Chapters Prologue: My seven opponents
Prologue: My seven opponents
"Come on everyone! The Romero Arcade is just over here!" I heard a bouncy pink girl shout happily as I watched her and her friends make their way down the street. The seven of them were the cutest, smartest, and sweetest girls at Canterlot High, and they were also way out of my league. Who I am?...I here you say...and why am I watching the seven girls make their way to my favorite place? I hear you also say. Well first off, left me assure you I'm not some stalker or pedobear pedo with a van. No I go to Canterlot high, and yes I also know it feels like we all live in that Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day and repeat...uhhh never mind that. I go there with these nice girls, I do mostly okay, academically. I'm more a slacker but you can't deny my heart's not in the right place.
Sure I spiked Coach Iron Will's coffee with...wait no that wasn't me...oh I gave Ms. Harshwhinny...no that wasn't me either...can I start over? Uhhh okay look, my name's Pixel Resolution. I'm just you're average C.H.S student who does moderately well and occasionally pulls a prank or joke on my student's and teachers. this particular day, after schoool, as the late afternoon sun began to set, and the evening broke. I had on my wonky shades, one lens was squared, the other round. One was red, the other green. I had my best jeans and blue sweatshirt on with a relic from my dad tucked away in the pocket. An actual Sony discman, one of the last ones ever made...though I THINK they still make them but I mean just as MP3's caught on...oh anyway...It was a 2002 Discman he got me and said was like the one his father bouth him (only his was the actual Walkman) in 82.
I had in the disc compartment a mix cd of some tunes for the evening, I followed behind the seven girls casually, cause hey they were cute and all, but I'mno creep. As I stood behind them I watched as they Looked up at our destination, The Romero Arcade. You know how they say Arcades in America are deader than Discos these days? Well Dan Romero's half billion cash payout on the lottery, invested into this little bussiness of his was one way of discrediting that statement. The place was a three story business that had the distinct shape of an old arcade cabinet, as the girl Pinkie was quick to point out.
"See! I told you guys, he had it built to look like an old arcade cabinet! Look the front window's like the screen! The name's across the top like on the cabinets inside! Isn't it the coolest?!" She asked with a super hyper attitude, as she bounced and jumped aroun,girl was after my own heart.
"Uh...Yeah Pinkie, It's...pretty nifty." The orange and reddish yellow haird girl Sunset Shimmer said with a nervous chuckle. Clearly she still had to get used to Pinkie's...excentrices. I could tell by how she stammered and slowly backed away afraid Pinkie's head would explode from the excitment.
"I think this place is just dapper darling." The ivory girl Rarity said as she squee'd happily griping her hands tightly and in excitement for the fun they'd all have.
"I'm a little nervous about this, what if I'm not very good at any of the games?" Fluttershy said hiding cutley behind a few locks of her soft pink hair. Twilight Sparkle Placed a hand on her friend's shoulder reassuringly.
"Aww Fluttershy, you know that doesn't matter around us. The point of The Fulchi....I MEAN! Romero...Fun Center is to have fun!" She said ruffling her hair softly. The inside we all, myself included. Could see the mass of kids and teens eunning from cabinet to pinball machine, pool table to air hockey, and whack a mole to BB gun shooting gallery. Everyone has fun at the largest fun center arcade outside Japan, but only the skilled enjoy it l.
"I'll have fun, kicking butt after butt at the games!" A blie girl with rainbow hair said giving a fist bump in the air before a high five to an orange and fire haired one passing by.
"Always sure of yourself ain't you Dash?" The girl said with a grey and bluish steel haired guy on her arm.
"Yeah Rainbow, you know what they say about that ego of yours." Soarin said as I made my move. I steped out from the curb, a glass bottle of Pepsi (no product placement intended) with a straw and my last slice of extra cheese and olive pizza in either hand. I gave the seven girls, ignoring Spitfire and Soarin, a little chuckle and adjusted my shades.
"You know..." I said with a slight dramtic pause as I uttered my words as smooth as silk and cool as ice. "I think Dashie has a point." I paused to take a bit of my pizza and made sure to mhhhm! and smack my lips like it was a pizza topped with truffles (the mushrooms not chocolates) Chèvre (goat's-milk) and Comté (French Gruyère) cheese...yes I don't have a clue WTF I just said.
""Oh really?" Twilight said defensively, I swear she started looking like a horse clamping and stomping to ward off a predator threating a herd, now how silly was that notion? "I think you can have fun in a place like this without getting a swollen head over it, I think we learned that at the music fest a while back." She said as I only took a long drawn out and pleasured sip of Pepsi made with with real sugar, just like the good old days. "There are more important things to life than being competive." As I stepped up to her and smirked smugly as I lowered my funny shades and chuckled.
"I know that Twilight, I just...also think...there is some potential in uping the ante when there's fun to be had in video games, you are looking at the three time champion of Injustice, Mortal Kombat, and even the classics...at the NYC Gamecon tournament...Pac Man, Glaxian, and centipede, I've faced guy and girl alike, and trumped them all, but I've been always been a good sport through loss and victory alike, and I just...want to maybe raise those stakes a bit tonight."
"Well I enjoy a challange as much as the next girl, what'd ya got in mind throwback?" Rainbow Dash said giving me a Face/off face off stare down. She was talking about my apperance, sans possibly the Naruto headband on my forehead, with the big yellow headphones on, the Sony Discman, my short shirt and jeans, and those yellow almost neon sneakers, oh I looked like a throwback alright.
"Uhhh, excuse me, but couldn't we all just go in and not make a contest out of our night off from school?" Fluttershy asked timidly, with a little squeak and eeek of squeamishness.
"No one challenges Pinkamenia, Dian, Pie and gets to walk away from it! be it milkshake drinking, cake baking, or a list of things I can't say because the writer wants to keep this story E rated!"
"Pinkie?...are you tryin ta make tha universe devide by zero gain?" Applejack asked as she also began to get in my face, a look of determination, and perseverance in how she would come out on top.
"Hey least yoyu finally got a line in this prolouge." Pinkie pointed out as a crowd of spectators from the arcade had come out thinking they'd get a first row seat to a seven girl one guy fight.
"Anmywho, ah do think this here parthner ought to put hisw money where his mouth is, ya'll want a contest you got..."skate." She said adjusting her Stentson hat and smirking smugly. As the crowd of onlookers jeered and cheered, they chanted things like, 'Game on!' and 'Go Equestria girls!' As I finally finished off that oh so delicious stuffed crust of pizza I had been savoring. I left a tiny nub almost like the butt of a fine Del Toro Cigar, and I flicked it away just like one as my straw siphoned the last of that oh so good real sugar glass bottle Pepsi. I tossed the bottle away behind me not even looking. I heard a girl squees happily and shout "Look Lyra! I caught that mysterious stranger's soda bottle!"
"What is it with you and junk Bon Bon?" She asked.
"Oh...I...uhhh guess I just got caught up in the moment?" I heard her say. I stood up to all seven of them smiled.
"Me and all seven of you, I get four picks to a game, you get your own, so choose who gets what wisley. The seven of them began to look really taken aback now, but also especially among the competive of the two Applejack and Rainbow Dash, determined. Determined to show just who I was dealing with, so was I on the flip side.
"What's the prize for wining throwback?" Rainbow Dash asked with a grim as she flashed me her teeth and smirked ready to hear.
"Well that pizza I had was pretty good, so if you girls win I'll buy you enough pizza and drinks to throw a slumber party, but if I win...You have...to...hang out with me.
"wait....just hang out?...not date you? Rarity asked placing a finger to her mouth in confussion.
"What? NO I'm not some chavanist that would make you guy...oh wait nevermind that the E raiting thing.
"Hey!...I do the forth wall breaking around here!" Pinkie said giving me her trademark stink eye. As she did, Sunset and Twilight stil came up to and faced me, with looks of determination and...also irk.
"Just who do you think you are?" Sunset Shimmer asked as I opened the door to the Romero Fun center.
"I'm Pixel Resolution." I said adjusting my red headband.
Pac Man Fever: Fluttershy.
The first thing most people saw when they entered the Romero Arcade, was a few rows of the old game cabinets arranged in the center of the room, the second floor above was visable with the panel glass railings and the third floor was a duplicate of that. The layout of the plave was a mix between a shopping mall and a dance club. Titled floors with neon blue lights casting a mellow low mood lit glow over everything. It was my kinda place.
The entire place also had a well stocked snack bar on the first level, a screening room (with today's presentation being Pixels) on the second, and pinball, billiards, air hockey, ping pong, and midway games on the third. The eight of us entered and given what had transpired just a few minutes ago, already had a crowd at our attention.
"A few rules on how this will work." I told them turning to my seven competitors.
"Okay shoot, what'd y'all have in mind?" Applejack said as she cracked her knuckles and prepared for the worst.
"All video games, no ping pong, no air hockey, no pinball, and no basketball machines or shooting gallery. We do this all games and nothing else. Second condition, the contest goes until I lose, you could beat me in the first round and that will be it."
"Ha! One chance to best all seven of us?" Rainbow Dash said with a smug grin. "This will be way too..."
"I choose who I face of with first." I quickly added before putting my headphones back on. I stood in front of my choice game the one I trained intensely on, Pac Man. Right beside the original was a cabinet for the lovely lady Ms. Pac Man. "Fluttershy...you're up." I said smirking as I took notice of the way she gasped and eeeked softly before hiding behind her clenched up fists.
"Are y'all nuttier than a payday bar?! Applejack angrily yelled at me. Again, her actions made me think of some...equine that was gettong defensive, not hard to imagine farm girl stamping her foot and snorting like it was supposed to frighten me...my eyes stared straight ahead after all. "Fluttershy is...not very competitive and you know that! I think y'all are just tryin to make this easy by pickin through us easiest to hardest."
"What's the matter gamer boy? Afraid of losing to a bunch of girls?" Rainbow Dash said as she started circling her finger around the button to a Galaga cabinet.
"No...I...I want to compete, and I'm not afraid." Fluttershy said as she took her spot at the Ms. Pac man cabinet and got a fistful of quarters. I did the same before smirking and doing the same. We popped a few coins into the slots and made the respective games start up. I hit the play button on my Discman.
[youtube=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0-MONIvP6kI]
I was lost to the world as soon as that song hit my ear drums. A crowd of spectators walked away from rounds of pong and House of the dead to watch us. Fluttershy's friends stood close to her, but not too close. Already I saw her weakness to crowds affect her already novice level skills, feeling kind myself, I told everyone.
"Hey guys, give the girl some room and air okay?" The listened and backed off some. I did just as those thirty year old tunes did, for though it had been before my time, I admired everything that the world of the past had given me. My actions as the screen glared and reflected off my glasses, the way I made my pac man fent from one corner to another, then through a side exit as I saved those four power pellets for last, made me look not unlike a shadow out of time.
My appearance would not have been out of place in present or past, but to which age did I belong? I belong to the now. I took a moment to look over at Fluttershy, the girl was making littpe squeaky noises as she held the joystick in just the tips of her fingers l, her friend Rainbow Dash turned t her and said.
"Come on Fluttershy! You can't be afraid here! You gotta take that game and show it who's boss." Some weren't as encouraging.
"Choke! Choke! Choke!" A boy I recognized as hoops chanted while his crony Scoreboard backed him up with.
"Hey dudes! Its Camp Anawanna all over again, remember those days Fluttershy? When you afraid to even did your toe in the lake?" Scoreboard taunted with a dumb and goofy laugh.
"Yeah cause you jerks put a rubber snake in her canoe on the camp float trip!" Rainbow Dash retorted, though my hearing was spmewhat blocked by music, I caught their conversation, and the spund of Ms. Pac man getting caught by the ghosts. Though the girl and I were by the rules of competition...well competing against each other, I had to do something. Call it...good sportsmanship on my part, or maybe I just can't stand seeing guys make a big girl cry. At the cost of my last life, I took my hand from the joystick and turned to her antagonists. I looked them straight in the eye, my missmatched glasses staring right at them and said.
"Leave the lady alone fellas, you got no part in this, either shut up and watch or take your bunk to the Barcade in the city where trash like that is accepted, cause it's not welcome here. By the time I turned back to my screen the demo mode had started up again, my final score? Solid fifty thousand.
"With a score of fifty thousand to fifteen hundred." Little Button Mash said to the crowd, standing on that stool the little kids had to use to reach the buttons. "Pixel Resolution wins round one!" The whole arcade erupted in cheers and praise to my name. Pixel chanted as the girls accepted the defeat. I called a ten minute break until the next round, and saw Fluttershy. She sat on the metal lattice table by the snack bar crying softly, as I got closer, I heard why.
"Oh..I'm sorry girls...I didn't mean for us to lose in the first round she said making pained faces about to break down in tears. Twilight pated her shoulder gingerly and placed a soda beside her.
"Awww Fluttershy, you don't have to be sorry." She said smiling at her softly.
"You did all you could darling, that's what really counts isn't it?" Rarity asked as they gathered around to comfort her. I cleared my throat and hoped I was not intruding where I should'nt have. The first girl to turn her head to see me, was Applejack.
"Howdy fella." She said nonchalantly, "so....I guess y'all one round uno than?" She said, not all that angry, after all she knew wben and how to accept a loss. I only took a seat across from Fluttershy and said.
"Those guys had no right to talk down at you the way they did, I wouldn't stand for it." I say reaching over and drying her teary eyes with a napkin.
"Why are you being nice to me? Arent we opposing competitors in this little farce?" She aske sibbing softly.
"Just because your friends and I are on opposite sides tonight, does not negate your right to ne treated like a person Fluttershy." She smiled warmly at me and blushed hard as I took my hand from her face and stood up. "Who's hungry? I think the first round of jalapeno poppers are on me...anyone up for some?" Seven hands shot in the air, as the girl I bested blushed harder and redder than Blinky the ghost.
On like Donkey Kong: Applejack.
I stopped for a break as my adoring fans gathered around for a word, a kid with a mess of brown hair and a propeller beanie on his head held a notebook in his hands and asked, "Mr. Resolution? are the rumors true that your really in a relationship with tonight's competition?" It was like a combo of 2000's G4 TV and TMZ, OK I know low hanging fruit, but what else was I supposed to compare my situation too?
"Listen kid, I challenged them to a test of skill in the realms of pixels and joysticks, but I'm a professional and a good sportsman, okay?" I said ruffling his head softly, gee you be nice to your competition one time, suddenly everyone assumes there's something between you and them. I saw my next opponent sitting on a metal bench by the splat ball court, (think paintball only less...painful and wackier guns and settings) she sipped a bottle of her family's famous fizzy cider. and smirked at me with those freckles of her's. "So you ready for round two AJ?" I asked as she sipped looking up at me lazily.
"Ah may not know much about goofing around with these video games, but ah know a challenge when I see one." She says flipping her hat up and strutting over to the still working Donkey Kong cabinets. "You're going down fancy glasses." She said shaking the quarters in her plaid shirt pocket.
"No you are Applejack; remember, You're looking a world class champion when it comes to this stuff, weather it's MK X rounds in NY or kicking it retro as I am now." Neither I nor Applejack meant anything malicious by out remarks, I just liked to milk the whole completion angle for all it's worth. The crowds resumed their places beside us as button his position as the referee of sorts.
"The rules are the same, each competitor goes until one set of lives out, and the highest score when they both run out is the winner, if Pixel loses, then the competition ends with a victory for team Rainboom." He said holding up two flags, mine with my signature eye wear on it and the other with the Rainbooms logo as seen in the school music fest.
"Break a leg, AJ." I told her as I dropped my coin into the machine, the familiar jingle of the game starting as o'l DK began climbing the scaffolding. Long before he'd be bouncing off the heads of Kremlings, he was bouncing on steel beams to bend them into platforms.
"Ah don't need the sympathy sugar cube, I'm born ready to take on any competitor no matter tha kooky choice of competing."
"Just remember, you may be playing as Mario...but...oh you can figure it out on your own." I say as I snicker and jump a set of barrels to rack up a quick three hundred. I'm determined to finish level one with a....2600 bonus, get it? My Discman tuned to a classic from the era some would say I look like I just stepped out from, Ace of Base, the sign, 1996. A direct contraction to the hectic and sporadic nature of the game, I could see that for all her spark, Applejack was not used to the nature of these old games.
"Ah see what ya'll warned me about partner." She said looking over at me when she lost a life to a fall on level two.
"Sorry AJ, but as much I'm willing to treat you girls to jalapeno poppers, I was nice to Fluttershy for how sensitive she is, your're a girl who looks like she's got more mettle to her, so I can't help beyond wishing you well." She sneered at me before smirking as she learned quickly, she learned to dodge the incoming fire balls on the last level, and to not walk over the missing bolts. She especially learned to not actually touch DK, as there was no way to actually fight him. The scores were neck and neck; the crowds were on their toes, their heads shook form screen to screen as the scores racked up faster and faster.
"Bet ya a slice he chokes on only his second match." Babs Seed said to Button. "You're on Jersey girl.
"Hey! I'm from Brooklyn!" Was all I heard, they were so close their conversation made me almost end up in the cement.
"Kids! Don't shout in my ears okay? I need to...." Do DO do DOOOP! "Concentrate." Last life, it was all down to the wire, Applejack and me were down to our last lives, I was on one the speed courses for the final level, and she was on the first. We stared each other down with determined sneers so into our face off, that we almost forgot the games! I jumped the two flames and undid the set of bolts, she grabbed a hammer and began mashing and smashing.
"Feeling pooped yet hot stuff?" She says as I'm only a few more inches to the last bolt when...I didn't see that fire the climbed up one of the ladders. It cost me my last life, game over. Luckily for me.."AHHH BLAST IT! MAH LAST LIFE!" Applejack said just looking like she could rear up and kick the living heck out of the machine. Button resumed his place above us on top of the robot strength tester game and addressed us all.
Both competitors are out of lives...final scores; Pixel Resolution: 53,000,594 Applejack: 53,000,494. By just a hundred points, Pixel Resolution is still in the competition!" Their cheers and shouts of approval made me feel, accepted. Not a care in my world. Even Applejack looked impressed as she looked over at me, she smiled with a look of satisfaction...
That made two of us.
