Day 4 - Shipwrecked?: 6/7
“-and with that, only one of your drone blobs remains,” Shining concludes his turn, “I guess that I made the sides too heavily imbalanced, but the point was to show you the system, not set up a real match.”
10013 doesn’t reply immediately, watching the ‘battleground’ with narrowed eyes.
After some explaining that running away could be a map objective just like capturing an area or straight up all-out battle, and that losing doesn’t really net any penalty because it’s all supposed to just be friendly fun, the drone stopped trying to simply flee and got into the spirit of things. However, the dice clearly weren’t on 10013’s side and the five drone blobs managed to only cause two hit points’ worth of damage to Shining’s unicorn blob.
“This does look pretty doomed,” 36658 nods with a pout.
“Don’t give up. The dice are a fickle mistress,” Shining encourages the drones, “You can always get some lucky rolls and I might not hit you for a few turns.”
“Hmmm,” 10013 rubs its chin, “I think it’s time for my secret weapon. 20100, come over here, will you?”
The drones exchange looks of sudden realization which Shining can’t decipher. 20100 sits down next to 10013, and the Emperor is absolutely certain he would have no clue which is which if the two shuffled around with his eyes closed once or twice. Well, not entirely. The presumed 20100 is smiling while 10013 still looks like it’s thinking hard about something.
“Can 20100 roll for me?” asks 10013 before doing anything else, “Is it allowed by the rules?”
“In an official tournament setting I think you can’t do that without explicit permission from the other player but here it doesn’t matter. Go for it,” Shining shrugs.
“Time to save the drone blob, 20100,” 10013 nudges the other drone and gives it the dice.
“The chance is extremely low-” Shining starts talking but freezes when 20100 rolls a hit and armor penetration and the maximum damage of two.
“Go go, blobby!” 20100 cheers, “You can do it!”
“Oh, wow. That was lucky,” Shining leans back, blinking, “We’ll see how you hold up now.”
Shining attacks. 20100 rolls 6 - armor save.
Next turn - 10013’s blob hits Shining’s for maximum yet again and the big blob falls.
“Oh wow, you killed my unicorn blob. Well done,” Shining doesn’t seem bothered at all, “Told you that luck can change.”
“YAAAAAAAAAY!” the drones start cheering as one.
With the exception of 20100 who looks at its hooves, wibbles, and starts crying.
“Buddy? Buddy?” 10013 pulls it into a hug, “What’s wrong. You didn’t kill anything for real.”
“I knooooooooow!” 20100 weeps, “‘s not it!” it sobs, “IT MEANS I CAN’T PLAY WITH YOU BECAUSE I ALWAYS WIIIIIIIIIN!”
“What? That’s nonsense,” Shining tilts his head, “What are you talking… about?” his voice drifts off when he notices that the drones are taking 20100 deadly seriously, “You just rolled maximum on everything twice. I mean, it’s statistically unlikely but it can happen.”
10013 shakes its head.
“That’s not it, Mister Shiny. 20100 kinda just wins at random stuff. Wanna try again?”
“That’s crazy, sure,” Shining shrugs, “One big blob against one small blob and it’ll prove that statistically it’s near impossible.”
Three rounds of maximum damage hits and perfect armor saves later, Shining moves his big blob off of the battlefield again, jaw dropped.
20100 starts wailing out loud again:
“I- I wanna play Scufflestick Big Number with you g- guys, but I caaaaaaaaan’t!”
10013’s ears perk up.
“I’ve got a leadership idea!” it says, raising a hoof.
All drones go quiet and look at 10013 in perfect sync.
“Stars, I wish my soldiers were this obedient,” mutters Shining when he sees it.
“So, Scufflestick rule number one, right?” 10013, “20100 can always have someone else roll for it or it wouldn’t be fun.”
“Ooooh!” 20100’s mood changes instantly as it rams into 10013 and hugs it.
“Agree!”
“That’s why you’re the smart drone.”
“High Score would have done it the same way!”
“We can have Smiley do it,” offers 99111, “I doubt we can teach it the game rules but as long as we make it clear these dice thingies aren’t for eating it’ll be okay.”
“Excellent idea!” 10013 beams before turning back to Shining, who is watching the situation unfold with only growing confusion mixed with admiration at how naturally the drones accepted the idea that it’s not about winning but everyone having fun, “Okay, so our blobby won. What do we do now? Do we munch the losers like the high ranks used to do to us or… well… what happens now?”
“Uhm, I mean,” Shining rubs his head, “We weren’t playing for anything, but you can agree to set the stakes before the game. That’s up to you, really.”
“Alrighty, that makes sense,” 10013 nods, returning Shining’s dice to the Emperor, “And anyone can play this without getting hurt or if we’re healing from a broken leg or something. I like this.”
“Ohhhhh,” Shining leans closer, “If you like that then let’s get to the best part.”
“Umm, wasn’t that the game?” 10013 raises its eyebrows.
“The game is only half of it, or maybe even less,” Shining shakes his head with a smirk, “You see, we only used blobs with simple stats, but there are many more units in Battle- Scuffle, uhh, stick. Your army- group of units you select for the battle should be a good mix,” his horn flashes, a branch of the tree they’re sitting under breaks off, and Shining begins drawing with it in the sand, “Many ponies who are involved with this game only paint their models or customize them to fit their idea of an army they like. They don’t even play the game that much, just show off their army.”
“So… you don’t just imagine each blob is a different thing?” asks 99380.
“Ohhhh for sure not,” Shining smiles, “There is so much fun involved in the busywork of painting units or, as it might be in your case, straight up carving models out of your, uhh, stuff…”
“Goop!” 99526 nods, “Just like 93 and I did with the cheese set.”
“Uhhh, yes, goop, exactly,” Shining agrees with some hesitation, “You can make your own models and make them fit into the rules of the game. Unfortunately, as I said, my pocket rulebook is gone, so you’d have to make up the stat lines on your own and figure out what would be fair.”
10013 looks around.
“Sooo, guys, since we don’t have the Pocket Book of Rules and we already made rule one regarding 20100 so that it can play, how about we make our own Scufflestick Big Number game from scratch?”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Shining chimes in, “I don’t know how often you guys can get to pony cities and buy official Game Sweatshop models and codexes. I can help you with balancing -making sure the units you make up are fair- as long as we’re on this trip.”
Everyone looks at 10013.
“I guess that’s something to do during breaky time. We could even trade some really well done models for other things.”
“Waaaait,” 99526 rubs its chin, “So you mean that if, by any chance, I made like a super detailed model, I could trade it for… a stick?”
“I mean, sure?” 10013 shrugs, “Maybe if you made one that looked a lot like the Queen or something, complete with anatomically accurate leg holes.”
“Ohhhhh…” 99526 smiles, “I like it. And if I can’t trade it I can always play Scufflestick BN with it.”
“I think that if we showed the others back home we could be trading models even if they’re just goop,” 99111 adds, “And it would help the guys who haven’t found any shinies or interesting stuff if they could just make something up and piece it together from their goop. I dunno, they could trade a well-done unicorn pony for a round pebble or something.”
“And that would mean that losing a stash to a cave-in or something wouldn’t be so bad!” 10013 nods approvingly before looking at Shining who’s watching this with a mix of amusement and puzzlement, “So, what does your Pocket Book of Rules say about making our own models?”
“Well… I think it’s something about ruthless lawsuits,” Shining chuckles before noting the blank faces of the drones, “Nevermind. Before making models, you kinda need to make factions. Battle- Scufflestick is about different factions using varied armies to control various places. We can say that our desert blob battle was about the… Unicorn Empire fighting the Drone Union for, I don’t know, good source of sand, right? That’s really up to your imagination.”
“So we start with factions, right? Like… The Changeling Hive?” asks 10013.
“Yup,” Shining nods, “But you can take it more creatively and let your fantasy work with both units and the name. I rule the Crystal Empire, so if I wanted to go full Game Sweatshop, I would call it something along the lines of The Imperium of Prisms… or much worse, especially in some mangled old language no one really speaks,” he adds to himself.
“Oooh ooh ooh, I’ve got an idea!” 20100 raises its hoof. When it draws everyone’s attention, it says, “So… inspired by Mister Shiny here, we could have something familiar like The Imperium of Ling!”
“Ling like… a changeling?” asks Shining, “Don’t you mean lings?”
“Nu uh,” 20100 shakes its head, “I got it all figured out! There’s like this one head change- uhh, ling, right? The Queen. She sits in her throne room all the time and mind beams her orders to everyone. And maybe, if we decide on a super important battle, she could control a high rank and lead her army herself through them.”
“That’s a great concept!” Shining pats 20100’s head, making the drone giggle happily.
And hopefully Chrysalis will never find out about it.
“Do we all have to have our own factions or can I pick lings too?” asks 36658.
“No no, in the original there are only a hoofful of factions but you can have two armies of the same faction fight one another due to miscommunication or anything you can think of. You can even have one faction that’s so big that it has sub-factions which can fight each other.”
36658 narrows its eyes, glancing at 99111.
“I think I have an idea. Hey, 99111, I challenge you!”
“Huh? I thought we had our points thing,” 99111 scratches its head.
“Yeah, but we can do this too,” 36658 beams, “My faction will be the High Scorists -the name’s a work in progress- and we’re drones who believe in High Score protecting us!” it looks at Shining before adding with much less certainty, “Uhh, can we make it so that my drones just don’t get munched like we would in the real world?”
“Sure,” Shining shrugs, “We can think of special rules that make it possible for your tiny guys to fight the others,” he looks at 99111, “How about that? I can help you design something if you tell me what your beef with, uhh, that little drone guy is. Sorry, I can’t differentiate between you and I don’t remember your numbers.”
“Hmmm, I’ll need to think about it, but sure,” 99111 vigorously points at 36658, “I’ll stop your dangerous ways, both in the tunnels and in Scufflestick!”
10013 raises its hoof next.
“Can we play something along the lines of monsters?”
“One hundred percent!” Shining nods, “Real Battlemace 40 Million has a race of slimes that just eat everything to make more of them.”
“Ohhh, like cracky strippers,” 10013 nods, and Shining notices the other drones shudder or wince as one.
“What are those?” he asks, hesitating. One never knows with changelings, and it could be exactly what it sounds like.
“Nasty gribblers- hah, that’s what I’ll call my guys - The Gribblers!” 10013 clops its hooves together before continuing, “Anyway, cracky strippers are a horrifying thing, one of the worst in the tunnels. Well, maybe not, because they don’t get us as often as flappy biters, but when they do it’s really, really bad. They’re these web thingies that hang from the cracks in rocks, and they look almost completely like leggy spinner webs but if you touch them they drop a strand on you and if it gets through your carapace it’s over. The little strand just grows and grows and eats more and more of you and it kinda makes you super ill without any symptoms until your carapace suddenly cracks and you explode into more cracky strippers and since you wanted to get help there are usually more drones around you and they get infected and- well, you can see where that goes. We usually have to either call a high rank to kill the drone painlessly from afar or at least quickly, and then use the Angry Shiny on the whole place immediately, or straight up collapse a section of the tunnels and mark it as deadly. That would make my faction educational for the newbies too!”
Changeling zombies… but for them it’s not a game. They met them, they saw their friends explode and infect others.
Shining, turning slightly green, starts taking in long, deep breaths to calm himself down.
“Yeah… I think your faction will fit into your Scufflestick just fine.”
Before Shining can say anything else, however, the drones’ ears perk up at the same time just like earlier.
“Is everything okay?” he asks instead.
10013 smiles.
“387 just called 99380 away for something, which is a good sign that we should run and try to figure out how to get more points. Besides, we still gotta figure out our factions and those unit thingies before we get to the exact numbers. Bye, Emperor Shiny, and say hello to your sparkly ponies for us!”
And just like that they’re all gone again, quickly obscured by larger guests sitting or lying around.
Shining sighs before putting his dice away and standing up.
They’re still more coordinated and obedient than my guards. Not gonna lie, that stings.
Stats
Page generated in 0.062 seconds
Total duration
1,037 users online
2,501,230 hits today, 2,571,732 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.®
11290293
Yeeeeah, I get it. Blazing's entire storyline is... harsh, to say the least, and very personal. It's more a therapy session inside a fantasy plot rather than something easily accessible. However, some of those stories would definitely make a decent fantasy books, albeit grim.
11290297
You actually made a very good analytical summary there which doesn't make my head sad.
11290314
Yes, but 99743 somehow makes probiotic fiber goop which helps.
Thanks for the chapter!
<cries in paid to much for plastic>
For selling te Changeling version to Pony Nerds?
Just call it Scufflestick 0K?
At least some of them would enjoy the joke?
And Shining learns what everyone else who interacts with the Drones for any period of time learns: Don't ask them about life in the tunnels.
Changling 3D printer goes brrrr XD
Now I finally understand why Game Workshop... eh I mean Game Sweatshop got all kid-friendly... They just employed changelings as designer and rulemakers. So logically
Oh yeeeaaaahhh, I actually forgot for a bit there about 20100's naturally lucky nature.
Because obviously the leg holes are the most important thing to get right.
You know, at this rate, these drones are going to end up building their own separate society/civilization at this rate. They're already three-fourths of the way there. And if what Chrysalis indicated before is indeed true...I'm not sure she'd even care all that much (so long as she can reap some of the benefits from off of it, of course).
He's effectively telling the drones to world-build. Which could be a double-edged sword, as I could totally see the drones interpreting that more literally.
Yes, let's not go give Chryssi any ideas here.
Yeah, pity Trixie's idea of labeling them all with chalk didn't seem to catch on.
Speaking of, where has her great and powerfulness gotten off to?
11290293
You raise a good point--there is this sort of obligation that a reader ought to be totally versed on the whole of the Narratorverse first before picking up a fic like this one...but maybe that's not as much of an obligation as it seems like it should to us readers, because I, too, came in for "They're EVERYWHERE" without reading any of the other fics before it, and still haven't except beyond picking up a few basics, but here's the thing--many of those basics I picked up from reading "They're EVERYWHERE" and now "They're...ON HOLIDAY?" and just putting two with two on the expanded lore whenever it came up, at least enough to get a jist of what had happened before to figure out how it applies to here and now.
So maybe being familiar with the other fics isn't that necessary for newcomer readers coming to read these two drone-centric fics as it seems at a glance...but maybe that's just me.
11290345
Yeah, some hobbies take up a lot of shinies. Thankfully, my is writing and that's almost free. If the price isn't the lack of social contact due to it taking way too much time inside and alone.
11290349
0K!
11290385
Laughs in Stephen King.
11290613
Not brrrr, bzzzz!
11290861
Wish they employed one as a lawyer so that TTS could continue.
11290936
- It is a rather specific talent.
- For drones, yes. If they somehow started to sell to ponies, possibly through 65536's visit home, that might change. As drunk Blazing once recounted his encounter with Chrysalis - Shee'sh got ten tickles in her pussshy.
- Imagine that
- 10013's knowledge of underground gribblers will come in handy.
- I mean, that's what she already does, but if it's summed as a lazy ass lying on a throne while everyone else does the work, that might not translate well.
- Not everyone has a stick of chalk on their person at all times. Do you? Speaking of TX, she's currently lamenting the loss of everything she had plus the inability to do the job she was hired for. In the literary sense, she ran off to the next day's chapters, of which I haven't written anything yet over the past weeks, because I'm dealing with too much at work, so the next chapter is the last one in the buffer and I don't know when there will be more.
11290943
I mean, the feeling I intended to create was that there's a bigger world outside of the story, but that the story is self-contained, or at least contained within its plot line (trilogy, uhh - duo...logy? More or less-o-logy?). Take Lovebugs, for example - Boss' first story is basically unconnected to anything. The second one introduces Cryo and Scream's machinations, which lead into Scream's plan and Blazing's battle against the gods, but the main focus is still Boss and everyone's survival in the north. The third one is the main tie-in for the future with the Silver Sun, but the core still is - Boss' hive gets out into the greater world of politics and get caught in itm because he's not the only one with powerhouse characters on his side.
Unfortunately, more often than not, as I got from comments over the years, it leads to the feeling of "There's so much setup and not enough payoff, booo!"
11291274
Well then, I feel like you largely succeeded with "They're EVERYWHERE" and "They're ON HOLIDAY," as the only moment I can think of where that wasn't the case was when Fury abruptly entered the story in "They're EVERYWHERE" and I think that was just because it was written for those who'd read the relevant stories she'd appeared in and didn't stop to deliver proper context for those who had not. Which, yeah, I suppose is a criticism, but considering that's the ONLY time I can think of where that happened, I'd say you're track record for avoiding that is still pretty good.
As for your depleted buffer and lack of time to write more, I can relate. Work has been especially busy for myself and it's left me little time to do my own writing, so I get it. If you need time to stop and take a break to sort it all out for however long it takes, then take it. Odds are most of us will still be here when things are able to resume again.
That ling felt they die be off Ballance o.o wow
Reminds me a battle report where captain of spess mahreens was fighting against a squad of cultist in melee and wasn't able to hit them, and they was hitting him, but couldn't penetrate his armor. It lasted for several turns until cultist panicked and runned from
tablebattleground.Ha! That's me!
*remembers that I can't paint so my minis is still having it's natural colors*
Oh...
Looks like someone turns green with envy~
*sound of puking*
Or maybe with imagination...