//------------------------------//
// Victoria 2, Game 1 (part 3); Civil War  
// Story: Let's play some games with Leon, Luna, and Eddy 
// by Fireheart 1945 
//------------------------------//

	
Leon relaxed into his chair as he started the game and waited for the others to join. 

"Hey guys!" came Shining Armor's voice. "Just got off duty. Anypony else here?" 

"Sorry," Leon said. "Just us, as far as I know." 

"I wouldn't say that," Luna put in as she connected. "It's been a busy day so far." 

"Tell me about it. A ton of royal visitors, and we had to make sure none of them were Changelings or carrying any contraband into the castle." 

"I know it's hard work, Captain, but there is a reason for it." 

"I know, I know. I just don't like distrusting our own people." 

"After the assault on the palace, security has become a pressing issue. Do not think that I don't realize what kind of dangers you put yourselves in by ensuring that security, or of how hard you work and how much pressure you feel. Please believe me; I am trying to help you. And besides, it's not like you have any work now, or you wouldn't be able to play with us." 

"...I guess you're right." 

"He-hello?" 

"Oh, my dear Fluttershy, welcome," Luna said in a happy tone. "I'm glad you were able to join us." 

"Sorry if I'm late," the yellow pegasus mumbled. "I had to bandage a wing on a falcon that I found hurt in my yard, and I wasn't able to make it until now." 

"Is he alright?" Leon asked. 

"He's fine, but he needed a little love and care; I think that's something we all need." 

"Are you feeling up to playing the game?" Shining asked her. 

"Oh, yes. He's resting in a little bed I made for him. He'll be okay. He needs some rest right now, is all." 

"Well, then, that just leaves Eddy," Leon noticed. "Thought he'd be here by now." 

"It's not like we could fairly start without him," Shining replied. 

"I wasn't saying that..." 

"Hey, chums. What's up?" 

"Ah, good to see you made it, Edward." 

"Sorry; I'm here now, aren't I?" 

"So you are. I think I can start the game now, if there are no objections?" After a few seconds silence, Luna added, "Starting... now." 

The screen switched to a loading design, then finally to the main game. 

Leon at once checked everything. Arizona and New Mexico were part of his revitalized and independent Texas, as was Oklahoma, which was on the verge of becoming a state. He was looking to get claims on other Mexican states as soon as possible. Out in Siberia, China and Japan (Luna and Shining) were doing what they could against the Russian steamroller as partly-westernized states, which unfortunately for them might not be good enough. Denmark had suffered a revolution in the previous session and was stuck with a Reactionary government and no reforms whatsoever, as well as no army. Fluttershy, as Hawaii, was just sitting out in the Pacific, slowly westernizing. 

Leon sighed, partly with relief. He wasn't going to be getting into any war with Mexico for at least five years. He began searching for a good target. Haiti was nice, but it was protected by the USA. It was so frustrating when a weak country was back by a superpower. Even crushing and annexing the smaller state didn't necessarily mean the war would end. Taking Spanish Cuba would have been nice, but he wasn't sure how well he could stand up to the Spanish military. 

Alright, so there probably wasn't a very easy target as of now. Whatever. He clicked on Columbia and raised the opinion there. If he couldn't take territory from it he could at least sphere it. He looked west; for some reason, Johore hadn't been annexed by anyone yet; going after it was, for a weak nation or an impoverished one, a very good idea, as it had lots of gold, and had a weak army of irregulars. He could also establish a protectorate - i.e. annex an uncivilized country as a colony - over Dai Viet, or Atjeh. The one big problem with that was the fact that it was so far away; if the Netherlands or anyone else powerful in that region declared war on him, he would have trouble. He went and made sure to justify a war on Johore. The others would fall after that. 

"Finally!' Luna sighed as Russia made peace with her and Shining Armor. "Thought we might have to conquer Moscow just to get them out." 

"I got Sakhalin out of it," Shining said positively. 

"You did, and I got Kokand. It still seems a shallow victory." 

"Well, I'm about to get something else out of it. I'm going to westernize pretty soon. I'm going after Johore to boost my economy." 

"Very well. I'll take Dai Viet." 

"D'oh!"

"Something wrong, Leon?" Luna asked seriously 

"... No, not really." Leon sighed, though not into the microphone. Well, those two countries were off limits. He went and began prefabricating a casus belli on Atjeh. 

"Hey, Fluttershy," he said, "Can you give me military access?" 

"Oh, of course. Um, what will you be doing with it?" she asked timidly. 

"If I was coming to invade you, I wouldn't be asking for it," he answered, and he heard her sigh with relief. "Just some... business in Asia." 

"Well, okay." 

After getting military access - which would allow him to send his units into Hawaii and let him heal his ships so he could make it into East Asia - he built up some clipper transports. They were sailing ships and, without the Panama Canal, would take forever to make it where he wanted them to go, but steam transports were a while away, as he was generally focusing on every tech branch other than navy. They'd do for now. 

Japan immediately went to war with Johore and China went to war with Dai Viet a few days of in-game time later. 

"...You've got to be joking me," came a disgruntled British voice. 

"Aw nuts," Leon muttered, seeing that Prussia had declared war on Denmark. "Well, they won't wipe you out of the game." 

"Not the point, mate! How am I supposed to get back the stuff they steal? And they will steal something, I can't stop them." 

"Don't you have allies?"

"Yeah, but our military power isn't anywhere close to theirs." 

"Well, just hope you can hold them off until the computer makes some sort of weird cop-out deals that it makes every so often." 

"Hoping for that is kind of weak, Leo." 

"Can you think of anything else to do?" 

After a short pause, he heard Ed sigh. "Good point. I'm going to try fighting them. Wish they had some colonies I could mess up for them, that would have come in handy." 

"Try to get the techs that help you colonize after the war," Leon advised. 

"Yeah, I think that's pretty much obvious." 

Meanwhile, Leon took a look at the wars. So far, nothing too unusual; Britain annexing stuff in India, Russia going after various Uzbek nations, South American countries fighting wars that rarely seemed to go anywhere, et cetera. He built up his army, put five units on transports, and sent them to Hawaii, where they stopped briefly before continuing on their journey. 

"This war is going quite well," Luna noted. "I'll get plenty of research points for it, that's for sure, in addition to taking at least part of Vietnam.." 

"Me too, Johore's a pushover... Hey Leon, what's your fleet doing here?" Shining asked. 

The message that Texas had declared war on Atjeh flashed. 

"Well, that's one way to  answer a question," the unicorn stallion remarked. "Won't you be in danger from the Netherlands?" 

"And you won't?" 

"True, but I have a much bigger population. I think you're biting off more than you can chew." 

"Well, I'll do what I can, but in the meantime, this will do. I'll get high relations with whatever great powers are in Europe." 

"Okay." 

As an uncivilized nation, Atjeh wasn't very difficult to fight. It's army lasted for two battles, after which he split up his army and carpet sieged their land, then annexed them in the peace. It was a fairly short war. 

"Well, that was fun," he remarked. He skirted over Texas to take a look at things when all of a sudden the Louisiana switched from blue to gray. 

"What the..." 

"Something wrong?" Luna inquired. "Are you alright?" 

"Yeah, it's just that Louisiana kinda changed color all of a sudden." 

"Oh, the Civil War has started, then." 

"Yes." Leon took a look; the USA clearly outweighed the CSA; it had more states and territories than the latter, and it's military score was much higher. However, the CSA had a weird set-up of land in the west; Oregon and Idaho were gray, while Washington remained blue. 

"I'm curious; how does the whole Civil War mechanic work?" Shining asked. 

"Well, don't quote me," Leon replied, "but I think it all has to do with Dixie population and whether or not a state was admitted as a slave state; if a state is a slave state, I think it automatically changes to the Confederacy when the war begins. Consciousness in the slave states - generally the south, as well as territories and states that are admitted as slave states - determines when the war begins. When it gets too high, it will start the war." 

"Does the North usually win?" Luna asked, sounding serious. 

"Yes, but occasionally I've seen the South win; I don't know how or why, but they do. Also, any Dixie units in the US army will revolt when the war comes along, so that immediately adds to their army." 

"That's... sneaky. And I cannot abide slavery. I had my full of it when my sister and I ousted Sombra as king." Her voice took on a very serious note. "I... I will never forget it, even if I should live another twenty thousand years. I saw ponies in absolute misery, ponies without hope, some with an expression begging for anything, even death, to free them from their bondage. I was most upset when the Empire disappeared." She took a deep breath. "I know that slavery on Earth wasn't influenced by magic, but no being should ever be forced into such an unfair condition." 

"I don't know," Eddy interjected. "Some people think terrorists should be enslaved when captured." 

"You don't know what you're saying," Luna admonished. "The closest we get to that is sending prisoners to Tartarus,, which, contrary to the beliefs of some, is not the underworld but rather a prison for the most evil criminals and monsters known to our world, and even so we don't torture or abuse them." 

"Still sounds like a bad place to go." 

"Oh, it is. But enough about that. I think I've made it clear, but I hope the North wins." 

"I hope they lose," Eddy said. "Keeping the CSA independent is a good way to keep the USA down in score." 

"I don't think they'll win this time," Leon noted. "Then again, I've proven wrong about that. Sometimes they win regardless of how much military they have. The USA usually just re-annexes them in a future Restoration of Order war." 

"How does that work?" Shining asked. 

"You get a restoration of order casus belli when all of another country's states and territories have your cores on them, which is why the USA and China get it so much, because they end up with break away regions such as the CSA and Heavenly Kingdom." 

"Ah. So, if my Japan had a civil war and I lost, I would have that casus belli on the rebel faction?" 

"Yes, provided that every city had a Japanese core on it." 

"Pretty decent mechanic." 

"Yeah, and I'm going to take advantage of it by annexing Louisiana." Leon went and began justifying a war to claim a state from the CSA. "Preferably I would prefer getting Arkansas as well, but the war might be over before then." 

"Won't the USA get angry that you're effectively stealing one of their states?" Luna asked, interested. 

"I hope not. I'm strong enough to re-challenge Mexico, but not the USA." 

"Why try then?" 

"Because I like how my borders will look when I get it." 

Luna, Shining, and Ed all laughed. "A good reason for war, if I do say so myself," the latter said. 

The justification took a while. Leon watched as Portugal swallowed Yemen and France annexed Madagascar and Oman. Britain continued to gobble up India as Russia took over Kokand and Khiva. 

"Aw, nuts," Shining said irritably. "Crisis over Korea. It's that bottom region." 

"That could be a problem," Luna replied. "I'll take your side, of course." 

"You're a great power already?" 

'Yes; the super-fast industrialization and massive number of workers China has boosted my score in that department very high. And my enormous military and great economy might have something to do with it." 

A message came up on Leon's screen. "What the...!?" 

"Everyone seems to have something bad happening to them," Ed noticed. "What's up with you, Leo?" 

"Mexico just decided to try 'liberating' New Mexico." Leon sent his army into defensive positions and boosted his military budget, as well as his stockpile. "Great, have to micro manage all the taxes and tariffs, again." 

"You could just give up, if you're too upset by that to fight it out," Luna joked. 

"Nah. I'll send them back across the border, where they belong... except for the immigrants who actually came here legally." 

"Heh," Ed chuckled. "Question is, have you got the army to do it?" 

"Yes. Their army sucks. The USA beats them all the time. If I still had Sam Houston, they'd be dead." 

"But you don't. Deal with it." 

"I will. The AI is so stupid. They love initiating a war of liberation that they can't win, or at least against people they've been beaten by before." 

Leon sent his army into Laredo. Although the incoming Mexican army outnumbered him, his army had plenty of experience, as well as a decent general (+2 defense, +1 attack, +5 speed), and the Mexican force staggered back, suffering heavy casualties. Unfortunately, that was only one enemy force; another simply marched into New Mexico and began besieging a city. 

"Grrrrrr..." He sent his second army to attack them. Again, he had a military force that, though outnumbered, was good enough to just win, and the Mexicans once more fell back, stung by the Texan hornet. 

"Oh great," Luna said sarcastically, "they added a condition that demands that I get cut down to size. That's fine," she added. "I'll just add that I demand... whatever this Russian colony is, uh, Russian Haiwiwiwiwhatever it is." 

"Who's leading the enemy?" 

"Austria, with Russia joining them and the Ottomans not far behind," she answered irritably. "France is on our side, but Britain might... blast, they just joined the other side. This isn't getting any easier." 

"Call me in if you actually get pulled into war." 

"I can't," Luna said appreciatively, "not when you're already engaged with a power with more military. Just imagine how bad you'll lose if Britain invades you!" 

"...I guess that might be slightly problematic." Leon checked his relations with the USA. "Okay, the USA might not join my war this time, although they hate Mexico's guts, and vice versa." 

"They might... ah, that's good, they joined our side of the crisis," Luna said. "Although with the Civil War they have going on..." 

"Yeah, I can see why they didn't want to join my own war." The USA wasn't losing the war, but it wasn't decisively winning, either. Maybe all the Dixie revolts in the army had disrupted them. The only two pieces of Confederate territory they held were both in Kentucky. "Nope, they aren't going to help me, worse luck. Oh well." 

"That means your own planned war with the CSA isn't going to happen in time," Shining noted, "unless they actually win against the USA." 

"Probably not; the warscore so far is against them. Again, oh well. I tried. But I can win against Mexico," he added, as again the Mexicans tried to advance into Laredo, and again they were ignominiously kicked out. "Damn, what does it take for these guys to take 'no' for an answer?" 

"Ahem." 

"Oh sorry. But honestly, what does it take for the AI to realize no means no?" 

"Players tend to be even more stubborn," the night Princess informed him. "I've played a game where one player refused to give in with 99% of his land conquered. Had to take it all over just to force him to give up a tiny province. Some people are so irrational." 

"....Yeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah," Leon said slowly. I might just be one of those people. 

Luna giggled. Leon sighed. 

"Um, I just got taken out of the USA's sphere... again," Fluttershy whispered. 

Leon jolted. He'd forgotten she was playing, considering she rarely said anything. "That's good, actually. I read somewhere that if the USA has Hawaii in it's sphere, they can annex them whenever they want." 

'What, really? What happens then?" 

"You lose." 

"Oh, my..." 

"Just thank God the USA didn't do it. I don't know how or why, but they should have, according to that webpage. I guess the AI had something weird go on." 

"You mean I could have been kicked from the game at any time? Couldn't I just refuse annexation?" 

"Nope; it said there is nothing you can do about it at all.... Oops," he said, as he heard her gasp. "Sorry. But anyway, it didn't happen." 

"How do I avoid going back into their sphere?" 

"I don't know for sure, but try and get relations up with Britain or France or some other major power. And I don't know if it'll work, but decrease relations with the USA, maybe it will make them less likely to try sphering you." 

"What? I couldn't do that. I just don't have it in me to be unfriendly on purpose."

Leon rolled his eyes, even he knew it wasn't quite as ridiculous as she made the policy sound; decreasing relations with a great power wasn't the best thing to do when you had no protection. 

"I'll try sphering you," Luna said. "After you westernize, you'll be immune to being auto-annexed. At least, I think so." 

"Oh, okay." 

"I looked that up at some point, Leo," Eddy put in. "I think that as of AHD, the USA no longer gets the option to insta-annex Hawaii with a decision." 

"Oh, oops. In that case, Flutters, don't worry about it." 

The Union was starting to pick up the pace; more regions began falling to the North, which, along with having more factories, had plenty of people to throw into the battle. The South was clearly showing the strain; when he looked at their harbors, he noticed they were mostly blockaded. 

Mexico wasn't helping the situation; Leon had added a wargoal to claim Sonora, which cost him some infamy, but would be worth it if he could take it. The Mexicans were persistent; their armies kept coming despite being repeatedly battered. It helped a little that the tiny navy he'd built was blockading a couple of provinces, but it wasn't affecting the warscore all that much. 

The good news was that he was building more units, some of them from New Mexico and Arizona. Over all, it wasn't a one-sided war, not even close. The Mexicans were still fairly bad in terms of technology, and they lost more soldiers than they had to as a result in battles. Here, their impatience was proving a great undoing. 

"Why do the Mexicans suck so bad?" Shining asked as he watched the Mexicans lose yet another battle. 

"They start out with Irregulars for the majority of their starting army, as opposed to Regulars," Luna noted. "I've played them before, and it's partly why they lose so badly early on. Very late in the game, as an AI, they usually catch up in terms of military technology, but by then, it's usually too late, and they're permanently stuck at Secondary Power, if not Civilized. They can become a great nation under control of a good player, but then you could say that about any nation in the game." 

"I have positive warscore, but I'm not sure whether I can actually take Sonora," Leon said. "They can just rebuild a ton of regiments and keep coming. I really hate it when the AI decided to send in a ton of mini armies to capture territory. Even sending in a full-sized army to kill them doesn't keep them away permanently." 

"If you keep killing them, and, I believe, their mobilized brigades, their war exhaustion will grow unbearably high," Luna advised. "I think it should be easy, given their deficiency in military technology." 

Leon wrecked another Mexican force. "I think that would happen regardless of what I do," he answered. 

It wasn't long before another enemy force was trashed by his army. Although his own units had suffered loss, Leon was confident he could now take the offensive. Every region lost by Mexico was another that would be unable to provide units, taxes, and industry, making it much harder to take lands from him. It wasn't a core of his, but then, neither were any of the lands he had taken from them so far, with the exception of what had been Mexican Texas. 

After sending an army to besiege Sonoran territory, he turned an eye toward his economy. It wasn't all that bad, and industry was picking up the slack. However, he had to readjust some tax and tariff sliders in order to pay for the war. 

He took a look at the rest of the world. Britain was still in the lead in terms of score, but France was just behind them, and Prussia had formed the North German Federation; all they really had to do was seize Alsace-Lorraine, and maybe do a little more sphere work. Luna's China had westernized, and was quickly making up for lost time by industrializing; considering the massive populations in China, their factories would almost never run out of people to work in them. Shining's Japan had enacted the Meiji Restoration and was rapidly building a massive military; as his ally, Leon could see his units crowding up north; it was clear he intended to take his cores away from Russia when an opportune time came. Fluttershy was building toward Westernization, although, with only one province, she was having understandable problems trying to build up her economy; while Hawaii started out with a whopping 80% literacy rate, it only started with fish, which didn't sell for much. Eddy was trying to reenact his former reforms, but it was going to be hard with the Reactionaries having forced their hand on him, and Austria and Prussia were likely to declare war on him any day now. 

He checked his score. He actually wasn't all that far off from becoming a Great Power, although a higher military and industrial score would help. Japan would become a Great Power shortly, and Sardinia-Piedmont was slowly sphering the Italian states, so it was likely that Italy would form soon. 

He looked at the CSA and checked how many brigades it had; 8. And that was with mobilization. As he was digesting this, his war justification came in. 

"That's it, I'm doing it." He declared war on the CSA for Louisiana. 

"That's rather bold," Luna remarked. "I thought you wouldn't be able to handle it?"

"They're down to eight brigades, with mobilization. I think they're finished. And I'm building another army anyway. And Mexico is kinda the same." 

"Well, then, I wish you good luck." 

The Confederacy, already badly beaten by the Union, was now stuck with the brutal problem of trying to fight off a prepared Texas and a resurgent United States with too few brigades. It began losing territory in earnest. Leon's war with Mexico was made a little harder by the decision, but the Confederates didn't bother to send any units to contest him; if he had to guess, all eight rebel brigades were in the same army trying to fight the United States. He checked quickly; the USA currently had 28 brigades, vs. eight Confederate, with nearly a hundred ships against a paltry nine. 

"Finally got  up a few brigades," Ed remarked. "I can put up a fight of some sort if Prussia comes knocking. Not a very good one, but at least I can say 'screw you' once before they rip me in half." 

"What the... Oh, this is great!" Shining cheered. "I'm a Great Power already!" 

"I suppose I'll have a rival for my sphere," Luna noted, amused. "I'll try not to swamp you." 

"My first target will be trying to get my cores back from Russia, so don't worry about it too much." 

"Uh-huh, then why did I just have to ban you from Korea if you weren't going to do any sphering?" 

"Well, I had to try to slip one past you sometime, didn't I?" 

"Be careful, Captain; you may have a better military in terms of equipment, but the hordes of China are endless." 

"Right," Shining said submissively. "I'll bear that in mind, then... Oh," he said, obviously upset. "Britain's fabricating a war justification against me; place in the sun." 

"Ouch. That can't be good." 

"Tell me about it; My army's good, with a lot of brilliant commanders, but I'm not sure how I'd fare against the world's leading naval power."

"In my experience, the British like to skimp off army tech a bit to go after naval technology," Leon said. "I think their army won't be much better than yours. You'll have to worry about them blockading you, but if you have a big army with decent generals, you should win the land battles." 

"Which only helps so much. They can hold on to Okinawa and my other island possessions, and I won't be able to do much about it." 

"They'll get tired eventually," Luna said encouragingly, "especially considering that we are - still - allies." 

"Thanks Princess, but I can't really ask you to do that-"

"You can. My army isn't as good as theirs, but I've Westernized, and I have access to cavalry and artillery, as well as a lot of unemployed workers to fill my factories forever. I can easily afford to pay for the war, should it come." 

"Again, thanks. I'm glad I have you on my side." 

"My pleasure." 

Leon succeeded in occupying all of Louisiana, and moved onto Little Rock, the only piece of Arkansas not occupied by Union forces. He received an offer of white peace from the CSA. He ignored it; he wasn't going to do that now. The main problem, of course, wasn't Confederate resistance, but the progress of the Union; if the Confederacy surrendered before he could convince them to give him what he wanted, the Union would take back all Confederate land, and he'd end up looking stupid. He clicked on a Confederate territory, went to the "make peace" option, and saw that they were willing to give him what he wanted, if only just. He clicked on it, and a few in-game days later the war ended, and Louisiana switched from gray to the cyan color of Texas. 

"Not a bad haul," Luna said as the game continued. "I suppose it will be your last gain from what will once more be part of the USA for awhile." 

"Probably... but not from Mexico." 

"That sounds a bit harsh. You've beaten them up quite thoroughly." 

'And they didn't learn their lesson. I'm going to teach them that it's not a good idea to 'liberate' lands I took from them." 

"By annexing Sonora."

"It will weaken them; all units they have from there will forcibly disband, and they'll be weaker industry and tax-wise as well." 

"It will also make them more revanchist." 

"If they become Fascist, I'll be more than willing to remind them of my army's proficiency." 

"Sounds like Mexico is going to have trouble getting back up, Shining said. 

"They will. And if they're smart, they won't try to take anything back from me again." 

"That sounds mean," Fluttershy murmured. 

"Can't say that their effort to take stuff I needed was nice either. It's not like I'm committing atrocities left and right, I'm just trying to make sure I have no more trouble from them; if I just white peace'd out of the war, Mexico would try again later. Maybe by taking a state from them, they won't be so foolish. And it's also beneficial in other ways."

"What do you mean?" 

"Well, the USA can't use the 'restore order' casus belli to annex me in one go. They'd have to fight numerous conflicts, because I own a region where they do not have cores."

"Oh."

"What the...?" Luna said suddenly, surprised. "The Heavenly Kingdom just spawned." 

"You're having your own civil war?"

"Yes, Shining; unfortunately for them, I have a massive military whereas they only have one province or so. This will be easy." 

"I hope so." 

"I know so. They have but one province; I have an enormous empire. This will be short, quick, and to the point."

"As long as someone like Russia doesn't decide to try and rip something off you." 

"Hmm, that would be most annoying indeed."

In the meantime, Leon managed his economy a bit more, then watched the Civil War play to it's conclusion. The CSA refused to surrender until every last town had been taken. Their position had been terrible from the start, but they had done what they could, given the circumstances. On March 15th, 1864, the United States annexed the CSA, restoring the Union. He checked his relation with the US; no change, so they weren't upset that he'd swiped Louisiana out from under them. He knew that a human (or pony) player wouldn't have been as tolerant of that.

"I guess that result wasn't all that unexpected," Eddy commented. "Not like they had much to begin with."

"Still, it delayed the United States," Luna observed. "three years or so in which we were able to develop and expand, while they had to focus their resources on the war." 

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Shining said suddenly, exasperated. "Now Russia wants all my entire northern island."

"I suppose I can fight them as well as Britain," Luna said," But... Hold on," She said, and promptly stopped talking. The game paused. 

"What do you think that was about?" Ed wondered. 

"Could be anything," Shining answered. "Might be some kind of protest outside to something as big as Tirek roaming free. I sure hope not on that last one; it was humiliating to have my powers just sucked out of me. I was too weak even to try to strike him with my horn. My sister and her friends came through for us, though - again." 

"Isn't there some kind of inversion spell that unicorns could use?" the British player asked. "Like, if he went to suck energy from you, it would give you energy from him instead?" 

"I think that would be possible, but complex. When there's only seconds to make a decision, it's easier to think of easy solution rather than the more complicated ones. I haven't looked up inversion spells, but I'd bet my last bit it would be needlessly difficult to pull off. Not that I'm saying it's a bad idea, though, good thinking."

"Alright, I'm back," Luna said. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to call this session closed. A Guard has just told me that one of my maidservants is having a nightmare, and I have to go and try to fix it."

"Aw, man," Leon groaned. 

"We'd have had to quit soon anyway; tonight I have to hold Night Court." She paused. "At least I can face it knowing I had fun with you beforehoof. I must thank you, my friends."

"You don't have to thank me, Princess," Shining said. "I'm a Guard; it's my duty to serve the Crown."

"You are a Prince, making you at least something of an equal. Farewell, all of you, and a very good night to you all!" 

As the game ended and Leon got off the computer, he found himself invigorated, and vowed to return soon, to adventures that were to come.