Candles sputtered in their sockets as Spike’s quill scratched across the paper. Twilight’s throne room was silent in the early morning hours. The round table was littered with broken quills, emptied ink pots, and crumpled papers. At the center, organized into neat piles and rows, were maps, lists, character sheets, and dozens of folders packed with notes.
Spike finished the page he’d been working on with a flourish and set the quill aside. He gave the ink a few seconds to dry and then shifted the other pages back onto it, straightening the pile and slipping them into their own folder.
Finally. After months of planning and weeks of writing, it was done. His magnum opus. He'd spent years playing through prewritten modules, but now he finally had an entire world to call his own, each city carefully crafted with dozens of possible plot hooks and npcs. A world filled with secret organizations, heroes and villains, and a story that would unfold behind the scenes. All it needed was a group of players, and Spike knew the perfect ponies.
He closed the folder and picked up the quill again. On the cover, as carefully as he could manage, he wrote a single word: Solenis.
*****
A dark blue unicorn with a pale blue mane and tail bounced down the main street of Ponyville, followed by a pair of pegasi. “I can’t believe I’m visiting the Palace of Friendship,” Thistleroot said. “Do you think Princess Twilight will be there?”
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Probably. It is her home, after all.”
“It’s not like you haven’t met her before,” Mimic added. She had changed to her usual pony form for the trip, a pegasus with a dark coat and deep blue-green mane and tail.
“But that was different. This time we’re guests!”
“Guests of Spike, not Twilight,” Scootaloo said, but Thistleroot’s optimism continued unabated.
The three came to the large golden doors at the front of Twilight’s castle and Scootaloo rapped them with a hoof. A few seconds passed, and she wondered for a moment if anypony could even hear her knocking in a castle that large.
The doors cracked open and Spike stepped out, grinning. “Hey! Glad you could make it." Scootaloo waved. "Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are already here. Come on.” Without waiting for an answer he turned and disappeared into the castle.
“Somepony sounds excited,” Thistleroot noted. “I wonder what’s up.”
Scootaloo shrugged, and they followed Spike through the entrance hall and into the throne room. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom waved from the table, already next to each other in their sisters' seats. Scootaloo hopped into the chair marked with Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark.
“Go ahead and sit down,” Spike said to Thistleroot and Mimic.
“Sit down?” Thistleroot asked. “Are we really allowed—” He cut off as Mimic shoved him forward. “Alright, alright. Uh, dibs on balloons!” He hopped into Pinkie Pie’s seat, leaving Mimic to sit in Fluttershy’s.
“So, now that we’re all here,” Spike said, “let’s start.”
“Start what?” Scootaloo asked. “All your letter said was to come to Ponyville this weekend.”
“Yeah, I wanted it to be a surprise,” Spike said, sitting in Twilight’s seat and reaching for a stack of folders in the smaller seat beside it. He grabbed one from the top of the pile and set it on the table. On the cover was a single word: Solenis. “We’re playing Ogres and Oubliettes.”
“Yes!” Thistleroot said, throwing up both front legs. “I was hoping you were going to say that.”
“Yep,” Spike said. “Now you can finally show me that bards are almost as good as wizards. Almost.”
Mimic leaned closer to Scootaloo. “Do you know what any of that is supposed to mean?”
“Uh, I think it’s a game.”
“Yeah,” Spike said. “It’s a game that’s all about crafting stories with your friends. Uh, I know it doesn’t sound that cool, but I promise, it’s fun.”
Mimic shrugged. “I like stories.”
“It’s true,” Scootaloo said. “She finished the Daring Do series faster than I did.” It made sense, she thought. There wasn’t much to do in the hives when work was done for the day. Mimic had told Scootaloo about passing time with games and riddles. “I guess it was just a matter of time before you guys dragged us into one of these egghead games.”
“Great!” Spike said. “Okay, so today we’re going to do character creation and then a short adventure to teach you two the game and get the party together.” He cleared his throat and opened the folder. “We’ll be starting South of Sediem, the City of the Sun, capital of Solenis.”
*****
In a world far away from our own exists the kingdom of Solenis. A kingdom of magic and adventure, of wise mages and honorable knights, of humble villagers and terrifying warlords, and guided by the Alicorns.
Scootaloo: Uh, this is a game, right?
Thistleroot: Shh, just listen to the opening narration.
For a thousand years and more, Solenis has known prosperity and peace, but even under the watchful eye of Celestia, Goddess of the Sun, peace can only last so long.
Mimic: Goddess? I thought you ponies called her princess?
Sweetie Belle: O&O Alicorns are different. They’re more like mythical figures than regular ponies. Like the changeling stories of the First Queen.
Whispers spread throughout the land. Whispers of strife. Of danger. Of war. The nights grow cold. The roads grow dangerous. Darkness spreads.
Our story begins not in the capital, amongst the nobles and politicians, nor amongst the growing shadows upon the land. Our story begins in a little lakeside fishing town by the name of Three Streams, where a band of unlikely heroes meet for the first time.
*****
“Okay,” Spike continued. “Let’s go ahead and make your characters.” As he spoke he passed each player several sheets of paper.
Scootaloo frowned, looking at the paper. There were so many blanks to be filled in. Why did they need so much information? The game was supposed to be based on their imagination, wasn’t it?
“So, Scootaloo, Mimic, take a second to think about what kind of fictional character you want to add to the story.”
Right, that much she’d known. She didn’t have much to go on, but the little bit of narrative Spike had read for them had at least given her a feel for the tone of the story. Shadows spreading across the land? War? This Solenis place was obviously a darker world than Equestria.
As she thought, Spike was giving each player four regular, cube-shaped dice and a blank sheet of scrap paper. “Roll these four six sided dice, 4d6 for short. Ignore the lowest one and write down the number.”
Scootaloo did so, rolling 6, 6, 5, 2. “Seventeen,” She said, grabbing a quill and writing it on the paper.
“Nice. Okay, now do that five more times.” Scootaloo did as he instructed, writing the five new numbers down beside her seventeen: 12, 13, 14, 9, and 11. They seemed like decent rolls, she thought. Higher was better, right? Hopefully that nine wouldn’t be a problem.
“Me and Sweetie Belle were talking about our characters before ya’ll showed up,” Apple Bloom said. “We decided the two of us know each other already.”
“Is that allowed?” Mimic asked. “Should we know each other too?”
“We can if you want,” Thistleroot said. “Scootaloo?”
Scootaloo shook her head, the beginning of an idea taking shape in her thoughts. “I think I’m going to play someone a little less Rainbow Dashy. More of a loner type. Uh, if that’s okay. I know it’s suppose to be a group thing.”
“Yeah, that’s fine,” Spike said. “Having different kinds of characters makes for better storytelling.”
Apple Bloom nodded. “Anyway, Ah’m playing a barbarian, and Sweetie Belle wants to be a druid.”
“And you lost me again,” Mimic said. “What’s a druid?”
“It’s somep-one,” Sweetie Belle said, stuttering for just a moment, “who uses nature magic and turns into animals.” Mimic gave her a small smile.
“And barbarians hit things,” Apple Bloom added.
“I’m playing a bard,” Thistleroot said. “That’ll cover us for utility and a bit of extra healing, so you two can play whatever you want, really. Though, we could use somepony sneaky. Or somechangeling.”
“Like a ninja?" Scootaloo asked.
"Yeah. Or any kind of thief type character."
"I can be sneaky,” Scootaloo said.
“Okay,” Spike said. “Let’s go ahead and decide your race, too. That’ll take less explaining. What kind of creatures are you.”
“I’m a changeling,” Mimic said.
“I mean in the game.”
“I know. Can’t I be a changeling in the game?”
“Oh. Yes, you can. And you, Scootaloo?”
“I think I’ll just be a pegasus,” Scootaloo said. “I’m still not sure how this game works, so it’ll probably be easier.”
“Good point. And then for names, you can use a regular name, or you can choose something more exotic.”
“How about Dusk?”
“I like it,” Thistleroot said.
"Elytra," Mimic said. "It was the name of one of the overseers of Chrysalis's horde."
"Okay, great," Spike said. He nodded and passed Scootaloo a list of classes. She lifted it, blinking in surprise as the paper unfolded to three times its original length. He leaned over and started pointing out which classes and subclasses could fill a stealthy role.
Did one game really need so many?