"Roll to hit!" Alejandro called out to Mort.
The earth pony grabbed his d20 die with his mouth and tossed it onto the table. He then looked at his character sheet for a few seconds. "Does a 17 hit?"
"That beats his armor class, roll damage!" The jack said with a smirk.
"I'm gonna use a defensive flourish on this attack." The earth pony said before he once again rolled a few dice and looked back at his character sheet. "That's… 13 piercing damage, and I gain a +5 to my armor class."
"Alright, so Mort. With rapier in hand- sorry I meant mouth, you gracefully thrust your weapon into the zombie's head. Despite the gruesome act, it had long lost any fluids it once carried, which kept you clean from any blood." The donkey then rolled a d20 and looked at his papers behind the makeshift DM screen. "And just like that, the undead earth pony collapses onto the floor of the abandoned town." The three friends were enraptured in their session of dungeons and dragons, it was late into the night as they played their game. But when it finally came to an end, they all shuffled to their rooms to rest for the start of their weekend tomorrow.
Everyone in the trio were night owls and would probably wake up around lunchtime, but Alejandro was cursed to burn the candle at both ends, which left the jack as the only one of the three to wake up around the same time a normal pony would. "I should probably clean the kitchen, we didn't really pack up before getting some shut-eye." the donkey said to himself as he got out of bed. After fixing his blanket over his mattress, Alex made his way to their kitchen. It was ten days after they were given their housewarming party, and they started to settle in a bit more. "Man, it's starting to get kinda hard to keep these things interesting with only two players…" Alex said to himself as he picked up his campaign papers and DM screen. His mind started to wander as he thought about his other friends. 'I wonder how they're doing. Were they looking for us? Did they think we're dead?' These were thoughts that passed through Alejandro's mind, and caused his eyes to water. A knock at the door caught Alejandro's attention while he cleaned. The donkey dried off his tears before he went to answer the front door.
"Hello, who's there?" Alex said through the front door.
"It's me, Applejack." the familiar voice said.
"Applejack?" Alex said, confused. He quickly opened the door to talk to the earth pony face to face. "What do you need?"
"Well… ya see… I've made a bet with my brother and I could use some help…" Applejack hesitantly admitted to the donkey.
Alex took a moment to realize what the bet was. "I uh…" the donkey was sweating heavily as he realized that Applejack had asked for their help instead of Twilight's. It didn't help that he felt like Applejack had done so much to help them, that he couldn't just refuse. "I'll be honest, the others are gonna be asleep until lunchtime, and I'm half asleep. I'll help you, but you might need some extra help since I'm still recovering from my fractured rib."
"Oh, that's ok you don't have to help. I was thinkin' of asking Twilight." Applejack said with a half smile.
"I'll help the best I can, it's the least I could do. But it would be a good idea to get Twilight for some more help." the jack said with a half-hearted tone.
Alex was mostly silent as he walked with Applejack into town. Applejack knew the jack and stallions weren't very talkative so she didn't try to push him for conversation. Although the earth pony noticed once they passed by Sugarcube Corner, the jack would tense up and constantly keep an eye open for something. She chuckled at the sight, he probably just wanted to make sure he didn't get caught by Pinkie Pie. She would hear from the pink pony and white unicorn that the three were notoriously hard to find and talk to while in town. The two stopped at the front of the library.
"I'll wait right here." Alejandro said to Applejack.
"Alright, I shouldn' take too long." Applejack responded.
To say Alex was frustrated, would be quite accurate. He was caught in a rock and a hard place. If he didn't help it would be a bad look for them to Applejack, but now he had to keep from Twilight digging up something with any questions at the same time. Not to mention still feeling tired and having to keep the timeline similar.
"So you three are from Canterlot too?" Twilight asked the donkey.
"Yeah, we are." Alejandro responded without having looked back to Twilight.
"Oh wow, I'm surprised to have never heard of you three." Twilight said with a surprised tone.
"It's a big place, and we're nobodies, so that's not a surprise." the jack said dismissively.
"Nobodies? You three helped save Equestria!" Spike said with enthusiasm.
"Let's just focus on helping Applejack." Alejandro said with a breath of finality to the conversation.
Alex was relegated to help pick up and carry the apples Applejack and Twilight gathered. As the unicorn and earth pony were hard at work, and the baby dragon sat on Twilight's back, Alex's mind once again wandered to other things. It still surprised him that he only had a single fractured rib from having blocked those attacks from Nightmare Moon. He was lucky he could have survived one of them, perhaps it was thanks to Dark's magic? It couldn't be, since it seemed he wasn't able to cast a shield properly, and his magic shouldn't have been strong enough to block those attacks. The donkey was forced back into the moment after Applejack spoke up.
"Alright, that should be enough." The farm pony said aloud to the others. "We can start headin' back bout' now." Applejack waited for both Alejandro and Twilight to move closer before she spoke again.
"Thank ya, kindly you two, for helping me out. I bet Big Macintosh I could get all these golden delicious in the barn by lunchtime. If I will, he's gonna walk down Stirrup Street in one of granny's girdles. Hehe!" Applejack said to the donkey and unicorn.
"No problem at all Applejack. I'm glad the goal was lunchtime, all this hard work is making me hungry." Twilight responded with.
"I know right!" Spike said as he tossed one of the apples he had examined onto the unicorn's head. Immediately after Spike gave her an innocent smile.
"Please Spike! You've been lounging on my back all morning while we worked!"
"Exactly! You three were taking so long, I missed snack time!"
Just as Spike responded, Twilight's stomach growled. "Ahaha, I guess we better get some food." The unicorn said lightheartedly.
"AHA! Spike called aloud as he pulled out a large and juicy red apple from Twilight's basket.
"Oh Spike! That looks delicious!" Twilight said as she eyed the perfect apple in Spike's claws. In that instant, Spike ate the entire apple with one bite. "Spike!" Twilight called out annoyed.
Spike swallowed the apple before responding with "What?" The dragon quickly held his hands to his mouth before he burped up a green flame, then finally into a letter.
"It's a letter from Princess Celestia!" Twilight said.
In that moment Applejack walked to be next to Twilight as Spike read out the letter. Alejandro on the hand simply stood to the side of Spike, looking unphased by everything around him.
"Ahem. Hear ye hear ye, her grand royal highness, Princess Celestia of Equestria is pleased to announce The Grand Galloping Gala, to be held in the magnificent capital city of Canterlot, on the 21st day of…huh, yada yada yada… Cordially send an invitation to Twilight Sparkle plus one guest." Spike announced to the group.
Both Applejack and Twilight gasped and said the same thing at the same time "The Grand Galloping Gala!" The two jumped up and down with excitement as they repeated themselves again.
Both Alex and Spike stood there completely uninterested in the topic at hand. Spike then burped up two golden tickets. "Look, two tickets!" Spike called out as he grabbed them as they fell.
"Wow! Great! I've never been to The Gala! Have you Spike?" Twilight asked the baby dragon.
"No, and I plan to keep it that way. I don't want any of that girly frilly, froo froo nonsense." Spike said dismissively.
"What about you Alejandro?" Twilight said after she rolled her eyes at Spike's comment.
"No." The jack responded simply.
"Why?"
"Too rich for my taste."
"Too rich? What do you mean?"
Alex couldn't hold back his opinion on the matter and responded with an actual surprising amount of enthusiasm and conviction. "The kinds of peo-ponies there either were born into wealth or desperately want to marry into wealth. Those kinds of ponies always seemed to hold some kind of sense of entitlement or superiority over the working class. They are shallow and snobbish, not to mention how they got their wealth is-" the jack stopped mid-rant to see Applejack, Twilight, and even Spike stare at him with wide eyes. "...long story short, I've never been and have no interest in doing so."
"Come on you two, a dance would be nice!" Twilight said as she tried to lighten the mood.
"Nice? It's a heap good, more than just nice! I'd love to go! If I had an apple stand set up, ponies would be tryin' our vittles till the cows came home! Do you have any idea how much business I could drum up for Sweet Apple Acres? Why with all that money, we could do a heap of picking up round here. We could replace that saggy old roof, and Big Macintosh could replace that saggy old plow, and Granny Smith could replace that saggy old hip! Wow… I'd give my left hind leg to go to that Gala." Applejack said as she went into a rant.
"Oh, well in that case, would you like to-" Twilight couldn't finish her sentence as a voice interrupted.
"Whoa!" was what the voice said before Rainbow Dash revealed herself when she crashed into the two mares talking.
Alex let out a sigh of relief as he remembered to stay close to Spike and avoided another injury to his still broken rib.
"Are we talking about the Grand Galloping Gala!?" Rainbow Dash said as she laid on top of Twilight and Applejack.
"Rainbow Dash!" Applejack said, frustrated, "You said you were too busy to harvest apples! What were you busy doing? Spying?"
"No, I was busy napping." Rainbow Dash said as everyone looked up to see where she had slept. "And I just happened to hear you have an extra… ticket?"
"Yeah but…" Twilight started, before once again being interrupted.
"Yes! This is so awesome! The Wonderbolts perform at the Grand Galloping Gala every year! I can see it now… everyone would be watching the sky, their eyes riveted on the Wonderbolts, but then it would fly… Rainbow Dash! I would draw their attention with my Super Speed Strut, then I would mesmerize them with my Billy Flash, and for my grand finale the Buccaneer Blaze! The ponies would go wild! The Wonderbolts would insist my signature moves be incorporated into their routine and then welcome me as their newest member. Don't you see Twilight, this could be my one chance to show them my stuff! You've got to take me!" Rainbow Dash said as she also went into a rant.
"Just hold on, one pony picking minute here!" Applejack said as she dragged Rainbow Dash away from Twilight by her tail. "I asked for that ticket first!"
"So? That doesn't mean you own it!"
"Oh yeah! Well I challenge you to a hoof wrestle! Winner takes it."
Almost instantly the two mares found a tree trunk and began hoof wrestling to decide the ticket.
"Girls!" Twilight said as she separated the two mares "These are my tickets, I'll decide who gets it, thank you very much. Whoever has the best reason to go should get the ticket don't you think?"
"Drumming up business for the farm!" Applejack responded to Twilight with.
"A chance to audition for the Wonderbolts!" Rainbow Dash also spoke up while she moved closer to Twilight.
"Money to fix granny's hip!"
"Living the dream!"
"Oh my… those are all pretty good reasons aren't they." Twilight said as she lowered her head from a lack of confidence.
"It's pretty obvious who has a better reason in my opinion…" Alejandro said under his breath as he looked toward Applejack.
Twilight's stomach began to growl "Haha… listen to that. I am starving. I don't know about you, but I can't make important decisions on an empty stomach. So… I'll think about it over lunch and get back to you two - okay?"
"Okay" both mares agreed reluctantly.
As Twilight was about to leave Alejandro walked up to her to speak. "Hey Twilight, since you're gonna get food and probably think about who's getting that ticket of yours… Do you mind if I take Spike with me? Me and my friends are playing a game and we need another player… and since you might be really busy and you're his guardian… what do you say?"
Twilight looked unable to think properly due to an empty stomach, but tried to nonetheless. "Um, I mean I guess not, but you'll have to ask him what he thinks." The unicorn finally responded with.
"What do you say Spike? Do you want to join us?" the donkey said as he slowed down to be face to face with Spike.
"Hm… what kind of game?" the baby dragon asked Alex.
"It's a tabletop roleplaying game called Dungeons and Dra- I mean… Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons… uh 5th edition." the jack explained to the dragon.
"Oh, is it similar to Ogres and Oubliettes!?" Spike said excitedly.
"Uh… I think so? It might be an off-shoot of it, but it probably has a different rule set." Alejandro said as he tried to not arouse suspicion.
"Well sure! I'd love to! I've always wanted to play O&O but never had enough friends to play with!" Spike said as he jumped onto Alejandro's back.
The donkey buckled from the sudden pain in his rib, but stayed upright. "A little warning next time you do that…" is what the jack said before he gave a sheepish smile to the purple dragon.
"Ah… sorry about that…" Spike said as he rubbed the back of his head.
As lunchtime rolled around, both Dark and Mort woke up and got ready for the rest of the day. Dark was confused to find that Alejandro wasn't home at the time, usually he would be the first one awake and would have started to set up the things for D&D. Instead it was Dark who had to help Mort out of bed due to his daily struggle of having to learn how to walk again. After Dark helped Mort, the two scavenged for food in their refrigerator, only to find it basically empty, say for some orange juice.
"I wonder where Alejandro is." said Mort as he sat down at the table where they played Dungeons and Dragons.
"Not sure, just hope he doesn't get into any trouble." Dark replied slightly worried that he might have gotten mixed up in something Mane Six related.
Not long after the two started waiting around for any sign of where Alex was, the front door opened up to reveal Alejandro with multiple bags in his mouth… along with a familiar baby purple dragon on his back. The two stallions stared at the donkey as he carried the bags to the table and dropped them off.
"Alright, I brought snacks and drinks and of course I got lunch for us all." Alex said with an upbeat attitude.
"Um, Alex…" Mort spoke up as the jack started to unpack the bags "I think someone is on your back."
"Oh yeah, this is Spike, not sure if you remember. He's gonna play with us today." the donkey said without missing a beat.
"Alex." Dark said with a disappointed tone.
"Yeah?"
"Can we talk to you upstairs?"
"Uh… I guess so. Hey Spike, just take a seat and wait for us to get back yeah?" Alejandro said to the baby dragon.
"Alright then." Spike said as he climbed off the jack and onto a nearby chair.
The trio made their way upstairs and into the guest room, since it was the closest room to the stair.
"So what's up?" the jack asked sincerely.
"Why'd you bring Spike?" Dark asked, genuinely confused and slightly disappointed at the donkey.
"I want Spike to be more mature, and I thought that if we could talk with him, he could grow up to be a more responsible person. I mean… Twilight couldn't even decide that being able to pay for a medical procedure to replace a bum hip is more important than someone trying to crash a flight show at the Grand Galloping Gala… oh shit…" Alex ranted before realizing he left out an important detail.
"Wait, Grand Galloping Gala? Alex, did you interfere with the timeline again!"
"...Maybe."
"What did you do!"
"Applejack knocked on our door and asked if we could help with that bet about getting apples so Big Mac would have to wear a girdle around town…"
"...Alex…"
"I didn't really have a choice! We owe a lot to Applejack! I couldn't just turn her down! Besides I made sure we needed to go get Twilight and Spike and I avoided that ticket like the plague!"
"I get that you wanted to help Applejack… but you still stole Spike from Twilight."
"...To be fair, he wasn't really doing much in that episode besides being comic relief and annoying Twilight, I think she is better off by herself at the moment."
"...Maybe, but still, you really need to make sure you stay out of the plot! Next time at least talk to us beforehand."
"Alright…I'm sorry."
"Ok, is there anything else we need to know?"
"Oh yeah… so it's not Dungeons & Dragons, it's Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons."
"...What?"
"He asked the name, and I felt like saying Dungeons and Dragons would be… weird? He also brought up something called… Ogres and Oubliettes?"
"Oh yeah… it's kinda like Dungeons & Dragons in this universe, but it's quite a bit different."
"Ah ok… well… let's eat some food and play some D, D, & More D yeah?" Alex said jokingly.
"...That's a good idea." Dark and Mort both agreed.