Return to Equestria

by David Silver

49 - Big Shot

"David!" came the excited cry of one of the local stallions that visited the store as he hurried in. "Look!" He had one hoof up, phone attached, but it was hard to see what he meant as he was waving it with way too much excitement.

Joy put a hoof in the way of the flailing arm, causing it to stop dead as she chuckled. "Hold it still if you want anypony to actually see it."

"Right, sorry." He sat and held up the phone for David and Joy both, bringing up his other hoof to press at the screen and get the video to start from the beginning.

An announcer began talking in a mysteriously forceful way about a world in peril.

Joy cocked a brow. "Woah, wait, gimmie the address of that." She poked the pause button. A few moments later, she had it up on one of the big TVs for everypony there to watch at the same time. Most turned their attention to it as it played, the advertisement for the next game in the hit series, featuring snippets of David in strange and exotic places, delivering his lines.

David laughed nervously. "Hey... That came out better than I thought it would."

A pity the ponies around him were too busy clapping and stomping in a cheer at what they had just seen.

Joy waved both hooves over the room. "You can be sure I'll get that the day it's released, if not ahead of time."

The cheering only grew louder. Pippster waved excitedly at David. "Are you going to be in the game?"

"I wasn't told I'd be? But I wasn't told I wouldn't be either?" He shrugged helplessly. "More up to them than me, but they didn't have me record game lines... I think..." He had recorded a lot of lines. Were some for a game? "I actually hope not."

Pippster started. "Why not? I'd love to be in a game! Why wouldn't you want to be in the game?"

David turned both hands on himself, to his chest. "For one, I'm not a voice actor. If they use those lines there, I may just die of shame. That commercial was already pretty epically campy."

"Epically awesome," countered Pippster, bouncing up and down. "You were perfect."

Joy set a hoof on his head, preventing further jumps. "Easy there. We're our own worst critic. I hate the sound of my own voice, so I get it. Still, that was... amazing! Congratulations." Other voices of encouragement rose up around the room, joining Joy.

David waved at all the smiling ponies, but also slipped free of the attention. "Got other work to do." And he fled upstairs.

Joy shook her head. "Silly. Alright, let's get back to it." And thus she resumed monitoring game time for the others.

Upstairs, he sat down with the book and nudged at it. "Hmmph." It was a fine game, by his estimation, but it was 95% narrative. The dice were there because clickety-clackety math rocks were fun, but working with or around them was very much not the focus of things. It didn't use a grid, relying entirely on the theatre of the mind.

Which one of them didn't even have!

No, not the kind of game he liked, nor the one that'd fit the situation. David pushed the book away with a grunt. "Let's jump in the deep end." He fetched a different book, for the game he was playing with Gerome. Sure, it had more rules, which he was alright with, but... "Any game can be played with a kid depending on who's running it." And he was running it! He was sure he could manage it.

"Best of all..." It did use a grid, and expected maps. There'd be a solid thing to see and touch and think about, instead of focusing entirely on waking dreams. "Not that there's anything wrong with those." He retreated into his room, where a computer had been setup for typing on.

With furious click-clacks, he put together the most basic of intro blurbs for later reading. "Time to seduce a new person into the wonders of TTRPGs!" He clapped his hands together, rubbing them with a bit of a goofy smile. "This'll be fun. First..." He saved and closed the document. "Accessories."

He grabbed his phone and pressed a contact. A few moments later, it picked up. "Allo?" It was Gerome. "Sorry, but you caught me at work, what's wrong?"

Ah, right, work. That was a thing some people did. "Sorry. If you're in the middle of something, you can hang up, not trying to be a pain."

"N-no! I have a moment. What's up?"

David could imagine the worried look on the poor pony's face. "Just a little thing. Where do you suggest getting miniatures and maps and things for a proper imagining game?"

"Oh! That sounds fun actually." The tension was defeated instantly. "How about we meet after work and I'll take you to my favorite shop for that kind of thing?"

David cited the name of the place he'd been going to. "I didn't see a lot of materials there, but they had books, and dice."

"They're not dedicated to this kind of game. Good enough, but there are better. After work." And he hung up.

David was cross a moment, but he had given permission to do exactly that. "Such is life." He descended into the shop and its loudly supportive ponies. He helped out with running the shop and hanging out in, what he saw, a fine way to while away the rest of the day, at least until his phone buzzed.

It was Gerome, with a map coordinate. David tapped it and instructions popped into being, showing the way to get there. "I'm off to do some shopping!"

"Get me something," teased Joy.

"I plan to." He left her, confused and surprised, and got to walking with a purpose free of the store and down the street.

"Hey." Someone grabbed him by the arm, and it wasn't a hoof, which was odd. It was a human ."Hey. Man, it's been... fricken ages since I saw another one of us."

David cringed and backed out of the line of traffic. "Woah, um, hey there." Yep, human, caucasian, male. Looked like a bit of a nerd? "Brony?"

"Y-yeah. You too?" The stranger laughed. "Just kinda... here?"

"That can happen..." David considered his competitor. Well, he was no longer the only human at all... "I'm David, by the way."

"Paul." He shrugged. "So... how are you surviving?"

"Got a job." David extended a finger. "Started writing. "A second finger. "And got another job." A third finger. "Busy times, but good times. You?"

"I just got here... I have no idea what I'm doing. But I don't want to sleep on the streets."

"I imagine not." David considered properly. "Get to the Pegasus city, I forget the name... Not Cloudsdale.. Anyway, get there and look for Pegasoft. They'll be super happy to have a human that isn't already hooked up with things."

"Really?" His expression brightened with hope for the future. "That's a great tip. Uh, not to be a pain... but I really got nothing."

Right. "Got a phone?"

"Nothing." He dug out a phone anyway, showing it off.

It was a human phone, from the human lands. "Try turning that on. It may work, or not. We won't know until you try."

"Point." He got it clicked on with a flash screen of its manufacturer and the carrier that was a world away. "Almost... almost..." And finally a desktop. "And..." His eyes were locked at where bars would appear... and two appeared. "Hey! Great."

"Fantastic." David dug out his own. "You got some kinda money app?"

"Venmo?"

"We can try." David shrugged. "Pull it up.

Soon David was able to scan the QR Code displayed and send some bits to Paul. "Enough to survive the journey. Maybe just get a ride there? There are carriages."

"Thanks again! I'll check that out." Looking far less worried for his immediate future, Paul set off with adventure in his eyes and a swinging in his arms.

"Good deed of the day, complete." David made an electronic song of victory and resumed his journey to where Gerome had given the location to. It was a game store, but not like the one he had been visiting. This one was clearly aimed at, well, gamers, tabletop gamers and war gamers. Adventurous signs and posters were everywhere as he walked in. Ponies rolled many-sided dice and storytellers hid behind their screens, plotting the doom of the others at the table.

"This... is perfect." He looked around a moment, ah, there was Gerome, waving at him. It wasn't hard to find David in a crowd of ponies, as it turned out. He hurried over to his equine friend. "Hey. This place looks great!"

"Because it is." Gerome did a little dance in place more befitting a pony half his age. "So what did you need it for? You have what you need for the game already."

"For playing, and even then." David wandered over to a display case that was full of ponies and the various monsters ponies imagined existed. "Nice." And... "Hey." He tapped at the case. "They got a few humans."

"One of many options." Gerome came up beside David. "I know a few games that borrowed the idea. Those are not, technically, humans."

"Technically?" They had two arms and two legs. They looked pretty fantasy human from where David was standing. "How are they not?"

"Legalities," sang out Gerome with a snicker. "They weren't made by Pegasoft, so they're not called humans. Any similarities is 100% coincedence." He tapped a hoof on the display. "You wanted one?"

"Hi there." A mare came up on them with a smile. "Looking to get some figures?" She seemed to notice David fully just then. "Hey! What are you doing outside the case?!" She giggled at her own joke. "Seriously, I heard about you. Nice commercial."

Shoot, he was becoming a celebrity, of a minor sort. "Hey there. Actually, I did want to get some figures, and map supplies. I want to run a game for some friends and I want it to look nice. Can you hook me up?"

The mare clapped her hooves. "Of course I can, or they misnamed me."

Gerome waved at her. "This is Carty, or as she prefers, Cartogropher."

Carty tipped the hat on her head. "Nice to meetcha! I hear you're livening up Joy's place. What's it take to get a share? If you like imagining games, we got room for a human too."

Actually... "If I ran my games here, could I borrow the map pieces and figures?"

"Of course." She clip-clopped her hooves with growing excitement. "The least I can offer. Hey, wait, you like imagining games?"

"I'm a writer. I plan to publish an expansion." He pointed to where the book it was based on sat. "For that."

Her eyes followed his pointing. "Seriously? Wild." She went over and grabbed the book, bringing it over. "This one?" She turned the book left and right.

"That one," he agreed. "It's not that far off from what I already knew. It has a pony slant on everything, but that's hardly surprising."

"Fancy that," she allowed with a wry smile, looking to Gerome instead. "Jerry!" A nickname. "You know him?"

Gerome nodded. "He's in my game," he announced with obvious pride. "And you plan to run one?"

"I plan to. With Joy and On... Onyx, right." He looked quite happy about getting that name. "I'll teach them how to play and have a good time."

Gerome clapped lightly. "I want to join. I'll be the one that you don't have to explain every rule to."

"Tempting." Having an experienced player could be nice... "But are you alright joining a newbie game with newbies making silly mistakes without harping on them about it?"

"Hm..." Convenient distraction. "That one looks a little like you."

Author's Note:

A new table forms, at a ttrpg game store! Everypony wins, right? Especially the typos.

By the way, want a spot in the Silver Verse here? Grab the background pony tier.

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

Yesssss, throw the experty to the newbiessss.

Freshhh meaatsss my pressciousss.

[howard035]

Oooh, I wonder what the favored class bonuses on "Hairless Simians" are.