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>>154800She sprints after him at full tilt. How should I roll this?
>>154801Probably strength. Maybe attack. If attack, Base attack bonus plus strength bonus
>>154802Unarmed attack, nonlethal.
>the last thing 'Mustard Trim' sees[1d4+2 = (2+2) = 4]Hold on, shouldn't I roll 1d20 first for hitting? This is actually my first in-game combat, whew >>154803Wait. You need a 1d20 attack roll
>>154811Success! Now he needs to be secured. Sadly she didn't bring rope like any citified filly would do, but she does have a bedsheet and that will work in a pinch.
>>154812"AMBER!"
The creature protests. Amber has it by the neck, on its back
>>154813Is it possible to choke it out nonlethally or does Amber not have the skills for that?
>>154814That requires special skills.
>>154815Then instead she drags him to her room, trying not to let him escape.
>>154816"What in Tartarus are you doing?"Amber has a grip, but not so thoroughly
>>154817"Sterp stergring er Uh'll het ya ergain!" she threatens, her mouth full of his mane as she half-drags, half carries him to her room. For such a small mare she sure is strong. And crazy, very crazy.
>>154818"Ahhhhhhhhh!" He thrashes around
But then...
From a side office, out crashes a fat, older griffin.
Guido"I DON'T KNOW IF YOU ARE FIGHTING OR FUCKING, BUT YOU WILL NOT DO IT IN THE COMMON AREAS AFTER MIDNIGHT!"
>>154819She is in awe of the size of this lad, fatly walking around the corner towards them. She tries to keep hold of Mustard's neck as she spits out his mane.
"HE'S A CHANGELING!" she yells out to him.
>>154820Mustard:
"No I'm not!"
Guido:
"
Not my problem if the stallions you bring home at night are changelings! You do not fight or fuck them in the public areas after midnight! Go into your apartment, go to a hotel, go to the streets, but you get out of the common areas!"
Guido has serious anger in his eyes
>>154821'Tis a shame it's not 11:30, that would have been a fun time in the hallways.
In any case, even when fighting for your life and the lives of others you don't argue with a 300-pound griffon bearing down on you. Amber yells out,
"Sorry!" with the most genuine terror she's felt since five minutes ago. Just before she does so, however, she attempts to buck Mustard's impostor on the plot as hard as she can, to finally get 'him' across her threshold.
>>154822You’ll get ‘em next time, little ponyWhimperWell, Amber’s at minimum got him to the stairs.
Guido folds his forelegs, looking over at Amber, clearly satisfied in having protected the integrity of the common areas
>>154824So she wasn't successful in
foalnapping trapping a dangerous subversive in her room?
>>154827She gets him to the top of the stairs. But up there, she fails to get him inside
"Amber?! What the fuck!"
>>154828She stands lower on the stairs, her body visibly shaking, sweat dripping down her coat, and her face a crazed mix of fear, rage, and betrayal. But she has ceased her assault, for even changelings are a preferable threat to the wrath of Guido.
"YOU. What did you do to the real Mustard?" she demands.
>>154829He appears to have tears running down his face, and he is gritting his teeth.
"What? Why are you doing this to me? What did I do?"
>>154830"To you‽ I loved you so, then you sized me up and tried to kill me, or worse, foalnap me or fill me with eggs. Tell me, when did you replace him? Was it before we even met?"She looks to be gulping for air and is on the verge of collapse, her own tears falling onto the cold hard steps?
>>154828"I didn't do any of that!"
He says frustrated
>>154832"But you m-must have, you would have!! Th-the thing...leering! I'm gonna tell your 'ma'! I'll tell the po-lice! I'll tell...I'll tell....urgh...." Her babbling voice grows faint and she slumps to the floor, her limp body falling down the stairs. She blacks out utterly and she won't be able to recall anything until she wakes up again.
On that note, I need to sleep myself. Thank you for pulling off that fun twist, it turned predictable wish fulfillment into fulfilling my wish for an unpredictable game.I'm looking forward to playing tomorrow, I'll try to start earlier from now on. >>154833>>154834The light of the hallway is not as intense as the light of Amber’s room, though it carries the same obnoxious yellow tinge. Or maybe that’s just his fur. He does not wear Amber’s blanket, nor his own black jacket, nor the shirts he’d wear the work. Amber instead sees a scared little colt with reflective, watery blue eyes, and a mouth that hangs open. He looks right at her with kicked-dog expression she seen him wear when he’s assigned the worst section, and is made to serve the patio and large families of Diamond Dogs that demand everything and tip nothing. But not like that time he was told he needed to work an extra hour to help clean up before he could go meet Amber at the club Maurice. He had a look of excitement as he suffered through that.
“I’m not a Changeling” he says, in a voice that was not expected to persuade.
There is a single beat
“You could have just said ‘no’, rather than do…
this”
He walks towards Amber in a fast, deliberate pace, closing his eyes and trying to pull to Amber’s left side.
Whatever dangers Amber May have expected or feared, whatever traps or tricks may have haunted her imagination, they do not come to pass. Amber has succeeded in scaring away he who came for her love. He does not look at her, and indeed stumbles abs almost trips down the stairs as he passes, evidently because he refused to look at wear her was going. He would rather go downstairs and brave the wrath of Guido. He would rather go outside, and brave the streets of a bad neighborhood of the city - or perhaps return to family who will only castigate and humiliate him for the moral failing of attempting to sleep with a filly. He would rather do all of these things than remain up there by Amber for another minute. The jacket he came with is conspicuously absent, evidently abandoned in Amber’s room.
>>154835Poor Mustard lolAnd if this is his experience, who could blame him? It's enough to make one swear off dating and become an eternal bachelor, content to stay in one's room with the cold safety of illicit magazines and pinup posters.
Amber does not see him pass by, her unconscious, defeated form sprawled on the floor with her mouth hanging open and her mane unkempt once again. When and where does she wake up?
>>154836> It's enough to make one swear off dating and become an eternal bachelorSadly, very few colts learn the first time. He'll be back at it again.
Took me two women and four years to learn my lessonAmber experiences nothing for an unknown period of time. No sight nor sound, no thoughts, emotions or sensations. It's exactly like being dead, really. And she likely wished she were when she hears something:
"
What? Did you think you could pretend he pushed you down the stairs to the police? We saw the whole thing and he did not touch you. And the police are not coming. If the police come in one of your love spats, you will not be getting your deposit back. Do you hear me? If you get in a fight with your lover here, do it in your room and do not damage the walls."
>>154837Amber opens her eyes, her vision initially blurry. She slowly tries to stagger to her feet.
"Wha…" she stammers.
>>154839"S-sorry…" she murmurs as she leans agains the wall/railing and half-crawls up the stairs. At the top she examines her body to look for anything seriously wrong or unusual.
>>154840Her leg kind of hurts from falling down the stairs. Guido stands there with a very ruffly looking grey earth pony stallion who is a bit older
>>154841But nothing else? She limps back to her room, her head hanging low under their judgmental stares.
>>154842No. She's fine. Hard to tell if her soul has been sucked or not though.
>>154843She turns on the lights and looks around the room, trying to piece together what happened between the time her guest had first turned the lights up to now.
>>154844There is a blanket on the floor by the door, and Mustard Trim's jacket is hanging from the bed. The sheets on her bed are disrupted.
>>154845Unhurt…untouched…he didn't take anything but just ran away…The enormity and truth of the situation just strikes her, and she feels like ripping her own mane out. Amber just drove that colt out of her life, for good, not gradually due to natural incompatibilities but because of her own hysteria and foalishness. It feels like she made the biggest mistake of her life and her eyes well up with tears. She picks up his jacket and inhales his scent one last time before diligently cleaning and folding it.
>>154846He does indeed have a distinct, equine scent that lingers in the jacket. Perhaps she won’t be disappointed. She remains alone in the yellow light of the empty room.
She can hear the sound of air moving through the vents, of somepony talking next door, and of an automobile passing by outside.
>>154847Changelings can't copy smell.That smell only fills her with longing, but she has thrown away a great treasure and there is no getting it back. She thinks bitterly about Mustard married with Aster Spring in the future, posing with their beautiful children that could have been hers.
She deserves him better anyway. She's going to college, she reflects.
What time is it thereabouts? Once she finishes smoothing out the creases on the jacket she tidies up her room.
>>154848Like 12:15. Barely any time has passed, if her clock is to be believed.
Three beautiful pink and yellow foals, looking out over the bay as waves crash against the rocks. Amber is alone in a dingy apartment.
>>154849She sniffles as she finally gets back into bed, cold and alone underneath her blanket. She thinks she can still feel the imprint where Mustard was lying down, and laments her horrible tendency to jump to conclusions.
>>154850>>154851She remains alone in her bed.