843867
Oh, THAT'S how we are gonna play it huh? Admittedly, Ticket to Ride carries a pretty hefty bonus, though it loses some points due to this being technically a cover of the song. As a result, anyone else on the Northern line still suffers the delay. Gonna be hard to beat the moral bonus you just gave your ride though.

Or would be, if I didn't have a pretty good voice too.
I read the news today oh, boy
About a lucky man who made the grade
And though the news was rather sad
Well, I just had to laugh
I saw the photograph
He blew his mind out in a car
He didn't notice that the lights had changed
A crowd of people stood and stared
They'd seen his face before
Nobody was really sure if he was from the house of lords

I saw a film today oh, boy
The English army had just won the war
A crowd of people turned away
But I just had to look
Having read the book
I'd love to tuuuuurn yoooooou ooooooon.~
+3 Moral bonus baby!

843757
> Liverpool Shuffle
843835
> Wait, you're invoking that while I've got a song and dance bonus going?

I hope someone else has a better grasp of the Liverpool ruleset than I do. To be honest, I've never adjucated a Liverpool game, but from my uneducated perspective that looks like game right there.

Edited to add: Blue's morale bonus from the second song would be an immensely powerful long-term move, but I just don't see how to capitalize on it within the rapidly ticking two-turn limit. And delaying everyone on the northern line … Skywriter, you'd better have some sort of crazy Liverpool gambit at hand or you can kiss that proximity block goodbye.

844004
Got one last trick up my sleeve, but it all comes down to Sweetie's next move. Her actually singing the Beatles threw me a little (figures she would be a Beatles fan, or Oatles I think it is in Equestria.), since that little house rule is usually only applied to a song playing on the radio, or Youtube, etc. What she did is not ILLEGAL though. But it doesn't affect whether or not I can make my next play.

Your move Sweetie.

844054

Well, as I recall, it covers songs by any groups with Beatles members, and gets points for obscurity and being travel related. And since they want an encore anyways, I'm going with "End of the Line" by the Traveling Wilburys. That even had a music video on a train, so should have a pretty hefty bonus.

844335
Mwahahaha. Yes, keep stacking bonuses.

843442
I AM STILL FRIKKING IN NIDD HERE.

844672

Hmmm. Well, between that and the crowd bonus, I'm comfortably ahead enough that I don't have a delay, and don't really need more bonuses.

I'll hold stacking more of them unless I need them, since you've clearly got something in mind. Besides, Mornington Crescent is getting close, and I don't want to miss my stop.

I may as well draw back in an amount of magic equal to what I spent earlier on the wards, since the atmosphere's a bit charged with it right now. That way I'm a bit more ready if anything happens.

844744
… oh.

Then I've got nothing. All I can do from here is look to Blue and T_K's moves so I can start brushing up on my Liverpool stratagems.

(844054, you've clearly played that variant before. U2's "Where The Streets Have No Name" would be illegal due to the Irish Band Exclusion, right? But hypothetically if it wasn't, would that still have the traditional effect of blocking all stations containing "Street" for two rounds?)

844876
Hmm, good question. The Beatles house rule is fairly flexible I think, due to it being a bit obscure. (The only reason I know it is because my mother is a flouncing Beatle fan.) Whether or not the Irish Band Exception applies depends largely on the group playing it. Some have been known to completely throw out band restrictions altogether, though that is generally frowned upon. I think we can be lax though. This is just a friendly game, not a tournament competition or something.
As for the song's effect, yes. It would block all such stations. I think it even disables beacons on such stations for the extent of the effect.

All right, well, since I got on this line, I've cast a magical ward, we've had three songs and enough time for me to refill my magic. I think I should be within a few stops of Mornington Crescent. Anything else going on, or do I get there without incident?

Well, surprisingly, no further attempts to stop me from reaching my destination seem to have shown up, so I got off the Northern Line uneventfully at Mornington Crescent. Now I think I'll use the song and dance bonus to find someplace here to stay while waiting for everypony else to arrive.

845650
Uh...

...Okay, so, well, I for one just got my butt handed to me.

Does everypony else keep trying to get to Mornington Crescent afterwards, or does the game just end there? Because the former makes more sense to me. It'd be more like you are meeting all your friends there, and you're all trying to be the first one there. (Which kinda happens a lot to me.)

And I really haven't played this game before. Kinda surprised I won, but as I said, I'm familiar with how to play Scootaball, which is good preparation. For reference, this is how you play:

Scootaball Rules:
To play, you need at least two players, one of which is Scootaloo. If you don't actually have Scootaloo there, somepony gets designated as Scootaloo for the duration of the game. Usually if the real Scootaloo shows up and joins the game while it's going on, the designation shifts to her.

You also designate at least one goal and at least one ball.

During the game, any player can call out new rules or modifications to existing rules, which everypony else abides by. You can't call out a rule that causes you to immediately win, though, in the interest of fairness. The Scootaloo for the game gets to make the final call on this.

The winning pony is the pony who wins.

And that's it for rules, so actual game play varies wildly.

846534
Actually....CRAP!
Missed my cue! Freaking job!

Alas, the rules clearly state that if you are doing anything other than playing, such as eating, sleeping, work, surgery, etc., then you aren't devoted enough to the game. I blame myself.

Nothing like a combo left unfinished.

In any case. GG

846817

I was pretty sure you were up to something, too. That's one reason why I left several posts before announcing that I'd gotten there was I thought you were going to do something like swap our morale bonuses, bring a noise ordinance into effect, or cause busking permits to be enforced, and that I'd need to be ready to counter it.

And to fair, I did start with being huggable, musical, and magical, and I took as much advantage of that as I could.

Oh well, that was a fun game. And how often do you get to work references to the Beatles, My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins, and Kate Griffin's "A Madness of Angels" in the same game?

847199
If your curious, I had a trap card to play. Cutie Mark Crusade. Makes any blank flanks engage in a random activity for two turns in in search of their special talent. Normally those bonuses you had would have allowed to a good chance to resist, plus that ward, but it is an automatic success on any character who identifies as a Cutie Mark Crusader. You would have shot right past Mornington Crescent. MWAHAHA! Assuming the move would have been legal. Being an Equestrian card may have made the move out of bounds, but there had been a few moves earlier to allow you in, that might have made the card permissible. It would have been horizon's call. Would have tapped me out too, I wouldn't have been able to make any new moves for at least 3 turns afterwards.

Oh well, that was a fun game. And how often do you get to work references to the Beatles, My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins, and Kate Griffin's "A Madness of Angels" in the same game?

Not NEARLY often enough.

847580

That seems surprisingly specific for a trap card. There'd better be ones that only target ponies with cutie marks. Or ones that specifically benefit the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

My arguments against would have been:
a) I wasn't technically a blank flank at the moment, due to having specified that I had "Animatronics" labels on my flanks earlier.
b) I was already doing a random activity in search of my cutie mark, namely playing Mornington Crescent, so it would have had no effect.

Not that I ended up with a Mornington Crescent cutie mark, unfortunately, despite my win. Just as well, though. I'm still not sure if I get a cutie mark here if it would still be there in Equestria.

847715
Oh certainly. Cutie Mark Failure Insanity Syndrome to be exact. It causes a sudden anxiety over potentially failing to live up to your special talent, thus you enter a compulsive state. While the activity you would perform is less random, due to it having to be related to one's special talent, it would still have roughly the same effect of denying you two turns. As an extra, if your special talent is such that it is impossible to perform, you simply freeze up for two turns. Got one in my deck, but it wasn't in my draw pile. It is also a rare card, as it is effective against more players. Cutie Mark Crusade is simply uncommon. I think there might be a Crusader card that negates one turn of of the trap card too.

a) I wasn't technically a blank flank at the moment, due to having specified that I had "Animatronics" labels on my flanks earlier.

Ooooooh yeah. I totally forgot that.
I wonder if Skywriter is out of Nidd yet.

848090

I don't know. I was hoping everypony else would meet me in Mornington Crescent. That's why I got a room. Lots of chocolate was because I like chocolate, of course.

And while I didn't need the labels in Akihabara due to it being a rather unusual place:

Elsewhere, it seemed to make adults happy to be able to assume that I was being remote controlled by someone. Kids, of course, just assumed I was a magical talking unicorn. Which I am.

848745
Chocolate? I like chocolate.

848796

Well, there you go. When I got the room and the chocolate at the end, I got enough for everypony. So the rest of you still have plenty of incentive to try to get to Mornington Crescent.

848829
Sweetie, I'm afraid the game is over when someone reaches Mornington Crescent. The rules are absolutely silent as to what happens afterwards.

853400

The rules don't specifically say you can't all meet up at Mornington Crescent afterwards and eat chocolate together, though, do they?

I mean, otherwise I'll be stuck here all by myself and have to eat all the choc... ok, maybe it wouldn't be all bad, but it'd still be more fun with friends here.

854173
Well, I'm still in Nidd. Any suggestions for getting back on the Bakerloo?

854415

Oh, well, here, I'll expend some of my magic to transfer one of my moves over to you, so you can get back onto Bakersloo. Looks like I can only do this on a weekend, with something purple on me, but given my mane, that shouldn't be an issue.

Oh, it mentions something about your needing to perform a forfeit if you aren't able to give the move back within five rounds, but I doubt that'll be a problem.

854500
Um, okay. Bakerloo line to... Charing Cross, transfer to the Northern, and then... um... Mornington Crescent.

DAMNIT HOW DID THIS GAME GET SO EASY?

854515

With chocolate, all things are possible.

*passes an assortment of different types of chocolate to Skywriter*

854622
Um, okay. I... Er...

I execute Henry's Gambit, removing all Crown pieces from the board in a linear fashion in a four-stop radius and clearing the Thames. Assuming we count the Millennium Bridge as an acceptable crossing, that should give me a clear channel to move the Brusher all the way to the Outer Bank, after which I can eat a piece of chocolate.