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// 4 - Start Episode 2 - BBBFF 
// Story: Roll for Initiative 
// by David Silver 
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Spike hurried for the door of the castle. With any luck, it would be... He opened the door to find a familiar but unexpected pony. "Oh, you're not the delivery pony."

"Hey, Spike." Shining Armor smiled down at Spike. "Good to see you too."

"Hey." Spike echoed the word back at him. "Looking for Twilight? She's up in the observatory." He hiked a thumb in an upwards motion.

"Actually--" He stepped in and his with a glimmer of his horn, shut the door behind himself. "Twilight mentioned you could use a little help with a matter near and dear to my heart."

"Huh?" Spike thought quickly of what it could be. "Are you going to show me some guard stuff?"

"Nah, nothing like that." He smirked a little with the thought of Spike trying to be a proper soldier, as brave and valiant as he could be. "No, this is something I was into long before I even considered being a guard, actually. Come to think of it, you're a bit young compared to when I was when I really got into it, but we'll work past that, no problem."

Spike raised a brow at the larger unicorn. "Sorry, but I have no idea what you're talking about."

A big grin split his face as a collection of books emerged from behind him. "I'm talking about the greatest game of them all!" He started to make a great pile of them on the first table he reached, dice set beside them and a few metal figures going down beside those. "It's time to learn how to play O&O, and you have a master player to help get you in the game." He sat on his haunches and put his hooves together, that grin only getting wider.

Spike wasn't sure what to say. "Oh, uh... thanks? Who..."

"Twilie mentioned she gave you a book a while back." He raised a hoof to twirl it in the air as his grin eased into a friendly smile. "She thought you could use some breaking in. I know it looks complicated, but with the right coaching, we'll have you slinging the dice like a pro in no time at all!" With a glowing horn, he pulled open his bag of dice and started making a row of them. "These are the most important part, your weapons. It start with the humble d4." He lifted a pyramid and wobbled it in the air before the dubious Spike.

Spike gave a slow nod. "Right... so... you've played before?"

His expression turned to shock. "Played before?! This was, no, is, one of my favorite games!" He set the pyramid down and picked up the next. "The d6, standard. Lots of games use this one." Down it went. "D8, D10, D12, D20, and..." He fished out an exceptionally large die from the bag. "My special one, a D100!" It was larger than the others, almost double the size. Shining let it roll on the table where it rumbled under the force of its own gravity. "I mean, you can roll 2 of the D10s, but this is more fun."

Spike extended a lone finger. "That's cool, but are the dice that important?"

Shining tilted his head at the dragon. "Of course. They're how you do anything. They are the difference between glory and the sting of failure! They are the dramatic tension." He kissed his D100, a little peck. "Treat them well, and they may return the favor. Now that we've got our weapons arranged, we can get our soldier."

"Soldier?"

"You know, your character." He pulled out a notebook. "I still have mine. Oh, the adventures we shared..." He set down the book where spike could reach. "I was a brave and stalwart warrior long before I realized I could be one in the real world too."

Spike puffed out his chest and stood as tall as he could. "I'm already a brave and stalwart warrior."

"Heh, so you have a leg up on me then." He pulled free a pencil and a clear sheet of paper. "Let's get you a character, and we'll have you exploring the deepest dungeons in no time at all."

Of course, Spike already had a character, but he wasn't sure if it was a good idea to share that with Shining or not. "Is that what you did?"

"When we weren't climbing impossibly tall towers." He chuckled softly as he touched the pencil to the paper. "Now what sort of character shall we make? There are many exciting classes to choose from! Why, you could be a knight, or an archer, or a devout cleric." He looked Spike up and down. "Those are like priests, with faith-based magic. Pretty cool, right?"

"Yeah..." Spike's voice held only false enthusiasm. "Say, why do you have so many books." He hiked a thumb at the great pile. "I mean, isn't it just one book?"

"The first book is just to get you started!" Shining Armor put a hoof on the pile. "Each other adds new and exciting options. Each gives new ways to customize your character. New tricks, new spells, even new races! Want to be a sea pony?" He nudged two books aside and plucked the third one free. "Here you go! They have it all covered if you have the right book. Or, say, maybe you want to be a master of the forbidden chaos magics." He set that book down and dug out another. "And I don't even have all of them!"

Spike reached for them, running his fingers along their spines. "I never knew they had so many..."

"Don't worry about it too much to start. I mean, if you want to make something from one of my books, I won't stop you, but we can stick to the basics if you prefer."

Spike rolled a hand lightly. "I don't... get it. If someone wanted to pretend to be something, why would you need a book for it?"

Shining blinked vacantly. "You need the rules for it, of course. How would that work?" He tapped the paper with his pencil. "Enough of that, it's time to get to making your hero!"

"BBBFF!" came the excited cry of Twilight as she approached. "And Spike. I see you two are already bonding, how wonderful." She reared up and grabbed both males, one under either arm. "So good to see you."

Shining dropped his pencil under the hug and returned the gesture to Twilight eagerly. "Hey, sis. We were just going over the basics."

"Well, don't let me get in the way." She released the two and moved past towards the kitchen. "Have fun, Spike!"

"Y-yeah, you too!"

"Oh, but I am." Her voice was full of cheer as she cantered on her way. "I can't wait to take more notes. This alignment is so rare, and the conditions are absolutely perfect."

Spike smiled after her. "She's been talking about this for the past week."

"Yeah?" He picked his pencil back up. "Good to see her still full of passion. So, your character? I know, let's stick with simple. You can be a swordspony." He started scratching at the paper.

"What kind of pony?" asked Spike with a brow rising.

Shining seemed to consider that a moment before he nodded. He grabbed the twenty-sided die and passed it to Spike. "Let's find out!"

Spike peered at the die skeptically. "Huh, alright." He let it tumble and it settled on a 20.

"Nice! That means it's a rare kind of pony. Roll it again!" Shining looked quite excited about it.

Spike was more confused. He hadn't looked up any such tables. Still, why not? He picked up the die and let it rattle on the table. 6. "What's that mean?"

Shining's magic snatched a book from the pile and flipped it open. "It means you, brave Spike, are a pony touched by the power of the fair folk." He showed a picture in the book of a pony with butterfly wings, like a breezy, but not as extreme in anatomy. "You're naturally talented in illusions and spells to manipulate ponies, and you have wings, always a perk."

Spike tapped the picture. "That pony has no horn. How do they do spells at all?" A dragon doing spells? He could imagine that.

"They're magical already, all baked in." He gave a little chuckle as he set that book aside, but still open. "Not the first pick I'd have for a swordspony, but it could work. It just means you have to be a clever one instead of rushing in, sword flailing."

Spike lifted his shoulders. "If you were, you know, one of those, and you wanted to be a knight, why couldn't you be?"

Shining's head tilted a little. "I don't mean in character. I mean, I guess they can go for being a fighter if they want, but their talents don't really lend towards it, you know?"

"Like a dragon wizard." Spike crossed his arms and his eyes half-lidded.

"Yeah, like that," agreed Shining without noticing Spike's reaction. He made quick scribbles on the paper before passing Spike several D6s. "Go ahead, let's roll your stats."

"Wait, you roll these?" Spike peered at his dice skeptically.

"That's how the game works, just like before when we figured out what kind of pony you were." He nudged at Spike's hand with a hoof. "Go on. We'll start with how strong your guy is."

Spike had used the non-random option to make the statistics for his characters the last time, but Shining looked eager to see the dice roll, so who was he to object? He shook the dice between his clenched hands and unleashed them to tumble across the table.

"And we take away the lowest one." He pushed a die that had come up one out of the way. "And we end up with twelve. Go on, let's see how fast you are."

Spike gathered up the dice and let them spill free.

"Fifteen, nice. That matches up with a faypony, strong, but not very strong, fast..." They went through all the numbers, then he went back and edited two of them.

Spike looked confused at it. "Why'd you change those?"

"Oh, being a fay pony means you're naturally good at generosity rolls, but weak at honesty ones. I was just applying the modifiers." He set the pencil aside. "Alright, we got the basics for your race, good job!"

Wait, races had modifiers besides just being what they were? Spike wondered how he had missed such critical things. "Huh... alright?"

"Alright! Let's get started on making your pony good at swinging swords." Shining suddenly paused. "Hey, something came to mind. Who are you going to play with, you know, when I'm not here."

Spike lifted his shoulders. "That depends on if I like it, I guess. I can find someone."

"Got someone in mind? That's good." He resumed scribbling. "What kind of weapon do you want to specialize in?"

Spike imagined the faerie pony in his head. "I bet he'd like something just like him, strong, but fast. Maybe something that's good in a duel?" He pantomimed a thrust and a parry.

"A rapier? Great choice." He jotted it down. "I'll make him specialized in that." He was writing down a lot more details than Spike had for the two characters he had made up. "Being what you are, you get a few tricks." He tapped the paper with his pencil. "You can make light, sounds from nowhere, and, once in awhile, try to charm a pony, like a generosity roll, but using your magic stat."

"That sounds kinda sketchy."

"It can be. Up to you how you use it." Shining flashed a smile. "I mean, charming a rampaging monster to not stomp a town isn't going to get a lot of ponies complaining, but doing it to their mayor might cause a few more objections, ya know?" He put a hoof on his chest. "Wouldn't work on me though."

"Why not?"

"Well, my character wears a cold iron necklace that protects him from faerie magic." He laughed as if that was a joke in itself. "No luck there." He set his pencil down. "Your character's ready."