Session 7.0 Kendell2
"Are you sure you're fine with me joining you?" Starlight asked, looking at the gameboard for the group's 'alien first contact high school' RPG. Twilight had invited her to join, feeling it'd be a good opportunity for her to ease into things. Things were fairly low stakes, while her character's stats needed tweaked a tiny bit, it wasn't really a game where someone could be so underleveled as to be left behind, and it could work as her character being a new exchange student. Given her own need to become accustomed to new things, it felt like a good idea.
"Don't worry, Starlight, let's just give it a trial, if things go poorly, we can set things straight," Twilight explained.
"Plus there's no way you can take over the world in this," Rainbow commented, remembering the other game.
"...Alright..."
"So, what's your character?" Twilight asked.
Starlight levitated her character sheet. "Forgive me if I'm not as creative as I'd like...I'm not used to trying to make UNIQUE things."
"No problem, go right ahead."
"Her name Libra, she's from the planet Deviatia. On her home world, there are many different types of ponies, twenty three to be exact..and none of them get along..."
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Of course..."
"...But once she learned of Equus, Libra realized...maybe that was because they never bothered to get to know each other...they were so different, maybe they were afraid to get along..."
The cyan pegasus blinked in confusion, noticing Starlight seemed to get a little...somber talking about that.
"So she decided to come to Equus to do what her kind never tried before...make friends with somepony different than they are..." Starlight gave a small smile. "Then maybe she can teach her own people to...How's that?"
Twilight looked a little stunned before shaking it off. "That's great, Starlight. Continue."
"She's a very...balanced sort, normally, comes with her species and their powers. You see her people have the power to split into two separate beings at will, representing opposing parts of their personalities, and are normally evenly balanced. However, if one half out balances the other, they'll split in two and can't merge back together until they restore balance to themselves. Libra's halves are Lib and Ra, Lib is calm, friendly, and conversational, but not very action orientated, while Ra is short tempered, action focused, and manipulative. Libra is a mixture of these traits, and the sum of her two parts, but she must maintain balance between them to remain whole. Also, her true state is split perfectly down the middle, black on one side, white on the other, and Lib is pure white and more beautiful and angelic, while Ra is black and more devilish...She also has telekinesis and enhanced strength, due to her planet having half heavy gravity and half lighter gravity, both of which used on that side, Lib gets the former and Ra the later. I tried my best to be creative, how did I do?"
Twilight smiled. "That's very creative, Starlight! Good job. Now we just need to get things set up..."
"Where were we then?" Starlight questioned, wanting caught up to speed.
"Are we still in that altered present?" Rarity questioned.
"Altered present?"
"Oh yeah, long story short the adventure party accidentally caused a time...alteration..." Twilight, the game master, explained...then the group suddenly looked very awkward.
"...It wasn't intentional..."
Rainbow Dash blinked. "Oh...by the way, while we're on the subject of time alterations...were you girls standing on a cloud while I did the Sonic Rainboom in the past?"
Starlight and Twilight blinked, looking to each other. "...Yes..."
"Yeah, I might kinda remember glimpsing you there..." Rainbow said, rubbing her head. "...Is that supposed to happen?"
"...As long as Equestria isn't ruled by Sombra, Changelings, Nightmare Moon, Tirek, Discord, the Flim Flam Brothers, or a barren waste land, I'm fine," Twilight replied.
"Nah, still Celestia," Applejack replied. "...Wait, the Flim Flam Brothers ruled the world?!"
Session 7.1 BrutalityInc
"Yes, they actually did in one timeline. We arrived just as they were tearing up what remained of Sweet Apple Acres with a demolition excavator." Twilight confirmed. "They were probably planning to build one of their many factories that were polluting the air and despoiling the land right on top of it."
"Sounds like one of those nightmare scenarios where ruthless industrialists turn Equestria into a toxic wasteland that some of Tree Hugger's other hippie friends rants about every time business comes up in conversation." Rainbow Dash commented with a tinge of annoyence, "No offense to your friend's friends, Fluttershy."
"None taken. They could be really passionate about the environment at times..."
"They aren't the only one, sugar-cube." Applejack seethed at the very thought of her farm being ruined and turned into a factory complex by those cons, let alone all of Equestria "Ah'm gonna SOCK those two next time we see 'em!"
"Didn't Granny Smith MAKES FRIENDS with them?" Fluttershy asked.
"She did, Ah didn't!"
"Believe me, darlings, no pony likes unscrupulous capitalists, but that doesn't mean business-ponies are inherently evil." Rarity complained defensively. "Speaking of capitalism... How about a nice game of Monopoly for our next session? It's a classic, wholesome fun for friends and family!"
"Oh! I was actually going to propose an alternative that plays just like Monopoly!" Starlight suddenly interjected. "With your permission, Princess?"
"Go ahead, let's have a look." Twilight agreed, encouraging.
Starlight took out a game box from under the table. The rest of the ponies looked at the cover, then looked at Starlight apprehensively.
"Seriously?" Rainbow Dash asked, incredulous, "Seriously?"
"Well, the whole point of the game sounded good from my former philosophy's perspective. I played it all the time back in Our Time with my old followers." Starlight explained, "Each according to their needs and what-not..."
"'Class Struggle'... who came up with the idea to create a Communitist* counterpart to Monopoly?" Twilight wondered.
*(Communitism, first formulated and written in length by philosopher, economist, journalist and revolutionary Red Banner in the "Communitist Manifesto", with his friend Engel the Griffon)
Session 7.2 Grogar-the-oneser
"Actually there are a lot more spin-offs of that game then you think," Starlight said, "You guys ever heard of U-Build Anarchy?"
"H-how would that even work game-wise?" Twilight questioned.
"And how do we make sure Discord never hears about it?" Applejack asked.
"Listen Starlight, while I'm sure it's a fun game, I feel it might be too soon when you stop and consider recent events," Rarity added.
"Hmm.... fair enough." Starlight said.
Discord poofs "You guys would not believe what I found when I was shopping for spinoff of monopoly!"
Session 7.3 Grogar-the-oneser
"What happened?" Nurse Redheart shouted, "How did all of your students and yourself catch a cold at the same time?!"
"Well... would you be surprised if I told you it was because of a board game?"
"... What?" Redheart said flatly.
"Pandemic to be precise," Cheerilee said.
"Pandemic the board game," Redheart said.
"Yes, that's right."
"You expect me to believe a board game was the cause."
"Yes," Cheerilee said.
"Okay... I'm going to ask questions, was Discord playing the game with you or students."
"No," Cheerilee said.
"A young unicorn experiencing a magical surge?"
"No."
"Well, that eliminates two of the most likely scenarios," Redheart muttered. Meanwhile four fillies (Apple Bloom, Diamond Tiara, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle) were lying in bed.
"I knew we should have play police chase today." Apple Bloom muttered.
"Got sick by playing a board game. Gotta admit never saw that coming," Diamond Tiara said.
"That nothing, somehow we set fire to our tree house while playing a firepony board game." Sweetie Belle said.
Session 7.4 MtangaLion (with a little edit by me)
Trixie rolled the dice, her mind only half on the current game. "Trixie is curious as to why you did not witness a world with Trixie in charge." She smirked, giving her cape a toss. "True, Trixie is reformed now, but is Trixie not great and powerful? Did Trixie not have the Alicorn Amulet? Trixie totally could have ruled Equestria."
Twilight hoof-shrugged. "Well... Maybe a world like that does exist somewhere out there, but we just happened not to see it."
Spike lifted a claw. "Although, there was that last world. Everything was all black and smoldering, as if there'd been some HUGE explosion!"
"Trixie... Trixie's rogue uses Distraction!"
Twilight twitched. "You know that doesn't work in real..."
"Hah, Trixie has rolled nineteen!"
Pinkie Pie said, "Well, if Twilight never came to Ponyville, Spike wouldn't, and he'd never put the idea in Spins and Snails heads to put Trixie to the test with her magic, Trixie's life would have never been ruined, and she'd never have gotten the Alicorn Amulet in the first place."
"YOU DID WHAT?" Trixie snapped.
Spike waved his fore-claws frantically, "I was being sarcastic when I told those idiots! Ow! Ow!"
Session 7.5 MtangaLion
Gilda gripped the dice in her talons a little harder than she should have, grinding them against each other. "So, what are you trying to say? Just because I was mean to you dweebs a couple times, I'm some kinda potential world-conquering super-villain?"
Twilight blushed. "What I'm saying is, you shouldn't feel bad, just because Spike and I didn't see an alternate world where you took over."
Gilda clicked her beak and tossed the dice. "Your new pal is right. You do have a swelled head." Then she moved her token nine spaces across the game board, setting it right next to Canterlot.
* Meanwhile, in an alternate world... *
Gilda roared and climbed atop Foal Mountain like it was her own personal roost, enormous griffon paws and claws crushing the mountainside and sinking into solid granite. Then she slowly and majestically spread her wings until all of Canterlot lay in her shadow. Rainbow Dash flew in lazy loops around her head, barely even a gnat to her now.
"I gotta admit," boomed Gilda smugly, "tricking Twilight into casting that growth spell on me..."
Rainbow giggled. "Best prank... ever!"
"You said it, Dash. Attention, pony princesses and other snooty pony dweebs! My first list of demands..." Pegasus and mega-griffon glanced at each other and snickered some more.
Session 7.6 Grogar-the-oneser
"Err this is weird right," Starlight said eyeing the Smooze. "C-can he play checkers..."
"Oh course he can, he might look it but he is a expert player, granted he needs my arms to do so," Discord said, both his arms shot off him and connected to the smooze.
"I-I don't know."
"Oh please do it, see my pal here is feeling abit depressed lately," Discord stated as Starlight saw the slime creature sporting a frown then a smile.
"Well.... if it's to cheer it up."
"GREAT! you won't regret this!" Discord snapped his finger as a huge checkers board appeared "By the way, the smooze is not responsible for any anti magic gunk that get stuck on the pieces."
'Why do I get a feeling I just got conned."
Session 7.7 BrutalityInc
Spike was at Sofa-And-Quills during the regular morning shopping session when he noticed Twilight rushing pass outside the shop in a gallop, her face an expression of panic.
"Twilight, wait!" Spike called out to her, his conversation with shop-owner Davenport forgotten, "Where are you going? What's happening THIS time?"
Princess Twilight almost comically skidded to a halt, complete with dust and noise of screeching tires, before turning around and running to him "Spike, thank goodness!" She began, "Have you seen a board game called Zarathura by any chance?"
"Never even heard of it." Spike replied truthfully.
"Alright, but I need you to drop everything and help me look for it, NOW!" Twilight commanded, before rushing out of the shop. Spike complied and followed, confused and growing worried.
"What is that game? When did you got it?" Spike asked as he barely caught up with the Princess. She was hurriedly looking around and magically scanning every nook and cranny of Ponyville.
"Remember that package you received from Derpy yesterday evening and left it in my studies?" Spike nodded at Twilight's question. "When I opened it last night, it contained a game called 'Zarathura'. It's some kind of retro-space-opera themed board-game driven by clockwork mechanisms. Players have to take their rocket-ship through an interstellar journey to reach a planet or whatever called 'Zarathura' at the center of the board, while braving obstacles like asteroids, aliens and absurd astronomical anomalies through the track."
"Okay... but what's so special about it? I never seen you panic so much over a board game before...(That I could remember)"
"What's so special about it is that it is magical. Erring on the side of caution, I took a magical scan..." Twilight grimaced as she looked down a well, finding nothing, "And I discover that besides the clockwork, it was imbued with some of the most sophisticated arcane enchantments I have ever seen, and what it does is that whenever some-pony starts playing, it generates a local bubble of altered-reality - as in, not an illusion, but an ENTIRE POCKET DIMENSION - that meshes with the real world, allowing the adventure to come alive for the players to participate in!"
"Oh! That sounds just like that magical bookworm which once ate all of Ponyville's books and brought fictional characters into the real world! Or that pocket reality Discord made when he helped the CMC find their talents..." Spike paused when he realized something "And now that I thought about it, that sounds suspiciously like what a certain comic book once did to us..."
"I already checked with the Enchanted Comics store - it wasn't their product. I didn't find any evidence of another magical bookworm infestation. Even Discord, sworn upon his Parents' name," The purple alicorn shuddered momentarily, "Had nothing to do with it. It just came out of nowhere. All I had was a anonymous unsigned note politely asking me to play-test it on the owner's behalf in my own time!"
"And let me guess, you just noticed that it went missing several minutes ago." Spike panted slightly to catch his breath as the two arrived near Sweet Apple Acres, "So where do you think it went? Could somepony had took it?"
"I don't know." Twilight began, "But now I have a hunch. I've already checked with Pinkie and Discord, but besides her and Discord coming by to discuss the finer points of 'Pinkie-Sense' and chaos magic, there was only one other group of ponies who visited the castle that would had been reckless enough to touch a mysterious game ..."
Whatever she was about to say was interrupted by a rumble, followed by a wave of heat and a blast of wind and dust that knocked both Twilight and Spike off balance. When they recovered, they are treated to the bizarre sight of the Cutie Mark Crusaders' newly restored clubhouse, tree and all, lifting into the air like a rocket, complete with a plume of smoke and fire trailing under it.
"Cornsarnit! EVERY TIME!" Twilight could had sworn to hear Apple Bloom shout even through all the noise of a spaceship lift-off, "And we just got our clubhouse fixed by Discord!"
"Well, I guess this answers that question..." Spike remarked as the clubhouse flew skyward into the wild blue yonder.
Session 7.8 Grogar-the-oneser
(Set in the human world)
"Trixie has no words, literally she has no words. Words fail Trixie. Its like Trixie-"
"We get it!" Applejack said, she, Rarity, Sunset Shimmer and Indigo Zap look like they were in a scuffle.
"So tell Trixie.... why did you start fighting?"
"It was cause of The Golden City," Rainbow Dash said annoyed.
"Golden city?"
"Let me explain, the Golden City is a great strategy/adventure game for 3-4 players. You start out as settlers who've come to an island with a golden city at the center. The goal is to establish yourself as a trader and get access to the coveted golden city itself.
During the game, you'll settle on specific areas on the game board which will grant you resources and points. Each round has a sub-goal which – when met – will award the player additional points. To expand, you'll need to use your auctioning skills to grab the best tiles (for yourself) and use them to settle on specific areas," Sunset shimmer explained.
"Eventually you'll have amassed enough resources to get a key to the city at which point you may establish yourself inside. At the end of the game, the player with the most points (the most powerful trader) wins."
"We chose to play it since it's a game where you're pitted against one another, but not directly. I mean you can annoy other players by taking good places but there is no combat and no head-to-head competition which we thought would make it easier to handle those two competition freaks," Applejack said.
"Then what happened?"
"Let's just said someone was annoying enough to rankle someone with a huge ego."
"She kept taking my spots on the board and mocked me about it!" Rainbow Dash said annoyed.
"You know very well I like to brag!" Indigo Zap said equally annoyed.
"Okay.... that explains them, but what about you two?" Trixie said.
"We were trying to break them up." Sunset said.
"I knew we should have went to an arcade." Applejack sighed.
Session 7.9 Ardashir (with slight edit)
"Hah!" Sunny Flare tossed her ale into the face of the guardsponies' captain. As he spluttered and shook his head, she hefted her mug and smashed it over his head. He dropped with a groan. "There's Emperor Sombra's 'taxes'! Sis, you need some help?"
Across the room, greatsword in hooves, Moonbeam swept it against the spear-shafts in the guards' grip. It sliced through the wood, dropping the spearheads to the sawdust-covered tavern floor. She snorted at them, ears pinned back, and laughed as they ran.
"Do I look like I need help, sister? If you cannot handle one miserable guard-captain however -- oh, I think the mage with them is behind thee now..."
Sunny Flare kicked out behind and someone shrieked as her hoof connected. A robed unicorn wearing an amulet with curved red horn insignia appeared behind her and dropped senseless to the floor.
She took one last look around and laughed to see all their enemies either fled or unconscious. The tavern keeper and his other customers slowly rose from where they'd been hiding, eyes rolling in their fear.
"My house!" He wailed as he trotted out into the middle of the room and surveyed the destruction, broken tables and chairs and gouges and chops in the support beams. "My tables! My walls! Young ladies! Did you need ruin my establishment? And I dare not think what the Emperor's troops will do when they hear of rebellion in my own home!... OW!"
He dropped, nursing a black eye. Moonbeam lowered her hoof while Sunny Flare took a heavy pouch from her saddlebag and dropped it before him. It landed with a dull metallic clink.
"The black eye shows that you opposed us and were wounded in Sombra's name," she said with a grin. "The gold should pay for it and the damages to thy tavern alike. Sister,let us be off."
The two mares were out the back door before the tavernkeeper could even begin to gather the coins up.
"Sister," Moonbeam said, "while I gather yon yokel appreciates thy generosity, I must add that now we have not a bit to our names. How, precisely, dost thou suggest we rectify this?"
"Why, sister," Sunny Flare said with a smile, pointing her blade at the tallest and grimmest ebony crystal tower in the city, "'tis easy enough. The stolen wealth of many a pony subject to Sombra is within those walls." She looked at her sister.
"What say you to a tax rebate?"
---
"Uh, just a moment, here," Twilight hurriedly went through her collection of maps, looking for something that could double as an evil king's castle. Celestia and Luna smiled at her, though the gathered Element Bearers thought there was something roguish about the look.
"Take your time, dear student," Celestia said. "And Twilight, thank you again for thinking to invite Luna and myself to play this game just once." She clapped her hooves. "It reminds me of the days before Luna and I became Princesses! They were so much fun."
"I seem to recall them as being days when we were chased from half the cities and principalities in Equestria, big sister," Luna said dryly as she examined her figure of a barbaric-looking midnight-blue alicorn holding a barbaric greatsword. "Yet there was a bit more freedom in our lives then."
"Wow," Starlight said. "Just... wow. I knew you knew the Princesses, but this is something I never thought I'd see. Luna as a barbarian warrior? Celestia as a laughing rogue?"
"Ah dunno," Applejack scratched her head as she watched the two Princesses start playing their way through infiltrating Wicked Emperor Sombra's castle. "Ah have ta say, I can see 'em doing this. Kinda makes me wonder what Ah'll be doing with ma life if I live as long as they do."
"Only Megan and Wind Whistler knows for sure." Princess Celestia grinned.
Session 7.10 Alex Warlorn
Spike had said disarming. "Okay, I've concluded that I can't really run an adventure with eight ponies... so some of you are going to have to work in rotation between O&O campaigns, it's nothing personal, but I had a nervous break down last time I tried to have a game with all you girls, Trixie, Discord, Maud, and now Starlight... I'm gonna have to put a cap on things, sorry. I gotta know my limits."
And that was the story of how Rainbow Dash had ended up playing Poni-Oh with Starlight Glimmer . . . But that didn't mean Rainbow Dash wasn't going to play to win simply because it wasn't her ideal hobby. Starlight STILL didn't like competitive games, it wasn't like she wasn't going to give up every single belief she'd had in her life simply because she'd given up on revenge and realized she couldn't spent her entire life in that one moment Sunburst left her. But that didn't mean she didn't know how to play to win either (knowing Rainbow Dash would be upset if she let her win).
Rainbow Dash admitted, she shouldn't have been too surprised at Glimmer's deck choice. It was seemingly made up of nearly all low-star normal type monsters.
Rainbow on the other hoof had gone with high level beasties and ways to summon them quickly, and a beat down strategy.
Glimmer had taken a bite out of her LP with her Just Desserts trap card that had taken a pice of RD's LP for every monster with a special effect on RD's side of the field. (RD should have known Glimmer would have that kinda card in her deck).
She should have seen the change of heart card coming too... that also damaged her LP some for the one turn Glimmer had RD's Green Eyes Violet Dragon in control and had it attack RD...
But RD still had the advantage in LP and strength of monsters on the field, if not in quantity. Maybe though this would teach Glimmer not to be so fixated on fairness. Starlight LP was low.
"And now I use Spike Dragon to attack your Basic Insect! And thanks to Spike Dragon's Special ability, the difference between its defense and my attack come out of your life points, game over Glimmer... good game."
"It's not over yet. Trap card. Skill drain."
"Say what?!"
"With this card on the field, all monsters on the field lose their special abilities. Except mine don't have any, but yours do. So my HP are safe."
"Yeah! But that means Spike Dragon doesn't go into defense after the attack, so too bad for you!"
"Don't be so sure about that." Starlight said with a glint in her eyes.
RD didn't like the look of that. She played her trump card. With a clever use of fusion and resurrection and-
"I have Green-Eyes Ultimate Violet Dragon on the field! And Spike Dragon! ... It can't attack this turn, but next time, bye bye Glimmer, cause I have Dragon Stomp in my hand, and you can't stop it, since it's a spell, not a card effect, and you used up your 'negate spell' trap a few turns back. YOUR TURN." RD said... having just blabbed her entire next move to her opponent.
Starlight nodded.
"I summon Aquastrian Pikefilly! I now have five level 2 normal monsters on my side of the field."
"Yawn. That monsters had insanely impressive attack for a level 2 monster, but it's got nothin' on any of my monsters."
"Doesn't matter. Because first I equip United We Stand to her! She gains 800 attack for every monster on my side of the field! That makes her stronger than your dragon."
Rainbow Dash paled. She had no trap cards on her side of the field, her dragon was a sitting duck. And it went bye bye... RD's LP fell... "It's not over yet Starlight."
"I'm afraid it is. It's time to play my trump card. I play Law of the Normal! I only activated this when have five level 2 or lower normal monsters on my side of the field. All cards on the field are destroyed EXCEPT for level 2 or lower normal monsters."
Skill Drain, United We Stand, Green Eyes Ultimate Violet Dragon, and Spike Dragon all went to the grave yard... leaving Rainbow Dash wide open... And she got clobbered by a bunch of low level weakling monsters . . .
"Looks like a bunch of low level monsters beat your Green Eyes Ultimate Violet Dragon Rainbow Dash... sorry I won."
"Say What?"
"I beat you and make all your hard work meaningless, that's cruel."
"Glimmer... it's just a game... Speaking of which... you should really get to know Pinkie Pie's sister Maud Pie ... She told me that she doesn't care if she wins something or not..." 'Which I think is weird and just plain strange.' "And we DON'T mind her... I think you two would have a lot to talk about."
"... Maybe we do..."
Session 7.11 Mooncalf99
"Game night, game night, snacks snacks snacks!" Pinkie Pie sang as she danced around the table, placing down bowls of food for the game.
Starlight Glimmer smiled wanly as she levitated the rest of the bounty in place, while the rest of the group filtered into the room. "Not that I'm questioning you, Pinkie, but do we really need all of this?"
"Oh, it's traditional," Twilight reassured, shuffling through her notes in the eternal manner of the GM getting ready and psyched up. "It's always good to have refreshments, and the sugar helps if the game runs late."
"And Pinkie eats half of it anyway," Discord said, startling Starlight with a sudden appearance. The rest of the group barely batted an eye. "Hi, I'm Discord, Spirit of Chaos and fellow reformee. So nice to meet you! Any pony who can give the princess of books a workout is fine by me!" He held out a claw to shake. She gave him a nervous look.
Fluttershy sighed. "Be nice, Discord."
"Don't let him get to you," Trixie said, sitting down on Starlight's other side. "He just likes to push a pony's buttons for the fun of it. I'm Trixie. So I hear you have a character with some really elaborate traits?"
"I guess?" Starlight said uncertainly.
"Word of advice: make sure you can describe your character in three sentences," Trixie said. "Too much, and the others get bored, and you don't want that. I'm a stage pony, so my job's basically to make sure ponies don't get bored, see?"
"That is a matter of opinion, Trixie," Twilight said. "I really think you should write down your backstory instead of reinventing things all the time."
Trixie waved a hoof dismissively. "That's not as fun. Besides, this setting's flexible enough for me to actually make this work."
"Yes, yes," Twilight sighed, again giving up on the matter. "Speaking of setting, yes, you're back to the normal timeline again, or at least as normal as this game gets. All those changes were properly reset and we don't try to time travel again. Or talk about it."
"What about Gilbert? He was cool," Rainbow Dash said.
Twilight facehoofed. "Fine. Gilbert happened. Now can we get the game started?"
"Gilbert?" Starlight asked.
"The seventh founder of Equestria," Trixie supplied. "Griffon. Fun guy."
A few minutes later, everypony - and Discord - were seated, and had their sheets and dice ready. Pinkie was already halfway through a bowl of pretzels. Twilight cleared her throat. "You all begin the day in class…" Twilight rolled a few dice and looked over a chart. "...discrete n-dimensional quantum statistics 201, with your homeroom teacher, Miss Razzafrazz. And you all have homework due."
"Uh oh," Fluttershy whimpered to Discord. "I don't even know what that means."
"But does Miss Razzafrazz?" Discord whispered back. "Let's try bluffing."
"But first you have a new exchange student!" Twilight continued. She turned to Starlight. "Go on, introduce yourself."
"Didn't I do that earlier?" Starlight said.
"That was you telling us your character concept, out of character," Twilight said. "Now we're playing, and you've only just met these ponies-- I mean, these aliens and ponies. Just pretend."
"Oh, okay," Starlight said. She cleared her throat nervously. "Okay. Um… hi! I'm Libra, from the planet Deviata, and I'm… here to make friends and get along with others." She found herself smiling at her own words. "Yes, that's exactly right."
"Cool cat, soul sistah," Rarity said. "We gonna be swingin' on the down low, dig?"
"Uh, what did you just say?" Starlight asked.
"She says she likes you, but in Disco," Rainbow Dash said. "So, do you like to go fast? Wanna go for a ride later?"
"...Are you asking me out?" Starlight said, feeling more than a bit unsettled.
"Haha, no," Rainbow laughed. "I am playing a guy, though, so I have to act like one, and stuff. Anyway, offer stands."
"Okay, dear, you can take a seat anywhere you like," Twilight said. "Now, who's done their homework?"
"Sorry, teacher, I ate my homework," Pinkie said, sounding as apologetic as she could. "I spilled prench mustard on it while I worked, and it smelled so nice I had to sautée it in oil and serve with a bruschetta salad."
"That's the third time this week, Hungry," Twilight said. "Crimson Tape, did you do yours?"
"Uh, I should've…" Applejack muttered and tossed a die. "Is eleven enough?"
"Yes, you have a five-page report on imaginary numbers as applying to the solution to the Traveling Salespony problem," Twilight said. "Good work. A plus."
"Step one, threaten to kick the traveling salespony if he doesn't get off your land," Rainbow whispered to Rarity. "Step two, kick 'em anyway. Step three, profit."
"I scoot up my desk next to the new student," Discord announced. He grinned at Starlight. "Hi there! New to Equestria, I take it? There's a lot to take in, but don't worry, Random Act is here to help you."
"Ah… yes, please, I… would like that?" Starlight said. "Sorry, I'm still getting used to roleplaying and pretending… even if I did a lot of pretending before… I mean…"
"It's fine, you're doing fine," Twilight quickly assured her. "Besides, the past is the past, so don't worry about that."
"Indeed," Discord said with a nod. "So have you filed your school insurance plan yet?"
"Insurance?" Starlight asked. "I haven't been told anything about that."
"The teachers sometimes forget it," Discord said. "It's just a little security in case of trouble. I have all the paperwork if you want to file it. Right now we have a special on insurance against tides. Ten bits a week premium, with all the perks."
Starlight blinked almost audibly. "Tides?"
"Dangerous things, tides," Discord said ruefully. "You could drown, or worse. You don't want to get caught emptyhoofed in a tidal incident."
"This is some kind of shakedown or scam, isn't it?" Starlight asked carefully.
"Do ah see Random tryin' ta pull a trick on the new gal?" Applejack asked.
"I keep out of Miss Class Prissy-dent's sight as a standard, so probably not," Discord said with a smirk. "Anyway, I am an earth pony who's lived all his life in Equestria, and Equestrians are universally known to be cool, insightful and down with how things are really done, so obviously I must be correct. Right, Twilight?"
"Fake Out again?" Twilight said. She rolled her eyes. "I'm afraid he's right, Starlight. Unless you roll a one or two, he's convinced you."
"Okay…" She rolled a six. "All right, I'm convinced. Tides are dangerous, after all. Ten bits, you say?"
"Indeed. Just sign here on the dotted line. I take out the preprinted documents and have Libra sign them," Discord said. He chuckled to himself. "Believe me, I have plans for this money…"
Twilight tapped her chin thoughtfully and grinned. She scribbled something on several notes and surreptitiously teleported them over to Pinkie, Rainbow and Trixie. The three mares read their notes, shared a quick glance, and nodded. Twilight grinned wider.
"So…" Fluttershy began. "So what happens next? I look out the window and try to spot any interesting pets on the school grounds."
"You don't see any animals, but you see students running for higher ground as a high wall of water rapidly approaches," Twilight said.
"Um… water?" Fluttershy asked in surprise.
"The classroom's windows are suddenly thrown open as a massive tidal wave bursts in and starts flooding the room!" Twilight announced. "Save yourselves!"
Discord's jaw dropped, and he quickly picked it back up. "Oh, well played, Twilight Sparkle!"
"I take a really deep breath and use myself as a flotation device," Pinkie declared.
"I grab Bright Light and climb up on Hungry, then ride the wave out into the hallway," Rainbow Dash declared. "I can still use classmates as vehicles, right?"
"And I put on my shades and look as stylish as possible as we leave," Trixie said. She brushed back her mane dramatically.
"I suppose I can transform into a Deep Horror and swallow the others for safekeeping," Fluttershy said. "I mean, if it's okay with you."
"Go ahead, Big Mama," Rarity said, shuffling through some of her character notes. "Oh, please please please tell me I packed something waterproof to wear…"
Starlight looked thoughtful. "So… sudden tidal incident at school, hmm?"
"Yes," Discord growled, throwing a glare at Twilight.
"I guess you'll have to change those plans of yours, since Random Act will be completely broke until further notice," Twilight said. "Starlight, make a note on your sheet that your allowance is doubled, also until further notice."
"Nice!" She scribbled furiously on her sheet.
"Still, I hope you see now the dangers of uncontrolled tides in everyday situations, and that your trust in me was very well-placed," Discord said. "It's good to have friends to rely on, isn't it?"
"Always find an advantage, huh?" Trixie said.
"What ah wanna know is, why the hay's there a tidal wave anyway?" Applejack asked. "Hmm… tides are made by tha moon… tha moon's a celestial object… hey, Mane! Swim by tha lockers! Ah wanna check on Brighty's stuff!"
"What?" Trixie said. "You do not get to raid the Luminous and Electromagnetic Bright Light's locker!"
"She won't if we get there first!" Rainbow Dash said. "Full speed ahead!"
"Full speed!" Pinkie cheered. "Blub blub blub!"
Session 7.12 Alex Warlorn
"I still can't believe we both attended Celestia's school for gifted unicorns and I never saw you Trixie."
"... You did once actually... but it too Trixie a while to realize it was you, it was hard to recognize you from my position."
"What do you mean?"
"Does Princess Twilight Sparkle recall when she found a blue goldfish in the hallway pathetically banging against its goldfish bowl with its fins desperately and afraid?"
"... Hmmm? Maybe... I think I might remember... a little... I think it was right after I'd gotten my cutie mark and started attending. I do remember a blue fish who clearly wanted to return to the ocean, I teleported it to the river where I thought it could swim to the ocean and be happy... wait... THAT WAS YOU!?"
"... Trixie was a pony with a special talent for stage magic at a school dedicated to teaching future arch-mages... Trixie did not the strength to be a bully, and would be no pony's toady... so many a pony saw Trixie as a good target for hazing."
"I can't believe that went on at Celestia's school... "
"You think ponies can't be bullies?"
"It's not that, but I can't see Celestia EVER tolerating that at HER school."
"Maybe Trixie just wasn't important enough to be worth the effort."
"I don't believe in categorizing ponies that way, and neither does Celestia."
"Says the mare who it turns out no one in Equestria could ever hope to replace and no pony anywhere could step up to save the world in her place if she hadn't met her friends." Twilight didn't miss the bitterness in Trixie's voice. "Tis it not ironic?! I wanted to rise above the average pony! Famous! Powerful! But Trixie just wasn't born with the power! Starlight Glimmer wanted to live among equals, even if she had to strip every pony of what made them unique to do it, but she had power that always set her apart from others! Maybe fate got our character sheets switched."
Twilight looked at Trixie sadly. "Trixie... the same thing would have ultimately happened if Glimmer had broke apart ANY group of friends in Equestria. Magic, friendship, and Equestria itself are so closely tied together that you can't damage one without weakening the other two."
"If the Princess of Friendship herself says so," Trixie said unhappily, but not pressing further.
Twilight sighed. Starlight might have had a temper and abandonment issues, but Twilight could tell that Trixie's own insecurities ran deep. Twilight had asked Maud Pie about Trixie's time at the rock farm.. but Maud had simply said that that time was Trixie's own business and it wasn't Maud's place to share it.
Any further chat was cut as the rest of the, now quite large, party of ponies playing the alien students arrived. A normal game master might have had a nervous break down at a party this size but Twilight could handle it.
And there was an extra.
"Oh! Hello Gilda! Rainbow Dash didn't say you were coming."
"She wanted it to be a surprise!" Rainbow Dash explained.
Gilda gave a wary eye of Discord.
"What?"
"Last time we met, you de-evolved my brain to before griffins could think, and I spent the rest of the day trying to eat ponies!" Gilda growled.
The other gasped.
"I admit! I was a bad boy back then! Very evil! Totally evil! But I've gotten better! Just like all the other former baddies in this room."
"Wait, you met Gilda? When? How?" Twilight asked.
"I got around a lot on that day," Discord said. "I managed to traumatize, I mean have fun with a lot of ponies."
"I'm surprised you didn't already know Starlight then," Twilight said.
"Oh I did TRY to visit her little town... and I fell on my claws and knees and began puking plaid when I got close... seems a town so utterly orderly that it's devoid of even the slightest chaos doesn't agree with my stomach."
Rainbow Dash sighed. "So much for my fun theory that Discord would reign chaotic revenge on Starlight if anything happened to Fluttershy."
Starlight sighed.
"Oh sadly true... the entire place was practically my kryptonite so to speak... you'd have been better off asking those helpful and liberating three fillies for a rescue."
"ANYWAY!!!" Twilight said trying to stop old wounds from being picked opened that had only just finished scabbing over. "So Gilda... are you here to play?"
"Oh yeah, Dash told about this game, buncha alien hatchlings visiting Equestria? Kinda nuts, but then Dash told me the sky's the limit. So it got me curious."
Twilight said nothing to how technically TWILIGHT had been an alien visiting another world's school more than once.
"So you made a character?"
"Oh yeah! She's totally awesome! Ancient ponies worshipped me as a goddess of awesome!"
"Why didn't Trixie think of that?"
"Uh.. so what your's species?" Twilight asked, alarm bells slowly going off.
Gilda shouted, "THE AWSOMOIDS! THE AWSOMOIDS! THE AWESOME THE LIES WITHIN!" Gilda said like she was singing almost. "Inside the depths of Equus, where awesome begins! By our action figures!"
"I think I saw that show," Rainbow Dash said.
"A show that's a thinly veiled toy commercial? How shameful," Rarity said striking a indignant pose.
"SUSH! You want us canceled?!" Pinkie Pie hissed to Rarity's confusion.
Gilda ignored them. "Eventually when we hatch, we eventually reach critical mass, and convert the entire planet into awesome! Then absorb it, and join our fellow Awesomeoids out in interstellar space being awesome, until we mate, and explodes in awesome, spreading our clutch of eggs through out the cosmos. Normally when we burrow into the ground, growing for millions of years, increasing the awesome of the evolving life forms, so we can consume maximum awesome when we hatch!"
"I think I played the video game too," Rainbow Dash said, "Never played past the Underwater Castle though. Couldn't beat the alien and queen at the same time."
"Anyway! Some lame ponies hug me up and hatched me a million or so years early before I was strong enough to covert the planet into awe and absorb it to reach full maturity! So I'm stuck absorbing awesome until I grow powerful enough to change the world into awesome and absorb it all, but don't worry, you should all consider it an honor to become pure awesome!"
"HEY! No one eating this planet except me!" Pinkie Pie/Hungry protested.
"So..." Twilight asked cautiously. "What's her name?"
"Her name?"
"Yes."
"Uh... Gilzillathulu?"
"Right... and what does she look like?"
"She's assimilated the traits of every awesome creature that's been alive on Equus, so she's kinda like a dragon but with feathers, antlers, tiger strips, and she has atomic awesome breath and can fire awesome beams from her eyes."
"... Isn't having both of those kinda redundant?"
"Twice the awesome."
"Rainbow Dash helped you with this character didn't she?"
"Only a little..."
"Yes I can see that..." Twilight had the feeling of a headache coming on. 'Remember, work WITH the players, not against them, work WITH the players, not against them. "Interesting Gilda..."
Session 7.13 MtangaLion
Gilda made a face at Rainbow Dash's character sheet, feathers puffing up. "Well, this isn't right at all. You didn't even mention your bag of shinies."
Dash just stared. "What's a bag of shinies?"
Gilda waved a forelimb, talons spread. "You know... it's a bag. And griffons keep shinies in them. It's a griffon thing."
Discord appeared in a flash of white light, smirking and tapping the mismatched digits of his hands together fiendishly. "Are you two still back here arguing? Wonderful! Twilight and the others got bored and started the game without you, though."
Gilda huffed. "Well, it was Dash's idea for me to critique her new griffon rogue and help her get into character. It ain't my fault if she got it all wrong."
Dash rose half out of her seat. "You just made that up about griffons having bags of shinies! I roomed with you at flight school and I never saw..."
Immediately, Gilda reached under a wing and pulled out an old patched-up leather bag, somehow. It jingled when she shook it.
The pegasus stared, open-mouthed. "Okay... I guess that's cool. What do you have in there?" She reached a hoof towards it.
Gilda yanked the bag out of reach. "Hey, hooves off!" Her feline tail lashed.
Discord yawned. "Twenty-three bits, a couple of wishing coins, four pieces of tinfoil from Pinkie Pie's party cannon..."
"Shut it," growled Gilda. "I'll peck you."
Rainbow tilted her head. "So, griffons are magpies?"
Gilda turned her attention back to Rainbow Dash. "You take that back! Oh, another thing... Your character background says you're a great kisser." She snickered and clacked her beak. "Griffons can't do that, genius."
Rainbow flinched. "Oh. Well, what *do* griffons do when they... you know..."
Gilda leaned across the table and whispered in Dash's ear.
"What!? Eww!"
Discord slapped the table, literally beside himself with laughter. Then he cleared his throat, and his less-evil duplicate murmured an apology and vanished. "Well, if you really want to get into character..." He cracked his knuckles and rolled up imaginary sleeves.
Rainbow Dash blinked. "No, wait!"
Too slow... Discord snapped his fingers, and another flash of light turned Dash into a griffon with white and reddish-brown fur, bright blue feathers, and a rainbow crest.
Gilda snickered. "Looking good, Dash. He disrespected a griffon, though. You should totally peck him."
Discord scoffed. "You wouldn't dare."
Dash grinned and lunged.
"Ow! Bad catbird!" Discord rubbed his sore head. "Just for that, I'm not turning you back."
"So, shinies?" asked Dash.
Gilda tossed a spare bag to her friend. "We can steal some bits out of that fountain by City Hall to get you started."
"I mean it, girls! I'm not turning her back until she apologizes!" Discord watched them open the balcony door and go flying off. "Oy!"
Session 7.14 Ardashir and Alex Warlorn
Twilight whispered concerned to Trixie, "Anything else that happened after I... 'released you' into the river?"
"Well, my eyes weren't meant for seeing out of the water at the time, but a yellow and pink blob did pull me out of the water and try to feet me to a bear cub."
Twilight put on a manic grin. "Well! There's no way to know who that could have been!"
"What?" Starlight blinked at the sight of the griffon-ized Rainbow Dash. "Does that happen a lot around here?"
"Only when Discord thinks it's funny," Applejack said. "An' that's most o' the time -- hey!"
Discord leaned over her shoulder from halfway across the room and looked at Starlight's character sheet. "Well, I can't let you miss out on this little experience! A Diamond Dog fighter, eh?"
"No, wait!" Starlight rose to her hooves, ready to run.
Discord snapped his claws and it was too late. A horrified looking female Diamond Dog stood where Starlight did a moment before.
"Ta-da!" Discord sprayed fireworks from his ears. "I give you Barklight Glimmer!"
"AHHH!" Starlight looked at her reflection in one of the crystal castle walls and howled. "I'm a Diamond Dog! A thieving, slave-taking barbarian! Change me back!"
Discord shook his head no, grinning wickedly. "Sorry, no can do because no want to." Starlight growled at him. Discord rolled his eyes. "It'll wear off in a day or so. And you did want some help getting in character. Honestly, some ponies are so ungrateful."
Session 7.15 Richforce (Based on Betrayal at House on Hill (Not a grammar error, that's what the game is called).
+++
"Fluttershy can’t make it tonight," said Rainbow Dash. "She’s nursing a baby platypus who has a fever."
"And Spike is at Diamond Tiara’s big sleepover along with just about every filly and colt in town," said Twilight. "Plus Applejack is there as a chaperone."
"Well at least Trixie could make it." said Trixie.
"Well in that case I have one of my favorite games right here!" said Discord. "Treachery at Hillhurst, Muhahahahaha!"
"Is the Muhahahahaha, part of the name?" asked Pinkie, now off of probation with the Cakes for the "Great Cupcake Fire" incident. Thankfully the Ponyville fire brigade stopped the blaze before any serious damage happened.
"No, I just like to add it for effect."
"Treachery?" said Rarity. "This isn’t going to be like that Diplomacy game again is it?"
"Oh no, this is much more unpredictable. We each choose different characters at the beginning and to start the game board consists only of the front hallway and a staircase to the second floor. As you explore you draw tiles to add new rooms to the house at an appropriate floor while encountering various events, items and omens the most important of which are the omens. When an omen happens you usually get an item or some other benefit but have to make increasingly difficult rolls until one roll fails, the haunt phase of the game begins and the traitor among the players is revealed."
"So the traitor is like the game master?" asked Twilight.
"Of a sort, the haunt is different depending on who triggered it and in what room. Usually the player who triggers the haunt is the traitor but it may be someone else depending on which characters we’ve chosen. Once the haunt begins the traitor and the heroes read the goals for the haunt from the appropriate game books and follow the haunt’s rules until one side wins. What I love is that between the different ways the house can be arranged and the different haunts no two games are ever quite the same."
"Trixie has played this game," said Trixie. "But has had…bad luck with it."
"You mean world endingly wrong bad?" asked Rainbow.
"No, but some of those haunt scenarios can be unwinnable for one side or another depending on how the house is built out. Trixie has had the misfortune of that happening to her opponents whenever she was the traitor, the others then just give up and leave."
"Well that won’t happen here," said Twilight. "We’ll be in this one until the end whatever happens."
Discord rubbed his claws together. "That’s what I want to hear…"
+++
As the game played out the house got bigger and more complex, creepy things happened until Trixie triggered the haunt. "Ok, here goes nothing," Trixie said as the opened the traitor’s tome to appropriate page. "Oh, the rules for this one are a bit different. The house gets ripped off of its foundation and is carried off by a roc."
"We had a roc on the rock farm once," said Pinkie. "The big old bird was senile and thought Holder’s Boulder was its egg. Limestone yelled at it a lot but it was also half deaf so we had to wait a week until the animal shelter ponies were able to get her to leave."
"In any case," Rarity said reading the Secrets of Survival book. "It looks like a free-for-all where we search the mansion of parachutes and escape before the roc drops the house in ten turns."
"Well we’ll help you guys find your chutes," said Rainbow. "Twilight and my characters are a griffon and a pegasus so we don’t need them to escape."
Pinkie and Trixie were the first two to escape the mansion. Discord grabbed a chute before Pinkie could get it but exploring a new room for a short cut sent him into the basement, so Pinkie got out next with a chute Twilight found.
"You’re the last one and have two turns left," said Trixie.
"I can still make it to a window and jump out from there," said Discord. "You two better get going."
Twilight moved out of the front door and Rainbow leapt out another window.
Discord used his move to jump out his window. "You pull the ripcord only to find that what you have is not a parachute but a camper’s backpack," said Trixie. "You will fall to you death on your next turn."
"Trixie…" Twilight said glaring at her.
"Please, I never got the chance to really play the traitor."
"Oh, I loved that, quite unexpected!" said Discord. "Go easy on her."
"How about Twi and I have a chance to save him, fair enough?" said Rainbow.
Trixie had gleam in her eye. "Alright, but you have to succeed in a speed based trait roll with a result of six or higher."
"Deal," said Twilight.
Discord started to sweat, the game used six sided die that had only ones, twos, or blank sides. Since the various stats also tracked health in the game and Twilight and Rainbow had both taken speed damage while in the exploration phase.
Twilight went first rolling three die for her current speed, As expected she didn’t get the three twos she would have needed. Rainbow’s character was naturally speedy however and at her current state could roll four die, plus she held on to a "Moment of Hope" event card that could let her change the result of the roll of any one of her trait die to one she’d want. Still if she very low roll it was over.
"annnnnnndddd…dice!" Rainbow rolled the die.
One…two…zero…Discord was sweating bullets as last die was starting to come to a rest.
One. "I use my Moment of Hope card to change this zero die into a two, giving me a total of six!"
Discord breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
"You managed snag your friend just in time," said Trixie. "Who beforehand had temporarily lost control of his bodily functions."
This elicited snickers from Rarity, Rainbow and Pinkie.
"Hey, taking that chute from Pinkie he kind of deserves it." said Rarity.
"Strangely the game got less creepy with this haunt," said Trixie. "Usually it gets scarier."
"Probably a good thing Fluttershy wasn’t here tonight." Twilight. "Still it can be fun to get scared or to play the bad guy once in a while."
"In that case," said Discord. "Next Nightmare Night how about we play my own special "real life" edition of the game? It turns your house into the mansion, the player who ends up as the traitor gets possessed…"
Discord heard a stampede and a swinging door then looked up to that he was alone in the room.
"Girls come back! That was a joke!"
Session 7.16 Mooncalf99 (For this particular game, imagine all the players are Baron Munchhausen.)
It was a bright and sunny and in particular a late morning when the First Dragon of the Castle of Friendship found his lifelong companion and guardian still in bed, bundled up in her bed sheets like month-old leftovers in the back of the freezer.
"Twilight?" Spike asked. "Why are you still in bed? Don't you have stuff to do? Book stuff, or friendship stuff? C'mon, you tell me I can't sleep all day and then you go and do it?" He chuckled. "Maybe you've been hanging out with Rainbow Dash too much."
Twilight let out a sickly cough, still not coming out. "Ugh. Later. Go away, Spike."
"Are you sick?" He said with sudden concern. "Oh my gosh! Should I get a doctor? A nurse? A princess? A Fluttershy?"
"Stop shouting." The sheets moved and Twilight poked a tired and bleary head out from the folds. "I'm not sick, I'm just… feeling a little ill. Under the weather." She rubbed her forehead gingerly and winced visibly.
"But you look…" He leaned in and looked closer. "Wait a second. Are you… hungover? Since when do you drink?"
"Yeah, well, not usually, but…" Twilight groaned again. "There was this game Gilda wanted to try last night."
"I don't remember that," Spike said. "Wait, was this after I went to bed?"
"Yeah… hang on, I need to fix this." Her horn sputtered to life unsteadily before the magic stabilized. Then her eyes widened and she let out a sharp gasp before slumping back on the bed. "Oh, Celestia, that was horrible!"
"W-what did you just do?" Spike asked nervously.
"Anti-hangover spell," Twilight said, sounding a lot more chipper suddenly, and looking much better. She climbed off the bed. "I didn't want to use it because it's difficult to cast when you're hungover… and because you get a whole morning of headache piled up in one single moment."
Spike winced in sympathy pain. "Ouch! Hey, why do you know a spell for that, anyway?"
"I learned it some time ago… I think it was either Trixie or Rainbow Dash who needed it," Twilight said. "Funny, I can't remember." Her stomach growled. "Do you think you can make me a late breakfast, Spike? I didn't have much of an appetite before."
"Sure thing." They set off for the castle's kitchen. "So what kind of game made you take up the bottle? Must've been a real stinker if it drove you that far…"
"No, it was a pretty fun game, actually," Twilight said. "It's just that… it was a kind of traditional griffon drinking game."
"'Kind of traditional'?" Spike asked.
"That's how Gilda described it," Twilight confirmed. "See, you pretend that you're all proud warriors and heroes of old times, who have gathered to boast about their accomplishments."
"Shouldn't be too hard for you," Spike said. "You've saved Ponyville and Equestria a dozen times over already."
"Spike, please," Twilight said, blushing at his praise. "Anyway, that's not the point. You're supposed to tell elaborate and grand tales, and they don't actually have to be true. Making things up was actually the point of the game."
"Trixie must've been in her element, then." They entered the kitchen, and he began the elaborate and mystical rituals of breakfast-making. At least they seemed mystical to Twilight, who had never found reason to learn how to cook.
She took seat at the table. "Yes, she was. She, Rainbow Dash and Gilda practically dominated the table. See, the only real rules the game had was that you weren't allowed to insult anypony - or anygriffon, that is - on the subject of their valor, their lineage, or their chieftain."
"Sounds griffon-y," Spike said over his labors. "So what happens if you break the rules?"
"You get beaten up," Twilight said. "It's a griffon game. We ignored that bit, though. Oh, most importantly, you're not allowed to accuse anypony of lying."
"Ahah," Spike said knowingly. "Yeah, Trixie must have absolutely loved that rule. Funny, I can't see a bunch of griffons sticking to these rules. If anything, I can see them using it as an excuse to fight."
"Well, griffon culture is nuanced and many-faceted, and Gilda's not exactly the most standard griffon to use as example anyway," Twilight said.
"Fair enough," Spike said. He placed a fresh daffodil sandwich and a cup of tea before her, before joining her at the table with a bowl of gems. "So how's the drinking entering into it?"
"Well…" Twilight took a few bites of the sandwich before continuing. "You can't say they're lying, but you can suggest changes. Alterations. Suggest that they misremembered things or left things out by mistake. 'I've heard that the dread dark beast was a hundred feet tall, not twenty!' Or 'But wait! Wouldn't this have taken place during the winter?' Or 'Wasn't Chieftess Morning Rose betrothed to the master duelist Steel Pinion? Why would she have chosen you as her champion instead of him?' Things like that. Changes that make the story more complicated."
Spike nodded. "That's pretty cool. So what happened?"
"See, that's where the 'drinking game' part comes in," Twilight explained. "When you make a suggestion, you pour a shot. And if they don't want to make the change, they have to drink the shot. But if they accept it and work it into the story, you have to drink instead. Of course, if they get stumped and stop talking, they have to take two shots and you get to tell a story instead."
"Okay, that I can totally see a bunch of griffons do," Spike said with a laugh. "So that's how they got you drunk? You couldn't tell a proper story?"
"No…" Twilight sighed. "Trixie was spinning a real yarn, and I tried to trip her up. But every time I suggested a change, she just took it and continued the story, while I had to drink over and over again. I even tried contradicting facts, and… somehow she made that work anyway! And… after that, I don't really remember much."
"So… you seriously tried to upstage a showpony with a talent for telling tall tales, in a game of telling tall tales," Spike summarized.
"It made sense at the time," Twilight said.
"Yeah, well…" Spike paused. "...I think you earned that hangover, Twilight."
Session 7.17 Kendell2 (Looking forward to seeing what other people think up for this).
"Okay, so what kind of game is this?" Trixie questioned, looking at the box that looked like the cover to a Neighponese giant robot Manega.
"Well you remember how Button Mash came up with those steam punk mecha suits?" Twilight asked.
"And freaked out because he thought you'd be upset?" Rainbow Dash asked.
Twilight blushed a little. "We sorted that out! In fact that's part of how I ended up with this game, he told his dad and his dad got the idea to make an RPG based on the Neighponese super robot genre Button helped him with some of the villain designs," she explained, giving a proud smile.
"So it's about mecha?" Trixie questioned.
"Yes, you see Equus is being invaded by various factions and your job is to use you mecha to fight them off," she explained. "One faction is a race of aliens who seek to take Equus as their own and based on a space colony, another are prehistoric beasts awakened during a battle with the previously mentioned aliens, still another are born from a parasitic metal that feed off negative emotions and convert their host into giant biomechanical monsters (interesting to note, they were originally designed to relieve stress but went horribly wrong), and so on, lots of variety, though the rules say the GM gets to pick and there's nothing stopping players from making their own faction..."
Fluttershy whimpered. "Do we have to destroy them?"
"Actually there's a 'Purification' Skill," Twilight explained. "If will allow you to have your finishing blow pacify members of the Prehistoric Beasts faction and cure one of the biomechanical monsters so long as their core hasn't been destroyed. Any type of mecha can decide not to destroy the core though, but you need that skill to SAVE them."
"Yay..."
"So what's the back story for the robots?" Gilda asked.
"Whatever you like! That's the fun of it!" Twilight said with a smile. "YOU get to choose! Button decided he had so much fun being creative with his that it should be part of the game! You can even have a mecha stole from the enemy and so on. The only limitation is you all have a set number of skill points to start with to keep it balanced, and every 25 levels you can get a secondary mecha that can combine with your original one. Or you can just choose to combine with another player's mecha if you want to. Or save the upgrade and if your mecha gets wrecked in a battle, you can rebuild it much stronger or replace it with a stronger one with all the buffs you've gotten instead of just repairing it as normal. If your mecha is a combining mecha to begin with you get a bonus from combining."
"Alright! This is my kinda game!" Gilda said, smirking.
"Can my mecha run on awesome?" Rainbow Dash questioned.
"Yes, actually. Just make sure you don't forget the distinction between awesomeness, radicalness, and coolness..."
Rainbow Dash blinked. "...You've been waiting for that, didn't you?"
"No, that's actually in the rule book," Twilight explained, showing it in the rule book.
"Oh...so that's why Button asked me that..."
"Oh, and if your mecha runs on awesome, hot bloodedness, or some other thing relating to those things you have to scream the names of your attacks and transformations dramatically," Twilight explained. "It's a rule."
"Perfect!"
"Can my robot run on kindness?" Fluttershy asked.
"Emotion based mecha work, in fact 'serenity of mind' has a good bonus."
"Pinkie Pie, you've been unusually quiet..."
Pinkie Pie had a crayon in her mouth and was drawing. "Oh! I was designing mine! It's called Joyful Heart!"
"Really? What's it like?"
"It's created by a scientist that wanted to protect everypony's smiles!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, showing her picture which looked like a mechanical, but heroic clown. "It is powered by the pilot's design to make everypony smile again! It has an aura that lift's it's allies spirits and uses a laser whip based after a ribbon and a mace based on a balloon!" she explained, doing animane-like poses. "It also has two powerful hot pink laser canons on it's shoulders and it can generate an energy trapeze to swing around during a fight! Her finishing move is 'Fiesta Finale' where she forms an orb of pure positive pink power and flip kicks it at the opponent like a soccer ball!"
Twilight expected nothing less from Pinkie. "That works. The aura could work as a morale booster for your allies."