Session 12
Session 12.0 Kendell2
"Okay, before we do this, will it turn out the leader of the Comet Kingdom is just a mouthpiece for a BIGGER bad guy?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"No, that was just how the expansion for the Prim-Evils worked."
The Comet Kingdom was currently worn down from having to split their forces between worrying about the Prim-Evils and the heroes group, as the Prim-Evils were living mega disasters, and were just as interested in assimulating the Comet Kingdom as they were Equus, but had refused Fluttershy requesting an enemy mine with them.
The Prim-Evils had been ambushed upon the remaining 28 emerging from hyperspace above Equus, resulting in them being caught in the hyperspace jump imploding before they could unleash their full power all at once...but their cores had all escaped to Equus without being purified and were now individually threatening to destroy the planet. This had resulted in the prehistoric monsters faction largely, while not becoming allies, targeting the Prim-Evils out of territorial nature rather than benevolence (like most of the Dracozilla movies).
The time in the story had come up with the possibility of a final battle with the Comet Kingdom.
That was when Twilight dropped the bombshell (one of the game's moral choices):
The easiest way to finish off the Comet Kingdom was simply to blow up the entire thing from outside (which would also be a karmic one, given the FIRST plan the Comet Kingdom had tried was death from space) after their forcefield was temporally down thanks to a Prim-Evil attack. Along with all the civilians.
The others had instantly shot that down.
"Yeah, no way are we sinking to THEIR level," Rainbow Dash said, crossing her arms. "Plus, back when we purified that Zondor that'd been one of them, they just took him and headed home and left us alone, so not ALL of them are flankholes."
The other option was to launch a full scale invasion, risking damage and having a MAJOR uphill battle against the Kingdom's defenses and fleet, and would likely result in heavy causalities by the Equus Defense Forces.
"Um...Twilight?" Fluttershy asked, after talking something over with Rarity and Trixie.
"Yes, Fluttershy?"
"I have an idea...well, me, Rarity, and Trixie..." said Fluttershy.
"Yes?"
Fluttershy's third option was to have Rarity talk over a plan with her character Starvella's former betrothed (who had since been introduced as a 'noble demon' character who, while on the enemy's side, generally sided with them against the other fractions when he was around at the time) to sneak her into the Comet Kingdom so she could disable their defense systems, meaning while there was no real way to negate ALL the danger to the civilians, it'd at least possibly spare a number of them. If it succeeded, his planet was no longer under threat of enslavement, if it failed, she'd hide his involvement.
Rarity got the proper rolls and the plan succeeded.
"Oh! I'm sorry..." Fluttershy said, realizing something. "Twilight, I derailed your plot...sorry..."
Twilight gave a chuckle. "Fluttershy, it's fine. I'm HAPPY. You found a third option to lessen the number of causalities...and your mecha runs on kindness, so you get a boost for the upcoming battle."
Session 12.1 Richforce (OOC: Major spoilers for Xenogear Chronicles X, you have been warned.)
“Ok start from the beginning,” said Twilight giving a glaring look at Spike. “Why did you yell out like Button stabbed you in the back?”
Spike looked down at his feet. “Well…”
“It was my fault!” said Button. “I thought the way I presented it would make for a good surprise!”
“I’m not casting blame,” said Twilight. “I just want to know what happened.”
“Well,” said Applebloom. We were playing that new game Button’s dad made about a bunch of folks having to leave Equus for this planet Mira and you play as one of them paramilitary types. And the boys were real accommodating to getting the CMC to catch up to their campaign.”
“I’ve heard about it, me and friends were thinking about trying it out ourselves.”
“Anyway as far as our group has gotten in the main story our squad was facing aliens who were working for one of the factions that destroyed Equus, the Ganglion,” said Pipsqueak. “Today we were helping a group of friendly aliens called the Ma-non escape from Ganglion agents. We actually had our biggest victory yet, we outnumbered them two to one but the Prone were in Skells.”
“So eight of you on foot against four, in giant robots with heavy weaponry. But if you won why did Spike scream?”
“Well when the last one went down it took a shot at our alien No-pon companion,” said Snips. “Spike’s character took the blow trying to save him and lost an arm.”
“Is that what made you mad?” Twilight asked Spike.
The dragon gave a glare at Button Mash. “No, what made me mad was that Button decided that was the best time to tell me that all this time I was PLAYING AS A ROBOT!”
Spike took Twilight’s glare and used Cadance’s breathing technique.
“Mimesome,” said Button. “There is a difference.”
Twilight turned to the colt. “Was this your idea or part of the story your dad wrote for the game?”
“My Dad, you see he realized that with how big space is and how long it could take ponies or anyone else to find a new world to call home he needed something to handle the possible idea of whole generations living and dying without seeing any benefit for themselves or their children. So he thought that with people in stasis their minds could operate robots called Mimesomes. They’re made to mimic the body of any Equinnite, it also makes for a good death mechanic. When you die in the game your body just gets repaired and then is rebooted. You can’t really just upload into a new one as we don’t have access to the Livehold where our real bodies are and it gives urgency to finding the Livehold, if they can’t find it before its backup power supply runs out it the end for everyone, both those in stasis and the Mimesomes.”
“Ok, that I get when you make a character you can get invested with it, but Spike you did overreact.”
“Sorry guys, for a I thought that Button was commandeering my character. I’m over it now.”
“Glad to hear it, have fun everypony!”
After Twilight left Scootaloo spoke up. “You think we should have told her about what happened in our last story session?”
“I only explained this because of the problem it caused,” said Button. “I’ve heard she’s sensitive about spoilers.”
“But when it happened to her for real she seemed to be able to cope,” said Sweetie Belle.
“Yeah,” said Snails. “I’m sure she’ll be fine.”
+++
Snails didn’t count on the fact when it happened to her she was preoccupied with saving her friends from Tirek. So when she started to actually play B.L.A.D.E Chronicles and her friends fought the actual Ganglion for the first time…
“WHY!?” yelled the Princess of Friendship. “What did we do to make them hate us THAT much!?”
“It’s not like it was core of the Lifehold,” said Rainbow Dash. “there’s good chance to recover the data later and we got an another alien friend out it.”
They did drive off a top Ganglion commander, but not before she destroyed a computer bank that they learned after the mission digitally held one third of the contents of the Canterlot Archives.
“But the BOOKS! Maybe our collective species might have unknowingly done something to them BUT THE BOOKS WERE INNOCENT!”
Rainbow Dash moved to snap Twilight out of it but Applejack stopped her.
“Better wait a bit, just till she gets through the worst of it. I’m not in the mood to be turned into a kumquat for three hours.”
Session 12.2 Kendell2
"So you got this game at a royal conference with King Leo in Aquastria?" Applejack asked, looking at the game, which had a board resembling the sea floor.
"Yeah, it's apparently a very popular game down there," the Princess of friendship replied. She looked at the map. "The plot is to search along the sea floor to locate a kidnapped seapony princess from an evil octopus-like monster named Squirk."
"Alright, let's go for it!" Rainbow Dash said, smirking.
So they started the game...but there was a problem.
"Uh, Twilight, what path are yah followin'?" Applejack asked, noting the Alicorn was moving her piece along a path the others just couldn't see.
"Uh, this one?" she asked, pointing at a path that she saw no problems.
"What one?"
"THIS one!"
Spike blinked, looking at the box. "Uh, Twilight?" he asked, showing her the box.
"What is it? 'Warning, this game uses electromagnetic paths that only sea ponies can see. If you are a land dweller, please press the switch on the bottom of the game board to activate the lights in the part of the visual light spectrum you can see,'" Twilight read, then blinked in confusion. "Wait..."
Pinkie Pie somehow picked up the entire gameboard without moving one piece and flipped a switch, causing the paths Twilight had been able to see just fine to light up. "That's better!"
"But if only Sea Ponies can see the pathways, how did I see it?!" Twilight asked, blinking in confusion. "I'm not a sea pony..."
"But you're an Alicorn..." Spike pointed out.
"Yeah, so?"
Spike face hoofed in response. "ALL pony tribes, remember?!"
"Oh..." Twilight said, then gave a scientific gasp. "Wait, I can see electromagnetic fields?!"
Session 12.3 MtangaLion
Rainbow Dash blinked. "Wait, wait... every pony tribe? Hang on, I gotta try something! I'll be back in five seconds!" The blue pegasus breezed right out, leaving a rainbow contrail and a window hanging open.
"What do y'all suppose that's about..." Applejack began to say.
Dash returned with a startled thestral in tow, literally five seconds later. "Girls, this is Windy Whisper! She's new in town."
Windy was already gawking at Twilight and bowing low. "P-Princess! It's an honor..."
"Nah, you don't have to do that," said Rainbow Dash. "Twilight's cool. Now..." She started whispering in the batpony's ear.
"Really?" asked Windy. "Well, okay." She opened her fanged mouth and did... nothing, so far as Spike, AJ, or Pinkie could tell, but Twilight hopped in place, startled.
Twilight rubbed an ear with a hoof. "Was that what I think it was?"
Windy nodded bashfully. "Ultrasonic chirp."
Spike smirked. "I think somepony owes me an apology!"
"Spike!" Now Twilight was blushing. "How could I have known your dog whistle *wasn't* defective?" She shook her head. "This is certainly interesting, but it doesn't seem very useful."
"Not useful!" exclaimed Windy. "Well, I never! Has anypony got a blindfold?" Pinkie held one out (in case of surprise party emergencies), and Windy darted over and tied it around Twilight's head.
"What are you doing?" cried Twilight. "I can't see a thing!"
Windy smirked and chirped again.
Twilight froze. "I *can* see a thing. I saw a bunch of things. Do that again..."
"Do your own chirping, if there's really thestral in you." Windy spread her wings and glided lazily around the room. "Then we can play a game! You find me in dark, then you tag and I will find you!"
"Well, that's just swell," said Applejack. "Another game that the rest of us ain't equipped to play."
Twilight looked straight at Applejack, even though she was now flying around, chasing after Windy with the blindfold on. Her horn started to glow. "Well, if you *really* want to play this game..."
AJ gulped. "Ah wasn't complaining! Just making an observation!"
Session 12.4 Alex Warlorn
"That is not what he meant when he wrote that rule!" Time Turner protested.
"And I say it is." Windy Whisper said stubbornly. She'd been happy when Lyra's group had invited her to game with them. Though learning that Lyra was a Cryptidologist, the bat pony worried she was invited simply because Lyra was an otaku for 'unique' ponies.
They were playing by classic Ogres and Oubliettes rules, which Windy was grateful for, it seemed nopony wanted to play by those rules anymore. Sure the rules had lots of loop holes to them, but that part of the fun.
"It says the hydra's body is immune to all damage, therefore, if we hide behind the hydra, the Ballista's arrow can't possible hit us. Unless you can have a chat with the game's creator himself, I'd say I'm right."
"We'll just see about that!" Time Turner ran out of the house, to the confusion of the ponies. They didn't see his blue shed he ran into, or how it vanished.
"So... I've got to know. Sorry for asking but...Do you thestrals drink blood?" Lyra asked.
"For the record." Wind Whisper said. "There are subset or thestrals, some of us fruits. Some of us eat bugs. And no, we DON'T eat changelings, that's actually a bad rumor that's actually made it HARDER for thestral guards to get enemy changelings to surrender."
"Wait, changelings surrender?" Octavia asked.
"Sure, it's not like they're mindless automatons, I saw some changelings dragging their own injured through the street during the battle of Canterlot."
+
"Let me tell you sweet heart, if I had been in Canterlot instead of Stalliongrad that day, I'd have squashed those slimly, vile, evil, disgusting, heartless, bugs monsters." Said the royal guard across the table at Sugar Cube Corner to June Bug who cringed at his words. The Queen may have enjoyed the taste of self love, but that said more about Chrysalis than other changelings.
"Uh, I need to go!" June Bug nearly ran out of the cafe, looking sick to her stomach. June Bug was just happy that when the Black Hive had invaded Canterlot, it hadn't trigger a slew of changelings hunts.
+
"And finally, there ARE a subset of thestral whose main diet IS blood... "
"Wasn't Count Impaling Pole one?" Octavia asked.
"That has never been confirmed historically." Windy Whisper said. "But yeah, those ARE the source of the legend of vampires because of that... Though there are ponies other thestrals have interbred with whose descendants might have picked up some of our traits, like the nocturnal unicorn." Though those were actually quite rare, given how reclusive bat ponies had been before their princess' return. And no, there wasn't going to be a war against the 'sun tyrant.'
"And ... which one are you?" Octavia asked.
"Let's have dinner some time and you can find out," she said.
'So what's Princess Luna like?' Vinyl Scratch wrote on a piece of paper and floated to the bat pony.
Windy Whisper glared. "So because I'm a thestral I HAVE to be in the Night Guard? ALL Thestrals have to be part of The Princess' Guard?"
Vinyl shrank slightly and wrote again. 'Sorry.'
"Forgiven. Seriously, it's like saying ALL earth ponies are farmers, all unicorns went to Celestia's school, and all pegasi are Wonderbolts."
"So.... are you?" Lyra asked gingerly.
"We're here to game, not talk about my night job," Windy said, that the game was being held in the evening, meant this game was happening in the 'morning' for her. "And it's kinda annoying when the Oubliette Overseer just storms out like that."
'This is why we shouldn't have let him game master again.' Vinyl wrote down.
There was a grinding noise that only Derpy knew signaled the return of the Doctor.
Doctor Hooves trotted back in on hunched shoulder. "Well! I can safely say that I'm right, and you're wrong see?" The Doctor opened the classic game master guide, a first edition, and planted a hoof on the entry.
Wind Whisper looked and said, grinning. "Well, I haven't see that before."
The Doctor blinked and looked down at the entry. There was a line ON THE NEXT PAGE, that read 'so the party can behind it to be protected from a siege weapon. Also, Hydra have an instinctive dislike of time travelers.'
Time Turner sighed. "Now that's just not fair."
"If it is written, it must be so."
Session 12.5 BrutalityInc
“I don’t know, Point-Dexter.” 8-Bit said uncertainly, “Don’t you think it’s a bit inappropriate to turn such a serious subject matter into black comedy?”
“I don’t see it as black comedy; it is satire. It laughs at the subject and not the poor folks at the receiving end of it. Doing the latter… now THAT would be offensive.” Point-Dexter replied defensively.
“He’s got a point there, 8-Bit.” Gaffer added, vouching for Point-Dexter, “Besides, going by your argument, we should ban all table-top and video games because they are insulting or do injustice to the people and subjects they reflect in real life.”
“Don’t give the censors any ideas!”
“Hey guys, what’s going on?” The three ponies turned to find the fourth member of their group, Shining Armor, walking in.
“Just discussing this new game we’re going to be testing tonight,” Gaffer answered, “8-Bit seems to think that it’s offensive.”
“I did not!” 8-Bit retorted, “But, well… it seems just wrong to play the scenario it’s presenting for laughs. I mean, we’re talking about game that involves killing millions of people as part of the gameplay!”
There was an uncomfortable silence, ending only with the thump of Shining Armor dropping his notes and books onto the table. “Okay… And what is it about?”
“World-ending global warfare.” Gaffer said as Point-Dexter placed the game-box onto the table; on its cover was the title ‘Doomsday!’ (Other scribbled out titles include ‘World War!’ and ‘Oops, Apocalypse!’), overlaying what is a half-finished, uncoloured, cartoonish picture of a mushroom cloud, stamped with a disclaimer calling it ‘WIP: Draft-65’.
“Basically, in this game, you play as one of a list of world leaders leading a nation represented by five cities on one of the landmasses in the game-map”, Point-Dexter explained as he opened up the box and spread its contents within. “Each city, depending on the ‘population card’ you drew from a deck, would have around 5 to 25 million people. The goal of this game is to protect your populations from the other players, while eliminating other players by removing their population.”
“There are a few ways to do this: such as by stealing their population via propaganda, during peace time… or you can destroy their population with balefire weaponry during war time.” Gaffer continued.
“Balefire… the necromantic magic of generating radioactive flames.” Shining Armor breathed out the accursed word. “I heard that the Zebras are researching ways to apply it for beneficial civilian use – energy production, sanitation, agriculture, medicine, pest-control – but its usage as weaponry is only theoretical!”
“Yeah, but the theory is sound, so I read. The problem is finding means to magnify its power by several orders of magnitude, but we’re decades away from developing the sort of mega-spell-amplification process for that.” Point-Dexter noted, “Point is, this game is about the nightmare scenario where the world found a means to do so, and now everyone can build balefire warheads of various mega-tons, and the means to deliver it to people they don’t like if push comes to shove.”
“And that’s where 8-Bit finds it disturbing.” Gaffer interjected.
“I mean, come ON.” 8-Bit said, picking up a characters list “You have satirized expies of world leaders magically-animated to say cheesy one-liners in speech bubbles about how they’re going to turn your land to molten slag, and you have pun-names for everything! I don’t see how you can joke about this…”
Point-Dexter was unapologetic, however, “Given the way things are developing, I have no doubts that this is a situation that we or our descendants might have to face someday, because people will always find things and reasons to squabble over. Think about it: a perpetual stand-off between nations with stockpiles of balefire weaponry, capable of destroying the world several dozen times over, often wielded at the hooves or claws of world leaders who would let short-sightedness and petty grievances get the best of them, while their people live under constant fear of total annihilation from those whom hate their guts at any moment. It’ll be like if those two feuding families your sister and her friend Fluttershy sorted out got cannons; it’s a horrid and stupid situation that no one wants to be under. I think one of the best way to deal with such a disturbingly grim reality is to laugh at the sheer absurdity of it, hoping that the players take it to heart and work to not let it happen.”
“Or my sister and her fellow ‘Guardians of Harmony’ could shoot rainbow beams at the problem until it no longer exists. That’s how it seems to work these days.” Shining Armor said, shrugging as Point-Dexter moved off the soapbox he was standing on that contained their bottles of cider. “Either way, I think I can stomach a satire game about world-ending wars.”
“Point-Dexter still need work out a few bugs from the game.” Gaffer said, “Though I doubt your sister and her friends would want to have a go at it.”
“Well then, looks like it’s up to us to have a go at causing the end of the world,” 8-Bit replied snidely.
= = =
The early rounds passed with the four players’ nations in a state of precarious peace. During this time, the four use their turns to make preparations for the inevitable conflict to come; stealing each others’ population via media blitz of propaganda, and building up their stockpiles of weapons. How well they went at it depended on what card they drew from the propaganda and production decks.
It was an act of espionage, however, that finally turned up the heat.
“You did WHAT?!” 8-Bit exclaimed.
“It’s just what it said on the card.” Gaffer said, turning it over to show Gaffer, “’Sabotage! Two of your target’s larger balefire bombs explodes.’.”
On Gaffer’s character sheet, the magically-animated world leader caricature, Queen Cheese-leg, was hooting with mocking laughter.
8-Bit saw red “That’s it! I ready a Doombringer for launch!” He declared, putting the figurine of the Doombringer Intercontinental Rocket-Bomb onto the board.
“So, it’s war, then, is it?” Gaffer said, smirking, before putting his own figurine when his turn came “I roll a Balefire Express-1 strategic bomber airship onto the tarmac! I got a 50 megaton warhead with your name on it!”
“Wait, why are you readying your own rocket-bomb, Point-Dexter?” Shining Armor asked as Point-Dexter placed his own ICRB onto the board.
“Why, to take advantage of the situation!” Point-Dexter replied as if it is the most obvious thing in the world, “When they attack next round, they’re going to lose warheads and take damage. You should know more than any-pony else that military logic considers it the moment when your enemies are divided and squabbling to be the perfect time to strike.”
“Yes, but that’s only when… all sides… are completely…” Shining stopped as a realization came, then smiled deviously as a plan came to forefront of his mind. “Never mind. I think I’ll use my turn to produce more weapons.”
= = =
Next round, Gaffer and 8-Bit went on the offensive against each other; unlike propaganda or espionage, in an attack phase, the players spend one turn readying their delivery system, and their next turn to put in the warhead and attack. Whether the attacks succeeds and does damage was determined by drawing a card from the ‘War!’ deck and spinning an arrow on a ‘Fallout effect’ spinner wheel, with the warhead’s size acting as multipliers for damage as listed on the card, and what warhead you can use limited by delivery system available for each player in their possession.
8-Bit placed a 20 megaton warhead on the Deathbringer rocket-bomb and launch it onto one of Gaffer's larger population centres, while Gaffer dumped 50 megaton balefire weapon from his bomber airship into one of 8-Bit's own.
8-Bit whooped when he drew a ‘War!’ card which says the attack killed 3 million, while his arrow stopped on the slice which says the fallout killed an additional 2 million.
“Yeah! That’s what you get for sabotaging me!” 8-Bit declared excitedly to Gaffer. His chosen world-leader avatar, a cartoonish-looking Saddle-Arabian king called ‘Shah Sandy’, was grinning with glee.
“8-Bit…”Gaffer replied quietly, “You just killed 5 million people.”
B-Bit's triumphant expression morphed into one of horror as the implications sank in, and he remembered his original objections to the game. “Sweet Celestia, what have I done?” He whispered.
“That’s the entire point of the game.” Point-Dexter said simply. “Remember the absurdity of it all and not get sucked into the exhilarating power-fantasy of destroying your enemies. I just hoped the implications sink in for the general public when this hits the shelves.”
“You mean IF it hits the shelves. Bit of a grim-dark moment there.” Shining Armor, “To be honest though, I think your game will sell like hot-cakes anyway, if only for all the satirical puns you put in.”
Gaffer was disappointed, and somewhat relieved, by the results of his attack: his ‘War!’ card says his 50 megaton bomb killed 7 million people, but the arrow landed on a slice in the wheel board which says that fallout shelters saved 2 million. In essence, both Gaffer and 8-Bit had lost as much as they dished out.
Point-Dexter had to flip a coin to decide whether to attack Gaffer or 8-Bit. After that, the battle was on.
= = =
Time passed, and populations dropped by the millions as city after city got bombed. In-game, this is represented by switching out game pieces representing the population centers: first a skyscraper, representing 25 million, is replaced by a mansion that represents 20 million, then 15 million by a cottage house, then 10 million by a hut, then 5 million by a tent, then finally a crater replaces where the city once stood.
8-Bit was the first to lose, with Point-Dexter used propaganda in his turn to reduce his last surviving city to a tent, which then got incinerated by a 10 megaton capacity Mayhem ICRB from 8-Bit. It was quite a spectacular scene; 8-Bit’s caricature world leader avatar, a diamond dog called King Bolide, vanished in a flash of light on the magically-enchanted character sheet.
Then, Gaffer went after Point-Dexter, who had been tossing balefire bombs at both him and 8-Bit, depending on who was the weakest during the rounds.
All this time, however, Shining Armor did not attack any of the nations, or even use propaganda or espionage. Instead kept using his turns for producing more weapons, with what being produced determined by what cards he drew.
As the rounds went on and his friends threw balefire weapons at each other, he was in the side-lines, doing nothing to attract their attention. Waiting. Observing.
And then, “I use my turn to prepare a Peacemaker ICRB.”
Gaffer and Point-Dexter looked up from their hastily-scribbled war-plans to behold Shining Armor as he placed the figurine at the center of his land. In their struggle, they almost forgot he was even in the game.
“A Peacemaker? Isn’t that the rocket-bomb with a 50 megaton warhead capacity?” Gaffer asked.
“It is… I didn’t think anyone got that on their arsenal up until now.” Point-Dexter recalled.
“While you lot had been duking it out, I had been doing nothing but churning out armaments and not drawing any-pony’s attentions. Shining Armor explained, “And additionally, I have the bonus of being the only player with his arsenal and all his population centers completely intact, whereas you guys are nearly out of warheads and only have two or three cities with less than 10 million people left.”
8-Bit’s jaws dropped, “How much do you have?!”
“I have ten for the 20 megaton warheads alone, with enough rocket-bombs and airship-bombers for that and all the other warheads. I even had a few Arcane-Beam Cannons and Airship Interception Rockets!”
Gaffer and Point-Dexter looked at each other, then simultaneously face-hooved at the realization that they had been out-gambitted.
“Well, I did say that it is obvious military logic to strike when your foes are done wearing each other out.” Point-Dexter noted dismally.
“Desperate times calls for desperate measures.” Gaffer declared, putting a front-hoof forward, “Team-up?”
“Until Shining is wiped off the map, or we are!” Point-Dexter reciprocated with a hoof-bump.
“It won’t be enough, busters!” Shining Armor declared confidently.
= = =
The final rounds were intense; Point-Dexter and Gaffer fought like demons, relentlessly attacking Shining Armor’s population centres even as Shining rained destruction upon them.
The strategy they agreed on kept them afloat longer than they would had otherwise; they would take turns each round, where one would launch rocket-bombs and airship bombers, while the other would replenish their own populations and weapons via propaganda, espionage and production. Sometimes their attacks would be intercepted by Shining’s ABC and AIR defences, but they still managed to chip away his population more quickly than he would had preferred.
But in the end, logistics and luck simply wasn’t on their side; Shining Armor had far more warheads and delivery systems in terms of power and quantity, and more population to take damage with, while Gaffer and Point-Dexter never fully recovered from their own exchanges. The ‘War!’ cards and fallout spinner arrow result wasn’t all good enough to deal sufficient damage either to Shining, either.
“To be fair, you two did a number on me. I’m down to about 18 million people spread across three cities.” Shining Armor assured, looking at the game pieces of two tents and a cottage house that represented his surviving population.
“But we’re down to less than 5 million between the both of us.” Gaffer said despondently, “We are not going to survive the next two rounds, and that’s a fact. Looks like Shining had won this game.”
“Not necessarily.” Point-Dexter noted.
“Why?” Everypony else asked.
“Remember the ‘Final Retaliation’ mechanic?” Point-Dexter explained, “When a losing player’s last city goes up in a mushroom cloud, the player’s nation will automatically fire everything it has left in their balefire arsenal, and I do mean EVERYTHING, whether or not the player has a delivery system for it.”
“Oh yeah; that was how 8-Bit took out one of my population centres with that 20 megaton warhead when he lost, even though he told everyone he ran out of missiles.” Gaffer recalled with a snicker, “Losing isn’t that bad with the prospects mutually assuring your enemy’s utter destruction as well.”
“Now consider this, every-pony:” Point-Dexter said, “we still have a few warheads left between me and Gaffer. Worse comes to worst, we’ll probably take Shining Armor with us if we go down and end this game with a draw.”
“How many do you have left?”
“We’re not going to just tell you that now, aren’t we?” Point-Dexter responded to Shining with a devious smile. “In any case, we can’t prepare any attacks by this point, so let’s skip the turns and do your coup de grace on both of us, now.”
Shining Armor proceeded with the killing blow: a 10 megaton Mayhem ICRB finished off 8-Bit’s last city, while he annihilated Point-Dexter’s population with a 20 megaton Doombringer ICRB.
‘Final Retaliation’ phase kicked in: Gaffer put forth two 20 megaton Doombringer ICRB miniatures in the center of his nation’s landmass, while Point-Dexter placed a 10 megaton Mayhem ICRB and a… and a…
“A Worldbreaker ICRB?!” Shining Armor exclaimed, looking at the relatively huge miniature rocket, “You meant to tell me you have a 100 megaton warhead with you the whole time?!”
“Lucky draw from the ‘Production’ deck during my last turn.” Point-Dexter said, rubbing his forehooves with glee, “I didn’t have a Skyfortress-2 strategic airship bomber or an actual Worldbreaker ICRB for it, but guess it’ll be fired after all."
For the first time during this game, Shining Armor felt dread; it seems his victory isn’t assured after all. Everything now depends on him surviving the four retaliatory strikes.
Strike 1…
Gaffer’s first 20 megaton warhead is intercepted by an ABC Shining deployed a few rounds earlier; defences, like weapons, requires one turn to deploy, but could stay on the board indefinitely until it is spent destroying an incoming attack. It was his last, and as this is the final turn, he won’t be able to deploy another one anyway.
Strike 2…
Shining watched as Gaffer drew a ‘War!’ card and spun the arrow. His heart skipped a bit when Gaffer announced the result, “Arrow says ’Dirty bomb – double the yield!’ 5 million of your people got totalled!”
Strike 3…
Shining wasn’t finished replacing the tent game piece with a crater when Point-Dexter announced his first result: “My 10 megaton warhead only killed 2 million, but the spinner arrow landed on a ‘Gamma Ray Fallout’ slice – I just whacked another 10 million in a single go!”
“Mare in the Moon! It’s going be a draw! There’s no way Shining could survive the 100 megaton warhead with only 1 million civilians remaining…” 8-Bit said from the sidelines.
“Come on! Come on!” Shining Armor begged, nearly sweating and trembling as Point-Dexter drew the final ‘War!’ card and spun the spinner arrow.
Strike 4…
“It says here on the card: 5 million dead. Well, looks like you’re kaput, Shining…” Point-Dexter began, only to nearly drop his glasses when he saw where the spinner arrow landed, “Oh come on!”
“What is it?!” Gaffer asked.
“It landed on ‘Dud warhead [no effect]’!” Point-Dexter exclaimed.
“It’s a dud.” Shining Armor whispered in awe, as if witnessing a miracle. “IT’S A DUD!!” He smiled and cheered ecstatically. Victory was his!
As if on cue, a victory animation played on the magically-enchanted high score sheet, with Shining Armor’s chosen world-leader character, an Alicorn princess caricature of Princess Celestia, waving two flags and celebrating with a victory dance, declaring in a speech bubble, “I win! I win!”. In the background was a post-apocalyptic scene: a dismal land of scorched-earth filled with charred skeletons and ruined buildings, all under a dust-choked, blood-red sky.
“I guess you won, Shining.” 8-Bit proclaimed with a heavy sigh, “But I wonder how having 1 million survivors left living in an irradiated wasteland counts as a victory.”
“Some people do, like Queen Chrysalis or Prince Rutherford, for example. And that’s a scary thought.” Gaffer noted sombrely, “To think, we started the game with a total population of 300 million between the four of us.”
“Let's hope it never comes to that. In any case, it seems the game played well enough; with a few tweaks and adjustments, I can have it published in no time!” Point-Dexter declared. Then a thought came to him, “In fact, I just got a few ideas for future games…”
Session 12.5 Kendell2
"So...the game is..." Rainbow Dash asked, staring at what was probably the single most pink game board she'd ever seen.
"Oh...well, you see..." Fluttershy said, giving a cute look." You play Cupids and you have to decide whether or not the ponies you draw from the deck should be in love and if you do, you use your arrow to make them fall in love."
Rainbow Dash gave a fake gag. "Yuck!"
"Dashie, you Pinkie Promised," Pinkie Pie reminded.
"Ugh...fine...Who invented this game anyway?"
---
"Thanks again for making that game for me, now ponies might actually respect my job!" said the little pegasus colt wearing a diaper, a quiver on his back and a bow in his hooves.
"You're welcome," 8-Bit said, giving a smile. "It sold well too, given the time of year."
"Speaking of which, I'd best be getting to work," he said with a smirk. "And before Mrs. Sparkle realizes where I am...again."
Session 12.6 Alex Warlorn
"OH! Um, excuse me! I can see this isn't the way to the petting zoo after all!" Fluttershy said, poking her head into the room, looking at Shining Armor, Gaffer, 8-Bit and Gizmo and their game of 'Doomsday'/‘World War!’/‘Oops, Apocalypse!’
Gizmo was left locked in place by the pretty face of Fluttershy. Shining Armor however, took out a magic lantern and waved it in front of Fluttershy. The white lantern light turned blue.
"-Not changeling!-" Beep the enchanted lantern.
"Paranoid much?" 8-bit asked.
"Ask that again when a changeling impersonates your wife."
"It's alright, I understand," Fluttershy said with a smile. "Twilight wanted to make sure Cadence's pregnancy was going well, and thought I might be able to help. ... What's this game you're playing?"
"IT'S NOTHING!" "MUSHROOM FARMING!" "COMEDY!" "PIE FIGHTING!" "MUSHROOM PIE FIGHTING!" "TIC-TAC-TOE!"
Fluttershy leaned in closer. Looking at the game board.
Shining Armor cringed, here came another browbeating from a sensitive mare with freaky mental powers.
"... Mind if I play a game with you?" Fluttershy asked.
The stallions looked at each other in horror. FLUTTERSHY playing a game LIKE THIS?! They didn't want to traumatize the poor mare!
"No no no! It's still in beta!" "It's boring and stupid!" "Lots of politics and military stuff!" "There are no cute bunnies!"
The stallions held their breath as Fluttershy's eyes scanned down the rule sheet's crib notes... her eyes narrowed and hardened. "I want to play a game."
Shining Armor whispered, "'Dexster, you didn't put in any 'diplomacy' options did you?"
"Not a one. It's IMPOSSIBLE for the game to end peacefully."
Shining Armor let out a sigh of relief. He loved Twiley, and her friends, but it was rather annoying how they kept derailing the games except of course when he WANTED to see them derail them.
"You can have my seat!" Shining Armor declared sitting up and giving his chair to Fluttershy.
His friends glared at him for leaving them to fear making Fluttershy cry and earn the bloodlust of every stallion in Ponyville.
"Can you nice stallions please, pretty please pretty pretty please, uh, if you want to that is, do me one tiny favor?"
"Yes?" Gaffer asked.
She said lowly, "Don't go easy on me."
So the game began... each side preparing for the inevitable utter destruction that awaited them all. Using propaganda to lure other populations to theirs, and of course building up bombers, launchers, bombs, bigger bombs, and and even bigger bombs with the sole purpose of annihilating entire cities.
"Uh, Fluttershy, you know you have to build bombs and missiles eventually to win right?" Gaffer asked.
"I know," Fluttershy said politely, as her population spent yet another round building ABC and AIR defenses. "In fact... how about I build a 100 megaton bomb? Several in fact."
The stallions again looked at each other, you didn't NEED to tell your opponents how many bombs you had built.
"You're bluffing!" Gaffer said.
"Am I?" Fluttershy ask nonchalantly. "Or am I about to rain down death and destruction on you all?!" She gave them all an evil grin!
"We have to save her from herself!" Gaffer whispered to the others. Gizmo nodded, remembering the rampage of New Fluttershy.
However, Fluttershy had deeply entrenched herself behind her defenses, and none of their bombers or missiles got through. Then... came the relentless propaganda campaign by Fluttershy. She targeted Gaffer first. Soon... his entire population had abandoned him for Fluttershy, increasing her productively even more!
Fluttershy's success fed on itself, targeting Gizmo next. Constantly taunting and baiting the stallions, keeping all the attention on her. It didn't help she was also sabotaging their weapon making efforts in the mean time. Gizmo went easier as New Fluttershy rattled his cage.
Then 8-Bit found himself alone. He almost wished there was a surrender option in this game, but then again, that kinda would have missed the entire point of mad-pony leaders throwing the entire world into final destruction over ego and spite.
The propagada kept coming... until 8-Bit found himself the ruler of an empty country, and Princess MoonShine-Butt Royal Canterlot Voicing orders at nopony.
Meanwhile, Fluttershy's Prince Blue-Nose sat on top of the entire world's population.
8-Bit used up the last of his missiles... he had... he had literally nothing left! Gizmo was sweating bullets as it looked like his game's spells were on the verge of crashing.
"I WIN! I WIN! I WIN!" Prince Blue-Nose danced a little jig. Shining Armor had never hated his cousin-in-law's face so much as he did at this instant.
Fluttershy's face immediately went back to normal as she threw up her hooves and shouted. "YIPPIE! I DID IT! I SAVED THE WORLD! NOPONY HAD TO DIE!"
The stallion's jaws dropped.
"THAT is what this was all about?" 8-Bit gasped.
Fluttershy blushed. "Uh, yes... uh, I ... I uh, fib by the way... I never built a single warhead... "
"WHAT?!" The stallions exclaimed.
"I had to keep all your attention on me SOMEHOW!" Fluttershy declared. Then blushed and said. "Oh I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to ruin the game for you!"
"It's... it's okay Fluttershy..." Gizmo said awkwardly. "This... this sort of thing is why we do beta to begin with..."
"And Prince Blueblood is now supreme ruler of the world, I think they might've preferred being blown up," Shining Armor said.
Fluttershy frowned slightly. "Now... I know Prince Blueblood is not easy to get along with... he's spent his whole life sheltered... is it any wonder he's spoiled and scared? I honestly wonder if anypony had ever tried to be REALLY his friend instead of just coming to him for favors."
Shining Armor had forgotten this was the mare who had given a heart to the heartless god of chaos himself.
"And really," Fluttershy said. "I think your game is... slightly flawed? Maybe?" Fluttershy added meekly, sincerely not wanting to offend the stallions who had clearly put a lot of time and effort into a game meant to help ponies not make a horrible mistake that couldn't be undone that didn't just effect them but the entire world and everything ponies had ever worked for.
"Such ponies, er, creatures, who are in it for the power, would not WANT a mega-spell war, because such conflict would result in the end of the that power. So if such weapons became common place, such kingdoms are more likely to fight by proxies using smaller countries to their advantage and economic warfare.
"Therefore, the end of the world by such weapons would be more likely to be triggered by a piece of malfunctioning equipment and a panicking officer believing the malfunction to be real, even if it shows the enemy having 200 times more missiles then they could ever possibly launch at once. This is more likely than say a trigger happy leader who knows the enemy is ready to do the same." Fluttershy gasped. "But! But whatever you want to do is fine! This is YOUR game! YOUR idea! YOUR message! I shouldn't be messing around with it! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
"Uh, Fluttershy, it's alright," Shining said awkwardly.
"I'm sorry for BEING sorry! Sorry! E-excuse me! I better go see if Cadence wants anymore hay filled apples dipped in candle wax!" Fluttershy ran out the door.
Session 12.7 MtangaLion
Up in the skies of Ponyville, Rainbow Dash had sculpted a volleyball arena out of a low hanging cloud deck. She and Fluttershy hovered on one side of the fluffy cloud net, facing off against Twilight Sparkle... and Windy Whisper. Windy's colors stood out against the red and orange sunset-lit clouds... ash grey, with a short blue mane and tail, and black bat wings. Still, it was bright enough that the slit pupils of her golden eyes were barely visible.
Twilight beamed. "Thanks again for filling in. We would have been one short, with Derpy at parent-teacher night."
Windy stretched in mid-air, warming up. "Just so you know, I've never played Catch the Moth this way before."
Twilight's balloon floated off to one side, carrying the Cutie Mark Crusaders. "Go, Rainbow Dash!" cheered Scootaloo. "You can do it!"
Apple Bloom clung to the railing. "Do ya have to rock the boat so much?"
"I told you, you're perfectly safe," said Sweetie Belle. "I cast the slow fall spell on all of us already, and Twilight checked it twice."
"Heads up!" called Twilight. She lobbed their ball into the air, then spun and bucked it. The ball arced straight towards Fluttershy... who almost flew away in fright, but zipped back into place at the last second and kicked it.
Rainbow zoomed upwards, punting the ball back towards Twilight and Windy. "You're doing great, Fluttershy! Just need to keep your eyes open."
Windy did a spin and tumble to one side, kicking the ball, but it went just barely out of bounds.
"Nice moves," coached Rainbow Dash, "but you need to work on your aim just a teensy bit! One-zero!"
A while later, when the score was six to four in Dash and Fluttershy's favor, Twilight rushed to intercept the ball too late, and it fell through the cloud deck. "Ugh... I keep wanting to grab the ball with my magic when I should be getting into position!"
Rainbow Dash dove through the cloud deck, returning with the ball in a rainbow blur. "Let's take a break. No sweat, Twi! Learn and have fun. That's what we're here for."
"I wouldn't say I'm a total novice..." mused Windy.
Rainbow grinned. "Well, of course you'd be good. You have a flying cutie mark!"
Windy glanced at the blue and black feather on her flank. "Ah... no, I don't."
Rainbow Dash scratched her colorful mane with a hoof. "Huh!? But, you really are a good flier. It's not just those loopy thestral moves that I haven't seen before. I'd know. We should do some trick flying together sometime."
Windy Whisper blushed deeply. "Thank you, but... I'm good because I *practiced* a lot. It helps me clear my head."
Twilight blinked. "If that isn't a flying cutie mark, then what *is* your special talent?"
"If you don't mind telling us," put in Fluttershy quietly. "I mean, we wouldn't want to pry, would we girls?"
Windy tapped her chin with a hoof. "Actually..." She smirked. "I do mind. Did we bring any water?"
Rainbow twitched. "But..."
Twilight pointed. "In the balloon."
"Thanks, Twilight."
Rainbow twitched some more. "You can't just..."
Windy flapped her way over to the balloon, reaching for the cooler to open it and get a water bottle... but she'd forgotten about the Crusaders, who were now staring at her intently. "Um... hi! I just need..."
"That ain't a flying feather," mused Apple Bloom, right away.
Scootaloo's face lit up. "It's a quill pen. She's a writer!"
And Sweetie Belle said, "She writes... oooh." The filly's face turned red.
"You can't tell anypony that," hissed Windy.
"Why not?" asked Apple Bloom innocently.
Because Windy was the author of the Dusklight novels. Because she'd moved to Ponyville to get away from agents and fans pestering her. Because that Rarity pony had an entire shelf full of her naughty romance novels on display in her Boutique, and Windy was sure she'd never hear the end of it, if Rarity connected Windy with her pen name.
The cooler popped open all by itself. "Forever!" echoed Pinkie Pie's voice from inside. The lid quietly closed itself again.
"You know, you're right," said Scootaloo hastily.
"Your cutie mark story is your own business," said Sweetie Belle.
Apple Bloom nodded. "Nopony will hear about it from us!"
Windy's mouth hung open. "What..."
Session 12.8 Ardashir (with edits)
Gaffer, Poindexter, and 8-Bit were forced to admit, adding 'Queen Cheese-leg' to 'Oops, Apocalypse' was them just begging for an angry QUeen Chrysalis to come after them, weren't they?
And this time there was no giant, Neighponese changeling queen that was going to scare her into playing nice for complaining about it!
"THESE IS COMPLETE AND UTTER SLANDER! I won't let this stand! And neither will you if you want to see your little satire 'blow up the world' game ever turn a profit! For Rose Dust's sake, I want megaspells that mutate ponies into near mindless walking love batteries, not kill them."
"What was that last part?"
"Never mind," Chrysalis, said batting her lashless eyes at Poindexter, 8-Bit, and Gaffer. As the three stallions shuddered, she said, "Oh, and I have the latest module by 'Princess Crystal' here."
"Um, yeah, about those," Gaffer said as Poindexter took a folder labeled 'Liberate the Everfree' from her. "We've been getting some pretty nasty reviews of them, not to mention some angry letters from the Palace..."
"A real artist doesn't fear criticism," Chrysalis said. "Besides, this one attacks some other enemies of mine -- I mean, it's different in theme from 'Escape from Sweet Apple Knacker's Shop'."
"I'll say," Poindexter said, holding out the folder with its art of a heroic-looking Changeling queen facing a Zebra witch with the bones of foals tangled in her mane. He began to read. "The noble and heroic and lovely and youthful -- youthful??" He looked up, skepticism written plain on his face. When he caught the evil gleam in Chrysalis' eyes, he hurriedly said, "Ahem, 'youthful' Princess Crystal needs assistance in saving innocent nymphs from the Zebra Witch of the Everfree... Wait, didn't Shiny tell us about somepony like her once?"
"She's an awful pony," Chrysalis quickly said. "Tells scary stories to foals and lures older ponies into Poison Joke. Now then, everything is there, along with the offshore Mare-ibbean bank to send the bits to." She smiled seductively, or as seductively as a monster with mismatched fangs could smile. "Or you can just give me the bits now."
Poindexter began writing out the check as Gaffer pulled 8-Bit to the side.
"I'm beginning to think that 'Locust Legs' is using us to make herself look good and mock her enemies," he muttered as he watched Chrysalis tapping her foreclaws impatiently as she waited for the check. "Think we should tell her that we rewrite them into over the top satires for the humor market?"
"I very seriously doubt," 8-Bit said, watching as Chrysalis took her check, turned into a gorgeous unicorn mare with a body that would have made Fleur-de-lis look frumpy, and sashayed out, "that a mare like Chrysalis could ever 'get' satire about herself."
Session 12.9 Kendell2
The mecha RPG had gotten another update, namely an illusion projector spell (thanks to the Crystal Empire) that was able to use the mecha designs programmed into it to project the result of a battle. It wasn't quite advanced to project EVERYTHING yet, but it added to the manega feel to have visuals of important moments.
It'd also added in a 'hyper mode' function to help deal with the Prime-Evils. If certain conditions were met, their robot would transform into a stronger form with increased stats. Though to keep things challenging the Comet Kingdom mecha had the same ability.
In this case, they were still performing the final battle with the Comet Kingdom. While Fluttershy, Rarity, and Trixie's plan had disabled their defenses, they still had their own fleet, which included a new weapon with longer range than most of their fleet and a lot of power. On top of that, Rarity's 'prince' had to fulfill his agreement to the Comet King and try to stop them (Eros having got an upgrade as all of them had), which Rarity had taken to duel so the others could focus on the enemy at hand.
"Um, Twilight?" asked Fluttershy, who now had a second mecha called Guard Angel, who was a golden angel-like mecha with reflector abilities and ability to transform into a search and rescue plane, and could combine with Guardina. Looking at it, one could notice some minor rabbit theme.
"Yes, Twilight?"
"I want to combine Guardina and Guard Angel into Super Guardina and use her energy shield to block the Comet Kingdom's weapon so everypony else can get in.."
This got everyponies attention.
"You do realize that if you fail the defense roll, the blast will probably wreck you in one blast, right?" Twilight asked.
Fluttershy nodded. "But it'd protect our fleet and everypony else."
Twilight smiled. "Alright..." she did the calculations.
In the projection, the mecha combination sequence took up the charging turn of the cannon, Guardina gaining a new chest plate and head, both of which were golden in color, along with the wings with the text announcement of 'Super Guardina!' Rainbow Dash called it 'classic super robot'.
The massive laser blast came and Super Guardina formed a massive shield of energy in front of her.
Fluttershy rolled her dice and got the defense roll, resulting in the projection showing her holding back the beam with her energy field with some strain...then zoomed into the pilot (who naturally looked like Fluttershy as an Earth Pony) before zooming out to Super Guardina's head as her eyes lit up and the entire robot erupted in pink flames looking like the Fires of Friendship, the wings projecting it into full blown angel wings, and the name 'Super Guardina: Hyper Mode' projected.
"What happened?!" Fluttershy asked, blinking in surprise.
"Your willingness to sacrifice yourself to protect your fleet has met the conditions Super Guardina's hyper mode," Twilight explained. "Winning the defense roll means you transform into it. Which also means the beam you're holding back isn't pushing you back anymore thanks to the boost."
"...Then can I push IT back?" Fluttershy asked, and got a nod. "Then Super Guardina pushes the beam back all the way to take out the gun!"
The projection showed Super Guardina begin pushing the massive beam right back to the ship that was firing it, including with the classic image of the leader of the Comet Kingdom's face and the words "IMPOSSIBLE!"
Fluttershy did the roll to turn her defense into a counter attack.
Super Guardina pulled back a hoof as the gauntlet pulled down over it and the text for her character shouting 'Celestial Knuckle' (the name of the powered up version of her original finisher Fluttershy had given it, Fluttershy's power source didn't require FLUTTERSHY to yell the name of the takke or her transformations) as it punched straight into the core of the cannon with the water cannons propelling the blow forwards and literally ripped the weapon out of the ship before crushing it.
The projection finally ceased.
"Comet Kingdom gun disabled, invasion of their capital is now ready to go," Twilight explained.
"I'll catch up as soon as Eros deals with her relationship problems..." Rarity said, the projection showing an image of Eros facing off with her female pilot's ex-fiance.
Session 12.10 Alex Warlorn
The Elements of Harmony, stood around the game table yet again, with Starlight Glimmer sitting in as game master. This time, they had a set of school models in front of them. Along with figures of various colts and fillies and teachers. And for some reason figures of a bunch of identical fruit.
"It's called No Kumquat Left Behind," Starlight Glimmer said politely.
"Let me guess, another game you helped on Buck-Starter?" Applejack asked dryly.
"Well, yes, but I do hope you enjoy it," Starlight Glimmer said. "Your goal in each game is to earn a certain level of bits. You get bits by the grades of your students."
Rarity said, "So the goal is the best principle each of us can be, and encourage our students to learn and be happy at school?"
"Your teacher cast spells to educate the children, they can cast spells based on their energy, their energy increases based upon their salary."
"Magic and learning together?! That sounds great!" Twilight clapped her hooves.
Starlight kept smiling. Bad sign.
Twilight went over the stats for the individual students that Glimmer would be keeping track of, along with the teacher stats.
"Grades, moods, desires... Equanity?" Twilight blinked.
"Oh you'll see," Glimmer smiled.
The ponies began to play the game... and were struggle... Rainbow Dash's GBA was decent... but the school had no money for improvement and was falling behind.
Since Fluttershy didn't want to force the way the student's felt, her school was struggling with discipline... until she snapped and brought her hoof down and began casting spells left and right... and was left with an utterly exhausted teacher staff.
Rarity's school was rather lively with school events... but grades weren't doing that hot, and was also low on funds.
Applejack... had to close her doors, running a school was different from running a farm apparently.
Pinkie Pie... the school burned down.
Twilight was running the school perfectly... Finding that rare balance needed. That was when her little student figures... began poofing from foals into kumquats.
"W-what's going on?!"
"Oh, as their grades and discipline rises, they lose Equanity. Kumquats don't get into fights, don't make friends, don't bully others, they just go to class, and take tests. Your school is way ahead of others Twilight. With your student body of Kumquats, no one questions you authority, they just obey you without question."
"Suddenly, the way the humans act at Crystal Prep make so much more sense." Twilight said under her breath.
"Twilight, were YOU a Kumquat in Celestia's school for gifted unicorns?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"Of course not! I was encouraged to ask questions, to think and learn!"
"The boons of being of the privileged few," Starlight Glimmer said calmly.
"I wasn't... privileged... I earned everything I had. Celestia has an open door policy to anypony who wants to take the entry examine!"
The individuality-less Kumquats obeyed their teachers without question. They got good grades, and the money came rolling in, and that was what mattered right?
"Is there some OTHER game we could play?" Twilight asks, not feeling comfortable she'd turned all her student into obedient fruit. In particular since she and her friends had experienced that when Sweetie's magic had gone out of control.
"There's Neo-Equestriaism." Glimmer took out another box. "Manipulate and exploit smaller countries, and slip as many bits as possible into your secret bank account, whoever had the biggest hidden bank account by the end of the game wins. Buy votes, sell votes, make countries economically dependent on you."
"They printed the map upside down?" Rarity blinked.
"In the immortal words of Chancellor Pudding Head,'The world is round, there is no up or down.' It's only through our nation's self centeredness are we at the top of the map," Starlight said.
"Uh, how about we go kill some goblins instead?" Rainbow Dash asked uncomfortably. "Or maybe just transport our high school to another reality via our shared alien-teenager science project?"
"Well, the Giant Truant Officer Robots that the school rented to get you all back to class already might be catching up with you soon anyway." Twilight said, then covered her mouth. "Oops!"
The other ponies' jaws dropped.
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6951661
I'm pretty sure that was their inspiration.
i liked the time turner bit lol hydra no like time travelers.
Yeah, saw that coming.
Faction not fraction. Once again, I feel the need to give you the same advice I gave you with Pinkie Pinkie's 4th Wall Studio. PROOFREAD THE ENTRIES BEFORE YOU POST THEM! Sorry, It's just that as an editor, these mistakes make my eye twitch.
Neato.
Whatever.
A MOMENT.
You're ALL Ponies in one. Including Sea pony. And Changeling technically.
Wouldn't it be facepalm? He has hands.
Neat.
Like a bat.
Good choice.
Huh, interesting. Also, some of us EAT fruits.
Supposedly. I'd imagine Dracula, or whatever his equivalent was, probably is one. Was one. Whatever.
Mute I'm guessing.
Fair enough.
I can imagine.
Oh man, poor Doc.
Oi...
Hey, I enjoy Hellsing Ultimate Abridgd and Alucard's very much a mass murderer.
Thankfully, and considering what it's like, I'd imagine it'll STAY theoretical.
And so it'll stay if Celestia has any say in it I'd imagine.
This reminds me too damn much of the Cold War.
He's not wrong.
Get the feeling there's a reason he made Captain.
Yeah.
I dunno.
WOW!
He's stacking up.
I don't like the sound of that.
WHile you idiots were fighting each other, he was building up power.
That he did. And he's a military stallion, he can do tactics.
Smart.
Yep.
I'm with them.
Oh dear.
Perhaps.
Maybe.
Whoa.
Yep.
Down to 12K.
That's all 18K I think.
Oh WOW! That's great!
So close!
Aye. ALso, sombERly.
That's so saccharine it makes G3 look grimdark.
Of course.
Neat.
Fair enough.
Eh? OK, who wants to bet she's going to utterly wreck them?
See?
Try every BEING in Ponyville.
Like a pro Fluttershy.
Is she? Also, looks like she's preparing a more defensive strategy than most do.
She's enjoying this.
Called it.
Fluttershy is MERCILESS.
Wow, she's GOOD.
Called it.
Whoa.
No, it's a valid strategy.
Ouch Shining, he's not THAT bad, is he?
You make an excellent point. Also, that power, not the that and commonplace.
Wow, nice Princess Spike reference.
Considering you're still a filly, I'm guessing it's an easy spell.
Quite.
You troll.
Dare I ask?
Wait, SHE wrote the Ponyverse Twilight novels? oh man.
No capitalizing the U in Queen.
Lovely.
Don't like the sound of those.
Agreed.
I can imagine.
HOW THE HELL DO YOU MISS THIS CRAP!? IE, Yes FLUTTERSHY!
Pony's.
No idea.
ATTACK not takke.
Eh?
Of course.
Oh dear.
StruggLING, dammit Alex I KNOW you can proofread, SO PROOFREAD THESE DAMN THINGS BEFORE YOU POST THEM!
Students not student's. Also, yikes.
OK then.
No kidding.
Interesting. Also, exam.
Oi...
Indeed.
Twilight and the others were almost ready to begin another game night when suddenly a knock in the door interrupt them. As Twilight open the door, she could see Queen Chrysalis sit in front of the door looking with a smile and a package in his mouth
"Girls! Chrysalis is here!" Shouted Twilight as she and the others got ready to battle
"Wait wait... I'm coming in peace, please, don't hurt me" Squeaked Chrysalis making all the other look at her confused "I come with a new game even" Assured the queen
Twilight raisend a eyebrow and with her magic and looked to the package, opening it.
"Let's see... Changeling: the hive, you live as changelings with the chance of one of you becoming a queen as you try to survive in Equestria... Really?" Ask Twilight
"Well, a queen need to try sometimes, right?"
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Yeah, not very good, but it was a idea in my head.
6952799 Actually, that game sounds like it has potential. Each player-changeling has to find ways to infiltrate a community, establish a cover identity, set up a hidden base, and begin harvesting love while evading suspicion and capture. Simultaneously, the players can try to undermine each other with sabotage, discrediting and other underhooved tactics. In the end, whoever has proven themselves the most able changeling at all tasks wins the game.
I want to see that played out, actually. I'm sure each of the M6 has their play style (Applejack has trouble with convincing deceptions but tries to harvest love by being appreciated as an upstanding member of the community, while Rainbow Dash get fat sacks of admiration by being a celebrated flying star, but risks being found out all the more due to being a public persona) and makes their take on it.
Of course, why Cryssy would reveal standard changeling operating tactics to the enemy is a question, unless she has a secret agenda. Like feeding misinformation, or fishing for new tactics.
I think you should try a playthrough, possibly skip to a scene mid-game where they show off their chosen tactics or something. It definitely has potential.
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It's mainly two reasons...
Reason 1: She was bored about spy using Spike and decided to make peace.
Reason 2: The main six low their guard, and at the same time, they give to her some good plans
About a mid-scene I can't really think about something like that but if someone want, is free.
6952799
Added.
6919933
*traced over a Japanese film named Kimba.
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The original story ironically wasn't like hamlet at all either. And while Lion King did obvious copy a lot of stuff from Kimba, I think it still has its OWN story.
BTW: The original script for the end of the lion king had Simba falling off pride rock, but being saved by a tree branch, and Scar dies laughing insanely as the fires consume him. Also, in the novelization the bit with the Hyenas has him described as 'a king fit for a meal.'
Robin hood's original ending also gave more meaning and tension to King Richard's return.
Remember Kimba would not exist if not for Disney influencing manga artists
The segment were Fluttershy conquered the world without fighting was a good one.