That New Magic: The Origin of Love

He got out a sheet of paper, and sat me down, placing a pencil down that I picked up in my feathers.

“So, first thing to pick–”

“The name,” I pointed at the sheet.

“Well… That’s first on the sheet,” he admitted. “But that’s not the first thing to pick. If you pick your class, that is… what your character is good at, everything else can start to flow from that.”

I blinked a few times, waiting for him to explain, but he just stared at me. It made me a little bit uncomfortable, of course, but he wasn’t staring at me in the disgusted or grim way I feared, so at least it wasn’t too bad.

“Okay, and what are the classes?” I finally asked.

“Right! Right, sorry.”

He flipped open a book and took a deep breath.

“Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Dark one, Druid, Fighter–”

“Okay, hold on, don’t all of them fight?” I asked, tilting my head to look at the list. “So why is one just ‘fighter’?”

“That class is more of… all purpose,” he said. “A class for characters who are focused on direct combat. A Cleric heals, a Barbarian fights using rage, a Druid or Wizard would use magic…”

I looked at the list, and I looked at him.

“How do you know which one to play?”

“Well, it’s up to you,” he said with a gentle smile. “It’s not… Like, Pocket, he plays a barbarian. I’ve never seen the guy get angry in his life, but he plays this raging barbarian. You can play anything you want.”

I looked back at the list.

Why did this scare me? It was so simple. Just pick one to blend in. Just to play the game.

“What does a Dark One do?” I asked, despite myself.

“Well, they get their magic from a pact with a creature of great power,” he explained, as though it was just a math problem. “Like… something from beyond the stars, or from the depths of the ocean, or a devil.”

“What about a lost kingdom?” I asked quietly, my voice cracking just a little bit as my heart rate picked up. “What if I was a Dark One who was… had a pact with a lost kingdom that I have to be the champion of, until it returns?”

“That. Sounds. Awesome,” he whispered with wide eyes.

I wrote it down, silently cursing myself at the time. I didn’t need to be bringing my family’s past into this. I didn’t need to expose the wound left by years of my mother insisting that I was the last salvation of an empire long dead and gone. I didn’t need to create an analogue to the noble warrior my dad had seen in his only ‘son.’

We crafted a character for me. Diamond Flight, a Dark One of the Gem Kingdom, a pegasus like myself.

“Shining! I– woah.”

The unicorn colt at the door, who had come in without knocking, was a colt I'd seen around school a few times, orange with a white nose and legs.

“Gaffer, I know it's short notice, but Cadance made a character and everything, pleeeaaase?” Shining begged him.

For some reason I'd thought that Shining was in charge of his little group of friends, but now I was starting to reconsider that.

Gaffer lit his horn and carefully took the papers, reading it over silently while Shining sat next to me. Oddly, this was familiar to me, being silently judged. Having to wait as someone decided if I’d failed or not. But Gaffer let his feelings show, under his pretense of judgment. He was smiling a little bit, and nodded briefly. It wasn’t even stressful to me, he was so obvious.

“I suppose we can have a fourth,” he finally announced.

Shining cheered and punched the air. “Yes! Thank you, Gaffer!”

“Relaaaax,” Gaffer said, settling in on a cushion on the other side of the cave system diorama from the majority of the seating. “It’s your birthday. Every guest should feel welcome to such a grand party!”

I sat, and watched the banter between them. Clearly, Shining Armor looked up to Gaffer but Gaffer respected him and as the rest of their friends arrived I could see that Shining was their leader in a different way. The charismatic center of their group.

“Time to dive in, no more mortal names,” Gaffer said dramatically as Shining passed us each a plate of pizza. “I am the King of Ravens. A mysterious alicorn that guides the mission that this group of ponies has embarked upon!”

He gestured to Pocket Protector, an earth pony colt with a silvery coat and vivid black and white mane. Pocket swallowed the pizza he’d already started eating, and cleared his throat to put on a strange high pitched whining voice, only to bark out a single word.

“Smash!”

“Smash the barbarian, a pegasus fueled by his rage, seeking to avenge the slaughter of his tribe,” Gaffer intoned, serious despite the comical tone of Pocket’s character.

Then Gaffer gestured to 8-bit, a brown pegasus with a shock of barely tamed pale blue mane, who sat up proudly.

“Startwist the Bearded,” the beardless colt said firmly in a cultured voice. “A unicorn stallion, whose life work was stolen by that dastardly Starswirl! He even copied my beard! So I am seeking to make my own legacy outshine him.”

I chuckled softly, grinning at the idea of a Starswirl imposter who was trying to outshine the original. But then Gaffer pointed to me.

“Ah, I’m Diamond Flight,” I said proudly, glancing down at my character sheet. “A pegasus mare, who is sworn to protect an ancient kingdom that has been lost. So I seek to become strong enough to rediscover the lost kingdom I call home.”

Gaffer beamed in approval, and the boys all tapped their hooves in applause. It was new, exciting, and they didn’t question it.

“And finally, the cleric who heals their every wound, and guides the group to victory,” Gaffer said, as he gestured to Shining.

“I am Winston the Wise,” Shining said, putting a hoof to his heart and bowing his head. “I am a cleric of the Sun, bringing Celestia’s light to even the darkest caverns.”

Cute. For some reason I found his character cute. A healer, a priest, and all of it focused around Celestia. I wanted to ask why exactly Celestia existed in this fictional world we were playing in, but I had a feeling it wasn’t my turn to talk.

“So, this late evening as our trio makes their way through the Fenngroves of Eramdas, they hear the sounds of fighting, through the trees,” Gaffer said, pulling out a piece of cardboard that had grass printed onto it, placing a pink stone on it, and then a few small figurines of timberwolves around it.

“Near the entrance to the Eramdas caves, a scene of pitched combat, a singular pegasus backed against the hillside with a pack of timberwolves closing in. Diamond Flight, what weapons do you use to defend yourself?” Gaffer asked me, his tone intense and urgent.

I liked his storytelling prowess. It was far better than the way my mother recited dry facts and figures from history. It reminded me a bit of my father’s way of entrancing me with history, when he’d still been alive.

“Well, since Timberwolves are likely vulnerable to fire,” I pondered aloud.

“You might know that, but does Diamond?” Gaffer challenged. “How many points did you put into Knowledge Nature?”

I distinctly remembered, as I created my character, imagining that she’d spend a lot of time out in nature hunting for the Crystal Empire, I mean ‘Gem Kingdom’ since her parents didn’t chain her down like a precious jewel waiting for someone else to do the hard work. But I checked my sheet.

“Four points…”

Shining pointed quickly to the total column, instead of the ranks column.

“Ah, six total.”

“Then go ahead and roll a d20, that’s one of these, to see how much information you know about this particular monster,” Gaffer said, his smile an approving one.

Even though I was new to this, he was excited for me to play, it seemed. I rolled the die.

“Thirteen,” I said before adding my skill total. “Oh, nineteen.”

“Nineteen, very good. Our lonesome adventurer might be far afield, but she knows the threats she faces,” Gaffer nodded. “Diamond Flight, you know that Timberwolves will regenerate and combine to preserve half of their health no matter what, unless they are damaged using magic or fire. Fire does twice as much damage as normal.”

I nodded as I thought, looking at the cluster of five around Diamond on the small green map.

“Then I’ll be defending myself using Eldritch Blast, rather than my bo staff,” I declared. “Focusing on dissuading them before taking flight to avoid their claws.

Once I’d pointed out I could fly, the drama of the situation seemed a bit lessened, but Gaffer still kept it up.

“The unknown pegasus blasts the Timberwolves with energy drawn from the air around her, as the trio come into range to possibly help,” Gaffer restated. “Everyone roll initiative.”

The combat was brief, with Smash’s magical hammer obliterating the enemy one by one, and Startwist tossing small fiery projectiles at them. Once it was done, and combat was declared over by Gaffer, it seemed only natural that the group approached Diamond to introduce themselves.

“Some fine spellcraft on display, madam,” 8-bit said dramatically.

“Winston gently pushes Startwist aside,” Shining said, rolling his eyes. “Are you injured, stranger? I’m a healer, and take no charge for my services.”

“Only slightly,” I shrugged. “Hardly worth the effort, I think it’ll heal on its own. More importantly, what are you three doing out here?”

“Ah, our newcomer is suspicious that the trio might be in search of the same thing she is,” Gaffer commented, nodding in approval. “A wise assumption.”

“Moneh!” Pocket shrieked, making 8-bit wince next to him.

“Startwist gently bops Smash on the head with his staff,” 8-bit said quickly.

“Eh! It’s true! Shinies in caves, taken by nasty cultists, we take back, get money!” Pocket pouted.

“Yes, it’s true, but did you think she might be one of those cultists,” 8-bit scowled at him.

I blinked at that, and looked to Gaffer.

“Those cultists, in fact, are the ponies you’ve been hunting, suspecting that they are responsible for your plight,” Gaffer said, quieter than most of his declarations but still loud enough for everyone to hear.

I huffed, sitting up tall.

“Far from it, fine strangers! I am seeking to put those same ponies out of their misery, for a wrong they’ve done to me. If you hadn’t come along I would have gone into the caves myself!”

“Then it’s fortunate we’ve come across you,” Shining said, his voice gentle as he bowed his head. “We have information and maps which could aid you in your mission. Perhaps we could even see this done together. Hooves working in concert are often more effective than those alone.”

So Diamond Flight joined their crew, which I later learned had taken to calling itself ‘the Local Favorites’ so that they could tell ponies on their travels that they were the ‘local favorites of Canterlot’ and give the impression that anyone actually knew who they were.

After breaching the defenses of the cave system, and making our way deeper beneath the earth than my adventurer character had ever gone, much less myself, the Local Favorites found time to recover in a hidden cave.

“Aaaand one more cure light, total is… oof, seven healing to Smash,” Shining groaned.

“Only down by one, I’m fine,” Pocket shrugged before putting on his shrill voice. “So, newbie! Where’s your magic from!”

“You don’t just ask a spellcaster where their magic comes from,” 8-bit sighed dramatically. “It’s uncouth at best, and discriminatory towards Necromancers at the worst!”

“What’s a necromancer?” I asked Shining.

“A mage that raises the dead as zombies or skeletons, mostly,” he replied quietly.

I smirked and looked back at 8-bit.

“Ah yes, what a terrible shame if we were to discriminate towards necromancers, hm?”

8-bit stuck his nose in the air, and put a hoof to his chest.

“I believe all magic is inherently powerful to the world, and thus good. That is the teaching of my god, the King of Ravens,” he said.

This was the first time I’d heard of Gaffer’s character actually being mentioned, so I looked to him, but he remained silent, smiling.

“How much do I know about the King of Ravens?” I asked him.

“That would be a knowledge religion roll,” he offered.

So I rolled, and got a total of twelve.

“The King of Ravens is an alicorn god of mystery and mists, his goals always hard to guess at, but his reach curiously short,” Gaffer told me. “He seems mostly occupied with storytellers.”

“Makes sense for an imitator,” I chuckled, glancing at 8-bit.

“Startwist the Bearded, an imitator? Bah,” he replied with a grin.

“Well… My magic, if you must know, comes from a bond that I have with a lost kingdom,” I said as I looked down at my character sheet, mostly to avoid looking at them. “My family are descendants of the royalty of that kingdom, and I seek to bring it back from it’s unjust banishment, and restore it, with or without my leadership.”

“I like her,” Smash said, and I could see how he used the shrill voice to differentiate what was said by Pocket or his character, starting to think of them all as their characters more firmly for the purposes of the game.

“A noble goal,” Startwist nodded. “The magic of so many ponies missing from the world, it’s a crime against magic itself!”

Winston didn’t comment, though he nodded towards me, sympathetic.

It felt incredibly odd to openly discuss my family’s secret. Well, it wasn’t truly an open discussion, but it felt so bare and real, compared to an entire lifetime of keeping it buried.

“Do I know anything about a banished kingdom,” Startwist pondered, rolling a die and glancing at his sheet. “Knowledge Arcana, twenty two.”

“The King of Ravens has never discussed it, because it wasn’t his story to tell,” Gaffer bowed his head. “But in your research you have come across mention of ways to obscure a section of land. Some of them, in theory, could be used to send an entire city to another plane of reality.”

In the fictional world of the game, it was easier to let the questions be more vague. It was easier not to fret over the details of King Sombra, a monstrous stallion capable of twisting ponies into following his will, or how the Crystal Empire’s return would also bring him with it. I could just imagine it was a simple problem that could be solved with a spell if only it could be figured out.

That was the first time I felt the benefits of escapism.