Ponyvania: Harmony of the Elements
Twilight yawned slightly, her nose scrunching a bit as she rubbed at one eye with her right hoof. Her headset crackled with a giggle. Twilight winced slightly, and pressed the button on the side, adjusting the volume as a familiar voice practically shouted into it.
“Tired already, Twi?” the voice asked. “Do you need me to come over there and throw a 'wake-up-the-sleepy-Twilight-so-she-can-game-with-me-all-night party?” A pause. “That sounds really fun! I'll be there in just a couple--”
“Pinkie! Calm down.” Twilight interjected, chuckling a bit. Her horn glowed for a moment, opening the door of the fridge, and summoning a can of soda toward herself. It cracked open, and she took a drink. A shiver ran through her as the icy beverage slipped down into her stomach. “Don't worry, I'm not going to leave you hanging, Pinkie. We still need to run at least three more times.” she said with a grin.
A notification popped up on her screen. “Oh, hey. Rainbow just signed on... let me invite her.” Pinkie murmured. With a few button presses, the request was sent, and then a new voice added itself to the conversation.
“Hey guys. What's up?”a half-awake sounding Dash asked. “Odd to see you on at 3 AM, Twi.” she added after a moment. “Hard Chapter 6?” she paused. “Trying to get some item, I'm guessing?” she asked.
“Yeah, Twilight still needs to get the Hellfire spell from the boss, so we're trying to zip her through it.” Pinkie said. “And I figured I'd give her a little help.” Pinkie said. “You want in, or are you just gonna sit in the party?”
“I'll help.” Dash said, and after a few seconds, A third character joined the queue for the level. “Hey, thanks again for getting me into Castlevania, Pinkie.” she said. “It's kinda cool having a game that everypony likes. I mean, you even got AJ and Fluttershy into it too.” she yawned.
“Oh yeah. I think Lyra plays too.” Pinkie said. “She's online. Want me to invite her?” she added after a second.
“Sure, the more the merrier!” Twilight said with a chuckle. “We should invite Rarity and AJ too.” she said.
“Too bad Fluttershy can't join us tonight. Six is the party limit, isn't it?” Dash asked.
“Aw, no Fluttershy?” A new voice spoke. “That sucks.”
“Hey Lyra!” Pinkie said. “How are Bon Bon and Tootsie doing?” she asked cheerfully. “Did Bonnie get over that cold yet?”
“Nah. She's trying to sleep it off right now.” Lyra responded, thinking of her ill roommate with a small frown. “Alright, I'm ready whenever you guys are.” She said.
“Oh, it looks like AJ's mic is broken, so Rarity's gonna have to pass her messages.” Pinkie said after a second. Two more had joined the queue.
“Alright. Everypony ready? We've got this run down.” Twilight laughed. A chorus of affirmatives was her response, and then the game began. A quick glance at the screen revealed the six characters standing in a row.
Each of them had selected a different character. This game was based around the myths centered on Humans and Vampires, along with the common staples of reality like magic, martial arts, and physical combat.
Almost instantly, two of the selected characters, one garbed in bright pink, the other garbed in teal darted off to the right, throwing a variety of objects at undead that were crawling up from underground. Lyra chuckled as a paper airplane she'd hurled took out one of the shambling undead. “Seriously, I would LOVE to get my hands... er... hooves on a paper airplane like this.”
“I know, right?” Pinkie agreed. “But you gotta admit, Richter's martial arts are pretty cool too.” she said. “He's my favorite whip user.”
After those two, a girl dressed in purple followed after, pausing to throw a blast of magic. “I don't know, leveling him seems kind of irritating... having to find and then level up all of his little weapons...” She'd tried playing as Johnathan, but it really wasn't her playstyle. He was too... melee oriented, really. Twilight definitely preferred her caster-type to anyone else. Though, her statement was a little off. She had to level up even more spells than Richter's six subweapons. Some of her spells were also more difficult to find, and even harder to level.
“That's why I just play Soma. Kill stuff, get souls, get stronger.” Dash said, chuckling as her weapons tore through a demon in two hits. “I get a lotta flack for it though. Especially in the versus mode.”
“Well, you DO use the fastest weapon in the game, Dash.” Rarity said. “And don't you have some gear combination that makes you hit like a buck from Big Macintosh?”
“For Soma, yeah. Not so much on anyone else. I've been Soma since I first started.” she chuckled. “He might be a little overpowered, but... I'm willing to take that risk.. The only thing I have against him is that he can't fly.”
“Dashie, no one can fly in this.” Pinkie said.
“AJ says that that would be unfair as hay.” Rarity translated. During this conversation, the group had moved up in the castle, and were standing outside of Dracula's Lair.
“Well...” Dash said, jumping on the switch to open the door. “After you, Twi. You need to absorb his spell, right?” she asked. “Go on ahead, we'll wait out here.”
Twilight moved her character into the room, and waited for the fight to begin. However, nothing happened. She ran around in front of the boss, trying to get his cut scene to trigger. “Um... Have any of you guys had this happen before?” she asked. “He usually starts his monologue the instant someone steps into his room...”
“Maybe it's a bug?” Rarity suggested. “Maybe we should re-run the lev--” she stopped talking as the Vampire Lord spoke.
“Ah, hello again, Twilight Sparkle.” he said, in a low, amused voice. “Your other friends may as well join us.” Dracula lifted one hand, snapping his fingers. The other five were teleported into the room, and the door shut and barred itself once more. He lifted a crystal goblet to his lip, sipping at the red liquid within.
For a moment, none of the friends spoke. This was too confusing. Dracula had spoken, and it wasn't his scripted dialogue. Even more unnerving, he'd named Twilight Sparkle.
Lyra broke free of her surprise first. “This is all wrong, he can't teleport us, and he shouldn't know our names, this isn't what he's supposed to say!”
“Oh, but I can do whatever I please now, Lyra.” he said, turning his attention to her character. “And then of course, there's Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash.” He turned his attention to each member of the party. “And I think, what I'd like to do is...” he stood, casting out his goblet. The glass shattered, and the red liquid splattered on the ground. Dracula stood, and spread his arms. However, instead of teleporting to the middle of the room and beginning the fight as he was supposed to, his body began to glow, and he threw one arm forward, enveloping the six friends in a red light.
“Come to my world...” he murmured, and clenched the fist of his extended arm. Each of the screens glowed a painful red color, blinding the mares watching them for several seconds, and each felt an odd sensation in their stomach that only Twilight should have recognized.
“Teleportation magic?!” Twilight cried out, blinking several times to get her sight back. The light had left a huge blind spot before her eyes. But before she even looked around, she could tell that she was somewhere different. “Girls... This is bad.” she said.
“Where in tarnation are we?” Applejack's voice came next, looking around. Each of the friends that she was playing with was there now... And then, chaos broke loose. The six mares broke into frantic, frightened chattering.
Unnoticed for a moment, a trembling form was curled on the ground with them now. “G-girls?” she sounded confused, surprised, and mildly disturbed.
None of them listened, or noticed the seventh member of their group, they all panicking. All save for Lyra, who had noticed Fluttershy now that she wasn't gazing around in wonder. She moved over toward the yellow pegasus. She wasn't really afraid. She looked at Fluttershy, leaning down to help her up. “It's okay, Fluttershy.” she said. “Something went really, really weird with the game. Dracula somehow teleported us all here.”
“But... wh-what does that mean?” the Pegasus asked.
“That means we've got to get out of here, of course, and try to get home.” Lyra said, with a smile. “So, we've gotta get moving, if we want to be home soon.” she grinned.
Twilight looked to Lyra. “Do you know where we are then?” she asked. “Since you seem so confident, maybe you have some kind of plan?” She added hopefully.
Lyra looked around, thoughtfully. “Well...” she looked at Twilight. “You see that book floating next to you? And how we're all suddenly wearing clothes?” she asked. “And how Pinkie and I are wearing clothes that are remarkably similar?” she said. “Now, look at this room. Look very carefully. Picture it from the side.” She gave an odd little smile.
At her words, each of the other girls gazed around, and Lyra waited patiently.
Dash was the first one to get it. “Wait, This room...” She took a few steps forward, and something burrowed from underground. A decomposing pony crawled up and started shambling toward Rainbow Dash. “We're in the game!” she grinned. She checked her sides. Sure enough, a sword rested there. She trotted forward, facing off with the zombie. Her sword flashed, and four cuts appeared on the undead's body, and it fell to the ground. “Come on, let's get through this, then!” she grinned. “You all have your weapons and magic, so this should be easy!”