Chapter 1
The sound of a pony knocking on a pair of giant gold doors reverberated through the throne room. Celestia straightened her crown and sat up in her throne.
“Come in!” the white alicorn called, taking a glance over at her night-dwelling sister. Luna was slouching in her seat, eyes half-open, head propped up by a midnight-blue hoof.
“Luna!” Celestia hissed. Luna snapped out of her stupor and hastily straightened her sitting position.
Good posture was always emphasized by their parents, as it left a good impression on the visitors. It also made them look like they knew what they were doing, and they did (most of the time).
The doors cracked open to reveal a light-blonde mane atop a mare with golden eyes and a grey coat. She wheeled in a large dolly that held an even larger box, and wore a uniform that marked her as a part of the Equestrian Postal Service.
“Delivery for the princesses,” the mare announced, placing the package in front of Celestia before bowing slightly.
“Thank you, Miss Derpy,” Celestia replied kindly. Luna stared at the package, eyes wide awake with wonder.
Derpy nodded once, and then trotted out of the throne room.
Luna was unable to contain her excitement any longer. She lunged for the package, tackling it with a style that most hoofball players would’ve envied. Luna lifted the package to her face and let out an excited shriek.
“Luna! Be careful! It could be a bomb or something like that,” Celestia warned.
“Oh, don’t be so morbid, Celly,” — Celestia’s eye twitched at her foalhood nickname — “I ordered this specifically, and it came!”
“Then… what in Tarturus is it?”
“I’m not entirely sure, but I’m about to find out,” Luna replied, ripping the brown wrapping off of the box. She hadn’t been this excited since Faustmas, 1057 years ago. She let out another filly-like shriek of joy as she pried the last layer of protection off the mysterious package. Celestia craned her neck to see over her sister’s shoulder.
The package contained:
A small white box
A plastic case of some sort, bearing the name “Super Smash Bros. Brawl”
4 thick white wands
4 weird-looking fobs with a couple buttons, a wire, and some sort of dial
A magic screen
4 sets of differently coloured headsets
About 5 wires
“What the hay is this?” Celestia questioned, levitating one of the fobs to her face for closer inspection.
“Careful with that!” Luna scolded. “That’s a… uh… Hang on.” Luna disappeared into the box for a second, and pulled out a thick manual. She flipped through the pages before stopping on one. “Aha! That, my dear sister, is a nunchuk!”
“A… nunchuk? What purpose do these serve… and everything else in this box?”
“EnterTAINMENT, Celly!” Luna replied excitedly. “You see, I was getting bored with everything because nopony comes to talk to me at night, so I thought that I should search for a safe form of entertainment. I found out about this thing called “video gaming”, and I ordered everything that we’ll need to play it! Well, unless we want to play over WiFi… then I’d have to get a data plan and a good router.”
Celestia was shocked that her sister went to all this trouble to… entertain herself.
“Luna, where did you get this… video game?”
“Ordered it online. Button Mash’s house has WiFi, though,” Luna dropped her voice to a low mumble. “Nopony knows it.”
“Luna, this seems awfully selfish of you…”
“Is it really? That’s why I went to the trouble to find a four-player game, so that you, Cadence, Twilight, and I can all play together!”
Celestia wanted to tell her sister to stop, but why burst her bubble? It was all harmless fun, right? She let her breath out in a slow puff.
“Well, now that it’s here, we might as well set it up.”
Luna grinned.
***
“So, that yellow-ended wire goes here in the yellow-coloured socket in the back of the TV.”
“Like the red and white ones?” Celestia asked.
“Yes, like the red and white ones,” Luna confirmed. “Oh wait…” Luna paused, checking the manual and wires. “Son of a…”
“What are you two doing?” a new voice queried. Celestia and Luna jumped at the fresh arrival.
“Trying to set up a video game,” Celestia replied calmly. Luna was swearing silently to herself and muttering something about “wrong AV output”.
“Can I help?” the pony asked.
“Sure thing, Twilight,” Luna grumbled. “If you can solve this mess of wires.”
Twilight grabbed the manual from Luna and studied it for 5 minutes. “You have the wires in the cable AV output.”
“I KNOW DARN WELL WHAT I DID WRONG, TWILIGHT,” Luna shouted.
“Geez, Luna, keep the volume down. It’s just a video game,” Cadence said, walking in the room.
Luna took a few calming breaths before continuing her frustrated attempts at connecting the wires correctly.
“I can’t do this,” she mumbled regretfully.
“Don’t worry, Luna. We’re happy to help!” Twilight said cheerfully.
Cadence nodded once, smiling.
Luna mumbled a vague “thank you”.
***
“Okay, so that should do it,” Twilight said, plugging the sensor bar into the Wii. She peered into the box, and pulled the four headsets out. They were each coloured with a different design pertaining to the respective princesses’ cutie mark. Celestia’s, for example, was white with a cartoon sun drawn on either headphone.
Luna dropped the drink she was drinking and powered the TV and Wii on. Cadence inserted the disc into the Wii. Twilight turned and smirked at the trio of princesses.
“I’m soooo gonna kick your tails at this,” she said.
“Don’t count on it, Miss Sparkle,” Celestia said, a certain shine in her eye.
***
“So, you have to hit that button there, and I have to get this one here,” Cadence explained to Celestia. They were about halfway through the Subspace Emissary.
Celestia’s character, Snake, jumped and failed to hit the button. Cadence facehoofed.
“No, you have to jump and attack at the same time,” she explained calmly.
“It’s hard to concentrate your magic on pushing two buttons simultaneously,” Celestia growled.
“Alright. Let me get that for you…”
***
“NO! What the heck! I refuse to lose to Bowser again!” Twilight screamed in frustration. She levelled a hoof at Cadence. “I ban you from using Bowser!”
“Uh, Twilight, I don’t think you can…” Celestia began.
There was no stopping the irate princess. “Yes I can!” she shouted.
Cadence smirked at Twilight’s declaration. “If you can ban me from using a character, then I can ban you from using Kirby.”
Twilight stopped mid-word, shocked by Cadence’s sentence of doom.
Luna sipped on a straw, drawing the soda out of her cup. “Seems fair to me,” she added.
“I… what the f… Fine. Be that way,” Twilight said. “I’ll be just fine using Marth then… But I ban Luna from using Lucario, and Celestia from Snake!”
Luna did a spit take right into her sister’s face. Celestia was equally surprised by Twilight’s verdict, and didn’t react to the sudden combination of saliva and soda dowsing her face.
“Twilight, don’t bring us into this,” Celestia started.
“Or we each get to ban one character for you, as well,” Luna finished, a mischievous smirk on her face.
Twilight sighed in defeat. “Fine.”
Luna put her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder, a somber look on her face. “Twilight. I hereby declare you banned from using the Fire Emblem character: Marth.”
Cadence and Celestia giggled at both Luna’s graveness and Twilight’s jaw that threatened to reach her foreleg’s pasterns.
“This isn’t funny!” Twilight yelled, making Celestia and Cadence laugh even harder.
“Wait,” Luna said, once the giggles had subsided. “What time is it?”
The quartet turned their heads to the clock mounted on a nearby wall.
“Uh… 5 AM?” Cadence said. Celestia’s eyes widened.
“Oh my me! I have to raise the sun! And I have delegates to meet today! How does my mane look? Is it perfect? Ohhh I knew I shouldn’t have stayed up this late. In fact, I knew this whole “video game” thing was a terrible idea! My princesses, I prohibit anypony in this castle from playing video games ever again!” she said, before flying out the door.
The remaining trio of princesses’ mouths were agape in shock.
No video games… ever… again? Whatever shall we do?
Author's Note
Um. No comment.
