Luna looked upon the screen, eye twitching in its socket. Along the side of the screen read the scoreboard for the new Call of Cutie game: Call of Cutie: Giggle at the Ghosties. There was a player in private chat with two other players who had done better than her! It was a disgrace against her name in the gaming community!
"I shall smite thee in the rematch!"
The battle was quick and unusually casual on the opposite team. There were lucky shots and kills, but no matter the punishment dealt upon by the Princess of the Night, the party of gamers against her and her misfit team of players. There had been little killstreaking on her team but herself who had achieved the final killstreak: the P.E.M. or Pony Energy Missile. She smiled at the defeat of her worthy opponents for a moment...
For a moment.
Then the party chat had ended and the heavy breathing of teenagers filled the mid-game lobby with noise.
"Oh my," a sharp, snotty, cracked voice said with embarrassment. "It seems we've lost fellas! I don't know what we're going to do!"
Luna spoke into her microphone pridefully. "Beg for thou's honors maybe?"
"I think I'll pass," the voice replied. The voice was now a normal sounding, low tone. It was almost completely apathetic. Luna looked at the name and worded it out: "El-three-ment-z-d-z-mons?"
"It's pronounced Element Demon," said the player labeled BrandonToTheT. "Dumbass..."
"How dare thee insult the royal..."
"Shut up, okay!" the third and most eccentric sounding of the trio said loudly. "Whoopity-doo! Thou has bested us at a game that we all suck at! We couldn't care less. Well, just don't spawn kill me. I really don't like that."
The voice was heavily mature for the sound of it. Luna was impressed at his logic, but insulted by his negligence to recognize the royal Gamertag. She was also impressed by the name of the player: SaveTheDragons. Quite a strange name and it gave off the feeling of being an experienced gamer. No "X"s, "Z"s, or other absurd ways of spelling. Just SaveTheDragons.
"Wait!" SaveTheDragons stated boldly and loudly. "I'm having a vision of the future! I...I see us playing against you again here in...twenty-four seconds and...we're...we're going to...OH NO! We're going to lose! Again!"
Luna became frustrated with the gamer's sarcasm. "Thou shall be cast into the..."
"Please, let me stop you there, Luna. And yes, i know that's you. You're the only one in existence to ever have the Gamertag of PrincessOfTheMoon. I've checked and tried to use it as my own, but this damn game's gotta be a bitch...Anyway, we aren't going to be 'cast' anywhere unless we get a formal invitation with the royal seal and a bottle of Applejack Daniels at our doorstep in twelve minutes. Otherwise...Oh someone's at the door..."
The lobby was quiet for a moment then the game started. The ones named EL3EMENTzD3MONS and BrandonToTheT began giggling to themselves. Right before the game finally started, the third voice came back and said, "Sorry. I seemed to have received some Applejack Daniels and a royal sealed enveloped reading: One-v-one me, bro-eth."
There was a massive laughter that cut out with the game's play menu. Luna's eye twitched further. How dare he insult her and the royal tone! He, a lowly gamer of little achievement points and levels accumulated! How dare he!
"Now, Luna," Celestia's voice was heard behind Luna. She turned around and glared at her sister. "I've invited a special guest to our castle tonight and I want you to get ready for his arrival. He's a well-known dragonologist and has received direct invitation from Sir Fluffle Puff.
Luna grit her teeth. "Who?"
"Sir Fluffle Puff is the pink mare with massive amounts of fur. She seems to have reformed Queen Chrysalis."
"No! The dragonologist!" Luna was ready to shoot her sister to the moon like she had done a millennium before.
"His named is Scro...well, let's just call him Mr. Scratch."
She turned her attention back to the game and opened up the menu on her game to look at each of her opponents profiles.
...
...
...
...
And to her dismay, SaveTheDragons' profile read as such: [i]Mr. Scratch at your service.[/i] Nothing more. Nothing less.
Luna grit her teeth until they cracked along the side.
Then she lost the game after a twelve minute session of staring at her screen, angry and confused. She blocked out the taunts of all of the other gamers, the laughs of victory, and the comments from SaveTheDragons about him not being a real fortuneteller.
"I let thou win!"
"Oooookay! And I'm Edgar Allan Pony. Oh, and Luna?"
"WHAT?!"
"See you tonight." The lobby closed and Luna threw her controller at her TV, finally letting the rage boiling inside of her take physical manifest.
[center]+++[/center]
After the Princess of the Moon fulfilled her lunar duties, Luna garnished herself with the black steel chest plate and replaced her headset with her crown. Her mane was messy and patted against her head from ear to ear; there was a strand or two extending outwards to her muzzle as though a physical manifestation of her anger, frustration, and overall displeasure with the fellow named Mr. Scratch.
He was a dragonologist? Not possible. He was far too immature to be someone of such high caliber of study. He would have been burnt alive by the dragons he supposedly "saved".
Luna walked out of her bedchamber and watched as the guards stared at her.
"What?!" she snapped.
"Are you okay, Princess?" one guard was brave enough to ask.
The Princess's eye twitched and she nodded with a wide grin. "Yes…I'm…fine…"
She continued her trek to the main hall where she was to meet her sister and meet this Mr. Scratch. There were few guards in the halls, which worried the Princess slightly. What if Mr. Scratch was actually a terrorist and was planning to assassinate them? What if he was an evil Goblin Lord seeking to use the Triforce of to secure his reign of terror?! What if he was actually a Goompa?! Or a sentient computer system named GLaDOS!
But when Luna thought of her collection of video games, she immediately found herself embarrassed by herself in her castle halls. She was acting like a child about the whole ordeal. She was sure there was a good explanation for the rude remarks Mr. Scratch had been making. Maybe he was simply having a bad day and did not want to listen to Luna's gloating. She wasn't proud of it, but she often gloated over petty things. After all, the small things made her feel a little accomplished. She had been bested at everything else but video games.
Luna came to the large open entrance hall where her sister was speaking with a strange looking fellow with a fedora on. He was a Pegasus, tall, and a dark, dark red, much like brick. His hair was messy and gray, pushed back completely yet still stood up slightly. It reminded her all too much of her favorite television character Doctor Whooves. On his flank was the Cutie Mark of a pencil crossed with Ponystation 3 controller.
They spoke with one another casually but formally, and it worried the Princess of the Night.
"Greetings, dearest sister," Luna said calmly with a small nod of her head.
"Good evening Luna," Celestia said, flamboyant mane flowing with her head as she turned between Mr. Scratch and Luna. "I was just greeting our guest Mr. Scratch."
"Oh please, I prefer to be called Dragons. It's a nickname, but I think it fits me and my occupation."
Luna's eye twitched slightly.
"Oh, it quite does! Don't you believe so, Luna?"
Luna simply glared at Dragons as he smiled casually. It was as though he completely forgot his encounter with the Princess on Call of Cutie.
"Well, I'm going to let you two get acquainted," Celestia said to Luna's dismay. "I have to go check on the dinner staff. They said that something had been trying to eat them. Probably just another of Discord's tricks."
"If you see him," Dragons said quickly, "tell him I'm collecting tomorrow."
The two princesses looked at him curiously, but Celestia left quickly to check the kitchen. There was a silence between the two gamers as Luna stared impatiently at her subject. The latter, however, was not returning the hostility. He simply stood there, tail moving back and forth as though to the beat of a song.
"What is it you do?" Luna asked to break the tense silence. It didn't help her when she heard the same voice from her headset.
"I'm a dragonologist. I study dragons. Well, actually, I study diseases that kill dragons and am a major contributor to the Save The Dragons Foundation. It's a real thing and it's based here in Canterlot. So technically," he started casually then shifting his smile to a sly grin, "I save dragons."
Luna growled. "Why are you here?"
"Oh, strictly business. I have no desire to troll you any further…"
"I demand a…"
"Rematch? I can't. Video games are a passive hobby of mine. I spend most of my time writing, in labs, with dragons, etcetera. Plus, I'm currently here on business to receive a grant to go to the Dragon Nesting Grounds. Dangerous but exciting."
"I demand it!" Luna cried.
"Why? So you can dishonor the worst gamer in the history of the universes? I already lost to you. Well, except for the time when you went idle."
"Don't you mean AFK?"
"Whatever. By the way, you need to start talking like this a bit more often, Princess. Using the royal tone might not help you make some friends. If you talked like this before, I might not have been such a prick."
"How dare you insult the…"
"Did I mention that I insult everything? I made fun of a burning orphanage and got people to laugh. I think making fun of your style of speech isn't the worst thing I've done."
The two stared at each other. Luna: angrily; Dragons: apathetically.
"Dinner is ready, Mr. Scratch," Celestia called from the main dining hall.
Dragons smiled evilly. "Would you mind accompanying me to dinner? I'm sure it won't be as bitter as you believe it will be."
[center]+++[/center]
The Princess of the Night swung down her blade upon the hordes of foes before her, slaughtering each foolish foe to come close enough to taste her iron-scented blade. The alicorn's eyes, wide with wrath and magic that allowed her the ability of Sight-Beyond-Sight, glared won upon the last remaining enemy. He cowered before her with his puny arms and legs; he dropped his sword and bowed before her, but all she did was laugh maniacally.
With a quick thrust of her blade downward, she jabbed her sword into the brick-red pony below her.
"Luna!"
Luna woke from her daydream and looked around wildly. She was still at the dinner table, her fork jammed into the table with her magic.
"I'm sorry," the princess said apologetically to her sister.
Celestia slowly turned her head from Luna to Dragons.
"So your entire proposition is for the studying of newborn dragons? That sounds exceedingly dangerous."
"I'll obviously have my own crew to aid me, and we have been able to take care of ourselves this entire time."
Luna grit her teeth with each syllable that came from the pony's mouth.
"But these a dragon children. We've only acquired two dragon eggs in the past two hundred years for study..."
"Which was uncalled for," Dragons whispered angrily.
"And we lost twenty guardsmen to such a cause. I cannot offer you protection and waste valuable citizen resources on something that might not come back."
"Do you know where my name comes from?" Dragons started. "SaveTheDragons, I mean. I didn't earn it by saving dragons. I earned it when I found out my special talent was with dragons. Ignore my cutie mark, because it is wrong. My special talent is with dragons. They like me. I can get close to them; maybe not my assistants, but I can."
"I still cannot fund such a dangerous expedition."
Luna looked down at her plate of hay that hadn't even been touched and over to the half-eaten remains on her sister's plate and the completely empty plate next to Dragons. Actually, it looked as though he hadn't been served anything. Luna began to imagine if he was never served any food ever again. He would slowly starve to death. Oh, the joy it would bring her to watch the noob die slowly for malnutrition.
"Please, at least take some time to think about it. Just imagine what we could learn of the sophisticated aspects of dragon culture. You might as well be saying that they have nothing to offer us."
The Princess of the Sun nodded reluctantly. "I'll think about it for the night. But you must be tired and it [i]is [/i]dark out. Would you like a place to sleep tonight?"
"No thank you," he replied then leaned in to whisper, "I think the Moon-goddess over there wants to kill me."
"I can hear thou's foul words!" Luna yelled from the other side of the table threateningly.
"See! She's a madmare!"
"Calm down!" Celestia boomed to both the alicorn and the Pegasus. "Mr. Scratch..."
"Dragons," he corrected flatly.
"Mr. Dragons, then, I shall respect your choice and I will think on this meeting. Please have a good night."
"Thank you, ma'am." He turned to Luna and continued with, "And I hope thou doesn't get hit by a carriage." Without another word, Dragons exited the vicinity, leaving Luna dumbfounded.
And in moment of flustered anger and arrogance the young leader was known for, she raced to the strange pony who was leaving. She ignored the cries of her sister who did not understand the severity of Luna's distress.
"I challenge thee to a true rematch! One where you actually try."
Dragons stopped in his tracks and shook his head. "Why?"
"I'm tired of you insulting me and my honor..."
"So your first thought is to challenge me at something I don't really care about?" He didn't look back at her which irritated her all them more. "What's in it for me?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, obviously this is a bet." He finally turned to Luna, eyes serious and glaring. "So if I win, which is doubtful, what do I get?"
Luna thought for a moment, scratching her chin softly. She remembered the conversation he and her sister had just had about funding an expedition and she would definitely have sway in changing her sister's mind. Plus, if he did win and went to the dragon's nests, he would surely die and her loss would never be spoken of to another soul. She'd win no matter what.
"I'll help you get funding to go to the Dragon Nesting Grounds."
Dragons smiled slyly. "Hmm...and if you win?"
Luna hadn't thought of what she would want from this lecher. He did not have much that she would want except...
"Your Gamertag."
"No."
It was cold. So very cold. Luna had never felt that amount of bitterness even in herself when she was Nightmare Moon. He spoke so coldly, sternly, and with a conviction nopony could attain in the mere years that this one was aged.
"What?" Luna asked curiously.
"SaveTheDragons isn't a name. It is a title, a promise to protect..." He looked at her without a smile and without any emotion but bitterness. "...to protect all creatures no matter how hostile. My name is not for betting. It would be as though I asked for you crown."
Luna looked up and down this stallion, now showing no sarcasm like he had eagerly displayed before. Luna felt slightly scared, yet invigorated and intrigued by his bold actions against her.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know..."
Luna did not understand why she was apologizing to her antagonist, but she felt the need to. She had obviously touched upon something very precious to him.
"Think about it, Princess, and find me when you have an idea of what you will win by wasting me time." He left, leaving an icy draft in the air.
Luna, for the first time in years, felt worried and curious at the same time. She was worried if she had been blowing something so small out of proportions; after all, it [i]was[/i] just a game. Nopony truly cared if she was good at it or not. Luna didn't even feel much pride in it anymore. There was no challenge to it, but that wasn't it was it?
She was also curious because she now realized that this stallion was not fearful to insult her. He wasn't afraid to get in her face and talk back. She loved it, as much as she hated to admit it. But nopony was that way except Twilight and few of her friends. it was completely foreign in nature and terrestrial. He was not from Equestria.
Then where?