Lairs & Lycanthropy: Revival

by NeoNagasaki

The Middle Game Begins

The three ponies marched on at the head of the large group. It had changed since Fluttershy had started it, at some point the animals had tapered off and barbarians had swelled to fill the ranks. Each pony looked ahead with a numb stare, contemplating the loss they'd had to endure this day, be it their innocence, their pride, or their family. As the warning shouts started to sound Fluttershy's resolve wavered, watching as the Apple Clan scrambled their forces to meet their group en masse.

For the second time today Fluttershy found herself facing down with a group of armed ponies. Her legs quivered, not out of fear, but emotional exhaustion. Weakly she looked to her right to see the steely eyed multichromatic pony who marched alongside her. Rainbow Dash's eyes perked up as she caught Fluttershy looking at her and turned her head, giving the yellow mare a confident smile, a silent thanks for her healing no doubt. Fluttershy's head swung left then, catching the attention of Rarity, who gave her a weak brave face and a nod.

After a minute or two the majority of the Apple Clan came marching out of their barn in leather armor and with sheathed blades. The roof of the barn was littered with crossbow wielding ponies that steadied their weapons against a railing. Leading the clan was Granny Smith, flanked by Applejack and Twilight. "Druids...cheating magic nature lovers..." Twilight muttered under her breath "No wonder they'd stand beside barbarians in this." Her face twisted into an unpleasant scowl at the group.

Applejack cleared her throat as she looked over to Twilight "Hate ta' mention this while yer broodin' Sugarcube, but the druid out front there is one of yer best friends." Applejack's eyes narrowed as she looked over the barbarians before finally resting on Rainbow Dash "And that lightweight drinkin partner of mine's a damn wildpony, I shouldn't be surprised."

The two groups finally met and sat in silence, staring each other down. Friends on either side of the conflict glaring at one another before Fluttershy finally mustered up the courage to step forward. "Lychans, ,you're all to desist this charade at once." A stunned silence washed over the Apple Clan as they simply stared at the opposing group.

A werepony made his way to the front of the pack, no longer bound, but his head held low. "As Alpha, I command the pack to regroup." He said bluntly, it had been a long day for him too, and he had his own loss to contemplate.

Everything was silent for a good long while before Granny Smith started forward "Truncheon's our Alpha, how dare you-"

"Truncheon's dead." The new Alpha said bluntly, cutting Granny Smith off. His face darkened as he looked away "A lot of them are, the druids aren't screwing around, they'll have the rest of us rounded up and executed if we don't play ball. Now's not the time to be stubborn, I'm ordering us to regroup, then we can talk terms with the druids."

A disgusted look crossed the elderly mare's face as she looked over the barbarians in the group, not recognizing a single pony of her pack. "Granny Smith? What's Flu-the druid talking about? What're you talking about fer that matter?"

Granny Smith wheeled around to look at the little Applejack, a sharp pair of fangs accentuating her canine teeth, "Sorry dearie." she apologized "But our pack leader..." those two words were said with biting vitriolic sarcasm "Has ordered us to stand down."

A purple hoof pressed into Applejack's flank as Twilight's apologetic eyes fell upon her "She's...a lycanthrope Applejack." Applejack looked to Twilight, then back to Granny Smith in horror, her eyes twisting up in shock. But that shock was short lived as a stronger, more sickening one took over, when other ponies from her clan marched away from the group to join with Granny Smith. "They're all lycanthropes." Twilight explained, a resigned apology permeating her words. It wasn't too many in all honesty, only about a quarter of the clan, but that was still enough for Applejack to feel like she had been kicked in the gut. Her legs trembled beneath her, eyes shifting to Granny Smith. The biting smile was still placed on the mare’s maw, her eyes flashing with an amount of energy and malice that she had never seen before. Applejack’s mouth worked for a moment - then another, as if willing herself to say something...anything to the mare she considered something akin to a mother figure. Nothing managed to escape her lips except for a breath; but in that breath, the shock also rolled out of her. Quivering legs buckled, allowing her to collapse onto the ground. It seemed she would get to join her friends in losing something today too.

Rainbow Dash slowly headed across the gap between the group, and as she did several confused and angry ponies bristled, baring their weapons as she got close. "Applejack...you can't fall apart here, get back on your hooves.”

Bared teeth were presented as the orange mare snarled at Rainbow Dash "I just found out mah kin are damn wereponies." her threatening voice shaking with anger and pain.

"Yeah." The ex-pegasus replied "I know how that feels, but at least your kin are still alive." Her voice had become terse as she spoke "Now, get, up."

Applejack struggled to her hooves as Granny Smith called back to them "Goodbye my little ponies, Big Macintosh is in charge till I get back." Her smile twisted those last words into a malicious threat. Applejack’s gaze was cast downward as her stomach flipped again, her lips quivering as her mind wavered between blinding rage and howling despair.

"Hold it together." Rainbow snapped, looking carefully at the farmpony. After a bit Applejack managed to force her eyes to turn toward Rainbow, who finally got around to explaining why she had come. "Look, we've lost enough as it is. Ponies are irritated our leader was a werepony that manipulated us. Let's make a deal to work together."

Before Applejack even had a chance to answer a chorus of protesting ponies thundered out from behind her and Big Mac pushed his way to the front. His massive head lowered as he glowered at the cyan mare "Nnnnnnope."

His threatening glace was met rather than diplomacy with a...threatening glance. A cyan hoof reached up for her claymore as her eyes narrowed "Oh, you wanna keep fighting then? Cause we can finish this here!"

"Enough!" Rarity cried out as she marched indignantly out in front of the small army and threw Rainbow a dirty look that caused her relent her weapon. "Ponies..." She moved closer and raised her voice to address the crowd, she couldn't pass up an opportunity for an audience could she? "War's a funny and awful thing..." She declared "We hate losing our loved ones so much in wars that we hate, that we can't wait to start new wars so that we can die and our loved ones can hate that war. Maybe if we're lucky that war will end with our loved ones chomping at the bit to start a new war so that they can die and their loved ones can hate that war while getting ready for the next one." She gave them a look of contempt as she flipped her hair to the side and started to walk away. "If you're so eager to get yourselves killed that you won't even try to compromise do me a favor and just kill yourself, leave the civilized ponies out of it." No one even attempted to stop her as she stormed away from the field.

Rainbow Dash looked at the ground for a few moments before looking up to Big Mac, who also seemed shaken by her words "Maybe...you can reconsider? Try the negotiating thing?" Big Mac was quiet for a while before extending a hoof in agreement.

-------

Twilight and her friends sat in uncomfortable silence for a time. The purple mare sat quietly with her head down. She knew this was all her fault, everything that had happened was because she wanted to play that stupid game. Granny Smith didn’t have a taste for flesh before she started this, that was on her. Not just Granny Smith mind you, a good chunk of the Apple family. That wasn’t even mentioning the ponies she heard about from Rainbow Dash. The innocent ponies that had been turned to barbarians, and then lycanthropes, then...ripped apart. Those were lives, equine lives, that were snuffed out, and why? All because she wanted to play a game that every other pony was smart enough to bury forever. That was just one incident too, the rest of the world had been turned as well. How many deaths did she have to account for? A hundred? A thousand? Ten thousand? Disease, war, famine, fires, tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes. How many deaths did she cause because she wanted to have fun?

“You alright over there sugarcube?” Applejack asked, numbly looking over in concern.

Twilight gave a weak smile, Rainbow Dash and Applejack had lost people today. It was her fault, and she didn’t deserve any comfort. Hell, the world’s most evil tyrants didn’t manage to rack up a kill count like her. “I’m fine.” Twilight managed to push out with a sigh. “Just thinking about everything that’s happened, it’s all a lot to take in.”

Applejack nodded slowly “Sounds like everyone’s had a difficult time. I don’t even know what those two are discussing, but it sounds bad.” Applejack’s head turned a bit as she listened to the other three just one room over, not trying to hide their conversation.

“Was...was it your first?” Rainbow Dash asked, laying back on a slightly uneven bench, her forelegs tucked up behind her head. Her head turned to the side, looking over to Rarity as she made idle conversation. Rainbow Dash paused, brow furrowing for a moment; strange how the idea of ‘idle’ had shifted from talking about the Wonderbolts to whether or not someone had killed before.

There was a pause, after a moment or two Rarity hesitantly answered “No. It wasn’t, but it was the first time I made a decision about it.” Then she turned her head away, the room growing quiet once more.

Twilight looked back to Applejack with a shrug “I don’t know, but it doesn’t sound good. How long till Big Mac and that wildpony come to some sort of agreement anyway? They’ve been in there for an hour now.” Twilight’s gaze drifted to the sturdy door that the negotiations were behind, as soon as they managed to come to an understanding they could get out of here and solve this mess. At the moment though there wasn’t much Twilight could do, just sit here and wait.

The sound of an opening door drew the attention of ponies in both rooms as Pinkie Pie walked in with a broad smile. “You’re all here!” Pinkie cried in surprise and excitement as she rushed forward. Each pony had gotten to their hooves and charged Pinkie, colliding into a firn group hug from which they quickly backed down. Pinkie’s smile didn’t dim, and it seemed infectious, spreading to the corners of Twilight’s mouth despite herself.

“Man are we glad to see you!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed “Looks like we all made it back together at last.” A smile finding her face for the first time since she found out about the lychan infestation. “We’ve already lost a lot recently, but I don’t know what I’d do if I lost one of you guys.”

Pink lips just smiled as she turned her head to look at each of her friends in turn. “Hey, a lot’s gone on for all of us but we’ll be fine as long as we stick together. Never split the party right? Now, have we started discussing what our next move is?”

They were all quiet for a bit, looking around awkwardly. They’d all been so absorbed in feeling sorry for themselves they hadn’t really considered how to fix anything. Twilight finally cut the silence with an excuse “We don’t really know where to go or what to do Pinkie. I don’t have my unicorn magic anymore, and what little magic I’ve picked up from this world doesn’t have any application to finding out what went wrong.” She bit her lip, she wasn’t only responsible for this, she had no idea how to stop it from doing more damage.

Everypony stopped, seeming to be deep in thought as Pinkie looked around at them all like they were crazy “Well the GM changed the world into this right? So all we need to do is beat the campaign and the game should end. That’s how the GM works right?”

The group looked around at one another, and then back to Pinkie. “Makes sense to me.” Applejack admitted “Besides, it’s not like we’ve got any better plans.”

Twilight sat back down with a sigh, tossing her hair to the side, “Yeah, maybe. But we still have no idea where to go or what to do?”

A pink hoof lightly tapped Pinkie’s mouth as she looked skyward thoughtfully “The GM had to give us a plot hook. What was everyone doing here?”

They all blinked and looked around, all giving various answers about how they were just here because here seemed the place to be. It wasn’t until Twilight spoke that Pinkie’s ears perked up “I was just taking this artifact to be examined, then I met you.”

The pink mare’s eyes lit up as she bounced into the air a few times with an excited smile. “That has to be it! That’s got to be the plot hook. We need to go get it looked at! Can I see it?”

Awkwardly Twilight fumbled about in a bag on the floor, then gave the statuette to Pinkie, who looked upon it with reverence. Twilight opened her mouth to talk when the door behind them opened. Each pony turned about to look at Big Mac and Boarstalker walking out. Each pony, except Pinkie that is, she was far too busy examining the little statue.

“Well?” Rainbow Dash pressed “What’d you decide?” her eager voice was quickly cut with cautious optimism.

Boarstalker’s head swiveled to look at the large red pony and let out a sigh before turning back to Rainbow. “It’ll take some time for both of us to get used to, but I think we’ve come to an understanding. Our tribe will drive off any animals who might eat the crops and provide lookouts and security. The Apple Clan will take care of the operations of the farm. They get more of the money, but we get a cut that will let us live comfortably.”

The orange mare stepped up to her brother “Will our clan be alright BIg Mac?” she muttered, knowing that no matter how well the negotiations went, some of them were lost for good.

“Eyup.” He replied, giving her a reassuring smile.

A startled gasp from the other side of the room caught everypony’s attention. As they turned they saw the pink bouncing coat of an ecstatic pony. “I got it, I figured out the trick!” she bounced up and down around the statue in a circle, even as the image of Princess Celestia appeared and started to talk.

“Quiet Pinkie!” Rainbow snapped as the group clustered in, all straining to hear what the little image of their princess had said.

“-know how it happened, or who was behind it. But I have been kidnapped by a band of goblins. They’ve done something to restrain my magic, and I have to rely on this archaic device to get my message out. Please find me Starsoul Knights, you’re my last chance.”

The room was silent as the grave as the image of the princess disappeared. Things had seemed bad before. But now even the princess had fallen to this world. What hope did the rest of them have if even the goddess of the sun had been brought low. “Who are the Starsoul Knights?” Applejack finally asked.

Twilight let out a deep sigh “They’re the knights that provide the last line of defence for Equestria, and I think they’re a prestige class too.”

“Why is everyone so glum!” Pinkie exploded upwards as she bounced around “This is great news! It’s the plot hook! The most basic quest of all, rescue the princess from the goblins!” She jumped happily onto a table as her sword flew from its sheath. “We’ll dice those ugly goblins to shreds and rescue the princess, and win the game!” She dramatically slashed at invisible opponents.

Rarity’s eyes narrowed as she scolded the eccentric mare “You mean set the world right, naturally. And we don’t have any idea where to even start looking! We should let someone else handle this.” Rarity attempted to reason, but Twilight’s next words caught the attention of the whole room.

“I know where to start.” The entire room turned, transfixed on the purple mage. “Back in the real world I saw one of the maps for the campaign. It said there was a goblin graveyard there, it has to be a starting point...we need to go to Ponyville.”

Comments

[Norwest]

Just gave it all a big read through. I"m enjoying your story a lot, the setting is neat (heh, they're going to be all set for a darker world once they escape). I quite enjoy that Pinky has been going about it as a game from the start. I also hope her ship was a chekov's gun that we're going to see again in the future.

Here's some off-the-cuff criticisms, since you're begging for feedback (I'm no editor, but I read a LOT, heh)
Everyone's been pretty in-character so far, taking the conflicting memories into account; I hope you touch on Fluttershy's 'nature is cruel' dilemma again.

It's a little disconcerting how the POV shifts from chapter to chapter and sometimes in the chapters (like the start of 5). You're bouncing around from third-person limited to third-person omniscient and limited omnisent (I think). Personally, I prefered the writing in chapters 2 and 6 where you followed the actions and thoughts of just one pony and followed their POV exclusively throughout the chapter. I think it slipped once or twice in chapter 6, but I"ll have to go digging to check. Bouncing back and forth from the limited view to the omniscient view, between chapters, o me, really hurts the flow of your story. I think you should pick one POV style and stuck with it exclusively.

Otherwise, I'd suggest taking a look at some of your conversations. You don't need a 'she muttered' or 'she said' equvulent after each sentence.... some of the conversations are quite clunky, with your interjections of every ponies thoughts between each line. This kinda ties back into the POV thing, since if we cant hear everyone's thoughts, you'll have to convey moods through describing thier observed body language, instead of just telling us. And that leads into the whole 'show don't tell' thing that gets thrown around a lot, which is easy to say, hard to do.

Huh, that all ended up longer than I thought it would. Sorry if any of it sounds harsh, I'm enjoying the story and premise. I hope you're keeping track of thier character sheets (and which system are you using? Pathfinder, 4e?), especially with Pinky Pie knowing all the mechanics. The statuette was a nice plot point, and the Granny Smith the werewolf as at least a mid-level big bad, is genius.

Keep up the good work!

P.S. When are they going to level up?

[ALIENwolve]

All in all solid. Had nothing particularly special to bitch about.

Also, what he said, I guess.

[Pink Butterfly]

Waitwaitwaitwaitwait...
Did Pinkie just say...
Never split the party?