Ponies and Dragons (Just Have Fun)

by Alex Warlorn


Session 10

Session 10.0 SomeRandomMinion

Interrogating the baron had given a lead on one of his hired adventurers: a griffon from a smaller griffon kingdom, just on the border of the large pony empire the Giants had been marching through on their early quest. With the baron not knowing where the Queen's crown had been sent after its theft, the griffon merc was their next source.

Following this new lead, however, lead to its own problems.

"My forest giant tries to be diplomatic and talk the griffon guards down," Fluttershy declared. "She tells them we aren't with the dragon they mentioned, and that we don't want to hurt anyone. And about our quest to find the stolen Crown; how it could be a disaster in the wrong hooves..."

Dice clattered, and Spike winced at the results. "Ouch...4 for the Diplomacy check. The griffons don't buy it. They repeat their accusations of working with the local dragon, helping him snatch up villagers as pets and slaves. ...And of assassinating a pony baron in the neighboring empire. They scatter and retreat, heading off to get reinforcements!"

Applejack snorted. "Ah STILL don't know how Ah slipped on that one patch of Rarity's ice, OR bungled the Sure Footing roll... Seriously, right when we were turnin' ta leave, mah Battlerager tumbles back and ends up sittin' on the guy! Not that he didn't have it comin', but really..."

Everypony couldn't help but laugh at the memory of the tyrant baron's untimely end. Rainbow recovered first, readying her dice. "Sorry 'Shy, guess we'll have to be rough with these little guys. Oh, and my Stormwielder flies out ahead of them and beats her wings to cast Gust!" 

"Gust?" Pinkie asked as the dice tumbled, tilting her head. "Won't that just knock 'em back towards the rest of us?"

"Well....I could just squish 'em or drop a tornado on their heads, but that wouldn't make us look like good giants, like Fluttershy said we were. Maybe they'll listen to reason after we scare 'em a bit. Besides, I have to respect a fellow creature of the sky. So, did it work, Spike?" Rainbow seemed to drop in and out of character almost as fast as she--and her giant pegasus character--flew.

Spike cleared his throat, grinning at the results. "7! The burst of wind catches the whole group and knocks them back several feet. They clatter to the ground, terrified and pleading as you all surround them and cut off any escape."

With their retreat cut off and at the giants' mercy, the small band of griffon soldiers were suddenly in a much more diplomatic mood. A quick round of questioning--any rolls boosted by the smaller griffons' fear of their giant captors--and reassurances that this band of giants bore no ill will toward those smaller than them, revealed that the feared dragon's recent captives included the very adventurer they were looking for, and a deal was struck.

"...So they're just gonna let us have that thievin' adventurer if we beat up that dragon? We're rescuin' everyone else he took, but they're really gonna throw him under the apple cart like that?" Applejack quirked an eyebrow, not sure if she heard Spike right. "Ah thought he was supposed to be some big shot 'round these parts. For all they know, our giants will make a snack or pet out of 'im."

"The little birds weren't exactly in a position to NOT accept our terms, darling." Rarity answered in-character, complete with an only-slightly devilish giggle. "Besides, it's been too long since we got to be around smaller creatures who WEREN'T either terrified of us, or trying to slay us. It would be a nice change of pace, would it not?"

Pinkie giggled. "Yeah! Like those little Diamond Dog pups at the start, after we saved their village from a landslide. They gave us tiny hugs and everything; so cute...!" She squeed, holding a hoof up and pretending to snuggle an invisible tiny being.

Twilight nodded with a grin. "Rarity's right, we didn't exactly give them room to haggle. But if we do this, we can get our first real lead on what happened to the Crown, and show the locals that not all giants are evil. Let's go pull a rescue!"


Everypony hoof-bumped, unaware of Spike looking through the campaign guide. Goreshade, the dragon they were all due to battle wasn't much bigger than the giants themselves, but his stats.... Spike winced. The girls would NOT have an easy time getting rid of the drake, even with the good rolls that carried them through the baron's fortress. And even then, there was the sheer power of the empire where the Crown had been taken... 

Then again, Twilight's Wondercaster Cyclops did know a spell that could make herself even BIGGER....

Session 10.1 BrutalityInc (For reference: Midnight)

Deep within a realm of chaos, two immortal and powerful beings are having a conversation over tea, far away from all and any prying ears.
 
“You’re playing a very dangerous game, Discord.” Princess Luna commented.
 
“Oh Luna, you wound me; you and Celestia know more than anypony else that’s how I like to play.” Discord responded with a grin, “Otherwise, danger wouldn’t be my middle name! Actually, no; it was that Pegasus… what’s her name again? Fire –”
 
“In any case, that isn’t the point.” Luna interrupted briskly.  Discord snorted, while Luna continued “This idea of yours carries significant amount of risks. If it goes wrong, it could endanger even you.”
 
“And I thought you ponies are willing to go far to reform villains.”  Discord said snidely, “If everyone were so afraid of risks they wouldn’t even be able to muster enough courage to leave their bedrooms.”
 
“Of course we are willing! Do you think us cowards?” Luna retorted, affronted “Does letting you out and have Fluttershy befriend you not enough of a gigantic risk? We nearly paid for it, too, twice I must add!”
 
“Touche.” Discord admitted, sipping his tea upside down. “But in any case, in the long term, with this plan, we’ll be opening up a whole world of opportunities.”
 
“If your plan works. But it doesn’t sound… sound.” Luna commented.
 
“Oh, but it is sound!” Discord said, as soon as he finished some cookie-sized mailboxes he was eating from his plate “Think about it, Lulu; you can control dreams as well as I can dish out chaos, shaping them like an artist would mold clay. It’s not beyond you to create whole dream-worlds for your own shenanigans – like when you recreated Ponyville as a collective dream for its ponies to join in the mash-up against your runaway pet Tantabus. And your more recent ‘Ravenloft’ dream-LARP campaign with Twilight and friends.”
 
“Remind me not those travesties! The former was a serious matter, the latter…” Luna sighed, shaking her head “I still don’t know how it went so wrong.”
 
“Has it perhaps colored your perception to my plan, ma chère?” Discord teased, earning him a glare from Luna, “The main idea is essentially the same, only instead of having our friends as players of our dream-LARP game – let’s call it DRP, DREAM Role-playing - we have villains as players instead!”
 
“‘Drag villains into constructed dream worlds and make them experience scenarios which would make them see the errors of their ways.’? I know what you mean by that; I'm FAMILIAR with that… Assuming that it is doable, what scenario do you have in mind? What campaign setting doth thou hath for our players and reformed-to-be?” Luna queried wearily, briefly slipping back into old-Equestrian. “It certainly seemed redundant to put them into roles of Dark-lords and Dark-ladies of Ravenloft, doomed to experience ironic torment, given they ARE or HAD already been evil overlords…”
 
“Oh, no, I got something better in mind!” Discord said, summoning a game-book which he floated toward Luna’s face. On its cover, an armored gargoyle with a tattered, fluttering cape stood on a balcony of a brass, waving a gauntlet, curled claw into the air outside. In the background, dark spires of a dark and terrible city could be seen silhouetted against a dark orange and blood-red sky, filled with smoke and circling dragons.
 
“‘Midnight – Epic Fantasy in an Age of Shadows.’” Luna read the title.
 
“It’s basically what happens if an evil overlord like me won and conquer the world. Minus all the chaos and crazed ponies, that is.” Discord said, leaning back and giving Luna time to browse through the game-book, “Long story short, in the fantasy world of Eremane, Izrador, the dark deity of evil and corruption, won a war of domination one century ago. In his victory, he now rules without pity or mercy, dominating the cursed continent with his Church of the Shadow and armies of loyal Gargoyles and Troggs minions, oppressing the downtrodden Ponies and Griffons. Deer and Diamond Dogs are hunted mercilessly, while the Donkeys and the rest are often enslaved to toil for the Shadow. The good deities who made war and then threw him out of their ranks ages past can't help, with their access to Eramane blocked by a magical veil that Izrador enshrouded the land with during his fall to Eramane. Even death is no escape; unable go to the afterlife, the dead rises constantly to attack and feast on the living.”
 
“How terrible…” Luna commented as she beheld pages describing a world of evil, suffering and tyranny without end. How can anyone allow it to happen? How far would one go to end it? “And that is your plan? You will have our villains enter the nightmare world described in this campaign, and then with our subtle prompting and events engineering, go about on a DRP-quest to free Eramane from the clutches of Izrador?”
 
“And along the way, to have an exquisite first-hoof experience of what’s it like to witness or be on the receiving end of evil overlord antics, thereby developing a conscience, empathy, a sense of justice and all those other good things good ponies have.” Discord confirmed, “And best part is, since you can control dreams, including the passage of time, you can have the villains you’re reforming experience the ENTIRE CAMPAIGN ADVENTURE in a single night. You can do it so deep within the Dreaming that when they wake up, they might not remember it, but the experience would remain, buried so deeply into their psyche that it’ll be impossible to excise. If necessary, you can do it as many nights as you want until the lessons stuck. One day, when they wake up again… they’ll never be the same again.”
 
“But there are so many possible flaws in this plan of yours.” Luna insisted, “For one, I know from experience that half the time, it would be easy for ponies to eventually realize they are in a dream, and once they do, they would see the experience as make-believe or artificial, as if what their dream-selves endure is some-pony else’s story…”
 
“Not if they DON’T know they’re in a dream.” Discord answered. “That would make it the ultimate DRP experience for them.”
 
“And how do you plan to do that? To make them utterly unable to distinguish dream from reality, we’ll have to remove every frame of reference with the waking world…” Luna stopped as she beheld the true meaning of Discord’s suggestion “Wait, you don’t mean…”
 
“We’ll have to do it anyway, so might as well do it first.” Discord shrugged, taking a sip from a coconut drink he summoned, “For this plan to work, the dream experience had to be inserted so deep into their minds, that when they wake up they’ll act upon those ideas and experiences we implanted, thinking it’s their own, steering them to goody-two-shoe-ness. An inception, as they call it in that film I watched in another dimension. BUT, there are a lot of mental defenses that would be spanners in the works.”
 
Discord slipped into lecture mode, “As you seen in my case, villains like moi don’t just have a ‘heel-face-turn’ overnight. It takes time, often with positive input like a sincere friend, to fully realize that what they are doing is wrong. They don’t see WHY they should change at first; even when you tell them or show them, they’ll conjure, both consciously and subconsciously, all sorts of mental gymnastics, all kinds of lovely self-justifications, rationalizations, circular logic and what not in self-defence. Layers upon layers, all to protect their twisted ego and legitimize their generic villainous motivations, no matter how hypocritical or irrational it may be.”
 
“All that, dear Lulu, draws upon their memories and experiences in the real world. When villains begin their paths to darkness, they remember the circumstances that led them to villainy, the emotions they felt from committing horrible evil, and learn what they can from their losses and wins. These memories and experiences influence their thinking and mental processes, blocking anything we try to put into their heads through our DRP, preventing them from becoming fully form in their subconscious and sticking long enough to take root.”
 
“So in order to truly influence them towards the light as they experience the scenario we give them…” Luna began as the conclusion dawn upon her.
 
“They must go into our DRP as a blank slate.” Discord finished it for her, moving a piece “They must begin like the level-10 starting characters in those adventure RPGs with multiple endings: naïve colts and fillies with minimum backstories who start off clueless and malleable, but gradually grows and becomes solid with ‘character development’ as destiny calls and they’re drawn to the epic adventure, making choices, saving kingdoms and punching out the bad guys. For that though, we must cast our own ‘Veil of Izrador’ on their memories: All the baggage from their waking world selves, anything that they could use for comparison, anything that could influence their responses or let them realize it’s not real, must be shelved during that time.”
 
“Impossible!” Luna exclaimed, both outrage and disbelieving “Not only do I believe it a horrid act, one simply can’t erase and modify memories on a whim, even at our level of power! Any mind would resist modification unless the pony WANTS to forget or remember differently!”
 
“Well of COURSE it’s not going to work if you do it that! How do you suppose I go around ‘discording’ ponies back then?” Discord retorted, “And we don’t NEED to; just repressing all the memories of their waking life for the time spent in the dream game is enough. It’ll go around the resistance problem since ponies do that to their own bad memories all the time. It’s part of their mental defense mechanisms!”
 
Discord then dropped the figurative bombshell, “So that’s the gist of it: I’m not suggesting we use our magic to force retrograde amnesia; to get around the memory modification resistance problem, I’m suggesting we use our magic to trick or hijack the memory-suppressing part of their own mental defenses, and then use it to repress all the relevant waking-world memories, which would also turn off the rest of their mental defenses from the inside in one go. THEN we can do inception on their minds through our game scenario without complications.”
 
Luna stared jaws-agape at Discord, shocked at the sheer audacity of his proposal. Once again, she’s reminded why Discord is considered mad. A part of her pondered the morality (and sanity) of it, another part questioned if it’s even doable...
 
Yet, it does sound brilliant on paper. And audacious, brilliant plans, if done right…
 
“It… It just might work.” Luna said breathed. Then, “This requires careful consideration.”
 
“Oh why, why… why hesitate? Do you think you could afford to have this idea go to waste?” Discord exclaim, exasperated, “How long do you think before cheese-leg Chrysalis is going to strike again, putting your precious ponies in danger of being turned into changeling food-batteries? What about good ‘o Tirek? How long do you think before he’s going to break out again and try to steal every-pony’s magic? And who knows what uppity crook, monster, diabolical genius or mad demigod would pop up next week, or the next month, or next thousand years? You give us evil villains time, and they’ll recover and try again, and again; and one of those tries, they’ll get smart or lucky and they’ll win, just like Izrador did in Eramane!”
 
“DON’T BE A RECKLESS FOOL!” Luna shut Discord up with a shout of the Royal Canterlot Voice. Calming down, she continued, “I did not say it is a bad plan, nor am I being indecisive. But at where we stand, I have never done anything like this on such a scale, and we hardly understand some of the villains we want to reform with our dream game.”
 
“Tirek, for example, has resisted every attempt by Pinkie Pie to reform him through Crystals and Rainbows game through creative interpretation of the rules. Queen Chrysalis is the self-proclaimed ‘Empress of Mind Magic’, a shrewd actress and a cunning schemer.” Luna paused to catch her breath, “Both no doubt had many tricks up their sleeves; for all we know, merely by connecting them into Dreaming, Tirek could drain both our magic through our dream-selves, or Chrysalis could subvert our minds and make us into her mindless, brainwashed minions to use against Equestria.”
 
“AND THEN, even once in our dream campaign, unable to recall their waking lives, if they discover even the tiniest glitches or flaws in our dream campaign world, they might suspect that something is amiss, and then ultimately work to DERAIL the game like Twilight and her friends did many times!”
 
“Hence I believe it risky; there’s too many unknowns, and too many ways it could backfire unless we cover all bases.” Luna gave voice to her doubts, “We only have one shot at this for each villain, or everything could crash and burn. I… I can’t be a Dungeon Master to such a game, if I couldn’t plan everything PERFECTLY.”
 
“… You don't have to, and I can HELP you cover those bases.” Discord said, uncharacteristically determined “I mean, I’m Discord, for Pete’s sake! Spirit of Chaos here? HELLO! I can do practically anything with Chaos Magic. You want all their potential game-breaking powers suppressed? Fine, I can do that, just like I took away the wings and horns in the Hedge Maze. I’m practically the embodiment of order breaking down in reality: you want your world to be flawless? I’ll patch up any glitches in the matrix! You want material to make the Eramane believable? I have literally eons of experience to draw on being an evil overlord, having been pony-kind’s devil-archetype incarnate!”
 
“And let’s not forget, Luna: You and your sister can move celestial objects, and rule a nation of pastel-colored magical ponies. There’s NOTHING you cannot do if you throw even a fraction of that power and resources at your disposal. You want to make this the perfect game campaign, one that could redeem evil itself? Go. All. IN! This dream would be your masterpiece. Let me be the Co-DM, Lulu; with your creativity, my experience, our powers combined, this will be the greatest game campaign ever!” Discord finished his declaration with a flourish, standing upon a soapbox that he unwittingly summoned during his speech.
 
“You seemed awfully passionate about all this…” Luna noted suddenly, “Are you sure you are not merely using this as an excuse to mess with other villains’ heads?”
 
Discord’s serious expression melted back into that sinister, mischievous leer Luna is all too familiar with, “Well, would I be Discord if I miss an opportunity like that? Might as well call myself ‘George’ then. Plus, if they go nuts in the process, it’s just karma for them.”
 
Luna gave him a long, thoughtful look. Then, she put down her teacup and stood up, picking up the O&O ‘Midnight’ game-book. “I shall consult with my sister and Twilight over this. As for whether it would be accomplished? Well…” She charged her horn for a spell, “We shall see.”
 
With a flash of teleport, she disappeared, leaving Discord alone. The chaos serpent looked down at her tea cup she left behind, before shouting after her “You could had at least finished your tea! Fluttershy got these for me, you know!”


Session 10.2 Kichi

Fluttershy walked with a smile, it was a little hard, but she managed to let the girls have Discord try again as a game master in one of his games, even when he almost managed to make them go crazy.

She called to the door of Discord Room and opened it, only to find a group of around four Discord's playing at a table with another Discord as a game master, it seemed that they didn't notice her presence as they were in the middle of a game, but after a couple of minutes, Fluttershy could not really manage to find sense to that game and without saying a word she closed the door and get out of the house.

"Sorry girls, I think he is going to be busy today" Commented Fluttershy as she put a little smile as a squeak could be heard from her.

Session 10.3 Alex Warlorn

Octavia had never imagined Derpy would prove to be such an exceptional Dungeon Master... at least once they were able to get Time Turner to stand down and give up the reigns.

And Vinyl had only had to kill, two or three of his characters before he stopped hogging the spot light.

Her roommate create an image of dice floating in the air.

"Yes Vinyl I have my dice bag, I only forgot it ONCE." And that was due to the headache she had from explaining to Lyra and Bon Bon that herself and Vinyl were ACTUALLY just friends, not 'just friends.' Vinyl felt more like the baby sister Octavia never wanted some times.

There was a knock on the door, two in fact. And there was the sound of pushing and shoving.
Curious, Octavia opened the door, to find two ponies. One was Pipsqueak, who was wearing a blue cloak with a crescent moon on its back.

The other was an earth pony pony Octavia vaguely recognized, purple/pink coat, her mane in two sets of braids and a purple and magenta equal sign for a cutie mark. She was also grinning so big it was a wonder her head didn't fall off.

"Hello! I'm Suri Polomare. But you can call me Buttons! Have you heard the good news of Equality?" Suri grinned. "You get to be free of the chains of destiny, and you can keep your cutie mark in a jar instead of it enslaving you. It's bliiissssss!"

"Uh, cutie marks don't work like that," Octavia said.

"Oh no no we have proof! Shortly before Twilight Sparkles' ascension-"

"HEY! I was here first!" Pipsqueak pushed. "Miss Octavia, have you heard the good news about Princess Luna? She's best Princess. The mother of the Bat Pony tribe, and protector of Equestria's night, guardian of dreams, and ruler of the moon! Would you like to join Luna's Witnesses?"

Octavia had a feeling they were going to be late to the game.

Session 10.4 Alex Warlorn

-In the Human World-

Shining Armor checked his web mail. "Rein of Chaos release date pushed back again? What's going on with them?"

-

"For the last time Discord, no! You're NOT ALLOWED to use mind control hypno-screens to render players the upcoming 'discorded' status effect in real life! Do you have any idea how many ways we'll go sued?" Chrysalis said, the green haired woman looking none too happy.

Discord, their lead game programmers waved his hands. "Not if we put it in our 'end user agreement' those things are iron clad, and the players never read them anyway! And just think how much it'll enhance the experience!"

"No means no!"

Discord whined. "I thought it was a good compromise after you told me I couldn't take direct control of the characters away from their players for the initial quest of the first expansion when they get discorded! If I have them simply switch factions, they'll play poorly just to let their team win the quest!"

"Figure something else out."

"How about a self-governing AI programmed to identify and prey upon the insecurities and psychological weaknesses of the players?"

"Why did we give you tenure again?" Chrysalis said feeling a headache coming on.

"You didn't want me running off to another game studio or government agencies who'd pay me more for my talent."

Session 10.5 Grogar-the-oneser

"Speaking of expansion...." Both turn to look at their boss Sombra walking into the room carrying something. "Here's a list for my expansion for you to add once yours is implemented."

"Isn't it a bit early to show what you want for our expansion, Discord hasn't even completed his."

"It pays to be prepared," Sombra stated.

Discord grabbed the notes and read them a bit, "Okay I get the mind control helmet, but what's with the stairs?"

"I want to see how many of them take the stress with all the stair levels before we give them a certain gravity spell almost 3/4 the way there," Sombra said.

"That sound annoying and troll-like. I wholeheartedly approve!" Discord said. "But I would like if you remove the backstory for the changeling race."

"What wrong with it? Sombra asked.

"Nothing, he's just complaining cause it my idea," Chrysalis said snidely.

"It's completely moronic, I mean how the devil would they realize they were born from such a scenario, was the nut sentient?" Discord asked snidely.

"It's suppose to be a kick the dog moment of storytelling," Chrysalis snapped.

"More like poke the poodle," Discord muttered. "Besides if I can't use hypno-screens and evil emotion using AIs then she can't use lame backstories."

Session 10.6 Mooncalf99

"Umm... excuse me, Mr Discord, Sir?"

Discord spun around. The newcomer was a brown-haired moppet of a boy, hunched over in the universal manner of someone trying to look small and unnoticeable, and clutching a stack of papers. His whole appearance screamed 'intern'. And yet something looked familiar about the boy. Discord was reminded of... "...Tirek? You're that boy hanging around Tirek, right? Scorchy?"

"Um, Scorpan, sir," Scorpan corrected carefully. "Tirek is my brother. Um."

"Yes, yes, we can all see the family resemblance," Chrysalis said, rolling her eyes in annoyance. "We were having an important business discussion, so make yourself scarce, kid."

"Now, now, Chryssi," Discord said disarmingly. "I'm sure the boy had a very good reason for speaking up." He turned to Scorpan and smiled widely. Perhaps a bit widely, and in a manner that tended to remind people of wolves. "You did have a reason, didn't you? You didn't just decide to barge in on three of your superiors who could get you thrown out on the street in less than a minute if we don't like what you have to say, did you? Because that would be very stupid. You're not very stupid, are you, Scorpan?"

Scorpan swallowed nervously, feeling as though a rock had lodged in his throat. Or possibly his foot. "N-no... I mean, no, I had a... a reason. I, um..." He took a deep breath. "I heard you arguing about the, uh, discording thing? And I thought, Achievements!"

"Achievements?" Sombra rumbled.

"Uh, yes!" Scorpan said hastily. "You could give players Achievements for getting discorded and, uh, doing discorded things! A lot of my guild members love to collect Achievements! You know, one hundred percent completion and all?"

"That's just pointless filler," Chrysalis scoffed. "Anyway, of course we were going to add a bunch of those. How is that going to help Discord's little pet project?"

"Well, um..." Scorpan tugged nervously at his collar. He was beginning to regret this, but if he tried to back out now, he'd be fired. Worse, he'd have to explain this to his brother. "You could have... alternate quests that required the players to act discorded? With special quest rewards if they play the part?"

"Alternate quests..." Discord mused. His grin widened even more, if possible. "The players would have an actual incentive to act discorded for real. Continuously! They would do everything for us, with no more compelling than offering some digital shinies!" He laughed. "Hah! They'd even *want* to get discorded just to get an Achievement! It's so insidious, I love it!"

"Much as I hate to agree with Discord, anything that keeps us out of a lawsuit is good," Chrysalis said. "And I like the idea of making the players do our work for us."

"Good," Sombra said. "Discord, get on it. And get started on those expansions. Chrysalis, drum up some PR for the new features. I'm taking the afternoon off."

"So, uh... you like it?" Scorpan asked nervously.

Discord grinned at him. "Let's go down to the cafeteria and brainstorm a few ideas. I'll buy you a sandwich. Say, how'd you like to be my newest assistant?"

Scorpan nodded slowly and followed his new boss. Somehow, he couldn't shake the feeling he'd regret this day. Still, it beat getting fired, right?

Session 10.7 Alex Warlorn

The mane six had gathered at Sugar Cube corner to drink their pain and shame away. Barrels of cider were guzzled away by the mares.

"I'm sorry girls," Twilight sighed. "I got you all killed."

Mr. and Mrs. Cake politely decided to say nothing and just serve cider.

"Oh Twili, it wasn't your fault." Fluttershy offered.

"Yes it was! I'm the Heir! It's my job to decide when a mission has become too dangerous and it's better to live to fight another day! But no! You'd made it to the Wizened Witch's lair! And I pressed you on ahead!"

"None of us were crazy, and none of us were dead. I'd say we'd had a shot." Rainbow Dash said, using her wings to keep balance to lament the loss of her highway mare Jackyle H. (who was rotting in the Darkest Hamlet graveyard a few plots from to his brother, Jack H.).

"You were also all at half health. With no bandages, no anti-venom, no herbs, and no food. And camping buffs got used up on previous surprise attacks AND! Because we were so low on funds treating the insanity of your OTHER characters, I didn't have enough money to even buy torches, shovels, or enough food!"

Applejack raised a hoof. "Yer not the only to blame Twili'... my Crusader had nothin' but first and second position attacks, when we knew that dang witch would be in the rear, and that pot of hers in the front. It was stupid, Ah couldn't do anythin' but heal, but it didn't mean a thing cause we were tryin' to get one of us out of the pot all the time!"

The ponies all shuddered... pretty much none of them hadn't escaped the witch's curse, trapping one of them in her cooking put until their HP was at Death's Door or they spilled the pot over... the former happening a lot more than the latter.

"We were arrogant darlings." Rarity sighed. "After killing the Apprentice Necromancer in the manor ruins on their first go without anypony dying and us mostly sane, we felt on top of the world."

"And we didn't have any means of instilling Bleed of Bright Effects on her because, Dashie's highway mare couldn't use her vein slice from how the witch and her were set up!" Pinkie Pie lamented. Dash REALLY preferred direct damage moves... until it finally hit her how unlike in most games, they actually stacked up, and actually made a different in battle... Pinkie Pie's jester Steinburg had found out the hard way even though they had increased resistance to killing blows and bled to death instead!

Twilight shook her head. "Your packs were heavy with loot by the time you reached the hag, more than enough to heal any sanity loss for retreating... but no, I let you press on ahead, not to take a loss from the healing from the stress of retreating."

"Even if that makes no sense." Fluttershy said, taking a stance on retreating from a unwinnable situation as being a sign of sanity! The ponies agreed that retreating from danger INCREASING stress, felt VERY arbitrary.

And their plague doctors still had the creeping cough and needed to be treated and they couldn't even afford treatment. And their coffers were reduced to 45G, when a single torch cost 75G. The next expedition was going to be a death march.

Dante the crusaders had also been one of the original heroes to come to the estate, along with Jack H. the highway mare (who had died escorting a group of level 0 heroes while he was level 1 through the ruins... in the campaign's second adventure proper).
And now Dante joined his friend in death.

"And," Fluttershy admitted. "My Hellion couldn't do any damage to the witch except with my 'hit first three positions at once' move, and that lessened my attack damage every time."

The ponies agreed, the entire fight had been effectively lost before it even began. Except.

"I think we had a chance." Pinkie Pie. "My Occultist, Haji, had her on the ropes."

"Pinkie Pie," AJ said. "The only reason ya got the witch down to single digit HP, is because when Haji stress hit 100, he became heroic instead of going crazy. And lasted one killing blows at zero HP than any pony has a right to... even when he was the last guy standing, and couldn't use his healing move because he was the one standing and was front in line, and couldn't use that ceremony knife of his." One of the odd mechanics in the game was, not only could you only hit enemies in certain positions with certain moves, but you could only USE certain moves in certain positions! Pinkie Pie had been lucky Haji had the 'sacrificial knife' move equipped at all. Or the fight would have been already over.

"I still don't get why the enemy leave corpses that get in our way." Rainbow Dash complained. "When OUR characters die, they don't and we lose formation!"

"Maybe they get teleported back to the Hamlet? And that's how our corpses end up back in the Graveyard?" Pinkie Pie suggested.

Rarity herself of all ponies grumbled. "As a mare who pays attention to sizes, I swear that that plump witch's size SHOULD have made her count for two position slots just like her pot, and Futtershy's iron swan attack, made explicitly to hit enemies in the forth back position SHOULD have hit her!"

"Spike did say he was just following the manual said," Twilight defended.

"I will admit..." Rarity said, "It was mature for Spike to let the dice fall where they may, instead of fudging them to let us win. Not that I think he ever has of course."

Pinkie Pie said. "But did the Narrator Voice REALLY have to boom, 'You can not learn what you think you know!' when our whole party died? I think Fluttershy hid in the closet!"

"... He sounded so upset ... and I was really sorry that we let our heroes all die."

"SO RD, those ponies at the game store STILL calling us Soft-Core?" AJ asked.

"No... they're calling us masochists for playing this game!"

"I'd say it's brutal." Twilight agreed. "Even the weakest monsters are there to kill us, not feed us free gold and experience points, but not masochist... it's not Dark Spirits after all... don't ask, the less you know about that game, the less YOU are going to need stressing healing instead of just your characters. And less you think something only has meaning once it's been destroyed."

"AND!" Rainbow Dash lamented further. "All the gold we spent on upgrading their equipment and abilities is just gone! Why the heck can't we take their armor and weapons out of the ground and give them to the next suckers coming to that creepy place to die?!"

Another odd mechanic of the game, was that leveling up didn't level up stats or HP or attack... instead it only increased your resistance to the mind shattering horrors you were experiencing. HP, attack, and the like, were increased by the black smith upgrading your weapons and armor. And paying the guild to train your characters in new technique and improving old ones.

"Rainbow, I tried already to figure out some of the twisted mechanics here... Spike got me to stop when I began rambling in dark tones and scribbling twisting symbols on the walls in red crayon."

"This wouldn't be a problem if you joined me, Angel, Glimmer, and Suri for our game of Bunnies and Borrows," Fluttershy offered. "Not that... not that there's anything WRONG with playing this scary, unhappy dark dark game!" Fluttershy covered her tracks.

A part of Twilight did wonder if it would be better just to quit Darkest Dungeon.

Session 10.8 Kendell2


"Wait a second..." Rainbow Dash asked. "HOW exactly does this work?"

The group looked at the game Fluttershy had brought in, called Undertail 'the RPG where you don't have to destroy anypony!'. Discord was also present.

"Oh...well, you see one of you plays a pony..." she explained. "Who climbed a mountain that legend has it a bunch of monsters were sealed away under after a war with the ponies. You fell down a hole and are now at the bottom. You can either fight, or try to befriend and spare every monster! Up to you!"

"I got that, but what about the REST of us?" the pony asked.

"You're the monsters...well, some of them," she explained. "You're some of the um...'bosses'. You see the monsters aren't all evil! They're just like us ponies, there are good and bad ones. But they want to get out, and they need a seventh pony's soul to break the barrier keeping them trapped and some just want to stop the pony from hurting anypony because they think ponies are evil!...But not all of them want to, their king just ordered them to! It's kinda up to you what you think!"

"So what do we do when we're not boss fights?!" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Simple: have lives! That's part of the game: the monsters are ponies with lives of their own!" Fluttershy explained.

"Oh...So who gets to be the pony?"

"Um...I don't want to pick...dice roll?"

They choose numbers and rolled the dice. It came up with a two, meaning Twilight got to be the foal, or filly in this case.

Fluttershy put her 'tutorial/story' character on the board as well, a nice, kind looking goat-like creature. She explained her character wasn't invincible and could be killed in her boss fight.

"Wait, why is Discord here? We didn't roll for him," Rainbow questioned suspiciously as they began writing their characters down. The game allowed them to decide their OWN mechanics for their 'boss fight' so long as their fight wasn't unwinnable and they had it built into their character some way they could be non-violently defeated.

"Oh, because I already have mine!" Discord called, holding up a little flower figurine that reminded Rainbow of Happy Daisy. "The role fit me perfectly! Besides, I tried playing the game with Tirek, but he was the pony and...well, this isn't a game you can replay after playing like HE does it."

"...That kinda disturbs me..." said Rainbow Dash. 'And not just because of Nightmares.'

Soon after, 'their best friend' (as the Discord said for his character) tried to teach Twilight's filly (which she named Nyx for reasons even she wasn't sure of) how to 'share' LOVE (the game's version of levels) with 'friendship pellets' that nearly killed Nyx in one hit and then mocked her before trying to finish the job.

"And that explains a lot," Rainbow Dash said as Discord tried his best to look innocent.

She then got a smirk when Fluttershy's character interrupted and blew the 'happy little flower' across the map to protect the 'cute little filly'.

"...I'm the bad guy in a game Fluttershy picked, did you really think I'd be invincible?" he admitted with minor annoyance.

Session 10.9 Alex Warlorn

"GIRLS! I'm sorry! I GOT US ALL KILLED!" Fluttershy lamented.

"Shy what are you talking about?" Rainbow asked.

"I check the rule books again, Hellion can only use Iron Swan when in first position, I spent most of the fight with the witch in the second position, I COULD HAVE hit her, if Applejack's Crusader and my Hellion had been in different positions!"

"SPIKE! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US!" Rainbow snarled. The rest, including Twilight and Rarity, stared daggers at him.

Spike held his cool. "Girls, it's YOUR JOB to remember what your character can and can't do, I only said that Fluttershy couldn't hit the witch with that move from her current position, I never said the witch DIDN'T take up the third and forth position because she was so fat. You girls came to that conclusion on your own. I wasn't my job to correct you. The manual explicitly says that I should LET YOU make mistakes no matter how big the consequences."

The Elements of Harmony looked at each other.

Applejack sighed. "... Yer right Spike, dangit. But Shy, we ALL messed up somehow, I didn't come with any moves to hit the witch AT ALL, so Ah was next to useless except for a tiny bit of healin'... We all added to the mess, and it blew up on our face... we're stuck learnin' from it. That's all." AJ gave Fluttershy a gently hug.

"Thanks Applejack." Fluttershy smiled.

Session 10.10 Grogar-the-oneser

"Also you girls get way too emotionally invested in theses games," Spikes said, everypony glared at him. "What it's true. You girls get WAY too involve in these games sometimes. And before you point out that I sometime do it too, I'm usually the guy running these little ventures so I'm suppose to get invested sometimes," Spike said.

"Alright then, we will remember that the next you play a game in a non-Oubliettes Master role. We'll make sure to pick a heavy emotional game so you can show us how it's done," Rainbow said annoyed.

".... On second thought I profusely apologize and offer my cooking services for the next week for all you girls if you pretend I didn't say anything," Spike said.

Session 10.11 Grogar-the-oneser

"Okay why didn't you invite Fluttershy?" Starlight asked.

"Oh well the game we are playing may not be the best suited for her," Twilight said.

"Twilight after playing that Darkest Dungeon game, I'm pretty sure Fluttershy will handle this one," Rainbow said annoyed.

"Not really, I got this game from Sunset when visiting her world, and I REALLY think it'd be better if she didn't play this one," Twilight insisted.

"Oh come now Twilight what game could possibly be so bad that fluttershy can't play it?"

"Killer Bunnies And The Quest For The Magic Carrot," Twilight said quite seriously.

".... seriously," Rainbow Dash said annoyed.

"It's not what you think, see it's a card game for 2-8 players. Winning is accomplished by acquiring carrot cards, one of which is revealed to be the winning 'magic carrot' at the end of the game. Acquiring carrot cards is done primarily through the use of bunnies, which allow the use of an enormous variety of in-game actions," Twilight explained.

"Okay so it's a strange form of lottery card game, but that still doesn't explain why you didn't invite Fluttershy," Starlight said.

"There's a second part. See you're also suppose to kill the bunnies," Twilight said.

Everyone blinked. "What," Rarity balked.

"Not your own obviously. You're trying to kill off each other's bunnies while keeping as many of yours alive as possible," Twilight said. "And you can kill the other bunnies off with everything from a kitchen whisk to a nuke."

Everyone took a step back "One, that sounds messed up, two what in Tartarus is a nuke?" Starlight asked.

"A) calm down in terms of violence it's basically a very simplified and largely nonviolent game, B) nothing you need to worry about and c) now do you realize why I didn't invite fluttershy," Twilight said.

"Well yeah now we do," Rainbow said.

"Good, then lets start playing."

Session 10.12 Ardashir

"So it's like that time you didn't want Spike to show that human-world bunny movie 'Watership Down' to Fluttershy, either, darling?"

"You saw it, Rarity. Can you imagine how Fluttershy would react?"

Everypony at the table shuddered.

Session 10.13 Kendell2

After that darkest dungeons game had made them depressed (as it seemed very good at doing) and they were collectively contemplating whether or not to actually keep going (especially after the GM looked ahead and realized how depressingly it ended, no one complained), a game of Crystals and Rainbows Generation 3.5 was thought in order, especially considering there'd been a new expansion involving a wishing star.

"So Spike's friend Weatherbe is in this?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Pinkie smirked (being the Rainbow Maker). "You could say that..."

"So this game is set in a world were the one time somepony became princess they didn't like the pressure or treatment and made EVERYPONY present princess?" Starlight asked.

"Yep!" Pinkie exclaimed.

"And everypony goes out of their way to understand everypony and even the Princesses don't act like they're above anypony else?"

"Yep. One time a pony thought they would no pony cared and went out of their way to tell her they loved her no matter what and LIKED HER for who she was," Pinkie Pie continued.

"...And even with Princesses everypony is treated just as well and equally as everypony else?"

"That's the idea," Twilight replied with a smile.

"...Is it wrong I wish this place were real?" Starlight asked, giving a genuine smile.

"Not at all," the lavender Alicorn replied, giving her a hug.

Session 10.14 Richforce (Based on Xenogears Chronicles X and contains minor story spoilers.)

“Thanks for inviting me guys,” said Spike as he sat down in Featherweight’s basement. “Usually when I do stuff like this everypony else is a filly or mare.”

“It’s nice to have a game with just us colts,” said Snips. “I like the girls but sometimes you need a guy’s night in.”

Button Mash had started spreading out sheets he’d need to be DM. “I think you guys are going to like this game. My dad came up with it after the success of that mecha game he made.”
“Will we get robots in this one too?” asked Featherweight.

“Yeah actually, but only you can only pilot the mecha, here called Skells, once you get to the upper levels. He wanted it to be something that players earned this time around.”

“I do hope this story has a lot of adventure in it,” said Pipsqueak.

“It should, you’re mostly exploring an alien planet. In the setting two alien forces started fighting each other while attacking Equus. Our planet gets destroyed but a number of ships manage to evacuate a fair number of people. Now one ship, the White Dragon, was damaged in another fight with one of the alien forces and parts of it crash lands on the planet Mira. The residential portion of the ship is set up as the city of New Los Pegasus or NLP. Our characters are members of a paramilitary organization with two main goals; keeping the citizens of NLP safe and finding the Lifehold, the part of the ship where most of White Dragon’s passengers are still in statis and has landed intact but in an unknown part of the planet. The group is called Building a Legacy After the Destruction of Equus or more simply as BLADE.

“Cool,” said Snips and Snails.

“Ok,” said Featherweight. “Let’s make our characters while button finishes up.”
Spike raised a claw. “I got a question. I see where we choose character class but there’s also something called a ‘division’ we have to pick?”

“Oh,” said Button. “That part tells a bit about your character’s personality by defining your responsibilities in BLADE. You can do other sorts of missions but matching them up with your division will get you bonus points when it comes to improving your standing in BLADE.”
“So what are the Divisons?” asked Pip.

“There are eight total. First you have the Pathfinders, their main job is to plant data probes into the ground and expand FrontierNav, a sensor network that will gather data on Mira’s flora and fauna and hopefully find the Lifehold.

“Next are the Interceptors, they are responsible for dealing with hostile indigens, native animal lifeforms from attacking NLP any of the survey groups exploring the wilds of Mira, they’re also responsible for helping NLP citizens in distress.

“Third you have the Harriers, if the Interceptors are the defense then Harriers are the offense. It’s their job to track down high risk Indigens known as Tyrants and take them down if they’re considered too dangerous to be left alone.

“Fourth up are the Reclaimers, when the White Dragon was crashed a lot of debris and components were scattered. The Reclaimers try to bring back these pieces and anything left behind from failed operations since anything from Equus is considered irreplaceable and probably vital to survival.

“Curators are the frontline explorers, they’re the first to any new areas to collect new materials and examine any archeological remnants of other Miran inhabitants.
“Prospectors use minerals and resources mined with help from the FrontierNav to maintain the livelihood of NLP’s citizens

“Outfitters work closely with arms manufacturing companies to develop the weapons, armor and skells for Blade. Pretty much they get the cool stuff first.

“Finally there’s the Mediators, their core objective is to resolve problems of NLP’s citizens, sometimes by acting as councilors and others by acting like police.”

“Well count me in as a Harrier!” said Snips. “Should go well with my guy being a melee attacker.”

“I’ll be with the Interceptors,” said Snails. “My character is going to be a sniper so it works.”

“And I’m Reclaimer!” said Featherweight. “As for class I’m going with an agility based build.”

“Curator’s best for me!” said Pip. “I’d get to explore and it’ll help me tank for you guys!”

“What about you Spike?” Button asked.

“I think I’ll go with Pathfinder and my class is going to balance long and short range attacks.”

“Ok, your first mission for Blade is going to be a simple installment of a data probe close to NLP…”

+++

The first mission was relatively easy, except for the Tyrant they ended up fighting. The next mission however was to locate a Pathfinder team that went missing. On getting to their last known location they encountered a group of bipedal aliens that said their orders were to attack any Equusians on sight. Going further into the base they found that the alien commander of the base had wiped out the missing team. After taking down the commander and his goons then rescuing a native of the planet Spike spoke up. “Well if hostile animals weren’t enough we now have to deal with aliens that are actually out to get us, maybe one of the aliens that blew Equus up.”

“At least we’ve made a friend too,” said Pip. “I mean we did save that native from becoming their dinner.”

“The guy they mistook for a radish?” said Snips. “I’m not the smartest pony but I get the feeling that he’ll probably be more annoying than helpful.”

“Well if not him at least we’re making inroads with the locals,” said Snails. “That’s good right?”

“I’m more worried that since Button is giving us some more help because things are going to get worse from here,” said Featherweight.

“I get what you’re saying,” said Button. “When I’m playing a video game and I find a room full of powerups, save points or weapons I know that really difficult segment is coming up. But don’t worry too much right now. Dad designed each main story campaign to have requirements that will give you the time to build up levels and equipment before you get too far over your heads.”

“Well anyway thanks guys,” said Spike. “But if any of the fillies want to play with us we aren’t going to stop them right?”

“Course not,” said Pip. “Anypony is welcome.”

“I know with how many more girls than boys there seem to be in Ponyville or even all of Equestria at times it can feel like we may not matter that much,” said Featherweight. “But nopony ever thinks less of another for being a boy or a girl.”

“You got that right,” said Spike.

Session 10.15 Kendell2 (Based off this scene: youtu.be/DrmN6epBVNI )


"Wait wait, so what just happened?" Rainbow Dash asked, the groups mecha having gotten collectively thrashed by the arrival of THREE members of the alien parasite faction all nearly as strong as what they'd THOUGHT was the leader of that faction, which they'd just destroyed in a grueling boss fight.

"Well you see EL-01 wasn't their ACTUAL leader: he was a terminal program for their REAL leader, who's part of the control core for the program running the parasites," Twilight explained. She blinked when she got blank stares. "...He was just the avatar for the ACTUAL controller of them...It's a new module."

"Ugh...I hate force loss scenarios!" Rainbow muttered. "Guess we'll have to retreat an-"

"Not so fast!" Trixie announced, getting a cocky look on her face. "Twilight, in case you haven't noticed, Trixie hasn't used any her mecha upgrade points yet!"

Twilight blinked. She'd noticed that: Trixie hadn't used ANY of her upgrades, only using her level ups to power her mecha up enough to keep the support role it was designed for. "Yeah..."

The showmare gave a smirk. "This is a Manega inspired RPG, Trixie expected there'd be a part of the game where you'd throw something like this. So now I trade in ALL my upgrades for a new mecha instead of repairing Dazzling Spectacle!"

Twilight's eyes went wide. "What?! ALL of them?!"

Trixie put a new bio up to Twilight.

"It's alternate mode is a BATTLESHIP?!" Twilight asked in shock.

"Called Majesty's Arc. The command bridge can transform into a miniture mecha called Majesty, or the entire vessel can transform into Queen Majesty!" Trixie announced dramatically. This naturally meant Queen Majesty was GIGANTIC, but with the amount of levels she fed into it, that was no surprise.

"You...you planned this?!" Twilight asked. Naturally the plan was for all the mecha to be upgraded or replaced with ones strong enough to deal with the new threat, but Trixie had outright skipped that part.

'Been looking for a chance to make you all forget that time I accidentally nuked the game board,' Trixie thought.

"Trixie expected there'd be a 'midseason upgrade' necessitating boss, classic manega plot point. Barely any without it that have upgrades. Looks like she was right," she said, giving a smirk.

The Princess of Friendship tried to regain her composure. "O-Okay..."

Rainbow Dash patted Trixie on the back. "Nice one." Normally she'd be a bit upset at being outshined by Trixie...but it was admittedly hilarious to see Twilight's forced loss situation blow up in her face.

"Thank you. Now, Majesty's Arc, launch!" Trixie announced in the hammy fashion required for her mecha running on hotbloodedness. Being Trixie, her mecha's entrance involved emerging from a freaking VOLCANO. "Fire main cannons!"

Twilight did the rolls as did Trixie...and Trixie got a max strike. "You...you almost destroy one Prime-evil in one hit...They consider you the greatest threat and the two intact ones converge while the third starts regenerating."

Trixie won her defense roll, the others choosing to let her handle the fight and retreat for repairs. "Transform!"

Twilight found that Trixie had already gone for the defense shields on her mecha for transformations, and as a result, the Prime-evils' attacks did next to nothing on the vulnerable round.

"QUEEN! MAJESTY!" Trixie announced dramatically, the theatrics getting a boost for her next attack roll. "Fire all cannons! Spread!"

Trixie's next attack stunned one of the beasts, allow Trixie to perform a follow up. The other monster's attack failed to do much of anything to the behemoth, allowing Trixie to smash it down as well.

"The one you attacked at first has regenerated and initiates it's grab attack!" Twilight announced.

Trixie won her roll to break free of the assault. With only a few blows Trixie had damaged all three.

"Now to end it! MAJESTY ARROW!" Trixie announced in her most over the top and hammy way.

Twilight stared at the result. "You...you destroy two of them, claiming their cores, the third one is critically wounded...it retreats..."

Trixie gave a bow. "Trixie knows how to make a show of it..."

Twilight wasn't TOO mad, after all those WERE the first three, while Trixie had a BIG headstart, the others would be more on her level, but she'd just been dumbfounded Trixie had known enough about manega to see it coming!

Session 10.16 BrutalityInc


"Now, Rainbow Dash, what have we learnt today?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

"'Don't bite more than you can chew.' Yeah, I got that; they keep telling us since summer flight school." Rainbow Dash groaned.

"Yes, but it seems to be a lesson hasn't stuck, darling." Rarity snarked, "I though you would had learnt that since you kicked that dragon in the snout."

"ONE silly mistake, and you'll never hear the end of it!" Rainbow Dash grumbled, turning away from Rarity in a huff, brooding.

"Now you know how Trixie feels regarding her own undeserved reputation." Trxie remarked. She paused to take a sip of her strawberry slush before continuing, "Trixie is curious, though, WHAT exactly did Rainbow Dash do that warranted such a lesson?"

"We were playing the tabletop RPG adaptation of that popular adventure RPG video-game series; you know, the one where a Great War fought with balefire bombs reduced Equestria and the world into a post-apocalyptic wasteland?"

"Oh, that! It would had been a great loss to Trixie if she had never been an avid fan of that franchise!" Trixie said, suddenly enthusiastic, "Trixie recalls fun times in one game where she got a mission concerning a quarry infested with deadly mutant monsters, and spent a whole night in-game clearing them out with her companion - all without being seen even ONCE by those cretins!"

"Well, in any case, it was very early in our campaign, when we were still low-level characters with very low-level gear. We were just finished scavenging in an abandoned, ruined town, and was moving on..." Rarity shook her head, "When we met a wild monster on the road."

"It was a bear, a queasy-lookin', giant mutant bear." Applejack elaborated "It was righ' off the road we were travelling, sniffing around for food amongs some rustin' vehicles."

"The poor thing; it wasn't being aggressive, and it didn't even noticed us." Fluttershy said, "I suggested that we leave it be and move on, and most of the others agreed, saying that it was too high level for take on anyway..."

"... And that was when Rainbow decides to pick a fight with it." Trixie finished it for Fluttershy.

"With a pipe-gun of all things." Rarity further elaborated. "Needless to say, Rainbow's character was badly wounded and we all barely escaped with our lives."

"Consarnit, Rainbow Dash, WHAT WERE YAH THINKIN'?!" Applejack exclaimed.

"I thought we were on top of the world at the time, alright?" Rainbow Dash defended, "Last session, we fought off a whole assault by raiders to protect a bunch of settlers, and I even took down a mutant lizard monster that got drawn in by the commotion! That thing was far deadlier than that mutant bear."

"You were wearing power armor at the time, Dash! And had a minigun with yah fer that mission!" Applejack scolded, "If yah had gone lookin' fer more power cells and ammunition fer the armor and gun, and maybe even bothered tah repair it, at least yah could had brought it with yah for the mutant bear fight!"

"It's not like we found any of that in the wasteland yet!" Rainbow Dash retorted. "And how should I know that mutant bear was that tough?"

"Did yah even READ the wasteland guide, yah hot-headed fool?!"

Trixie and the others shook their heads, and returned to their drinks as the two bickered on.

Session 10.17 Alex Warlorn

"GIRLS! We've got trouble!" Spike ran out of the castle to the cafe that Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack were enjoying lunch (Fluttershy was with Discord. And Pinkie Pie, by royal command, was STILL doing her Rainbows and Crystal sessions with Tirek, much to her own misery and Tirek's delight, last they heard, he'd gotten Ponyville to give up its sovereignty and was now part of Unicornia without any acts of violence what so ever, just asking very nicely one inch and pony at a time).

"Are Apple Bloom and her friends LARPin' again?" Applejack asked.

"Almost as bad! After Rainbow Dash lost to Starlight Glimmer over that stupid card game, she insisted they play another game!"

"What's so bad about that?" Twilight asked. "I know Rainbow can be stubborn until she scores a win but-"

"The game they chose was Hold And Hooficure, Cherry Alert."

"I repeat, what's so bad about that?"

"Remember that time Fluttershy ran that O&O game where she had the breezie queen use a diplomacy check on YOU?" Spike said.

The ponies stood silent moment, then went collective, "UH-OH!"

The ran inside the crystal tree castle, and found the cutie mark map being used as game map for the game session. A blue and a red army clashed, little figures representing soldiers, tanks, attack animals, planes, installations, factories other objects of war.

On one side was Rainbow Dash, wearing a pair of gold general shoulder pads, looking overwhelmed, and out of her element. Her armies were in disarray, and her navy was practically non-existent. Her air force was significantly better, and was basically holding the entire line by itself, but lacked ground support.

On the other side of the table, wearing an officer's hat straight from Stalliongrad, was Starlight Glimmer, grinning ear to ear at over half the board bearing her flag, equally spread out. Her armies the picture of efficiently and order, equally crushing anything that stood in their way.

"YES! YES COMRADES! We move closer to Canterlot now, and shall crush the capitalist pig-diamond dogs! All shall be equal in the new utopia!" Starlight raised her arms dramatically.

"Go commander!" Equal Suri saluted, grinning ear to ear sitting at the table's side lines.

"Starlight?" Twilight said.

Glimmer looked at Twilight, grinning wider. "Twilight! Have you come to witness my glorious liberation of Equestria from the tyranny of capitalist elitism?"

"You know what an intervention is?"

"Sure! We had them in Our Town whenever some pony started having selfish thoughts. They always thanked us afterwards."

"... We need to talk."