Luna Game: Difference between revisions

|imagecaption = Twilight Sparkle and Princess Celestia would be very horrified by this fangame aimed at MLP fans.

<b>Luna Game</b> is a series of downloadable games created and posted by Ceremi to "[https://www.equestriadaily.com/ Equestria Daily]" on April 3rd, 2011. From the name of the game to the sprites used, the game is based on the animated television series <i>[[wikipedia:My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]</i> (also known as G4 MLP:FiM). While the game looks simple and easy to understand, Luna Game spawned a series of games and even fanmade games with the last official installment being Luna Game End on February 19th, 2012. Yet, a common aspect of all the games is that the titular main protagonist, [https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/Princess_Luna Princess Luna], goes through a series of obstacles and platforms that ends in a [[screamer]]. Said screamers are images depicting characters such as [https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/Apple_Bloom Apple Bloom] with a screaming audio clip relayed as a result.

The images shown will not close until the player does it manually either through Task Manager or simply by powering off their device. Yet, that is not all as the user's desktop is now filled with pictures that were either the jumpscares themselves, screenshots of where the player was by the time the jumpscare happened, and text files will appear by reading "The end is neigh." It should be noted that the images and screenshots may also be labeled with "The end is neigh." It is not recommended to save the game to your desktop, as doing so will make deleting the files generated to be a slow, annoying process.

Released on July 9th, 2011, it starts with Luna on a flat platform above the ground with a light blue sky in the background. As the player moves to the right with cheerful music playing (a slow version of "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaMTu9xrkUg Scootaloo's Theme]" by DH), the walking ends at a cliff where they must fall, resulting in a squish sound effect and an abrupt cut to black to signal Luna's presumed death. The black screen will then have some text above a blue dot that reads "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you...", in reference to the [[creepypasta]] [[BEN Drowned]], followed by the game faking closing for a few moments before it returns with the text "It didn't have to turn out like this...", "You didn't have to die...", and then the final text has blood on the screen which reads "BUT NOW YOU'RE IN MY WORLD." accompanied by a loud roar. After the threatening message, Luna is seen being thrown down from the sky and into a bloody world.  

Released on August 15th, 2011, it begins with Luna spawning in [https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/Princess_Celestia Princess Celestia]'s castle. Some dialogue exchanges related to friendship are given to the player along with a new mechanic not present in the other Luna Games; they can interact with the other ponies by pressing the spacebar key when Luna is in front of them. After exiting the castle to the right, the player moves into a grassy area with a melodic tune playing ("[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N0px8IlQYU Valley of the Wind]" by Elation). Aside from the slight texture changes such as better-fed grass and even clouds in the background, the player will also notice that this installment has quests, all of which have to do with the [https://hero.fandom.com/wiki/Mane_Six Mane Six] having problems.

As such, the player can play one of six different levels, each with a different item to collect such as books for [https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/Twilight_Sparkle#Alicorn Twilight Sparkle], candy for Pinkie Pie, snowflakes for [https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/Rainbow_Dash Rainbow Dash], apples for [https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/Applejack Applejack], emeralds for [https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/Rarity Rarity], or carrots for Fluttershy. For each quest accomplished, the respective pony whose items have been fully collected will thank the player and ask them to collect more, totaling up to 49 items that the player must collect on a platforming stage, set to "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbI_uaL6NVI Winter -B- Gone: A Remix]" by "That" Technique. However, there is a 50th item that must be collected which is a black-and-white version of the item. When the player touches it, the music halts to a loud boom. After this, all that can be done is to press on, jumping over a platform towards the solid ground which suddenly disappears. As Luna falls to her doom, some dramatic music (actually from the game Amnesia: The Dark Descent) starts playing as the screen fades to black.

The screen flashes white and an image of Luna in her "Nightmare Moon" form appears followed by her eyes glowing and flashing. The screen returns to where the player last stopped before the falling, but everything now has a reddish tint. When the player continues back to the previous area, some foreboding ambiance plays (again taken from Amnesia) as the ponies talk to Luna about how Pinkie Pie is looking for her. By the time the player reaches up to Pinkie Pie, she welcomes Luna and tells her how "you can never have too many parties!" As she continues to talk about parties, Luna is told by an ominous whisper that she must kill her which gets aggravated, and tells her to "KILL HER NOW!" Following the voice, Luna slashes Pinkie from her back to her chest where, in a state of shock, she goes "B... But... Why...?" After a short second, the top half of her body begins sliding off and the game closes. To the player's dismay, the game opens again and displays a disturbing image of Pinkie saying "This Isn't Over" with the same loud "LOVE ME!!" soundbite from the third game, which stops the game shortly after.

The official Luna Game 5, officially known as "Luna Game End", was later released on August 22nd, 2012. What is interesting is that this game was considered more of a "project" than all the others by Ceremi due to not only length but the fact that this was saved up to be the conclusion to the series for a whole year. At the time, users questioned why "Unknown project; unknown completion time" appeared on the official Luna Game website (see [[Luna Game#Trivia|Trivia]] below). By the time that the game came out on the date stated prior, the text was replaced with a link to a video that featured a black and red test signal, which becomes garbled by static before fading to a title simply saying "5" then fading out (5 meaning that this is the 5th and final installment in the series of course).

Released in February 2012; like all the other games in the series, the player will start as Princess Luna who is immediately told to hold shift to run. The song "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUw_ij8-xNU Call Upon the Seaponies (EuroSHOOBEDOO Mix)]" by Eurobeat Brony will play until the player encounters [https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/Angel#:~:text=Angel%2C%20or%20Angel%20Bunny%2C%20is,played%20simultaneously%20with%20instrumental%20jingles. Angel] the Bunny. If the player gets close to him, he will run off while the exclamation sound effect from Metal Gear Solid plays. The player is teleported to another area where it is nighttime, with the song "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN4g8idFXig Luna's Anthem]" by Michael A. playing. The player has to collect nine bunnies, but while doing so, the player will come across a pit. Luckily, it is covered so the player can not fall in it. But when the 8th bunny is collected, the pit opens and the player has to jump into it.

Released in November 2011; the player controls Luna using the arrow keys to move and space to jump. Once the player goes down a pit on the ground, the player assumes they are stuck. However, they can get out though the only way to do so is to try moving and jumping around until the wall disappears. Afterward, a message pops up reading "And Luna lived happily ever after, and nothing scary happened, ever", closing the parody game.

*With the series gaining much attention from the MLP fanbase, a rumor was spread about the application being malware that could supposedly ruin a user's RAM on their PC. However, this was disconfirmed as the game is safe based on viral scans.

*Pinkamena Pie, as used in the 4th Luna Game, has been a popular "alter-ego" character as seen in multiple horror works of the MLP fandom. Aside from the Zalgo images in the Luna Games, she had her own creepypasta simply titled "[https://crst.fandom.com/wiki/Cupcakes Cupcakes]" which has been the most infamous work since then (although, ironically, the original author came out claiming that it was nothing but a fanfiction written as a joke).