Bon Voyage! - My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: the Role Playing Game

## My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: the Role Playing Game

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### Bon Voyage!

Synopsis

Bon Voyage is an introductory scenario designed to introduce My Little Pony to your players. It starts with the PC’s at the very beginning of their careers, when they leave their homes to establish themselves in a new town to practice their special talents. As strangers in a new town, the pony characters will have some difficulty getting their businesses up and running until they are given a chance to help locate a missing colt. After finding the colt, the local ponies will be much more accepting of the newcomers.

Prologue

The day has finally come! The pony characters recently had their cuteceaneras, where they celebrated getting their cutie marks. Now it is time to leave home in search of a town where they can offer their talents for the benefit of everypony. The PCs departure is an affectionate and respectful going away party thrown by the pony’s parents. It takes place on a brisk spring morning, under a beautiful clear sky.

Our young ponies are gathered in a small clearing with their families and friends. Everypony will be full of concern and be asking questions and offering advice.

Their parents: "You should cover up, dear, the mornings are fresh and you could catch cold out in this weather."

Their friends: "What town are you going to live in? Close to the beach? Will there be fashionable shops?"

Curious and friendly neighbors: "Aren't you afraid to leave home and strike out on your own like this, towards the unknown?"

The pony characters should get to know each other at this time, some of them may know each other already, they may be family, friends, etc. Give the players time to present their PCs to each other and do a little role play to get into character.
Remember that if the pony characters have any pets, they will be there as well. Encourage your players to play the pets according to their personalities as well, some pets will be happy to leave, others not so much...
After the players have had some time to get into character and introduce themselves to everypony, let them know that it is time to depart if they plan to reach the next town before dark. After some difficult good-byes, the ponies should take their leave.

The Journey

The pony characters start off towards their as of yet unknown destination. As the PC’s travel along, their good-natured conversation is interrupted by a rapidly developing storm. It begins with a strong headwind, blowing dust and leaves about and making it difficult to keep going. None of the ponies had any idea the pegasi had planned a storm for today; they are all taken by surprise. Soon strong rain and wind will force them to take shelter in a small wood.
Any pegasus pony will be forced to land and seek shelter along with the rest of the group, with the wood hardly visible under their feet. After a hurried landing (and a flying competency roll, difficulty +1, a failed role will result in a minor wound), the pony characters should find themselves some shelter quickly. It's going to be a long wait and the temperature is dropping. The pet with the most disagreeable character will let his/her displeasure be known.
One of the pets will smell an enticing aroma coming from the woods and rush off, which should prompt the ponies to give chase. If none of the ponies have any pets, simply entice the PCs with the aroma, hopefully prompting them to investigate it on their own. Following the wayward pet, the ponies discover a small timber house in the middle of a clearing. White smoke rises from the chimney. There is no doubt it would be a perfect place to take shelter against the storm.

Fresco and Tempura

The tenants of the house are Fresco and Tempura, a couple of unicorn sisters who are both artist. Fresco has a long, russet-red mane and tail with a lighter red coat. Her cutie mark is a paint brush crossed with a pallet knife. Fresco will invite the characters in introduce her sister. Tempura has long forest green hair and a lighter green coat, her cutie mark is a paintbrush next to a paint pot. The small house is a veritable mess. The sisters are not neat freaks, they are artist. Interesting paintings of animals, ponies, and scenes of the country side are everywhere and there are piles of fabric and paint supplies scattered about.
Fresco will offer the PCs a good cup of tea with milk and honey, while Tempura will offer up a little food for the pets. Both ponies are astonished to see the PCs in the forest in middle of the storm. (Let the PCs explain why they are traveling.) Fresco will ask a lot of questions about the PC’s reasons for being here, where are they going, what do they plan to do, etc… Because Fresco has traveled about the Equestria a bit, she is in a position to give some advice on where the ponies might want to go.
The characters will be able to learn that sisters came to the woods to for the peace and to paint in serenity. They came from a sea side town called Marami, not too far away, and both of them go to town a lot to attend the races there. If the characters question them about Marami, they will both say that that it is a very pleasant place to live.
It would be wise of our ponies to rest here until the storm passes, even if space is rather limited. In the morning, the weather is nice and Fresco and Tempura will see them off and wish them good luck, inviting them to drop in and visit from time to time once they have settled in.

Arriving in Marami

Our Ponies should set out for Marami, which sounds like a good place for the ponies to establish themselves. After half a day’s travel, they will see it. The smell of salt water, the sun, seeing everypony busily occupied about their business. The place seems ideal! Try to fill them with wonder by describing this new atmosphere: ponies surfing, markets and stores, fillies and colts playing, etc. The local ponies will greet the newcomers with amusement, curiosity and/or surprise.
Marami is a good size town located on the south eastern coast, boasting a beautiful tropical climate most of the year, and a fabulous beach. Marami is a great tourist destination for ponies from all over Equestria, from Manehattan to Canterlot and everywhere in between. There is a marina on the south end of the beach, and a spa resort on the north end. The main town lies just to the west of the beach and has a variety of boutiques, shops and other services for both local and visiting ponies, including a “magic” shop specializing in antiques, old books and potions. The town also has a library, a school and a large central park and fair ground. Around the outskirts of town are both lemon and orange groves maintained by the local ponies. The town’s mayor is Mayor Lemon.

Finding a Place to Stay
After a rapid tour of the town, the characters should start searching for a place to stay. The ponies can either seek common housing or individual residences. As the ponies start to look, have them bump into Mayor Lemon. She knows everything that goes on in town and can recommend them to a few places that are available.

Several possibilities are available to the pony characters:

1. An attic in a house belonging to a very pleasant old earth pony mare, Granny Knot. Butterfly Knot also lives at the house. The two are part of the large Knot family, who make ropes for sail boats and rodeo and a variety of other purposes. Butterfly Knot will want to hear all about the new ponies and the story of how they came to Marami. The two ponies are so kind they will not ask any rent for the attic. Granny Knot will be excited by the prospect of young, energetic ponies bringing a little excitement and joy back in her old house. The house is located near the south end of town, near the marina and the Knot family workshop.

2. A couple of bakers, Short Dough and Sour Dough, offer to rent a small addition on their house for a moderate sum, or a pony might work in the shop to cover rent. It’s located on Marami’s north side and has a view of the ocean. The odor of fresh, very hot bread is a sheer delight, sure to whet the appetite in the morning. They have a couple of family members that help out at the bakery, a mare named Cookie Dough and a filly named Sweetie Dough.

3. On the west end of town, there is an old house about to be torn down. It belongs to the Lemon family, but they don’t need it anymore because they have built a new house out at the orchard. With a little persuasion, the Mayor may allow the characters to take over the old house. The house needs a lot of work, but is very roomy. This is a good option if there are a lot of pony characters and you want to keep them all together.

Home Sweet Home

Give the players time to settle, and start to organize their new residence. You can use a few small events to make their moving in more interesting. Perhaps the ponies need to go in search of furniture, or they may have problems with the plumbing or lighting.
It is important for our Ponies to make themselves known, and especially to show what they are cable of. Let them come up with ideas to promote themselves to the ponies about town. The possibilities are endless, door to door, bill boards, megaphones, etc. Our ponies should spend a few days in despair, waiting to see if anyone comes to request their talents or buy their wares, when...

A young couple seeks out the ponies

One morning, a young earth pony couple will come knocking at the door of one of the ponies. The Mare, Flakey Chip, is in a panic: their colt, little Splinter, disappeared while he was playing in the park, not far from here. Flakey Chip is asking everypony if they have seen Splinter or if anypony will help her search for him. Her husband, Sylvan Chips, is mostly silent, but his wide-eyed expression and fidgety manner show he is just as worried as his wife is.
Flakey Chip will describe Splinter for the PCs, he is tan in color, with a dark brown mane, and he always wears his favorite yellow hat. Splinter is still a blank flank meaning he has no cutie mark yet. The young mare begs our PCs to do everything in their capacity to find her colt. It goes without saying our ponies should jump at the chance to assist the unfortunate couple.
What happened: Splinter was playing in the park with the other colts and fillies while his sister and parents talked nearby. Splinter saw a bright gold balloon skim above the park, and intrigued he decided to follow it which led him away from the park. He then followed it through a small wooded area and across the road on its continued journey, until he arrived on the beach. He was there for a while in the company of a group of other little ponies who were having fun releasing balloons filled with helium. The little ponies later moved on to play other games and eventually Splinter ended up at a lemonade stand on the north end of the beach. He is there now, unaware of the concern he has caused his parents, he's just having a good time with his new friends.

In The Park

Marami’s large central park is calm and shaded. There is a pond, several well maintained lawns, public benches, an exercise track and a playground. There is activity here all day, the place is always crowded. While searching here and there for signs of Splinter, have the characters make a perception check against their mental attributes. If successful, the pony characters can find the colt’s yellow hat in the bushes on the east side of the park. Finding the hat has an easy difficulty level.
Following the direction from where the hat was found, the PCs will pass through some light woods, and once through they will see the balloons that are being released by the beach. Let the players follow the balloons and they will end up finding a clue. By the time they get to the beach, the balloon releases will have stopped. There is a young filly nearby who saw Splinter. She is very timid but a magic trick or some other type of gentle persuasion should get her to talk. It’s best to let the PC’s role-play convincing the little filly to talk, but if needed you could have them make a social attribute check at an easy difficulty level. Once the PCs convince the little filly to open up, she will tell them that Splinter left with some other colts and they all headed up the beach.

At the Beach

While searching along the ocean side, the ponies will learn from a band of blank flanks that a colt matching Splinter's description was with them for a little while, but he's not there anymore. They know where he is but will only agree to tell the characters on one condition: The characters must beat the blank flanks at a game of ring toss. The blank flanks, all colts, are mockers but not malicious. They will tease the PCs a little.

Ring Toss

The game is very simple: each participant has 5 rings which she must toss towards a target made up of a stick planted in the sand of the beach. If the ring falls around the piece of wood, the player makes a point. The team that makes the most points wins. There is the same number of colts in the group as there are pony characters, so everypony will get to participate in the game.
In game terms, the character makes 5 die rolls against her reflex attribute, plus her play ring toss talent, if the character has one. The difficulty is hard, +2 but it can be increased if the character is distracted, for example if the colts are making fun of her and her chances of success! The colts all have reflex scores of 3, but each colt also has a play ring toss talent level 4.
Once the characters have won a game (they might be obliged to cheat by using their talents or magic), the colts reveal what they know: Splinter followed two of them that went to get some lemonade at a small stand not far from here.

The Lemonade Stand

The pony characters will find Splinter there on the terrace, in the company of Half-Pint and Small Fry, two colts who know him. He is drinking lemonade and has one of the gold colored balloons tied around his hoof. When the PCs approach him and tell him his parents are worried and looking for him, Splinter will be totally surprised, he’s been so caught up in just having fun he completely forgot about his parents. “I better get back right away!” he yells and then he will rush off the terrace, knocking over his lemonade (possibly splashing one or more of the PCs…). He rushes across the beach, and not paying attention to where he’s going runs right into a sandcastle, wrecking it.
Bulldozer and Browbeater

The sandcastle Splinter crashes into is being built by two disagreeable pegasi, Bulldozer and Browbeater. The two have a reputation as beach bullies, and are visibly upset about the destruction of their sandcastle.

As the PCs rush to catch up, the two bullies start in on Splinter; “Hey watch where you going, you clumsy colt!” says Bulldozer. “Yeah, what do you got four left hooves?” ask Browbeater.

“I’m sorry!” says Splinter, “It was an accident.” Bulldozer will then reach over and pop Splinter’s gold balloon, saying “Oh yeah, well that was an accident too!” As the two bullies laugh, Splinter will argue “You did that on purpose!” at which point Bulldozer will push Splinter down while Browbeater kicks sand at him, saying “What are you going to do about it?”

At this point the PCs should be close enough to intervene on Splinter’s behalf against the much bigger bullies. The pony characters can either try to appeal to the bullies to leave Splinter alone, or they can try to face down the bullies. Getting Bulldozer and Browbeater to leave off requires a social attribute check at an improbable difficulty (+4). Trying to face down the bullies will result in a bout of hoofticuffs.

The bullies aren’t used to having anyone stand up to them, so if hoofticuffs ensues give the PCs an easy difficulty bonus to their initiative checks. Also, like most bullies, the two pegasi don’t have any real heart for a physical confrontation. Both bullies will bow out of the fight after only one hit apiece.

Once the bullies are defeated, they will apologize and head off down the beach. The PCs will now be able to escort a much calmer Splinter back to his parents.

Getting Splinter Home

The ponies should bring Splinter back to his anxious parents, who will be overcome with joy and will drown the PCs with their thanks. Splinter’s father, Sylvan Chips, is a cabinetmaker by trade and will offer to make the ponies a beautiful sign out of wood, painted to decorate the front of their residence or shop. The news of the PCs help and success will quickly spread around town, and the characters new businesses should take off.

Experience:

For finding Splinter: 2 pony points
For winning at ring toss without cheating: 2 pony points
For stopping the bullies without resorting to hoofticuffs: 4 pony points

The End

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