Rainbow Dash stared blankly at the table in front of her. It was so full.
She was quite used to this table being mostly unoccupied by this point. Rarity always made certain to keep things tidy, and as such, this mostly-unused table had found its way to the spare room. Rarity had deemed it too big for use as a dinner table; a concept which made no sense to Rainbow. But Rarity had insisted that the extra uncovered real estate during dinner was an eyesore, and that was that.
Rainbow’s attempts to make her side of the smaller dinner table look too crowded the night after the decision were ineffective.
As it turned out, the much larger table was exactly what the doctor had ordered for tonight’s activity. There was no way in Tartarus that the smaller dinner table could support this magnitude of…stuff. And at this very moment, that fact was really endearing Rainbow to that smaller dinner table.
“If your Deed deck is empty at the start of your turn, and if the End of the Round has not been announced yet, you may forfeit your turn and announce the End of the Round. If you do, each other player takes one more turn, and then the Round is over.”
It felt like Twilight had been talking for an hour. The only thing that could provide concrete evidence otherwise was the clock. To look at the clock, Rainbow would have needed to remove her head from her hoof, and by this point she was pretty sure she didn’t have the capacity to do so.
Rainbow was pretty sure she had never seen this much cardboard in her entire life. And that was cumulative. She idly wondered how many trees it took to produce all of these pieces. It had to be a lot. Maybe even an entire forest. Maybe even the entire Everfree Forest. Maybe there was once another forest exactly like the Everfree Forest. A sister forest of sorts. Maybe it was called the Neverfree Forest, and instead of the real creatures that were in the Everfree Forest, it was full of all the creepy ghosts and ghouls that ponies originally thought lived in the Everfree Forest. But then it was decided that the Neverfree Forest would be cut down because they had to produce this board game. Maybe the cardboard was haunted, and the ghosts were Never Free from their home in its components.
“Twilight?”
“Yes, Pinkie?” Twilight asked, looking up from her rulebook for the first time in an amount of time that Rainbow, as previously stated, had no way of knowing.
“What if this game was made from the possessed cardboard of a haunted forest?” Pinkie asked.
“…I’m pretty sure it’s not,” Twilight stated, then looked back down. “If Resting, you cannot move, initiate combat, or interact with locals…”
Rainbow just sighed. Great. Now she was on the same wavelength as Pinkie Pie. This game was really doing a number on her, and they hadn’t even started playing.
Would they ever start playing? Even without having to move her head, Rainbow could see that there was still plenty of rulebook to go. It was the thickest rulebook she’d ever seen. Maybe it was made from the haunted trees of the Neverfree Forest.
“No, Pinkie, I’m pretty sure the rulebook isn’t haunted either,” Twilight said dryly. “Entering a space with an unconquered fortified site (keep, mage tower, or city) or with a keep owned by another player immediately ends your movement, and is considered to be an assault on that site,” she said just as dryly.
Dammit.
Rainbow looked over to Rarity. Unlike her face, Rarity’s face held a look of pure concentration. Rainbow knew that Rarity was smarter than she was. Not that Rainbow was unintelligent or anything, but Rarity was a smart cookie. She absolutely had to be if she was managing to keep up with all of this.
Something about the focused look on Rarity’s face captured Rainbow’s attention. Something had to, because Twilight’s reading certainly wasn’t. The fact that anyone could sit there and concentrate on listening to all of this was impressive. Seeing her wonderful marefriend this resilient in the face of boredom stirred something in the mind of the prismatic pegasus. Her lips slowly curled into a smile as she watched her beautiful, brilliant love devote her full attention to the matter at hoof. She found new ways to impress her every day. God, she loved that mare.
“You’re getting all this?” Rainbow whispered, quietly enough that Twilight wouldn’t hear it over her diatribe about how Influence points could be accrued and used to interact with locals.
“Hm?” Rarity whispered back, blinking as she was knocked from her reverie. “Terribly sorry, dear. I was busy thinking up a darling little outfit for my hero figure to wear. Do you think a shawl would enhance or detract from her fighting ability?”
Rainbow groaned.
“Oh, I totally agree!” Twilight exclaimed. “It is frustrating that an Attack of lower total value than the total armor of the enemies has no effect and any damage dealt does not carry over to subsequent phases or turns!”
Rainbow groaned again as Twilight returned to reading. She cast a look in Rarity’s direction once more.
“Are you following any of this?” Rainbow whispered.
“Oh, not in the slightest,” Rarity replied. “I tuned out around the time Twilight brought out the Scenario Book.”
“I thought we were gonna play Monopoly!” Rainbow moaned. “Since when are board games this?”
“We could just attempt to sway Twilight into playing a simpler game,” Rarity offered. Rainbow pondered this, then gave a regretful shake of her head.
“She’s too excited about the game,” Rainbow said. “I’d feel like a jerk. I don’t want to be a jerk.”
“Oh my goodness!” Twilight suddenly exclaimed. “The Tornado and Disintegration spell can be used in the Attack phase only, but the ‘use in Attack phase only’ text on the cards was wrongly replaced during language corrections! Eeee, errata!”
“You know, I kinda wanna be a jerk,” Rainbow said flatly.
“Stay strong, Dashie,” Rarity responded. “You’re right. We can’t take this away from her. We simply have to grin and bear it, as it were. At least she’s halfway through the rulebook?”
Rainbow began drafting her will in her head.
“Ouh!” Pinkie shouted, unknowingly interrupting Rainbow’s attempts to decide who would inherit her many trophies. “I almost forgot the snaaaacks~!”
Rainbow, Rarity, and Twilight watched as Pinkie pulled a tremendous bag of cheese doodles out of her mane. The bag was quickly torn open, and Pinkie dug in without a moment’s hesitation.
“Mmmm…” Pinkie mumbled as she shoveled the snacks into her mouth. “These are the best! You girls want any?”
A single hoof extended towards the group. It was Pinkie’s, but with the amount of doodle dust on her hoof, it might as well have been Applejack’s. The others stared at it, but while Rainbow and Rarity were considering the offer, Twilight’s face held an expression of horror. Her eyes darted back and forth between the powdered hoof and the multitude of Buckstarter-exclusive components that needed to be thoroughly handled.
“…You know what?” Twilight said, one eye twitching as she looked to Rarity. “Mayyybe we can put this one away and break out your copy of Monopoly instead?”
Rainbow and Rarity had never been so thankful for cheese doodles.