Equestria 5: Gods and Princesses

Turn: 24

Year: 3040 BC

Having gained her military, Twilight could now press for more important matters at hoof. Her happiness level rested at about four, which was rather low for the 'Princess' difficulty setting. She knew that she would need some form of luxury resource before she founded another city or she would risk slumping into the all-too-familiar "unhappiness era" that marked this stage in the game. She scoured the map, looking for any potential for luxury items, yet there were none she did not already have. What good is having two marble quarries if you can't even trade the useless bits for anything? Twilight mentally complained.

Queen Chrysalis was still laughing her flank off. She had managed to manipulate her prey into opening up to her and giving her the benefit of the doubt. Now she was marching an army towards Aurora to prepare her attack. "Oh my dear Princess Twilight," she said with clear disdain towards her enemy's title, "you will die. You may have protected Canterlot, but you can not protect yourself from me!" Chrysalis let out a shrill laugh that could have been heard from the other side of the hive.

"Soon, you will be mine..."

Turn: 27

Year: 2880 BC

Twilight believed had found a solution to her issue for happiness. Rather than waste gold attempting to buy luxury resources that were too far away, she decided to construct a settler unit and prepare her expansion. It was nearly half-way done, and when it was, Twilight would maneuver it straight to the nearby coastline, thus giving her the resources for a navy and pearls within her borders. Sadly for her, she would have to wait until turn thirty-one for said settler to finish building, then spend another three turns wrestling it into position to found the city. I wish there was a way to speed this banished thi- What's this?

Twilight had received a new notification on-screen. "An unknown civilization has started worshiping a pantheon of gods. They have chosen the belief: Fertility Rites (+10% Growth rate)." Everypony else in game received the same notification, and each of them began to scramble about to see which of them had achieved their pantheon. "Who got it?" barked Rainbow.

"It was not me, darling," said Rarity. Applejack was sitting back comfortably in her chair, silently snickering. "Have ya though' ta think abou' the one who found two religious city-states?"

True to Applejack's words, she had located another city-state, Vatican City, receiving another eight faith points—enough to found a religious pantheon. In addition, Applejack had managed to found another city, Manebourne, just five tiles north of Appleloosa. Rainbow's jaw dropped open at the farmer's success in the early-game. Twilight, however, was not so dismayed. It did not seem like Applejack was gearing herself towards any sort of victory, be it scientific, diplomatic, cultural, or conquest... for the moment. That still did not rule out the fact that she had founded a pantheon first, and that alone was reason to be leery of her; Twilight knew that religious civilizations can grow to tremendous power on religion alone.

After everypony had gawked at Applejack's screen for long enough, Rainbow drew her mouth shut and they all returned to their own game. Pinkie Pie was in the process of building her own settler to expand to new lands. Rarity had her settler and was proceeding to place him further inland to seize more territory and luxury resources. Fluttershy's two cities were growing to an enormous size for this stage in the game; Everfree had grown to five in size with Pinedale growing rapidly, reaching two citizens in size within just four turns. Twilight could only sit and wait for her settler to build, hoping that she could claim the lands near the sea.

Still, she had to wait...

Turn: 31

Year: 2760 BC

At long last, Twilight had the means to create her second city. As soon as she received the unit, she began moving it west, and she was now a mere turn from founding her next city. It almost came as a shock that everypony in the room was doing better than her, considering she had played the game once before. While Twilight was still trying to found her second city, Rarity had already founded "Specia" further to the east of her capital, gaining ground on creating a massive city with the forest tiles around it. Applejack's cities were growing faster than Fluttershy's at this point, though both of her cities were one citizen behind. Rainbow did a mental hoof-pump after clearing a barbarian encampment, taking control of the warrior unit that was there and further expanding her already impressive military.

As if Twilight's issues could get much worse, suddenly there was a mass of troops at her border. Three or four infiltrator units hugged her border tightly, almost as if they were a noose tightening. Suddenly, Chrysalis popped up on-screen. She bore a conniving and triumphant smile. Twilight immediately assumed the worst. "Chrysalis, explain that your ponies on my borders is not an act of war."

The changeling queen just laughed. "While feigning friendship was not very polite, Sparkle, very few leave their mark on history by sitting idly. You are right to worry, and it is time for you to die." With that, the disposition text changed from "FRIENDLY" to "WAR!" The meeting screen then flickered back to the game, leaving a scared but not shocked Twilight to assess the situation. Apparently, Chrysalis was not done, for she moved another two units towards Twilight's northern border to surround her city and military. Thankfully enough for Twilight, Chrysalis had not yet noticed her settler unit that was four tiles away, and as long as it stayed that way, Twilight would at least stay alive in the game. She moved her spearpony to meet the infiltrator, and the units engaged in combat. The sound of battle cries, metal-on-metal clanging and weapons clashing sounded through the speakers, but the infiltrators had a major disadvantage; they received a fifty percent combat penalty versus melee units.

Chrysalis watched in slight shock as her infiltrator crumbled from one hundred hit points down to zero. The unit was defeated, and the Literati spearpony took up a position where the infiltrator had once stood. "Banish you, Twilight Sparkle!" the queen snarled. She gnashed her venom-coated teeth at the screen, enraged that she had to watch her child die, yet she new it was for the good of the hive. After all, the penalty versus normal units came with a massive advantage. She waited her turn to lie in wait for Twilight's end of turn maneuvers, which would allow her to assess the best way to besiege the city.

Twilight felt confident that she could win this fight, especially having seen how easy it was to obliterate one of the infiltrators. She passed the turn and waited for the others to finish their moves. Just as she was, though, a certain archer came down from her south-western border. Twilight's screen shifted to a view of Rainbow sitting confidently. She said, "Hay, Twilight! Looks like you got a problem there."

"The units are a third the strength of mine, Rainbow. I'll be fine, but it was nice to 'meet' you," replied Twilight putting a tone on the word.

It certainly seemed like Twilight could win this grudge match, but then she noticed something. There was an infiltrator that had made it to the city and attacked. The unit took all but six damage, but Aurora was in flames and had lost thirty-five percent of its health! Twilight sputtered, "Wha- Bu- What?" She looked at the infiltrator's status. The strength was that of a warrior unit—a mere eight compared to Aurora's defense of fifteen—so why did it do that much damage? As Twilight looked for an answer, she looked at the promotion bar. There was a yellow upward arrow that Twilight recognized as a combat buff, and when she hovered over it, a box appeared that said: "Bonus vs. Cities (200); +200% vs. cities."

Twilight's eyes shrank back to pinpricks as she clicked on another infiltrator. It had the same attribute, as well as the next, and the one after that. Twilight's units could potentially blockade Aurora and prevent it from being taken, but that would also mean leaving her new city defenseless.

"Oh, buck..."