An Adventure into E-Questria

Chapters

Chapter 2: The Beginning- Forests Of E-Questria
Chapter 3: The Beginning- ‘Playing By My Rules.’
Chapter 4: The Beginning- The Return of The Tracker
Chapter 5: The Beginning- An Unusual Encounter
Chapter 6: The Unravelling- Rarity Knows Best
Chapter 7: The Unravelling- Meet The (Super Awesome) Commander Rainbow
Chapter 8: The Unravelling- An Aspiration of The Past
Chapter 9: The Unravelling- Lore 101
Chapter 10: The Journey- Shattershy the Intrepid
Chapter 11: The Journey- Hoofing It to Hammerhoof
Chapter 1: An Introduction- Into Role-Playing

Chapter 2: The Beginning- Forests Of E-Questria

Applejack trotted happily through the greenery of the forest, her eyes scanning the surroundings, awe-struck by the sheer natural beauty before her. This pony was a lone wanderer, a legendary hunter; she could single-handedly track, scout, stun, kill and then even cook the largest, most dangerous mythical and dangerous creatures, critters and monsters in all the lands. Days before the present, Applejack had caught sight of the most unfamiliar tracks in the wood. The earth pony had traced these hoofmarks for three days, seven hours and thirteen minutes (she tracked the time as closely as she tracked her prey,) she was most intrigued by said hoof prints, which were arranged in the strangest of ways; every few strides there were four solitary round marks, together in an almost rhythmical pattern. Applejack continued to trek deeper into the forest, but then, suddenly, she came to a halt. Looking up, ahead, she saw nothing, but heard the thud of hooves ahead- this is what she had been waiting for. She crept through the brush up to the creature, and with shock and awe, with one swift motion, she leapt through the air, colliding with the... pink pony.
“Ahh!” Pinkie Pie screamed as she was pounced on by an unfamiliar orange coated pony-
“Unfamilar? But I know Applejack!”
“Who’s telling the story here? In the game you don’t know her, if you did, that would make the whole game too straight forward and you wouldn’t role play as you would just be yourself, got it?” Twilight checked.
“I agree with Twilight, it would be way too boring of we all knew each other,” Dash stated.
Oh please!” Rarity whined, “Can we please just get on with it? I haven’t had a chance to be introduced yet.”
“Oh yes please, I haven’t been introduced either, I’d like that... if it’s okay with you girls that is.”
Twilight resumed the story, “Anyway...”
“Ahh!” Pinkie Pie screamed as she was pounced on by an unfamiliar orange coated pony.
Upon realising that she had in fact been tracking a pony, Applejack was quick to apologise, helping the flustered pink pony to her feet.
“Hey! What gives?” Pinkie asked the stranger, rather annoyed that this pony had randomly assaulted her all of a sudden.
“Err, I’m mighty sorry about that sugar-cube, I-I didn’t know you were just an ordinary pony... heh...”
“You should play more attention to where you are prancing!” Pinkie stated as she imitated what she meant by prancing erratically around Applejack, her eyes fixated on the ground beneath her, taking the literal meaning of her request.
At that moment, an angry roar came from nearby, and out of the shrubbery leapt a ruff looking colt, his mane was a mess and he wore battered old leather armour. He marched malevolently up to the duo, his hooves raised with a pair of rusty brass horseshoes. “Give me all your gold- and your expensive stuff, and I will think about refraining from ripping your guts out. Simple.”
“What?” Pinkie Pie screeched, “You can’t possibly ‘rip our guts out’ with those horseshoes, you’d need something sharper, like a knife, or a pike, or a fork, or a saw, or a...”
“Erm, Pinkie Pie,” Applejack interrupted, “Don’t give that there bandit any ideas!”
“...sorry,” Pinkie apologised.
“So, this- I believe, is your first ‘encounter’ in the game” Twilight pointed out, her face deep in the book, “and what are you going to do?”
“Hmm...” Pinkie thought hard for a moment, “Well, I think I am going to... hide behind Applejack! Surely she would be much better at fighting off this bandit, right?” She explained.
“Applejack?” Twilight prompted.
“Oh, umm, I-err, I run away... into the forest... can’t I use some sort of hide skill? Y’know, in the forest?”
A dice was rolled from Twilight’s hoof- a five, ”well, you successfully hide in a nearby bush and the colt doesn’t seem to know you’re there...”
“What about me?” Pinkie interrupted.
“Well, seeing as your hiding behind... nothing, err...”
“I am sick of waiting to be introduced, so I am going to do it myself!” Rarity demanded, snatching the book away from Twilight.
After receiving no reply from the remaining pony in his sights, the gruff bandit pulls out his blade; he swings his axe violently towards the defenceless pink pony, striding forwards to attack his foe, but before the bludgeoning weapon met her quivering flesh, Pinkie Pie was saved by yet another stranger appearing before her, this time, the pony was a regal Unicorn, the most magnificent and beautiful pony in all of Equestria, her intricately detailed armour had been emblazoned with a large array of precious gemstones of all different shapes, sizes and colours, each one glowing its own unique haze of light.
The mysterious and magnificent mare clobbered the attacker majestically with her silvery mace, disposing of the bandit whist remaining in a solid pose, “Stay back you ruffian! You shall not attack helpless ponies in this wood!” Rarity’s words seemed almost... magical, rendering the colt into a shivering mess on the floor, Rarity standing triumphantly over him as he begged for mercy, his arms wrapped around the victor’s hooves in a last attempt to seek out forgiveness for his sins, the metal-clad-majesty merely pulling the afflicted hooves away from such a dirty creature- he did just get dirt all over her new boots.

Chapter 3: The Beginning- ‘Playing By My Rules.’

“Go, and never wrong again! Or the light will frown upon you, you- you brute!” Rarity bellowed in a vigorous manner as she allowed the ruffian to scamper away with his life-
“I-I don’t think that’s how the combat system works Rari...”
“Oh please Twilight; those silly ‘combat’ roles make the whole game a lost slower, and besides, no battles are won by rolling a dice- I’d prefer if we did it my way.”
“Rarity! That’s not the rules! You can’t do that! That’s- that’s... cheating!” Dash exclaimed in shock.
“Come on now RD, like you never cheat now- do you?” Applejack commented, perhaps an element of sarcasm growing in her tone.
“No!” Dash disagreed, “I just WIN.” The prismatic Pegasus argued confidently, defending her honour.
“Can- err, can we just, you know, carry on with the story- err, game? Please?” Fluttershy asked politely amidst the chaos of the argument.
“Well I’m just saying that, you can’t do that because the rules state otherwise,” Rainbow Dash explained, it was clear that nopony had heard or cared to listen to Fluttershy.
“We are not playing by those rules,” Rarity stated bluntly, “we’re playing by my rules.”
Twilight sighed, a sigh as if to suggest that there was more than probably going to be a long and tedious night ahead, “fine,” she gave in, “what are your rules then?” (Twilight didn’t seem the slightest bit enthusiastic.)
“Hmm- well- for starters you can quit all that rolling for every ‘turn’ in combat,” she demanded, “I say that the battle should be about how well you describe each move, how well you play it out, and how well it fits into context- that way it will be down to skill, not luck on a dice.”
“Ha! Skill? I’m obviously going to be absolutely awesome at this! Just you all wait!” The blue Pegasus claimed with confidence, proudly rising up on her rear hooves in her ‘awesome’ pose.
“Hmm, we’ll see about that.” Rarity thought hard about more rules she would emplace before continuing, “ah, yes, and nopony can be good at everything, I suggest that we all have at least one weakness- to make the game fair and balanced.”
“...and we can decide on that later on,” Twilight strongly suggested, thinking back to how long it took them to create each of their characters, (a long time, a very extremely long time.)
So the bandit was defeated by the awe-striking, the magnificent, benevolent, beautiful, amazing, bedazzling... (You get the idea,) Rarity! Saving the poor, defenceless pink pony from a brutal bludgeoning that would have most likely lead to the cause of her near-instant-death.
“That doesn’t sound good at all” Pinkie commented.
“Please, can we just let me get on with the story now?” Rarity asked.
“Hey! Thanks! Hi! Hello! I’m Pinkie Pie! Mind if I like, travel with you? I don’t want to become some sort of background character in all of this, so please-please-please say yes!” The pink pony rushed, an enormous persuasive grim smeared across her face as she pranced around her saviour.
The voice of Twilight Sparkle seemed to come from nowhere, the forest radiated with her voice, “Pinkie! What did I tell you about breaking the fourth wall? This is role-play; you’re not supposed to do that!”
“Do I have to let her come?” Rarity whined to the sky above, almost begging for sympathy.
“I’d guess so, it would make the story much more... interesting to say the least, and we don’t want to leave anypony out now- do we?” Twilight insisted.
“Fine.” Rarity pouted, stomping a steel hoof on the ground, turning to the rather annoying party pony, “You can come, but promise to me that you will be quiet!” she demanded.
“Okay! I’ll be as quiet as a bunny!” Pinkie laughed, “Hey! Are bunnies quiet?” she added, “I’ve never really heard a bunny before, they don’t talk, do they?” she added again, “or maybe they talk in sonar?” she added... again, “sonar bunnies? That would be interes...”
“Oh, for the love of god, please Pinkie, stop that horrid rambling!”
“Sorry Rarity, I just couldn’t help myself!”
Rarity began to plot a sensible course through the forest, triangulating a rough direction of travel with the aid of her map. The two ponies had begun their adventure, although where they were going it was not quite clear.
“We should get going,” Rarity pointed out, “it will be getting dark before long...”
“Hey Rarity...” Pinkie asked.
Rarity sighed deeply, “what?”
“Shouldn’t we make a camp? Camping is so much fun! Besides, what are we going to do when it gets dark? Sleep in trees?” Pinkie suggested, “that would be silly, trees are so easy to fall out of, especially when your seeping in them!”
“Pinkie! What did I tell you about talking so much?” Rarity yelled, “wait... maybe that isn’t such a bad idea,” she rubbed her chin with her hoof, “perhaps you’re not so bad after all.”

Chapter 4: The Beginning- The Return of The Tracker

“Right, so I need a few things to make the camp!” Pinkie Pie explained to a less than enthusiastic Rarity, who was sat awkwardly on a log, tapping her hoof; Pinkie Pie had insisted that Rarity helped in order to have the camp up by nightfall.
“Fine...” Rarity sighed in reply, thinking that there better not be anything that requires that she gets dirty or sweaty, or she is definitely not helping out.
Silence.
“...I guess that means you want me to get them,” Rarity mumbled un-cooperatively under her breath, sighing, she asked, “what do you need?”
“Well, where do I start? I need candy canes and chocolate cake, ice cream, lolly pops and candy! Oh and...”
“Wait, let me just stop you there. Candy canes? ...And chocolate cake? ...With ice cream?”
“Well, that’s what I’d like!” Pinkie Exclaimed.
“Ugh,” Rarity huffed in frustration, “I said what do you NEED, not what do you want.”
“Oops, well, err, I’m sure a few smallish logs for a fire and a tent or two would be good, but that’s taken care of, I’ve got loads of tents in my backpack! Which colour would you like? I’ve got purple, and green, and orange, and blue... oh, you can’t have the blue one, I want that one, but I’ve got orange and yellow and white, I’ve even got brown! ...Although I’m not quite sure why you’d want a brown tent, but, I guess it would be terrific camouflage if you’re going to sleep in a... really-really brown place!”
“I’ll just take the purple one,” Rarity said bluntly, anything to stop that incessant rambling rampage, “I’ll work on getting some small logs then, you make the tents.”
“Oki-doki!” Pinkie replied, delving deep into her pack to find the correct colour tents, (she was good with colours, Mrs Cherilee said so!)
“Hold on a second,” Twilight said, breaking the immersion, “since when was Cherilee in the game?”
“Since like half an hour ago- duh!” Pinkie pointed out the seemingly obvious.
“You can’t just go around adding everypony to the story,” Twilight explained, “you would have to get their permission first, somepony might not want to be in our...”
“I have got permission Twilight, you dummy! She’s right here!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, pointing at Cherilee, who, since a time unbeknown to Twilight, had been in the room and had been immersed in the game herself.
“When did... What’s going on?” a rather confused purple unicorn asked.
“Oh, about half an hour ago, I saw...” Cherilee tried to answer, however, Pinkie Pie had out voiced her.
“When we went to get a drink, I decided to go outside for some fresh air, and then I saw Miss Cherilee here and decided to invite her in to play our game with us!”
“...Yes, I am quite a fan of this series of role-playing games, I even let the children play some of the junior stories, they just love it! It sets their little imaginations free!” Cherilee stated with a smile.
“Okay, I’m sorry; I didn’t see you come in...” Twilight admitted.
“Oh, I do apologise, I can leave if you want,” Cherilee offered.
“No- no, not at all! Please stay! It would be wonderful to have another player!” Twilight praised.
“Greetings over, lets carry on!” Rarity demanded insistently, forcing the story book into Twilight’s face.
Rarity soon discovered that the forest was a very awkward place to acquire some ample sized logs for the fire, especially when it was pitch black- you couldn’t even see your own hooves right there in front of your eyes. Rarity also discovered that the forest was definitely not as clean as the kingdom of Canterlot; her greaves were already tinted in dirt and muck. Through this, against all odds of hygiene, she persevered, searching blindly for the wood she was required to find, after all, no wood lead to no fire, and no fire yielded no food.
Applejack turned to Miss Cherilee, whispering in her ear (rather loudly I might comment,)¬ “you might not get a chance to play for a while,” she said rather sympathetically, “Rarity and Twilight have sort of taken over the story at the moment.”
“Its fine,” Cherilee replied, “I’m used to it, what with the children and whatnot.”
Rarity heard this comment; however, she chose not to argue with this pony as she remembered how kind she was to her in her childhood; Cherilee was a truly wonderful teacher.
Rarity returned to the camp later than she had hoped; she had spent hour after hour fumbling in the shadowy woods for some logs, only to finally capitulate to the dirt, taking a ‘needs must’ attitude at long last, getting her hooves ridiculously dirty to retrieve a bundle of logs from the fetid forest floor. Due to this prolonged absence, what was once a small clearing had been transformed (rather crudely in Rarity’s eyes) into a cosy encampment, two vibrantly coloured tents set up side by side, one blue, one purple, with a blazing camp fire a stones-throw away from them, the golden light raising out from the flames, flickering around the surrounding tree trunks, dancing with the shadows they cast behind them.
Sat by the roaring campfire was a familiar pink pony, at the knowledge of Rarity’s return; she was quick to greet her, “Hey! You’re back!” she exclaimed, elated to see her new friend return, “I would say you were quick, but you really weren’t- what kept you?”
“Wait... why did you want these logs again?” Rarity asked.
“They are to make a campfire of course!”
“Then why do we already have a campfire?” Rarity said in a marginally annoyed tone.
“Well, to tell you the truth, you were taking soooo long, I decided to use some of the logs which were around camp, I thought that the closer the logs were to the camp- the better, after all, the less travel you have to do, the less dirt you have to walk through, but I guess you had other ideas.”
“There were logs here already?” Rarity growled, her patience wearing dangerously thin with this new pony.
“Well duh! Or I wouldn’t have any here for the fire!” Pinkie pointed out.
Rarity sighed deeply, and then decided to just go straight to sleep before she did something to this pony she may later come to regret, (although she hadn’t the slightest clue why she would possibly come to regret anything like that- it is Pinkie Pie after all!)
“Hey, don’t you want any food?” Pinkie asked Rarity as she disappeared into her tent, “I’ve got beans! Magical beans! They even taste like chicken!” the slightly deluded earth-pony imitated such an animal with a hearty cluck, strutting around camp.
The two ponies were awoken the next morning by a blundering character rattling around the camp, muttering to herself as she did so, “where- where did ah put that? Oh darn it! Oops, err- anypony there?”
Pinkie shot out of her tent like a rabid Manticore, “Hey! I know you! You’re that pony that didn’t save my life yesterday!”
“Uh... sorry ‘bout that sugar-cube...”
“Nice to meet you, I’m Pinkie Pie!” Applejack found herself being frantically hoof-shaken by this strange pink pony.
Before any more greetings could take place, the regal paladin strode wondrously out of her purple tent, “Hold on, you are that tracker we met yesterday, aren’t you?” she asked.
“Yeah, that’s me- I’m Applejack.”
Pinkie jumped up in-between the ponies, facing Rarity, “And I’m Pinkie Pie!”
“Yes- Pinkie, I know, we met yesterday.”
“So we did!” Pinkie replied.
Rarity scanned the tracker, a look of diluted horror appearing on her white face, “My, you don’t look too good for wear do you? What in Equestria happened to you my dear?”
“Yeah; your hair is all like ‘poof!’ and you eyes are like saggy sacks, what’s up with that?” Pinkie Pie added, acting out all of her descriptions with dramatic body movements.
“Well, ah was just travellin’ through this forest, and ah came across this big camp- it was really... big. There must have been at least a hundred solders there... it’s about five miles that way,” Applejack pointed her hoof in the rough direction of her descriptive area, “so ah decided to search around to see what they were up to- you don’t just get soldiers out here for nothin’ do you? And so ah heard somepony tellin’ some others about their ‘target’ they said. They said she was white, and had a purple mane. They then said that they wanted this pony for some evil plans...”
“They said that? That sounds weird- I’d at least keep the whole evil plans bit a secret... I’m really good with secrets you know!” Pinkie jabbered.
“This is... worrying,” Rarity said, (oddly enough, she said it in a worried tone of voice... obvious, right?)
“That ain’t all,” Applejack continued, “They said something about you workin’ for them Rarity- and the legion ain’t exactly known for bein’ good as gold now are they?”
“Y-you’re sure they wanted me? Couldn’t they just want another pony that is a little bit like me?” Rarity suggested.
“Yup, they had posters and everythin’...”
“Oh my, was my hair alright? I mean, err, why in Equestria would anypony so evil want me?”
“Ah don’t know sugar-cube, you tell me.”
“Oh please! Stop with those ‘pet names,’ they make us sound like children.”
“O-o, I can be like a child! Wait... what’s wrong with that?” Pinkie asked with a giggle, although a slight frown also appeared on her brow soon after.
“Ah barely got away myself, one of the guards on duty around the camp caught me goin’ through their papers,” (Applejack didn’t know why she was going through their papers- she can hardly read,) “ah had to run back into the forest- took me a good ten minutes to lose ‘em.”
“Hey! You didn’t answer my question!” Pinkie screamed expressively.
A thunder of metal arms and armour slowly encroached on the camp while Rarity was lecturing Pinkie on how to be like a grown-up and the qualities of being sensible. The sound slowly became near and louder.
“Err- that’ll probably be them! I think ya’ll better hide your hide before the skin your hide!” Applejack suggested, forcing Rarity (who really didn’t like being in contact with such a dirty pony) into her tent.

Chapter 5: The Beginning- An Unusual Encounter

Chapter 5: The Beginning- An Unusual Encounter
Standing to her feet after propelling the self proclaimed precious paladin into her tent, Applejack turned to discover a light-blue skinned Pegasus bearing elaborate golden armour, hovering inches in front of her, staring menacingly into her eyes- muzzle to muzzle. Behind said pony were at least a hundred soldiers, one of which- a large rugged stallion, had progressed from the crowd to pin Pinkie Pie against her tent with his weapon, the shining blade unsheathed close to her throat.
“...and, err- what is all this about?” Applejack asked, oblivious to the fact that she could quite easily have her skin handed to her on a silver platter right now.
“Heh!” the Pegasus gloated, “This is my, err- my...”
Rainbow Dash leant over to Twilight, pulling the book away from her face, “what do they call them?” she whispered frantically, nudging an elbow into the book-worm’s side.
“A... company?” Twilight asked.
“Right! So- wait...”
“Heh! This is my ‘company’ of elite troops, each and every one tested through many high-skill demanding events and challenges, only the best of the best make it through into my unit!” The armoured mare claimed.
“...right,” Applejack said, not quite sure where this was going, although the voice... the voice was familiar- somehow, “so, what in Equestria has that got to do with- with anything?” she asked.
“Well, here’s where my narrating skills really do come in handy!” Twilight said in an over-joyous tone, thinking hard for a second before raising a hoof to signal some sort of conclusive idea springing to mind, “so- Rainbow Dash...”
“Rainbow Dash?” the rainbow Pegasus quoted in a displeased tone of voice, “surely that’s a bit boring, it should be something cool like... ‘Super Awesome Commander Rainbow!” Rainbow Dash suggested.
“Fine; Super Commander ...err,” Twilight Sparkle was tangled amidst her own words; “we’ll cut it to Rainbow.” She decided. “Rainbow had been sent into the forest to find and capture a rogue Priestess of the Argent Hammer...”
“A ‘Rogue Priestess?’” Rarity interrupted in horror, “I’d much prefer to be a maverick paladin of holy judgement! Doesn’t that sound so much more... glamorous?”
“Ugh, can we please just let me finish?” a rather frustrated Twilight begged. She continued on with the story once more-
Rainbow had been sent into the forest to find and capture a maverick paladin of holy judgement for her evil ruler!
“Right, err- yeah, what that weird voice in the sky said! So I’m here to... do... that- err...” Rainbow dug deep for a viable statement, “I’m here for that paladin you’ve got hanging around here!”
Rarity, upon realising that she was indeed the pony that the legion was after, tuned in closely to the external conversation.
“And I’ve come to... take her away?” Dash added unconfidently.
Like before, Twilight’s voice punctured through the atmosphere, appearing very loud, similar to lightning, it was like divine intervention, only- for narration purposes, “...to take her away for evil plans!” she insisted.
“Okay...” Super Awesome Commander Rainbow agreed with this mysterious voice that emitted from the clouds.
A silence fell over the forest, the occasional shuffle from a weary hoplite cut the awkward situation behind the hooves of the commander, but otherwise, the distant wildlife was the only sound- the tension in the atmosphere was so thick, it was almost solid.
“Hey, hold on a minute! Am I supposed to be a bad guy in all of this?” The blue Pegasus shouted, looking angrily up to the sky.
Rainbow Dash looked rather shocked at Twilight, as if she had been betrayed.
“...well, seeing as you’re ‘working’ for the antagonist in all of this- that was the idea.”
Dash looked even more shocked than before, “no can do, I am not being evil!” she enforced, “why don’t you take a seat while I tell this part of the story?”
Twilight rolled her eyes, but submitted to her request, handing the book over, allowing her friend to continue on, for better or for worse.
Breaking the un-easy atmosphere, Super Awesome Commander Rainbow (Dash- we get the idea...) turned to her front line of soldiers, hovering down the first line she picked out some figures from the crowd.
“Hey! You there, tell me how awesome I am!” Dash demanded, pointing a hoof at one of the iron clad warriors.
The stallion in question didn’t really know what to do, being put on the spot; he said all he could think of to resolve the problem at hand, “You’re... really awesome?” he said, an element of question apparent in his tone of voice, was this what the commander asked of him?
“Ugh- seriously?” Dash was clearly disappointed, “that wasn’t what you were drilled with, was it!”
“S-sorry com-mander?” the pony began to stutter.
Rainbow held her head in her hooves, “just do the chant,” she sighed in frustration.
“What is that pony up to?” Applejack whispered to Pinkie Pie, both captives confused at what exactly was happening- evil was at their doorstep, yet the commander of such evil was playing around with her troops like they were toy soldiers.
“I don’t know, but this chant is sure to be really catchy!” I do love chanting!” Pinkie replied, bearing no thought to avoid gaining attention.
The stallion began to drone a chant, chanting like it had been repeatedly forced down his ear for every single day of his dull, miserable life, “Rainbow, Rainbow, you’re the best, fight for you, we want nothing less, we are your warriors of unimaginable force, we follow the commandment of the iron horse.”
“That’s it?” Pinkie was displeased at such a boring and unenthusiastic chant, “boring! I don’t get it.”
“Please!” Rainbow shouted into the colt’s ear, “you call that a chant! That was more boring than the discovery channel!”
Fluttershy was now the pony to blame for breaking the role-play immersion, “umm, the discovery channel is very interesting to me...” she said, just loud enough for everypony in the room to hear. She soon began to shrink to the floor when she discovered seven pairs of eyes staring her way, “sorry, umm, you can carry on...if you want.”
“So, err, yeah- you call that a chant! That was indeed more boring than the discovery channel!”
A yellow Pegasus in matching armour to the other soldiers closed her eyes for a second, disagreeing with her leader’s hypothesis.
Commander Rainbow’s face suddenly changed from a look of annoyance to a look of malicious intent, a malevolent grin appearing under her golden visor, “do you know why they gave me the element of loyalty?” she asked rhetorically, “because I’m loyal: loyal to my friends. Now, I don’t care what this role playing is about, but these...” Dash counted the hostages with her hoof, “...three ponies are my friends...”
Twilight interrupted, “fourth wall...” she uttered, showing no signs that she cared any more.
“These ponies are my friends, so this whole evil commander thing can stop right now.” Dash said, throwing her headpiece to the ground in anger.
Shortly after such a speech, the Pegasus hammered the steel helm of the nearest hoplite onto his head, so hard her could not see, nor remove the new metal addition to his cranium.
“She’s a traitor! Get her!” a soldier shouted from the crowd, shaking his pike above him in rage.
Here we go...” the self proclaimed ex commander Dash said, before drawing her silvery swords, breaking out into a sub-scale war with the legion she had previously requisitioned.
Spears flew, swords clashed, shields bashed, a flurry of metal tore through the scene, colts and mares alike fell to the tempest of blades- the rebel Pegasus, aided by her new companions: the tracker Applejack, the paladin Rarity and the...Pinkie Pie.
“Wow Cherilee, I had no idea you were so good at being...well, background characters!” Twilight pointed out.
“It comes naturally to a teacher who plays with her pupils; of course, they always want to be a main character right? Usually an adventurer or- or an evil genius. That leaves me to be all of the background characters- its great, I can easily lead the story from minor roles!”
“You sure are much more experienced than me!” Twilight joked, mocking her inexperience of role playing.
“Yeah, you’re nearly as good as me!” Rainbow Dash said (of course, she wasn't joking.)
“Hey! Is that the end of another chapter?” Pinkie asked enthusiastically.
“I give up.” Twilight stated.
“Why give up Twilight?” Pinkie Pie asked, showing some signs of moral concern.
“I give up on the fourth wall thing- there just is no fourth wall any more for you.”
“I broke the fourth wall?” Pinkie questioned. “Oh- when I asked about the end of the chapter, I meant the game...what did you think I meant?”
“Nothing...”
“Ah, that’s good, because I doubt any of the readers will know what were on about if we carry on talking random things!”
“PINKIE!”

Chapter 6: The Unravelling- Rarity Knows Best

“Wait!” Twilight cried, gaining the full attention of the group, “you can’t just say that you won a battle, no matter what Rarity says- you still have to explain in detail every single move.” She exaggerated the last three words in a malicious way; she was going to make them pay for changing the rules, at least with rolling each turn there was little chance of an argument kicking off.
Twilight Sparkle was indeed correct, the five friends began bickering and yelling about who does what where when and how, the room was a flurry of unidentifiable speech in that battle.
“Why don’t we just roll for each turn-”
“Oh Twilight, that’s ridiculous, you can’t expect us to sit here, rolling those dice for an hour at a time,” Rarity whined, she was starting to realise that Twilight was regretting the idea of this game altogether, “surely it would be better to explain everything and be done with it, we’ll be here until morning if we roll on everything!”
“Yeah, and, I’m not say we’re intelligent-less, but some of us here-” Applejack gestures towards Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, “ain’t all good with numbers,” both of the accused glared at Applejack, “-umm, myself included,” she added sheepishly.
“Right... I think it’s time we take a break; we’ve done this long enough. How about some lovely card games or maybe a nice game of-”
“No.” The five ponies interrupted in unison.
Twilight was really not enjoying this right now, “let’s get a drink.” She demanded subtly, but sternly.
The six friends returned after a short departure from the ‘room of conflict’ (so named for the evening) a lovely refreshing drink in their hooves. Nothing much happened while they drank, everypony sat around slurping their juice, no screeching, no screaming no whining no crying no arguments, no prancing, no singing, no enacting, no fighting, no explaining, no long lists, no nothing...
That was, until Rarity exploded suddenly (metaphorically of course!) “I-dea!” she chorused through the silence.
Twilight sighed once more, “what is it?” she asked, trying to be polite, although her false-enthusiasm was of close quality to cardboard.
“Seeing as rolling is absolutely ridiculous,” she glared at the other unicorn, “and explaining isn’t getting us anywhere fast,” she turned her look over to Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, “how about we take it in turns to explain their part, and, instead of rolling, we, as a group-” she partially pre-regretted suggesting such a thing, “...decide whether or not it is a good enough explanation to be a successful move-”
“And fair.” Applejack added.
“Okay,” the purple unicorn was in agreement with this new idea, “so, since Rainbow Dash starts the conflict, how about she starts?”
“We’re quick to get back to the story now aren’t we Twilight?” Rarity commented, “there you were, trying to get us to quit this game-” Rarity had one hoof over Twilight’s shoulder, the other arcing across in front of them, “but, thanks to my generous suggestion-”
“Err, what exactly are you trying to get at here Rarity?” Twilight asked, half annoyed, half confused.
“Well- just- Rarity knows best, alright?” Rarity replied in her voice she uses to greet royalty.
“Right...” Dash said, “So... I smack that soldier on the head!” she explains, imitating the move on Fluttershy, who was most displeased to be hit around the head.
“Ouch, careful Rainbow Dash- that hurt.”
“Err, oops, heh, sorry about that! Anyway, then I-”
Twilight stopped Rainbow Dash from continuing, “that can wait until your next turn.”
“You ‘smack’ him on the head?” Rarity asked, “Maybe you could elaborate a bit more?”
“I hit him on the head so hard; his helmet gets stuck over his eyes!” Dash corrected expressively, covering Fluttershy’s eyes with her hooves.
“Ugh,” Rarity was still not one-hundred-percent happy with the poor explanation, but it would have to do to keep twilight happy, “that’ll do, I guess.”
Super Awesome Commander Rainbow hammered the helm of the nearest soldier, sending him crashing to the floor, the steel cap reverberating loudly on his skull. Several of the fighters had readied their weapons, charging at the traitor...
All this happened in front of the two, rather confused earth ponies: Applejack and Pinkie Pie.
“Applejack! You’re up!” Rarity demanded.
“Applejack: you’re stood against your tent, a very large stallion in front of you holding his pike to your throat,” Twilight explained.
“Is he like Big Macintosh?” Applejack asked, an idea springing in the depths of her mind.
“...yes! Exactly like Big Mac!” Twilight said.
“Eeyup!” Rainbow Dash quoted, gaining a slit-eyed look from Applejack.
“So...” a smile appeared on Applejack’s face, “ah go straight through his legs, up out behind him and jump up, ridin’ him like a rodeo!”
“Okay...”
“Wow, you do that to Big Mac?” Rainbow asked, a faint giggle apparent in her tone of voice.
“Ah sure do, been doing it since we were little fillies,” Applejack smirked, reminiscing her childhood.
Applejack managed to flank her oversized capturer, behind him, she was able to mount up and ride him like a rodeo pony. The soldier hops and bucks wildly, galloping through the legion of warriors, toppling hundreds at a time like dominoes.
“Pinkie!” Rarity continued.
After being forced to unhand her third drink, pinkie finally plays her part, “What am I doing?” she asks.
“Well, you're sat on the floor-”
“No silly! In the game! What am I doing in the game?” Pinkie corrected.
“Hmm...” Twilight tried to remember-
“You were being held captive by an enormous stallion with Applejack, but now they’re both gone,” Rarity recalled flawlessly.
“So nothing’s happening? Well, I’ll just sit there and watch; I’d find Applejack playing pony dominoes with rodeo funny!” Pinkie stated, falling onto her back giggling at the idea of such a sight.
“And now, after long wait, I, Rarity: the regal paladin, finally step in to aid during this ‘brawl’ that you’d call a fight...”
Pinkie Pie sat amidst the battle, watching as heavily armoured ponies flew hopelessly through the air, slid along the ground or otherwise rendered defenceless; she would gasp the occasional ‘ooh’ or ‘ahh’ as if they were fireworks. Applejack used her classic riding and cattle-herding techniques to drive the soldiers into groups, Rainbow Dash blasting through them with speed, toppling the elites. Rarity, although not in the fight, began to provide helpful magical benefits to her new companions (from such a distance where she was certain she would not get dirty) healing, shielding and improving the three (although Pinkie didn’t require much attention.)

Chapter 7: The Unravelling- Meet The (Super Awesome) Commander Rainbow

...And so, with the battle won and their enemy strewn across the floor in pieces, the four recently acquainted ponies took a moment to rest, and more importantly, get to know each other, for the journey ahead would sure demand these truly legendary figures to work together and combine their skills to overcome their destiny-
“Our destiny? What’s our destiny?” Rainbow Dash asked bluntly, worn out from all the prancing around the room, flailing wildly, imitating the epic battle scene depicted by the group.
“We’re not supposed to know that silly,” Applejack replied, lying on her back panting, “If we did, then it would be no fun!”
“Yeah, and what is there to life if there is no fun?” Pinkie added, still full of zest, although immobilized only by the stubborn fact that she was precariously hanging from the ceiling’s light fitting by her hooves.
“Pinkie? How did you- When did- wha-” Twilight asked, confused if not amazed at the fact that her rather strange earth-pony friend was able to suspend herself from the roof without any aid- the unicorn’s jaw dropped in shock and awe.
“Well, duhh! I’m Pinkie Pie, remember?” the pink pony replied, an enormous smile invading her facial structure.
“Umm, girls?” Fluttershy asked gently, the conversation and the chaos silenced in the room, “I was just wondering, when do, umm, you know- when do I get introduced?”
Twilight was in a fairly submissive state of mind by now, indeed, these five ponies drive her crazy at times- (that’s what friends are for, right?) “Well-” she thought about how they could possibly introduce such a pony at this point in time, “...if you can think of a good way to open your character into the current situation-”
“Oh, I- I’m not very good at stories,” Fluttershy replied, accepting her flaws for part of who she is, almost feeling proud that she isn’t perfect, “I can only really do bedtime stories, but that would send you all to sleep,” she said in a soothing tone, as if she was trying to prove her point.
“Oh Fluttershy darling,” Rarity interrupted, utilising her sympathetic whine, “I can introduce you my dear, that is- if you so wish of course,” she smiled in a generous manner.
“Please do,” Fluttershy stated, thankful that she didn’t have to ‘perform’ in front of her friends- she’s shy like that.
The-
Rarity muttered to herself “Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity... four.”
The four ponies, weary from their battle, sat around last night’s campfire, their manes ruffled, and their coats tarnished by numerous flaws from damage- that was, everypony excluding Rarity, who appeared to be entirely spotless, although her horn radiated with a dull glow of heat from use.
“Okay, look- who in the hay are you?” Applejack queried, pointing a hoof at Super Awesome Commander Rainbow, a slight pause for an answer made her jump to her feet, approaching the stranger with intent to intimidate, “Answer me darn it!”
Dash removed her helm, revealing her clear identity, although she didn’t seem as... dominating in the flesh as she did on the propaganda, not now at least.
“It’s you!” the tracker shouted, jumping to her hooves, ready herself for a brawl, “you’re that commander pony on them fancy posters around!”
The spectral pony covered her face in shame, “I- I know,” she replied, “I’m not what you think- I didn’t know-” Dash appeared to shrink, (metaphorically of course!)
“To hell you didn’t know!” Applejack protested, grabbing the Pegasus by the neck, pinning her to the floor, “you- you- you’re just- evil!”
“Oh come on! I just defeated all these soldiers for you- you call that evil?” Rainbow Dash argued, rather annoyed that her betrayal hadn’t won the adventurers over.
“It was you who burnt Appleloosa to the ground, you who besieged Canterlot! Smells like evil to me!” Applejack stated firmly.
Rainbow began to cry-
“Wait- what? Me? Cry? Do you even know me?” Rainbow Dash protested, strutting around the library floor, “I’m Rainbow Dash- I never cry.” She insisted.
“Fine,” Rarity huffed, returning to her narrative accent.
Rainbow closed her eyes for a second, thinking about her past...

Chapter 8: The Unravelling- An Aspiration of The Past

Rainbow remembered her life as a small filly, growing up around soldiers- her parents were in the war effort too, or at least, that was what every pony was calling it. Cloudsdale was one of those arbitrary cities; her people did not tangle themselves in the power of the power feud- of course, Celestia had served them well, just as they had served her as citizens for over one thousand years, however, the new threat that shadowed the joint Alicorn throne was not refused. Cloudsdale had loyalties to live up to, but in the end, the people did, agreed with or otherwise avoided whatever was best for the Pegasus city.
Being surrounded by soldiers had greatly influenced Rainbow in her younger years, she had always dreamed of being a great and powerful warrior- maybe even one who was in charge! Her parents were not too sure though... it was clear to her now that they didn’t want her to get involved- although back then the message was too subtle. The rainbow filly could be found by the side of the parades and the training sessions, copying all the ponies, hoping to get their attention- these attempts failed-
Rainbow Dash gave Twilight a look, slightly of confusion, however having much more of an annoyed look, “are you trying to say something about me here?” she said defensively.
“Sorry?” Twilight replied. She was honestly unaware of what Dash thought she was implying.
“Are you trying to say that my aspirations are completely overshooting reality and that I’m a complete dreamer- that I should get some real targets in life instead of chasing after my dreams?” Rainbow blurted.
Shocked, Twilight cried, “No!”
“I heard you talking to Rarity the other day,” the Pegasus accused, “You were on about how brilliant you were with magic and that you could get a good job with your talents-” she continued.
Dash leant towards Rarity, pulling a prim-and-proper face, allocating a poor copy of the unicorn’s accent, (look, she was doing an ear-rending imitation of Rarity, okay?) “Oh Twilight,” she wailed melodramatically, “that would be amazing!” –this part of the speech she almost screamed as she vaguely attempted to put on an over-exited voice in the form of Rarity, “I love how you have real targets in life, unlike Rainbow Dash-” she pointed to herself, producing an expression of horror on her face, “how does she possibly think that the Wonderbolts- the fastest fliers in all of Equestria- could possibly bow low enough to her skill level, we all know those tricks are copied.”
Everypony was rather confused and horrified at this sudden outburst of emotion- fury, hopelessness, childish whining (don’t tell Rarity I called that whining,) and just random... Pinkie Pie style speech.
“Are you sure you know what you’re on about?” Twilight asked cautiously- Rainbow Dash never acted like this.
“Of course I know what I’m on about!” Dash nearly burst into tears, only stopped by Pinkie Pie, who, still elevated upon the light, began crying in an over-dramatic, but completely serious way.
“What is it now?” Twilight sighed, feeling although she was babysitting, not at a sleep over.
Rarity was sat perfectly still, her eyes on Twilight, an apathetic look of annoyance expressing her face, “Rainbow, we weren’t saying that- I’m sure you just got us... mixed up a bit, that’s all,” the smile she now possessed was ...priceless.
“...and i’m certain that I never said i was brilliant with magic-” Twilight stated.
“Listen RD, maybe you are just over thinking this whole story thingy going on here, maybe she’s just innocently tryin’ to make up story here-“
“No!” the blue Pegasus paused for a second, realising that she had made a mistake, “That’s just- I don’t know, it’s-”
Twilight looked at Applejack, Applejack shrugged in reply, Twilight looked at Fluttershy, Fluttershy shook her head in denial, Twilight looked at Pinkie Pie, Pinkie grinned, then realised that she was requested to think if she had an answer for why Dashie was acting this way, “I’ve got nothing.” She protested simply.
From the staircase, into the tension of the girls, emerged a familiar purple dragon.
Spike was tired, carrying his blanket in one hand and rubbing his head with the other, “Twilight, what’s with the noise?” he asked, still half asleep.
Upon seeing the discarded box of the game ‘E-Questria: Dungeons Are Magic’ his eyes lit up in excitement, “Dungeons and Magic?” He cried in joy, “Can I play?”
As awkward as it was, Twilight found this a brilliant opportunity to relieve everypony from the dense atmosphere, “err, okay! You can be Rainbow Dash’s friend in this flashback we’re having at the moment,” Twilight sounded awfully suggestive in the sense that she was suggesting that they should get back to the story and forget about the problems that had recently arisen.
“Its okay, whatever Twilight and Rarity said, I’m sure they didn’t mean it like that,” Fluttershy assured, rubbing Rainbow on the back gently.
“Of course! We didn’t mean it like that,” Rarity commented, “If anything, I think Twilight is a bit jealous-”
“Jealous? Jealous of what?” Twilight defended.
“Well, Rainbow Dash at least gets attention and recognition from her idols, based on the fact that the princess is always busy and never has time for you, I figured-”
Twilight Sparkle shown a dash of false truth, “I’m not jealous,” she stated firmly.
This obvious lie made Dash fell a bit better, although she still buried her head in her hooves for sympathy. Spike had been stood at the base of the stairs for the duration of the conversation, he looked a little confused as to what was going on between the six ponies who had so rudely awoken him in the middle of the night.
“What’s going on with you guys?” he asked, oblivious to previous happenings.
“It’s nothing,” Dash replied, returning with a smile of forgiveness and glee on her face- she felt much happier knowing that Twilight was in fact jealous at her for her relationship with the Wonderbolts.
“Anyway,” Twilight spoke, breaking back into the story, “I think we’ll just skip the rest of the back story-”
“Aww, come on! I want to know what happens!” Dash demanded.
“To cut a long story short, Rainbow gets the attention of the soldiers, being an excellent combatant she accelerates through the ranks to commander within a month, and her first assignment is to come and catch some paladin-” Rarity explained.
Twilight broke Rarity’s rough story, focusing on some key story points, “Ah, but she didn’t know it was a paladin- she was told that it was a rogue paladin who had done bad things to the city of Cloudsdale and must be captured alive and-”
“Hey! Tell anymore and you’ll run the story for the rest of us- oh, except from me, I already read the book while all you girls where arguing! You wouldn’t want anypony who was watching to have the story ruined too, would you?” Pinkie asked.
“And who would be watching us in the middle of the night Pinkie?” Twilight queried, rather worried.
“My Pinkie senses are telling me that there may be some ponies watching us, from up there! Or over there, or there!” Pinkie pointed her hooves at random areas of the room, one direction she pointed in seemed to be at you- “Hold on a minute!” Pinkie demanded, “I thought this story was third pony?” Pinkie was shouting at the roof.
“Who are you talking to and what in Equestria are you talking about sugar-cube??” Applejack asked, everypony’s eyes were facing up at the pink party pony dangling from the light, waving her hooves around like she was fighting a swarm of bees.
“Oh, you’ll see,” Pinkie said clearly, “just you wait.”
“O-k, there doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of story going on here you guys,” Spike commented, rather annoyed; all Spike wanted was one of two things: peace and quiet or Dungeons are Magic.

-Note-
This chapter has not been revised at all since I wrote it, so there may well be spelling, typing, grammatical and/or story/plot errors. I am currently going over all previous chapters to try and fine-tune them.

Chapter 9: The Unravelling- Lore 101

“Let’s get started!” Spike announced, landing on the ground with a thump, ready to enjoy the session, “what’s going on so far?’
“Well, at the start I was in the forests searching, and then I came across Pinkie here, then we were approached by a bandit!” Applejack paused for dramatic effect-
This dramatic effect was cut short by Rarity, “that is a bit rough around the edges isn’t it Applejack? I’m sure Spike really understood what happened there...” she said sarcastically, before continuing on with her addition to the story, “then Applejack ran away into the forest and escaped, leaving poor old Pinkie to fend for herself- she was just about to be brutally... dismembered when I, Rarity, swooped in and rescued her, deterring the ruffian there and then.”
“That was true!” pinkie exclaimed, bouncing around boisterously, “Then I decided we should make a camp, seeing as it was getting dark and ponies can’t see in the dark like cats, that would be good wouldn’t it?” Pinkie saw the seven pairs of eyes look at her, showing that she was reducing to inane speech once more, however- she was quick to re-adjust to the conversation, “so Rarity went off into the forest to get dirty while I...”
“I went into the forest to find firewood; it is your fault I got dirty as you were not observant enough to notice the perfectly good logs around the camp!”
“Hey!” Pinkie shouted defensively, “I was too busy getting the tent you wanted to notice them! If I wasn’t stuck with my head in the bag (literally- it’s hilarious, am I right?) then I would have said: ‘Hey, Rarity, there’s some good logs just there, no need to go off into the forest!’”
“Ugh” Rarity huffed.
The ponies all sat waiting, although the anthology of arguments seemed to have silenced the room.
“Rainbow?” Twilight asked, “I think it’s your turn,” she pointed out.
“Oh- Right,” Dash clearly hadn’t realised, “So, I came along because I wanted rarity to go do some... err, evil... things, and then I realised that these ponies were my friends and...”
“I told you that you can’t go breaking the fourth wall- you didn’t know these ponies!”
“I- shut up Twilight- that is what happened.”
“Anyway, where was I... ah yes, I realised that they were my friends and came to the conclusi...”
“Conclusion? That is a big word Dash, are you sure you know what it means?” Twilight mocked.
“Are you trying to annoy me?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Can I finish? Good. So that happened and then
I noticed (she elaborated the word noticed in a slightly frustrated way) how evil I had become and
then I...”
“Simply, she turned against a legion of around one hundred soldiers and somehow survived. I call cheating.” Rarity stated.
“Cheating? You and Applejack helped me! How is that cheating?”
“Yeah, she sure has got a point Rarity,” Applejack agreed.
“Fine.” Rarity huffed, (she huffs quite a bit you see.)
Spike seemed almost completely immersed by now, almost into his upcoming character, ready to plunge into the wonderful and mysterious world of E-Questria.
“Almost a little too serious!” Pinkie Pie pointed out, pointing a hoof at the dragon in question; Spike had a broom in one hand and a book in the other, charging around the room like a small child- wait? Pinkie Pie? You’re not supposed to be able to- oh, yes, of course, I forgot- You’re Pinkie Pie.
“I certainly am!”
“Pinkie, who are you talking to?” Twilight asked, Pinkie seemed to be talking to herself.
“Oh, I was just talking to- nopony!” she replied.
“Umm, girls? I still don’t get what is going on,” Fluttershy said quietly.
“Oh- F- Fluttershy! But we just explained it all to Spike and Cherilee! How could you not get it?”
“Oh, no, I do get what’s happened, I just don’t get why it has happened, or what it is all for.” Thr yellow Pegasus pointed out.
Applejack was also one to comment, “I don’t exactly know why the hay any of this here is happenin’ either Twi.”
“Oh... I guess that nopony really knows where this story is going then,” Dash concluded.
“Neither do I to be quite honest,” Twilight added.
“Twilight.” Rarity said bluntly. “You were meant to read the first page first.”
Rarity flicked the pages of the book back to the very first page, a page titled: ‘An Introduction- The Introduction.’
“Oh, I- I didn’t see that part,” Twilight confessed, appearing to be rather embarrassed that she had failed to correctly read a book, “I guess I should read it then!”
E-Questrian lore 101- E-Questria is a fantasy world created by Hasberon Limited and is... (blah blah blah, legal shmegal,) Welcome to a beautifully illustrated multi-player fantasy role playing game! Immerse yourself in the wonders of E-Questria with the main quest: ‘Corruption,’ a feature-length adventure where the players traverse across the planes of E-Questria in order to restore peace and harmony to the throne once more. Twilight speed read the rest of the introduction, deeming it an unnecessary waste of time.
Shadow-sparkle, a corrupted shadow mage has rebelled against the kingdom, defeating the mighty trio of power atop the throne of worlds, attaining the status of high ruler across all of E-Questria. The mage has plunged the lands into chaos and dis-harmony, and the only hope to rejuvenate this taint is a small star-aligned group of truly legendary figures, their destiny to stop the unrelenting force and raise a new leader, a leader who is worthy of the throne.
“Wow.” Dash said. “That really is something!”
“Well, I think that sounds glorious!” Rarity titled, grinning in wonder at the introduction to the game they had been so attentively playing for the evening, “I say let’s carry on with the story! I’m more driven than ever!”
“I thought you said you didn’t really like the idea of this game?” Twilight teased.
“Don’t question me.” Rarity threatened, defending this precious gem of a game she had so recently discovered. And this game was no rock.
-Note-
This chapter has not been revised at all since I wrote it (even less than the last,) so there may well be spelling, typing, grammatical and/or story/plot errors. I am currently going over all previous chapters to try and fine-tune them- this should come relatively soon, I just feel like I’m neglecting the wonderful world of E-Questria if I don’t update with new content every now and again! Hit the like button if you’ve enjoyed the saga so far!

Chapter 10: The Journey- Shattershy the Intrepid

Finally finished this chapter after months of idleness... enjoy! (Still not Pr.Read mind!)
Fluttershy, after being quiet for quite some time (perfectly normal, right?) spoke up and stood up for herself (maybe not so normal...) “I want to be introduced!” she demanded, before ‘correcting’ her previous statement, “...please?” she said this in the most innocent and apologetic way possible.
“Hey Fluttershy, you really are good at getting into character aren’t you?” Dash pointed out.
Fluttershy blushed slightly, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt anypony’s feelings, it’s just that nopony was listening...”
“It’s okay sugar cube, we all get a li’l frustrated sometimes, ‘specially when somepony keeps arguing all the time...” Applejack commented, pointing a sharp look at somepony (who was totally not Rarity.)
“If you say so,” Fluttershy replied happily, “but... can I get introduced now? I am really looking forward to role... erm... role-playing?”
Dash leant over to Rarity, “I don’t think she’ll be any good at roleplaying, it’s really not her thing,” she whispered in a sarcastically enthusiastic way.
“Give her a chance,” Rarity replied in similar tone, “although I severely doubt that such a quiet, shy pony could ever be as successful as me...” she suggested.
“Well, have you got any ideas on how youre going to appear?” Rainbow Dash asked, hoping to get the better of the yellow Pegasus, if they let her play a part, she’ll ruin everything.
“Yes, umm, can I start?”
Smirking behind her hoof, rainbow replied. “Yes, go for it!”
“Okay, umm, well- err...”
Rarity and rainbow dash buried their heads in their hooves, “Ugh...” they both emoted, gaining rather strange looks from the other ponies in the room, (this excludes Fluttershy, who is sat on her hind legs, staring up at the ceiling, a ‘thought-straining in action’ look scrunching up her facial features.)
“...umm- where were we again?”
“Fluttershy! I told you Rarity!”
“What are you on about Rainbow?” Twilight asked, confused as to what was going on.
“Ugh! Nothing...”
“Ah think we were at that camp Pinkie made and that there fight happened, then me and RD were arguing?” Applejack stated, quickly breaking up Rainbow Dash’s tantrum.
“Thats right!” Pinkie Pie confirmed confidently.
“Thankyou girls...” Fluttershy whispered.
Deep within the forests of E-Questria, a past battle scene lay preserved, lifeless corpses lay across the ground in pools of fresh bloo-
“You can’t say that!” Rarity bellowed, shocked at this ‘outburst’ of gore from such a loving and caring pegasus.
“Umm, why not?” Fluttershy asked innocently.
“Because, then we’d have to go onto the website and change the rating to teen!” Pinkie explained expressively.
“...What in equestria are you on about?” Twilight asked, now seriously worried for the pink pony’s mental health, Pinkie Pie merely slapping her face with her hoof in frustration.
“Fluttershy, ouldn’t you just tune it down... a little?” Rarity asked softly, trying not to hurt the pegasus’s feelings.
“Okay, if you think so,” Fluttershy complied.
Deep within the forests of E-Questria, a past battle scene lay preserved, defeated soldiers lay across the ground, above them all stood the four triumphant adventurers-
“Were not adventu...”
“shut up rarity.” Dash said.
...triumphant adventurers, bickering and arguing about the betrayal that had occurred before them.
“I’m on your side!” Rainbow shouted, flapping her hooves wildly in defence at Applejack, who was waving her hatchet frantically at the commander, deterring her from the hill of... ponies, that they had overcome.
Breaking twigs and , branches as she marched, a fifth character emerged, a large pony, clad in shimmering metal from head to hoof,, wielding a terrible broad-sword she swing the ebon-metal blade between the dispute, silencing the four. Simultaneously, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Rarity readied their weapons, taking on a battle stance, ready to combat this mighty foe (Pinkie Pie sat once more, watching as the scene unravelled around her.)
“Do not fight, for I am not your adversary- the way of the voice had lead me here, thus I have crossed a fate-aligned party...”
“A party?” Pinkie cried in excitement, only to be quickly stopped by Rarity, jamming her hoof in the pink pony’s mouth.
“Yes,” the warrior confirmed, bowing her head in agreement, “a group of unimaginable destiny- must it be less fulfilled.”
“But... who are you?” Applejack asked, ready to escape into the depths of the forest growth.
“I am Shattershy.” Shattershy informed them, a noticeable emission of a wispy blue gas pulsed across her blackened armour like frost on ice.
“Hey there uhh... Shattershy!” Pinkie cried happily, accompanied by a tremendous grin of friendship, “I’m Pinkie Pie! I’m sure we could be best of friends and...”
Rarity rolled her eyes, remembering the prolonged greeting she received from Pinkie Pie when they first met but a day ago, although the unintelligible noise from the earth pony had made it seem like millennia, possibly even eons.
Remembering the annoyance she brought to the paladin, Pinkie was swift to halt her meet-and-greet chatter and refrain from an awkwardly long hoof-shakes to return to her previous position by the side of (or more to the point- behind) Applejack, in which she had seemed to installed in herself some sort of idea that- the (fr) agile earth pony who resided her skills in stealth and trickery over brute force could protect her from this towering warrior that stood before them.
“Ehm,” Applejack coughed, breaking Fluttershy’s role-playing moment, “ I’m ’(fr)agile’?” She asked, feeling rather offended that such a fragile pegasus could label the hardy and honest earth pony as being the least part frail.
“Umm, well- yes, you see, when your character possesses no training in medium or heavy armour proficiencies, then that leaves you to wear lightweight armour with not much protection, therefore, that makes you fragile, also- you have the lowest amount of hit-points, I think anypony who had twelve health with an armour rating of two would be considered ‘fragile’.” Fluttershy defended innocently, silencing her adversary-in-argument.
“I’ll carry on a bit more...” she said almost in a whisper-
“Let us not fear one another, as I am here to aid you, become one of you, fight by your side and defend our destiny to the death.” Shattershy spoke, breaking the silence that had momentarily occurred beforehand.
“But, what is our destiny warrior?” Rarity asked, wondrous as to what exactly this destiny comprised of- it better not involve getting her lovely sparkling armour of +infinite sense of self-importance dirty.
“Our destiny...” Shattershy paused, “our destiny is yet to be told.”

Chapter 11: The Journey- Hoofing It to Hammerhoof

“Fluttershy- this role hardly suits you,” Dash pointed out, highlighting the dominative aura that radiated from ‘Shattershy.’
“Well, umm- the idea of role play is to be somepony different to yourself right? So you’ve got to play a character that wouldn’t suit you, that’s what our English teacher told us, remember?”
“Wow- you had teachers for academic subjects?” Rarity asked- shocked (by the literary standards of Rainbow Dash that is.)
“Yes” Rainbow said, throwing a look of disgust at the inquiry, “just because you’re a unicorn doesn’t make you more intelligent, besides, I don’t need to be clever- I’m awesome.”
“...Right,” Twilight said, returning to the story book before things got out of hoof, “so, the book says that the adventurers go to...”
The five adventurers trekked for hours through the woodland scene, marching on, for the most part in silence, or at least- as close to silence you could get with Pinkie Pie. It was only when the complaining of too much trotting encompassed the majority of the group that Pinkie was finally listened to.
“I’m so bored! My hoofs ache, I’m hungry and we haven’t slept in over fourteen hours! Can we please stop now?” Pinkie whined, begging for a break.
“Oh quit complaining Pinkie, I think we’re nearly there, besides- this walking isn’t too bad,” Rarity pointed out, her face buried in a map, “that is if you don’t count the dirt you get on your boots.”
“There- just over that rock face,” Shattershy highlighted, pointing at a large industrial town in the distance, smoke bellowing from every orifice of the place, “’Hamerhoof.”
“We are going down there?” Rarity asked in horror, although she was not quite sure which ghastly fate she was more horrified at- falling over two hundred feet down a jagged cliff to her imminent death or being poisoned (or even worse, dirtied) by the horrendous amount of vile pollutant that the settlement produced.
“Ah knew my skills would come in handy for somethin’!” Applejack stated, already beginning to make her hasty decent down the rocks.
Rarity’s hooves stuck to the ground as the group slowly made their way down the face of the cliff, the Paladin pony stood unrelenting at the apex of the geographical construct, a face displaying fear, not a fear of heights, but a fear of dirt and damage.
“Come on Rarity!” Pinkie giggled as she bounced off the edge onto the first precarious ledge, balancing on a single leg, “it’s not hard it’s just a hop skip and a jump... well, maybe not- if you did that you’d die!” she pointed out obviously, giggling once more as she bounced fearlessly around.
Commander Rainbow was the one to finally make Rarity move (forcibly of course) pushing her to the edge before deciding that such notion wasn’t a great idea, resorting to carrying the ironclad on her back to the ground below, slowly losing altitude by way of weight, “There- at the bottom, are you happy now?” she asked, panting as she recovered her breath.
“No!” Rarity cried, seeing the green viscous waters that adorned the jagged floor in the crevasses, “it’s dirty!”
Next to reach the end of the decent was Pinkie, arriving unconventionally to the ground with a bone-breaking thud, a pink pancake laying face down with her legs spread in all directions.
She jumped up suddenly, apparently unaffected from such a deadly fall, “That was fun! Again! Again!” she cried in delight.
This extreme action left the pretty paladin shell-shocked (so to speak) once again, worried, frightened and if not, confused as to what why and how such an event played out.
“it’s an invincibility role!” Pinkie explained chortling, rolling around on the floor in laughter as the other ponies (and Spike) looked in a confused tone of face at the randomised reactions of such an erratic character.
“Let’s carry on...” rainbow dash suggested, and everypony agreed mutually as they returned to the mythical land of E-Questria.
As the last of the adventurers reached the ground, landing with a thud of metal armour, Shattershy replaced her claymore, (she used it to get down the rock face, not slaughter innocent critters... right?) “here we are- Hammerhoof,” she explained, “the ponies here are common folk, hard working people with honest lives, they’ll sell the shirt off their back for a few coins.”
“Why would I want some mouldy old peasant’s shirt?” Rarity asked, completely displeased with the idea of even visiting such a place, if even for one night.
“other ponies to play and party with!” Pinkie squealed, skipping off to meet her new friends-to-be, afterall, who doesn’t want to be friends with the marvellous Pinkimina Diane Pie? With her party cannon at the ready, she marched off to celebrate what would be a truly remarkable experience for everypony (good or bad.)
“What are we doing her then, warrior?” Rarity asked, stopping to wonder if even the one to guide them here had knowledge of where they were meant to be going exactly.
“We must find a secret artefact, hearsay buried under the town itself in an ancient crypt,” Shattershy informed, although seemed to not be letting on something- something important, a major detail.
“Great, just great,” Rarity whined, “more dirt.”
“we must find the leader, they will know of what we speak.”
“How are we going to go about finding a ‘leader’ in this place?” Rainbow asked hopelessly.
“Well, my guess is that they live in that big house at the end there,” Applejack pointed out, waving a hoof at a large building built in a similar fashion to the rest- stone foundations and a wooden structure.
The house bellowed from many chimneys with shadowy black smoke, the slit like windows radiated heavy beams of light into the dusky atmosphere outside, as the ponies approached, they could hear the scrambled noise of many ponies bantering and chatting inside. Looking at the map, Rarity discovered that the town was built in a giant hoof shape, triangulating that they were at the middle of the settlement, she agreed with the less gifted tracker on her assumptions. Shattershy approached the heavy wooden door, closely followed by the three other adventuring ponies that weren’t occupied with terrorising the town with flurries of streamers and party poppers.

Again, this chapter needs a lot of revising and checking, I shall do this at some point.

Chapter 1: An Introduction- Into Role-Playing

Twilight had been bored for the past few weeks, nothing exiting, interesting, or otherwise downright hilarious had happened in Ponyville. So today, she decided, she would spice things up a bit by hosting the best sleep over ever. Now, knowing her friends well, she did realise that this title could be a little farfetched, but, being the optimistic type, she intended to at least have a good, memorable time with her five best friends she had gained during her time spent in Ponyville. Her initial idea was to have a fantastic night camping out in a big tent, enjoying the wild, cooking delicious marshmallows around a cosy campfire whilst sharing stories of all genres. That was her initial idea, but then came the rain. Twilight however, would not be defeated so easily; she invited her friends around for a sleepover, an inside sleepover (which would be much to Rarity’s delight at least.) Surely the six ponies could find something to do inside the tree-house library; sure, Rainbow Dash wouldn’t exactly enjoy reading the informative books Twilight had lying around, and Applejack would rather do something more practical, Pinkie Pie will be bored out of her mind if they don’t throw a party, and if they did, Rarity would be in tears at the disorder and mess that would be sure to follow, Fluttershy would want to be with her animal friends and Spike wouldn’t be best pleased at the idea of a sleepover in the library anyway. ‘Oh well,’ she thought to herself, ‘at least everypony will get some sort of memory from this, it’ll be fine, they’ll find plenty of interesting and exciting things to do...’
“Oh come on Twilight, there must be somethin’ we can do in this here library to make this time pass by a lil’ quicker,” Applejack asked, she wasn’t exactly happy with the situation after being promised that they would be camping outside in the wild, in the great outdoors.
“Yeah, a library, really fun...” Rainbow Dash commented sarcastically, “If we were all eggheads,” she added, taking a short, shallow stab at Twilight, who seemed rather immune to such insults after discovering that Rainbow loved to read children’s books and stories like Daring Do and such.
“Now now RD, I’m sure that there are more than just old books in here, I don’t think even Twilight would be able to survive on just reading,” Applejack defended, treading lightly (metaphorically of course.)
Twilight’s face reddened slightly with embarrassment; sure, there were lots of fun things she did other than reading, like studying and such. Reading and studying are different, right? She thought hard for a moment, surely there’s got to be something... anything that they could do?
Her trail of intense pondering was broken by Rarity, who turned out to be as much as a jewel with her eyes than her eyes were jewels for finding- well... jewels, “there are some old board games in here,” she suggested from the other side of the room, a satin white hoof held out to an open cabinet filled with dusty, battered boxes of games, due to such dust, Rarity refrained from moving any closer to them, in fact, she was as far away from the games as she could possibly be without letting the door slam shut, her head held away from them in disgust.
“We’re going to play board games? Are you serious?” A certain blue Pegasus questioned.
“That sounds so... boring!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.
After a few minutes of everypony sitting around doing absolutely nothing, the six friends realised that there surely wasn’t anything else to do, each of the ponies slowly agreeing with the sentiment that this was the only possible thing to do to avoid total boredom.
Twilight moved over to the pile, picking the top box, she suggested, “Chess?”
“No.” Dash replied blatantly, she remembered the time when Fluttershy won the last tournament they played together, it was first of five, and Fluttershy won all five.
“There can only be two players, and, umm, there are six of us here...” Fluttershy added, a slight tone of distaste in her voice suggested that she also did not wish to play a board game, however she was just going along with the idea because they were her friends... and there was definitely nothing better to do with their time, (which is very hard to imply with just the tone of your voice, may I add.)
“Well, how about... Scrabble then?” Twilight asked hopefully- she was good at Scrabble.
Rarity shook her head in mutual disagreement with the group, ”ugh, please, Twilight! I doubt Rainbow Dash or Applejack would have the aptitude to...”
“Hey!” Rainbow Dash protested, “I am quite good with words! It would be Pinkie Pie making up random words like ‘pickle-barrel’ and ‘cumquat’,” she added, quoting the words of the finest pink party pony in all of Ponyville (like there’s more than one...)
“You do know they are real words- right?” Twilight pointed out.
“Whatever,” Dash replied.
“So what- ah may not be the literate...ist of ponies, but I sure are intelligent enough to play some simple game of Scrabble,” Applejack stated.
Rarity was quick to hold her head in her hooves. Twilight then began reeling off a list of games as she took them from the cupboard, the six friends passing each game off as some ‘lame’, ‘boring’, ‘god-awful’, ‘pointless’ or otherwise disliked pastime in which nopony at the sleepover would ever be seen dead playing (they didn’t actually say that one, just strongly conveyed through body language and such.) This was, until the remaining few boxes were called, “Monopoly? Dungeons Are Magic? Rummikub? Frustration? Dominoes? Chec...”
“Hold on a second,” Dash demanded, stopping the constant stream of game titles being called out as their respective boxes were discarded across the room, “What was that last one?” She asked.
“Checkers?” Twilight replied, questioning the Pegasus- was checkers some sort of amazing game to Dash? It was almost identical to chess (for the likes of Twilight, who had won every game she had ever played.)
“No, before that.”
“Dominoes?”
“Back one.”
“Frustration?”
“Nope, back a couple more.”
“Ugh,” Twilight moaned, “Dungeo...”
“Yes! That one sounds cool!” Rainbow cried.
“E-Questria: Dungeons Are Magic’,” Twilight quoted from the lid of the box, “’A game for two to sixteen players...’ ‘Dive into the immersive multiplayer experience with all your friends’,” she continued.
“Ooh, I like doing things with my friends!” Pinkie hollered cheerfully, “Is it fun?” she asked, grabbing Rarity and Applejack and smiling joyously in what appeared to be an over expressive tone of voice, but then again- it is Pinkie Pie.
Rainbow Dash sighed, “dungeons- and magic? How can it not be fun?” she stated zealously, “it sounds so awesome!” she squealed.
Twilight Sparkle dusted off the game’s box with her hoof, “I haven’t played this game in years- Spike used to love it back when he was younger,” she explained.
After delving through the various booklets in the box, Rarity posed herself against the idea of this game, “I personally don’t like it,” She stated, “it all seems a bit... barbaric to say the least.”
“More like fun!” Pinkie Pie corrected with a screech from a position over Rarity’s shoulder, giggling to herself as she bounced around the room like her usual self.
Rainbow Dash snatched the hoofful of booklets from Rarity, scanning through the sections of text which were in larger fonts until she had a good enough understanding of the games rules and regulations, she quickly decided to take control of the game at hoof, “right, so this game is a role playing ga...”
“We already know that RD.” Applejack stated.
“Oh, umm, what’s a role playing game?” Fluttershy asked.
“A role playing game is where everypony acts like they are a character, sometimes from history, or from famous novels,” Twilight explained confidently, perhaps even quoting... a dictionary?
“...Right, so, this is a role playing game...” Dash paused to see if anypony else wanted to interrupt before she moved on, “And everypony acts like a character they made up in a... fantasy world?”
“A made up world where there is much more magic than our own, many more dragons and dangerous creatures and the setting is usually set around the middle ages,” Twilight explained once more.
“Oh, and one of us has to be some sort of quest master...”
“And what does that involve?” Rarity mumbled, displeased that they were actually going to participate in such a game.
“I was just getting on to that,” Rainbow Dash replied, (she was rather annoyed if you ask me, she can’t go one sentence without getting some inane or completely obvious question or explanation thrown at her,) “the quest master controls the game and tells the story as well as...” she quoted, “rolling all the necessary roles for the dice during combat and miscellaneous checks,” Dash looked over at Twilight, “I bet you’d be good at that sort of thing Twilight.” (She strongly implied that Twilight should more than definitely be the quest master.)
Twilight was pleased at this decision, “Okay, I guess somepony has got to keep all of you in line, I’m pretty sure I was not very good at the whole role-playing side of things anyway- back when I played it with Spike, although I do love reading...”
“We guessed.” Dash rudely interrupted.
After a long session of Rainbow Dash repeatedly explaining and re-explaining the rules (then having Twilight give a much better explanation so that everypony else could understand,) the ponies finally began to play the game, including Rarity, who was already getting into the idea of role-play; seeing as the game involved some costume making and modelling- although she forced herself to hide her enthusiasm.