With payment in hoof and a new member to support, the team settled into Viljatown. While Twilight busied herself with practicing the art of artificing, Soft Mane was taken aside and instructed in the ways of being an Oracle, as well as practical lessons in religion, dealing with people, and general adventuring tips.
Her instructor was a strange middle-aged stallion that could not hear, but noticed everything about her. Despite his condition, he spoke quite clearly when he wasn't mumbling about something. Soft Mane enjoyed learning about her new path, but found the instructor a little creepy.
"I hope I never become like that," she told Spike and Long Road in the commons, chewing on a cookie.
Long Road shook his head, "You are not that sort of oracle, clearly. Besides, you represent love. It wouldn't make sense for you to be a hermit."
Spike nodded quickly in agreement before taking a big bite out of a hamburger in his claws, "Side note, griffon cuisine is amazing around here!" The great bite left splattered juices along Spike's snout, though he showed no signs of noticing or caring as he ate.
Soft made a little face, "Not my style, but you enjoy that." She drew out a handkerchief and dabbed Spike clean quickly, "Are you learning things too, or are you all waiting on me?"
Long Road glanced around the room, taking in the trophies earned in battle by other Seekers, "My road continues on. I've learned a few things from our adventure, and accompany Twilight at times in the library to read. I feel as if I have passed some sort of test, and the powers of good have taken notice."
Spike glanced sidelong at Long before sinking his teeth into his meal messily. Lightly spraying as he spoke he said, "Nothing that deep for me. I complained to the guild master that I was just scratching that golem and she gave me a teacher to work with and Twilight some advice on what to make next." He hefted up a new amulet with greasy claws. It showed an exposed claw, wickedly curved and sharp looking. "It helps me hit harder and better. I gave the old one to Pinkie Pie since she didn't have one yet."
Soft tilted her head, "Why not just wear two amulets?" She gently cleaned Spike's mess while eating her cookie with a free hand.
Spike made a half-hearted swat at her cleaning attempts, most of his attention on what was left of his burger. "I dunno. Twilight said it doesn't work. I don't know why, but I looked it up and yea, only one."
"It's not so bad," said a new voice as Pinkie popped up behind a chair and hopped up into it. "Spike's old amulet looks great on me." She thrust her chest out, showing off the bark disc she now wore.
Long Road raised a hoof to point at the top of Pinkie, "What is that on your head?"
Pinkie went cross-eyed as she looked up at the headband she had no hope of seeing while it was on her head. It was made of a pink enamled metal with Pinkie's brand of destiny set in the front proudly. "Oh! Twilight made it for me, isn't it the best? She said it would help me be a better party pony. Not that I need magic for that." she stuck out her tongue, "But every little bit helps, besides it's rude to say no to a friend. She made these too." She lifted her hooves, showing they were clad in new slippers. "She said what they do but I got kinda bored and wasn't paying much attention."
Spike gave a soft snicker at Pinkie's admittance, "At least you're honest about it." He wiped his claws against one another, his meal complete. "My new teacher is showing me how to make each hit count, instead of, you know, flailing."
Soft Mane frowned, "You do not flail, Spike. You are a fierce dragon, you... rip apart furiously." She nodded with confidence in her words.
Spike laughed softly even as his cheeks reddened a little, "Well, rip apart furiously or not, I was pretty sloppy." He confessed this as he reached for a napkin, cleaning off the remnants of the hamburger, "Hey, Pinkie, you got a teacher too?"
Pinkie shook her head quickly, "Nuh uh. Pinkie learned from the best teacher of all." She threw her hooves out wide, "Life."
"Amen," said Long Road in agreement.
The trotting of hooves brought Twilight to the group. Under her cloak was a new robe of dark purples and blues. "Ah, just who I wanted to see," she said, looking at Soft Mane, "I've been digging everywhere for information on Lashtada."
Soft Mane perked up in her seat, eyes glimmering, "You found something?"
"Well, sort of," said Twilight in less eager tones, "More like a hint of where to look next. The castle archives apparently have a section on all known religions, past and present. If anywhere would have a record of this Lashtada, that would be it."
Spike hopped up from his seat, "Well let's go take a look!"
Twilight held out a placating hoof, "Easy there. We're not agents of Queen Iliana, we can't just march in there and start reading anymore than a random pony could walk into the forbidden magic section of the Canterlot archives. I'm not a princess here."
Soft Mane looked all the more curious, "You never told me about being a princess. Your mother's a queen?"
Pinkie spoke up before Twilight could reply, "No silly! Twilight's a clever girl and became princess after she became the true element of magic and then we zapped her and boom! There she was, with wings!"
Long Road looked to Twilight expectantly. She sighed and nodded before giving her own version, "In our world, Equestria, there were only two alicorns for millennium, and they were the rulers as princesses."
"Why not queens?" asked Soft Mane.
Twilight waved a hoof, "She didn't want that kind of power over ponies. She thought they should rule over themselves where possible, so she took the princess title instead. Anyway, they were born alicorns, I was not. I was born a unicorn, but they saw a great destiny for me and kept testing me to get it out. Eventually it came to fruition. I passed every test, jumped every hurdle, and earned my wings." She spread the wings out behind her, "It wasn't until very recently before I left Equestria that I had my own little kingdom to rule over though."
Soft Mane bobbed her head, "Queen Iliana left everyone that agreed to join the empire with their old title. She thought they should rule themselves too. I heard there's even a few other queens out there, with a lower case q." She concentrated a moment and thrust a finger up, "That's where Princess Luminace came from!" she said with pride, remembering what she had read up on.
Twilight raised a brow, "I thought she was a princess like ours. She was the daughter of a queen?" Soft Mane quickly bobbed. "Wait, so she was mortal?" Soft Mane nodded more and pointed at Twilight. Twilight put it together and sighed, "Like me. Minus the queen for a mother. No wonder she was so taken with me."
Spike joined in, setting the used cloth aside, "Whatever happened to Dawn Event? He couldn't summon her again with a book that's not even there. Did the holiday get cancelled?"
Long Road had the answer, "It did, but the news of a new god had most of the crowd rushing around trying to look up anything about it. They forgot Dawn Event was there after that, and he got away without too much issue."
Pinkie stuck out her tongue a little, "I still wonder where that book is. Think we can go get it back?"
Twilight took a soft breath, "Pinkie, we're supposed to be... well... yes, eventually. Spike."
Her authoritative tone has Spike on his feet and a paper produced quickly. "Ready."
"It's time for a checklist."
Spike softly groaned but was ready to start the old tradition anew. Thinking ahead he added 'double check checklist' to the top of the checklist with an empty box.
I am particularly looking forward to Spike gaining his first level of what I'm assuming will be monk, but if not then first level of whatever.
5516124 Monk will not assist him at all in getting through DR with his natural weapons.
He could do damage to the golem now, if there was a rematch.
Damn you lucky bastard. I would like to get myself those ponyfinder books and I would be willing to play it but I just don't have gaming group I would dare suggest it. I actually know that half my pfs group don't look too favorably at MLP so I don't dare risk it.
5516153 Are we going to find out what Spikes new Character Class will be tonight.
5516157 If you offered to run a game online, I bet you would get takers. Also, posting for it at your local friendly game store is likely to get nibbles. You're not the only one who wants some pones in their RPG.
5516251 True, thanks for the info. Only the local store scene is rather limited and the one place that deals with pathfinder or similar isn't really in on the game scene. Oh well. I have several different PFS games going so it would take me a while to get to pony games anyway.
On another note. Have you considered possibly adding Mythic Tiers for Twilight and Pinkie to represent their rather heavy exposure to Elements of Harmony and Twilight being pretty much on demigod class being back in Equestria? Seriously they are bound to one of the greatest forces in their home plane. It would make sence at least to me that some of that could be represented by them being more than just mortal.
EDIT: fixed grammar
5516290 Except the elements aren't with them, or even a thing anymore. The threats they face in Everglow are, on average much more deadly than what they dealt with back on Equestria.
That iron golem would have had a solid chance against Tirek for most of that episode, especially since it's immune to draining and magic.
They came in as level 7, that's pretty amazing on its own. They don't need super mega powers.
5516157 I know some people were organizing online games through the forums for the webcomic http://friendshipisdragons.thecomicseries.com/
It's also a cute webcomic.
You sounds as busy with as me with role playing games, got one Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. lol and I am sure if I could would fill up the other days.
5524524 Don't worry, I also play in a Wednesday game inbetween writing more Ponyfinder books and this fanfic of dooooooom.
5524573 Ya I should find myself a ponyfinder game I can be a player in, as would like to run around with four hooves again.
Typo?
5547195 Fixed!
I think there is a word missing between "brandished" and "pointed."
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If anyone wanted to run a play-by-post Ponyfinder rpg, this would be a great place to look for players. I would definitely join, for one.
(Assuming I could get by with the stock Pathfinder rulebook; I like the look of David's stuff, but I'm flat broke )
5607077 Fixed!
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Pity it's only now I get around to reading this... I've actually set up an online game, myself...
5707305 Welcome to the herd!
The previous chapter had Soft Mane's tutor blind like her, but now the tutor is deaf instead. Also, wasn't the tutor a mare then, or did I just misread?
I just realized that Spike, Twilight and Dawn have all been resurrected now. Too bad Dawn and Spike didn't get a pair of wings when they came back...
5846233 That required divine intervention. Lashtada has no fascination with wings or horns.
Did Kara think simply stealing the book would stop a
nerdscholar of Twilight's level from bringing the knowledge of Lashtada back to the masses? For shame, Queen of the Shapeshifters. The only thing that will stop Twilight is Spike getting another claw cramp. And even then, she shall prevail!5516251 People are weird when it comes to ponies... a fellow brony and I pulled out the leather wing and purrsian, respectively, and faced resistance. It took a lengthy debate and a 1000+ word breakdown and comparison of the so called 'acceptable' races from PF and D&D (we had a merfolk and a ratfolk in the party roster) in relation to the everglow ones, and an extensive deconstruction and reconstruction using the race building rules to show they were totally viable.
At least the DM admitted she was being a bit hard headed on the issue in her initial rejection of them.
Pfft, silly Twilight, the gods laugh at your checklist, even as they throw sidequest after sidequest at you to wreck your precious schedule!
5874666 Bah, The sidequests have all the best loot and XP, She'll finish faster with all that extra stuff.
May be you should use "the commons"?
5524573
Merchandising.