Lucky Spin
My heart raced as I stepped through the portal. Who knew what adventures lay on the other side? What amazing sights would be found in a parallel magical dimension! Maybe steampunk was a thing! Maybe I would get to ride a dragon across the sky while shouting mispronounced old norse phrases and swinging a cool dragon scale colored sword about!
Or we could step into a completely blank white nothingness with two chairs and a desk. Lame!
There was seriously nothing. The portal we had come through didn’t even exist on this side! There was only a white, infinitely large plane of suck, with a desk, two chairs… and a few books on top of the desk.
“Take a seat girls.” The probably not-an-evil-overlord voice asked.
“Lame!” Risky exclaimed, her eye twitching irritably.
“Yeah! Come on, the portal is supposed to lead to an enchanted glade or something!”
“Look, I don’t have much time to work with you. I could just drop you into Equestria or a neighboring country at random, but since I am not having to take you from two hundred and fifty million years in the past like the last bunch, I can spare the power to let you make some choices.” The voice sighed. “So please sit down. This is actually important.”
I looked at sis, she nodded, and we sat down together, scooting our chairs as close as possible. Now that I was closer I could see the books were in fact nice leather bound RPG rulebooks. Additionally, two pencils and light parchment character sheets sat next to the books.
I grinned, “Is this-”
“A character creation room? Yes. But first-”
Risky grabbed the book on top of the pile and flipped it open, thumbing quickly through the pages. “D20 based. Pretty similar to Oubliettes and Ogres.”
The voice sighed. “It’s exactly the same as Oubliettes and Ogres, only invented by an extinct species in the far past. You’ll get to pick a class in a minute. Can I please-”
I leaned over to look with Risky at the book. “Quick! See if they have Improved Familiar!”
The book vanished in a flash of white. “Awww man!” We sighed together.
“May I please…” The voice trailed off as another voice said something just barely out of the range of my hearing. “You know what? That’s probably for the best. You brief them, I need to make sure Kaily winds up on the right continent.”
There was a sound like someone moving a headset microphone, and an eager, happy female voice greeted, “Hi! Don’t mind him. He’s tired and low on power. We’re basically the DMs of a real life adventure, and well, we really can't afford to lose so we took an opportunity we found to pull you from your world into ours. Since it’s close by.”
“What's your name?” Risky asked politely.
“I can’t tell you. See, part of the spell which lets us play reality like an Oubliettes and Ogres game wipes your personal identity… and any goals you may have had. You know, because you could seriously screw up the world for everypony. You need at least five sentient creatures to agree on one single goal which is nearly the only thing you can remember and have motivation to work at, and your powers are kinda limited… Look that’s not important.
“We need more PCs, we had the energy to try and recruit you. You can help or go home. If you help you will never be able to leave our dimension… well unless you find a natural portal back home.”
We laughed and shook our heads. “Do you see these backpacks?” I asked with a giggle.
“Pff, yeah! I’m literally compelled to offer you a chance to go back. It’s the spell.” I blinked, the voice sounded a lot like someone I remembered from High School. What was her name?
“So what’s the campaign?” Risky asked for us.
“Well, there’s a group of shapeshifting, love eating, insectoid ponies. They are being led by a crashed alien starship’s computer in an attempt to make a proper civilization for their kind. We need them to succeed because we believe that city is key to surviving… Well, a BBEG long thought to be just a myth is going to try and merge his prison-plane with our own.
“So demonic invasion, mass suffering, horribleness, pretty standard for a game really. Only there will be starships, lasers, um… does your dimension have Mass Effect? Imagine a magical Reaper invasion with-”
“Fucking sold!” we chorused together ears perked eagerly, faces sporting massive grins.
I reached forward and picked up my character sheet. “Sooo do we get like d20 powers in real life? As in we have all the powers and abilities of the class we choose?”
“Yep! Heroic power beyond the might of a normal pony!” the DM exclaimed.
Risky snapped her fingers, “Oh! Dude, Lyra! Holy shit you did it! You managed to sneak through the portal! Awesome!”
“Is that my name? Huh…” She was quiet for a moment. “No… I was born over here. I think. You must know my duplicate self from your reality. Right, so you have ten minutes. Let’s get you a character built.”
“Pff,” I smiled, “Bitch please! We work in a comic shop. Starting level?”
“Yeah, and how close is this game too Oh and Oh?” Risky added.
“It’s literally the same except for the default setting and available equipment… well and your version of the game would have humanoids as normal.” not-Lyra answered.
“Can we choose species?” I asked curiously.
“No. We don't have the power for that. We are running on the barest dregs of magic here.” she answered.
I looked into Risky's eyes. We shared a silent moment of communication. Not telepathy, but simply that bond which comes from knowing someone perfectly. We were getting real life powers, we had one shot at this, we should go big or go home.
“So, I have bat-wings. Does this count as fiendish or draconic blood for your world?” Risky asked.
Not-Lyra hummed, than, after a minute answered, “Discord says it’s draconic. Oh and since the other PCs are seventh level with three levels of templates, you guys start at tenth level.”
“Awesome! So I count as a scaled race. In that case, I take my first level as Wizard. I will take the feat Endurance, and have a viper for my familiar to gain Alertness.” I said with a malicious grin, “So then… Ahem! Pazuzu, Pazuzu, Pazuzu!”
“Yeah, no. No Pun-Pun-ing.” Not-Lyra laughed, “Candles of Invocation don’t exist in the setting. Sadly. Pun-Pun would solve all our problems instantly.”
“Damn!” Risky and I cursed.
“Okay then, we need to go with something less metagame, but still powerful.” I mused.
Risky nodded, tapped her fingers on the table then smiled. “You mentioned Improved Familiar, wizard-familiar trick?”
I nodded. “That will do! We will be wizards.”
“Just fill out the sheet. I’ll be here if you have any questions.” Not-Lyra said with a verbal smile.
We filled out the sheets as best we could. The particular trick we were employing was simple, but quite amazing. Because a Wizard’s familiar can cast any spell the Wizard knows, and no rule says that a player can’t be a familiar, and the feat Improved Familiar lets you take a sapient creature for a familiar, what you do is get a wizard buddy and become each others familiars. Now you share your known spells.
So, since effectively we had one spell list between us, I took all the utility spells I could while Risky took all the combat spells she could. If the DMs there had no objections, we would both know the spells each other took, doubling our spell lists. Also we gained the benefits usually bestowed to a familiar based on each others' levels.
“Wait… girls, that’s not valid.” Not-Lyra sighed.
“Why not?” We objected giving the space across from us puppydog eyes.
“... I’ll get in trouble for this with Five.” Not-Lyra groaned. “Take Iron Will, and Improved Familiar Bond. It lets your familiar have class levels. Then your trick will work by the rules.”
“Sweet!” Risky giggled and scribbled down the feats.
“Right, so that means we can share spells, we have the one mile telepathy, Alertness, and Improved Evasion. We just need to work out if we use our remaining feats for Discoveries or Teamwork feats.” I noted tapping pencil to sheet.
“Ehhh the only ones we would use are Allied Spellcaster and Improved Spell Sharing. Nether of those is really beneficial given our current munchkining for narrative purposes.” Risky noted.
“Yeah the Discoveries would be way better. Diversify your power a bit.” Not-Lyra added. “Hurry up with the choices. I need to fill you in on the details before sending you on.”
I nodded, “Yeah good point. I’ll take Time Stutter and Fast Study.”
Risky nodded, “Okay, so you can stop time for a few seconds a few times a day and prep your daily spells in fifteen minutes, or one minute per spell… I think I’ll go with um… Forest’s Blessing and Arcane Builder, which I’ll use for rings.”
“Oh! You don’t need to pick a magic item type.” Not-Lyra informed eagerly. “Call it a house rule, but since hands are sadly not a thing in the setting you can make any object you like have any magical effect normally ascribed to a wand, or ring, vest, whatever. So basically everything’s a wondrous item.”
We cooked our heads in confusion, “No hands? How do you do anything?”
“We’re mostly quadrupeds over here. Don’t worry hooves can grip things like hands just fine. Also as Wizards you can just use mage hand for most things.”
“Wait… we are going to be like, feral ponies?” I asked, ears drooping.
“Yeah. But not like how you are thinking… Oh, thanks Two! Two says you will still be attracted to one another. Because our dimensions are so close we, well, are mutually attractive. So you know you don't have to break up or anything.”
We sighed in relief, “Oh thank god!”
I turned to Risky and asked, “Forest’s blessing lets you use Druid spells right?”
She nodded, “Yep! Since everything counts as a wondrous item I’ll whip up some… um… horseshoes of haste or something the second we can. That way we can rely on prepared spells less than items for combat magic.”
Not-Lyra laughed, “Oh my Luna! I can’t remember her name but I used to play the game on paper all the time… My old DM would hate you so much! I seriously hope you find her.”
She cleared her throat suddenly, “Ok! Last few moments left. Sign the sheets!”
We quickly signed the sheets at the bottom. The parchment rolled up and vanished in a flash of rainbow light. Instantly white light blazed on our hips. “That’s just you getting a cutiemark. It’s a magical symbol which is a manifestation of your special talent, in this case, your class lev- Oh! Were you guys conjoined? I’m only sensing your marks on one hip.”
We nodded, “Yeah.”
“Interesting! Your familiar-wizard loop munchkinning kinda fits for twins like you two then. One person, two bodies kinda thing.” Not-Lyra said in a thoughtful tone.
“That’s a bit mean.” Risky objected.
“Yeah we have our differences. Watch. Boobs or butts?” I asked turning to my sis.
“Butts.” She answered instantly.
“See? My answer is butts.” I informed with a giggle. Then I blinked, “Wait, really?”
“Yeah. I thought you were the boob girl.” She giggled.
“Damnit… Okay maybe we are the same.”
“You guys are probably going to love the whole optional clothing part of our culture way too much.” Not-Lyra sighed, suppressing a giggle we totally heard.
She cleared her throat again, “So, we are dropping you somewhere where you will run into one of the other PCs; her name is Kaily. You will need to travel with her to get to Bozeman Hill in the Equestrian Badlands. That’s where the other PCs are.
“By the way she just came back from the dead, so she may be a bit freaked out, also her friends do not know she’s alive. So you know, expect an odd reunion. Okay Discord, send them over!”
A loud snap echoed off… the nothing. It was such an incredibly distracting impossibility that the second my attention came back to reality everything was black. The desk was gone. The books were gone. There was only blackness.
I twisted around as best I could looking for Risky, but she wasn’t there. There was literally nothing. I literally felt my heart stop, contract, and explode into an impossibly fast rhythm which I swore would rip itself apart.
She was gone! My sister wasn’t there! She was gone! My sister wasn’t there! She was gone! My sister wasn’t there!
I barely felt a sharp pinch in my hands. A little pain was nothing, where was Risky? I needed my sister and she wasn’t there!
I felt every single muscle in my eyes contract as I tried to see through the blackness. Nothing. I screamed. Nothing, no echoes.
Feeling my heart twist in my chest I curled up into a ball, lungs burned as my breath came in short huffing gasps. The pinch came back to my hands again, any my feat. I didn’t care.
I shut my eyes tight, which didn’t help. Sometimes my hearing is a curse. Like now. There was nothing. Nothing aside from the popping and grinding of bones, and a pinching feeling. I’m pretty sure it was my bones, and they sounded like they were moving, but I didn’t care I needed Risky!
“Wake up.” A female voice said from everywhere and nowhere. I didn’t care, it wasn't my sister’s.
“We’re here.” The voice said softly. It mumbled something I didn’t catch then asked, “Why are you shaking? Are you two okay?”
Wooden planks creaked slowly. I thought I heard water splashing against something in the distance but the sound was too faint to be sure.
“Wake up!” The voice insisted. “You’re dreaming.”
Two she had said two! Risky must be here!
My eyes snapped open, directly in front of me was a dusky gray pony-ish… person I guess. She looked like a batpony, only sort of equine and feline in shape. Four legs, hooves, muzzle, fangs, a dark pink mane in a shoulder length spiky unkempt hairdo, a matching tail, dark pink wings, the usual pumpkin eyes, and a small picture on her flank of a songbook with a quill trailing ink in a squiggle.
Not Risky.
I looked around, almost spraining my neck, it bent in a really weird way. Oh shit! Had I somehow dislocated-
“Risky!” I exclaimed as I saw her right beside me, looking back at me.
“Lucky!” She squeed, tackling me to the ground with a tight hug.
Our loving reunified squeal provided an excellent sonar cross section of the small wooden ship we were in. It looked pretty high fantasy, three decks, thirty people of like five species crewing her, filled with a ton of barrels and boxes. A cargo ship. But where was it going?
It didn’t matter, Risky was here now. I nuzzled her neck lovingly as she hugged me. Man her hooves were soft- “Why do I/you have hooves?” we asked together.
The other batpony in the small wooden room stuffed with crates and barrels blinked, her ears drooping sadly. “Aw dammit! You guys woke up like this too? I wanted to ask questions.”
Risky shuffled herself awkwardly, doing her best to try and get off me.
“Oh yeah, standing up.” the other pony giggled. “It took me a while, just don’t think about how you’re doing it. I’m guessing you used to be a biped too? Look, that body knows how to stand, it’s called instincts and they are biological. Let it do the work an-”
Risky frowned and stood up, turning to her, held a hoof to her lips and shushed her. “I know, I hugged my girl just now didn’t I? Just, look… Whisked away to another world, transformed, there are tropes we need to do. It’s tradition.”
“Yeah! You even gave us the Morrowind intro, kinda.” I protested. “This is how you have fun. So, lets see… Risky I think your belly was across my pelvis at like twelve degrees off center to my left.”
“Yeah that sounds right.” Risky giggled flopping back down on me.
The pink maned mare blinked, grinned then laughed. “Huh, well dammit, I did give you guys the Morrowind intro! Wait… I’m a bard… that could have consequences, or mean something.”
I rolled over and grinned, “Wait, are you an adventurer named Kaily?”
She jumped, a really cute little four legged hop that made a cute clopping sound as she hit the floor. “How did you-”
“DM told us.” Risky informed sliding off me and sitting up.
“We’re joining the prevent the magical Reaper invasion using shifty buggies and starships campaign.” I added with a grin.
Kaily’s ears and tail stood up in alarm. “Magical Reaper invasion? Like, the Mass Effect Reapers? Magical three kilometer tall robo-cuttlefish, with lasers?”
“Well, she said that’s what we're supposed to prevent something in that vein of things from happening.” Risky shrugged.
I blushed as she gestured with her hooves. She was adorable! Like, cute/sexy adorable!
She was also naked. So was I. Also Kaily. I then realized that furred quadrupeds probably didn’t do clothing, and that my eyes were just a foot or so above everyone’s sexy bits level.
Risky looked at me in concern, “Are you ok?” She asked.
Deciding to see if our familiar loop trick had worked I focused my thoughts towards my sister and sent, <We are naked, and tall enough where we get to stare at everyone’s junk.>
Risky blinked, blushed, grinned, and giggled. <Sweet!> She sent back.
<I know! Heh heh heh!> I sat up giggling, and looked over at Kaily. <She’s kinda cute. It’s the hair isn’t it?>
<Yeah it is the hair. Also her wings, the nice curve to her membranes. See the little dip just between her wing’s third and second fingers? That’s hot!>
Kaily’s eyes narrowed slightly, “You two are checking me out.”
Our ears drooped instantly, “No!” We protested.
<How do we get caught even when using telepathy?> Risky mentally grumbled, kicking her front left hoof against the deck.
“We were just seeing if the Improved Familiar loop we set up works.” I said trying to change the topic so I could go back to looking at her wings.
Kaily’s wings twitched excitedly, “You guys got to pick your class? How? That’s awesome!”
“Something about available spell power and the ease of bringing us here.” Risky answered. “They wouldn’t let us do Pun-Pun so we did the Familiar Loop munchkining. I mean, seriously, twin wizards. You can’t tell me Hollywood wouldn’t set up the same kinda thing. It’s a trope.”
“You tried to Pun-Pun reality?” Kaily asked sounding incredulous and yet impressed.
“No I did.” I said raising a hoof. “Oh wow… I don't have fingers. Um. This could be a problem.” I frowned as I stared at my hoof. It was adorable as Risky’s, but well, fingers good.
How would I grip anything? Not to mention there are certain things fingers are very fun to put into, things which probably couldn’t fit something the size of my hoof inside them. At least, not without practice or possibly injury.
“Mage hand.” Risky reminded. <Also I remember National Geographic mentioning that equine’s vagina’s are huge. We will figure out what we can do later.>
“Oh right! Thanks dear.” I leaned over and gave her a short kiss.
“Wait!” Kaily exclaimed, “You two are incestuous female twin wizards?”
Our ears drooped, “Well, yeah… You’re not going to go all zealot on us are-”
“Oh hell no!” She grinned at us excitedly. “I’m a lesbian, that would be stupidly hypocritical of me. Besides, it’s not like you two can have kids, so you know, you aren't putting a child at risk.”
She gestured towards the door with her hoof, “What I meant was, we are on a pirate ship. We were picked up off an iceberg a few days ago and are being held prisoner. A plucky bard and a pair of incestuous female twin wizards commandeer a pirate ship and make their way off to a distant land. It would make an awesome fantasy novel… Also we’re being held by pirates, and should do something about that.”
We grinned. “That does sound like a good novel!”
Kaily clapped her hooves together, “You even speaking unison sometimes! We can’t lose!”
I blinked. “What? How do you figure?”
Kaily blushed a deep pink and sat down on her belly. “Er- well you see, I think that tropes might actually be laws of physics now. Because I kinda used to have an awesome cybernetically integrated replicator… but I don’t in this body. So I demanded that the DM’s replace the LA 4 template I lost because, you know, now I’m not properly leveled for the game.”
We nodded. I gestured for her to continue.
“The note I was hoofed said I got the Solar Creature template, and the Vampiric creature template as replacements.” Kaily stopped, her blush deepening.
“But that’s only three levels worth of templates.” I noted.
“Yeah.” Risky agreed. “You asked for another one right?”
“Well, no I angrily demanded it.” She admitted.
“Oh boy…” Risky and I hissed together.
“You annoyed the DM.” I sighed.
“You shouldn’t irritate the DM. You seem like you should know that.” Risky added.
“Yeah… I know. Anyways I got another template. I’m pretty sure it’s house ruled. Upside is I count as either gender for purposes of taking feats or class levels.” She laughed nervously and rain a hoof through her mane in embarrassment. “So, you know, spite fate, wind up getting something you didn’t want.”
“Cursed to swap between genders or hermaphied?” I asked curiously.
Risky sniffed the air, leaning forwards. She looked at me and grinned. “She’s a herm.”
“Hot.” I giggled.
Kaily was quiet for a few moments then facehooved. “You are pervy twins from a place with video games advanced as Morrowind. Of course you’re into herms.”
“Well duh! They make strapons optional.” Risky giggled.
I gave her a smile. “Besides, if you want I could fix that for you. I have polymorph.”
“Yeah, and I have alter self. I could get rid of it for a bit if I wanted too.” Kaily said sitting up slowly. “But I figured my wife might like it so I should try to see if I don’t mind having-”
Kaily stopped talking as she noticed our ears droop, heads hang, and most notably our, “Aww…” at her mentioning the word ‘wife’.
Kaily sighed, then groaned. “Okay. We won't get out of this mess if you two are all sad like that. So, and this isn’t an invitation, but if you must know, we married for tax reasons, and are in an open relationship. Hell, she’s already screwing a bug girl after being here for like two weeks.”
My ears felt a lot more expressive in this body. I could feel them perk back up all happily. “We’re open too!” I teased flirtatiously, mostly just to bug her.
Kaily facehooved again. “Oh my god you guys are just… wow!”
Risky rolled her eyes, “Kaily, you are like, stupid hot, and are a kinky gender. Of course we’re happy to know you’re free.”
I nodded and pointed to her wings, “Yeah! I mean seriously girl those are perfect tens!”
Kaily’s mouth formed a little ‘o’ shape of confusion. “My wings are a sexual feature?”
We nodded. “Yeah!”
“See how your membranes curve inwards a bit between the fingers?” I asked pointing to the sexy feature in question.
“That’s like when a unicorn has a thick horn, or a pegasus has those extra feathers on the outside of her wings.” Risky finished. “You weren't born a thestral were you?”
Kaily blushed deeply and shook her head. “N-no.”
“Also your mane and tail are pink. That’s super rare for bat ponies.” I added.
“So you’re really hot. So yeah, we’re pervs but well-” Risky started.
“-in this case anyone who saw you would be sad if you were taken.” I finished.
Kaily’s blush deepened even more. It was adorable! Although, <Maybe we’re being a bit mean to her? I mean, well, we don't normally tell girls->
<But she’s hot!> Risky interrupted.
<Do you want to beat her off? Er-Drive her off.> I mentally rebuked and Freudian slipped.
“Sorry, we’ll try not to bring it up much. Just well, you’re hot. You’re going to need to deal with that.” Risky apologized for us.
Kaily nodded and cleared her throat. “Er- um, anyways. So, we should come up with a plan to capture the ship. We don’t have weapons, but if I use bardic music to draw any crewmen on this deck to us I imagine you two could hit them with missile storm or something and we would probably get a cutlass or somth-”
I held up a hoof to quiet her. “That’s actually a setting specific spell. Fire ball or chain lightning are the best bets we have to kill mass groups at once. Both would probably light the ship on fire.”
“Besides, we are not that kind of wizard.” Risky said shaking her head.
“Yeah, artillery mage is a waste of potential. We don’t do damage dealing spells.” I added.
Grinning at the opportunity to actually experience some spellcasting I asked. “So, bat-bard, how do I shot magic?”
“You sort of focus on what you want and it works. At least that’s what I’ve discovered so far.” Kaily answered looking at us curiously, “What are you thinking of-”
<Same thing we did in Shining’s campaign last summer?> Risky asked me.
<Yuhhuh!> I turned my head up and fired off a series of echolocating squeaks.
“Ow…” Kaily winced, “Hold on, we can echolocate?”
“Yuhhuh!” I giggled as I sonared the pony on board with the fanciest hat one deck above us in a big fancy cabin. That had to be the captain.
I reached out and placed my left hoof on Kaily’s shoulder. Hoping she was right about just thinking the spell I concentrated on the spell Dimension Door. Remembering it needed a verbal component at the last minute I intend, “Xyzzy!”
With a sharp lurching yanking feeling in my belly and a loud pop we appeared in the cabin above us.
The richly decorated cabin definitely looked like a Captain’s cabin, and the tall brown pegasus stallion behind a massive mahogany desk in a big floppy feathered tricorn and blood red coat certainly looked like a pirate captain.
Risky flared her wings, stabbed her hoof towards the Captain and intoned, “Chill buddy!”
With a loud snapping crackling of ice dropping into warm liquid a thick sheet of ice engulfed the Captain from head to hoof, trapping him in a solid prison of ice.
I nodded to the door that led out to the upper deck, “Ms. Bard, would you shout that door off it’s hinges please?”
Kaily nodded, galloped over to the door, concentrated for a second, then unleashed a deafening screech. The spell slammed into the door, splintering the wood and ripping the hinges from the frame as it crashed into the deck with an explosive thud.
Risky and I bolted for the door, skidded to a stop right outside it as what we assumed was the full crew rain into view drawing weapons or readying spells. <I got left!> I informed.
Risky nodded and at the same time the two of us cast Mass Reduce Person. A bright green flash of light washed over the crew, instantly all but six of the crew began to shrink as if someone selected them in photoshop and scaled them down. The six who were unaffected, noticing their companions were suddenly the size of their hoof skidded to a stop.
“H-how can you use magic?” One of the non-microed unicorns squeaked. “You’re not unicorns!”
“It’s magic-” I started.
“We don’t have to explain anything.” Risky finished. She looked around, nodded, and gestured to the side of the ship. “This thing’s ours now so either jump off or get ready to be hit with Dominate Person.”
I giggled and shook my head, “Nah, they can jump or we teleport them into the brig where we were.”
“Why?” Risky asked with a confused expression.
“Because I can prepare a single spell in a minute, so in two minutes when I have my fifth level spells recharged I am going to animate object and permanency the ship using some of the loot in the hold to provide the material cost of the permanency spell. Go go magic automated boat!”
I held out my left hoof. Risky grinned and bumped it.
“We giving this thing a fly speed?” Risky asked.
“Yuhhuh!” I confirmed with a grin. I squinted, focused on casting wall of wind
Kaily trotted forwards, looked over the deck, nodded to herself with a smile. “Yep. Tropes are a thing here.”
“We’re keeping your captain. Your friends should be full sized in a few hours. You have a minute to get in a rowboat and get gone.” Risky informed the six remaining pirates.
It took a good five minutes to get my spells ready. During those minutes Risky and Kaily had to magic missile and sonic blast some sense into the completely outclassed pirates. I would have helped but regaining my spells took more mental power then I thought it would. I definitely wouldn’t be able to do this in combat if the enemy was more than say, third level.
“Now shove off!” Risky called as the splash of the ship’s longboat hitting the water reached my ears.
I stood up, popped my neck, closed my eyes and focused on the spell. In theory, the ship counted as an object which could be animated, albeit one in the largest size category. The thing was, how would that work? Did I just will the desired effects? How did I apply permanency?
“Hey, Kaily!” I called, “Can we make knowledge checks?”
“Yeah, just say you are and someone passes you a note.” Kaily announced.
“Cool! I make a knowledge arcana check to determine how to animate the ship and apply permanency!” I called.
No paper materialized in front of me. Instead, a faint whisper drifted through the air, relaying all the instructions to me in a odd buzzing, high pitched voice. Fortunately I could understand the voice with a little effort.
The process was pretty simple actually. I simply called upon the spell and focused my intentions into a single goal. The clearer my imagination, the better the spell would turn out.
I closed my eyes, focused, pictured the ship working on it’s own with the three of us commanding it vocally or via thought while holding the wheel. As I felt the magic start to flow from me and take root in the ship, I smiled. It was time to use my crafting skill.
“I make a craft construct check to imbue the ship with special properties.” I announced.
I swear I heard the sound of dice rolling. A moment later I felt very distinctly in my mind a system by which I could do just such a thing with my spell. It was awesome! Wizard was definitely the best choice.
I shaped and guided my spell through every timber of the ship, and as I did so I learned a few things. Like all ships inexplicably are, she was a she. She was a gallon, old, worn, and in need of lots of minor repairs. She had three decks, had a hundred and thirty feet of length to her name, twenty six cannons, and was originally a warship for someplace called the Griffon Kingdom.
“Griffons huh?” I asked the ship as I kept pushing my spell through her decks. “Well in a bit you’ll be able to fly like your original owners.”
I felt she liked that. I would have been concerned, except well, animated objects do get an intelligence score. Not much of one though, retarded puppy levels of intelligence. Enough to feel grateful as my spell imbued her with flight.
“Oh god! We have to change the name.” Kaily moaned.
“Why what is it?” I asked doing my best to finish up the spell.
“According to the plaque on the back this is the ‘Dirty Strumpet’.” She moaned.
Risky groaned. “Name needs changed!”
“Is this your original name?” I asked as I felt my spell near completion.
I listened, nodded, shook the stiffness out of my hind legs, crossed the deck to the rear, and cast the spell Minor Creation to alter the nameplate back to the ship’s original name. “There! Problem solved!”
“What did you do?” Risky asked curiously.
“Restored her original name.” I answered.
“What was it?” Kaily asked curiously.
“The Enterprise!” I exclaimed with a huge grin.
Kaily snickered, giggled, then fell to the deck laughing. For the first time in my life, I actually saw somepony rotflol. I just wish I had a clue why.
Risky giggled and trotted up to the wheel, “You made it so we control it with this right?”
“Yep! Voice commands or thought while touching the wheel.”
“Awesome! Enterprise, ascend to three hundred meters and set a course south at full impulse!” Risky ordered as dramatically as she could manage.
“Engage!” I added.
The Enterprise creaked groaned, and moaned as it slowly lifted itself up out of the water. The ship slowly turned, moving as if it were still in the water despite it slowly climbing through the air as she pulled a u turn.
“Today is a good day!” I exclaimed with a grin I was sure was going to become permanent.
“I am so glad you two are not using one of the normal wizard builds!” Kaily said between belly laughs, her laughing fit slowly wearing down.
“Yeah, we’ve played this game way too much for that sorta thing.” Risky quipped.
“Should we sing it?” I asked turning to Risky. “I mean it is tradition when we do wizards.”
Kaily finally managed to stop laughing and looked up. “Sing what?” She asked her ears perking.
Risky and I walked over to the back of the ship and looked at the longboat full of pirates as it vanished into the distance. <We have ghost sound! We could add in the music!> Risky sent to me with a mental giggle.
I gave her a grin, and a nod. She closed her eyes and the sound of a few flutes, a trumpet, and drums began to play an upbeat tune.
“It's tough to be a God.” I started in my best singing voice.
“Tread where mortals have not trod!” Risky pitched in with the next line.
“But if you get the DM's nod,” I continued.
“Count your blessings, keep them sweet, that's our advice!” Risky intoned as she waved to the longboat just before it vanished.
We began to sing together, a little out of sync and off key. “Be a symbol of perfection, Be a legend, be occult. // Don a supernatural habit, we'd be crazy not to grab it! // So sign up two new Gods for paradise!”
The sorta-kinda paraphrased song done, Risky and I shared a hoof bump, gave Kaily a wink and grin, then strutted towards the cargo hold.