So, one popular forum game on this site in many groups is a "Collab Game." The first one was posted by Bookplayer a long time ago in a galaxygroup far away.

As the one starting this game up, I'll begin by posting a mini-fic about Sonata Dusk. At the end will be a one word prompt. To play, be the first to post in this thread saying "claimed" and quoting the prompt you are claiming like so:

Prompt
claimed

As a side note, you don't need to reply to the person before you or anything of that sort. Some people may enjoy getting notifications to remind them about the game, others might be annoyed by it. I don't care either way, but y'know, some people might.

After claiming a prompt, you have 4 hours (subject to change if needed; 4 hours is Bookplayer's original rule) to write your fic, then post it (double-posting is fine) in this thread. You can enclose the story in quote tags if you wish, or you can use horizontal rules, or whatever. At the end of your fic, you need to provide a one-word prompt. It can be any word you want, and it's up to the next person playing to decide what sort of story they can write that is about Sonata Dusk and fits the prompt.

Some guidelines:

* Any tags or rating are acceptable. However if your story would be teen or mature rated, or use the sex or gore tags, as defined by Fimfic.net's rules for what those ratings and tags mean, then include them at the start of your story, enclosed in brackets like this: [Teen][Mature][Sex][Gore]. If you wish to mark your story with other Fimfic tags, feel free to do so.

* Stories are expected to be only about 100-500 words. These are not hard limits, but if you end up writing something 1k+ words long, you might consider simply going the rest of the way and submitting it as a regular story instead of submitting it for this game. If that happens, awesome. It would be super cool if you made mention that this game and the person who posted the prompt you were writing about in an author's note. Not required, just would be cool. If you choose not to do that, and want to submit it to the game, that's cool too. If your story ends up so big that it exceeds the character limit of a single post, then it's too long for the game. If your story idea is shorter than 100 words, you probably ought to flesh it out some more.

* Stories can be in First, Second, or Third person (though Second person sucks). It can be in the form of a poem, prose, letters, or whatever writing style you'd like, with the exception of "green text" stories as seen in places like 4chan. If you feel like continuing your story off of someone else's game submission, put a [Sequel] tag at the start of your story, and make it a link to their post. You are not required to continue off of any other story in the game though, and most will likely be self-contained.

* Your claim is valid for four hours, to keep someone from accidentally holding things up all day. If you see someone has claimed a prompt, but more than 4 hours has passed, you can claim it. If you claim a story, 4 hours pass, and nobody else has claimed it, you can claim it again. There is no limit to this, but if I feel like someone is abusing it to be an ass, I'll take appropriate action.

* Due to things like lag, if somehow two people write a story, then whomever had the legitimate claim on the prompt is the official one as far as the game is concerned. If you claim the wrong story, don't fret and play on. I'd rather there be a confusing mess of a bunch of stories for people to read than have a bunch of people hesitant to play. The guidelines of the game are meant to help encourage people to post, create, and produce stuff that is enjoyable to read. If the rules get in the way of that, then go with better stories.

* If you like a particular prompt, but it's old, claimed, and already written about, feel free to write a story anyway. Do not post a "claimed" post, and simply write your story at your leisure. Also do not put a prompt at the end. Mark your story with a [Side Story] tag at the start, and mention what prompt you're responding to also in brackets. [Prompt].

* I shouldn't have to say so, but I know some people are idiots. No plagiarism. If I or any of my admins find that you're posting plagiarized content, we will contact the site staff and report you. Once they've dealt with you, the offending post will be deleted, and we'll work out how to fix the game if needed then.

* Furthermore, all other site rules still apply. No posting links to NSFW stuff in your stories, etc. Duh. If you're confused by this, contact me or one of the group admins, or simply look at the site rules under the (?)FAQ button above.

First Prompt: 'Tacos'
[Slice of Life][Everyone]

It was Tuesday. Every student at Canterlot High knew what that meant, and tension in the air was thick as guacamole.

Cheerilee rolled her eyes and tried to maintain her student's attention, but she knew it was futile when they all wanted the special of the day.

Granny Smith had her bandanna on, to keep the sweat of her brow away from the food. Tuesdays were all hard work and no play.

One young girl always made it to the front of the line. Even after her crimes, she would not leave. Even through the glares and sneers, she would stay.

For today, the tortillas would be warm be they soft or crispy. The cumin, chili, and garlic seasoned meats would drip deliciously greasy. The lettuce and tomatoes crisp, the cheese fresh, and the sour cream... creamy.

Taco Tuesday once again. ~yay

Next Prompt: 'Newspaper'

Newspaper
Claim'd

[Slice of Life][Romance][Teen]

Sitting in the library while Adagio kept browsing on the computer was so boring. I mean, I was the one who got the name of the school from that cute purple-haired girl with the glasses and lab coat, so she could have at least let me go hang out in the pet store across the street.

Adagio almost startled me right out of my chair when she smacked that huge book down on the table. She was saying something, but I just stared at the picture in the newspaper she pointed out. I definitely wasn’t bored anymore.

“Who’s that?” I asked.

Adagio just smacked her face with her hand and Aria glared at me.

“I just told you.” Adagio gritted her teeth. “She’s the one who got hit by that blast of magic I saw.”

“She turned into some kinda demon and tried to take over the school. Amateur.” Aria added, looking at her nails.

I just looked back at the picture of the girl with the messy red and yellow hair. I wished I could see what she looked like without all the dirt and messed up hair, but she looked kinda pretty anyway. I read her name under the picture: Sunset Shimmer.

She looked so sad, probably because she lost. I mean, she was just trying to get people to like her. That’s what Adagio, Aria, and I are doing, so it must be good, right? Maybe I can help cheer her up, I thought.

“So we’ll pose as new students at the school and try to find the girls that blasted her. She’s supposed to be friends with them now, right?”

“That’s what I overheard that kid saying, yeah.”

“Good. I’ll bet if we give this Sunset girl a little push we can cause all sorts of chaos.”

“Huh?” I asked, looking up from the picture. “What are we gonna do to Sunset?”

“Pay. Attention.” Adagio glared at me as hard as Aria always does. “We’re going to go to the school and do whatever we have to to get that magic.”

“But Sunset’s like us. Maybe she can help us.” I said cheerfully.

“This is no time for one of your silly crushes, Sonata. Follow my lead and don’t you dare screw this up.”

“When does she ever not screw things up.” Aria rolled her eyes.

“Hey! I’m the one who found out the name of the school!” I yelled. I cringed as a dozen people around shushed at me. “Sorries.”

“Let’s just go. We’ve got a school to take over.” Adagio said, stomping toward the exit.

Aria followed, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the picture. I wanted to remember what Sunset looked like. I kept staring until Aria pulled on my arm and dragged me out the door.

Next Prompt: 'Wind'

Wind
Claimed
***

Sonata looked outside. The wind was howling, the sky was bucketing and the lights in the room flickered. She couldn't wait till the storm blew over.

Someone knocked on her door. "Sonata, we're going to a wrestling match in five. I think we might get a decent meal for once they."

"But Aria, its raining and soooo windy, I don't want to go- "

"I dont care if you, Pinkie and Mr. Snuffles are having a tea party. You're going, GOT IT!"

"Ok" she whimpered. She put Pinkie into her dog basket, Mr. Snuffles on her bed and put away the tea set. She grabbed her coat and went out of her room.

***

She pulled the coat around her body. The wind pushed at her, telling her to hit the ground. She wasn't listening.

At the match, she got a decent meal of hatred and angry. She hated the rest of it except for that guy who gave her his number. He told her that the secrets of the universe were in her hands and all she had to do was go to some place, a romantic restaurant probably, she forgot the name, and he would unlock the secrets. She was in love.

She got the piece of paper with the number on it. It strangely looked like a business card. She read 'Are you feeling lonely? before the wind snatched it away from her hands.

Now, she will never talk to him again. Her true love was gone.

She knelt in a puddle and shouted at the heavans, "why did you do that, world, WHY?!?"

***

Next prompt: 'iSonata'

3723284 I wrote my thing, just to see it was claimed before I finished it.

D'oh

3723455 Prompt: iSonata
Claimed
_
Sonata was bored. For the past couple days, all she, Adagio, and Aria had done was mope around their house. But it wasn't their house, it was just the old abandoned mansion on the hill.

"I'm bored." Sonata voiced her feelings. "I wanna go somewhere." It wasn't just her boredom that prompted this desire; it was pretty creepy in the house since dark clouds were rolling in.

"Then go somewhere," Adagio responded from her spot on the couch.

"Without you guys?" Sonata asked in her little girl voice.

"You can do stuff on your own, Sonata. Learn some independence." Adagio stared up at the ceiling.

"For realzies?"

"Shut up and go," Aria muttered. She was lying on the stares, looking like she had fallen down. That was Aria's idea of a comfy seat.

"Alright!" Sonata charged out of the house and ran straight down the hill. She kept running and running. Running had never felt so good! Before Sonata knew it, she was in the middle of town.

"Hey kid," an old man in a dark trench coat whispered to her in a scraggly voice. Sonata was taken aback.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"I can give you the latest and greatest iPod nano," he said, ignoring the question.

"What's an iPod nano?" Sonata asked. The man shook his head.

"Don't matter. This one's called an iSonata, made especially to amplify music in movies. Wanna try?"

"Okay!" Sonata agreed cheerfully. "Give it to me!" The man pulled out an iSonata and handed it to Sonata.

"Look at the screen," he told her. "That's where the movie will be."

"Okay!" Sonata stared at the moving image of two little girls climbing up the stairs of a dark house. Sonata couldn't help feeling a little tense, it seemed unsafe...

Sonata screamed and fainted.

__
Prompt: Sisters

3723466 You should abide by the rules and their regulations, and effectuate the necessary changes. I don't mind, however. All I want is to put some writing out there.

3723770 Yeah, I thought I was ok, I posted the thing and refreshed the page. And then I saw you begs it.

3723935 Eh, it's been four hours. Classes prevented me from writing anything. You're good to go. I'll delete my post.

Alright, to be clear here.

When you see a prompt you're interested in, post a message with only the words "claimed" and whatever the prompt is. Then hit "add comment."

Once you have done so, take your time to write your story. You have 4 hours. There is no need to rush. You should probably also refresh the page or something to make sure nobody else has claimed it faster than you or whatever.

If someone has claimed it, you can decide to either wait the four hours, see if they do post then try to claim the next prompt, or you can write a side-story as it describes in the rules/guidelines.

Are the rules I posted in the opening of this thread not clear to anyone? Or did some of you simply not read them, thinking to yourself "yeah yeah, I know how to play this." While inspired by Bookplayer's format, the rules to this particular game are a bit different, and allow for a lot more flexibility and looseness.

The current "official" prompt for those wishing to follow the game itself is 'Sisters'.
Other prompts that you may write about as side stories if you like them are: Tacos, Newspaper, Wind, and iSonata.

Prompt: Sisters

Claimed

[Random][Dark][Crossover][Comedy]
_____

"So, remind me again why we chose to do this job, Adagio?" Aria said as she began stretching out a piece of string with a look of boredom on her face.

"Because it was the only way to escape the lull of the monotony that was that grating cesspool. Besides, this makes for a good change of pace, does it not?" Adagio said as she readied a pair of scissors.

"I think it's fun!" Sonata chirped as she spun her own set of strings "The guy that hired us was super nice, too. And the best part is, we get paid for this!" Aria stretched her string to its maximum length as she looked unamused.

"Well, I guess I can't complain if it means not having to put up with the same stupid stuff like usual..." She briefly cast a dirty glare towards Sonata "Although some things don't change..." Aria murmured.

"Just shut up and hold still, I need to get this right." Adagio commanded as she brought her scissors towards Aria's string. She managed to make a clean cut, although after doing so, a blood-curdling scream was heard. Aria and Adagio winced while Sonata grinned cheerfully.

"Incoming!" She called out, before what appeared to be a female ghost breezed passed the three. After hearing a ringing sound, Sonata giggled before she went back to spinning her strings "This is so much fun."

"You would think that..." Aria groused as she rolled her eyes.

"Enough already! I'm not entirely happy about this myself, but we had no power before. Now get another string ready, Aria..." Adagio said as she examined her scissors.

"When do we even get paid anyway?" Aria asked.

"Dunno." Sonata answered "The nice guy didn't say. What was his name again?"

"Hades, Sonata. It was Hades..." Adagio answered irritably before she clipped another string, eliciting another scream out of nowhere, this time male. What appeared to be a ghost wearing a top hat breezed passed the Dazzlings with a look of remorse.

"I could've done more with my life..." He said before entering his final rest.
_____
Next Prompt:
Time Travel

Time Travel
claimed

[Crossover][Romance][Random]

Sonata grumbled a little as the sleek silver sports car sped in and screeched to a stop, interrupting her as she was about to kiss Sunset.

A manic woman in a long white lab coat and solid silver glasses jumped out of the driver’s door, her dark purple-blue hair frazzled and just barely still held up in its bun.

“Sonata! You’ve gotta come back with me!” she hollered, running up to the pair of young women, still with their arms holding each other.

“Um, like where?” Sonata said, raising an eyebrow. Sunset mirrored her girlfriend’s questioning look.

“Back to the Future!” With that cryptic comment, Twilight whipped out a pair of scissors and snipped a small lock of hair from both Sonata and Sunset.

“Wait a minute! What are you doing, Twi?!” Both girls yelled, running their fingers through each other’s hair to inspect the damage.

Twilight held up several strands to the light, eyeing them curiously. “I need magic!” She nodded to herself, satisfied the magic output would reach 1.21 gigawatts, and clipped the hair into a strange contraption sticking out of the mess of tubes and wires filling the space where the rear window of the car should have been. “Go ahead, quick, get in the car!” she cried out as the magitech mechanisms started to glow and hum.

“What? No!” Sonata moaned, rushing up to the passenger door with Sunset in tow. “Look, Twi, Sunny just got here, Vinyl lent us her car, we were gonna go take it for a spin.”

Twilight tapped at one stubborn circuit until it lit up like the rest and rushed over to Sonata and Sunset. “Well, bring her along. This concerns her too.”

Another look of bewilderment passed between Sonata and Sunset. “What do you mean, Twi? What happens to us in the future? Do we become the bad guys again?”

“Oh, nonononono!” Twilight shook her head vigorously, causing what was left of her hair bun to come undone. “Both you and Sunset turn out fine. It’s your kids, Sonata. Something’s gotta be done about your kids!”

With that even more cryptic comment, Sonata and Sunset found themselves crammed together into a single front seat of the small sports car while Twilight flipped switches and rotated knobs from the driver’s seat.

“Hey, Twi, we’re both pretty open minded, but you know neither of us are really that into boys.” Sonata said, holding Sunset with one arm while she leaned over to address their driver.

Twilight smirked. “Boys? Where we’re going, we don’t need boys.” The cryptic comment to end cryptic comments was punctuated by the car lifting off the ground in a blue-green glow of magic, and hovering in place for a moment before flying off toward the horizon and vanishing in a bright flash of white light.

Why? Because I can.

Next Prompt: Scales

Prompt: Scales

Claimed

[Adventure][Alternate Universe][Crossover]
_____

Sonata was busy packing her items with gusto, finally getting into the swing of things ever since she had been on her own with her new friends. Sure, this world wasn't as good as the one she was used to before, but it was all the more fun for her. Maybe she made the right choice leaving Adagio and Aria behind.

She didn't know why that guy with the top hat objected to her buying that pretty mirror, but he wasn't all that important.

"Sonata! We're just about ready for the next excursion! Do you have everything?" A male voice called out from outside the tent. Sonata perked up and turned her head towards the entrance, cupping a hand next to her mouth.

"Just a minute! Making sure I have everything!" She looked at her last item and grabbed after equipping her satchel. It was so shiny, and she was so happy to use that and more with her new friends. Sonata remembered Adagio saying not to run with such sharp objects, but that was only when she was handling scissors.

She never felt such a rush from disobeying her after the Dazzlings split up.

Her items packed, Sonata rushed out of the tent in her newly-polished armor and stopped in front of a robed man with white hair and a book. He showed a smirk at how eager she looked in, but maintained an air of professionalism afterwards.

"It's good to know that you're ready. Gaius mentioned that there were some bandits up ahead in his reconnaissance report. I wish to see how your latest lessons have sunk in." He said maturely, to which Sonata grinned.

"I can't wait to make you proud, Master!" She chirped brightly. The man chuckled at her enthusiasm.

"I already told you, such formalities aren't needed. Just call me Robin, okay?" Robin asked politely.

"Okay, Ma-I mean, Robin. So we're going now?" She asked.

"Of course. We're nearly ready with preparations." Robin replied.

"Robin?"

"Yes?"

"Can I say it this time?" Robin raised an eyebrow.

"Say what?"

"You know..." Sonata said with a small smile with her arms folded behind her back. She lightly brushed the tip of her right boot in the dirt. It took a while before Robin finally registered the request, and he chuckled heartily.

"I don't see why not! You earned it for your satisfactory progress." He said encouragingly, to which Sonata grinned and squealed happily before raising her sword in the air.

"Time to tip the scales!"
_____

I regret nothing

Next Prompt:
Doors