Session 75.0 Kendell2 & Alex Warlorn
Dra-Gon looked confused. "Why aren't you all falling to the ground drooling at the mere sight of me?"
Princess Twilight blinked, tapping her chin. "Well most of us are protected by magic, and Starlight is a conspiracy theories."
"Conspiracy chaser!"
"...Whatever, so you kind of fit perfectly into her worldview..."
"Oh...Well then I'll have to do this the old fashioned way." Dra-Gon then blinked. "...Why can't I attack them?"
"Video game rules, you have to give 'let's start this' cut scene first..." Adagio explained.
"Oh, right..." the eldritch abomination said, clearing his throat. "Landdwellers, bow down before your new master! Dra-Gon!"
= The Genesis - Persona 4 =
Dra-Gon floated into the air, holding out his limbs as a boss meter filled up...several times.
Great Old One: Dra-Gon
As soon as it'd finished, the group had to jump out of the way to avoid a wave of acidic dark water. A second later he swung one of his limbs and sent them flying back a good distance (slamming into an, of course, invisible wall), taking out half their game health in one blow.
"Ow...Okay, he hits like a truck..." said Sunset, as their healers tried to heal him.
"Well so do we!" Gilda replied, the group all launching the strongest attack they had in their menu, slamming into Dra-Gon and causing a massive cloud of smoke to cover him.
"Did that work?" asked Starlight, using a few spells to wake up Sunburst.
The smoke blew away as Dra-Gon spread his arms...at which point a red '-1' appeared above his head, his FIRST Health bar going down by such a small degree one would have to squint to see it...then it regenerated back to full.
"...Crud..."
Dra-Gon's eyes glowed red and a shockwave of lightning blew them all back.
When they got back up, red spots formed on the ground and they instinctively dodged with seconds to spare as Dra-Gon's hand slammed down in an attempt to crush them in an instakill move.
"Why are they being warned when I try to crush them?!" asked Dra-Gon in annoyance.
Screwball, while examining the final boss earlier, gave a frown. "Instadeath attacks with NO warning? That's no fun!" she said, putting a patch in.
Rainbow Dash slammed Trixie into a wall of a building before being knocked away herself. "What are you even going to get out of this?!"
"When the Sirens rule the world, then everyone will finally love me!" Trixie said...in a way that made Rainbow Dash actually feel sorry for her. "Everyone will crre about the Great and Powerful Trixie!"
"...Who cares about you right now?" asked Rainbow Dash.
Trixie opened her mouth...and had to actually THINK about it. "...The Sirens of course..."
"Oh yeah, they definitely cared all about you when they didn't give you an upgrade despite making you their 'equal', did they?" asked Rainbow. "They certainly cared when I tackled you out here and you were fighting me alone. Yeah right."
"Well...Well I...Trixie will make everyone love her!" said Trixie replied, her and Rainbow clashing sonic blasts and harmonic beams.
"...Yeah, that worked real well for Sunset didn't it?" asked Rainbow, making Trixie cringe. "Making people 'like' her through fear worked real well...until she lost, then what? Who did she HAVE?! If we five hadn't been there, she'd have had NO ONE! Trust me, Trixie, that ISN'T how it works! Making people like you through fear NEVER works. It feeds your ego, it makes you feel tough, feels good...but it never does you any good! And it just feels EMPTY in the end."
"SHUT UP!" Trixie yelled, Rainbow flying forwards...and stopping in front of her even as she cringed back.
"...The kind of friends you can only make by being the big dog on campus? They're ONLY your friends so long as you stay the big dog," replied Rainbow. "...If you want REAL friends, if you want people to LIKE you...then do the right thing, be NICE...you can still be larger than life and get attention and still be a good person. Look at me..." she said, giving a sympathetic smile. "Come on, do the right thing and then everybody will have a reason to like you for the right REASONS..." she said, offering her hand. "Wouldn't you rather be loved as a hero than feared as a bad guy?"
Trixie stared at her hand for a few minutes. "...How does Trixie know you're telling the truth?"
"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye..."
"...No body breaks a Pinkie Promise..." muttered Trixie, taking her hand.
Trixie was purified of the siren form, gaining pony ears and the 'pony tail' one would expect.
Rainbow noticed her Harmony gauge had gone up to max and Trixie was now in her party...
"Okay, this is not going well..." Gilda muttered, getting up as their healers struggled just to keep them in the fight.
"HAHA! Father Dra-Gon is invincible! You can't beat him!" Adagio cackled.
"I wouldn't say that!"
The group turned to see Rainbow and Trixie fly up, both activating the full charged harmony gauge and transforming into the 'Harmony Mode'.
"Ha, do you really think an insignificant welp like you can harm ME?!" Dra-Gon asked, before screaming as a beam of harrmonic energy slammed into him and did noticable damage to his heath bar. Not gigantic, but at least VISIBLE. He swung his arm, sending a shockwave, but was dodged and blasted several times, staggering him back.
"They're...they're hurting him?!" asked Adagio in disbelief.
"Fear the might of the great and powerful Trixie!" Trixie announced, firing one of her own, staggering him back further.
"Do something! They're hurting Daddy Dra-Gon!" Sonata yelled, shaking Aria.
"What am I supposed to do?! We lost our powers! Again!" was Aria's response.
Trixie and Rainbow Dash fired their beams, causing them to collide and converge into a bigger one, slamming into Dra-Gon's chest and burning into him for a few moments beforre an explosion went off, sending him toppling back into the town lake.
"Did that work?" asked Trixie as the 'Harmony Mode' faded.
It was a few moments of silence...before Dra-Gon's eyes snapped open, glowing red and first health bar having only gone down by half. He groaned, forcing himself up and feeling the burn on his chest and looking like it was a personal, grave insult. "You...you...you..." he snarled, rising up and swiping the two, sending them crashing into the rest of the group and flooring everyone. "YOU ROTTEN INSECTS HAVE HARMED ME!" he roared in absolute fury even as his health bar continued going back up. He crackled with eldritch power as the heroes looked up in terror. "I WILL REND YOUR ATOMS FROM EACH OTHER AND THEN SWALLOW YOUR SOULS FOR THAT!" he roared and...seemingly nothing happened...
'You cannot grasp the true form of Dra-Gon's attack...' said a dialog in their eye patches before they screamed in pain and were sent flying by something their minds refused to comprehend, crashing off the invisible wall and falling motionless to the ground.
"HA!" Adagio said, laughing. "WE WIN! WE FINALLY WIN!"
"Wait..."
Adagio cringed. "I mean you won! You finally won!"
"No, not that," Dra-Gon replied. "I was aiming for 'deatomize them', why are they still intact?" To the eldritch abomination's disbelief, the group slowly struggled back up. "What?! Impossible!"
= But The Earth Refused to Die - Undertale =
"Looks like you got nerfed somewhere, pal..." said Gilda, groaning, her health at '.01'.
"And so long as we're here, we ain't givin' up..." Applejack replied, cringing, all their health at the same amount.
"We're going to show you the power of friendship!" Princess Twilight yelled.
"Even if it kills us..." Sunset muttered, then noticed a new action command popping up. "Huh?" she asked, pressing it and revealing the name 'Pray' in glowing rainbow letters. "...Okay then..." she said, pressing it, as did her friends, resulting in a powerful glow that made Dra-Gon and the Sirens cover their eyes.
"...Well...this is odd..." said Principle Cadence, looking at the floating button in front of her labeled 'You've got prayer, answer?'...Especially given she wasn't wearing an eyepatch. She then noticed one of the listed names was Twilight's and pressed yes.
"...It is telling that this is not the strangest thing I've ever seen..." said Principle Celestia, her and Luna having used confiscated patches to try and protect their school and now seeing they same button as Cadence, both pressed it without question.
"They triggered the event!" Screwball said, smiling. "They hurt the final boss, he uses Hit Point to One attack, then their valor reaches out to the gods to help beat an evil gods!"
"...Huh, and it appearing to me?" asked Discord, staring at the floating button.
Screwball merely shrugged.
Discord shrugged back and hit it.
= Hopes and Dreams - Undertale =
Dra-Gon recoiled from the light as it grew brighter. "What is that light?!" he roared.
The group saw projections of Discord, the Princesses, and other members of the Equestrian Pantheon appear around them and channel energy into them.
Their health was restored to full, their Harmony Gauge filling up like mad until it had an infinity symbol.
"...Time for round two, tentacle face!" yelled Gilda as the group hit the button and entered Harmony Mode, the bar not going down this time as they flew up and began hitting Dra-Gon with harmonic beams that, as before begin tearing into his health bars.
"GAH! I WILL CRUSH YOU!" Dra-Gon yelled, attempting to do just that, but it soon becoming apparent that their defense had sky rocketed as well in that mode and Dra-Gon clearly was unused to fighting things that could actually harm him back. The Great Old One still put up a massive fight, but the fight was even now and slowly tilting against him.
The battle raged as his health bars began to drop and empty, the first being broken by a combined blast from Gilda, Rainbow, and Trixie, then his second by Applejack and Pinkie Pie landing a double punch charged with Harmony energy to his face, staggering him back. His third broke from a beam fired by Rarity and Fluttershy to the eyes, blinding him.
"This can't be happening..." muttered Dra-Gon, smoking from burns and the group's clothing ripped and tattered, but still standing. He fired a beam of eldritch power which Rarity blocked with most of the group bracing and buffing her before the Twilights, Sunset, and Gloriosa flew up and fired a beam directly into his face, bringing his health bar to critical levels. "How?!"
"The power of friendship!" was Sunset's answer.
"...And gaming balance," Gilda pointed out.
"That too..." said the group as they hit the ultimate attack button.
= Moon River (Climax Mix) - Bayonetta 2=
The group linked hands, floating into the air and their beams of rainbow light erupting skywards and swirling around each other until they formed a sphere high above the clouds, two gigantic blue translucent wings spread out.
"I don't care what you do, nothing can stop me! Not even..." Dra-Gon yelled, before looking up with his eyes wide at the same giant alicorn with a rainbow mane and tail that defeated the Sirens descended, dwarfing even him as the sun began to rise behind them. "...Okay, that may be an issue..."
The Siren's eyes widened in panic. "IT'S THE HUGE SCARY ALICORN OF DEATH AGAIN!" Sonata screamed, pointing up at it.
Wallflower looked out her window at the sight and felt sick for some reason she couldn't understand, her Memory Stone seeming to recoil in her bag from it.
The Alicorn seemed to glare at Dra-Gon, who suddenly seemed to get nervous, almost as if he recognized and was scared by it. It pulled back a hoof and began throwing a punch with a hoof the size of Dra-Gon's chest.
At which point the heroes noticed glowing buttons on their eye patches.
"AH! QUICK TIME EVENTS!" Sunset exclaimed, the group frantically pressing them.
"What's wrong with quick time events?" asked Fluttershy.
"Nothing! Just didn't expect them!"
With each press a color of the rainbow glowed brighter around the giant Alicorn of harmonic energy's hoof as a mach cone began forming around it until finally a PERFECT notice appeared on screen. A rainbow colored shockwave spread out as the hoof broke the sound barrier and kept going, slamming into Dra-Gon's chest...and nothing happened.
"Huh...that wasn't as bad as I expected..." Dra-Gon said, the noticed he couldn't move at all. "...What's happening?"
"...Damage calculation lag..." Adagio mentioned, cringing.
Dra-Gon's eyes widened. "...I stand corrected, this is probably going to be worse..." he said, before suddenly he was COVERED in Critical Hit announcements and launched towards the horizon with a rainbow colored shockwave, moving at far beyond escape velocity. "GAH! THIS IS DEFINITELY WORSE!" he screamed as he became a twinkle in the sky.
"...Maybe he'll be okay and come back angry and on fire?" Adagio suggested hopefully.
Dra-Gon screamed as he flew past Venus. "When I stop I'm going to be so nettled!" he roared...then noticed Mercury fly past, or rather vice versa. "Wow, how hard did I get hit?" he asked...then noticed things getting warm. "And why is everything getting warm?" he asked, looking back...to see the sun getting bigger by the moment. "Oh, it's the sun...HORSEAPPLES!"
Celestia sniffed. "Sister, do you smell burning fish?"
Luna sniffed, then shrugged. "No...Why?"
"Huh...I could swear I did for a second..."
Dra-Gon's health bar hit zero and shattered, the tower crumbling and turning into water as the group flew away...
"Look!" Fluttershy exclaimed, pointing to the powerless Sirens about to fall to their deaths.
"...Fine!" Rainbow said, her and Gilda flying in and grabbing them before they could meet that fate.
Screwball noticed her physical form starting to fade back into data and return to cyber space. "Oh well, it was fun while it lasted..." she said and hugged her father as she vanished.
Sombra watched his horn vanish and him and Hope return to normal. He simply shrugged and hugged his wife.
Ponythulu blinked, seeing the door open and the blackened, sizzling form of Dra-Gon walk in and sit down at his desk, head still on fire. Fitting, as the law firm was still smoldering, but being an eldritch abomination that didn't mean much to Ponythulhu who simply willed it back into working order.
"Not. A. Word."
"I told you so."
Sonata seemed almost catatonic.
"We finally had things going... then we lost everything again!" Aria looked ready to strangle Adagio where she stood.
"Oh the humans and ponies are not going to do a thing." Adagio said casually.... even if her hand was shaking, and her first was so tight her finger nails were drawing blood.
"And why's that?" Sunset said darkly.
"Touch me and look inside my head and you'll see why," Adagio said simply.
Sunset did so... and gasped. "Juniper, the pieces of the mirror..."
"So unless you want it known to EVERYONE that the apocalypse nearly happened because of one selfish teenage girl with delusions of grandeur magically charged piece of glass, who now feels sorry for what she did, or unless you ponies finally evolved the guts to do what these humans do on a regular basis but pretend they're an enlightened species... I think we're done here."
"Oh you're done!" Gilda snarled. "Crystal Soft's top brass are gonna be looking for a scapegoat to all this, and who do you think they're gonna pick?!"
"But do they want to lose us? They're not the only game in town, not anymore... Do they really want us to go to one of their competitors?"
"Who the hell would hire you NOW?!"
"... You'd be very surprised."
-
Human Tirek sneezed.
-
"DADDDY!!!!" Sonata suddenly screamed tears streaming down her face.
"You know he's just banished right?" Aria said.
Sonata hiccuped. "But I really miss him!!!"
Session 75.1 Kendell2
Sunset gave it thought, wondering what to do in this mess. She then got a smirk. "In THIS world you have a point..." she said, getting a smile that made Adagio gulp.
"So what, you going to take us back home and have your mommy throw us in jail?" asked Adagio.
"No, but I know somepony who has spells that can do something to make sure this never happens again," said Sunset, smirking to Twilight.
"Okay, we're here, now what are you goodie goods going to do?" asked Adagio...as the Pony Starlight came up.
"Starswirl couldn't do this...but you had your magic at the time and he only had him and Mist Mane..." said Sunset, smirking as FOUR incredibly powerful unicorns/Alicorns (including Sci-Twi, after a brief tutoring session) crossed horns and let loose a powerful spell on the trio, surrounding the trio in a sphere before a blinding white light went off.
When it cleared, the trio blinked, laying on the floor and unable to fly. "What...what happened?" Adagio asked, then realized she no longer had sharp teeth. "What?!" she asked, looking at herself in the crystal floor...to find a normal sea pony staring her back in the face.
"What the heck?!" Aria asked, flopping on the floor like a beached fish.
"Hey! I'm not hungry anymore!...Except for tocos..." Sonata replied.
"If we can't do anything serious to you without hurting Juniper, fine. And we don't have to kill you," said Sunset. "But now, guess what? You're not 'mutated' sea ponies anymore. You're REGULAR sea ponies."
"And I stripped you of what little magic you still had, just like I did with the wing thieves," replied Princess Twilight. "Human world magic anyway."
"So...so..." Adagio stammered in barely contained rage.
"You're NORMAL," Sunset replied. "And that is your punishment: you might not get thrown in jail or sealed away, but you'll be living out the rest of your lives as perfectly normal girls. Enjoy."
The end result of this was a livid Adagio trying to strangle Sunset (and failing both due to lack of power and lack of limbs), and having to stop Aria from doing so to Adagio as all three were returned to the human world.
Adagio snarled in rage, no longer able to feel the emotions she could before. "We're normal now...how could this POSSIBLY get any worse?!" she asked, looking around online for anything resembling a distraction. Then her eyes went wide. "'Due to...gaming related trauma, many gamers have decided to take a break from more aggressive games and play Crystalsoft's lighthearted, fun Crystals and Rainbows, causing sales to skyrocket'?!"
A few seconds later, a laptop went flying out their windows.
Session 75.2 Alex Warlorn
"NOOOOO!!!!!" Shadow Tempest screamed in rage and denial as she was no longer a Siren but a mere human. "DAMMIT!!!! You'll all pay for this!"
-
Human Gizmo cried in grief as his new super gory Gloom mod he'd worked on for months wasn't getting any downloads.
-
"Boss!" Gilda came into Company President Sombra's office. "I know who was responsible for that 'video game almost ending the world thing' and how we can avoid being sued into oblivion and all keep our jobs!"
"It's fine Gilda! I already know who did it!"
"You do?!"
"Of course! It was obvious! And our lawyers have already gathered all the evidence we need!"
"... That's a relief!"
"Yes! Rabia won't get away with this!"
"... HUH!?"
+++
"I told you before this all started that I had a scapegoat planned out," Adagio said at what precious pride she could still hold. "Looks like you're stuck with us."
Gilda the Human growled, "Oh no you don't! You don't get it! I'm not stuck working here with you. You're stuck working here with me!!"
+++
"So many traumatized people with such awful memories to bear ... maybe I should do something about it." Wallflower whispered.
Session 75.3 Mtangalion
Vice President Chrysalis leaned back at her desk and rubbed her temples, trying to remember exactly what had happened yesterday. She'd watched the Godzilla-sized sea monster rise over the city... and the next thing she knew, she was sitting up in bed the next morning.
Bah... it wasn't worth getting worked up over it. The newspapers were all reporting that memory gaps were a common side-effect of overusing the eye-patches, and anyway, what was she going to do? Sue her own company for making the game that caused the whole mess? Best to get on with her day and stop thinking about talking white wolves, flying sea monsters, and all the other dream nonsense that would surely delight her therapist.
Just then, Mr. Snow stopped by. The security consultant seemed oddly cheerful, despite his suit being all rumpled... had he been here working all night? Chrysalis found out why when he placed a bill for a shockingly large sum on her desk. "My work here is done," he announced.
Chrysalis gaped at the invoice. "But, you didn't do anything!"
Mr. Snow lifted his shades, giving her a glimpse of intense golden eyes. "Didn't I?" He chuckled and showed himself out of the building, whistling the theme of the Crystals and Rainbows game.
Wallflower could have sworn she heard a large animal growl, but when she looked over her shoulder, there was nothing there. She clutched her bag with the Memory Stone a little tighter and hurried on to school. Not that anyone would really notice if she was late...
Session 75.4 Alex Warlorn
"So Celly, shall we use the ballroom for a life sized game of chess tonight? We can invite Twilight and her friends to be the pieces on your side, and I can entice the Shadowbolts of the human world to be my pawns," Princess Luna said seemingly oblivious to her choice of words.
"Sorry Lulu, the ballroom has been rented already, I let Raven handle the paper work since I'm still working since out with the Cosmic Council over our recent misadventure, I was just looking over that it was rented by... DISCORD?!"
"Tis cause for alarm surely, did he bother to explain what he intends it for if anything?"
"Actually he's uncharacteristically straight forward... he's renting it for a game of Ogres and Oubliettes with... with..." Celestia's alarm rose along with her eyelids. "HIS COUSINS!"
"Oh no. Did he say how many he was inviting?!"
"'More than one' 'less than infinite.' At least that sound like Discord."
"Well, we can be certain that at least the Stallion In Yellow will be one of them," Princess Luna said.
"How can you be so sure?" Celestia asked.
"Call it a lucky guess," Luna said looking down the hall at all the maids and staff with pin pricked and crossed eyes as they sprayed yellow liquid soap on the windows in the same symbol over and over again.
"He comes. He comes. He comes," They droned.
+++
"Why do I keep coming with this design for a dress over and over?" Rarity wondered at all the yellow dresses with the same symbol she'd made that day.
+++
"Miss Cheerilee, we're all out of yellow hoof-paint!"
"Oh, let me see if we have any extra Apple Bloom."
+++
"Excuse me sir, for security reasons, could you please remove your mask for a moment?" ask the Day Guard as the sun had set and the Night Guard were about to take over.
The 'being' before him, if being it was, was vaguely like a stallion, wrapped in yellow rags with a silver crown atop its head. It moved in jerkish motions like a puppet on stings, but at the same time restricted, like it was caught in an invisible straight jacket.
It reached up to its face, and removed its plain ivory mask.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The Guard didn't otherwise move, but their eyes were fully open as his scream was a steady constant like a switch was pulled. He wasn't able to look away at what was hidden underneath.
The King In Yellow returned his mask. The Guard immediately stopped screaming. "You may enter."
The figure in its jerkish motions stumbled into the Canterlot Guard Ballroom. The Guard fell over, all four of his legs sticking upwards, twitching.
+++
The Night Guard wisely simply let pass what he assumed was a minotaur in Ponygypt royal clothing with skin like polished onyx... except their head was a tentacle.
He brushed against the Guard... the Guard would find tragically his pet goldfish had died.
+++
"Good evening chap'!" Ponythulu tip-off his bowler hat to the Night Guard.
"May my mutant hybrid children one day offer you as a sacrifice to me," Dra-Gon grumbled as he followed behind.
+++
"So that's everyone?" Ponythulu asked. They sat around a round table with typical dice, figurines, a hex pattern board (they were truly the distance and unknown horrors), and rule books.
"Yes, my ex-wife and kids will not be joining us." Discord said simply. "Now let's greet our last players for this evening."
"You said no one else was coming," Ponythulu said.
"He's already here, he's always here, and there, then, and before."
"Oh right."
"Ahem," Discord took a Ponyguard figurine, and inserted a key into it, and opened a door inside it. "Yog-Sothorse, The Key, The Gatekeeper, and the Gate."
And there were eyeballs everywhere... inside the ballroom, outside the ballroom, in the sky, everywhere, then they all vanished but one, or rather they became invisible and intagable.
"There we go, now who wants to be what?"
"Discord, I was thinking of playing..."
"No Ponythulu you can't play a sailor, this is a land based campaign."
"What about-"
"No! You can't play as your homebrew Ship-Golem either!"
"Dangit."
"HEEEY!!! Why can't I play Dissy!"
"Sorry Pinkie Pie, we have a full table," Discord said making no reaction to Pinkie Pie's sudden presence, nor did the others. Except Dra-Gon, who glared at her with pure hatred. Pinkie Pie let herself out.
"I'll play a Lawful Good Elf Paladin." Said the Black Pharaoh.
"Nythy, you do know what a Paladin is... oh wait, you'll have him turn evil on the party at the most unwelcome moment right?"
"Well, elves are Chaotic Good, Paladins are Lawful Good, the pressure of this deviance from his people's way of life will eventually grind down on him until he snaps."
"... I see."
"AGHGH!"
"Human Chaotic Neutral Rogue/Socerer, got it Haust."
"My character doesn't trust wizard and thieves! I push him off a cliff!" Ponythulu said.
"Cousin, we haven't started the game yet, and more imporant, you haven't even made your character yet!"
"AGHGHGHGHGHGHGHH!!!"
"NO! You can't fireball Ponythulu's character in the face the moment you see him!"
Pinkie Pie sat back munching on popcorn.
"Mail delivery!" Derpy flew in, delivery a set of letters dated to when the Ponyville Post Office first opened two hundred years ago, each one with a different date on them.
Discord checked the time and opened one and read it. "Yes, you can play a gnome lore master Yog-Horse."
The visible giant eyeball 'nodded.'
"Sahuagin Barbarian," Dra-Gon said.
+++
"AGAHGHGH!"
"The troll is surprised you want to negoiate, but is not unreasonable... "
AGHGHGHG!"
"... Your exploding flaming arrow head to the groin completely catches the troll off guard... I'm not sure that count as 'Chaotic Neutral.'"
"AGH!" Said the figure in yellow defiantly.
"Fine." Discord sighed.
"My Paladin is appalled at Haust's actions! I rush in to save the troll from the dishonorable sneak attack!"
"If our Paladin is attacking, then he must sense our teammate has turned evil, so my were-shark Ogre-Born fighter move in with intent to kill!" Ponythulu said.
"This is how Twilight and Spike feel," Discord noted.
Discord opened another letter dated at this time. "The Gnome Lore Master shouts at all of you to stop, and insists the crossbow must have gone off by accident. And apologizes to the troll deeply."
"I offer the thief/wizard's head as an apology!" Ponythulu said.
"AGH!"
"Wizard, sorcerer, so what?"
"So Discord, when do we meet The Fluttering One that turned you from someone totally cool into a complete dweeb?" Nythy asked in spite of having a tentacle for a head.
"I think I still need to ease her in some."
"That so?" Nythy turned into Fluttershy wearing fetish gear. "So how well do you know her right now?" It shifted back into its previous shape.
"DON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN!" Discord said blushing like mad, and also angry.
There was a knock on the ballroom door. Pinkie Pie opened it.
"Oh hi Fluttershy!"
"Hello Pinkie Pie, didn't expect you here."
"Just watching the game."
"That's nice. Discord, I heard you were having family over for a game, and I thought I'd bring some tea and cookies!" Fluttershy said. She fluttered among the horrors.
Discord opened a letter. "Tell Fluttercruel that's a nice dress she's wearing... P.S. Oops. Wrong time, and maybe wrong timeline, never mind."
Fluttershy shuddered and pretended not to hear it. She offered cookies to all those present.
The Stallion In Yellow Took the Cookie, and took off his mask. Everyone present instantly screamed, their eyes glued to the horror behind the mask no sane mind could comprehend. The mouthes behind the mask ate the cookie, it put the mask back on. Everyone instantly stopped screaming.
"AGH!"
"Why thank you, I happy you like them," Fluttershy said politely, not phased in the least now that the moment had past.
Pinkie Pie grinned, turned around, and found a expensive vase to deposit her dinner in from earlier that evening, some of Applejack's Baked Bads would have been less queasy.
Session 75.5 Ardashir & Alex Warlorn
"So where is Shub Niggurath?" Ponythylu asked.
"I am not inviting her again," Discord said. "Remember last time?"
Discord shouted, "Cousin! Can't you keep your thousand young in line?"
Dra-Gon exasperated, "Why did you even bring them??"
Shub-Niggurath, currently in the form of an anthropomorphic female goat said, "You try finding a babysitter for a thousand eldritch spawn that they won't just eat on short notice."
Session 75.6 Mtangalion
Canterlot High School had many clubs which met on campus after official school hours, but one of them in particular was NOT in the official records, even though Principal Celestia had approved it personally.
Sunset Shimmer tapped the teacher’s lectern. “If everypony could please settle down…” She blinked and blushed. “Sorry, I meant to say everyONE. Haven’t done that in a while…”
Sunset cleared her throat and pressed on. “We have some new members joining us today! Now, obviously we can’t invite all of the former sirens to the Reformed Magical Villains Club, but these three fought life or death battles against their closest friends, and more importantly, they remember everything.”
Twilight cringed a bit, fidgeting her hands in her lap. “Oh. Yeah, that can be pretty rough.”
Sunset smiled reassuringly, nodding. “Please welcome Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Rainbow Dash!”
Gloriosa Daisy and Juniper Montage raised their hands and waved. “Hi!”
“Howdy,” said Apple Bloom, hands in her pockets.
Scootaloo sighed. “Everything’s cool now, right?”
Rainbow Dash just shuffled over to one of the desks and sat down, burying her face in her hands. “How did I wind up here? Gilda was always the bad girl!”
Sunset rested her hand on Dash’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Rainbow. We’ve ALL been there. Just remember our club motto. No offense.”
“And none taken!” chorused Gloriosa, Juniper, and Twilight.
Rainbow sat up, looking at Sunset suspiciously. “So what do we DO in this club?”
Sunset grinned, and started passing out character sheets. “What else? We play O&O with a villain party.” She raised her voice. “Of course, certain other former sirens would be more than welcome to join, if they could, you know, show a little remorse!”
Trixie opened the classroom door long enough to yell “Trixie was not responsible for her actions, obviously!” before slamming it again.
Adagio opened one of the classroom’s windows from the outside. “I have something very important to say to all of you. I regret… nothing! I’m only sorry I lost! Hah!”
Scootaloo took her character sheet, and grinned. “Maybe… in here isn’t such a bad place to be after all.”
Session 75.7 Kendell2
As their previous world had been the Beta and the release version of Crystals and Rainbows had a ton new world generation to explore (including the Griffon's exclusive world gen and apparently something underwater intended for an upcoming update) and a lot more building options even compared to the beta version, the group started a new world to play in (though kept their original world to play and for obvious reasons). They'd knew this would be the case from square one when they'd been the Beta players, so they didn't mind.
That and they had a bigger group...
"So this game is like the other game except we don't hunt things?" asked Ember the dog.
"Pretty much," said Spike the dog.
"Can I be a dog?" asked Ember. "Or Crystal Wolf thingie?"
"Nah, but you can be a Griffon! They can track stuff by scent like we do!"
"Cool!...So what do we do?"
"Okay, so you know how fun it is to chase a ball?" Spike asked. "Or play other little games like that?"
Ember raised an eyebrow. "Yeah..."
"Think that except better and there's a lot more games!"
Ember's tail started wagging rapidly at that.
It turned out the 'mentor' character at Griffonstone was, to Gilda's own surprise, based off herself. "Huh...so that's why Miss Hope told me not to make the same character in the final build...And why they asked me to record lines for the game...should really have seen that coming..."
"Hey, you helped us there, so good job," said Rainbow with a smirk.
"They asked me to do the same, darling," Rarity replied. "I know one, but can't speak a world of it. Spoilers for an event," the mare replied with a smile.
"Same here, but Ah didn't want it. Pinkie Pie...not sure why," said Applejack. Fluttershy's blush showed she got the same response. Twilight and Sunset already had a big role in the next Hoofcraft expansion.
"I just want to have fun! But I helped make a few events!" Pinkie Pie said with a smile.
And thus they began playing again, with Applejack, while impressed by the sheer number of trees available, still made an apple farm, but had a larger number of tree themed building options, resulting in her house looking like a mix of a farm house and an apple grove.
Rarity, now playing as a unicorn named Sparkler (for reasons the group would find out at an upcoming event) predictably made a very beautiful, crystal covered house, but still one befitting the differences in her personality and Sparkler's .
Fluttershy's, being a Breezie, was built in a flower, and very nature themed.
Pinkie Pie's...was more of a theme park than a house, even if it required huge amounts of grinding friendship points to pull off (of course it there was one thing Pinkie Pie was good at, it was making friends). "They kept the Ferris Wheel in! and added roller coaster parts!"
Rainbow Dash had largely recreated her house from the Beta, but did save up enough friendship points to buy and install a rollarcoaster into her home now that it was available as an option.
Twilight, as Minty, built a house that was differing shades of green, but also reflected that she and Minty had OCD by being perfectly symmetrical. She also included a few giant peppermints available.
Sci-Twi basically made a mini observatory complete with a star map on it for her house. And of course a gigantic library.
Sunset kept the idea of the sun rising through a window of her house from the Beta, but went a bit more elaborate this time around, with lots of golds and whites...and also put a statue of a golden Alicorn (included as a mythology gag to WOH) in the garden outside.
Spike the dog made...a historically accurate castle befitting of a knight. "...What? I like knights?...And I'm Twilight's dog, what did you expect?"
Ember...made a thing. It was a thing that existed and could be lived in, but given she lived in a junkyard and was a dog still learning how to be self aware, it was understandably lacking in design congruence.
Gilda, with the glitch she'd had fun with in the beta having been patched out, built an epic mountain top castle.
The newly introduced mini games for the Griffons included scavenger hunts using their scent tracking ability as well, which Gilda admitted were pretty fun...Even if following orders to do it by herself was weird.
After some mini games and more building, the group noticed a pop up on screen from an NPC named Razzaroo announcing an event.
"Hey everypony! Come meet me for an announcement!" announced the NPC.
"Oh, right, the events are up and running now," said Sunset.
The group accepted the event announcement, prompting a Achievement to unlock called 'A Charming Birthday.'
As that turned out, it was Razzaroo reveal it was Kimono's, the Earth Pony's mentor and one of the 'lore master' characters in the game, birthday and they would be trying to do something special for her.
Rainbow Dash chuckled at some of the suggestions they could make for it, even if it was clear some where simply joke suggestions taken from personality options and likes for their character bio. 'A surf board' was what she chose.
"Surf board? Fun idea, but I don't think I've ever seen her surf..." Razzaroo replied.
"Hey, keep that idea for MY birthday, okay?" replied an NPC named Sunny Daze with a clear surfer girl inspiration.
"Gotta give them credit, they actually tried to make the NPCs there for something other than set dressing," said Sunset with a smirk.
While they'd later found out there were other working suggestions, Rarity got the first working one with charm bracelets (she later wished she'd made the suggestion of 'kimonos' as that'd have also have worked, and Pinkie Pie lamented the inability to make a 'Kimonoception' joke).
"Wait, if we're all making her charm bracelets, wouldn't that be a LOT of charm bracelets?" asked Twilight.
"Can't you just ask that in game?" asked Applejack.
"Yes...but I'm Minty, I don't have the right personality quirks for that..."
"Oh...right..."
"I do," replied Sci-Twi.
'Wait, if we all make her charm bracelets, wouldn't that be a lot of charm bracelets?' asked game Twilight.
The other characters agreed, and thus it was decided to ask Kimono about what kind she would like as covertly as possible. Which fell on Minty due to random number generator.
"...Twilight, how long is this going to take?" asked Applejack.
"Sorry! Send me to talk to the loremaster NPC and I tend to get a little sidetracked..." Twilight replied. And picked from a list of options to try to talk to Kimono about the bracelets without talking about the bracelets (once again, narrowed down via their character profiles).
'So, let's say everypony wants to make their own...uh...'
Twilight looked through the options and picked one that seemed the least conspicuous.
'Welcome sign! That's right! Mine being green of course...' Minty said in game.
"Of course..." Kimono replied.
'So what if all these ponies made welcome signs, which one would you wear-I mean read first?' Minty asked, dialog still being somewhat influenced by personality quirks as well.
"Okay, having personality quirks actually influence dialog options and dialog in general is kind of awesome," Sunset replied. "Adds a little more life to the game, you know?"
"Also makes fillin' out that whole personality profile thing mean somethin'," replied Applejack.
"Interesting question, confusing, but interesting..." said Kimono, then gave it thought. "What if all the ponies worked together on one welcome sign? Each adding their own special touch?"
"...That was kind of obvious," replied Rainbow Dash.
"Did yah think of it before she said it?" asked Applejack.
"...Good point..."
And so, bringing back the answer to the town, the event ultimately became about finding materials and designing charms for a charm bracelet rather than making a bunch of them...
OOC: Basically an event based off the Charming Birthday special. If anyone wants to write the adventures of them trying to make the in game charms, feel free. It'd largely be about finding materials and designing them, with a lot of options.
If one is wondering how all this was possible: Discord has a sapient AI capable of working 24 hours without breaking and doesn't ask for payment by the company...And he's also DISCORD.
Session 75.8 Alex Warlorn
"No Trixie, you can't have 'Giant Fireworks Rocket Ride Hit the Target' as one of the rides for the high school fund raiser games," Said Principle Celestia.
"I'm not crazy, it includes parachutes!"
"No means no."
Session 75.9 Alex Warlorn
"Huh? Is this a new game from Shining Armor's buddies in the Crystal Empire? I thought they sent their new games through us first." Rainbow Dash said looking at the the box set.
It showed a muscular Alicorn riding a flaming motor cycle shooting down a star destroyer with a laser gun in one hoof while slicing up a demon lord with a sword covered in runes with the other, and vaporizing a dozen orcs with lasers from their horn. The motorcycle was on the back of a two headed dragon above the flames of Tartarus and smashing through the gates of Elysium. The title of the game was in big bold letters across the top.
"'Play Ultra-Power, the ultimate game of power. Mow through minions, crush the titans, experience true power as you've always wanted, with none of those pesky trade offs. It's never a question of if yo'll win. 'Game balance'? What's that? We know our games exist for one purpose, to give a sense of power to you, our paying customers! So what are you waiting for? Buy this game already, seriously, why you still reading this. You should-' Yeah yeah I get the idea!"
Rainbow Dash rushed to the counter and shooved her bits in the face of the store owner. "I'm sure Spike or Twilight will Game Master this game for us."
-
"Okay guys, I need to ask, after a slew of carefully crafted mostly realistic sci-fiction military games where every victory is hard won and well deserved and gives a sense of accomplishment... what inspired you to churn out THIS?!" Shining Armor asked holding the game like it was a cursed artifact.
"Well, everypony kept complaining about our games being too hard, so why not just give them what they want?" Gizmo asked.
Shining Armor groaned.
Session 75.10 Alex Warlorn
"Wow, nice meeting somepony else sane at the edge of time like this, and you helped me get my memories back! So to show my gratitude, I've seen some treasure right over this ledge, take a look." Said the stallion in armor.
The Chosen Ashen pony looked over the edge, and was instantly kicked over it to the floor below.
"HA! Through every age, the greed of ponies never changes!" Said the stallion taking off his helmet revealing a snide-faced bald pony.
"NOW WAIT JUST ONE MINUTE HERE!" Fluttershy flying back up where she'd been kicked using her wings. She gave him The Stare. "I didn't look over that edge because I was being greedy! I figured out who you were under that helmet! And I hoped that just maybe, just maybe, you had changed! I was giving you the benefit of the doubt! BECAUSE I DID THINK OF YOU AS A FRIEND! I didn't care about the 'treasure' at all!"
Patches The Pony Has Gone Hollow
Error code, function not found
Fluttershy was spat out of the interactive Dark Spirits III Ringed Canterlot Extra Comic as it crashed.
"WOW!" Spike said, "And I thought only Twilight with her fussy nitpicking could crash an enchanted comic!"
"Oh. Sorry, uh, I didn't mean to..."
Session 75.11 Mtangalion
A group of unusually colorful diamond wolves had gathered on the arrivals platform at the Ponyville train station.
The orange and gold-furred wolf, still wearing her Stetson, caught herself scratching her flank with a hind paw and sternly told herself to cut it out, only to do it again without thinking half a minute later. “You wanna run it by me one more time?” asked Applejack. “Why the heck are we doing this?”
Rarity rechecked her mane with a mirror held in her paw instead of magic… such strange things, toes and claws. “It’s quite simple, darling. Prince Erik is making his first state visit to Ponyville in quite some while! You do remember what happened the first time.”
Fluttershy shuddered. “It’d be hard to forget.” She went back to prodding her canine teeth with her tongue, thinking of all the things she’d have to talk about with her meat-eating animal friends later.
“Back then, we had no idea what to expect,” growled Rarity, “but now that we know all about the Wolf Game. This is perfect occasion to pay Alisa back in kind! I mean… to reciprocate their traditions!” She grinned, fangs gleaming.
Pinkie Pie bounced in place, her extra-fluffy tail flopping behind her. “Ooh, ooh! We’re going to need new names, too!” She darted from wolf to wolf, patting them as she named them. “You’re Twilight Snarl-kle, and you can be Snapplejack, and then there’s Fluffershy, Rainbark Dash, Rare-collie… and I can be Pinkie Pup!”
Rainbow twitched. “How long did it take you come up with *those* names?”
Pinkie grinned. “Almost fifteen whole minutes!”
“Yeah… I have to admit, though, these costumes are pretty sweet!” Rainbow charged, chasing her own tail until she spun out and flopped on her belly. “It’s like I’m not wearing anything at all!”
Applejack leaned towards Twilight, lowering her voice. “Don’t you reckon we should tell her this is real? Wouldn’t want her trying to yank her hide off and fly somewhere.”
Twilight winced. “I didn’t want her asking to be a dragon or a griffon every weekend, but you raise a valid point. You’d think she would figure it out, though… I mean, I turned all of us into real breezies, and the spell is way easier without a drastic size change.”
They were interrupted by the arrival of the train, with the special car on the end bearing the symbols of the Icehome Pack. “Alright, everywolf,” said Rarity, winking. “Remember your lines!”
But when the doors opened, four *ponies* trotted out. A very large silver-furred stallion, wearing a courtly vest and jeweled necklace, another stallion with a goofy grin, a small white-coated mare with gray markings… and Prince Blueblood, who’d been acting as the ambassador to the diamond wolves.
Twilight and her friends stared at Erik, Iosef, and Alisa, who started right back at them, until Blueblood finally cleared his throat and said, “You go first.”
Rarity the diamond wolf took a deep breath and threw herself into her role. “Mighty Prince Erik! Oh, thank Luna he’s here, he’ll know just what to do! Koschei’s curse turned every wolf in Wolfville into ponies, except for we six, who have Elements of Pack Harmony protecting us!”
And Erik the unicorn held out a hoof in greeting. “My dear Ponyville friends… It’s such a pleasure to meet you all again. I offer you warm greetings from all the ponies in Iceville, who have always been ponies as long as you’ve known us, of course… or did you have a strange dream that we were something other?”
Everyone held onto their serious expressions for nearly ten seconds before they all burst out laughing.
Session 75.12 Ardashir and Alex Warlorn
"Twilight, can you change us back now? My prey species friends are running away from me now." Fluttershy said looking on the verge of tears.
But that was whn unsuspecting Trixie when she walks in on the Lupine Six in Crystal Friendship Library.
"AHHHH! Twilight and her friends have turned into especially ugly Diamond Dogs!" Trixie snatched up a stick and waved it at them threateningly. "Begone, beasts!"
"Trixxxie!" Twilight unintentionally snarled. "We're wolves, not Diamond Dogs!"
"Actually they admitted they added the wolf part so they'd could govern themselves apart from Dimondia," Pinkie Pie said.
"And we lack any murderous predatory instincts!" Rarity sniffed. "Really, darling do you think we lost our minds upon transformation --"
Trixie said nothing. She just hurled the stick.
Six pairs of lupine eyes went wide and -- "Play! Fetch! Get the stick get the stick!"
And they all crammed into the window, their shaggy butts wiggling in place.
A bit later...
Starlight came and eyes were wide, "Trixie... why are you wearing Twilight's bathrobe, eating cereal while sitting in her throne and using the Cutie Mark Map to play civilization?"
"Trixie doesn't know what you mean." Trixie said as she took another spoonful.
"Okay have I woken up in a strange alternate universe?" Spike asked as he woke up from his nap.
Session 75.13 Kendell2
"So, what charms are you trying to make?" asked Fluttershy as her ingame counterpart collected flowers to make dyes for her charm, which would naturally be a flower.
"I'm making a peppermint styled charm," Princess Twilight replied, Minty visiting several places to collect the needed ingredients. Which true to the style of the game involved actually making peppermints. She didn't question how that worked.
"I'm making her one in the shape of the constellation Sagittarius, since her birthdate would make her have that star sign." replied Sci-Twi, placing sparkles she'd collected into the construction window (of course there were a number of inappropriate pieces of art work that ). "Seemed fitting..."
"Mine involves diamonds," Rarity replied, doing a mining mini-game with Sparkler.
"Of course..." said Rainbow Dash with a chuckle, her character doing a mini game where she dove into the water and she guided her character to get the items she wanted from under water. She tried two more times before finding snagging a purple sea shell. "Got it!"
"Why yah gotta make it so complicated, Rainbow?" asked Applejack, making a simple apple shaped charm.
"Because it's fun?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"...She has a point..." Pinkie Pie commented, collecting pink dye to make her charm.
"Yeah, I admit, this game IS kinda fun," said Gilda, flying to the top of a mountain and collecting an ice cicle that could somehow be used to make a charm without it melting, planning to use a carving mini game to make a claw charm from it. "...Even if the griffons are too adorable forrr my tastes..."
"...I'm making a little paw print," Spike the Dog replied.
"...I have a question," said Ember the dog, staring at the screen.
"Yeah?" Spike asked.
"...What are charms?...And charm bracelets?" asked the dog, clearly confused.
"Oh...right...Think dog tags, only prettier...and not so humans know who we belong to if we get lost..."
"Oh..."
After a few moments of crafting, Ember looked back to her friend. "Like this?"
Spike looked over...and blinked as Ember had indeed made a dog tag as her charm. "...How did you even do that?"
"There are these tag things for naming pets..." Ember replied.
"Oh..."
Session 75.14 Mtangalion
Button Mash absentmindedly reached in a pocket for his GameColt, and started to panic when he couldn’t find it.
Sweetie Belle smirked, catching one of his flailing hands in her own and squeezing it. “You’re doing better, Button. That’s only the third time you've done that tonight.”
Oh, right! He was at Sugarcube Corner, taking Sweetie Belle on a… on a … gulp! On a date! Trying to pretend that Sweetie’s big sister Rarity wasn’t over there sneaking peeks at them from behind a newspaper, and Button’s mom wasn’t at the other end of the restaurant doing the same thing.
“Heh, sorry.” Button sucked on his straw, taking another sip of the ice cream soda they were sharing. “Say, Sweetie? Ever wonder what happened to all those amazing powers and stuff? The ones that don’t come back when we pony up now?”
Sweetie thought about it, and shrugged. “Where do all those level 99s and legendary weapons go when you finish the game and turn the console off?”
Button scratched his head. “Heh, I guess it doesn’t matter now.”
Button Mash’s mother pulled back her bedroom curtains and threw open the window, taking a deep breath of fresh Ponyville air. A bright new day, with bright new chores to do! “Button!” she called. “Are you up yet?”
As she approached the stairs, she could hear the sounds of Button’s GameColt drifting up from below. She smiled warmly, and started down the stairs. “Of course he is. Button, could you…” She froze.
Button Mash was sitting at the kitchen table, playing his GameColt with his hooves like he always did, but now he had a little colt-sized horn, and wings folded against his flanks. “Mom, can I have a few more minutes?” he asked, without looking away from the screen. “I’m almost at the save point, and then I promise I’ll help out!”
Button’s mom backed away towards the front door. “That’s, um… fine! Thank you, dear!” She opened the front door and darted outside, closing it behind her. “Princess Luna? Very funny! I’m ready to wake up now! Princess?” Nothing happened, except for passing ponies looking at her funny. “Princess Twilight!?” She turned and galloped towards the Friendship Castle. “Some princess, any princess!”
(Did that really happen? I'll let Alex decide :) )
-
"No thank you, we already have two Alicorns who didn't earn godhood, (the one that popped out of Cadence, and the Science Nerd version of Princess Nerd) we don't need three." Discord said snapping his fingers making Button Mash's oblivious wings and horn vanish in what may or may not have been a dream trying to escape into reality. "Who am I kidding! I'd love the chaos that causes! ... How did I lose that game of Parcheesi with Celly make me promise to keep a look out for leaks from the human world... Assuming I'm not just part of what may or may not be a dream too."
Session 75.15 Kendell2
The mane six, as the Pony Rangers, watched Discord's gigantic mecha (designed to be identical to himself) Discordia charged up its planet busting energy attack directly at them...then powered down.
"Huh?" asked Twilight.
Discord growled, kicking the console. "I knew I shouldn't have made the power supply for this thing several trillion AAA batteries!"
Twilight's eye twitched under her helmet. "WHY?!"
"Because Discord!" Discord replied, flying off.
"...Well...that was anti-climatic..." Applejack said. "...But something Discord would probably do..."
The others nodded before continuing the enchanted comic.
Session 75.16 Kendell2
"...Seriously?" asked Tempest.
"Yes! I can let you be a past life of your self for a little while!" said Pinkie Pie.
"I ended up having a British accent when she does it with me," Spike replied. "Twilight turns into Minty...which was a lot less weird when we didn't know a real Minty..."
"It's real, I didn't think it was but it is!" Starlight explained. "But it is kinda fun..."
"Eh, yeah right, you're just pranking me..." Tempest replied.
"...Huh...what do you know..." Grubber said, blinking as Tempest was extremely determined to cross a tight rope she'd strung up in the throne room, but still far happier than he'd ever seen her.
"Haha! I did it!" she announced, getting to the end. "Grubber! You try!"
Grubber gulped climbing up on top and carefully trying to climb across.
"You can do it!" she called, then her nose twitched. "Is that apple pie?!"
"Twilight! Brought yah an apple pie!" called Applejack...then blinked to find an abnormally happy Tempest Shadow staring excited at her. "...Wanna piece?"
"Yes please!"
As 'Fizzy Pop' rushed to set things up, Applejack looked to Spike. "...Past life thing Pinkie Pie does?"
"Yep..." Spike replied.
"...Eh, at least she's happy."
Grubber gave a yell, legs slipping off in opposite directions with predictable results.
"...I'll get the ice..." Spike said with a sigh before walking off to do just that as the hedgehog gave a whimper, eyes going cross, before falling off with a groan and curling into a ball.
Session 75.17 Alex Warlorn
"You're doing WHAT?" Princess Twilight Sparkle exclaimed, looking at the group of foals around the table from over her OO screen.
Button Mash said, "We use the paralysis poison arrow shots at the gorgon, and once it can't move, we lock it up in the specially made cage we commission, locking it's legs and head in place, and get it back to town to the barn we rented, and connected it's to the stone and billows machine we commissioned that banished gnome inventor and his dwarf assistant to put together." Banished gnome inventors were infamous for their inventions always actually working! "And set up the bottoms. So it can still get food, water, and breath, but every time it uses it's sixty foot long cone of petrifying gas, it'll go into little potion bottles, which we'll use them to petrify every big nasty we come across!"
Due to a miscommunication during the original writing of the Creature Compendium, The Gorgon in Ogres and Oubliettes resembled a cross between the Catoblepas and the Khalkotauroi...
"You do know those creatures are impossible to tame right?" While more sadistic Oubliettes Overseers would revel in watching their player waste their coins, time, and possibly their lives in a truly hopeless task, Twilight wasn't about to subject foals to that.
"Oh we don't need him tame," explained Pipsqueak, "We just need to get getting them angry enough to keep using their breath weapon and refilling the bottles, and we'll have a hireling on standby always to replace the bottoms!"
"We gonna make the bad guys into statues just like the Royal Sisters!" Dinky cheered.
Twilight cringed. Thank goodness Discord didn't hear that, even again, he hopefully had matured enough not to do anything nasty to foals over that reminder.
"We checked the rule book," Ruby Pinch explained, "there's nothing against it."
Twilight could see how this could become a game breaker a mile away. She knew they were up to something strange, but the foals had been tight lipped. Twilight didn't let her expression change at all. She remembered the emotional break down Button Mash had over his mecha suits in the steam punk air pirate setting and thought he had upset Twilight over their invention.
But if she left this in place, every dragon, ogre, and squizard in her campaign world were going to end up statues! ... But if she had the locals come in a start demanding more gold than they could pay for keeping a monster in the city limits they see right through it that she was squashing their idea. And if she had every goblin in existence sniper every bottle before they could throw it because 'they knew it was something bad', they'd see through it even faster!
But she STILL needed some way to curb it without it seeming like she was punishing foals for using their imagination and have a repeat of the 'mecha suit affair.' Argue that the gorgon's breath didn't last inside the bottles?... They'd just start cutting out Gorgon's guts to get at the nice green petrification producing glands inside, don't think they wouldn't do it!
Have the gorgon begin to like them so it wouldn't get angry and blow its posion? Against the rules, since gorgon explicitly couldn't be domesticated (likely put in to stop a similar player abuse from happening). Not to mention they could just then have it blow poison when they asked nicely.
Have the enemies start using the same idea like she did with the mecha suits? But that might shift the entire focus of the campaign!
It reminded Twilight of the original compendium that said a hydra's body was immune to all damage and only the heads or neck could be harmed so players couldn't get around cutting the multiplying heads off... BBBFF of course was the one to use an invincible hydra's body as a shield (later versions made all of the hydra killable).
Seeing the excited and charged looks on the foals faces, Twilight knew she had to come up with something that kept this from ruining her campaign world without it feeling like a 'Nya nya!' at her little adventurers.
Author's Note: Anyone who can come up with a solution for Twilight Sparkle, please go ahead and post a story segment where she uses said solution.
Session 75.18 Mtangalion and Alex Warlorn
Twilight rolled the dice behind the Oubliette Master's screen, carefully keeping a neutral expression. She didn't want to be accused of enjoying this too much later, after all! "Your gorgon venom grenade flies at the dragon, and it's a direct hit... but only the scales on the dragon's flank turn powdery gray! The dragon roars and thrashes, shattering the thin layer of stone, and then he turns his burning red gaze on you..."
The foals gulped, looking each at other. "Run away!" "Run away, run away!"
"The Guild Master of the Royal Alchemists meets with you himself, in his private office. 'What, didn't you know?' he asks the party. 'Gorgons have to digest large quantities of incredibly toxic swamp plants in order to produce their famous venom at its full potency. The last group of apprentices who went to harvest the plants all caught incurable Swamp Fever and turned into *trees*, but you're welcome to a copy of their map, if you think I'm joking.'"
Five minutes later Twilight was scrambling to put together a swamp area on the fly.
"Hey! Says here that Gorgons feed on minerals and stone from their petrified victims," Button Mash said reading the Creature Compendium Expanded edition.
"That's for OO's eyes only!" Twilight said snatching the book out of his hooves.