Chapter One - Press Start
“What d’ya reckon that is?” Apple Bloom asked.
“I don’t know,” said Sweetie Belle. “Could somepony from town have left it here?”
Scootaloo let out an exasperated sigh. "Okay, your sister said these hills were full of gems, right? We've already dug like seven holes and all we've found is a broken wagon wheel and this... lunch box."
The three fillies stared into the shallow dirt pit before them. They shared a look with each other and by some unspoken agreement, Apple Bloom leaned forward and scooped up the tin pail by its handle with her teeth.
“Well,” she began, “I don’ ‘hink whoe’er lef’ it here righ’ly cared if somepony foun’ it.” Apple Bloom took a few steps back and placed the lunch box on the ground. “It was, what, not even a minute before the shovel hit somethin’.”
“Yeah,” murmured Scootaloo as she leaned down to inspect their find closer. She prodded the small box with a hoof, walked a half-circle around it and scrutinized the old tin further still before looking to both her friends.
“What are we waiting for?” she asked. “Let’s open it up!”
That got the attention of the others. They scrambled forward and as one, sat down in front of the box.
For the first time, Sweetie Belle got a good look at the faded words printed across its lid in beautiful, flowing script.
“‘Only the Brave’...” she whispered. “What do you think that means?”
Scootaloo snorted. “Probably just a prank or something.” She began reaching for the small box but Sweetie Belle stopped her with a hoof.
“Uh… let me try first?” Sweetie Belle put on a small smile.
The other two knowingly glanced to their friend’s horn and nodded their assent.
Sweetie Belle nodded as well before turning her attention back towards the box–or more precisely, the two rusted latches that kept the whole thing firmly shut. She visualized it first; the latches moving in parallel, the smooth click of mechanisms unlocking and the sudden jolt that the lid would give when pressure was applied to its hinges for the first time in untold years.
Her brow knitted close together and as her horn took on a faint, malachite glow, Sweetie Belle mouthed her sister’s words.
Make it real.
And then the lid snapped open.
“Nice!” Apple Bloom exclaimed. “You’re gettin’ real good at that, Sweetie Belle! I bet you'll be floatin’ all sorts of things around in no time!”
“That was just an application of force,” Sweetie Belle mumbled, rubbing a hoof at her temple. “Levitation’s harder. Way harder.”
“Uh, girls?”
“So what if it’s harder?” Apple Bloom continued. “You keep at it long enough, you’ll eventually get it.”
“But I have been keeping at it. Everypony keeps saying the same thing but the more I push it, the worse these h–”
“Girls!” Scootaloo bumped them both in the ribs. “Look at this.”
Apple Bloom sighed and turned back toward the box. After a few seconds, a confused expression crossed her face. “Uh... ain’t that a–”
“Game cartridge,” Sweetie Belle finished for her.
Laying at the bottom of the tin was a small rectangle of molded, grey plastic. She’d seen them before. Many times before. Many more times than she cared to count.
All of three seconds passed before Scootaloo let out a long, drawn out groan.
“Well, great,” she said. “We accidently break your sister’s window and suddenly we’ve got to bring her a wagon-full of gems to pay it back?”
“Or a hundred bits,” Apple Bloom added in a gloom tone.
“That’s even worse! That’s ten weeks’ allowance for me, Apple Bloom! Ten weeks! I mean, even if we were to combine, you don’t even get an allowance and I seriously doubt Sweetie’s parents are gonna send money all the way from Marecelona.”
Scootaloo exhaled through clenched teeth. “Way I see it, girls, we can kiss our summers goodbye.”
“How d’ya reckon that?”
“Well, we either spend the rest of our summer digging for gems or I spend the rest of my summer spending absolutely nothing to get Sweetie Belle ungrounded. So either way, digging for gems or waiting ten weeks, that’s time wasted on the three of us not crusading.”
“What about bits?” asked Apple Bloom. “We could always sell the stuff we find. I mean, look, we’ve only been out here ‘round about two hours and we’ve already found some pretty nifty things.”
Scootaloo looked over her shoulder to where a rotten, old, wooden wheel leaned precariously out of a red wagon. When Scootaloo turned back toward Apple Bloom, her eyes were wide.
“Wait, does your sister need–”
“I think we’re good on wheels, Scootaloo.”
“Then what’re you thinking about us selling?” Scootaloo asked. She fished inside the lunch box and produced the grey cartridge that was laying within. “This old thing?”
“Well, why not?”
“Because who’d buy it? Do you know anypony who would even want it? Anypony who could even use it?” She flipped the cartridge over in her hooves. “‘Requires a SunRush console’. See, I don’t even know what that is.”
“I do,” Sweetie Belle murmured.
All eyes turned toward the unicorn.
“And I know somepony who’d pay lots of bits for that game.”
The Queen’s Crown
Chapter One - Press Start
“Wait. This is Button Mash’s house.” Scootaloo whipped her gaze between the modest two-story home and the unicorn to her right. “Your buyer is Button Mash?”
“You mean that colt that sits in the back of our class? Ain't he..." Apple Bloom peered up and down the street, lowering her voice, “... ain’t he kinda odd?"
“Yeah, he’s always doodling in that notebook.”
“And I don’t think I’ve ever heard him speak, like, ever.”
“And what’s with that hat he’s always wearing? Isn’t he a little old for something like that?”
“Yeah! And–”
At once, a sudden realization dawned on the faces of the two fillies. They both turned to the third of their group, the one who had been strangely silent the whole way back to town.
“What?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“You know what,” said Scootaloo.
It wasn’t even noon yet and already Sweetie Belle felt like taking a very long, much needed nap. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.
She forced on a smile. “You know, why don’t we just try the gem thing again, huh? Maybe we’ll get lucky and–”
“No way.” Scootaloo moved as if to block her path. “We’re not going anywhere until we hear this.”
“Hear what? There’s nothing to hear.”
“Maybe,” Apple Bloom said. “But then why am I so mighty curious as to why you’ve led us to Button Mash’s house of all places...” She looked to the street and idly kicked at a stray pebble near her hooves before hitting Sweetie Belle with a dangerous gaze. “Who knows? Little filly like me might come to some conclusion that’s pretty far from the truth.”
The pulsing in the back of Sweetie’s head gave a particularly painful throb.
“Look,” she began. “I heard–and I forgot from who–that our classmate Button Mash, has a passing- and I mean passing interest in… video games and… stuff. Okay? Now let’s just get in there and be done with this.”
Sweetie Belle started up the winding, cobblestone path but the distinct lack of hoofsteps behind her caused her to slow to a stop. She turned around only to see her two friends still rooted in place.
Apple Bloom actually looked impressed. “And I thought my sister was a bad liar.”
Scootaloo nodded her head. “Yeah, seriously. The truth this time, Sweetie Belle? I mean, we’re friends and all, right? You can totally tell us if you’ve got a crush on–”
Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened.
“I do not have a–” She paused mid-step, instead taking a deep breath. “Okay, fine. You really want to know? Do you really want to know?”
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom shared a look.
Sweetie Belle took another deep, calming breath. The thought that she was actually about to share this part of her life with her friends was enough to set her nerves on fire and turn the sinking stone in her gut into a solid block of ice. Maybe another breath would help.
She shook her head and began.
“Listen. The thing is, my mom knows his mom. Well, they’re best friends actually. They go shopping together, they go to the salon together. Like, they even went to school together.”
Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. “What, like college?”
“No. All of school.” Sweetie Belle let out a slow sigh. “So you can imagine growing up, me and Button, well… we saw a lot of each other. Getting dragged along by our parents doesn’t happen anymore but my mom being Mom, she- you know, still makes me hang out with him sometimes.”
Apple Bloom scratched her head. “So, er–”
“Ah ah ah ah.” Sweetie Belle raised a hoof and gestured toward the house behind her. “We’re going. Now.”
She didn’t wait to see their reactions or wait for the salvo of questions that she knew they had. Instead, she turned on her hooves and began the long march up to Button Mash’s front door.
****
Two knocks and twenty seconds later, the oddity named Button Mash appeared. He stood in the doorway, drained and bleary-eyed, his orange mop of a mane messier than usual.
“I thought that was you yelling in my lawn,” he mumbled.
“Good morning to you, too,” Sweetie Belle said. “Can we come in?”
Button perked up. He peered over Sweetie’s shoulder and saw Apple Bloom and Scootaloo standing a few feet behind the unicorn.
Apple Bloom put on a smile. “Heya, Button Mash. How’s your summer been so far?”
“Can’t complain,” he said absentmindedly, moving aside to let them into his home. Button stared outside for a few more seconds, a brow raising as he closed the door and turned to his guests. “What’s with the wheel?”
“It’s a long story,” said Sweetie Belle. “But listen. The reason we’re here is because we have something we need to ask you. Can we...?”
Button looked to where Sweetie Belle was pointing.
“Oh,” he said. “Oh! Yeah, go right ahead.”
Sweetie Belle nodded and proceeded into the other room, followed shortly by Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. The latter two treated the floor like eggshell, fragile and frail as if creating the slightest bit of noise would bring the house crashing down on their heads. Sweetie Belle noticed their unease and directed them to the two couches bordering the short-legged table in the center of the room.
As far as she could tell, nothing had changed since the last time she’d been here. She could still see the giant stack of board games in the corner, their boxes frayed and worn. She could see the shelf above the fireplace where a staggering array of picture frames sat, the same two smiling faces watching over the room from their place on high. And Sweetie could still see the purple stain in the carpet, slightly faded, from the time when Button came barrelling down the stairs and slammed into a much younger Sweetie Belle holding a cup of grape juice just as he turned the corner.
It was as if the house had been placed into a time capsule and the pony responsible had forgotten where it had been buried.
Sweetie Belle sighed as she joined her friends on the couch.
A moment later Button Mash entered the room, stifling a yawn as he sat down on the couch opposite of them. He looked to each of the fillies then at the battered old lunch box sitting atop his living room table. His eyes travelled over the flowing text painted across its lid.
“‘Only the Brave’,” he read in a slow voice. “I don’t get it. Is this like an arts and crafts project?”
Apple Bloom shook her head. “It’s a game.”
Button Mash looked back at the box.
“Well, there’s a game inside,” Sweetie amended. “A video game actually. We need your help to see if it’s worth anything.”
“Oh, sure,” Button said almost immediately. He was already reaching for the box when he asked, “Do you know what system it’s for?”
“Uh, I think it’s for a SunRush,” Apple Bloom answered. “That’s what Scootaloo said anyway.”
The pegasus shrugged. “Don’t look at me. I just read the back of the thing.”
Button’s mouth open and closed a few times.
“Well, in any case… if it is a SunRush game, then that means it’s at least ten years old. Companies stopped developing for that system a while back.” Button chewed at his lip as he fiddled with the lunch box, a moment passing before the lid opened with a dull creak. He gave a cursory glance inside then sent a smile the fillies’ way. “And you girls were right. I’d recognize a–”
Button’s brow furrowed as he stared back into the tin.
Sweetie Belle could feel Scootaloo shifting in her seat.
“What’s up?” the pegasus asked.
“This game doesn’t exist,” Button Mash whispered.
“Huh?”
“It shouldn’t exist. I own every SunRush game that has ever been released, and–” he reached inside and pulled out the grey cartridge, presenting the cover image stamped onto its front, “–and this game doesn’t exist.”
Even though she was on the other side of the table, Sweetie Belle could still read the game's title, could still see the giant black dragon wreathed in towering, cobalt flames.
“So what does that mean?” Sweetie asked.
Button Mash turned the cartridge over several times in his hooves. He eventually settled on staring at its front cover, several seconds passing before he looked up once more.
He raised a brow. “Say again?”
Apple Bloom cleared her throat. “She said ‘so what does that mean?’.”
“Oh. Right. Well, it’s either a homebrew which I don’t think is even possible for the SunRush, or it’s a prototype for a game that was never licensed and produced.”
“Er…” Scootaloo scratched her head. “So what does that mean?”
“It means that this right here might be the only game of its kind. The only one in the whole entire world.”
A hush fell over the room as Sweetie Belle considered what to say next. Through a sideways glance she caught Apple Bloom’s small nod. On her shoulder she felt Scootaloo give a gentle nudge. The time to ask was now.
She steeled herself. “Button, would you be willing to buy it?”
He looked to each of the girls in turn, a strange intensity in his eyes.
“How much?” he asked.
“Hundred bits,” Scootaloo said almost immediately.
Button Mash blinked. “I could’ve swore you just said a hundred bits.”
“And you heard right. It’s a hundred or nothing.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. New releases don’t even go over thirty.”
“But this isn’t a new release, is it?”
Button glared at the pegasus. “Forty bits.”
“Eighty.”
“Fifty.”
“Sixty,” Scootaloo hissed. “Any less and we’re gone.”
Sweetie Belle balked at the scene before her. She felt like she had just witnessed something amazing like the time when Snips flipped that coin during recess and it landed perfectly on its side without rolling or anything.
She ran that magic number over and over inside her head. Sixty bits was a lot of money. Sixty bits was thirty different varieties of hairpins. Sixty bits was twelve supreme shakes at Sugarcube Corner. Sixty bits was two whole barrels of Apple Family cider.
Her eyes widened.
Sixty bits was more than half the price of Rarity’s broken window.
She was still contemplating her rapid reversal of fortune when Button Mash finally spoke.
“You’ve got a deal. Sixty bits, but first things first–” he pointed out into the hall, “–I want to make sure that the game actually works before we exchange anything. Is that alright?”
The three fillies nodded.
“Okay then,” Button Mash said as he hopped off the couch. “If you need anything I’ll be upstairs. Kitchen’s thattaway, bathroom’s over there, and, uh… yeah. I’ll be upstairs.”
Cartridge in mouth, Button Mash slipped out of the room without another word.
Sweetie Belle could hear her own heartbeat in the silence that followed.
"What in the hay just happened?" she whispered.
Apple Bloom stared straight ahead, her posture stiff and her eyes unmoving. “I can’t say for sure, but... I think we just dug up sixty bits.”
****
The upper floor of Button Mash’s home wasn't big by any stretch of the imagination. Overlooking the hallway downstairs was a narrow staircase landing that led to a single, unmarked door on one end and a small area on the other where the landing expanded into a squarish space directly above the flight of steps.
It was there where Sweetie Belle knew she would find him and it was there where Button Mash sat, dwarfed by the massive bookshelf to his left and almost lost amongst the plastic gizmos and contraptions that poked out of the brown cardboard boxes lined up along the far wall.
Button was rummaging through a particularly large box when Sweetie Belle and her friends made their approach.
“Can someone get that 10-volt cord?” he asked, not bothering to look up or turn around. “It’s the sort of grey one on the shelf beneath the TV."
Apple Bloom, the closest of the three, scooped up the wire in her mouth.
"Where d'ya want it?" she asked.
"On the floor is fine. I just need everything in one spot before I start hooking things up."
Scootaloo nodded slowly, her eyes roaming over the large collection of magazines and various game cases arranged along the bookcase's shelves. "So this is all your video game stuff. Hate to ask but why do you keep it all out here?"
Button Mash raised his head. "What do you mean?"
"Why's everything out in the hall and not like in your room or whatever?"
"Oh."
Button returned to the box, reaching inside to pull out a bulky plastic rectangle that was the same shade of grey as the cord from before. A simple 'on' button adorned its front, placed just below the thin horizontal gap that exposed the rectangle's mechanical insides. With a few steps Button closed the distance to the TV and laid the console on the floor.
"Well," he began, already fiddling with the mess of wires and cords, "my mom says that if I moved all this stuff she’d never see me outside my room ever again.”
Scootaloo managed a single “Um,” before the small TV blinked to life, drawing all eyes to the static, pixelated words displayed across its screen.
"'Insert game cartridge now'," Apple Bloom read, drawing close and sitting down next to the colt. "I suppose it fits into that slot there?"
"Yep! Only thing left to do now is plug in the game and see if it works. Speaking of which, it should be lying around here somewhere. I know I didn't leave it downstairs and I definitely didn't–" Button Mash paused as he saw something at the base of Sweetie Belle's hooves.
He met her gaze for a split second. "Sweetie, it's... yeah."
"I got it," Sweetie Belle said, already bending down and grabbing the cartridge with her teeth. She walked over but as Button Mash stood up and began leaning in close, Sweetie's eyes widened and the cartridge fell to the floor with a dull thud.
He looked at the fallen cartridge.
"Or you could do that," Button Mash intoned.
Sweetie slid the game across the carpet with a kick. "Just take it."
Button only shrugged as he picked it up and sat down once more in front of the TV. He spat the game into his hooves and held it just above the SunRush console's waiting cartridge slot.
Sweetie Belle couldn't help but take a few small steps forward. A part of herself didn't really care if the game worked or not, while another part had nudged and urged and pressed her body to move, to see whether that hunk of plastic they dug up out of the hills on the outskirts of town was actually something and not nothing. And the third part, the silent companion riding the undercurrents of her thoughts, whispered a steady stream of reminders that sixty bits and the rest of her summer depended entirely on if Button Mash would be happy with what he saw after plugging in that game.
"Alright," Button said. "Moment of truth."
From where she stood, Sweetie Belle could see each jagged spike, could make out every razor-sharp tooth in the maw of the black dragon that dominated the cartridge's front cover. She could see the dragon's wings, spread wide and reaching from edge to edge, providing a deep purple canvas for the hundreds of falling snowflakes frozen in time. But what drew her eyes the most was the game's title, the words printed in a strong, golden font across the top of the image.
Button Mash let out a low whistle and read it aloud. "'The Queen's Crown', huh? Time to see if you work."
And as soon as he lowered the cartridge into place, the TV screen went black with a hiss followed by a loud pop. No words were spoken as the four ponies looked to each other and then to the SunRush console sitting on the floor.
Its power button stilled glowed green.
"Maybe a reset," Button said as he tapped the tip of his hoof into the tiny blinking light.
And nothing. The TV remained black and the console remained on.
Apple Bloom scratched the back of her head. "Maybe ya didn't hook it in right."
Button Mash didn't say a thing. Instead, he reached over the SunRush and unplugged the power cord with a firm tug.
Whatever thoughts Sweetie Belle had been thinking then were wiped away. In front of her, in front of them all, the small electronic box that had just been removed from Ponyville's power grid continued to blink its green light. As Sweetie Belle looked up and caught sight of what was on the TV, the words that she had been meaning to say were sucked out of her lungs and forced out into the air as a sharp gasp.
On the TV screen was a mountain. A mountain of ice and stone, surrounded on all sides by a dark, raging ocean and silhouetted by an even blacker sky. It reached up like a tower, past the falling snow and boiling clouds, clawing and scraping at the heavens with its ice-blue peak more akin to a spear than a mountaintop.
And then she felt it.
Right there there on the tip of her nose was a small spot of cold that chilled her to the very bone. Mind numb, she reached up and wiped away the wetness that was once a snowflake, a snowflake that had drifted through the screen on a frigid breeze.
"What the hay," Scootaloo murmured as she backed away from the TV.
Button Mash and Apple Bloom were still seated. They were either entranced or stunned, but Sweetie Belle couldn't tell and not that she particularly cared either. Every fiber of her being was screaming at her to move, to get downstairs, to get away from whatever was happening to Button Mash's TV set. The snow continued to drift inside the room, blanketing everything it touched in a fine layer of white powder.
In that moment, Sweetie Belle noticed the frost on her panicked breaths.
"Move," she whispered. "Move... move! Let's go! We need to- guh!"
Sweetie's legs buckled from beneath her. In the instant that followed, she became painfully aware of the numbing sensation settling all throughout her body. Struggling to keep her head aloft, Sweetie managed to catch sight of both Apple Bloom and Button Mash swaying where they sat before the two slumped to their sides and onto the floor.
They weren't moving.
To her left, a blurred orange shape drew her gaze.
"What the hay," Scootaloo repeated, her voice underlayed with fear. "Sweetie, what's going on? I can't..."
Sweetie Belle could only watch in terror as her friend's eyes rolled into the back of her head. All emotion left the pegasus' face as she fell, down, down, down, until she was sprawled out on the carpet. Her eyelids fluttered once and then twice before closing shut.
"S-Scootaloo?" Sweetie began. She tried to move but the strange fatigue had long since shackled her legs and fogged her mind. "Apple Bloom? Button Mash? I–"
Sweetie Belle choked back a sob. She didn't have to look up to know that the mountain in the screen was still towering over them. It had a presence of its own, a heavy, commanding presence that had suffocated her friends into a deep sleep by somehow forcing itself into the real world.
She almost chuckled at the absurdity of it all.
The real world?
The snow landing on her coat felt real enough. The arctic gusts, the roiling waves, the smell of salt–even as unconsciousness claimed her, she couldn't lie to herself and say she believed that the winter beyond the screen was any less real than the warm, summer sun that was surely draping its rays across the rooftops outside.
With one final thought of hills, shovels and holes, Sweetie Belle's head finally hit the floor.
