Well, this was something Spike didn’t think was going to happen - being thrown in an OnO session.

Discord bombarded him and Rachel, bringing Dash and Pinkie in so he couldn’t really say no to it. It has been a while since he had a session. After hooking up with his girlfriend, the dragon fell out of playing a session. He doesn’t even remember where his character Garbunkle the Grand Wizard was left off.

It would be nice to play a session. A moment in a fictional world would be a good thing to truly distract from the chaos outside.

Rachel didn’t know how to play. She had heard so many stories from Spike about the game but she never really played it.

This was going to be interesting.

“Alright, how exactly does this work?” Rachel asked as they headed inside the map room.

“Well!” Pinkie digs into her unruly curly mane before pulling out a booklet that says “Ogres and Oubliettes Beyond: The guide for new Adventures.” And then hands it to Rachel. “First off you have to make a character of race and class skill and fill this out-” Pinkie then thrusted a couple slips of paper and a pen out towards the human’s arms as well.

“Then there’s the dice box.” Pinkie tosses a sort of dice at her friend’s direction. She then tosses her notes at Rachel. “That is from past campaigns so you can catch up on what we’ve done and what we’re at right now.” Pinkie giggled.

“Pinkie, you’re going to overload her.” Rainbow Dash said. “Making things way too complicated.” She floated over Rachel. “Look, Discord creates the world with his freaky magic and we become our characters and we stay in character. It's basically live action Role Play.”

“Have you done any role plays?” Pinkie scooted up close to her face. “Maybe with a certain purple drake?”

Rachel blushed red. "Um..."

Spike groaned, rubbing his face before looking at Discord.

“What?” Discord asked as he cracked his fingers, preparing himself for the spell.

“You just had to bring Pinkie and Dash.” Spike said in a monotone.

“Well, I knew you wouldn’t say no if I brought the others." Discord cooed, grinning from ear to ear. " I even managed to talk to Big Mac to pull out of Sugarbelle for a moment to hang out. He's supposed to be here later. Oooooooh hooooo! The gang's getting back together!" He wrapped his arm around the dragon's shoulder and pulled him close.

Spike looked at Discord for a moment before letting out a sigh and a chuckle. “You seriously need to get a girl your own.”

“I’m not interested in mates, my fine fellow.” The draconequus didn’t lose the enthusiasm.

“Then why did you have a hissy fit at Fluttershy’s wedding. It’s obvious you have a crush on her.”

Discord floated around in circles around the large dragon. “Fluttershy is the most timid, sweet and kindest little butterscotch bean in all the world and deserves to be protected. Also, I don’t like Soarin.” he had this big grin. "Plus I'm the literal God of Chaos. Origies come with the territory."

He then poofed over to Rachel. “Now deary, have you made your character yet?” he said.

The human blinked, not having yet moved since Pinkie thrusted all of the OnO requirements before the game. “Um not yet. Just trying to get my bearings.”

“How about we get started while you work on your character and once you get done jump in.” Spike suggested. “Watch how it’s done.”

Rachel shrugged. “Sounds good to me.”

“AW yeah! Fire it up Discord!” Pinkie shouted at the draconequus

“Okie dokie!” Discord grinned.

And with a snap of his bear claw, the map room started to change. The hum of magic echoed the castle walls before the center of the room began to shift and change, a world within their world opened up and it began to expand. Showing a totally different landscape; a dark desolate landscape with a crumbling but still standing castle on top of a cliff. Huge dies scattered across the land acted like various hills and high point vantages.

It then shifted to a ruined village to a creaky house with holes on the roof, the village looked to be abandoned for a while, with animal carcussess scattered about as if a horrible monster lay waste the town. The bodies were cards that had drawn animals and the cards were sliced into ribbons.

“Okay Spike, since it’s been a couple of months since you played here is the deal.” Pinkie smirked. “We’ve been tasked to defeat the monster that lives inside of that castle which destroyed this little village and it’s people so we have to stop it.”

“We left after camp was made so you didn't miss the action.” Rainbow Dash grinned, getting ready to barge right into the world.

“Alright, while I go and figure out my character, you guys get started.” Rachel grinned, this was getting very exciting when she saw the world changed. She walked over to a corner and knelt down and got to work on creating her character..

“Let’s go then!” Rainbow Dash yells as she flies right in.

Once she got inside, Rachel looked up and gasped, seeing that RD had changed. Her clothes changed from her jogging suit to a dark cloak that obscured her rainbow colored mane, a black mask covering her lower jaw, wearing black and brown leathers and belts. A long staff in its holster and from what Rachel could see was some daggers hidden.

Pinkie jumped in with a delightful glee. Her costume was much more colorful with colors of a pale blue and yellow meshed together, wearing poofy sleeves, her sleeves and legs mismatch. She had a mandolin that had seen some better days as it resulted into combat. Her ears have multiple piercings. Her poofy pink mane was mushed inside of her feather cap that looked like it was going to shoot off.

How does one get so much of that cotton candy hair in that cap?

Discord floated inside.

Rachel couldn’t help but smirk cause his archer form reminded her of a certain Elf she remembers seeing in a movie. “They’re taking the Hobbits to Isengard” she couldn’t help herself but mutter that line.

Spike chuckled softly, watching as everyone got into their positions. He quickly walked over towards Rachel. “Need any help?”

“I think I’m good, thanks though.” Rachel smirked as the two could hear the OnO session started. “Just gotta get this character set up… just… which dice do I use for the stats?”

“Usually we do this, but when Big Mac and I brought in Discord, anyone could jump in as their avatar.” Spike knelt down and pointed at the dice she was supposed to use. “But this is just to get you started. Respect the old ways before appreciating the new I think. Oh and once you actually do jump in, we’re in character. To get out of it, just yell time out. You get it?”

“I get it.” She said, picking up the 20 sided die and rolled it.

It was a natural 0.

Spike snickered. “Well, those dice are now cursed.” He patted her shoulders. “There there.”

Rachel gave Spike a look. “Wanna talk about this Shmarity character?” she smirked.

Beads of sweat dripped from his brow. “Um uh.” he chuckled nervously.

Why did Pinkie have to write that tidbit down?!

“Uh… uh.” He looked back at the group. Pinkie was strumming the mandolin and Rainbow was having some sort of talk with Discord, planning and what they need to do. “I think they need their wizard to make an entrance.” He said as he made strides to the group. “Hop in when ready.”

This was not going to be let down now.

Then Spike steps inside of the world. Now over the years, his character, Garbunkle the Wizard, had a few changes to commemorate his growth and how Spike himself changed over the years.

Usually when he was younger, he had a big ol’ wizard hat, a cape, vest, pants and boots. His character literally has thick bushy gray eyebrows and a long gray beard. But since he had grown, a few things changed. Once a simple vest, he wore a light teal one sleeve tunic with the left sleeve a darker teal. The shirt had integrated dark blue ridges all over the front that continued to the back that was covered in a rather tattered but same light teal cloak. His right shoulder has a single pauldron, black fingerless gloves so his claws were out and free. He had to ditch the large wizard hat when he started growing the two large horns on his head. He wore baggy pants that were tucked into thick black boots. The beard was in an elegant braid down to his collarbone. Even his wings seemed to have rune markings on the outside, all having its own magic properties.

The other change was his staff. Granted when Spike/Garbunkle saw this in the “shop” a few arcs back that the staff looked real similar to the bloodstone scepter Ember wields to rule the Dragons, aside from the aesthetics, it a better staff suited for a maxed out grand Wizard and all of its powerful magic qualities.

“Oh wow.” Rachel gawked at his costume.

Getting back into the mindsight of Garbunkle, Spike approached the rogue and archer and bard.

“Seriously Wuzz, that plan is just terrible.” Rainbow Dash grunted at Discord’s character. “You expect Gypsy -” Pinkie’s character, “- and I to storm ahead while you stay here??”

The archer ran a reptile hand through his flowy yellow mane of hair. “Well I’m still injured from the last gnoll ambush. I wanted to heal up at the Inn but you two decided ‘Oh look, lets push on through without a moment’s rest’.” he looked at Dash. “So, Picaro, you two will go ahead and scout.”

“Maybe we all can go.” Spike/Garbunkle called out, making his appearance.

Pinkie/Gypsy stops strumming her mandolin and gasps in joy. “Ooh lookie lookie lookie, it’s Garbunkle!” she shrieked, causing the other two to wince before the pink bard bounced all the way to him and gave him a hug.

The dragon wizard chuckled as he patted the pony’s shoulder.

“Well, it’s about dang time you show up.” RD/Picaro looks up at him. Giving him a look but that look turned into a grin.

“And the grand wizard returns.” Discord/Captain Wuzz greeted. “Hi, now heal me.” He raises up his bear arm that was in a sling from his “injury”.

Spike/Garbunkle chuckled, moving away from Pinkie/Gypsy and over to the archer. “I leave for a little bit and come back to this.” He said as he raised a claw hand out and had it hovering over the sling. The staff’s red crystal began to glow, a low hum radiated from it.

The draconequus’ arm let out a small flash of white before the sling poofs away. “A wizard's work is never done I suppose.”

Spike/Garbunkle glanced behind him, still seeing Rachel working on her character outside of the world and watching the gang before turning back to the group.

After a moment of talking and planning, the four make their way to the large crumbling castle.

The gothic aesthetic gave a good eerie and haunting feeling, looking like something from a videogame. The lighting and overall design of it was both stunning and creepy.

As the group got closer, they encountered more card bodies, this time looking like various NPC's of knights who tried their luck on facing the beasts within the architect and lost their lives trying to escape. The cards scorched in various places, one card looked like the paper itself was splitting layers of itself. And this was just at the outside of the door!

"Hey Garbunkle, maybe you can use your detection spell to see if there could be any traps or enemies ahead?" Discord/Wuzz asked the wizard.

The dragon nodded before he braces both of his claws on the scepter. He muttered something under his breath before he lifted the thing up and tapped it on the ground. The crystals glowed before a ball of light shot out.

However, before the ball of light could check for enemies and traps, a large, floating D20 die appears. Spike blinked confused. “Uh what?”

“Ooh yeah, forgot to mention something, time out.” Discord giggled, floating over to him and smirked. “We are using the dice system. Makes the game much more interesting. It’s only during fights that we don’t use it.”

So basically, half live action and half traditional.

Neat.

“Now, make an investigation check.” Discord/Wuzz smirked.

That’s right… Discord is also the DM.

Spike shrugged before he tapped the floating die. It rolled at a rapid speed before the die dropped to the ground and landed. It tilted on itself back and forth till it stopped moving.

A 13 was facing up at them.

“Uh...13.” Spike said.

The ball of light shoots out forward, Spike’s eyes glowed white for a second, causing him to jolt back a bit. The light zooms right through the door and out around the area. The foyer and down doors, anywhere around the 120 feet radius. So far, Garbunkle wasn’t able to detect physical guards or signs of the main monsters. That would be somewhere down the line. There wasn’t a trap that he could detect either so the entrance was clear.

Garbunkle’s eyes soon returned back to normal. “No traps or guards through the doors, but still proceed with caution.”

“Got it.” Gypsy giggled.

Captain Wuzz and Picaro nodded before the group inside.

As the group was searching the castle, Rachel was still creating her character, rubbing her forehead. “No one said there’ll be math.” she muttered.

“Hey, Rachel.”

Rachel looked up to see Twilight standing right in front of her.

“Oh, hey Twilight.” Rachel said, pushing her hair over her ears. “What’s up?”

“Nothing much, just checking in.” the princess said before looking up at the OnO world. Watching Spike and the others playing the game. “You’re going to jump in?” Twilight asked her.

“Yeah, as soon as I finish this.” Rachel waves the character sheet before setting it back down and rolls another number and adds the modifier. “I already got done designing my character, I’m just filling in the stats.”

“I see.” Twilight said. She then sighed and looked at Rachel. “Spike is mad at me, I know it.”

Rachel drops her pen on the paper and sighed, shaking her head before looking back up at the princess. “What can I say? You did jump on him. Yes, I got onto him about what happened.”

Twilight sighed, rubbing the back of her head. What can Twily say, she got onto Spike for acting out violently. Especially towards Blue Blood, Celestia’s nephew.

“Twilight, Spike wouldn’t act out if he didn’t need to. Blueblood was harassing me and wouldn’t leave me alone. Spike defended me. Lest not forget, that sonvabitch blasted him through a room.”

“I’m just afraid he’ll hurt someone and lose control.”

Rachel chewed the inside of her cheeks. She would have to choose her words very carefully and not give anything away with Spike and his murders.

Hopefully the only ones.

“Twilight, Spike is a good guy. However, he is a dragon, remember that. Dragons do have a temper, and sometimes they can’t help it.” Rachel said.

“But he gave you a black eye.” Twilight reminded her. She then looked at her face. Twilight didn’t mention it before but the bruising where Spike elbowed Rachel in the face was gone. Something she had noted due to the human being a Mother Cell and what the Crystal Heart might have done to her.

Once Twilight said that, Rachel gave a look of annoyance. “It was an accident. I jumped on his back, I knew I might get hurt when trying to hold a dragon back as he was going into a frenzy. Again, Blueblood set him off by blasting him through a fucking wall.” She defended Spike. “If Blueblood hadn't done that, Spike would have cooled down.”

She did almost calm down Spike just enough if the prince hadn’t attacked him.

“Spike was raised to be kind, caring. He’s a big teddy bear, however, there’s only so much one can take.” Rachel said, standing up, patting the dirt off her knees. “He is sorry for what happened.”

“I know he is.” Twilight said. Shifting her hooves on the ground. “I need to have a talk with him, I want to apologize. Could you talk to him and…”

Rachel looked at her, then looking at Spike - the gang was heading down a dark corridor that goes in a down slop down a tunnel - and the back at the purple pony and sighed. “I’ll try. I can’t force him.”

“Thank you, that’s all I’m asking.” Twilight said. “He really does love you.”

“And I love him too. More than you could ever know.” Rachel said before turning back to the gang. “I’m about to join in the game, I’ll talk to Spike after. Can’t promise anything, you know how stubborn he is.”

Twilight nodded before leaving.

Back in the game, Garbunkle and gang were about to go down together when they stopped and heard a sound of snorts and hyena-like chuckles echoing down the cavern.

"My detect spell might actually alert more unwanted attention before we confront the beast." Garbunkle said as the gang stood at the entrance of the sloping corridor.

" From the sounds of it, there's only one guard down there." Picaro said, taking a dagger out of her cloak."I'll dispose him."

"I'll come for backup." Gypsy said.

Captain Wuzz smirked. "You sure?" He asked.

The mares looked at each other before back at the archer.

"Don't tell me..." Picaro groaned.

Two floating D20 dice poofed in front of them. "Make a stealth check." Discord cooed.

Pinkie bopped her die while Rainbow punched.

The look on the mare's faces was priceless.

Pinkie rolled a 19. Good roll. Happy pone.

Dash rolled a 4. Angry pone.

"You shitting me??" Dash growled.

"I don't control the dice roll." Discord giggled.

Spike snickered. Kinda ironic since Dash's character has max stealth.

Dash looked at the dragon. " Wanna trade places?"

Discord snapped his fingers and the mares were scooted down a few feet. " You two roll, you two have to play it out."

" This is so stupid." Dash grumbled before she and pinks ventured forward.

The mares slowly made their way down the corridor. So far, there wasn't anything setting the guard off.

Then, when they get down sixty feet, Picaro's right hoof just happens to kick a small, metal ball bearing that was left from the last raid that tried to take the creature down.

With a THWING and ping sounds, the ball rolled and hit various objects. For something as small as a marble, it was loud echoing down the corridor. The girls froze in place, holding their breath as the ball seemed to roll forever. Then it stopped.

Once it stopped, the girls could hear the hyena guard was alerted and began alerting others.

Picaro turn her head to look up at the others. "I screw the pooch, you two need come in and join us!" She loudly whispered.

"What? We can't hear you, you're like sixty fucking feet away from us!" Wuzz whispered loudly with glee. Spike was trying not to snicker but it was funny.

"This is a really loud stage whisper!" Picaro hissed.

Just as the hyena guard came up sneak attacking the girls, an iron arrow, not from Wuzz's collection, flew between the girls and with sounds of paper ripping through the card guard, right at the guard's forehead, the guard fell.

Spike was grinning ear to ear when he saw the arrow and then her scent.

He and Discord turned and greeted their new player.

Spike's massive wings sprung out and extended and he dropped his staff, eyes widened once he saw her. Unable to create coherent words.

"What's going on??" Picaro called out as she and Gypsy rejoined the group. "We got incom- whoa!" She stopped when she saw Rachel.

"Ooh!" Pinkie awed at her as well.

What they were seeing was Rachel. Obviously she was an archer like Discord, but unlike him, her bow she was holding was carved by a black stone, the string of pure silver, iron quivers tucked safely in her black leather holster. Two long curved swords strapped to her hips. She wore medium built armor, gray and white fur were on her shoulders, her silver breastplate had interesting looking designs on the metal; fingerless gloves with what looked to be bandages wrapped from her fingers to her forearm. Her hair was long but she had interesting braids going along one side of her head with feathers. Her brown eyes had some sort of black war paint that made her gaze more predatory.

Next to her was a rather large black wolf with eerie blue eyes.

"Well, seems we got ourselves a situation." The accent Rachel was using sent chills down their spine. Showing more of her upbringing with the sexlings/changelings, the ability to alter their voices. Though they can tell it is Rachel, the accent was gruff, foreign.

All and all, Spike has a feeling it's going to be hard keeping himself in check with his MATE LOOKING LIKE THAT!

Author's Note

First one who can guess the references in this chapter gets a free commission from me :3

Also

<3 My boy Glint. lvl 1 cleric :3

I actually just got into DnD and currently am learning what dice is what and the mechanics of it