• Member Since 24th Jun, 2014
  • offline last seen March 17th

Istaran


The only thing saving me from the horrible ideas my muse comes up with is that I'm too busy writing the last one.

Sequels2

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A mysterious force sends a group of human strangers to Equestria, grants each of them any one item of their choice, and tells them it's a "Survival Game". Will they find the magic of friendship with the ponies? Each other? or will they opt to kill each other in order to be the last man standing?


Story map:

This is a Prequel to Itinerant Kingdom and Friends Like These .

Chapters (30)
Comments ( 118 )

I bet 5 moustaches he face plants 10+ times.

As the author, I feel I should be exempt from taking that bet.

The story continues, with no face plants as of yet. But our protagonist has yet to get off the ground, so it is early yet!

I really like this fic, a little annoyed that people are down-voting aren't leaving constructive criticism.

Comment posted by Istaran deleted Apr 2nd, 2015

5815391
Thanks! I am also annoyed that people with more favorable reactions have so little to say. Oh well.
I suspect a good portion of the downvotes are simply audience-mismatch: that the story is not so much badly executed as simply not matching the tastes of the downvoters. But since they have not said anything, I can only speculate.

Comments are super-welcome, as they make it feel less like I am writing to a void, and more like I'm writing to people. :)

Thumbs up for an NPC that doesn't idly accept crazy spun tales.

5834261 Thanks!
I actually wrote him into the scene initially fully expecting him to agree, only to get to this point and realize that no, it wasn't what that character would do. A few other major aspects of this scene ended up completely differently than I originally imagined.. darn characters writing themselves. :P

Retconjuration warning: updated a name mentioned in this chapter to match it in later chapters. (Rather than doing it the other way around.)

How much do you want to bet that the "army guy" is some 10 year old kid.

As the author I can't take such a bet, but I believe the going rate on bets on my story is 5 moustaches. :P
There are definitely some context clues in the story so far, but I just went back and saw that one of them never made it from my notes to the actual story text.

The clues:
He goes to sleep late at night, wakes up in the afternoon.
Player numbers are based on position from front to back of the bus: he is player 12, so he was the farthest back.
Missing clue from the story: Zeke is player 11. Though Zeke still didn't know who he was, even after Robert pointed out that he was at the very back of the bus.

5853017 Fixed.
Even fractal spiders are no match for typos!

If you want to see more, checkout my blog post here and let me know what piques your interest!

To the a/n [ahem] FAKE OUT!!!

You are a very fast writer sir (or madam). I wish other authors I read were as fast. I'm actually currently following a story that hasn't updated since July of last year! And it isn't on hiatus!

I am really enjoying this story, it's well written, and interesting story wise. It would be interesting if you tried this same idea again, but with different 12 people, and a different goal. I'm not saying the choices of characters were poor, just that I would like to see this done again. And maybe it could add something like 6 of them represent the elements of harmony, while 6 are the elements of disharmony.
For a list of the elements of disharmony, just contact back

5862697 Thanks! It's sir.
Though David Silver on this site has me outpaced by a factor of two or three. I hope you are enjoying the read.
Anything particular you liked or disliked?

Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuun! Well, I shouldn be one to type, seeing as that might have happened a few times here stopped cerberus from escaping, was ready for the problems that happened during that one apple buck season (cough cough) wow that was a bad cough! Anyways, I would write more, but that would stop me from reading so...

So... Can you give me a full rundown on characters and their items?

5862661 If it helps, there is more sex-related content later, when it is more fitting. I added the sex tag as soon as it started going in that general direction, knowing vaguely where it would end up.

5863272 I see... You sir are a good writer, but an undiscovered one. I have seen work that is 10x worse than yours with many, MANY, more views. Which is unfair! I demand that this story gets more recognition!

Well... That happened... Also I did not ever consider the idea of using the dreamscape to spar. I will have to propose the idea to Luna to use in training the guards, so they won't have to hold back in training. Of course that would require the construction of dream bridges and... Ah, there I go again, rambling. I really need to stop doing that. Anywho, onwards!

5863305 Thanks!
I appreciate that almost a tenth as much as I appreciate actually getting a bunch of interesting comments on the work itself.
Amusingly, my sequel already outrates it by far, despite being started like.. yesterday. I hope more people who would appreciate it find this story though.

Retconjuration warning: changed the player numbers in this chapter to match my notes and the later parts of the story. Oops!

So... Which part of the sky is as it should be? Just curious

5863702 In Equestria, the whole world has a cartoony aspect to it, that is a side effect of being magical. Being immersed in it, even the humans quickly don't notice, at least not until it's set side by side with an Earth-like chunk of sky.

Why do I feel that dopple will be important later?

EDIT: Fixed! I think I got all of them, let me know if you see any more.

Why did that last bit sound so ominous? :fluttershysad:

5867390 Scheming villains are inherently ominous, even if they are scheming your surprise birthday party.

Saw 'players 12's' construction yard and instantly thought of Command and Conquer. That is an extremely powerful item indeed.

5868416 yes. It has limitations, but not ones that are easily overcome without a 'Zerg Rush' or something truly extreme.

I was wondering when it would hit him that 'Survival Game' doesn't have to mean 'fight to the death'. Some people, honestly. *shakes head slowly* Always leap to the worse case scenario. I'm guessing Frank doesn't have a phone so he didn't know about the death alerts the Text sends out?

5779698 You killed my brother. Prepare to die.

For shame Changeling, failing to tell the different between one human and another? Especially with his snazzy dramatically billowing scarf?

That app is a mystery... it would work for both PVP as well as Co-Op...

Actually... how would that work if you didn't have a smart phone? Did The Text only invite people with smart phones?

Comment posted by Istaran deleted Apr 23rd, 2015

5897649 He has one, but he was too caught up in the moment to realize no alert went out from his 'kill'.

Frank isn't a stone-cold killer, and trying to play one for a moment didn't go over so well for him, mentally.

5897695 After 100% of members of this new alien race proved hostile without any reason, he wasn't willing to risk his hivemates' lives by assuming this one was the first exception.

Though, in all fairness, this one -was- dressed very differently. If a bunch of alien invaders showed up in their version of military uniforms and started attacking indiscriminately, then you ran into one of their race in civilian clothes walking around looking harmless, what do you assume? I'm sure some of us would be err on the side of friendliness, but not necessarily someone in this changelings' position (or a suitable analog).

5897754

Smart phones are ubiquitous enough that finding a bus on Earth where everyone happens to have smart phones wasn't too hard.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it. :P

Theoretically, anyone who didn't have one could have been given one on the sly. That probably is a better explanation for Robert's phone than him actually having one to begin with.

Hmm... Technically, Zeke is a planewalker now. Being in another world and all. Would any of those white resurrection/revive type spells work on Rebecca? I'm not the most familiar with Magic, only played it a bit, but I think I'm summoned my lions from the graveyard before... Or would that just be in bad taste?

But Robert... damn. Started at Ten and now in his twenties? Jeeze, Text...

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