Bonus Round
Five minutes later, the six students all met back up in their dorm room, now accompanied by their guidance councillor, Starlight Glimmer, who, in addition to checking up on them and reviewing their progress, would also act as the tie breaker for the final, bonus round of Cards Against Equestria.
Instead of sitting in their usual circle, Smolder, Gallus, Sandbar and Ocellus all stood beside Starlight, whilst Yona and Silverstream stood across from them, with their hands at the ready, having already drawn another black card so that they were both back up to ten.
“Well, I have to say, from everything I’ve been told, I’m impressed,” Starlight began. “You were all able to play a full game of Cards Against Equestria, and not only were you able to keep your friendship in tact, you were all able to just have fun in spite of the raunchy and offensive language, and you’ve all come out of it even better friends than you were before. As your guidance councillor, I couldn’t be more proud of you all,” she said as she looked around the room at the six friends, who had proven with this game that they clearly had a strong friendship that could survive anything. “And I’m equally impressed that you all made it through an entire game without any broken friendships, bodily injuries, or projectile vomiting,” she added, only half joking.
“Did any of that happen when you played this game?” Ocellus asked in response.
Starlight suddenly got a thousand-yard-stare for a moment as she recalled when she played the game with Trixie, Maud and Sunburst. “Mostly the latter,” she eventually responded, awkwardly. There was then another short pause before she spoke up again. “Also, while I am proud of all of you, if Twilight finds out about any of this, I knew nothing about it, alright?”
“Relax, this whole game never actually happened, right?” Smolder replied with a knowing wink.
“Right,” Starlight responded with a similar wink. She then faced forward again so that she was facing the two remaining finalists, Silverstream and Yona. “So then, are the two of you ready for the tie breaker?”
“Ready,” Yona and Silverstream both said in unison, with strong looks of determination on their faces.
“Well, alright then,” Starlight replied, taking the final black card from Sandbar and levitating it up to her face so that she could read it.
“Anybody else find it strange that even though Ocellus was either in the lead or tied for the lead in every round, not only did she not win, but she didn’t even come in second?” Smolder asked the group.
“Well, actually she wasn’t in the lead or tied for the lead after round six,” Sandbar clarified.
“That’s Cards Against Equestria for you,” Gallus interjected. “You can never be sure how it’s gonna go.”
“It isn’t over until the last card is played,” Silverstream chimed in. “Speaking of which,” she continued. “Play the last card!” She yelled out suddenly in anticipation.
Starlight just smiled good-naturedly. “Alright then,” she said and lifted the black card back up to her face once again. “In this series, we’ll explore life’s big questions. Who are we? What is our purpose? What is the meaning of blank?”
Both Yona and Silverstream immediately looked down at the ten cards in their hands, trying to decide which one to play, which would decide the victor of the entire game, while the other five eagerly awaited their choice.
Yona was the first one to make a decision, almost immediatelly, as if she had already chosen which card to play before the prompt was even read. “Yona have this card for awhile, but could never find a good time to play it, so she need to play it now,” she said, holding the white card out towards Starlight, who took a hold of it with her magic, holding it text-side down so that neither she nor the students behind her could see what it said for the moment. With the first black card in hand, so to speak, Starlight then turned to look towards Silverstream, awaiting her choice.
The normally excitable hippogriff was now deep in thought, trying to decide which card to play, with her free talon hovering over the tops of different cards in her hand, as she tried to pick one. Eventually, she made her decision, smiled and passed the black card to Starlight.
Now that Starlight had both black cards suspended in her magic, she quickly shuffled the two of them around until she could no longer tell which card belonged to who. Once she had, she then drew the first card and read it out. “Okay, here we go,” she started.
“In this series, we’ll explore life’s big questions. Who are we? What is our purpose? What is the meaning of filling Chancellor Neighsay’s refrigerator with ground pork?”
The laughter from the students behind her was immediate, and Starlight couldn’t help but laugh at the scenario as well.
“Man, what even is that?” Sandbar wondered aloud in between bouts of laughter.
“I’ll tell you what it is,” Smolder answered. “The perfect graduation prank.”
“As your guidance councillor, I have to point out that pranks like that are not condoned at this school,” Starlight interjected.
Smolder took a break from her laughter to look at Starlight with a raised eyebrow, as if to say, ‘Come on, it’s Neighsay’.
Seeming to pick up on what the dragoness was trying to convey, the purple unicorn then added, “However, since this whole game never officially happened, I can’t exactly say that I knew about it beforehand, so…” she drew out, before simply ending with another wink.
When everycreature had ceased their laughter, Starlight then lifted the second black card up to her face. “In this series, we’ll explore life’s big questions. Who are we? What is our purpose? What is the meaning of assorted pickles?”
The second card got a few laughs, but noticeably less than the first card.
“I can’t really explain it, but the reading of this one sounds funnier than it normally should,” Gallus spoke up. “What’s the deal with assorted pickles?” He added, in a bit of an exaggerated tone.
Gallus’ extra read caused a bit of extra laughter from the group, but it quickly died down once again.
“Alright then,” Starlight began, turning back towards the four students behind her. “You’ve heard both cards, so now it’s time to vote for the winner. Since this is your game, I’ll leave the voting to the four of you, and I’ll only get involved if you need a tie-breaker. Sound good?”
The four students simply nodded their heads in affirmation.
“Alright then,” Starlight continued, holding up the first card. “Who votes for ‘filling Chancellor Neighsay’s refrigerator with ground pork’? For clarification, I mean the card, not the act” she hastily added.
In response, two hooves and a claw were raised, from Sandbar, Ocellus and Smolder, respectively, which also clearly showed that Gallus’ vote was for the ‘assorted pickles’ card.
Starlight smiled. “Well, that’s three out of four votes, so that settles it. This cards wins.”
“YES, YONA WIN!” The young yak screamed out in triumph, tossing her cards in the air as she did so. “YAK BEST AT THIS GAME!”
There was then a round of celebrative cheers from the other five students as they all gathered around Yona to celebrate.
“Congratulations, Yona. You earned it,” Sandbar cheered.
“Yeah, you maintained a high score throughout the whole game and then pulled ahead at the end,” Ocellus added.
“Yeah, just like Ocellus, but without the ‘pulling ahead at the end’ part,” Smolder joked.
Ocellus turned to give her scaly friend a flat look. “Are you done taking shots at me?”
“Hey, I take what I can get,” the dragoness casually remarked, with a shrug of her shoulders.
“Oh, go and treat your love/hate boner,” the changeling deadpanned.
The delivery made the rest of the students burst out laughing, except for Starlight, who didn’t have the context and just looked confused and slightly disturbed at the mental image. Cards Against Equestria in a nutshell she thought.
“Although, doesn’t Yona winning Cards Against Equestria technically make her the worst creature here?” Gallus inquired, jokingly.
“Well, look, this game may be about being the worst creature, but winning is still winning,” Smolder rationalised. “Just like coming in last technically makes you the best creature, which is also technically winning, so technically, victory for Smolder.”
The others couldn’t help but chuckle one last time at Smolder’s over competitiveness at ‘winning’.
“Well, I’m glad that the game that I was told about, that could make your friendships stronger than ever did it for ours and turned out to be a success,” Sandbar spoke up, with an aside glance at Starlight Glimmer, for being the one to tell him about the game in the first place for that very reason.
Starlight was also happy that her little experiment proved to be a success. These six students clearly had a truly unbreakable friendship, as strong as that of Twilight and her friends.
“Well, it looks like you guys didn’t need a tie-breaker after all, so I’ll just leave you to enjoy your celebration,” she said as she made her way out of the dorm room.
Watching Starlight leave the room, happy that her and Sandbar’s test was successful, as well as Yona happy at being the winner, and Smolder happy that she could technically claim victory by way of being the ‘best creature’, Ocellus realised that that just left one thing left to do, as she glanced between Gallus and Silverstream.
“Congratulations at winning, Yona. Your last card was way better than mine,” Silverstream congratulated her opponent, while tossing her own cards up in the air in celebration, like Yona had previously.
“Thanks, Silver, but your last card was funny too.” Yona offered.
“Are you kidding me? It was a train wreck compared to yours; and that was the best card that I had. Frankly, I’m surprised that I even got one vote because even I wouldn’t have voted for it.” She then looked down and started pawing at the ground, looking dejected, having made herself sad. “I bet it was just a pity vote.”
“No it wasn’t,” Gallus spoke up immediately to reassure her, before Ocellus even got a chance to signal him to do so to cheer her up. “I really thought that it was funny.”
“Oh, you’re just saying that,” Silverstream playful waved him off, with a visible blush on her face.
“No, really. There was something about the card that just radiated a natural energy that I couldn’t help but find funny. You’re so naturally bubbly and energetic that you can make anything funny.”
“Yeah, I’m the resident genki-girl: random humour all the way,” she said with a wave of her talon.
As the two of them were talking and focused on each other, Ocellus silently signalled to Smolder, Sandbar, Yona and quietly hustled them all and herself out of the room to give the two of them some privacy.
“I mean it. You’re funny, fun-loving, fearless, friendly,” he listed off, counting each one on his talons.
“Nice alliteration,” Silverstream joked.
“Thanks,” Gallus smiled and blushed himself before continuing. “Plus you’re strong enough to stand up for yourself, and strong enough to admit when you need help. You’re bubbly and smart, and you’re always first to help somecreature in need no matter what. Not to mention really cute,” he added, a bit quieter than the rest, a bit embarrassed to openly say that part. “You’re like the complete package.”
“I’m still nothing compared to you,” the pink hippogriff waved him off modestly. “I mean, you’re strong and brave, yet sensitive and sweet, you always have a cool comeback so that you can fight back without violence like a bully, and you never give up, whether it’s winning a game or helping your friends,” she continued, clutching at her chest, her blush now almost luminescent. “Plus you’re, like, super-mega-hot,” she blurted out at the end, now absently rubbing her neck in embarrassment and looking away at being so blunt with her feelings. “All of these things… it’s kind of why I have a crush on you.” She admitted.
Gallus was likewise caught off guard by her bluntness. “Wait, you have a crush on me?”
“I know, I know, it was a stupid thing to just come out and say, since there’s no way you see me as anything other than a friend, and now I’ve gone and ruined our friendship so I won’t have even that, and it will make things so awkward that I’ll have to transfer schools and I’ll never see you or the others but especially you ever again, and this is just the worst way that things could have possibly gone!”
“No, no, not at all,” Gallus corrected her, waving his arms out in front of him to get her to calm down. “I… actually kind of have a crush on you too,” he admitted.
Silverstream suddenly halted in her freak out mid-pose and turned back to look at him. “Wait, you have a crush on me too?”
“Well, yeah,” Gallus slowly came out and finally admitted as well. “I mean, I really meant all of those things that I said; you’re amazing.
“Back when we were all being tested by the Tree, and you hugged me after I helped you out, I started to feel weird whenever I was around you. Griffons aren’t exactly experts when it comes to friendship or even liking each other, and since we’ve been learning all about friendship at this school, I just figured that I liked you as a really good friend, but after Ocellus mentioned the emotions she was able to feel from me about you, and the way we were all acting and opening up while playing this game with no filters, I started to realise that there was more. I just never would have guessed that you would feel the same about me.”
“I do,” Silverstream answered, placing her claw in his own. “That moment in the Tree’s cavern or whatever it was, is one of my favourite moments now.”
There was a short moment of complete silence in the room between them as they simply stared into each other’s eyes, with them only just now realising that the others had left them alone, but barely reacting to it, just being lost in this moment.
“So,” Silverstream started speaking up again. “If we both have a crush on each other, and we both admitted it to each other, does that mean that we’re, like… Very-Special-Somegriff’s now or something?”
“Uh,” he chuckled nervously. “I guess. I mean, if you want to be.”
“Yeah, I would,” the excitable hippogriff replied, smiling, feeling like she was melting inside she was so happy. “So… what do we do now? I mean, how are things going to be different now; between us and the others?”
“Well, I don’t really know myself,” Gallus began, awkwardly scratching at the back of his head as the reality of what was happening was still occurring to him. “Since we’re both new to this, how about we just go along at our own pace and figure things out as we go?” He said with a charming smile.
Silverstream swooned at the sight. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
The two of them then came together and embraced each other in a deep, caring hug; the first of their now official relationship. The moment lasted only a few seconds, but to the two young lovebirds, it was a moment that they would never forget.
As she pulled away from the embrace to look him in the eyes again, the excitable and no-longer-a-single hippogriff suddenly got an idea of what they could do next. “Hey, why don’t we go somewhere we’ll have a bit more privacy in case the others come back?”
“Uhhmm, and do what exactly?” The young griffon asked.
“Well, while it’s true that we can’t kiss with beaks…” She began. She then leaned in and gave him an alluring gaze. “… I’m sure there’s something else I can put my mouth on.”
As she then proceeded to take his talon in hers and began leading him out of the room, Gallus’ expression quickly morphed between a contented feeling of pure bliss, to a quick look of confusion, to a moment of realisation, to a different expression of pure bliss.
“I love this game!”
The End
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Ah, young love. A fine ending to an entertaining story.
GallStream for life!
If I was Silverstream I would have gone with Racist Squirrels
And so it ends. I had a gut feeling Yona would win, don't exactly know why. Regardless, a great end to a great story. That dynamic between Silverstream and Gallus was beyond adorable and the game was enthralling the whole way through! Fantastic work.
Will Derpy become Wonderbolt material if she ties this particular boomerang into her mane?
...I wonder how many people won't get the reference.
Brilliant!
It's great to see a bonus chapter for this, I really enjoyed this story as it was very funny yet made you think.
I cannot wait for more chapters for the Princess one as well?
Good to see this story finished. I really enjoyed it!
First line of the chapter: Five minutes later,
Me:media1.giphy.com/media/FoH28ucxZFJZu/source.gif
Yay!
Final score: Gallus and Silverstream win
You should have ended it with neighsay opening his fridge
I do love a happy ending.
Most excellent.
What a good ending!
Good shit. Well worth following.
Kinda wanna see them try Mario Kart now..
You think Sunset's world has Mario Kart or an equivalent?
10068446
Maybe, but it would make Chrysalis motherly.
Loved that Ed, Edd, 'n Eddy episode!
Read all the parts, commenting on them all here:
As a fan of the card game, this was positively hilarious, despite that there were few spelling errors here and there (I'm sure you'll be able to fix them all at some point). I'm a little disappointed that there wasn't a chance to have the "Covering myself with parmesan cheese and chili flakes because I am pizza." card show up in one of the rounds, but that barely registers as a complaint, because the whole story was so freakin' funny.
Keep up the good work. I would like to see if there could be a sequel to this that uses the expansion packs or something.
I somehow missed seeing this update until now. It was an absolute delight to read. Gallus x Silverstream is super adorable.
So it seems the real winners of this game are Silverstream and Gallus. Especially in that additional "bonus round" they were about to enjoy in private...
Ok dude no offense but A both gallus and sandbar need therapy for there issues B we really need to see ocellus win that bet C you set up a decent one shot clopfic or a comedy attempt at it with ocellus going oh my at random as there going down the stairs
10135084
I'd actually commented that earlier as well.
You want to REALLY challenge a friendship? Forget Cards Against Humanity
Play Diplomacy
How about next, the kids have a coop Minecraft session?
Wait a sec lol why didn't you have ocellus use the seeling crack to foals card on blank = problems that would have been gold
Now this is making me wonder how they would all go about playing the card game ‘Shit Happens’. In case you don’t know what that game is about, i’ll tell you.
In Shit Happens, the objective is to get 10 ‘Shitty Situation’ cards in your ‘Lane of Pain’. Players start out with 3, put in numerical order based on their Misery Index, from the least bad (Glitter in your eye, for example) to the very problematic (Getting hogtied in someone’s basement, for example)
The game starts with the person who was brave enough to deal the cards out.
On your turn, the player to your left draws a card from the deck and reads out the shitty situation; For instance, lets say you have these three cards:
Bass Line From ‘Under Pressure’ Stuck In Your Head
Misery Index: 4.3
Jogging In Baseball Sized Hail Storm
Misery Index: 28.2
Clingy Relationship
Misery Index: 44.2
And the card that is drawn is this one: Your Bully From Childhood Is Your New Boss.
Is that worse than a clingy relationship? Or is it less bad than having bass line stuck in your head? Or maybe its somewhere in between?
If you guess right, then you get the card and add it to your lane of pain. If you don’t, the next player has a chance to steal the card by guessing where it fits in their lane. If they fail to do so, the card is discarded, and play goes clockwise.
Oh, and for the record, the card that was drawn is ranked at 46.3 on the Misery Index. So it is supposedly worse than a Clingy Relationship.
10680075
Skipping Yona's card that round was a genuine mistake, and unfortunately, I've long since forgotten what her card was; sorry. Also, her knowing about quantum mechanics is actually canon as in 'A Horse Shoe In' Time Turner says that Yoma excels in science and could expand the definition of science itself. That was also an accident, but a welcome one.
10680368
Heh, my Cayde-6 comment was a Destiny 2 reference. A sentient AI shuts Cayde out of comms during a mission, but a few minutes later Cayde manages to override that command, despite having very limited technological prowess. When the AI asks how he managed to override her own radio, he simply responds with "I'M THE BEST, is how." Interesting to know that Yona may be the most intelligent character of them all though. XD
On a different note, I would love to read a sequel or two to this. Bonus points if Gallus and Silverstream manage to overwhelm Ocellus and make her regret getting them together. XD
A fantastic story
Cards Against Humanity.. that stuff is good.
...well then
that escalated quickly
I recommand the free Steam game 'Deceit'. This game can really challange trust under Friends when 1-2 players always by random selected have to murder the rest while the non murderer must escape.
It is admittedly unfortunate that round 10 and the bonus round were never recorded for the Youtube reading. Still, a funny story.
white*