Author's Note

Dialogue heavy chapter and it's also quite messy. I tried to make the D&D related wall of text more easily digestible, but not quite so easy.

Thanks for reading!

Ignis Ferrum

“How much of that did you see, Luna? I’ll be honest, I'm a bit offended, feels like an invasion of privacy.” I ask Luna. We’re both still sitting in the grass at the castle training grounds, and from the looks of it I’d wager I was out of it for a few hours. It was barely sunset when I started the ritual, but the moon is already half way through its orbit across the sky.

“All of it. We were informed someone used the night watch identification badge to enter the castle grounds. They were under the impression none had been issued yet and informed us just in case. They told us you were looking for a brazier and should be on the training grounds. Originally we were just going to ignore it, but after some consideration we decided to come find you to ask if you’d like to observe the raising of the moon. Alas, you were unconscious by the time we got here.” Oh so I’m just not gunna get an apology for the NSA behavior? That’s fine, I guess.

“Well, I would like to see that next time for what it’s worth. Did you have any other questions about what you saw? Might as well get this out of the way now. That dream, no…. that memory leaves me with my own questions, so let’s make this quick.” I wipe my eyes again and rapidly blink them to clear out the blurry vision. Stupid emotions.

“Are you sure? It’s clearly upsetting you.” I glance at her and give her a quick nod. “Very well. Since you seem to be in a rush, we will just ask them all at once. Who is the Dark Maiden? What was that dance? What was going on with that sword, why did it seem to…. Bleed? Most importantly, if that was a memory and not a dream then… are you possessing that body?” Ah, that last one is definitely the most important.

Before I begin I reach into my backpack and take a few gulps of water. I know I’m about to talk alot, and I hate how dry it makes my throat. “The Dark Maiden is Eilistraee. That woman, my mother apparently, was a faithful cleric. The dance that we watched is called the Last Dance, appropriately named, when worshipers of Eilistraee reach the end of their natural life without perishing in battle they are rewarded with a song from the Dark Maiden herself. The singing we heard was that Goddess. The faithful worshiper begins to dance to the song and their age regresses to their peak and they disappear to join Her in Her realm. That sword… I’m fairly certain I know exactly what it was but I need to confirm something before I feel comfortable talking about it. What I can say for sure is that the blood we saw was originally my mothers blood.”

Nope, couldn't make it all the way through, need more water. “Apologies, dry throat. For context, there's another ritual for the Dark Maiden where a new sword is blessed by Eilistraee. To acquire that blessing the owner of the new sword will plant it in the ground with the tip facing down, and they will dance around the blade. As they perform the dance they’re meant to move against the blade and draw blood from each limb onto the sword. If She gives Her blessing the sword will glow silver and absorb the blood. For the next 3 months it won’t rust or dirty and it can even harm creatures that typically are immune to physical damage. The strange part is that her Last Dance included her blessed blade. Let me meditate for a few minutes and confirm my theory.” I close my eyes.

“It was a beautiful art. If we had not cried at the tragedy of a child losing his mother we surely would have shed tears purely in awe for the ritual. To see a group of creatures that cherished and worshiped the night…. I am happy to know that such a thing exists. Even if it is not our night. You also worship that goddess, yes?”

Sigh. What part of meditate did Luna not understand? I crack open one eye and look at her, “I heard you but I’m afraid I need full concentration right now. Give me a few minutes of silence please.”

“Callisid are you there? I have some questions about my past.” I ask internally, hoping to reach my familiar.

“Yes master, shall I come to you?”

“No that’s fine. Listen, did my mother own a Moonblade? Also what was I doing before I was whisked away to this place?” I really hope he gives me the answer I want to hear for both of these questions.

“Yes! That was indeed a Moonblade. Your father was supposed to own one as well, but it was lost 4 generations ago. Your great great great grandfather was asked to help with some grand task in the nine hells, but he and the sword never returned. You were preparing for the ceremony to test if you were worthy to inherit your mothers Moonblade, but you fell ill one day and never woke up.” He sounds a little somber at the end.

“Callisid listen to me. With the most accurate measurement you can give me, how long was I in a coma?”

“Twenty years Ignis. Although it wasn’t a coma, the healers described your condition as something akin to braindead. They said you were spiritually absent, nothing in your body or mind was wrong from what they could tell. They said it was similar to cases they’d seen where someone was using astral projection and they lost the tether to their bodies.”

I open my eyes wide. I can feel my heartbeat in my ears. I try to take another sip of water but my hands are shaking so bad I barely get a drop. Most of it just spills on the ground. All our theories were wrong, I’m not in a new body based on my own creation, I’m not possessing the body of Ignis. I am twenty years old. I…. I am Ignis Ferrum.

I look around and see Luna looking at me with a concerned look on her face. She’s definitely saying something to me, but I can’t hear it. I try blinking several times and give myself a couple of soft slaps to my face with both hands.

“Ignis….Ignis….Ignis! LUCAS!” She finally shifts from concern to panic and has now grabbed me by the shoulder. By the time I finally calm myself down enough to hear her over my own heart she’s calling me by my human name.
“Sorry. I just…. I just got the answers I was looking for, but I have even more questions now. Let me answer your last two questions and then I need to go. The reason she had the blade in her Last Dance is because that blade was special. It’s known as a Moonblade, a legendary weapon that is passed down through certain Elven bloodlines, although most have been lost to time. Since that sword was one of a kind and needed to be passed on to the heir she needed to undo the Sword Dance that bound it to her. By placing the blade in the ground hilt first instead of tip first she reversed the flow and reclaimed the blood she placed in it from the original dance.” I pause for a second to catch my breath before continuing.

“And as for your last question. That exact question is the reason I’m in a hurry and also quite shook to be honest. The ritual I performed with this brazier was to summon a familiar, but the familiar that I summoned has apparently been my familiar for half a century. I just found out from him that apparently the last thing Ignis did before ending up in Equestria was fall unconscious for 20 years. They said nothing was wrong with him physically, but he had lost his soul. I’m 20 years old, Luna. I don’t think I’m possessing this body, I think this is my body.”

Luna looks at me for a few seconds, and I frown at her. She’s giving me pity. “What are you going to do now Ignis?”

What am I going to do? I wanted to go find out more about myself. How was my relationship with my father, what happened to my sister? If I was going to have a ceremony to test my worthiness for the Moonblade that implies my sister either wasn’t worthy or something happened to her.

Let me answer Luna before she tries shaking me again for being unresponsive, “I’m not sure. I have an idea, but I can’t do it here. Can I borrow a chariot and go to Ponyville? I’d like to go tonight, I need to go into those woods where we fought you.”

“We are still not quite at 100% magical capacity, but we should be able to teleport you there. Just take the train back or have my sisters pupil send us a dragonfire letter when you’re ready to come back. How long do you expect to be gone and why are you going? We have the summit in 13 days.”

“I’m not sure how long I need. Maybe 3 days, maybe a week? I’ll make sure to come back 2 days before the summit at the latest to have time to discuss any concerns or plans. I’m ready to go.”

“But why go into that monster infested forest?”

“Oh I forgot to answer you, my apologies. I’m going back because there are monsters. I need to level up.”

“Hm. You mean get stronger? Very well. Good luck, Ignis.” With that she dips her head a bit and with a flash I find myself at the border between the Everfree and Ponyville.
“Quests.”

I command outloud and I’m greeted by this strange power once again, there are more quests than I thought. How long have these been here?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

QUESTS:

Active Quest - Prove Yourself: Gain the approval from the royal sisters and pass their tests. - QUEST COMPLETED. Claim Rewards?

Main Quest - Get Home: Find out the truth about your appearance in Equestria and work with the inhabitants to return home. IN PROGRESS.

NEW! Main Quest - Recover your memories: You’ve discovered the truth of your identity, but still know very little about yourself. Find a way to recover your memories. IN PROGRESS.

Main Quest - Tutorial: Complete the tutorial. QUEST COMPLETED. Claim Rewards?

Side Quest - Summon Your Familiar: Acquire the materials needed to perform the Find Familiar ritual and summon your familiar. QUEST COMPLETED. Claim Rewards?

Side Quest - Make Your Choice: You’ve successfully proved yourself, but now you must decide. Will you become Luna’s personal attendant, join the element bearers on their adventures, or go your own way entirely. IN PROGRESS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well this is unexpected. I don’t even recall half of these quests but whats more is apparently 3 of them have been completed and I have to manually claim the rewards? That’s kinda dumb.

“Claim all pending Quest rewards.”

Prove Yourself, COMPLETED. Rewarded: +3,000 Experience. CHOOSE: One random level 3 spell scroll, two random level 2 spell scrolls, or 3 random level 1 spell scrolls.

Oh shit this is actually a tough choice…. Let me look mentally go over all the level 1, 2, and 3 spells and see if any of the levels have a spell I just need to have. Hmm alarm would be nice, especially out here in the woods alone. Distort Value maybe…. But I’d feel bad, Identify could be huge. I can’t really think of anything else for level 1 spells but I’m probably forgetting something.

Alter Self would be nice as well, I could actually disguise myself as a pony that way if I wanted to. Borrowed Knowledge could be useful, Blur as well. Oh the correct choice has to be level 2 right? Hold Person, Misty Step, Mirror Image, Knock there are so many nice utility level 2 spells that I’d like to have, but couldn’t justify taking them when I leveled up. There’s definitely a few level 3’s I want as well but I can just get those when I get level 6 which should be right now, I’m at 12 thousand and some change and only need 14 thousand for level 6. If I’m getting 3,000 right now that’ll put me over.

“Two random level 2 spell scrolls.”

Awarded: 3,000 Experience, Magic Mouth and Aganazzar’s Scorcher spell scrolls.

Tutorial, COMPLETED. Awarded: +1,000 Experience.

Summon Your Familiar, COMPLETED. Awarded: +1,500 Experience. See Luna for the secondary reward.

What? Luna? What the fu-

LEVEL UP! Simulated Long Rest completed. HP, spell slots, and class features restored.

Experience: 18,257/23,000 Level 6

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Wizard - Bladesinger: Level 6.

New Features: Extra Attack, 2 New Spells.

Extra Attack: When you take the attack action you may now attack twice instead of once. In addition, one of these attacks may be substituted for a cantrip.

Choose two new spells:

“Misty Step and Haste”

Misty Step and Haste added to spellbook, please choose and configure which spells in your spellbook will be prepared.

Well, I still don’t need to prepare any Ritual spells. Preparing a spell means I can actually cast it, but rituals are different. I can perform ritual casting by reading the spell book; the only difference is that it adds significant casting time to the spell, usually 10 minutes. So, what am I not really using very often? Burning Hands can go, I’ll replace Burning Hands with Misty Step and then I’ll just add Haste to the list. Since I leveled up I can prepare 1 new spell for free, my maximum amount of prepared spells now is 11 + cantrips.

Configuration confirmed. Current Spellbook is as follows. (Prepared spells will have a *, cantrips don’t need to be prepared.)

Cantrips:

• Booming Blade
• Control Flames
• Fire Bolt
• Mage Hand
• Shocking Grasp

Level 1:

• Absorb Elements*
• Burning Hands
• Comprehend Languages (Ritual)
• Feather Fall*
• Find Familiar (Ritual)
• Magic Missile*
• Shield*
• Sleep

Level 2:

• Dragon’s Breath
• Invisibility*
• Misty Step*
• Scorching Ray*
• Shadow Blade*

Level 3:

• Fireball*
• Haste*
• Sending*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Time finally resumes. I got so caught up in the quest rewards, I forgot I was supposed to learn Remove Curse instead of Misty Step or Haste. Fuck! I know Remove Curse is how you reverse someone who had Modify Memory casted on them, but there’s no guarantee it would’ve fixed my memories. Level 7 I’ll have to take it though.

Well, I only need 4,750 or so experience for level 7 so let’s start hunting. I barely did anything during the tutorial and that got me 1,000 experience so I reckon the wooden wolves have to worth like 500 maybe 700? I didn’t DM very often but I know creatures with a challenge rating 3 were worth 700. I was level 3 so I could see that being a CR3. Let’s look around.

Perception.
1, +5. 6.

This is definitely a forest. There are some trees. Great well maybe I can find some tracks or something.

Nature.
17, +5. 22.

There’s a snapped branch here and the ground to the west of the branch all the leaves are shifted in such a way that it looks like something went west. A few feet away from the branch I see some weird looking paw prints in the ground. I bet that’s what I’m looking for! These are also going west though… are the paw prints stalking whatever stepped on that branch?

It’s been an uneventful few hours. I ran into two of those wolves about 30 minutes apart but now that I have extra attack the fights were trivial. I can attack once, attack again with booming blade, then use my bonus action to cast booming blade a second time thanks to my illusionists bracers. So, overall I’m doing 5d8 + 18 damage every turn assuming I land every blow and if I recall correctly the wolves only had 20 Hit Points in the tutorial. Basically what I’m saying is, I killed them both times in 1 turn.

On the not so bright side they were only worth 450xp a piece, so I’m at 19,157/23,000 now. On the super extra not so bright side, after taking down the most recent wooden wolf I found a different track in the ground. This one I don’t recognize at all, but it’s bigger than the wolf marks. Maybe a bear? I rolled a 7 on my nature check so I have no fucking clue. Honestly my gut says its most similar to a cat paw, but it’s too big. Perhaps a panther? I’m going to follow it though, we’ve shifted somewhat and now we’re heading slightly more towards Ponyville.

It’d take a while to get back if I went in this exact direction, so it’s basically almost perfectly parallel with the border of the forest, but slightly angled towards Ponyville. I wonder how deep I am. I’ve still got a couple hours before sunrise, so let’s keep marching on for now. I assume the monsters aren’t as active in the day so I’ll likely make camp at sunrise. I might also just go to Ponyville at sunrise. I don’t really want to sleep in the woods if I can help it. I march on.

Okay it’s only been 30 minutes but I found the source of big paw print. It’s a fucking Manticore! WHY DO THEY HAVE MANTICORES HERE? It’s not exactly like the manticores I’m used to, but its very similar. The only difference is that these manticores have a scorpion tail instead of a flat-ish tail with several spikes. The scorpion tail implies it has poison, so I wonder if it also classifies as a CR3 creature? Stop rambling! The real problem here is that the manticore is chasing a Zebra!

I quietly recite the incantation for Shadow Blade and think as hard as possible that I want to upcast it to a 3rd level spell slot. That’ll make the damage 3d8 per hit instead of 2d8. Next I shout, “Inveniam Viam” (Shortened phrase in Latin that translates to “I will either find a way/path or make one) and misty step in front of the zebra.

I look at the zebra in their eyes and shout “Keep running! I’ve got this.” The zebra’s eyes widen a bit before they nod at me and continue to run past me. Right as they do, I get to see the all too familiar phrase.

ROLL FOR INITATIVE.
18, +5. 23.

“Sorry big guy, but I need you gone.” I lean forward and pull my shadow blade back and then run straight at the manticore. Before it can even do anything I’m already half way through my swing at it’s head.

10, +8. 18. Hit.

The swing strikes true and the shadow blade quickly passes through the manticore.

6 + 8 + 4 + 5 = 23 Psychic damage.

If this thing has a similar stat block to the normal D&D manticores I just did 1/3rd of its HP. I quickly flick my wrist and bring the shadow blade closer to me before quickly waving my hand over the blade and casting Booming Blade. I then quickly swing for the manticore again with the shadow blade that now has streaks of purple lightning.

20, +8. 28. CRITICAL HIT.

Well I’ll be damned, today is my lucky day! The beast is just roaring in pain and this time instead of slashing through the manticore with the illusionary blade I stab straight forward plunging the blade in between its eyes before twisting it and slashing sideways.

5 + 3 + 5 + 5 (Dex) + 24 (Crit) = 42 Psychic Damage
5 + 8 (Crit) = 13 Thunder Damage

The manticore staggers back a few steps as its roars of pain quiet down some. Suddenly blood starts pouring out of its nose and eyes, and its front left leg collapses as it drops down to its knee. Brutal, I was hoping that would kill it so it didn’t have to suffer after having it’s mind shattered but it looks like it’s still barely hanging on. If it was a D&D Manticore it’d have died from that, they only have 68 HP and I’ve done 78 damage. Well, my bracers are glowing which means they’re ready to cast Booming Blade again for my bonus action.

I pull up my blade ready to finish the beast off, but I freeze. Why can’t I move? Oh I used Shadow Blade then waited a few seconds and used Misty Step, but combat started basically right after I misty stepped. Put simply, Misty Step was my bonus action. I can’t finish the beast off this turn.

I keep my blade up in a somewhat defensive stance as I glare at the manticore. It gets back up and charges at me, and almost immediately after I see the purple sparks crackle all over it’s body before a loud crack of thunder booms out. Booming Blades secondary effect, if the target moves 5ft within 1 turn of being hit by booming blade it suffers a secondary crack of thunder. Ever since I hit level 5 the secondary effect went from 1d8 to 2d8.

8 + 3 = 11 Thunder Damage.

The beast pauses for a fraction of a second before roaring loudly in pain and continuing to charge at me. Wow that’s 89 damage, how much more gas does this thing have in the tank?! I squint my eyes and focus, it’s tail hasn’t reared back yet so it’ll go for a bite or a claw first. Sure enough right as it gets within striking distance it swipes at me with a paw.

But I’m quick enough to react I suck in my gut and form a big C shape with my body and the paw just barely misses me. I’m a bit surprised because I’m not bladesinging right now so my AC is still just the regular 17.

Suddenly without warning, before the manticore has even put its paw back on the ground after swinging at me, its scorpion tail flies forward. I try to lean back and dodge it like Neo in The Matrix, but I can tell it’s still going to hit me.

SHIELD! AC +5.

Holding my empty left hand out I throw up my trusty barrier and the tail deflects off of it. I assume its turn is over now until I see it rear back onto it’s hind legs before slamming forward with its mouth wide open. Holy shit it’s trying to eat me!

I still have the barrier up but this attack is so telegraphed and slow that I just turn sideways and side step it. When the manticore brings its front 2 paws back down to the ground I’m already beside it and I can tell now that it really is my turn this time.

“Alright big guy, sorry you had to suffer a bit longer than I wanted, but let’s end this now.”

I pull the shadow blade back and get ready to stab it straight into it’s ribs.

16, +8. 24. Hit.

I stab the blade straight into its broad side and then rip it sideways, running it across the entire side of its body.

7 + 8 + 1 + 5 = 21 Psychic Damage

When I pull the blade out this time the monster falls onto its side and roars in pain again, but this time immediately after the roar its completely silent. It goes limp as blood absolutely erupts out of its nose at a much higher velocity this time. It’s ears also begin to slowly leak out blood. It’s finally dead.

I dismiss the shadow blade and crash on to the ground on my ass. I put both palms on the ground slightly behind me and lean back putting some of my weight onto my hands as I catch my breath.

+1,800 XP. 20,957/23,000.

Hey that’s good news it must’ve been a CR 5. I’ve very close to level 7 now! One more manticore and a quest or maybe just the quest and I can be level 7. I look around to see if I can spot the zebra, but I don’t see anything.

Perception.
12, +5. 17.

I don’t see the zebra, and I don’t see anything to be honest. Not even a bird. That’s a bit eerie especially now that the sun has peaked out over the horizon. I’m surprisingly not tired, so I’m definitely not setting up camp yet. Let’s go see if I can track that zebra down, it was wearing golden loops on its neck and ears so I’m 99% sure its sapient. I know it for sure wasn’t heading towards Ponyville for some reason, probably lost. I’ll go find it and help it get out of here.

Let’s see if it got added to my quests.

“Quests.”

The same list as last time pops up, and sure enough this time there’s a new side quest, find the zebra. The zebra went further into the Everfree, find her and confirm her safety and escort her out if needed. Well I guess my power somehow knows it's a she. I guess I’ll take its word for it.

“Zebra! Where did you go!” I start walking in the last direction I saw her go, hopefully I can find her quickly.