DM: When you approach the nearly empty restaurant, you hear:
Spike: Hey, Pony Joe. Another donut.
Twilight Sparkle: Wait, Spike?? My familiar?
DM: You never mentioned him in battle, so…
Donut Joe: Don't you think you've had enough?
Spike: Another donut! EXTRA sprinkles!
Applejack: Okay, there's just a lot to unpack in this exchange.
SFX: (DING DING)
Donut Joe: Twilight Sparkle… Ha ha! Long time no see!
Twilight Sparkle: How does he– Oh, right.
Spike: <sigh> Hey everyone. Sorry, I kinda lost track of you and got bored, so I–
DM: Spike finally notices your collective state.
Spike: What the heck happened to you all?!
Pinkie Pie: Party got wild. You know how it goes.
Fluttershy: There was… I caused a stampede.
Rarity: I met my Prince.
Twilight Sparkle: There's gonna be a long talk later with the Princesses.
Rainbow Dash: Rarity broke my really cool artifact.
Applejack: So, if this is some kinda donut bar… can we open a tab?
And we've stuck the landing right back onto the rails of the show!
We're getting close to the end of the arc, so I'm thinking of opening up the door for some guest comics so I can take a quick break, but I'm not sure how hypocritical that would be since I just had ChrisTheS do a bunch of art for me (even though I still had to piece it together and script it).
Notice: Guest comic submissions are still open until this arc is finished! Guidelines here.
One of my players had a female cleric whose parents owned a tavern. The story had them being used as hostages, so naturally when they were rescued they expressed their gratitude by letting the PCs stay and eat for free any time forever.
Their daughter was as rich as a medium-sized country by then, so she gave them enough money to buy a new tavern in the town the party was based out of. They named the new tavern the "Daughter's Gift" and pretty much every story arc started and ended there for the rest of the campaign.
There is a bar, it is said, where individuality and reality blur. Where the psyches of all who enter are recorded and mixed. Where entirely new crews, with memories that aren't real and fragmented backgrounds that prove delusional, sometimes just appear. Which is a good thing, because some of those who enter never seem to leave, but their ships are still docked outside, awaiting crews.
The bar has a reputation for making new beings out of its patrons. That, at least, is technically correct. Those who emerge rarely seem to trace any subsequent troubles to visiting the bar.
And so when some patrons materialize wholecloth from the bar, have adventures, then return and retire to the psychic background mist from whence they came, why, that is just business as usual.
My DM literally told me to have my character start a bar fight.
I was playing an alcoholic Dwarf who was such a lush and so stupid he couldn't speak common.
This was to introduce our characters, and with one punch I had nearly killed the rogue
Oh, outside maybe being a little worried about the ethics of her student, I can't imagine Celestia being anything but beaming right now. I mean, her faith in Rarity payed off tenfold. Backed the right horse there!
Yeeeeeah... but since Elusive was actually Blueblood, he was basically running the realm-wide Thieves' Guild right under Celestia's nose. And the Elements of Harmony just exposed this in a ginormous fight in front of basically EVERY important person in Equestria.
Celestia's gonna be embarrassed at the very least, and I'm not entirely sure how she'll react.
Does she care? I mean her claim to the throne seems to be oldest ascended being in the area willing to put up with this politics crap rather than just eat ponies. I'm not sure her political concerns are based on the same parameters as most.
I'm guessing Celestia and Blueblood actually had a pretty good working relationship, up until BB snagged that sweet maguffin and started getting all uppity.
Having the thieves guild in your pocket is a great intellegence resource.
But, BB gets the shiny thing and starts thinking outside the line of succession, and Celestia decides she needs to jack his universe up. And who does Celestia have on speed-dial for all her "plausible deniability" needs?
I think Celestia knew Blueblood was a major part of the Thieves'Guild, and that Elusive was what the Thieves'Guild stole from her years ago.
But I also think she was hamstrung politically, and couldn't act on her own.
I also wonder how many nobles owe Celestia, and how many are willing to side with her and maintain a cover for the mane six because Elusive stole from them.
“We all agree a stampede happened. That is the fact. We shall not stand around fussing over if the stampede may or may not have been caused by someone present, and even if we were to, it would not have any bearing on the fact that a stampede happened and that is that...who wants donuts?”
Rarity looking battered and bruised and telling Spike that she met her prince can have some more interesting interpretations than what actually happened.
You know... if ever Spike got like that about anyone hurting his friends, I figure it would be the equivalent of Discord's sudden "WHERE?!" in To Where and Back Again.
Both frightfully hostile, unexpected, and ominous for the people who caused the problem.
We're getting close to the end of the arc, so I'm thinking of opening up the door for some guest comics so I can take a quick break, but I'm not sure how hypocritical that would be since I just had ChrisTheS do a bunch of art for me (even though I still had to piece it together and script it).