Chapters Fluttershy was getting ready for the day. As she walked out of the bathroom, she saw a puddle of chocolate milk spreading on the floor. She looked over to the couch to see Discord lying on it. There was a cotton candy cloud over him that was covering him in chocolate milk. “Discord,” Fluttershy gasped, “You’re making a mess.”
The draconequus turned to look over to the pony. “Evening, Fluttershy,” he said. “I’m sorry about this.” He snapped his fingers, which made all milk and cloud vanished.
“What’s wrong? You love chocolate milk.”
“I’ve just been thinking about a couple of things. I’ve done some stupid things.”
“What are you talking about.”
Discord let out a long sigh. “You remember that time I sent you and your friends on a wild goose chase?”
“Oh... That’s what you’re talking about.” The mare sat next to her hodgepodge friend. “Why did you do it?”
“I don’t know. I was bored one day and thought ‘Hey! Why don’t I pull a little prank on Fluttershy and her friends’?” He let out an exaggerated chuckle before he regained his frown. “Then one thing led to another and I’m pretty much banned from the school.”
“Discord, you apologized to us later.”
“I did. But that didn’t stop from bringing a centaur, a former queen of a love sucking species, and filly with a silver tongue who then stole my magic and tried to take over Equestria.” He groaned as he brought his lion claw and talon to his face.
“I’ve had a few slip-ups too. I know how you feel.”
“So you also did something that nearly destroyed the world.” The mare rubbed the back of her head as she didn’t know how to respond to this. “Thought not.”
“Look, Discord, you can’t keep wallowing in your pity. How about you do something to help make up for your mistake.”
“Like what?”
“Like... Take an interest in their interests. I’ll help you after I’m finished at school.” The two shared a hug and the mare left.
After she was gone, the draconequus thought for a moment about what his friend said. “...Okay. I’ll take a look.” With a snap of his finger, Discord vanished in a flash.
He teleported to the School of Friendship while keeping himself invisible so he didn’t spook any of the new students. He slipped into the mess hall, where he found a group of six creatures. This consisted of a yak with bows in her braids, a blue griffon, a blue and red changeling, a pink hippogriff a pearl shard around her neck, an orange dragoness with purple spines, and a green colt with three sea turtles for a cutie mark.
“Okay,” Smolder said, “What do you guys have for tonight?”
“Sandbar and I found a couple of games,” Silverstream said.
“What friends have?” Yona asked.
“Let’s see,” Sandbar said trying to remember the games he and the hippogriff bought. “We’ve got Bit Rush, Snack Attack, and Power Ponies.”
“I thought they were just a series of comics,” Ocellus said.
“They also have a board game. It’s either that or we could try Ogres and Oubliettes.”
“I don’t know,” Gallus said, “You know how long that game last?”
“That’s true.”
“I’m willing to give Power Ponies and chance,” Ocellus admitted.
“Wished we had time to play Ogres and Oubliettes,” Silverstream sighed.
“Maybe tomorrow.” As the six continued with their breakfast, Discord teleported back to his dimension.
“They play Ogres and Oubliettes?” he questioned. “I wonder how long they’ve been playing.” He thought for a moment until he had an idea. He removed his horns from the base of them he poured out two clones of himself, both wearing construction gear. “Okay, boys, here’s the plan.” He snapped his finger making a set of blueprints appear. “Now, I think we should have them start in a village.”
“How about we have a statue of a Garbuncle and Mcbiggen?” one of the clones asked.
“Perfect. I like the way you think. Hmm, maybe we have a breezie.” The three kept making their plan for a certain group tomorrow.
After school, the young six walked outside and into town. “So, what’s up for today?” Silverstream asked.
“No clue,” Ocellus admitted.
“Welp, I’m prepared for a day of boredom until night time,” Gallus said.
As the six walked around, Yona looked around for something to do until she bumped into a cart. This surprised the unicorn stallion that was hooking himself up to it.
"Oops, sorry," the yak apologized.
"Oh, no it's okay," the stallion replied. "I'll just get out of your way." He hurried off with his cart in tow. However, he pulled away so fast that one of packages fell out of the cart.
"Uh oh," Sandbar said. He picked up the parcel and ran to see if he could catch up with the stallion. "Sir, hold on. You dropped... Something." The second the colt rounded the corner, the stallion and his cart were gone.
"That's weird," Silverstream commented.
"Maybe we get this package to the post office," Ocellus suggest.
"I wonder what's in it," Gallus said.
"Gallus."
"Hey, I can't be the only one."
"It's true," Silverstream admitted bashfully. "It has to be small."
"It's pretty light too," Sandbar added. "Shame we can't look inside of it." They were about to walk off when they could see a white glow coming from the seems of the package.
"Ooh, its lights."
"Silver, I don't think a normal light can give off a glow that bright," Smolder responded.
Sandbar dropped the box as it started getting hot. Once it hit the ground, all of its sides opened up to reveal a scroll.
"What scroll doing in box?" questioned Yona. "Letter would work just fine."
"That scroll shouldn't fit inside that box," Gallus observed. "Look at it."
Ocellus did and could see it was wider than the box's base. "He's right," she confirmed.
"Welp, if we know what it is, might as well figure out what it says," Smolder said. She picked up the space-defining scroll and opened it up.
Congradulations
"Discovery?"
"That's all it says?" Silverstream questioned.
It was until the letters started glowing. The dragoness let go in surprise, but the scroll didn't fall. She and her friends backed away in shock, not fulling understanding what was going on.
"Yona suggests friends run," the yak said.
"Good idea," Ocellus agreed.
Just as they turned around a beam of light crossed their path. They were about to fly away, but then a dome formed around them. It then began to glow a formed a bright flash.
When the flash died down the saw weren't in really in Ponyville anymore. Instead, they in a village of older looking houses that mostly made of logs and fields of green. In the center of this village was a stature a dragon wizard wielding a staff and a unicorn holding sword.
"What is this place?" Silverstream questioned.
"I don't know," Ocellus replied scared. "I want to know how that scroll brought us here."
"It could've brought us to another dimension," Gallus pondered.
"Then how we get back?" The changeling was shaking her griffon friend violently, desperate for answers.
"Calm down," said a soft voice. The creatures looked around to see where the voice came from. "Down here." Looking down, the group saw a breezie. She had pink fur and a long blonde mane and emerald green eyes.
"Breezie tell where Yona and friends are?"
“You’re in Turmar. This village was filled with different creatures that once lived in harmony. However, a treasure that’s only known as the Discovery.”
“Why do they call it that?” Smolder asked.
“No one has truly discovered it. Some say it’s a whole cave filled to the bring with gold and gems. Some say it’s the true source of magic. No creature knows what it is. Whoever goes out to find the Discovery never came back.”
“If no creature knows what it looks likes,” Gallus said, “You think it could be something that could take us to different dimensions?”
“Could be.”
“Then where do find.”
“Gallus, are you serious?” Ocellus questioned.
“Do we have a magic mirror that can take us home?”
“Not really.”
“Than what other option do we have here?”
“He’s got a point,” Sandbar said. “Still, we don’t know what’s out there.”
“Your friend is right,” the breezie said. “There are several monsters that you’ve never seen before. You won’t stand a chance without the proper gear.”
“Where are we suppose to get our gear?” Smolder asked.
“Follow me.” The breezie flew through a window of one of the buildings. The students opened the door and saw several weapons were hanging on the walls.
“This stuff looks brand new,” Ocellus commented.
“And familiar,” Sandbar added.
“Yeah,” Gallus agreed. He walked over the bow and quiver full of arrows. “So, I just put this on?”
“Yes,” the breezie replied. Gallus shrugged and picked up the bow. The quiver then just jumped onto his back as a green cloak materialized on his body. Bandage appeared around his talons and leather armor appeared around his chest.
“Okay, what just happened?” the griffon questioned.
“It seems the bow and quiver are attached to you.” Gallus looked at the breezie with a low brow.
“So, we automatically get some clothing if we pick our weapon?” Ocellus questioned.
Smolder looked over a set of iron gauntlets that looked perfect for her claws. When she placed them on, a red bandana wrapped around her forehead. She also got some loose white britches and a loose red shirt.
“I see you’ve chosen the monk,” the breezie commented. She looked over to the four remaining creatures. “What do you want?”
Sandbar looked around at the different weapons until he saw a sword and a shield. Once he picked them up, a sheath appeared on his side. Also, a set of silver armor appeared on his body. It looked to have more protection than the guards at Canterlot castle.
“Huh. This doesn’t feel very heavy.”
“Cool,” Silverstream commented. “I’m next.” She saw two daggers and picked them up. A black hooded robe appeared on her body with some gray boots on her hooves and matching gloves on her talons. Around her waist, a belt appeared with places to hold her new daggers which were covered up by a black cape as a dark gray scarf covered her beak.
Yona looked to see a duel bladed ax. Once she picked it, up a barbuta helmet appeared on her head, which had holes for her horns. A wooly tunic appeared around Yona’s torso as well as some blue face paint around her eyes.
Lastly, Ocellus picked up a wooden staff. A red witch’s hat with a golden band around the base materialized on her head. A matching dress appeared on her body as a necklace with what looked to be a large pearl hanging on it appeared around her neck.
“A thief, a barbarian, and a mage,” the breezie said. “All good choices.”
“Man, this feels amazing,” Silverstream said. She was jumping with excitement at this point.
"I feel like we're going to need just armor and weapons," Sandbar said.
"Of course," the breezie said. She led the newly armored team into a different shack where there was a whole of bottles filled with various colors.
"What are these?" Yona asked.
"Potions. They can help regain health, stamina, and remove effects like poison, blindness, and other various effects."
"I like to know what those effects are," Gallus said.
"Who cares," Smolder said. "Let's just grab the all." The monk picked up a set of them but she struggled to hold onto all of them. She ended up dropping them, with a couple of them shattering.
"Is there anything we can use to carry these?" Ocellus asked. The breezie pointed to a sack that had a light shining on it from the window. The changeling picked it up and placed one of the potions inside. To her surprise, the bag looked empty when it was closed up, but when she opened it, the potions were inside.
"I don't think we should question that," Smolder said.
"Right," Gallus agreed. "I think we've everything we need now."
"What about a map?" Sandbar asked. Like magic, a map appeared in his hoof. He opened up and could see the village they were in and at the top was large cave that looked like a bear's mouth. "Okay, now we're all set."
"You want me to come with you?" the breezie asked.
"I think it might be dangerous," Ocellus said. "You probably should stay here."
"Yeah, we could squash you if we wanted to," Smolder added. She was promptly given glares from her friends. "By accident."
"Let's just get going," Gallus said. "We're not going to find our way home if we just stand here." The six walked outside and headed down the path out of the village.
"Good luck," called the breezie. She waved goodbye as the six creatures were out of sight.
Sandbar looked at the map and looked to see where they were at. "Okay," he said, "It looks like we'll come to a river."
Silverstream flew into the air and looked into the distance. "I don't see any water nearby," she commented.
"You sure you're not holding that thing upside down?" Smolder asked.
The colt showed his friends the map. "We just left this village," he said pointing it out. "Up here is where the river should be."
"Maybe the map is messing with us," Gallus suggested. "You know that would make too much sense." Sandbar handed the map to Ocellus, hoping she could understand what was missing.
While making their way, Yona could hear some clicking. She looked around to see where it came from. "We're coming up to a forest," Ocellus said. The forest had a lot of tree that tall and thin.
"Could friends go around?" Yona asked. "Or over?"
"I don't think we're going to be able to do that," Smolder said. "Besides, I actually wanna see what's in there." The dragoness started walking into the woods with Gallus and Silverstream following behind.
“She has a point,” Sandbar admitted. He followed his friends with Ocellus by his side. After taking a gulp, Yona slowly followed behind full of fear.
“The map says this place is called the Spare Spruce Forest,” Ocellus said showing her friend the name.
“Why is it call that?” the paladin questioned. There was some clicking heard in the background. This frightened Yona, and she hugged her boyfriend for comfort.
“What was noise?” the barbarian asked.
“My guess,” Gallus replied, “We’re about to have company.” The griffon pulled an arrow out and readied his bow. Smolder and Silverstream got into a ready stance. Sandbar held his sword and Yona shivered as she held her ax. Ocellus, she didn’t know any spells aside from shapeshifting.
Out of the shadows, they could see something that looked like a group of ponies. “Hey, it’s not so bad,” Silverstream commented. “Excuse me, do you...” She paused when the figures walked closer and they turned out to be skeletons.
“Yeah, they’re not normal,” Gallus said. He fired an arrow at one, which caused it to file to pieces. The rest of the skeletons charge at the group as a fight broke out.
The griffon kept firing as the dragon started punching. Sandbar’s sword clashed with the skeletons’ weapons as Yona’s ax did the same. Ocellus kept trying to avoid conflict as she didn’t know what else to do. Silverstream decided to try to snatch something from the boney monsters.
She tried to grab a sword from one of them but ended up taking its head off. “Whoops,” the hippogriff gulped.
As Ocellus started making a run for cover, one of the skeletons decided to throw one of its arms at her. The detached arm knocked the changeling to the ground, much to the shock of the dragoness. “Ocellus!” Smolder cried. The monk ran over to help protect her friend.
“Smolder, I have no idea what to do,” Ocellus explained.
“Okay, you know how dragons breathe fire.”
“Of course.”
“Just imagine that coming from your horn. Or hooves. Or the staff... Just try thinking about it.” One of the boney beasts tried taking Smolder by surprise, but the monk punched it into pieces.
The changeling looked to see a group of skeletons surrounding Sandbar and Yona. The yak was desperately swinging her ax, and the paladin was blocking most of the attacks with his shield. “Get down!” Ocellus cried. Waving her staff, the changeling shot out a blast of... Ice. It froze a third of the surrounding skeletons, and they vanished. Not shattered, vanished.
In fact, this was happening to all of the skeletons that got hit. Once one fell to the ground after an attack, it vanished into thin air. “This is getting boring,” Gallus panted. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Yona listen to Gallus!” Yona shouted. She made a beeline to catch up to the archer. The others decided to do the same but there was one thing left in their way. A bugbear.
“Ah, give us a break,” Ocellus groaned. The bugbear roared as Smolder charged towards it. She tried throwing a few punches, but the bear just smacked her away.
“Okay, that... Actually hurt,” the dragoness commented.
“You too?” Silverstream asked.
“Uh oh,” Sandbar realized. He blocked the bugbear’s claw with his shield. “We need to get out of here fast!”
“On it,” Gallus and Silverstream replied. They flew up to the treetops. Gallus circled the bugbear as he fired some arrows. Silverstream, meanwhile, swooped down multiple times to strike at the beast.
Ocellus began waving her staff around. “Please work,” she begged. She tried using ice, yet instead, a blaze of fire shot out. Sandbar slashed his sword as the bear fusion monster and saw held his blade back just in time to block an attack with his sword. Ocellus’s flames hit his sword, which was engulfed in them.
“What the...?” the colt examined. He heard a crack as he saw his shield was starting to break. Realizing that he had to finish this fast, he swung his sword at the bugbear. A slash of fire hit the bear and some trees, causing the monster to disappear in a cloud of dust and the trees fell over.
Once it was gone, the six walked over to each other to exam the events that just transpired. “How did you do that?” Silverstream asked.
“I don’t know. It just happened.”
“I was aiming at the bugbear,” Ocellus stated.
“I think you might need a book or something to help you,” Gallus said. “Let’s just get out of here.” The six walked through the forest hoping the get out of the forest. Yona could hear some scratching and looked back and thought she saw yellow eyes. Not wanting to stay any longer, she ran off as fast as she could.
The six made it out of the woods and could see some houses in the distance. “Good,” Sandbar sighed. “Maybe we can ask them for directions.”
“Sure hope there’s some creature who can think,” Gallus said. “Maybe one that thinks about what it attacks.” They made their way down the hill as Silverstream had to bring up her friend’s fire feat.
“Do you think we could use other elements?” the hippogriff asked.
“I’m not sure,” Ocellus said. “I’m barely getting the hang of this.”
“Friend just need book to help,” Yona said.
“Yeah,” Sandbar said. “I hope I can get a new shield.” He showed what he meant as his shield had a large crack down the middle of it.
“Wow, that looks bad,” Smolder commented.
“I know. One more hit and this thing is going to hurt me more than protect me.”
“We’re almost there,” Gallus said. They came into the village and were surprised to see what the citizens looked like. There were various centaurs walking around. They all looked to have average builds, nowhere near as big as Tirek. The centaurs all looked to be minding their own business. Pulling carts filled with goods, chatting with friends, and a few parents walking with their children.
“You think these guys will drain our magic?” Sandbar whispered.
“They looked just fine,” Silverstream said. “Excuse me!” Her shout caught the attention of a merchant.
“What can help you with travelers?” the merchant asked.
The thief dragged the paladin toward the centaur. “Silver, what are you doing?” Sandbar questioned.
“You said it yourself,” the hippogriff replied, “You need to get that shield fixed.”
The merchant was surprised at the shield’s condition. “No wonder,” he said. “What caused this damage?”
“Bugbear,” the pony answered.
“Hmm. I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can fix this. I can get you a new one, however. Follow me.”
He led the adventures into a shop were where there were some shields, swords, spears, and various other weapons. “Sweet,” Smolder commented.
“You know, while we’re here, could you hook me up with a couple of arrows?” Gallus asked.
“I think so,” the merchant said. “Though, it’s going to cost you.”
The team looked at each other as they knew they had a problem. “How do we get money?” the griffon whispered.
“I don’t know,” Smolder replied.
“Maybe there’s some in the bag,” Silverstream advised.
“Silver, I only put potions in here,” Ocellus reminded. She looked inside to show her friend and was surprised to see what looked like bits. Though, they were copper instead of golden. “Okay.”
“Why am I surprised by this,” Gallus said under his breath.
Ocellus handed the coins to the centaur. “Will this be enough?”
“It should be for your friend’s new shield,” the merchant responded. Sandbar smiled as he looked at which shield to buy. “Where you headed anyhow?”
“Friends going to find Discovery,” Yona answered. The merchant stumbled back in surprise.
“You sure you wanna do that? I met a team who fought each other just to stay in charge.”
“We made it this far,” Silverstream explained.
“That’s like a bird being able to fly a meter off the ground. This would isn’t as easy as you may think.”
“We kind of figured that out,” Gallus mumbled. His eye widened as he looked at some interesting arrows. “Fire arrows? Ice? Explosive?!” He excitedly looked at the merchant. “How much do you charge?”
“You’re not blowing anything up,” Ocellus asserted. “Just please get us some regular arrows.” The centaur nodded.
“Alright, fine. We’ll just use some of your magic.”
“I can barely control this thing.”
“Then you definitely won’t stand a chance out there,” the merchant chuckled.
“Could you at least give us tips instead of just telling us what you think is going to happen?” Smolder asked. She was getting annoyed.
The centaur was handed some coins from Gallus, who was then given the arrows. “I’d recommend you take the long way around the Sand Swamps.”
“Sand Swamps?” Sandbar asked.
“Trust me. You don’t want to go anywhere near that place.” The paladin shivered a bit as he showed the shield he wanted.
“Hold on,” Silverstream said. She showed a long blue dagger that shined in the light. “How much is this?”
The group carried on their adventure as the hippogriff was amazed at her new dagger. “It’s a shame I had to sell my old ones,” she sighed.
“Why did you even do that?” Smolder questioned.
“Well... I found something underneath where this dagger was at. It said, ‘ten percent more damage on undead enemies’.”
“You too?” Sandbar asked. “Mine said, ‘fire resistance’.”
“You know what this feels like?” Gallus asked.
“What?” Yona replied.
“An RPG. Like Ogres and Oubliettes.”
“You don’t think we’re in the game?” Ocellus questioned.
“Those skeletons do seem familiar,” Sandbar admitted.
“Skeletons scarier in real life,” Yona spoke.
“If we’re in the game,” Ocellus said, “Then we probably have to follow the same rules the game has. Which means I can only cast so many spells per day.”
“And these weapons could break,” Gallus added.
“Not to mention we can feel pain here,” Smolder mentioned.
“Oh, that just makes things so much better.”
“Friends try to avoid fighting,” Yona suggested.
“Probably a good idea,” Ocellus said. She checked the map to see where they were. “I think the Sand Swamps may be the river, here.”
“You sure about that?” Gallus asked.
“I don’t see anything else that looks like a swamp on here.” Walking a little more, they could hear some bubbling, along with a ponging smell.
“Ugh,” Smolder groaned. “What is that?”
“I think that might be the swamp.” The six walked along and soon found the Sandy Swamp. There were some trees in the mucky water with vines hanging from them. The swamp looked to be filled with sand, making it live up to its name. They could see several frogs-like creatures sitting around on lily pads.
“That centaur said we should take the long way around,” Sandbar reminded. He and Yona started walking as Smolder started flying above them.
“Can’t we just fly over this?” the dragoness questioned.
“...That’s a good point,” Gallus agreed. “What’s stopping us from just flying over this? It’ll be a lot faster and we could get home as soon as possible.”
“Longer route safer route,” Yona spoke.
“Yona, do you want to be stuck in this world filled with living skeletons?” Smolder asked.
“No.”
“Okay then. Gallus, give me some help.” The monk and archer picked up the barbarian as Silverstream did the same for Sandbar. However, the paladin’s armor made him pretty heavy. Lucky for the thief, the mage put her staff in the bag and helped lift the colt.
The smell was horrible for the flyers. They tried breathing through their mouths, but it didn’t help enough. “What’s in this swamp?” Silverstream questioned.
“I don’t wanna know,” Ocellus responded. “Let’s just get out of...” Suddenly, a large bubble popped from below them, sandy water, causing Sandbar and Yona to fall out of their friends’ grip.
They splashed into the swamp and slowly started thinking. “Gah!” Sandbar cried. “This feels like quicksand.”
“Guys, hold on,” Silverstream said. She and the others tried to pull their friends out as something started surfacing from the water. It was a giant Bufogren with dragon-like teeth.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Gallus groaned. He tried firing an arrow at the frog, but it just swallowed it.
“Yeah, that worked great,” Smolder said sarcastically.
“Friends need help!” Yona reminded.
“Ocellus, try a spell,” Silverstream proposed. The changeling pulled out her staff and wave it around. She ended up shooting out some fire. This proved to be useless as the Bufogren swallowed that too.
“We can only run now,” Ocellus said. She helped Silver pulled Sandbar out of the sandy water, Smolder and Gallus did the same to Yona. As soon as they were free, they flew back to land. Looking back at the Bufogren, Ocellus saw it frowning before sinking back into the swamp.
“That was a bad idea,” Smolder commented.
“You think?” Sandbar asked.
“Friends sticking with long route,” Yona asserted. She and her coltfriend led the way.
“Be honest,” Gallus said, “You want to get out of here too.”
“That may be true,” Sandbar admitted, “But we want to survive.”
“Are we still heading the right way?” Silverstream asked.
“Hope so,” Ocellus acknowledged. She checked the map to see if she could find out where they were. “I’m mixed up here.”
“Hang on.” The hippogriff flew into the air to see if she could look around but then saw something. A flock of Rocs was flying around until they spotted her. “Oh, seashells.” The flock dive at the thief, who flew back down to her friends. “RUN!”
The rocs tried to peck through the treetops, which bought the team enough time to make a run for it. “Of course,” Smolder moaned. “Of course there’d be rocs.”
“Just shut up and run!” Gallus said.
“Can’t you fire an arrow?”
“There’s too many and I only have so many.”
“Look, cave,” Yona cried. They ran inside which was too small for the rocs to follow them through.
“Whoa, this cave leads to a tunnel,” Ocellus gasped.
“Let’s see where it leads,” Sandbar said.
“You sure about that?” The archer and monk pointed back to where they came, where the rocs were still trying to get in. “Right. It’s not that dark in here anyways. We might as well see if we can find anything.” The team slowly walked deeper into the tunnel.
“What do you think we’ll see in here?” Silverstream questioned.
“Yona don’t wanna know,” the yak shivered.
“Hope it’s not something too strong,” Sandbar wished. “Those other creatures would’ve literally stomped us.”
“We stood a good chance against those skeletons,” Smolder reminded.
“Because they were similar in size.”
“Shh,” Ocellus shushed. “I think I hear something.”
“Now what?” Gallus groaned. Looking around the corner, the team saw six sets of armor.
“I could’ve sworn I heard something moving. Let’s keep going.” The six walked deeper into the cave until Smolder saw a chest. Out of curiosity, she looked at what was inside, unaware of what was going on behind her. The sets of armor started moving by themselves. They slowly stomped towards Smolder, until Yona surprised the sentient inanimate beings by hitting one of them with her ax.
“Yona, what...” Smolder paused when she saw the moving armor. “Okay, I didn’t see that coming.”
The other four looked back to see what happened. “Living armor?” Gallus questioned. “I should probably be used to this by now.” Drawing his bow, he helped his friends fight off the armors. Some of them had weapons and the one with a sword blocked Sandbar’s weapon.
“Silver, a little help,” the colt begged as he kept clashing his blade with the armor’s. The hippogriff flew towards the armor attacking her friend and jabbed it with her special dagger. The armor backed away in shock, leaving Sandbar enough time swing his sword to smashed the set into pieces. The pieces vanished and there was a sound of coins landing on each other.
“What was that?” Ocellus asked.
“Who cares?” Smolder questioned. She decked one of the sets in the face, causing the helmet to fly off and the armor vanished. The cash sound was heard again.
“I think I may know what that is,” Gallus said. He looked back and could see his quiver had ten arrows left. “Could use some help here.”
“On it,” Ocellus said. The mage waved her wand around until she felt some heat coming from it. Instead of shooting out fire, lighting shot out from her staff. At the same time, Gallus had launched an arrow at the same set of armor that Ocellus was aiming at. The lightning bolt and arrow collided with each other and both hit the armor set.
This caused the armor to spaz out and make it hit another set with his spear, causing a chain reaction making all the armor set electrocute each other and they vanished.
“...Well that happened,” Smolder commented.
“How friends do that?” Yona asked.
“I think it’s like what happened with Sandbar’s sword,” Ocellus answered.
“Maybe we should get out of here before more creatures show up,” Sandbar recommended.
“Sandbar have good plan,” Yona said. She and her friends ventured into the cave, which was far from easy. Just turning the corner, there was a scorpion that was big as Yona, a bat pony, and a griffon ghoul.
“...Give us a break,” Gallus groaned. They made a run for it, with the three creatures chasing them.
“We need a plan,” Sandbar said.
“Okay, give me a second,” Ocellus said. The scorpion shot out some poison that hit Silverstream in the back. The hippogriff started feeling woozy as she and friends found a door. It led to a room that the sextet hid inside to buy them some time.
“Anything?”
“Yeah. Gallus and I will stick in the back. Our classes are better at fighting at range. Sandbar, because of you health and defenses, you’ll take the lead. Yona, Smolder, Silver...” The changeling paused as she saw her friends face. “Are you okay?”
“I think that scorpion... Got me,” the hippogriff moaned.
“Hold on,” Gallus said. He reached into the bag and pulled out one of the potions. It read, ”Antidote” . “Hope I got the right one.” He gave the potion to his poison friend, who was feeling better.
“Thanks, Gally. What were you saying Ocellus?”
“You’re with Yona and Smolder upfront with Sandbar.”
“Got it.”
“Wait, what’s over there?” Smolder asked. She pointed to two chests. The archer walked over to them and found two things inside, a set of twenty arrows, and five smoke bombs.
“Silver, I think I found something for you,” the griffon said.
The scorpion, ghoul, and bat pony were waiting outside until the sextet burst through the door. Yona fought off against the scorpion with Smolder as Sandbar and Silverstream took on the ghoul. Gallus and Ocellus struggled to fight the bat pony while staying in the back.
“He’s too fast,” Gallus noted as he prepared another arrow.
“We better change things up,” Ocellus said. “Silver, your bombs. Throw one at the bat!”
“Okay,” the hippogriff replied. She chucked a smoke bomb at the bat pony, blinding it long enough for it to get shot by some fire and an arrow.
“I think I’m getting the hang of this.” The mage looked towards the scorpion the monk and barbarian were fighting. She tried to shoot out fire but launched lighting instead. Still, it proved effective enough to help Yona and Smolder finish off the scorpion, making it vanish.
Smolder flew over to help Gallus with the bat pony by throwing it into a wall. Yona helped Sandbar and Silverstream with the ghoul which was giving them trouble.
“I’m glad you bought that dagger,” Sandar said. He quickly blocked a shot of ice from the ghoul with his shield.
“Hmm, maybe this will help,” Silverstream said, holding out an orange dagger.
“Where Silver get dagger?” Yona asked.
“One of the armor guys dropped it when he vanished.” Holding the orange dagger in her talon, Silverstream slashed at the ghoul. Fire emitted from the knife and it looked to deal a lot of damage. “Cool. A fire dagger.” With the help of the barbarian and paladin, the ghoul vanished. The bat pony was taking care of by the other half of the team, making it disappear.
“There,” Smolder panted. “How many arrows do you have left?”
Gallus looked back and checked. “Twelve,” he said.
“Let keep moving,” Sandbar said. The team carried on through the cave, hoping to have as little conflict as possible. However, Silverstream accidentally stepped on a tile, which released a few other monsters.
After what felt like ages, the sextet finally found the exit of the cave. “At last,” Smolder groaned. “I felt like we were stuck in a maze.”
“How are our supplies?” Sandbar asked Ocellus.
“Let’s see,” the changeling said. She looked inside the bag. “We’ve got three health potions, one antidote, some spare weapons we found.”
“Like that bow we found?” Gallus asked.
“Yep. And, a lot of coins.”
“You mean bits?” Smolder asked.
“They don’t look like bits... And...” The changeling paused when she saw something in the distance.
“What’s wrong?” Yona asked. Ocellus pointed to what she was looking and her friends gasped when they finally saw it. Far in the distance, was a cave entrance that looked like the mouth of a bear.
“That’s the location of the discovery,” Sandbar gasped. “We’re so close now.”
“Wait are we waiting for?” Silverstream asked. She was about to fly over there, but Gallus stopped her.
“Silver, Ocellus and I are low on ammo,” Gallus informed. “Not to mention some of our weapons might break.”
“Gallus right,” Yona confirmed. She looked at her ax, which had a few cracks on the blade and the handle. Smolder’s gauntlets had the same problem. One of her claws were even exposed.
“We could just use the weapons we found,” Smolder said, “What about the potions?”
“Three isn’t going to be enough,” Ocellus agreed. “What do we do?”
“Hold on,” Sandbar announced, “There’s somebody at the bottom of the hill.” The figure was too far away for them to see, so the six walked down the hill to see it was a yak with dirty blonde wool. Her eyes were covered up and her horns were black and fairly short. She was sitting next to a campfire with a cart sitting beside her.
She saw the team walking towards her. “Why hello there,” she said. “Where are you heading to?”
“That cave over there,” Silverstream explained. “We’re looking for the discovery.”
“Ah. Then you’re very foolish children.”
“We’ve made it this far,” Smolder stated.
“Hmm, you’ve had a hard time by the looks of it.”
“Tell us about it,” Ocellus sighed.
“You might need some items that’ll help you out.” The yak looked in her cart and show a couple of potions. “You wouldn’t happen to have some coins with you, would you?”
“A couple,” Smolder said. Ocellus pulled some coins out of their bag to pay for the potions they were looking for.
“Two more health potions,” Sandbar narrated as he picked up the said items. “Ooh, a speed boost?”
“How long have you and your friends been on this quest?” the yak asked.
“We only started this quest today,” Ocellus said. “It’s harder than just plaining it like a normal board game.”
“I see. What are you looking for anyway?”
“Something called the Discovery.”
“No creature knows what it is,” Sandbar added. “We hope it’s something that’ll get us home.”
“Then I wish you all good luck. You may need it.” After the team bought what they needed, the left the yak to rest by her campfire.
“Friends sure we’re ready?” Yona asked.
“It’s now or never,” Smolder said.
“She’s right,” Gallus said. “Let’s do this.” The six each nodded before heading the bear-shaped cave.
The sextet stood with the cave right in front of them. The shape of a bear sent shivers down a couple of their spines. They took out some of the weapons they found in the other cave. “You think we’ll find more in there?” Sandbar asked.
“Hope so,” Smolder said. She equipped some brass knuckles as she gave the paladin a long sword.
“You guys ready?” Silverstream asked.
“Ready,” her friends replied. The walked into the cave, bracing themselves for the worst.
The cave had torches lighting the path. The sound of dripping water echoed around, adding the ominous feeling of the situation. “Why cave have to be so scary?” Yona questioned.
“I think I remember we went through a cave like this in Ogres and Oubliettes,” Sandbar said.
“That just game cave. This real cave.”
“True. Silver, didn’t you draw what that cave looked like?”
“I think I still have it at home,” the hippogriff replied.
A footstep was heard, making the team stop in their tracks. “Who’s there?” Gallus asked. He drew an arrow as he crept closer to the sound of footsteps. They got closer and closer until they saw it looked to be a griffon. Sort of. It was actually a griffon skeleton. Gallus jumped, and let go of his arrow, causing it to hit the skeleton.
The walking set of bones then held out a lit torch, he used to lift another torch. More torches could be seen liting up the room, showing a large room with five more piles of bones. The piles started taking shape of a hippogriff, a changeling, a yak, a dragon, and a pony.
“Here we go,” Ocellus said with a gulp. She and her friends charged at their respective species, which also carried the respective weapons. Gallus and the griffon dodged each arrow they shot, Smolder and the dragon kept blowing punches, Sandbar and the pony were locked in a sword duel, and Yona and the yak kept countering each other’s swing.
Silverstream was trying a different approach. She tried using one of her smoke bombs to take the hippogriff skeleton by surprise. While the smoke was still in the air, she tried to swipe one of the dagger the skeleton had. Instead, the thief pulled out one of the bones that were supporting her opponent.
With its loss of balance, the hippogriff skeleton struggled to stand up. This wasn’t part of her plan, but Silverstream took her chance and knocked out her opponent. Once the hippogriff skeleton vanished, the thief turned her attention to a struggling mage.
Ocellus was having a hard time hitting the changeling skeleton and dodging the oncoming magic at the same time. “Need some help?” Silverstream asked.
“I would like that,” Ocellus replied. She just got hit with an ice spell, just before her friend swiped her daggers at the skeleton, making it vanish. The thief looked at her frozen friend. “...I’m okay.” The ice melted enough, allowing the mage to stand up. “Let’s help the others.”
Gallus kept firing and dodging arrows until Silverstream flew up to the griffon skeleton and stole its arrows. Without any ammo, it couldn’t fire back. This allowed Gallus to shoot it a couple of times until it vanished. Ocellus managed to launch an ice spell at the dragon skeleton to help Smolder. After a few more punches, the skeleton vanished.
They were about to help Sandbar and Yona, but the two had switched opponents and defeated them pretty easily. “Glad they’re gone,” Sandbar panted.
“How many more monster?” Yona asked.
“Don’t know,” Gallus responded. “I have a feeling if there’s someone in charge of this cave, they were expecting us.” More torches lit up to show another hallway, which the team walked down.
“Okay, is it just me, or does this cave feel empty compared to the other one?” Smolder asked.
“Yeah,” Sandbar agreed. “This one just seems to be a long hallway.”
“At least it gives us a moment to catch our breath,” Silverstream said.
“True.” When they thought they could calm down, they heard growling sound.
“Alright, something’s happening now,” Gallus said. They picked up the pace until they could see an Ursa Major. Even though it looked menacing, it also looked off. When a roar was heard, the giant bear’s jaw didn’t open. When it started running towards them, there’s wasn’t any sound to its footsteps.
“Don’t these things make the earth shake when they walk?” Silverstream questioned.
“Normally,” Ocellus said. “Let’s try and take it down.” The mage blasted fire from her staff, which barely made the Ursa flinch. Gallus began firing more arrows to help with his changeling friend while the others fought up and close. Smolder and Silverstream flew around punching and slashing at the big beast, while Sandbar and Yona went for its feat.
Suddenly, the beast spun around with moving its legs, like it was on a turntable. It roared again, without moving its mouth and swung its claws at the team. The creatures thankfully missed, and Gallus tried thinking of something to do.
“Ocellus, try your magic thing on Yona’s hammer,” the griffon said to the changeling.
“Are you sure?” she asked. “I’m running a little low on magic.”
“I bought some potions for that. Come on, we’ve come too far to lose.” They flew out of the way as the bear claw nearly hit them.
“Is it just me or is something wrong with that bear?” Silverstream asked.
“I think it’s broken,” Smolder commented. She just pointed to the Ursa Major roaring with his muzzle staying still. “See?”
“Friends see Cozy Glow?” Yona asked.
“Where?!” Sandbar questioned in fear.
“On Ursa belly.” The yak pointed to show a constellation of the infamous filly.
“That does kind of look like her.” They regained focus when the major turned its attention to them.
“Get your heads in the game,” Smolder said.
“These things are kind of hard to miss.”
“Like that centaur constellation?” Silverstream asked. She pointed to the magic stealer on the major’s left shoulder.
“And Chrysalis’s is on the other side,” Ocellus added.
“I feel like we’re focusing on the wrong things here,” Gallus said, launching another arrow.
“Think about it. These three worked together and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they all have a constellation on this Ursa Major.”
“But why?” Silverstream questioned. The major roared again before trying to ram into Gallus. Thankfully, the archer dodged in time.
“A little help here?” he asked. The griffon was getting annoyed at this point. “I’m down to like six arrows.” His friends rushed to help him, but then Yona noticed something a little odd.
A part of the wall looked like it was starting to peel, like an old sticker. Curious, the yak pulled at it to reveal a door. She opened the door and could see a small living room that looked to be turned upside down and six Discord bickering over a set of blueprints. Five of them had yellow hard hats, while one had red.
“Okay, look,” the orange hatted one said. “We’re already in too deep now, we just have to design the final monster.”
“What’s more impressive than an Ursa Major?” one of the clones asked.
“We have to think of something. I mean, half the traps didn’t...”
“Um, boss,” said another worker. They all looked towards Yona, who looked pretty confused. The Discords panicked and tried to hide under the desk, sofa, or anything to block the yak’s view.
“...Pay no attention to the draconequuses behind the furniture.”
“Yona, there you are,” Sandbar cried running into the room. “How did you find... This... Door?” Sandbar paused when he saw Discord. The other soon followed in with mixed reactions.
“I should’ve known,” Ocellus sighed.
“What the heck is wrong with you?” Gallus questioned.
The draconequuses in the orange hardhat sighed. “Take five boys. The show’s over.” The clones walked into another to disappear the original sadly snapped his fingers. The sextets costumes and weapons vanished with a flash as well as the door leading to the cave.
“Is this seriously all you do?” Smolder questioned.
“I knew this was a bad idea,” Discord sighed.
“What do you mean?” Sandbar asked.
“Well, you remember how I turned the school into a haunted house.”
“Wish we didn’t,” Smolder responded.
“And how I pretty much just gave a second try for three villains.”
“You kind of did this to yourself,” Gallus stated. The other four friends glared at him and Smolder. “You were sinking in quicksand...”
“Let him finish,” Yona interrupted.
“Thank you,” Discord said. “Now, I wanted to try and make things up to you. Once I heard you enjoyed playing Ogres and Oubliettes I thought I’d help you take it to the next level.” He breathed a bit before sighing again. “I got in over my head. I just ended repeating history by just going, ‘Hey, let me just drop these six kids in a world they have little to no experience in. They’ll have such a fun time’.” He brought his paw to his face. “Why is doing the right thing so hard?”
A bit of silence soon followed. Sandbar was the one who broke it. “We understand what your doing,” the colt said, “And you’re probably the only one in Equestria who could pull this off.”
"Still, it doesn't make up for one of the biggest mistakes in history. If I did it before I was reformed that would be one thing, I did after I messed with the school." The draconequuses groaned as he banned his head on the wall.
Yona walked over to him and placed her hoof on his shoulder. "Discord shouldn't feel bad," the yak said. "All creatures make mistakes."
"Even if they almost destroy the world," Smolder muttered. Sandbar punched her in belly in order to get her to shut up.
"Discord, we appreciate you doing this," Ocellus said. "Though, I think you probably should warn us before you did this."
"I know," Discord sighed.
"I think you did was pretty fun," Silverstream commented. "I actually got to steal stuff. Normally I just activate all the traps."
"Oh, and I was planning on such great ones. There was one where I turned you different creature for five minutes."
"What kind of creatures?"
"Breezies, parasprite, usually something small. There was also going to cockatrices wandering around."
"Pff," Gallus scoffed. "We've seen Silver take care of those things before."
"I'm actually ashamed of you Gallus. I really thought you'd want to try out those special arrows."
"Hey, I wanted try those out, but some creature said they were too expensive."
"Well, that might've been on me. I was trying other things to spice up the gameplay. Like those copycat skeleton."
"Yeah, those were cool," Sandbar commented.
"Yona wished friends had proper monster fight," Yona sighed.
The draconequuses regained a smile. Give us a minute." He whistled for his clones, who walked back into the room. With a snap of his fingers, Discord gave the six back their clothing and weapons. The door to the cave reappeared and they walked through, finding that the Ursa Major was gone.
"What do we now?" Silverstream asked.
"Look, he left us some chests," Smolder stated. The six looked inside and a couple of things for them. Five explosive arrows, an invisibility potion, a golden ax, a spiked gauntlet, a sword that had a fiery blade, a white spellbook.
"Yona love new ax," the yak proclaimed.
"What's in this book?" Ocellus question. After opening and reading what was inside, the book then vanished.
"What was in it?" Sandbar asked.
"I read some healing spells. So, I guess we don't need to rely on potions all the time."
"This one can turn me invisible," Silverstream cheered. She was about to drink it, but Gallus stopped her.
"Don't waste it," he said. "It could help if you use it with your smoke bombs." He began explaining his plan as Smolder and the other eyed their new weapons.
After a few minutes, there was a boom from the wall. “Excuse me,” said a high pitched voice. The six looked down and saw a miniature Discord. “I’d advise you to stay away from the wall.” They listened to him, just as the wall crumbled with a loud “BOOM”.
Out from the dust, they could see a three-headed hydra bursting through the door. Each head had a different color eye, yellow, green, and red. The hydra had a color scheme of black, red, and blue. On the back of the beast, Discord was standing there with a forcefield around him. “Show me what you’ve got,” he requested.
“Bring it,” Smolder smirked. The hydra shot out some fire, which Ocellus countered with ice. Gallus flew around and fired some more arrows. However, he saw he only had six regular arrows left. He decided to save his explosive arrows for later. Sandbar was testing out his new swords, which was fire powered, as seen by the scorch marks on the hydra. Everyone did their things and were showing to be wining.
“Ha! This isn’t even the final form.” With another snap, the hydra doubled in size, making the cave walls break away. Two more heads grew out of the sides of the hydra’s neck, roaring with the original three. Red wings burst out of its back as a load of spike decorated the tail.
Silverstream charged at the giant beast, but just one swing of its tail caused her to fly to the ground with a mighty smash. “Ow.”
“Note to self,” Discord murmured, “Remember to lower or turn off pain.”
“Hold on Silver,” Ocellus said. She managed to use a healing spell, and the hippogriff was up, she and the others quickly huddled up. “That thing’s too strong.”
“Maybe if we attack it all at once,” Gallus said. “Ocellus, do you think you have enough magic to give one of us a boost?”
“I think so. Watch out!” The six dodged a fireball coming from the hydra. “Okay, Smolder, I’ll use lightning on your gauntlets. Yona, I’ll ice on your ax.”
“I’ve already got fire,” Sandbar said.
“Me too,” Silverstream added.
“I’ll just use one of my arrow bombs,” Gallus said. “Sound good?”
“Yep!” the team agreed.
Ocellus used the respective spells on the gauntlet and ax and flew back to fire up another spell. Yona, Smolder, Silverstream, and Sandbar ran towards the hydra all at different angles, and Gallus launched three explosive arrows. Discord could see what about to happen and teleported out of the way. As the attacks landed, the hydra exploded in a bright flash with a final roar.
When the light faded, in the place of the hydra was a golden card lying on the ground. Ocellus walked over to pick it up. It read, ”Live Ogres and Oubliettes play session.”
“What’s this?” the changeling asked.
Discord reappeared next to her. “It’s a card if you ever want to play this again,” he answered. “Though... I doubt you want to.”
Sandbar took a look at the card his friend was holding. “I think this might need a bit of work,” he said, “But I’d like to play again.” The draconequuses perked up after hearing this.
“Seriously?”
“You are trying to make up for what you did,” Ocellus said. The changeling and colt looked back at their friends for their opinions.
“Yona liked to try again,” Yona said. “No pain though.”
“Ditto,” Silverstream said.
Smolder and Gallus looked at each other. “You sure about this?” the dragoness asked.
“Admit it,” the griffon said, “You enjoyed the combat.”
“True.”
“Okay,” Discord said. “I’ll make a few tweaks and we’ll try this again next week. Maybe you could bring a couple of those other students.”
“...Maybe you should introduce them slowly,” Ocellus stated.
“Right, true.”
“Still, can’t wait to do this again,” Sandbar said. After hearing their reception. He took the card and peeled it to make five more. After that, he handed each card to each creature.
“I told you they would like this,” said a familiar voice. Looking behind them, the students saw the same breezie from the start of their journey.
“What are you doing here?” Sandbar asked.
“Discord asked me for a bit of help.” She floated behind the draconequuses and the centaur merchant walked out from behind.
“He thought you would be willing to listen to him,” the centaur said. “Besides, it may give all of this away.” Walking back behind Discord, the yak that sold them the potion appeared.
“Still, having regular me would give it away too.” Walking behind him one more time, a familiar pink and yellow pegasus walked out.
“Professor Fluttershy?” the students questioned.
“I knew you’d be right,” Discord said hugging the kind mare. After snapping his finger, Discord teleported them back to the School of Friendship. “See you around.” After another snap, he and Fluttershy teleported away.
“Kind of wish he would give us a warning,” Gallus said.
“Discord take baby steps,” Yona said.
Looking up in the sky, Sandbar saw the sun was setting. “Looks like that took place in real-time,” he commented.
“Interesting,” Smolder said. “I’m going to my dorm and rest.”
“Me too,” Ocellus said. They walked inside to take a well-earned break from their misadventure.
“What do you think the others would be?” Sandbar asked.
“I think Emma would be a witch,” Silverstream said. “Peri would make a good healer.” They closed the doors behind them, as a draconequuses’s chuckle could be heard.