Rainbow Dash’s friends stared at her, as well as the massive, coffin-like box and mountain of cardboard and plastic she’d piled on top of the Cutie Map. The pegasus grinned, holding out her hooves like she was presenting some grand treasure.

“Darling,” Rarity started, breaking the silence as she levitated several hexagons and some cards towards herself, “You said you wanted to play a game. What is all this?”

“It’s Twilight Imperium! Only the biggest, coolest, awesomest board game ever! You play as all kinds of aliens and try to conquer the galaxy and stuff.”

“Lookit all the pieces!” Pinkie said, bouncing around the table, her hooves snapping up a plastic ship. “What’s this one?”

“That’s a Dreadnought. It—”

“And this one?”

“That’s a PDS—”

“And this one?”

Shaking her head, Twilight picked up the rulebook. “That’s not the right way to learn the rules, Pinkie. You have to go in order. Let’s see, ‘Welcome to a galaxy of epic conquest…”

Fluttershy peeked over the table, raising her hoof. “Um… I’m not really sure I like the sound of ‘epic conquest.’”

“You can be totally peaceful and make friends, Flutters!” Rooting around the pile of stuff, she pulled a sheet free. “Check it out! Peaceful space turtles! Or, uh… right! They were in one of the expansions! You can be space plants!”

“I do like trees...”

Hopping into her seat, Applejack snorted. “Well I dunno ‘bout all this space stuff, but I reckon I can kick your flank all the same. How long does this game take? Granny’s going to want my help baking later!” 

Rainbow Dash coughed. “Probably like 8 hours.”

Silence filled the room again.

“How long was that, darling?” Rarity asked.

“We don’t have to play it all today. We can just do a couple turns today and come back later.”

The other ponies exchanged glances – or at least Rarity and Applejack did. Pinkie was still vibrating as she dug through the components, Fluttershy kept asking herself whether she wanted to be a turtle or a tree, and Twilight couldn’t be bothered to pull her muzzle out of the rulebook.

“I have a lot of dresses to mend…”

“Granny is gonna be needing help with the pies…”

Rainbow Dash clapped her hooves together and bowed her head. “Come on. This game is best with a whole bunch of players! Trust me, it is super awesome! Way better than dresses or pies!”

The two ponies looked back at the pleading pegasus.

“Well…” Rarity started.

“...I guess it’ll be okay if we can stop in the middle,” Applejack finished.

“Awesome! Gimme the rules, Twilight! I’ll explain them!” Without waiting for a response, Rainbow Dash pulled the book away from Twilight. “Okay, so to win, you just need to get 10 victory points—”

“Wait! Let me finish reading how you create the galaxy!”

[hr]

The setting sun reflected throughout the crystal castle, the fading light still strong enough that the six ponies in the map room hadn’t had to resort to lanterns yet.

“Oooooooooh!” Pinkie exclaimed, “Boom! My War Suns wipe out all your Ground Forces, Flutteryshy!”

The pegasus stared at the dice, her mouth agape. “My turtles…”

“Oh! Oh! And then the round ends, so I’ll reveal my Secret Objective to take over somepony else’s home system, so I get two points and win, right Dashie?”

Twilight leaned back, staring up at the ceiling. “How? I did the math. My strategy was perfect...”

Rarity swooned into Applejack. “But I had the most beautiful systems!”

“Dagnabbit, Rarity!” Applejack swore, poking the unicorn with her hoof. “I told you we should’ve been stopping Pinkie, not Dash!”

Fluttershy’s hooves slammed into the table. “I will destroy you, Pinkie!” she snarled, her wings flaring. “My turtles will be avenged! You will fear me!”

The five ponies turned to Rainbow Dash as one. “We want to play again!”

Rainbow Dash grinned.