//------------------------------// // Session 3 // Story: Ponies and Dragons (Just Have Fun) // by Alex Warlorn //------------------------------// Session 3.0 (Kendell2) "Uh..." Rainbow Dash muttered, looking at the long complicated list of combinations. "Twilight, we're supposed to be playing an RPG, not solving puzzles." "Oh, that's not a puzzle, that's how you craft research nodes!" Twilight, the GM, replied with a smile. "Ah think we got 'em mixed up..." said Applejack, rubbing her head. "We're supposed to be doing the first one." "No, that is the first one," Twilight replied. Rainbow cocked her head, looking over things. "Uh...So I mix this...thing with this thing...and...like that?" "No, you need all three to link up," Twilight advised. "Only one side of it correct." "Ugh...why is this so complicated!" "Got it!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, holding up her's. "How did YOU do that?" Rainbow questioned. "Freaky photographic memory, remember?" Applejack asked. "Ugh!" Session 3.1 (Ardashir) Nightmare Twilight gave a shriek as she raced through the door after the CMC. Only to discover that they'd left a trail of banana peels underhoof leading right into the opposite wall. She tried putting on the brakes and found herself flying right at the wall. Apple Bloom drew a door on the wall with crayon. Twilight's eyes bulged as they threw the door open and fled through it. Babs stopped long enough to give her a wave and a grin before she slammed it shut. "Darn it girls! This is a palace, not a playground! I --!" And Twilight gave a shriek as she slammed into the wall hard enough to be literally flattened. The CMC slowly opened the door and looked down. "Ya give up yet?" Nightmare Twilight said nothing. She just magically raised a tiny white flag and waved it weakly. "Yay!" The fillies danced for joy. "We saved Equestria! CMC Villain Catchers!" They turned to the Animator and said in one voice, "Thank you, Mister Discord!" "Oh, think nothing of it, little fillies," Discord waved them towards the door leading outside, the real one. "Now go and have fun while we clean up in here." The CMC raced outside as Discord snapped his fingers and turned everything back to normal, including Twilight. "Oh, and thank you, Twilight for agreeing to play the villain for this little LARP of 'Escape from Nightmare Manor' for the fillies. You did such an oddly good job of being an obsessive and foolish Nightmare." "Don't mention it," Twilight groaned. "Ever again." Session 3.2 (ArcanissSupreme) Twilight frowned as she glanced over her DM screen. She blinked again. Still refusing what she was seeing. She turned her head towards Discord whom simple responded by shrugging his shoulders. "Hey don't look at me, I for once have nothing to do with this." His eagle claw went into a bag of popcorn as it was clear he was enjoying the entire situation. "Oh I wouldn't say that, because Trixcord is a part of you. Remember I told you all I'm the merged form of Trixie and Discord. Oh btw Sparkle my Arcane Trickster casts Balefull Polymorph on the Minotaur guard blocking our entrance." The pony Draconequus grinned as she grapped the dice with her lion paw and tossed it. "20 again? That's 12 times in a row. Woh what are the odds? And Trixie knows your not cheating because natural Trixie has been watching you very closely the moment you and the others from different dimension appeared in front of us." Trixie smiled with devious grin similar to all the other mares at the table except for one. That mare had a serene smile but humble smile. She played the groups Cleric with the magic and trickery as her chosen domeins. Twilight hadn't met the mare before but she had at least known of her existence when she had visited that mirror verse with her friends to help the good king sombra. Still it was kinda weird for Twilight to look at an Alicorn Trixie but not so much as the other mare at each side of her or more surprisingly the jewellery each of them wore. The one that played the Eldritch Knight lifted up her character sheet in a blue glow. "You know this isn't my 1st dimension hop, though back then it was more accidental I entered another dimension and I didn't brought my element of magic either. I'm not even sure it's wise that I have it here considering what happened last time when I got my hooves on an element of magic in a different dimension. Also I was kinda busy with very important stuff as the night court representative of ponyvile" "Oh don't lie to yourself Trixie Lulamoon. Trixcord found you sleeping with your head on your desk with a bottle of bourbon laying down on the floor." Said the last mare of the group whom played the groups bard, which also a Trixie from another dimension. Apparently this Trixie was Element of laughter in her own world and lived in Manehattan as well as being one of five closed friends of that worlds Twilight whom seemed to life there instead of ponyvile. "Just call me Trixie please.... I hate the name Lulamoon." The Lunaverse Trixie said with blush on her face. "Why? What is so wrong with our last name?" The Mirrorverse Trixie kindly asked. "Mpf..... I was just teased a lot about it in magic kindergarten." "Oh get over it and Twilight Trixie would like to know if Trixcord spell was successful or not. Because Trixie sorcerer will if it didn't summon an Ursa Major to take down the Minotaur." "Wait that isn't going to fit inside the room we are silly." The Manehattenverse Trixie spoke with a gasp. "Oh good call natural the great and powerful Trixie was testing your knowledge and observation skills. You passed so Trixie will instead cast Lightning Bolt on that big junk of muscular beef jerky that's blocking our path." Twilight groaned at least it was clear to anypony which one was her Trixie. Seriously why couldn't have any of the other Trixies been her worlds version. Lunaverse Trixie was way less boastful and flamboyant. Manehattanverse was way more friendlier then her Trixie and loved to joke around. The Mirrorverse Trixie was really her Trixie opposite in personality. Then there was Trixcord, okay Twilight had to admit of all the Trixies at the table, only Trixcord was worse then her own Trixie. She kinda fell pity towards the world that had to deal with a creature that was merge of the two most notorious tricksters Twilight had ever met. Perhaps her Trixie wasn't so bad after all. Session 3.3 (Alex Warlorn) A ripple wave effect waved over the young fillies as they stopped in the middle of their table top game. Scootaloo said, "I could be playing outside instead of sitting at a table." Sweetie Belle said, "We could be trying to improves ourselves or our lives instead of wasting what precious time life has given us." Apple Bloom droned, "Instead we are throwing away our lives in trivial inane escapists pursuits and hiding from reality instead of trying to improve our reality." Princess Twilight Sparkle sighed, and trotted over to the magic mirror. Standing there was a version of herself with glasses and a lab coat, grinning maniacally with a small device with a satellite dish on the end, that was the source of the ripple effect. Twilight sternly knocked the device out of her other self's hooves, and pointed back towards the mirror. The other Twilight pouted sadly and reluctantly returned to whence she came with device in tow. Session 3.4 (Master Weaver) "...so we got to talking about the various systems he encountered, and Shining mentioned something that sounded really interesting. I did a little digging, and voila!" Twilight slammed down a stack of papers with a clearly home-made binding. "So..." Rainbow gave the walking box on the cover a look. "What's this about?" "You play as robots after all of ponykind has mysteriously vanished," Twilight explained. "Whoa! That sounds awesome! Are we like giant robots that fight in the cities or are we the skeletal soldier kind?" "...neither. You're more like... ordinary, real world robots." She pointed at a disc buzzing by. "You know, like my Waxomatic, or maybe the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy six thousand." Rainbow stared at the disk as it obliviously started bumping against a wall. "...really." "I mean I guess you could be a gunbot," Twilight allowed, "with a little creativity, but the whole point is more a philosophical exploration of what it means to be a device in a world where your purpose is gone." She gave Rainbow Dash a worried look. "How about you join the rest of us girls for the first session, and if you don't like it we can have your character explode or whatever?" "...alright, fine. But this better be awesome." Session 3.5 (Ardashir) "Okay Twilight, WHY did ya recommend we do this again?" Applejack looked down at her character sheet. "Ah'm what now, an 'alchemist'? Yeesh! Poison, bombs, extracts, mute-muta.." "'Mutagens', dear," Rarity said. "They transform you into a lumbering brute.. More so than usual." Rarity tried and failed to look innocent as Applejack snorted. The unicorn looked at her own sheet and gasped. "A barbarian? Me? Some, some maddened savage wallowing in the gore of the battlefield?" "Gee, Rare, when Ah think o' those cloth sales Ah seen ya at?" Now it was Applejack's turn to smile. Across from them Fluttershy was paling at the sight of her own sheet. "Oh dear! A, a rogue? Am I supposed to," she gulped, "stab ponies in the back?" "An' me?" Dash frowned. "Some egghead casting spells? Uh, no offense, Twi, but when you said we should try something different I didn't think ya meant THIS different." "On come on girls," Twilight said. She had to smile at her own sheet and showed the character art around the table of an ancient Pony winged hussar riding a white-maned blue unicorn who looked rather familiar. The others whickered laughter. "We always take the same characters and classes! Variety is the spice of life, let's do something different." "Ooh!" Pinkie waved her sheet overhead. "That's why I'm a paladin, right? Instead of my usual beloved bard self?" The rest shuddered as they remembered Pinkie's 'pun duels' in previous campaigns. "Yes, that's one reason," Twilight got her very well-organized set of dice out. "Another is that we're starting a new campaign with a new GM." "Huh? So not Spike this time around?" Dash sighed in relief. "Maybe we can get away from noble-hearted dragons that fall in love with a princess this time. Hey, I'm just saying, it got kind of tired." "No, we have somepony else this time..." "IS THE TABLE PREPARED?" As everypony began coming down from the ceiling, they saw Princess Luna standing at its head, dressed in a simplified version of her royal barding. "Twilight, you asked LUNA to GM?" "Why not, Rarity?" Twilight settled back to the floor and caught AJ as she let go of the overhead chandelier. "Princess Luna actually lived through those times, she can make the adventure feel more realistic with her description." As Twilight spoke a frowning Luna set the campaign notes aside. "Very well! First we shall see if you survived the sicknesses and plagues of foalhood before you even started on your careers. What?" She said to the table full of unbelieving looks before her. "You DID ask for realistic, after all." Session 3.6 (Ardashir With Edits) Trixie was there again to adventure with the closest thing in the world she had to friends sans Babs Seed (and after the Manhattan adventure and Diamond Dog incident, would be heart broken to lose them), she had dropped by unannounced, as usual, to make a big entrance, as such, her friends weren't able to hide away the illustration of Twilight Sparkle's 'against type' character in time. Trixie's eyes narrowed at the familiar looking blue unicorn carrying the purple princess like a beast of burden into battle. "Is this meant to be a JOKE, Twilight Sparkle?!?" "Oh, Trixie, please! It was only a joke. We're all adult mares here, it was done in the spirit of affection..." "Oh it was, was it?" Trixie's horn began to glow. Twilight shrieked at the feel of Trixie's magic. "Then see how affectionate this feels!" Soon after, Ponyville blinked in amazement to see Princess Twilight, bit in her mouth, blinders on her eyes, and a surly look on her face, pulling a small sulky around town. "Oh, this is humiliating.." Twilight whinnied at the snap of a whip on her flanks. "Now, now, Twilight," Trixie said innocently. "Remember, it's only a joke!" Session 3.7 (Alex Warlorn) The five ponies, and one griffin had read up on the setting, and had gotten together, and had written up their character for their epic sky pirate crew. "Darling," Rarity asked looking through the guide book one last time before the game started. "According the back story, in this setting, Equestria has fragmented into several minor domains?" "Yes." Twilight nodded. "And they're constantly bidding for territory and supplies against each other?" "Which is why there's such a big market for sky pirates." "I see darling, I just find it rather implausible that logistically speaking, that these smaller states would have the resources to sustain such large factories and flying machines, there would be nothing resembling a stable economy, and-" "Oh come on Rarity!" Rainbow snorted. "Twilight's the one who always sucks out the fun with meaningless little details like that." Twilight Sparkle said nothing, least she give credit to what either of her friends had just said. "Sorry darlings, I felt I needed to air my confusion some. And I also noted a complete lack of Princess Celestia mentioned here." "Well, she doesn't really appear in this setting." Twilight said. "Wait, if Princess Celestia and Princess Luna aren't around, whose raising and lowering the sun and moon?" Rainbow Dash asked. Twilight Sparkle stopped. The golden rule of the dungeon master was never admit you made a mistake or that you didn't know the answer. "She must be in hiding, still lowering and rising the sun and moon, waiting for her sister to return, poor thing." Fluttershy said. And Twilight silently thanked Fluttershy for filling in that plot hole for her. "So I was wondering," Gilda asked, "What's the horse-meat market like with no Celestia and ponies being in as much a divided broken mess as the griffins?" Twilight Sparkle stared. Then grinned, hair springing out of place. "WELL! Let's hurry and play!" Several sessions later. Pinkie Pie had proven a very effective gunner, building bigger and better party canons. But their latest raid, while their biggest haul ever (enough to buy them a new ship and several smaller ones), had come at a cost. "WHAT DO yoU MEAN Gilda and I are grounded?!" Rainbow Dash barked. "It's what I said, Fluttershy can't heal your wings, that explosion damaged them too extensively, you're going to have to fly in planes if you want to continue taking to the skies." "But-BUT! We don't have skill points in that!!!" Gilda shrieked. "I'm sorry, I'm just explaining your options." Twilight said plainly. "Don't worry darlings, I'll make it to you dears," Rarity said. Twilight had been surprised when Rarity put so many ranks in spell crafting when technology in this setting was the focal point, and magic had (to Twilight's own pain, but being true as a GM) stagnated. Pinkie Pie meanwhile, had pooled their skill points with Fluttershy and... Twilight had wanted to see how Gilda and Rainbow Dash would react to having to rely on planes to fly in the air rather than their own wings, and perhaps get a better appreciation for such things. Instead, Pinkie Pie had infiltrated a party being held by one of the larger seftdoms, stolen the key off him, open the vault, made away with a fortune in jewels, and had planted evidence to make it look like nearby rival clan had done the deed. "And the two sides plunge into war." Twilight sighed. "Means more business for us right?" Gilda grumbled. "More than that!" Pinkie Pie grinned, she did some dice rolls for crafting . . . and created new wings for Rainbow Dash and Gilda using a mix of obscure and odd rules. Twilight realized, that the game was so old, nopony had bothered to root out the odd game bug. Using the crafting rules, Pinkie Pie had completely in game, creating new wings for Rainbow and Gilda, powered by their own flight fields. "YOU'RE THE BEST PINKIE! THAT IS! I MEAN! You're not so lame after all!" Gilda said trying to maintain her facade after hugging the pink pony. "Thanks Gildy." "Do not call me that." "Okay Gee!" "And don't call me that either!" "Gilda, just let it go," Rainbow Dash sagely warned. She thought this was the worst things could get. It wasn't. On top of spell craft... Rarity had also put skill points in information gathering and research... Twilight had thought nothing of it, as Rarity asked for odd bits and pieces about where the timeline split, and what happened to artifacts in Canterlot and from the Age of the Three Tribes... until... "I search for Starswirl the Bearded's last journal." "What?" Twilight blinked. "Such a treasure is bound to be worth much yes?" "Oh, right, I guess." Still, with Rarity's investment, she found the journal, buried in an obscure library, with ponies around it with no understanding of its true value, really tragic stuff. "Magic had fallen so far in this world, it's a shame really." "I complete Starswirl the Bearded's last spell." "WHAT?!?!??!" Everypony on the table shouted, Gilda wondered where this was going. "RARITY! You can't be serious!" "I am completely serious darling." "... FINE! The Dice Challenge is 200! Good luck!" "Actually darling." Rarity pulled out some sheets of paper. Twilight recognized them as the game adaptions of their own adventures. "If you look at your own stats when YOU completed it-" "-And having established my character's family line to Clover the Clever-" "-And having raided the Elements of Harmony from the remains of the castle of the two sisters-" Even with all of Rarity's rule lawyer's, Twilight was still able to keep the dice challenge high, but sadly, no longer impossible. And as fate would have it, fortune smiled on Rarity. Twilight looked at the 20, ready to melt the dice into goo. Her mane flickered into flames for a few moments. "You know what happens next darling," Rarity said coyly, her elbows on the table and her chin resting on her fetlocks, her eyes fluttering. "... and Princess Celestia appears before you and..." "... and thanks to Pinkie Pie, the appearance of a new Alicorn Princess spreads like wild fire..." Then Twilight decided Rarity needed to be taught a lesson. "And having been captured to be vivisected-" "DASH AND I FLY IN AT TOP SPEED TO BREAK ON THROUGH AND RESCUE HER! Once we get the blocker off her horn she can just teleport us all back to the ship right?" Gilda asked. Twilight lost her ability to speak for five minutes. Then she gave up and wrote down. 'Roll for evasion, to hit and for damage.' Pinkie Pie's 'new and improved' wings gave the duo the stat bonus' needed to pull it off. "... And having copyrighted the designs of Pinkie Pie's prosthetic wings darling, we'll be sure to set up fliers for anypony with disabled wings to seek replacements," Rarity said. "That should increase our money base, and my mystique as a miracle worker at the same time." The next few sessions passed like in a dream to Twilight, Rarity talking about business and economics and game theory in ways that made the book worm dizzy. Twilight knew magic and political science, and history, and astronomy, and many other topics, but in the business world, Rarity's knowledge surpassed hers. And Twilight found herself just dumbly nodding half the time, like Rarity was now the dungeon master instead of her. And one by one, the divided nations of Equestria fell under her sway, finding themselves without bullets, or oil or wood to run their machines, and a faith starved populace looking to the new goddess as the symbol of new hope from their miserable lives. Temples soon being built in her honor. "FINE! AGH! You're crowned Queen of the New Reunited Equestria! YOU HAPPY?!" "... Very much darling." Rarity said with a straight face. Twilight said in a detached tone, her eyes staring into nothing. "So... this is what BBBFF felt when we derailed his game." Then Twilight set the table on fire, and teleported away. Session 3.8 (Diana Gohan) Twilight: Wizard Rarity: Sorcerer Pinkie Pie: Bard Rainbow Dash: Fighter Applejack: Ranger Fluttershy: Beast Master Behind the Dungeon Master Screen, (and sitting on top of some books to raise his height) Spike spoke to the group of ponies before him. "Okay girls you turn the corner in the desert pyramid, and you see a treasure chest in the corner of the opposite end of the hallway." Rainbow Dash got her dice ready. "Get ready to fight some low level monsters." Twilight shook her head. "No, you scan the room for traps first." Spike said with a straight face. "You spot no low level monsters and you don't find any traps." Twilight nodded. "Then approach the chest and check it out." Spike's checklist of the next sixty seconds went as follows: -Twilight Sparkle Is Fireballed By a Mimic -Twilight Sparkle Dies -A grave appears to mark Twilight Sparkle's passing -Twilight Sparkle repawns in Twilight's Delightful Garden Twilight balked. "Wait, since when can Mimics shoot fireballs?!" Spike shrugged. "Rare spawn." Rainbow Dash grinned. "At least we'll get good loot from killing it." AJ stared. "Ah'll admit, Ah didn't see that comin'." Rainbow Dash smirked as she was shown shaking her dice rapidly. "Doesn't matter, once I mash that mimics into mush." "Wait, hold on!" Twilight Sparkle warned, eyeing the board carefully. "If there's a rare spawn mimic around, there could potentially be more then one. You can't just go in with an attack." R.D turned to her. "It could be one, or a hundred. My amazingness can handle the odds." "Not if you're ganged up on by surprise creatures from all sides." Pinkie Pie was shown in deep thought before she gasped, her fur waggling some as she appeared between the two. "Then allow your belting bard to do her thing." Dash and Sparkle looked at her a bit confused as Pinkie Pie was shown spinning her pair of dice on the front of her paw. She then threw them, making them bounce off of her other front hoof, then the previous hoof a couple of times before they landed on the table, revealing she had rolled a 19. "Oooh, a critical" Fluttershy said pretty amazed. "That's a great first roll Pinkie." "First of many" Pinkie said with a wink as she pointed at her character model. "Cause it gives me enough power to let loose a melody to draw out any of those monsters around." Music started playing as Pinkie Pie started to Sing. "Creatures, beasties, in the air Trying to give us a scare The desert winds blow you around But now you hear my grooving sounds!" Twilight held out her hand. "Pinkie you don't really need to sing-" Pinkie started jumping around. "Between the winds inside this tomb You try to bring about our doom But my tunes echoes through the walls Which will stop your creepy crawls!" Spike looked up to see the others getting into the song, and even noticed his own right foot tapping to the beat as he then focused on his DM notes. "The seven other mimics in the room drop their disguise and appear around you-" Pinkie then spins around as lights suddenly flare around her, coming to the chorus of her song. "You can't hide from the melodies of a bardddddddddddd! You can try, but doing so is more then harddddddddddddddd! We're An Unbeatable Teammmmmmmmm And All Of You Are Meannnnnnnnnnnnnnnn So Now All Of You Will Be Charredddddddddddddddddddd!" Pinkie finished her song, spinning around and holding her hands up as everyone was shown cheering for her. "Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week! Well actually I have deliveries tomorrow, and have like 8 parties to handle this weekend, and this amazing special super 20 layer cake I wanted to try baking some point soon, but you know what I mean!" Rainbow Dash grinned widely. "Yeah time for my move! And though you may have the mad melodies, I've got the even madder skills to take these mimics to-" suddenly R.D yelped a bit in pain, seeing Applejack had bitten her tail. "Ow! What was that one for?" Applejack pointed at her. "Don't you know anything about wrassling critters? You don't just go in attacking all willy nilly, especially rare types we don't know nothin about. Like Granny Smith says, you don't drop a rock on a pile of Fruit Ants, and think that saved your apple berry jam." "Uh, would it save the cider though?" R.D asked as Applejack shook her head, making the pegasi gasp. "Ah! What would then?" The earth pony smirked and tipped her hat. "Allow me to show you dashie." She then threw her pair of dice in the air, watching them twirl a bit as she jumped into the air. "Yeeeeeeeeee hawwwwwwwww!" She said, bucking the dice, so they were shown bouncing on the ceiling, and the along the walls of the room. Twilight was shown looking through the book. "Hmmmm this also isn't official dice rolling procedure." "You never said there was one suger cube" Applejack said with a wink. "Trust me, bucking's never let me down before" the dice then landed on the table, as we see they landed on an 18. "And sure hasn't now." She then pointed at her character. "Using a burst of speed and that mystically glowing dipped rope, my character bounces all around those critters before they even can attack, and herds and ropes those mimicers before they even know what's happening." Spike watched Applejack mimicking her character going around the room and tying the 8 creature mimic tokens. "Ah, but-" "Hey my turn ain't done yet" Applejack pointed out, holding a small red marker point. "She also makes sure them beasts get a mouthful of ice apples shoved through their mouth before they start blasting through their ropes or us with any sort of fire breath." Spike sighed some, putting back the paper. "Fine, you've tied all the creatures up and prevented them from attacking, on this turn at least." "Well with my fancy rope skills and some patented apple character family status apples, those critters won't be going any where for several." "There isn't going to even need to be one" Rainbow said, pushing Applejack away from the table as she held out her dice. "Now with all those guys tied in one place, it shouldn't even take a split second for me to-" "Waitttttttttttttt" Fluttershy whispered out, as everyone turned their attention to her as she tried hiding behind her character info sheet, slowly poking her head out. "Uh, you think you can hold off on that please Rainbow?" The blue pegasisi groaned, looking somewhat ticked off. "Oh come on, is everyone going to try interrupting me?" she called out, annoyed, pointing to her character. "Look there's nothing getting in the way of this mimic butt kicking now." "Well... I actually don't think those Mimics should be taken down at all" Fluttershy said a bit more bravely. "They're simply poor misguided creatures, just scared and trying to protect their home. We shouldn't have to destroy them for that right?" "Uh, yes" Rainbow Dash said, making Fluttershy gasp in shock as half the group shot dirty looks at Rainbow. "Oh come on! You're going to get angry at me for wanting to beat made up creatures in a game who already snuffed out one of our own?" "She has a point Fluttershy" Twilight pointed out. "Obviously this isn't how we would solve such issues in real life, but the fun of these types of games is being able to think outside the box with various other solutions, without worrying about actually hurting someone." "Well... I do have my own solution" Fluttershy said holding up her dice. "I can use my Beast Master status to purify the wickedness within these creatures's souls, so they'll join our side." "But then who are we going to fight?" Rainbow Dash asked, still annoyed. "I didn't come up with all these awesome combat moves to have them go to waste." "How about this" Spike suggested as the others turned to him. "You give Fluttershy a chance to roll this time, and if that doesn't work you can attack." Dash looked into Fluttershy's pleading eyes and sighed. "Fine, this one time. But I like call attacking first next time. No backsies." "Yeahhhhhh" Fluttershy then narrowed her eyes, looking serious. "Then it's time to make some new allies" she then held up her dice, dramatically shaking them as everyone looked on at Fluttershy. At the last second though, the yellow pegisai nervously dropped the dice as they clattered on the board, revealing a 6. "Oh no!" Fluttershy gasped out, peaking from below the table "That means-" "You only have enough power to transform one of the Mimics in the room" Spike said pointing down at the board. "All of them have the same stats, so honestly any will suffice." "But... but I can't just choose between one creature to save" Fluttershy said, a couple of tears seeping down her eyes. "That's... an impossible choice." "Again they're only fictional creatures" Twilight pointed out, giving her a comforting smile. "We all know if this was the real world, you'd have found a way to save them all." Fluttershy looked at the board and sighed. "Yeah... I would" she whispered out before she moved her hand around some. "Let's see then.... I choose... the Mimic closest on the left then" she said, waving her hand. Spike then grabbed that creature, putting it next to Fluttershy's character. "Using your beastmaster control you free the mimic from the boundings and remove the apple to shift it's alliance to your team." "I just wish I could of saved all of them" Fluttershy muttered. "Well then you should of done your super special dice roll silly" Pinkie Pie said, bouncing hers between her hooves. "Then you'd have gotten a critical for sure." "Wait, what do you mean?" Fluttershy said confused. "Isn't the roll of the dice by chance?" "You can't just leave these kind of things to chance sugarcube" Applejack said holding up her dice. "If you put enough power in skill in how you throw the pieces, it's actually pretty easy to score a critical." "Such as this" Rainbow Dash said rapidly shaking the dice in her hoof as she looked around. "Seriously, it's my turn right? No one's going to try interrupting or saying anything else? I can throw my dice right?" the group nodded. "Okay then, check out the incredibly amazing ultra coolness throw of the one and only Rainbow... DASH!" She then spun around in a circle several dozen times (which only took less then two seconds) before letting go. The Dice bounced on the table, then off and on the wall, and then to the other side of the wall as soon they were bouncing around the entire room, with most of the group having to despeartley dodge out of the way of them. Applejack gasped, quickly removing her hat a split second before the dice would of torn a whole through it. "Gosh dern it Dash, you ain't need to throw them that hard." "I so did" Rainbow Dash pointed out, twirling around before the dice could of hit her. "I've been holding up that throw for what feels like weeks." "How is two minutes anywhere close to weeks?" Twilight Sparkle asked, desperately getting below her chair to avoid the dice that hit them. "Technically when you push your velocity to the speed of light, time slows and decelerates so what may seem like miliseconds are actual hours as you have technically lost your ebb from the specific concurrent forward momentum along the fourth dimension" Rainbow Dash blinked a few times before looking over at Twilight. "You were giving one of your lectures below my flight plan again weren't you?" "Probably" Twilight admitted before the dice finally crashed back on the table. After some smoke blew away the group looked to see that Rainbow had rolled a 20. "Alright, time for some action" Rainbow Dash said mimicking punching the air. "I use my Seven Colors Of The Mega Ultra Swift Kick to destroy those mimics in .000000001 second." "The mimics are taken out instantly" Spike said removing the seven mimic tokens from the board "Leaving only you and the treasure chest alone in the room." "Alright treasure!" Rainbow Dash said quickly taking the treasure chest piece from the board. "What's in it? Gold? Silver? Enchanted Bits? The Cup Of Immortality?" "No" Spike said simply looking at his board. "This is only the first room of the pyramid, so the creature real treasure's further inside. All that's in here are 8 cloth patches, chrome armor braclets, a mace chain and a giant dragon scale." "What kind of treasure is that?" Rainbow Dash asked, somewhat annoyed. "You can't do anything with that." "Perhaps you can't, but I can" Rarity stated, as she walked right next to Rainbow Dash. "You mind if I have that dear?" "Uh, I guess not" Rainbow Dash said handing her over the treasure chest. "Much appreciated" Rarity said, as she was shown levitating a piece of paper next to her. "Let's see, based on my actual inventory and these pieces from the chest... yes I can fashion something quite extradionary for all of you." "Well technically for our characters" Twilight pointed out. "I wouldn't want you to go through the trouble of actually designing clothing for a simple campaign." "Well I also wouldn't have the time do so now with some party members being quite impatient" Rarity said throwing a sly look at R.D as she was now shown levitating the dice. "Regardless, this particular plunder should prove quite pivotal" she then brought the dice closer, lightly blowing on them before delicately letting them drop to the ground, as she was shown rolling an 16. "Oooh, was that another special roll?" Fluttershy asked. Rarity smiled, winking some. "A lady normally never divulges such things, but that would be an accurate guess dear." We then saw Rarity levitating the player models of the Mane 6 up along with the bits from the "treasure box", as the character sheet was in front of her. "Using my own supplies, sorcerer specialties, and newly acquired tokens, I've fashioned a lovely and also important piece of attire to help in further battles. Afterall if the creatures further ahead are more dangerous, we should prepare for them now, correct?" Rainbow Dash pointed at herself. "Well maybe dangerous for you, but Adventuring Brawler has what it takes." "Then would she not want to take this crimson red Mace chain?" Rarity asked as she was shown fashioning a little weapon chain placed right in front of Rainbow Dash's character. "It's a 10+ increase for all close range attacks and has a 20% greater increase of knock back on high level monsters." "Well... I'm all for 20% anything up" Rainbow Dash admitted quickly taking her figure as she was shown imitating throwing the mace around. "Now for you Pinkie" she said focusing on the Pink earth pony next to her. "This special green cloth can be used as a special camoflague and increases your evasion attributes at least two folds." "So... I can like super sneak around people in game?" Pinkie asked as Rarity nodded. "Oh thanks" she said quickly hugging Rarity before putting it on her figure. "Cause otherwise I'd have to teach it to her myself and that takes like years of training and yeah I still have all that stuff I said... whenever I said I had it." "And now for our beast master" Rarity said focusing on Fluttershy. "I've used the chrom braclet pieces to create a make shift arumor, to increase your own defense and the defense of your acquired creature up 12 points." "Thanks Rarity" Fluttershy said seeing the armor being added to both figures which she gently took. "I'm sure next time I'll hopefully be able to help the team out more." "Well considering the nature of the game it could be next or several turns down the road. Either way I'm sure you'll be quite intergral to our victory" Rarity then focused on Applejack. "I'm certain our resident ranger wouldn't mind accessorizing with a special rope belt that allows her to double her allowable inventory, correct." "Sure wouldn't" Applejack said taking her figure back which now had the belt back. "Just like she has no problems being on a team of someone who finally knows how to make fancy doo dads practical." "You would call such a common item fancy, wouldn't you?" The two shot a look at one another, then quickly laughed it off as Rarity focused on Twilight Sparkle. "And finally I've saved what to do with that dragon scale for us mages. You dear get this blue tined armored shield, which will increases your long range defense by 25 and automatically protect against any lower level threats." Twilight smiled a bit, taking the figure. "Thanks Rarity. I have a feeing this is going to come in useful later on" she then shot a look at Spike. "If someone's going to keep throwing such rare spawns around so widly". The baby dragon only shrugged at this. "While I will use the scale to fashion a dazzling set of rainbow wings" she said showing off her figure with multi colored wings as she set her down. "Which though are obviously exquisite, also allow for +8 higher evasion, defense and and a slight higher attack charge." She then rolled her hoof. "I'm certain these wonderful accessories will prove quite valuable further along our quest" she then winked over at Spike. "So many thanks for our host for starting us off with quite a worthy bounty." Spike blushed at this. "Dawww it wasn't anything" he then quickly tried to focus, looking back at his board. "And by that I mean this was only one room of many in this temple." He then raised his hands dramatically. "And though there are many treasures beyond there are also many traps, creatures and beings that will put you into the fight of your live" we then cut to the Mane 6 giving looks of worry (Fluttershy) determination (Applejack) excitement (Rainbow Dash) happiness (Rarity) some concern (Twilight Sparkle) and drifting off to think of something else (do I even need to say who?) as Spike continued narrating. "This may seem like just a fun adventure but, one small mistake will turn this temple.... into your tomb... for good! Mawhahahahahahaha-" "Spike, is the laughing really necessary?" Twilight asked. "It adds to the drama" he explained. "It's all a part of being a good dungeon master." "Co-Dungeon Master." "Uh yeah if you're going to be part of a team and play along with everyone else Twilight, shouldn't you just let me take over for this one?" "Hmmm... fair point" she admitted as she then looked over at her character sheet. "Okay let's see where to go next." Session 3.9 (MtangaLion) Shining Armor took a pencil in his magic and made a few changes to his character sheet while they were getting set up. "Alright, here's my new paladin, Gleaming Shield." He grinned smugly. "Now you can't polymorph me into a mare, because my character is a mare already!" Spike flinched behind the Dungeon Master's screen. "How did you know... Um, I mean... What makes you think I'd do that?" Applejack sighed heavily. "Because Rainbow Dash made me spend three hours as a mare when she was the DM!" Rainbow giggled. "I guess I should apologize for that..." Then she burst out laughing, hoofing the table. "Nope, still hilarious!" Shining glared at her. "And then Twily got me 'randomly' turned into a mare too. Even Fluttershy did it!" Fluttershy sank lower in her chair, blushing. "Oh... I'm sorry! If I'd known you'd be offended... But, um... You did roleplay a mare pretty well." Rarity shrugged. "If he wants to play a mare, then let him play a mare, darlings. What harm could possibly come of it?" AJ rolled her eyes. "Here we go..." - Two hours later - Spike rolled the dice behind his screen. "You reach Old Ponyville with no further encounters, and return to the inn to rest." "Hold it!" shouted Shining, pointing a hoof dramatically. Twilight groaned. "What is it now?" Shining grinned. "My new peytral from Trixie's lair is bright blue with gold stars! I shan't rest until I've visited the local blacksmith to have it painted red to match the rest of my armor! And I'm covered in swamp muck! I rush to the spa to get cleaned up right away!" "They didn't exactly have a lot of spas back in the olden days," Applejack felt compelled to point out. "I think that's a splendid idea!" cried Rarity. "I join Gleaming at the spa." "Um..." Fluttershy smiled hesitantly. "I guess... I could go with them?" Rarity had a calculating look. "We should get bonus experience points for proper hygiene!" "And for having deep and insightful character building conversations while soaking in mud!" chimed in Shining. Twilight thumped both hooves on the table. "That's it, I've had it! Twilight the mage decides that she needs a break from adventuring, so her other twin brother Dusk Shine joins the group in her place." Rainbow Dash pushed her chair back from the table. "I'll go make some more popcorn." Twilight was cackling to herself, three strands of her mane already sprung out of place. "Dusk is late for his first meeting with the group, because he stayed up late hoof-wrestling with everypony at the inn. And talking about medieval hoofball! And he shows up with mud on his hooves and he doesn't wipe them!" Shining sighed. "Colts." Rarity smiled. "I know, right?" Session 3.10 (BrutalityInc) Terrornauts had been a collective effort, but the setting was Point-Dexter's pride and joy; to say that he didn't like how the Publishers took Twilight and co's playthrough and ran with it - creating "Marecross - Do You Remember Friendship" - would be a mild way of putting it. (Not that Marecross was a bad game by itself. At least they still got royalties from it) Determined to 'give them all what's coming' and creating a truly hardcore military sci-fi game, he had spent a month of dedicated, round-the-clock effort to craft an entirely new game and setting that took the whole alien invasion routine up to eleven. The campaign needed to be play-tested before it could be published, of course (By a different publisher). What Shining Armor couldn't really understand was Point-Dexter's insistence that his sister and her friends needed to be the ones to play it; Terrornauts it was the Publisher's fault, not them. But Point-Dexter had insisted. He grimaced at the thought of the meat-grinder he's about to put his sister and her friends through. "So, in this alternate reality, the world naturally revolves around the Sun?" Twilight asked, leafing through the pages of the game-book for any discrepancies. "Yes, it does." Shining Armor confirmed. "Point-Dexter was adamant in removing the Princesses from the equation, saying they are too much of a game breaker in-setting. Equestria here is a commonwealth. There's also no Elements of Harmony or Rainbow Power." Twilight's friends were caught between shuddering at the prospects implied, or bristling at the Princesses being called 'game breakers'. Twilight at least seems to be taking this much better than Shining thought she would. "Well, at least that still makes more sense than sky pirates setting we played through with Gilda, no offense, Twilight." Rarity admitted. This earned her a glare from Twilight, who's still fuming from the epic derailment of her campaign. "To be fair, there ain't no Discord, Nightmare Moon, King Sombra, or any other supernatural menaces, villains or what-not that we go about facing either." Applejack commented, browsing through the lore. "That said, it ain't exactly all sunshine and rainbows, was it?" Shining Armor nodded, "There was a Great War which occurred over at the continent of Griffonnia, though the Equestrian Commonwealth stayed out of it. After the war, the nation worked together to rebuild their devastated continent and prevent future wars, under the auspice of the Continental Trade Organization, with the exception of Roedina, who turned isolationist after the war and built a wall across its borders to keep out the 'foreign influence' that nearly started a revolution in the country." "And in this universe, both the Equestrian Commonwealth and the rest of the world is much more advanced, scientifically, technologically and magically?" Rarity asked. "That is correct." Shining Armor replied "And trust me, given the alien invaders you're about to fight this game, you're going to need every bit of it." "Come on, now, this again? You said the same thing for the Cthonians in that Terrornauts campaign, and we beaten them all the same." Rainbow Dash dismissed, fondly remembering the climatic end-game where she nailed the Cthonian's supreme leader "Just how bad are the aliens this game?" "By the time the campaign starts, nearly all life on mainland Griffonnia has been entirely wiped out by them." Pinkie Pie did a spit-take from the hot cocoa she had been drinking. The others gaped in horror. "Don't you mean Griffonnia has been conquered by them?" Twilight asked, hoping she heard wrong. "Not conquered, Twily, wiped out." Shining corrected. "The aliens are a race of parasites which reproduced by viral infection. They first arrived in the wilderness of Roedina by a meteorite decades before the Great War. The parasites are mutagenic, infecting other creatures and turning them into hybrid alien monsters that serve their cause. From the impact site, they started spreading out, first infecting local wildlife and the odd deer here and there, slowly building their strength." "Oh, those poor creatures!" Fluttershy's lament reflected the dread the other Mane Six felt. "Then, as the virus mutated, becoming more potent, it started to infect whole villages, then whole towns and cities." Shining Armor continued, "And the worse part, is that the alien hybrids created are smart. They created advanced alien technologies to facilitate their conquest, and the infrastructure to support them. Being staunchly isolationist by then, Roedinans tried to stop them on their own, keeping everything silent and refusing to ask for help, but in the end, they couldn't stop it. Roedina disintegrated almost overnight, with virtually no survivors. The only thing the outside world ever heard was a radio message, looped endlessly, asking for the people to stand firm against the 'Angry Night'." "So when the aliens breached the Roedinan Wall and invaded the rest of the continent, no pony or griffon knew what they were, or how to stop them." Twilight summed up what happened next. Images of horrific devastation played in the Mane Six's minds - endless hordes of alien hybrids with energy weapons and overwhelmingly powerful war machines storming cities and killing indiscriminately. Infected ponies and griffons turning into monsters and attacking their friends and families. Desperate refugees spreading the infection, causing whole nations to fall within days... "The game start four weeks after Griffonnia was invaded." Shining Armor said somberly, "You play as Equestrian Commonwealth soldiers being sent over as part of an agreement to support the shattered remnants of the Continental Defense Force on the island nation of Cassiterides - well, what's left of it - who are desperately trying to stop the aliens tunneling from the mainland from overrunning the island. Your help might just be what it takes to turn the tide." "We better do!" Rainbow Dash declared, angry at the aliens for what they did, "I'm going to give those aliens the pummeling they deserve!" = = = = To say the campaign started off badly was an understatement. The ruined city of Yoke was supposed to be clear of the aliens, making it the ideal landing site to rendezvous with the Cassiterides resistance - except the aliens had already figured out they were coming and turned the whole city into a kill-zone for an ambush, one which the Commonwealth forces flew right into without knowing. (And no one told the Commonwealth troops what they were facing either. In-universe, the current Equestrian Commonwealth president was a paranoid despotic slime-ball who lied to and covered up the alien's genocidal invasion from the Equestrian public for his own inscrutable reasons, a fact which earned Applejack's ire) The result was an absolute bloodbath for the Commonwealth forces. Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rainbow's first characters were killed within ten seconds flat, when their Gyrocopter transport was shot-down, and had to roll new characters. After that, nearly everypony's characters were dying or at least seriously wounded every few minutes. The alien hybrids were ruthless, effective and cunning, perhaps even more than Terrornaut's Cthonians were - never letting up, using every advantage they had to the fullest, just as any clever enemy would. And to make things worse, they come in great numbers, causing every firefight to become a desperate struggle for survival. Twilight's and Applejack's characters performed admirably for most part. They managed to rally a number of surviving soldiers besides the Mane six's characters and fought their way to a captured bus depot, where a surviving Commonwealth captain has set up a strong-point for other Commonwealth soldiers to regroup and hold out, long enough for the heavy weapons and armored vehicles to arrive. Even so, there took many casualties, far too many for their liking. "This is payback for derailing your campaign, was it?" Twilight exclaimed, throwing her hooves up after the last alien hybrids were repulsed. "Even if I wanted payback, I wouldn't had gone for something this extreme!" Shining Armor defended, "It's just how the campaign module was planned by Point-Dexter!" "Remember to tell him how much we hate his guts right now." Rainbow Dash requested, angry at the epic mess they got into. "And what does it says that happens now?" Shining Armor looked up the manual, then grimaced at what he read, rubbing his forehead. "Oh boy..." "What is it? Something bad?" Rainbow Dash asked, now wishing she didn't ask that other question. "Remember that crossroad you came across, where one route would take longer to reach the depot?" Shining Armor reminded them. "Yah said that there were more ammo and supplies, as well as some mysterious alien activity we can have'a poke at, but we ain't in top shape fer any more fights then to go fer it. Regroupin' was the greater priority." Applejack recalled. The others nodded; after everything that happened, it was a reasonable decision any sane pony would make. "Well, it turns out, that alien activity was in fact a bunch of spire launchers - an alien artillery unit which launches missiles containing virus-infected Crawler bugs. Since you have repelled the aliens at the depot, but didn't take out the spire launchers..." Shining Armor let the sentence hang. The answer was obvious. "Aww, nuts." = = = = It took a number of lucky dice rolls for Mane Six's characters to survive the bombardment and resist instant conversion, which was a bright spot in this dismal campaign so far. An even brighter spot was learning that their characters' partial immunity was a permanent trait, them having all decided to have participation with a mysterious military medical project as a backstory choice. Even so, the damage was done; out of the 5000 vanguard Commonwealth forces, the six of them were the only survivors. Knocked out, they were captured by the aliens, requiring them to fight their way out of the conversion center they were held in. On the plus side, they managed to save the captured leader of the Cassiterides forces while at it, who they were supposed to rendezvous to begin with. After being rescued, they were sent north to retrieve the subject of exchange that was the heart of the deal the Cassiterides resistance made with the Commonwealth: A captured Herald hybrid, who served as the generals and commanders of the aliens. Of course, it just so happens that when they arrived, the other alien hybrids were launching an all-out assault to free the Herald. It took one Tartarus of a struggle before they succeeded in repelling the aliens from the base. "Of course, the aliens are not going to stop trying to free their hybrid." Twilight remarked, "This place is compromised. We need to move it to a more secure location before we could even think about transporting it back to Equestria for analysis. "The containment was damaged during the fight, darling." Rarity pointed out, "Shining said these Heralds uses a form of telepathy to control the other hybrid soldiers. if we aren't careful, it'll try to attack us with its mind!" "We're out of options, Rarity." Twilight said firmly, "We'll just have to take the risk." Of course, that was when their luck ran out. "The dice rolls were bad! the Herald broke out of containment and launched a relentless psionic attack on all of you!" Shining Armor declared from his DM seat. "Cornsanit! We didn't put enough ranks into psionic resistance!" Applejack pounded the table in anger. "My soldier fires on the Herald!" "AJ, no! If we kill it we'll lose our chance to learn more about the enemy!" Twilight exclaimed. "If we don't kill it now, we'll all be dead in a few turns!" AJ replied, "We have no choice! Everypony, kill it NOW!" A few turns later, the Herald was dead, and so went any chance of learning more about the aliens for a long time. = = = = After evacuating the last resistance stronghold before the alien hybrids' second attack destroys it, and calling for new Commonwealth reinforcements, the battle for Cassiterides came down to a desperate, all-out assault by joint Equestrian-Cassiterides Forces upon alien-held ruins of Coldon, the capital of Cassiterides. Their target: the aliens' Central Command Tower. According to what the Mane Six uncovered, the Central Command Tower and the other Command Towers were buried all over Cassiterides - and possibly other places across the world as well. Other information, besides this revelation, hinted that this wasn't the first time the aliens had been on this planet, and that there are more about this foe that they had yet to begin understanding, or might not even want to. Disturbing unknown implications aside, the aliens' towers enabled them to co-ordinate their forces across the island, and begin the process of xenoforming the island into a colder climate to their liking (Pinkie joked how the aliens' plan all along must be trying to bring Hearths' Warming Eve early so they could convert Jolly Hooves into a hybrid, and spread their virus through presents to children all over the world). Over the course of the session, the Mane Six's characters participated in destroying key infrastructures held by the alien the ensure the aliens outside the city would not intervene. Then, it all came down to the squad infiltrating and destroying the tower itself from the inside while the joint forces lay siege on the outside. Being in the heart of the aliens' dominion on the island, the opposition was inevitably fierce and unrelenting. Devastating casualties followed as they pitted themselves against the aliens' most elite forces and weapons. But in the end, the Mane Six's squad succeeded. The destruction of the CCT caused a catastrophic feedback that caused the other towers to be disabled, and all alien forces across the island to die without the Heralds within those towers influencing them. Rainbow, however, was slightly disappointed at how it went down. "That's it? No boss fights? All we had to do was destroy the thaumic reactors that run the tower and the whole thing goes down?!" Rainbow crossed her arms and grumbled, "After everything we went through, we can't even get a gratifying take down of their head-honcho! This whole game is whacked!" "That besides, you would think the aliens would be intelligent enough to install proper fail-safes in their power-plants, precisely to prevent catastrophic meltdowns." Twilight noted, letting out a sigh of relief, "That said, I'm not going to look at a gift-horse in the mouth." "We gave these meanie aliens a red-nose for their early Hearths Warming Eve presents!" Ever the optimist, Pinkie Pie gave a tired cheer. "The war is far from over though." Rarity lamented. "The mainland is still overrun with aliens, and knowing how relentless they are, they're not just going to let a little set-back like this stop their campaign of conquest." "That could wait next session." Applejack waved a hoof. "Let them go to Zebrica, or the Orient or whatever! We know how to buck'em in their viral-infested behinds now! We'll be ready for them!" Shining Armor decided that discretion was called for, and hid the models of the gigantic alien airships in his bag, as well as a map showing the aliens' invasion of the Equestrian Commonwealth as well as new, more deadly and dangerous alien hybrids and war machines that would soon ravage Equestria and the rest of the world. This game of "Invasion: Fall of Hope" ended in a bit of a high note. No point in killing it there. Who knows, it might give them time to find out how to derail it like they did in his Terrornauts game... Session 3.11 (MtangaLion) The next session was as grim as they could have foreseen and more, but all of them were caught up in the story, and nopony objected to playing it through to the end. "The last refugee vault is sealed," said Twilight. "I guess... that's it then." Applejack nodded grimly. "We've pulled off all kinds of fancy escapes, but we're not gonna survive three hundred ticked-off hybrids, and that's a fact." "Six hundred," said Shining. When the others gave him tired glares, he sheepishly added, "There's two more troop transports flying in just now. Sorry." Fluttershy sighed. "At least all of those helpless civilians will survive." And Rarity smiled. "All of their lives, for the six of ours. I, for one, shall have no regrets." Rainbow Dash raised a hoof. "We stuck together through everything those alien punks could throw at us, right to the end!" "Uh huh!" shouted Pinkie. "And we're going out with a bang!" Far across the multiverse on a blasted and scarred battlefield, the ground began to shake, building into a violent tremor. Ponies and aliens alike staggered, looking all around. A battered strongbox burst out of the ground and flew apart, leaving six ancient and tarnished pieces of jewelry floating in the air. Each one flew to an exhausted pony soldier on her last legs... The whole battlefield exploded as brilliantly as if a nuclear bomb had been detonated.... a golden mushroom cloud rose to the heavens, and a rainbow shockwave surged across Equestria, turning thousands of hybrids into healthy and very confused ponies. Six Alicorns were left in midair, soaring on the towering thermal. "It's... it's a miracle!" breathed the orange one... farmpony, soldier, and now a princess. The purple one grinned. "It's magic!" Just out of sight, Amicitia smiled and made another checkmark on her list. Everypony in the room shivered, even Shining. "My goodness!" cried Rarity. "Did you feel that?" "Feel what?" asked Applejack, though she'd clearly felt *something*. Shining Armor skimmed through the Invasion: Fall of Hope rulebook, suspicious, but all the text was unchanged so far as he could tell. "Huh. Well, your squad perishes, but the refugees survive and train new soldiers, never giving up the fight. That's the end for now, I guess... Thanks for being such a good sport about this, Twily." Twilight chuckled. "Sure thing, BBBFF... but bring something lighter next time." Session 3.12 (Alex Warlorn) Shining Armor sighed. "Something wrong?" Eight-Bit asked. When Poindexster had suggested the old O&O gang group together and make some table top games... Shining Armor hadn't though his old high school friends would all crash at the Crystal Palace and turn one of the rooms into their personal work shop. 8-Bit's little boy had shown little interest in visiting the crystal empire when he found out they hadn't invented video games yet. Shining Armor shook his head. "I just... I really expected Twiley and her friends to pull something. Like they did with Poindexster's friend design, and then what Rarity did to Twiley's... I really wanted to see how they were going to turn things upside down again... instead, they ACTUALLY FOLLOWED THE ADVENTURE, even to the bitter end when it got their characters killed but the civilian ponies were saved to fight the good fight another day... I... I don't know what to think. Was Twiley .... 'taking it easy on me?" "Your sister ever done that before?" "Not really... remember the sorcereress she played in our campaign as a filly? You should see Poindexster... he wanted to hear what crazy scheme they came up with to break the game and failed miserably as he did his best to make this game break proof, whole reason he removed the Princesses and the Elements, and every big nasty from the history books of his game... he actually looked, CHEATED when he got told that nope, the girls played by the rules and went along the game route and didn't TRY to break the game... " "So you lost by winning? That's one for the books." "On the bright side, at least we can get this game to the publishers now. And Twiley and friends are back to playing whatever crazy adventure they cook up this time between beating monsters with love and rainbows instead of spiked maces and fireballs.They asked if we used them as beta-testers again, to let the next one be lighter and softer." "Heh, Poindexster would die at those words." "You can say that again!" Shining smiled. Session 3.13 (MtangaLion and one line by me) Eight-Bit yawned, rubbing his eyes. "You know, maybe we *should* work on something lighter next. I'd sleep better at night." Shining Armor froze. "Have... you been having bad dreams?" he asked, trying to sound casual. Eight-Bit flinched. "Have *you*?" "It was just this one time," said Shining hastily. "Okay, maybe once or twice... I was living in that world, but I wasn't a solider, not a hero with guns and guard training. I was..." He hoof-shrugged. "Just an ordinary pony, with a regular job and a family and other ponies I liked and..." Eight-Bit shivered. "And they all died? One after another, and the town got destroyed..." "And we were starving and afraid all the time..." Shining's ears drooped flat. "And we tried and tried, but everypony knew..." "That we were just going through the motions, that the world wasn't *ours* any more..." "And why didn't the aliens just finish us already!? Like killing us all wasn't enough..." "They had to be cruel about it, like making us suffer was the whole point! But then Luna showed up, and I was so relieved..." Shining sank to the floor, hanging his head. "Until she looked at me like I was dirt on her hoof and asked..." Eight-Bit gulped. "Are you pleased by what you have wrought?" There was silence in the workshop for a good while. "You know," said Shining hesitantly. "Maybe that game isn't ready for the publisher just yet. I'm thinking that the campaign needs a third phase. You know, where ponies turn the tide." Eight-Bit's face lit up. "Yeah... yeah! Oh, but we can't just have some super-Alicorn hero stallion warp in from the future and blow the aliens away." Shining grinned. "Right, right. The Time Eater would pounce him and wolf him down in two seconds flat. Every seasoned O&O campaigner knows that. It's gotta be plausible..." Eight-Bit tapped the side of his face with a hoof. "Ooh, I know! The aliens originally came from space, right? So it makes sense that help could arrive from space too." "Like a probe from the Crystal Space Empire, sent to deliver advanced tech to worlds still fighting the bad aliens!" "Really, Shining?" "We'll think of a better name later." Shining had already grabbed a notepad in his magic and started jotting down ideas. "Poindexter still isn't gonna like this," mused Eight-Bit. From the next suite over, the two stallions heard a scream and a loud thump, as if somepony had woken in a fright and fallen right out of bed. Shining winced in sympathy. "You were saying?" "I think Gaffer is gonna be happy he just worked on the game mechanics and not the actual adventure for this one."