Note: This chapter is not an extra chapter to the story, but rather a series of interesting tidbits that went into the creation of this fic. Spoilers warning apply. Enjoy, and thank you for reading.
-The primary inspiration for this story came from a real-life game known as Humans Vs. Zombies. I actually took part in this game for the first time at my college last semester, and lemme tell you, it's no walk in the park. As I played through it, however, a random thought of how such a game would translate to the MLP universe entered my head one day, and was quickly followed up with "I'll bet that gamer geek I made in 'Friendly Games' would like it." The story just kept growing from there to the point where I thought it was too good to pass up. The idea also started before I even got to work on "Good Clean Fun", so I had plenty of time to iron out the kinks before I started putting it to digital paper.
-Another reason why I wrote this story was since I made it to be a sequel to "Friendly Games", that meant I could geek out and toss out plenty of nerdy references. As far as I can remember, my intentional shout-outs included Zelda, Looney Tunes, Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy, Phoenix Wright, Sin and Punishment, Resident Evil 4, No More Heroes, and Metal Gear Solid. See if you can track down all of them should you decide to give it a read!
-I genuinely enjoy writing scenes with Pinkie Pie. Her completely random and childlike personality coupled with her tendency to poke at the fourth wall has limitless potential for silliness. She's also rather convenient, as she allows me to handwave certain plot points (Where she got the party cannon, etc.) as "Pinkie being Pinkie." Huzzah for lazy writing!
-One detail that I wanted to add but couldn't fit in: Fluttershy is the Original Monster. As it turns out, she is surprisingly effective at tagging others, even Rainbow Dash. Dash wasn't very upset with it, though; she actually embraced her new status as monster, and found she had a lot more fun being the hunter and not the hunted.
-Some info about Caesar Salad: I mainly brought him back from his minor role in "A Well-Deserved Break" so I could see how he would act around other ponies and in a different situation. I figured he would be an odd balance of military efficiency hindered by general inexperience. In other words, think Colin from the Advance Wars series ponified, and you'd have Caesar. His enthusiastic dedication also allowed from some silly moments between him and the others, something I couldn't resist. Lastly, in case you wondered what he looks like, here's a hastily-thrown together depiction of him made in the Pony Generator. Credit to N3uro for making the cutie mark.
-If there's one thing I could consider a flaw with the story, it's that the romance portion of it could come off as forced. I kept flip-flopping on whether or not I wanted this story to be just another day as best friends, or actually show a budding relationship. I'm not 100% satisfied with what I have there, but hopefully the rest of the story made up for it if it did end up a problem to anyone.
