The Royal Gamer

Chapters

Chapter 1: Press Start to Begin
Chapter 2: Meet Thy Maker!
Chapter 3: Welcome to the Internet
Chapter 4: Round Two
Chapter 5: Game Break!
Chapter 6: The Horde Hungers
Chapter 7: Can You Stand the Test of Time?
Chapter 8: A War in a Galaxy Not So Far Away...
Chapter 9: A Royal Visit
Chapter 10: Boss Incoming
Chapter 11: Match Point!

Chapter 1: Press Start to Begin

"Ugh. Do we have to do this, fair sister?" Princess Luna, sovereign of the night, co-ruler of Equestria, disgustedly asked her older sister, Princess Celestia.

The two alicorns were being driven on their royal chariot from the capital, Canterlot, to the elected host of the Summer Sun Celebration, Ponyville: an honor for such a small town to have after only hosting a prior Celebration merely a couple of years ago.

"I don't know why you're complaining, Luna." Celestia calmly replied, her regal, multi-colored mane flowing in its own breeze. "It was custom before you... you were banished that both princesses had to attend the celebration of the longest day of the year."

Grimacing slightly, Luna answered, "I know it is tradition Tia, but it was never a favorite of mine, and it continues to be so."

An awkward silence ensued for a couple of minutes. Luna was thankful that Twilight Sparkle and her friends used the Elements of Harmony to rescue her from her deep jealousy that she had for her sister's day, and she asked for forgiveness and forgave Celestia herself after the matter, but the issue of her banishment was still a tender subject.

Breaking the stillness, Celestia glanced over at her navy blue sister, "Perhaps I could make it up to you?"

Her ears perking up slightly, Luna curiously asked, "What dost you suggest?"

Chuckling at her sister's archaic form of speech, Celestia stated, "My student Twilight has sent me a letter informing me that, at the insistence of her friends, she has bought the latest console from Sillycon Ridge, a place outside of Los Pegasus where many technology corporations have research and development labs."

"What was needed that required her to travel so far?" Luna inquired.

"Luna, there are stores where these devices are sold."

"Oh."

"What she bought was a PlayStable 3, a home entertainment system by Pony Corporation." Celestia said, turning her attention back to watch the decent into Ponyville.

"What doth this... PlayStable 3 do?" Luna wondered, turning her head to look at her sister.

"You put compact discs into it and then play a computer program that puts you into new worlds, scenarios, and times." Her sister answered, still gazing ahead.

Luna pondered on that tidbit of information. She had heard of many of the changes in how ponies went about their day to day lives. Using many new technological breakthroughs, ponies no longer used candles and fires to light their homes at night, using something called "electricity" to power "light bulbs" to illuminate their homes, allowing them to stay up well after Celestia's sun had set. That was something Luna most approved of, but she had also heard of the relatively new breakthrough of personal computers, devices used to create, store, and manipulate data, as well as to execute these programs that Celestia had been talking about.

"What wouldst thou suggest I do?" Luna asked.

"I could ask Twilight to invite you when she and her friends have recouped from the festivites to try the new system: she only got it yesterday, and hasn't had a chance to try it." Celestia replied as she and Luna stepped off of the chariot.

"I... suppose I could try, perhaps it could be more fun?"

"It will be fun, Luna." Celestia snickered at her sister's innocent enthusiasm. "I have one myself, and some of the 'video games' that it has are quite entertaining."

***

"Art thou sure this is a good idea, Tia?" Luna nervously asked as she stood at the entrance of Twilight's tree library. "I am not so sure that I like this."

"It will be fine, you can spend the night with Twilight and her friends, and I'll send a chariot for you tomorrow morning," Celestia reassured her younger sister. "They won't bite. Plus, they're probably already waiting; it isn't very often that royalty spends time more like common ponies."

After a few seconds of anxious silence, Luna gulped, and knocked on the library's door.

Pounding of hooves were heard, and a muffled voice called out, "Spike! Can you get that? It's probably Princess Luna!"

"Why don't you answer it?!" a tired voice called from elsewhere in the library.

Giving her older sister a rather candid and unimpressed look, Luna turned her attention back to the doorway as it creaked open and a weary purple baby dragon stood in the opening. Not yet fully awake, he grumpily said, "Whatever it is, we don't want it." and then slammed the door in their faces.

Inside, the purple unicorn Twilight Sparkle rushed up the stairwell from the basement, and not seeing anypony, turned to Spike, who was slowly making his way up the steps to the bedroom, "Who was it Spike?"

Looking back at her, he replied, "Two salesponies, I think. It looked like they were selling fur dye and wigs to look like the princesses." He paused, thinking over the statement, then jumping three feet into the air, he exclaimed, "The PRINCESSES?!"

Bolting for the door, he went barreling through the now open entrance and smack into Celestia's leg.

"Sorry about this," Twilight apologized, embarrassment lighting up her features. "It's past his bedtime, he must've still had cobwebs in his head." she said as she noticed the baby dragon dazedly get off the ground from where he fell after slamming into the sun princess.

"It is fine, fair Twilight." Luna stated dignifiedly, bowing her head to the unicorn and then entering the main floor of the library.

"Thank you for doing this, Twilight," Celestia said, bending down to eyelevel with her student. "Luna wasn't very happy about coming to the festival. She has been somewhat of an annoyance, waiting for tonight; I hope this will cheer her up."

"We'll do our best, Princess." Twilight reassured.

"Make sure things don't get too out of hoof." the alicorn replied as she got on her royal chariot. Giving a wave to Twilight, Celestia told the two pegasus guards to take her back to Canterlot.

"I pray thee, Twilight, where hast thou set up your... PlayStable?" Luna called from inside the library.

"I've just finished setting it up downstairs." Twilight answered as she closed the door to face the midnight blue princess.

"Are thy friends downstairs, too?" Luna inquired.

"You're the first to arrive: Rarity had to drop off her sister with their parents, Applejack had some last minute things on the farm to do, Fluttershy wanted to do a final check on her animals, and Rainbow Dash... I don't know where she is actually." Twilight said, rubbing her chin in thought.

Suddenly the door to the library burst open, and a rainbow streak shot into the opposite wall, leaving an impact crater, and stirring up much dust.

A form fell out of the crater, the pony getting up being Rainbow Dash. She groggily shook her head before taking notice of the two observers. "Hey Twilight." she said, a little unsteadily before recognizing Princess Luna. Scrambling to her hooves, Rainbow bowed quickly to her, "P-Princess Luna!"

"You may dispense with the formalities, fair Rainbow Dash. I am here to have... fun. Just like you." Luna stated with a gesture of her hoof.

Being stuck with a vocabulary of a thousand years ago wasn't very conducive for understanding ponies, Luna had discovered. The first Nightmare Night after her return had been rather disastrous, partly because of the town's fear of her, and her inability to fully communicate with the townsfolk despite what she learned from Celestia. "Fun" was one word that she hadn't learned until that night, and it took her some time to understand the full meaning of it.

Rainbow Dash shot a surprised look at Twilight, unaware that they would be entertaining Luna.

"Why don't we head to the basement? I've finished moving everything and setting up the TV and PlayStable." Twilight suggested.

Agreeing, the two ponies followed her down to what used to be the basement laboratory where Twilight conducted many experiments for both Celestia herself, and just plain curiosity. Now all the equipment had been moved to the far wall, and set up in the middle of the room was a large, flat-screen TV, something Luna learned was invented a fair time before she returned to Equestria. Beside the TV, a rectangular, glossy black box with a chrome finish along its edges sat on the floor, wires and cables connecting it to the electrical socket in one of the walls and to the television.

Along the wall that was created by the staircase, were a small fridge and a plush, crimson couch that could easily hold three ponies. On its cushions sat four sticks with circles along the ends and two smaller circles along the bottom edge, two small sticks with circular pads jutting out from them. The two larger circles contained four buttons each, the one on the left had arrows pointing inward from their directional facing, and the other containing buttons with an x, o, square, and triangle. Luna perceived that they also had two thick rounded sticks coming from the bottom of where the two large circles were, and supposed they were for flair.

"This is sick, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed elatedly, inspecting the box, which Luna assumed was the PlayStable.

"Well, it better be worth it, Dash," the unicorn replied, turning on the PlayStable and then trotting over to the fridge. "We better use it a lot because it cost over 700 bits, not to mention me having to move all my equipment and buy this fridge."

Faintly from upstairs, came the sound of a hoof rapping on the door to the library. As Twilight scrambled up the stairs to answer the caller, Luna sat down on the couch, using her magic to move the sticks, which, when she asked Rainbow Dash, she found out that they were referred to as controllers. She then turned her awareness to the TV screen as it lit up with a small, white silhouette of a pony, with a single option below the menu which said:

"Log in: No users found. Create new user?"

Before Luna could decide what to do, Twilight returned with the rest of her friends down the stairs. Greeting the moon princess, the other ponies found spots to sit on the floor or couch facing the TV.

Quickly grabbing a controller with her magic, Twilight thought quietly for a moment before confirming the option to create a new user, and used the "analog sticks" as they were called, to navigate the new menu which had all the letters of the alphabet, as well as commonly used characters and numbers going from zero to nine.

Realizing that she was thinking of a name to type before entering this screen, Luna watched as Twilight entered the name "Starswirler858" into the box. After confirming Twilight's decision, the menu changed to show a row of white images: the same silhouette of a pony, a toolbox, a camera, a piece of a reel of moving picture film, a music note, a rough image of the planet of Equestria, a picture of one of the controllers, and multiple silhouettes of ponies, all sitting around different television screens.

Swiftly moving to the image of the controller, Twilight asked Rainbow Dash if she could give her the game "Mares of Duty: Pony Ops".

Snatching said box, Rainbow Dash gave it to Twilight, who opened it and took out a thin disc, which she then put into the now open disc tray. She then pressed a button beside the tray, and watched as it slid back into the console.

Giving a slight whir, the PlayStable's menu icon changed to the same cover art of the game: a backlit muscular stallion sitting on the ground and holding two stick-like weapons with handles and two additional longer stick-like weapons strapped to his back.

Luna remembered the weapons were called guns, more specifically handguns and assault rifles. While Equestria had not been at war for generations, weapon scientists still developed more and more deadly arms.

"Who wants to try this first with me?" Twilight asked.

Instantly Rainbow Dash volunteered, followed by Applejack, the two ponies continuing their friendly rivalry.

"Would you like to try, Princess?"

"Nay, Twilight. I will let somepony else try. I will watch and observe your actions." Luna answered.

Pinkie Pie piped up, "I'll play! This looks like it could be fun!"

Handing the bubbly pony the final controller, Twilight sighed, "All right, let's go!" Clicking the icon of the game, she confirmed that she wanted to start, and the screen faded to black.

Chapter 2: Meet Thy Maker!

"Hah! Take that AJ!" Rainbow Dash gleefully cheered as her onscreen military pony mowed down the orange farm pony's own character before itself being blown sky-high via a rocket from Pinkie.

The pink party pony's own soldier was then liquidated from a quick stab in the back by Twilight, who snuck up behind the unsuspecting victim, and was then directly after shot in the head by Applejack's sniper rifle.

As this virtual massacre continued to unravel on the television, Luna simply sat on the couch, slack jawed. She was appalled that this level of violence was being sold in Equestria, let alone Ponyville. She wasn't unfamiliar to war, death, and bloodshed. In the earlier days of she and her sister's rule, there had been many wars to ensure the survival of the new kingdom, but she couldn't believe this had been sold so readily.

Behind the couch, Fluttershy lay shaking and whimpering in complete fear, not being able to stomach the bloodbath. Sitting beside the night princess, Rarity sat utterly flabbergasted, perhaps even more so than Luna herself.

The match ended with Rainbow Dash the victor, followed by Twilight, then Applejack, then Pinkie. Getting up from the floor, Applejack said as she trotted back to the couch, "Good game, Dash. I'll let somepony else give it try."

"Yeah, and I want to see what Twilight has to eat." Pinkie stated, bouncing in her usual manner towards the small fridge and opening the door.

"Don't eat everything in there, Pinkie!" Twilight warned. "I planned for that to last the entire night."

Ignoring the caution, Pinkie Pie took out a long thing aluminum can with the green outline of a manticore, the label reading, "Manticore energy drink. Grass green flavor." Inspecting it, Pinkie said, "OOOoo. What's this?"

"I read that ponies who play lots of video games drink that most of the time. It's supposed to keep you awake and give you energy." Twilight replied.

Hopping back towards the couch, Pinkie sat down in front of it, and started taking sips from the energy drink.

Rarity slid off the sofa and grabbed with her magic one of the two now free controllers, "Well, I suppose I will try. Perhaps I can bring some dignity to this brutish game."

Thinking over the idea for a minute, Luna then grabbed the other controller, saying, "I, too, shall try. My sister said I was to enjoy this night."

Slowly getting up, Twilight walked over to the fridge and brought out a small can of Popsi. While she was over, Rainbow Dash asked her to bring one for her, too.

While this was going on, Luna was looking over the interface. On-screen stood another muscular stallion much like the one on the cover art. Deciding that she liked none of the pre-set soldiers, Luna investigated making a "custom" as it was called, and was hit with a slew of options. After the initial surprise, Luna steadily made her way through the different weapons, finally choosing the weapons and abilities that most interested her.

Huffing, Rainbow Dash said, "Finally." before facehoofing as Rarity decided that she needed a custom pony.

After twenty minutes of hemming and hawing, the white unicorn finally decided on her primary weapon.

"Ugh. We'll be here all night if you don't make up your mind, Rarity." Dash sighed exasperatedly before grabbing her friend's controller and quickly choosing the weapons and perks for her. Sitting back down with a grunt, Rainbow Dash began to select the map and game mode, finally deciding on gun game.

"Pray tell, Rainbow Dash, what is this 'gun game'?" Luna asked her.

As she set some advanced options and activated the match, Rainbow glanced over at the princess, "Exactly what it says at the start of the match: be the first to use all the ranged weapons. And I just made it so if you knife somepony they'll go back five weapons."

Swallowing nervously, Luna soon found which one of the four boxes on the TV was her character's perspective.

Out of the gate, Rainbow Dash was in the lead, quickly blowing past the pistols and into shotguns. As the match ensued, Dash got up to the last weapon: the ballistic knife. But instead of finishing the match, she started goofing off, stabbing other ponies rather than killing at range.

As luck would have it, Luna found herself sneaking up behind the cocky pegasus, cleanly slicing the virtual pony in the neck, eliciting a extremely surprised and outraged response from its owner.

In the end, Rainbow Dash still came out as the winner, closely followed by Rarity, with Luna in last.

"OUTRAGEOUS!" Luna boomed, forgetting for a moment not to use the Royal Canterlot Voice. "YOUR PRINCESS DEMANDS A REMATCH!"

Sighing and getting off from the floor, Rainbow Dash went to the couch and, noticing Fluttershy's still quivering tail, grabbed it in her mouth, "Comf on Futtershy. You needf to play tfoo."

As Rainbow Dash dragged the yellow pegasus over, Twilight put down her controller, "I'm taking a break, who wants to replace me? Pinkie Pie?"

She was answered with snores. Turning around, Twilight was greeted with Pinkie's sleeping form; the energy drink can empty, appearing to have a tiring effect on the pink pony, rather than giving her even more energy.

Twilight shook her head, "Applejack? Do you want to play?"

"Sure, sugarcube." Applejack answered, taking the controller from Twilight.

Luna glanced over at Fluttershy, the timid pony covering her face with her hooves, and quivering even more violently. "Do not fret, dearest Fluttershy," Luna said, leaning over to the shaking form of the pegasus. "Nopony is being killed: it is just a game."

Fluttershy quietly responded, "I-I know. It's just so bloody and noisy." Ushering as much courage as possible, Fluttershy grabbed the controller, and waited for the map and game to be chosen.

"How 'bout you choose what we play this time, princess?" Applejack suggested.

Searching through the different game-types, Luna settled on free-for-all, deciding that it would be interesting. After choosing the game, Luna picked a map of a captured pleasure yacht.

"Free-for-all: Be the pony with the highest score." the voice from the TV said as a timer counted down on-screen.

Bringing her controller closer to her face and sticking her tongue out in concentration, Luna waited for the match to begin. She was ready. This time, she would win and nopony would be spared.

Fluttershy instantly scrambled for her character to find a good hiding place, and stayed there. The ponies watching swore that her soldier was shaking almost as much as she was. However, that all changed when Luna discovered her position, impaling Fluttershy's soldier in the head with her tomahawk.

Suddenly Fluttershy's demeanor changed. Steeling her face into a dark snarl, she whispered, "How dare you?!" Rage now clearly on her features, Fluttershy began killing everypony in the map, player and AI alike.

When the match ended, everypony was shocked as Fluttershy won with a large lead: the best of the night. After their initial surprise, they all stared as the normally timid and quiet pony got up and went to the fridge, giving them all an icy glare, conveying a meaning that was interpreted as, "Don't screw with me." They continued to gawk in silence as she found what she wanted from the fridge and sat back down on the floor.

"I wonder," Luna said, cautiously glancing at Fluttershy, who had now calmed down somewhat, "if somepony else should play this game, rather than fair Fluttershy."

"I will," Rainbow Dash said, getting up from her position on the couch and snatching the free controller. "I've wanted to try the zombie sieges ever since they announced them."

"Zombie sieges?" Luna asked half surprised developers would use such lore.

"Wanna try?" Rainbow asked her, already setting up the match.

Pausing for a moment, Luna answered, "I suppose I could."

***

"TAKE THAT, FOUL BEASTS OF TARTARUS!" Luna exploded as she fought off single-handedly a mob of undead ponies.

Her team was being assaulted on all sides by the zombies, who twisted their way through the alleyways of the decimated village the players' characters were holed up in.

Rarity and Applejack were down, and Rainbow Dash was surrounded, barely holding off her assailants. Both were nearly out of ammo. Luna knew now was the time for desperate action. Using what was left in her shotgun she blasted her way through the line of zombies, and reached Rainbow Dash.

Backing up against her fellow pony, Luna whispered, "Prithee, Rainbow Dash, give me thy grenades."

Staring at her incredulously, Dash replied, "I can't."

As she shot another zombie that was getting too close, Luna asked, "Why not?"

"Because this is a game?" Dash answered, glaring at the alicorn that was pressed up against her in front the TV.

Abruptly, Luna realized that she was uncomfortably close to Dash. Laughing in embarrassment, she said, "I am sorry for the intrusion of thy personal privacy, Rainbow Dash. For I was only enraptured by this game."

Rolling her eyes, Dash un-paused the battle and continued slaying the zombie horde, Luna's character bringing up the rear.

Eventually the waves of zombies became too heavy, and with barely any ammo, Luna and Dash were finally vanquished by the undead army.

Stretching and giving a yawn, Rainbow Dash said, "Well, it was a fun night, but I need to be heading home. Ya'know, gotta practice tomorrow."

"Wait, Rainbow Dash!" Luna cried. "Who shall be my ally fighting this hellish horde?"

Glancing around, Dash tried to find somepony to play with the thoroughly addicted Luna. Pinkie was out of the question; she had been out cold since early in the night from the energy drink she consumed, and all the other ponies had either left, or settled down for the night. "I dunno," she answered, giving a slight shrug. "You could always play by yourself."

As soon as it was suggested, Luna whipped around to stare at the television, already beginning to set up another match of pony versus zombie.

Shivering slightly, Rainbow Dash couldn't stop thinking that she and Twilight had unleashed a monster.

***

Sunlight poured in through the crack in Twilight's bedroom curtains, falling into her eyes. Giving a soft moan before stretching and emitting a soft yet satisfied yawn, Twilight stepped out of bed and trotted downstairs to fix breakfast.

As she entered the main floor of the library, Twilight heard faint sounds of gunfire and slightly maniacal laughter. Deciding to find the source of the commotion, she treaded her way down the basement stairwell, and was greeted with explosions and more laughter.

The troublemaker was Princess Luna, her mane and tail now unkempt, a crazed grin on her face and look in her eyes.

"Ha-ha!" Twilight heard her cry. "Thou foalish mortals cannot stop the Princess of the Night!"

Calling Luna's name several times, Twilight finally unplugged the PlayStable from the wall socket, the screen in front of Luna beeping then going black, instantly getting the mare's attention.

"Fair Twilight! Why didst thou remove the cable from this wonderful device?" Luna said, on the verge of tears.

"Because you've been playing it all night. The chariot Princess Celestia said she would send will be here soon." Twilight informed.

Rising from the floor, Luna told Twilight, "That 'PlayStable 3' is a marvel of Equestria. Where may I purchase one?"

Climbing the stairs, the two ponies entered the kitchen and prepared their morning meal. While eating, a pounding on the door began which Twilight answered a moment later.

In the doorway stood one of the royal guards; he nodded to Twilight and said, "Princess Celestia thanks you and your friends for entertaining her sister for the night."

Twilight informed Luna of her sister's chariot, and, after exchanging farewells, shut the door with a relieved sigh, before entering the kitchen once more.

As she got on the chariot and the two guardsponies took off, Luna was quietly planning to acquire one of the game consoles for her own use.

***

Luna stood outside of a small, modern business. The sign above the entrance read: "Splicer's video game store."

Motioning the two guards to wait outside, Luna entered the shop and was greeted by a salespony, who swiftly recognized her monarch. "Welcome your majesty," she said, kneeling down onto the floor. "Is there anything we can help you with?"

Inspecting a shelf of game packages, Luna replied, "Yes, fair citizen. I am looking for a PlayStable 3. Do you sell them here?"

Stilling bowing to the princess, the salespony stated, "Yes your majesty, we have one left that was forgotten when we unpacked its shipment. Shall I bring it out for you?"

"Indeed. I wish to purchase it."

The salespony said, slightly aghast, "There will be no need for that your majesty, it would our honor for you to have it."

Fiercely insisting that she wanted to pay, Luna walked over to the counter after the salespony had brought out the box containing the PlayStable.

As Luna strolled out of the shop, PlayStable in her magical grip, the owner of the store entered from the storage room. "Who was that?" he asked.

"Princess Luna." the salespony replied, still not fully believing what had transpired.

"What did she want?"

"She bought our last PlayStable."

"I didn't know she played video games."

"Neither did I." the salespony said, walking back to the counter as the princess left for Canterlot Castle.

Chapter 3: Welcome to the Internet

Luna pranced into her suite's bedroom, still magically holding her new toy. She sighed and flopped onto her plush bed. Being royalty had its perks, although she still wasn't one for all of its politics and intrigue.

Getting up from her revelries, she inspected the back of the box that contained the PlayStable. It informed her that it was the special edition, the picture showcasing what came with it: a digital copy of Pony Ops and a device called a "headset".

As Luna conjured up a pair of scissors to open the box, one her maidservants entered the room. She curtsied, and welcomed her monarch back from her journey. "Is there anything I can assist with, your highness?" she asked.

Luna looked up from where she was busily cutting open the box, "Nay. Save, inform our-- my -- sister that I will be unable to attend court, and that I will see her this evening."

"But your majesty doesn't appear busy; all you are doing is opening that box."

Luna scowled and gave a small snarl, "Just do as we tell you. What is in this" --she gestured to PlayStable-- "will take up much of our time!"

Cringing at her ruler's outburst, the servant-mare spun around and told Luna that she'd give Celestia her message.

Quickly Luna turned back to her work, the box now open, and the contents therein spilled over her bed. She inspected the PlayStable before moving to the package next to it. The package held all the cables required to attach the console to a television, as well as containing the headset that was shown on the box.

Suddenly Luna realized she didn't have a TV. Until last night, she had dismissed them as a piece of technology that she didn't need. Pondering the predicament for a moment, Luna was struck with an idea. She burst from her room and down the lushly decorated hallways of Castle Canterlot, until she reached the currently vacant room of Prince Blueblood, the prodigal prince on another of his many pleasure voyages.

Fiddling with the lock for a moment, she pried the door to the suite open, and quietly stepped inside the darkened room. She turned on the lights, and started searching the luxurious room. Her target: Prince Blueblood's television.

She finally found her prize hanging on the wall facing Blueblood's bed. As she started to dismantle the wiring and take down the TV, Luna realized just how large it was. It was almost as high as the doorway to leave.

Something else also grabbed her attention, below where the TV once hung, was another PlayStable. Levitating the TV down for a moment, she inspected the PlayStable, which was beside its less shiny and impressive predecessor, the PlayStable 2.

She grabbed the TV again and checked to make sure the way was clear. "Strange, how Blueblood never mentioned his PlayStable," Luna thought, ignoring the glances from the passing servants and guards as she carried her load. "He speaks of so many of his other pleasures; it is surprising he didn't ramble on it for hours at one of our... lovely dinners."

As she was about to grab her suite's door handle, she bumped into someone from behind. Swiveling around, she saw that it was Blueblood, with a surprised look surely as dumbfounded as her own.

"Auntie Luna!" he said after shaking his head to clear his surprise. "Aren't you supposed to be with Auntie Celestia at the court, where you usually are?

"Also," he continued, pointing at the floating TV. "What are you doing with my TV?"

Luna gulped and whipped the TV behind her, doing a useless job at hiding it. "This is thy television? Surely you jest, nephew," she laughed, smiling as innocently as possible. "But we thought that you were in the middle in another of your 'royal tours'?"

"Oh, yes," Blueblood stated, swatting at a piece of dust that was floating near him. "The cruise ship had engine problems near off the shore of Trotxico City, forcing the trip to be cancelled. 'Too long to fix the engine.' they said." He rolled his eyes.

"Are you sure that isn't my TV?" he asked again.

"No!" Luna defensively replied, "This is a-a... a new television that I needed for... keeping up with news about modern ponies!"

Blueblood just stared at his aunt for a moment, then shrugged and said, "Okay Auntie. Hugs and kisses!" He blew a kiss towards her and walked off.

Luna returned the kiss, scrunching her face and wiping his air-kiss off as soon as he turned the corner. Blueblood's rather blatant fake-love for his family disgusted her. Unfortunately, he was royalty, and protocol demanded that she keep her feelings about his attitude to herself.

Sighing, she entered her suite, and began searching for an electrical socket to plug the TV into. She found one near her bedroom. After she hooked up the TV and PlayStable, Luna looked over the headset that came with the console.

It was a small device, about the same width as her head, and had two large circles on the end of a curved plastic beam. Luna assumed that the two circles went over one's ears, and that the beam kept them in place. Attached to the left earphone was a swivel-able arm that had a small bump at its end. Unsure of what this was, she looked at the manual that came with the PlayStable, and it helpfully informed her that the end bump was a microphone which could be spoken into to allow for conversing with other players in-game.

Luna plugged in the headset, and put it on her head. The fit was snug, but she could get used to it.

After a minute, the log in screen prompted her to create a user. Scrunching her face in thought, Luna decided on the name "The REAL Princess Luna"

Afterwards, she was greeted with the same menu that was on Twilight's PlayStable the night before. Quickly Luna chose Pony Ops from her hard drive, and waited elatedly for the game to launch.

When the main menu of the game launched, Luna went straightway to multiplayer, and to her consternation, was promptly welcomed with a notification box that she wasn't connected to the "internet".

Groaning, she exited the game. Luna remembered Celestia telling her about the internet, a service which connected computers and other devices together, linking ponies on opposite sides of the planets together.

Navigating the PlayStable menu, she selected the toolbox icon, and began searching its many menus. She found the menu labeled Network Settings and selected it.

The menu informed her that she wasn't connected, and began searching for wireless connections. Seconds later, the screen rematerialized to show her a list of possible networks to connect to.

The network at the top of the list was the strongest and seemed familiar to the her. While she was trying to place it, she ordered the console to connect to the network, Cake-lover1000, and returned to her game.

Faintly, through the wall of Luna's room, came the voice of Celestia, "Who's connected to my internet?!"

Luna winced. She realized that she connected to her sister's network and hoped that she wouldn't find out.

Turning back to face the TV, Luna hit the multiplayer option to start searching for an open group match. After a minute of searching, the game put her into an almost full party of gamers, who were groaning from an apparent bad joke told just before she joined.

One of the other members sent Luna a message, "Help us!" it said in the hopes that maybe a new member of the group bring some sanity.

"Oi. Did I ever tell you, about the time I met Princess Luna?" a familiar cockney asked. Without waiting for an answer, it continued, "So it was me first Nightmare Night, right? And I was all excited to scope out all the new ponies. There was one really loony one, was dressed up as a chicken! But, I was just minding me business, getting candy and the like, when all of a sudden, there was this big ruckus, and boom! Princess Luna was in Ponyville, wanting to interact with the common folk (and doing a bad job at it, too). An' I took one look at her was like: 'Pip, you'd like to--"

"Would you shut your mouth, kid?" an annoyed voice sighed. "The match is starting. If you're trying to be cool, it's not working."

Dazed, lying on the floor, she never heard what the other gamer's reply was. She recognized the owner of the voice: Pipsqueak from Ponyville. He never finished what he was saying, but she heard a few slang words from her guards talking about first dates: she could put two and two together. He called her his favorite princess. Maybe he was implying something else.

"Was it all a ruse?" Luna thought, still lying on the floor, her heart beating frantically. If this was what multiplayer was like, she didn't want it.

Slowly rising from the floor, Luna inched her soldier through the battle. Her heart was racing. This was her first true battle against ponies she never met. She prayed she wouldn't be annihilated.

"...I'll just--Hey! Stop doing that!" Pip complained as a notification appeared in the matches feed of deaths.

Luna's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when the colt issued forth a stream of colorful language at his killer. Wondering what they were teaching foals in schools, Luna continued sniping a pony here or there until the match ended.

As the results of the match materialized, Pip continued to berate the group. Unable to withstand the language any longer, Luna bellowed into her mic, "Thou loud-mouthed, ungrateful, and depraved WHELP! Is this how the children of today spend their lives; in DEGENERATE, UNWHOLESOME, and IMMORAL speech and activity?"

Bursting through the door, Luna's hoofmaid and Celestia herself stopped in shock, watching the night princess continue to lecture the recipient on the other side.

"Forasmuch as I met you in Ponyville, I perceived thee to be a polite and innocent foal. Clearly I am mistaken." Luna continued, blind to the notification from the game that she had been kicked from the party.

Celestia treaded her way to her sister, gently putting a hoof on Luna's shoulder. Halting mid-speech, Luna looked up at Celestia, the scowl swiftly leaving her face.

"What's wrong, Luna?" Celestia whispered soothingly.

Dejectedly, Luna told Celestia of what transpired. Celestia quietly listened, and when her sister was finished, said, "It seems that you were given a curt welcome to the internet. I'm sure this reminded you again of how different things are from a thousand years ago."

Scuffing her hoof on the floor, Luna asked, "But why would have to be young Pip. He was such a sweet child."

"Not everything is so literal today, Luna." Celestia replied. "I feared something like this would happen. Twilight told me that she felt you were going to do something rash when she informed me on how last night went."

Luna only shook her head, a melancholy look on her face.

"I will let Twilight know that you have purchased a PlayStable, 'The REAL Princess Luna'." Celestia said as she rose from the floor next to her sister, and made her way for the door. Glancing over her shoulder, she told Luna, "You should probably return Blueblood's television; I will have one supplied to you."

Broken from her silence, Luna gulped, "How did you know it was his?"

"It's the largest in the castle." Celestia stated, walking out of her sister's bedroom.

Author's Note

Thank you all for the positive feedback so far! :pinkiehappy:

You could now say that the "honeymoon period" of the fic is over. I'll now be keeping to a schedule for uploading chapters. At the moment, I'm planning on publishing chapters every two to three weeks, as to keep a good amount of buffer-room in case real life gets in the way of writing (it also gives me more time for editing :twilightblush: ).

Anyways, don't want this to get too long, so, see you in a couple weeks!

Rush and Pony on!
T4E

Chapter 4: Round Two

"I thank thee, Twilight Sparkle, and thy friend Rainbow Dash, for participating with me." Luna told her two party-mates.

As Celestia promised, she informed Twilight of Luna's newfound joy of video games, and swiftly Twilight and Rainbow Dash, who had also purchased a PlayStable, friend requested Luna.

"No problem, princess," Dash said, her voice coming over Luna's headset. "But are we gonna play or what? I've been waiting to own some foals on this!"

"But, why wouldst thou want to own another pony? I believe slavery--"

"She means that she wants to defeat some ponies online, princess." Twilight cut in.

"Yeah. This looks like a good one," Dash stated. "This one's a new kind. Ya got only one life."

Luna observed that the title of the game-mode was called hardcore death-match. As the player pool starting to fill up, Luna hoped that this would go more smoothly than her first match.

"Hardcore death-match: be the last pony standing!" the announcer for the match said before the battle began.

Heart pounding, Luna sprinted for cover once the countdown reached zero. She quietly thanked herself for choosing the perk that removed her from enemy radar, making it that much harder for her to be found.

Continuing mercilessly, the match soon pitted the ponies against each other, a few already fallen. Luna heard Dash start to curse before the pegasus muted her mic.

"Rainboomer78 was killed by XxN00bPwnerxX." a popup on the bottom of Luna's screen informed her.

Un-muting her microphone, Rainbow Dash grumbled, "I'm back."

Luna shook her head. She surmised that profanity was more commonplace in the modern day. While musing, she slowly crept out of her concealment, getting the jump on an unsuspecting player.

Soon there were only two players left: Luna and somepony who went by the online name of "Test4Echo".

"You can get him, princess!" Dash cheered as she waited with the rest of the players, watching the match via the different points of view.

Luna cautiously wandered through the map. A red blip appeared on her radar near her location. Taking up the hunt, Luna crept towards her opponent.

She walked into the clearing near the center of the map, her radar still insisting that the other player was in the vicinity. If the radar was right, her opponent should be smack in the middle of the clearing, yet all there was, was a small pad lying on the ground.

Leaning down to inspect it, Luna's character suddenly went limp and dropped to the ground, the final kill cam showing that the other player eliminated her by sneaking up on her while she was distracted.

Moaning as the match results popped onscreen, Luna knew that she had fallen for an old trick. She should have been on alert the moment she saw the device, whatever it was.

"Nice try, princess," Twilight encouraged. "There's always next match."

As the party of three left the group of players to look for a different game, they were notified of a message that the winner sent to them.

"Should we bother?" Dash asked. "It's probably just a gloat message."

Not listening, Luna opened the message and read, "'Good game. It was close. I almost thought that you wouldn't fall for the trick. I noticed that you were a party of players. It's hard to find good players and respectful players on here. Mind if I joined?'"

As if on cue, Luna received a popup message from the game that Test4Echo wanted to be friends. Not sure what to do, she asked, "I just received a 'friend request'. Should I accept?"

Twilight answered her voice as if in thought, "I don't see why not. I got one from him, too. His profile doesn't send off any red flags."

After hearing what Twilight had to say, Luna accepted and added him to the group.

They faintly heard in their headsets, a mutter of surprise before a deep, masculine voice said, "Thanks. This is the first time somepony's done this."

Rainbow Dash's annoyed voice came over the headsets, "If it were up to me, you wouldn't be here right now."

"What's your problem?"

"You're the problem. You beat me!" Dash snapped back.

"Whoa! Chill out! I won fair and square. Besides, it's just a game. There's plenty more out there right now." Test4Echo replied defensively.

"Just a game?!" Dash retorted. "Do you think pulling off a sonic rainboom and saving Ponyville, heck, Equestria, is just a game?"

There was a moment of silence before the deep voice asked, "Wait... You wouldn't be... No... It couldn't be. Are-are you Rainbow Dash, one of the six ponies who stopped the changeling invasion?"

"Uh... duh?" she snidely answered.

From her headset, Luna heard a thump like someone had hurriedly thrown down their mic, and then faint but excited shouts and screams, and more thumps that she assumed could only be hooves landing on a floor. After another minute of elated cries, the voice asked, still slightly giddy, "And Starswirler, you're Twilight Sparkle, aren't you?"

Twilight mumbled, "Well. Yeah, I am."

"Sweet Celestia," Test4Echo said, his voice still excited. "I'm playing with two of the Elements of Harmony! I am one of your biggest fans!"

"We're just ponies wanting to have some fun," Twilight replied awkwardly. "Just like you."

"And I would appreciate it if thou didst not take my sister's name in vain." Luna stated with mild displeasure.

There was a small gasp from Test4Echo's mic, before he squeaked, "Princess Luna!" followed by resounding thud.

After a moment, they heard a quiet groan, and he replied, "Sorry. I guess I'm just star-struck. You were always my favorite subject in school, princess."

Luna jumped with a start; a small blush on her face. She barely heard Echo frantically say, "I-I mean favorite history subject. Er... What I mean, is that when I studied history, I always found the history about your ruling of the night and the Nightmare Moon incident to be quite fascinating."

Gathering her composure, Luna interrupted the still babbling pony, "We understand that thou wert nervous, but we request that thou dost not speak of our banishment any further."

A moment of uncomfortable silence passed before Twilight suggested that they find another match to play. Readily agreeing, the group joined a large team death-match.

"Don't get in my way." Dash grumped at Test4Echo.

"It's a team game," he replied. "It might happen."

Luna sighed, and waited for the match countdown to finish. The rules were the same as the last game, only this time it was teams of four that were duking it out.

"Everypony find cover and watch your radar!" Test4Echo ordered, his character diving for the nearest shelter that he could find.

"What are we doing?" Rainbow Dash asked. "We should be killing everypony!"

Ignoring her, Echo continued, "We need to think of a game-plan. We have to use our wits: outsmart them."

Before anypony could think of a tactic, a group of red dots appeared on Luna's radar, prompting Rainbow Dash to say, "Hey, there some guys right now! Let's take 'em!"

Without waiting for her teammates to follow her, Dash sent her character bursting out of her cover, guns blazing. She managed to take down one of the opposing soldiers, before she dove behind a piece of rubble, the debris shielding her from the soldiers' fire.

"Well, so much for strategy." Luna heard Echo mutter as she and the others slipped behind cover of their own against their entrenched enemies.

Peaking from behind her cover, Dash's character was shot in head, much enraging the pegasus. Cursing, she raged, "That's it. I'm done!"

Suddenly Luna was notified that Dash was no longer online. She looked back to the screen to see one of the dots slowly winding its way to sneak up on the group. She called Echo's attention to it.

"Great," he said. "Somepony will need to watch our backs."

Twilight volunteered and swiveled around to watch for the would-be ambusher. After a moment, the form of another soldier-pony crept its way out from an adjoining alleyway, and was greeted by a hail of bullets from Twilight's weapon. Now fighting on two fronts, Luna's group was at a disadvantage: they had nowhere to run.

"You hungry?!" Echo quipped at the two soldiers that were currently hiding behind a large chunk of a ruined building. "Because here's a pineapple, just for you!" He pulled a pin from a small, grey cylinder, and lobbed it at the soldiers' position. Within a few seconds of the cylinder disappearing behind the chunk, a large explosion, followed by the two flying bodies of the players, shook the ground beneath Luna's soldier's hooves.

Luna turned to see Twilight's soldier on the ground, pistol in hand, firing at the enemy group's last member, who was slowly progressing his way towards the trio. Bringing her weapon to bear, Luna took down the soldier while Echo sprinted towards Twilight, who was shortly on her hooves.

"Thanks," Twilight said as the group found another position to hunker down in. "I was just about to time out."

"No problem." Echo replied, turning character to face the others.

"Pray tell, what shall we do now?" Luna asked. She was surprised at the amount of thought that could go into the game.

"There's just one team left," he stated. "I think, anyway. If so, we're at a numerical disadvantage. We'll need to stay hidden and hold a position, sniping when we can."

"Although if we get pinned down," Twilight interjected, "we'll be trapped without an escape route."

"I suppose that we could jump to the ground, but they might still have us covered." he agreed.

"Truly thy plan has merit: but could we not attack from multiple buildings?" Luna asked, pointing her character towards the opposing house across the street.

"Yes... That could work. But we must act fast. They're no doubt searching the map now."

The trio quickly split up, Echo staying the building that they were originally in, Luna and Twilight rushing to hole up in nearby buildings overlooking the street. Luna positioned her soldier at one of the windows, trying to stay as hidden as possible. Time seemed to drag forever. Finally, she made out the shapes of four ponies, dashing around to find cover as they searched for her and her two teammates.

Abruptly there was a loud retort, and one of the soldiers dropped to the ground as the other three ran for cover and began shooting at the hidden assailant. Luna had seen Twilight poke her gun out the window of a building further down the street before taking the shot to kill the virtual pony.

Watching keenly for an opening, Luna scanned the street, and asked, "Dost thou see them, fair Echo?"

"Negat--Wait. Yeah, I see one." he replied as there was another bang followed by a notice that another player had been eliminated.

Now there were only two enemies left. "Watch your exits," Echo warned. "They're probably coming up to 'greet' you."

"I don't see anypony on radar." Twilight said.

"I checked; they both are invisible to radar: like us." Echo stated.

Luna caught movement out of the corner of her character's vision. One the other players was creeping up behind Twilight's soldier, knife in mouth and ready to kill. Targeting the player, Luna unleashed a hail of bullets, which barely missed her mark. This did, however, notify Twilight of the danger, who whirled around and shot down the opponent.

"Look out!" Twilight called, raising her soldier's gun to point behind Luna.

She barely dodged the knife that was heading straight for her soldier, before turning around and blasting the player to the floor. As the last enemy fell to the floor, the screen darkened and "Victory" flashed across Luna's TV screen. Luna didn't notice, for the adrenaline was still racing through her body.

Falling back on her bed that she was using for playing video games, she only just realized that for the majority of the last battle she had been standing on the edge of the bed, only just managing to not fall off.

She breathed a sigh of relief, and thought, "Our first successful battle! Verily it was a rush."

She looked back up to the screen which had now switched over to the results. Test4Echo had put out in the game chat a "gg", which was followed by a few others in reply.

"What is thy reasoning behind that?" Luna asked.

"It's shorthand for 'good game'." he sighed in reply.

"Well, I need to get going," Twilight said. "I promised Rarity that I'd help get a new material that she needs."

"See ya, Twilight," Echo said nervously, whispering under his breath after she left, "Still can't believe this is happening!"

As Twilight signed off, Luna was interrupted by the same servant that had brought Celestia earlier. "Your majesty," the hoofmaid said, bowing. "Your sister wanted me to remind you that she will be setting the sun soon, and will need you to raise the moon."

Luna scowled slightly, "Why didst thou remind me? I know very well that the moon must rise soon." She dismissed the filly with a wave of her hoof.

"If you need to leave, I understand." Test4Echo said, sounding slightly dejected.

"Nay, fair Echo. I have time for... one more game." Luna replied, glancing out the nearest window. The sun was indeed almost ready to disappear for the night, its rays slowly turning from golden to a deep red-purple.

"T-Thank you, your majesty."

Without replying, Luna started searching for another open game. She found one, this time another gun game, which luckily had two empty slots left.

As they entered the lobby Echo groaned, "Oh no, not Ponymus Prime!"

"Pray tell, who is that?" Luna asked.

"Only the biggest fraud to grace the internet. Ponymus is either the best player to play any videogame ever, or, he's the best hacker to never get caught." he explained.

"Nopony knows how he does it, but he wins virtually every game he plays. If you want to know what it is to be utterly humiliated is, this is it." he continued as the game commenced.

At first, the game seemed to go normally, Luna and Echo crept their way up the different weapons, reaching the top three in the game. Suddenly Ponymus started to gain points at an unusually swift pace, soon surpassing the current leader.

Echo had been quiet since the match started, but now he spoke, "This is where it all goes downhill."

On her guard, Luna's soldier was suddenly on the floor, a large banner flashing on her screen, with the announcer saying, "Humiliated!" Restraining herself from bursting out, she saw that her slayer was Ponymus, who was sprinting impossibly quick towards another unsuspecting victim.

Not willing to end on that note, Luna began searching out the supposed cheater. She soon found Ponymus, who was busy lurking near another player, and was ready to take the shot, when magically, as if seeing right through her radar stealth, Ponymus whirled around killed her soldier again, ending the match.

"THAT CHEATING KNAVE!" Luna bellowed, going full blast into her archaic speech, "WE WERE UNNOTICABLE TO HIM! VERILY SOMETHING IS AMISS!"

Sighing, Echo replied, "That's Ponymus Prime, for you." After a moment of silence, he continued, "I think we shouldn't do any more multiplayer."

Luna was still too irate to answer; she was annoyed at the somewhat blatant cheating that Ponymus had employed. Forcing herself to calm down, she finally answered, "We-- I agree."

As she was about to leave the party, Echo said, "You know, I think you'd like PC gaming more than you'd ever like console gaming."

Luna halted, returning her gaze to the screen, the small bars for her and Echo's mic volumes bouncing as they talked. "I beseech thee, what is a 'PC'?" she asked.

"Have you ever heard of computers?" he responded.

Luna thought for a moment and then answered, "I believe my sister informed me of the 'personal computers' that were used by the modern-day pony, yes. These can play these games too?"

"Not exactly, but many games that are on the PlayStable or other consoles are on PC. It's what I normally play, anyway."

"My sister has one, I believe. I could use hers."

"You could try," Echo agreed, "but you would probably like a full-blown computer that's meant for gaming."

"Where would we-- I find one?"

"I could show you," he suggested hesitantly. "There's an electronic store near where I live that could fit you out nicely with a gaming computer. We could meet there."

"Perhaps," Luna said warily, she wasn't fully sure with how he was coming on. "But I would need to know where that is."

"Right! Can't believe I forgot. I live in Canterlot." he exclaimed. He told her where the store was. "If you feel uncomfortable, I'm sorry," he continued. "I'm not the best at social situations. If you want, you can bring a couple of royal guards, I won't mind."

"I understand," Luna answered. "I felt the same when I returned. But I will heed your advice about the guards."

Echo bid a farewell and signed off. Luna sat on her bed for another minute before her hoofmaid entered the room again, "Your majesty," she said, forgoing the usual bow. "Your sister demands your presence on the balcony."

Chapter 5: Game Break!

Luna stepped onto the balcony, followed by her hoofmaid. Standing and watching the bustle of Canterlot below was Princess Celestia. She turned to face the pair and dismissed the servant.

"You wanted to see me, dear sister." Luna said, noticing with confusion that sky was already well into the night.

"Yes Luna. I wanted to discuss your new love for video games," Celestia replied hesitantly. "It seems to already have interfered with your duties as princess."

"It was thee who raised the moon?" Luna asked, walking to the railing of the balcony.

"Do you know what time it is, Luna?" Celestia continued. After Luna remained silent, she explained, "It's after midnight. When you didn't raise the moon after I waited a generous time, I had to do it for you. I assume that entire time you were on your PlayStable?"

Taken aback, Luna said, "It only felt like a short time, Tia. I had only played one game with Echo, or was it three or four?"

"Echo?" Celestia queried. Luna told how she and the others met Test4Echo and how he invited her to meet at an electronics store. "Luna," Celestia said concernedly. "You need to be more careful when making friends over a game like Mares of Duty."

"But he seemed a kind soul and true in his intentions." Luna explained.

"Then he would be a rare case." Celestia came up to Luna and wrapped a wing around her, "I just want to watch out for my little sister. You've been gone for so long and still need to learn much about modern society."

"I can watch out for myself, Tia," Luna pulled away from her sister's embrace. "I don't need you to look out for me every day." She stormed off the balcony, and made her way back to her bedroom.

She entered and flopped on her bed which had just been remade by her hoofmaid, the mare sighing in resignation as she left the princess for the night.

***

"Are you sure about this, your majesty?" one of the two night guards asked Luna as she climbed onto her personal chariot.

"Yea. My mind is made." she replied as she sat down on the chariot.

As Luna was about to order the guards to take off, her hoofmaid that told her of Celestia's summoning the night before dashed towards the chariot. "Wait! Wait for me!" she called, running up to the side of the chariot, gasping for air.

Luna sighed, glancing at the maroon-colored mare, "Why dost thou want to come with us?"

"I--*gasp*-- want to make sure--*wheeze*-- you don't do anything drastic." the hoofmaid answered, still winded.

Saying nothing, Luna turned her gaze back to the two guards, and gestured for her hoofmaid to climb up. After her hoofmaid clambered up, Luna told the guards to take off. She turned back to face the other mare, "What is thy true reason for coming?" she asked.

Wincing slightly, her hoofmaid asked, "Was it that obvious?" She continued, "Your sister wanted me to protect you and watch over you; she doesn't approve of your meeting somepony you only met last night on a video game."

"Dost she not know that I have learned much about modern society?" Luna huffed, glaring at her hoofmaid. "I am cautious myself."

"Bringing the guards was this 'Test4Echo's' idea she told me," the hoofmaid replied, brushing her dark purple mane out of her face. "She felt that if he didn't suggest that, you wouldn't have taken any."

Luna didn't reply. She merely glared ahead. After a moment, she asked, "What is thy name?"

Surprised, her hoofmaid answered, "Nightshine, your majesty."

"Well, Nightshine, I am not amused by my sister's actions, but I am not surprised. We shall see how this meeting proceeds." Luna stated as the guards began their descent towards the store that she was meeting her new acquaintance.

Ponies stared in awe and shock as Luna and her entourage descended to the street below, the dark-colored ponies an unusual sight to the Canterlot citizens.

As Luna stepped off the chariot, a bright tan stallion began running towards her. "Princess Luna!" he called, stopping short and taking a step back as Luna's two guards defensively stood in front of her. Giving a nervous bow, the stallion said, "It's me, your majesty: Test4Echo."

Luna ordered her guards to stand down, and walked up to the still prostrate Echo, "Rise, fair Echo. Thou needest not be so formal."

Echo shakily rose to his hooves, a few beads of sweat forming on his face as he avoided her gaze, "T-thank you, your majesty. But, I suppose I should say that me real name is Resonance."

"You may just call us--me, Lu--" Luna began before Nightshine burst in front of her to glower at Resonance.

"Look buster, I've got my eye on you. If you make one move on her, Celestia help you." she threatened, her brown eyes shooting daggers.

Resonance cringed, "Some way to greet a pony."

Luna pushed Nightshine to side with an annoyed hoof, the latter still glaring at the dark-maned stallion, "I am sorry for Nightshine. My sister has made her point that she doesn't fully trust ponies I might meet on video games."

Gulping slightly, he replied, "Um. O-okay. No problem." He shifted his gaze back and forth between the two guards and Nightshine. "H-how about we go inside?" he suggested.

"Very well." Luna agreed and stationed her guards outside the entrance to the electronics store. Inside, Luna stopped at the sight. Everywhere there was some kind of electronic. Rows and rows of different appliances, televisions, video games, and many other things that she had never seen, filled the majority of the space in the building.

"--Luna!" Luna shook her head. Looking over at Resonance, she asked, "What?"

"I wouldn't recommend getting drool on the entrance." he stated, pointing to the growing pool on the floor.

Luna realized that her mouth was open with her tongue hanging out. Meeting a few odd gazes from customers, she returned her mouth to its proper position, and slowly began to search the store.

"Cleanup at the main entrance: bring a mop." a tired voice said over the PA system.

The two other ponies followed Luna as she inspected the different aisles, Resonance trying to keep stride with the longer legged princess. "Unless you're in the market for a new washing machine, princess," he said, "you won't find anything of use in this aisle."

"Then direct me to where they keep their... computers." Luna answered, meeting his blue eyes.

"Then follow me." he stated, breaking away and trotting towards an aisle with many rectangular cases and small TV screens.

Luna followed, Nightshine warily in tow. Resonance was in conversation with a salespony, who took one look at Luna and fainted. She wasn't sure if it was from fear or surprise.

"You need to stop doing that to ponies," he sighed, shaking his head. "Luckily I have an idea with what would suit a first time gamer."

The statement fell on deaf ears. Luna was currently staring, enraptured by one of the computers. She read the piece of paper that was beside it, listing its hardware specifications with such terms that she had never heard of like RAM or CPU. Turning back to the pair, she elatedly cried, "We desire this one."

As Resonance inspected it, he almost fell to the floor, a shocked expression on his face. "This machine is five thousand bits!" he yelled in surprise.

Luna only stared in awe at the computer. She was mesmerized by its shiny, black exterior, its blue glow as it ran, and its sharp, crystal-clear screen. Continuing to block out both Nightshine's and Resonance's protests and argument, Luna began trying to figure out how the computer worked.

"--It wasn't my fault!" Resonance was protesting to Nightshine. "How was I supposed to know that Princess Luna would go straight for the most expensive computer currently on the market?"

"It was your suggestion that she come here instead of her royal duties." the other accused.

"And that's my fault? I didn't know that she was only introduced to video games, and perhaps has a slight addiction to them!" he shot back.

"Really? Beca--"

"Enough!" Luna cried, snapping the two bickering ponies out of their argument. "WE ARE BUYING THIS MACHINE! AND THAT IS FINAL!" she boomed, the nearby shelves shaking with the sound waves.

Resonance blinked. "Yes, your majesty. I suppose we shall."

A nervous attendant stepped up to the group, "M-may I help y-you ponies with anything?"

"Yes, citizen," Luna answered. "We are buying this wonderful piece of equipment--" she pointed to the pricey electronic, "--and will putting it on hold. We have yet to fully peruse your fine establishment."

Swallowing slightly, the salespony levitated down a box, and walked towards one of the checkout counters at the front of the store.

"Well," Resonance quipped. "That went swimmingly."

Nightshine only glared at him while Luna said, "Continue, fair Resonance, to show us the way around this store."

Without replying, he started off towards an aisle not far from where the computers were. This new aisle was cluttered with ponies looking at boxes of many different video games, more than Luna could have imagined.

Making sure that her jaw wasn't hanging open, Luna followed Resonance as he pushed through the ponies in the aisle, stopping at the far end and grabbing a box with his mouth. Luna looked at the box art: it was a bust of a mutated mare, her mane changed to that of insect-like tentacles. Its title read: Ponycraft 2: Mind of the Horde.

Resonance brought out a similar styled box, this time the bust of a stallion in a robotic suit, the title of which was Pegasi of Liberty. Putting down the two boxes, Resonance explained, "This is probably one of the best RTS games on the market. Once you start, you won't want to stop."

Nightshine huffed. Luna surmised that her maid wasn't overly impressed by the latter statement. "RTS?" she asked.

"Real-Time Strategy?" Resonance probed. At the blank look from Luna, he said flatly, "It's like chess."

"Oh!" Luna nodded her head in understanding, before another video game caught her eye.

The box in question said that its title was Pony Wars: Republic in Turmoil. She recognized one of the figures on the box art: it was she as Nightmare Moon; her alter-ego's ominous visage in a maniacal sneer, offset by its background position as massive quadruped walkers marched on a poorly defended trench of ponies with flying wedge-shaped vehicles raced against the walkers, the battle under a similar one in space.

Barely noticing that Resonance had walked up beside her with a slightly concerned look on his face, Luna was slowly beginning to work into a fury at the cover's use of Nightmare Moon's image after her final freedom from that monster.

Before she could launch into a tirade, Resonance said, "You shouldn't get riled up by that. It's based off a movie series that started well before you returned.

"In fact," he continued, "you could say that the final of the first three films put you in a good light. I could show you them."

"Not a chance, bub," Nightshine interrupted, knocking him back from Luna slightly. "You're lucky enough you got her to come with you to get all this stuff already."

"Okay, okay," he retorted. "It was just a suggestion."

Sufficiently calmed down, Luna floated out a copy of Republic in Turmoil over to Nightshine who grudgingly floated it herself into the hamper that was already holding the two game boxes. "We shall give the game the benefit of the doubt." she stated, and started to make her way to the checkout counter.

Running to catch up with Luna, Resonance asked, "Three games? That's it? Are you sure you don't want more?"

Luna shot a look at Resonance, who brushed part of his short, spiky mane back in nervousness, "At this moment, I only need a small portion of games. I will meet you online in this... Ponycraft later.

"Wait!" he called back. "Do you, or anypony for that matter, know how to set up a computer?"

Staring back, she said, "Surely thou aren't implying that it would be much hassle?"

He nodded. "It can be a bit of a pain, I could help, but..." he shrugged and gestured towards Nightshine. "Another way I could help is that you could call me on the phone when you're ready to set up and I could walk you through it."

"Phone? As in a telephone?" Luna asked, slightly confused.

After Resonance facehoofed, he said, "You do have a telephone?"

Luna didn't answer.

"Come on," he beckoned. "Let's get you a phone then."

***

Luna and Nightshine finally left the electronic store after a time of Luna trying to decide of which phone she should get. Resonance bid farewell and parted from the group.

Ordering her guards to carry the box containing her computer and peripheral equipment for it, Luna stepped onto the chariot and secured the box with her magic.

They took off, the gathered ponies gawking at their departure. Resonance shook his head and trotted off, muttering to himself, "I can't believe that she didn't even know how those phones worked."

***

A short time later, Luna and her escort landed outside Canterlot Castle. Luna observed that Celestia was waiting outside the main gate, watching the guards finalize their landing. She grabbed her computer's container with her magic and hopped off the chariot, followed closely by Nightshine who was levitating the bag that held her new telephone.

"Luna," Celestia began as her sister pushed past her towards the courtyard.

"We do not want to hear thy excuses, sister." Luna curtly replied, avoiding her sister's gaze.

"Luna. I just want to say that I'm sorry. I was being too harsh with you about your acquaintances from the internet." Celestia paused, thinking on what to say next. "Perhaps I too, am just as needing to learn about modern Equestria."

Luna sighed and turned towards Celestia, "We accept your apology. However, the use of one of our hoofmaids to spy on our doings was most aggravating."

Celestia winced. "You found out about that?"

"Tis not hard when we have the verbal presence."

"I regret that I had to do that, Luna. But I had to make sure, and... I still need to make sure. At the moment Nightshine will still watch over your meetings with other ponies you meet on the internet." Celestia said, staring at the ground. "Perhaps it is because of foul encounters before."

Jumping back slightly, Luna asked, "You have met others on the internet?"

"I do have a connection don't I?" Celestia replied. "Yes, I have tried meeting other ponies via the internet before. You must have had better luck than I: mine never went well."

For a moment, Luna was silent. Finally she said, "We-- I did not know that, Tia. I suppose I should not have been so defensive last night. Will you forgive me also?"

Embracing her sister with her wings, Celestia replied, "Yes, Luna. I will."

***

Luna entered her quarters, Nightshine in tow. The latter began unpacking Luna's new telephone from its box, and began installing it on Luna's bedstead. Luna started to unpack her new computer, taking out the sleek frame, and setting it beside her PlayStable and TV.

Nightshine sighed, "There. It's installed. Now all we need to do get an actual number."

Luna asked innocently, "Doth it not already come with its number?"

"No, your majesty. It needs to be hooked into a phone company's phone plan. You did get somepony to come by and activate it and give you a phone number, right?"

At Luna's silence, Nightshine groaned, "This is going to be a long night."

***

"Well," the operator on the other line said to Luna. "You should be all set up. Would you like to upgrade to an advanced package?"

"Nay, we haven't even tried the service you gave us," Luna deadpanned. "Why would we need to upgrade?"

"Um..." the operator mumbled in thought.

"Farewell." Luna said as she lowered Celestia's phone. Inconvenient for a pony to come and set up her phone, she had merely found the number of the company most of the castle used for their telephones and had set it up with the help of a service operator.

Walking back to her room, Luna grabbed her phone with her magic, the dial tone being a welcome sound to her ears. She put the phone back on its cradle, dismissed Nightshine for the evening, and continued to unpack her computer. She dug out the monitor that was bundled with it, along with speakers and cables.

She also grabbed another box from the bag from the electronic store. Apparently her headset that came with her PlayStable was incompatible with computers, so Resonance found one that he recommended while she was deciding on which phone she would buy.

Taking one look at the bundle of wires, she grabbed the phone again and whipped out a piece of paper that Nightshine had left with Resonance's own phone number. She dialed the number and waited for him to pick up.

"Hello," she heard him say. Before she could speak, he cut her off, "You have reached Resonance, gamer extraordinaire. If you have called for my autograph please leave your name and number and I will get back to you as soon as my busy schedule allows." A shrill beep exploded in her ear. Afterwards she snapped into the phone, "Resonance, this is thy ruler, Princess Lu--"

"Luna?" Resonance asked rather sheepishly. "Um... Sorry about that. I never really get called by anypony, I guess I made that recording a while ago when I wasn't in the best of moods. Are you calling for help with your computer?"

"Yes," she huffed. "The many cables are confusing."

"Okay. Now just follow what I say: find the cable that is marked as the power cord. It should be separate."

Luna found said cord, and levitated it up, waiting for what he would say next.

"Now," he continued. "Plug it into the socket on your computer that looks like it would snugly fit the non-pointed end. You might need to use your mouth for this, just make sure--" He was cut off by a shrill yelp and a loud buzz as Luna jumped in the air from the large electric shock she received. "You don't have it plugged into the power socket first and that the power supply is turned off on your computer." he finished quietly. "Hoo boy. This is going to take a while."

Chapter 6: The Horde Hungers

"Can I finally get off the phone, Luna?" Resonance tiredly asked. "It's three in the morning."

"Not yet," Luna said, staring at the menu before her. She heard Resonance groan, and a loud thump. "We have yet to try this 'Ponycraft'. We must first play a round."

"You need to know how it works first!" Resonance answered. "Play the tutorials, or the campaign; anything to know how it feels to play it! Look I'm going to bed. I'll see you online in the morning."

"But 'tis morning now." Luna stated, moving her cursor over to the suggested tutorials.

"You know what I meant!" Resonance huffed.

A loud click blasted in Luna's ear, causing her to flinch back from the phone. Had she been talking to Resonance about setting up her computer and games for most of the night? Resolutely shifting to a more comfortable position on her new chair, she hunkered down and began the first tutorial.

***

Humming to herself, Nightshine made her way towards Luna's room, greeting a few fellow servants in the hallways. "Much better than my old job," she thought. "Though it has its weird moments. Why did I have to join when the princess had to be going through a phase?"

"Good morning your ma--" Nightshine stopped in her tracks. Luna's bedroom was a mess. Wandering through the debris-field of anything that could be eaten in the fridge, she slowly crept on Luna, who was gazing at the computer screen in front of her.

Across the screen flashed the words victory, and Luna threw her front hooves into the air, proclaiming, "Ha ha! Thy royal princess defeats thee again cruel Dominion!"

Luna spun around in her chair as Nightshine gave a weak cough, the latter noting her slightly bedraggled face and frizzy mane. "Oh. Nightshine. 'Twas only thee." she nervously sighed, spinning her chair back around to face the computer screen.

"Is not this another marvel of modern ponykind?" Luna asked as the screen faded to a metallic, futuristic bar, and what appeared to be two main characters having a serious chat.

"Have you been on this all night?" Nightshine worriedly asked, picking up the garbage.

Luna ignored her. She was watching the ongoing conversation the characters were having about the mission's aftermath.

"Your majesty!" Nightshine snapped, grabbing Luna's attention. "Have you been playing on this machine all night?!"

Sheepishly laughing, Luna replied, "I suppose so." Spinning around, she fussed, "Wherefore is Resonance; he said he would play with me this morning."

"Forget it," Nightshine huffed, floating the giant ball of garbage out the door and directly into a passing cleaning maid's trolley pail. "Perhaps you should get some rest?" she suggested. "I'm sure Resonance" --she mentally growled, still not entirely convinced of his intentions-- "will be on later."

"Nonsense!" Luna gasped. "I will await for his arrival. I am Princess of the Night. I have stayed awake for many days on end before."

Glaring at Luna, her servant growled, "You'll go to bed and get some rest!"

Luna stared blankly at Nightshine's angry look which was futilely trying to order her to follow her order. After another moment of tense silence, Luna said, humoring her servant, "Perhaps you are right."

Leaving her chair in front of the computer, she looked in the mirror hanging on the wall near the door, and fixed her mane. Then, all under the glare from Nightshine, slowly settled into her bed.

"That's better," Nightshine sighed, turning to leave Luna's room. "I will tell Princess Celestia that you are resting; I'm sure she'll understand."

Luna gave a slight mumble of acknowledgement, and Nightshine departed, quietly closing the door behind her. When the coast seemed clear, Luna sprang from her bed, and dashed back over to her computer, put her headset back on, and booted up Ponycraft 2 again.

"Where are you?" Luna demanded, searching for Resonance online. A beep in Luna's ear accompanied a message showing that Resonance, again under the name of Test4Echo, was indeed on Ponycraft's servers.

Jumping in excitement slightly, Luna messaged him if he wanted to do some matches.

"Sure," he replied back, joining Luna's party momentarily. "Thanks for actually letting me sleep." he said over the party's voice chat.

Luna chuckled uncomfortably, "I'm sorry. I suppose I was too excited. The singleplayer story is beautifully written."

"Yes. Yes it is." he agreed. Before he could suggest a game, Luna began to prattle on about the many things she enjoyed about said story. Sighing forlornly, he interrupted her monologue, "Are we going to fight some foals or not?"

"Oh, right. Let us, um, own some 'noobs'!" Luna enthusiastically answered after her brain caught up with the question.

"All right," Resonance chuckled at her awkward incorporation of some gaming terms. "But perhaps I should be party leader?"

Abruptly Luna was notified that the party was disbanded, and seconds later was invited to a party by Resonance. After she joined, Resonance smacked his hooves together, creating a loud clap to carry over the chat.

"'Kay let's do this!" he said, two large popping sounds carrying to Luna's ears.

"What was that?" she asked while she waited for the timer to countdown to zero and begin the match.

"Neck." Resonance answered, another pop coming in. "Not the healthiest habit, but it's something I do whenever I do a match or two on here: gets me in the zone!"

Luna only nodded her head, and saw the pair they were up against were the Dragon race and the Changeling race. Quickly glancing at Resonance's profile marker, she saw that he was using the Pony race, like her.

"gl hf" she saw Resonance send out. Before she could even ask, he explained, "Good luck; have fun."

"Oh." she answered, sending out one of her own, and beginning to task her worker ponies on the crystal fields.

After a few minutes of game-play, Resonance asked incredulously, "You do know how to play multiplayer, right?"

"Um... not really," Luna admitted, taking her first few guards to protect her first base expansion. "But it mustn't be much different from the campaign?"

"Yes! It is!" he snapped, causing Luna to wince at his outburst. "Sorry," he said a moment later. "I should not have--Wait--"

A pinging sound resounded in Luna's ears, a bright box filled with an exclamation point appearing on her mini-map. "They're breaking down the rocks into our base. Get some units over there!"

Indeed, there were many Changeling warriors and Dragon grunts slashing and clawing the rocks at the back of their quarter of the map. Luna quickly ordered all her warriors to repel the would-be intruders.

"No!" Resonance cried out. "Don't! They're going to--" He stopped, sighing as many more Changeling warriors bolted into Luna's expansion, destroying all her workers in a blink of an eye.

Her dozen or so guards, cut off in the open, were soon surrounded by the much faster Changelings and were quickly dispatched. Trying to help, Resonance sent his much more powerful Praetor guards, outfitted in full body armor, to attack the remaining assailants.

At that moment, the few units that were knocking down the rock wall broke through, the Dragon grunts slicing through the Praetors with ease, thanks to their unique forearm laser-sword blades.

"Give up." Resonance sighed, sending out a good game.

Complying, Luna sent out her own good game, and left the match. When the score screen appeared, she gulped, "I'm sorry. I suppose I needed a quick tutorial of how to play multiplayer."

"Ya' think?" he replied snarkily. "This time, let me tell you a few basic build orders."

***

"So have you got it?" Resonance asked, having just finished a run-through of a few common builds.

"I believe so." Luna replied, looking over the replay he sent of the final tactic.

"Okay. I'll let you know if you need to transition to something." he said, the countdown timer giving way to the loading screen.

Luna gave a small jump. Their two opponents were familiar. The two adversaries' tags were Starswirler858 and Rainboomer78.

As the match started, Starswirler typed up, "Wait. Princess Luna? Is that you? It's us: Twilight and Rainbow Dash."

"Talk about small worlds." Resonance breathed as Luna replied that it was indeed her on the other side.

"Hah! Now I have a chance at beating you this time!" Rainbow Dash said in the chat, obviously still sore about losing to Resonance.

"Fat chance." Resonance quipped back.

Finishing their banter, the two teams went to work, trying to annihilate the other. Luna decided to go for a rapid expansion. After telling Resonance her plans, she went to work, gathering the needed crystals, and swiftly claimed two more bases.

During this time, Twilight and Dash were poking in and out of the icy map's crags, trying to attack where they could.

"No!" Luna cried as the two ponies destroyed one of her expansions. Determined to not lose this time, Luna began building up a large army of her basic guards and long-range siege tanks.

After thirty minutes of game-time, the two forces were still at a stalemate. "Oh come on!" Dash typed as she sent her lesser equipped forces against the hard wall of Luna's tanks.

Luna chuckled slightly. Resonance told her that Dash had gone for a "rush build", and the pegasus's economy and military suffered since it failed.

Dash's frustrated attack on Luna's front provided the momentum she and Resonance needed. Un-sieging all her tanks, she ordered her army to push the weakened border. Resonance quickly followed, their combined forces beating their way through Twilight and Dash's forward expansions.

"That's two now!" Dash typed in anger before leaving.

As Twilight's main base started to fall, she sent out a good game, causing Luna to joyfully jump out of her chair.

Once the score screen appeared again, Luna was notified of two friend requests from Twilight and Dash. She readily accepted.

A moment later, Twilight popped into her party, in the middle of a conversation with Dash. "Come on, Dash!" she pleaded. Pausing, she apparently was listening to Dash's response. After a few more moments of persuasion, Dash's avatar popped into the party.

"Good ga--" Resonance began.

"Not. A. Word." Dash cut him off sourly.

"Nice to see you again, Test4Echo," Twilight greeted. "Princess Luna, you are trying Ponycraft?"

"Yea, Twilight," Luna answered, perusing through the score screen. "And his name is Resonance."

"Heh. Yes, Resonance, at your service." he said as the countdown timer began.

Dash grumbled something about working with the enemy. "Look at it this way," Resonance informed her. "You have a much better chance of winning now."

Luna didn't hear Dash's reply. As the loading screen commenced, she flattened her ears to her skull. One of the opponents was Ponymus Prime. When the game started, she pointed out, "Isn't that the same--?"

"Yes," Resonance replied, groaning in disgust. "It's the same guy."

"Who?" Twilight asked, starting to construct her Changeling's spawning pool.

While Resonance and Luna brought the other two up to speed, messages at the bottom of the screen popped up, telling that the other three opponents had been dropped from the battle. "Well," Resonance said, "looks like here's where it starts."

The four began building up their bases, never once being scouted by Ponymus. After a couple of minutes, Luna was informed that her furthest expansion was being attacked, even though she never saw a scout there.

"Map hacks," Resonance said, sending his forces to help.

As the game dragged on, all four began trying multiple attacks, but Ponymus had defenses at every angle and attacked when they were away from their bases.

Minute by minute, their own defenses began to crumble, and Dash sent a final attack against his forces, breaking through, but not crippling him. Screaming in frustration, she left the game, soon followed by Resonance and Twililght.

Before she left too, Luna saw Ponymus type up, "Don't mess with the best." Her anger kindled, Luna said, "'Tis unfair. How can he be so knavish?" Without waiting for an answer, she closed the game.

Sighing, she was struck with an idea: buy more games!

She pondered for a moment how she could, with Nightshine under the belief that she was asleep, it would have to be stealthy. After a moment of thought, she mentally slapped herself. She knew where the electronic store was, why couldn't she just teleport herself there?

Furrowing her brow in concentration, she pictured the store, and a moment later a light-blue flash transported her to the electronic store.

Chapter 7: Can You Stand the Test of Time?

Luna inhaled strongly. The smell of the electronics store filled her nostrils. She made her way to where the games were held.

Inspecting the shelves, she wondered at the sheer number of video games. Many attracted her attention, but one game in particular stood out. She grabbed a copy of it. Sid Maier's Nations 5 as it told her on the art.

As she flipped the box around to look at the back, a salespony, oblivious that he was speaking to royalty said, "Ah, Nations 5. I recommend this: you won't find a game more fun."

"I thank thee for thy recommendation." Luna turned to face the salespony, who gasped and fainted at seeing his princess. Sighing, Luna inspected a few more games before buying Nations 5, garnering a few more surprised gasps from the staff.

When she finally convinced the cash register-pony to take her bits to buy the game, she quickly teleported back to her quarters and began installing it. Congratulating herself on sneaking out, Luna waited for the game to finish, reading the manual on what Nations was.

After a few more minutes of install, it was ready to play. Luna squealed in excitement, booting up the game and quickly choosing multiplayer. She scrolled through the game's selection of historical nations of the planet's past. Gryphany, the Dragon Kingdom, the Wyvern Federation, the Nation of Equestria, and many more were all playable.

Unable to make up her mind, she finally went the natural route and chose her beloved nation. As she looked further into the stats for her choice in the lobby screen while she waited for a match, she noted that each nation or civilization had some special bonus, along with a unique unit or building that replaced a standard one.

Soon the game notified her of a match and commenced to launch the map she selected. Luna checked who she was going up against, as she chose the smallest map, meant for only one other player. Her opponent was somepony who used the gamer-tag of The Gemfinder.

Luna sent a now customary "gl hf" as soon as the map finished loading, which was courteously replied to. Getting down to business, Luna settled her first city of Canterlot where her settler-ponies started and sent her band of recruits to scout the map.

She soon realized that this was more like chess than Ponycraft ever had been, as both Gemfinder and the game soon pointed out that she needed to end her turn, rather than just let time pass.

"You know,” Gemfinder began in the chat, "you remind me of somepony I had visited only a few days ago..."

Shrugging, Luna continued with her scouting, finding an ancient ruin that yielded her nation a free technology. She pumped her fore-hoof in the air in enthusiasm, hoping that it gave her an edge.

As time went on and her empire expanded, Luna specialized it for building the large wonders of the game, managing to grab a decent number of them. While she built, she sent some of her ocean-worthy ships across the sea, in the hopes of finding where her enemy was.

Abruptly she was warned of opposing forces inside her borders. Snapping her view to it, she felt her heart sink as she saw multiple units already on her small continent with many more coming from the sea.

She frantically sent orders for all her ships to return to defend against the invading land units, but it would take multiple turns, something which her cities with their few defending units didn't have.

Watching in horror, Luna witnessed the fall of her capital, signaling the end of the game. She sent a resigned good game, Gemfinder returning it with a word of advice, "You work towards wonders too much, darling. You must balance your production with military units too."

Punching the air in frustration, Luna clicked on singleplayer, choosing the same nation, but paused on the difficulty. The difficulty levels were classed by rank of state and life. After a moment, Luna smirked and chose Deity difficulty. "This will be a true test of my abilities..." she mumbled to herself.

When the map loaded, she again settled her capital and began scouting.

Soon she ran across a fellow nation: the Zebras. After a brief introduction in his native tongue, the Zebra emperor paused in expectation.

"Greetings, o exalted Zebra ruler, I am Princess Luna, ruler of the night and of Equestria." Luna greeted cordially.

Onscreen, her Zebra counterpart merely waited, garnering no reaction. Luna awkwardly chuckled, remembering this was a game, not real life.

Moving through the diplomacy screen's different tabs, Luna eventually bid a virtual farewell to the Zebra emperor and continued to scout around her now shared continent.

A handful of turns later and Luna had completed her first wonder and recruited a group of ponies from Canterlot to construct improvements to her territory's terrain.

After she set them on autopilot, she continued scouting and soon met another world leader, Frederick of Gryphany. When the diplomacy screen commenced, he introduced himself, and sat back, content to icily scrutinize Luna from the screen.

She tried to negotiate an embassy in their two capitals, but he didn't agree to it on any terms. Shrugging her shoulders, Luna closed the diplomacy screen and went on her way building more wonders.

Soon Frederick popped up again, choosing some nasty words to say to the other leaders of the world about her. Flabbergasted, Luna retaliated in kind, gaining some favor in the eyes of the Zebra nation.

Warily, Luna soon began building a small military to guard her homeland, something wisely done. Shortly after his random denunciation of her, Frederick attacked, already equipped with old firearms and trebuchets.

Luna jumped back in shock. How could the computer be already so far ahead? In contempt, she fought as hard as he could with her basic warriors and swordsmen, but her capital was soon razed, signaling her defeat.

Muffling her rage, she decided to quit before she took out her frustration on the computer. After closing the game, she turned on Ponycraft once more. A beep informing her that Resonance was online.

Almost instantly, she was invited to another party by Resonance. Luna reluctantly joined.

"That was a short rage-quit," Resonance began.

"Thou shall not speak a word," Luna warned. Sighing, she asked, "Wherefore are Twilight and Rainbow Dash."

"Eh--They left shortly after... ya know." Resonance responded. Luna winced at the reminder, stomach churning still in anger from thier defeat by Ponymus. "It doesn't really matter. Want to play a couple more rounds?"

"Nay. I have had my fill of your strategy games for now." Luna replied, staring blankly at the screen.

"You were pretty pumped this morning," he stated. "What suddenly changed your mind?"

"Have thou ever tried Sid Maier's Nations 5?" Luna inquired, looking over her chair towards her bedroom suite's door after she heard a small scuffling in the hall going by. Dismissing it as only a servant stumbling, she waited for Resonance's reply.

"Are you kidding?" he asked incredulously. "Who hasn't? Well, I'm sure some ponies haven't--but yeah; I've played that to death!"

Luna began to open her mouth, only for him to cut her off. "It's an expression of speech.

"So you went out and got Nations 5, huh?" he continued. "Don't tell me you--"

"--played multiplayer once we bought the game?" she finished. "Yea; but we did not expect the computer to cheat!"

"Wait, what? What difficulty did you play on?" he asked, sounding surprised.

"Deity: something that seemed truly worthy of our status!" Luna declared.

She heard a resounding smack on the other end of the conversation. "You did not just play it on hardest difficulty, did you?" he asked flatly.

"Yes?" she whispered.

Dead silence came from her headset for a minute. Finally Resonance said, "How about you try a different game, or I don't know, take a break?"

"Nay, we want to continue experiencing the wonders of the modern pony age!" Luna snapped back.

"Uh-huh. How about I call you on the phone, and I'll help you find a new game?" Resonance asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Your princess would enjoy it immensely." she answered emphatically.

***

"This is truly an odd experience." Luna stated, looking at the blocky, three-dimensional world in front of her.

"That's Minecraft." Resonance affirmed.

Luna tested out the controls. Different from the other PC games she tried, but nothing she couldn't get used to. "I thank thee for helping me understand how to use this... Minecraft's 'website'."

After Resonance explained to Luna over the phone what Minecraft was, he walked her through her first exploration on the internet, something she only used prior for gaming.

When she finally understood how downloading and buying a game via the internet worked, Luna eagerly bought Minecraft and jumped into the game, creating a new world.

Still talking to Resonance, Luna began exploring the underground caverns of her world, in search of raw materials.

"You do have it on easy right?" Resonance asked.

"Thou said that the enemies of this game are easy to defeat. Therefore, we have set our--my difficulty to--" Luna screamed. Without warning, a green, four-legged vertical rectangle with a smaller box head jumped from who knows where and exploded in Luna's character's face, killing the virtual pony.

When her heart finally slowed down from her fright, she heard Resonance trying to muffle his laughter. "I assume you just met the feared 'Creepus Explodus', otherwise known as the Creeper?" he asked, still chuckling at her startled outcry.

Ignoring his mirth-filled question, she complained, "'Tis unfair! How were we supposed to see that enemy!?"

"That's the point of the creeper: it creeps around and explodes on you when you least expect it." Resonance explained. "Look. How about I you give the internet address of a server I play on, and I can show you the ropes?"

Luna nodded. Realizing he couldn't hear a nod, she verbally agreed. Moments later, she was playing alongside her gaming companion, who was showing her around the impressive spawn village.

Giant cathedrals, towers, and monuments dotted the city. Luna looked around in awe; could a pony truly build something so lifelike just from blocks? Echoing her internal question, she asked Resonance about the wonders before her.

"Actually, I helped improve the town," he stated. "Just a pastime, mind you. But I've spent quite a bit of time on this server."

As if on cue, the members who were on recognized one of their own, sending out chat greetings. Replying to them, he also introduced Luna, under the rather thin guise of her gamer-tag that she had used prior on Mares of Duty.

Oblivious to whom they were with; the other members cordially welcomed her to the server, something which she appreciated.

Luna turned her character to look at Resonance's, who was giving her some gear. "Thou hast spare diamond armor?" she asked in slight wonderment. He had explained to her earlier the tiers of armor and weapons in the game, diamond being on top, but exceedingly rare.

"When you have as much time as I do in the evenings; then yes." he answered as she equipped the items.

As Luna continued equipping the items, Resonance explained some of the basic things she would have to learn about the game. "I'll set up an area where they'll easily spawn, and you can practice fighting the different enemies." he said, running to a series of signs with different names on them.

Following his prompts, Luna selected the proper sign and was dropped into a new location, that being of a small rural town. After Resonance spawned in too, she followed him as he dashed off towards a plains area in the distance.

***

"HAVE AT THEE, FOUL UNDEAD ARCHER!" Luna proclaimed as she sliced cleanly at a skeleton-pony who was shooting arrows at her. She quickly brought down her adversary with her blade; her final kill of the night.

Turning to look at Resonance, who watched her battle the hordes of enemies that spawned during the night, Luna ordered her character to make its way up to him.

Sounding mildly impressed, Resonance said, "You caught on quick. I guess you starting off with Mares of Duty was a good thing."

Before she could reply, a notice on the bottom of the game screen caught her attention. "Ponymus Prime has joined the game." it said. Almost instantly, the members began logging off the server.

"Impossible! How did he find us?" Luna inquired in disbelief.

Resonance sighed. "He is a sad fact of this server. He found out about it online or somewhere and has since pestered us every now and then." Moving his character back towards the town, he continued, "Ponymus isn't really as dangerous on Minecraft. He's rather obnoxious and is a tried-and-true griefer, or somepony who gets enjoyment from destroying other pony's work in Minecraft, but he does little damage thanks to our constant backups of the server."

As if to confirm that statement, Ponymus appeared in the town and began knocking out blocks in the different buildings. Charging in rage, Luna brought her diamond sword to bear, trusting in her armor to protect her against her unarmored and unarmed foe.

"Luna! Don't!" Resonance warned, but to no avail.

Ponymus swirled around and magically flew into the air before coming back down and giving one swing at Luna, instantly killing her character.

"I could've warned you that he uses invincibility and other hacks, that's how we haven't killed him, or keep him banned for that matter." Resonance stated, sounding slightly worried at the dead silence from the other end.

Without a word, Luna disconnected from the server, quit Minecraft, and turned off her phone. She sat silently on her chair in front of her computer, staring through narrow slits of eyes at the screen.

Sighing, she took a look at one last game she hadn't tried. Angrily grabbing Pony Wars: Republic in Turmoil she inserted its game disc into her computer. Resonance could wait, she needed time alone.

After a few minutes of install time, she booted up the game.

Author's Note

Fifty-one comments, forty-seven likes, and seventy-two favorites?! What?! :pinkiegasp: This is more than I could have ever hoped for when I first published this a couple of months ago. I want to say thanks to everyone who has enjoyed The Royal Gamer thus far, I hope I can continue to do it. :twilightsmile:

Rush and Pony on!
T4E

Chapter 8: A War in a Galaxy Not So Far Away...

"Impressive..." Luna whispered as the main menu for Republic in Turmoil opened.

The same triangular warships were on this screen. Ensuing at a frantic pace, the menu was like a movie: the clashing fleets of triangular warships and more bulbous warships of the opposing side launching bolts of light at each other.

Luna watched for a few minutes, listening to the music in background, which was a fanfare from a more classical time; dark, yet commanding. Engrossed by the scene and music, Luna finally clicked on the singleplayer button, and the following option of "Galactic Conquest".

After she clicked the option, another menu popped up with a two-dimensional map of a galaxy, with a sidebar of names with differing planet-maps. She had the option of choosing between two factions, the Lunar Empire or the Solar Alliance.

Mousing over the two factions, Luna was presented with a quick overview of the two factions' strategies and strongest units.

"The Lunar Empire was the regime founded by Emperor Moon after betraying the Solar Republic and killing all off the Alicorn Order. The Empire's policy of shock and awe has created massive war machines meant to inspire loyalty through fear: focus strategy on overwhelming numbers, with emphasis on firepower and maneuverability. Strongest units:"

Below the paragraph, it displayed the images of three units: the triangular warship, called a Sun Destroyer, the quadruped walkers, called All Terrain-Attack Titans, and a pony outfitted in stark white body-armor.

After seeing what the apparent antagonist side had to offer, Luna read the paragraph on the Solar Alliance, which was founded to restore the Solar Republic. The paragraph told her that the Solar Alliance focused more on durable units and smart strategies, and displayed their three best units, the bulbous warships, the x-shaped fighter-craft, and a multi-barreled artillery piece.

Contemplating which side to choose, Luna eventually decided to play as the Empire, her love for show and power urging her to use the Sun Destroyers.

The screen faded to black, before reappearing with an overview of the galaxy, the Lunar Empire's holdings surrounded by Rebellion-owned worlds. Luna settled in for a long fight, keeping the difficulty at easy to start, however, as the hours passed, and as she slowly began building up her main armada and army, she upped the difficulty to the hardest setting.

"Here we go..." Luna thought, sending her fleet to attack one of the few remaining enemy planets.

After the space map loaded, Luna's invading fleet of Sun Destroyers and the smaller, tube-like Strike-class warships waited for her orders.

"Yes, commander," the virtual captain of the forward Sun Destroyer said politely.

Luna ordered the massive ship to deploy near an asteroid field that was near the enemy fleet. Continuing orders, she positioned her fleet to flank the enemy as they would attack.

The attack came as expected, the Rebel warships opening fire on the Imperial vessels, which returned the laser-fire. Slowly Luna closed the semi-circle of ships, focusing firepower on the weakened ships. After a drawn-out fight, and numerous losses, the Rebel fleet was destroyed, and the victors decimated the defending space station.

When the victory screen faded back to the galactic view, Luna prepared for a ground invasion of the enemy planet.

On the surface, her initial squads of Stormponies were quickly reinforced by a few of the lumbering AT-ATs. Amassing her assembled forces, Luna ordered a long haul to another capture-able spot to bring down more reinforcements.

The AT-ATs provided heavy fire, destroying a few of the wedge-shaped vessels that dared to fly at them.

"Not today..." Luna mumbled as her Stormpony squads were annihilated by a few of the long-range artillery tubes. Luckily, a special ability of the AT-ATs was that they could spawn squads of Stormponies, which she took advantage of after she cleared the area of enemies, suffering acceptable losses.

Capturing the reinforcement point, she called down additional walkers, and began a march on the enemy fortress. The battle quickly ensued, Luna getting frantic notifications from her troops of their plight of being bombarded by more artillery.

Luna ignored the pleas. Focused on victory, she accepted the losses, and inflicted as much damage as possible, waiting for an orbital strike from her fleet above. Before her units were defeated she brought down more troops for a second wave, flooding in after her long-awaited orbital strike cracked the defenses.

Moments later, the final buildings and units were destroyed, and Luna gained another victory. Sighing in satisfaction, Luna took off her headset.

She turned her head as a soft knock on the door sounded and Nightshine peaked her head through. "Good morning your majesty, time to--" Nightshine stopped her sentence short, staring back at a surprised Luna.

"You did not just spend the entire day and night on that, did you?" she asked, slightly hopeful.

Trying to ignore the question, Luna rose from her chair and made her way to the fridge, scowling as she saw there was no food--her stomach's growling a reminder that she hadn't eaten for a good sixteen hours.

"Your majesty," Nightshine inquired again, less hopeful this time. "Did you or did you not just spend an entire day on your games?"

"Yea, We--I did. I wanted to play with Resonance." Luna replied, eyeing the tray of breakfast that Nightshine was levitating.

Setting down the tray on her princess's bed, Nightshine sighed. "Princess Celestia has requested that you appear with her today in the royal court. It will begin in thirty minutes." she stated with a tone of resignation.

Nightshine departed, and Luna grabbed the tray, devouring the hay-bagel with honey. Taking one sip of the apple juice that was with the breakfast, Luna gagged. The juice tasted horrible. Whoever prepared this meal did not have a good taste in apples that was for sure.

Luna gulped the rest of the foul liquid down, stomaching it as to not insult the chef, although he would probably find a pink slip with his next paycheck. After a moment of getting the taste out of her mouth, Luna turned back to her computer screen, and froze in place.

Waiting onscreen was a battle notification of an incredibly large fleet attacking one of Luna's planets that she thought was safe. Mentally slapping herself, she realized that she forgot to pause the game while she talked with Nightshine.

Climbing nervously back into her chair, Luna initiated the battle, her orbital defense station summoning as many reinforcements as it could. The battle soon commenced.

The Rebel fleet was comprised almost entirely of the bulbous warships, which spawned wave after wave of fighters, slowly picking apart her sparse defenses. After only a few minutes, the Imperial garrison was lain waste to, the enemy acquiring victory.

Quietly fuming, Luna sent her main attack fleet to try and deal with the enemy. Trying the same strategy as before, she was surprised as the Rebels took advantage of the tactic, and swiftly routed her fleet. With her main force destroyed, the Rebels soon started to invade and conquer her other systems.

Watching in stunned silence, Luna wondered what went wrong. The Solar Alliance only had a few low-production planets; how could they have produced so much, so quickly?

Luna screamed in frustration, quitting in a furious rage, ready to throw the game-box at the wall when Nightshine entered, a surprised and blank look on her face.

Staring at her astonished servant for a full minute, Luna finally caught herself and tried to fix her mane, which stayed quite disheveled. "We are ready to go to the Day Court now." Luna stated, her left eye twitching a little.

Nightshine only nodded, and opened the door for her princess.

***

"Are you all right, your majesty?" Nightshine inquired, looking at Luna with concern.

Luna hesitated for a second. She barely heard the question above the ringing in her ears. "Y-yea. I am fine." she replied woozily.

"You don't look fine," her servant commented, opening the door to the courtroom.

"...No Upper Crust, there is no threat of a space-pirate invasion. I will not spend valuable bits just to build up a useless defense!" Celestia was telling a highly confused and maybe bit unstable aristocrat.

Before she could continue with her explanation as why rubber band cannons would not work, she noticed Luna and Nightshine enter the ornate courtroom.

She silently thanked the stars and motioned for the aristocrat to leave. Even though she was exhausted from taking the responsibility again for the moon, Celestia noticed that her sister didn't look quite right. Whispering, she asked, "Are you all right? You don't look well."

Dazedly shaking her head, Luna answered, "I am fine sister. Why did you summon me?"

"You haven't been in the courts for months, we planned this, remember?" Celestia nudged her sister's memory. Luna didn't seem to be fully aware of her surroundings, shaking her head as if to clear it.

Luna responded, "Oh, right." Motioning for the next bureaucrat and ignoring all the whispers about her appearance, Luna squinted at the official given the floor.

"Thank you, your majesties," the official said. "I know you won't be disappointed."

Luna shook her head again. Her head continued to buzz. As she continued to try and clear it, she stopped and tried to listen as he went ahead with his speech.

When he was done his spiel, the official waited expectantly for their response or questions. Luna began to inquire about the proposal, but suddenly fell from her throne next to Celestia to the floor.

On the edge of consciousness, Luna faintly heard Celestia cry her name in alarm before blacking out.

Author's Note

So, shortest chapter so far. Eh, I'm changing things up a bit for the last few chapters, so this was a bit of a transition. Anyhoo, it's kinda funny: this is the shortest chapter I've written so far, and the next is the longest.

Ah well, hope you enjoyed the chapter. See ya'll in two weeks. :twilightsmile:

Rush and Pony on!
T4E

Chapter 9: A Royal Visit

"Will she be all right, doctor?" Celestia implored for the tenth time since the medical team left Canterlot Castle's courtroom.

The doctor, a thin, wiry unicorn stallion with a frizzled mane, replied like he did to previous inquiry. "We don't know what is ailing the Princess Luna until we can reach the hospital and run through all the tests to find out." he said dryly.

Glaring at the doctor, Celestia responded, "I only got back my sister a couple of years ago. I'm not losing her again."

"We will do all we can your majesty." He smirked wryly. "You alicorns are quite resilient, much more than the common pony."

Celestia sighed and looked down at her sister. Luna was on a gurney, oxygen mask over her muzzle, breathing faintly. Bending down, Celestia whispered, "Hold on, my sister. Just hold on."

After a couple of more minutes, the ambulance-chariot raced into the emergency room drive. Celestia, the doctor, and another paramedic hopped from the vehicle, the two unicorns levitating the gurney between them.

Bursting through the emergency room's doors, the trio pushed past the few nurses wandering about, the doctor crying: "Make way!" He shot a look at one of the nurses. "Nurse Blue Cross, get the x-ray room ready!"

"What can I do to help?" Celestia asked, keeping pace beside the doctor and paramedic.

"I'll get you when we know more of what's ailing Princess Luna." he replied, two nurses pushing the doors open to further into the hospital.

Helplessly watching them go through the doorway, Celestia sighed and found a place to sit on the floor, as none of the chairs were designed for an alicorn.

The pony beside her bent away in awe that her princess would sit beside her. Looking at the pony, Celestia asked, half in interest, half with just needing something to occupy her mind, "What are you here for, citizen?"

"Pneumonia," the pony replied, not managing to block a sneeze, which blew right in the direction of Celestia. "Sorry." the pony said, wiping its nose.

Celestia looked away, a chagrined expression on her face. "Don't worry about it," she answered sarcastically, wiping the sneeze from her face.

***

"Luna! Luna, can you hear me?"

Luna moaned at the intrusion of her head's privacy, weakly asking, "Where am I?"

Slowly, her head began to clear, and she noticed that she was on a cot in a hospital. The concerned personages of her sister and Twilight hovered near her bed.

"Oh my little sister!" Celestia exclaimed, rushing to embrace Luna. "I feared I might have lost you again!"

"What happened?" Luna asked, her voice quivering a little with exertion.

"You collapsed during court," Celestia answered, pulling back and sitting back down on the floor next to Twilight, who was looking just as relieved as Celestia. "Nopony knew what happened. You were fine one moment and then you were on the floor."

Exhausted, Luna sighed and rested back on her cot's pillow. Her body ached and felt drained; she didn't need to guess that her appearance reflected her weakness.

"It was a major headline; the news channels are still in a buzz," Twilight said, grabbing a TV remote and switching the one by Luna's cot on. She changed the channels until she found one dedicated to news.

"In other news: PNN News Channel has yet to receive a formal statement about Princess Luna's shocking collapse this past Saturday. So far all that is known is what Princess Celestia had to say on the matter."

The screen changed from the news anchor-pony to a recording of Celestia against the entrance drawbridge of Canterlot Castle. "Currently, I can only tell you that my sister is being treated as we speak, and I am confident she will be performing her duties very shortly."

"Princess Celestia went on to say that her sister's collapse had nothing to do with her rumored heavy addiction to video games." Luna cringed as a slightly blurry yet distinguishable picture of her when she first visited the electronics store with Resonance appeared next to the anchor-pony's head. "The Sun Princess promised to keep news teams informed of any major happenings in the future of this story."

When the pony had finished, Twilight turned off the TV and faced Luna again. "You're lucky to be alive, princess." she stated.

"Why is that, Twilight?" Luna inquired, settling down again on her cot.

"Because you were poisoned, your majesty." Turning her head, Luna saw the speaker to be the same wiry doctor that came to Celestia's call.

After a moment of grim silence, he continued. "Princess Celestia and... and..." He gestured his hoof in annoyance at Twilight. "I'm sorry, what was your name again?"

"Twilight Sparkle." she responded.

"Right. Princess Celestia and Twilight here are the only ones who know this outside of myself and my medical team that identified what was pumped out of your stomach." he stated, flipping through a few pages on his clipboard.

"Mind you, it wasn't a deadly poison; we have yet to decide what it was though," he continued, looking up from his clipboard and trying as well as he could to reassure Luna. "Although combined with your lack of rest for the past few days prior, and your apparent lack of eating helped increase its potency."

"Who could have done such a thing?" Luna asked, shocked at the implications.

Putting in his two cents worth, the doctor replied, "Anarchists, terrorists, rival governments; anyone with a feeling of animosity towards our way of government."

"The royal guards have tightened their security around the castle," Celestia told her sister. "Now that you are awake, we plan on moving you back to it for safety."

"I don't mean to object, princess," Twilight broke in, "but if somepony was able to infiltrate the castle, wouldn't they try again?"

"Your concern is noted, Twilight," Celestia replied, turning her attention to her student. "But this way I can look out for Luna. Plus, her servant, Nightshine, will more closely oversee her itinerary in the future."

"I still don't agree that this is a good idea," the doctor complained, shaking his head. "The Princess Luna spent the last two days in a pseudo-coma from bodily exhaustion. She still needs to be monitored."

"Which can be done back at Canterlot Castle," Celestia snapped back. "I want to make sure my sister is as safe as can be."

***

"Thou were not jesting when thou said that the guard had been increased." Luna mumbled as the chariot she and Celestia rode on landed inside the courtyard of Canterlot Castle.

Patrolling the area with fervor, the said guards looked up at the descending chariot, their numbers doubled in lieu of the attempted poisoning on Luna. As they climbed off the chariot, Celestia said, "This is no laughing matter, Luna. Until this threat is taken care of, I ask of you to limit your time on your games, to lessen the risk of word getting out that you're back at the castle."

"But what can we do?!" Luna demanded, stamping her hoof on the ground. "If we are not recovered enough to raise and lower our moon, and we mustn't be seen, what else can we do?"

"You could read a book and catch up more on modern Equestria." Celestia suggested, nudging her sister along with her hoof.

Grimacing, Luna trudged along with her sister, a few of the guards nodding in salutation. Inside the castle, there was no change. Servants were bustling about, with only a relatively minor increase in guard number.

As the pair rounded the corner of the hall leading to Luna's suite, Luna walked straight into Prince Blueblood, knocking them both to the floor. Angrily getting to his feet, Blueblood yelled, "Watch where you're going you useless--! Oh! Auntie Luna! Auntie Celestia!" He gulped slightly after he realized he just berated his aunt.

"Blueblood," Celestia said flatly. "What a pleasant surprise to run into you here."

After shaking her head to clear it, Luna rose from the floor, inquiring, "What were you doing coming from our suite?" She looked past the prince into the hall behind him. From his angle in the hall, she surmised he came from that area.

"Luna!" Celestia decried, shooting a warning glance at her sister.

"I came from your suite?" Blueblood gasped. Luna was unsure if he was feigning ignorance or not. "I was merely taking a leisurely stroll through the castle grounds, auntie. The servant who directed me back must've been mistaken in his rooms. "

Unconvinced, Luna only stared back at her nephew, scrutinizing him for a moment. Finally, she sighed and said, "Very well. We believe you. Thou may go."

"Okay. Hugs and kisses!" He trotted towards the turn in the hall, blowing kisses towards his two aunts. After a few seconds, he poked his head around the corner. "Oh. I love the new look Auntie Luna. How did you get it?" Without waiting for an answer, he drew his head back and the two alicorns could hear his hoofsteps on the carpeting soften as he continued down the hallway.

Simultaneously Celestia and Luna wiped off the air-kisses they received from Blueblood. Turning back to face the direction of Luna's suite, the two began walking. Celestia asked, "Is something on your mind?" She glanced at her sister, whose face was darkened in thought.

"Yea, I--Well--We are not sure." Luna replied hesitantly. After a moment of silence, they reached Luna's suite's door. Yawning, Luna stated, "I wish to retire for the day, sister. I still feel very weak."

Celestia nodded. "I understand. I suppose I could take on your duties again, for a few more days at least." she answered, yawning herself.

Luna frowned at seeing her sister's tiredness. "We are sorry, Tia, for not taking responsibility for our duties." she apologized, scuffing one of her hooves on the floor.

Smiling reassuringly, Celestia replied, "You were only enjoying yourself. You need to get some rest." She bid Luna a restful sleep and departed.

Wearily, Luna entered her suite and bee-lined for her bed, ignoring that her windows' blinds were still left open. Without bothering to take off her royal regalia, she dropped onto her bed with a contented sigh. After a moment of silence, she drifted off to sleep.

***

"Good day, your majesty." Luna heard the familiar voice of Nightshine come through the fog and cobwebs in her head.

Groaning, Luna rolled over and covered her head with her pillow. Its cushy exterior brought another shot of ecstasy in the form of thought of more sleep before she heard Nightshine's hoofsteps resound on the floor, then stop. After a moment, Luna mumbled from beneath the pillow, "Why didst thou wake us?"

"Princess Celestia told me what happened, and I felt I should repay by making your breakfast myself." Nightshine stated meekly as Luna inched the pillow away from her face.

"It was not thy fault," Luna began, eyeing the platter set on the edge of her bed.

"But it was," Nightshine replied fervently, nudging the platter closer to her princess. "I was tasked by your sister to watch after you, and I failed to check your meals."

"It wasn't thy fault," Luna repeated. "We do not think Tia had what happened in mind."

"I suppose so," Nightshine said, scratching the back of her neck in embarrassment.

Luna nodded and continued to eye the food. "It's not poison, for lack of a better term," Nightshine sighed at Luna's hesitance.

"We are not convinced." Luna replied despite her stomach's disagreement.

"I made it myself," Nigthshine declared. "I'm not out to kill you!" After a lengthy pause and a scrutinizing stare from Luna, Nightshine huffed, "You are like a child some days. See--" she drank a bit of the juice in Luna's glass. "Not poisoned."

"What about our bagel?" Luna countered, pointing to the possible offender.

Sighing, Nightshine resigned herself and took a piece of the bagel and ate it. After a few minutes passed, Luna shrugged and began to consume her breakfast.

"Finally." Nightshine quipped testily.

"Thou art dismissed to thy other duties," Luna mumbled between mouthfuls of bagel.

Nightshine curtsied and left the bedroom. At the door to exit the suite, she paused and turned around, her mouth open as if about to say something, then thought better of it and left.

Smilling, Luna continued to eat her breakfast. If Nightshine did make this, then she should give the royal cooks a lesson or two about how Luna's breakfast should be prepared. Or perhaps it was just that her stomach still remembered what the juice that probably had the poison in it tasted like. Either way, Luna quickly finished the meal and got up, heading to her computer.

She placed her headset on and booted up Ponycraft. When it had finished loading, she looked for the notification of Resonance being online. Her face sunk as the normal beep decided to not make an appearance. After a moment of checking, Luna closed the game, sighing as her memory lit up with Celestia's request to keep her time on video games to a minimum.

Getting up from her chair, she walked over to the mirror hanging on the wall near the exit to her bedroom. The reflection that greeted her wasn't a surprise. Her normally navy blue coat and flowing mane had lightened and become static. Lazily drifting her hooves to her mane, she fixed her tiara slightly, before inspecting her image more closely.

"We have not looked like this since the Elements rescued us," she muttered to herself, remembering how weak she felt after her return.

Out of the corner of her eye she caught a flash of red from her telephone. The unit it was plugged into was flashing a small red light. Curious, she pressed the "play" button on the machine.

"Three new messages..." an electronic voice said from the machine. Luna listened intently. The first two were dead silent aside from somepony's nervous breaths. The third one started like the others, but Luna could make out somepony mumbling something on the other line. "Hoo boy; you can do this..." it said.

After a few more seconds of silence, the voice on the other line began, "H-hi, your majesty; it's Resonance. Um-- I saw the news reports about your-- Oh what should I say?-- Your collapse. Um--" Luna waited as he broke off again. "I-if you get this-- No don't say that-- Um... look if you need to talk, I'm always available. That sounded abso--" Whatever he was saying was cut off as the message ended.

Quietly, Luna picked up the phone from its rest. After a moment she put it away again. She needed somepony to talk to about what happened: in the flesh, not over the phone. Preferably somepony who was outside of the castle and away from its affairs.

Luna trotted over to her nightstand, looking for the piece of paper with Resonance's phone number on it. After a moment of searching, she discovered it missing. Dismissing it as Nigthshine, or some other maid who cleaned the room while she was away discarded it, Luna levitated her phone over, remembering Nightshine telling her when the phone had been set up that it had what she called "call display".

Sure enough, after a minute or two of fiddling, the miniature screen on the phone displayed the last handful of calls she had made and received. Aside from when she had to set it up, all of the few calls she made were to Resonance.

"What do I do now?" she thought, mentally jotting down his number. "This number is useless to me if I do not know the residence it to which it belongs."

Pondering the predicament, she spied a small pile of mail on a nearby table. At the bottom of the pile was a thick book. Mentally shrugging her shoulders, she floated the pile over to where she was sitting on her bed and flipped through the letters. When she got to the book, she read its title of that being a "phone book", or, as she discovered when she investigated, a book filled with phone numbers and their addresses.

"Verily this is a stroke of luck," she mumbled to herself, moving through the pages, searching for the address to fit Resonance's phone number.

After minutes of searching, she finally found a residence that fit the number. Jotting it down in her head, Luna closed the book and paused. "How will I evade being noticed?" she wondered, her eye catching her cloak she used for the cooler months hanging next to her suite's door.

Struck with an idea, she levitated the cloak over and put it on, pulling the hood over her head. Glancing at her mirror, she saw that her figure was mostly hidden beneath the cloak. While her horn was still noticeable, her wings were not, giving her the guise of a more blessed in physique unicorn.

Nudging her suite's door open, she peeked out into the hall. The hall was empty. In surprise, Luna ducked back in and looked at the clock hanging over her suite's small dining area. Slightly after six, as she read on the clock. Obviously Nightshine had let her sleep much longer than Luna thought.

Treading back out into the hall, Luna thanked protocol for the evening time meal, wherein the servants served the nobles and then had an hour off for their own meal. She crept through the halls, being careful not to get noticed by anypony.

Suddenly, she heard a door handle begin to rattle. Searching frantically, Luna noticed a slightly ajar door to a broom closet and dove in. Peaking through the crack, she saw the door across the hall open and a servant pause, muttering with somepony else inside. She recognized the servant to be one of Blueblood's, and that she was across from the prince's suite.

Curious as to what the servant was doing staying later than normal at a suite, she edged closer to the door, barely muffling a squeak of surprise when she knocked over a mop, which clunked against the wall.

The servant whipped his head in the direction of the sound. Luna could swear he saw her, but after a tense moment, he just shrugged and gave a nod in affirmation to something the other pony, most likely Blueblood, said, and left in the direction from where she had come.

Sighing and wiping a few beads of sweat from her forehead, she snuck from the broom closet and down the hall.

***

"At last," Luna muttered as she came up to a small, slightly dilapidated apartment building, squished between two other larger buildings.

Gulping at a few of the unsavory looks from some of the passersby, Luna clambered up the steep steps to the small porch. She peered at the plate of buttons on the wall next to the door, most of the buttons having a small, removable, clear plastic cap which held underneath a name. As she searched, she checked her back, not trusting the way the area looked.

It was a sad fact of any large city, even Canterlot, that there were rundown areas. While she hated to admit it, she didn't trust the common pony on this kind of street. "If it weren't for Resonance," she thought, "we would not be here."

She found the button that corresponded to Resonance's flat and pressed. After she received no reply, she pressed it again. And again. Finally after five or six tries, she gave up and pressed the button for the landlord.

"Yeah? What do ya want?" asked a small, tinny voice came that from the panel.

"Please, I pray thee. Could you let me in? I am here to see Resonance, but he isn't answering his door." Luna explained to the voice.

"Pray what? Is this some kind of prank? He ain't here." the voice snapped back.

"But he said he was free. Also, we-- I do not like the looks I am getting from a few of the ponies on this street." Luna pleaded, keeping her cloak close to her.

"Then go home," the pony stated curtly, "and make sure next time that he's here."

"Please? I will not intrude. I would appreciate it very much if I could come in from the street." Just as she finished, the sky that had begun clouding over during her jaunt, unleashed their deluge onto the city. Cursing herself for not checking the pegasi weather schedule before leaving, Luna persisted talking to the landlord.

"Fine, fine. I'll let ya in. Don't let be said that I won't leave somepony out in the cold and rain..." the voice grumbled. A moment later, a buzz sounded from the front door and it crept open a few inches.

Inside, a cranky-looking, elderly unicorn stallion glared at her. "Follow me." he huffed, slowly climbing the narrow staircase to the next floor.

"First his blasted music disturbing everypony, then his noisy 'video games', and now, puh! Now he doesn't even tell me if he's having guests, and then they expect me to let them in!" he grumbled, levitating a set of keys in a weak magic field.

When they reached the third floor, he turned to the door on the right and opened it. "There," he said. Without another word, he began making his way down the stairs, mumbling on about just wanting five minutes of peace and quiet.

Blinking in the near darkness, Luna activated an illumination spell and quickly bathed the surrounding area in light. After a quick search, she turned on a couple of lamps that stood on a pair of small tables on either side of the apartment's couch.

The door entered through the living room, which was rather sparsely furnished outside of the couch and lamps, along with a single chair that probably went with the couch, and along the wall facing the street, a small entertainment unit that housed an old TV. Attached to the TV was Resonance's PlayStable 3.

Throwing her cloak on the couch, she saw lying against the entertainment unit the PlayStable 3's predecessors. Light from the streetlamps outside cast long shadows against the wall on the other end on the apartment, catching her eye with a small glimmer.

The other room was a combination kitchen and dining area, piles of dishes lay in the sink. "Does he ever clean?" she asked herself as she slid a slippered hoof along the countertop. After checking the dated fridge, which was mostly empty save for a few leftovers, she decided for her own sanity, and as a surprise for whenever Resonance arrived, to clean the stack of dishes.

As she finished cleaning, she noticed a faded picture that rested on the top of the small dividing wall between most of the kitchen and the living room. Levitating it to get a better look, she smiled at the serene unicorn couple and their young colt, who was grinning happily between his two parents. She squinted harder at it as she thought, "Unicorn? What is Resonance doing with--"

"Wait." she mumbled to herself. Although it was faded, she saw that the colt was the same coloring as her gamer-friend, although she never saw the telltale horn when they first met. Why would he hide that he was a unicorn?

Putting the photo back where it stood, she explored down the small hallway off the living room into the single bedroom. On the walls hung large sheets of glossy paper advertising video games, one which she recognized as the original Ponycraft; ensembles with odd names performing with strange instruments; and a few of star charts and night skies.

As she investigated his room, she smiled slightly at the astronomical paper-things. She would have to ask what interested him in astronomy later. At the far side of the room, she spied a computer, whirring quietly quite like her own, only smaller, and probably weaker.

With a final glance, she noticed a few more photos of the unicorn couple hanging on the walls as well as another family photo on Resonance's nightstand, confirming Luna's thoughts about them being his parents.

From outside the apartment, she heard a faint scraping at the door, and a moment later, a key turning in the lock. Leaving the bedroom, Luna caught sight of Resonance, who was curiously looking at the illuminated lamps and damp cloak lying on couch. Luna cleared her throat.

Whirling around, Resonance jumped back in alarm at seeing her. "Wh-what are you doing here?!" he demanded. "How did you get into my apartment?"

"I received thy message. Thou said thou wert available to converse--" Luna began, slowly making her way out into the living room.

"How did you get into my apartment?" he asked again in nervous disbelief.

"Thy landlord let me in," she answered, sitting down on top of her cloak as he continued to gawk.

Not entirely convinced, he gave up on asking that line of thought. "You you could have just called, right? That's kinda what I implied." he inquired, throwing his keys onto the counter in the kitchen.

"We needed to leave the confines of the castle," she explained. "We assume thou hast heard what happened to us--me?"

"Yeah," he replied, carefully sitting down in the chair that sat adjacent to the couch. "You collapsed in court."

"Do you know why we collapsed?" she asked, staring at the splattering rain on the window.

"No. Should I?"

Turning to look at him, Luna stated, "The physicians believe it was poison,"

He gulped. "And you're telling me this, why?" he asked, unnerved at the revelation.

"I believe I know who did it; but I need thy help." she said, walking over to the window beside the entertainment unit to look down into the street below.

"How can I help? It's not like I can just go waltzing into the castle with you." he quipped.

"We--I need to know whether my nephew, Blueblood was involved or not. I need you to search his suite if I provide a distraction." she implored, looking back at him.

"Are you nuts?" he snapped back. "If I'm caught, I could be killed!" Sighing he got up from the chair and moved next to her, before reaching up to the top of the entertainment unit. He pulled down a small, rectangular device with a clear screen taking up most of its length on one side.

"If it'll make you satisfied, I'll do it." he stated, turning on the device. "This'll be able to snap pictures or video footage of whatever you need me to find, though, I've heard about Prince Blueblood; I don't really think he has the gumption or the brains to pull something like what you suggest off."

"He's craftier than you think," she answered. "Look for anything that doesn't fit."

He laughed half-heartedly. "That could be anything."

Smiling, she pointed at the device, "What is that?" she asked.

"It's called a smartphone. Barely use it though." he said, tabbing through some of the menus.

As he showed off its photo and video abilities, Luna asked, "Who were they?"

Taken off guard, Resonance arched an eyebrow. "Sorry; what?"

"Who were they? Thy parents." She floated over the picture that rested on the dividing wall.

"You come into my apartment, then snoop around?" he retorted, backing away and shooting her a glare. "What? Did you go investigate my room too?"

"Yes?" she replied weakly, wincing at his outburst.

"Yes, they are my parents. And yes, you probably figured out that I'm a unicorn--" he ruffled his mane to reveal his horn, with which he promptly tried to lift the smartphone from where he put it on the counter, yet failed to succeed. "Do you know how hard it was growing up in magic schools to learn some sort of ability that only unicorns could do, when you couldn't even knock a gnat away with your magic?"

Seeing her hurt look, he calmed down. "S-sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you." he apologized.

"Thou were right to be angry. We shouldn't have been so curious about thy personal life." she admitted, gathering her cloak.

Suddenly, an insistent knocking rapped on the door. "Open up! Police!" a pony called through.

"If this is a drug bust, the place is three doors down!" Resonance shouted back.

Seconds later, a loud crash resounded against the door, and after a few more, it fell down as two police officers, followed by two royal guards burst through.

Scrambling to their hooves, the officers tackled Resonance to the floor.

Outraged, Luna stomped up to the guards. "What is the meaning of this?!" she demanded, a few flecks of spittle flying from her mouth into the guards' faces.

"Calm down, your majesty. You have been through much today," one of the guards soothed. Turning to the officers who were still holding down a protesting Resonance, the guard ordered, "Take this marenapper into custody!"

Author's Note

Whelp, I'm back. After what? Two and a half months? Yeah, sorry about this. :twilightsheepish: I eventually had to go on without any input from my pre-reader, as this fic has lain finished on my computer for way too long for me to wait any longer. This, by the way is the second version of this chapter: I plan to provide links to an alternate version of this, and an alternate version of chapter eight sometime after I've published the rest of the chapters on Fimfic.

But, because I have the rest already written up, you'll be getting a new chapter for the next couple of days, so there's that. :unsuresweetie:

Rush and Pony on!
T4E

Chapter 10: Boss Incoming

"What?!" Luna and Resonance both blurted at the guards statement.

Shaking her head in amazement, Luna snapped, "Thou art insane! I came here of my own free will."

"Yeah, in case you didn't notice," Resonance quipped testily, "she's kinda moving about freely."

"Why dost thou think that he marenapped me?" Luna demanded, glaring at the one guard, who backpedaled away from her.

"Y-your majesty," the guard said between nervous gulps, "a few of the servants reported this stallion sneaking past the guard patrols, and leaving soon afterward with you struggling to escape."

"And," the other spoke up, "one of the chefs came to the guardhouse and reported he was forced to slip the poison into your breakfast."

"Some of us checked your quarters and the castle, but we couldn't find you, so we were dispatched to follow on this lead," the first one said, warily backing away from his princess.

Luna's mouth hung agape. Resolutely, she continued to glare at the guards, bringing as much weight as possible into her next words. "THOU COME AND ACCUSE OUR FRIEND OF MARENAPPING, WITH THE WORDS OF A FEW SERVANTS? DOTH NOT OUR WORD MEAN ANYTHING?" she boomed, shaking the building and knocking over the two guards.

Rising slowly to their hooves, the guards glanced uneasily at each other, one of them cautiously suggesting, "Your majesty, you are still weak from your attack, perhaps you imagined what happened?"

"WE ARE IN FULL COMMAND OF OUR MIND! DO NOT TAKE US FOR A FOOL!" she replied, knocking the guards off their hooves again.

During this time, the two police officers cuffed Resonance and sat him down on the couch. When Luna had finished berating the two guards, and by extension, the officers, Resonance smugly stated, "As much as you have 'witnesses', I have some too, plus, where's your evidence to me having Princess Luna poisoned?"

"You mean like this?" one of the officers replied as he found a small glass container in one of the kitchen drawers, marked clearly with a skull on it. "It looks like it matches the container reported missing from a chemist's lab a few days ago."

Resonance paled. Stuttering, he asked, "W-w-what is t-that?"

"Looks like evidence enough for me," stated one of the guards. "You may not get a marenapping charge, but treason will stick."

Luna stared at Resonance, shocked, pleading with her eyes that he didn't do it. Meeting her flabbergasted gaze, he whimpered, "I've never seen that thing before! I would never try and upset the monarchy!"

While the officers read him his rights, Resonance put his face to his cuffed hooves, and began sobbing. Luna's mind was a blur. The evidence just found, plus the supposed witnesses, presented what was before her as the truth.

Shaking her head, she noticed that the guards had left the room. After a second of checking that nopony was watching, she snatched Resonance's smartphone from where he left it on the counter.

Looking back at Resonance, Luna watched as the officers led him away, him still pleading his innocence. When the officers left, the two guards entered again, bidding her to follow them to a chariot waiting for her. "I won't believe it," she thought in determination. "I'll find a way to make sure Resonance is freed. This smells of Blueblood, but how will I prove it?"

***

Luna felt sickened, and not just from any lingering effects from the poison. Currently, she was sitting beside her sister, listening to what little of a defense that Resonance could muster: not much given the short time everypony had to prepare.

After a short trial, he was convicted with what evidence and witnesses there were, of treason. At the proclamation, Luna gritted her teeth, and stormed out of the court, Celestia only shaking her head at her sister's anger.

Later that night, Luna visited the dungeons, ignoring the guards' insistence to not enter. Marching down the hall, she finally reached Resonance's cell, the tan unicorn forlornly lying on the meager cot within.

At the sight of Luna, he slowly rose from his position, grumbling, "What are you doing here?"

"We are here to let you know that we-- I will get you out." Luna replied, sitting down outside of the cell.

"You're the reason I'm in here!" Resonance snapped, getting up from his cot and jabbing his hoof in her direction. "If I never sent you that friend request, I'd never be locked up, waiting for my execution!"

"I-I'm sorry. I should not have come to thy home." she mumbled, staring down at the cobbled floor.

"You're damn right about that," he retorted, swiveling to stare at the broken mirror hanging next to the cot. Sighing, he turned back to face Luna, "But," he began, "you're probably one of few ponies I could honestly say was kind to me and was my friend." He slowly trotted up to the cell bars, sitting down, and looking back at her. "I guess, you could say it was worth it." he answered, smirking sadly.

"But that container they found, why didst thou have it?" she inquired, looking back up at him.

Resonance slammed one of his hooves into the ground. "That's it. I never saw it before in my life. If it weren't for that showing up, I'd be scot-free." Looking away, he continued, his voice quivering slightly, "But why would somepony want to frame me? I'm not special."

Pondering for a moment, Luna replied, "Not all of the nobles were happy with my return, perhaps one or more decided to make my life a bit more miserable."

"Who would want to do that?" he countered, moving back to his cot. "Who would be bold enough to do that?"

"I believe I know, but it would need more than my word." Luna answered, rising back to her hooves.

Leaning his head on the wall behind his cot, he chuckled, "You're still thinking it's Blueblood?"

"We will free you, Resonance. Keep thy hope." Luna stated, dashing back towards the exit to the dungeon.

***

"Your majesty!" Luna heard Nightshine call as she galloped down the hallway towards Celestia's room. Turning around, Luna slowed her pace and stopped face to face with her servant. "What is it?" Luna huffed, annoyed at the delay.

"I just wanted to say: I'm sorry." Nightshine said, looking down to the carpeted floor. "You never let me have the chance these past few days."

Sighing, Luna asked, "What art thou apologizing for?"

"For what happened. It must've hurt to see somepony you thought was a friend turn out to be the culprit of the attack." Nightshine replied.

Luna didn't say anything. She glared back at Nightshine, who turned to leave and go back to her duties. Finally, Luna said, "Wait."

Turning back to look at her mistress, Nightshine asked, "Yes, your majesty?"

"We need somepony to talk to," Luna replied, beginning to trot down the hallway again. "We have a few questions to ask of thee."

"Like what?" Nightshine gulped, striking pace with Luna.

"Do you know which servant claimed that I was taken by Resonance?" Luna inquired, looking down to her servant.

"It was Silver Platter; Prince Blueblood's head servant." Nightshine answered, raising an eyebrow at Luna's question.

"And the others who agreed to his statement?" Luna asked, turning down the hall and coming to a stop outside of her sister's chambers.

"Let's see. I think it was Swifthoof, the prince's personal messenger; Feather Duster, the prince's head cleaning maidservant; Balancer, the prince's personal..." She trailed off, staring incredulously at Luna. "You're not implying that Prince Blueblood had something to do with this?!" she demanded in shock.

Luna didn't affirm the question, instead asking, "And the cook who claimed he was forced to poison me?"

"The chef who gave me the meal was a substitute. His story checked out: the normal chef was sick that day." Nightshine replied, still looking unsure at Luna's accusations.

"He could have bribed that chef," Luna mused quickly. "That is all we needed to hear. Thou art dismissed." she commanded, nodding her head and waving her hoof for Nightshine to leave.

Unwillingly at first, Nightshine cantered back down the hallway, looking over her shoulder in concern before turning the corner. Luna smirked. What Nightsine said confirmed her suspicions of Blueblood, now only to convince her sister and the courts.

Knocking on the elaborate doors of Celestia's royal chambers, she waited for her sister's response.

"Come in." she heard Celestia say from inside.

Luna pushed open the doors and stepped into the ornate room. Somewhat unlike her own suite, which was more simplistic, Celestia's chambers were wide and spacious. Along the marble walls stood a few statues, scenic paintings of valleys and mountains hanging over them. At the end of the large room was Celestia's bed, the Sun Princess was wearing a regal bathrobe and quietly reading a book.

Taking a sip of from her teacup that was on her nightstand, Celestia looked up and put down her book, smiling to hide her surprise. "Luna," she began. "What are you still doing up?"

"How could I sleep when my friend is in the Royal Dungeons?" Luna replied with a slightly berating tone.

Celestia sighed, rubbing one of her temples with her hoof. "Please do not start this again, Luna."

"He is innocent; I know it to be true!" Luna cried, stamping her fore-hooves on the floor.

"There was clear evidence that that isn't the case," Celestia responded, trying to hold her temper. "My sister, I know that you are trying to catch up with the times, and I tried to be patient, but I can't continue. The evidence is there, you yourself admitted that he acted guilty when they found it."

"The actions to not make sense, Tia!" Luna protested, glaring at her sister. "There were sheets of paper--"

"They're called posters," Celestia interrupted.

"Yes, posters," Luna said, rolling her eyes at the correction. "He had posters of night events, he was genuinely friendly; I could tell if he was trustworthy or not. Would somepony suddenly change how they acted on a whim?"

Shaking her head, Celestia sympathetically looked back at Luna. "I would like to believe him and the ponies that came to be his witnesses, but,"--she glanced away, then looked back, contemplation on her face-- "the nobles were demanding somepony to blame. They are not happy, now that everypony knows that you are spending the majority of your day playing video games, neglecting your duties. They were afraid that news would get out about your poisoning, and there would be panic from the citizens."

"And that gives you and they the right to condemn an innocent pony?!" Luna demanded, gesturing her hoof in outrage.

"I already said: I would like to believe your friend, I really would; but unless the real perpetrator confesses, I can't repeal the action. A story has already gone to all the news channels: I can't do anything." Celestia bowed her head, mumbling, "I'm sorry, Lulu. But there is nothing to be done."

"What happened to my sister who could do anything she wished? The one who would always push me to do something?" Luna asked, turning her back to face Celestia.

"She's long gone, Luna," Celestia whispered in reply. "That happened once the citizens started demanding a right to have representatives via the now nobility. They hold most of the power; we just sit there to approve things and control the day cycles now."

Turning back around, Luna said, "What could you do if I found the pony responsible for this?"

"Luna, there are no clues to who did," Celestia stated, looking evenly back at her sister. She sighed. "But, I suppose it would let your friend go free."

"We suspect it to be our nephew, Blueblood." Luna said.

Celestia did a small start, raising an eyebrow in question. "Blueblood?" she asked flatly. "You think he would do something like this? I really don't think--"

"We-- I believe his return and Ponymus' appearance are too coincidental." Luna replied, nodding her head to affirm her thought.

"Who?"

At the inquiry, Luna remembered she never told Celestia about her bane in gaming. Chuckling awkwardly, she brought Celestia up to speed on Ponymus and how when she "borrowed" his TV, that she saw a PlayStable of his own there.

"You know you could have blocked his profile, right?" Celestia deadpanned, still not convinced of Blueblood's guilt.

"I must defeat him: I feel I must." Luna stated, before telling Celestia about what Nightshine told her.

"Even if Blueblood is this Ponymus, and even if he was the one who planned the poisoning, how are you going to get him to confess?" Celestia pointed out.

"I have an idea..." Luna said, rubbing her hooves together and smiling wickedly. Without saying what, she left Celestia's chambers, and dashed for her own suite.

Watching Luna leave, Celestia sighed and smacked her hoof to her face before going back to her reading.

***

Luna stormed into her suite and fired up her PlayStable. Booting up Pony Ops, she signed in to her account. After signing in, she was notified that Twilight was online. Struck with an idea, she opened a voice chat with her sister's student.

"You think what?!" Twilight demanded after Luna told her about her suspicions. "I'm sorry, princess, but there isn't any hard evidence to support it."

"My servant, Nightshine, informed me that some of Blueblood's servants were the witnesses against Resonance." Luna persisted.

"But that's only her word, princess," Twilight interjected. "You need a confession, or something that would stick."

"That is why I need thy help," Luna said, grabbing Resonance's smartphone from beneath her wing. "I'm confident that Blueblood is Ponymus Prime, I only need him to confess."

"And I'd be a witness to it?" Twilight asked flatly.

Luna hummed an affirmation. After a moment of silence, Twilight said, "Let me see if Rainbow Dash would be in."

Over the open mic, Luna heard Twilight trot back up to the main floor of her library, and few moments later, she was notified that Dash was online.

"So... You think that Prince Jerkblood is Ponymus, huh?" Dash said after joining the chat.

"It is our belief that he is." Luna answered, throwing off her regalia and stretching in preparation for a long night.

"I think I know somepony who'd be up to whip his flank!" Dash stated emphatically. Dash's mic quieted for a moment, then in the background Luna heard her talking to somepony over the phone.

"...So yeah, Rares, that's the gist of it." A moment of silence followed as Dash listened to whoever was on the end of the conversation. "Princess Luna thinks it was Blueblood." she told the other pony.

Even over the distance of wherever Dash was in her room to her mic, Luna could clearly hear the other pony cry out in outrage. After a moment of yelling, the pony stopped, probably to take a breath.

"So... Are you in?" Dash asked. "Great!" Coming back to the mic, she said, "Rarity is all for teaching Blueblood some what for."

Soon, Luna was hit with a friend request from Rarity, who she now recognized as the pony who beat her in Nations 5, Rarity's gamer-tag that of The Gemfinder.

"You actually already had a PlayStable?" Dash laughed as Rarity came online. "What happened to it being a 'brutish game'?" she asked, imitating Rarity's voice.

"Just because I'm a lady, doesn't mean I can't enjoy a game like this during my leisure time." Rarity replied sourly. "Although I have you to thank for it." she grumbled into the chat.

"Girls," Twilight sighed, "now isn't the time. I suppose Rainbow Dash told you why you were asked to join?"

Whilst the three friends were chatting, Luna brought the party into a lobby to wait for a match to start. Why bother talking when you could play and talk? As the lobby filled up, Luna broke into the conversation. "Can I count on thy help?" she asked.

"Well, I suppose. If you're right about that little knave Blueblood, though." Rarity growled. She cackled, "I'd love to teach that obnoxious upstart a lesson."

After that odd statement, the other three ponies only sat in silence. Dash finally broke the silence, chuckling uncomfortably. "Okay," she said. "Maybe you have a bit too much of a grudge against him?"

"Ladies never carry grudges, darling. But his insult to gentlestallions and chivalry must not go unpunished!" Rarity replied vehemently.

Luna remembered what Celestia told her about the Grand Galloping Gala the one year she had to miss it. Apparently, Blueblood had not made a friend out of Rarity.

"Perhaps thou wouldst be best to stay away from our nephew." Luna suggested.

"I would be good for your team," Rarity countered. "Sniping is not for everypony, but it is something that I feel I am good at."

"Then show us your skills, Rares." Dash said as the map loaded up.

"Search and Destroy? Pray tell, what is this game mode?" Luna inquired, feeling a bit foolish for not knowing.

"You've never played--? Ugh. Just don't die." Dash grunted at Luna's question.

As the match started, with announcer quickly stating what Luna's side was to do, Rarity bolted towards one of the two targets. "I'll cover the left target," she said. Luna noticed that Rarity's pony was levitating a sniper rifle before it dove into cover.

"'Kay. We'll take the other one." Dash affirmed, sprinting her pony to the other site.

The three ponies set up for defense, the other ponies that were on the team inching through the map. After a minute, a few pops of gunfire were heard, and a couple of notifications of eliminations from both teams were seen.

"Hah!" Luna heard Rarity laugh through the voice-chat as a single shot resounded. Another popup on the bottom of the screen informed the ponies that she had scored a headshot on some unlucky victim.

Soon there were only two ponies left on the other team, with the four friends constituting the other. As the timer began to run out, Luna heard a faint clink, and her pony's vision onscreen was suddenly whitened. Before she could react, the two opponents rushed in and shot them down, one being taken in the incursion.

"It's just you, Rarity," Dash cried. "There's one left. He's at the other bombsite!"

Watching Rarity's point of view, Luna saw her jump up from where she was hiding, and sprint towards the other target. When she reached the site, the other pony was gone.

Out of the corner of Rarity's vision, Luna noticed movement. "Watch thyself!" she called. "Thy opponent is trying to flank thee."

Rarity heeded Luna's warning and dove for some cover, bullets splattering on the ground where her character stood seconds before. Spinning around to where she heard the bullets come, Rarity brought her rifle to bear, brought her scope to aim, and fired, barely a few seconds before the bomb would detonate.

With a fleshy splat, her shot hit, and the team won the round.

"Way to go, Rares!" Dash congratulated."That was too close!" Twilight and Luna echoed her congratulations before the next round began.

After a couple of losses, Luna's team pulled it around, and won a narrow victory. Leaving the lobby, Luna brought the three ponies with her. "Thou art very impressive with thy weapon," Luna stated. "Wilt thou accept to play with us against our foe?"

"Well here's your chance," Dash interrupted Luna's inquiry. "I checked his profile: he's on right now."

Gulping, Luna invited the hacker into the party. A moment later, Ponymus joined. Nervously coughing, Luna composed herself and said flatly into her mic, "Hello, Blueblood."

At first, Ponymus made no reply. Finally, a familiar sophisticated voice came through from Ponymus' slot in the party. "Hello. Auntie."

Chapter 11: Match Point!

"So..." Blueblood's voice came nonchalantly over the chat. "How did you figure out it was me?"

"Intuition." Luna replied curtly. She watched the screen as the three Element bearers silently listened, and carefully grabbed Resonance's smartphone and activated its recording ability.

"Ah yes. A mare's intuition." Blueblood mumbled. Luna could see him in her mind's eye rubbing his hoof on his chest calmly. "Sadly, that won't be enough to convince anyone of anything."

"I know that you had your servants do thy dirty work, nephew." she stated with a slight air of smugness.

Blueblood went silent. After a moment, he spoke again. "So you did your research. You still can't make anything stick."

While Luna and Blueblood were conversing, Rainbow Dash was setting up a match. She quietly forced the game to have just Blueblood to be on the opposing team.

"See if you can win now." she gloated as the match began.

"Miss... Dash," Blueblood began, "I would appreciate it if you were so kind as to not interrupt Auntie and I's conversation." His voice carried the hint of annoyance.

"I see you made the game Search and Destroy," he continued, chuckling menacingly. "You must realize you don't have a chance."

With that, he somehow forced himself out of the party chat, and the match commenced. The small arena of a couple of houses provided a quick avenue for Blueblood to attack.

Taking command, Dash ordered everyone inside the house nearest to their spawn, and to set up defensive positions. Luna watched one of the entryways into the second floor of the room, but was suddenly killed as Blueblood's character phased through the ceiling of the house. In an instant, he was on the other three ponies and quickly eliminated them.

"Ah, noclip," he sighed as he came back into the chat when the round ended. "So simple, yet it always gets a crack out of me. Three rounds left."

"How are we supposed to beat him, if always cheats?" Rarity grumbled as Blueblood left the chat again.

"We must try our hardest," Luna encouraged. "Verily, there must be a weakness to his 'hacks' as they're called."

Round two commenced similarly to the first. Again, the four ponies holed up in the nearest house. Crouching again in the corner, Luna constantly checked the ceiling and floor, and was ready as Blueblood magically began coming through the floor.

She ordered her character to bolt in the opposite direction, frantically giving warning to her compatriots. Quickly, the three ponies followed her and began firing at Blueblood's character, the bullets passing through it.

Turning around, Luna watched as Blueblood shot down Twilight, followed by Rainbow Dash. She stopped as she saw Rarity throw a grenade at the soldier, which landed by its hooves.

As it hit the floor, Blueblood's character dove away from the grenade a second before it exploded. Getting up from the floor, Blueblood charged Rarity's soldier and stabbed it.

Suddenly Luna realized Blueblood's weakness with his "noclip" hack. With a quick press, she threw her package of C4 at Blueblood, the explosive itself flying through the character, but the blast from after activating the C4 catching him in its radius.

Twilight and the others cheered as the round end-screen flashed across their vision, the killcam showing in slow motion Blueblood's death.

"Beginner's luck." Blueblood scoffed, shrugging off the defeat.

As the next round commenced, Luna took command and ordered her friends to equip C4 for the future. Holing up again in the house, the four ponies sat and waited for Blueblood to inevitably attack.

Suddenly there was an explosion from another part of the house, shaking Luna's vision. "You have got to be kidding me!" she heard Rainbow Dash rage as a notification on the bottom of the screen informed of her demise.

"He shot my C4 from the sky, and my bullets did--" Luna winced as a string of curses from Dash's mic. Before Dash could continue her outrage, another notification popped up telling of Twilight's character's death.

"He hit me before I could even draw on him." she said. "He must be using something to automatically aim for him." she concluded, although it didn't help Luna, who was jumped on by Blueblood and stabbed in the back.

"It's on you, Rarity." Twilight stated as she and the others watched Rarity's view.

Rarity didn't respond. She positioned her soldier to back into a corner where she there was only one entrance, and waited, already looking down her sights. When Blueblood entered her vision, she fired, scoring a headshot, which took him down.

"Rrrgghh!" Blueblood fumed as the score screen came up. "How did you know about that hack?!"

"It wasn't an original idea or anything, darling." Rarity replied haughtily. Luna could hear the satisfaction in her voice. "I merely encountered a similar miscreant who used the same one to force a headshot only rule on him. The automatic aim was an interesting touch, however."

Grinning at the prince's silence, Luna could visualize the glare Rarity was receiving from Blueblood. He remained silent even until the next round began, when he grumbled a curse and forced his way out of the chat again.

Rainbow Dash told everyone that this was the last round for this spawn before their sides would switch. As the squad again fortified in the nearby house, Luna hoped that they could take down Blueblood again, as it be would much harder to force him to attack when he was the one planting the bomb in the match, not them.

Waiting expectantly, the four were taken off guard when bullets began flying through the floor of the second floor. Nimbly Luna sprang from her position and dodged the bullets that flew with no penalty through the floor, rushing down to the floor below.

She raised her weapon as she entered the living room, but was suddenly shot down from a single pair of bullets that punched through the adjacent wall. "His bullets kill instantly and are not hindered by walls and floors." she warned her teammates.

Futilely, the team's remaining members tried to charge Blueblood, who was content to just wait outside and take down each one through a wall or when they came out.

Laughing, the prince taunted, "That was like taking candy from a foal!"

"What are we to do now?" Luna asked as the round began, switching spawns and objectives.

"I dunno," Dash replied. "It's not like we can just openly attack."

"I'm coming for you!" they heard Blueblood jeer as he jumped into the chat for a moment.

"Wait, where's Rarity?" Twilight asked, whirling her character from left to right.

Suddenly, the victory screen appeared, followed by the killcam, which showed that Rarity had broke off from the beginning and waited for Blueblood to show himself to attack. On the screen, it merely showed that she took aim and fired when his head appeared for a moment, ending the round.

"No!" Blueblood screamed. "You have got to be joking!"

As the next match began, Luna and the others grew concerned at his inactivity. Seconds later, Twilight and the other Element bears disappeared from the map.

In alarm, Luna tried to sprint towards where Rarity was watching out the window a moment ago. Surprisingly, her character was stuck in a set place, constantly stuttering back and forth in a small area.

"What's happening?" she demanded fearfully.

Through some breaks in communication, Twilight told Luna that they had been booted from the match because of too much lag, yet she was still in it. A moment later, Luna's soldier was on the floor, shot by Blueblood.

The prince let out a small chuckle, which was unhindered by the lag that Luna was enduring. "Tie game, Auntie," he taunted. "Time to finish this!"

Luna glared at the screen. She wouldn't let Blueblood beat her again; not here, not now. "We are not incapable, nephew." she snapped back at Blueblood.

Chuckling again, Blueblood replied, "We'll see..."

Again, the sides swapped, and Luna was left alone in the field against Blueblood. "What is keeping you from joining?!" she demanded at her teammates.

Clearly heard now, Twilight told her that the three ponies were being blocked from joining back in. Blueblood had set up some kind of firewall against them. They couldn't even observe.

Luna focused back on her game. Without her team backing her up, she was left relatively defenseless. Gulping, she set up in the bedroom of the spawn house.

"Oh come on, Auntie," Blueblood sighed. "Let's fight this out pony to pony."

From the other end of the map, Luna heard a gunshot, followed by a red dot appear on her miniature map in the top left corner for a second. "Meet me in the middle if you ever want to finish the game." he told her with a slightly sinister tone.

Resigning herself, Luna crept out from where she was fortified, and went to the middle, a short distance away. She found cover behind a small chariot that was parked in the driveway of the house.

Suddenly, a grenade came sailing over the chariot. Luna dove away a moment before it exploded. Seeing Blueblood as her character rose, she aimed and fired, only for her character to start jittering in an area again.

"Did you really think I'd be that stupid, Auntie?" Blueblood asked, casually sauntering his character to a short distance in front of hers. "Tricking you was almost as easy as fooling the nobility of your friend's guilt."

Luna levitated up Resonance's smartphone, getting it to an angle where it could more easily record Blueblood's voice from the television. "Why wouldst thou do such a thing?" she demanded, faking shock. "Was thy upbringing for not?"

"What? Me, being second fiddle to Celestia the entire time?" Blueblood snapped in reply. Laughing heartily, he continued, "Yes, I had my servants provide false witnesses, and I had that flask of poison planted in that commoner's residence. But you know what? I did it for a good reason!"

No longer faking her surprise, Luna inquired, "What would move you do such a thing?"

His character still observing Luna's soldier's random flailing, Blueblood's tone dropped to a hiss. "I eventually figured that I would have to deal with being the next in line for the rest of my life, always waiting, but never getting to the throne that I deserved due to Auntie Celestia's long life," he growled.

"And then you showed up; popping in out of the blue from Celestia-knows-where, and getting restored to your position: something that should have been mine!" he spat in indignation. "And now, I am behind Princess Lovey-Dovey, Mi Amore Cadenza." As he uttered Cadance's full name, he raised his voice's pitch in a mocking tone.

Grinning, Luna egged Blueblood to rant more, still recording the prince's tirade. "This will get him for sure." she congratulated herself.

"Where the hell did she even come from anyhow?" Blueblood complained, still on the topic of Cadance.

In-game, Luna was trying to get her character to fire on Blueblood's soldier, acting as if she was still frantically trying to escape from whatever it was that was causing her to move uselessly.

"Awe... You can't escape a lag switch Auntie," Blueblood cooed sardonically. "Just like you won't be able to stop what I plan to do!" He laughed maniacally.

"And what is that?" Luna asked, genuinely curious, inwardly laughing at Blueblood's foolishness for talking so much. Still recording, she waited for his answer.

"To take what's rightfully mine!" he declared in a matter-of-fact air.

"That is?"

"What do you think? Idiot," he mumbled in contempt. "My throne, that's what!"

"Thou art insane! Our sister would never let you--" Luna protested, although she at the same time wished for him to continue: all the more for Celestia to hear.

"Oh really? You're not in the highest favor with the nobility right now, what with your 'friend' in their eyes committing treason, and your blinding addiction to video games; it wouldn't be that hard to convince them that you wouldn't be suitable for ruling," he countered. "That would just leave dear, old Auntie Celestia to take care of: something I plan on doing soon.

"Oh well," he stated nonchalantly, "It was a fun chat, Auntie. Too bad you won't be believed." With that he shot Luna's character dead, ending the deciding match in his favor.

"Actually, nephew, I have thee to thank," Luna replied in a manner that Blueblood wasn't expecting.

"Wait, what?" Blueblood verbally hesitated.

Now in the party lobby, Luna took the liberty to mute the three Element bearers to keep a distinct conversation with him. "What is the saying nephew? 'I wasn't born yesterday?'" she asked innocently. As Blueblood began sputtering at her casualness at what happened, Luna found the menu on Resonance's phone she was looking for. Levitating the smartphone, she stretched, garnering a few cracks from her joints, and went to her mirror.

When her reflection appeared, she posed, flaunting the smartphone as it snapped a picture. After checking the picture out to make sure it informed Blueblood of his doom, she searched around for a proper cable to attach the smartphone to her PlayStable. Finally finding one from the bits of hardware left from her unpacking of the console's box, she attached the device and soon figured out how upload and send the picture to Blueblood.

"No! You didn't--!" Blueblood whimpered as he received the message with the photo.

"I thank thee for thy confession, Blueblood. Verily I would love to see thy expression as I say this, however, I can imagine it quite well." she cut him off, managing to subdue a few snickers.

"I'll get you yet Aunt--" he screamed before Luna kicked him from the party.

Unmuting Twilight and the others, Luna bid a quick farewell, eagerly wanting to bring her evidence to Celestia. After shutting off her PlayStable, Luna hastily put on her tiara, and considered it good enough. Without a moment of hesitation, she opened her suite's door, and snuck into the hallway.

The castle at night was deathly quiet. Few servants were awake, let alone undergoing a task for their masters. "Okay," Luna thought to herself as she crept down the hall, trying to be as silent as possible. "Our sister's main chambers are only a pair of floors away; it should not be difficult."

As she finished her thought, she heard the scuffling of hooves from the hallway's turn at the opposite end. "There she is!" she heard somepony cry.

Whipping her gaze around, she caught sight of Blueblood's head servant, Silver Platter, jab his hoof in her direction as a couple of other servants rounded the corner. "After the princess! We can't let her get that phone to her sister!" he ordered, dashing towards the startled Luna.

Her brain catching up to what was happening, Luna forwent any semblance of stealth and took to her hooves, dashing up the nearby staircase to the next floor.

From the hall below, she heard a crash followed by a pony cursing. A moment later, she heard Blueblood's voice order, "Forget him: after my Aunt!"

The floor above her suite was dedicated for the servants of ponies directly below. Opening a door down the hallway, Nightshine stuck her head through, wondering at the commotion. She barely had time to duck back as Luna streaked past further down the hall.

Stepping out into the hallway in bewilderment, she collided with another of Blueblood's servants who couldn't stop in time.

Blueblood, followed by two other servants, hopped over the two ponies. "Do you know what will happen if you get that to Auntie Celestia, Auntie?" he called.

Briefly looking over her shoulder, Luna made a face and continued speeding towards the now nearby staircase. She turned the corner and dashed up the staircase, into the hallway containing her sister's main chambers.

As Blueblood and his two servants pursued, one of the servants tripped on the landing, falling back down the stairs. Ignoring the pony, Blueblood and the last servant quickened their pace to catch Luna.

Suddenly, a door opened in their wake, Blueblood barely avoiding it as the startled noble in the doorway shook his hoof at the commotion, jumping back in surprise as the other pursuer crashed into the door.

Luna chuckled as she heard the servant crash into the door. They must have been quickly roused by Blueblood to have all crashed into something.

Sighing inwardly, she reached the ornate double doors of her sister's chambers. Hastily she pounded on the doors. "Sister!" she cried. "Open thy door. Let us in! We have--oof!" She gasped as Blueblood dove into her, knocking Resonance's smartphone from her telekinetic grasp.

The device skidded to a halt in between the two ponies. Instantly the unicorn and alicorn tried to nab the phone with their magic, only succeeding to have it rise a few inches before hovering in mid-air.

"Give it to me!" Blueblood growled, tugging as hard as he could with his magic. "You don't know what you'll do!"

"We are not an imbecile: we know exactly what we are doing!" she snapped back, giving just a hard a pull.

Breaking in to their magical tug-of-war, they both heard an exasperated sigh. The two ponies stopped their fighting and turned their attention towards the sound. In the spacious doorway was an annoyed Celestia, her mane frizzled and wearing a robe with a blindfold on her forehead.

"There had better a good reason for this," she mumbled tiredly, but her irritation was evident.

"Uhh..." Luna and Blueblood echoed in tangent, staring blankly at Celestia.

"Inside. Now." Celestia ordered before trudging back in herself.

***

"So," Celestia said after readying herself and putting on her regalia. "Why exactly did you wake up half the castle for this?" She settled down on her bed and waved the smartphone with her magic in front of Luna and Blueblood's eyes.

"That--" Blueblood began before Celestia held up her hoof to silence him.

"Luna first," she stated flatly. "I've had my fill of you and your complaints before, Blueblood."

"May we have it?" Luna asked as Celestia turned her attention towards her.

"Yes." her sister replied, floating the phone over to her.

"This is the evidence that I told thee I would acquire," she stated, shooting a gloating glare at Blueblood before activating the recording from the device.

As the recording went on, Blueblood began to sweat and glance around the room. After it was played through completely, Celestia shot a stern look at her nephew.

"Well," she began, a disappointed undertone in her voice, "this changes things. It appears you were right, Luna."

Beaming, Luna started to say, "What shall--"

"You idiot!" Blueblood snapped, interrupting her thought. "Do you know what this will do?!"

"We know exactly what it will do. Thou shalt receive what thou deserve!" Luna shot back, her peripheral vision catching Celestia smack her hoof to her face.

"Who else helped you?" Celestia asked Blueblood.

"Just Silver Platter, my head servant, and a few others." Blueblood replied. Pleadingly, he begged, "Don't do this Auntie. I swear it will never happen again!"

Staring tiredly at the begging prince, Celestia ordered one of the guards that were now stationed outside to just bring in Silver Platter. A moment later, the guard returned with the servant, who was painfully placing an icepack on his forehead.

"Now that the two of you here, I can sentence you to your punishment," Celestia declared, rising to her hooves as the two ponies shrunk down in fear.

"But you need the court nobles to fairly judge: this is against what is established!" Blueblood protested.

"This is off the record, nephew," she answered. Clearing her throat she began to speak. "You and your servant shall be tasked with one hundred days of community service. And," --she turned slightly and glared directly down at Blueblood-- "because this all started with what you thought was a smart idea on a video game, you're systems will confiscated to Luna. I'm sure she'll find a good use for them."

Blueblood cringed at his aunt's punishment. Beginning to rise, he started to protest again.

"QUIET!" Celestia boomed, startling Luna at her own use of the Royal Canterlot Voice. Turning to face Luna, Celestia said, "And you. This was partly your fault as well for shunning your duties and wasting your entire time on video games."

Luna gulped, not liking her sister's tone.

"I will personally take away your television, phone, computer, and any other electronics for a month! You are grounded!" Celestia's voice took on an angry mother's tone.

"Guards! Take these two out of my sight, I'll deal with the other servants later." she ordered, the two guards coming back in and dragging the whimpering Blueblood and frightened Silver Platter out.

"I have to interact... with common ponies and... dirt?!" Blueblood mumbled before the guards closed the doors.

"What about Resonance? And why did you not sentence Blueblood to the dungeons?" Luna demanded, shoving her face in Celestia's.

Pushing her irritated sister away, Celestia replied calmly, "You wanted me to take direct action, right? Having Blueblood go through the courts and giving him the same sentence would provide a true scandal for the news companies to get their hooves on. This way we can quietly punish him and release your friend."

"He still deserves worse," Luna huffed, taking back Resonance's smartphone and crossing her hooves as she fell on her sister's bed.

"It isn't as if you didn't cause some disrespect to the monarchy either," Celestia pointed out. "First a commoner supposedly tries to poison you, and then it gets out it was really royalty? The public would be outraged."

Sighing, Luna conceded, "We suppose thou art right."

"Get some rest," Celestia ordered good-naturedly. "You'll have to get up in a couple of hours to lower the moon: I think you're well enough again to manipulate it. I'll make up a pardon for your friend in the meantime."

Grumbling, Luna trudged back to her suite and settled in for a few hours of sleep,

***

"Wake up, your majesty." Luna heard Nightshine yawn through the fog of sleep.

Luna groaned, and slowly got out of her bed. "Why art thou waking me so early?" she asked as Nightshine set down her breakfast tray.

"You're lowering the moon, remember?" her servant replied with another yawn.

Diving into eating the food, Luna ignored the quip. After she had finished, she dressed in her regalia and trotted towards where the morning balcony stood. Celestia was already there, bags under her eyes, but a faint smile on her face.

"Are you ready?" she asked, turning to face the glowing horizon.

Luna nodded and turned in the opposite direction to face towards the waning satellite. Hearing a flash of magic, Luna willed her own to grasp the moon, slowly lowering it as her sister performed her own work. As she finished and Celestia raised the sun, Luna gasped and dropped to her knees. She heard a gasp come from Celestia as well, but her sister kept to her hooves.

Weakly rising to her hooves, Luna said, "We are sorry, sister, for putting so much strain on thee. It was a selfish act."

Smiling, Celestia comforted her sister. "It's all right, Luna."

She gave a quick hug before grabbing a scroll that was resting on the railing. "Go take this to the prison-keeper; it's your friend's pardon." When Luna took the scroll, Celestia sighed, "I think it's time for me to get some sleep. Day Court can be closed for a few days, agreed?"

Luna nodded her agreement. As she left the balcony, she heard her sister order, "And when you're done, get some rest yourself: you need it for tonight."

***

"Right away, your majesty." the prison-keeper said, bowing after he read the pardon. He motioned for her to follow him as he began walking down the dungeon hall.

"This would have been perfect for Blueblood." she thought in contempt as she made her way down the corridor that she dashed down a couple of nights before.

Halting, the prison-keeper unlocked Resonance's cell, saying, "You're free. Vamoose."

"What?" Luna heard him ask from inside.

Slowly, Resonance made his way out of the cell. He stopped as he saw Luna standing in the hall. Shaking his head, he asked, "How did you do it?"

"We convinced our sister with this," she replied, levitating his phone towards him. "We are sorry for thy suffering."

"So was it Blueblood after all?" he asked, grabbing the phone in his mouth before holding it in his hoof.

She nodded.

As the two ponies began to head back out of the dungeon, he chuckled as he heard the recording. "I don't want to know how you got this. Just--Thanks." he said in disbelief.

"I will not be able to speak to thee for some time," Luna informed him. "My sister has taken my devices for partly causing this in the first place."

"Good."

"Good?" she echoed in confusion.

"I need to get away from you and your crazy friends," he elaborated. "That was the most excitement I need for quite a while, even if I said it was worth it."

They walked in silence for a few minutes before Resonance's phone rumbled. Stopping and grabbing it, he said, "Oh hey, they've announced the PlayStable 4! That looks interesting."

Chagrinned, Luna groaned, "No more video games. For now at least!"

FIN

Author's Note

Well, that's the end of this story. I hope you guys enjoyed it! :twilightsmile: There were a few games that I wanted to do that I didn't, so I might do some bonus chapters, but I'm not sure. Henceforth, I pronounce this to be ~~known as Darth Vader~~ complete.

Keep an eye out for a Christmas-y one shot in the near future, but for now:

Rush and Pony on!
T4E