And so it shall be!
You stand in the room of the Sweet Pony. It's a little small, but that just makes it cozier in your opinion. A junior peppermint maker deluxe sits in the corner, with a book labelled "SBARN" with a strange, blocky house on it sitting on top. You blow a bit of your messy red mane out of your face, and adjust your glasses. What is your name, Sweet Pony?
==> Twitht
Okay now that's just rude. You can't just make fun of a pony for their speech impediment, she can't help it. Shame on you.
Shame on you.
==> Twist
Better.
You are TWIST, and you are ready and rearin to start the day! You've just got your mail and, like you hoped, the game you and your friends plan to play today got delivered! The small flyer containing the instructions sits fresh on your desk: simply connect the Server crystal to a Client crystal via your Whinnylog and let the fun begin!
Whatever that fun is, it's left totally unexplained. According to an entertainment magazine you read at your last dentist appointment, the game is rumored to be a massively mutliplayer experience, with players working in tandem to achieve a goal. But the developers for SBARN have been pretty tight-lipped about the whole thing.
Whatever- it's still gonna be fun to play with your old friend Apple Bloom! You feel like it's been forever since the two of you hung out- sometimes you wonder if she's avoiding you, but that can't be the case, right?
==> Open Whinnylog
The notebook that comes with the game is pretty fancy looking- bound with those little metal corner pieces that almost look like gold that you've seen a couple times on the older books in the library. Well, when the library was still there. It was kind of blasted to pieces by some big dude a couple weeks back. It was SUPER scary- but the Princess and her friends managed to stop him, save the day, and return magic back to the ponies of Equestria!
You are pretty sure there's no threat Apple Bloom's sister and her friends can't stop. It's excciting to know you live in both technically the most protected but also most adventurous town in Equestria. But nevermind that.
You open the Whinnylog- the pages inside completely blank. On the inner cover, there's a line with the username "pepperMint" filled in and a short list of rules at the bottom margin of the page:
-Username must be 2 conjoined words
-Username will be identified by first two letters, cannot be repeated with same two letters in a server
-Username must not exceed 413 characters
-First word of username must be lowercase
-Username must contain at least 1 capital letter
Below your own username, the username "tiptopYankees" is written. You weren't sure who that was, and your big sis always warned you not to talk to strangers. So you just let it be. But now there's a whole new name that wasn't there before- and you've got a 33% chance of guessing who it is!
--pepperMint [PM] started whinnying cuteCrusader [CC]--
[PM] Heya Crusader! Sorry not sure which one of you this is
[PM] Oh this is Twist by the way!
[CC] good golly- hi Twist! it's Apple Bloom!
[PM] Apple Bloom!!!
[PM] I'm so excited for today! Thanks for inviting me to play this game with you!
[CC] your a good friend, Twist, course i'd invite ya!
[CC] what with crusadering for our cutie marks all the time i figured i oughta make some time to hang out with an old friend!
[PM] It has been a while
[CC] yup indeed
[CC] this book sure is strange. wonder what we'll need it for?
[PM] Well from what I've heard there's some kind of cooperation bit to it?
[PM] So we're gonna have to work together to succeed!
[PM] That should be fun!
[CC] ehhhhhhh...
[CC] i'd feel better if those two weren't playing with us
[PM] Which two???
[CC] that's a darn good point right there
[PM] ??????
[CC] shoot i gotta go. i promised sis i'd finish my chores early to play this game with y'all.
[PM] Tell AJ I said hi!!!
--cuteCrusader [CC] ceased whinnying pepperMint [PM]--
You smile- just like old times again! Though you're still confused as to who Apple Bloom was talking about. Everypony you're playing with was pretty great! Unless she had some sudden, unexplained falling out with the other two Cutie Mark Crusaders. Oh gosh, that would be awful!
Hopefully, that isn't the case. Well, nothing much else to do for now. What to do to pass the time until everyone's ready?
==> Peppermint Pony make the Peppermint.
Well, that sure sounds like it could be fun! Carefully setting the book on your desk, you fire up the junior peppermint maker deluxe- before you realize, you're all out of peppermint extract! Well, that's just the darndest thing- thankfully, you live a stone's throw from Sugar Cube Corner. Pinkie surely has some peppermint you could borrow.