//------------------------------// // 10: Spike's Campaign- High Seas, Low Expectations // Story: Forge World: The Full Metal Fantasy Role Playing Game // by shenadri //------------------------------//       Forge World: The Full Metal Fantasy Role Playing Game   By: Zelkova48   Chapter 10: High Seas, Low Expectations   * * * Personal Equipment Update: Name: Twilight Sparkplug Race: Unicorn Career: Mechanikal Engineer/ Arcane Engineer Equipment: Rune etching kit, light labor Engine Armor: Armored great coat Weapon: Wrench Engine name: Twilight Sentinel Heavyarms Chassis: Light Cortex: Lazium cortex Armor: Rusty iron plating Weapon: “Murder” prototype gatling gun, empty right hand Gear/ Upgrade: Hydraulic crane (currently holding ammo drum) Name: Rainbow Blast Race: Pegasus Career: Skyterror/ Stormcrafter Equipment: none Armor: Skyterror plate mail, skyterror shield Weapon: Blasting pike Name: Captain Pinkie Pirate Race: Grunt Career: Alchemist/ Pirate Equipment: Spy glass, gun brace, mixing kit, grenade bandoleer Armor: Alchemist leather Weapon: Cutlass, handcannon, ember bombs Name: Elusive Race: Unicorn Career: Aristocrat/ Spy Equipment: Forged papers, disguise kit Armor: Modified elegant dress Weapon: Springblades, holdout pistol Name: L’ Orange De Apple Race: Earth pony Career: Guardian/ Riflemen Equipment: Scope, ammo bandoleer Armor: Infantry armor Weapon: Cannon shield, bayonet, dynamite bundle Name: Necrolyte Butterfly Race: Pegasus Career: Thanite Advocate/ Investigator Equipment: Necklace of the Thanite faith Armor: Plated robes Weapon: Battle cross, sacrificial dagger ***         There was something strangely therapeutic about taking a good old fashioned stroll along the glittering coastline of Starboard port. Casually blasting away annoying guild members with righteous indignation on your very own robot mech armed with an experimental gatling gun, which you stole from said annoying guild members and are therefore killing them with the very concept of irony. To Twilight, Captain Pinkie, and L’ Orange who were all hanging onboard T. Heavyarms, this was pretty much the incredibly violent and gore filled equivalent of enjoying a relaxing day down at the spa. If your local spa had giant mechs, gigantic guns, and lavender scented soaps that is. As various soldiers and mercenaries were grounded, pulped, and otherwise turned into a fine red mist, the trio kicked back and enjoyed a little bit of girl time amongst themselves. They took a little time for themselves to forget about the mission to unwind a bit. Thankfully, the sound of screaming victims drowned out the sound of flying bullets. Which, well let’s be honest here, gets really annoying after a while.           “So I was thinking about changing my hairstyle,” said Twilight Sparkplug as she ran a hoof through her spiky electric pink and purple striped mane. “I was thinking maybe I could tie it with twin braided pigtails or grow it out and braid it. What do you girls think?” she asked. “Hmm...  to be honest, I always thought zat you would look great with a frivolous mohawk,” L’ Orange suggested with a curt chuckle. “Either zat, or perhaps something with a bit more... je ne sais quoi.” “A mohawk does sound pretty cool,” Twilight ruffled her mane and attempted to shape it into a somewhat decent mohawk. “It strikes terror into the hearts of thugs and villains everywhere!” she exclaimed with a giggle. “Ooh! Ooh! How’s about you spike the heck out of your hair even more!” yelled Captain Pinkie. “Imagine it! Just take like a whole tub of hair gel and slather it all over your mane until you get some liberty spikes! With hair that hard and pointy, you’ll always have a weapon on hand!” she finished as she caught her breath. ***         “Hair that’s both fashionable and functional?” Rarity asked. “It sounds like it would come in handy if you ask me,” she ran a hoof through her own luxurious mane. “Although, I’m not sure if Twilight’s character would look all that great with liberty spikes. The mohawk was already pushing it, and to gel that up you might as well be glueing a buzzsaw to the top of her head”         “Well, if I could voice my own opinion, I’d say that Twilight would look better with those twin pigtails,” said Applejack. “Ain’t nothing wrong with tying your hair back to keep it neat and tidy when you’re working. And given how she’s an engineer, I think it would look great on her.”         “I think it would be nice if you could grow your hair out, Twilight,” Fluttershy joined in the conversation. “The feeling of having the wind blow through your hair is just a wonderful feeling!”         “...” Spike looked around at everyone. “Which Twilight are you talking about again? Are still talking about Twilight’s character or Twilight herself?” he asked.         “Umm... I think we may have gone off on a tangent here,” said Rainbow. “We should probably get back to Twilight and her robot.”         “Agreed” said Spike. “So, let’s see... robot rampage... dying guild members... something about Twilight’s hair... Hmm, I believe we are... here!” ***         “...Dakka, dakka, dakka, dakka!” Captain hummed from her slobbery lips as she eyed the upcoming death trap of a ship that they were hired to guard. Right beside her, L’ Orange was casually braiding Twilight’s hair until the sound of random explosion drew their attention back to the transport ship where they spotted it suddenly setting off while the rest of their team were fighting back the guild members.         “Hey!” Rainbow Blast shouted by the stern of the ship. “Pick up the pace you three! The heat got too much and we had to set off without you! You better find a way to get here with that bucket of bolts before it’s too late!”         Jumping straight to attention, the trio on the labor engine could see that the ship itself was burning, and had a good handful of guild members persistently hanging along the side. Elusive let off a few shots from her holdout pistol upon a few of the poor bastards hanging on for dear life while Rainbow was trying to scrape them all off with the end of her blasting pike. The plopping and ka-chunk noises of bodies hitting the water could be heard even from far away.         “Well, this complicates things,” said Twilight as she stepped off T. Heavyarms. “At least there aren’t anymore mercs around. They were really starting to get on my nerves.” Glancing around the port, Twilight and friends could see that there were corpses and spent shell casings littered everywhere. The acrid smell of sea salt, rust, and gunpowder blanketed the area around them. Not to mention that they couldn’t step anywhere without getting their hooves and feet red with the gore of their victim’s blood. In fact, there was so much blood that it pooled together and was spilling into water. So much so that the ocean water was beginning to turned red.                  “You could say that again,” replied Captain Pinkie as she pulled out her spyglass. Eyeing the horizon, she could see that the transport ship wasn’t too far off from Starboard port. But trying to swim there, especially if they’re going to try and bring T. Heavyarms with them, wasn’t going to happen. “I’d say we should commandeer one of the boats here and be on our way. Do you think you can put the robot away?” “It’s no trouble. Just give me a sec,” said Twilight. Turning to face T. Heavyarms, Twilight pressed the left kneecap servo and the runic inscriptions appear again. With a bright flash of light, all that remained the kneecap where Twilight wore it upon her shoulder like a pauldron. “All done.” “Oh. Bad news you two,” L’ Orange joined in. “I was inspecting all of the ships, and zey’re all mostly row boats or boats with scrappy sails. We’ll never catch up to them in time with zeese zings” “Wait, what about the one by the far end of the port?” Captain Pinkie asked. “Zat? It’s a motor boat but ze engine is shot,” replied L’ Orange. “It’s useless.” “Hmph,” Twilight huffed as she pulled out her trusty, albeit bloodstained, wrench. “Useless is a just a fancy word that people came up with to make themselves feel less guilty about seeing broken machinery. Give me some time, I’ll handle everythang,” she concluded with sass. *** “Hmm, that sassy tone really suits you, Twilight,” Rarity commented. “You should show that side of you more often, don’t you think?” “No, no... I-I can’t,” Twilight stammered as she started to blush profusely. She looked away from everyone, shyly hiding behind her hooves to avoid being embarrassed.. “I hate it whenever I act like that.” “But I know for a fact that stallions are into mare’s with that kind of attitude,” said Rarity egged her on. “With a little bit of work, particularly if this were to be refined with the help of moi, every stallion in Ponyville will be like putty in your hooves!” “Ah think Ponyville is better off with less ponies like that, Rarity,” Applejack deadpanned. “Just leave the poor girl alone.” “Fine, fine,” Rarity conceded. “But if you ever have your eye for that special somepony, you know where to find me.” “Uh, girls?” Pinkie Pie interrupted them. “The boat?” “Whuah? Oh! Oh, right,” said Twilight. “I can repair the motor boat’s engine using the random junk that’s laying around the port. Not only that, I can use some of my arcane mechanik skills to upgrade it.” “You’ll have to roll for each individual action. One for the repair, and the other for the rune upgrade. The higher the roll, the better the quality of the repair and upgrade will turn out,” said Spike. “So, go on ahead. Roll.” With a curt shake of her hooves and some clattering of the die, it rolled and spinned until it stopped. Where a collection of gasps was elicited by everyone in the room. Twilight had landed a crit twenty for the first time. A small applause was given to congratulate her on this small victory. “Well whaddaya know! The motor boat is looking like it was shipped from straight out of the factory it was made from!” cheered Spike. “Go, Twilight!” *** “There, good as new. Even better, in fact” exclaimed Twilight as she wiped away the black oil that stuck to her coat. “Ugh, I’ve been getting covered in this stuff for years and I still haven’t gotten used to it. Oh, well. I’ll get used to it eventually.” “I’m glad that the boat’s all fixed up now, but even then, this is still just a minor a fishing boat,” said Pinkie as she took a swig from her emergency grog flask. “If we set off now, I should be able to navigate and get us joined up with the rest of the team by the end of the day.”         “But we don’t have till ze end of the day,” L’ Orange retorted. “We’ll be old and gray by ze time we reach zem.”         “Shh!” Twilight shushed her two friends. “I’m trying to work here!”         “Doing what?” L’ Orange shouted back.         “Can’t you see?” Twilight tapped on the boat’s motor with her rune inscription kit. “I’m giving us a little boost in the engineering department,” she then turned back and began to draw with white chalk several bizarre hieroglyphics, symbols, and other alien pictographs in the pattern of fire on the top of the motor. The other two had no idea what any of that meant. Like, at all. To them it just looked like a random array of scribbles from a foal’s coloring book.         “And just what is zis suppose to do?” L’ Orange complain. “I doubt painting flames onto ze boat would make it go faster. It’s just a myth zat the diamond dogs came up with” “Your pessimism is noted, Lora,” Twilight replied nonchalantly. “But in this case, painting flames onto this boat really will make it faster,” she then sighed heavily before staring intently onto the inscription. “Let’s see if I remember how to do this.” she hovered both her hooves over the inscription and began to concentrate. The strain showing on her face made it clear that she was pushing herself till it looked like she was going to pop a vein. Tapping into the well of magic that is present in all things, the inscription flickered and sparked to life before glowing intensely. “I really hope this works,” Twilight muttered beneath her breath. *** “Alright, one more roll,” said Spike. “If you mess up, the rune self destructs on you. Dealing damage to everyone around it and totaling the boat for good. If you succeed, you’re looking at the speeder of the high seas.” Twilight threw her die again. The usual ritual went by as expected, only with an unexpected result. As if she had received the blessings of both Madame Misfortune and Lady Luck, by some astronomically calculated twist of fate, she had a received another crit twenty. Everyone’s head immediately snapped their attention towards Twilight and Stared at her as if she just grew a second head on her shoulder. “You sure that twenty sided die ain’t loaded?” Rainbow Dash questioned. “It looks real suspicious to me that you got twenty twice!” “Or, Rainbow, she could just be really lucky,” said Fluttershy. “Nopony is that lucky,” said Rarity as she flicked a lock of her mane away from her eyes. “Cheating makes a load more sense than luck does, Fluttershy,” Applejack argued. “Girls, the odds of getting twenty twice is only one in four hundred chances,” Spike joined in. “Not very often is it that somepony can get this, but not entirely impossible either.” he ruffled through the pages of his booklet and then through some parts of the main rule book. “Anyway, Twilight’s inscription glows so blindingly bright that you all cover your eyes to shield yourself from the light. When you open you eyes, you find the rune is successfully burned onto the motor of which it constantly thrums with power whilst emitting a luminous red aura. The boat has been upgraded and can reach the transport ship within only a matter of minutes.” *** “Well, I’ll be damned,” L’ Orange spoke with an incredulous tone of voice. “You managed to turn a minnow into a marlin. It appears zat I may have spoken too soon.” “And the pessimism is all gone,” Twilight stated with a wry grin. “I guess I made a believer out of even the most hardheaded and prideful of ponies” *** “For the record, Ah was pretty sure that we all decided to put that whole applebucking incident behind us,” said Applejack as she glared at her friends who only looked back at her with blank stares. “You’re all still gonna rib me about that, aren’t you?” “You sent me crashing into Twilight’s house,” Rainbow deadpanned. “You sent Rainbow Dash crashing into my house,” said Twilight. “You gave everypony a tummy ache with those baked bads,” said Pinkie. “You made all of the rabbits and bunnies that Fluttershy was helping out stampeding into town,” said Rarity. “Well, I already forgave you,” Fluttershy squeaked. “Just get on with the game, Spike,” Applejack grumbled. *** “Yarrg! That be one of the finest fishing boats that I’ve ever seen, Twilight,” The Captain praised as she tipped her hat to Twilight. “All that it’s missing is a fresh coat of red paint and this baby will be moving at least three times faster than normal!” “The rune’s already red. I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be three time’s better in everything with it on there,” Twilight replied as she stepped into the boat. “Come on, Captain. Navigate us to the ship.” “Aye, aye, Twilight,” said Pinkie as she started the motor up. Three pulls of the rope later, the engined whirred to life and hummed as loud as Rainbow Blast when she snores. “All aboard the S.S. Red Comet. We will be leaving port soon.” “Just get a move on,” L’ Orange rudely replied. “Tch, spoilsport,” Pinkie muttered beneath her alcohol ladened breathe just as they speed off into towards the sunset and their friends. Water splashed all around them as the boat jumped and rocked against the the ocean. It seemed a little dangerous to be moving at such a speed. They came close to flipping over many times but were lucky enough to stay afloat.. And then something came into mind that made the trip a lot more unsettling than they initially thought. “Wait, does this count as drinking and driving?” Twilight asked, L’ Orange before staring at each other in abject terror. With both their hooves, they grasped onto the side of the boat with a vice grip and never let go. “HOLD ON!”