//------------------------------//
// Session Zero 
// Story: Quest for Harmony 
// by SonicSpeedster97 
//------------------------------//

Canterlot City was… unusually quiet lately; no magical mayhem, no city in danger, and since it was Summer Break, no madness at school, and while this should’ve meant the girls could relax and enjoy themselves, they were – in truth – bored out of their minds with nothing to do but wait.
At least, that’s how it was before Twilight Sparkle pitched them an idea; her brother Shining Armor – in himself a massive nerd almost as much as her – was planning a campaign of Dungeons and Dragons and was looking for players with time on their hands.
“I can’t believe I agreed to this.” Rainbow Dash remarked; she had never given this game a second thought, and yet here she was walking with the others to Shining Armor’s house ready to play.
“I can’t believe it took as little as it did to convince you.” Sunset Shimmer pointed out; Rainbow had agreed to the game rather quickly.
“Hey, not my fault I’m bored out of my skull.” Rainbow pointed out; all it had taken to convince her to join the game was a question if she had free time. “I’m just surprised I agreed to such a nerdy game.”
“Really, Rainbow Dash; Twilight’s brother is offering us a few hours every week to relax and have some fun.” Rarity pointed out. “Are we really going to spit in the face of that?”
“No, it’s just… I dunno.” Rainbow shrugged, stopping for a bit and looking at the girls. “I guess since we got our awesome magic superpowers, I’ve gotten kinda… bored with the usual teenager stuff, y’know? I mean, when you’ve got super speed or strength or whatever, the things you did before you had it get kinda dull.”
“Yeah, Ah s’pose Ah can understand that.” Applejack conceded; there were plenty of times she could remember in quite recent history that her own strength had helped her with tasks that had at one point been more than somewhat difficult. “But even folk with superpowers need a break every now and then.”
“Especially when it brings them into a world of magic and adventure unlike any other!” Pinkie Pie announced, in an honorable tone that somewhat surprised the other girls. But she quickly returned to her own jovial tone again. “Besides, the characters we made are so cute and cool, and Ooh! This is just gonna be so much fun!”
“Yeah, there’s Pinkie Pie for ya,” Applejack smirked, knowing she would enjoy her character and the game itself to the fullest no matter what.
“Oh. I just hope this campaign isn’t too scary.” Fluttershy shuddered; she’d done a bit of research on this game with Twilight’s help when it was pitched, and from what she saw, it seemed like exactly the sort of game she wouldn’t like with all the terror and blood thrown around.
“Relax Fluttershy. We all signed those little consent contracts Twilight gave us, right?” Sunset pointed out, remembering the forms Twilight had given the girls when the game was pitched to them, which included options of consent for everything from various frightening aspects to types of death and torture.
“Besides, what’re you worrying about? You basically made your character a self-portrait of yourself, remember?” Rainbow reminded.
“Pretty sure we all did that.” Applejack pointed out. And she was totally right; the girls had all based their characters for this session on themselves.
“Speak for yourself; I didn’t see Sunset go for the demon people,” Rainbow smirked, knowing her friend was over jokes like that.
“Yeah-yeah, ha-ha; really funny.” Sunset rolled her eyes; she didn’t dare tell anyone she did consider a Tiefling character just for the irony, but she did not want to deal with that can of worms, so she just let it pass and knocked on the door to Shining Armor’s house. “For the record, I double-checked; they’re devil people, not demon people.”
“What’s the difference?” Rainbow asked as Twilight opened the door.
“In the context of the game? Enough to merit different sections in the Monster Manual.” she smiled. “So glad you guys could make it.”
“Like we’re gonna miss this.” Sunset insisted as she and the girls moved into the house. “Anything to get out of the house every now and then.”
“I hear that.” Twilight smiled. “Got everything set; dice, character sheets, snacks?”
“Yeah, we’re set.” Rainbow nodded.
“Great. Quick house rule; my brother always rolls a d20 before we start to see how the session’s gonna go.” Twilight smiled as she and Spike walked with the group to the dining room, where they found Shining Armor already set up.
“Thanks for coming girls; we’re gonna have a lot of fun tonight.” Shining Armor smiled. “Just so we’re all clear, can you tell me what kinda characters you’re going for? Race, class, background, stuff like that.”
Sunset smiled as she leaned back. “Sun Elf Sorceress Sage, Phoenix Sorcery.”
“Half-Elf Wizard, going for Lore Mastery. Cloistered Scholar background.” Twilight shrugged.
Spike yapped as he hopped up into Twilight’s lap. “And I will be playing the role of the pseudodragon familiar.”
“Homebrew edited a bit, of course. Just to spice things up.” Twilight smiled.
“Nice.” Rainbow smiled. “Human Paladin Folk Hero, right here. Oath of Glory looks awesome.”
“I of course will be playing as a Moon Elf Fighter Guild Artisan.” Rarity smiled. “Weavers Guild, naturally, and I intend to become an Eldritch Knight.”
“Weaver?” asked Rainbow.
“It's the closest thing I could find to fashion designer.” Rarity shrugged. “Besides, from what I've found, I have the greatest capability of making sure we all look truly fabulous.”
“Yeah? Well, good luck with that for the Barbarian here.” Applejack smirked. “Variant human, Clan Crafter. Goin’ for Ancestral Guardian, cause a gal’s gotta love her family even if she’s out adventurin’.”
“That sounds right for you.” Rainbow shrugged. “But nowhere near as much as Pinkie’s thing.”
Pinkie just giggled. “Yep; I’m a Rock Gnome Bard Entertainer Jester. College of Glamour looks like so much fun.”
“See what I mean?” Rainbow remarked.
Shining chuckled. “Okay yeah, that sounds about right.” he nodded, looking over at Fluttershy. “And how about you Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy was a bit nervous but still smiled. “I’m uh… a wood elf. Druid hermit. I- I wanna do the Circle of the Shepherd.”
“Now that sounds like a perfect match.” Shining Armor smiled as he rolled his d20 in his fingers. “Alright, alright, alright; let’s get this on. But first… house tradition.”
As he got ready to roll, Sunset saw a strange wisp of what looked like Equestrian Magic flying behind his head. Then when Shining tossed the die out into the middle of the table, it suddenly shot into one of the die’s faces as it tumbled out onto the table… and ended up landing as a perfect 20.
“Whoa-ho-ho. Man, that’s a really good omen.” Shining smiled. “Haven’t opened a session with a 20 since college.” Then the number on the die started glowing a bright blue, which drew everyone’s attention. “Now that’s just never happened before ever.” Then the number suddenly let out a burst of blinding light.
Shining groaned as he pinched his eyes and when his vision cleared, he saw something wrong right away; the girls were just… gone. His eyes immediately drew down to the d20 and he shook his head, with one thing clear to him right away. “Oh, Mom and Dad are gonna kill me.”