Games Ponies Play: Shoot For the Starsby Nathan HonChaptersIntroductionHeavy FireAlliesThe Big MatchAgain, perhaps? (Ending)IntroductionThe Cube of Gaming- One of the latest breakthroughs of gaming technology. Being a person who had supernatural gaming powers, Nathan was the creator of the magnificent invention. It was like virtual reality- But think of it as a literally realistic environment you’re dealing with. The usage of this plaything is simple. Just load up the game you want to play on the system of the 50 by 50 by 50 cube, and start the game to begin the adventure. This device automatically sucks you into the game itself, and you can play as any character as you wish. It was like virtual reality, but you are actually IN the game. You are the character, you make your move, and most importantly, you suffer the trouble in the game. Thankfully, it is now developed to a point where you will not feel injuries, as there will be a secret shield to protect you from your actual body. Users customise the way they play- What game they want, how long they play it for, and for the wildest players, completing a certain objective before they can return to the actual world. It can be dangerous- But some still do it and get out alive. The ponies have never experienced something like this before- How will they face the more advanced, more powerful and more hardcore players of the human world? Let’s find out. Games Ponies Play: Shoot For the Stars “Are you sure you two want to do this?” Nathan grabbed his cube of gaming from the special room he made in his secret lab in Undertale, specifically for testing the invention. The words were spoken to none other than the two royal sisters- Celestia and Luna. Luna was beyond excited. “Yes!” She squeaked, prancing up and down. Then she turned to Celestia. “Can you believe it, Tia!? We’re gonna be having fun with humans!” Celestia rolled her eyes at her naive sister. “To be honest, I was forced into this one,” She giggled. Nathan laughed. “There is no such thing as being forced to play video games, Celestia. Unless you decide to set up the ‘No way back’ option when you use this. You know what function I am talking about.” “Yes,” Celestia replied. “So... Don’t do that. Just set it to the game over setting.” “Right,” The inventor said, toggling some settings. “Okay, I’ve set up the exit game rule- Once you get a game over, or you die, you immediately get teleported back here. If you win, you get some time to stay in the game before you leave. I’ve set it to ten minutes this time.” “Sounds good.” Nathan swiped around the games to choose from- The current version he made having hundreds of games in it’s library. Only his version has all the available games to this present day, considering the amount of money it takes to buy the access to all of the games. But, since he’s the developer of the console, he doesn’t have to do that step. Because of this, he must keep it safe, to avoid anyone stealing it. “Alright, what game does thou wish to play?” Nathan asked. The two looked at each other. “You said you wanted to play a shooting game, right?” Celestia told Luna. She nodded. “Oh, yes! Definitely! Those are my favorite!” “I can tell, given how much you game when you’re not on dream duty.” Luna turned to Nathan. “Let’s Play Fortnite Battle Royale.” He thought for a bit, and nodded. “Ahhhh, Fortnite, Huh?” He said, trying to find the game. “I used to play that a ton. Back when it was released, it took the world by storm. It’s still popular, even after so long.” “Probably because of your console!” Celestia pointed out. “Mmmm, maybe.” Nathan finally found the game. But before he activated it, he wanted them to make sure they were familiar with their human selves, since their characters will be humanised. “Wait, have you two gotten used to being a human in this game yet?” Luna thought for a bit and nodded. “Well, you let us test it for a bit a while ago, and I’ve actually tried to practice being on two hooves.” “To be honest... I did it too,” Celestia said, letting out a giggle. “Well, you may get to familiarise your movements again while you wait for the game. It takes a while for the lobby to fill up,” Nathan suggested. “Alright, time is candy. Ready?” They both nodded, and Nathan activated the cube. It started buzzing with electronic beeps and boop sounds as it opened, then making a magical swirling sound. “Safe travels, and have fun!” Nathan said, smiling. The two princesses got levitated, and soon, their size got smaller as they were sucked into the cube, then it closed itself. Heavy FireThe two got teleported into some kind of military base in Fortnite Battle Royale. For those of you who are experts at the game, yes, they’re in the waiting screen. “Wow... This looks awesome when you see it with your own eyes!” Luna exclaimed. “Right, Tia?” She turned- To find her sister transformed into a human, and it was then she knew she turned into a human too. Their hair was the same colour as in their pony form, but not flowing anymore. Their skins were white and navy, and instead of four hooves, they now have 2 hands and 2 legs. They got used to their human forms rather quickly. “So,” Celestia said, twitching her eyebrow. “How do I look like this?” Luna giggled. “You look great! And the gear and protection you’re wearing is so cool!” Since the two were new to the game, they had the default skin and costume. They wished they would someday get the higher-tier items, but that’s a maybe for now. “*chuckles* You look really nice too,” Celestia complimented. “I don’t think we’ve ever actually fought in battles like this before, so this could be a new experience. Just take that as a compliment for begging me to play this game with you. You’re lucky I’m free today.” She messed with Luna’s cheeks. “Haha, stop it!” Luna laughed. “Anyway... You ready?” “Mhmm!” They went over to their ready spots and activated them at the same time. They chose the duos match, and away they go! When they got into the game, they spawned on a huge island, probably another military base and training grounds. There were already a lot of people in the game, all using the new cube of gaming. So everyone in this game are real people. The two took a moment to walk around. “I’d say,” Celestia said, “This place looks massive!” Luna nodded. “Yes, but the real island we’re fighting on is much bigger. I know you don’t play this game much, so I’ll help you as much as I can. But, to be honest, I’m not good at this game either, even though I play a lot.” They both let out a giggle. As they continued their walk, they tried to test out firing with the guns in the game. Assault rifles, snipers, shotguns, and of course the rocket launchers. But, one of their favourites is the light machine gun, because of the firing speed. They got some of them grenade items too- But their aim was a little off. They were having fun with the Scoped assault rifle when somebody called out to them. “Hey, you!” Celestia got back up from her crouching position, to see two guys standing beside her. They both seemed familiar- And unlike them, those two had a very cool power suit, one of their’s being blue and the other being black. They seemed pretty fierce, judging by their first impression. “You do realize I’m a princess, right?” Celestia insisted. The guy in the blue power suit let out a hmph. “Don’t lie, you allied yourself with Nathan?” He asked. “Really? Out of all the humans you could’ve chosen to be the ambassador, and you picked him? A disappointing decision indeed.” His friend agreed. “True, he’s powerless and he stinks at playing FPS games. They say people who are stupid will drag down the pros. Get good, idiots.” Celestia gasped. “Why, how rude!” She wanted to push it further, but Luna stopped her. When they had a laugh and left, the princesses looked to each other. “Is it just me, or do they seem familiar, Luna?” Celestia asked. Luna nodded. “It’s them!” “Who?” “Winston and Jason, those were the guys who bullied Nathan!” She explained. Celestia was confused- How did she know about them? They”ve never met. “You sure you’ve never met them?” Luna sighed. “Don’t you forget smartphones exist? I remember their faces.” “Ah, right,” Celestia replied. “But really, that was rude for someone talking to royalty! Aren’t you mad at them? Not only did they just dumped jokes on us, they were talking behind Nathan’s back!” Luna nodded as she glanced at them, practicing with rocket launchers. She picked up her sniper. “You’re right, Tia,” She said. “We’re gonna prove them wrong.” They gave each other a high-five when a siren ringed. “Attention all teams and players!” The announcement said. “Please proceed to the battle bus for takeoff in 5 minutes!” Everyone rushed to the blue battle bus located on the runway, a bit distant from where the two princesses were. “Let’s go!” Celestia said. A while later, the battle bus took off and in 10 minutes, they were already slowly approaching the island. As the players patiently sat next to their teammate, seatbelts strapped, a holographic guide started speaking. “Attention all players,” It said. “We are now approaching the Fortnite island. If you look under your chair, you should find your respective parachute and pickaxe of choice. Why don’t you take them out for now?” Everyone took out their pickaxes and parachutes. Since they were new players, Celestia and Luna got the basic default gear. As soon as Winston saw it, he just bursted into laughter. “Pfft! Seriously!?” He said. “What kind of trash is that?” Luna just tried to ignore him. Jason was taking out his shiny blue pickaxe. “First time using this bad boy, dude. Check this out.” “Whoa! Dude, you got the Carbide Positron?” Winston gasped. “Dude, that’s for tier 30, right?” “Yup.” The two princesses looked around. People had a lot of different gliders and pickaxes with funky colors and incredible designs. They knew they had to get good at the game to earn those items. “Now,” The announcer continued. “Let me tell you rules for any newcomers-“ “Just get to the point,” Jason moaned. But since the hologram was programmed, he was ignored. “So, once the game begins, everyone has 30 seconds to drop out of the battle bus onto a big island. Your backpack will also have a map that tells you where you are. There are many major towns, farms or just major locations for looting on the island, that are displayed on your map, such as Retail Row, Greasy Grove, Tilted Towers...” “For the memes!” Another contestant shouted. “I suppose you all get the point. Now, when you drop, there will be a lot of chests located inside buildings. These give you different kinds of weapons, healing items, utility items and ammunition. There are also ammunition crates individually. You can get items randomly on the ground in buildings, but you’ll most likely find the best ones in chests. There are five levels of rarity, depending on how good the weapons are: Grey for common, green for uncommon, blue for rare, purple for epic, and gold for legendary.” Celestia was carefully listening since it was her first time. Luna, on the other hand, was seemingly snoring. “Hey, I thought we’re supposed to listen to all this?” Celestia nudged her. Luna woke up. “Come on, I’ve played the game a million times, just not with the cube. I know how it works.” The announcer went on even though many of the players are already bored to death. “Remember: Keep an eye out for where the zone is, which will be notified to you once the game starts for 5 minutes by a white circle. 15 minutes after the game starts, the storm will close in to the boundary of the zone in 15 minutes. Once the storm settles in, you have 10 minutes to run to the next zone, then 10 minutes for the zone to shrink, and this continues until someone wins or the island is completely closed in the storm. Speaking of which, whoever’s team is the last team standing, they are the winners of today’s game, known as ‘Victory Royale’.” “Does anyone have any questions? No? Then please be seated, the hatch will open very soon.” The guide disappeared and the announcement system went, “Approaching Island in 2 minutes. Please remain seated.” The different teams started to chat and communicate with one another, since they may not know each other in real life and are randomly placed in a team. Celestia and Luna, on the other hand, were pumped up and ready for a new experience. Yes, they want to take victory, but since this is their first time actually playing a game in The Cube, they just wanted to have fun. Luna took out her map. “Okay, Tia. This is the map of the island. So we are coming from this way, from the south-eastern part. So let’s drop in Moisty Mire, that is a pretty good place to loot- It’s a swamp with something like a studio setup.” “Got it,” Celestia nodded. “So... Do we have to skydive when the hatch opens?” “Yes,” Luna replied, worried. “Oh, and just so you know, we don’t have wings in this game. Don’t even think about it. There are jet packs, though.” “W-What!?” “Don’t worry, sister. We know what it feels like to be high up, come on!” The alarm went off, and grabbed everyone’s attention. “All players, you may drop in 10, 9, 8...” The royal sisters nodded to each other, and Luna took Celestia’s hand. “Ready?” “Mhmm!” The big hatch in the middle of the battle bus opened. It was between the two long rows of seats, just in front of everyone’s feet. A huge bunch of people dived straight into action already. The two looked at each other. “Jump!” Luna said, taking her sister with her. They both jumped out the battle bus at the same time. They noticed some people still haven’t dropped- Including their rivals of the game. “Wow, they’re totally noobs,” Jason said. Winston giggled. “I know, right? Who in the world drops at Moisty, yo? You gotta go Tilted!” ****** As soon as they dropped, a huge gust of air was trying to push against them from below. It was probably the first time in a long time they really did freefalling. While the first few seconds was a little scary and tense, the two loosened themselves up, and started to enjoy the fall. Since their location was right under them, they didn’t need to move a whole lot. The sisters soon had to release their grip on each other, but they still kept close so they can talk, even in the midst of the loud sounds from the wind and air. “This is so fun!” Celestia shouted, worried That Luna couldn’t hear her. She nodded. “I know, right!? Oh! And also, if you want to move towards a specific direction, tilt your body forward or left and right!” They didn’t really need to, but they tested it out anyway. Soon, the parachutes came out, and surprisingly, they didn’t get shot upwards while it was deployed. They started to drift left and right to land in specific places. “Okay Luna, go loot the studio over there and I’ll go to the swamp region. I’ll come and meet up in a minute.” “Got it! Just use your communication device on your uniform to talk to me. See you in a bit!” Celestia landed on the ground and her parachute was immediately detached from her backpack, and it disappeared. She scouted around the landscape for other players- Surprisingly, there wasn’t anyone she could see except her sister. She would’ve used magic and her wings to do so, but she remembered she turned into a human so that’s not happening. She walked over to a big tree. The trunk of it was really oddly shaped and it was slightly curved. Under the tree, she found three chests emitting a gold light. “This must be the chests the guide was talking about!” She said, clapping her hands happily. She opened one of the chests and a bunch of items spitted out from it, each glowing different colour lights. Celestia took a good look at them. Inside the chest were a bunch of building materials, ammo, and a assortment of guns and healing items. The gun was a blue tactical submachine gun and she also found some bandages. Perfect for healing in a dire situation. She scooped up all of the items and went to the other chests. She tried to pick up more stuff, but soon found every time she tried to carry some more things, something in her inventory spats out. So, she made the decision to give up some of the loot in her inventory for better ones. She ended up with the blue tactical machine gun, the green revolver, a green assault rifle and a cool drink, which she didn’t know what it was. “Hmmm,” Celestia thought, looking at the green liquid glowing in the container. “I wonder what’s this?” She heard footsteps behind her. “Hey!” Celestia heard a voice boom into her ear from behind and frantically tried to shoot the submachine gun, but just realized it was only Luna. “*giggles* Gotcha!” Luna playfully teased. Celestia rolled her eyes. “Ugh, you little sister. By the way, what is this drink? I found it when I was looting.” “It’s the slurp juice,” Luna explained. “If you try to access your inventory in ‘The Cube’, you’ll see your health and shield bar. This drink can regenerate you up to full health and it gives you 25 shield points. You’ll need this, keep it.” “Got it,” Celestia replied, inserting the drink into her last inventory slot. “What did you get?” “I found quite a lot of nice guns. Blue pistol, blue shotgun, even a purple scar. That’s an epic item. Found some bandages too. Oh, and I have a present for you, here.” Luna gave her sister a small shield drink. Celestia drunk it and gained 25 shield points out of 100. Soon after, there was a loud siren across the map. “Attention players: The Zone has now been formed. Please refer to your map. You have 15 minutes to run to the area surrounded by the white line before the storm moves.” The two nodded to each other. “We need to go fast,” Celestia said. “The zone is quite far away.” “True,” Luna replied. “Let’s go.” They had to at least get to Salty Springs, a small settlement that was a bit distant from the swamp, to the northwest. The sisters carried their things and ran across the hills fast, since they only had 15 minutes to reach the area. Everything seemed well, until... They passed by Fatal Fields, a farm that was near Salty Springs. They were trying to get resources by breaking things there when suddenly, they heard a loud explosion behind them. “Tia, quickly!” Luna built them quick cover with wood, forming walls and stairs. Celestia ducked behind the cover. “Wh-What was that!?” “Grenade launchers,” Luna explained, reloading her scar. “I just gotta peep out and shoot them quick. You do the same too! You have a good submachine gun after all.” So they both peeped out of their cover, hoping to get some destruction done on their enemy cover. Even though Luna was trying her best to repair their cover, all they heard was someone on the other side screaming: “I’m gonna kill you, girl!” And a few seconds later, they heard like a “whoosh” sound slowly becoming louder. The two were silent and stared at each other, before they realised what was coming. “Rocket launcher!” The two frantically tried to escape but they were completely exposed without cover. “Go go go!” Someone from the enemy duo said. They heard building sounds behind their backs, and then came a ton of shotgun shots. Celestia tried to shot the stairs down but it wouldn’t work. Their health bar was lowering by the second. As soon as Celestia used her revolver to shoot one of the pair, they started bursting into laughter. “Pfft! Revolver!? Is this a joke!?” He back flipped off the stairs and even shot Luna once in mid-air. The two were trying to use their weapons against them but they dodged the bullets. It was then they realized who they were up against. “Heh, go and learn the basics before even playing, idiots,” Winston said, pointing his pistol at Celestia’s head. It was a different pistol, though. The moment he was about to kill them, someone shot a sniper shot from afar and killed his teammate Jason. This distracted him and the sisters tried to make their escape, but in only 10 seconds the bully got out his light machine gun and spammed the trigger. Celestia soon got knocked out. “*gasp* Tia!” Luna gasped, holding her. “Are you okay?” “Run, Luna! Just go!” Celestia yelled. “He’s coming!” Luna hesitated, but still ran away quickly. Yet, it wasn’t far enough to escape their bully’s radar- She got knocked down too. And Winston yanked the gun into her face before finishing her off. “Geez, stupid noobs wasting my time...” He moaned, yet still snickering as he picked up their loot. ******* The two royal sisters were sucked out of the Gaming Cube back to Equestria when Nathan least expected it. He was playing on his phone before that. “Oh, back so soon?” He asked. “Looks like you died early, it’s only been 20 minutes.” But the two weren’t really amused. “*sigh* Yep, we got completely destroyed,” Celestia sighed. Luna sighed too. “And on the hands of someone awful, too. It’s one of those ‘I am so good at this game so hah’ kind of people.” “Who? Did you see their username while you were eliminated?” They both whispered them to Nathan. “Wh-What? Wow, that’s cruel, yo,” He replied. “They can mess with me, but they do not mess with the royal princesses of Equestria. I am pretty shocked about their behaviour- Unlike anything I’ve seen.” “No kidding,” Celestia said. “They even insulted me!” The inventor shrugged. “I guess the only way is for you both to get good at the game- But I don’t know if you have the time. Can’t really help you on that.” The two sighed and looked down. “Unless... Let’s see if I can get them to teach you the skills of Fortnite... Someone, very special and skilled.” AlliesA few weeks later, Nathan got the two princesses to play Fortnite again, saying that this time around, he invited a few 'Special guests' to help them a little on their skills. So they agreed and went into the gaming world once more. They quickly got into the base in Fortnite. But greeting them, were two interesting faces. "We've been expecting you," One said. He had a rather deep but nonetheless friendly voice. Celestia and Luna looked at each other. "Are they the special guests he talked about?" Luna asked. Celestia shrugged. Then the other player spoke up. "Hey, chill, your highnesses," He took a quick yet sincere bow. His voice was rather high-pitched and had an accent. "We're not like those darn players you saw the other day that called you noobs!" This made them both intrigued. "So... Are you both here to help us get better at Fortnite, I see?" Celestia asked, trying to keep her polite composure. The two men nodded kindly and offered a good handshake. As they did so, the player who had the high-pitched voice was definitely looking really excited. His face was beaming with cheer, his blue eyes widening. “Many call me Crainer,” Crainer said. “I’m really overjoyed to be meeting you both. This is Ian, by the way. He’s my friend.” He shrugged. “Please, call me Ssundee.” He gave his friend a nudge. The sisters made a look to each other that told them, “Yeah, these guys are probably good.” They turned back a minute later. “I suppose you already know us, don’t you?” Celestia winked. Ssundee nodded and bowed. “Why, of course, Princess Celestia and Luna! We were called by your ally Nathan to help, since you both were treated pretty harshly on your first game. Gotta teach some skills.” Luna tilted her head in curiosity. “Wait, How did you know that?” The pros chuckled. “Truth is, you know one of them got sniped?” Crainer asked. “I was the sniper!” Celestia nodded. “So you must’ve seen our defeat, right?” “Right,” Ssundee replied. “Man, you both need some skills. I mean, come on. I’m not trying to discourage you, but seriously... Why didn’t you use your shotguns?” Celestia blushed since she stayed alive longer. Luna just let out a playful chuckle. “Ian, how about we just get to the point,” Crainer whispered. “Oh, right,” Ssundee agreed and turned to the princesses. “So you see the teleporter in our base? Over there? Change it to the lab setting. Don’t worry, we partied you both already.” As the pros walked, the princesses followed suit but Luna had a lot of questions. “There’s a lab mode?” Luna asked. “I’ve never seen that in the real game!” Crainer shrugged. “I dunno, probably your friend Nathan must’ve added this himself?” The group were back at the familiar lobby island. There wasn’t anyone this time, and the four are the only ones in the map. They went to an open area and stopped. “Okay,” Ssundee said. “Let’s have ten minutes to grab the guns we need. In this mode, the weapons and resources respawn, so we don’t need to worry. We can obtain the resources in the building over there, where the battle buses are. There are these laboratory tube things to keep regenerating them.” He pointed to the building, then turned back. “But first, Everyone...” Crainer facepalmed himself. “Oh no... Please excuse us, your highnesses...” Luna looked confused. “What’s the matter? Before Celestia could say anything, Ssundee already spawned in a list. “Do you three have...” He said dramatically, and stopped. “A pen and Paper ready?” The princesses looked at each other, looking very puzzled. Crainer just groaned and facepalmed himself again. “Seriously, Ian?” Crainer asked. “You can’t just freaking go and demand the royal princesses and ask them to start writing a list of things! Can you please stop your memeing for one second, we’re dealing with-“ “Actually,” Celestia insisted, spawning in a scroll for both her and Luna. “We got that covered.” The two pros turned to them. “Oh!” Crainer said, feeling embarrassed. “Get rekt, Crainer,” Ssundee roasted his friend before giving a playful laugh. Luna spawned in the sisters’ own writing quill, ready to start noting down whatever Ssundee wanted them to get. “Alright, What does thou command us to obtain?” “Just a heads up,” Crainer said, “He talks fast when we do this. Just... Be ready.” Ssundee cleared his throat before he went down the list. “Ahem, So, we need,” He took a deep breath, and blazed through the words quickly. “Assault Rifle, Pump Shotgun, Sniper, Rocket launcher, grenade launcher, tactical submachine gun, all the healing items, and a butt ton of ammo and building materials.” Surprisingly, Luna finished the list already- And looked to him as if he did something wrong. She remained a playful grin. “Ah,” Ssundee realized. “I know you both are princesses and sorry for my language.” They all bursted into laughter. They all split up to find their own specific items they distributed to each other and they did come back 10 minutes later. They plopped down all the weapons they got and distributed the ammo. They pretty much had infinite ammo anyway so they didn’t care too much. And the tutoring begins. Ssundee picked up the normal submachine gun and made a face of disgust. “Ugh. Submachine guns. That’s a goner,” He said before tossing it into oblivion. “Do not ever pick that up unless you have nothing else to kill players with.” Celestia nudged Luna and whispered to her. “You should probably note all this down.” So Luna took out a list and named it “Loot”. She marked it down on the list. She also made lists for strategy, building and locations. As she did so, Ssundee picked up a scoped assault rifle. “Aha,” He said triumphantly. “This is what you hope to get. Scoped assault rifle, sniper and assault rifle in one gun. Does the same damage but you can aim better from afar- Perfect for combat in buildings.” Celestia nodded. “We’ve tested them out the last time we played.” “Good,” Crainer replied. “Now, the best way to solve a close encounter duel is to use this pump shotgun. Take your pick, be it a tactical or pump. They’re pretty good- But never use the heavy one.” “No kidding,” Ssundee added. “They are really slow. And also- Never go inside a house from the front door without a shotgun. That’s a good thing to keep in mind.” “Prove it,” Luna commanded. So Ssundee got a heavy shotgun and Crainer got a pump shotgun. It took Ssundee 5 seconds to round up another shot. The pump only uses 3. “A good strategy would be to continuously switch your shotgun types in combat to kill the cooldown time,” Crainer said, having his inventory open. One had a blue pump shotgun and the other had a green tactical shotgun. “So in this case, your shots will be like this.” Ssundee And Crainer We’re jumping around for a moment and fired their shotguns. It was easy to see that Crainer had more shots. Celestia applauded. “You are really good at this game, young one.” His face turned red. “Thanks. As you can also see, we were jumping around as well. This makes it so that your enemy can’t aim as good, and even if they do hit, it can’t deal as much damage.” Celestia and Luna tried the strategy out themselves. Hard to get used to, but they were fast learners. “Good job!” Ssundee nodded. “Okay, so in my opinion, some of the best guns to get will be the scoped assault rifle, the light machine gun and the scar. But as for the most useful, you may want to aim for a pump shotgun. It’s the most useful one.” “Wait, isn’t the light machine gun what killed us last time?” Luna asked. “It shoots so fast! How does one avoid the attack!?” Ssundee picked up that specific gun and winked to Crainer. He started opening fire, and Crainer started running. One by one, he quickly puts down walls in a flash to stop the blazing bullets, until he was out of his predator’s range and radar. Then he makes the run. “I’m okay!” Crainer yelled from at least a few hundred feet away. Celestia gasped. “That was amazing! How did you do that?” Ssundee dropped the gun. “This is where building materials come in- It is best to utilize wood, bricks and metal for building. You probably know this, but the problem is that you may not be able to use it to it’s full potential. With quick reflexes, you can build a simple fort whenever you get shot. For example...” Crainer shot him from behind. Immediately, Ssundee closed himself in with four walls and built stairs for peeking and shooting. It was all done in literally 5 seconds. But when Celestia and Luna tried to do it, they needed about 15 seconds. The pro made a friendly laugh. “You’ll get a grip on it,” He winked. “If you always take that long, you’re fried.” They all started giggling when Crainer walked over. “So, do you both want to try out every gun to see which you like most first?” The two looked at each other. “Nope, we’re good,” Luna responded, shaking her hoof no. “Let’s dive start into the action.” Ssundee made a unamused face. “Hey! Puns are my thing!” He said in a rather higher pitched voice this time. They got on the battle bus and the hologram guide was talking all the tutorial stuff again. But since they were the only ones, they voted to skip that. Ssundee motioned the two princesses to come over to sit next to him and Crainer. He pulled up the map of Fortnite Island on his lap for them to see. “Now, where did you guys drop last time?” He asked. “Moisty Mire,” Luna replied. Crainer wanted to burst out laughing, but he didn’t want to mess with the princesses so he kept his composure. “Hmmm... Let’s try somewhere else. It’s hard to navigate there. Ssundee and I may have different strategies when it comes to dropping.” “So what you’re saying...” Celestia said, tapping her chin with a hoof. “You May drop in different places each time?” Ssundee nodded. “So Crainer And I Are pros at the game and are able to think fast and kill players quick, easy and with not too powerful weapons. So we drop at Tilted Towers or Retail Row. That is where most people go to.” The princesses both blushed and had a chuckle. “What about us?” Luna giggled. “We’re not as good as you are.” “*sigh* Yo, come on, bro, respect the newcomers a little!” Crainer nudged his friend’s arm, making Ssundee embarrassed. “Since you guys aren’t as good, there are a few good places to loot in. We can go here, Lucky Landing. There’s quite the number of chests and not a lot of people go there. But since our battle bus path is not heading in the right direction, we might want to go here instead.” He points to a random mountain on the map, on the west side. Celestia was confused. “Where’s that?” She curiously asked. “There’s no name for it! It’s just a mountain!” “It’s a secret base,” Crainer explained. “There are at least 3-4 chests there every time. You know what’s convenient? It’s located next to this giant crater. There’s maybe a chest or two there. Next to that, we have another house for more loot. And, if it’s in the zone, we can go to the west coast of Snobby Shores. They have many chests.” “I call them,” Ssundee said, once again in his dramatic voice. “The rich people’s homes.” Everyone went silent. “What?” Luna rolled her eyes. “You do this often?” “Yes! Yes he does, actually,” Crainer added. “Mhmm... Also, Crainer, you have a bit of an accent. Tell me more, I love gaming with others.” “Really?” Luna nodded. “*giggles* I’m a princess, yes... But I do spend a large amount of time on games when I’m free. Tia doesn’t, though.” Ssundee snickered. “Tia? Your nickname, Celestia? Good one.” Celestia blushed and playfully slapped her sister. “Wh- Hey! Luna, what was that for!?” Luna was laughing as she had a slap-fight with her. Crainer And Ssundee were giggling at the sight of the royal sisters this frisky with each other. “I didn’t know you both had a sense of humor,” Ssundee playfully teased. The two sisters stopped and glared back at him. Before he could apologize, the two already broke into hysterics. “Yeah, we mess with each other a lot,” Celestia replied, then turning to Luna to rub her cheeks. “Don’t we?” “*giggles* Yes, we sure do,” Luna said. “By the way, what do you guys do on YouTube? You both must be famous, right?” “We’re famous for a lot of reasons,” Crainer crossed his legs. “We don’t just play Fortnite like all gaming channels do nowadays. It’s pretty boring, you know. I don’t understand.” “Tell me about it,” Luna continued. “My friend Nathan can’t stop complaining how all his favorite channels are only playing Fortnite nowadays.” Ssundee agrees with that. “We play Minecraft a lot too and other games. We do a lot of stuff. Hey, have your subjects ever played any other games with The Cube yet?” “Not that I know of,” Celestia responded. “Let me tell you,” Crainer said, “Playing Baldi’s Basics in The Cube is like trying to escape death. Believe me when I tell you.” The princesses gave each other a decisive look, and they both thought, ”We totally need to troll Twilight with this.” But they had to put that thought on hold, for they were about to drop on the island. “Okay! The hatch is opening,” Ssundee said. “Everyone, go to the secret base. We’ll continue the training and strategy teaching. Be there or be square!” The Big MatchSince then, Celestia and Luna have gotten much, much better at Fortnite through the guidance of the two pros. Although they weren’t originally human, which hindered their learning process, it was easy for them to get used to the ropes. They were much more quick on reaction, and they knew the type of gear they wanted. Turns out, Celestia liked the offense class, while Luna liked to stay back and take sniping instead. It was difficult for them to spend time together on these Fortnite basics. But it was worth it. A week later, the four met up for squad mode once more, and are ready to take the victory Royale. They were just practicing some more before the game started when some people approached them once again. Uh oh. “You call that accuracy,” Winston teased, laughing. Luna peeked away from her sniper rifle for one second and slapped him in the face. “Will you please shut up? This time, we’ve got the skills to beat everyone on this whole island down. Right Celestia?” “Right,” She replied. The bully did not care, for he had backup. “Oho, think about it, dear princesses,” Winston clapped his hands and called his teammates. “You’ve never played squad mode. There are 4 people in a team. Very sure you’re gonna get stupid teammates who dont know what they’re doing.” He turned his vision to his teammates. “We, though, have been winning game after game.” His teammate Oscar nodded. He was his go-to partner in crime. “Your teammate must be your idiotic ally Nathan, am I right?” As the group started laughing, Celestia stomped the ground quite forcefully a few times. Ssundee and Crainer appeared beside the two princesses. They held their pistols and light machine gun in their hands, pointing directly at the four. “You know who we are,” Ssundee said. Winston twitched his eyebrow and snickered. “Huh. Ssundee and Crainer. Two famous Fortnite YouTube stars. You both were dominating every game... Until we beat you at the last second!” Jason laughed. “Even two professional players don’t have the guts against us. Come on, let’s get away from these losers.” “No kidding,” Tommy, another one of the crew said. The second they were off of their radar, Celestia wanted to burst into flames. They just called her and her sister what now? She couldn’t believe how mischievous they are. “D-Did... Did they seriously, just call us losers!?” Celestia yelled, stomping the ground in rage. She snatched Ssundee’s light machine gun. “Oh, once this game starts, I am gonna-“ Luna tugged her arm, and Celestia stopped. “Hey. Calm down, sis,” Luna suggested. “You’re giving them what they want.” Her sister smiled. “You know what...” Celestia said, her smile changing to a cold one. “I think they will get what they want.” “Ahhhh. Oh yeah. They will.” They high-fived each other, and soon, the battle bus was ready for takeoff. The big match is about to begin. When the team got on the battle bus, everyone was practically snoring during the explanation of the rules. By the time it was done, that’s when the group started to actually start planning stuff. “Awesome. The bus is headed straight for the secret base!” Luna pointed out. Crainer nodded. “Perfect. Let’s go there. Remember what we did- If anyone interferes, react fast. Let’s stick together to make sure we all survive this time around. That way, we will have the strength to deal with surprise attacks while we are in the base. Usually it’s one or two people.” They all marked the place on the map. “Okay, so,” Ssundee said. “Everyone better get a shotgun fast. That’s going to be important. Also, remember this is squad mode. As Crainer just said, it is best we stick together. If any of us dies, it’s difficult to win.” Celestia nodded. “It’s the pack that’s stronger. Now, come on!” They all placed their hands together in the middle and raised them all up in harmony. As soon they did, the hatch for the battle bus was opening. “Dive as far as possible as stick the landing as fast as you can,” Ssundee reminded. “Now go!” They landed swiftly on the ground a few minutes later, on the mountain where the secret base was located. Celestia and Luna were on the top of it, while Ssundee and Crainer spotted a chest on another level of the mountain, so they went to grab that. They regrouped a moment later to infiltrate the base. They got down to a house like structure, and saw a lone player frantically breaking the steel gate blocking the entrance. “Enemy on radar!” Ssundee said, diving down and charging at him. “Kill it! Kill it with fire!” All four of them beat the player up in a few seconds. All he had was a bit of resources, though. They soon busted into the base and dropped down. “It’s easy to naviagate around the base; I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Crainer said. “Split up. Ian, you’re with me. Princesses, stick together and try not to get hurt.” Celestia nodded and hurried off with Luna down the base. As they passed by the intimidating interior of the nerdy base, there were items everywhere. They got down to the 3rd floor and saw a staircase leading down to a bedroom. They went down and saw a chest. After opening it, some pretty interesting weapons were barfed out. “Blue pump shotgun!” Luna exclaimed. “Awesome!” Celestia picked up the blue assault rifle and the green tactical shotgun. “Pretty neat.” Then she heard someone coming. “Luna, get over here!” “Wh- huh?” “Just hide and shush!” They went behind the steel staircase to get the ammo crate as someone else stepped in. He went into the room next door for more loot. When he came out and turned... “Halt!” The princesses jumped out and used their shotguns at the same time. He dropped dead in a flash. He had some more healing items which were pretty good. “Ha, good job!” Luna high-fived her sister. Celestia giggled. “First kill we’ve had. Let’s go.” The group continued to search around until they gathered at the 1st floor, where the metal gate back outside was located. Ssundee and Crainer came over with really good gear. “Believe me when I tell you,” Crainer said, his face beaming. “I found a legendary thermal scoped assault rifle!” He showed the gun to the princesses- Who were nothing but amazed. It was the newest gun in the game and possibly one of the best weapons. When Celestia tried to use the white-coloured weapon with a fierce-looking laser pointer attached, she could see through the scope, a bunch of blue surroundings and her teammates’ bodies were in different warm colours. “Does this make others more easily seen?” She asked. Ssundee nodded. “Player bodies have heat inside them. This kind of scope detects heat, so it will be easier to aim and find your enemy. Pretty cool right?” Just then, a loud sound was heard. It was the siren. “Attention players: The zone has now been formed. Please proceed to the zone in 15 minutes before the storm begins.” Celestia gave back the gun and Crainer looked at the Fortnite Island map. They were already in the zone. And much to his surprise, Snobby Shores was also in the zone too! “Perfect!” He said. “What’s up?” Luna asked. “Are we in the zone?” “Yeah! And we can go to the rich neighbourhood too!” Ssundee rubbed his hands, feeling pleased. “Very nice. So that’s where we’re going next!” “Fire in the hole!” Ssundee yelled that in the cringiest yet most hilarious voice ever, and fired his rocket launcher. At the same time, all his teammates threw grenades at a man-made wooden base that contained a team of two. BOOM “Go go go!” Luna screamed enthusiastically. The squad jumped out of their cover from the nearby bushes and fence gates, and frantically fired their assault rifles and light machine guns. BANG BANG BANG And the two dropped dead. As soon that happened, everyone started laughing at their flawless surprise attack. Even when they were picking the loot and healing up a little, they were still dying of laughter. “OMG, that was awesome!” Crainer couldn’t stop laughing. Celestia was giggling the hardest, which made the two pros surprised- Being such a regal princess, they never expected her to have such a great sense of humour. Ssundee finished drinking his shield potion. “Dang, I didn’t know you had a sense of humour, Celestia!” He said a little playfully. Luna chuckled and nudged him. “Yeah. When she laughs, she could go on for a while.” Finally, Celestia did manage to get herself back in condition and they found a lot of spare loot lying around. They did notice some people already went to Snobby Shores, but made the guess they all got killed and now there’s a bunch of stuff lying on the floor. Because of this, they all got very lucky and awesome weapons and healing items. A while later, the siren came again. “Attention players: The 2nd zone has been formed. Please proceed there in 15 minutes.” So the squad packed up all their great equipment and set off. Along the way, they weren’t getting attacked by anyone, so they had a casual chat as they were walking to their next destination, Greasy Grove. It’s a residential area. “You know, it’s fun getting trained by you guys,” Luna said. Crainer blushed. “Haha, don’t say that. We’re not that amazing.” “*giggles* What do you mean?” Celestia teased. “You both are really amazing gamers, I can tell you that.” At this point, having being praised by two pony princesses, Crainer couldn’t utter anything and blushed heavily. Ssundee rolled his eyes and laughed. “He likes you praising him,” Ssundee said playfully. “Come on, do it...” The sisters were giggling as Crainer made an adorable squeak and shook his head. Ssundee joined on the laugh. “Hey! Come on, bro! You’re gonna mess with me like that now?” Crainer asked, but couldn’t resist laughing along even though it was on him. Ssundee made a cold smile. “Hashtag Crainer likes being praised by pretty pink princesses! Hashtag hashtag!” He intentionally made a confused face, having no idea what he just said. “Don’t judge me,” Ssundee added, turning to Celestia. “*chuckles* You humans are weird. In a good way,” The princess commented. “Do you YouTubers do this stuff too? Trying to be really awkward sometimes?” The pros looked at each other, having no idea what to respond with. “It’s my thing,” Ssundee explained. Luna made a hum in agreement. “I see. Hey Crainer, you have distinct accent. Mind telling us where you’re from?” “Not at all,” Crainer replied. “I’m actually Danish, and Ian is American.” The princesses were very interested. But the moment they wanted to say something... WHOOSH “Whoa!” Celestia squeaked, narrowly missing a blazing sniper bullet and hearing the breeze of the wind. Crainer and Ssundee put their serious face on. “I smell an enemy!” Ssundee yelled, immediately building a makeshift base. “Where are they, Celestia?” “Hmmm... I think from that mountain over there. Yeah, that one.” Crainer peeked out of their cover just a little bit. They covered the top to avoid more sniper bullets coming their way. As he was scanning the landscape, they realised someone was missing in that brief minute. “Wait, where’d my sister go?” Celestia asked. Ssundee was busy distracting the enemy, knowing where this was going. Crainer winked and did the same thing, firing his purple tier scar at the enemy’s makeshift base. From what they heard, it seemed to be one person. Suddenly... BANG! “Huh!?” Crainer asked, looking through his scope. “Did that guy just-“ “GOT HIM!” Luna yelled triumphantly in her royal Canterlot voice. “HA! Get sniped!” Ssundee immediately started dying of laughter again. “Oh my gosh that was beautiful!!” He cried. Turns out, Luna was secretly sniping from another mountain and escaped the enemy radar without anyone noticing. She had a gold sniper and got a critical hit. After a few back and forth fights around the map, the group eventually made it to the final destination, where the smallest possible zone covering a major location of the island is located: The infamous Tilted Towers. It was some kind of small town, with tall, dense and Modern buildings. When they did get there, they could hear two teams fighting. So, they played it smart and tried to hide from the commotion. They were in another makeshift base behind a building, on the edge of Tilted Towers. All they could hear was gunshots flying to and fro. “Should we lay low?” Celestia suggested. Ssundee peeked out. He saw two huge man-made buildings. Probably player bases for the fighting. He signalled the three to go into the building. “Go. Top floor, just do it!” They easily climbed up the stairs to reach the highest floor of the tall building. When they peeked out the window, it only took one second for them to regret the decision. One, because they didn’t want to get spotted, and two, they were literally 10-20 meters above the ground. Celestia and Luna held onto each other in worry. “Oh, Tia... I don’t like not having wings!” Luna cried. “I feel so powerless! Celestia tried her best to calm her down when Crainer had an idea. “Luna,” He said, “It’s on you.” “Wh-What!? Are you insane!?” “You’ve got the most accurate shots I’ve seen. Not even Ian can top it. If you can snipe one of them down, our job would be easier. Right now, waiting for those two teams to finish fighting will only make way for the storm to take place. If so, we’ll never be able to turn the tables around.” Luna looked unsure. Ssundee comforted her. “Don’t worry, we’ve got your back!” He said, patting her back. She finally agreed and lied down. Carefully, the princess slithered over towards the window that separated the balcony and the top floor. It was open, so she peeked out and reloaded her sniper. “Believe in yourself,” Celestia encouraged from behind. “Just like you told me!” Luna turned back for a brief moment and gave a nod. When she turned back and aimed, she made very sure it would hit the enemy target, and got frustrated when he moved. “Ugh... Come on! Stay still!” Eventually, he started to heal up and this forced him to stay in one place. That’s it! Bang! She didn’t know if she killed him or not at first, but then she knew she did- Because immediately after, someone yelled: “I’M GONNA KILL YOU, GIRL!” The four silently giggled. They just clearly heard a full grown man scream that with 100% seriousness. What a weird world they live in. But they couldn’t let their guard down- For now they were on radar. They hid behind the walls of the building, but they then heard some strange and suspicious words. “Oh, it’s going down now!” And then a rocket came flying over. Boom! The four frantically tried to escape. But, they were shocked when bullets were still hitting them, even when they were running down the stairs! “What do you mean!?” Ssundee yelled. Crainer gasped. “Wh-What is this sorcery!? How is he hitting us, dude!?” “How am I supposed to know!?” When they got out, they were very low on health. Back on the tower they were getting shot from, stood the gang. That’s right; The self-centred people who dared to insult the princesses. As Winston shot those incredibly ridiculous shots, their enemy fought back with only two players remaining. Tommy and Jason went down and he wasn’t able to save them. At about the same time, one of them seemed to have escaped from their “Port-a-Fort”, a fortress in a ball-shaped gadget. He opened the door at the bottom of the port-a-fort. He was trying to make a run, but when he turned the corner, Celestia jumped out with her gun. The player was knocked by her scar. “Where do you think- Wait, huh!?” In fact, this wasn’t just any normal player- It was Nathan! “*gasp* Celestia! It was you who sniped them!?” He asked as he took the princess’ hoof. “You’re still okay! Awesome job!” The princess hugged her friend with a chuckle. “It’s Luna who sniped them. I’m on her squad team.” The other three came around. Ssundee and Crainer were suspicious at first, but when they saw Celestia with him, they stepped back from defcon one. “Aren’t you Nathan!?” Ssundee gasped. “The developer of the cube!?” Nathan chuckled and shook his hand. Same with Crainer. “Ha, Ssundee and Crainer. You taught them well, didn’t ya?” He laughed. “But! No time! I got to tell you something!” “What’s up?” Crainer asked. Nathan took a deep breath, since he’s majorly hurt. He’s down to 20 hp. He even collapsed at one point. The princesses helped comfort him and helped him calm down. “I see it now,” He said furiously. “What?” they all asked. “They’re hacking! That’s why they’re winning!” Everyone gasped. “So that’s why they managed to shoot us even when we were indoors!” Luna yelled. “How dare they use aimbot on us, especially me!” A second later, Nathan’s teammate was killed. “Not just aimbot, Luna,” He explained. “I saw their every action. They have infinite ammunition. They can fly without jet packs or launch pads. They have the best weapons in the game and I refuse to believe they can get that many gold weapons. It’s not possible.” “What do you mean!?” Ssundee yelled in the same voice again. Crainer nodded. “I agree, what do they think they’re doing!?” Nathan sighed. “I didn’t even know you can even hack in my system... I’m really sorry. I have to make some adjustments to the security system soon.” All of a sudden, another rocket flew over! “Stay back!” He cut his words off and fired his rocket launcher at the rocket. Both exploded on impact. “But what do we do now?” Crainer questioned. “We can’t match up against those two!” Ssundee totally agrees. “Dirty cheaters... Curse them!” Then, both Celestia and Nathan came up with two awesome ideas. They didn’t say it at the same time, of course, but they were both already giggling about it. “Nathan, since you’re the creator of the console... Just ban them!” Celestia suggested. He thought for a bit, and was so shocked he’d never thought of this before- He’s the developer of “The Cube”! He can do whatever he wants! He might not be able to ban them from the PC game, but he would be able to ban them from this game in The Cube. “That’s not a bad idea,” Nathan replied. “But that would take too long.” Luna started to shake his body. “Come on! You got to! Cheaters should never prevail! Especially against the pros!” “Alright, chill, Luna. I’ll see what I can do,” He sighed. Then he snapped his fingers. “In the meantime, though... Have you ever heard of the shopping cart glitch? I think it’s not fixed yet...” The four looked at one another. “I... I think I’ve heard of it,” Celestia said. “I’ve once watched a video about it.” The other three had no idea what he was talking about. “No idea? I’ll tell you. Basically, you-“ Boooooooooooom ”Player Honnathan, deceased. Shot by rocket launcher, 6 players remain.” The squad all dropped to the floor. Their rivals just killed the developer! They heard them shouting. “WHOA! Dude! You just aced that idiot-face!” Oscar yelled in excitement. Winston chuckled. “Not that it matters! He’s the developer, so what!?” The four were scared- How will they beat a hacker with limitless potential? They were living short on ammo for everything, from their fights along the way. They didn’t get a jetpack either. “Tia, what is your plan?” Luna asked, shaking her. “Tell us!” “Okay, okay!” Celestia responded. “From what I understand, and according to Nathan, they might just be like the same as any of our other foes in the past in Equestria.” “What are you trying to say?” Crainer tilted his head in confusion. Celestia smiled coldly. “They may be strong, but they”re not very bright. Right here.” She pointed to her brain. “Ohhhhhh so I get it!” Ssundee understood now. “You want to think outside the box, Celestia? But how?” “The shopping cart trick!” The three were really confused. “I’ve seen it before. One minute while I set this one up.” She walked back out so she’ll be exposed. She put her hands up. “Alright, we surrender!” Luna looked at her with disbelief. ”What is she doing!?” The duo looked at her. “You may kill us, but under one request!” “And what would that be?” Oscar demanded. Celestia looked back for one moment, and said, “You both are really good at this game. So why don’t you guys try to shoot us, mid-air, on a shopping cart? How does that sound?” The pair looked to each other, and started discussing. “Dude! This will make such an awesome YouTube video!” Oscar said. Winston nodded. “No kidding, this will be such a legendary kill!” They both turned back and nodded. “Alright! We’re doing it!” Oscar accepted the challenge. Celestia nodded. “Excellent! Now, just build all the way to the build limit, get a shopping cart up there, and slide down a ramp. When you’re in mid-air, you have to kill us! Got it?” They both agreed, and Celestia walked back to the group. “What was that for!?” Ssundee shouted. She winked. “They fell completely under my trap. Basically, there’s a glitch in Fortnite that’s not fixed in this version. If someone is pushing a shopping cart and it falls and glitches into another object as it lands... Something interesting will happen.” “What is it!? Tell us!!” Crainer begged. Celestia chuckled and motioned him to step back. “Calm down. Now, let me tell you how we’re going to do this...” 10 minutes later... “You got it recording?” Winston asked his friend. “Yep! I’ve set up the recording stuff in the game!” Oscar replied. “Now, let’s do that dialogue we’ve been practicing...” At this moment, the duo have built a large ramp that goes all the way to the build limit of Fortnite. About 200 something meters tall. Waiting at the bottom, are Ssundee, Crainer and Luna, all with their hands up. They have no idea why they needed to do this, but Celestia told them to, saying that they will act as “Bait”. “Are you sure about this?” Luna asked Crainer. He shrugged. “Ehhhh no?” “Even I’m not sure...” Ssundee said. “What is your sister planning?” “How am I supposed to-“ She was cut off by a huge voice. “Hey!” Winston said to their recording camera. “My name is MasterShooter,” “And my name is ShootyMcShootface!” Oscar followed. The three wanted to giggle at the names they made for themselves. “Welcome to jackbutt,” Winston said, “And this is the roller coaster 360 no scope triple kill! Hold tight Oscar!” “Gooooooooooo!” At breakneck speed, Winston pushed the cart, and the shopping cart rolled down, getting faster and faster on the ramp. The three could only watch as the plan went on. Soon, the cart leaped off the ramp and Winston was seemingly in a flying position. It’s the game mechanics. As Oscar was about to aim, the three already closed their eyes in fear. Until... ”Player ShootyMcShootface deceased. Killed by fall damage. 5 players remain.” “Huh?” Luna said. “What did Tia-“ “Move out of the way!” Celestia said. “I got it!” In fact, with incredible timing, Celestia used a launchpad and leaped onto their shopping cart, and knocked Oscar off! She was on the cart now, and Winston could only watch is disbelief since he couldn’t move. “What!? What is that supposed to be!?!?” Celestia had a big, cold smile. “Let me tell you something. Hackers. Never. Prevail.” A second before it hit the ground, she got off and ducked right in front of the shopping cart. When it was landing, buzzing sounds happened as it glitched through Celestia’s player skin. And then... *WHOOOOOOOOOSH* Winston and the cart were sent flying across the island, straight into the storm. “WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?” He screamed as he flew away, so far that he didn’t even land on the island anymore. He was lost in the ocean. Celestia skillfully backflipped as the following words were spoken: ”Congratulations! Victory Royale is yours!” “Woohoo!” Luna celebrated in cheer. She dashed over to hug her big sister. “We did it!” Celestia chuckled along as she nuzzled in the hug with her sister. “*chuckles* We certainly did. I never thought I’d say this but... That was really fun!” “I’m so glad you did!” When did let go and turned to the pros, Ssundee was shell-shocked. Crainer was cupping his head with his hands. Both of them had their mouths wide-open. “How did you do that!?” Celestia laughed so hard, she fell to the ground and started rolling over and over on the road. “I’ll tell you when we get back to the base. You guys can stay, right?” Ssundee and Crainer shrugged. “I guess we could,” Crainer replied. They all laughed. Soon, they heard the sounds of the battle bus. Only this time, because it came to pick up only the winners, the battle bus was gold coloured. Again, perhaps? (Ending)“Ahhhhh. This is the life. Right Crainer?” “Yep!” After their victory Royale, they got on the golden battle bus. It was not included in the original game since the game ends automatically, but now that The Cube has been invented, the winners needed some way to evacuate the now stormy Fortnite Island. The battle bus interior was amazing. It was like going on a first-class flight- And everything is gold or gold coloured. Ultimate relaxation for the ones dedicated to winning. The guide popped up again. “Well, well. Looks like you four fought well.” The hologram lit up at the center of the table. The group were just sitting on the nice couches when it happened, so all they did was just listen. “First, Congratulations And thanks for playing. Did you have fun?” They all looked to each other and nodded. “You kidding me? This has been the most fun I’ve had in years!” Celestia giggled. Luna smiled as her sister brought her close with a wing. “Glad you did, Tia.” The guide made a hum in agreement. “Indeed. Games are designed to allow players to have fun in their lives. Pretty unnecessary that many turned this into a competitive game. So much... They’ll do whatever it takes to win.” Crainer realized something. “Wait, did you know about the-“ “Yes,” The guide sighed. “Developer Nathan has alerted us by coding. We’ll take it from here. Not to worry.” Ssundee sighed in relief. “Good. Good. Hackers really shouldn’t be a thing. Technology may be advanced but... Why hack just to win a game that’s for fun, right?” “Very true,” Celestia nodded. “Wait,” Luna thought of something. “From what I understand... If you get banned in a game... You’ll get some kind of punishment, right? What is it?” The guide thought for a bit, but shook his head. “I don’t know. The codes to this punishment you’re talking about is not in my game codes. Looks like you’ll have to find it yourself, then. Try asking Nathan. He’ll know the answer.” Luna chuckled and rolled her eyes. “Judging by how much he hates Winston, he’s probably going to throw him in a horror game. Freddy, perhaps? Or Tattletail?” They all laughed. “I guess I won’t disturb you all for long. Hope to see you all here sometime soon.” The guide closed his eyes, and disappeared. “So...” Crainer said. “Celestia?” “Yes?” “Can you please explain how you just did that?” It took a few moments before she realised what she was explaining. “Oh, right,” She said after a few minutes. “In Fortnite, If someone is rolling down a ramp with a shopping cart at large force, then the force will carry on as they’re lifted off the ramp. When the cart landed just now, it was glitching through my player skin. It caused the shopping cart to be sent flying backwards, depending on how big the falling force was. Since they built their ramp all the way to the height limit, when the glitch happened, he flew across the whole map.” “Whoa!” Crainer said in shock. “Yo, I got to give it to you, princess. That was beautiful.” The three applauded. Celestia just chuckled and blushed. “But wait, where were you when we were in position, then?” Luna asked. “Oh, simple.” *********** “Alright,” Celestia said. “Stay here, put your hands up and don’t move.” She already had her three teammates with their knees on the floor. They did as she told them. “Good! Remain like that and I’ll be right back.” Celestia ran as fast as she could to the outskirts of Tilted Towers. She got up a small hill, and saw the ramp was still being built. Feeling confident that she’ll have enough time, she started to build higher for the plan to execute fluently. She got up to about 50 meters above the ground, and placed down a launch pad. Earlier before they got there, the group scooped up a launch pad when killing people. When she saw the two going down the ramp they’ve made, she ran and pounced on the opportunity- Literally! She used the launch pad and made a huge leap. Her glider kicked in, and she swiftly controlled the glider’s direction- The duo took off, and were ready to aim. But just before they could shoot anypony, Celestia caught up and kicked Oscar right off the cart, sending him to his death. ********* “And I suppose you know the rest,” Celestia said, giggling softly. “I still feel proud of that move.” Ssundee looked very interested and was beaming. “So you just killed a hacker without a gun?” He asked sarcastically. “Wow. I really gotta have to give it to you. Outsmarted us all.” “*giggles* Why, Thank you!” Ssundee and Celestia gave each other a high-five and a nice handshake. The grip from Ssundee was a bit tight. “Ha. No, thank you both for spending your time with us. It was fun tagging along with a princess,” He laughed. “I know you probably have your own things to do, but... Wanna pitch in again, perhaps? Sometime soon?” Crainer clapped his hands and grinned. “Oh yeah! We should totally record a video together in The Cube!” The princesses looked at each other and let out a chuckle. “We’ll contact you guys when we could,” Luna replied, winking. “You’ll just have to wait until then.” As the group continued talking on their trip back to the waiting lobby island, sharing their bits and pieces and laughs of their everyday life, they realised the island was slowly approaching. And the sisters knew once that happens, they’ll be sent back to reality. Like most gamers- They didn’t want their time to end. But they had to. So, after a long day, they finally landed back at the original base and the princesses were already showing signs of returning to the real world- With the instability of their player skins. After bidding farewell and a few hugs with their new friends, the two finally went back to Equestria. ******** Woosh woosh “Welcome back, Tia and Luna!” Nathan said as soon they appeared. “Hey, grats on winning, by the way.” The princesses giggled as he gave them handshakes. “Weird,” Celestia commented. “I’ve been a human for like, I don’t know, a few hours, and I managed to get used to my pony form relatively quickly. Pretty odd, right Lulu?” Luna shoved her playfully with a wing. “Don’t call me that in front of Nathan!” He laughed. “Oh, Tia. You gotta watch your mouth sometimes. Oh! And also! I took care of the hackers- Managed to ban them.” They all had a big laugh. All along, they never knew the only reason why they couldn’t win, was because their major opponents were hacking. At least, that’s what the sisters thought. “You know, Nathan... I have a little bit of a request.” Celestia said, winking. “Anything, your highness.” The two smiled coldly. They knew Nathan wouldn’t want to do this, but it was a perfect prank. “I’m pretty sure Twilight won’t be mad at you for doing this, right?” She continued. He shrugged. “Depends. But, I guess I’ll do it anyway. Just to mess with her a tiny bit. Just hope she doesn’t break up with me if she finds out I played a part.” “Haha, no! Of course you’ll be fine,” Luna said. “Relax.” “Don’t tell me you want me to put her in a horror game. Ohhhh no. That is not-“ Celestia commanded him to shut up by putting a hoof in his mouth. “Too late!” She giggled. “Do it, or else no cuddles this month!” She winked, and Luna made an adorable face and begged him to carry out the plan they had in mind earlier. At last, Nathan finally gave up and sighed. “Fine,” He hmphed. “But If Spark bursts into flames right in front of you, Tia, I’m not helping you.” The sisters rolled their eyes. “Suit yourself,” Celestia smirked. “Okay, so, I want you to put her in this game...” Author's Note Switching things up for a new series! Hope you liked it, I didn’t want this to have multiple chapters but it ended up doing that anyway :p Want to know what game Celestia wanted Twilight to be trapped in? You’ll find out in the next episode of the series. Ttyl!
IntroductionThe Cube of Gaming- One of the latest breakthroughs of gaming technology. Being a person who had supernatural gaming powers, Nathan was the creator of the magnificent invention. It was like virtual reality- But think of it as a literally realistic environment you’re dealing with. The usage of this plaything is simple. Just load up the game you want to play on the system of the 50 by 50 by 50 cube, and start the game to begin the adventure. This device automatically sucks you into the game itself, and you can play as any character as you wish. It was like virtual reality, but you are actually IN the game. You are the character, you make your move, and most importantly, you suffer the trouble in the game. Thankfully, it is now developed to a point where you will not feel injuries, as there will be a secret shield to protect you from your actual body. Users customise the way they play- What game they want, how long they play it for, and for the wildest players, completing a certain objective before they can return to the actual world. It can be dangerous- But some still do it and get out alive. The ponies have never experienced something like this before- How will they face the more advanced, more powerful and more hardcore players of the human world? Let’s find out. Games Ponies Play: Shoot For the Stars “Are you sure you two want to do this?” Nathan grabbed his cube of gaming from the special room he made in his secret lab in Undertale, specifically for testing the invention. The words were spoken to none other than the two royal sisters- Celestia and Luna. Luna was beyond excited. “Yes!” She squeaked, prancing up and down. Then she turned to Celestia. “Can you believe it, Tia!? We’re gonna be having fun with humans!” Celestia rolled her eyes at her naive sister. “To be honest, I was forced into this one,” She giggled. Nathan laughed. “There is no such thing as being forced to play video games, Celestia. Unless you decide to set up the ‘No way back’ option when you use this. You know what function I am talking about.” “Yes,” Celestia replied. “So... Don’t do that. Just set it to the game over setting.” “Right,” The inventor said, toggling some settings. “Okay, I’ve set up the exit game rule- Once you get a game over, or you die, you immediately get teleported back here. If you win, you get some time to stay in the game before you leave. I’ve set it to ten minutes this time.” “Sounds good.” Nathan swiped around the games to choose from- The current version he made having hundreds of games in it’s library. Only his version has all the available games to this present day, considering the amount of money it takes to buy the access to all of the games. But, since he’s the developer of the console, he doesn’t have to do that step. Because of this, he must keep it safe, to avoid anyone stealing it. “Alright, what game does thou wish to play?” Nathan asked. The two looked at each other. “You said you wanted to play a shooting game, right?” Celestia told Luna. She nodded. “Oh, yes! Definitely! Those are my favorite!” “I can tell, given how much you game when you’re not on dream duty.” Luna turned to Nathan. “Let’s Play Fortnite Battle Royale.” He thought for a bit, and nodded. “Ahhhh, Fortnite, Huh?” He said, trying to find the game. “I used to play that a ton. Back when it was released, it took the world by storm. It’s still popular, even after so long.” “Probably because of your console!” Celestia pointed out. “Mmmm, maybe.” Nathan finally found the game. But before he activated it, he wanted them to make sure they were familiar with their human selves, since their characters will be humanised. “Wait, have you two gotten used to being a human in this game yet?” Luna thought for a bit and nodded. “Well, you let us test it for a bit a while ago, and I’ve actually tried to practice being on two hooves.” “To be honest... I did it too,” Celestia said, letting out a giggle. “Well, you may get to familiarise your movements again while you wait for the game. It takes a while for the lobby to fill up,” Nathan suggested. “Alright, time is candy. Ready?” They both nodded, and Nathan activated the cube. It started buzzing with electronic beeps and boop sounds as it opened, then making a magical swirling sound. “Safe travels, and have fun!” Nathan said, smiling. The two princesses got levitated, and soon, their size got smaller as they were sucked into the cube, then it closed itself.
Heavy FireThe two got teleported into some kind of military base in Fortnite Battle Royale. For those of you who are experts at the game, yes, they’re in the waiting screen. “Wow... This looks awesome when you see it with your own eyes!” Luna exclaimed. “Right, Tia?” She turned- To find her sister transformed into a human, and it was then she knew she turned into a human too. Their hair was the same colour as in their pony form, but not flowing anymore. Their skins were white and navy, and instead of four hooves, they now have 2 hands and 2 legs. They got used to their human forms rather quickly. “So,” Celestia said, twitching her eyebrow. “How do I look like this?” Luna giggled. “You look great! And the gear and protection you’re wearing is so cool!” Since the two were new to the game, they had the default skin and costume. They wished they would someday get the higher-tier items, but that’s a maybe for now. “*chuckles* You look really nice too,” Celestia complimented. “I don’t think we’ve ever actually fought in battles like this before, so this could be a new experience. Just take that as a compliment for begging me to play this game with you. You’re lucky I’m free today.” She messed with Luna’s cheeks. “Haha, stop it!” Luna laughed. “Anyway... You ready?” “Mhmm!” They went over to their ready spots and activated them at the same time. They chose the duos match, and away they go! When they got into the game, they spawned on a huge island, probably another military base and training grounds. There were already a lot of people in the game, all using the new cube of gaming. So everyone in this game are real people. The two took a moment to walk around. “I’d say,” Celestia said, “This place looks massive!” Luna nodded. “Yes, but the real island we’re fighting on is much bigger. I know you don’t play this game much, so I’ll help you as much as I can. But, to be honest, I’m not good at this game either, even though I play a lot.” They both let out a giggle. As they continued their walk, they tried to test out firing with the guns in the game. Assault rifles, snipers, shotguns, and of course the rocket launchers. But, one of their favourites is the light machine gun, because of the firing speed. They got some of them grenade items too- But their aim was a little off. They were having fun with the Scoped assault rifle when somebody called out to them. “Hey, you!” Celestia got back up from her crouching position, to see two guys standing beside her. They both seemed familiar- And unlike them, those two had a very cool power suit, one of their’s being blue and the other being black. They seemed pretty fierce, judging by their first impression. “You do realize I’m a princess, right?” Celestia insisted. The guy in the blue power suit let out a hmph. “Don’t lie, you allied yourself with Nathan?” He asked. “Really? Out of all the humans you could’ve chosen to be the ambassador, and you picked him? A disappointing decision indeed.” His friend agreed. “True, he’s powerless and he stinks at playing FPS games. They say people who are stupid will drag down the pros. Get good, idiots.” Celestia gasped. “Why, how rude!” She wanted to push it further, but Luna stopped her. When they had a laugh and left, the princesses looked to each other. “Is it just me, or do they seem familiar, Luna?” Celestia asked. Luna nodded. “It’s them!” “Who?” “Winston and Jason, those were the guys who bullied Nathan!” She explained. Celestia was confused- How did she know about them? They”ve never met. “You sure you’ve never met them?” Luna sighed. “Don’t you forget smartphones exist? I remember their faces.” “Ah, right,” Celestia replied. “But really, that was rude for someone talking to royalty! Aren’t you mad at them? Not only did they just dumped jokes on us, they were talking behind Nathan’s back!” Luna nodded as she glanced at them, practicing with rocket launchers. She picked up her sniper. “You’re right, Tia,” She said. “We’re gonna prove them wrong.” They gave each other a high-five when a siren ringed. “Attention all teams and players!” The announcement said. “Please proceed to the battle bus for takeoff in 5 minutes!” Everyone rushed to the blue battle bus located on the runway, a bit distant from where the two princesses were. “Let’s go!” Celestia said. A while later, the battle bus took off and in 10 minutes, they were already slowly approaching the island. As the players patiently sat next to their teammate, seatbelts strapped, a holographic guide started speaking. “Attention all players,” It said. “We are now approaching the Fortnite island. If you look under your chair, you should find your respective parachute and pickaxe of choice. Why don’t you take them out for now?” Everyone took out their pickaxes and parachutes. Since they were new players, Celestia and Luna got the basic default gear. As soon as Winston saw it, he just bursted into laughter. “Pfft! Seriously!?” He said. “What kind of trash is that?” Luna just tried to ignore him. Jason was taking out his shiny blue pickaxe. “First time using this bad boy, dude. Check this out.” “Whoa! Dude, you got the Carbide Positron?” Winston gasped. “Dude, that’s for tier 30, right?” “Yup.” The two princesses looked around. People had a lot of different gliders and pickaxes with funky colors and incredible designs. They knew they had to get good at the game to earn those items. “Now,” The announcer continued. “Let me tell you rules for any newcomers-“ “Just get to the point,” Jason moaned. But since the hologram was programmed, he was ignored. “So, once the game begins, everyone has 30 seconds to drop out of the battle bus onto a big island. Your backpack will also have a map that tells you where you are. There are many major towns, farms or just major locations for looting on the island, that are displayed on your map, such as Retail Row, Greasy Grove, Tilted Towers...” “For the memes!” Another contestant shouted. “I suppose you all get the point. Now, when you drop, there will be a lot of chests located inside buildings. These give you different kinds of weapons, healing items, utility items and ammunition. There are also ammunition crates individually. You can get items randomly on the ground in buildings, but you’ll most likely find the best ones in chests. There are five levels of rarity, depending on how good the weapons are: Grey for common, green for uncommon, blue for rare, purple for epic, and gold for legendary.” Celestia was carefully listening since it was her first time. Luna, on the other hand, was seemingly snoring. “Hey, I thought we’re supposed to listen to all this?” Celestia nudged her. Luna woke up. “Come on, I’ve played the game a million times, just not with the cube. I know how it works.” The announcer went on even though many of the players are already bored to death. “Remember: Keep an eye out for where the zone is, which will be notified to you once the game starts for 5 minutes by a white circle. 15 minutes after the game starts, the storm will close in to the boundary of the zone in 15 minutes. Once the storm settles in, you have 10 minutes to run to the next zone, then 10 minutes for the zone to shrink, and this continues until someone wins or the island is completely closed in the storm. Speaking of which, whoever’s team is the last team standing, they are the winners of today’s game, known as ‘Victory Royale’.” “Does anyone have any questions? No? Then please be seated, the hatch will open very soon.” The guide disappeared and the announcement system went, “Approaching Island in 2 minutes. Please remain seated.” The different teams started to chat and communicate with one another, since they may not know each other in real life and are randomly placed in a team. Celestia and Luna, on the other hand, were pumped up and ready for a new experience. Yes, they want to take victory, but since this is their first time actually playing a game in The Cube, they just wanted to have fun. Luna took out her map. “Okay, Tia. This is the map of the island. So we are coming from this way, from the south-eastern part. So let’s drop in Moisty Mire, that is a pretty good place to loot- It’s a swamp with something like a studio setup.” “Got it,” Celestia nodded. “So... Do we have to skydive when the hatch opens?” “Yes,” Luna replied, worried. “Oh, and just so you know, we don’t have wings in this game. Don’t even think about it. There are jet packs, though.” “W-What!?” “Don’t worry, sister. We know what it feels like to be high up, come on!” The alarm went off, and grabbed everyone’s attention. “All players, you may drop in 10, 9, 8...” The royal sisters nodded to each other, and Luna took Celestia’s hand. “Ready?” “Mhmm!” The big hatch in the middle of the battle bus opened. It was between the two long rows of seats, just in front of everyone’s feet. A huge bunch of people dived straight into action already. The two looked at each other. “Jump!” Luna said, taking her sister with her. They both jumped out the battle bus at the same time. They noticed some people still haven’t dropped- Including their rivals of the game. “Wow, they’re totally noobs,” Jason said. Winston giggled. “I know, right? Who in the world drops at Moisty, yo? You gotta go Tilted!” ****** As soon as they dropped, a huge gust of air was trying to push against them from below. It was probably the first time in a long time they really did freefalling. While the first few seconds was a little scary and tense, the two loosened themselves up, and started to enjoy the fall. Since their location was right under them, they didn’t need to move a whole lot. The sisters soon had to release their grip on each other, but they still kept close so they can talk, even in the midst of the loud sounds from the wind and air. “This is so fun!” Celestia shouted, worried That Luna couldn’t hear her. She nodded. “I know, right!? Oh! And also, if you want to move towards a specific direction, tilt your body forward or left and right!” They didn’t really need to, but they tested it out anyway. Soon, the parachutes came out, and surprisingly, they didn’t get shot upwards while it was deployed. They started to drift left and right to land in specific places. “Okay Luna, go loot the studio over there and I’ll go to the swamp region. I’ll come and meet up in a minute.” “Got it! Just use your communication device on your uniform to talk to me. See you in a bit!” Celestia landed on the ground and her parachute was immediately detached from her backpack, and it disappeared. She scouted around the landscape for other players- Surprisingly, there wasn’t anyone she could see except her sister. She would’ve used magic and her wings to do so, but she remembered she turned into a human so that’s not happening. She walked over to a big tree. The trunk of it was really oddly shaped and it was slightly curved. Under the tree, she found three chests emitting a gold light. “This must be the chests the guide was talking about!” She said, clapping her hands happily. She opened one of the chests and a bunch of items spitted out from it, each glowing different colour lights. Celestia took a good look at them. Inside the chest were a bunch of building materials, ammo, and a assortment of guns and healing items. The gun was a blue tactical submachine gun and she also found some bandages. Perfect for healing in a dire situation. She scooped up all of the items and went to the other chests. She tried to pick up more stuff, but soon found every time she tried to carry some more things, something in her inventory spats out. So, she made the decision to give up some of the loot in her inventory for better ones. She ended up with the blue tactical machine gun, the green revolver, a green assault rifle and a cool drink, which she didn’t know what it was. “Hmmm,” Celestia thought, looking at the green liquid glowing in the container. “I wonder what’s this?” She heard footsteps behind her. “Hey!” Celestia heard a voice boom into her ear from behind and frantically tried to shoot the submachine gun, but just realized it was only Luna. “*giggles* Gotcha!” Luna playfully teased. Celestia rolled her eyes. “Ugh, you little sister. By the way, what is this drink? I found it when I was looting.” “It’s the slurp juice,” Luna explained. “If you try to access your inventory in ‘The Cube’, you’ll see your health and shield bar. This drink can regenerate you up to full health and it gives you 25 shield points. You’ll need this, keep it.” “Got it,” Celestia replied, inserting the drink into her last inventory slot. “What did you get?” “I found quite a lot of nice guns. Blue pistol, blue shotgun, even a purple scar. That’s an epic item. Found some bandages too. Oh, and I have a present for you, here.” Luna gave her sister a small shield drink. Celestia drunk it and gained 25 shield points out of 100. Soon after, there was a loud siren across the map. “Attention players: The Zone has now been formed. Please refer to your map. You have 15 minutes to run to the area surrounded by the white line before the storm moves.” The two nodded to each other. “We need to go fast,” Celestia said. “The zone is quite far away.” “True,” Luna replied. “Let’s go.” They had to at least get to Salty Springs, a small settlement that was a bit distant from the swamp, to the northwest. The sisters carried their things and ran across the hills fast, since they only had 15 minutes to reach the area. Everything seemed well, until... They passed by Fatal Fields, a farm that was near Salty Springs. They were trying to get resources by breaking things there when suddenly, they heard a loud explosion behind them. “Tia, quickly!” Luna built them quick cover with wood, forming walls and stairs. Celestia ducked behind the cover. “Wh-What was that!?” “Grenade launchers,” Luna explained, reloading her scar. “I just gotta peep out and shoot them quick. You do the same too! You have a good submachine gun after all.” So they both peeped out of their cover, hoping to get some destruction done on their enemy cover. Even though Luna was trying her best to repair their cover, all they heard was someone on the other side screaming: “I’m gonna kill you, girl!” And a few seconds later, they heard like a “whoosh” sound slowly becoming louder. The two were silent and stared at each other, before they realised what was coming. “Rocket launcher!” The two frantically tried to escape but they were completely exposed without cover. “Go go go!” Someone from the enemy duo said. They heard building sounds behind their backs, and then came a ton of shotgun shots. Celestia tried to shot the stairs down but it wouldn’t work. Their health bar was lowering by the second. As soon as Celestia used her revolver to shoot one of the pair, they started bursting into laughter. “Pfft! Revolver!? Is this a joke!?” He back flipped off the stairs and even shot Luna once in mid-air. The two were trying to use their weapons against them but they dodged the bullets. It was then they realized who they were up against. “Heh, go and learn the basics before even playing, idiots,” Winston said, pointing his pistol at Celestia’s head. It was a different pistol, though. The moment he was about to kill them, someone shot a sniper shot from afar and killed his teammate Jason. This distracted him and the sisters tried to make their escape, but in only 10 seconds the bully got out his light machine gun and spammed the trigger. Celestia soon got knocked out. “*gasp* Tia!” Luna gasped, holding her. “Are you okay?” “Run, Luna! Just go!” Celestia yelled. “He’s coming!” Luna hesitated, but still ran away quickly. Yet, it wasn’t far enough to escape their bully’s radar- She got knocked down too. And Winston yanked the gun into her face before finishing her off. “Geez, stupid noobs wasting my time...” He moaned, yet still snickering as he picked up their loot. ******* The two royal sisters were sucked out of the Gaming Cube back to Equestria when Nathan least expected it. He was playing on his phone before that. “Oh, back so soon?” He asked. “Looks like you died early, it’s only been 20 minutes.” But the two weren’t really amused. “*sigh* Yep, we got completely destroyed,” Celestia sighed. Luna sighed too. “And on the hands of someone awful, too. It’s one of those ‘I am so good at this game so hah’ kind of people.” “Who? Did you see their username while you were eliminated?” They both whispered them to Nathan. “Wh-What? Wow, that’s cruel, yo,” He replied. “They can mess with me, but they do not mess with the royal princesses of Equestria. I am pretty shocked about their behaviour- Unlike anything I’ve seen.” “No kidding,” Celestia said. “They even insulted me!” The inventor shrugged. “I guess the only way is for you both to get good at the game- But I don’t know if you have the time. Can’t really help you on that.” The two sighed and looked down. “Unless... Let’s see if I can get them to teach you the skills of Fortnite... Someone, very special and skilled.”
AlliesA few weeks later, Nathan got the two princesses to play Fortnite again, saying that this time around, he invited a few 'Special guests' to help them a little on their skills. So they agreed and went into the gaming world once more. They quickly got into the base in Fortnite. But greeting them, were two interesting faces. "We've been expecting you," One said. He had a rather deep but nonetheless friendly voice. Celestia and Luna looked at each other. "Are they the special guests he talked about?" Luna asked. Celestia shrugged. Then the other player spoke up. "Hey, chill, your highnesses," He took a quick yet sincere bow. His voice was rather high-pitched and had an accent. "We're not like those darn players you saw the other day that called you noobs!" This made them both intrigued. "So... Are you both here to help us get better at Fortnite, I see?" Celestia asked, trying to keep her polite composure. The two men nodded kindly and offered a good handshake. As they did so, the player who had the high-pitched voice was definitely looking really excited. His face was beaming with cheer, his blue eyes widening. “Many call me Crainer,” Crainer said. “I’m really overjoyed to be meeting you both. This is Ian, by the way. He’s my friend.” He shrugged. “Please, call me Ssundee.” He gave his friend a nudge. The sisters made a look to each other that told them, “Yeah, these guys are probably good.” They turned back a minute later. “I suppose you already know us, don’t you?” Celestia winked. Ssundee nodded and bowed. “Why, of course, Princess Celestia and Luna! We were called by your ally Nathan to help, since you both were treated pretty harshly on your first game. Gotta teach some skills.” Luna tilted her head in curiosity. “Wait, How did you know that?” The pros chuckled. “Truth is, you know one of them got sniped?” Crainer asked. “I was the sniper!” Celestia nodded. “So you must’ve seen our defeat, right?” “Right,” Ssundee replied. “Man, you both need some skills. I mean, come on. I’m not trying to discourage you, but seriously... Why didn’t you use your shotguns?” Celestia blushed since she stayed alive longer. Luna just let out a playful chuckle. “Ian, how about we just get to the point,” Crainer whispered. “Oh, right,” Ssundee agreed and turned to the princesses. “So you see the teleporter in our base? Over there? Change it to the lab setting. Don’t worry, we partied you both already.” As the pros walked, the princesses followed suit but Luna had a lot of questions. “There’s a lab mode?” Luna asked. “I’ve never seen that in the real game!” Crainer shrugged. “I dunno, probably your friend Nathan must’ve added this himself?” The group were back at the familiar lobby island. There wasn’t anyone this time, and the four are the only ones in the map. They went to an open area and stopped. “Okay,” Ssundee said. “Let’s have ten minutes to grab the guns we need. In this mode, the weapons and resources respawn, so we don’t need to worry. We can obtain the resources in the building over there, where the battle buses are. There are these laboratory tube things to keep regenerating them.” He pointed to the building, then turned back. “But first, Everyone...” Crainer facepalmed himself. “Oh no... Please excuse us, your highnesses...” Luna looked confused. “What’s the matter? Before Celestia could say anything, Ssundee already spawned in a list. “Do you three have...” He said dramatically, and stopped. “A pen and Paper ready?” The princesses looked at each other, looking very puzzled. Crainer just groaned and facepalmed himself again. “Seriously, Ian?” Crainer asked. “You can’t just freaking go and demand the royal princesses and ask them to start writing a list of things! Can you please stop your memeing for one second, we’re dealing with-“ “Actually,” Celestia insisted, spawning in a scroll for both her and Luna. “We got that covered.” The two pros turned to them. “Oh!” Crainer said, feeling embarrassed. “Get rekt, Crainer,” Ssundee roasted his friend before giving a playful laugh. Luna spawned in the sisters’ own writing quill, ready to start noting down whatever Ssundee wanted them to get. “Alright, What does thou command us to obtain?” “Just a heads up,” Crainer said, “He talks fast when we do this. Just... Be ready.” Ssundee cleared his throat before he went down the list. “Ahem, So, we need,” He took a deep breath, and blazed through the words quickly. “Assault Rifle, Pump Shotgun, Sniper, Rocket launcher, grenade launcher, tactical submachine gun, all the healing items, and a butt ton of ammo and building materials.” Surprisingly, Luna finished the list already- And looked to him as if he did something wrong. She remained a playful grin. “Ah,” Ssundee realized. “I know you both are princesses and sorry for my language.” They all bursted into laughter. They all split up to find their own specific items they distributed to each other and they did come back 10 minutes later. They plopped down all the weapons they got and distributed the ammo. They pretty much had infinite ammo anyway so they didn’t care too much. And the tutoring begins. Ssundee picked up the normal submachine gun and made a face of disgust. “Ugh. Submachine guns. That’s a goner,” He said before tossing it into oblivion. “Do not ever pick that up unless you have nothing else to kill players with.” Celestia nudged Luna and whispered to her. “You should probably note all this down.” So Luna took out a list and named it “Loot”. She marked it down on the list. She also made lists for strategy, building and locations. As she did so, Ssundee picked up a scoped assault rifle. “Aha,” He said triumphantly. “This is what you hope to get. Scoped assault rifle, sniper and assault rifle in one gun. Does the same damage but you can aim better from afar- Perfect for combat in buildings.” Celestia nodded. “We’ve tested them out the last time we played.” “Good,” Crainer replied. “Now, the best way to solve a close encounter duel is to use this pump shotgun. Take your pick, be it a tactical or pump. They’re pretty good- But never use the heavy one.” “No kidding,” Ssundee added. “They are really slow. And also- Never go inside a house from the front door without a shotgun. That’s a good thing to keep in mind.” “Prove it,” Luna commanded. So Ssundee got a heavy shotgun and Crainer got a pump shotgun. It took Ssundee 5 seconds to round up another shot. The pump only uses 3. “A good strategy would be to continuously switch your shotgun types in combat to kill the cooldown time,” Crainer said, having his inventory open. One had a blue pump shotgun and the other had a green tactical shotgun. “So in this case, your shots will be like this.” Ssundee And Crainer We’re jumping around for a moment and fired their shotguns. It was easy to see that Crainer had more shots. Celestia applauded. “You are really good at this game, young one.” His face turned red. “Thanks. As you can also see, we were jumping around as well. This makes it so that your enemy can’t aim as good, and even if they do hit, it can’t deal as much damage.” Celestia and Luna tried the strategy out themselves. Hard to get used to, but they were fast learners. “Good job!” Ssundee nodded. “Okay, so in my opinion, some of the best guns to get will be the scoped assault rifle, the light machine gun and the scar. But as for the most useful, you may want to aim for a pump shotgun. It’s the most useful one.” “Wait, isn’t the light machine gun what killed us last time?” Luna asked. “It shoots so fast! How does one avoid the attack!?” Ssundee picked up that specific gun and winked to Crainer. He started opening fire, and Crainer started running. One by one, he quickly puts down walls in a flash to stop the blazing bullets, until he was out of his predator’s range and radar. Then he makes the run. “I’m okay!” Crainer yelled from at least a few hundred feet away. Celestia gasped. “That was amazing! How did you do that?” Ssundee dropped the gun. “This is where building materials come in- It is best to utilize wood, bricks and metal for building. You probably know this, but the problem is that you may not be able to use it to it’s full potential. With quick reflexes, you can build a simple fort whenever you get shot. For example...” Crainer shot him from behind. Immediately, Ssundee closed himself in with four walls and built stairs for peeking and shooting. It was all done in literally 5 seconds. But when Celestia and Luna tried to do it, they needed about 15 seconds. The pro made a friendly laugh. “You’ll get a grip on it,” He winked. “If you always take that long, you’re fried.” They all started giggling when Crainer walked over. “So, do you both want to try out every gun to see which you like most first?” The two looked at each other. “Nope, we’re good,” Luna responded, shaking her hoof no. “Let’s dive start into the action.” Ssundee made a unamused face. “Hey! Puns are my thing!” He said in a rather higher pitched voice this time. They got on the battle bus and the hologram guide was talking all the tutorial stuff again. But since they were the only ones, they voted to skip that. Ssundee motioned the two princesses to come over to sit next to him and Crainer. He pulled up the map of Fortnite Island on his lap for them to see. “Now, where did you guys drop last time?” He asked. “Moisty Mire,” Luna replied. Crainer wanted to burst out laughing, but he didn’t want to mess with the princesses so he kept his composure. “Hmmm... Let’s try somewhere else. It’s hard to navigate there. Ssundee and I may have different strategies when it comes to dropping.” “So what you’re saying...” Celestia said, tapping her chin with a hoof. “You May drop in different places each time?” Ssundee nodded. “So Crainer And I Are pros at the game and are able to think fast and kill players quick, easy and with not too powerful weapons. So we drop at Tilted Towers or Retail Row. That is where most people go to.” The princesses both blushed and had a chuckle. “What about us?” Luna giggled. “We’re not as good as you are.” “*sigh* Yo, come on, bro, respect the newcomers a little!” Crainer nudged his friend’s arm, making Ssundee embarrassed. “Since you guys aren’t as good, there are a few good places to loot in. We can go here, Lucky Landing. There’s quite the number of chests and not a lot of people go there. But since our battle bus path is not heading in the right direction, we might want to go here instead.” He points to a random mountain on the map, on the west side. Celestia was confused. “Where’s that?” She curiously asked. “There’s no name for it! It’s just a mountain!” “It’s a secret base,” Crainer explained. “There are at least 3-4 chests there every time. You know what’s convenient? It’s located next to this giant crater. There’s maybe a chest or two there. Next to that, we have another house for more loot. And, if it’s in the zone, we can go to the west coast of Snobby Shores. They have many chests.” “I call them,” Ssundee said, once again in his dramatic voice. “The rich people’s homes.” Everyone went silent. “What?” Luna rolled her eyes. “You do this often?” “Yes! Yes he does, actually,” Crainer added. “Mhmm... Also, Crainer, you have a bit of an accent. Tell me more, I love gaming with others.” “Really?” Luna nodded. “*giggles* I’m a princess, yes... But I do spend a large amount of time on games when I’m free. Tia doesn’t, though.” Ssundee snickered. “Tia? Your nickname, Celestia? Good one.” Celestia blushed and playfully slapped her sister. “Wh- Hey! Luna, what was that for!?” Luna was laughing as she had a slap-fight with her. Crainer And Ssundee were giggling at the sight of the royal sisters this frisky with each other. “I didn’t know you both had a sense of humor,” Ssundee playfully teased. The two sisters stopped and glared back at him. Before he could apologize, the two already broke into hysterics. “Yeah, we mess with each other a lot,” Celestia replied, then turning to Luna to rub her cheeks. “Don’t we?” “*giggles* Yes, we sure do,” Luna said. “By the way, what do you guys do on YouTube? You both must be famous, right?” “We’re famous for a lot of reasons,” Crainer crossed his legs. “We don’t just play Fortnite like all gaming channels do nowadays. It’s pretty boring, you know. I don’t understand.” “Tell me about it,” Luna continued. “My friend Nathan can’t stop complaining how all his favorite channels are only playing Fortnite nowadays.” Ssundee agrees with that. “We play Minecraft a lot too and other games. We do a lot of stuff. Hey, have your subjects ever played any other games with The Cube yet?” “Not that I know of,” Celestia responded. “Let me tell you,” Crainer said, “Playing Baldi’s Basics in The Cube is like trying to escape death. Believe me when I tell you.” The princesses gave each other a decisive look, and they both thought, ”We totally need to troll Twilight with this.” But they had to put that thought on hold, for they were about to drop on the island. “Okay! The hatch is opening,” Ssundee said. “Everyone, go to the secret base. We’ll continue the training and strategy teaching. Be there or be square!”
The Big MatchSince then, Celestia and Luna have gotten much, much better at Fortnite through the guidance of the two pros. Although they weren’t originally human, which hindered their learning process, it was easy for them to get used to the ropes. They were much more quick on reaction, and they knew the type of gear they wanted. Turns out, Celestia liked the offense class, while Luna liked to stay back and take sniping instead. It was difficult for them to spend time together on these Fortnite basics. But it was worth it. A week later, the four met up for squad mode once more, and are ready to take the victory Royale. They were just practicing some more before the game started when some people approached them once again. Uh oh. “You call that accuracy,” Winston teased, laughing. Luna peeked away from her sniper rifle for one second and slapped him in the face. “Will you please shut up? This time, we’ve got the skills to beat everyone on this whole island down. Right Celestia?” “Right,” She replied. The bully did not care, for he had backup. “Oho, think about it, dear princesses,” Winston clapped his hands and called his teammates. “You’ve never played squad mode. There are 4 people in a team. Very sure you’re gonna get stupid teammates who dont know what they’re doing.” He turned his vision to his teammates. “We, though, have been winning game after game.” His teammate Oscar nodded. He was his go-to partner in crime. “Your teammate must be your idiotic ally Nathan, am I right?” As the group started laughing, Celestia stomped the ground quite forcefully a few times. Ssundee and Crainer appeared beside the two princesses. They held their pistols and light machine gun in their hands, pointing directly at the four. “You know who we are,” Ssundee said. Winston twitched his eyebrow and snickered. “Huh. Ssundee and Crainer. Two famous Fortnite YouTube stars. You both were dominating every game... Until we beat you at the last second!” Jason laughed. “Even two professional players don’t have the guts against us. Come on, let’s get away from these losers.” “No kidding,” Tommy, another one of the crew said. The second they were off of their radar, Celestia wanted to burst into flames. They just called her and her sister what now? She couldn’t believe how mischievous they are. “D-Did... Did they seriously, just call us losers!?” Celestia yelled, stomping the ground in rage. She snatched Ssundee’s light machine gun. “Oh, once this game starts, I am gonna-“ Luna tugged her arm, and Celestia stopped. “Hey. Calm down, sis,” Luna suggested. “You’re giving them what they want.” Her sister smiled. “You know what...” Celestia said, her smile changing to a cold one. “I think they will get what they want.” “Ahhhh. Oh yeah. They will.” They high-fived each other, and soon, the battle bus was ready for takeoff. The big match is about to begin. When the team got on the battle bus, everyone was practically snoring during the explanation of the rules. By the time it was done, that’s when the group started to actually start planning stuff. “Awesome. The bus is headed straight for the secret base!” Luna pointed out. Crainer nodded. “Perfect. Let’s go there. Remember what we did- If anyone interferes, react fast. Let’s stick together to make sure we all survive this time around. That way, we will have the strength to deal with surprise attacks while we are in the base. Usually it’s one or two people.” They all marked the place on the map. “Okay, so,” Ssundee said. “Everyone better get a shotgun fast. That’s going to be important. Also, remember this is squad mode. As Crainer just said, it is best we stick together. If any of us dies, it’s difficult to win.” Celestia nodded. “It’s the pack that’s stronger. Now, come on!” They all placed their hands together in the middle and raised them all up in harmony. As soon they did, the hatch for the battle bus was opening. “Dive as far as possible as stick the landing as fast as you can,” Ssundee reminded. “Now go!” They landed swiftly on the ground a few minutes later, on the mountain where the secret base was located. Celestia and Luna were on the top of it, while Ssundee and Crainer spotted a chest on another level of the mountain, so they went to grab that. They regrouped a moment later to infiltrate the base. They got down to a house like structure, and saw a lone player frantically breaking the steel gate blocking the entrance. “Enemy on radar!” Ssundee said, diving down and charging at him. “Kill it! Kill it with fire!” All four of them beat the player up in a few seconds. All he had was a bit of resources, though. They soon busted into the base and dropped down. “It’s easy to naviagate around the base; I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Crainer said. “Split up. Ian, you’re with me. Princesses, stick together and try not to get hurt.” Celestia nodded and hurried off with Luna down the base. As they passed by the intimidating interior of the nerdy base, there were items everywhere. They got down to the 3rd floor and saw a staircase leading down to a bedroom. They went down and saw a chest. After opening it, some pretty interesting weapons were barfed out. “Blue pump shotgun!” Luna exclaimed. “Awesome!” Celestia picked up the blue assault rifle and the green tactical shotgun. “Pretty neat.” Then she heard someone coming. “Luna, get over here!” “Wh- huh?” “Just hide and shush!” They went behind the steel staircase to get the ammo crate as someone else stepped in. He went into the room next door for more loot. When he came out and turned... “Halt!” The princesses jumped out and used their shotguns at the same time. He dropped dead in a flash. He had some more healing items which were pretty good. “Ha, good job!” Luna high-fived her sister. Celestia giggled. “First kill we’ve had. Let’s go.” The group continued to search around until they gathered at the 1st floor, where the metal gate back outside was located. Ssundee and Crainer came over with really good gear. “Believe me when I tell you,” Crainer said, his face beaming. “I found a legendary thermal scoped assault rifle!” He showed the gun to the princesses- Who were nothing but amazed. It was the newest gun in the game and possibly one of the best weapons. When Celestia tried to use the white-coloured weapon with a fierce-looking laser pointer attached, she could see through the scope, a bunch of blue surroundings and her teammates’ bodies were in different warm colours. “Does this make others more easily seen?” She asked. Ssundee nodded. “Player bodies have heat inside them. This kind of scope detects heat, so it will be easier to aim and find your enemy. Pretty cool right?” Just then, a loud sound was heard. It was the siren. “Attention players: The zone has now been formed. Please proceed to the zone in 15 minutes before the storm begins.” Celestia gave back the gun and Crainer looked at the Fortnite Island map. They were already in the zone. And much to his surprise, Snobby Shores was also in the zone too! “Perfect!” He said. “What’s up?” Luna asked. “Are we in the zone?” “Yeah! And we can go to the rich neighbourhood too!” Ssundee rubbed his hands, feeling pleased. “Very nice. So that’s where we’re going next!” “Fire in the hole!” Ssundee yelled that in the cringiest yet most hilarious voice ever, and fired his rocket launcher. At the same time, all his teammates threw grenades at a man-made wooden base that contained a team of two. BOOM “Go go go!” Luna screamed enthusiastically. The squad jumped out of their cover from the nearby bushes and fence gates, and frantically fired their assault rifles and light machine guns. BANG BANG BANG And the two dropped dead. As soon that happened, everyone started laughing at their flawless surprise attack. Even when they were picking the loot and healing up a little, they were still dying of laughter. “OMG, that was awesome!” Crainer couldn’t stop laughing. Celestia was giggling the hardest, which made the two pros surprised- Being such a regal princess, they never expected her to have such a great sense of humour. Ssundee finished drinking his shield potion. “Dang, I didn’t know you had a sense of humour, Celestia!” He said a little playfully. Luna chuckled and nudged him. “Yeah. When she laughs, she could go on for a while.” Finally, Celestia did manage to get herself back in condition and they found a lot of spare loot lying around. They did notice some people already went to Snobby Shores, but made the guess they all got killed and now there’s a bunch of stuff lying on the floor. Because of this, they all got very lucky and awesome weapons and healing items. A while later, the siren came again. “Attention players: The 2nd zone has been formed. Please proceed there in 15 minutes.” So the squad packed up all their great equipment and set off. Along the way, they weren’t getting attacked by anyone, so they had a casual chat as they were walking to their next destination, Greasy Grove. It’s a residential area. “You know, it’s fun getting trained by you guys,” Luna said. Crainer blushed. “Haha, don’t say that. We’re not that amazing.” “*giggles* What do you mean?” Celestia teased. “You both are really amazing gamers, I can tell you that.” At this point, having being praised by two pony princesses, Crainer couldn’t utter anything and blushed heavily. Ssundee rolled his eyes and laughed. “He likes you praising him,” Ssundee said playfully. “Come on, do it...” The sisters were giggling as Crainer made an adorable squeak and shook his head. Ssundee joined on the laugh. “Hey! Come on, bro! You’re gonna mess with me like that now?” Crainer asked, but couldn’t resist laughing along even though it was on him. Ssundee made a cold smile. “Hashtag Crainer likes being praised by pretty pink princesses! Hashtag hashtag!” He intentionally made a confused face, having no idea what he just said. “Don’t judge me,” Ssundee added, turning to Celestia. “*chuckles* You humans are weird. In a good way,” The princess commented. “Do you YouTubers do this stuff too? Trying to be really awkward sometimes?” The pros looked at each other, having no idea what to respond with. “It’s my thing,” Ssundee explained. Luna made a hum in agreement. “I see. Hey Crainer, you have distinct accent. Mind telling us where you’re from?” “Not at all,” Crainer replied. “I’m actually Danish, and Ian is American.” The princesses were very interested. But the moment they wanted to say something... WHOOSH “Whoa!” Celestia squeaked, narrowly missing a blazing sniper bullet and hearing the breeze of the wind. Crainer and Ssundee put their serious face on. “I smell an enemy!” Ssundee yelled, immediately building a makeshift base. “Where are they, Celestia?” “Hmmm... I think from that mountain over there. Yeah, that one.” Crainer peeked out of their cover just a little bit. They covered the top to avoid more sniper bullets coming their way. As he was scanning the landscape, they realised someone was missing in that brief minute. “Wait, where’d my sister go?” Celestia asked. Ssundee was busy distracting the enemy, knowing where this was going. Crainer winked and did the same thing, firing his purple tier scar at the enemy’s makeshift base. From what they heard, it seemed to be one person. Suddenly... BANG! “Huh!?” Crainer asked, looking through his scope. “Did that guy just-“ “GOT HIM!” Luna yelled triumphantly in her royal Canterlot voice. “HA! Get sniped!” Ssundee immediately started dying of laughter again. “Oh my gosh that was beautiful!!” He cried. Turns out, Luna was secretly sniping from another mountain and escaped the enemy radar without anyone noticing. She had a gold sniper and got a critical hit. After a few back and forth fights around the map, the group eventually made it to the final destination, where the smallest possible zone covering a major location of the island is located: The infamous Tilted Towers. It was some kind of small town, with tall, dense and Modern buildings. When they did get there, they could hear two teams fighting. So, they played it smart and tried to hide from the commotion. They were in another makeshift base behind a building, on the edge of Tilted Towers. All they could hear was gunshots flying to and fro. “Should we lay low?” Celestia suggested. Ssundee peeked out. He saw two huge man-made buildings. Probably player bases for the fighting. He signalled the three to go into the building. “Go. Top floor, just do it!” They easily climbed up the stairs to reach the highest floor of the tall building. When they peeked out the window, it only took one second for them to regret the decision. One, because they didn’t want to get spotted, and two, they were literally 10-20 meters above the ground. Celestia and Luna held onto each other in worry. “Oh, Tia... I don’t like not having wings!” Luna cried. “I feel so powerless! Celestia tried her best to calm her down when Crainer had an idea. “Luna,” He said, “It’s on you.” “Wh-What!? Are you insane!?” “You’ve got the most accurate shots I’ve seen. Not even Ian can top it. If you can snipe one of them down, our job would be easier. Right now, waiting for those two teams to finish fighting will only make way for the storm to take place. If so, we’ll never be able to turn the tables around.” Luna looked unsure. Ssundee comforted her. “Don’t worry, we’ve got your back!” He said, patting her back. She finally agreed and lied down. Carefully, the princess slithered over towards the window that separated the balcony and the top floor. It was open, so she peeked out and reloaded her sniper. “Believe in yourself,” Celestia encouraged from behind. “Just like you told me!” Luna turned back for a brief moment and gave a nod. When she turned back and aimed, she made very sure it would hit the enemy target, and got frustrated when he moved. “Ugh... Come on! Stay still!” Eventually, he started to heal up and this forced him to stay in one place. That’s it! Bang! She didn’t know if she killed him or not at first, but then she knew she did- Because immediately after, someone yelled: “I’M GONNA KILL YOU, GIRL!” The four silently giggled. They just clearly heard a full grown man scream that with 100% seriousness. What a weird world they live in. But they couldn’t let their guard down- For now they were on radar. They hid behind the walls of the building, but they then heard some strange and suspicious words. “Oh, it’s going down now!” And then a rocket came flying over. Boom! The four frantically tried to escape. But, they were shocked when bullets were still hitting them, even when they were running down the stairs! “What do you mean!?” Ssundee yelled. Crainer gasped. “Wh-What is this sorcery!? How is he hitting us, dude!?” “How am I supposed to know!?” When they got out, they were very low on health. Back on the tower they were getting shot from, stood the gang. That’s right; The self-centred people who dared to insult the princesses. As Winston shot those incredibly ridiculous shots, their enemy fought back with only two players remaining. Tommy and Jason went down and he wasn’t able to save them. At about the same time, one of them seemed to have escaped from their “Port-a-Fort”, a fortress in a ball-shaped gadget. He opened the door at the bottom of the port-a-fort. He was trying to make a run, but when he turned the corner, Celestia jumped out with her gun. The player was knocked by her scar. “Where do you think- Wait, huh!?” In fact, this wasn’t just any normal player- It was Nathan! “*gasp* Celestia! It was you who sniped them!?” He asked as he took the princess’ hoof. “You’re still okay! Awesome job!” The princess hugged her friend with a chuckle. “It’s Luna who sniped them. I’m on her squad team.” The other three came around. Ssundee and Crainer were suspicious at first, but when they saw Celestia with him, they stepped back from defcon one. “Aren’t you Nathan!?” Ssundee gasped. “The developer of the cube!?” Nathan chuckled and shook his hand. Same with Crainer. “Ha, Ssundee and Crainer. You taught them well, didn’t ya?” He laughed. “But! No time! I got to tell you something!” “What’s up?” Crainer asked. Nathan took a deep breath, since he’s majorly hurt. He’s down to 20 hp. He even collapsed at one point. The princesses helped comfort him and helped him calm down. “I see it now,” He said furiously. “What?” they all asked. “They’re hacking! That’s why they’re winning!” Everyone gasped. “So that’s why they managed to shoot us even when we were indoors!” Luna yelled. “How dare they use aimbot on us, especially me!” A second later, Nathan’s teammate was killed. “Not just aimbot, Luna,” He explained. “I saw their every action. They have infinite ammunition. They can fly without jet packs or launch pads. They have the best weapons in the game and I refuse to believe they can get that many gold weapons. It’s not possible.” “What do you mean!?” Ssundee yelled in the same voice again. Crainer nodded. “I agree, what do they think they’re doing!?” Nathan sighed. “I didn’t even know you can even hack in my system... I’m really sorry. I have to make some adjustments to the security system soon.” All of a sudden, another rocket flew over! “Stay back!” He cut his words off and fired his rocket launcher at the rocket. Both exploded on impact. “But what do we do now?” Crainer questioned. “We can’t match up against those two!” Ssundee totally agrees. “Dirty cheaters... Curse them!” Then, both Celestia and Nathan came up with two awesome ideas. They didn’t say it at the same time, of course, but they were both already giggling about it. “Nathan, since you’re the creator of the console... Just ban them!” Celestia suggested. He thought for a bit, and was so shocked he’d never thought of this before- He’s the developer of “The Cube”! He can do whatever he wants! He might not be able to ban them from the PC game, but he would be able to ban them from this game in The Cube. “That’s not a bad idea,” Nathan replied. “But that would take too long.” Luna started to shake his body. “Come on! You got to! Cheaters should never prevail! Especially against the pros!” “Alright, chill, Luna. I’ll see what I can do,” He sighed. Then he snapped his fingers. “In the meantime, though... Have you ever heard of the shopping cart glitch? I think it’s not fixed yet...” The four looked at one another. “I... I think I’ve heard of it,” Celestia said. “I’ve once watched a video about it.” The other three had no idea what he was talking about. “No idea? I’ll tell you. Basically, you-“ Boooooooooooom ”Player Honnathan, deceased. Shot by rocket launcher, 6 players remain.” The squad all dropped to the floor. Their rivals just killed the developer! They heard them shouting. “WHOA! Dude! You just aced that idiot-face!” Oscar yelled in excitement. Winston chuckled. “Not that it matters! He’s the developer, so what!?” The four were scared- How will they beat a hacker with limitless potential? They were living short on ammo for everything, from their fights along the way. They didn’t get a jetpack either. “Tia, what is your plan?” Luna asked, shaking her. “Tell us!” “Okay, okay!” Celestia responded. “From what I understand, and according to Nathan, they might just be like the same as any of our other foes in the past in Equestria.” “What are you trying to say?” Crainer tilted his head in confusion. Celestia smiled coldly. “They may be strong, but they”re not very bright. Right here.” She pointed to her brain. “Ohhhhhh so I get it!” Ssundee understood now. “You want to think outside the box, Celestia? But how?” “The shopping cart trick!” The three were really confused. “I’ve seen it before. One minute while I set this one up.” She walked back out so she’ll be exposed. She put her hands up. “Alright, we surrender!” Luna looked at her with disbelief. ”What is she doing!?” The duo looked at her. “You may kill us, but under one request!” “And what would that be?” Oscar demanded. Celestia looked back for one moment, and said, “You both are really good at this game. So why don’t you guys try to shoot us, mid-air, on a shopping cart? How does that sound?” The pair looked to each other, and started discussing. “Dude! This will make such an awesome YouTube video!” Oscar said. Winston nodded. “No kidding, this will be such a legendary kill!” They both turned back and nodded. “Alright! We’re doing it!” Oscar accepted the challenge. Celestia nodded. “Excellent! Now, just build all the way to the build limit, get a shopping cart up there, and slide down a ramp. When you’re in mid-air, you have to kill us! Got it?” They both agreed, and Celestia walked back to the group. “What was that for!?” Ssundee shouted. She winked. “They fell completely under my trap. Basically, there’s a glitch in Fortnite that’s not fixed in this version. If someone is pushing a shopping cart and it falls and glitches into another object as it lands... Something interesting will happen.” “What is it!? Tell us!!” Crainer begged. Celestia chuckled and motioned him to step back. “Calm down. Now, let me tell you how we’re going to do this...” 10 minutes later... “You got it recording?” Winston asked his friend. “Yep! I’ve set up the recording stuff in the game!” Oscar replied. “Now, let’s do that dialogue we’ve been practicing...” At this moment, the duo have built a large ramp that goes all the way to the build limit of Fortnite. About 200 something meters tall. Waiting at the bottom, are Ssundee, Crainer and Luna, all with their hands up. They have no idea why they needed to do this, but Celestia told them to, saying that they will act as “Bait”. “Are you sure about this?” Luna asked Crainer. He shrugged. “Ehhhh no?” “Even I’m not sure...” Ssundee said. “What is your sister planning?” “How am I supposed to-“ She was cut off by a huge voice. “Hey!” Winston said to their recording camera. “My name is MasterShooter,” “And my name is ShootyMcShootface!” Oscar followed. The three wanted to giggle at the names they made for themselves. “Welcome to jackbutt,” Winston said, “And this is the roller coaster 360 no scope triple kill! Hold tight Oscar!” “Gooooooooooo!” At breakneck speed, Winston pushed the cart, and the shopping cart rolled down, getting faster and faster on the ramp. The three could only watch as the plan went on. Soon, the cart leaped off the ramp and Winston was seemingly in a flying position. It’s the game mechanics. As Oscar was about to aim, the three already closed their eyes in fear. Until... ”Player ShootyMcShootface deceased. Killed by fall damage. 5 players remain.” “Huh?” Luna said. “What did Tia-“ “Move out of the way!” Celestia said. “I got it!” In fact, with incredible timing, Celestia used a launchpad and leaped onto their shopping cart, and knocked Oscar off! She was on the cart now, and Winston could only watch is disbelief since he couldn’t move. “What!? What is that supposed to be!?!?” Celestia had a big, cold smile. “Let me tell you something. Hackers. Never. Prevail.” A second before it hit the ground, she got off and ducked right in front of the shopping cart. When it was landing, buzzing sounds happened as it glitched through Celestia’s player skin. And then... *WHOOOOOOOOOSH* Winston and the cart were sent flying across the island, straight into the storm. “WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?” He screamed as he flew away, so far that he didn’t even land on the island anymore. He was lost in the ocean. Celestia skillfully backflipped as the following words were spoken: ”Congratulations! Victory Royale is yours!” “Woohoo!” Luna celebrated in cheer. She dashed over to hug her big sister. “We did it!” Celestia chuckled along as she nuzzled in the hug with her sister. “*chuckles* We certainly did. I never thought I’d say this but... That was really fun!” “I’m so glad you did!” When did let go and turned to the pros, Ssundee was shell-shocked. Crainer was cupping his head with his hands. Both of them had their mouths wide-open. “How did you do that!?” Celestia laughed so hard, she fell to the ground and started rolling over and over on the road. “I’ll tell you when we get back to the base. You guys can stay, right?” Ssundee and Crainer shrugged. “I guess we could,” Crainer replied. They all laughed. Soon, they heard the sounds of the battle bus. Only this time, because it came to pick up only the winners, the battle bus was gold coloured.
Again, perhaps? (Ending)“Ahhhhh. This is the life. Right Crainer?” “Yep!” After their victory Royale, they got on the golden battle bus. It was not included in the original game since the game ends automatically, but now that The Cube has been invented, the winners needed some way to evacuate the now stormy Fortnite Island. The battle bus interior was amazing. It was like going on a first-class flight- And everything is gold or gold coloured. Ultimate relaxation for the ones dedicated to winning. The guide popped up again. “Well, well. Looks like you four fought well.” The hologram lit up at the center of the table. The group were just sitting on the nice couches when it happened, so all they did was just listen. “First, Congratulations And thanks for playing. Did you have fun?” They all looked to each other and nodded. “You kidding me? This has been the most fun I’ve had in years!” Celestia giggled. Luna smiled as her sister brought her close with a wing. “Glad you did, Tia.” The guide made a hum in agreement. “Indeed. Games are designed to allow players to have fun in their lives. Pretty unnecessary that many turned this into a competitive game. So much... They’ll do whatever it takes to win.” Crainer realized something. “Wait, did you know about the-“ “Yes,” The guide sighed. “Developer Nathan has alerted us by coding. We’ll take it from here. Not to worry.” Ssundee sighed in relief. “Good. Good. Hackers really shouldn’t be a thing. Technology may be advanced but... Why hack just to win a game that’s for fun, right?” “Very true,” Celestia nodded. “Wait,” Luna thought of something. “From what I understand... If you get banned in a game... You’ll get some kind of punishment, right? What is it?” The guide thought for a bit, but shook his head. “I don’t know. The codes to this punishment you’re talking about is not in my game codes. Looks like you’ll have to find it yourself, then. Try asking Nathan. He’ll know the answer.” Luna chuckled and rolled her eyes. “Judging by how much he hates Winston, he’s probably going to throw him in a horror game. Freddy, perhaps? Or Tattletail?” They all laughed. “I guess I won’t disturb you all for long. Hope to see you all here sometime soon.” The guide closed his eyes, and disappeared. “So...” Crainer said. “Celestia?” “Yes?” “Can you please explain how you just did that?” It took a few moments before she realised what she was explaining. “Oh, right,” She said after a few minutes. “In Fortnite, If someone is rolling down a ramp with a shopping cart at large force, then the force will carry on as they’re lifted off the ramp. When the cart landed just now, it was glitching through my player skin. It caused the shopping cart to be sent flying backwards, depending on how big the falling force was. Since they built their ramp all the way to the height limit, when the glitch happened, he flew across the whole map.” “Whoa!” Crainer said in shock. “Yo, I got to give it to you, princess. That was beautiful.” The three applauded. Celestia just chuckled and blushed. “But wait, where were you when we were in position, then?” Luna asked. “Oh, simple.” *********** “Alright,” Celestia said. “Stay here, put your hands up and don’t move.” She already had her three teammates with their knees on the floor. They did as she told them. “Good! Remain like that and I’ll be right back.” Celestia ran as fast as she could to the outskirts of Tilted Towers. She got up a small hill, and saw the ramp was still being built. Feeling confident that she’ll have enough time, she started to build higher for the plan to execute fluently. She got up to about 50 meters above the ground, and placed down a launch pad. Earlier before they got there, the group scooped up a launch pad when killing people. When she saw the two going down the ramp they’ve made, she ran and pounced on the opportunity- Literally! She used the launch pad and made a huge leap. Her glider kicked in, and she swiftly controlled the glider’s direction- The duo took off, and were ready to aim. But just before they could shoot anypony, Celestia caught up and kicked Oscar right off the cart, sending him to his death. ********* “And I suppose you know the rest,” Celestia said, giggling softly. “I still feel proud of that move.” Ssundee looked very interested and was beaming. “So you just killed a hacker without a gun?” He asked sarcastically. “Wow. I really gotta have to give it to you. Outsmarted us all.” “*giggles* Why, Thank you!” Ssundee and Celestia gave each other a high-five and a nice handshake. The grip from Ssundee was a bit tight. “Ha. No, thank you both for spending your time with us. It was fun tagging along with a princess,” He laughed. “I know you probably have your own things to do, but... Wanna pitch in again, perhaps? Sometime soon?” Crainer clapped his hands and grinned. “Oh yeah! We should totally record a video together in The Cube!” The princesses looked at each other and let out a chuckle. “We’ll contact you guys when we could,” Luna replied, winking. “You’ll just have to wait until then.” As the group continued talking on their trip back to the waiting lobby island, sharing their bits and pieces and laughs of their everyday life, they realised the island was slowly approaching. And the sisters knew once that happens, they’ll be sent back to reality. Like most gamers- They didn’t want their time to end. But they had to. So, after a long day, they finally landed back at the original base and the princesses were already showing signs of returning to the real world- With the instability of their player skins. After bidding farewell and a few hugs with their new friends, the two finally went back to Equestria. ******** Woosh woosh “Welcome back, Tia and Luna!” Nathan said as soon they appeared. “Hey, grats on winning, by the way.” The princesses giggled as he gave them handshakes. “Weird,” Celestia commented. “I’ve been a human for like, I don’t know, a few hours, and I managed to get used to my pony form relatively quickly. Pretty odd, right Lulu?” Luna shoved her playfully with a wing. “Don’t call me that in front of Nathan!” He laughed. “Oh, Tia. You gotta watch your mouth sometimes. Oh! And also! I took care of the hackers- Managed to ban them.” They all had a big laugh. All along, they never knew the only reason why they couldn’t win, was because their major opponents were hacking. At least, that’s what the sisters thought. “You know, Nathan... I have a little bit of a request.” Celestia said, winking. “Anything, your highness.” The two smiled coldly. They knew Nathan wouldn’t want to do this, but it was a perfect prank. “I’m pretty sure Twilight won’t be mad at you for doing this, right?” She continued. He shrugged. “Depends. But, I guess I’ll do it anyway. Just to mess with her a tiny bit. Just hope she doesn’t break up with me if she finds out I played a part.” “Haha, no! Of course you’ll be fine,” Luna said. “Relax.” “Don’t tell me you want me to put her in a horror game. Ohhhh no. That is not-“ Celestia commanded him to shut up by putting a hoof in his mouth. “Too late!” She giggled. “Do it, or else no cuddles this month!” She winked, and Luna made an adorable face and begged him to carry out the plan they had in mind earlier. At last, Nathan finally gave up and sighed. “Fine,” He hmphed. “But If Spark bursts into flames right in front of you, Tia, I’m not helping you.” The sisters rolled their eyes. “Suit yourself,” Celestia smirked. “Okay, so, I want you to put her in this game...” Author's Note Switching things up for a new series! Hope you liked it, I didn’t want this to have multiple chapters but it ended up doing that anyway :p Want to know what game Celestia wanted Twilight to be trapped in? You’ll find out in the next episode of the series. Ttyl!
