Chapter 1
“I'm fine.” Twilight Sparkle said, because she wasn't.
The other six girls hanging around in front of Canterlot High stared at their friend with varying expressions of concern and bewilderment. Twilight's dejected sniffling had thrown a wrench into their typical pre-class morning routine, and thus they clustered a little closer to their friend, trying to figure out what was wrong.
Twilight took off her glasses and wiped tears from her eyes with the back of her hand. “Totally, perfectly fine. Really. I'm fine.”
“Of course you are, darling.” Rarity said, and held out a monogrammed silk handkerchief. “Thank you.” Twilight accepted it with a wan smile, and proceeded to blow her nose with a sound akin to a foghorn. She moved to hand it back to Rarity, who could only smile politely in response.
“Why don't you hang onto that?” Rarity said. “It matches your outfit.”
“Oh, um, okay.” Twilight looked down at her typically plain blouse and sweater vest. “If you say so?”
“You know I'm always happy to help.” Rarity set a hand on Twilight's shoulder. “We all are.”
“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash piped up. “Nobody's been picking on you or anything, have they? 'cause if they are just tell me and I'll go mess 'em up!” The young athlete clenched her hands into fists and mimed out a few quick jabs.
“There's no need to get violent.” Fluttershy cringed away from Rainbow's shadow-boxing. “I'm sure we can just talk things out with whoever is being mean to Twilight.”
“Okay sure you try that first, but if it doesn't work I'm gonna throw down. WHACHAAH.” Rainbow Dash mimed a karate chop with more enthusiasm behind it than technique.
“You don't have to do that.” Twilight said with another sniffle. “Nobody's picking on me. In fact, everybody's been really, really nice to me since I transferred here. Which is why I'm okay and I'm totally fine and we can stop talking about it.”
“If you say so!” Pinkie Pie chimed in. “It's just that you're crying and slouching and sniffling like you just lost your best friend--” The pink haired girl froze for a moment, blue eyes going wide. She quickly, silently made a count on her fingers, and then gasped in horror. “OH NO SOMEBODY'S MISSING!”
“Did you count yourself, Pinkie?” Applejack said.
“Oh yeeeeeaah.” Pinkie did another count, and then wiped her forehead. “Whew! Okay, everyone's here, including me.” Pinkie's relief melted into horror once again as another idea struck her. “Ohymygosh is everyone at Crystal Prep okay?”
“They're fine!” Twilight shot back, with enough vehemence to make Pinkie Pie flinch. “Everyone I know is fine! And so am I! It's not me, it's not any of you, it's not even anyone who's real. It's ... Tara.”
“Who?” Rainbow Dash canted her head to the side, confused.
“Tara Sterling.” Twilight shrank, pulling her arms close around herself.
“Your Chronoquest character?” Sunset Shimmer blinked.
“Oh. Thaaaaat.” Rainbow Dash said. She scrunched her face up in deep thought (or at least what passed for deep thought for Rainbow Dash). “So ... let me guess, you're all bummed out 'cause somebody killed off your weirdo nerd-game character?”
“Oh, I wish someone had killed Tara off.” Twilight said, sniffling again. “That would have been, y'know. Interesting. She could have died heroically, or tragically, or ... heroically tragically, or ... something.”
“Hold up.” Applejack said. “You're sad 'cause you-- er, 'cause that weirdo-game-you ... didn't die?”
“Yes? I mean, no? I mean ... it's complicated.”
“Twilight.” Sunset laid a gentle hand on her friend's shoulder. “One of your best friends is a magical pony from another dimension who once talked you down from trying to destroy the world with runaway magic.”
“She's talking about herself.” Pinkie Pie stage-whispered to Twilight.
“Thanks, Pinkie.” Sunset rolled her eyes, then turned her attention back to her bespectacled friend. “What I'm saying is, we can handle complicated.”
“Okay. So.” Twilight drew in a deep, ragged breath. “You guys know how I play-- used to play –Chronoquest, right? Well, the rules were published by a company called Blanco Lobo. Only the thing is, Blanco Lobo kind of went out of business about fifteen years ago-- they got caught up in the Open-d20 license bubble and eventually went under. There was still enough interest in the game to keep the nationwide LARP network up and running, putting on conventions and stuff like that, though. Which is better than nothing, right? The organization of it was a bit ramshackle, especially with the online elements, but it was there, right? That's the game we played when I-- when Tara had to kill Captain Marsh--”
“That was Lyra's character, right?” Sunset said.
Twilight nodded. “Right. So, uh, that whole game was pretty fun, what with the plot reveals and betrayal and stuff. But then, not that long after Chrono-con, the rights to Blanco Lobo's back catalog were bought out by a Norwegian video game company. When I heard about it, I was afraid they were going to sent a Cease and Desist letter to the Chronoquest LARP network because it was always kind of unofficial, but what they wound up doing was even worse.”
“What's that?” Sunset said.
“They announced a new edition.” Twilight sniffled again, and buried her face in her hands.
“That's ... bad?” Applejack ventured.
“It's terrible! The new edition completely reboots everything-- which, well, I guess is thematically appropriate for a time travel game. But everyone's so excited about the new edition, and the new chronicle that comes with it, they've kind of ... forgot about the old game. The next Chrono-con is gearing up to debut the new ruleset, and so everything else just ... tapered off. Nobody posts in the online games anymore, and all of the local troupes have either had their own mini-finales, or they've disbanded entirely.”
“Couldn't you play the same character in the reboot, though?” Fluttershy said.
“I mean, I could. But it wouldn't be the same. All of her memories, all of her experiences-- heck, all of her experience points would be gone. The character might have the same name and the same costume, but it wouldn't be her. Chronoquest-- my Chronoquest, where I played Tara Sterling for years –just ... doesn't exist anymore. Which means that Tara's story doesn't get an ending. It's like a series of books that never had the last one published, y'know? It's dumb. It's frustrating. But it's ... dumber and even more frustrating that I'm crying about it. I mean, Chronoquest never had a huge playerbase to begin with-- enough to sustain it, but just barely. But now everyone's moved on and nobody cares and I am literally the only person in the world who's sad about it.”
Twilight put the handkerchief to her nose again and blew her nose, loud enough that it almost drowned out the sound of Canterlot High's opening bell. With near-Pavlovian reflex, Twilight Sparkle stood up. “But that doesn't matter, because I'm fine!” Forced cheer made her voice brittle. “And now it's time to learn! See you guys after school!” She slung her backpack over one shoulder and fairly well sprinted across the lawn, disappearing into the refuge of the school.
“Uh. Guys?” Pinkie Pie said, staring after Twilight. “I don't think Twilight's telling the truth about being okay.”
“Just seems like a lotta fuss over nothin', iffin' ya ask me.” Applejack shrugged.
“Applejack!” Rarity batted at Applejack's arm. “Don't be so insensitive!”
“I'm plenty sensitive! I let y'all talk to Twilight, n' she talked it out, and I bet she's gonna be right as rain by lunchtime.”
“I hope so.” Fluttershy murmured.
“Me too.” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I mean, I know how she feels. Not like, in the nerd game stuff, but remember when they killed Gargantulon and then stopped making movies about him?” She choked up a little.
“Aw hell, not you too.” Applejack rubbed at the bridge of her nose.
“Hush, you.” Rarity prodded Applejack in the side. “Or should I tell everyone about how you start crying every time a certain song plays on the radio?”
“But country music's supposed to be sad! Ya listen to it and then ya feel sad to and it's like ... shoot, what's the word?” Applejack snapped her fingers. “Cat-arthritis?”
“Catharsis is the proper term.” Rarity huffed.
“Yeah, that.” Applejack nodded.
“That's it!” Sunset Shimmer snapped her fingers. “I know how we can help Twilight.”
“We have her listen to sad country songs 'til she feels better?” Applejack said.
“Let's call that plan B?” Sunset said as diplomatically as she could. “But remember when Rainbow Dash started crying because of that old monster movie, and it inspired her to go out and make her own? This is kind of like that-- Twilight wants one last adventure for her game character, so we're going to make sure she gets one.”
“But how?" Rainbow Dash scratched her her head. "Like, sure, we all went to that one nerd convention thing but I'm still not sure on how the game, uh, works.”
“Neither do I.” Sunset Shimmer looked past Rainbow Dash's shoulder, focusing on the sight of a girl with minty-green hair walking into Canterlot High, arm in arm with her curly-haired 'best friend.'
“But I think I know somebody who does.”
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Tumbleweed, he puts the “Meta” in Metaphor.
Ooh, more Tumbleweed EqG. And as has been stated, looks like this one's tackling the less-than-satisfactory lack of a conclusion for the spinoff. Eagerly looking forward to seeing what you do with it.
9887752
That may be the best thing anyone's ever said about me.
I feel Twi's pain.
9887762
There's a Christmas special though, right?
9888050
More like a compilation of shorts, from what I've heard.
9888055
That sucks.
I wanna give Sci-Twi a big ole' hug. Is that all right?
Not sure if this is more about MLP ending or Pathfinder moving to 2nd edition, but either way I am hooked.
Any EqG story written by Tumbleweed is a huge treat. And I’m glad you’re writing.
So chronologically, does this come before or after Cabin Fervor? Or was that a separate one shot?
Oh this is gonna be fun!
This is a great start to what should be a wonderful, and hopefully emotional story. Definitely looking forward to what comes next!
Hey, Rainbow Dash can still help! She just needs to go beat up the Norwegian company until it agrees to support the old edition as well.
9887752
Aw dang, and here I was just thinking about how the only people who still play 3.P are toxic weirdos so it's hard to find a chill group. Totally missed the metaphor.
9888339
It looks like a direct reference to the new/old World of Darkness thing (although IRL the video game company was Icelandic and the old WoD made a sort of comeback).
Wait, is the name Tara Sterling just a mash-up of Tara Strong and Juliet Starling?
Of course she forgot.
Technically it was stolen magic but I'll accept this.
I seriously don't find that bad at all.
Ok, now I see where this is going.
Ngl, what Sci Twi explained is kinda similar to what happened to Equestria Girls itself once Friendship is Magic and Gen 4 ended in 2019.
Something tells me she might not.