Summer 01
As soon as Spike flipped over the hourglass, everypony spread out a little bit to gather their thoughts. Applejack went off by herself, leaned against a bookcase, and studied her card. One side was completely covered in a small copy of the board, and the other had a brief description of the units and what they were each capable of, including which ones she’d be starting with. She also had a much larger paper map, complete with names and the symbols marking the ‘supply centers’, which she could mark up. She concentrated on the notes, making sure she knew all that she could before she started making any decisions.
“Let’s see now… Ah start with one of each unit. The armies can only move over land, and the navies can move over oceans and dock in spaces that border the sea. Air forces can move over any land or sea space, but always lose in a one on one fight. Seems simple enough.”
She set aside the card and studied the map. “Hmm… the only unclaimed supple center nearby is in… Pferdreich? Am Ah say’n that right? Well, guess Ah gotta start there. That’s a bit close to Naqah, Ah’d better talk to Fluttershy about it.”
AJ looked up and saw Fluttershy was still at the table, opposite Twilight. She looked a little lost and was shooting glances around the room at everyone else. Applejack put her best smile on her face and started trotting over, but Pinkie Pie bounced right into her path and stopped her short.
“Hey, Applejack! Are you going to be sending your navy east or south?”
“Um… what?” Applejack muttered, a little flustered by the direct question. “You know what my pieces are already?”
“Well, duh!” Pinkie said, draping an arm around Applejack’s shoulders and pulling her into a huddle. “Spike just put out all the units onto the big map just now. Plus, I could totally hear you talking to yourself just now.”
Huh. Ah didn’t even think about the others hearin’ me. Ah’d better keep that in mind… “Ah honestly haven’t thought about where that piece’s goin’ yet.”
“Okie dokie! I’ll ask you later then!” Pinkie bounced off before Applejack could say anything else.
Applejack stood still for a moment, then looked down at her card again. It only said anything about the starting positions of her own units, not any of the others. “Hmm…”
…
“Um, Twilight? I think there’s a typo on my card.”
Twilight looked up from studying the board. “What do you mean?”
Rainbow offered up the offending card for inspection. “It says here that all of my pieces are armies. Shouldn’t I have one of each?”
“Well, no.” Twilight answered, gesturing to the big board in front of her. “Each nation starts with a different mix of units. In the case of the buffalo, that means it’s all ground forces.”
“What?!” Rainbow exclaimed. “I don’t start with any flying pieces? What kind of unfairness is that?!”
“Just take some more territories and make some air forces.” Twilight said, turning back to studying the map. She had a different notebook from the game one in front of her and she was taking notes in it.
“Darn right, I’m going to make some flying units!” Rainbow Dash growled, leaning over the map and searching for all the closest spots. After a moment, she took off across the table, grabbing Fluttershy by the elbow and pulled her into the air.
“Come on, I need to talk to you.”
“Oh… ok…” Fluttershy said softly, glancing apologetically at Applejack. The farm pony had just been about to say something, she was sure, but Rainbow Dash seemed to really need to talk to her.
Once they were as high as the ceiling would allow, Rainbow clapped her hooves on either side of her friend’s face and pulled it close. “Listen, I need to take the West Dune Sea, so don’t go down into Samak next turn, alright?”
“Oh, but, I’ve got an army in Naqah… it can only go down…”
“No, that won’t work…” Rainbow said, already running through the possibilities in her head. “If you take Pte after I leave it, I’ll get nothing. Look, just stay put for a couple turns. I’ll make it up for you later, OK?”
“Oh… ok…” Fluttershy said softly, pulling back in embarrassment.
“Alright!” Rainbow said, and shot off in search of where she left her notebook.
…
“So Twi, you want to talk strategy?” Applejack asked.
Twilight looked up from her notes. “Not just yet, Applejack. There’s just so many different ways to start, I want to work out what the best starting moves are first.” So saying, she turned back to her work. The Sea of Tranquility can reach two different supply centers. Caballeria would solidify my defense in the south, but Ard is most likely to be empty first…
“Ah was just wonderin’, though, if you were goin’ to try for Pferdreich? It’s the only one nearby for me right now, so Ah’d appreciate it if you left it alone.”
“Sure, whatever.” Twilight said, not really paying attention. All of the territories in the Cavallia peninsula are pretty much mine for the taking, but maybe I should try to get Konja and Hippopotamia before the griffons do...
“Oh, if she wants to be alone, let her.” Rarity said, pulling Applejack aside and walking her in the direction of the kitchen. “I’ve actually got a few things I wanted to go over with you, dear…”
Good, now I can think without distractions. Twilight thought. Now, my air force in Canterlot can easily support my navy, but it could also reach Pferdreich pretty quickly. I wonder if anypony is going for that space…
…
“You want to form a team?” Applejack said in surprise.
“Hush now, no need for anypony else to hear.” Rarity admonished. “And I think it’s more of an… alliance. We are right next to each other, after all, so there’s bound to be a little conflict. But I have nothing to gain from going after you this early on, and it would take you too long to get to anything on the other side of my kingdoms.”
“So, you want us to just ignore each other?” Applejack asked, looking down at her map.
“Exactly!” Rarity said, pointing it out over her own map. “You go down the left side and I’ll go down the right. After all, there are too many open spaces right now to fight over the ones we already have.”
“Well, that does make sense.” Applejack said, already seeing the future turns play out on her map. “Sound like you got yourself a plan! Ah promise not to send anything your way.”
“That’s great, dear!” Rarity said cheerfully, waving as Applejack wondered back into the main room. A slow smile crossed her face after a few moments, and she wrote something down in her little notebook.
…
“Hi Dashie!” Pinkie chirped, having climbed up to the top of the stairs to get level with the still flying pegasus. “You got a moment? I just want to ask you something.”
Rainbow Dash had nearly dropped her notebook when Pinkie surprised her, but caught it and clutched it to her chest in annoyance. “What is it, Pinkie, I’m trying to work out my plan here.”
“I was just wondering if you were going to be building any navy units in the future.” Pinkie said. “Most of mine start as navies, and I didn’t want to get in your way. After all, the oceans are the easiest ways out of the corner down here.”
“Nah, I’m going air units all the way!” Rainbow said, for a moment too eager to remember to keep her voice low. “It says here that unlike the other two units, air forces don’t have to be in an adjacent space to support an attack! With an army of air units, I can outnumber any fight I want! It’s flawless!”
“Sound like!” Pinkie agreed. “So… that means no navy units?”
“Why bother?” Rainbow asked dismissively. “Air units can go over the water anyway.”
“Okie dokie!” Pinkie said happily, hopping off the staircase and dropping to the ground floor with a laugh. Rainbow shook her head and let her go, before turning back to her plans.
…
“Are you sure you don’t want to talk to the others yet, Twilight?” Spike asked, looked over her shoulder worriedly.
“Not just yet, Spike. I’ve almost got the perfect plan all set and ready to go.”
“Alright, if you insist.” Spike sighed, and flipped over the timer. “Halfway point, everypony!”
…
“Sounds like Rainbow has a plan already.” Fluttershy whispered to herself, watching the flyer recover from her talk with Pinkie. “All flying units… I wish I had a plan. I mean, I suppose I could go to…”
Something tapped her lightly on the shoulder and Fluttershy eeped, clutching her map and notebook to her chest protectively and spun around. Applejack looked apologetic and smiled reassuringly.
“You alright, hun? Ah just wanted to ask you somethin’.”
“Oh… it’s alright, Applejack. What did you need?”
“You weren’t thinkin’ about sending anything north this turn, were you? Cause Ah’m sending my army into the Western Badlands here, and if’n you send yours there too then neither of us would get to move. See?”
“Well… yes…” Fluttershy said, trying to put her misgivings into words. “But, you see… my piece can only go to a few places… and that’s…”
“Oh, Fluttershy! Could you come over here for a minute?” Rarity trilled, beckoning daintily from the other side of the room.
“Looks like she needs you!” Applejack said cheerfully, propelling Fluttershy in the unicorn’s direction with a nudge. “Just remember what you promised, ya hear!”
“O-ok…” Fluttershy said, trying to remember if she had promised anything at all. She slunk slowly into the kitchen and smiled worriedly.
“Oh don’t look that way, Darling. I’m not going to bite you!” Rarity kidded, trying to lighten her friend’s mood. “How do you like the game so far? I haven’t seen you writing any moves in your notebook yet.”
Fluttershy fidgeted a little under the attention. “It’s fun. I just… don’t have a lot of moves right now…”
“You are in a bit of a tight spot.” Rarity said, pouring over her map. “Caught right in the middle of all those other nations. I just wanted to let you know that if you need anything, you just let me know.”
“Thanks Rarity.” Fluttershy sighed in relief. “That means a lot. I was starting to think everypony was just going to think about themselves the whole game.”
“Perish the thought…” Rarity said softly, almost to herself. She broke out a beaming smile. “So, where so you suppose Twilight is going to start, hmm?”
…
“Hey, Rainbow!” Applejack called, trying to get the speedster’s attention. “Want to have a little chat?”
“About what?” Rainbow Dash replied, waving her map over her head without turning in the farm pony’s direction. “We aren’t anywhere near each other. I don’t think we’ve got anything to talk about.”
“Be that as it may, Ah’ve talk to everypony else already, so we might as well go over what we got.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Don’t need any help. I’ve already got my orders all written down here. Nothing can stop me now.”
“Oh really?” AJ said, her temper starting to rise. “You think everythin’ will just go smoothly? The game is called Diplomacy for a reason. You probably can’t just win all on your own.”
“You think you can stop me?” Rainbow demanded. She turned around and landed in front of Applejack, matching her glare for glare.
“You know, Ah think Ah just might!” Applejack returned.
“Oh, yeah? Well, how about we make this official? You against me, for the rest of the game. We’ll see who’s got the better strategy!”
“Yer on!” AJ declared. The two of them spat on their hooves and slammed them together, marking their competition.
…
“All set!” Twilight said, closing her personal log with a snap. “I’ve got the perfect plan all set!”
“And just in time, too.” Spike said, poking the hourglass with a claw. “You’ve got less than five minutes left.”
“More than enough time to tell everypony what they need to do.” Twilight said confidently, looking around for the closest pony to talk to. “Ah, Applejack! I’m going to send my Canterlot unit north, so…”
“Not now, Twi!” Applejack interrupted, still engaging in a blinking contest with Rainbow. “I’ve got somethin’ more important to deal with right now.”
“…alright…” Twilight said, taken aback. She spotted Pinkie sitting in the corner by the stairs and trotted over. “Pinkie, I wanted to talk to you about the Garanha and Cavallia territories…”
“I don’t have any interest in them.” Pinkie said, not even looking up from writing down her orders. “Besides, I don’t think you and I are going to meet much during this game. You’re landlocked!”
“I’m… what?” Twilight asked, not sure how that was relevant. “You don’t want to plan anything?”
Pinkie thought for a moment and shook her head. “Like I said, I don’t think we’re going to ever meet. Have you not even started writing orders yet? The time is going faster than you think.”
“No… I…” Twilight started but couldn’t find the words to continue. This wasn’t going at all like how she thought it would. She saw Rarity and Fluttershy chatting near the kitchen and bounded over, mindful of the time slipping away.
“Fluttershy!” she said, speaking quickly to get the question out. “Are you going to go into the Sea of Tranquility?”
“The Sea of…?”
“Because I think it would make more sense for you to start in the Crescent Sea!” Twilight continued. “You can reach the other sea spaces that way. I have no choice but to start here, but there’s no reason to trap yourself…”
“Actually, Twilight.” Rarity interrupted smoothly, stepping between the two ponies. “Fluttershy had already decided to have her navy start on the Crescent Sea side. We thought it would make more sense that way. But shouldn’t you and I have a moment to talk?”
“Yes!” Twilight said, flipping through her notes to find her thoughts on the Griffon Kingdoms. “I think I should take the three spots in Cavallia-Zaldia, and you focus on the three open ones around Morkovo. That way…”
“Last minute!” Spike called out, and Twilight nearly dropped her notes.
“Oh, no no no! I haven’t explained it all yet!”
Rarity places a calming hoof on Twilight’s back. “Don’t worry. We can talk at the start of the next turn. Just write down you moves for now or you’ll miss it.”
“Right!” Twilight said, using her magic to scribble in her game notebook quickly. She’d just finished writing the last word when Spike called time.
…
“Alright!” Spike said several minutes later, shuffling a stack of pages torn from everypony’s notebooks together. “I think I got this. There weren’t any conflicts, so we’re just moving the pieces this turn.”
Spike reached over the board and started moving the various tiles around the board. Each piece had a symbol featuring a hoof, a sail, or a wing in their nation’s respective color. The group gathered around the table and watched his moves with interest.
“Starting at the top,” Spike read as he worked, “the Griffon’s navy went from Poronajsk to the Gulf of Poronajsk, and their two air forces moved to Kaunas and the Gulf of Hippopotamia. The Elk’s Navy entered the North Pellagic Sea and their air force took its place in Elkheim. The Elk army went down into the West Badlands.
“Fluttershy… didn’t write anything on her paper, so the Camels don’t move this turn.”
“I…I didn’t know what to do…” Fluttershy said miserably. “I didn’t want to get in anypony’s way.”
“Don’t worry.” Twilight said, draping a wing over her friend. “It’s just a game. You’ll come into your own soon enough!”
“If you say so.” Fluttershy said in a soft voice, hunching down until she was almost level with the table.
“Come on! What about mine?” Rainbow demanded impatiently.
Spike flipped through his notes. “I’m getting to it; don’t rush me! The Buffalo armies moved into Samak, Caballeria, and East Dune Sea unopposed, so Rainbow Dash gets the first new territories.” Spike placed a yellow flag on the East Dune Sea and Caballeria spaces, marking their supply centers as claimed.
“Yes!” Rainbow cheered, pumping her arms. “I’m totally winning!”
“It’s still early yet, Sugercube!” Applejack said curtly.
“Twilight’s navy moves into the Sea of Tranquility.” Spike continued. “Her air force goes up into Trottingham and her army moves right into Caneighda. And lastly, the Tapir’s navies sail into the Alpaca Sea and the Azure Reaches, while her army claims Alpaclan.” He marked the territory with a purple flag. “And that’s it.”
“Sweet!” Pinkie laughed. “You and me, Dashie!”
“Do we get to put our new forces down now?” Rainbow asked, already searching through the box for her own colors.
“Not yet.” Twilight explained. “We only gain new pieces every other turn, so you’ll have to wait until the next one.”
“I think I’m getting the hang of this.” Rarity said lightly. “There’s a lot more one can do in this game than it first seems."
“Well, it can only get more interesting from here on out!” Twilight agreed. “Spike?”
Spike picked up the hourglass and turned it over. “From now on, I’ll only turn the timer once. Go!”
So the game has officially begun! Let's have a look at the board:
Click here for a closer look.
By the way, the flags are not color-coordinated with the players like the pegs are. The flags are colored for their respective nations.
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Next stop, the feature box...
Yay, I'm so following this. I never heard anything of that game, but the map instantly reminded me of Darkest Hour.
i.imagebanana.com/img/furel339/DarkestHour2013081320564279.png
Damn, now I have the weirdest ideas how that might look like.
Fluttershy - United States
Pinkie Pie - German Kaiserreich
Rarity - France
Twilight - Austria-Hungary
Rainbow Dash - Russia
Applejack - Great Britain
A diplomacy crossover?
Yes. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssss.
...so Diplomacy is Risk, but forty times more complex?
Oh Jesus. This game. This freaking game. I HAVE to read this.
MUST. READ . MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love the idea! But don't you only claim supply centers at the end of fall / at the start of winter turns?
this won't end well either....
/popcorn
This is going to be awesome. Horribly, horribly awesome.
And poor Fluttershy. Although I suspect she'll either win somehow via default with the others taking each other out or she'll get sick of being pushed around and crush the others beneath her hooves.
3042546
As a friend of mine loves to say, it's actually just about as exactly unlike Risk as you can possibly get and still have it be a board game about taking over the world...
3043020
Yes. Yes I am. And I'm doing it all on my own, keeping track of all twelve different points of views, simultaneously. In my head. Without planning anything out before hand. If I wasn't a crazy person, this might almost be difficult!
3043424
Close. You do only get units at the end of the Winter turns, but there are only Summer and Winter, no Spring or Fall. So they will get new pieces every other turn.
3043652
..................
Oh, right, rules are online: "After each Fall turn, players check to see how many supply centers they control. A country controls a supply center when one of its units occupies that supply center province after a Fall turn has been played and completed... A unit that moves into a supply center during a Spring turn and moves out of it during the Fall of the same year does not affect the ownership of the supply center." But no problem using house rules.
3043773
Hold on, let me pull out my physical copy of the rules... oh. Ah, I seem to have made a mistake. The game does use Spring and Fall, and not Summer and Winter. Well, I guess we can call the Summer-Winter thing an equestrian variant. Good call, I completely missed that.
The placing flags down a turn early, though... that's intentional. No one plays this game correctly the first time!
3044053 This map has 6 empires.
This story is rather interesting. I need to follow this story to see just how bad things go from here on out. I wonder if Flutters goes full on Amazon warrior and makes a killing. Although I like how Rarity is playing and manipulating everypony so that she can angle for the kill when they [everypony else] tear at eachother's throats.
The linked images aren't actually any larger than the embedded ones.
On behalf of the hater alliance, I give this story the global seal of disapproval:
anothermidnightwriter.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/seal-of-disapproval.png?w=480
Ah, Diplomacy... the game you can only play with any particular group of friends once. I will never forget the time we played this in college using week long turns. The turn when Germany screwed up who he was IMing and accidentally threatened Britain instead of Italy, leading to Britain taking half of Germany as a preventative measure was priceless.
I remember playing a game like this once... I was like Fluttershy, the quite one who just let the others do what they wanted.
I swear I even scare myself sometimes.
And after a while of being pushed around, I just... snapped.
I ended up tossing the board across the room and yelling ENOUGH!
So reading this and seeing how Fluttershy is taking things, it's like history repeating itself for me. I wouldn't be too surprise if she just has a rage quit or something...
Looking forward to seeing more. Great job!
3044816 That's odd. Is that gray country east of Hyasanguia not a playable region? The Wikipedia page clearly states that the game allows for two to seven players.
Author, I still recommend you consider omitting "Best" from the story's title or changing "Six" to "Seven". The current title implies one of the Element bearers isn't playing.
3051366
This game does have seven playable nations. That greyed-out nation is Cavallia-Zaldia, basically the Crystal Empire. But unlike our version of Diplomacy, in the Equestrian version the seventh nation is optional. I chose to reduce the number of main countries because there are six Elements of Harmony, not seven, and I didn't want to have to mess up the balance of the game if one got left out. Seeing as I was using a completely new board to begin with (It would make no sense whatsoever to use a map of Europe) this just seemed easier.
And as for Spike not playing, I'm going to go over that in the chapter I'm writing right now. Suffice to say, Spike doesn't want to play. This already makes him smarter than the others.
3051940 That's good to hear. Some people fail to realize that there are six ponies and six Elements, but seven friends...seven best friends... *nudge, nudge*
Damn. This game is going to bring out each of their assets. It's going to spit the truth right into their eyes.
Let's go alphabetical shall we?
Applejack - practical yet intelligent. An excellent second in command. If you need time to think you can hand control over to AJ and she can keep the military running smoothly.
Fluttershy - the hidden gem. People underestimate her because her skills are rather low, but she still provides resources. And that could tip the balance.
Rainbow Dash - this is your field officer. The one who leads the charges. The hero behind which your troops can rally.
Rarity - the diplomat. Intelligent, persuasive, seductive. Regal. The rose. But like a rose, she has thorns. Possibly one of the most valuable allies in a game like diplomacy. After all, alliances are the key to war.
Pinkie Pie - the secret weapon. This is your hail Mary. The one who comes up with the plans crazy enough to work. Excellent at distractions whether they be opening up a second front, covering a more strategic move, or just plain assaulting the enemy supply lines.
Twilight - great member of your cabinet. Info gathering, data analyst, weapon advancement, resource management. Just don't put her in charge of anything. She possesses great knowledge but severely lacks experience or perspective. Not to mention blind arrogance.
Making my call right now. Either Pinkie or Fluttershy will win.