//------------------------------//
// Session 30 
// Story: Ponies and Dragons (Just Have Fun) 
// by Alex Warlorn 
//------------------------------//



Session 30.0 BrutalityInc

Shining Armor hummed a tune as he trotted through the hallways of the Crystal Palace, with a tabletop game and a box full of cider bottles on his back. Today was Saturday, and a particularly wonderful Saturday at that; normally, given the usual duties he had to deal with lately in his duties of regency, he’s hard-pressed to find the free-time to relax and indulge in a little escapism.
 
Some would say that since he become a prince (-regent) of the Crystal Empire, hitching a real bona-fide princess before that, and getting all the fame, wealth and power that comes with those two achievements, he’s pretty much hit jackpot by having the forlorn hope and dream of many stallions come true for him, and therefore really shouldn’t complain about all these little duties he had to endure. But reality has shown that it doesn’t work out as well as he or anypony would hope: He didn’t like the attention and erosion of privacy his fame brought; managing his family’s massively inflated finances had been an utter nightmare, even with all the bean-counters he hired; and power came with it the need to deal with tonnes of paperwork, endless boring meetings with ministers, and having to deal with countless scheming courtiers and spoiled nobles.
 
Lesser ponies had been driven mad dealing merely a fraction of the duties he must now attend to.
 
Between his work-load, hanging out with his wife, his parents, his sister, her friends and his buddies are the only things that gave him joy these days. But most of them had been occupied with their life lately; his wife had to take care of their child (Not that he hasn’t done his share. He does not shrink from his obligations of fatherhood), his parents are on vacation, his sister and her friends are on yet another adventure.
 
Which just leaves his friends, who shares all interests with him regarding games. Although lately, he’s wondering if his friendship with them is too… one note. It’s as if all he ever does with them were either playing games, or making them. But he has interests that are beyond games, like all things military – he was a Royal Guard, first and foremost, before he become co-ruler of a mystical kingdom and an Alicorn Princess’ consort. But they only understood them in gaming terms.
 
There are also… others who does share such interests with him more deeply. But he had not been in touch with them for quite a while, save for one occasion relatively recently, and given the rather special jobs they have, they’ll be hard to reach anyway. Which, again, leaves only his gaming friends.
 
Good thing my buddies aren’t as busy as I usually am, he thought to himself, I don’t know what I’ll do if I had to spend my free Saturday, utterly alone...


Five minutes later, he found himself staring into the game room – completely empty except for the furniture. Gaffer, 8-Bit and Gizmo were nowhere to be seen.
 
“But… but…” He muttered, shocked and despondent, “They said they’ll come today…!”
 
That’s when he heard hoof-steps behind him.
 
“If you’re wondering what happened, it turned out that Gaffer, 8-Bit and Gizmo all got some emergency or important matter this weekend to deal with, so they couldn’t attend today’s session.” One voice said behind him.
 
“They wrote and sent letters to you about it, but we had the post-office intercept them.” Another voice said, “Helps we live in the same town as they are, so we caught the word fast enough to do so.”
 
“Sorry about that. We wanted to keep our visit a surprise.” A third voice explained apologetically. “It’s a rare opportunity for us. Not every day we all get to go on annual leave at the same time.”
 
“We were all wondering what to do with our free time, this Saturday and the week after…” A fourth voice added.
 
“So we thought that we pay our old buddy a visit.” All four voices chorused.
 
Somewhere, some-pony switched on a record-player, which began playing a rather popular and catchy track.
 
=Now playing – Seven Nations Army (Remix or Original) by The White Stripes=
 
Shining turned around, and beheld four earth-pony stallions.
 
One was a pony with a light blue coat, dark blue mane, amber eyes and two pairs of rear-facing quavers, eighth-notes, as a cutie-mark his flank. He wore sensible-looking V-necked T-shirt with a notepad and pen stuffed in its chest-pocket.
 
One was a pony with moderate brown coat, amber mane, apple green eyes and a guitar for a cutie-mark. He wore a jock’s letterman jacket, and carried a banjo on his back.
 
One was a pony with brown coat, black mane, bluish-green eyes and have two cherries for a cutie-mark. He carried two bags with him over his saddle, half-filled with books, one of them written in continental Griffonese poking out.
 
One was a pony with a light brown coat, a light brown, blue eyes and have three blue horse-shoes for a cutie-mark. His attention wasn’t on Shining; he was eying at the majesty of the palace he’s inside of, looking rather dissipated.
 
Shining know who they were instantly. Last time he saw them was at the Wedding, standing next to him along with Twilight and her friends. And before then, he stood with them on parade grounds, when they all wore cadet uniforms, through boot-camp and graduation.
 
His old squad, from his Royal Guard days.
 
“Noteworthy! Meadow Song! Cherry Fizzy! Caramel!” Shining Armor cried out in both surprise and joy, his despondency vanished in an instant, before they all cheered and gathered together for a group hug.
 
“Celestia and Luna, have we missed you!” Caramel said, “How long has it been since we last met? Ten years?”
 
“Oh come on, it hasn’t been that long ago. Barely four.” Meadow Song reminded merrily, “We were at his Wedding remember? We were his aides-de-camps! It wasn’t that long ago.”
 
“Oh yeah!” Caramel said, blushing slightly, “Guess I forgot again…”
 
“You always forget things, Caramel. Good thing I’m always around to remember things for you.” Noteworthy said, putting a hoof over Caramel. “What would you be doing without us?”
 
“Clowning around, I suppose.” Meadow Song supplied, “Though I reckoned we all had done a bit of that at some point in our lives. What messes we made back then!”
 
“They are still a hoof-full to deal with, aren’t they sergeant?” Shining Armor asked Cherry, smirking slightly, while the others reminiscent.
 
“You don’t know half of it, Shining.” Cherry replied, grinning and shaking his head, “We won’t deserve our squad nickname ‘The Mavericks’ otherwise. But there’s no one else I want under my command whilst we are stationed in Ponyville.”
 
Shining saw that they had changed little since he left them, and felt a pang of guilt for his long absence from this circle of friends. But he has every intention to make up for lost time.
 
“Must had been hectic, from the stuff I heard that’s happened there.” Shining Armor said.
 
“It’s pretty well, actually; between crises, the town’s quiet and peaceful most of the time, so the only problem of being stationed at the Ponyville Guardhouse was being bored. Often we only found ourselves helping out with mundane stuff like help setting up or running security for festivals.” Noteworthy explained.
 
“Of course, it was even more quieter before your sister went to Ponyville. Nowadays, there’s the occasional monster or evil overlord attack that's beyond our pay-grade to handle, or one of the Mane Six freak out and we have to help clean up the mess afterwards, or some supernatural disaster that we have to help run damage control in the background. And that’s before we talk about the more eccentric town-ponies.” Cherry reflected, “We’re just so used to the weirdness by this point. And since Twilight became Princess, there’s also a lot more visiting foreign dignitaries, like that Diamond Wolf prince or that other Changeling Queen Cicada.”
 
“That last one must had been a bit of a shock.” Shining Armor remarked, remembering his and Cadence’s game session with Queen Chrysalis’ mother. “I mean, Queen Chrysalis did have her goons attack the town during the Secretariat Comet passage that other time, right?”
 
“Another one for the visiting team…” Meadow Song muttered irritably, “They got the jump on us that time. It was nearly as bad as when that Lord Tirek came over to town.”
 
“But it’s not that much of a shock. There is that one changeling, Kevin, as you recall.” Noteworthy reminded, “He’s a bit slippery, but he turned out to be quite an acceptable fellow once you get to know him. Caramel nearly took his head off that one time, though.”
 
“Look, I forgot he lives there, okay?” Caramel insisted, “It was reflex! My training just took over when I saw him coming around the corner. Maybe it was because Sassaflash was with me at the time…”
 
Shining Armor’s eyes bulged at that revelation.
 
‘So what they said he did during the Wedding was true … he thought to himself.
 
“Anyway, enough chit-chat! We’re here to play a game, right?” Cherry reminded. “Games had been all the craze in Equestria ever since your sister and her friends started playing.”
 
“You guys will love what I planned to test out today!” Shining declared, as he went to place the game box on his back onto the table, his comrades clustering around him to see it.
 
What they found pleasantly surprised them.

The game box showed a cover of a Brodie-helmeted, puttee and khaki-colored tunic wearing Equestrian soldier charging forward across a muddy, cratered battlefield against hails of projectiles and explosions. More soldiers like him were charging in the background, supported by rhomboid-hulled, long-tracked tanks with sponson armaments. In the air, airships duelled each other in blazing salvos amidst anti-aircraft explosions.

And the title...

“’Call of Battle: Duty and Honour’?!” All four exclaimed simultaneously.
 
“Apparently, the game company wanted to extend the franchise into table-top games,” Shining explained. “We got the honour of testing out the Beta. You lot in?”
 
All four Royal Guard personnel grinned. “We’re in!”
 
Shining grinned back, “Form up, boys. We’re going to war!”

Session 30.1 Alex Warlorn

Shining Armor asked Note Worthy, "Sooo, I heard you were seeing Lyra for a while."

Note Worthy cringed, "And then she tells me that she just wanted to be friends because... well, ya know. Wish somepony had told me!"

"... I'm sorry Noteworthy."

"Believe it or not, we ARE still friends. And I'm seeing Vinyl Scratch now."

"Wait! Note I think you should-"

"Funny story about that actually. Apparently when Octavia and Vinyl first moved in to their house, before they finished customizing it into basically two halves of two different houses, Lyra and Bon Bon gave them some welcome chocolates. Vinyl ate them all, then told Lyra and Bon Bon that she and Octaiva REALLY ARE just friends, and don't even swing that way. And it's a good thing too if you ask me, I mean, if you have a couple who has their house split right down the middle, that's a couple better off seeing other ponies." 

"... That mare is an ass, not offense to donkeys."

"Hey! She's not THAT bad, she just... doesn't understand a few social things. She spends most of her time cooped up, so it's to be expected. Plus with how she... ya know... can't speak her music is how she best expresses herself to others. They asked me to set her straight, and I told her to think about what it's like when ponies keep mistaking her for a vampire, and for the record, no, she isn't a vampire. She's taken her glasses off and sunbathed with me once."

----

Meanwhile in the underground kingdom of the diamond wolves, a new tunnel was being opened. 

Except when this tunnel's end stone wall broke open, it revealed a waiting stone-faced Yak. 

"Ice dogs violate sovereign territory of Yak people. YAKS DEESSTOOORY!" The voice was heard echoing outside the very mountain. Followed by several yip, yelp, and screams for mercy. 

They'd unwittingly dug right under Yakyakistan! There was a reason no pegasi, griffin, or dragon flew over Yakyakistan without express permission, even weather gremlins were allowed in only under work visas. 

After the five minutes 'war' with the Yaks, the Prince of the Diamond Wolves was signing a treaty with Prince Rutherford, promising a vast tribute of mushrooms as an apology for violating Yakyakistan territory. And a number of diamond wolves would offer their services as work-paws to Yakyakistan's western-hoof-ball team next season. 

Session 30.2 Alex Warlorn

Rainbow Dash asked, "Hey, think in the mirror universe, Ogres and Oubliettes is played by a buncha players putting together a dungeon, and one person controls the adventures invading the monsters' dungeon?"

Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes. "Celestia didn't raise the moon, Luna didn't raise the sun. Pancakes weren't for dinner. And pegasi didn't borrow underground. And big sisters weren't little sisters instead. And I doubt a mystery novel is about following a character as they do their best to hide their crime. Don't take everything literally Rainbow Dash." 

Session 30.3 Alex Warlorn 

A long time ago

"You did it Starlight!" Bon Bon cheered.

"That was a exceptional match after all." Bright eyes said. "I guess you were the better chess player after all."

"I was terrified when he decide to have US as the chess pieces, but you still saved us AND won!" Sweetheart hugged her. 

"Thanks girls," Starlight smiled. She'd kept a good poker face, but truth be told she'd been terrified the entire time.

"That's the last time I accept songs from new producers!" Melody snorted. 

"I'm just happy it's over." Clover said hugging her friends. She'd been scared she'd never see Meadowlark or her family ever again. 

"YOU LOST ugly! Go take a hike!" Patch snorted pointing a hoof at the dark evil on the other side of the chess set. 

The terrible being growled... but a bargain was a bargain... and the terms had been if the pink pony with the yellow hair named Starlight had beaten him, he'd be banished from this world. "I have lost indeed. I am gone from this world! But I pass this parting curse! Starlight The First! One day! Not today! Not tomorrow! But one day! After you are long dead, a descendant of yours shall take your belief in fairness and equal treatment and twist it about, and bring misery and ruin to no less than seven worlds!" 

"HEY YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" Patch shouted. 

"I just did. Farewell! HAHAHAHAH!" The shadowy villain faded from this world. 

"... Starlight I'm so sorry." Sweetheart whispered.

"... I..." Starlight stared where the evil being had been. "I'm... I'm going to find Mr. Right after all!" She grinned. 

Melody rolled her eyes. "Leave it to Starlight to find the good in a curse." 

Session 30.4 Jarkes 


(OOC: Adding to Kendell2's multiversal game thing. I hope this doesn't contradict anything he has planned for his Mirror Universe stories. Also, I don't remember if Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns still existed in the Mirror Universe despite Celestia being evil. And I'm also not sure how to refer to the Nightmare Moon timeline Starlight as anything other than Nightmare!Starlight, which sounds more like a Nightmare version of her. I also nixed the "Nightmare Timeline Sunburst is dead and that Starlight never found out until long after the fact" idea I had because it was honestly too depressing)

"So... um..." Starlight Prime fidgeted. "Did... either of you... reunite with your own Sunbursts?"

Mirror!Starlight sighed. "I haven't found him yet, not for lack of searching. Apparently, he just kind of vanished from Celestia's School one day and nopony knows what happened to him. But I will never stop searching for him."

Nightmare!Starlight smiled. "I was a bit luckier. Turns out, my timeline's Sunburst was one of the first to figure out about the existence of the Elements of Harmony and what was necessary to find them. But this made him one of Nightmare Moon's prime targets, so he sought asylum in the Crystal Empire until our timeline's Element Bearers defeated Nightmare Moon. He came with Prince Shining Armor, Princess Cadance, and the rest of their army to help in the final battle, and that's when we found each other again."

Session 30.5 B4ssXCello 

Few know of the deepest recesses under Canterlot Castle, of what lies beyond the archives and catacombs. It is a place that was lost to time, a place that plays host to the Draconequus; Discord. It was thought to be the original part of the Canterlot library, where the most important and oldest documents in Equestria were kept.

Discord rifled through some old scrolls in a deep secluded cave. The dim light did not aid in dispelling the cast shadows from scattered lanterns around the vast area. Of course, he had piles of boxes of donuts from Pony Joe’s. Golden light danced around his talons as he brought scrolls forth from the dark cavern, hoping to find a story from his youth that he remembered quite fondly.
Discord lounged in a hammock, hung between two coat racks, which rocked him as he listened to the scrolls. The texts were rolled up on what appeared to be little duck feet, and told him their contents as he laid back in mid-air, drinking a glass of chocolate milk from a nearby cotton candy cloud.

“Where could it be?” Discord said exasperatedly. “I’ve been down here for almost a week going through each and every scroll, with only one even sounding interesting. This is so… so boring, why am I the only one who remembers this tale? Ok, monologue over, so who’s next on the list?”
A scroll hurriedly waddled up to Discord and responded in a scratchy voice, like two wadded sheets of parchment rubbing against one another, “That would be me, milord.”

“Alright, well what’s your story then?” Discord said nonchalantly. “Be quick about it, I am a very busy entity and have other scrolls to listen to, so hurry up and get on with it, or stop wasting my time.”

“Well, milord, I am not so much a story, but more of a chronicling of ancient history, dating back to before even your glorious reign, oh wise one.” The scroll crackled quietly as it continued to recite, “I shall tell you of a troubled time, an era of history that was doomed to repeat itself for eternity. A loop that repeated for millennia, it locked the world in two thousand years of constant strife; for innumerable cycles.” The scroll paused waiting to see if it would be sent away like so many others.

“Well, Steve the Scroll, was it? Finish telling me your story, it sounds delightful; do go on.” Discord spoke lazily as he refilled his glass with his favorite drink.

“Right, milord, let’s see... Two thousand years before I was written, the Demon King, Chaos, came to this world and brought forth the four fiends, one for each element.” Steve stated cautiously.

“Wait, four elements? What about the element of cheese? Or bacon?`” Discord looked at Steve with a grim expression, as grim as Discord got anyway.

“Don’t worry your chaoticness, it was before the element of bacon was found, and subsequently dropped from elemental status,” the scroll assured him. “Now, where was I? Ah, yes, the four elemental fiends: Lich, the Undead Sorcerer of Earth, Marilith, the Naga of Fire, Kraken, Beast of Water and Tiamat, Dragon of Air. Each one was stealing the essence of their element, gaining power. 

“Four heroes stepped forth to defeat them and restore the crystals, which were the physical manifestations of the elements to their natural state. The demon, Chaos, had seen to that, he made sure that his host was sent back in time after the heroes first crossed his path. 

“He made sure the cycle would continue. He did not have the foresight to realize that the loop could be disrupted. Once the heroes traveled back and defeated him one had the idea of writing a chronicle of their adventure, of the plight and pilgrimage they made to save the world.”

“That does ring a bell, is there anything else of importance on you, Scroll?” Discord focused his attention on the seal of the scroll. “Like why your seal has more than just archaic writing on it?”

“Well you see, I was created for the sole purpose of binding Chaos’ soul so that the past may be prevented from repeating again. Should my seal ever be broken, he will return thereby causing a new Dark Age to consume the land.” The scroll crinkled nervously, wondering if the magic that animated him would be enough to break the seal.

“Well then, perhaps I should’ve paid attention to the warning of that other scroll, the one that shouted at me, ‘Do not open the other scroll, it contains the spiritual essence of the demon Chaos, any magic that would make this information known will cause the seal to break; keep the scroll of the four heroes sealed under all circumstances.’ Oh,well, I guess we all make mistakes,” Discord said with a nonchalant wave of his paw. “I guess I should tell the Princesses; but then again Little Woona and Celly are known to message the Elements over the simplest of things.”
Discord thought on his way out of the catacombs. He then came up with a brilliant idea: To make some combs in the shape of a cat, and sell them at a store he was a regular at in the market square in Canterlot. He decided to name his invention the Catacomb. As he arrived in the main part of the library with a snap of his talon and a bright flash of light and a puff of smoke, he looked around and asked the guard on duty there, “Would you by any chance like a Catacomb, dear sir?”

The guard looked a bit worried, trying to back away from the mad god, and didn’t know how to respond, knowing Discord had something planned. “I guess I will take a Catacomb, Discord?”

“You certainly may, but be warned, they are more than they appear!” Discord chortled as he tossed the comb to the guard.

“Ah, my face!” the guard shouted. “I should’ve said no!”

Discord laughed loudly, snapped his talons, and was in the throne room, at the Twilight Court, where both royal sisters hold court together for a couple of hours each evening. “Oh, Celestia, dear!” he said as he entered the throne room, waving a couple of scrolls high above his head, “I’m afraid we may have a problem and I’m not sure if your precious little Elements are going to help.”

As soon as he appeared in the room, the nobles who were petitioning the royal sisters for more money, land, and general grievances backed off as he proudly danced his way up to the sisters. Out of fear of what the so-called reformed master of pranks and disharmony could still do the nobles turned and ran from the courtroom.

“Discord, I thought I told you not to call me that anymore. Also, what did you do?” Celestia asked with disdain, not wanting trouble right at the end of her day court, and the beginning of Luna’s night court.

“Well, Discord, prithee, pray tell what is the problem?” Luna asked with a yawn, slipping into Old Equestrian. “We need to be sure it’s nothing of serious importance; my night court is just beginning, and I would prefer to not be bothered by your antics.”

“Sister, Discord usually leaves the day court alone, does he bother you at night?” Celestia asked, looking a little worried.

“Me? Mess with the royalty of the night court? Hah, never!” Discord smirked at his own sarcasm, “Why, the very thought of it is just appalling to me. Now, for the reason I came here.” Discord poofed in a puff of smoke and appeared between the two princesses, wrapping his arms around them, “ I recently came upon a scroll, with a most uncharitable and bad omen on it, hang on let me find it.” Discord left off as he started digging through pockets in his fur, scales, and a couple in his horns.

The sisters looked at one another, confused they just looked at one another and did not interfere with the machinations of the deranged, mad god.

“Aha! Here it is,” Discord stated, triumphantly holding it in his paw. “One thousand and one ways to scare a child.”

The sisters looked at Discord, horror stricken, “Wait, that’s the wrong scroll, I meant to seal this one deeper in the catacombs,” Discord chuckled, shoving it back into a pocket that was located on one of his horns, “The one I meant to pull out was this one; The Four Heroes of Light, a scroll that was never to be reopened, or read after it was written. It sealed the soul of the demon king, Chaos, from thousands of years before my time even.”

“Discord, how can we tell this isn't just another prank of yours?” Celestia spoke in a calm voice, “This does not sound unusual from you Discord, you do not have the most sterling record with telling the truth. Also, this would not be the first time you’ve tried something like this.”
“Dearest Sister, surely you believe he is just joking?” Questioned the younger one, “Though, this does sound preposterous...even for him.”
“Fine, don’t listen to me, about how the demon king, Chaos, may have escaped from his prison,” The lazy draconequus mumbled. “I guess I’ll go and talk to the elements directly then, I shall take my leave now your majesties!” He bowed down to the princesses in a mocking manner. As he turned around, the scroll itself began to glow.

As the scroll glowed, It floated to the center of the chamber, and began to emanate a golden ring that began to glow. The ring increased in size until it filled half of the throne room. As the spinning ring slowed down it was clear to see that the ring was actually a very intricate magical seal written in ancient texts, each of the cardinal directions held a colored orb. Each one meant to hold the seal on the scroll, one for each element, Fire, Water, Earth, and Air.

“THOU HAST BROKEN THE SEAL OF THE GODS, AND I THANK THEE, SPIRIT OF DISHARMONY.” an unknown voice that was filled with the sound of tormented souls, “I CHAOS, KING OF DEMONS GIVE YOU MY DEEPEST GRATITUDE, FOR I HAVE BEEN RELEASED!” Just as the mysterious voice came, it vanished, leaving behind a ghostly echo of a maniacal laugh, and as it faded, the four orbs shattered, leaving behind minute traces of the elemental crystals they were made of.

“Well that was interesting,” The three deities said in unplanned unison, “Discord, I guess you were right about the threat, for once, and there is no way even you could pull off a prank of this caliber.” Celestia spoke in a dumbstruck manner.

“Are you well, dear sister?” Luna asked her sister, with a concerned look on her face.

“Yes, Luna, I’m fine, just a bit distraught, I never knew this existed. Discord! Where did you find that scroll?” Celestia directed a glare at Discord, one that would cow any mortal.

“Uhm, well...you see...I went into the library, then I followed a passage down into the catacombs and followed them all the way back into this little area that had an ancient sign reading ‘Library’ on it, I think it went so far under that it connected to the original castle in the Everfree Forest,” Discord stated, sobering up to the seriousness of the situation.

“Well, with this turn of events, I believe something will need to be done about it now,” Celestia said, exasperated, wishing Discord would actually behave for a change. “Discord… just how deep down did you really go? I thought the old libraries were destroyed when Luna went and had her temper tantrum about not being popular enough.” Celestia stood from her throne and went to grab a bottle from her secret stash of Stalliongradi Vodka behind her throne. “Luna, write a letter to the Elements of Harmony, Princess Cadenza and her sex-crazed husband, Shining Armor.” Celestia said.
“Also, the only course of action I can foresee happening is summoning the Elements and Cadenza to tell them what has transpired here.” Luna stated, hoping things could be different than they are. “I will have a letter written out to send to each of them, and have them come here as soon as possible.”

“Guard! Go and fetch a length of parchment for me! Huzzah!” Luna cried out excitedly, since things were getting interesting on her shift for once.
The guard that stood next to the door scampered across the tile floor, trying to turn around and grab some parchment for Luna from the desk near him, after he grabbed it gently in his mouth and trotted up to his princess and she used her violet magic to grab it from him. “Thank you, guard for doing this kindness for me,” Luna said gently to the guard.

“Luna, this is important, Do you wish me to stay with you until the letter is sent?” Celestia asked sleepily, trying to stifle a yawn, and poured herself another shot of the Vodka.

“No, Celestia, you don’t need to do that, I can have it sent through the green fire you seem so fond of, I am curious to try it myself, though I am unsure how to send it to multiple recipients at once.” Luna stated calmly, thinking of the most efficient and expert way of telling the other ponies what had happened, the one she didn't want to tell the most was Cadenza, her adopted niece. She thought to herself for a moment, wondering why this had to happen at the beginning of her watch, and not her sister’s.

“Hah! You’re funny, Luna, you think that Cadenza, our adopted niece will answer this letter? Well, every time I sent her one, She just ignores me! Only twilight cares enough to read the letters I send to her, and Cadenza. It’s a futile effort!” Celestia’s reply was clearly influenced by the vodka she had recently consumed

With an exasperated sigh, the younger of the sisters eagerly spoke to herself, “Well, this needed to be done, now is as good of a time as any to get this over with.” She lifted the scroll up and a quill that was magically charged so the ink would never run out. She thought for a moment, ‘What should I say?...hmm...I think this should work.’

Dear Cadenza, Twilight, and the Elements,
I have some grave news to share with you. We have unfortunately just been the recipients of a terrible curse from long ago. It was sealed inside of a scroll that bore a story of four ancient heroes, they were not the same elements as you are. They were the natural elements of Earth, Fire, Water, and Air. A portion of each of the elemental crystal was used to seal this ancient long forgotten threat: Chaos, the Demon King. 
With this letter I beseech you all to come to Canterlot post haste. This is not just a matter of security for Equestria. 
Sincerely,
Princess Luna

“Well, that should do the job, don’t you think so Celly?” Luna said to her gently.

“Huh?” Celestia startled awake, “Yes, I think that should do ~hic!~, I’ll send it off to everyone if you want me to dearest sisters and why are you all moving?” Celestia looked at her half-empty bottle of Stalliongradi Vodka, and poured herself another shot of it, slopping half onto the ground.
“Thank you, dear sister, but I can handle doing that myself. I believe you should head off to bed as I start on the Night Court, plus I should take away your liquor,” Luna said tenderly to her sister and tried taking the bottle away from the drunken sun goddess who had a dead-pony’s grip on the bottle, “It shouldn't be too hard, after all, I have coffee and Discord with me, I could always send him to get some of Joe’s famous donuts if I need him to.”

Discord sat up a bit from playing with his marionette ponies, “Did you say Joe? Of Pony Joe Donuts?” the god inquired, “I’ll go and get some now if you want!” and with that, the demented god vanished in a puff of smoke, confetti, and bits of cotton candy flavored avocados.

“Why does Discord have to do that?” Luna questioned herself, “Anyways, thanks to that display, Night Court should be slow and I can catch up on the latest Daring Do comic book! But first, I need to get this sent out its of dire importance to the world it gets to those who need it.”
With a grim, serious look on her face, Luna cantered to the ever burning green flame meant to send letters only to the Crystal Empire and in dire emergencies. She concentrated hard on the scroll in her dark, yet opalescent magic and willed it to duplicate, word for word. A few seconds later, she heard a small pop that told her the letter had been duplicated and was ready to be sent.

“Well, it’s now or never,” She muttered to herself as she pushed one into the green flame that was directed to the Crystalline Castle at the northern reaches of the world. The other one was easier to send for her. All she had to do was will it to vanish and reappear in the Golden Oaks Library, knowing Spike would be sure to give it to Twilight, just as the letter went through the instant-mailing system.

“Well, my job is done on this sobering topic for now,” Luna said to herself, “Now, where did I leave my comic book and bag of mini donuts from Joe’s?”

After a few minutes of searching, Luna looked over at her sister who was splayed across her throne. Celestia was snoring softly, cradling her bottle of vodka in her hooves; like a foal clutching a teddy bear. The Lunar princess shook her head, and went back to eating her snack and reading her comic book that she found tucked under her throne.

Session 30.6 Mtangalion 


Filthy Rich adjusted his reading spectacles and started going over the facts and figures yet again. Everything that he and Big Mac needed was laid out before them on the Apple family's kitchen table. Shipping statistics from the Orange family in Manehatten. Production figures for Sweet Apple Acres for the last five years. Market surveys. Sales figures from his Barnyard Bargains and the other companies he owned or dealt with.

"Would you boys like some more tea?" asked Granny Smith behind them.

"Eeyup," said Big Mac.

Mr. Rich nodded. "Yes, please." He tapped a hoof on a document. "Cider sales in Baltimare and Canterlot were up twelve percent last year. If you could produce more cider apples, I could definitely sell them."

Over in the living room, Applejack glanced up from work she was doing, fixing up Granny's favorite rocking chair. "We don't need to replant that many trees, but if we plant extra in the south field..."

Big Mac nodded. "Sounds good." He leaned to one side, giving Granny room to pour his tea. 

As the discussion went on, Mr. Rich glanced up at the window. Those three fillies and his princess were horsing around out by the pig pen. Apple Bloom was balancing on one of the fence posts, doing something with a fishing pole and a bucket of slop. Diamond rose up and made a dramatic 'No no no!' gesture with her forelegs. Then Scootaloo went galloping past, chasing a loose pig, Apple Bloom got distracted and fell into the pigpen, and mud splashed all over Sweetie Belle and Diamond. 

Mr. Rich tensed, waiting for the explosion... but Diamond just laughed. She grabbed a hoof-full of mud and got Scootaloo with it good, getting muddier herself in the process. Then mud went flying everywhere, Sweetie Belle started levitating buckets of water from the well and dunking ponies, and they wound up in a big muddy heap, laughing like the best of friends.

Filthy Rich smiled broadly, margins and profits forgotten for the moment. "This really is just like the old days." He looked to Big Mac. "Back when it was me and your pa playing out there, while my father and your Granny Smith made the business deals. I guess we're passing the great Rich-Apple partnership on the next generation after all."

Granny was smiling too, tearing up a bit. "Ah remember when you and him were thick as thieves."

Mr. Rich nodded. "We were the best of friends. I even had that knack for numbers that Diamond has now. But when... that happened..." He sighed. "And I knew he was gone and I'd never see him again... I guess I just couldn't deal with it. I stopped coming by for years, just when you folk probably could have used another helping hoof." He rested a forehoof on Big Mac's larger one. "I am so sorry about that, Mac."

Big Mac gnawed on his stalk of wheat thoughtfully, switching it to the other side of his muzzle. "Don't worry about that none, Fil. Ah forgave ya ages back, and truth be told... Ah wasn't in any mood for comforting, back then. Ah was angry at everypony and everything, when Ah wasn't too bone tired from working the farm by mahself to feel anything at all."

"It's good that things are better now," said Mr. Rich earnestly. "That's real good."

Big Mac smiled. "Eeeyup."

They labored in silence for another while, until it was all done except for dotting the I's and crossing the T's. Big Mac, Applejack, and Granny all read the contract and seemed satisfied. "With this," declared Filthy Rich, "our business deal is renewed for another three years!" He scanned the pages one more time, and paused. "This column of figures... that sum isn't right. It should be 54,040 bits."

"Ah do believe you're right," said Big Mac. With a curious wink to AJ, he took the quill and made two quick stokes, changing a one to a four. The two stallions signed their names, then hoofbumped, and it was done. "Good workin' with ya, Fil."

It wasn't until Mr. Rich left the house and called for Diamond that it hit him. How had he known, at just a glance, that the sum was wrong?

He glanced back at Sweet Apple Acres. Twenty-four wooden slats on this side of the barn's roof. One hundred and twenty-two apple trees in his field of view. He felt an extra spring in his step, the subtle tingle of good, honest earth pony magic dancing in his hooves. "Sun and moon," he breathed. And when he and Diamond began walking home together, Mr. Rich started chuckling.

Diamond Tiara blinked. "Daddy? What's so funny?"

Once, he would have would have had an absolute fit and come down hard on his precious princess for getting all muddy... and now it didn't seem important at all... she was a filly doing what fillies did. That wasn't why he was laughing, though. "Sorry, princess. I just figured something out, and Princess Twilight was so excited about researching this 'apple math' thing, and now I'm gonna to have to tell her that we both had it all wrong."

Diamond got a suspicious look. "You're not going to tell me that there's some sneaky trick and I can be good at math without being Apple Bloom's friend, are you? Because... I *like* being her friend." The filly blushed.

"No, nothing like that!" boomed Mr. Rich. "I'm proud of you for making more friends. But the math thing... they've been telling us the whole time, and we just weren't listening properly. Math is easy when you work with Apples!"

Session 30.7 Alex Warlorn 

"Ha! Just you wait Twilight! My fully upgraded Mammoth Tank is gonna trounce your base!" Rainbow Dash jeered as she nudged her miniature along the bridge that was the one way into Twilight's base without air or water unites or Rainbow Dash creating her own bridge. 

Then the enchanted tiles glowed, revealing the entire bridge was covered in hidden mines, that immediately blew up, and followed some light fire from some mass produced tanks on Twilight's side, obliterating Rainbow Dash's hulking monster she's dumped most of her resources into. 

"HEY! THAT'S NOT FAIR! I call Worf Effect!" 

Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes. "Rainbow Dash, for the last time, taking out your opponent's strongest unit on the field you've built your entire army around preemptively is called 'good strategy'. And 'worf effect' is a narrative device."

Session 30.8 Kendell2 


"So, basically the game is making up a horror movie plot and trying to survive it?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking at the roleplay they were going to play. Fluttershy was obviously not present, nor was Pinkie Pie (who was busy taking care of the Twins).

Twilight nodded. "Yes, it's kind of meant to be a self aware take on the way horror movies work. For example, playing by or avoiding horror movie tropes decreases or increases your odds of survival, as do personality traits you choose for your character. Once you last long enough into the game, or only one player is left standing (activating the 'Final Filly' stage), the final showdown happens were the difficulty lowers enough to give a fair chance of surviving." She looked at an instruction book literally labeled 'Death Flags'. "If the antagonist catches you, you have a saving throw to either escape or...well...And yes, the game is Rogue Like."

Rainbow smirked. "Oh yeah, my kind of game!"

"Sounds rather uncouth to me..." Rarity admitted.

"So why is the monster, killer, whatever the buck, played by the Game Master?" Applejack asked.

"Simple: while there are rules, horror movies cheat," Twilight replied simply.

"She's got a point," Rainbow Dash replied. "Machines never start, road ways get blocked, monster is somehow in front of you when you just ran from it...Speaking of which, what's the monster?"

"We make one up and give it rules," said Twilight. "Apparently Discord ended up playing this and the monster ended up being...Hooviet zombies riding flying, cyborg sharks..." she explained, showing annoyance. "I'm not surprised."

"...I'd watch that..." said Rainbow Dash with a shrug. 

"And Ghost Story's version apparently ended up with a monster that was a ghost who could only strike in the dark..."

---

"And the light begins flickering. Faster and faster. It looks like your candle is almost spent. You see the entity flicker in and out of existence in front of you..." said Ghost Story, sitting behind the game master screen...well, hanging behind it as the case may be. 

Nocturn quivered in his chair, particularly when Ghost Story started flickering the candle using her wing. "W-Why did I agree to play this?"

---

"Alright, setting?" Twilight asked. 

"Camping trip is always a good one," Rainbow Dash said.

"Alright...now, Slasher, Monster, or Disaster?" Twilight asked. "Disaster's a little harder because...well, you can't KILL a natural disaster."

OOC: Decided to see if anyone else wanted to do this. Ironically, I imagine Rarity doing best because personality wise she avoids a lot of death flags by nature.

Session 30.9 Ardashir 

"Slasher!" All three ponies said at once.

Twilight blinked. "O-kay. Any particular reason?"

"Well, we kinda face monsters all the time as the Elements," Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Heck, we play with some of them. An' ya can't really interact with a natural disaster."

"'Sides," Applejack added as she glanced through the rulebook, "We all remember them crazy stories some ponies tried ta tell 'bout us all," she looked at a nearby copy of the Canterlot Sun, sporting a picture of Queen Chrysalis as the cover story under the headline, 'Reformed Or Still A Menace?' Applejack snorted. "Not namin' any names. Anyhow, they deserve ta be made fun of."

"Agreed, dear." Rarity shook herself. "Anyway! Now how will we go about this? Are we the typical three featherbrained young mares looking for a fun and scandalous weekend at the classic abandoned summer camp, or what?"

"Ah like ta think we can be smarter than that," Applejack said. 

"Let's see if you can," Twilight said, flashing an evil grin. "Now then, the three of you are camping in the woods, somewhere between the haunted mine, the abandoned town, and the old graveyard. You've been expecting three stallions to meet you, but for some reason they're late, and..."

***

"What the hay, Dash?" Applejack facehoofed. Rarity stared at the pegasus in disbelief, a smile trying to go over her face, as Applejack asked, "We're in that spooky old town lookin' for those three stallions, and ya just wanna go inta the empty house after that crazy hobo pony told us not ta?"

"I heard something in there!" Dash said defiantly. She looked down at her dice and then at the smirking Twilight. "I mean, I did hear something, right?"

"That's right, Dash," Twilight almost cackled, "you did!"

"Besides, my character's flaw is headstrong," Dash scratched her head. "Huh, dunno how that's a flaw. Anyway, I get a bonus for this." She picked up her token and set it inside the house. "I go in saying, 'Wow, you two are fraidy-cats! Wait here and I'll see what it is.'"

"So, in this game, you leave your friends and go off somewhere you've never been. By yourself. In an abandoned town." Twilight rolled her eyes and looked at Rarity and Applejack. "Do I even need to roll to find out if she dies or not?"

Session 30.10 BrutalityInc

(Spoilers for MLP FIM IDW #44. If you haven't read it, don't read this first!)

(Also, feel free to use this as a jumping off point for a number of possible future sessions involving Shining's two groups of friends)



= = =



Gaffer had to admit, Shining’s old friends in the Equestrian Royal Guards are really an amiable, endearing bunch. He had fully expected that tensions and rivalry over Shining Armor would emerge between them, especially given the fact that they don’t share all the interests with each other that Shining Armor happened to share (Making Gaffer wonder if Shining would had been the Element of Magic for an Elements of Harmony team in another life, given the way he glued friends together). Except, they quickly got along over stuff that they DO share, one of them being military themed wargames.
 
Even so, they are somewhat… unsettling. It’s always seems to be the case for ponies who aren’t all that they seemed. Gaffer, 8-Bit and Gizmo/Pointdexter are clear as day as to who they are; giant nerds who happened to play, and design, a lot of games. Cherry Fizzy, Noteworthy, Caramel and Meadow Song looked like a gathering of goofy friends who often ends up in clownish shenanigans (And most of them happened to have played clowns before, too!). 

But then he noticed, a little hint here and there; the way some of them walked, the way and things some of them talked. All of it seemed to hide, beneath their cheerful demeanour, personalities who happened to be a lot darker, colder and aggressive than any normal pony.
 
And then take into account the fact that all of them, down to the last pony, are battle-hardened soldiers, and suddenly he realized he had found himself in company of goofy, lovable dorks who had the skill, and the instincts, to end him and his pals without breaking a sweat.
 
So yes… very unsettling.
 
Trying to diffuse his own unease, he and 8-Bit had gone into small talk with them, while they wait for Cherry, Shining and Gizmo to finish discussing some joint game-making projects.
 
“So I heard you guys had been in a bit of a pickle in Ponyville recently.” Gaffer asked cautiously. "All three of us were out of town at the time, so we didn't even know until it was over."
 
All three of the remaining Royal Guard friends cringed or narrowed their eyes slightly at the mention of that event.
 
“Sorry! I know this is fairly recent, so if you don’t want to talk about it…” Gaffer backpedalled.
 
“No, no, it’s fine. It’s actually quite interesting. What we did that day has given Cherry a few ideas for some of the games we plan to make with you guys.” Meadow Song reassured.
 
“So is it true that the Friendship Council temporarily turned evil due to soaking in some dark magic infused hot-springs?” 8-Bit asked.
 
“True enough. The full report hasn’t been published yet, but that’s what we heard.” Caramel shrugged, “I was there, and I’m not sure about all the details that happened myself. It was just like one of those days when one of the Mane Six freaked out over something, but we never had to deal with all six of them going nuts at the same time, so things got messier.”
 
“So what did you guys do?” Gaffer asked.
 
“When Princess Twilight went full-on ‘dark empress’ mode, our commander immediately ordered all Royal Guards in Ponyville to disperse, because we are the strongest group of ponies in the town after the Mane Six – the only other ponies who could put up any sort of organized struggle – which makes us a priority target that she’ll go after immediately to secure her reign over Ponyville.” Noteworthy explained.
 
“Of course, CEO Applejack was the one who actually demolished our guardhouse, for reasons we still couldn’t figure out.” Meadow Song noted, “Consensus was that it was sitting on a piece of real estate that she wants to develop.”
 
“We tried to link up with Princess Luna, but she was busy ‘fire-fighting’ across Ponyville with Spike to contain the Corrupted Six while those Cutie Mark Crusaders went to fetch Zecora. We were on our own.” Noteworthy said. “So anyway, we gone to ground and formed cells of resistance fighters, and spent the next few days fighting a guerrilla war against Empress Twilight and the rest of the Corrupted Six.”
 
“Really?” 8-Bit asked, awed by the implications.
 
“Well, not really ‘fight’; we all knew we don’t stand a chance against any of the Corrupted Six in open battle, especially when it turned out the dark magic made them stronger. So we focused on damage-control and protecting the citizenry where we could.” Meadow Song clarified.
 
“Cherry Fizzy and the rest of us managed to organize an evacuation of Ponyville right under the Corrupted Six’ collective noses.” Caramel noted, “It was kind of risky, what with Empress Twilight and Wild Fluttershy having the whole place under lockdown. But we actually managed to get a quarter of Ponyville out to safety before it was all over.”
 
= = =
 
“Yeah, no way in Tartarus am I letting ‘Empress’ Twilight suck up my precious intellect with her brain-drainer!” Cherry Fizzy muttered angrily as he and Noteworthy ushered fearful ponies towards safety, dressed in battered and dirtied armour. “I have my pride as a scholar, you know!”
 
“But how are we going to make sure she doesn’t find out about the evacuation? Empress Twilight is actively hunting for us!” Meadow Song said in hushed tones, peeking his bandana and camouflage-wearing head out of the shadows to behold the chaos engulfing Ponyville.
 
“Not sure, but I have a cunning plan to buy us some time.” Cherry said with a grin, “As you know, we had been putting up posters and graffiti, written in code, around town that would supposedly guide ponies to safety. But they don’t actually do!”
 
“Yeah, I was wondering about that!” Caramel said, panting in sweat-drenched civilian disguise clothes as he entered their hide-out with a few more ponies in tow, “We spent all day melding into the crowds and pretend to decipher and follow those signs, getting others to follow us, but in reality we then split up in the side streets and lead them to the evac point! So what are those posters actually for?”
 

“Why, my dear Caramel, to lead Empress Twilight away from us as far away as possible!” Cherry Fizzy declared with pride, “And given her obsession with codes and riddles, it would be impossible for her not to keep trying to solve them, even if it led her around in circles near the school-house!”
 
“But what if she realized that you are bluffing her?” Noteworthy said worriedly, walking in with a filly on his back, “She’s the most intelligent pony in Ponyville, maybe all of Equestria! It’ll only be a matter of time before she figure it out, and deduce where we actually are!”
 
At that moment, the doors of the windmill are blown open, and the dark and majestic Empress Twilight marched in from the sunny outdoors.
 
“You fools! Do you really think you can out-smart the Empress of Ponyville?!” She gloated, as she lifted up her brain-draining device and also readied to cast her loyalty spell, “Well, you were all clever enough to waste an hour of my time, I’ll give you that! I’ll make sure to make good use of all those precious IQ!”
 
She flipped the light-switch… and found herself staring into a room filled with crates of fireworks, all wired to blow.
 
“I thought about that; who said that I couldn’t pull a double-bluff?” Cherry said. Just then, there was the roar of a thunderous explosion, one big enough to shake the earth beneath them. His grin grew wider with triumph, “She may be the most intelligent pony in Equestria, but she isn’t the smartest.”
 
= = =
 
“Oh! So both the school-house AND the windmill are decoys!” 8-Bit uttered with realization.
 
“Pretty much.” Noteworthy, “Cherry’s plan hinged on the fact that Twilight at her worst is too arrogant to conceive the possibility we could out-smart her, blinding her to our trap. Our actual base and evac-point was under the Ponyville bridge the entire time, at the river, where we send the ponies out of town in boats. We had to kiss the next Hearths Warming Eve firework display goodbye, though.”
 
“Of course, being a powerful Alicorn, it was barely enough to send her reeling.” Meadow Song muttered, shaking his head. “And then everything went FUBAR. Caramel got captured by Jokester Pinkie trying to get Sassaflash out of the theatre, and then got trapped in the rubble with Sassaflash when Jokester Pinkie brought the house down on top of Princess Luna and Dark Rarity. Meanwhile, Meadow Song got captured by Dark Rarity herself trying to free Alisa.”
 
“Then Jokester Pinkie start throwing water balloons filled with Dark Spring waters around and all Tartarus broke loose. Half the Ponyville Royal Guards turned evil and pledged allegiance to Empress Twilight. I heard one cell who fled to the Everfree got captured by Wild Fluttershy’s friends, who then invaded Ponyville with her army of corrupted and ARMED animals.” Noteworthy explained. “Before the crisis was over, I and Cherry were literally the last Ponyville resistance left standing, fighting off the very ponies we were trying to save that had been turned evil! I nearly gave up when we saw Princess Luna turning into Nightmare Moon again!”
 
“On the plus side, Noteworthy discovered that Vinyl’s condition was actually psychosomatic, and she started talking when she got splashed and turned evil.” Caramel interjected, “Since they now know how to cure her, that’s one piece of good news out of that.”
 
“So how did the crisis end?” Gaffer asked.
 
“We’ll tell you later, I think they’re just about done.” Noteworthy said as the doors swung open, and Shining Armour entered along with Cherry and Gizmo, all of them carrying piles of notes and scrolls of plans.
 
“Gentlecolts, after considerable discussion, we have decided on a number of ideas that we could work on together and turn into games.” Gizmo began.
 
“We already got a proposal that we would like you all to look at, later, but we would like to hear what you lot could brainstorm, first!” Cherry continued.
 
“So grab some pencil and paper, boys; and let’s get this started!” Shining Armor finished with a flourish.

Session 30.11 Alex Warlorn

"Oh, hello Miss Yearling, I trust you're enjoying the free copy of the new Daring Do adventure module we sent you?" 

"You have Daring Do wielding a light saber while riding a jet-pack gorilla, fighting aliens."

"The kids will love it!" 

"And you insist that it's canon with my books!"

"We figure that'll really get ponies' attention!"

"UGH! What kinda lame-brain would actually LIKE this tripe?"

-

"This. Daring Do. Campaign. Is. AWESOME!" Rainbow Dash shouted.

"But did we HAVE TO fight a sky scraper sized Princes Celestia ind control by aliens?" Twilight asked, her ears wilting and her brain feeling it was about to explode. 

Session 30.12 Ardashir

Applejack snorted in disgust. "This has gotta be the craziest durned adventure any o' us ever played through."

"Not even close," Rarity whispered to her. "You weren't here with the shark one that Pinkie and Dash came up with for the CMC and their friends one day."

Applejack blinked. "The shark one?"

#####

"An' the giant radioactive shark tornado goes SPLOOSH!" Dash said, the miniature tornado filled with toy sharks painted green she'd created over the table collapsing as she stopped flying.

"Congrats girls, you saved Equestria!" Pinkie Pie said. "The Diamond Dero Dogs will never threaten ponykind again."

"YAY!" The CMC, Button Mash, Diamond Tiara, and Silver Spoon all yelled as they jumped and cheered. "CUTIE MARK CRUSADER SHARKNADO DESTROYERS!"

Off to the side, Princess Twilight Sparkle coped the only way she knew how. The hole her forehead was knocking into the wall grew ever deeper.

"A tornado." THUMP. "Filled with sharks." THUMP. "Made by dwarf Diamond Dogs." THUMP. "Riding in flying saucers." THUMP. "That was destroyed by throwing a ton of ice into it." THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.


Session 30.13 Grogar-the-oneser

"Not to mention this game isn't even a bit canon," Quibble Pants said annoyed. 

"How would you know, you don't consider the other books canon." Rainbow said annoyed.

"She's holding a lightsaber!" Quibble exasperated. "Not to mention her fighting Celestia."

"She fought a giant stone alicorn before," Rainbow Dash said.

"Key word being stone." Quibble rolled his eyes. "And why are the aliens invading anyway? Is there any artifacts at all?"

"Err... no, no there's not." Twilight said rechecking the adventure.

"Then it's not a real Daring Do adventure!" Quibble said.

"To be fair, we do have a tendency to lose track of the game thing depending on whose the game master," Twilight said.

"And I'm the game master and I say it's fine, though I do have to add the artifact soon, he does have a point about that," Rainbow admitted.

XXX

"I must say, this know-it-all is pretty smart." Ahuizotl said as they were spying on them. "Maybe I should offer him a job..."

"Please don't, he is SOO annoying, and for some reason kept insisting my accent is 'all over the place'," Caballeron stated.

"Can't understand where he got that delusion," Ahuizotl said with a roll of his eye.

Session 30.14 Alex Warlorn


Meanwhile, in the human world, reality was catching up with that universe's Rainbow Dash. 

"What do you mean if I fail my grades I have to quit all my teams?!" 

"Just what I said," Cheerilee said, still having a black eye she was hiding with make-up for the 'claim the right to date Big Mac' boxing tournament. "All your grades are ... not good... "

"I know that! The entire school knows it thanks to that Anon-a-Miss MyStable account!" It still burned Rainbow knowing that the whole school knew now how she struggled with her grades. Thankfully she had already cried about it in the privacy of her own room. Yes she had forgiven Scootaloo for her part and Rainbow Dash had apologized to Sunset Shimmer. It was clear the brat had opened Pandora's box having no idea that once gossip was online it wasn't as easy as simply deleting it. 

"... I'm sorry Rainbow, I didn't mean to hit a sore spot, but you do need help. Might I suggest cutting back on World of Horsecraft? You aren't the first person whose life is being ruined by that game."

Give up World of Horsecraft?! NEVER! So what if Gilda was having the same problem? 

"But... But... I'm the captain of every sports team we have!"

"And that might have something to do with your poor grades Rainbow Dash. It's school policy, and every other school in the country."

"... I... I'll try."

-

"Hello Boys and Girls! I'm Mister Computer!" Said the face on the little computer screen, in green and black lines. "Are we ready to learn? We have math muncher, spelling hunter, and map finder!" 

"... This may not help me like it did in first grade." Rainbow Dash said.