Extra Story: Games Ponies Play.
Extra Story – Games Ponies Play.
Luna had been running the Day Court while Celestia had been busy with the Summit and dealing with her little ‘Discord Project’. Court had been dreadfully boring, and Princess Luna was getting antsy as she sat upon the throne, staring irritably at the empty audience hall.
“Can somepony explain why nopony is here!?” Luna’s hoof tapped against the marble as she stared at the members of her sister’s guard.
“Well, that is to say…” None of the guards present wanted to say that the moment the waiting nobles had found out that Luna sat upon the throne, instead of her sister, most of them had turned tail and ran.
“T’would seem that this was an effort in futility…” Luna fluffed her wings and sighed, “I wonder when Tia will return.”
There was movement from the shadows, and one of Luna’s guard appeared, causing Celestia’s to flinch. Why Princess Luna had instructed her guards in the shadow artes was beyond them.
“Mistress, the preparations for tonight are set.”
A small smile crossed her face as her eyes sparkled. “Excellent. Months of training and planning are finally coming to fruition.” Her mood was already becoming better as her thoughts wandered. “A little bloodshed is just what I need after a day like today.”
Celestia’s guards were sweating cinderblocks now. What was Princess Luna planning? Was she attempting to take over Equestria again? He glanced out a window, towards Ponyville. “Please hurry, Princess Celestia!”
***
Night had fallen, and Princess Celestia had returned, along with her assorted guests.
Luna paid no heed to Discord, even as he ignored the salad that the chefs had reluctantly brought him and ate the plate instead. Her mind was entirely on the campaign tonight and the chance to blow off some steam.
Flare saw that Luna seemed distracted for some reason. In fact, ever since Virizion and Keldeo left she had seemed… out of sorts.
“Is everything alright, Luna?” He might as well get to the heart of the matter.
Luna flinched as she realised she was zoning out. “Wha? Oh, uh. Yes. Everything is fine…”
Discord looked at the ponies present as the gears in his head ticked away. One could actually hear a faint ticking noise from his head. A wide smirk crossed his face as he began to realise the fun that could be had here.
“You know, I don’t really get it,” he suddenly announced out loud.
Twilight sighed and put her cutlery down. “I know I’m going to regret this,” she muttered, “but what don’t you understand, Discord?”
“Why all three of you have the hots for that guy,” he replied, pointing at Flare.
Twilight just stared as Luna mumbled incoherently, hiding behind her mane. Celestia’s reaction was the most dramatic, as she spat the water she was currently sipping across the table. Flare just blushed a little and sat a bit closer to Twilight.
“W-w-what the hay are you talking about, Discord!?” Celestia coughed. “Just where did you get that idea?”
“Well, it looks pretty obvious to me,” Discord shrugged. “I just don’t get it though, is he like, the greatest lover of all time? Or did he save some kittens from a fire or something?” Discord thought hard for a moment. “Oh, I have it! He totally got all three of you pregnant!”
This time it was Twilight’s turn to impersonate a fountain before turning her rage-filled glare to Discord. “So help me, Discord, if I have to use the Elements on you, I will.”
Discord laughed, teleporting behind Twilight and patting the enraged unicorn on the head. “Oh, calm down, I’m just having a bit of fun. Since I can’t be evil anymore, I have to get my chuckles from somewhere…” He gave another smirk as he looked at the three mares. “Unless you want me to go back to being evil again?”
Twilight regained her composure as she cleaned up the spilt drink with a napkin. “I’ll tell Fluttershy,” she simply replied and Discord returned to his seat.
“I’ll be good.”
After dinner, Celestia walked past the throne room and noticed two of her new guards looking a little concerned.
“Whatever is wrong, my little ponies?”
One of the guards looked left and right and leaned in close. “Your majesty... It’s- it’s about Princess Luna. She was saying things to those odd guards of hers during the Day Court... dangerous things... We thought nothing of them at first, but when she speaks of blood shedding and raids... we just don’t know what to think.”
Celestia blinked for a moment, surely Luna wasn’t becoming Night- Oh, wait a moment!
“What day is it again?” she asked her guard politely.
“Um, Tuesday?”
Thank Faust. “Oh, then don’t worry about it, have the kitchens send pizza and soda to Luna’s bedchambers, please.”
The guards looked really confused, but saluted nonetheless. Orders were orders.
***
It was ready. At long last, Princess Luna could begin the campaign.
There was one small problem however…
“Where is Lestat?” she asked the others, two more of her personal guard.
“Last minute change in the roster,” replied Deshwitat. “Seems that a few of the solar guard came down with the feather flu; some of our guys had to fill in.”
“But tonight was supposed to be the temple raid!” the other guard, Alucard, exclaimed.
Luna looked disappointed as well. She had been through a rough day and wanted to do this campaign so bad. She had spent ages creating it and getting it right. First they had lost Shining Armor when he moved away to the Crystal Empire, and now Lestat was temporarily conscripted into the Solar Guard.
Then an idea hit her, and her eyes lit up once more. “Fear not, my stallions, for I may have a solution!”
A few moments later, Flare Blitz and Twilight Sparkle found themselves sitting at a large table in Luna’s bedroom. The table was littered with thick books, sheets of paper that had names and numbers on them, and a plethora of snacks and beverages.
“Luna?” Flare looked at one of the pieces of paper in front of him. It read:
Player – Flare Blitz
Name – Aerin Skyheart
Race – Pegasus/Dragon Hybrid
Job Class – Sky Paladin
Alignment – Chaotic Good
Stats:
Level - 5
HP - 15
MP – 5
Strength - 18
Intelligence - 7
Dexterity - 9
Charisma - 16
The second sheet had a list of skills and techniques, and the third seemed to be an inventory.
“What the heck is all of this?” The ponymon asked, looking a bit confused. The response came not from the alicorn princess, but rather from his marefriend.
“This is Oubliettes and Ogres!” Twilight scanned her character sheet and saw that it was the unicorn sorcerer that she liked to play as. “I didn’t know you played this game, Luna!”
“It has become somewhat of a guilty pleasure ever since my return,” Luna explained. “It was your brother, Shining Armor, who showed me how to play.”
“And here I thought he stopped playing after he entered the Guard…” Twilight herself hadn’t played in years, but had always meant to do so. It didn’t seem like something her friends would be too interested in, though. “So I take it that you need some help, then?”
“Verily!” Desh responded. “We are going to explore ‘The Anvil of Time’, a temple hidden in-between the fabrics of time and space!”
“Unfortunately,” Luna added, “we have lost our priest for the time being, and ever since Shining Armor left us, we have sorely lacked a physical sweeper.” She motioned to the sheets in front of Flare. “I thought that this might be something that Flare would enjoy, so I made a character sheet for him a while ago...”
Flare just stared blankly, as the words floating around the table made no sense. “So… I still don’t get what this is. Some kind of combat simulator?”
“In a sense,” Twilight replied. “It’s a game, one where you role-play a character in a fantasy setting. Your character is a pegasus with dragon attributes: higher physical strength, resistance to heat, and night vision.”
Flare looked at his character sheet and nodded, that much he understood at least. “So like a more complex version of the game we played last night?”
Luna suddenly looked at the purple unicorn as she turned a stunning shade of red. “Um, sort of…?”
“So does that mean we have to-?”
“ABSOLUTELY NOT!” Twilight yelled, her voice echoing in the huge room. The weather effects on the ceiling shifted to a thunderstorm, with thunder rumbling in the distance.
Luna glanced towards her bedside table, where a copy of Twilight’s latest ‘Friendship Report’ was carefully hidden away.
“Well, I think we should get started then?” Desh offered to change the subject, wondering exactly what the two unicorns were talking about.
“We don’t have all night!” Alucard nodded, and a small smile crossed Luna’s face.
“Well, I can fix that easily enough,” she giggled, and everypony turned to stare at her.
“Luna,” Twilight deadpanned, “no abusing alicorn powers and creating an eternal night just to play tabletop games.”
Luna pouted and set up her GM screen. “I was only kidding…”
Preparations were made, and the party was finally ready to get underway. Twilight took a look at the board and noticed a lack of miniature figures, ones needed to play the game. She didn’t get to mention it though, as Princess Luna’s horn began to glow, and everypony suddenly felt very tired.
“Lu…na…?” Twilight couldn’t even finish her sentence before sleep claimed her, and she, along with everypony else, was soon snoring peacefully.
~~~
“Twilight? Wake up, Twilight!”
Twilight groaned and slowly opened her eyes. “Flare? What’s going… on…?”
Twilight could not believe what she was seeing. A village straight out of a story book was spread out before her. Ponies and fairy tale creatures of all kinds were wandering about, just going about their lives.
“W-where are we?”
Flare shrugged, and for the first time since waking up, Twilight took a good look at him. He was wearing full-body armour, pale blue and silver in colour. Creamy wings sprouted from his back, which twitched every now and then, and nestled under his right wing was a sword and its sheathe. More oddy, were the curved horns sprouting from his head, and when he suddenly sneezed, a small flame from his mouth.
“Flare? Honey? What’s with the armour… and the wings?”
Flare shrugged again and cast a curious glance her way. “I could say the same to you, Fairy.”
Twilight looked down to see that she was clad in a deep navy-blue cloak that was speckled with shimmering stars. They were even technically accurate!
“We were just in Luna’s room, about to play a game… what’s going on here?”
The crowd suddenly thinned out as three ponies made their way towards Flare and Twilight. The first was a unicorn, clad in dark robes that had a black mist seeping out from beneath them. Glowing red eyes could be seen from beneath the hood, and he made nary a sound.
The second was an earth pony with long, pointed ears. He was wearing a thin cloth tunic with several bandoliers with dozens of small pouches attached to them. Attached to his hooves was a set of flick blades that would extend when the hoof was bent a certain way.
The third took Flare’s breath away, and even Twilight let out a little gasp. She was a tall earth pony with a lean, muscular form. She had a dark blue coat and a platinum silver mane, and a stunning silver spear was attached to her side.
The mare had a familiar face though, and Flare was the first to find his voice.
“Luna?”
The mare laughed and nodded, “Well of course, who else would it be?”
“Princess, what the heck is going on?” Twilight was on the verge of tears now. “I’m really confused.”
“Guess we should explain things then,” the rogue chuckled, and the ever silent necromancer nodded. Luna finished chuckling and waved a hoof, gesturing towards the town and their general surroundings.
“All of this is a Dreamscape that I created, just for the five of us.”
Flare looked around. “This is all a dream? It feels so real.” He tapped a hoof on the ground and could even feel the texture of the cobblestones underneath it.
“We couldn’t believe it when the Princess literally ‘dreamt’ this place up.” The rogue, now identified as Deshwitat, was almost bouncing up and down. “Our sessions have never been this awesome!”
“Your personality seems… different.” Flare noticed that the normally stoic guard was rather peppy now.
“Well of course; I’m not Deshwitat here. You can address me as Riven the Rogue.”
“Shade…” the necromancer, who must have been Alucard, responded.
Luna stepped forward. “And I am Athena, a Celestial Valkyrie! Might our new companions introduce themselves?”
Flare just blinked stupidly and stared at the trio. “Um, what?”
Twilight giggled and stepped forward, “What my tongue-tied partner is trying to say is that he is known as… Aerin Skyheart, the Sky Paladin.” Twilight bowed politely and smiled. “And I am Amethyst Star, Arch Mage of Etheria!”
“Well met then, Aerin Skyheart and Amethyst Star!” Athena patted them on the back and grinned widely. “So, shall we get under way? The Temple of Time awaits!”
Twilight pulled out a checklist and began to read it. “So we have everything then? Weapons and armour? Spells and potions?”
“Indeed, many a night has been spent, just preparing for this adventure.” Riven could barely contain his excitement. This was gonna be epic!
“This is an adventure I have spent a great deal of time conjuring, and I have Flare to thank for inspiring several key points of this quest.”
“Me?” Flare had never spoken to Luna about a game like this, so what the heck was she talking about?
“You’ll see…”
“So how does this work?” Twilight asked. “I don’t see how we use dice or our reference sheets here.”
“A good question, Ms. Sparkle!” Luna responded. “Soon enough, our consciousness will separate. For example, Athena and Luna will be two separate ponies. Athena will not have any knowledge of the game world, and thus not have any spoiler information.” Twilight looked a bit concerned. Was magic that could fragment the mind safe? Especially for a game?
“Though fear not, once we wake, we will be our old selves and this game will simply feel like a lucid dream.” She paused for a moment. “As for fighting, your strengths and abilities will be determined by your stats and attributes, as well as your actual, real life skill with your weapon.”
Flare motioned towards the sword under his wing. “So how am I supposed to use this thing?”
“Grab the handle with your teeth and stick the enemies with the pointy end!” Desh offered some not-so-great advice.
“We’ll train you along the way,” Luna said. “I set your character’s background story to say that you are a new adventurer. So once we slip into our other personas, we will treat you as such.”
Soon enough, the magicks kicked in and everypony fell into character.
“Shall we depart?” Athena asked, shifting her spear from one shoulder to the other. “The Anvil of Time awaits!”
“Indeed, and I thank you for allowing my companion and me to accompany you,” Amethyst said. “‘Tis an honour to be in the presence of such fine adventurers.”
“Uh, what she said,” Flare added. Why was everypony acting so weird? Luna had said something about personalities and memories, but he didn’t feel any different. He knew that he was Flare Blitz and he knew he was playing some weird game.
“Are you okay, Sir Skyheart?” Amethyst asked him as they headed for the town gate.
Flare realised that Twilight was talking to him and he nodded. “Y-yeah, just fine.”
Amethyst nodded, but was still concerned. Aerin was new to the adventuring life, would he really be okay?
The group spent some time in the marketplace, buying food, potions, and other adventuring essentials. Before long, it was time to get underway, and the four heroes set off for the temple known as the ‘Anvil of Time’.
***
It wasn’t long after leaving the town that the group encountered their first battle: a large swarm of little slime-type creatures.
“Pah, a waste of time!” Shade snorted. “Let us be done with this nuisance!”
“Actually, I believe that this would be a good test to see our new companions in battle,”
Athena spoke up. “What say you, Lady Amethyst, Sir Aerin?”
“As you wish,” Amethyst replied. Her horn began to shine and she levitated her staff up in front of her. “The common slime is weak against magical attacks, so this shall be a quick fight.” The mage channelled an offensive spell and took aim at the cute, bouncing critters. “Take this! I cast Flare!”
A small barrage of fireballs shot towards the slimes, incinerating four of them. The other two evaded the attack and began to bounce their way towards Amethyst. There was no way Flare Blitz was going to let Twilight get hurt. He grabbed his sword with his teeth and ran towards the attacking monsters.
“HIYAA!” His first swing went completely over the top of the first slime, but his momentum carried him straight into the second, destroying it.
“Well, that’s one way to do it, I suppose...” Riven muttered.
The remaining slime was undeterred from it’s mission and tackled into Amethyst. The mare shrieked as the cold slime became tangled in her robes and she collapsed to the ground. “Ah, it’s cold- wait, no, not there! You can’t go in-”
That was all she got to say before Flare Blitz fished the slime out and stared at it with glowing, red eyes.
“Die,” He whispered in a calm, hollow tone and proceeded to pound the creature into inanimate paste with his bare hooves.
“And that’s another way to get it done,” Riven sighed.
Amethyst pouted as she wiped the residual slime from her robes. “That was gross.”
“Are you okay, Twilight?” he said, helping the mare to her hooves.
“Twilight?” Amethyst suddenly blushed as Aerin dragged up that old nickname of hers. “Y-yeah, I’m fine!”
Athena watched the adorable little scene and smiled. Perhaps there was some budding romance with her new friends?
A feeling of euphoria came over Flare. "What..what is this? I feel so good."
"You just gained some experience points, my friend.” Riven explained. “That's what happens when you kill enemies.”
"Hmmm...I like these experience points. I want more!" Flare looked around to see if there were any other monsters were in sight. Much to his dismay, there were not.
“There will be many more where they came from,” Athena explained as they continued their trek. Amethyst cast a cleansing spell on herself and her outfit before continuing.
As they walked and fought more small skirmishes, Riven noticed something that bothered him. “Sir Aerin, you are a Sky Paladin, no?”
“I guess...” Was that what he was called? Flare didn’t take much time to read that sheet of paper before all of this started.
“Well then, why do you not utilise your wings in combat?”
Flare looked at his sides and remembered that he had wings now. But after a certain incident with the CMC, heights and being in the air didn’t appeal much to him. “Well, that is... uhh...”
“He’s scared of heights,” Shade’s observation was just a guess, but it was a spot on guess. Flare’s silence confirmed it for the rest of the group.
“Seriously? A pegasus who’s scared of heights!?” This was too much for the rouge, and Riven broke down into a fit of laughter.
“It’s not that funny!” Amethyst said. “He’s had a traumatic experience and it’s perfectly understandable.”
“We do not condone disrespect against our companions, Riven.” Athena’s words caused the rouge to instantly fall silent. Athena was a mare who you did not want to anger.
“My apologies, Sir Aerin.”
Flare nodded, but said nothing. His fear of height was embarrassing, but since he lacked wings in the waking world, it was something he could get away with. Why the heck was he a pegasus here anyway?
“Look alive!” Athena spoke up. “We have arrived!”
Flare looked past her to see a massive castle-like structure just ahead of them. It looked old, with moss and vines coating the outside of the building. There were two towers on either side of the structure, with a large, arch-shaped door in the centre. A colourful stained glass window sat above the door, and despite the dilapidated condition of the building, the window was in pristine condition.
“So this is it?” Amethyst asked. “The Anvil of Time?”
“Neigh, fair Lady,” Athena responded. “This is just the temple that houses the artifact. Nopony knows what the Anvil actually looks like.”
“So how do you know it’s here?” Flare asked. “This could be any old temple.”
Athena smiled and pointed at the ruin. “Watch and see.”
There was a moment of silence as Flare stared at the temple, waiting for ‘something’ to happen. “I don’t see anything-”
No sooner had the words left his mouth, than the air around the temple shimmered and it suddenly looked brand new. The stonework looked freshly carved and metal door gleamed with fresh polish.
“We must hurry, the temple can only be entered while in this state!” Athena rushed forward with Shade and Riven hot on her tail. Flare blinked for a moment, wondering what the hell was going on, and after Amethyst ran after them, he quickly followed suit.
The interior of the castle defied all belief, and almost everypony present did a double take. The castle was a hundred times bigger on the inside, with large crystalline structures and, most notably, some odd letter-shaped creatures floating about.
“What are those? Are they dangerous?” Riven started throwing around spot-checks for things to steal.
Amethyst cast a spell to identify the creatures, having a perk in Bestiary Knowledge, but miscast and failed the check.
“I do not know,” she replied. “I have never seen, nor read about, these creatures in my life.”
“Unown,” Flare whispered, watching the letter-shaped pokemon flit about, doing Arceus-knows-what.
“Unown?” Amethyst turned to Aerin, wondering how the battle-happy friend of hers knew what they were. “How do you know?”
Oh, right, they didn’t know who they were... “C’mon Flare, think of something... something Twilight would buy...”
“I, uh, read it in a book?” He said with a degree of uncertainty.
“Not one that I’ve read,” Amethyst pouted. “You’ll show me when we get home, yes?”
Um, sure.” Flare breathed a sigh of relief. This role play stuff was hard.
The Unown paid no attention to the adventures and continued to float about, chittering noisily as they altered the crystals around them, tearing down crystal towers and rebuilding them elsewhere. Corridors shifted, rotated, and disappeared entirely.
“Well, this should be fun,” Shade snarked. “A map for this place would be useless.”
“And I can’t break these crystals,” Riven pouted as he put away his diamond-tipped pickaxe. “So much for selling them.”
“So what do we do?” Amethyst asked. “The Anvil could be anywhere.”
Riven thought for a moment. “Perhaps we should split up? These shifting passages could be difficult to move through as a group.”
“But splitting up could be a very bad idea, we know not what roams these halls!” Athena made a valid point. If there were Pokémon here, then anything could happen.
“We have seen nothing dangerous so far,” Shade said. “And these letter-shaped creatures seem to be fine with just editing the environment. They seem perfectly harmless.”
“I vote for sticking together,” Amethyst agreed with Athena. “This temple is a mystery; who knows what will happen.”
“T’would seem that the deciding vote goes to you, Sir Aerin.” Athena looked at Flare Blitz. Splitting up was a good idea, they could cover more ground faster and find the Anvil. But staying together was also a logical choice. Flare was still green when it came to battle, and he didn’t want to leave Twilight on her own.
“Well... I don’t really know what we should do...” The Unown suddenly chirped loudly and large crystal walls erupted up out of the ground, separating the five adventurers into smaller groups. Flare and Athena had been separated off to one side, while Amethyst and Shade were on the other. Riven had performed a trap evasion, and was now on his own in the crystal temple.
“Can anypony hear me?” Flare called out. Twi-Amethyst! Shade? Riven!?”
There was no response and Athena knocked on the walls. “T’would seem that these walls are soundproof.”
“So what do we do then?” Flare said, worried about Twilight. What happens if you get hurt here? Do you get hurt in the real world?
“Mayhaps we should just find the Anvil? We might meet the others there too!”
Flare nodded and followed the valkyrie deeper into the complex. “Be safe, Twilight.”
***
“So do you think the others are alright?” Amethyst spoke up to Shade, but the Necromancer remained as silent as always.. It was starting to get awkward, and a little bit creepy.
“They should be fine,” he finally replied. His hood dropped a bit lower and he continued to walk a little ahead of the unicorn. There was no way in Tartarus that he was going to allow her to see his brightly blushing face. “Of all the ponies, why did I get stuck with the cutest one?”
“Hey, Shade, I think I see something up ahead!” Amethyst suddenly dashed past him, giving him a good view of her fine figure as she did, and up to the end of the corridor. “Oh, my... Shade, you have to see this!”
***
As Flare and Athena continued to trek through the shifting crystal corridors, the earth pony mare decided to strike up some idle conversation.
“So how did you and Lady Amethyst meet?” She asked him. “You seem like good friends.”
Flare had to think for a second. How was this going to work? “After literally crashing into her home town, Amethyst took care of me.” Not entirely false. “We become closer after that and once I had permission from my Lord, I decided to stay with her.”
“How romantic~” Athena sighed. “So are the two of you... are you...?”
“I’d like to think so,” Flare said, getting the general idea of what Athena was asking. “I really should ask her though...”
They turned another corner and a bright light could be seen at the end of the tunnel. “A way out?” Flare and Athena dashed for the exit, hoping the Unown wouldn’t make a last minute change. The second they exited the hallway, it sealed up behind them.
“That was close,” Flare sighed as he picked himself up. “Are you okay, Luna?”
“Luna?” Athena gave him a quizzical look. “Who is Luna?”
Flare mentally slapped himself, this was annoying. Why didn’t the spell work on him? “Sorry, you remind me of somepony I know.”
“This ‘Luna’ you speak of?” Athena picked up her spear.
“Yeah, she’s a lot different though, she’s kinda shy and doesn’t seem to make friends easily. But she’s cute~”
“Who’s cute?” An irate voice from behind him spoke. Flare turned to see Amethyst and Shade standing there. “Twilight? I mean, dammit. Ah wait, no-” Flare fumbled around his words until Amethyst hit with with a lightning spell.
“It’s nice to see you too!” She grumbled. “And how fair you, Lady Athena?”
“Better than Sir Aerin, t’would seem.” Athena looked around the room, to see where they had ended up. Her breath was suddenly caught in her chest as she laid eyes on the centre of the room and the object that occupied the space.
The ponies sat upon a circular platform, suspended in midair around an enormous, crystal hourglass. The hourglass itself was hundreds of hooves tall; the sand contained within it was flowing upwards, defying gravity. Athena peered over the edge, but a glowing light coming from below was all she could see.
“Is this... the Anvil of Time?” she asked nopony in particular.
“If it is... getting it out of here is quite the tall order,” Amethyst responded.
“And what of Riven?” Shade asked. “We have yet to come across him.”
Athena was still entranced with the Anvil of Time. “Well, we all made it here without incident, so perhaps he shall do so as well?”
The whole room began to shake, and two glowing orbs of light appeared in front of the Anvil.
“INTRUDERS!!” The pink orb vibrated.
“DESTROY THE INTRUDERS!!” The blue orb sounded, and multiple doors opened around the ring they were standing on. Creatures began to emerge from them, draped in rotting armour and wielding rusted weapons.
“ALL INTRUDERS WILL BE DESTROYED.” Both orbs reverberated.
“Well, now we know why nopony has ever returned from this place,” Athena said, eyeing the zomponies. “And t’would seem we are to join their ranks.”
“Not on my watch!” Shade hissed in a low tone. He called forth the dark magicks that he possessed and summoned his own undead. Skeletal ponies clashed with the zomponies; body parts were flung all over the place. It was rather messy, and Flare just wanted to throw up.
Amethyst began to cast her fire magic, stopping the zomponies from regenerating. Suddenly, another passage opened right next to her and a new flood of the undead poured through. Amethyst turned to face the hoard, but there were too many. She would never defeat them all in time. Amethyst closed her eyes, bracing for her end…
But it never came.
She opened her eyes to see multiple corpses with arrows piercing their heads. Riven leapt down from a ledge above her, sealing the fate of two more with his hidden blades.
“Can’t have the cute one getting eaten by zomponies now, can we?” He flashed a roguish grin, and Amethyst felt her heart skip a beat.
Flare dispatched two more and looked over to where Twilight was, only to see her staring dreamily at Riven.
“What the-?” Two more undead attacked him, only to be killed by Athena. A single swipe of her spear knocked half a dozen of them off the edge, plummeting to their doom below.
“Be on guard, Aerin, there are too many to allow for distractions!”
Flare growled and suddenly gave a zompony a hard buck, sending the hapless corpse sailing across the room and splattering against the far wall, narrowly missing Riven.
“Drat,” Flare cursed. “I missed…”
Athena just shook her head and continued her assault. Shade’s skeletons were vastly outnumbered by the zompony horde, but Shade was able to bring them back… The zombies could not, thanks to Amethyst’s magic incinerating their carcases. Shade attempted to turn the zomponies to their side, or find the source of the magic that summoned them. The check failed though, something was interfering with his scans...
After what seemed like an eternity, the undead were finally defeated, and the five heroes stood triumphant.
“How do ya like them apples?” Flare taunted the two orbs.
“SUCH INSOLENCE!” The pink one roared.
“YOUR DESTRUCTION IS STILL AT HAND!” The blue one reverberated.
Two arrows launched from Riven’s bow shattered the balls of light, and the room fell into silence.
“And that’s how it’s done,” Riven smirked. The smirk soon disappeared as the whole structure began to shake violently.
“I think that may not have been a wise choice,” Amethyst said, struggling to stay on her hooves. The constant spellcasting had left her feeling drained, and she needed to rest.
All the corridors around the crystal ring closed, sealing the five ponies inside with the Anvil.
“And there goes our way out,” Flare groaned. “Anypony got any ideas?”
There was nothing but silence; it would seem that the fate of the group had been decided.
Amethyst tried to use a teleport spell, but it failed to form properly. Athena suddenly had a plan, a totally crazy plan that may or may not get them all killed. But since they were going to die anyhow…
“Let’s use the Anvil!”
Everypony suddenly forgot their oncoming demise and stared at Athena like she’d sprouted a second head.
“I’m serious,” Athena continued. “It is said that the Anvil controls the flow of time and space. Perhaps we can use it to escape our doom?”
Shade sighed, “That may be… but how does one even use the Anvil?”
Another moment of silence occurred and everypony was getting increasingly worried. The vibrations from the temple were getting stronger and it seemed like they only had a few more minutes.
“I guess I have little choice…” Riven walked up to the large hourglass and a holographic panel appeared.
“Riven?” Athena was confused. “What are you-?”
“No time right now…” Riven pressed a few buttons on the panel, and the sand in the glass began to shift and swirl. “I hope everypony is ready,” Riven warned. “The first jump can get a little bumpy.”
The Anvil began to hum loudly, and before anypony even had the chance to respond, they were engulfed in a bright light…
***
“Twilight!” Flare awoke with a start as he frantically looked around. The Anvil was nowhere to be seen, only the soft light illuminating Luna’s bedroom.
“Wait, what?”
The other four ponies began to stir and return to the waking world. Flare leaned over to the mare next to him and hugged her. “Thank Arceus you’re alright!”
Twilight rubbed her eyes and yawned, “What a weird dream…” The memories suddenly came flooding back and Twilight realised what had just transpired. “Whoa! That was… something.”
Luna stretched and yawned. It had been an intense Dreamscape, and had cost a lot of her magic to maintain. “An unexpected ending; I thought that campaign would last a tad longer…”
“It was fun though,” Deshwitat grinned. “Bet you all never saw that ending coming.”
“What was that all about?” Alucard said. “Just what did Riven do?”
Luna smiled as she began to pack away her books and reference sheets. “You’ll have to wait for the next session to find out~”
Alucard glowered, but some suspense just made it all the better. He hated that Deshwitat knew what was coming though. “So will Lady Sparkle and Lord Blitz be joining us again?”
Luna looked to the two ponies in question. “I cannot say… what about you two? Do you want to play again sometime?”
Twilight nodded and smiled. “I’d love to, Luna, just be sure to give me some advance notice so I can work it into my schedule.”
Flare also nodded, “Sounds good. It was a bit strange at first and staying in character was really hard-”
“What do you mean?” Luna said, puzzled by that statement. “The Memory Spell should have done that.”
“It didn’t work,” Flare responded. “I knew I was Flare Blitz the whole time.”
Luna pondered on that for a moment. The spell should have worked on all types of ponies… Oh, right. Flare wasn’t entirely a pony.
“I think I know where it went wrong… give me some time to tweak it, and it should work next time.”
Flare nodded and looked down at his character sheet. “Mind if I borrow this? I’d like to learn a bit more about the character I’m supposed to be.”
Luna nodded, and Flare rolled up the paper and put it in his saddlebag. The large clock in Luna’s room chimed to signal that it was a quarter past one in the morning.
“I think it’s time we headed to bed,” Twilight yawned again. “We have a big day tomorrow… or later today to be accurate.”
Flare nodded, and after bidding goodnight to Luna, Alucard, and Deshwitat, they headed for the guest room. Twilight was too tired to teleport them to the observatory, and it was a bit far to walk this late at night.
“That was fun,” Flare said as they walked inside. “I certainly wasn’t expecting to dream the whole thing.”
“It surprised me too; I never thought Luna could use dreams like that.”
Flare thought for a second. “So how did Luna do that?” he asked. “Some kind of alicorn magic?”
“Sort of,” Twilight explained, jumping at the chance to educate a pony. “Princes Luna is the ruler of the night, raising and lowering the moon, creating the stars in the sky…”
“I know that much,” Flare said.
“But she can also enter the Dreamscape,” Twilight continued, ignoring the interruption. “It’s the realm where dreams and nightmares come from. I’m not too sure on the specifics myself, maybe I should interview her sometime, get a detailed explanation on what her magic can do, what powers she has over the Dreamscape?” Twilight began to ramble, going off on a tangent. “We’ve seen that she can control and even create dreams from scratch, but to what extent? Can she create nightmares too? Can she only visit one dream at a time? Or can she visit everypony at once? Is her power only limited to pony dreams?...”
“Can... she can see into others’ dreams?” Flare brow began to sweat as he realised something that might be very, very bad.
“Yes, I believe she can visit any dream… why?”
Flare’s face turned bright red and he flailed a hoof. “Oh, ah! Nothing. Never mind, ahhahaa…”
“Flare? You’re being weird… what did you dream about?” Twilight’s eyes narrowed and she took a few steps towards the doomed stallion.
“Um, nothing really?”
Twilight’s gaze didn’t let up as she stepped closer. “You’re a worse liar than Applejack. Now spit it out!”
“Well I may have had a dream involving you and Luna in maid outfits and I may or may not have done rather explicit things to the both of you…” Flare rattled off at a speed that Pinkie Pie would be proud of. Too bad Twilight was fluent in Pinkienese and understood every word.
“Me… and Princess Luna. In maid outfits?” Twilight’s glare was making Flare’s flight or fight instinct go into overdrive. Twilight’s magic was stronger and she could easily catch him if he ran. The ponymon was totally screwed.
“Um… yes?” There was no right answer for this, and Flare prepared to be teleported to the moon.
Twilight was oddly quiet for a moment, and then asked something that made Flare do a double take.
“So who was better?”
“…What?”
“Who was better? Me or Luna?” Twilight repeated.
Think, Flare Blitz, what answer won’t bring certain death to you? “Umm… I can’t remember?”
The bedroom door suddenly slammed shut and he found himself flung onto the bed.
“Then I guess I’d better remind you~” Twilight purred.
So much for a restful sleep…
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Yay for dreamscape d&d sessions and yay for flare saying the obvious wrong things
I would do ANYTHING to join that game my shaman would be useful
Always the quiet ones...
The end. just hilarious.
Not sure if I like the idea that Twilight might fall for another pony. Even if it is fake. It feels like it can break them apart. They remembered when they woke up.
Gaming with Luna sounds awesome.
Oh Boy! flare is in some deep shit right now.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2012/8/15/74863__safe_twilight+sparkle_clothes_pixiv_costume_japanese_maid_shrug_artist-colon-sukaponta_shrugpony.png
fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2013/343/3/2/royal_maids___luna_onlty_by_ziemniax-d6xd7bw.png
'nuff said.
Oh, and that gaming was pretty awesome!
now thats a version of d&d that i can get into
and this chapter was completely hilarious
. i cant wait for the next chapter
Screw VR, that's how you game.
3680331
Heheheh. That one was Ausbrony's doing, but I'm pretty sure that I am attempting to/have tried to/have succeeded in making him do worse things to these characters and their relationships
This is Rogue:
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/86/Rogue2CoverByMikeWieringo.jpg.gif
This is Rouge:
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9f/Rouge2006.png
Know the difference.
Also, the pink and blue orbs? I see what you did there.
Great VR enviroment, reminds me of Knightmare, but forcing people to use nothing but the character sheet? Thats like using a modern computational device that doesnt have fast, efficint preemptive multitasking in a multiprocessor design.
You cant make use of what you know outside, yet brush over what you are supposed to know but dont, within the game.
It'd be awesome if there were bonus chapters like this where they go on adventures in Luna's game. I liked the idea of Amethyst liking Riven that got started up in there, and I see that with Flare knowing who he is inside of the game, thing can really go haywire in there.
Love the whole new version of D&D I'm surprised no pony is trying to make this using the oculus rift yet to do this and I can't program yet so please some pony make this happen with preloaded maps and adventures
YES! ALL OF THE YES!!!
3701373 - All of it!? I am unworthy of that much yes!
Unless it comes from Luna...
3682279 Yes, know the difference. It could save your wife. Also your life most likely.
3682279 - Okay, I think I fixed those mistakes. But in my defense, he is a batpony...
3681037 - You're actually Discord, aren't you?
Man all there's missing is an Boss Battle with Entei!
3717086
If the author writes something and the editor approves it, it becomes canon, right? So if I agree to this...
Next bonus chapter: Discord realizes that it's a lot easier to influence the universe and cause chaos from the outside, especially if you can get on the good side of the creator of said universe. And he can break the fourth wall hard enough to do it. So he moves himself out of the story and onto the internet, where he names himself "The Letter Q" and finds Ausbrony. Somehow he convinces Ausbrony to let him edit his latest story, and in the process he adds plenty of his own chaos.
Now you must ask yourself this: "Has J added enough chaos to this story for that to be true?"
If nothing else, I think I've found something to add to my profile box
3718934 - I'm somewhat scared now...
Looking forward to our continuing work together.
3726141 it's his twisted mindgames. Beware.
In other news, are you familiar with White Wolf? I was pondering an Exalted Crossover and wasn't sure how it mesh.
3733799 - The heck is White Wolf? And what are you planning to crossover?
3752857 White Wolf Publishing is the company responsible for a notable number of tabletop RPG series, including the storytelling system utilized by Changeling: The Lost and Vampire: The Masquerade, the former of which is crossovered with MLP in the fic Backwards Through the Mirror , as well as the stunt system used by Exalted, which can be found crossovered here.
I... wait, if you don't know, why am I bothering you?
...
Sorry, I tend to ramble after 21 hours awake on a workday.
3758019 - I want to research this some more. Do you want to crossover my fic with that?
3758085 possibly, or with MLP in general otherwise. The only challenge is that it would be a triple crossover, and what's more would be an utterly insane nightmare. combining pokemon with anything whitewolf is a challenge and a half.
Exalted is so rich in lore it would be impractical, but one of the world of darkness settings might work...
3762878 - It won't be teh last time.
3726141 Don't worry about it he's just messing with you!
Hey its been a while I know but great chapter cant wait for the next one
3773947 - Thanks!
The next chapter is done, just waiting for editing.
3774388
3809949 - FUCK YEAH!! Monster Hunter!!
I would like to catch up on this story and it's prequel, but it seems like you rewrite/edit them both every now and then. I don't see that as bad (heck, I've given both a like and favorite), but it starts to get confusing when reading this story and it's been changed do to an edit in the first story. Hence, I'm confined to just wait a while.
3843803 - I've only re-written the first story once, and I finished that ages ago...
we need a full O&O story STAT!!!!!!!!
3853119 - Um, what?
3858464
...I...we need you to make a full fic in the O&O world when you have the time3858492 - I was wondering what you meant by O&O, but yeah, I'l be doing more RPG gaming stuff with Luna again. Since it's all in the Dreamscape, they don't even have to be in the same town to play. I also might get a few other ponies in on the action...
3853119>>3858464>>3858492>>3861355 Um what is O&O?
3862069
.......read the latest chapter
3862069 - Oubliettes and Ogres
Is the editing for the next chapter is done yet?
3863174 - Not yet, I had to change a bunch of stuff and J hasn't had the time to go over it.
3872464 - You have no idea how many times I get bugged about writing full clop.
Not ever gonna happen though. I'm glad you like my story thus far. The next chapter is done, but my editor came down with a case of the Blue Flu...
3876284
Really?
3876284
3876879
You would not believe how inconvenient the Blue Flu is. But the worst part is that, no matter how much I sang, no one would get me a glass of water.
But don't worry, that's all been taken care of, and I am editing the next chapter right now. And I'm not going to bed until it's done.