Act 1: Grim Twilight
Grimstar the Black examined the three apprentice heroes before him in the courtyard of his wizard’s tower. They were an undisciplined and rowdy bunch of scoundrels, but he had high hopes for their futures. Truly, was he not the same, in his own youth? Were his friends not equally unruly, even at the peak of their skills?
Once again, the wizard remembered the great tragedy which had split his own party asunder and scattered its members to the far corners of the land. The return of their prodigal companion had been both unexpected and disastrous. Sadly, their quest for the Dragon King would remain unfinished forevermore, as even the Gods themselves had abandoned them. He furrowed his dark brow, banishing the bleak reminiscences from his mind. Striking the rocky ground forcefully with his staff, he gained the young ones’ attentions.
“Lo, novice adventurers,” he said, “It is time to begin your training!”
---
“Okay,” said Twilight, setting up the DM screen, “we need to make your characters.” Spike was in Canterlot on official business, so she decided to take over Dungeon Master responsibilities herself. The three girls sat on the rug in front of her, acting unusually quiet and attentive. Fluttershy sat on the couch nearby, happy just to watch for now. Twilight shuffled through her old character sheets, glad she hadn’t had the heart to throw them out. “First things first, what should we name them?”
“Ummmm…” Applebloom said, trying to think of something appropriately medieval-ish, “Oh, I know! How about Apple-BOOM!”
“Yeah!” said Scootaloo, liking the direction this was going, “And I could be SHOOT-aloo!”
“And I’ll be, uh…” Sweetie Belle thought hard, “I got it! Sweetie HE…umf!”
“You know what?” said Twilight, her hoof in Sweetie Belle’s mouth, “You all have such nice names already. Let’s just stick with those, okay?”
---
The training session had gotten off to a rocky start, but Grimstar soldiered on. Leading his young charges onwards through the hilly countryside, he decided to try appealing to their intellectual curiosity.
“You are new to these lands,” he said, “I do not wish to boast, but I am wise in the way of the warrior. Ask of me anything you like, and I shall answer you truthfully.”
“Okay, then,” said Applebloom, gamely, “What are we?”
“An excellent question,” said Grimstar, “For what indeed is the measure of a man? Is he to be judged by his birthright or more by his actions? Or is there, perhaps, a deeper level of…”
“No, I mean, why are we all pink and weird?”
“Ah,” said Grimstar, disappointed, “You speak of your nature as human beings. Although you have not yet revealed to me your racial heritage, so there may be something dwarfish or elfish about you.”
“Can’t we be ponies?” asked Sweetie Belle.
Grimstar laughed heartily, “Why would you want to? In this world, ponies are merely unintelligent beasts of burden!”
“That’s… a little messed up.” said Scootaloo, scrunching up her nose, “But I guess I’m okay with being a hoo-man.”
“Yes, I can see now that you are all full-blooded humans.” he said, quickly moving on, “Come, I shall teach you to wield a sword.” They crested the hill and made for the edge of a wild forest, its floor tangled with undergrowth.
“What’s so hard about using a sword?” asked Applebloom, struggling to keep up, “You just hold the blunt end and stick the pointy end in bad people.”
"I assure you, it will take more than that to become true warriors.” Grimstar halted the party as they came upon a path cutting through the dark woods. “Ahead is your first challenge. I will give you each a weapon, that you may learn their proper use.” The wizard magically produced armaments from his robes and presented them. “For Scootaloo, a sturdy short sword. A bow of finest yew shall go to Sweetie Bell. And last, a stout mace for Applebloom.”
"A mace?” said Applebloom, dubiously, “Can’t I wield somethin’ cooler?”
"I want a sword,” said Scootaloo, “that’s, like, an axe too. An axe-sword!”
“Can I have a magic wand?” said Sweetie Belle, “I wanna point at stuff and make it go ‘pew pew pew’!”
“You are sure to come across finer weaponry on your journey. For now, these will do.” Grimstar patiently reassured the heroes. He pointed ahead, into the dusky gloom of the wood. “Behold, the first enemy on which you will prove your mettle!” There, in a small clearing dimly lit by the thin columns of light coming through the forest canopy, a small, blue-green gelatinous creature awaited them. It gurgled at them menacingly.
“That’s it?” Applebloom said skeptically, “A little jelly blob? What’s it gonna do, wiggle at us?”
“It is a creature appropriate to your level.” said the wizard.
“I kinda feel sorry for it.” said Sweetie Belle, “It doesn’t even have arms. Or… anything else.”
“YARRGH!” shouted Scootaloo, ignoring them and charging into the fray. Rushing into the clearing, she stomped the creature under her heavy leather boots, causing it to burst in a spray of blue slime. The others stared at her blankly.
“What?” she said, looking back at them, “It was comin’ right at me! You saw it!”
“Well, that’s one less a’ those things.” Applebloom said stoically. She turned to Grimstar. “What’s next?”
“Next… yes.” said the wizard with an awkward cough, “I sort of thought that would take… longer.”
---
“Uh, let’s see…” Twilight flipped frantically through her guides. The fillies eyed her quizzically.
“You can’t think of anything, can you?” said Applebloom.
Twilight eventually gave up. “No… I guess I can’t.” she sighed, “This is harder than it looks. I guess Spike was right about that.” The girls groaned in disappointment.
“Wait,” said Sweetie Belle, an idea occurring to her, “What about Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy looked up from her place on the couch. “Me?” she said, startled, “What could I do?”
“You tell us bedtime stories all the time,” Sweetie Belle persisted, “I bet you’d be a great Dungeon Master!”
“You really think so?”
“Go ahead.” said Twilight, getting up and inviting her over, “You can’t be any worse at it than I am.”
“O… okay.” said Fluttershy, taking her place behind the DM screen. “I’ll give it a try…”
I love you so much, Author
Sweetie HELL?
Yeah I said it!
as a DM of a small number of 4th Ed DnD sessions, I would like to congratulate Twilight on her humility in bowing to Spike in this matter. DM'ing is hard. Lotta fun but twice as much work as just playing.
Having said that, I heartily encourage anypony interested to give it a try. There are even published adventures that provide full backstory and stage props.
Excellent story idea and well executed, btw. Carry on.
Loving the story so far, also great idea with derpy getting reality and fantasy screwed up.
Oh, Twilight...
I started just like you... and now I run 3 different games a week.
And I really want to start a Ponyfinder game. But my group is kinda hesitant.
>I sort of thought that would take… longer
I feel Twilight's pain here.
Scootaloo has the makings of a fine fighter!
(Wonderful story!)
9758 You sir, are a bad-ass
So this is where i end up when i can't play DnD? Acceptable
good story so far. X3 love it.
Fluttershy as DM? Prepare to die... To overloads of cuteness.
I saw this kind of thing once. Me and a group were in a dungeon and there was a duck in the middle of the room. The rogue picked it up and the duck transformed into a demon of the eighth circle. Yeah, we were on a quest to foil the plans of a sect of priests, mages and disciples of Mephistopheles. We neat all died but I kinda had an ace in my sleeve: a scroll of anti-magi. I was a Mage and so were all the sect members but I did have a double sword and the appropriate exotic weapon skill and I wiped out every remaining members of the sect in a single round since they were all in the same bundle. Choppy choppy goes the mage with the OP weapons and skills. After this was done, I invoked Mephistopheles myself and I had him literally in a physical and magical stranglehold. I demanded him to give us each a bag of holdings filled with enough diamonds to be the average weight of a well built man unless he would like to see himself turned into a mindless slave (aah, the joys of mindrape) suchpleasent threat to hold against a god
160381 OH GOD!!!!! WHY HAD I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT!!!!!! my DM would have some OP NPC come out of nowhere and gank us all though and steal ALL the stuff PLUS anything we had before that
I thought Scootaloo was crazy for going right up to a slime and stomping on it with her boot, but I guess it worked.
And Twilight's right. There's a lot more work that goes into being a DM than players think.
To shire folk
You think being a dungeon master is hard try being both a player and a dungeon master at the same time.
Eyy hey now your thinking like a fighter