Imported Vices by VelvetHeart
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Countless years have passed since the Age of Harmony, a time now only remembered in quaint little fantasy games that linger tenaciously, gathering dust on servers that obediently churn their plates to give the lost ponies their fix of escapism.
It no longer matters to the ponies living in their lofty towers, sky-high phallic symbols of glass and steel, picturesque little terraces and online shopping-malls. The great void left by the Princesses is no longer felt either - and only those with ancient knowledge would even care that the sky around the sun was now peppered with arcane symbols and warped structures - creations meant to keep all but SolCorp from moving their property; the very thing that fed life to the world, now a monopoly.
Down in the shadowed slums, however, the shining sun brought little joy; Burnt-out, haggard, the street-corners were filled with the lost and lonely stallions who had nothing left to sell but themselves. Their bruises told tales of abuses and cruel clients, but they still lingered, longingly, for the mare to spend such a large portion of her coin just to stay clasped in loving hooves - to not be lonely for just one night.
Dilapidated buildings, their once-pristine beauty tarnished by the steady scrape of time and acid rain, stood crowded together like shivering survivors in the cold. Though dismal, it was a normal day; the sick, the drunk and the desperate abandoned to their fates, until fate struck; One of the buildings, already teetering, trembled as the bottom floor disappeared in a fiery blast. The upper half, complete with its pony inhabitants, sank into the rubble within seconds. None survived, but one saw the cause:
"They's wearin' these black suits, you see. More 'spensive than pony lives 'round here, so I thought: Snipsy, y'd better be keepin' an eye on those them mares." The street urchin sat at the table, his face barely visible over the edge as he talked. "One o' them dropped something, so I gots it for yeh, I know you likes this stuff." A tiny envelope was pushed across the softly-lit table, into the hesitant telekinetic grasp of a pearly-white unicorn in pristine garb.
"Why, ehm, thank you. Here you go, our usual agreed sum."
Credits were transferred, and with his booty fresh on his stick, the little urchin shot off. Best not to be seen talking too much, after all.
Rarity idly turned the small paper folder around, tilting her head this way and that. Without taking her eyes off the clue, she licked her lips and stated, "I already know you're there, dear. Why don't you come up and introduce yourself? It will go better than stalking back there, you're not as stealthy as you think you are."
With a metal clack, a cybernetic leg slapped to the ground nearby, swiftly followed by three more. The black limbs were clunky, metallic, obviously-artificial, but practical in design, and attached to a very sturdy-looking earth-pony mare. "Ah ain' got anythin' against you, miss. Ah was thinkin' you'd be needing some back-up for this one. And this mission? It's personal." A gleaming blade shot out from the mare's right foreleg, sharpened to a nigh-unnatural edge. "M'name's Applejack. Street Samurai Applejack."
"Ehm." Applejack looked down at the piece of paper in front of her, the countless scribbles quickly becoming a confusing blur as she tried to muddle through the various statistics and scores. "Ehm, I'm strong, an' fast, and tough an' such, so you're gonna need me, and stuff. Is this where Ah roll one o' these dice?"
"We'll get to rolling dice soon enough, Applejack," Lero replied from behind a cardboard screen. "But first, let's give the rest of the group some time to introduce themselves, ok? I understand Rainbow Dash has been aching to make an entrance for a good half hour now."
Oh Shadowrun, thats all i can say
I'm kind of interested in the setting and Lero here - do you think he'd need help transitioning the setting to the ponies, what with the comfort-stallions as well as the "sky-high phallic symbols." I can see Twilight and him sitting down to make sure things were set up for their friends and Twilight giggling at the implications that Lero might not realize.
Actually, now I'm wondering about that. We see such things as 'phallic' in our own society and associate that with power etc (depending on the theory, I don't actually subscribe to those myself but I can see the allure). I wonder how ponies see them - phallic, maybe, but as signs of protection or extravagant wealth i.e. a symbol of 'male' to protect and own, like a harem to humans? How does that kind of patriarchal-type thought process vis a vis architectural stylizing work in a Xeno-Equestrian setting? The only thing I can think of is a short, squat fortress being seen as a symbol of the 'oppressive matriarchy' because of the general round-shape. And that's a MASSIVE stretch.
Ah! Post-apocalyptic cyberpunk RPG!
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That made me think of this.
media.oglaf.com/comic/glamazon_way_fix.jpg
Copy-pasting my comment from the forum thread:
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I learned about pen and paper role playing games, a way to have fun with your friends using only your imagination and some simple rules. They are not optimization problems seasoned with random number generation, no matter how much they may appear to be at first glance.
Also, I learned that nopony likes a munchkin.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
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Oglaf - for when you REALLY want to test your work's firewall.
Huh. I would like to see how their session gone from there :D
So, who would be a complete munchkin?
In the Pony Shadowrun world, is the currency called nubits?
"I wanna be a kender!" Pinkie declared.
A moment later, Twilight stared at the Lero-shaped hole in the wall. "... I didn't think he could do that."
I had a good laugh at this, would really enjoy more with Lero GMing.
Hmm, I wonder if they'd have goblinized ponies and a Equis Policlub to beat them down. SolCorp could be like Ares Macrotechnology... Twilight or Cadance would have to be the Damien Knight equivalent. Luna could run Lonestar...
Also just like how the USA became the UCAS after getting their asses handed to them by the Native Americans, the Earth Ponies could have an awakened Mare similar to Daniel Howling Coyote, who takes the ceremonial Earth pony lands back from Celestia's rule by razing the land with spirit summoned volcanos and shamanistic magic. Equestria and the Crystal Empire are torn asunder and reformed by the war between them and the Earth Pony tribe into the United Crystal Empire and Equestria Territories or UCEET. Hah, all this talk of Shadowrun and ponies just as 5th Edition is released. Man I wish I was Gencon, they had that limited Brony Edition cover release. Ah well...
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One thing that's kind of hillarious to me is that I got roped into an MLP role play not long ago- and my character- through no fault of his own- ended of becoming Baronet of Trottingham. (Long story short, he impressed Princess Twilight repeatedly, and she looking political allies, ennobled him, and assigned him a barony that'd been unruled for decades, since the last baron died. She didn't realize at the time that this was because no one wanted it.)
While he was given a grant by the crown to help recovery efforts- more money than he had ever had in his life before this point- when he got there and realized the scope of the problem- pervasive poverty, corrupt officials, organized crime, nightmare cultists (yeah, it's that kind of story), he realized how pathetic the amount was in face of the scale of he problem. On top of that, the only reasons he didn't come down wih a severe case of The Deads at the hands of the people disinclined to see the return of law and order was the combined factors of managing to find and hire a hypercompetant assistant, the fact Pinkie Pie had taken a liking to him and decide to tag along, that a local vampire took interest in him and decided to lend a hand, and managing to inspire the remaining local guards who weren't corrupt to help him. (He's not a fighter, he tends to get by one cleverness and charisma, as you might guess from this)
The problem is, now whenever anyone mentions what a shithole Trottingham is, I feel annoyed and vaguely responsible.
If the Princesses are gone, then who were the bastard dragons?
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gifsforum.com/images/gif/lol/grand/441894849.gif
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*Blinks* The... Dragons. The dragons are the dragons.
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So you're saying that Spike's a bastard?
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No, he'd be the one good one, like Dunkelzahn,
Oubliettes and Ogres then? With a distinct dystopian feel to it.
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Shadowrun, or rather Shadowgallop