• Published 28th Jul 2017
  • 1,941 Views, 263 Comments

Roll for Initiative - David Silver



The girls are out of town, again. Spike and Big Mac are left behind. All the farm chores are handled, but there's little to do. Spike has an idea that he's willing to try, if Big Mac is up for it.

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1 - Start Episode 1 - Perception Distance

Spike ran his claws over the spines of the books. "There's never anything to do when everyone's gone," he sighed to himself before he paused on a spine he hadn't read too much before. He pulled the book free. Ogres and Oubliettes, Twilight had gotten it for him a while ago, one of the many books she had given as a gift. Like most, it wasn't very appreciated. "Why does she think I'm into books as she is?"

He hopped down to the ground with his find, flipping through the tome. It had a lot of numbers and usual terms, so he skipped those and got to the meat of things. It painted a world of adventure and excitement. It told of the 'Oubliette Overseer' that would guide the other players along the story, testing them and crafting a story worth telling while being the actor of the whole world at once. "Woah." Spike shook his head as he walked through the castle.

That sounded like a big job, but also kind of an exciting one. "I'll get to be in charge, for once..." He wriggled a few claws on his free hand, supporting the book on the other. "They will face my challenges, or suffer the ultimate price!" He broke into a wild cackle before he cut himself off with a clearing of the throat. "I mean, yeah..." It was all just theory if he just wandered around with the book.

But who would he even try it with? Visions of a darkened room came to his mind. He would be dressed in intimidating robes, a majestic beard on his face. "Make a loyalty check," he would say in a deep voice.

The pony that he faced, features obscured, quivered in fear. "A-alright..." They grabbed a die in their mouth and gave it a flick. It tumbled to the table as other shapeless ponies leaned in to see the results.

Spike shook his head clear of the fantasy. "Maybe Doctor Whooves?" The pony in his mind suddenly resolved to be the curious inventor. "Or Nurse Red Heart." He let out a squeak as he became a she. "Nah, I bet a mare would want to be the overseer." Red Heart huffed before she vanished from his mind.

He pushed open the door of the castle, the book tucked under an arm. "There has to be some ponies that want to give it a try..." He looked up from the ground to see that a pony was already there, looking at him quietly. "Oh, hey McIntosh!" He waved his free hand at the large red visitor when it hit him. He had promised to chat about some hoofball! "You're... just in time!" He bluffed, imagining the Inverted Honesty roll he was making in his head, praying it'd come up with a high number.

"Yup," agreed Big Mac as he stepped inside the castle. His eyes fell to the book held under one of Spike's arms. "What's that?"

Spike winced, caught. "Oh, this, uh..." Well, no harm in telling him, right? "Hey, you ever hear of O&O?"

Big Mac arched a brow. "What's that?" He kept walking towards their usual meeting place in the map room.

Spike scampered along. "Well, it's a, you know, game!"

"What kinda game?" He sounded mildly interested, but he didn't stop his march.

"It's a game of adventure!" Spike hurried around him to get in front of him. "You get to be a big hero and save the day from bad people and fix problems!"

Big Mac stopped, looking down at Spike in a moment of pregnant silence. "Like... how mah sister does it?"

Spike tilted his head a little. "Huh, oh, yeah, I guess it is like that. They do go on wild adventures..."

"And..." He sat down on his haunches and raised a hoof to his chin. "We could do that?"

Spike bobbed his head quickly. "Oh yeah, that's the whole point!" He thrust up the book in both hands at Big Mac. "You can be the star of your own story!"

Big Mac's eyes went slowly wider before they fell smoothly into a half-lidded considering expression. "Ah star... So... How's it work?"

Spike did a little hop for joy. "You wanna play?"

"Yup." Big Mac gave a slight nod. "How?"

Spike made a quick dash to the table, hopped up and slammed the book down on Baltimare, ending the pictorial lives of countless ponies. "Well, the first thing we need is a character for you. You don't play yourself."

"Huh?" He ambled up to the table, looking at Spike and his big book. "Who do ah play if not me?"

Spike moved a hand in a slow arc. "Anyone you can imagine. You can be a noble ranger of the forest, or maybe a mighty spellcaster, or a, uh..." He paused to flip through the book. "You could be a friend maker! Or..." He kept flipping. "A big and powerful fighter!"

Big Mac's mind started to work, imagining himself as each of those roles. He could see himself with a quiver and a bow dangling over him, then himself with a horn, casting spells. He pinkened a little. His sister had already gotten on his case about that... He imagined himself trying to make friends with random ponies... but that felt a little awkward. 'Yup' was hardly a pile of eloquence that would draw ponies out of their shells. He would leave that to Pinkie Pie.

A fighter... He could do that. He knew how to be strong. "Alright, Ah'll be a warrior." He raised a hoof to flex that arm in a show of his muscles. "Ah'll protect others."

"That's the spirit," cried Spike as he dashed off to get a parchment and returned to write down the selection of class. "Oh, and a race. You can be any equestrian race. You could be a griffon, or a lunar pegasus, or even a diamond dog!"

Big Mac's head slowly tilted to the side as visions of himself as a griffon, all feathery on the front, with a long feline tail and flapping wings. It wasn't a... bad image, but it wasn't him. "Nope." He considered the lunar pegasus, known more crudely as a bat pony, and shook his head again. He wanted to be a valiant and noble warrior, not a protector of the night or something that'd scare ponies half the time. "Nope." Diamond dog? "Nope!" He didn't even try to imagine himself as one of those. They had bothered his sister plenty enough for him to know they were trouble.

Spike lifted his shoulders. "What about a dragon, like me? Or, you know, regular pony types are alright too."

Big Mac imagined himself as a dragon, big and scary. That hardly seemed quite right. He wanted to be thanked by princesses and celebrated, not feared. "Nope." He could be... himself? He knew how to be himself at least, there was some appeal to that, but to be fair, he went on to the next. He could have wings. Pegasi were known for their military background. He could be from a long line of proud pegasi warriors, there to kick rumps and take names... But... it didn't quite work for him. He didn't want to be one of many, doing what they did because they all did it. "Nope."

A unicorn? He pinkened faintly. "Does a unicorn haveta be a small pony?"

Spike lifted his shoulders as he flipped wildly to find the page on unicorns. "Nah, they don't have to be. They just get a bonus to magic that other races don't get.

Big Mac gave a musing 'mmm'. "So ah I could be a big unicorn?"

"Sure." Spike nodded his head. "So, unicorn?" He jotted it down on the paper. "A unicorn warrior, now there's a combo we don't see too often outside the royal guard."

Big Mac gave a smile at the thought. "Yup, but not that..." He brought his hooves together in a loud clop. "Ah'm a noble. Sir... Mc... Big...um..."

"Sir McBiggun, got it." Spike scribbled busily. "A big strong unicorn." Numbers started to be put out. Neither fully understood what they meant yet, but they were pleased to see them appear, and Big Mac's character come into being.

Spike held up the completed sheet. "And here we are, your character."

Big Mac clopped his hooves in rapid little claps. "Now what?"

"Now we..." He flipped through the book. "Technically we're supposed to have four to six players, not even including the overseer, that's me."

"What'sa overseer?"

Spike gestured at himself grandly. "That's me! I am the overlord of the world! I decide what everything else does that the players, that's you, aren't playing. Every wicked trap, timid maiden, and dastardly villain dances to my beat." He wriggled his claws as if controlling puppets. "It's my job to make the adventures that you go on."

"Oh..." Big Mac tilted his head at the excited Spike. "So ya aren't playing?"

Spike's expression fell. "What? I am, just... not the same way."

"But ah thought we were playing, togetha." He wobbled a hoof between himself and Spike.

Spike shook his head. "Nah. I'll be making the adventures you go on. It is playing, just, you know, a different part. What we need is more players."

Big Mac stiffened at that even as Spike pulled out a little slip of paper and seemed to be drawing something. "Uh... do we haveta?" He didn't want other ponies knowing he was still harboring his little unicorn fantasies. Spike was different. He could trust Spike.

"Huh? Why wouldn't we?" He tilted his head. "I'm... just not sure who to ask... Here." He flipped the paper around to reveal a quick drawing of Sir Mcbiggun he had made."

Big Mac reached for it. It was crude, but it had been created quickly, and he smiled at it. It was him, with a helmet, and a horn that went through it. A sword floated beside the figure. "It's perfect..."

Spike waved it off. "I'm no expert at drawing, but..."

"Ya should practice more."

"It... isn't that bad, is it?"

Big Mac realized he had spoken poorly and shook his head quickly. "No! It's mighty fine..." He pointed at Spike. "Why can't you play? We don't need other ponies none."

Spike tapped his chin before he got to flipping through the book. He couldn't find any rule that specifically forbade the overseer from having a character. "Huh, guess I could..."

"Yep." Big Mac got an easy smile, hoping he'd avoided the awkwardness that bringing others would entail.

"But what would I be...?" He picked up his quill just to tap the side of his face with the feather. "Dragons are pretty awesome, I'll stick with that." He wrote it down on a new piece of paper. "But if you're a fighter, I should... round out the party a little. Oh! I can be the wizard for a change." He stuck out his tongue. "Twilight thinks she's sooo important. Look at me, I'll just wave my horn at every problem and it'll go away, until it doesn't." He huffed and rolled his eyes as he wrote down his class decision. "You wouldn't believe how many problems she makes with that silly horn of hers."

Big Mac gave a sympathetic chuckle. He had seen, and felt, what trouble Twilight could cause when she went down the wrong path. "Yep."

"I will be the mysterious... Mysterious..." Spike frowned, trying to conjure a name. Then he remembered the most annoying of all dragons, Garble. He frowned at the thought, but it turned into a smile. "I will be the wise and learned Garbuncle." What Garble should have been, instead of the bully he was. With a flourish, he graced his sheet with the name and got to filling in the numbers that defined who he was, in the game. "And there we are, now we both have a character." He grabbed another sheet and got to drawing his character.

Both had forgotten all about hoofball. A new game had entered their lives.

Author's Note:

Welcome to the story! Spike and Big Mac's first session! Hopefully it will be free of typos.

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