Silverstream and the Zeppelin Cruise Conundrum

Silverstream watched intently as Smolder played a video game seemingly based on the adventures of the professors from their school. Smolder was fighting Tirek with Rainbow dash and it looked like his health bar was getting pretty low.

“You're amazing at this Smolder.” Silverstream grinned. She didn't reply her mind was too in the zone to perceive anything outside of the cries of pain Tirek let out as Rainbow dash clobbered him. Silverstream looked around and caught the eye of a tan, nerdy looking stallion watch Smolder finish demolishing Tirek before moving onto the subsequent part of the game.

“Hi there.” Silverstream waved.

“Hi.” The stallion awkwardly shuffled. “That dragoness is pretty good at that game. Isn't she?”

Silverstream nodded. “Yeah I never knew she was so talented with a joystick.”

“Do you know her?”

Silverstream nodded. “Yeah, she's one of my best friends.”

An uneasy silence descended over the pair for a few seconds before the stallion piped up again. “You girls have nice dresses.” He blushed.

Silverstream mentally rolled her eyes. This wasn't the first time she had to rebuff the advances of a stallion who didn't know any better about her sexuality. Experience told her that she had to let him down slowly otherwise she might hurt his feelings. “Why thank you.” She put on her best smile.

“So, do you want to have some real fun?”

“Maybe, depends on what kind of fun you're talking about.” Silverstream tilted her head.

“OK then well you see.” The stallion was cut off by a loud. “Buck damn it!” emanating from Smolder as a game over screen flashed in front of her screen. She turned around and walked up to Silverstream. “Can you believe this shit? Every time I get to the pony of shadows; he gets me in a bucking combo that I can't get out of.” Smolder stopped her rant to look over the stallion. “Who's this dude?”

Silverstream shrugged. “No idea really but he was just about to tell me about something fun.”

Smolder groaned and rolled her eyes. “Silver I'm your friend but seriously you can be extremely naive sometimes. Listen dude. You're wasting your time with this one. She bats for the other team if you catch my drift.”

The stallion cocked his eyebrow. “What kind of teams? Does she prefer single-player games?”

Smolder just face palmed and Silverstream continued. “Never mind her. So what's this fun thing you wanted to tell me about?”

“Oh, there's this new game in back. It's so immersive it's unreal.”

Smolder piped up. “New game? What's it called?”

“True world fighters.”

“What's it about?” Smolder leaned in.

“It's a fighting simulator game where ponies role play as the various races in greater Equestria.”

Smolder grinned, “Sounds awesome. Where's this back room?”

The stallion pointed to a door frame near the back of the room. “It's over there.”

“Thanks.” Smolder grinned and bolted toward the frame with Silverstream reluctantly following behind. Once inside she marveled at the sight of a massive holographic orb displaying what looked like a fight between a dragon and a pony on a mountaintop. Silverstream joined the sizable crowd of ponies gathered around the giant orb.

Silverstream touched the shoulder of a pony in the crowd. “What's that orb?”

“Oh, that's the game orb for the game gem.”

Silverstream cocked an eyebrow. “Game gem?”

“See that gemstone there.” The stallion motioned to a red gemstone emanating a light that led up to the orb. “That's an enchanted game gem. Ponies get pulled into a magical universe to fight each other in a simulation. It's all the rage in Canterlot.”

Silverstream's eyes went wide. “Wow...” She watched the two of them fight for some time until the dragon torched the pony causing him to evaporate.

The words, “Joystick wins” flashed across the orb before it vanished. With a flash, a blue stallion and green mare appeared from the gemstone.

“Aww man. You're just too tough for me.” The blue stallion lowered his head.

“Yeah, I'm the best at this game,” the green mare smirked. Eventually the stallion wandered back into the crowd of onlookers. “So any of you noobs wanna try and beat me next?”

“You call that a dragon fight.” Smolder snorted. “Challenge me, and I'll show you a real dragon fight.” She smirked.

The crowd gawked and awed as Smolder approached the green mare. “So,” the mare smirked. "Do you think you stand a chance?”

Smolder laughed, “I've fought plenty of scarier dragons than that little whelp in your orb. Bring... it... on.”

The mare just smirked. “If you think you got the gaming moxie than prove it. Put your claw on the gem and show me how a real dragon fights." She put her hoof on the gemstone. Smolder mimicked her and both of them were drawn into the gemstone in a flash of light. Several minutes passed before the orb appeared above the gem again this time showing a forest. A green dragoness appeared on one side of the forest and Smolder covered in armor appeared on the other. It looked like they were talking to each other but Silverstream couldn't hear any words come out. The numbers three two and one counted down on the orb before the words go flashed on the orb. Almost immediately Smolder rushed right at the green dragoness opening up with some fire breath. The green dragoness dodged and took to the sky prompting Smolder to do the same. She rushed at the green dragoness again striking her with her tail back down to the ground. Smolder took the opportunity to charbroil the green dragoness with her fire breath.

The green dragoness got up from the scorched crater and took to the skies again. She flew at Smolder and gave her a pretty firm bite on the shoulder prompting her to kick the green dragoness in the stomach. The green dragoness didn't flinch and tossed Smolder down into the ground. Smolder rebounded and started blowing fireballs at the green dragoness who dodged each and every one of them. With a flap of her wings Smolder shot back into the air and blew a fire at the dragoness. Smolder's eyes went wide in panic though at the act of blowing fire leaving her vulnerable to a vigorous kick from the green dragoness. Smolder growled in anger and unleashed a huge torrent of flames that the green dragoness only got a singeing from. The green dragoness smirked and inhaled preparing to light Smolder on fire.

Smolder did the same, however, when she exhaled her fire didn't appear. Meanwhile, the green dragoness's fire had no problem appearing. The huge fireball smacked Smolder in the chest, and she was incinerated. The words, “Joystick wins." Once again flashed across the orb before it vanished. With a flash Smolder and the green mare reappeared in the game room.

“Ha looks like the real dragon was just blowing smoke.” The green mare smirked.

Smolder literally snorted some smoke. “That game was bullshit!”

The mare just chuckled. “Not my fault you wasted all your fire breath.”

Smolder growled. "First off, dragon fire can go a hell of a lot longer than that. Second I tried blowing a smokescreen and only got some fire, just what the buck is with that? Third I can take a hell of a lot more punishment than what you dished out.”

“Well, I'm soo sorry that the game isn't true to life. You still lost, so I'm better than you. Ha”

Smolder leaned in close to the mare. “Maybe we should step outside, and I'll show you what a dragon can really do.”

Silverstream bolted up and held Smolder back. “That's enough Smolder.”

Smolder snorted and the mare smirked. “What's the matter? You a sore loser? I thought dragons were supposed to be cool. But look at this bitch, she's pissy because she lost a video game.” The mare broke out laughing, and some of the ponies up front joined her.

Smolder's face went neutral, and Silverstream started glaring daggers at the mare. “That's enough out of you. I wanna play next.”

The mare merely laughed. “Ha what makes you think you got what it takes to beat me?”

Silverstream frowned. “You made fun of my friend, and you're gonna pay for that. You and me right now, unless you're afraid.”

The mare glared. “Bring it then. I'll trounce you five ways from Sunday.” The mare placed her hoof on the gem, and Silverstream did the same. She felt herself get drawn into the gemstone before appearing in a starry expanse with the words character customization appearing above several panels.

“So, this is where I select my character. Well let's get me in a body I know how to use.” She looked at a panel with a generic hippogryph mare but directly below the portrait she saw several numbers. She looked over the numbers and realized they were stats. Silverstream looked over the stats and brought a claw to her beak. “Yeah these stats aren't true to life. A hippogryph can't take as much pain as this might imply... if I'm gonna win this than I'm gonna have to figure out how the rules of this world work.” Silverstream looked around and spotted a book labeled, game bible.

With a grin she went over to the book and started reading through it. “Hmm I'm gonna assume she's gonna be a dragon again. According to this, dragons have a lot of attack power and not a lot of health. So if I pick a species with a lot of health, I can just wear her out.” She looked at the portrait of the yak and saw the yak had the highest health. Silverstream touched the yak portrait and she felt herself shift into a pink female yak. The next screen showed accessories and a counter for accessory points. She returned to the game bible, and her eyes went wide as she saw the section on elements. “Horsefeathers, yaks are weak to fire.” She read a little further and grinned. “Looks like hippogryph armor gives me water elemental effects which should help mitigate this. Plus the defensive bonus will help me take more hits from her. Silverstream went through the gear and picked mostly hippogryph armor including her pearl of transformation. With her armor set she felt herself whisked away from the stary expanse and deposited into a frozen lake followed shortly by the familiar green dragoness.

“Ha you got so little confidence in yourself you chose a different species.” The green dragoness shouted from the other end of the lake.

Silverstream ignored her as she saw the words: Snow climate bonus plus twenty agility, plus one hundred hp, plus fifteen defense flash accross her vision. She watched in wait as the countdown started and the fight began. The green dragoness almost immediately blasted her with fire. Silverstream barely felt the blast, but she saw in the corner of her eye a health meter go down. Fortunately the health meter didn't go down by much. Silverstream charged at the dragon and headbutted her into a tree. The dragoness got up and took to the skies and rained down a torrent of flame onto Silverstream. Silverstream tried dodging the fire but wasn't all together successful. Her health was a quarter gone, but she didn't see that as a problem. Silverstream jumped up and pounded on the ground causing a massive snowball to be sent up and smack the dragoness in the face. The dragoness fell back to the ground, and Silverstream quickly body slammed her. The dragoness was able to free herself and blow more fireballs at Silverstream. She was hit losing a bit more of her health. Silverstream tried to ram the dragoness but missed when she went airborn again.

She fired off more flames, boiling Silverstream until she was left with only a quarter of her health. The dragoness swooped in and delivered several punches to her face. Silverstream tackled into the dragoness and she broke the ice directly behind them. The weight of Silverstream tackling the dragoness and the shattered ice quickly sent both of them deep underwater. Silverstream couldn't maneuver well under the water, and she saw her health beginning to deteriorate. The dragoness wiggled out from under Silverstream and swam back towards the surface. Silverstream used her pearl fragment to shift herself into a seapony and her health stopped deteriorating. She sped up back towards the dragoness and wrapped herself around the dragoness. Silverstream smirked as she dragged the dragoness deeper and deeper into the frozen lake. Eventually, she saw a green dot flash in her peripheral vision and a few seconds later the dragoness evaporated. Silverstream smiled as she saw she had won flash across the screen. A few seconds later she felt herself get dragged out of the gem before reappearing in front of the mare.

“No way! You can't beat me... I'm the champ. How could I lose to a noob like you?”

Silverstream smirked. “Easy, you just play the game... what's the matter? Are you a sore loser?”

The mare groaned and bolted out of the back room.

“Silver...” Smolder walked up to her. “That was totally awesome!”

Silverstream blushed, “Thanks Smolder.”

“I wanna play again against the new champ.” Smolder smirked.

“You're on.” Silverstream and Smolder both put their claws on the gemstone.