Discord GM: Oh, and you even brought your own chocolate milk to drink! You are an inspiration.
DM: Thank you for not /literally/ making it rain in my home.
Pinkie Pie: Ahhhhhh... That's the stuff.
Twilight Sparkle: Are ya done?
Pinkie Pie: Yeppers! It's clobberin' time!
Rarity: ^Where is that from...?^
Twilight Sparkle: Finally. Elements of Harmony: Activate!
DM: There's no keyword to activate them... but the artifacts do sense your collective intent and begin to charge their power.
Discord GM: *Goodness*, this is taking its sweet time to happen, isn't it? Aren't you all glad now that we've cut to the chase?
In writing this page, particularly around panel 5, my brain went off an a whole tangent about sci-fi MacGuffins that are "smart" devices with biometric access keys and automatically linked to your identity and credentials... which make them a security nightmare.
Imagine a heartbeat-oriented deadman switch for the Elements of Harmony. Orbital Friendship Cannon of positive vibes for the surrounding area immediately upon death. In D&D/Pathfinder terms, nuclear Good Hope/Waves of Ecstasy.
What I'm imagining as result of imagining that is a villain whose purpose is to kill the players/destroy the Elements explicitly because of that deadman's switch.
Reason being that the villain is so miserable he thinks that the powers of said deadman's switch is the only thing that can ever again enable him to experience such feelings.
Exactly, done enough times and one could even become addicted to the rush of positivity that comes after killing the Bearers of the Artifacts of Harmony. Such a villain might even set themselves up as the dispensers of the Artifacts to the next hapless crew, who fight for a time against hordes of petty minor evils just to ultimately face the BBEG and die so that they can get their fix on a regular, even routine, basis.
