"Hello everybody, welcome back to..."
"Sunny!"
"Moony!"
"Twily!"
"Q&A!"
"I'm Sunset Shimmer, I pretend to hate everything, but I love my friends, enjoy hugs and I have a mother complex with Princess Celestia!"
"I'm Twilight Sparkle, I'm the sexiest nerd alive, I have a hundred of fans, but I still think nopony wants me!"
"I'm Moondancer, I will have sex with anything that has a pulse and anything that won't, I'll hug to death!"
"...pffft, BWAAHAHAHAAHA!"
"How's THAT for an introductory dialogue!"
"That was fun!"
"Let's get to work."
#askmaresketeers
Do any of you play video games? I'm rather fond of the Zelda* series myself.
"We already talked about our newfound appreciation for Pokemon and our new portable consoles..."
"That only unicorns and very skilled pegasi can even 'handle'."
"...but we haven't really had many opportunities to try too many of them. We haven't tried Zelda franchise yet, it's on our long "To-Do Checklist. And it's a long one."
"It's three hooves big!"
"That's what she sai--" SMACK! "OWW, worth it!"
"We can talk about some we tried already, right girls?"
"Sunny, I've seen you playing something last night. What was that exactly?"
"Oh, that. Well, it's a piece of garbage, is what it is."
"Really?"
"The graphics are crap, you don't have any objectives, no characters, just you, a guy. With nothing on him, punching stuff."
"Sounds cool!"
"I mean punching stuff like trees, ground, stone, straw. Punch this, punch that, punch everything!"
"I don't see anything wrong with that."
"I thought you like punching stuff?"
"But it takes forever, and you get blocks from punching! I got so many blocks that I made a house out of it! Then I learned you can build stuff, so I built a shovel, sword, pickaxe, armor and then I got bored and started digging a hole..."
"Were you a dwarf?"
"Yes and no. I kept digging, getting blocks, sometimes coal or ores or diamonds, but monsters kept appearing so I slashed them with a sword. But then it broke, so I made another, I dug more, broke more swords, made more and on and on and on..."
"Couldn't you just stop playing?"
"I can't! I'm trying, but I keep. On. Digging! WHY IS THIS SO ADDICTIVE!"
"There, there." Moony gently hugged Sunny, who for once, didn't push her away. Oh hey, it's me, narrator! I haven't written anything in a while, how are you guys... good? Cool. Me? I'm fine, thank you for aski--
"Ehem" Oh, right, not my story. Sorry, carry on, girls. "Right, my experience with gaming was a bit less traumatizing. A bit. The game I played recently is called XCOM. It's about an organization that protects humanity from alien attacks and it's rather difficult, tactical but somewhat random, so even with best laid plans you can't be sure what happens. I made a terrible mistake of naming all my soldiers after my family and friends. And seeing Moondancer die in an explosion wasn't exactly the highlight of my playthrough."
"Sounds fun to me!"
"Sure it does."
"I stopped playing when Shining Armor lost his head after a nasty critical hit."
"Ouch!"
"The game's still fun, but I don't feel like going back."
"That's what you get when you play Ironman mode."
"Stupid RNG bullcrap..."
"You think that's bad? Wait till you hear what I’ve been through!”
“Moondancer, you’ve been only playing dating sims!”
“I got more than I expected. I thought it was just about getting the girl, or the guy in some cases, with some nice, sexy artwork as a reward for all the hard work…”
“You’re literally choosing a speech bubble every ten minutes! That’s not a challenge!”
“…but it turns out they’re a lot more than that! I came for drawn boobs and stuff, but most of the time I got a really engaging, interesting story that kept me glued to the screen in anticipation of events to follow! At some point I was so into the story that I clicked through the sex scene just to find out what happens next!”
“Those are some rare words.”
“You girls should try them. It’s like reading a good book with pretty pictures, occasionally some voice acting and once in a while you’re given a choice where the story will go next! And as for the porn bits, most of them are pretty tame. Some games give you an option to turn them off completely!”
“Huh, interesting.”
“Not that I ever used it.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“The problem came when I grabbed one particular game…”
“Oh?”
“And I started playing like I normally would, trying to get everybody, like I would in real life, but it… b-backf-fired…”
“Moonie, you okay?”
“It w-went… ho-ho-horribly wrong!”
“Woah, are you crying?”
“H-how w-was I su-supposed to know? I-I di-didn’t expect somethi-thing like THAT from a title like “School Days”! It-it sounded so inno-innoc-innoce--WAAAAAH!"
"Damnit, it made Moondancer cry!"
“Woah, Moonie, it's okay, it's alright!”
"WAAAAAH!"
“Oh brother. Umm, let’s take a short break!”
On it!
"You feeling better now?"
"Y-yeah, I'm fine. Next question, please."
Silver Nightshade #askmaresketeers ...Well this is awkward, Um, what is, and this is for all three of you, your favorite type of Muffin?
"I think blueberry."
"Chocolate chips."
"I don't have a preference, so let's say, uh, white chocolate?"
#askmaresketeers (Opens a box with aforementioned muffins for each mare before dashing out of the audience hall, leaving the box with them.) Why am I lame?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
"Huh... that guy is definitely a loony!"
"He's not that bad. Free muffins! NOM!"
"NOM!"
"NOM!"
Eyeswirl the Weirded asks #askmareskateers Sunny, how the did anypony convince you to wear a maid outfit and call other ponies master? At the same time?
"Yeah, Sunny, how WERE you convinced?"
"Sh-shut up! Not talking about it!"
"Moonie, how did you convince her to do it?"
"I didn't have anything to do with it."
"W-wait, what?"
"I was going to, but she was already on board when I got to her."
"Curious. Care to elaborate, Sunset?"
"T-there's nothing to talk about. I... I just felt like it. I was sleepy and tired and I didn't know what I signed and SHUT UP!"
"Hmm... nope, not buying it."
"Me neither."
"Sunset Shimmer we all know would never JUST agree to something like that. There's a catch."
"No, there isn't, next question!"
"Yes, there is! Now fess up!"
"No!"
"Come on, Sunset Shimmer!"
"Come on, Sunny!"
"Ugh, fine! I did it... because Princess Celestia asked me! I was going to work in the kitchen, but Princess Celestia specifically asked me to wear the maid outfit! She said it would attract crowds, help me with fixing my reputation and that... that I looked good in it. And when your mentor, idol and ruler asks you something, puppy eyes and all, you don't just say no."
"...oh."
"That makes all the sense."
"Can we stop talking about it?"
"She was right thought. You looked amazing in that costume."
"Sooooo cute!"
"One of these days, I'll do it, I swear..."
Solarkness asks Hashtag AskMareSketeers This question goes to all of you:
You were able to send us pictures of you facepalming, so you could in theory send us your mental picture you see each day before going to bed.
"Sure thing! Here's what we see every day before we go to sleep!"
"What, were you expecting something else?"
"Pervert!"
Oh, and have you ever heard of something called a Tantabus? I remember reading about it, but not which book it was... I'd like to read a bit about it.
"Hmm... I've heard the name, but I can't really put my hoof on where it was. I'll get back to you when I fi--"
"Tantabus- an amorphous creature of blue starry smoke that infests and feeds on ponies' dreams, turning them into nightmares; it hasn't been seen in many centuries, some scholars treat it as a myth. Not much else is known about it."
"...well, there you go. Thank you, miss Exposition."
"My pleasure."
How do Timberwolves work? How are they animated, could I in theory make my own Timberwolf-monster friend?
"We could try explaining it to you, but they're hard to grasp by talented unicorns, let alone magic-less beings."
"It's magic. It's hard to explain."
Iamawesome asks #askmaresketeers: Do you have any idea why about half the questions you get are about either Moondancers sexuality, or the question why Twilight isn't as sexually active as Moondancer? With you two it's not like one couldn't guess the answers without asking you.
"I'd say that most of you are perverted creeps is the reason."
"Not that there's anything wrong with that! I'm a perverted creep and Sunny loves me anyway."
"...sure, whatever."
"I find it strange that you guys have such a hard time grasping that just because we're complete opposites in one aspect, that we can't be friends."
"Yeah, just beause I'm slutty and Twily isn't, doesn't mean I think of her any less. I wish she was a bit more outgoing, though."
"I wish you put more attention into your studies and magic."
"I wish you were a bit less uptight and embraced your inner party girl."
"I wish you stopped embarrasing us all the time."
"If only."
"That doesn't answer the original question! But I wish for those things, too."
Mustache Merlin #askmaresketeers To all three of you: In a hypothetical situation where the world Moondancer saw in her dreams was actually real and you had the opportunity to meet your alternate selves, what would you do? What would you tell them?
"I think I would start with asking who her new friends are? Maybe Shiny met some of them in Ponyville, who knows, maybe we could become friends too!"
"My human self... huh, I never really thought about it. I guess I would ask some basic questions, like what's the food like there, do they always wear clothes, what do they learn in school. You know, human knowledge from the perspective of somepony who knew both worlds."
"I would say A LOT of things to my other self, but before any of that, I want to RIP that hairband out of her hair, get her out of that sweater and make herself presentable, is what I would do! Look, I get that different me is more into studies than mating, but that doesn't mean she has to look like a troll! I mean, Sunny and Twily here are at the top of the class and they look stunning!"
"Damn straight!"
"Ehehe, I'm not that pretty..."
"Damn straight!"
"SUNSET!"
DING DING DING!
"It's that sound again! We ran out of time."
"And words."
"Well, this one was pretty uneventful, other than relieving our game-induced traumas."
"Moondancer, please don't tell me you're going to cry again."
"No, I'm fine. As long as I won't think about it, I should be ay-okay... crap, I'm thinking about it!"
"Moonie, no!"
"I... I can't... unthink... the... WAAAAAH!"
"Oh for the love of Celestia's plot!"
"Okay, thanks for reading another episode of..."
"One more word and you'll join her!"
"WAAAAAH!"
"...of you know what, send more questions with a hashtag askmaresketeers, now if you excuse us, we have a friend to hug."
"Great, just fantastic!"
"WAAAAAH!"
"Bye, bye!"
That you are. Wait, what's with the colors being switched around?
Minecraft.
Uh, Moondancer?
Fair enough.
She has a point.
Do I even want to know?
#askmaresketeers
I recently heard that you all were into Table top role playing games. What are some of the best stories you've had playing? Also, Moondancer, while I'm not stopping you from sharing I suppose, I would suggest having your friends don a pair of sock earmuffs to protect them from any role playing of a more sexual nature. :P
6555587
Gore and violence happens. nuff said
May I propose a potential solution/change to the many Q&A question thing you no doubt have going on here?
The solution is a bit simple really, Only accept the question post on the comment of the Q&A chapter.
Us, the readers, only have to post our question until the posting of the next normal chapter or a period of time that you, the author, specify.
This is so that you, the author, and the (in)famous mareskeeters. will have a easier time going through and answering question instead of combing through each chapter comment to find a question.
Also, still waiting for my question to be answered, I can wait for the next one
6555587
Can give you a bit spoiler
Lets just say that a certain perverted asshole got his head cut off by a yandere, there is some more gruesome details, like the bag for instance, but I best just leave it at that,
And let me tell you, there is some worse WORSE things that is out there other than this that I accidentally discover in my early internet years, and I am forever grateful that I forget the name of that particular thing, although the image forever haunts me in my dreams and imagination forever after and put me off that particular gaming genre for a long LONG time
At least you last 3 hours
Heh, their opening together was cute.
Sunset playing Minecraft... I picture some very creative use of lava flows.
War is Hell, Twily.
I remember School Days back from when I watched anime a lot. Guy got what he deserved, I think, and that it served as a lesson for Moondancer is nothing if not a plus! Shame these bits are non-canon.
Ohh, Sunset, you deceptively sweet, silly pony.
I have no questions at this time, but this was fun, as usual!
#askthreemaresketeers
I have two questions and can't really choose which one... so I leave that to you. Green or yellow question?
#askthreemaresketeers
green question: who would play you in the movie of your life and what kind of movie would it be? (and moondancer can't say porn)
yellow question: do you girls...y'know?
6555606 That was the original plan, but the first draft ended up having such a huge response that I had to spend 3 episodes answering JUST that. At that point I just decided to do them in order, to make it more fair. And really, it's not that hard to find those questions.
If I miss your question because there was no hashtag... well, it's your own fault. I actually use those most of the time
6555681
thats ok, i already put in the proper tag and everything in my question.
just asking cuz in the previous q&a chp, you were saying something about too much question or something. hence the reason why i endeavor to only ask 1 qs and 1 qs only until it is answered, then i ask the next one.
i don mind waiting, its still fun reading the q&a responds
Tell that to anybody who has played KGB (gameplay in a nutshell: )
Replace "reading a good book" with "watching a good movie" and you have the reason I love (LucasArts-like) graphical adventures (no real choice on the plot except some inconsequential ordering of actions).
(Yes, I do realize dating sims and graphical adventures are not the same thing, but from afar, dating sim's gameplay looks like a subset of a graphical adventure's gameplay)
6555749 Wait till you hear about her experiences with "Walking Dead: The game".
This was funny and i'm looking forward to the next chapter.
Twilight how would you feel if Celestia is your real mom???
6555779 Or Until Dawn.
#askmaresketeers (Gives Moondancer CLANNAD) This is for you Moondancer after your traumatic experience. I must warn you, you will cry, but it will be good cry. Trust me. Also get Twilight and Sunset to join in. Maybe you three will love it!
Now time to re-watch some anime! (Presses play on first episode of SCHOOL DAYS, and giggles maniacally).
#askmaresketeers I know I can't ask about your gaming experiences, so I'll ask about something else.
Twilight, Back in High School, your brother played an RPG game with his friends. Have you three tried playing it?
Sunset, in a parallel universe, you gained Alicorn wings. How do you feel about that?
Moondancer, how many of your 'fans' send you letters?
I don't remember why I took a chance on reading an XCOM/MLP crossover* without having even played the game, but it was an excellent decision, and I went on to lose weeks to the game itself.
*I also don't know why these work so well, but keep writing them, folks.
I'm a horrible person, but I want to make Moondancer cry some more because it's just so adorable.
6556981 Honestly, I think a big part of it is that they have radically different tones and XCOM mostly appeals to a more mature player base. The difference in tone means it takes a lot of thought and effort to make the two settings fit together into a cohesive story which will usually scare off anyone who is not able to put in the work needed to make a good story, and the more mature player base means you will not have people using it for a power trip or random pony murder (Halo crossovers do this a lot). Another strong point in their favor is that XCOM almost demands the use of OCs which further raises the barrier to entry for authors and means that even veteran players will need to be introduced to the characters so there will also be a strong introduction for readers unfamiliar with XCOM.
On a related note, if you liked the XCOM crossovers, you should really look into the BattleTech crossovers. They have a similar clash of tones, an even older player base, and the universe is so sprawling that it is actually hard to use canon characters so they tend to be excellent on the rare occasions that you can find them. I have only found two so far (The Thessalonica Legacy and Falling Stars), but they are both great and come highly recommended if you have not read them already.
A Foul Light Shines is also a great story in a similar vein which uses Warhammer 40,000 and somehow manages to stay faithful to both settings simultaneously.
As soon as Moonie was talking about a visual novel that backfired on her, I was thinking School Days automatically.
But we all know Moondancer wouldn't be yandere like some of those girls, right? Right?!
#Askmaresketeers
This ones for all three of you- Have you ever considered trading places for a day?
6555587
I'm pretty sure I don't.
Just remember foals..... Curiosity killed the cat.
Nooooo, Opalescence!
6560536 That is only if you have a novice writer who just wants a power trip which is a common problem in franchises which are popular with younger audiences like Halo. It is mostly kids doing whatever strikes them as "cool" rather than giving any real thought to the characters and story.
Games like XCOM and especially BattleTech tend to drive away those less mature players for one reason or another so what that leaves is fans with the maturity to look at things objectively and see that trap for what it is. They are then presented with a major challenge in combining the two in one work which forces them to give a lot of serious thought to all the details that make a story great because that is the only way to avoid falling into the painfully obvious trap you mentioned. This will discourage anyone who does not have the will and ability to do all this from starting, so all that leaves are a handfull of great stories written by very capable authors.
It is worth noting that there are still some great examples with the more popular franchises that avoid the common traps, but it can be hard to dig them out when there are tons of bad ones which look similar from the outside. The Warhammer 40,000 story I linked to earlier probably qualifies here, although I cannot think of a Halo example specifically. That is probably due to the declining quality of the games and universe since Halo 2 which has seriously hurt the interest of more mature fans like myself, but that is really not important to this discussion.
#askmaresketeers For all of you.
Why do I have the feeling that despite Moondancer's shenanigans, she is a lot more "life partner" material then you two?
#askmaresketeers Twilight, this may be outside the realm (or reality) of stories you've read, but have you heard of Stardust?
6557978
6556981
Well, if you think about it, XCOM kind of is the perfect universe to base fanfiction in. The whole setting kind of screams interesting character moments, but it's not fleshed out in the game.
You do have lot's of interesting premises to write on, but you also don't run into the Mass Effect problem where canon already comes with so much story that there is pretty much no room to fit in your own ideas.
Damn, now I want to play XCOM again. I still need to do that impossible ironman run.
6576045 Yeah, although even then XCOM is still more constrained than BattleTech where you literally have campaigns for entire planets summarized by a line in a book saying "Planet A was captured from unit B of faction C by unit D of faction E on date F" with no meaningful information on any of the units or what happened. The universe is so sprawling that you can do just about anything you want without disrupting canon and you have to deliberately go out of your way to run into any canon characters so it is wonderful for fan fiction in a way that few universes are.
Also, while there is a lot going on in Mass Effect, it is fairly localized in time and space so you can fit quite a bit of story into the rest of the universe if you want to.
6577912 While I don't disagree on Battletech behalf, I still see XCOM as more open to interpretations. There are literally 3 importnant named characters in the game (not counting DLC, most of which isn't worth it) and they're mission control and scientists, so they are easy to implement in your squads adventures. And the squad adventures is what drives many stories and I bet that anyone who played XCOM (original or remake) has stories to tell. Because I have one, from my first playthrough.
The name of this soldier will be forever forgotten, but most know him by his nickname, "Hardcore". And he earned it, big time! He was one of the four original squad members from the tutorial mission, starting as a generic squaddie, going on missions, getting promoted to a first Stormtrooper and then doing what nobody has ever managed in XCOM history- he survived. His original squadmates died one after the other, but Hardcore had none of that and defied destiny over and over and over again, until he became a living legend. He was my equivalent of Shepard- nothing could move him, he could get hurt, beaten up, but it was only a matter of time before he came back and kicked a lot of alien ass. When Psychic powers were introduced, there wasn't a sliver of doubt who would be the first one.
I never finished that playthrough, but I was very close to the ending. I imagine he either destroyed the aliens being the last man standing, or he died, sacrificing himself for his squad and earth as a whole.
THAT is just one story XCOM is able to tell by gameplay alone. I salute thee, Hardcore. Next generations have a great hero to look up to.
6579751 Yeah, there are definitely a lot of possibilities with XCOM, but you are still fairly limited to the framework of the squads fighting the alien invasion or closely related stories.
Battletech on the other hand captures that just as well in 3050 with militia forces facing the Clan invasion, but it also scales up with the ability to create commanders in charge of substantial units dealing with that over a swath of space and gives you the option of playing the other side as the invading Clans. Then you have all kinds of other options like scavenging for anything that can fight in 3025, the infighting of the civil war which tore the FedCom apart, the transition of the FRR from occupied territory to a peaceful merger with the Bears, the epic battles of the Amaris Coup, the intricacies of court politics, the chaos of the Jihad, the thrill of espionage, and the lives of all the little people caught in between. Then of course you have the ability to play out your battles on the tabletop and let the fates of characters in your story be at least partially decided by chance just like the real world, or you can go the other way and write about someone that did something crazy in the game like my Solitaire that got smashed up bad so I sent it on a suicide run into the back of a fresh Atlas which it cleanly decapitated with a single shot from its HLL before making a clean getaway. It really is a wonderful universe across the board and is amazingly good for creating stories in which extends beautifully to crossovers. I just wish more people here would take advantage of it because it really is an amazing universe which has already produced two of the best stories on this site.
God I love this story so much. The way you guys integrate normal everyday occurrences and cartoony tomfoolery while also putting in some serious tones is just beautiful. And the way you portray the characters is just amazing. I've always had this head-canon personality for Moondancer when I first started writing (this was during season 2, when her name was mentioned in the first episode, but she was never shown) and I was both surprised and happy when I read this that there are others who have the literal exact same portrayal of her. (Though mine is a liiiitle less slutty, nonetheless, it's fucking awesome.)
I'm also a big fan of Sunset's portrayal. In Rainbow Rocks, she was shown as a girl who deeply regretted what she had done and she tries her hardest to make amends for it any way she can. That's fine and all, it fits well, but I like the 'grumpy, sarcastic, megalomaniac with a buried soft side' Sunset much more. Where she's not exactly 'evil' as she was in the first movie, but she's still sadistic and not afraid to speak her mind to her friends.
All that being said, I might as well join in with the questions.
#askmaresketeers Moondancer: Do you ever think about having an actual, meaningful relationship with one pony that you deeply care about instead of running around with a bunch of 'em?
#maresketeers, specifically sunset, have you ever "accidentally" burned twilight or moon dancers hair?
Next goes to all three, (complete joke) would you listen to my mix tape ITS FIRE!!!
6611777 Raincoat is a slang for a condom. There was supposed to be a joke about it in another chapter, but I couldn't fit it anywhere, so yeah...
#askmaresketeers
Favorite music genre and artist?
I love rock and Set it Off and Linkin Park, personally. :)
RNG, my ass. It's rigged. The computer is a complete cheating bastard.
I feel no guilt using a trainer and cheating right back at the POS.
#askmaresketeers
You three play video game then have you heard a game called call of duty black ops 3 if you did then what would happen if equestria have gain that much power and technology and weapons from the game and make it a reality what would you three think about that in the future? Also if you three have play multplayer if yes then what is your favorite specialist and tell us the reason why you love that specialist.
#askmareskeeters
This is a question for all of you: What do you think would happen if a creature (fairy) from another world accidentally found her way to Equestria? What would the public reaction be like? And would it be better for the creature, in the long and/or short run, if she could magically change her appearance to that of a pony (pegasus 'cause she can't get rid of the wings) before too many citizens notice her?
I admit to using you guys as a sounding board for a probably-already-done-but-Brain-still-wants-to-do-it story. -- Kestrel Flight
Really the only question id ask is why do Spike and Sunset hate each other?
so what were they talking about?