another attempt to solve the riddle she had chosen. She rolled a four before glancing over to see if she had gotten the correct answer. No dice, it seemed. Pinkie picked up the die and glared at it. “How do you get a 7 with a six sided die?” she wondered before rolling it again. “I don’t get it.”
Over in Vinyl’s corner sat several finished puzzles, riddles, and brain teasers. If she found a puzzle that couldn't be solved in about 30 seconds she tossed it to the side, convinced that the winning puzzle had to be something short. She was about halfway through her latest puzzle when a stray thought stopped her dead cold. Slowly, a large smile worked it’s way onto her mouth and she confidently trotted up to Discord.
“Yo,” she said, waving at him to get his attention, “You said everything in this room is a puzzle, trick, or riddle, right?”
Discord lowered his own shades and smirked, “That I did, Pon-3.”
Vinyl slammed a hoof onto the ground before dramatically thrusting it forward and pointing it directly at Discord. “Then I say that the game itself is a puzzle!” she declared.
Everypony turned their attention towards Vinyl and Discord, stunned at her accusation. After processing it they realized that her idea actually made sense.
“Every object in this room is a sort of puzzle,” she continued, holding onto to her stance, “but that’s the trick. They’re meant to distract us from finding the real puzzle and winning the game!”
Discord looked at her with a surprised gaze before removing his shades completely. Slowly, he brought his claw and paw together in a slow clap. Octavia ran up and hugged the unicorn. "Vinyl, that was brilliant!” she cheered.
Vinyl stuck her nose in the air and smirked, “Yeah, I’m awesome. I--”
“OBJECTION!” screamed Discord, thrusting a paw out in the same manner Vinyl did. “If I did do such a thing… why did Sweetie Belle just win the challenge?”
Everypony's heads snapped towards Sweetie Belle who flinched from the sudden attention. Her hoof was touching one of the pictures of Discord. Instantly, she was showered in bright flashes and confetti rain that nearly blinded her, and loud strawberry flavored cheers that smelled like plastic, nearly blowing her ears out. By the end of it she stood, disoriented, wobbling back and forth. Everypony stood slack-jawed at the large sign pointing down at her, saying, “Winner!”
Octavia and Vinyl turned back towards Discord with stupefied faces. “B-But I thought I won!” Vinyl muttered.
“Hm,” he said, checking the remaining time, “No, but you were close. These puzzles and riddles are in fact here to distract you, but not from me.” He teleported over to Sweetie Belle. “I’m sure dear Sweetie Belle would love to explain how she won."
Sweetie Belle shrugged and fidgeted nervously. “I just went over to the picture that Rainbow Dash was looking at. Something felt wrong about it, other than the fact that it was his face, I mean. As I was working my way around the room and trying to solve other puzzles, I looked at the other pictures and realized what was wrong. This picture wasn't like the others.”
Lyra trotted over and analyzed the picture that Sweetie Belle stood by. Turning around, she examined all of the other ones. The one Sweetie Belle stood at depicted Discord laying on a bed of roses and looking directly at the camera. The one to the left of them depicted Discord standing atop a mountain holding what looked to be a glass of water. To the right sat Discord in bed surrounded by mares. And the back wall was just a picture of his smiling face as he and a blue hedgehog ran down a mountain. “I don’t get it,” said Lyra. “They’re all different.”
“No, look,” Sweetie assured, pointing directly at Discord’s face. Lyra took a good long look but shrugged when she couldn't figure it out. Sweetie Belle sighed and motioned for Discord to lean his head down next to the picture. He did so gladly, even going so far as to make the same smiling face. Sweetie began motioning between his face and the frame. Octavia picked it up first; she looked from Discord’s face, to the portrait, then to the surrounding pictures.
“His tooth is on the wrong side!” she announced. The second she did, everypony’s eyes went wide in realization. “In every picture it’s on the right side. That’s the only one where it’s on the left.”
Discord flew into the air and cheered as fireworks went off behind him. “Exactly! Congratulations, dear Sweetie Belle. You’ve uncovered the one puzzle that grants you the win,” he said, strutting back towards Vinyl, “With only a few seconds to spare no less. Just think, little miss DJ here almost distracted you long enough to lose. What a shame that would have been,” he snickered. “Either way, you win the 1000 points for recognizing the subtle nuances of my unique face.”
“Umm, yay?” said Sweetie a bit unsure.
“Little filly,” said Discord, reeling back in shock. “You simply must put more oomph into your victory chant.”
~~~
“...And then he spent five minutes lecturing us on proper cheering technique,” Sweetie Belle finished. Currently, the entire group sat upright on their individual beds, listening to her as she summed up everything that happened.
Rainbow Dash nearly punched the ground in frustration. “I can’t believe I was looking right at it!”
“Well, it’s fine,” muttered Twilight, still working to disenchant the puzzle she had taken. “We have tomorrow.”
“Speaking of tomorrow,” began Pinkie, “I can’t wait to see what fun game Princess Luna has in store for us! Do you think it’ll be some kind of adventure game?”
“I don’t know, Pinks,” said Vinyl. “But one thing’s for sure. We can’t get there until little miss OCD comes to bed.”
“No! Just five more minutes and I’ll have this thing figured out!” Twilight yelled as she frantically fretted over her frustratingly fixated foe. No matter what she did over the course of the day, the stupid puzzle remained unsolved. It was driving her crazy. While everypony else had gotten ready to go to bed, Twilight sat in the corner with a nearly crazed look.
“Twilight, you said that at the beginning of the story an hour ago,” said Rainbow Dash laying down impatiently on her bed. “Lyra, magic her into bed already.”
“Nuh-uh! I’m not getting arrested for magic handling a Princess again! Bon Bon will have my head!” she replied, reeling back and shuddering at the memory.
“Fine, I’ll do it then.” Moving fast, Rainbow caught Twilight and began to drag her over to her bed, with Twilight kicking and screaming the entire way.
“No! No! I can do this!” she screamed frantically.“I can do it! Just five more minutes! Please! Puzzles are meant… to… be…” Twilight trailed off as Rainbow finally got her into bed and putting her to sleep. Hurrying, she grabbed the puzzle from where it sat in Twilight’s corner and flew out the door, intent on tossing it far into the sea. Everypony would eventually agree that it was the most rational course of action, and Twilight would wake up the next day believing the entire thing to be a nightmare from the pits of Tartarus.
Twilight quickly dove to the side and barely dodged a huge ice shard that was aimed directly at her. Continuing to roll, she moved over to the edge of her high platform near the back of the stage. “Vinyl!” she yelled, looking down at her, “Hurry, you have to get above ground level!”
Vinyl hopped into the air in order to avoid a low sweep from the large monster. “I’m trying! I’m trying!” Landing, she brought out her machine gun and opened fire on the monster’s supposed weak spot. However, the more bullets she unloaded into the thing’s head the less she was sure of what she was doing. “Pinkie, are you sure this is right?”
Pinkie hopped off the wall and grapple-hooked over to the glowing spot on the monster’s legs. Hooked onto it’s side, Pinkie proceeded to unload all of her gatling gun ammo into it until the spot exploded, blowing off the arm. The beast fell over onto the pier and began spasming. “Well if it’s anything like that glowy spot it should do something!” she responded, landing back on her own platform opposite of Twilight.
Twilight leaned over her edge and called out once more, “Vinyl, now! While it’s crippled.”
Heeding her advice, Vinyl turned and shot a grappling hook toward Twilight’s ledge. When it proved to be too high up, Vinyl instead lifted herself up to the lower one in the middle of the stage. Once there, she turned to reach Twilight’s ledge, but before she could shoot the hook, Vinyl heard Twilight scream. Looking back towards the monster, she watched, jaw agape, as it regenerated it’s arm completely.
“What the buck!” Vinyl screamed. Now thoroughly disturbed by what she had just seen, she turned and shot her grappling hook in an attempt to lift herself to safety.
“Vinyl, look out!” screamed Twilight. Vinyl, however had nowhere to run as she zoomed through the air towards her destination. Vinyl turned her head just in time to watch the creatures newly regenerated claw come swinging at her. It connected with a solid crack as the slap knocked her out of the air and into the ravine behind the group.
The last thing Vinyl heard before her vision went black were her teammates’ crying screams.
~~~
“Welcome, Ponies of the Coast!” announced Princess Luna, greeting her contestants in the Velvet Room (name now subject to change).
Vinyl scratched the back of her mane confusedly. “Um… What?”
“Yes,” said Octavia, “I’m afraid I don’t follow.”
Luna chuckled and eyed one of the ponies in front of her, “Nothing. I just remembered something funny.”
At the mention of jokes, Pinkie began hopping excitedly. “Well, don’t leave us hanging! What’s the joke?”
“Can we just start the challenge?” said a curiously embarrassed Twilight.
“Twilight? Are you alright?” asked Octavia. She gave Twilight a curious look, then gave another when Twilight avoided the first one.
Luna chuckled some more, “Ask Twilight about Science the Gathering later.”
Lyra popped up and forced Twilight’s gaze onto her. Lyra, as impatient as ever, simply couldn't fathom the idea of ‘later’. “What’s Science the Gathering?”
Twilight took a deep breath to calm herself and regain her composure, “Science the Gathering is a widely popular trading card game in Equestria. It’s won several awards, and tournaments are regularly held in various cities. I-It’s my favorite game.”
Sweetie Belle chirped up with a smile, “Sounds fun. Can I learn to play?”
Twilight looked down at her with a sympathetic look. “Sorry, Sweetie, there’s an age requirement in order to learn to play.” Sweetie slumped down in disappointment.
Lyra wrapped Sweetie in a comforting half hug and said, "Yeah, everypony knows that only grown-ups can play a children's card game." Even though that did nothing to cheer Sweetie Belle up, Lyra grinned to herself for being helpful. Now smug, she turned that look towards Luna’s screen. “So what does that have to do with today’s challenge? Are we playing it?”
“Twilight is the national champion,” Luna explained, a small mischievous smirk covering her face.
Everypony turned back to Twilight with impressed looks. Twilight, on the other hoof, lowered hers in shame. “Former champion...” she muttered.
Luna put a hoof to her ear and leaned into the screen, “What was that? I didn’t quite hear you. Did you say 2167 wins… and one loss?”
Rainbow flew up to the screen with an impatient look. “So, what does this have to do with our challenge?”
“Oh, I just wanted to regale you all of how badly Twilight freaked out after I beat her. I--” she said, giving a small giggle. Luna opened her mouth to continue, only for another voice to scream out.
“Discord! What are you doing?” The Luna on screen immediately teleported away, and after a few seconds, another Luna stepped on screen. Everypony looked upwards in confusion.
“I am sorry, ponies. I needed a small refresher course for the challenge today,” said the new Princess Luna. “So, I asked Discord to gather you here. Though I do not know why he was dressed as I.”
Twilight waved her hoof dismissively. “Let’s not worry about it. What did you mean you needed a refresher course?”
“Yes,” Luna replied. “I haven't played this game for some time, so I needed to do so in order to correctly represent it today.” Luna cleared her throat and spoke in a clear loud voice. Once again she gestured dramatically to the area around them. “Welcome back, ponies... to the Velvet Room. Today, we will be undertaking a mission from a game that I personally believe to be a slightly underappreciated action shooter game. Despite its lacking multiplayer capabilities, this game features beautiful graphics and interesting design choices that serve to further enhance its over-arching story. While many think that, in regards to gameplay, it’s worse than its predecessor, they fail to understand exactly what--”
“Get on with it!” Rainbow screamed interrupting Luna. In her impatience she temporarily forgot who she was talking too.
“Yes, get on with it!” added Lyra.
Twilight reeled back in horror, “Rainbow Dash! Lyra! You--”
“It is alright, Twilight Sparkle,” eased Luna. “I am known to go on to a tangent when it comes to reviews. Moving on, we will be playing a game called Lost Planet 2. In this challenge, you will be split into two even teams where you will each complete Episode Two, missions one and two. The team with the highest score wins the points.”
Octavia took a brief look around before raising her hoof curiously, “Excuse me, Princess Luna. But there are seven of us. How will the teams be even?”
Luna nodded. “Very perceptive, Octavia. There is a single catch for this match. One pony must sit out for it. In exchange, they will receive a courtesy of 1500 points for their exclusion. We have talked and decided that it would be in our best interests if Sweetie Belle sat out.”
Sweetie Belle’s ears perked up at the mention of her name. She put a hoof to her chin for a few seconds and shrugged. “Alright. Rarity says I shouldn't play any violent games like this one anyway.”
Luna nodded once more and summoned a second screen next to hers. “In case you were wondering, these are the current scores.”
Twilight Sparkle: 50,000
Rainbow Dash: 50,000
Pinkie Pie: 50,000
Sweetie Belle: 52,500
Lyra Heartstrings: 50,000
Octavia Philharmonica: 55,000
Vinyl Scratch: 50,000
“Aww, what?” Looking at the scores, Rainbow Dash groaned in annoyance. “Why does the squirt have more points than me? She’s barely done anything!”
“Well, maybe if you actually tried to win yesterday, you would have those points,” muttered Octavia.
Rainbow turned and glared daggers at the cellist, “I heard that!”
“Oh, well that’s a relief, I almost thought you didn't care.”
“I don’t!” Rainbow replied.
Octavia gave a mock look of confusion, “So, you just like the sound of my voice then, do you?”
Rainbow reeled back, “What? N-no!”
“But then… why did you listen?” she smirked.
Rainbow, now fuming, landed and trotted directly up to Octavia’s face, “I just--”
“Fight! Fight! Fight! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” Both mares turned to see Lyra mere inches away from both of their faces. She had a wide smile and an excited look as she rooted them on. Rainbow quickly realized how close she was and distanced herself from both of them.
“I see that you have no reply,” began Octavia, further antagonizing Rainbow, “thus making me the winner this time around as well.”
Rainbow, turned back to her with fire in her eyes, “What? You--”
“Now *munch* at ease, ponies. *chew* We still have a challenge to complete.” Everypony found their attention diverted back towards Luna, whom had been finishing off a small bowl of popcorn while they were fighting. Bowl now empty, she gulped down the last of what was in her mouth before continuing. “Thank you for the advice, Pinkie Pie.”
Pinkie Pie, whom had been finishing off her own bag, simply waved a hoof in acknowledgement.
“As I said, you will be splitting into two groups.” The screen next to Luna changed to show two columns, one labeled ‘Team Loose Cannon’ and another labeled ‘Team Headstrong’. “These are the teams that we have chosen.”
Six pictures appeared on screen. Each of them moved over to one column, and by the time it was over, each of the ponies had their picture on a column. “Team Headstrong will consist of Rainbow Dash, Lyra Heartstrings, and Octavia Philharmonica. Team Loose Cannon will consist of Pinkie Pie, Vinyl Scratch, and Twilight Sparkle,” Luna announced.
“No Way!” Rainbow declared, sweeping her hooves in a wide arc. “I’m not partnering up with her!” Rainbow finished her declaration by pointing directly at a bored looking Octavia.
Octavia took it with a smile. Trotting over to Sweetie and putting a hoof on her head softly, she said, “That’s alright. You can sit this one out with Sweetie Belle like last time. I’m sure you’ll get plenty of points on the next challenge.” She returned a pointed and mocking back towards Rainbow Dash.
“Please save all trash talk for the wrestling challenge,” interrupted Luna, “I am out of popcorn. Like I was saying, each team will undertake two missions. Your compared scores at the end will dictate who won.”
“How do we calculate score? Speed? Kill streak?” asked Twilight.
“Will there actually be a wrestling challenge?” Sweetie Belle asked curiously.
~~~
Opening her eyes, Twilight immediately began analyzing her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was that all three them were wearing mechanical suits of some sort. Her coal grey suit covered her entire body except her head. Covering her eyes however was a visor that had several displays on it. Looking around she could see Pinkie and Vinyl trotting around and getting used to their suits. Glancing up she noted that they were all standing in a gazebo-like home base surrounded by what looked like plain rock.
Over in an identical location, Octavia and her group made similar revelations.
Twilight flinched when she heard a crackle of static in her earpiece, “Welcome to E.D.N III everypony,” said a voice.
“Yo, Princess, that you?” asked Vinyl, putting a hoof to her ear.
“Indeed,” said Luna. “As you may have noticed, you are all wearing thermal energy suits. As of right now, consider those suits to be akin to a second skin. If they get damaged, so do you. Over in your upper left hoof corner, you will see a wide green bar, a thin blue bar, and a yellow circle around large four digit number.
Twilight glanced up and saw it. The yellow circle held a value of 1500 and the blue line said 2500. “Alright… what do they mean?”
Luna continued, “The green bar represents your health, as always. The yellow bar represents your thermal energy levels. You need this energy to survive. It also powers the harmonizer that heals you when you get hit. The more you heal with it the lower the number will go. Y--”
*RATATATATA* Octavia’s eyes went wide when the sound of gunfire reached her ears. Turning, she saw Lyra with a wide innocent smile and a smoking machine gun mounted on her shoulder.
“Lyra…” she whispered in shock. Her expression soon changed into one of anger, “Did you just try and shoot me?!”
“I just wanted to see if--”
*Ratatata!*
“Rainbow Dash!” Octavia turned around to see Dash innocent whistling with her legs crossed in front of her, a smoking gun on her shoulder.
“Well,” Lyra began sheepishly, “now we know friendly fire isn't on.”
“You guys are abysmal!” Octavia yelled. Taking a second, she sighed and put a hoof to her ear. “I’m sorry, Princess. Please continue.”
“Uh.. yes. Thermal energy is important, but there are plenty of ways to retrieve some, ranging from killing enemies to destroying the environment. Now, what’s important to know is that while you can respawn in this game, there is a limit. Below your life gauge, do you see the thin blue line labeled B gauge?”
“Yes,” answered Twilight, “It says 2500.”
“That is a gauge shared by your entire party. Each time one of you dies and respawns it goes down by 500. There is only one way to increase it, and that’s by activating data posts.”
“And what are those?” asked Rainbow.
“Large metal canisters. Near the lower right and left-hoof corners you’ll see your machine gun and grenade ammunition, and near the upper right, your map. You may carry two of each type in this game. Two guns, two grenades. Any questions?”
“I have one,” began Twilight, “What sort of enemies are we fighting?”
“Duck,” answered Luna.
Twilight cocked her head curiously, “Ducks? Why would we--OOF!”
“Twilight!” yelled Pinkie.
“What the hay is that?!” yelled Vinyl.
Octavia and her group listened as the sounds of gunfire and screaming filled their intercoms, “Twilight? Twilight are you alright?”
Luna’s laughter sounded out through it all, and with one final “Good luck!” Everything went silent. The group stood stock-still, waiting for something to happen.
“It seems that we’ve been cut off from the others,” Octavia surmised.
“That might be a good thing since hearing them die would distract us,” shrugged Lyra.
Octavia nodded,“I agree.” She looked at Rainbow Dash and watched as she examined her gun. “First thing’s first, can we please agree not to shoot one another? It doesn't work and it only wastes ammo.”
Rainbow instantly turned the gun on her and shot a few bullets in her direction before shrugging. “Yup, nothing.”
Lyra pulled out a glowing orange orb, “What if I tossed this grenade down? You think it’ll kill us?”
“Don’t you dare!” Octavia ordered. “Are you even trying to win?”
“Sorry, sorry!” Lyra put the orb away, “We should move on, the others sounded like they got a head start on us.”
Octavia nodded and took up her own gun, “I agree, let’s head to the first point on the map. I think Luna called it a data post,” she said, glancing up at her map. As soon as she took a step forward, however, a large glowing plant sprouted from the side of the rock wall. Immediately it began spewing out dozens of hideous creatures.
An objective flashed onto everypony’s visors: “Get past the Akrid and head towards the reservoir!”
“Eww, what are those? Bug… plant things?” Lyra screamed, opening fire.
“They’re called Akrid, apparently,” Octavia hefted her gun and aimed it that the creatures crawling across the walls. “Rainbow Dash, can you fly up there?”
Rainbow Dash flapped her wings a few times. What she thought would be a heavy suit turned out to weigh nearly nothing. “Sweet! Guys I’m gonna head to the goal so we can win this thing!”
Octavia turned away from the enemies she was shooting just in time to see Dash fly off, “Dash, no, wait! Ugh!” she groaned, “Does that mare even understand the word teamwork?” Octavia jumped back just in time for one of the flying bugs to try and dive bomb her. While it was stuck in the ground, Octavia angrily unloaded a full clip into its head, “For the love of…”
~~~
“What the hay is that!” yelled Vinyl. Pulling out her machine gun, she proceeded to open fire on the manta ray-like creature that had dive bombed Twilight.
Twilight slowly picked herself off of the ground. She noticed that the machine on her hoof was glowing. Realizing what that meant, she watched her life gauge refill. But by the time it was full, her thermal energy meter read 1160. An objective flashed past her viser. “Get past the Akrid, and head towards the reservoir?” she muttered.
The creature now dead, Vinyl helped Twilight up, “Is that what these things are called?”
“Apparent--” Twilight suddenly whipped her head to the left, then the right, then turned in a circle. “Where’s Pinkie Pie?” she asked, slightly panicked.
“Here I am!” Both ponies hopped back in surprise when Pinkie fell in front of them, dangling upside down from the sky. “Look, I’m a Spiderpony!” she giggled, twirling in a circle.
Twilight looked up at her with a shocked expression. Pinkie hung down on a black wire that was attached to where the rock wall hung over them. “Pinkie, how are you doing that?”
“I found the grappling hook!” she sang.
Vinyl’s eyes nearly popped out of her visor, “We have grappling hooks!?”
“Yeah, it’s in your hoof,” said Pinkie.
Vinyl thrust her hoof out towards a wall close to them and shot out her hook. One yank and she found herself speeding towards that wall. “Hell yeah! Now all we need is a titan and we’re in business!”
Pinkie swung herself over to where Vinyl hung and smiled at her, “I didn't know you watched that.”
“Duh, it’s awesome!”
“Girls!” called Twilight, “Come down here so we can discuss what to do.”
Following Twilight’s orders, all of Team Loose Cannon gathered together outside of the gazebo base. Once together, Twilight quickly began giving out further orders and instructions on how to proceed. Since the map detailed a fairly straightforward path, they would stick together and fight together in order to preserve ammo and thermal energy. Before long they had an entire operation worked out.
Moving on they encountered the first wave of enemies that spawned from giant flowers. Swiftly they pulled out their weapons and shot everything they came across. A few Akrid manta rays took them by surprise by falling from the sky, but thankfully nopony ‘died’. After taking out the various plant-based enemies, Twilight and the others trotted over to what looked like a large metal canister attached to the ground.
Vinyl lifted her visor and stared at it curiously, “What’s this thing?”
Twilight glanced back at her map, “I… think it’s the data port. How do we activate it?”
Pinkie detached the gun from her shoulder and started banging furiously it against the machine. Twilight quickly used her magic to stop her, “Pinkie, what are you doing!”
“I’m hitting it!” she giggled, “I saw it on T.V. once. It works, trust me.”
“Well, you don’t--” Twilight stopped when the top of the machine suddenly inched upwards. “Wha-- did you…”
Vinyl stuck her head out from behind the machine, “Nah, she didn't do anything. I found a button. It’s not doing anything else though.”
“Press it again,” Twilight ordered.
“I did, it didn't do anything,” she replied.
Pinkie reattached her gun, “Is it activated?”
“Well… no. Nothing happened. We were supposed to get a thermal energy boost.” For a few more seconds the group merely stood around trying to figure out what to do. After a little while, Pinkie pushed Vinyl out of the way and began furiously mashing the button.
“Pinkie, I thought we--”
Vinyl held up a hoof to stop Twilight, “Hold on, look.” Vinyl motioned to the machine. With every few times Pinkie mashed the button, the top slid up a few more inches. Eventually it reached it’s apex and the bottom half opened. Immediately a wave of energy pulsed out from the machine and Twilight watched as her thermal energy bar raised from 2300 to 5120. “Who would design this thing that way where you have to mash the button?” Vinyl groaned, “That’s so stupid!”
“Pinkie, how did you know how to do that?” she asked.
Pinkie shrugged and gave her a large smile. “Saw it on T.V. Told you hitting things worked!”
~~~
Unfortunately, Octavia’s group fared a bit differently when it came to teamwork. Octavia and Lyra had made it halfway across the stage when they were ambushed by two Rhyno Akrid and a large praying mantis-type.
“Rainbow Dash, where the bloody hay are you?!” Octavia yelled as she grapplehooked to safety. Underneath her, the Rhyno rolled into a ball and rampaged around the forest. Tossing a grenade down, she blew up the praying mantis.
Lyra, who fell into a pool of water sometime back, finally grappled out, hefting a large gatling gun out with her. Screaming like a madpony, she began spinning in the air as she dangled from her hook, shooting everypony and everything around her.
“Lyra, you can’t do that!” Octavia screamed, “Its weak point is on its tail!”
Lyra stopped spinning and dropped down next to her, “Alright then.” Grinning, Lyra pulled out a grenade and hopped down towards the Rhynos. Octavia looked down for a second, only to jerk her head back from the explosion. A few seconds later, Lyra grappled back up to meet her.
Octavia watched as Lyra used her harmonizer to heal herself. “Don’t do that!” she hissed.
“Aww, why not?” Lyra asked mischievously, “I have like 7000 thermal points from killing everything.”
Octavia rubbed a temple with her hoof, “Still,” she sighed, “you shouldn’t just self-destruct like that.”
“‘Sup, guys.” Both mares looked up to see Rainbow Dash hovering above them with a sheepish look.
“Rainbow Dash!” yelled Octavia. “Where in the world were you!”
Rainbow rubbed the back of her head nervously and landed next to them, “Well… turns out that we can only finish if we’re together.”
Lyra rolled her eyes, “Well, duh.”
“Yeah, also seems that flying takes up alot of thermal whatevers. Like, a lot.”
Octavia prepped a facehoof. “You don’t have any left, do you?”
Dash glanced up and flinched, “Says zero-zero-zero-zero.”
Octavia initiated her facehoof, “Alright, from now on, let’s stay together, kill everything, and give Rainbow all of the energy.”
“Hey, who put you in charge?” Rainbow protested, “I say we bolt to the exit.”
Octavia turned to her with a look of immense frustration, “No,” she said softly as she trotted up to her face, “Because if we do, we’ll have to dash past all of the monsters, and if you get injured, you have no way to heal. I’m not letting you die and waste our respawn counter.”
“Then why can’t we just go around them. Let’s not fight anything,” Rainbow spat.
“No, no, we can’t do that! We’ll need to fight them in order to replenish your energy. Lyra and I will defeat them and you’ll collect the energy and activate the data posts. We don’t know what’s coming in the next mission either.”
“That’s not fair, I wanna shoot things too,” Rainbow whined.
“Then you shouldn't have wasted all of your energy flying around trying to finish the game without the rest of us!”
“I was trying to get us the best score!”
“This isn't a race, Rainbow Dash! We won’t get the best score by getting to the goal first--”
Lyra popped up in between the both of them with three grenades in her hoof. “If you two don’t stop fighting, I will blow us all up and lose the game!” she yelled.
Both Dash and Octavia slowly backed away. Lyra nodded and lowered the orb. “Thank you. Rainbow, come here.”
Rainbow hesitated for a second before taking a step closer. Lyra switched over her weapon to one that seemed to be charging with energy. Rainbow immediately wished she hadn't taken that step forward. “Woah, wh--”
“Stay there!” Lyra ordered. Releasing the trigger, Lyra shot a ball of energy that seeped into Rainbows armor. Rainbow watched as her thermal energy reading rapidly increased to 2000.
“Lyra how did you do that?” Octavia asked.
Lyra switched back her gun and gave Octavia a smug smile, “I found it while I was messing around with the suit. Come on, let’s go!” Lyra turned and bolted towards the next data post.
Rainbow glanced over to Octavia and scowled, “Who put her in charge?”
Octavia groaned and ran after Lyra, “Just shut up.”
~~~
“Vinyl, above you!” screamed Pinkie.
Vinyl stopped slamming the button on the data post and brought out a grenade before chucking it into the lake behind her. “I got it!”
Pinkie quickly reloaded her gun and continued firing at a large Akrid Mantis. “No, I said above!”
“Wha-” Vinyl quickly found herself knocked out by the second Mantis that snuck up behind her. She opened her eyes to see that she was back at the data post halfway across the map.
“Oh no!” cried Pinkie.
Twilight finished taking out her enemy and turned to the one Pinkie had been fighting, “Why are there so many bugs at the exit?”
Vinyl’s voice came through on her intercom, “So we don’t make it out, of course.”
Finishing off the large Akrid, Pinkie dashed toward the one that killed Vinyl. Halfway there, she stopped and glanced over to something sitting in a corner. When she picked it up, she noticed that she had a new type of grenade on her screen. “I found gummi bombs!” she cheered.
“That’s great, Pinkie, now come help!” Twilight called.
”Oh, right!” Pinkie stashed away the new toys and ran over to help Twilight. Soon enough, the duo managed to reduce the large Akrid to a hollow dusk shell, such as what happens to dead Akrids. Finally safe, both of them crowded around the data post and jerked off the button until the post blew its thermal load.
“Alright, I think that’s all of them,” Twilight sighed. Right in front of them sat a large cave entrance that was blocked off by a red barrier that read as the goal on the map. “We have about 2000 respawn points. That means we only have four deaths between us. We have to careful from now on.”
Vinyl finally managed to make her way back to them, wearing a sheepish smile, “Sorry.”
Twilight shook her head, “It’s alright.” Now that Vinyl had entered the field, a countdown appeared on each of their visors. After it reached zero, the scenery changed. Instead of forest, there was a blank expanse. Then all at once, that expanse turned into a chart with each of their names. Area Results covered the top left:
Time: 00:17:20
Twilight Sparkle: 2520pts Rank A
Pinkie Pie: 1620pts Rank B
Vinyl Scratch: 1500pts Rank B
“Hmm,” pondered Twilight, “Not bad.”
Vinyl groaned, “We could’ve done it faster if some stupid pony didn't design such a stupid way to activate the post!”
“Well, they probably didn't expect ponies to actually have to press it like we did,” Twilight said optimistically.
“Ohh,” squealed Pinkie, “Look, the screen’s changing again!”
The entire area around them warped and shifted into a new area. Now the group stood in a small grassy area next to a large lake on one side and a large ravine on the other. Around the bend of the area sat a large metal bridge that had been raised. Twilight guessed that if it was lowered, it would stretch across the lake. “I’m guessing we have to lower that bridge for this mission.”
Vinyl looked around and noticed something odd, “Why are their barrels everywhere?” True to her word there were barrels littered all around the pier.
Further into the area, the group noticed the data post that rested on a large metal platform near the entrance to the bridge. As they trotted onto the platform, Luna’s voice crackled through their earpieces once again: “I’m sending some reinforcements your way.”
Twilight and the others glanced at one another in confusion. Twilight put a hoof to her ear, “Why do we need reinforcements?”
“Yo, Twilight. Check it out,” Vinyl gestured up to the air. The group watched with wide eyes as a large airship sailed their way. “Hey, I’m not complaining.”
Just as the airship came close a enormous claw lifted itself from the water and smacked the entire ship out of the sky. Continuing to rise from the lake was an equally enormous Akrid insect with enormous, sharp spikes and several extra, smaller legs. Once it rose from the lake completely it sat both of its enormous claws on either side of the platform and let out a screeching wail.
Twilight covered her ears and tried to yell to her teammates, “Activate the data post!”
Pinkie and Vinyl quickly ran over, with both of them together they erected the post in just under twenty seconds, just in time for the boss creature to prepare its opening attack. Luckily, both of them dodged to the side as the monster slammed its claw down on them.
“Looks like it can’t destroy the post,” Twilight noted, seeing that even though the creature slammed down on it, the post was undamaged, “We won’t get sent back to the beginning now.” Opening fire, she ran to the side of the field and took cover behind a pillar.
Pinkie landed next to her and gestured over to the glowing spots on the Akrid’s legs and head, “The glowy parts are the bug thingies’ weak spots, right? Let’s shoot them!”
Twilight nodded. “You're right, we--”
“Look out!” Vinyl jumped and knocked both of them out of the way of another furious stomp from the creature. All three ponies quickly got up and scattered in order to avoid being caught all at once. “‘Kay, got it! Weak spot on the head!” Vinyl pulled out the shotgun she had picked up and began unloading several rounds into its head.
~~~
“What the buck is that?!” Lyra screamed. She watched, jaw agape as the enormous beast knocked the airship out of the sky like it was a fly.
Rainbow immediately opened fire, “I don’t know, but shoot it!”
“Shoot the glowing parts!” ordered Octavia as she struggled to activate the data post by herself. “Bugger all! Who would design something this tedious?” she muttered. Immediately after activating it, she grappled up to the raised platform behind them that she noticed when they entered the area.
“How do we kill it?!” Dash yelled.
“I just told you,” Octavia pulled out her machine gun and opened fire on the small glowing area, “Shoot its head.”
Lyra was the first to notice the long thin red line at the bottom of her visor. She watched as it went down only a tiny bit as they shot at its head. Glancing over, she saw the large glowing areas on the creature’s large and small legs. She made a decision and began aiming at the legs. “No, shoot the legs. Cripple it!”
Octavia looked over to where Lyra had decided to shoot, and realized that if the legs came off, they would have an easier chance at winning. “Good idea, I’ll shoot the other leg! Rainbow!”
“No way, you gotta shoot the head, the brain! We gotta--” Rainbow stopped abruptly as she found herself suddenly frozen in a block of ice. It didn't take long for the beast to crush it under its claw.
“This thing can shoot ice? What the buck?!” Lyra screamed. Soon, Rainbow respawned and flew up to Octavia’s platform.
“Going to listen now?” Octavia smirked.
“Shut up. So, what are we doing?”
Octavia smirked, “I tried throwing grenades, but they bounce off of it before they can explode. We’ll have to rely on our guns. Lyra and I will shoot the creature’s legs, you keep its attention off of us by moving around and shooting its head. Don’t get killed though, we’re running low on respawns.”
“Wait, wasn't I already doing that?” Rainbow spat.
Octavia opened her mouth to respond with a snide comment, but stopped when she ducked to the side to avoid a large icicle that came flying in her direction. “Yes, but now you’re following an order. See the difference?”
“I see the difference in your face!” With that, Rainbow hopped off of the platform and rushed to the side of the stage. Predictably, the Akrid turned and followed her.
It wasn't long before Lyra completely tore off one of the Akrid’s legs, causing it to fall to the ground and begin spasming. Octavia stopped shooting at her leg and unloaded the rest of her ammo into the beast’s head, with Lyra and Rainbow doing the same. What surprised all three of them was when it suddenly regenerated it’s leg and immediately crushed the platform with Octavia on it. She growled when she respawned.
“Ha, who’s dying now!” Rainbow teased.
“Shut up,” Octavia hissed.
“Guys? He’s firing his laser!” Lyra panicked. She quickly grappled up to a small cliff near the back of the area.
Octavia followed her example and reached a similar cliff opposite of Lyra’s with Rainbow behind her. They all watched as the Akrid shot out a long stream of ice that covered nearly the entirety of the ground level, grass and all. Luckily for them, the ice melted almost instantly.
“Hurry, get back in formation,” Octavia ordered, “Rainbow!”
Rainbow saluted and hopped off the cliff, “On it!” Soon the group resumed their attack, and it wouldn't be long until Octavia ripped off the other arm.
Just as the Akrid went down a second time, Lyra screamed out in delight, “Look what I found!” she sang. Rainbow and Octavia looked over to see Lyra heft out a large gatling gun. With reckless abandon, Lyra unloaded the entire load of bullets onto the Akrid’s forehead while laughing madly.
Eventually, the Akrid’s health bar emptied and the Akrid itself shriveled and died. The bridge began lowering as a result. All three ponies hopped to ground level and sighed in relief.
Octavia and the others began trotting past the bridge in a tired pace, “Thank goodness. Hopefully, this mission is over, because I am tired. First-pony shooters were never my second choice of gameplay.”
“Well, sucks to be you, ‘cus we’re not done yet.” Rainbow gestured out to the end of the bridge where another wave of enemies emerged. Both of them stopped halfway across the bridge and clicked their weapons.
“We’re out of ammunition!” Octavia began to panic until she heard large mechanical foot steps. Turning around, she watched, jaw rolling on the ground, as Lyra stepped up in a large bipedal robotic suit with two gatling guns attached to the sides.
“Incoming!” she yelled. “Here I come!” All at once, she opened fire, completely decimating the entire wave of enemies. Lyra cheered and hollered in excitement.
“Well, that would’ve been useful five minutes ago!” Rainbow groaned, “Where did she even get that?”
Octavia pointed behind them at the other remaining suit, “I’m guessing we passed right by them. I’m also guessing that they suck thermal energy like crazy, so I wouldn't put one on if I were you.”
“What’s the point? Lyra’s already killed everything.”
Octavia realized that Lyra was already well onto the other side of the island, delivering bloody murder to every Akrid that she could find.
“I’m so downloading this game when I get home!” she could hear Lyra scream.
~~~
“Take a chill pill!” screamed Vinyl. She quickly lobbed a grenade at the downed Akrid, only for it to bounce off before. “Dang it!”
“Vinyl,” groaned Twilight, “Punning won’t help your bombs work.”
“But they do so much damage!” Vinyl quickly resumed her bullet onslaught on the Akrid’s forehead. “Man, if only they stuck or something.”
Pinkie immediately stopped shooting when something rang through her head. She remembered the new type of grenades that she had picked up. “I have an idea!” she screamed.
“What is it?” replied Twilight.
Experimentally, Pinkie lobbed one of her gummi grenades at the Akrid’s arm. Lo and behold, it stuck solid to its body and exploded, instantly ripping off the monster’s arm. Vinyl and Twilight looked on in shock.
“How did you do that?!” they screamed.
Pinkie held up her new grenade, “It’s a gummi bomb! I guess it sticks to whatever I throw it at.”
“Throw one at its head!” Vinyl yelled frantically. Pinkie flinched at her volume, but complied, anyway. All of them marveled at the large chunk of health it ripped off. Immediately the Akrid regenerated and resumed it’s icicle barrage.
“Do it again, Pinkie!” Twilight yelled, dodging a spike.
Pinkie pulled out another grenade, but ducked to the side to avoid the rapidly spammed move, “I can’t! It keeps shooting at me!”
“I hate when somepony spams the same move over and over!” Vinyl groaned.
“Vinyl, shoot it to get it’s attention. It’s not aiming at you!” Twilight ordered.
“Gotcha! Hey ugly! I heard your mother has crabs! Now I know where you come from!” she screamed.
Twilight blushed furiously, “Vinyl!”
Vinyl shrugged, “What? I got its attention.”
Twilight resumed shooting, but still sent Vinyl an irritated glance, “But… you… you can’t say something like that!”
Vinyl ducked away from the freeze laser behind a tree, “Well, it worked. Pinkie!”
Pinkie popped her head up with grenade in hoof. “Okie-dokie, lokie!” Chucking the grenade, Pinkie blew off another leg; and chucking the final grenade, she finally put an end to the Akrid boss.
All three of them quickly gathered up all of the thermal energy that spewed out and grouped together at the now-lowering bridge. “Keep your guns ready,” said Twilight, “My map says that there are still enemies on the other side.”
“Ohh! Look! Look!” Pinkie hopped excitedly over to the large robotic suits halfway across the bridge. Putting one on she stood up and stomped over to Twilight. “Can I use it?”
Wide eyed, Twilight nodded dumbly. Glancing over at Vinyl she noticed that she was glancing between Twilight and the other robot suit. Sighing, Twilight nodded to her as well. “You two go kill everything. I’ll activate the last two data posts.”
“Sweet!” Vinyl hopped into the second suit and followed Pinkie into battle. Twilight smiled and shook her head. Looking back at her map, she tracked down the last two posts and waited for the other two at the goal.
~~~
Both groups stood proudly together in the final completion screen. Pinkie excitedly hopped over to the other group. “Hi Dashie! Hi Octi! Did you all have fun?”
“If babysitting two reckless and suicidal mares counts as fun,” Octavia rubbed her head.
Rainbow scoffed in annoyance, “Hey, you died too!”
Luna appeared before both groups in her actual body. “Please, ponies, save the fighting until you know your scores. Team Headstrong, step forward.”
Octavia, Rainbow, and Lyra all stepped forward. The blank area behind Luna changed to show the same results screen from before. “These are your scores from the first mission. Octavia, in the first mission you received a B. Rainbow, you received a D, Lyra, you received an S rank.
Octavia and Rainbow groaned while Lyra cheered ecstatically. “Told you we should’ve just ran to the exit!” said Rainbow, glaring at Octavia.
“And I told you that we should just kill everything, which is what Lyra did, in fact, do. The only differences were that I died once.” Octavia reasoned.
Luna nodded, “Correct. Now these are your second scores.” New scores appeared, and behind Lyra’s column sat an image of the monster she defeated, signaling that it was her that got the extra kill points. “Lyra, for your skill in the game and lack of deaths you receive another S rank. Octavia, for your skill, you receive an A rank. Rainbow, for your performance, you receive a B.”
Lyra once again broke out in a set of loud cheers. Octavia nodded, accepting her grade. Rainbow shrugged, figuring that a B was as good as anything.
“Factoring your other achievements, times and scores you total group score is an B+. Congratulations.”
“Did we win?” Rainbow said.
“Be patient,” Luna said. She then turned toward the other three ponies, “Team Loose Cannon, step forward”, she ordered.
Pinkie, Twilight, and Vinyl gathered together and stepped forward.
Luna switched over the screen to represent their scores, “Twilight, in the first mission you have an A, excellent as always. Pinkie and Vinyl, you both received Bs. Now, view your second mission scores.” Behind Pinkie’s column sat an image of the monster she defeated, signaling that it was her that got the extra kill points. “Pinkie, you gained an S rank for your skill in defeating the beast and lack of deaths.”
Pinkie joined Lyra in her celebration by doing a few flips and throwing a small amount of confetti into the air in celebration. Luna smiled and continued, “Twilight, once again you received an A. Vinyl, unfortunately, due to your repeat deaths, you receive only a C.”
Vinyl groaned for a second before giving a small smirk, “Eh, I’ve gotten worse grades in school anyway.”
“Factoring your other achievements, times and scores, your total group score is an A-. Congratulations, your group wins this challenge!” she announced. Lighting up her horn, Luna brought everypony back to the Velvet Room and removed all of their armor. “And you all win 6000 points!” she finished.
Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped as she watched the other group celebrate, “What? Seriously?”
Octavia yawned and stretched, “Well, I’m glad that’s over. I need some sleep.”
“What?” said Dash, “We lost!”
Octavia shrugged. “Well you can only blame yourself. You had the lowest score between the three of us. I would even wager that if it weren't for Lyra’s S ranks our score wouldn't have been as high as it was. Honestly, Rainbow, you really should try harder if you want to win. Perhaps you could even challenge me someday.”
“What? I.. You…” While she sat there fuming, Octavia trotted back to the rest of the group. Lyra met her halfway and looked back towards Rainbow.
“Why do you like antagonizing her?” Lyra whispered.
“Because it’s fun,” Octavia smiled. She continued to walk away, smile soon turned into a deep determined frown as she exited Lyra’s view, “...and because I need to check something.” She looked over with a curious gaze at the group of cheering ponies in front of her.
~~~
Pinkie, Vinyl, and Twilight all found themselves sitting at a table in a large courtroom. Looking around, they noticed a group of 5 black-cloaked ponies setting in the jury box and a large, grey-bearded pony sitting in the judge’s seat.
“Welcome, ponies,” he said in a gravelly voice, “We’re here today for you three to select whom you think created the challenge that you competed in today. You may choose any of the ponies that are sitting in the jury box, but you must call them by names. You have two choices. You may all either discuss it amongst yourselves and have one vote between you. Or you may all each have one individual vote.”
Twilight leaned over to the ponies next to her and whispered, “We should each have an individual vote,” she suggested. “That way they’ll be a higher chance that we get somepony, deal?”
Vinyl and Pinkie nodded. Twilight decided that she would go first, “I choose… Princess Luna!” Twilight announced.
The large grey stallion looked at her curiously. “I recognize your choice, but please remember, if you want to vote for the Princess, you must guess her new ‘game name’, as she calls it.
Twilight flinched back, she had completely forgotten about that. Feebly, she raised a hoof, “Can we at least have a hint? The list of things she could call herself is too large if you don’t.”
The grey stallion put a hoof to his chin and glanced over to the jury box. After a few hushed whispers amongst themselves, one cloaked pony stood up and spoke in Luna’s voice, “Princess Luna’s new name revolves around something that she is familiar with. You may take your guess.”
Twilight thought furiously about the things she knew that the Princess liked. After a few minutes, she reopened her mouth, “GamerLuna?”
“Incorrect!” the figure yelled.
The old stallion slammed his gavel loudly, “Next pony?”
“Sorry, guys,” Twilight apologized. Turning her head, she noticed that Pinkie was saying something to her. However no sound came from her, or Vinyl’s mouth. Rubbing her ear, Twilight looked at her curiously. Pinkie had turned towards the judge and looked like she was excitedly saying something, though Twilight couldn't hear what it was. “Of course they wouldn't let me hear their votes. That would be too easy wouldn't it,” she thought. “Good thing I can read lips.” Twilight stared intently at Pinkie for a few seconds before giving up. “Alright so I can’t read Pinkie’s lips… or lips in general… I should really learn to. I wonder if I have a book on it.”
After Pinkie finished talking, the judge turned toward Vinyl. Twilight watched as Vinyl opened her mouth once, and then as Judge opened his several times. One of the cloaked ponies stood up and apparently spoke as well. “What are they talking about?” Twilight thought, “Is Vinyl asking the same thing I did? It almost looks like she’s arguing…” Eventually, Vinyl gave up and shrugged. All at once, sound returned to Twilight’s ears.
“..ou Twilight, I mean, seriously, I can’t hear a thing. Sure I can see you all talking, but no sound is coming out. Can you hear me, Twilight? Can you, can you? I guess not them because you aren't saying anything--”
Twilight quickly covered her ears, “Pinkie, I can hear you now!”
“Oh, good!” Pinkie chirped.
The old judge hammered his gavel and brought attention back up to him. “All three of you have guessed incorrectly. You shall still receive your points however. Now, please return home.”
With a slam of his gavel all three ponies flashed out of the room. Still in the courtroom, one of the cloaked ponies stood up from their seat. “Summon the accused!”
With another slam, two ponies teleported into the defense seats. Lyra momentarily panicked until she realized where she was. “A-are we in Phoenix Right?” she whispered. “I love this game!”
Vinyl glanced up and down curiously. “Wait… why am I back here?”
“Silence!” the cloaked pony yelled. Lyra and Vinyl immediately shrank back. The pony slowly climbed down from the jury box and trotted up to Lyra. Throwing off her cloak, the real Luna stood tall in front of a shivering mint and white unicorns. “Lyra Heartstrings and Vinyl Scratch,” she began sticking her head in close. She glared at both of them, “We… need to have a talk about language,” Luna hissed.
Both ponies glanced at one another and gulped nervously.
Octavia stared down at the two foals in front of her, blissfully watching cartoons as if it were a regular Saturday morning. Dancing on the show in front of them was a small turtle shelled cartoon pony with a heavy black outline. He was surrounded by other more colorful ponies with thin black outlines. All of them wore odd, superhero-like costumes.
However, what confused her the most, and caused her to direct her attention originally, was the theme song that was being sung by some old foreign man.
"Star of Lily Mu"
"Everything is all new"
"Showtime is today"
"Here in Neighpan"
"Hey! (Hey!) Look! (Look!)"
"Out in the streets!"
"Don’t you know that colt is Kappa Pony!"
Octavia continued to look at the TV with a blank stare. She had never been one for cartoons. Being a stout realist, she prefered documentaries that showcased the true reality of events. It was her personal belief that most cartoons were unnecessarily violent and only very few taught anything educational. But to each her own.
“What… am I looking at here?” she finally asked.
Lyra and Rainbow Dash turned around in tandem. One pony had on a smile that only grew wider from looking at Octavia, and the other had on a slight frown.
“It’s a cartoon, duh,” Rainbow answered snidely.
“Well, I know that,” Octavia huffed, rolling her eyes. She gave the show another scrutinizing look. “I meant was what is it about? It looks… odd, to say the least.”
Lyra swiveled around on her butt to face her friend completely. “It’s this show about an Equestrian pony winding up in Neighpan and becoming the star of this fictional show called Kappa Pony. You know what a kappa is right?”
Rainbow Dash scoffed and mumbled, “Probably not.”
Octavia huffed, ”Of course I do.” She turned to Twilight. “Twilight, what’s a kappa?”
Twilight, sitting comfortably over on her bed, raised her head from the book she was reading. Eager to showcase her knowledge of something unexpected, she answered with a smile. “A kappa, or ‘river child’ as it is also called, is a widely recognized yokai or ‘demon’ found in Neighpanese mythology. Even though it is considered mythological, a.k.a. fictional, kappas are in fact real. Though they are extremely rare, with only a hoof-full of sightings ever officially recorded.”
Octavia nodded in thanks and turned back to Rainbow Dash, who had accidentally left her jaw on the ground. She quickly picked it up and sent a harsh glare toward the grey mare. “That’s… that’s cheating! You didn’t actually know.”
Octavia smirked. “That’s beside the point. Lyra please continue.”
Lyra shrugged. In reality, she was going to ask Octavia what it was anyway. For all she knew it was some kind of duck-turtle thing. “Anyway, it’s pretty much about this Equestrian learning to make his way through Neighpan while keeping his role as the show’s star.”
Octavia tilted her head in confusion. Looking past Lyra she saw some of the thin line characters deform into smaller versions of themselves. The thick outlined pony tried to do the same thing, only to look confused and wonder how. “So it’s a show about Neighpanese stereotypes?”
“He’s also an idiot,”added Lyra.
Octavia deadpanned, “So it’s a show about Neighpanese and Equestrian stereotypes. Wonderful.”
“Hey, it’s funny!” defended Rainbow.
“Well, I’m not saying it’s not,” Octavia held up a hoof in defense. “I’m just saying… well, I haven’t actually said anything yet.”
“Yes, you did. You called it a show about stereos!” Rainbow accused, pointing a hoof at her.
“Stereotypes, Rainbow Dash. And that’s because it is. From the 2 minutes in which I have subjected myself to this, I have picked out several stereotypes common in anime.”
“Yeah?” Rainbow crossed her arms. “Like what?”
Lyra gave her a surprised look. “You watch anime?”
Octavia smiled and moved past them to get closer to the T.V. She pointed to the main character. “Well, for example the apparent running gag that the Equestrian characters cannot super deform like the others.” She pointed toward the tall mare with blue a mane. “Look at the way this mare looks at the main character, obviously her love interest. She has hearts in her eyes for pony’s sake.” Next, she pointed at the second mare with an orange mane. “Now look at how the main character looks at this other pony, clearly oblivious to the first mare’s affections. This has anime cliche written all over it.”
Lyra clapped her hooves while Rainbow scowled at her. “Well, what does that have to do with anything?”
Octavia, having made her point, turned and moved back to her previous spot. “Oh, absolutely nothing. You asked what I meant. This cartoon is clearly based around anime cliches. But if you enjoy it, I won’t argue.”
Rainbow turned back to her show and grumbled, “Still a good show.”
“Wow,” gasped Lyra. “How do you know so much about anime?”
Octavia chuckled darkly, her laughter somehow sounding dry and tired. “When you’re roommates with somepony like Vinyl Scratch, you’ll find that their interests will quickly become your interests. “ She sighed and rubbed a hoof over her forehead. “I bet I could even tell you how to calibrate the sound for a DJ booth.”
“Aww, I wish I had Vinyl for a roommate…” Lyra’s eyes lit up in excitement as she jumped to her hooves. “Hey! Hey, Tavi! Wanna trade roommates? I’ll take Vinyl and you can have Bon Bon!”
Octavia opened her mouth, but at that moment the white mare in question slammed open the door to greet the others. “‘Sup, mah ponies! What’s crackalackin’?”
Octavia rolled her eyes. “By all means, take her. But you’ll have to convince her on your own.”
Lyra hopped excitedly in place for a second before dashing over to the unicorn. Said unicorn took something out of her extradimensional Minecraft storage space and sat it in the middle of the room. Interested, Twilight hopped off of her bed and walked over to her.
Lyra hopped around Vinyl and quickly asked her question. “Hey, Vinyl, wanna come be my roommate?”
Vinyl sat next to her odd box before turning and giving Lyra a confused look. “What? Me? Nah, I think I’m good.”
Lyra slumped in disapointment while Twilight trotted up next to her and asked her own question. “Vinyl, what’s that?”
Turning to answer the more interesting question, Vinyl smiled at Twilight and gestured grandly at the checker-patterned box in front of her. “This is a music box! Pinkie helped me make it. By the way, to answer your next question: no, I don’t know where they are. Pinkie’s still out there with Sweetie Belle doing some secret project that they won’t let me in on.”
Twilight carefully examined the box with great curiosity. “Interesting. Well, that answers my second question. My third one is: What is it?”
Vinyl’s smile grew even wider. “And that, filly, is what I’m about to show you. If you slam your hoof on it, it makes a random instrument noise. You can recreate any song if you have enough of them. See, watch!” She slammed her hoof on the box once, creating a single low gonging sound.
Immediately, a large orange hole opened under the group, causing them all to fall through. All of them landed in a heap inside a familiar purple room. Princess Luna stood over them in person, glancing up at the small portal that she had just opened on the ceiling. Covering her hoof was a white machine with the word WHOOP written across it. Smiling, she glanced toward the hidden camera and winked to the audience. “Now that is thinking with portals.” A rim shot and generic canned laughter echoed through the room, causing Luna to frown. “Discord!” All sound effects immediately stopped.
Annoyed that her moment was ruined, Luna got back on track. She gestured with the device-covered hoof in a wide arc. “Welcome, ponies... back to the Velvet Room!”
“Still not velvet…” Octavia groaned. She was currently situated underneath Rainbow’s tail, something the cyan mare was having a slight chuckle at.
Princess Luna rolled her eyes. “Working on it!” she hissed. Regaining her smile, she looked over her heap of contestants. “And how are we doing this fine morning?”
On the bottom of the pile, Lyra opened her eyes and glanced up at the device in the princess’ hoof. Instantly, she burst out of the pile and rushed over to get a closer look at the device. “Is that a portal gun? Please, please, please, PLEASE tell me that we’re doing what I think we’re doing?”
Luna watched as the other ponies finally got off of one another before looking down at the mint unicorn in front of her. Smirking trollishly, she lit up her horn and magicked the device away. “I am sorry, Lyra Heartstrings. This was just a test run for a later challenge.” She frowned and counted the ponies before her. “Are we missing some ponies?”
Twilight also glanced around. “Pinkie Pie and Sweetie Belle were out of the house when you… ‘portaled’ us.”
Luna sighed dejectedly, for she had already said the quote and dismissed the device. If she pulled it out again, it would be in bad taste. Instead, she simply flared up her horn and teleported the ponies to her. Pinkie Pie and Sweetie Belle popped into existence above Rainbow Dash, once more, putting them in a heap. Though this time, Rainbow Dash was on the bottom.
“Wait? What?” Sweetie Belle shouted, looking around in confusion.
She was soon lifted up by Pinkie, whose head she had been sitting on. “It’s alright, Sweetie Belle. It’s game time!” she cheered.
Sweetie Belle oh’d in response. Twilight quickly moved over to them with an inquisitive look on her face. “Where were you two at?” she asked.
Pinkie turned to her with a smile. “Oh, we were just--” Sweetie quickly reached down and covered the chatty mare’s mouth.
“Nothing! It’s a secret! A Pinkie Promise!” she blurted.
“Oh, yeah,” Pinkie giggled. “Sorry, Twi.”
“Can you two please get off of me?!” Rainbow yelled. Pinkie and Sweetie quickly hopped off of the fuming pegasus. Rainbow Dash wasted no time in flying up into the air to dust herself off.
Deciding that enough time had passed, the princess cleared her throat to gather everypony’s attention. “Ahem! Welcome, ponies! I have an announcement! Today, we have a special challenge suggested to one of our gamemasters from an outside source. The rules have not changed however. You still have to guess the correct gamemaster who set up the challenge. I simply wanted to allocate credit where it is due.”
Octavia stepped forward and asked, “Are we allowed to know who it was? Maybe it could provide a hint for us.”
Luna chuckled. “Ever the opportunist, Octavia. No. Unfortunately, this pony has opted to use an alias. If I recall it was “Twilight Shimmer.”
Twilight’s eyes shrunk in surprise. “That’s an… interesting name.”
Meanwhile, Pinkie, Lyra, and Vinyl fell onto each other in identical fits of laughter. “Oh! I get it!” Pinkie got out. “I bet she’s like a mix of you and Sunset Shimmer! Like your daughter or something!”
Twilight reeled back in shock. “Pinkie! Don’t even joke about that!”
Vinyl and Lyra paused in their laughter and looked at one another. Quickly hopping to their hooves, the two mares ran in opposite directions of one another.
Vinyl called over to Twilight. “Or maybe something like this!” Vinyl and Lyra stood up on their hind legs while holding both of their forelegs in opposite directions. Moving towards each other, the two moved their hooves in arcs so that, by the time the two were inches from one another, their hooves were nearly touching. Both of them chanted at the same time.
“FUUUU.... SION!” At the last syllable, both mares quickly redirected their hooves back to their original positions, faced away from each other.
At the simultaneous shout of “HA!” both mares instantly brought their hooves and horns together, forming a complete arc between them. The second their hooves and horns touched, they released a blinding light that caused everyone to cover their eyes.
When everypony finally regained their vision, they found Pinkie Pie standing where the two previously were. She wore a colored cardboard horn and wings, and her mane was styled like Sunset’s but in Twilight’s mane colors. She stood tall and regal for all of three seconds before falling out in more laughter. Twilight and the others stared at the display in amazement before turning at the sound of further laughter from behind them.
Lyra and Vinyl traded hoof bumps and cheered over their successful improv show. “That was awesome!” Lyra cheered. “Are you suuuuure you don’t wanna come live with me?” she pleaded further.
Vinyl laughed a bit more before putting a hoof to her chin in thought. “That was awesome. I’ll think about it.” Over by the others, Octavia’s eyes shrank in surprise.
Princess Luna finished chuckling and began applauding lightly. “Very well-performed, ponies. Moving on, I have further announcements. I will no longer be the narrator for these challenges.” She paused for a second to take in the ponies confused and surprised faces. “This is a suggestion by Discord, surprisingly. It is an attempt to make the game easier. From this challenge on, the game master who created the challenge will explain its rules.”
Twilight hummed in understanding, “Oh, I get it. This is so we can analyze their speech patterns for hints. That does make things easier.”
“Exactly, Twilight Sparkle. I was told that simply allowing you to take a, and I quote, “shot in the dark” every time one of you won, would cause the game to go on indefinitely.”
“Well, we can’t all be pro MLG’s with capped-out guessing skills,” Lyra snarked.
Luna nodded sadly, genuinely disappointed, “Indeed. ‘Tis as shame.” Brightening up, she flared up her horn and prepared to teleport the group. “Anyway, I will see you all after the game! Good luck to all of you!”
~~~
“You know,” began Octavia, “I’m getting tired of this.” Octavia once again found herself under a pile of ponies after being teleported. Luckily, she quickly found herself lifted up in familiar lavender-colored magic. Twilight sat everypony upright, receiving a thankful smile from the other ponies before she took a look around.
“So, where are we this time?” asked Twilight. Everypony began to analyze their new surroundings. They stood atop a fairly straight and wide dirt path. To one side stood a tall and dense forest, and to the other side sat fairly steep cliff. Staring down the path, the ponies could see various 8-bit soldiers and turret guns moving this way and that.
Lyra squinted at the scene. “This looks familiar…”
Octavia simply continued to look around in confusion. “Well, not to me. I can’t recall any stage from any game that I’ve played looking like this.”
“Same here, I don’t recognize any of this,” mumbled Twilight. “But from the pixelated graphics, it seems like an old game.”
“Very good, Twilight. You’re exactly right!”
Everypony glanced up at the sky in response to the familiar voice. “Princess Luna?” asked Pinkie. “I thought you weren't going to be the one to play narrator this time.”
The voice chuckled warmly. “Oh, no. I’m not the princess. I’m the one who created this challenge. Though I suppose that, to you, I must sound like the princess so you don’t recognize my voice.” It was true, while the voice did sound like the princess, this voice was warm, relaxed, and kind. It wasn't formal and commanding like the princess of the night’s usual tone.
“Mind giving us any hints, then?” Octavia asked, smiling slightly.
You could practically hear the smile grow on the voice’s face. “What kind of hint are you looking for?”
Octavia tapped her muzzle in thought. “Oh I don’t know. Are you a mare or a stallion?”
“Well, I don’t see how that helps you in any way, Octavia.”
“Any information helps,” Octavia said proudly. Twilight nodded in agreement.
“Enough with the introductions already!” ordered Rainbow Dash. “Where in Equestria are we?”
The voice sighed. “It really saddens me how you young ponies don’t know the classics. Maybe this’ll help.” There was a small clicking sound and fast paced 8-bit battle music began playing from nowhere.
Everyone listened for a few seconds before hopping back at the Pinkie Pie level gasp that was let out by somepony other than Pinkie Pie. Lyra nearly deafened everypony with the screech that she let out afterwards. “I remember now!” she squealed.
Twilight rubbed her ear and gave Lyra an annoyed look. “Do you want to tell us?”
“I remember playing this game as a filly with my mom!” Lyra giggled as she pranced in place. “This is Contra! We’re in the first stage!”
There was a clapping noise and the voice cheered. “There we go! I knew somepony would remember this game.”
Vinyl turned to Lyra and scratched her head in confusion. “I didn’t know your mom played video games.”
“Yeah, my mom was the one who got me into video games. My dad tried to get me into books but it didn’t work,” she chuckled.
“Really, what was your mom’s name?” the voice asked curiously.
“Harpy Heartstrings!” Lyra answered cheerfully.
The voice giggled, equally cheerful. “Oh I haven't seen her in years! How is Harpy?!”
Octavia and Twilight looked at one another in surprise while Lyra continued to make conversation with the voice. “She’s great! She’s living in Fillydelphia right now.”
“After this is over, I need to go over there and catch up. But enough of that, I need to explain the challenge.”
Octavia quickly grabbed Lyra and moved her over to the rest of the group. All of them gathered around her. “Lyra,” Twilight whispered, “do you know this pony?”
Lyra merely smiled. “Nope! I have no idea who my mom’s friends are,” she answered plainly. Everypony either glared at her or face-hoofed in response.
“Anyway. I’ll make this quick,” the voice began. “Since none of you have played Contra, I’ll tell you the basic rules.” Everypony looked up and listened carefully. “This is a 2D action shooting side-scrolling game. Your movements are limited here and you can only shoot in the basic directions. In front of you, diagonally, above, and below. You can move back and forth, but to make progress in the stage you have to move forward. No flight or excessive magic allowed. You have three lives but you only have one hit point per life. If you die, you get sent back to this point in the stage.”
“If we complete the stage, do we win?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“This is a survival challenge. If more than one of you complete this stage then we move on to the next stage. The pony who makes it the furthest by the time they run out of lives wins.”
Twilight nodded in confirmation, “Sounds interesting. How do we proceed?”
“Any way you want,” the voice answered, “You can go randomly, or you can go in a specific order so you can learn from one another.” The voice paused and made the pensive sounds of recollection for a few seconds. “Well, I think that’s everything. Congratulations to Lyra in advance.”
“What? Why?” asked Rainbow. She glared up at the sky then back to Lyra, who was busy hopping in place like Pinkie Pie. “Why are you congratulating her?”
The voice chuckled mischievously, “Just a feeling. Good luck nonetheless! Oh! One more thing! There’s a secret bonus in this challenge that will grant an additional amount of points. Have fun, my little ponies!”
The ponies waited for a while just in case the mare in the sky had anything else to say. They soon turned to see a large platform rise about an inch from the ground. The word START was engraved on it in large glowing green letters. Twilight turned to look at the other ponies, “Alright, so how are we going to do this?”
“Why don’t you go first, Rainbow Dash,” Octavia suggested, “I’m sure that you’d love to show us your skills.”
Rainbow smiled at the compliment and stepped closer to the starting point. Though when she stopped to think about it, she backed up and glared at Octavia, “No way! You just want to watch me go first so you can learn where the traps are!”
Octavia’s calm expression didn’t change. “That’s exactly what I’m trying to do. But if you don’t think you can do it then I’ll just have to ask somepony else.”
Rainbow stomped the ground for emphasis. “I could totally do this entire course in ten seconds flat!” defended Rainbow. “I just don’t want to show you how.”
Octavia shrugged. “Alright then. Would anypony else like to volunteer to go?”
Twilight fidgeted nervously. “I would like to watch somepony go first as well. I mean, we only have three lives.”
Finally, Pinkie and Vinyl stepped forward. “Chill, fillies. We got this!” said Vinyl.
Pinkie got into a low running stance. “Yeah! Watch how it’s done!” Pinkie inched forward onto the starting platform, and a pink gun materialized on a saddle on her back. The number 3 appeared in front of her and began counting down. Once it hit zero, all the enemies simultaneously turned to face her as if they were suddenly aware of her presence.
Instead of bolting forward like she appeared to be ready to do, Pinkie hopped high into the air. Twilight looked on in amazement, thinking that Pinkie had the right idea. The mare said that they couldn’t fly, but nothing prohibited jumping into the air. Pinkie continued to hop over various enemies, not even bothering to defeat them.
Unfortunately, as she made her way across a silver bridge she accidentally landed on top of an enemy. She instantly dematerialized and reappeared back with the group. Two pixel pictures if her face appeared above her, signifying how many lives she had remaining.
Pinkie scuffed her hoof against the ground, “Darn.”
Twilight trotted over to her and put a hoof on her shoulder. “It’s alright Pinkie. That was an amazing first try! Do you want to go again?”
“Nah, it’s my turn now!” Vinyl announced. She was already standing on top of the START platform with the gun on her shoulder. When the counter hit zero, Vinyl reared up on her back legs and burst out onto the stage with her gun blazing.
Vinyl found that all she had to do was look at an enemy for her gun to aim and shoot at them. She also noticed the enemies’ bullets, or whatever was being shot, moved at a far slower speed than actual bullets. This let her dodge and jump over them.
For the first few minutes she was doing fine. There were a few close calls from the turrets shooting at her from below. She had to stop looking where she was going so she could shoot down and destroy them. However, once she stepped hoof on the silver bridge, there was an explosion, and she found herself back with the others.
“Oh, what the hay?!” she yelled, careful not to curse.
Lyra chuckled and moved over to her. “You have to keep jumping when you get to the bridge to get past the explosions.”
Rainbow thrust her face into Lyra’s. “Wait, you knew about that and you didn’t tell us?”
“You never asked,” was Lyra’s response.
Octavia groaned. She glanced over at Sweetie Belle. “Sweetie, dear, could you go ask Lyra to share her information.”
“Why can’t you do it?” she asked.
“I don’t want to get disqualified for attacking a fellow competitor,” Octavia deadpanned.
Sweetie got the message and trotted over to the mint unicorn. “Miss Lyra. Can you please tell us what you know about this stage?”
“Why of course, young filly.” Lyra picked up the filly in her magic and held her up to face the stage. “You see, this stage is easy and there are only a few things you need to remember. Watch.” Lyra put Sweetie down and made her way over to the START platform. “I’ll show you.”
She walked out onto the stage at a fast but leisurely jog. To everypony's amazement, she effortlessly shot down each and every enemy that came towards her while dodging the bullets that they shot. “You need to be aware of everything on the stage. And make sure to shoot every enemy or else they may shoot at you from behind.”
Lyra made her way over to the silver bridges. “Like I said, you have to keep jumping.” She hopped over the first few feet of the bridge just before it exploded. She continued to jump until she made it to the other side unharmed. “If I remember correctly, there are three or four bridges like this one, and some have enemies on them, so make sure you know where you're jumping, Pinkie. You can also jump to a lower ledge on the cliffs.” Lyra hopped down the cliff and ran across a lower legs that allowed her to easily shoot down the turrets.
“Thanks!” cheered Pinkie.
“Amazing!” Twilight whispered.
Lyra continued to make her way through the stage, dodging bullets and shooting enemies, every so often yelling back advice to the group. During one part she explained how, if you’re dealing with an enemy with a gun that fires faster than yours, you can duck or fall to the ground and shoot at them. Eventually, she reached a large metallic-looking wall with several more gun turrets sticking out of it.
“This one is actually pretty easy, “ she yelled back. Jumping up, she reached a ledge that sat near the middle of the wall, “You just have to destroy the guns on the outside.” By this point, Lyra had collected enough power-ups that she had two rapid-fire guns on her back that each shot three bullets at once. She made quick work of the wall’s guns before hopping down to ground level. “Then you just have to shoot this big red eye thing to win before the guns return.”
Most of the ponies back at the start were cheering and offering thanks for the walkthrough. None of them noticed that Lyra had not actually completed the stage yet. While Lyra was standing there bowing and sucking in the praise, the guns reappeared and shot her from behind. She appeared back at the entrance of the stage, surprising everypony.
“Lyra?!” yelled Twilight. “What happened?”
Lyra shrugged, “The guns reappeared. It’s fine, I wanted them to hit me anyway.”
Sweetie Belle gave her a weird look. “Why?”
Lyra scoffed and gestured proudly to herself. “Well I don’t want to be the first one to win.” She looked around excitedly. “So who’s next?”
Rainbow Dash trotted up to the START with a confident look on her face. “I guess I’ll go next since Lyra already showed you guys how to win.”
Octavia rolled her eyes. “And I suppose that you already knew all of that before now. Or were you simply planning on flying through the whole stage.”
Rainbow either ignored Octavia or didn’t hear her as she ran down the pathway at full speed. She figured that if she went fast enough the enemies that she avoided couldn’t catch up to her. Making her way to the silver bridge she skillfully hopped over the entire thing. However once she reached the other side she landed right in front of an enemy who didn’t hesitate in shooting her point blank.
Rainbow reappeared back with the others but before they could say anything she immediately ran back out into the fray.
~~~
After two more failed attempts, Rainbow silently fumed in her spot facing away from the others. After a few more seconds she disappeared altogether. Sighing in frustration, Octavia turned back to the rest of the mares. “Well, now that we’ve had examples of what to do and what not to do, who’s going next?
Sweetie Belle eagerly raised her hoof. “I want to try!”
“Are you sure?” asked Twilight.
“I’m ready!” Sweetie announced confidently.
“I call next after her!” yelled Vinyl also raising a hoof.
Lyra trotted around Sweetie in a circle, carefully examining her. After looking back out into the stage, she turned back with a surprised expression. “Guys... I think she has an advantage.”
“How so?” asked Twilight curiously.
Lyra gestured to Sweetie. “Well look at her, she’s a munchkin.”
“Hey!”
“She’s small enough that she doesn't even have to dodge anything. All of the bullets will fly right over her!”
Twilight looked back at Sweetie, then at the enemies in the distance. “Won’t they just crouch?”
“Nah,” waved Lyra, “These enemies don’t have that kind of advanced A.I. They can’t crouch and they can only shoot in your direction.”
Sweetie Belle’s face lit up in excitement and she quickly ran over to the START area. Gun on her back, the countdown began. “Sweetie Belle!” Sweetie turned back to Lyra. “Don’t forget that also means that you have to kill every enemy in front of you because you probably can’t jump all the way over them. They can’t shoot you, but you can still shoot them.”
Sweetie Belle smiled a determined smile before running out into the stage. Lyra reared back on her hind legs and cheered her on. “Go forth, Sweetie Belle! Go and realize your destiny!”
Octavia rolled her eyes. “Dramatic much?”
Lyra’s advice soon proved to be invaluable as Sweetie Belle seemed to breeze through the stage with incredible ease. Aside from the large wall taking her by surprise and costing her a life, Sweetie made it through without a scratch. As she stepped through into the tunnel behind the boss wall, a thin transparent sheet fell over the entrance and dimmed the available light.
Seeing nothing but darkness before her, Sweetie turned back the way she came, only to find that she couldn’t leave the area. “Girls?!” she screamed as she pounded on the nearly invisible wall. While she could see the girls all the way back at the entrance, she wasn’t sure if they could see her.
She almost began panicking until she finally heard Twilight’s voice. “Sweetie Belle! Can you hear me? Are you alright?”
“I’m in here!” Sweetie yelled, relieved that they could hear her. “What do I do now?”
Afterwards, Vinyl tried her luck at the game once again, only to lose twice more after getting cocky and trying to show off near the end. The first time she forgot about the cliffside gun turrets and the second she neglected to look behind her after jumping over several enemies. Twilight, other than one slip up on the second silver bridge, made it through successfully. Pinkie, after recalculating her hops, easily bounced her way through the stage. Octavia, having opted for the cautious approach, carefully made her way through the stage slowly, stopping every so often. However, she soon found herself swamped with enemies from both above and below as they reappeared before she could move on. Even though she was still cautious on her second try, Octavia learned from her mistake and made sure to keep moving.
Soon enough, Octavia made her way to the wall and, using Lyra’s tactics, blew it wide open to meet the others in the tunnel behind it.
Lyra, however, still stood at the START point. She sniffed and wiped away nonexistent tears. “They grow so fast!”
“Hurry up and get over here!” screamed Octavia.
“You’re the last one, silly!” screamed Pinkie Pie.
Following orders, Lyra ran through the stage with the same level of ease she had the first time. As soon as she stepped into the tunnel, however, the entrance closed behind them completely. Darkness surrounded them momentarily before large white words appeared before them.
P2: DJP3 Game Over
P4: RBD Game Over
Stage 2
Base 1
Begin! 10sec
Lyra waved her hoof to get everypony’s attention. “Get ready everypony. We might be split up during this one so I’ll tell you what’s up right now.”
Six Seconds
“Keep shooting the wall, and don’t try to cross the electric fence.”
Four Seconds
“Pinkie, keep jumping, but don’t jump on the bullets. Sweetie, your size won’t help you here so don’t rely on it.”
Two Seconds.
Sweetie looked around and noticed that everypony began to fizzle out of existence except Sweetie Belle. Lyra must have noticed it too, and began blurting out her information frantically. “Everypony else know when to jump and know when to fall to the ground. And make sure to watch out for the--”
BEGIN!
“Lyra?” Sweetie asked nervously. She turned in circles, only to see that she was completely alone this time. Suddenly a lethal stream of electricity buzzed to life in front of her and the room completely lit up to reveal another metallic wall. This one was red with a glowing blue center. Several pixellated enemies emerged from doors on the side. Sweetie backed up until she hit a wall behind her. “Anypony?” she whimpered.
~~~
“...ground grenades…” Lyra trailed off as everyone faded from view. Turning around, she watched as the game set up the stage. Lyra shrugged and snatched the gun from her shoulder and held it in her hooves. “Ehh, they’ll figure it out. Man, I wish I could see them when they find out about the final boss of this stage.” Falling to the ground, she looked down the sight and opened fire.
~~~
At the sight of all the enemies, Pinkie put a hoof to her muzzle in thought. “Well, Lyra said to keep jumping… but she also said to know when to fall to the ground… I got it!” Pinkie quickly went to work in trying to combine both pieces of advice. The end result included Pinkie hopping into the air, landing, and immediately hitting her stomach to the ground in a crouch while shooting the entire time.
This worked for all of 20 seconds until she accidentally landed on the electric field. After a gruesome shock, she dematerialized and reappeared back behind the electric wall. Pinkie once again put a hoof to her muzzle in thought. “Alright, maybe that wasn’t the best idea…”
~~~
“Ugghhh,” Twilight threw her head up to the sky and groaned as loud as she could. “What’s with all of the walls in this base?!”
Slumping over in annoyance, Twilight looked over the scene in front of her again. After making it through at least 4 identical rooms, she found herself confronted by yet another wall. This one was the largest by far, sporting at least 6 guns and 6 glowing red centers. All of them were shooting various kinds of projectiles. This meant that she either had to take the extra time to destroy the guns or simply dodged them and take out the glowing red centers. Logically, Twilight decided to destroy the guns first. She sighed dejectedly. “At least the pattern is predictable.”
~~~
Lyra chuckled as she looked over her remaining friends. Octavia and Twilight both sat in front of her and both were slumped over gasping for breath. “So… how’d ya do?”
“What does it look like?” huffed Octavia.
“So… much… jumping,” Twilight whimpered. Even with the princess’ promised increase in stamina, all of the rapid and spontaneous movement was beginning to take a toll on their endurance. Lyra simply continued her hushed chuckling and turned back to the large white words hovering in the air.
P1: PP Game Over
P5: SB Game Over
Stage 3
Waterfall
The area lit up and both Twilight’s and Octavia’s eyes shrank from what appeared. Lyra turned and gestured grandly with her hoof. “Then you’ll really hate this part.” An enormously tall waterfall appeared in front of them. Hundreds of rocky ledges and cliffs jutted out from the water to form a sort of puzzle-like pathway up the waterfall. Dozens upon dozens of enemies and gun turrets materialized on various places. “We have to climb this entire thing and reach the top to complete this part of the game. Keep jumping to dodge the bullets, but watch where you jump or you might fall on top of an enemy.”
“I can’t even see the top…” Octavia mumbled.
Twilight turned and yelled up into the sky. “Can I trade places with Pinkie Pie!”
To her surprise, Pinkie Pie actually responded. Her voice, like the gamemaster from before, echoed from the sky. “Sorry, Twilight. I wish I could do this part for you, I really do. But I lost, and the Princess says that I have to watch. Oh! The others are here, too. Say hi!”
There were various noises, and Twilight swore she heard the actual Princess Luna. “Pinkie, stop that! No, Vinyl, hand that over to me this instant.”
“Sup. I’m rooting for you, Tavi! You climb that bit--”
There were more noises, and the sound of something hitting the ground and being picked up. “Twilight!” This time it was Rainbow Dash’s voice. “Don’t let Octavia win! Use your wings! Don’t--”
“Rainbow Dash!” Luna’s voice whispered. It sounded far away. There were sounds of a scuffle and Twilight looked back at the others; they shrugged in response.
Twilight’s face grew even more confused at the sound of Pinkie’s giggling. “Keep-away from the princess!” Her giggling grew distant as Vinyl’s laughter grew louder. “Sweetie Belle catch!”
“Enough!” Twilight heard the telltale of magic, and everything finally grew silent. Lyra, Octavia, and Twilight all shared a glance at the unnerving silence. Soon, Luna’s voice came through once again. “I am not sure how Pinkie Pie found the device to communicate with you, but believe me when I say she wasn’t supposed to. Please continue with the challenge.”
Lyra slumped slightly and poked her bottom lip out in sadness. “Why doesn't anypony root for me?”
Octavia turned to her with a deadpan look. “Lyra, you have the gamemaster rooting for you. Remember?”
Lyra brightened up instantly. “Oh yeah.” She turned back to the waterfall. “Like I was saying, I think we can all do this one together, so make sure that you don’t accidentally jump into each other.”
Twilight and Octavia shared a glance before looking back to Lyra with sheepish looks. “Mind showing us how to do it?” asked Twilight.
“How are you guys on lives?” asked Lyra.
Both ponies held up a single hoof. Chuckling lightly, Lyra leaned back and examined her own hoof in a nonchalantly smug manner. “Well, I died back there too… but I guess I could show you two the way.”
Octavia opened her mouth for a witty retort, but before she could, Lyra immediately turned around, yelled, “Follow Me!” and hopped up to the next rock platform. Startled and unprepared, both mares scrambled after her. Since friendly fire was apparently disabled, all three mares fired continuously as they continued to jump from rock to rock to take out any and every enemy.
“Stop!” ordered Lyra. “Hit the ground.” Landing on a particular rock, four gun turrets turned to face the group. All three mares hit the ground just as they began firing off rounds. “Octavia, Twilight, you two shoot those. I got these. Jumping won’t help here.”
Following her orders, the mares made quick work of the static guns. Just as they exploded, Octavia stood up and prepared to move on. Unfortunately, Lyra wasn’t as fast in destroying her targets. As a result a few final shots were still flying through the air when she stood up.
“Octavia!” screamed Lyra. She leapt to catch Octavia just as she dematerialized. Tearing up, she fell back on her rump.
“Uh, Lyra?”
Lyra slammed her hoof on the ground angrily. “She was so young! It should’ve been me, dammit!”
“Lyra!”
Lyra raised her hooves to the sky and screamed. “It should have been me! Damn you, Contra!” She turned and grabbed Twilight. “It’s you and me now, Twilight. Let’s make these bastards pay!”
Twilight frowned at her. “Lyra, it’s just a game, and didn’t the princess lecture you about language?”
Lyra stared at her blankly. “Oh, yeah. Well, she can’t hear me. She turned off the com device, right?”
“I can still hear you, Lyra Heartstrings!”
“Eep,” Lyra flinched and hopped up to the next rock. Glancing back nervously, she said, “L-let’s keep going!”
Once again, Twilight followed Lyra’s every step and obeyed every command. She ducked when she was told to do so and only got up when Lyra did. Eventually, they made their way to the top of the waterfall, and the darkness lifted, revealing a grotesque-looking machine with blinking red eyes and an alien-like face. Two mechanical tentacles emerged from holes on separate sides of the machine, with each appendage ending in a flame covered wrecking ball.
Twilight, stunned and disgusted beyond belief, nearly fell back off of the cliff. “What in Equestria is that?”
Lyra looked up to it calmly and hummed. “You know… I still don’t know. I should look it up when I get home,” she smirked. “I should probably download this game while I’m at it too. It’s just as awesomely hard as I remember.”
“Hard? If it weren't for you this would be impossible.” Twilight gave her fellow unicorn a small smile. “Thanks for the help, Lyra, but I think this is it for me here.”
Lyra blushed and turned around to hide her face. “Oh.. well gee, thanks I-- Twilight watch out!” Lyra turned her head just in time to see the large mechanical beast shoot a fireball directly towards her friend. Acting quickly, Lyra hopped up and pushed Twilight out of the way, only to be hit by the fire and tossed off of the cliff.
Twilight scrambled to the side of the cliff. “Lyra!”
Lyra waved and yelled back up to her as she fell. “It’s up to you now!” She dematerialized before she fell out of view.
Turning around, Twilight looked up fearfully at the huge machine in front of her. “Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no! What do I do now?” Lost without her guide, Twilight almost began to panic. For a few minutes, it was all she could do to dodge the monster’s attacks.
She hopped to the side and ducked under a fireball. Taking a deep breath she calmed herself. “I should take out the arms first, right?” Finally, she began returning fire and soon enough, the first arm exploded. In retaliation, the beast opened his mechanical mouth and let out torrent of fire at her. Twilight’s first instinct was to use magic but she knew that doing so wouldn’t be an option. Instead, she fell to the ground and rolled all the way to the edge of the stage, just out of the fire’s aim.
Once the fire stopped, she jumped out and opened fire on the other arm until it too exploded. Afterwards, she aimed her gun directly above her at the head of the beast. It opened his mouth once again and spit out another wave of fire, causing Twilight to take cover. After the fire stopped, Twilight took her chance and jumped out to resume her attack, what she didn’t expect was for the head to release a singular fireball aimed directly at her.
Red filled her vision for a few seconds until Twilight opened her eyes to find that she was back in the place where defeated contestants go. “Oh… I guess I died then,” she sighed dejectedly.
Octavia and the others turned away from the screen and finally noticed that she was here. “Aw, Twi, what happened!” Rainbow groaned.
“Yeah, I thought you had that in the bag,” Vinyl added.
Luna shook her head sadly. “‘Tis a shame. If you had only lasted a bit longer you would’ve gained a massive lead over Lyra.”
Twilight cocked her head in confusion. “What? Why? I thought Lyra died. Where is she?”
Luna and the others moved away from the screen and allowed Twilight to take a look.
On screen, Lyra poked her head up from the cliff to check if Twilight was alive. Smirking, she hopped up to the boss and let loose a few final bullets to finish it off. Twilight looked nonplussed at the scene.
“What? How? I saw her fall off the cliff.”
“And she climbed back up after she respawned,” Luna added. “Then she simply waited on a lower level for you to die or succeed.”
Octavia stepped forward. She had on a mean and angry look. “Lyra tricked us. She was only helping us because she knew that she would outlive us anyway! All she wanted to do was laugh at our deaths and have fun at our expense. She just wanted to make the game more fun for her.”
“Well, she is better at the game than us,” Twilight reasoned. “She probably just didn’t want us to die too early. I thought she helped us because she wanted a fair match.”
“She had 30 lives!” Rainbow yelled. “It didn’t matter when we died! She was going to win from the start!”
“She also had extra stamina!” Sweetie added. “That’s why she was never tired from all the running and jumping.”
“Among other various advantages as well,” Luna commented further. She began listing off cheats with a smile. “More power-ups, lower enemy spawns, one hit kill on bosses.”
“What?! How did she do it?” Twilight turned back to the screen to see Lyra standing on top of the ruined and burning machine, laughing her butt off.
“Konami Code, bitches!”
~~~
Lyra found herself sitting on a rather comfortable surface. Looking around, she noticed that she was in some kind of large carriage with plush, fabric-covered chairs. “Where am I?”
“Welcome to the real velvet room.” Even the stallion’s voice sounded creepy and unnatural. Lyra didn’t even think that his lips were moving when he was talking.
Lyra turned and recoiled in horror at the sight of an elderly stallion with extremely wide pinprick eyes, and an even wider smile. Another, creme colored female earth pony that Lyra didn't recognize stood next to him. Several other ponies were also seated around him, all of whom were covered in dark cloaks.
The stallion continued, “Lyra Heartstrings, for your exemplary performance in today’s challenge, we are excited to award you the 6000 points you deserve.”
One of the ponies next to him lifted a black gloved hoof and added, “And for your clever, and might I say, discreet use of the Ponami code, I’m very glad to award you an extra 4000 points.”
“Konami Code,” corrected Lyra.
“No, it’s pronounced Ponami. That’s the name of the company, dear.”
Lyra put a hoof to her chin and glanced upward. “Ohhhh… neat. Well, you can send me back now,” she smiled.
The stallion’s smile dropped. “What? Don't you want the chance to guess who the creator is?”
“Oh, I know who it is. For sure. She pretty much gave me the answer. I just don’t want to reveal it.”
“Why not?” The creme mare asked.
Lyra’s smile grew wider than the stallion’s. “This is the most fun I’ve had in a long time. I want this thing to go on for as long as possible!”
The ponies and the stallion all shared glances before finally turning back to her. The stallion smiled once more and nodded. “Very well, then. We will respect your choice. Farewell.”
Lyra disappeared, and Discord transformed back into his normal self. The creme colored mare dissipated as well. The pony on the far right dropped her hood to reveal the actual Princess Luna. “Well, this was a waste of a location. I was hoping that Octavia would win this one.”
Another pony chuckled. “I told you that she knew the code. Anyway, we can always use this one next time as long as Lyra doesn't win.”
Luna thought on it for a second. “I do not know.” She turned towards where Lyra was sitting opposite of her. “Spirit Shift.”
The wall behind Lyra’s seat dropped to reveal a young blue-coated stallion with a red and blue mane, wearing a black driver’s hat and suit. He was currently harnessed to the front of a carriage. Hearing his name, he turned back to his princess with a smile. “Yes, ma’am. Should I actually start driving now?”
Luna shook her head. “No, thank you. How many locations do we have left?”
Spirit dug around in his glove compartment and pulled out a notepad. “We still have a good amount. Hopefully, we won’t have to repeat any anytime soon.”
Luna smiled. “Thank you, Spirit. You are a great help, as always.”
Spirit smiled and raised the wall back up. Nervously, he looked back down at the two remaining locations on his list. Taking out a pencil, he quickly got back to work struggling to think up new locations.
Lyra, head held high as a result of her recent victory, strutted proudly into her home away from home with equally high spirits. Opening the door, her eyes met the baleful gazes of her fellow competitors. Raising an eyebrow, Lyra looked around and found that some of them were staring at her with varying degrees of displeasure. She could literally feel the tension directed at her. So she did what any sensible unicorn would do, she tried breaking the ice. “So… I had fun… Good game?”
“Good game?” growled Rainbow Dash, flying right into Lyra’s face. “You cheated!”
Rainbow felt herself pulled back by Vinyl who moved over to the unicorn’s side. “Hold on, Skittles. The princess did say that cheating was cool if you knew how.”
Rainbow opened her mouth to retort but Octavia’s sigh cut her off. “I’m not all that mad about her cheating, per se. I’m just upset that she gave us false hope by letting us believe that it was a fair match by helping us. If you really wanted to help us you would've told us the cheat you used.” Octavia gave Lyra an odd look. “In fact, what was the cheat you used?”
Twilight put a hoof to her muzzle and looked up in thought. “I think you said something about a code.”
Lyra’s smile returned and she started hopping in the air. “Up. Up.” Pinkie quickly jumped in to join her. Octavia was about to say something when Lyra stopped hopping and started crouching low. “Down. Down.” Afterwards, she moved from side to side twice. “ Left. Right. Left. Right. Then two buttons appeared on the ground under my hooves. It’s called the Konami… no wait. Ponami Code. I gives me a whole bunch of cool stuff.”
“Fascinating…” Twilight muttered. “Does it work on other games?”
Now it was Lyra’s turn to glance up in thought. “Yeah, a few. But they mostly only work on Ponami games.”
Sweetie Belle stopped reading her book to look up at Lyra from her bed. “What are Ponami games?”
“Games made by the Ponami game developers,” answered Lyra. “But anyway, Rainbow Dash, can you honestly look at me and say that you wouldn’t use a cheat or glitch if you had one?”
“No… well… yes,” Rainbow’s eyes darted left and right nervously. “But I don’t know any cheats!”
Twilight walked to the center of the gathering and looked around the group. “That brings up an interesting question. Most of the games I play don’t have cheats. And even if they did, I don’t see the enjoyment in using them. I also know that Sweetie Belle doesn't know any. So who here knows how to use cheats for games that we might come across.”
Pinkie, Lyra, and Vinyl all raised their hooves.
Twilight raised an interested eyebrow at Pinkie Pie. “Glitching and crashing the game doesn’t count, Pinkie Pie.”
Pinkie put her hoof down dejectedly while Twilight returned her gaze to the two grinning unicorns. “Alright. How many cheats do you two know?”
Vinyl reeled back in offense. “Twilight! I do not believe that you have the right to question us like this,” she joked.
“I don’t think that we have to tell you,” Lyra added. “Come, Vinyl. Let us go where we won't be bullied for information.” Together they lifted their noses into the air and let out identical huffs before making their way out of the house, closing the door behind them.
Angry, Rainbow stomped after them.“‘Bullies’?! You’re the ones who’re cheating!”
“Rainbow wait!” Twilight called, and Rainbow stopped with her hoof at the door. She turned back to Twilight, who had moved toward the Statue of Chaos in the far corner. The Statue of Chaos was a small stone statue of Discord laughing, much like he was in his first imprisonment pose. Discord had left it in place of himself should the group need to reach Luna or himself for any reason. “Let me see if the Princess can help.”
Touching the goat horn caused it to begin glowing blue for a few seconds before projecting a screen on the wall closest to it. Princess Luna appeared on it with her back turned to the screen. It swayed side to side in tune with the tune she was humming. Luna was so engrossed in whatever she was working on that, she didn’t even notice the group. Much less aware that her blue backside was wiggling in the face of an audience.
Blushing slightly, Twilight cleared her throat. “E-excuse me, Princess Luna.”
Luna’s head jerked up in surprise and she snapped her head around. Purple paint dripped from the paintbrush that sat in her mouth. Seeing her ponies looking at her awkwardly, she quickly spit the paintbrush out and scrambled to move what she was working on out of sight. Clearing her own throat she smiled down at Twilight like nothing was wrong.
“Yes, good morning…er afternoon...? Good day, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna finished. Truthfully, she had no idea what time it was since she didn’t have any windows or clocks in her private room. She hadn’t felt the pressing urge to raise the moon yet so she knew that it wasn’t nighttime. “Are you all ready for the next challenge already? I should remind you that it has not been a full day as of yet.”
Twilight shook her head. “No, Princess. It’s not about that. We have a complaint… Well, more of a question on whether the cheats used in the recent match are fair. Most of us don’t know any cheats, much less how to use them inside the game.”
On screen, Luna hummed in thought for a second. “Personally, I have never needed cheat codes. I have used mods before. I have even exploited glitches to gain an advantage. But to modify the very code of the game to ensure an unfair victory seems wrong to me as well, Twilight Sparkle. Such a thing is not very far from hacking.”
Twilight smiled. She knew it, cheating was unfair. “So that means that--”
“However,” Luna continued, causing Twilight’s expression to falter slightly, “the rule that allows cheating to persist is not mine to change, but rather one of my companions. I will have to talk with them to see if we can reach a compromise.”
Twilight frowned and wanted to argue, but she understood that it was out of her hooves at this point. She simply hoped that the princess could do something. “Alright. Thank you.” With that, the screen disappeared altogether. Twilight turned back to the others and sighed. “Well, there you go.”
Rainbow groaned and took to the air. “She’s the head GM right? Why can’t she just order the rule to change herself?”
Octavia sighed and massaged the bridge of her muzzle with a hoof. “Would you want a gamemaster who exploits her position to change rules on the fly? Or one who would rather ask your opinion and be fair about it, Rainbow Dash. Think carefully, it’s not that hard of a question.”
Sweetie hopped back onto her bed so that she was eye level with the others. She glanced at her hooves with a thoughtful expression. “Was it really okay for us to report them? Technically, they didn’t do anything wrong.”
Twilight was about to answer but stopped to think about the meaning of Sweetie’s question. Cheating was allowed in the rules, so should she really be upset about it?
While Twilight pondered the ethical conundrum, Rainbow fell to the ground and stepped up to answer the filly’s question. “Of course it was! When they use their cheat codes, they gain a huge advantage over the rest of us. We just saw it happen.”
Pinkie hopped and sat a hoof around Rainbow’s shoulder. “But, Dashie, isn’t it also true that Lyra already had an advantage since she already knew her way through the game?”
“Pinkie does have a point,” said Octavia. “I had an extraordinary advantage in the first challenge because of my knowledge of the character’s move sets and weaknesses. If we come across a trivia game, I’m willing to bet that Twilight will have an advantage. In fact, Princess Luna pointed out our specialties at the beginning. We all have an advantage at something.”
“But Lyra’s specialty is everything,” Sweetie argued. She turned toward Twilight and pointed at her cutie mark. “It’s like you having the special talent of magic. You could already do any kind of magic because it’s nothing specific.”
Rainbow instantly hopped on that train of thought as she jutted a hoof in Sweetie’s direction. “Then it makes even less sense for her to cheat! If she already knows how to play most of the games we play before we do, why does she need to cheat?”
“It’s called stocking your assets, Rainbow Dash,” rebutted Octavia. “Take what advantages you have and use them. It’s the same as in reality. Ponies you know, connections you’ve made, talents you have. You make use of all of these things to get ahead in life. Plus, friends or not, you have to remember that this is a competition, first and foremost.”
Rainbow groaned and rubbed the top of her head in frustration before turning to Octavia. “Will you pick a side? Why are you defending her?”
Octavia’s brow furrowed as she glared at Rainbow. “I’m not defending her.” She calmed slightly but continued her glare. “I’m simply stating the facts. Plus, if I were to defend her, I’d say that I don’t even believe that Lyra was doing that anyway. She probably did it just because she could. She’s stupid like that. Vinyl too.” Octavia’s glare softened and dropped to her hooves. “And they can be stupid together for all I care,” she muttered.
Twilight nodded. “I understand what you’re saying, Octavia. But I’m still not sure that I’m comfortable with them being able to break the game rules whenever they want, even if it’s fair by competition rules.” Twilight gave a long weary sigh. “I don’t know. Let’s just wait until tomorrow for the Princess’ ruling.”
There was a general group murmur of agreement. The group dispersed and went back to their own activities. Sweetie Belle went back to her book, staying inside the house for once. Pinkie and Rainbow Dash sat back in front of the television. Twilight joined Sweetie in her reading. Octavia glanced back towards the door before heading towards her bed, simply deciding to sleep her way into tomorrow.
~~~
“Welcome, ponies! Back to the--”
“Don’t you say it!”
Luna stopped her grand gesture and leveled a death glare at Octavia, who responded with a look of her own. Twilight looked between them nervously and backed away. Finally, Luna muttered, “I really hope you win this round.” Loudly, however, she continued. “Welcome back to the Hub, as I have now decided to address this room.”
Lyra recoiled in horror and nearly began crying. She was quickly comforted by Pinkie, who held her closely while gently rubbing her back. Pinkie glared at Luna who looked on in confusion. “Too soon,” Lyra sniffed.
Still confused at the scene in front of her, Princess Luna decided to move on. “Alright… Twilight Sparkle, I have talked with my compatriot, and we have come to an agreement on the use of cheat codes and game glitches.”
Lyra stopped acting and turned towards Twilight with a look of genuine surprise and betrayal. “You… reported me?”
“Not cool,” Vinyl added. She looked over at Twilight; her shades made her expression unreadable, but her tone showed that she was less than alright with her decision.
Luna continued before Twilight could respond. “Do not fight, my ponies. This issue was one that needed to be addressed and, after a lengthy discussion, we have come to a compromise that we believe benefits all parties. It has been determined that fairness was the main issue. In that sense, a countermeasure was devised. Two, if you will.
“One countermeasure is the new rule that, if you use any sort of cheat to win a challenge and you do not inform the others of the cheat, you suffer a point deduction from your winnings, if you should win. If you do inform the others, and they use the same cheat but you still win, you suffer a lesser deduction. However, that second part only applies to glitches and secret pathways. Cheats like the… Ponami Code will suffer the same deduction either way.
“The second rule states that cheat codes can now be undone. For instance, say that Twilight knew about the code, and she knew that Lyra had been under its effects, she could also use the code and remove its effects from Lyra in the middle of the match. This encourages you to watch your opponents for any strange movements. In addition, if you are willing to also take a point deduction from your current total points, you are able to talk to Discord before a challenge and receive a possible cheat or glitch that you may use.”
“So we can use our points as currency?” asked Octavia.
Luna nodded. “It is something that I wanted to bring into play later. Over time, more things can be bought with points. This is the first. But be warned; the more helpful the cheat, the more costly it will be. This goes for those who are deducting it from the points they intend to win and those who are deducting it from their current total.”
“Hold on a second!” Rainbow yelled, trying to wrap her head around this influx of info. “It still sounds like the ones who don’t cheat still get gypped. If we cheat, we lose the points we have. If they cheat, they lose from points they don’t have yet. What’s the big deal? Why can’t we ban it altogether?”
Luna nodded sadly. “I agree, and I brought up similar arguments. Their response was this. ‘Being able to use cheats effectively is part of being a good gamer. Being able to overcome them is another part.’ They even used me as an example. They said that I never use cheat codes and that I’m an incredible player. I could not argue because I have defeated those who cheat by knowing the game better than them. Unless they have infinite health, it is possible for me to defeat them or work around them. They also brought up the argument that the act of getting rid of using cheat codes entirely would in fact be unfair.”
“How would it be unfair?” asked Octavia.
Luna pointed a hoof at Rainbow Dash and her group. “It would require changing the original rules to help you all.” She then moved her hoof over to Lyra and Vinyl. “This is unfair to them because they have not broken any in the first place. Unless it was explicitly stated that they cannot cheat, it is legal. In the end, we simply made it possible for the rest of you to gain equal ground.”
Luna lowered her hoof and turned back to Rainbow Dash. “The decision that you questioned was made because of something Octavia said. Lyra and Vinyl knew their codes before-hoof. They are assets that they came into the game with. You all, however, need to acquire them by artificial means after the fact. This is why. I am sorry, but this is the only way that everything ends on fair terms.”
Twilight nodded. “So, to sum everything up, those who use cheats deduct their points from what they win, but they have the option to tell us what they’re doing. We, on the other hoof, pay from our current point total, and have the choice to counter theirs. All of these cost the same, right?”
Luna nodded. “Indeed. The costs do not differ between where the points are deducted from.”
“Understood.” Twilight turned to the others and gave them a hopeful smile. “So, what do you all think?”
Octavia spoke first. “I think that Princess Luna did all that she could, and for that I’m grateful. Things do seem fairer now.”
Next was Sweetie Belle, who raised her hoof for attention. “I’m alright with it.”
Pinkie remained cheerfully hyper. “Okie dokie lokie!”
Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs in opposition. “I guess it’s fine then. I can tell that a lot of egghead thinking went into this.”
Twilight nodded and finally turned to the two unicorns giving them an apologetic look. “I’m sorry for reporting you two. I--”
Lyra waved her off with a smile. “Nah, it’s fine. I just wanted to do it cuz I could. But now I that I have the green light, you can believe that I’m gonna cheat at everything!” Lyra announced, throwing her hooves in the air.
Vinyl, however, shrugged. “I donno. I usually do it to make others mad. But I guess if nopony’s gonna crank about it, kinda sucks the fun out of it, ya’ know.” She glanced at Rainbow Dash and grinned. “But I’m game!”
Princess Luna clapped her hooves in glee. “Excellent! Well then, let us carry on with the challenge.” Her horn lit up in her signature dark blue aura. “I shall let today’s gamemaster explain.”
~~~
Rubbing their eyes, everypony struggled to clear the spots from their vision. Spontaneous teleportation was never easy to get through. As per routine, they got to work checking out their surroundings. It was a race track filled with colorful oddities. Large mushrooms roamed the tracks. Several parts of the track steered in ways that seemed to want the drivers to defy gravity. Large monochromatic boxes with question marks sat in straight rows in several specific spots. Scattered in random spots all around the track, however, sat dozens of large golden bits.
Although there was a large arcing sign in front of them, nopony present even needed to read it to know where they were. While everypony instantly recognized the area, Rainbow Dash was the first to hop into the air and cheer.
“Awww yeah! It’s my time now!” Rainbow did a few loops in the air before falling to the ground and giving Octavia a mocking smirk. “You’re going down!”
Deadpanning at first, Octavia smiled and responded, “Alright, then. But I’ll be taking you with me. It’s dangerous to be in first place throughout the entire game, you know.”
“Pfft,” she scoffed. “I’ll be so far ahead that your shells won’t even reach me!”
Vinyl hopped in and joined the ribbing, “Doesn't matter where you are, dude. Lightning will still strike your asses.”
Over by Twilight and the others, Lyra and Pinkie Pie were hopping in similar excited pattern. “Oh my Celestia, I’ve always wanted to play this game!” said Lyra.
Pinkie gasped. “Really? When we leave you should totally join us. I always gather up my friends to play on weekends! Game Night!”
Meanwhile, Twilight was rubbing her temple in frustration. Even now, she couldn’t bring herself to tell Pinkie that racing games were her least favorite kind. Especially games as competitive as this one was. She already began to resign herself to her usual spot in last place.
Sweetie Belle looked around in confusion, even more so when she found that she was the only one doing so. “I don’t get it, where are we?”
Everypony simultaneously turned and stared at Sweetie with identical expressions of surprise. Sweetie shrank back at the sudden attention. “What?”
Pinkie quickly leapt forward and picked up Sweetie Belle to look her in the eye. “Are you telling me that you’ve never played this game before, Sweetie Belle?” When Sweetie shook her head, Pinkie’s eyes widened further and her voice began to sound squeaky and strained. “Have you at least played Mario Party?” Sweetie shook her head and fell to the ground. Pinkie stumbled back before fainting entirely.
Vinyl chuckled awkwardly and stepped closer. “Hey, come on. Stop joking with us. You’ve at least heard of the Mario Kart games before… right?”
Sweetie thought about it. “I think that I’ve seen the commercial for it before. Maybe.” There was a beat of silence as everypony simply stared at the filly.
Slowly, Lyra walked over until she stood over the foal with an unreadable expression. She leaned down until she was eye level. After a few seconds she smiled, “Then you need to kill yours--*SLAM* Lyra’s face found itself driven into the ground before she could complete her sentence.
“Lyra!” Octavia reprimanded. “Don’t you ever say that to a foal!” Lyra struggled to nod under Octavia’s hoof. Octavia continued to glare at her for a few seconds before turning to Sweetie with a kind smile. The small filly had instinctively curled into a ball from Lyra’s outburst. Octavia pushed Lyra out of the way and leaned down in her spot. “Sweetie, it’s alright. Lyra’s an idiot, don’t listen to her,” she said in the gentlest voice she could.
“I-is it really that bad that I don’t know about Mareo Kart?” stammered Sweetie.
“It’s Mario,” corrected Octavia. “And no. We were just surprised, that’s all. Mario Kart games are some of the most widely recognized Mario games in the world. I thought that everypony knew of them. Not to mention it was the very first level of this competition.”
Dash flew over and sat a leg over Twilight’s shoulder. “Yeah. I mean, even this egghead knows who Mario is.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “All I know is that he’s some kind of mushroom-eating plumber pony that likes to jump.”
Over on the ground, Lyra raised a hoof. Her words were pained and whispered, “He’s also got a kickass mustache.”
Sweetie stood back up with a sad expression. “Oh… I’m sorry. I mean, I know about the one in the tutorial. I just didn't know it was also a racing game.”
“No. No,” Octavia urged, bringing Sweetie in for a hug. Don’t apologize. This is a good thing. Now we can all show you how fun these games are!”
~~~
“Hello, and welcome to the official stream of Mario Kart 8!” Princess Luna announced into her microphone. Looking toward the audience, she sat in a large dark blue booth that hovered above the track. “I am Princess Luna, and I will be your announcer and commentator for today’s race. Next to me, for the play by play recap is my faithful assistant and secretary, Mr. Spirit Shift. How are you doing this fine morning?”
Next to Luna sat a young azure blue pegasus stallion with light red eyes and blue mane. He wore black goggles on his forehead and his cutie mark consisted of three question marks that shared the same point. Spirit turned to face the princess with an excited smile. “I’m doing great! Thanks. Finally managed to get to sleep like I asked, I see,” he snarked.
Luna gestured to herself with a proud hoof. “Spirit, I am the Princess of the Night. It is my sworn duty to protect our ponies during otherwise normal sleeping hours.”
“Do those duties include staying up 24 hours to design and create custom carts for each of your contestants?”
“Do not sass your Princess!” Luna yelled, blushing slightly.
Spirit chuckled and turned towards the start of the track. “Speaking of which, it seems that our racers are checking out what you made for them. Guys, how do you like your carts?” he yelled.
There was a chorus of cheers and thank yous for Luna, who in return blushed even harder at the praise. Spirit nodded in satisfaction. “Let’s see. For fellow Princess, Twilight Sparkle, we have a lavender-colored Badwagon decked out with custom cutie mark decals and coupled with off-road tires and a rainbow-colored parachute.” Spirit turned to Luna with a sly smirk. “You don’t expect her to stay on the track, do you Princess?”
“Well, from what I have gathered, Twilight Sparkle isn’t very proficient in these types of games. I hope that the off-track wheels and traction will assist her somewhat.”
Twilight yelled up to the two commentators. “Thank you, Princess Luna. I love it!”
“Alright then!” continued Spirit. “For Element of Laughter, Pinkie Pie we have the kitty cruiser.” He chuckled. “Or should I call it the gummy cruiser. Looks like Princess Luna artistically took the normally pink, cat-styled, cart and recolored it green with the idea of Pinkie’s pet crocodile in mind. With three balloons as its parachute, it’s clear that this cart was clearly made just for Pinkie.”
Even from the height that Spirit and the Princess were at, they still had to cover their ears from Pinkie screams of delight. Luna chucked herself as the screaming finally died down. “Indeed. I hoped that she would enjoy it. For young Rainbow Dash, I choose the streamlined sports bike with rainbow-colored fire decals. I will admit that hers took the most time to get just right. But it was also the one I had the most fun painting.”
“Awwwww yeah!” Rainbow cheered. “Now this is the cart for me! It’s easily 20-- no! 40% cooler than the rest of these carts.”
Spirit rolled his eyes playfully and glanced over to the gray pony who made the same expression, though in a less playful fashion. “It looks like Octavia thinks otherwise. For her, we have a stone grey Circuit Special cart coupled with slick black wheels and a flat, dark pink glider. Obviously, it was made with the idea of preferring practicality and speed over appearance.”
“Exactly,” nodded Luna. “After examining Octavia’s style, I have determined that she would not be one to fret over what her cart looks like, but rather how it drives. In that sense I have selected all different parts with good stats.” Down on the field Octavia examined her cart and nodded in satisfaction.
Luna pointed down to Lyra. “It seems that our resident cheater has found her cart. For Lyra Heartstrings, I had a slightly difficult time in selecting a suitable vehicle. In the end, I selected the cart that most represented her as a pony. I picked the standard ATV and recolored it mint green to match her coat, as well as added lyre decals on the sides. I also set it so that all of her stats are averaged out so that it matches her specialty. I am sorry if it does not meet your expectations.”
Lyra turned around and saluted. “Ma’am, no ma’am! This filly loves her cart, ma’am!”
Spirit returned the salute with equal enthusiasm. “Excellent! At ease, racer. Prepare your cart!” Lyra nodded and turned back to what she was doing. “Vinyl Scratch I suspect was pretty easy. A white-and-blue flame rider with big wheel tires. Nice!”
Down below, Vinyl was already on her motorcycle, revving the engine with a huge grin on her face. Somehow, she had traded in her usual purple-tinted shades for swagalicious goggles of the same color.
Luna nodded. “It was the only clear choice. Now, for young Sweetie Belle, I attempted to choose a cart that would compensate for her lack of experience. Therefore, I focused on handling and traction in hopes that she would pass others who spin out rather than by sheer speed. In that sense I choose the rather peculiar combination of the Mr. Scooty bike and cushion tires. While not the fastest cart there it is, she’ll easily be able to pass those who accidentally go off-road.
Sweetie circled her small bike, staring at each and every part with wide eyes of foalish wonder. “It’s so cute! I love it!”
Spirit chuckled warmly and glanced down at the chart in front of him. “And finally we have our NPCs. That’s ‘non-player characters’, for you non-gamers out there. In addition to our seven pony racers, we have 5 other racers.”
“Hold on, Spirit,” interjected Luna. “Technically, we only have four other NPC racers.”
Spirit turned a confused look Luna’s way. “What? Is there somepony else?” Gasping loudly, his confused look became one of foalish excitement and glee. “Is it me? Please, please say that it’s me?”
Luna chuckled and rubbed the top of the stallion’s head playfully. “Do not be silly, I need you up here with me. No. Today we have a guest racer who has assisted me in the recreation of this game. He should be number 12 on your list.”
Pouting, Spirit reluctantly looked back down to his list of racers. “MLZFan2130? I guess he’s using a username?”
“Of course,” answered Luna. She turned and looked back down to the track. By this point, most of the racers had begun lining up the starting line in typical racing fashion. Those closest to the inner curve of the track sat further back, while those closer to the outer curve sat closer to the start. Since there were twelve racers, they were arranged in two rows of six, with all of the pony racers aside from Lyra sitting in the front row.
Since she cheated in the last round, Lyra volunteered to sit in the second row after promising not to cheat in this race.
Next to her sat a blue-green pegasus with a light green-and-red mane. Unlike the contestants, he was able to choose his own cart and decided to go with a bike similar to Rainbow Dash’s, but with an entirely green coloration and the words MLZFan2130 blazed across the side.
Other racers in the second row included classic Mario characters such as Luigi, the tall light green earth stallion in the green hat, Princess Peach, the small peach colored alicorn, Toad, the small mushroom-headed colt, and Mario himself, the pudgy red stallion with the red hat.
Revving her engines, Rainbow Dash gave Octavia a cocky look through her helmet. “Are you ready to taste my dust, Tavi?”
Octavia glared back at her through her own helmet. “Don’t call me Tavi, and I certainly won’t be inclined to taste anything of yours, Rainbow Dash.”
Lyra yelled at them from behind. “Don’t think I’m outta the game just because I’m back here! I’ll still lick both of your asses!”
“Whatever!” yelled Vinyl. “All three of you are going down! Whooooo! Live to ride!” Vinyl revved her engine repeatedly. “Let me know what the inside of my tailpipe looks like!”
“Well, technically, we’ll be going left first,” Twilight corrected, Then by the looks of it, there’s a straightaway and…” she trailed off when she turned to find everypony looking at her funny. “What?”
Pinkie giggled from her spot, closest to the inner curve. “I think what she means is...” Pinkie growled fiercely, somehow bearing sharp teeth in the process, “BRING IT ON!”
Sweetie Belle looked around nervously. “Um, yeah!”
“Excellent!” Luna cheered. “It seems that our racers are all getting ‘revved up’, as it were. Now, before we begin, Spirit, would you like to explain the rules?”
Still slightly upset about not being in the race himself, Spirit turned sluggishly towards the camera and put on a small smile. Even if he wasn’t down on the track like he would’ve preferred, he still loved being able to have a position of importance. “Sure. Anyway, as some of you know, with 12 racers this is the Grand Prix. In Grand Prix mode, twelve players compete for first place in cups of four-to-five races. However, we've decided to only hold one of them and award the first three places.” Spirit raised an eyebrow at something on his sheet, and turned to Luna. “Um, Princess, what if MLZFan wins? He’s not an NPC, but he’s not a player either.”
“An excellent question, my faithful assistant. You see, if MLZFan were to win, he would be removing a spot on the podium. What I mean is that there are three sets of points to be given as awards in this challenge. First place receives 7000 points. Second place will receive 5000 and third place will receive 3000. However, if MLZFan were to take a spot, this would mean that one of our players will not, thus the points will be lost. Do you understand?”
Spirit nodded. “Oh. I get it. I guess we shouldn't let him take first place, then.”
“Exactly.” Luna turned back down to her players. “Now before we begin, are there any questions?”
“I have one, dear Lulu.”
Spirit and Luna turned to see that a third seat had appeared next to them, complete with microphone and Draconequus. “Surely you didn’t expect me to sit this one out,” he whimpered, hurt.
Spirit inched closer to the Princess and leaned in to whisper in her ear. “I thought you had him distracted.”
Luna leaned back with a near-panicked expression. “I did! I even set off several pranks on Celestia to keep his attention.”
“Excuse me, you two! I do have ears!” Discord picked up the ears that he had slid over to their side. Sticking them back on, he turned and gestured to the entire course with supreme excitement and glee. “And please, I can smell the chaos of competition anywhere. And a race, no less. Why, the amount of sheer competitive disarray in the starting moments would be enough to fracture my stone prison!” Discord took a deep breath. “Yes, I do think that I’ll be staying, thank you very much.”
Luna glared at him for a time before responding. “Alright then. But promise me that you will not tamper with the course or interrupt the race in any way, shape, or form.”
Discord poofed on a sash with an array of badges. “Scout’s honor!”
“Make him Pinkie Promise!” All three beings turned around to see Pinkie glaring up at them from her spot on the track. “Do it!”
Spirit shrugged and turned back to Discord. “You heard her. At least then we could trust you.”
“Oh, poo.” Discord slumped forward and tossed off his sash as he did the motions halfheartedly. “I was never an honest scout anyway,” he muttered, “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye or whatever.” He ended with an actual cupcake that he stuck in his mouth of an eye.
“Great!” Spirit nodded, “Now I think that our viewers and racers have waited long enough! Princess, would you like to do the honors?”
“Gladly!” Luna stood up tall and cleared her throat. “I hereby announce the start of the first of four glorious races. All racers, prepare yourselves!” As she spoke, she held up a black-and-white checkered flag in her magic. Discord snapped his talon, and the flag turned a bright shade of red.
Vinyl adjusted her glasses and revved her engine. Twilight sat her book on competitive racing strategies down and gripped her steering wheel. Octavia stared straight ahead with laser-like vision. Sweetie looked around nervously and shrank into her seat.
“Get set!” The flag changed into a bright shade of yellow.
Rainbow grinned and pulled out her signature black shades and stuck them over her helmet. Realizing she was now virtually blind, she frowned and removed them. Pinkie grinned and pressed the horn a few times; instead of a horn, two small cupcakes popped out of the front of her vehicle and flew into Pinkie’s mouth. Lyra, meanwhile, imagined herself using a keyblade and hoped that somepony had thought up a Kingdom Hearts challenge. Sucks for her, because they haven’t.
Down on the track during the last few seconds of the countdown, Lyra turned to Vinyl and smirked. “Hey, Vinyl, if I win this race, you have to move in with me!” she said quickly.
Vinyl scoffed. “As if! You’re on!”
Octavia’s eyes widened in shock. “What?!”
“Go!”
At the final count, Rainbow blitzed out of the starting line. Luna, a large grin plastered on her face, tracked the racers with her eyes and eagerly commenced the play-by-play. “And the racers are off! As expected, Rainbow Dash and Lyra have boosted their ways into first and second place using the speed bonus granted at the start of the race.”
Octavia, falling into fourth behind Vinyl, growled, “Ugh! I never could figure out that stupid opening speed bonus.” Slamming on the brake, Octavia drifted past the Mareo Stadium’s signature first turn. To her annoyance, Octavia barely missed one of the clear floating weapon cubes.
There was a brief static before Vinyl’s voice came out of Octavia’s dashboard. “It’s all in the timing, Octy. Allll in the timing.”
Over in Vinyl’s kart, Octavia’s voice came out of a small speaker in the same way. “Wh— how are you talking to me?”
Even though she had known Octavia couldn’t see her, Vinyl shrugged. “There’s a com in all of the Karts, I guess,” she answered.
Currently, Vinyl herself was trailing directly behind Lyra, debating on whether or not to use her new weapon.
At that moment, another voice chimed in. Vinyl recognized the squeaky nervous tone. “Umm… hello? I-uh, ran into this thing and now I have… I think it’s some sort of turtle shell? What do I do with it?” asked Sweetie Belle from second to last place.
Twilight began to answer, but Vinyl piped up first. “It’s a weapon. You gotta take out the ponies in front of you with it. Like this!” Slamming on the button in front of her, Vinyl shot a green shell out directly from the front of her kart.
Fortunately, Lyra swerved just in time to dodge the shell. Unfortunately, Rainbow Dash, who was right in front of her, was directly in its path.
Spirit hissed with a cringe as he listened to Rainbow’s faint cursing, followed by Vinyl’s loud laughter. “Looks like things are really kicking off.” His nervous grin turned into one of confusion. “Princess, did you intentionally give them ways to talk to one another.”
Princess Luna also had on a confused look. “No, I do not think so.” She glanced over at Discord, who was innocently waving around a foam finger that read ‘MLZFan FTW’.
“Though, I suppose it all works out,” she frowned. “It had slipped my mind that Sweetie may need some assistance on the game’s mechanics. Hopefully, Twilight or Octavia can assist Sweetie Belle if she requires more instruction.”
Sweetie Belle, surprisingly not in last place, carefully turned the third corner and passed by a blue strip. She let out a small yelp as she found her kart beginning to defy gravity by going up the side of the wall. She closed her eyes and braced herself for a fall, thinking she’d messed up somehow.
She felt something bump the side of her kart. She opened her eyes to see that she was now driving her kart up against the fence of the sideways wall. Once she realized that she was really riding sideways down the track, excitement filled her body and she sped up slightly.
Speeding down the raceway, Sweetie Belle noticed one of the bright golden coins coming towards her. Unsure of what they were, Sweetie spoke into the com link. “Girls, what are the coins for?” she asked, swerving past the gold coin out of caution.
After a second, Octavia responded from the speaker.
“Those are boost coins I believe. They’re used for—” Sweetie flinched when there was a sudden crashing noise. She could make out somepony laughing and Octavia’s rage filled screams. “Damn it, Rainbow Dash!” There was an explosion and the radio went dead. The chaos only served to return Sweetie to her previous nervous state.
Thankfully, after a few seconds of silence, Twilight’s voice came out of the speaker. She sounded nervous herself. “Sorry… I think Octavia’s a bit busy. I’ll help you. From my understanding, you need to collect ten coins. After you collect the first ten every coin afterwards gives you a speed boost. But if you get hit with a weapon you lose coins. Understand?”
Sweetie Belle smiled reassuringly. Seeing one come around, Sweetie turned the wheel and picked it up. There was a tingly feeling, and on the edge of her dashboard the coin counter went up to one. “I got it! I got it!” she cheered. “Thanks, Twilight.”
Twilight’s chuckling came through her speaker. “Any time. Remember, slow and steady wins the ra—”
*Static!*
Rainbow Dash’s laughter filled Sweetie’s speaker. The sudden loud noise caused her to flinch back some. “Forget that!” said Rainbow. “Go as fast as you can and get as many weapons as possibl— OH CRAP!” There was slight crackle before the link went dead completely.
*Static!*
This time it was Octavia laughing. “Sweetie Belle, small nick of advice, watch the road and get ready for sudden turns if they come up. To drift just hold down the brake at the same time as the accelerator while turning the corner. If you do it right then you should get a speed boost. Please do not drift off the edge like somepony did just now.”
*Static*
Lyra scoffed. “Oh sure just tell her all the tricks to the game why don’t you! Even if you do, she won’t win. I’m surprised she’s not in dead last right now. Seriously, who could be worse than her?”
Sweetie Belle frowned at Lyra’s tone. Frustrated, she shut off her com. Taking a deep breath, Sweetie summoned her confidence, pressed down on the accelerator, and took off after the pony in front of her, weapon at the ready.
“Ohh,” gasped Spirit, continuing his commentary. “It looks like little Sweetie has taken offense to that remark and is off after her! With her currently in seventh and Lyra in third behind Octavia and Vinyl, Sweetie’ll have to pull off some clever tricks to get her back.” He chuckled. “I’m glad that we at least have a few players who know the word ‘sportsmanship’.”
Luna nodded. “Indeed. Though I wish Lyra wouldn’t taunt Sweetie like that. It is bad for her morale”
“Pfft!” Both ponies turned to see Discord smirking. His MLZFan foam finger now read as “Lyra Best Pony FTW” “Personally, I love it when there’s some good smack talk between contestants, it builds a good chaotic rivalry.” He pointed the foam finger down at the track. “Look how determined little Sweetie is now. And look down at Lyra’s smirk. She knew what she was doing, the little troll.”
Spirit rubbed his chin with a hoof. “I suppose you have a point there. I wouldn’t know, I play mostly single player games,” he grinned sheepishly and turned to the Princess. “So who do you think will win, Princess?”
Luna shook her head. “It wouldn’t be right for a Princess to show favoritism. Not to mention I am today’s gamemaster,” she said proudly.
Spirit gave her a surprised look. “I didn’t know you liked racing games.”
Luna smiled back at him. “Oh yes I—”
Both of them were interrupted by a loud gasp from the draconequus next to them.“It looks like Octavia and Vinyl have passed the first checkmark— Ohhh and there’s MLZ Fan letting loose with the inkblot,” he yelled dramatically.
With a swoon, he pointed down at the field. “Ooop, and there goes Twily spinning off track once again as blindness spreads across the board. Chaos and spins outs everywhere! Oh dear me, she released the plant! The plant takes out Vinyl and Vinyl slams into Octavia.”
Discord somehow swooned with even more drama than before; he practically bent half of his body over the edge of the booth. “And the four pony pileup builds ever further on the turn. Oh the pomanity, oh the chaos, oh the splendor of it all! This reporter for one shields his eyes from the carnage! Oh how could this have all happened?!”
Discord ginned and turned back to see Luna and Spirit staring at him with bemused looks. “What? Somepony has to do it while you two blather on.”
Down on the track, Lyra wailed as the black ink slammed into her eyes. Instantly, the mare released her grip on the wheel in an attempt to get the ink out of her face. “Ahhhh jizz! There’s jizz in my eyes!” she screamed. As expected her kart spun out and slammed into a wall.
Twilight faired similarly except that she also accidentally released the weapon that she had been holding onto. With a puff of smoke, a large red and white polka dotted piranha plant jutted out the front of her Kart. Without hesitation, it ferociously began snapping at anything that came too close.
Vinyl and Octavia, whom had both been controlling their karts fairly well while inked, fell prey to Twilight, whom had been slowly sneaking up on the two rivals. Her plant snapped its jaws on the both of them, causing all three of them to spin out off of the track.
“Hah!” Rainbow cheered, passing the three of them. “Newbs!”
Luna resumed her play by play. “I appears that, thanks to Rainbow Dash’s extensive experience in playing this game, she has learned how to drive while inked. Now all she will have to worry about is Pinkie who is quickly gaining on her and Sweetie who’s right behind her.”
Rainbow’s flinched in surprise. “Wait what!” Taking a glance back she noticed that Pinkie was, in fact quickly gaining on her. The two raced fervently down the straightaway.
Spirit took over. “That’s right. Pinkie, whom had been in last place the entire round. Though, it wasn't because of her lack of skill, but rather her having too much fun honking her own horn,” he snarked.
He glanced over at Luna who shrugged sheepishly. “I figured she would enjoy the song horn. I never imagined that she would spend the first five minutes of the race playing it on repeat.”
Spirit gave Luna a flat look. “Aaaannnyyhow I’m surprised she caught up so fast. What kind of weapons has she been getting this whole round.
Discord scoffed. “Some play-by-play you two provide,” he muttered.
A few minutes ago
Pinkie drifted around the corner and up the side of the road. Right as she ended her drift, she ran into one of the prismatic weapon cubes. She was instantly surrounded by three spinning red turtle shells. “Oohhh,” Pinkie gasped. Without hesitation she slammed on the button three times,
With each press of the button a shell shot out. All three zoomed forward, relentlessly tracking their targets. The first eventually slammed against the kart of the small mushroom-headed colt. The second zoomed past him and slammed against Princess Peach, whom had been racing in front of him. With her down the last one slammed unfortunately zoomed off of the stage and into the abyss before it could catch his its target. Undaunted, Pinkie easily passed into 10th place.
After attaining her new spot, Pinkie almost immediately picked up another weapon, this time it was a Boomerang Flower. With bombastic excitement she slammed the button once more, sending the white ‘rang hurdling forward. Luckily, she had caught up with Mario and Luigi, who, at the moment, were too busy distracted by their own silent brotherly rivalry. As such the boomerang slammed into both of them, allowing Pinkie to join her fellow players in the top 8.
When the ink blot came around, Pinkie mearly reached up with her tongue and scooped up the ink like it was chocolate. Unblinded, she easily drifted past turns and passed those who had spun out. As she drove she instantly released any weapon she picked up, target in sight or not. All the while she was cheering and whooping in a crazy rush of excitement.
It wasn't long before she met up with Sweetie in sixth and MLZFan in fifth. With a well timed shove, Pinkie pushed MLZFan out onto the grass and thus, slowing him down.
Sweetie nervously glanced over at Pinkie, waiting for her to attack her next. However, Pinkie simply lifted up her goggles and gave Sweetie a wink before picking up a coin and boosting on ahead.
With both of them passing the just-now recovering quartet of inked ponies, the two gained on Rainbow Dash.
With 6 other racers right on her tail, Rainbow began serpentining from side to side in order to make herself less of a target. “Get away from me Pinkie!” she yelled, not even bothering to use the com link.
“But Dashie you love races!” Pinkie yelled back, closing the distance ever more.
Rainbow Dash swerved down the turn, desperately aiming for a weapon cube. The instant she grabbed one she released it behind her, not even bothering to check which weapon it was.
Pinkie saw a flash of yellow then a swirling myriad of colors filled her vision.
“WhooOOOOOaaaaaOOOOhhh!” she yelled, spinning to a stop. Dizzy, Pinkie put both hooves to her head in order to regain her composure. “Hehe, that was so fun!” she giggled. “Can I do it again?!”
At that moment, Sweetie, Vinyl, Lyra, Octavia, MLZFan and Twilight all passed by her. “Whoops!” Pinkie slammed her hoof back on the pedal and zoomed back into the fray before the NPCs could also catch up.
Spirit leaned over the booth edge with an excited look on her face. “And Rainbow Dash has passed the final checkpoint. It’s all down to this. All of the ponies are neck and neck, and with just about every one of them carrying weapons, it’s a bad time to be in that sort of position.”
Luna, equally excited, added, “Indeed, Mr. Shift. As most weapons are designed to take out the pony either directly in front of you or directly behind you, being close to any pony isn’t where you want to be. At any moment any of them could release a shell or— oop and there it is!”
Down on the track, Sweetie slammed on her button and released a fierce thunderbolt from the top of her kart. It struck every kart on the track and shrunk each of them down to a mouse’s size. The drastic reduction in speed allowed Sweetie to giggle her way into first place, leaving behind her a chorus of squeaky sounding players.
“Crap!” cursed Vinyl struggling to drive while not laughing at her own voice. “She took out the bomb I was saving… Nice one!”
“Ugh, why can’t this be Modnation!” yelled Lyra. “I could’ve blocked that!”
Luna chuckled as she watched the ponies eventually regain their original sizes. “Unfortunately for Sweetie Belle, being in first place in this part of the race also puts her at a disadvantage unless she builds a strong lead.”
Discord turned to her with a grin. “And why’s that, dear Lulu?”
Luna frowned at Discord’s familiarity but answered anyway. “You see, there are plenty of items that target the player in first place directly. And in the last lap of the race is when those items start showing up in larger quantities for ponies in the back.”
Spirit leaned over the booth and continued the play by play. “It looks like Ms. Octavia has pulled ahead of the others and has taken second place. It doesn't look like Rainbow Dash is all too happy about that.
Octavia grinned and turned on her com. If there was any time to commence her plan now was the time. “What’s wrong, Rainbow Dash? Not only are you getting beat by a filly, but you’re also getting beat by me as well!”
As she expected Rainbow growled through the speaker. “Ugghh! Just you wait Octavia, you’ll be eating my dust in a sec!” she spat. “This isn’t over just yet!”
Octavia rolled her eyes and slammed on the brake to drift past a turn and into a weapon cube, picking up a coin of all things. Cursing under her breath, she quickly made use of it and refilled her coin metre back up to 10.
Likewise, Rainbow Dash picked up a cube and came out with green shell. Grinning, she hurriedly lined up Octavia in her sights. But before she could release the shell, a sudden explosion from behind blasted her kart into the air and off the track.
“WOOOOHOOOOO! BOBOMB’D YA!” cheered Vinyl zooming past where Rainbow Dash previously was. While said pegasus was yelling and respawning back on the track, Twilight, MLZFan, and Lyra also passed her.
“Screw Bobs!” chuckled Lyra. She slammed on her button and transformed into a huge green colored bullet-shaped rocket. “I got Bullet Bill!!”
Twilight screamed as she and MLZFan were violently shoved aside by the super-charged cackling bullet.
Crazed, Lyra started singing randomly. “Move, Bitch! Get Out Da Way! Get Out Da Way, Bitch!”
Up in the stand, Luna softly and silently placed both hooves onto her face and leaned all three down onto the table. “I’m going to start deducting points now,” she sighed. Discord, however, began cheering wildly, now sporting several flags, shirts, hats and other accessories with Lyra’s name and face on it.
Twilight, frustrated, activated her own button and, in a multicolored blur, she became filled with Rainbow Power and zoomed forward as well. She didn’t quite catch up with Lyra but she maintained a close distance.
Octavia and Vinyl, now neck and neck, both glanced back and gulped in fear when they noticed two super charged and invulnerable ponies zooming towards her.
Octavia, in order to retain her speed, swerved almost to the edge of the road to avoid being knocked dizzy. Vinyl, however wasn't so lucky and fell back in a dizzy state.
Octavia let out a sigh of relief when the two passed by her.
“Hey Octavia!”
Octavia turned around just in time to see Rainbow slam into her from behind and forcing her off the track! “Daaaaammmnnnn iiitttt Raaaaaiinnnbbooooww!” she screamed.
Laughing fervently, Rainbow sped on ahead.
~~~
Lyra’s powerup eventually ended, placing her in a solid second place position. However, she could still see Sweetie in the distance. Twilight’s power-up placed her right beside Lyra.
“Having fun yet, Twilight?” Lyra called over while trying to pull ahead.
Twilight couldn’t withhold a grin. “I will admit... this is much more fun than playing it at home,” she confessed. Both of them zoomed up a ramp and into the air, picking up a power cube in the process.
Gliding back down to the ground first, Lyra once again glanced back to Twilight and yelled, “So whatcha get?”
Twilight, uncharacteristically competitive, smirked back. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” she shot back.
Lyra laughed and cut on her com. “How about you, Sweetie? You enjoying—”
“I’m winning! I’m winning! I can’t believe it! I’m having so much fun!” Sweetie screamed. “Did you see me flying through the air a while ago!” Her insanely loud cheers momentarily threw Lyra and Twilight off for a second.
A second went past before Lyra burst out laughing even more so. “Well sorry to burst your bubble, but we’re nearing the end and it’s time for me to snatch first place!”
“W-what?!” gasped Sweetie. “Y-you can’t! I’m too far ahead.”
“That's what blue shells are for!” Lyra screamed. “Slamming on her button, Lyra released her weapon. A spiny blue shell appeared in front of it for a split second before flying off ahead of the two.
Up ahead, Sweetie Belle panicked when she saw that a red light began flashing on her dashboard. Looking around, she had noticed that she had picked up a weapon. Not knowing what it did, but wanting to keep her lead, she pressed it. Suddenly, a myriad of red boxed horns jutted out of the sides of her kart.
Sweetie looked at them in confusion. “What is-”
*HONK!*
The horns let out an insanely loud noise that forced almost everypony in the area to cover their ears in desperation.
“What the hay is that!” Lyra screamed. She watched as the blue shell that was aiming straight for Sweetie bounced off of nothing and disappeared. “What just happened!”
“I don’t know I’ve never seen it before!” Twilight answered.
Up above, Luna adjusted her earphones. “Thank you, Discord. Like I was saying, it seems as though little Sweetie has picked up a rather unique weapon. Exclusive to only the newest game, the Super Horn is an all around repellant. From other players to other weapons, nopony can so much as get near the user of the horn.”
“Oh phooey!” groaned Discord. “Well that’s not very fair. There's no more weapon boxes. Now there’s no way either of them will catch up.”
Luna nodded. “Indeed, and with the lead Sweetie Belle has I assume that we can safely say that-”
“SWEET LUNA’S MANE!” screamed Spirit.
“Yes,” Luna blushed awkwardly touching her mane. “I do wash it regularly.”
Spirit pointed out on the track. “No, look at that!”
Discord saw what he was pointing at and leaned over with him. “What in the world!” he gasped.
Down on the track, Spirit and Discord watched in awe as Pinkie zoomed past everyone on her part of the track with insane speeds not thought possible without a bullet or rainbow power.
Spirit’s jaw fell out of the booth. “She’s in seventh— no sixth— no fifth… HOW IS SHE GOING THAT FAST!” he finally yelled.
Luna squinted her eyes and finally noticed the faint golden glow surrounding the pink pony. “Oh my word!” she gasped. “She has the golden mushroom!” she explained, trying to remain calm and collected.
Spirit turned to her in curiosity. “What’s the golden mushroom?!” he asked.
“It’s a rare item that lets you boost an infinite amount of times for as long as you hold it. Normally, it’d be useless when used on the turns... but Pinkie somehow has enough handling to make those turns expertly and gain even more boosts in between the boosts from the mushroom.”
Smiling, Luna simply shook her head. “Unfortunately, despite the valiant effort it won’t be enough to reach—”
“SHE JUST PICKED UP ANOTHER ONE!”
“WHAT?!” This time Luna was over the rail as well. She watched as, down on the track, Pinkie passed the cubes that Lyra and the others had passed previously. Without hesitation, Pinkie activated a second volley of golden fueled boosts, allowing her to rocket past Lyra and Twilight and into second place.
“But Sweetie’s so close to the end!” yelled Luna getting hyped. Even she couldn’t hide a manic grin on her face.
“But Pinkie’s quickly gaining on her!” Spirit added.
Panicking, Sweetie picked up a coin and gained her own short boost. Unfortunately, Pinkie’s repeated boosting and expert drifting quickly had her closing the distance. Sweetie could see the finish line coming up around the next turn.
“Come on!” she urged, willing her kart to go faster. But as the sound of Pinkie’s rapid boosting slowly got louder, little by little, her confidence waned. She slowly began to believe that she wasn't going to win this. Her negative thinking reflected in her kart actually beginning to lose speed.
Octavia’s voice came from her speakers. “Sweetie! Don’t worry about Pinkie! You can do it!”
Vinyl soon joined her. “Yeah don’t go wussing on us now! You still beat the rest of us!”
“You can still win!” added Twilight.
Even Rainbow Dash was getting into it. “Take the shortcut!”
Luna cheered from the booth as well. “Don’t give up, young one! You can still defeat her, Pinkie’s mushroom has worn off!” she yelled.
Sweetie turned to see Pinkie zoomed up next to her and finally began to slow back to her normal speed. “Whew, finally made it!” she cheered. She, in turn saw Sweetie's nervous face. “Hey, relax. Remember, it’s just a game. You need to have fun.” Pinkie winked at her and Sweetie’s face brightened up.
Both karts turned the final corner and zoomed towards the finish line.
Luna turned to Spirit. “Who’s in first place!”
Spirit panicked and stared at the race. “Sweetie… no wait, Pinkie is! Agh, I can’t tell!”
Luna growled at him. “WelI I knew this might happen but I can’t track a photo finish because you forgot the camera. Discord you—” Luna paused when she realized that Discord was no longer in his seat. “Where is Discord!” she screamed, nearly going into the Royal Canterlot Voice.
On the track, Pinkie and Sweetie zoomed ever closer to the finish line. Although, just as the Gummy Cruiser’s natural speed began to pull her ahead, one last thing happened in the final few seconds of the race.
Lyra’s voice came out from Sweetie’s speaker. “Slam into her! If you wanna win you gotta take Pinkie out!”
“But I don’t have any weapons!” Sweetie hastily answered.
“Your kart is a weapon! You have to slam into her NOW!”
Desperate, Sweetie Belle followed Lyra’s advice and violently turned her wheel. Slamming into the back end of Pinkie’s kart forced it to fall back in a short spin that Pinkie seemed to enjoy. Her spin ended with Pinkie and Sweetie neck and neck once more.
However, the kart bump also provided Sweetie with a small bonus boost just as the two crossed the finish line.
“AND THE WINNER IS…”
Discord appeared on the track and held Sweetie’s entire Kart into the air, yelling,
“SWEETIE BELLE!!”
Sweetie cheered at the top of her lungs.
“SECOND PLACE IS…
PINKAMENA DIANE PIE!” yelled Discord into a microphone just as Pinkie crossed the line. Likewise, he grew another arm and held up Pinkie’s kart, though not as high as Sweetie’s was held.
Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash smirked. By this point she had caught up with Lyra, Vinyl, and Twilight.
Vinyl noticed her smile. “What, not upset you lost?”
Rainbow scoffed and pulled ahead with the red mushroom she picked up. “Whatever, third is still beating you two!” Unfortunately, just as she thought she was going to make it, a thunderbolt crashed into the three of them, shrinking them down to the size of mice once again.
Rainbow’s squeaky cursing could be heard just as clearly as if she were full sized. It even increased in volume when she noticed who’s kart had passed them.
“Suck it, Dash!” MLZFan zoomed past the trio and into the finish lane, taking third place and denying the ponies the points.
“And WHAT! A! FINISH!” screamed Spirit, hyped beyond belief. “That was an amazing turn around by MLZFan as he swooped in and stole third place from right under her muzzle. Truly a stunning end to the first round.”
Luna let out a sigh and leaned back into her seat, chuckling lightly. “I-indeed. That was very exhilarating. I think I’m starting to understand what Discord meant.” Luna grinned and spread her wings. To Spirit’s surprise, she hopped off of the booth and sailed down to the ground.
Down below, Rainbow and the others crossed the finish line just in time to see Discord holst up MLZFan’s bike.
“AND THIRD PLACE…
MLZFAN2130!” he announced. Suddenly, a cheering crowd appeared and began roaring in applause. Soon enough the other ponies also reached the end of the line.
Unfortunately, there was one pony that didn’t cheer so loudly. Rainbow Dash immediately took off her helmet and tossed it down in anger. “What the hay!” she groaned. “I didn’t even place?! That’s not fair!”
Octavia took off her own helmet and waved out her long black mane. “Rainbow don’t be such a sore loser,” she scoffed, trotting closer to her. “No pony is ever guaranteed a win, no matter how good they are at their respective games.”
Just as Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to rebut, Octavia cut her off. “And we still have three more races.” With a smirk, Octavia booped Dash’s nose and moved past her. “So calm down, dear it’s just a game.”
Rainbow stared back at her in a rage, her face fuming but enable to release and words of retaliation. Thankfully enough, Pinkie Pie hopped out of her kart and bounced on Rainbow’s back.
“Oh my goodness, Dash that was soooo much fun! Did you see how I just ate those mushrooms and started zooming really really fast like BRBRBRBOOOOMMMMEE!” Pinkie began raspberrying kart noises and pretending to steer a kart, excitedly sharing her epic tales of kart awesomeness.
Meanwhile, Lyra made her way over to Sweetie who, while her kart had been lowered back to the ground, was still cheering her heart out. Though once she noticed Lyra, the filly’s expression turned sour and she turned away. It wasn't long before she felt herself being lifted into the air and brought over into Lyra’s embrace.
“Oh don’t be mad, I was just playing the game,” she grinned, rubbing the top of the filly’s head.
Sweetie struggled and hopped out of Lyra’s grip, still upset.
Lyra rolled her eyes. “Alright. I’m sorry for what I said earlier. I was just talking smack to motivate you. You took it pretty well compared to other ponies I know.”
Sweetie glanced back reluctantly. “I guess I should thank you for your advice. I only won at the last moment because you told me the kart trick.”
Lyra rubbed the back of her mane awkwardly. “Yeah. Though I wonder why Pinkie didn’t do it first.” Lyra’s gaze floated over to Vinyl climbing out her kart. “Oh hey, Vinyl!”
While Lyra ran over to Vinyl, Twilight took the time to examine the other racers. The four original game character had mysteriously never crossed the finish line. But she found that MLZFan was still hanging around, basking in the glow of his victory by leaning on the side of his bike. Twilight decided to approach him.
“So…” she began, “are you excited for the next race?
The mysterious racer simply turned to her, grinned, and nodded. Twilight continued. “So are you one of the game masters?” she asked hopefully. He shook his head. “I see, I thought it would be a bit too easy,” she mumbled.
“So who are you; a gaming buddy of the Princess maybe?” The silent racer simply shrugged and tilted his hoof back and forth.
Twilight examined him up and down. “B...but you are are real pony right, you weren't created with magic like the others?”
To her surprise, the colt let out a low chuckle. Just before she got the chance to ask she noticed that Discord had slithered his way over to them and leaned on the kart next to MLZ.
“Oh ye of little chaos,” he laughed, “you give me too much credit, those were real ponies you were racing.”
Twilight gasped in surprise. “Wait, you mean they weren't illusions or constructs made of magic?”
Discord scoffed. “Of course not… well… unless you want to count the magic of childbirth.” He snarked. “But anyhow, I have an announcement to make.” He eagerly began rubbed his paw and claw together.
Octavia, after leaving Rainbow, went back to her kart to go fix her mane. Afterwards, she made her way over to Lyra and Vinyl who seemed to be engaged in a rather heated discussion. “A deal’s a deal, Vinyl.” said Lyra.
“Well you didn’t actually win the race, Lyra,” Vinyl shot back, a competitive smirk on her face. “In fact, you barely beat me. We also have like… three races left.”
Lyra frowned and turned to meet Octavia’s flat stare. “Oh, great timing. Octavia, you said that you didn’t care if Vinyl moves out and in with me right?”
Vinyl turned to her with a blank look. “What?”
Octavia reeled back in shock. “I... err, no that’s not what I meant by—”
“Octavia if you wanted me to move out all you had to do was say so,” said Vinyl, giving Octavia a hurt look.
Octavia took a hesitant step closer. “N-no, Vinyl I—”
“Oh ponies!” sang Discord. Extending his arms, Discord reached over and picked each pony up and brought them to him.
After setting them all down in a circle around him, Discord retracted his many arms and leaned down with an excited smile. “After seeing your little race I have come to a unanimous decision!”
Luna landed softly next to him. “Excuse me, but how can your decisions be unanimous if you made it without consulting us,” she said, leveling a harsh look at him.
Discord merely reached over and brought her into a one armed hug. “Oh don’t be so uptight, you’ll get a kick out of this too Lulu.” He dramatically waved his other paw. “For you see, I’m reducing the amount of races from four to two with the next one being the final the race!” he announced. Just as Luna began to open her mouth Discord pinched her lips together. “Shush, I’m not done. I very much enjoyed this little race and I’ve decided that I want to race as well. However, I wouldn’t want little Luna to miss out on the fun.”
He picked up Luna and began rocking her back and forth. In response, Luna released a lightning bolt from her horn and shocked the draconequus. Blackened, he glanced down at her and shrugged, dropping the Princess of the Night in the process.
“So, I propose this,” he continued dusting himself off, “how about the remainder of you all race against Princess Luna and I in a bonus round. The winner out of you all will receive the points given to our guest racer plus a nice little bonus if you defeat the two of us.”
Luna put a hoof to her chin in contemplation. “That does sound like a reasonable idea… coming from you. But I am the gamemaster, is it not required for me to observe rather than play?”
Twilight shook her head. “Of course not; if you want to join us sometimes there’s no reason for you not to.”
Lyra nodded. “Yeah, as long as you don’t use your GM powers to cheat us.”
Sweetie, standing next to her looked up at her curiously. “How would she cheat us?”
Lyra shrugged. “Gamemasters have access to all kinds of glitches and mods. Also they could get advantages like being immune to the items or something subtle like having a smaller knock down and respawn time.”
Luna shook her head. “Please be sure, I’m am no troll or cheater. I will play fairly as the rules dictate.” Though she had to turn to look at Discord who, at the moment, had on an angelic looking smile and halo. “Although, we may have to keep an eye on this one.”
Spirit Shift floated down on beating wings, his eyes glistening in excitement. “So does that mean I can race too?!”
Luna gave him a sad look. “I’m sorry, Spirit. But we still need a commentator.”
Spirit’s face fell. Luckily, Pinkie was on the case. Grabbing Sweetie and MLZFan, she dashed over to his side. “Don’t worry, we’ll be up there with you! Like Dissy said, we can’t race with them so we need something to do while we watch!”
Sweetie nodded. “Yeah, I don’t mind it. I think I’ve had my fill of high speed chases. I’m really not even allowed to watch them on T.V.”
Grabbing Spirit, Pinkie brought him into the group hug. Even though he wanted to race, Spirit still smiled since he knew he would at least have company.
Luna nodded with a smile while Octavia stepped forward. “Excuse me, Princess, do you have a kart to race with or will you need some time to create one like you did ours?”
Luna turned to Octavia with a slight blush. “Well... I… You see...”
Spirit stepped up and smugly pointed a hoof to the side of the track. A section of the grass began separating and slowly a dark blue race kart rose up from the ground. Everypony looked on in awe while Spirit stood by and barely contained his laughter born from the sight of the Princess’ beet red face.
“It looks amazing,” gasped Sweetie.
“Absolutely stunning,” added Octavia.
Rainbow shrugged. “It’d be at least 20 percent cooler if it was a bike.”
Spirit stepped forward. “You see, my Princess was secretly hoping she’d get to race and ended up making her own kart in case such— woahhhhh” Spirit found himself being magically flung back up to the comment box.”
“That’s enough talking,” Luna ordered, ignoring the heat in her cheeks. “Let us get ready for the next race. Everypony move your karts into place.” Luna marched over to her kart, looking as serious as possible. Though but nopony, nor no draconequus was blind to the slight skip in her step.
A/N GUESS WHAT! I GOT PICS THIS TIME! Now you all know... it did in fact happen. She blushed.
