Shinamo and Exeter (Sword and the Go Stone Rewrite, pt 1)

Toyota Special Transport Class cruiser Sephiroth

Aesril L. questioned him. She had boarded at their last stop before leaving Google space. While he had began and the beginning of the route, at Shinamo. Several of their pickups at Shinamo had debarked at Aesril L.s homeworld.

"Why Go?" she continued. "I've never heard of it. No one has ever heard of it. There's a thousand challenges you could try, even the super-hardcore fighting games."

"The Compound AI spoke with Toyota central AI, they believe I would be well adapted to quickly pick up the game. And as to why Go? The game shows up in a shadow form in Toyota's historical records, what little still remains. It was a very popular game in Ancient Japan. For it to dominate in a culture of British Asian "Google" expats, while it is forgotten by Toyota, it is very strange.

"Toyota wants me to bring the game back to Shinamo, and establish a Go Masters Challenge."

"Well, I suppose I should wish you the best. But you'll be missed. Who could find a training like you. I mean reaching 6-1 to even be eligible fo your training was a very grave challenge"

They were in the Sword Fighting arena onboard Sephiroth. Real sword fighting, real medical recovery bots

Aesril L tried her Tier 6 tactics, was rebuffed by his parrying, foot work dodges, push backs and leans, following by unambitious counterstrikes.

"My full repertoire was for the Grandmaster," Michael M said.

"That's why you only counter-attack now?"

"I don't want you to be in med-bay when we land," he said.

After three more sound defeats, Aesril L had enough. She brought up the video screen projector.

"Grandmaster battles playlist 17," she said to the projector. "I kept accumulating your fights with Shin B."

"Really," he said. He didn't know how to think about leaving battling Shin B (9-1) behind. Sure, he had to train the up-and-comers, and do some basic morale & discipline work, basically run the Sword Masters' Challenge, the parts that the Compound AI left to him.

It was shocking to see the blur of activity between him and Shin B. Neither of them hesitated once Yoshi R. ordered the fight to start.

The video recorder used couldn't pick up all of their movements as they dashed around the circular Elite Battling Ring. Sword cuts and manuevers on both sides were rapid fire.

"You've slowed down a bit since then," Aesril L said.

"I can't fight like that unless I'm in the zone. Having fought two or three warm up rounds against Shin B. After sparring with him for 17 months. Training with him for 6 months before the spars started.

"You developed a defensive style because attacking style was insane against him," she said.

"You become a great spirit of sword fighting when you face Shin B. And he's always been a great spirit. Why did you agree to leave this behind. It's almost religious to watch it, yet alone be part of the art."

"Shin B showed me conclusively, with help of the Compound AI, that I would never beat him. I approached his level, but never reached it. The AIs agreed with my master, that they wanted to put effort into training a new second. That I could returned when that second was ready, and regain my old level, so that there would be 2 8-4 swordfighters in the future. The process goes on, and someday the winner of a growing collection of fighters as my level would advance to 9-1, but Shin B would advanced to 9-4 ahead of time. 9-1 was never meant to be a real level. It was just a sign that he was unapproachable."

"If you become as good at Go as sword fighting, I fear for Exeter, and New London's Go scene," she said.

After a few hours of Sake and toasts to the old days, when Aesril L had been in the SMC and reached the height of 6-2, they headed seperately to sleep. Sephiroth would be arriving in the morning.

<>

Exeter Local Time: Thursday, July 01, 2697 0615



Michael M and Aesril L were the only passengers onboard Sephiroth, but a group of 10 locals were waiting for the rare opportunity to travel to Toyota space.

"What's Toyota network like?" one of the guys asked. He was slightly paler of tone than normal Toyota, but still had a rather Japanese look to him.

"Challenging, but worth it. Go for one of the competitive activities if you really want to enjoy yourself. If you want an advocate for ractives, Michael and I are not your best choice. We both were active martial arts competitors," Aesril L said.

"What are you here for? Go or Table Tennis would be the most competitive, but we have a lot of master chefs here on Exeter. Most of the competitive pastimes are still centered in New London."

Michael spoke up this time, "I'm going to play in the upcoming tournament. I believe we are meeting with Exeter AI shortly. Aesril L is headed to New London to enjoy some caligraphy."

"It was a hobby of mine after I got discouraged by Sword fighting," she said.

"Well good luck," said the man.

The locals boarded Sephiroth, as a woman (clearly Holographic) waited for Michael and Aesril.

"You can call me Uno. I feel more comfortable when you are comfortable," said the holographic woman. "If you must know, I am AI #1, Director AI of Exeter colony. Because of the rarity and unusual nature of arrivals from outside our network, I would like to invite you back to my office to discuss your situation and the rules of Google UK network and Exeter."

"We'll follow you," Michael said.

 They followed the holographic representation of Uno into a waiting shining white car. There was two rows of seats, no drive controls or even nav system. They sat in the back.

Uno's hologram disappeared.

The car immediately sped off.

Eventually they felt the thump as the car turned and went into an underground structure, clanging against grates of some kind.

Finally the car stopped and they got out.

"This way," said the Uno hologram.

They climbed up a series of steps into some kind of massive skyscraper. They immediately turned left in the darkened hallway and went into an elevator. Another row of elevator floor buttons soon reveleaed themselves (-1, -2, -3 down to -100).

-96 automatically depressed itself. The elevator shuddered and descended.

"Floor -96 is our evaluation floor. We can determine if you have access to illegal cheating methods, imported computer equipment, nanomachinery or anything else inconsistent with the Google UK network charter."

The elevator dinged at another darkly lit hallway.

"Michael M, if would would go through that door.

A doorway had a big blinking green light at the top. Michael went in.

A separate Uno hologram appeared in front of him, as he sat down in the illuminated seat. He had noticed the other Uno still walked with Aesril.

Bright florescent lights lit up in the room.

"This is the Go examination room. Normally, Exeter's residents are born and begin to play Go outside the home at 6 years old, and are classified at Beginner A - 200 to 800 elo. As they play league games and tournaments they gain elo and eventually gain whatever higher classification they can reach.

"Casual Go players, who focus on one of the other activities on Exeter, sometimes start playing Go later, maybe 12, or even 18. They start at Beginner A as well, and have to prove their way. But I know since they've been in Exeter, they don't possess any illegal performance enhancements.

"On the other hand, I both don't know if you've played Go before, neither do I know your performance enhancements, if any. Asking to play in the annual tournament after no league play history is rather a lot. But, I am able to accomodate, if you will agree to my Go evaluation, otherwise, if you don't want to play Go, you only need the Google UK network entrance eval, which is much less involved."

Michael M smile. He wasn't going to give up Sword Masters for a period of years just to quit. "I'm willing to go through any testing." He said.

A holographic game board appeared in front of Michael's chair.

It had a bunch of squares on it. Hundreds of squares. Michael got a little nervous, but then excited. This many squares would surely mean there was a lot to learn, but what did he know about boards and game pieces.

Suddenly these little black and white stones were all over the board.

He noticed that there seemed to be patterns and groupings of the colored stones, but they still seemed to be jumbled every which way.

"Look closely, study the position," said Uno.

There were areas with a lot of empty space, and something like fences of black or white stones. He couldn't put anything together however.

He noticed the stones had numbers on them, and followed (slowly, agonizingly) the line of numbers. White and Black alternated.

It was a rapid progression of what he guessed were Go puzzles, games, structures, patterns and so on.

Finally, part 1 was complete. "You have the mental capacity to start working things out, but you have no recognition, nor familiarity with Go or games in its family at all. You are used to uncertainty rather than the certainty of games like Go."

"Next I will evaluate whether you have any method of cheating, or violating the terms of the Google UK Peaceful People policy. This means you may not use mind alteration or chemical alteration to provide an advantage. This policy is regulated at the highest levels by Google UK network, to remain free of unfairly superhuman cheaters."

Lights flashed, a gust blew through the room, sounds of buzzers, and other weird things happened in that. He felt like a lot was happening that was on the edge of his awareness.

"This next part of testing will sedate you. Please speak up if you want to abort the proceed."

Michael blinked, this was a lot of testing, even for a serious pastime like Sword fighting. But he continued, sayng nothing.

LP:EQO Saber Artist 2

That mare sure loved to fly.

He didn't intentionally trot out to his balcony, he said to himself that it was to practice his saber stances, but every time Blue Yonder came roaring out of a puff of white clouds, or came around the corner of a building, he watched her fly.

She was new to it, but practically glowing as she tried every trick in the book and outside it. A crash was just another chance to get up and try again.

It would be neat if Blue Yonder was interested in fencing sabers. She had the same passion for flying that he had for martial arts. Tomorrow he was going to be at the PD in the morning. He enjoyed that too and it was helpful for the ponies of Hobby Bluff. But his favorite was sabers.

He pranced back into his apartment, which was set up with a padded dojo in the living room and a separate bedroom.

He thought it would be awkward to sword fight when he first heard about it as a child, but he could fight by swordhoof style, standing on two hooves, or fight with the sword hilt in his mouth for a 4 hoof style. He never seemed to be awkward since the earliest days of learning.

The pony sized training dummy took its cuts as he spent his daily practice time with the 4 hoof style.

Hobbython needed a shake up, maybe Blue Yonder could help make in fresh and new, he thought. Everyone broke off and did their own thing, or even just snacked and chatted. They needed to bring the whole town together.

After his practice, he ran hot water, and took a hot bath, prepared himself for tomorrow, and finally tumbled into a pile of blankets to doze off the night.

It must have been 4 hooves past midnight when his Sheriff pager made a big racket. It shifted from sound to sound, imitating a chicken cluck, a gong, a howl, a rooster, swoosh sounds and finally, "wake up sleepy", which was his aunt's voice.

Saber Artist lumbered out of bed. He loved a new case to chase down. He quickly drank his blueberry wakie juice and looked at his pager.

"Another star, north of Blueberry Ranch -- Auntie Heart."

He strapped on his saber sheath, his dazzler pistol and tie rope. By the time he had leapt off the balcony and landed at ground level, he was galloping at a full pace.

The fog of an early wakeup was replaced with his determination. These random stars falling from the sky were weird and mysterious.

Always they contained a little message and a bizarre item. Auntie hadn't let him get involved before, but he heard from her. The messages were disturbing, and they tried to keep it between herself and the Mayor to avoid alarming people.

Blueberry Ranch was a ten minute gallop east of town, but Saber Artist made it in 8 minutes.

Auntie Heart Warden was standing beside a massive six pointed star, which was glowing.

"The silly-bit wouldn't let me touch it. Says its got a list of letters, and I'm not on the list," she said.

He approached the star, which pulsing from white to blue to brown.

 "Saber Artist," said the star accompanied by a humming sound.

"Yes star," he said, placing his left hand on his hip.

"I have a letter for you. It's about the newcomer, Blue Yonder."

"Can I have it," he asked, becoming antsy.

"First, I do have to say, this whole star business was forewarning."

It hummed and pulsed in time.

"What were you forewarning?"

"Me, nothing. But my masters yes. My masters wanted you to know ..."

He waited for the star to spill.

"Did you know about Visitors, Saber Artist? That mare Blue Yonder, She's going to get Hobby Bluffs destroyed! She's connected with Princess Celestia. What if this is all--"

On instinct Saber Artist reacted before the star could (ridiculously) try to move. He used his earth pony skills to instantly wrap the star in his robe, so that the star couldn't move.

"Quick thinking, Saber Artist" said the princess. Instead of the bright happy Celestia, it was Princess Luna in her darker blue mane.

"This star here is part of the Starcity bandits. They are stars who are unhappy with the order of the heavens, and they want to come here to wreck every good and lovely town of Equestria. It is true that they've been homing in on Hobby Bluff ever since Blue started flying this way."

 "Oh, I didn't realize they were really smart and smarting," Auntie Heart joked.

Luna cast quite an imposing figure, Saber Artist felt frozen stiff by her gaze.

"Visitors are very important. Especially when we find a visitor that is so miserable in their hometown and so happy here," Luna said.

"Is Blue Yonder going to stay?" Saber Artist asked.

"I think she will no longer be a visitor someday soon. You have to keep this a secret. Princess Equestria looked through all of the small towns all across the land, and Hobby Bluffs was just perfect for Yonder. Make sure she's comfortable and not too awkward.

She loves to explore and try new things, and you may not see it now, because she is transfixed by flying, she loves to solve problems and fix things, if the fix is tricky and interesting. She likes to design games and hobbies too. She's one smart hoof back in her hometime, and she'll be a smartie here to once she settles in."

"That mare will really help liven up Hobby Bluffs. Celestia and I also are certain there is more in store for her and for the town in the near future. I want you to keep an eye on these stars, and take this moon flare. It will alert me that the Starcity bandits are trying again. Don't approach the star, just let me handle it."

"Yes, Princess Luna," he agreed. "I promise not to approach those bad stars," he said, taking the moon flare.

Auntie Heart agreed.

After that, it was back to the Police Department, for some hot cocoa with Auntie.

"Don't think about it too much," she said. "Life has a way of working out, if you stop worrying and start living!"

He could have went back to sleep but instead he and Auntie Heart sat up at her house, had a cup of cocoa and chatted.

“Visitors are kinda like foals. They may not look it but Blue Yonder is discovering who she is in her own way.”

“I heard the Blue Hoof Legion had quite a few visitors. They are quite good at certain things despite being quite young.”

“A lot of trouble with that group, but most of the visitors are nice, like Yonder.”

Quidditch GM back up and running

I tried to run Quidditch GM the other day, and it no longer runs with the changes to its components, or whatever.

So I used my newfound Git skills and connected to the new gm-games git repository, and painstakingly merged all the changes dumbmatter has made to the base game, which has turned into basketball gm and football gm.

I had to reapply the game sim and adv stats changes, and I picked different values for those crucial variables.


3-pt : (catching the snitch) : 150 pts : game ends immediately :

shootingThreePointerScales * 0.15 + 0.01
(0.15 * 0.85 + 0.01 to make 3 for perfect seeker. 0.01 for worst seeker)


2-pt : 10 pts (goal)
Jumper : 0.0525 miss & foul, 0.0375 add one, MidRange * 0.24 + 0.24
Dunk / Fast Break : 0.2775 miis & foul, 0.1875 and one, Rim * 0.24 + 0.39
Post : 0.2475 miss & foul, 0.1125 and one, LowPost * 0.24 +  0.2775


Changes:

Change statistical feats criteria
(Rebounds / assists double, scoring mult by 5)

Gryffindor Lions 1270, Hogwarts Professors 970

Prev

	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	OT1	OT2	OT3	OT4	OT5	OT6	OT7	OT8	OT9	OT10	OT11	OT12	F
GRY	15	45	65	75	70	90	70	110	45	70	80	100	75	60	90	210	1270
HOG	55	50	35	100	50	60	60	55	65	105	75	70	105	40	20	25	970

eFG%	TOV%	ORB%	FT/FGA
22.3	10.4	26.7	.190
20.3	14.5	23.6	.157

It's nowhere close to scores from the books, but it does have 10s and 150s ( and 5 point fouls as a concession to the basketball modelling going on underneath.)


Pottermore shows Quidditch world cup scores like:

270 - 240
170 - 160
260 - 180
450 - 300
300 - 220
750 - 640

Most games in the first game day I played, were over 1000 points on each side.


Ideas:

Remove 5 point fouls
Reduce FG chance, so its more like a hard goal

Increase snitch chance. Gryffindor went 1 / 152 from 3, Hogwarts Professors went 0/121


Let's start with significantly increasing the 3pt chance.

Base rate: from 0.01 to 0.05.
Scale: from 0.15 to 0.3

This was a little extreme the other way. There were several 150 to 0 games.

Base : 0.03
Scale: 0.22

These settings had some quick games and some long games.


Gryffindor game log:

Loss 20 - 150 : in Q1
Loss 230 - 335 : in Q4
Loss 55 - 205 in Q1
Loss 615-945 in OT7

These seems good, although tweaking FG changes and removing fouls is probably a good idea too.

I'll play through a season or two to get a feel for it.

LP:EQO Hobby Bluffs

Butterscotch took me right to the Hobby Bluffs apartments after we left Mrs. Nugget's place.

"Let me know what you end up getting into," Butterscotch said. "Maybe you could be a map maker, help find more locations for orchards and shops around the edges of town? I don't know. I'd like to trade and we can help each other," she said.

With that, the Earth pony waved, and I flung myself off of the cart, doing a little loop de loop which descended right into the entryway of the apartment complex.

Butterscotch puttered off in the cart, and I took in the big entryway / mailroom of the apartments.

There were at least 50 little mailboxes, and a big box that had a hand drawn note: "Overstuffed". With the cutie mark of a stamp pressed against the little square note attached to it.

There was a tack board on the opposite wall.

The biggest thing tacked to the board was the Hobbython details.

HOBBYTHON - Hobby Bluffs own tradition. 
Late Summer schedule

Late Summer week 1 - Butterscotch Candy Store (Upstairs) : Candy making & Word Puzzles
(written below: a brief note: "Quizzly was right, that last one was hard.")


Late Summer week 2 - Knicknack Oddities Store (Basement) : Toy making & Hobbython Settlers
(written below was a note: Went great! I made a barking dog toy!")

Late Summer week 3 - Sweetmuffin's Bakery (Dining Area) : Baking Ideas & Indoor ball games

Late Summer week 4 - Just a Peach's Orchard (Picnic Area) : Gardening & Orchards & Sodaglug's new Capture the Flag variant.


From the notes I guessed tomorrow was the bakery.

Just for fun (and because some games sent you mail at the beginning), I checked my mailbox, number #27.

The box was fully of letters, and a key which had "Oversized" written on it. I decided to wait for the oversized until tomorrow. I was getting tired already.

I grabbed the letters and headed upstairs and down the hall to apartment #27. It was a studio apartment, snug but not so tiny that I couldn't have guests.

It had blue shades decorated like the sky with white clouds interspersed. The shades were closed on the large glass slider door which lead out to a balcony.

The balcony had a pony friendly chair and plenty of area for me to fly off and land. The railing was only three feet high, and perhaps might make some earth ponies nervous.

 I walked back into the studio, closing the sliding door but pulling the shades open.

It was a pretty good view for the middle of an apartment complex. I could see the back of the Hopricot Brewery (Hopricot: Mr. Hoppy and Mrs. Apricot's own concoctions.)

 There were a few empty Kegs, but the back area was shockingly clean for a brewery. I had worked in a craft brewery and restaurants during my 4 years at the University of Colorado. Without an exception the areas that were not public were a mess. No one had time or desire to thoroughly clean the area near the dumpster, but Hopricot's overly small dumpster was polished and closed, and no offensive odors had wafted their way over.

I pondered for a moment, if Butterscotch had helped make a Butterscotch flavored beer. Weird, but I was curious.

 The physical me was tired. Blue Yonder was a mare with a desire to explore. I succumbed to my Grad Student desire to sleep whenever possible.

I had rushed home, leaving half graded papers on the kitchen island as I went into my bedroom and picked up the ponypad, and entered Blue Yonder's apartment.

The shades were closed again, though I had not closed them. Like before, I quickly forgot grad student and became a curious mare again.

It was only a half hour before Hobbython, I realized when I picked up the invitation that slipped under my door.

Being a studio, the bed was just tucked into a corner, slightly isolated with a jutted out section of wall.

My letters were still sitting unopened on the counter, but I read the invite first.


Dear Ms. Yonder,

No invitation is required, but I thought I should specifically invite you to tonight's Hobbython. I understand that as a visitor, you may be extra sleepy at times, so I just wanted to remind you the Hobbython stars in 28 minutes (I put a little spell on the letter so it shows you how long you have to wait.)

Cheery Tinsel, your new neighhhbor.

PS. It's at Sweetmuffin's Bakery, downtown Hobby Bluffs.


I somehow brushed my mane in record time and flew off from the balcony. I would have been lost flying around the downtown area without the sight of three ponies waving their hoofs at me.

I circled and swooped back around and came in for an flashy landing right in front of the bakery.

"Welcome new neighbor!" said the first pony, a unicorn with silver wobbly lines for a cutie mark said. "I'm Cheery Tinsel, this is Songbird Scroll, and Saber Artist here says he met you outside Canterlot."

"Blue Yonder," I responded.

Songbird was a Pegasus like me, Tinsel was a unicorn and Saber Artist, of course, an earth pony.

"This calls for a celebration!" said Cheery Tinsel and as she took a breath, Songbird Scroll interrupted, "Uhh, Hobbython is start. Afterward you can Tinsel it up."

"Hmmph, alright. Come on Blue Yonder, Hobbython is starting."

The bakery had a large dining area as they entered. The warmth of baking bread and the wafting smell of sticky buns assaulted his senses.

From the name and the amount of celebration over it, I thought Hobbython would be big on ceremony. But it was more like a gathering at a civic center. The ponies were sitting on pony friendly chairs arranged in a moon like arc, all pointing towards a central spot where another pony was waiting.

"Looks like everypony is here. Glad you all made it. So, um, Hobbython, Late Summer week 3. I'm your hostess Frosting Sweetmuffin, baker and jolly pony of the community. I know most of you, of course, but we have a new pony here so I thought I'd make an introduction. For the Hostess event, I will be showing you how to make your own bakery confection.

"Whether it's bread, muffins (my favorite), cherry turnovers or creme-filled long-johns, I'll help you prepare and bake your confection. For the less craftsy pony, we have a game room filled with several whimsical game ideas using balls.

"From dodgeball to rainbow sparkle hot potato there's a lot of hobby fun. And there's always impromptu connections, food, friendship and fun!"

Saber Artist (with his saber on a canvas cutie-mark), spoke up, "Anyone interested in some funny games with bouncing balls of all sizes, follow me upstairs."

"Follow me if you want to bake something of your own," said Frosting Sweetmuffin.

Others stuck around at the dining room, congregating over their favorite topics and eating delicious bread, turnovers and tarts.

"We're going to follow Saber," Tinsel said and Scroll nodded.

I followed Tinsel and Scroll, who were following Saber Artist with a few other ponies. They climbed up a spiral of steps to Sweetmuffin's home, which had a sign saying, "Hobbythoners Welcome! Come on in!"

"This was Frosting's guest bedroom yesterday. The largest room in the loft, of course. All the bedrooms gone, and Hobbython here," said Tinsel.

Saber Artist spoke up, as he looked down at the multi-colored beach ball bumping against his leg.

 "Let's all introduce ourselves in the Hobbython style, for our new neighbor. I'm Saber Artist, an artistic minded policeman from a family of guard ponies in Shield Bay. I teach sword based martial arts on the side, and sometimes MC Hobbython activities like this one."

"I'm Carmel Apple, Granny Apple's eldest grand-daughter. Normally I love new craftsy stuff, but I needed a break from all the time I've spent making my new apple bounce. I like to play the flute too."

Carmel Apple was an earthpony with an apple on a stick as her cutie mark.

"I'm Captain Rose, I'm Princess Celestia's military attache to Hobby Bluffs. While Saber Artist walks the near path, keeping an eye on lost travelers and miscreants alike, I scout out the wider reaches around Hobby Bluffs, between us and our neighboring villages to the east, northwest hills and southwest plains. I watch for threats against Equestria as a whole.

"Prompt reaction to a threat occurring in one place, before it has a chance to spread, is a key part of us Bounders, we are extra eyes for Celestia to see who may be disrupting our peaceful kingdom. Oh and I ramble I guess. Um, I make weapons, just for fun and target practice. Ms. Doodle keeps reminding me to give them the humor they need. I don't want Celestia to ask me to stop because I'm terrifying the people of Hobby Bluffs. My latest one shoots sparkles."

"I'm Songbird Scroll. I come from a family of unicorns who focus on magic and sometimes music, but I wanted to fly, so I got Celestia to change me to a Pegasus. I kept the Scroll family name, but I'm Songbird now. I give singing lessons, and advanced flying lessons too, and still use the family scrolls, though now its for transcribing my favorite songs."

 Songbird winked as she ended her intro.

"I'm Cheery Tinsel. I love making tinsel, streamers, any kind of celebratory decoration that moves. I'm the town cheerpony, self-declared of course, I like to cheer up anypony that's having a bad day. I also enjoy greeting anyone new moving into the Hobby Bluff apartments."

Cheery smiled.

They all turned to me now.

"Uh. Hi! I'm Blue Yonder, I'm visiting Hobby Bluffs, hopefully staying here for good. I love to fly, but I'm still learning my skills. I don't know what sort of hobby I'll find here, but I'm willing to try it all, because I love to explore, new places and new ideas."

"Hi Blue!" they all said.  "We'll find your Hobby, I promise," Cheery assured.

"OK, well for Blue Yonder's benefit, I'll go over the game. This is kinda chaotic, and off we go, improv ball games. You do something, and you tell others what you're doing. One word only!"

They backed up to give more room between everyone, balls gonging, and tinking around.

Cheery picked up a big red and white beach ball and kicked it up with a hoof. "Potato!"

It bashed me right in the snout, ricocheting back towards Cheery, who pushed it over to Songbird.

At the same time Saber Artist tossed a small heavier ball into the air. "Float!"

He juggled the ball with his whole body, leaping up into the air off of his hind legs.

I got into the fun, after tossing back the Potato ball and tapping the Float ball back into the air with the top of my mane, I rolled the heavy ball, which landed with a thunk.

I froze: "Pin!" I said. Wasn't sure if pinball was counted as one word.

The others got it, and rousing game of pony pinball got going, while other balls flew through the air. Each pony was a flipper, and I was the last flipper before the heavy ball rolled out the door.

I was getting used to being a pony, as a I laid down on my side and used my whole back as the flipper. It was silly.

"Usually the group finds the game they like and we meld into playing that. We haven't played pinball, well since last year, Cheery?"

"Mudwinter last year. Week 1," she said as she slid on the floor as a flipper.

"What kind of Seasons do you have around here," I asked as I prevented the ball from rolling out the door ago.

"Same seasons as everywhere else," said Carmel Apple. "But oh, I guess you are a visitor, so I'll tell you. There's Early Summer and Midsummer and Late Summer. Harvest Fall and Spooky Fall and Thankful Fall. Holly Winter, and Midwinter and Mudwinter. Lastly there's Springfrost, Rainy Spring and Flower Spring"

"Jump", said Captain Rose. The Stallion launched one of the softer balls into the air and leapt up at the ball in mid air, hitting it.

They all started hopping like a bunch of fools.

I started flying, running into balls. Songbird Scroll ran into some more of them, and then Saber Artist drew out a soft plastic sword (from who knows where), batting the balls around by directing the hilt which was between his teeth.

In mid sword swipe, I collided into the same ball Saber Artist was hitting and tumbled a few feet to the ground, sliding towards the stallion on my back.

"Oops," said Saber Artist.

"We need big puffy bats too," I said, getting into the fun as I spun around onto my four legs.

"Bop" said Cheery and everyone threw balls at each other until they were worn out.

"Is this what Hobbython is like every week?" I asked.

"There's crafts, puzzlers and board game fanatics, chefs and wacky games like these, and even some sports-fanatics. We do one Hobbython a month outside, usually at one of the farms. Let's get some of those baked goods, maybe we can even try what our fellow Hobbyists have made," said Saber Artist.

They picked up the balls and put them all in a great big bin, which they left in the room.  Saber Artist said, "Ms. Sweetmuffin insisted we don't have to worry about returning these, she'll get them to Knicknack tommorrow. He's just down the street."

When they got back downstairs, a few tables were filled with pony's talking excitedly, some playing cards or board games, and others trying baked goods.

There were a few bigger tables, and they grabbed one themselves. Frosting Sweetmuffin was busy teaching the craftsy ponys how to make baked goods of their own, so Cheery promised to go get some sweets for the group. Songbird insisted on going with her.

"Cheery would bring just the sweetest stuff. I know Saber likes the more subtle flavors, and what about Blue?" Songbird said.

They came back with a collection of breads, donuts and the proprietor's special, muffins with hand applied frosting on them. The muffin frosting spelled out Hobbython in tiny letters.

Turned out, I liked sweet stuff, but the most over-sweet stuff was only loved by Cheery. I wasn't into the nutty flavors that Saber liked, but I appreciated that he had a connoisseur's taste. He chose the walnut bread with only the lightest hint of sweet coating.

Songbird liked fruit flavors, especially the cherry turnover. Captain Rose liked the sweet breads and Carmel Apple liked pastries with a cream or fruit filling, something that went with something else. Which made a lot of sense, because she made apples with other flavors added.

I didn't recognize a lot of the group's jokes, but neither did I feel excluded.

"How much have you explored so far," Saber Artist asked.

"Well it was a bit cloudy when I flew from Canterlot. I loved flying above the clouds but I wasn't sure where I was until I descended and spotted Chicken Nugget Orchard. I met Nugget Blossom and Butterscotch. And I helped out on the farm. They needed some Pegasi help. Then Butterscotch drove me into town on the Orchard's cart. That was last night."

"You slept all day?" Cheery asked, and Songbird tried to whisper, "don't ask that."

"I love to fly, but flying that far wore me out," I said.

"Well once you get settled in, go to Mayor Hobbypony and register. I know you've been set up with an apartment, but the Mayor will help you to find what you'd like to do around town. A lot of cooperative work with the people of Hobby Bluffs is listed on the board in the Mayor's office," Songbird Scroll said.

"I know I could use a Pegasi from the sky to scout the bounds of Hobby Bluff. There's a lot of behavioral observation I do on foot, but after some training you might be able to help with that, if you find it interesting, Blue," Captain said.

"I'm sure the PD could use a set of Sky Eyes too," Saber Artist said.

"Well I know Butterscotch and Mrs. Nugget appreciated my help picking the nuggets high up on the trees. I'd like to help them during harvest, but both of your ideas are interesting. Maybe I should stop by the Mayor's office first just to make it official." I said.

"Don't let go of your own special dream," Carmel Apple said. "We love helping out around here, but we all have our passion projects! I help out with mom and dad's orchard all the time, but I still love making my favorite apple concoctions as much as I can."

I said, "I don't know exactly what my dream is, but I'm going to chase it!"

It was a good fun afternoon, but it was time to head home, I'd go to the Mayor's office tommorrow and spend some time noodling with ideas of what I wanted to do."

I said my goodbyes, promised Saber Artist and Captain Rose I'd work with some on a collab or two, and returned to the apartment complex.

I enjoyed my social time, feeling part of a group that was interested in me, even if I wasn't one of them quite yet. But my favorite thing still had to be flying, so I leapt off of my balcony, and flew around town, practicing climbing high into the sky, dive bombing towards the park in the center of town, stumbling and falling as I made a clumsy landing, swooping and spinning, and I made a long slow loop around the outskirts of town, finding nothing but beautiful farms, craftspony's workshops and nature in impossible cleanliness and perfection.

It was late both in Hobby Bluffs and in real life, when I landed back on my balcony.

Lockshorn Bandits

The Kings of Khergit, Sarranid, Swadia, Rhodok and Vaegir look at a map with their war council, all following much the same pattern:

The King points out a town which was once theirs. It is theirs by right, and they will use force to make it theirs once more.

Armies are dependent on food, weaken your foe now, so that the next war finds them weaker. Sack the enemy's villages whenever you can. Flee larger armies, and while they are besieging your castle or town, your armies are scattered, one to each lord. Villages on both sides burn.

Someone wins, or the will to fight becomes low. Food becomes scarce.

Many farmers who survived the war find their crops destroyed, or even home and field destroyed. These are the fuel that lights the next fire.

1. Some are recruited into the armies of the one of the Lords.
2. Others start a new group of brigands, or join an existing group.
3. Some few join the hunters to hunt down and punish brigands.

The Lords burned down villages for political and military advantage.
The bandits raid and burn villages to steal all their food and supplies, capturing men and women, for their own purposes.

Larger groups of bandits grow slow on the move. They may decide to build a camp to store supplies and keep prisoners. But they are now tethered to the camp, and the hunters and even noble's armies will fight them if they see them.

Some nobles actually are so poorly equipped and outmanned, and lose fights. Soldiers of the five kingdoms are kept prisoner and sometimes ransomed for money.

Sometimes raiders lose, but generally they keep a pretty even fight against the hunters. Brigand groups don't fight against each other, they've got easier prey.

Some are just looters, with stones and crude clubs to fight with. Others have acquired armor and weapons to challenge soldiers. In some regions, horses are abundant, and the brigands fight on horseback, in other regions they fight and move on foot.

As brigands find success and swell to large sizes, soldiers who find their situation undesirable plot to leave their noble's army and become a brigand force of their own. These are often the most fearsome brigands, equipped with powerful armor and weapons, and well trained by wars and disciplined to fight in a group.

Because of the way they leave, these are often all the same type of soldiers. A group of archers will abandon their lord, or a group of knights or men at arms, or whatever.

They join the brigands with a much greater success, still raiding villages and accosting any who travel afield.

Farmers can't travel to get their farming supplies. Travelling without an army to accompany you becomes foolish. Either great speed, or great strength is required to go from place to place.

Villages aren't safe, but none of the brigands find any desire to try to besiege towns or castles. They have no use for siegeing equipment, and they are designed to be on the move.

Traders move in caravans, guarded by hunters and other paid soldiers. Even then, they can be accosted by bandits, or by their Kingdom's enemies.

Many caravans travel to and from Sarranid, for the kingdom has many goods rarely found elsewhere.

Attack caravans can provide a brigand group a lot of funds, if they can handle the strong guards, but it also puts the brigands on the owning Kingdom's radar in a whole new way. Raiding villages causes upset, but raiding caravans leads to open hostility against the brigands.

When Lords aren't at war, they are busy hosting and going to tournaments, and feasting afterwards. A tournament and feast is often a chance to renew relations with other lords.

There are potential challengers and claimants to all the thrones, but who could hold onto the throne but the duly authorized king without a ton of smackdowns being issued. Only a slow approach would give a noble enough respect of his peers to try to press for such a title.


What is it that makes our little band of Lockshorn Bandits effective at fighting other bandits/

The women haven't been trained in fighting. They don't have money or supplies or equipment.

Starting out, all they have is clever and desperate survival, and the element of surprise, as well as a perspective different from anyone else in the raiding scene.

The bandits haven't been fighting each other. The bandits saw them as men since they had cut off their hair.

How did the Lockshorn Bandits get started?

After being assaulted by Brigands, they were enslaved and brought along with the Brigand group. The brigands were attacked by hunters, and all that was left after the battle were a few hunters who bled out, leaving the women alone. They rummaged through the supplies the brigands and hunters had with them.

They decided to take the fight to the brigands rather than dying on their burned out farms. They cut off their hair at that time, and wore men's clothing and armor to try to fit in with the wandering armies and brigands.

They lost half of the women in a fight with the fearsome Sea Raiders, but were able to hone their craft against a bunch of penniless starving looters, who only had stones to throw and knives to hack at them with.

With time, they wandered from sea raiders territory to Taiga Bandits territory where they had more luck. They found women captured by the Taiga bandits and offered the proposition of joining them. Any men they rescued they released without answering any questions.

What was the Lords' reaction to this?

Lords counted any raided village as lost, so they didn't even notice or have any trouble with the Lockshorn. They didn't have any tolerance for them but also no desire to attack. The situation was already chaotic enough with the ex-soldier brigand groups about, and the wars going on.

With less food available, the Kings were more inclined to find their food from raiding other kingdoms' villages, or taking castles and making the nearby villages part of their lands.

As the number of Taiga Bandits in the northeastern Vaegir lands dropped off, villages were reestablished and people were more often able to travel in safety. But the Sea Raiders continued to occasionally make forays that far out.

The Raiders path forward?

They continued to slowly gain more fighting women, and more of them were skilled. It was mix of losing women to the sword and illness, and recruiting more of them as they defeated brigand groups.

Then, they were attacked by a group of young inexperienced Men at Arms. Not yet fully trained heavy cavalry, and only a dozen of them were in the band.

Nonetheless, Lockshorn Bandits came close to be wiped out in the attack.

A few of the most experienced women were able to form up a decent square, and six of them survived.

A few of the horses of the ex-soldiers were recovered.  This began the period of Lady Blacksaddle's leadership.

While the other women took to the horses eventually, Marie Black, aka Blacksaddle, had already rode with her husband before the destruction of the original village. She was one of the original women who started the group.

With a lance taken from one of the Men of War, she became the first Sword Sister, and leader of the Lockshorn bandits.

Then what?

The Taiga bandits were no longer numerous enough to sustain their presence in Vaegir, so they crossed into Swadian territory, and ran into a small region of forest bandits.