//------------------------------// // Dungeons and Dragons (Dash) // Story: Stuck in a Rainbow // by theRedBrony //------------------------------// Buck. I know I don't know any of these ponies, er, people, but now this Danny guy is telling me this 'Dyllen' guy's somewhere else, but this guy right in front of me claims he's Dyllen! Maybe I know two of them? Nah, how many ponies have the same names? So that means… one of them is lying to me… Right? Are there changeling humans? "... Hello?" The voice from the thing in my hand asks. "Uh, what?" I say as I snap out of my thoughts. That's right, I was talking to Danny on the thing. "So, you gonna come over or what?" He asks. What do I do? Somepony's lying here… "Um… I think I might be a little busy…" I don't even know where his place is, wouldn't be able to go anyway. "Oh please, Church, like you have a life. Just get over here." Buck! "No, I'm uh… pretty busy! Yeah, I got a date with my uh… marefriend Fluttershy!" I just realized… Dyllen is staring at me. One of his eyebrows is cocked up, he must have heard me. "lolwhat?" Danny says… "Uh… gotta go!" I close the talky thingy, and shove it in my pocket. "Sooooo… where's this 'Fluttershy'?" Dyllen asks, a wry smirk plastered on his mug. "Uh…" I wonder… "Nowhere! Just made her up!" I chuckle nervously. "Right, so are we gonna go to Danny's?" "What?!" WHAT IS GOING ON?! "I was just talking with him! He said you were over there with him!" "No? I was just walking there, I left home a few minutes ago." "What the hay is going on here…?" I mutter. "You know what? FINE. Let's go! I wanna get to the bottom of this!" "The bottom of… what?" "Don't play dumb with me! You know exactly what I mean!" I get up close to him and poke him in the chest. "Right… Um, ok buddy." "I'm not your buddy, pal!" "Wow, that's… not very nice, Church. Whatever, let's just go already." So I followed 'Dyllen' back through town and down that one street that what's-his-face led me down part way. It's been about 15 minutes. We're still walking, it looks like we're not really in town anymore. We're getting closer to a house on a small hill. Hmm, this place looks… familiar somehow. There's a barn off to the side of the house, and a little shack that almost looks like the Cutie Mark Crusaders' club house… minus the tree. I follow him inside the house. Directly to my left, there's a scruffy looking plump man sitting on a couch and watching the magic movie box thing. Er, actually, it looks like he's doing something with it. Like playing a game or something. The couch guy stops what he's doing and turns to look at us. "Oh, there you are! We're still waiting for Silas to get here, then we can start." Couch guy sounds a lot like the 'Danny' I talked with on the thing. Funny… he didn't mention me flaking out on him. "So, wanna play?" Danny asks me, offering me a funny-shaped white thing with buttons on it. "Uhhhhhh…" My masculine voice reaches a very high note at the end of that. "Sure?" I take the device and fall into the couch. Danny walks over to Dyllen and whispers something to him. I look at the magic movie box. It says 'Soul Calibur V.' What the hay is this? "You suck," Dyllen keeps saying that, but he's just trying to get under my fur. Him and Danny are standing behind the couch and snickering while I play this game. Danny's actually trying to help by telling me what to do. It's not really working though. This is crazy! The buttons he's telling me to push make no sense, and I haven't even gotten used to working these hands yet! After a while, a tall guy with a warmhearted smile walks in. Maybe that's 'Silas'? "Hey guys, what's up?" "I give up on this game," I declare, tossing the controller on the couch. "Good, we're all here. Now we can start," Danny says in a really ominous voice. I get all shaky. "Start… what?" I ask, trying not to show any fear. Danny's creepy grin turns into a lighthearted smile. "Dungeons and Dragons, of course!" "We're all set up in the game room, go on in," Silas points a long finger at a door. They all stand still. They expect me to go in first. I gulp. Something's very fishy about all this… I take careful, slow steps towards the door. I turn the handle and gently push it open… First thing I see is a table with some kind of board game set up on it. Huh. "So how do we-" THWACK Ow. My head. Hurts. I hear voices. I keep my eyes closed. "What are we going to do with him?" Is that Danny? "IDIOT! You know what we're doing with him! He's the whole reason we're HERE!" Dyllen…? "He's not. She is…" I think that's the tall guy. What's his name again? Silas? Ow! My head is pounding! "We'll probably be done with her by tomorrow anyway," Dyllen says nonchalantly. "Once everything is prepared…" Danny says, chuckling evilly. I open my eyes, they're looking right at me. "What do you want with me?!" I yell! I try to get up, but I'm tied to this chair! The rope chafes against my arms as I try to pull them free. "We need your loyalty," Danny responds flatly. "SHUT UP!" Dyllen punches his friend in the arm. While they growl at each other I hear a noise from outside… wherever I am. Sounds like a car. Then a slamming sound like someone's closing the car's door. Danny asks, "Who's that?" As if accusing his friends. The other two shrug and they follow Danny to leave. I'm still a little dazed. This headache's not helping. Did they hit me in the head? Where am I anyway? I'm surrounded by boxes and junk. This whole big room is filled with them. Wait. I think I'm in that barn next to the house. CLICK And now I'm in the dark. Great. These ropes are pretty tight, these weirdos could give Applejack a run for her money when it comes to roping things. Hey wait… this chair isn't tied down. Come to think of it… I'm not gagged either. I take a deep breath. "HHHHHEEEEELLLLLPPPPP!!!!!" I hope whoever's out there heard me. I try to hop this chair around but it doesn't go very far. I scream for help again. CLICK Hoofsteps. Someone's coming. "Ha, I bet you wish I was someone else." It's Dyllen… I sigh, "Let me go you dork!" "Why should I? Where are you gonna go?" "Away from you!" I snarl at him. He has a point though… I don't really know where to go… "Alright, you can get away from me... kind of. Enjoy your night." He winks at me and walks off. "Huh?" CLICK "Aw, what the hay?" I sigh in the darkness and hang my head in defeat. It's been about half an hour of sitting alone in the quiet, musty smelling darkness of this barn. Tied up to this chair. I hear something outside, sounds like that car that I heard earlier, only now it's probably leaving. CLICK "Ah! It's bright!" I cringe as my eyes adjust to the bright light. Hoofsteps coming. "Hey guys. Back so soon?" I sarcastically ask. "Good to see you too," Danny quips. "So how long am I gonna stay tied up like this?" "Until we finish dinner," Dyllen replies. "Ugh, well go finish your dinner then! I have to take a leak!" "Well alright then, we're just checking on you, we'll be right back. Then, we'll just let you go!" Danny laughs as they all walk away again. CLICK ARGH! Why do I feel like they're doing this on purpose? Keep coming and going, and leaving me in the dark, just to mess with me?! A few minutes later I hear hoofsteps again. But sounds like only one of them this time. Whoever it is walks up behind me. Wow, I can't turn my head that far… what gives? "I knew something was wrong with them," a voice whispers at me. Hey! I know that voice! It's what's-his-face I met in town! "Boy am I glad to see you!" "Shh." He starts untying me. "What the hell is going on here?" "I don't know!" I shrug. "That Dyllen guy wanted me to go to Danny's house so I followed him there. But before that Danny… 'called' me and said that Dyllen was with him, but he wasn't because I was talking to Dyllen when he called me! Then I got there and they knocked me out, and then they were talking all creepy-like, and then… well here I am!" "The hell is wrong with the guys…?" He says, shaking his head solemnly. "Do they do this… a lot?" "What? No! That's ridiculous!" "Well, I don't know… but thanks for finding me dude. I owe you one." I get off the chair and stretch out. "Yeah, no problem. I'd like to think you'd do the same for me. We should probably get out of here." We sneak around all the boxes and junk in the barn, and make it to the door. I open it to the darkness outside and he walks me through all the backyards and down a side road to his car. We get in and he works the levers and buttons and we get moving. As we go, he just stares out the window aimlessly. "Should I take you home?" He asks. "I… don't know… do you think they'll come looking for me?" "Good point, then we probably shouldn't take you to my house either." "Buck." "What?" "I don't know, all this stuff is just getting to me." "I believe it," he sighs. "So… do you have any friends… who aren't crazy… that we could ask for help?" "Probably a good idea." I watch all the houses go by outside the window. This is all familiar, I see my – well, Church's – house go by. After about half a mile, he pulls the car over. "Where are we?" I ask. "Claire's house..." He looks at me funny, "you've been here before." "Oh, right. I knew that." "Anyway, you should stay in here, I'll see if it's ok for you to stay the night here." "Ok." And now I wait. He knocks on the door, it opens, he walks in. After a minute he comes back out. "Alright, Claire ok-ed you sleeping here for the night. I'll probably stay here too." "Cool." I fumble with the door handle and get out. Inside the house, I meet a girl. She's all smiley and happy. She must be Claire. "Hiya Church, what's up dude?" "Uh, hi. A lot actually. You have no idea…" "Awww that sucks, do you need a hug?" She gives me a huge smile. With a smile like that, how could I turn her down? I spread my arms to invite her over. She gasps as she runs over and hugs me. Normally I'm not into sappy stuff like this, but I think I needed it right now. "Ha! You hugged me! I win!" She says. "Huh?" "You told me you'd never hug me! You even wrote it in my yearbook I win!!!" "Hehe, right. Oh well, guess I lose." I put on a playful smirk. That's kinda weird. Whatever. "Oh, by the way, you said something was wrong with your brother earlier?" Rarity-guy asks Claire. "Yeah, Conner's been feeling really sick since... yesterday." "That sucks," I say. "Yeah," Morgan agrees. "Anyway it's getting late we should probably go to bed. Church, we can figure out what's going on in the morning." "Sounds good to me." "Babe, you don't mind if I spend the night here too, do ya?" "Oh no baby, you can spend all your nights here. Tee hee!" After Rarity-dude and his obvious marefriend finish flirting, she leads me to a guest bedroom, "You can sleep here tonight Church." And then she offers another hug. "Ah, what the hay, I already lost, right?" "YAY!" She shouts with glee. We hug and say goodnight. As I lay in another unfamiliar bed, I look out the window and think for a bit. I have a lot on my mind, including a killer headache, but sleep still comes easily. Huh? I sit up in bed like I woke up from a nightmare. Though I can't remember having one. Moonlight shines in from the window. Still dark out, what gives? I look over and see a tall man standing over me. "AH!" I scooch away from him. "Who are you?!" I gulp and clutch my blankets. "Mmm… You smell delicious…" The shadowy figure grins at me in the dark. The moonlight reflects off of his teeth. His much-sharper-than-normal-human teeth!