//------------------------------// // A Shadow of Foreshadow // Story: The Roles Ponies Play // by Slicer Jen //------------------------------// The distant cloppity-clop sound of Twilight Sparkle's approach gets louder as she finally makes her way toward the party on the main road. Applejack takes it upon herself to rouse the dozing group. "Wake up, y'all. Sun's a wastin, and we gots sum 'venturin tah git ter." She lightly kicks at Slicer who is hiding under a poncho. "OW! That hurts!" Slicer rips off the poncho, holding her head. Applejack smiles apologetically, "Sorry there, sugar, didn know that was yer head and all. Hard ter tell wit y'all hidin under that wrap from the sun and from all dis great soshilizin." Slicer gets up and starts packing away her poncho. "I hate the sun. And that other thing you just butchered." Applejack grins, detecting only half of what Slicer said was true. As for the butchery comment..."Aw heck, Ah speak with a very distinct awcent. Ya'll shid hear mah cuzins, now that requires sum translatin." She steps over to Rainbow Dash who is blissfully snoring and tilts her hat back (a spot of contention between her and Twilight regarding the finer points of barbaric tribal customs, not to mention Rarity egging Slicer on about in-game hats, which inevitably brought up the subject of stabbing which all the other ponies put an immediate squash to). The other ponies finish brushing off dirt from their flanks and walk up next to Applejack as she says, "Tis a right shame to be wakin up sometin so relaxed and content." Pinkie Pie puts the finishing touches to her 'wake-up apparatus', complete with bull horns and loud speakers arranged around Rainbow's head when Luna chucks an 8-sided die and pegs Rainbow on the forehead. Rainbow jumps up with her lance in one hoof and a helmet in the other, looking around, "What!?! Where's the fight? Oh, Twilight finally made it." Pinkie sighs from not getting to use her machine but notices something in the air. "Oooh! A pretty bat!" A large shadow passes over everypony as Twilight finally steps up to the group. "That's odd, I didn't see any clouds on the horizon-" A large form slams down onto the road where Twilight had just walked a few seconds ago and a tall red form looms over the party. Sunlight imbued with red passes through the leather outstretched wings as a serpentine neck snakes down to inspect the teaming morsels before the leviathan. Slicer immediately draws her blade and prepares to sprint as she growls loudly, "Dragon!" Twilight raises a hoof and pulls out the player's handbook. "Wait wait wait. I read somewhere we are supposed to roll for initiative first prior to encounters." Luna quirks an eyebrow and says, "Oh really? Between your group snoozing in the game and outside the game," as Rainbow sticks her tongue out when she's not looking, "and your vastly detailed and cautious sight seeing tour from inside the inn to the main road, at what point did you think you would get the surprise over any creature, much less a chance for an initiative roll...at least on the first round." Twilight slowly closes the handbook and looks around, then notices the dragon. "SPIKE???" The dragon waves down at the group, "Hey guys! The princess thought my inclusion would help move things along, so here I am in all my glory!!!" He stretches out his wings into a wide span and shows off his scales as he preens. A small cough from Luna brings him back to reality, er fantasy. "Oh, right. GROWL!" The dragon roars at the group below it. Luna requests everypony to roll a save vs petrification for the dragonfear. Slicer glances at Luna with a wrinkled brow, "You have got to be kidding." Luna insists and 20-sided dice start rolling. Slicer gets a natural 20. Twilight gets a 3. Pinkie gets an 18, with Applejack and Rarity at a 12. Rainbow also gets a natural 20 and starts celebrating. Twilight stares at the 3. "What is that supposed to mean?" Luna smiles, replying, "Failed save to petrification means you are stunned this round. The rest of you can now roll for initiative since the dragon wishes to bask in your supposed fear." She looks at Spike and motions with her hoof to get him to play up the role. The dragon grins and hunches up its shoulders, inhaling. Rainbow yells, "Everypony get behind me, I can take this overgrown lizard!" She tucks in her lance and prepares for a charge, with her getting the highest initiative roll. Rarity grabs the mage book of spells and begins skimming as quickly as she can for a useful illusion spell as Applejack and Pinkie ready their weapons and songs. Everypony is about to act when they notice Fluttershy is sitting between them and the dragon, staring up to it. "Um....hello....mister big dragon.....I know you are large and powerful....and we are small and probably look tasty. But um...I think if we were to talk about taking turns using the road....as well as finding alternative tastier food options.....then all of this fighting can be avoided..." Luna sadly interjects, "Fluttershy, my dear. He is a chaotic evil red with a nasty disposition for anything smaller than he is. And in this game, the bulk of your allies will be coming from your friends and the smaller good-aligned creatures of nature, as you are the Druid. Your charisma check automatically fails due to his alignment.....and unfortunately, since you are in between the party and the dragon, they lose their initiative to attack while you, Fluttershy, have to roll to save vs breath weapon to halve the fire damage-" A crumpled piece of paper bounces off Luna's head. Her eyes narrow at Rainbow as she opens it up and reads it. "Okay, strike that. Rainbow continues her charge and rams into you instead, knocking you out of the way, so ignore the save roll. The rest of you get to save vs breath weapon, now that Fluttershy is not blocking the full blast." The remaining mares groan, except for Slicer. "You did get my note, Princess?" Luna looks at Slicer and nods slowly, "Yes, and it's DM or Dungeon Master....or 'master' if you really want to make me feel good. But yes, I read it. And yes, you succeeded in moving to the rear of the dragon's position while Fluttershy attempted to talk sense to the murderous dragon." The soon-to-be-burned ponies give the thestral envious glares. "And my follow-up action since I will be unnoticed?" Luna nods patiently to Slicer. The ponies caught in the blast roll a 10-sided die, adding modifiers. Most everypony makes the save, taking half damage, except two. A cone of flames washes over the party. Rarity's gown lights up on fire and she screams, running around in circles. Twilight just comes out of her dragonfear but has no time to react before she is caught as well, a roll of 3 causing her staff and fur to catch fire. She starts screaming, "Stop Drop Roll Stop Drop Roll!!" over and over as she does just that. That is when Slicer launches up into the air and plants her long dagger directly into the dragon's- "Tail," interjects Luna. Slicer furrows her brow, "Huh? You said my note was fine!" Luna shakes her head, "No, I did not. I accepted that is what you 'wanted' to do. A dragon is a gigantic creature, not of normal size. The rules state you cannot backstab creatures beyond large size. Consequently, you just stabbed his tail." The dragon turns its head to look at Slicer and smacks her with its tail, sending her flying into the trees beyond the road. It turns back to the group, roars again, and then flaps its powerful wings, whipping up the small fires it created in its attack as it pulls itself into the sky and wings away. Pinkie Pie strums a chord as the dragon flies away. "Aw? I had a really nice song I was going to play. It adds health boosts and attack boosts and all kinds of boosts! Does anypony else want to hear it now?" Applejack lowers her hammer and straightens up, "Well that was jes plain rude! Who comes a roastin and a coastin, anywho?" Rainbow picks herself up and then Fluttershy, while both Rarity and Twilight are putting out flames on each other's smoldering parts. Pinkie Pie bounces by, singing a song she made up, which obviously is not giving anypony any boosts what so ever. The thestral returns to the road walking stiffly and favoring her back leg. "That's not how I remember my dragon encounters, Princess." She ignores the die that pegs her in the forehead and sits down. "Who needs healing?" All the ponies get in line, starting with Rarity who is crying everytime she moves and Twilight who is fussing about her burned books and staff. Slicer sighs. "If I understand these rules correctly, it will take some time to 'pray' and replenish my healing spells, or I burn off my spare scrolls and we have no emergency backup in case we REALLY get into trouble." Pinkie Pie bounces by with popup tents and a campfire completely formed and lit...in her hoof. The others don't even notice, but Slicer being the new one, stares. After a minute she starts getting to healing and praying. While she is doing that, Luna explains that the dragon had orders to test the party and return to its master. This information is divined through one of Slicer's prayers and confirmed by a summoning spell Twilight performs to ask the powers beyond. When Rainbow starts to ask if Luna is the master, she gets muffled with blue magic again. The next few hours out of game are spent with Twilight obsessively redoing ALL of her spells while Rarity takes a sudden interest in Twilight's advice on enchanter abilities. The other ponies spend the time peppering Slicer for what she was talking about regarding dragons, while the real dragon Spike plays the perfect host and cleans up the dishes and cups. When they finally settle down, there is only enough time for one more battle. Their campfire attracts a group of marauding kobolds, which they dispatch in perfect order. Twilight continues to roll 3's on every spell damage roll and save roll. She even gets frustrated to the point she swings her staff at a kobold, rolling a 3 on her d20. The next hour is spent getting her to calm down and taking a break. Eventually everypony is nearly ready to fall asleep at the table. Luna takes that moment to check the time and walk outside, performing her duties to cycle the moon, her sister raising the sun from Canterlot. Yellow light beams in through the windows as the morning sun begins to warm Equestria, everything starting to dry from last night's storm. The weary ponies go about gathering their things, leaving the table as is to pick up from where they left off when they return. Twilight is still sitting at the table, looking glumly at the rest of the ponies and the scattered papers, handbooks, character sheets and crumpled notes. Rarity sidles up next to her, "Darling, you look so dour you could start another rainstorm. Was last night really so much bother? I can speak to Princess Luna and see if she's willing to end the game." Twilight shakes her head and waves her away, "No, thankyou, that's not necessary." Applejack steps over to them slowly, bleary-eyed but smiling, "Naw, sour puss, somethin is downright keepin yah down. Were we that harble?" Twilight shakes her head and touches Applejack's shoulder, smiling for the support, "No, not at all. My expectations were that horrible. This was a new thing for all of you and me. Princess Luna set a high bar and I wanted to take it head on and finish all the challenges as a team. The very least, last night showed us we have a lot to work on, no matter our past successes." The other ponies stop milling about their tasks and nod in agreement. Except Slicer. "I am not breaking out into song after all of those fiascoes. We screwed up, we got beat, and I still hate dragons." A mortified yelp comes from the kitchen and Spike sticks his head out, huge eyes welling up with tears. Slicer takes one look at him and squeezes her eyes shut, swearing. Then she walks over to him and says, "That doesn't include you, Spike. Just the mean bad ones...that try to burn me. Besides, you remind me of some of the foals I used to know back home. Uh...sorry I hurt your feelings." Spike seems to accept her apology and hugs her leg. She cringes at the outpouring of love that permeates the room from all the cooing and awing. "Okay okay...going to get a toothache from all this sappy stuff. Adieu." Slicer gently pries Spike off her leg and trots out a little quicker than normal. Luna smirks after her and yawns, "On that note, us night-dwellers must get some sleep. I suggest naps so we can continue later this evening. Think about how your strengths and weaknesses can complement each other and we'll have another go at it." The ponies bow as she walks out, who in turn scowls since it is not a public venue. Pinkie bounces out, matching the sun's energy, though everypony knows she will crash as soon as she is inside her home. The rest of the ponies follow her, giving their goodbyes as they leave. Twilight stops Rarity as the last one before she walks out the door. She can see bags under the white unicorn's eyes and hates keeping her from sleep, but her investigative side gets the better of her, "Rarity...the end of your tail, when did that happen?" Rarity turns her head to look back. The tip of her tail is a few inches shorter, the ends slightly singed. She turns white. Alright, whiter than white. "How?!? When? I...wait, Pinkie Pie, she made hot chocolate for us last night! I said it was piping hot, didn't I? Did we get so tired my tail dipped in it? No, that is positively revolting, not to mention silly...though I did finish it. Ugh, tail-dipped cocoa-" Twilight puts her hoof on Rarity's muzzle to keep her from babbling further in her tired state. "No, I don't think it was that. Judging from the height of the chairs, how we were sitting, with Spike having to walk around, it's possible he got too much into his part and let off a wisp of flame. I'll have a talk with him about controlling himself around others." Rarity brushes her nose and waves a hoof, "No no, that's quite alright. The little drake would probably collapse if he was criticized for his performance. Quite splendid, really, at least I was convinced he was a large evil dragon. In any case I can just curl my tail a little more, always a good excuse to hit the salon!" Her pleasant look drops a few shades as she stares at Twilight's face. "Um, darling...you might need to visit the salon too..." Rarity reaches out and touches Twilight's bangs. Twilight's eyes cross as she focuses on them, spotting the singed edges. She refocuses on Rarity and asks quietly, "....rarity...what is going on....?" ******************** Spike busies himself with tidying up the table, stacking the papers and organizing the dice. He gets to Twilight's d20 and takes a closer look at it. It has all 3's carved into it. He takes a step back and looks under Slicer's seat to find dust and bits of shavings. Spike chuckles to himself and holds up the die. "Twilight? How come you kept using a d20 die with only 3's? I know you like a challenge, but last night was spectacular!" Twilight wanders over from the library where she was looking into ancient games and chaos magic to take a closer look at it, then she scrambles over to the table to look at her other dice.... "SLICER!!!!!!!!"