Session 66 (movie spoilers)
Session 66.0 Mtangalion
This started as a lead-in to something else, and kind of became it's own thing along the way. :)
-----------------
"Special delivery!" shouted Derpy, giving the world a bright and sunny grin, even as she struggled to carry a massive bundle of twine-wrapped packages the last hundred yards to Princess Twilight's castle. She tried to fly the bundle directly through an open upstairs window, but it was too big, thumping against the frame. Derpy flew back and tried again with the bundle turned sideways, but it jammed in place only halfway through.
Sweetie Belle trotted up to the window from the inside. "Cool, the new games are here! Just hold that still and I'll help!" She lit her horn and started pulling packages out of the bundle, stacking them inside.
Unfortunately, the removed packages made the rest of Derpy's load unbalanced, and she lurched to the left. "Whooooa!" Derpy pumped her wings harder. "It's okay! I've got it!" Everything started to tumble to the right instead. "I don't got it!"
There was a swoosh and a bird-of-prey shriek, and Gilda seized hold of the bundle, saving Derpy from getting buried under her own delivery. "I can't believe ponies send this many new games to be blessed by the ‘Princess of Gaming.'" Gilda smirked, rolling her eyes. "You know, you should make two trips. I'm way stronger than you... er, I mean... griffons can lift more, and even I'd make an extra trip."
They brought the rest of the books inside, and Derpy giggled. "Heh, that *was* the second delivery."
The Crusaders dug into the packages like it was Hearth's Warming Day. "Will ya look at all this stuff," said Apple Bloom. "Fifty-seven boxes worth this time!"
Sweetie Belle dug through a sea of packing peanuts and pulled out a plushie of... Rarity, dressed as an O&O Sorceress. "Our big sisters are toys now?"
"Wouldn't be the first time." Apple Bloom wiped the packing peanuts off a plushie of Big Mac as Sir McBiggun. "Heh, big brothers, too."
Then they noticed that Scootaloo was hugging a plushie of Rainbow Dash the O&O Barbarian. Scoots blinked and quickly hid the plushie behind herself. "They're not toys! They're... valuable collector's items!"
Meanwhile, Derpy made a check on her delivery clipboard. "Whew! Thanks for saving me, Gilda!" She offered a muffin to the griffon, beaming.
Gilda took a half-step back. "Whoa, way too sappy." She darted away and returned with a clawsant for Derpy. "There, now we can swap."
Of course, that wasn't enough for Garble the griffon fledgling, who scampered over and mimed stuffing his face with muffins. "Nom, nom! Oh, they're so yummy!" he squeaked, imitating Gilda. "You simply must tell me your muffin recipe, because I'm not tough at all and I love lame pony stuff like baking!"
Gilda winced, tail lashing. "Shut up! I don't sound like that."
"But, Gilda!" said Garble with feigned innocence. "I'm just helping you practice for when you and your new boyfriend hatch an egg into an adorable little brat *just like me!*"
"Why you..." Gilda advanced on him, snarling.
"Ah, ah, ah!" Garble leered at her beak-to-beak. "You wouldn't hurt a cute widdle baby griffon, would you?"
Gilda selected a plushie of Applejack the O&O Bard from the delivery pile and bonked Garble over the head with it. Then she tore a strip off the muffin Derpy had given her, chewing. "Oh, hey. These *are* pretty good."
Session 66.1 redsopine
As Minuette, Lemon Hearts, Twinkle Shine, and Lyra rushed back outside to Bon Bon, they heard a scream and pleads for mercy from the stallion who fled before before his pleas were cut short as they saw him flying into a wall with a sickening crunch. Lyra rushed to Bon Bon and tried to wake her up, but Bon Bon was dazed. Lyra quickly picked her up in her hooves and placed Bon Bon on her back.
*Come on, girls!" she called before she started descending the ladder the others rushing to follow.
They suddenly heard someone shout "There's the beast!" Suddenly, the sounds of fighting were heard along with a bone chilling laughter before one of the locals that was perusing them slamed into the building they left.
A voice said "You gotta love the hunt its great combat training." A stallion garbed in a old trench coat and a stetson walked towards the one that was thrown, a odd looking item in he's left hoof and a saw in his right. He pressed a foot to the stallions chest and placed the object to his head before with a bang a hole appeared on the now dead townsfolk head "So you ladies the noobs that got the unfinished beta copy." He got a look and walked to the centre of the small area, the others giving him a wide berth as he placed a hoof to the center. A strange lamp rose up with these ghostly ghoul things around it. "Just touch the lamp and think of the hunters dream all will be explained there's ladies," he said as he touched the lamp and vanished in a stream of light as the rest look back towards Lyra and noticed she's missing.
Session 66.2 Kendell2
"Girls?" asked Fluttershy as they prepared for the MOBA trial. "Does anyone else notice that everybody is acting a bit..."
"We're gonna beat your score!" Apple Bloom called.
"Uh huh, we're going to beat you!" Diamond Tiara yelled back, the two groups looking very competitive and practically literally butting heads.
Snips and Snails were nearby, having an argument with the diamond dogs over similar things (as it turned out collectible gems were yet another aspect of the game, which unlocked power ups. There seemed to be a good number of such things).
Trixie, being Trixie, was bragging her head off.
Similar squabbles and bragging broke out throughout the hall were preparations were going on.
"Rude?" Fluttershy finished. "Do you think the Sirens got their powers back somehow?"
"It's MOBA, darling," Rarity committed. "Online gaming in general can invoke this kind of thing."
"Trixie will win!" Trixie exclaimed.
"No, I'LL win!" Rainbow Dash yelled, the two getting in each other's faces.
"Still, I can't help thinking the Sirens are up to something..." Sunset replied. "Then again, knowing Adagio, she might WANT us to think they're up to something and freak out..."
"But what if she WANTS us to think that and really IS planning something?" Pinkie Pie asked. "...I don't know, I just wanted involved."
"I just wish everybody would remember this is a TEAM sport," human Twilight remarked. "I don't think I've heard one person planning to be a healer."
"I'm going to be a healer," Fluttershy commented.
"Except you," she replied. "Healers ARE important parts of any party, without one your entire team could get wiped, but no one seems to care."
"Probably because the worse others do, the better they do, darling," Rarity replied. "...Sweetie Belle tried playing a few MOBAs and I had to console her after...in retrospect I shouldn't have let her play this."
"Well WE can still play as a team even if everybody else doesn't," Applejack replied. "It's what we do best..." she said, then watched the continuing back and forth bragging between Trixie and Rainbow Dash. "...Mostly."
"Alright girls, remember, we're going to be using the autotune at first, but as soon as I finish completing our little jewel, we'll be able to sing for ourselves and start making things even better..." Adagio said with a smirk as she held the incomplete jewel, the three in fitting dresses for their ingame characters. However, to the people through the VR patches, they'd appear as the Sirens from the game. Adagio had even went through the effort of programming in upgraded forms for them.
"Sounds good to me," Aria replied with a smirk. "So when will those losers start upgrading?"
"About that time as well. The spell is written into the game, but needs our magic to activate..." Adagio replied. "But don't worry, they'll get used to it LONG before then. You see, I included a little feature where they can use magic gathered from defeated enemies to activate a temporary powered up stat. Of course they're going to abuse the heck out of it as players tend to do...of course, plot twist, each time it's used, the hidden corruption stat increases. By the time our powers fully awaken, it will be ripe for us to use OUR special attack..."
"Oh! Can I name it?!" Sonata asked.
"I already did, Sonata," Adagio growled. "It will start the transformation of anyone with a maxed out corruption stat."
"So in other words, the hairless apes are pretty much putting the spell on themselves without even knowing it?" Aria asked with a smirk.
"Exactly," Adagio said with her normal chuckle.
Session 66.3 Alex Warlorn
In the Human World
Miss Cheerilee greeted her home room class. "Alright everyone, please hand in your homework to the desk in front of you and we can-"
That was when the CMC barged into the classroom, wearing the VR eyepatches. "Monster out break!" The little girls cried out as they began attack virtual monsters from beyond.
Miss Cheerilee was red in the face. "GIRLS! This is unacceptable! I'll be taking those and you can march yourselves right to... the ... principles's... office?"
Cheerilee was left a gasped and bewildered as her students all quickly slapped on the VR eye patches.
"No way you're beating us to the kill!" Shouted one of the male students.
Cheerilee fell to her knees in dismay.
-
The bus driver was bewildered as a silver haired girl leapt onto the bus just as the door closed, wearing those weird video game monocles that had become all the rage overnight. A couple other teenager angrily shouting as the bus drove away.
"THE BEAST SHALL BE SLAIN BY TRIXIE ALONE!" She said she began fighting invisible monsters or something on the bus.
-
"HEY! The park is public! You can't keep us out!" Shouted Babs Seed. Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara right behind her.
"Sorry twerp, we're camping this spawn point," Said Indigo Zapp with the other Shadow Bolts.
"You have to sleep some time!" Diamond Tiara said.
-
"I'm very sorry to hear that Miss Celestia," Company Vice President Chrysalis said, after Radiant Hope had pawned the call off on her, "The random encounter spawn points are chosen by a algorithm, we had no idea your school would become one of the hot points." 'Why couldn't that little brat Cadence's school have gotten hit by spawn points instead?! It would be worth it just to see her squirm.'
Session 66.4 Alex Warlorn
"Okay... let me get this straight." Bon Bon groaned. "We just played through ten or twenty of this Mission to Mares game, having to cannibalize each other, and STILL not make it... mostly cause the ship seems DETERMINED to self destruct in the most convoluted manner imaginable, until we finally arrive, to find out the signal that we were sent to find was our own distress call after coming in contact with an alien artifact... AND THEN! We play twenty more games... and the 'better' hidden ending the enchanted game board shows us for all four of us making it to Mares... is us blowing ourselves up instead of sending a distress signal?... The Tartarus?!"
"Come on girls it wasn't that... right girls?" Moon Dancer defended, having been the one to suggest the game.
"I say we get the Elements of Harmony and banish the game to Mares." Lemon Hearts snorted.
Session 66.5 Mtangalion
"I'm late, I'm late!" Juniper Montage rushed into the MOBA convention hall at CrystalCon, and her face immediately fell, looking at the long line of people still waiting to register and get their special launch edition VR eyepatch. "Aw... Well, at least I'm not the only one."
A pink-skinned woman had walked in right beside Juniper, wearing a gray coat with the collar turned up to hide her face and purple hair somewhat. The odd woman noticed her. "Hello there!" she said brightly, pulling out a stack of papers. "Can I interest you in a flier? I'm trying to raise awareness of overcompetitive games like this one, and how they can seriously damage a community's social fabric with..."
Juniper blinked. "Starlight? Starlight Glimmer?"
The purple-haired woman froze, then laughed nervously. "Um, yes. That's me."
Juniper grinned. "Wow. I wasn't really expecting to see you again... and here of all places! She took one of the fliers and started to read it. "What did you say this was about?" When she glanced up to ask a question, Starlight had already moved on.
Starlight was marching towards an orange, blonde-haired girl, frowning mildly at her Stetson. "Hello, can I..."
"Howdy, Starlight!" the girl said cheerfully. "Back again so soon?"
While Starlight was still standing there, gobsmacked, a pink girl with even pinker cotton candy curls stumbled past, wearing eye patches on both eyes. "Hi, Starlight!"
A nerdy purple girl was chasing after the pink one. "Pinkie, that's not how you're supposed to..." She did a double-take. "Oh! Welcome back, Starlight!"
"What... How do you..." Starlight started backing up, torn between demanding an explanation and making an excuse to get the heck out of here, and her gaze happened to fall upon the girl's CrystalCon badge.
Twilight Sparkle. Faithful Student { Elements of Harmony }.
Starlight slapped her forehead. "I'm an idiot. I went to all the trouble of coming to a CrystalCon and I never thought..." Now Twilight was the one looking confused. "Come on, you knew my name, Faithful Student. It's me! Equal Rites!" She grinned, waggling a finger. "How *did* you guys find out my real name?"
Twilight felt deja vu smack her like a crowbar to the face. Or maybe it was some kind of reverse or backwards deja vu, or maybe... but that wasn't important right now. "Hey, girls!" Twilight stammered in a loud and awkward voice. "Guess who I bumped into! You won't believe it... It's Starlight Glimmer! You know, the *friend* we made in *World of Horsecraft*, the one that's a *human* and not a *pony* like her character Equal Rites! Ha, haha!"
Sunset Shimmer ruffled Twilight's hair. "Real smooth, Sparkle." She looked Starlight over, and extended a hand. "And, I guess it's good to meet you for the first time... this is the first time, right?"
Starlight shook her hand cautiously. "And I thought you girls were strange in the game..."
Session 66.6 Kendell2
Sci-Twilight, playing as a Princess Luna (a skill class by the game's rules) covered Applejack (Rockhoof, a legendary paragon of strength in the game's mythos, and a power class) as she fought the monsters. Fluttershy (playing as Radiant Hope, a healer) focused on healing.
Rarity was likewise a Princess Luna and helping with cover while Sunset was playing as a Princess Celestia (she appreciated the irony of it, it was also a power class with lots of magical destructive power, though a little lower in terms of defense) and was their main tank other than Applejack.
"Okay, so far we're doing well as a team..." said Sunset...then sighed as Rainbow Dash, playing as a Commander Hurricane, just went Leeroy Jenkins into the monsters attacking them. "...Mostly..."
"If only we weren't the ONLY ones..." muttered Sci-Twi as she watched players backstab each other and kill-steal left and right.
The Diamond Dogs and Snips and Snails had almost come to blows and where only stopped by con staff warning them they'd be booted out if they did. Of course some of the fighting had spilled out into places OTHER than the hall and things were getting a bit out of hoof.
"BOSS INCOMING!" announced the gamemaster.
Suddenly, shadows condensed before them, assuming the form of Nightmare Moon. "The Night Shall Last Forever!" she announced (though the scan Sci-Twi did revealed in lore it was a 'temporal duplicate' or something).
The hall continued to try and swarmed the boss to get the killing blow, the boss, as one would expect, being pretty dang hard and giving Fluttershy a LOT of work (even though she was in their party, she was still the ONLY healer on the floor)...when smoke rose from a nearby platform and up rose Sonata from the floor, appearing in their VR patches as her siren form.
"Hello everypony! Time for special event number one! Remember, if you want the special prize you'd better get the kill first and before I stop!" she called in a cheery voice. She then took a breath, autotune kicking in.
= Kokoro no Sukima World - Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger =
"Ii ko butte bakari de nandaka tsukarechau desho?
Majime chan ni shiteireba nantoka tensuu toreru shi
Dakedo hontou wa unzari, gakkuri, donyori sonna toki
Kurayami omoidashi na yo! Sonata sung in rather good Japanese, the song being surprisingly upbeat and happy as the lights went wild.
"She knows Japanese?!" asked Applejack.
"I'm not surprised given how long they've been around," Sunset replied, noting everyone's stats had gotten a pretty big buff. "Also she's Sonata, she's an evil version of Pinkie Pie."
"At least it's cheery!" Pinkie Pie called (currently changing her selected character via the random option every few minutes) dancing to it.
"Dore dore mimimoto ni
Sotto fukikonde agemasho
Usotsuki gizensha wa
Son bakka suru mon sa!" Sonata continued singing.
"Also, I know Japanese," Sci-Twi replied, shooting Nightmare Moon at a distance. She had several people yell at her for trying to camp and steal the kill in response. "She just sang "Let me whisper right into your ear. Words to make your troubles just disappear. But they're all hypocrisy and lies. Leading you right to your demise..."
"Oh..." Pinkie Pie muttered.
Trixie burst back into the hall after taking her detour. "The Great and Powerful Trixie will kill it first!" she called, charging as a Princess Luna.
"Hitohana patto saki na kuroi hana
Wakuwaku suru takurami ni nara
Dondon janjan waruchie ga waku
Kokoro no sukima no world," continued Sonata as attacks rained into the boss and she danced on stage.
Sunset decided to get in and blast the with a fire spell, but RAINBOW DASH pushed her out of the way and hit it with lightning instead. "Rainbow!"
"Sorry, but I'm getting that prize!"
"Ahaha atama no neji suppori hazurechimaeba
Ihihi inchiki zanmai nan ni mo teikou naku naru
Ufufu Un to ka en to ka chakkari, kossori sou yatte
Yo no naka mawatteru darou"
Trixie jumped onto a box, shooting several magic spells at the boss from range, then blinked, noticing her 'Hyper Mode bar had charged up to max.
"Sora sora kachigumi ni
Ichiban ni naritai desho
Shosen wa keotoshite
Kanaeteiku mon sa," Sonata continued, dancing...but giving a small smirk as Trixie pressed the projected button to activate said mode.
From everyone's VR projection, Trixie's Luna avatar was surrounded by magical water, emerging in dark blue armor with water tentacles trailing her. She started shooting huge spells at Nightmare Moon, taking out considerable pieces of its health.
"Mushamusha patto kurae kuroi hana
Tamashii wa nanbo de urimasho
Dareka no fukou wa mitsu no aji
Kokoro no sukima no world," Sonata continued singing, watching and getting an approving nod from Adagio.
"How do I do that?!" asked Rainbow Dash.
"It was in the manual," said Sci-Twi. "But I wouldn't trust it, the wording-"
Rainbow shot a few more times and filled hers, pressing it without a second thought.
"Sore sore mata hitori
Sotto fukikonde agemasho
Usotsuki gizensha wa
Eraku mo nai sa tte!" Sonata sang, watching several players do the exact same thing, their in game selves all getting similar armor and powered up attacks.
"What?" Sunset asked Sci-Twi.
"The book said it was a 'mysterious power' not well understood that just showed up when this mess started," she replied. "I wouldn't spam it, that's pretty cryptic language."
"Mushamusha patto kurae kuroi hana
Tamashii wa nanbo de urimasho
Dareka no fukou wa mitsu no aji
Kokoro no sukima no..."
Trixie finally maxed out her special gauge and let loose Luna's ultimate attack, a huge beam of moonlight down from the sky, smashing into the boss and depleting its health all the way. Nightmare Moon fell over and exploded into HP. "The Great and Powerful Trixie has bested this beast!" she called, the ones around her grumbling and showing jealousy and anger.
"Hitohana patto saki na kuroi hana
Wakuwaku suru takurami ni nara
Dondon janjan waruchie ga waku
Kokoro no sukima no world!" finished Sonata. "Congratulations! Enjoy your prize! It's not tacos, but Adagio says it's as good!"
Trixie 'held up' her prize (in VR anyway), a sword shaped like ocean waves with a red gem in the center. "Everybody, behold Trixie's greatness!"
Rainbow Dash grumbled. "No fair, I would've gotten the kill if she hadn't gotten that ult'!"
"How's I do?" asked Sonata, skipping back into the room with her sisters.
"Good," Adagio replied, watching green miasma only they could see snake its way into her incomplete amulet. She smirked and checked the corruption stat. "And that Trixie kid got the sword..."
"Ugh, but did you have to do something so cutesy?" asked Aria with a groan.
"Oh, it wasn't," Adagio replied. "I translated the lyrics, it's about destruction, evil, and being a horrible person. It just sounds cutesy on the surface. Kind of Sonata's entire existence in song form."
Sonata just giggled. "Nah, there'd be tacos in it!"
"And twice as annoying..." muttered Aria. "This is why we don't let you write our lyrics Sonata!"
"But the corruption values have gone up quite a bit," Adagio replied with a chuckle. "You'll be up next Aria, knock 'em dead...if you don't we will by the end."
OOC: For those wondering, here are the lyrics to Sonata's song translated (did not write it, I can't write Japanese):
You're done pretending to be good you're getting so fed up it's all such a chore
Just keep your head down and play nice so they say to build up some make-pretend score
Sometimes you wanna be rude and wanna be mean and say so much more
Ain't that what the devil on your shoulder's for?
Let me whisper right into your ear
Words to make your troubles just disappear
But they're all hypocrisy and lies
Leading you right to your demise
So take the plunge into dark, and let those black flowers grow
You'll be surprised when the evil inside lets you know
All the fun, all the vile, schemes are waiting for their start
In the depths of the world in the cracks of your heart
A-ha-ha, accept the appeal of antagonizing and turn your screw loose
Bwee-hee-hee. behold as beguiling becomes the best choice you have no excuse
C-see-see, complaining chance and circumstance are to blame they're tightening the noose
Don't you see that they're what give the world its use?
Everyone just wants to be the best
Number one, and better than all the rest
If you wanna make that dream come true
Annihilation's right for you!
All those black flowers you've bloomed, we're gonna swallow them whole!
Why set a price when it's so easy to sell your soul?
Oh the taste, of your pain, it's so delicious and tart
In the depths of the world in the cracks of my heart
Watch another victim drawing near
Let me make your troubles just disappear
All my words hypocrisy and lies
Being evil is its own prize!
All those black flowers you've bloomed, we're gonna swallow them whole!
Why set a price when it's so easy to sell your soul?
Oh the taste, of your pain, it's so delicious and tart
In the depths of the world in the cracks...
So take the plunge into dark, and let those black flowers grow
You'll be surprised when the evil inside lets you know
All the fun, all the vile, schemes are waiting for their start
In the depths of the world in the cracks of our hearts
Session 66.7 Ardashir
Meanwhile, back in the Friendship Palace in Ponyville, Spike, Big Mac, and Discord were getting ready for their weekly game. Big Mac was setting out the treats as Spike arranged his papers. They bore his own usual cover art of the trio saving a purple-maned unicorn from that perennial evildoer, the Squizzard.
Discord groaned at the sight.
"Oh, why can't we try something different for once?" Discord sniffed as he conjured his usual glass of chocolate milk out of nowhere. He drained it off from the bottom up and tossed it away. When it exploded, the bang coming before the light of the blast, he grinned. "Whoopsie! I have to remember not to do that! Hmm, what's this one?"
He jerked his claw back as Spike slapped the cardboard box titled Regent back down.
"Forget it!" Spike set the box away. "I saw what Trixie, Twilight, and Starlight did once when playing this." He shuddered. "It was almost as bad as that time with the 'coffee' stuff from Sunset's new home. Never again!"
"Sounds like a story to me," Discord said in an eager tone. "Tell me what they did, my little scaly friend. I'm all ears, heh." He turned into a mass of ears from dozens of species.
Spike looked like he sought an escape, and then sighed.
"Fine. It was a few weeks ago..."
###
"Trixie!" Twilight folded her forelegs and glared at the pale blue unicorn. Trixie looked aggrieved as the Princess of Friendship said, "I wonder if you get the idea of this game? You can't develop your nation very well if the first thing you have every new town you establish do is to build a giant statue of yourself!"
"They are public works projects, building the morale of Trixie's citizenry!" Trixie sniffed, trying to look what she apparently thought royals ought to look like. "Trixie is sure her subjects want to be reminded their Great and Beloved Princess Trixie is watching over them. Forever."
"Uh, Trixie?" Starlight broke in on the megalomaniac mare's fantasizing. "Even when I ran Our Town, I didn't insist on my citizens being reminded of me all the time." She looked at Twilight. "Twi can probably tell you more of what's involved in running a nation. Isn't your family part of the oppressor -- I mean! Part of the aristocracy?" Starlight grinned, looking nervous.
"I caught the first word," Twilight gave her a dirty look.
Trixie jumped back into the conversation.
"It keeps ponies off the streets and gives them something noble and uplifting to do with their lives. Besides, who is it who built a five-star library in every town, and forgot to add granaries and cisterns?" Trixie looked at Twilight, who reddened along with Starlight. "And who refused to allow their loyal citizens to build any home bigger than the basic house?"
"I'm teaching them to avoid elitism!" Starlight picked up the tiny model of a bare-bones home. "This way nopony can claim they have a worse home than anypony else; or do you think it's right for silly nobles like Blueblood to waste so much wealth on houses so big an entire village could live in them?"
"What about the palace 'your' Princess lives in?" Trixie pointed at an illusion on Starlight's part of the board, of a large columned mansion. "What do you call that?"
"Should the beloved leader of the nation live in a shack?..."
###
"They were off and running after that," Spike shuddered. Next to him, Big Mac set down a plate of pastries. "I'm surprised they didn't wake up all of Ponyville." He looked at the plate and froze. Beside it was a steaming cup of that drink Sunset brought through the mirror. "Big Mac, are you sure this is safe?"
"Eee-yup," the mellow stallion sat down, taking a sip of the drink. "Miz Twilight tole Applejack an she tole me how after thet whole mess, she gave th' strong stuff to th' Palace." On the other side of the table, Discord warily drank the coffee. For a moment he looked like he was wearing Accord's bowler and monocle before he spat it back out in disgust. Big Mac said, "How much trouble can it cause there?"
The three shuddered as a wild laugh rang through the room.
They turned and saw Celestia standing there, her mane and tail turned to flames and her eyes glowing embers.
"GREETING MY LOYAL SUBJECTS, AND DISCORD!" She said in a roar like heated metal tearing. She pranced closer, her hooves leaving flaming prints in the floor. "BY ANY CHANCE DO YOU KNOW WHERE TWILIGHT HAS ANY MORE OF SUNSET'S LOVELY LOVELY GIFT? BECAUSE I NEED MORE OF IT RIGHT FLAMING NOW!"
Session 66.8 Grogar-the-oneser
"Maybe this won't end badly," Big Mac suggested.
3 hours later
Princess Twilight made gagging noises as she saw half of her castle on fire while a singed Big Mac boarded a window.
"Here, use this to bind the door," an equally singed Discord said.
"Chains! You think chains can bind the alicorn who controls the sun!?!" Spike snapped.
"I'll have you know these chains are the same kind that held frigging Prometheus down as that vulture ate his liver!" Discord snapped.
"Whose Prometheus!" Spike snapped as Discord rolled his eyes but before he could say anything they heard mad laughter from inside the castle.
"MORE COFFEE!" Celestia's voice boomed inside the castle followed by an insane cackle.
Session 66.9 Mtangalion
Gabby was literally bouncing in place by the time she and Gilda got to the front of the line and claimed their VR eyepatches. "Sheesh, kid, settle down," said Gilda. "You know we can't be in the main competition, right?" She tapped the CrystalSoft Employee sticker on her badge.
"Huh? Who cares about the MOBA?" Gabby grinned and pointed to a side hall, where a bunch of eyepatch-wearing folks were leaning back and forth with their arms outstretched. The wall monitor behind them showed their pegasus, griffon, and thestral characters flying in a wild aerial race. "I'm playing that!" Gabby took off running across the convention hall.
"Aw, such a shame you can't compete," said Aria, sitting behind the registration desk. "I'm sure you'd be a top contender." She took Gilda's hand without asking and inhaled deeply. "There's something almost... magical about you."
Gilda snatched her hand back. "Eh, rules are rules."
Adagio stroked her chin. "You know, we were going to add some human-controlled superbosses later to spice things up, but oh, wouldn't you know it? The person who was going to operate them came down with something."
"Huh!?" exclaimed Sonata. "But I feel fine..." Aria elbowed her in the stomach. "Urk! Not so fine..."
Gilda perked up. "Yeah, really? Sounds like a good time. Sign me up!"
As Gilda was walking away from the desk, instructions and access codes in hand, a pink girl with purple hair came rushing up to her. "Gilda, good! You're here too! I have a bad feeling about this game. I mean, more than I did already."
Gilda raised an eyebrow. "And... who are you that I should care?"
The pink girl groaned. "Oh, right... It's me, Starlight! Equal Rites! We're in the same guild together."
"What, no fooling?" Now the voice clicked. It still made Gilda grin, remembering the time that Equal Rites had helped her and Dash grow their characters as big as houses with that potion bug. "You should have told us you were coming."
"Yes... yes, I should have." Starlight wrung her hands. "But about this MOBA..."
Gilda patted Starlight's shoulders. "Relax. I'm in CrystalSoft's QA department. If there was any shady stuff in that game, I'd definitely know about it."
Fifty feet away, Aria entered "LOAD ‘ShadyStuff.dll', 8, 1" on her laptop, and the interface flashed blood red.
"Seriously, I'm worried about Twilight and the others," said Starlight. "I really don't think you should play."
"Indeed, you should spare yourselves the humiliation!"
Gilda turned and was surprised to see Alisa, that wierdo diamond wolf cosplay girl from the last CrystalCon. She was holding the arm of the guy who'd spoken, Blueblood according to his con badge.
"We've been analyzing the strategies of all the first round players," boasted Blueblood, jerking a thumb towards the big monitor. "It appears that Trixie has taken an early lead, but once we deal with her in round 2..."
Alisa flashed a predatory grin. "Nobody will be stopping us!"
Gilda watched them go, tisking. "Once I get those superboss powers, I know exactly who I'm gonna oneshot first."
Session 66.10 Grogar-the-oneser
"BWAHAHAHA!" Discord cackled after Fluttershy told him her story about why she missed tea time with him.
"What so funny?" Fluttershy question.
"I'm sorry it just... Zecora been living for how long in the Everfree forest and she didn't realize that plant nor it causing swamp-fever." Discord cackled. "That the stupidest thing I've heard."
"Yes its much like how a chaos deity live for a long time yet had no idea of the Tatzlwurm or it being the only known creature that can actually poison him," Fluttershy stated.
Discord stop laughing as he began to look sheepish. "Yes well... I suppose there are certain circumstances that can take anyone by surprise." Discord muttered.
"Why do I have to eat honey!" Spike stated. "I'm not complaining i'm just honestly curious?"
"You know how none of my book mention what causes Cutie Pox," Twilight said.
"You mean that disease that cause Applebloom to get more cutie mark and being force to do them all?" At Twilight nodding, Spike asked "What about it?"
"Well apparently no one also knew that awamp-fever is contagious. granted its arguable that its more of a factor thing since Zecora was still freshly cover in that flower pollen but its better safe than sorry."
"Oh so that why you ask Mayor mare to hold a town meeting where everyone must eat Flashbee honey... I just thought you went nuts when you came back." Spike said writing something."
"What are you writing?"
"New ideas for an RPG scenario. What you and fluttershy went through is gold."
Session 66.11 Kendell2
"Alright, time for the next boss..." said Sunset muttered. "Wonder who it will be..."
A monster formed out of nowhere, this one being a boss known as the Umbrum Goliath, an Umbrum assuming the shape of a Minotaur-like demon. It gave a roar and charged them.
Sunset dodged its incoming attacks with a large club, using one of Celestia's firespells on it.
Sci-Twi sniped it several times, but other players intentionally kept getting in her way, seemingly on purpose. "Ugh, this is getting really annoying!"
"Tell me about it, darling..." muttered Rarity with a growl.
Rainbow Dash was, annoyingly, one of those ponies causing problems for the others, currently seeming more preoccupied with fighting Trixie for the leaderboard than anything resembling teamwork. "You won't get the kill this time!"
"The Great and Powerful Trixie most certainly will!" Trixie yelled, the two repeatedly getting in each other's way trying to beat down the monster.
Applejack growled, ducking down to allow the two snipers to land repeated hits on the monster, taking the charge and punching it repeatedly and knocking it down. "That get it?" she asked...then jumped back as it rose back up, only now burning with shadowy fire.
"It has a second phase, remember?" asked Twilight, cringing as Applejack got a pretty heavy hit. Yeah, it didn't hurt in real life, but it LOOKED real. Fluttershy quickly had to heal her up.
The players kept fighting each other for the killing blow as much as they were fighting the boss, until Rainbow and Trixie both topped out their meter and when 'Depth Mode' as some had taken to calling it and both attacked it full power at the same time.
"Who got the kill, who got the kill?!" asked Trixie and Rainbow at the same time as the boss vanished into smoke...
And the points appeared over Rainbow's head.
"Oh yeah! I'm awesome! I'm awesome!" bragged Rainbow.
"...I'm really not looking forwards to having to pop her ego after this, darling," muttered Rarity.
Adagio chuckled, watching the corruption values raise and her new pendant filling up. "Soon, soon..." she said, looking to Aria. "Got your song picked out?"
Aria gave a smirk. "You know it, when do I go on?"
"Next Event boss fight is yours," the Alpha Siren replied. "By the time of the final act, we'll be all ready."
Session 66.12 Alex Warlorn
"We're going to make the REAL Somnambula proud in her grave, when we make OUR illusions REAL!" Adagio laughed. "And we chose HOW they become real. No poor misunderstood monsters who just want to be friends here!"
-
Meanwhile... Gilda was having fun controlling the wandering super boss, set it would only appear when she decided it would, it effective following her around town, spawning where she had a view of the entire Augmented Reality battle field. And she was indeed having fun. Though even she thought it was a bit unfair that the boss could only be damaged while Heroes were in 'Mythic' mode or whatever that super-mode was called. But the players kept coming back for more with the tasty reward in experience and in game currency and a random item drop of some super rare weapon that you couldn't buy in shop that could slowly automatically fill up your super mode gage when it was equipped.
Players eventually caught up on this, and began to use the Super Mode as much as possible as long as possible (the boss dropping rupees that filled the mode meter if hit by a regular attack.
-
"So this flying game..." Sombra said. "That uses the Augmented Reality Monocles?"
Radiant Hope nodded. "I saw the flying mini-game in Crystals and Rainbow was popular, but it would require too many resources compared to the rest of the game to continue to flesh it out, and would undermine the simplistic and straightforward gameplay we're going for. So I had the development team throw together a 'proof of concept prototype' to be shown off at the Con."
Session 66.13 Zaku789
"Alright so are you guys ready for the-" Rainbow said.
"Yeah, we're taking a break from it," Sunset said reading a magazine.
"Wait what?" Rainbow question.
"We're taking a break from the game," Rarity said "At least till those competition freaks stop acting like crazy people."
'W-what, but that's ridiculous! AJ tell them."
"Dash, Ah know were both competitive as Hell. but quite frankly the whole beat Trixie thing, combined with other players one-upping one another more than usual is startin' to wear down even my nerves," Applejack stated. "If it wasn't for the fact that it's an online game, Ah'd swear this is some evil plot by baddies."
"Oh come on, what kind of bad guys feed on hatred," Rainbow Dash said, getting annoyed looks from everyone present. "Okay let me rephrase that so it sounds less stupid. What kind of bad guys use hatred from healthy competition in a video game with the only suspect NOT having a way to use it to there advantage?"
Adagio whistled Voltaire's 'When You're Evil' as she polished the pendant.
Session 66.14 Mtangalion
On the edge of the virtual battlefield, a towering beast like a bat-winged minotaur appeared, covered in glowing green tattoos. "Tremble, mortals!" it bellowed. "The hour of your doom has..."
"Depth Mode!" shouted three young voices in chorus.
Gilda blinked. "Eh?"
"Eh?" rumbled the demon beast in the VR adventure world that she was controlling.
"Phalanx Wingblade Omnislash!" shouted Scootaloo, darting in and slashing the superboss ten times in less than a second.
"Dirge of Naught!" sang out Sweetie Belle, making the monster reel in deafening silence.
"Summon: Hound of Tindalos!" cried Apple Bloom, causing a giant black wolf to swallow the monster whole, then implode, leaving the monster behind to explode into sparkling dust.
"Yes!" shouted Scootaloo, pumping her fist. "I defeated it!"
"Hey, I'm the one who beat it," yelled Sweetie Belle, shoving her.
"Sweet, a new relic!" said Apple Bloom, holding a gem aloft. "That's going in my armor."
Sweetie gasped. "Hey, I need that! Why should you get it?" The girls started pushing and shoving each other in the real world too.
"Jeez," said Gilda. "Now I know how Nightmare Moon felt before heroic mode." She was a little shaken, for all that the attacks had only been virtual. "Something's not right about this," she mused, resisting a sudden urge to griffon-up right there in the convention hall and defend herself against... she didn't even know what. "Maybe I should... Huh, what's this now?"
There was a chime, and text started scrolling up her GM console. "Final superboss unlocked? This monster appears when all the other super bosses are defeated, and heralds the coming of the ultimate boss. Each time this boss is struck down with a player's Ultimate attack, it comes back stronger than before." Her eyes grew wide, checking out its stats and attack list, and those were just the starting stats! "Oh... yeah..."
Rainbow Dash coughed, standing up. "Hey, I saw something else I wanna check out, so since we're taking a break and all..." The others weren't paying that much attention anyway, so she slipped out of sight and put her VR eyepatch back on.
"Sorry girls, but I'll never overtake Trixie with you all holding me back." Rainbow felt a stab of guilt, but quickly shrugged it off, unaware that her eyes were glowing faintly green. "It'll be fine. When I'm way higher level, I'll help them power up too!"
Session 66.15 Alex Warlorn
Princess Twilight Sparkle shivered as she trotted along side Starlight Glimmer and Adagio Dazzle. Adagio being pushed in a wheel barrow by a griffin with spirals for eyes and a goofy smile on his head. It was the Equestrian Center for Hypnotists And Other Mind Magic Experts. As the top three contestants of the mind control contest, they'd been invited here to each give a lecture if they wished, and to learn and observe, and maybe play a giant game of chess... with hypnotized ponies in enchanted costumes acting as the chess pieces.
A smiling unicorn pony with glassy eyes like a doll in a maid outfit bowed to them, "Welcome welcome! It is a pleasure to have you here, our chair pony has waited for you eagerly!"
"Who is your chair pony?" Twilight asked. Imagining some old depraved stallion.
"Tis us!" Princess Luna appeared in a swirl of dark magic.
"PRINCESS LUNA! You're the chairpony of Equestria's mind control guild?!"
"We prefer the term Mind Magic Professionals Princess Twilight Sparkle."
"But... but YOU?!"
"With how well I have managed the minds and dreams of ponies for centuries, keeping ponies sane ... none have been able to challenge my position."
"But... how can you justify doing this to ponies?" Twilight gestured to the smiling unicorn maid.
Luna responded by removing the mare's hair band of her maid uniform. The mare's eyes lit up and she laugh maniacally, "Finally free! Now I can create my masterpiece seafood dish of seapony eggs! HAHAH-" Luna put the fluffy headband back on. "Oh my, I do apologize... I don't like it when I'm... that person." The maid blushed.
Still a seapony at ... well, that dripping black thing where her heart should be, Adagio frowned. "This is too good for her."
"YOU TRIED TO CONQUER THE WORLD! TWICE! AT LEAST!" Twilight exasperated.
"Yes..." Adagio assumed the air of a celebrity, "But you don't see me eating say, griffin eggs."
Session 66.16 Zalu789
"So why are you here? Finally decided that these two need some attitude adjustment?" Luna asked.
"Still sore about the accidental cutie mark swap," Starlight deadpanned.
"Little bit," Princess Luna admitted.
"So punch!" Starlight declared.
"What?!"
"Punch me! Blast me! String me up! I have horrible guilt issues that often paralyze me from taking decisive action, so please! Inflict upon me any punishment you feel is just!!! I can't bear knowing that friends or potential friends might feel negatively towards me, so please, beat me to a bloody pulp or lock in the dungeon or publicly humiliate me!" Starlight got on her knees stretching our her arms.
"Uh... It doesn't feel nearly as satisfying when you actually WANT to be punished... " Princess Luna said awkwardly.
"Oh, sorry."
"What are you bozos talking about?" Adagio asked. A minute of explanations later, Adagio was laughing her head off. "HAHAHA! THAT IS TOO RICH! You swapped the cutie marks of the princesses, and you DIDN'T hold any kind of ransom for switching them back?! WHAT AN IDIOT! HAHAHA!" Adagio continued to giggle to herself. "You could have forced them to make you a goddess and they'd have had no choice but to say yes! You dummy!"
Starlight whimpered.
"Err actually Princess, we're here because we're the top three from that contest you held in Ponyville," Twilight said.
"Oh, was that today, we need to handle my calendar better," Luna said. She teleported away. The three mares looked at each other confused, before the Princess teleported back. "Just wear these around and we'll get you ready." she lifted three sashes that said Contest Winners.
"These won't mind control us to make us more pliable during our stay here so the goodie-two-shoes don't do something stupid and free your hypnotized slaves even after seeing one acting like a derange egg-eater will they?" Adagio asked.
"They are not slaves, slavery is illegal in Equestria, they're convict labor, and/or work release, or volunteers... And Maybe," Luna said.
"MAYBE!" Twilight shouted.
"Oh just put it on, I rather take the precaution just in case, weird thing happen around you all the time and we are with a semi-recurring villain at the moment," Starlight said.
"Hey that's-" Twilight pause as she thought it over. "On second thought yeah, that actually a fair point."
Session 66.17 Alex Warlorn and Kendell2
*SPOILERS FOR MY LITTLE PONY THE MOVIE. READ YOUR OWN RISK!!! *
Grubber spoke into his megaphone, waving a familiar grim dark role playing game. "Attention ponies! His great and terribleness the storm king, would like to locate the creatures who wrote this Equestria Crusaders 40 Carrots! They will be greatly rewarded! The person who rats on them, not the person who wrote the book I mean: their goose is cook!"
The transformed Garble may or may not have wet himself.
"HEY! The edge-queen screw head?!" Gilda screeched a griffin battle cry and swooped straight at Tempest Shadow. Gilda would normally never be stupid enough to go up against a unicorn straight on in the 'line of fire' but this one's horn was damaged, she could get in melee range. "You like beating up these ponies, but how about a Griffonstone Griffon?!"
And unicorns weren't exactly know for their melee- in one fluid motion, Tempest Shadow spun around, grabbed one of Gilda's out stretched talons, and using her weight as leverage... made Gilda's arm swing the wrong way with a sickening crack. Gilda screeched out at the agony. Tempest didn't give a chance to recover as she merciless pummeled the griffin, who was used to brawls, not battles.
"Griffonstone is CANDY LAND to where I've had to fight my way through!" She kicked Gilda in the face.
-
A neon rainbow swarm of insect ponies and darker colors flew towards occupied Chanterlot, taking the most direct and immediate route towards the city by air. King Thorax leading the charge.
"Charge weapons," Tempest Shadow ordered without missing a beat. Two Storm Troopers tirelessly began turning a two person crank, which began to crackle with electricity.
"Aim above the center of he swarm." More of her personal troops began to turn a massive tesla coil like tube encased in glass, at the end being spiked forks in the form of the storm king's symbol.
"Fire."
Lightning arched through the black clouds, spreading all over, then struck down at the changelings, arching from one to another, until they reached King Thorax... and they fell... at least if there was one thing changelings were good at it, it was surviving long drops.
Tempest Shadow chose to speak into Grubber's megaphone, letting her voice be heard to the twitching insect ponies at the base of the mountain. "You changelings should have continued to follow Queen Chrysalis, at least she knew how to lead you into battle!"
-
"Hey boss... shouldn't be worried about dragons showing up too?" Grubber asked via the spell pool to the Storm King.
"Stupid, that's what the rockets filled with Dragon Sneeze Tree pollen are for. And the bombs filled with liquids-nitrogen just in case. Too bad you didn't manage to catch that pet dragon of theirs... He'd have made a great field test!"
-
Tempest Shadow stepped over Discord's petrified form, giving him a kick for making her use up the last gorgon grenade she'd been saving for Princess Twilight Sparkle. And the Storm King wasn't exactly trusting with them. If things like that were easy to come by, she'd not have been stingy with them.
At the front door to Twilight Sparkle's castle of friendship, one pony stood in her way, surrounded by obliterated siege weapons and piles of Storm Troopers.
"Two... or two hundred... you aren't getting through here..." Starlight Glimmer was panting.
"What about one?" Tempest asked, and made a gesture with her head. The Storm Troopers behind her parted, showing Trixie shackled and bridled with a seal on her horn. Starlight could faintly make out Trixie trying to say 'teacup!' Starlight wondered if Trixie zapped any of the enemy first. And a harpoon gun was pointed right at one of Trixie pretty violet eyes.
Starlight's horn stopped glowing and lowered her head.
"And this is why friendship is a weakness." Tempest back handed Starlight in the horn, KNOWING how painful that was. She knew every second of every day. The pain never went away, not for her.
-
"So... this is the mirror that leads to another world, with weapons that can obliterate cities, entire continents."
"And you want to start a war there?" Starlight smirked.
"Oh no, not while this war is still going on, if you can call it that. The Storm King plans for us to walk into a public library and check out some books on how to make one." Tempest Shadow said.
Starlight's eyes widened.
She managed to teleport the journal away, the key to opening the mirror... teleporting it as far away as she could, she'd have to find it later. After she recovered from being beaten into unconsciousness by angry Storm Troopers.
--
Starlight gave Tempest a glare. "...You want to know the sad thing?"
Tempest rolled her eyes. "What? We could've been friends?"
The mare shook her head. "...If I'd met you before, I'd have put every medical cutie mark in the village on one pony to find a way to fix your horn because that IS unfair."
Tempest blinked. "...You can do that?"
"...Yes...care enough to stop this?"
"...No. You're just lying to try and get out..." the mare replied, though couldn't keep a small bit of conflict hidden.
"Then I don't care enough to help you," Starlight replied simply. "And you'd better hope I don't get out of this cage, or I swear, your Cutie Mark will join Suri's at the bottom of the ocean for what you used Trixie for."
"Good to hear. Because you're our back up battery."
"... What?"
"In case I don't come back with the forth Princess, you're her substitute, of course the ritual was meant to drain the power from an ALICORN, so I think we'd both rather not have that happen to an innocent pony. So let's both hope I come back with her."
"I... hope you don't."
"And that's friendship does to you."
--
Grubber sang to himself. "Lala-lalalala-la-la!" As he rocked like a child on top of Sweetie Belle as she was made to prance in a circle like a show pony in a circus costume. "I feel so pretty!" That was when Sweetie Belle muscles gave out and she fell on her belly. "Dang! Tired out already?" She'd been lugging around his weight for ten minutes. "Okay next one!" He'd already driven the earth pony fillies (Diamond, Silver Spoon, and Apple Bloom) to exhaustion. Sweetie felt that her sister would die seeing her in the garish costume.
Scootaloo, in a simular frilly costume, was pushed into position in the fenced in ring and Grubber recklessly hopped onto the filly, making her grunt. "Okay pony! Let's fly!"
"... I... I can't fly..." Scootaloo said, humiliated.
"Huh? I thought that was what your pegasuses did!"
"... It's pegasi... and... and I can't."
"Oh! You're like my buddy Tempest Shadow! She says she was this super powerful unicorn, but then got on the business end of a, oh right, I'm not supposed to talk about that! So what happened to you? Monster gotcha?"
"... No... my... my wings... just don't grow..."
"Oh." Grubber said, surprisingly tame. "So uh, this is kinda awkward... I kinda thought for a bit there you and my buddy Tempest might have somethin' to talk about... uh... but, this feels too much like I'd be riding her, and that's too weird." Grubber surprisingly got off.
-
"Hey! Tempest! I found a filly whose like you!"Grubber said carrying along Scootaloo like she was a prized teddy bear won at the carnival.
Tempest looked to Grubber. "How so?"
"Well she can't fly, just like...you know..."
The Commander narrowed her eyes. "...Is that true?"
Scootaloo looked up at her with a glare. "What do you care?"
The unicorn's expression didn't change. "Answer me."
"...Yes..."
"..." Tempest's gaze softened ever so slightly. "...How did it happen?"
"...It's just how I am..." Scootaloo replied, looking at her broken horn.
"...So you know how it is then? To be unable to do everything you want to do, everything your kind can do?" asked the mare. "...Maybe we are alike."
"...I'm nothing like you, traitor."
Grubber cringed, expecting the worse. Tempest merely kept composed.
"...The Storm King is giving me back my horn, he could give you new wings."
Scootaloo's eyes widened, looking up at her. "H-He could?"
"If you please him," replied Tempest. "So how about it? Join us, and then you can show everypony what you really can do once you're whole."
Scootaloo looked tempted. Being able to fly? Do all those things Rainbow Dash could do? It'd be...wait... "...No."
"And why not? You get your wings and aren't one of our slaves anymore."
"Because Rainbow Dash taught me better, no way I'd EVER betray her or my friends!" Scootaloo yelled. "...And when she gets back, she's going to kick your flank, traitor!"
Grubber blinked, noting that Tempest actually looked...shaken for just a moment.
"...Take her back to her cage."
"But, Tempest..."
"I said take her back!"
"... Alright boss."
Session 66.18 Kendell2
*SPOILERS FOR MY LITTLE PONY THE MOVIE. READ YOUR OWN RISK!!! *
"Sombra!"
Sombra blinked...and promptly gentle motioned Radiant Hope behind him as a tall white skinned, blue haired man wearing a black business suit walked up to him. "Hello there," the CEO replied, shaking the man's hand.
"Remember me? The Storm King!" replied the man, using his moniker he was best known for. Namely bank that originally specialized in storm damage loans, but it'd stuck even after they'd branched out.
"Yes, you were a friend of mother's and Tirek's..." replied Sombra.
"That's me," the Storm King replied, smoking a cigarette, the billowing smoke seeming to give him a cloud around his head like a storm.
"Can you please put that thing out, my wife is pregnant."
The man shrugged, dropping it and grinding it into the ground. "Whatever. Anyway, the kid I'm guardian of wanted to come and I had some business in the area, so what the heck?" he asked, then gave a blech. "Just wish those games of yours weren't so cute. Never have been a fan of cute."
"Well the buying public would dare to disagree," was the reply.
"Yeah, whatever. Anyway, I noticed your next expansion has Tirek as the big baddie, I was wondering, think I could get in?" asked the Storm King with a smirk.
Sombra blinked. "You mean you want an expansion?"
"Yeah! I mean come on, the name the STORM King! Doesn't that just SCREAM final boss?" asked the banker. "And you know, instead of giving loans to storm victims, I can MAKE storm victims!"
Sombra admitted, how he said that made him question how much the guy WANTED to be able to do that.
"I've even got a catchphrase in mind! 'Here comes the storm!', sound good?"
"I don't know, we haven't even finished Ascension yet..." replied Sombra.
"I'll pay for it."
"...PAY, not LOAN."
"Dang it, you know me too well. Fine, I'll PAY for it, even have YOUR lawyer write up the terms, how's that sound?"
"...We'll call you..."
"Cool! I'll get my daughter's designs ready, she's been drawing a lot of crazy stuff since the whole camping incident when she was a kid."
Radiant blinked. "Incident?"
The Storm King shrugged. "Eh, something about a bear. Anyway, see you later," he said with a wave as he walked off.
"...Who was that?"
Sombra shuddered. "...A loanshark. A bad one. You'd be surprised how many people are bankrupt because of him. Swoops in, drains them dry, and leaves them with nothing..."
"...I see why your mother liked him..."
"I know...there's a reason people have called him the 'Storm Kingpin'...And he needs to call Tirek nearly every month..."
"Alright, my turn..." said Aria, slowly walking over to move on as the next boss spawned.
This time, it was one of the Changeling Generals, Kabuto, in his OWA form, a massive insectoid beast. She gave a smirk, watching the players instantly pounce on it, that stupid Rainboom and Trixie being fighting too and nail with one another. "Too easy..." she said, stepping up a few stairs...then blinked, turning like a shark that'd just smelled blood. "I smell bitterness, hatred, envy, and a lot of rage, with a hint of despair and depression...delicious, but where's it coming from?"
She peaked out the curtain just in time to see a new fighter (in game playing a Flash Magnus, one of the upclose melee classes) rush in, quickly tearing into the boss. She was covered mostly in dark clothing with a T-shirt depicting a symbol she recognized from some loanshark she'd seen ads for and a hoody covering her face and arms (though one of her hands didn't seem to move much, if at all). What Aria could see was dark red skin and red hair.
What she could FEEL however, made her mouth water. "Hello jackpot..." Aria said with a smirk. "I think I'll need to change the song and show ponies heart songs aren't just something THEY can do when feeling happy..."
Shortly there after, Aria emerge before. "Hello everybody, time for another special round! Remember, however gets that kill gets the big power up!" she called, getting cheers. She focused her eyes on the new mystery guest and began to sing with the autotune.
= Open Up Your Eyes - My Little Pony the Movie =
"It's time you learned a lesson.
It's time that you understand.
Don't ever count on anybody else
In this or any other land," sang Aria with a smirk.
Rainbow found the mystery girl suddenly jump up and hit 'Kabuto'. "Hey!"
"We all hope for friendship
To find a place among our kind,
But those are the childish wishes
Of someone who is blind," Aria continued.
Trixie went in for a hit on Kabuto, but the girl jumped between her and blocked her then struck herself. "Get out of Trixie's way!"
"You get out of mine," the girl growled back.
"Open up your eyes,
See the world from where we stand!
Us among the mighty,
And them caged at our command!" Aria said, using what control she had over the special effects from her own GM console to make a brief 'easteregg' of Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and Twilight in cages appear in the smoke.
The girl did a parkor jump off the wall just to land a hit on the boss, moving intentionally to block the other players.
"Hey, leave some for us!" Rainbow called, grabbing her forearm...and blinking. It felt hard, solid, almost like it was fake.
The girl just tore free and kept up the assault.
"Open up your eyes,
Give up your sweet fantasy land,
It's time to grow up and get wise.
Come now, little ones, open up your eyes!"
Rainbow blinked, flexing her hand. "What was that about-hey! I'm still playing you know!" she called, dashing in and now starting blocking the mystery girl...who PUSHED her out of the way in return.
"We all start out the same,
With simple naive trust,
Shielded from the many ways,
That life's not fair or just."
Trixie was next to get shoved out of the girl's way. "Trixie will not stand for this!"
"Then don't, see if I care," replied the girl as she struck 'Kabuto' again.
"But then there comes a moment,
A simple truth that you must face,
If you depend on others,
You'll never find your place," Aria continued singing.
The girl finally activated Depths Mode, as did Rainbow and Trixie, the three fighting one another for hits.
"And as you take that first step,
Upon a path that's all your own,
You see it all so clearly,
The best way to survive is all alone!" sang Aria...this time the girl singing WITH her, causing Rainbow to blink in confusion and miss a hit.
"Open up your eyes,
See the world from where we stand!
Us among the mighty,
And them caged at our command!
Open up your eyes,
And behold, the faded light.
It's time to grow up and get wise.
Come now, little ones, open up your eyes!"
The girl activated her character's ultimate, in this case using his legendary shield to surf for multiple fierce strike's ending in a lightning storm, destroying Kabuto.
"Open up your eyes!" finished the song, Aria and the girl singing as one.
Aria chuckled, taking her bow and walking back. "Well, how'd it go?" she asked Adagio.
The Alpha siren smirked. "I have NO idea what you did, but you just wracked up a LOT of negativity..." she said.
"The biggest buffet I've seen in years just walked in," Aria replied with a chuckle. "Oh will she make a great siren..."
The trio walked over and looked out. "What's her screen name?" Aria asked.
The girl removed her hood, taking a deep breath and revealing a scar over her right eye. She felt her right arm...and adjusted the prosthetic attached to her at the elbow.
Adagio checked. "Tempest Shadow...A good name for a Siren too," she said, the two sinisterly chuckling.
Stats
Page generated in 0.067 seconds
Total duration
993 users online
193,174 hits today, 2,314,256 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
"Griffonstone is CANDY LAND to where I've had to fight my way through!" She kicked Gilda in the face.
Err... what with the
8471642
Edited.
Hopefully I remember to come back for the last two snips after I've seen the movie...
8471738
Good luck.
See this presents a problem. I want to read this chapter. But, I have not seen the MLP movie, and am not likely to be able to for a while due to it not airing in any of the cinemas I can go to. So, can someone mark which bits are spoilers so I can avoid them? Or is this whole thing just spoilers?
8471909
And how many are there in total so I know, and what are their numbers? 66.8, 66.10, what?
8472130
Thank you.
That's, not INaccurate, my first thoughts of her and Aria were evil Pinkie and evil Rainbow Dash. Which, kinda makes Adagio evil Rarity?
There's something immensely amusing about that sentence.
Passive aggressive snarky Fluttershy is WONDERFUL.
In her defense, that is a VERY catchy song.
Thank you for posting this so those of us who are averse to spoilers can avoid them. Yes, I'm actually being sincere. Rare, I know.
Have not seen the film yet gotta wait 11days but tempest looks good for a fight if anyone's interested in a RP battle just continue from the intro) A lone Pegasus stallion descends in front of tempest landings on he's hind legs standing upright two swords on he's back one molded to look like flames the other to look like ice while he wore rough looking trousers for decency and a light brown cloak he smirks a rather sharp toothed grin a scar noticeable above he's left eye despite the glades he wore to hide them * so your the one that's been causing mayhem around the place I gotta say good job but I'm afraid I gotta stop you but not for the whole I'm a good guy thing because I'm not I just know beating you will bring out the big guy ypu work for I have a few friends that have a few issues to work out with him * he then notices tempest's horn * youch that must ache a bit but I do know a changeling that can fix that up easily so how about a little wager we duel you win I tell you and show you were my friend who can fix your horn is and pay the bill and i promise to leave you be but if I win il still foot the bill but you have to let everyone go and take me to your boss (so everyone wat you think I know it's long and rough but best I could come up with though I would seriously like to battle this out also if her horn gets fixed in film you can disregard the horn fixing for I just leave then be)
8477298
And the movie doesn't air in any of the cinemas I can go to. Wonderful. I know I was leaked online, but I wanted to see it in theatres. Gah.
Oh man, Gilda is totally going to have nightmares of hatching Garble now. It's impressive that he's learning to be annoying when he's not able to bully others around him. He's definitely shifting into the love-to-hate category.
I think Sonata was right, Trixie really would make a great siren. I could see her and Sonata getting along really well together. (And then there's her crush on Adagio...)
Heh, this scene was fun. I love Starlight calling Twilight part of the "oppressors." I appreciate confirmation from EQG that Starlight is the equivalent of one of those marxist bohemians who go around wearing berets unironically.
Alisa and HumanBlood? I love it!
Flutterburn!
Kind of surprised by this. I mean, the Storm King and his minions kind of come off like a 40K faction, I think he'd be one of the few fans.
I did wonder about those OP Gorgon Grenades. Can burrow through an alicorn's shield and turn anyone or anything to stone, between that and the fact that their armor and weapons all seem to be magic-deflecting, the Storm King doesn't really need any other tech or powers.
Tempest Shadow's biggest weakness. The Storm King has no personal magical abilities, and at no time explains how he would actually be able to repair her horn, but somehow Fizzlepop believes this guy instead of just asking the Princesses to fix her horn. Cynics can be really selectively naive about certain things.
Ah man, finance? This guy talks about being on-brand multiple times! Clearly he's a marketer.
That is an interesting twist for the human world.
That name was the biggest reason I was convinced before the movie that the character would be annoyingly angsty. The fact that she actually invented the name in-universe to come off as more edgy was one of the main things that made me end up liking Fizzlepop!
Anyway, intriguing new chapter with movie material added. Adagio singing Voltaire's song was so fun!
8477590
Thank you very much for the commentary!
8477590
Kind of surprised by this. I mean, the Storm King and his minions kind of come off like a 40K faction, I think he'd be one of the few fans.
In an earlier chapter I did a short bit where someone the Storm King was attacking defended their capital by hanging illustrations from that book on the walls. The were supposed to be so luridly gross that his army attacked with blindfolds on so they didn't have to look at them. SK did not appreciate it; the guy has some standards, after all.
8477590
The human world Alisa and Blueblood were also together at the human world "Friendship Castle." I made them both Crystal Prep students, Blueblood the class president and Alisa the transfer student.
Thanks for the comments! :)
Love the involvement of Tempest Shadow in this fic. Both in regular Equestria and in the human world. I'd love to see what happens with the "World of Hoofcraft" stories and if Tempest Shadow befriends the HuMane 7. I can tell she would get along with Sunset Shimmer.
I have an idea for another game that the main characters could play (Pony or Human). It would basically be inspired by RWBY and be focused on your characters with awesome weapons and special powers like in the show. Tempest would even like it and give her character awesome robot limbs. Just a suggestion.
8479436
If you want to write it and submit it, don't be afraid to.
8479470
And how would I submit it to this story for you to add?
8479475
Either write it out, and then submit on deviantart, or submit it via messages to me.
8479477
Thanks.
I'm baaack! Just watched the movie last night, so the PnD reading can resume!
8692301
This should be fun.