Equestria 5: Gods and Princesses

"Come on, Fluttershy! It's fine! She's gone!"

"No, it's not fine!"

"'Shy, come on. It's just a picture on a screen."

The ponies had tried for the last thirty minutes to coax Fluttershy out from under her coffee table shelter, but to no avail. They all knew that if you scared Fluttershy just right, the effect was predictable, yet stubborn: flight, hide, then freeze from sheer dread. "Dear Fluttershy, please do come out, darling. That terrible... creature is gone now." Fluttershy shakily peeked her head out from under the table and looked up at the monitor that originally had Chrysalis on it. True to Rarity's word, she was gone. With a sigh of relief, the timid pegasus slowly crawled out from under the table, her feeble legs still shaking with fear. "T-T-Twilight... I don't think I want to play anymore..." Fluttershy whimpered.

The entire group looked back at Fluttershy with slightly raised eyebrows. Rainbow in particular looked insulted at the fact that one of her competitors was giving up after a simple jump-scare. Twilight slowly walked towards Fluttershy, trying to calm her down best she could. "Fluttershy, it's okay. You don't have to worry about her yet; I'm the only one she's met thus far. She can't hurt you. It's all just a silly game." Twilight put a reinforcing hoof on her friend's shoulder as she went on, "We need you to keep playing. I need you to keep playing to gather the data I need. I know that she–" Twilight motioned towards the computer monitor to highlight her point "–can be frightening, but I promise that nothing bad will happen to you." Fluttershy looked around the room at her friends, reading their expressions one by one. She knew that it was all fake and that nothing bad could truly come of it... But it's just so scary! No, Fluttershy... Be brave... Be brave. Fluttershy nodded and, with a hint of reluctance, said, "Okay... I'll try."

Twilight smiled proudly at Fluttershy as the group rounded back around the computers, proceeding to take turn four. Despite the sudden appearance and equally sudden disappearance of Chrysalis, the thought of other players plagued the ponies' minds. If Chrysalis was in this game, there was no telling who else could be in the game as well. The more and more each of the ponies contemplated the thought, the more hesitant to exploring the map they became.

Yet, like great leaders do, they pushed onward. Rarity continued to explore her northern boarders, locating ruins with contained a massive gold boost, sixty-four gold, to be exact. Pinkie Pie was so insistent on securing the bounds of sugar just outside her borderline that she placed her only warrior unit directly on top of the tile and fortified a position there. Applejack began to investigate the area around Geneva, scouting out for other potential city-states. Rainbow's terrain, though very promising in terms of production, was rather difficult to maneuver through; within four turns, she had only managed to uncover a total of six tiles, none of which had any ruins upon them.

Twilight was nearly about to undo the move that Rainbow had wasted when a certain cyan-green logo stuck out from the corner of her eye; the Changeling Empire's only unit. This one looked different from that of the typical warrior class. Although it was literally impossible to take a city with just one warrior unit, this was not some ordinary warrior unit; it appeared to have the class of 'Infiltrator.' Twilight moved her own unit back towards Aurora, setting up a garrison in the hopes of deterring Chrysalis from trying anything stupid. Twilight passed the turn with a smug look on her face as she saw the changeling unit move away and out of sight. War averted, she thought. Now to begin building up.

The other civilizations were still making their moves, however, forcing the group to once again wait on the turns to pass. Rainbow leaned back in her chair and stretched her forelegs over her head, yawning lightly to pass time. Applejack removed her stetson from her head and flipped it around in her hoof, brandishing it like a magician would a wand before effortlessly returning it to her head. Rarity gently curled her mane around one of her hooves, while Pinkie Pie tried her best at producing a fake mustache made from a small clipping of her own tail.

Time passed on...

Turn: 23

Year: 3080 BC

Aside from Chrysalis's scare tactic, nothing else seemed to happen; everything went like clockwork for everypony's empires. Within the twenty turns that passed, Rainbow had a formidable army of spearponies and archers. Rarity had a virtual stranglehold over the gem mines, while Fluttershy had founded another city, Pinedale, which had already grown to a considerable size of four citizens. Applejack continued to expand her borders into the open plains, securing enough wheat to support a city six times that of her own capital, Lariat. Pinkie Pie seemed overly-joyous about her happiness level of sixteen and was prepared to found another city to secure even more sugar. Twilight, meanwhile, was sitting pretty, ready to claim her lead in culture via her fourth social policy. Everything was working out perfectly for each of them...

Suddenly, Twilight's screen turned to a meeting with Chrysalis. She appeared just as intimidating as ever, yet it seemed like this time there was a hint of positive emotion and friendliness in her aura. She said, "It is my belief that setting up an embassy would prove to be a mutual benefit for our two empires' diplomacy, Twilight Sparkle." Chrysalis put on her best smile, bringing up a trade window that shown her offer: one embassy in exchange for another. "What do you say?" she asked in a tone that sounded... polite? Was Chrysalis, the one who nearly overthrew the Equestrian government and captured Canterlot, offering a truce of sorts?

Twilight thought carefully. She had not technically met anypony else in game, meaning an alliance could prove useful. None of the others would be aware of the trade, not even the other five–Twilight came prepared for "screen-cheating" and had enchanted the computers and room to scramble audio and video about secretive transactions like this one. Still, it meant trusting an enemy to her... Who am I kidding? she thought. It's only going to show her the location of my capital and that's it... She already knows where that is anyhow. Twilight nodded and moved the mouse over to the "accept" button. "That's Princess Twilight Sparkle, Chrysalis," she added, hurriedly closing the meeting screen and resuming her usual business. A small patch of fog lifted from the map, and nearly fifteen tiles to the east sat the capital city of Thatergopolis, the changeling hive's only city.

Twilight had just decided to trust one of her sworn enemies. It might have been a false alarm, but she still felt a little conflicted over her choice. What would this mean if the others found out she was trying to build relations with Chrysalis? What would it mean if Chrysalis stabbed Twilight in the back like she did before? Oh, no... What if she does try that? I need more spearponies! Twilight hastily clicked on the "Choose Production" button and set it to build her another spearpony, the last of three now in her military. She had a stronger military than Chrysalis–that much she was certain about–yet she could never feel safe. What if she did not have the pointier stick? What if she was at a military disadvantage? She could only hope her assumption was correct and that she would be able to defend herself if the time came.

Deep in a cavern, some many thousands of miles from Equestria, a small cackle rang out through the hives. The queen could hardly believe her alicorn opponent's blunder. "Now, Twilight Sparkle, you will see what real royalty can do!" Chrysalis prepared and instructed her units to march westward towards the city of Aurora. The ten or eleven changeling infiltrators moved as instructed, moving ever so closer to their goal and Twilight's destruction. "Go, my children.

Feed!"