But suddenly...WORLDBUILDING!
Many, many years ago, the goddesses were not as you know them now. They were in fact mortal, much like you and me. Well, not so much like me…because they were ponies… They weren’t even Alicorns! But they were the keepers of the Elements of Harmony and the best of friends.
But then one day, a HUGE, multi-colored comet passed pretty darn close to Equestria. It took everything that the Princesses Celestia and Luna had to keep it from crashing right into the castle. Everything was fine then, right? Wrong! The comet must’ve been magical because it re-released Discord! Discord was mad… He attacked the castle with his new army and nearly destroyed Canterlot! Luckily, Twilight and the others were able to kick him out, but then he just moved to another city, then another, and another! They chased him all over Equestria, until there was nowhere left to run… Then, he went TO THE MOON! I know, right? Craziness!
Well, Twilight and the others were able to follow him there with Luna’s help, and they fought a HUGE and AWESOME BATTLE! Well, I can only assume it was huge and awesome, since I wasn’t there… But you could totally see flashes and stuff from here. It must’ve been epic!
When they returned, they were completely changed into the Alicorns you know them as now.
From here, the story changes depending on whom you ask:
Twilight: We destroyed him. Completely. I’m not entirely sure what went wrong…or right… We used the Elements, just as we had time and again, but something was different… Instead of turning him to stone, like it had before, or stripping him of his powers, as with Night Mare Moon, it…ripped him apart… Tore him limb from limb, his magic was the only thing holding him together at one point. Then he shattered. It was as if he was made of glass. Then we got covered in his…magical residue…and we became the alicorns you see before you.
Fluttershy: I…I’m not sure what happened. We didn’t mean to kill him. He must’ve been in so much pain… If only there was something we could’ve done. I…I had to close my eyes and shut out the sound of his screaming… When it was over, he was gone and the rest and I were turned into alicorns, like the Princess. But I still feel like we failed.
Pinkie Pie: We were fighting Discord! BAM POW! WHOOSH! Then we used the Elements of Harmony! FOOM! But it didn’t turn him into a statue! Nope! It blew him up! We got all covered in this magic-y stuff and we were turned into half-pegasus-half-unicorn-half-earth pony-half Princesses! Whee!
Rainbow Dash: So, yeah. I totally beat Discord. The other guys were totally on the ropes, and Twilight was all like, “We can’t do it! He’s too strong!” And Applejack was all like, “Ya’ll ain’t just whislin’ Dixie,” or something like that… And of course, Fluttershy was all scared and stuff… So I leapt in there and beat up Discord and saved Pinkie and Rarity from being eaten. So then I told everypony to use the Elements of Harmony, and we completely destroyed Discord. Then, the impossible happened: I became even more AWESOME! Oh, and the others got changed into Princesses, too…
Applejack: I’d rather not talk about it… *sigh* Fine, but keep working. If ya’ll got time to talk, you got time to work. So, yeah. We went up to the Moon to fight Discord. Things started goin’ pretty bad for us. He was way stronger than the last time we fought ‘im. It was like trying to wrangle a bull stampede with one hoof tied behind yer back. But we all dug deep, and using the power of our friendship, we beat Discord once and for all… Ya know, I like bein’ a Princess and all, but…occasionally, I can still hear him…Discord. In my dreams, ya know? *shakes head* Enough! Get back ta work!
Rarity: It was simply awful! It seemed as if Discord would stop at nothing this time to destroy the kingdom. We knew that we had to stop him, but I wasn’t expecting to fight him on the Moon, of all places! The battle was long, hard, and exhausting, but we somehow made it through. Discord on the other hoof…didn’t end up so well. Well, that’s the understatement of the century, isn’t it? I’m pretty sure he’s…dead. We all saw him explode in a shower of sparks. Twilight Sparkle says that his leftover magic is what made us what we are now. Is that a good or a bad thing?
TL;DR - Discord was destroyed by the Elements of Harmony, which is something that's never happened before. When he was destroyed, his magic was transferred to the Mane 6, transforming them into alicorns.
Give the world the best you have and you will get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.
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Excellent question!
The population at large knows Spike's expanation. It was a pretty big event.
As for what actually happened on the moon, the students know only what their teacher has told them (unless they've spoken to the other teachers, but that's unlikely). Celestia and Luna have heard reports from all of the Mane 6. They are glad that Discord has been destoryed, but are slightly concerned that it was his magic that gave them their power.
Eight Star also knows that Discord has been destroyed in an Obi-Wan Kenobi kind of way. He felt Discord's Chaotic magic shatter, then return to Equestria in six pieces. Being smart and logical, he knows that Discord's magic powered the Mane 6.
But, luckily for the Princesses and the population at large, the Mane 6 have yet to go completely off their rockers. Their personalities haven't changed, they just don't hang out with each other as much anymore. (That's kind of a plot point. I don't want to go much further into it than that.)
I'll leave it up to the characters if they want to inform each other what their teachers has told them, or whether they even choose to believe any version other than their teachers'.
And while I'm here, I should explain another game mechanic that's kind of important: Life Karma
Rolling new characters every time one dies is a long process. It gets old after a while, so Eight Star (the troper, not the pony)introduced the Life Karma mechanic. Life Karma is basically like extra lives, but it works slightly differently. It works more like a "Retcon Button".
For example:
Luckily, Quill has 3 Life Karma. As he's the only pony in the party and there are no NPCs around to heal him, he spends one Life Karma to un-kill himself.
Story-wise, what happened was instead of the manticore tearing open Quill's midsection, he struck a mighty blow to Quill's leg, disabling it. The battle continues. (Hopefully Quill knows a good healing spell.)
So you see, as far as anypony in the party is concerned, Quill never died. Using Life Karma is kinda something that is used out of character. Since the ponies' primary deity, Princess Celestia The Eternal, loves all of her little ponies, Ponies recieve Three Life Karma.
There are rules:
- 1: You only get Three Life Karma. There is no way to replenish Life Karma or increase them beyond the maximum. Use them wisely.
- 2: If your character's Soul is destroyed, you cannot use Life Karma to bring yourself back. (This probably won't happen during the campaign.)
- 3: If you use Life Karma, Equestria's God of Death (Incidentally, it's Hades) has a certain percentage chance to notice and "mark" you. (Since you basically cheated death. 30% to be exact) When you are "Marked", Hades can send his agents to find you. Your character will "feel an evil presence watching them". No other characters will notice this, since the God of Death does not target the living.
- 4: In the event of a Total Party Kill (which can happen in the campaign), every character must use one Life Karma to continue. For the sake of simplicity, the "Noticing Roll" will count as one roll for all characters.
edited 12th Mar '12 8:35:18 AM by KarlKadaver
Give the world the best you have and you will get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.Of course, if you go by hard-core rules, it's a single role per life karma used and each time another gets used, the 30% goes up by 5 points, making it harder to cheat death.
Fortunately, Equestria is not watched by TwV's main deity of Death. He's scary and unforgiving. Hades has been known to make deals with those who wish to be saved, (at least there were some times in his mythos.)
edited 12th Mar '12 8:46:46 AM by EightStar
TimewarpVortex - Role-Play Without MercyYOU DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING
edited 12th Mar '12 9:15:04 AM by Jimmmyman10
Go play Kentucky Route Zero. Now.OH MY THAT TOOK 5 TIMES AS LONG AS I THOUGHT IT WOULD
Any advice for me?
Also, I turned your important magical temple into a college. I am no longer too scared to do anything.
edited 12th Mar '12 3:38:05 PM by Jimmmyman10
Go play Kentucky Route Zero. Now.
I got a good laugh from your post. Well done.
A couple things, though (not all that huge):
I don't mind that you roleplayed Spike, since it's your opening post and all, and it wasn't overly plot-relavant (even if he was slightly out of character). However, try not to roleplay characters that are initially controlled by the GM.
I like the magical checklist.
Overall, you're doing a good job of roleplaying.
PS: Your vision of the Temple of Magic (specifically, the students) is pretty much what I imagined a school run by Twilight Sparkle would be like.
Give the world the best you have and you will get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.
I liked yours as well.
Your posts don't have to be overly long. As long as you get across what your character is doing. I like multi paragraph posts (they help to tell the story) but I don't mind one-liners.
I'm sure that some of the battle posts won't be much more than, "[Name of Pony] charges to attack the big guy." That's really all I need.
I have a question, though: Are you planning for Sonic Dash to be a regular character?
Note: If anypony hasn't noticed in the RP, I'll be responding to the characters in order that they post.
How's it working so far?
edited 12th Mar '12 8:54:17 PM by KarlKadaver
Give the world the best you have and you will get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.Okay, thanks!
I wanted to play spike out of character, considering he is really old by now. But I can try to avoid that next time!
Also, FIRST PERSON TO TAKE DAMAGE
A HA HA HA HA
I WIN
Go play Kentucky Route Zero. Now.![]()
You are correct. Once you are all together, I won't be responding to each poster individually. Fluttergod (like that name, by the way) is speaking about all the animals she's been in contact with in the past few days (mostly the ones around her cottage). I'm sorry for any confusion.
It's cool. As long as you have a good reason.
edited 13th Mar '12 10:36:10 AM by KarlKadaver
Give the world the best you have and you will get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.I put a reference to strange weather patterns in my post. I hope that it is in keeping with the "Equestria behaving strangely" thing that we seem to have going. But if it isn't, they could be perfectly natural — Dust has some interest in weather, but he's no weatherpony or expert.
edited 13th Mar '12 2:37:06 AM by Carciofus
But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.
That's not a problem. Maybe I'll use the bobbing clouds for something plot-wise.
Be aware that the world isn't acting up to an extreme extent. We're a far cry from chocolate rain, checker board ground, and soapy roads. Most ponies woulnd't notice that anything is wrong.
Suddenly...WORLDBUILDING: Chapter 2
So...I mentioned that the Mane 6 are no longer hanging out, but I didn't really get much more into their personalities than that, did I?
Twilight Sparkle decided at once to emulate her favorite teacher, Princess Celestia, and create a school dedicated to teaching magic. She was the first of the new alicorns to have a temple dedicated to her. In the 200 or so years that passed, she's become something of a shut-in, more or less reverting to her pre-Ponyville self. Spike remains her ever-faithful assistant. He's grown quite a bit in the past 200 years. He's not a full-grown dragon by any means (since that means he would have to give in to his greed). He more or less has the appearance of a gangly teenager. Although he has a fairly impressive hoard of...stuff...he's been able to keep his greed mostly in check.
Rainbow Dash was the second to have a temple dedicated to her. After becoming an alicorn and the self-proclaimed "Slayer of Discord", she essentially "took over" Cloudsdale. She doesn't rule with an iron hoof, but she is pretty tough, and kinda mean. She's become an Expy of Commander Hurricane, the past leader of the pegasi. She has no plans to take over Equestria...yet.
Rarity devotes most of her free time to setting fashion trends all over Equestria. She still takes requests for dresses (old habits die hard). She rarely does work pro bono anymore.
All Pinkie Pie wants to do is have fun. The Temple of Laughter was intended as a place where ponies could learn to throw the best parties ever, but many of her lesson can be applied to "real life" as well, and she suddenly gained a fairly decent-sized following. Truly, a case of Ice-Cream Koan Gone Horribly Right.
Applejack is the only one who'd tell you that she was unhappy being an alicorn. As she's a bit closer to earth than the other ponies, certain aspects of being a "goddess" have taken a toll on her. Who Wants to Live Forever? has definitely come into play as she's watched all of her immediate family grow old and die. "T'aint natural... Mah decendants should be buryin' me, not th'other way 'round..." She works to distract herself. She's also the only alicorn who doesn't use her wings or horn on a regular basis.
Fluttershy didn't even want a temple dedicated to her. She doesn't like the attention that she gets now that she's an alicorn, but she takes it all with a smile on her face. She sees that she's helping others (and, of course, the animals), so she's making the best of her situation. Her personality is largely unchanged.
Oh my. I feel that I may have accidentally brought about more questions than I have answered. If anypony has questions, feel free to ask.
Edit: You may have noticed that Eight Star made his own Training rolls. I occasionally forget about this. As Eight Star is co-GM and knows more about the gaming system than I do, I'm letting him make his own training rolls. If anypony else would like to train their skills, leave a note here in the discussion. I may even let you roll your own dice (if you have it, you can also find dice rollers online)
edited 13th Mar '12 6:41:49 AM by KarlKadaver
Give the world the best you have and you will get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.

edited 11th Mar '12 2:27:20 PM by Carciofus
But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.