"Hey, is this working right?" Starlight asked over her headset.
"Yeah, we can all hear you," Leon replied.
"I'm about to start," Luna said. "So please get yourselves together. Starlight, just be yourself and don't worry. We'll be fine. Have you all created your dynasties and characters?"
"Got mine," Eddy replied. "Alexander Madman ready to go."
"Mario de Lecce, ready," Leon said.
"Glimmering Star, reporting in," Starlight answered.
"Leonardo da Vinci, here," Twilight said.
"And I have Giuseppe Romano," Luna finished. "We're all set. I do find your dynasty flag to be ahead of time, though, Leon."
"It's the Italian flag. And Twilight went and blatantly named her character after a historical figure."
"Hey, am I not allowed to admire a mind who was ahead of his time?" Twilight asked in a teasing sort of manner.
"I'm allowing it," Luna said with finality. "Beginning livestream in three, two, one... and we are live! Greetings, guests. I am Princess Luna of Equestria, and today I have my friends Edward, Leon, Twilight, and, for the first time ever, Starlight Glimmer."
"Cheerio."
"Evening."
"Hello!"
"Um... hi?"
"As you might have noticed, we are playing as Venice... and when I say 'we', I do not - as I so often do - mean it in a royal plural; we're all playing as Republican Patricians. There aren't too many rules, except for not killing the last male member of a dynasty who is able to inherit, and the usual no perpetual occupation of your enemy at 100% war score just to be a troll; otherwise, we can do to each other whatever we please within the game's rules. This is on Ironman, so there is no going back from a decision and achievements can be unlocked."
"So yeah, this playthrough is going to basically be us murdering each other, stealing trade posts, and starting huge feuds for no apparent reason," Eddy said in a cheeky way.
"It will if you choose to play that way," Luna said. "I can't answer for the rest of the group, but I think that some of what you've mentioned my occur. Now, since we're playing in the 700s start, that means the republic's levies are rather weak in numbers. Can I count on you to produce your own house levies and link them to whoever is ruling?"
"Which would be you right now," Leon pointed out."
"Indeed, but I won't necessarily be holding the title long. Unfortunately, we also start as a duchy-level state, and we begin in the Byzantine Empire's de-jure lands. We'll need to survive and hold them off somehow, hopefully without a war. I'd say we'd better get started making money, which is what republics do well."
"Leo's already stolen Venice itself," Eddy complained.
"Oh, what? Ah. I see you've begun building a trade post in our capital before I've even unpaused the game, Leon. What did you do, immediately take a loan and build it as soon as the livestream started?"
"Uh, maybe. That illegal?"
"No, but it was rather quick."
"Well, now I can kickstart my economy a little... once the thing actually finishes building."
"Yes, and in the meantime, I'd say we'd better start the game itself. Speed three, going... now."
Leon clicked on the Republic button in the top left of the screen - a button not normally there unless the player was part of a republic. He'd started with a character in his early forties and a couple of sons to ensure that if one died or was otherwise incapacitated that a capable heir could succeed him. Mario de Lecce was married and had a succession of positive traits, though, in order to make him good as well as younger than fifty, Leon had had to compromise with a number of negative traits - he was a legitimized illegitimate son, he had a lisp, and had other negative traits that somewhat made him less powerful than Leon would have liked Nonetheless, he had good stewardship and diplomacy, and Leon was counting on his councilors to make up for any deficiencies. He also set his wife as the designated regent and the Court Chaplain as Physician.
He was rather pleased that he had been able to take Venice for his first trading post, but the others were already establishing theirs nearby, and the completion for the Adriatic trade posts would be fierce. What Leon really wanted was to establish a city in the county of Venezia itself, which would give him money and some levies and give him a base in case he had trouble conquering counties on the mainland. That would take a lot of money to start, though, not to mention the upgrades later. That meant more trade posts, but he could only build the one, so he'd have to spend money to upgrade his Patrician Palace, which cost upwards of 500 gold. He sighed quietly; had to spend money to make money.
"Are we agreed on where we want to start our conquests?" Luna asked.
"Croatia," Leon and Eddy said at the same time.
"Yeah, I agree," Twilight said.
"Um, I'm not so fluent in human geography; where's Croatia?" Starlight asked.
"That coastal strip of land controlled by the Slavic guy just to the right of us," Leon answered. "We'll have to fabricate claims. Get your councilors ready."
"I agree, Croatia will be our easiest conquest, and perhaps our easiest way to gain the Kingdom level title for Venice, after which anyone possessing a duchy should be able to keep it, though perhaps with the exception of Venice itself. Better to get coastal holdings if possible, for obvious reasons."
"Hopefully the Muslims and the nomads will keep the Byzantines occupied too often to bother with us," Leon pointed out.
"Not to mention all those civil wars they have over succession laws," Eddy agreed. "Yeah, I'd say the ruling player should try to keep the Byzantine Emperor happy... and that we try to stoke the flames inside them, if you get me."
"I can agree, though I won't make it a rule," Luna answered. "I'll have my councilor establish relations with them and try to boost their opinion of us, or at least of me, since I'm the ruler and it's the ruler to ruler relation that generally counts when it comes to international relationships in this game, not of one ruler vs. another's vassal."
"And meanwhile, we conquer the Balkan pagans."
"Indeed. Once we conquer one county, we'll be able to get the rest. Also, I'm going to introduce Limited Crown Authority for more levies, and I'd like you to support it so that I can squeeze some troops out of those mayors and barons we have. It won't affect any of you yet as far as I'm aware, since none of you hold a city at the moment."
"Yeah, I'll go for it," Leon said. "We'll need those men. But we'll either need mercs or we'll need everyone to pitch in with their palace levies, since the ruler cannot control those personally."
"Yes, we'll need them. It's also the highest crown authority can get under a republican system."
"I'll sign it once it comes my way," Leon replied. "Now, any tax on city vassal, on the other hand..."
"...I see. Well, in any case, we all have a trading post, so we should have decent money flowing in, and we'll be able to finance future results."
Leon clicked on the option to approve the Low Crown Authority law. "Anybody got a claim yet?"
"No," Twilight answered. "It's way too soon to expect them to come up with something. We'll just have to be patient."
"And keep Italy happy, otherwise they might embargo us."
"Well, yeah, that might be trouble. We can declare war for cities where we have trading posts, but I think Luna would prefer to just gain the county, if not the duchy, in one fell swoop."
"Indeed," Luna replied. "I'd rather not have to wage three different wars; one for the city, one for the county, then another for the duchy, all taking place some ten years apart from each other due to peace treaties."
"We could each wage war individually," Leon suggested, "using loans and mercenaries, as well as our being under the protection of Venice, to take what we please."
"That's so, but in any case we need a solid start, and the claiming of the Most Serene Republic of Venice. At least we can on to that if we decide that swearing fealty to the Byzantine Emperor is better than extinction."
"Yeah, but that's going to mess everything up," Leon said. "I'd vote for that only under the most extreme circumstances."
"Which is why we'd better start our conquests right now, or as soon as possible, so that we have options."
Leon watched as the game began to unfold. He set the Kings of West Francia and Lombardy as interesting characters, along with the Byzantine Emperor and the Pope. And... "Oh hey, the Abbasids just declared war on the Byzantines."
"That's interesting," Luna replied. "Hopefully, that will keep them out of our hair for as long as the war lasts."
"I'm going to try to assassinate the Emperor," Eddy said. "If we kill him, maybe things will get really messed up."
"I doubt you'll get far, and if you get discovered and become Doge... I'd prefer if you didn't do something so foolish."
"What can you do? It's not like you can arrest me for it."
"Not yet, anyway..."
"Probably not a good time, Ed," Leon advised. "Even if they're losing to someone else, the AI will spare some troops for us if we end up going to war, see if they don't."
"Ahhhh, you guys are no fun."
"You can have 'fun' with the Byzantines later, after we get some land other than a lonely island that for some reason is a de jure part of the Byzantine Empire instead of Italia," Leon answered. "Anyway, even in the meantime, we just build trade posts everywhere and get the money we need to expand, hire mercenaries, and gradually blow away the competition."
"Errrgh, fine."
Leon zoomed out and began scanning the world for events and characters of interest. The king of Middle Francia had mysteriously died early, as seemed to always happen, and Charles had taken his kingdom for his own. The French Renaissance hadn't yet begun, but it likely would soon. Britain, as was usual in early starts, was fractured and would probably be so for the rest of the game, as were the states that, in real world history, would become Russia.
"Oh, watch out in case the Vikings decide to raid us," Leon said. "I don't think they'll resist a rich target like us forever."
"I don't think they'll be bothering us too much, not if they have affairs of their own back home," Eddy replied.
"Maybe not, but if we're busy and they get an army onto our island, we're going to have problems."
"I don't think it'll be a very big problem, at least not at first," Luna said. "I think Edward is correct on this one; with a possible Francia in the mix, and infighting amongst themselves and other groups, and I think they'll be very busy. Unfortunately, Vikings aren't the only people who can raid overseas now."
"Yeah, Berber cultures in Northern Africa can raid now too," Twilight spoke up. "They might, in fact, be more problematic than the Vikings, given the geography and how close and how far each culture group is from us respectively."
"Yeah," Leon agreed. "I'd forgotten about them. I hope the Pope calls for a crusade against the south."
"He's going to go for the Kingdom of Jerusalem first," Luna stated. " He usually does. Unless the Muslims invade Italy itself and take Rome, or become a significant threat "
"I hope that first doesn't happen; invasion of Rome, that is," Leon said. "That would be bad for everyone involved in our republic."
"Indeed. That's why I think it would be best if we join Lombardy, or Italy if that renaissance happens, if the Muslims do invade. They might not, but we ought to be prepared."
"Best way to do that is get money and build up our palaces," Ed replied.
"Couldn't have put it better myself. And hopefully, we can get a claim in Croatia soon."
"Trying, but my guy is just standing there, doing nothing," Leon said. "Other than looking around and stuff."
"Oh, by the way, how did that job interview go, Leon?" Luna asked.
"It didn't. I went down to the local burger joint, but there were already five guys working there, so the all the job slots were full up."
"Oh, dear. I'm so sorry to hear that."
"Oh well. Wasn't a total loss. I got to buy lunch there, and man are their burgers good."
Leon continued looking for events to monitor after repaying the debt he owed to the Jewish moneylenders. West Francia was at war with Saxony, and, to Leon's joy, soon captured and burned the Germanic holy site that Saxony held. Meanwhile the war between the Abbasids and the Byzantines had largely stalemated; although the attackers had five percent war score from capturing a holding, when Leon went to check the levies each ruler had at their disposal, the balance slightly favored the Byzantines, by a margin of about 1,900 - 2,200.
Of more concern was the invasion of Bavaria by the pagan Bohemians. That was an action close enough to easily affect the republic very soon, and while having nearby powers weakened would be to Venice's benefit, Leon wasn't pleased with this. Meanwhile, Asturias in Spain was in the process of being eaten by the Umayyids, who ruled virtually all of the Iberian peninsula. Leon wasn't pleased at the prospect of France being invaded in the near future, especially from the south, but at least that was relatively far away. Relatively.
"Oh! Got a claim!" Eddy said loudly.
"Oh really?" Luna replied, excited. "Where?"
"On that little province just in the middle of the de jure Croatian duchy."
"Ah. I think that might be a decent first target. We'll have to fight another war sometime after that, but it shouldn't provide us with much of a problem."
"We could just try to assassinate the guy in charge after this war is over, and then declare holy war on his successor," Leon suggested. "Truces in this game are only between rulers, not countries."
"I suppose we could try, but I doubt that we'll find anyone in Croatia willing to join us."
"Right, raise your levies and ships and ferry them over to the province in question once we declare war," Luna said. "Best to start conquering as soon as possible, while the Empire is off fighting in the east. Hopefully they remain busy for a while."
Leon waited until Luna declared war, then raised his own levies and ferried them over to Croatia, on the province Luna had wanted. "I hope their buddies in the Balkans don't join them..."
"A little too late for that," Luna sighed. "A couple of other chiefs have joined already. This might be harder than we thought. Any mercenaries we can raise would be nice."
"Got some," Eddy said. "Cheapest I could find."
"Even a mere 1,500 men would help immensely right now," Luna responded. "Send them over. Oh, and everyone please have their armies set to auto-follow mine."
Leon did so. "How have things been going in Equestria since we last visited?"
"Oh, they have been going splendidly! The air show was a fantastic success, with the funds from it going directly into a children's hospital, which the money has helped very nicely. In fact, the Wonderbolts will be going on tour in similar events in the near future, given how the first was received. In other news, the Equestrian navy launched it's first modern cruiser a couple of days ago, with three more expected to finish in three months. And my sister and I were able to go out together for a hooficure and a nice dinner last night, which was a decent break from our regular duties."
"Ah, good."
"Unfortunately, I had to explain to some African diplomats that hiring pegasi to control their weather would not work, as clouds in your world are... Well, I've tried making clouds, and they just don't... stick right, I'm not sure how to explain it to non-pegasi. Our hooves more or less just go right through them."
"Huh," Leon grunted. "I didn't really think about that as a possibility. The idea of hiring pegasi to control weather in our world, I mean."
"Well, now you know why it's not a feasible idea. That isn't to say that I refused to offer some measure of assistance; I did offer financial aid as a means of compensation. As well, Saddle Arabian and Saudi Arabian diplomats have been arguing; I caught some of their diplomats shouting at each other in the palace, and though I cannot speak Arabian, it was clear they were at odds, given how loud they were shouting."
"Did they tell you what they were arguing about?"
"The Saudi ambassadors claimed that the Saddles offered them... well, pig meat," Luna said, clearly discomforted.
"Oh, that wouldn't go over well."
"It didn't. The Saudis blew up over the event, accusing the Saddles of deliberately offering them unclean food. The Saddles, in their turn, were insulted that their hard work to appease the human ambassadors and insisted it was a misunderstanding. At least, that's what the translators were able to make out over the shouting. Eventually, I had to put my hoof down and threaten to declare the members of both parties persona non grata in order to get the two sides to stop. Still, the bad feelings have endured. I hope to put an end to this squabble soon."
"Yeah, the Muslim world really doesn't like pigs," Leon said, as the combined Venetian armies managed to overcome a group of enemy armies that had attacked them. "In fact, part of one episode was censored in Arabic-speaking countries because it featured a pig licking Sweetie Belle's leg and hoof."
"Wait, really?"
"I can confirm that," Eddy answered. "I've got a buddy in the military who watches the show who is currently overseas. He speaks Arabic, and he told me that piece of the episode is flat out gone. Not very much of the episode, mind you, so you wouldn't be missing much, but it's out."
"Muslims consider pigs unclean, as in, spiritually unclean," Leon continued. "They're not supposed to eat or even touch them, one of the few things they agree about with Jewish people. I think the idea was that the censors believed that Sweetie being licked by the pig would have made her unclean, so it was cut."
"Ah. I'll make a note to be very careful on that matter in the future. And speaking of unclean, is pork or ham unclean to you, Leon? Never heard of you touching it."
"Nope," Leon replied. "Christians know that all foods have been deemed clean. I just don't like the taste. I prefer beef. But anyway, I think it might be a good idea to stop horrifying a good number of our audience by ceasing this particular conversation."
"Hmmm? Oh, yes," Luna said, remembering. "A good deal of our audience is made up of ponies, and perhaps other species that might not take too kindly to the idea of... well, anyway..."
Leon was pleased that the way the war was going. Even though Eddy would be the one empowered by this, he also had claims going, and it wouldn't be long before he had counties of his own.
"How is the technology front going, Luna?" Twilight asked.
"I'll tell you once I have enough points for something beyond the basics. In the meantime, please be patient. And we all have a war to finish, I might add."
"Oh, right."
"And don't worry about Edward getting a county; I'm going to play this fairly so long as I am Doge."
"Which may or may not last long, I might put in," Starlight said, speaking up for the first time in a while. "These two knuckleheads," she added affectionately, referring to Leon and Ed, "might kill you in order to seize the throne, or whatever Republics use instead of one."
"Why would you think that?" Leon asked innocently, who in fact had thought briefly about it and was currently plotting to kill Eddy's character, who was more likely to become Doge after Luna's character died.
"Yeah, who do you think you are?" Eddy asked in a similar tone.
"Settle down," Luna replied, though clearly amused. "besides, I think we all know who would be the winner for such a struggle."
"Yep," Ed said confidently.
"...And it is not Edward!"
"What the...? Why have I been jailed?"
"My spymaster found out what you were up to," Luna answered, giggling. "While the rules we set may allow for us to plan to kill each other, they don't prevent the ruler from jailing you for trying."
"Let me out! Please!"
"Maybe later. For now, I have a war to finish for your claim. Leon, do you have any ambitions in Croatia?"
"Well, I wanted to, but if Ed's going to get Croatia, I want Carinthia."
"Which is controlled by Italy and Bavaria," Luna answered, sounding concerned. Are you sure...?"
"Look, if me and Ed try to split Croatia between us and maybe someone else, that will lead to war between us at some point, even if Ed denies it. I'd rather have clearly defined borders, even if I have to take fewer coastal provinces and a couple castles as opposed to cities."
"Oh, I see. You think that Duchies and Kingdoms should largely be made up of their de jure borders?"
"Yeah, pretty much. It makes me crazy how there's no button to force vassals to accept their de jure borders."
"You realize that if that option was available to the player, it could be used by the AI, as well? And it could be abused. All too easily."
"I guess so. I just don't like irregular borders."
"I can relate. But that's the nature of this game; lords and kings get claims and then press them. These things happen."
"And meanwhile, I'm rotting in jail and angry."
"Well, Edward if you'd like the oubliette better, I'm sure I could provide..."
Ed was noticeably silent.
"I thought so. just be glad that republican leaders need a reason to jail people, unlike monarchs, who can imprison whoever they want, albeit with a tyranny penalty. Otherwise, I might feel tempted to imprison every character you became to prevent attempts on my life."
"Is there a way to continue our expansion without incurring the wrath of the Byzantine Emperor?" Starlight asked.
"Not much. The only way we're going to get out from being a de jure part of the Empire is to form our own, or become part of another. The former would take in game centuries in our condition to accomplish."
Leon looked away from the war as it began to fall into it's ending stages, watching as West Francia concluded it's war with the Saxons, utterly annexing them. It would be a difficult, uphill struggle for Venice, which did not come with the military assets that West Francia now had, much less the Byzantines. Money only went so far, and while retinues could solve some problems, they cost money, and lots of it, to reinforce, along with a small but still annoying amount for upkeep. It was easy to fall into debt if one's retinues suffered severe losses in a war.
An event suddenly flashed in front of him. "Oh, West Francia suddenly becomes Francia," Leon noted.
"Indeed," Luna said. "It might have been better for us if they remained divided, but the Umayyids will face a stronger resistance."
"Of course, this new empire will suffer from gavelkind succession for a long time," Leon stated. "That'll mean trouble each time one of their rulers dies."
"Oh naturally. I dislike Gavelkind myself, considering it splits one's holdings between one's offspring upon death. I prefer primogeniture as well, although being able to pick and choose one's heir in the republican system certainly has it's perks."
"Yeah, it does... assuming you manage to have kids who survive until you die," Leon replied. "I'd suggest getting a hospital up as soon as possible to allow that to happen."
"That will help as long as your houses remain in Venice itself," Luna answered. "But once you get holdings outside of our little island, I think you will need to build your own."
"That goes for you as well," Leon said. "You're not remaining in control of the Republic forever."
"I'm fully aware of that, though the hospital aspect of that didn't catch up with me until you reminded us. Ah, finally,100% war score."
The county they'd been fighting for switched to Venetian cyan. Leon checked it; it was entirely under Ed's control, though the Briton quickly gave away the castle and church to vassals.
"Yes! Score one to the Madman!"
"Who is still imprisoned, I might add," Luna put in, amused.
"Well, if you'd let me go..."
"I might... assuming you paid your debt to society..."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, in market jargon, 'pay up, sucker'."
Leon laughed.
"Se what happens to you when I'm out," Eddy muttered. "Fine, I'll pay the money once I get it. In the meantime, you have me stuck with a -1 health penalty, so-"
"No, I'm not letting you get out from under me via house arrest. We're all aware of the availability of escape that warrants."
"Rrrrrr... Okay, sending you the offer... now... What? HOW ON EARTH DID I JUST DIE?"
Leon had to try immensely hard not to laugh; his plan to assassinate Alexander Madman had gone through before the request for release in exchange for gold had been agreed to by Luna, and now the somewhat decent character had been replaced by a 10 year old child, setting him back at least six years, and most likely much more, toward gaining the throne. And the best part was that Leon's part in the other's demise had gone undetected.
"Well, I wasn't expecting that," Starlight admitted.
"YOU EXECUTED ME!"
"No, Edward, I did not!" Luna insisted angrily. "If you hover your mouse over the skull next to your deceased patron, you'd realize that someone planned to kill you and succeeded."
There was a pause.
"Yeah, you're right, somebody bumped me off and left me with a kid as and heir. Great. When I find out who did this, their days of soft living are OVER for the rest of the game."
"Remember the rules?" Luna cautioned.
"Oh, I will. That won't stop me, though."
Leon decided not to comment on the situation he'd caused. "I've got a claim on Istria."
"Well, even if we did decide to go after that, Leon, you would most likely get a castle as opposed to a city, unless it gets taken over by pagans at some point."
"Well, that could happen. Bohemia is currently at war with Bavaria, and they are currently winning."
"Where is Francia at?" Twilight asked. "I thought they would help their fellow Catholics in Bavaria."
"Rebellion," Starlight replied. "Some Widukind guy or something is at war with Charlemagne."
"Oh, right, I'd forgotten about him," Twilight admitted. "Saxon rebellion for independence, with Widukind becoming ruler if he wins, and a prisoner if he doesn't."
"I'm hoping he gets the shaft," Leon said. "The Germanic religion will suffer a significant weakness if they lose it permanently to Francia, which means the Vikings remain disunited due to gavelkind, a situation they would only be able to change by reforming their religion."
"Well, it might go either way," the purple unicorn stated. "All of Widukind's troops are event spawned, meaning once they die, they're gone forever."
"Whether or not he wins, it doesn't have much to do immediately with us," Luna said. "We need to continue our efforts to expand, building up our capital city and our commercial empires, along with small retinues; a single unit of 250 each ought to do to start off with."
"We don't have that much money to start off with," Leon reminded her. "We're going to have to build more trade posts and upgrade our palaces to get some decent gold."
"We'll probably be able to acquire Croatia - the kingdom, as well as the duchy - and it's surrounding lands relatively easily," Twilight noted. "I'd advise taking some stuff that aren't de jure pieces of the Byzantine Empire; if there are rebellions in Italy, we should make grabs for counties there."
Leon again began to look for action elsewhere. Not much had changed, though the Saxon war was still ongoing. The fight between the Byzantines and the Abbasids was 50% in the former eastern Roman Empire's favor. The Kingdom of Asturias in northern Spain had been reduced to it's namesake duchy of two small counties, and it probably wouldn't last much longer. And, while there was some measure of chaos in Russia, the Kingdom of Rus had been founded, so it wasn't hard to imagine them possibly becoming powerful later on.
More trade posts were completing, a couple of them being Leon's own. Unfortunately, they were all he could build at the moment, but at least the money he'd get from them would make it easier to upgrade his palace. In the meantime, each trade post gave it's owner a claim to a city in the county they'd been built in, creating potential targets for the Republic.
"I hope these trade posts are worth it," Starlight said. "A good city - even a good castle - would probably get more gold than them, for now, at least."
"Good castles are hard to come by at the moment," Luna answered. "And while one trade post might not be enough, a bunch of them are worth it, in spite of the cost. Let's focus on the positives; our claims and what we can do with our treasuries."
"Another war for Croatia might be good."
"For you, perhaps, Edward. But the rest of us would like duchies that are mostly coastal as well."
"Duchy. One. You get Venice every time you get elected, and if you have two when you're elected everyone as -10 relations for having too many duchies."
"Oh, you know, I really didn't think of that. Of course, I could just delete the Venice duchy title once we're big enough, but that's probably a long way in the future."
"We're going to need to expand in the de jure Kingdom of Croatia anyway," Leon pointed out. "Unless someone wants to wait for in game centuries to pass, we're going to have to take some territory even if we give it away to random people anyway."
"I concur," Starlight added. "I'll take Bosnia, if we get it some time soon."
"Alright, but we're not going after Serbia yet," Luna said. "I want a barrier between us and Rome- I mean the Byzantines, to keep the heat off of us."
"They're going to expand northeast," Leon said. "Unlike most settled nations, they can just strongarm most of the nomads prior to the Mongols, and by the time the Mongols show up they'll have the levies to at least inflict some significant measure of damage to their event-spawned units. They might expand slightly into the Middle East, but the easiest pickings will be the nomads."
"That's been my experience as well," Twilight noted. "Of course, they'll have problems in keeping that land, as they'll need to build cities and castles just to keep it, but the AI usually finds a way to do it. Let's try and make our own kingdom and hopefully empire in the western Balkans."
"How do we determine who get's what, though?" Luna asked. "Even if the landlocked duchies we can get are captured, how do we decide?"
"Just send the biggest bribe," Eddy offered.
"No. I think the poorest Patrician family - the one with the fewest trade posts - will receive priority."
"Which would be me at the moment," Starlight noted. "I don't have that much, and I'm not very experienced with republics; in fact, this is my first time playing as one. I've been more of an autocrat, really."
Huh, the pony closest to being her world's first communist is pro-autocracy. Surprising- Leon shoved the thought aside violently, imagining it shattering off-screen in his mind as he did so. It was unfair, and, more to the point, unforgiving. Starlight had tried her heart out redeeming herself, and the fact that she could just sit down and play games with people she hadn't met very long ago was part of the proof. Leon felt somewhat ashamed of his former opinions about her, and hoped others would change their opinions as well. "Understandable," he said in reply. "I don't think most of us make good puppets for councils anyway."
"I hear that; I never bought the Conclave DLC," Twilight said.
"I don't think any of us have, or will unless it is modified," Luna replied. "It's broken. 'Faction to empower the council,' 'war to empower the council,' 'demand for council to be empowered,' it's disgusting. I'm the ruler, not some figurehead, and my vassals aren't getting one. I'm fine with giving them money and titles, but they aren't going to restrict or control me."
"A poor mentality for a republican ruler," Leon quipped.
"Yes, well, it's more of a republican dictatorship, and it's not a democracy in the sense of the common people really doing much. In fact, it's about how much prestige you have, how old you are, and how much money you pour into the campaign fund, not the will of the people or even your fellow Patricians."
"Yeah, but your powers are still limited. You can't imprison people without 'cause'. As if being in a faction about to fire isn't reason enough even in a monarchy."
"I can understand that, though unfortunately it counts as tyranny if you arrest them. Ugh. And besides, you agree with me. You said you like having power in this game too."
"Pretty much."
"Hey, I'm gonna throw a party for everyone to come carousing, does anyone want invitations?" Starlight asked.
"Can't go," Eddy replied. "I'm still a kid."
"Sure," Twilight said eagerly.
"No problem," Leon answered.
"I've love too," Luna said.
"Alright. Sending the invitations."
Leon received his, and a couple in game months later - which amount to perhaps fifteen to twenty seconds of real time - he was a guest at Starlight's private party, along with the other players sans Ed, and a number of AIs.
"I hope I can get the Game Master trait from this," Leon stated. "It's kinda something I'd like to get; I'm hoping to be able to play the tabletop strategy game Dystopian Legions with a local group in real life."
"Nerd," Eddy said in a searing way.
Leon's wish wasn't granted; instead, an event came up that said that he got in a fight with Luna.
"Oh dear. Well, rather than get craven, I'm going to fight this one out, Leon."
"Me too. Bring it!"
A moment later, Leon checked his character; the attribute "beaten up" appeared.
"Drat, we were both beaten up," Luna said discontentedly. "That won't do well for our relations."
"Ooooh, sorry, you two. I got into a game with Starlight, though she won," Twilight said, "and... Oops, that event came up a little too fast... did you really just imprison me, Starlight?"
"Sorry," the pink unicorn apologized, "but you slit a servant's throat and I wanted the Just trait."
"That was an accident! I clicked on that without meaning to!"
"Well, looks like you're in jail for now. Not like I can just let a murderer to be on the loose," Starlight answered.
"You could offer to ransom me."
"I could," Starlight mused, in an interested voice. "On the other hoof..."
"...What?"
"Hold on, you'll see in a moment..."
"Hey, what are you...?"
"Here we go!"
"What!? No, no, no, no, I am not just giving you my trade post. I'll fight your plan."
"Hmm. Sad. You'll likely end up paying a lot more to resist it, and, looking at your profile, you only have enough money to resist for a while, after which you'll either end up in debt, probably for a very long time, or you'll simply give up. On the other hoof, give it over without resistance, and I'll release you without even requiring you to pay a cent."
"That was an accidental click! This would be totally legit if I had made that decision on purpose, which I didn't!"
"And how can I tell? You're in front of a computer monitor, not face to face with me. How do I know the death of that servant was an accident?"
"Because we know each other in real life, and you know that the real me would never do that!"
"But how do I know that your in game character wouldn't?"
"Because... well, I... Okay, yeah, I doubt my character in this game would be an exact copy of me... even if I could play as a female Patrician, which is sadly impossible in this game. Fine. But Don't think I won't take it back sometime."
"Oh, I never doubted you'd try. It's a deal, then."
"It is. But only for now."
Leon chuckled quietly. He had designs on some of Starlight's own posts, and when he was able to upgrade his palace more - he had managed to upgrade it by one level by now - he would have a chance to strike.
"Hmmm," Luna hummed to herself. "The time has passed rather quickly, as it seems to do."
"Aw nuts," Eddy said. "Don't tell me-"
"I'm afraid so. It's nearing dinnertime in Equestria, and I will have to raise the moon, after which I have duties to take care of such as Night Court."
"Aw, blast it!"
"Don't worry, I'll be available for another game tomorrow. Sorry to have brought that bit of bad news upon everyone so suddenly."
"it's alright," Twilight answered. "I had fun. And we all have stuff to do as well."
"Yeah, Twilight's told me about a spell that lets you literally go into a book," Starlight said. "I want to at least try that once."
"I guess it's about time," Leon agreed reluctantly. "And I do have a history report that's due in a few days."
"Bah, I guess I'll sleep, since it's hours after dinner for me," Eddy said. "Or I'll look up let's plays on Youtube. Whichever takes my fancy."
"Okay then. I'm saving the game," Luna added. "We'll be able to return. And now to our viewers, I bid you all a good night."