Canterlot High's D&D Club

by 4428Gamer

(8) Voicing Concerns

While the girls found their seats, Pinkie was bouncing in her seat with delight. Now that she was all done with her solo mission, she was ready to watch the girls go through their adventure.

Meanwhile, I was distracted from all the excitement with my phone. For the third time now, the silent alarm I set was going off. That alarm was for when Ms. Cheerilee showed up and it first went off when I was setting up the map for Pinkie. Only, Ms. Cheerilee never showed.

"Hey girls. Quick question." I hit snooze out of habit. "Did Ms. Cheerilee pass by when you were out there?"

"No, actually." Sunset glanced over at the now closed door. "Why, did you need her for something?"

"No. Just the Cheerilee Alarm went off." I placed my phone in the corner of my space so it was out of the way.

"Cheerilee Alarm?" Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You better not catch Ms. Cheerilee finding out about that," Rarity warned me.

"It's not my fault she comes to the classroom at the exact same time," I defended. "Besides, she usually needs help with the door or something."

"Maybe she's busy with something today," Fluttershy reasoned.

"Huh. Maybe." I considered it for a moment. "Either way, let's get back to the game. Besides, now Pinkie gets to see what all you do."

"She won't have to step out?" Fluttershy asked.

"Not now. I mean, you're all presumably going down the same path she took. So you'll get to see what's awaiting you as Pinkie watches."

As if to agree, Pinkie started munching on a bag of popcorn with a big smile on her face. The second bag of popcorn, she pushed over to me for whenever the girls started talking amongst themselves.

I think I'm starting to get behind this whole 'don't question it' thing with her. I gave her a smile and took the bag behind my screen.

When they were ready to begin, I noticed Sunset glancing down at the cart and 'oxen' miniatures that were set up before the group. Before I called the girls in, I reset the map so they wouldn't know what Pinkie did.

"Now then. For those of you that aren't named Glemerr," I began. "You all decided to take the cart with you, forming up around it and riding down the trail at a quicker pace than you had the main road. For some of you, your eyes are glued to the forest that flank either side of you. It's common knowledge that goblins keep to large numbers and ambushes have always been the name of the game.

"Though, for others among you," I switched up. "The cleared dirt path beckons you and the oxen forward. As you continue, it takes no skill to see the heavy footfalls of your Orcish ally's war path..."

It took less than a minute for us to take positions around the cart before we started after that loudmouth orc. I didn't think it was possible but despite how loud she screamed none of us heard her anymore. Either the war cry stopped part way into her charge or she cleared that much ground in a short time.

The group was set up around the cart similar to how we traveled the main road. Thorn Wielder held the reins with Stostine sitting beside her. Every now and then, Stostine scanned the side of the cart no one was standing at.

Behind them, reclaiming his lazy watch tower, was Ricven. He laid there, tuning that violin like nothing was wrong. The only change was that he didn't strum the strings anymore; he kept quiet at least. Which made me believe he tuned that thing purely out of habit.

As for the rest of us, we took position around the cart. Platick kept to the back and Ravathyra stayed to the side of the cart watching the treeline to our left. The only one in a different spot was me.

The entire time down this road, my eyes were focused to the dirt. I spotted tracks back at the ambush site but it was the human noblewoman that figured everything out.

Pathetic.

If anyone who knew me saw how much I failed to notice the tracks I would never hear the end of it. It wasn't only the main road either.

All the interest from earlier seemed to fade from Twilight when she looked at what she rolled.

"Four plus four...Eight, survival." Twilight dully stared at her die that once again let her down.

I could tell there were plenty of tracks going back and forth along the trail. In fact, this path existed because those goblins probably cleared it at some point. However, with wildlife running freely, I had no way of telling what tracks were fresh and goblin or old and obvious.

I kept my hood up even as I stayed ahead of the group. I did that so none of them could see me silently shouted every expletive I knew at myself.

"Is everything alright, Vareén?"

Or at least I thought none of them could notice.

"...Fine," I tossed blandly.

"We'd be even finer if we were headin' ta town," Ricven reminded them.

"And abandon Glemerr?" Stostine countered.

"..." Ricven had no rebuttal. So someone else took over.

"She ran ahead," Platick pointed out. "Now I don't know if goblins take prisoners is a good thing."

The others had a few remarks back and forth but they never did anything more. No one was brave enough to leave the orc to her fate. So they all fell quiet again with only the oxen's movement filling the silence.

About two minutes after their squabbling that we found the first sign of Glemerr's rampage. In the middle of the trail were three goblins all haphazardly wrapped and tied in rope with a pile of weapons and shields set up out of reach from them.

Left drying around the path was blood but not from the goblins. It ran back and forth in several directions before stopping where old bandages were discarded next to a tree.

I gave a small bird call and luckily it caught Thorn Wielder's attention. I motioned to stop the oxen and when she did I gave a few more hunter signals for everyone to be quiet. Whether they knew them or not didn't matter as I pointed out the scene.

Platick quickly took point and walked carefully as though not to make a sound.

Applejack frowned a little at her die. "A twelve work?"

Story weighed the idea in his mind. "Twelve's not bad."

The leaves on the autumn ground didn't help his effort but he made it to the beaten goblins regardless.

When close enough, Platick drew his rusted shortsword and used it to tap one of the goblins. When there was no large response he lightly kicked one and watched as all three of slumped to the side in pained groans.

"Coast is clear," he told us. "It looks like whatever ambush there was, Glemerr plowed through it."

"They're still alive?" I started walking forward as Thorn Wielder rode the oxen a bit closer.

"Thinking back on it, Glemerr never killed the goblins back on the road either." Stostine called out.

When all of us closed in on the scene we got a better picture of it all. Hanging from the trees was a rope that looked frayed, ready to fall apart from use as well as nearby broken branches. It looked like a small noose.

"Honorable," Ricven said, watching the goblins. "Shame it's wasted on things like them."

"Not a shame at all," Stostine explained. "In fact, I was starting to regret not bringing any of those other goblins to interrogate them."

"Interrogate?" Ricven let himself chuckle at the thought. "A sweet thang like yerself? Ms. Stostine, I don’t doubt ya' skills in magic, but I can hardly imagine seein' you as one for torture err somethin' silly like that.”

"Well of course not." Stostine folded her hands together in a way where her robe's sleeves covered the entirety of her arms. "I don't normally use torture in front of others."

She climbed down from the wagon, ignoring the odd look from Platick as she approached the goblins.

Ricven, meanwhile, kept chuckling. "And why, Miss Stostine, is that?"

Stostine didn't give an answer. Ironically, it was the silence that gave Ricven's laughter pause.

Stostine studied the trio of goblins with a blank expression. From what we could tell, one of them had a broken jaw and another had several missing teeth and a broken nose. But the third one seemed undamaged save for the short pained breaths. Probably broken ribs.

"...Ricven," she began. "Are your skills better suited for combat or can they assist generally?"

"Are ya tryin' ta ask fa' my talents?" Ricven watched the human woman nod and chuckled once more. "Ya don' have ta act all prim an' proper 'bout it. We're in the presence of goblins, not politicians. Though, I suppose the only difference is their lodgin'.

"As for what I can do." He winked. "Let's say I'm a bit of a wild card." When Ricven realized his 'wits' got no reaction, either from Stostine or myself, he groaned and lied back down on the cart. "I can do both. Happy?"

Stostine let her smile reveal itself that time. "Of course. Someone well-rounded is very useful. Although information may be a bit more beneficial. I don’t suppose you have any insight to goblins?”

"Ughhh!" His face contorted in disgust. “I don’t even try learnin’ about them vermin. If I even catch a name of one of them it’d be too much.”

"A shame." Stostine rethought her strategy. "What about that spell you tried earlier?”

“Ya mean my natural charms?” He straightened his collar and attempted to flirt with her again.

“No.” She didn’t seem to notice. Or care. “I meant that enchantment spell you tried before. Can you try it again?”

He let his head fall back, staring at the sky as he crossed one leg over the other's knee like a lazy farm boy. "As much as I love makin' vermin think I'm their greatest treasure," he started, now with a complete lack of interest. "It's hardly a good use o' my magic. I only got so much. Same as you."

With a hum, Stostine turned to face the goblins again. "Point taken. I suppose that means we'll have to do this manually."

"So your interrogation then?" Platick crossed his arms.

"I would very much be open to suggestions."

I walked over to the goblin trio and began to work on the rope, cutting towards the knot and dragging out the one who's face wasn't broken. Then I dragged him about twenty feet from the others. The other two I left tied up on the ground.

"What are you doing?" The Dwarf asked.

I didn't answer until I dropped the goblin back into the dirt and turned to the two humans. "Do either of you know how to use a crossbow?" After Stostine and Platick glanced at each other they looked back to me.

"Yeah." "A little."

"Good enough." I kicked the goblin's chest just hard enough for the pain to snap him awake. Then I spoke in Dwarven so the goblin couldn't understand me.

"Platick, pretend to teach her how to shoot a crossbow. Stostine, 'miss' the goblin," I instructed them.

The light in Stostine's eyes made me know that she already caught on and before Platick could catch on, a spectral hand formed into reality and scooped up a crossbow from the weapon pile.

Platick then watched as said spectral hand drifted the crossbow into Stostine's grip so she could quickly load a bolt before the goblin had a chance to look around.

"What...What goes—" The goblin started talking before he clutched his chest in pain. "Breath hurt!"

---
I want to shoot the crossbow as close to him as possible," Sunset explained as she brought her finger and thumb close together.

Story leaned his head side-to-side. "Make...Me an attack roll. With this it's Dex plus Proficiency. It's not against his armor; this is more to determine how close you can make this. Ironically enough, rolling low will not end well for him."

Sunset nodded. "Makes sense." As though to test something, she asked Pinkie for the 'changing' die back. She tried pretending like that's the one she felt 'lucky' or something like that in front of Story.

After she saw it turn to metal in her hand, she gave it a roll.

The die clattered around, sounding like the same metal it was made of, before finally sitting at '4.' As it did, a few images faintly flew into Sunset's mind, all of 'her' being given some small weapon training.

They were fake memories depicting scenes where Stostine was trained in secret. It was always in secret and at night, nonetheless, so she never got all of the basics down.

The visions were gone as fast as they appeared and Sunset was left staring at her die with a bittersweet look on her face.

"I rolled a four," Sunset announced with a minor wince.

Story's expression soured. "Only a four, huh?"

While Sunset looked at all the numbers in front of her, she glanced over to the paper that had all the stats about Stostine. Something that looked new was one passage that was now glowing like the dice and numbers.

Suddenly, Sunset's eyes lit up.

"Wait. Can I use ⟟⎅⊬⍀⎍⊑☌ ⟒⏚ ⟊⍀☌⎐?"

That's what the rest of the girls heard anyway. And despite their confused expressions, Story understood her and sat back.

"Huh," was all he responded with. "Would this technically count?"

"It says any failed save or attack roll," Sunset defined with a grin. "And you told me to make an attack roll. Right?"

"..." Story narrowed his eyes. "You and Pinkie both are a little too good at talking." But still he caved. "Go ahead."

Sunset's smile widened as she drew up two more dice, and rolled them next to the first one. Since they only had four numbers each, Sunset didn't get too much higher.

Still, she smiled nonetheless as more memories of nightly crossbow practice danced in her mind.

"Twelve altogether."

"Where, ugh...Where is—" The goblin caught its breath, with a wince, as he spotted the crossbow bolt land less than two feet to his left. The part that caught him the most was the black fletching that was on the end of it.

Stostine let out a 'tsk' and started glaring at the crossbow. "Ugh! Platick, you told me I was gonna hit it!" She shouted like a spoiled child angry at her new pony.

Meanwhile, Platick stared at her with a look of disbelief. Stostine's new personality was certainly a far mark away from how she was normally but her acting was still a little too obvious for my taste.

"Are we really doin' this?" Platick asked, suddenly sounding like a high school cowgirl for some reason.

"Just play along," Stostine stage-whispered.

"Butler," Stostine called out with a snap of her fingers.

In seconds, that same spectral hand as before appeared and made a saluting motion in front of her. Except, since there was no face to salute with, it was just a light blue floating hand.

"Bring me another arrow," she commanded with a flourish of her hand. With only that much, the magic 'butler' was off, swerving side to side as though a child were operating it.

"That. That my arrow," the goblin groaned.

"Stop moving!" Stostine stomped her foot. The 'child' act was complete. "Like, how am I supposed to shoot your eye out if you keep moving?!"

"M-My eye?! You no shoot my—gah!" With a stomp, I pinned the goblin back to the ground with my boot. He was still squirming so I knew he wasn't unconscious yet.

"Do as she says," I said stoically. "You're not useful for anything else."

"I. I...I very useful!" The goblin tried to beg.

"You?" I sounded unconvinced. It was the truth.

"Yes! You— err —me! I am! I am...! Swear!"

I hummed, then looked to Platick. "You think?"

The human man took a second to hold the bridge of his nose. I don't know why. This over-the-top plan wasn't too hard to pull off.

As the 'butler' hand started to swerve back to Stostine with a new crossbow bolt, Platick snatched it from the hand with a frown.

"Let's hear it out first..." He said with no energy. "...Miss."

"...Very well," Stostine said as she looked the other way. But she still held out her crossbow. "But Butler? Start loading the arrow anyways. I don't wanna touch it. It's got goblin on it."

The 'butler' drooped slightly, as though frustrated with the young miss, but obeyed its command by pulling back the crossbow string.

Platick rolled his eyes but walked over to the goblin before grabbing it by the front of its armor and holding it up, putting a dagger to its throat.

Then he glanced over to me and, in Dwarven, said, "Why couldn't we just do this?"

Also in Dwarven, Stostine answered "Because, this way, the goblin's less likely to lie."

"And it's funny," the actual Dwarf, Ravathyra, added. Still speaking Dwarven.

I said nothing. Instead I left it at a shrug and let Platick go on.

Platick's expression flattened but soon he shook it off and brought the dagger closer.

"Alright. You're gonna have to tell us what we want. Quickly. Otherwise, the..." he rolled his eyes. "The miss, is going to get more target practice. Got it?"

"Get it!" The goblin frantically bobbed its head. "Err. Got it. Gonot, got-get it!"

"Good." Platick never let the tension drift. "To start, what happened to the Dwarf? And the human with him?"

"Taken!" The goblin shouted fast. "We take to cave. Human still at ta-cave. Dwarf taken from cave wi. With..." The goblin started to clam up.

"With, what?" Platick started turning the dagger closer.

"Intimidation check," Story told her.

After a small delay, AJ rolled and instantly lost all interest. "Three. Minus two." She held up a single finger.

The goblin refused to answer, risking their chance to take another breath. "I...No say. I die by you or...No say."

Whatever he was referring to, it scared him more than we did. So I reached behind my back.

"Did they also want this?" As I spoke, I pulled out the map case and held it up in front of the goblin's face.

He gasped, then flinched from the pain of his ribs. "Map? You get map?!"

"Yes," I lied. "We're better than them. Now we want the Dwarf. Where?"

"..." Story seemed to think this over carefully. His smile made it obvious he liked the mind-games but he wasn't ready to let them win yet.

"Deception check," he finally called.

Twilight let herself smirk and rolled her dice. When it landed, she made her smirk known. "Seventeen."

"Alright Twily!" Pinkie cheered, tossing another few pieces of popcorn into her mouth.

"..." The goblin tried looking up at me, wanting to see my face. Not out of curiosity, but only so he knew what was threatening him. I didn't give him the chance.

"You heard the lady," Platick said, regaining the goblin's attention. "There anyone stopping you now?"

"..." The goblin tried to swallow his fear but that only made the dagger dig into his Adam's apple. "...Okay! Dwarf not here! He was taken with map! To King Grol."

"King?" Sunset blinked. "Story, is the place were in ruled by..."

While chewing on his own popcorn, Story shook his head. "Nope." He took a second to swallow his food before going on. "To make the exposition as short as I can for now: the kingdom your in is Leodaav. The 'King' passed away..."

He stopped for some mental math. "Thirteen years ago. He was ceded by his daughter, Queen Zephyr."

A chill ran down Fluttershy's spine.

"Zephyr?"

"No relation. I promise," Story assured her. Knowing Fluttershy in the past, he also knew about the brother that shall not be named.

"Any kings anywhere else?" Applejack probed.

"Nuh-uh," Story hummed. "Other kingdoms you know of have the Storm Bringer, the Stone Breaker, councils, or rulers on continents so faraway that some random goblin would have no clue. No kings."

I pulled the map case back and kept out of the goblin's vision. "And the human?"

"Yeemik keep human," it blurted out. "No need...But Yeemik say human his. Klarg no care. Goblins forced keep away."

"But whyyyyy~?" Stostine groaned, still keeping the 'noble brat' persona. Suddenly, it started to sound a little too real.

"No know," it admitted. "Yeemik no want goblins speak at human! Say we make human not talk."

"Not talk?" Ravathyra rose an eyebrow.

Stostine gave a mocking scoff and spoke in Dwarven. "He means, that this 'Yeemik' wants the hum— I mean —Sildar, to talk. But what for, I wonder."

Okay, why's the accent still there?

I said nothing. Instead, I slung the map case back to where it was before all of this started.

Stostine's eyes lit up and gasped. Then, in Dwarven, "Ya think Sildar knows what's on the map?"

"Possibly," I answered in Dwarven. "But he hasn't seen it himself."

Stostine comically tapped a finger to her chin. "Which prolly means Yeemik won't kill him yet. Bonus~!"

"Alright. Sunset," Applejack gave her friend a confused look. "Why are you talkin' like some kinda...Bratty tween?"

Sunset let herself break and gave the best neutral smile she could, then proceeded to talk normal. "Are you asking me or the character?"

"...You?"

"Oh! Then, like." she switched back to the fake attitude. "I got no clue what yer talking about."

Ricven, who was watching the entire scene, crawled up next to Thorn Wielder. He was laughing when Platick and Stostine were putting on an act but when the conversation switched to Dwarven, he looked to be at a loss.

"Are we s'pposed ta know what y'all are sayin'?" Ricven called out to myself and the others. Thorn Wielder had been watching us too but she didn't seem to care either way.

"They'll probably repeat it a few dozen times," Ravathyra told him boredly.

"Let's try a different question," Platick told the goblin, ignoring the peanut gallery. "How many of you are there?"

"A lot," the goblin spoke like it read a fact. "There are. A lot."

Ricven, Ravathyra, and Stostine all shared some stifled laughter from that. A look from me made them all shut up.

"Right. And your leader, Klarg," Platick pressed on. "Who is he?"

"He big, scary Bugbear. Say we his army."

"Army?" Stostine repeated.

"Makes sense," Ricven said with a smiling eye roll. "There are, get this...A lot."

"A lot is in an army," Ravathyra pointed out. "It's almost as much as a ton."

"But it's more than a bunch," Stostine tossed out, smiling all the while.

"Shut it." I stared them down, making them do exactly as I said.

"Ugh. Fine," Stostine droned, walking up to the goblin and Platick as she did. "I think we're outta questions anyway! What do you think, Platick?"

Platick simply shook his head. "Nah. I got one more."

After he put his dagger back into his boot, he stood up and held the goblin off the ground by his leather chest piece. I could see the strain Platick put into holding him but he hid it from the goblin well enough.

"This decides what we do with you," Platick said. "Are there any more traps or ambushes along this road?"

"No. No more ambush! Gonot and others were to get road ambush to bring at cave. All goblins at cave!"

Platick gave the goblin a heavy shake. His arms were starting to shake from holding the goblin. "And the traps?"

"Oh!" The goblin forgot where he was for a moment and let out a giggle. "There one big hole goblins make! It fun watch when animal or Dwarf scream."

As if she were targeted, Thorn Wielder stood up from on the wagon's bench, reaching for her scythe as she did. Both Ravathyra and Ricven worked to keep her from walking over.

"Good to know," Platick told him. "Enjoy your dirt nap."

"Nap?" The goblin repeated. "What is na—” His question was never answered.

Platick slammed the goblin into the ground, stomping its head into the dirt further with his boot. The goblin didn't move when Platick stepped back.

"Alrighty then," Sunset sang aloud as she raised her fist to the air. That tween voice was starting to make me cringe now. "Let's get moving, shall we? We don't have all day~"

I know that Sunset said she wanted something lighthearted when she made this character but this isn't what I thought she meant.

"Hold it." Applejack frowned. "First, drop the voice. It was already too much when you had a reason, now it's just getting ridiculous."

"Voice?" Sunset kept at it. "Like, what do you mean voice?" To add onto it, she crossed her arms and returned AJ's frown.

"He means your act," Twilight specified in Vareén's bored tone. "It's getting old. Fast."

Sunset gave out a scoff. "Act? The only ones acting old are all of..." Then she let herself trail off. I think she was trying to give them this fake eye twitch too but sadly it wasn't too real. Even Pinkie was trying not to giggle from it.

"...Aw shit," Sunset groaned, still in that voice.

Then, she let herself smile from the silliness of it all as she spoke to the group. "Um...Everyone just starts seeing Stostine blush like crazy. So she pulls up the hood from her robe to try hiding her face," she narrated stiffly.

A few girls turned to see what my reaction was to Sunset taking control of the scene. Since I didn't want to stop them I made a show of myself sitting back in my chair and folded my arms behind my head.

I gestured for them to go on. My work here is done. Popcorn time. I snatched up a handful of popcorn from the bowl Pinkie got for both of us. We had run out from the small bags she had so I guess she got more at...Some point?

Don't question, I remembered. You get more popcorn this way.

"Uh, Miss Stostine," Rarity started with Ricven's voice. "There somethin' ya mind sharin with the class here?"

Sunset let her shoulder droop. "Sorry. I'm sorry. It is a...Tick I have."

"To act like a snobby noble brat instead of a snobby noblewoman?" Applejack, as Platick, fired back.

Sunset let her face flare up in anger and with a 'tssk' she spoke back into that bratty voice. "Be serious Platick! I'm not a—"

Sunset feigned shock and cleared her throat. "I. I mean. I do not try to be snobby. Sorry if I come off that way."

"...You're not lying about this, are you?" Rainbow asked. She didn't have an accent like the others but she didn't have to. Simply playing along was more than enough. "I mean, is this an actual thing?"

Sunset sighed, then pretended to remove the hood from her head. "Yes. This is a thing. It. I know it sounds silly, but it is...I'm sorry."

As the girls each tried to figure out why this character would be like this, a few of them turned to look at me.

"Do any of us know what this is?" Twilight asked.

"Or if Stostine's telling the truth?" Applejack added.

"Is it contagious?" Fluttershy asked worriedly.

Rather than answer them, I held up a finger to get them to stop talking. I swear, I complained as I kept chewing my popcorn. People always ask me questions whenever I'm eating something.

When they got the hint, I swallowed my food in peace. Thankfully in that time, I managed to think up an answer. "So. There are some of you that have different insight than others. And for that matter, each of you will roll something different."

I started moving around my notes and got the paper that had stuff about Sunset's character, Stostine. Sunset only had a concept and a few interesting notes but my god were they specific.

"Now before I say who rolls what, I'm going to tell you that some of you are going to have an easier roll to make than others. So for example, one of you may only have to roll a fifteen while others may have to get a twenty or higher. That's the benefit of characters with different backgrounds; you come at it from different angles."

When they heard that, everyone but Sunset and Pinkie reached for their dice, with Rainbow casually snagging Sunset's lucky die. Sunset noticed and gave Rainbow a look but said nothing.

"So. In no particular order," I lied, glancing down at who's roll would probably matter the most. "Ricven. Arcana check."

Rarity deflated a little as I said that but rolled anyway. Then deflated further. "Eleven."

SO close to the target number. I'll give her the dots. She'll have to connect them, I told myself. "Okay. Platick? Make me a straight Intelligence check then add your proficiency bonus."

Applejack rolled next and her expression became the complete opposite of Rarity's. "Twenty-four."

Oh yeah, that'd work. Well, Kiirnodel was Platick's instructor. They'd probably bring this up. I moved to the next girl. "Vareén's turn. Perception check."

Twilight looked saddened even before rolling. And when she saw the number her expression softened a little. "Twelve?"

Not too terrible, I noted. Too bad hers was a harder number to beat. I turned to the next chair. "Ravathyra's turn. Rainbow? Insight check."

She stared at the lucky die in her hand and gave it a roll. She and all the girls at the table watched intently as it stopped at a mediocre eleven.

"...Thirteen," she mumbled with her frown. And before she could object, Sunset pulled the die back to her own pile.

"Finally, Thorn Wielder. You asked if it was contagious. Medicine check."

Fluttershy looked more concerned when I said that so after a gentle roll, she glanced back up. "Um. I rolled a twenty."

"Let me guess; not contagious?" Rarity asked with a weak grin.

"Correct!" I cheered. "Thorn Wielder, you know that it's not a disease! Or contagious. She, and you, are fine." As Fluttershy took some comfort with that, I clapped my hands together. "Now for the rest of the results."

I got up from my seat and started going around the room, starting with Applejack. I gestured for her to lean in and whispered so no one else can hear.

"Your instructor, Kiirnodel, comes to mind very quickly," I started. By the mention of their name, Applejack tensed up. We both agreed that Platick would have an instructor since he wasn't born a thief. So I pitched this character to her. The small stories I used to described them made AJ know this was not a 'heroic' character, to say the least. But she had this interesting story come to her mind that worked well.

I went on. "During your instructions, they offered to teach you some magic, though that's up to you whether or not you agreed. However, they did well to warn you of magic's tendencies. Stostine's...tick here, seems to be a textbook example. Especially since you realize her eyes turned a different color with that voice."

The 'whether or not part' was for Applejack to decide with her character. Applejack hadn't finished her backstory yet. But as I stepped away from Applejack, she looked like her mind was processing it all.

I next got to Rarity and started again.

"Ricven would know from past experience that Stostine is a sorcerer," I admitted. "Their powers can come from all sorts of things; ancestors, a gift or curse passed down. Luck? Exceedingly rare. So you've only met a few. And in some of those cases, they had weird...gimmicks to them."

Rarity waited for the next part but it never came. Instead, she watched as I moved to Twilight.

"Vareén, Stostine's odd change may seem familiar given your situation." Twilight looked like she wanted to immediately ask something but I didn't give her the chance.

"That situation, yes," I confirmed. "But you know it's probably something different. Personalities don't change the same way everything else does."

She didn't roll anywhere near high enough to get a real answer, unfortunately. But this was a good chance to deny what I figured was a question she was imagining.

With that settled, I finally got over to Rainbow.

"Whatever Stostine's going through, you don't know any sort of disease-based that matches her problem."

I stood up straight and was about to go back to my chair only to see Rainbow waving me back down. When I leaned back down, she whispered back.

"That's it?" She asked me.

I frowned. "Look, I'm really sorry. Your check was the hardest one to make. You didn't roll high enough."

"Didn't roll..." When Rainbow realized that the girls were now all looking at us, she got up from her seat. "'Scuse us for a second."

"Us? What do you—woah!"

Rainbow took my arm and had me follow her to the other side of the room. The girls could still hear us but at least now we didn't have to whisper.

"What do you mean didn't roll high enough?" She asked me in a hushed tone. "I know AJ rolled high but she got, like, a paragraph. I got second place."

"And again, I'm sorry. I just thought that you weren't much for role-playing is all." When she started to get more upset I scolded myself. "Okay, I didn't mean it like that, I just—"

"No, I-I get it," she told me. "AJ's got the whole creepy, not-elf teacher story with her."

I closed my mouth and went back over what she just said. "...How do you know about that?"

Rainbow's eyes went wide. "I. Um. We-Well, AJ told me. Before," she said vaguely. "But, I mean, what about the Ulaa goddess? And the..Th-the shrine where I, uh, the character, volunteered at?"

Shrine? Volunteer? I only shook my head with a confused look on my face. "Rainbow, if you wanna come up with a story for your character, awesome. Go for it. But I can't read your mind. You gotta tell me if you want it in the story too."

"But I saw it so clearly," she said, thinking I couldn't hear her.

"Great," I congratulated. "Then we can find a time to sit down and you can tell me all about it."

Rainbow stared at me like a deer in the headlights. "We? You mean, just we?"

"You can bring others with you," I told her. "But that's why I have stories for Applejack and Fluttershy, and the others. We sat down and came up with something they liked."

Then, Rainbow started getting really quiet. It was a lot like when the girls first came to introduce themselves. Originally, I thought that Rainbow was shy like Fluttershy with new people but now that didn't feel right to say.

Fluttershy...

"How about this." When Rainbow was ready to hear me out I went on. "If you really want to come up with this 'volunteer' story like you're talking about then how about Fluttershy comes along too?"

"Uh-Um." Rainbow started to look even more worried for some reason. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea."

Before I could try asking why, I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket. I fished it out quickly but instead of being some sort of call it was just the Cheerilee Alarm going off.

I kept hitting snooze when Pinkie was playing her solo mission but now it was 3:53. Maybe she talked with all the girls outside and figured that was enough to know we were okay.

Except, when I saw what time it was, my expression tightened. We had to be gone by 5 PM and we haven't done much in the game.

"Look." I put my phone away and looked back up. "You don't have to go the extra mile but if you want to then just let us know, alright? Now come on, we're holding up the others."

"Wait." She told me. "..."

"...Yes?" I asked, noting the strange awkward silence. After a few more moments of silence, save for the girls who were talking back at the table, Rainbow finally spoke.

"Tomorrow?" Rainbow asked. "After soccer practice? I can bring Fluttershy."

I gave her a nod. "Yeah. That works for me." As soon as I figure out when a sports practice ends.

"Are y'all finished yet?" Applejack called from across the room. "We're waitin' on ya."

Rainbow gave me a quick thumbs up before walking back to her table. "You don't really have to wait on me ya know."

The second that Rainbow sat back down, the girls started talking amongst themselves as their characters, playing out the scene as though they were in some kind of improv class.

With the handful of different accents and Sunset falling into the idea of explaining her actions, it was almost comical watching it all unfold.

Way to go Story, I praised myself. You managed to make seven regular, well-adjusted students all turn into goofy dorks in the span of one week. You truly are a terrible person.

I would have sat back to enjoy the chaos before me but then I saw Pinkie, who was content with watching the girls' acting, was slowly pulling my comfy swivel chair away from my spot and trying to steal it.

"Wha. Hey! Pinkie?!"

I started rushing over to reclaim what was mine. That was the only good chair in this room and I wasn't about to let it get taken from me!