Lairs & Lycanthropy: Revival

by NeoNagasaki

Queen's Knight Variation

Grim eyes looked about at the carnage that lay before them as Twilight grimaced. One town back everypony had told them the Starsoul Knights had passed through and covered them when they got out of town. It was strange that they hadn’t heard back from the knights certainly - even worrisome- but they assumed things had gone well.

When Twilight had seen the words “Goblin graveyard” on that map, she had expected freshly turned earth, tombstones, maybe even a fenced off area. The image of what greeted her at the town was different, much different.

Goblin heads and limbs lay strewn about carelessly in the streets and in the branches of trees. The entirety of Ponyville had been painted red in goblin gore. These goblins were not simply killed, or even butchered; they were obliterated. It seemed as though someone had taken a great deal of time to spread the bodies across as much of the town as they could.

Twilight had to take a step back, nose wrinkling at the smell. The stench had been awful, but now that she knew what she had been breathing in she had to force herself to avoid throwing up. The cloying stench of rotting eviscerated viscera lay over the group in a dank fog, forcing its way through them.

A splattering sound caught Twilight’s attention as she turned, looking back to Fluttershy, who turned her head away, wiping her mouth with a foreleg “I’m sorry...” she whimpered, “but I....”

Twilight shook her head sympathetically. On one hoof having their healer on hoof to deal with any wounded they found was critical. However, putting someone as fair as Fluttershy through this... “Pinkie, Rarity, get her out of here. Rainbow, Applejack, on me.” The others looked at eachother for a moment, but didn’t argue. If something had done this and Twilight was going in she’d need backup.

With slight nods of assent Pinkie and Rarity flanked Fluttershy, leading her off and talking to her softly. Twilight didn’t bother to try and hear what they had to say, it was hard enough to keep thinking at all through this. Out of necessity she had to press on, so she began forward, weaving between puddles of blood and mangled body parts.

The party suddenly stopped dead as Rainbow spoke up in a hushed voice “Wait...” She held up a hoof and concentrated as the group fell silent. “Over there...” She mumbled, her foreleg extending further into town “Can you guys hear that?”

The purple mare closed her eyes and tried to shut out the smell for a moment, then she heard it. Somewhere in there a yell followed by a crash issued forth, it was faint and distant, but it was there. Twilight nodded her agreement “Yeah, I hear it. Maybe it’ll give us a clue as to what did...this.” Twilight looked around her once more as she grimaced in disgust.

They stalked through the town, Applejack and Rainbow flitting from building to building, keeping hidden and behind cover like commandos. Twilight rolled her eyes at the two, wondering exactly how they managed to turn this into a habit as she walked down the center of the abandoned street. It was odd seeing Ponyville like this - not just covered in gore, which was obviously revolting, but abandoned. The streets were barren of the life she had come to expect. In her mind she knew the ponies she had encountered in her real life were fine; they had to be fine. There were only two possibilities that she could think of: On one hoof, if this whole thing was all taking place inside the GM the citizens of Ponyville were fine. On the other hoof if this was all really happening then everypony they knew had new lives far from Ponyville. Although she sincerely doubted the GM alone had enough power to accomplish that. That was logic though, and logic didn’t change how unnerving the empty streets were.

Twilight came to a stop as she looked about, this area of town had...fewer dead goblins in it. That was a good sign. The town up to this point had been a wreck, the streets were littered with broken shards of glass from busted windows and splintered wood from doors. The walls had even been torn up a good deal, begging the question: what maniacal force attacked walls of all things? Twilight shook her head from side to side, at a loss for an answer. However at this section things changed. After a certain point the houses were untouched, the streets were clean and the houses pristine. Honestly it seemed as though whatever was doing this was doing it carefully and deliberately. This wasn’t the rampant chaotic destruction she had first suspected, but a deliberate well orchestrated plan to methodically desecrate and deconstruct everything up one step at a time. Twilight jumped as she was taken out of her musings by the sound of an angry cry and glass shattering from a building. As she recalled it was some form of shop or another, not that it much mattered now.

A sigh was issued from Twilight’s lips as Applejack carefully crept up to the side of the door, pulling back the lever and locking in a crossbow bolt. Rainbow Dash mimicked her on the other side, pressing her back to the wall and pulling out her greatsword, waiting for a target to destroy. It seemed even without talking that the two had some sort of plan of attack formulated, likely a side effect of their militaristic lives in this new world.

“Stay back and find cover Twilight.” Applejack warned her quietly. “Rainbow, you kick in the door and I’ll start shooting. If it gets out here to try and get me surprise em and...well, you know what to do.”

Twilight blinked a few times as she looked up and down the street. Did they not notice what was clearly odd here? Couldn’t they see whatever was in there was doing this intelligently, with purpose? “No.” Twilight scolded in a hushed voice as she trotted over to them. “I’m going to go in there and try to reason with it.”

Applejack shook her head and Rainbow Dash put a hoof on her face. “It’s a monster Twilight.” Rainbow Dash explained, “It’s not going to be something you can reason with, it probably doesn’t even speak common.”

“How do you know it’s a monster?” Twilight demanded.

A Cyan hoof thrust itself back the way they had come from “The fucking streets are literally running red with blood Twilight, only a monster would do that.”

An exasperated sigh left Applejack’s maw as she pressed her back to the wall and raised her crossbow. “Twilight, if you have to, go ahead. But when it starts attacking get out of the way, the last thing I need to worry about is hitting you by mistake.”

Rainbow Dash let out a disapproving grunt, but pressed her back to the wall and readied her weapon anyway. Twilight made her way up to the door and held her hoof out, but then hesitated. Logically she reasoned that she’d be able to talk to this thing, but what if Rainbow Dash was right? If whatever was behind this door had turned all those goblins into soup, did she really want to meet it? A breath exhaled as she quickly ran over the spells she had prepared this morning. Diplomacy first, then violence she reminded herself. She just needed to try to talk to it, then get out of the way to let the others do what they did.

Coldly she steeled her nerves as she pushed the door open, only to see a figure clad in platemail bringing the hilt of its sword down on top of one of the display cases, shattering it and sending a spray of glass all over the floor. Lips were drawn in a thin line as Twilight’s eyes narrowed, nothing but a bandit raiding a shop after a crisis. Her initial thoughts dissipated quickly on sight though; platemail wasn’t exactly standard wear for a bandit. As she watched the pony didn’t take anything anyway, just screamed angrily to the next display case and shattered that too.

In an instant the figure wheeled around, a grey muzzle poking its way out from behind the bloodstained visor. “What are you doing here?” The angry voice issued, slamming its sword into the ground for good measure.

Instinctively the hair running down Twilight’s back stood on end. Her entire body started to feel cold and she had to push her instincts to the back of her mind to keep from bolting immediately. Twilight opened her mouth, which felt drier with every passing moment to respond but the chestplate of the figure caught her eye. After a moment of running the symbol through her memory she finally recalled a book she had seen that symbol in. That was the symbol of the Starsoul Knights, a force of good ponies that protected Princess Celestia. “Hello noble sir.” She began, putting one hoof out and bending her opposite knee into a gracious bow. “Would you be part of the group of Starsoul Knights who came into this city? We came under the same goal you see, my name is-”

“I know who you are Twilight!” The knight called shot back, the booming voice still angry. “And I don’t mean what are you doing in ponyville, I mean what are you doing in this hellhole of a world!” The breathing behind the visor was erratic, and Twilight looked up from her careful bow. Her eyes were drawn to his visor, transfixed on where his face would be. She managed to make out the bloodshot eyes behind the visor, then she saw one eye start to roll off in another direction.

“Derpy?” Twilight asked in disbelief, raising from her bow abruptly.

That just seemed to anger her more, fury burned behind her eyes. “No Twilight, not Derpy, not anymore. Apparently now I’m Tarrow Starsoul, of the Starsoul knights! You know why? Because I’ve lost my fucking mind!” She swiveled around and galloped back at a window, swinging around for a double kick that shattered the window, spraying yet more shards of glass into the street. A terrible cream issuing from behind her visor as she did.

A pain shot through Twilight’s heart as she watched Derpy It seemed this had somehow affected her worst of all. Of course, this was on Twilight too... she had brought Derpy into a world and caused her to crack. Still, at the same time the inquisitive side of her had to question this encounter. The previous theory that they had been immune due to the elements of harmony was now inadequate. Perhaps Derpy had been immune because she’d played the game before? Did the GM somehow remember her character all this time? Or...Twilight’s eyes opened wide in shock as she remembered. Derpy had been affected just as they had, and for the same reason. She’d only put the character sheets down for the GM...All the character sheets, even the one Derpy had left in the book.

“Calm down Derpy...” Twilight attempted softly, moving towards the mare and trying her best not to seem afraid. Odd, she’d never considered how easily derpy could kill her before, today was just full of odd thoughts. “You haven’t gone crazy, something went wrong with the GM and we’ve all been pulled into some strange world...we just need to finish the game and we can get out.”

Derpy took a few more steps toward Twilight, her armor clanking with each step. Twilight could hear short, shallow breaths coming from behind the armored helmet. Breaths being issued from behind clenched teeth no doubt. “Don’t tell me to calm down!” She howled furiously “The real world is the thing that bothers me Twilight, there’s something wrong with the real world, I can somehow think better here.” Her voice was shaky, some fear showing through that anger.

A head was shaken as the purple mage tried to console her friend. Derpy was confused, and why wouldn’t she be? Look at the world Twilight had pushed her into. “Derpy, this world’s the bad one, ponies are dying-” Twilight as cut off as Derpy’s long sword glowed blue with energy, letting Twilight instantly recognize it as a magic blade.

“My father’s dead!” The mare screamed, the brilliant blue sword carving away another section of the wall. The grey pony wheeled about as she she fell to three legs, then went up again. Her sword whirled, then hacked part of a railing, sending bits of wood flying in every direction.

Twilight looked back to the door where her friends were watching, sharing confused glances. Then her attention turned back to Derpy “Your father’s been dead for years Derpy...I thought you’d come to terms with that.” Twilight piped up, daring to walk closer to the steely mass of fury.

The sword was sheathed as Derpy dropped to her hooves and advanced on Twilight with an angry snarl. “I was!” Tears started to peek through the visor, letting droplets of water drip from underneath her helmet “I-I don’t even remember him dying! I never mourned him! I never mourned any of them!”

Twilight quickly backpedaled in fear as Derpy stalked closer, plated hooves crushing glass underhoof with each step. “It’s been thousands of years Twilight. Millions of ponies must have died, but I haven’t grieved for one, not even one!” Derpy was screaming at this point, practically incoherent in her rage. “My father just walked away at one point and never came back. I wasn’t sad, there wasn’t even a funeral, he just wasn’t there anymore! Tell me Twilight, how many funerals have you been to before this shit started?”

Twilight’s eyes widened as the mare advanced on her. The glass and wood could be heard under her hooves as she took a wary step back, eyes still on Derpy as she flung the glowing blade into the wall. A moment later she shook her head in disgust. “What kind of a horrible daughter am I? I wasn’t even there when he...he...”

Twilight stepped in closer to Derpy as her advance stopped. Carefully purple hooves raised up and unbuckled the helm, letting it clatter noisily against the ground. Derpy’s mane was matted against her nape and tears were slowly streaming down her face. Her mouth was open and taking in audible gasping breaths.

Wordlessly Twilight put a foreleg around Derpy and pulled her into a tight embrace, feeling the warm tears flowing down the side of her neck. “You’re not a bad daughter Derpy, things are just different in the real world, our traditions are just different.”

Derpy managed to force a few words out between gasping breaths and sobs “I...gave...his...books...away...”

“I know.” Twilight replied, starting to give a bit of a smile “After we get out of here I’ll help you find where he was buried. We’ll both go, and you can pay your respects.” Briefly she considered asking about why Derpy painted the town in goblin gore, but thought better of it.

The two waited there for a good long while like that, eventually Derpy stopped crying, but she still held onto Twilight tightly. Twilight could hear Rainbow Dash and Applejack arguing at one point. Apparently Rainbow Dash wanted to look at the magic sword and Applejack thought that was a stupid idea.

Finally Derpy let Twilight go and stepped back a few paces. Her eyes were still bloodshot and her face was damp, but at least she had calmed somewhat. “Why did this happen? Why are we in the old L&L campaign?

Twilight winced and instinctively took an interest in her hooves. She knew Derpy might be upset, but she had to accept the consequences she had coming. “We...I turned on the GM to run a campaign for us. But it pulled us into this game. We think that if we can finish the game the GM will turn off and we’ll be let out.”

Derpy’s head swung slowly from side to side “That should be easy, assuming the rest of you are in here too. We’ll have more players then the game expected and we’ll blow through it.” A deep sigh left her lips as she looked Twilight over “Everyone did make it through everything right? Some of the things before now were close calls for my father and I.”

Eyes raised as Twilight shrugged at the mare. “We just sort of got together and came over here. It was a few days worth of walking after we managed to find a map. But it wasn’t anything dangerous.”

Derpy moved over to her sword, pulling it from the wall and sticking it back into her sheath. A curious look came over her face at Twilight’s words. “Twilight, this campaign was hell. The misunderstanding with the guards, the temple of Nictu, it’s how I got to a high enough level to take a prestige class and picked up the magic gear. Where’d you get your magic gear?”

Twilight was just quiet, staring at Derpy blankly. Now uncomfortable, Derpy continued, “Twilight, my party was level seven and we were decked out to the gills with magic gear.” Her voice got a little desperate, eyes rolling in different directions as she asked the next question: “What level are you guys?”

Twilight shrugged “Derpy, I don’t know, this was our first session, I didn’t even look at the leveling system. I figured it would come later and I’d look at it then.”

A steady breath managed to calm Derpy as she looked over her friend, “Okay, you're a spellcaster right? What’s your most powerful spell?”

A smile spread across Twilight’s face. She might have just been an apprentice, but she was told she showed great promise. “Magic missile!” she said proudly.

Derpy blinked, then sat down calmly with a sigh “Twilight, don’t take this the wrong way, but we’re all completely and hopelessly screwed. You’re level two at best, and we don’t have time to find a way for you guys to level.”

Twilight shook her head and approached Derpy in protest “Derpy, Princess Celestia is in trouble. We came all the way here to save her so we could get through this game. It doesn’t matter what obstacles in the way, we can’t turn back.” She turned about and moved over to a shattered window, glass crunching under her hooves. “I was hoping to infiltrate the goblins here and get some information out of them, but now we’re back to square one anyway. Maybe we can figure out something stronger or find some items on the way, but we need to get Celestia out of there goblins are vicious, vile little creatures.”

“The goblins told me they brought her to a cave near here. I know exactly where to go. But I’m not about to go get you guys killed.” Derpy looked away grimly “Starsoul Knights have a special power. They can destabilize their soul so that when they die they explode and do a lot of damage to whatever killed them. It’s a last ditch move, but I can use it on whatever’s keeping Celestia locked up. If we’re lucky it’s just in the game and I’ll be fine once it ends.”

Twilight looked on, horrified, “What? No! Derpy you’re not turning into some equine bomb to go suicidal on me. We’re going. -All of us- and we’re all going to make it out through alive. However strong you are, you’re stronger with friends at your back.”

An affectionate smile was shot at Twilight before Derpy nodded. “We’ll try Twilight. Let’s get everypony together.”

It wasn’t long before they found each other again, meeting up at what in the real world was the Apple family orchard. Derpy raised a questioning eye in surprise as Pinkie hauled the welcome wagon with her. But a quick look at the other ponies caused her questions to be stilled in her throat.

Derpy set her armor aside and looked over the group quietly. “Here’s the thing guys...you all skipped a major section of the campaign. The bottom line is, the goblins brought Princess Celestia up to a cave at the edge of the mountains, but the party was supposed to be level seven when they got here, I don’t like our odds. From what I’ve gathered you guys are level two at best-”

“Level one.” Pinkie quickly corrected before going back to listening intently.

“Great...” Derpy’s eyes closed, “Level one, so if we’re going to to go in we’ll need some sort of plan.”

Twilight’s stomach turned as a suggestion was quickly made, and of course it was made by Pinkie. “That’s an easy one, we loot the town for valuables.” The barn went silent as everypony turned to Pinkie, well, everypony but Fluttershy. Fluttershy had found the hose and started spraying down Derpy’s armor.

“Pinkie!” Twilight scolded, those aren’t our things. Not to mention how badly mangled the town was. “We can’t just go picking through the town stealing everyone’s stuff.”

A confused look passed over Pinkie’s face as she watched Twilight. “Don’t be crazy Twilight, it’s not stealing, it’s loot. There’s bound to be bodies out there, we need to loot the bodies.”

Twilight felt a knot clench in her stomach as she looked on aghast at the suggestion. “Pinkie, a lot of goblins and even some ponies died in the battle down there. How can you so calmly suggest we pick through the belongings of the dead for their stuff?”

Pinkie looked around the room, looking to each of her friends with a frown, and finally to Derpy. Derpy coughed a few times and pushed Fluttershy away, water dripping from her mane down the rest of her soaking wet body. “Thanks Fluttershy, now stop it.” She muttered, then joined the rest of them in conversation “Twilight, it’s not exactly a pleasant thing to do...but we’re trying to save Princess Celestia and we’re way behind. If we can get a few serious potions or scrolls of healing...I’m sure anypony would want us to have things if it’ll help us find the princess.”

“That’s what I meant!” Pinkie insisted as Twilight lowered her head. With silent assent Twilight agreed, and Pinkie bounced out the door “My perception score’s pretty high! Applejack, yours isn’t bad either, you should loot too!” the pony rambled on insanely.

After Pinkie had bounced out Fluttershy gently turned off the hose, raising her head somberly to look at the rest of the group “C-Can we at least take the time to bury everyone anyway? Well... everyone we can?”

Comments

[NeoNagasaki]

1419554
Praise Bahamut, the silence was driving me mad, thank you.

(I also hope her ship was a chekov's gun that we're going to see again in the future.) .....well after you said that it is.

(I hope you touch on Fluttershy's 'nature is cruel' dilemma again.) When I was deciding on the story I went through several story arcs each relating on one pony. The second strongest was Fluttershy coming to terms with the clash between what nature is and how it's presented in the show. I felt that I had a stronger story elsewhere though, I think Fluttershy will be running away from the problem, not dealing with it head on. I want to try to address the issue where I can, but ultimately there's only so much room in each act and I need to set up the main plot of the story, sorry.

(t's a little disconcerting how the POV shifts from chapter) Granted, but I didn't want to make any one pony the star of the story, I wanted them to all have their moments. You know, like the movie Alien, you don't know who the star is till the end. (and sometimes in the chapters) What? No I don't, my....*looks* Crap, you're right...I'd better fix that.

(Otherwise, I'd suggest taking a look at some of your conversations. You don't need a 'she muttered' or 'she said' equivalent after each sentence) I...I don't know any other way, but I'll work on it.

(I hope you're keeping track of their character sheets)....ummm...Well now I am.

(and which system are you using? Pathfinder, 4e?) Pathfinder, although homebrew to account for ponies.

(P.S. When are they going to level up?) Around the end of the chapter after the one I just posted.

[Norwest]

Yay for an update!
First, my impressions/critique:
I re-read chapter 8, and it looks like you made several edits to help with the 'show not tell' thing, and it flows a lot nicer now. , this chapter also flows really well, with your chosen POV. I liked that you skipped the travel part and tossed us straight into Ponyville, though a reminder at the end of the last chapter that they weren't in Ponyville still would have been nice, mostly due to the serial nature of the fic - I'd forgotten over the past week that the Apple clan wasn't just outside Ponyville in the game world.

My biggest critique with this chapter is the use of fuck by all the characters - it's jarring, and broke my suspenders of disbelief for a moment. I know not everyone is a fan of swapping our buck for fuck, which I can respect, since they've all just re-grown up in a grimdarkish world. Even if you decide to still use it, it was repetitive. The profanity I usually read more along the lines of 'ponyfeathers' 'horseapples' or 'bloody hells' or 'by Celestia/Luna's beard/mane/flaming orgasms/whatever' (Kkat's Fallout : Equestria is a prime example of wonderfully done pony profanity; I'll see you in a couple of weeks if you start reading it). Fuck is a crude, jolting word, and casual use, really diminishes it's impact. If you use it regularily, what are you going to gave the characters say later when you get to a classic "Oh. Fuck." moment when the bone-dragon lich - that's a level 30 uber-monster - rears up from its undead slumber before the girls could stop the summoning ritual?

Back on topic, in my opinion, the use here: "This wasn’t the rampant chaotic destruction she had first suspected, but a deliberate well orchestrated plan to fuck everything up one step at a time", is especially unwarranted, and kinda lazy, and if it was Twilight thinking it, I don't think we've seen here swear yet - so it's jarring. "This wasn’t the chaotic rampage she had first suspected, but a deliberatly orchestrated plan to methodically tear the town to pieces." is my suggested alternative.

[Norwest]

OKay, comment the second: where I actually talk about plot points!

First off, poor, angry angry Derpy. I have to wonder if it's her father's shade that's running the GM cube, or if it's another big bad, a la the Nightmare. Having her start of where her campaign with her father left off instead of re-living her life is what I assumed happened, and I hope someone asks about her past next chapter to confirm whether she re-grew up here of if she appeared at the moment the actual game started. And I'm also going to call out her father's death as a chekov's gun, that's going to go off a few chapters down. I hope so, at least. "cause if all the character sheets got pulled in, presumably here Father's did as well...

I quite like the moral dichotomy you have going on between Pinkie (don't be silly, it's all just a game! Looting the bodies is no problem!) who's acting your average joe at the table rolling dice, and the rest of the Mane 6, who are all struggling to match up this world's required actions and morals to the ethics the originally grew up with - players who have to take a long look at their choices and truly role-play, heh. I hope you touch more on that for each of them in the future. Twilight especially seems to be struggling with this, though Rainbow Dash and Applejack seem to have a solid handle on it and will do whatever's required. Rarity seems conflicted as well, though will also do what's required. Fluttershy... you havn't really touched on her thoughts much since the were-pony execution scene, and I'm not quite sure just how much grimdark she's soaked up, if any at all.

Thanks for the update, hope to seem more soon!