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5: Spike's Campaign- Kicking butt and taking names

Forge World: The Full Metal Fantasy Role Playing Game

By: Zelkova48

Edited by the ever talented DetectivePingles

Chapter 5: Kicking Butt and Taking Names

* * *

“Oh my gosh, this cinnamon roll is so good!” Spike shouted as he violently munched upon the sugary pastry like pack of rabid hyenas before a fresh antelope carcass “So anyway, I got the field all set up” he pointed to the rather large looking playmat before the girls. There was a scaled model of a field complete with a tiny little house that was painted and crafted with extreme details and intricacies “Pretty cool eh?”

The grass looked and felt like grass, there were clear signs of wear and tear on the little house, and there was also a stream of fire and smoke made out of what looked like painted cotton. To make things even more frighteningly similar to their current fictional situation of distress, there were detailed models of each of the mane six in their alternate outfits and gear. Standing next to those models were their enemies that demanded blood and vengeance. Mostly blood though.

Each one of the models were placed in the exact same position as they were in Spike’s story. Butterfly was hidden behind the temple courtyard’s outer wall, L’ Orange and Twilight Sparkplug were hidden back in the treelines, Rainbow Blast was hovering above the unknowing guild members, and the Cap along with Elusive were hidden in the shadows. Though they are not officially engaged in combat yet, they had the element of surprise on their side.

“Wow, is that me? ” Twilight asked as she examined her tiny self “This looks incredible! How do you do it Spike?”

“Paint, a few bits and pieces of a pony miniature, modeling glue, some imagination and half a day” Spike said with pride “You’d be surprised at how many conversions I’ve made while you’re away on another one of your little adventures. Other than that, let’s get back to the fight at hand” he pointed to the mat “So there are four Thanites left being held hostage by their mage hunter captors. You got to stop them before the rest get executed. It’s now time for the initiative round!”

“YEAH! ...what’s the initiative round?” Pinkie asked.

“It’s suppose to tell us which order we’re going to fight in” replied Twilight.

“Oh... Let’s do it!” exclaimed Pinkie with a spastic throw of her die. The die bounced all over the room, darting off almost every surface and landing onto the table, somehow without breaking anything in the library. Her big blue eyes then peering over her number.

“Hmm... let’s see. The sequence of pi, equal to the square root of the pythagorean theorem divided by zero to the nth power of the T, multiplied by X men...” she continued to babble on with her own sense of mathematical logic that would probably make Einstein and Copernicus roll in their graves. Thankfully Spike glanced over and told everyone Pinkie’s number before the sun went down.

“Girls, it’s a 15. Don’t try to think too hard about it” Spike deadpanned, his face entirely neutral as he said it “Alright, what about the rest of you?” he peered over the rest of the color coded die and adding up all the numbers “Alrighty then, the order is going to be...”

1. Stallion Boss

Career: Mage Hunter/ Gun Mage

2. Gryphon Thug

Career: Mage Hunter/ Soldier

3. Rainbow Blast

Career: Skyterror/ Stormcrafter

4. L’ Orange De Apple

Career: Guardian/ Riflemen

5. Captain Pinkie Pirate

Career: Pirate/ Alchemist

6. Elusive

Career: Spy/ Aristocrat

7. Stallion thug

Career: Mage Hunter/ Gunslinger

8. Necrolyte Butterfly

Career: Investigator/ Thanite Advocate

9. Twilight Sparkplug

Career: Arcane Engineer/ Mechanikal Engineer

10. Stallion Thug

Career: Mage Hunter/ Riflemen

11. Diamond Dog Thug

Career: Mage Hunter/ Myrmidon

12. Diamond Dog Thug

Career: Mage Hunter/ Miner

“By default, the boss always goes first in this scenario and he is very peeved about the fact that one of his teammate’s head is part of the scenery now. But because Applejack struck first from beyond the shadows, and because the rest of you are all hidden from sight, that means we go to a surprise round instead of the average battle. That means, other than Applejack and Fluttershy of course, the rest of you girls get one free attack off of them”

“Which mean it’s time for Rainbow Blast to shine!” Rainbow Dash announced “I’m going to try and get the boss!”

“Okay, right now your character model is out of view because of your subspecies’ unique ability to fly. That allows you to pull off an aerial attack, which increases your chance to hit someone, but the problem is after the attack is resolved or if you miss, then you are left wide open for an attack. Just tell me what weapon you want to use and we’ll roll to see if you can hit the guy or not” said Spike.

“Let’s see how this guy likes the taste of a blasting pike!” Rainbow yelled with the throw of her die “Ha! 16, did that hit him?” she asked.

“Hmm... Yep, that’s a direct hit. Now roll for damage” said Spike. Rainbow complied and tossed her die again.

“16, did I hurt him bad or what?” Rainbow asked as Spike glanced through his tiny little booklet.

“Huh. You hit him, but you just grazed the guy...”

* * *

With the first shot fired the rest of the Broken wand’s guild members scrambled to find cover within the temple courtyard. Most hid behind the stone benches and walls of the courtyard but that did not protect them from the aerial predator above them. The Skyterror Rainbow Blast hung in the sky under the concealment of the clouds. The exact moment a leaf fell from one of the nearby trees she immediately darted out of the clouds at mach speed with her trusty blasting pike gripped tightly in her hooves.

The gentle breeze that blanketed the temple contorted into a wild whirlwind as Rainbow Blast came crashing down upon the poor unsuspecting stallion boss. However, the boss immediately realized the presence of the Skyterror but by then it was too late as the blasting pike came directly in contact with his shoulder.

The explosive head of the pike was lodged directly into the stallion’s shoulder as it broke off upon the sheer force of Rainbow’s dive bomb. Unfortunately for Rainbow Blast, the exploding head did not go off and the stallion boss now had an active charge full of high yield explosives lodged into his shoulder. The boss simply stood up and scowled at Rainbow Blast before shouting so many curse words you could have mistaken yourself to be in a bar full of gutter mouthed sailors.

“Why you dirty stinking @$$hole, no good Thanite loving f*#khead of a b*&!h, raggle fraggle baggle...” the boss shouted as his swears eventually fading into incoherent mumbling and gibberish.

* * *

“ *Gasp!* Spike! Language!” Fluttershy shouted.

“Hey, I’m just trying to make the experience feel authentic, that’s all” Spike replied with wide smug grin and a chuckle

“That’s just an excuse for ya to speak with a potty mouth ain’t it?” Applejack asked.

“ *Gasp!* how could you accuse me of such a thing Applejack?” Spike said innocently with another grin on his face “Anywho, it’s Pinkie’s turn to attack”

“YAY! IT”S PIRACY TIME” Pinkie shouted while she was wearing a set of pirate themed outfit she’d acquired somehow during the span it took for me to write this sentence “I’m gonna give one of those big meanie thugs a little party favor...”

* * *

The Captain peered from behind the building that she was hidden behind. The guild members were all completely unaware of her presence along with the others. Captain Pinkie quietly and stealthily snuck past all of them until she reached one of the stallion thugs. She could barely contain herself as she let out a little giggle for what she was about to do. She went over and tapped the thug on his shoulder. The thug turned around to see the captain with an ember bomb in her paw and a smile on her face.

“Here you go!” she exclaimed as she placed the bomb into the thugs hoof and pulled the pin. With a sly wink, she happily pranced away as she went to hide behind a nearby wall with her ears covered by her paws. This left the stallion thug with a confused look upon his face. He wanted an answer for what had just happened, until the sound of continual ticking snapped him back to reality. The thug looked down, finally noticing the bomb in his hoof, he started to cry the moment he realized what was going to happen next.

“Mommy...” was the last thing that he tearfully uttered to himself before the ticking stopped with a loud ding noise.

BOOM!

The bomb then promptly exploded within the thug’s hoof and coated the poor fellow with flames that had been treated with high amounts of magnesium and condensed phosphorus. The resulting explosion did more than just blow the stallion away. The fire that torched him alive burned far hotter and brighter than any flame could ever reach without some form of catalyst.

The blazing fire seared away all the flesh off of his bones and melted his bones into a strewn mess of his former self. His teammates only stared in horror as they watched their teammate get transformed into red and white soupy mess.

“Tee hee hee! You’re melting, you’re melting!” Captain Pinkie laughed before noticing the immediate error of her successful action.

The fire from stallion’s bubbling corpse eventually began to rage even further as it started to spread out into the grasslands and high plains that the temple was built around. In a sheer matter of second, Captain Pinkie’s idea to blow up the stallion with an incendiary bomb had horribly backfired on them, literally.

Now the group and three problems to worry about; the members of the Broken Wands, the Thanite’s safety, and escaping a raging fire that the Captain unintentionally caused. The smile on the Captain’s face slowly melted off to reveal a look of terror as her own flames roared right back at her, threatening to consume their creator.

“O-okay, not my best plan ever...” the Captain grinned sheepishly “Don’t worry, I’ll use my cutlass next time! If there is a next time that is...”

Elusive simply facehoofed herself as she witnessed the former peaceful scenery of the temple and the high plains being ignited into a humongous bonfire caused by the group’s very own diamond dog pirate captain. She winced a bit as some of the embers singed some of her ruby red coat. It might not have been as noticeable because she was all red but it still bugged her that part of her coat was now burnt.

She scowled for a moment before switching her attention back to the matter at hand while avoiding the blazing flames. She spotted her target amongst the flames, the gryphon thug that was standing in the middle of the courtyard, choking upon the smoke that rose from the earth. She narrowed his eyes upon him and readied her springblades. With a bat of her eyelashes she pushed her hoof right onto the gryphon’s back and let loose her concealed blade.

“Watch your back hon” the springblades sprang into action as Elusive’s razor sharp set of hidden knives plunged themselves directly into gryphon, going directly past all the fur and feather before stabbing his vital organs with anatomical precision. Blood from the gryphon spattered all over her ruby coat as she did so but it only made her beauty shine even further because of it.

The gryphon fell to the ground screaming as he grasped his back in pain, miraculously he was still very much alive even after having his lungs and part of his kidneys pierced like a bobby pin into a balloon. Elusive cracked a cruel smile as she experienced her victim writhing in agony “Oh my, that looked like it really hurt!”

“Grr... I’ll get you for this!” said the gryphon as he made his back up to a standing position “The next bullet’s gonna go right through your head, you bitch” he hissed with words that were dripping with venom.

“Now you wouldn’t hurt an innocent ole country gal like me would ya sugar?” Elusive teased with another bat of her lashes before turning dead serious “No, seriously. Stay down you no good murderous snake in the grass”

It was now Twilight Sparkplug’s turn to enter the fray. Even though she was in the back with L’ Orange, that didn’t mean that she couldn’t fight. With Twilight Sentinel on her side, she had something that L’ Orange’s long range cannon shield couldn’t compete with: a sentient automaton.

“Twilight Sentinel! Activate!” she shouted, and the great engine behind her whirred to life as steam vented out from his heavy boiler of an engine. Slowly, the steel head moved over to view his owner, his cold red reflective lenses narrowed upon Twilight Sparkplug. He silently waited for his owner to command him.

“Twilight Sentinel, activate hydraulic crane! Pull out one of the burning trees!” Twilight commanded. One of T. Sentinel’s eyes gleamed a bright red before letting out a loud whistle from his boiler, a sign that the command issued had been received. The rusty light engine’s crane that had been installed onto his backside came to life and grabbed the nearest tree. Within only a few seconds the tree next to L’ Orange was pulled straight from the earth and held in T. Sentine’s hydraulic crane.

“Twilight Sentinel! Command, throw object! Target, diamond dog on the left!” Twilight commanded. Another gleam and whistle bellowed from T. Sentinel as he grabbed the blazing log in front of him with his metal hands. T. Sentinel stared down the diamond dog that was several meters in front of him as he pulled his arms back. And then just like a mechanical catapult, T. Sentinel sent the burning log flying straight at the unlucky diamond dog in his sights.

The diamond dog in question was far too preoccupied with his struggle with smoke inhalation to notice that a giant flaming log was flying directly at him. The log came crashing down on top of him, splintering into thousands of tiny little charred fragments upon impact with the poor diamond dog. Even though he was just crushed by a flaming log, he stubbornly clung onto whatever life he had left as vital fluids leaked from his burned and broken body.

“Yes! Direct hit!” Twilight shouted happily from the burning treelines as T. Sentinel flexed one of his metal arms to boast his strength.

* * *

“Whoo! Engines are incredible!” Twilight shouted aloud as she broke into a giddy little dance for the success of her first attack with her light labor engine.

“Heh, I knew you would like em” said Spike as he suppressed the urge to laugh uncontrollably at Twilight’s little dance “Okay, so in the surprise round you only got one of the baddies thanks to Pinkie. But because of her ember bomb, the entire area is set ablaze, and you will continue to take damage until the fight is over. Three of them were injured, thanks to Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Twilight. Now it’s the Broken Wand’s turn to attack, and boy are they angry”

“So the boss is going to go for Rainbow Dash. Because, you know, you placed a bomb in him” Spike said with a chuckle “He’s going to shoot you with his rune plated pistol. He’s also going to use the spell Rune Shot, Rage, on you” Spike rolled his die “And he is going to hit you for 17”

“Dang it, that hit me. What about the damage?” Rainbow asked. Spike rolled his die once more. The die landed onto the table and the results put a grimace on Spike’s face.

“Whoa. He must be really mad at you...”

* * *

The stallion boss stared at the wound on his shoulder and then back at Rainbow Blast, he was positively fuming as he pulled out his special rune plated double barreled pistol and aimed it directly at Rainbow Blast. The runes on the pistol began to glow again as they lifted off the barrel of the gun.

“Eat this, you Rainbow mane freak! Rune Shot, Rage!” the boss shouted before letting loose a magically charged bullet that nearly knocked him off of his own hooves. The bullet, or more appropriately, the speeding lightning bolt of dense solid mass, came flying towards Rainbow’s direction. She swallowed a lump in her throat before holding up her massive tower shield in an attempt to block the shot.

The bullet came into contact with her shield and passed straight through like a hot knife through a warm pat of butter. Thankfully, her skyterror armor protected her, but the bullet dented the metal plates far inwards. This resulted in Rainbow Blast feeling the full brunt of the force as several of her ribs shattered like frail sheets of glass. She was still standing due to her intense physical build but now she was internally bleeding and was hacking out blood like it was going out of style.

“OUCH! ... uh, I mean... that didn’t hurt! OW! Okay... so maybe that hurt a little... YEOUCH! Oh sweet Vita this hurts like a bitc- GAAAAH!!” she wailed in pain as she held onto her chest.

“How did you like that, eh?” The boss taunted “There’s plenty more where that came from you dirty thanite lover!” he shouted as he reloaded his pistol.

Now was the gryphon’s turn to fight. He really didn’t need any explanation for what he was about to do. He simply pointed his rifle point blank at Elusive and smiled.

“This is for stabbing me in the back!” he shouted before shooting his rifle. When the smoke cleared from the shot he opened his eyes, only for them to pop out of his head from disbelief. He had missed up close. Elusive had a big grin on her face before laughing aloud from the gryphon’s failure. She was way too fast for the thug to hit her. “You’ve got to be freaking kidding me!” the gryphon shouted as he kicked the ground in anger.

“Haven’t ya got eyes in your head?” she taunted “Ah’ll tell ya what hon, y’all got the size with that big ole gun of yers, but if ya miss up close, that’s about as bad as shooting too fast or being too slow” she teased with a clever and insulting innuendo “Now is that any way to impress a lady such a mahself?” she asked with her signature southern twang and another playful bat of her lashes.

Rainbow Blast was injured, but that wasn’t an excuse for her not to fight. She gritted her teeth as she willed her battered body to stand at attention. She then quickly reloaded her blasting pike with another explosive head before narrowing her vision at the boss again. She spit out some blood before charging again. This time, she was going for the kill.

“Time to end this!” she shouted as she charged directly for the stallion boss, charging through all the fire and fury until she violently collided with her determine target. The boss had no chance to escape before being impaled in the gut by Rainbow Blast. She quickly closed her arnet helmet and raised the skewered boss up high as his own body weight forcibly and painfully dragged him all the way down before a tick sound gave Rainbow Dash a smile “I hope you have a blast!”

* * *

“Seriously? That was the best that you could come up with for the big finale?” Applejack asked, mildly unimpressed by Rainbow’s horrible one liner.

“Well what’s wrong with it? Personally I think it rocked!” Rainbow asked

“Well for one, there was really no build up towards it. It didn’t feel all that engaging” replied Twilight.

“It sounded generic, it wasn’t really all that super hyped and actiony and stuff” said Pinkie

“It wasn’t really all that good... um, sorry Rainbow Dash” said Fluttershy.

“Honestly, to me I’d say it was all in bad taste” said Rarity “Couldn’t you have said something like ‘How about we end things with a bang’?”

“Or what about ‘If you guys are so good at your job then how come I just defeated you’?” said Twilight.

“Maybe even something along the lines of ‘When the gatekeeper to Tartarus asks who sent you, tell him it was Rainbow Blast, the best Skyterror in all of western Metallos’!” said Pinkie.

“How about ‘No words can describe the sheer amount of pain you’re about to experience in three, two, one...’” Suggested Applejack “Oh, oh! How about-”

“Girls! As much as I would love to hear all the cooler one liners that you could come up with for Rainbow Dash, let’s just get on with the story shall we? said Spike.

“Uh... where were we? Oh yeah! So the poor sap that got a bomb stuck in him was going to get a nasty surprise...”

* * *

KABLOOEY!

The blasting pike’s head exploded within the boss’s gut and detonated the other pike head that was lodged into his shoulder. The ear splitting explosion welled an enormous crater into the earth as the boss exploded into a million different pieces of himself that got splattered all over the courtyard. The only parts that remained of the former boss showered the courtyard like red rain.

As for Rainbow Dash, being a Skyterror who was clad in specially designed armor and shield helped her to survive her own explosion. The fire simply shrouded the Skyterror, baptising her in the raging inferno. When the flames cleared she was left entirely unscathed by the flames.

Because of Rainbow’s success in defeating the stallion boss,the rest of the Broken Wands had their morale completely and utterly destroyed but they stubbornly continued to fight for their cause, even without the presence of their leader. They retaliated, but their lackluster efforts made it almost laughable.

L’ Orange went again, firing her cannon shield once more at the head of some poor stallion thug. The shot connected with the stallion, and he was left mortally wounded and on the very brink of death. Captain then yanked out her cutlass and charged the injured stallion, stabbing straight through the chest and killing him instantly.

“Sorry about this hon, but y’all asked for it” said Elusive without so much as a hint of pity for the gryphon that she was about to stab. She pressed her left hoof against the gryphon’s face and blew him a kiss with the other. With a flick of her hoof the springblade shot out and stabbed the gryphon straight into his throat. He gagged upon his own blood all while trying to push the unicorn away in a futile attempt. The gryphon slowed down over the course of his defiance before losing consciousness and lifelessly slinking his way down onto the ground, surrounded by a pool of his own blood “Eww... now that just ain’t right“

Necrolyte Butterfly peered from out of her cover from behind the courtyard walls, she could see that everything was going in their favor for the fight. Without a moment of hesitation she hopped out from her cover and charged at one of the two remaining guild members. WIth her battle cross out she ran straight through the diamond dog Myrmidon with all of her might.

The cross went all the way through his chest and plucked his still beating heart right out of him. The heart continued to beat even though it was now stuck to the sharpened edges of the battle cross, pumping out whatever blood that the old ticker still had. She pulled out the staff and watched as the diamond dog collapsed onto the floor dead, whispering a few line from her codex in respect for the fallen.

“Great alicorn of death, Thanatos. Reaper of souls and weaver of the underworld. Grant this soul a greater purpose by allowing him to serve me in my endless crusade for justice. May death ride with me” she finished before pulling onto the diamond dog’s soul from out of his corpse and absorbing it within her very being.

She inhaled in the wispy soul until there was nothing left. When she finally opened her eyes after exhaling she revealed that one of her pitch black pupils began glowing an unearthly green. She coughed a few time trying to get used to storing another being’s soul into her body but got better once all was said and done.

And then there was one. A lone diamond dog miner surrounded by his six enemies. There was really nothing he could do now, he could try to fight back but he would most likely get beaten by them even if he tried.

“Give it up you mangy mutt! We’ve beaten all of you guys! You haven’t got a chance against all of us!” shouted Rainbow Blast.

“If you value your life, turn and run now” threaten Twilight as T. Sentinel cracked his mechanical knuckles. They had expected for him to run, maybe even fight back if he wanted to do so. What they didn’t expect for him to do was laugh in front of all of their faces “What’s so funny?”

“You. You think you’ve won, but you couldn’t be farther from the truth” he taunted “By killing my team, you’ve made yourself a target for the Broken Wands guild. Even if I die, the mission isn’t over. There are more of us and we won’t stop until you’re all dead!” he began to laugh some more “If there is anyone around here who should run, it should be you six! Run while you still can! AHAHAHAHAHA!” he shouted wildly before pulling out a large bundle of dynamite out of his backpack. Everyone’s eyes went wide when they immediately noticed that the dynamite bundle had a very short fuse.

“TNT! GET DOWN!” L’ Orange shouted before the crazy dog lit the fuse.

* * *

“Oh my goodness!” exclaimed Rarity “Is it six o’ clock already?” she asked “I have to get home and make Sweetie Belle dinner” she then went and quickly dashed over to the door “I’m sorry but I have to excuse myself everypony. We should all do this again tomorrow. Same time?” she asked.

“Sure, Ah can make time for it” replied Applejack “Heck, Ah gotta leave too. Gotta make sure Applebloom didn’t paint the barn blue... again” she along with everyone else save for the Twilight and Spike quietly made their way out of the library “Ah see y’all tomorrow”

“Yeah, see ya later Twilight! Turns out this game wasn’t so lame at all!” shouted Rainbow before flying out.

“It’s been really fun Spike. Good bye” said Fluttershy who also flew out. Pinkie Pie was the last to bid farewell before bouncing away back to sugarcube corner. Spike and Twilight saw their friends off and went on to cleaning up the library.

“So, what did you think about your first clash in Forge World?” Spike asked.

“To be honest...” said Twilight “...I had a really great time” she answered with a smile.

“See, I told you it was fun” Spike replied with a smile as well.

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