It was rare that Princess Celestia ended up with time to herself. Her days typically consisted of various royal duties, of which she grew quite tired. Today was completely different, and she was very thankful for that fact. Today's schedule was completely bereft of royal duties, leaving Celestia with the entire day to spend however she pleased. It had taken her a while to decide what to do with herself; she was embarrassed to admit that she barely knew what to do with herself when she had time off. After a nice breakfast and some thinking, she came up with what she believed to be the best possible way to spend her day.
Celestia knocked on her sister's door. Quality time with Luna would be a wonderful way to spend the day. She regretted the fact that the two of them didn't really spend much time with each other outside of their royal duties. The last time they'd really gotten time together was about a month or so ago, and it hadn't gone quite as well as she'd have liked. Today, she would make up for it.
"Good morning, dear sister!" Luna said as she poked her head out of her room. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"
"Good morning, little sister," Celestia responded, smiling warmly. "Being as we have no royal duties today, I thought it would be nice to spend some quality time with you. May I come in?"
"Of course," Luna said, opening the door fully.
Celestia strode into Luna's room and raised a brow. Her room wasn't a mess, but it wasn't exactly neat either. Various video game paraphernalia decorated the floor, and the sun princess had to tread lightly to make sure she didn't step on anything. She considered bringing up the state of the room to Luna, but she wasn't here to reprimand. She was here for quality time, and telling Luna that she did not approve of her room's lack of cleanliness was counterproductive.
"So what would you like to do?" Luna asked, sitting down in her favorite beanbag chair. Celestia found herself stymied by this question, but it didn't matter much, as Luna seemed to have an idea of her own.
"How about a video game, sister?" Luna asked, beaming.
"Erm...I can't say I'm very good at them..." Celestia said. She remembered the last time she tried to play a video game quite well. Luna still teased her about her pitiful Trot Trot Revolution performance to this day.
"Oh, nonsense," Luna replied, getting up and leading Celestia towards her computer. "I have a game that you shall find delightful!"
"Well...alright," Celestia said after a moment of hesitation. She wished to spend quality time with her sister, after all. If this was what Luna wanted, then this was what she would get. She took a seat in front of the computer, grinning as she heard Luna squeal with delight, like she used to way back when they were fillies.
"You will enjoy this game very much, dear sister!" Luna exclaimed as she clicked on its icon. "It's delightfully retro and quite simple in its controls!"
"I see," Celestia said, taking her sister's gaming controller in her hooves. She was no simpleton, but she didn't take to Equestria's advanced technology as well as her younger sister. She'd seen the games Luna played, with their dozen button commands. "Simple controls" was a relieving thing to hear.
"What is this game called?" Celestia asked, as she watched the opening cinematic begin.
"It is entitled 'I Wanna Be the Mare,' " Luna responded. "It is about a filly who wishes to follow in the hoofsteps of her mother!"
"Ah, a game of inheritance and rising to the challenges of one's parents!" Celestia said, smiling. "It sounds very intriguing."
"And quite fun as well!" Luna told her. "You simply press this button to shoot, and this one to jump! And you can jump a second time in the air!"
"What agility!" Celestia said with a smile. "I think you might have found a game that I shall enjoy, dear sister."
"Oh, I do hope so, sister!" Luna said, her tone dripping with giddiness. "Now you just begin playing, and I shall retrieve us some beverages."
"But sister," Celestia said, turning to her. "I wanted to do this in order to spend time with you."
"And you shall!" Luna replied. "I shall be but a moment. You likely will not even notice that I am gone."
"Very well," Celestia said, sighing lightly. Luna gave her a warm smile, then exited the room.
Celestia turned back to the machine. She hit start, and found herself looking at a small, pixelated filly against a brown background. She smiled lightly at the upbeat music, giggling to herself at the cheery look on her character's face.
"This does look like a pleasant game," she mused, directing her character forward. The happy little filly dropped down onto the next platform, and the gap above her closed. Before Celestia could respond, a spiked wall rocketed onto the scene, turning her cheery little character into a mass of pixellated blood. The sun princess gasped.
"Oh dear..." Celestia said, hitting the restart button. "I guess I'll watch out for that next time."
Twenty-three attempts later, Celestia finally managed to land her character in such a way that she did not trigger the wall of bloody death. As she approached the next drop, she smirked to herself. She knew the game's tricks by this point. She employed the same tactic as she had on the first drop, and successfully avoided the second wall of spikes that she had expected to shoot out.
"Hah," the princess chuckled to herself. "This game is wily, but no video game is too clever for me." She employed her same tactic upon dropping down the third gap, and was startled as the wall shot out from the opposite side, once again tearing her poor little avatar to shreds.
Celestia felt her eye twitch as she hit the restart button again. She would not allow herself, the princess of the sun, to be bested in such a manner by a simple video game.
~~~~~~~~~~
Princess Luna returned to her room about an hour later. After retrieving her own drink, she'd opted to have herself a light jog around the palace. Following that, she had decided to have a nice chat with a few of the guards, in order to kill time until she saw it fit to return to her room. She opened the door to find Celestia still seated at her computer. The sun princess's mane was a mess as she hunched over the computer, looking about ready to blast a hole in the monitor.
"Enjoying the game, dear sister?" Luna asked innocently.
"Stupid spikes..." Celestia growled through clenched teeth. "Why are they everywhere? Why doesn't my gun do anything? Apples are not supposed to fall up!!"
Luna smirked as her sister raved. She figured she'd let Celestia get just a bit more worked up before she stopped her and explained her motives. For now, she would just watch. Perhaps this experience would teach Celestia never to fool her with the old "dribble cup" prank in front of diplomats ever again.
