Let's Play A Game!

by DagaYemar

Game Start: Key to the Kingdom

"Sorry I’m a little late,” Fluttershy said softly, slipping through the door into the library, “I only just got done giving all my little critters their bath… goodness! Twilight, what happened? You look terrible!”

Twilight grunted and used her magic to slam the door closed. Both her mane and her tail were in complete disarray, there were deep lines under her eyes, and she walked with a distinct tiredness to her gait. She didn’t answer right away, instead slumping over to her wide table and planting her head face down onto it.

“Are you telling me you didn’t see all that happened?” Rainbow Dash asked incredulously.

Fluttershy took a step back self-consciously and rubbed her hoof. “Well, I’ve been busy at my cottage all day. Everypony in town did seem to be a little on edge about something…”

“Spike and I had a little… adventure today,” Rarity said delicately, “It seems I went a bit slightly crazy after trying a new spell and wound up redecorating all of Ponyville. I don’t remember much of it, honestly, but Spike says I was rather forceful with my artistic alterations.”

“And Spike is not allowed back into the Two Sister’s library again without asking first!” Twilight said loudly into the table.

“And once again I promise not to!” Spike’s voice floated down the stairway from the upper living area.

“Spike’s keepin’ out of Twi’s way for the moment,” Applejack explained, leading Fluttershy over to the table, “Apparently, he’s the one who found the book with the spell in it.”

“Wait,” Fluttershy said, sudden understanding flashing through her eyes, “Is that what happened to Mr. Robin’s house earlier?!”

Rarity hissed in a slight breath and coughed politely into her hoof. “Er, yes, sorry about that, dear. I suppose in my delusional state I was only trying to help.”

“I spent hours de-gilding the roads…” Twilight groaned into the table.

“If yer too tired for this, we could try again another night,” Applejack offered, resting a comforting hoof on her shoulder.

“No,” Twilight said with determination, pushing herself up, “I need something to unwind right now. Presuming Pinkie Pie is going to show up at some point with the game.”

“I’m right here, Twilight!” Pinkie shouted, popping up from nowhere right behind the princess. Twilight squeaked in surprise and flopped out of her chair in an ungainly pile. Pinkie immediately took her seat and planted a large box onto the table.

“How long have you been here?” Rainbow Dash asked, floating down from where she’d been chilling along the ceiling.

Pinkie laughed and waved her hoof dismissively. “Oh, you know me better than to ask that. Now who’s ready for a great game?!”

Rarity used her magic to lift up the box cover and squinted at the title. “Key to the Kingdom?”

The rather eye catching box art featured a scene of epic battle taking place on top of a game board. On the left stood a spot on depiction of Starswirl the Bearded raising up dramatically to cast a spell, and a pony in full armor standing protectively before him. The knight was thrusting out a large gold key that was shining light the sun. On the right a green dragon was clawing its way out of the game board, readying itself to breathe fire on the hapless knight. And behind the dragon loomed a rather familiar smoky figure.

“Is this supposed to be King Sombra?!” Rarity asked in shock, pointing at the drawing as if she wanted to punch a hole through it.

Pinkie nodded enthusiastically and started pulling out piles of cards. “Yeah, the pony who made this read a lot of old stories before making the game. And I was all like ‘Oh no!’ when we actually met Sombra up in the Crystal Empire, but inside I was all ‘No way, I’m going to actually meet the pony from my favorite game’, so I knew it’d be neat for us to play the game having that shared experience!

“Anyway, it’s really simple to play. We are adventurers, exploring a magical kingdom in search of loot and treasure! First pony who makes it back to the start with at least one treasure is the bestest adventurer ever and wins!”

“And we start with all these?” Twilight asked, picking up the pile of cards Pinkie was giving to each of them, “Equipment cards… a torch, net, grappling hook…”

“Bag of food, and a rope; the most useful piece of equipment.” Applejack said confidently, tapping the rope card smartly.

“A sword, a shield, and an axe!” Rainbow said excitedly, fanning all eight cards out on the table. “Sweet! I won’t have to wait until I’m an evil, mind controlled zombie to find a weapon this time!”

Pinkie pulled out not one, but two folded game boards and snapped them together like puzzle pieces, setting it in the center of the table and placing six figurines on the starting space.

Rainbow looked over her shoulder and groaned. “Two rule books? What’s with these games and not being simple?”

“Oh this one’s for me!” Pinkie said with an evil giggle, snapping up the thicker book and holding it protectively. “The other one’s just the rulebook, but trust me, you’ll pick it up easy enough!”

Fluttershy leaned down to look closely at the figurines. “So how do we start?”

Pinkie grinned widely and held up her booklet, reading aloud in a booming dramatic voice. “Our adventure begins with six great friends striding through the gates…”

Comments

[Fizzy Orange]

Oooh...

[RainbowDoubleDash]

Surely nothing terrible will ever happen to six best friend adventurers walking into a dungeon kingdom...