Author's Note

ALRIGHT!

Now quick note and I'll let you get to it.

I want to make this a quality work so any grammatical errors or other such things that could HELP improve this story is welcome. Nobody likes a meany pants.

Alright, that's all folks. Get to it.

'Chapter 1: A Land of Fantasy' was made possible by the joint effort of: kamachkta and SovietVodkaMix

Chapter 1: A Land of Fantasy.

My name is Sergio Peterson, my friends call me 'Sully'. Anyway me and five of my friends were planning on going to a major fantasy roleplaying night at the game store in the next town from mine. We had all dressed up as our characters from our favorite game we like to play as a group.

Dungeons and Dragons.

...Yes, I'm serious...

Anyway, I was going as my Half-elf Monk. I had gotten a lot of my gear off the internet. Everything from my character's metal quarterstaff and short sword all the way to the hand wrappings for my fists and I even shaved off my dark brown hair. I had to make most of the costume by hand though, which was a pain in the ass.

Anyway, it was time to pick up my friends. I hop into my ugly navy blue van and head to the first stop on my trip.
When I pulled up to Brad's shop I could see him standing outside waiting for me. The small guy was out there in a full suit of battle armor and he had even painted the emblem of the god his character worshiped in game along with a pretty big war ax for his size.

Now when I say 'small' I don't mean he's young, he's actually 20 which is the same age as me. He's got a disease known as 'Dwarfism', but that does not stop the dude from being a complete bad ass. The dude works out day and night and even works at a forge for Gods sake.
When you actually look at the guy, sometimes it's hard to not see him as a ale drinking, Orc wrestling, real life Dwarf from Lord of the Rings. Which is one of the reasons he's gotten into D&D. Nobody judges him on what he looks like, and everyone enjoy the dude for being a pretty cool guy.

Anyway he opens up the door to the van and climbs in the passenger seat next to me.

"Sup, Sully. Nice costume you put together."

"Thanks man, same goes for your armor."

"Ha! I put at least a good solid month into making everything. I just quenched the axe yesterday even."

"You just finished the ax yesterday, man that's pretty legit."

"Yeah, so who's next on our pickup?"

"Next is K's place."

We drive up to Kelly's home, which isn't to far from Brad's workplace. I honk the horn twice and after a few minutes Kelly comes out. As she's walking to the van I get a good look at her costume. She's wearing a blood red modified dress with black borders and embroidery of magical runes from the game, which somehow reminds me of those Chinese wedding dresses. She's also carrying a large tome which looks to be a black painted over dictionary. If I remember correctly, she's going as her Elf Sorceress.

She opens up the side door and climbs into the back.

"Sup guys."

"Hey K." Both me and Brad say in unison.

"So-" she asks. "-what do you think about my outfit. Hmmm...?"

"Pretty good." I say.

"Meh, not as good as mine." Brad says smugly.

"Can it or I'll magic missile you." She says with a sly grin.

"Oh god, can we not bring up that again. The past should stay long dead." Brad groans.

"You gotta admit, it was pretty funny." I look to them both.

"Yeah, yeah. Just get going."

"Yeah! We gotta pick up our other heroic members of the guild. ONWARD!" Kelly points straight to the road.

I drove over to the park where both Frank and Grant should be, and lookie what I found, a Half-Orc Fighter with chain mail, a foam war hammer and green skin with short black hair was doing a mock battle with a Human rouge that had black leather armor and a dark cloth hood covering his head and face, and what looks to be plastic throwing knives and sword. The both of them had drawn a small crowd of kids which seemed to be enjoying their performance and they looked well into their demonstration.

I turn to look at both K' and Brad.

"Let's go see what the two of them have done this time."

Brad looked over to where they were fighting. "Actually, that does seem pretty entertaining. Yeah, let's check it out."

"Sure I'm in." K, just said simply.

All three of us got out of the car and started walking to the group, as we approach we catch part of the banter between the two.
"-nd you smell like you fell down a sewer drain! Ya' lumbering Oaf!" Frank shouted at Grant.

"Yeah, well you fight like an elderly nag who wont die from old age! Prancing around with your little butter knives." Grant did a little prance to enhance what he said.

The little crowd of kids were laughing as the big green man did his little dance, then one of the kids noticed our little group.

"Hey, look! More adventurers have come to join the battle!" the kid pointed to our group.

Both Grant and Frank looked at us and put away their weapons.

"Welp, looks like our ride is here guys." Grant said as he started to walk to the van.

"Sorry kids, perhaps another time we can continue this." Frank said as he followed Grant.

The little group started to disperse and go back to the swing sets and jungle gyms as K, Brad and myself walked back to the van and got in our respective seats. With both Grant and Frank in the back.

"You guys really did seem to have the kids there entertained. What did ya do?" Brad asks.

"Well..." Grant starts. "While we were waiting some kids asked what we were wearing and why."

"So." Frank continued. "We decided to play it up a bit and practice our roleplaying skills."

"It was actually pretty fun, then before we knew it we had a small crowd." Grant finishes.

"Huh." I say. "That's pretty neat, now all we need is our last member of our group."

I pulled up the van to the gas station where we were going to meet Jasmine, or 'Jazzy' for short, also to fill up the gas tank and pick up snacks. Everyone gets out of the van and heads to the station to go buy what stuff they need and I start filling up the tank.

After paying for it with my card I go inside to grab myself some snacks, after paying for those and Grant's soda, we all head back and waiting at the van is none other than Jasmine herself.

Going as an Elf Ranger, she's dressed in similar leather armor to that of Franks, she also has an earth green cloak to go with the longbow and quiver she has. She had her golden hair done up in a complex braid going down her back as well.

"Hey everyone. Your costumes all look pretty cool."

"Hi Jazzy, your costume is pretty awesome too." K' responds first.

"Evening Jasmine." Both Grant and Frank say.

"What's with them?" Jasmine looks at them both.

"They did some intense role-playing in the park to entertain some children just a bit ago." Brad says.

"Oh, well now that we're all here. Shall we get going?"

"Yep. Let's get this show on the road." I say.

It's been an interesting drive so far, talking with five of your closest/only friends. It's always been like this for our group. We were the outcasts of society, but we got together and it has been pretty good since then. But, that's a story for another time.

We've been on the road for a good half hour by now and had to stop at a rail crossing because a train was apparently coming, according to the red flashing lights.

So while we sat and waited and talked about our plans for the upcoming session and what we should do. I notice in my side mirror that a truck was coming up behind us pretty fast.

I didn't think anything at first, seeing as how often people usually slow down before getting to the crossing. However, this truck had no intentions of slowing down and I only got to yell out a quick warning of "OH SHIT" before getting hit at god knows what speed and pushes the van onto the train tracks.

I hear the sound of a train horn and I look to my left to see a giant diesel train barreling right for us. I hear the sounds of shouting and screaming before everything goes black...

PAIN, OH THE GODS EVERYTHING HURTS. WHY DOES IT HURT SO MUCH!?

My body feels like it had been kicked down a street like a can, then given an acid bath. Slowly the pain starts to go away after what feels like an hour I can actually feel what my limbs are doing again.

I open my eyes to get look around me and the first thing I notice is my friends around me in various states of unconsciousness. Then I take a look at my surroundings…

…

…

'Where the hell are we?' I think.

We appear to be in the middle of some kind of fort, if the 3 story keep and walls were any thing to go on with that theory. I feel slightly disoriented as I pick myself up off the ground, while doing so I get a good look at my clothing, and I know for a fact I did not put THIS much detail into my costume.

I take a good minute to look myself over, I had everything that my character had, from the stylish blue waist cloth to what looks like real leather on my wrists and body under my jacket. I shake my head out of my momentary awe and move over to my friends which are just starting to regain consciousness.

“Ah hell, what the fuck happened. It feels like I just had a BAAAAAAD hangover…” I hear… WHAT!?

Sitting right in front of me is someone that looks like the Dwarven Paladin Gralon Hardback straight from our campaign.

“Brad?” I ask. “Is that you?”

“Wha….Sully?” He shakes his head. “Why do you sound and look like Belkas, your Half-elf Monk?”

“Hell if I know, why do you look like your character? Nice beard by the way, it looks good.”

“What? I don't have a beard…” He puts a hand to his chin and strokes his braided beard. “Huh...guess I got one now.”

“UGH! WHY DOES ZURUG'S HEAD HURT!?!”

Both me and Brad look to our left where a towering Half-orc is holding his head.

“Grant?” We both say.

“Huh, Sully, Brad?” He looks at us.

“Dude, you were totally in character there for a bit.” I say to him.

“Really? Huh, cool.” He replies.

“It seems being turned into our characters has also affected our minds.” We all look to see K’ dusting off her robes. She looks extremely stunning. I think my jaw hit the ground.

“Get your minds out of the gutters boys, also I like the idea of becoming our characters.”

“What, why?” I just had to ask.

“Think about it.” Brad says. “It’s every gamer’s wet dream to become their character and be some hero or villain in their own story.”

“He’s right.” I hear from behind me, to which I quickly turn around and see Frank standing as his Rogue does tossing around a knife.

“Hell Friedrich, er… Frank, can you try not to scare the fuck out of me.”

“It’s what my character does best, last I checked yours can't be frightened and is always calm and collected. Almost cold in nature, but that might be stretching it.”

Now when I think about it, it’s almost odd how calm I’ve been, well almost all calm.

“Well, if we are where I think we are, this could be pretty cool.” The last member of our party Jasmine, or as her character name, Thalia, finally joins the conversation. I close my eyes and breath a few deep breaths, when I open my eyes I am totally in character.

“Alright, first things first. Since we’re suddenly our characters, it’s only fair if we use our character names.” They all nod and I continue.

“Second, let us all agree to be in character. It doesn't matter if we’re in or out, we are still friends either way.” Again they nod.

“Third, where do you think we are Thalia?”

“Well, judging by what is around us right now. I’d say we’re in our stronghold. Fort Shatter-Shield.”

Everyone takes a look around and suddenly the banner on the fort’s keep looks strikingly familiar. A white background with a black anvil and hammer striking it. Our coat of arms.

“Alright, now that we’ve deduced where we are. Thalia and Friedrich, go and scout the surrounding area. Kasula, see if you can use any scrying spells or such to get a better idea of where in the world we are.” They nod and run off to do their assigned jobs, I turn to both Zurug and Gralon. “Can you two get up on the walls and patrol until we have an idea of what’s around us? We don't want anything sneaking up on us.”

“ZURUG WILL SMASH AND BASH ALL WHO COME NEAR!”

“Can it meathead, remember not to kill unless it attacks you first.”

“QUIET SHORT STACK.”

“WHO YOU CALLING SHORT!?”

The both of them walk away bickering at each other, as for myself… let’s see what’s around the castle.

(Meanwhile, in a certain crystalline castle where a certain purple pony princess lives )

Nothing in this book either. I set the book down in the ever growing pile on the desk. There’s nothing in my books that can explain all the new monsters and creatures springing up all over Equestria. I sigh as I head to another bookshelf, looking for anything that could be of use.

It has been a month after we sealed away Discord for a second time. Nopony thought what he said before we got him would come true. “If you seal me away again, all the horrors of another world will be unleashed upon Equestria and beyond.”

The princesses assured me it was just some excuse Discord made up in the hope we wouldn't hit him with the elements again. Everything was fine until a month ago when Fluttershy tried to befriend a strange new creature. The creature had the body of a bear and the head of an owl, apparently she tried talking to it and the ‘Owlbear’ as we came to call it, tried to hurt her!

Since the incident with Fluttershy, new and violent creatures have been appearing all over Equestria. Thankfully the royal guard were quick to respond, but things took a turn for the worse. The new monsters are more powerful than we expected and are slowly pushing the royal guard back.

I was just about to grab another book off the shelf when there was a knock at my door.

“Spike, can you see who’s at the door?”

Spike looked up from his comic “Sure thing Twilight.” and promptly went to the door. Only for Spike to come back with a very friendly mailmare.

“Hey Twilight!” Ditzy says.

“Ditzy, how nice to see you. Any mail for me today?” I ask.

“Actually, I want to know if you know anything about a new fort appearing between Ponyville and Canterlot.”

“Hmmm… The princesses didn't mention anything about a new guard encampment, let alone a fort. How did you come across this?”

“Oh! Well… I was returning from Canterlot when there was this bright flash of light, see, and when I look to see what caused the light, there was this small-ish fort where there wasn't one before. I should know since I travel to Canterlot often.

A new fort magically appearing… this could be the break we are looking for! Maybe we could finally push these beasts out from Equestria once and for all. I wonder if it’s some magical weapon or maybe a enchanted book or-

“Twilight, you ok?” Ditzy asks me with a worried expression.

“Oh sorry, I was just thinking. Thanks for the information Ditzy, there’s some muffins in the kitchen if you want some.”

Ditzy quickly dashes, then I turn to Spike.

“Spike, can you go get the girls? I have to write up a letter for the Princesses.”