• Member Since 30th Jan, 2012
  • offline last seen Yesterday

Tumbleweed


A guy. A guy who writes stories. Stories about ponies. (And sometimes robots).

E

This story is a sequel to Let Me Tell You About My Character


After years of nerdy fun, Twilight Sparkle's favorite Role Playing Game comes to an unexpected and inglorious end, leaving her with a particularly nerdy kind of melancholy. But it's stupid to get so sad over a game, right?

Sunset and Company take it upon themselves to cheer her up anyway.

Chapters (4)
Comments ( 48 )

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.

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There's a Christmas special though, right?

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More like a compilation of shorts, from what I've heard.

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.

Excellent update! It really lifted my mood to see the next installment of this story. :pinkiehappy:

Was Twilight thinking about looking for a chainsaw a call-back to that story with the changelings and the cabin? XD

“Just for that, I'm wearin' socks that don't match tomorrow.”

“You monster.”

:rainbowlaugh:

Granny Smith don't come home 'til the sun comes up on bingo night. Granny Smith likes to get rowdy on bingo night.

:rainbowderp:

One last hoorah. Let's Go!

Eeee! Let’s do this thing!

I’m worried at Twilight’s first instinct in a horror situation. Then again, she is of Friendship. Naturally she seeks out The Great Communicator.

Granny Smith though, good to see she’s still kicking it up.

And that is a great introduction Lyra, good work ^^

Looks like the gang's gonna help out Twilight, here. Good for them!

Yaaaay! Getting to the good stuff. :twilightsmile:

“Granny Smith don't come home 'til the sun comes up on bingo night. Granny Smith likes to get rowdy on bingo night.”

This is needlessly ominous and I love it.

Even Applejack had vanished-- slopping pigs (whatever that was) couldn't take that long, could it?

Depends on how much of a ritual she's build up around it.

Oh, this should be quite fun. Looking forward to seeing how the session develops.

Oh I love this. Surprise party-LARPing! Kind of reminds me of The Man who Knew Too Little.

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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).

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I mean, what else would you call old ladies breaking into the caffeinated sodas after midnight?

This whole chapter made me squee and that never happens for me :pinkiehappy:

*BIG SNIFF*
Oh yeah. That's the good shit. That good good RP drama.

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I didn't squee, but I agree!

The whole thing is as cheesy as it could get. :D

Haha, I'm grinning from ear-to-ear!

Oh I love it, this is great.

Wonderful roleplaying from Lyra and Twilight, some great improve too. "I am the paradox point." Heh.

I love the idea of Rarity going full authenticity on the burial shrouds. People forget that's the origin of 'bedsheet ghosts'. Well, and budget :p

And all of this is reminding me just how much I want a game of Continuum.

Brilliant stuff, from Twilight rewriting the plot into something better than they'd planned to Rarity shipping herself with Applejack by proxy. I just hope Twilight didn't actually sprain her ankle.

“I mean, yeah?” Rainbow Dash said. “Why else do you think Rarity made

Sorry to say, but you left this sentence hanging.

That said, this chapter was a lot of fun!

What a charming ending. :pinkiesmile: Thank you for the wonderful little story.

Comment posted by ScisetShimmerEvan deleted Feb 19th, 2022

We're all dorks here. The sooner you embrace it, the sooner you stop worrying about what those "normal" people think of you. Fun story.

Just like I know Fluttershy's gonna feel better now that she got that whole 'nerd murder' thing off her chest.

"Nerder," if you will.

Heck, if you really wanted, I bet I could wrangle you a chair at Ditzy Do's Ogres & Oubliette's game.

Oh hey, that's a thing. I wonder if this Carrot Top got ahold of an enchanted sourcebook as well. Or will. Depends on if/when the pony Flash stumbles through the portal.

I do love how defensive Sunset is about her dorkiness. No one who wears a leather jacket with "friendship cones" has fully abandoned her "bad girl" persona.

And a better way to begin something new.

I'm choosing to interpret this with shipping goggles on and you can't stop me.

A delightful conclusion to this arc of the Tumbleverse, which may or may not he a thing. Thank you for it.

I'm glad it got to have an ending. When you're playing an RPG like this, the death of your character isn't necessarily a bad thing.

...And heck, just because I'm not playing doesn't mean other people can't have fun. No matter what the edition. So long as people keep enjoying themselves, they can play their own games and tell their own stories.

Coming from July 2020, I've seen MLP: Pony Life, and it's not that good. Bronies I know aren't enjoying it much. (If you're reading this and you do like it, that's great, but for a lot of people it doesn't seem like it's going to save us from the eternal hiatus.)

At least we can still keep doing G4 fanfic though!

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Amen, buddy. No matter how long, there will still be a fanbase. Somehow.

Just wish we got a proper ending for EQG

“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.”

Wait, is the name Tara Sterling just a mash-up of Tara Strong and Juliet Starling?

“Who?” Rainbow Dash canted her head to the side, confused.

Of course she forgot. :facehoof:

“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.”

Technically it was stolen magic but I'll accept this. :applejackunsure:

“They announced a new edition.” Twilight sniffled again, and buried her face in her hands.

I seriously don't find that bad at all. :ajbemused:

“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.”

Ok, now I see where this is going. :fluttershysad:

“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.”

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. :ajsleepy:

“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.”

Something tells me she might not. :unsuresweetie:

“So what's the plan for this weekend, guys? We've got something to do, right? Like, is there some new bit of rogue Equestrian magic out there that we need to deal with? Or just some other problem that needs fixing, magical or otherwise?” Twilight Sparkle's gaze flitted from one friend to another, searching. “Somebody who needs a surprise birthday party put together at the last minute? Some charity fundraiser that we can put on a concert for?

for?"*

“Okay guys, this isn't funny.” Twilight huffed. “I mean, you're better than this. You wouldn't resort to the whole 'lure the nerdy girl out into a rural area and then rattle chains at her so she gets scared and then you laugh at her' thing ... would you?”

laugh at her thing? :applejackconfused:

“That's the point.” Sunset Shimmer gently pulled Rainbow back into the deeper shadows, where the rest of the impromptu LARP group was hiding. They'd showed up at Sweet Apple Acres early, so as to get everything set up before Twilight even arrived. “Lyra knows the game a lot better than any of us, not to mention she knows Twilight's character, so she's taking care of the exposition.”

LARP? :applejackconfused:

From the barn, screams.

Damn it Pinkie. :facehoof:

“Tara died saving someone she lo--” Twilight trailed off, glancing in Lyra's direction for a moment. Lyra still wore her fatigues, but had traded out her goggles and bandolier for a marshmallow roasting stick. “--Tara died saving a friend. And, y'know, she may have also created a time paradox that might change the timeline for the better.”

She almosted said loved. Saw that coming a mile away. :ajsmug:

The purple haired girl stood up and pulled Tara Sterling's character sheet from her hoodie pocket. She rubbed her thumb over the crinkled paper, lingereing, as if she were soaking up memories y touch. then gently tossed it into the flames. Within seconds, the paper curled and blackened in the blazing fire, dissolving into char and ash.

:pinkiegasp:

https://m.

Twilight, meanwhile, just smiled. “Sorry to get dramatic-- just ... seemed like an appropriate gesture. And, uh, I've got the character sheet backed up on my computer back home, it's the thought that counts, right?”

Good. :scootangel:

“Uh-huh.” Twilight's lip curled up in a playful smile. “You also stood in line for hours just to get the latest Tirek game on release day.And you make squealy noises every time you hear a PostCrush song on the radio. And --”

A space is needed at the beginning of the last sentence in the paragraph after 'release day.'

And a better way to begin something new.

Indeed. :twilightsmile:

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