Chapter 15

Adventuring Party

A Capella and his two companions stood in the Carousel Boutique, admiring the singer's new costume in a mirror. "You do good work, Rarity," he told her, "This should get me on the cover of a few magazines."

Rarity thanked him, "Well, I am the best designer in Ponyville. It's been a pleasure making something for such fabulous ponies like you and your friends."

X stepped between them and said, "Alright, that's enough admiring each other from afar. You two can make googly eyes at each other when we're done meeting with Roller."

A Capella laughed, "Why do you always joke about romance? You can't seriously think that much about it. Can you?"

The young mare winked and told him, "I know you do, AC," and then giggled. Concerto joined in the laughter and after a moment so did the singer. The three stopped soon after they started.

"Um, what was that about Roller?" Rarity asked, "You're not talking about Critical Roller, are you?"

Concerto spoke up, "That's him! Best fantasy writer in all of Equestria, but whenever I say that he says that I'm a bicycle."

A Capella corrected him, "He actually says that you're biased, Concerto. You went to school. You should know that word."

"You can come with us if you want, Rarity," X invited her, "You look like you're into the creative type."

Applejack and Pinkie Pie stood outside the Hobby Horse. Pinkie was her normal, bouncy self, but Applejack seemed worried. "I don't know, Pinkie," she told her friend, "Are you sure about this?"

"Come on! This'll be fun!" Pinkie cheered, "Twilight said that Roller and that X pony were old friends and that she's coming back here later. All we have to do is set up the shop for another surprise party! Let's just ask Roller if it'll be okay."

They opened the door and saw the shop's owner with a broom, sweeping a large pile of dust onto a dust pan. The shop seemed shinier than before, though the owner was covered in a thin film of filth. Roller didn't even look up as he said, "We're closed for spring cleaning. Come back tomorrow."

Applejack cleared her throat before speaking, "Roller, it's summer. You're a little late, ain't ya?"

The author stopped and looked up. When he saw who had just spoken, he quickly finished his task and greeted her, "Hey there, AJ. You and Pinkie need something?"

Pinkie was looking straight down, "Hey! The floor is so clean that I can see myself," then she asked, "What's all the cleanup for, Roller?"

"Because it's either that or," he sighed, "Cutie Mark Crusader cleaning services."

"I was wondering where my sister was this mornin'," said Applejack, "Anyway, we heard that you had some friends comin' over and Pinkie Pie..."

The pink pony stepped between them and said, "I thought we could throw a party. We could get Twilight, Rarity and everypony else in on it. What do you say? Are we gonna party? Or are we gonna PAR-TAY!"

Roller continued sweeping his floor and told her, "Neither. I'm not really big on parties. Sorry, Pinkie Pie."

Pinkie Pie arched an eyebrow and sounded puzzled, "Not big on parties? What kind of pony doesn't like to party? You must be joking," the she smiled and started laughing, "Oh! I get it. You are joking! Good one, Roller."

"I'm not joking," Roller responded in a flat, serious voice, "This is a hobby shop, not a night club. Besides, I've almost finished cleaning the place and I don't want it getting messy again already."

Pinkie's jaw hung open and her eyes went wide. The shop owner seemed to ignore this as he finished sweeping. Applejack stepped in front of Roller and suggested, "Alright, so let's have the party elsewhere. You could still help set it up, can't you? Lots of ponies in these parts would probably really like to meet those friends of yours and you could probably use some time out of this old store."

The gray stallion stopped what he was doing for a moment. He raised a hoof to his chin in thought and looked around the room. His eyes settled on the poster of Horsecules, Beopony and Robin Hoof before he finally spoke again, "Tell me where the party is and I'll get my friends there."

Rarity, A Capella, X and Concerto were walking down the street just as the sun was starting to set. The four had been sharing stories as they walked and Rarity was just getting to the end of hers, "We all wound up at the doughnut shop after that. I can only imagine the expression on Blueblood's face. It must have been priceless."

A Capella and Concerto both laughed as X let out a little cheer. "That'll show him," she smiled, "Maybe next time he'll be a proper gentlecolt. I wish I could have been there, Miss Rarity. Do you think maybe you can put AC in his proper place too?"

Rarity chuckled, "Please, Xylophone, call me Rarity. As for A Capella," she got a mischievous look on her face, "Well, we'll just see. Won't we?"

The singer rolled his eyes, "Oh, please. I am not nearly as stuck up as Blueblood. That guy is more like a peacock than a pony."

They all had a good laugh at Blueblood's expense as they reached the door to the Hobby Horse. Just when Rarity raised a hoof to knock on the door though, an unknown voice came from behind, "There you are! I've been looking everywhere for you guys!"

Rarity put her hoof back down and A Capella let out a sigh. "Oh no," the singer muttered under his breath, "Not him again."

Approaching the group was a lime-colored unicorn stallion with a slicked back black mane. He wore a pair of glasses with gold frames and dark, purple lenses. He spoke very fast as he told A Capella and his friends, "You guys were supposed to be in the park almost an hour ago. Where have you been?'

X shook her head, "Mic, you're the one that changed our schedule at the last second and didn't bother to tell us. How do you expect us to be anywhere on time?" she then turned to Rarity and said, "By the way, Miss... um, I mean, Rarity. This is our group's manager, Microphone. He deserves a right hoof to the head."

Mic scoffed sarcastically, "You're always so charming, XP. Seriously though, you three got press to meet. Now let's go."

A Capella and his two friends followed Mic away from the shop. Concerto asked, "Rarity, could you tell Roller that we're really sorry about this? We'll try to meet with him tomorrow..."

"Wrong," AC stopped him, "We will meet with him tomorrow, even if I have to fire my manager to do it."

Rarity gave a nod as the others continued to walk away. She was about to leave herself when Pinkie, Applejack and her other friends walked over to her from the other direction. "Girls," She greeted them, "What brings you here?"

Pinkie explained, "We couldn't find another place to throw the surprise party for Roller's old friends, but Twilight here thinks she can convince him to have the party at the Hobby Horse. What are you doing here?"

Just then, the door opened and Roller stepped outside. "I though I recognized your voice, Pinkie," he said, "So, where am I leading the old gang?"

Rarity shuffled her hooves and told him, "Um, Mr. Roller, they can't make it tonight. Something came up. I believe they said something about their manager changing everything at the last minute, but they'll come by tomorrow."

The author heard what she said and looked down. "Right," he was very quiet, "They're busy. I understand. N-no problem."

A moment passed by without anyone talking. A cool breeze passed around them, causing Fluttershy to shiver for a second. Rainbow Dash glanced away from the others and Roller seemed to be lost in thought, staring at the threshold of his door.

Finally, Twilight broke the silence, "As long as we're all here and nopony has other plans tonight, I have everypony's characters in my saddlebag. We could play some Horses and Heroes."

Roller's ears perked up and he looked to the others. "We could," he agreed, "If you guys want to come in and just give me a minute or two to set things up then we could continue the campaign."

They all looked to each other and nodded, entering the Hobby Horse on by one. Rarity blinked a few times upon entering and exclaimed, "Look how clean it is! When did you do this?"

The author blushed as he set up the game. He answered, "I kind of closed shop for Spring... er, Summer Cleaning today. There was an... incident after I woke up this morning. I'd rather not talk about it."

"Hey! Roller!" Pinkie got his attention and pointed to the door, "Where did this pony-shaped dent come from?"

The gray stallion blushed and hurriedly finished setting up the game table. He then took his place and declared...

"Hey! Look! The game is set up!"

Six ponies stood in a circular chamber. The only way in or out was blocked by a portcullis and the walls had pickaxes, helmets and other pieces of mining equipment on them. Reyna kicked at the gate, but it stood sturdy in the face of her assault.

"Great," the barbarian growled, "It's too strong. Anypony else have any ideas?

Lady Styles stepped up and examined the gate. It had no locks on it, but the mechanisms that made it open and closed were not attached to the outside of the room. Following a set of chains, the thief found a small, narrow opening in the wall next to the gate in which a metal rod was barely poking out. "Fillies," she addressed the others, but then heard Jack clear his throat in protest and corrected herself, "and Gentlecolt, I think I've found a way to open the door."

Jack approached the lever and tried to move it, but couldn't get a good grip and the gate remained shut. "Shoot!" he shouted, "It won't budge without the rest of the handle. At least that's what I reckon."

Twin star shook her head and told the others, "watch and learn," as her horn started to glow. The lever shook and began giving off a light of its own. After a few seconds, the lever shifted and the machinery clicked, allowing the portcullis to rise. The others gave a quick cheer before leaving the dead end of a room behind them, but not before Flute took a lantern from the wall.

"So, how many more spells like that can you cast?" Jack asked Twin Star, "You do have a limit, right?"

Twin star looked worried as she answered, "I can only use magic like that twice more today, so hope that we don't find too many more dogs. We should get to that door at the top of the waterfall as fast as we can."

The narrow passage they traveled down was dark, but Flute R'Shye's new lantern lit the way. The whole time they were walking, the group could hear the chatter of diamond dogs and occasionally saw movement in the shadows ahead of them. At the end of the passage was a very large, very dark room in which the only noise was that of running water.

"Running Water?" Reyna thought aloud as she stepped into the darkness, "How many underground streams does this place have?"

A dog crept out of the shadows, appearing next to Flute before anyone could act and answered, "Just one," before blowing out the lantern. The sound of running water was drowned out by the forest pony's screaming as the party was completely consumed in the surrounding darkness and several sets of glowing eyes appeared all throughout the room.

"We have to roll initiative again, don't we?"

Roller nodded in response to Rainbow Dash's question. The pegasus picked up her dice and started to roll along with the other ponies around the table. When they had all determined their turn order, Roller announced, "It'll be Pin Kay, Styles, Flute, Jack, Twin Star and then Reyna. Everypony got that?"

Pinkie gave a quizzical look and asked, "What about the baddies? Don't they get a turn?"

Roller gave a slow, diabolical chuckle before he answered, "Oh, they'll get a turn. You just don't know how many there are. I'd rather keep that a surprise for now..."

"...I hope that isn't a problem."

"I've never known a problem that buckin' can't solve," Jack declared, "Let's do this!"

A/N: We are finally back to the role-playing portion of this fan fiction. Seeing as we took a few chapters away from it, how about we spend a few chapters having fun with funky-looking dice? Does that sound good to everypony? I hope so. Leave a review.