Birthday: De-De-De-Decade!
Mom sat down at the table as I was helping Skyla with her math homework. "Do you know what's coming up, girls?"
I gave the question some serious thought. I hadn't heard of any events, things seemed to be going smoothly at the castle, and I hadn't picked up any rumors around school from my friends, so I had no idea what it could have been.
"Our tenth birthday!" Skyla happily exclaimed, making me feel silly for overthinking it.
"That's right! One whole decade! What do you two want to do for it?"
Both of us started thinking about it, and Skyla voiced her answer first. "I want a Pinkie Pie party at the castle with all my friends!"
My answer had a lot less energy than Skyla's did, but I was no less enthusiastic about it. "I'd like to hang out with my friends at Mr. Slice's Pizzeria."
"Oh." Mom sounded disappointed. She looked between both of us for a few seconds. "Are you sure you don't want to celebrate it together? Ten years is a big milestone."
Skyla and I looked at each other as we considered it. "Nah," we said at the same time.
"No? But why?"
"Inova would just wander off with her friends to play their game," Skyla answered. "Right?"
"Yep," I added. "Skyla and her friends would be too loud for me, so I'd just ruin the mood."
"You're absolutely sure?" Mom almost pleaded.
"Yep," Skyla and I said at the same time.
On the Saturday after our actual birthday, it was time to celebrate. Mom walked with Skyla to the castle while dad walked with me to the pizzeria. "You really don't want anything big or fancy?" He asked as we made our way through the Empire, still sounding confused about my choice of birthday celebration.
"Aunt Luna's always got that covered with the Golem Bricks," I stated. The stack of sets was inching closer to being halfway to the ceiling in the corner, and that was with neat stacking. My limited levitation skills definitely helped, but I was still on adjusting only one small box at a time at most. I didn't have the time to build them all either, especially with all the time I'd been spending with my friends, and I was running out of shelf space as well. "Besides, I like quiet."
"That you do. Are you sure I can't join your game?" He leaned down and whispered, "I'd really rather learn that than be at the castle right now."
I shrugged. "I'll let Brooke make that decision. She's the GM, after all."
"But it's your birthday."
"If I want a good game, I will leave it in her capable hooves, and I want a good game." We turned and went down the alley that led to the pizzeria. When we went in, we found the tables set up in the middle of the dining area, and all my friends were already there. "Hi, everypony!"
"Happy birthday, Inova!" They all cheered.
Brooke put a sly look on her muzzle. "Or should I say, Queen Nova?"
"You're just the scribe, Rita," I said with the haughtiest voice I could before going back to normal and taking my spot between Brooke and Diamond. "Do you have room for dad to join? He doesn't want to go to the castle for Skyla's party."
Brooke looked between dad and everypony else at the table. "I suppose we could use the adult supervision since Quick Quip is here."
"Hey!" Quick Quip responded with his usual mock indignation.
"That makes sense," Sunflower added. "We need somepony that can counter him properly."
"Oh come on!"
"I'm here, too!" Mr. Slice called out from the kitchen.
"We're extra safe," Girder noted, much to Quick Quip's feigned dismay. "Inova, have you told your dad about humans yet?"
Dad levitated a chair up and made a spot between Diamond and me. "She's told me a bit and showed me what they look like."
"You have five minutes to come up with some character details and combat equipment," Brooke stated. "You'll share what you have and we can help fill in the gaps after that. No relation to Queen Nova, please."
"Okay, I think I have something," dad said once his five minutes was up. "My character is a heavily armored knight, and pieces of his armor can come off to become floating shields that move at his direction. He's on a mission to. . . Uh. . . Help me?"
"Prince Armor, this is a fictional character," Quick Quip explained. "He can't help you."
Soprano bonked his head with a wing. "Lone mercenary."
"A scientist testing his creation," Diamond suggested.
"Someone testing the scientist's creation," Hearthstone added.
"Sole survivor of his battalion on a revenge quest?" I suggested.
"I was going to say a revenge quest!" Sunflower exclaimed.
"No more revenge motives, please," Brooke said. "Well, Prince Armor?"
Dad gave it some thought. "Can he be a survivor turned mercenary testing a scientist's creation?"
"Certainly!" Brooke wrote down the relevant details. "What's his name?"
"Uh. . . How about Wallace? Is that a human name?"
"It can work as one. So, our intrepid party of merry misfits has to defend the town of Canyon Cliffs, nestled between some lovely hills in the desert plains, from an incoming horde of criminals that are out to ransack the place. I'll give you all a little perk since we have someone new here. . ."
Atop a dusty hill, Queen Nova looked through her binoculars to try and get some kind of visual on the criminal camp a couple miles away, but her fox mask kept her from being able to use them properly. "Joakim, you take a look."
The barbarian gently took the binoculars and looked through them. "Ooh, that's a lot of baddies. Solaria, how are the defenses coming along?"
The healer took the binoculars, looked through them, and grimaced. "Not good enough for these kinds of numbers."
Jester took the binoculars and looked to the side with them. "Hey, we've got a visitor. Big guy, lots of armor. Can't even see all of him with these things, he's so big."
Joakim reached past Solaria and yoinked the binoculars from Jester. "That's because he's right. . . In front of. . . You. Hi."
"Hey," the new guy said, standing only three feet away from Jester. "What's going on here?"
"We've got intel that Canyon Cliffs is going to be attacked by that band of criminals out that way," Queen Nova explained, apparently not worried about the sudden appearance of the newcomer. "We also need some supplies from here, so we'll defend them and get paid for it."
"Ah, mercenary work." The man sounded almost wistful. "I once looked down on it, but now it's what lets me live."
"Are you passing through or do you want to help us?" Solaria asked.
"I'll help. It'll work out for my employer as well. He wants me to test out this armor."
"Good enough for me," Jester said. "Let's take him back to town and see if we can come up with something."
On top of a building in town, the introductions were made. The new guy, Wallace, was working for a scientist, and the armor was his most recent development. He demonstrated what it could do, with parts of it detaching and unfolding into a dozen shields that he could control and move around. He didn't have any other weapons, though it didn't seem like he needed any.
Rita laid out the situation in town. "The mayor and the people have promised us their full cooperation and support for our plans. If we need something built, they'll do it."
"What do we have so far?" Wallace asked.
"We've got a few walls set up like a maze to slow them down," Rex said. "Unfortunately, if they wise up, they can just break through them instead of taking the long way through."
"Joakim and I can try to hold them back with power, but there's only so much we can do," Ferria explained.
"I've done what I can to encourage the people with my music," Aurora added. "I'll provide what support I can from the sideline."
"What we really need is something else to slow them down with," Rita said. "If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears."
Jester warily raised a hand. "What if we take a page from Machina's book and set up explosives in the maze?"
"That'll only work on one group of them," Wallace pointed out. "After that, it's a minor inconvenience at best."
"So we need something else," Queen Nova said. "Something that can slow them to a crawl."
"Which will give us more time for more defenses," Rex added before looking out over the maze wall.
"What about a toll booth?" Solaria suggested. "Do we know who they're working for?"
"Starzkran," Rita answered. "Multiple scouts reported that he was there giving a speech earlier. These are criminals, though. They're not going to obey a toll booth in the middle of the desert."
"I say we give it a try," Wallace said. "If nothing else, its presence should be a minor distraction. Ferria, Joakim, I'll help you build it."
Aurora raised her hand. "I'll try to find a volunteer to run it."
"I really doubt this is going to work," Rex said.
"Yeah, that sounds a bit too silly," Queen Nova added. "Good luck."
The dice rolled once, the dice rolled twice.
Some groaned, while others said "Nice!"
The stallion from Bitaly brought out a fresh pizza. "Who wants the first slice?"
The birthday filly and her father leapt at the offer, and he said, "sorry, force of habit."
In the morning, the criminals made their move. On horseback, they rode out. A mile from town, their commander came to a halt at the sight before him, and with him, the rest of the criminal army stopped. "Starzkran thruway 57? Now what'll that idiot think of next?" He turned to the forces behind him. "Has anybody got a silver?" Everyone checked themselves and came up empty. "Well somebody's gotta go back and get us a buttload of silvers."
Inside the toll booth trap, Jester was doing his utmost best not to laugh. As intelligent and clever as the reports said the criminals were, they were acting really stupid, and didn't seem to notice the wide open spaces on either side of the toll booth.
It took most of an hour for someone to come back with a chest full of silvers, and the commander knocked on the booth. "Hey, I've got the silvers for everyone to go through. Can I just give you the chest and you let us all through?"
Jester gave it some consideration. "Hmmm. . . Sorry, no can do. Starzkran wants accurate counts, so everyone has to pay for themselves. One horse, one rider, one payment, one pass. The formulas for other rates are listed on your side."
The commander growled in frustration. "Oh alright." He grabbed one of the coins. "Here."
Jester took it. "Thanks for using the Starzkran thruway." He lifted the arm, dinged a bell, let the commander through, and lowered the arm right after.
Everypony was struggling to hold back their laughter, including me. "How. . . How much time does this buy us?"
Brooke checked her notes, rolled some dice, and made a decision. "Not much, since the commander gets impatient and rides towards Canyon Cliffs with a fraction of his criminals fifteen minutes after he's through."
"How small are we talking about?" Dad asked.
"About one tenth of his army."
The struggle became too much, and all of us broke down laughing, including Mr. Slice. The fact that something so stupid was working so well was spectacular.
Sunflower, after collecting herself, wrote something down and let Brooke take it. "So, this is the extra defensive measure you chose to make?" Brooke asked, sounding like she was resigned to her fate.
"Roll to see if it works," Sunflower said.
Brooke obliged, then groaned. "Why are you doing this to me, Sunflower? First the toll booth, now this?"
Sunflower shrugged with a smile. "The dice decided it."
The commander and the present fraction of his forces rode to Canyon Cliffs, the town visible just ahead. "There it is, men! Today, we'll take this town!" He was so eager to attack and so impatient to get it done, he didn't notice that something was a bit off about the town until he and his horse slammed into and broke through a painted wooden wall.
His forces had been a bit more patient than he had and stopped by the hole he made. "You okay, boss?"
"I'm fine!" He barked. "Just another obstacle.” He carefully had his horse approach the town, which was another wooden wall. “Start putting holes in these walls so everyone else can get through!"
At his order, those who had the tools available began working on their task. They cut holes to peek through, then used explosives to make bigger holes in areas that weren't critically important in its support. The process of going through multiple walls this way slowed them down even more, allowing extra prep time for the town, but also letting the remaining forces catch up.
"Sounds like they're getting through," Aurora noted from her perch on top of the town's saloon.
"Good thing, too," Wallace said. "I still need to test this out." He leapt off and went to join Joakim and Ferria by the walls.
"I'd better get ready." Queen Nova produced her one large Buckle, put it on, and activated it. "Magnum." With its activation came the white armor and a dual mode gun.
"Wait, a gun?" Dad asked. "What's a gun?"
"A handheld way to blast things like unicorns can," I explained. "When humans can't do something, they make things to do it, a lot like earth ponies. Mine has a short mode for close combat and a long mode for long range combat."
Brooke tapped the table twice. "Now that the explanation is done, back to the siege."
It took a while, but the criminals made it through the maze, and they began pouring into Canyon Cliffs. Joakim, Ferria, and Wallace were the first ones to meet them, and through their combined efforts, managed to stop a decent number of horses and cause a minor pileup. They were, however, still only three people, and the rest of the army went around the blocked mounts.
Rita and Rex were right behind them. "Excuse me, do you have a moment?" Rex asked of the horses that ran past. Occasionally, he'd get one to stop, giving Rita an opening to take out the rider with her spear or a spell.
Solaria and Aurora were perched on a roof nearby, and used their magic attacks to harass and annoy the attackers.
Queen Nova was the furthest from the breach and she had her gun in its long mode, sniping at every enemy she could see.
Jester made it back with two big bags of silver coins in tow, and he was using them as improvised flails. The chest they had once been in was open and on his head like an oversized helmet.
All throughout the town, the people were fighting back as well, further culling the numbers through sneak attacks and traps. Some even masqueraded as criminals in order to cause even more disorder in the invaders' ranks.
The fighting was intense and harsh, but the defense was working. The raiding criminals didn't have the coordination to fight back, especially after getting bonked on the head with a flying shield, blinded by a light spell, or simply seeing Aurora. Some of the criminals, after making it through the toll booth and seeing what was going on, were demoralized and left.
The commander and five tough looking guys charged in on foot through the pileup and managed to break through the shield, muscle, and armor barrier. The commander conjured a single bladed tonfa and swung at Ferria. The knight blocked it with her shield while Wallace brought his floating shields around to try and hold off two of the tough looking guys. Joakim, using a book, had taken one out of the fight by telling him about the five year war of 2,000 soldiers, but he was also out of the fight at the same time. The last two tough looking guys were attacking Rex and Rita, splitting them off and putting them on the defense.
Solaria and Aurora, seeing that the common criminals were being handled quite well by the townsfolk, left their position to go join the melee. The bard went to support Rita and Rex while the healer went into interrogator mode and struck the distracted tough looking guy in the elbow, dealing damage, snapping him out of his trance, and giving Joakim a chance to smack him in the face with the book.
Jester, after securing the money somewhere safe (nobody ever thinks to look in the cactus!), joined the fight as well, leaping on top of the commander to put him in a chokehold. It was about as effective as throwing a single wet noodle at the guy.
Queen Nova, thanks to the successful setup and coordination, had remained untouched while she sniped and picked off the common enemies, focusing on those that were being sneaky. At some point, after saving a bunch of townsfolk that way, the Boost Buckle fell from the sky and embedded itself in the roof next to her.
As the townsfolk cleared up the rabble, Queen Nova watched the melee. Everyone in it was too close and moving too much for her to get a clean shot. She set her rifle down and looked at the selection of buckles available to her. She had two big ones for the first time and an assortment of smaller ones. All she had to do was figure out which ones to use.
"Let's take a bathroom break, everypony," Brooke said. "We'll pick it back up in fifteen minutes."
Sounds of disappointment and agreement came from the rest of us. "So, is this party everything you hoped for?" Dad asked.
"You mean pizza and a game?" I asked. "It's perfect. Are you having fun?"
Dad glanced at Brooke's empty seat before turning back to me. "We'll see. Excuse me." He left to go use the bathroom, and I decided to do the same.
By the time I got back, Brooke and dad were both back, and I glanced between them for a moment. "Hey, Brooke?"
"Yes, my queen?" Brooke snarkily answered.
"You and my dad have the same colors from head to tail."
"What!?" Quick Quip shouted. "That's impossible." He stood between both of them. "As you can clearly see, their coat colors couldn't be more different, the blue in their manes and tails are completely different hues, and their eyes aren't even the same shade. There is absolutely nothing that makes them resemble each other in the slightest."
Dad blinked a few times at the proclamation before turning to me. "You have to deal with him all the time?"
"Pretty much, yeah," I said. "Oh, and you're both unicorns too."
“Hm?” Quick Quip got close to both of them to inspect their horns and appeared to give it some thought. "You know, I do see some similarities there."
Girder took action and easily pulled the silly pegasus back to his spot at the table. "Now that we're all back, let's pick it back up."
"Alright," Brooke said as I got back to my seat. "Queen Nova spends her turn trying to figure out which buckles to use."
I raised a foreleg. "Can I roll for a moment of realization?"
"Insight check."
Queen Nova's attention went from the buckles to her gun. Something she hadn't realized before on it suddenly stood out to her: there was a spot for a buckle on it. A whole new set of options opened up for her, and she started figuring out a course of action.
Aurora, Rex, and Rita's two tough looking guys had them on the backstep. Rita would be able to occasionally get a swipe of her spear in to deal some shallow wounds. Rex couldn't command any of the horses yet, and was limited to a knife and some magic. Aurora's attempts to dance and fight did slow the tough looking guys down, but she had difficulty landing any blows with her guitar while doing that.
Joakim and Solaria's tough looking guy was largely under control. With her interrogation techniques and Joakim's continual book slaps and demands that the tough looking guy learn some history, he was very much stun locked and getting whittled down.
The commander and the last two tough looking guys had Wallace and Ferria pushing their defense specialties to their limit. Jester was no longer trying to use the chokehold, and had instead been promoted to screaming shield, helping keep the commander safe. Ferria was able to easily block and even push back against the attacks with her frost empowered shield and hammer, but the tough looking guys and the commander had the numbers and agility to push her back. Wallace had the shields to block on multiple fronts, but with nothing physical backing them, he had to continually move them around. With the number he had, he was able to mount some measure of a counterattack, though the bladed tonfa was still an issue.
Queen Nova, seeing the situation, made up her mind, loaded the Boost Buckle on her belt, gave it a Revolution, and got the red armor on her body and arms. "Let's give this a try." With the pipes at full blast, she let the red armor pull her along towards the brawl. Just as she approached, she gave the belt another Revolution and drifted around on her back behind Wallace. She loaded a small black and pink buckle onto the gun and quickly aimed at the tough looking guy the shield warrior was fighting. "Armed Hammer. Tactical Shot." She didn't have to wait long for one of Wallace's shields to get between her and her target before she fired. The blast hit the shield, then the shield and blast hit the tough looking guy in the face with enough force to send him flying over the brawl, only to have a hard landing on the dusty ground. He was down for good.
Brooke looked at me. "I'm not sure if you helped Wallace because of the situation or if it's because your dad is playing him."
"I came up with that idea shortly after he mentioned floating shields," I said.
"Girder and I have some good teamwork going, but that move was something else," Sunflower said.
"I had to use up all my declaration points to do that, though."
"You actually used one more than you had," Brooke stated. "As a result, you must suffer a penalty."
I could only dread what kind of penalty I was going to suffer. "Oh no."
After the high speed movement, Revolution, and the finisher move, Queen Nova was suddenly hit with a serious bout of weakness. The only reason she didn't drop her weapon onto the dusty ground was because it landed across her body. Her arms and legs were practically useless, effectively putting her out of the fight.
"Cover me!" Rex called out as he ducked out of his fight, leaving Rita and Aurora to face the two tough looking guys by themselves.
"I like that idea!" Rita and Aurora said at the same time before also turning tail and running away, the tough looking guys in pursuit of the ladies.
"Learn your history!" Joakim shouted as he smacked the tough looking guy across the face again with his book.
"Tell us your secrets!" Solaria swung at his lower back, dealing some serious damage.
"Help me!" Jester called out.
"I got you!" Ferria swung her hammer at one of the floating shields, caught it, and managed to pull the silly man out of the commander's grasp with the combined gear. "What are those strings on your fingers?"
"Oh, these?" Jester decided to give the knight a hug. The strings pulled on some traps he'd sneakily placed on the commander, covering him in foam, spider webs, and silly string, heavily impeding his movement. "Well, I guess they're just strings now."
"Go cover Nova!" Wallace shouted as he took advantage of the opening to recall and send his shields around.
Ferria casually tossed Jester towards their downed ally. "Oh, hey," Queen Nova tiredly said. "Ever used a gun before?"
"It looks easy," Jester said.
"Good." Queen Nova took the small buckle off her gun and folded it down to its short mode. "Here, use it."
Jester accepted the weapon. "Gladly!" As he took the weapon, he also took the Boost Buckle off her belt. In her weakened state, there wasn't much the queen could do to resist.
The commander and his available tough looking guy focused on Ferria and attempted to get past her defense. They knew the one that was getting smacked by book and staff was basically a lost cause, and didn't bother trying to help him.
The two that were chasing Aurora and Rita now had the duo back to back. Wallace decided it was his time to shine and sent a pair of shields to them. Rita slammed the flat of her spearhead on the back of one shield, giving her a heavier and larger spearhead. Aurora caught the other and put it on the body of her guitar, just behind the strings. "And now, the song of shields!" As she played, she and Rita's toughness went up, and Rita's new spearhead became sharper.
"Bring it on," Rita confidently taunted. The tough looking guys took it and charged at the same time. Rita and Aurora moved in opposite directions, letting the spear wielding scribe draw their attention with a wide swing and make them focus on her.
Solaria paused after landing yet another blow to the tough looking guy she and Joakim had been pummeling. "Should we let him live so we can make him talk?"
Joakim gave it some thought. "Nah." He put his book away and delivered a straight punch to the dazed tough looking guy's face. At the same time, Solaria delivered a strike to the back of the guy's head. The skull couldn't withstand any more and shattered. Solaria, unfortunately, had succeeded too well, and her staff continued on to hit Joakim's fist. "AGH!" The barbarian shouted.
"Sorry!" Solaria promptly started healing his hand.
Ferria caught four floating shields on her hammer's head, and with the increased weight and force, she was able to deal massive damage with each blow that struck her target. The ice empowerment had the bonus effect of freezing the foam on the commander where struck, dealing bonus damage and slowing him even further. Wallace kept his six remaining shields and went in to simply punch his enemies.
The tough looking guys that were facing Rita and Aurora had wised up to what was going on, and changed targets to take out the bard. Rex, however, had a different plan, as he rode in on a tamed horse and pulled Aurora up onto its back. "Hold onto me for a moment." She paused her song long enough to hold on as the horse, at Rex's command, bucked hard and sent one tough looking guy flying into a wall.
"Nice!" Rita went back to her now single target as the song of shields resumed.
Jester made his move after seeing that the one tough looking guy in the wall was getting back up to fight, and was looking at the horse and its riders with fury in his eyes (or maybe a few fallen eyelashes. It was hard to tell). The silly man snuck up as he prepared his attack, unfolding the gun to its rifle mode and attaching the Boost Buckle to it.
All of us looked at Quick Quip and his absurd grin. "And here you thought I was the mean one," Sunflower pointed out.
"Here I go!" Quick Quip rolled the dice, and the results were interesting.
"Hey," Jester said, catching the tough looking guy's attention just as he pointed the Boost empowered gun at him. "Bye." Once he pulled the trigger, the recoil sent him flying around while the shot itself stayed in place. Jester's screams filled the air as he flew around and eventually crashed into a cactus somebody had filled with a bunch of silver coins.
"Idiot," the tough looking guy said. Just as soon as he did, the stationary blast moved and took him out.
The Boost Buckle, as usual, gave off some steam before blasting off like a firework. As usual, it turned towards Rita. Rita moved so the buckle, at the last minute, would instead hit her opponent in the head and deal the finishing blow. "Ha ha!" Rita's celebration was short lived, however, as it circled back and slammed into her back before flying off for real. "Why me?"
With the commander effectively immobilized and only one tough looking guy left, the rest of the fight was easy enough for the adventurers to clean up.
Rex gathered up some of the horses, easily tamed them, and brought them over for the party to ride on. There were easilyvenough for everyone to have one.
The sheriff came over. "Thank you, everyone. Canyon Cliffs is safe once more."
"It's all good-ow!" Rita said, using her spear to support herself. "Can we rest here for a bit before we leave?"
"As long as you stay for breakfast."
Solaria made the rounds to give emergency healing as needed, then the party went to the undamaged inn to rest up.
"And so ends today's encounter," Brooke said. "And yes, you'll get a chance for loot and splitting the toll booth money. Prince Armor, what did you think of it?"
Dad issued his verdict. "It was lots of fun. I may have to rearrange my schedule to free up my Tuesdays, if you'd allow me to keep playing."
Brooke's verdict was quick. "I'll allow it, but if you become a one trick pony in the game, I will kick you out. Inova, have you told him about Machina?"
"I'll do that when we get home," I said before yawning. "If I can."
Mr. Slice walked up to our group. "Before you leave, I'd like to give all of you a personal pizza to take home. What toppings do you want?"
We all took turns asking for the toppings we wanted, but I noticed something odd. Once Mr. Slice left to start on the pizzas, I turned to the filly of interest. "Soprano, Mr. Slice skipped you. Why didn't you say anything?"
"He's my papa," Soprano answered.
"It makes sense now!" Diamond suddenly exclaimed. "I was wondering why your accent sounded so similar to his."
“Do you think we can meet up here for H&H sometimes?” Hearthstone asked. “I really like the aesthetics here.”
“And the pizza’s delicious!” Sunflower added. “Can we, Soapy? Please?”
Soprano turned to Brooke. “Can we not do that? I’d rather play H&H somewhere else.”
The executive decision was soon given. “By default, we will not play any of our games here. We’ll need both a consensus and Soapy’s approval.”
“Thank you.”
Quick Quip raised a forehoof. “Question! Since we have Prince Armor and Princess Inova in our group, does that make us the most official H&H group ever?”
Brooke lightly smacked his forehead with one of her books. “No.”
“Aww. . .”
“Soprano, can you come help me?” Mr. Slice called out.
“Yes, papa!” Soprano left the table and went into the kitchen.
The next few minutes were spent joking about the session and its events. Dad even joked about putting a tactical toll booth in Canterlot Castle as a prank.
Soprano and Mr. Slice soon gave out the personal pizzas. Dad winced when he looked at a note on top of his box. We all began dispersing after we said our goodbyes. “What did Mr. Slice write on that note?”
“Nothing for you to worry about, Inova,” dad said. “Just something for me to take care of tomorrow.”
“Is it the bill?”
“200 Bits. We all ate a lot of pizza today, didn’t we?”
“Yeah. You can take one of my Bit tins.”
He did a double take at my offer. “You’re sure?”
“Each full one has 200 Bits in it, so it works out perfectly.”
“Well, if you insist on making it easy, I guess I’ll do that.”
Cadence and Shining only met back up after she got home with Skyla. Once the filly was off to bed, she joined him in their bed. “So, how was Inova’s quiet party?”
“Lots of fun, actually,” Shining said with a smile in his voice. “She’s really embraced friendship now, and all her friends are good. They even let me join in their game and join them on Tuesdays after school to play with them. What about Skyla’s party?”
“I’m glad Pinkie and Cheese handled most of it. Skyla brought one hundred friends in, and she was able to name everypony and tell me a bit about them too. It was loud, exciting, and full of games. Lots of fun as usual. I played Twister and lost to the foals. I need to do some stretching more often.”
“Well, let me tell you about the tactical toll booth. . .”
In the dreamscape, Cadence, Luna, and Twilight met back up. “Do you have a theory now?” Cadence asked.
“After nearly three months of research and reading, I do,” Twilight proudly stated. “I can sum it up in three words: friendship is magic.”
“Elaborate,” Luna requested.
“Ponies, by nature, are a herd species, and very social.” Twilight created some caricatures of prancing ponies in the space between the three Princesses. “This trait also has an effect on the magic inherent in ponies, making it stronger with each bond and with stronger bonds. This also releases endorphins in the brain, making friendship literally feel good.”
Cadence held up a forehoof. “What gets released in the brain?” She warily asked.
“Endorphins are naturally occurring. . . Oh, right, I got that from the other side of the mirror. Equestrian science hasn’t gotten that far yet. Anyways, it’s basically the stuff that makes you feel happy when you do something.” She didn’t stop for Cadence’s followup question. “Moving on, I compared memories and stories of when I was a filly to Inova’s life and progress. It’s not a perfect comparison, but there are some parallels.”
“Nerd,” Luna taunted.
“That’s the main one. I was very hesitant to make friends, and it was only after I had a couple of friends that my magic skills and power accelerated.”
Cadence considered the information for a moment. “I always thought your parents had downplayed your magic skills while I was foalsitting you, but if I’m putting this together right, you got stronger and more skilled because you considered me a friend?”
“That’s the theory, yes. Inova’s been very slow with her magical growth, and it’s only been recently, after making multiple friends, that she’s made significantly more progress with her magic. Has she started moving multiple objects at once yet?”
“I’ll see about getting her started on that soon.”
“Hoof coordination?”
“She still trips up at higher speeds and tighter turns, but she has improved.”
“Wings?”
“Still flopping.”
Luna jumped in. “Aha! A hole in the theory! It does not explain the floppening!”
“No, it doesn’t,” Twilight admitted. “She can control her wings just fine, but I don’t know what’s causing her to lose control of her forelegs. There is no documented case of a pegasus with this issue and no other alicorn has that, so that’s the big unknown.”
“Even you?” Cadence asked.
“I just somehow. . . Knew how to move my wings when I got them. It took experience to get good with them, but Fluttershy and Rainbow were very good teachers for me. That only makes Inova’s case even stranger.”
“I can see things going one of three ways with Inova and her wings,” Luna said. “She gives up and has relatively weak wings, she keeps trying and manages to figure it out, or we get a miracle.”
“I will not let her give up,” Cadence firmly stated. “And she isn’t going to give up either.”
“I’ll poke around a bit more to see if there’s anything more esoteric and theoretical,” Twilight offered. “Living in the same town as Pinkie and Discord, I can’t rule out the bizarre so easily.”
“Of course,” Luna said. “If only my sister and I had to deal with those two instead of the Nobility. Just when you think they’ve reached rock bottom on stupidity, they find another shovel.” Her assessment was met with groans of agreement. “By the way, is it just me, or have the petitioners been thinning out a bit recently?” The question was met with raised eyebrows and confused looks.
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Love the gameplay but I do hope you don’t have it take over the main storyline.
11759457 It'll be prevalent in at least one more chapter down the line, but it won't be taking over.
“By the way, is it just me, or have the petitioners been thinning out a bit recently?”
Looks like Inova is the one delivering a miracle, eh?
100 friend's ?! O.O did skyla just invite the whole school ? xD
ha xD inova is making an impact on those idiotic nobel's it seem's
to be honest this adventure birthday game was fun to read, but i don't really like having a story inside a story with humans instead of pony's as a setting, im reading pony story's for a reason after all
11759655 It won't be a constant thing. There's one chapter down the road that will have another adventure with these H&H characters, and anything else will be mentioning what happened in a game.
That was a good one.
This is very true.
The wing thing is a bit of a puzzle. When Inova uses her wings, her forelegs shut off. Likely due to her human neural system knowing how to use only four limbs at once. But pathways are available to each. Have they tried to mix it up? Flap one wing with control of three legs, then switch wings? Not sure that’ll shock the system into six-limb action though.
Maybe she needs to develop deeper friendships with her friends? Right now, it’s just friendly gaming but it’s not a deep relationship.
By the discussion between Twilight, Cadence, and Luna, I can see that they would find out that Inova is human reincarnated.
i cant wait to read more about her wings
keep up the good work