Stage 4: Fluttershy's Cottage

[Grand Pear]

Another swap! And probably the time where I made the necessary moves to be in a strong position at the merge. I got swapped with Lede(of my trio with FlimFlam), Granny(of my trio with Coco) ,Dash(of my trio with Rarity) and Applejack(who I hadn't talked to). I was both happy to be able to have 3 of my closest allies with me, but also terrified that I might have to vote one of them out. It was pretty clear to everypony pretty fast that Applejack was going to get voted out on a loss, because I think only Granny had talked to her earlier, and didn't feel particularly close to her.

We dodged going to TC the first challenge. On the other tribe, Thorax was voted out.


Thorax

Thorax, I think because of our different timezones, it wasn't Always easy to talk to each other. Therefore, I don't think we had a very strong connection, but maybe we could have made something work if we had made it to the merge together. You were nice and I remember that I was very surprised that you were voted out on a tribe that had Chrys and Rarity, who were on different sides of the vote at Everfree Forest.

[Grand Pear]

Unfortunately, we lost the next challenge and we went to TC. We basically already had agreed that Applejack would be voted out if we lost, because nopony had a connection with her. I actually liked Applejack, and we discussed the new GoT eps. So I was a bit sad to have to let her go, but it couldn't be anypony else.


Applejack

You were really great to talk to, and you just got screwed by the swap. In any other tribe, you might have been okay. It sucks, but it's part of the game. Maybe if we had been on a slightly bigger tribe we might have connected more and things might have been completely different. Please come talk to me about GoT, I wanna know what you think!

[Grand Pear]

And then, the challenge of my nightmares and the vote that I hadn't planned on. Not only am I really bad at arcade challenges, I've played the unicorn game at least 3 or 4 times as a challenge, I think. And I have never been good at it. This time, it was even worse because the challenge happened when I was out for the entire day and I got home really drunk about an hour before deadline. So I did a number of runs really drunk, and we ended up losing this. Maybe if I had been able to do this sober, I might have gotten a better score and we might not have been at TC. Who knows? Anyway, we lost and I had to make a reaaaaally tough choice. Looking back, I think this vote is what solidified my position with ponies like Granny and Dash and it helped me during the entire merge.

So basically the first thing I did was tell Dash that I was going to stick with her no matter what. At that point, I was the most loyal to Rarity and Dash and I wasn't ready to let that go. It was likely the last TC before merge so it was an important decision. So basically it was between Lede and Granny. I knew Granny had some kind of connection with Derpy and some of the other ponies that I had never talked to. So I really wanted to keep that connection alive. Lede had pretty much been on all the same tribes as me. He was part of my Alliance with FlimFlam, but I knew for a fact that FlimFlam didn't make any new connections, because he had sent us a dragon scroll. I had also been telling Dash and Rarity that I didn't think Lede had any long term plans with me, to make them think I was on the bottom. So I decided that voting out Lede would be best for my game, and it happened. Looking back, I think that was probably the most important move I made the entire game, to disconnect myself from my oldest allies and to make long term plans with new ponies.


Buried Lede

You were one of the easiest ponies to talk to and I really enjoyed our chats. everypony saw you as one of the biggest threats to win at the time and one of the best connected players. I'm sorry I had to vote you out, but voting you out is why I made it this far, I think. I hope you understand why I did it and that you weren't too upset about it, because I don't think you had any idea.