(22) An Insight Check
Story's POV
Game Room
7:47 PM
With the fights finished and the girls winding down, I decided to do the same and sink back into my seat. For most of the fight I was standing, more or less method acting for the heavier hits to get the impact across. I hoped that my goofy jumping and swinging around imaginary weapons would at least crack some smiles in the group.
At the same time, Pinkie was right there with me doing the same, if not five times better. She would cheer when the others pulled off something cool or 'ooh' and 'ahh' at something interesting. Sadly, the strong tension remained.
Well duh there's tensity, I tried telling myself. They're spread out against three fights I made specifically to be hard. But, why are they this tense?
The worst among them was Sunset Shimmer. From the start of the fight, she hardly looked up from the miniatures on the table. And whenever she did it was to look at me when I described something dire. Or rather...it was like she looked through me. Only when the commoners were all safe, Sunset leaned over the map to focus like her life depended on it.
Then their was Fluttershy. When we were kids she would get a little tunnel-visioned on games but never like this. Her focus was almost unnerving. But it was still Fluttershy. I mean, she flinched whenever I roared too loud or pretended to wind up a heavy stick but she would roll her dice, count the number, and try fighting her nerves.
The others were a lot less stressed out but the difference was there. Whenever they weren't distracted by something light-hearted, their general outlook was always serious. Pinkie and Rarity, for different reasons, kept up smiles or interest with the game, although, even they had these brief pauses.
I allowed myself to sip some cool cider in order to hide my expression. We've been playing about two hours. The girls said they wanted to play longer than the clubs but I'm not so sure that's healthy.
I put my drink on its coaster and leaned forward. "Alright, girls? I think now's a good a chance as any to ask if we want a break. What do you all think?"
The girls stopped for a second, looking at me before they all turned simultaneously at Sunset.
"What do you think?" Twilight tried to whisper. Sunset gave her a look and then matched the gaze of Applejack who seemed expectant. After this silent exchange, Sunset faltered and accepted...whatever was going on.
"I think that sounds like a great idea," Sunset said as she looked back to me. "We actually had something we wanted to do."
"Alright, perfect," I said, sitting back. "There's no rush so you girls can take as much time as you need."
Twilight reached down and picked up her dog. "Actually, we wanted to talk to you about something. Could you come outside?"
I opened my mouth and stopped for a second. "Outside? Uh, yeah, sure. Why, what's going on?"
She stood up, carrying her dog as the other girls started to set aside their things to go outside themselves. "It's a lot easier if we just showed you. Plus, you'll want to be standing."
I blinked a few times, reviewing that last sentence. "I'm sorry, did you say I'll want to stand?"
"That's been our experience," Twi assured me. "Come on Spike. Let's get ready."
Spike let out a small yip as they walked away. Well, I say 'yip' but it sounded more like a word, maybe?
As everyone else prepared to make their way out, I started getting more confused. "C-Can I at least know what's going on?"
"We're real sorry Story," Applejack told me as Rarity and Rainbow brushed past the curtain after Twilight. "It's been a long time comin' and we really shoulda told ya 'bout all this sooner."
I gave her a stiff stare as she took a breath and started out the doorway. "Okay, no, can someone please not play the pronoun game for five seconds and just tell me? Like, is there a problem or is this some sorta surprise? Because if it's another welcoming gift, I don't think I can keep accepting these."
"It's not a welcoming gift," Pinkie leveled with me. "It's more like a welcoming secret! Well, it might not be the most welcoming of secrets, but you are welcome to come out and hear the secret. So I guess in a way it's a welcoming secret but not welcoming as in 'Hey, nice to meet you! We want to be best friends and make you feel invited,' kind of welcome. It's more like the kind of 'If you're not too sure whether or not you wanna learn about this secret because we weren't supposed to tell you or any of the other new kids who were coming into Canterlot High about it because if we did it might end up as a huge-mungo-gigan-big-hunka burnin' secret that might have ended up on the news, internet, radio, blog, talk show host, made into movie—" She stopped to take in a deep breath and then, without missing a beat, "—or instead be kept secret by the government who would take us all to secret laboratories to do who-knows-what-kinda-whatsits for so many years that we forget the inviting rays of the sun and instead only know deep, dark neglect of which we will never recover from, but we still need to tell you, otherwise, the magic might blow up in our faces again or turn you into some sort of demon bent on destroying everything we ever loved or make you want to go out on a thirst for revenge against a god-tutor-alicorn-princess pony that rules a kingdom found in another dimension,' kind of welcoming!"
Pinkie wiped the sweat from her brow, admiring the completely lost looks on our faces as she nodded along to herself. "Boy, that almost took me two breaths!" She then set her eyes on me and watched with this look as though expecting some sort of response.
Not wanting to disappoint, I moved up my hand slower than any sloth or turtle could imagine and held up a single thumb with a blank stare. "Uh...Thanks?"
"You're welcome! See ya outside," she cheered before turning and skipping out the door, ignoring the curtain that rubbed against her face as she drove through it.
"..." I shook my head, refusing untangle whatever that was. "Okay, so there's a secret. I think. Also, Pinkie might need to talk out a few things." I turned to the last four in the room; Gilda, Mac, Sunset, and Fluttershy. "Can I get any other hints?"
"Not, really, no," Sunset told me carefully. "We've done this a couple times before and..." she bit the inside of her cheek. "Typically, it gets easier when we just prove what we're trying to say. Otherwise, they never believe us."
I let out a lone chuckle. "Look, I'm sure whatever it is, I'm not just gonna write it off like it's noth—"
"No, you will," Gilda cut me off. "It's gonna sound ultra weird, you won't believe 'em, and you'll probably try explaining it away until you try walking off."
The two of us sat there as Big Mac took the chance to go outside, leaving it down to the three girls and me. That tells me nothing Gilda. Well, nothing other than— "that's what you did, isn't it?"
She nodded firmly. "Minus the walking off part, yeah. But that's only because I got sucked into it. Literally."
"Literally?"
"Like I said," Sunset called. "It would be easier if we show you."
I went back and forth between the two of them a few times until eventually turning to Fluttershy who gave me this guilty look.
"Can you trust us?" she asked.
I took in a small breath and, after a few seconds, fought off the tension building in my stomach. "Yeah. Alright, yeah, I'll trust you guys. If anything just to figure out what you're talking about."
I pulled myself out of my chair and moved around the table while Gilda drew back the curtain for the three of us. Time to figure out whatever this is, I guess.
R⎅va⍙☍y⎍a's POV
⍀⌖tsi☌e Ph⎅n☌a⍜⌰n
"Ah see da inn," Glemerr shouted, faster than me or Eglath even with the extra weight.
"Good," Eglath replied from the back of our trio. "You two go on ahead! I'll—" "WARRGH!"
Glemerr was taken up off her feet, going airborne for a second as her arms, and the bandits held by them, refused to move any further. Glemerr's own momentum made her twist horizontally several feet in the air before falling, loosing her grip on the bandits and slamming back-first into the ground.
"Glemerr," I screamed, stopped short of her and kneeling down. "Y'awrite?! What 'appened?!"
"Urgh. Gl-Glem don'. Uh..." She stopped talking, her eyes growing three times their size as she stared up at the two bandits floating more than five feet off the ground; frozen in time. Their expressions were permanently fixed in pain and frustration.
I looked behind us. Eglath the goliath was also paused in a runner's pose with one foot halfway on the ground and a bandit slung over one shoulder with his glowing axe over the other.
Then I noticed something wafting at the edge of my vision. The haze we had all seen come and go whenever the girls took control of us faded to the very edges of my sight. It was thin but present enough to notice. Except, for the time being, I was in control of myself.
"Glemerr." I looked back at her. "Is tha' you in there? Ya controlled by yer Player err not?"
"Huh? 'Course it's Glemerr. Only Glemerr's Glem..." She sat up abruptly, trying to look to her sides and almost spinning in place in the process. "Woah. Dat fog's kinda. Kinda smaller, Ah dink?"
"You see it too," I realized. "Yeah, we're back. Fer the momen'. Don' seem like Eglath err the bandits are awake though. Guess gravity don't bother 'em neither."
"Yeah. Nearly took mah arms off." Glemerr took care to crawl out from under the floating bandits before standing up. Then she tried tugging and pushing at them to no avail. Even when she put all her weight on them, going as far as to hang from one like a pull up bar, they never budged.
I gave her a soft look. "Glem, don' pester 'em like tha'. The poor folk ain't even..." I grimaced. Were they technically alive when they were like this? That's a creepy thought. All I could hope was that they couldn't feel the pain I dealt to them.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
We covered our ears as the soundwave blasted past us. Unlike earlier, it was very close and rattled our eardrums. I can only imagine how the townsfolk reacted to the last one. In fact, given the small amount of townsfolk outside their houses, I think my theory was proven.
When that sound stopped shaking our cores, Glemerr and I shared a look before quickly taking off for the inn. Given my stubby legs, open wounds, and heavy armor, it was no surprise Glemerr took a far lead.
"RICVEN!" Glemerr yelled, covering twice the distance I had. "WHERE ARE YOU?! GLEMERR'LL HELP!"
As Glemerr turned the corner on the inn, the front doors facing away from where we arrived from, I heard a shout. "Woah, woah, woah! Cool yer heels missie," Ricven ordered loudly. "It's fine, we're alright! I'm jus' ringin' a dinner bell ta gather us up."
After a few more seconds, I made the turn and saw Ricven standing there with a Redbrand standing behind him all meek and guilty. He was also frozen in place.
"Oh, Lady Rava," Ricven said when he spotted me. Then he chuckled. "You're back too. Ya can't begin ta imagine my elation seein' another pretty face."
I smirked the compliment aside and caught my breath. "Yeah, well, I'da been back long till the haze wore off it weren't fer me own welcomin' committee. Ah hope they didn't 'cause ya trouble on yer end."
"Not to him, no," Stostine shouted from inside the inn's shattered window. There was a dead body lying outside of it as though he had fallen out. He was also wet for some reason which made me slink away.
"Miss Vareén's inside too," Ricven informed us. "Would ya care ta come in? Drink's on me."
With little reason to decline, Glemerr and I followed the gnome indoors and right away saw the rest of the carnage. Furniture strewn about, bloodstains on the floor, Stostine in critical condition, dead bodies; the same setup we concluded with the goblins. Except this time it was a taproom with plenty of alcohol to drink our troubles away.
"Rava, are you alright?" Stostine asked. "How did you fare?"
"Look who's askin'," I countered. "Ah ain't tryin' ta be rude lass, but ya look a wreck."
"I feel like a wreck," Stostine confirmed.
"Here, drink this," Ricven advised, placing the second healing potion on the table as he turned to ransack the bar.
"That's our last one," Vareén pointed out. "You already had me feed her the other one, remember?"
"Yeah, but you remember the RockVine ale? No matter how much we drank, it never ran out." Ricven smiled. "Same with our food too. I'd say now's a good a' time as any ta test somethin' stronger, don'tcha think?"
Stostine eyed the vial and found herself agreeing. "Anyone object?" When no one said otherwise, she used a Mage Hand to bring the vial closer to her and used its thumb to pop off the cork. Then, with no hesitation, she began to chug.
We all then watched curiously as with every gulp of potion, the red liquid replenished itself from within the glass. Not only that, but Stostine found the strength to reach down and carefully pull the crossbow bolt out of her side. She cringed but after a few more gulps of potion it hardly mattered.
After what had to be five vials worth of healing potion used up with no volume lost, Stostine placed the glass back in her Mage Hand and rolled her shoulders. She looked as though she had never known pain a day in her life.
Next, the Mage Hand bounded over to me, floating a couple feet from my face for me to drink for my own wounds.
"I'll take that afterwards," Vareén told us. "That one Red Dead got lucky."
"Or you got sloppy, Miss Vareén," Ricven teased.
"Stop calling me Miss," Vareén retorted.
"Well, I can't call ya Lady quite yet."
"Why no—" she cleared her throat. "I-I mean, don't call me anything."
"Real convincin'," he lulled out as he reached under the bar and pulled out a few mugs. "Any requests or jus' somethin' strong?"
"I will stick to tea," Stostine told him. "Now that I can breathe comfortably, I do not need to go blind this time."
"Smart call," I told her as I finished my endless potion and let the hand pass it to Vareén. The potion tasted like a spoonful of cinnamon. Makes sense considering how strong the scent was. "So is anyone gonna make a guess at what the haze is doin' this time?"
"I wanted to wait until at least Thorn got back," Stostine told us.
"I could Thunderwave again," Ricven offered. "Fer some reason, magic's jus' like that potion. Long as ya got some, ya can't run out. Matter a' fact, I think I could play a whole song in nothin' but Thunderwaves."
"Some of us like ours ears," Vareén said once her cuts were reversed. Then she took up the cork and sealed the potion. "And Thorn Wielder might not be coming. No telling what happened to her."
"You couldn't hear it either?" I frowned.
"'Ear what?" Glemerr asked, looking around the table. "Dem Thunderwaves? We all 'eard 'em."
"She means Thorn Wielder's fight," Vareén told her. When Glemerr gave the archer a weird look, her frown deepened. "So you didn't catch any of it. For the rest of us, we heard our Players gearing up for our battles. Something about taking initiative? Thorn Wielder's Player was among them."
"Once the fightin' was underway," I continued. "All Ah could 'ear was the Dash Lass playin' it smart. All the other Player's went silent for me."
"We heard the three of our Players," Ricven said. "Matter a' fact, we heard Stostine's Player mumblin' under her breath all nervous-like 'til the people were safely tucked away."
"Oh yeah." Vareén stood up and power walked to the room that Sildar was staying in and opened the door. "Sildar's safe. Looks like he was talking to the woman before they got paused. Probably calming her down."
Stostine eased back "Well, if it seems that the five of us are the only ones not indisposed, I suppose we should start while we have time. To begin with, can everyone still see the haze?"
"Oh yeah," I hummed, tracing the edge of my vision where it still lingered. "It's like it's hidin' from me. Ah almost can't see it unless Ah look."
"So it's the same with all of us?" Vareén sat back in her chair. "And none of us can hear the Master or our Players, right?"
"Nope," Glemerr shook her head. "Pinkie's da kinda girl you can hear all da time."
"And how you're still sane is beyond me," Ricven tossed over his shoulder as he got the tankards set up for us.
"Interesting." Stostine sat back, putting a knuckle beneath her chin. "Then this is similar to phase zero."
"Phase zero?" I rose an eyebrow.
The human girl nodded. "I had the idea of numbering the haze's different phases since we keep finding different ones. Phase zero is when there is no fog and our Players are not playing their game."
"Makes sense." Vareén shrugged. "Phase zero for zero haze."
"So far, the way that the haze is behaving right now is the same as phase zero. Everything else is frozen and we can move and act freely. Except, there is no control by our Players. Although now the haze is present for some reason."
Ricven started heading back over to our table with two tankards; one for me and another for Glemerr. It was a sort of strong ale that we took happily. "Would that make this some sorta phase one then?"
"Sure." Stostine nodded. "That would make the other phases go up by one number. As of right now, that gives us phases zero through three."
"Oh, oh!" Glemerr set her drink down before she could start chugging. "Does dat mean the night we spent in the caves an' last night in our rooms was phase two?"
"And the time we spent riding to Phandalin yesterday," Vareén reminded us. "Actually, I had a smaller moment between my training with Glemerr and finding the townmaster. And another one between scaring him off and the Riftbrands barging in."
"Same 'ere," I tossed in after enjoying my first swig of ale. It wasn't RockVine but it worked. "Aside from one Ceremony, all the others Ah got to do on me own. Some sort a' invisible force wouldn't let me leave until Ah finished though."
"Hey, da same 'appened wit' Thorn," Glemerr chirped. "Last night, we could all walk around the inn but Thorn couldn't leave her room. 'Ow's come?"
"Partial control," Stostine announced. "All of those instances have something in common; we have partial control over what we can do or where we can go. For instance, back on the cart ride here I had tried to step off of the cart. Only, my legs disobeyed me. I could talk and do whatever I pleased, so long as I did not leave the cart."
"Platick mentioned something like that." Ricven returned with the rest of the drinks. Two smaller tankards for himself and Vareén and a glass full of honey tea for Stostine. "Last night before we bunked down, he talked about tryin' ta stop walkin' when the haze let up. His body wouldn't let him."
"I refer to that as phase two." Stostine took a moment to sip her tea. "Thank you Ricven."
"My absolute pleasure." He did a mock bow before hopping into his own chair.
"In all those moments, we had partial control and the haze was there at a lesser extent. As long as we play along with the game, everything not directly narrated is left in our control."
"Then I'm guessing phase three is when our Players have full control of us?" Vareén frowned.
"Indeed."
"And those are the only phases?" Ricven questioned.
"So far, yes," she confirmed. "Phase two only came up either when the Master put focus on one of us specifically or when he skipped over a mundane part of the day. Such as sleep or travel."
I thought about it for a moment. "That explains why it never came up wit' the goblins. The entire time was us takin' a fight to 'em."
"Or doin' tasks so specific, we wouldn't notice otherwise. Either way." Ricven paused to take a drink. "I say we take the time ta enjoy ourselves. The Master's last words were offerin' them Players a break, yeah? They'll only be gone fer so long. What's say we enjoy the time off, eh?"
"Sure." Vareén brought the tankard up to her face. "Play us a song."
"Wait, ya mean it?" Ricven's eyes filled with joy. "Why, say no more Miss Var...You snake!" At once, all that joy curdled to fury. "You know good 'n' well them bandits tarnished my violin!"
"Oh. Right." Vareén took a long sip, savoring the small, trembling ball of hate beside her. "...Whoops."
Glemerr held Ricven back from lunging at the hooded elf while Stostine and I laughed all the while. For however long this moment was going to last, we were going to use it to unwind for a change.
Meanwhile
3rd Person POV
Sweet Apple Acres
The curtain separating the game room from the main part of the barn was pulled open by Gilda who let Story, Sunset and Fluttershy step out to catch a blast of stale hot air. And as Gilda stepped through last, Story observed the scene ahead of him.
All the other girls were all spaced out ahead of him in this half-circle with Twilight standing directly opposite of the doorway as she knelt beside her dog. Story couldn't hear them but the two were going over the last few times they had done the same thing; namely for Twilight's parents. Shining too, but he was more accepting of it given what he knew about the Friendship Games and Cadence's inputs.
"Huh," Story hummed, glancing over everyone as all eyes fell to them. Then, unable to stop himself, he let out a stray chuckle. "You're not all about to mug me or anything, are you?"
"Nothing of the sort," Rarity assured him. "We just want to give you some space is all. Twilight?"
The two girls nodded to each other as Twilight stood back up, watching Spike step forward. "So, Story? This is my pet dog Spike. Go ahead and say hello."
Story glanced down at the tiny purple hound with a scrunched up face. "O-Okay. Um." He took a moment to judge each of the girls' expressions for some clue about what this was before awkwardly crouching down to be more at level with Spike.
"Hey there Spike," he muttered half-heartedly. "W-Why am I talking to you? Exactly?"
"To help ease you into things," Spike answered honestly.
"Ease me in. To..." Story's brain froze as fast as his mouth. "..." He leaned away, a low hiss of breath barely audible while his eyes, no doubt predictably, growing wider.
"Uhhhhhhhhh." The sound was monotone and constant for about five seconds. Then it cracked into a few nervous giggles. "I-I-hehe. Um. Uh, g-girls? What is this?"
"This has a name, ya know," Spike said, rolling his eyes but enjoying the same response he gotten plenty of times. It was almost like his own personal prank by now.
"Oh-Okay, hehehehehe." Story quickly stood up, backing away as Gilda and Flutters lined up against the game room's entrance. "Alright! Heh. You know what? This? This was good! You all almost had me going for a second."
"No. Story," Sunset tried to start, stepping into the circle.
"Nah, no-no-no-no-no-no!" He said quickly. "Now I get why you were anxious the last few minutes! Come on, admit it. How long were you guys planning this hazing thing?"
"Not a hazing thing, Spinner," Gilda leveled with him. "It's real."
Story gave his friend's words some pause, the questions in his head cracking only for those cracks to get filled in a second later. "You!" He gave a hearty laugh. "This is revenge, isn't it?! For the Griffon Tamer story!"
Gilda opened her mouth to reply but thought better of it, crossing her arms and shaking her head.
"It makes so much sense now," Story announced, certain he had it all figured out. "All the secrets you were keeping, the text chains, the anxious looks getting tossing back and forth. You were all trying to pull this together, weren't you?! That's why you wanted to meet at the barn!"
"Wow," Spike spoke up. "You're taking this as well as Mom did! And she wanted to start taking me to dog shows."
Twilight pinched the bridge of her nose. "It took the whole family to talk her out of that."
But Story just chuckled some more. "Alright, whichever one of you is doing that ventriloquism thing, you have my respect. But, I mean, come on. Obviously his collar's got a speaker on it or something."
Fluttershy took the chance to come forward next. She walked around Story, feeling more guilty under his watch, and knelt down to gently remove Spike's collar before passing it to him. "Story? I know that it may seem a little farfetched, but, there is no speaker. It really is Spike."
Story's joy died a bit when he was confronted with Fluttershy's sad frown. But even when he turned Spike's collar in his hands to find nothing out of place, he wasn't buying it. "Fluttershy, I'll give it to you; this was pretty good. And, honestly, thank you for this. I-I needed a good laugh. Not to mention all the game's you girls kept coming to," he said, pulling his monologue back to everyone. "It really did help me fit into the school. I was having a hard time before. Thank you. All of you."
"She's telling the truth," Spike kept going, the joke slowly getting harder to enjoy. "I really am talking to you. Look, I don't have any metal speaking bits on me!" He spun in a circle as though to prove it, earning a somewhat more strained grin from Story.
Then Spike sat down in front of Story, using his paws as a human would use their hands for emphasis. "Go ahead and tell me to do a trick. Any trick. I can do it!"
"Uh-hehe. Tr-Tricks?" Story rolled his jaw. "Uh—y-you know what? Yeah! Yeah, let's see how that plays out." The teen shrugged, doing one look at the girls who weren't talking. "Um. Lie down?"
Spike blew a raspberry and obeyed, giving him a smug look. "Come on, that the best you got?"
Story blinked. "N-No! Erm, roll over."
Spike did so, going the extra mile to roll his eyes twice as fast. Then he rolled back so he was stationed in front of Story again.
"Stand up." Spike did. "Head up? Head down. Um. J-ump. Like, I mean, try to stay on two legs."
"Oh, alright, getting tough now?" Spike got ready and jumped on his hind legs, trying his best to balance himself and staying up for a good couple seconds until he landed back down. "Keep going, I can do this all day. Night? Wait, what time is it?"
"..." Story suddenly clapped his hands and shook out his fingers before shoving his hands deep into his pockets. "Okay. Round two. How's about no more hand gestures?"
"I'll do you one better. I won't even look." Spike countered, closing his eyes tightly and making Story stutter for a second.
"...Alright," he accepted weakly. "Cov. Cover your eyes? Cover one eye? Cover your mouth? Cover, um, no. Fl-Flip one of yo. You-Your ears? Um. Okay. Well...Scratch at the. The ground? Now...Now-Now. You. Go ahe-head and...spin in place? Okay, good. Um...sit down again? Tap the ground? Three times. Five times. Two. Three." His voice cracked as his face started falling.
"Well, how's...how's about five times three? What's five times three equal?"
Spike paused, opening his eyes for a second as his dog brain did its best to process mental math. "Eigh-no...Two, three...Fives—fif-fifteen!" He called out, feeling proud of himself. "Ha! Twilight taught me what numbers were!" He said, pointing at Story with a paw.
Story, in turn, backed up from the pointing dog, as his heart skipped a few beats in a cold sweat. "...Whi..." His voice died for a moment. "Wh-Whi-Whistle? Whistle. Or, wait. Can dogs whistle?"
Spike's eyes darted around for a second as he tried his best to remember what that word was. "Oh. You mean like what everyone does when I'm not listening. Okay! Um. Haven't tried that one before. I think humans do...this?"
Spike jammed his paw against his tongue, and tried to mimic the same sound he had heard Twilight and tons of other people make in the past. Except, it didn't sound at all like a whistle. Instead, it sounded like three separate fart noises; one from his lips and the other two from his two jowls.
Whatever was going through Story's head about a puppet dog or a hidden speaker had now died and been buried while Spike's triple fart noises playing the poor theory out at its funeral. What's more, Story had become more and more fragile as the scene went on.
"Spike, you can stop now," Twilight informed her one-dog band as she ignored Pinkie's giggling fit.
"Story." Sunset stepped forward again and watching as he spun around to give her a very confused look. "I know that that, might be a little hard to wrap your head around. But that's not the only thing. Tell me; have you heard the rumors about our school?"
"The...The rumors?" Story blinked. "Do you mean the...T-The ones about weird stuff that was going on before the school event between you guys and Crystal Prep?"
She nodded. "Yes. How much of it have you heard?"
Story searched his brain for a second. "Not much, admittedly. Just that there's some kind of special effects crew. They do some, uh, flying trapeze acts and light shows? Then there was some sort of crowd-sized green smoke machine at a performance and then a freak accident with a statue?"
Sunset nodded. "Well, that's not the truth. You see, there's no crew for that; all of those times it's been the seven of us. We are the ones either responsible for it or helping to stop it."
"To stop it?" Story frowned. "Wh-Why, are the special effects broken or something?"
Applejack sighed. "Ah'll get mah bass." She turned around.
"Bass?" Story glanced over his shoulder for a second and then back to Sunset. "Does she mean music bass? What does that have to do with—"
"We have magic," Rainbow cut in, letting the awkward stares and disapproving looks pass over her. "It's not special effects. That green fog wasn't from a machine; it was magic. The statue blowing up wasn't a firework, or whatever; it was magic. We're not a special effects team, we are just...magic. We're magic, okay? We're magic, Spike's magic, Gilda's magic, we're all magic!"
"Wait, I'm magic?" Gilda suddenly perked up. "Like, permanently? What-What's that mean, exactly? Did I get powers or something?"
"No, calm down Gilda, you're not magic," Sunset tried to assure her.
"...Can I be though?"
"Time out. Stop," Story told them, tapping his hands together. "How...How's any of that supposed to make sense? Look, I get that whatever is going on with your dog is...weird, but..."
"It is hard to explain," Rarity tried to come at this more delicately. "And we understand that it may be hard for you when you haven't seen what we have. However, you have to believe us, we aren't doing this to pull a prank or anything of that nature."
"She's right," Twilight went on as Spike walked over to sit at her feet. "At first, everyone at Canterlot and Crystal Prep was told that it would be better to keep all of this a secret. While that's hard to do, the concept of magic is so hard to accept that even stray rumors wouldn't expose everything. I mean, you just said you've heard the rumors, right? Would you really believe that it's all magic on your own?"
"..." Story took in a breath, shaking his head. "I, um...I'm gonna honest; no. No, and I still don't." He stared back at all of them. "This sounds crazy. You sound crazy! Do-Do you all not hear yourselves right now? You sound like a cult!"
"Hey, that's what I said," Gilda tossed in. "Magic's for cults and babies. Juries still out if this is a cult or not."
"We're not a cult, Gilda," Rainbow reminded her.
"Ah'm back," Applejack called as she walked back inside the barn with her bass strap on and her fingers on the strings. "Ah set it up against the front door just in case Story needed some more proof."
"Proo— no, girls." Story slumped defeatedly. "I don't get why you're doing all of this, but you gotta know how crazy this is. I know I can't explain..." He stared down at the dog that he didn't bother trying to deny. "...him, but you can't really think I'm about to believe all this magic crap, right?"
"What about Dungeons and Dragons?" Fluttershy tried reasoning. "You love that game, don't you? Why don't you want to believe in it? Why don't you want to see it in person?"
"For the same reason people enjoy war movies," Story rebutted. "Just because people get a thrill from watching them doesn't mean they want to be in a war. Magic isn't real, alright?! Why am I explaining that to you?! It'd be cool if it was, really! And I would love if it was, but it's not. And playing a game is one thing but..."
Applejack decided to cut the soap box out from under him and start strumming, her fingers sliding along the nickel-plated strings as a fast-paced rhythm tried to cut against the tension in the room as everyone stopped talking to let Applejack play out her melody.
Story held off on trying to cut in, watching as the others listened out of respect and anticipation. Even Gilda, who had no idea what was coming, was slowly nodding as she let the cowgirl play on. And when she caught Story watching her, she could only shrug as she refused to stop whatever was going on.
But then, as Applejack brought down her hand for one last strong note, an unnatural soundwave echo across the barn like a ripple on a pond. Loose dust and straw had shaken loose and then whirled up in a weak dust devil as, in the center of it all, Applejack's silhouette flashed.
Gilda and Story flinched away from it, their hair and clothes rippling from the gust that helped to make the barn's heat more bearable. However, as they looked back, Applejack's bass was gleaming and untouched by the floating particles of dirt as her hair had grown out to almost sweep the floor. To top it off, framing her Stetson from both sides were these large ears that certainly weren't human-like anymore.
Gilda's arms fell to her sides while Story used one of his to rub his eyes. Not a single other person in the barn was at all shocked to see what had just happened; not even Applejack's own brother. Story's closest friend, tied with Fluttershy.
"What the..." Gilda mumbled, her lips unable to form the words.
"You...th-the." Story took in another deep, long breath and let it seep out from between his teeth. "No way..."
Applejack removed her bass and passed it over to Pinkie who happily held onto it for her. Then the ponied-up girl approached the two of them, pulling back part of her hair to show them that the magic ears were, in fact, her ears.
"Ah know it's a lot ta take in," she told them calmly. "An' Story, you cannot believe how sorry we are fer keepin' all this a secret. Originally, we thought keepin' you outta the loop was the wise thing ta do. But when everythin' kept gettin' more an' more serious, we kept diggin' ourselves deeper 'til we weren't jus' keepin' secrets from ya; we were lyin' ta keep 'em. Lyin' fer no reason other than ta think we could handle this. But we can't. An' now we ended up draggin' both a y'all inta our mess. And we are so sorry fer that."
"And Gilda?" Rainbow Dash stepped forward a little. "I know I apologized to Story, but, I think I need to apologize to you too. If we told him about the magic and I came clean about what happened back in elementary, you wouldn't have been dragged into Sky-Space. And you wouldn't need to be a part of this either. That's my fault."
Story and Gilda turned to look at each other. By now, Story figured that whatever was going on, Gilda knew about all of it. Especially when she didn't bat an eye at Spike. In the end, both of them were now fully aware just how little Gilda knew about the whole picture.
"How long?" Story managed to ask. "How long has this been a thing?"
"Partway into the second month of this semester," Sunset told them. "We had a Fall Formal; a dance in September. That was when all this magic first started." It wasn't a lie. But with how awestruck they were right now, Equestria wasn't a good idea to bring into all of this.
Later though, Sunset told herself.
"From there," Sunset went on. "There were a few other incidents. Each having their own magic we had to face. And...now, we have a completely different one."
"A different one?" Story blinked. "You mean. D-Do you mean there's more magic stuff than you guys?"
Rarity gave a humorous hum. "By any chance, does D&D have sirens?"
"Sirens?" He parroted. Then he thought about it. "You mean, like, the Greek mythos?" When he saw Rarity nod, he took a second to try thinking about something he was actually familiar with. It almost calmed him in an odd way.
"Well, maybe? There's not Sirens specifically but there's harpies? And merfolk. Merfolk can...wait, are you saying there's sirens? In real life?"
"Three of them," Rainbow revealed. "We took care of it though. No problem."
"Are you guys some kind a' Van Helsing group?" Gilda started to grin. "Alright, I can get behind that better than cult."
"We don't hunt monsters," Sunset clarified with a chuckle. "We deal with magical problems. Those sirens came into Canterlot High and started to feed off of the students' negative emotions."
"This is insane," Story mumbled into his hands as he wandered toward the walls. "Why...Why is this happening?" Although, as Story asked himself that, a new thought came to mind.
"...Question." He looked up, somehow more worried this time. "What's the reason you're telling us this? If the schools wanted to keep it a secret, why not just keep doing that? Obviously I wasn't figuring any of this out. So that means you all collectively decided to blow my mind for a reason, right?"
"We did." Twilight nodded. "You see, from my experience, magic not only deals with creatures. I, erm, I wasn't a part of the siren incident; I came later. But sometimes devices and objects can also react to magic. It's how I found out about all of this. Except, this time, the magic seemed to react to your...game."
"My game?" Story raised his brow. "You mean the thing we've played three times now? With a bunch of paper and plastic figurines? And pencils?"
"Annnd now yer caught up with us." Applejack gave him a single nod and turned to Sunset. "Right before we started, Sunset 'ere seemed ta figure out what was goin' on. She's kinda the magic expert of us all."
Gilda scratched her chin, looking incredibly lost. "Second question; are your ears stuck like that or do they go away? 'Cause one of 'em flicked like a deer and it's freakin' me out a bit."
"It'll pass," AJ returned, her ears falling flat for a second as her face grew long. However, that only forced a chill down Gilda's spine.
"Sunset?" Fluttershy and the others eventually settled on their friend. "What is it?"
She took a few seconds to clear her mind and nod. "As I mentioned earlier, there's a magic known as Dunamancy. It's not a type of magic I know much about myself. Mostly because it's an old, archaic form of magic that was made forbidden."
"Ancient, forbidden, and not well-known," Rainbow rattled off. "So evil then?"
"Sounds like a demon took over my nerd game," Story translated. "Wow, PSAs from the 80's were right about D&D."
"There's no demon, and it isn't evil. Persay." Sunset bobbed her head. "The magic was forbidden because pon—people," she reworded. "People became too frivolous with it. They would try to use it in a way that would benefit them only for it to cause unforeseen circumstances in the process."
"You mean like a wish?" Rarity cradled her chin on her thumb.
"More like people takin' shortcuts." AJ frowned.
"Exactly." Sunset nodded. "But the catch with Dunamancy, this type of it at least, was that whoever took part in the spell can not be effected or directly involved in what happens. The magic could only effect everyone outside of those involved. Which led to a lot of problems. So the prince. Prin-prin—Primary leaders of magic," she barely recovered with a cringe. "Decided any reference of Dunamancy should be sealed to keep everyone from falling into a downward spiral. After a long enough time, it became this 'wishing spell' rumor no one believed."
Twilight smirked sadly. "I guess the school's magic rumors are similar in that way. No one believes them. So then, how does that relate to the current issue?"
Sunset stared at the ground. "Dunamancy has this interesting way of changing what is destined to happen. The users would imagine something that the magic then takes and applies to reality in a plausible manner; changing fate, to be blunt. Say, for example, Eglath's orchard suddenly had a bountiful harvest. Then an orchard, maybe Sweet Apple Acres, would also have a bountiful harvest."
Pinkie smiled. "Well that doesn't sound too bad!"
"But," Sunset continued, making Pinkie's smile disappear. "Counter to that, if Eglath was wrongfully stripped of his land, Sweet Apple Acres may be...foreclosed."
"An' therein lies the bad," Applejack lamented. "Lemme guess; some folk who had this Dunamancy would wanna be on top an' they decide doin' away with other folk's hard work would do the job?"
"It's not always so exact." Sunset closed her hands. "And it can effect people directly rather than their things. So then, when someone in the game, say Sildar," she offered, making the group all perk up. "Is riding a cart down the road and then gets ambushed, earning a broken leg, Dunamancy will apply that scenario to real life."
"...No." Story shook his head, a realization surfacing in his mind. "Stop. Stop, no. There is. There's." He let out this instinctive nervous chuckle. "There is no way, that you're...No! You can't—You can't be serious, right?!"
"Someone was hurt in the game," Fluttershy pieced together. "So then...someone was hurt in real life?"
"No. No. Stop. Talking," Story demanded them. "I—look. I'm not an idiot, alright? It might've taken me a quick minute to admit that the talking dog and the Sailor Moon thing may actually be real magic. But, that? You're saying that we...That I did THAT?"
"No," Sunset said forcefully. "You didn't do it, okay? You had no idea what was going on."
"That doesn't excuse anything!"
"What do you mean? What's going on?" Rainbow asked. But a few feet away from her, the other girls each started to understand what Story was so afraid about. Not only that, every tint of color faded from Rarity's face.
"Hold on a moment." She looked visibly sick. "Sunset, the magic reflects what happens in the game? Meaning every person and thing? Is that right?"
"I...well." Sunset sighed in frustration. "Yes, but there's more to it than th—"
"No. No, I get it," Rarity said. "But. But in the game! Those bandits that attacked us? I killed one of them! I did it! I-I-I melted her brain or something!"
Then it began to dawn on the others. Twilight among them. "I stabbed a man to death."
"Wait." Rainbow nearly screamed. "What about the goblins?" Suddenly, everyone went silent as each goblin's life they ended weighed on their minds.
"Story," Rarity asked, suddenly aware that she had the highest kill count. "Are goblins people? Did we kill twenty people?!"
Pinkie's hair started deflating like a loose balloon. "You're Mom called you after the first fight in the game. She's a doctor, right?" Her voice was still. "Was it the goblins?"
Right as the entire crowd started to devolve into a panic, one sharp, ear-piercing whistle held on the same high note until everyone stopped what they were doing. "EVERYONE BE QUIET!" Big Mac screamed, taking the fingers out of his mouth. "Lemme remind y'all we ain't the only ones on the farm! Mah sister an' Granny are a hundred feet away. So stop screamin' about murder 'til we find out what's really goin' on."
"Seriously," Gilda added on, equally as level headed as he is. "Do you all freak out this much every time?!"
"Honestly?" Spike half-yelled, unable to hear himself as he rubbed his floppy ears with his paws. "I think so! Twilight freaks out about a lot of things!"
"Hey, that's...r-rude," Twilight surrendered.
"Everyone." Sunset tried to fight off the ringing in her own ears. "No one. Is dead. I just told all of you, Dunamancy doesn't take effect if the users are directly involved."
Rainbow cringed. "Sunset, what does that even mean?"
"It means that whatever our characters do in the game won't effect the real world. If we attack bandits or monsters, that means we are getting directly involved with them. If that happens, magic won't connect to anybody! So any bad guys we've hurt or killed in the game are just that; bad guys in a game."
"Oh! So, what, anyone I hurt or kill becomes reality?" Story glared. "I run those monsters. I run those people. I run the world of that game! What does that make me in this scenario?!"
"I told you. You are not responsible."
"Then who is?!" Story screamed at her. "Plastic?! The inventor of markers?! My printer?! It's someone's fault, so who's is it?!"
"Story. Back off dude!" Gilda shoved her way between the two of them, squaring off against Story. "Fault of what? Sunset just proved no one's dead. Nothing's gone wrong! We're in the clear!"
As the two kept shouting, Applejack and Big Mac worked fast to close the barn's front doors. If at least to block out some of the screaming from Granny Smith since she was probably getting ready for bed by now.
"Oh no. Something's wrong!" Story stood firm. "Sildar was in an accident that destroyed his vehicle and broke a limb. Anyone wanna take a wild swing at who recently got in an accident and broke her limb in a destroyed vehicle? I'll even give you a hint; she okayed this entire game night!"
"...Ms. Cheerilee," a few girls cried out in unison.
"YES," Story revealed. "Yes, Ms. Cheerilee! She was driving home early on Thursday, her tires popped, mysteriously all at once, and her car was wrecked! Thank the divine vinyl maps a crowd of children all about the size of goblins were there to see it! And luckily, the ambulance arrived to pull her out and drag her off to the hospital! Couldn't have written it better myself apparently!
"So Sunset!" He stepped out to stare her down, tears welling up in his eyes as Gilda stood there stiff as a board. "Please! By all means, tell me how it isn't my fault! I would love to hear it! I would love nothing more than to know how I didn't inadvertently break my teach—" "Because it's mine!"
Sunset screamed at the same pitch, eyes as wet as his, making Story back off. "It's my fault her arm's broken! I'm the reason there's magic! I'm the one who asked Rainbow and rest of the girls to keep coming back for the next two games! And I could've said no! I could have cleaned our hands of all of this! No one told you anything because I'm the one who had the last say telling you what was going on and I didn't! So instead, it took Ms. Cheerilee getting hurt and giving us permission to do what I should have done at the start! And even when I figured out it was Dunamancy, and then saw you put all those people in the tavern and the kid in the forest, I kept quiet! Why?! Why did I do that?!"
Unaware, Sunset started shaking Story by the shoulders, equally as hysterical as he was as it all came crashing at her.
"But do you wanna know the worst part?!" She cried. "We can't even stop playing anymore! We have to keep playing! Because Sildar's not the only one!"
Story stared at her. "Not the only one? Who else is..." Then, Story's pupils shrunk to dots while he clung to Sunset's arms. "...please no..."
"What?!" Applejack stormed up to her friend. "Sunset, what in any tarnation would make us wanna go back ta playin' that game?! You just admitted that it's the reason Ms. Cheerilee's arm is broken! It's too late ta fix that, so why?!"
"Because it is soooo much worse than that," Story cried, him and Sunset using one another for support.
"Come on! How can it be any worse," Rainbow challenged in a stammer, terrified of the answer. Unfortunately for her, the two teens having a panic attack weren't the only ones figuring it out.
"Sildar wasn't alone," Twilight suddenly sprinting off into the game room. "He was with Gundren!"
"Gundren?" Fluttershy and Rarity locked eyes and right away they gasped. "Gundren!"
"H-Hey, fill me and Mac in!" Gilda turned to Story but he and Sunset were unresponsive. "What's or who's Gundren?"
"Gundren," Twilight started, returning from the game room with her notepad as she frantically flipped it around. "Was Sildar's employer. And when the cart was ambushed on the road, Klarg kidnapped him and sent him somewhere else. Now he's being held by Klarg's king until someone called the Field Baron comes to..." She swallowed. "Buy him."
"Buy him," Rarity said breathlessly. "He's being ransomed. And if he's being ransomed in the game, then that. Means..."
"Someone's been kidnapped in real life," Applejack took off her hat.
"N...Not just someone," Sunset spoke through the tears running down her face. "Gundren was Sildar's employer. And if Sildar is Ms. Cheerilee, then that means that. Th-That Gundren..."
"..." The collective gears of everyone began working at their own speeds while Sunset and Story watched in pity. One by one, each of their friends began to figure it out. Began to find out why they had to keep playing the game.
Gundren was Sildar's employer. And as of right now in the game, the party of adventurers had roughly eight and a half days to find Gundren before this Field Baron would arrive to buy him off one King Grol for money or some other valuables.
Meanwhile, in real life, Ms. Cheerilee's employer would go through an equal predicament. They would be taken somewhere and their life would be put in the hands of someone who only saw them as a means to an end. Whoever King Grol or the Field Baron were in this scenario were unknown. All that mattered was saving Ms. Cheerilee's employer.
All that mattered was saving Principal Celestia.
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This is why those who play games with fate are often left chained to a pillar in the middle of a void or something equally grand.
EDIT: also they are really panicking over what might end up being an unusually high hospital bill for Cheerilee.
10885156
Fate twists back.
This was an incredible chapter, and what a cliffhanger.o_O
Interested to see what the rules of this new situation are. Story's first instinct in this situation would probably be to let the girls win. But then the game might punish them for cheating.
A well written chapter, and what a chapter it is... I didnt expect it to go this way, but Im definitely hooked!
I anticipate the coming chapters.
Two questions, is Twilight's character sheet meant to not be there and are Applejack and Sunset's character sheets meant to have information written in something other than English?
10897582
They are, yeah. Character sheets are released at the end of specific chapters either when something important happens with them or when information gets updated. They're more like little bonuses, so you don't need to see them to enjoy the story.
10885156
Just saw your edit today and, I suppose in my defense, it's not just a high hospital bill. Cheerilee is also sans a car now, which will also cost a lot in damages. All on a high school teacher's salary. Although that's not why the girls are so upset. It's mostly from the fact they believe they caused someone to get seriously hurt.
thunderstruck