> Roll for Friendship > by Desti > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Session 0 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “I already left the house, I can’t bring you an extra d12, Matt.” I explained to my friend as I’m driving up I-75, 3.5 hours into my 6 hour trip to his house for our annual Dungeons and Dragons one-shot get together with him and my 3 other friends. “Please bro! I’d go and just buy one from the local card shop, but I’m swamped trying to finish up work and putting the finishing touches on the story for tonight! I’ll give you $20 bucks flat out if you could just stop somewhere and pick me up one. Please.” Guess he’s moved onto the bargaining stage, I’ll spare him. “Fine, I’ll see if there’s one close to an exit at some point in the next 120 miles. You seriously need to stop procrastinating though! I can’t believe you still haven’t finished the story for the game we’re playing TONIGHT.” I hang up before he can even respond, he knows I don’t mean it and I really don’t want to continue the conversation and distract him from getting his shit wrapped up. “Okay, Google! Add a stop to the closest comic book store.” I guess comic book stores aren’t guaranteed to also have table top stuff but hopefully it works out. Looks like it’s telling me to get off at the next exit. I stop where I’m instructed to by the omnipotent powers from above known as Google, but this really doesn’t seem like the right place? I’m supposed to be at address number 2954 and instead I’m standing in front of an alley. To the right is 2956 and to the left is 2952, with my superior monkey brain I can deduce that this is supposed to be 2954, but if I have to walk through this dark alley to get to the front door then I don’t know how this place is still in business. “Welp, $20 is $20. Let’s see if there’s a door hiding in this alley.” I mumble to no one in particular. And then I bought Matt his d12 and together we had a great night of pizza and D&D. I wish that’s what happened. Instead I’m laying on my side in some orchard surrounded by apple trees and I’m cosplaying as a homeless person with what feels like a sword and a ball. Seriously? I thought I’d get mugged or step on a needle and catch Hepatitis, but I did not even consider getting drugged, kidnapped, and dressed up like a medieval character. Ok let’s calm down, I feel a lot more shit on me than just a sword and robes, so let’s take stock of what I’m working with. Standing up the first thing I notice is that my hair is way longer than it’s supposed to be. It comes down to around my shoulders and…. it’s silver? What the fuck? I’m wearing some kind of dark black robe with some leather on both my shoulders and chest with some kind of decorative silver markings on it. The sword I felt digging into my hip while I was laying in the dirt is actually a rapier, and a nice one at that. The ball I felt is actually a very small pouch attached to my robe at the waist. Let’s see what else we got here, I have cape, wait is it a cape? It’s like a cape but it goes around one of my shoulders as well. I also have a knapsack on my back under the cape and right under the sack is what feels like a small mount for something? A book maybe? I’m not entirely sure, but this is starting to seem suspiciously fam- “Woah I’ve never seen something like you before! Are you some special guard the Princess sent down here for the celebration today?” Spinning around to face the voice of what sounds like a child that has just about made me shit my pants I see nothing but air. Looking down I see a small yellow horse that’s tall enough to be about thigh level with a red mane and a comically large hair bow. I’m completely dumbfounded because looking around for a second I don’t really see what else could’ve just spoken to me besides the horse and I end up just staring at her. I think it’s a her? After around 10 seconds of us just awkwardly staring at each other she decides to try again, “Um, hello? Are you here for the Celebration?” She tilts her head adorably. “Wow, ok, that was actually you that spoke. I was really hoping it wasn’t you because it means I’ve completely lost my mind. Or I’m dead. I’m being rude. Let me answer your questions before I fully process what’s happening and have a panic attack. I’m an elf-” That’s not right, I’m not an elf. Elfs are about as real as talking horses, I’m a human. I…. have pointy ears. That’s not what I’m supposed to have… “Are you sure you’re an elf? I’ve never heard of an elf before. Where do elfs live? Do y’all have cutie marks? Oh, what about a name? My name’s Apple Bloom.” The tiny horse seems to have a knack for interrupting my train of thought, but it might actually be what’s saving me. I’m almost hyperventilating and my chest hurts. “That’s a lot of questions, I didn’t even answer all of the ones you asked me before. I’m not a guard. I don’t know who your princess is or what she’s celebrating. My particular flavor of elves, and it’s elves when referred to in plural by the way, are mostly from the Feywild. I’m not really sure what a cutie mark is, and my name is Ignis Ferrum.” Once again my mouth speaks something that my brain was not trying to say. That’s not my name. That’s the name of my… Holy shit I’m my D&D character. I really regret my lazy naming scheme of just using latin. Fire Steel? Really? Oh, so this is what passing out feels like. “Mister Ignis!” > Main Quest - Get Home > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Mister Ignis!” I slam my eyes open expecting to find myself on my ass in the orchard, but instead I just see darkness. Endless void. I’m floating slowly, pointlessly around, and I look at my hands. They’re perfectly clean, no calluses, scars, or blemishes. This really isn’t my body. I don’t even know how long it’s been since I passed out, it feels like a few seconds. I feel unnaturally calm and my thoughts are slowing down. I’m Ignis Ferrum. If I have all this equipment with me then I wonder if my character sheet is in that knapsack? As the thought leaves my brain I see blue particles fly through me and around me, quickly. They start to accumulate and form a shape, soon enough I recognize it. IGNIS FERRUM High Elf Level 3 - Wizard. Strength - 13 Dexterity - 19 Constitution - 15 Intelligence - 20 Wisdom - 15 Charisma - 13 Cantrips: Booming Blade Control Flames Fire Bolt Mage Hand 1st Level Spells: Absorb Elements Burning Hands Comprehend Languages Feather Fall Find Familiar Magic Missile Shield Sleep 2nd Level Spells: Dragon’s Breath Invisibility Skimming through the rest of it I mentally make a note of my skill proficiencies and languages, but how does that work? Sure on paper Ignis was apparently proficient with a Sling and can speak Draconic, but I’ve never done either of those things. Will it be similar to when I tried to say my name but my body spoke something different? Sounds a bit scary to be honest, not being in complete control of my body. Gotta love being proficient in Religion while apparently being in a completely different universe. I’m sure that’ll be applicable. Am I ever going to see any of my friends again? “Send” works across dimensions right? Maybe I could try that. Let’s focus on that later and let me go back to my character sheet. Man, I rolled really lucky on those stats though huh? 20 INT and 18 DEX at level 3 with not a single stat below 13. I don’t know if levels even matter now, but at level 4 I can give myself a +2 to any of those stats besides INT, since 20 is the max. Why am I not freaking out anymore? Is it because of this void? Am I dreaming? No. Elves don’t sleep, but I’m not sleeping, technically, I should be unconscious because of my panic attack. My body must have gone into the elven trance state automatically. I have so many more questions like why do I still have modifiers and proficiencies in the first place when those only matter if someone is rolling a dice. Suddenly the black void in my vision is quickly replaced with loose hay and it seems like I’m in a barn. I can hear what sounds like that small horse… pony, she’s a pony. Anyways I hear Apple Bloom and another woman I don’t recognize. She sounds older. “Are ya crazy Apple Bloom! We got dang near the whole Apple family tree here with the celebration set to start in a few hours and you bring some creature that came from Celestia knows where with a sword and armor on!” She’s clearly talking about me, but when she puts it that way even I’m a little concerned with the decision making skills from Apple Bloom. “He’s not some creature from Celestia knows where! He’s Mister Ignis and he’s an elves from the Feywild. I think? He said something like that, but most importantly, he’s lost! He said he don’t know who the Princess is or what the celebration is. Everypony knows who the Princess is!” Well she said elves this time instead of elfs, but I’m guessing she hasn’t learned what plural means. Besides adorable grammar issues, she also brings up some valid points. I think I’m just going to step in here though and talk to the older pony myself. Save little Bloom from getting in even more trouble. “What she says is true. My name is Ignis Ferrum and I am a High Elf. I’m also not entirely sure where I am, but I am fairly certain it’s the wrong plane of existence entirely. I don’t wanna cause either of you any trouble so I’ll just get out of your hair.” The instant I stop speaking everything in my vision takes on a hint of blue and it seems as if time itself has stopped. In the space above the older pony I see the word “ADVANTAGE” appear and two 20 sided dice roll into view bouncing off of some imaginary table. They stop. One lands on 3 and the other on 13. The number 3 fades away into nothingness and then just under the 13 I see “+1 Persuasion” and the 13 turns into a 14. The sheer magnitude of what I’m witnessing rocks me to my core. This is a reality warping power I possess. I just tried to explain away my presence and then excuse myself and now before any outcome is decided I just rolled for Persuasion with advantage. I’m not sure why this power gave me advantage but it looks like I rolled a 14. Not the worst thing I could’ve rolled for sure, but could’ve been better. The numbers and words appearing in thin air instantly vanish and time resumes. The orange pony squints at me suspiciously and replies, “Woah there partner. I can’t just let you walk out with that there sword and especially with whatever that book is. I’m not even a unicorn and I can feel the magic radiating off that thing. You’re not here to invade Equestria or hurt anypony?” Book? Oh that empty mount attached to the small of my back now has a book firmly held within it. Well that has to be my spell book then, and I guess Equestria is the country I’m in. I should probably answer this pony. “No. I don’t even know where “here” is and I definitely wouldn’t just hurt someone for no reason.” I make a wide sweeping motion with my arms to put emphasis on the fact that I really have no fucking clue where I am. I really just need help getting home. “You really have no idea where you are, do you? You said something about a plane of existence? I don’t know nothing about that, but I do know I’ve never heard of no elves before or the Feywild. Maybe the Princess knows something I don’t and she can help you. She’ll be in town later tonight for the Summer Sun Celebration. I can’t force ya to do anything, but I’d really prefer it if you stayed in this barn or atleast in this general vicinity for a while. You’d plain spook everypony out there and cause a ruckus and we still got a lot to do to finish up the catering for tonight. I promise to come get you when it’s time though.” She seems sincere enough. I’m surprised there’s no roll for Insight to see if I think she’s lying or something. Perhaps it’s because I didn’t feel a need for it? In some scenarios it might only need a roll if I consciously want to. “That’s the first piece of good news I’ve heard so far. As far as staying here until it’s more convenient for you, sure I don’t mind….. I still need time to process some things to be honest so that’s probably for the best. One thing though, what’s your name?” “Oh! Silly me, my name is Applejack.” Applejack responds and holds out her front left hoof while making eye contact with me. A hand shake? I grab her hoof and she continues “Pleasure to make your acquaintance!” “I’m placing all my trust in you Applejack, I’m in a foreign land surrounded by unfamiliar faces, and I decide to completely trust the first two creatures I meet. Maybe I really am crazy, but I hope I can count on you.” I release Applejacks hoof but before she can respond Apple Bloom interrupts, “You won’t regret it Mister Ignis! I can’t even think of the last time my sister lied to somepony! She’s never let me down!” The older pony gives Apple Bloom a bit of a side eye before adding in, “I’ll definitely do what I can, but I’m no miracle worker. That’ll be Princess Celestia’s job. Looks like I have the first step in my quest. Meet with this Princess Celestia. > Main Quest - Get Home pt. 2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I know I agreed to stay put until Applejack came to get me, but holy shit I’m bored. It looks like the sun is setting, so I know it’s been a few hours. I thought maybe I could use this time to figure out how to use my magic and I think I’ve gotten the hang of it, but the only thing I could really tinker with was Mage Hand or I risked probably burning this barn down. After playing 400 rounds of rock, paper, scissors with my mage hand I decided to do some people watching out the window. AJ wasn’t kidding when she said almost the entire Apple family tree was here. I think I counted at least 60 different ponies out and about. At some point I’m pretty sure I spotted a purple unicorn with a giant lizard which just about made me break my neck when I did a double take. I remember Applejack mentioned unicorns, but I didn’t really think much of it. I can’t really tell what the difference is between unicorn and non-unicorn but considering magic was mentioned I’m guessing they’re the spellcaster subclass for ponies. After the unicorn left I decided to just trance the time away and here I am. Strangely though, I don’t see anyone outside anymore… did the celebration start and she forgot about me? Alright it’s officially dark outside I’m done waiting. I start walking in the direction I saw the unicorn go when it left, there’s probably a town or something beyond all these apples. Sure enough, after walking past what feels like an endless sea of apple trees I crest over a hill and down below I can see a small village. There’s a stream of ponies walking and.. flying? Ok, I guess they have pegasus here too. They’re all going from what looks like a tree towards a tall building in the town center. Let’s see here if I can spot an orange mare with a cowboy hat on. A familiar blue hue overtakes my vision as a single 20 sided die rolls into the air. 6. Well I guess I’m not gunna find Applejack in this crowd then, haha. Had to roll bad at some point. +9 Arcana. 15. Everything fades away back to normal and before I can even question why the skill check was Arcana, I feel it. I faintly feel a tear of magic, and it’s incredibly far away. It had to be some serious power for me to feel it over here, but it doesn’t seem like any of the ponies felt it. I can’t tell if that’s a good thing or not. Either way I need to keep moving, I don’t see Applejack in the stream of ponies so I’ll go check the tree they’re all coming out of to see if she’s still there. “You’d plain spook everypony out there and cause a ruckus…” Her words echo in my mind as I approach the tree, maybe I should sneak in through the window. If I find her I can try and grab her attention with mage hand or something. 17. +6 Stealth. 23. I’m impressed at how silently I’m managing to climb this tree right now, the leaves scattered about the branches are still and I’m able to distribute my weight across to prevent the branches themselves from moving. Just as I’m about to climb onto the balcony I hear someone talk and pause my next step. “I hope the Princess was right and it is just an old pony tale.” “C’mon Twilight, it’s time to watch the sunrise!” Taking a peak through a window it looks like the purple unicorn, Twilight, is concerned about something. She and the reptile are gone now though, so I slip through the balcony into the tree. Only to discover the tree is empty, I guess they were the last two to leave. One thing worth remembering is that apparently this tree is a library, if I’m gunna be around for more than a few days I should come educate myself on where I am. For now though I’m going to quietly follow Twilight and the other ponies to the town center and see if this Princess Celestia is there. What the hell even is a summer sun celebration? Why is it happening at night? I feel like I’ve clearly missed something. Perhaps when the sun comes up is when the celebration actually begins? This Princess will be able to help me right? No, no focus. I’ve been fighting off this panic for almost 24 hours. The inside of this building definitely seems like it’s the right place. They have banners and streamers with the sun all over it and it looks like I see Applejack over on the side by the food. Sneaking onto the highest level looking down onto the main floor I decide to just wait here and observe. An older looking regular pony comes on stage under the spotlight and proceeds to announce, “Fillies and gentlecolts, as mayor of Ponyville it is my great pleasure to announce the beginning of the Summer Sun Celebration! In just a few moments our town will witness the magic of the sunrise and celebrate this, the longest day of the year. Now, it is my great honor to introduce to you the ruler of our land, the very pony who gives us the sun and the moon each and every day. The good, the wise, the bringer of harmony to all of Equestria, Princess Celestia!” Wow, do all the ponies worship the princess this much? With all the praise in that introduction I wonder if the mayor smells anything other than shit all day. The mayor points her forehoof to a big curtain that pulls back to reveal… an empty space? She’s not here. She can’t help me. I’m never going home. Panic. Panic. I feel my chest get tight when suddenly, 17. +9 Arcana. 26. It’s the same magic from earlier but a lot closer this time. It’s almost nauseating how powerful it is. Is this the princess? As if to answer my question a dark blue starry mist creeps and expands its way outwards onto the stage before coalescing into the largest pony I’ve seen so far. A deep jet black colored unicorn with wings, it appears to have on some type of helmet and armor piece around it’s chest. I mean this has to be the princess right? She’s tall and has all the qualities of the 3 different types of pony I’ve seen so far. Feeling my panic settle down, I can finally hear what the ponies below are actually saying, “What did you do with our princess?!” a sky blue pegasus with rainbow mane yells out and seems like she actually attempts to charge at the large pony, who is apparently not the princess. The rainbow pegasus is held back by Applejack though for some reason. So, this large pony is not only not the princess, but she’s done something to her? A new feeling starts to bubble up, it’s not the familiar feeling of panic, no, this is something new. It’s rage. I grab my spellbook in my left hand and instantly decide what spell I want to use. My body instinctively acting on its own forms my right hand into a finger gun and as a small spark appears from the tip of my finger I yell out, “Fire bolt!” Tall, dark, and ominous snaps her head in my direction, but it’s too late. Time has frozen and I see something that makes me happier than I’ve been all day. “ADVANTAGE.” 14 and a 20.... perfect. “NATURAL 20.” The dice fade away and are replaced by a single 10 sided die. 6. +10 Crit. 16 Fire Damage. Time resumes and the fire bolt lands squarely between the ponies eyes causing her to flinch. She then glares at me and I’m hit by a shocking realization. She doesn’t even have a scratch on her. “Oh, I’m so fucked.” Time freezes once again and all I see are three words. “ROLL FOR INITIATIVE.” > Main Quest - Get Home pt. 3 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “ROLL FOR INITIATIVE” 1. +4. 5. Oh fuck. Oh fuck. Oh FUCK. Time unfreezes and immediately I can see raw magic gathering at the tip of big nasty’s horn. I want to fire off another fire bolt or maybe pull out a bigger spell but I’m unable to. Probably because I rolled a natural 1 for initiative. “Where’s our Princess Nightmare Moon?!” The rainbow pony yells out and this time actually charges at the villain before she can put a giant hole in my chest. Nightmare Moon manages to evade the rainbow bullet heading at her and once again pierces my soul with those eyes. Screw this, I jump over the railing and start falling toward the ground floor but before I can I see a beam of pure energy barreling towards me. Crap, I was hoping I could fall fast enough that she’d miss. I reach my arm out and grab one of the yellow sun banners hanging from the ceiling and yank as hard as I can with my arm pulling myself into a swing towards the other side of the room. *CRRRKK* And that’s apparently the sound a banner makes when it decides to give up on life. Looks like I’m not gunna make it to the other side and I’ll just have to settle for being in the middle of the room. I managed to dodge the magic attack at least. By this point a majority of the ponies in the room are scrambling towards the exit doors, but some white ponies in golden armor are flying towards the she-demon. She gives the guards one sweeping look and starts smiling which can’t be a good sign so I decide to try and be useful again. To my surprise, I can attack finally. From this distance none of my leveled spells are going to be particularly useful and I don’t really think I have enough time to get closer if I wanna hit her before she can do whatever she’s planning to do with those guards, so let’s just go with ole reliable again. I point my finger towards Nightmare Moon and fire off another Fire Bolt. 4. +7. 11. My fire bolt zooms past her head, completely missing. Where are the rolls I was getting earlier? C’mon dice I’m trying to not die here! I notice the metal bracers start humming on my wrist and I remember the Illusionists’ Bracers! Whenever I cast a cantrip spell like Fire Bolt the bracers store the spell and I can fire it again on the same turn. Ok, breathe. We got 1 more shot. Let’s do it. “Fire Bolt!” 17. +7. 24. The spark of fire lands seems to graze past her neck leaving some singed fur before continuing into the wall of the building, but I see a 10 sided die come into view which means I did do something. 5. Glancing blow. 2 Fire Damage. She has 24 AC. Ok this is fine, totally fine. I’m sure those guards are decently strong, I can continue supporting them from afar and we can wear her down. As if on queue her horn lights up again and suddenly a bright flash of light fills my vision, and I see a lightning bolt strike the guard closest to her, and it bounces to the next. It bounces again. Oh shit it’s chain lightning! “DEXTERITY SAVE” 17. +4. 21. Time resumes and the lightning bolt proceeds to bounce between 3 other guards sending them all flying before coming my way. I manage to scramble out of the way and the bolt hits the ground right next to me. Looking around I see it’s just me, Twilight, Applejack, rainbow pony, and Nightmare Moon, and boy oh boy Nightmare really looks like she wants me dead. Before she can make her dreams a reality I feel the wind knocked out of my chest and suddenly I’m outside the building. In fact, I’m about 40 feet in the air moving quickly back towards the library with the blue pegasus carrying me. “Dude! That’s what I’m talking about! I don’t know what you are, but I know we’re on the same page. You were all like “Fire bolt” pew pew bwahh and I was all like “HI-YAH” with my Pony-Fu. I really like yo-” “Where are we going?! I need to talk to the Princess and that bitch is the only one that knows where she is!” I decided to interrupt the speeding Skittles representative. “Twilight said she had a plan, but that we needed to retreat and regroup. She teleported Fluttershy and Rarity out then she teleported herself and Applejack at the same time I grabbed you.” You know what? That’s agreeable, Nightmare doesn't seem to be chasing us even though we were clearly out classed so I’m going to just quietly concur with these ponies and see what Twilight's plan is. “Alright then let’s hear what the plan is. We need to take this horse down so I can go home.” > Main Quest - Get Home pt. 4 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “So you’re saying in some old ruins in the woods we can find some trinkets that use the power of “harmony” and will allow you to kill Nightmare Moon?” I ask just to make sure I’m properly understanding this plan. “Defeat. Not kill. You sound like you have no faith in this plan, but according to this book these same trinkets were what sealed her in the moon last time.” The purple unicorn known as Twilight responds. “Even worse! I can’t get back to my dimension if we can’t find Celestia and Nightmare is the only one who knows where she is!” “I thought you were supposed to know magic? We have tracking spells. We’d just need a guard to go to her room in the palace and grab something that belongs to her and we can find her. In fact they’re probably doing that as we speak. We really need to leave though, I can tell she’s severely weakened right now, whatever she did to the Princess combined with the fact that she was in a sealed state for the last 1000 years had her running on near empty and the longer we leave her alone the stronger she’ll be.” “You mean that monster wasn’t even at full strength? There’s no way!” “Then why didn’t she chase after us? Why let the only ponies that put up a fight get away?” “.... I don’t know, but she’s way too strong and I don’t wanna see what she can do at a full power. So fine, let’s go.” I finally concede as we stand up and start going towards the door of the library. Some context here, apparently Twilight was sent to town yesterday to make sure all the preparations for the celebration were coming along nicely after trying to warn the Princess that this celebration would mark the return of Nightmare Moon. Princess Incompetent told her that she’s crazy and needed to go touch grass. Along the way Twilight met the 5 other ponies that are currently walking with us through the forbidden forest and those same 5 ponies are the ones that decided it being night time forever is a bad idea. Let me give you a quick rundown of these 5. Applejack, orange pony blond “mane” I don’t wanna get talked to again for calling it hair. We already know her she’s the one that kept me in a barn and seemed somewhat nice. Turns out she’s actually pretty strong. Rainbow Dash, the blue pegasus with a rainbow mane. She’s the one that joined me in my insane effort to beat up what I’ve now been informed is basically a capital g, God. Pinkie Pie, a fitting name for a pink pony with a pink puffy mane. She’s pretty random, hype, and loud. Rarity, another unicorn, I don’t really have a vibe from her yet. She’s pure white with a purple mane, but it’s pretty stylized. She seems nice enough? Fluttershy, a yellow pegasus with a long pink mane. I’m pretty sure she hasn’t said a word so far, but if she did I was too zoned out to hear it. The poor thing seems terrified, but respect for trying to do the right thing. Hopefully she doesn’t hold us back. “So what exactly is so spooky about this forest?” I ask to break the silence. “It don’t work like the rest of Equestria, it ain’t natural.” Applejack replies. “That literally doesn’t answer my question at all. I don’t know how the rest of Equestria works.” “All the plants and trees grow on their own and the weather is completely random. It can be sunny for a few hours and then a huge storm comes through.” “That’s not how the rest of the world works?” “Colt you really don’t know anything, huh? The pegasi control the weather and don’t none of the plants grow without our earth pony magic.” “Right. Sure. The big magic horse can apparently move the moon and sun, so I guess weather manipulation isn’t unbelievable.” Applejack probably had something to respond with but before she can say anything Pinkie Pie starts literally vibrating. “Oooooh wow this is gunna be a doozy!” I’m just about to ask her if she’s having a stroke when suddenly the cliffside we’re walking on collapses. 12. +6 Acrobatics. 18. The only 2 ponies completely safe are the ones with wings, Rainbow and Fluttershy, the other 4 ponies start tumbling down the side of the mountain with me. Digging my ankles into the dirt to slow my descent I grab Pinkie Pie by the hoof and move her towards a root sticking out of the ground that she stops herself with. Rainbow Dash catches Applejack and Fluttershy manages to slow down Rarity enough for her to stop herself. Twilight on the other hand goes over the side and is hanging onto the edge for dear life. “Shit, shit, shit. Hang on!” Right as I get to the edge her hooves slip and she starts to fall. Well, I hope an 18 is high enough for this! I go over the edge and grab Twilight, holding her forehooves while I dangle upside down by my feet. I start to feel her slipping and decide I’m going to try to throw her back up onto the ledge, but before I can I hear Applejack, “Ignis, just let her go.” “Are you insane?! There’s no way she can survive that fall!” “You have to trust me just let her go or you’re both going to fall, and then we can’t help.” “Screw that!” I bend my knees and start building momentum back towards the edge. Flexing my entire core I transfer the momentum into my arm and fling Twilight back towards the cliff. She safely lands back on the incline and Applejack steadies her, but my feet lose grip in the process and I fall into the void. As I’m falling I see Rainbow come speeding into view and she banks down, barreling straight towards me. “I gotcha!” She yells. She grabs me and we slow down to a stop, just hovering in the air. “Sweet save Rainbow, now just bring me back up.” “I’m trying dude, but you’re really heavy. Last time I already had a lot of force when I grabbed you, but I’m trying to start from zero now and to be honest I don’t think I can bring you up.” She really is breathing hard and it makes sense. I’m like 3 times the size of these ponies I’m amazed she’s even holding me up right now. “Alright Rainbow, just let me go. I’ll be fine. Twilight said I’m looking for a castle right? I’ll keep heading in the same direction from this lower path and we can regroup at the castle. You go with them in case something like this happens again, I can handle myself.” Rainbow goes silent for a few seconds, it seems like she really wants me to stay with the group, “I don’t think I have it in me right now to bring everyone else down to where you’ll be, and I can’t bring you up so I guess I’ll follow your plan. Watching what you did to Nightmare Moon I’m sure you’ll be fine. I’m not dropping you though I’ll slowly bring you down and then go back up with the girls.” She places me on the ground and gives me a wave before flying back up through the foliage to reconvene with the others. On one hand it’s good they were there because it means I didn’t have to use Feather Fall and managed to save a spell slot, but on the other hand I can move a lot faster through these woods without them constantly doing double takes and jumping every time a tree looks scary. Splitting up is probably the best idea. This also gives me the perfect opportunity to cut loose and actually figure out how the hell my power works. Very unexpectedly, I see that tinge of blue overtake my vision indicating time has stopped, but instead of seeing dice I just see 2 big words. “TUTORIAL START” > Main Quest - Get Home pt. 5 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “TUTORIAL START” I get a tutorial for this thing? Hopefully the tutorial is more focused on whatever this power is cause I’m already plenty familiar with D&D rules. “Everything in this world is randomly decided, some call it Fate others name it Destiny. You’re able to slightly influence and bring visual representation of this greater power in the form of Dice. As an example try to examine your surroundings for any threats or for something of use, simply announce the skill internally or externally with magical intent behind it.” Time unfreezes as the feminine narration in my head finishes speaking. Ah, so when I wanted to look around the Apple farm earlier the reason the dice roll appeared wasn’t because of me. Explains why it was Arcana instead of Perception. Well let’s give it a try then, Perception. That familiar blue takes over my vision again as I see the dice roll and land on 8. Below the dice I see “Wisdom +2. Proficiency +2.” and the dice shifts and becomes a 12.  Time resumes and nothing really happens, but then I spot a cluster of gray mushrooms sprouting in the middle of some tall grass. I’m not sure why I didn’t notice it earlier but for some reason it’s like something is just drawing my attention to them now.  As I slowly approach the mushrooms I hear the narration again in my brain. “This is called an Active Check. You can opt instead to rely on passive mode in which case you’ll interact with the world as if you rolled a 10 plus your modifiers. Your passive Perception for example would be 14.  If you choose to not actively check something you’ll perceive it as if you rolled that, but you can and should still actively roll. Sometimes however, the Universe will demand a roll from you regardless of if you have a skill in passive mode or not.”  Before I can even start formulating a thought on how I want to use this new information the dice rolls again.  1. CRITICAL FAILURE. +5 Nature.  This time the +5 doesn’t even change the number it just fades away leaving the words Critical Failure in bright red. Back to the world around me I look at the mushrooms and determine that I’m 100% sure these mushrooms are Rogue’s Morsel. I can use these to make healing potions later once I find an alchemical setup. I pick them up from the ground and put them into my bag for later.  With no further interruptions from the mysterious power I decide to start walking forward trying to continue in the same general direction we were walking as a group. “You know aimlessly walking in real life is alot worse than I thought it’d be. I definitely prefer the DM just waving their hands and going “after an uneventful walk for a few hours you begin to see a structure in the distance blah blah” maybe I can try doing it the same way as an active check. Fast Travel! ….. Yeah I didn’t think that’d work.” At this point I’m just talking outloud to myself to try and make the time go by faster as I keep steadily moving towards the castle, atleast I hope I’m going towards the castle. Before I can fall into a cycle of doubt and panic I see the dice roll again. 15, +4 Perception, 19. The hair on my neck and arms stands up straight and I feel like something is bearing down on me. I stop instantly mid step, pull out my rapier, and start slowly looking around me when I hear it. Bush leaves bristling together to my right. I quickly spin to face the bush and ready my blade. “Whatever you are, come out now!” I yell. INITIATIVE. 11, +4. 15. The narration begins again, “In combat every action is taken in turns. The order in which every creature take their turn is decided by rolling Initiative, the highest number goes first. Once the tutorial has been completed you may choose to allow combat to happen in real time with no turns, but this is not recommended as there are almost no benefits for beginners. Good luck.”  Some amalgamation of wooden bark and branches comes speeding out of the brush barreling straight towards me. It’s moving fast enough that it’s almost a blur, but I can make out its canine-esque shape with 2 green eyes. It lunges directly at me and I try to block it from biting my neck by giving it my forearm. It was too fast I couldn’t even try to dodge.  It feels like time slows to a crawl as I see it’s mouth start to close on my arm and right before its teeth begin to dig into me, “SHIELD!” A translucent bubble bursts outward from my core sending the wolf back to the ground where it’s now growling at me. Okay shield is active until my next turn so I should have 21 AC right now.  I take my empty left hand and make a motion with it over the blade of my rapier and as I do a purple energy almost like lightning goes from my hand to the blade, as I silently cast Booming Blade. Quickly following that I make a fierce stab towards the wooden wolf. 18. +4 Dexterity, +2 Proficiency Bonus, +1 Weapon Enchantment. 25. I’m apparently fast enough that the wolf can’t react fast enough to side step me and the blade pierces straight into it’s wooden head. Time doesn’t stop but I see in the top right of my peripheral vision an eight sided die rolls in place before landing on a 3. +5, 8 Piercing damage. I quickly withdraw the blade and the wolf makes some type of pained response, I decide to take this opportunity to run. If this is one to one for D&D I’ll suffer an attack of opportunity but the wolf still looks a little dazed from the attack I don’t think it can react.  I am apparently wrong as the wolf notices me turning away to start running and makes a lunge to bite my calf, but is stopped again by the shield. Phew, it missed again. Sure enough, after a few seconds I’m almost forced to a stop and I turn around to face the wolf. So, I guess this 30 feet away.  The wolf lowers its head which is now leaking a glowing green liquid and starts to run at me again, but after it starts to move it’s body is wracked with a purple lightning and it yelps. Booming blade baby, if you move 5ft after being struck you take 1d8 thunder damage. I see the same 8 sided die roll before stopping on 4. Okay assuming it doesn’t have any resistances it’s taken 12 damage, hopefully it’s tapped out now. Turns out, the wolf is not tapped out as it resumes it charge towards me, this time I pivot and spin so that I’m not in the path of it’s wide open maw. However I fail to notice the creatures paw as it goes straight through my shield leaving 3 scratches across the side of my torso as it flies past me before it lands and spins around to face me. The pain is instant and I can feel my face contort as I wince and grab at the wound. I see my health go from 21 to 12. Gods above that burns.  My shield drops indicating it’s my turn once again as I decide to respond. My anger flares up again and I close my hand into the shape of a finger gun again and yell, “FIRE BOLT!” I immediately regret firing my fire bolt as I see two dice appear with word “DISADVANTAGE” under them. In my panic and anger I forgot firing a ranged attack while in melee distance imposes disadvantage, fuck. 20. 16. +6, 23. Damn I got lucky this time, but I’m pretty peeved I missed out on a natural 20 due to my mistake. There’s spark at the end of my finger gun’s barrel that turns into small ball of fire before flying away and slamming straight into the wolf. 8 Fire Damage. The entire wolf bursts into flames as it falls on its side and flops about a couple of times before going completely still. The glowing green light gone from its eye sockets. Dead.  I collapse right onto my ass and start breathing heavily. I didn’t expect to take this much damage from 1 graze of it’s paw. I look around in my bag and see 2 small red vials. This must be the passive roll taking effect as I instantly realize these are both potions of healing. I pop the cork off and down the red liquid as quickly as I can and time freeze as I see two little pyramid shaped dice roll in front of me. 1 and 1. +2, 4. I curse at the bad roll and watch my health counter in the bottom left of my peripheral vision change from 12 to 16. The burning pain on my side lightens and the scratches instantly scab over with a very light green glow. I gotta get some leather that covers my entire torso instead of just my chest and back.  After collecting myself for a few minutes and letting my heart rate go down I continue to march forward. My path eventually narrows up and I notice far above me there’s an olden wooden bridge, silently thanking the powers that be that I don’t have to walk across that. Suddenly I notice a cloud that looks almost exactly like the night sky fly over me and up towards the bridge, and I pull out my blade ready for the worst. The cloud continues up and out of sight and after waiting for a few seconds it seems like nothing is going to happen, so I continue marching on. After I walk under the bridge I notice a collapsed stone wall up on the ledge above. “There’s the castle! Hopefully I’m not too late.” After a few athletics checks I heave myself up onto solid ground and look straight ahead to see what must’ve been a massive structure in the past, but is now a collapsing ruin with two large rotted wooden doors.  Perception. 15. +4, 19.  There’s no hoofprints in the ground, so I think I made it here first and as I walk up to the doors I don’t see any trip wires or other traps. Slowly opening the door I see a big mostly empty room, save for some type of stone statue…. Monument? I’m not sure what it is but it looks almost like a constellation system with one large moss covered orb in the middle surrounded by five smaller stone orbs that each have different symbols engraved on them. I walk up and place my hand on one of the stone orbs and think Investigation. Immediately I can tell these objects are magical in nature and I think they might be those trinkets Twilight was talking about, but from what I can tell there’s only 5 here and she mentioned 6. Seeing as I’m the only one here I decide to make myself useful and start taking the orbs off the monument. If everything is already in place when they get here it should help a little.  Right as I place the last orb on the ground the doors slam open and a strong gust of wind knocks me clear across the room, now on the complete opposite side from the doors. That same starry night mist flows in and materializes in between me and the monument with the trinkets on the other side of the monument.  “You really decided to come here alone? Has Celestia really neglected to properly teach this nation about the past and who am I? Do I not strike fear into your heart?” The mist fully formed now and I realize it’s her. It’s Nightmare Moon. I notice a flash in the top left of my vision and gulp as my main quest has been updated. The main quest is still Get Home, but there’s a sub-quest bullet under it now. “Survive.” > Main Quest - Survive > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “I wouldn’t know what Celestia has been teaching her people. I only arrived on this plane yesterday. The only thing I do know is that this “Princess Celestia” is apparently quite adept with magic and is capable of returning me back to my home, and you’ve apparently done something to her. I will say though, there is a small amount of fear in my heart….” I’m not sure if her question was rhetorical or not but my best shot here is to delay her as long as possible with conversation.  Nightmare Moon starts to slowly pace back and forth eyeing me up while she replies, “Surely you’re driven by something more than that? You pelted me with your pathetic magic before I could even introduce myself. How can you be so sure that you’re even on the right side of this conflict?” That does actually give me pause. Sure I’m very much inclined and motivated to assist Celestia as I currently believe she’s my best shot home, but I have no clue why this creature acted against her. Twilight probably explained some of this, but I was still pretty out of it. Let’s probe her. “My own self interests are truly what drive me, but you’ve spiked my curiosity. What are you trying to accomplish here, and why are you doing it?”  She seems to be thinking about something as she stops pacing and squints her eyes at me, saying nothing for a few seconds before finally replying. “I used to rule this land alongside Celestia, my sister, long ago. We were complete equals in everything, every decision was discussed between us and agreed upon. Over time however, our subjects began to choose favorites. Nobles would begin making comments whenever we were settling disagreements or reaching compromises, attempts to brush off my concerns or devalue my opinions entirely. Mine sister would always scold them and assure me that we were equals, but eventually even she began to make decisions without even informing me. They had swayed her over entirely, likely because she was more willing to make concessions in an attempt to keep herself in a positive light in the public eye. Even the guards and castle staff stopped greeting me and giving me the proper courtesies. The only thing that kept me going was the fact that my sister, privately at least, still loved me and was truly my best friend.” INSIGHT. 6, +4. 10. Well that roll doesn’t really help me at all. Shit. Half way through that speech she stopped looking at me entirely and it looked like her eyes had become glassy. My gut says that she isn’t lying, but this doesn’t explain anything. Sure it sounds like she became an outcast due to her stricter style of ruling but that doesn’t explain the whole “1000 years on the moon.” Luckily I do remember that part from Twilight when she was explaining how she tried to warn Celestia. “There has to be more to it. You truly do have my sympathy, but the way things are today are too extreme for that to be the only justification. You mentioned what kept you going, but what happened that led to….. To all of this?”  “Yes, you are correct. Things carried on like that for a while, I began to accept that I would live in my sister's shadow. Honestly, I think I was even a little relieved once I realized how much stress I was accumulating from ruling the kingdom. What happened 1000 years ago though went beyond the kingdom, the nobles, our roles as the day and night, as a sister it was completely unforgivable. Celestia was convinced by the nobles that her precious sun should have a day of celebration. She was so blinded by her own ego when they told her that the first day of summer should be the longest “day” of the year and have it’s own celebration to go with it. They named it the summer solstice and decided that the sun should be up for 14 hours every year on June 20th.” She looked to be in pain at this point, but there was enough of a pause that I assumed she was done. “I’m confused then, how could this go beyond day and night when it sounds like you were just jealous that your moon didn’t have an appropriate holiday?” I almost thought she wasn’t going to answer me. Just my question seemed to cause her pain with her eyes squeezed shut. After a few seconds though she opened her eyes and with enough venom in her voice to make me visibly recoil she answered. “June 20th…. is MY BIRTHDAY!” Tears were streaming down her face now and her sorrow at the end of that statement carried so much weight I could see the air directly in front of her begin to ripple. Then, I felt it. It felt like my entire body was being vibrated from the inside out. I instantly dropped my rapier to the ground and bent over in pain as I put my hands over my ears. I was given a moment of reprieve and thought it was over but when I opened my eyes I realized time had stopped again. Constitution Saving Throw. 17, +2. 19. Status: Dazed. Can’t take reactions. I’m amazed this didn’t cause me to lose hit points, but that’s a pretty detrimental status. Nightmare Moon continues her rant. “Imagine waking up on your birthday and excitedly cantering about your domicile while you overhear everypony around you talk about how excited they are for the upcoming celebration. You start to finally gain a little hope that maybe you’ve actually garnered some favor from the ponies around you. Then an hour after your birthday party has begun you are still ALONE. You wander out into the courtyard only to discover that your only friend, your sister, has decided to completely erase your birth from existence to make it all about HER and her PRECIOUS SUN! That is why I’ll make sure her and her damned ponies never get to see it again!" This time Nightmare’s outburst is accompanied by more than just explosive soundwaves. There’s an actual wave of raw magic that explodes out from around her cracking the ground and the constellation behind her. Loose bricks and debris on the floor begin scattering and shooting off in every direction when I spot a brick and some rocks coming directly at me. There’s not enough time to dodge so I flick my hand and think SHIELD, but nothing happens. Shield shield shield SHIELD! I remember I’m dazed and instantly make an X with my arms in front of my face and hunch over to reduce my surface area while I tense up and brace for impact. -3. -1. -2. 10/21 Hit Points. Intense pain flares up in my left shin, hip, and gut. My left leg falls to its knee and I start gasping as I realize I forgot to breathe. I move my arms out of my face and grab my rapier off the ground as I begin to collect myself. Nightmare Moon is screaming in pure rage and grief as I quickly throw my backpack off and onto the ground. I reach in, quickly grab my last potion of healing and down it.  4. 4. +2. 20/21 Hit Points. Guess that evens out my double ones earlier. Already the pain in my leg and gut have nearly vanished completely and I look back to Nightmare Moon only to see her horn glowing brightly as she stares me down.  “Wait wait wait Nightmare, I’m so sorry that happened to you. I know what it’s like to spend a birthday alone, and to add onto that with the complete betrayal you suffered I can’t even imagine that pain. But, you can’t doom this entire hemisphere to an eternal night because of them. If this was really 1000 years ago all of those ponies except your sister are surely dead by now! There are too many innocents that will suffer because of this, you can’t do it!” 3, +1 Persuasion. 4. Shit. “Silence.” Is all she says with the most pure authority I’ve ever heard in a creature's voice before I finally see the dreaded phrase appear before me. The phrase I had been trying to stall and avoid for as long as possible. Roll For Initiative.  9, +4. 13. As soon as the dice fades away from my view, so does my status condition. I’m no longer dazed, thankfully. Not a moment too soon either! She starts off by igniting her horn and blasting a channeled beam of pure night straight at me. I decide I’m not even going to chance dodging that, Shield! The beam scatters around me and for a moment I think the shield isn’t going to withstand it but finally the magic fades. I reach into a pouch tied to my belt, toss a pepper into my mouth and put my hand against my chest as I speak magic into the air, “Draco. Spiritus. IGNIS.” I start sprinting straight at her as I ready my blade acting as if I mean to strike at her. She lowers her head and readies herself, but it’s a feint as I suddenly dart to the right. I’m directly beside her and before she can turn herself to face me I take in a loud, deep breath. I feel my chest heat up and as the heat rises into my neck I release the mightiest roar I can muster as I spew a fiery dragons breath straight at the side of Nightmares body. 6. 4. 3. 13 Fire Damage. Nightmare unfortunately reacts just in time, with one mighty flex of her wings she takes to the air as the fire scathes her legs.  Saved. 6 Fire Damage. She lands back on the ground as I try to back peddle away from her, but I’m suddenly forced to a stop. Welp, guess that’s my 30 feet of movement. I really need to think these things through more. If I can survive this turn I’ll still have 9 more turns of Dragon’s Breath, 1 more 2nd level spell slot and 2 more 1st level slots. It’s time to pull out all the stops. I have no clue how this will work, but then again I have no idea how I’ve casted any of my spells so far so I’m sure it’ll work out. Nightmare turns in my direction, now face to face. I can see the fury and pain in her eyes until she suddenly does a complete 180 and faces away from me completely. I’m confused for a second before it clicks. She might be a magical god horse, but she's still a horse, shit she’s going t-. Before I can finish the thought it feels like a car just fell on my chest as one of her back hooves hits me square in my center of mass.  Strength Saving Throw. 1, +1. 2. Fail. The next thing I know I’m bouncing across the cracked floor of the castle ruins before sliding to a stop against a half wall. I’m trying to breathe, inhale exhale, I don’t care which but nothing is happening, the air’s been knocked out of me.  -17. 3/21 Hit Points. Concentration Check. DC 10. 15, +2. 17. Maintains Concentration. I can finally draw breath as I lift my face off the ground and cough up blood onto the stone. I stick my rapier into the ground to act as leverage to pull myself up. My ribs are almost certainly shattered, it hurts just to breathe. My right ankle sends a sharp pain up my leg as I stand up and put weight on it, must’ve twisted it when I was doing my best soccer ball impression.  I’m out of movement due to previously being prone, but I need the AC Bonus so I’m going to try a Bladesong anyways. I’ll just use my action on a magic missile or something as I’m too far for another Dragon's Breath.  “By arcane might, stars alight, Magic Missiles, take flight!” I hold up my left hand with 2 fingers extended and draw a line in front of me as I recite the incantation and 3 red orbs appear in the path my fingers traced. I finish the incantation and all 3 burst forward twisting and speeding through the air in different paths.  Nightmare Moon seems startled at first, I can only assume it’s because the magic is completely foreign to her. She quickly recovers and ignites her horn as she begins trying to follow the 3 separate bolts of force currently speeding at her from every direction. I wonder what she’s going to do, but I don’t get to find out as she’s too slow to react and the bolts slam into her on both sides of her barrel.  3. 2. 2. 7, +3. 10 Force Damage. “Gah, your magic might be sophisticated but it lacks power!” She shouts at me as the dust settles around her she whips her head around to look at me, but when she faces me this time I get to see a face of pure shock as I channel a Bladesong.  "In the dance of steel, in melody's embrace, Bladesong rises, weaving grace. With steps as swift as morning's sigh, Blade and magic, as one, they fly. Echoes of war, whispers of old, Power untamed, a tale untold. Bladesinger's art, in shadows wade, In the rhythm of battle, a serenade." In my mind I can clearly understand what the incantation is supposed to be, but the words being spoken out loud might as well be complete gibberish to me. It sounds like I’m saying the incantation but all of the words are coming out at once at the same time on top of each other, the entire channel is condensed into one line. As I speak the incantation I hold the rapier with my right hand in front of me perfectly straight, aligned with my chest, I slowly turn my wrist and bring my right hand to my left shoulder as I dip into a formal bow. With the final words spoken I lift out of the bow put my left hand behind my back, whip my right arm to the right before bringing it back to my center and point the tip of the rapier at Nightmare Moon, who’s 20ft away. The effect is immediate, I feel light as air and every now and then I can see little streaks of blue and white light coming out of the ground around my feet and wisping around my body as they rise up. I assume it’s mana. As the mana passes by my ears I can hear it, chords on a piano and notes from a violin are being carried through the air by these mana particles. +5, 21 AC. Nightmare’s reaction actually surprises me, for the first time I get to see a look of panic on her face as she stammers out, “That art was extinguished long before we ended Chaos’ Reign! What trickery is this?! I refuse to believe that is-” “A Bladesong! Is that really a bladesong?!” Both mine and Nightmares heads whip towards the door as we hear a new voice enter the ruins. I’m more elated than I thought I’d be when my eyes focus and I realize who it is. It’s Twilight Sparkle, they made it!  “Girls! There’s no time, those orbs are what I assume are the magical artifacts you mentioned. I can only buy you a minute at most, but probably less.” I shout towards them, but when I see Rainbows face turn into a look of fear and shock, she looks like she’s about to say something, but her voice isn’t what I hear. I turn and realize Nightmare is flying straight at me, less than 5ft away with her horn ablaze, and all she says is. “Less.”  > Main Quest - Save Princess Luna > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Less." I instantly duck down and watch as she soars over me and lands on the side of the wall like a Spiderman or something before launching herself off of it and landing right beside me as she unleashes another beam point blank.  Ha, doesn’t she know ranged attacks in melee distance cause disadvantage? I tilt my head to the side to dodge the beam as it roars past me. I start my turn by repeating the same hand motions I used versus the wooden wolf, run my left hand along the blade of my rapier as it sparks to life with purple lightning.  I feint left then quickly dash to the right and attempt to run her through with my blade directed at her barrel.  18, +7. 25.  The tip strikes true and sinks into her side, I internally celebrate but am cut short when I see that her fur isn’t really fur. It’s like an outer layer of thick darkness that sputters and flickers off of her where the rapier pierces through. She still gives a small wince indicating that I made it through the darkness but I realize now why her AC is so high. Let’s see the damage. 8, +5. 13 Piercing damage. I pull the blade out quickly and see some blood along the steel as I return back to my neutral position, so it seems like if she’s resistant to piercing damage its only non-magical. Luckily my rapier has a small +1 enchantment. Her wound emits the same purple lightning for a moment and I feel the hum of my bracers as I activate them to cast booming blade a second time. 16, +7. 23.  This time the blade hits that layer of magical darkness and almost bounces off. Complete miss.  Both of these attacks happen in just a few seconds, and I’m instantly back on defense as her horn lights up again. It’s much brighter than before though, whatever this is, it’s new.  With a loud boom her horn explodes and a wave of darkness at least 20ft wide and as thin as a scythe’s blade shoots out almost faster than I can react. Dexterity Save. 19, +4. 23.  I quickly pull my rapier up and try to block the hit or redirect it with a parry, but the force is much greater than I can imagine as I’m pushed back by the wave while sparks fly off of my rapier. I grab it with both hands and start to grit my teeth. I don’t have the hit points to fail here.  I start putting all my weight into pushing down with the rapier, and then I use the momentum of being pushed by with the leverage my blade pushing down to launch myself straight up into the air. I watch the wave of darkness soar under me and flip around to look at Nightmare again. She’s gone. I quickly rotate myself around as I fall to the ground trying to find her and spot her racing towards the girls and the artifacts. After two steps however I see the purple lightning wrack her body accompanied by a loud THOOM of thunder. 7 Thunder damage.  She clicks her teeth and I see her eyes half close for a second, but she continues moving through the pain. “Oh no you don’t Nightmare! Your fight is with ME.” I land and redirect the force from my fall into a mighty push off the ground, screaming straight at her. When I’m a few feet away from her she stops and turns toward me. “Learn your place, pest!”  I inhale as deeply as I can before leaping off the ground. I’m directly above her when I release another roar of fire. 6. 6. 1. 13 Fire damage. I know she jumped to dodge the last fire, so I decided to release this one above her hoping to prevent that instinctual response. It seems to work as she just lowers herself to the ground and lets out a yelp. I land and use the last of my movement to put myself directly between her and the ponies. I glance behind and see Twilight on the ground with her horn sparking as she tries to interface with the artifacts. 48 seconds left on the bladesong.  It’s then that I realize, I’m a huge idiot. I just spared a glance and looked away from my enemy, a goddess no less, who’s less than 5ft away. Why did I realize this? Because I’m suddenly looking at the hard stone floor as my face quickly approaches it. “You dare look away from me?! That mistake will be your la- ” I have no clue if she said anything after that because it was the final thing I heard before I felt what must’ve been my head cratering into the hard floor of the castle.    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Third Person POV “Ignis!” Applejack cried out as she watched the elfs’ head thud against the floor. Nightmare Moon stood over his body with one of her front hooves parked directly on the back of his cranium.  For a novice he was more annoying than I thought he’d be. Luckily whatever that magic was fell far short of the bladesong’s of the past. Nightmare thought to herself as she glared at the unconscious body under her. “Now then, let’s deal with these pesky elements!”  “Get off of him right now!” Rainbow yelled out as she flexed her wings and rocketed towards the alicorn, but she passes straight through her as Nightmare shifts into her mist form and creates a powerful wind to knock back Twilight and the others.  They all watch as the starry mist begins to circle around the elements like a tornado, spinning faster and faster as the elements begin to lift off the ground. Twilight realizes what’s about to happens and leaps straight into the typhoon of raw magic as it blinks from existence. The other 5 ponies looking dazed as they realize that Twilight, Nightmare, and the elements are gone. After another second they realize Ignis is gone as well.  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ignis POV Pure darkness. I’m floating in a void of black. Looking around at the vast nothingness I realize I must be unconscious. God that was a stupid move. How do I wake up? Am I dead? I need to help the ponies activate the artifacts!  Suddenly I see the twenty sided dice appear again.  Death Saving Throws.  Under it there’s three squares. Each square holding its own d20. The one on the far left beings to roll in place.  11. The first square turns green.   6. The second square turns red.  Welp, this is it. This is how I die.  The third die begins to roll in place.  Cmon cmon, please just a 10 or higher. Do it for the 1 time!  It slowly comes to stop but it’s cocked, it could land on 2 or 18, but I can’t tell which way its going to fall… ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Third Person POV “Dang-nab-it, what the blazes is that mare thinkin’ jumpin into that magical tornado! We’ve gotta split up and find them! Rainbow fly up and see if you can spot anything, everypony else with me.” Applejack barks out orders to the others.  Fluttershy is in tears looking around as if she’s completely lost. Seemingly in a state of shock from the sight of limp elf with a pool of blood under his head. Rarity and Pinkie are just staring at the spot where Nightmare and the elements used to be, seemingly in a daze.  Rainbow gives a salute and rockets into the air to begin sweeping the area. Applejack tries to talk to the girls again to get them out of their shocked states. “Girls I know this is bad, but it’s gunna be worse if we don’t find where they went! Now come on!” The others turn to look at her, Pinkie suddenly shakes her head left and right so fast it’s a blur before stopping with her eyes spinning. She grabs her head and her eyes come to a stop and her face drops into a serious expression. Fluttershy looks like she’s about to say something when suddenly a huge purple pillar of magic is seen a few hundred feet away in another section of the ruins. “That magic is Twilight! I see her, she’s facing down Nightmare by herself, we have to go!” Rainbow yells out from the sky before flying off towards the area the magic came from.  “Cmon girls let’s go!” Applejack yells out and takes off with the other three following behind her. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Twilight's Location, Third Person POV Twilight stops channeling her magic hoping somepony from her group saw it and begins casting a scanning spell on the unconscious, barely breathing, elf. From across the room Nightmare is laughing as she holds the elements above her in her magic. “Ahahahah! Try and save him if you can pony, but with the elements in my control now you’re all as doomed as he is!”  Nightmare channels powerful magic before slamming the elements onto the ground, shattering them completely. “With this, my night will last forever!” She continues maniacally laughing. Twilight doesn’t even respond as her scanning spell finishes. She just looks at the elf in shock. 9 broken ribs, both forearms fractured, broken nose and jaw, left ankle completely shattered. She knows what the broken nose and jaw were caused by, and that’s why she’s so shocked. He was fighting with all of these broken bones?! While we laughed at trees and made friends with a sea serpent he was fighting for his life trying to protect the elements. Waiting for us. For ponies he’d only known for a couple of hours…. Twilight's resolve hardens and she stands up and faces Nightmare. She begins running her left forehoof across the ground as if she means to charge at the alicorn. Smoke huffs from her nose as her horn begins to charge. “Really? REALLY? You’re kidding right?” Nightmare gives the purple unicorn a deadpan stare as she begins to wonder what caused the sudden motivation for the young mare. However, Nightmare doesn’t get another second to ponder the situation as suddenly a blast of magic fires from the unicorn. Nightmare responds with a blast of her own and as the beams clash they explode into a plume of smoke. “You seriously mean to challenge me on your own?! You’ve gone mad” Nightmare taunts.  The smoke clears and the alicorn discovers Twilight has disappeared, she starts scanning left and right looking for her when she hears POP behind her. Quickly turning around she spots the unicorn teleport in and fire off another beam directly at her. This time she’s too close for Nightmare to respond with a beam of her own so she opts to conjure a shield this time. “Don’t you see there’s no hope! Why don’t you just join me instead of continuing with this pointless resistance?! I can see you’re quite gifted magically and I could teach you much.”  Twilight continues to ignore the mare and begins rapidly teleporting over and over, landing all around the alicorn. Every time she pops into existence she fires off another blast of magic.  Nightmare has no trouble responding to each blast with a blast of her own before she finally becomes annoyed and shouts, “ENOUGH!” The alicorn seizes Twilight in her magic, completely stopping her from teleporting again, and uses her telekinesis to throw the unicorn as hard as she can into the wall on the other side of the ruin.  “Gah!” Twilight shouts in pain as she bounces off the wall and lands next to the unconscious elf. She slowly rises back up with her legs shaking under her, panting hard as she considers her next move. Before any of them can do something however, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie come screaming into the ruin at full speed and Pinkie yells out, “Leave her alone you big meanie!”  Rainbow flies in from a broken window on the side landing beside Twilight and chimes in, “Yeah Nightmare Moon, if you want her you’ll have to get through all of us!” All five of the ponies stand in front of Twilight and the downed elf. “Oh is that all? Easy enough.” Nightmare casually responds before blasting a powerful beam at what’s left of the roof directly above the 6 ponies.  All six of them look up in panic as the huge chunks of stone start to crumble and fall towards them. “Everypony move!” All 6 of them start to scatter before they all instantly realize at the same time. Somepony has to protect Ignis! They all dive towards each other and try to cover the elf with their bodies, hoping that if they stand together they can withstand the debris. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ignis POV 2. The third box turns red.  Everything starts to fade away and I feel a numbing chillness begin to spread throughout my body. You are dead. System shutting dow- SYSTEM ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. What? What’s happening? I feel a warmth on my back and turn around. I see the sun. It’s right in front of me…. And there’s another alicorn inside of it, this one pure white. She looks.. Shackled? Is this Celestia? I try to speak but nothing comes out. ERROR. Class incompatibility. ERROR. //////////////// DIVINE INTERVENTION //////////////// M̴̦̖͌̏a̷͕̙͗̀i̸̩͗n̷̖̝̏͘ ̵̢̚q̶̟̙̓͋ṷ̶̐̕è̶̖͉͐s̸̼̤͆̎t̶̳͛:̴̡͔͝ ̵͉͓̈́͗S̵̗̔̇ư̴̯͉̊ȑ̴̺̫͘v̴̧͙̍ḯ̷͚͘v̵̞̓e̵͖̖̿ Ḿ̴̠̣͕̱͙̭͉a̵̖͚͛͆̐i̶̪͛͗͊̈́̈́̅̾n̵̫̦͚̒̆͊̌ ̵̜̯̬͎͔͌q̶̊͆͜u̵͉̱̻̪͚͐͑͘é̸̻͓͓̮͊̆̚s̵͉̭͉̅̌̄̆͘͜ṭ̷̝͖́:̶͎̃͋̌͊̕͝ ̶̳̱̗̒̀͐̿͜͜G̷͚̯͇̗̿̋̕ę̴̤̫̤̘́͘t̷̡̗̱̔͂̑̌̄͛̽ ̷̻̺̝̬͓͕̙̐͋̋͗̆̔͊H̸̳̅͆́͘͘̕͠ơ̸͔̠̗̻͐̋́͐̚͜m̸̧̹̦̲͕̻̺̌̏̐͝ȩ̴͇̳͚͇̲͆̀̌͘ “Please bladesinger, I beg of you to allow me one favor.”  Yes? “Please. Save my sister.” Quest Override. Main Quest: Save Princess Luna. Hit Points: 1/21. New Class Feature: Songblade Harmony (True Bladesong) Harnessing the power of an Equestrian Heartsong, you unlock the true power of a bladesong. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Song, it should skip to the timestamp, but if not skip to 2:43 All 6 ponies open their eyes to see all the debris has landed around them instead of on them, and they suddenly hear a serene set of notes fall on their ears. They look up to see Ignis standing, looking down at them. Instead of motes of mana fluttering from the ground, he has a small golden glow emitting from his body with golden lightning coursing through his eyes. Dried blood on his face and running down the corner of his mouth as he smiles down at them.  He reaches out with a hand and helps Twilight up and as he does he sings, “There’s a moment that changes a life when, we do something that no one else can.” The other 5 also begin to rise to their hooves and he continues, “And the path that we’ve taken will lead us. One final stand.”  All 6 realize their fur is standing straight as a chill runs down their spines. The power in the room has shifted, everyone feels an eerie calmness. Everyone except for Nightmare Moon who now has beads of sweat on her face as she slowly takes a few steps backwards. “No, I know you stopped breathing, this can’t be happening!”  Ignis turns and faces Nightmare, “There’s a moment we make a decision,” Fluttershy rises fully and faces Nightmare as well, joining in “Not to cower and crash to the ground.” Twilight watches as all of her new friends turn and face Nightmare as Pinkie also starts singing, “The moment we laugh at our demons, our courage found!~”  There’s a light in Twilights eye as it clicks into place for her and she rises as well, now all 7 are singing, “When we stand with friends and we won’t retreat. As we stare down death, and the taste is sweet!”    The broken pieces of the elements begin to vibrate violently before reforming into 5 gems resembling the cutie marks of Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy embedded into amulets as they fly to their respective owners. They watch as Ignis takes one step forward and when his foot hits the ground, he vanishes completely. They look ahead and realize he instantly appeared behind Nightmare. After they see him a huge burst of wind blows their manes back from where he was previously standing and they realize, he didn’t teleport. Before anything else happens though Twilight yells out, “That’s it, the spark for the 6th element wasn’t a literal spark, it’s the spark of harmony created when the other 5 elements are present. Each of you represent one of the tenets of harmony!” As she says that they all begin floating into the air and a crown with a gem in the shape of Twilights cutie mark appears and lands on her head. Their eyes all glow white. “No! What is going on?!” Nightmare is in a pure panic now until she realizes the elf has appeared behind her, she instantly summons 2 of her own shadow blades as she turns to face Ignis. Ignis slams his rapier towards her and the blade is caught between the two shadow blades as he yells out, “I may fall!”  He disappears again, reappearing to her right. She blocks his blade again as he continues to sing, “But not like this! It won’t be by your hand!”  Ignis and Nightmare fall into a beautiful dance of swordplay as he moves around her striking at nearly unobservable speed. “I may fall, but not this place. Not today!” She starts to lose to him in speed and starts slowly accumulating slashes and cuts all over her body, “I MAY FALL!” he screams out again. His slashes are piling up but she knows she can take hundreds more of his strikes if they’re this weak, so she decides to give up on him and puts all her effort into eliminating the element bearers before they can fully attune to the artifacts, she puts everything she can muster into a huge blast aimed directly at the floating mares.  Ignis appears directly in front of the blast and slams into it with his blade, after a few seconds he conjures his own shield and screams against the blast, “Bring it all, it’s not enough TO TAKE ME DOWN!”  “DAMN YOU, YOU FURLESS MONKEY. I THOUGHT YOU UNDERSTOOD MY PAIN. Why even apologize if you’re going to do this to me?!” Nightmares magic beam falls and as Ignis lands on the ground he continues to sing out “I may fall!” before suddenly the music in the air stops, the glow leaves his body, and a rainbow shockwave explodes out from the element bearers signifying they’ve finished their attunement. Ignis speaks calmly to the mare, knowing this might be the last chance he gets to speak to her. He has no clue what these elements will do after all.  “I realized something while I was unconscious that I thought I should tell you, Luna.”  Nightmare freezes at that name, the teleport spell she was channeling fails at her lapse in concentration. “In your story the celebration took place the afternoon of your birthday, during the day. Today however the celebration started at night, in fact the ponies stayed up and partied ALL night. The rising of the sun was going to mark the end of the celebration. She made the “summer sun celebration” take place at night? I mean that doesn’t sound right does it? I think Celestia was trying to show you that this holiday isn’t about her sun anymore Luna. After your banishment it was never about her sun.” Nightmares eyes were blinking quickly as they became foggy again, and she dropped onto her barrel. Her eyes opened wide as tears slowly started to run down her face. “Happy Birthday Luna.” Ignis smiled at her before his eyes roll back into his head and he unceremoniously drops onto the ground completely passed out. A wave of pure harmonic energy cascades forth from the floating mares and slams into Nightmare Moon she mutters out. “Celestia… sister… We are sorry.”    > Level Up! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello darkness my old friend…. I’m sure the ponies managed to take care of everything. Hopefully I’m not passed out for too long, I’d really like to talk to Celestia. Defeated CR24 Nightmare Moon +62,000 XP / 7 = 8,857 XP LEVEL UP! Level 3 -> Level 5 Level 4: Ability Score Improvement, New Cantrip, Two New Spells Ability Score Improvement: Improve one stat by 2, two stats by 1, or choose a Feat! Hmmm, I could get DEX to 20 and CON to 16, but I think I’m pretty alright with keep CON as an odd number. Let’s go with a half feat and pickup something that gets me to 20 DEX. “Feat.” Select your feat. “Elven Accuracy, Assign +1 to DEX.”  New Cantrip Unlocked! Please select a new cantrip to add to your existing cantrips. “Shocking Grasp.” Please select 2 new spells to add to your spellbook. This is gunna be a tough one. I’d really like to add Misty step to my defensive options, but I also really want Scorching Ray…. Shadow Blade is a must for sure though so lets go ahead and select that one. “Shadow Blade.” On one hand I am trying to be a fire focused bladesinger, so scorching ray would fit more thematically, but misty step is super good for those “oh shit” moments. I’ll just roll a d4, 1-2 Misty Step, 3-4 Scorching Ray. Roll 1d4. 3. Scorching Ray it is. “Scorching Ray.” Level 5: Two new spells. Please select 2 new spells to add to your spellbook. Alright it’s not even up for discussion, I’m taking Sending to see if I can contact my family, and Fireball because I wanna cast Fireball. Who needs a better reason? “Fireball, Sending.” New hit point maximum total: 32. Alright and then lets setup our new prepared spells… Dragon’s breath is out for sure, so is Sleep. Without being able to see hit points I don’t really know when I can cast Sleep. Let’s add in our new spells and here’s my new prepared spells. Cantrips: Booming Blade Control Flames Mage Hand Shocking Grasp Firebolt (Elf Racial Trait) 1st Level: Absorb Elements Burning Hands Feather Fall Magic Missile Shield 2nd Level: Invisibility Scorching Ray Shadow Blade 3rd Level: Fireball Sending I’m pretty happy with this, we can use Shadow Blade to generate advantage for elven accuracy and we’ve got our 2 main stats maxed to 20 now.  Level Up Completed! Quest: Save Princess Luna. Completed! +3000 XP.  Level 5: 12,757/14,000  Due to level up, body will receive a simulated Long Rest. Hit Points: 32/32 Spell Slots Restored! Class Features Restored! New spellbook configuration confirmed! “And then he was all like woosh and was moving super fast, he completely overwhelmed Nightmare! I’m telling you Princess it was so cool!” Sounds like Rainbow Dash is talking about me, I think I’ll just keep laying here with my eyes closed. Nothing wrong with a little snooping. “While that does sound like quite the riveting tale, it’s not what I asked young Rainbow Dash. I need you to specifically recount both instances of the bladesong. While I’m thankful for his assistance in curing Luna, if he truly has the same bladesong as the ones in the long forgotten past then he will need to come back to Camelot with me for now. That hospital is likely better suited to treat him anyhow.” That’s the same voice I heard when I was dying. That must be Princess Celestia! Let’s go ahead and chime in. Sitting up slowly I interrupt the ponies, “I have no objections to going with you Celestia, but I don’t need a hospital. In fact I feel better now than I did a few hours ago.” I roll my right shoulder, then my left, and reach down to touch my feet to emphasize that I have full mobility. All 8 ponies just kinda stare at me a little stunned, so I opt to just keep talking. “I’m also happy to explain the bladesong. What happened at the very end there was called Songblade Harmony, something about harnessing a heartsong to unleash the true power of a bladesong? It felt much different compared to my typical bladesong, exponentially more powerful. I don’t think I could do it again though, I can’t recall the feeling that led to it. Also, shouldn’t you know what that bladesong is? I was only able to use that power because of you. I was unconscious and I saw you shackled inside the sun and you told me to save your sister, remember?” The princess seems to have overcome her initial shock, finally replying, “Although it was for only a short period of time everything that happened while I was sealed is a blur. I think I vaguely recall something like that happening, but all I did was bring you back from the brink of death. Harmony herself must’ve intervened and forced a heartsong to occur. What you’re describing is slightly different than the ancient art of bladesinging that we know, but it’s close enough that I’m still going to ask you to accompany my sister and I back to the capital. We’ll have a room prepared for you in the castle.”  “Perfect let’s get going then, I’ve been trying to have a conversation with you since I got here. Are you able to perform magic capable of traveling dimensions or planes? I would very much like to go home, nothing personal against all of you. I just have a lot of things left unfinished and people waiting for me back home.” Celestia’s face scrunches up for a second before she tells me, “I’m afraid I’ve never heard of something like that. We do have an artifact that allows for dimensional traveling but its bound to a specific parallel of this world. It’d only be useful if that’s the one you’re trying to return to, but I can’t imagine it is.”  It feels like my throat is closing up, and I can feel my heart pounding in my ears. “And what are the odds there exists a spell or magic that you’ve never heard of?” Trying to hold on to a glimmer of hope. “I consider myself quite versed in all the magic Equestria has to offer, but it’s not impossible that something like that exists. It’d have to be quite ancient though, and there’s also the fact that I could be forgetting a spell.” I’m not sure if she could hear the desperation in my voice and gave me this answer out of pity, but this is good enough for me. I still have some hope.  “Oh, let me try and send a message home. I can at least assuage their worries.”  I said that, but I actually have no clue if this will even work. There’s a few different problems here, number 1, I’m not from the feywild, I’m from earth.  This could cause problems as Sending requires me to be familiar with the creature I’m targeting. Another problem though I don’t even know what plane Earth is on, as far as I’m concerned the Feywild isn’t even fucking real. This doesn’t necessarily matter for Sending, but if they can even send me “home” where the hell am I going to end up.  Enough panicking, I pull out a copper wire from my pouch and sit down on the ground. Holding the wire in both hands I pull it taut and bring it up to my mouth.  Alright I’m gunna cast this and target Matt, I was going to target my mom but if I tell Matt this is Sending he’ll know he can respond to me. “Matt, sorry I never showed up with your dice, but I got isekai’d into a land of talking ponies, this is Sending so respond please.” Boom, 25 words exactly. I know I didn’t really convey anything important, but the most important thing here is that he can respond. If he responds then I know I can make it back somehow.  I sit there in silence for a few seconds with the ponies just staring at me. The seconds drag on more and more. Pinkie Pie decides she’s waited long enough, “Well? Is something supposed to happen?”  I release a huge exhale I didn’t realize I was holding and stand up. “Yes, something was supposed to happen, but it didn’t. Guess it doesn’t matter if that spell exists here or not. I probably can’t go home.” My voice is probably the most monotone it’s been since I arrived here, but I continue, “Even if the spell doesn’t exist here I know there is a spell that allows one to Plane Shift, so I was just going to study night and day until I could cast it myself. Guess I don’t need to do that anymore either. Alright princess, I’m ready to go whenever you are.”  This time I know for certain I’m being pitied, I can see it in their eyes and the way their ears are pressed against their heads. I’m not sure why but being pitied is pissing me off so I decide to turn away and start walking towards the exit of the ruins. “I’m going back into to town, come find me when it’s time to go.”  One of them must’ve tried to chase after me cause I hear Applejack, “Let him go, he just needs some time alone right now.”  Should I try Sending again and see if I can communicate with someone familiar to the original owner of this body? No, there’s no point. Also holy shit I’m starving. I slow down to a walk as I swing my backpack around to my front, let’s see if I’ve got some rations in here. Perfect looks I’ve got 10 just like I’m supposed to.  I arrive at the edge of the forest right as I finish my food and decide to wander around while I wait for the others to return. Pretty much all the ponies give me a wide berth as I wander around, which I don’t really blame them. I’d probably be the same way if the roles were reversed.  I decide to just head back over to the library where Twilight told us about the artifacts. Upon opening the door I hear what sounds like a little kid call out from upstairs, “Twilight! I finished cleaning the kitchen, I’m just reading upstairs if you need me.”  It’d probably be awkward if I just didn’t respond so I yell back, “I’m not Twilight just here to grab a couple books, Twilight should be back soon though.” After a few seconds of silence I shrug and start scanning the book shelves. Let’s see if I can make heads or tails of whatever magic system they use here. Neither Twilight or Nightmare used incantations for their spells, and Nightmare seemed really confused when I cast magic missile so it’s probably a different system entirely. It’d be cool if I could utilize it as well though.  Really just anything to keep my mind occupied on something else. I spot a book titled “Your Magic and You, an Aide for Magic Kindergarten” and crack it open. It feels like it’s been at least an hour or so since I started reading this, and I worked through it pretty quick. There’s a 40 character alphabet for a runic language and unicorns can use their thoughts and their internal mana supply to channel the runes through their horn similar to a spellcasting focus. I got all of that in around 20 minutes, but the rest of my time has been spent trying to recreate this Light spell it describes in the book. The instructions were pretty basic I just need to channel a single rune and I’ll create an orb of light for as long as I supply it with mana. I’m not sure what the problem is though, I can feel mana being pulled and accumulated into my hand but I have no clue how to channel the rune. So far I’ve just been picturing the rune in my head as clearly as I can and I think I almost had it once. I hear the door open and then Twilights voice, “Having trouble? That’s a lot of mana you’re storing in your…. Hoof? What are you trying to do?” “Hand, I’m trying to do the Light spell it says in this book, but I can’t channel the rune.” I reply not bothering to look up. “There’s a reason our horns are on our head. You’re visualizing the rune in your head, but the mana is in your hand.” She says like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. As she sits down next to me she continues, “If your hands are how your magic works you probably won’t be able to use our magic.”  “Oh, is that it? Hang on.” If that’s the case I just need to form the rune in my brain then move the already shaped mana to my hand instead of trying to shape it after it’s in my hand. This time the mana forms into the rune instantly, but it takes a second or two to move to my hand. Probably not practical in combat, for now. Once it does reach my hand though I start pushing mana through it and out of my palm as an orb of light plops into existence right over my hand.  “Well it’s a little too slow. If a spell uses more than 1 rune it’ll definitely be too slow.” I ponder aloud. “Ignis, it took me 3 days to cast that spell for the first time.” I glance over and she looks stunned. “Well, moving the mana felt natural to my body. My current theory is that my incantations shape and channel mana the same way your runes do. If that’s the case then this isn’t really impressive the only thing I had to learn was the rune, all of the mana manipulation came to me like muscle memory.”    A completely new voice chimes in right next to my head, “Personally we still find it moderately impressive.”  “Holy shit!” The light orb vanishes and I lean away from the voice as fast as I can, almost head butting Twilight. Looking over I see what I assume to be Princess Luna. She somewhat resembles Nightmare, but she’s smaller. The moon on her backside is what gives it away though, “When did you get here?!”  “We all arrived at the same time, you just never bothered looking up.” She replies with a smirk. How the hell can a horse walk that quietly? Looking around I see Celestia is here as well. “Time to go then?” I ask while looking at Celestia. “It would seem so, unfortunately. As much as I’d like to spend some more time with my student I’m afraid I’m needed in Canterlot. Normally we’d use a carriage but due to the circumstances we’re going to have to teleport.” She says as she begins walking outside. “Is Twilight not coming with us?” I ask. “Ah you must’ve still been unconscious, no. She’s going to stay here and send me weekly reports. It seems she doesn’t want to leave her new friends, and to be honest she has desperately needed some. So, I’ve allowed her to stay. Come a little closer for the spell.” I oblige and take a few steps closer to her, Luna huddles in as well as Celestia’s horn lights up. I hear a loud pop and my vision goes white as we teleport to Canterlot. > Side Quest - Prove Yourself > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- An alicorn, a princess, and an elf teleport into a castle courtyard. There is no punchline.  Seriously though, this place is in chaos compared to Ponyville. As soon as we arrived there were ponies running around in every direction all of them yelling over each other, but Celestia quickly went to work explaining what happened, who Luna was, who I was, what their public statement about the nights events would be. Meanwhile Luna and I ended up just slowly shuffling to the side where we’re now both sitting in the grass watching Celestia reign in all the anarchy in complete silence.  Finally I decided to break the silence, “I wonder why everyone was so calm back in Ponyville?”  “We were beginning to wonder the same thing. Perhaps the castle is just more aware of Tia’s schedule and more dependent on her for the day to day functions? I imagine the guards and staff were in quite the panic when the sun didn’t rise on time and none of the guards in Ponyville responded to the Sending crystal.”, Luna quickly answers.  Her mention of the Ponyville guards reminds me of something. With a frown I ask, “Speaking of those guards……. Are they alive? I remember watching them get hit by lightning, but didn’t stick around long enough to see if they were okay.” “Yes, thankfully. It was the first thing we checked on before we came to retrieve you. Those guards were all pegasus which are especially resistant to lightning.”  “That’s good then. In the grand scheme of things that just means the only suffering caused was… everyone sleeping in for a few hours. I can think of worse crimes.” Foot, meet mouth. What in the absolute hell possessed me to say that? I’m almost scared to look over to Luna for her reaction.  Sure enough, I look over and she’s looking at the ground with a frown on her face. Before the silence gets awkward I let out a yawn and ask, “Are we supposed to be doing anything right now? Physically I feel fine, but mentally I am exhausted. Celestia mentioned there’d be a room for me here, but I don’t know if she wanted to discuss anything before I skedaddled.” “You will definitely need to talk to her before you retire to your chambers. If you’re in a hurry to do so you can just go ask her. Things seem to have mostly calmed down for now.” “Then I think I’ll do just that.” Standing up and awkwardly straightening out my cloak I turn to Luna and continue, “And uh, sorry for making that comment. It was thoughtless of me to bring that up so soon, and I imagine you’re already feeling enough guilt for what happened.”  “Think nothing of it. We deserve a fate worse than just feeling guilty.” I have some thoughts in response to that, but I really am tired. “I’m not qualified enough to tell you otherwise, but either way it was nice to meet you. Happy birthday again.” Luna’s mood seems to improve a little. I give her a small wave and make my way over to Celestia. “Sorry to interrupt, but I’m exhausted. Luna said I need to talk to you before I hit the sack, so I was just wondering how much longer I’ll need to be on standby? And, if it’s gonna be a while I was hoping you could point me towards my room and I’ll just wait there instead.” I quickly ask when I hear a pause in Celestia’s current conversation. The guard she was talking to just squints her eyes at me and glances at my blade while Celestia hums in consideration. “It shouldn’t be more than another hour, but if you’re tired we can just delay our conversation until dinner. Lieutenant if you could have someone escort my friend here to one of the guest rooms in the “Visiting Dignitaries” wing. Ignis I’ll have somepony come wake you when it’s time.” I give her a nod and the LT walks over to grab a volunteer for my escort. Once she’s out of earshot Celestia continues, “I will need your rapier though. Only guards are permitted to have weapons on castle grounds.” That explains why the guard was giving me the stink eye. Celestia’s demand isn’t unreasonable, but it doesn’t sit right with me for some reason. The thought of giving away my rapier makes me uncomfortable, “I’d rather not. Forgive me for being argumentative, but I’m in a completely foreign world and you’re asking for one of the few things that brings me some level of comfort and security.” Time stops and I realize it’s been a long time since I had to roll for something as a single d20 rolls into view. 8, +1 Persuasion. 9. Time resumes and Celestia instantly replies with a stern look, “I’m afraid I must insist. This is non-negotiable. I can give you my word that you are safe in this castle, but I have no guarantee about the safety of my ponies in your presence.” I decide to do a manual insight check. INSIGHT. 20, +5 Insight. Natural 20, Critical Success. She can’t really give me a 100% guarantee of my safety, but at the very least she truly has no malicious intentions. Just a ruler worried about her subjects. That’s what my gut is telling me. I still have the dagger hidden on my thigh and in the worst case scenario I have Shadow Blade.  I sigh and unclip the sheath strapped to my hip before grabbing the blade and pointing the hilt towards her. “I hope you can at least appreciate the amount of trust I’m giving you right now. Regardless of my comfort, that blade is from before I was brought here. One of the few possessions I still own.” This isn’t technically a lie, but she doesn’t need to know that this body isn’t mine. A golden aura engulfs the rapier and it floats out of my grasp. “Of course Ignis, thank you for cooperating.”  After that a different guard approached us and led me to my new room. An uneventful walk, the guard kept glancing back and he looked a bit scared to be honest. I grab a key from him and thank him before going inside and laying down to meditate.  A knock at the door stirs me from the meditation. I look out the window and see the sun is still up, but it’s not far from the horizon. Glancing at my status I see my 3rd level spell slot is refreshed, so it was enough hours for a long rest. Someone knocks on my door again but louder this time.  Opening the door I see a maid and a guard, looking between the two for a few seconds before finally the maid speaks, “Your p-presence is requested in the dining hall.”  Stepping out fully so I can close the door I turn around and look at the maid inquisitively, is she really that scared? Let’s test it. I suddenly lean my head forward a bit and go, “Boo!”  18, +1 Intimidation. 19.  Ah shit, I didn’t want to actually intimidate anyone! Why are you making me roll?! To my surprise the guard is the one that startles, he jumps back a foot or so and takes a deep breath before finally relaxing. “Not funny.” he finally says before slowly approaching me again. “Says you, by the way I think the uh maid needs some assistance.” I reply while pointing at the maid. The guard looks over at the maid and realizes she’s frozen completely stiff with wide eyes. He waves his hoof in front of her face. “Feather~, oh Feather~ come back to Equestria.” He finally gives her a little shake and she twitches before looking around.  “Oh. Oh! Sorry, what were we doing?” She asks, still a little dazed. “Going to the dining hall.” Me and the guard reply at the same time. “Right! Follow me sir.” They both turn around and start leading me down the hall. I feel a little bad now, I didn’t think she’d completely shut down like that. In hindsight it makes sense I guess, most of these ponies only reach the middle of my torso in height.  After we turn a few corners it bothers me enough that I speak up, “Sorry. I uh, I went too far there. I saw you were uncomfortable and thought that would ease the tension.”  She looks back to see me with a sheepish grin while scratching my cheek. “You’re forgiven. I suppose in the end it did help a little, I apologize for being frightened to begin with, it was unprofessional. Your stature just caught me off guard.”  We come up to a large archway with a pair of wooden double doors that are currently open when the guard takes 1 step in and turns to face the center of the archway before saying, “Your majesty,” he looks at me and gestures into the room as I walk past him he finishes “Ignis Ferrum.” After that he steps out and the doors close behind me. Celestia must have recognized my look of perplexity because she spoke out to me, “Apologies for the formality, we typically announce nobles and dignitaries. With you being in that wing of the guest rooms he just followed protocol.”  “Ah.” Smooth response bro. I’m dumbly looking around at the fancy dining hall. It definitely meets my expectations, one unnecessarily long table with junk in the middle of it and a fancy chandelier hanging overhead.  At the other end of the room I see Celestia sat at the very end and Luna sat to her left with salads in front of them with a third salad placed to Celestia’s right with an unoccupied seat. I pop a squat and look at the food, it’s just a standard salad but with a few flowers mixed in? Welp, I start taking the flowers out of the bowl while I ask, “So what’s the plan?” Celestia takes a moment to swallow her food before replying, “Well I have a few ideas I’d like to run by you, but before that I’d like to get to know you a bit more. Just so you know I am currently channeling a lie detection spell. If you don’t feel comfortable answering a question just verbally inform me and we’ll move on. After that I’ll have one of my top officers lead you to our training grounds and we’ll test your full capabilities in terms of spellcasting and sword play to determine your threat level.”  What? “That all seems a bit much. If I truly end up unable to return home I intend to live quietly and study the arcane. I can understand a bit of apprehension, but that's ridiculous.” I state before shoving a fork full of leafy green in my mouth. Oh wow, this is super fresh.  “Then let me ask you this, Ignis. Are you willing to have your bladesong sealed off permanently and agree to never perform one again?” She asks me with a raised eyebrow. I mean… realistically I could agree to that, but I don’t want to purely on principle. Plus, I just got all this cool magic. If I'm stuck here forever I atleast want to use it! “Absolutely not. It’s part of me, I can’t just give it up.”  “Exactly, and I don’t want to ask that of you. However, you have to understand that means eventually the world at large will find out that there is a bladesinger. You might not be as powerful as the ones in legends of old, but that will still cause issues politically. Especially now that Luna has returned. From the outside looking in, that's too much power tipping the scales in our favor. In fact, just Luna's return will likely spark the invitation of a global summit to discuss treaty re-negotiations. So, when the world finds out you exist I want there to be a public record of your interview and threat level measurements.”  Okay, I think I see what she’s getting at. She wants a paper trail to prove I’m not a threat. “Fine, I agree with your reasoning. What’s your first question?” “We’ll start with an easy one, what is your name?” Celestia starts. “Ignis Ferrum.” “How old are you?” “108.”  I stop myself from taking my next bite of food when I notice the complete silence. Looking over I see both princesses looking stunned. Then they both look to Celestia’s horn, I guess to see if I’m lying. Nothing happens though. I decide to expand. “I’m an elf. Specifically a High Elf, we perform the celebration to mark adulthood at the age of 100, and it’s not too uncommon for us to live up to 2000 years.” I just nonchalantly throw it out there and take another bite of food. I’m just going to continue answering in character since the lie detecting spell didn’t go off when I said my name. I can only conclude that means my real name will make it go off. Luna and Celestia look at each other then back to me, “How long have you been learning the art of bladesinging?”  “I’m going to lie.” I pause for a second then say, “The first bladesong I used against Nightmare Moon was my first time ever using a bladesong.” Celestia’s horn illuminated a bright red light. Just as I thought then, this is going to be tricky because I didn’t completely flesh out this character's backstory, so I’m not going to know the answer to some of these. “The truth is that I’m not sure. I don’t remember when I started.” No reaction. I can work with that. Wait, I’m thinking about this all wrong I can use the lie detection to learn more about this body!  “Do you have any plans to take over, conquer, or bring ruin to Equestria?” Celestia calmly asks like this is something that happens enough to be a common concern. I just raise my eyebrows at her. “No?” “Please, answer as a statement.” “I have no plans nor do I want to rule over, conquer, or bring ruin to Equestria. Or anything else for that matter.”   Celestia hums in thought, is she making these questions up on the fly?! After another bite of salad she asks, “Let’s say there’s two sets of train tracks and next to the tracks is a switch that determines which track the oncoming train will take. Currently there’s a train approaching and if nothing is done, it will run over 5 ponies. You can flip the switch to make it take the alternate track but doing so will kill 1 pony. What do you do?”  There’s no way this horse is hitting me with the trolley problem right now. Well whenever I normally answer this question I give the logical answer, but that’s never been my real answer. “I’d free the ponies from the tracks.” “Suppose doing so is impossible, you’re also magically bound and all you can do is flip the lever.” “Does the train have anyone on it?”  “Hm? No it’s a runaway train with no conductor and no passengers.”  “Then I’d stop the train.” “Okay you are clearly not understanding the point of this question. There are only 2 options, you either do nothing and indirectly let 5 ponies die or you take action and directly kill 1 pony! You can’t stop the train!”  “I’d flip the lever when the train is halfway across causing it to derail.”  “That would kill all 6 ponies!”  “I know what you want me to say, logically I should flip the lever and kill 1 pony, because 1 life lost is better than 5. But that isn’t my answer! Every life has an immeasurable value, and I refuse to accept that I can’t save all 6 of them!” At this point I’m standing and leaning over the table looking Celestia directly in her eyes, almost yelling. “Even if it kills you?” “Even if it kills me.”  Celestia looks to her horn for any sign of deceit, before finally softening her gaze and laughing out loud. “Well, thank you for your honesty. That concludes the interview, but you’ve completely ruined my plan of submitting it to the public record.” I’m once again confused, “What do you mean?”  “There’s no way I can convince any of the other countries you’re not a threat if I give them that interview. You displayed far too much determination and worst of all if any of them were to go to war with us your attitude is one they’d all fear. You want to be a Hero.”  “It’s not like I had an option! The logical answer would’ve triggered your spell!” I retorted. “You’re right, it’s my fault for continuing to push for an answer. Your answer was just very interesting, it’s an answer I haven’t heard in a long time and I just had to test your resolve.” After that the rest of dinner was mostly silent, the sisters had their own small talk, but I barely paid attention to it. Celestia levitated a cloth up to wipe her mouth as the doors to the hall opened and a white unicorn with blue hair walked in. “Luna, Ignis, this is Shining Armor the current Captain of the Guard. He’ll be the one overseeing your magical and physical tests. I’m going to go lower the sun and retire for the night. Luna, will you join me?”   Luna pauses and looks between me and Celestia, “Nay Tia, we are still too weak to participate in the ritual and would like to see his results first hand.”  Celestia smiles and nods, “Alright, just be careful. All three of you.”  During the walk to the training grounds I found out Shining is actually Twilight's brother. He was very worried when he first heard something had gone awry with the celebration in Ponyville, but was elated to hear that she had saved Equestria and made some friends.  As we approach what looks like a firing range I see a few guards firing thin bolts of magic at small targets at least 100ft away. It looks shockingly similar to a gun range. Shining speaks up, “Just pick an empty stall and use your strongest magic to hit a target, preferably aim for as far back as you can.” “Do you have a different field we can use? My strongest magic isn’t really meant for a precise shot from far away.” I ask looking over to Shining. I mean I can use it here, but it’d look cooler if they had a target range for area of effect spells. “No? The guard firmly believes in precision. The worst thing that can happen is us hitting an innocent because of careless magic. My old mentor used to say “Combat magic is like a letter. It should only be sent to and received by the specific pony that it was addressed to.”” He says with a proud smile.  Oh man I’ve always wanted to say this. “You know it’s actually quite funny. Back in my lands there was an old elf who said almost the exact same thing, but my mentor and I both disagreed.”  I reach into my pouch and pull out a tiny ball that looks like it’s made of black tar and place it between my thumb and index finger before finishing my statement. “Not all letters need to be read by just one person, sometimes you want 10 maybe 20 people to read your letter. Are you gunna write out 20 letters each titled and tailored to that specific person?”  “Yes. In your scenario it’s not the most efficient, but it’s the most secure.” Shining retorts. The black ball sparks and turns into a small fire, “See that’s where you’re wrong. That’s completely unnecessary. Sometimes it’s perfectly acceptable to write a letter and just title it, TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN, FIREBALL!”  The small spark of flame gets shot out and starts speeding down the range, by this point in our conversation the few other ponies present have stopped firing just to observe. They all silently watch as that small spark goes 30ft, 60ft, 120ft growing bigger and bigger as it speeds down range until at 150ft out the inferno expands fully as a huge 40ft wide explosion shakes the ground.  I turn around with a huge smile plastered on my face, to find a stunned Shining Armor with his mouth hanging open and Luna looks at me with a face that screams, “Not bad.”  “Cmon now Shining, you’re captain of the guard, surely this isn’t actually that impressive?” I ask him as I walk up and pat him on the back. “No, you’re right there are definitely unicorns capable of that, myself included, but it’s not a lot. It’s certainly not what I expected from you. The reports based on the statements from the element bearers made it seem that your magical capability was just small bursts of fire and the ability to let out a short flame breath like a young dragon. It emphasized that your physical abilities were the more impressive of the two.” He writes down on his clipboard “Was holding back against Nightmare Moon??” and underlines it. I don’t really feel like correcting him, it’ll probably just bring up more questions that I’m not sure how to answer. So, I don’t push it. I opt to move along instead, “So… how are we doing this swordsmanship test? Am I gunna spar with someone?”  “Yes actually. You’ll be sparring with me.” I look over and see Shining is wearing his full guard armor now as he floats the clipboard and quill over to Luna. He then floats over my rapier and I snatch it out of the air. Quickly pulling it out of its case and looking over it for knicks or any other blemishes they might have caused if they decided to study it. But, it looks just like it did when I surrendered it.  I follow him out on a flat field of dirt and the same ponies that were watching my fireball have wandered over to spectate the spar as well it seems. I guess I don’t mind, but I might get some performance anxiety. “Shining, do i need to keep my rapier in its sheath or are you going to cast some kind of magic that dulls the blade for the duration of the spar.” I decide to ask, I don’t wanna accidentally kill the guy. “I’m not casting any magic like that, but it’s a rapier so just don’t stab me and we should be fine.”  “Welp. I’m not really comfortable with that, but okay let’s do this.” I call out as I assume my stance and focus on Shining. Roll For Initiative.