"And now you know one of the pains of this hobby," Pearl giggled, as she, Twilight, and Sunset left together. "Kinda surprised it lasted this long. Still better than it being out of stock all the time. Way too many factions have that problem."
Sunset nodded, glad that the storm had now passed. "Or, even worse, they nuked the entire faction in the End Times. Far too much was lost with that stupid waste of literally everything!"
Twilight wondered what any of that meant, but the dark looks that came to the faces of her friends told her that it was probably best not to ask. "I can't even be mad either. It wouldn't be right of me to expect to be treated any differently from someone else."
Sunset nodded, as a bus pulled up. "Well. You three try not to get into a three-way." She smirked. "Don't think Rainbow would appreciate that."
Pearl groaned. "Why does everyone keep saying that?"
Sunset's smirk grew as the trio boarded. "Don't play dumb, Pearl. I've seen how you look at Twilight here." She leaned and whispered. "She's much better looking as a pony though. Both of them."
Twilight rolled her eyes as Pearl blushed.
"Still no idea which Stormhost you'll do?" Pearl asked as Twilight was deep into her newly-purchased battletome. "You don't even need to play one of the named ones. There are so many unnamed ones out there."
Twilight nodded. "I know, but I just don't know. I liked the Knights of Azyr when I did my Liberator last night, but now? I'm not really sure."
Sunset rolled her eyes. "That's what you get for picking Stormcast Eternals. It's why I picked Soulblight Gravelords. Much easier to pick a sub-faction for them."
Pearl nodded. "Why do you think I have three armies already? With my Sons of Mallus, there's so little known about them that I can make up a lot of stories for them myself. Kinda the same with my Blades of Dawn, though they're also kinda based on Dad's side of the family."
Twilight nodded. "And your Astral Templars? I doubt I'll paint mine as that Stormhost."
Pearl smirked. "Kohaku. A lot of it was based on having to deal with him for years as a constant pain in my ass. Even knowing now why he did it and what he is, I couldn't help it. He doesn't care either way of course."
Twilight giggled, as the bus stopped in front of Pearl's house, before waiving goodbye to Sunset. That sounded about right.
"There's no way that I will keep all of these," Twilight grumbled as she pulled out all of the contents of the Warrior box. "What am I supposed to do with... Whatever the Kruleboyz are?"
Pearl shrugged as she flopped onto her bed. "Hold onto them anyway. Maybe one of your friends will want them? I know our Fluttershy plays Orruk Warclans, which is what the Kruleboyz are part of."
Twilight snorted. "Fluttershy? Really? I find that hard to believe."
Pearl giggled. "That's what a lot of us thought too. But she can be a proper follower of Gorkamorka when she wants to be. She really gets into character when we're playing a game."
Twilight only sighed as she opened one of the books that came in her box and started to read. Maybe there was something she was missing then.
For a while, the only noise was the occasional page turn or grunt of interest from the princess. Knowing what it was like to be in the zone, Pearl left her to her reading and started working on her newly bought Dracothian Guard for her Blades of Dawn. Now she could finally get started on the Lightning Echelon, which meant Fulminators for now. Not her favorite models, but she had to start somewhere. Her Drakesworn Templars would come last.
Maybe then she could finally get started on her Stormdrake Guard. She'd been chomping at the bit to build and paint the Knight-Draconis.
"Is there a reason why I should give a name to this Warrior chamber?" Twilight suddenly asked, now reading through the game book that came in the box. "They're called the Auric Lions here. But I'm not doing the Hammers of Sigmar. I know that already."
Pearl shrugged. "I mean. You don't have to. But it makes them feel more real if you do." She ticked off each of her armies. "My Sons of Mallus are the Blackstars Exemplar chamber. My Astral Templars are the Howling Griffons Sacrosanct chamber, and I'm still working out a name for my last one."
Twilight rolled her eyes. Just her luck. Something for the future then. Right now, she was rather interested in the Valedictor Temple. She only wished there was something in Equestria that worked the same way as what they had. Think of everything she could remember?!
Pearl, meanwhile, felt her phone vibrate. Pulling it out, she found a text from Twi. She sighed as she read it. "Well. Looks like it's just the two of us now. Other you got called home for some kind of family emergency, and she's not coming back over tonight by the sound of it."
Twilight's heart fell as she heard more to the girl's voice than she let on. It had begun the night before. "You had a crush on her, didn't you? I saw how you looked at her at Spectrum. Me as well, and then at Kohaku's birthday as well. Rainbow saw it as well."
Pearl winced, but there was no accusation in the princess's voice. She finally slumped with a sniff. "Yeah. I did. This was years before you came to Canterlot High. A few years before Sunset did as well. It was part of why I tried to be friends with her. On top of seeing just how badly Twi needed a real friend. Dean Cadance could only do so much. But I could only take being blown off or just flat-out ignored before I quit!" She sniffed, as tears began to gather. "You two have no idea how much it hurt when we met at Spectrum, and Twi didn't even remember my name until after you told everyone."
Twilight's head fell. "Do you hate me for being with her then? You know how much I love Twi. I don't care how weird it is to some. We don't need to justify it to anyone."
Pearl wiped her eyes and tried to smile. "Maybe a part of me is. But those feelings died a long time ago. I'm not gonna rip you two apart for something that'll never happen now." She giggled. "Maybe you can be a three-way with pony me if you ever meet."
Twilight rolled her eyes as she pulled out all she needed to get her models started. She doubted that would ever happen. They didn't even know Equestria's Pearl Rose.
"Are you going to keep all the extra parts?" Pearl asked as Twilight finished her Knight-Arcanum. "Every self-respecting gamer has a bits box where we keep all the extra parts we don't use on our models. Never know when they might come in handy for a custom model or a kitbash."
Twilight nodded as she set the unhelmed heads off to the side for the moment. She was not ready to try and pain flesh just yet. Perhaps one day she would try. "I will now." Shaking her head, she began to snip out the pieces for her Vindictor-Prime. Call her old-fashioned, but she found it nice to see there was an option to make the prime a woman. So that's what she would do.
Only fitting her shield was a pain, but it finally slid into place with a bit of wiggling. Next came the banner bearer. Twilight was actually looking forward to painting the Banner of Apotheosis when the time came. It reminded her of the old battle standards from Unicornia and the Pegasus Enclaves. She was also glad to see the Redeemer symbol was now molded into the left shoulder pad. It made things easier since she wouldn't have to add a transfer now. Again, the shield took some wiggling to get into position, but it too soon slid into place.
Sadly only one more Vindictor was able to be built as female, but Twilight supposed it would be too boring to make them all the same sex. Variety never hurt she guessed. Perhaps it was just her, but all the shields took more work to fit into position than seemed normal, but they all fit nonetheless. Adding the little bits of scenery to the bases made them feel all the more complete.
Pearl nodded happily as the last Vindictor was finished. "That went a lot better than I thought it would, princess. I'd leave the Knight-Arcanum off of her base. At least until you paint the base. It's so much easier that way."
Twilight nodded as she slid the rest of her models into their bases. That made sense. "Now what? I've still got too much energy."
Pearl looked outside. The sun was low in the sky now. "It's too late in the day to prime them now. Unless you need to be back in Equestria in the morning, we can do that in the morning." She giggled at the sheer amount of paints Twilight had bought. "I think you've got more than enough paints."
Twilight rolled her eyes. "I couldn't make up my mind. Neighsay didn't seem to mind though." She looked at the sprues that remained. "Are you sure you don't want these? I won't use them."
Pearl rolled her eyes as she stood up and took them, along with the empty Stormcast Eternals sprue. "I'll ask Fluttershy when I next see her. She'll probably want them. She's talked about getting Krulebozy for a while now." She pulled out her phone with a wide grin and began typing. "Pizza it is then!"
Twilight giggled. That sounded good after a long day like this.