“Chambers and Changelings!” Pinkie Pie dropped a heavy game box onto a table in the Ponyville library.
“Whosa and whatsits?” Asked Applejack.
“Chambers and Changelings!” Pinkie repeated.
Twilight looked over the dusty box. “I forgot I had a copy of this game.” She wiped the dust off, revealing the cover art of the box. ‘Chambers and Changelings: The Adventure Role-Playing Game’ was written in bold font, and beneath it was an image of Sombra being confronted by a group of hero ponies. She carefully lifted the top off, and the other curious ponies peered inside.
“I’ve never seen such a complicated game!” Rarity gasped.
“Isn’t this one of those egghead games?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“I don’t know how to play this game.” Mumbled Fluttershy.
“Me neither!” Exclaimed Applejack.
“I call Board Master!” Pinkie Pie shouted as she set up all of the books and charts she needed to fulfill her duty as the creator of the game.
The six friends were stuck inside the library due to a large thunderstorm pouring its way through Ponyville. Outside, lightning could be seen striking in the distance and the clap of thunder.
“I guess I’ll choose the wizard class due to my abilities with magic.” Twilight said as she levitated a figure in a wizard hat wielding a staff.
“This one looks like an okay player.” Rarity said as she looked at a hooded figure completely covered in a dark cloak.
“This one looks nice” Fluttershy said quietly looking at a figure covered in a nature like outfit completed with sticks and leaves.
“What’s this one?” Rainbow asked holding up a figure using a bow and arrow .
“That’s the Ranger class, they’re the fastest in combat out of all the other characters.” Pinkie said reading the book that came with the game.
“Sweet!” Rainbow exclaimed as she held the figure close to her.
AppleJack looked in the box to see if there were any other pieces but only saw a figure with a musical instrument and one with a sword in its mouth. “Ah guess I’ll pick the one with the sword.”
“Good choice, the paladin can inflict heavy damage.” Pinkie said going through the book again, “Now if we’re all set lets start this!”
Suddenly the door was being knocked just as the group was about to start their game, “Excuse me, is the library open today?” a gray pony asked as she carried a large black case on her shoulder.
“Sorry, but we’re closed for the day.” Twilight said grabbing a pad of paper and a pencil for taking notes on the game.
“Wait, aren’t you Octavia Melody? Equestrias most famous cellist?” Rarity asked towards the pony.
“Why yes I am.” The pony said, “I see you all are starting a game of Chambers and Changeling.”
“Yeah, but I thought ponies like you were too sophisticated for something like this.” Pinkie said pointing towards the game board.
“Well I used to be, but a few years ago I thought on getting into the craze of the game and became hooked after a while.” Octavia replied as she pulled out some pictures from her saddle bags.
“Well come and Join us!” Pinkie said dragging Octavia to the table where her friends were sitting at, “We only have one piece though.”
“Hhm, a bard is very useful towards ones party if used properly.” Octavia said holding the last figure.
“Yay! A full party!” Pinkie yelled in excitement, “Let us begin.”
"Wait Pinkie." Applejack said stopping Pinkie Pie, "Me and Fluttershy don't know how to play this game!"
"It's quit simple actually." Octavia said, "Each player starts at a low level and defeating enemies can gain a party both gold and experience points."
"Yeah, but what do those things do?" Applejack asked.
"The experience points help your character grow stronger and gain better abilities, and the gold can be used in shops to buy better weapons and learn new spells." Octavia replied, "This game is a turn based game meaning that every party member has and opportunity to perform an action before the enemy attacks."
"What do these dice do then?" Rarity asked levitating dice of various shapes and covered in numbers that go higher than the traditional six.
"Those decide your attack strength, defense against certain attacks and many other things. Depending on the type of character one has they can help the party survive the world that the Board Master has designed." Octavia continued explaining the game.
"Alright, now that you guys know the basics of the game would you like to pick out names?" Pinkie asked with a smile on her face.
"Nah, it would be confusing if we constantly used codenames." Rainbow Dash said as she started to get impatient from wanting to use her character.
"Alrighty then, let us begin!" Pinkie said with extreme glee as she clapped her fore hooves together, “Your party walks into Town 1.”
“Why didn't you give the towns names?” Twilight asked in confusion.
“I didn’t expect for the game to start out early; I thought you guys were gonna spend a lot of time figuring out character names so I didn’t actually think of town names.” Pinkie responded.
"Sorry to interrupt, but shouldn't we get snacks for this?" Fluttershy quietly asked.
"Of course!" Pinkie yelled slapping herself, "Why didn't I think of that, excuse me for a moment." As soon as she said that Pinkie ran off somewhere and came back in a few seconds sopping wet, but carrying a large bag of sweets and drinks. "Now we can officially get this game started." The party pony said as she got back behind her books and charts waiting for the six heroes to trek through the perilous land that she had designed.
“Like I was saying, your party walks into Town 1.” Repeated Pinkie
“Okay now where do we go to buy weapons?” Rainbow asked.
“Dash, we don’t have any money.” Applejack said bluntly.
“Suddenly the mayor of the town came rushing towards your direction.” Pinkie said moving a figure towards the players.
“Help! Help!” The mayor shouted in worry.
“What is it sir?” The paladin asked.
“The ruler of our fair land has been kidnapped by a tyrannical warlord. We tried rescuing her, but our efforts were in vain.” The mayor said, lowering his head.
“Don’t worry yourself we’ll take on this challenge.” The wizard said adjusting her hat.
“Oh good thank you, please take this generous amount of gold as payment.” The mayor said giving the heroes a large sack of gold.
“Your party accepts the quest and receives two thousand coins.” Pinkie said as the sound of dice rolling behind the Board Master boards suggesting that she decided their award amount.
“Sweet!” Rainbow said flying up into the air, “Now to the weapons shop!”
“I thought you said this game was for ‘eggheads’.” Twilight said towards Rainbow, who was acting slightly unusual.
“Well this is different!” Rainbow shouted, ”We’re already going on an action packed adventure, and not waiting two hours to work on a puzzle.”
Pinkie was seeing what was going on and thought her friends were getting off track, “Anyway, your party goes to the shop and must decide what to get.” The group got into a discussion on whether armor or weapons were more important. “Well roll the dice to see which one should be purchased, numbers one to ten are for weapons and anything up to twenty is armor.”
The group did so and for once rolling ones were actually good. “Aw come on!” Rainbow yelled in frustration, “Why not weapons?”
“Well I prefer having a high defense when starting out in a game.” Octavia said taking out some pictures of her and her various C&C avatars along with their stats showing their high defense.
"But wouldn't it get tirin' if we'd just face one enemy and waste an hour fighting it?" Applejack asked, "I agree with Dash we need some form of weaponry."
"Ok we get something that will cause some damage, THEN do we get this journey going?" Rarity asked, "I actually do want this to be playing before the storm ends."
The sound of dice began to clatter
The heroes collected their new shields, weapons and spells and began their journey starting with the Mysterious woods of
Zolcan. It was a dark and foul place, the sounds of crows filled the silent stale air. the sight of over grown vegetation surrounded the old buildings. The one thing that made it unsettling was the sight of the skeletons of the fallen heroes before them, seeing that they were most likely on the same mission as them but had met their untimely end before they even had a chance.
"I feel a dark presence in these woods." The Wizard said as she was leading the group.
"Agreed, even the darkest pits of the darkest cities feel more comfortable than this." The Rogue added as she prepared her daggers.
"Suddenly a Chimera appears!" Pinkie shouted in excitement as cards and papers started to fly up from her energy. This caused some of the group to jump up in surprise.
"What do we do?!" Fluttershy asked in fear as she wasn't prepared for battles.
"You're a druid Fluttershy, you can communicate with animals." Pinkie replied as she was bursting with excitement, "You can try and roll to make it not want to attack, but it has to be a ten or higher."
Fluttershy grabbed the multi sided di and threw it onto the board; after bouncing about for a while it landed on the dreaded number towards all board game players...'1'. "Oh no."
"Sorry Fluttershy." Pinkie said as she was rolling her dice, "The Chimera becomes enraged by the failed attempt and you lose five hit points." She began to write down on her papers holding the info on all of her friends character (though a tad unorthodox it was a tad easier on her friends to concentrate on the game.).
"I roll to attack!" Dash said as she threw her dice hard landing on '20', "Yeah, that's for messing with my friend!"
"Nice Dashie, you landed a critical hit and killed it." Pinkie said, "The entire party earns 100 XP, and twenty gold each." With the talk about the beast being killed sent Fluttershy into a state of shock, "Don't worry Fluttershy, you'll get another chance to convince a monster to not fight; besides you can now try to take the form and use it for yourself."
"Really?" The timid mare asked, "I can do that?"
"Of course, druids can take on the form of any beast belonging to nature, of course in this version it can only be done if the creature is killed." Pinkie said as she pulled the players handbook from her mane and began reading it, "There's a lot of stuff in this book even I didn't know about."
"Well I roll to take the use my magic to take the form of the fallen beast." Fluttershy said as she rolled a '12' which was surprising, "is that good?" Pinkie gave a confirming nod to the pegasus's delight.
The journey became more and more treacherous as the group went deeper and deeper into the woods, the more they traveled the more beasts they encountered.
"Should there be a Campsite nearby?" The Ranger asked, "My legs are killing me."
"We should camp soon, I need to recharge my powers." The wizard said as her illumination from her staff was dimming .
"Your party comes across a small bond fire with a sword sticking in the middle of the ever burning flame, it feels calm and welcoming, as if all the troubles in the world melt away by the second, do you want to rest for the evening?" Pinkie asked making the pit stop seem more and more inviting.
"I'd say that would be splendid." Octavia said, "Most of our abilities are diminished." The rest of the group agreed with the decision
"Great, and that means potty break!" Pinkie ran off towards the bathroom, giving the others time to stretch and enjoy the leisure time.
Author's Note
It feels good to be back! Sorry i havent been on this site writing here, I've been busy with both graduation and enrolling into college, but now I'm more free and i have ample time to write. And this one has been going off in my head for a while.
