A/N: Thanks for feedback. Enjoy a new chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own Freedom Call or their music. Yes, this is still a story about ponies. I'll explain later.

Chapter 6

Hoof to the Head

Four young mares stood together in a tunnel, their ways forward and backwards blocked by canine-like beasts. Flute R'Shye stepped towards the enemy first, despite her quaking knees. "Um, excuse me," she was very quiet, "Could you please, um, move? We really don't want to-"

The diamond dog she was addressing raised a paw and swung down hard at the forest pony. Flute stepped to the side, barely avoiding being clawed. Her barbarian friend scowled and scraped her hoof against the floor of the mine again. She growled, "Hey! That wasn't cool!"

Reyna flapped her wings once to help her leap high into the air, almost touching the ceiling of the mines as she did so. At the height of her jump, she lunged down at the diamond dog that had attacked her friend. Her hooves made a loud cracking noise when they hit the cave floor, just barely missing her target.

"I missed?"

Rainbow Dash was surprised. She looked over her character sheet and then back to the board, making sure that she didn't look over any details. Frustrated, the pegasus asked, "How'd I miss? I'm a totally awesome baddie-bashing machine and he was right there! I shouldn't have missed."

Roller pointed to the die she had just rolled and explained, "You rolled a five. You need at least a twelve to hit this enemy. That's how you missed," he yawned before continuing, "You can attack again next round. Believe me, you could have done a lot worse than just miss."

"Like what?" Rainbow asked, still a bit frustrated at the situation. She felt an odd chill go up her spine as Roller smiled to himself and let out a low chuckle. "Like what, you ask," he stated in a gleefully malevolent voice, "Just wait until somepony rolls a one."

The four young mares looked to each other before one of them spoke up. Pinkie raised a hoof and asked, "Is it my turn now?" to which the author just nodded. Picking up her character sheet, Pinkie thought for a second before telling the others...

"I'm gonna sing a bard song..."

Pin Kay sat down and lifted her guitar in her front hooves. With a cheerful expression, she started stomping her hind hooves on the floor and sang out, "Hooves up high, Oh warriors of light and carry on a thousand times your forever lasting ride," she then started strumming the strings of her instrument and allowed her voice to echo through the caverns, "Land of Light! The glorious unite! Oasis for a thousand lives! Forever we'll survive!"

"Pin, what are you doing?" Twin Star asked, "We're in the middle of a battle! Now is not the time to..." she was suddenly distracted by something deep inside her. The sorceress could feel a sudden rush of energy and her body seemed to glow with a mysterious light. Flute and Reyna noticed a similar feeling coursing through their veins. Twin Star muttered under her breath, "What the hay?" before being shaken from her thoughts by the bark of a diamond dog.

Acting on instinct, Twin Star ducked under her enemy's swing and jumped back. "Hey!" she shouted, "Back off! I'm a unicorn sorceress, don't think I won't cast a spell on you!" She then got an idea, "In fact..."

The light shining from under her hat turned bright purple and the air around Twin Star began to warp. Her brow creased as she concentrated and her nerves strained under the pressure of her own magic. The purple pony could feel her horn begin to spark and she told the others, "I need a little time, but I can end this fight if you hold them off for a little longer."

"You need time? You've got it!" Reyna assured her, "We'll keep these mutts distracted while you- OOF!"

The last diamond dog stepped up and charged into the barbarian with his shoulder. The savage pony stumbled back and barely managed to keep her balance. Her eyes went crooked for a second before she shook her head and her vision returned to normal.

"..and that cost you four Horse Points."

The ponies all looked at the dice that the host had just rolled. Rainbow Dash rubbed her head with one hoof and asked, "Uh, what's a Horse Point?" before searching the piece of paper in front of her for those words. Roller shook his head and gave a tired look.

"It should say 'HP' somewhere on your sheet," he told her, "That stands for 'Horse Points' and they're basically a measure of how healthy you are. If you have a lot of HP, you can take a few scrapes and bruises before it really effects you. If not, you can't. When they reach zero, your character passes out."

Rainbow Dash found the spot on her sheet that Roller described and commented, "Hey, I only have sixteen of these things! You're taking away four? That' like," she looked up for a minute before stating, "A quarter of my health! How hard do these dogs hit? Aren't I supposed to be the toughest pony in the group?"

"You are," Roller said bluntly, "Nopony else has more than twelve. I can guarantee that without even looking at their character sheets," he than raised a hoof to his chin in thought. After a little while, he added, "In fact, if I've done my math right, you're as tough as a new adventurer can possibly be. That's actually kind of impressive for a new player."

The blue pegasus smiled and said, "Well, I am pretty awesome," as a proud smile appeared on her features, "I wouldn't be surprised if I won this game tonight. You shouldn't be either."

Twilight rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to tell her friend that the game wasn't played that way. Though she didn't know it, Roller fought that exact same temptation. Before either pony could give in to it, they heard a quiet voice...

"So, It's my turn again. Right?"

Flute R'Shye stood face-to-face with a diamond dog of considerable size. The forest pony took a deep breath and, right before the monster's eyes, disappeared behind a cloud of butterflies. The beautiful insects swirled around him, nearly blinding him with the brilliant light reflecting off their wings. He was in such awe, that he could do nothing but stare at the whirlwind of colors that now surrounded him...

...Until Reyna's back hooves collided with his head. With a loud "BAM!" the monster felt his enemy's kick and tumbled to the floor. The dog lay there with no knowledge of which way was up and his vision filled with stars and chirping birds that only he could see. "Next time," Reyna was quiet, but suddenly started shouting, "DON'T ATTACK MY FRIENDS!"

Pin Kay continued her song, "We're standing on the edge of time, riding to the stars and we never will surrender, lonely knights we are!" She started jumping around the tunnel, spinning on occasion as she did so, "And we fly into the open sky, gliding to the stars! We are standing strong together, but still they seem so far!"

One of the diamond dogs lunged at the bard, but she evaded his grasp. As she danced and spun her way across the battlefield, the creature grew more and more frustrated. Finally, the both of them stopped moving when they heard Twin Star shout, "Okay! It's ready! I cast Freezing Wind!"

The light from Twin Star started fading and a cold gale rushed through the mines. Reyna, Pin and Twin Star seemed completely unaffected by it. The same could not be said for the two remaining foes, both of whom soon found themselves encased in several inches of ice. With her spell cast, the sorceress fell to her knees and took to the task of catching her breath. "Whoa," the barbarian whispered, "Cool."

The cloud of butterflies swarmed into the shape of a pony and then flew off, leaving Flute R'Shye standing where they once were. She smiled and walked over to Twin Star asking, "Are you okay? That was a pretty big spell you just cast."

"I'll be fine," was Twin Stars answer. The four adventurers gathered together in the middle of the tunnel as Pin Kay put away her guitar. The bard giggled, "That was fun. We should fight monsters more often."

"Pinkie Pie... er... Pin Kay, you didn't do anything," Reyna complained, "All you did was dance around and sing a song about light. What gives?"

Pin Kay laughed, "That's called a bard song, silly," and then explained, "When I play a song like that, everypony on our team gets a boost. That's why Twin Star's spell was so powerful, your kick took down that bad guy in one hit and Flute..." her voice trailed off, "Flute, what did you do?"

The forest pony blushed and said, "I told you guys I did things with animals. That includes butterflies and things like that. I'm magic, kind of like Twin Star, but my magic is different."

"So then the four of you... four of you..."

Roller's head started to lurch closer to the table before he suddenly jerked it back and tried to shake himself awake. "The four of you got out of my shop and let me get some sleep," the store owner said, looking at the clock. He yawned out, "It's nearly midnight."

Twilight and the others looked at the clock and surely enough, it was about ten minutes until midnight. "Wow, we were playing for longer than I thought," Twilight realized. The others nodded and collected their character sheets before going out the door. Twilight stayed behind and watched as Roller jotted down notes and picked up the remaining pieces of their game. After a minute, the author noticed that he still was not alone. "Can I help you?" he asked, "It looks like your friends have gone home."

Twilight asked, "Well, we didn't finish the game. Are we going to continue tomorrow? When is a good time to come again?"

The author seemed somewhat surprised. "I was sure that you and your friends would hate this," he admitted, "I mean, so few ponies come by the shop that I just didn't think that anypony else in town liked this game. Hay, I didn't even order that many copies of the new source book."

Twilight rephrased her question, "When do you want to play again?"

Roller gave her a curious look. He put away the last figurine before telling her, "Two days from now, after the shop closes. Bring the rest of the party," to which the unicorn nodded.

Leaving the shop, the librarian was met by the cold night air. It was a cloudy night with only a few stars visible, but the full moon shone down on Ponyville despite the weather. It was a calm, quiet walk home that allowed her mind to wander.

Twilight thought about what could have inspired Roller's novels. He said that he'd show her where his stories cam from, but she was somewhat disappointed that all they did was play a game. "There has to be more to it than this," she thought aloud as she walked in her door, "Four ponies playing an old game around a tabletop does not make you write Beopony."

A/N: Yep, I just added power metal (Warriors of Light by Freedom Call) to ponies and role-playing games and all I had to do was alter a lyric or two. If you want to either build a religion around this concept or burn me at the stake for it, I understand. I hope you enjoyed it. Leave a review and come back next week for another chapter.