Vinyl Scratch’s jaw dropped. She blinked once or twice, stunned. “I…I’m dead…” she said quietly. “My character is… she’s gone.”
“Vinyl?” asked Octavia hesitantly. “Are you alright?”
By way of response, Vinyl’s eyes rolled back in their sockets and she fell to the ground, unconscious.
“Well… I’ve never seen a player react that badly to their character dying before,” commented Natural Twenty as Octavia leapt out of the couch to examine Vinyl.
“Shut up, Natural Twenty,” said Octavia, placing a hoof to Vinyl’s forehead. “This looks serious. Vinyl? Are you okay?” There was no reaction from the unicorn. “Vinyl?!” There was still no reaction.
What…what is going on here? Octavia thought, a wave of despair washing over her. Why can’t I help you, Vinyl?
“…I should have been the one to fill your dark soul with liiiiight!” she cried, her voice cracking as she spoke the last few words. To her surprise, this got a reaction out of the unicorn as she cracked an eye open.
“Dark soul, Octavia? Really?” Vinyl asked.
“You are currently trying to kill the benevolent ruler of Equestria, who, to the best of my knowledge, has never tried to hurt you or anypony else,” Octavia pointed out.
“And you’re helping me,” Vinyl countered.
“Touché. Regardless, your character is still dead,” Octavia said, “so that puts something of a stop to our plans.”
“Oh, I dunno about that,” Vinyl said, grinning. “Just because I’m dead, doesn’t mean I’m out of the game yet.” As she spoke, she picked herself up from the floor and climbed back onto the armchair.
“I beg to differ, Vinyl,” said Natural Twenty, who had been watching the whole situation with a bemused expression on his face. “Once you are dead, your character is dead for good, unless they- oh. Oh, shit.” His expression suddenly changed to one of concern.
“Yeah, you forgot about that, didn’t you?” Vinyl said.
“I knew I shouldn’t have given it to you two,” Natural Twenty said, facehoofing.
“What are you two on about?” Octavia asked. “Is this something to do with how I can supposedly bring Vinyl back from the dead?”
“Hey Octavia, you remember that super-badass sword you got from the village?” Vinyl asked. “The one that you didn’t know what it did, but I did?”
“Vinyl…” Octavia said slowly, piecing it together, “are you implying that the sword can bring ponies back from the dead?”
“It’s more like advanced healing,” said Natural Twenty, “although seeing as how Vinyl has only just died, I will allow you to bring her back with it.” To himself, he added, “Against my better judgement.”
“What sort of good would a healing sword be in a fight?” Octavia asked, frowning. “That seems somewhat malicious of you to give to us.”
“The idea was that you could use it should you end up fighting zombie ponies further down the campaign,” said Natural Twenty. “It would have killed them instantly.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” said Octavia. “Regardless, do I have to make a roll of any kind to bring Vinyl back to life with the sword?”
“Roll two d20s, and that’s how much she’ll heal,” Natural Twenty said.s Octavia rolled the dice.
“Twenty-four,” she said, adding up the dice. “So technically you’re still knocked out, Vinyl, by the rules of Pony Tales, but at least you’re alive.”
“It’s all cool; you can just keep whacking me with the sword until I’m up again,” said Vinyl, still smiling.
“Looks like Celestia will have to take care of both of you at the same time then!” said Natural Twenty. “Rather than Solar Beam, this turn she’s going to use –”
“Hang on a minute, aren’t you forgetting someone?” asked Octavia, frowning.
“Not that I can think of,” said Natural Twenty. “Celestia went first, Vinyl missed her turn because she was dead, and then you used up your turn healing Vinyl, Octavia. So now it’s back to Celestia.”
“What about Princess Luna?” asked Octavia. “She was fighting Celestia – hay, you even said that she fired off a laser at the start – and she hasn’t had a turn yet.”
Oh shit. I completely forgot about her, thought Natural Twenty. He looked down at the character sheet he’d prepared for Luna, right below Celestia’s. Crap. Realistically, she should be able to give Celestia a run for her money in a fight…
“Well?” asked Octavia.
“…I suppose that it is Luna’s turn,” Natural Twenty said, swallowing. What attack should I have her use? If I have her use a low-power attack, those two will call me out on it, but her attacks are powerful enough to take Celestia out with only a few… I suppose that I’ll just have her and Luna fight it out and hope that Celestia wins. “Luna will use Eclipse on Celestia, dealing…” Natural Twenty rolled some dice. “…huh, natural twelve.”
“What about him?” Octavia asked.
“Hmm? Oh, he’s doing fine at the moment; he’s just looking for work post-university,” said Natural Twenty. Seeing Vinyl’s confused look, he explained. “Natural Twelve is another of my brothers.”
“I, um, had a bit of a thing for him back in university,” Octavia admitted, blushing slightly.
“Anyway, I meant that I had rolled a natural twelve,” clarified Natural Twenty. “Which triggers this ability, and – uh oh,” he said, rolling another die.
“Something the matter?” Vinyl asked mischievously.
Natural Twenty scowled. “Luna just took off more than half of Celestia’s health,” he said. “I really shouldn’t have made them both so powerful; against each other the fight won’t be long at all.”
“You say as though it is a bad thing,” commented Octavia. “Anyway, with Luna’s turn over, what’s Celestia doing?”
“Celestia’s going to use Solar Energy to regain some health and PiPs,” said Natural Twenty. “She’s sort of looking low on health at the moment, after all.”
“Cool,” said Vinyl. “Now, I miss my turn since I’m still knocked out, which brings us around to Octavia.”
Looking at her character sheet, an idea occurred to Octavia. Provided I build some extra PiPs this turn, this should hopefully work…Unless Natural Twenty ignores me in favour of attacking Vinyl again... She frowned, thinking it through. Depending upon how much health Celestia has – and I’m assuming that she’s already quite low judging by what Natural Twenty’s said- this should work as long as she attacks me. It all depends upon how much damage Luna does…
“Octavia?” asked Natural Twenty. “You realise it’s your turn, right?”
“Yes,” Octavia said distantly, still thinking intently. “Sorry about that.” It’s now or never – I’d like this fight to be over as soon as possible. Picking up her figurine with a hoof, Octavia moved it so that it was adjacent to Celestia’s. “I shall move next to Celestia and use Tiger Claw,” she said. “I gain one PiP, and deal one d12 worth of damage to Celestia. Sorry Vinyl, but I won’t be able to heal you this turn.”
“Holy crap Octavia, do you realise what just happened?!” Vinyl exclaimed as Octavia rolled the die.
“That’s five damage to Celestia, Natural…Yes, Vinyl?”
“Someone actually acknowledged the game mat!” Vinyl said excitedly. “And all this time I thought that it was just for show!”
“We’ve used it before,” Octavia said. “There was that time when…” She fell silent as she tried to recall the last time the game mat had actually had some sort of effect on the game. “Huh. How about that? It was worth buying it!” she commented.
“Anyway, with Celestia’s turn over, it’s back to Luna’s,” said Natural Twenty. “Once more she’ll use Eclipse on her dear sister, dealing…” He rolled some dice. “An amount of damage unknown to you two.” Shit. That was another good roll. If Luna rolls like that again, Celestia will be knocked out. Natural Twenty frowned as he looked at the character sheets. Since Celestia healed last turn, Luna hasn’t taken any damage yet...Unless I can pull off some sort of bullshit combination, there’s no way that I can defeat her in one turn with Celestia.
But then again...Natural Twenty thought…if I can one-shot Octavia as I did to Vinyl, I can hopefully knock them both out, thus ending combat. Then I can send them to prison or something, and they can escape from there as part of the next session. As Natural Twenty opened his mouth to speak, he caught a glance at Octavia. She was sitting upright and had both hooves to her mouth. She was looking directly at him with a smirk on her face.
Come on, she seemed to be saying. Come on and attack me. That is what you’re planning, isn’t it?
Natural Twenty bit his lip. Did she have a plan? She did purposely move next to Celestia… but was that a bluff? Was it to intimidate me? Or does she have a plan in mind? I really need to have Celestia just defeat everyone here…
Don’t give anything away, Octavia thought, staring at Natural Twenty. Don’t let him see how important it is for him to attack you. Let him think that you’ve made a mistake and that he attacking you is a miscalculation.
I…I can’t tell what she’s thinking! Natural Twenty thought. I can’t read her! Turning to Vinyl, he thought to himself, maybe I can gauge the situation from her expression. Maybe she and Octavia anticipated this. Vinyl was lying on her side, facing the ceiling.
Go on, she was probably thinking. Go on and get me a drink, Octavia. You know that I’d love that.
Natural Twenty shook his head. That was a waste of time. Looking to the board, he glanced over the pieces and the battle situation. He double-checked the current health of both Luna and Celestia, and ran a few quick calculations in his head. …That’s it. I’ve got to attack Octavia, and knock her out in one shot. If I can do that, I can defeat both of them and keep the campaign going.
Natural Twenty cleared his throat. “Celestia is going to use Solar Flare on you, Octavia, seeing as how you’re the closest to her.”
Octavia’s smirk grew slightly larger. Yes! I have won this, Natural Twenty!
“The attack will hit you for…” Natural Twenty picked up some dice and was about to roll them when Octavia interrupted him.
“Not so fast, Natural Twenty,” she said. “I’ve got a move to use before you do that,” she said.
Shit! She did have something planned! “And what’s that?” Natural Twenty asked coolly. “You’re aware that unless you have an interrupt action, you can’t act right now, yes?”
“Of course I know that. And yes, I am using one,” Octavia said. “I’ll use Stunning Heron’s Talon,” she said, reading from her sheet. “It’s an interrupt action that triggers when I’m attacked by something next to me, which Celestia is.”
“…And what does it do?” Natural Twenty asked, a hint of fear creeping into his voice.
“It stuns whatever is attacking me until the end of its next turn,” said Octavia matter-of-factly. “Which means that Celestia’s current attack is negated, and she will more-or-less miss her next turn.”
…That gives Luna two rounds to attack, Natural Twenty realised. I- I don’t think that I can win this fight. “Well, Octavia, it’s technically your turn now, since you used that during Celestia’s turn,” he said. “What are you going to do?”
“I’ll hit Vinyl with the healing sword again,” said Octavia. She rolled some dice. “All right! Vinyl’s conscious again!”
“Can I give Octavia a thank-you-for-bringing-me-back-from-near-death kiss?” Vinyl asked excitedly.
“During your turn,” said Natural Twenty, frowning slightly. “Anyway…it’s now Luna’s turn.” He sighed as he rolled some dice. “She hits Celestia with a fully charged Anarchy Apollo attack and…yep, Celestia’s defeated.” He grimaced. “Well done you two, you managed to defeat an enemy who would realistically defeat both of you in less than a second.”
“That’s ‘cos we’re super creative,” said Vinyl, grinning happily. “Are we princesses now?”
“Yes, I suppose that I did promise that,” said Natural Twenty, sighing. “Luna is disappointed with what she did, but thinks that it was necessary for Equestria. Nevertheless feeling ashamed, she leaves Equestria, never to return, bestowing the titles of the Princess of the Sun and the Princess of the Moon to both of you.”
“Princess sex?” Vinyl asked Octavia.
“Princess sex,” agreed Octavia, nodding in approval.
“I don’t suppose that I could convince you two to get back to the plot with the tablets and the temple in the jungle any time soon, could I?” asked Natural Twenty. Vinyl shrugged.
“We’re princesses now. We can just send out guards to get the tablets and stuff for us,” she pointed out.
“And besides, I am sure that Canterlot castle has a ton of much better loot,” said Octavia. “Why would we bother with something as small and fiddly as the temple when we’ve got an entire castle full of loot?”
“You guys aren’t saying what I think you’re saying, are you?” asked Natural Twenty.
“Yeah…about that…” Vinyl said, avoiding eye contact with Natural Twenty.
“We don’t exactly have a reason to keep the roleplay going now that we rule Equestria, do we?” Octavia asked. “But look at it this way – we had fun, didn’t we?”
“Yes, I suppose that we did,” said Natural Twenty, smiling a little. “And now that we’ve finally caught up for the first time in a while, we can hang out every once in a while.”
“You bet we can,” agreed Octavia, smiling.
“So, what are you going to do now?” Vinyl asked.
Natural Twenty shrugged. “Seeing as how the campaign is over, I suppose that I’ll go home? What about you two?”
Octavia shrugged. “I think I’ll probably read a book. Or perhaps practice the cello.”
“I was working on a song before this session; I should get back to that soon,” added Vinyl.
“Excellent choices,” Natural Twenty said, starting to pack up his stuff. “Look, Octavia…Vinyl… I must say, I’m sorry that I was such a bad DM at the start. Truth be told, I was excited to be catching up with Octavia again, and… well, I suppose I let things get a little out of hoof.”
Vinyl and Octavia both waved their hooves dismissively. “It was nothing, really. It was just for that one session, after all,” said Octavia.
“And hay, we sorta just killed the campaign today. We’ve should be apologising to you!”
Natural Twenty smiled. “Whatever. Regardless, I’m going to head off now, but I’m sure that I’ll be seeing you two sometime in the near future. It was good to do this!”
“We completely agree,” said Octavia, shaking Natural Twenty’s hoof before he headed out the door. A few moments of silence passed between the two mares.
“So, how did you find your first campaign?” Octavia asked Vinyl as she started to pack up her dice.
“Honestly? It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” said Vinyl. “Man, that moment when I turned everypony into lizards… that was priceless!”
“Priceless for you, maybe,” Octavia said, playfully hitting Vinyl with a hoof. For the next few minutes, the two ponies discussed the highlights and lowlights of the roleplaying campaign as they kept packing up. It wasn’t long before they were finished.
“Ah, it’s nice to have the place clean!” said Octavia.
“Tell me about it,” said Vinyl, grinning as per usual. “Now that that’s done, I guess…I’ll just go make that song, like I said I was going to…”
“And I’ll probably find a book to start reading…or practice my cello…” said Octavia, avoiding Vinyl’s eyes. Silence fell between the two mares; both awkwardly standing there rather than going off to do the activities they had said that they would.
“Say…Octavia…” Vinyl said slowly, “when you said that you were going to practice the cello, was that – y’know – code for wanting to have sex with me?”
“FINALLY!” Octavia exclaimed. “Finally, you get the hint!” She leaned into Vinyl and began kissing her passionately. Within moments the two were lying on the floor, still making out.
“W-wait,” said Vinyl as Octavia started to move down her body. “If we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it right.”
“What do you mean?” Octavia asked, frowning. “This is hardly the first time we’ve done it.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know, but if we’re going to do it…” Vinyl stopped and grinned smugly. “We’re gonna need that Pony Sutra book of yours. It’s time for me to show you a little roleplay of my own…”
The End