"Let's keep a move on," Zeke insisted. "I don't know what will happen if I draw out my deck.." He drew another card into his hand, and then an 'Island' card vanished, a blue orb shimmering into existance by his side, floating with a half-dozen other pearl and blue orbs.
"I do," Robert commented off hand, before adding in an exaggeratedly spooky tone, "you die!!!"
Zeke cringed. "Tell me you're joking."
Robert shrugged. "Actually, your cards just stop working for about an hour, same as when you dismiss your power. Though.. honestly, in all my loops through time.. you don't draw out that often without it proving fatal. But that's because you don't generally pull out your cards unless there's something dangerous you need to fend off."
"Good to know, I guess.." Zeke eyed the woods around himself nervously, while summoning another blue-robed sorcerer into existence, adding to his entourage.
"Anyways, I know the way well enough to get us in and out before you deck yourself. I've done this plenty of times, remember? And aside from the dangers of the forest, this one is one of the easiest to find." Robert had his sword in hand, but seemed to be more.. threatening the plants into pulling out of the way, than actually hacking a path. He insisted it wasn't The Master Sword, but it sure had an uncanny resemblance. Intentional, but purely superficial Robert had insisted.
"So.. is it the same every time then? Like some kind of Groundhog's Day camping trip?"
"Well, yes and no. When I reset time, I'm the only one that changes, so in some sense the Groundhog's Day reference holds. And no, I haven't seen the movie. Before my time. But I have had this discussion enough times to know what you're referring to. Pretty much all of the other players except Relena make the same reference."
"Who's Relena?" Dust Bowl asked, the unicorn chiming in from between the humans.
"She's a little girl, she was sitting toward the back of the bus with her father when we came here. Her starting point is way off in Gryphonia. Sadly, she rarely makes it to Equestria, though she rarely gets eliminated early. She's just kind of.. off in her own little corner. She's a nice kid.. with the kind of innocence that would suit this place well, if the rest of us weren't here and she could just, you know, be."
"Yeah.. I think I saw her, just a few seats in front of me," Zeke remembered.
They walked on in silence for a bit. Howls rang out as a mob of timberwolves descended on them, but a few blasts of magic from Zeke's sorcerers and faeries convinced them to seek out easier prey elsewhere. Later a massive starry-hided bear roared out a challenge to them, only to vanish in a puff of magic as Zeke tried out his Unsummon card on it. A confused sounding roar in the distance verified the results of the spell for them, merely forcing it back to its home, but the bear never bothered to appear again during their trip.
As they reached the code carved into a tree, Zeke scanned it quickly before taking a seat and busting out a canteen of water. "I don't suppose you have a shortcut back out of here?"
Robert patted the pouch with his ocarina in it and smirked. "I do, but it only works for me. I won't leave you behind in a place like this."
"What, really?"
"It turns out the theme song from the show warps me back to Ponyville, into the library to be more specific. There's probably more such songs, but I haven't figured them out yet. Unlike the video games, there aren't any helpful NPCs just waiting to teach me the notes."
Zeke laughed. "I guess that makes as much sense as anything."
Dust Bowl coughed lightly to get their attention. "You know, you could just ask the unicorn."
"You know the notes to warp somewhere? Like where, Dodge Junction?"
Dust Bowl shook his head, before deciding to just show them. His horn glew brightly and a massive chunk of earth broke free underneath them, levitating them up into the sky, past the canopy of leaves and branches. Zeke's faeries followed them, while the sorcerers stood around idly, left behind. "I know a shortcut back to Ponyville for all of us."
Zeke grinned, looking out over the edge of the flying pile of dirt and rock before deciding that maybe sitting in the middle was a little wiser. "I didn't realize you could move this much at once. Call me impressed. I thought only alicorns and crazy powerful unicorns could lift this much."
Dust Bowl showed a little strain as he smiled, "Well ordinarily, yes, but moving earth is my special talent, so.. we ponies are always better than you might expect at the one thing that really clicks for us." They started moving swiftly, skimming over the treetops toward Ponyville. The humans got really quiet, which suited Dust Bowl just fine at first, as he was concentrating on moving the heavy mass of earth along. Then he frowned as he noticed how pale they were looking, intently staring past him, toward the south. "What's wr-" he looked where they were looking "What's that?!"
There were some rather disturbing cloud formations down where Dodge Junction ought to be, visible even from this distance. Squinting, he could barely make out that the clouds were a bit further south, though a few of the sickly green ones were blowing in among the outlying buildings and orchards.
"Check your phone" Robert quietly ordered Zeke.
"Hmm? what, oh." Zeke dug out his phone and took a look. No player elimination message, that was good. Checking the player locator app, Player 1 was now far off to the East, a few hundred kilometers. I quick glance confirmed he was not far from Player 9. "How?"
Robert shrugged. "Looks like he made it clear to Gryphonia somehow. Try the spider."
Zeke dug out the mechanical spider from his pack and tried questioning it, poking it, shaking it. It adjusted its footing a bit but otherwise made no reply.
Robert shook his head. "He's not responding.. I'm not sure if there's a range limit on these things, or if he's unconscious or something. We'll just have to trust him to make contact again when he can. In the meantime, we have some other players to meet up with. Remember, we need six active players to finish this game, and 'army man' isn't likely to join our side."
Dust Bowl landed their rocky ride on a patch of grass just past the edge of the forest, panting heavily as he dug some cherries out of his saddle bag and started eating. "Do you think.. do you think Dodge Junction is going to be okay?"
Zeke looked at him quietly, while Robert shook his head. "Most of your neighbors should have the good sense to evacuate. But the town itself is going to be overrun shortly. I hate to break it to you but.. a war is coming, and Equestria isn't going to fare so well."
Dust Bowl held back his tears as best he could, envisioning his home going up in flames while his neighbors fled. "Don't just give up like that! I reckon there has to be something we can do. Alert the Princesses! Gather a posse!"
Robert frowned. "The changelings will have alerted the Princesses by now. 'Army man' started near their hive, and went to war with them on the day we arrived. Their Queen will be negotiating sanctuary for her people, and terms of an alliance to fight off his forces when they start heading north. We should, actually, get in touch with Twilight Sparkle and Applejack before we go. We can let them know we are on their side, so they don't mistake us for enemies.. AJ can vouch for our honesty in the matter, and Twilight can send Celestia a note. That always helps keep things smooth when we get to Canterlot."
"Alright, but what about fighting back? Shouldn't we be launching a counterattack or something?" Zeke said.
"Fight back? Counterattack?! Did you not see the mushroom clouds? It only takes five minutes for some of those super-weapons to come back online after firing, within ten he has the full suite back and he can fire them off at any location his troops have ever seen. Now.. I'm not saying he's going to nuke you at the first signs of resistance. No, that's what you get to work your way up to. And yes, I know you can pull some great tricks with your little Circles of Protection and such, but trust me when I say even you can't survive being the focus of his attention."
"So.. what then? What's our strategy? You've been at this for longer than anyone, how do we win?"
"We win by collecting the codes and going home. If we can somehow manage to get Laughter, we have a shot at activating them all before he can kill enough of us to give us the Game Over. A shot. That's all I can promise."
"Okay, wait, but then what? What about the ponies? Do we just leave them to 'army man's tender mercies? Or do you think winning is somehow going to stop him?"
"I don't know. I really don't. We've never won! In all these years of trying, we've never won once. But I am not passing up our ticket out of Armageddon in some vain hope of winning this war."
"So.. we is there really nothing that can beat him? That seems messed up. Why is his item so much more powerful than the rest of ours.. even combined?"
Robert looked away uncomfortable for a few minutes before Zeke pressed him further. "What do you know? Spill it!"
"Okay.. look. Daniel, umm. He can win in a straight up fight against the 'army man'. It's certainly not guaranteed but.. here's the thing. It makes things worse. A lot worse, every time I've seen it."
"Why would that make things worse? Daniel seems like a nice guy, and he's on our side."
"Well, normally he's too.. constrained. He won't use his Item to its full potential, tries to keep it bottled up and just using it carefully, surgically. It's not enough, not for a fight like this. But sometimes he just, I don't know. He cracks. Like flipping a switch. And when he does, he isn't careful anymore. When he goes full bore, his spiders just.. rip up the world. When he does win, when he beats the 'army guy', the few times I've seen it.. he doesn't stop. The things he does when he gets like that.." Robert shuddered at the memories. "At least 'army guy' just kills ponies."
The three strolled into Ponyville in somber silence.