//------------------------------//
// Game End 
// Story: Games Ponies Shouldn't Play 
// by DagaYemar 
//------------------------------//

“Wow, it’s already so late!” Cheerilee said, craning back her neck to get a good look at the moon in the night sky. “Hard to believe we’ve been playing for more than four hours. It just flew by!”

“We must have just been concentrating too much to notice,” Raindrops said, closing the door to the library behind the six of them. Inside, Twilight was already turning off the lights as she turned in for the night.

Trixie stamped her hoof petulantly. “I still can’t believe the two of you turned on me like that! How long were you working together behind my back?”

“Since the middle of the second year,” Ditzy admitted, laughing a little at still referring to the turns as ‘years’. “I asked Twilight how Diplomacy usually ends and she told me that it’s nearly impossible for a single player to win on their own. Usually two or three nations team up together and combine to create the number needed to win.”

“And when Ditzy approached me with the idea,” Lyra continued, “I leapt on it. Because…”

Lyra stopped walking and the others politely waited for her to gather her thoughts. When Lyra spoke again, it was in a soft tone unlike her usually bubbly self. “I didn’t like what the game was doing to each of us. We were becoming far too comfortable with doing anything to gain an advantage. There were threats and blackmail and… it was just an ugly atmosphere. I felt like I was walking on eggshells the whole time. It felt awful.”

Cheerilee was first over to give the unicorn a hug, but she wasn’t the last. “Don’t worry about it, the game’s over. And we’re all still friends.”

“Well said!” Ditzy said.

Raindrops smiled ruefully. “Closer than I would have liked, to be honest.”

Cheerilee laughed at that. “Indeed. No wonder it’s known as the little Night Court. It was turning us into something ugly.”

“I don’t think that was it at all.” Carrot Top said thoughtfully. The others all turned their attention to her and waited.

“Ditzy said it just now, most ponies can only win if they work together with somepony else. But this game simply makes it too easy to get tricked, so most ponies would naturally be suspicious of anypony trying to help them. And it’s too easy for these tricks to be discovered with the game board out there for all to see. In order to win, the most important thing you need is to swallow your suspicion and believe somepony. The game teaches us that the only way to win is to trust.”

The six of them were silent for several moments, just absorbing that thought. Then Cheerilee smiled widely and bowed her head. “I think you’re exactly right.”

Raindrops nudged the farmer in the shoulder, grinning. “You’ve been pretty insightful all around tonight. Maybe you’ve found a new calling?”

Carrot Top paled at the thought. “Oh Luna, NO! I haven’t had a night this stressful since I faced down Grogar!”

There was a round of amicable laughter and Cheerilee held up her hoof. “Despite everything, this was fun! Want to do it again next week?”

“Sure,” Trixie said immediately, “But next time, let’s play something else. Like, anything else!”