1/2 - I Want To Play A Game
1/2 - I Want To Play A Game
Princess Luna had slowly leaned forward against the eerie glow of her computer screen, her face and neck beaded with sweat. She was engaged in that most heart poundingly, sadistic, nerve wrackingly stressful moment of rituals... that rite of passage which had driven lesser mares mad.
Did she click, or did she flag?
Luna's screen was covered with a grid of identical squares, a large box of 100x100. It was ridiculously late, or perhaps early by alternate technicalities, and since she didn't have to see any audiences in the Throne Room where Princess Celestia spent most of her day, her attention was captivated by the computer. The grid in front of her was littered with numbers ranging from 1 to 7, intermixed with small red flags. Her problem now, however, was that she had a choice of two squares that she'd decided upon. One would continue the game, the other would contain a bomb and ruin everything.
Sweat dripped from the tip of Luna's nose, and she clicked. The effect was immediate. A pixelated exploding noise filled her chambers, and the dreaded GAME OVER screen flashed before her eyes as the small cartoon bombs went off.
"YOU DARE MAKE A MOCKERY OF US?! FIGHT ME, PEASANT!" Luna shrieked, her horn lighting up at once to send powerful bolts of electricity charging through the computer in an attempt to fry it once and for all. The computer, strangely enough, did not explode, but instead erupted in active blue sparks of electricity that raced across the screen, as well as in and out of the keyboard. The entire machine seemed to hum with renewed activity.
Celestia herself arrived in the doorway a moment later, dressed in a bathrobe, fluffy Nightmare Moon slippers, and looking absolutely weary. "Lunaaaaa," she drawled, exasperated. "You know how you get about Manesweeper..."
Luna pointed a hoof accusingly at the computer. "'Twas thy vile machine's fault! I was winning!" Celestia sighed at this, and moved across to her beloved sister, beloved despite wanting to throttle her at the moment, and closed the program. The computer's Home screen became visible again by default, littered with only a few clunky icons.
"There. Now go to-"
"Wait!" Luna exclaimed, excitedly. "Look!"
Celestia looked at the screen. She didn't see anything. "What?"
Luna's horn lit up, illuminating the mouse, and moved the cursor over to a small question mark box, underneath one word was simply titled.
Avalon
"I do not recall this program," Luna said dryly, and clicked on it. More text popped up on the screen.
Welcome to Avalon, Equestria's first text based adventure. Do you dare play?
Celestia broke in at once. "Luna, dont, you don't have to-"
"Huzzah!" Luna exclaimed, in such a manner that Celestia knew she had already lost. "A new game! We have not played this adventure yet, let us venture forth!" She didn't seem to be in the mood for questioning why she never seen it before.
"Let us not venture forth!" Celestia countered, but Luna had already clicked the icon. There was a popping sound and the computer sparked, still charged up with those blue bolts of electricity. Smoke poured out of the keyboard and tower, leaving Celestia to cover her face, coughing. When she did get the chance to look up again, she squinted through the smoke in dismay.
Luna had vanished.
The mare in question, however, was standing in a grassy field surrounded by bare trees, some still addled with the last desperate grips of red and orange leaves, which did not as of yet want to take that mysterious commute into the wind or to the ground. Off in the distance, a small green house sat silently overlooking the field. Finally, underneath her legs and branching off towards a dense forest, a dirt path had been worn through the grass. Luna tried to move, but found she could not. Her legs were glued to the ground.
Next to the small, winding path, a sign had been erected.
Welcome to Avalon
"Celestia?" Luna asked cautiously. "We require assistance."
On the other 'side', as it were, Luna's voice carried clearly and seamlessly through the speakers of the computer. Celestia was still waving the last of the smoke out the window, and looked at the computer with mild shock and confusion. There was no sign of the blue electricity which had previously plagued it.
"Luna? Where are you?"
In Avalon, the voice of Luna's sister seemed to boom down from the sky, like some sort of demonic, all powerful entity.
"This game appears to be three dimensional of the most immersive kind," Luna said. "We are... in Avalon. We appear to be paralyzed, and cannot move."
That got Celestia's attention, and the elder sister sat down in Luna's chair. It was well worn, and the area smelled faintly of Doritos and Mountain Dew.
"How do you play it?" Celestia asked. "We have to get you out of there!"
"It said it was text based, which means it runs on a script format," Luna said. "Try a directional command."
"A what?"
/Walk North.
Celestia did as she was asked, feeling mildly silly, but Luna almost immediately felt her legs begin to move. She walked forward to a branching intersection, which led either to the house, or to the forest.
There is a split in the road. You may walk west, to the abandoned house, or east, to the dark forest.
"It says I can go west or east," Celestia said.
Luna thought about this. "Let us not go to the forest, because only bad things can lie there and we are not equipped," Luna said. "Go to the house."
Celestia wrote, on her side, /Walk West.
Luna traveled up the dirt path to the west, feeling her body react and respond flawlessly enough once the proper command had been inputted. She was able to stop and go at her own leisure, which was good, and she continued forward to the edge of the porch. The shutters were faded, and paint was peeling. Nothing had been here in a long time.
/Walk Forward, Celestia tried.
"Sister, wait!" Luna cried, as she felt her body moving forward before she could stop it. She slammed right into the closed front door.
The door is closed.
"It says the door is closed," Celestia said.
"Really!?" Luna called back, glaring upwards towards the sky. "You have to control the environment, Celly. There's more to it than walking!"
/Open Door
Luna reached forward and swung the old door open on its hinges. She gave a sigh of relief. "Now you're getting it!"
Stepping forward into the old house, Luna saw that what little furniture remained was covered with white sheets, which were in turn coated with a thick layer of dust. There were only a few rooms, and she made her way around the back. It was the kitchen she was most interested in, which in her experience usually contained at least a few good things for weary travelers. She paused at the doorway.
"I'm at the kitchen, Celestia!" Luna called. "Attempt an explore command!"
Celestia was confused for a moment, but after only a brief hesitation, inputted /Enter Kitchen
Luna could not see this of course, but felt it. It was very difficult to explain the feeling of openness that overcame her just then, as if an invisible force field had pulled away. She stepped into the kitchen, peeking into cabinets, pulling out drawers, and startling more than one angry rat. Her attention was drawn to the table, where a plate sat with a stack of neatly browned toast on it, a knife and butter sitting next to it.
"Something was here recently," Luna said. "There's a whole bunch of toast."
Celestia thought for a moment, then typed /Eat Toast
Luna yelped as she suddenly began stuffing toast into her mouth, her mouth filling with crumbly toasted bread and silencing her protests.
When she had finished, Luna cried "What did that accomplish?!"
"I thought you liked toast," Celestia said.
"I do, but that's not the point!" Luna said. "That accomplished nothing!"
"Sure it did, you got to eat toast."
Luna groaned. That wasn't how this was supposed to work. She glanced around again for anything useful, spotted the knife, and tried to pick it up. It was glued to the table and wasn't budging so much as a fraction of the inch.
"I can't get the knife, Celly!" Luna called. "You have to work with me here!"
Celestia nodded agreeably enough. She usually wasn't up at night, so she was tired, but wasn't about to leave her sister trapped in a strange place. Again.
/Pick up knife
Luna snatched the knife off the table, and stuck it in her saddlebag. It was a start.
Author's Note
This story probably won't be more than 2-3 chapters it was never meant to go on that long, just a short venture into silliness.
There was nothing else to do in the kitchen. Luna spent a brief additional moment checking various drawers and cabinets, but found nothing of interest. She slipped back out to the hallway and attempted to walk towards the next room, but walked headfirst into an invisible barrier with such force that the contact left her ears ringing.
"Celly!" Luna called, a bit rattled. "Work with me, here! You entered an explore command, yes?"
"Just the kitchen," Celestia's voice came from that disembodied void again. "I don't- oh!" There was a brief moment of silence, and that fizzling space in front of Luna vanished as the quadrant opened. "How's that?"
"There we go," Luna agreed, and set about exploring the rest of the house. It was abandoned, had been for some time, and was dismally vacant. The only thing of even mild interest that she found was an old camping lantern with dented metal that had certainly seen better days, however she hooked it against her saddle anyway. Things in these sorts of games always had a use eventually.
There was a distant rumble from downstairs, a heavy, ground-breaking sort of thunderous applause that left the floor shaking under her hooves. It was far off, but seemed to be getting closer. That certainly wasn't good. Luna had spent far too much time in this ridiculous house, but the house wasn't hers, abandoned or not. She darted to the window, looking out. She went pale, pupils dilating to pinpricks in a matter of seconds.
A heavily armored troll that was uglier than Celestia without her coffee in the morning was stomping towards the house on its pachyderm legs. Nearly ten feet tall by just a look at it, its skin was dark blue and mottled with what appeared to be barnacles and ridges. Its face was a warped display of grotesque features from which a pair of tusks jutted upwards.
A wild troll appears. It wants its toast. You probably shouldn't have eaten it.
/fight troll
"Alright! Boss fight!" Celestia cried, and Luna felt her legs plunging herself forward, despite her efforts to go in the absolute opposite direction. "CELLYWAITNO," Luna exclaimed, but it did no good. She raced outside, standing beyond the front door. The troll saw her at once, and snarled, thick wads of drool hanging from its jaws.
"...Celly..." Luna said carefully.
/hit troll
Hit troll with what?
Celestia thought about this for a moment.
/hit troll with lantern
Luna's horn suddenly lit up, picking up the lantern and hurling it at the trolls face. It was a fine hit, oil and kerosene running down its face into its eyes. The beast staggered backwards and clutched at its face with dirty hands.
/run from troll
"About time!" Luna cried, and booked it for the dark forest that she'd passed when she first entered this strangely bizarre place. The path branched, and she took the other road this time, leading into the forest. The troll, far behind, was recovering, roaring with anger, and charging in her direction with great, lumbering steps. Luna yelped and ran into the wooded area. The trees enveloped her at once, plunging the mare into shaded darkness. It was very dimly lit, and she could hardly see a thing.
"I could really use a lantern right, Celly!" she called, reproachfully.
"It was going to eat you!"
"There's always another way, though! You never part with equipment in these games!"
The troll was behind her now, but unable to get through the heavily wooded area. It was grabbing trees in its fists and shaking them, trying to pull them out of the ground.
"We've got it now!" Celestia cried. "Do you still have that knife?"
"A knife isn't going to do anything to a beast like that!"
Celestia either didn't hear or ignored it, and inputted '/stab troll with knife' anyway
Luna lunged forward, becoming quite tired of this useless puppeteering by now, and plunged the knife into the trolls nasty foot. The troll responded predictably, roaring in pain and hate and swinging its massive arms about, beating its chest before taking a swing at the night horse with a clenched fist.
Luna tried to run, but she was too close, and the troll was too large. The last thing she thought before being impaled on a tree was how badly Celestia sucked at video games.
Giving a startled cry, Luna sat straight up in her bed. The first thought was it was a dream, but she was tired, grass stained, sore. There were branches and leaves in her mane. No. Not a dream. Respawned? She rolled out of bed and landed on her hooves with a wince, emerging from the room and going back down the hallway.
Celestia was babbling incoherently from Luna's gaming room, and that was her first destination.
"No! Not game over! Can't be game over! I didn't mean it, Lulu, I never played this game before! Restart, restart!"
Luna came up behind her sister, and smacked upside the back of the head. "That's for making me eat toast," she said.
Celestia brightened immediately. "Lulu!" she exclaimed, and hugged her. Luna glanced at the screen over her shoulder. GAME OVER, indeed.
"I really need to teach you how to play these games," Luna said, and broke the hug to turn the game off. She hit enter, and the game resorted to a sort of crude menu screen, which both sisters stared at it in disbelief.
This has been a Discord Games Production. Patent Pending. All rights reserved. Discord Games Productions holds no responsibility or liability for injury or death that may have been accrued due to making terrible decisions.
Celestia facehooved. "I should have known," she groaned.
Luna just stared at it with a sort of 'nope' expression on her face, turned, and left the room.
