Sudden D&D was quite jarring, specially with the same numbers, but interesting nonetheless. You get bonus points for Equestria using a sane measuring system and healthcare

Anon, beating the competition by far, actually is aware and willing to go to a psychiatrist. This is so damn rare to see!

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As a Canadian, I'd feel weird incorporating a privatised/corporate healthcare system into the usually-utopian setting of Equestria. As for D&D, I've actually incorporated it a bit into previous stories of mine. Admittedly it's usually not as blatant.

And yeah, a self-aware Anon is a bit of a rarity, isn't it?

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Anon being fine with seeking mental help would be another obvious sign of maturity to everyone but Twilight.

Twilight really is too incompetent to be a princess. Celestia explained the situation and she refused to believe it simply because she didn't understand it. This is a pony who knows an adult changeling can look like a child, so metamorphic changes shouldn't be beyond logic for her. And if she had done her thinking properly, she not only would have understood the differnce in calenders, she would have realized that not all species age at the same rate.

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To be fair if an 8 years old started telling you how she's actually an adult alien of the kind that grows up, learns as an adult, procreates and dies by the time they're 15 anyone would be hard pressed to accept that easily.

Hell, an 8 years old, considering the pony 150 pony years lifespan, it's equivalent to a 1.5 years old in ours, considering 80 human years. Imagine a toddler trying to tell you they were sexually active and an engineering student?

Onward rolls the Friendship Express... let's avoid derailing, shall we?

I see you are using Dungeons and Dragons spells for the story.

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Just borrowing a few of the rituals.

soo.... would celestia tecnincly be anons new mother? if so will this come up?

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Nah, if anything you could say that Anon is closer to a child of magic [and Harmony]. I don't believe that they would be ready to accept a pony as an adoptive mother; they value their memories of their original mother too much. She might accept guardianship from Twilight, or at the very least adoptive sisterhood, but nopony, not even Celestia could take her place in Anon's mind.

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magic being a supportive mother by giving anon the means to light things on fire.
All hail princess anon! Alicorn of magic!

I love how you're characterizing Anon. Also I like the D&D references. Magic that everyone can use is my favorite type of magic system.

Rituals and the explanation for them are directly pulled from dungeons & dragons along with the component pouch. Although I wonder if the component pouch can spawn things as it can in d&d.

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Nah, in this context you'd still need to possess the individual components to put in the pouch. That'd be too easy, otherwise. Mystra help them if they wanted to attempt 'Find Familiar'. I've never been clear on just how much charcoal is involved in 10gp worth of charcoal, incenses and herbs, so I can only imagine how much would be needed, although I imagine the incense would probably be the most expensive component.

The day Anon learns Commune will be a day the alicorns will hate.

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To be fair, Twilight is known to reject reality that she can't comprehend and substitute it with her own. She was given information by her mentor, decided it was wrong because she didn't understand a force nobody has understood for a thousand years, and then came up with her own flawed theory and data to support it because she is "Purple Smart" and is a "genius".

Thanks for the chapter

I'm many jurisdictions, poker is considered more of a game of skill than gambling, as evidenced by our protagonist. But going south is still a dick move.

Your version of Anon is quite intriguing. I'm used to Anon being a sightly dumb, meme spouting man trying to get the girls.
This Anon barely used the term "yeet" and seems quite intelligent, and then there's the entire non-binary thing going on. I wonder if this Anon would ever be interested in romance, or are they completely asexual.

I'm confused as to Anon's previous upbringing. He says he doesn't know metric, which makes me think he lived in the USA before. But then he used the term "chemist" instead of pharmacy, which makes me think British colony or Europe. Or maybe you (the author) are doing that on purpose to obscure where Anon grew up.

I like that there is runic and ritual magic that everyone (every creature?) can learn. It might explain more of what Pinkie is doing, or Pinkie could still just be Pinkie.
But then, what has AJ, Big Mac, and all the other earth ponies been doing this entire time? Refusing to learn this magic out of spite? It seems like Applebloom would be all over learning runic/ritual magic especially while trying to get her cutie mark.

I also can imagine Anon would be bored out of her mind trying to socialize with other children. Regardless, I can't wait to see what happens in school.

Also, "time-out crate" brings a chuckle every time read it.

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At least until she spends what would be, to us, thirty years being raised by Twilight. With a young and plastic brain. If Twiggles gets her act together she might become a second mom yet.
Sure, if anon had kept an adult brain that wouldn't be the case, but I'm hard pressed to believe things can't change by spending that long being a child/adolescent in care of someone that cares. If, and that's a very relevant if, Twiggles does start acting like a mother in at most a couple years.
Not going to replace their mom, but they can become a second one. Although that does rely on Anon getting over their trauma of being touched enough for physical affection to be a possibility. And considering how touchy-feely ponies are, it will be necessary if Anon is ever to have a normal life.

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It can be some very expensive charcoal, depending on the tree it's from. But I am guilty too of limiting how much of that my players had

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True that. She has a step learning curve ahead of her, let's hope she can surmount that challenge.

"An absence of a rule from this list is not an invitation to give reason for it to be added."

This addendum to the rules gave me a small chuckle for unknown reasons. Not completely unknown, I'm sure part of the reason was the phrasing.

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Only time will tell where 'romance' is concerned.

As far as the chemist is concerned, it might be a bit of column A, and a bit of column B. It might also just be my use of British English bleeding through. That said, I think Aussies also call it a chemist. It also could hint at the sheer range of her travels. Their might've even crossed the pond at some point. That said, a lot of Anon's surprisingly limited education has been what their mother could teach them, and what they picked up in books later on.

To a certain extent, runic and rituals aren't as common because of disinformation and the magic itself falling out of vogue as more simplified unicorn magics and forms of enchantment were introduced. Runic magic was still well known to be a unified magic, but unicorns who wanted a monopoly would have gone on campaigns to discourage other races inside Equestria from learning it, either through outright lies or harassment until other races lost interest. Similarly, rituals were 'demoted' to witchcraft.

Not to mention that runic magic can be incredibly dangerous when not properly trained and researched. Something that I've not actually touched on is just how Anon had been getting with their ignition runes. An individual rune is powerful, sure, but without the proper operators accompanying it, it can effectively become Russian roulette. Without their sheer spite/willpower directing the ignition effect, they could very well have ignited themself or everything around them. This is the main reason behind Rule 8. Another reason is that one could also basically create a magic vacuum from a spell if a single directional operator is flipped. Just imagine, you inscribe a perfect shield spell, but the spell draws in the ambient magic from within the 'protected area' without any sort of magical battery to power it.

And yeah, Anon's gonna have some issues spending most of their day around foals when by their reckoning they identify more in line with Twilight and Co.'s agegroup.

"Unloved child", no wonder Celestia and everyone else were so willing to change Nemo's name to Anonymous. A child, by their standards, having that as a name would be horrifying.

The part about ponies being some super long-lived beings is an odd concept but I'm fine with the creatures of the show not following along time in the same way humans would.

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As has been shown after a while this version of Anon was traveling a lot so it's possible that they picked up terms from all around the country and internationally.

Interesting take on "Human turned pony" trope so far. I like Anon's personality of being neither a doormat nor an unbearable asshole

Something from Entry 1... About how she like to play adult... Was not Twilight the same when she was a filly? Trying to read adult books when she could

The story is good but I noticed many 'cancelled' stories in your profile, I just hope this don't become one of those

My own ground rules for the rest of them were much simpler. Don't touch me without permission or unexpectedly. Try to avoid raising your voice. Although I recognise the importance of sugar to ponies, it does not change the fact that nine times out of ten I'd prefer fruit over candy. Even when you send me to school with foals, do not expect me to become super-involved with them.

If they are going to put terms and conditions on me I would do the same to them, including escape clauses, and restriction limitations (I.E. I cannot be restricted or otherwise inhibited from learning anything that is available to learn for a 23 year old earthpony) I would also include a clause that states any violation of the terms of this contract by any party concerned in the contract will emediatly void said contract as well as any legal powers or obligations held within. It would also include a monthly stipend. And exceptions

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You could also put the low spread of runic magic down to cultural differences. Equestria seems a society of "enough is enough" compared to our world's "you always need more." Where we develop faster trains, faster cars, aircraft and whatnot to travel faster, Equestria is content to just take the steam train or an air chariot, despite having access to teleportation and portals. Where we optimize our farming with machinery and ever greater tracts of land, Equestria is content to farm by hoof. Heck, it's been a plotpoint in several episodes that Equestrians by and large reject industrialization, instead preferring to craft with care and time rather than mass produce stuff (Personally I put this down to cutie marks. Every pony is, in a way, an artisan, and being a little cog in a big industrial complex stifles creativity and expression.)

So while runic magic is a thing, most ponies won't be studying it because, well, why bother? Most of them have no intention of becoming spellcasters, and they can do what they want to do without it, so no need to study on a magic for the sake of having magic.

This chapter just tanks my enthusiasm for the story. If he just goes ahead and says that all these unwanted things he doesn't like are actually fine it removes the conflict from the premise and with it what made him sympathetic.

the use of dnd was...not a good choice for flow or trust in your anility to come up with an intetesting story, but other than that narritive speed bump I'm still enjoying it.

Idk if it's mentioned before but is a day equal to 24 hours in this universe? Is 1 minute = 60 seconds?

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Yes, that much is the same at the very least.

Still, I tentatively placed my hoof and on Twilight's hoof and gripped it with my hoof field.

"In recent years, identities outside the historical gender binary have become more commonly accepted, and some parents have allowed their foals to decide how they identify. In the interest of seeing that all ponies have their needs met, has Anonymous made any indication regarding such?"

Oh bother...

"Stuff you in a crate and ship you off to Abu Dhabi!" I got that reference. I'm happy I got that reference.

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Daily reminder that Applejack wanted to go to the Gala to raise enough money for her granny's hip surgery

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Fair, I actually forgot about that because it's been so long since I've seen Season 1.

This very well done!

Twilight paused and seemed to think about it. "Well, I know that Unseen Servant would be very useful for an earth-pony or pegasus pony in everyday life, and if you're ever out in the wilds, Purify Food and Drink is indispensable. Other than that, Locate Animals or Plants, Talk to Animals, Water Walk, and Water Breathing are all rituals that could be considered useful. Although if you plan to make regular use of ritual magic, we might need to get you a component pouch." She paused, and then beamed at me. "I could actually demonstrate one on the way to the schoolhouse later. It's called Prancer's Floating Disk!"

Aw man I can't wait for her to learn Manenkaiden's Magnificent Mansion and Ottavio's Irresistible Dance

1. Don't go off with strangers unless Twilight or Starlight explicitly state they can be trusted.
2. Don't wander off without telling anyone where you're going.
3. The spooky Everfree forest south of town is off-limits and the closest you are allowed to go near it is Fluttershy's shack. If the place is so evil and cursed, why hasn't anyone just burned it down?
4. No hitting, biting, kicking, or immolating ponies, no matter how much they upset you. She didn't like it when I suggested that rule was void if my personal space was violated or I felt threatened.
5. Don't take candy from strangers.
6. Just because Pinkie Pie can do it, doesn't mean you can or should.
7. The answer to tribalist behaviour is to walk away, not fire. Horse racism has a term, go figure.
8. You are forbidden from studying, practicing, or using any runic magic without unicorn supervision.
9. If Twilight is out, Starlight's in charge.
10. If both are out, leave a note and go to Rarity, Fluttershy, or Applejack's place, and they're in charge.
11. Pinkie Pie, despite being old enough to babysit, is not to be considered a responsible adult in anything where one is required. The damage expenses could likely be astronomical next time.
12. Swearing will be punished with soap and/or the Time-Out Crate. I don't know why she's keeping that thing to use as a threat! Is she gonna send me to horse Abu Dhabi?
13. An absence of a rule from this list is not an invitation to give reason for it to be added.

good rules for Ponyville in general

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As a Canadian, I'd feel weird incorporating a privatised/corporate healthcare system into the usually-utopian setting of Equestria.

But you did it anyway? Talk about eye candy.

First proof she's no ordinary earth pony: nopony would be that willing to sit on a transparent floating disk like that! 🙃
Guess there wouldn't be all that much time worrying about gender characteristics when vagabond.

I actually rolled my eyes when I saw we were doing D&D spells wholesale, complete with the S, V, M explanation. Like someone else mentioned, it does not exactly inspire confidence.

incidentally, Tenser's floating disk is an interesting spell to me because it's explicitly designed for carrying treasure out of dungeons. If you look at the rules closely you can tell they tried to close every loophole for having fun with it they could think of, but a spell of this nature is just begging for exploitation, don't you agree?