The sun began to set as another average day in Equestria began to close. As other ponies began to close up shop and head home, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were waiting by the Wondercolt statue with growing impatience. "Where is she?!" Dash complained as she paced around the statue. "She's always on time Rainbow. And we are 15 minutes early." Fluttershy pointed out. "I know that, but this is gonna be huge! We finally found more people to play, she's gonna be so excited!" Dash insisted to her timid friend. As the two talked, a spark appeared at base of the statue. It slowly grew until it evolved into a full sized portal to cross over into another world. From the portal Sunset Shimmer emerged on her unicorn form to the delight of her friends, a bag tossed over her back. "Hey girls!" Sunset yelled, embracing her Pegasus friends. The unicorn found that while the Mane 6 of her world were still a little wary of her presence, the ponies had no such reservations and welcomed her openly, specifically Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. The 3 met on one of Starlights visits, and had bonded over, among other things, a secret love for DND. Sunset agreed to come trough every week and the 3 quested together, with the human Twilight enlisted as Dungeon Master for the party.
"So are you guys ready to play? I had Twilight cook up something good for this week." The unicorn said as they started towards the castle. "Uh, actually Sunset, me and Fluttershy had something change since last week." Rainbow began. "Change?" "Well, we were talking about the next quest and our friends sort of heard about it." Fluttershy explained. "And it turns out their super into it!" Sunset stopped dead. "Wait, are you saying what I think you're saying?" "Yeah! And me and Flutters have a bet going. If I'm right and they can't beat the dungeon on the first try, Fluttershy has to use her gold to buy me new armor, any set I want." Rainbow said. "And if your wrong?" Sunset asked. "If she's wrong and they beat the dungeon in one try, I finally get to make our characters a couple!" Fluttershy said proudly to the unicorns amusement. Throughout the quests this had been a common theme: the two pegasis characters growing closer and closer until they were best friends, emulating real life. This was to the point where the characters were soul bonded, something only characters of true friendship could become. It boosted both Rainbow and Fluttershy, but if one died so did the other. And ever since the bond, the timid Pegasus had been trying to make the characters a couple. "And you agreed?" Sunset exclaimed. "Sure. If it makes her happy or whatever. But I know I'm right so it'll take a little more than that." Rainbow said, confident in her stance.
"Alright then. If that's the bet than as the impartial third member of our crew, the bet is made. Let's go find out who wins." Sunset said, leading the way into the main room of the castle where the other 4 ponies sat. They were joined by Spike, who was lecturing them on basic rules of the game, and Starlight Glimmer, who quietly sat next to Twilight because she didn't have a chair. "And that's how status effects work. Now, moving on to weapon durability-" Spike continued, earning an audible groan from the table. "Uh, thanks Spike. I'll take it from here." Sunset assured the dragon as she set up her DM stuff. "Whatever you say." The dragon said, hopping off the table and wandering off. "Thanks for that sugar cube. He really got off on a tangent." Applejack said. "It sounded like he got really in depth?" The fiery unicorn asked. "He did! Just not in a way any of us understood." Pinkie explained as she fidgeted in her chair. "Alright, then with your best interests in mind, I'll give you the abridged version. Dungeons and Dragons is a game where you make your own characters and they go on quests in an imagined world. The story is told by someone called the Dungeon Master, in this case me, and they decide how the story changes based on the choices the players make. You fight monsters and find treasure and do all kinds of cool stuff. When you do something good, you get experience, when you get enough you level up and your character gets a little stronger. Status effects are a thing, but what you need to worry about is your health. In this game you have health, and when you take damage it lowers your health. When your health reaches 0 you die, and if no one in the party has a resurrect spell, your permadead, no redos or get outs." Sunset explained, startling the others. "So you just can't play anymore?!" Twilight asked. "Yup. And that's why Fluttershy used her attribute points to learn resurrect. Saved our flanks plenty of times." Rainbow agreed, patting her friend. "Just doing my job." Fluttershy giggled, blushing at the attention.
"Ok girls, so now you're gonna make your characters. You start with 10 attribute points, which is just +1 for any stat you want. Give your character a little backstory and we'll get started." Sunset said, trying to guide her friends along. "Since were in your world, you can pick any of the 3 kinds of ponies, any class you want." "What did you guys pick?" Twilight asked as she scribbled something down. "It's kind of a lot of ground to cover since we've played for so long, but I'll give you the basics. I'm Sunstrike, a pyromancer unicorn, Fluttershy is Bella Sol, a pyromancer/healer Pegasus, and Rainbow is Stormbringer, a elemental paladin alicorn." Sunset explained. "Wait why is she the only Alicorn?" Pinkie Pie asked. "Because I'm the princess of the Sky Kingdom!" Rainbow declared. "That was an old storyline. All of us wanted to be princesses, but only Dash wanted to be an Alicorn. I'm princess of Fire and Flutters rules the Sun Kingdom. All the light touches is my Kingdom and all that." Sunset hastily explained. "You guys can't start as princesses though. Later in the game." The unicorn said. As the others filled out their sheets, Sunset noticed Starlight taking notes. "Do you wanna play Star?" The fiery unicorn asked. "Oh, no being a Dungeon Master sounds way more fun. I'm taking notes so I can do that." Starlight explained. "Oh cool! Just try to watch, you kinda pick it up as you go." Sunset said.
After a few minutes the players hand Sunset their character sheets for a quick rundown. "Alright Guys. So for this quest, we have Twilight as Sparkalus, a unicorn mage with high magic and who gains stat buffs by reading?" Starlight read off to the Alicorns pride. "I tried to keep it realistic." Twilight said. "Oh come on Twily, that's no fun! Be creative!" Pinkie declared as Sunset read the party ponies sheet. "Pinkie, you're sure this is the character you want? You can change it." "Absotively!" Pinkie agreed. "Ok. Pinkie as Craig Buckets, an earth pony vagrant with laser vision and all of her attributes in intelligence, for some reason?" Sunset read. "It gives me psychic powers!" Pinkie declared. "Fair enough. And Craig is armed with...Pinkie, what in Celestias name is the Butter Knife of Inconvenience?!" The DM exclaimed. "It doesn't do any damage, but I give it to an enemy and he needs a turn to try and butter his toast! And when it's your turn we roll to see if he butters it! If I roll higher he has to wait another turn, if you roll higher he can fight." Pinkie happily explained. "That's...actually pretty clever." Sunset admitted. "Rarity is playing as Marrias, a dress merchant assassin with investment in stealth, dexterity, and persuasion. She had hidden blades in all her dresses. So your a ninja?" The posh unicorn nodded happily. "Even beautiful things can hurt dear Sunset." "Creepy. What you said was creepy." Rainbow assured the unicorn as Sunset reached Applejacks sheet. "And last but not least we have AJ as Thornbush, an earth pony nature mage with investment in magic, attack and honesty." "What does honesty mean in the game?" Twilight asked. "It basically lets Applejack know if someone is lying at base stat. The more she upgrades, the harder it is to lie to her because she gets to roll bigger dice than the liar. And if it's maxed out she can just force you to tell the truth without needing to roll." Sunset explained. "Alright girls, time for your first dungeon. And remember, Dash and Flutters have a lot riding on whether or not you win."
The unicorn said, looking up and realizing no one knew what she meant. "Did you not mention the bet?" Sunset asked, turning to see the Pegasi frozen. "Well it wasn't important until now!" Rainbow exclaimed as Fluttershy hid her head in her wings. "I'll explain. Fluttershy said that you guys would be able to beat the dungeon in one run without either everyone dying or needing to summon us to help you, which Twily can do if she reads enough books and levels up fast enough. But because this game is brutal for beginners, and because the first dungeon I ever made was insanely hard and it took Dash and Fluttershy 2 almost deaths to win, Rainbow said you'd either die or summon us before finishing the dungeon. If Rainbow is right, Fluttershy has to buy Rainbow new armor, as expensive and awesome as she wants. And if Fluttershy is right, she gets to make good on a romance between Bella and Storm that has been developed by both of them but never acknowledged since day 1." Sunset said, piquing the interest of the party. "Well don't stop there, how did it happen?" Pinkie demanded. "Don't tell the whole story, we'll be here forever!" Dash pleaded to no avail. "So when the game first started Fluttershy was new and scared she was gonna die really fast, so to calm her down Dash made a blood pact to protect Flutters. That's super serious, because if Fluttershy has died, the pact would have been broken and I could have killed Rainbow on the spot for failing the pact. First try, Fluttershy gets down to like 3 health before Dash saves her, and the second try Dash almost dies against the boss but Fluttershy saved her at the last second. They keep playing, they get to be friends, sparks start flying, I try to push them together but it doesn't get there, then all of a sudden Rainbow almost burns up trying to enter the Fire Kingdom, Fluttershy soul bonds and saves her, and now it's just a matter of Rainbow letting it finally happen!" Sunset explained. "And you don't want that to happen?!" Applejack asked. "Kind of not? It's a character thing!" Rainbow insisted. "Well in spite of your 'character thing', I intend to finish this and give Fluttershy what she wants!" Rarity declared, and the rest of the party agreed. Fluttershy peeked out of her wings and smiled. "Thanks girls." "Alright, now that that's settled, let's get this show on the road!" Sunset commanded as the game began.