Things were settled, in a way. We were in a holding pattern, and nothing exploded. Twilight left as she said she would, and I was left with Spike, Big Mac, and... Discord.
"We have a new player?" he asked, adjusting his very Robin Hood like cap.
Spike gestured at me. "Yeah, hope neither of you minds. Meet True Shot!"
I nodded to both of the newer ponies, if Discord could be called that. "Nice to meet you. So, this is like Dungeons and Dragons, right?"
Discord cocked a brow. "With half the trademarks."
Spike and Big Mac looked baffled at that, but I was intrigued. "You know what that is then?"
Discord shrugged. "I don't have time to keep track of all the nerdy activities everywhere." He leaned towards me, eyes traveling up and down. "Now aren't you an interesting... thing. We really should start a support group." The area was suddenly different, all four of us seated on little folding chairs. Discord stood up from his. "Thank you all for coming to the petrified survivors!"
I burst out laughing. "Thank you. You were stoned once as well?"
"Twice." He held up two fuzzy fingers. "They couldn't keep me down."
Spike hopped free of his chair. "Glad to see you two are getting along, but we should make True's character." He hiked a thumb at Discord. "He's already playing an archer, so we don't need one of those. What do you wanna play?"
I pouted faintly a moment, but only a moment. It was a game of pretend. I didn't need to pretend to be an archer when I already was one. "What are the options?"
Spike began rattling them off. Now, I hadn't played much of the game myself, but I had a basic idea, and it didn't sound all that different. I remembered a thing my college friends had told me. "You don't have a healer."
"Nope," agreed Big Mac.
Spike clapped his claws together. "You wanna be one? That'd be great!"
That seemed a fairly safe start. "Sure. Those are clerics, right?"
"Wha?" Spike and Big Mac looked confused.
Discord snorted. "We don't need a source of clerical errors, Truey."
Spike dashed off to the big table and came back with a blank sheet and a quill. "So you'll be a medic." He scribbled busily. "Unicorn?"
"Are you all playing what you are?" I asked curiously, glancing between them.
Big Mac suddenly looked flustered. "Nope."
I tried to guess what he was playing. "Are you playing a mare?"
He managed to go more red. "Nope! A unicorn."
Spike produced a little playing piece that showed Big Mac as a little cartoon with a horn and a floating sword beside him. "See?"
I nodded at the piece. That was less severe of a disconnect than cross-gender, not that I had even one leg to stand on regarding that, considering. "Well, I'll give that a try. I'll play a mare, and an earth pony."
Spike blinked with wide eyes. "Huh, alright." He wrote down the details, then... somehow, produced a little figure that looked like a gender flipped version of myself, without the horn. "Here you go!"
Discord rolled his eyes. "Are we playing the boring way?"
I looked between him and Spike. "There's a boring way?"
Spike returned to the table and set down the sheet and the new and old figure. "Discord's kinda good at magic. When he wants to, he can make the game alive! It's pretty amazing, but I thought we'd start you slow."
I blinked at that a little. "You're kidding." A second reality in my second reality? How deep could it go? "If it's more fun, I'm up for it."
With a snap of his fingers, Discord made it so.
I was not True Shot anymore. I felt smaller, and I didn't see a horn in the top of my vision. Peeking back revealed the softer lines of a mare. I was also standing in a grassy field where the others had also transformed. Discord had a full archer's kit, bow included. Spike looked liked an adorable little wizard, and Big Mac was fully armored with a sword on his back.
"Wow," I breathed out with a softer pitch of voice. I started at it before giving a female titter. I really was a mare. "Alright, so how do I do the healing thing?"
Big Mac seemed faintly put off, but didn't say anything. Spike picked up on it and waved at me. "It's a little complicated, but True's had experience on the, uh, other side before. She's fine." He bounced over to me and hopped up onto my back even more easily than he had when I was a stallion. He flipped open a saddlebag I hadn't noticed I was wearing and pulled out a roll of bandages. "Here you go!"
I willed the bandages to float over... nothing happened. Right, earth pony. I gave a sheepish smile before reaching with my mouth instead and holding it awkwardly. "Ready." I was amazed my words didn't slur more than they did. Pony magic, I decided.
"Good thing," said Discord, suddenly sounding serious. "I hear trouble approaching." He thrust a finger as several... huge game pieces appeared with goblins drawn on them. "To arms!"
Spike raised his staff and zapped one of the figures with an arcane bolt of power, sending it scurrying, but there were plenty more behind it to clash with Big Mac as he charged forward. Arrows were raining from the sky and it felt like complete bedlam.
I saw Big Mac had taken a few blows and decided I should do what I signed up to do. I broke into a gallop to rush up behind him and... How did those bandages work? I mean, I knew how a roll of gauze worked with fingers, but in my mouth?
I light bopped him with the bandages. Amusingly, that seemed good enough. "Thanks," he muttered before wading back into the thick of the battle. I had helped! It was a silly little thing, but I felt proud of myself, until two of them bounced on their round platforms towards me. Well, shoot.
Glancing behind me, I saw Spike was busy blasting other things. I decided to try to handle things on my own. It was a game, right? Why act scared. I reared up and lashed out a hoof, knocking one of them over.
It also made Spike fall right off me with a thud and a grunt of mild pain. "Hey!"
"Sorry."
The other goblin leaped at me, but fell short, several arrows poking out of its flat back. Discord gave me a thumbs up.
They were routed and fleeing. The battle was won.
I smiled with relief. "That didn't go too badly."
Big Mac nodded softly. "Nope."
And so the game continued. We made our way to a big tower that supposedly held some crazy artifact that would help save 'Schmarity'. I got to bop people on their boo-boos with my roll of bandages when I wasn't busy bucking at things that got too close. Ultimately, it was a lot of fun.
At the end of the session, Discord banished it all away and poof, I was a stallion again. Big Mac was an earth pony instead of a unicorn. We had traded places, in a way.
Discord and Spike shared some good-byes before Discord folded up on himself and vanished.
Big Mac looked like he wanted to talk, but he wasn't. He kept glancing at me and away, but no words came, so I decided to help. "Thanks for the game, Spike. I'm going to walk Big Mac home."
Spike looked slightly baffled. "Huh, alright." He shrugged and resumed cleaning up.
Big Mac looked even more nervous, but didn't turn me away as we walked out of the castle. Once outside and away from other ears, I reached out and gently nudged him. "What's on your mind?"
"Nothin'..."
I smiled gently. "That's a big nothing you have weighing you down. Go on, I won't get angry." I couldn't imagine anything he could say would be worth being angry about.
"Nope."
"I won't laugh," I tried. "Promise. Just between us."
Big Mac glanced away and back. "It's..." He stopped again.
We were still walking slowly towards his farm, but it would take a while to reach it. "Look, I can see you're nervous. It's alright. I won't tell another soul without your leave."
"Yer jus' sayin' that."
I flashed a grin. "What would Sir McBiggun say?"
Big Mac quirked a little smile in kind. "He would hold you to yer word." He looked away again. "What's it like?"
Like? "To be a mare?"
He shook his head and thrust a hoof up at my horn. "Ta have magic."
"I'm new to it myself." The answer seemed to confuse him. "It's nice. I can pick things up, use this bow." I turned to point with my snout at the bow at my side. "Being an earth pony was a different kind of nice. I felt powerful, like nothing could get in my way for long."
He smiled a little. "Ain't nothin' special."
I reached out and nudged him with a hoof. "I bet you could knock me over without even trying."
He went red. "Ah wouldn't do that."
"Because you have manners, not because you can't." I nodded lightly. "You're a good pony, and don't let anyone tell you different."
Big Mac went quiet a long moment. "So... ya been..." He went quiet again. A stallion of few words, but clearly he wanted to discuss something. "Other side?"
I remembered Spike's words quickly. I sorta wished he hadn't said that, but that cat had long since left that bag, and getting the feline back in wouldn't be practical. "I've been a woman before." I left out the part that I still was one more often than not.
He looked me up and down. There I was, a pony Adonis, with hopefully a less tragic end in store. "Huh..."
I had a feeling he had his doubts, but I wasn't sure how to prove anything, or if I even should try. "But that's just me. This is about you." I poked him in the chest. "What's on your mind?"
"Nope." I had hit a wall. He spoke all he was willing to speak that evening and he trotted off in a hurry.
I let him go. We didn't know each other that well that I could insist he keep going with any amount of confidence. It had taken some bravery on his part to even get that far. He wouldn't appreciate it, but I was proud of him and I gave a smile at the fleeing stallion. "You're a good pony," I repeated to the evening air before turning and walking back to the castle at a relaxed clip.