Flurry Heart's Story: The Ghost of Grogar

“Alright, can we fight the Squiz-thing already?” Scorch asked crossly with his hands over his face. “I can’t keep track of whatever it is we’re doing right now.”

“Yeah, don’t we have enough weapons and stuff?” asked Singe.

“Now now, guys, we still have to get through the skeleton army,” Butter told her brothers.

“But are the three of us at a good enough level to take on the Squizard?” asked Barb.

“You should be by now,” said Discord as his eyes floated around, examining Barb, Scorch, and Singe’s characters stats before returning to his skull.

“Alright, well it might still be a good idea for me and Aster to go first since we have the best stats,” Lily said as she took her turn. “I race in and cast a temporary level five protection spell on myself and all other users.”

“Good call Lady Ki-hana, but let’s see if it works,” Discord said, rolling the dice. “Alright. The spell is cast but only effects three users. The first skeletons throw spears, which do not harm the ones with shields, but all the others get ten points of health taken off. That’s all of you except Lily, Aster and Buttercream.”

“Ah great,” Lily said, forlornly.

“Not such a great start for the rest of us behind Butter, but we’ll get there,” Spike added.

“Alright, folks, I’m gonna do something a little daring,” said Aster. “I charge the skeletons, use my broadsword to take them out and my buckler shield for defense.”

Discord rolled the dice.

“Oooh! Good call, Esteragon!” he said, joyfully. “You destroy ten skeletons and knock down the brute warriors. The brutes ahead of you try to fight back but your shield protects you before you attack. This will help pave the way for the next few players to take those brutes out since they now have fifty percent health. Lady Mandolina is next.”

Buttercream took her mandolin back out and began to play as she described her next move.

“I go back to help out everyone that received damage earlier. I play a song of healing and inspiration to keep them going.”

“Your song works and gives everyone their health back that just lost it, but only the next player is affected by your inspiration spell. The Squizard begins charging his first attack.”

“Alright, so just me then,” said Spike. “I use my newfound inspiration to cast a pacifying spell on the Squizard to keep him from hurting the others.”

“The attack succeeds thanks to the inspiration spell and takes down ten percent of his health points. He shakes it off though and gains back five percent but is still pacified so the next user can make their move unprovoked by him. Now’s your chance, Scaledron!”

“Awesome!” shouted Singe, “I dash forward and use my best sword on the Squizard with all my might!”

“Uh…Singe, are you sure you wanna do that?” Buttercream asked, nervously.

“Sure, why not?”

“Well…I mean you could deal some damage, but you’re also getting pretty close to him which means he can hit you right after your move.”

“Can I use arrows or something?”

“Did you buy any in the village?”

“Yeah, I have like fifty of them…oh…wait, I forgot the bow. Ah whatever. I do it anyway. Someone with magic can heal me back later.”

“Alright then,” said Discord. “You only deal two percent damage and the Squizard casts a spell on you which takes down twenty percent damage and immobilizes you for the next turn. Sorry.”

“GAH! Why is it so hard to do this?”

“I’d recommend staying to fight the skeletons next time, Singe. We best take out as many of them as we can first,” said Billow before taking her turn. “Alright, Discord. Staying close to Sir Nordomir, I use my axe on the skeletons in front of me and then pass him one of my elixirs to boost his defense.”

“Good job, Billow! He’s sure to appreciate that!” said Beo Tuag.

“You take down seven skeletons and receive no damage. The elixir works on Nordomir,” said Discord.

“Thanks, Billow,” Scorch said bashfully as Buttercream giggled. “Alright…um…I think I’ll fight the brute skeletons with two…what do you call em… longswords.”

“Good move…oh, actually you can only use one longsword,” said Billow.

“What? Darnit. Well can I use these two swords?”

“Yeah, those will work, but just remember you won’t have that much defense without a shield.”

“Alright, I’ll use the longsword and a shield I guess.”

Scorch rested his head on his hand again and spoke as if he was bored out of his mind. Barb put her hand on his shoulder to comfort him

“It’s okay, Scorch. I’m having a hard time with this too,” she said.

Discord rolled the dice.

“Alright, Sir Nordomir fights the skeletons, but does not deal as heavy of damage, though he is protected well enough with his shield and Lady Bella Rosa’s elixir.”

“Doesn’t deal heavy damage? What’s wrong with the sword I used?”

“Well those are brute skeletons you’re dealing with, but a longsword is kind of a wild card anyway. Discord probably got a low result with the dice,” Billow explained.

“Only three. Sorry, some of this is a bit luck-based,” said Discord

“UGH! That’s not even fair!” Scorch grumbled.

“It’s okay, Scorch, we still have a chance to kill all the skeletons. When we reach the Squizard, me and Lily will cast some spells to weaken him,” Spike told his brother.

Scorch did not reply but continued to bury his face in his hands.

“Alright, I’m next then,” said Barb. “I use my strongest wand on the rest of the skeletons to pacify them for the next seven turns.”

“That’s a bit of a risky move, but if the dice rolls a high result, it could work. Are you sure you want to go with a pacifying spell for that many turns?” Discord asked Barb.

“Should I go for less then?”

“I’d try three turns.”

“Alright, three turns.”

“The spell works for three turns, but you only pacify four out of the remaining twelve skeletons.”

“Well it was a long shot I guess.”

For the next few turns, they made progress in beating the skeletons, but the Squizard started gaining on them and gave heavy damage to all of them and revived some of the skeletons. Barb, Scorch and Singe grew more confused and frustrated. Spike and Buttercream looked very nervous and not too optimistic about this game. Normally they would be able to keep playing and beat the Squizard with the supporting characters’ help, but their siblings not enjoying it was resulting in a very unsatisfactory experience. When it came Scorch’s turn to fight the Squizard, he sounded like he was already about to quit.

“Alright, I throw my sword at one of his eyes or something. I dunno. Whatever it takes to kill this thing,” he groaned.

“You can throw swords, but you have to role a high result in order for it to actually hit the target,” Discord responded.

“Alright, so I slash him instead.”

“That’s a better move. Alright, you got a result of eleven which means…oh dear…”

“Great. Did I miss?”

“Not exactly. You slash one eye but it only takes down ten percent of his health and he fires an optic beam at you with the other eye, which takes down… fifty percent of your own.”

Everyone else got tense and swallowed hard, preparing for Scorch’s reaction. They knew it was not going to be pleasant.

“Alright, that’s it!!” Scorch barked, standing up. “Spike, Butter, everyone, I’m sorry, but I can’t enjoy this anymore! This game doesn’t work! It makes no sense! I thought I bought good weapons earlier and they’re not doing me any good at all. I know you said it’s going to get better, but I’m getting too impatient. I wanna actually move around and be active in a game, not sit down and think about all the numbers and stats and what weapons to use. Everything we’re doing in this game could be done in just a matter of minutes but we’ve been here for over two hours now. This feels like school all over again, not a fun game.”

Scorch took a moment to catch his breath. He put his hand back over his face and sighed. No one dared protest to what he was saying, because everyone else understood this was not a good idea to begin with. Barb and Singe were just as annoyed as him. Barb stood up and put her hand on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gotten so mad like that, but I just can’t do this anymore. I forfeit.”

“Me too,” said Singe, standing up. “This isn’t really our thing. I was kinda enjoying it at first, but I can’t even play like I was hoping I could.”

“I forfeit as well,” Barb added. “Scorch is right about this not being a Nordo Dracos thing. We probably should’ve been better about letting you know that.”

“And now we ruined your big night,” Scorch said, sitting back down with his arms crossed. “Some big brother I am.”

“No, it’s okay, guys,” said Spike. “You’re right. Butter and I were so focused on making you happy, we didn’t stop to think maybe this game is way out of your league.”

“In an effort to introduce you to our own culture we grew up with, we kinda ignored what Nordo Dracos culture is like and tried too hard at getting you into this,” Buttercream added.

“And we’re sorry for it.”

“Both of us.”

“So Discord, don’t even bother suspending this campaign, we’ll just scrap the whole thing.”

Everyone else smiled and accepted the matter for what it was. Discord closed the manual and made the entire game set disappear from the table and reappear back in the box. The only thing left behind were the custom character set pieces for each player. Those would at least be good heirlooms to keep since the characters were memorable enough.

“Well at least we handled that well,” Scorch said. “Sorry again for that outrage. I’m usually pretty chill.”

“It’s no problem, Scorch,” Butter said, flying over the table to go hug her brother.

“Yeah, happens to the best of us,” Billow said, holding Beo Tuag and doing her best to still flirt with him and let her feelings be known.

Scorch smiled back lovingly to Billow. He didn’t realize Buttercream saw them both and put her hand up to her mouth to hide her giggling. Singe quickly joined her.

“Well everyone,” Discord began saying, “since we’ve all decided that playing Ogres and Oubliettes the table-top RPG didn’t work out for us, Spike, may I suggest the alternative?”

Spike gave Discord a glance and then turned to everyone else while smiling. They didn’t know what Discord was talking about, but Spike knew very well.

“That just might work! Alright, Barb, Scorch, Singe, so the game didn’t work, but you guys wanna actually play the game…like as in literally be IN the game itself actually moving around and being your character?”

“Wait what?” asked Singe.

“Be our characters? How is that possible?” asked Scorch.

“Spike, that sounds so awesome!” Buttercream beamed, hopping up and down. “Have you done it before?”

“Yup! When Discord first played, he was also pretty bored with the game, but he found a way to enjoy it with me and Big Macintosh. You wanna try it out?”

“Let me guess: Discord can actually do that for us with his magic?” Barb asked.

“Oh, Princess, you have no idea what the Lord of Chaos is capable of!” Discord said, mischievously.

Discord then snapped his fingers and the figurines floated in front of all their users. They glowed with light and were absorbed into each dragon. Just then, the entire world around them turned into an open landscape with tall mountains and statues. Everyone was wearing the outfits their figurines had and were armed with the weapons and tools they would be using to fight back. Spike was dressed in a wizard’s robe, complete with a tree branch staff, a white beard and a pointy hat; Buttercream had on a bard’s outfit and carried a now fancier-looking mandolin; Lily wore an eastern-inspired dress with fresh flowers and plants adorning her body and carried elixirs and staffs; Barb wore a dress and haltered top with a hooded cape and had wands with jewels and a few other magical; Aster was dressed like a ranger and was armed with a sword, a shield and a bow with a quiver full of arrows; Singe had on a similar outfit, though rougher in appearance and with more weapons like a chain flail and throwing knives; Billow wore bikini armor and various animal skins and carried Beo Tuag and a few smaller throwing axes; lastly Scorch was dressed in shiny golden armor and carried a magnificent long sword and shield adorned with occasional gemstones and gold accents. Even Discord had joined them as his blonde-haired archer character.

“Whoa! It actually worked!” Singe said, examining his weapons.

“EEEEEH! Discord, I had no idea your magic could do this?!” Buttercream squealed as she took out her new mandolin and began tuning it.

“Wow! Now that’s more like it! I feel way better about this! Check out this awesome sword!” Scorch exclaimed, pulling out his sword and pointing it skyward.

“So, this more your speed?” Billow asked.

“Definitely!”

“That’s a pretty handsome suit of armor you got there. A lot of Southern Drakes would be jealous to see you in that.”

“Thanks! Oh, um…you don’t look so bad yourself!”

Scorch noticed Billow in her revealing attire and immediately blushed. He put his hand behind his head and couldn’t help but stare at the curvy horned dragoness. He looked nervous, but smiled nonetheless.

“Go on. You’ve got him right where you need him,” Beo whispered.

Billow put her finger up to the head of the living axe as if to shush her. She then turned back to Scorch, put her hand against her hip and grinned flirtatiously.

“Thanks,” she said, amorously.

“Aster, look! This is just like how our figurines were sculpted!” Lily exclaimed as Pansy flew around her, barking excitedly.

“I see that, Lil! Now that’s what I call an upgrade!” Aster exclaimed.

“Told ya he could do it!” Spike said proudly.

“Now how do we know how to use these things?” Barb asked, taking out a very large staff with a gemstone at the end as her other weapons levitated around her.

“I’ve made it so none of you have to think about the stats of these weapons or your power levels or health or anything,” Discord explained. “You’re all as capable as you so desire, so long as you fight with all your might and don’t lose any confidence!”

“And if you do, I’ll be here to help keep with that!” Buttercream said, going airborne and playing her mandolin.

“Just the way it should be!” Singe added. “This definitely feels more like something we’d do to pass time in Nordo Dracos.”

Everyone got out their weapons and took a moment to practice with them. Suddenly there was a thunderous noise in the distance and they looked to see a colossal creature standing before them in a black wizard’s robe. The robe was covering the lower half of its body, but several tentacles were at the bottom, propping him up like legs. He had two long arms with several tentacles at the end and carried a tall black staff with a red glowing gem at the top. His head looked like an entire squid propped up on the body with tons more tentacles where his mouth would be and two glowing yellow eyes. The top of his head was covered in a pointy black hat similar to Spike’s; only it was adorned with red symbols in place of stars and moons. This was the antagonist of the game: Wrathulu, or the Squizard. His voice was even more daunting than the one that Spike and Big Macintosh were introduced to when they first played with Discord.

“Who dares enter the dominion of the mighty Wrathulu?!” he said in an echoing raspy voice.

“Oh sweet mother of Shokubutsu! Is that him?!” asked Aster.

“That’s him,” said Spike and Discord, reading their weapons.

“Man, Discord! You really made him look as evil as possible!” Buttercream remarked.

“He’s based on the first edition of O&O,” Discord told them. “They don’t make ‘em nearly this dark anymore now that they’re trying to market this game towards kids.”

“Well I’m not afraid of him!” said Billow. “You ready to get your tentacles sliced, Wrathulu?!”

The Squizard drew his attention to Billow and surrounded her in a red aura. She froze and was lifted into the air, with her fist still holding Beo Tuag. The living axe nearly pulled herself out to fight back, but Billow’s hand was already frozen in place and she could not open it.

“BILLOW?! Hey, put her down, monster!” Scorch snarled.

“Oh, I don’t think so, little Northern Drake!” Wrathulu replied.

“Hey! Let me go, you creep!” she shouted. “Beo, can you break free?”

“I don’t know,” Beo responded telepathically. “If you can open your hand, I might be able to escape since he can’t lift me alone, but I have a better idea.”

“Better idea?”

“SILENCE!” the monster shouted. “Your plump barbarian girl will be the perfect stand-in for the princess since your ‘Shmarity’ is mysteriously absent!”

Billow and Beo then disappeared in a flash of light, leaving everyone in shock.

“BILLOW!” shouted Buttercream.

“What did you do to her?!” Barb growled.

“You’re gonna pay for that!” Scorch added, pointing his sword at Wrathulu as everyone else drew their weapons.

“Oh relax. She’s alive and well, but I cannot say the same for her dignity. Hahaha!” Wrathulu responded.

There was a flash of light from inside the window at the top of the tower behind the Squizard. Someone walked out to look down. It was Billow but she was now dressed in a frilly princess outfit with makeup on her face. She was not amused with this costume change.

“Hey! What am I wearing?!” she said angrily. “What happened to my cool barbarian outfit!?”

“Billow, relax! This is perfect!” said Beo Tuag behind her.

“Perfect? Beo, I may be a princess but I’m not THIS kind of princess!”

“Yes, but look where you are? You’re a damsel in distress and you need to be rescued by your knight in shining armor!”

“Oh, you’re right.”

“Sooooo?”

“Alright, fine.”

Billow cleared her throat and began to speak in a very dramatic voice with the back of her hand to her forehead.

“Oh, woe is me! I’ve been captured by the hideous, foul beast and placed in this tower! If only there was a handsome dragon knight to rescue me!”

“We’ll get you Billow! Well, we’ll let Scorch take care of that, while we hold off Wrathulu. Right Scorch?” Buttercream teased.

“Uh…okay but why me specifically?” Scorch asked.

“You know why.”

Buttercream moved in close to Scorch and wiggled her eyebrows as he blushed.

“Geez, you guys really are trying to set me up with her, aren’t you?”

“This is your chance at winning her, bro! Hurry up! I wouldn’t mind having some nieces and nephews!” Singe whispered loudly.

“Alright, Singe, knock it off,” Barb said, elbowing, Singe. “Come on everybody! We’ve all got a job to do!”

“Barb’s right! What do you say we fricassee this cuttlefish?!” Aster said, swinging his sword around.

“I’m ready! How about you guys?” asked Spike.

“READY!” everyone else called.

“Alright, dragons! Time to roll for initiative!” shouted Discord.

Wrathulu then zapped the ground beneath him and the skeleton horses crawled out of the cracks in the dirt. They were already armed with their weapons and immediately ran towards the dragon warriors and their draconequus archer. Both sides got closer and closer till they were covered in a dust cloud, followed by the sound of weapons clashing, magic spells being cast, and a mandolin being played with Buttercream’s sweet voice accompanying it.