Scattered Pages - Ponyville Ciderfest App Stories by volrathxp

Chapters

#ISawAGriffon - A Letter To Be Mailed
#QueenOfSocialMedia - There's Something Kinda Freaky Happenin' Tonight
#OhYEAH - The Match of the Century
#BadPonyClub - The Bad Pony Club
#GenerationToGeneration - Generations, Coming Together
#RollTheDice - The Adventure Begins
#WhoDoesntLikeMusicalTheatre - A Musical!
#SinisterSeven - The Sinister Seven Convene
#YouGotMail - Letter to Letter
#TheQueenofMean - The Queens of Mean
#BattleOfTheBrands - Battle of the Brands
#Crystalsss - Crystalsssssss
#YouHadOneJob - You Had One Job, Larry!
#HappyBirthday - Party Like It’s 1982
#CrusadersOfChaos - Cutie Mark Castle Cleaners, Yay!
#IsThisTheRealLife - Is This Just Fantasy?
#GallusIsAMan - I, Gallus
#TheLast Problem - The Last Problem
#DiscordiaInc - Discordia, Inc. - Whinny City Pony Con 2024 Sub-Game
#TheRoadtoTerror - On the Road to Terror - Whinny City Pony Con 2024 Sub Game
#StandForEverfree - Stand for Everfree - Whinny City Pony Con 2024 Sub Game
#TheAuthorsNightmare - The Author's Nightmare - Ciderfest 2024 Sub Game
#WildWasteland - Welcome to the Wasteland
#IGot99ProblemsButAPippAintOne - I Got 99 Problems, But a Pipp Ain’t One
#BeautyInTheEye - Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder
#FlashMagnus - The Legendary Flash Magnus

#ISawAGriffon - A Letter To Be Mailed

A Letter To Be Mailed
Code Word: #ISawAGriffon

You’re taking a short break from the hunt for pages from the Book, heading towards the local hayburger joint for a bite to eat, when a griffon letter carrier barrels past you, dropping what appears to be a letter out of their bag. Before you can call out to let them know they’ve dropped it, they’re nowhere to be seen!

You pick up the letter and realize it’s addressed to Spike, the dragon friend to Princess Twilight Sparkle. It appears to be from someone named “Gabby” with an address in Griffonstone, and it’s marked urgent! You recall the last time you had seen Spike was at Twilight’s School of Friendship, so you decide to take it over there yourself.

When you arrive, you’re told by a few of the ponies milling about the courtyard that you just missed Spike, having left to attend to an errand the Princess had asked him to. Unfortunately, none of the ponies you ask seem to know exactly where he went.

You take a short breather on a nearby park bench outside of the school while pondering what to do. You could take the letter to the nearby post office and try to get it delivered that way, but the letter being marked urgent gives you pause. You contemplate opening it to see what’s so important, but worry you might be intruding upon Spike’s privacy.

*poof*

A tiny griffon appears on your right shoulder. She appears to be wearing a white toga dress and a miniature halo hovers over her head.

“Hiya! I’m your angel! You definitely should not open that letter,” she says. “Getting it to the proper authorities so it can be delivered to Spike is top priority!”

“But what if they don’t get it to him in time?” you ask the tiny griffon, completely aware that you probably look like you’re just talking to yourself on a park bench.

“It’s a private letter between two good friends,” the griffon replies. “Breaching that trust would weigh on your conscience forever!”

*poof*

“Don’t listen to that namby pamby griffoness!” another tiny and slightly more angry voice says from your other shoulder.

You glance over to see another griffon. In fact it’s the same griffon, but instead of a halo and toga dress she has a pair of tiny red horns and a forked tail. Held in her claws is a miniature red trident.

“And you are?” you say.

“I’m the griffon telling you that this letter is important and you need to know what’s inside it!” the tiny devil-griffon replies, twirling her tail as she floats next to you. “The fate of Equestria itself could rest with you, and you would never know it because you won’t open the letter!”

“It’s not up to them!” the griffon with the halo shouts from your other shoulder. “It’s private! It might even be a love letter!”

“A love letter? Uh, last I heard Spike is not exactly into griffons,” the devil-griffin retorts. “Besides, if it was so important why did the mail carrier drop it in the first place?”

“She has a point,” you mumble, feeling a bit like the third wheel in this conversation.

“It was an accident! The proper authorities need to be notified! Not only is it a breach of trust, but it’s mail fraud!” the griffon with the halo says.

“Look, all I’m saying is that you open the letter and it’s nothing, no big deal, but if it’s important enough to involve Spike then it’s probably super important,” the devil-griffon says. “It might even have something to do with finding these pages you’ve been looking for.”

“[USERNAME], don’t you dare listen to them. They’re asking you to do something very bad,” the griffon with the halo says.

You have to make a decision.

[CHOICE]

Return the letter. (Hero)
Open it. (Chaos)

[ENDING A: HERO]
“That’s it, I’ve had enough of this!” you say in frustration, scaring a few ponies walking through the park away. “I’m returning the letter and that’s final!”

“Well, you’re no fun,” the devil-griffon says before disappearing in a tiny ball of flame.

“You’re doing the right thing,” the other griffon replies before disappearing in a flash of light.

You get up and race to the Ponyville Post Office. Out front you see the griffon who had dropped the letter! You run up and get her attention, showing her the letter.

“Oh my Celestia! I can’t believe I dropped this,” the griffon says.

“I tried to return it earlier but you were gone before I could get it back to you,” you say.

“Thank you for being such a good pony and returning it. I was delivering this for my good friend Gabby to Spike here in Ponyville. It’s very important. We found one of the pages of the Book in Griffonstone, and we had to rip it out of Grandpa Gruff’s greedy claws to get it here before he could cause any real damage with it,” the griffon says. “I’m going to get this to Spike right away!”

You wave goodbye to the griffon as she flies off, hoping that she finds Spike in time and that yet another page is safe and secure.

(+1 pages for Heroes)

[ENDING B: CHAOS]
“Okay you know what,” you say. “The little griffon with the horns is right. What if this is so important that it can’t be ignored? What if the authorities don’t have time to get it to the right dragon? I’m opening it.”

“You got this, [USERNAME],” the devil-griffon replies. “Trust me, you’re going to be remembered for this.”

“I have to say I’m very disappointed in you,” the griffon with the halo says.

Both tiny griffons disappear from your shoulder as you pull out the letter and open it. Besides the letter itself, inside is what appears to be an aged piece of paper. Upon further inspection you realize it’s one of the pages from the Book! You start to read the letter.

Spike,

I’m not able to deliver this personally, I’m sorry. We've been dealing with a lot here in Griffonstone since this whole issue with the Book started. In fact, that’s why I’m writing to you.

Enclosed is one of the pages of the Book. Grandpa Gruff of all griffons found it when he was scavenging out in the nearby chasms, and well… he tried to use it. Turned a lot of things into gold in an attempt to bring back the glory days of Griffonstone. It took myself, Gilda, and Gallus to snatch it away from him and use it to get things back to normal… but Spike, we can’t keep this kind of power. It’s too chaotic for us.

I hope that you can keep this safe. The courier carrying this is some griffon I trust deeply. She’ll get it to you. Please write back when you can and let me know you’re okay.

Your Friend,
Gabby

You look down at the page and grin widely. These things are pretty powerful and now that you’ve got one, you might be able to have a little fun with it. Nothing too harmful of course, but just the right amount of chaos would suffice.

(+1 pages for Chaos)

Author's Note

I wrote this one specifically for my wife Lucky Star as an app story for her to pass out during the event. She was fursuiting as her griffon Gia the Mail Bird, and for this one she made ribbon badge flair to pass out.

This was a fun and rather straightforward choice though.

#QueenOfSocialMedia - There's Something Kinda Freaky Happenin' Tonight

There's Something Kinda Freaky Happenin' Tonight
Code Word: #QueenOfSocialMedia

You’ve heard through the grapevine that Pipp Petals is hosting the interview of a lifetime with a very special guest and is in need of somepony to operate the camera for the event. You decide to apply and manage to get the job!

You show up the night of the interview to meet with Pipp and it’s clear that her excitement is palpable. She’s even in full costume, which is… weird. Nightmare Night isn’t for another few months at this point.

“Okay, so… I’m going to have to ask you to not freak out, okay?” Pipp says as she leads you to the room where the interview will be held. “Our guest is a little antsy and she can be a little intense if you know what I mean, so just play it cool?”

“You got it, Princess,” you say, taking your seat next to the camera. You focus in on the two seats as Pipp sits down on hers. “Uhh, Princess? Where’s our guest?”

“Oh… she’ll be along shortly,” Pipp replies with a wink. In her hooves is a piece of paper you assume to be notes of some sort. “Let’s get rolling and I’ll introduce her.”

“Alright, we’re on in 3… 2… 1… and live!”

Spooky dance music begins to filter into the room from a speaker somewhere as Pipp turns to the camera and grins widely.

“Hey, Pippsqueaks! It’s your Princess of the Night, Pipp Petals with a spooky setup tonight, and I have got something a-maz-ing for you all! I know what you’re thinking, Nightmare Night isn’t here yet, but I thought it would be fun to have a killer interview that will blow your pony socks off!” Pipp says, a grin on her face. “But first, give it up for our camera pony tonight, [USERNAME]!”

You glance about nervously as you reach into frame to wave. Pipp’s streams often have had millions of viewers. A lot of ponies out there suddenly know your name.

“With that being said, let’s get on with the mane event! Trust me when I say, you are all going to scream over our guest,” Pipp says, holding up the piece of paper. “In fact, I almost guarantee it!”

The paper begins to glow softly and you realize suddenly that Pipp is holding one of the pages that ponies have been trying to collect to help out Fizzy Glitch. Before you can say anything, the other chair seems to darken as shadows coalesce all around it and suddenly a pony appears there. No, not a pony… an alicorn. And not just any alicorn… it’s…

“Pippsqueaks, say hello to the one and only Nightmare Moon!” Pipp shouts with glee.

The alicorn in the other seat looks taken aback. “Where am I?” she asks. “What happened? I was just about to destroy that pitiful Twilight Sparkle.”

“Oh pssh, you don’t need to worry about that,” Pipp says. “The ponies at home want to know more about you!”

“What? Who are you? Why aren’t you running in fear? I am the Mare in the Moon, the Queen of Eternal Darkness!” the alicorn says, standing and lifting a hoof. “You should be petrified!”

“Oh, I am absolutely horrified and I am LOVING it!” Pipp says, her hooves shaking with delight. “Pippsqueaks, let’s get some questions in the chat for our Queen of Eternal Darkness!”

Nightmare Moon blinks, her draconic eyes struggling to take in what’s going on here. She takes a seat and glares deeply at Pipp.

“I don’t understand,” she says.

“Well, let me provide a little illumination on the subject,” Pipp says. “My name is Pipp Petals, and you’re on my show! Right now we’ve got… one million ponies at home watching just for you, Moony-babe!”

“You’re… you’re kidding, right? They’re watching from where and how… and for me?” Nightmare Moon replies. “Don’t the ponies know the stories? I am the Night Eternal!”

“Oh they know all about you, and they’re watching from their homes! And based on these chat comments, they are loving your style!” Pipp says. “You’re going to have to show me how to get eye shadow colorations like yours. They are so fetch!”

“Well, it is nice to be appreciated for once. Hello out there… what did you call them? Pippsqueaks?” Nightmare Moon says.

“They are loving it! Now, before we get on with the interview proper, we’re going to take a quick break. So grab a snack and settle in, we’ll be back before you know it, Pippsqueaks!” Pipp says, tapping a few keys on the keyboard as the stream moves to pause.

“We are no longer being watched?” Nightmare Moon says quizzically.

“I put the stream on pause so we could chat a bit before we go back on live,” Pipp says. “I’m really sorry I surprised you like that. I’m a huge fan and I thought it would be fun to talk to you, but maybe this was a mistake.”

You recognize this could be your chance to prevent Pipp from causing further damage using the page. What do you do?

[CHOICE]

Tell Pipp that Nightmare Moon should go back to her own time (Heroes)
Tell Pipp that Nightmare Moon should stay here (Chaos)

[ENDING A: HERO]
“Princess,” you interject before things can get worse than they already are. “Everything about this seems off to me. I know you’re a big fan, but she can’t stay here, you must know that. She belongs in her own time.”

Pipp sighs loudly. “You’re right, [USERNAME]. I just wanted to create something so truly unique and what’s more unique than Nightmare Moon?” she says. “No, you’re right. I have to rectify my mistake.”

“I don’t understand, I thought you ponies here were appreciative of my night, of my royal nature,” Nightmare Moon asks.

“And we are… but you’re not supposed to be here. You’re supposed to be back then,” Pipp says. “Before you go though, can I tell you something?”

Nightmare Moon nods silently. “Of course, my little pony,” she says.

A while ago, my friends and I found an ancient book in the Zephyr Heights Library about alicorns, specifically ancient alicorns. I’ll just say you’ll have to trust me on this, but you’ll find ponies in your time that will appreciate and love you just as much for who you really are… Princess Luna,” Pipp says with a smile.

Nightmare Moon looks taken aback. “I have not been called by that name in centuries.”

Pipp grins widely, holding up the page and her phone. “Maybe I can get a selfie before you go?”

We just keep on rockin’ to the monster groove

(+1 pages for Heroes)

[ENDING B: CHAOS]
You decide that Pipp knows what she’s doing and to not say anything at all. After all, having a powerful alicorn Queen that could potentially protect Equestria from threats could be awesome, especially if any more of the pages show up. Besides… Pipp is a Princess! Who else is better to protect one of the pages than her?

Pipp recomposes herself. “No, Pipp. You gotta be positive! The show must go on!” she says triumphantly. “Are you ready, Queen of Eternal Darkness?”

Nightmare Moon grins, her fangs gleaming in the light. “Yes… Yes I do believe I am.”

“Excellent. Cue the music, [USERNAME], we’re going live again in 3… 2… 1…!”

It may look scary, but don’t be afraid… cause nothing’s what it seems at a monster partay!

(+1 pages for Chaos)

Author's Note

I had this legitimate idea of Pipp interviewing Nightmare Moon for a podcast and ran with it.

Super fun to write.

#OhYEAH - The Match of the Century

The Match of the Century

Code Word: #OhYEAH

“Fillies and Gentlecolts! Welcome to the Mare Stream Arena! Tonight you are witnessing history in the making! Are you ready to RUMBLE!” the announcer’s voice echoes throughout the arena.

The crowd starts to roar and cheer as the lights around the arena begin to zoom about with various spotlights, creating a very disorienting effect.

“Our match this evening is going to be stunning, friends. Let’s bring out our first competitor, shall we? In the far corner, weighing in at a massive SIX HUNDRED POUNDS of PURE MUSCLE, the powerful and incredible BULK BICEPS!”

An exceptionally large pegasus appears rather gracefully in the air and lands on the far corner of the ring. His snow-white coat glistens in the light. He’s wearing an overly tight bright orange spandex shirt, his muscles rippling through it. His face is covered in a bright orange and red luchador mask, leaving only his piercing red eyes and a hole for his mouth. You’re surprised to see his wings are quite tiny. He lifts a hoof and grunts loudly.

“YEAHHHH!!” a shout erupts from inside the mask.

The crowd eats it up, shouting for the pegasus’ attention. A sudden hush draws over the crowd though as the announcer speaks once more.

“And now, our reigning champion… you know her, you love her… give it up for the ONE, THE ONLY, THE MYSTERY MARE!”

A lithe earth pony, much smaller than the pegasus, leaps into the opposing corner of the ring. She’s covered from head to toe in green and yellow spandex, obscuring any possible identifying coloration. A grin is on her face as she sizes up her opponent.

“Both opponents have agreed to a single round tonight, no holds barred and no holding back. Both ponies are laying it down on the line for you, so let me hear you scream and shout for them, so I ask you again… ARE YOU READY TO RUMBLE!”

The crowd goes wild once more as Bulk Biceps suddenly launches across the ring at the Mystery Mare, moving to body slam the seemingly unsuspecting mare. The Mystery Mare grins once more, shifting slightly out of position. Bulk soars right past her, slamming hard into the corner post. In an almost cartoon-like fashion, Bulk falls backwards and lands on his back.

“My opponent got a little too ahead of himself, didn’t he?” The Mystery Mare calls out to the crowd. “Y’all want some more?”

The crowd roars. The Mystery Mare daintily moves out of the way once more as Bulk attempts to grapple her. He lands in another heap on the floor of the ring, groaning and growling. The crowd laughs and cheers loudly.

“Look folks, I’d love to stay all night and play, but I got places to be!” The Mystery Mare crows out to the audience. “Who wants to see the Spinning Appleloosa Roll? Huh?!”

Your eyes stray from the Mystery Mare for just a second as you see Bulk Biceps pushing himself to his hooves. Somewhere from above you see a pair of menacing yellow eyes and a claw snaps. Bulk looks down at his hooves to see a glowing withered old page surrounding him in pale blue light. The crowd’s loud cheering stops and the Mystery Mare spins about as Bulk Biceps begins to grow in size.

“You’re finished, Mystery Mare!” Bulk roars angrily as his frame grows three times, then five times his normal size. “YEAH!!!”

The crowd begins to shriek in fear, dispersing all around you. Through the chaos you can see Bulk has the Mystery Mare pinned down against the corner of the ring with one of his hooves. You don’t know how, but you manage to exchange a glance with her, her eyes pleading for help.

[CHOICE]
What do you do?

Run away. (Chaos)
Help the Mystery Mare. (Hero)

[ENDING A: Chaos]
You decide it’s far safer to run away. You’re just one little pony, what can you do against a threat like Bulk Biceps, especially since he’s so huge! You join the crowd in scampering out of the arena as Bulk continues to grow, his massive frame breaking through the ceiling as he stumbles out into Las Pegasus. The last you saw, the Mystery Mare was still in the arena as the ceiling dropped.

You run out, watching in awe as Bulk Biceps rampages across the city of Las Pegasus. Above the cityscape you can see a pair of yellow eyes and a maniacal laughter echoes across the strip. Bulk continues to rage across the city and the laughter gets ever louder.

Eventually you are forced to evacuate the city before the Wonderbolts are sent in to contain the situation. Bulk returns to normal size seemingly out of nowhere and is seemingly confused as to how he got there.

Somewhere above, the laughter continues on.

(+1 pages for Chaos)

[ENDING B: Hero]
You decide to rush into the fray, jumping over other ponies if you have to in order to get closer. Thinking quickly you scoop up a boxing glove left by the stage and chuck it up at the massive pegasus.

“Hey ugly! Pick on somepony your own size!” you shout.

Bulk turns, lifting his hoof just enough to let the Mystery Mare free. She quickly jumps out of the ring and lands next to you.

“Thanks!” she says. “Got any ideas on what to do here?”

“It’s the page!” you shout. “If you can get the page, you might be able to beat him!”

The Mystery Mare grins widely and nods. She rushes forward, deftly dodging each attack by the enlarged pegasus. She lands on the pegasus’ arm and runs up as Bulk continues to get bigger by the second. In a flash she races to where the pegasus can’t reach and snatches the page up out of his other hoof. She lands across from you.

“What now?!” she says. “He’s not getting any smaller!”

You think quickly. “Use the page and grow bigger as well! You can defeat him and then we’ll return the page to Ponyville!”

The Mystery Mare nods, focusing her energy on the page in her hooves. With a soft glow, it begins to work! The wrestler begins to grow as well, quickly rivaling Bulk’s incredible size. Both contenders burst out of the arena’s ceiling and into the city of Las Pegasus.

Bulk Biceps roars loudly but even much larger he’s still slower than the Mystery Mare. With a quick grab on his midsection, she launches the pegasus into the air and spins him around, dropping him onto a nearby abandoned building. The pegasus groans as they both begin to shrink back down.

“Whoah,” The Mystery Mare says as you meet her outside. “That was one heck of a Spinning Appleloosa Roll!”

“That was incredible!” you exclaim. “You knocked him out cold, he’s going to feel that in the morning when he gets up.”

The Mystery Mare nods, handing over the page in her hooves. “If you’re headed back to Ponyville, stop in and let my sister know I’m okay. She’s the school teacher there, name of Cheerilee.”

You blink for a few seconds.

“Wait… you’re Cheerilee’s SISTER?!”

(+1 pages for Heroes)

Author's Note

This one was pretty goofy. I had the idea of a Kaiju style luchador mask between Bulk Biceps and Cheerilee's sister from the comics.

I think it turned out pretty fun for sure.

#BadPonyClub - The Bad Pony Club

The Bad Pony Club

Code Word: #BadPonyClub

“Alright, who wants to start?” you ask the room. “Anypony got anything they’d like to share today?”

The assembled circle of unicorns grumbles under their breath. Finally, the loud filly with the cape stands on her seat. “The Great and Powerful–”

“Trixie, no standing on the seat,” you interject. “We’ve discussed this several times.”

“Oh, sorry,” Trixie says, plopping down on her seat. “As I was saying, the Great and Powerful Trixie is still dealing with her issues from the other night.”

“I already told you, Trixie. I’m sorry about the stuffed rabbit,” one of the other fillies says, a light lavender-colored unicorn with a dark purple mane and lighter purple and teal stripes. “I didn’t mean to rip her.”

“Missus Fluffykins was really unhappy about that, Starlight,” Trixie squealed. “I… I was unhappy.”

“That’s excellent progress, Trixie,” you say, penciling in a note on your notepad. “Now, you know Starlight did apologize.”

“You’re right. I accept your apology, Starlight. Friends?” Trixie says, lifting a hoof.

“Always, Trixie,” Starlight says, taking the other filly’s hoof and pulling her into a hug. Both fillies cry a little happily as they make up.

“Gag,” another one of the fillies responds, a dark burgundy unicorn with piercing blue eyes. Her horn is broken.

“Fizzy, it’s good to express our feelings. Do you want to share?” you ask.

“I’m good,” the filly replies. “And that’s not my name.”

“I’m sorry, Tempest,” you say with a wink. “I very nearly forgot this morning. Sunset, Misty? Would either of you like to share?”

The newest addition to the group session, a bluish unicorn with frizzy hair has been quiet since she came to the center, so she shakes her head softly and curls into herself. The other filly, a bright orange unicorn with a blaze of red and yellow mane nods.

“I’m happy to report that I’ve managed to make friends with Misty here. I know she’s quiet today, but I am doing my best to be her best friend,” Sunset Shimmer says.

“Suck-up,” Tempest snorts.

“Am not!” Sunset shouts. “That’s why we’re here, right? To make friends and learn the magic of friendship?”

“You’re right, Sunset. I’m very proud of you,” you say, penciling some more notes in. “Tempest, you should be more respectful of your peers. You could learn a thing or two from Sunset.”

“I don’t need to learn anything from the over-achiever,” Tempest replies. “We’re not here to learn anything. We’re here because of a magical spell. We just can’t remember any of what happened before.”

“T-T-T-That’s not true!” Misty shouts before curling herself back into a ball. “We’re here because we’re bad ponies!”

“Misty, it’s okay…,” Sunset whispers, resting her hoof on the bluish unicorn’s withers. “You’re not a bad pony, Misty. I believe in you.”

Tempest growls, getting down from her chair. “No. It is true. None of you remember it because of the spell we were all put under. But I remember, I’ve always remembered. I remember because of my horn.”

“Fizzlepop Berrytwist, you sit down right this instant!” you say, a hint of anger creeping into your voice. You turn to Misty. “Misty, none of you are bad ponies here. Some of you are hurting and some of you need help, but nopony here is bad.”

“You’re wrong, we’re bad. Sunset stole a magic crown. Starlight enslaved a whole town of ponies. Trixie let a magical amulet corrupt here,” Misty squeaked out. “Even Tempest tried to steal the magical powers of the Princesses. We’re all bad ponies.”

“And what about you? What did you do?” you ask, an eyebrow raised.

“I’m the worst of all of you,” Misty says. “I stole a baby dragon and gave it to a fire alicorn just so I could get a cutie mark.” The little filly starts crying softly.

“You’re wrong,” Tempest says defiantly. “You’re not bad ponies. You’re just under a spell. It’s not your fault.”

Sunset reaches in and gives Misty a firm hug before glaring at Tempest. “See what you started, Fizzy. You’re making Misty upset,” she says. “Why don’t you stop it?”

“I’m going to prove it to all of you,” Tempest says angrily. “I found the answer to the counterspell in Headmistress Opaline’s office.”

She reaches into her bag and produces a piece of paper. It shimmers with power, magical power. You can’t take your eyes off of it. You can’t even respond to the fact that Tempest was snooping around Headmistress Opaline’s office.

“What is it?” Trixie asks finally, breaking the awkward silence.

“It’s our way out of this place,” Tempest says with a grin before looking at you, her piercing stare gazing into your very soul. “You have to trust me, [USERNAME]. You’re trapped here just like we are.”

[CHOICE]
What do you do?

Allow Tempest to use the magic of the page to free the ponies. (Hero)
Take the page from her. (Villain)

[ENDING A: HERO]
Your brain searches for a reason to not let Tempest try, and you can’t really find one. You realize you do trust her. She could be telling the truth. Finally, you nod.

“Go ahead, Tempest,” you say, breathing hard.

Tempest focuses on the page, the piece of paper beginning to glow even more. With a flash of light and magical power, the area around all of the unicorns begins to fade out of existence. Instead of the five unicorn fillies, five unicorn mares stand in place. The area around you is a dark castle.

“What… what happened?” Starlight says. “Where are we?”

“Opaline’s castle,” Misty says meekly. “She trapped us here, remember?”

You do remember now. You had heard of a page of the Book in the upper regions of Equestria, and had journeyed here with these legendary unicorns alongside Misty, who had a personal connection to a fire alicorn named Opaline, but it had all gone wrong and Opaline had managed to use the page to trap you all in an illusion.

“Her mind-altering magic couldn’t work on me,” Tempest said. “My horn doesn’t channel magic like regular unicorns.”

“She must not be here,” you say. “Otherwise she’d be trying to attack us again.”

“Then we’d better get the hay out of here,” Trixie says.

You agree, and as one, you flee the castle with the page, keeping it safe for Equestria.

(+1 pages for Heroes)

[ENDING B: VILLAIN]
You stand up and quickly snatch the page away from Tempest before she can do anything about it. Her horn starts to light up but you shut that down flat with a flick of your hoof.

“Fizzlepop Berrytwist, you know better than to scare the others,” you say. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to call the Headmistress over this.”

“You can do your worst to me,” Tempest scowls. “But we are all trapped here and soon all of you will see that I’m right.”

Misty curls even deeper into a ball. Sunset and the others glare at Tempest.

“This isn’t funny anymore, Fizzy,” Starlight says.

“I agree,” a new voice says. From the door steps in a pristine purple alicorn with a stark white mane. A neat pair of glasses sits on the ridge of her snout. A pair of hospital orderlies flanks her.

“Good morning, Headmistress Opaline,” Sunset and the others say in unison.

“Good morning, girls. I trust you are all doing well this morning despite this interruption into your session,” Opaline replies as she steps over to where Tempest is still scowling. “Fizzlepop, I’m afraid I’m going to have to remove you from the group for now.”

You look up at the alicorn you work for. “She had this, she said she took it from your office, Headmistress,” you say as you hold up the page.

Opaline frowns, taking the page from you in your magic. “Thank you, [USERNAME]. I will be sure to secure this better. It’s a dangerous magical artifact I’ve been studying and in a filly’s hooves could be very dangerous.”

She glances down at Tempest, motioning with her head. Tempest starts to step back, but realizing she can’t do anything about it. She relents, following the orderlies out of the room.

Opaline stops briefly to glance down at Misty and then smiles. “Have a good morning, girls! I will see you all later for magic practice! [USERNAME], a word outside?”

You follow Opaline outside as the alicorn stops to ensure nopony else is listening.

“You very nearly let our little illusion spell slip, [USERNAME],” the larger alicorn says as her horn lights up, revealing the inner chamber of her castle. In the center of the room are the other unicorns, sleeping soundly and connected by a thread of magical power. “I cannot afford mistakes. Your services are no longer required.”

“But I… I did my best, Opaline!” you protest. You had led the others here to be trapped by Opaline’s magic in hopes of siphoning off their powers. “I brought them to you in the first place.”

“I don’t care,” Opaline says angrily. “Get out of my sight before I have to enslave you as well!”

You nod meekly, running fast and far out of Opaline’s castle, leaving the others to their fate.

(+1 pages for Villains)

Author's Note

This one I had the idea of doing a Reformed Unicorn Therapy with all the Reformed Unicorns. The twist of making them all fillies was super fun and interesting.

Side note, this one may turn into a full fledged fic down the line.

#GenerationToGeneration - Generations, Coming Together

Generations, Coming Together

Code Word: #GenerationToGeneration

You find yourself roaming around Maretime Bay, looking for yet another page of the Book. Rumors of one popping up here reached your ears, so you decided to stop in and look around. You realize very quickly, however, that it’s going to be relatively impossible to find anything given that it’s Maretime Bay Day.

As you push through the crowd of ponies, a strong melody hits your ears. A stage sits off to the side where a group of ponies has gathered. Dancing and singing on stage is none other than musical sensation the Dreamlands!

We don’t hang our heads
When things get too hard
We put our hooves together!

You bop your head to the beat and join the back of the crowd. The Dreamlands are so cool! Right up front is none other than Minty herself! You can’t even believe your luck. Past Minty is Snuzzle, dancing and laughing alongside Blue Belle. The group winds down the song as Minty takes the microphone.

“Thank you so much for coming out today, ponies! We’re so thankful to the one and only Pipp Petals for inviting us out to Maretime Bay Day!” she says cheerfully. “We’ll be back on this stage later today, so please come and hang out with us! You’ve been an awesome crowd!”

The crowd roars and cheers and begins to disperse, finding their way to the rest of the festival. You hang back for a moment before approaching the stage where the Dreamlands are packing up their gear.

“Uh… hi there!” you call out, catching Minty’s attention.

“Oh hey! Did you enjoy the show?” she asks with a grin.

“You were amazing! I’m a huge fan,” you say, feeling a little foolish.

“That’s great to hear! We love meeting fans,” Minty says. “Would you like a–”

Before Minty can finish you hear a shout from somepony behind her. A small green blur appears out of nowhere.

“Sparky!” a male voice calls out. “Come back with that!”

The little green blur resolves itself into the form of a baby dragon. It collides directly with Minty from behind, knocking her over as the object it had in its claws flies up into the air. Your eyes lock onto it. A page from the Book! Before you can try to grab it, the little dragon begins to burp and a burst of green dragon fire hits it. The page hovers there for a second as it lands onto Minty, glowing brightly a sickly green.

“What…?” Minty says as the page glows brighter and brighter.

The pony chasing the baby dragon stops and picks him up. You recognize his face as that of Hitch Trailblazer, sheriff of Maretime Bay.

“Sparky! What happened? Are you okay little buddy?” he says.

“The page!” you shout, pointing at Minty.

Hitch’s eyes move to the page as the magical power releases from it, encompassing Minty entirely. When the glow fades, there’s no longer just Minty laying there. Three other ponies are standing around her. And they all look a lot like Minty! Well… sort of. The first one is a pale green and very round squat pony with a white mane and dark green clovers for a cutie mark. The second is a bright turquoise pony with bright pink hair and a cutie mark of three round peppermints and a very wide head with larger eyes. The final is a slender mint green pony with striped white and pink hair and also peppermints for a cutie mark.

“What… what happened?” Minty… well Prime Minty says. You realize very quickly that you’re going to need identifiers for these ponies.

“I oughta ask the same thing,” Big Eye Minty asks. “I was in the middle of making candy and suddenly I’m here. I’m going to miss my friend’s party later!”

“Why do all of you look like me?” Squat Minty says. “This doesn’t make any sense.”

“It is very odd,” Slender Minty interjects.

“Oh no, Sparky!” Hitch says. “You must have activated the page. I told you not to touch it!”

“Woah, what a wild thing to be looking at different versions of yourself,” Prime Minty says.

“You’re telling me!” Big Eye Minty exclaims.

Sparky burps a little in Hitch’s arms as the Sheriff groans. “How are we going to fix this? I got it! I’m going to go get Sunny! She’ll know what to do!”

You step up and offer a hoof. “Hey, I’m [USERNAME]. I might have some ideas.”

Hitch nods at you expectantly. “If you have any ideas, I’m all ears.”

[CHOICE]

Suggest that Sparky can reverse the effects of the spell. (Hero)
Keep the extra Minty’s around! They might make for a cool supergroup! (Chaos)

[ENDING A: HERO]
“If Sparky caused the page to activate, maybe he can reverse the effects with his magic,” you say. “It’s worth a shot.”

Hitch nods and looks down at Sparky. The little baby dragon coos. “Do you think you can do it little buddy?”

Sparky burbles and nods excitedly, hopping out of Hitch’s arms. Hitch motions at the assembled Mintys who are now arguing with each other over who makes the best candy of all things.

“Excuse me, hi! We’re going to need you all to stand as closely together as possible,” he says.

The Mintys all stop and nod, moving a little closer as Sparky hiccups and burps once more at the glowing page at their hooves. A flash of green light once again encompasses the group and when it dissipates only Prime Minty remains.

“Whoa… that was weird for sure, thanks [USERNAME],” she says.

You scoop up the page and hand it over to Hitch. “Sheriff. I believe you were safeguarding this,” you say.

Hitch nods, but hands the page back over to you. “I think perhaps you’d better hold onto it. I don’t know why but I trust you’ll get it in the right hooves.”

You shake your head, giving it back. “Sheriff, I’m not in a position of authority like you are. I think you should protect it.”

Hitch smiles. “I’ll make sure it stays safe. Thanks again for all the help, [USERNAME].”

(+1 pages for Heroes)

[ENDING B: CHAOS]
You think about it for a moment. “This is an awesome opportunity here, Sheriff! The Dreamlands could expand! Imagine the publicity! Four times the Minty!”

Hitch looks skeptical for a moment, but finally nods. “That is true. And they don’t seem to be causing any trouble for anypony. Okay, maybe this isn’t as bad as it seems.”

“I do like to sing,” Big Eye Minty says.

“So do I!” Slender Minty says.

“Well? Let’s try it out then,” Prime Minty says, holding onto the page and motioning for the other Mintys to join her.

The four Mintys step back out onto the stage and begin to sing together in ultimate harmony.

Generations… coming together!

Celebrations… dancin’ in laughter!

(+1 pages for Chaos)

Author's Note

Minty seemed super fun and I loved the Dreamlands, so this was just a fun little romp.

#RollTheDice - The Adventure Begins

The Adventure Begins

Code Word: #RollTheDice

It’s game night at the Crystal Brighthouse and you’ve been invited! Gaming with Sunny and the crew is always super fun and interesting. You arrive somewhat early to find Sunny herself seeming very excited about something. As the other ponies gather, Sunny pulls out a box with stylized artwork of a pony in armor on it.

“What is this?” Hitch says.

“I found this on one of our artifact-finding trips,” Sunny says with a grin. “It’s a game called Ogres & Oubliettes, and it’s sort of like a storytelling game. One pony tells a story that the other ponies interact with to progress the plot. Whenever you want to make a choice, you roll some dice and the result of that roll has an effect on the plot based on how well you rolled.”

“Ooh, this sounds super fun,” Izzy chirps. “How does it work?”

“Well, we need somepony to run the game, sort of like a Game Master,” Sunny says before turning to you. “We were hoping you would help us out with that, [USERNAME].”

You smile and nod. “Sure, I’ll give it a go. It sounds fun,” you say.

You help Sunny unbox the books and dice that are in the box and look over the rules as well as the accompanying adventure for beginners. It looks relatively simple enough as you set up the Game Master screen.

“Okay, it says here that you need to pick a character class, something your character is good at,” you say. “So… what would you all like to be?”

“Ooh ooh I like building things!” Izzy says excitedly. “Is there a class that builds things?”

You peruse the rules and nod. “That sounds like an Artificer,” you say.

“Awesome!” Izzy replies happily. “I shall henceforth be known as Izzimora the Unicycler!”

“Great name, Izzy,” Pipp says with a grin before looking down into the books. “Oh my pony, there’s a singing class! It’s called a Bard. I wanna do that, can I do that?”

“Sure, Pipp, it’s your character,” you say. “What’s your character’s name?”

“I’m going to go with Princess Pippicus Von Ponystein the IV,” Pipp says with a deadpan serious tone.

“Okay… then… uh, Misty? What do you want to be?” you ask.

The blue unicorn smiles softly. “I don’t know, I like magic and stuff, but I think I was also pretty good at all that sneaking around I did for Opaline, as much as I hated doing it,” she says.

You glance down at the rulebook again. “Well… there is a class called Rogue, which is basically a maximum sneaky class. Oh, and look, they have a feature where they get to cast magical spells too!”

“Okay I’m on board,” Misty says with a wide grin. “You can call me Misty Step!”

“Is there a fun class that has to do with animals? Maybe like a Sheriff?” Hitch asks.

“Oddly enough, there’s a class called a Ranger that has an animal companion,” you say, putting your hoof on the rulebook.

“That sounds great. You can just call me Hitch,” Hitch says.

“Hitch, I think the point of the game is to play somepony with a different name,” Izzy whispers loudly.

“It is?” Hitch asks. “But I wanted to be Hitch.”

“Moving on, I guess. Sunny, what about you?” you ask.

Sunny glances over the books and smiles softly. “Well, I’m kind of the support, and this Cleric class here sounds pretty awesome. They even have something called a domain for Friendship! It lets me use all sorts of cool support spells!” she says. “My character’s name shall be Alicornika!”

“Got it, what about you, Zipp?” you ask the white pegasus. She looks vaguely interested.

“I don’t know… is this really going to be fun? Seems like a lot of work to play a game,” she says.

“The rules make it fun, for sure. You like puzzles and detective work, right? Maybe there’s something for that?” you offer.

“I looked through the book already and didn’t see anything like that,” Zipp says, her eyes catching another class description in the book. “Wait, this Monk class sounds pretty cool though. Hoof-to-hoof combat? Maybe even wing-to-wing? Like some kind of action movie star.”

“That sounds awesome, what do you want your character to be called?” you ask.

“Zephyrina, the Wind Storm,” Zipp says with a grin.

“Sooo cool,” Izzy says excitedly. “This is going to be so much fun you guys!”

You begin to run the game for the others, trying to pull together the characters to start on their grand quest as explained in the adventure book. There are a few tense moments as each of the ponies learn the game and how to roleplay their characters, but you’re all having fun and hours pass before you even realize it.

As the adventuring party is entering into the deep, dark dungeon that is the primary focus of the adventure module, you turn the page in the book and blink as the next page is not like the others. It’s ancient and withered, containing writing you can’t even begin to understand. As you brush it with your hoof, your eyes widen as you realize it’s one of the pages from the Book of All Stories.

You look up at the others. None of them have noticed this, due to the fact that the adventure book is behind your game master screen. They’re engrossed in a discussion over splitting up gold between the party. You grin as you consider how powerful the page is.

Use the page… unleash the darkness upon the world…

A whisper in your ear gives you pause. The page is powerful, and you could use it to bring the game world to life all across Equestria. It would be the ultimate adventure game, with the ponies of Equestria as the players.

That’s so droll… eternal darkness. How about you just use it to have some fun with your friends?

You blink. A different voice? This one is telling you to use the page for fun. You think for a moment. It would be kind of fun to have the game be real just in this space for a night, nothing too dangerous but just interesting enough to spice the game up.

What do you do?

[CHOICE]
What do you do?

Unleash the game world using the page all across Equestria, making the land a much more dangerous place. (Villain)
Present it to the others as an option to enhance the game for fun for an evening. (Chaos)
Resist the temptation and play the game as normal and give the page to Sunny to safeguard. (Hero)

[ENDING A: VILLAIN]
You touch the page and begin to focus on it, deciding that Equestria could do with a bit of a makeover. The page glows softly and rumbling begins to emanate from the ground below.

“Wait… what’s going on?” Sunny asks as one of the walls of the Brighthouse begins to cave in. “Everypony, move!”

The others scramble to move, but you stay in place, grinning wildly as a pedestal forms underneath you, elevating you above them.

“What are you doing? What magic is this?” Zipp shouts, flying up towards you.

A buffet of wind blows the pegasus back to the ground. You open your eyes and find that the world around the ponies has drastically changed, and the Crystal Brighthouse has now become the dungeon the ponies before you were going to enter.

“This is… this is from the game!” Sunny shouts. “What’s the meaning of this?”

“Oh you know… I thought Equestria could also learn how to play this game,” you say with a dark grin. “Now… I believe it’s time to roll for initiative.”

(+1 pages for Villains)

[ENDING B: CHAOS]
You ultimately decide after a few moments to ask the other ponies if they’d like to “enhance” the game for the evening.

“Hey, Sunny?” you ask. “Out-of-game question for you.”

“Sure, [USERNAME], what’s up?” Sunny says, looking away from the others at you.

“This box you found? There’s a page from that Book of All Stories in here,” you say, lifting the page to show them.

Sunny frowns. “Those things are supposed to be possibly dangerous magic,” she says. “We should protect it.”

“Well… I had a bit of a thought. You’re all having so much fun playing this game that maybe… maybe we could make it real for a little bit? Like, you get to actually be your characters?” you ask with a sheepish grin.

Sunny and the others pause for a moment before Izzy chimes in.

“That actually sounds like the coolest idea!” she says. “Come on guys, we can actually do magic and stuff!”

“Izzy, you can actually do magic right now,” Zipp says with a deadpan expression. “Still, it would be kind of cool to be Zephyrina even for just a night. I’m in.”

“Me too!” Misty says.

“Okay, [USERNAME],” Sunny says. “We’re game. But not too dangerous right? It’s still just a game.”

“Absolutely. If things get out of hand, we’ll set it back the way it was, and we’re only doing it inside of here,” you say, nodding.

You focus on the page, willing your wishes into the fabric of reality as the Crystal Brighthouse seemingly expands outward to make room for the new world inside of it. You appear again in a cloaked form just outside the dungeon as your adventuring party makes their presence known.

Princess Pippicus appears first, clad in beautiful finery, a tune on her lips to inspire all who hear her. She’s followed by the shadowy Misty Step, who appears to be levitating a hand crossbow next to her. She’s dressed in leathery armor and wearing a face mask to conceal herself. Next to her is the proud Hitch, clothed in forest greenery. A baby dragon slithers on his back while a longbow is attached to his saddle. Izzimora the Unicycler is off to the side, dressed in work clothes and sporting several wrenches and spanners. Around her are a few metallic bunnycorns. On the far end is the lithe and graceful Zephyrina, stretching her wings back and forth. Her robes are simple and plain, her true power based on her training and meditations. In the center is the larger alicorn known as Alicornika, Cleric of Friendship. She’s wearing full plate armor and levitating a rainbow-colored crystal mace, her golden wings covering the others in holy light.

The six ponies step up to the entrance of the dungeon and give each other a wink before rushing into danger. You grin widely. This is going to be so much fun!

(+1 pages for Chaos)

[ENDING C: HERO]
“Sunny? I found something in this book you oughta see,” you say, producing the page. “This doesn’t look like part of the game.”

Sunny scowls. “You’re right, [USERNAME]. Thanks for telling me. This could have been really dangerous,” she says. “I’ll put it somewhere safe for now.”

Sunny takes the page and heads over to the stand near the table, placing the page inside a lockbox there before returning to the game.

“Now then, where were we?” you say to yourself. “Oh, right. You were just about to enter the dark and scary dungeon! I need everyone to roll a Stealth check!”

The clatter of dice hits the table.

“I got a 19!” Izzy shouts. “Maximum sneaky!”

“16,” Zipp says coolly.

“18!” Pipp sings.

“I also got an 18,” Hitch replies.

“29?” Misty says sheepishly. “It’s kind of my thing.”

Sunny looks at her dice, her eyes wide as she looks up at you. “Uhh… Natural One?”

You blink. “Okay so, you’re all trying to be sneaky, and then from right behind you your cleric in full plate starts clanging around, alerting the skeleton guards! Roll for initiative!”

(+1 pages for Heroes)

Author's Note

This one was the most fun to write out of anything I did, and I actually turned this one into a real D&D one shot I ran at Ciderfest!

Thanks so much to Noteworthy for all her help with this one.

#WhoDoesntLikeMusicalTheatre - A Musical!

A Musical!

Code Word: #WhoDoesntLikeMusicalTheatre

“So… I understand that you’re down on your luck,” the ancient voice says from the darkness.

“That’s being generous,” the other pony in the tent replies. “I lost everything. My entire career, my prestige. Down on my luck? More like luck is down on me.”

“Ah, well,” the other voice replies. “So you’ve come to me for help? You seek fortune?”

“I want to know what I have to do to be rich and powerful again. I want to do something that will knock the socks off of all of Equestria,” the pony says. “I want everything and I want to know how to do it.”

“I see,” the voice says. A hooded figure peers forth out of the gloomy darkness, two yellow eyes piercing the pony. “Mr… Svengallop was it?”

The pony pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “That’s right. I used to be one of the most powerful managers in all entertainment,” he says. “Until I lost Coloratura.”

“I did hear about this,” the hooded figure replies. “I have a thought, my dear Svengallop, on how you might regain your prestige. I have seen the future. I know what is to come.”

“Tell me then,” Svengallop says angrily. “Tell me what the future holds.”

“I see… a musical,” the hooded figure replies with glee.

“What the hay are musicals?” Svengallop asks.

“Well… it appears to be a play where the dialogue stops, and the plot is conveyed through song.”

“Through song?”

“Yes…” the hooded figure says.

“Wait, so an actor is saying his lines and out of nowhere he just starts singing?” Svengallop says, putting a hoof to his chin.

“Yes!” the hooded figure exclaims.

“Well that is the most ridiculous thing that I have ever heard! Who on Equestria is going to sit there while an actor breaks into song? Svengallop starts to speak and then breaks immediately into song.

The hooded figure chuckles. “Surprisingly, ponies are going to love every bit of it.”

“Seriously?” Svengallop says, raising an eyebrow. “Why would they ever love such a silly thing?”

“Because…” the hooded figure starts to say before pulling off his hood revealing the twisted draconequus underneath.

It’s a musical!
A super-show!
I promise it’ll entertain you, so here we go!
We’ll be singing songs,
And writing wrongs
Our plucky little hero will find out where he belongs!

Svengallop sighs loudly. “I don’t know, I find it hard to believe ponies would actually pay to see something like this.”

“I can tell you much more if you’d like, all you have to do is sign the contract and the greatest musical ever told will be yours,” the twisted form of Discord replies, producing a withered old page.

Svengallop studies the page for several long moments, his eyes widening. The power of such a thing could propel him to new heights! Should he sign the contract? Or take it for himself?

[CHOICE]

Svengallop signs the contract, releasing the power of the musical. (Chaos)
Svengallop takes the page and rewrites his own history as the world’s greatest entertainment manager. (Villain)

[ENDING A: CHAOS]
Svengallop signs the contract with a grin as the page glows brightly. All around the world suddenly seems brighter, more full of life.

“Yes! I get it now!”

We’ll… do…. A musical!

“No kidding,” Discord retorts.

A musical
That super-show!
And now we’ve got a musical so here we go!

“Now you’ve got it!” Discord cheers as he joins into the song. Dancers appear from out of nowhere flanking the two.

And then you got yourself a musical!
A pony-wony-ony-ony ony-usical!
With a little Dashie style and a big fake smile, some snazzy moves, some jazzy hooves, I swear that I’ll
Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye if it isn’t a doozy!

“Take it from me!” Discord shouts out. “They’ll be flocking to see!”

A super-duper big hit won’t quit till I hit the final bit and make all the bits musical!

(+1 pages for Chaos)

[ENDING B: VILLAIN]
Svengallop snorts. “A musical? That’s what I need to become rich and famous again? That’s the most preposterous thing I’ve ever heard!”

Discord grins widely. “Well, I did say it was a long shot.”

Svengallop growls and grabs the contract page out of Discord’s paw with the intent of ripping it up, but something stops him. The page is… it’s powerful magic! Svengallop’s mind is filled with dreams of power and control.

“Oh dear,” Discord says, snapping his fingers and disappearing.

“Yes… with this power I can become the greatest entertainment manager of ALL TIME! I’ll even be able to control WEIRD AL YANKOVIC!” Svengallop says triumphantly, holding the page aloft. “MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

(+1 pages for Villains)

Author's Note

One of our core tenets of the project was that everyone has a favorite character. So of course, I wrote about Svengallop.

This one was pretty dumb, but it was super fun to write.

#SinisterSeven - The Sinister Seven Convene

The Sinister Seven Convene

Code Word: #SinisterSeven

“I hereby call this meeting of the Sinister Seven to order!” the little filly’s voice calls out from across the round table. After several seconds of silence, Cozy Glow jumps onto the middle of the table, fuming. “Hey, you guys! Listen up! I’m in charge here!”

“You are not in charge,” the silky voice of Queen Chrysalis of the Changeling Hive responds casually. “You just think you’re in charge.”

“As much as it pains me to agree with the bug, I also say you’re not in charge,” the hulking form of Tirek says as he places his massive hands on the table. “I’m in charge, of course.”

“Idiot, you are not in charge,” a harsh feminine voice says. “None of you are as powerful as the fire alicorn Opaline!”

“You have very little power,” the dark and shadowy voice of King Sombra replies. “In fact, I’d argue that any of us are more powerful than you.”

“Agreed,” the rough voice of Grogar chips in. “But we are all magically weakened by those pitiful ponies. If anyone here should be in charge, it should be me. I am the oldest amongst us.”

“Is that accurate?” Ahuizotl says. “I’ve been around for centuries at this point. Maybe I should be in charge.”

“Shut up all of you!” Cozy Glow roars. “Arguing isn’t going to get us anywhere. I’m in charge here because I acquired this.”

She reaches into her saddlebags and puts an ancient, withered-looking page onto the round table in front of the other villains. A hum of power fills the room. Immediately the others straighten up and stare at it.

“That is one of the pages from the Book that the ponies are looking for,” Tirek says, licking his lips. “The magical power… I can almost taste it.”

“You moron, it’s not for consuming,” Chrysalis interjects. “This is magic to be used.”

“Thankfully, none of you know how to use such magic,” Grogar says with a growl. “Only I can master such powers.”

“Uh-huh, and how do we know you’re the real Grogar?” Cozy Glow says, flying up to the ram. “The last time we saw Grogar, he was Discord!”

Grogar reaches down and produces an old, cracked bell from his collar. “I can assure you that I am the real Grogar. If you will remember, I freed you from that stone prison of yours.”

“Still don’t trust you,” Cozy replies. “Don’t think you should get the page either.”

“The one who gets the page should be the most competent of us all,” Ahuizotl says, scowling at the others. “Suffice to say, I’ve never had any issues defeating my nemesis, Daring Do. I would say that is more than competent.”

“Daring Do? That old pegasus? Please. We fought the entirety of Equestria,” Chrysalis says. “I defeated the Princesses.”

“Yes, and you all lost spectacularly and got turned into stone for nearly an eternity,” Opaline says. “Perhaps it is time for some new blood to run things for a while. Clearly what you’re doing isn’t working.”

“And just where is your fire magic, fire alicorn?” Tirek says, cracking his knuckles and stepping around towards Opaline. “Oh right, you need dragons to gain your powers back. That’s too bad. I can pull magic from anything.”

“Will you two knock it off!” Cozy Glow shouts, flying in between the two. “There’s a better way here to do things, if you would just listen to me.”

“Please… not another song, I hope.” Chrysalis says with a yawn. “That last one about friendship and magic didn’t exactly go our way.”

“No, no more singing, you dolt,” Cozy Glow says, landing back on the table next to the page. “We use the page equally. Divide Equestria all across time and space between the seven of us. We all get a piece of the pie.”

“And how do we know this isn’t just another trick by you?” Grogar asks, raising an eyebrow. “You are not exactly the most trustworthy of us.”

“You don’t,” Cozy Glow replies bluntly. “But it’s the best option you’ve got, old goat.”

“I’m a ram,” Grogar says angrily.

“Whatever,” Cozy says. “So? Do we have a deal?”

“There’s always a second option,” a voice says from the shadows all around the villains. “You could always give the page to me.”

In the darkness above, a pair of yellow eyes with red pupils appears. A grin with a single tooth pointing out appears below, floating in midair attached to nothing.

“Discord,” Tirek says. “Pathetic weakling. What makes you think you can challenge us for control of this item?”

“Me?” Discord replies, his voice unearthly. “I’m not challenging you for anything. I’m simply asking that you give me that page.”

“And why would we do that?” Grogar says. “What could you possibly offer us for such a thing?”

“I will offer you what you want the most… each other. I understand the tension in the room here better than anyone else. You want the others here out of your way so you can be in control. If you give me the page, I’ll give each of you the power to do just that,” Discord says wryly.

“What do you gain out of this bargain?” Opaline asks.

“I get what I always want. Unending chaos! The page is in the wind and the game is still ahoof, and nopony is sure who the winner or the loser is!” Discord says with a chuckle.

“Don’t trust that failure,” Cozy says angrily. “Remember what he did to us? He posed as Grogar and deceived us! We can work together and become greater villains than anypony in this world has ever seen! Let us use the page together!”

“Or… you can have the power to destroy each other like you’ve always wanted,” Discord says, his grin widening. “Let’s put it to a vote, shall we?”

[CHOICE]
How do they vote?

The Sinister Seven work together and use the page. (Villain)
They give it to Discord for ultimate power. (Chaos)

[ENDING A: VILLAIN]
“I’d rather work with you pathetic weaklings than give anything to this… thing,” Tirek proclaims. “Let us use the page together as Cozy has said.”

Grogar nods. “Agreed. This feels like the best course of action,” he says.

“I don’t like any of you, but I like him far less,” Chrysalis says, putting her insectoid leg on the table.

“I don’t know him well enough to trust him in the first place,” Opaline says.

“Sorry, Discord, you lose yet again,” Cozy Glow says with a deep menacing grin. “Now all of Equestria will fall to the SINISTER SEVEN!”

(+1 pages for Villains)

[ENDING B: CHAOS]
All the other villains besides Cozy Glow lift an appendage of some sort. Cozy shrieks with rage.

“But why? Why would you side with HIM?!” she shouts angrily.

“Because I would much rather have the power to destroy you,” Tirek says, flexing his muscles. “You are far more irritating than Discord has ever been.”

“I hate to agree with the muscle-head, but he’s right,” Chrysalis says.

“You are quite annoying,” Opaline says matter-of-factly.

“I don’t even know you all that well and I already dislike you,” Ahuizotl chips in.

“Excellent,” Discord says, a spectral claw extending from nowhere to collect the page. “Get ready for the ultimate Battle Royale, the chaos event of the century!”

A snap comes from another claw that appears out of nowhere, and suddenly Tirek begins growing to larger size. He roars and growls as he strikes at Opaline, who blocks the attack with powerful fire magic.

Discord laughs as he leaves the fighting villains to their battles against each other.

“Idiots.”

(+1 pages for Chaos)

Author's Note

This one was my first of several stories where the options were either a Villain ending or a Chaos ending.

I liked the idea of utilizing the Villains having to decide to either unite or hate each other in order to get to the ending. Cozy Glow is so much fun to write, too.

#YouGotMail - Letter to Letter

Letter to Letter

Code Word: #YouGotMail

You wander through Ponyville, looking for one of the pages. A source tipped you off that one was seen in the small town. As you are walking around the town, you stop by the Ponyville Postal Office, figuring that a good place to get information is with the mail carriers of the town.

You’re just about to enter when the door opens up and a crying gray pegasus followed by a gray and white griffon exits the office.

“Derpy! Wait up, it’s okay!” the griffon shouts, but the pegasus is simply too fast for her. She stops to catch her breath.

“Is everything alright?” you ask.

The griffon looks up at you and smiles softly. “It’s my friend, Derpy. She’s one of the mail carriers here, or well… she was. She was just fired.”

“What, why?” you ask.

“The boss claimed he saw Derpy messing with the mail in the backroom, but there’s no way that was possible. Derpy’s maybe a little klutzy, but she’s not an outright liar. She said she saw some sort of glowing page back there,” the griffon says. “But now she’s upset, and I need to find her to cheer her up.”

“A glowing page?” you ask. “That sounds like something I’ve been looking for.”

“Maybe you can help me then? If we can convince Derpy to stand up for herself, then we can show the boss there this page and get Derpy her job back! My name’s Gabby, by the way. I’m a courier from Griffonstone,” the griffon says, extending a claw. “What do ya say?”

[CHOICE]
What do you do?

Help the griffon and her friend. (Hero)
Get the page for yourself. (Villain)

[ENDING A: HERO]
You nod in reply. “I’m [USERNAME]. Let’s go help your friend and then we can make sure the page is safe,” you say.

Gabby smiles and you follow her into town. It takes a better part of the next half hour, but you finally find the gray pegasus sitting on a park bench overseeing the lake at the edge of town.

“Go away, Gabby,” the pegasus says upon realizing you’re there. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“But Derpy, you know it wasn’t your fault. In fact, [USERNAME] here believes your story. They said they’ve been looking for this glowing page you saw,” Gabby says, resting next to her friend. She tilts her head at you.

“Oh, yes. I came to town actually because I heard one of the pages might be here. The pages belong to a really powerful book and some of us are doing our part to secure them for Princess Twilight and her friends,” you say. “Left unchecked, they could be dangerous artifacts in the wrong hooves.”

“You… you really believe me?” Derpy says, wiping her tears. “I wasn’t trying to mess up the mail, but that thing… it felt unnatural in there and I just knew I had to get it out of there.”

“What happened to it?” you ask.

“It’s probably still there now,” Derpy says. “The boss walked in before I could snatch it out of the air.”

You share a glance with Gabby and nod. “Let’s go get it then,” you say.

A short jaunt back to the Ponyville Postal Office and you find yourself face to face with the manager of the office. Before he can say a word to Derpy you lift a hoof.

“I’m here on official authority by Princess Twilight Sparkle and the Council of Friendship,” you say. “You wrongly fired this mare for wrong-doing. She was simply trying to do her part to keep Equestria safe.”

“But I…” the manager starts to say.

“No, sir. Please, let me show you,” you say, pulling him along to the back room before he can finish his statement.

In the center of the back room is a floating page. It’s glowing a light blue and it appears to be ancient. You take a step inside and suddenly a pile of mail appears to block you.

“You see? That thing is what’s causing all of this, not Derpy,” you say.

“I just assumed she was the culprit because she was in here when all the weird stuff started happening,” the manager says, gulping loudly. “I’m really sorry, Derpy. You can have your job back if you want it, but how are you going to get that thing out of here? We have mail to sort!”

You smile at Derpy. “I think Derpy can get it out there,” you say.

“I can?” Derpy says. “You really think so?”

“I know so,” you say. “A mare who has friends like Gabby has gotta be fearless. I bet you can easily fly in and grab it.”

“But I’m a klutzy flier,” Derpy says.

“Try anyways,” you say.

Derpy nods and floats into the room. Before a mail pile can stack up on her, however, she flips about with graceful ease, her unpredictable patterns making it hard to keep track of. Eventually, she nabs the page and the entire room goes silent. Derpy lands and smiles as she hands you the page.

“See Derpy? You can do anything you set your mind to!” you say happily.

(+1 pages for Heroes)

[ENDING B: VILLAIN]
You scowl. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have time for this. I came to town for the page,” you say, walking off before the griffon can say anything.

So, the page is in the back room of the Postal Office, you think to yourself. I bet there’s a back entrance I can use to get in and get it out of there before nopony else notices. Then I’ll have all the power in the world.

You silently scoot around the rear of the building, finding what looks to be an open window. Creeping up into it after checking around to see if anypony else is watching, you find yourself on top of a shelf inside a packed mail room. The only difference is the floating page in the middle of the room, glowing a light blue.

You let yourself down to the floor before immediately pulling yourself back up due to a pile of mail suddenly appearing in front of you. It seems the page is somehow protecting itself magically!

You glance about and notice that the rows of shelving units could get you close enough to leap off and grab the page. You begin to scoot across as the shelf behind you is torn down due to a massive pile of mail landing on it. You move faster and faster, losing ground behind you as you leap off and reach out for the page, just barely grabbing it out of the air.

The room goes silent and you land in a pile of mail, holding the page. With an evil grin, you climb back up into the window and out, while you hear behind you the grumblings and muttering of Ponyville’s Postal Manager.

(+1 pages for Villains)

Author's Note

This was another one that I wrote for my wife Lucky Star to pass out as Gia the Griffon Mail Bird. In this one she used little positivity cards with the code word on them in envelopes to pass out to people at the event. She also left them on many of the free tables for people to pick up.

#TheQueenofMean - The Queens of Mean

The Queens of Mean

Code Word: #TheQueenofMean

An overnight slumber party at Princess Twilight’s castle has turned somewhat disastrous due to an unscheduled rain storm that has blown into town from the Everfree Forest. The castle itself has become a refuge for other ponies within the town, and everypony is pitching in to help them ride out the storm.

While you’re searching for supplies you come across a room of the castle that you’ve never seen before. Inside is a large standing mirror that appears to be glowing brightly. In the darkness you catch several dark forms suddenly darting for the mirror! They appear to be ponies and in the bleak light you see a floating withered old page being held in one of their hooves. You realize quickly that it’s one of the pages from the Book that everypony has been searching for.

Before you can say anything, the mirror glows even brighter as they pass into it. You reach out to grab the final form, catching onto them and being drawn into the surface of the mirror itself. Time and space seem to disappear and you pass out.

When you come to, you’re lying on the ground in front of what appears to be a large horse statue and you’re outside what appears to be a school. The statue is sitting in its courtyard.

“Great, you got caught, Juniper,” a voice says.

“It wasn’t my fault, they caught the edge of my jacket as I came through the portal,” another voice replies.

Your eyes dart up to see several tall forms standing around you. Their forms are definitely much different than your own, but you definitely recognize them as teenage girls.

The girl in front is a pale yellow and on her head a mop of pink hair with white streaks in it. She appears to be wearing a fashionable dress. And she’s the one holding the page.

You rack your brain for a few moments, recalling that Princess Twilight used to talk about another world that was accessible through a portal known as Canterlot High. You must have found your way there!

“Who are you?” you ask as you stand, feeling rather wobbly. “What happened?”

“Just push them back into the portal and let’s go already,” another voice says.

You glance about, taking in the five girls in front of you. Besides their apparent leader, there’s another pale green one with teal green hair in ponytails, a light green one with a rats nest of dark green hair, and two humans in sparkling outfits with big hair; one of them is blue and the other is yellow and both of them have hearts underneath their eyes.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea, Vignette,” the girl with the rat's nest for hair says. “If they tell anyone there what they saw…”

“Oh you’re still here, Wallflower? I thought you disappeared,” the one called Vignette says. “You do make a point though. Seriously, K-Lo, you’re so violent.”

“Well we need to do something,” the one called K-Lo, the yellow-skinned human with the sparkling outfit, says. “We can’t just let them go, right Su-Z?”

“We could rewrite them out of existence with the page,” Su-Z, the blue-skinned human with the sparkling outfit, offers.

“That’s a bit dark, I like it,” the girl with the ponytails says. “We’d better make a decision soon here before someone comes out and sees us out here. Not exactly popular here at Canterlot High.”

“Yes, yes. I’m thinking,” Vignette says, putting a hand up to her temple. “Here’s the deal. We need this page so we can rewrite our own stories. So you can either help us or try to stop us. What’s it going to be?”

[CHOICE]

Convince the girls to stop what they’re doing and give you the page for safekeeping. (Hero)
Join the girls and help them achieve their goals. (Villain)

[ENDING A: HERO]
“Hold on,” you say, finally grasping the situation at hand. “You don’t know how dangerous that thing is. One stray thought and you could hurt a lot of people.”

“I think that’s the point,” K-Lo says.

“Seriously, K-Lo?” Su-Z says. “Not cool.”

“I didn’t sign up to hurt anyone,” Wallflower says from behind the one you’ve assumed is called Juniper. “Right, Juniper? We just wanted to make people like us again.”

“There’s a better way you can do that, you know,” you reply with a smile. “It’s called the magic of friendship, and if you’d like… I could help you with it. My name is [USERNAME], and I’d like to be your friend if you’d let me.”

Vignette scowls for a moment. “Do you really think you could help us become better people?” she asks.

“Princess Twilight always taught us to put our best hand forward to others, even to those who may have strayed from the path,” you say, extending one of your hands to Vignette. “Trust me?”

Vignette smiles softly before depositing the page into your hand. “Fine, you got me interested,” she says.

You smile as the other girls come over, clearly interested in being your friend.

(+1 pages for Heroes)

[ENDING B: VILLAINS]
“Join you? Sure,” you say. “That page has got a lot of power in it. I’m sure we could use it to rule here.”

“Excellent!” Vignette says with a grin. “Girls, gather around. It’s time we got our due.”

The others huddle about as Vignette holds the page up. It glows brightly and suddenly each girl has an Equestrian artifact hovering in front of them. You immediately recognize the Memory Stone and the Time Twirler, while the girl with the ponytails holds a magical mirror and Vignette’s phone suddenly glows with magical power.

You look down and feel your own body rejuvenated with magic and you grin widely.

“This is going to be lots of fun,” you say as you follow the others towards destiny.

(+1 pages for Villains)

Author's Note

I really liked the idea of using the bad girls from the Equestria Girls films and specials. This is the Book of All Stories after all, and even they deserve their time to shine!

#BattleOfTheBrands - Battle of the Brands

Battle of the Brands

Code Word: #BattleOfTheBrands

“Welcome, ladies and gentlemen to the one and only Think Tank! In this episode, we’ll be hearing from two major brands out of Canterlot High School! Our hosts will have to decide whether to invest in one of them! The winner gets something very special!” the announcer says as the camera pans over to the hosts of the show, which happens to be three very nondescript business people. All three of them appear to have yellow and red eyes. Their names are glossed over by the announcer as the camera moves to a golden amulet. “This magical amulet goes to the winner of tonight’s show, in addition to a personal branding coach to grow their brand!”

“And now, our first pitch of the evening. This young lady has described herself as Great and Powerful. Her name is Trixie!” the announcer says as a smoke bomb detonates in front of the hosts.

The smoke clears revealing a girl in a purple cape and hat. She flings open her cape, revealing a stylish jumpsuit with sequins.

“Behold! I am the Great and Powerful Trixie! Magician extraordinaire!” she says, lifting one hand and snapping her fingers, a bouquet of flowers appearing out of thin air. She tosses them at one of the hosts. “My act is great! My act is powerful! And so am I!”

The Great and Powerful Trixie twirls around, producing a baton out of her jacket. She taps her hip with it and sparks fly out of the tip of the baton. She flips the baton around and points it up in the air, the sparks zipping into the space above to create snowflakes. She then turns and pulls her hat off her head and yanks a rabbit out of it before bowing.

“So… that’s it?” the first host asks. “Is that all you got?”

“I can do far more than that,” Trixie replies coolly.

“I feel like we need to work on your branding a bit. Great and Powerful? That didn’t exactly feel Great or Powerful,” the middle host says.

“My branding is exactly who I am!” Trixie says. “I am Great and Powerful!”

“Well, personally, I like her,” the third host says. “But I’m on the fence. How can we grow your brand if you win?”

“Trixie shall be a force like the world has never seen if I win,” Trixie says. “Everyone shall know my name! I’ll travel far and wide spreading magic and fun to everyone! It’ll be just like chaos! Fun chaos!”

“Okay well we’ll keep you in mind,” the third host says. “Let’s bring out our other contestant.”

Trixie walks off stage, eyes gleaming at the next set of girls walking out. These girls are dressed in glitz and glam, decked out to the nines in neon jumpsuits. Each one has a wild hairstyle.

“I’m Adagio and we are the Dazzlings, and we’re here to blow your socks off!” the lead girl says, stepping forward. Her puffy orange hair and purple outfit appear to be absolutely stunning. “Hit it girls!”

The three Dazzlings launch into a song with powerful vocals and a rocking high note to cap it off. They finish and grin widely, believing themselves to be the winners.

“First of all, love your energy, but we’ve seen the girl power rock band before,” the middle host says. “What makes the Dazzlings the Dazzlings? What can you do that no other band can?”

“Well, we used to be able to control people with our voices,” the third girl with a large blue ponytail said. “But then we lost our magic gems that allowed us to do that.”

“Sonata, shut up,” Adagio says. “What she means to say is that if we win, we’ll most certainly control everyone with our magical voices with the magic of that amulet. We’ll be the most popular brand in the history of this world!”

“That’s certainly ambitious, for sure,” the first host says before waving the trio off the stage. He turns to the others. “What do you two think?”

“Unsure, but we gotta vote for one of them,” the third host replies. “I did like that Trixie girl, she had good energy too. Very chaotic.”

“The Dazzlings seem quite villainous and ambitious,” the middle host says. “I guess we’re going to have to put it to a vote!”

All three hosts turn towards the page.

Yes. You. You need to vote! Now!

[CHOICE]

Pick Trixie. (Chaos)

Pick the Dazzlings. (Villain)

[ENDING A: CHAOS]
“The winner is… Trixie!”

Trixie is ushered on stage once more and handed the amulet. A grin appears on the three hosts' faces as they all merge together into the form of a large dragon-like creature.

“Who… what… I thought this was a game show!” Trixie shouts.

“I mean, it was, and you won, so there is that. Are you ready to go spread your name across the world? It’s going to be so much fun, you and I,” the creature replies with a grin. “Let’s go do some chaos, shall we?”

Trixie thinks for a moment and smiles back.

“Yes… the Great and Powerful Trixie is ready to play some tricks on this world!”

(+1 page for Chaos)

[ENDING B: VILLAIN]
“The winner is… the Dazzlings!”

The Dazzlings are brought on stage. The amulet appears in Adagio’s hands as it splits into three powerful rubies. Adagio grins and drinks in the power, her eyes glowing.

“Now then,” a rumbling voice says. “You said you planned to dominate this world? Show me that power.”

Adagio looks up at the mismatched creature before her as she starts to sing.

“The Dazzlings are back!”

(+1 page for Villains)

Author's Note

This came at a time where the project needed to balance the three factions, so I started writing some dumb Chaos vs Villain stories.

This one was mostly based on a dumb Shark Tank style tv show. It was amusing.

#Crystalsss - Crystalsssssss

Crystalsssssss

Code Word: #Crystalsss

You’re walking through the woods of Bridlewood when suddenly you come across the most curious of sights. Two unicorns are standing in the middle of the clearing and they appear to be arguing about something. One of them you recognize as Izzy Moonbow, one of Sunny Starscout’s best friends. The other… you wipe your eyes and blink as you realize it’s King Sombra, scourge of the Crystal Empire!

“Okay, now I’m not saying that you’re wrong, but it’s definitely pronounced ‘crystals’!” Izzy shouts at the evil unicorn.

“No… it’s ‘criiiistallllssss’, you have to accentuate it,” Sombra replies angrily.

“You’re making it sound weird on purpose!” Izzy says. “Just sound it out with me. Crystals.”

“Criiiiistalllssss.”

“No… crystals.”

“Criiiistallllssssss.”

“Okay now you’re just embellishing it to make me mad,” Izzy says with a frown. “It’s not very funny, Mister Sombrero.”

“I assure you, Miss Moonbow, I mean you no offense,” King Sombra replies. “My name, however, is King Sombra.”

You watch for another good five minutes trying to decipher what is going on here before finally the two realize you’ve been watching them. Izzy’s eyes light up at noticing you.

“Oh hey! You’re [USERNAME], right?” she says.

You nod. “Is everything okay here?”

“Oh yeah, we’re just having a little discussion about crystals,” Izzy says. “Sombrero is a big fan of crystals, but he just can’t say it right, isn’t that right Sombrero?”

“I have told you repeatedly that my name is Sombra. And it’s pronounced ‘crisssstaaaalllllssss’ for the last time,” King Sombra says. “I came here to steal all your criiiiistaaaallllsss and I am tired of this silly game.”

“See what I mean?” Izzy says. “[USERNAME], you gotta help us out here. I’ll make a bet with Sombrero here. If I’m right, he has to leave and I get all the crystals I want in this clearing. If he’s right, I give him all the crystals he wants. Deal?”

Sombra thinks for a moment and then looks at you, grinning widely. “Deal.”

“Okay, [USERNAME]. Which one of us is right?”

[CHOICE]

Izzy is right. (Chaos)
Sombra is right. (Villain)

[ENDING A: CHAOS]
“Sorry, Sombra, but Izzy is right. You can’t embellish the word like that, it’s just pronounced ‘crystals’,” you say.

Sombra frowns, but nods. “Fine. You win. I will leave.” His horn glows and suddenly he disappears into shadow.

Izzy pumps a hoof and grins. “Alright! Now to use these crystals in a new unicycling project that I’m sure everypony is going to love! It totally won’t explode and cause property damage!”

She bounces away leaving you to think What did I just unleash?

(+1 page for Chaos)

[ENDING B: VILLAIN]
“I always kind of liked how you pronounced the word, ‘criiiiistallllss’, Sombra. You’re right on the money,” you say.

Izzy glowers at you and sighs. “Okay okay, you can have all of the crystals, Sombrero.”

She bounces away as Sombra takes stock of the crystals in the clearing. He grins a toothy grin and uses his magic, lifting all of them into the air as they form into what appear to be soldiers made out of pure crystal.

“Now then. I must take my leave and march my new army upon the inhabitants of this silly forest!” he says triumphantly.

You watch in awe as he and his soldiers disappear into the forest.

(+1 page for Villains)

Author's Note

Okay I had this really dumb idea of Izzy and Sombra arguing over the pronunciation of crystals, and here it is.

If you notice throughout this one, I have Sombra intentionally change the pronunciation each time because it messes with Izzy and he knows it. Izzy counteracts by calling him Sombrero the whole time.

Classic Izzy.

#YouHadOneJob - You Had One Job, Larry!

You Had One Job, Larry!

Code Word: #YouHadOneJob

You find yourself in what appears to be a castle deep in the woods outside Ponyville, following a lead up on one of the pages from the Book of All Stories. As you approach, you quickly realize the castle is not uninhabited. Several large creatures with hairy spines coming off their backs patrol the grounds. Their blue glowing eyes peer directly in front of them, unblinking.

One of them notices you, but doesn’t seem all that interested in actually pursuing you. As you step out from the brush, the guards move along their way, paying you no mind. You step gingerly through to the entrance as the guards move out of your way to allow you passage. This is certainly very strange, but you consider yourself to be lucky.

The inside of the castle is dank and dark with very little light leading down the main hallway. As you enter what you ascertain to be a throne room, you hear the sound of arguing.

“Look, we agreed to co-own this castle, and I think the new design plans are really good,” one voice says, coming from what appears to be some form of living creature made of shadowy clouds.

“Normally I would agree, except you misspelled my name on the banner!” the other voice says. It is coming from a large white bipedal creature with blue eyes and a crown. You can see from his stature that he appears to be some form of satyr. “You had one job, Larry! One job! And you couldn’t even do that one right! It’s no wonder the other moon creatures kicked you out.”

“For the last time, my name is not Larry! It’s Shadowfright!” the shadow creature replies angrily. “And I did not mess up! You gave me the wrong specifications!”

“Uh… excuse me?” you decide to interject, waving slightly at the two. “Either of you happen to see a piece of paper floating around here? You know, it kind of looks like a page out of a spell book?”

“Who are you? How did you get in here?!” the satyr creature says. “This is the castle of the mighty Storm King! Larry, did you do something to the security?!”

“I definitely don’t know anything about how they got in here, if that’s what you’re implying,” the shadowy creature you’ve ascertained to be Larry says. “I am not always at fault.”

“The guards outside weren’t that troubled with me being here,” you say. “I’ll get out of your hair as soon as I find that page.”

“Actually you know what? I’m glad you’re here,” Larry says. “Maybe you can settle something for us. I do happen to have seen what you’re looking for, and I’ll give it to you if you can help us out.”

“Really? Involving a third party? I can’t believe you.” the Storm King says with a groan.

“Sure,” you say. “What do you need?”

“This is supposed to be a cooperative partnership here,” Larry says. “But lately I feel undervalued. I want more of a controlling interest in the business. Side with me and I’ll give you the page.”

“You mean you want me out of the business,” the Storm King says with a huff. He turns to you. “Look. I’ll level with you. This is the laziest partner I’ve ever worked with. He can’t even spell my name right! I’ll give you the page you want, but you have to agree to side with me.”

“Okay, but we have to set some ground rules here. Whoever I pick, the other has to leave,” you say. It’s a weird situation to find yourself in, but these two definitely seem like trouble if they could ever get along, so having only one present might be for the best. “Got it?”

The two nod in agreement as you make your choice.

[CHOICE]

Support Larry. (Chaos)
Support the Storm King. (Villain)

[ENDING A: CHAOS]
“Honestly? I think Shadowfright over there is probably a much better leader,” you say. “The Storm King? More like the Boring King, am I right?”

“Hah! I like the way you think!” Larry replies with a grin made of miniature clouds. “Sorry, Boring King. You heard them! Get out of here!”

“Fine. You can have the army,” the Storm King says with a growl before standing and leaving the hall.

“Excellent! Look, here’s your page,” Larry says, handing over the piece of paper. “I don’t really know what it does, and I may have scribbled on it a bit. Sorry about that.”

“That’s okay. So what are your plans now?” you ask as you take the page and stuff it into your bag.

“I don’t really know. I guess I should probably check out Ponyville and see if Rarity is still around. I wonder if she remembers me?” Larry ponders out loud.

(+1 page for Chaos)

[ENDING B: VILLAIN]
“Well, for one I think Larry is kind of a poor worker, and he’s definitely very bad at his job,” you say. “I think the Storm King should be fully in charge.”

“Hah! You hear that, Larry!” the Storm King says. “I’m in charge! Get out!”

“You don’t have to be so mean about it,” Larry says with a sigh before floating out of the hallway.

You turn to the Storm King. “So… about the page?” you say.

“Oh, you actually believed I would give that to you? How quaint. You’re lucky I’m going to let you leave with your hide intact!” the Storm King says, glaring down at you with an evil grin. “I’m going to use the power of the page to raze Ponyville to the ground, and then it’s on to Canterlot! I’m back, baby!”

Several large guards surround you as you run out of the castle and away from the Storm King’s army.

(+1 page to Villains)

Author's Note

I don't even have words for this one. I do love Larry (from the MLP comic run where Rarity becomes Nightmare Rarity) though.

#HappyBirthday - Party Like It’s 1982

Party Like It’s 1982

Code Word: #HappyBirthday

It’s a packed night at Trotter’s, and the cider is flowing freely while Barley Tender and Caramel Malt do their best to keep up with the party going on around them. At the center of the commotion is a mare named Lucky Star, a lime green pony with both wings and a horn and a four-leaf clover on her flank. As it just so happens, it’s her birthday! Streamers and balloons fill the air around the mare’s table and around all of her friends, and laughter echoes throughout Trotter’s.

“Another round for the birthday party, Caramel!” Barley calls out, placing several steins of cider on the bar.

“You got it, boss!” Caramel replies as she lifts them all in the air with a swish of magical power. She arrives at the table and deposits them swiftly, pulling out a small notepad. “So, what are we getting for the birthday mare?”

“Hi, Caramel!” Lucky says with a grin. “I just wanted to say thank you so much for allowing me to have my party here. I want the best and biggest hay burger you got!”

“Sure thing, Lucky. No worries! I’ll get that order right in for you,” Caramel says, winking. She quickly takes the rest of the table’s orders before dropping the ticket back off in the back kitchen. She rejoins Barley at the bar..

“Doing alright there, Caramel? You look pretty tuckered,” Barley says, tipping his hat back.

“I’ll be alright,” Caramel says. “As long as we only have this birthday party.”

“Should be, Lucky booked the bar for the whole night for her and her friends,” Barley says, pulling up his schedule book from behind the bar. “Wait a minute… Who the hay is…?”

Before Barley can get the words out of his mouth, the door to the bar opens, revealing a deep red and gold dragon wearing what appears to be a beret.

“Okay, ponies! Look out, cuz Garble is here to drop some of the freshest poetry beats you have ever heard!” the dragon says loudly.

The partygoers stop and look over as the dragon makes his way to the bar, whispering quietly amongst themselves. Lucky gets up from the table and heads to the bar as well, hearing the dragon argue with Barley.

“Whaddya mean I can’t perform tonight? You had me booked to play tonight like weeks ago!” Garble says angrily.

“Is everything alright?” Lucky says.

“Everything is fine, I was just explaining to Garble here that due to a clerical error we accidentally double booked the bar area tonight,” Barley says. “I’m really sorry to both of you, I should have checked the books a bit better.”

“Oh,” Lucky says. “Is that going to be that much of a problem?”

“Oh it’s a problem alright. I’ve got a crowd of dragons coming in tonight to watch my poetry jam,” Garble says. “This is what, just a namby pamby pony party? Make them leave. I’ll make your bar way more money tonight with the crowd I’m bringing.”

“Uh, what? It’s my birthday, you can’t just ask me to leave!” Lucky retorts angrily. “Find someplace else to perform!”

“Make me!” Garble says.

Barley lifts a hoof. “Look you two, calm down. We’ll figure out a solution to this,” he says. “Just give me some time to think, please?”

Lucky nods happily. “You’re right. Sorry about that, Garble. I’ll wait and let Barley decide what’s best.”

Garble grumbles under his breath. “Fine, I guess I’m sorry too.”

“Excellent, now Caramel, grab a drink for our fine dragon friend here while I figure out what to do here,” Barley asks.

Caramel nods and fetches a cider for Garble as Barley begins to think.

What should Barley do?

[CHOICE]

Send Garble away and schedule him for a different night. (Hero)
End the birthday party and send everyone home. (Villain)
Figure out a way to let both events occur at the same time! (Chaos)

[ENDING A: HERO]
“Garble, I’m sorry, but I’m afraid Lucky did book her party way before you booked your poetry jam,” Barley says with a sigh. “I simply can’t have you in the bar tonight.”

“Ugh, well okay I guess, but I did come all this way from the dragon lands to perform,” Garble says grumpily.

“I get that, so I have tomorrow night completely free for you, and I’ll even pay you ahead of time for it if that would help offset some of your travel costs,” Barley offers. “It’s not much, but maybe it will give you incentive to stay. We’d obviously love to hear your poetry.”

“Yeah, I’ll even get my friends to come watch then,” Lucky says with a smile.

Garble thinks about it for a moment and nods. “You got yourself a deal! I’ll see you ponies tomorrow night then! Happy Birthday!”

“Thanks!” Lucky chirps before heading back to her party.

(+1 page for Heroes)

[ENDING B: VILLAIN]
Barley sighs and walks over to Lucky.

“I’m really sorry about this, but I am going to need you to wrap up the party,” he says.

“But I booked way before Garble did,” Lucky replies. “That’s not very fair.”

“I realize that, Lucky, but we’ve been trying to get Garble on the books for a lot longer and we could use the extra bits he’s going to bring in with all the fans he’s got coming,” Barley says. “If it helps at all, I’ll comp all of your party’s meal for the evening.”

Lucky sighs before grimacing. “Fine, we’ll go, but I’m not going to forget this, Barley,” she says before stomping off in a huff.

“Alright, let’s get ready for a poetry jam!” Garble shouts from the tiny stage as dragons of all kinds filter into the bar.

Barley wipes the sweat off his brow and gets back to work.

(+1 page for Villains)

[ENDING C: CHAOS]
Barley smiles wryly, an idea forming in his mind.

“I have a great idea. I know we double booked you, but for a little extra do you think you’d be able to perform for Lucky’s party?” Barley says, glancing up at Garble. He turns to Lucky. “No charge to you at all, and as they say, the more the merrier right?”

Lucky and Garble share a glance and grin.

“Sure, I’ll perform for the ponies, but what about my dragon buddies coming?” Garble asks.

“They can join my party! There’s more than enough room for everycreature!” Lucky says proudly. “It sounds like a real blast, let’s go for it!”

Garble grabs his bongos and sets up on the stage, launching into his act. Everypony is enjoying the show and as the dragons filter in, Lucky greets each and everyone of them personally, offering them slices of cake and to join in the fun.

“Life is simply better when you have more friends, isn’t that right, Caramel?” Barley says, sighing as he takes in the scene.

“You got it, boss,” Caramel says. “That’s the honest truth.”

(+1 page for Chaos)

Author's Note

Nov 18th (the Saturday of Ponyville Ciderfest 2023) was actually my wife Lucky Star's birthday! This story was to celebrate that in a way, and she used it as a pass out as Gia the Griffon Mail Bird by sharing sealed gummy treats with con guests with the code word on it.

This also gave me an opportunity to use con mascots Barley Tender and Caramel Malt, which was super fun. Also GARBLE.

#CrusadersOfChaos - Cutie Mark Castle Cleaners, Yay!

Cutie Mark Castle Cleaners, Yay!

Code Word: #CrusadersOfChaos

“Ugh! Misty! Misty!!! Where is that unicorn?” the dreadful Opaline Arcana says as she steps through her castle. “This place is filthy! Misty is not keeping up on her chores.”

As Opaline walks down to the main throne room, Misty enters.

“Misty, there you are. Where were you? I can’t find my favorite mane brush! This castle is not clean!” Opaline whines loudly.

Misty sheepishly looks up at Opaline. “Sorry, Opaline. I was in town scouting. Things are getting crazy out there with those book pages.”

“Yes… Well I need you to clean up the place. It’s getting quite ridiculous!” Opaline replied with a flip of her hair. “I’m going to go take a deep soak. When I get out I expect this castle to be spotless!”

Misty grimaces, but nods as Opaline walks back up the stairs. Once she’s gone, Misty groans loudly.

“Great, I was hoping to go see Sunny and the others. How am I going to get this place cleaned quickly?” she says. Her eyes drift across the room to a catalog laying on the throne. Misty walks over and picks it up, scanning the pages until her eyes light up.

She quickly grabs her phone and dials the number.

“Uh yes, hello? I’m answering your ad in the catalog that says you do castle cleaning? How soon can you get here?” she asks the pony on the phone. “Oh wow, that quick? Okay, that’s perfect.”

Misty quickly describes where the castle is and within mere minutes there’s a knock on the door. Misty opens the door to reveal three young fillies, each one with a different coloration.

“Cutie Mark Castle Cleaners at your service!” the lead filly says with a very deep drawling voice. “My name’s Apple Bloom, and this here’s Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo! You said you needed your castle cleaned?”

“Uh, yes, but the pony on the phone didn’t sound as young as you are,” Misty says, eyebrows raised. “Are you sure you can do the job?”

“Trust us. All of our ratings are completely real and not made up at all!” Scootaloo offers. “We know what we’re doing.”

“Okay… I guess you can come in and start working. I’m going to run out, so here’s your payment up front,” Misty says, handing them some bits.

As Misty exits, Apple Bloom and her friends grin widely at each other.

“So where do ya s’pose they keep their power tools?” Apple Bloom says, peering underneath a nearby table.

“I don’t know, Apple Bloom. But maybe we better actually… clean the castle? Remember what happened at Princess Twilight’s,” Sweetie Belle interjects.

“Yeah I don’t ever wanna see that much pudding ever again,” Scootaloo says with a shudder. “Besides… we’re trying to earn enough bits to go to that concert in Manehattan, we might as well do the job we were hired to do!”

“Girls, I’m tellin’ y’all this is a prime opportunity for a remodel! We could get the job done in about an hour and then flip this place while she’s gone! It’s the perfect plan!” Apple Bloom says with a grin.

“Not this again. Discord has got into your brain with that whole venture capitalist propaganda, AB,” Scootaloo says as she runs her hoof across the dusty throne. “Besides, I think this place needs much more than a remodel.”

[CHOICE]

Should the CMC go along with Apple Bloom’s idea and remodel the place? (Chaos)
Should the CMC go along with Sweetie Belle’s idea and just clean the castle? (Villain)

[ENDING A: CHAOS]
“But girls, think of the bits!” Apple Bloom says, scrounging around one of the closets. “Hey I found the power saws!”

Sweetie Belle sighs and looks at Scootaloo. “Okay yeah, it is going to cost a lot for the concert,” she admits.

“Yeah, true. Okay, I’m game. Where do we start?” Scootaloo asks.

Apple Bloom smiles wider than ever, handing each of the other two a belt and a saw. “Let’s get to work then!”

From her bath above, Opaline begins to hear screeching and yowling from the rest of the castle. “Blast it, Misty, what are you doing down there?!” she says as she pulls herself out of the bathtub sopping wet. She walks to the foot of the stairs and her eyes widen.

Absolute unadulterated chaos reigns in the rest of the castle. Trestles line the walls and paint buckets abound with unfinished paint jobs sitting on the various walls. At the center of it all, sawing and hacking with every power tool in possible existence is three small fillies.

“What, who, what?!” Opaline sputters. “What are you doing in my castle?!”

“Oh, this is your castle? Then who was the unicorn who paid us to clean up?” one of the three pipes up, a bright pink bow just visible behind her face mask that stretched over her head.

Opaline’s eye twitches. “GET OUT OF MY CASTLE! AND IF YOU SEE MISTY, TELL HER SHE’S IN TROUBLE!” she roars, a gout of flame erupting from her mouth.

“Okay okay!” Apple Bloom says. “Girls, let’s get out of here!”

“Cutie Mark Castle Remodelers, yay!”

Opaline growls under her breath as the three fillies scamper out of the castle before looking around. “Huh, I do like that shade of pink though. Not a bad eye for design,” she says before going back up to her bath.

(+1 page for Chaos)

[ENDING B: VILLAIN]
“No, y’all are right. We should just do the job we were paid to do,” Apple Bloom says. “We’ll get the money for that concert the honest way.”

The three begin to very neatly tidy up, dusting and moving items around. In no time flat, the castle is virtually spotless. It’s gleaming even.

Opaline’s horn alights, pulling a towel around her to dry off as she walks to the stairs. “My, my , Misty has been busy. This looks amazing!” she says as her eyes drift down to what appears to be three small fillies diligently cleaning. “Uh… wait, who are you?”

“Oh, hi there. Sorry, we’ll be out of your mane in a few minutes,” the lead filly, a yellowish earth pony with a big pink bow replies. “We were paid to clean the place. Didn’t know you was home.”

“Speaking of, did you need us to clean up the bathroom after your bath? If you don’t get those wet floors it eventually causes problems!” the second one, a white unicorn with a pinkish/purplish mane says.

Opaline blinks. “Well, Misty sure took some initiative it seems. What are your names?”

“I’m Apple Bloom, and this here’s Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. We’re the Cutie Mark Castle Cleaners,” Apple Bloom says proudly.

“Interesting. How would you girls like a regular job? I dare say you do a far better job than Misty ever does on a good day at keeping things clean,” Opaline says.

“Girls, we can definitely get the money to go to the concert now!” Scootaloo says with a whinny.

“Oh yes, I shall pay you well for keeping up the place so that I can go about my evil business,” Opaline says with a wicked grin.

“Did you girls hear that? We get to work for an evil queen!” Sweetie Belle says. “Best day ever!”

“Alright alright, hold your horses, both y’all,” Apple Bloom says before looking up at Opaline. “You got yourself a deal. But no funny business.”

“Deal,” Opaline says.

“Cutie Mark Castle Cleaners, yay!”

(+1 page for Villains)

Author's Note

Face it, if Opaline had the CMC in her court she would be basically unstoppable. They are a terror unlike the G5 crew has ever seen!

#IsThisTheRealLife - Is This Just Fantasy?

Is This Just Fantasy?

Code Word: #IsThisTheRealLife

A cold wind blows on the horizon as the intrepid hero Sir Lintsalot makes his way over the ridge overlooking the rock and stone castle where the beautiful Princess le Flour is being held.

“I say, the wind is quite chilly today,” Lintsalot mutters to himself. He turns to look down the hill behind him. “Squire Rocky, are you coming? We have a Princess to save!”

“I’m comin’ I’m comin’,” a deep voice echoes up the hill as Rocky moves into view. He ambles up the hill next to Lintsalot, huffing loudly. “It’s not as easy as a hill as it looks, ya know.”

“Indubitably,” Lintsalot says. “Now then. We must find a way into the castle. You know a lot about rocks, my dear Squire. What do you make of it?”

Rocky peers down the ridge and nods. “I think we might be able to get in through the back, Boss. Weak rocks back there. We can break through.”

“Excellent, my dear pile of rocks,” Lintsalot says. “Let us be on our way. We do not wish to leave the Princess waiting.”

The two make their way down the ridge and quietly move to the rear of the stone tower where Rocky taps quietly at the outer wall before nodding.

“Here’s the weak point,” he says, tapping again on the wall hard as a hole opens up in the side of the tower. “See?”

“You are quite resourceful, my faithful friend,” Lintsalot says.

The two step into the tower, finding themselves at the bottom of a long spiral staircase. Ascending the stairs, an eerie quiet comes over them both. After several long moments of sheer silence, they reach the top of the tower.

In the middle of the wide open room is a large cage. Sitting inside the cage is the grand Princess le Flour.

“Brave Knight Lintsalot! ‘Vat are you doing here?” she cries out. “You must run! Before ‘ze–”

Before the princess can get another word in, a large form wraps a stony tail around the cage, silencing her. A dragon made completely out of rock glares at the knight and his squire with burning coals for eyes. Riding on top of its head is the dastardly evil Mr. Turnip.

“Hello there, Sir Lintsalot,” Turnip says.

“Mr. Turnip,” Lintsalot says. “I should have known you were behind all of this. You did always covet the Princess.”

“Actually I’ve been waitin’ for you,” Turnip replies casually. “I’ve had my eye on you for a while now.”

“Me? Why? I thought you captured the princess to marry her!” Lintsalot exclaims.

“She is rather nice, but I have been lookin’ for you,” Turnip says. “I have a dark truth to impart upon you… I AM YOUR FATHER.”

Lintsalot is taken aback. “That’s… that’s improbable! I’m a ball of lint and you’re a bucket of turnips! How does that even work?”

“Okay fine, maybe I’m not. But I still have an offer for you. You can join me, and we will be the most powerful couple in all of the realms!” Turnip says triumphantly.

“That seems anti-climatic doesn’t it?” Lintsalot says. “This feels like a children’s story! None of this makes any sense whatsoever!”

“What are we going to do, boss?” Rocky says. “This doesn’t feel right to me!”

“I can’t make a decision! This entire thing is a farce! Right? Right?!” Lintsalot cries out.

What should Lintsalot do?!

[CHOICE]

Join Mr. Turnip and become the most powerful villains of all the realms. (Villain)
Realize this entire story is made up by Pinkie Pie. (Chaos)

[ENDING A: VILLAIN]
“No, no! I have realized how much I love you, Mr. Turnip!” Lintsalot says, shaking the feelings of insanity from his lint. “I shall join you!”

“Excellent, dear Linty,” Mr. Turnip says. He bounces on the dragon and it releases the cage, allowing Princess le Flour to leave. “Go, Princess. Warn your friends that we are coming for them.”

The Princess shrieks and runs down the stairs as Rocky tries to run after her, leaving Mr. Turnip and Sir Lintsalot alone.

“Now, my dear. Let’s cause a little villainy, shall we?” Mr. Turnip says.

“Indubitably.”

(+1 Page for Villains)

[ENDING B: CHAOS]
“No, this isn’t right! This entire thing is a complete and utter farce! We are just playthings for a cruel and uncaring goddess!” Lintsalot shrieks loudly.

All of the imaginary friends drop to the floor immediately, wrapped in purple magic.

“Really, Twilight?” Pinkie says. “If you’re not going to play properly, you could at least just have said no instead of joining in anyways.”

“Sorry, Pinkie. I’m not very good at using my imagination I guess,” Twilight Sparkle replies with a sigh. “I didn’t mean to make it not fun.”

Pinkie smiles brightly and pulls Twilight in for a hug.

“That’s okay, Twily! I still love you!” she says, planting a kiss on Twilight’s cheek before bouncing away.

(+1 Page for Chaos)

Author's Note

I really wanted to do a story with Pinkie's imaginary friends, that also slightly turns into some Pinkie-Twi shipping in one of the endings.

It was goofy and fun for sure.

#GallusIsAMan - I, Gallus

I, Gallus

Code Word: #GallusIsAMan

Hello, dear reader. These words may fall on deaf ears, as they are the words of a griffon who is in need of dire assistance. The world is a strange place, and for a griffon such as I, finding my way in this world is a crazy thing.

I should introduce myself, shouldn’t I? My name is Gallus. Once I was part of a magical group of friends who spread the magic of friendship throughout the world. I went from that to becoming a royal guard serving Princess Twilight herself.

After that? I settled down and enjoyed life. I found that I loved to read. I thrived on knowledge. I read every little book that I could find. I learned so much from books. They became a part of my daily life as I took up residence in one of the abandoned towers in Canterlot.

One day however, I found a page in one of my books that was unlike anything else I’d ever read. It spoke of a way to change things. All I had to do was write in it. It would do whatever I desired.

And I did. I wrote in it. I wrote myself into power. I was the most powerful griffon in Equestria. I had magic and power beyond compare. And it became my downfall.

They stopped me of course. Threw everything they had at me. I razed cities, having grown mad with power. Eventually the ponies of Equestria used their own magic to lock me away, sealing me within the very pages that you now read. I waited for a very long time for someone to pick up this book. And then you came along.

Dear reader, you have more power than you could ever possibly know or understand. You can release that which you decide to read into existence. You can free me. You can give me life, once more. You can unleash my dark powers into the waking world. Imagine the chaos. Imagine all the fun we could have you and I. We would be an unstoppable force.

Or you can close the book. You can destroy my very essence by wishing me out of existence. That would be quite villainous of you, yes? You could destroy me and take the pages and bend them to your own will. Such a thing would be glorious, but I would not be there to witness your ascendance. I would only warn you to not fall down the same path I did and reveal your power before you are prepared to face its consequences.

Dear reader, I desire you to make a choice. A choice that will affect the very fabric of existence. Are you brave enough to make such a choice?

[CHOICE]

Close the book and destroy Gallus. (Villain)
Release Gallus from the book. (Chaos)

[ENDING A: VILLAIN]
You close the book and begin the process of destroying Gallus. Gallus begins to shriek as the magic of the pages begins to tear his very essence apart.

“I know you now, reader! I will return… and I will find you!” Gallus shouts. “You will not get away with this!”

The magic surges and distorts, Gallus’ voice stuttering as his image tries to grasp something that isn’t there. Before he can break free once more, the magical essence fades away and he disappears.

You search through the study you had found the journal in and locate the page you were looking for. It hums with magical power. A grin forms on your face. Gallus was a fool, openly displaying his power. You can use this for some real villainy.

You grab a pen and start to write. The world will know of you eventually, but unlike Gallus, you will have time to prepare and learn from his mistakes.

(+1 page for Villains)

[ENDING B: CHAOS]
You focus on the page and consider the power of such a being. It could be fun to have such a powerful friend.

The chains begin to snap one by one and you smile widely as Gallus pulls himself from the very pages of the book. His eyes glimmer and gleam with dark magic as he looks straight at you. He appears to be wearing a cloak that shines in the darkness around you.

“I knew you were the right one, I knew it!” Gallus says triumphantly, lifting a claw in some form of a salute. “Now we can cause the greatest chaos in this world! Come, dear reader!”

The world around you begins to transform and shift. Gallus produces a page that is brimming with magical essence. With a flourish of a pen, he begins to write. He looks at you and grins widely.

With a snap of his claws, everything changes.

(+1 page for Chaos)

Author's Note

I wanted to write a story for the resident Gallus fanatic I know, Nevaylin.

I even made this one a poster and gave it to Nevy at the convention to use to pass this code word out. It was grand.

#TheLast Problem - The Last Problem

The Last Problem

Code Word: #TheLastProblem

“... how the magic of Friendship grows…”

Luster Dawn turns from her teacher, the glorious and radiant Princess Twilight Sparkle, and stares out into Ponyville. She runs off after a few others, who appear to be her own age, as she looks back once more at the Princess and her friends before turning back to the town.

She stops cold in her tracks as she nears close to the group that had beckoned to her to follow them. A kirin, a griffon, a yak, and a pony all stand around a table just outside Sugarcube Corner.

I… I don’t actually know how to do any of this! She thinks to herself. I spent so much time believing I didn’t need all that friendship lesson junk in school that I don’t actually know how to make friends! Twilight sang a song and just magically expected that I’d know what to do? That’s crazy!

“Hey, new girl,” the griffon says. “You can come hang out with us if you want.”

“Yeah, come on,” the kirin says. “You’re Princess Twilight’s student right?”

Luster Dawn nervously walks up to the table. “I… I… Yes, I’m Luster Dawn, Princess Twilight’s star pupil, but that doesn’t make me better than you! I just was lucky to learn magic from her!”

“Pony don’t need to be nervous,” the yak says. “We all friends here. My name is Yojam Yak!”

“Griselda,” the griffon says.

“I’m Frosty Winds,” the kirin says. “But you can call me Frosty!”

“I’m Buzz Cut!” the pony interjects. “Yojam is right. You’re more than welcome to join us. You don’t need to be nervous.”

“Oh I’m not, I’m not nervous why would I be nervous? I’m the pupil of the Princess of Friendship, of course I’m not nervous!” Luster Dawn says, her voice reaching a higher pitch than normal.

“Is pony okay?” Yojam says quietly in the direction of the kirin.

“She does seem like she’s sweating rather profusely,” Frosty replies calmly. “It’s okay, Luster Dawn, you are among friends here. Please sit and tell us a bit about yourself.”

Luster’s eyes widen and she wipes her brow. She is definitely sweating very profusely. It feels just like one of those dreams where you’re in class in your pajamas. Luster shudders. She’s had that dream far too much for comfort’s sake.

“I… I uhh… I have to go to the bathroom, I’ll be right back!” she says, her voice cracking. She runs off in the opposite direction.

“But the bathroom is over there!” Buzz Cut calls after her. Before he can call out again, Luster is around the next corner and out of sight. “That was weird,” he says.

Luster stops and begins to hyperventilate. I don’t know what to do! This isn’t like magic class! It’s not easy to make friends. What was Twilight thinking leaving me here?! I should just give up and go back home to Canterlot!

“But if I do that, she’ll be disappointed in me,” Luster says aloud. “I won’t be able to study under her anymore. Ugh… I wish there was just a magical switch that let you learn all about friendship in one go! I would never have to worry about this ever again!”

As she walks, Luster nearly trips on an envelope that’s suddenly appeared at her hooves. Her eyes widen as she picks it up. Strangely… it’s addressed to her. She looks around. Nopony is even in sight.

“Hello? Who dropped this here?” she calls out to no reply.

She looks down at the envelope and opens it up with a flick of her magic. Inside are two pieces of paper. One looks to be rather new while the other looks positively ancient. The older-looking page is completely blank.

Luster unfolds the other piece and begins to read aloud.

“Write your deepest desire on the ancient page and it shall become reality,” she whispers to herself, her voice low despite being completely alone.

She looks down at the other page and her eyes widen. If true, this magic could solve all her problems! It was almost as if somepony was watching over her! What if it was the Princess?! No… that didn’t sound right. The Princess wouldn’t want Luster to take the easy way. She would advocate for hard work, just like she always did.

Still, if this page could do what it was supposed to, she wouldn’t have to worry about that. She’d be friends with everypony and she’d be exceptionally knowledgeable about friendship! Maybe she’d even become an alicorn and supplant Twilight as the Princess of Friendship! It was tempting, but it also felt cheap.

Luster shook her head and grimaced. What should she do?

[CHOICE]

Leave the page alone and do things the hard way. (Hero)
Use the page to become all-knowing about friendship. (Chaos).

[ENDING A: HERO]
“No… this isn’t right,” Luster says, finally making her decision. “I can’t always rely on magic to get me everywhere. That’s what Twilight was trying to teach me. There’s always the magic of friendship.”

She dropped the page and the letter and ran back around the corner, finding herself yet again in front of the group of creatures.

“Oh hey Luster,” the griffon says. “Find the bathroom okay?”

“Especially since you totally went the wrong way,” Buzz Cut interjects, earning a nudge from Frosty. “What? She did!”

“I have a bit of a confession to make,” Luster says, sighing loudly. “I may be Princess Twilight’s pupil, but I don’t know anything about friendship at all. I took all those friendship classes, but I had decided I didn’t need to actually apply any of it. Twilight thought maybe if I spent some time here I would be able to make friends, but I have no idea what to do!”

“It very wise to admit you not the best at something,” Yojam says. “Yojam know nothing about that of course, Yak best at everything.”

“Luster, it’s okay,” Frosty says. “We don’t really know what we’re doing either.”

“You don’t? But you all seem so comfortable around each other!” Luster says.

“Oh yeah, well, we have our moments. Sometimes we fight, sometimes we mess up, but we keep trying because if there’s one thing we’ve learned from Twilight, it’s that…” Frosty says before the rest of the group joins in.

“Friendship isn’t easy, but there’s no doubt it’s worth fighting for!”

Luster smiles and mutters to herself. “Thank you, Princess.” She turns to the rest of the group.

“Let’s start over then, shall we?” she says. “My name is Luster Dawn, and I like peach-filled cupcakes with lots of sprinkles. I’m pretty good at magic, but I have a lot to learn about being a good friend. Since I’m going to be staying here for a while, maybe I can learn from you?”

Griselda flaps over and puts a claw on Luster’s shoulder before pulling her into a hug. Soon the others have joined as well. Friendship is alive and well in Equestria.

(+1 page for Heroes)

[ENDING B: CHAOS]
Luster grins. “I suppose it can’t hurt, right? I’ll know everything about friendship and be everypony’s best friend!”

She pulls a quill out of the envelope that she swears wasn’t there before and begins to scribble on the ancient piece of paper. As she does so, it glows softly.

“There!” she says, her eyes widening. “Wow… so that’s how this whole friendship thing works! Why didn’t I see this beforehand? Oh, right. Magical page. Time to go test this out.”

She steps back out into the busy street of Ponyville, somehow a bit busier than it was before. As she heads back to the place where the others were gathered, ponies and creatures of all kinds stop to say hello and address her by name. Some even give her hugs and smile widely. Luster blinks.

“Hey Luster! Guys, it’s Luster!” she hears a voice say.

Luster follows the voice to the table with the group of creatures. The pony named Buzz Cut is pointing at her.

“Good day, Luster Dawn!” the kirin named Frosty says. “I hope you are having a pleasant day today!”

“Yojam happy to see you as well!” the yak says.

“Hi!” Luster returns. “What are you all up to this afternoon?”

“Getting a bite to eat and then we’re going to hang out near the school. You want to join? You don’t need the friendship lessons, of course,” Buzz Cut says. “I keep saying any day now Twilight’s going to recognize your talent and make you an alicorn!”

Twilight! Luster Dawn freezes. Would Twilight be aware of what she did? Would she know?

Luster Dawn imagined disappointing her teacher so very much, and it scared her. What had she done?

“Oh look, there’s the Princess now!” Frosty says, pointing down the street.

Luster Dawn looks back meekly as Twilight Sparkle appears, regal and graceful, at the far end of the street. Their eyes meet, and Luster finds a cold stare in place of Twilight’s usual smile. She stays in place until the Princess approaches her.

“Hiya, Princess,” she says, attempting to defuse the situation. “What are you doing here?”

“We need to talk,” Twilight says. “Alone.”

With a flash, the two disappear and reappear on one of the balconies of the Castle of Friendship that overlooks the town.

“I’m very disappointed in you, Luster,” Twilight says, frowning. “You used powerful magic, magic so old I felt it in my very bones.”

“I did,” Luster says. “But I’m better at friendship now! I know everything there is to know! That’s what you wanted from me!”

“You cheated to get what you couldn’t work for,” Twilight says, scowling. “Turn things back now to the way they’re supposed to be.”

“No!” Luster Dawn says. “I like having all these friends! I’m friends with creatures I don’t even know! It’s amazing!”

“You don’t know what you’re messing with, Luster. Friendship isn’t something you can summon with a spell. Whatever you think you’ve gained, it’s not real. Sooner or later this will all fall apart. Give me the page and let me help you.”

Luster Dawn scowls before composing herself. “No. I won’t do it. I don’t want to lose this!”

Twilight sighs. “I can’t actually force you to do it. That would be immoral. I had hoped you would listen to reason. Goodbye, Luster Dawn. You are no longer my pupil. Enjoy your life here in Ponyville surrounded by all your new friends.”

Twilight disappears in a flash and Luster reappears next to the others.

“So… what did the Princess want to talk about?” Frosty says.

“Oh, it’s nothing! She was actually asking me for advice on a friendship problem!” Luster says, playing off the entire thing with a wave of her hoof.

“Wow, you’re so cool, Luster!” Buzz Cut says.

Luster Dawn smiles, but inside she feels as if she has been ripped apart at her very core. Twilight abandoned me? But can’t she see I have all the knowledge I need to be a good friend to every creature? I can’t believe she would do this!

If Twilight couldn’t see her newfound wisdom, she’d use it to spread friendship to every creature in Equestria. Twilight couldn’t refuse to make her an alicorn then. Luster would get her time to shine.

(+1 page for Chaos)

Author's Note

When I knew the final GoH was going to be Josh Haber, I knew that I wanted to get something down for him as well, and knowing that Haber wrote the series finale got me to thinking about what happened after that episode completed.

Again, I don't believe this one ended up on his poster due in part to the posters being done before I finished this up, but that's okay. I felt very happy overall with this one. The idea of Luster Dawn not actually knowing what to do felt very on point.

#DiscordiaInc - Discordia, Inc. - Whinny City Pony Con 2024 Sub-Game

Discordia, Inc.

By volrathxp

Code Word: #DiscordiaInc

Princess Twilight Sparkle sighed loudly as she changed the channel on the television Discord had given her. The pink cartoon character on the screen flipped over to a boring-looking pony reading out some sort of terrible news. Twilight groaned loudly and flicked the switch once more to turn it off, the screen going dark except for two yellow and red eyes staring directly at her.

“Gah!” she cried out, nearly falling off of her throne. The two eyes began to emerge out of the television, revealing the ghostly head of the lord of Chaos himself.

“Oh, hello, Twilight. How are you doing today? Can I get you anything?” Discord asked with a toothy grin.

“Discord! Don’t do that to me,” Twilight said angrily. “What are you doing here anyways? Come to gloat some more?”

“Oh now, Twilight. Don’t be so mad. The ponies of Ciderfest chose me, and I’ve got a lot to do before this year’s convention. So much chaos and creativity to decide upon. That’s actually why I’m here. I need your help with something.”

“You need… my help? That’s surprising,” Twilight replied bluntly. “I thought you had your new Creativity Officer for that.”

“Oh, Izzy Moonbow has been a dear, hasn’t she? Unfortunately she’s rather busy at the moment with another task involving the auroricorns at Starlight Ridge. No, Twilight, this task is uniquely suited to your talents,” Discord said with glee in his eyes. “I need some of those famous organizational skills that Twilight Sparkle is well known for.”

“You need my help with organizing something?” Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow. “You. The Lord of Chaos. Need help organizing things.”

“Of course. Who else would I come to for organizing? I’m practically the most disorganized creature in all of existence!” Discord exclaimed, as all of his body parts switched places at once before coming back to their normal discordant places. Normal for Discord, at least.

“Fine, I’ll bite. What’s the catch?” Twilight said. “What can I possibly help you with?”

“Well, as you know… Whinny City Pony Con is coming up in a few months, you’ve seen the ads for that one I have to assume, and I’ve been asked to make a grand presentation to reveal Discordia, Incorporated to the masses!” Discord said, suddenly producing a projector and screen along with several out-of-order Powerpoint slides.

“Discordia, Incorporated?” Twilight said blankly. “You… you are making a company out of this? What are you even going to be doing?”

“Selling Chaos, of course! But I just can’t get these slides in order, they keep wanting to, oh wait there one goes,” Discord said as another copy of him split off to go chase after a slide that escaped from the pile. It had little legs and ran off down away from the throne before the other Discord produced a rope and lassoed it.

“I don’t quite understand what is going on here. You’re selling chaos? How does that even work?” Twilight asked.

“Well, I did make about 50,000 human dollars selling an animated video,” Discord mused. “Never mind that one, though. I’ve got big plans for this company, Twilight. And it all starts here with you.”

Twilight’s eyebrow raised once more. “And what exactly is it you need me to do?” she asked.

Discord pointed at the mishmashed pile of slides on the screen. “You’re looking at it.”

“You came here to ask me to organize a PowerPoint presentation?! ARE YOU SERIOUS?!” Twilight shouted, her eyes raging before calming back down. She muttered under her breath, “Okay, okay. This is fine, Twilight. You’re fine.”

Discord grinned sheepishly, and then put down the sheep’s mask covering his face. “I couldn’t think of anypony else who would be up to the task. Besides… it’s a good break from all of that television watching you’ve been doing the past few days.”

“You… you saw that?” Twilight asked, blinking.

“I see everything, Twilight.”

“Oh. Okay then,” Twilight said, her head drooping slightly. She scowled. “Fine. But I want something in return for helping you.”

“I aim to please, Twilight Sparkle. Whatever can I, the Lord of Chaos and the Book of All Stories, do for you?” Discord replied.

“Twilight Sparkle! Fetch me a juice. King Sombra is thirsty,” a voice shouted from across the room.

“I want out. You can leave my roommate, but I want out,” Twilight said, peering over Discord’s shoulder. In the distance, King Sombra sat regally on the couch, staring at the other television. A gaggle of cute bunnies hopped across the screen. “Seriously, I can’t stand it anymore. He’s insufferable!”

“I’m waiting!” Sombra called back.

Discord grinned widely. “So, if I let you out of here, you promise to help me make Discordia, Inc. the best company that ever did a company?”

Twilight grimaced and nodded. “If you let me out, I will help you fix your PowerPoint,” she said.

Discord stroked his chin, pondering Twilight’s offer.

[CHOICE]
Should Discord let Twilight out or keep her trapped in the Book?

Let Twilight out! (Hero)
Keep her trapped. (Chaos)

[ENDING A: HERO]
Discord finally nodded slowly. “Fine, you’re right, Twilight. We are friends, and I very much would appreciate your help, but we have to do things my way,” he said.

“Don’t worry about that,” Twilight with a roll of her eyes before composing herself. “I promise, on my word, that we’ll make your announcement at Whinny City the best one ever!”

Discord snapped his claws as both he and Twilight disappeared and reappeared in a space filled with color and swirling depths. A mishmashed building made of stucco, brick, and aluminum siding appeared before them. A massive sign with completely different fonts read DISCORDIA, INC. on the front of the building.

“Here we are then,” Discord said, waving a paw. “The old office building! We’ll get you a cubicle set right up and you can get to work, my new Executive Manager!”

“Executive Manager? I suppose I could get used to that,” Twilight said, chuckling as she followed Discord into the office building. “I get paid for this, right?”

(+1 page for Heroes)

[ENDING B: CHAOS]
Discord sighed loudly before shaking his head. “You know, Twilight. I really thought you were better than that. Using your friendship with me to leverage getting out of your little time-out,” he said.

“That’s not what I–” Twilight started to say before her mouth completely disappeared in a flash of light, cutting her off.

“Now, now. I know you just need some more time in the box to learn your lesson. You like lessons, right?” Discord replied. “I can see this is going nowhere. I’m just going to have to give the presentation as-is.”

Discord motioned to the pile of slides on the projector, an even number of which were forming some kind of tiny slide army and attacking the odd numbers. Little fires rampaged all over the projector screen. Discord groaned.

“Now I have to break up a civil war AND finish this presentation? This is going to take forever!” he cried out as he, the slides, and everything else disappeared into nothingness, leaving Twilight alone as her mouth reappeared.

“DISCORD!” she called out. “GET BACK HERE!”

“Twilight Sparkle! Where is my juice? I’m trying to watch my program and my thirst has absolutely not been quenched!” Sombra called out from the other side of the room.

Twilight scowled and slumped back onto her throne. With a flick of her horn, the television turned on once more.

(+1 page for Chaos)

Author's Note

We got to do some more of these stories for a sub game at Whinny City Pony Con 2024, so I did three more of these! This one was fun. Discord popping in on Twilight and Sombra who lost the game from Ciderfest was goofy to write.

#TheRoadtoTerror - On the Road to Terror - Whinny City Pony Con 2024 Sub Game

On the Road to Terror

By volrathxp

Code Word: #TheRoadtoTerror

Starlight Glimmer looked over the edge of the mountainside down at the valley below. The sun in the sky was beginning to set, painting the landscape with beautiful oranges and reds. Starlight smiled softly and glanced back behind her, where Trixie was setting up their campsite for the evening.

The first time the two had gone off on a camping trip, they had butted heads over a number of inconsequential things. Over time, however, their trips had become like clockwork and neither seemed to mind the other’s little quirks. Starlight sighed, thankful for her best friend who had been by her side for so many of life’s adventures. Even with taking over at the School of Friendship, the two had continued their trips every summer, only reinforcing their bond.

Starlight looked back out over the valley with a smile. She missed Maud, Mudbriar, and most of all, Sunburst, but knew that they all had their own business to attend to. Sunburst normally would have come along on these camping trips, but things back home at Sire’s Hollow were difficult, due in part to his mother’s ailing health in her old age. Sunburst needed to be there at the moment, helping her.

She stifled a small cry as she thought about the passing of her own father the year before. That had been the only year that she and Trixie hadn’t made their trip, but that didn’t stop Trixie from being right by her side for the funeral.

“You alright?” she heard Trixie say from behind her. Starlight turned and put on a smile.

“I’m fine, just looking out at the valley. Things have changed a lot out here,” Starlight said.

Trixie smiled and glanced out past Starlight. “It’s beautiful, for sure,” she said softly.

“Dad would have liked to have seen this,” Starlight said. She choked back another sob.

“He definitely would have,” Trixie said, placing a foreleg around Starlight. “Come on, I’ve got dinner on the fire, and you know how bad of a cook I am. I can’t do that part without you.”

Starlight sniffled and chuckled. “You’re not wrong about that,” she said, turning to follow Trixie back to the campsite.

The two unicorns sat in silence as they ate while the sunset waned into complete darkness, tiny little stars appearing in the night sky above them. Starlight found Twilight's attention to detail in the night sky to be impeccable. She could still see so many of the stars, despite the light from the fire and from Trixie’s wagon.

“Been sort of a crazy couple months,” Trixie said, looking up at the sky alongside her. “Almost didn’t get to make it out here.”

“Yeah… being trapped in that Book. Nearly losing myself to my own self-doubt. It’s weird how things are so calm once again,” Starlight replied absently.

“It’s almost as if Discord didn’t claim the Book at all,” Trixie said. “What do you think he’s up to?”

“I’m not sure, but it can’t be good,” Starlight said, pulling her eyes away from the sky to look over at Trixie. “I know he means well, but usually his form of fun means trouble for everypony.”

“I guess we’ll see later this year what he’s got planned,” Trixie said with a sigh. “I’m about ready to get to bed. Are you coming?”

“In a few, I’ll get the fire cooled off here,” Starlight replied.

Trixie nodded and walked up into the wagon. She closed the door and Starlight was alone. Standing, she began the arduous task of pouring water over the fire from a small bucket nearby. As the smoke began to pour forth from the dying campfire, Starlight became keenly aware of the fact that she was being watched.

She glanced about, shuddering at the cold air. Something didn’t feel right. Starlight knew that there were animals in the woods nearby, but most of them never came out and certainly not near ponies. As she scanned the area around her, something in the vicinity shifted. Starlight squeaked, shrinking back towards the door to the wagon. Finding purchase on the steps, she rapped quickly at the door.

“What is it, Starlight? Did you need help with the fire?” Trixie’s voice echoed from within the wagon.

“Trixie, something’s out there,” Starlight whispered through the cracked door.

“Starlight, we had this discussion the last time we were out here, there’s nothing out in the dark that’s going to get you,” Trixie said from behind the door, sounding rather nasally. “Just hurry up and come to bed.”

Starlight scowled and returned her attention to the fire. It was smoldering a bit still but dying as the last bits of smoke puffed up. Her eyes snapped up and across the clearing she saw a pair of glowing red eyes staring right at her.

The eyes seemed to hover there, unmoving. Starlight didn’t dare look away, studying the eyes. They appeared to be large and segmented, almost like a bug. Starlight couldn’t make out the form of the thing it belonged to, but a low humming noise began to sound from whatever it was.

She stood there for what felt like an eternity, watching and waiting intently for something to happen. The eyes continued to look at her, but Starlight realized they weren’t looking directly at her. They were looking past her. Starlight yearned to turn to see what it was looking at.

[CHOICE:
Does Starlight look away or keep her eyes on the creature?]

Starlight looks away (HERO)
Starlight keeps her eyes on the creature (VILLAIN)

[ENDING A: Hero]
Starlight snapped her eyes away from the red eyes. Just above her and the wagon itself was a branch that had caught fire. It was going to fall onto the wagon. Starlight’s eyes widened and ignoring the creature that had been staring at her, she ripped the door to the wagon open with a flourish of magic.

“Trixie! You have to get out of there!” Starlight cried out.

“What, what’s going on?” Trixie mumbled.

“Ugh, no time!” Starlight said, latching onto the other unicorn mare with her magic, yanking her out of the wagon and onto the ground as the branch fell, landing on the wagon and setting the top of it on fire.

The two scrambled away from the site as Starlight glanced about for the red eyes. They were gone. What had happened? Were they warning her about the branch? She no longer felt like she was being watched. Instead, she felt Trixie next to her.

“Starlight, thank you,” Trixie said. “You saved my life… but we should probably do something about the fire before the wagon is gone.”

Starlight nodded and smiled. “Conjure as much water as you can. I’ll make up the buckets.”

(+1 Page to Heroes)

[ENDING B: VILLAIN]
Starlight froze, unable to peel her eyes away from the red eyes. She couldn’t. What if it attacked her? She couldn’t chance it.

From behind her she heard a loud crack as a branch snapped. Starlight felt immense heat as flames erupted on top of the wagon behind her. She began to cough, losing sight of the eyes as fire struck the ground around her.

She heard more coughing from inside the wagon as the door opened and Trixie fell out.

“What’s… what’s going on?” she wheezed.

“I don’t know!” Starlight cried out. “Come on, Trixie, we have to get out of here!”

Trixie nodded as she latched onto Starlight. Starlight put all of her energy that she could focus on a teleportation spell, carrying them out of the fire and onto the hill nearby. Trixie groaned as she slumped over.

“Trixie! Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, Trixie’s okay,” Trixie said with a cough. “But the wagon didn’t fare so well.”

Starlight’s gaze looked down at the wagon. It was burning. There was no sight of the red eyes anywhere. What had it been? Was it trying to warn her about the fire? Could she have stopped it? Starlight’s heart thumped in her chest. Had her inability to look caused this? Trixie could have died! Starlight began to sob openly.

“S-S-S-sorry, Trixie,” she cried, burying her face in the other mare’s shoulder. “I should have…”

“It’s okay, Starlight,” Trixie said. “You couldn’t have known what was going to happen.”

Starlight sniffled. But I could have…

(+1 page to Villains)

Author's Note

This one was another Whinny story. Originally I was going to actually kill Trixie, but I felt I needed to be more PG. Maybe I could have done it though, I don't know.

It went from sad to horror to mothman thriller though, which was interesting.

#StandForEverfree - Stand for Everfree - Whinny City Pony Con 2024 Sub Game

Stand for Everfree

By volrathxp

Code Phrase: #StandForEverfree

Gloriosa Daisy stood, wiping the sweat off her brow. Another piece of equipment was in place, and they were one step closer to being done for the day. The sun in the sky had not yet waned into sunset and was still beating down, making her thirsty.

Across the camp, her younger brother Timber Spruce was chopping wood for the campfires. Numerous other volunteers were going to and fro, getting things ready for the ultimate Summer Camp experience: Whinny City Pony Con 2024.

Gloriosa smiled. This wasn’t Camp Everfree – nothing would replace that place in her heart – but this place was beautiful in its own right. The convention had secured a park near the hotel to utilize as a large-scale campsite for attendees to fully dive into the year’s theme in addition to the activities at the hotel. There would be s’mores, scary stories, and genuine campfire sing-alongs.

Things hadn’t been the same since the events of Ponyville Ciderfest. Not everyone the Book of All Stories had brought into this world had been able to go back. Gloriosa and Timber were one of those few who were stuck, unable to return to their own world. Thankfully, the Con Chairs and the Storytelling Team had been truly wonderful, helping the two find a place where they could help and live peacefully.

When the idea had been put forth about giving Whinny City a Summer Camp theme, Gloriosa and Timber jumped at the idea and proposed the idea for the external campsite. Surprisingly, the convention agreed and began putting together the project plan needed to make it happen.

Now the convention was only a few weeks away and work was getting started. Gloriosa had taken point as head of the campsite project, but she had learned so many lessons thanks to her friends from Canterlot High that she shared that leadership with her brother, leaning on his own expertise.

Gloriosa put down the hammer she was using and wiped her brow yet again. She really did need to get something to drink. Reaching for her canteen, she realized it was stone cold dry. She blinked. Had she really already drank her water?

Gloriosa grimaced as she walked through the camp, seeking out some form of water, but every dispenser seemed to be completely and utterly dry. As she reached the back of the camp, the soft sounds of a rushing river met her ears. Gloriosa perked up, heading towards the sound. Soon she found herself far from the sounds of the workers in the camp and in the woods nearby. As she closed in on the sound, a hand reached out and grabbed hers.

“Wha?!” Gloriosa exclaimed as she looked up to see Timber Spruce standing there.

“You alright there, sis?” Timber asked. “You look like you’re dehydrating.”

“I’m okay… you just scared me that’s all. I was actually going to look for some water, all of the sources around the camp were dry,” she said. “Why did you follow me?”

Timber looked confused. “What do you mean? There’s plenty of water back at the camp. I saw you run off into the woods and was worried you were going to get hurt.”

“Okay, that is a bit weird,” Gloriosa said. “When I checked, there wasn’t any water anywhere. It’s almost as if…”

“As if you were under some sort of spell,” Timber finished for her. “But that doesn’t make any sense. Magic doesn’t work here like it did in our world.”

“I know, but I know what I saw. Why would some spell make it so I can’t find water, unless it’s to…” Gloriosa drifted off, her ears picking up the sound of rushing water again. “Do you hear that? The river?”

Timber listened for a few moments. “Yeah, I can hear it. You want to go check it out?” he said with a slight grin. “It has been a while since we’ve had a break today. I’m sure the volunteers can work on their own for a little bit while we investigate. Might be a cool place to bring the campers.”

Gloriosa nodded, smiling. It would feel like old times, when they were together at Camp Everfree. Soon, the two were continuing to walk, with Gloriosa finally getting some water from Timber’s canteen, chatting about the upcoming convention and how much fun things would be, taking Gloriosa’s mind off of what had initially led her here. They finally broke through the brush and found themselves in front of a serene pond next to a waterfall.

“Wow,” Timber said. “This is amazing. It’s almost like being back home.”

“Yeah,” Gloriosa said. “I know it’s not home, but there’s places here that are just as beautiful. Maybe… maybe after the convention is over, we should go visit some of them?”

“Are you saying strike out on our own?” Timber asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, just you and me. We could start our own exploration and adventuring company. Put our expertise to good use and take people to beautiful places, just like this one,” Gloriosa said. “We may never be able to make it back home, but we can make the best out of this one.”

Timber fell silent for several long moments. “I… I don’t know, Gloriosa. What about Twilight and the others? I can’t leave if there’s a chance we could get back to them.”

“I know you miss her. I miss them all, but if we can’t move forward…” Gloriosa said solemnly, drifting off slightly before continuing. “Timber. We’re not going home.”

“You don’t know that!” Timber exclaimed. “We just have to be patient, right? That’s what they said. But it’s been months… and nothing.”

Gloriosa sighed. “Timber…”

Timber lowered his head and grimaced. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I’ll never see her again,” he said after a few moments.

Gloriosa moved to place her hand on Timber’s shoulder to console him, as she had often done so many times in the past growing up. Timber moved away, stepping up to the edge of the pool where he slumped to his knees.

“I just… I don’t know if I can do this, sis,” Timber said. His eyes drifted across the pond and Gloriosa heard a soft gasp come from his mouth. “What is that?”

Gloriosa followed his gaze, seeing a glowing light coming from the pond. Her eyes widened as she realized the glow was coming from a small statue in the center of it. Embedded within were several large glowing gems. Gloriosa was immediately reminded of what happened at Camp Everfree. A thought tugged in the back of her mind. What if she had been under a spell, and it was just to get her here, in order to take these gems just like she had done so in her world?

“Timber, I think we should go. Those look dangerous. Remember what happened the last time we got too close to Equestrian magic?” she said quickly.

“But… what if that is how we get home?” Timber said, standing. “If it is truly Equestrian magic, it can do that, right?”

“Or it could be dangerous,” Gloriosa said. “Remember what happened to me?”

Timber sighed, glancing down at the glowing gems in the pool. It would be so easy to find out, but maybe Gloriosa was right…

[CHOICE]
Does Timber leave with Gloriosa or take the gems?

Leave with Gloriosa (Hero)
Take the gems (Villain)

[CHOICE A: HERO]
Timber finally turned his gaze away from the pool and looked at his sister. “You’re right, you’re right. We can’t trust it. We should probably let the convention know so that the authorities can be called about this place.”

Gloriosa nodded. “Once we get back to the camp, we’ll make sure they are aware,” she said. “Come on, it’s not too far back there.”

Timber smiled and walked behind his sister, pausing once more to gaze back at the pond before moving on.

The two walked for a few more minutes before Timber spoke again.

“Let’s do it,” he said.

“Hmmm?” Gloriosa asked.

“Your idea. Once Whinny City is over, we’ll go start our own business. How does ‘Everfree Expeditions’ sound?” Timber said.

“I like it,” Gloriosa said. “I’m glad you’re interested. I would have never wanted to do this without you by my side.”

“I miss them all,” Timber said softly.

“I do too,” Gloriosa said. “But let’s make their memory count. We got this.”

(+1 Page for Heroes)

[ENDING B: VILLAIN]
Timber splashed forward into the pond, soaking himself to the bone as he reached the gems. With a quick snatch he pulled them out of the statue. There were three of them, each of them glowing brightly.

“Timber, stop!” Gloriosa called from the edge of the pond. “You don’t know what they will do!”

“I’m going to get us home!” Timber called back. “Don’t worry, I got this!”

The three gems glowed brightly as Timber clutched onto them. All around him, the veil of reality began to thin. Portals started opening all around the pond and in one of them, a familiar statue of a horse in front of a school could be seen.

Timber shouted out with glee. Home was in reach! He moved towards the portal before the gems began glowing an angry red. He moved to take a step but was blown back to the edge of the pond next to Gloriosa.

“What happened?!” Gloriosa exclaimed. “What did you do?!”

“I don’t know!” Timber said. “It opened the portal to home just like I wanted!”

“Yeah, but it’s not closing! Timber, none of them are closing!” Gloriosa said.

Timber’s eyes widened. She was right. None of the portals were closing. They were just getting bigger by the moment. He dropped the gems onto the ground. Nothing happened. He turned to his sister.

“We have to warn everyone, get them as far away from here as possible!” he said.

Gloriosa nodded as the two started to run from the pond. Timber took one last look at the statue in front of Canterlot High before joining her.

What have I done? Timber thought to himself as he ran. Twilight… I’m so sorry.

(+1 Page for Villain)

Author's Note

Another for Whinny. I wanted to lean on the Summer Camp theme and do something with Gloriosa Daisy and Timber Spruce. It seemed fun and interesting.

#TheAuthorsNightmare - The Author's Nightmare - Ciderfest 2024 Sub Game

It was a day like no other in Ponyville. The birds sang, the bees buzzed, and the giant board building landed right in the middle of the town. A large sign adorns the building with the large letters "B. O. B." Several ponies walk past the structure, looking up at it in sheer terror. The door to the building opens, revealing a large earth pony with a cutie mark of a chiseled block of stone on their flank. He cackles in delight.

"Already, our plan is in motion! We shall deny this world of all of its creativity!" he shouts loudly, his eyes mad with glee.

No, you can't do that. We need creativity so we can be happy!

The earth pony glances right up at the author and grins widely. "I don't think you have much choice, author. You will come down with the worst case of WRITER'S BLOCK you have ever seen!"

But I can't have writer's block, I already know how this story ends!

"Do you? Do you, really? I don't think you do," Writer's Block replies.

But I–

—

It was an average sunny day in Maretime Bay. The ponies flocked to the Boardwalk, laughing merrily as they rode the rides, had cotton candy, and even played sports with each other. Out of nowhere, another large board building appears at the end of the pier. Hitch Trailblazer and his friends rushed to the Pier and glared up at it.

"What do we do, Sheriff?" Zipp Storm says as she lands next to him.

"I don't know, Zipp. This doesn't look good at all," Hitch says. "Does anypony know what this thing is?"

I do.

"Wait... who said that?" Pipp says. "We all just heard that, right?"

"I know, it's the author of the story!" Izzy says excitedly. "Hi, author friend!" She bounces up and down, waving at the sky.

"Izzy, who are you waving to? The author of what story?" Pipp says, her face looking very confused.

Hurry, you all need to help before he arrives!

"Too late, dearest author! Didn't you hear, G5 is over!" Writer's Block calls out from the board office. "Your time is neigh!"

Did you just make a horse pun? That's not–

—

It's time for Ciderfest 2024! All the ponies are getting their badges and getting ready for the biggest game of Buckball the convention has ever seen. The teams are the Wondercolts versus the Crystal Preppers, and the Wondercolts are up a game. At the head of it all is the emcee with the most talent of all time, Taylor B! This pony is decked out in the colors of his favorite pony, Starlight Glimmer, and on the sidelines is his best friend, the referee known as Red Card.

"Alright folks, we got ourselves a game here. The Wondercolts are up by one to the Crystal Preppers, but that Sour Sweet; she is one heck of a player so she may push the Crystal Preppers to victory!" Taylor says into the microphone in front of him. "You all sound like you're having a great time out there, so if our teams are ready... let's play Buckball!"

Suddenly, the door to the Buckball area bursts in and a familiar pony enters. "A SPORTS FIC?! And a self-referencing meta-level one at that! No, we can't have that one, not at all. NEXT!" he shouts.

But I—

—

The world of Exandria. A place of beauty, and wonder, and the home of a young tiefling woman named Jester Lavorre. One day, while journeying alongside her friends known as the Mighty Nein, Jester enters a cave and is instantly transported through a magical portal. Upon waking, she finds herself surrounded by several pastel equines.

"Oh, I must have hit my head really good there," she said in her very thick accent as she rubbed her temples. "Am I dreaming? Wait, are you a unicorn?"

"Uh, hi," one of the pastel equines, a purple one with wings and a horn, says. "My name's Princess Twilight Sparkle, and we found you out in the forest. Are you okay? You seemed like you hit your head."

"Oh. MY. TRAVELER! You are soooo cute! I can't believe it! All of my dreams have come true. I‘d been wishing to meet some real unicorns and now I'm here!" Jester says excitedly. "The only unicorns I've ever seen are the ones I make with my magic! But wait... how do I get home?"

Writer's Block enters the picture, scowling at the author. "Really? This is what you had to throw at me? I don't even know what this is!"

It's supposed to be a crossover! You know, a character from a different world ends up in Equestria? I hear they're quite popular.

"It's a poor attempt to beat me, author, and you know it. The lowest-hanging fruit! It proves that you'll never win—and you'll never be a great writer!" Writer's Block says, cackling with delight. "It's fine for you to be FINISHED!"

No wait, I can–

—

Wait. It's just me. I'm all alone now. There's nothing out there but the blackness of the void. Space. This is what he wanted. For me to be forgotten, cast aside. No one will remember me here. No one will remember any of our stories. They'll be dust in the wind, not even worth specks.

I wish there were a way that I could stop him, but he's too strong. I can't defeat him.

I must give up. I can't do it. I can't beat the inevitable. I tried… Everything failed.

"Silly author," a thick accent cuts through the blackness of the void. "You don't have to do it alone, you know. You have us!"

My gaze floats across the void. A blue tiefling woman stands there, flanked on one side by another familiar face. Izzy Moonbow beams as she glances up at Jester.

"Right! We're never alone, right new friend?" she says, smiling widely. "We work together to inspire others, to bring a little bit of creativity to all!"

This spark... this feeling. It grows inside of me. Behind Izzy, the rest of her friends appear. Pipp sings. Sunny's alicorn wings blare to life. On the other side of Jester, two more ponies materialize. It's Taylor and Red Card.

"You can do this, author!" Taylor calls out. "Let's beat this Writer's Block and afterward we'll have the best game of Buckball ever!"

"Yeah!" Red Card says, brandishing his referee flags. "I'm giving this Writer's Block a time-out!"

Behind them, the Ciderfest attendees slowly begin to appear as well. I can see Lucky Star, Note Worthy, and even Amber Evergreen and her herd. On each side of the three main groups, the rest of Ponyville appears out of thin air, replacing the void. Princess Twilight and her friends are ready and waiting for action.

You all came? For me?

"Of course we did," Princess Twilight says. "Friendship isn't easy, but there's no doubt it's worth fighting for!"

"Right!" Sunny Starscout shouts. "We're all with you, author! You got this!"

"Yeah, what the others said! I don't even know why I'm here, but this is pretty cool, and I kind of hope I'm here forever and..." Jester says, beginning to ramble a bit. "Well, like they said, you got this. The Traveler's blessings be upon you, my child."

I'm pretty sure I'm older than you, but okay. Well, if we're going to do this, we just need...

"HAHAHAHAHA!" a loud, brash voice shouts from the board building that has just appeared at the end of the street. Writer's Block steps out of the building. "You think that you can beat me! I'm going to end this story right here and right now, and there will never be any stories ever again!"

NO.

"What?" Writer's Block says, gasping. "What do you mean, no?"

I MEAN NO. No more. There will always be stories. We all have them, from our friends in G5 to G4, to even worlds beyond Equestria. We all have a story to share, and that spark, that feeling of inspiration will never disappear. We will always defeat you, because we will always be together, sharing our stories and continuing to be a part of each other's lives!

The spark will always remain, and you will never EVER wipe them clean from this place. Are you ready, everypony?

"Ready!" Izzy Moonbow shouts.

"Right here with you, author!" Taylor calls out.

"OH YEAH!" Bulk Biceps roars.

"But... but I... I WAS IN CONTROL!" Writer's Block fumes as the combined forces of the pony world descend upon the board office. "I WAS THE ONE IN CHARGE! You need to listen to me! NO MORE STORIES!"

Yeah, it doesn't work like that anymore. I have the final say now. And I say you're done.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" Writer's Block shouts as he stomps back into the board room and it disappears from view.

The collective crowd of ponies (and Jester) cheer, stomp their hooves and look up at me expectantly. They're waiting with bated breath for what comes next. I smile.

Go now, I got this. Live your stories. Show others what you learned here today. Continue to share your light with those around you. And never forget to be a good friend!

THE END

Author's Note

This is a goofy little thing I wrote for the Ciderfest 2024 sub game, where the antagonists of the convention was the Board of Boredom (BaB) opposing Discord's fun and chaos. Stories were meant to give any spark to a faction (Writers, Cosplayers, Musicians, Artists, etc.)

It was a bit of a goofy fun back and forth, for sure.

#WildWasteland - Welcome to the Wasteland

Welcome to the Wasteland

Code Word: #WildWasteland

As you study the photograph of Twilight, something seems off about her. This isn’t the Twilight Sparkle you know. Suddenly, Twilight’s eyes flash a deep purple and a portal opens up, pulling you inside.

You arise to find yourself in a ruined city that you don’t immediately recognize. The sky is a deep rumbling gray of clouds. The sun can’t seem to peek through the cover. A sense of unease washes over you. This is Equestria… but different. Something bad happened here.

A growling sound rouses you from your thoughts. You turn and jump away just as a creature with glowing red eyes hits the ground next to you. A zombie pony! It pulls itself off the ground and starts to lunge at you again. A blast of purple magic hits the zombie straight in its face, knocking it away into a nearby pile of refuse.

“Are you alright?” a voice says from behind you.

You turn to see a large alicorn figure, your eyes widening as you recognize her. It’s Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship! Maybe things aren’t as bad here as you initially thought!

“Princess! Thank you so much for saving me from that… thing,” you say.

The alicorn lifts a hoof to her face. “Not this again. For the last time, I’m not Twilight Sparkle,” she says with a groan. “Ponies have been dropping in all day out of nowhere calling me that.”

“If you’re not Twilight, who are you?” you ask.

“They call me Radiant Star. I’m looking for the rest of my friends. Things are sort of crazy lately and nopony can tell me why,” the alicorn replies, sighing. “Who are you?”

“Oh, I’m [USERNAME]!” you chirp happily. “And I think I know what’s going on here. We’ve been trying to find Fizzy Glitch. She opened something called the Book of All Stories and it’s wreaking havoc across Equestria.”

Radiant Star puts a hoof to her chin and grimaces before motioning to you. “You know… I did see what looked like a pony with a strange horn run through here about an hour ago. Maybe that’s your friend Fizzy?”

“That sounds like her, where did she go?” you ask.

Radiant Star thinks for a moment and points off at a large ruined building. “I think she went in there, but we have to be careful. There could be more ghouls lurking about. I’ll protect you as best as I can. Maybe this Fizzy Glitch knows where my friends went.”

You walk beside the strange alicorn mare as you enter the ruined building, keeping an eye out for more zombie ponies. In the center of the building you find a set of tracks leading down stairs going deeper into the darkened building. In addition, you find what appears to be a page. It’s withered and aged, and the words on it are in a language you can’t figure out, but you can feel the power in it as soon as you pick it up. You recognize it instantly as one of the pages you need to connect together to save Fizzy.

“It’s one of the pages from the Book,” you say. “Fizzy must have been here… but where did she go?”

Radiant Star walks to the edge of the stairs. “She’s gotta be down here. Come on,” she says.

You nod cautiously, following the alicorn down into the darkness. The stairs end in a dark tunnel. Star’s horn alights as you go, providing a soft purple shadowing over the tunnel.

“So these pages, they’re like powerful magical artifacts?” Star says softly as you walk.

“They’re a part of the Book,” you say. “It’s supposed to be incredibly powerful.”

Star nods as the tunnel ends abruptly in front of a large steel door. You can see the numbers 145 emblazoned on it. The door itself is slightly ajar enough to allow entrance by a pony.

“This is really bad,” Star says. “Your friend has gone into a Stable. They’re sort of these big underground shelters. Very dangerous. Stick close to me. My magic will protect us.”

“I wonder why Fizzy came down here if it’s so dangerous,” you say.

“I’m not sure. When I saw that weird pony earlier they seemed to be in a real hurry, bouncing from place to place,” Radiant Star replies softly. “Regardless, if she’s down there we need to get her out of there before something bad happens.”

“I’m right behind you,” you say. “Besides, maybe she will know what happened to your friends, right?”

Star nods solemnly. She appears to steel herself, her eyes becoming focused and determined. “Let’s go.”

You follow behind Star, shoving yourself through the opening in the large steel door. Immediately you can sense that this place is… off. A pungent smell fills the air around you. The slate gray walls seem to close in on you as you make your way down the entrance hall and towards whatever is coming next. Star seems to have an idea of where to go, so you follow her lead. The large underground shelter is something of a maze, with twists and turns everywhere. Every hallway is gray and dank, making it hard to tell which way is which.

After what feels like hours you find yourself in a vast open room that appears to be some sort of common room. In fact, it appears to have been set up for some sort of grand party. Streamers hang lopsidedly from the railings and confetti litters several of the tables. A poster of Pinkie Pie rests on the far wall, her eyes seemingly following you as you walk down the main stairway to the bottom level.

In the center of the bottom level is what looks like Fizzy Glitch! She’s rooting around on the ground for something. She hasn’t immediately noticed you yet.

“Fizzy! Are you alright?” you shout as you push past Star and towards the Kirin.

“I’m great! Isn’t this place awesome?! Wait… who are you?” Fizzy says, lifting her head to look at you.

“Don’t you remember me, silly? It’s [USERNAME]! Everypony has been looking for you! Radiant Star here helped me find you,” you say.

Fizzy looks over at Star, her eyes widening. “Princess Twilight?!”

“For the last time… you know what? Nevermind,” Radiant Star says with a wry grin. “I’m looking for my friends. Don’t suppose you’ve seen them? One of them is a little green unicorn alongside a pair of earth ponies. One of them has an eyepatch.”

“I haven’t seen much of anypony around here,” Fizzy says before noticing the page you’re holding. “Oh! You found the page I had with me! I must have dropped it when I was running away from that crazy zombie pony.”

Star takes a step forward to both you and Fizzy Glitch before stopping cold in her tracks. The lights attached to the walls around you begin to darken. You can feel the page in your hooves beckoning to something. A magical aura appears in the air, coalescing into a spectral version of Twilight Sparkle, the real Twilight Sparkle.

“There you are! I’ve been looking all over for you,” the spectral Twilight says. “And you found a page out of the Book! Excellent. I need you to give it to me so we can safeguard it!”

“Princess!” you say.

“No… that’s not your Twilight,” Radiant Star interjects, a slight growl in her voice. “That’s this Equestria’s Twilight… and she’s not all there. The Twilight of this world became a crazy alicorn Goddess alongside Trixie. She’s the reason I look the way I do.”

“This doppelganger is a bad pony,” the image of Twilight says. “Give me the page, it’s the only way to keep it safe.”

“[USERNAME], don’t trust her. I promise I’ll keep the page safe,” Radiant Star says. “Don’t listen to her. You have to trust me. If I was going to hurt you, I wouldn’t have saved you from that ghoul.”

“This is getting quite tedious, Radiant Star. I’ll deal with you properly in a moment,” the image of Twilight says, rolling her eyes before settling on you. “You there, give me the page. I command you as the Goddess of Equestria.”

From beside you Fizzy Glitch bounces away in a flash from the two alicorns and a glowing portal opens back up in front of her as she gleefully bounds through. On the other side you can see Ponyville. A way out! Before you can do anything though, the Twilight image’s horn lights up and you feel a tingling sensation in the back of your brain, urging you to give the page to the Princess… or was it Goddess? The details in your mind are suddenly fuzzy.

[CHOICE]
What do you do?

Give the page to Radiant Star to protect. (Hero)
Give in to the Twilight Sparkle image’s spell and give it to her. (Villain)

[ENDING A: HERO]
You shrug off the effects of the tingling in the back of your head, glaring at Twilight. She was trying to magically compel you! What kind of Princess would do that?

You nod at Radiant Star, pushing the page into her hooves. You know instantly that the page is going to be safe and that Star will protect it with her very life. The alicorn mare nods in return, lowering the page quickly into her saddlebag.

“No!” the image of Twilight shouts, its horn igniting.

Radiant Star turns, her own horn alight as a blast of magic erupts from it. It strikes the image of Twilight, dissipating it into the aether.

“She’ll be back at some point, I’m sure, but she won’t get the page from me. You have my word,” the alicorn says. “You had better go find your friend. I still need to find my friends too.”

You nod and turn back to the portal left by Fizzy Glitch. You run through and land back in the familiar world of Ponyville, having survived the Wasteland. The portal closes behind you.

(+1 pages for Heroes)

[ENDING B: VILLAIN]
“Of course, Goddess!” you say, lifting the page so that the spectral alicorn can take it from you. You get a feeling that you absolutely 100% trust this alicorn, as the tingling sensation takes over fully, but in the back of your head you aren’t sure why. “You’ll know what to do with it!”

“What are you doing?” Radiant Star says. “She’s the evil one!”

“Oh… they’re just doing what I’ve commanded them to do,” the spectral alicorn says with a deep grin, the page floating in the air next to her. “Now… run along my little pony. I have things to do with this.”

You find yourself walking to the portal left behind by Fizzy. Before you go through, you manage to look back at the scene behind you.

“I won’t let you use that magic!” Radiant Star says, lunging at the spectral alicorn with a magical blast of energy.

The image of Twilight yawns as a shield of magical energy appears, knocking it back right into Star’s face. The alicorn flies backwards into a set of chairs, groaning.

“Ta ta for now, little Star. You’ll be seeing me soon enough,” Twilight says, before disappearing, page and all.

You turn back and float through the portal. On the other side your brain begins to clear and you wonder what just happened to you? You remember you were following Fizzy. Perhaps she ran off somewhere else?

(+1 pages for Villains)

Author's Note

I saw an opportunity to include my main character Radiant Star from FoE: Starlight into this, as it was indeed the Book of All Stories.

I had fun with this one, as it was the first one I wrote for the project.

#IGot99ProblemsButAPippAintOne - I Got 99 Problems, But a Pipp Ain’t One

I Got 99 Problems, But a Pipp Ain’t One

IGot99ProblemsButAPippAintOne

You get a tip through the grapevine on one of the pages out in the middle of Bridlewood. You decide to call up the one and only Hitch Trailblazer to help find it. However, as you meet the earth pony Sheriff in the forest you realize he’s not alone. He’s accompanied by the Princess of Pop herself Pipp Petals!

“Hey, [USERNAME]!” Pipp says, sounding somehow bubblier than usual. “Hitch said I could tag along. Thought it might make for an awesome video for my ClipTrot page!”

Hitch rolls his eyes slightly, but smiles to himself. “I’m sure it won’t be that exciting, Pipp. At least, not more exciting than your last trip into the wilderness.”

“Now now, I told you I was sorry for not accidentally taking you with me through the Time Stitch Crystal to meet Hoof Work and Deep Dish,” Pipp says, laying a hoof on the earth pony’s shoulder. “Besides… we’re doing what you and Zipp normally do, right? Detective work!”

“Speaking of Zipp, I would have thought she would be here for this,” you say.

Pipp shrugs. “Mom has her doing Queen training duty stuff, you know how it is,” she says. “Now… where are we headed to?”

“The last known information I had on the page was that it was in a cave in the area,” you say. “The pony who claimed to see it couldn’t get close to it. Said she was scared of the cave itself.”

“Well there’s only a few caves in this area, it shouldn’t be too hard to find,” Hitch says. “The quicker we get done with this Book business, the better in my opinion.”

You nod, and walk side by side with the two other ponies as you begin your search. As you do, you casually notice small glances by either Hitch or Pipp in the other’s direction. A smile here, a giggle there. It’s… it’s cute actually.

After about the third cave, you find a tunnel from an upper chamber that leads down into the darkness hidden by some brambles. The tunnel opens up to a large underground cavern where in the middle is a strangely serene pool of water. Across the pond is an island and laying on top of it is a piece of glowing paper.

“Seems your source was right about the creepy factor here,” Hitch says. “But there is a page down there. Pipp, do you think you can safely get it?”

“I got it, Hitch,” Pipp says with a wink. Holding her phone out, she floats over the pond and lands on the small island. “Doesn’t seem that scary!” she calls out.

“Just get the page and get out of there,” Hitch says. “I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

Pipp smiles from across the cavern. “I didn’t know you cared so much, Sheriff,” she says with a grin. Before scooping up the page, she walks to the edge of the pond.

Pipp stops suddenly, glancing down at the reflective surface of the pond. From out of the ether a voice is heard whispering in the cavern.

And into her own reflection she stared
Yearning for one whose reflection she shared
And solemnly sweared not to be scared
At the prospect of being doubly mared

Pipp starts to move once more, plunging herself into the pond.

“Pipp!” Hitch says, running to the edge of the pool. “Pipp!”

Pipp suddenly bursts forth from the pool, but so does… Pipp? There are now two Pipps standing on the island. The original Pipp gasps loudly.

“Oh… MY… PONY! It’s like you’re just like me!” Pipp says, squealing.

“Oh my pony!” the other Pipp says with a happy chirp.

Hitch stares, looking confused as you step up next to him. “What… what just happened?” he asks.

You look down at the pool. Its reflective surface seems to call to you and you realize you’ve read about this place before.

“This is… this is the Mirror Pool!” you exclaim. “It’s capable of duplicating a pony over and over!”

“Pipp! You need to get out of there!” Hitch calls out. “This place is dangerous!”

“But Hitch… think of the possibilities! This could solve all of my problems of being able to make content! I just need a few more of these duplicates and I can run an entire studio by myself while simultaneously getting to relax with my friends!” Pipp exclaims.

“Content! Like and subscribe!” the other Pipp happily chirps.

“See!” Pipp shouts, turning her attention to the pool. She plunges back in and pretty soon there are over ten Pipps floating about the chamber, with more appearing out of the pool by the second.

“Oh no… this is not good, not good!” Hitch shouts before turning to you. “[USERNAME], what do we do? How do we find out which one is the real one?!”

[CHOICE]

Convince Hitch to enjoy the Pipps and let Pipp have her dream content life (chaos)
Convince him to save Pipp with Sunny’s help. (hero)

[ENDING A: CHAOS]
“Maybe this is a good thing,” you offer. “Pipp will have more time to give attention to you, after all.”

Hitch thinks for a moment. “You know, okay, maybe you’re right. I could get used to seeing more of her.”

“See! At least we’ve got the page, right?” you say.

Hitch nods. “Pipp! Can you hear me?”

“Yes, Hitch?” multiple Pipps say as they float over to him. “Can we help you, Sheriff?”

Hitch grins as he lets himself get carried off by multiple Pipps as another one brings the page over to you.

(+1 pages for Chaos)

[ENDING B: HERO]
“There’s only one thing to do,” you say. “We need to get Sunny here. You go get her and I’ll try to corral these Pipps away from the pool so they don’t make more.”

Hitch nods, running out to get Sunny. You spend the next few hours managing to get all of the Pipps into the upper chamber away from the pool and confined to one room before Sunny and Hitch arrive. You also manage to scoop up the page with one of the Pipp’s help.

“Oh… oh my pony,” Sunny Starscout says as she enters the chamber. “Okay, I think I read something about this in one of Twilight’s journals. There’s a spell that can return the duplicates back to the pool.”

“How do we know who the duplicates are and who the real Pipp is?” Hitch says.

“We’re going to have to do something drastic,” Sunny says. “Take away all of their phones!”

The Pipps all gasp as one as you and Hitch collect all of their phones. One Pipp in the center of it all watches Hitch with greater interest.

“In order for this to work, you’re going to have to go for what will probably be hours without checking your phone,” Sunny says, her wings and horn flaring into existence. “If you try to grab the phones, then you’re a duplicate. Only the real Pipp knows that her friends are more important than the phone.”

The next few hours are tense as Pipp after Pipp dissipates thanks to the spell. The one Pipp in the center watches nervously as more and more Pipps float off into nothingness. Eventually, only two Pipps remain.

“Wow… this is… this is insane,” you whisper to Hitch and Sunny. “They’ve been here for literally hours now and not moved a muscle.”

“How are we going to figure out which one is which?” Hitch says.

An idea floats into your head and you whisper it into Hitch’s ears. He blushes briefly but nods at you before walking out with a phone in his hooves.

“Pipp, I’m going to give you your phone back,” he says, steeling himself. “But… I want you to know something first. I… I’m in love with you. So… if you want your phone over me, I’ll understand, but I wanted you to know.”

The other Pipp suddenly cracks, diving for the phone as the spell takes effect, whisking her away, leaving the remaining Pipp from the center of the room. Tears are flowing from her eyes as she floats over to Hitch.

“Did you… did you really mean that?” she asks.

“I do,” Hitch says.

Pipp takes a deep breath and smiles, reaching up and giving Hitch a kiss on the cheek. “I… I love you too, Sheriff,” she says. “I don’t need a phone to tell me that.”

“You… you’re you!” Sunny shouts with glee, rushing in to hug both of the ponies.

“Well of course it’s me, I learned all about being able to survive without my phone during my adventure with Hoof Work and Deep Dish a while back! That was easy stuff,” Pipp says. “Besides… Now I’ve got something new to consider.”

Hitch blushes as Pipp wraps an arm around him and snuggles up to him, mouthing the words Thank you to you as you leave the three friends, page in tow, to be delivered to safety.

(+1 pages for Heroes)

Author's Note

As one of the longest code words in the app, this one was goofy as heck to write. Shoutout to Janicethelight who suggested using the Mirror Pool as the plot device.

PippXHitch forever!

#BeautyInTheEye - Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Code Word: #BeautyInTheEye

It’s Fashion Week in Manehattan! The sights, the sounds, the trends! You’re happily walking along the city streets taking in all of the beautiful new dresses and outfits of the season, when you run nearly headlong into an older unicorn mare wandering along in front of you.

“I’m so sorry, Miss,” you say respectfully.

“Thank you, my dear,” the ancient looking unicorn says. Her flowing mane reminds you of somepony and then you realize who this is. It’s the legendary Mistmane, Pillar of Old Equestria!

“Mistmane!” you exclaim. “What are you doing here in Fashion Week?”

“Believe it or not, I admire beauty wherever it is found, young one,” Mistmane replies coyly. “But I’m afraid the beauty here is far too artificial for my tastes.”

“Artificial?” a voice says from one of the nearby displays. Your jaw drops when the one and only Suri Polomare appears in front of you. “My dear Mistmane, surely you can see how beautiful these gowns are.”

“Your gowns are pretty, but true beauty comes from bringing out what comes from within,” Mistmane says with a soft smile. “Perhaps I just haven’t found that yet here.”

Suri sputters and coughs. “But you must admit that my colors, my shapes, the curvature of the dresses I’ve put on display. They bring out the inner beauty in ponies. They let them shine brightly across Equestria!”

“Your dresses allow ponies to play pretend and wear a mask in public, preventing others from seeing to their true selves,” Mistmane says. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, my dear. You must see that.”

Suri scowls yet again before looking at you. AT YOU! Your face turns pale as she stomps up to you.

“You there, what do you think? Am I right or is Mistmane right?” she says.

[CHOICE]

Tell Mistmane that she’s right. (Hero)
Tell Suri that she’s right. (Villain)

[ENDING A: HERO]
You shake your head softly. “Suri, Mistmane is right. She’s one of the Pillars of true beauty! You could learn a thing or two from her, I’m sure,” you say.

Suri starts to retort before glancing back at Mistmane. Her eyes widen and she walks back over to the ancient mare.

“I… I may have been too hasty in my assumptions,” she says. “Please accept my humblest apologies for my rude behavior.”

“Your apology is accepted, Miss Polomare,” Mistmane says with a wink.

“You… you know who I am?” Suri says.

“Of course I do,” Mistmane says. “I did say I tried to find beauty wherever it could be found. That includes doing my research.”

“In that case… do you think you could help me? Help me to help ponies show their truest selves?” Suri asks.

Mistmane grins widely before looking over at you. “I’d love to, my dear,” she says.

(+1 pages for Heroes)

[ENDING B: VILLAIN]
This is Suri Polomare. One of the greatest designers of all time! Of course she’s right! Not some old fuddy duddy from the ancient days of Equestria.

“Suri, don’t listen to her,” you say. “She’s just out of touch with modern design trends. Your designs are absolutely flawless.”

“Well,it’s good to know that at least somepony appreciates my work,” Suri says, grinning at Mistmane, who merely sighs before walking away. “Thank you for that. Perhaps you’d like to come see my new collection? A personal tour if you will.”

“That sounds amazing! I’d love to!”

(+1 pages for Villains)

Author's Note

This was the first of three Guest of Honor stories I wrote, in this case specifically for Elley Ray (the voice of Mistmane).

When I first wrote it, I didn't realize it would be used for her but it ended up being the only Mistmane-centric story in all of the app stories. I love Elley Ray and she is an absolutely wonderful light in this community so I am thankful this story ended up on her autograph posters.

#FlashMagnus - The Legendary Flash Magnus

The Legendary Flash Magnus

Code Word: #FlashMagnus

They say that Legends never die, and in the case of Flash Magnus that statement is very much true. Originally one of the pillars of Equestria, Flash Magnus was caught in limbo after sealing away the Pony of Shadows, another Equestrian myth that turned out to be real. When Twilight Sparkle and her friends brought the Pillars of Equestria back from limbo, Flash Magnus was thrust back into modern Equestrian life. Now I’m meeting with the legendary pony himself.

We meet in the most unlikely of places, at a small diner in Ponyville. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. Ponyville is where Twilight Sparkle makes her home, and Flash Magnus is very close to the modern Elements of Harmony.

He fidgets with his coffee a bit, and there’s bags under his eyes. He’s tired. For all of his bravado, this is a pony who has seen much in his life. Oh, the stories he must be able to tell. That’s why I’m here: to get a sense of the pegasus beneath the pegasus.

“So… Flash, can I call you Flash?” I ask.

“Oh, yes, of course,” Flash replies, flashing a quick smile. There’s that bravado he’s known for.

“Excellent. Now, Flash, I know things have been tumultuous for you, so I appreciate your willingness to meet with me. The Cloudsdale Gazette has been very interested in many of your stories,” I say. “It’s not every day a living legend of our very city is walking around in the flesh.”

“It’s not a problem,” Flash says, grinning again. “I don’t mind sharing my stories with others. Maybe ponies can find inspiration in them.”

“Indeed!” I say. “Now, Flash, tell us a bit about yourself.”

“Well, I’m Flash Magnus, Legionnaire of the Legion of Cloudsdale… but I guess that doesn’t technically exist anymore, does it?” Flash says with a chuckle.

“Let’s start there, shall we? Before your recent battle with the Pony of Shadows, you were trapped in limbo for centuries. It must be jarring to you to see so many things changed.”

“A little,” Flash says. “It’s certainly a lot to take in, but there are a lot of things that aren’t so bad. Ponies still stand up for each other, and it’s certainly nice to see that we’ve taken so many steps to befriend other species out there.”

“Even the dragons?” I ask.

That hit a nerve. I knew Flash had a history with dragons. It’s how he got his shield, the Netitus. He tricked a bunch of dragons with it to save his captured teammates. Flash composes himself rather quickly. Military discipline, I imagine.

“Yes, of course even the dragons,” Flash says. “I got the opportunity recently to meet with their new Dragonlord.”

“You met with Dragon Lord Ember?”

“Yes, Celestia and Luna introduced us to Ember via Spike, the official ambassador to the Dragon Lands.”

“Interesting. And how did that go?”

“Ember is abrasive to an extent, but she’s fair to her subjects and she’s trying to find a place for the Dragons in modern Equestria,” Flash says, quickly adding “This isn’t all going in the article, is it? I don’t want Ember to think I don’t like her for some reason. She was really pleasant to us, in her own way.”

“Don’t worry, that one was off the record.”

“Oh, good,” Flash says with a sigh.

“Moving on from that topic. Has there been anything interesting going on since you got back from the Dragon Lands? Any cool Flash Magnus stories for my audience?”

Flash puts a hoof to his chin. “Well, I don’t know if you’ve heard about this Book of All Stories business at all, have you?”

“You mean the magical pages that can rewrite reality?” I say, a curious grin forming on my face.

“That’s the one! I just got back from a mission in Appleloosa with the rest of the Pillars. Some pony out there had one of those pages. Caused a bit of a ruckus,” Flash replies, producing a withered old page from his bag.

“You still have it?”

“Well, somepony has to keep them safe and out of evil’s hooves,” Flash replies. “Plus I literally just got back into town from that mission.”

I stare at the page almost hungrily for a moment before looking up at Flash. I compose myself and smile. “Yes, I suppose that is true. Still, it must have been an interesting adventure recovering it.”

“Oh, you have no idea. When we got there, it was absolute chaos. The local sheriff, an earth pony by the name of Braeburn, was over twelve feet tall!” Flash says, nearly falling out of his seat in the booth. “At the end of the day, we managed to save the day and recover the page.”

“That sounds incredible. You know, I’m actually headed to the castle after this. I’ve got another set of interviews lined up with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, so I could maybe take the page for you to the Princess. It would free you up to have some down time. It sounds like you might need it after that.”

Flash quickly turns defensive. “I don’t know about that. These things are pretty dangerous. I get that you’re a well known reporter, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be targeted by nefarious forces.”

“We all have an obligation to help, Flash. I’m already headed over there, and frankly you look pretty exhausted. Let somepony else help you so you can go home and get some sleep.”

Flash grimaces. He’s considering my offer. The page is almost within my grasp.

“I said already, this thing is dangerous. It tempts normal ponies with its power. Why do you want this so badly? Something’s not right,” he says, narrowing his gaze at me.

“Flash, seriously, I’m just trying to help!” I exclaim. “If we can’t trust our fellow pony, who should we trust?”

What should Flash do?

[CHOICE]

Chase the reporter away. (Hero)
Give the reporter the page. (Villain)

[ENDING A: HERO]
Flash quickly puts the page away into his saddlebag.

“I think this line of questioning has gone too far off the path,” he says. “Something’s not adding up here, and I can’t let you have this page.”

He stands and I make a move to grab his saddlebag. “No, you must let me take the page for you! It’s too important!”

Flash whips his saddlebag around out of my grasp and glares at me. “Excuse me, but I think it’s time you left. No matter how tired I am, I will always protect Equestria.”

I scowl and hiss at him as I take another leap at the saddlebag, taking a linoleum nap as Flash suddenly moves out of the way and I land on the floor of the diner.

“You fool! The power of that page could have been used for great things!” I shout, pushing myself to my hooves.

“They should never be used at all,” Flash says.

I scamper to my hooves and barrel my way outside of the diner before Flash can pursue me. With a quick thought I dart into a pack of nearby bushes, changing my form in a green flash of light.

Moments later, Flash Magnus exits the diner, glancing about.

“Excuse me?” he says to my new form, an earth pony this time. “Did you see a pegasus run out of this diner just a moment ago?”

“Oh, I think I saw them, but I didn’t see where they went,” I say.

Flash flies onwards in possible pursuit of his prey, and the page is safely ensconced in his saddlebags. I’m going to have to hunt elsewhere.

(+1 page for Heroes)

[ENDING B: VILLAIN]
Flash shakes his head and sighs. “You know what, you’re right. I’m sorry, I’m just really exhausted from Appleloosa that I’m seeing things where there aren’t things to see.”

I place my hoof on his. “It’s okay, Flash. We can pick up the rest of the interview later. I’ll take the page to the Princess and you can go get some sleep.”

Flash nods, hoofing the page across the table to me. “Thanks. You’re a good pony. I’ll get with you after you get done at the castle.”

“Of course,” I say, taking the page and putting it into my saddlebags.

Flash gets up out of the booth and we both walk to the entrance of the diner. I pay for him and myself and we exit. Flash smiles weakly and waves as he flies off to who knows where.

As soon as I feel that I’m sufficiently alone, I open my saddlebags and let my form drop to my natural black, chitinous exterior of the changelings. My tongue slithers out and I grin widely as I pull the page out of the bags.

“Now… let’s make Queen Chrysalis the ruler of all Equestria. That seems like a great place to start.”

I begin to write and the page begins to glow…

(+1 page for Villains)

Author's Note

I wrote this one specifically for Giles Panton, the voice actor for Flash Magnus. This was part of two I wrote for the final two GoHs and it was supposed to end up on his autograph poster.

I don't think it actually did because we didn't get it in time for the artist to change the poster, but that's okay. I still had fun writing this one and I got to tell Giles himself about it at the convention.