The game had evolved into a more sophisticated competition when Mom kicked us out of the palace because of too much noise. With Luna playing on my back, I lugged the heavy weight of little Tuna and the board table all the way to the Canterlot Gardens to continue brawling with as much noise as we desired. The games started getting harder and harder when Luna pulled out more powerful tanks out of thin air to brawl my tiny level two tin cans. being unfair, I decided to lay a line to what tank could be used at which times.
"Ok, new rule. When you win a battle, you get five points. If you accumulate enough points, you are allowed to have a more powerful tank on the battlefield," I announced as I magically conjured up as many turreted and anti-tank vehicles as I could come up with to use over the course of the game. There were plenty of tiny tanks, but as the levels progressed, there were some heavyweights. In fact, I had made a level 10 tank which weighed more than a text book, which Luna rudely called, "The Mouse." As impressive as it was, it costed 200 points to get it, which Luna, of all ponies, informed me would take 40 wins to win. I accepted the challenge and we brawled again.
To my advantage, little Luna had given me a tip to deal with her Marder II out of her own immaturity, so I stocked up on BT-2s this battle to over run her with torpedo tanks. Luna also adapted to my strategies, so we won a comparable amount of games to progress. We had both won enough games to pull out some heavyweights. Sure, it took certain number of points to unlock a level tank, but there were multiple tanks in a level. For instance, Luna chose an M4 Sherman when I picked a KV for a level five tank, with a Panzer IV, a T-34, and some others. These battles became more interesting than a simple "rush the flag" strategy. My KV was freaking slow, and Luna's Sherman kept tearing me apart, so I had to keep it behind a rock on the board to protect it from line of sight. There was even one battle when neither of us won before the turn limit, so we both didn't get points.
All the drama started attracting attention as more alicorns became curious about what the heck we were playing.
"What the heck are you playing," asked Cadence, a good little friend of Luna.
"We are playing World of Tanks," responded Luna.
"It's not going to be called, 'World of Tanks,'" I retaliated. "There isn't even a globe, so how can it be a 'World' of anything? Besides, don't even think about joining. One twerp is bad enough."
"I bet Luna and I can beat you!" challenged Cadence.
"Hey, that won't be fair! It would be two verses one then!" I complained.
"Hey, you're eight, and we are only four, and four plus four equals eight, so it is a fair match," challenged Cadence and Luna.
"Oh you are asking for a real plot-whopping!" I intimidated. I brought out loads of KVs and Hetzers to prepare myself from any flanking attack. As the new players they were, Cadence immediately pulled out the BT-3 because it looked pretty, and Luna drew out some M-2 Medium Tanks for the derp guns. I was so confident about me winning, I nearly passed out on one of the moves. I had my KVs lined up to fire at the rushing BT-3s. and three of my KVs blew up.
"What the? How did you do that! KV armour is stronger than BT-3 guns!" I cried.
"Simple. Artillery!" Cadence said in a pompos manner.
"What is artillery? Is it a name for a tank destroyer?" I asked.
"In a way, but artillery gets a bird's-eye fire on enemies, so it doesn't have to see!" she explained.
"That's cheating! You can't shoot at something you can't see!" I retaliated.
"Gosh, you're so loud! No wonder your mother doesn't like you," Cadence commented.
"Hey! My mom loves me, and how would you know? You don't even live here!" I argued.
"Whatever. We just blew up your last Hetzer!" cheered Luna and Cadence.
"Bull shit! Rematch!" I angered. At that point I had realized that I crossed the point of no return, as thundering footsteps stormed towards me from behind. It was mom.
"Young mare, you get over here! I will not tolerate swearing (or even you entirely) in my property!" raged Mom. Luckily I had practice my teleportation spell, so I teleported into my secret workshop to escape a painful talk about life-long wholesome policy. While I peeked out of the peep hole into the garden, I began to storm ideas to counter these cheaters for bringing in weapons who could blind fire.
"Luna," I overheard Cadence say to little Tuna, "Your sister is an idiot."
"I know," responded Luna. "No wonder she doesn't have a fan-base."
That comment brought me to tears. Ok, not really. I still have a fanbase, and I wasn't an idiot. Mad, maybe, but not an idiot. But I was right to say that indirect fire was cheating. It is not fair if some tank can shoot at you without being able to shoot back. If someone uses an artillery, they are a coward. But who is the minority here, people who like to fight in terms of Boshido, or people who like to snipe away free kills. I knew I could not do anything about this new weapon to ban it, but I knew it was time to grow bigger. I would seek my revenge. I looked back at the yard to find Luna happy with more friends.
"Hey Luna, what's up?" asked some fillies and colts.
"Oh, nothing. Just playing this new game my sis made up called World of Tanks," she replied.
"It is not called, 'World of Tanks!'" I shouted yet unnoticeably.
"Oooh. Looks fun. Can we play?" they all asked.
"Sure, but you can only start with those little tanks. When you win games, you get points to get better tanks. I have some pretty tough tanks, so you might want to fight each other for starters," Luna explained.
"But what if we wanted tougher tanks sooner?" they asked. Luna put on her diabolical thinking face. With me knowing where this was going, I knew I was about to regret leaving that scene.
Luna explained, "If you want tough tanks now, you can buy some golden tickets to purchase special tough tanks, like Lowes and Ram IIs. You can also buy gold tickets to earn more points in a game to get cooler tanks faster. It only costs 15 bits for every 3000 worth of gold tickets." Some ponies were interested and lined up to take advantage of this 'great offer.' I was furious that my little twerp of a sister was about to earn a hundred bits when I invented the game. I should have been getting that money. But the worst wasn't over. After buying their special heavyweights, each friend called their friends to buy, and soon there was a crowd of almost 200 little ponies playing World of Tanks (Damn it, now I have this name stuck in my head!). She was not going to get away introducing unfair artillery and turning the game into a business. I was not a filly. I was a big alicorn. The game was going to grow into a full scale competition. None of this babyish board game setup. I pulled out a blow torch and sheet metal, and prepared myself for a game piece that would not exactly fit on that little board table.