Bind on Pickup

by David Silver

Rating: teen
Tags: Garble, Smolder, Adventure, Human, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Original Character, Spike
Length: 193900

What do Spike, Garble, and Smolder have in common, besides being dragons? They've been summoned to another world at the behest of a needy adventurer who thinks her fortunes are turning with their arrival. No one involved is ready for what comes next.

What do Spike, Garble, and Smolder have in common, besides being dragons? They've been summoned to another world at the behest of a needy adventurer who thinks her fortunes are turning with their arrival. No one involved is ready for what comes next.

Done as a collaborative effort with a patron (RadicalDishonesty)! Will be updated weekly.

PS: This means you can blame all the typos on them, muah ha ha ha!

PPS: Lovely picture done by Dragonpony, thanks!

Published 2019-06-19 14:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2021-06-09 19:14:37 UTC

Power Trio

She wrung her hands over one another, fingers enmeshed for one desperate moment before they lost their grip and her hands resumed circling one another, her eyes locked on the bright and swirling colors that danced before her.

Clashing flashes of violent magical energies danced above and around the altar, another, older, woman stood nearby with a kind smile, watching it all happen with a placid expression as if this was all something she'd seen many times before. "Just a little longer," she advised, her eyes on the riotous event with an easy patience.

With the sound of forming stone, great structures of granite formed as if the energy were filling the shapes, rapidly taking the shape of two great decagons, ten sided polygons of uneven sides that spun wildly, throwing shades across the room with a swirling noise that began to pick up in volume and intensity.

The younger one clasped her hands as if in prayer, her eyes stuck on the strange shapes as they wobbled and spun. Her breath caught as they fell, smashing into the altar with a great weight, but they did not stop, rolling and rattling around, bouncing off a field that had been invisible a moment before and sent back towards the center. The smaller sides were almost comically small, as if the dice would have to defy reality itself to land on them, and each time it hit one of the heavier sides, the dice lost momentum, as if it would be so easy to stop there.

They struck one another with a great sound of stone on stone, and stopped. They were leaning against one another, both on the smallest side. A great 0 0 appeared, one over each die. A single one appeared just to the left of them and the younger squealed, faltering back a step. "What does it mean?!"

"It means," counseled the older. "--that you have won the right to the next possibility. Greater things are now in store." She waved at the shapes and they lifted, tumbling and shaking. The sounds become more subtle, each shape glimmering as if sparkling instead of throwing out random lights. Rattling sounded from within them and they tumbled wildly, testing the whims of fate once more. "Very lucky. The gods smile on you."

The shapes bounced and shook as if something alive were inside them, forcing them to jitter and shake in unnatural ways. "What's going on?!" stammered out the younger, bewildered at the possessed movements of the judging stones.

"Unusual…" It was the first time the elder looked interested, leaning forward a little as she considered. "Fortunately for you, the guild fee does not increase with better results. You are… blessed, perhaps."

One die jumped as the other rolled, and the first landed on the second, and both became still.

0 0 0 0 displayed over the two, then a single 1 appeared before it. The colors turned a gold before they began to scramble, the letters cascading through all ten digits wildly a moment before 9 9 9 9 9 settled. A great yawning gulf of energy appeared from the top of the column, wiping it all away and filling the room with blinding light.

The older woman smiled and clapped her hands. "You've done it. Perhaps your fortune as an adventurer turns today."

"Eeee!" squeaked the younger, about as articulate as she could manage in the moment, energy waving through her hair and throwing her clothing as if she stood in a brisk wind.

It all gusted past them, revealing three forms on the pedestal, all the glowing fading away. Faint wisps of smoke rose from them and one coughed softly. "Very funny, Garble, but that doesn't count as a win." He spoke with the voice of a young male, but he was not a human.

"Yeah, not cool." Another, female, older than the first, but not by a large degree, tapped her foot. "First back up to the… top…" She was just noticing where they were. There were no lava flows to race.

Towering over the other two was a large, broad figure, who came into view first, covered in red scales, clearly muscular with pointy teeth, taller than most men. The younger girl squeaked in glee. This looked like a dragon, and he looked really powerful.

He looked around angrily, though, and said, “Wait, where the heck are we?”

The younger purple-scaled male that was half the height of the others rubbed behind his head, looking equally confused, if less angry about it. "Uh…"

"Not at the lava flows," finished the orange-scaled female with purple fins, crossing her arms impatiently. "Hey, you, whatever you are." She was looking directly at the girl that was gaping at them with open wonder. "Where are we, who are you, what are you, why are you, I'll throw in for good measure."

The girl, however, looked to the older woman. “They can talk? Can they usually talk?”

The older woman looked at her book, as if referencing it. “It’s not unheard of, summon’s talking. What is unheard of is three separate creatures...” She started leafing through her book. “What to do, what to do…”

“Hey!” The red dragon shouted, and took a step forward. “My sister asked you a question.”

The younger girl looked at him, like noticing he was there, and looked back to the older woman with uncertainty. The elder didn’t even look up from her book, but said, “it is your responsibility to manage the temperament of your summon, Sandra. Even if there are more than one.”

“Oh, right right.” Sandra tried to comport herself, dusting her clothes as if any lingering dust hadn't been blown away in the great rush of wind created by the summon. "My summons, I welcome you as your summoner. I am Sandra Kite, and I accept this responsibility."

“Oh,” the orange dragon female said. She put a hand to her chest, smiling amicably. “Okay. I’m Smolder-” She gestured up to the large dragon “-this is Garble-” and she gestured down to the small purple dragon “-and this is Spike.”

“Oh! Hi!” Sandra said, waving, the billowing sleeves from her robe flapping around with her hand.

“Now where are we and why are we here?!” Smolder shouted.

"Noted." The older of the two humans was making a note on a floating pane of words that vanished with a puff of magic, collapsing into an ornate bracelet she wore on her right arm. "Good luck in your adventures." She turned to leave, not sparing another glance back at the four she left behind.

Spike glanced towards the departing woman, his eyes darting to the younger of the two. "Hey, you're a human, right?" He had seen plenty of those, past the mirror. "But I'm not a dog…"

"This is all so much," sighed out Sandra. "Alright, you are all in the guild." She pointed at Spike. "You are a dragon, not a dog." She looked a bit confused that she had to specify that. "And you're here because I summoned you. I found a summon in the grassy fields. Do you have any idea how low the odds of that are?" She clapped her hands, excitement rapidly building.

The three dragons just watched as the girl looked back at them with anticipation. “... No,” Smolder said. “We literally have no idea what any of this is.”

“Right right right,” Sandra said. “Newly summoned, you probably don’t know anything at all. So! I am-” she flashed a bangle wrapped around her arm with an ornate setting on it, and inside that ornate setting was a dull grey orb, and she tapped it, summoning a flat image floating up. It said on it “Sandra Kite, slate rank Elemancer.” There were also some bars with writing too small to read. “An adventurer in the adventurer’s guild! We go get hired--"

Garble held up a hand, cutting her off. "--you go get yourself hired, great. Send us back, now."

Spike pointed off in the direction the other human had wandered off in. "Do we need her back for that? She seemed to know what was going on."

Smolder glanced towards Spike. "What makes you say that? They all look about the same to me."

"Really? That one was older and this one, Sandra, looks kinda nervous." He shrugged towards their summoner, examining her without certainty.

“I-I am not nervous!” Sandra stomped the ground. “I am your summoner, and I that makes me in charge! You have to do what I say, so that I can become more than a slate rank adventurer!”

Garble snorted smoke. “The heck you are! I’ll show you who's in charge!” He tried to stomp over to her, and she flinched away, but as he tried to go down to grab her, he felt himself freeze. He was unable to move any further.

She opened her eyes, seeing him looming over her, and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Wh-what’s going on?” Garble tried to push forward, and it was like his body was unable to move. Not forward, anyway. He breathed in, and readied himself to breathe out a big flame… only to find he couldn’t do anything but hold his breath.

“B-bad summon!” Sandra shouted, pointing at Garble. “Don’t attack your summoner!”

Garble started to turn blue as he was unable to breathe, his lungs filled with magic ready to become fire.

“Oh, but while you’re here,” Sandra said, touching the slate on her shoulder, and fiddling with the flat image she had. The words “register summon” showed up on it, and she popped the slate orb and briefly touched it to Garble, letting go of it and it floated back to her bangle automatically, the words “summon registered” showed up.

She stepped away, and, as soon as she was far enough away the flames wouldn’t spill out and scorch her, Garble finally was able to breathe out, a dramatic puff of flames coming out of his breath, but Sandra was busy looking at her menu, making little squeaks. “Look at those stats! Lotsa toughness and strength!” She walked over to the other two dragons. Spike perked as she approached.

"So, uh, my stats are pretty good, right?" He struck a confident pose, full of the heroism he envisioned himself having when not dealing with trouble he couldn't handle. "Give it to me straight."

Smolder rolled her eyes. "That's cool and all, but what part of this gets us back home? We have a school to get to." She hiked a thumb at Garble. "And Gar Gar has things to get to too, right?"

With an unresisting subject, Sandra was easily able to register Spike as her summon and began looking over his stats curiously. "Oh, a very young dragon, cute!" She suddenly threw an arm around him, hugging his smaller pudgier form. "I will take such good care of you, promise."

Spike went red in the cheeks, but didn't try to attack the human. "Uh, thanks, but I'm not a kid. I've saved the world before."

"It's true, he has," dryly noted Smolder with a little smirk on her face. "Better tell him what his stats are before he loses it."

“Um… I mean…” Sandra looked at Spike’s bars, that Spike could already see were not particularly tall. “You have… decent… mental stats? Your stats are like a human’s, with a few above average, but nothing super special. Except your toughness is still pretty high, which must be a dragon thing.” She walked over to Smolder. “Now for you.” She touched the stone to Smolder’s shoulder, another list of bars. “Well, it’s not like the big guy’s, but you still have higher fighting stats than the little guy.”

Smolder shrugged expansively. "He's a nice guy, but he's more pony than dragon, so, you know, less fighting. No offense." She shot a thumbs up towards Spike. "So can we focus on the 'how to get the dragons home before they get ticked off?'"

Sandra looked at Smolder like she had an extra head. “Why would I do that?”

“Because you don’t want to get us ticked off?” Garble asked.

“Because it’s a bad idea to keep friends who aren’t really your friends?” Smolder asked.

“Because it’s the right thing to do?” Spike asked.

“What… no!” Sandra protested, but she composed herself and pointed directly out. “You three are the end of my bad luck streak and the beginning of my rise to the top (or at least not the bottom) of adventuring! So come on!” She began to march out, before stopping, and turning back to them. “Besides, there’s nowhere to send you back to. Summoning creates monsters from magic itself, it doesn't pluck a creature from somewhere real.”

She snorted a little to herself. “Can you imagine how awful it would be if we just stole creatures from their normal homes and forced them to fight for us?”

Author's Note

And so it begins! Welcome to this Isekai version of a MLP story. Will friendship win out, or is it time to grind some levels and unleash a few master moves on a raid boss as dramatic music plays?

... why not both?

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2 - Entering the Grass Field

They moved in an uneasy mass, the dragons trailing behind their new summoner. Garble grabbed Spike as they went. "Look, I know you're a pansy or whatever, but you can't be happy about being that whatever's plaything, right? Don't you have ponies to get home to?"

"He's not wrong," agreed Smolder with a soft shrug, following with her hands behind her head. "But, I also have to admit I'm kind of curious where this is going. She said she's an adventurer. That's basically the opposite of boring."

“Yeah! It’ll be fine,” Spike said with only a little uncertainty. “We’ll do some adventuring, figure out how to get home, and get home. Easy peasy.”

Smolder fired an emphatic thumbs up, but her reply was cut off by other words.

"There she is," noted another female tone. "What'd you get, Sandun?"

"That's not her name," snorted a male. "It's Sandumb, obviously."

"Didja get something good?" asked a reedy second male voice. "Or Sandra luck as usual?" All three laughed, good naturedly to one another, but hardly to the one they focused their mocking towards.

"Laugh all you want," proclaimed Sandra with a moment of steadfast confidence. "I got a summon so great, it couldn't even fit in one body."

"Wha?" asked the larger male. It was about this point that the dragons came into view.

Four humans stood, three of them standing in a line barring Sandra’s way, a female with her hair worn up wearing a breastplate with a shield at her back and sword at her side was directly ahead of her, flanked by two men, one wearing a fancy outfit with a rapier at his side, one with a bow slung over his back. Behind them there was another figure, possibly female from the long hair, wearing a tall hat and a jacket that covered half of her face, only her eyes being visible from beneath the coat and robes.

The three humans in the front were all stunned by the appearance of three dragons, though, all gaping.

Sandra puffed out her chest, putting her hands on her hips. “You see. Everything is different now, and I’m gonna start rising the ranks immediately now.”

A wicked grin appeared on the female assailant’s face. “Oh, no, I know what’s going on here. Screwup Sandra can’t find anybody willing to be her partners, so she bought some cheap low rank summons from someone somehow, and she decided she’d make herself a party.”

"What are they talking about?" Garble hiked a thumb at the loud bunch of whatever-they-weres.

Spike grinned internally as he gave a shrug as if he didn't know. "It sounds like they don't think you're a good adventurer though. They don't think you’re tough enough. Kinda rude if you ask me."

"I'm not sure that's--"

Garble didn't wait to hear what his sister had to say, pushing Smolder aside as he stormed towards the trio with fire in his eyes and smoke on his lips.

“Oh yeah? You think I’m not tough enough to hack it?” He loomed over the smaller woman, snorting and growling, and leaned down. “I don’t think you know who you’re talking to.”

The woman, however, was completely unphased, raising an eyebrow to him. “Who you are? You are just some random summon that a nobody adventurer has. I, on the other hand--” She raised her hand, and on her wrist was another mounting with a shining blue stone on it. “--Am sapphire grade. I beat a dozen monsters bigger than you this morning.”

“I’m not some dumb monster, I’m a dragon,” Garble spat out smoke.

The woman just rolled her eyes. “No. Dragons are centuries old, and make you look like the tiny insect you are."

Sandra was suddenly there, between Garble and the source of his ire. "Words are easy. You'll see when we start making you all look like chumps. Garble, we're out of here."

"It was starting to smell in here anyway," grunted Garble indignantly.

Smolder leaned closer to Spike. "When did you start playing my brother like that? You know he's sensitive."

Her definition of sensitive was not quite Spike's. Still… "Once we see what this adventure is about, I bet Garble'll start having a good time instead of being annoyed. Besides, we don't know how to go home, so better that he--"

Sandra and Garble returned to them, Sandra pointing across the guild lobby. "We're heading out. Gonna see how you all perform against real monsters. You know what a monster is, right?" she didn't sound nearly as confident as she'd like to be that her summons understood their purpose.

Smolder rolled her eyes. “Yes, we know what a monster is.”

“Good, we’re fighting them, let’s go.” Sandra marched across the guild hallway, the party of adventurers returned to gossiping among each other, except the girl in the back, who spent a moment staring at Sandra and her new entourage, narrowing her eyes, and looked away to leave.

Through the guild hall the few people they passed, all wearing some manner of armor and weapons. Spike had a hyperactive bounce in his step. These were real adventurers! Sure, guards had armor, and occasionally you saw an adventurous pony, but this was a whole organization. And he was going to fight monsters.

Emerging from the guild that had almost a tavern-like atmosphere, they stepped out into vast openness. It was a city all around, wide and vast, with buildings that reached towards the heavens. Only Manehattan could have competed with it, leaving all three dragons gaping and turning about to take it all in.

Just to the right of the entrance they could see an enormous tower that the city seemed to be encircling, as if its tallest buildings were nothing compared to its height that couldn't even be seen as it rose above the clouds without pause, presumably pushing up into the very heavens beyond. The tower was made of the smoothest stone, but the shapes it made were anything but smooth, forming uneven floors and strange gaps as if the floors of the tower had been built by different designers at different times.

Spike looked up with marvel. The city was amazing. And it was bustling. A bunch of differently shaped humans wandered around. Tall willowy ones, smaller ones, big stocky ones. Ones with strange ears, even a couple that looked more like races Spike saw from outside of Equestria were around. But this place felt nothing like Klugetown, and there was a spirit of adventure and joy, instead of danger and betrayal.

“Are you sure we didn’t step into a pony town?” Garble said, looking at the same sights with a dismal expression.

Spike frowned. “Figures you wouldn’t appreciate it.”

“What’s there to appreciate? All this frou-frou and people building their own stuff, it’s all lame…” As a large tan skinned adventurer, somehow larger and bulkier than Garble, with a wicked looking axe on his back walked by him, it drew Garble’s gaze. “... Mostly lame.”

“Aww come on, Gar Gar,” Smolder said, nudging him before pointing to a store that had a sword and shield crossed. "Now, I'm no expert, but…"

"Is that a for-real item store?" asked Spike with wide eyes.

Sandra turned towards her strange summons. "One of many, but we don't have money to be buying equipment, and you have fire breath and sharp claws and those teeth look decent too, so what would you need it for?" She shrugged softly. "Come on, the day only has so many hours, and I can feel that experience already flowing!"

She led them through the town. It was a vibrant place, full of a wide variety of people, built up as well as out, with bridges even between some of the buildings. They passed nearby a district will glowing smoking blacksmitheries, and as they passed there was another large building with people training with large two handed weapons in an open yard.

But soon, they reached a wall and a gate, and above the wall there was a bluish purple heat haze, wafting faintly in place, but quite solid in appearance despite that.

Sandra approached the wall and she announced, “Slate grade adventurer Sandra, with summons, going out of town!” She bopped her brooch, bringing up the stats.

The guards briefly looked at the stats, and over the three summons, raising his eyebrow, but he just pressed a little panel on the wall, and said, “Good luck out there.”

She beamed and said, “I don’t need it! I’ve got summons now!” And she marched out, happy as can be.

The pastoral land beyond was full of rolling hills. A few farms and windmills dotted the landscape, alongside a beautiful sparkling lake with a manor by it.

But, in addition to the beautiful scenery, there were creatures. Many creatures dotted the landscape, apparently not hiding or darting about. Many many more than you would normally see in the wilderness at random, even, the land seemed lousy with them.

Spike thrust a finger out. "Is that a literal slime?" He hopped in place, coming down facing Smolder. "Just like in Epic Warrior!"

"No idea what that is." Smolder lifted her shoulders but had a wicked smirk on her face. "But I'm guessing it's our job to do things to them?"

"Yes!" Sandra pointed much like Spike has. "Go forth, my summons. Teach that slime a lesson!"

The slime seemed to notice it was being spoken to, two great projections curling up then flopping, forming lop-eared bunny-like limbs as fine slimy whiskers grew from a sudden mouth. It was a rabbit slime. "I can usually take down one or two of those in a day before I had to come back. Let's see how many I can do with you all."

The three of them just stared down the extra bouncy rabbit, and Garble nudged Spike in the back. “Come on. You’re the fan of this stuff, right?”

Spike brandished his claws and stepped himself forward to the cute rabbit slime. The adorable green nose sniffed at him, and it bounced a little around. It looked up at him with big round eyes, somehow. Spike bared his teeth, trying to growl and puff out smoke. He was ready, he was able! He was a dragon!

He couldn’t do it.

He turned around. “Are you sure that, um, we have to kill the cute little monster?”

And at that moment, the monster struck, rearing back, it’s body flattening a little, until it’s rubbery body sprang back into place, propelling it forward violently into Spike’s side, knocking him over with a cry.

Garble erupted into laughter.

Spike actually growled to himself. Now the monster was making him a fool? Fine, it was a real monster, and it needed to really be taken out. He turned to it, swiping with a claw. He got purchase into the monster’s flesh, cutting into it, and it cringed back, morphing in a way that it’s limbs and nose just retracted into it and came out facing Spike.

It pounced at him again, only this time Spike was ready, easily dodging out of the way. He took a breath, and puffed out a big puff of fire, directly hitting it. The heat washed over the creature, obscuring it from sight as it melted away.

With a soft chime, the broach she wore demanded her attention. Next to each name of the members of her party, a soft beige bar appeared next to them, filling slightly with a bright blue bar. Sandra squinted at them, glancing up at hers, then the dragons'. "Wait… You're not supposed to have those. Summons… don't advance on their own…" She stroked her chin, looking quite befuddled. "Uh, but you did it! Good job! One down, so much more to do!"

Author's Note

A thanks to Dragonpony for sudden fan art that turned into a new cover!

They've scored their first kill, one of many, perhaps? Spike and Smolder are kinda digging this.

What do you mean my summon gained XP? That's weird...

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3 - Grinding Session

The grinding session began in earnest. Garble would not be outdone by Spikey Wikey, an endearing term he was sure to use as he charged past to grab up two cute little rabbit slimes and grind them together in a great explosion of goo that faded into ether, coins and a single potion falling where once they were. "What the?"

Smolder lunged for it, grabbing the potion before it fell to the ground. "Got it! What is it?" She swirled the bright cyan-shaded fluid around in its glass bottle. "This was not floating around inside that slime."

Sandra stood tall and proud, adjusting her glasses as she cleared her throat, looking ready to dispense wisdom.

Spike spoke without even noticing Sandra's preparations, "Bet taking out the slime made it appear."

"Well, yes," she deflatedly agreed. "There's more to it than that." She waved in the direction the sparkles that escaped the defeated monster fled towards. "The energy that makes them up was forced out of their body, which sometimes is enough and gets caught in the right way to make new things, like the coins and the potion. The rest goes off to be reborn as new monsters."

“So wait,” Garble said, picking up a gold piece between his claws. “All we need to do to get more gold is beat up a ton of these stupid easy things to beat?” He grasped it in his hand and grinned wickedly. “That’s awesome!” He took to the air, not very high, flying over to another bunny slime, roasting it, laughing maniacally.

Smolder walked over to Spike, watching Garble. “I gotta hand it to ya. I didn’t think Garble would warm up to it as quickly as this.”

Garble was laughing as he terrorized the slimes, throwing them around like they were nothing, and Spike grimaced at Garble’s cruelty unleashed. At least they were monsters that seemed to exist just to be defeated. “Yeah… I kinda figured.”

Sandra, however, was staring at the menu out of her broach, a frown on her face as a bar on it went up ever so slightly as Garble smooshed another slime. “Why’s it going up so slowly for me…”

“Well you’re not really doing anything,” Smolder said. “You’re just sitting here watching Garble or us do all the work.”

“... So?”

“So,” Spike chimed in. “Aren’t you supposed to be like… practicing magic or figuring out how to beat monsters? Just watching people doesn’t help that much, you have to do it.”

"Well, yeah, sure, but you're taking them down so fast…" Sandra slowly scanned over the horizon before extending a figure to what seemed to be a tree. "There we go. I'll start on that, you assist, alright?"

Spike and Smolder shared a look. It was a tree…

Sandra gave a thumbs up before advancing on the helpless shrubbery. "This one's tougher than the rabbit slimes, but I have such great summons, we'll take it down."

As they began to walk, Spike hiked a thumb back. “What about, you know?”

Sandra looked back to Garble. “Well…” He was flying around, laughing raucously, snapping up the gold and bits of items dropped by the slimes and depositing them into a growing pile, which Sandra eyed greedily. “Let’s let him keep doing that. We won’t even be far enough away that he can’t see us.”

Smolder made a soft polite gesture as if to let Sandra past. "Show us what you have. You know what we can do." She wriggled her claw-tips. "Comes written on the can, you know?"

Spike was stroking his chin softly. "Yeah, sure, but I want to learn some of that magic… Later, I mean." Even at his most optimistic, he didn't see the option to do that in the middle of the grassy field. "For now, go on." Seeing magic that didn't require a unicorn horn was a step forward, right?

Sandra tapped her bangle twice, pulling her hand up high, a light trailing behind it briefly. In front of her, magic circles and a sparkle appeared straight up and down, and from top to bottom, as if something was draining off of it, a short wooden staff appeared, about the length of Sandra’s arm. She snatched it out of the air and held it straight out.

“Let’s do this!” she shouted, and wisps of flame began to collect around the tip of the staff, starting to form a little ball at the tip of her staff. She brought the staff back a little, and pointed it forward, the burst of fire flying in an arc toward the shrub monster, which had clearly noticed and cringed away from the flames...

Only for the fireball to go wide, striking several feet behind it.

All parties watching briefly froze, and there was a rustle and the shrub monster began to twist back and forth, and after a moment it became clear what was happening: it was uprooting itself.

“D-don’t just do nothing!” Smolder yelled. “Shoot again!”

Sandra twirled her staff in a display that did little as she backed up a step. "According to plan," she muttered with a lack of confidence, the flames gathering more slowly for the second round. "Remember we're a team, right?"

Spike rolled a hand softly. "Uh, how much tougher is this thing than the slime? It's kinda slow."

"Super slow," addended Smolder with a wry smirk, watching it rise to its full height, towering over them, but all its motions were almost comically sluggard.

"Right, right. I have this!" She raised her staff high, flames gathered for a second strike. "Focus focus... " She stared dead at the treant as it took its first great step towards her. "Big target, can't miss. Can't possibly--" She swung the staff forward, flames not emerging on one coherent ball but instead a sprinkling, like a burst of confetti that set a few of its more dead leaves ablaze but did little real damage to the thing.

The shrub creature stepped forward, closer to Sandra, and she gasped, trying to step back, stumbling and falling on her butt. A very leafy limb extended from its side, and began to swing down on Sandra in a wide hook. It swung slowly, but built up momentum, and Sandra was frozen stiff, her eyes wide with terror.

Spike reached for her, but it was a moment too late, her form sent sailing in an ungainly heap. "Got her," cut in Smolder, jumping up to grab the air-borne wizard from the middle of her tumble.

His eyes on the bushy enemy, turning towards him, he flexed his claws. "Alright, I don't have magic, but I do have plenty of fire, which I hear trees don't like." The tree was unimpressed by his claim, taking a stiff step towards the small dragon. His cheeks bulged with his attack before vomiting forth a great cone of dragon's fury, enveloping the beast.

Unlike the slime, it did not melt. It barely caught on fire, approaching despite the burning heat to smash down a branch right on top of Spike's head, stopping his attack and sending him to the ground in with a loud 'oof!'.

"Shoot." Smolder set Sandra down roughly, half-dropping her as she almost bounced off the turf back towards the leafy nemesis. "Now you're askin' for it!"

She leapt up, into the air, and pounced on the shrubbed monster, slashing at its branches, clipping several of them. It swung it’s branch-arm at her in another slow but powerful arc, except she was much faster than that, and easily avoided it. She puffed her own puff of fire as well, scorching a little of the flesh underneath the branches.

Spike pulled himself up, a little woozy, seeing Smolder darting and pouncing on the monster. She was already better at this, he thought, shaking his head to dismiss the thought. He could prove himself! Adventuring like this is a dream come true!

Besides, it didn’t hurt that much. “Another breath, coming up!” He announced, and inhaled deeply. Smolder caught his form out of the corner of her eye, flapping herself up in time for the flames to hit the foliage monster, causing it to stagger back just a step. It was progress.

She landed next to Spike, in a ready stance, cracking a smile to herself. This wasn’t so bad. He was tough but not that tough. He just took a lot of punishment. She bared her claws and ran in with a low growl.

Sandra gathered herself to her feet, watching her new summons clash with the great creature. "Hey, Garble!" she called out to him even as he smashed three poor slimes at once in a great sliding pounce that ground them to so much ooze. "Help take out this shrubent! It's a better fight than the slimes, promise."

"Say what?" He snatched up the small bag that had fallen from one of the slimes. "Whatever. Hey, Sis, you need help? I get Spike callin' for backup, but you, really?"

"Kiss--" She ducked under a swinging branch, slipping around the plant. "--my--" She bit down fiercely at the base of one of its limbs, tearing it free, though it had so many more. "--scaly backend! Help or not, your call! I'm havin' plenty of fun on my own."

Garble lifted his shoulders as he ambled closer. "Yeah, you're doing alright."

Sandra threw up a hand with a frustrated cry. Why were her summons so hard to control?! "Hey, do you have fire resistance or not?"

Spike heard the question even as he was diving out of the way of a slow attack. "Huh? Yeah, hard to hurt a dragon with fire." He gave a thumbs up that turned into a sudden swipe, pruning the branch that was reaching towards him. "Back up, you badly upkept shrubbery!"

As Spike and Smolder continued to slash and spit bits of flame at the monster, Sandra got herself up. She closed her eyes began to focus again, feeling her magic flow through the staff she was holding, also feeling the staff shape her magic in a way she was not capable of. At least, not yet. The flames gathered at the tip of the staff, and she focused them. She needed them hotter, more explosive.

Once she reached almost as hot as she could manage, she opened up her eyes. Aiming. Aiming always sucked. But the monster was slow, and the dragons would be immune to her fire.

Garble watched the girl squint her eyes and focus real hard, somehow producing fire on the tip of a wooden stick. Which didn’t burn. Magic is weird.

Sandra held the spell, aiming… aiming. She released it, the blast pushing her arm back. With the sound of a deep cannon blast, flames rushed forward towards the violently clashing meeting of dragon and wood. All became heat and fire, washing over them all, lost to sight in a moment of rushing air, exploding brilliance, and a blossoming of fire that caught fire to patches of grass around them.

Garble stopped next to Sandra, one scaly brow raised. "If you just toasted my sister, I'm gonna be really angry, just so we're clear."

Sandra laughed with a bravado so false even she knew it was hollow. "I'm sure they're fine, they're dragons!"

Author's Note

That could have gone worse, or better? Pow, you are thrown into a MMO-like world, what class are you rushing to become?

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4 - FOE

The bright conflagration faded, Sandra staring at the center of it still, a rictus frozen on her face in false confidence. The shrub monster lay on the floor, the force of the fireball having not just scorched but cracked it’s torso, with burnt leaves fluttering about. Spike and Smolder both lay on the ground a few feet away.

Spike, planted on his face, pushed himself up. “Uggh, did you see the cart that hit me…”

Smolder groaned too, laying on her back. “I dunno, but it hit me too.” She pulled herself up, hissing. A part of her upper leg had scales were torn, the skin underneath red and seared. She gingerly touched it. “Ow ow ow.”

Garble glared down at Sandra beside him. “Now, what did I tell you,” he growled out.

But Sandra was calmed, instead. “Calm down,” Sandra said, waving her staff around unthreateningly. “It’s not much of an injury at all. We just need a little healing.”

Spike pulled himself up. “Maybe I need a little too, I am sore… Can you cast any?”

“Does it look like I’m a healing class?” Sandra said, her eyebrow raised. “No,” She put her hand to her chest in a haughty gesture. “I am an attack magician, thank you very much. I’m sure most of those potions that were dropped by the Lagoslimes are healing potions. We just need to give her one or two.”

"So, about that learning magic thing." Spike had a raised claw, even if smoke lazily trailed up from his singed form. "By the way, nice blast. Maybe next time don't include us in it.”

"I second that," moaned out Smolder. "Gar gar, hook a sister up with a potion." She waved a hand from her prone position, not in the mood to move yet.

"It was fire! You said that would be alright." Sandra put her free hand at her hips. "You don't know your own resistances?"

Garble was already fishing out his loot from his slime murder frenzy. "Shut up and show me which of these to give her. Or we can test your resistances."

"Calm down, sheesh." Sandra snagged a small red vial. "Here, drink up."

Garble grabbed it back and hurried to Smolder. His sister closed her fingers around the vial he knew better than to try nursing to her directly. She popped the cork and guzzled the contents almost instantly. "Cherry, nice. When do--" her words were cut off as her entire form glowed, the injuries fading away. "Okay, that was awesome."

Garble raised his eyebrow. “Alright, fine. You lucked out.”

Sandra smirked. “Luck had nothing to do with it. I knew we had it. And now--” She gestured down to the pile of gold and potions and other items. “--I have a big ole pile of loot.”

“You mean my horde, right?” Garble shot back. “I gathered it, after all.”

Sandra shot him a sidelong glance. “Just get some more--” She wiggled her fingers and smiled a toothy smile “--While I sort through this pile and put it in my inventory.”

Garble snorted, but still turned around, muttering under his breath.

Smolder headed out after him, and Spike seized the opportunity to ask the question again, “So, Sandra… what can I do about learning spells like that?” He rocked back and forth on his heels.

Sandra, picking up what looked like a bit of crystallized slime goo, gave him a look. “I mean… You can’t?” she stated with a questioning look. “You’re just… a summon. The powers you have now are the powers you will always have. So, like, you have the magic fire breath and that’s it.”

Garble, having ambled back to the Lagoslimes, popped another one by stomping on it. He sighed to himself. “It’s just not the same if I don’t get to keep the horde…” The magic from the slime, instead of forming into gold, though, drifted upward, drawing Garble’s vision...

Spike frowned. “Are you sure? We have an XP bar. We’re definitely not ‘normal’--” He put air quotes. “--summons.” He waggled a finger as he turned towards the defeated bush. "Putting that aside a moment, why hasn't this thing fallen apart into stuff for us to have already?"

Smolder stopped, going rigid as she peeked over her shoulder. "Uh…"

The remnants of the creature exploded outwards in a haze of wood and ashes, spreading over the area in a flurry of sharp fragments, forming together into a strange human-shape of particles that raised its newfound fist as it stepped towards Sandra, looking quite ready to pulverize her.

Spike didn't even try to burn it, the thing already looking charred. Clawing or biting it felt equally as bad of an idea, being made of little bits instead of one solid piece to smash. He opted instead to throw himself at Sandra, grabbing her around the middle and pumping his wings, carrying her up and away just in time for the whoosh of air to caress them from the near hit, the ground where they were exploding violently from the impact of the creature.

"Shut up!" suddenly roared Garble, slamming his hands together as he stormed towards the thing. "We beat you up fair and square. Go on and finish dying already!"

"Uh, not sure it works like that, Gar Gar." Smolder backed away, her wings carrying her up a little further away from the things incessed reach. "Maybe we should let it--"

"--Nuh uh, it has our stuff." He swung his own fist, meeting its in a great clash. Small cuts and nicks exploded over his fist and arm, slivers of the singed wood embedding themselves into his scaled hide as he howled in pain.

The bipedal creature stood up, the vague shape becoming a more defined ethereal outline. Bluish motes of magic spiraled around it and coalesced in it, and where the ethereal outline and the motes met, slime filled in the gaps.

Soon, it had grown even larger, and was now a large bulky slime creature with spiky claws of wood and patches on the surface of the slime serving as armor. The face was notably bunny like and bunny ears sprang up from the top of it.

Sandra, from her place in Spike’s straining arms, shouted, “It’s a mana merged creature! That’s amazing! I’ve never seen one before!”

"Oh, yeah, one of…" Garble never finished his statement, grabbing what he could while the monster before him was forming itself. "Tell me it doesn't like fire." He stuffed his pockets with random potions and coins in a flurry of hoarding to do any dragon proud.

"Get out of there!" hollered Smolder from above, swooping in to belch out a blast of fire across the thing on the way past. "I'll distract it!" Her plan was short-lived, its eyes glowing fiercely as it reached for her. Its hand didn't reach her, the glow becoming an actual beam that lanced out, painfully scorching a line across her that wasn't of fire but of some other exotic element she couldn't identify in that painful instant. "Agh! Shoot, that didn't work!"

Spike came down, forced to with his extra burden. He set Sandra down with a huff of relief. "I think we need to get out of here."

She peered at her hesitant summon. "We need to rally together and use some sound strategy!" Sandra clapped her free hand against the one still holding her staff. "First, let's take a peek." She swirled the end of the staff towards the strange rabbit-wood monster, the end glowing with purple light. "I thought I'd never have a chance to use this one."

"Great for you." Garble jumped to the left as a great gooey psuedopod crashed into the ground where he had been standing, sending splinters and wood flying in all direction. "Fantastic." He exhaled a great plume of fire across the thing, but it hardly seemed to register his presence, as if the charred wood had negated the slimes' weakness to the flames.

Smolder looped around and came for Spike and Sandra. "Yeah, I don't think we're, you know, ready for quite… this much, as much as I want to punch it right in its face, I saw what that does! What a rip off, we didn't get whatever you get for beating up that tree."

"Scan!" announced Sandra in a loud and clear command of the universe, strange white lines appearing all over the amalgam monster as facts about it began to pop up into clear view.

Weakness: Acid, Lightning -- Restored by: Fire
Level: 15 -- Full Party Encounter
Consideration Level: Deep Purple

"Great." Garble scrambled away, aborting his thought to even try breathing at it again. "Great! Did I mention great yet? We rip this thing apart, or we get out, one or the other."

Sandra took an uncertain step back. "D-deep purple?! Things aren't supposed to be… level 15 on the grassy fields, or full party encounters… or restored by anything…"

Spike grabbed for her, tugging at her midsection. "Time to go."

Sandra didn’t budge. “But… the loot!” She reached out for the pile of coins, currently basically underneath the monster’s “feet.” “We’ll leave empty handed!” She stepped forward, fiddling with her menu. She fiddled with her menu and produced another staff, a bit better carved instead of gnarled. She began to cast something, a purple glyph appearing on it. She squinted her eyes, and pointed it. The magical bolt soared through the air, straight and true, slamming into the monster ahead.

But it appeared to have no effect.

The monster roared, a slimy maw appearing on its face, and it raised up a pseudopod, and the wood on the pseudopod grew. He swung it in a broad arc, apparently not trying to hit, and spikes of charred wood were flung at Sandra and Spike, colliding with both of them.

Spike was pelted with sharp shard, which knocked him over and somehow pierced even dragon scale, a very large spike now partway into his gut, but not all that deep. He pulled himself up, gritting his teeth. It hurt. And then he caught a glimpse of Sandra.

She laid on the ground now, a huge shard, more like a spike, embedded in her shoulder, as blood oozed and stained her robe. She didn’t stir, or moan, but just laid there, as her lifeblood leaked out.

Garble reached Spike and Sandra and didn't debate the point. He didn't have elegant arguments to throw down. He just plucked the mage right off the ground and began running with her. "Move it or lose it, Spike."

"Don't have to tell me twice!" With Sandra spirited away, he took to the air, flapping wildly to put some distance between himself and the dread beast that had put such an abrupt halt to their grinding exploits. Without even thinking, he wrenched the spike free, though that made his flying falter in an awkward stumble as the pain proved far greater than he had been expecting, but he could flee freely without it jutting from his form.

Smolder flipped upside down to wave at the beast with both hands as if parting farewell to a dear friend instead of the thing that had so recently hurt her. "See ya later, maybe never!"

"Hey, if you have time to do that, dig around and find one of those damn red potions," grunted Garble as he jumped over what few obstacles stood in his way, weaving across the plains towards the city they had emerged from. "We have two weaklings that could use one, Miss Loudmouth first."

"Er, yeah…" Spike peered down at Sandra's limp form. She wasn't being loud. "I'll live…" But would she? He couldn't feel absolutely certain about that. Though they had just met fairly recently and in awkward circumstances, he felt sure he didn't want her to meet that end.

The guards at the gate held up a hand each, but after consulting with a glance at a device much like the brooch that Sandra wore, they were allowed in. "Didn't realize you were adventurers."

Author's Note

Phew, we barely got this one done in time, but did it we did. The lesson of today? Pain! But a valuable clue is given right in the end there, did you catch it?

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5 - Self-determinism

Almost immediately after entering the city, a man wearing soft white robes rapidly approached them. "The guards said--" He aborted his thought, seeing the direly wounded Sandra. "This way." He gestured back where he had come from with one hand, the other raising towards her as strange words spilled from his mouth, bidding her to glow and slowing the loss of her life. "We will help."

They were led through the city’s streets to a nearby building. It was sorta like a doctors office, except instead of normal doctor’s equipment there were wands and staves and potions. The person at the desk was wearing a coat that had many vials and flasks hooked onto it, and shot up when she noticed the injured girl brought in. She rang a bell and a third person, wearing a flowing robe, came out with a cart to put Sandra onto, and all three of the healers ushered her off into the back room, with the clerk shouting back, “Ring the bell if someone else comes in very injured.”

And then the three dragons were alone, sitting in the entryway of a small healers building.

Smolder glanced in the direction Sandra had vanished off to. "So, hey, not to be a jerk or nothing, but we're finally alone."

Garble shrugged expansively. "You wanted to, oh yeah, when are we getting home?"

"After we finish being awesome," retorted Smolder with a smirk. "Besides, we'll keep an eye out for that, but I don't plan to sit around being a sad sack until then. Tell me you didn't have fun crushing all those rabbit ooze things."

Spike gave an emphatic thumbs up. "About that. As fun as it was teaming up on the tree thing, we should get, you know, better tactics, and I have an idea!"

"Yeah?" Garble hiked a brow at Spike. "What kind of idea do you have?"

"Gar Gar, I can hear you sneering from here." She rolled her eyes mightily. "Hit us with it, Spike, but if it's awful, I ain't stopping' him from laughing, fair warning."

Spike held up his hands. "Alright, alright, hear me out. Sandra's an 'Elemancer', she said that. She said we were summons, but we're not. The guards said so, and we already knew that, let's be honest."

Garble crossed his arms. "Well, technically, she did summon us, the jerk."

Smolder threw up a hand. "But we are not summons. I'm with you so far, so what's your idea?"

Spike put his hands out. “Okay, okay, so bear with me… we need to… pick up classes like Sandra.”

Garble looked at him dumbfounded.

“Because, like, we’re not summons, so I bet we can totally learn magic, or wield cool weapons, or--”

“This isn’t some afternoon day jaunt!” Garble roared, standing up. “We aren’t just going along with someone’s plan. She is forcing us to fight for her.”

“Weren’t you enjoying it, Gar Gar?” Smolder said, raising an eyebrow.

“Sure, as a one time thing. Now we’re done, now I wanna go back home! Don’t you have like, ponies to get back to?”

“Well… yeah,” Spike said.

“And you!” He points to his sister. “You’ve got all sorts of friends back in that pony school you like to go to, right?” He didn’t wait for the answer. “What are we gonna do to get back?”

Spike and Smolder both fell silent, thinking. Smolder piped up. “Well, Sandra ‘summoned’ us,” she said, using claw quotes. “So she probably has the answer as to how to send us back.”

“She isn’t gonna send us back, Smolder,” Garble said. “She has three dragons as her servants. Why would she give that up?” He turned tail and started stomping. “No, if someone is gonna figure out how to send us back it has to be us figuring it out.” He stomped outside. “So, I dunno if you two wanna play adventurer with a girl who is busy using us like slaves, but I’m gonna figure out how not to.”

He crouched down and shot up, flapping his wings powerfully, intending to get away for awhile, figure out what to do. He flapped his wings, clearing a few stories, as the sun began to set. He surveyed the city from his twenty or so feet up. It was a good looking city, with that monstrous tower looming over the city. But, he had no idea where to go, but anything was better than here, and he set off in that direction, intending to leave.

Almost immediately, his wing seized up, and he started falling… falling… well only a little bit. He wasn’t very high, but the ground was still hard and he crashed into it.

“Gar Gar!” Smolder shouted, running toward him.

Spike rolled a hand as he approached more casually. "For better or worse, we're a team. We can't separate. I wonder if there's a way to, you know, leave a team. Bet it has something to do with that thing she wears." He pointed where the brooch usually dangled off the elemancer. "Another thing we have to figure out."

Even as Smolder helped him to his feet, Garble snorted. "Well she's not 'part of the team' right now, duh. We're already not next to her." He waved in the direction of Sandra. "See? We could just walk away, together if we have to. Bam, no more Sandra."

Smolder extended a finger. "Well, for one, it might kick back in whenever she wakes up. For two, that's kind of a jerky thing to do. I mean, she did summon us, but she really needs a little help. And three, she knows how things work around here, so I say we keep her around for our needs."

"Wait, but we're here for her," he reminded with a frown.

"Or so she thinks." Smolder waggled her brows with a smirk. "Let her think that. She needs us way more than we need her, and she can't make us do anything we don't want to do."

“So we need to win her over!” Spike said, hopping up a little. “We need to become her friend, and make her realize we’re not just summons! Then we can get all of this sorted out.”

Garble snorted. “Fine, but I don’t have to like it.”

Smolder chuckled. “You were liking fighting those slimes just fine…” She nudged his side. “So why not enjoy the fun parts while we’re at it?”

Garble chuckled. “Alright, alright, fine.”

The three of them started walking back to the clinic. “Anyway!” Spike piped up with enthusiasm. “The first step to showing her we’re not just summons is to show her we’re people!”

“Oh no don’t tell me…” Garble started.

“And that means picking classes!” Spike decisively punched his fist into his palm.

Smolder turned in place slowly before reaching out and grabbing a random human wandering by, grabbing the man by the shoulder. "Hey, dude, if you wanted to get a 'class', where would you do that?"

"Huh?" His eyes darted from one dragon to the next. "Huh… Never saw demihumans that looked so much like dragons, uh. I'd go to the guild, of course." He pointed the way to a two story building that rose above many of the others that had but one level. "They handle adventurers."

“Great!” Spike started marching ahead, with the other two dragons in tow.

“You’ve got the money for registration and the first set of gear, right?” the human shouted as they sped away.

Spike and Smolder looked over their shoulders at Garble, who frowned. “But my stuff! I’m the one that killed all those slimes, what did you do? Fail to kill a tree?”

Smolder held up a hand towards her larger brother. "If you don't want us holding you down, you cover this so we can stop sucking so hard. Everyone wins."

Spike blinked at that, surprised to hear Smolder accepting the put down. "Uh, yeah?"

Gable snorted as he stomped towards the guild. "Whatever. This is where they summoned us, isn't it?" He waved at the building that the trouble had begun in. "And now here we are, this better be worth it."

Spike practically skipped to the registrar. “Three new adventurers here to register, please!”

The clerk looked down, peering at them through his glasses. “Weren’t you three already here this morning?”

“Ah uh… well yes…”

“Yes… you were with that other human, weren’t you? Where is she?”

“Ah, uh... “ Spike smiled a big nervous smile. “W-why do you ask?”

“Because she shouldn’t be going out to adventure with nonregistered adventurers!” The clerk slammed a paper on the table. “That’s dangerous. What if you got lost? What if you were hurt? All the safeguards that the brooch could afford you were gone!”

Spike sighed in relief. Okay, so normal rule stuff, and not summon stuff. “We’re so sorry, but we were saving up the money to actually get registered, you know? And now we have it! So let’s sign up!”

The clerk adjusted his glasses. “Good, proper registration is important for both your safety and our security.” He produced three papers. “Fill these out and return them to me and we’ll send you to your rooms to pick your class and get the equipment fitted.”

Garble snatched up one of the three, flipping it around to look over with a raised brow. "Name, race, class. Race only has two options? I woulda thought it would be a blank space like the other ones."

The secretary clapped his hands. "Oh, how silly of me," he laughed as if chiding herself on expecting a child to understand something advanced. "There are only two races we track. Humans--" He gestured to himself and then a few other passing humans. "And demi-humans." He pointed to Garble, Spike, and Smolder. "You're not human, so you're a demi human. Easy as that."

Spike quickly jotted down his name and checked the demihuman box. “Done aand done.” He peered at the sheet again. “And what does… how do I know which class to pick? Can I write down anything?”

“What? No, no.” The clerk fetched a piece of solid paper, mounted on a wooden plate. “Here’s a list of the classes that you have access to as a beginner from the guild. No rank requirements or having to convince their personal guild that you’re worthy for these classes.”

Spike looked down at the list of about half a dozen names, and Garble and Smolder both edged in to get a glimpse too. But what faced them was a list of strange terms that were… hard to understand.

“What’s a…” Smolder read the strange title, “Boltslinger?”

"Ranged specialist, physical," spoke the clerk as if reciting the obvious. "They specialize in things like crossbows and quick repositioning to take down their targets." He raised a brow then. "Should I just give the rundown of the entire catalog? I feel that would be faster than going one by one waiting for questions at this point." He rested his head on his hands, watching them bemusedly. "You had a human with you, didn't you ask her?"

Spike raised a hand high, waving it a little. "I want to cast spells! Which ones do those?"

He brought her hands together, head lifting as he looked at Spike as if he were an eager little boy hoping to one day be an astronaut. "How darling. There are a great many professions that lead to spellcasting. To start, we have elemenacy and vitamancy. You can think of them as offense and defense. If you get good with them, other classes become available to blend them, or even bring martial talents to bear, but you shouldn't get ahead of yourself."

Garble shrugged. "Too many words, not enough getting to the point. I want to smash things and stop my sis from getting hurt." He hiked a thumb. "She acts tough, but--"

"I am tough," she retorted with an acidic tone, rolling her eyes.

"--she still needs me." Garble nodded at the human. "What have you got for that?"

Author's Note

Picking a class! With later class evolutions? Sign me up. Would you play this MMO so far?

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6 - Tutorial

“Bulwark, then. It is a defensive class that focuses on engaging monsters in ways so they have a hard time harming your other party members. If you wanna get up close to a monster three times your size, that’s the class you want.”

“And smashing things?” Garble said, fins perking up at the word smashing.

“Well, they use a weapon in one hand, and a shield in the other, typically. But they can smash.” The clerk adjusted his glasses, an expectant smile on his face. “In fact, they can learn a host of debili--”

“Done,” Garble slapped the paper, with his choice written, onto the clerk’s chest. “Where do I get the stuff?”

Spike slipped his paper next to Garble's, hovering in to get it into position. Smolder, the only remaining, was tapping a foot. "I'm not interested in standing hiding behind Suddenly Caring Brother. What have you got that lets me get in close and make them regret everything?"

The clerk considered a moment, inspecting Smolder. "Do you have any melee practice."

"Mel-what?" She turned a hand palmside up with an expansive shrug, looking baffled at the idea.

"Fighting face to face, with a blade or with your fists," explained the clerk, doing a poor job of disguising his naked amusement at how un-knowledgeable the cute but daft demi-humans were before him.

"Oh! Yeah! Exactly that." She pointed to him with a fanged smile. "Hook me up."

Spike nodded to himself. "Vita means life," he noted. "If I can do stuff based on that, I bet I could do all kinds of things."

"Where'd you learn that, your pony friends?" scoffed Garble, waving off the talk.

"Intersector," offered the clerk. "Specializing in quick deft strikes over slow ones, they can get into and out of trouble quickly while tearing their enemies apart." His voice sounded like he was quoting some already written slogan for the class. "Sound good?"

"Sounds great," agreed Smolder with a big grin. She quickly filled out her paper and set it with the others. "Alright, done! What's the next step?"

The clerk took all three papers, browsing them for but a moment. "I presume Sandra will be your sponsor?" When all three looked confused, he just smiled a little. "Demi-humans need a human sponsor, but I saw you four together before, so don't worry about it." He casually applied one of the dropped pens to each paper, adding Sandra's name to a field they hadn't even paid much mind to. "Now just the small matter of fees. Do you need to get her for that?"

"No," stated Garble in almost a bark, pulling out a handful of coins and slapping them on the counter. "That enough?"

The clerk pushed around, counting under his breath, then he scooped up the majority of it, leaving a few coins. “Allow me to fetch fresh guildchains,” he said as he headed into the back room.

Garble snatched up his coins, depositing them with a notable clink from more coins he didn’t bother presenting. “... What?” he said, noticing Smolder and Spike’s stares. “It’s mine, isn’t it?”

After a moment, the clerk came back in with three wooden cases, held closed with clasps. He distributed them to each of the three dragons, stepping back and bowing. “Welcome to the adventurers guild of Zoramiah. Go and forge your stone to diamonds.”

Spike unclasped and threw open the box. Inside there was a bland looking rock, the same he saw on Sandra’s brooch, held in place by a bit of wire that was attached to a chain. There were extra links as well, and the chain had a loop to attach it to… something.

Spike reached in and picked up the stone. Immediately it lit up, forming a little colorful menu with “Welcome, Spike” at the top. It faded into several options, and he immediately hit status. The class name was still blank. “Hey… I thought I wanted vitamancer?”

"We haven't quite finished," he assured. "But we have reached the end of what I offer. One moment, please." He turned in place, raising his own guildchain, similar and yet different than Sandra's, and waving the opposing hand over it. "We have three newbies in need of basic introductions and equipment." The gem in it shone bright a moment before going dim. "She's on the way."

Smolder rolled a hand. "Tell me it isn't Sandra. I'm not quite ready to see her just yet."

"What, I thought you loved her or something." Garble shrugged lightly, rolling his eyes. "The way you keep doing what she says and all."

Spike jingled his new chain, wrapped around his arm as it was. "It isn't like that. She knows how this world works. It makes sense to stick on her good side, at least until we've figured things out."

The clerk was paying them no mind, already returned to looking busy behind his desk as if they weren't there.

"It's Sandra's summons!" came a voice from the right. The man with the bow that had antagonized Sandra earlier was standing there, gaping openly at them. "What are you doing here, without Sandra? Did she send you?"

“Hey!” Garble stepped ahead of the rest. “Sandra doesn’t tell me what to do. We’re here with my money to get classes because we wanted to.”

The archer raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, it doesn’t work that way. You’re summons, not adventurers, and you don’t get classes, or guildchains, or anything.”

“Oh yeah!” Garble said, and yanked the chain out of his case, the stone dangling with the words “Welcome Garble” flashing on the menu . “See! Class junk.”

The other two dragons held up their chains in a show of solidarity and not-summon status, smiles on all three faces in various shades of prideful triumph. "Huh, right." The archer hiked a thumb. "Get back to me when you're not just playing dress up. Bet you won't even use your classes right."

Garble snorted smoke as the archer walked away. “Who does he think he is?”

Smolder sidled up to Spike, whispering, “I think Garble found someone that annoys him more than you do.”

Spike snickered at the very idea of it. "I can only hope. So where's--"

A new guild member approached, older with an ornate guildchain dangling around their neck. "Are you the new students? Hm, demi-humans. Do you understand what you're signing up for? This is not an easy path you have chosen."

Spike started to open his mouth, only to be interrupted by Garble. “What kinda question is that? We said we wanted to, didn’t we?”

Smolder lifted her shoulders. "We already took down this big, uh, what was it, bushant? Angry bush. Hook us up." She jiggled her chain at the man.

Her brows raised as one. "Did you now?"

"They were with Sandra," noted the clerk without looking up.

"Ah… Good to see she's getting her feet under herself." The potential teacher gestured back where she had come from. "Follow me, then.”

They were led through ornate stone halls, the clicks of their claws echoing on the ground as they walked. "As new members, the first thing you will learn is how to use the classes you have selected, and how not to hurt yourself or those around you."

Smolder leaned towards Garble. "Think Sandra missed that class," she whispered with a wicked smirk.

"As I was saying.” The woman didn’t look back. “The classes you have chosen will determine what abilities you have and learn. Many magical pieces of equipment are created by the various craftsmen of the town, or dropped by monsters, or even found in ruins, and the class you have chosen will determine what magics you learn.”

“But--” Smolder began to say, before being cut off.

“For example, the cheapest and most elementary magic staff will give an elemancer access to a basic fire spell, but for a vitamancer it will give you access to your basic healing spell, instead. A vitamancer cannot cast a fire spell, nor can an elemancer cast a healing spell, as the nature of those classes are anathema to it.”

They passed an ornate fountain, burbling softly, but the woman was walking a brisk pace.

“As you gain experience with your magics, you will eventually become accustomed to shaping your power, and you will no longer need the equipment to use those particular abilities.”

The group fell into silence as she finished her explanation. “You may ask your question now.”

“Oh!” Smolder perked up. “So, I thought I was a me… I’m gonna fight stuff with a weapon. Why are you talking about magic and spells?”

She looked over her shoulder. "You will be. Your personal ability to fight is not entirely irrelevant, but to fight things twice your size, literal godlings that could crush a normal human without a thought, some magic is involved even when you're being very physical. All classes use some amount of magic, just not always spells as you know them."

Spike raised a finger, looking smugly confident. "The magic will make us better at fighting, but we still have to fight."

"Did Sandra teach you that?" Their teacher pulled open a barred gate, leading to a wide courtyard that was open to the sky above. "Now then, you--" She turned to Garble. "You registered as a bulwark. Armor is right there." She pointed to a mannequin with a crude breastplate. "And you may select a weapon and shield." She moved her fingers to point to the racks that held many of both. "I recommend something you can easily wield in one hand, not too heavy, as your shield will be just as important, if not more so often."

Garble walked over to the armor, picking it up and starting to look it over. It looked kinda… dinky. He knocked on it, listening to the dull ring. "Was this what the runt was all excited about?" He huffed indignantly.

The teacher then pointed to another mannequin, with a leather jerkin on top of a simple shirt. “The girl registered as an interceptor, which wears light armor. Pick out a small blade as well, two if you prefer. Interceptors focus on rapid movement and attacks, so you want something you can swing quickly, not necessarily something heavy.”

Smolder raised an eyebrow. “Do you tell anycreature they want a heavy weapon?”

The teacher paused, thinking for a moment. “Yes, a rivener. They wield large two handed weapons and let the mass of the weapon add to the power of their blows.”

Spike had not waited. He was already pulling on a simple looking tunic and a pointed hat that he saw waiting to be claimed. "Aw yeah, now we're talking!" He reached for a staff, ready to assume his character's role from Ogres & Obliouettes. "Ta da! Check this out!" He brandished the staff meaningfully. "Cure, cure, restoration!" As he said the last word, the staff suddenly vibrated in his hands.

In his vision, he could see the word Restoration appear briefly and a sensation of needing a target. He yelped and swung wildly, directing the magic at Garble, washing him in a green haze that covered him in sparkling power.

"What… did you just do?" demanded Garble, peering at Spike. "And you look like a dork, just so we're clear."

The teacher wore a severe frown. "How did you do that? I hadn't given you your crystal yet."

"You mean those?" Spike pointed to a small table nearby where a collection of different shaped crystals rested. "They have labels. I took mine."

"You're not supposed to do that until I tell you to!" she barked with obvious irritation. "Still, you did manage that reasonably. Thankfully, your accidental spell was a restorative one, and not a fireball. You have to treat this with respect."

Smolder laughed and poked her head up, holding two differently sized daggers. “A fireball would probably be totally okay. We are dragons, after all. Hey hold on.” She hopped up and flapped over to Spike, not dropping the daggers. “Your thingamajig is different.”

Spike held up his guildchain, the bland stone was now set in copper colored leaves around the stone. He recalled back to Sandra’s guildchain, which he now realized was set with four little nodes on the corners with a bit of flame, electricity, a water bubble, and a swirling air node. He held it up, looking at the proof of his very first class.

"Time to see what I can do!" came Garble's sudden announcement, eyes turning just in time to see what he was doing.

Author's Note

These dragons are taking to their newfound powers quickly. Too quickly? Smolder sure is quick to forget how recently she was hit with a fireball.

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7 - Job Level 1

Garble swung his sword wildly at the test dummy that had been placed there, leaving deep gouges in the wood with triumphant cries with every blow, but there was no magic to be seen in it, just a powerful person being violent all over the helpless strawman.

Their teacher let out a sigh of relief. "Your basic form is acceptable, but I notice you don't keep your shield up."

Garble glanced at the shield that mostly just hung there, both of his hands on his weapon in a power stance. "Yeah? Not like this thing's gonna make me want to use it."

"Let me show you." She went to the table with the crystals, plucking one up. "This is yours, paid and true. It will guide you through your starting days and you may outgrow it in time, but for now, it is your link to the powers you reach for."

"Like Spike's thing?" He hiked a thumb at where Spike was still practicing his staff swirls.

"Exactly like that. Show me your guildchain." When he held it up, she reached out and pressed the crystal to it. It flowed into it as if the two were made of water in that moment, undulating as 'Bulwark' the name flashed on it as it metamorphosed, its angles becoming sharper and beveled as if they were shield edges on all sides. "There you are, now you have a class, and access to the powers of it, at least the simple ones."

"Yeah cool, so what powers are those?" He raised his shield up, releasing his weapon with that hand. "Let me guess, shield stuff?" He scoffed at the notion.

"It doesn't have to be defensive," explained their teacher with a wagging finger. "Though most are. Remember that your job, as a bulwark, is to remain standing and prevent the others in your party from being injured, so they can do what they do and, together, win the day."

Garble frowned. “When you put it like that, it sounds an awful lot like--”

“Friendship!” Spike said, grinning.

Garble groaned.

"Like practical teamwork," corrected the teacher with a hand at her hip. "Some of the best teams see each other as respected peers and nothing more, but they have complete faith in each other to do their part, and they win through amazing odds because of it. Friendship, if you can manage it, is a nice addition, but also a liability."

Garble smirked at Spike. “No friendship needed? Sounds great.”

Spike frowned, Smolder rolled her eyes, but Garble was already turning away. “Anyway, so what do I do with this?” He held up the shield in front of him, waggling it. “It’s something cool, right?

The teacher turned him, a hand on either of his shoulders, back towards the practice dummy, then stepped with him several long strides away. "Alright, now it's a little far to hit with your sword, right?" When he skeptically nodded, she gestured with two fingers at his shield. Hold that up towards it and think 'Shield Rush'. Go ahead and say it out loud, it can help focus. Some people shout it."

Shouting it sounded pretty lame, so Garble held up his shield and tried to think: Shield Rush.

Nothing.

Shield Rush.

Nothing.

He thought very loudly, and shouted “Shield Rush!” very much aloud. He felt a rush of power, coursing up through his legs and arms, and just a bit of tug forward on his shield. He pushed off with his legs, but hardly needed to, being carried with that momentum forward at a sudden and great speed towards the helpless strawman.

His shield slammed into it, his entire bulk crashing in a jarring impact. Their teacher nodded sagely. "It's difficult for most enemies to ignore that. You have its full attention, and you just crashed into it. Feel free to use your sword now."

Garble smirked, and raised up the sword, slashing at the dummy, cutting into it several inches. He slashed at it again, talking as he cut. “So, what powers do I get for my sword?”

“None.”

“Say what?” Garble said, stopping his slashing and looking back at the teacher. “I don’t get any cool things to do with it? Why am I even practicing then?”

“The equipment provided to you as a beginner has one ability each. Different pieces of gear have different abilities they can teach you, but you'll have to purchase or find those on your own." She turned to Smolder. "You've all been eager to rush ahead. Have you already figured it out?"

"You know me too well." She crouched a little, a dagger directed at either side. "Watch this." She took a sudden step forward. "Shadow step," she barely whispered, blinking out of sight for just a moment, appearing as she dragged one dagger across the target dummy that had been 15 feet away from here. She twirled in place as she faded away, only appearing in time to bring in the other dagger in a cruel stab. "I gotta say, I'm loving this."

The teacher clapped her hands in soft applause. "Well, you've exhausted the basic tutorial. The rest is up to you to learn. You should rejoin your party member. She should be able to guide you along further." With that said, she moved to leave as if there was nothing more to say.

Spike held up his staff. "Huh, she said I get one thing, so… I can heal people."

"Is that what you did?" He shrugged softly. "Didn't notice a thing besides green sparkles."

"Because you weren't hurt, duh." Smolder rolled her eyes. "And we're still dragons on top of that. I am entirely alright with this. Now let's go see if Sandra is busy getting over not being a dragon." She hiked a thumb back towards the hall they had come through.

The three of them headed back through the guild halls, not stopped by anyone on their way out. The lamps along the side of the street were alit, as evening fell across the city, and the streets stopped being so much of a bustle.

This suited Smolder just fine as she flipped the knives around, tossing them up and slashing at the air. “I am gonna stab so many things.”

Garble laughed. “I always thought it was lame to have to wear armor, but decked out like this I feel pretty awesome.”

Smolder smirked. “You think you’re impenetrable now?” She play swiped at him, which he blocked with his shield. The two of them swiped back and forth in the street, grinning both.

Spike walked behind, fidgeting with his staff, holding it up. Just one spell, for the moment, the spell to restore life. But soon, so many more spells.

"New members?" came a sudden purr of a voice, another figure emerging from the guild with them as if it was entirely on accident. "I don't recognize you. What tribe do you hail from?"

Spike glanced at his friends and back. "Tribe?"

"Race?" ventured the figure that looked much like a human, if one ignored his large feline ears and swaying tail. "I am of the beast folk, where the humans see animals, but you are not one of those, I feel sure."

Garble shrugged at that. "We're demi-humans, or so said the jerks inside." He hiked a thumb back at where they had just emerged from. "Why?"

"Don't use that word… Not between us." He shook a hand, an annoyed growl emerging from his throat. "Humans call everything not human that. We are more than that… They call us beast folk, but before I was a beast folk I was of the Felisurra tribe. You are…?"

Garble smirked. “Dragons. That’s what we are. Not some dumb not-humans. Dragons.”

The figure raised an eyebrow. “Dragons are the things of myth and legend. Impossibly old and rare, and yet three stand before me?” The figure smirked, his sharp fangs on display. “I like that. It’s bold.”

Spike took in this figure, trying to determine what class he was. From his hip hung a weapon, some variety of curved sword. Attached to his belt was his guildchain, hanging off of it, and the setting on the guild chain was a ring with a geometrical swirling design coming off of it. He wore light armor, like Smolder did, but what exactly he was was unclear.

Smolder flipped one of her daggers in an idle toss, catching it as it twirled with a triumphant grin. "Dragons are cool, can't argue that. We have to check in on our team-mate, got herself hurt real bad. Humans, ya know?"

The figure chuckled. “Don’t let her push you around, now.” He turned around, walking with one hand resting on the hilt of his weapon, waving his hand above his head as he disappeared into the shadows.

The three dragons watched the figure disappear, and turned to keep going to the healer’s hut.

“At least some people are cool here,” Garble said.

"Sandra's alright, just… you know… kind of desperate." Spike shrugged softly as they walked along. "The way I see it, she really doesn't have much going for her. I feel bad for her."

"And that means you'll be her little servant?" demanded Garble with a raised brow. "'Cause I--"

"--No no! Nothing like that. Hay, now that we know what we're doing a little, I'm pretty sure she should be following us. She just wants to be a good adventurer, right? Cool, so she can do her stuff while we look for how this world works and figure out a way home."

Smolder fired an emphatic double thumbs-up. "Sounds like a plan to me. I don't remember voting her as the party leader, but we don't have to kick her out."

"Hello? She's the one that made us come here," argued Garble with a smokey snort.

"Bzzt." Smolder smirked at her larger brother. "She found a summon and gave it to the older guild member, remember? She basically had nothing to do with it other than being there. The other one actually called us. She hasn't done much but show us some stuff and then get hurt. Kinda pathetic if you think about it."

Spike lifted his guildchain into view. "Besides, she's still in the party." He pointed to where his name and the others all rested. "Hey, I think she's better." They each had a bar beside them. Hers was lower, but was increasing noticeably. "They must be healing her. Oh! I can do that now."

They walked past the receptionist, only for a staff to lower in their hand, blocking the way. "They are restoring her currently."

Spike raised a hand. "I can do that too now. Can I help?"

They glanced at his guildchain suspiciously, but that faded on seeing the marks of a vitamancer. "Ah, so you can. You may enter but follow the lead of the master already on site."

Spike was allowed to proceed as the others waited impatiently. He quickly dashed through the narrow halls, coming on the room they left Sandra in. Bits of green magic flowed out from the closed door, revealing the magic at play. He glanced at his guildchain, seeing her bar still raising, maybe halfway up. He dared a soft knock. "Hello? I'm a friend of hers, and a vitamancer."

"Hm?" came a male tone from inside the room. "Come in then." The door swung inwards, revealing an older gentleman, his hands still glowing light-green pulses. "They hadn't mentioned she had any vitamancers in her party."

He plucked his staff free from his back and held it aloft with pride. "I just got it, but I'm ready to help."

"That's just as well. My most serious magics were required to draw her back from the edge of the void." He clapped his hands and they faded, the glow leaving them. "From here, you can tend her with simpler restoratives. She is stable, just injured."

"Great, thanks!" He held up a scaled hand towards him. "I'll handle that, but, really, thanks."

The elder considered a moment, hesitating, but eventually taking the hand. "Take your path seriously. The way of healing is a serious one. Even the most stalwart of warriors will suffer terrible wounds, and only you can stand between them and the end they never saw coming."

Author's Note

While Sandra recovers, the party dynamic is shifting considerably. As a reminder, written alongside the commissioner, RadicalDishonesty.

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8 - United in Purpose

Spike waved his staff in a slow side to side motion as energy flowed from its tip into the sleeping form of Sandra. He wasn't repeating the word, it seemed to come naturally enough to him, and so long as he continued to sway, the power came. Glances at his guildchain showed that Sandra's health was filling in nicely, his magic proving effective.

"Mmmng?" She cracked open an eye, looking up at the ceiling. "Aw damn it all… again?" She sat up, the blanket over her sliding down as she looked around, only then noticing Spike there. "What?!" She yanked the blanket up to cover herself, cheeks on fire and eyes wide. "Why are you here?!"

Spike tilted his head. “Why wouldn’t I be here? We dragged you back here from outside the city.”

"T-thank you?" She threw her legs over the side, though held her blanket close. "That's… not how that usually works." She raised a lone finger, the other arm crossed over her chest. "I was defeated, and I'm still a low enough rank, they should have yanked me back without any other adventurers around, and… What?"

"That's where you were wrong," gloated Spike with a big grin. "You had three adventurers with you that were still ready to go. Why, look here." He jangled his guildchain softly. "Master of life itself, watch out."

"Is that a guild chain?!" she shrilly yelped, shrinking back. "Did you steal that?! How did you get that? We're gonna be in so much trouble!" She threw her free hand wide. "I thought you were the nicest one of the three. Did that big bruiser talk you--"

"Woah woah woah, calm down. You're really pulling a Twilight there." He made soft placating motions in the air. "Everything's alright. I have this legally, paid for and everything."

Sandra eyed it warily. “... You shouldn’t be able to have that. Summons can’t… learn skills, or anything.”

"And yet, here it is." He gently swayed his staff at her. "And here I am, casting spells at you. So, what does that tell you?"

Sandra looked down. If they had classes now… but they were clearly summoned… three at once from a summon egg found in a low level area. Her eyes widened.

“That wasn’t a really random roll on the summon… that was not a normal summon at all!” She shifted around, her earlier freakout forgotten. “It was a special event! You’re special summons that levels up!” Her eyes widened. “It’s the kind of stuff that only happens to adventurers. The kind that gets books written about them and everyone remembers!”

Spike made a frustrated noise. “I mean… I guess that’s kinda right but also not right.”

“I mean, you’re summons and you got levels, right? That sounds about right.”

“No!” Spike threw his free hand up in exasperation. “The lady in the guild said summons are created right there, and we weren’t created right there. We got pulled there from where we were before that!”

She curled a finger, peering at him skeptically. "Look, for right now… let's accept what's in front of us." She nodded softly, as if dispensing sage advice. "We know, for a fact, you can use a guild chain and learn a class. That's great! We've just become so much more… everything. What classes did the other two take?"

"That much is true, but I need to get something straight." He hiked a thumb at himself. "We're not following your orders like you own us, because you don't. We're going to keep looking for a way back." He turned the thumb outwards to the world at large. "And you're totally welcome to come with us, if you want, but we're going."

"But you came--"

"--That wasn't our choice. Come on, the other two are waiting for us." He turned for the door, holding his staff in both hands.

He got up and she did not. He looked back. “You coming?”

“Y-you go on,” she said. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

He paused a moment, but pressed on with the faintest shrug, leaving her behind. He went right back down the hallway he came from, where Smolder was busy reading some kind of leaflet. "Hey, what are you reading there?"

"Spike!" She tossed it aside, bouncing to her feet with a smile. "Everything cool?"

“Yeah,” Spike said. “I tried to explain that we weren’t summons…” Spike trailed off.

Garble folded his arms. “And?”

Spike smiled sheepishly. “She… at least understands a little better?”

Garble raised his eyebrow. “Did this include her agreeing that we weren’t her slaves?”

“I…” he rubbed the back of his head. “Told her that we weren’t, at least? And then I left before she could tell me no.”

“Well--” Garble said, before the door opened again. Sandra appeared, clad in her shortrobe and pants. She surveyed the three dragon’s in her room, her eyes far more wary than before. “So… you three got classes?”

“Heck yes!” Smolder popped up instantly, tossing her daggers up. “I got intersector.” She grabbed one dagger out of the air, the other falling at her feet. “Oop.” She picked it up, posing with it. “Haa.”

“I got a…” Garble motioned to the shield currently on his back. “I forget. The shield class.”

Sandra danced a finger from Smolder to Garble and down to Spike. "That's… not a terrible array… Are you…" She paused a moment, taking a breath with her eyes closed before they opened. "Alright. You want to do this, right?"

Spike nodded, gripping his staff a bit more tightly.

Smolder waved with a twirl of her dagger. "We're here, and I don't plan to sit around. Let's beat things up and find out how to get home."

Garble threw up both hands. "Now we're cool going home? Finally. Yeah, let's do that. So which way is that?"

Sandra bit her lip. “So… there’s one thing I can do. That I think will work.”

Garble scowled and raised his voice. “You could have done something all day and--”

Smolder smacked him in his side. “Hey. Don’t yell at her when she’s about to do it. C’mon.”

Sandra pulled her guildchain off of her arm, opening up the menu. She navigated to the summon registration, which still had that “summon active” menu on it, for the three dragons occupying her three party slots. And she put it over on “dismiss summon.”

Her finger twitched over it. “This will… this will dismiss the summons, which normally releases the uh… the magic that the summons are made of. If you’re really from somewhere else. It’ll just… send you back.”

"Then you'll be home, nice and safe, and I'll be here… alone." Her finger wavered over the needed button. "Back at the bottom of the barrel… Failing, again... " She sniffed a gob of snot she hadn't even noticed until she did it. "I'll figure something out!" she suddenly defiantly claimed, standing straight. "I can do this, and this is the right thing to do."

Garble watched her struggle with a furrowed brow, clearly bored with it. Smolder and Spike watched with greater interest, both leaning forward, watching her. Spike broke the silence of the dragons, "You'll be alright."

"Huh?" She snapped out of the little mental bubble she had placed herself in. "Oh, yeah… I'll be… I'll be just fine…" Her finger descended towards it. "Not like… Gods above and below, Sandra, do something right!" She suddenly smashed the button with a firm press of her finger, looking away from them, eyes squeezed shut as tears escaped with clear expectation that her new party would vanish.

There was a shimmering around the three dragons, with motes of light lifting off them. Spike looked around him, feeling like he was floating a little, with the light growing in intensity. It grew and it grew and the softness of the light became hard, with Sandra having to cover her eyes.

And then, the light faded away, leaving three dragons standing in the healer’s hut, still in another world, still with Sandra there.

“Oh,” Spike said, looking himself over. “I guess it didn’t do anything.”

Sandra quickly checked her menu. The summons were missing, but she still had three demi-human party members, an interceptor, a vitamancer, and a bulwark.

"But…"

"Oh great!" groaned out Garble, turning away with smoke trailing from his mouth. "What's your next big idea?"

Smolder lifted her shoulders softly. "Well, I mean, thanks for trying at least. I do appreciate that."

"That was brave." Spike nodded at Sandra. "I know you didn't want to do that."

"But…" Sandra shook her head slowly. "I am so confused right now."

Spike lifted his shoulders. "Well, we aren't going to figure it out here with the hurt people. I say we go get something to eat and plan our next move."

"Huh, can't argue with Spike," admitted Garble with naked surprise, his shoulders shrugging. "Where do we get something to eat around here?"

Sandra peered at her summons. "You get hungry too? You really aren't summons." She huffed as she walked past them, shaking her head. "Alright… so, feed four people with no money. How h--"

Her talk was interrupted with a scaled fist thumping her right in the chest. Garble dropped a small bag of coins into her hand as it came up reflexively. "We didn't come out entirely empty-handed, now make with the real magic and turn that into grub, and somewhere decent to sleep."

Dazed, but not entirely displeased, she resumed her walk, counting the currency rapidly. "This is like two days of field harvesting… Nice job!"

Garble nodded as he smirked towards his dragon friends, and Spike looked over to the, quite frankly, handful of coins she had. If those were bits it wouldn’t be too much… maybe it was more money here?

"Let's get something nice," she decided, folding the bag shut and tucking it away. "Tomorrow, we do this seriously. I don't know exactly how to get you home, but we're going to do what we can, the right way. We'll be a team! I mean, if nothing else, there's always the top."

"Top?" Spike raised a brow, following along after her. "Top of what?"

"That." She hiked a thumb at the tower that loomed over the city. "They say if you get to the top of that thing, you get one wish. Getting you home sounds like a wish to me."

“How many people have been to the top?” Smolder raised an eyebrow.

Sandra shrugged. “Well, everyone’s heard of at least someone who made it to the top, but… I mean someone must have made it to the top, elsewise how would we know you get a wish?”

Spike and Smolder gave each other a dubious look but didn’t say anything.

“Okay! We’re here!” Sandra said, leading them to a cart on the side of the road, with a smiling demi human standing behind a cart with steam billowing out of it. “Delicious food! Four please.”

The demi human, a rabbit with twitching ears and a dancing nose, reached in and pulled out four sticks with some kind of meat on them, and Sandra paid the man with the majority of the coins she was handed, and she took the sticks and gave one each to the dragons, immediately starting to chow down on it.

Garble and Smolder also started in, eagerly biting off the meat on it, while Spike looked on to his meat-stick with worry. “What… exactly is this?”

Sandra swallowed roughly. “I dunno--” Without waiting she took another bite, and mid chew kept talking, “I think it’s some kind of drop from some kinda monster? It’s good, whatever it is.”

“Mm hmm!” Smolder agreed readily, swallowing herself. “If you’re not gonna have it, I’ll take it.” She reached over, greed in her eyes.

Spike pulled it away. “N-no… I’m hungry.” He took a tentative bite. It was juicy and heavily spiced, and it was pretty good.

It was the end of the day, but the start of a new party and purpose.

Author's Note

The party reforms, 3 summons down, 3 class-wielding dragons up?

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9 - Tested in Fire

"Shield Rush!" Garble flew across the battlefield, slamming into the warted face of a humanoid, his shield intercepting a down-swinging blade that had been well on its way to making Smolder's day less comfortable.

"Thanks, Bro." Smolder vanished without further ado, her presence only known when a taller combatant lurched forward and fall flat on its face, Smolder smirking from behind him with daggers twirling.

They were deep in the Goblin Caves, and those goblins were coming from all directions, trying to wear them down with numbers more than any individual strength. "Be washed away in cleansing fire. Field of Heat!" droned out Sandra as she threw her hands wide, flames erupting all around her and spreading rapidly, forcing the rushing goblins to dance and wail in agony.

The dragons could feel the heat, but it was not hot enough to get through their resistant scales. Spike brought down a staff on one armored goblins head, ringing it like a bell before twirling in place, a bubble of light exploding around him, knocking the goblin away. "Thought I was easy prey, did you?"

A great goblin, easily twice the height and width of the others, slammed down a club on Sandra. A shield of wind flared to life, turning the club aside, and she fell back a step, squeaking with surprised horror. The big creature clearly wasn't as paralyzed by the fire as its smaller kin.

"--Rush!" Garble slammed into the thing with his sword already out, piercing into the thing with a triumphant smirk that lasted such a brief time before he was swatted aside like a bothersome insect, sent tumbling with a quick blow of the stout club.

Spike was already waving his staff. "I got it!" But he wasn't targeting the big goblin, instead warm green energy rushing free of him, suffusing Garble and chasing away the riot of pains, his more obvious injuries abating visibly.

At least some soreness remained, and Garble pulled himself up, teeth grit. The great goblin loomed over him, his club gripped in both hands, ready swing, and Garble shouted, “Adamant armor!” Magic washed over his armor, glowing a faint cyan color, and he brought up his shield too. The club slammed into it, a metal clang ringing out, and Garble was pushed back, two furrows forming around his planted feet as he slid but remained firmly upright.

Smolder finished cutting down a couple goblins, the horde had thinned out and all that was left was the huge goblin. She grit her teeth. The big ones were always way harder than the small ones. She crouched down, and intoned ‘Vital Strike’ in her head, the two blades began to glow a dark red.

Garble grit his teeth in a half grin half grimace as he shoved the club aside, only to have to take cover behind the shield again, holding it above him as the big goblin started angrily slamming his club on the top again and again. The loud clangs rang out in Garble’s ears, and he grit his teeth. His armor was still glowing, and that was nice, but each strike still hurt and wore down his arms and legs. He braced himself, waiting for his oh-so punctual party to actually do something.

"On the big guy," shouted Spike as he wove his staff in slow figure eights, channeling power into their tank to keep him standing despite the abuse, not that it lessened the discomfort that came with being the angry target of the enormous goblinoid. "He's counting on us."

"I got this," spat Garble, his voice perhaps not as sure as his angry words, shoving his shield up against a strike and forcing the goblin to stagger back a step.

Smolder landed on his back in that moment of vulnerability. The goblin flashed the same angry red as her weapons as she smirked viciously, the sound of its agonized cry music to her ears, but it was not collapsing, instead grabbing for her in a sudden swat, sending her flying aside.

"That's my sister," roared Garble, flames washing from his outraged mouth in a cone of destruction, forcing the goblin to retreat a step, bits of smoke rising from its dirty clothing.

"And my friend!" Spike landed on it, staff first, connecting with its head with the low sound of wood striking a hollow nut. The goblin wobbled and collapsed beneath Spike, leaving him flying in the air.

Smolder rolled upright. "Hey, I totally softened that thing up for you guys, you saw that."

Sandra pointed with her staff towards the exit in the caves. "You were all great. Did you see how I was thinning the crowd?" She giddily danced in place. "Grab the loot, let's get out of here. We are real adventurers!" It seemed she couldn't decide which facet to focus on.

“Hangon hangon hangon,” Spike said, waving his hands. “Weren’t we here for a reason? We took that enterprise request, right?”

Sandra picked up a big two handed axe and placed it in a bag far too small for it to fit in, it disappearing completely anyway. “Yeah, we were supposed to get, like, some kind of crown, right? Did the big one drop it?”

Spike shook his head. “No… he just dropped--” Spike picked up a tattered looking goblin cloak, and a rickety wooden key. “... Well, definitely not a crown.”

Sandra shrugged. “I mean, we already beat a buncha goblins. We probably don’t need to get the crown, we got a cool axe! And gold!” And she opened up her menu. “And remember! Garble finished learning Shield Rush, so he can finally get a new shield!” She nodded. “It’s been a productive day.”

“Yeah, but… we also kinda beat the heck outta these guys,” Spike said. “We can probably go in a bit deeper and find that crown. I mean, it can’t be far, right?” Spike walked to the door, inserting the wooden key, opening it up.

Inside the next room was, lo and behold, the crown, sitting on a pedestal. And around that pedestal was a series of glass spheres with varying sizes of holes in them, and gears and levers.

“Awh!” Sandra said. “I knew it! It’s a dumb puzzle. Look we don’t really need to finish the enterprise. We can just let someone else do it.”

Smolder raised her eyebrow. “But it’s like… right there? It’s like a few feet away.”

Garble hiked a thumb at Spike. "Hey, pony boy, time for you to shine. Show us what that bookworm you call a nanny taught you."

Spike crossed his arms, folding his staff over his front as he glared at Garble. Despite that, he marched over to have a better look into the room. "Huh… that looks like the Triple Gambit from Wonder Mare #74. A classic!"

Smolder snickered softly. "He wasn't wrong, just saying, now…" She casually picked through the room, plucking up anything that looked remotely valuable. "One of these, one of those… Ooo…"

Sandra watched Spike intently, her eyes widened at his slow but methodical progress. "Wow, you've actually seen this puzzle before?"

"Not… exactly like it, but close enough." He ducked suddenly, an arrow flying over his head. "Oops, has to go the… other way." He stuck out his tongue mildly as he worked the glasses in strange fashions. "And the crown will be ours. Besides, we have to turn in the crown or we don't progress up the tower, remember?"

"Yeah, we have to get to the top," agreed Sandra without enthusiasm. "Get you all home…"

Garble suddenly swatted her shoulder. "Hey, don't go getting cold feet now. We're a team, right? Friendship, etc, whatever."

"Yeah, of course." She squared her shoulders and stood upright. "You're right. It's just… we're doing so well. I'm… really going to miss having you around, you know, when you go home."

Spike continued to rotate the spheres, each sphere rotating other spheres, and trying to reach his hand in, snaking it around, straining with his hand to try to go in there, focusing too much on it.

Smolder joined his brother and Sandra, one eye on Spike, but most of her attention on her loot. "Not a bad haul, if I say so myself, which I just did." She waggled a bit of metal, like a dagger, but it didn't appear sharp and had clear jewels embedded in it. "You have that magic bag, right?"

"Oh right!" Sandra quickly pulled it free of her clothing and held it open, allowing a rain of loot to rain into its darkened interior. "You sure you don't want one for yourself?"

Smolder shrugged. “I mean, it’s all kinda going to the same place in the end, right?”

Garble raised an eyebrow. “You sure you’re a dragon, sis? Because I’m pretty sure I want to make my own personal horde out of all the gold we’re getting.”

Smolder smirked. “Which we can divide up when we get home.” She twirled a dagger. “And I can focus on stabbing, instead of having to scramble for gold.”

Sandra closed the bag and drew the string tight. "Doing alright in there?"

"Doing fine." Somehow, Spike had trapped himself inside one of the clear containers, still wriggling and working the others as if he had planned that. "Think it's… uh… close…"

With a loud click and a ringing bell, all the glass shattered as if they were made of sugar instead, raining tiny bits all around as Spike fell to the ground, the crown landing perfectly on his head. "Yep, got it!"

With their quest complete, they began to amble for the exit. Spike had one hand on his new crown, holding it in place. "You know, I think this crown may have something."

Sandra raised a brow. "Besides being a quest turn in?"

"Besides that," he quickly agreed, lowering it to where he could see it. "Time for some vitamancy! Reveal to me your secrets!" Green magic sprang from his hands and his eyes together, numbers and words dancing in his eyes as he identified the item he held. "Ooo, nice. This thing has a skill."

Garble was suddenly interested. "A bulwark skill? Something awesome?"

Smolder tossed a dagger in the air, clapping her hands before it came back down to be snatched. "Something for me? Don't keep us in suspense."

Sandra flinched and looked away. "And there I was ready to leave it behind."

Spike placed it on his head. "It comes with a story. You see, there once was a king--"

Garble put his hand right over Spike's face. "Gonna cut you off right there. Skip to the part that matters."

Spike huffed, crossing his arms across his chest. "Alright, summary, king, also healer, country attacked, took up arms to fight them."

Smolder lifted her shoulders with a half smile. "So… sounds like a 'you' then?"

"Yep! It's a class unlock, I think? I'm not sure how to… do it though. I don't want to put the whole crown in my guildchain, then how would we turn it in?" His eyes were turned upwards at the crown on his brow as he walked along.

Sandra set a hand on his shoulder. "I almost cost you getting it, I can at least help here. Those jerks taunted me with stories of things like this. They already got some advanced classes like that. The secret is the story."

Spike clapped his hands together, staff held between them. "I had a feeling! This story felt, you know, important."

"You have to put yourself in that position, in your head." Sandra tapped her temples before adjusting her glasses, her hands already so close. "Become the healer king, fighting off the enemy, and it'll happen. You'd better do that before we turn in the crown though, since you need to have that until it's unlocked.

Garble shrugged softly. "Does this healer king or whatever use magic to fight people and hide behind tougher people like you do?"

Spike squinted at him a moment. "Hey, I've used my staff too, but no. This king was on the front line, fighting right alongside his soldiers when he wasn't throwing out a choice bit of healing magic."

Author's Note

Our group has come together and now fights side-by-side. It seems they want to climb this tower to get that wish. But first, shiny crown is shiny, and full of secrets!

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10 - Feelings

"Still sounds like you," noted Sandra with a raised brow. "For a vitamancer, you've been pretty bad at staying in the back. Don't get me wrong, you're not bad, but…"

"It's not the class." Smolder shrugged as she came up beside Spike. "But that's fine, we aren't actually, you know, the class. That would be weird." She bobbed her dagger in place, up and down but not leaving her hand. "I'll still be Smolder even if we swap classes."

Garble snorted softly, smoke escaping his nostrils as he walked along, heading for the exit of the caves. "Yeah, 'bout that. When do I find a class better for me?"

"Didn't you ask for this?" Spat Smolder with an upturned lip. "You want something with more drums?"

"Don't even joke about that!" He swung a fist at her, but she danced away laughing.

“Aw come on, the only dragon here is Spike. He already knows.”

“No, come on I don’t want it getting around.” Garble reached, possibly playfully for Smolder, who kept out of his range.

As Garble’s annoyed chasing gave way to less annoyed chasing, Spike lagged back with Sandra, twisting his hand on the magic staff he held. “I know I… get up close. But it’s just nice to have the option. Being a wizard is… that’s what I want to do.” He nodded.

Sandra tilted her head. "I can understand that. I'm a wizard too… But we're still new to this." She watched the two dragon siblings roughhousing, smiling a little at their antics. "Even me… We're still learning what we're good at."

Spike narrowed his eyes. “But you know you’re a spellcaster, right? Not just that, but an attack caster, right? You said that before. What made you so sure you aren’t a healer instead?”

Sandra laughed too-loudly and put her hand behind her head. “Well, you know. It’s just one of those… things you know, right? My stats are good for it.”

Spike brought up his staff. “Aha! But you can’t aim, so you're struggling with a lot of the spells you cast!”

“But… it’s different,” Sandra protested. “I just need to get my bearings and practice.”

Spike smiled smugly. “That’s right.” He stepped out ahead of Sandra. “And therefore I just need to practice too! And not that much, since I’m already doin’ so well.”

Sandra reached over and tapped Spike right on the end of his nose. "Not arguing that, but you found the crown. You could just not use it, but that seems like a waste. Secondary jobs blow the intro ones right out of the water!" She brought her hands together with a smart clap. "Besides, maybe you'll learn things you can take with you when you find an awesome casting class? Keep an open mind is all I'm saying."

Spike suddenly darted in front of her, walking backwards just as quickly as he had been moving forward. "Explain that part. I mean, I learned a bunch of skills as a vitamancer. If I swap classes, do I just… forget them? Do they stop working? This is kinda important." He rolled a hand a bit frantically in the air before his other hand joined in the motion. "Fill me in! Have you ever had another class before?"

Sandra grimaced. “I mean… yes… but I don’t use it.” She shook her head. “That doesn’t matter, different classes can learn different skills, and if a new class can learn the same skills you keep them. Like… well…” She searched for an example. “If I were to swap to vitamancer, I would keep my focus spell ability, that lets me spend longer casting for more power? A vitamancer can’t learn it, but they can use it. Even though I couldn’t cast any elemental spells anymore.” She gestured up to Garble. “I bet that armor ability he has, whatever it’s name is, can be used by any class that wears heavy armor.”

Spike nodded along. “So to be a really powerful caster, you’d have to learn abilities from all sorts of different classes. Is there a class that can cast any spell?”

"What was that about dark secrets?" Smolder had appeared at their side at some point, only making her presence known just then. "Do tell. What is this mystery past of yours?"

Sandra's cheeks darkened as she looked anywhere that didn't have a dragon in it. "I don't know. People talk about that kind of thing, but people talk about a lot of things that may or may not be a thing."

"Yeah yeah, that isn't an answer." Smolder circled Sandra, getting in front of her field of view. "Out with it. It's at least partly your fault we're here, so telling us your little secret is the least we can ask."

“I… look it’s nothing.” Sandra crossed her arms, still looking away. “It’s easy to get the opening classes. I just didn’t like the other one, that’s all.”

“So that means it’s fine to tell us which one it is.” Smolder continued to float around Sandra.

Sandra evaded Smolder’s gaze, only to unpleasantly meet Spike’s piercing gaze. Looking away again she only saw Garble’s somewhat confused gaze, although he immediately folded his arms too and tried to look tough. She squeezed her eyes shut. “It’s… it’s… interceptor.”

“Whu, really?” Smolder raised an eyebrow.

“Y-yeah.” Sandra let her arms drape down. “I-I just didn’t like it, you know? Getting up close. All that… stabbing…”

“That’s it?” Garble’s unamused expression. “That’s what you were all upset about?” He turned about, almost stomping away. “Lame.”

Spike shrugged softly. "I get that. Here I am complaining about the same thing." He rubbed behind his head softly as he walked along. "I just… I dunno… Part of me always thought 'I bet if I could do magic like Twilight, I wouldn't get tripped up on the stuff she freaks out about all the time.'"

Smolder suddenly burst into laughter. "Oh wow! I did not see that coming, but looking back, I really should have." She eyed his expression, sagging in defeat as it was. "Hey, not as an insult or anything. So you have mommy issues, no big--"

"She isn't my mom!" Spike squeaked, cheeks turning a bright red. "She's more of a big sister."

"Big sis, mom, same thing in the end." Smolder shrugged before she came down to set a hand on Spike's shoulder. "We're still cool."

Spike just rubbed his shoulder. "Yeah, cool… So, hey, what about your parents?"

"Pass," sang Smolder, dancing ahead. "Unlike the people you usually hang with, we dragons are not usually big on thinking about their folks."

Garble huffed softly. "Ain't much to say anyway. Look, we're here." He hiked a thumb at the exit, light trickling in to tease of the outdoors beyond the crevice. "One lame dungeon crushed."

The four of them entered the field proper, the green farmlands and sparkling lakes, and all started taking the relatively safe path back to the city proper in silence. As they ambled through the field they had started their first timid outing, Garble waved upwards at the huge tower that jutted up in the middle of the town. "So when do we get to start goin' up that? That's where we actually get home, right?"

"We… have to get our next promotion before we're allowed past the guards at the base." Sandra drummed her fingers as she walked. "Which, I guess, we might be doing soon. Speaking of that, Spike, you going to unlock that crown before we give it back or what?"

Spike didn't answer, looking ahead and walking, his focus somewhere in the middle distance.

Smolder hiked a brow. "Yo, Spike?" She reached over and flicked one of his head spikes.

"Wha? Oh, uh, just thinking." He frowned a little, his own hands worrying over his staff. "What do you think Twilight's doing… and everycreature else? We've been gone a long time."

“I dunno. We haven’t even been gone as long as the break last time we were gone from school, so, like--” Smolder shrugged “-- I’m sure they’re alright. Prolly wondering where we are.”

Garble glanced over at them even as he brought down his sword, squashing flat a slime rabbit that had come too close. "Yeah? Maybe they think you're dead."

Spike almost tripped over himself as Smolder shot him a nasty glare. "Hey, way over the line there, Bro. It's not like that, they'd never, you know, give up on you that fast." She softly swat Spike on the shoulder with an awkward smile. "I'm sure they're still thinking about you."

“This is the longest I’ve ever been away from Twilight,” Spike said very softly. He gripped his staff tighter. “It’s been weeks. Is she alright? Is she worried? I bet she doesn’t have anypony to take her notes, or help her with the class. I bet she’s spent days looking for the right book!” Spike’s voice started to raise. “And-and if things got hard, and she was worried, she might panic and nobody would be there for her!”

Smolder chuckled. “I don’t think you’re that necessary for Twilight to operate, dude.”

Spike’s crest fell, and he stared at his feet for a few moments. “... I miss her. I miss all of the ponies from Ponyville, but…” His eyes began to sting. “I really really miss Twilight. Just--"

Garble suddenly grabbed Spike, plucking him from the ground into the air. "You quit your baby crying, alright? You think we don't have people we miss? Those jerks are jerks but they're my jerks and they're probably getting into trouble and I'm not there to laugh at them."

Smolder rolled her eyes at what passed for an emotional display. "They don't know what to do without you, Gar Gar. Look, I say we get where we need to be, so we can get home. We all have people waiting for us, that we want to see just as much."

Spike kicked at the ground. “I guess so.”

“So!” Smolder punched Spike’s shoulder. “Let’s just do what we can to get there, and enjoy the monster slaying, right?”

Spike rubbed his shoulder. “Yeah… I guess…”

A soft sniffle came from the seemingly silent Sandra. "I… know that feeling so well. I miss them so much!" She suddenly grabbed Spike. Not to hold him by the scruff or punch him in the shoulder, instead hugging him tightly like a lost teddy bear. "I keep thinking about them, but there's nothing I can doOoo!" her voice trailing into a wretched sob as she rocked Spike back and forth with her steps.

Spike sniffed. The tears he had been holding back start falling, his stubbly arms ineffectively wrapping around. “Th-there is nothing we can do, is there?” He started crying more sincerely. “And she’s gone and I might never find her again.”

Sandra’s wail grew louder.

The two of them bawled as Sandra walked forward. Smolder met Garble's glance, the two sharing a shaking of their head as Garble stepped forward to talk with the guards at the gate, "Hey, we're back. Let us in." He held up his guildchain for inspection, but they were already moving out of the way, knowing that adventuring group it seemed.

The four of them entered the city, at which point Garble immediately took to the air, pulling up a pouch of money. “It’s meat time!” Garble said, as he flapped away.

"Tempting… You two gonna be al--" Her words trailed off, seeing Spike and Sandra still having their sniffly moment. "--right… Hey, you know what can cheer me up? Some good grub. Let's get something tasty after a hard day's work."

Sandra sniffled. “O-okay…”

"Something good, alright," agreed Spike a little listlessly, allowing himself to be carried by his human party-mate.

"That's the spirit! Garble went that way." Smolder pointed the way before striding purposefully, hoping some food would lift the mood.

"Say," whispered Spike as they started to move, still in Sandra's arms. "You don't have to carry me… but thanks…"

Author's Note

In this chapter no one does much fighting and instead talks about their relationships. Oh dear. Wait, no, not those kinds of relationships, perv.

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11 - Psst

Garble angled himself downward, aiming for the dense alleyways he knew were in that direction. He checked and doublechecked to see if his sister or the dweeb were watching out for him, and neither was.

Good. That mushy stuff was not what he wanted to deal with. Who cares if those jerks, who laughed at his poetry, who didn’t really treat him the same after they knew, even with Ember ordering them to, were a world away. It wasn’t just good, it was better that way, he bet. He didn’t even miss Fume’s jokes, or how Clump would be down for just about anything.

He snorted. He didn’t need 'em.

But it woulda been nice if things were like they used to be, but you can’t just do crap like leaping into a girl’s arms to cry about your missing fwiends. There’s no coming back from that. Or any other mushy stuff like showing your carefully crafted beat poetry to your friends, hoping that maybe it’ll become normal afterward.

It won’t.

He stomped through the alley, fuming. He jingled his bag of gold. Upshot of this city, he thought with a wicked smirk. All you need is some gold and someone will have already caught some meat for you. Judging by the smell, he was about to find one there.

"You're the dragon, aren't you?" asked a seedy male voice from the darkness, tucked into a niche. Clawed and furry hands came into the dim light, clasping together. "A moment of your time, perhaps?"

"Hard pass," he spat, remembering when his sister had said much the same thing. "The only thing I care about is getting something to eat, unless you're volunteering." He exposed his sharp draconic teeth, not that he had torn apart a creature capable of asking him nicely not to, but he was a dragon, dang it all.

The hands recoiled back with caution, and a mild nervous laughter could be heard. “Well, the ferocity is there, for sure. By all means, eat, and I will go without offering you a place to express that ferocity, to fight and compete free of the gaze of the humans… free of the guild...”

Garble was already looking away, but his earfin still perked at what he was hearing… and he turned around to see the outline of the figure still somewhat visible in the darkness already slinking away. “Wait. Hold on.” Garble’s stomach growled. “I’m serious, I need something to eat first.”

Shortly, Garble was munching on some kind of fluffy pocket of food with meat inside, and was following the now-obviously-cloaked figure through the streets. Whatever he was, he had full fur on his hands, and a muzzle occasionally poked out. Also, he was creepy.

He led Garble through the city, the winding streets, until Garble lost his way. “Hey! Just where do you think you’re taking me?”

The figure turned around and pointed nearby. “Right underneath the red roof tiling. Do you see it?”

Garble didn’t even need to search to notice it. “Yeah, I see it.”

There was a hint of a smile on the figure’s muzzle. “Only one like it in the city. Underneath is where we are going. Come, come.” He continued through the streets, and shortly they were there.

Right next to the structure, there was a path leading down into the city. A dull light emanated from deep within the passage. Garble hesitated. Sure, he was told how to get there, but for all he knew it was still just someone who was gonna attack him.

“Come, come.” The figure beckoned him with a hand. “We are so close, now. Set aside your fears.”

“What fears?” Garble shouted, pushing aside exactly those fears and stomping down the stairs.

The figure laughed a wheezy laugh. “Of course, of course. Come come.”

Garble followed down into the dimly lit passageway. There was a switchback ahead, and a great roar emanated from it, causing Garble to immediately go for his sword and shield.

The sound was immediately followed by a metallic ringing and a loud clearly-voiced cry out. The figure stopped, his head tilting. He laughed again. “Is this just a coincidence? He always had a flair for the dramatic. Hurry, we don’t want to miss this.” The figure increased his pace.

As hurried through the passages, a din could be heard, as well as more snarling and what was now more clearly sounds of a battle. Finally turning a corner that could see, Garble found he was in a surprisingly large arena, with an arena and stands, which weren’t full but had people crowded up in the enter.

And in the center, a large four legged monster, a great canine creature, was circling a bipedal figure, and as Garble approached, he realized the figure was the Felisurra man he had met before, who was holding his curved sword with two hands, calm as the monster circled him.

When the monster was near his back, it pounced, but the man simply pivoted, lowered his sword and cut upward, the monster getting a fine slice across its side for its effort. The crowd erupted in cheers. The man pursued his attack, striking across the monster several times, until the monster was panting and struggling to keep up. It was on its last legs.

The man resheathed his blade, his hand still on his hilt, and the crowd went silent. The beast reared back, unable to do anything but pounce once more, and the man began to speak:

"The sun rises high."
"Monsterous roar calls for blood."

The beast pounced and the man drew and struck with his sword all at once, with energy exploding out of the sheath and slashing across the foe, cleaving it in two as it dissipated into the aether.

"The twilight fades fast."

The crowd erupted into cheers at the dramatic finish. But Garble, instead, just stood there stunned. The Felisurra man was walking back, a picture of calm success, after delivering a poem mid fight, and everyone was cheering.

It was the most awesome thing Garble had ever seen.

"Hey!" he called in an urge of eloquence. Even as his new friend reached for him, Garble advanced without a thought, his wings carrying him over the barrier that normally kept the audience from the arena.

The warrior scowled at the approaching dragon. "What is this, another challenger? Await your turn to feel my steel."

Garble lowered his sword with a deft smoothness he was only just starting to realize was possible, too smooth. The sword clattered to the ground, slipping from his grip. "Uh, hey. I just want to talk to someone who's not stupid for a change. Got a minute?"

Sandra set Spike down carefully. "Here's his usual meat stand, but I don't see any angry dragons anywhere around here."

Spike shrugged softly. "Well, that means we could get something new for a change."

Smolder peered at the two of them. "Hey, Gar Gar could be in trouble."

"I doubt it." Sandra shrugged as she turned in place. "He's pretty tough, and he's even specialized in taking a hit. I doubt anything will get the drop on him in town. For now, dinner. Do you want something different?"

"Well…" She examined the kebabs and the rabbit tender. "We have had those most of the days here. Let's do something new. Hey! Any tips?"

The bunny's ears lifted and his bucked teeth were displayed in a smile. "How cruel, to ask me where to go to spend money away from me. Truly you are a vicious customer." He laughed despite his words, raising a finger to point the way. "Have you tried the pasta just on the corner? They are a delight for the tongue. Not as good as mine, but worth it for a change of pace. You will come back tomorrow, yes?"

Sandra was already walking off as if the conversation was over, but Spike waved eagerly. "Yeah sure, you got it. Pasta sounds good to me."

Smolder fired an energetic thumbs up. "Keep it cool, rabbit dude. Hope you sell out." She went with Spike, trailing after Sandra to get some food.

The pasta shop was an actual dine-in eatery, unlike the cart that the demi-human offered, and the woman who stood in front smiled as Sandra approached, only for the expression to sour on seeing her two draconic friends. "Demi-humans sit in the back." She hiked a thumb. "If you're with them, that goes for you too."

Sandra returned the frown, but the others were already walking past her and she moved to join them quickly. "How about that one?" They went to the table she pointed to. The back only had one other demi-human, an otter that fastidously nibbled at her food with two clutching hands, despite how messy that was with saucy pasta.

Spike hopped up onto a chair, Smolder across from him, and Sandra taking a spot next to him. "I haven't had spaghetti in ages, think they have any gem-based condiments?"

"Yeah, right," bitterly laughed Smolder with a great smirk. "But hey, we can ask." She waved at a waitress wandering past, to no response.

Sandra barely got her hand up before the same waitress somehow saw behind her and turned around. "How can I help you?"

"Oh, hello." Sandra smiled awkwardly. "My friends were wondering if you had any… gem flakes or stuff you can put on food?"

The waitress' eyes grew. "Are you joking? Is this another little demi-human trick?"

Spike shook his head quickly. "Nope. If you got 'em, we want 'em."

"Well… yes. We have the 'Tower Survivor Special'" She pulled out a menu and flipped it open, revealing a drawing of a towering mess of pasta, rigatoni glittering with something. "Made for party celebrations. It feeds four, and is dusted with real gemstones. Can you afford it?" She had not mentioned a price.

Smolder licked her lips appreciatively. "I am suddenly entirely interested in this place. How much?"

Sandra drew out her money pouch and some of the hesitation seemed to fade from the waitress. She quoted an amount and all three winced. It was not beyond their reach entirely, but it was dangerously close, and quite a bit for a simple dinner.

Spike lifted his shoulders. "I really do want that, but let's wait until we actually get into the tower, then we're coming back and getting that."

"You're on." Smolder thrust a hand forward, the two meeting in a fistbump of solidarity. "For today, let's just go simple. Spaghetti and meatballs, pile on the meat."

"Sounds good," quickly agreed Spike.

"Do you have a party of that? Just bring us a big serving plate for us all," suggested Sandra as she waved a hand over the table. "Probably easier."

"As you wish, ma'am. Anything to drink?" She gathered their ordered and hurried off, leaving them alone.

Spike reached up for the crown still on his head, fiddling it left and right. "So… how to turn this on…"

Smolder leaned in over the table. "Have you tried thinking like a king? I mean, your friends with a princess, it's like that, but more like a guy. Shoot, she's a magic princess, even better. Just guy that up and you're practically there! Oh oh--"

"--I have no idea who you're talking about." Sandra drummed a few fingers on the table. "It's hard to believe sometimes, but you really have a past… I'm sorry it took me so long to really see that."

Spike waved Sandra's apology away. "Water under the bridge. So, just to be sure, if I unlock this thing, I don't have to use it, right? It's just another thing I could use, right?"

Sandra quickly nodded, reaching for the crown, though Spike shied away. "That's why I'm saying you should go ahead. If you don't like it, no harm done. Just another option."

"Another option…" He looked up at his crown as best he could with it on his head. "I mean, I guess trying wouldn't kill me… It's still a healing class, so I still get to use the magic I learned, right?"

"She said that." Smolder's eyes wandered towards the waitress returning, grabbing her drink when it was in range to take a big gulp. "Mmm. She said that. If not, well, switch back. What did you lose?"

"Nothing, I guess. Alright, Twilight. Twilight with a stick to beat people with who she doesn't like." Visions of Twilight with a stick floating beside her, bashing the various villains they had faced. Tirek, bonk. Chrysalis, bonk. Sombra, two bonks. Every bad guy got a bonk as she hovered and glowed with magic power.

He couldn't help a soft chuckle as the silly mental image. "That would be kinda funny… Hey!" He reached up suddenly for his itchy crown. "What… Woah?"

His crown was glowing dimly on his head. "Did I do it?"

Sandra shook her head. "Don't think so, your guildchain didn't change."

Author's Note

Let's have a clap for Radical, who did much of the Garble scene. Meanwhile, Spike arrives at the first step towards getting that snifty new class.

While we're here, let me ask, what do you want? Do you want more 'slice of life' dungeon romping? Should we be focusing on the big goal(get home), or the sub-big goal (ascend that tower!).

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12 - Quest Turnin

They stood assembled in the guild. The representative, the same elderly female that had summoned the dragons to start, was holding the crown appraisingly. "It seems… unharmed, but something is off."

Garble glared sidelong at Spike. "Did you do something stupid with it? Anyway, here it is. Now you can send us back, right? You're the one that dragged us here."

She shook her head. "Ah, here's the problem!" She touched her guildchain to the crown and squinted at what appeared. "It seems someone began a class test, but didn't register it."

"Wait, that's a thing?" Spike rubbed behind his head softly. "I mean, I think I did that?"

"Did you?" She reached out and casually touched the crown to his chain.

CLASSES

VITAMANCER
????????

"There we are. Now I can take this off your hands." She turned to set it on a small platform that withdrew into the wall without prompting, clicking with finality as some lock deployed without prompting. "Good job. You've made exceptional progress. Sandra, you must be beside yourself with joy."

Smolder rolled a hand even as her eyes followed the motion. "Are you just going to pretend you didn't hear my brother?"

"I see you…" Her voice trailed off as it seemed to dawn on her that she was just dealing with a guildchain. "You are not a summon at all. This is the first time I've ever seen a demi-human answer the call."

Garble slapped a hand against his face. "Look, I have important things to do. Either send us home or buzz off."

Sandra laughed with obvious anxiety. "They've been great adventuring partners. They want to get to the top of the tower, you see, to use the wish and--"

"Oh, well, you've just taken half a step forward towards that." She gestured at Spike's guildchain. "Only a party that has unlocked at least one advanced class per member is allowed to attempt climbing the tower. We don't want to needlessly risk your lives before you're ready." In a lower voice, she whispered to herself, "Summoning sapients? This is most unorthodox…"

Garble grunted, smoke trailing from his nostrils. "I figured you weren't sending us back. Whatever. We get paid for that crown, right?"

“Yes, of course.” The woman gestured back through the door they had come through, her distraction fading away. "The secretary at the front will see to that. You are all quite talented, for demi-humans. Perhaps you'll beat the record."

Smolder leaned in a bit, her brows going up together and her hands clasping in front of her. "What's the highest anyone's gotten?"

"Well, a human team made it almost to the top before they were forced to turn back down. No other group has apparently made it to the top, as any other group who could feasibly reach said top did not return." A sad expression shaded her face as she reminisced on it. "A battle for the ages, but they just weren't prepared, and couldn't get away… Now, as for demi-humans." She lifted her shoulders, her mood seeming to rise with them. "About halfway at best."

Sandra hiked a thumb at herself. "First of all, they have me. Second, they're amazing! Stop talking about them like they aren't good, because they are… Way better than I was when I had that much experience." She shuffled awkwardly in place. "Say you're sorry."

"I am only stating the facts.” She looked over the dragons quietly. “If it makes you feel better, far fewer demi-humans seriously challenge the tower, so naturally the best would not be of the same quality. Did you have any other questions or are we done for today?"

Spike looked over where the crown had vanished into the wall. “What do you use it for, anyway? Did someone ask to get the class I’m trying to get?”

The woman shook her head. “It might have the magic left in it to give the class to another, but we cannot guarantee that, and your party has first rights to the class. No, naturally formed class attuners are very valuable for crafters. They are often used to make powerful weapons or armor, or other attuners themselves. The cavern you were asked to go to was a known source.”

Garble huffed, smoke escaping as he turned to face the others. "Whatever. I got my own plan, and I'm already doing it." His tone was haughty, as if rubbing it in how well he was doing. "We're getting to the top of that thing and going home. Got it?"

Smolder rammed an elbow into his midsection and grabbed his shoulders when he doubled over. "Hey, glad to see you're perking up, now spill the beans. What are you up to?"

"None of your business," he roared, swatting one of her hands away as he stood up. "I'm taking care of it. You just worry about yourself. The crazy one said we all need one, and right now, you and Sandra are tied for last." A wicked smirk spread across his face. "Or are you alright with that?"

"That seems like a fine invitation for me to go." Without further word, the guild elder quietly walked from the room, leaving the party to discuss without her.

Smolder smirked back. “Oh, so you think just because you and Spike got some hot stuff going on I can’t? Oh I’m gonna find an awesome class, and it won’t matter that I got the thing later, I’ll unlock it first.” She flapped up and stared defiantly at Garble. “How’s that?”

“We’ll see,” Garble said. “The class I’m looking at is so awesome it won’t matter when I get it.”

“What’s this?” A female voice came from the guild hall. “Sandra is playing at moving her little party of forced friends forward?”

"I'll be back," practically hissed Smolder, taking flight with a wicked scowl.

Sandra cringed, but Smolder was already flying away and would be of no help. "Let's not start anything."

Garble shoved past her. "Sounds like someone else is already starting somethin'! I recognize that voice."

Spike hurried past, only to be grabbed just as he was about to clear Garble. "Hey!"

"Come here, you." Garble carried him under one arm as he stomped into the hallway. "You!"

"I have a name," she snorted, scowling at Garble, her armor shining in the light, shield on her back. It was the warrior lady they had seen before with the other party of adventurers. "And I will be addressed properly. I am Tabitha, summon, remember that."

Spike wriggled in his grasp, but the grip was true. "Uh, hi, Tabitha. I'm Spike. This is Garble." He gestured towards the large form that was holding him. "How's it goin'?"

"And this little punk--" He suddenly set down Spike ahead of himself. "Is already getting his next class with just one week of work. How long did it take you?"

Tabithia made a little hmph sound. “It’s already unmasked?”

“I… whuh?” Spike was taken by surprise.

Tabitha rolled her eyes. “Can you switch to it yet?”

“Oh, uh… no.”

“Then you haven’t unmasked it yet.” Tabitha folded her arms. “You have to prove yourself worthy to wield a class like that--” she looked directly at Sandra. “--And some people just aren’t up to the task.”

Sandra shrank away.

“In fact--” Tabitha sneered. “--with the loadstone here--” She pointed at Sandra. “--it won’t matter if you get your class in two days. She isn’t good at the class she wants to do, she won’t change for anything. Heck! She isn’t even good at adventuring. You have to lead her by the nose! She always wants to leave!”

She had raised her voice by the end of that, and people were looking at her, and she coughed, composing herself. She looked back at Sandra’s party. “She doesn’t have the talent of an adventurer, she doesn’t have the attitude of an adventurer. There’s no reason why she should have some dumb lucky mega summon party.”

Garble's chest heaved, glaring daggers at Tabitha, his hands flexing dangerously. Sandra didn't say anything, looking anywhere but at Tabitha. "You take that back!" barked Spike, breaking the brief silence. "She's already shown she's not like that at all. Even on the first day we were fighting something way overclassed and she--"

"--Failed?" cut in Tabitha acidicly. "You didn't die though, good job."

Garble suddenly grabbed at Tabitha, but she danced back, only for his other hand to swipe in, catching her armor at the collar. "You listen here, you stuck up son of a--"

Electricity coursed through him and he fell back, jerking and twitching. A guild guard stood there with a two-handed prod at the ready. "Attacking fellow members is strictly forbidden. Cease immediately. If you cannot control your base instincts, you are not welcome here."

Tabitha dusted herself off as if nothing of note had happened. "Whatever. Enjoy your moment, Sandra. I expect to read about how it all goes downhill from here."

Spike thrust a finger at Tabitha. "She started it!"

"I'm ending it." The guard twitched the pole held in both hands closer. "Is this over?"

"Don't hurt him!" Sandra suddenly came to life, yanking Spike back behind herself. "He's innocent."

Spike clenched his teeth. Sandra was weaker than him by most measures. Even as 'the healer' he should be in front right then. "I've taken bigger hits than that," he reasoned to himself in a conspiratorial whisper.

Despite his jarring injury, Garble managed a soft pained chuckle at the babying treatment Spike was getting. "Whatever. Go on and cry somewhere else if you won't face me."

Tabitha scowled at Garble, but it faded quickly as she turned. "I will not demean myself with this a moment longer." She strode away with firm steps, her suit clanking faintly as she proceeded through the guild. "The nerve of some creatures," drifting back from her.

The guard nodded at Garble. "I trust we'll have no more problems then?" The upper part of the stick slapped against a hand, the tip crackling just faintly.

"Yeah, we're cool. But if you touch me with that thing one more time."

"You'll what?" asked the guard cooly, stun stick at the ready. "I am authorized to subdue any lawbreaker in this guild, and you were one. You're fortunate she doesn't seem interested in seeing judgment cast and that you didn't get a chance to hurt her."

Spike peeked out from around Sandra, only to swap places with her, slipping around her to be in the front. "She was shouting and yelling at us. Is that alright? I don't see anycreature else here doing that." He had no weapon in hand, but his fingers flexed, taking up a defensive position in front of Sandra despite being outmatched by the guard.

"Speaking in elevated tones is only restricted in sensitive areas, such as the library." The guard lowered the stun baton, held easily at his side. "She broke no rules having a conversation with you, even if you didn't agree with her. Keep your snouts clean, demi-humans."

Garble ground his teeth the entire way out of the guild. “Can you believe this?!"

Spike heaved a little sigh. "Unfortunately, yes. Alright, look, let's focus on what we need to get done."

"Pound that Tabitha 'I'm so perfect' jerk in the face? Preferably out of sight where the guards won't try to get in the way?" Garble punched one fist into the other, giving Spike a meaningful glare.

Author's Note

The adventure, it continues, with social conflict of the spicy sorts. Just what is Tabitha's problem with Sandra? Garble is not accepting this new world order!

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13 - Cooking Up Trouble

Smolder flew with determination, her thoughts far from what her friends were discussing, but on what had already been said. "Think I can't get a stupid class, whatever." She landed lightly in front of a familiar eatery where they had enjoyed pasta just a short time ago. "I bet these guys will know where to look."

She strode in, just to be intercepted by the doorstaff, who was looking at her with even less warmth than the first time. "Your human friend isn't here," they noted as if that could be the only reason Smolder had come in.

"You noticed that, huh? Look, not here to sully your place with my cooties or whatever." She made a dismissive wave away. "You get powerful adventurers in here, or you wouldn't be serving something that costs more than some people would ever see in their life."

"This is true," allowed the door attendant, a forced smile on her face. "You aren't one of those just yet. Good luck." Her well-wishes rang hollow in the air. "Is that all you needed to know?"

"Not quite. They all had advanced classes. Do you know where I could get one? Surely such a prestigious--" She emphasized with a sudden spreading of her hands. "--place would know where to find one or three. Hook me up so I can afford to spend more here."

"The only class we could offer is only taught to human clients," she noted in icy tones. "I mean, really, a demi-human Wonder Waiter? How absurd would that be? No no, off with you." She made a gentle shooing motion towards the door. "Unless you want something to eat, in which case, Demi-humans in the back, you know the rules."

"I'll pass." She turned with a wave. "Not feeling hungry right now." She stormed off with an angry grumbling. "Stupid jerks. They're just jealous of a proper tail. How do they even balance?"

"Poorly."

Smolder looked up towards the familiar voice, seeing the rabbit vendor they had visited many times before. "Oh, hey. How are things?"

"I cook and I sell." She plucked up a meat kebab in deft furry fingers and offered it towards Smolder. "You look like you could use one."

Smolder licked her lips with thought. "I shouldn't… I didn't bring the cash."

"For a friend." She held the kebab out further. "For a fellow demi. I heard them."

Smolder suddenly looked towards the pasta shop, half a block away. "Your hearing is that good?!"

"They aren't just decorational." She reached up her free hand to work along a long ear. "But, really, please, take it."

Smolder accepted the kebab in one hand, just to add the other a moment later, snarfing up a combination of meat and veggies, savoring the smoky flavor. "Ahh, you make them so well. Say, do you know where a dragon can pick up an advanced class around here?"

She glanced left and right before leaning forward towards Smolder. "First, introductions. We are both of the same caste. Let us speak as familiars. I am a laggie, not a demi-human. You are a dragon, yes? I feel I've heard you mention it before."

"100% dragon." She thrust a thumb at herself before snapping up another meaty morsel. "Mmm, name's Smolder. You?"

"'Hey, you', to most passing by." She crossed her arms under her chest. "But to those that matter, I'm Pella. Nice to properly meet you, Smolder." She extended one arm, fingers wide.

Smolder met it, their hands clapping together and fingers tensing, each giving a firm show. "Ha, you know how to shake properly, that's cool. You have no idea how much you miss that when you attend a school full of things with no hands."

Pella rolled one ear to the side. "What manner of school would have students like that? Is this the place you hail from, curious dragon? Nevermind me." She held up both hands. "You asked a question first. You seek an advanced class?"

Smolder nodded. “Ahuh. We gotta get to the top of the tower to get back home, and we gotta get advanced classes to be allowed in the tower.” She puffed out a puff of smoke. “It’s a lotta trouble.”

Pella raised an eyebrow. “What about going up the tower?”

Smolder waved it off. “Oh, we’ll get to that when the time comes. All three of us are tough as nails--” she began showing off herself as she described herself. “Tough scales, sharp claws, strong wings, and, the best part of all--” she puffed a tuft of flame “--fire breath.” She shrugged. “Not to mention these sweet interceptor skills I’m getting. I can’t imagine much of anything standing up to me once I get even sweeter stuff from an advanced class.

Pella laughed. “It seems you have all the skills for death dealing ready.” She raised one finger. “But! Do you have the skills for life.”

Smolder blinked before realizing what must be meant. “Oh, sure! Spike has a healing class.”

“That’s all well and good,” Pella responded, staring to pull out bits of food to prepare. “But I don’t mean that. The tower is very tall. Taller than you can climb in just one day. Taller than you can climb in several days, sometimes." She pointed at the kebab still in Smolder's hands, half of its contents gone. "Could you survive on that all the way to the top?"

Smolder peered at her kebab, tilting it left and right before she leaned in and casually slurped up the rest, chomping on the mix with great gnashes of her teeth. "Doubt it." She lifted her shoulders as she tossed the skewer into the little bin attached to Pella's cart. "So we have to bring a lot of food?"

"You could do that." She rolled a hand slowly. "But now you're moving around with great loads of supplies, slowing you down. That doesn't sound good for your survival. You could lose it, or it could be destroyed, or simply spoil. Then what?"

Smolder huffed, smoke escaping her lips. "Alright, you're going somewhere with this, so out with it. What have you got?" She reached out to poke at the next kebab. "You have a magic bag that's always full of snacks you want to sell me? Because you have my attention…"

"Better than that," half-sang Pella, rocking left and right on her feet. "It involves what you asked me for. I'm not so shady I would turn my friend's request into a sales pitch. I have a class, you see."

"You?" Smolder looked Pella up and down swiftly. The woman with rabbit ears and fine whiskers did not appear to be a toughened warrior, or a sagacious spellcaster of some kind. "Not seeing it, no offense or anything."

"I wanted to be." Her gaze slipped into the distance a moment. "But the others suffered for my weakness, and I turned to this instead." She gently ran a finger along the edge of her cart, eyes on Smolder. "You have very good friends, strong friends, and you… I feel you are capable yourself. You could restart where I left off, maybe make it all the way?"

"You… wanna talk about it?" Smolder lifted her shoulders softly, looking as eager to help as she was to avoid the topic. "If you want to?"

"You appear as awkward as I, let us speak of more immediate things. The class." She reached below her cart and came up with a knife. "Would you believe I know how to use this?"

"You better, or cooking's gonna be hard." Smolder smirked at the taller rabbit lady. "Let me guess, you were an interceptor?"

"Once." She twirled the blade in her hand. Though balanced for cooking, the laggie turned it around forward and back, gripping it with the certainty of being ready to cut a person. "But for every basic class, there are dozens of paths one may follow. I used to envision myself as the mother of our party."

"Mother?" Smolder asked with clear distaste on her snout. "That doesn't sound very cool."

Pella stabbed forward, the knife soaring with not even an inch between it and the side of Smolder's head. "Mothers are fierce when their charges are threatened. Mothers will die for their sake, and mothers will keep them fed. I was their mother, and I will not hear you slander it, friend or no."

Smolder bat the blade away with one of her own, one in either her hands. "Hey, now I see some fighter in there. So what's the advanced class you got?"

"Is it not obvious?" She turned the blade back and set it on the cart itself. "I was a Combat Culinarian. My tools to give life are also my weapons to take it. Every enemy is a potential source of power and nourishment for me and my charges. The battlefield is my kitchen, and the losers are lunch."

“So… it’s kinda like a hunter class?” Smolder said, her frills angling up.

Pella laughed, a hearty and happy laugh. “If it makes you feel better, yes. But the support value of the food produced by the class is just as strong, or even stronger than the death-dealing abilities. I mean, if you die of starvation you sure can’t win a fight.”

“Sure, but you can’t keep fighting if you can’t beat anything,” Smolder countered.

“Well--” Pella smiled a sweet smile that had a cunning edge to it. “That’s where the extra combat capability that comes from feeding. Besides, it is… you could say it builds on interceptor? Many skills from other classes complement it, but interceptor is a snug fit. You will be able to use basically any knife skills you have or find." She ran a finger along the flat of her knife. “And as you know, interceptors sort of specialize in that.”

"Alright, that actually answers a question I had." She wasn't holding her weapons anymore, her daggers put away as if they had never been drawn. "So this CC class still fights, right?"

"There is a reason I was able to put my blade within an inch of your face," Pella casually reminded, clucking her tongue against her teeth. "You will hurt them, kill them, tear them apart, and present the remains worked to perfection to your friends. It will feed them and bolster them. When… we were still together, we would sometimes just not bother returning to town. Why should we? I would keep up their energy and we felt invincible…"

"But you weren't that." Smolder held up a lone finger before it drooped a bit. "Sorry… That wasn't nice. Right, so don't get full of yourself, got it. Seriously though, I'm going to stab some random monster and start a firepit in the middle of a fight?"

“Well, not exactly. That comes after the fighting.” Pella put a finger to her chin. “Usually. But I digress. It is time to make your choice, Smolder.” She gestured to the food in front of her. “Do you want in or not?”

Smolder bit her lip and looked at the food, and the knives and other utensils. “Alright, fine, I’ll do it.”

Pella clasped her hands together. “Wonderful! I expect you here at 8 in the morning tomorrow, and we can begin training you to cook. Come dressed in breezy clothes, you’ll be helping me out all day.”

Smolder nodded, “Alright, I’m on it, I’ll see ya tomorrow.” And she began flying away. Not a minute passed before she stopped. “Wait, did I just get a job?”

14 - Luggage

Sandra worried her fingers as she wandered down the road. The rest of her party… "Off training…" Spike seemed certain. Garble hurried off to whatever he was doing without a word, and Smolder had reported she would be busy too. Everyone was advancing.

"Except me…" She had started the group at the top, knowing the most of the world and of the highest skill level, but that had so quickly reversed itself. She was the one human in the party, and was doing the worst of them all. It was laughable. She felt certain the others were already mocking her right that moment, how a party of demi-humans were dragging her along helplessly.

"That's not right…" She punched one fist into the other. "They're not just… that." Was it that demi-humans were better than she had thought, or that they were more than demi-humans? She wasn't sure, and thinking about it was making her head hurt more. She knew they could do almost anything. Nothing seemed to stand in their way for long. "I don't want to be the weight holding them back…"

She grabbed the handle of a door and threw it open with frightful strength, her eyes flaring with strange hues in that instant before it banged loudly against the wall. "Sorry," she squeaked, quietly berating herself for her lack of control. "Just like then…"

"Like when, exactly?" asked a new male voice within the guild, seated at a table with a cup of tea. It was the reedy-voiced fencer of the group that had mocked her.

Sandra scowled at him. "Come to make fun of me, Tomás? Well it won't work!"

"Nah." He gestured at the opposing chair at the small table he was at. "You look like you have enough on your head. Share?"

She peered at him with growing confusion. "You… just want to talk?"

"That's what adventurers do sometimes." Tomás shrugged softly. "We're both those, right?"

"Well… sure…" She sank onto the offered chair. "But you're usually making fun of me."

"I was just ribbing you, hoping you'd rise to the bait and stop waffling around." He lifted his shoulders before sipping his tea. "I hear your new party's really shaping up in a hurry.” He looked at her over his tea. “But you don’t look like you’re riding high on having a successful new party.”

Sandra sank further into the chair, as if her displeasure was more failure on her part. “Not really,” she mumbled quietly.

He set down his glass. “Right, obviously, so why is that?”

Sandra squirmed. “It’s not important…”

“Sure it is.” Tomás folded his fingers and rested his head on them, smiling. “How could I ignore someone in distress?”

Sandra bit her lips. “I just… don’t feel like I’m doing well, compared to the others.”

Tomás rolled his fingers, as if to say go on.

“Well… all of them have their own plans for their secondary classes, and all of them are working toward it or figuring them out. But--” she looked down, avoiding Tomas’s gaze, brushing her hair. “-- I don’t have one in the works. I don’t have any idea what to do.” She sighed, returning her gaze to his. “It’s just like with Tabitha, you know?”

He shook his head. “I don’t.”

Sandra blinked. “You… don’t? But you--”

“She always kept it close to her.” He shrugged, looking up. “I think she told Marina, I only know the basics. What happened?”

Sandra frowned. “What’s there to tell she hasn’t? I’m not suited for adventuring.” She scowled. “I have good magic power but can’t aim. I’m not suited to figuring out puzzles. I don’t want to keep going late nights or work harder, I just wanna give up.” She sighed. “I’m not gonna change my class, but maybe Tabitha’s right and I should.”

"Well, yes you are." He lifted his shoulders. "Eventually you'll get a secondary class, a better one, and you'll want to switch to that. Tell me if I'm swinging in the wrong direction here."

"No," she sighed out in a gust. "No… It's just…" She worried her fingers together, glancing around. "Seriously, why are we having this talk?"

"You want to wait for your buds? They're busy moving forward. That has to sting a little, summoning adventurers that are racing ahead of you like that." He leaned forward, chin coming down on his clasped hands. "I would be annoyed.”

“Well, I mean, I’m not,” Sandra snapped, slamming a hand on the table. “But that doesn’t mean I’m happy, alright?”

“It sounds like it’s you’re just losing the plot, you know?” He shrugged, apparently not noticing Sandra’s outburst. “It sounds like me you just gotta muster some willpower, ya know?”

Sandra’s heart skipped at the word ‘willpower.’

Tomás continued unabated. “You know, just nose to the grindstone.”

“Well, I can’t!” Sandra shouted, standing up. Now people were staring. “If I could, I would have with Tabitha, and she wouldn’t have left. I’ve been at this as long as she has, did she tell you that?”

“Uh…” Tomás was taken aback. “Yes, she’s said tha--”

“So even with this party of summoned people, I’m still behind! And I’m still the worst in my party. I’m not gonna summon my will anytime soon. If I could, I wouldn’t be behind. And if I could maybe then--” Her voice hitched suddenly.

“Maybe… then what?” Tomás got up slowly. “Tabitha said you have like a hangup on advanced classes and it’s what’s making you stubborn, but that she didn’t know--”

“I thought she didn’t say much to you.” Sandra’s voice was icy.

Tomás chuckled, backing up a little. “I mean, obviously she said something. I wouldn’t just join in on umm… picking at you without knowing anything, right?”

“Why are you here?!” Sandra shouted.

“What! I told you,” Tomás said. “I’m just taking an interest.”

“Screw you!” Sandra twisted around and stomped away. Once she got far enough away, and checked to make sure nobody was watching, she collapsed against the wall, sliding down to her feet as she breathed heavily.

She could feel their eyes, all of her guildmates, as if every single one of them had been there, watching her have her tantrum. She thumped a hand on the ground in an impotent fist, her face becoming wet with a line of tears. "This isn't what you wanted…"

"Tough day, huh?"

Sandra's head snapped up, ready for another attacker, but it was a friend instead. Smolder landed lightly, with a plain white apron on her body. "I was just taking lunch and I saw you dart off in here looking bad."

"You… are getting things done." She couldn't help but peer at little. What was Smolder getting done that required an apron? "Going well?"

"I'm fine." She waved it off as if it were nothing, pulling off her apron unusually quickly and stuffing it away, her cheeks warming. "You saw nothing. Now, what's really up?" She twirled one finger, aimed at Sandra. "You're in an alleyway, kinda sobbing. That isn't normal."

Sandra's teeth set, glaring at Smolder as if a withering enough look could cause the dragon to vanish. Smolder was not so easily dissuaded. "Yeah… no. Try actual words. Seriously, as messed up as this whole thing is, we're a team, right? So tell me what's bothering you so much."

Sandra folded her arms. “Nothing. I met another one of Tabitha’s party, and he gave me a hard time.”

Smolder raised an eyebrow. “He was picking on you?”

“I... “ Sandra frowned. “Well… he didn’t pick on me. He was just… talking to me about my, you know, what you all are doing right now."

"What are we doing?" She crossed her arms. "So far I know, we're just trying to get into that tower, so we can get to the top."

"Yes, that. Exactly that." Sandra pushed off the ground to her feet in a scramble. "Do you know how long I've been trying to get myself together?"

Smolder looked Sandra up and down. Far from any expert on human biology, she lifted her shoulders. "Uh… ten years?"

Sandra's face lit up. "Not that long!" She punched at Smolder, but Smolder easily stepped aside. Off-balance, she almost fell over, but Smolder caught the tipping elemancer in her arms.

"That was fun, but if you want to spar, there are better places for it." Smolder gently set her upright. "And I suggest using magic, because I have a bit of an advantage in a straight up brawl."

"The magic I suck at aiming?!" she blurted out, face still a dark red, tears starting to flow fresh. "Or maybe the magic that could hurt anyone, friend or foe?"

"Hate to ask…" She rolled a clawed hand slowly. "But have you tried a physical class or two, just in case it works out?"

"No! No…" Sandra took a slow shuddering breath as she drew out her magic rod, holding it ahead of herself. "I always wanted to be a great spellcaster. My… parents told me I could do it, to follow that dream. It's the last bit of advice they gave… Second to last."

"Second… to last?" Smolder hiked a brow at that. "So… Where are they now then?"

"Where people go when you never see them again," bitterly retorted Sandra as she turned away. "They aren't coming back… unless I got to the top of that tower and used my wish on it." She threw up a hand, rod with it. "Which I can't do, because you three have dibs on that wish even if we make it up there, which we won't, because I'm weighing the team down like a big fat loser!"

"You aren't fat." Smolder shrugged as she stepped closer. "Garble's bigger than you. And the way I see it, you've been getting better."

"You're just saying that." She remained facing away into the alley, arms folded.

"Nah." She reached out a hand, grabbing Sandra by the shoulder. "I don't owe you a thing. If you were still just as awful as before, I'd tell it to your face. It's a dragon thing." She rolled her eyes. "Alright, maybe not a Spike thing, but most dragons, prepare for blunt truth more often than not. You are getting better."

Sandra brushed away the hand, or tried. Smolder's grip was far more sure than she expected. "Lemme go!"

"Mmm, nah. Lucky you, you made a dragon a friend, and we're stubborn things. Now I want to hear about those dreams of yours, because this has gone on long enough. We're preparing for that big trip, and you're coming with us. I think you want to do this, so we can start there. Is this something you want or not?"

"So you're mugging me for my past?"

"Yep." Smolder leaned in with a smirk. "Give up your dark and brooding past or suffer the consequences."

Sandra choked out a single hollow laugh. "Oh no… not that… Look… Look." She turned around, drawing Smolder's claw with the motion, but Smolder wasn't letting go. "You don't need to hear about me."

"That's my decision." She poked Sandra with her free hand. "Now be good and it could work the other way around. I have something nice for good elemancers who start talking."

"What if I'm not a good elemancer?" Sandra returned the poke, though her nails were no match for a dragon's claw for poking power.

"Then we would have already gotten beaten up. You've been doing your part, so cut it out and start talking. Since you've resisted so far, we begin, stage one."

"Stage o--" She didn't get to finish her statement, squeaking and bursting into laughter as Smolder began to tickle her wildly with both hands. The two collapsed, Sandra falling back and Smolder pursuing her with a wide grin.

Author's Note

This chapter was mostly me, for what that matters. Will we get to peer into the dark past of Sandra? Smolder seems set on rooting it out.

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15 - You're Missed

Meanwhile, Twilight sagged, her mane frizzy and eyes bloodshot. "I found him…"

Starlight peeked out from behind a stack of books. "Oh, good. Bring him home? Or are we jumping to him? Either way, I'm ready for this to be over. We have plenty enough other--"

"We won't be doing either of those things," she sighed out, wings rustling on her back in a nervous fidget. "On the plus-side, it appears Smolder is with him. I'll send word to Ember. That I've located all three of them, but they are beyond my ability to reach, or yours."

Starlight hiked a brow. "What about us together? you know, friendship, magic, synonyms. You know that drill.".

"They aren't on this world." She thrust a hoof down towards the portal that was in her basement. "And I don't have a portal that links this world to that one. To even determine how to reach that one could take years, centuries even!" her voice raised to a squeak toward the end of her statement, shuffling in place.

"Can you tell if he's alright?" Starlight sat beside Twilight.

"He's fine, I think… They're… fine. I mean, they're breathing, and their magic feels strong. That's really all I could tell you." She crashed down beside Starlight, flopping against her. "I'm the worst big sister ever…"

Starlight gently held her friend. "It could be worse." When Twilight glared at her, she grinned sheepishly. "Look, he's alive, and so are they. They're probably together, and fine. We'll figure this out, together."

There would be no answers right then and there.

"S-stop!" Sandra pawed at Smolder's hands, futilely swatting at those tickling fingers. "I can't talk while you do that!"

"So you'll talk then?" Smolder grinned down at her helpless victim, her claws poised to strike, but pausing their attack. "Good, I'm tired of being in the dark. Out with it."

"It's none of your business." Sandra crossed her arms, guarding herself feebly along the way.

"Yeah, no, kinda is." Smolder poked her on the nose. "Unless we toss you aside like dirty laundry, you need to get up to speed or we can't start on that tower, so it's my business. Congratulations."

Sandra wrinkled her nose. It was a bad idea to say. Well, probably a bad idea. Maybe it wasn’t. But Smolder was right, she probably should. “Fine.” Sandra looked around, trying to see if anyone was watching them. Nobody was.

"I know we only met, what, a week or so ago?" Smolder shrugged softly. "But we've spent that week being in constant low-level danger, so, you know, I feel like we have something." She held up two fingers in the air close together. "Ain't a lot, but we can build on that. So start from the… scratch that. I don't want to hear 'So I was born', unless that ties into this somehow?"

Sandra looked Smolder directly in the eyes and said, “So, I was born--”

“Oh come on!” She threw her hands in the air, exasperation burning in her eyes.

“--To a family of adventurers.”

“Oh.”

Sandra pushed a bit of hair behind her ear. “Yeah. My family did a lot with adventuring.”

“Wait, but if your family were all adventurers, then why are you so… bad at it?”

Sandra smiled somewhat sadly. “Well, I didn’t really want to be an adventurer, and I was never very good at it, so while I got some basic instruction, I also…” She shrugged. “I decided I would do something else with my life. Something not as exciting.”

“But that didn’t work out and... “ Smolder put two and two together. “And now you’re looking to get to the top of the tower…”

“Right, so, I had finished school for the day…"

The pathway home was always a pleasant walk. I lived out to the west, and it was easy to get wards and guards to stop the easiest monsters from attacking--well, easy for us, at least.

My parents weren’t just adventurers. They were good adventurers. They rode out and changed the face of the world--

Smolder rolled a hand softly. "They found some new crazy artifact that people hadn't seen before or something?"

“No,” Sandra protested. “They secured a major victory…" She looked away and back. "It's in the books…" She could see Smolder's lost expression. "Right, new, never heard of it… There was a huge war." She spread her hands wide. "Basically the entire world going for blood. Big mess, everyone was involved… My parents were in it."

"How do you grind for loot in the middle of a war?" she asked as if that were the most pressing fact among many.

"You… don't. They weren't trying for the tower." She hiked a thumb at the huge construct behind them. "They were busy working with what they had, the world, you know? They were… heroes, real heroes, not chasing their own dream. Not… selfish like me…" She scuffed a foot on the ground. "Anyway, so…"

It had made us very wealthy, and I was, at the time, going to a very nice school in the capital. I stayed there and came home for holidays and breaks, and I was on my way home, with my guards, and in the distance, we saw the smoke.

As Gustav sped us to the house, I could only think about what kind of horrible things must have happened. Was it an accident? Lightning? Or… Were we attacked? Something came back from the old war?

…

Anyway, we arrived at the estate, billowing smoke and flames alight. I had already swapped into my class, even though I was… not very good. But I had Gustav and Wendy and we entered the gate, which had its monster shield broken.

It was my childhood home… the buildings were wrecked, the windows smashed, doors broken in… there were… bodies. The staff’s bodies.

And it was infested with monsters. The little red gremlins were easy for the guards to dispatch, but that just meant that something worse had to have led them in there, because monsters like that couldn’t beat my family.

Which, of course, was the perfect time for the larger ones to come attack. Huge, lumbering beasts, bigger than the biggest man.

Fortunately, Bennet chose that time to show up, cleaving a path through the gremlins and slicing through the big ones. Bennet is… well he’s my brother. The one that would carry on the family business. The one good at it.

Bennet, Gustav, and Wendy were fantastic together. I tried to shoot a few enemies, and scored a few hits, but they were the real workhorse as we made our way into our estate. And finally, in the courtyard inside our house… there was one more monster. A huge monstrous cloak of darkness with a blazing red figure deep inside it was fighting two figures.

They were shining gold and white, as the gold light gathered as shields and weapons, and the white light lanced through the darkness. But almost as soon as we entered, the attention of all the combatants were turned to us, and the darkness immediately came for us.

It shot out directly at us, and I squeezed my eyes shut, rooted to the place with terror as Bennet called out… and then the blinding light enveloped us. In front of us stood our parents, the figures cloaked in gold and white, some kind of fancy magical armor on both, magically suspended, with a shield of gold produced by our mother, and an aura of white from our father.

We had never… seen anything like that. We hadn’t even heard anything like that. If they were hiding this kind of power, why wouldn’t they use them on the battlefield? But they looked down at us, their eyes glowing with power. “You have to leave,” my father said, hoisting his staff up.

“Dad--” Bennet pushed forward. “--What is this? What are these… are those classes?”

“We were hoping that we could talk about this later, Benny,” my mother said, turning to look back from the magical projected shield, as the darkness came back and slammed against it again. “It’s a bad time.”

“Y-yeah,” Bennet was abashed. “Sorry…” His ability to ignore the danger of things was the whole reason why he was able to fight like he was.

“M-me too,” I said, trembling as I stared at the resplendent forms my parents were currently in.

“Hurry,” my father said. “We need to move. We can’t hold back these attacks forever.”

The four of us turned tail out of the courtyard, only for an uprooted tree to slam into me, thrown by the monster. I was slammed into the ground, ears ringing and seeing double. I remember Bennet was by my side, with Gustav holding up a shield, ready to defend, when the darkness lanced at us again.

And once more the bright forms intervened, setting up a shield that split the blast of darkness in half, but not quite enough, as just enough penetrated to slam into the two forms of our parents. Our father’s staff glowed and we were rushed in an orb of energy outside the house, which was a familiar escape spell I knew he knew.

The two of them fell to their knees, dark splotches on their forms where the darkness struck them.

My mother and father looked at the dark spots and each other, and… they reached for us… me and Bennet, I mean. Father reached for me. He produced a magical crystal from the… whatever it was that his armor and weapons were made of, and placed it onto my guildchain. “This is a very special class, Sandra. You need the will to unlock it, but it’s stronger than any I’ve seen.”

“B-but, but I don’t,” I stammered out. “I’m not good at…”

He smiled and closed his eyes, them returning to his natural eyes, instead of the alien glow. “If you never need to use it, Sandra, that’s just as well, but I wouldn’t be much of a father if I didn’t pass down what I could to you.”

“F-father…” I said, staring down at my guildchain.

He struggled to his feet, and my mother finished with Bennet, I guess, because she struggled too, and said, “He’ll be back for us soon, and the four of you need to be gone when he comes back.”

Bennet and I nodded dumbly.

The two of them turned away, and they walked away and-and…

Sandra choked back a sob. “And they knew… somehow… that they weren’t walking away from that.”

Smolder swallowed roughly, reaching out and setting a hand on her shoulder. "Thanks for sharing at least. Look, not gonna lie… that actually does sound pretty awesome."

Sandra glared witheringly, tears threatening to resume but stopped by her moment of anger.

"I mean it! I mean, yeah, kinda uncool that your parents caught it, but they did it being awesome, and they left something amazing for you before then. As last acts go, I can think of worse." She withdrew her hand as her shoulders lifted in an expansive shrug. "You were actually ahead of us the entire time."

"What?" Sandra asks breathlessly, her anger turning to confusion on her face.

Smolder pointed to Sandra's guild chain. "You had an advanced class thing way before us. Now, look, it sucks that they bought it, it does, really. I know Garble said we don't talk about parents, us dragons, but eh, I miss mine enough. We just don't talk about them, not our thing, doesn't mean we never think about them. I get it."

"Yours passed?" Sandra leaned forward with curiosity surfacing. "I'm sorry."

"Hey, they went exactly the way they wanted to." She lifted her shoulders. "I think that's part of why Garble is the way he is. He didn't take it as well. Now, kindly, never mention that to him, like, ever. Ever ever. Either way, they wanted you to have that." She suddenly grabbed for Sandra, snatching the guildchain and yanking Sandra by it closer. "Time to stop hiding from it and make them proud."

Author's Note

Random fun fact, but I make up the chapter names. This chapter was mostly Radical words, wanna say 60-70% Radical words, so watch out, I hear he can be dishonest at times!

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16 - Bon Appetit

Spike held his staff at an angle just before flames struck him dead on. He felt certain he could have weathered it without his magic that dispersed it in a wide semi-spherical shield that sprouted from his shield. Those behind him, on the other hand, would not have been as lucky.

"Get back," he ordered as he advanced, twirling the staff. He could feel the magic, flowing through his fingers and the staff, throwing aside the incoming flames. "Run." Get a little practice in, he had thought. Why bother everyone else, they were busy anyway, he had thought. A great club swung down at him, shattering his fire-aligned shield and sending him flying to the side.

He crashed into a rock in a cloud of dust, both it, and his own insides from the feel of it, breaking on impact. "Ow." It wasn't the worst time he slammed into something though, and he was already muttering words of a healing spell, green glow at his hands sweeping over his arms and across his body, banishing the worst of it just in time to roll away from the next club strike that pulverized what was left of the rock he had smashed into.

Spike could see the people he had been charged to protect fleeing, as he had told them. More immediately pressing at that moment, the great insectoid creature with clubs for hands was already facing him, its movements precise and too fast. "Don't suppose we could talk this out?" Turned out that monster was no exception to the general rule, lunging for him with a sweep.

Spike thrust his staff forward, a new shield appearing far more solid and hard to see through than the first, the strike cracking it and sending him sliding backwards with the impact. He could feel his head pulsing with the pain of the effort of turning that blow back. "Alright, new plan…" The thing's other arm was already coming in as if to squash him between the two posts and Spike jumped back, the impact of the two ringing out like two massive trees colidding. "New plan!"

He started running, trying to look around as he did. In short order, there was a corner, and he darted around it, and quickly found a rock to slide behind. He plopped down behind it, breathing heavily. The huge clubbed insect stomped by, looking like a praying mantis, but far more bipedal and clubbed. It swept its head around and he hid behind the wall.

Spike peeked out when it wasn’t looking towards him. Dangit all he could think about was how a party was better. If he could do more damage he wouldn’t have to heal. If he wore armor he wouldn’t have to be as afraid of taking a hit. If he had friends here, even just one, he wouldn’t have to worry as much. His nose wrinkled as he thought of Twilight briefly, but he shook it out.

He had taken on the job, and people were counting on him. He could mope later, when there weren't huge deadly insects after him. If he just huddled there, it'd find the others, and then… "Over here!" he shouted as he burst from cover.

The big thing immediately turned for him with a great screech, charging with great thuds towards him, but Spike didn't flee, even if every fibre of his body was screaming that running would be a perfectly valid idea. "Right here, play with me a little longer." He mutters under his breath, magic swelling up within him, not a shield, more of a buffer, granting himself more durability. "Just long enough…"

As the thing closed within conversational distance, Spike blinked, realizing… "I'm a dragon." He had become so focused on using the skills the world had given him instead of what he was born with. As the club came in, he was already darting back and up, flying up out of the way. "I have wings."

As if in reply, the clubbed mantis gave a watery cough before spewing a steam of green-brown gunk at Spike. He yelped with horror and jigged out of the way, allowing it to splash and sizzle loudly on the stone. "You have acid breath, nice, nice… I have a breath too!" He exhaled a great cone of flames over the thing's head and it stomped away with obvious pain. "And I know how to use it." He took a deep breath, flapping after the lumbering insect.

Now, though, it was lumbering away, not toward him, clearly being cautious now. Spike put the fear of flame in it. He smirked and blasted out the biggest blast of fire he could directly at it. It screeched a horrible noise Spike didn’t realize could come from living things, and it began to flail. Oh did it flail, swinging its club arms around chaotically. Spike smirked from his position above it, only to find “above it” was not actually good enough, as it sprayed acid, winging his--well-- wing.

As he fell down, the chaotic flailing of the thing's limbs sent shrapnel flying, redecorating the area with small holes and crushed features. Its hissing roar of pain and fear filling the area. Spike twisted as he fell, barely having time to call on his bolstering magic just before he slapped into the ground with a dull thunk, knocking the magic right back out of him, but he wasn't hurt.

If one didn't count his frazzled wing. Spike tucked it in against its brother on his back. "Acid repelling, acid repelling…" His shield could deflect different elements, but each was a subtly different spell. Fire came natural, a fact that brought a smirk to his face. Dragons liked fire, what could he say?

The thing turned on him, smashing down both clubs, creating a new crater, shreds of rock flying off as it bellowed at Spike in renewed fury. "Alright, you aren't backing down, but neither am I." His wards were probably far enough away… probably. He couldn't check, he had to assume the insect could catch up with them if he gave it a chance. "Let's dance."

Sandra shrugged softly. "What have you been up to? You get to dig into me, I at least deserve that. Were you doing a part-time job? We're not that hard up for cash."

Smolder rolled her shoulders. "What I decide to do is my business."

"You just finished explaining that wasn't true, so unless you're wrong, it is my business. We're a team, remember?" She crossed her arms, looking smugly victorious.

Smolder began to walk away from Sandra, headed for the exit of the alleyway. "I'll show you if you're that desperate to know, but not here."

"Alright?" Sandra trailed behind with a curious peering at Smolder from behind. "Though that does remind me, it's normal for most people, demi-humans included, to wear clothes. That sure doesn't seem to bother you at all."

"I am a dragon, not a human, or even kinda human, sorta human, demi human, halfsie human." She threw up a hand as she walked. "We don't do the clothes thing often, and can you blame us? One nice lava bath and those clothes are going to be gone. One little accidental sneeze, poof, your pretty blouse has a scorch mark that isn't coming out."

"Have you considered fire resistant clothes?" Sandra asked as if that weren't an unusual thing at all. "I'm pretty sure I remember a set that only takes damage if you do, so if you're basically immune to fire…"

"It would be too, huh…" She raised a hand to her chin, rubbing softly as she walked, her pace not changing. "Garble doesn't seem to care. I almost think he likes wearing hunks of metal around. I think he just likes the look." She smirked a little, glancing over her shoulder back at Sandra. "Suits the bad boy image he has goin' on."

"Maybe." Sandra didn't sound terrible convinced. "So, where are we going exactly?"

Smolder hiked a thumb. "There's a little kitchen in our room, right?"

"There is… Seriously, are you going to show me you've learned a new recipe?"

Smolder's smile turned into a grin. "It only starts there. You'll like it, promise. Speaking of that, I don't suppose you actually are hungry?"

"I… wasn't thinking about it," Sandra confessed, moving up to her side. "I was busy."

"Busy crying, yeah, saw that. But we're past that. It's time to move forward. Step one, get some good food in you. Then we're gonna go places."

"Places?" She furrowed her brow as they entered the building that was their home for the moment. "This isn't something fixed by a little grinding in the starter fields."

"Have you tried it? Really tried it?" Smolder lifted on her wings, dancing easily up the steps with a twirl at the top. "But, right now, food. We're going to do that." She produced the apron, tucked away as it had been wherever dragons hid such things.

"That apron doesn't… quite fit the aesthetic you seemed to be going for."

"What, this?" She produced a knife with the same ease, smirking. "I wear this so the blood and gore of my enemies doesn't get all over my scales. Seems pretty metal to me."

"No… it's definitely cloth," she argued, missing the reference entirely. "Is it enchanted?"

"Nevermind." Smolder threw open the door to their room and pulled something from in her apron, a paper-wrapped package. "Right now, it's time to cook."

"You were walking around with a hunk of meat?" Sandra was peering at the package suspiciously. "How long have you had that?"

"Since shortly before I ran into you. I was going to make it into a snack for myself later, but we can share." She set it aside for a moment and grabbed a pan. "Now, first trick." She seemed to just wobble the pan and suddenly fire erupted beneath it, holding it and caressing it as it grew hot quickly. Smolder released it and it floated in the air as if supported by the fire.

Sandra clapped softly, smiling at the trick. "I recognize the fire." She held out a hand, a flame leaping into being above it, the same color as the roaring fire under the pan. "But I never had it support something before. That's really neat. Is that an elemancer spell?"

"Eh, maybe?" She grabbed the package and gave it a hard wrench. The meat kept moving but the paper was caught in her hand, causing it to spill out into the pan. The room filled with the sounds of sizzling meat, the unidentified chop of significant size starting to cook. "Now just a hunk of meat isn't a meal, so…"

Sandra watched as other things began to join the meat of various shades. Some spices, some vegetables, and even a quickly diced fruit joined the riot of colors that began to waft delicious scents. "That… looks really good. Seriously, stop playing with me. You've been learning to cook?!"

"Among a few other tricks." She suddenly grabbed the pan and flipped it upwards, sending the food up faster than the pan itself. In that instant it hovered in the air, she swung in with her chef's knife, slicing through it in several straight lines. By the time the food recovered from its assault, it landed on two plates, her knife already put away and the pan back on the fire. "Lunch is served."

Sandra reached for her plate, or what she assumed was hers, one held out further than the other. "Thank… you, but this is only raising so many more questions. Like how you cooked this nearly as quickly as you did. Is this meat still basically rare?" She examined it intently, but it didn't have the look of still bleeding meat, and yet, it wasn't perfectly brown all the way through either. Was it done?

Only one way to know. She grabbed a fork and went to try some.

Author's Note

This one was mostly me. Yay balance! Spike's learning how to do his new role and working towards that unlock while Smolder shows off to Sandra. Someone's working harder here! What is Garble up to?

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17 - In This Corner

Garble licked his finger, rubbing a smudge off of his breastplate. He had to look his best for this one. He hefted the large two handed axe from its place on the ground. It felt better to have a real weapon in his hands. He was gonna have a hard time going back to his dinky little sword as a Bulwark, but man did he like swinging around a big weapon as a Rivener instead.

He slung it over his back as the gate opened, and he strode into the arena, ready to show off. The crowd was… well none too impressed. Garble scowled to himself. It’s not like nobody looked, but a lot of people were still talking and milling about. Fine, he thought to himself. I’ll give them a show. He hoisted the axe above him and spewed a blast of flame. That got some interest.

Garble looked around, trying to find the swordsman. He couldn’t clearly tell. The swordsman seemed to know, like, everything that happened, and Garble wondered if the swordsman knew this was his first night.

His reflection was cut short as the other gate opened. What came out was somewhat disappointing. A small little red… thing was there, with a thick neck and an oversized head for its body. At least it had claws, but it looked around like it didn’t really know what was going on, peering about quizzically.

The crowd, however, grew quiet, and Garble heard what he thought was excited whispering. It was strange.

He walked on over to the monster, who at least noticed him and bared it’s little teeth and claws. He sneered and hefted his axe up. If this was his opponent, he might as well end it quickly. He lifted his axe high, the monster making a high pitched hissing noise, accompanied with a lower pitched rumble.

He brought the axe down, and the monster’s mouth opened as he did, a tremendous burst of air and sound blasting upward, deflecting Garble’s axe which, to be frank, he wasn’t really swinging with all his might.

Garble blinked and stared at the small monster, as it inflated it’s head and neck with air, puffing itself up to nearly his size, and it blasted an airy roar directly at Garble, knocking him off his feet and a few feet back.

The crowd roared with a mixture of cheers and laughter, as Garble stared at the once small monster, now comically oversized. It looked like a very angry joke, it’s skin puffing up with air again, it’s face contorted in anger, and it bellowed another scream right up, a terrific noise being made from the once small creature.

"Alright... that's... more like it." He steeled himself internally. A real fight was what he had asked for, right? Clutching his axe and bouncing back up to his feet, he scowled at the suddenly huge creature as if a good glare would be enough to send it packing.

The crowd was a mixture of cheers and jeers, as if just as desiring of a good fight as a thorough stomping. Great claws came in, and Garble smiled. The thing was huge and noisy and all kinds of things, but it wasn't nearly fast enough. "Brute strength does not a monster make." He rolled forward under the reaching claws. "Quick slices for my sake." He came up, dragging his axe along the underside of the thing. It only left a little line, but the first blood was his.

The thing's little tail suddenly twitched, knocking the smug Garble forward away from the creature. He went like a top to face it, knuckles paled from the force he was holding his axe. The crowd roared with delight at the show. "He ain't quite as artsy as the other poet," he somehow managed to hear despite the crowd full of people.

"Yeah yeah, I ain't slingin' poets, I sling beats. I deliver beatings, Hold on to your seats." Sure, he had gotten the rhyme off a little, but he felt good enough about it, deflecting claws aside with a mighty roar of his own, flames washing out in a great cone of battle fury.

The creature was not intimidated by the fires. "Figures," he grumbled to himself. Of course they wouldn't send a flammable creature against a frickin' dragon. That wouldn't make for a good show. He swung his axe in a great arc as the creature swung its entire body. The two collided, his axe biting into one of its claws, but the tremendous momentum of its great paw proved too great, lifting Garble into the air and sending him flying.

He snapped out his wings and hit the ground feet first. "Nice try, now die." It was short, but the beats were on point. With rebounding confidence he stalked towards his would-be prey. Or he meant to; great wind rushing at him with the deafening roar of the creature as it seemed to be releasing all its air at once, forcing him back then off his feet. Spread wings did little but help carry him away uncomfortably quickly, slamming into the opposing wall of the arena.

The crowd was wild at the show, cheering on the shrunken beast. "Tear that 'dragon' apart!" someone shouted down.

Garble groaned, pulling himself to his feet as if using his sword as a cane. The walls of the arena were not soft. "Fool me one, shame on you." His axe glowed with power. "Fool me twice, Rager's Rush!" He propelled forward, carried across the field in one great leap, coming down on the thing with his axe first. "Kyaaaa!"

Wind buffeted him, the little thing trying to blow him away, but he refused to be turned aside, slicing right through it, his axe serving as the sharp point to divide that wind, clearing a path as he came down. The crowd went silent for a single tense moment.

It broke with new cheering, and groaning. Some had lost their wagers and cursed at the victorious dragon. A swaggering human emerged from the darkness. "Ladies, scalliwags. That was a fight, but only a taste. Our arena warrior, Garble the Great, has proved he might deserve the name. With this, he officially graduates from the baby pool and you'll see him going up against real combatants. Let's put our hands together to welcome the newest warrior to deserve being called an arena battler!"

Even the sore losers seemed to join the clapping and cheering. There would be more chances to wager on him, to win or to lose. Garble raised a fist into the air, the axe dangling from the other hand. "Yeah! Don't you suckers dare bet against me." He stormed off the stage into the shadowy back hallways of the little arena.

"Sloppy."

Garble saw his leader there, standing stoically. "Yeah? I won."

"But it was without grace." He pushed off the wall, fully blocking the path forward. "You can fight, this is good. But fighting is more than brute determination. You must have grace. Your first, least, hit was impressive. It showed a hint, a shred that I would pursue."

Garble's teeth set, a low growl in his chest.

"You approached me," reminded the warrior. "If you wish to learn to turn the words in your heart into power, you will follow. Go home, savor your victory. Tomorrow, we train."

"No!" Garble took a firm step forward. "Not tomorrow, today. Let's do this."

"So soon after your bout? Surely you have aches."

"I'll get over 'em," he assured with a rolling of a shoulder. "No more delays. Show me."

"There is grace to be found in conversation as well, but that is a lesson for another day." The felisurra warrior turned away. "Come then. Watching you battle did not tire me. The pain you will feel is on your own head."

"Bring it." Garble hung the axe on his back as he prowled behind his teacher. "So what's the first step?"

"We are beyond the first step. I have brought you this far, but there is more to be done." He looked over his shoulder at his draconic student. "I would hear the words of your heart. Speak them."

"Wha?"

"I wish to hear the words." He led Garble out away from the arena, towards a dark field, the grass softly compressing beneath their feet and only the sound of night insects around them. "Speak them. You said you were a poet."

"I am! Just... Look, I don't usually--"

He turned, arm out towards Garble, a blade held, its tip dangerously close. "I heard you attempting to speak them in the battle. If you cannot speak your heart's words, we are both wasting our time. They are your strength, not a weakness."

It was a strange way of looking at it, contrary to how Garble had up to then. "A strength... You have a drum?"

"A drum?" He lowered his hand, sheathing his blade along the way as if it simply wanted to be there. "Ah. I wish you had simply told me earlier. You will not march into battle with drums, but you carry them regardless, and your enemies provide them unwillingly. You will strike and beat your rhythm into their resisting flesh as you impress on them the words." He pointed to the tip of Garble's axe peeking out over his back. "That is your drumstick. Tonight, I teach you how to play it."

Garble wrenched his axe free, a wicked smile on his face. "Oh yes. Now you are speaking my language! Let's do this." He swung his massive blade left and right only for it to strike against metal with a clear single note, his teacher blocking it with his own without any seeming effort. "What?"

"You are swinging wildly, not in tune with the words, or the song. We will begin slowly. Speak the words, strike with them. Do they sound slow? Strike faster, but never faster than the words themselves. You will march to the beat of your song."

"Right, right... Okay..." Garble took a slow breath, raising his axe to a ready position. "Teacher, man, teaching me, teaching how... to dance." He cleaved the air with each word at first, a slow procession, each swing, one word, but his teacher did not stand idly, meeting the blade, starting a slow spar at the pace that Garble set.

"Ostentatious--" Garble met his master's blade, stepped aside with a two-motion shuffle and brought his blade in, moving with every syllable of the word. "--displays. Victory... mine? I will not... give up."

"Yes, yes..." He was easily avoiding being struck and pressing in more firmly, keeping Garble on his toes and forcing his song to accelerate to keep up with the flow of battle. "Let the words of your heart free. Impress on me the strength of them."

"Sassy... sisters. Dorky not... dragon." Garble began to press back, swinging with irritation. "Bare--ly holds a... candle to crying humans!" He brought in his axe, caught by his master's sword but pushing him back and away with the momentum of it.

"Impertinent whelp." The teacher swatted aside his heavy blade and slide in close.

"Filled with the anger of youth." With a sharp stab of the hilt of his blade, he knocked Garble back, stumbling to the ground heaving for breath.

"Learn as the sun rises." The teacher bowed softly towards Garble's fallen form. "You show promise. Good. I was considering abandoning this, but you have changed my mind with the strength of your words. They are as crude as your swings, but we can take a whetstone to them."

"Yeah... good..." He pulled himself to his feet, scowling at the sudden defeat handed him. "Hey, wait! You aren't changin' my beats."

"I will. Do you think you are at the pinnacle of your art? I should imagine not. Your words will be sharpened as your hands become true." He put his blade away with a casual wave. "Go home and rest. We have much to do."

Author's Note

100% Garble! He's doing it his way. Are you proud of him?

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18 - Final Steps

"Check it out." Spike turned to the side with a smug smile on his face. On his head floated a crown much like the one they had located, shimmering and bright despite not actually existing. "How are you all doing? Bet I'm not the first."

Smolder shot an emphatic thumbs up. "You win that bet, by losing. Pretty sure I was the first one past that finish line." She drew her dagger with one hand, a meat cleaver in the other, twirling both in place. "I am now a Combat Culinarian. Anycreature foolish enough to cross paths with me will be smoked, possibly literally."

Sandra pointed past Smolder to Spike. "What is your class actually called?"

Spike raised a finger with a smug look. "Divine Lord." He emphasized each word with a twirl of that finger. "By my benevolence will you be free to pursue justice."

Smolder burst into laughter, slapping a knee. "Oh, wow, that is great, Spike. You do your thing and I'll keep our bellies filled, fair trade?"

He emphatically thrust a thumb skywards. "It is a deal, fair lady. Now, uh, Sandra?"

Sandra turned and blinked. “Yes?”

“That’s the two of us, what do you have going on? For the class to enter the tower, I mean.”

“Well…” Sandra trailed off, looking away. “I guess there’s one but… I don’t know if it’s realistic…”

Smolder flapped over to Sandra, putting her arm around Sandra, practically hanging off of her. “She got a wicked powerful class from her family. Powerful magic armor. Superpowered spells. The works. She just hasn’t unlocked it yet.”

“Oh!” Spike perked up. “That’s cool! How do you unlock it?”

Sandra smiled a broad nervous smile and looked at Smolder. “I… uh…” She said through the nervous rictus, looking at Smolder, who looked at her with just an optimistic smile. “My uh… family were very high level adventurers, so the class probably can’t be unlocked until I am a high level adventurer.”

Garble butted in. “So you don’t have anything, is what you’re saying?”

Spike turned in place. "Oh, hey Garble. What'd you get?"

"Poet--" He drew his heavy blade off his back, cleaving the air in front of himself. "Slicer."

Spike shot him two finger guns with a grin. "That sounds pretty cool."

"Better than 'divine lord', like something put you in charge." He rolled his eyes before looking to Sandra. "So, whatever. We're ready, you're not. Forget whatever that is, because we don't have time for that."

Smolder lifted her shoulders as she produced a steaming little dumpling from seemingly nowhere. "Bro's not exactly wrong per se. Getting that big one's more a long term project. For now, we just need you to get into something that's not a basic class, so we can move forward."

Sandra tapped a foot on the ground. "Like what?"

Spike landed next to Sandra, on the opposite side of Smolder. "Well, people know a lot of them, right? We're a little blind, coming into this like this, but there has to be a list, right, somewhere?"

"Well, yes." Sandra approached the window of their room, looking out at the busy street below. "The guild keeps a full list of every class ever confirmed. I'd be shocked if the ones you have aren't on that already."

“So, that means that someone knows about all the classes, right? We can find one that fits, like, a caster really well and ask around.”

Sandra frowned. “But, the three of you all got classes just by… meeting people and finding out stuff. To have to go out and ask...”

“To be fair,” Smolder said, sitting up. “I did actually ask around, and Spike just tripped over his. What is your luck stat anyway?"

Spike blinked owlishly at that. "We have one of those? How do you even check it!?"

Smolder smirked playfully, leaning back on the seat she had taken just a moment before. "I'm joking with you, but you tend to be a lucky fella, so keep on being you. I mean, outside being sucked into another world without being asked. That isn't exactly super lucky?"

Garble marched past the others. "Right, sounds like it's time for a little trip down to the den of abrasive jerks. Let's take a look at this stupid list and find something."

Spike started forward after him. "I'm not arguing with that idea, but I admit I am a little surprised."

"At what?" He looked over his shoulder with a scowl.

"Oh, um, nothin'... just I figured you'd be more... you know... upset."

"I am." He threw up one hand, the other putting his sword away easily. "But you two aren't dropping the dead weight, and arguing isn't getting us there, so let's look at this stupid list and find a stupid class already."

"Sorry." Sandra trailed out third, only to be thumped into by Smolder from behind.

"Don't look so glum. We're gonna find a class you like." She fired a thumbs up, lifting into the air and swerving around Sandra. "You summoned us to turn your adventuring around, didn't you?"

"Well, I mean, yes, but I wasn't trying to yank out living things away from what they were doing." She sheepishly smiled. "Who I need to help get home, but am holding back... Who are all better at this than me, who lives here..."

"Keep up," roared Garble from the front, throwing open the door to the street. "Let's get this over with."

Smolder flew alongside Sandra. "Hey, look. Between me, you, and Spike, I kinda like this whole adventuring thing. It's fun! Now, do I want to get home? Yes." She raised a finger with the last word. "Fun time has to have an end, but I'm not, you know, mad about getting the chance to learn freaky magic and beat up monsters. So knock that guilt chip off your shoulder and let's find an awesome class."

"What are you talking about?" Spike drifted back, floating on the opposite side of Sandra. "Girl stuff?"

"Yes, girl stuff," laughed out Smolder.

"Oh, okay." He didn't leave though, still hovering there.

Sandra peered at him as she walked, confusion clear on her face. "Most boys I know of run away when they hear girl things are being discussed."

He shrugged softly. "I've developed an immunity. Anything I can help with?"

"You just keep being you, Spike." Smolder put down a hand on Sandra's shoulders. "I was just kidding anyway. I was telling Sandra we, you know, you and me, we're not angry at Sandra."

"Uh..." He glanced away, flying along facing away from them. "I know she didn't mean to do that, but I do want to get home. This is... cool and all, but I can only imagine how freaked out Twilight must be right about now."

"S...ike!" The voice came from somewhere ahead of him and Spike blinked softly, holding up a hand to his head to try to hear the grainy and faint voice.

"What?"

"..tr.. ard... to tal... to you bu... the ...shun is bare.. ...ing up."

"Twilight?" He looked around desperately, but there was no floating portal or anything, just a voice. "Twilight! I can hear you, sorta."

"T--k Celestia." The name of their princess came through clearly, one word breaking through the static.

Spike smiled broadly even as he looked around, but the voice's direction seemed to change haphazardly, not resting in any one place. "I'm alright! We're working on a way home."

Sandra watched Spike dart and look around wildly, already out of range to hear him talking. "Is he alright? He looks like he dropped something, but I doubt he'll find it up in the sky like that."

Smolder shook her head slowly. "I am not sure, but let's keep up with Gar Gar before he loses it. Spike knows where we're going."

They left him behind, making their way towards the guild. Garble was the first one inside, tapping at the counter. "Hey."

"Ah, back again." The secretary considered Garble, looking towards his guildchain. "That looks different. Did you change classes?"

"Poet Slicer," reported Garble with pride, moving a hand to polish against his armored chest. "Our party's ready for the next step, minus one. I hear you got a list of advanced classes. We want a look at it."

"Hm?" His eyes drifted past Garble to the other two party members coming in behind him. "Sandra, is it? I must admit, for demi-hu--"

Garble slammed the counter with a balled fist. "I'm a dragon, got it? I ain't human anything."

Smolder swooped in, one hand on Garble's shoulder. "Hey, sorry for the fuss. Did he ask for that list yet?"

But the secretary was looking at Sandra, not either of the two dragons. "You really should teach them some manners."

Sandra laughed nervously. "Ha... yeah... Do you have that list, please? We'll get out of your hair."

"In the library," he sighed out. "Ask the librarian and he'll show you the way."

"Thank you." Sandra turned stiffly, the dragons trailing behind her as she made her way to the library. As the name implied, there were many books, but perhaps not as many as one would expect. Great stone slabs rest on platforms in fairly even spacing.

The woman who had summoned the dragons to begin with stood there. "Ah, Sandra, You're back, with your friends. Weren't there three?"

"The other one will catch up," she waved in the vague direction they had left Spike. "We wanted a list of all the classes you've found. If they list how people got them, that would be good too."

The old librarian raised a hand and the platform closest to Sandra began to glow. "Go on and have a look. That isn't confidential information."

"Thank you." Sandra put her hands on the platform and a book appeared, more of a hologram, opening up to a great list. "Wow, you have that memorized?" She leaned forward to look it over. "Purchased, found, found... Taken from an elder wyrm?! That must have been a story..."

Smolder floated closer to the librarian. "Hey, what about Combat Culinarian, Divine Lord, or Poet Slicer?"

"One of them is right here." Sandra inclined her head towards where 'Divine Lord' was written.

Divine Lord -- Uncommon -- Unlocked through acquisition of magic item, see subnote

"Uncommon, nice." She nodded softly. "Maybe I should just buy one of the ones they sell." As if controlled by her thought, the order of the list shifted to list the ones for sale at the top. "There's a rare one for sale? If it's for sale, how can it be rare?"

Garble lifted his shoulders. "If they want all the money in the world, it's still pretty rare."

Sandra looked to the price just to look away just as quickly, her skin paling a little. "Got that in one! Did... either of you pay for yours?"

Smolder hiked a thumb at herself. "I asked, and I made a friend, then I learned how to do it while helping out."

Garble snorted a small puff of smoke. "I saw what I wanted and reached for it. Bastard made me work, but I didn't give up."

"What about..." Sandra trailed off, realizing Spike still wasn't there. "Well, I need to pick one..."

Smolder smirked faintly. "Pick one you want and let's get it. You'll rock it, whether we buy it or whatever. It doesn't matter so long as you give it your all." She thrust a finger at Sandra. "It's time for you to take a step forward. We can't make you."

"Yeah... But--"

"You're about to say something about not being 'ready' or 'worthy' aren't you?" Smolder crossed her arms. "Denied. You pick a cool class and get moving. You'll make yourself ready and worth it. You think I knew how to cook worth a damn when I started?" She flicked out her butcher knife, twirling it in the air. "Not a clue, but I kept at it. Time for you to decide. You're going to make this work, or give up. I know you can do it, but that doesn't mean a thing until you do."

Author's Note

Time to pick or quit. What sort of class should Sandra be aiming for?

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19 - Don't Forget the Milk

Sandra held a paper in her shaking hands, walking along with Smolder to the left and Garble to the right with her. "Can it be this easy?"

"No," snapped Smolder with a smirk. "It only looks easy because we're prepared. We have the money."

Garble snorted softly. "Just so I have that right, your awesome new class is cooking things?"

"It's way cooler than just cooking things, but, yeah, I cook things." She tossed up her dagger to catch it casually. "Right in the middle of the fight if I want to. You know how Spike was throwing out those green healing spells?"

"Yeah?"

"Great, take out the wobbly staff stuff and instead get a tasty snack that does the same thing." She snapped two fingers sharply. "Tell me that isn't more satisfying."

"But yer still gonna stab stuff, right?" He glared at Smolder across Sandra. "I ain't gonna have my sis get all wimpy on me."

"Bro, chill. I'll be stabbing stuff all over." She twirled her dagger in place, dancing between her fingers. "It has to be dead before you get to proper cooking. On the other hand, I do know at least one skill to help start on that before they stop moving."

Garble opened his mouth a moment before a laugh escaped instead of words. "Alright, cooking some jerk alive, yeah, yer fine."

While the siblings joked, increasingly paying no attention to Sandra, she stared down at the paper. The inflamer class. A class dedicated to all the fire skills known to adventurers. She’d be able to cast all the highest level fire spells, but only fire spells. She had been using fire a lot, because she could abuse big area spells without her party members being risked, but…

She’d be able to do any fire thing, but only fire things. It was like the most basic of any advanced class, and once they ran into a monster that couldn’t be hurt by fire, she could do basically nothing.

And a part of her burned with shame that she had to do this to just get them in the tower. Everyone else was chosen, trained, learned something. She would literally do what she was doing now, except with less element options, and she would just buy it.

But what choice did she have? The dragons were eager to get to the tower, and so many of these classes were dependent on knowing someone, finding something, or having very specific skills and basic classes mastered. She had to keep up, and if they are going to have to pay for it… that’s just how it is.

Movement caught the corner of her eye. Excited voices and gesticulating people were gathered in a square. That was hardly a strange thing, but there were several glowing creatures dancing in front of humans that seemed focused on them.

"Master the arts of the elements," intoned what seemed to be their leader. "Not through gross manipulation of the aether itself, but with an accord with those that live in it. The summoner class gives you all the power of a spellcaster, without reaching for what man was not meant to touch."

She paused, considering with a tapping of her chin. Was that what was wrong? Had she been going in the wrong direction?

"Hey, keep up," came Garble's annoyed shout from ahead.

"What's up?" Smolder actually turned, then followed Sandra's eyes to the display. "Huh… What is it?"

Sandra took a step towards it, hesitating in place. Her new friends were ready to buy her a class, any they could afford. Was she chickening out, again? No! No… this way she could be far more useful. "Excuse me! What elements can you work with?"

The teacher cocked his head, seeming to hear her. "Fire, water, air, earth. With practice, even creation and entropy itself can be confronted and befriended, made to work at your behest." He brought his hands together in a smart slap as he turned towards her. "Are you curious?"

Smolder slipped between Sandra and the instructor. "How much are you trying to get?"

"I am more interested in spreading my teachings than earning coins." He snapped his fingers and two creatures stepped from nothing, one a beaver with crackling electricity for fur, the other more of a duck made of stone. "If you find success and wish to give back, word of your victory would suffice."

Smolder looked dubious, and opened her mouth, only to have Sandra cut her off, “Is this the same as when you find a summon and use a ritual?”

“It isn’t!” The teacher beamed, expecting this kind of question. “A summon like that is fed by the magic of the item you find on the field, and supported by the magic of the enemies it defeats.” He pet the beaver, the electricity crackling around his hands. “But this technique involves brokering a deal with a spirit and creating the summon from your own magic.”

Sandra licked her lips. “So… what can the summons do?”

The teacher’s smile turned craftier. “Ah, well what do all adventurers want to do? It can attack, of course, and defend. As you gain in power with it, it could do all sorts of things, the sky really is the limit.”

It sounded fantastic. Sandra nodded her head eagerly. “Where do I sign up?!”

He raised a finger. “There are but two requirements. First, we must test your magic to determine if it is capable of wielding such a power. Second, you must be able to broker the actual deal with said spirit.”

Smolder slipped between Sandra and the would-be teacher. "You're setting off all the wrong kinds of bells. Tell me why someone would not want this class? And so help me if you start with demi-human..."

Garble lifted his shoulders. "Sounds lame to me. Why would I want someone else to be awesome instead of me?"

"You are their link to the world, and their leader. Their fame is yours, as are their winnings." His eyes rested on Smolder as if sizing her up. "There are several reasons, your friend mentioned just one. It is an indirect class, so if you prefer personal involvement, it can be lacking."

"Uh huh, keep going... " Smolder rolled her hands over one another, prompting him.

Sandra grabbed her by the shoulder, giving a little shake. "This sounds perfect," she harshly whispered.

"Too perfect," grunted the dragoness. "Keep going."

"As I was just saying, before you can call upon any of the wondrous creatures that will aid you, you must approach them and broker an accord with them. This requires force of will and personality both, or the spirit will reject you, possibly painfully." He lifted his shoulders in a soft shrug. "On the positive side of things, if you lack this, it is quickly determined."

Smolder raised an eyebrow. “And?”

“And what?” The teacher pursed his lips. “You’re asking me to talk down the class that I am trying to convince you to pursue? It is a class like any other, it has strong points, like command of a powerful magical beast, and weak points, like using your own magic can limit the magic available for the summon.” He shrugged theatrically. “And I suppose as long as you are being a summoner you aren’t being any other amazing thing. Do you want to try or not?”

She folded her arms. “It still--”

This time Sandra interrupted, pushing her way ahead of Smolder. “Sign me up!”

Smolder grunted as she was pushed, but Garble was swifter than her in action, grabbing Sandra by the shoulder and wrenching her back. "Look, I don't care which thing you do, but you are asking us to waste more time. So look me right here." He thrust two fingers at her eyes and turned them back to his own. "Are you completely serious? No more excuses. Right?"

“I--” Sandra was stunned. “Yes? I said I was?”

He glared at her and she shirked back further. “That doesn’t sound very serious at all.”

“Y-y-y” Sandra steeled herself. “Yes. Yes this sounds perfect.”

Garble stood up, no longer glaring. “Alright then.”

Smolder lifted her shoulders. "Show her what she needs then, but we're staying. That's what friends do."

"Yeah, friends." Garble rolled his eyes, but didn't further complain. "Speaking of 'friends', where is Spike?"

"I can hear you better." Spike was rising faster and faster. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes, it's quite--behind you!"

"Behi--" Pain bolted through his shoulder and he roared in pain, a shield flaring into being around him reflexively. "I'm under attack." He ducked under the next golden needle of energy that darted towards him. "It's… the tower?"

Several nodes in the tower seemed to be turning towards him in smooth rotations, the beams coming faster and faster and from more directions. "I don't think they like me here!"

"Spike, get away from there! We can talk, that's the important part. Don't get hurt for this. We'll find a way." He couldn't see her, but he could hear her waving frantically.

He swept in low and towards the tower as the beams painted a wild arc where he had been. "Can… you… talk whenever… you want?" he asked between huffs for breath. Several beams collided with his shield, causing it to flare brightly, but his power remained strong.

"You're sounding out of breath. Spike, please, get away from there. I--we, we'll talk l--r. O--ay?" Her voice became increasingly distorted as he ducked and bobbed away from the defenses, starting to make his way back down towards the base of the tower.

He twisted around in time to thrust his staff forward, a glimmering shield appearing before it just in time to deflect one of the beams away, but it seemed like the last one. He was far enough away for the tower to lose interest in him, it seemed. "Maybe having more defensive power isn't so bad… Twilight, not sure if you're still listening, but we'll keep working. We'll get home, promise."

His oath spoken, to Twilight or not, he let himself half-fall into the city. "Now where did the others go off to…" They had been going to the guild, right?

As impossible as it would have been for Spike to spot them, the same count not be said in the other direction. There were far fewer flying things than there were ground-bound ones.

"What element do you feel some kinship towards? It is often easier if we begin there." The instructor was working with Sandra. "If you don't have one, that isn't--"

"--No! No. I mean, I've been using fire the most, for sure." She bobbed her head in two little motions. "Does that mean I'll summon something fiery?"

"To start. You've seen what I call. With experience and power, you will forge ties with more than one, and can even make them do more than the obvious element they wield."

Garble elbowed Smolder suddenly. "Hey, look." He pointed up to where Spike plummeted from the tower. "What was he doing?"

Smolder snapped her wings open. "No idea, but there's one way to find out." She zipped off the ground, aiming to intercept Spike.

"For now, your real challenge is to make that first pact. The first is always the trickiest, but if you have what it takes, you will manage it." He turned in place but didn't point. His summons did that for him. "You must go that way, past the beginner fields, into Misty Forest. You will find where an old forest fire raged so horrifically the forest has not recovered, and there you will do two things."

He held up his fist, raising one finger with each thing. "One, you will make your first accord. Two, you will help mend the forest by drawing some of that fiery energy away."

"Alright, so… how do I make this fire spirit show up, then do I just talk to it?" She looked uncertain but excited.

Author's Note

The split party will soon be mended. The GM will be so happy!

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20 - Pressing Forward

"That is the trick I will show you today. Then you must face it. Some will wish to talk, some will fight. Some may want both and more. Find a balance with it. Some you will have to prove your worth in battle, and others seek clever souls. Make it respect you, and it will agree to enter your service." His arms dropped, his right doing a swing to reach out in time for one of his summons to hold up a book.

Garble lifted his shoulders. "You must already be great at summoning things. You got 3 dragons from another world. Anyone else ever top that?"

“That’s right!” Sandra said. “I already got—”

“Remember!” the teacher said. “This is not normal summoning. Normal summoning happens as long as you have the item for it, but for this summoning you must dedicate your own magic and broker the deal. Former luck has nothing to do with it.”

“R-right.” Sandra nodded. “I got it. Impress the spirit. Can I bring my party?”

The teacher shrugged. “I couldn’t tell ya. Maybe if you do no spirit will come, maybe only a spirit who likes parties will come.”

“Um…” Sandra looked unsure.

The teacher pursed his lips. “If you think it’s important to you, do it, elsewise leave them behind. You will not be able to impress them with your party, though. You will have to be the one to talk to it.”

Sandra nodded, looking down in thought. “Yeah… that... makes sense.”

Garble hiked a thumb towards the gate of the town. "Hey, whatever, let's get moving. You either do it or you don't."

"Are you... supporting me?" She smiled a little awkwardly at the largest of 'her' dragons. "Thank you."

"Whatever." He rolled his eyes mightily. "Let's just get this over with." He grabbed her hand, but paused. "Does she have everything she needs?"

"One moment, let me teach her the basics." He gestured to the side. "Alone and undisturbed."

"Hey!" Smolder zipped into Spike's path. "Where were you?"

"Smolder!" He eagerly closed the distance with her. "I talked to Twilight! She can reach us, mostly." He lifted a shoulder just to wince at where the golden beam had scorched him. "Second." He began to glow with power, mustering healing energies.

"Uh, why are you hurt? Was Twilight seriously angry?" She glanced behind Spike as if he were hiding a pony back there. "And where is she? Oh yeah, Sandra's trying out a new class."

"Really? Great!" He let out a soft sigh, his wound fading away. "Healing and tough... why was I... so upset about this?"

"Big fancy Twilight spells?" helpfully reminded Smolder.

"Oh, yeah... I can do a lot, but nothing that fancy. Still... I mean... Anyway, she talked!" He waved his hands excitedly, a grin on his face. "She knows we're alright, which means she'll tell everyone else."

Smolder fired an emphatic double thumbs up. "Great. Can she teleport us back, or teleport here?"

"About that... I doubt it. She could barely talk." He turned and pointed high into the sky. "It was clearest when I was close to the tower and pretty high up. Turns out, the tower doesn't like cheating."

"And so you got zapped." She prodded the spot that had been injured moments ago. "You alright?"

"I'm okay," he quickly assured. "But I'm also convinced. Getting up that tower is what we need to do."

"Speaking of that." She turned away and began to descend where she had come from. "Let's get back to Garble and Sandra before they tear each other apart."

Spike barked out a laugh at that. "That would be awkward. I don't want either of them getting hurt."

"Oh?" Smolder smirked faintly, glancing over her shoulder. "You care about Garble now? I thought he was basically 'the worst' in your eyes."

"Hey! I mean... a little?" He lifted his shoulders. "Doesn't mean I want him hurt."

"He cares about you too." She dropped from the sky, landing beside a bored-looking Garble. "We ready to go?"

Garble snorted softly, smoke escaping. "They're going over the basics, over there." He pointed to the corner they were behind. "This better work..."

"We'll find something," assured Smolder, looking like it was no big deal. "One of these will work for--"

"--No. This is the last bit of waiting I do. This works, or we throw her aside. We don't need her."

"Harsh." Spike touched down gently next to Smolder. "What class is this, anyway? How much did it end up costing?"

Garble held up his hand, fingers curled in a big circle. "Only redeeming part of this whole thing. The guy's desperate for students, so he isn't charging at all. Makes me think it's full of junk."

Smolder shrugged. "Hey, with you there. I was asking questions, but she seems to really like the idea. Figures, she already summoned three dragons, why not make it official?"

"Official?" Spike scratched behind his head lightly. "What is she, some kind of dragon lord class?"

Garble barked with laughter, suddenly slapping Spike on the shoulder hard enough to make his shield briefly flare into being. "You just made my day a little better. No, summoner." He wriggled his fingers in a spooky manner. "So she can call more things to do her work for her. Seems her style."

"If it works for her?" He considered the corner the action was happening behind. "Just so long as she isn't yanking creatures from other worlds and pretending she owns them."

Smolder nodded in solidarity. "I will have to bap her on the head if she even considers it. Once was more than enough." She leaned in close to Spike. "Besides, I learned a recipe for human. Turns out they come out pretty good if you do it right."

Spike paled at the very idea, but Garble roared with laughter. "I take back everything, Sis. You're more than alright. Why did I ever doubt you?"

"Stupidity?" She snipped with a smirk and the two siblings thudded against each other, apparently neither taking the exchange poorly.

"Thank you for waiting." Sandra emerged into sight, looking not at all changed, though she clasped something in her hand. "I know the next step, but I'm not a summoner until a spirit accepts me." She turned the hand over, opening it to reveal a small dull stone. "It'll get shiny when that happens, then I can add it to the guild chain."

Garble turned for the exit of the city. "Great, now I don't feel like fighting the crowd there, so I'm going to pick you up, and you aren't going to complain."

"What?" was all she managed to get out before he turned halfway towards her and reached the other have, snatching her where she stood and propelling himself into the sky. "Put me down!"

"You sure you want me to do that?" he asked with a grin as they raised higher and higher into the sky. "I mean, if you insist..."

"No no no!"

Smolder nudged him from the side, easily matching his flight speed. "Don't be mean." She pointed down and ahead. "You know they get creeped out if we fly over the walls, let's land at the gate."

Spike flew at the opposite side of Garble. "I talked to Twilight. She knows we're here. I don't know if she can get us home, but it looks like the tower is the best way."

"Keep doin' what we were doin', got it. I'm not in the mood to be saved by a namy pamby pony princess anyway."

Sandra blinked softly. "Did you say pony? Like a little horse?"

Spike flew around to be in front of Sandra as they went. "Yeah. She's my, uh--"

"Master," cruelly quipped Garble with a smirk.

"Adopted sister," retorted Spike with crossed arms as he flew backwards. "Yeah, she's a pony." He thrust out a hand, balled up tight. "Hooves, twitchy ears, the works."

"Hooves... on her feet?" Sandra lifted one of her floating feet in demonstration. "I've seen demi-humans like that."

Smolder shook her head. "Oh boy, you would be so confused in Equestria. Imagine it, a whole world where humans are not in charge." She leered suddenly. "In fact, there are exactly zero of them. The dominant species, ponies, hooves, all four of them. Happy colorful ponies."

Sandra's fingers danced as if she were trying to calculate the scenario. "But... how? I mean, they have you guys, and other dragons, right? How have the dragons not... done what dragons do to ponies?"

Spike inclined his head faintly. "Made friends?"

Garble snorted derisively even as they touched down, the gate not far ahead. "That's what you do to ponies. The rest of us see them as potential snacks."

"Speak for yourself, Bro. One of my best buds is a pony. Speaking of that, wonder how Sandbar's doing, and the rest of them... Are they worried?" She reached to poke Spike. "Next time you talk to Twilight, ask. I didn't mean to make them all worried."

Garble released Sandra and pointed forward. "Enough talk, more action. Let's get out of here and find out if you have what it takes, Sandra."

They were allowed through with little trouble. A glance at their chains was all that was required. "Be careful out there," advised one of the guards, then they were past, into the fields they had started in so long ago.

Sandra pointed the way. "I know the forest he was talking about, where the big fire happened."

"Great, keep pointing." Garble snatched her back up without waiting for permission. "Because we're not walking. Don't get used to this, you're not light, but today I'm tired of waiting."

The forest came into view as they quickly sliced through the air. Spike shrugged softly as they went. "The tower didn't like me flying on the outside, but is there anything stopping us from flying on the inside?"

"N-no, now that I know of." Sandra spread her hands. "It's a dungeon though. You can only fly so high before you bump into the ceiling. Some of the rooms are really big I heard though, so yeah, you can fly, just not right to the top."

"Figures." Garble dropped Sandra a foot off the ground as they got close to the edge of the burnt forest. "And here we are. Ash and soot as far as the eye can see."

That wasn't entirely true. One could see, in the distance, where the trees started back up. The forest was not gone, but a great chunk of it had been reduced to ash, and was not showing much sign of recovery.

Sandra wobbled, regaining her footing after the rough drop. "R-right, okay... There's too much fire magic here, he said. I specialize in fire, so, maybe, I can call out a fire spirit and make a deal. Then I take the fire spirit away with us, and the forest can get a little better. Everyone wins!"

Sandra thumbs up before hiking the same thumb into the burnt ruins. "Well, how do you get one to come out and say hi?"

"This is a literal friendship quest," noted Spike musingly. "Neat. I haven't seen one of those in a while."

"You... used to see them a lot?" Sandra turned to Spike. "Any tips?"

Garble sat on a burnt stump. "He's a regular expert at sissy friendship stuff. You came to the right place for all that."

"Bro, student at the school of friendship, remember?" She put her hands at her hips and puffed out her chest. "You got at least two experts in the field. Now the way I see it, you need to go say hi."

Spike bobbed his head. "Yeah, say hello, and get to know them. Don't assume you know them, let them talk, and treat them as a person you care about, because you do. That's what friends do."

"Gag me."

Sanda nodded softly to the advice her friends were given. "Right, right... As a friend. Someone I care about... I can do this." She turned to the forest and began forward. "Just in case, if it starts cooking me, give a hand?"

21 - Who?

Sandra stood in a clearing surrounded by ash. It was warmer here, and she closed her eyes, since that was supposed to help, and began trying to ‘feel’ for the magic, as her instructor instructed.

She reached out with her magic senses, as if she were reaching out with a guildchain or into a magical weapon, but without the aid of those things, magic would be raw, difficult to contain or mold.

And then, coming over her almost suddenly, like putting on a pair of glasses, the magic felt… clear. She could barely recognize what she felt. Powerful magic, hot and intense overwhelmed her, and almost as soon as it came, she lost her focus and stumbled back, like she was struck.

She breathed heavily, her heart beating. Was this normal, with magic? Did all magic have that intensity? She learned to cast her first spell when she was just a kid… but she had never felt like that before.

A low growl had her open her eyes in a flash. Far more concrete than the subtle and intense play of magic, a very real creature seemed to loom over her, glaring with a potentially dangerous mien. It was bright oranges and red, giving the impression of flame in its movements. Feathered ears twitched on its head and its wings fidgeted at its side. "A fire owl?"

It vanished as quickly as it had come. "What the…"

"Keep going," shouted Spike a short distance away. "Whatever you were doing, uh, worked. I think?"

Sandra sat herself back up, somewhat confused. She hadn’t done much of anything, had she? She had only looked… But she had already gotten something’s attention, it seems. She gazed down at the ground, not with her magical sight but with her ordinary sight. Maybe it’s just that desperate to get out? It was fire… She pursed her lips and started to focus again, sitting this time.

Garble nudged Smolder lightly. "Two gold she messes up."

"Be nice." She nudged him right back. "And you're on."

She reached out her senses in again, and was immediately assaulted with that hot magical feeling. But it wasn’t just hot, it was a little clearer. Inquisitiveness… and eagerness were there. Like she could feel them herself. That must have been the owl, the owl that jumped out at the first chance.

“... Hi?” she said, very verbally, but nothing was happening. Well, it was made of magic, and it was all magical feelings, so… she tried just… focusing her magic on her feelings? What did a welcoming feeling feel like?

It did something, because she could feel the eagerness grow. It was… it was a little intimidating. There was so much fire down there, with a piece of it reaching out. And it was eager and energetic, but part of Sandra reasoned… it was fire, wasn’t it? Why wouldn’t it be those things…

The three dragons, though, were all taken aback as above her a flame formed into what seemed to be a bird’s face. Sandra sat down, her head dipped, eyes screwed in concentration, completely oblivious to the flaming creature forming above her.

Smolder whispered to Garble. “Get that gold ready.”

“I will,” he whispered back. “For when it tries to bite her head off.”

Sandra, meanwhile, felt more comfortable already. Maybe the enthusiasm was rubbing off on her, but she expected a lot more burning. A lot more anger and maybe rage? But she felt this desire to get out, this desire to go out. She liked that feeling, even as the feeling of just… busting out scared her. What if she failed? What if she couldn’t do it?

But a burst of enthusiasm, of determination came through clear as day, as she realized what she was thinking was definitely being picked up, and it was sorta in her thoughts. The spirit wanted out. The spirit wanted to see the world. Heck, the spirit wanted to fly and run and pitch itself into danger.

It was everything Sandra felt like she was not, and this excited her.

"A spirit can enhance what you are," she remembered her teacher saying. "But they can also be what you are not. They can fill the voids within you, rushing to occupy that space with their own energy and personality. This is not a path you ever walk alone."

Sandra was certain. This was the one, and it was already ready and ‘impressed.’ She didn’t know it happened or how she was certain, but she was. So the next step is to draw the spirit out, and she began to extend her own magic to pull it out. Only a little tug was necessary and she became aware of a presence beside her. Snapping her eyes open, the rather tangible spirit was right there, and as she felt her magic tugging the spirit out, the owl fluffed itself up and embers fluffed up at the same time, creating a brief cloud of flaming brilliance.

The owl danced away, wings flapping at the apex of each little bounce. Its eyes were upon her steadily, watching and waiting. She felt certain it was waiting, for something.

"No more waiting." She took a slow breath. "It's... time to do something."

The owl bounced closed, but didn't come back down, hovering in the air with steady beats of its wings, bits of smoldering embers raining down from its feathery body and its eyes even with Sandra's.

"Can you... talk?"

"Since you want me to," replied the owl. "Are you serious? Is it time to go?" The owl sounded like a young boy, no great sage there. "You're hot. Will you keep me warm as we travel?"

Sandra's cheeks warmed, puzzling the meanings of that. "Like... this?" It was a fire spirit, perhaps a little fire magic was what it wanted. She held out her hands, fire swirling into being between them, not quite violent enough to become a fireball just yet, just swirling, almost calmly.

"Oh, yes! Yes yes." The owl flapped closer, landing on one of her hands, looking down into the flames. "You like names."

"I... huh?"

"You like names." The owl looked back to Sandra. "Give me one. Make it a good one."

Even as Sandra considered some, the owl fell right into the flames she held, flapping wildly, its wings brushing the insides of her hands as it awkwardly held itself there in that fire, starting to glow brightly. Her magic was seeping into it quickly, forcing her to call on more fire magic, lest it all go out. "Name, name... Aiden."

"Good name," agreed the owl, its form unchanged but something else about it seemingly altered with the name, harder to place. "Hotter."

She held her hands a little further apart, allowing Aiden to fly without brushing feathers against her. Sandra was focusing on the fire, trying to raise the temperature slowly, but Aiden kept encouraging more and more.

Spike watched with a slightly confused expression. "Well, it isn't attacking her, and they are... talking... I think?"

"I think?" agreed Smolder. None of them had heard the words the owl had said, just what Sandra had spoke, responding as if she had been talked to. "Sandra! I think it likes a good fire bath, turn up the heat!"

"Hotter," agreed Aiden, its own feathers glowing just a bit brighter than the flames around it, always keeping ahead of the intensity of Sandra's heat just by a little.

Sandra was at the edge of what she could reasonably control. She could feel the edges of her heat fraying and twitching, about to escape, to douse the already burnt forest as if it needed any more fire. "I can't..."

"Can. Afraid. Stop. Hotter." Aiden spoke each word carefully and pointedly, its eyes locked on Sandra's.

"How... hot?"

"All hot."

Sandra took a slow breath, even if the heat she held burnt at her throat. "Alright... hotter." She closed her eyes and fell. Not literally of course. She let the magic flow as quickly as it could. The flames erupted into a mighty roar, exploding between her hands.

She couldn't see it, but the dragons could, gaping as the great explosion reached out several feet before drawing right back into that space between her hands. The owl drew it all in and its wings redoubled in size, becoming little more than moving flames, brushing Sandra's hands despite her moving them further apart. With a predator's cry, the owl burst into light, and vanished.

Sandra staggered forward, her magic drained and fatigue threatening her. "W-wait... Did... I?" The area was relatively dark as she opened her eyes, her flame no longer there. But something was shining. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the glimmering stone that had once been dormant. "I'm a summoner..." A smile spread across her face. "I did it!"

Spike wooped and cheered, charging over towards her. Smolder held out a hand towards Garble, a smug smile of victory on her scaled lips.

"Yeah Yeah." He shoved the coins at her as if attacking her with her earned winnings. "So what can that, uh, owl do?"

Smolder nodded, coming in at a more sedate walk. "Good question, but first, you're supposed to put that in your chain, right?"

"Yes, yes, of course." She held up her chain in one hand and brought over the glimmering stone in the other. With shaking hands, she brought them together and there was only a chain a moment later. The chain changed shape, acknowledging her new class. The face of Aiden appeared on the side and feathers dotted the entire surface. "Huh, he really left a mark."

Spike arrived first, peering at the chain Sandra held. "Think it'll change as you get more?"

"Maybe. That's... pretty nice." She was smiling, looking less nervous by far than when she had begun the process. "Aiden is the owl's name."

"Hello, Aiden." Spike waved at the chain, though the chain had no replies to give.

"Hey." Garble was looking around as he came closer. "I think you did something." The others looked as well, seeing small patches of grass poking through the burnt ruin. It wasn't a sudden reversal of the damage, and wasn't spreading before their eyes, but...

"It helped... I helped!" Sandra clapped her hands together, allowing her chain to return to its usual dangling place. "Aiden? Are you there?"

With a burst of flames, the flaming owl appeared, crackling and burning, still shining with Sandra's magic.

"Say hello to my friends."

But he said nothing, just landing on Spike's shoulder. Spike looked pleased, reaching up to gently scratch the bird. "I raised a phoenix once, you're a lot like him, all... bird-like and on fire and all. Come to think of it, I had an owl for a friend too. You're like the two put together. Nice. I'm Spike. What's your name?"

But Aiden didn't speak to Spike. Smolder nodded softly. "Great. You got a summon and you can actually call it when you need to, so you qualify now. You know what that means, right?"

Garble thrust a finger at the tower in the distance. "It's time to get serious. We're going to beat up everything in the way, get to the top, and go home."

"Why isn't he talking?" Sandra frowned a little. "He did before... but yes, we should go report to the guild, tell them we're all qualified, and get promoted."

"Wait, promoted?" Spike leaned forward, forcing Aiden to change his stance.

Sandra nodded firmly. "Oh yeah, we officially shouldn't be at the lowest rock anymore. They'll judge us and give us a new rank. Whatever it is, we'll then be qualified to enter the tower. We'll also become eligible to do other, much more advanced, quests."

Smolder hiked a brow at that. "Pass. The goal is to get home, not run around earning money. Besides, we'll do that just fighting through the tower, right?"

Sandra nodded softly. "Well, yes... Some people do just that. Aiden, come here." Aiden took launch from Spike's shoulder and flew directly at Sandra, vanishing into a haze of embers as it reached her, vanishing. "That will take a little getting used to. But I did it!"

Author's Note

Sandra has a flaming owl. Welcome Aiden to the party!

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22 - First Step

Sandra strode down the street with firm steps, her arms pumping and her eyes on the tower ahead. "It's really time," she said mostly to herself, a giddy smile on her face, and a new stone bouncing on her visible guildchain.

"Just so we're clear." Garble elbowed her from the side. "That doesn't make you in charge."

"I know! I know… It was stupid." She looked to his chain, which also had a new stone, but the guild had only raised the dragons by one step, while granting Sandra three, claiming she had brought a 'rare new class'. "Really stupid. I know I was… just as dumb, at first."

Spike shook his head. "They weren't exactly subtle. They only gave you such a big jump so you'd be over us. I bet they think they're doing you some kind of favor."

Sandra rolled her eyes with a long suffering grunt. "That kind of help I could do without. We're a team. You're all amazing. I'm happy that I'll be able to help, at your side, not as your boss. You know that, right?"

Smolder swatted her human teammate on the back. "Relax. Garble's just beating his chest, one of his favorite things to do sometimes."

"Hey."

"Calling it like I see it." She shot imaginary guns at her brother. "We're a team. What stupid rock they put on the chain doesn't mean a thing when we're facing things that want to chomp us for lunch." She licked over her snout. "They don't understand that's my job."

Spike rushed ahead to the gate that separated the city from the area immediately by the tower. "Hey, we're qualified." He held up his chain in clear view. "All of us. We can go in now, right?"

The guard held out a hand until Spike flew in close enough for him to draw it in close for inspection, keeping Spike hovering uncomfortably close by. "Looks proper," he admitted after an awkward moment. "Next."

Sandra flashed her chain, looking ready to step up as Spike did, but he waved her past. Garbe moved to follow her with a smirk, just for a glowing spear to come down in his way.

"Chain?" the guard demanded flatly as if bored.

Garble rolled his eyes. "Seriously?" He held his up and the guard started to reach for it. Garble yanked it back. "You know a chain when you see one. I'm going past now."

Smolder pulled her lips back, exposing sharp teeth. "If you're lucky, we'll be devoured by random tower monsters. Mmm, you wouldn't want to keep us away from that, would you?"

The guard snorted softly. "Ensuring you have the proper stone is how we keep you safe. If you want to kill yourself, fine." He raised his spear, allowing their progress.

The siblings marched past him, eyes forward and frowns on their faces. As soon as they were out of conversational distance with the gate, Garble shoved Smolder. "Did you catch that? Sucks to be a demi-human around here."

"Good thing we aren't one." She cocked a brow. "Not that anyone knows the difference between one and a dragon, so, eh." She lifted her shoulders. "It's time to get serious." She hiked a thumb at the tower they were approaching. "Sandra, got any info you want to share about this place? You haven't been in there yourself, right?"

Sandra looked up at the tower above. “I… well… what the tower is is pretty mysterious. Nobody knows what it… or the other towers that are in the world are here for. We know that they are huge collections of magic and thus have tons of powerful monsters, and powerful items, and probably even classes and stuff.

“But that goes with… nobody exactly knowing what is in the tower. But, the important part is--”

“That the tower grants a wish to whomever can climb it!” Spike said, marching ahead of the group.

“There’s… one more thing, real quick,” Sandra said.

Spike looked back, fiddling with his shield, but said nothing.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but we… will have to turn back sooner or later.” Sandra grimaced a little. “Not that we’re not getting to the top, it’s just gonna take more than one trip.”

“So what?” Spike said. “I mean, I figured we’d take a little time for it…”

“I’m just saying to… manage expectations, you know. We won’t get all the way up today.”

“Oh, I get it,” Garble said, his hand gripping his brand new blade, a large curved sword which was neither worn on his back or side, but slung over his shoulder from a strap, hanging down. “Sandra is worried we can’t handle the tower, even after all the training and new classes.”

“No! It’s not that.” She fanned her hands wildly.

He drew the sword from its sheath, which was a two handed process which involved taking the strap off of his shoulder, even, holding up the massive, if somewhat simple blade above his head. “Now now, poor limited human girl. You are with the three most mythological creatures that exist in this world, even if one of them’s a namby pamby. We sped through the former process, and are gonna do stuff that you only wish you could do without us.” He pointed the sword forward. “Onward!”

Smolder and Spike cheered, and took off a bit more quickly toward the tower. Sandra looked at them and smiled weakly. It was heartening to see them so enthusiastic, but she looked up at the tower, so tall they couldn’t see the top. So tall stories of people reaching the top were more legend than stories.

But she needed to get to the top too, right? That was why she came to this town after all. So realistic or not, she had to do it, and she snorted to herself and steeled her attitude and headed after them.

As Garble reached the towering stone doors, his chain began to glow. The door replied in kind, strange runes emerging and glimmering in wild patterns that ran along its edge. With a low thrum of stone against stone, it began to open inwards into the dark beyond.

A man bowed towards them. That man had not been there moments before. Garbed in robes with a beard far too long for most, he raised his hands together, fingers pressed together except the middle fingers that folded over the opposing hand. "Go, Seekers. You will surely find, but is it what you wish?"

Garble ignored the man as if he hadn't even heard him. Smolder wasn't as quick to dismiss the sudden human, peering at him but keeping up with Garble.

Spike was the first to approach the stranger. "Hey, uh, who are you?"

"Death, or victory? A new life, perhaps? Many are the things found here, but none leave empty handed."

"Do you have a name?"

The man smiled at Spike. "Reach the tenth floor and I will answer that." And he was gone, blown away as if made of sand, the gust from nowhere carrying the flecks away.

"O… kay." Spike turned in the air, still hovering. "I wasn't the only one to see that, right?"

"We're leaving you behind," called Garble from up ahead. "Catch up, Mister Lord. You're supposed to be in front now, ain'tcha?"

Spike hopped up forward, catching up to them as he entered the tremendous doors and stepped into the massive entryway. Natural light filtered through what appeared to be stained glass windows, and there were columns with ornate bases and capitals, which looked like carvings of guildchain insignias. Spike thought he saw the vitamancer, even, but it was not nearby. Everything was intricate and ornate, nothing looked worn down or old or even heavily used, as this is the room everyone would go into.

Hanging over the door at the far end of this hallway were letters. This door was made of wood, of fine touches and almost delicate compared to the stone face they had just passed. The words read, "Go boldly and claim success. Go meekly and join the rest." They were large enough to read at the distance they were working to close.

Garble hiked a thumb forward at it. "They're warning the weaklings to go home. Anyone having second thoughts?" Surely not him, as he continued forward without pause.

Sandra's eyes wandered from one class insignia to the next, her feet moving on auto pilot as she gaped. "It's... amazing, but it's not all of them." She reached for her chain, holding it up. "Where's this one?" Her newly forged class was not there, at least none of them saw it.

Spike landed briefly on a column, clinging to it. "Found mine. Guess this is a classic." He launched free of it, soaring to just in front of Garble and touching the ground in a speed-waddle. "What I wanna know is who made this place? The same people who made the rest of the tower?"

Smolder lifted her shoulders. "Search me, but it'd make sense, right? Hey, Sandra, who did make this tower?"

"Does it matter?" spat Garble. "It's time to fight. We can chit-chat about that when we're back out." He nudged his head towards the door. "Go on, Spike. Open it."

"Wait, what?" He toddled up to the massive wooden doors. They did not open as automatically as the stone ones had. "These are huge." Still, he put a hand on it and tried pushing, then the other hand came in, grunting and heaving. "Come on, give a... hand."

"Let me show you how it's done." Garble slung his sword and approached in several large strides. He tried to shove the door open, but it did not obey, and soon he was also pushing, grunting and frowning all the more with every attempt.

Smolder hurried up. "Is there a trick to it?" She looked around, trying to spot the secret that would cause it to open.

"I think we just need to do it together." Sandra let out a slow breath as she advanced. "They mentioned something offhand, the... other party. Together." She put her hands on the door. "You too, Smolder."

"Can't hurt." Smolder put both of her hands on the door, not pushing, simply resting her hands on the wood.

A great shudder rumbled through their feet. The doors began to open inward, revealing darkness. In the gloom, red glowing eyes began to open, dozens on dozens of them. It seemed their welcoming party was already assembled, but they did not advance on them.

Garble huffed, smoke escaping. "I loosened it for you."

Sandra took a quivering breath. "Aiden, I think it's time." With a flare of fire, her owl appeared, perching on her shoulder. "I don't think they'll come into the entryway, but the moment we step in..." She didn't finish the thought, but there was hardly any need to.

Spike lifted his shoulders. "So why don't we blast them from here?" He drew his staff from his back just as Garble drew his. "Take this!" Spike's staff glowed faintly, then went out. "Well, that didn't work."

Smolder smirked softly. "Nice try, Spike, but I guess that's cheating. They can't come to us, and we can't pick them off from here." With a twirl of her suddenly drawn knives, she assumed a battle stance. "We fight, right from the start."

"Sounds good." Garble leveled his blade, taking a slow breath. "We take the first step, let loose the first blood," he began to speak melodically, stepping in time with the syllables. "We cave the first skull. Nothing will stop us."

"That doesn't rhyme," noted Spike, but he moved on despite his disapproval. They all did. The door closed with deceptive speed behind them, slamming shut. The great smash of wood against wood seemed to be a signal, because they came. Emerging from the gloom, spiders with fangs of dripping crystal scuttled towards them. The struggle to ascend had properly begun.

Author's Note

The adventure properly begins!

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23 - Going Up

They were rushing from all directions, yet Spike seemed to always be at the front. With staff held firmly in both hands and his eyes set forward determinedly, his force could be felt and seen, glimmering around his teammates in warmth and by his enemies in hostile rebuke.

A spider swarm dove at Garble, his great blade cleaving into them, crushing and breaking them with every word of his song, but there were so many more, pressing and biting. "Dang it," he swore, one getting past his spotty defense, his focus on his attack, but the bite never really hurt.

Instead, a swollen bump appeared on Spike's side in the same place Garble had been bitten. Spike hissed softly, but his grip only tightened on his staff, warm green glow swarming over the spot, trying to heal it even as he kept up the sphere of protection.

"Aiden, show us what you have!" Sandra waved a hand out over the swarming mass. Following her direction, Aiden spread his wings wide and soared at them as silently as owls were known for. As quiet as his wings were, the flames that began to spread out were anything but an angry roar of hungry inferno that consumed the arachnids that had been approaching Sandra.

Smolder slashed with one of her brand new daggers, slashing one between its eyes, it collapsing. The next arachnid was dispatched just as easily, but Smolder snorted as she peered spotted Garble cleaving another three apart with one slash. Daggers were not well suited for hitting groups of enemies at once. She raised her daggers up again. Nothing to do but to slash faster!

Garble slashed through another wave, and they had just a bit of breathing room. But the spiders, despite the fact that they had cleared out what had to be a room full of them, were regrouping and ready to surge. “What gives? Aren’t they supposed to be, like, being beaten?”

They began to surge forward, and Sandra called out, “Aiden! Keep it up!” He flew up close, flapping out a wave of flame to blanket the first wave, who skittered to an end and evaporated as monsters do, but leaving nothing behind. Not even scraps. Sandra tilted her head. Not a single one turned into anything?

“There!” called out Spike, as he pointed his glowing staff. In the gloom there was a single glowing light, apparently on a pole, and notably the spiders avoided it.

Garble nodded, holding up his sword high and behind him, ready to swing. “Let’s get moving then! Rolling Crescent!” He spun himself around, his blade close, then brought it down at the end of the rotation, sending a wave of white energy out in, well, a crescent in front of him, cleaving a huge swath of spiders apart.

The swarm was too much for just his staff. Spike thrust forward an arm and his shield appeared on it without the usual steps of drawing it, just in time to catch the mandibles of a crashing spider and thrust it aside. "Together!"

"They… said…" Sandra directed Aiden with great sweeps of her right hand, guiding his flaming path across the seemingly endless carpet of crystalline spiders. "They said! To… watch for your first… step."

Despite her fatigue, Smolder let out a lone rough laugh. "It's a doozy." She slide forward, slicing open the belly of a spider along the way and dragging its entrails as she bent and twisted it in a bloody display. By the time she sprang up the other end, she tossed it aside to a floating fire that hadn't been there before, cooking the knotted spider offal without missing a beat. "Snack coming up!"

Pressing together, they forced the waves of arachnids back, Spike at the fore. He held his shield high and to the front, projecting an angular plane of force that kept them from swarming from ahead, which left the others to cleave and burn those who came from behind, earning their progress what felt like inch by inch. "Eat this." Smolder shoved her cooked meat into Spike's face, narrowly missing just jamming it into his mouth.

"Not… in the mood. Barely breathing." Spike was panting with effort, sweat coating his scaled body and making his clothing stick awkwardly. "Keep going."

"Eat!" she sternly commanded. "It'll help."

Spike moved up and chomped the morsel of meat, which was still juicy, and chewed it up. It was at that moment that he remembered where it had came from. "I'm eating a… spider…" Part of him wanted to retch it right back up again, but it didn't taste as awful as one might imagine, and the food was working as advertised, chasing away his fatigue.

Smolder took a moment to pat him on the back, smiling but saying nothing, before turning back to slash away on her side, ready to make a few more morsels.

Spike turned his attention forward again, pressing forward slow and steady with his shield. Even with the angle they beat against it, trying to press him back. The spiders didn’t have a sense of self preservation, and somehow they never stopped. But bit by bit they cleft and burned and even munched their way to the light that drove them away, and when they got there, Spike collapsed onto the ground on it.

The ground lurched beneath them, then began to rise towards the ceiling at a smooth but rapid clip, the unyielding stone above coming towards them uncomfortably quickly. "Tell me that's part of the plan," grunted out Garble, edging towards the side, ready to jump free.

Sandra held out her arm and Aiden landed on it without a word of command. "We made it, I think… We beat the first floor." She gestured upward with her free hand as the ceiling began to part, opening for them. "The second's not quite as… intense, if their bragging is anything to go off of, but they get stronger with each floor."

Almost too close to call the ceiling parted and they went straight through a tunnel that seemed to be nearly exactly the size of the pillar they were being lifted on.

“What was going on with those spiders?” Spike sat himself up, breathing heavily. “They were so weak… were they weak like the weakest monsters out there? And they didn’t seem to end...”

“They might literally have no end,” Sandra said. “I think… the magic from the spiders was being reused to make new spiders.”

“Wait it can do that?” Smolder was astonished. “So, sometimes, there might literally be an unlimited amount of monsters that people would have to fight?”

“There was probably some kind of device making them…” Sandra looked down in thought. “Unless the tower is just… like that. The monsters definitely don’t deplete from the wilderness. It usually just takes a bit longer.”

“Scary,” Smolder said, pulling out another bit of spider flesh. “You know, this isn’t bad. Tastes a little like when Fluttershy brought us some of that seafood stuff.”

With that, above them a second ceiling split open and they arrived in a well lit large stone room. This floor had… more than one floor? There were clearly two different staircases up, with gates and large ogre monsters and rooms branching off of the first floor. One of them looked at the party, but seemed uninterested in pursuing, and looked back.

Garble took the first step off the pad. "We're here."

"Wherever here is." Spike hopped off next, shouldering his shield along the way and holding his staff firmly. "Give me a second." With soft words and green magic, he began to banish the hurts he had built along the way. "That stung, just so you know, like… a lot."

"Don't be a pansy." Garble rolled his eyes.

Smolder quirked a brow, but Sandra acted faster, ribbing him just as firmly as Smolder might have normally. "I, for one, am thankful Spike was there. One of those spiders bit me! But I saw Spike taking it instead… Sorry for not getting out of the way, Spike."

Spike waved his staff, creating shadows of the green light. "It's the job I took up… It's kind of… different, being the leader."

Garble frowned at the statement. "You ain't leading me anywhere, shortstack."

“What?” Spike blinked. “That’s my class. Divine Lord. Sandra is a summoner who summons, ”

“Well you aren’t my lord.” Garble poked Spike in his chest. “You aren’t much of a ‘divine’ anything either. You’re just a healer in armor. Better than a healer out of armor, but not my ‘leader’,” he said.

“Woah woah woah woah.” Smolder got in between the two, pushing them away from each other. “Okay, this is not the place for this. Garble--” She turned to him. “Spike definitely took point, and that whole ‘take our hits’ thing was pretty damn good, right?”

Garble grumbled some affirmative noises, and Spike beamed, at least until Sandra turned to him.

“But, Spike, being the healer and in the front line doesn't make you like, ‘the leader’. Any more than Garble was our leader before.” She gestured to her brother. “So we work like we did before, except now you have cool armor and new healing awesomeness, and Garble now smashes instead of takes hits. Easy, right?”

Garble snorted, and Spike looked down, feeling abashed.

“Right, easy. Now let’s figure out this floorrrerr--” Smolder looked at the stairs and multi floor chambers. “Floors. Yeah, that.”

Smolder walked ahead, calling over her shoulder, "Anyone still tired? It probably won't just be a casual walk through this floor either." She waggled a few fingers over the strange scene before them. "I am assuming this all counts as one floor."

"Probably," weakly agreed Sandra, looking uncertain. "Do you know, Aiden?" The owl vanished as a reply, flames fading away from the burst of its leaving. "Guess not... Still, that worked. Aiden's pretty great."

"Speaking of that." Garble slung his sword, peering about for other trouble that wasn't in obvious sight. "You can get more than one of those, right? The guy that taught you had a few."

"Yeah! I... just have to find them and then convince them." Sandra began forward, walking with the others along the stairs. "This place is too quiet compared to the first floor. Infinite spiders to not a thing around at all."

"Spike?"

Spike cocked his head, his gait faltering a moment. "Twilight?"

"It's not a bad time, is it?"

"No! No, I mean, I guess? We're in that tower, uh, floor 2. Fighting for our lives."

"For your lives?!" came her distressed squeak. "Spike, what are you doing?!"

"At the top of this tower is how we get home, unless you found another way?"

Smolder ribbed him lightly. "Hey, Spike. You're talking to yourself. Just FYI."

"I haven't," admitted Twilight in a sad defeated tone. "I'm still looking! Spike, please, don't get hurt..."

Spike thought back to the injuries he had banished just moments ago. "I'll... do my best..." He held up a claw towards Smolder. "I'll be with you in a second."

Smolder hiked a brow, moving to be next to Sandra instead. "Huh, must be an important call..."

"Most communication magic doesn't work well through the walls of the tower," noted Sandra, peering skeptically to the side at Spike as he talked. "Who is he talking to?"

Garble rolled his shoulders as he hiked a thumb ahead. "Door coming up."

There was a door, deceptively small compared to the great multi-floored complex they had been traversing. "Think there are monsters behind it?"

Smolder's brows fell in a furrow. "Or some kind of trap, or a puzzle to even get it open..."

"You're much clearer," noted Twilight, sounding a bit happier. "This tower has fascinating properties. If I was there, with you..."

"That would be bad," completed Spike. "Equestria needs you."

Her groan was deep and suffering. "It's not fair. You're in danger and I have to... just hope."

"Don't hope, believe in me, in us. We'll get through this." He put a hand on his chest as he spoke those words, a little smile on his face.

"Be careful." Her voice faded out, the conversation ending for the moment.

Author's Note

Welcome to Floor 2! Now with less spiders!

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24 - Floor 2

Smolder wandered towards the edge of the hallay, peering down and over the side. "This isn't the only way, not by far."

Garble shrugged towards the large door. "But it is the way in front of us, so are we going or not?"

Spike strode to the fore and placed a hand on the door. "Open?"

As it turned out, the door did as asked, swinging inwards with nary a sound to its silky parting of its two sides. Beyond it was a room with a great network of channels that glowed in various colors. Spike clapped his hands together almost instantly. "Sweet, a riddle."

Sandra blinked softly. "While I think I agree, how did you figure that out so quickly?"

Smolder smirked softly. "Spike loves a good brain teaser. I blame his pony sister." She moved to nudge him good-naturedly. "You already solve it?"

"Oh, no… So that goes…" He began tracing through the air where one color met the next, what they became and broke out into, trying to discern the pattern. "I wouldn't try to cross until we figure it out though."

Garble snorted and put his sword back in the sheath, slinging it over his shoulder. “Great, just some more waiting.”

Sandra wandered over towards where Smolder had been peering. "You know... I'm not sure we can solve this one just waiting for Spike."

"Finally." Garble threw a hand up with sour relief. "Someone gets it. Waiting all day sounds boring."

"I meant that I think we have to do more than one track to finish it." She pointed down to another level they could see. "And not one by one."

Smolder hiked a brow. "Seriously? Puzzles for everyone? Fine." Her wings unfurled wide. "Need a ride?"

Garble snorted a gust of billowing smoke. "This is like the opposite of… Whatever." He suddenly grabbed Sandra by the scruff of her shirt. "You're with me."

"Wait wha--" Off the edge they went, rising up to another floor of the multi-level puzzle corridor they had started.

Smolder blinked at the space that once held her brother. "Subtle, bro."

"Wha?" Spike was already proceeding into the room, deflecting a beam with his shield. "Where'd everyone else go?"

"Doing their own puzzles. I better get going too. Meet you at the end, alright?"

“Um--” Spike began, but Smolder was already leaving. “... Okay.” He turned his attention back to the puzzle and it’s channels of color. He mentally traced the colors. There were a variety of colored nodes with colors coming from them, so maybe the ones of the same color needed to be connected… It looked like the red ones all had handholds, but without figuring it out Spike didn’t want to touch them. Haphazard movements could make it harder.

But just as he was thinking about it, the static looking connections started shifting. “What?!” Spike said aloud. “Why is it changi--” Oh. His claw hit his face.

His party members were shifting things in their places. Spike snorted. Well so much for not haphazardly shifting the connections, he thought, and began rotating one of the nodes he could.

It was maddening as he rotated, he’d rotate something to a place he thought would work, only for the other nodes to rotate on their own. He snarled. “Hey! I’m tryin to work here!” But there was no response. They could not hear him. He went back to trying to figure it out, the chaotic mess of nodes and channels shifting.

It felt less like puzzle solving and more like trying stuff at random.

Then he saw it! The chance to connect two nodes at the edges. It had been left out. He quickly rotated his red node and connected a series. The nodes glowed brightly, brighter and brighter, until with a noise like spak all the nodes burst, their lights going out.

“Was that… what was supposed to happen?” Spike wondered aloud, and he heard some grinding, as a hole appeared in the ceiling, depositing a hunched over bipedal beast with large claws, who roared and charged at Spike.

The magic shield went up almost as an instinct, the clawed monster bouncing off, and Spike cursed his luck. The monster clawed at the shield, cracks appearing where it clawed. It would make it through in time.

Spike grit his teeth. How was he supposed to deal with a monster like this? His class was a protector! A supporter! It wasn’t intended to be used solo like this.

Probably.

Unlike his other party members, he hadn’t seen anyone with his actual class. No mentor or anything.

And he was now wearing heavy armor, and while he chose a staff with the shield and damage sharing spells… he didn’t have only one staff. He suddenly remembered the last time he was alone with a great beast. "I haven't lost it…" He leaped into the air, wings carrying him over the reaching claws as he grabbed for his staff, his metal shield vanishing in the act. "I just got better."

The monster's eyes shone with deadly intent, but soon something far more pressing, beams of energy lancing out and crashing into Spike's magic bubble. He squeaked and dodged to the left, allowing it to pass and dig into the ceiling behind him. "Alright, you have some ranged moves, good, wouldn't want it to be… boring, right?"

He thrust his staff at it, not the gentle waving bobbing of healing motions but a violent invocation, strange words coming with it as he marshalled the life magic he had learned and hurled it in a tight ball, smashing into the thing's snout with a faint trickle of blood.

It roared in fury at being hurt as if insulted by the very idea. Grabbing the wall, it scrambled up towards Spike, eyes flaring with fresh beams of death, sending the dragon swirling and bobbing out of the way.

And just as Spike was focusing on dodging, it leapt in, closing the gap effortlessly, catching a glancing blow at Spike’s armor, knocking him back. Spike scrambled to get back on his feet as the clawed beast pressed at him, and he swung his staff at the monster to bat it away. The hit rang true, but it did very little but knock the beast back a bit.

But Spike felt a tickle when he did it. A little tickle he was familiar with now of magic trying to be drawn. It wanted to be drawn. When the monster bore down on him, he swung it again, pressing all the magic he could at it, and instead of a small thwack like before, a big magic aura, looking very much like the shield he could summon appeared and smashed into the monster.

The blow sent it flying back several feet and tumbling to the ground, surprised at the force suddenly brought against it. "I am the divine lord," growled Spike as he scrambled to his feet. "Come get some." Sure he didn't feel nearly as brave as his words, but he gave himself a few points for coming up with the line in the heat of the moment.

He was a front line combatant, he silently reminded himself. Fighting things head on was what he could do, whether to keep them away from his friends, or tangle with them himself. "You can do this," he whispered, clenching his staff firmly. "Let's do this."

The creature rolled up to its feet, drool and blood dripping from it’s face, and it bellowed, digging furrows with its claws as it charged.

“What is taking you so long?!” Garble shouted, sitting up from his chosen post laying down on the ground. “Didn’t you make progress or something?”

“I dunno…” Sandra said, looking at the board. “The red ones went out, which I think was right, but then the red nodes stopped moving. They need to be twisted if I’m gonna connect my green ones.”

Garble just groaned and went back to lay down.

The beast’s eyes glowed and it shot its lasers at Spike, and followed up with a charge. Spike half dodged the lasers and brought his staff down onto the monster, being rewarded with his own glancing blow as the magic scraped across the monster’s arm.

The monster was unabated as it pressed forward, slashing ferociously at Spike, digging deep into Spike’s arm, causing him to cry out, but Spike also smashed his staff into the beast’s side, the bright golden runes and magic slamming it away in a skidding sort of scramble, not quite knocking it off its feet.

As it recovered, Spike immediately pointed the staff out and shouted the words, firing the somewhat small burst of vitaemancer blast at it, which hit the monster square between the eyes, sprawling it back on it’s back.

It didn’t get back up.

Spike breathed a sigh of relief, the stinging in his arm hurting, but at least the fight was over. As he cast the heal spell on himself, he opened up his guildchain, looking at his class and its abilities. Right underneath his other new spells, Pain Funnel and Divine Shield, was his third new ability, Smite. Spike smiled to himself, and looked back at the puzzle screen, the other green and blue nodes were still moving on their own, and Spike came back over to help them solve the puzzle.

Smolder threw a dagger sharply. It slammed into the side of one of the nodes and turned it to the right until it clicked. "I got this." She twirled and flung a second, manipulating the workings of the room without moving. "Spike thinks he's the pro at this." She smirked with growing confidence. "But this is a friendship puzzle and I bet he doesn't even realize it."

She could see the other colors of the other rooms moving around and simply focused on them, trying her best to support them towards solutions. "I bet mine will be easy to fix once they're through." There was a chance hers would automatically end at that point. It was a wager she was willing to bet on.

Sandra reached out an arm, Aiden appearing without being vocally called. "You're getting better at knowing when I want you." The owl tilted his head at her silently. "Get that node over there just as I turn this one." She pointed over to the thing that looked almost like a spigot.

Aiden lifted and flew with only noise when he flapped to a stop, landing on the spigot, eyes on Sandra. When she gave a heaving turn, Aiden turned the same way with a flurry of flaps and flaming feathers, the two grinding them to the next position. The colors changed dramatically and their line reached the other side of the room. "Score!"

"That mean you got it?" asked Garble, not even watching them. "'Bout time."

Aiden flew back to Sandra, perching lightly on her head. Fortunately, he had almost no weight when he didn't want to, and she accepted her strange new hat. "The door's opening." She pointed the way. "Thanks for the help."

"When you have something that needs hitting, I'll be there." He flexed his right arm as he began to stalk forward. "Maybe there'll be something worth the trouble after this."

They walked through the doorway, and descended a flight of stairs to exit where they saw Smolder and Spike both coming out of two other doorways, from the middle and bottom respectively. “Oh good, we’re back together,” said Sandra.

“Yeah, it was surprising when they dropped those beasts on us, having to handle them alone.” Spike hiked a thumb back at where his battle took place.

Sandra blinked. “Beasts? We didn’t have to fight any beasts.”

“You mean get to fight any beasts,” Garble said. “That woulda been way better than watching you mess with a panel for like an hour.”

Smolder rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t that long, Gar Gar.”

“My boredom thought it was that long,” Garble said, walking ahead to the door all of their passages led to. “Hopefully the runt didn’t take all the fun.”

“We’re in a dungeon full of monsters, Garble.” Smolder rolled her eyes. “There will be more fights.”

Garble pushed open the door, his face lighting up. “Well maybe this wasn’t a waste after all.”

Author's Note

Another floor down? Or is it. What did Garble see?

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25 - Chest Open

Garble stood before the somewhat small room, more of a nook, but inside the room there was a treasure chest. But it was not any ordinary treasure chest. Most chests were some kind of wood, or at best some dull metal, but this chest was gilded. It shone with gold, scrawlings on the sides, embedded gems, the works.

And most chests had a potion, or some dull chainmail in them. But if the chests of those niceness…

Garble dashed over to it, practically hugging the chest. “Look at this beauty. Ohohohoh what do you think is in it? A bunch of gems? Gold? Some amazing massive item! Oh it’s gonna be great.” He grabbed the top of the chest, trying to push it open, only for it not to budge.

As Garble continued to try to pry open the uncooperative box, Smolder snickered. “We’ve found Garble’s other secret love, treasure.”

“Hey! Less yapping more helping me open this chest.” Garble said, from atop it, trying to pry it open.

“Hang on, stop,” Sandra said. “I think I know what this is.”

Garble did not stop, but as he pulled on the top of the chest he managed, “Great, so--” he grunted as he tried to yank the top up again “--what is it?”

Sandra sighed. “We won’t be able to open it with you on top of it.”

Frowning, Garble climbed off the top of it. “Fine, great. Tell me how to open it so I can get what’s inside, then.”

“The chest collects magic, as long as it’s closed.” She walked over to the chest. “Nothing is in it, technically, until it’s opened, and to open it--” she pointed at a small round dent in the middle “-- You put a guildchain and it makes an item aligned with the class you are.”

Spike's brows rose together. "Huh, so we should really think about who gets this."

Even as he said it, Garble was already shoving his guild chain against it, grinning widely with expectation. "C'mon, nothing lame!"

The chest began to rattle and quake, bits of light escaping from the seam of where the top met the bottom. It began to crack open, the light becoming blindingly brilliant. "It's making the item," shouted Sandra, not that the opening was actually very loud.

Smolder shoved Garble from the side, almost knocking him over. "Doofus! We're a team."

"Yeah, so? I'll smash things better and that'll help 'the team'." He made airquotes as he spoke, rolling his eyes. "Now what do we get?" He tromped towards the fading glow of the chest, leaning over the side to see what was lurking within.

As he saw them, his facial expression fell. “Aw what?” Reaching inside, he pulled out what looked like a pair of ornate gloves. “Gloves? Why couldn’t it be a cool sword or something?” He flipped the gloves over. “They don’t even have like, things over the claws.” They did indeed look more like bracers over the forearms, with a strap that went around the palm to hold an armored part over the back of the hand.

“Maybe that’s better?” Sandra looked down at them. “I mean, it won’t interfere with you grabbing your sword, or using your claws if you want to.”

Garble pursed his lips. “I guess.” He removed the current leather gloves he had on and put on the new gloves. They did… feel good. And the style was definitely nicer. Not rough leather, but fine metal and smooth fabric. And they were orange (and white), which was a great color. He knew because he was it.

Maybe he should replace all of his breastplate and leather gear with stuff like this…

He shook his head, and opened up his guildchain, seeing if anything was new.

The chain dutifully reported the presence of a new skill, but its name was obfuscated. Spike was flying just over his shoulder, peering at it. "Guess you have to unlock it--"

"What the?!" Garble brought up a hand, brushing Spike away. "Warn a fella before you go getting pushy. Alright, so it looks decent, and it does… something." He turned to Sandra directly. "You know how this stuff works. How do I make it do its thing."

"Fight with it, should come out on its own eventually." She lifted her shoulders.

"Sounds right." Spike nodded in easy agreement. "Even works for classes. Well, that's it for the chest, we should move on." He pointed to the door on the other side of the small room that held the chest.

Smolder snorted softly, smoke escaping. "Next one is not Garble's. You got that, Bro? Hopefully after this we get some stairs or one of those platforms." She was quickly proven correct, a spiral staircase ascending upwards through the ceiling, promising the next floor of dangers. "See, this isn't so bad. We have this."

The four of them followed the path that seemed opened to them, ascending the stairs as they wound round and round. "Hey." Garble rolled his shoulders as he climbed. "Other people go up this thing, right?"

"Yes." Sandra nodded softly. "Why?"

"So where are they?" He shrugged, looking out over the view of the floor as they went around. "Do you run into them sometimes?"

"This is my first time here," she admitted. "But I've heard you can, yes. It's just not nearly as common as you'd think."

"It's like The Eternal Maze!" piped in Spike with a big smile. "Everyone gets their own path, unless the maze itself decides to bring you together. I loved that comic."

Smolder twirled her dagger in the air, casually tossing it as she went around and around. "Show it to me, once we get back."

"You read comics?" Garble looked over his shoulder back at his sister.

"Yeah, and?"

"Nothin'..." He went quiet for a time, until the sound of his sword being drawn was heard. The others rushed up ahead to see him facing what appeared to be a housecat, though this cat had wings.

"You've made it this far," they could all hear, but the mouth of the cat was busy licking its paw, the voice not seeming to come from it, more like behind it. "Be proud. To die on the next floor is a distinct honor that few others can claim.

Sandra set her hands on her hips, frowning at the feline. "Thanks, but no. We'll be going right past it. We didn't pass the first two to bite it on the third. We have... uh..." She looked upwards, though there was no hint there of how tall the tower was. "A lot more to go after that."

Garble huffed as he turned to Spike. "Is this what you were talking to before?"

"Huh? Oh!" He shook a hand quickly. "Nuh uh. That was a human. You didn't see him?"

Garble hiked a brow. "Whatever... Hey, cat. We're walking past you now. You got a problem with that?"

The cat watched them, speaking no further, not that it had really spoken to begin with. Garble kept his blade out, but walked past the feline. He took a hand off the hilt to touch the door beyond the cat. When it didn't open, he looked back to the others.

Soon they were all next to him, joining their hands on the door. When the last hand touched it, it opened slowly. "Do groups always come in fours or what?"

Sandra shook her head. "But the tower seems to know what you came with. If you were crazy enough to come alone, it'd work for just you, I think. Aiden--" The bird appeared on her shoulder. "--I think it'll be time to get to work soon."

Beyond the door was brilliant light. A cloud-specked sunny day greeted them with wild cheering. They were stepping out into what seemed to be a vast arena. Those cheering were far from human, instead monsters of all sorts, including a section of the spiders they had crashed through on the first floor, waving their sharp legs wildly.

Sandra took a sharp hiss of a breath. "Oh, great, an arena level."

Smolder nodded softly. "Sure looks like one, but you sound like you know what that means. What should we expect?"

Sandra drew her staff and clutched it firmly. "Expect fights. We win against enough waves, they let us past. On the positive side, you get rewarded if you do well, and look good doing it. On the negative, no breaks, no pauses. Once it starts, you're in it until you win, or get beaten up and possibly killed. No pressure."

"Beat things up and look good doing it?" Garble tossed his blade from hand to hand as a smile grew on his face. "I'm liking this floor way better than the last one.

"Arriving from the north side," boomed an announcer excitedly. "A most unusual party. With three dragons and a human, it may be time to really turn up the heat on the competition!" The crowd was going nuts, hooting and crying in their monstrous ways. "We'll be sure to put them through the paces."

Smolder flipped her knives in her hands, assuming a battle stance. "The way I see it, last floor was the break. It's time to get back into things."

"That's my sister," reported Garble proudly, a smirk on his face. "We'll pound them all. Spike, you keep them from returning the favor. Sandra, keep them from bunching up on us."

Spike blinked softly. "When did you learn tactics?" he said quietly, not actually arguing with Garble. Those were their positions. "Smolder, strange as it is, you'll help us keep going strong, right?"

"As if you had to ask." She twirled her right dagger in place. "We're going to cook the competition, figuratively, then literally, and possibly back and forth a little depending on how I'm feeling."

"On the south side, we begin with a warmup. They're small, they're cute, they just want a really big hug. Bring your forelimbs together for the grass oozes!" Great gates opened wide, though the oozes began popping through before they even finished. It seemed like an entire field of bouncing little oozes, moving towards the party in a great stampede of squishy bodies.

Smolder pointed one of her daggers up at Aiden. "Time for your firebird to really show his stuff."

"Right." She threw her hand forward and Aiden took flight without further prompting. "If they're as strong as the goops we started with, this wave shouldn't be hard, but there will be more after it, I promise."

Aiden flew just over the wave, flames dropping from its wings to either side in a great V shape that began to cook and boil the slimes along the way. Roughly half of them began to melt in place, their numbers greatly dwindled by the elemental bird's attack, but their great speed allowed them to close in on the party and the battle began properly.

Spike caught one on his shield and thrust it forward, sending the ooze crashing into several of its compatriots to bound wildly just in time for Garble's sword to come down, smashing the group into paste. Smolder was dancing from ooze to ooze, appearing wherever one appeared to not be looking to plunge her knife deep into its gooey body. "I wonder what I could make with this..."

She hefted one up, impaled on her knife, and slammed it down into a pot that hadn't been there a moment before, starting to prepare something in the middle of the fight.

"What is this? A break time? A bold move from the party," shouted the announcer, as excited as ever, the crowd cheering the ridiculous move on wildly.

Sandra jinked and bobbed, trying her best to be out of the way of the oncoming bouncing enemies, her bird setting groups of them ablaze at the direction of her sweeping hand motions, as if she were the conductor of the symphony of fire.

"It didn't save the last party that tried that, but maybe this one will be luckier."

Author's Note

Smolder is not the first to walk the tower's depths with battle cooking skills. Did you think we'd get more of a break with the chest opening?

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26 - Bouncing Back

"They weren't us." Smoulder tossed the entire pot towards Spike, though its contents seemed to cool even as it twirled, detaching from the inside and becoming a molded jello despite the lack of a mold.

Spike caught the wriggling treat, the pot fading back to Smolder's ready hand in the same instant. "Right, eat it," he replied to the order that hadn't even been said yet. With a great chomp, he discovered it was just as gelatinous as it appeared, but also tasted strongly of tart lime. He slurped the rest of it down, wiping his face clean. "Alright, what does that… do?" He noticed his arm had stretched far past where he had intended it. "Woah."

Smolder gestured at him, although not too closely, with her knife. “It won’t last very long, so get to work.”

Garble came down with both hands, splattering the last of their gelatin-based foes just at the crescendo of his song. "Don't get too happy, the next wave's already coming."

Just as he had said, the gates leading elsewhere were open wide, allowing hulking golems of crystal and stone to lurch onto the field. The announcer was all too happy to describe them, "The mashers of dreams, the illuminators of weakness. Put them together for the Crystal Crushers!" The crowd shook the arena with stomping and clapping, calling for the spilled blood of everything involved in the fight.

Their enemies were far fewer but with each shuddering step they took, Sandra felt certain they were more powerful. Her area-affect spirit felt worthless in that moment. "How are you so unflappable?" she whispered towards Smolder, watching Spike charge forward with strangely bouncing steps. "You just got this job and you look like a pro."

"I have no clue what I'm doing," rapidly confessed the she-dragon. "I am terrified, but there's no time for that. We fight, or we get squished. I can finish being scared after we get out of here." She turned her cooking knife on Sasha. "Say, are these things spirits?"

She threw her hands wide just as Spike caught the bone-smashing swing of one against his shield, but his bones refused to be smashed, instead sending him flying backwards several feet to bounce forward with a mighty cry. "They're awful solid if they are spirits."

"Your owl seems pretty solid when he's here." She turned the knife upwards towards Aiden. "Maybe you could get a big solid buddy? It'd also mean one less crusher trying to crush us."

"If... they qualify, they'd be earth, right? What else would they be?" She took a slow breath, shuddering as it was with fright. "Just an earth spirit..." She tried to reach into that mental space she accessed once before, when she was searching for Aiden. "Don't you want to be friends, see more than just this arena? It'll be fun."

A massive stone slab with crystals jutting out of it, sharp and deadly, slammed down just next to Sandra as it howled at her with obvious fury, its other hand rearing back with obvious ill intent.

"I think it might be working," stage whispered Smolder before dashing out of the way, in case she was wrong.

"Working..." Her eyes darted to where Spike and Garble clashed against a golem, driving chips of it free in teamwork, even if mostly involved Garble attacking it while Spike kept its attention. It was working; unlike her... "Hello, earth spirit. Don't be angry." Aiden suddenly vanished in a flare of fire. A good sign, or a bad one, Sandra wasn't sure. "I'll show you new places."

The golem before her howled with what seemed to be unchecked fury, its fist coming down towards her, ready to splatter her broken body across the sands of the arena floor. In that instant of impending death, her life flashed before her eyes. Wait, no, that wasn't her life. She could see a dozen presences inside the golem, and one of them, just one, wasn't screaming with fury. One of them was watching her with naked curiosity, perhaps attracted by her offer. Just one out of so many.

Feeling strangely calm, she reached for it with her mind, her hand raising to grasp at nothing. The presence timidly stepped out of formation with the others, trying to reach her.

The whole thing came apart. The titanic hand broke free and hit the sand just behind her, knocking her forward to the ground, but not empty-handed. She was hugging something close. It was hard and jagged, but it was hers. "We'll take care of each other, right?"

"See new things," agreed the crystalline earth elemental she was holding. The golem it came from as re-assembling itself, creating new order from the spirits still locked inside itself. The elemental sounded like a curious little boy. "You'll keep me safe?"

"You have to return the favor." She scrambled to her feet, carrying the heavy stone companion with her. "Your old friends are angry."

"Not friends." The earth elemental jumped to the ground, flashing with a burst of light as it grew new arms and legs. It became a new elemental, just as craggy and crystalline all in one. It wasn't nearly as large as the one it came from, but appeared just as solid. The time for words was over as it surged forward.

"What is this?" excitedly spoke the announcer. "They've taken some of the enemy over to their side. Is that cheating?" The sound of rustling paper was heard as if the unseen announcer was checking the rules. "Mmm, nope. A valid play. What an upset!"

Cheers and jeers were in almost equal abundance as the crowd reacted powerfully to the team's new member entering a melee brawl with the same creature it had been pulled out of. Garble came down on the larger one's back, driving his sword into its stony flesh. "No idea what you just did, but keep doing that." He wrenched his blade free of the tough stone and jumped free just as a hand came seeking where he had been. "We got this under control."

"Snacks up!" Smolder tossed rock candy to each of the living members of her party, created quickly from the very golems they were fighting. "We'll get out of here, and they'll regret fighting dragons." She snapped the fingers of her right hand. "Or their human friend."

Spike thrust his staff forward, white magic smashing into an already dizzy golem and knocking it to its knee before it crumbled the rest of the way, falling into heavy chunks of stone and gems. "These things look, oh hey!" He grabbed the rock candy from the air and smashed into it with his teeth, grinding it up as if it were chewing gum. "Mmm, they taste just as good as they look."

The flow of battle had changed in their favor and they reduced the golems to bits of rubble and sweet candy.

The next set of monsters, furry almost-demi-humans with great claws and slavering teeth, were fierce with good teamwork and a taste for flesh, but they were not the only hungry ones in the field. Smolder plunged her dagger into the back of one that was trying to get its teeth into Spike. "Time to see what you taste like." Smolder drew her knife to the side in a cruel swipe, turning the wound from terrible to lethal before grabbing the beast by the scruff and pile driving them into a cauldron that hadn't been there a moment before.

Neither their claws or teeth could do much against their new golem friend, desperately scratching at it as it pounded them into the sand one by one.

"It seems the challengers have this well and under control, and we can't have that. Perhaps it's time we jump straight to the final round!" The crowd cheered its approval of the idea. "The only thing worse than one adventuring team, is two!" Rising from the floor, a set of six people came into view, blinking in the harsh light of the arena. "Only one of them will be getting higher in the tower. The other's going straight down!"

Spike blinked at the other team, comprised of humans, not monsters or even demi-humans. "Uh, are we... supposed to fight them? They have guild chains."

Sandra grit her teeth powerfully as her hands flexed. "It doesn't happen all the time, but you can run into other groups, and here they are. You heard the announcer, only one team gets to go forward."

Garble swung his blade, blood driven free of it with the rushing wind. "So we pound them like everything else, got it."

Smolder stirred her great pot, sticking a finger in to test her creation. "Mmm, almost done. Look, the way I see it, they're probably huge racist jerks that think we're easy targets. Let's stomp them and show them how wrong they are. Six of them, bet they think they have the advantage."

One of the humans, dressed in gleaming metal with a big phoenix-like bird heraldry on his chest plate, stepped forward. "We have been instructed to fight. We will not be turned back here, so be ready."

"I'll show them ready," sneered a male magician, lightning gathering between two hands in crackling fury. Without missing a beat, he thrust them out, a crackle of lightning striking Garble across the chest, blowing him back.

“Damnit, I wasn’t ready,” complained one of the people from the side, a somewhat older man wearing worryingly low amounts of armor, or clothes for that matter, who was looping a strap from a club onto his hand clumsily, as his other hand already had a club in it.

Garble pulled himself up to his feet, only to find the phoenix-clad man already swinging his sword. Garble pulled his sword just in time for the two to clash with a ring of steel, the battle began in earnest.

Sandra pointed forward, her new golem lumbering forward. It was struck by a bolt of lightning, which left a small scorch mark, but didn’t seem to usefully stop it. Sandra grinned. “Go! Get the wizard!” It swung its arm forward, not claiming any hits but driving back the wizard a little.

The wizard leaned over, and pointed at Spike, who had engaged the mostly naked man with clubs. An arc of lightning shot from his fingers, arcing directly back to the craggy lightning monster, creating another smudge of smoke, but nothing else.

Sandra watched as the lightning wizard struggled to get around the lightning-attracting-and-immune summoned monster, and she wondered if he bought the lightning element caster class. Could this have been her, she thought. Uselessly trying to throw fireballs at some fireball immune monster? A bit of pride in her own decision swelled inside her. She did a good thing.

She folded her arms, watching her summon distract the monster, and even the man in the shining armor start to try to chip away at her monster. She thought, he didn’t have a name, did he? She would need to give him a name.

And at that moment, she saw a tiny curl of smoke, curling around her. She wheeled around, finding a somewhat short masked woman with two daggers, crouched at her. Sandra backed up and cried out, or she would have cried out, only the sound of her crying out was more of a muted dull noise.

Ignorant of the clash, Smolder suddenly kicked her cauldron over towards one of them that thought she was an available target. "You're not invited!" A loud scream was the reply as scalding hot fluid poured over them even as it gathered into portions for her team. "Get your own food." She licked over her lips with a cruel smile, perhaps wondering at the taste of her latest victim.

The assassin’s eyes smiled with mischief, surging forward towards Sandra with their daggers gleaming in the light, the crowd roaring with approval at the violence soon to come.

Author's Note

We leave on a razor's edge, literally. We took a break last week, forgive us, but we come back right into the action!

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27 - Who Is a Monster?

The assailant spun as she darted at Sandra, her daggers glowing as she twirled. Sandra brought her arms up close to her, cringing away from the spinning slash. The dagger bit into her side and Sandra cried out silently in pain. She twisted away further, tripping over herself.

She landed with a rough crash on the ground, the collision causing another lance of pain from her side, as well as her arms. Her party! She had to get to her party. She turned, trying to pull herself up, looking toward the sounds of combat behind her, and her heart fell. The crowd was wild with excitement, savoring the battle between two hated foes. Whoever lost, they would win in the end.

Between herself and the chaotic sounds of combat stood the assassin who turned around as she flipped a dagger, her hip cocked. She snapped the dagger out of the air, pointing it at Sandra with obvious malice in her eyes.

Sandra stared at it, unable to breathe. At least, until the assassin came for her, when she found herself scrambling backward without even thinking, trying to create distance. Not enough distance, though, and the assassin's sudden slice nicked her leg in a shallow cut. A second set of slashes hit her legs, the blow landing true and cutting deep. It was as if the assassin were toying with her prey, hobbling her intentionally.

She knew she had to do something. She still had spells! She propped herself up with one arm, the other pointing her staff, and she silently summoned her spell, her raging fireball.

The assassin’s eyes widened as the tip of Sandra's staff started glowing, and she darted to the side… only for a rather small fireball to go very wide. She assassin watched it fly past her, looking back, her eyes half lidded, before that sparkle of amusement came back.

Sandra stared down at her staff. ‘Did she not have access to her best fire spells anymore?’ she thought. When the assassin stepped forward again, though, Sandra squinted her eyes and gathered her will into a fresh fireball, just for the assassin to sidestep in a lackadaisy way, a smug smile on their face.

Sandra fired a third time, trying to scramble to her feet, only as soon as she tried to pull herself up her legs surged in pain, and she collapsed back onto her rear end with a pained but silent grunt. The assassin looked like she was ready to quit playing around, brandishing her daggers with deadly purpose. The crowd whooped and celebrated Sandra's fall and the successful play of the assassin. Their words were lost, but their pounding excitement was impossible to miss.

Sandra cringed away, squeezing her eyes as the assassin raised her daggers, only to see just a crack of gold light from behind them, and her eyes snapped open to see the aftermath of some kind of magic attack, with the assassin being knocked off to the side apparently by Spike’s glowing staff.

"Seems the challengers are even tougher than we gave them credit for. What teamwork, what spirit! It almost makes you root for them." There was a noise of paper shuffling. "Oh, reading the wrong cards. A stunning save turns things around. Can anything stop these lunatics from rising to the top?!"

Spike looked down at Sandra, taking a moment to pose. He had the perfect line, too, and opened his mouth. But no sound came out. He tried again, with no avail. He pursed his lips, his perfect moment ruined. He still held out his staff though, and green light rained down from his staff onto Sandra, healing her wounds, at least enough that the pulsing pain went away and the blood stopped escaping her.

Sandra smiled, and Spike returned the gesture, only for his eyes to widen and he leapt away from the assassin slashing at his side. He grit his teeth and swung his glowing staff, it pulsed with gold runes as it arced through the air. He didn’t land the hit, but the momentary lull was enough to give Sandra time to scramble to her feet as Spike and the Assassin traded ineffective blows.

Sandra took a deep breath as she watched Spike fight, nobody bearing down on her or menacing her anymore. Glancing over, she could see her golem had not gone dormant during her silence. It was locked in combat with the stoutly armored knight of the enemy group, neither side accepting defeat as stone and metal clashed with faint sparks and ringing steel. It was all very interesting, but she quickly discarded it in favor of returning her attention to the assassin Spike was tangling with.

"That summoner looks stumped. Will their friend carry the day for her?" Sandra burned at the announcer's words, trying to get herself back into things. She had to help!

Her fireball had gone wide, but that wasn't… That unusual for her. So her aim stank, but she could… maybe? She tried to call on her connection with fire, but it felt sluggish and distant, as if she was trying to manipulate it with great mittens on. That was not the summoner's way, until it was. Bursting free of her flexing hands, Aiden appeared brilliantly, exploding in a flash of heat and light and fading just as quickly, as if the firebird had been a spell instead of a discrete creature.

The blast of the spell, silent but real, spread outwards from her, hurtling towards both assassin and noble dragon lord. Spike turned around just in time to see the wave of flame washing toward him, and the assassin noticed too, but only one of them panicked. The assassin twisted away, putting her hands together and beginning to emit smoke around her.

Spike, however, didn’t hesitate, and before she was consumed by smoke, he smacked her with his staff again, and the smoke immediately dissipated. The flames washed over the two of them, the assassin letting out a shriek as the flames knocked her off of her feet. Spike was, as expected, unaffected, and he brought his staff down onto her again.

He stood over her, brandishing his staff, ready for her to rise again, but when a moment passed and she did not, he turned back and give a smiling thumbs up to Sandra. "We did it!" he announced. "And we can talk again!"

Sandra nodded, but looked over to the rest of the fight, which was still going. “Should we…”

Spike matched Sandra's view and saw Smolder and Garble were back to back, with what seemed like the last three of the enemy team pressing in. Without hesitation, he began running towards them, staff clenched firmly in hand.

Garble bashed an incoming sword aside. "Last chance, no dance." He ducked at the last word and a dagger flew through the space where his back had just been, Smolder hurling it over him as if the two were in sync. The knight staggered back, the sharp weapon piercing through his stout, but stout enough, armor and embedded in his chest.

An arrow thunked into her side before she could savor the moment. "Gargar!" A line of red ran down her scales, but she resisted doing much with the wound, one other melee combatant still menacing her. "I'll cook up this one."

"On it." He slid in a turn towards the archer that had kept some distance. "You've been harassing us all fight. Time to say good night!"

"This is coming to a stunning finish. Plucky upstarts or crazed monsters? Only time could tell. Outnumbered and outranked, they're cleaning shop! What brutality!"

Sandra peered in the vague direction of the announcer, only to realize she was still standing over the bleeding form of the assassin. "Was this to the death?" she asked no one, the others far away from her.

Smolder deflected the short sword of her foe with the only dagger she had left. Pity he had two of the dang blades and wasn't shy about pressing in, creating opportunities with every parry Smolder made to swing where she had no metal of her own to protect herself. She was being forced back step by step. Glancing towards Garble showed him chasing after the archer, shouting and fuming.

That arrow in her side was slowing her down. She was still bleeding. There was no time to prepare a snack. There was barely time to keep herself from being carved up instead.

Her attacker suddenly rolled to the side and a glowing staff came down where he had been. Spike was there, already bringing the staff up and around towards the swordsman. "Get away!" he shouted, bright golden magic lancing from the end of his staff. The human brought his blades up in an x formation to catch it and avoided being directly smashed, but the force of it wasn't lost, sending him back several feet and crashing to his back on the ground.

"Good…" The remaining words didn't get out as she staggered forward. She tried to say something, anything, but everything was spinning. She hit the sand heavily, unmoving.

"The challengers aren't going down without taking at least one with them," boomed the announcer excitedly. The crowd was eager to join in his excitement, savoring in the fall of one of the team.

It was at that moment that Sandra thought to see where her golem was, but it was nowhere in sight. What had happened to it? Had her spell dismissed it? More likely, she quickly reasoned, her inexperience had. "Stop him!" She pointed at the standing swordman meaningfully, and the rocks understood that meaning.

The ground behind him surged upwards, taking the form of a short, squat, elemental made of gems and stone. It swung a heavy fist even as the swordsman dodged and fought with Spike. He didn't even get to know what hit him as the golem smashed him forward into the ground. "Spike! Help Smolder!" Sandra was pointing desperately at the fallen dragon.

"Smolder?" Garble craned his head away from the desperately fleeing archer to see Smolder's still form. "Sis! You bastard!" He launched himself forward with a surge of angry energy. "Hurry up and die." Flames erupted from his mouth in concert with the word, washing over the human. With a grunt, the archer raised his bow as if for a final shot, but the rope broke as he drew it, burnt along with the bow.

Garble landed on him and began beating him with his fists. There was no swordplay or poetry to the pummeling, just unintelligible shouting and the uneven tempo of his fists mashing into the form of what had been his combatant.

"What a display! Hey, you want a job? We're always looking for a few good monsters." The crowd roared, laughing and cheering as one, roses showering down from the aisles from all directions. "You don't even need me to say this, but we have a winner! Leaving none standing and with no holds barred, this team could go to the top."

Spike scrambled over to Smolder, leaving his staff in the sand in the frantic rush to reach her side. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" He willed the green life energy to his hands, made more difficult with his missing staff, but he wasn't going to go back for it, just focusing on his fallen friend. "We won, you can't go now. C'mon!"

Sandra let Spike tend to Smolder, instead approaching Garble who was still pounding the human he was on top of, though the archer had long since stopped offering even a hint of a fight. "It's okay." She reached for his shoulder, only to have her hand roughly slapped away.

"Back off," he growled, hissing with teeth bore, flames gusting from his mouth with each breath a few inches. His eyes came into sudden focus. "Sandra?" It was only then that he saw the roses, and several large gilded boxes in the center of the arena as if they had always been there. "We won?"

"We won," she gently assured, rubbing where her wrist stung. "Spike's seeing to Smolder. She'll be alright." Or so Sandra hoped.

Author's Note

That's one way to finish a fight. Everyone gave it their all, and the treasure awaits the victors.

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28 - Red Sand

As tempted as Garble looked, he ignored the chests, at least for the moment. He stormed over to Spike. "Yo, you done? She alright? If you mess up--"

"Shut up," spat out Spike with uncharacteristic shortness. "Working."

Sandra came up beside Garble before looking towards the chests. "I don't mean to sound greedy, but there could be something in there that could help." She pointed at the great chests, waiting for them to plunder the contents of.

"Yeah?" Garble hiked a thumb at it. "Sis said I can't open the next one, remember? She'll be royally ticked if I go back on that now. Soon as Spike finishes doin' his stuff, she'll be all over me, complainin' and everything."

Sandra set herself down, no seats to be found in the arena. In fact, she looked around, the whole arena had fallen silent. There were a few monsters still filing out, and the other group was being ushered back to their circle by a couple small motes of light, which seemed to be urging them on.

Her eyes met the wizard’s eyes, who was dragging the bleeding body of the archer back to the circle the light was motioning them towards. They had another wounded, too, and their robed healer was looking over them with some panic. None of them looked like they were enjoying this, but shortly they were on the lift and sent away, their fate uncertain.

Garble, for his part, paced back and forth, smoke occasionally puffing out of his nostrils. He kept looking at Spike, who was still over Smolder, as she was now entirely enveloped in green magic.

But Sandra was consumed by something else entirely. She addressed her stoney friend. "You did good, especially since I couldn't even tell you anything." She nodded softly as if a response had come. "I can imagine. You were very brave. We only just met, I know… but I'm happy to have you." She paused as if listening. "Aw." She gently patted the top of her golem. "Go take a break, you earned it.

The creature of crystal and stone sank into the sand, returning to where her summons were when not at her side. Garble peered at the very spot. "That was… interesting. You do know it wasn't talking, right?"

"More--" Smolder coughed sharply, blood flecking her lips. "--than I was."

Sandra gasped, hurrying towards the sign of life, though not as quickly as Garble's scramble.

Spike's grave expression brightened by just a hair. "Stay still, stay… still. Stay with us, please."

Smolder aborted her attempt to push off the ground, not that her body approved of the idea anyway. "You look really…" Her breath was forced, her speech slow through obvious discomfort. "Did I get it… that bad?"

"Hey, Sis." Garble dropped into a squat beside his conscious sister, forgetting entirely about Sandra and her rock toy. "You missed us winning."

She smiled, and leaned her head back. “That’s pretty good. You’ll have to tell me about it.”

Garble smiled. “Okay, so we were--”

“Later, bro,” she said, an unamused tone creeping into her voice.

“Oh, yeah, sure.”

The four of them sat, waiting for Spike to finish his healing, and Sandra was staring at the blood on the ground. Monsters didn’t bleed. Well, that is, they did bleed, but once they were destroyed the blood disappeared. And even if they weren’t, the blood disappeared somewhat quickly anyway. But people… people bled. She swallowed roughly. People that might be dead now.

“Do you… do you think that archer is dead?”

Garble looked over, with what approached a disgusted snarl on his face. “What?”

“The archer… and that shadow woman… they were both still hurt as they were dragged out. They were… in bad shape,” Sandra said, still staring at the blood.

“Who cares?” Garble said, his voice raising, turning to her. “In case you forget, those bastards were trying to kill us too. Who cares if they die on the way back down?”

Sandra looked to Garble. “I-I mean,” she stammered. “I’ve never… I’ve never actually fought to kill someone, and they might be dead right now!”

“Who cares?!” Garble wasn’t really asking. “We’ve killed dozens of monsters and you wait for the time my sister almost dies to worry about it?”

“M-monsters don’t count! They’re not people they’re just magic… stuff that moves! People are different.”

Smolder sat up, to Spike's frown, but she propped herself up without immediately collapsing. "I didn't get a chance. Hey, what's that?" Her eyes were on the chests that rested in the center of the arena, clearly abandoned and waiting. "Winnings?"

Spike drew his staff back, the flow of green ebbing but not fading completely. "Yeah. It just kinda appeared once we won. How do you feel?"

Garble thrust a finger at Spike. "Unlike you, I bet she's already raring for another fight."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." She slowly worked up to her feet and dared to reach out her hands. "I don't feel like I'm fading anymore, which is good! Thanks, Spike. I'd cook something up for myself, but it's hard to do that when you're bleeding buckets."

Sandra shook her head softly. "It's for the best we have two people then that can help with that, in case one of them needs the other. Now, I don't mean I'm sad we beat them, no, that's great. I just... would rather not be fighting other adventurers at all. I know they're not dragons, like you, but they're still thinking, feeling... people."

Spike lowered his staff and slung it on his back, patting Smolder on the shoulder. "I think I'm just about out for the moment, but you look way better than when I started, so totally worth it."

"Thanks, Bud." She returned the clap, patting him right back on the shoulder. "I feel it. I'll be back up to speed soon enough. Now, Gar Gar, you've been a good dragon."

Garble scowled at that. "Don't patronize me!"

Smolder smirked as she began to approach the chests, leaving footprints in the sand along the way. "You didn't open any chests and remembered what I said. I'm complimenting you. These chests look... bigger. Does that mean there's more in them?"

Sandra left the sight on the ground, the grim reminder of what they had just been fighting. "It could be. After bosses..." She frowned with her own struggle to remember. "The rules are different. We should just open them up. Things will spill out, or one great thing. It's keyed to the party, rather then the person opening it, so we can decide who gets what afterwards."

Spike lifted into the air, darting forward on his relatively small wings. "Well, in that case, let's get opening! We deserve a little reward time after that floor."

With a communal cheer for the loot before them, they descended upon the boxes, each getting their own to pull open. As if the contents were being held down in place by force, the moment the cover was swung open, they flew free, depositing an assortment of things on the ground around each of them. One bounced off Garble's face and he grabbed it with an angry huff, but the set of armor did not have feelings, or a response.

Spike's chest was the only one that didn't explode in a bomb of goodies, instead projecting a cone of light upwards that shone different colors in a rainbowish swirl before a great sword emerged from within, far too large to have actually fit in the chest.

Sandra suddenly laughed, slapping her right thigh. "The dungeon has spoken, Garble wins again. That's clearly yours. That has to be at least a rare drop, if not legendary... Almost a shame it's only on the third floor."

Smolder arched a brow at that. "I'm sorry, but you stopped making sense. Care to break that down a little?"

Spike turned away from the glowing blade, facing everyone else instead. "Oh, I get it!"

"You do?" echoed all his friends.

"It's like Ogres and Oubliettes, of course." He hiked a thumb back at the still floating sword. "It has a level, based on the floor we found it on, so it's a very good level 3 item. If we found something equally as good, but on a higher floor, it'd be even better. Right?"

A voice suddenly spoke in Spike's ear, "Are you alright?"

"Huh? Oh, hey, Twilight. We just finished a huge fight." He began to walk in a loose circle as he spoke with his sister. "It was tough, but we did it."

Garble peered at him as he wandered off. With a shrug he marched up and snatched the blade from the air. The light suddenly inverted, becoming a spotlight over him as triumphant music swelled. "Woah!" His entire form went tense as some strange power seemed to flow through him for just a moment before fading. "What was that?"

"Bind on pickup," advised Sandra. "That sword is now yours. None of us could use it even if we wanted to. Even if we swapped classes to something that would like it. No creature can ever wield it besides you. You could sell it, if you ever wanted. Trained smiths can smelt it down to parts that're useful for working with other magic items, but as a sword, it's yours forever."

Smolder was picking through the things scattered in the sand. "Hey, supplies." She began to gather up potions with a merry whistle. "Some of this stuff I have no idea what it is."

Sandra pointed to what looked like a beetle carapace. "Some of this is crafting material. Give this to someone who's good at it and they can make great stuff out of it." She was smiling, looking proud and in her element. "I've gotten some of it from the fields outside the city, but this is obviously way better."

"I'm being careful." Spike was looping back around, still conversing. "It was Smolder that got hurt." He suddenly winced and rubbed the side of his head. "No shouting, please. She's alright."

Smolder tucked her newfound collection of potions away as she turned to Spike. "Is that Twilight? Hey Twilight!"

"Huh? Yeah, that was her. See, fine." Spike waved lightly at Smolder even as he wandered right on past.

"Spike, your magic dipped," fretted Twilight. "And now you tell me Smolder was hurt! Were you hurt? I'm still looking into how to get you home, without... whatever it is you're doing."

"We're climbing that tower I told you about." He hopped up and perched on one of the already open chests. "We just cleared floor three. If we can get to ten, we can teleport back down and come back later. We're doing it."

"You're getting hurt." He could hear her deflating. "How do I even say, 'be careful' in a situation like that? Your magic's looking... a little better. Are you sure you're alright?"

Sandra inclined her head faintly. "Who is he talking to? He's really into that conversation."

"It's his pony princess." Garble rolled his eyes. "She can fight, but hates doing it. She isn't here though. Hey, Spike, is she getting us home or do we keep climbing?" he shouted towards the distracted smaller dragon. He swung the blade while waiting for an answer, admiring the crackling electricity the blade seemed to leave behind in the air with every motion. "I'm keeping this..."

Smolder shook her head. "Doubt it, or we'd all vanish, or maybe there'd be a hole or a door to walk into or something. Or she'd just appear, pop, out of nowhere." She smirked at the idea. "That'd be interesting. Right in the middle of a fight, Sudden Twilight." She spread her hands, fingers wriggling. "Ta da, surprise pony! You two, help me gather all this up."

Spike looked towards his party members as they gathered up all the treasure. As the last piece of each chest was picked up, that chest vanished. He fell suddenly to the sand, landing with a soft thump. "Shoulda saw that coming." All the treasure of his box had been gathered. "Twilight, it's time for us to push on. We're alright, promise."

"You literally can't promise that, Spike... Just... do your best. You're my #1 assistant, and best little brother... Don't forget that."

Author's Note

Fighting actual humans is rough. But... the rewards! To answer the last Chapter's question, What is a Monster? A Miserable pile of loot, obviously.

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29 - Cold Reception

Then there was the fourth floor, with screaming in the wind. Nothing like the fifth floor, with goblins making a din. There was no warning for the sixth, where all was water and slime, but at least the seventh seemed just fine.

As they ascended the lift, they were brought out to a corridor dimly lit by flickering torches.

Smolder stepped out, looking around. The corridor stretched in two directions, and off in one direction an intersection could be seen. “So… what’s this floor’s thing?”

Spike brushed the last of the slime off of his boots. “I dunno, but we’re neither being attacked nor is there slime, and I am alright with that.”

Sandra giggled at Spike, the only of them covered in slime.

He glared back back at her, and she turned that giggle into a conspicuous cough. “Well, maybe it’s just a maze? We should make sure we’ve got enough light…” She put her hand on the side of her golem. “Maybe it’s time I swapped back… take a rest.” She concentrated on putting away her golem, and then tugged on the magic for Aiden, pulling him forth with a burst of light and flame.

It drove away much of the gloom nearby, although it only reached so far.

Garble looked down the hallway. “Well hopefully there’s something good to fight on this floor.”

“Only one way to find out!” Sandra announced, pointing forward dramatically. “Into the darkness!”

The four of them began exploring the floor. Intersections were usually marked with a symbol. A fish for one, a bird for another, a campfire for another, but so far nothing else notable was seen. At least, until in the distance they could see a bluish lantern in the middle of the corridor, as well as a clanking.

Garble grinned madly, pulling his sword out of his sheath and putting it aside. “You hear what I hear? I hear a monster coming!”

Sandra rolled her eyes, and raised her staff. “Yes, we see it.”

The four adventurers prepared themselves for the confrontation, which slowly plodded into view with a distinctly frigid atmosphere. A giant animate set of armor marched into view, but where a head would normally be was instead a cold miasma emitting from it. It held a large sword in one hand, and a glowing blue lantern shaped like a skull that generally failed to illuminate much of anything in it’s other hand.

No sound but the clanking of metal could be heard as it held the blue lantern up, and it blasted a frosty orb at the party. The orb landed in the middle of them, and it burst, covering the whole hallway, and the adventurer’s clothes, with frost, chilling each of them.

Sandra scampered away, the frost already fading from her even in the motion. Aiden threw its wings wide and launched at the lumbering golem without any spoken command. The dragons reacted far more slowly, showing a hint of their reptilian origins, though they all scattered slowly or not.

Spike grabbed his staff in both hands, a great shield of energy blinking into place just in time for the next frost blast to crash against it, creating a spiderweb of cracks through it surface, bits of it flaking and falling free, already looking ready to crumble. "This isn't good!"

The golem didn't react to Aiden, stoically accepting the wash of flames that did little more than make its frost run wet for a moment before freezing just as solid as it began. Emerging from the brilliant flash, Garble came from the darkness in a grand jump, slamming down his sword against its side.

Electricity crackled and its metal dug with futility, for barely a nick was formed as Garble clenched his teeth. "C'mon, this thing cuts things in half! Respect my blade!"

Smolder tossed something goopy and yet frozen at once. "It wasn't a frozen treat before, but it is now, eat up!" She flashed her daggers, darting forward at an angle. With a blurring rush, she zipped to the next bit of cover. "Don't panic!"

The headless armor brought it’s sword arm around, slashing at Garble, who ducked underneath the swipe, swinging his own sword, striking at its side, giving it just about as much damage as before.

The armor raised it’s skull lantern, icy mist pouring out of it, blanketing itself in chilly mist.

Garble grit his teeth to stop them from clattering as the cold poured over him. “So, what, do you think a little cold is gonna stop me!” He raised his sword above his head, and called out, “Lightning Lace!” A snap and crackle resounded as a lightning bolt struck his sword, coming from somewhere unknown between the sword and the ceiling, and it crackled with greater arcs of lightning, and Garble roared as he brought it down on the armor, scoring a direct hit on it’s chest.

He looked up at his handiwork, to see that there was a cut, deeper than before, scorched along the edges, but still not anywhere near the damage he was hoping for. The armor was already rearing back, and Garble wrenched himself back, but to no avail as the armor’s sword slammed into his side, knocking him down and biting heavily into his breastplate.

Garble gasped for air on the ground. The chill was worse than before, and this thing hit like a roc. He looked up to see it bringing it’s sword up, ready to plunge it down on him, and he scrambled back.

Fortunately, Garble was not the only person fighting, and at that moment two fiery daggers appeared at its side, with Smolder pouncing on it, shoving her daggers where a weak point would be on any normal combatant. She scored two more scorch marks, and there was sizzling that could be heard from the melting ice, but it barely phased the monster, who brought it’s sword down just outside of Garble’s legs.

Sandra waved her phoenix away with one hand as the other raised, palm-side to the ground, swapping between her spirit friends and sending the rock golem charging towards the greater one of ice and steel. "I don't think this is working and I swear this is not me being nervous here."

"You don't have to tell me." Spike lowered his staff and raised an arm with a shield attached. "This thing is way advanced compared to the other things. I say we get out while we can."

"I almost have this." Garble ducked between its towering calves as the sword came down behind him, almost ridding the dragon of his tail. "Don't be cowards. We have this!" With a deft twist, he scored a spiraling scratch along the thing's metal hide, another superficial hit on the unstoppable force.

Smolder threw her hand wide, launching a great volley of spices in the thing's lack of a face. The cold mist seemed to somehow catch it, igniting in brilliant bright blue puffs of anti-flame. The thing staggered back, stunned perhaps from having paprika applied directly to its lack of eyes. "Yeah, take--"

The great skull it held suddenly sneezed. It was as if the very nature of cold bloomed outwards from that place and time, washing Smolder and the ground all around and behind her in a layer of frost. Her skin cracked audibly, starting to bleed as she staggered back, only half-thawed. "Nevermind!"

Spike stepped up, his staff glowing, and he raised it up, a spiral of bluish magic spinning around Smolder, closing up her wounds. The frost began to come off in chunks, and Smolder breathed on her daggers, setting them alight again. “Cmon, Garble, let’s go!”

Garble hissed as the blade cut down his side, leaving a great gash in his armor even as it parted his flesh as if it were that of a newborn child instead of a hardened dragon. "You'll pay--" He stepped forward with a firm striking upwards, throwing his entire body behind the weight of his great crackling bade, shoving it right between plates into the unknown innards of the creature.

The two were perfectly still a moment, as if both the golem and Garble were just as shocked at the successful strike. Sandra's stone companion broke the silence, smashing into the back of the great set of armor, driving it into that sword even as it light up, all three of them illuminated in a great roaring crackle of lightning, the thunder of which rushing out over the area, rustling hair and clothing with its force and striking the combatants deaf for a moment.

The dust and mist cleared, with Garble falling to the ground as the armor evaporated into magic, as all monsters do, and he landed on the ground deftly, and, still bleeding from his side, he slung his long long blade over his shoulder, looking back at the party, the cockiest grin ever on his face. “I told you, I got this.”

He then immediately doubled over and fell to his knees, gripping his side. Smolder and Spike both jogged over to him, Spike already casting a healing spell, ready to help him recover. Smolder, for her part, leaned down with concern. “Oh crud! You okay, Gar Gar?”

Garble just smirked. “Better than you, when you got sliced up.”

Smolder frowned and punched him in the shoulder. “Yeah, he’ll be fine.”

Garble laughed and groaned in pain. “As long as you keep making with the healing.”

Spike’s staff continued to glow as he more spells, green glow punctuating with soft runes that appeared for moments before fading away. “You know I don’t have an unlimited amount of this, right? It takes energy to do this, energy I can run out of.”

“Oh yeah?” Garble raised an eyebrow. “So why ain’t you out yet?”

Spike hiked a thumb behind his shoulder. “Because we got a cook, remember?”

“That’s right, because my sister is awesome. So eat up and we’ll keep going.”

Smolder passed a gooey globule to both Spike and Garble. “We’ve been eating these nearly as fast as I make em. And that big tin can didn't give me any materials to make new snacks.”

Sandra patted the back of her new friend gently. "You all did great."

"You too," suddenly blurted Spike. "Your golem came in at just the right time. Thanks." He flashed his spare hand in a thumbs up at Sandra, then her golem. "How are you feeling, Garble?"

He rolled his shoulder with a low grunt. "I'm alright, but my armor's had better days." There at his side, the gash was still visible, broken and unaided by the healing magic. "Can you do something about that?"

Sandra shook her head. "Your armor isn't alive, Garble. Healing magic won't work on it." She looked thoughtful, but it faded almost as quickly as it came. "We should… Make getting to the checkpoint the priority. That stupid big golem didn't even have the etiquette to drop anything."

Smolder made gun motions with her hands. "Which is a hint. We aren't even supposed to fight it. Let's get past this floor."

"Spike, your readings are dim again. Is everything alright?"

Spike perked at the sound of Twilight's voice only he could hear. "We're alright. I guess that just happens when I use a lot of magic." He popped the snack Smolder had passed into his maw, chewing quickly. "It should get better."

Smolder turned away from Spike even as she grabbed his free hand. "He'll be talking to Twilight a little while. I say we get moving. This floor we play the stealth game. Move like the shadow." She made a smooth sailing motion with her free hand, cutting through the air with her claws.

"I don't want to be a broken record," assured Twilight. "Just checking in... I think I might have found something, but I'll let you know when it's more than a theory." Her presence seemed to fade.

Sandra waved goodbye to her golem friend. He would not help them when stealth was the goal.

Author's Note

A floor where fighting is not the goal? I call hax. We have moved up the tower though, so that's good!

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30 - Dramatic Pause

“Look!” Spike pointed, and clearly visible in the gloom was finally their destination: a light illuminating a set of stairs came into view around the corner of the intersection.

“Finally.” Smolder groaned. “I thought we’d never find the dang exit.”

Spike beamed. “I told you, all the armor monsters were guarding the exit, so we had to figure out where they were trying to shoo us away from.”

Sandra looked down the hallway they came from, the cold blue light continuing to approach. “Speaking of which…” The four of them hastened into the hallway crossing it, and the headless armor clanked past somewhat slowly, but paid them no mind as they weren’t directly in their way.

“Can we fight just one more?” Garble nearly whined. “I’m bored.”

“No, Garble,” Smolder admonished. “We have that elevator two floors up, right? So let’s get going. The big milestone is close.”

Despite his grunt, they all hurried down the darkened hallway. The stairs were there, unguarded if one discounted all the great monsters that had tried to dissuade them up to that point.

Spike hopped as he ran and came down on the first step, spinning on one toe back to the others. "Did it!"

Sandra imitated the move, leaping onto that first step with a little joyful laugh. "I… never even dared dream we'd get this high, on the first try even! Maybe we can do this."

Garble shoved her aside as he began storming up the stairs. "Of course we can do this. You got me, and Smolder." He hiked a thumb towards his sister. "Two bad-ass dragons that ain't letting anything stop them."

Spike caught the staggering Sandra and they shared a smile before he looked to Smolder. "Hopefully the next floor isn't quite as… you know, as this one."

"Hear hear to that." Smolder began ascending just after her brother, tail lashing softly behind her. "We're doing great, so far. Let's keep it up."

The four of them continued up the stairs, which managed to be actually rather short, doubling back once out to a spacious, well-lit floor. The walls were hewn of the grayish stone that the tower seemed to be built from, but instead of the very standard brick there were intricate carvings and some statues, very much like the entryway to the tower.

In front of them there was a bubbling fountain, with the calming sound of rushing water. To their side there was a door, with a sign labeled “Shoppe” on it, and the other side had several seats and a series of windows facing outward. Beyond the doors there was a staircase going upward, with intricate doors of wood and metal to the next floor up.

Spike peered around with a mixture of relief and suspicion in almost equal amounts. "Sandra, you hear about this?"

"I forgot!" She burst into light laughter, almost bouncing over to a seat and crashing down on one with a thunderous sigh. "We did it."

Garble raised a brow, turning to face the human. "Did what? You're awful relaxed all of a sudden."

"Just before the boss." She made a walking motion with her fingers across the air. "You get a chance to relax. This is it. No monsters, no traps. No tricks. Just you and a moment to breathe." She flopped to the side, leaning against the armrest. "There's a story someone was so tired when they got to one of these, they just kinda retired there."

Sandra looked out along the town, gasping lightly. “Oh wow.” At ten floors up they were nearly above the tallest buildings in town already, and the expanse of the town stretched out for her to see. The people bustled about their day, far far below.

Spike hopped up and looked through the nearby window. “Oh! That’s pretty cool!”

Garble came over and looked over Spike’s head. “... So what? I can get up this high when I’m flying.” He grunted as an elbow hit his side, "What? I'm not wrong. Whatever, you all enjoy the view. I want to see what this is." He hiked a thumb as he approached the door with the shoppe sign beside it. "Who's running a store in here?"

A quiet bell jingled as he pushed the door open, revealing about four little rows of assorted little goods that appeared to be mostly restorative items at a glance with a few bolstering chemicals in clearly marked bottles. Behind the far counter was a strange round monster with one big eye that peered at Garble. "Welcome," it greeted without a mouth. "Congratulations on making it this far."

Garble looked somewhat askance at it. “Thanks… What exactly are you?”

“Can’t you tell?” The eye tilted just a little. “I’m the shoppekeep.”

Garble leaned in to the creature. “So what, are you just a monster? Like all the other stuff in this tower?”

The bottom of the eye came up, smiling in it’s own way, as a distinctive chuckle was heard. “I’m not just an anything, mister dragon.”

Garble’s demeanor changed, and he stood up taller, starting to smirk. “Oh, you can tell I’m a dragon, huh? It’s about time.” He looked away, coughing and composing himself. “I mean, that’s just how it should be. Dragons are kind of a big deal.”

“I can see that,” the shoppekeep said, raising it’s eye just a little, with another ethereal chuckle.

Spike leaned in from the door. "Woah, a gazer! I never thought I'd see one outside of a book."

The great eye's attention slid towards the smaller dragon. "You sound more eager to see me. Hello, little one. What can I help you find?"

"A gazer?" Smolder leaned in over the top of Spike's head, peering into the room. "Woah! Uh, we're cool, right?"

"We cool," assured the great eye, its accent shifting for that moment. "I am here to sell things. If you are here to buy things, we are friends. Getting this far must have been hard. Your supplies may be running low. I could help with that." Its voice lilted in sweet offerings.

Garble crossed his arms with a huff. "Actually… You got something that heals people without needing to wait for food or little dragons to cast spells?"

Several vials began to glow softly. "Right there. Healing potions are quite popular. Of course, they are one use. Once you've drunk one, it's hard to drink them again.".

Garble still snatched up a green bottle. “Fine by me. I’ll take twenty.” He looked at the label, pursing his lips. “... Ten.”

The gazer chuckled once again. “They surely aren’t free, of course, but how valuable is one’s health? The price they are at is practically a steal.”

Garble snorted. It was his gold, though. How would he get a good pile if he had to spend it. But he still dumped a rather generous pile out onto the counter. It floated away and the potions from the shelves floated up to the counter. Garble scooped them up into his small bag, where they disappeared into it.

The gazer turned itself to the rest of the party. “Are you looking for anything in particular?”

Spike looked around at the potions, a few of them being rather expensive indeed, bubbling and smoking even. “... Do you have something that works on getting back magic.”

“That I do!” There were potions, fewer in number, glowing on the walls. “These potions will be a bit more expensive than the health ones, be warned.”

“That’s fine,” Spike said. “A good idea to have some backups…”

Smolder gave a firm nod. "I'll try to have snack options ready for that, but having a backup when we need healing or protection now sounds like a great idea." She stuffed a hand into a pocket and produced a jingling handful of coins. "I'll put in towards that."

"What are you all--" Sandra came into view just to freeze, gaping at the gazer that looked back at her with a merry expression as far as eyes went. "Uh… hi?"

"Hello to you as well. I thought this party was all inhuman. What a surprise. A human with dragons? How rare is this. You are a lucky human. Most end up far worse when dragons get involved."

Spike blinked rapidly. "What? Oh… She's our friend. We wouldn't hurt her."

"Usually," spat Garble on the way out of the shoppe. "Tell me when you're ready to go. We got more to do besides shop."

Smolder frowned, pursuing her brother. “This is supposed to be a rest floor, Gar gar,” she said as she followed him out.

Sandra, however, was still rooted to the ground with the gazer, well, gazing at her, as it floated up toward her. “This is fascinating indeed. Not just that you’re with three dragons, but that the three dragons are with a human. They certainly don’t like nonhumans very much down there.”

That left only Spike with Sandra, but he was quick to slide between her and the peering gazer. "Yeah, they don't, but whatever. She got over it and I never hated humans in the first place."

The eye turned towards Spike, angling downward. "The way you say that is curious. Did you wander into their city? You sound like you're an outsider."

Sandra put a hand on Spike's shoulder from behind "As outside as they come." She smiled a little. "That was my fault, sorry again, but we're here to get him back where he belongs."

A great blink, the entire eye closing a moment before it opened just as wide as it began. "You are not here for yourself? You've come in the company of dragons for their benefit? What a curious human." Despite its apparent curiosity, it began floating back where it started. "How delightful. How noble. Does she speak the truth?"

"Are you asking me?" Spike's shield faded as his defensiveness faded, instead hiking a thumb at himself. "Yeah. When we get to the top, we're using the wish to get us dragons home. We're not from... anywhere near here."

"Marvelous! A selfless human putting a nonhuman ahead of his... her? Human are so tricky to identify... Their own interests. To climb this tower for nothing of their own. What madness! I am smitten. Go on." Things began to glow softly around the shop. "Take one. Take one just for the amusement you've brought me today."

Sandra rubbed her arm, looking awkward and embarrassed. "I do have a hope..."

The glow faded. "Ah ha! At least you are truthful. What is that kernel of greed that motivates you, human?"

"I... want my parents back... If I can do that and get them home, that would be best." She worried her fingers together, fidgeting in place. "T-them first. It's my fault they're here..."

A lone item began to glow. "A nobler reason than most; not as noble as some others. Go on."

Spike lifted from the ground to get a better view of what was glowing. "Huh."

They emerged from the shoppe, a large blue pendant dangling around Sandra's neck. "Let's go."

"You too? Fine." Smolder hopped up off the chair she had been lazing in. "Break's over, let's go punch a boss in the face a few times."

Garble gave a rough cheer of agreement with that sentiment, heading for the stairs leading upwards. "Let's do this."

The stairs were short, just barely long enough to reach the next floor of the interior of a house before it opened up into bright white marble walls and an equally dark black set of double doors. A glowing pillar of light rested to the right before the door, and a strange man to the left.

Only Spike seemed to pay full attention to the man, the others seeming to avoid looking that way for long. Sandra pointed to the light. "That's that check point. Put your hand against it." She hurried up to do just that, making it and herself flash brightly.

Author's Note

Next chapter, answers? A boss fight?! Sounds like a good time to me! What would you have purchased from the gazer?

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31 - Big Dog

Smolder walked up to the glowing pillar of light, peering over to it, but putting her hand up to it. It was surprisingly solid for being made apparently of light, and a little magic tingle shook through her as she glowed. Garble walked straight up and pressed his hand to it as well.

Spike, however, was still looking at the man, who took notice and turned to look at him, but saying nothing.

“What are you waiting for?” Garble said. “Afraid to get a little magic on you or what?”

Smolder rolled her eyes, but looked to Spike with equal bewilderment.

"Hello again." Spike wriggled a few fingers at the mysterious person. "Will you answer a few questions this time?"

"If I answer that, you will feel slighted, so I won't. You have one question. Perhaps I'll answer another when you reach the next." He looked beyond Spike to his friends. "I advise speed, your friends grow concerned."

Sandra wriggled her fingers as she turned away from the column of light. "Now we can hop back down in a flash, and come back up just as quickly. We can even do it right in the middle of--"

Spike’s mind raced. He hadn’t thought up what he wanted to ask! Would he only get one question per ten floors? He had to make sure to spend them wisely. But what if he asks an irrelevant question, or gets a frustrating answer?

“Come on, twerp!” Garble was becoming irate.

Spike snapped at the only question he could think of. “What’s your name?”

The man smiled. “Oh, you remembered your question. Good. My name is Logue.”

Spike blinked. “... I don’t get it. What does that mean?”

The man’s finger came up, waggling. “Ah ah ah. Your question is up.” He began to turn into light, the same shade as the pillar, which was bleeding upward. “I’ll see you around, young dragon.”

"--fighting, but it takes ten or twenty seconds or so of you mostly not doing anything more than a slow walk, so be careful about that," finished Sandra, spewing her helpful advice.

Spike, somewhat slowly, turned around and walked back to his party, putting his hand on the pillar too but hardly seeming to pay attention to the glow it put in him. “Okay, uh… sorry about that.”

Smolder slapped down a hand on his shoulder. "You alright there, Spike? It isn't too late to go back to the restroom."

"Wrong answer." Garble stomped towards the door. "We got a boss to pummel. C'mon!"

Garble and Smolder took point, both pushing on one of the doors each, as the heavy doors creaked open, bit by bit. Spike shook his head, no time for worrying about the useless answer, and he pulled his staff out, getting in a ready stance.

The doors crept open, but finally they began to give way, Garble and Smolder getting some momentum behind them. The doors flew open with a tremendous echoing thud.

Fog clung thick to the floor, rolling as if it were a living thing. Some of it gusted out from an actually living thing, its nostrils flaring. Across the way they could see a challenger, or was that a defender. A great canine-like creature, its tail low and even with the ground, its ears pricked towards its next fight. It had great claws and dug easily through the solid floor of the ground as if it was nothing but loose gravel. It was perfectly still, watching them, daring them to enter the room.

Garble looked the thing over. "That's all, a dog?"

Spike pointed to the spikes that jutted from the ground. "Uh…" Each spike was exactly the same size, protruding upwards about fifteen feet.

The boss was near one, taller than it. Its apparent lack of size was only a property of the distance between them. "Oh," allowed Garble. "So it's a big dog… alright." He grabbed his sword, unsheathing it slowly, staring down the wolf as he did, discarding the sheath near the doorway.

Smolder drew her daggers, and Spike readied himself too, and only Sandra felt herself starting to sweat. No, she admonished herself. She had summons to help. She just had to keep calm, and tell them what to do… maybe cast a spell. She didn’t need to get face to face with it or anything. She nodded wordlessly to herself.

Garble stepped out first, a toothy smirk on his face, and began to run across the arena.

“H-hey!” Smolder called out, and started running behind. Shortly all three of them were running into the arena, with Sandra following behind.

The wolf snarled, and broke into a full charge, Garble bellowing a hoot. “Don’t be dismayed--” He brought his sword above him, bringing it down. “When you taste my blade!” The blade crackled with lightning which blasted out in response to his rhyme, striking the wolf straight in it’s muzzle. “Ha!” Garble cried out.

The wolf twitched with the lightning strike, and instead of going straight for Garble went to the side, its massive paw colliding with him, powerful enough to knock him right off his feet, tumbling on the ground.

“Garble!” Smolder shouted, heading up the rear, slashing at the side of the monster, which left a red line, but it’s size rendered them, well, small. The wolf growled, bending it’s knees and sending its side to Smolder, side checking her, knocking her back as well.

Spike caught up, and immediately sent his glowing healing onto Garble, who was already pulling himself up off the ground, groaning. "I'll focus on defense." That thing hit way too hard to be distracted, he decided silently, spreading out his sympathetic magic across his friends, accepting their future pains to banish them as best he could.

The great furry beast wasn't made of stone. "Aiden!" Sandra gestured forward in a sharp sweep, a flare of heat and light signaling the arrival of her spirit friend. "Show it who's boss!" A loud screech was the reply, soaring towards the great canine. Flames rained down and around it in a carpet bombing, but the guardian of the floor shook most of it away as if it were falling bits of snow instead of flaming doom.

The guardian wheeled around, it’s jaws chomping at Garble, who was glanced and forced back, only managing to chop some of the guardian’s fur off. Garble leapt back, holding his sword out, but the guardian turned its attention instantly to Smolder, swiping at her and catching her arm with the sharp points of its claws.

Despite the obvious hits, they were unharmed save for being shoved. Spike endured the pain for them even as he worked feverishly to banish the hurts from his own small form. Smolder slashed back at the guardian, who backed out, right into Garble’s range, who scored a good hit on his other side.

Renewed fire pelted the guardian, and it flinched with a low growl. It threw its upper body upwards, howling with a tremendous din. Spike put his hands to his ears, the pain was hard to bear, and when he was done he noticed a cloud of mist had been thrown up, descending around them.

The guardian growled, more mist pouring out of the sides of his mouth, and he roared forward, a huge burst of pale mist shooting out at Spike, hitting him nearly as hard as any club would, knocking him right off of his feet.

It raised its claw, and the mist congealed around it, forming a larger pale claw, and the misty claw came crashing through Garble, the real claw slashing, and the mist blasting him back as it made smaller cuts across his armor and scales. Garble tumbled across the ground, coming to a stop. He groaned as he lay there in pain. At least, he did until a large shadow appeared over him, and he pulled himself up just in time to roll away from a pair of fangs chomping down on him.

Sandra watched from a distance, Aiden pelting the guardian with small tufts of fire. Smolder was slashing at it and Spike was pulling himself over to Garble to help, but it was not going well. She had to think of something… “Aiden, we need something bigger! As big as you can make it!” The spirit crowed, flying in a tight upwards spiral and his wings began to flare up as he flapped them vigorously.

"I couldn't see you," hurriedly explained Spike. "No see, no taking your hits and I was--"

"--Yeah yeah, got it. Garble brought down his heavy blade just in time to turn away the swat that would have caught Spike's undefended back. "Focus." It was as close to an active moment of caring as he'd get at the time. "We got a big dog to train."

The fog suddenly withdrew, heat and light replacing it as Aiden exploded like a brilliant display of fireworks, smaller explosions rocking the area, banishing the fog with each loud percussion. The dog howled and took a step back, cowed for just a moment before it turned its angry eyes on Sandra, somehow aware that she was the responsible party.

It broke away from the other three, barreling at Sandra, mist streaming behind it.

“A-Aiden!” Sandra shouted, only for no response to come. She desperately searched her magic, trying to call him out, and he was there, but there was nothing behind him now.

And she looked up at the guardian approaching her, jaws and teeth first. Magic mist streamed from the corners of its mouth, and it’s teeth practically glistened with drool. Sandra stared at it, her mouth gaping open, frozen in place as the monster closed on her and slammed it’s jaws on her, those fangs digging into her abdomen. She cried out in pain.

The dragons were hot on the guardian’s heel, Spike shouting at the top of his lungs, “Smite!” His staff glowing with golden runes, slamming into the side of the creature, causing it to lose its grip on Sandra.

Garble followed up, calling out as normal, “Lightning Lace!” slashing with his crackling katana and Smolder, silent as always, quickly cut with flaming daggers. All three hits landed, and the guardian actually made a yelping noise, which quickly changed to a growl.

The three dragons stood over Sandra, brandishing their weapons, glaring down the mist wolf creature, and it glared back at them, but stepped back, and howled again. This time it wasn’t piercing, but almost as soon as it started, it was joined by other howls, until a cacophony of them was heard.

Smolder grit her teeth. “Now what?”

Spike said nothing, and turned down, his magic flowing from his staff to Sandra on the ground, who cracked an eye. The three of them came for her. She couldn’t… she couldn’t stay down. If she could help she needs to help.

The mist surrounded the party, and inside it, ghostly forms in the shape of wolves, made of mist themselves, appeared, howling alongside the guardian. One by one they stopped, their forms turning to the party.

Two of them stepped up, and quickly, with a howl, they blasted toward the party from two sides. Smolder and Garble tried to dodge out of the way, but the wolves were much much faster, less like wolves darting out and more like misty spirits fired from a cannon, their spectral fangs tearing at each other.

With more howls, three more wolves appeared, and Garble and Smolder immediately moved, but the third wolf was pointed directly at where Spike stood over Sandra. He grit his teeth. “Sandra can’t move yet!” He brandished his staff, and just as it rushed at him tried to bat it away, but it was too fast, slicing at him and grazing Sandra.

In a moment’s reprieve, Spike frantically resumed healing Sandra, closing the wounds, and she stirred, wrenching herself up off the ground.

But with only another moment, there were more howls. The wolves shot out from the mist, and Spike wrenched himself aside, feeling the wind of the wolf careening just past him. The howls continued, the spirits beginning to attack relentlessly, and Spike had to leap out of the way, trying to minimize the damage futilely as something still hit him.

The wolves began to attack relentlessly, spirits coming from all angles, slicing and cutting the party.

Then, finally, the attacks came to a stop. The four adventurers, blood dripping from their wounds looked around. The wolves appeared to surround them, all the former spirits growing and glaring down, with the guardian looming over them.

Spike knew they were about to surge in. One big final attack, and nobody here was looking too well… But there was a chance, maybe… just one to make sure they lived. He raised his staff, the pleasant green aura emanating from it.

Sandra and Smolder both looked at Spike’s glowing staff, and looked back at each other, their eyes widening. Smolder opened her mouth to speak, “Wai--”

The wolves collapsed on the party, the ring crashing into them, and Spike was hit like a truck. Dozens of cuts appeared on him all at once, slashing at his scales and armor. Spike tried to scream, but all that came out was a guttural gurgling noise and a cough.

He started to fall, but put his staff out, and caught himself, still holding on to consciousness. The rest of the party looked back and Garble suddenly grabbed Spike. "We're leaving."

Author's Note

This was an interesting chapter for me, since I basically started it, then kind of edited it along the way, then slapped on the last few words. This chapter was mostly written by not-me. Huh. So how is it?!

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32 - Tactical Withdrawal

Sandra and her party ran out of the room, and Sandra slammed the wooden door shut behind her, panting and sweating. The party all watched the door, and they waited, listening for anything hitting the door.

“Looks like we’re in the clear.”

Sandra slowly slid down and flumped down on the ground, taking a deep breath. “Oh thank goodness. It was… it was huge…”

As the healer knelt down and started healing the spear wielding party member, the heavily armed member stood back and looked at the party. Their spirits were broken, either grumbling or lost it. But she knew what to do.

Tabitha cleared her throat. “That was great out there today, girls.”

The healer looked up at her and smiled weakly.

Tabitha held up a single finger. “I’m serious, girls. We had problems, but until that last wave of minions you were doing a fantastic job of keeping us healed, we just were caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

The healer looked away, trying not to smile. “That’s… good, but…” she gave a sidelong look over to Sandra, who had her head down. “Not all of us really pulled our weight that fight… And I was running out of magic anyway.”

Tabitha puffed out her chest. “That’s why we’re gonna go through some training, adventurin’ style!”

The healer just blinked at Tabitha.

“No, no! Hear me out. If we were just a bit more powerful, each step would go faster.” Tabitha began to pace. “We wouldn’t have to worry as much about being hurt if we had better armor.” She turned. “With some more spells, and better weapons and more skills we’ll have this whole thing whipped! We just gotta find a place to kill some monsters to figure it out.”

The healer nodded her head. “Yeah… yeah… that… might work.”

“I doubt it,” the muffled voice came from Sandra’s head. “Did you see it? It was huge. We’d need a lot more than just… a little more training to fight it…” She looked up. “Just look at what it did to us when we made a mistake…”

Tabitha rolled her eyes. “Yes, and she is also alive. We got out with our lives, and healing magic is like a dang miracle.” The form on the ground was yet breathing, her eyes cracked open. “Right? Are you alright?”

She grunted and sat up. “Yeah… yeah I think I’m good.”

Sandra stood. “I’m just saying, this is too dangerous. We should take a break, find something easier to do!”

The healer scoffed with an offended noise. “You see what we have to deal with? Sandra barely hit anything during the fight. And now she is telling us we can’t do this.” She stood up starting to stomp over to Sandra.

Tabitha got in her way, though, trying to smile. “Woah. Look I know Sandra’s aim is bad, but she just… panics, you know? You’ve seen the aim when she’s hitting targets. We just need to find something to get her used to it, you know…”

Sandra whimpered behind her, and Tabitha’s smile faded.

“You see! She doesn’t want to do anything like that.” The healer stomped. “She’s bringing us all down!” She twisted around. “This isn’t working… come on!” The healer stomped away, and her patient smiled somewhat sheepishly, but followed her companion out.

Tabitha wheeled around to Sandra, her eyes angry. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes.

“Tabby…” Sandra reached out to her. “Look, I--”

Tabitha wheeled back around and started stomping off herself, without a word.

Great canine teeth dug into stone, sending dust into the already foggy air. Its menacing howl echoing as it scrambled to face its enemies. The party was glowing and trying to keep away, but their motions were stifled as if they were pressing against some unseen substance all around them.

Smolder gave a firm flap of her wings, but even going up was slowed down, as if she were swimming in some thick substance. "How long does this take?!"

Garble threw Sandra aside, his other hand holding Spike like a sack of potatoes. "Too damn long. Sandra! You said we could just hop out of here with magic, right? It's just slowing us down!"

Sandra snapped out of her vision as she hit the ground. "It's working. It takes time. We just… don't die!" She retreated on all fours, barely getting back to her feet in time for the wolf to smash through the pillar they had tried to hide behind. "Survive!"

"Yeah yeah, survive, easy," grunted Garble as he ducked under the wolf, rolling out onto its other side all too slowly. "Spike, you in there bud? We could use some of your… anything right now."

Spike could hear him calling. He could also hear Twilight's frantic shouts.

"Spike! What happened? Spike! Please talk to me. Spike, please… Spike…" He could hear her sniffles. He could tell she was starting to cry, but he was too hurt to form much of a response to either of the two people trying to talk to him.

"O--" It was barely a syllable, not enough to please anyone.

"No food," reminded Smolder. "Grab one of his potions. Wait, didn't--"

"--Yeah!" Garble patted himself down, grabbing out one of the vials he had purchased and practically shoving it in Spike's mouth. "Eat it! Eat the damn thing!"

That was surely not the way healing potions were meant to be administered, but with a soft crunch, it broke against Spike's gem-breaking teeth and the potion poured into him.

Garble thrust out his hand in time to catch the teeth of the wolf, causing him to be shoved back wildly instead of bit, suddenly airborne but out of control. He came back down against one of the piles of stone with a rough crunch of the harsh landing. "Dang it all…" He dug out another potion and quickly downed one himself. "Thought I'd keep this a little longer."

Spike wasn't there. The sudden toss caused Garble to lose his grip. Spike was on the ground, watching the Wolf storm off after Garble. "H-hey… Stop."

"Spike! I can hear you," came the frantic voice of Twilight. "Oh, thank Celestia! You're alright?"

"I am… not alright." He crunched the glass into dust and swallowed to clear his throat. "We messed up."

"Is it as bad as it looks?" asked Twilight in a little scared voice.

"Yeah, maybe…" Spike looked around, but his staff was nowhere near him. He thrust a hand out and his shield appeared on it. "Maybe." He pulled himself up, and it was like moving in molasses, but he pulled up an armored boot, and slammed it on the floor. The wolf turned away from its current quarry to Spike, who was still standing.

Spike slowly, torturously, raised his shield, and the wolf guardian ran at him. It was hard to see, it was so bright. Too bright. He grit his teeth and closed his eyes as the wolf came bearing down on him.

And there was a light pop. No bone shattering crunch. No slicing winds. Spike cracked his eyes open, teeth still grit. The fog was gone, and for that matter so was the giant room. In fact, he was standing in the room with the light pillar. He lowered his shield and looked around. Garble was in a pile on the ground, groaning, and his other party members were still there, standing.

“... Oh.”

Sandra sighed herself and sank to the floor. “Thank goodness.” She looked around as if for the first time. "This isn't the first… oh yeah."

Smolder softly swatted their human partner on the back. "Please don't say 'oh yeah'. What is it?"

Sandra gestured to the pillar. “By touching the pillars we got a spell to teleport us back down the tower.” She rolled her shoulders. “I thought it would take us down to the first floor, but it seems it takes us to the pillar. I think if we cast it again it’ll take us to the first floor.”

"Hey." Garble sat up slowly, holding where it hurt the most along his ribs. "Spike?"

"Yeah?" Spike sank down, Smolder's idea seeming a good one. "What's up?"

"I saw what you did."

"Huh?" Spike slowly rolled a shoulder, trying to get things in the right place.

Garble hiked a thumb towards the great door that hid the wolf. "It was about to… bite my dang head off… I heard you. It heard you… Thanks."

Smolder gave a weak thumbs up, looking like she wasn't up for moving too far from where she started. "That means you saved our back ends twice today, Spike. You're the hero."

"I wouldn't go that far," acidly retorted Garble with a scowl. "Anyway, how do we go home now? Just do the glow thing, again?"

"Yep." Sandra took a slow breath. "That's it… Outside of a fight, it works way faster, I think. I heard something about that. One big thing though, you may have noticed..."

Smolder hiked a brow. "There's more?"

"Just a little. If any of us use it, we all get dragged along. We're a party and it will affect the whole party. That much I know for sure." Sandra lifted her shoulders softly. "Probably for the best there if you ask me. Imagine just some of us vanishing in the middle of a big fight."

Spike shuddered, imagining facing down the wolf alone. “No thanks.”

"You're… okay Spike?" came Twilight's little voice. "Your levels are going back up, slower than I'd like."

“Yeah, that sounds awful,” Smolder said. “Anyway, time to leave, will you do the honors, Sandra?”

Garble looked down to Spike. “Hey, you got some more healing magic? I don’t wanna walk through town like this if I don’t have to.”

Spike slapped his hand down on the floor only to discover a stick in a way. He blinked with confusion and rolled over to see his staff there. A weight he hadn't realized lifted away as he grasped it carefully. "Yeah… one heal I can do."

As Spike healed Garble, Sandra became lost in her thoughts. “So… what are we doing now? We got stopped going up the tower.”

Smolder laughed. “Really? Isn’t it obvious?” She smacked her fist into her palm. “It’s time to start training. Like, we went in here just as soon as we got our new classes. Of course we couldn’t get to the top at first.”

Garble got up from the healing Spike was giving. “You think maybe fighting those weird ice armors near the boss floor would be good.” He cracked his knuckles. “I’m looking forward to fighting something tough.”

Spike hopped up too. “And I bet there are lots of new spells and stuff we could get!”

Scratching her chin, Smolder added, “I bet I could talk to Pella and she’d know how to get better more awesome stuff for my class.”

“Oh heck yes.” Garble grinned a wicked grin, caressing his sword. “I could show this new baby to the guys at the arena. They’ll be jealous as heck.”

As Smolder and Garble continued to gush about how much stronger they’ll get, Spike walked over and looked up to Sandra. “So… what do you think? You ready to do some training and come back to the tower?”

Sandra smiled weakly through the flood of memories to the last time she did this with her party. The time that went badly. “... Yeah. Let’s do it.”

Spike held a hand near a fin. "Can you hear me, Twi? We'll be alright. Just a little mistake. We'll get better."

They all glowed, but unlike the first time, it raised to a crescendo rapidly, the flash leaving the room empty. They had other places to be.

Author's Note

That could have gone better. That could also have gone much worse. The party takes it in good spirits I think.

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33 - Growth

Pella leaned across her stand. "You faced the first boss?" Her eyes darted up and down her dragon student, her long ears swiveling. "You seem to still be standing."

Smolder lifted her shoulders. "We saw him, fought him, and realized we weren't winning that one, so we bounced." She grabbed a kebab off Pella's stand, chomping it. "But your lessons really paid off. Being a battle chef is great! We need to practice a bit, get better gear, but we're gonna get past that jerk."

"Him? Ah… What… did that first boss appear as? Was it a six-armed giant with eyes of crackling electricity?"

Smolder frowned at that. "Not even close. Big angry dog in a room of pillar piles of stone. Fog everywhere?"

Pella shook her head. "I always suspected… Also." She held out a hand towards Smolder, only withdrawing it when coins were set in it. "Thank you. Each party faces different challenges, including the bosses. They are meant to test where you are weakest. It didn't break you… That's the important part."

Smolder swatted the side of her teacher's shoulder. "We didn't win, but we'll be back."

"I can't say the same of my group… You remember that." She scratched softly behind one of her long ears. "Lucky I made it out at all."

Smolder winced. "Yeah… Spike really came through for us, got us all out in one piece. He's a real stand-up dragon."

Pella's whiskers went askew. "For such a fine dragon, he only rarely stops by."

Smolder suddenly gave Pelle a shove with a bright laugh. "Don't be that way. He's training right now. I have to get back to that too. We're not gonna let this keep us down." She set down the kebab where the used ones went. "Thanks."

Pella watched her student stroll off with a bitter little smile. "Perhaps I gave up too quickly… Are they laughing at me, or happy I found this little life." She picked up the kebab and got to cleaning it. There was work yet to be done.

“Come and see then, the power of the summoner,” the robed figure said.

The young adventurer looked over, a hungry look in his eyes.

The robed figure waved his hands and summoned a small beaver, crackling with electricity, and the boy’s excitement drained from his face. “Really? A beaver?”

The robed figure raised a finger up. “Not just any beaver, an electric beaver!”

“Tch,” the boy took a step back. “I figured this would be cool, but this is lame.” He walked away.

The figure put his hands on his hips and looked down at his summon. “I thought for sure people liked electric rodents.” He sighed. “Next time, then.” He turned back up, sensing someone approaching. “Perhaps right now!” He whirled around to face someone, and raised an eyebrow at the figure.

Sandra stood before him, waving somewhat sheepishly. “Um… Hi.”

“A student of mine, welcome, welcome,” he said, sitting himself down. “Please, make yourself comfortable. I am happy to see you. Was your excursion productive?”

“Oh!” Sandra sat down on the ground. “Yes. I got a new spirit!”

“Ah, good!” The instructor’s face lit up. “While you can’t store an unlimited number of them, you definitely should collect a good number, now--”

“Ah, well, I had a question?” Sandra interrupted. “See, when I was using Aiden, and I asked him to do his biggest attack, he got… tired? Is that normal?”

He slapped his knees to disguise his sitting up. "I didn't expect I'd have to go over that just yet. You only just entered the tower, did you not?"

Sandra glanced towards the massive pillar. "Y-yes, we reached the first boss an--"

"Already?!" He was standing, leaping to his feet. He realized his outburst as quickly, clearing his throat and slowly sitting back down. "Quite the achievement… Against enemies that are too difficult to pierce, a loyal spirit will try with all their strength to press through. I hope you are not upset with them, I'm certain they did their best if they were forced back into the ether afterwards."

“I was... just worried that I did something wrong, which is why he was exhausted.”

“Well--” the instructor held up a finger. “--It’s not wrong as long as you’re alright with them needing to recuperate. Usually as long as you don’t crazy overwork them in each fight, and have magic reserves available, then they will be fine for the next one.”

“Well… this was in the boss fight, remember?”

“Yes, many spirits can expend the rest of their energy, but typically won't on their own. You must have been very much in need." He set two fingers down on her shoulder. "What were you thinking, just before Aiden acted?"

“Well… The fight was not going well. My party was getting beat up and… well I thought that we needed to do something drastic.”

The instructor nodded. “Yes, yes. That sounds definitely like the spirit was motivated by your desperation. Aiden was a fire spirit, right? They would be particularly sensitive to feelings like that. They burn bright, but all fires eventually fade. Better to be a star than a smoldering speck."

"Yeah…" Sandra rubbed behind her head. "But I should avoid doing that. It was scary, and I bet he was super tired afterwards."

"Oh, certainly. Have you not called him since then? Do that, thank him for his work." He brought his hands together softly. "You are a team. You are unified in victory and defeat."

Sandra looked down. “It’s the same with my party, isn’t it? If one of us messes up, we all kinda lose.”

“Well… that’s not exactly what I meant, but the same kind of principles apply, yes.” He laughed heartily. “That being said, your party can probably bail you out more easily than your spirits can. If you fall unconscious they won’t be able to help you for very long.”

Sandra looked down, and then back up. “What is the best way I can help out with my party? What can I do to help them with what I can do? Are there any other abilities I need to learn? Do I need special equipment? Do--”

“Hangon, hang on. One question at a time, now--”

With a great slam, his blade crackling angrily at the steel it met, Garble tried to press his moment of advantage, only for his mentor to suddenly dart back and to the side, allowing Garble to fall forward.

"You have improved." The less obviously mighty blade was at Garble's throat with the speed of silent lightning. "But there is room yet."

Garble slapped the blade aside as he turned to face his teacher. "That's why I'm here, right?"

A little smirk graced the human's face. "I am pleased to hear that." There was a time when Garble would not have admitted so easily he had more to learn. "Now let us spar, and tell me of the battles you waged."

"I was the sword of the team." He danced, ducking, parrying and coming in at the march of an unheard song. "Minus a few annoying things, and the boss that sent us packing, I was feeling powerful."

"Because you are." The teacher vanished. Garble spun his blade around suddenly, catching the unseen strike. "And you are growing more so, good…" He danced back, seemingly unbothered that his surprise strike was caught. "Just know that you stand at the start of the journey, not the end. This is the first of worse encounters you will face."

"Then I'll just have to get better and smash them too." Garble leaped at his mentor with bared teeth, pressing the spar to continue.

Spike trudged along the city. Go train by yourself. That was what the party was doing. Get new abilities, learn new strategies. All great, right? And he knew that all the other members were with the people who gave them classes.

Which left him to… wander around trying to figure out what to do. He figured an altar in a goblin infested cave wasn’t going to be a very good place to find strategies. Not that he could actually get through the goblins all alone.

He looked down at his guildchain, rolling the gem in his claw. The setting he had looked very much like a crown, with what he assumed were magic staffs or scepters on three points.

His class was all about working with the team. “Fighting alongside” them. What good was training alone?

… At least he could see if he can get any new gear.

He sighed, and he trudged. At least until he saw a familiar figure. Well, more accurately, she stood before him, directly in his way.

“Hmph. What do we have here?” The armored woman put her hands to her hips. “Miss Silver Spoon’s little servant demihuman?”

“Oh,” Spike muttered, stopping in his tracks and glaring at the woman. “It’s Tabitha. We haven’t seen you around to bully us.”

“I--” she flipped her hair. “Have better things to do than to keep tabs on my old useless party members, you know.”

“Great,” Spike said, trying to step aside around her. “So you can go do that, I can go away.”

She stepped back in front of him, grinning a wicked grin. “Aw, come on, summon. Regale me with tales of her helplessness.”

Spike snarled. “She’s not helpless. She got her new class, we got to the first boss of the tower, we’re spending time getting new skills and advice before we go in and start training as a party.”

Tabitha’s smile faded with this, turning into a cold glare. “Is that so,” she basically stated. “I didn’t think… she had it in her.”

She also stopped blocking him, so he began to finally make his way past her, only to give a look at the guildchain on her side. The setting showing her class was a now-familiar crown with scepters on the side. Spike halted.

Tabitha turned to him, looking down at his smaller figure. “You just--

“You’re a divine lord?” Spike said, interrupting her.

“... Excuse me?”

He looked up to her, now glaring back. “How the hay is a bully like you a class that’s all about healing and helping your friends. I’d have figured cruelty is not something a divine lord should do, you know.”

Her expression darkened into a scowl as others began to peer at them. "What do you know, summon?"

"About that." He held up his chain with a victorious smirk. "We aren't that anymore. Sandra isn't who you think she is anymore either. People change, they grow up. Pity you haven't."

"You've just been lucky!" she squeaked almost as much as any shout. "I bet you don't even know how to use that class. It's for humans. Which you are not and never will be no matter how much you 'grow'."

Some part of him suggested being the larger dragon. The rest of him… "Try me."

With a roar of laughter, a new male human showed up on the scene, one of Tabitha's party members. "You're going to let him talk to you like that? He just challenged you to a duel. You have to do it now."

Wait… "Duel?" Spike scratched at the side of his head in rapidly growing alarm.

Tabitha wasn't nearly as confused, stomping a foot with balled fists. "I'll crush you! See you in the arena, three days! If you aren't there, I'll know you're a little scaley coward not even worth consideration." Tabitha turned up her nose and stormed away.

The team-mate, still as well armored as always, slapped Spike's shoulder. "I'll be there to see how you do, Dragon. Make it an interesting show."

Author's Note

Everyone's gathering their strength. Spike gets into a duel. Spike, that wasn't the plan...

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34 - Fight!

Spike sank onto his bed, head resting on his hands and a worried groan issuing forth.

Sandra peered over at the noise. "Your training didn't go so well?"

"Worse than that." He threw a hand aside. "I ran into Tabitha and--"

Sandra's hands clenched a moment. "Oh!... How is she?"

"Just as annoying as ever." Spike crossed his arms. "And now I have to duel her."

"Spike!" Garble rolled over, face becoming visible from his bunk. "You're going to fight her? I didn't expect that. Awesome."

Smolder wasn't as excited. "We're still in town. Are we allowed to go fighting each other? I'm pretty sure I remember that being against the rules."

All eyes turned to Sandra and she raised her hands. "No, but yes. If you fight in the right place and in the right way, it's allowed. Did she tell you to go to the arena?"

"Yeah." Spike nodded. "In three days."

"Then you have a choice." She raised a finger into the air. "One, you go. You'll set terms, usually until someone gives up or is knocked out, and you fight." Another finger joined it from the same hand. "Two, you just don't go. She can make fun of you, but that's about it."

"Pfft, yeah, nevermind." Garble rolled back to facing away. "I thought you were about to do something cool."

Smolder caught her dagger in her sheath instead of her hand. "Actually, what are the rules for this? Besides taking it or not."

Sandra shrugged, looking to Spike. "What did you agree to? Not that it matters much until you're there. The rules get set at the arena. Why?" She looked back to Smolder. "Something on your mind?"

"Well, yeah." She pointed at Spike. "You're a support. A great one, may I add, but still a support. Even the greatest support is going to be kind of sketchy in a one on one duel. You need someone to support!" She hiked a thumb at herself. "I'll be your champ--"

Garble made quite the slam, suddenly landing on his feet. "You're support too, Sis. I'll cut them in half. Spike'll do what he does."

Spike looked up, surprised. “Really?” he said incredulously.

Garble raised an eyebrow. “What, you don’t want my help?”

“No no!” Spike waved his hands. “It’s good. I’m just surprised you want to help me.”

“Well, maybe I decided that dueling in an arena was cool.” Garble glared at Spike. “Because it is definitely objectively cool, so there.”

“Oh… sure,” Spike said, looking at Garble sidelong. “I’m sure that’s it.”

“Relax, shrimp!” Garble puffed his chest out. “There’s no way we can lose with me there. I do arena fights all the time.”

Sandra sat down on the bench, looking aside at Smolder as she sank down beside her. "I've never been here, I mean, for a friend. To watch a friend fight, you know?"

Smolder lifted her shoulders. "If the worst they can do is knock each other around a little, it's not that big of a deal. Why aren’t you looking forward to this?"

Sandra blinked at Smolder. “Why… would I be?”

“Tabitha’s like, your mortal enemy. We’ve personally seen her bully you over and over. I bet you are looking forward to wiping the smile off of her face, right?” Smolder grabbed a small bag of popcorn from a passing vendor, flicking them a coin without interrupting her conversation.

“Oh. That.” Sandra did not look like she was looking forward to that.

Smolder nudged her. “What's up? Why aren’t you looking forward to this? I thought she hated you.”

“I mean… it’s not exactly unwarranted…” Sandra sighed. “But it’s not just that. I don’t think Spike and Garble can win.” She suddenly snatched one of Smolder's popcorn, stuffing it in her mouth and chewing moodily.

“Say what?!” She held the bag a little closer, protectively, but her eyes were on Sandra.

“Tabitha is… she’s good. She’s smart, she’s determined, she’s tough. And she’s good at working with a team.” Sandra looked down at the ground. “When you’re in her party, you know you can count on her. No matter what.”

Smolder raised an eyebrow. “No offense, but that does not sound like the Tabitha I met.”

"We interrupt our usual bouts for a duel," came an announcing voice, echoing across the small arena. "Not for gold but to satisfy their honor. On the south side; you know her, you love her, it's Tabitha the Stout with Tomas the Terrible, combining her shield with his sword."

The crowd cheered as they stepped into view. Tabitha had a triumphant smirk on her face already, waving as if to people she knew, and perhaps she did. Tomás, the fencer Spike had run into not long before, sliced his thin blade through the air as if testing it.

"Across from them, freshly qualified to enter the tower and letting the power rush to their heads. A demihuman that knows so little about the divine lord he still uses a staff and a local up and comer you all already know. Bring 'em together for Garble the Great!"

The response was more mixed for Spike and Garble's entrance, with cheers and whops for the larger of them as others peered at Spike skeptically, him and his staff.

Spike took a deep breath, and tried to focus on Tabitha and Tomás. The crowd didn’t matter, the announcer didn’t matter, all that mattered was showing up Tabitha.

The two teams approached each other, standing with just a few feet between each other, as the announcer continued.

“The newcomer has requested the match be a two versus two match, but this isn’t just because he needs arena training wheels--” Spike’s eyebrow twitched “--But because his chosen class is all about teamwork, the rules are if any one combatant either is unwilling or unable to continue fighting, that team loses.”

“Gotta hand it to ya,” Tomás said, holding his blade and other hand out in an open gesture. “A team fight is a pretty good idea. But--” He pointed his blade at Spike. “--You also messed up picking teamwork up against us, Tabitha’s a master at that stuff.”

Spike opened his mouth to respond, only for Garble to hop in, “I dunno why.” He grabbed his enormous longsword sword, pulling it almost laboriously out of his sheath. “With that toothpick there, I doubt you’ll even be able to get through my armor.”

“I think you’ll find his blade more than enough against the likes of you,” Tabitha shot in.

"I was talking to that guy." He hiked a thumb at Tomás. "Spike, I'm going to tear them apart. You keep me upright."

Tomás burst into gay laughter at the scene. "Is he a guardian, or a healer? I'm looking forward to this fight more and more."

A loud gong sounded, the battle was on. Garble charged with a great roar of noise and flame, waving his sword like a great pendulum of pain. Their eyes focused on him, Tomás was not expecting the sudden magical bolt the caught him in the side, making him dance back with a wince. "What was that?!"

Tabitha hurried forward, getting between Tomás and the oncoming Garble. "Look at him charging alone. Finish him quickly and we can mop up the little brat at our leisure." She hadn't even seen her friend get pegged in that first instant.

Tomás waited until Garble's sword clanged as loudly as the gong against Tabitha's shield, lightning crackling dangerously around them. He lunged in, sliding his thin blade between two plates of armor as if the gap was a mile apart instead of a precious half inch. But Garble didn't even flinch, twirling in place and smashing the little weapon.

Despite its frail appearance, it held firm. Tomás was pushed back, but entirely intact. "Pattern two," he grunted with a frown. "The time for games is closing."

Garble turned toward the fencer, getting ready to slash again, only to get lunged at by Tabitha, her shield forcing him away. He backed up, pulling his abdomen out of the way, only for Tomás to bear down on him, thrusting in an attack. Garble was too slow to get his weapon up, and was rewarded with another stab wound. Before he could even react, Tabitha was slashing at him again, scoring a glancing slice at his side.

Spike grimaced but held firm, drawing the injuries Garble suffered away as quickly as they came, his staff glimmering with green power in his dance between redirecting and mending the injuries to keep Garble fighting without distraction. "Every… lash is another reason… to win." He hadn't thought the words, they just came out, and felt oddly natural.

Garble grit his teeth in a grin, and brought his sword up. If Spike had the heals, he could do the damage. “Lightning Lash,” he shouted, and the blade crackled as he brought it down on Tomás, only for Tabitha to deftly bring her shield up, it glowing with gold runes.

"We are seeing something special," gushed the announcer. "Two sides of a class we thought we knew so well. The bloody martyr fell out of favor years ago, but this little demi-human thinks he can bring it back. Keep your eyes peeled to see how this goes!"

"Their tank works from behind." Tomás darted around Garble, ducking nimbly under a wild swing to rush for Spike. "I'll take care of it."

"Hey!" Garble turned just to have Tabitha right in front of him.

"I'm not done with you." Tabitha slammed the shield into his chest, knocking him off his footing. "It's not nice to switch dance partners like that."

Spike gripped his staff tightly between his two hands, seeing Tomás sprinting in with the sharp rapier at the ready. "For every lash… I return it twice." He took a step forward, the ground indenting beneath his small foot, magic swirling violently.

"Your special effects don't scare me." Tomás ducked left and right, as if preparing to dodge whatever magic came him, but no bolt ever came. He got in close and lunged forward with his sword. "Too s--"

Spike drove his staff up at an angle and jabbed it into Tomás' shoulder where pain exploded as if he had been stabbed repeatedly. He howled with unexpected agony, falling back, his rapier clattering to the ground from a temporarily numb hand.

Tabitha's eyes darted towards him. She had expected him to clean house on the healing-specialized tank, not a cry of pain. Jittering lightning threw off her even instant of distraction, Garble's sword slamming into her armor from the side. "It's rude to look at other dancers or whatever," he taunted, already dancing from the first swing into the next. "They're big boys, they can handle themselves."

The crowd roared their approval, feet stomping the ground and bets suddenly being placed on a much more interesting battle. "He has a lot more going on than we thought. We have a striker and a defender in two matches, but one of the defenders doesn't look that defended."

Spike kicked the rapier away. "Defended enough."

"First mistake." Tomás stepped to the side in a burst of speed, snatching his weapon from the ground. "But you are doing exactly what I asked for, so thanks for that."

"Huh?" Spike swatted aside an incoming sword point with his staff. "What'd I do?"

"You made it interesting." His point seemed to become many, suddenly jabbing at Spike from a dozen places at once. The little dragon tried to parry and dodge, but there were too many and they were too fast, puncturing his scaled flesh with yelps of pain.

Tabitha suddenly pulled her shield back before holding it high and forward as if trying to bash Garble in the face. It flashed brightly, blindingly bright white light that sent him reeling, rubbing his eyes with one arm even as he swung wildly through the air with a roar of anger.

"The tables," Tomás taunted. "They have turned." His rapier glowed with personal violet energy, going for a telling blow. Spike thrust his arm forward, a shield appearing on it suddenly, but the rapier dancing even as it came in to avoid it.

But he hadn't been watching the staff. A sudden flash of angry light fired from it, catching Tomás in the face just as he was extending his arm. The rapier sailed over Spike's shoulder, only missing for his small stature. Spike snapped his staff to the side, grasping it with both hands, the shield gone. It smashed into the rapier, knocking it free of his hands.

Tomás suddenly raised his hands. "I concede."

Spike blinked softly. "What? I mean... I didn't beat you."

"You didn't have to." He waggled a finger. "I asked you to make it interesting and show me you had something. You did both of those. I concede!" He repeated that last word louder to get over the din of the crowd.

The crowd erupted in cheers and jeers, some openly mocking Tomás for giving up so easily, but he didn't seem all that bothered about it. Tabitha let her shield fall. "What? What?! Tomás! You traitor!"

Garble laughed as he sheathed his blade. "Seems you picked a terrible partner. Spike wouldn't ever give up that easily."

Spike was smiling. Had Garble just complimented him without insults attached? "You did great, Garble!"

Tomás plucked up his rapier and sheathed it smoothly. "The way I see it, he has proven he knows how to be a divine lord. That was the entire point, was it not? Any further is just a boorish waste of time."

Tabitha ran at him with a piercing wail, shoving him with both hands even as he danced away. "That was not the 'entire point'! I didn't say you could give up! Who gives up against two demi-humans that barely know what they're doing?!"

"It seems not both sides of the team agreed with losing, but the rules were set." The announcer sounded sad and disappointed. "If either side is defeated, they both lose. Who would have seen it coming, losing to two up and coming demis with chips on their shoulder. We should keep an eye on these two, they have something ahead of them if they don't get murdered by something in the tower that doesn't give up the moment things get interesting."

The crowd seemed more focused on booing Tomás than cheering the dragons. Their fight had been interrupted due to his apparent cowardice. Despite this, Spike approached. "Hey, uh... good fight. You don't... seem so bad."

"You are not so bad yourself, little dragon." Tomás tipped his hat lightly. "But I will not surrender if we clash in the tower. All's fair there."

Author's Note

Want some honest opinions. How was that scrap? Did they seem unbalanced? Was Spike too awesome? Lemme know!

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35 - Second Wind

"I realize my mistake."

Sandra looked over from where she had been speaking quietly with Aiden, though the phoenix-owl had been not replying in any audible way. "What mistake, Spike?"

"I'm not a healer." Spike clapped his hands. "And I'm not a tank."

Garble hiked his brow from his top bunk. "Funny, I thought that was exactly the two things you did. So what are you then?"

Spike hopped down from his chair, his staff held high. "I'm in the front row. I should be the ones in their face, turning their attacks back."

Smolder tossed her dagger up and sat up, catching it as it came back down. "Sounds good to me. I'm more in the back row these days, throwing out some hurt and supporting. It's working out."

"You're happy with that?" Garble leaned over the edge of his bunk. "I thought you liked being right up in there, stabbing things, cooking them, and eating them. Not always in that order."

Smolder flashed her sharp teeth. "You know just what to say, Bro. You think I'll stop doing that? It's about getting us to the top. We have to play it smart if we want to smash that stupid dog in its equally stupid face and then face off against things that make it look easy."

"Speaking of that." Spike twirled his staff and conjured his shield in the same motion. "While I'm totally cool with you getting that big sword first, we could all use some upgrades. I motion we sell off everything we aren't using now that we're in town and do some shopping."

Sandra's hands came together in a smart clap. "Shopping! Yes, we should definitely do that. Now that you brought it up, it's basically a miracle we got so far with the equipment we had, but even more important than that--"

Smolder hiked a scaled brow. "What's more important than that?"

"We got materials, remember?" She drew out a small chunk of strange metal from her robes. "A good bit of it, from the arena fight. There are artisans in town that know how to work with it." She pointed at Spike's head. "Remember how the guild paid us for your crown? That's because it was material too, though a step removed."

Garble sat up, his grin growing by the moment. "Now you're talking my language. So we can all get our upgrade." He hiked a thumb at his sword, resting against the wall. "I'll take a pass on a weapon upgrade. Mine's already awesome."

Smolder snorted on her way towards the door. "Yeah, thanks. C'mon!" With a wave, she got them moving. All four poured out of the inn and marched determinately towards the market side of town.

Sandra pointed to a particular building, made of stone with smoke billowing from the top. "I know that smith, maybe they'll give us a good rate?" No strong objections came, mostly shrugs and alrights, so she led them onwards. A small bell jingled as she pushed open the door. "Hello."

There was a human there, but they were no burly smith. They looked like a wisp of a female with a bright smile. "Hello to you too. Sandra, it's been forever. I honestly though you'd given up." The others came in behind Sandra and the smith's eyes widened. "Are they with you?"

Sandra waved at her team. "Say hello to the rest of my party. We've made it up to the first checkpoint and we need better equipment to take down the first boss."

"The first boss?!" She danced closer. "First. Boss? My little Sandra! I thought you'd never... But here you are. You've destroyed all my expectations." She burst into airy giggles, suddenly reaching to hug Sandra, tightly squeezing the confused summoner. "Don't look like that. I'm so happy for you. So what are we doing today?"

Smolder held out a strange plasticky chunk. "Sandra mentioned 'materials' like this could be--"

"--Look at that!" The smith whipped around and snatched the plastic away. "Mmm Mmm, very nice. Obviously first level material, but first tower level material, very nice." She twirled it and examined it with obvious interest. "You have more than this, I assume?"

Spike pulled out a bit he had, more metallic, and spikey. "What can you make with it? Um... Miss...?"

"Oh! Look at me." She snatched the metal bit, grabbing it with the skill required to not stab herself with its spikes. "Just so excited. You can call me Tammy, and you're in good hands. The more you have, the more I can make, so stop teasing me and get out all the materials you have."

Garble pushed ahead of the others. "Hold on. You're just taking our stuff. Start explaining what we get back for it."

Tammy inclined her head faintly before clucking her tongue. "Dragon."

Garble blinked softly. "Yeah?"

"A dragon!" She twirled around, setting the two chunks of material down and finishing the spin to face him. "I've worked with dragon scales and dragon teeth and dragon claws and dragon... almost everything else, but I never had one come up and say hello to me before."

Sandra gestured to Garble, then the others. "Welcome to my party, 75% dragon by volume."

Smolder puffed out her chest with a wry smirk. "It's alright if you want to bask in our glory a moment."

"Well, since you offered." Tammy had no shame, reaching to paw at Garble, feeling his scales and face and how everything fit together. "You are so much more interesting put together! Why are people pulling dragons apart?! Say! Can you do the fire thing?"

Garble swatted her hands away with an angry snort, flames escaping his nostrils. "I'm about to give you a real personal demonstration."

"Oh, yes, please!" Tammy clapped her hands and danced away towards a large machine that occupied much of the room. "Right there." She pointed to a hatch. "Some actual dragon flames should improve my furnace's efficiency! If it works, discount for you. Only fair."

Smolder swaggered towards the hatch. "I have the strongest fire breath, let me at it."

"What are you talking about," thundered Garble, storming after her. "My fire is way better!"

"Competition?" Smolder grinned at him, a spot of flame escaping her snout. "Hey, Spike, join in. Let's see which dragon has the most puff."

"Pfft, if either us loses to Spike, they get to be his servant for a day." Garble drew in a sharp breath.

Tammy casually reached over with a foot, stepping on a pedal that caused the hatch to pop open, ready to receive the flames. Other than an annoyed grumble from Spike, there were no more words left between the three. Garble went first, gushing angry flames. The machine came to life, blinking and colorful. A meter sprang to life, growing into the yellow before simmering back down into the green as the flames ended.

"My turn." Smolder took in all the air she could, torso swollen a moment before she let it all out. The bar filled, twitching around the yellow before starting to fall back down into the green, an almost identical performance to Garble. "Hm, go on, Spike. Show us what you have."

Spike sidestepped into position, facing the hatch. He had breathed plenty of fire before! Small ones, to send letters, and big ones... Right. He captured the thought in his head, focusing on that dread instant, when so many ponies could have been hurt, when he was the only thing between them and being painfully crushed by a floating island of ice.

He could feel the fire. With a soft inhale, he stoked it, burning hot inside him. With a sudden roar he let it out, gushing into the strange machine. Its meter slammed into yellow instantly and began to show bits of orange as it pushed past, lapping just faintly into the red before it started to peter back, fading into the lower portion of yellow.

Tammy took off her foot with an excited clap as metal slapped against metal in a loud closing snap. "Oh, marvelous! Fantastic! Sandra, where did you get three wonderful dragon friends? Ooo, I can't wait to forge on this." She worried her fingers together with a manic grin. "Now, materials! Give them up. I need to get started before I explode with excitement."

Smolder and Garble were standing there, limbs loose, jaws hanging. They had been beaten at fire breathing. By Spike.

Sandra's hands came down on either of Spike's shoulders. "Wow, that was great! Alright, everyone get out all the materials you have." She began pulling out all she had.

Smolder allowed a little chuckle as she dropped what few bits she had left. "Well, be nice, Spike. I mean, Sir."

"Ain't gettin' me to say 'Sir'." Garble snorted angrily as he threw down what he had.

Spike smiled a little awkwardly. "I command you both continue being amazing dragons."

"Ooo, that's a hard one." Smolder moved over to elbow Spike. "I'll do my best."

Garble didn't accept it as easily, grunting. "I'm not taking your pity. Hey, you." He was looking at Tammy. "Here's all our stuff, so what can you do?"

Tammy was already gathering all the materials. "One moment. One moment... Let me see one of your guildchains kindly?" She happened to be near Spike and saw his dangling. "There we are." She almost pulled the poor drake off his feet as she yanked the chain over to the grand machine.

Once it was close enough, the machine made a new beep. "Open a party account," ordered Tammy and the machine was quick to obey, showing the faces of everyone in the party. "And now in we go." She began tossing the material into the center of the machine, each causing a gush of flame before sinking into the inferno.

The machine began to show which materials had been stored beneath everyone's image. On the third toss, things began to appear. "Those are things the machine knows I can make, but those are suggestions, not always the limit. With the dragon's breath in there, I'm feeling... spicy!" She didn't slow her feeding of the great metal beast. "The machine will remember what you gave me, so you don't have to do all your shopping at once. Isn't that handy?"

Smolder leaned in a bit, squinting at the little images of items. "It also keeps us from wandering to another smith."

Tammy paused, tapping a smooth bit of metal to her cheek. "I never thought of that before, huh... You have a point. Still, it has to be in there for me to do things with it, so--" And in went the smooth metal, joining its friends in the flames. "I didn't design this thing. I bought it from the last person who owned it, who got it from someone else. I don't even really know who built the furnace in the first place, but I owe them a thanks considering it's my business and all." She snorted a laugh as she tossed in the last bit of material offered to her. "Look at all those options!"

She reached out into the air and physically grabbed the image, pulling it closer and stretching it wider so it was much easier to see each thing. "So anything you see here, I can make, no problem. On the other hand... You can show some faith and describe something a bit fancier and I can give it my best shot. If it works out, fantastic! I get to add a new recipe to the sheet here. If not... I won't charge anything, but your materials will be shot."

Smolder jabbed a finger forward. "Hey, why do those boots have wings?"

"Jump boots!" excitedly announced Tammy. "With those, you can..." She trailed off, looking over her customers. "Most of you really don't need that. You have wings. They do work, right?"

Spike gestured at Sandra with a grin. "They work great, but if you could make Sandra fly too, that'd be really great."

Author's Note

Shopping! Nocreature told me there'd be shopping in my adventure! And we're not even done after a whole chapter?! I'm sorry. You can blame this entirely on me. I wrote this chapter (Rad was le busy). That includes the typos, alas.

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36 - Not Flying

"Jump boots do exactly what the name suggests," Noted Tammy as she snatched the image of the winged boots and set it in the middle of the air. An image of a random human wearing them came to be, two dimensional and floating there. The human took a few steps before leaping.

The wings of the boots began to pump, allowing them to sail across the room in a straight line for an impressive distance before they came back down, thumbed up, and reset, starting to do the motion again. "Just like that!"

Spike hiked both thumbs at himself. "I've learned that I don't know as much as I want to, so, what do you suggest for me? I'm a front row divine lord with a 'martyr' focus? I can take damage for my team and return that to a bad guy by hitting them with this." He raised his staff for inspection. "I can shoot energy, uh, white? I have a shield." He raised his shield, both arms then high.

"And you're a dragon with lots of fire," noted Tammy with a soft nodding. "Can't forget that part. Alright. First of all..." She leaned in close, a swirl of information flashing in front of her eyes, illuminating her face a moment as she examined the staff, then the shield. "These are inadequate! Enough for the training fields, but not much more." She turned her vision to his chest, his shirt glowing a moment. "That barely even counts as armor! How have you survived until now?"

"By not being hit," explained Spike with a single raised finger. "And mostly by hiding in the back row, which I want to fix."

She snatched the leaping human right out of the air, squirming helplessly as she shoved them back onto the selection menu where they became just the jumping boots. "Well this just won't do even a little bit. Being a divine lord, you can wear heavy armor, and if you plan to be in front, you may want to consider it, but heavy armor may get in the way of using those cute little wings of yours."

"About that." Spike glanced back at his wings and at Tammy. "I notice you don't call us demi-humans, like everyone else that isn't Sandra and even she had to learn the difference. Why?"

"Because you're dragons." She began to scroll through her selection of things. "Because dragons aren't even part human, like the others. Only stupid people think that."

"Hey," defended Sandra, rubbing one of her arms.

"Sorry Sandcakes, I didn't mean you. At least you learned." She brought her finger down on a new staff and pulled it free. Instead of hanging it in the air, she shoved the image against Spike. "Try that."

Suddenly Spike's staff had a new staff overlaid atop it. It had a big jewel at the top and was a little longer. He could feel some warmth coming from the inside as he gave it a few test swings. It felt good in his hands. "Nice... What does it do?"

"What staves do, better," helpfully explained Tammy. "With that you'll cast your spells better, hit things better, and run out of energy slower. It doesn't do anything, like new things, just lets you do what you do better."

Smolder suddenly snatched the staff away from Spike and held out the strange dual-staff at Tammy. "So what if we want it do something too? You said you could go that extra mile with the breath we so graciously contributed, right?"

Tammy casually snatched the image back, peeling it free of the actual staff easily. "Then I'm making a new staff, which I am totally ready to try. Remember what I said about that."

Garble lifted his shoulders. "Go on. You got three dragons' worth of fire, yeah? Do something cool with it."

"Exactly what I was hoping for." She shoved the image back where it had come from and closed the window it had lived in. She pulled open a new one and started tapping materials shown there. "This, this... definitely this... Spike, give me that staff you have."

"Huh? Okay." He offered it towards Tammy, just to have it yanked away and thrown right into the furnace, consumed in flames. "Uh... Good luck?"

"I'll need a dash of that." She swiped from left to right and the bar appeared, warming up rapidly into mid-yellow. "Let's try this out..." The staff rose out of the pit of flames, unharmed for its time there, but visibly smoldering. Metal oozed upwards, creating supporting lines and a claw at the end. A great gem lifted to rest in that claw as a plume of flames engulfed the entire thing. "Oooo, this is... Right, delicate part." She sucked on her breath through her teeth as she fiddled with dials, rapidly tapping at the glowing keys in the air.

Just as suddenly, she was reaching into the flames, pulling the staff free. The furnace's levels began to lower back towards high green as she swung it towards Spike. "I present!"

Spike reached and she didn't resist him taking the staff. It was his staff, but also note, clearly modified. It felt different in his hand, a touch heavier, but more... powerful. He could feel his magic flowing through it, gathering... "Is this orb thingie collecting my magic." He peered at it. Whatever crystal it was made of, it smelled delicious.

"Is it? That's good to know." Tammy dutifully made notes as she added it to her recipe list. "It should be keyed to your class and, you know, being a dragon. I made it for you! Now, that doesn't mean I won't sell it to someone else who happens to be a divine lord martyr, but those are so rare these days. Most people don't go for that spec anymore."

Spike slung his staff on his back with a satisfied nod. "I don't get it. Isn't that what a divine lord is basically? A healer that, you know, sacrifices for the good of others?"

Smolder swatted Spike's back. "That's one thing they can be, figures you saw it that way. You're always ready to give it all up for other creatures. One of your really noble traits."

"Weird traits," scoffed Garble. "Alright, he got a new staff, we got plenty more to go."

Tammy was perfectly happy to get right back to work. Smolder got a new set of daggers, red and blue in color, equally fit for cooking or stabbing. A new set of mail covered her with fine rings that didn't clink when she moved. Garble was given nothing at all. "Nice sword," she complimented. "Easily the best gear in the party. If you ever swap to something else, I call dibs on melting it down."

"Yeah, not happening." He huffed out a small bit of flames before hiking a thumb at Sandra. "What about her?"

Tammy pulled Sandra closer, looking her over. "Hmm hmm... Hmmm... Alright." She snapped her fingers and reached for her recipe list, pulling a set of robes free. "I think this would do pretty well."

Sandra took the picture of robes from Tammy and held it to her chest. It expanded out, overlapping her current suit. "Oh!" Apparently she could feel some difference in it as she looked herself over. "It's warm and feels... supportive."

"Supportive is just the right word." Tammy nodded firmly. "It'll keep your magic going strong, and your magic is what you use, right? You're still a spellcaster?"

Sandra held out an empty hand. With a flare of light and heat, Aiden came into being, wings spread out and folding back as embers drifted down around it. "Meet Aiden."

"Hello, Aiden." Tammy pointed past Aiden to Sandra. "I'm giving her more power so you can use it." Aiden hooted and Tammy nodded as if she understood it. "Right? I knew you'd like it." Tammy danced back to her furnace. "Shall I begin?"

Sandra was soon wearing a new set of robes, colored with red and orange trims to match her first summon. She also had a wire tiara on her head. Tammy didn't seem done, busily crafting with soft murmurings, fingers quickly at work. "Now this isn't a new thing, but 'new' doesn't always mean 'better', in this case. I made this up myself a while ago, but I like it." She plucked a shield free of her furnace and twirled it in place, examining it for defects before hurling it like a frisbee towards Spike.

He caught it and slid it over his arm. His original fell to the ground, apparently realizing he had swapped. "Huh." He reached down, but Tammy snatched it up before he got it.

"You don't need that." She tossed it casually into the furnace. "We can reclaim some of its materials for later. How does the new one feel?"

It was made of smooth metal, wider at the top and coming to a point at the bottom. It was a soft cyan shade and had the icon of a dragon on the front, flames erupting from its mouth. Spike smirked at that as he waved it softly, testing its heft. "Did it have that picture before?"

"Nope, added that for you." Tammy leaned in with a big grin. "Like it? It's a nice combination of strength and small size. It's no tower shield, but you're not a tower shield kinda guy I don't think."

"Nah, nothing that huge." He pulled his staff off and tried them together, parrying invisible blows with his shield and thrusting his staff out, grunting and shouting in false combat.

As he did that, Tammy turned to the rest. "Satisfied? Did you want something for him?" She indicated Garble with a smile. "He's still lapping you all with that sweet drop there."

Garble thrust a claw at Spike. "You swapped his stick and his shield but no armor?" He clanged his claws against his own breastplate. "If he wants to be front row, he'll want some armor."

"Martyr builds don't usually do heavy armor," mused Tammy, looking thoughtful as she tapped a foot. "What do you think, Spike?"

"Huh?" He willed his shield away and slung his staff. "A little armor wouldn't be bad. Maybe some chain like Smolder has?"

"Chain it is!" Tammy was quick to produce another set of chain armor sized for Spike, tossing it his way. "There you go, all suited up. Now go crush that tower, or at least come back with second level materials for me to play with." She giggled, eyes shining with the thought of the more exotic materials gotten from higher up the tower. "Either way's fine by me."

Sandra stepped up, offering an arm. The two were soon hugging. "Thanks for taking care of us."

Tammy waved at the dragons and soon had Spike and Smolder in the hug, Garble sneering at the whole thing. Tammy shugged and enjoyed her hug with the others. "Alright, seriously, come back with some great news." She hopped back and fired a double thumbs-up. "I'll keep the furnace warm while you're away."

They emerged into the dimmer light of evening, the day spent getting kitted out. Garble softly shrugged as he went. "She was nice enough. Why didn't you bring her up before?"

"We didn't have anything for her to do," sighed out Sandra. "Once we had materials..."

"She could get to work," cut in Smolder with a grin. "Makes sense to me. Glad to see you have a friend besides us. You should stop by and say hi to her, even if you aren't buying things."

"I was... kind of embarrassed... I told her last time I would get it right." She rubbed her cheek awkwardly. "I only just started doing that."

Spike hopped ahead. "Pity she couldn't make you fly, but let's get a bite to eat and tomorrow, group training."

Garble rolled his eyes mightily. "Ugh, guess we should. You need some practice to keep up with my awesome moves."

Author's Note

See, this is what happens when you leave me at the helm. Two weeks it was just me writing and they spent it all shopping. Ugh, promise they're done with that! Does that big dog stand a chance against our improved team?

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37 - Trust Building

The starting fields held no threat to them. What few monsters dared to come close were swatted back with childish ease. Fortunately, they were moving through it instead of trying to train there. Smolder pointed ahead. "Now, we could go back in the tower, but we agreed to not try that chance until after at least a little practice first, so today, we plunder the forest. Tomorrow, the tower if we're ready for more."

“You agreed to not try the tower,” Garble grumbled. “I don’t see how a forest could ever compete with how dangerous the tower is.”

“Some adventurers never even step foot in any tower, you know that, right Garble?” Sandra said. “The tower is it’s own… thing. Other adventurers spend all their time in caves and forests and out fighting other adventurers.”

“Besides,” Smolder piped in. “We’re here to practice working together, not fighting the hardest stuff in the world. If the monsters here aren’t any tough, we spend some time, leave, do something harder next time.”

Aiden appeared without being called, looking towards a portion of the forest they approached. Sandra followed its gaze and it dawned on her. "Oh hey! Look." The others looked towards the trees, but there were just trees. "Guys, this is where the burnt patch was. It's been healing while we were away."

Spike smiled with genuine joy. "That's great! Is it all better? Looks like a lot of trees to me."

Sandra shook her head. "Close, but wow, definitely on the way." Her steps became more confident, knowing she had played some part in the restoration of the forest. Aiden played silent vigil, watching the place where he had been born.

With a sudden piercing wail, they were set upon just entering the cover of the trees by angry, big-eyed monkeys with flailing hands. They would not have to search long for practice. Instead of hanging back, Spike charged right alongside Garble, leaving Sandra and Smolder behind.

Smolder edged just in front of Sandra. "I'm basically the back guard. Anyone tries to get on you, they're getting cooked." She twirled her suddenly present daggers in ready position. "I do mean that literally, of course."

"Of course." She thrust out a hand and Aiden launched free of her arm. "Let's get you some cooking supplies."

The monkeys rushed out, their fists crashing into the front line. Neither Garble nor Spike were bat away, but they were outnumbered and hit. Garble sliced at the nearest one, landing a decisive slash, but the monkey didn’t fall from the hit, merely hesitating a vital moment in the wave of simian flesh.

Spike was glowing brightly, a strange white/green hue that echoed more dimly in his party mates. His staff flared as he brought it in a two-handed arc, knocking one right off their feet as it crashed into their knees, but another was practically climbing over the body before it finished hitting the ground.

Then the fire came, Aiden soaring just overhead, sheets of heat and flame raining down from its spread wings on the enemies below. The fire was a living thing, clinging to and attacking the monkeys and turning away from the dragons, even if they held no particular fear of flames.

The now flaming monkeys flailed those fists and met with Garble's blade. In an arc of crackling precision, he removed several fists in one cruel motion. "Such a good audience, giving me a hand like that."

Spike, for his part, was doing his best to knock heads with his staff, swinging it, the new gemmed head glowing as he beat away the assailants. With a moment of free time, he sent a quick healing pulse to Garble, who no doubt needed it, but went straight back to hitting.

Fire continued to rain down on the monkeys, while the two in the front clubbed and sliced their way through the enemies.

And Smolder was actually kind of bored. None of the monsters had gotten past anyone yet. She huffed. They needed a plan for when protection wasn’t needed, huh? Aiden's cry signified that change, a smaller chunk of the swarm following it as the fire bird came flying towards them.

Even as Smolder charged with a rejoiceful cry, Sandra slashed the air with a hand, Aiden vanishing in a bright puff and the ground erupting in stone, her rock golem climbing free, jewels glistening with the promise of solid defense. Monkeys crashed against twirling knives and great crushing fists.

Not only were they holding their own quite well, and little floating fires proving as gravestones, er, future meals, but their antics took enough pressure off the two in the front, allowing Spike and Garble to start beating back the diminished horde, the flames weakening them when bludgeoning staff strikes and dismembering blades weren't doing the job fast enough.

A loud ring of steel echoed out as a clenched fist larger, and stronger, then the others met Garble's blade and did not yield. Its owner was a huge arm, attached to the running, burning, mass of the others, flowing together into something greater and more terrible than the many others that had been slain so rapidly together.

Sandra hissed a breath. "Looks like we managed to do it again…" Much like when they had first started, the mass killing in such a short time had called a sudden boss to face them. "This time we'll handle it," she said, as much to bolster herself as anyone else that could hear her.

Garble, however, bellowed a laugh. “Would ya look at this! I thought this was gonna be just us whaling on some kind of little loser monster.”

The manamerged monster roared, finally coalescing into a huge monkey, as large as the monster in the tower, wreathed in flowing flames. It rose it’s huge fists, and slammed them down, barely missing Garble and Spike as they lept back. But... Garble felt strange. It felt a little like being in a magma pool but bad, instead of good.

Garble spun around and cut at its arms, biting into the skin but not slicing through it like it’s smaller form. The wreaths of fire lashed out, and Garble paid no mind, slashing again, right until they collided with him, sending him off of his feet with a sharp slap.

Garble cried out. “Ow. What the hey?!”

Spike ducked down underneath another fist, a wave of flame washing over him, which hit him and stung. It was a new feeling, and he had to grit his teeth to bear it.

The monkey brought its arms back up again, roaring and the flames gathered, and as it prepared to slam it down, Spike brought his staff up, ready to absorb the attack.

Garble pulled himself up and braced himself just in time for the second burst of flame to wash over him, the same stinging inflicted on him, but only pushing him back instead of knocking him off his feet. “What the hey is this.”

Spike sprang forward gritting his teeth through the injury, thrusting his staff into the monkey, a burst of magic blasting it’s leg backward, causing it to fall over. He hopped back. “I think the fire is burning us!”

“Excuse me?!” Garble shouted, looking over for just a minute, but trying to press the advantage on the tripped monkey. “I’ve bathed in lava.”

“I dunno!”

Great vibrations of the ground were the first hint before the thuds of the approaching crystal golem announced the arrival of their backup. "Snack time!" called Smolder, riding the shoulder of the charging strone warrior. With two quick thwips, she sent fried morsels flying into the waiting maws of her frontline. "Time to get back in it!"

Sandra had not ridden, racing as quickly as she could across the grass between her and the forest where the fight had begun. Though she was not quite there yet, her presence was felt as her golem crashed into the monkey-amalgamation, buying a precious moment to regroup. Smolder landed neatly where it had stormed through. "Miss me?"

“Careful of the fire!” Spike said, as he dodged a puff of it landing at his feet.

“You weren’t that far away I could hear you yelling.” Smolder spun her daggers, finishing with them brandished. “It’s just like any normal fight then. We had a plan for this kind of thing, right?”

“Right!” Spike and Garble said together, and the two of them split up, running around the monster. The three of them spread out, surrounding the beast, which spun itself around for a moment, as if having to choose who to attack. Eventually it turned to Garble, bearing down on him, flailing and punching.

Smolder and Spike both took this opportunity to slash and bash at it, both going for strong attacks with glowing weapons.

The monster roared, twisting around to swipe back, flames lashing out at Smolder, who backed out while Garble pressed inward, hitting the monster with another crackling attack on it’s back.

Sandra caught up as she watched the three of them continue the assault, with her rock monster being pelted by flames as it less adroitly punched the giant monkey too. When the monster would focus on one of her party, the others would press the attack. Spike would throw out some heals too, when he wasn’t focused on.

Sandra conjured up a magic missile, pelting it, but with her rock monster out it was hardly much of an attack, making a little paff at the side of the enemy.

The monster roared, placing its hands on the ground, a wreath of flames rushing up out of it, causing all three of the nominally-immune-to-fire members of her party to wince back.

“What is it doing now?!” Garble yelled. “It’s friggin hot!”

Sandra looked down, and had a suspicion. She extended her senses, and saw just a bit of tendrils of magic flowing from the ground into its hands, red hot. She widened her eyes. “It’s absorbing magic from the burnout from before!” She looked around in a panic. “You have to get its hands off of the ground!”

"Nice idea." Spike jabbed his staff forward with a brilliant glow, returning the pain he had taken in addition to the firm thrust he delivered. "But how do we do that? I don't think any of us are that--woah!" He jumped to the left, avoiding the great slam of a fist where he had been standing.

Sandra turned her magic away from trying to send little useless pellets. "You are my magic." She extended her hands towards her golem. "You are my strength. We are one."

Suddenly there was no Sandra. The golem looked up, its eyes glowing with a fierce new light. "We are one," it spoke with Sandra's voice as if filtered through grinding stone. Sandra-Golem moved with grace the golem never had, imbued with the will to move of a human. "Get it still for just a moment."

Garble's sword clanged against the arm of the monster, hissing in pain. "Is this what being burned feels like? It sucks." But he held firm. Smolder came in on the other end, catching its other arms between her daggers for what little distance that afforded her. Spike came up behind it, battering at it with his staff.

Sandra-Golem closed its eyes, earthen magic flowing from it to the ground and back. It opened its eyes, rushing at the monkey’s head, close to the ground. It crouched down, and the earthen magic turned the soil to rock, pressing up and supporting the golem’s feet. The golem and the earth rose together, a continuous force from earth to fist, colliding with the monkey’s face. The bundled up magic was similarly thrust up, dry heat and flames being blasted into the sky by the earthen magic in a magnificent plume.

The monster’s flesh grew cracks as it’s magic was flung away, being torn up by its own improper release, flame magic pouring out of it up into the plume, burning itself up and away, it’s body losing form.

Dropping down from it was a single crystal, glowing inside as if on fire.

Sandra suddenly appeared in a flash of light, slumping to a knee. Her golem fell to pieces that faded away, leaving nary a trace.

Author's Note

Team and trust building! I think it's a success, you?

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38 - Rules of the World

Spike walked along with almost a bounce, the crystal hovering peacefully over his outstretched right hand. "How are you feeling?"

"Terrible," muttered Sandra, half-draped over Garble for support as they made their way towards a nice patch of grass. "But we did it!" She tried to be excited, even if fatigue ruined much of the announcement.

Garble casually dumped her onto the soft grass, at least making sure she landed right side up. "There you go. Now, crystal. What is it?"

Smolder held out a little greasy morsel towards Sandra. "10 to 1 it's a material. Bet it needs tossing into that fancy smelter we just left to see what we can do with it."

"It's kind of pretty." Spike raised his hand and the crystal went with it, floating so peacefully. "And warm when you can get your hands on it."

Sandra stayed flumped down on the ground, looking at the trees above her. “I dunno what it is.”

Garble rolled his eyes. “Okay, better question, why did the fire burn us?”

“Probably all the magic it was using,” Sandra answered from the floor.

Garble put his claw to his chin, tapping it. “Nope, that didn’t explain anything.”

“It was siphoning all that magic the fire once had. So probably the fire was magic, and so the magic of the fire still burned you, even though the fire fire would not.”

Garble furrowed his brow. “That’s stupid. This is stupid. I’m a dragon! I breathe fire-I breathe magic fire. I shouldn’t be burnt by some dumb huge monkey thing.”

Sandra shrugged from the ground. “I’ve heard of stuff like that. Magic attacks that can cut through resistances. You probably had some resistance left.”

“Does that mean we fought something that might have been a lot stronger than we were?” Smolder came into view above Sandra.

“It’s likely.”

Smolder’s eyebrow raised. “Are you okay?”

“I’m… I’m alright,” Sandra said, breathing heavily. “I… I am. I did something awesome, and now I’m alright.”

Spike's hand came into Sandra's view, thumb extended as his face followed with a big smile. "That was crazy awesome! Also, what was it?" His shoulders lifted in a soft shrug. "Your golem got all crazy and cool, and then it was gone and you were passing out."

Sandra was about to answer when Smolder lost patience and filled that void with the food that had been waiting. "Chew more, talk after. It'll help get your magic back up." Not having much choice in the matter, Sandra quickly chewed up the tough, yet spiced, meat and swallowed heavily.

Smolder's treat chased away the worst of the fatigue and Sandra sat up, smiling. "I… kinda melded with it? It was exhausting, for both of us. I had the power of the golem, and it had my grace."

"So no grace," laughed Garble with a wicked smirk. "You did good."

Sandra snorted at the insult, but it rolled off quickly. "It felt good. I didn't even know I could do that."

"Been there," cut in Spike. "When you really need it, some of this just… makes sense."

"I hear that," joined Smolder. "You think I have all these recipes memorized? I go with the flow and it just works out."

“No… I’m not…” Sandra took a deep breath. “That’s not how it works for me. I don’t ‘go with the flow.’” She sat up. “I never go with the flow. I concentrate, I worry I’m doing the right thing, I wonder if someone is going to hit me. I deliberately do something. Heck, sometimes I have a hard time breathing, when it’s bad.” She looked at her guildchain. “But the rock… elemental, didn’t have those feelings. All I could feel was a sturdy reliant feeling. All action, no worry.”

She held the guildchain up. “I didn’t need to channel magic using the guildchain, either. The magic felt more… freeform than that. I don’t think that the rock monster had an uppercut skill, per se. It just knew how to harden the ground and channel the magic.”

Spike stepped into Sandra’s view. “That sounds a lot just like a guildchain.”

Sandra stared at the guildchain. “No… Everything was much more raw than that. Like I was assembling parts of an ability, rather than a whole ability.”

“Well, why can’t we do that with normal abilities!” Spike said. “I mean, couldn’t we take like part of one ability, and use it with another!”

Sandra chuckled. “I don’t think it works like that."

Smolder made a gun shape with a finger at Sandra. "I don't think that's how you've been taught how it works, but us even being here already says what people think isn't what they get."

Garble barked out a laugh at that even as he snatched the floating crystal. "Stupid humans have no idea what they're playing with while they play like they're the big shots around here. Don't know jack."

"Hey!" Spike lifted into the air, lunging for the crystal, but Garble proved better at keeping it away than Spike was at jumping for it. "Come on! If it belongs to anyone, it'd be Sandra, or all of us."

Sandra picked herself up off the ground, her breath coming more easily. "How I got so far without a battle chef even up until now is beyond me. Have I mentioned you're amazing?" Smolder was grinning but silent at the compliment. "But, for the other thing, not quite sold… I mean, sure, I was seeing things through… earth view? That doesn't mean I can just--"

"--Why not?" cut in Smolder. "Give me a real reason that doesn't involve anything you were told."

“It just doesn’t work that way! The guildchain doesn’t do it.”

Smolder raised an eyebrow. “That sounds exactly like something someone told you.”

“Well, how am I supposed to tell you something impossible is without that?” She glared for a moment, then relented. “So do it now. Right now. If it’s very possible, go and do it.”

Smolder chuckled. “I will. One boiling cauldron knife slash, coming up.” She pulled her knives back, and focused on the spell to summon that boiling cauldron, and also to use her magic knife slash. As soon as she began the boiling cauldron summon, she felt the magic surge, the boiling pot popping into existence above her, nearly crashing into her head as she got out of the way.

Garble, of all people, snickered. “Sis, you sure you know what you’re doing here?”

“Cool it, just a little bit wrong.” She got up, and the cauldron faded away, leaving the bubbling steaming liquid to evaporate over the next few seconds. She brought her knives back again, trying the other ability first. Her magic surged, and her blades glowed with energy, and quick she tried the boiling cauldron, which this time succeeded in bonking her on the head. “Oww…”

Sandra laid back again, looking up. “See, not too easy. Guildchains do the whole spell for you, from start to finish.”

Smolder stood up again, tongue licking the side of her lips in concentration. “Slowly… slowly…” She gradually put magic into her first ability, the cauldron… and then once she built up enough, magic surged through it again, cascading into a summoned cauldron that she caught, this time.

She grumbled, setting it down beside her. “It’s like once I start it the spell just has a mind of its own.”

Sandra nodded from her place laying down.“The guildchain handles all the difficult stuff. It’s shaping your magic to create a metal cauldron and firey liquid from nothing, using the aura and magical synchronization of the class to help it along.” She looked up at the trees. “I guess the Culinarian class is, like, a class designed to shape magic into physical items. It creates all that food from monsters’ magic, and the cauldron for that attack.”

Spike piped up. “How do you know all of this stuff, anyway?”

“Hm?” Sandra looked over to him. “I mean, I learned a lot of this stuff when I was young, from my parents and tutors and stuff. I just… was never really good at doing it.” She raised an eyebrow. “Why? Do you wanna learn it?”

“It sounds a lot like the stuff Twilight would get up to, but with amazing training wheels.” He held up his guildchain. “Usually being able to fire off bolts and stuff is pretty hard, most unicorns can’t do it, but with the whole guildchain system it gets really easy… It’d be really cool to be able to mix and match powers. There must be a way to do it…”

Sandra laughed from the ground. “Maybe, but I haven’t heard of anyone who has.” She finally pulled herself entirely up. “Maybe a bunch of creatures from another world are what it takes.”

Smolder summoned another cauldron, sighing.

“Just not today,” Sandra said. “C’mon. We’re supposed to be training, right? And that food hits the spot something good. So let’s go!”

Garble began walking for town, his ill-gotten crystal floating over his hand. "You ain't gonna get an argument out of me. We came, we saw, we showed everything how awesome we were. Not a bad day. You did decent, Spike."

Spike was distracted from his quest to reclaim the crystal. "Really?"

"You were fighting and keeping us in one piece. That reminds me. It looked like you were taking our hits, but not all of them?"

Spike bobbed his head as he began to amble alongside Garble. "I kept that going on, you know, the background? So I could focus on more active things like hitting things." He gave his staff a good swing through the air. "And throwing out actual spells."

Sandra quickly caught up with the two. "You had it in both? When did you get the background version?"

"I… didn't?" Spike shrugged softly. "I did that my--"

"--Ah ha," called out Smolder, having joined the group. "There's my proof. He improvised."

"Spike's different," deflected Sandra. "He sees things his own way."

"Is that a compliment?" Spike scratched softly at his cheek. "My sister's big into rules, so I learned to notice when she's getting bogged down in them."

"Your 'sister' is a pony," noted Garble with a roll of his eyes. "Which are not 'sisters' of dragons. Just imaginin' her popping out of an egg…"

Sandra suddenly giggled. "That sounds adorable."

Smolder danced in front of the others. "Hey, she adopted him and they've raised a cool dragon if I say so. Now we're not here to argue family trees." She twirled back to face the town. "We have a material to turn in, and lunch to grab. Speaking of that, anyone up to smashing some easy monsters on the way for lunch money?"

Garble yanked free his massive blade, his arms bulging in the effort of the sudden movement. "Now you're talking. I'll play some victory music on them." And off he ran towards the city, veering off wildly every time something living entered his field of view.

Spike hiked a thumb at the joyful dragon. "Couldn't he end up summoning another boss if he goes too wild?"

Smolder shrugged softly. "This place is even weaker than the forest. If he does, I bet he'll smash it himself and feel like a million bits, so I say we let him have his fun and collect the small change that drops." She wandered over to where glinting could be seen in the grass. "It's like he's leaving us presents." She casually collected the small-time coins and materials and potions as she went. "Win/win."

Sandra held out a hand and made a clenching motion. Her golem rose just in front of it, looking unharmed from the last experience. "Welcome back," she greeted. "Can you help us gather what he drops on the way?"

The golem did not answer in any obvious way, but did move to do just that. It collected things, but not as Smolder had been doing. Instead it just walked over them as if absorbing the coins and other things directly into its stoney body.

Spike suddenly snapped his fingers. "I get it!"

Author's Note

What did Spike get?

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39 - How It Works

They were all holding kebabs, but also walking through the streets. "So, you see," continued Spike even as he chewed. "It's all magic, but how you… approach it matters." He angled his skewer towards Smolder. "Your magic came from the guildchain, right?"

"And taught," she defended. "Good teacher, served us lunch." She raised her skewer as if in triumph of the culinary arts. "But, yeah. And?"

"So it's a shortcut." He brought his hands together, skewer caught between them and getting grease on several fingers at the same time. "A good one, useful too. Don't get me wrong! But it's still a shortcut, not 'all their is'."

Sandra chewed moodilly on a bit of pineapple before swallowing and nodding. "So where's your proof of this?"

"It's all around us." Spike waved a hand expansively. "We've been fighting it. Monsters don't have guildchains, do they? Your golem doesn't have a guildchain, but both can do magic and skills and things, right?"

“Well, yeah. They don’t do magic like we do, no, but it clearly is still magic. And magic forms all sorts of monsters and items, and everything has some of it.”

“Right right,” Spike started pacing. “So they use magic without guildchains. What about before guildchains, then? What did people do for magic before them?”

"Crudely," suddenly noted Sandra. "I'd have to go get a history book to say more than that. People huddled around little campfires wearing leather scraps, hoping the monsters wouldn't eat them that day. You want to go back to that?" Visions of cavepeople with simple magic danced in her mind.

Garble suddenly grinned as if he were let in on a joke. "But they did it. You taught yourselves how not to do it. You humans are stupid sometimes."

Smolder lifted her shoulders. "Before you go getting that down on them, I bet the average pony doesn't even know how to build a fire, because they don't have to anymore. Why learn how to do all those old-timey things?" She fashioned finger guns at Sandra. "But forgetting they exist--"

Garble huffed, a bit of flame escaping. "Why would anyone need to 'know' how to make fire?"

Sandra smiled a little awkwardly. "Because they are not dragons and can't breathe it up when they want some?"

"Sucks to be them." He shrugged softly, but looked satisfied in his draconic status. "So, Spike, you're saying 'go primitive' and figure it out?"

"Well, I wouldn't use that phrasing, but basically?" He inclined his head. "It'd take work and practice, but when you get it down, it's just another spell. If we knew how these guildchains worked, we could even record it for someone else to use." He raised his chain into view. "Think they have a recording button hidden somewhere on here?"

“I haven’t heard of anything like that,” Sandra said. “You’d think that I would have heard.”

Smolder laughed. “Are you saying that you already understand everything about guildchains and can’t possibly have heard of someone using it unconventionally?”

“I guess not…” Sandra said, looking down in thought.

“That’s right!” Spike hopped in the air a little. “I’m sure there’s all sorts of magical stuff not explored.”

"Or." Garble thrust a finger across the walking line of party members. "Someone's getting all power out of it. If most people don't know how, or even that you can make new stuff, the few people who do get all the gold and fame, right?"

Spike blinked dumbly before a big smile spread on his face. "That was surprisingly--"

"--Smart?" cut in Garble with a little huff of flame. "Stop assuming I can't think, twerp. I can."

"He's real clever," defended Smolder, putting an arm around her brother. "Just, you know, dragons don't usually value that quite as high as they should. Humans have stupid habits, so do we. How about we all work on it?"

“Tch,” Garble made a noise. “I am already clever. I’m good at whatever the dumb habits dragons have.”

Smolder flapped up and pat Garble on his head. “Sure you are, bro.”

Sandra smiled a little, watching the siblings start to bicker, though her attention slid back towards Spike. "So, let me make sure I have your idea right." He nodded up at her and she continued, "The skills we get, from our classes--" She held up her guildchain. "--are basically pre-written magic. We follow them by... rote? Is rote the word? Rote." She nodded, getting more confident in the word. "But you're saying it doesn't--"

"--have to be that way, all the time," finished Spike, bobbing his head. He tossed his kebab into a trashbin they were passing. "Don't get me wrong. Most of the time? There's really no reason not to go with the nice, neat, ready to go version. I'm just saying we can tweak it, so why limit ourselves? Passive martyr is way more interesting than active martyr, and we're a better team for it."

"You were pretty passive already," noted Garble, hearing the conversation. "You managed to get more passive?"

Smolder lifted her shoulders. "He was pretty active last fight. You want to throw that away?"

"No no no!" cried Spike, waving his hands frantically. "I meant the skill. I'm using it passively, so I can do other things. I don't stop all the damage, but I can throw heals, hit things, and contribute more." He directed his staff at Smolder. "Keep working on yours. I bet you could come up with ways to blend your cooking with your fighting more. I know you want to be hurting them."

"I do hurt them," noted Smolder with a wry smile. "But I'm not against more ways to do it. If I could get that tweak right..." She gestured through the air and the great cauldron appeared, slamming into the ground from the foot up it had appeared. "That's not it..." It faded away, nothing cooked.

Garble suddenly wickedly smiled. "Wait wait wait. Yeah... You may be onto something." He hiked a thumb. "I vote we focus on that. Let's make this ours."

Smolder thrust a fist forward and it was soon met by Garble's and Spike's. Sandra squeaked, realizing she was missing out and got her hand in there, completing the gesture. It was time to train in a new way.

"Shield... Tempest!" Garble was propelled despite only holding his great sword in a defensive manner, bringing it down as he flew and cutting an innocent goopy slime in half.

"Boil and die, in that order," commanded Smolder as she clapped her hands, a cauldron springing up from the ground beneath another slime, cooking it alive even as she cut another in half in a smooth transition of her blade.

"Your health is ours!" Spike inhaled as if breathing fire backwards, drawing essence from the spiny creature before him. It gathered in his staff and radiated outwards to his teammates, not that he was staying still, already circling for a better angle to strike the creature.

"Fire creates, fire destroys," called out Sandra, flames trailing just behind her arms as they fanned the air. "I am the fire and the fire is me!" Aiden wasn't there, instead working through her, as she worked through the bird, the two unified as she hurled great balls of fire, each directed by the bird's innate sense of how to control its own magic.

Each pushed themselves to learn skills not in their chains, but evolutions of those skills.

"Is this normal?" Sandra was looking at her guildchain. It listed what skills she had, but the text seemed to jump and twitch spastically. "I don't think it likes what we've been doing?"

Everyone else looked to theirs to see them twitching in much the same way. The new skills they had learned were beyond the guildchain's ability to easily identify. Spike hiked a thumb towards the guild. "Maybe we should head back and make sure we're not breaking anything."

"I'll be breaking a lot of things," taunted Garble with a smirk. "Let's rub it in their stupid faces that we're doing it better than them."

Spike nudged Sandra on the way. "Good job, by the way. You don't look nearly as worn out after doing that trick."

Smolder fired a mighty thumbs up. "You look pretty cool too. I think we can smash that stupid dog."

Sandra smiled a little smile. "It feels... amazing. I can... Aiden's fire runs through me, like I'm on fire, minus the burning part. The rock gol--"

Garble interrupted, "--What, he doesn't get a name?" He shrugged softly. "Your fire owl got one, why not the golem? Thought that was just a 'thing'."

Sandra frowned a little, thinking on that. "I never really asked their name... which was rude of me." They were still marching to the guild through the busy city streets, but she turned her thoughts inwards, walking on auto pilot.

Spike reached out, helping direct her to keep her from bumping into things. "So, silly idea I just had, but what if what we're doing is not allowed?"

Smolder squinted. "Why would they make rules about that?"

"Because they're stupid?" Garble lifted his shoulders. "Whatever. Like we care about their rules."

Inside Sandra's mind, she called to the golem, sitting down in a cave where the golem rose from the rocks and crystals there. "Hello. I'm sorry, we never really got a chance to introduce ourselves since we met, and that's mostly my fault. I'm Sandra." She put a hand on her chest. "Nice to meet you."

The golem seemed to consider her with the patience only stone could have.

"I didn't mean to take you for granted, or granite, heh..." She smiled awkwardly at her little pun. "You really came through for me a few times. I am very grateful. Have you... gotten a chance to see more?"

The golem raised a hand towards her before it fell to various bits of stone.

"Did I sayEek!" Stone ran up along her form, creating a shell around her, firm, cold, yet gentle. "Oh... Is... this your way of saying you're happy?" The stone offered no words, simple solid companionship. "I get it... But I wanted to know, do you have a name? Do you want me to call you something besides 'the rock golem'? I mean, you're not even just rocks. Your crystals are a big part of you."

The crystals grew more prominent in the shell of stone around her and Sandra suddenly smiled behind her stoney mask. "Oh! Crystal! That's your name."

She suddenly woke, thrown clear of her mental space. They were just in front of the guild. "Wow, good timing. Guys, his name is Crystal, okay?"

Spike bobbed his head. "Sure, that's a nice name." Also delicious, but he didn't mention that.

"What a tasty name," said Garble, taking on that responsibility for Spike. "Fits. Alright, let's show these jerks what we've been up to." He strode at the front, marching through the doorway. He marched right up to the frontdesk secretary. "Hey, what's up with this?" He thrust his guildchain out at the man.

"Hm?" His eyes went up and down over the guildchain before it flickered. "Ah. Your chain is out of sync. Were you hurt recently?"

"I hurt a lot of things." He crossed his arms, chest puffed out proudly. "But I'm fine."

"Let me see that." When the guild chain came closer, the human took a hold of it and began feeling over it, muttering as he touched unseen buttons, changing the display. "You've been using invalid equipment combinations, I see. That's very dangerous. You could damage your guildchain."

Smolder added her chain, holding it out just next to Garble's. "I've only been using my usual equipment, what's mine upset about?"

"Hm." He released Garble's to take Smolder's. "Hm. Invalid targets. You could hurt someone."

Smolder hiked a brow at that. "Hurting someones is kind of the point."

"That restriction is there for your protection. You could use it on a non-combatant without the target restrictions," warned the secretary. "If you keep using it on invalid targets, the guild chain may lock you out of your abilities."

"What about mine?" Spike held up his for review. "I didn't target anything odd, or use new equipment."

"Me too." Sandra held hers out just beside Spike. "We didn't do either of those things."

"The entire party?" sighed out the secretary, but he moved to the next. "Your rapid ascent will end poorly if you keep this up. Hm…" He leaned in to squint at little words. "Oh…" He released Spike's chain and moved to Sandra's, inspecting hers. "Well… I take it back. It seems you two didn't do anything wrong." The two beamed proudly. "You unlocked a new skill, one the chain hasn't encountered before. For you--" He looked to Sandra. "--this isn't that odd. Your class is very new."

Spike suddenly thrust up a finger. "Does that mean we get to name them?!"

Author's Note

What should their names be? Spike is threatening foes with a drain->aoe heal and Sandra has her elemental-union stance that she's getting the hang of. Meanwhile, Smolder and Garble are being tsktsked for playing outside the rules. Fair laws, or unfair hinderences? What say you?

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40 - Equipped

“Well, either you would or I would,” the secretary said. “A goodly number of adventurers like naming new abilities.”

“Yesss.” Spike pumped his fist. “Okay, then um…” He thought. “Healthsuck! No that’s weird… uh… maybe something with drain? Is there already a drain ability? Um… what about…” He started pacing, his musing becoming mumbling.

The secretary blinked and looked over to Sandra. “What about you? Do you know?”

“Oh… I just…” Sandra looked down in thought. “What about… Union?”

“That’s an unusual name.” The secretary raised an eyebrow. “What does it do?”

Sandra tapped her fingers together. “I uh… I sorta directly channel the magic of the summoned creature, and also get some of their… mentality?”

The secretary tilted his head a little, but looked down to his sheet. “Alright, sounds good. Summoner’s Union it is,” the secretary said, noting it down. “And now…” He looked to Spike, who was still mumbling and pacing.

"Life L--Transfusion!" he hurriedly blurted out as if two thoughts couldn't take their time getting off his tongue.

"Life Transfusion." The secretary jotted it down, not noticing the mistake. "Alright. You two should be good to go. Don't use your abilities for about a day and we'll have it updated and ready to go. You can just keep checking your skills."

Sandra brightened in a smile. "When we see the new name, we know it's done."

"Exactly." He looked towards the two that had not made new skills. "As for you two."

Garble huffed loud enough for flames to gust. "I will use my powers how I feel like. Monsters don't 'obey rules' when they're trying to kill us, why should I?"

“Well, if you’d like--” The secretary smiled a none-too-friendly smile. “We can dispense with the formalities of having to wait for you to actually break your guildchain you can turn it in right now.”

“Excuse me?” Garble stepped up.

“If you break the guildchain who do you think fixes it?” The secretary adjusted his glasses. “And if we find that you’ve been using it for the wrong reasons.” He looked directly at Garble, a dark look in his eyes. “We might keep it.”

“Surely you won’t keep it if he just is trying out new abilities on monsters, would you?” Sandra spoke up, standing.

“Well… no. Not as such.” The secretary leaned back, shuffling around with his papers. “We might fine you, but it probably won’t be too much. More dangerous is if it locks up or breaks out in the field and you’re down an adventurer until you get back.”

Garble huffed, the fury abating slightly. “Well why the hay does Spike get to have a new ability but I don’t?”

“I’m not sure,” the secretary said, now trying his best not to look at the party. “I don’t know how new abilities work or what not. If you’re done--” He looked up. “Which I think you are-- You can go now.”

Smolder shrugged as she headed for the door. "Whatever. Sandra's thing's brand new, so no foul there."

"What about Spike's," Garble argued, trailing along his sister. "Is that new?"

"Well… yeah?" She shrugged softly. "He had a power that zapped enemies, and a power that healed friends, but none that did both at the same time. That's new, right? Mine isn't new. It's, you know, still the cauldron, just throwing it under an enemy before they're beaten up."

"That's still new," grumped Garble.

Spike clapped his hands together. "While we're in town, why don't we turn in that material we got?"

Tammy whistled as the glowing fire crystal floated over her cupped hands. “A manamerge core. That’s some powerful stuff, about as good as you can get outside the tower.”

“You think you can use it to get your forge to burn hotter?” Spike circled around the great furnace, its meter still in the low yellows from his last contribution.

Tammy tilted her head. “I mean… I could, yeah. It’s a huge mass of focused mana that’s already all ready to work together, though. I could use it to make a decent amount of normal stuff. Or--” She had a glimmer in her eye. “--I could make one really good thing. An amazing thing. I’ve never worked with a manamerge core before.”

“Oh ho ho,” Garble stepped up. “That sounds awesome.”

Smolder elbowed him. “You already have the best weapon we’ve got, even after upgrades, bro.”

“Well, there’s one person most responsible for beating the monster, and one who hasn’t gotten a whole lot in terms of upgrades…” Spike said, looking back at the human in their group.

Sandra took a step back, and shrank just a little when Smolder looked back too. “I--”

Garble looked back. “What? Her? She doesn’t even use a weapon. Giving the super magic thing to her.”

“Y-yeah!” she said, waving her hands. “Weapons are usually the most important, and my new class barely uses my own casting. I also don’t wear heavy armor. It’d be wasted on me.”

“Aw hun,” Tammy walked over to her. “There’s so much more to equipment than weapons. Let me make you something nice.”

Sandra leaned her head forward as she walked through the streets. It was the first time she wore her new equipment, and she kinda…

She held her head forward, her bangs flipped to the side of her head.

All of her previous gear was very simple. She wore robes sometimes, other times smocks or tunics, usually pretty simple colors. Practical and simple.

And this new robe… wasn’t. It flowed over her whole body, fiery red and orange, tighter than the roomy robes she was used to, with a wrapped belt around the torso.

“Will you keep up,” Garble barked from ahead of her.

“Everyone is staring…” Sandra said, looking around, hiding behind her hair.

“People aren’t staring anymore than before, Sandra,” Smolder said. “You are walking around with three dragons. All of us decked out in total adventurer gear. If that wasn’t enough to get people to stare, having a cool fire cloak won’t get them to start.”

Spike flew a foot off the ground, wings flapping lazily but able to keep him aloft without much effort. "Besides, from what Tammy said, it's awesome. More energy, and you can be half as fire resistant as the rest of us."

Smolder suddenly snorted into laughter. "We gonna take her lava swimming?"

Garble shoved against Smolder. "You saw some lava and didn't tell me?!"

"I was kidding, Bro." She danced away with a grin. "There's probably some lava somewhere in the tower, made to scare most adventurers, and we'll just laugh and laugh. Kinda looking forward to that."

Sandra ran a few fingers along the opposing arm, feeling the smooth silk-like texture of the material. "I'm not sure I want to test it with literal lava, but even being half as resistant as a dragon is a lot of resistance. Still, I bet the energy part will come in more... constantly useful."

"Look who's strutting their stuff." Tabitha was sneering, her group behind her. "You decide to get into fashion modeling instead of adventuring? You may do better there."

Spike puffed out his chest, bobbing placidly in the air under his wingpower. "We're too busy planning on how to beat the level 10 boss and--"

"--Only level 10?" asked Tabitha with a pitying tone. "Well, that is a floor that's stumped Sandra here before, isn't it?"

Sandra shrank a little under that burning gaze before she shook her head. "We're ready this time, all of us."

"All of us," repeated Smolder. "We're gonna kick it's back end and the rest of the tower while we're at it."

Their fencer, Tomàs, nodded. "I hope that you do."

Tabitha elbowed him suddenly. "Why are you wishing them luck seriously? They're our enemies!"

"They are our peers," he argued, looking fairly calm about the whole thing. "And I would rival them honestly. We will reach the top first, but there's no reason to be sour about it."

Tabitha rolled her eyes. "Peers nothing if they can't get past the first real challenge. Do you know what floor we're up to? Want to guess?"

Garble reached up, resting a hand on the great hilt of his weapon. "I can guess what floor you'll end up being on if you don't back out the way."

Tomàs brushed ahead of Tabitha. "Let us not turn this into a brawl in the city. That will benefit neither of us. We don't want the guild punishing us for making a scene, after all."

Tabitha glared at him but her gaze slid quickly to the party of mostly-dragons. "I prefer my trouble to come from things that are worth it. 30. We're on 30. So, get past 10 and we'll talk. Maybe we'll even give you a tip or two. But peer? Ha! I think not." She turned away, facing the tower. "In fact, I think we're ready to push past 30. Come on!"

The group began to filter behind her. Tomàs waved while facing away. "Good luck in your fight."

Smolder shrugged softly. "The fencer seems alright. Why does he put up with that other one?"

Garble crossed his arms, leaving the sword slung where it had began. "Whatever, not my business. Only part of that conversation I cared about was catching up to them, and to do that we have to get past 10. We got better equipment, and we got the whole 'teamwork'--" He made quotes in the air. "--thing down, so let's get to it, huh?"

Spike landed in front of the party. "Let's get a full night's rest, stock up on any supplies we want, then we'll consider that."

Sandra tapped her staff on the ground before her face set. "No considering. We can do it. I... know we can."

Smolder fired a double thumbs up at that. "That's the spirit. We'll teach that dog who's holding the leash."

The party advanced as one towards the inn, for they had a rematch to look forward to in the coming day.

Spike looked out from his bunk. "We'll be able to hop right up to it, right? No going through the floors."

"Yes." Sandra glanced at her hanging robes, in her own bed. "We'll just think of rising and skip right past all the other things."

"So why can't we just keep doing that?" asked Garble with a little huff. "Skip everything, go right to the top."

Smolder laughed at the idea. "Even if that worked, which I'm gonna guess it wouldn't, we'd arrive at the top and the super mega supreme boss would give us one look before they swatted us right off the top of the tower. There's a pattern here."

"Yeah!" excitedly agreed Spike. "We need the gear from each set of levels to be ready to face off against that set of level's boss, repeat again and again until we get to the top. If we did skip to the top, we'd be so behind we'd lose instantly."

"Who invented that?" Garble rolled away and pulled up his blanket. "Whatever, going to sleep."

Spike squeaked, something had grabbed his tail. Peering over the edge, he saw Sandra's hand resting on the spade of his tail, her fingers squeezing just slightly as she held it. "Um... everything alright?"

"No... Yes... I'm glad you're here, and the others." She squeezed him a little harder. "I'll be doing my best, to be a partner worth having around. Tomorrow, we'll beat up that dog, together, as a team."

"As a team," agreed Spike with a little smile. He settled in, not stopping Sandra from keeping contact with his hanging tail.

Smolder watched from the other bunk with a smirk. Humans and pony-raised dragons were both very silly in her eyes. But they were her friends too. "Night."

Silence became the companion to them all. That, and anticipation. They had a battle to perform, and one they planned to prevail in. They had ten more floors to conquer.

Author's Note

Is the party ready to succeed where once they had failed? Is tail touching rude in dragon cultures, or a sign of something else?

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41 - Rematch

They stood across the door once more. That huge heavy door, with that mist wolf beyond it. Spike swallowed hard. Last time they approached this door, they were unprepared but apparently 100% confident.

Spike couldn’t help a little nervousness this time. Last time they were unprepared… but it had barely been a week. He worried they couldn’t possibly have gotten better enough in one week to do this, could they? They could have gathered more gear, more training, more time in the field.. They could have--

“What are we waiting for?!” Garble roared, stepping ahead of Spike, shoving the door. “We’re wasting time here, let’s go!”

The door opened into the same misty room, and the rest of the party looked at each other, and followed Garble into the doors. The thin mist wafted patiently, and after they got past the walls, the wolf, the mist streaming off of it, remained.

There was no pause, as soon as the wolf could see them, it started running across the room, and the party brandished their weapons, waiting for him to approach.

But Garble couldn’t wait. He walked out front, discarding his sheath.

“Wait, Gar--” Spike started, but almost as soon as he started talking, Garble began to walk faster.

“Last time you made me run--” His electric blade sparked twice. “Lame” Another spark. “--Shame--” A brighter spark, and two sparkst that ran across his blade, with lower noises. “--My name defamed.”

He bobbed his blade to the beat the sparks were making. “But I won’t be outdone.” The sparks intensified in rhythm. “I am second to none. And when this is done--” He brought the blade up high, the lightning crackling from a rhythm to a constant thrum, as the wolf was galloping at a full run, snarling and . “--You’ll see I have won!”

The battle was begun with a crackling slash, a blast of lightning not just from the blade but brought down from some unseen place above him slamming directly into the wolf and causing it to be blasted off course, rolling off to the side.

Smolder caught up with her brother. “That one was a lot bigger than the one last time, Gar-Gar.”

Garble cracked a manic grin. “My rhyme was way more awesome, too.”

"Aiden, time to light up a foggy morning." With a great cry, her bird flared into being and took off like a bolt, flames washing out in hungry consumption of the mist to turn it back, even if for a moment. "I'll keep it from calling for help."

"Roger." Spike twirled his staff as he raised his shield on his other arm. "We're ready for you, this time."

The wolf was not impressed by their words or deeds, scrambling upright and lunging for Garble, great jaws gnashing with the force to sever steel, or take a chunk out of Garble's left leg before he could get out of the way.

Both he and Spike hissed in pain, but Spike was already speaking words of healing, and Garble refused to let the pain, or the blood, slow him down, turning with the great strike to bring his sword back in, the crack of lightning echoing off the sheets of flames in a curious display of elemental fury.

"Transfusion!" shouted Spike, thrusting his staff forward, great waves of energy drawing from the wolf, dispersing out across himself and Garble. "No bleeding on my watch."

"Bleeding?!" suddenly cut in Twilight. "Spike, what are you doing?"

The question would go unanswered as Smolder dashed along the wolf's exposed flank, drawing a red line with her extended knife. "You're going to make a fine meal for us to celebrate."

With a howl, the canine snapped at Smolder, but instead of delectable dragon flesh, its jaws closed down painfully on a stout staff, Spike having jumped in the way and blocked it. "Not today."

Fire rained on all of them, burning away at the wolf's wispy nature and warming the dragons pleasantly, at least from their point of view. Garble was laughing as he circled around the other way from his sister. "Is this what scared? We weren't prepared. Now we have it all. So if you please, Victory we'll seize--" He brought his great blade in a two handed swing, the sharp elementally charged metal biting into the dog's leg, knocking it down and almost cleaving it off. "You'll be taking the fall."

Spike bounced back, no longer holding his staff. It was rolling away, yanked free by the wolf's sudden thrashing, but he didn't look overly worried about it. With a sudden motion as if tossing a ball violently, he hurled a ball of angry white light at the downed wolf, pelting it with attacks without his staff. "Kinda busy."

"Spike?" Twilight sounded concerned, clearly not seeing what was going on. "Are you alright?"

Even as Spike lunged to get his staff back in his hands, the wolf brought down a great paw, catching Smolder in the shockwave and sending her flying with a yelp. It was trying to get back on its feet when a great column of rock jut up beside it, quickly taking a humanoid form as it grabbed it by the back of the neck and shoved it back down. About ten feet away, Sandra had a look of concentration, her hand in a similar pose as the golem, focusing on the action.

Garble hopped up, wings flapping as he ascended the back of the wolf. "Served up like a sacrifice, not gonna ask the selling price, one cut, two cut, four cuts? Nah. Just one final shot, dealt raw." He brought down his great blade just where past where the rocky fist was holding it, digging wetly into the dog's flesh, electricity arcing, almost splashing around as he dug deep.

He had envisioned lopping its head clean off. That would have been so great. He only made it halfway, alas. On the plus side, the canine's fight faded in spastic twitches, life fleeing it almost instantly. "Huh, good enough." He ran his blade through the air, cleaning it before he thrust it back into its sheath. "Hey, Sis, you up for--"

His question was interrupted by sudden bright light. The fog was gone, replaced with pure white light and a soft choir from nowhere in particular. The tower had recognized their victory. "Yoink." Smolder had returned from where she had been flung, grabbing the great body of the wolf and smashing into an equally large cauldron, sized to fit her intended target. "Is this even the same dog that sent us running?"

Sandra clapped her hands. "Great job. Gather everything up." Her golem was fading away, its need concluded. Aiden was nowhere to be seen. "Wow, we did great!"

"Every--" Spike looked around wildly, but there it was, at the far end of the room where the mists had concealed it. "Oh, yeah." A great collection of strange materials and a deceptively simple door. "Guess it's time to go on to the next floor. Hey, will we have to fight--"

"--You're fighting? What are you fighting?" came Twilight's voice for only Spike to hear.

"--it again? I mean, if we recall and come back." He hiked a thumb back at the column they had teleported to. "That sounds annoying."

Garble huffed. "Sure sounds like we need to get up to 20 then. Whatever, that puppy wasn't so bad the second time around."

"It'll make a great lunch," assured Smolder as she stirred her pot. "I'll be busy a little while, plan to cook this up proper. Why don't you gather up the stuff?"

"Spike!"

He jumped at the loud voice. "Oh! Hey, Twilight."

"Hey yourself." Twilight sighed softly. "Everything's alright then?"

"Better than alright." He gave a thumbs up she surely couldn't see as he began a soft jog towards their loot. "We just beat up the level ten boss."

"Level ten boss?" she echoed with confusion. "This isn't a game of O&O, Spike."

"But it kinda is," he argued, reaching for the various bits and bobs, stuffing them away. "We're basically living a big game of O&O. Minus the scary parts, it's pretty interesting. We get stronger, fight stronger things, you know how that goes."

"Spike... I... You could get hurt," she got out in almost a whimper. "For real hurt..."

"And I couldn't with you?" he retorted with a frown that eased almost as quickly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap, but I've been in danger more of my life than not, it feels like. The only difference is, this time, it's my adventure, not yours. You didn't run away from yours. I'm not running from mine."

"Is that your pony princess?" asked Garble as he joined in the looting fun. "Tell her I said whatever."

Spike snickered at that. "Garble says whatever. Which I'm pretty sure is his way of saying hi."

"Hello, Garble," Twilight replied. "I... am glad you're all together, at least. Spike... I don't mean to... I'm just worried, as a friend. As a big sister."

Spike smiled a little, though his eyes were on a hat. He grabbed up the conical thing that looked made for a wizard. "Hey, Sandra?"

"What is--Oh! What do you have there?" She closed distance and accepted the hat as given, examining it intently. "Nice! This time the prime pick is caster gear instead of a big sword." She popped it on her head, turning left and right. "Doesn't quite fit the robes, but we're not in here to look good."

Smolder reached into the cauldron, not coming back covered in goop but instead drawing a pile of plates, each with a metal cap. The cauldron vanished as she started sauntering over with a victorious grin. "Looks like Garble gets to look forward to being eligible for something good again."

"About time!" He slung his sword properly on his back as he approached Sandra. "It isn't as cool looking as the sword."

"It really isn't," she easily agreed. "But the stats'll help us get through the next set of floors, so I'm not complaining." She reached up and tilted it a little. "Not everyone can get cool swords like you, Garble."

"Darn tootin'." He crossed his arms, looking quite smugly satisfied. "So what's for lunch?"

"Grilled doggy flank!" She set a plate before each of her party members, the plate floating in air patiently. "Don't ask how I grill something by boiling it. Probably the same way Sandra makes rocks dance." She gave a soft shrug, holding the final place. "Bon appetit and all that." She raised one hand to make a popping sound against her lips, chuckling softly.

Spike held the plate in one hand, the other by his head. "Twilight? We're gonna have some lunch, then push on. We have a tower to beat to get home. Oh, hey." He was looking at the others again. "Do we have to fight that each time we hop back up?"

Sandra pointed past them all to the door. "There should be another column on the other side, so we can hop up past the boss in the future. Now, I know we're all feeling good, and we should! We did good, everyone, but it's going to get harder." She pulled the metal cap off her plate, steam and fragrance teasing her nose. "Oh, this smells good. Smolder, you outdid yourself."

"The chef accepts your compliment," she got out between her own eager chomps of her food, clearly enjoying her own creation. "More eating, less talking."

Twilight could hear Spike's delighted laughter, and his kind words with his friends. Whatever danger he was in, he seemed to be enjoying himself despite it all. He was having an adventure, his adventure.

And she wasn't part of it. She sagged softly in place, wings wilting on her back. With a wave of a hoof, she dispelled the connection for the moment. "Spike..."

She turned back to a heavy tome, willing it to the next page, covered in heavy runic scrawls and her quill dancing just beside it.

Author's Note

It's amazing how much easier a boss is when you're properly equipped for it. Training also played a big part in this. Everyone did their part and is ready to press on deeper into the tower. What awaits them?

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42 - I Can Handle This

The monsters were tougher, simply. They were harder to put down and struck back with force that made those who lived on the first ten floors feel like they were playing around. The puzzles, oddly, didn't feel like they were getting tougher.

"Or--" Garble prodded Spike in the shoulder. "--you're an even bigger nerd than we figured."

Spike snorted at that, crossing his arms. "I don't see you complaining when we get past them."

Smolder brushed past the two boys. "C'mon. I can smell treasure."

Sandra followed along with a dubious expression. "I don't think treasure has a specific smell."

The next room revealed that Smolder hadn't been entirely wrong. A bright silver lamp rested on a platform in the middle of a big pool that filled most of the interior of the room. She gestured at it with a smug grin. "What'd I tell ya? Want me to fly over there and snatch it?"

Spike leaned over the pool. The pool was clear, he could see right to the tiles on the bottom of it, and it looked like there wasn’t anything down there. The tiles were a pale aquamarine, as if they used to be white, and there was this pattern where there were very dark tiles interspersed.

But the part that was actually strange was that there was sort of a strange… smell.

“No way,” Garble said, “I’m owed a badass something, so I’ll do it.”

Spike gingerly reached a claw over, touching his claw tip to the surface of the water, and he hissed as he pulled his hand back. It burnt, not quite like the fire but it hurt. But also notably, the water didn’t ripple like water, it wobbled, sending more like jiggles along the surface.

Garble bent his legs and opened his wings, and Spike called out. “Wait! I think it’s dangerous.”

Garble rolled his eyes. “It’s a pool of water with nothing in it. How dangerous could it be.” And he flapped out.

The 'water' didn't wait long to act, lashing out a reaching bluish psuedopod in a great motion. As huge as the wave was that approached him, it was slow enough for Garble to abort his motion, flapping haphazardly to not crash into it.

The mysterious substance flowed back into itself even as a new reaching wave began to grasp for him, set on capturing Garble from the air. "What is this?" he shouted, drawing his sword and slicing wildly. He could carve bits off as it came close, but it simply fell back into itself and became part of its whole, seemingly unharmed by his attempts.

Sandra brought her hand up. “Aiden!” she called out, and pointed at the pseudopod. Aiden flapped up a bit and sent a shot of fire at it, nailing the base of a psuedopod, which created a sizzling noise and a little bubble, which popped, to apparently little effect.

“Get back over here, Garble!” Spike shouted.

Garble looked back for a moment. “Screw that, the treasure is right there.” A psuedopod reached up again, smacking him on his side. There was a loud sizzling noise and he cried out in pain, faltering with his wings.

“Gar Gar!” Smolder shouted from the side, but he recovered.

Garble cut the psuedopod reaching for him again. “You guys coming out here, or at least making with the healing?”

“Garble it’s like a puzzle or something,” Smolder shouted, cupping her hands. “You come back here!”

“Screw that!” Garble shouted, swinging his sword in a wide electric arc, slicing down two psuedopods, but a third swept up and smacked his back. “Aargh!”

Spike wouldn't let Garble be swatted from the air without lending some assistance, even if his intoning prayer may have had some grumbles in it. Green energy jumped from him, soothing some of the worst burns, but the slaps kept coming, a race that was as franatic as it was obviously painful for Garble.

"Bro, get your flank down here." Smolder stomped a foot on the ground. "We can get the treasure the smart way."

"This is… the smart way." He banked to the left, narrowly avoiding one wave, but they were coming harder and faster. "Keep… going." He was as much speaking to himself as Spike, teeth grit against the loud sizzle that advertised the punishment he was receiving.

Sandra clapped her hands smartly, her form becoming shrouded in stone and gems. "I hope this is acid-proof." She thrust out a hand into the pool just to yank it back just as quickly. "No no no no!"

Garble continued to growl, his growl turning into a roar as he slashed frantically, most but not all of the psuedopods being sliced to ribbons before they could reach him, as they continued to smack him around, and he flapped and roared fire, his eyes squinted closed, until suddenly the flailing stopped.

He cracked his eyes open, still flapping his wings, to find out he was on top of the raised podium with the silver glowing lamp on it. “Yes!” he shouted, pumping his fists in the air. He landed on the platform. “Take that stupid puzzle pool!” He kicked his foot at the edge of the platform, swinging it out above the pool, at which the pool immediately reached up towards it. His motion continued, pulling his foot back with the finish of the kick and it all became calm below him once more.

Spike reached his hand out over the pool experimentally, it not coming up and immediately swatting him. “Okay, so it’s worse toward the middle.”

“I told you too!” Garble backed up and pointed out at his party. “I totally could make it. Way faster than figuring out how to do whatever it wants you to do.”

“Yeah, but you’re stuck on that side now.” Spike had an unamused expression on his face.

“Psh, I made it out here, didn’t I?”

“But you’re all banged up,” Sandra said.

Garble looked over himself. There were discolorations on his scales and armor… “Right, but we have things for that, so make with the healing already.” Garble gestured over to them. “There’s a reason we keep you around.”

Spike grumbled but indeed raised his staff, sending a burst of greenish light across the pool.

Which was swatted by the psuedopods, disappearing in a green sparkly flash.

“What!” Garble shouted, anger and discomfort raging in uncomfortable competition a moment. "Whatever, I got it." He turned away from the group and went for the lantern just sitting there. "Didn't come all this way for nothin'."
Smolder rubbed one arm with the opposing hand. "Guys, look… I love my Bro, and I am not at all comfortable with this situation, let me just put that out there."

"Seconded." Sandra had a hand raised. "None of the spirits I have are good with acid and I doubt we're going to burn away this entire pool."

Spike was thinking rather than speaking, twirling his staff and giving it a firm thrust, facing to the side and pushing it out horizontally. "Martyr can reach… but it's faint so far away. I can at least lower any hurt he gets, but I can't heal him, not right now."

Smolder slapped his nearest shoulder firmly. "You are the best sometimes, Spike. Now how do we get over there and save Gar Gar from himself?"

Garble was ignorant of their worries, wrapping his scaled fingers around the ornate lamp. "Huh, looks funny." Not that dragons had too many uses for oil lamps to keep things lit. Fire was rarely something they lacked. "What do you even do with this…?" He turned it around in his hands, trying to discern how to use it to defeat even larger foes.

The silver lamp jumped in his hands, rocking and quaking. Spike gasped with alarm, though he still held his staff out. "What if it has a genie?!"

"A genie?" Smolder lifted her shoulders. "What is that?"

"No clue," agreed Sandra, equally as ignorant to those stories. "But he's all alone out there. This isn't how a team should work."

Smoke began to billow out of the end of the lamp, taking on the form of the upper torso of a human with crossed arms. "Who has interrupted my slumber?" Bellowed the new figure, its lower body a trail of smoke leading back into the lamp.

"Me," boldly declared Garble, thumping his armored chest with a balled fist. "You some kinda boss?"

"I am a boss of sorts," allowed the figure, scrutinizing Garble. "For reaching this place, and to get you out of my hair, you get one wish. You cannot wish for life, death, or to change the mind of any save your own."

Spike inclined his head, able to hear the booming figure's words easily enough even at a distance. "Hey, I thought it was three wishes..."

Sandra pointed along the rim of the room. "Let's go around. Maybe we can get closer from another angle."

"A wish? Like anything?" He laughed with building confidence. "Maybe we don't need to climb this stupid tower then."

"Within reason," corrected the genie, fingers drumming on the opposing arm. "But given your reason, I doubt anything you speak will be beyond it."

"Yeah yeah. So can you send us home or what?" Garble waved his free hand wildly. "Back to our world."

"What world is that?"

Garble looked ready to rebuke the genie, but it hit him that he didn't actually have a word for his world. It was just... his world. "The one I hatched on. The one with Dragonlord Ember and Spike's stupid pony friends."

"You have surprised me." The djinn loomed larger, but never off the side of the platform. "You asked for something I cannot give. My power does not extend past the guardian. Ask for something closer at hand."

"Guardian? You mean the stupid pool?" He thrust a finger down in its general direction. "It tried to keep me from getting here. Ha! I showed it."

"You are here," admitted the genie. There was little arguing that. "Much as I wish it were otherwise. One wish, make it snappy."

"What if I wish for more wishes?"

"Then you'd be trying to change my mind." Arcs of power lanced over the chiseled chest of the genie. "And annoying me. Make your wish."

The rest of the group arrived at the other side of the room, having run around the rim the entire way. The pool didn't bother them at all along the way, apparently only agitated by those who tried to cross directly over its surface. On the other side, they could see the doors that led to the next room, or possibly stairs to the next floor, but Garble was still there, in the center.

Smolder danced from foot to foot, considering the deceptively tranquil not-water of the pool. "There has to be a way past this." She leaned over and looked at the colored tiles far below. Maybe... She hopped up and her wings caught her before she came back down. "Spike, keep me covered if this goes really badly. Countin' on ya!"

Sandra put her hands up, funneling her voice. "Garble! Smolder's coming to help, just hang on and don't do anything rash."

"Ugh." He rolled his eyes, one foot tapping at the floor of the platform. "As if I need help to make a stupid wish."

"Perhaps you do, as you have not made it yet," helpfully pointed out the genie. "My patience grows thin. There are other ways to remove you."

Garble suddenly snapped his fingers. "Got it. You can make stuff, right?"

"That is within my power."

"I want the best set of gear you can make for my class." His teeth were displayed in a manic grin, imagining what form the loot he requested could take. It hit him a moment later. "For everyone, for each of their classes, whatever. Ha, they thought I couldn't handle a stupid wish."

"As you request." The genie unfolded his arms just to clap loudly, magic exploding across the area.

Author's Note

What are the consequences of this wish? What would you have wished for?

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43 - Clothes Make the Dragon

Garble immediately felt different. The new gear didn’t appear in his bag, but he was clad in it.

“Hah! Awesome!” He said as he looked down at his new gear. It was fancy, like he hoped, some kind of flowing garment and was white clothes with blue accents. He waved his arms. “It’s light, is there like some kind of new super light armor on it?” He was aware he was wearing a hat of some kind, too.

The genie looked down, folding his arms. Garble looked at him. “You know, you seemed pretty pissy before, but this is pretty sweet. Weren’t you in a hurry to go?”

The genie smiled. “I’m going to wait just a little longer.”

“... Okay weird.” Garble said, looking back at his gear. He held his arm out. There was a fancy bracelet on it, with roses and flowers. Okay kinda lame, but whatever, probably really powerful. “Oh yeah!” his eyes widened with excitement. “Let’s see what sweet kinda sword I got!” He put his hand to his side, drawing his weapon.

The weapon came out of it’s holster easily, and he raised up… a small stick. On the end there was a ball with what looked like pretty feathers made of metal around it. This was not a sword. It wasn’t even kind of a sword.

Garble reached up and plucked the hat from his head. This wasn’t a sweet hat, this was like a… diamond with frills. He wasn’t wearing the cool tunic of a warrior, he was wearing a magic dress.

His eyes open, he looked back down at himself, to realize he was wearing the sort of thing Sandra wore. He snapped his head over to look at the rest of his party. They too were wearing new gear. Spike wore an apron and a do-rag over long sleeves, and a knife and a pan were hanging from his waist. Smolder had a dress, flowing and elegant if one ignored the armored skirt at her hips, and Sandra was wearing a toned down tunic like he’d expect his class would wear.

“Hey!” He turned to the genie. “What gives?”

The genie continued to smile. “What does it look like, I fulfilled your wish. I gave your party the best gear for their classes.”

“Yeah but the wrong classes.”

“You said nothing about who should receive what gear.” The genie gestured beatifically, his arms extended, palms up. “And I have provided.”

Garble scowled. “Whatever, at least we can swap gear so it’s right.”

The genie raised an eyebrow. “Can you?”

“And why wouldn’t we?”

Sandra raised her voice. “Well, most of the really good gear in the tower can’t really be traded…”

“So!"

Sandra looked down at what appeared to be a walking stick in her hands. It was… a walking stick? Or was it a cane? She walked with it, but it made metal tapping sounds with each impact that belied that first impression. "Guys, I think there's a problem."

"That's my line." Spike landed just behind Smolder, the two arriving at the center. "Mine's not so bad, I think?" He was dressed as a ninja, a cleaver in his right hand, a dagger in the other. "At least I can move in it."

Smolder stormed up towards her brother. "You couldn't wait a minute?! I told you to never tell anyone about this!" She gestured down at the dress she was wearing, flowing, pretty, and likely arcane in nature. "And you put us both in it?! Is this some kind of twisted joke, Bro?"

The genie looked satisfied with his work, his chortle growing. "You should not be angry with him. He wished for your party to have the very best equipment I could make, and this has been made so. Surely success will follow." With a parting clap, he became as smoke, flowing back into the lamp he emerged from.

With the genie's passing, the room's features bleached white. The great pool of clear acidic goo became nothing more than colored floor. It was a big empty space with an abandoned lamp towards the center. Boring, as rooms went. Garble was left with an irate sister. "Hey, you heard him. I asked for something good, for all of us. I coulda just asked for something for me, but I tried it your way."

"My way?!" she almost screeched. "How is this--" She waved her sceptre wildly at her flowing dress, her cheeks on fire. "My way?!"

Sandra closed the distance at a light jog. "I... appreciate the effort, but I don't think it worked out."

Spike raised a finger, the motion of his hips causing the dangling pot to jangle. "What happened to our old stuff? We didn't lose it, did we?"

"Probably in your inventory," advised Sandra, grabbing her guild chain and tapping. "Yeah, still in there, thank the gods."

Smolder grabbed Garble by his new dress, shaking him by the chest. "And since when did you ever want to wear a dress? What else don't I know about you, Bro?"

"Dude, c'mon." He pushed her snarling form back. "Since when did anyone... besides those two." He hiked a thumb at Spike and Sandra. "--like wearing dresses?"

"Hey!" Spike put his hands on his hips. "It had good stats!"

Smolder took a step back, realizing she never had confessed that to her brother. Why would she?! "Nevermind! These are lame!" She raised a claw as if to tear at them, but Sandra grabbed for her hand.

"Hold up there! These aren't very good for us to wear, but they're still really good!" Sandra pulled at her cane and it slid easily, revealing a sharp sword hidden inside of it. "We can bring them back to the forge and melt them down to make way better stuff."

Garble crossed his arms. "Now, I ain't an expert or nothin' but how do you 'melt' a dress? Don't they just... burn?"

Spike's shoulders lifted with a grunt. "I dunno, but everything sure seemed to melt in there. I like that idea. We'll turn it all in and get everyone an upgrade. For now though, can we get back to the equipment that actually fits? Cookware is not gonna help me do my thing. Sandra's not going to summon better with a sword, or armor. Garble... yeah... Ditto Smolder."

Garble was looking to Sandra. "I know how to stuff a potion or something in there, but how do you do it with whole outfits?"

"That's actually easier!" She moved to where Garble could look over her shoulder. "Just press this... See, all your equipment, and you can select which one you want to wear like this..." With a soft crackle, her form suddenly became garbed in her fiery robes, her staff appearing where she could grab it before it hit the ground. "Ta da, all better!"

Spike was already fiddling with his chain, but Smolder, powered by embarrassment, was the next to manically smash the buttons and get back into her other outfit. "Oh, thank you," she breathed out, sagging in place. "I'll leave the magical sticks to you two."

Soon they were all back in appropriate equipment, but Spike looked perplexed still. "Hey, never really thought about it before, but how much stuff can we hold like that? Not... everything ever, right?"

"Of course not, silly." Sandra was heading for the far door, towards the rest of the tower. "You can only hold a few pieces of equipment per slot, and 30 miscellaneous things at a time. That's why some people wear bandoleers, 'cause what's in those don't count."

Smolder reached for her dangling supplies. "And this, right?"

"Everything on your belt is one item, and only when you put it away," agreed Sandra as she arrived at the door. "So you're set to go."

"So, like dresses, huh?" Garble was at Smolder's side as they started to move.

"No!" she shouted at him, giving him a huge shove that only made him laugh. "I do not!"

Spike waved at them from by the door. "Let's form up. Past this is either stairs, an elevator, or the rest of this floor waiting to smash us. We should be ready."

Garble lifted his shoulders. "My gold's on stairs or elevator. This room had enough in it. Speaking of that, a little healing action, eh?" He moved to press his hands against the door and it began to open without him actually pushing against it.

"Oh yeah." Spike thrust his shield up, warmth seeming to explode outwards from him before becoming a more focused green line between him and Garble, soothing the acidic injuries. "Hey, uh, thanks."

"You bein' sarcastic?" He glared over his shoulder at the smaller dragon.

"Nah. The way I see it, you mighta got away with it if you had tried to be greedy, but you tried to do something nice for all of us. So, thanks, really." He tapped his guildchain. "Besides, when we melt all this down, we'll turn it into an actual upgrade for us all. We still got something."

Smolder roughly elbowed her brother. "Sure, that was good, but you could have just waited a minute."

"That stupid whatever it was was getting impatient like he was just gonna go and give me nothin', so I made a dang wish." He shrugged and marched forward. "Also, I win the bet."

Beyond the door, stairs reached up towards the ceiling in a tight spiral. Spike flew ahead, shield vanishing in the act. "Going up!"

"Spike!" Spike stopped at the voice, because it didn't come from inside his head, but audibly to his right. The others also turned to look at it. "Can you hear me?"

Smolder blinked with wide eyes. "Headmare Twilight?"

"Smolder? Oh, it's been too long. Is Garble there too?"

"Yeah... Ha, figures." He slapped Spike on the shoulder. "Your pony princess must be worried about you."

"Pony princess?" Sandra approached the floating voice. "Um, hello? We... haven't met."

"Hello to you as well. Who am I speaking to?"

Spike hiked a thumb at Sandra. "This is Sandra. She's the one that brought us here, by mistake, and now she's our friend and part of the team. She's been working really hard to get us back home."

Sandra colored, remembering those few moments when she first saw what would become her dragon friends. "I'm so sorry... I had no idea! They... your dragons... have really helped me out. I... am not the same person."

"They aren't my dragons," gently corrected Twilight. "Spike is my dear brother. Smolder is a student of mine... Huh, I suppose two of them are my dragon if you tilt your head the right way. I have no claim to Garble, but I'm glad to hear he's alright too."

Garble prodded the point in the air the voice was coming from, but there was no yelp in response. "So, you just checkin' in on us or what?"

"In part, yes. Also, I'm Twilight Sparkle. Nice to meet you, Sandra." The voice sounded friendly and female.

Sandra was peering at it with some bit of wonder. "Are you... a horse demi-human, or... an actual horse?"

"While ponies do share some anatomical similarities to equus ferus caballus, our genetic common point diverged countless moons ago," explained Twilight in full teaching mode. "Did you say human?"

"That's what I am," offered Sandra, a hand moving to point at herself, not that Twilight seemed able to see her any better than any of them could see Twilight. "So you're... like a horse... but not."

"Ponies are like horses, but very much not," agreed Twilight. "For one, horses have a difficult time having conversations about their taxonomical place in the world."

Garble took hold of Sandra by the shoulder and shoved her aside. "Yeah, whatever. We're kinda busy right now. We got a tower to crush. You need somethin'?"

"The connection seems better, whatever you're doing. I feel I can do something soon. I'm still working on it. Be careful, please."

Author's Note

Twilight refuses to be written out of this story, it seems.

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44 - Not Gods

"Keep doin' what we were doing', got it." Garble stepped towards the stairs, movement confident. "You didn't need to tell me to do that."

Spike waved at the voice of his sister and friend. "We'll keep going. We… uh, mostly have this under control!"

Sandra hesitated, peering at the point in space. "I… have so many questions… Oh! Next time listen first, make sure we're not in a fight before you suddenly pipe up… other than that, hope to talk to you again?"

"A pleasure meeting you too," spoke Twilight in a kindly tone. "Smolder?"

"I have to get going. Garble's not slowing down."

"I know, just look out for him, alright? You'll get extra credit for this friendship assignment."

Smolder burst into laughter as she started in a hurried jog after Garble. "Looking forward to getting back to class, after we show this tower's what's what."

As a group, they left the voice of Twilight behind, ascending further up the tower. The next floor promised no puzzles, and no bosses. There were monsters, plenty of them. Much like the first floor, they came in numbers without end. Much like the first, it stood as a test of their ability, a measuring stick.

Unfortunately, it was quickly proving to be one they could not stand up to. Garble swatted a ghostly figure aside, but another took its place with barely a pause. "Can't we just… run past them?"

Spike thrust his hand, green power gathering and lancing out in a ball that knocked another into mist, but afforded no mercy. "We're not putting them down fast enough, and I can't drain these." The wraiths had proven rapidly to not only be immune to being drained, but turn it around, causing Spike's spell to feed them instead of taking from them.

A blanket of fire washed over them, causing the wraiths to moan in pain, but it wasn't enough to actually banish them. "I don't have the power!" squeaked Sandra, though she kept trying.

“This can’t stop us!” Garble shouted, raising his sword. “I’ll do the big one!” He hopped back out of the range of a ghost’s hand reaching for him, and he brought the sword down, two electric snaps being heard. “Thunder,” snap snap. “Rolling onward.” He twisted and dodged to the right, cleaving two ghosts, driving them back but not destroying them. “Pressing me, ever strongward.”

“Strongward?” Spike said, dodging an attack. “That’s not a--”

“Cleaving my foes,” Garble said, louder this time. “That halt my advance.” His sword began to spark. “This isn’t a fight I’m leaving to chance!” He spun around, slashing an electrified crescent into the mass of spirits. It had a much bigger impact, as several spirits were scattered. “Ha! That’s right!”

The group of spirits already began to crowd back in, and Garble dove in, slicing as he did. “Let’s go!”

Spike grit his teeth, as he watched the spirits strike at Garble. “Dangit,” he muttered, tossing a heal out.

Smolder ran up to the rear, cutting at a spirit closing in behind Garble, quick rapid slices reducing the spirit to ephemeral fluff.

“Wait!” Sandra called out. The two of them were barely further than before. “Don’t go in the crowd we won’t be able to get to you!”

Soon, more spirits closed in behind them.

"Hey, Bro. Good job and all, but I think we just need an upgrade."

"Up--" He was in the middle of a swing, clearing out several spirits with a wide arc, but there was barely a moment to breathe. "--grade? Whattaya mean?"

"We got all--" She ducked under the reaching hands of several of them, jabbing and slicing. Little bonfires appeared where her skills could find something worth cooking. "--that material. This fight'll be easy after that."

Spike exploded in a pulse of power, buying them a brief moment of respite. "No arguments here."

"Not a one!" agreed Sandra with a bit of a panicked edge in her voice.

"Yeah..." Garble struck the ground, the shockwave clearing a small path, even if it was already closing. "I hate havin' to climb back up though."

Spike blocked several ghostly hands with a glowing shield, struggling to keep them back. "Maybe we'll run into that genie and you'll get another chance."

"Ha! Free stuff." Garble suddenly looked happier about the possibilities. "Alright, let's go."

With consent secured for the entire team, they began to glow with the power of recall magic. But recalling wasn't fast, and their movement was slowed by it. "Recalling in a fight is always risky," warned Sandra. "Turtle up!" Her eyes opened with flaming heat, aiden passing into her flesh as she took up their power. "Get back!"

Smolder jumped to snatch one of the flames she had left behind. "Ghost treat, no thinking, more eating."

Sandra accepted the gift, popping it into her mouth. It tasted of grave dirt and old whispers, which weren't really tastes, but were the impression she received none-the-less. Still, it was the right flavor, binding her to the spirit already inhabiting her. With a sudden cry, flames erupted around them in a great defensive shell.

It didn't stop them from coming, but only some could survive the trip through the flames to harass them, buying them some blessed space. Spike smashed one across the head with his staff as a bright glow followed, his life magic discorporating the larger ghost that had survived the trick. "Whatever you did, keep that up!"

Something sharp danced just in front of Spike's face, Smolder catching a spectre at the last instant, ghostly fog trailing her victorious blade. "The fight's not over."

A loud male shout drew their gazes to see Garble charging. It would have been much more of a sight if he wasn't slowed by at least half by the recalling magic, seeming to be taking more of what looked like a dramatic walk instead of a proper run, his blade clenched firmly in his hands. Ghosts were darting out of the way of the valiant attack, raking at him as he went past.

Spike's form echoes the cuts, gaining them as small mirrors even as he raised his staff to undo the harm. "Smolder?"

"On it." She was slowed, but even a slowed Smolder was a reasonably speedy Smolder, darting towards Garble at what would have been a light jog in speed to slice away at the ghosts that plagued her brother. "Is it almost--"

They all appeared before the level 10 pillar. "--done?" Smolder lowered her blades, a smirk on her face. "Nevermind."

Sandra let out a gust of flaming breath, Aiden gathering itself from the heat as its power left Sandra. She flopped back against a wall, panting. "Good... job." The bird let out a little coo before vanishing in a crackling ball of flame.

Spike blinked softly. "Huh, now we've all breathed fire."

Garble slung his sword on his back. "Finally, now you're a proper teammate."

Smolder clapped in approval as she looked around. "Alright, one more hop back to the bottom and let's do a quick bit of shopping with Tammy."

With soft noises of approval, they began to glow. Outside of combat, the teleporting was much easier and soon they were just in front of the tower.

"Forced to retreat? Figures." A familiar taunting female voice called. "We're already pushing ahead, you better speed it up." She laughed even as her team-mates were casually nudging her along, not allowing another fight to develop.

Sandra rolled her eyes. "Whatever, just... whatever. She's not... important." She pointed towards Tammy's. "Let's gear up and get back in there. We'll wipe that stupid smile off her face by doing what we came to do."

Garble slapped her firmly on the shoulder as he started going. "That's the spirit. Let's make them feel like weak little idiots, which they are."

"The fencer guy seemed alright," argued Spike with a shrug. "Still, yeah, let's get going."

Tammy shook her head slowly. "These are great bits of gear, really. Best I ever saw!" She gestured at the furnace behind her. "But I can only do so much with it. I blame the tower. It has rules. The amount of raw… stuff I can get out of it is limited by your level. So, yes, I can totally upgrade your stuff, but not--"

Garble slapped his hands together, punching an open palm. "But not as good as that jerk made it in the first place."

"Exactly." Tammy looked pleased that what she was saying had been understood. "Still, compared to overleveled stuff you couldn't wear, a huge improvement! Shall I get to work?"

Smolder lifted her shoulders. "Figures. Stupid tower's gotta gloat over us whenever it can." She reached for Garble's shoulder. "Let's take what we can get and use it to smash that tower in the face."

The party grumbled at the decrease in what they had envisioned as a huge leap up in equipment. "Still, an upgrade is an upgrade," argued Spike. "Please, go ahead."

"I am all over this!" Tammy soon had the flames roaring and was busily at work reshaping magic itself to fabricate new gear for the team.

"I should take this." Tammy was casually gathering their weapons. "This too."

But Garble was dancing away from the smith, denying her access to his sword. "No way! I like this one."

"But I'm going to make a better sword," she argued with a huff. "Don't go getting attached to weaker ones."

"It's mine." He crossed his arms over his large chest. "I like the way it looks. I like how it swings."

"Fine fine." She shrugged, palms up. "I'll transfer its appearance to the new one if you really like it that much."

"Wait, you can do that?" echoed three of the party members.

Sandra was the only that didn't. "You didn't know that?"

Spike pointed towards her. "You didn't tell us! Why would we know? We're kinda new to this world and all."

Tammy casually slipped the sword away from the distracted Garble. "Now that we have that settled, in you go." She casually tossed all the weapons into her furnace. "The higher level equipment looks better anyway. You'll love it! But I can make it look like your old stuff if you really want."

Garble huffed, looking towards the others as Tammy whooped and worked with obvious joy. "Ever get the feeling she enjoys this a bit much?"

Spike shrugged a bit. "Would you rather our smith not like their job? Look at her, she's so happy."

Tammy was wrenching down a lever, causing fire to rage upwards as she cackled with obvious glee, caught in the rapturous throes of creation.

Smolder hiked a brow at it. "Would that I get that happy someday about what I do."

Spike pulled at his armored shirt. "Kinda surprised she didn't take--"

Tammy grabbed him by the shoulder and casually de-shirted him with a little whistle. "Thanks for reminding me!"

Sandra colored instantly, fleeing from the room lest she be stripped next. "Hey, wait," called Tammy. "C'mon! Don't be a baby!" And off she went, chasing Sandra down.

Smolder began to casually strip out of her getup, enjoying her draconian superiority in the lack of a nudity taboo. "She's making us new everything, makes sense." She folded it in a neat little pile. "There we go."

Garble tossed his stuff towards her pile, knocking her pile over as he just cluttered the place. "What? She's just gonna toss it in the fire. Why fold it?"

Spike worked off his pants. "He has a point there." He kicked off his shoes and pants to join the rest. "Huh, haven't been this unequipped in a while. It feels weird."

"See, that wasn't so bad." Tammy was returning, triumphantly holding the rest of Sandra's gear. "Your robe's really nice though. I'll probably keep its looks. Really matches that fire bird of yours."

Garble waved at her with a scowl. "See?! Sometimes you have to fit the mood. Keeping my sword..."

Author's Note

We learn about equipment appearance options! Fashion is the end game, even here.

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45 - Gotta Keep Pushing!

Garble got to keep his sword, softly petting its crackling surface. "What do you mean it doesn't shock things? It's all zappy."

"Special effects," explained Tammy as if it was all that needed to be said. "You're all set! How's it feel?"

Spike thrust his shield ahead, gleaming as if made of glass. "Love it. But what is his sword?"

"Cold." She hopped up onto a chair and plopped down. "Your staff is focused on physical endurance, you know, taking a hit, and all the mana I could fit in it." Tammy pointed to Smolder. "Speed. One word, all you need."

"She knows me too well," laughed out Smolder, twirling her knives.

"Mine look entirely the same." Sandra pulled softly at her robes.

"I already had made all of your gear, so I just made the same stuff but better! More of what we like." Tammy clapped her hands. "So there you go. I already took my share of materials, so we're paid up. Go conquer that tower!"

“Yeah!” Garble said, giving his sword a few swings. “We’ve got some jerks to pass!”

Sandra said nothing, but nodded.

“And, don’t forget, we’ve gotta get up higher for Twilight,” Spike added.

“Well, if we’re all rarin' to go, let’s go!” Smolder said, pointing her dagger up and marching off.

The three of them made their way back to the tower through the town, the sun beginning to descend in the sky. None of them appeared to notice, however, as they all headed into the opulent main floor, teleporting up to the first boss floor.

The boss room was empty, devoid of any wolves, misty or otherwise, and the party proceeded upward again.

The next floor seemed the same as the first time they went up it, but the monsters had returned. Garble’s sword froze a pale eyed goblinoid that they had fought first time. “What gives, guys? Did we miss this many last time we went up?”

Sandra backed up, a flourish commanding Crystal to bash away another, larger hulking goblin thing. “They’ve definitely respawned. I guess us leaving just… sped up the process.”

Garble perked up. “Wait, if the monsters are back, then maybe!” He raised his sword back, spinning around. “Rolling Crescent!” The wave cleft through two small goblins, but left the larger one and a few others. “Tch, okay, when the fight is over.”

Right after the fight was over, he ran off down one of the hallways. “Hurry up, before more monsters show up!”

After a few twists and turns, and two other fights, he was standing in front of a puzzle, which also looked reset. Garble grabbed Spike, plopping him down in front of the puzzle, which had glowing orbs and slots. “You’re the egghead, solve it again.”

“Because that really makes me wanna solve it again,” Spike said, his eyes half lidded.

“There was a chest behind it.” Sandra rubbed her chin. “Maybe it’s not a bad idea to check again?”

“See!” Garble pointed at Sandra. “Even she gets it! Make with the puzzling!”

Spike sighed, but Garble did have a point, so he started to slot the orbs back in their places. He was pretty sure the puzzle was in a new configuration, but the puzzle wasn’t very hard anyway. With a chiming noise, the orbs all ceased glowing and the door unlocked

Garble sped inside, eagerly opening the door and into the little chest prize room.

Inside was, indeed, a chest, but not the nice ornate chest with a slot for a guildchain like before, but a much less impressive plain wooden chest. Garble looked crestfallen. “What? Where’s the cool chest?”

Sandra peered inside. “Maybe it didn’t have any time to generate a new one?”

“Or maybe the chests are only nice once,” Spike said. “What’s in it now?”

Garble opened the chest, and pulled out two potions and a little money. He sighed, holding them in his claws as he walked out dejectedly “Next to nothin.”

“Hey,” Smolder elbowed her brother. “Keep em and maybe next time you’re on the other side of a slime pool you’ll be glad you had them.”

Garble grumbled but put them in his inventory all the same.

They came across the great pool and the lamp rested in the middle on its platform. Spike shook his head firmly. "We are not wasting our time with that. I bet you get nothing for visiting it again so quickly."

Garble huffed. "It'd still be worth it to deck the guy."

Smolder began moving around the outside of the room. "I'm not arguing with that idea, but it's probably not the same guy unless we have a real wish coming. I don't want to fight acid slime."

Sandra leaned over the side, peering into the clear depths. "I thought you figured out how to get past it?"

"If it hasn't changed." Smolder shrugged. "Or we walk right on past it and keep going. I want to get to the next checkpoint."

Soon they were on the far end, pushing the door open to the stairs leading upwards. Garble hiked a thumb. "Alright, time to face the ghost room. We have what we need this time? We better. We all have upgrades. If we don't make it, someone's messing up! And it won't be me."

Everyone brandished their weapons. Aiden hooted and took to the air above them.

“Good,” Garble said, and kicked the door open, leaping in. “We ain’t here to stay, so you better make way!” He spun around, there was a crackle of lightning, and slashed across the group of ghosts nearby, an icy wave crashing over them. A few were vanquished, and a few others had ice clinging to them. Garble grumbled under his breath, “It’s just not the same.”

Smolder darted out, finishing off two frosty spirits, getting to work on making some ectoplasmic candy.

Spike and Sandra came in behind, pelting the enemies with a variety of thwacks and casts, clearing the rest of the first wave. They shared a look, Sandra looking nervous, but Spike nodding and pointing onward. “We got this, that was easier than last time.”

“Yeah… but not as easy as the first floor.”

Garble, however, was rhyming his way into the next wave of enemies. Their combined might let them push through the pressing undead far better than the time before, but the further they got through the room, the thicker the crowd of phantoms became.

Spike's form exploded with green light, weakening the spirits around them. "Is there no end to this? Anyone spot the exit? We just have… to make it there."

"I'll keep the snacks coming." Trickier than it first seemed. They couldn't wait for the food, always pushing ahead, trying to reach the end of the attack, but it was nowhere in sight. She had to cook fast to have it ready before they were too far to reach it and it went to waste. "Workin' on it!"

"Find it!" Sandra pointed off, sending Aiden in search, which meant she wasn't providing a blanket of fire. The others had to fight all the harder to make up for that lack, pushing the grasping immaterial combatants away.

Spike's stout staff came down to bash the skull of one perilously close to grabbing Garble. "No you don't!" he cried as it fell to bits of ether, discoporating. "Stick together!"

Garble swung his sword in a great arc, electricity jumping despite the creatures clearly looking chilled by its passing, not shocked. "Not sure I like the looks not matching what it does. The freezing touch and the visible buzz," he rhymed, advancing with greater swings like a metronome that was speeding up.

With a loud screech, Aiden returned to Sandra's shoulder and she brightened up. "That way," she called, her bird taking flight and burning the ghosts closest to her. "It's not that far now!"

"Thank everything!" Smolder jumped backward to avoid a hand, thudding into her brother. "Sorry." She bounced forward just as quickly, planting her knives into the immaterial creature. "I can barely get any cooking done like this, won't miss it when it's gone."

"That way? Everyone ready to move?" Spike moved in the direction pointed, readying his shield tall and his shoulders high. He took a slow breath, green power gathering in and around him. "Because I'm gonna give us an opportunity and we can't waste it."

Garble cocked a brow at the sudden puffiness Spike was showing. "Huh, kinda want to see this. Buzz off!" He smashed those that tried to approach the preparing Spike, acting as a defender for the one who normally defended. "Dragon business, stupid human ghosts, like you'd understand."

Spike thrust his mirror-like shield forward, releasing his gathered power in a great narrow beam of divine magic, punching a hole through the masses in the direction they wanted to go. So strong was the attack that many hit by it instantly dissolved into puffs of vapor, creating a corridor for the team to consider using.

That consideration did not last long. Garble grabbed the wobbling Spike and charged forward, the others right behind him. Fire was raining down around them, only to advance forward, Aiden helping to keep that precious tunnel clear of undead beasts that would have otherwise charged back into the open space. "Go!" called out Sandra with a raised fist and a big grin. "We're doing it! We're gonna make it!"

The closer they drew to the door, the more of them there seemed to be, forcing the corridor they had opened tighter, but they were charging as best they could. Recovered enough from his blast, Spike slipped to his own feet to join the charge, bright bursts of magic noting where he'd done his part to win their way forward.

Smolder's techniques had become largely worthless. There was no time to cook, only to cut and run, most of that being running. Not to say that she wasn't doing plenty of cutting, trying to keep them from getting too close. "How much farther!"

Garble slammed his sword down, a wave of crackling ice rushing outwards to encase several figures in a sudden reminder of what being physical was like. "I can see it. Just ahead. We're almost there, no more dread. Going forward, cannot stop. Heading towards, the very top!" he rhymed as he pressed all the faster.

The party almost ran into the door in their hurry. It fell open under the combined weight of their bodies and they fell through into darkness. They could hear the door slam behind them.

It was quiet. Blissfully quiet.

Sandra became visible first, Aiden crackling with fire and spreading their wings, casting light over her and the area. "Everyone alright?"

Smolder hopped to her feet, only to sag. "Let's never do that again."

Spike pushed himself upright, but was still sitting. "I'm here! Garble?"

"I'm fine." He was propped against a wall. "Just need to catch my breath."

Sandra gestured forward, Aiden taking flight and lighting torches along the walls, revealing that they had won their way to a small room with a platform on it. "Guessing that's an elevator to the next floor. We did it." She laughed a little as she advanced towards it. "Hopefully there's no more than one horde room per set of ten. That's already too many."

Garble pushed off the wall, glancing around the illuminated room. "Sure isn't much in here."

Smolder shrugged, sheathing her cooking knives. "It's like a little break. C'mon, I can taste the next checkpoint."

"Then a big boss," sighed Spike, hopping up to his feet. "We'd better get ready! So, uh, how'd I do?"

Sandra smiled brightly at her smallest of dragon companions. "You did great! That big blast was just what we needed." She turned to look at Garble. "You were a machine, cutting them down!"

"Not my brightest moment," confessed Smolder. "Really not the best time for cooking shenanigans."

"You kept us safe, with your blades," argued Sandra as the platform began to rise with them all on it. "We're in this, together."

Author's Note

What will the next floor hold in store for them? Will they make it to the checkpoint before having to flee?

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46 - What Goes Up

The platform reached the next floor, a well-lit floor with plain grey bricks.

“This seems unusually… normal,” Sandra noted as she stepped off the platform. With a flick of a hand, she bid her golem to rise before her.

A bright neon green 3 appeared above the door in front of them. An announcer called out, "Team 3 is preparing to enter the ring! This could turn the tides on 1 or 2."

Spike deflated a little. "Oh… Are we fighting other adventurers?"

Garble slammed his blade against the ground, frost left behind. "Good. We'll smash them to bits."

“Yeah, but… doesn’t it get messy?” Spike said. “We don’t have a reason to fight them, and it’s not like fighting monsters, who are just… like magic spells that move around.”

Garble gave a dubious look to Spike. “But we do have a reason to fight them. They’re in our way.”

Spike wrung his hands on his staff, recalling the tough fight and the uncertain fate of the bleeding enemies. He looked up to see Sandra seeming to have similar worries. She looked down and smiled a nervous smile, looking back up, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Spike matched her action, brandishing her staff.

Smolder slapped his back, having him yelp with a shock. “That’s more like it.” She pulled her knives out. “Let’s get going. I bet you a shiny coin they won't feel bad attacking us.”

"Ain't taking that up," grunted Garble as he advanced on the door, sword held even with the ground. "Alright, open up!"

"Team 3 is ready to enter! Here they come!"

The door vanished, leaving open space. They could see eight people in an intense battle just below them on a slight incline, two groups clashing with everything they had. One of them, dressed with billowing robes as befit a wizard, noticed the sudden new opening in the hillside. "Company!"

Garble charged out, Spike shortly behind. Smolder stayed back with Sandra. "By the way, since we didn't hear anything? Do these little matchups make bodies or not? Should I avoid cooking them?"

Sandra visibly winced. "I really don't want to find out. You'd better engage as a striker unless some monsters get involved. Forward!" She threw her hand forward and her golem broke into a lumbering charge, the ground vibrating with each heavy step.

The five of them ran forward, and the wizard rolled up a sleeve, pushing one hand up his other arm, as the light of magic gathered, and he shot a blast at them. Garble pulled himself to the side, as did Sandra, who was behind, but the blast, which was revealed as an icy blast. Spike lost his balance on a patch of ice created, slamming into the ground, his bones aching with the cold of the blast.

Smolder seemed to fare better, but was visibly shaken. She burst out a puff of smoke, pushing off against the ice under her claw.

Several melee fighters peeled off, forming an additional line between their respective parties. Garble clashed with one, a shielded person covered in heavy armor, who blocked all of Garble’s hits, as Garble chanted rhymes in his face. “Don’t be ashamed, my style’s untamed!” The shielded fighter seemed to always have his shield up for all of Garble’s strikes, though.

Spike blew fire against the ground, propelling himself up onto his feet and letting him land on warmed turf. "Yeah!" he declared proudly, even if he was panting from the effort.

Two warriors closed on Garble, one slice parried, the other smashing against his armor, knocking him back. As one pressed in to take advantage, he was sliced across the side, the other warrior not of the same team and owing no allegiance.

"What a wicked turnaround. Alliances are formed and dissolved in an instant," proclaimed the announcer. "But how long will any of them last? Will they be able to even face team four?!"

"There's a team four?!" echoed about half of the fighters on the field, including Smolder and Sandra.

The enemy spellcaster thrust a hand forward, a cone of frigid cold bursting forth. "No time to play around." Spike yelped as he was caught in it, becoming a blinking icicle.

"Damn you," grunted Garble, bringing down his sword at the mage, only to be caught against the shield of another fighter. "Get out of the way," he seethed, but his swings weren't as powerful as he'd like, the fighter swatting the heavy blade aside with a bash of his shield and bringing down his mace to smash Garble's feet with an uncomfortable sound of impact.

Sandra looked away from her golem, happy that it was, at least, holding its own. "Guys?" Smolder was darting and bobbing wildly with another striker, the two leaving marks on the other, but Smolder looked like she was taking the worse of the exchange. "Spike?" He was still frozen, and calling her phoenix meant her golem would vanish.

But there was one more trump card, and she shouted out, “Union!” her new ability having a new name, and ran at her elemental, who made its way to her. Upon touching her, there was a burst of rocky magic,and the union of Sandra and Crystal stood in front of them, the rock elemental taking more of a bulky feminine appearance, and also having a distinct facial structure and some kind of robe that seemed to have crystal trim. She darted up to Smolder, punching the ground, which created a jut of rock to split Smolder and her attacker.

Smolder looked over to Sandra, leaping herself back behind her. “Garble! Time to go!”

“What?!” Garble pulled himself up, wincing as he put pressure on his injured feet. “I have these guys on the ropes.” The armored assailant tilted his head, slowly, and raised up his mace, advancing. Garble instinctively scrambled back. “Okay okay let’s go.”

Sandra ran over to Spike, simply grabbing him, pulling him up from his place frozen to the ground. She turned around and ran with the rest of the party back to their room.

“Oh it looks like team three is taking the most elusive of maneuvers, a full on retreat! He who fights yadda yadda! With them out of the picture how will our tentative alliance fare.”

Almost immediately that warrior with his mace twisted, swinging the mace directly at the knee of his former ally, the other warrior crying out in pain as he was hobbled.

The four party members, for their part, reached the door they came in, which slammed closed behind them. Sandra-Golem placed Spike on the ground gingerly, and then the rocks crumbled, and Sandra was solely herself again. She stood for just a moment, and as she stepped forward, her legs buckled and she sank to the ground, panting.

Garble sank down against a wall too, and Smolder sputtered out flame to heat up and melt Spike.

“Well… crap,” Garble eloquently stated to break the silence.

Spike staggered forward, movement restored. He caught himself before he could do a proper fall. "Sorry about that."

"You should be," barked Garble in reply, sheathing his sword. "Hey, whoever you are. We can go back in on the next round, yeah?"

A different voice responded, male, not as full of showmanship, "Sorry, no can do. If you want another try, you'll have to leave and come back."

Smolder groaned, sinking against a plain wall. "We have go climb up, again." Her eyes suddenly widened before slamming shut. "We have to go through the ghosts, again…?"

Garble suddenly punched the exit door, his fist bouncing off of it to no effect. "Let us back in! We changed our minds."

But the door didn't open. They could hear the announcer going over the conflict that the fourth team had entered in on. It would have been exciting, if it wasn't simply salt in their wounds.

Sandra's hands fell at her sides. "I should have been using Aiden, throwing down more damage instead of being happy with keeping a few frontliners busy."

Garble snarled and stormed off, pacing around the room in angry motions.

Spike sat down next to Smolder. "Look, guys... I'm tired." All three looked to him. "What? We've been trying to get to the next boss literally all day. I'm tired, sore, and kinda down. Okay, really down. I want to not even look at this stupid tower."

Smolder slumped back, her hands resting on the ground, knives clattering from unclenched fingers. "I am very hearing that right now."

Garble drew his sword, leveling it at the door. "Enough of these stupid rules. Let us past."

But there was no reply. The announcer kept right on going as if they couldn't hear them, or were simply not paying attention to the complaints of a losing team.

Sandra reached for Garble's shoulder, but he stormed past her back for the door, slamming his sword in fits of sparks and snow, not that the door seemed to be showing much for the effort being put in. "Garble." Sandra kept with him, just a foot back. "It might be time for us all to take a step back."

"You take a step back!" he roared as he swung around with his sword, sending an arc of red as the blade caught their summoner and sent Sandra staggering back.

Spike sat up sharply, grabbing for his staff and directing it at Sandra. "What the hey?! I didn't even think we could hurt each other."

"I... didn't think so either," blurted Garble, suddenly awkward. "Ya... shouldn't have crowded me like that." Despite his tepid words of defiance, he had stopped swinging his sword.

The quieter second male voice returned, "You are still in a RvR area and normal damage restrictions are offline."

"That wasn't cool," grumbled Smolder, glaring at her brother. "Say yer sorry."

Sandra held up a hand, regaining her posture as the green magic banished her injury. "No, it's alright... It's... alright. Sorry, Garble. For holding you back, I mean."

Garble sheathed his sword with a grunt before shoving her shoulder. "Well we ain't going anywhere in here. Guess we have to go back down to 10."

"Then to 1?" finished Spike, standing then. "Then to bed?"

"Hell no." Garble pointed down. "We hop down to 10, smash our way back up here, and we don't mess up this time!"

Smolder's groan was powerful enough to shake the room. "Gargar, quit-it! I swear..." She pushed up to her feet and grumbled as she approached. "Do you think you can solo this now?"

"What? No. I didn't say that." He crossed his arms in obvious defiance, glaring at his sister.

Spike shrugged softly, slinging his staff on his back. "You may as well be. The rest of us are beat."

"I'll go," volunteered Sandra in a timid voice. "I won't hold you back."

"She gets it!" He clapped her on the shoulder, a big grin on his face. "C'mon, let's hop to 10. We have to do that either way."

Agreement had, of a sort, they began to glow, quickly vanishing away to just past the first boss. Spike threw up his hands. "I can feel all those monsters rushing back into position. All those ghosts."

"Don't remind me of ghosts," spat Smolder, idly kicking the pillar of light, not that it was very effective. "As fun as charging straight in is, I think I need to talk to my teacher."

"Huh, what for?" Spike looked towards Smolder with obvious curiosity. "You seem to have it down."

"The basics, sure, but that's all I ever asked for." She shrugged lightly. "There's more I don't know."

"Lucky you, I don't have a--"

"--So get one," cut in Garble, glaring at Spike. "Your class isn't that rare. Find one."

Sandra gestured at the pillar of light. "Does that mean we're withdrawing?"

"Ugh." Garble threw a hand up to the air. "If we have to."

Sandra sagged with a heavy sigh. "Thank goodness. I... didn't really want to try again right away."

Author's Note

Sandra was willing to go if they wanted to, but also didn't want to. Noble, or foolish? The whole party is feeling fatigue from a very busy day of dungeon mashing.

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47 - Round 1, Fight

Spike awoke to the sounds of clanging. “Aaah, whuh?” He pulled himself, bleary eyed up out of the bed, looking down off of his bunk, the blur receding from his eyes, when another round of clanging made him wince.

“Ow, Jeez what is that?” He heard from the bunk across from him, as Smolder pulled herself out of her own bed.

“Whaddya think it is?” the loud voice rang from the little rail between them, where Garble stood with his old sword and shield. “It’s time to get up!” He smashed his sword into his shield.

“Shaddup!” Smolder said, throwing the nearest pillow at him, which bounced off of him harmlessly. “It’s too early for this!”

“I already let you sleep in late, it’s like almost lunchtime.”

Spike turned himself to the clock in the room, which he could see was somewhere in the late morning. He stretched, his muscles aching.

“So what? We don’t have anything to do today,” Smolder yelled down at her brother.

“We always have something to do, Sis! We got a tower to climb.” Garble stormed around mostly in place, his frustration showing in emphatic swings of his hands as he looked around as if searching for support.

A groan came from the covered lump from the bunk underneath Smolder’s. Well, really, the only decent bed in the room, with all the others moved in or built up at low cost, just to have somewhere for everyone else to sleep. “I’m up! I’m up,” Sandra said, trying to pull herself up, her hair in all directions so early in the morning.

“You don’t have to get up,” Smolder said, actually getting up herself. “We’re not doing the tower today.”

“How are we supposed to get up the tower by not going up it?” Garble looked to Sandra, eyes pleading for her to see his way.

Sandra worried her fingers through her hair, trying to tame it even as she replied in a bit of a mumble, "I was going to talk to my spirit tutor. Smolder was going to do the same. Spike was going to find one for the divine lord."

"Where do I even start?" asked Spike with defeat in his voice. "I'm not against the idea, but is there some kinda list somewhere I should be looking at or do I just shout in the guild and hope someone's listening?"

"Ugh, fine, so go talk to whoever, then we go to the tower." He thrust his sword in the direction of the tower, visible outside the window, looming over the city silently. "We are not letting a whole day go to waste."

"Bro, love you." She put a finger right on his nose. "But I'm a breath away from saying something really nasty to you. I am not going today. That is final."

"But--"

"Shhh." She rubbed her finger on his nose. "No more talking. Sandra, want a bite?"

The two girls left together, leaving the boys behind. Garble scowled at Spike, the only one left to receive his anger. "You gonna flake out too? Ponies insist on nice big breaks like a bunch of pansies?"

"What? No!" He hopped to his feet, suddenly dressed for adventure as his chain called forth his gear. "I just want to do it right. You don't want me messing it up, yeah?"

Garble poked Spike in the chest. “You’re right. I don’t.”

“So… um…” Spike sat, rubbing his armor where he was poked.

Garble cast a glance back. “So get goin, you’re the one who’s looking for a trainer, right?”

“Uh, yeah.” Spike said. “You do know that if I do find someone, I probably won’t get much advice… just today, right?”

Garble half growled half whined, grabbing his head in frustration. “Fine, whatever, just get going!”

Spike groaned, grumbling as he pushed past Garble, off to the city proper.

Watching him leave, Garble growled to himself. “I bet that pansy’s not even gonna find someone today, and we’re stuck with more stupid delays for the tower. Argh!” He punched the wall, the wood buckling under the force of his dragon might. He snarled at it, knowing that someone is gonna come by and be angry with him. “Dammit!” He stomped out of the guildhall, not looking forward to that.

He fumed his way through the streets, his goal exactly one place. The Arena.

There was a fight going on, he could hear the cheers. He could hear the crash of metal on metal, the boos and shouts as the crowd roared their emotions with every move. For just a moment, Garble felt a little smile coming on. In the arena, everything made a crystal clear sense.

"What are you doing here?"

Garble came up short, seeing his mentor sitting on a box. "Hey. You look ready for a spar."

"Do I?" He slid to his feet despite the lack of urgency in his words. "What gives you that idea?"

"You're not watching the fight." Garble hiked a thumb towards the source of the fighting sounds. "And you're not getting ready for a fight yourself. You look bored. Let's fight."

"You look ready to lose." He hadn't drawn his blade, yet it was out, its tip at Garble's chest and held firmly in his hand that had been so calm a moment before. "You move without rhythm, your every step a discordant scream of agony."

Garble hopped back, drawing his heavy blade along the way. "I came to fight, not talk."

"Then don't talk. Sing with your blade." He closed the distance with smooth steps that didn't raise or lower his body, as if he were floating closer at frightful speed. He spoke no words of song, requiring none to hold the dance of blades in his heart.

Garble snarled into a smirk, and brought his sword in a clean arc, which reached his assailant first.

The felisurra man pushed off the ground, one of his feet touching Garble’s sword for just a moment, and his other foot came straight into Garble’s face. He reeled back at the impact, and the warrior came down with a slice catching Garble’s shoulder. Garble backed up hastily, trying to stab outward with his sword, which was bat away by his opponent, who closed the distance again, Garble narrowly evading.

Garble spun, bringing his blade up. Saying nothing, he tried to will it to come crashing down with a lightning (or, well, a frosty) blast. Instead, his blade caught the side of his mentor’s, being slid to the side of him. Garble retreated a few steps with a low growl. If his sword had done it’s thing that would have been a hit. He did it in the tower!

The man pressed his attack, striking with powerful fluid motions, trading blows with Garble, and it was all Garble could do to keep up. He growled and raised his sword into ready position. “Teacher or not, my rhymes run hot!” He brought down his blade, the crackling frost blast brought down alongside it, his teacher parrying it similarly, but the frost clinging to his side.

“A new trick, I see?” His mentor’s eyebrow went up. “Skills may--”

Garble snarled and backed up, interrupting his mentor with a spin. “It’s not a trick, I’ll hit like a brick!” His frosty blade slammed into his opponent, who had already brought up his sword in anticipation, bracing the tip with his other hand, far away from his body.

Garble growled with labored intensity and brought his sword back onto his mentor, who was already ready for him. In a frenzy, he slashed and slammed at his mentor, no hits making any marks.

“Look at this flailing,” the felisurra said. “What frustration is this now? You need to slow down.”

“No I don’t!” Garble shouted, slicing wildly. “Slowing down isn’t who I am!” He cut. “I am pride.” He slashed. “I am passion!” He brought his sword up. “I won’t be decried, my rage won’t be ashen!” He brought his blade down, it’s frost crashing down with it. However his mentor had already sidestepped the attack.

The dark feline eyes bore into Garble’s skull as he glared at his mentor and said, “I thought you respected that.”

Those eyes flashed in a moment of anger, and he slid his sandal across the ground, knocking Garble’s blade aside. “I see no pride here.” He sliced across Garble’s body, faster than he could recover. “I see no passion either!” His second strike was still faster than Garble. “I see confusion!”

“Discordant rhythm.” He slashed one handed at Garble, who finally managed a defense. “Frustration and delusion.” He gripped his sword with two hands, bringing it back down. “Waves crash uselessly.”

"You don't get it!" suddenly shouted Garble, not coming in for an attack. "They're all on my case! I got them all sweet upgrades and you'd think they'd be ready to go, but no! No they were not." He emphasized each of the last words with a stomp of a foot. "Now they're just bein' more lazy than before."

His mentor darted in, knocking the blade aside and carving a fine line along Garble's leg so thin barely a trickle of blood came from it, but the pain was enough to send him back with a hiss. "You allowed that cut. A wave once started must fall. Tell me more and fight."

Garble broke into an uneven laugh. As painful as that had been, the sharp slash had, perhaps, brought a moment of clarity. "You're on."

“There’s this girl.” He brought his sword up, slicing a simple controlled cut. “She hates Sandra. Constantly puts her down, and puts me down for being in her party.” He pressed on. “So we’re supposed to be catching up to her on the tower, but my teammates have stopped after just one day!”

"The sun rises bright." He caught Garble's blade and threw it aside, sliding along to the exposed side. "The fresh sapling of discord." The next strike was caught, Garble managing to swing his blade around just in time. This brought a smile to the feline instructor. "Tell me of success."

"There was a stupid, what was it…" He ducked under a strike and lashed out, managing to bash his teacher's chest, though it was more like a push than a strike with the way the hit was received, sending the felisurra floating backwards. "Genie! Right. A genie, gave me a wish for getting to it, which the others weren't doing by the way."

His mentor landed on the ground, bringing up his sword in a ready position.

Garble continued. “So I got us all new equipment! So what if the genie was a liar and gave us the wrong stuff, we still got it all forged into new hotness!” He came in, bringing his sword down, being blocked by his mentor. “And they were telling me to stop, the whole”-- He slashed, as fierce was it was wild-- “damn”-- their blades met, a bright spark flying on impact -- “time!” He swang wildly, his mentor stepping out of range. Garble panted, bringing his sword up again.

"And what did you learn?" asked the mentor, not attacking, not dancing. Just a simple question, hanging in the air, his blade lowering. "The fierce wind howls against trees. But what did it learn?"

Garble thrust his sword, not at his mentor, but deep into the ground. "That stupid people get mad when you give them junk they don't want!" He glared as if expecting comradery in his plight, but slowly it seemed to dawn on him. "Oh… yeah, maybe a little that." He thought back. "This one time, Spike brought me a gift, I hated it… He worked really hard on it too…"

"Tell me of this time." He smoothly slid his sword into its sheath, taking no special hurry in the act. "Raven flying over us, some things mystify." His tone changed, the combat completely over. "If it could have granted any wish, perhaps they would have preferred to speak on such a heavy matter."

"That's just slowing things down." He wrenched his blade free, dirt flying, just to slip it onto his back. "Like we are right now."

"A little delay can shorten the trip," noted the felisurra with a feline smile. "They are preparing, in their own way, to race all the faster, are they not?"

Author's Note

The mentor puts down some hopefully helpful wise words. How will the others better prepare themselves?

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48 - Know Your Place

Smolder led the way through the city. “You seem to know where you’re going…” Sandra said.

Smolder twisted around, flapping in the air. “It’s true! I have been wanting to try this place for a while, Pella was talking about it.”

“About that…” Sandra cocked her head. “Why don’t you want to go eat from her?”

“Huh? Why?” Smolder peered at Sandra with naked confusion.

“I dunno.” Sandra gestured out to the city at large. “She might need the business, I guess?”

With a laugh, Smolder landed. “I don’t need to worry about her. She’s doin fine. And what do you think I ate every day when I worked there? Whatever we were making that day, no,” Smolder punched her hand. “She talked about the quality of food at this place and I am excited to have a day we neither have to go out and eat magic food nor work at her cart. Let’s do this.”

Sandra shook her head a little as they advanced. "If it's that good, are they going to be happy about demi--" Her words died in her mouth, seeing the face of where they were approaching.

Brightly lit, the music playing just as loudly with deep tribal thumps that most of those waiting in line to enter were bobbing with. The people who had tails more than not. Fur, scales, and feathers adorned them. They talked openly and with smiles.

It was a demi-human eatery, not a single human in sight. Just like that, Sandra was the odd one out. "Oh, wow…"

"Isn't it great!?" gushed Smolder, clapping her hands. "Smells as good as it sounds. C'mon!" She grabbed for Sandra to get a place in line, half-dragging the stunned little human girl.

While Smolder was blind to any issue, bobbing with the music and looking like she was already tasting the food to come, Sandra could see the others peering at her out of the corners of their eyes, glaring even.

One wolf-person that was just behind them, moving to take their place on the line, snarled at Sandra openly, teeth mildly exposed. "You get lost, human?"

"You got that wrong," laughed their felisurra partner. "You're supposed to tell them to get lost." He looked from his friend to Sandra. "He's like that. Still, go away. This isn't your place."

Sandra cringed back in fear, but Smolder stepped in between Sandra and her. “Hey, what’s the deal?”

The felisurra wrinkled his nose. “You brought this human here?”

“Yeah,” Smolder said, giving him the stinkeye. “You got a problem with that?”

“Yes,” he stood closer, much taller than the still somewhat short dragon. “This is our place, not hers. She can’t come waltzing in expecting it to be hers just because everywhere else is.”

"I can go," demurred Sandra, looking eager to avoid that particular conflict. "I wasn--"

"Nuh-uh," flatly denied Smolder. "I know you got a problem with humans, but this human's alright by me, and she's my partner." She thrust a thumb at her own chest. "So we're going to go in there and we're gonna enjoy some food, like anycreature else. Whattaya say to that?"

The two predators peered with Smolder, expressions caught between surprise and disgust. The wolf broke the pause first, "You're mating with a human? Did you whore yourself to her?"

Smolder's eyes widened. "You want a duel? Not my usual style, but that question deserves a duel." She patted one of her cooking knives. "I planned on letting someone else cook, but I think I could make something out of you."

Sandra squeaked, thrusting an arm out, switching which was guarding whom from whom. "No! No, that won't be needed. Let's just--"

The cat shoved Sandra aside. "We're talking. This ain't your place, bareskin."

"Yeah, shut the hell up," joined the wolf, eyes on Smolder.

The cat produced a pair of brass knuckles from apparently his sleeves and donned them. “A duel sounds just fine. I can kick you and your human friend out.”

Smolder drew her daggers, and leapt up at him.

His fists went up, clashing with her daggers, their metal preventing them from biting into his soft flesh. She reeled back to attack again--

“Hey, hey hey hey whadddya think you’re doin’?!” A voice rang out. A rather portly feathered demi came out, wearing an apron and holding a big wooden spoon. “Read the damn sign!” He smacked the sign, which said plainly. ‘No fighting.’ “Yer breakin the rules so get out!”

“I was just tryin to show this bareskin--” The felisurra started, while at the same time Smolder was saying. “He started i--”

“I don’t care! You fight, you don’t get fed! GET OUT!” the avian man roared.

Smolder's shoulders sank in abject misery. "We'll be good, promise!" Her dagger thunking into the ground dangerously on either side of her adding an odd emphasis to her words.

The wolf threw an arm around Smolder, drawing her in closer as if they were the best of friends. "We were just playin' around, waiting for our turn. No more fightin'."

The avian glared at the lot of them with doubt in his gaze. "One more little peep and I'll ban you all. Don't think I won't!" He turned with flying feathers, storming right back into the restaurant. On the way he shoved the bouncer. "Do your job! They fight, they don't stand out here. They don't come in!"

"Yes, sir," mumbled the larger demi, bowing sheepishly at the overwhelming chef. With the avian gone, her cleared his throat. "You heard him! Keep in the line and shut up."

The wolf released Smolder, frowning. "We can settle this later, somewhere else."

A peace of sorts returned at least, with Sandra sliding in close to Smolder. "Is this what it's like?"

"Mm?" Smolder looked aside at her friend. "Is what like what?"

"What demis have to put up with." She shrugged softly. "It sucks."

"Oh, nah." She plucked up her knives and got them back on their loops before taking a step forward with the line. "They know if they attack you, they'll probably get in big trouble, but, even here, the opposite's not quite true. This is their place, but it's still your city."

"That didn't stop them from pushing me," Sandra whispered.

"If it helps." Smolder took Sandra's hand, stilling it. "Getting a chance to do that was probably nice at the time, and I bet he's wondering when you'll go to the guards, sweating it right now. Kinda part of why they're on edge. One little report from you could maybe get this place in trouble."

"I wouldn't do that!" She didn't dare leave the perceived safe bubble around Smolder. "Let's... just enjoy the food."

"And the music." Smolder swayed her arm, taking Sandra's hand with it, trying to get her moving to the beat. "It's not bad, right?"

The food, as it turned out, was quite good, even if Smolder took a few notes of spices to liven up her future cooking endeavors. "Who says you can't have fun and learn at the same time?"

"How did I never hear of this?" Sandra was sampling hers with appreciative noises. Her tension had faded once they were in a booth, able to partition off the rest of the room from her little safe place with a friend. "These aren't tastes you find anywhere."

Smolder waved a fork at Sandra. "You need to get out of your safe space more often then. You're an adventurer, a bold tower challenger! You should, at the least, be ready to raid the kitchens across the lands to see what's worth eating."

"If it isn't Pella's little pup." It was the round chef, moving up on their table with a sly grin. "Don't think I didn't recognize you. Only reason I took that excuse you threw out."

Smolder burst into laughter. "Hey, thanks. You know her? She'd been talking the world about your cooking."

He slapped her back. "And now you got to try it for yourself. Better than she said, right?"

"Totally. Oh." She gestured at Sandra. "This is Sandra. We're on the same adventur--"

"Yeah yeah, I know that." The bird waved it away, hand going behind his back and coming out with a platter. "Don't tell her I said it, but Pella gloats about you. You're making her real proud."

That got a new round of laughter out of Smolder, her eyes on the platter. "Aw, that's sweet. She's a great teacher. I was going to harass her for more tips, actually."

Down came the platter, nudging several other plates out of the way as it was lowered. "Do you understand the importance of accessories, little pup?"

"Hey, pal. Dragon? At least use proper insults." She stuck out her tongue a little, but her eyes were still on the platter, curiosity undiminished.

"You want me to go away, hatchling? Or you gonna shut up and let me show you something." When Smolder didn't fire a retort, the bird-man smiled confidently, raising the tray up, steam billowing out and carrying the scent with it. "Warriors worry for shields and swords. Spellcasters, like your human friend here, obsess over the pretty little balls on their equally fretted staves."

Sandra leaned forward, drawn by the reveal almost as well as Smolder. "Smells great."

"And it should." He raised a finger. "Because I added that little extra. You have your knives, hatchling, but you're missing your shield."

Smolder raised a hand. "Hold on a second. Are you--" Suddenly there was a mildly feathered hand over her snout.

"I am a chef, nothing more," insisted the bird man, drawing his hand back. "Really, adventuring is another world. The tower can rot for all I care. But, you, little hatchling, you want to go challenge it. You need a shield." He brought down a finger on the edge of the platter, tipping it dangerously. "Finish this. No drinks."

"No drinks? What is it, spicy?" She rolled her shoulders. "You know fire doesn't hurt me, right?"

"Spices bring heat that will set your cheeks on fire and melt your tongue without any warmth involved," assured the chef with the utmost of confidence. "But there is more to it. Eat, and take note. The entire thing was prepared at once, at the same temperature, from the same meat. It should all be just as good."

"Which is pretty good from over here," noted Sandra, a little out of the conversation. "Excuse me, you seem to know what you're talking about. Do you have any hints for--"

"Silly girl." He brought down a hand on Sandra's shoulder. "I am a chef. You're a spell throwing sort. My advice won't do much for you, unless you want to help your friend."

"I do!" Sandra sat up. "How can I help her?"

The avian glanced aside to where Smolder was starting to cut into the meat. "Take note of each bite, in your head, hatchling," he ordered firmly before looking back to Sandra. "You want to help? You're in her party, right?" When Sandra nodded, he leaned in. "Then here's a way you can help. Stop destroying her meat!" He bopped Sandra right on the head. "You can make her job easier."

Smolder made her culinary exploration, each bite seeming like an entirely different experience with different spices. Some of them were good in wildly different ways, some had her wanting to grab the water she wasn't allowed. Some had both properties.

Sandra was focused on the chef. "Show me how. We're a team. If I can help her, I want to."

"Good attitude. You're listening, exactly the sort of thing they say humans are terrible at. Now keep those ears open and I'll go over the basics." He began to explain how to tell if one was hurting the odds of useful meat resulting from any monster's demise, and how to skew the odds in her favor. "I'll be asking your friend if you're doing better or not, so don't waste my time."

It was an evening of learning and tastes.

Author's Note

That got awkward for a bit there, but a happy ending was had, yes?

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49 - Divine Guidance

Spike made his way through the streets of the city. He was aware he was getting looks, but he powered through it. He was on a mission: a friendship mission.

Smolder had Pella. Garble had that guy that was in the arena. Spike didn’t know his name. Sandra had that guy on the side of the street, and Tabitha, and… he didn’t even know who else! She probably knew even more people!

Spike didn’t know anyone.

But that’s fine! It’s fine. Spike didn’t know anyone yet. He had tons of friends. Twilight, Rarity, the other girls… And Ember! And Thorax! And Gabby!

And even Smolder and Garble, probably.

Not that he should count his party members. The point is he was ready for this. Time to meet someone, make a friend, get a teacher.

And the only place he knew of to do that was to head out to the guild hall, where all the adventurers were. He could find someone who was another Divine Lord, and he’ll just turn on the ole Spike charm, and he’ll have it!

For sure.

He arrived at the guild and went up to the front counter. The guy behind it was actually smiling at him and Spike was a little confused. He was used to bored, or putting up with, but… smiling? "Hiya. How's it going?"

"Good day. Left your party at home?" He glanced past the dragon as if searching for the rest of the group.

"Just me." Spike took up his staff and raised it. "Actually, I was hoping to learn more about being a divine lord. Can you help with that?"

"Not me, personally." He ducked down and came up with a tome. "But we do have a list of members and their favored classes. Did you know you can register yourself if you think you have hints to give?"

Spike's eyes widened with surprise. "Really? That's super nice! Yeah, if you can, check if there are any divine lords that could give a few pointers." His stance became easier. This was all going so well. "Silly question, but you seem… happier today."

"If we're being honest." He was flipping through the book, searching for a matching entry. "Sandra's a bit of an issue, and your friends are loud, one of them quite violent. Of the lot, you always seemed the least troublesome and most polite."

"Huh…" Sometimes it paid to just be a good person, Spike decided. "Sorry if they were causing trouble."

"See, exactly that." The secretary seemed satisfied with their view on things. "Now…" He handed a list of potential mentors to Spike, who received it with a little bounce.

Flipping open the book, he started looking at the names. The list was… not as long as he was imagining. He guessed that a list of mentors for a class people knew a lot about would be like… more than ten, for sure. But instead there were like six, and two were crossed out.

And right at the bottom of the list was a name he knew. Tabitha. Why was she on the list? What could a bully like that have to gain?

His finger hovered over the name. It was a dumb idea to pick her. It was.

But… he was very good friends with Starlight, who froze him in a block of crystal when they first met and destroyed the world, although it didn’t really count because of time travel. And Ember, who didn’t like him at first. And Thorax, although Thorax was always a good bug…

And he was the best at friendship, and being a good pony-er, creature.

So he made his decision. "So… Tabitha?"

"Tabitha," repeated the secretary. "A fine adventurer, making good progress with her party. She takes great pride in her class." He reached to take the list back. "Shall I send her your way?"

Spike shied his hand away with the list. "Um, yeah, but let me see these too, if it's not a big deal?"

"I can make a copy." With that, Spike let him take it. "Just a moment. He cast a little spell, barely more than a word, and where there was one page, then there was two, and his journal didn't need to be separated. "Here you are. Follow her directions and you'll be on the right path."

"Isn't he a martyr build?" asked another adventurer that was walking past. "I thought those stopped being a 'thing' years ago."

The secretary was fixed on Spike. "I'll tell her you're looking for her."

"Okay, great! Wait." He imagined Tabitha knocking on their door, and the responses of his roomies. "How about I meet her here? Just tell me when to be here and I'll come running."

The secretary raised an eyebrow. “I suppose. Come by nearer to five, hopefully i’ll have good news by then.”

“Okay!” Spike said, balling his claws into fists. “I got this. I’ll do this!”

The secretary blinked with an amused smile on his face. “You… sure will, I guess.”

Spike took off to find something to do until the time comes.

Spike came out at the time prescribed, heading into the common room, straight to the secretary. He looked around, and Tabitha was nowhere to be found. “Is… she coming?” Spike asked.

The secretary nodded his head. “She said she’d be here. She’s very professional about these kinds of things. A model to adventurers, even.”

Spike blinked and thought of her meanness. Didn’t she do it in front of the secretary, too? It left him uneasy. He sat down at one of the seats, like he was waiting to be served by the secretary, and the uneasiness continued. This… might have been a bad idea. There were many options, he could probably have asked the secretary for other ones.

But, he thought, This was what he chose, because he’s a good friend and it’s time to be a good friend to a bad friend! I could--

“Hi,” came the voice from behind him, causing him to jump in fright, whipping around. It was Tabitha alright, a serious look on her face Spike couldn’t quite place.

“It’s you, you came,” Spike said, mildly astonished.

“I said I would,” Tabitha replied. “I said I would give advice to someone who asked for it, too, so here I am.” She reached out and placed a finger right on his draconic beak. "Besides, I'm tired of you dragging the name of divine lords through the muck in your blinding ignorance." Despite her caustic words, a bright smile lit her face. "Assuming you're ready to learn, we'll fix that."

"H-hey!" He hopped to his feet, frowning at her. "We've been pushing through the tower, making progress." He hefted his staff tall. "Look at what we've found."

"Not bad." She casually brushed it aside. "But why a staff of all things? Ah, that's right. Martyr build." She wriggled a few fingers at him. "You know, divine lords are great tanks. We can wade right into the thick of things. Why weigh yourself down with that twig instead of something with actual heft?"

"It gives me magic." He twirled the staff with a smile. "It makes my healing and powers stronger. I can keep my friends healthy and hurt the monsters real good. What's wrong with it?"

"We have a lot to go over." She turned to the left and began walking. "They have a gymnasium in here, just for us adventurers. We're going to figure out what you've learned, so I know what I need to fix. I swear, a dragon divine lord. It'd be a joke if it wasn't behind me."

"Look, I know a lot of folks around here have, like--" He gestured wildly as he followed after her, his staff hanging on his back. "--a lot of hangups about not-humans doing anything, but--"

"Not that." She turned on him, pausing their travel. "The divine lord was renowned in no small part for his heroic stand against dragons. Specifically dragons." She pointed at Spike. "Much larger than you or anyone else in your party dragons. The kind that could set an entire town on fire without much effort." She leaned in close, face an inch from him. "Dragons. Get me?"

"So... adults?" Spike lifted into the air on flapping wings, bringing their eyes on even ground without her leaning over him. "Huh, must have been a tough character to win a fight like that."

Tabitha shook her head as she twirled, resuming the journey. "Just like that? Wait, you're a, what, baby dragon?" She glanced over her shoulder. "So where are your parents? Shouldn't they be keeping an eye on you?"

Spike rubbed one arm with the opposing hand, looking away sheepishly. "The closest thing I have to a parent, my adoptive sister really, is kind of really far away right now." His expression lit up, confidence returning. "Kind of why I need to get to the top of that tower! So, you going to help with that?"

"Didn't Sandra summon you?" She shrugged. "Whatever, figured you were rushing to get her whatever stupid thing she wanted." They were entering the gym proper. Small groups of people trained, sparring with lessons given and received. Tabitha hiked a thumb. "You are the bulwark between your friends and pain. You get that, right?"

"Yeah!" He landed lightly next to her, shield springing into being on his arm as he raised it defensively. "I do that all the time, from the front and the back."

"Divine lords aren't back material," she grunted as if the very idea of it were ludicrous. "What even gave you that idea?"

He tugged at his clothes. "Well, for one, they let me wear this." He reached back for his staff. "My guildchain doesn't stop me from holding this. So, you know, someone thinks this is alright."

She drew her shield and a heavy mace that glowed with scintillating hues. "Just because you can doesn't make it a good idea." She pointed at Spike's face with the mace. "This draws attention. One good hit with this gets a monster thinking about you, and doing that takes no magic. I can bash things all day, leaving my magic for more important things than just keeping attention on me."

"Oh!" Spike almost hopped in place, bouncing a bit on his legs. "Do you think I use a lot of big flashy things, like, uh, this one." He waved his staff at her, green light exploding outwards in a display of his might.

"Well, yeah? How else are you keeping their attention? You're an unarmored, low-offense nothing. Why would anything waste its time with you?" She shrugged expansively, then raised shield and mace. "Go on, show me. Make me not want to hit the test dummy behind you."

She barely gave him a moment before she was lunging in, mace raised high. Spike swung his staff in the way, the length of it going a dull green an instant before it struck the mace, sparking and lashing with that energy. Tabitha flinched back with surprise. "What was that?" She wobbled her mace at his staff. "Seriously, what was that?"

"Got your attention," Spike noted with a smug smile. "Look, I don't know if you noticed, but I'm not exactly the biggest thing in the room. Carrying a big hammer isn't going to be my style." He wobbled his staff at her. "This lets me work with my magic, my spirit. And, make all the fun you want, but my spirit's been tested. It's big enough."

Confusion played across her face before a little smile began to creep out. "Alright... sure. They say the original divine lord was both." She pointed at him, mace wavering. "Strong in spirit." Then she tapped it against her shield. "Strong in body. We're both pale imitations, if you think about it too hard." She laughed, a lone little guffaw. "Part of why I love being a divine lord. We have such big shoes to fill. So, let's get to it."

She slid into a ready position. "Unlike your summoner, I plan to rise towards the impossible, not run and hide. Show me your spirit. I'll show you my body."

Spike pondered the phrasing of that line, but took a ready stance. They had training to do.

Author's Note

Tabitha has things to teach Spike, and perhaps a few things to learn in kind. Expect more of their training time to come.

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50 - You're Doing it Wrong

The next day, the group scattered, with only Sandra and Smolder sticking together. They all seemed to have something they wanted to do, and set off in pursuit of it. Garble didn't even bring up trying to scale the tower on his own.

An improvement, in the eyes of the others.

Spike hurried back to the guild, jogging with his staff held in both hands as he went.

"I almost didn't expect you to come back." Tabitha was already there, making idle swings of her heavy mace in preparation. "You're just a dragon full of surprises."

"I didn't ask for help just to quit." He took a fighting stance, green magic glowing around his edges with readiness. "Let's learn something."

"She is too damn lucky to have you," she spat in what could have been a compliment. "Now, I've seen your spirit."

Spike's stance faltered. "Yeah?"

"And I'm alright with it." She nodded softly. "Not my style, but we're not here to train me, are we?" She swung her mace towards him. "What did you learn as we fought?"

"You're really hard to hit." He waggled his staff at her. "I mean, not, like, at all. I can do that. But it bounces off half the time."

"Because you didn't learn." She let her mace drop to the ground, thudding heavily as she reached into her clothes and pulled out a sheaf of paper and offered it towards him. "Did she even tell you about this?"

Spike accepted the paper with a skeptical look, but began to read over it. "What?! Seriously?!" He staggered back, his staff clattering to the ground to join Tabitha's mace. "There's a list?!"

"Duh." Tabitha leaned forward, hands on her hips. "Every known class has their skills recorded, barring the new ones. You discovered a new one, didn't you? Congratulations on that." She leveled a pointing finger at him. "Speaking of that, I'm taking it. The least you can do for the training is to show me it."

He began to slap at the paper. "Hold on. All this time all the spells and where to get them were just… there?"

"Look, kid." She reached out, patting him on the shoulder. "This is how Sandra rolls. I tried standing up for her, I did, but she fell through. Quitting is the only game she's got down. When you're busy running away, why would you bother learning about this?" She waved at the list. "Back to you. You're not a quitter, right?"

"No!" He clutched the page all the firmer. "I want to learn these!" His eyes fell to the paper. "I think I have most of the ones you can just buy…"

"I'd wonder if you didn't." She reached for her mace, hefting it up, shield at the ready. "Some are on rare equipment you can’t find easily, but some you can only learn in a fight."

Spike blinked with confusion, but it dawned. "You'll show me? Great!" He snatched up his staff. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours."

"Phrasing," she chastised, entirely ignorant of the turn of phrase she had used just the day before. "Let's go."

Spike brandished his staff, for a moment before stopping. “Er… I’m showing you Life Transfusion, so...what target should I use?”

An eyebrow raised in inquisition. “Are you serious? You’ve got a target right here.”

Spike blinked. “You… is that alright?”

“You’ve been throwing spells at me for two days now!” Tabitha frowned. “Don’t tell me you’re holdin’ out on me now. Whatever is it is probably not going to do anything to me that a healing spell won’t fix, so get on with it.”

Spike held up his staff, holding it in two hands. “Life Transfusion!” He flicked it at Tabitha, the line of energy sending out and striking her, a little energy pulled away and back to him. Which did nothing because he wasn’t hurt, but it was clear by her wincing it accomplished something.

Tabitha shook her head and shoulders a little, and then started looking from right to left, not at any particular thing. She wiggled her jaw from right to left, clearly in thought. “Okay, again.”

Spike sent another beam of life transfusion, causing Tabitha to wince again, gritting her teeth, followed by more thinking. “Again.”

Another blast of greenish energy, Spike feeling the rush of energy entering but doing nothing into him. She grit her teeth once more, thinking again. “This is more of a… regular spell than something that you’d come up with in the middle of a fight, isn’t it?” She opened a pack, putting her mace away, pulling out… what appeared to be another mace, except instead of a flanged head it had a lumpy head and a round glowing orb.

Spike tilted his head.

“What? You don’t think I had a magic weapon?” Tabitha said. “It’s not as good as my main one, but I swap it out for healing.” She shook her shield. “I ain’t givin’ this up though.” She held the scepter out, pointing it up like Spike did with his staff. “Life Transfusion!” She sent her own blue stream of magic onto Spike, who grit his own teeth at the rather strange feeling of his vitality being sucked out. It really felt like a reverse-heal, and once it was done he simply felt bad. Not hurt anywhere, but he was sore a little everywhere.

“Ha!” Tabitha said, holding up her scepter. “Got it in one. Nice.”

“Yeah that… was pretty quick,” Spike said.

Tabitha shrugged. “I could tell pretty quick it was an application of the magic diverting ability the class has, just instead of being used as a blast or added to a weapon strike, being used for a heal. It’s pretty clever, though. I don’t think I would have thought to combine it like that.”

Spike twitched his ear frill. “Magic diverting?”

Tabitha exhaled in an amused face. “I guess you wouldn’t know about that either. Divine Lords specialize in diverting magic. Normal builds use it to stop attacks from hitting themselves or their allies. The whole basis for the martyr build is to divert magic from attacks from your allies to you, and then divert that back to the enemies.”

"Oh!" Spike brightened at the explanation. "Yeah, that makes sense, sure." He twirled his staff, little flecks of greenish energy almost shedding from it as he mended the aches, returning to top form. "That's better, now you were going to show me something, right? Trade for a trade."

Tabitha suddenly jabbed him with a finger in the chest. "At least you get that. A favor for a favor, that's how adventurers go. It's not like we're mercenaries, but keeping the karma wheel turning is how you keep people honest." She grunted with obvious annoyance.

"You… want to talk about it?" He planted his staff and leaned against it, watching her face. "You sure seem to have a lot of pent up everything about that."

"We're not here to talk about that!" she almost screamed, though she lowered her voice quickly, quieting before her sentence was even done. "We're here to train. You asked for a trainer, I accepted that duty. I will not fail at what I set out to do."

"And I do appreciate it, really." He stood up, staff held firmly in two hands, each separated from the other along the length of the magic device. "But adventurers give and get. Just consider that an offer to give an ear."

"You are the strangest little dragon I ever met," she noted flatly before shaking her head. "At least you seem like an alright divine lord. Let's make you better." She pointed to a dummy and moved in front of it. "Hit it. I promise I will never touch you. I won't distract you. But you won't hit it. Blast it, slap it with your stick, whatever you got. I won't let you."

Spike got himself ready, licking his lip in concentration, and immediately sent the same attack he just sent several times just a moment ago.

The mote of green light, attached with it’s lines, sped at Tabitha, who brought her shield up, which struck it not head on, but on it’s side, and there was a glow on the shield as she easily bat it aside. Spike frowned. He pulled up his staff, starting to run around her, pelting her with his life blasts, which she bat aside with her shield one by one as she circled the target dummy between them.

He grit his teeth. She didn’t have to move as far as he did. He could get the upper ground, though! And he flapped his wings, taking up to the air. His armor was… actually surprisingly heavy. He hadn’t done a lot of flying in it. But it was good enough to get above her and start shooting.

She had to extend more to block the hits, but she was still able to. They seemed to do very little to her, neither exhausting nor hitting her shields hard. Spike grit his teeth. He summoned up the biggest blast he could. He had a plan, and was ready.

Letting it fly, he shot his biggest blast down at her, while he stopped flapping and dove down at her, his staff starting to glow with a smite.

She grit her teeth, and held up her shield, the first attack bat away, and brought up her scepter, which collided with the staff’s glowing smite. The staff was stopped in its tracks, and the magic of the smite was thrown to the side, the remnants of the magic blasting to the ground beside Tabitha, although at least some hit her armored legs.

“Alright, that’s good,” Tabitha said, stepping back, shaking her leg. “Can you figure out what I was doing.”

Spike thought, and looked at the ground around. Scorch marks from his magic littered the area. “You… were just deflecting my attacks, like you said divine lords do.”

“That’s right.” Tabitha nodded.

“Can you really just… deflect everything? Be completely invulnerable?”

“Ah well,” Tabitha kinda looked sheepish. “No. Actually defending with this technique is all dependent on your skill at using it. But, well,” she smiled a smug smile. “I also have been teaching you for two days, and I was pretty confident you wouldn’t be able to overwhelm me. That last one had me struggling. BUT!” She stepped away from the dummy, swinging her scepter. “Whether or not you can beat it is not really the point. The point was can you do it?”

Spike released the staff with his left hand, his shield springing into being. "I was always trying to put it right between…"

"But you are a deflector," she reminded with a wagging finger.

"And I need to deflect," continued Spike, seeming to get it. "Yeah! Taking it dead on is doing it all wrong. Make it… bounce. Make it go away. Don't try to be a rock."

"I can see the wheels turning," almost sang Tabitha, looking delighted in the understanding dawning on her student's face. "Now, are you ready for some boring homework?"

"Huh?"

She thrust a thumb towards the exit. "You get to head out to the starting fields, but you're not allowed to attack anything. Let them come, and learn to block properly. Make deflection a second nature. Think you can do it?"

"Yeah! But…" His right hand dropped, staff swaying in the limp grip. "You didn't teach me a new spell. You said you would."

Tabitha reached out and tapped him on the nose. "One thing at a time. This is more important. Learn how to deflect and you'll take a real step towards being a better divine lord. You can do this, right? Don't let me down now."

"I won't!" he hastilly assured. "Alright. I'll practice it, but you still owe me a spell!"

"Show me you deserve it." She made a soft shooing motion. "And don't give up."

Author's Note

Training, the best part of isekai... right?

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51 - Speedy Service

The group pressed through the cloying field of undeath. They already knew which way to go. Aiden burned away the weakest of them as Smolder grabbed the copious supplies left behind. Sandra's training was showing dividends, those subdued by her spirit power becoming just what she needed about twice as often, and that was reaping immediate dividends.

To say nothing of Smolder's new spices bulging from her belt. "Speed salt!" She dashed the food as they went. "For every occasion, a spice to match." She was grinning with new confidence, in control of the hectic situation.

Garble sped past, his rhymes and his footsteps forming a beat he cut to. It wasn’t an unbroken flow, but it was clearly doing something, as he cut down enemies with flashier blasts more often.

Spike, however, for his part, licked his lips and concentrated his best. A fiery bolt of magic came blasting at him, and he brought up his staff, swinging at it. He missed and the fire bolt hit him harmlessly. Spike swore under his breath. Tabitha had warned him that deflecting magic with his staff would be tougher, and indeed it would be much tougher to deflect magic in “the field” than in a sparring match. But every chance to fight a monster was a chance to get better.

At least, that’s how Tabitha saw it, and Spike saw the wisdom in that attitude.

He glanced at Sandra out of the corner of his eye, as he thought about Tabitha. He had intended, perhaps, to mend their friendship, but he felt like talking to Sandra about it before he knew any more would be… bad. It was too early, probably.

He shook his head to put it out of his mind. Fighting! Tower! He could do friendship problems later.

They burst past the waves of undead, breathing firmly, but none of them looking as worn as they had the past two times they had tried. Garble slapped Spike hard enough to send him staggering. "That's what I'm talking about!"

Sandra and Smolder met with a mutual high five and Spike shot a thumbs up, morale high with the fruits of their efforts. "Hey," noted Spike as they walked. "You seemed to be kinda overflowing with food. Not complaining, just noticing."

Smolder thrust a thumb at Sandra. "She learned how to support me better with that, and I learned how to cook better. Put the two together and we're a mean team!"

Sandra giggled softly, a big smile on her face and her steps light. "It made such a difference… We can do this."

"We can do this," echoed Garble. "Keep that attitude. Nowhere but the top!"

They rode up the elevator and Spike crossed his arms. "Alright, now we have to get past other actual people."

Smolder sat down suddenly, putting her eyes even with Spike. "About that. I have an idea, and I bet you do too."

"They aren't real?" Spike posited.

"In one." Smolder nodded softly. "Too convenient. If they had to get real people in here, we'd have to wait all the time until there were enough people. These aren't people, they're just…"

"Magic," finished Sandra suddenly. "Like summons, er, normal summons, not you summons." She laughed nervously. "Summons don't usually work that way, you know that."

Garble looked back and forth to the two of them. “So… what does that actually mean?”

“Well, for one thing, we don’t need to feel bad or try not to actually kill them,” Sandra said.

Garble blinked at her. “Was I supposed to?”

“Garble!” Smolder hit him lightly.

“What?! I’m not feeling bad for some guy preventing me from winning, especially if he is trying to kill me.”

Spike sighed. “If they’re just magic things they’re probably nowhere near as actually tough as an actual adventurer. They probably don’t have fifty abilities like an adventurer, and they’re probably not as sneaky as an adventurer.”

“That’s right,” Smolder said, back to ignoring her brother. “It means they’re probably dumb.”

The announcer began to give the play by play, eerily similar to the first time they had arrived. Spike pumped a fist. "They're just monsters that are shaped like people. Learn the patterns, take them down, that's it."

Garble nodded as if that had been obvious the entire time. "Stick together, use what you learned, let's show those morons what's what."

"That doesn't mean be careless," added Sandra. "Even monsters can be bad if we let them."

"'Let' having a lot of options," chuckled out Spike, staff and shield ready. "Let's do this."

"Here comes team three." The door slid open, allowing them to see the two teams clashing down below the slope of the hill. In an eerie replay of the first time, the two teams shifted attention towards them as they arrived. Just as the time before, they struck at one another when given good opportunity to do so.

Spike caught an incoming sword, glancing off his staff in a moment of perfect imperfection, the blow sent wide. "Yeah," he congratulated himself, thrusting the glowing staff forward to crash both physically and magically with the chest of his combatant.

Garble roughly shoved the nimble rogue towards his sister. "Catch!"

She was happy to do so, with the ends of her cooking knives puncturing the fake-human. She belched out a great plume of fire, cooking them in a non-culinarian approved way as she wrenched the blades free, leaving them to collapse in a miserable pile. "We got this."

A heavily armored combatant closed with Sandra. "Your positioning is sloppy," she mocked, blade raised in ready position.

"You thought I was the weak spot? Summoner's Union!" She twirled her staff horizontal to the ground as Crystal flowed into her, her form rapidly becoming craggy, eyes shining with the crystal lustre of her golem. "Face me."

Sharp blade met unyielding stone with a loud ring, sparks flying even as her hand came down with all the unstoppability of an avalanche. She grabbed the sword, but her hand kept going, wrenching it free of the warrior and slamming it into the ground.

Garble came down on the surprised warrior, his blade slicing with the flow of gravity and his ready strength on their exposed back, as prone as they were from the abruptly yanked blade. She went down with a great clatter of metal armor. "You have no rhyme, you're out of time, prepare to be beaten to a pulp."

"Team #4, charging in!" came the excited announcement, but no fourth team was in immediate sight.

Spike looked around worriedly before craning his head back just in time to squeak and charge ahead, greenish magic exploding free of him in all directions. An instant later, team four arrived, landing in the middle of the fracas from above.

The others were thrown back roughly, but their injuries were superficial, absorbed by the quick action of Spike. That didn't stop them from being tossed, though the other two teams suffered similarly. The fourth team was on them without a pause, blades and spells filling the void created by their arrival.

The new team came at our heroes aggressively, another wave of green magic washing over them, blasting them back until they were over a ridge in the strange rolling stone hills inside the tower.

The magus didn’t just run at them, but floated above them, green smoke trails streaming from his fists as he grinned madly. “We will be making it up the tower now!”

He sent a blast of magic, which Spike moved to intercept, swinging his staff too early to deflect. It slammed into his chest, and he grimaced. “Plan B!” He grabbed the magic that struck him, as other blasts did, and sent it back at the mage, knocking him down a few feet.

Garble hopped forward, putting himself between Spike and the twin swordsmen that were there, both in banded mail armor with single swords, like mirror images of each other, and pressed at Garble, cutting him one by one.

From behind them, a single archer was in the back, and like a machine was letting arrows fly one by one at any target that presented itself.

The party, the fake party, pressed at the real party with coordinated teamwork, the two swordsmen working as one, with the magus blasting and disrupting from above, and the archer laying down as many arrows as he could.

With a shuddering slam of stone against stone, Sandra brought her heavy hands together so forcefully, she ceased to be unified, the shards flying out with the wave of force, peppering her enemies even as she brought back at hand that gathered burning flames, calling Aiden back from the void. "We're not giving up!"

Despite her bold words, her sudden lack of amoring proved swiftly painful as arrows pierced her and sent her backpedaling, though her spirit screeched, spreading flames eagerly from its spread wings.

Spike thrust his entire body between the swordsmen and Sandra. Their cocky looks faltered as his deceptively small beam of energy began to hungrily devour at their essence, sending it out to his needing team. "Don't give them a second!"

"Didn't plan on it." Garble caught an incoming sword meant for Spike on his heavy blade, the two sparking with a loud ring of steel on steel as he twirled it towards the enemy and brought it across in a wicked slice across the warrior's front. "Your music's off key. Your footwork's a mess. You wouldn't agree, but I'll make you confess!"

"Team four's momentum is being slowed. What's this? Team one's suddenly rejoining the action. No, wait, they aren't fighting, they're taking everyone with them!"

One of the magicians, forgotten for defeated, was glowing powerfully, their hands raised to the sky.

Sandra's eyes went wide. "Self destruct!"

Smolder hissed. Could people do that? Apparently they could. The way the glow was increasing, it would hit its apex all too quickly. They had to move fast, and she was the fastest they had. "On it."

She pushed off with her legs, slipping underneath the swords of the twins and sidestepping the archer’s counterattack, who didn’t even try to turn his attacks to the self-destructing wizard behind him. As she ran, the words of Pella, just a few days ago, came to her.

“There’s more than one, or even two cooking support classes, you know. The Wonder Waiter serves up horderves from a distance, the Sorcerous Saucier spends lots of time preparing and simmering and puts it to work like a healer might in the back line, but Combat Culinarians?” She chopped lightning quick, mincing the already cooked meat and wrapping it in hot dough to hit the grill again. “We cook up quick dishes that are made to order. I couldn’t be anywhere but here, out on the street, preparing the meals directly.”

Smolder looked on in awe as Pella rapidly assembled her meal, the one she knew only had to hit the super hot heat just long enough to cook through.

She gestured with her knife. “In combat it’s the same. You aren’t hitting your potential if you just cook for others. You get in there, and it’s speed attacks are custom built just for that. And sometimes… you gotta really put the speed on. Something is happening and you gotta be there. And there’s a technique for just that kind of occasion...”

Smolder pumped her legs as she darted across the field, building up speed, and building up heat. She could feel the heat from her weapons, as ripples of hot air trailed behind her, and she finally made it to her destination.

“Searing Strike!” She called out, a rarity for her, bringing her knives, now red hot up, slashing directly across the self-destructing wizard, huge hot waves of air and magic criss crossing his torso. He cried out, limply falling down, his magic dispersing harmlessly.

Author's Note

They are pressing through the arena room, confident that they're not murdering actual people, but simple mirages of people. That's better, right?

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52 - Magical Princess

Smolder smirked as the wizard slumped on the ground, and the smirk got bigger as he dissipated into magic motes, just like a monster. “That’s right, fake. Can’t beat the real deal.” She held up her blades, but as they sizzled she opted not to put them away just yet.

She turned around to head back to her party, when a heavily armored fighter with a mace and shield stood ahead of her, raising it. She looked back, and found that she was now surrounded by the remnants of the fight on three sides.

Meanwhile, Garble was not having the time of his life. Between the twin swordsman and the archer, he was hit by something basically all the time. He could feel healing pulses from Spike, and could hear explosions from behind him. He actually needed help damnit, where was that pipsqueak?

That pipsqueak flumped on the ground, with Sandra helping him up. Ahead of them the green glowing magus grinned widely. He wasn’t doing any damage, but those explosions were annoying. They knocked people back more than did damage, but they couldn’t get up to Garble… Spike grit his teeth.

Smolder raised a hand to her mouth. "Team 2s gonna win!"

It was a desperate ploy, one that likely wouldn't have worked as well on real players, but the constructs seemed to get confused, focusing on the few who belonged to the numbered team. It was a blissful moment of reprieve, and all they needed.

Including distracting the magus for a critical moment.

Spike bounced to his feet and thrust his staff at Sandra. "Do it!"

"Already on the case." Heat gathered in a point of light, exploding outwards with the unfolding of wings. Aiden didn't create an explosion like the magus and didn't knock anything away. The magus, now right by the firebird, simply burned and screamed, and that suited both spirit and master just fine in that moment.

Spike darted ahead, no green blasts incoming, and intercepted a strike destined for Garble, grinning as he successfully directed the blade into the ground.

“Took you long enough,” Garble said, gritting his teeth as he blocked an attack from the other swordsman.

“Get the archer! I’ll keep these busy!” Spike smacked at the sword still in the ground, trying to stop the wielder from retrieving it.

Garble smirked. “Awesome,” He said, and he ran past the line, his sword behind him to the side. “You should have fled, ‘cause you’ll soon be dead!” He made a beeline, slashing across the archer, who cried out in pain.

The available swordsman moved at Spike, slicing at him with his thin blade, which Spike back stepped out of. Pursued, Spike deflected another blow, not embedding it in the ground, but striking him much less hard than if he had to block it. Two more attacks came, one blocked, one deflected like he learned. He grinned at himself.

And then the other swordsman came at him. Spike raised his weapon to deflect, managing to do it, and the other swordsman attacked, Spike rushing to block again.

Their assault was brief, but relentless, as they constantly kept him busy and it was all he could do to defend himself. Soon, their swords began to gain purchase on him, and one pulled back, shouting “Puncture!” thrusting his rapier at Spike while he was busy trying to defend himself against his twin.

It smashed to the ground, crushed beneath Garble's great weapon. He lashed out a foot, catching its wielder and knocking them back. "Picking on my friend, asking for the end." He emphasized the last syllable with a great leap, coming down with his sword in both hands down on the prone warrior, dispelling them into so much magical vapor, parts and loot dropping to the ground where there was once a warrior.

The other swordsman was taken aback, stunned, and Spike moved in, slamming a glowing rod into his abdomen, knocking him off his feet, where he stood crumpled to the ground.

Sandra came up from behind them, Crystal bowling over the warrior. “The floating magic guy is done for. What are we missing?”

“We are missing my sister!” Garble said, pointing over the ridge she had disappeared behind. “Hurry up!”

The three of them ran up to the crest of the hill, to see Smolder running around in circles, two warriors left running after her. They could not catch up, but they were also heavily, heavily armored.

Smolder saw, somewhat distant, the rest of her friends, and immediately turned, making a beeline for them. “Hey guys, come help me beat up these jerks!”

For their part, Garble and Spike started running full speed to meet her, and as she approached, she slowed to a stop, turning around to look at the enemies as her allies sped past her, colliding weapon first with their foes in a resounding clash. She simply spun her daggers as she sauntered at the two stunned foes, panting just a little.

The three of them were a whirl of blades and staves (and crystal punches), and the two remaining enemies were thusly vanquished.

The three of them panted, Smolder plopping herself on the ground, and Sandra walked up to them. “Is that it?”

"Team three snatches victory in a stunning upset," roared the announcer. "Everyone is down, the round's over!" As if summoned by the announcement, huge chests snapped into being, dropping heavily on the ground.

"Spike!" came a new voice, Twilight's. "I think I have it worked out, but I need you to reach to me, just a little."

Spike blinked at that, the others joining him, proving that her voice was audible to more than jus him. "Uh, alright, how?"

Garble hiked his thumb at the obvious loot. "Hey, horse princess, we got loot to divvy up. Is this the best time?"

Sandra bounced up towards the source of the voice. "Princess Twilight, was it? Hello!"

"Hello again… Sandra, I recall?"

Sandra smiled hard enough for her cheeks to squeak in the effort. "That's me. What do you need us to do?"

"I've noticed moments when you--"

Smolder threw open a chest with bright flashes, different things spilling to the ground with different colored glows based on their rarity. "Ooo, a purple!"

"Yes, that!" exclaimed Twilight excitedly. "Let me get my--"

Garble got the next chest open. "Aw man, buncha greens and a white?"

"Ready! Do that again."

There was only one chest left. Spike jogged over to it. "Dibs." The other two dragons respected the sacred oath of the dib, and he got his hands on it. "Ready?" He threw it open, hoping for good loot, and to help Twilight somehow.

There was a flash of light as he opened it, and he heard a “Yes! Yes! Whatever you’re doing now clarifies the signal!” A few hoofsteps. "Can you do that again?"

Sandra waved at the three vanishing chests, their contents littering the area. "We're out of chests to open, sorry. So, what are you up to?"

"Trying to help," she replied miserably. "I'll just have to keep working. I'm closer, I know it!"

Spike reached for a blue-glowing sword and jogged over to Garble. "Hey, this might be your thing."

"Ooo, thanks." He snatched it up and held it high, squinting at it just so to reveal its statistics. "Mmmm, nah. Our smith did a good job with the one I got." He lightly punched Spike in the shoulder. "Thanks for checking though."

Sandra was fixated on the invisible but audible spot. "Say, I have an idea."

Something fell over. Some books. "What's that?" asked Twilight, her voice approaching.

"Right now, you're basically just a voice in our world, a spirit, if you will, so…"

Smolder suddenly slid in front of Sandra. "You're kidding."

"I'm not kidding." Sandra put her hands on her hips, looking to Smolder, then past her to the unseen point that held Twilight. "If you accept my help, you can visit us, and help us!"

Smolder turned to face Twilight's voice. "But you'll be her summon, her pet."

"They are not pets!" Sandra stomped a foot. "They could leave any time they wanted, so Twilight can go home if she doesn't like it, but she could also help us."

“It sounds like I’d be making a link with my magic? I’m right now just talking into my horn, more or less… but if I were too… hangon!”

The silence hung over the four people in the party, looking at each other for the voice they weren’t even sure was coming back.

“Okay I got it!” Twilight’s voice resounded from nowhere.

“Got what?” Spike asked.

“An astral projection spell! It normally allows you to just sort of float around as a spirit somewhere, although usually it’s pretty easy to dispel. If I use this I might be able to make whatever link Sandra is looking for.”

“See, Twilight is fine with it!” Sandra said, shooting a quick glare at Smolder. She then calmed down, starting to focus, trying to find it out.

“Oh, uh, start casting it, Twilight!” Spike announced.

“You don’t have to shout I can hear you just fine,” the disembodied voice replied. "Now if I… Oh, oh! Perfect." Unseen, she dove between worlds, well, just a part of her, barely a fragment by many measures.

Sandra could feel the presence of a spirit, purple, with soft fur and a bright smile. Big wide wings and a long pointy horn. "Twilight?" she asked in that mental space of hers. "Is that you?"

"It would appear so." She looked left and right in that strange empty space. "Where are we?"

"We're, um… inside me? In my head, I think. We have to make a deal." She thrust forward a hand. "I promise to respect your power and wishes and help protect your friends. I ask that you help me do that, so they can get home, to you."

Twilight stepped forward, her hooves making not a sound on the ground that wasn't even a surface. "That seems like a fair deal, but you also sound like there's something else there." She inclined her head faintly. "I hope we can learn each other, so you share that with me. For now, I will agree to these terms."

Sandra wilted as the possibility of being discovered for her flaws came up, only to brighten as Twilight pushed right past them. "Then I call you."

She opened her eyes and ran her staff in a circle, tracing a perfect circle of purple. "Come forth, Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Magic!"

Emerging from the hovering circle, Twilight burst into being as if caught mid-leap, hitting the ground with a firm clop of all four hooves.

Spike and Smolder both cheered, charging their friend. Garble looked a bit muted compared to them. "Oh, Pony Princess, welcome aboard."

But Twilight said nothing to them, though she gently embraced her wayward little brother and student. She stood up and pointed to her throat, then shook her head.

Sandra blinked. “You are adorable!” She almost ran up to hug, but stopped and coughed. “I mean. Good. Good.”

“I don’t think she can talk,” Spike said, looking up and down. “And she also looks… a little different?”

Twilight spirit nodded, and then looked at herself. She was the same color as always, except that she had a faint glow about her, the color of her magic. Her hair and tail was slightly translucent, and she couldn’t see that change, but her pupils were gone, replaced entirely with that color.

Sandra waved at the representation of Twilight. "It's not… exactly her, but it's her, inside. Outside, she's my summon. I bet she can do all kinds of things."

Twilight turned on her summoner, horn glowing. Sandra could hear the thoughts that were otherwise silent, "I am in your magic. I will be limited by what you can do. But I'll do my best to help us all get through this."

Author's Note

Hi Twilight, we missed you. Onwards! We have so many more floors to crush.

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53 - For Us, It's a Tuesday

Sandra released the magic and Twilight looked surprised for the moment before she vanished in a fit of sparkles.

Spike blinked at the empty space. "That looked unpleasant. Is she alright?"

"I'm still here!" came Twilight's voice from nowhere. "That felt strange. At least I can talk now. Alright, so, when I'm doing that, I fall unconscious. So, make sure I'm somewhere comfortable before accepting that call."

Garble marched past the voice. "If you plan to help, why'd you go? It's time to get on to the next floor." He hiked a thumb at the obvious elevator waiting for them. "Nothing else to see here."

"I just wanted to be sure that worked normally." Sandra traced the circle in the air, calling for Twilight.

It was different that time, with a moment of delay before the alicorn burst free of the pattern to join them. "I wanted to be sure I was already on the ground before I passed out," could be heard in Sandra's mind. "Let's do this."

Their team, ready, marched for the marble platform with golden rails. Smolder hopped onto it first. "Fancy. At least they treat the winners with class."

Garble leaned against the rail with his back, facing the others are they got on. "So we have Pony Princess with us? Can she even fight? The only time we mixed, she ran away, with you." He thrust a finger at Spike with a smirk.

Spike let out a chuckle. “Oh yeah. Twilight is great at fighting. She’s the most powerful magic user I’ve ever met! No offense, Sandra.” The platform began to raise of it’s own accord.

“None taken,” Sandra said. “But, if her magic is limited to my magic…” Sandra tapped her chin. “She won’t be able to do almost any of those things.”

Twilight blinked, moving her head. She moved her head again, making a face.

“I bet Twilight’s trying to say something smart right now,” Smolder said.

“Well, good thing she can’t,” Garble said, belting out a laugh. “If we had to start from ground zero, so does she.”

Twilight looked thoughtful, but got distracted by the lights dimming as they entered the next floor. It was patterned after the marble and golden rails, with fountains and light coming from… somewhere up above.

But most importantly, with treasure chests. Each on a podium in their own little niche.

“Ha! They do treat the winners with class!” Smolder said, hopping up. “It’s a whole reward floor.”

Garble grinned ear to ear. “Awesome. Dibs on the first chest.” He sped off to the nearest podium with a chest on it. He got up to the chest while the rest of the party was still approaching, and he quickly slotted his guildchain into the box.

Instead of the box opening, though, the wall behind it began to grind and open. Garble’s eyes widened, and he grabbed at his guildchain, but it was stuck to the box. "Dang it, what's goin' on?!"

The others caught up with him. Twilight pawed at the stuck chain even as Spike yanked on it, joining in the struggle, but it wouldn't move. The wall opened wide, allowing a heavy stone form to step free with glowing green eyes.

Sandra pointed at it with her staff. "Company! More fighting, less chest playing."

"No argument there," agreed Smolder, surging forward so fast she seemed to blink from the ground to on top of the lumbering stone figure. "See how you like a little knife play."

Her small swipes didn't seem to impress it, bright sparks dancing from where metal struck stone. It brought down a great fist on Garble with the groaning of bending rocks, but the blow never arrived on him directly, caught with both Garble's great sword and Spike's shield. The fist slid suddenly off of them, smashing into the ground beside them. "Did it!" excitedly cried Spike, successfully deflecting the blow away.

Sandra wasn't entirely sure how her new summon worked, but tried to go with the flow. She directed her staff at the enemy, sending the mental urge to attack she usually did with the investment of her power.

Twilight was backing away with wide eyes from almost being flattened by a stone fist. "Are you crazy?" echoed in Sandra's mind.

"Welcome to our world," said Sandra out loud. "Your friends need you. If you can't fight, I have to change summons."

"No no! Alright." Twilight took a calming breath as the golem reached up to pluck Smolder free of itself. "I'm on it!" She launched herself forward, springing off a purple plane that appeared just long enough for her to leap from, its form decorated with countless intricate runes and her cutie mark worked into it in places.

Twilight blinked and looked down. That was an awful powerful jump. She yelped, a strange raspy noise, not too like her usual voice, as the rock creature was turning to face and punch her. She flapped her wings and swooped around him, raising up her horn. She could feel the magic, but it was… different. She could still concentrate it, and concentrate she did, firing off a starry cutie mark missile, not a beam as she was used to.

It struck the rock creature in it’s shoulder, knocking it back a little. There was a crack where her missile struck it.

"Woo!" called out Spike as he charged to join the melee with a bright green spark where his staff slammed into the side of the thing's leg, adding to the small cracks. "Don't let it hit you, but it's not invincible."

"My partner gives pro details." Garble slammed his great blade on the other side, striking the opposing legs with a low grunt. "Kinda obvious, even if that sinks your sails."

"Big words coming from the pinned one," laughed Smolder. "My knives are just not up to this task. Bash this thing open so I can get at something important." She began to bounce down, winged flight bridging the gaps as she quickly descended.

“I’m on it!” Spike announced, swinging his staff into position but not making contact, instead drawing its vitality free in a brilliant burst of glittering green magic that began to wash out over the party, even if they weren't yet injured.

“Don’t count me out!” Garble said, hefting his sword above his head. “I’ll make you pout!” He brought it down, expecting a crash of elemental energy that didn’t come. “Make you… pout!” He swang it down again, nothing. Frowning, he spun around, trying it the other way, “Rolling Crescent.”

No swoosh of energy came, no crackle of a sword, no icy wave. Garble frowned, looking at his sword, and a rocky hand swatted at Garble, knocking him away.

Twilight’s eyes widened as the first real injury was suffered by the party. The rest of the party was still moving. None of them had panicked. Spike hadn't even stopped what he was doing, draining the golem.

She felt an urge. Sandra was directing her staff at the golem, their empathic link ringing clearly in Twilight's ear. Attack the crack she had started. "Alright," she thought to herself with an audible whinny, stamping the air that flared in temporary platforms of purple, lightning sparking from where her hooves touched.

She had to attack. She was just a… mental projection. She couldn't be hurt, in theory. She had to protect her friends! Magic gathered at her horn, like usual, but she could tell it was… different. Not even a little different, a lot.

But there was no time to ponder that, there was a fight on! Magic was still usable, and it formed a magic star, and she forced the missile at the enemy, blasting into its torso with a shattering impact of broken stone, knocking a great chip out of it.

Garble was on it, leaping up and bringing his sword down where the broken stone fracture was. "Mess with the best, get a sword to the chest!" Green swirling energy leeched at the point as Spike directed his magic, joining in the effort. The stone was flaking away, battered and broken.

Smolder flew up and dived at the golem even as it moved to wine up for a fresh punch. "Perfect, good--" She didn't get to finish her words, half-crashing into the front of the golem and digging with her knives at the glowing interior behind the cracks. The golem began to spasm and twitch, its innards rapidly failing at the precise assault.

With a craggy roar, the rock monster began to flail, and Smolder hopped off of him, the monster largely in place but with his torso in one place. Sandra called out, “Twilight!” Verbalizing her command.

Twilight felt a surge in magic. Not her own magic, but the strange new magic. Sandra’s magic. Whatever she did was causing a surge in magic coming to Twilight. So she raised her horn up to the sky, the magic forming at her command. It was instinctual, partway, and without concentration stars and magic circles appeared leading up to the vaulted marble ceiling. Twilight could feel the magic, ready to shoot, and she brought her horn down, pulling a star through the magic circles, blasting through the torso of the monster, which fell down.

Twilight whinnied and nickered in excitement hopping up and down. The monster was dead, but Garble just walked straight up to the chest, licking his lips. It was glowing like it should, and his guildchain popped out with a little acquisition noise, and he threw it open, reaching in with glee. Smolder looked around, and Spike began to cast a spell on Garble as he pulled something out of the chest.

Twilight stopped hopping, opening the mental link with Sandra. “Is this… alright? Everyone is so normal.”

“Oh! This is your first fight,” Sandra said aloud. “Good job, Twilight. It looks like there are…” She looked around. “Three more on this floor.”

“One for each of us!” Spike announced. “When we get to my chest you’ll have to be ready to fight faster because I won’t be around to heal you.”

Garble laughed. “Don’t think we rely on you that much, pipsqueak. When I get my attacks back I’ll be crushin the monsters.”

Twilight looked out as they bantered and started heading toward another chest basically without hesitation, even Sandra. She turned back. “You’re coming, right Twilight? Except for the one with my chest we’ll need your help.”

"Spike?" Twilight trotted up to be at his side, but her words did not reach him.

Sandra shook her head. "Twilight, he can't hear you. Summons don't talk, um, out loud." She laughed a little at that. "To their summoner, yeah. I've talked to all of my summons now."

Spike looked to the side where Twilight was walking with him, looking a bit frazzled, then over to Sandra. "Is Twilight alright?" He smiled up as his adoptive sister. "Everything's cool. Thanks for that last move, good job!"

The others shared general agreement, giving thumbs up at Twilight's effort. It was a shame she didn't seem to agree. "He's been facing dangers like this so much he doesn't even see it anymore?"

"Do you?" retorted Sandra with a little smirk. "Spike mentioned the things you got up to, and it didn't sound peaceful to me."

"Well, I mean, most days were peaceful." She softly whickered, able to make equine noises at least if not actual speech. "Once in a while, something came up."

"And you handled it." Sandra reached to pat the side of her summon's great barrel. "Just like we are. Come on, Smolder’s turn next."

"Be something good!" Smolder cried as she slotted her guild chain into the slot and the battle began. There were no cries of surprise or fear, just a determination to win through the battle.

Author's Note

Twilight learns what it's like to be an adventurer in a world seemingly with less breaks than Equestria gets. Where are the breaks on this thing?

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54 - Nailed It

Garble shoved open the big doors, a prideful grin on his face. “Nailed it!”

The party was all smiles as they headed through the portal, and Garble put his guildchain into the white pillar of light, and it glowed. He wheeled around. “Toldja we had it this time.”

Smolder cackled with a teasing grin. “You didn’t say we had it, you just complained loudly we had to leave after the fourth time.”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, because we coulda had it that time, so obviously I had the faith we could do it this time.”

“There was a whole extra phase though!” Spike protested, also going up to the portal. “We never got to it before.”

“And good thing too,” the sourceless voice of Twilight rang out. “I’m not sure that it would have been as easy to run during that last phase, it was so chaotic…”

Sandra pat Twilight on her head. “Don’t worry, every other time we were able to get out, if it was too much we would have gotten out that time too.”

Lost in thought for a moment, Twilight plopped down on her rump. “Do you think maybe the tower doesn’t want us to not be able to ascend it? We have been able to escape more or less when we wanted, if things got too hard.”

“Who knows what the ‘tower’ thinks,” Smolder said. “It’s a place not a person, Twilight--er,” Smolder looked back, a little sheepish. “Professor.”

Twilight waved her hoof. “I already told you, there’s no need for formalities here.”

That was when Spike saw him, the older human he had seen several times before. Not even waiting to see that his friends likely couldn't see the man, he hurried over. "Hey."

"Hello yourself. You have reached another grand point. The tower acknowledges you as a proper challenger now." He nodded softly, eyes resting on those behind Spike, chatting animatedly and not seeming to notice his presence. "Do you have a question?"

"More than I can count," admitted Spike easily with a little smile. "Without using a question, don't suppose you could tell me how many I get, is it just one?"

"Just one, and I won't count that." He leaned forward, hands coming down on his knees. "You interest me. Ask."

"Just one… just one." He looked over his shoulder at the others. "Hey, if you had one question…" He trailed off, turning back to the man. "If I ask them, you'll take that as the question." The man smiled, but said nothing. "I'm getting the hang of this. Alright. We're headed to the top. We want to go home, and do it properly. If we get to the top, can we go home?"

"You can go home, certainly, but will you, at the top? That remains to be seen. Many roads spread before you. You see only one, but it branches on branches, and I watch and wait. Press onwards, little dragon. I await you on thirty."

Smolder set a hand on his shoulder. "Who are you talking to?"

Spike turned, pointing at the man. "Oh just…" But the man was gone when he looked back. "Nothing…"

The five of them walked out of the tower into the town proper, Twilight deciding to stick around a little more. Smolder squinted, the light of the setting sun across the town making it hard to see.

Twilight took in the sight of the exotic city and its many biped inhabitants. Unlike Equestrian High, most of them appeared well in their adult years, with only one child being led by a larger in sight, a parent perhaps? Most were human with strangely uniform coloration in shades of brown instead of the many hues of Equestria High.

That was the world Spike and the others had been living in, a city, alien and wonderful. Twilight felt warring urges to study and hide. She had seen them to safety, a break might have been in order. But as she was going to wave her farewells, a figure approached. “Well well well…” The familiar feminine voice said.

Tabitha stood ahead of them, clapping her gauntleted hands. "How'd it go?" She was looking directly at Spike. "Did you rise up to be a true divine lord? Or are less savory elements still holding you back?"

Garble folded his arms with a sneer. "Shove it. You're looking at a bunch of winners that don't have time for this."

Sandra looked on, the familiar depressed resignation hitting her. Tabitha was here to make her life miserable, and maybe she deserved it. But did it have to come right after they succeeded? It’ll be over soon and they can forget about Tabitha again…

Spike, however, folded his arms and looked proud. “That’s right. We cleared the boss of the twentieth floor.”

Tabitha strode up to Spike, confidently patting his shoulder. "I knew my training and your resolve would come together. Congratulations, anyone that makes it to 20 is real stuff."

Smolder hiked a brow. "Including me?"

Tabitha's eyes made a mighty roll. "Including you, Combat Culinarian. Even if you're using a strange class, making it to 20's a big deal." She crossed her arms under her chest. "It means you've encountered most of what the tower has. It only gets harder, but not different, get it?"

Sandra's fingers clenched around the ornate features of her staff as she stepped forward. "What about me? I did it too."

Tabitha turned away with a loud grunt. "It's the job of any good Divine Lord to carry and bridge the way forward, no matter what team they end up with. So long as they keep pushing, the Divine Lord will be the spear's tip." She thrust a hand up into the air, just to clench it into a fist at the apex of the motion. "Something we've both now done."

Garble lifted his shoulders, a puff of smoke escaping him. "Right, so you're done with the whole 'dragons ain't adventurers' thing, now?"

Tabitha waved the comment away, turning back towards them. "Obviously you dragons are adventurers, you made it to twenty." She hiked a brow. "But I'm still pretty sure you're not dragon dragons, those things are way bigger than you, and don't sign up for adventuring guild duties. Whatever, adventurers, you're those, demi-human or not."

"She has a troubled feel," echoed Twilight's thoughts in Sandra's head. "I've seen ponies like her before. Not that she's a pony, but that doesn't change much. Why is she avoiding you?"

"Because she hates me," replied Sandra out loud, glaring at Tabitha. "I did it, Tabitha. I made it. I got to twenty too," she almost growled out, a strange new sense of anger welling up in her. "You told me to give up--"

"--You told you to give up," interrupted Tabitha, finally looking at Sandra. "I tried dragging you. I tried convincing you. You gave up, not me! And you dragged us along for the ride along the way."

“What was all this crap about how I shouldn’t be an adventurer!” Sandra’s voice cracked.

“You shouldn’t! You had all the damn advantages.” Tabitha started extending her fingers, one by one. “Your parents are famous powerful adventurers. You had your first class when you were younger than anyone else I know, and the training to match! You have the magic to back up that, too. You are here and you almost never have to worry about money, because, once again, famous parents. And I gave you nearly a dozen chances.” She got up closer to Sandra, anger unseen contorting on her face. “And you threw it back in my face, time and time again.”

Sandra tried to put up a fight. “W-well that’s not an excuse for how you’d talk to me.”

“Are you aware of what I went through for you?” Tabitha’s voice was grave. “My name was mud. I kept trying to start new groups and the word got around that I was unreliable. I couldn’t make anything work. I had to get newbies from out of town to trust me. And that day you didn’t show up… I just told them that I guessed someone welched on me. We went out, and had a successful day. A long day.” She paused, letting that settle a little. “That day, for the first time, I felt like the bridge that was bringing a party together, instead of someone making excuses for her friend.”

She stepped back, gesturing to her party. “And here it is, yet another new chance. Another spoon in your mouth. A whole party, inescapably yours, ready to drag you over the finish line.”

"I'm not useless." She had meant to state it, nice and evenly, but it had come out more as a shrill call that had everyone in the area looking at her. Her cheeks darkened with a combination of rage and embarrassment. "I've pulled my weight. I'm helping." She gestured to the surprised magic-horse standing beside her. "I have their precious friend right here, and I'm going to reunite them at the top of that damned tower!"

Garble huffed at the exchange. "Whatever. She's helped us a lot more than you have, jerk. You're just lucky they don't allow fights in the middle of the street. Get out of our faces. We have a celebration to do." He marched right past her, almost running into her friends.

"Pardon me," Tomás deferred, dancing to the side. "I hear my team-mate is making people scream over here."

"I was doing no such thing," defended Tabitha with a bit of a pout. "They got to twenty and--"

"Congratulations!" interrupted Tomás with a bright smile. "This is a great day then. Tell the guild, they will throw you quite the party."

The dragons looked to Sandra questioningly. Sandra blinked. "What? I never got to twenty myself…"

"It is true," insisted Tomás, moving to slap a hand on her shoulder as if they had long been friends. "Just tell them and let them do the work. Everyone will want to know the news." He turned just as suddenly on Tabitha. "We will come, assuredly."

His unspoken challenge was heard clearly. "No, thank you." Tabitha folded her arms tight. "I already congratulated my student. Good job." She about-faced, walking away briskly.

Tomás made a disappointed face. He looked back. “Well, I will be there, at least.” He waved and jogged to catch up at Tabitha’s pace.

The five of them watched Tomás and Tabitha leave, turning the corner. Smolder turned to Spike. “Her student?”

Spike laughed weakly. “I needed some help with being a Divine Lord… and her name was on the list. I kinda thought--”

“That you’d go behind our backs, huh?” Smolder said, huffing out a bit of smoke.

“I didn’t think it was a good idea to tell anyone!” Spike protested. “Yet. I mean tell anyone yet.”

“You do realize Tabitha has been awful, right?” Smolder said, anger in her eyes.

“S-she was cool without Sandra around. She was helpful.”

“You’ve seen what she did,” Smolder held her hands out. “And how she treated our friend and now you’re taking her side?”

“I’m not-I’m not taking her side,” Spike protested. “I thought I could help!”

Smolder got up closer to Spike. “Well fine help you were. Watching her be a jerk to Sandra, right here. If you were so chummy with her, why didn’t you do anything?”

“I-I’m not her best friend now!” Spike said, holding his hands up defensively. “I was just trying…” He looked at Sandra. Her expression was hard to read, something mixed of frustration, betrayal… she turned away, walking away as briskly as Tabitha did.

Spike reached out. “Sandra!”

Smolder stopped him and flew out after Sandra, leaving Spike there with Garble and Twilight.

Twilight moved over to Spike, nuzzling him in comfort, and he smiled.

Garble just looked down, his eyebrow raised. “Wow you really screwed this up, huh?”

Twilight opened her mouth, but only a soft nicker escaped before she vanished in a purple haze of sparkles.

Author's Note

Social dynamics, in my adventure?!

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55 - Getting Over It

Sandra breathed heavily as she laid against the wall of the alleway. Smolder was above somewhere, calling out for her. She slid down to the ground, sitting down.

She didn’t know why she ran away when Smolder called for her. She just… didn’t want to talk with her.

What was she doing? Hiding from a friend after another former friend yelled at her? She didn’t want to be found. She didn’t want to have to think about it.

There was a tug on her magic, the summons. One of her summons was asking for attention? Maybe it was a good idea. She pulled back on the tug, and Twilight Sparkle popped into existence next to her.

Oh. She made a displeased noise.

Twilight tilted her head, making a soft horse noise.

“I don’t wanna talk about it, Twilight.”

“Why not?” Twilight’s voice rang in her head.

Sandra frowned.

There was a moment of silence, and Twilight broke it. “Spike was… just trying to help, you know?”

“You ask him about that?” Sandra murmured.

“Well, no, but I see no reason to disbelieve that he was being honest about it.” Twilight smiled. “I’m not sure if he thought going behind your back was good, but he probably shouldn’t have.”

Sandra made a groaning noise. He probably was trying to help. Even if it was a little rude. But… “I dunno. I dunno what I think about it.”

"You want to reach the top of the tower." Twilight looked to the tower that loomed high over the city. "But why?"

"Huh?" Sandra peered at her summon as if she had lost her senses. "That is what adventurers do."

"Clearly not all of them." Twilight looked back to Sandra, her wings fidgeting on her back. "Reaching twenty is considered a big event. That implies, to me, not everyone does it. Do they stop being adventurers?"

"Well, no…" Sandra worried her fingers together, hands touching. "Some do other things, I suppose. Why?"

"That is my question." She directed an equine hoof at Sandra. "Why do you want to get to the top? Don't say Spike and the others. You wanted it before you met them, did you not?"

"My parents… They made it up so far." She let out the last part in almost a sigh of a statement, looking alone.

But she was not alone, Twilight gently pressing her snout to Sandra's forehead. "How far?"

"Ninety-nine," she pointed up at the tower. "They were sure they were just about to reach the end… They said I'd be the one. Each generation pushed further. If they got to that, surely I could bring it home…" She threw her hands up in the air. "And then I messed it up. I messed it up for everyone that got stuck with me."

"So, out of tradition then?" asked Twilight, one ear up, the other drifting to the side. "I have a friend who would strongly empathize with that. I'd bring her, if I could." Her unspoken but heard voice laughed gently in Sandra's mind. "But what stopped them, your parents I mean? If they were so close…?"

Sandra recoiled, but behind her was a wall, causing her to awkwardly bump into it. "What do you think happened?! They died. They tried their hardest and paid the biggest price you can. You get that high, the tower stops wanting to see you struggle, and starts trying to end you." She just as suddenly turned to the side. "Not that they even died in there."

"Wait, you were just… How did they die then, if it wasn't the tower?" Twilight sat on her haunches, a little whicker escaping her. "I'm not trying to pry," she assured even as she pried. "I want to help."

"They were more than tower climbers. They were soldiers, heroes… They made a lot of friends, and a lot of enemies. One of those caught up to them… I was there, getting under their feet at the worst time…"

"You're their foal," argued Twilight. "I feel certain they didn't want you anywhere but safe."

"Well… they got that." She threw up a hand. "I'm alive and they're not."

Twilight inclined her head to the left as she rose up to all fours. "And you got scared." Sandra winced. "But who wouldn't?" Sandra looked to her confusedly. "I'd be a little rattled if my parents just… did that for me… But, that was some time ago, I get the impression?"

"Yeah," she miserably allowed. "Look, Twilight." She pointed way up towards the top of the tower. "If you get to the top of the tower, you get a wish. You can remake this lousy world. I thought… maybe I could save them. I could get there, wish for them back, pay them back for all the work they did for me, you know?"

"You are making progress," noted Twilight in a cheerful tone. "And you're surrounded by--"

"Twilight," screamed Sandra suddenly. "You don't get it! One wish. One party, one wish." She kicked a bottle that smashed against the far wall, exploding into glass shrapnel. "I either fix the mistake I made and send your friends home or I rescue my parents, not both."

Twilight's cheerful expression broke, ears sagging, tail going limp. Her entire frame seemed to deflate a little. "Oh…"

"There you are." Smolder touched down, dodging bits of broken glass. "Eeesh, they haven't cleaned this place in ages. So what are you two whispering about?" She noticed Twilight and Sandra both hurriedly trying to compose themself and arched a brow. "Am I interrupting something?"

Twilight tried to reply, but whickers carried little of her meaning.

Sandra lifted her shoulders. "Sorry, I was being dumb. Spike's trying to get us to the top of the tower, that's all he was doing."

Smolder emphatically thrust up a thumb. "Oh, all good? Oh, wow, were you given a friendship lecture? She's good at those," she laughed in sympathy. "Well, we're already away from the boys, so how about a girl's night out?" It suddenly hit her. "Actually, what about that party they're supposed to throw us?"

"Yeah…" Sandra turned, pointing. "The guild's back that way, guess we should go report in."

"I'm here," came Twilight's gentle mental voice in Sandra's head. "We can always talk."

"Yeah," she sighed as she got to walking. "Always."

"Always what?" Smolder followed along, hands behind her head as she walked easily. "Hey, look. Spike's a bit of an idiot, but a good one. I know he wasn't trying to hurt any creature." She thrust a hoof at Twilight. "I mean, seriously, she's his big sister and she's the literal Princess of Friendship."

Twilight smiled in a horse-like fashion when Sandra looked at her. "She's not lying."

"You're a magic talking horse, but you're still a horse," gusted out Sandra, throwing her hands up. "Horses and dragons do not make each other."

Smolder blinked slowly. "I am missing most of this exchange, but, please, do continue…"

Twilight snorted softly, nostrils flaring as her voice echoed in Sandra's mind, "We're getting distracted. He's an adopted brother and I love him very much. Now, Tabitha, why are you so angry at her?"

"I'm not angry at her," Sandra suddenly shouted as they emerged onto the street in time for people to stare at her outburst. "I mean… Look, just seeing her makes me feel like a horrible person."

"Harsh." Smolder came up between Twilight and Sandra. "What's all the badness about? So you didn't rock the tower the first time in. Neither did we, but we got better, right?"

"It's more than that…" Sandra rubbed behind her head a moment before raising her staff, shoving it behind her back where it hung out of the way. "Look, when we met, she thought 'Oh boy, I get to adventure with the daughter of two amazing heroes. This is going to be great!' And I was, you know, nothing like she imagined. I let her down, and I let me down, a lot…"

"You got better," noted Smolder before her lips turned in a smirk. "Sure, it was after she was gone, but you got better. Not everyone can work with everyone else. You needed some dragons in your life." She ribbed Sandra from the side. "Who doesn't?"

Sandra smiled, returning the wry grin. "I can't argue that. A few dragons can make any day a little better." She rolled a hand as they walk. "Provided they aren't trying to burn your things."

"If I burn something, you deserve it," noted Smolder with a sandpaper dry edge.

"She doesn't mean that," quickly added Twilight, trotting behind them. "I'm glad you're feeling better."

Sandra paused, causing Twilight to crash into her and almost sending them both tumbling, but she caught herself to a skidding stop. "Yeah… A little. I, look alright." She turned towards the two, Twilight and Smolder. "I owe her an apology, a real one."

Smolder hiked a brow. "What for, and who, Tabitha?"

"I blew her off." Sandra crossed her arms. "I did that. I have to live up to it. I got better, good, great even, but that doesn't undo what I did!"

"So, what? Gonna get her a makeup gift?" Smolder lifted her shoulders high. "A sorry card?" She snorted as they walked. "Sandbar got me one of those once. I razzed on him for days… But it was kinda nice."

"You did not!" But Twilight's alarmed expression didn't travel as well as the words that only reached Sandra.

"Something like that, but a card wouldn't work." Sandra frowned, facing ahead and resuming her journey. "She's a woman of action, that's what made her so mad in the first place, my not acting… How can I say sorry for that?"

Smolder suddenly smiled. "The same way you can patch things up with Spike."

"Hm?"

Smolder grabbed Sandra by the shoulder. "Convince Spike to give up something he got that's really shiny, maybe not the best stats, but fits their class. They both have the same class, right? Give that to her. Promise her you'll get something for her from each boss we punch in the face until we get to the top, as a thank you for putting up with your nonsense."

"That hardly seems fair," muttered Twilight. "It wasn't an entirely one-way relationship, was it?"

Sandra held up a lone hand at chest height. "No, you have a point there. That's action. That's putting up instead of just talking." She grinned. "Besides, we're going to get to the top, and I get to show off by raining little gifts on her every ten levels."

Smolder's teeth were quite sharp as she spread a wide smile. "Now you're getting it. You get to apologize and show off at the same time. Wins all around."

Twilight applied a hoof to her face loud enough to create a low thunk of a clop as she vanished, her connection between worlds snipped in a moment of complete exasperation. If they needed her, they could call her.

Sandra was smiling and laughing, directing their movement back towards finding Spike. They had an apology gift to give, and a party to set in motion!

Author's Note

She will build a bridge made of sweet loot and walk across it, to victory!

Join the special community of folks who like my stories and/or get your own here at atreon!

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56 - Hirrah!

"What is this?" Tabitha peered at the crown, more of a tiara really, glittering bright on its red cloth square. "You don't owe me, and I'm not buying."

Sandra spread her hands at the gift. "This is a token, of my sincerity. Every ten levels, expect another one."

Smolder grinned from Sandra's side. "And don't even start thinking we won't go through with it."

Tabitha's brows fell, peering at the two of them. "It's alright, I guess, for twenty…"

Sandra grinned as she took the cue given to her. "Which is why you'll look forward to thirty, fourty, and onwards. We are going to the top. Look… I messed up, that was me. I'm not going back to that."

Smolder shrugged softly. "And she could say that all day long, so we'll go with proving it instead."

“Uhuh,” Tabitha said, sounding not very convinced. “And you’re going to give me one of these every ten floors?”

“That’s right.”

Tabitha looked back. Tomás was behind her, and motioned back to Sandra, mouthing something, and Tabitha looked back, frowning. “And what do you… expect from me?”

Sandra felt a little sinking feeling. She kinda hoped for a better response. “Nothing, not now. I’m going to show that I’m not going to give up.”

Tabitha continued to look unamused, crossing her arms. “Do what you want, then.”

Sandra turned around, trying to keep her face like stone, and walked away. Smolder waited until they were out of earshot, saying, “See, she kept the crown.”

“And was completely unmoved by it,” Sandra said, sighing.

“Sure, but we knew she wasn’t gonna come around immediately, it’s better than it was before.” Smolder got up conspiratorially close to Sandra. “It’s already working.”

“If you say so.”

"I know so." Smolder slapper her on the shoulder. "If this was a week ago, she would have laughed in your face and made fun of you."

Sandra colored, easily imagining that situation. "That does sound right…"

"This time she basically invited you to give it your all." Smolder shrugged. "She's off your case. You have a chance to show what you got."

“Yeah… yeah this is what I wanted,” she said, convincing herself as much as Smolder. “This is better, she’ll come around.”

“That’s exactly what I just said, Sandra,” Smolder teased. “We’ll get there. Same as the tower.” She looked up forward. “Speaking of which--” she smiled. “We have a party to attend.”

Garble picked at his outfit, which was not actually his armor but was a tight fitting shirt, buttoned up. “Why do I have to wear this again?”

Sandra looked back to him, wearing something closer to what she used to wear, street clothes, albeit nice ones, instead of an opulent adventuring robe. “Because we weren’t supposed to wear armor, so we gotta dress down.”

“Speak for yourself,” Spike said, adjusting his bowtie. “I never get a chance to be fancy anymore.”

Smolder, wearing her own shirt, shuffled a little uncomfortably. “Yeah… but why can’t we wear what we want to, which is nothing?”

“Nobody wears nothing,” Sandra said. “Even if that’s normal for you, it’s not normal for us, so let’s go.”

Spike shot double guns at his fellow dragons. "Hey, clothes can really accent what you're trying to say." He thought of the fair Rarity, a whimsical smile on his face. "The right color, the right cut, and they'll hear exactly what you're saying.

"Yeah yeah." Smolder moved for the door. "Let's get celebrated at! It's catered, right?"

"Food and drink," assured Sandra, moving to go with. "Not a soul leaves without a full stomach unless they want to. Expect a few speeches and some pomp, but mostly it's a bunch of happy people congratulating you and promising they'll be next or daring you to catch up with them."

The four of them headed out, heading through the city and its bright street lamps. It was already becoming dark, the party scheduled for the evening when everyone, or the most possible, people would be back from their work to attend.

A sign hung above the guild's door. "Twenty Bash and Recognition," it read with bold colors and spiky font, daring anyone to miss it, if they could.

Garble huffed, a little smile forming. "Yeah, they got us on their minds."

"You made it," came the enthusiastic call of Tomás as they opened the door. "They're here!" He wore a big grin and soon there were others crowding around them, urging them further inside.

A deep laughing preluded a huge slap to Garble's back. "I remember when I hit the big two zero," boomed a female voice, a big amazon of a warrior, the axe on her back gleaming and cruel in its jagged edges. "How long ago was that?"

A clear wizardly man raised a hand to run along his wispy bears. "We've been past twenty for ten years."

Spike's eyes grew wide. "Ten years?! And you haven't reached the top yet?" The others looked over, equally as curious to that answer.

The wizard held up a hand. "Though we do try, our efforts have largely gone to other things beyond the tower. We stopped at sixty."

The mood of the room shifted with the mentioning of the new number, somber.

"Cowards." Tabitha emerged from the crowd. "Just when things get tough, you shrank away?"

The large female warrior leveled a meaty things at Tabitha. "You're just getting there. You'll see. Don't go judging us until you've experienced it yourself."

Smolder lifted her shoulders. "Experienced what?" She snatched a tasty little morsel off a provided table. "What's so bad about sixty? Just more of the same, right?"

"Wrong," boomed the warrior, crossing her arms under her chest.

A sharp set of claps drew attention to the secretary at their desk. "Today is a day for celebration, not worrying about that."

That was enough to turn conversation back to more pleasant things. A group approached the celebrated ones. "We almost got there!" exclaimed a young male with potions adorning his body everywhere. "Almost! Next time!"

Sandra smiled gently. "Next time," she gently agreed. "Trust your friends, and work together. You all want to reach the top, right?"

"Yeah!" echoed all of them, minus one. A male, perhaps in his forties, that frowned.

"Once we get to fifty, I'm out," he clarified. "That's more than enough to qualify for most any position."

Garble turned to the big warrior. "Hey, lady." He hiked a thumb upwards. "You've been up there. Why'd you quit? What's the big deal?"

"They asked us to play nice," she replied in a far quieter tone. "Look, you hit sixty, things start to change. The tower judges you. No, that's not right… The tower has already judged you. You hit sixty's stairs and everything changes."

The wizard thrust forward a cup into Garble's hands. "A drink, for a victor," he declared loudly before his voice lowered. "We have to at least pretend to be celebrating. What happens at sixty is very personal to the group. Some simply find a dead end and nothing more. They were judged and found wanting. Others push past, but the rules are changed. The tower is no longer testing your perseverance and basic ability. It will kill you if you make a mistake."

Another lady, clad in glittering chain, nudged past the wizard. "These two are leaving out an important part. Sixty is where it starts, but not always sixty, that's just when it could happen. Any floor after that, the tower can declare the first test over, for good, or bad. You'll know when it happens, trust us, we did.

Garble waved a hand at the new lady. "Hey! She's wearing armor, and looking ready for a fight. Why couldn't I wear my armor? C'mon!"

Laughter erupted, garble's question doing a remarkable job of defusing the situation. The large warrior threw an arm over Garble's shoulder, leading him away. "So, they say you claim you're not a demi, but you look like a demi to me. What's the deal with that?"

"Not my fault you're blind," scoffed Garble, though he did go with her. "I am a dragon." He puffed a little bit of fire as they walked. "Scales, tail, fire, wings, what more do you want?"

Smolder slipped up behind him. "Don't forget the horns." She flicked one of the horns that jutted from his tail. "They count."

Garble snatched for Smolder, but she danced away with a laugh. "Ugh, sisters."

The large warrior gave a non-committal huh of a noise. "Aren't dragons usually… larger?" She brought her hands together just to spread them out. "And less open to sharing drinks."

Garble huffed, flame escaping. "I'm still growing. I'll be bigger than this building, eventually." He shrugged softly. "We dragons aren't rushed about that."

"Makes sense to me." She plucked a horn from her beltline. "Most demis don't reach twenty, let alone ask questions about sixty, so, yeah, sure, I'll drink to that!" She crashed her horn to Garble's cup and swigged whatever was inside her horn with a loud cheer.

Garble took his own swig, the fluid burning his throat, but clearly not in a hot way, but he let out a bit of fire as he exhaled out of it. It was a little spicy, a little bitter, he wasn’t sure how to describe the taste. “Woah, that was… somethin’ else.” His insides felt just a little warm, too, downing the last of whatever he had in the glass.

The warrior woman laughed. “Is this your first? You drink like an expert.”

“‘Course I do,” Garble said. “I’ve been drinking all my life.”

The woman just smirked. “Sure you have, kiddo.” Gesturing over to the side she pointed at someone helping organize. “Another one for the newbie!”

A cheer rippled over the crowd as the festivities got back into the proper swing with talk of the higher floors set aside. Speakers arrived to take their turn. "Not every adventurer reaches this far," explained the old matriarch that had overseen Sandra's fateful roll. "Some whispered that Sandra would be one of those, oh, but look how wrong they were proven."

Sandra's cheeks lit up a bright red as eyes homed in on her.

"When I helped her perform her summon, never did I imagine what the result would be. Three strange new recruits and a new group to reach twenty. Let that be a lesson! Anything is possible if you keep trying." She nodded once firmly as the group erupted into cheers.

Tabitha took the stage, scowling at someone behind the curtains before composing herself. "I was in Sandra's group… a few times… We never got past ten." Her teeth clenched powerfully. "She… Do I have to say this?!" She spun to face someone out of sight. "God! You owe me!" She turned back to the crowd. "She got over herself, okay!" She pointed directly at Sandra. "You better not be faking! That dragon of yours has the heart of a divine lord and if you hurt it, I will make you regret it!" She stormed off, not giving anyone a chance to reply as she vanished back behind the curtain.

"When first I had met," Garble's teacher hadn't been heard or seen until he was already there, speaking. "Waves crashing with hot fury. The tower should fear." He looked across the field of bodies. "I watch to see how high this wave will reach."

Polite applause rippled before the next person up poked her long-eared head out, jaw set and her nervousness obvious. "You sure this is alright?"

Smolder's voice rose above the others, "Hey!" She was waving wildly, rising above the crowd on her wings and darting closer. "I didn't know you'd be here."

"They said I had to be," admitted her rabbit tutor. "And what's a demi to do?"

Pella climbed onto the stage, turning around. “So, I met a girl looking for a class to specialize in. And I had suggested my class to her, and I hadn’t realized that, offering to let someone learn to cook under me would result in her passing twenty on the tower!” She looked down at Smolder. “I’m not sure I would believe it if I hadn’t lived through it.” She raised a cup. “It’s fantastic, Smolder. Great job.”

There was a bit more applause at that. Smolder elbowed Sandra who was mid-clap. "Where's your teacher? The crazy summoner dude?"

Sandra reached a hand up behind her head. "Did Tabitha count as my mentor, or Spike's? I'm honestly not sure."

"And finally, the truth is made clear." The teacher of the summoner class stepped up onto the stage with a smug look. "I had been scorned, but now, with one of mine reaching twenty, you know it is a true and proper class, worth adding alongside the others." He brought his hands together in a sharp clap. "Summoning will become the true star it was always meant to be. Why, my student may be the first to reach the top." He leveled a finger at Sandra. "Go forth, and let the spirits guide you!"

Author's Note

Sometimes you just need to celebrate!

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57 - In the Zone

"Powers of four," declared both Spike and Twilight, though the latter could only be heard in Sandra's head as both danced in place in victory. Spike pressed a stone block forward with a satisfying click, allowing them past the bedevilling puzzle.

"You thought you had me." Garble brought down a sword, catching a monster falling from above. "What a laugh." He continued the motion, sending the monster into the ground with a painful sounding thump. "Now I'm crushing you badly. Cutting you all in half," he rhymed, emphasizing the beats as he stomped forward to finish the job.

An arena where they were the first in and waves of enemies rushed at them came up, requiring all their skills to put them down before the next group was allowed in, but it was Smolder that truly won the day, providing restoration to their flagging energy with snacks that started with the first group's defeat. As a team, they could not be stopped.

“Yes!” Spike cried as his blast hit the already pummeled head of the second statue, knocking it’s block off.

The second statue staggered back, but did not fall over, instead grabbing the severed arm from it’s twin, jamming it into its own head socket, where it came to life, gripping it’s sword with increased fervor.

“Aw come on,” Spike cried.

The strange now three armed statue brought it’s three swords together, then down together.

Finally, after tried and tried again, the then puzzle pieced together frankenstein of a statue monster stopped moving, the whole party looked at it, swords raised in preparation for it to pick itself up yet again and use it’s own rubble to somehow slam into them, and finally breathed a sigh of relief as it collapsed down onto the ground.

"So, this is just another day," came Twilight's voice, only heard by one of them. "I suppose the only way is forward." Even unheard, the others were already moving. The next floor awaited.

But Spike wasn't with them. "Hey."

"Hello, small dragon." There was the man he had met three times before. "Do you have a question worked out?"

"Actually, I do!" He puffed out his chest, looking proud. "What do you get out of this? Not like 'I don't trust you' kind of thing, but, really, you're not just here for laughs, I'd think. What's your deal?"

"You don't want to know more about your fate, and how to reach it?" He watched Spike for a heavy moment, but no revision to the question came. The man smiled gently. "Well, you've made me ask a question. I will give a good answer in reply." He gestured to the left, and the others seemed to freeze in place. "This will take a bit longer."

"Creepy, but also kinda cool," Spike allowed, admiring his frozen friends from afar. "Alright, I'm listening!"

"Many come to challenge this tower." He brought his hands close together, a spectral tower appearing between them. "Though none are remembered, a few made it to the top. There is a catch, a great price. Some simply refuse to pay it, others do, and never return the same. Either way, the legend of the unbeatable tower remained."

"And you're one of them and no you won't tell me what the catch is unless I use a question on it," guessed Spike with a wry smirk.

"You are learning well." He inclined his head faintly. "I am the only one that watches the tower. You could even say I am the tower. I watch every challenger. You, little dragon, caught my eye. Dragons have a special place in this world's history, even if you are not a part of that."

"A good part?"

"A complex part," he allowed, not counting that as a question. "Perhaps you can break me from this cycle, I do tire of it."

"Spike?" Sandra was looking at him, Twilight also facing him, all of his friends clearly unfrozen. "You alright?"

Spike glanced between her and the man, but the instant he looked away, the man was gone. "See you on fourty," he said under his breath, hurrying to catch up with the team.

The trap door finally was triggered, and Garble, Spike, and Smolder all tumbled down into the pit. Sandra looked over it, trying not to laugh as the three of them were stuck in some kind of green goop, all grumbling and trying to pull it out.

Garble tried to sarcastically laugh, only to succeed at producing grumbles from his mouth, trapped in the gunk.

“Okay okay, let me try to think of something.” Sandra tapped her chin. Trying to pull them out is probably a bad idea. She wondered… “Let me try something… Aidan!”

The explosion rocked the walls of the tower.

Sandra set down a jeweled scepter, heavy enough to serve easily as a mace. "A treasure worthy of a proper divine lord." She leaned in. "That's you."

"I figured," replied Tabitha, peering at Sandra suspiciously. "Past thirty, huh?"

"And already working towards fourty." She patted her own sides lightly. "Keeping my promise. I'm done, flaking out, alright? Sorry… Really… sorry."

"My life--" Sandra looked up at Tabitha's words. "--it got better, when you left." Tabitha stood up slowly. "I'm not saying that to be mean, it's just the truth. The very day you ditched me for the last time, when I gave up on you, things started getting better…"

Sandra mentally flailed, considering what to say in response. "Good," came out. Tabitha seemed surprised. "I mean it, good… I wasn't ready to give you what you needed, and deserved. I'm glad you found friends, who could… I don't expect you to just… forgive me, but I'm not giving up, not again, alright?"

"Yeah…" Tabitha walked off, no scornful words on her lips.

With great grinding noises of stone against stone, massive blocks slid free of the walls, crashing down around them. Twilight fired upwards, intercepting blocks that would come crashing down on her friends with star-shaped beams. "Sandra, tell them, tell Garble. I think he's the answer."

"Garble, get in gear!" she squeaked out. "We need some battle beats!"

"Against what!" he complained, bringing down his sword to cleave a brick in half. A loud ring filled the air. "Oh." That was all it took. He started to aim for specific blocks, creating a song and a beat with the pattern of his destruction. "Yeah!"

They managed to not be squashed that day.

They circled along great platforms that shook and fell beneath them. Monsters came in waves, needing to be destroyed quickly to reach the next platform before it collapsed down below. Sandra was on fire, merged with Aiden as she washed the area in flames, weakening the crowds as her friends did battle.

"Hop!" called Spike, deflecting an incoming blow and returning it with a sharp thrust of his staff. They scrambled onto the next platform, not even time to pant as Smolder stuffed monster-snacks in their mouths.

"Almost to the top," shouted Garble, shoving aside a gibbering monster right off the edge. "Stick together, we got this."

The giant wooly quadruped roared, a deafening bellow, causing Garble to wince and ultimately cover his ears, along with Smolder, also next to the creature. The creature flailed it’s beefy furred legs, smacking both of them away.

Spike ran up, immediately beginning the process of healing, when the monster roared again, a wave of pain rushing up his ears, and he immediately dropped the spell, the shockwave of the roar coming to knock them back.

He blinked his eyes open, a loud ringing in his ears, above which he distantly heard Sandra yelling. “We’re leaving!” The shell of light was forming over them, and they popped out.

After the three of them got their hearing back, Garble wasn’t happy. “What gives? We were barely there.”

“The monster was knocking us around really badly, you were already hurt, and we couldn’t even really heal.” Sandra said, her arms folded. “We have to have a strategy ready.”

“Well, um,” Spike said. “Why don’t we just use earplugs?”

Sandra frowned. “Earplugs are really expensive, though. You have to give up a lot of gear to have earplugs.”

Spike blinked. “... What?”

Tammy raised her visor. “Oh yeah, earplugs are hard to get. The worse the roars are the better the earplugs need to be, too. You gotta have several different items in order for it to work.”

“Can’t you just--” Spike gestured at his frills. “--Stuff something in your ears.”

“Nope!” Tammy said with maybe a little too much satisfaction. “The magic goes straight through it, you gotta build a helmet and armor or jewelry.”

Spike’s ear frills wilted. “Okay, so how much to make a full set, then?”

Tammy grimaced. “Well…”

“Why are soft cotton monsters so hard to kill?!” Smolder yelled, stabbing another one, which didn’t wince or react in any way as the dagger sunk into it’s soft fluff, but it did whirl around, a fluffy soft tail brutally colliding with Smolder much harder than she thought it could.

Aiden was pelting them with flames, which did indeed seem to cause them to not just burn, but also panic a bit. Sandra grinned sheepishly. “Sorry. Maybe you could try those heat attacks from before?”

Smolder darted up, trying to get some distance, only to collide face first into a soft ball of fluff, which bounced her back into a ring of other fluffball monsters. “Crap.”

The huge monster roared with all it’s might. And oh, Garble could still hear it, through the thick helmet that covered his ears, with the fluffball jewelry supporting it. But it was just a normal roar. He gave a look to Smolder, who was also watching this monster roar itself horse, and gave each other a fist pound, running at it to finish the fight.

Spike looked around expectantly. "You there?"

"Is that the question you wish to ask?" came the voice behind him despite his searching. Spike twirled to see the man had just… appeared. "You moved faster this time."

"Heya." Spike wriggled a few fingers. "No, that's not my question." He examined the older man curiously. "So, you're the tower... You're watching us go, watching us learn." He smiled a little. "And I think you like what you see."

"Those are not questions," he noted, waving a finger slowly at Spike. "Are you trying to cheat?"

"Who, me? Never." Spike rocked on his feet. "So… You mentioned a price, and that some people didn't pay it, and others did. What is the price?" He rolled a hand in the air. "I mean, I'm curious about you too, but I really kinda need to know that if we're trying so hard to get to it."

"Perfectly reasonable," allowed the old man, raising his staff and bringing it down. From the point of contact, four spectral adventurers rose with it, two warriors, a wizard, and some manner of cleric. "Adventurers brave, greedy, clever, or just stubborn make it to the top, if they seem worthy."

Spike nodded quickly. "Yeah, got that. They get up there, and…?"

"The question is asked." He leaned over the small figures, addressing them, "What do you wish, and are you willing to pay the price?" the figures turned to one another, whispering in little chirps of noises. "The grander the wish, the greater the price. If some fool went through all this trouble to ask for a sandwich, I would send them home with a full belly and their face coated in mud. None have been quite that petty."

"So they usually ask…?"

"A second question?" the man smirked at Spike.

"C'mon, that's still part of the same question!" Spike spread his hands out with a mighty pout.

The man took a slow breath, considering. "For you… Most wish for riches and power, great things, but temporary things. For such a request, we require a sacrifice." He pointed to the figures. "Which of you will pay, and which will benefit?" Two figures raised their hands. Lightning arced from the old man's extended finger, striking them to ash. The other two figures walked off, a bit larger, glowing with powers. "And two heroes are born, but what is a hero that accepted the death of a friend? They don't speak of this."

"Woah…" Spike blinked, enough of a lapse. The man was gone, and his friends were calling. "See you on fifty…"

Author's Note

20 floors without drama!

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58 - Halfway

Tabitha ran a finger along the gauntlet that lay on the table before her. "Not bad. We're pressing on sixty right now, so you know." She hiked a brow. "I heard them, saying most people quit there. I don't plan to. I will protect my team all the way to the top. Does it scare you?" She met Sandra's eyes evenly. "Will sixty be good enough?"

Her shoulders shrugged softly. "Sixty's pretty respectable. I couldn't make fun of you for that. You could get a job anywhere doing almost anything…" Her nails clicked against the metal. "You get to sixty, I have to admit I was wrong."

"This isn't about making you wrong," Sandra spread her hands. "I'm not here to show off."

"I didn't think you were." Tabitha pushed to her feet. "You get to sixty, I admit I was wrong. I'll wish you all the best, and I'll never bother you again."

"You... This doesn't sound right." Sandra rubbed at one arm with the opposing hand. "Will… we be friends?"

"We won't be enemies," corrected Tabitha. "We'll be fellow adventurers. I'll nod as we walk past each other. Just two adventurers. No complicated past." She clapped her hands as she turned away. "All forgiven, like you wanted." She walked off, leaving a stunned Sandra behind.

"Sandra." Spike flew in just behind her, floating at her shoulder. "I have a question."

She glanced back at him. "Sure, why not?" She didn't see how any question from Spike could make her day worse. "Looking for a shop?"

"Huh? No. It's about you."

"Me?" She paused and Spike crashed into her, the two rocking forward before they recovered, facing each other. "What about me?"

"Your parents…" He rubbed at an arm as Sandra had not that long before. "They were called heroes, right?"

"Yeah…" She thought back to those final moments. "They went out like them too, protecting me…"

"Just like they wanted," he barely whispered out, looking away.

"What was that?"

"Nothing!" Spike held up his hands. "Sorry, didn't mean to tug at old memories. You're doing great."

As Spike fled the conversation, Sandra watched him, but where she might have shrugged it off before, she narrowed her eyes.

Garble walked slowly, carefully, his arms out to his sides. Step by step he made his way across the perilous thin stone walkway. Underneath were spikes, tipped with some kind of nasty green substance Garble did not want to discover what was. Above were more spikes, so it’s not like he could fly… Ahead was his sister and Sandra, behind was the runt.

He stepped slowly, carefully, until he was on the next platform, and he let out the breath he was holding. Smolder and Sandra both politely clapped.

Spike bounded across the walkway, not losing his balance even once.

Garble glared at him.

Blinking in confusion, Spike said, “... What?”

“Maybe you should be the one with the daggers up in front, buddy,” Smolder said, slapping Spike on the back. “Cmon, we got more jumps and stuff.”

The four of them continued to make it across the claustrophobic spiked pits.

Sandra stood off of the raised stone sigil, breathing heavily. “Okay, so one more try.” She turned to Twilight. “You’ll have to go out, we know the targets will light up, and you have to hit all of them before they close.”

Twilight nodded. “Right,” her voice echoed in Sandra’s head. “I saw what they were before, some were really specific angles, and I have to hit them really fast.”

“Alright… everybody else should be on their targets for now, let’s do this.” Sandra stood on the sigil, and it depressed and lit up. The lights dimmed and next to Sandra several targets lit up, which she started to pelt with tiny bolts of magic. Twilight didn’t stay around to watch, and simply headed out.

Out in the center room, what appeared to be nearly a dozen targets were lit up, and Twilight went to work.

One by one she shot her stars at the targets, running to make sure the angles were right, and then at the end the aperture opened up, the biggest target, and Twilight raised her horn to the sky, bringing down the big star from the sky, slamming into the last target at full force.

The lights came back on, the door opened, and Twilight, her magic allotment spent, disappeared back to her world, the summon running out.

“You did it, Twili--” Spike said, running out. “... Where is she?”

Sandra came out from behind her own target area. “She ran out of magic. She definitely hit all the targets first though…”

Spike frowned. “Did the floor know exactly how much magic she would have to exhaust her?”

With unease they proceeded to the next floor.

They emerged from a door, expecting a boss, but finding instead howling wind. They were outside the tower on platforms. With a sudden shudder, the platform beneath them began to retract dangerously quickly. "Run!" Sandra pointed ahead as she broke into a sprint. They began running from one platform to the next.

Garble snorted, leaping into the air, his wings carrying him aloft. "This is stupid, most of us--" One of the defensive turrets that Spike had encountered so long ago opened fire, forcing Garble to dart out the way, another lancing up just in front of him. He landed with an angry snort, the warning clearly working. They would have to run and not fall to complete that boss encounter.

A great crash sounded ahead of them, a spiked ball hitting the platform ahead of them and rolling towards them. "Aw, nuts," muttered Smolder. There seemed there would be no fights in that boss encounter, but that didn't mean it would be easy.

"Jump!" Spike jumped off the side, the others at his side. They could feel the pull of their wish to recall as the ground rushed at them, racing between gravity and the magic that could save them.

They arrived at the last recall point, screaming and heaving.

Smolder pointed to the door they had just gone through. "I demand a rematch! We were surprised. This time, we'll know how to do it."

Catching their breath, the team was ready to try again shortly. Twilight nosed Sandra to get her attention. "This seems to be every day for you. Does everyone live like this? Even by my standard, this seems like a bit… much."

Sandra gave Twilight a tired smile. "Just us tower climbers. You want your friends back, right? This is how we do it."

"Yeah!" Garble shoved the door open. "Let's go, and be ready to run."

The door shut heavily behind them. "Only… five times," announced Spike, but there was no reply. Looking left and right, the others were frozen in place, time halted for them. "Oh." He didn't seem as surprised as such an event could possibly merit, instead looking around in a slow circle. "There you are." He hurried by the recall point, where the elderly man awaited him. "We made it to fifty."

"If you make it to the top, perhaps it will end." He tapped his cane against the floor. "A lot of things could end."

Spike pointed at him accusingly. "You, the tower, whoever. You… took Sandra's family."

"I won't argue that." He hadn't disagreed. "What will you do with that possibility?"

"You plan to do it to us, if what we're asking for is too much, but you won't tell us if it is or not until we actually ask." The old man watched him, saying nothing. Spike had learned how to converse with the man a little. He got one question, and none of that was a question.

"She wants her parents back." He gestured to the frozen Sandra, caught mid-wheeze from their long sprint. "We want to go home. Only one of us can probably get that, and either could be enough to need one of your sacrifices. Man, look, that isn't cool." He pointed back at Sandra. "She's just a kid! She's just a stupid kid."

"Like you."

"Yes, like me!" Spike shouted, anger getting the better of him a moment. "If we fail… Twilight will keep looking. She'll figure it out, eventually. She can't make dead things not dead. She can't do Sandra's wish, ever. But she is ready to give that up, for us." He waved at his dragon friends. "They aren't even thinking about it. Maybe Smolder, maybe, but she isn't stopping. We'll get to the top, she'll just give it up, all up, for us… the dragons she never even asked for…"

"Because…" He licked over his lips, puzzling through things as quickly as his thundering heart allowed. "Because, even confused, and scared, and alone, she's…. She's a hero. The child of a hero… which is a hero." He pointed at the man. "Tell me I'm wrong!"

“Heroism is a heavy burden,” the man said. “Not always the same burden, but always weighty. --"

"--And heroes only go out one way."

"Two ways," corrected the man with a wry smile. "They die a hero, or live long enough to become something far worse. Now… clever dragon, you have avoided asking a single question. You have learned the rules well. Now, I must insist, ask your question. You have more floors to scale."

"You said you were interested in us. Why us? What do you get out of us dragons climbing your tower?" He stomped a foot. "You have all kinds of creatures trying every single day to get higher in this tower, so out with it."

“Dragons are always of portent. I am not like the people of this world, skeptical to the true nature of your existence, dragon.” The man seemed to rise up, his voice becoming louder. “The potential of ancient years, the strength of the scales, the power of fire… but more important, the covetousness. This very tower is like a dragon in itself, it gathers adventurers, relics, magic. It tempts adventurers, greedy to get the spoils, and the magic flows up into the tower. The tower has had many dragons in it, over the years. Some still live within its walls, collecting like the tower does, while feeding the tower. The affinity the tower has for dragons is undeniable. None have been denied entry, and all of them are talented climbers, if they enter.”

Spike was blinking, trying to take in the somewhat circuitous answer.

“But naturally bringing an ancient wyrm would be difficult. Large things are much harder to move around than small, and why would an ancient wyrm want to help a hero? No, if I wanted my hero to have the help she needed, after alienating all the locals, it would have to be something other than an ancient dragon. Something smaller, perhaps more than one somethings. With their own reasons to climb the tower, spurring a hero stuck in the first part of her story to finally move forward, perhaps.”

Spike’s blood began to run cold, staring up at the man as the implications of his confession clicked. “You… you set this up? You’re the one that brought us here?! The whole reason we’re plucked from Equestria is for… for your own plan?! For whatever it is you want us to do here?!”

“Placing new pieces into her story was not too hard, heroes often have special companions, special people that move their story forward.” The man raised a hand, gesturing to Spike. “I only have limited vision and control outside of the tower, except for the lives of those the tower still influences, and I thought long and hard about how to solve this problem, and I do think my solution is working out quite well.” He chuckled. “Never did I imagine it would produce a good conversationalist.”

“D-don’t treat this like it’s a joke!” Spike shouted, swinging his staff in the air angrily. “You messed with my life, with Garble and Smolder, and even Sandra’s life. She didn’t need to be a hero!”

The man’s chuckling stopped and his face turned to a frown. “Believe you me, these events were set in motion long before you were part of this plan.” He began to fade away. “Sandra will be the hero she is born to be, and I will get what I want.” His voice echoed in the empty hall of the fiftieth floor.

Smolder finally turned the corner, looking back down. “You alright, little guy? You were shouting.”

"No…" admitted Spike, deflating. "I'm really not. Let's… head back." He raised a hand to the recall point, accepting the arrival at the end of the fiftieth floor be officially recognized. "We… maybe we should talk."

Garble stormed up, swatting the recall point defiantly. "What are you whining about? We smashed through it, like everything else. Let's--"

Smolder put a hand on his arm, watching Spike. "Bro… chill." Not an expert in friendship, even she could see something had rattled Spike, though what it was, she struggled to get a grasp on. "Spike, we'll head back. When you want to talk, we're here."

Author's Note

Well, that escalated, but the curtain is drawn back. Not everyone is ready to see how the sausage is made.

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59 - Equivalent Exchange

Spike swung his feet off the side of his cot. All eyes were on him, waiting. "I know you all need to hear this. That isn't even… slightly in doubt."

Twilight approached on her strange cloven hooves, nuzzling the side of her lost little brother. "Aw, thanks." He patted the side of her snout, her meaning clear without words. "It's just… wow, we had some things wrong, a lot of things." He looked to Sandra. "First, an apology. This wasn't your fault, not even a tiny little bit."

Smolder hiked a brow. "I was done being upset at her like at the first floor." She shrugged expansively. "What even brought that on?"

"I'll double that." Garble thrust a finger at Spike. "Start spilling the details!"

“I just… it’s heavy stuff, and dangerous stuff, and maybe… I might have not talked with you guys about it but knew stuff about it for a while?” He winced down.

Smolder’s like, “Spike! We already had a thing where you did this and we hated it then! Why would you do it again?”

“I’ve been not talking about it since before that,” he said.

“Spike!” Smolder exclaimed.

“Stop,” Sandra said, sterner than her voice had been before. “It’s fine, Spike. You were trying to figure it all out before you said anything?”

Spike rubbed the back of his head. “Also it’s sorta weird, and I didn’t want people to think I was crazy.”

“Oh my god!” Garble exclaimed. “Get on with it! We all wanna hear it, just say it!”

There was a slight pause, and Spike finally said, “I’ve been talking with the tower.”

“... What?” Smolder said. “Like… talking to the walls?”

“No!” Spike looked back up at her. “Like a spirit guy, he said his name was Logue and I’m the only one that can see him and I’ve been asking him questions every ten floors.” He looked back down. “And I figured it was crazy and the answers wouldn’t be too important until the past ten floors or so.”

“After you asked me whether or not my parents were heroes,” Sandra said.

Spike nodded. “That’s… that’s right, you figured out something was up, huh?”

Sandra smiled at him. “It’s fine, I figured if you didn’t come clean sooner or later I’d have to pull it out of you, and here we are.”

Spike laughed halfheartedly. “That’s right…”

Smolder brought her hands together with a soft paff. "Alright, guy named Logue, mentioned something about Sandra, keep going."

"Yeah, we haven't gotten to the part you'd drag us out of the tower for." Garble rolled his shoulders, looking put out. "Ain't heard anything yet."

“Well, I was trying to figure out what to ask about the tower, and I wound up finding out that when you make a wish… it extracts a cost.”

“What kind of a cost?” Smolder piped in again. “Like, if we asked for a million bits what would the cost be.”

“I dunno, I didn’t have that many questions, I just know that some of them required the sacrifice of people… er… probably.” Spike shook his head. “Look I tried to get extra info by not asking questions but a lot of them were vague.”

Garble rolled his eyes. “So it’s nothing? You haven’t said much yet…”

“Garble,” Sandra said, casting an angry glance at him. “Let him finish. Interrupting all the time isn’t helping.”

“Th-thanks,” Spike said. “There are… multiple parts. I learned you have to sacrifice stuff to get wishes, then it was uh… implied and kind of stated that Sandra’s parents did that? And wished to be heroes.” He looked up, trying to gauge her reactions.

She reacted. “So… they’re not… really heroes? They’re not impressive or anything?”

Waving his hands in protest, Spike said, “No no! It’s not that it’s like… I don’t know why they asked for it, but whatever they did they made the wish and lived the life of heroes. And that means…” He looked around. “It means dying like heroes.”

Sandra seemed sobered by that, her expression falling a little.

“Hold up, how do you figure,” Smolder interrupted. “Why does heroism mean dying like a hero?”

“It’s a… it’s a story thing,” Spike said. “In stories, heroes die tragically, facing off against a villain, fighting something… saving something-”

“Like saving their children…” Sandra said. “From a monster that shows up out of nowhere.”

Spike nodded solemnly. “And if they asked to be heroes it wouldn’t just make them stronger it would make their lives into ones that fit heroism.”

Silence fell on the party, and Sandra eventually said, “So that’s it, then. My parents made it to the top and made a wish…”

“Ah uh… no that’s not all.”

Sandra blinked. “It’s… not?”

“Okay, so--” Spike hopped up, gesturing up. “So the guy in the tower was bound there or something, and he wants to leave, and he thinks you--” he pointed at Sandra. “Can release him by making it up the tower.”

“Me?! A-an adventurer who let down somebody who tried very hard to convince her to go? Someone who was too nervous and didn’t want to be an adventurer before this whole thing?”

“Well, he said he didn’t have a whole lot of control over stuff outside the tower unless it had links to something it affected. Like if a wish was trying to direct the course of someone’s life…”

Sandra blinked. “I’m… I didn’t make a wish, my parents made a wish.”

“Well, no, but the children of adventurers, who had their parents die in a tragic accident…” Spike grimaced. “I mean it sounds a lot like a hero…”

Sandra opened her mouth as if to respond, but sorta just… left it open, attempting to process what she heard.

“And um, here’s the last big one, because I asked him this one directly,” Spike said, a grave expression on his face. “I asked him what interest he had in me. And he said that… me, and Smolder and Garble--” he gestured to them “--were of interest because the tower likes dragons, and lets them up frequently, and he needed a new plan to get Sandra in the tower… and so a group of young dragons that needed Sandra’s help explicitly in the tower would be a good way to jump start her failing adventuring career.”

Smolder picked up this first. “Wait, what’s he saying? He’s not saying what I think he’s saying.”

“Saying what?” Garble said.

Spike nodded. “He admitted that the plan to bring dragons through from another world was his plan.” He looked down, kicking his feet. “He’s the reason why we were pulled from Equestria here.”

A sudden equine snort cut the tension. Twilight was frowning as she pawed at the ground with a soft clopping. "I thought… How dare it?! Tell them I'll find another way to get them home," her voice raged in Sandra's mind. "This game ends now."

Sandra looked between Twilight and Spike. "Twilight said she'd find another way, to… stop climbing."

Garble suddenly brought down a hand on Spike's shoulder. "And we're not doing that."

"We're not," echoed Spike, his voice sounding determined, even if his face was haunted. "We can't."

Smolder threw her arms wide, ."Woah, wait. Spike, you alright? This sounds like a great reason to stop climbing and every part of me says you should be agreeing with not climbing, but you're agreeing with Gar Gar. Fill me in?"

Twilight nickered, shaking her head and looking equally as ready to hear that answer.

"Twilight." Sandra smiled awkwardly. "I need to talk to your little brother a bit, call you later." Twilight's face became surprise as she vanished, dismissed without choice. "She's nice, really nice… But this is about us." She waved her fingers at each of her dragon friends. "We have to make this choice."

“Look,” Spike pointed at Smolder. “Think about what happened to Sandra before this? Firstoff she had a tragic past, probably made by this hero story stuff? And then finds Tabitha who was super driven and is definitely good enough to climb the tower? And that failed and a new plan which brought us all the way from Equestria here?” Spike lowered his eyes at her. “Sandra probably can’t escape this, and if she can’t, I’m not running away.”

“We don’t know that!” Smolder said. “What if the tower, knowing Sandra knows, gives up this time?”

Garble lifted his shoulders. "Which it won't do because we ain't giving up." All eyes turned on him. "What? I can put the pieces together," he huffed defensively. "We give up--" He pointed at Sandra. "It does something to give you a 'hero's end' right when you're not expecting it. Maybe you get to look great, or awful, the moment we're out of sight. Something dramatic, I bet."

Smolder snorted and rolled her eyes. “Well why am I the one wanting to bow out.” She smirked. “I’m in, I’m definitely gonna save a friend.”

All three of them then looked to Sandra, who kind of tried to match their looks, though was doing a poor job of it. "Look, you don't… have to." She threw her hands wide. "I'm in this for you in the first place. I… already put it aside, my wish…"

Spike hopped down to his feet, but never made it, his wings carrying him as he flew over to Sandra's side. "That part isn't fair either, but we appreciate you, you know, doing that."

Smolder gave an emphatic thumbs up. "You wanted to get your parents back, right? Man, I'd… I dunno… If someone I cared about went out like that, and I could get them back… It'd take a lot to get me to stop." She reached up, scratching her cheek with three fingers. "Just thinking about it…"

Garble suddenly elbowed his sister. "Who do you care about that much you'd go through all this trouble?"

"You, moron." She punched him swiftly in the side and turned away, huffing little bits of flame in her irritation.

"Either way." Spike crossed his arms. "We're pushing on, but we need a plan." He pointed to Sandra. "We get to the top, and we're going to be asked what we want."

"We already know what we want," huffed Sandra, tapping a shoe on the ground. "That isn't the question."

Smolder threw up her hands to shoulder height in a shrug. "And we know what the price will be, probably."

"I'll pay it," spoke Sandra without giving much chance for others to cut in.

Garble's brows went up together. "I'm still figuring this out, but you're ready to bite it for us?" He snapped the fingers of his right hand with a sharp crack. "Like that?"

Sandra took a slow breath. "Why not?" She ventured a little smile. "I don't have a lot waiting for me. You're all the best thing I have, and you're leaving… so.. Sure, then the stupid tower gets what it wants… All the heroes, handled…" She looked from one face to the next. "I'm glad I got to meet you."

Her moment of peaceful acceptance was interrupted by a scaled fist connecting with her cheek, forcing her face to deform to the side. She was sent spinning to the ground, Garble over her form with a heavy scowl. "That is… No, think harder. You're supposed to be one of the smart ones."

Spike raised a hand, staff held firmly as he got to soothing the hurt of the sudden friendly fire. "You alright?"

"No, but yeah…" Sandra sat up, glowing with Spike's healing magic as she gathered herself upright. "Look, we're not stopping. That much we all agree on."

Smolder turned to face Garble, watching him huff as she had just been doing. "That much," she murmured in agreement, walking to his side. The siblings marched out of the room together without any spoken words.

Author's Note

The team talks it out like mature adults. Pfft, maybe not.

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60 - ... Right?

Sandra held Spike's right hand between both of her own. "I'm the one that brought you here."

"No, really… you were just… Not even that, really." He lifted his shoulders in a bit of a shrug. "Look, stop looking down like that. You're a friend, that much is for sure." He pulled his hand away just to get it under her chin, raising her view. "And we don't give up on friends."

"Even when they ask you to," she continued with a little smirk. "Stubborn dragons."

"Stupid humans," he returned fire, though they were smiling at each other with confused feelings. "Don't you know? Dragons don't surrender what is theirs, and you're ours, our friend."

"Oh, woe is me," she jokingly cried. "Seriously, how do you plan to get past the tower? The others aren't giving up."

"And I won't either. I just need you to not give up either. You with us?"

She gave him a flat look. “I asked you a question.”

“That-that was my answer,” Spike said, avoiding her gaze.

“It wasn’t much of an answer… you just said not to give up.”

“Well, um.” Spike rubbed the back of his head. “The reason why is because we don’t exactly… know what is going to happen? I’m not quite sure what Logue’s actual plan is. I don’t know how to beat a plan we don’t know about.”

“He’s still going to show up at sixty for a question, right?”

“... Maybe?” Spike made a dubious face. “Unless he doesn’t, or unless he tries very hard to not answer the question usefully, or I need more questions than he gives me to figure it out.” Spike’s expression became more panicked with each suggestion. “How can we beat a plan we know nothing about? Nothing about what the enemy can do, nothing about what he’s going to do…”

“Spike,” Sandra laid her hand on Spike’s shoulder. “Relax. We have a while… maybe rather a while, to think about it. We aren’t even past sixty yet… Asking him what his plan is might be the best idea, the most direct question to the answer.”

“He had to have thought about this and has a good answer,” Spike said. “He has to know we are going to try to stop him. If we do what he wants he’ll win for sure, he can’t not have a plan.”

Sandra smiled a little. "Well, so what?" Spike looked at her with sudden fresh confusion. "I mean if. If we rise against him, that's still pretty heroic. If he's… decided I'm one of those, which, well… maybe my parents did, whatever, doesn't matter. I got that, maybe I have to act it, one way or the other. If I don't do it my way… I do it his way."

"Can't say I like his way," admitted Spike with a rueful smirk. "So let's do it our way."

"Our way," she echoed, grabbing his hand, not between her own, but in one, firmly, shaking it.

Sandra hoisted up her latest tribute to Tabitha: a glittering shield. In order to make it, her party had to take a few side jobs, but those were becoming more common anyway. Apparently that was how it went as the tower got more challenging, to keep up you wanted materials from outside of it.

She wondered, idly, if they should get more aggressive about that after they passed floor sixty. A question for later, she supposed.

She came back into the agreed upon meeting place, a back room in the guild. Tabitha was sat down, a dark countenance on her face, mindlessly thumbing a gauntlet removed from her hand.

“Uh… hi?” Sandra said, and Tabitha looked up bleary.

“You’re here.”

“Yeah… I am, and so are… you?” Sandra said, confused.

Tabitha held out her hand. “Well, do you have it?”

“... Yeah,” Sandra said, presenting the shield. “We reached floor fifty, and it’s only ten more floors and I’m done with the thing, you’ll see I’ve done it.”

“Yeah…” Tabitha said, looking over the shield listlessly. She didn’t even really move to leave.

“... What’s wrong?” Sandra said. “This isn’t the normal flavor of surly.”

Tabitha scowled a little at that. “No, it’s not. I reached floor sixty.”

“Well congratulations!” Sandra clapped her hands. “This is a cause for celebration, right?”

Tabitha glared at Sandra, as if debating about what to do. “There was no stairway up. Where there should have been a door there was just a fancy plaque. Had some nice jewelry for us, but no stairs going upward.” She sat herself back in her chair. “I can’t climb the tower any further.”

Sasha mouthed a few silent words before her voice returned, floundering, "No! No… You… You're supposed to keep going."

"You think I don't know that?!" Tabitha snapped. "You think… I haven't… They… They left, all of them. I thought they were with me, to the top." She ran a finger over the table towards the shield, but not touching it. "They were smiling, gloating, smugly satisfied. 'Look at us, we got 60, we can do anything…'"

"They couldn't do anything," Sandra murmured. Tabitha hiked a brow. "What? Obviously they couldn't get up to the top."

Tabitha smirked at that. "Rubbing that in my face too?"

"Tabitha, seriously." Sandra set her hand on the table. "Stop it. I know I messed up before, but we're past that. Even if you're ready to shove me aside when I hit sixty, I consider you a friend. I care, alright? Maybe I don't even deserve to do that, but too bad, get over it."

"The irony is thick enough to die on." Tabitha sat up in her seat. "You, of all people, telling me to get over something? How far have I fallen…?" She grabbed the shield suddenly and violently threw it aside to bounce off the wall with a loud metal clang. "Are you going to be happy at sixty?"

"I can't," whispered Sandra, licking her suddenly dry lips. "I have to keep on, to the top, the very top."

"And if there are no stairs?" growled Tabitha. "What will you do then?"

Sandra knew, from what Spike had said, the odds of that were basically none, but that also wasn't the answer to give in that moment. "I'll look for another way. I owe them."

"Owe who?" she barked. "Who? You have no family. You owe nobody anything. What are you talking about?"

"My friends, the dragons?" Sandra looked genuinely baffled at the confusion. "I owe--"

"You summoned them. Yes, I get it, they're adventurers, great, free will, also cool, but free will also means they can do what they want. Why do you owe them anything?" Tabitha pointed at Sandra with each pause, thrusting at the air between them, clearly agitated. "Especially enough to insist 100 is your goal."

“No!” Sandra said, her hands slamming on the table. “I owe them because they are my friends. Because they have a life to get back to outside of all of this and I need to give it to them, and because in service of that they have not stopped helping me. They would help me to the tower and I will help them because that’s the only way we know to do it!”

“You don’t owe them!” Tabitha stood up, the chair clattering behind her. “You went up, they went up, you got gear, they got gear. If at sixty they can’t go up and you can’t go up you let them go!”

“If it’s so clear and you think nobody owes anyone anything, why are you in such a bad mood because your party was fine with leaving!”

“It’s not like I stopped them. They’re gone, I didn’t try to stop them. So what if I’m in a bad mood because I am forced to accept that I’ll never go up the tower.” Tabitha grit her teeth. “So what if I was kinda hoping that we’d make it all the way or at least they’d be as disappointed that I was that this bid for greatness ended like everyone else.” Her eyes got hard and she composed herself. “I just forgot the lessons I learned from you.”

Sandra leaned back, something feeling cold inside of her. “The lessons.. From me?”

Tabitha cursed under her breath. “That nobody owes anyone anything else! You don’t drag people to places they don’t wanna go, you don’t ‘hold out hope’ they’ll get better. You do things that benefit each other when you do, and as soon as it’s not what you want you leave.” She made a tch noise. “This friendship crap you’re on is bullshit.”

Sandra blinked, her eyes searching, like trying to figure out what to say. “So… so… none of your party even asked you to come with them? Nobody said that they had something lined up and you could come?”

“... It isn’t the tower.” Tabitha said, coldly. “It’s just random jobs, it’s not the tower.”

"It isn't," admitted Sandra in a hushed whisper. "You really want to see the top."

"You're just noticing that? Tell me something else." Tabitha crossed her arms, glaring sideways at Sandra.

"What… was the wish you wanted to make?" The anger Tabitha had was not echoed at her, the question gentle. "You don't owe me that answer. I'm asking as a friend, if you can believe anyone means that."

"I… It would have been good," She snapped, partially at herself, admitting that she never thought that far. The wish was just a goal, and that had been enough to drive her forward. "It would have been the stuff of legends." She banged down on the table, making it jump under her fist. "A legend you're going to take."

"I made a promise." Sandra put a hand to her chest. "And I'm done breaking those. I will get them to the top, and from there, home, to a magic place that's better than here. I'll say goodbye, and never see--"

Tabitha's finger was on Sandra, touching her face. She was feeling a running tear. "Why… are you crying about winning?" Her tone was not one of accusation, but growing confusion.

Sandra swallowed hard, taking a breath. Should she say anything, it didn’t feel like it was something there.

"Fine, I don’t need to get it," fumed Tabitha, denying Sandra the chance to answer. "But it's important?" Sandra nodded. "On a scale of 0-10, where 0 is you got a papercut and 10 is the world is reduced to dust, this would be…?"

"A solid… 7? 10 for the people involved." Sandra crossed her arms, trying to figure out that scale. "It's very personal."

Tabitha grabbed Sandra by her collar with both hands, one on either side of her neck. "Will people tell stories about this?"

“I uh… I…” Sandra grimaced. “To be honest… p-probably not?” She looked away from Tabitha’s intense expression. “People don’t even know that my parents made it to the top…”

Tabitha’s grip only intensified. “And then they were talked about forever, how is that not people telling stories?!”

Sandra finally grabbed Tabitha’s hands, futilely trying to push her arms away. “I’m sending away literally every bit of evidence that anything is happening. Nothing… nothing will be left to tell.”

“You’ll still be left!” Tabitha nearly shouted.

Sandra’s expression was conflicted, looking back at Tabitha with fearful eyes.

Tabitha finally released Sandra, backing up. “Just what do you think…” She staggered back a step. "You'll still be there…" But Sandra didn't have the confident look that she expected.

"Gotta go." Sandra fled rather than face Tabitha, fleeing outright from her estranged friend. "Later!"

Author's Note

A lot of feelings all up in this chapter.

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61 - Your Worst Fear

The party looked at each other and nodded and pushed open the door to the fifty first floor. The fancy marble interior gave way to dilapidated ruins, much like the marble floor they just left, but destroyed and overgrown.

As they made their way into the first room, rattling movements brought their attention upward. Above them, crawling on the walls were lizardmen, far far on the side of the bestial side of beast tribes, some with bows, others with swords and shields.

The enemies jumped down and battle was begun.

Spike cast soothing healing spells as they ascended further through the floors. The trap door to the next floor opened up at the top of their elevator, opening up to bright lights and a roaring crowd. The same voice as twice before came on, “And now, for their third outings in the arena… the dragons and a human!”

The crowd erupted into a louder roar, cheering for them. Immediately Garble stood up, his fists above his head, hearing the roar get higher. “Heh, that’s right,” he muttered.

“Calm down, bro,” Smolder bumped him with her elbow. “It isn’t real, right?”

“That just means I should enjoy it more.” He raised his sword up, calling out. “That’s right, and we’re making it to the top.”

“Bold words from the challengers, bold words,” the voice rang out. “He hasn’t even seen his opponents yet, and speaking of it, here they are now!”

The opposing group rose from their own platform, not even ten feet away, which is far less mysterious now that they know these were not real adventurers, but just very fancy magic monsters.

And what rose up was dominated by a huge silhouette. Some kind of huge gray skinned beast tribe member towered over the rest of his group, holding a huge spiked club. Sitting on his shoulder, a smaller winged member gripped a magical staff.

There was another well-armed person ahead of him, and behind him some manner of wizard, and he raised his own club up, in a mockery of Garble’s pose, and bellowed a roar.

Smolder's eyes narrowed, recognizing one of the beast folk. A member of her mentor's party, brought back to life to serve as their challenge. "Well, shoot," she muttered, not entirely sure if putting them back down would put a smile on her rabbit friend's face or not. "Maybe I'll keep this one under my hat."

There wasn't time to muse on that for too long, the two parties coming into a violent clash. Spike's chinting litany of protective magic drew their attention even as he dulled their blows. His lessons from Tabitha were displayed as he turned their blows aside, crushing impacts turned into mild grunts of discomfort.

Garble couldn't resist, coming down on the side of the largest enemy, but his sword left a small mark instead of the great gash he had been hoping for. "Die," ordered his opponent with a shove that felt instant, but his impact against the wall felt like it went on forever, Garble wheezing as he struggled back to his feet, Spike's green glow already hastening his recovery. "One free hit, all I give."

Spike did his best to prevent or heal the damage, and he was doing well, but the opponents seemed unharmed, no matter how much damage they did. “I’m not sure I can keep this up forever.”

“Well they can’t either, right?” Smolder said, slicing at her assailant.

“Have you ever seen tower monsters run out of gas?” Spike said, blocking another huge spiked mace strike with his staff, which was almost surprisingly easy. The magic did most of the work.

“I’ve seen them run out of life.” Garble sliced across the large beastman’s leg, causing a cut that disappeared in short time. “But what is up with this.”

Sandra had summoned Twilight and was directing her to blast the enemies on the ground, but began looking around. Something was going on with their three opponents. Weren’t there four? And she finally looked up to see one flying assailant, unnoticed, sending green energy orbs at her allies.

“Twilight! In the sky!”

Twilight looked up, and a wordless, “I see it” came from her, and she sent a star blast into the sky, the flying healer dodging it, sticking out her tongue as she sent another heal to her party.

Twilight sent blazing bolt after bolt, careening wildly in a chase after that healer. Her target veered to the left, then jinked to the right, but that was the way Twilight had aimed, an accidental strike that allowed a star burst to smack the flying woman, who recovered, and touched herself with her own wand, the bruise disappearing, and she dodged out of the way of the next hit.

“We have to get rid of that, Sandra said. “We’ll never make any progress.”

“Well, there is the one thing you haven’t tried. I know you did it with the other summons…” Twilight’s wordless voice trailed off.

Garble clambered up, abandoning his fight to try to reach the healer, but she was so far away. "Get down here!" he fruitlessly yelled at their nemesis.

"It's time for strength." Sandra dodged just to the left of the huge club that pierced and smashed the ground she had avoided. "Magic." She hopped back as bolts of power peppered the ground in front of her. "And the power of friendship."

Garble made a little gagging noise in defiance.

Twilight vanished with a flash of her cutie mark, only for it to flare out brightly from Sandra. Sandra brought up her staff, parrying that great sword that had been about to crush her in a dome of fierce magic. "Time to go," sternly demanded the composite of Sandra and Twilight's voice, her ears growing long and furry as a tail burst free of her, becoming as much pony as human. "Leave my friends alone!"

Ascending on new wings, Sandra soared towards the healer, leaving purple trails behind herself, her new tail whipping in the wind. "This is kind of great," she said without talking, though Twilight could hear her.

"Can I talk?" she actually said out loud, but it was Twilight, cheating in their union. "Woohoo!"

Sandra's face twisted in surprise and a moment of visceral disconcerting concern at having something else speaking through her lips. "Please don't do that without a warning. Let's smash that thing."

"Yeah!" Twilight replied, out loud.

They had two eyes, or at least two minds working with the same pair of eyes, following the jinks and swerves of the flying healer. "I got left."

"I got right." Which of them said which was impossible to tell from the outside. They raised their hands, rainbow beams with stars at the end firing rapidly out. Each hand directed by a different person, they swerved, trapping the darting one. The instant one solid hit was landed, the other hand was locked in, rapidly bashing the healer with little time left for administering their own wounds.

They closed, hands outstretched in a rapid barrage until the instant they swung a heavy two-handed blow, knocking the priest towards the ground with a squeak. They vanished before even making contact, defeated.

"Woo!" called out Spike from far below, batting aside an incoming blow with well-trained practice. "Now we can finish this. Garble, you're up!"

"You didn't need to remind me." He jumped down from where he had climbed, his massive sword coming down to finish what he had started, confident they wouldn't be shrugging off their attacks.

"Congratulations." Garble jumped just as the platform ahead of him turned a bright blue. "You're officially infected with pony cooties."

"That's not fair." Sandra sprang to a yellow platform, wobbling in place a moment. "It was amazing."

"It was pretty cool." Smolder landed just as the platform went purple. "Spike, you're up."

"On it." His wings flapped, carrying him the extra little distance to land, the party, hopscotching along the bright colors as they made their way through the puzzle. "We'll get it this time."

"Envision the worst possibility," read Smolder off writing on the wall. "Overcome and reach your goal."

"The… worst thing?" Spike shrugged. "Twilight gone mad with power?"

Twilight snorted wordlessly. She knew there was worse than that!

The room trembled beneath them. Light bathed them from above as the roof was sheared free as if some great hand had wrenched it off. "My faithful student," came a deafening call as a strange not-right Celestia leaned in over them all. "It is time for a test. You haven't studied, but I have faith in you."

Her horn glowed, firing deadly beams all around them. The battle had begun.

The five of them walked through the floor, another basic floor shown to be more of a boss fight, with Garble laughing. “See! I knew ponies were no match for dragons.”

“You are aware it wasn’t really Celestia, right?” Spike nearly spat, with him and Twilight having the same sour expression. “It doesn’t mean you beat up actual ponies.”

“Which is why I did nothing wrong even by you,” Garble laughed. “The fact that all this stuff is fake means you’re not allowed to be mad at me for beating her senseless.”

Twilight snorted, but said nothing and the five of them stomped onward quietly.

“... I really liked the song she was singing,” Sandra said.

Twilight whinnied and groaned.

As they moved their way up, right before the boss floor, floor fifty nine, they found a large ornate door with four very obvious slots to insert some kind of orbs, and four other doors. Well, not exactly doors, more like chambers that had room for exactly one person to stand in, and a visible area behind them where everyone could see corridors that seemed to be empty, but were no doubt filled with traps and monsters waiting to ambush the entrant.

At the end of each corridor there was a brightly glowing dot, generally too far away to make out what it was sitting on.

“Look,” Spike said. “More instructions.” He walked up to the sign in the center. “Mastery of each class must be proven, one by one. Show the tower you are truly a master of your craft, and only then you will be allowed to proceed.” He leaned up closer to read smaller text at the bottom. “The doors are two way, there is no shame in fleeing, the challenge will remain.”

“Psh.” Garble pushed Spike aside. “Says you.”

“No, that wasn’t me,” Spike pulled himself up. “It was the si--”

“I was talking to the sign!” Garble blurted out, and walked up to the door that had a curved sword above it. “I’ve been doing this for months now. I won’t need more than one turn.” He cracked his knuckles, pulling his sword out. “Imma show this tower what I’m made of.”

He stepped into the chamber, the doors rotating around it so that he had access to the corridor for his class.

The four other party members rushed to the window to watch.

Garble held his sword up, heading down the corridor. From the ground, three thin shadowy monsters appeared, all of them pulling out claws, and he slashed at them. His sword went through, and they were clearly all hit, but they didn’t fall.

Garble redoubled his effort, twisting around. “Rolling Cresecent” and the slash of energy banished the two.

Immediately, in front of him another shade appeared, larger, and he raised his sword in turn. “You stand in my way, and you’re going to pay!” Bringing it down in an energy laden crash.

Another wave, he crashed into with a rhyme, and bird monsters appeared, divebombing him, which he dodged and countered. The enemies continued to appear, and he used

Three appeared in a row, and he spun around again. “Your life is forfeit, my win is surefeit,” spinning to hit them with a rolling crescent, but they did not fall this time, and he backed up, and his next wave appeared, another group of fliers.

His rhythm faltered, but he picked it up. “You’re pretty tough, but my sword is harder!” He spun, and a weak blast emanated from his sword for the non-rhyme he used. He cursed, trying to hop back out of the range of the birds, only for several to score a hit.

The third wave appeared, a giant ogre shadow, which he knew he had to use one of his high crash down attacks, but now there were three waves. “Even in a gang, you all will hang!” he said, landing the rhyme and rolling crescent the lot of them, but only finishing off the first group.

The ogre brought it’s fists down, slamming the ground, stunning Garble. He pulled himself up, only for the birds to divebomb him, knocking him back again.

As the shadows coalesced, Garble didn’t even wait for the next wave, and turned tail and ran back to the exit door, the doors revolving, spitting him out back at his party.

Spike folded his arms, raising an eyebrow. “First time, huh Garble?”

“Shut up!” he spat. “That was hard. I made like, what, one mistake and it ate me alive! And not even a mistake, the enemies were just getting harder.” He flumped down onto the ground, panting hard.

“It’s alright, bro,” Smolder said, dishing out a piece of impromptu jerky from before. “Give yourself some time to rest. It’s supposed to be hard, right?”

“Sure, yeah, I guess,” he said, panting on the floor.

Sandra looked back into the room. “It’s resetting. We all have to go through a thing like that?”

Spike looked ready to proceed, but thought better for it. "Go on, Sandra. Show us what you've learned. You're the best summoner there is!"

Author's Note

We are so close to the next question. What will Spike ask? Could you face Celestia as an end boss?

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62 - You Got This

Sandra stood in her test chamber, standing right in front of a caged area. In it there was a dais with a raised panel with two footprints and another raised panel with a crossed out circle in it, ahead a hallway with a channel headed to it where the caged dias was.

The implication seemed clear, she was to enter the cage and ride it to the end… where only her summons were allowed to fight the monsters and protect her in the cage. She stepped into the cage, alone as none of her summons fit in it, and gripped her staff, trying not to show her nervousness.

Sandra called out, “Aiden!” and with a flourish the flaming bird appeared outside of the cage, ready to fight, and she stepped onto the panel in the center of the cage, causing it to sink with a heavy stone clunk. The cage began to stir beneath her, moving with a rough grinding that spoke of its mineral origins.

The monsters came for her with hungry cries. Great swarms along the ground Aiden could set ablaze, huge monstrosities Crystal had to hold back long enough for her to slide by, and flying enemies that were too strong for Aiden to deal with individually that Twilight could handle better.

It was all about using the right tool for the job, but it felt… easy, almost too easy. She only had three summons, so there wasn't a lot of room to try the wrong one, and there hadn't been any curveballs thrown at her yet. The cage ground to a halt next to a huge circular disk over inky blackness and it swung open without a word.

The next part of the test?

She stepped onto the new disk, the meager protection offered by the cage gone, and so was her own helplessness of being trapped. Not that she could do very much to fight on her own. It began to rise upward, and she looked up to find that toward the top was the gem, inside it’s own cage, the roar of monsters brought her back to reality. A large group of apparitions, the sort that’d be set ablaze, but larger and more numerous.

She was close, close enough that she had to exhaust her summons. And she was able to act, so there was just one power that hadn’t been tested yet, called out, “Union!”

Wreathing herself in flames, she spread her arm-wings wide, sending fans of flames as she began to dance around the enemy strikes. Their teeth and claws, while she did her best, could not all be avoided, slashes and marks allowing thin red lines across her form. Despite this, the dance of fire did not abate. "I can do this," she quietly reminded herself, teeth clenched against the pain as her enemies dwindled by the moment.

Not that the challenge would be the last. As she felt the flames leave her, her form returning to normal, if a bit ragged, a great slam made the ground beneath her lurch, a statue composed of perfect circles raising a fist of stone at her. "Union!"
Her fist covered itself in stone as she raised her own fist up, feeling the rock swell beneath her, the unbroken chain of energy channeled into her own fist as the statue brought it’s fist down onto hers, a terrific clash of energy and rock that stung far more than she wanted to admit. The statue pulled it’s fist up, ready to slam down again, and something inside Sandra knew she shouldn’t try to out sturdy it. She put her hands to the ground, and as it brought its fist down, shifted the floor under its feet, turning the massive swing into a stumble, landing fist first, it’s own head available for pummeling.

Which the union of Sandra and Crystal absolutely obliged, channeling all of that stone energy into her punches.

The rocks fell away from Sandra and she fell down to her knees. Crystal didn’t have the magic left for her to sustain her form, and she wondered if the same thing was happening to her own magic. What was the line between her magic and her summon’s, anyway? But if there was any pattern to this…

A sparkle appeared in the air in front of her, and a gigantic moth with sparkling angry violet bands on black fuzzy wings.

Sandra couldn’t pull herself up in time, but still shouted. “Union!”

The surge of energy was much stronger than with her other summons, which another thought inside her chimed in “Of course, Twilight Sparkle brings her own font of magic beyond what the other summons would.”

The moth’s bands were glowing and a beam of energy lanced at Sandra’s new union, which she raised a force field to block, and pulled herself to her feet. "Let me take a turn," gently whispered Twilight in her head. "Recover." Twilight spun away from the gnashing mandibles, keeping her and Sandra aloft on their shared wings. "I got this."

Sandra felt comforted, safe, despite being immensely unsafe just before the presence of the hungry beast. She let go, surrendering to Twilight. Fur exploded over her form, purple as her hair took on Twilight's preferred mane look. "You're going down," announced Twi-Sandra, though Twilight was in charge.

Sandra lost track of it though, fading off into a little nap. She would never see the battle between Twilight and the moth, but she felt it was in good hands, er hooves.

She woke on the ground. How much time had passed? She sat up and scrambled to her feet, looking around in a panic, but nothing was attacking her. Nothing was lunging for her. There was nothing but a simple pedestal with footprints in front of it. It was the next step of the challenge? She assumed it was. Twilight had let her recover. She wasn't batting at 100%, maybe a good sixty? More than she had to start, and she whispered a thanks as she approached, reaching out her hands. "Hope I'm near the end."

She placed a hand on the middle of it, easily able to reach it. It glowed softly, a pulse of power that ran down to the base. She vanished, appearing an instant later next to the others who were cheering. Garble rolled his eyes. "We were wondering if you were just going to sleep forever."

"Great job," Smolder bursted with a double thumbs up. "You used all your summons like they were a part of you."

Sandra laughed at that. "They… kind of are, even your friend, my friend too now…" She looked to Spike. "You're it. I know you have this under control. Shoot… you got advice from Tabitha, how can you go wrong?"

Spike chuckled at that, though perhaps not entirely echoing the sentiment. "You two alright?"

"Go on." She gave him a shove forward. "Can't let me take all the glory."

Spike stepped into his chamber, breathing deep to steady himself. As he stepped in, the room had another hallway, like he saw Sandra in, and inside it there was a small baby dragon statue with glowing rings on its hands, feet, and one around it’s forehead, on a rail. At the end was his goal, with a place for the statue to slot into.

As Spike examined the statue, with a grinding and clunking noise it began to move of its own accord, and an archer shade materialized, drawing back her bow, pointing at the statue, and Spike sprung into action, managing to bat away the magical arrow as it flew at the statue.

Another archer appeared, this time on the other side of the statue, nocking her own magical arrow. Spike hopped to the other side of the statue in time to deflect the new hit, the arrow hitting the wall behind him.

The two archers walked down the hallway with him, firing the arrows one by one. Spike hopped back and forth, batting them away best he could with his staff, but one or two struck the statue, the red rings absorbing the hits, but glowing a bit less brightly for it.

Spike grit his teeth. They’d finish the statue by a thousand cuts at that rate, and no doubt there were more monsters on the way. He lit up his staff, shooting a bolt at one of the shades, which was knocked back, fumbling. He wheeled around, ready to intercept the other just to find its arrow already coming at him. He stepped into it, taking the shot himself with a low grunt. "That all," he muttered, his shield gleaming as he advanced with his statue.

A crack from the ceiling came just before two heavy stone slabs shattered against the ground, two knights riding them with swords raised. They sliced not at Spike but for his statue. The first was met with his staff, turning it aside even as his shield bashed the other away. An arrow thudded into the statue. "That isn't even fair." Still, if it counted as something to defend… A tether of bright green reached from his staff, attaching him to the statue in a volley of sympathetic magic. "We're getting through this, together."

The warriors gave no quarter, pressing the attack despite his efforts. The lancing spike of pain that came with the martyr's magic at least told him the spell was working, even if the statue wasn't, technically, alive. "Get away." He thrust his staff forward, the tip flaring in a swirling nova of angry green magic at the instant of impact, knocking that fighter back. "We're coming through."

Another arrow lanced at the target, spike intercepting it with his shield, tongue stuck out in focus. The bolt bounced off his shield, deflected into one of the two warriors, blasting apart a fair bit of it’s armor. Spike halted for just a moment. That was much more effective than his normal attacks. So was his martyr attack, now that he had thought of it.

Okay. New plan.

A warrior came bearing down on his charge, and Spike deflected the sword, attempting to hit the other warrior. A scuff on the leg wasn’t very good, but it was something.

The fight began again, Spike trying to find every opportunity to turn the enemy’s attacks against them. Bit by bit they were taken apart instead, until finally he lanced the last archer with a blast, destroying the rest.

There was still a bit of hallway to go, though, and directly in the path a robed figure spawned, looming over the track. It raised its hands up, gathering power above him, and Spike shot first, trying to block the attack, but his magic shot, normally at least a decent hit, seemed to do nothing.

There was a distinctly voiced roar, the figure threw its arms wide to its side in a dramatic gesture, and the chaotic spinning energy began to expand, becoming a field of deadly bolts engulfing the entire hallway.

Spike grit his teeth, and immediately started the heals on himself, and tried healing the various red rings, their glow replenishing. Quickly he used every regeneration and shielding spell he knew, which admittedly was more shields than regeneration, and threw up his martyr bond.

He stepped nervously forward, watching the statue inch toward the zone of energy, and stepped in only when it did, the assault of both the bolts hitting him and also the bolts hitting the statue causing him to cry out in pain.

But he had to absorb as much as he could, as he stepped closer and closer through the roaring storm of magic to the sorcerer, the attacks assaulting him, his own healing staunching as much as he could, as his staff glowed brighter and brighter.

Closer he came, step by step, until finally he touched the tip of his staff, shining so bright it was hard to see to the sorcerer, a tremendous crack rang out and the sorcerer was blown all the way to the end of the hallway, leaving a crack in the stone, and Spike fell to his knees.

Nocreature had implied the tests would be easy.

Author's Note

Late in the day but still on time!

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63 - You Call This Cooked?!

Spike limped his way out of his test chamber, the shining gem in his pocket, raising it up. “Got it!”

“Spike!” Sandra rushed up to him. “Are you okay? Why haven’t you healed yourself.”

Spike laughed weakly. “Well, I think I’m mostly out of gas.”

“Hah,” Smolder belted out a laugh. “That won’t be a problem for much longer,” She flipped up another juicy bit of magic food. “I’m actually kinda running low, we need a few.”

“You should go next, you’re the last one,” Spike said, taking a bite of the juicy meat.

Smolder looked over her shoulder at her brother. “I dunno maybe we should let Gar-Gar take another try.”

Her brother looked up from his pacing and muttering. “What? Me? Now?” He looked back and forth. “You haven’t gone yet, right? You go. I’ve still got stuff to do.” He turned back away, mining a sword slash with his hands, muttering, “The cut of my blade, then you’ll be slayed,” he nodded. “Yeah, that one.”

Smolder looked back at Spike, giving a shrug. “Alright, I guess.” She smiled her trademark easy smile. “I’ve got this down pat, I’m sure it’ll give me no trouble.”

Spike laughed weakly again. “Yeah, I’m just gonna… rest for a minute.”

Sandra sank down next to him. "Good idea, let's get our breath back." Her fingers played over her staff. "You know, Twilight… She's really special."

"Yeah," agreed Spike on his way to thumping down on his butt. "She really is."

"You're lucky to have her."

He smiled at that. "Best sister a dragon can ask for."

"Hey!" Smolder gave Spike quite the glare. "I'll show you best dragon sister. I'm going in." And she stormed towards her chamber with a trail of irate smoke.

She had seen the other challenges, all grueling matches of their abilities in unfavorable situations, stretching them to their very limits. She brandished her knives, ready for whatever the dungeon would throw at her.

She did not expect a sudden harsh light being shone down on her as lively music began. "Welcome to Cook Match," boomed the same announcer they had heard in every arena match they'd had so far. "A true test of culinary skills." The light began to spread, showing an audience in all directions, cheering wildly. "Now with more audience participation! One member of the audience can be called for each round. Be ready!"

Smolder's hands fell, knives hanging limply. "Wait what now? No… fighting?"

A fluffy bear of a person in a sharp suit approached. "Of course there will be fighting! A battle to the death… in the kitchen!" He gestured dramatically as a wizard was lit up. "Your opponent. He knows a thousand hexes, each with their own flavor. They promise to curse your tongue and bedevil your belly. Bring it together for Witchhazel!" The crowd roared deafeningly in encouragement.

In a twirl of magic, a shade appeared over a set of cooking equipment, with a billowing dress, but also a broad brimmed chef’s hat, adorning a faceless head. It bowed, but said nothing, summoning a spatula with a star at the end of it.

The crowd clapped for it, the shade posing with it’s spatula, and Smolder puffing out some smoke. A second spotlight lit up another cooking station, which Smolder took a place at. “Let’s get this going!”

“Our challenger is eager to start the competition, but is she truly ready? Let’s bring up the first ingredie--I mean audience participant!”

The light shimmered and expanded, showing that there was an audience of a variety of monsters, more set up in a pit than seats. “Firstup… we’ll have pork!”

The monster that ambled up were two huge boar monsters. “Well, begin gathering materials!”

Smolder set out, hitting the boar monster with a flurry of slices, who responded with thrashing and attempts to maul Smolder. Mostly they missed, but there was a hit or two that scored. She looked at her opponent out of the corner of her eye, she saw the other boar was… pretty much just sitting there. Witchhazel was just channeling something as the boar stood there and took the magic.

Smodler grit her teeth, no luck that she’d get it harder than that, and she sliced her last slice on the boar, it disappearing into a poof and her working her magic, which turned it into a whole slab of boar tenderloin. “Nice!” she cried out.

“Our challenger has finished gathering her ingredients, and ahead of Witchhazel,” the announcer voice rang out. “But that’s not the whole story, is it.”

Quickly, Smolder ran over to her grill, ready to plop her tenderloin down, only to find that there was no seasoning provided, nor oil. And the magical ingredient was hardly seasoned itself… across from her, the Witchhazel’s boar popped into the same tenderloin, and it used it’s spatula-wand to levitate it over to the pan, the heat having already started and placing it directly on, no oil, no seasoning.

Smolder quickly trimmed her meat, and blew fire onto the pan until she was sure it was ready to sear, plopping her meat on it.

After she was done, the Witchhazel turned it’s faceless head, and raised the spatula, brandishing it like a wand, casting a spell at Smolder, which nailed her as she wasn’t watching.

“What?!” Smolder hissed as the spell stung, but worse than that, she started to feel… bad. Oh no, a status effect. She usually handled those, with a surplus of healing snacks from the dungeon. Snacks that she no longer had. She wheeled around, if she could attack her enemy chef then… she darted over, slamming almost face first into a magical shield.

“Ah ah ah,” the announcer announced. “No direct attacks against your opponent.”

“What?! She directly attacked me,” Smolder protested.

“Unfortunately, status effects are indirect attacks, as per the rules, you’ll have to weather it out.”

Smolder cursed under her breath.

“But fear not, ingredient two is on it’s way! Are you ready for some bread!”

What ambled out from the crowd was not bread, but was a dough monster of some sort, waddling with rolls of what could be confused for fat, but were more plant-like, one hoped. “Fine,” Smolder spat, wincing from the damage from the poison effect. She set out to the monster, starting to slice at it’s amorphous form, blowing flame on it when needed.

The Witchhazel continued its peaceful no violence magic of turning it into it’s ingredients.

“Dang it,” Smolder said under her breath. “I’m hurtin out here, and I don’t think I can make it the whole fight without that. Did I already mess up?” her eyes wandered, the amorphous monster not actually being as dangerous than the poison, and in the crowd she saw it. The serpentine lamia is the exact kind of monster she’d use to make an antidote food. What if she.. She looked over at the opponent. She wasn’t told the rules but… She went to the side of the arena, finding no wall, no opposition, and set off, barreling through the crowd, which occasionally cheered, and occasionally took slices at her.

“Oh, and our challenger has set off into the crowd, perhaps she has another ingredient to procure?”

She increased her speed, and blasted through the lamia at max speed, “Searing Strike!” It popped into a little grilled skewer of snake meat, and Smolder popped it into her mouth. Now to get back to the game… but the announcer said ingredient.

She didn’t want to go slowly, but as she was running back, there was a rock monster. A cloudy white rock monster. A monster that looked like it was made of salt. And boy did she need seasoning… So she stopped, and turned her knives onto this monster, too.

Outside the competition, the others watched on curiously. Sandra gestured at the display. "That looks both more and less stressful than I went through."

"I'm gonna have to agree there."

Garble looked least impressed. "She doesn't have to actually fight. You two did that. I don't get it…"

"Yeah, she's just struggling without being allowed to fight. That's the challenge," Spike argued. "Ooo, nice cut." He pumped his fist, watching Smolder surprise a monster, turning it from living to ingredient in a flash. "You can do it!" he cheered, Sandra joining him in a chorus of encouragement, even if they couldn't be heard.

Smolder was hard at work, trying to balance keeping herself vigorous even as she prepared her meal, forced to bounce between supplemental ingredients and the main course. "Bonus." She sent a sprinkle over her cooking meat, having just enough extra to add some flavor. "I got this."

And, best part, she had all the flavor and the Witchhazel will have none. Vinegar for the greens. Wine for the sauce. Pepper for the.. Uh… everything. Herbs, onion, oil, butter! Everything she’d need.

Soon she had a veritable feast, prepared just by herself. It felt like an hour of cooking crammed into just a few minutes, and the announcer’s voice rang out. “Spatulas down everyone, it’s time for judgement!”

Smolder put down her cooking implements but gripped her knives harder, now what?

The ground began to tremble as the audience mobilized. They were all approaching the completed meals with low grunts and reaching hands. This would be no delicate sampling. "Wha?" Smolder scooted out of the way of the crowd. "Is this how it's supposed to work?"

"Of course!" came the unseen announcer. "A true culinarian has to please all manner of clients." With great gnashing and feasting noises, the two preparations began to dissolve under the united hunger of the crowd. "While you went for a specific flavor profile, our defending champ played it safe, hoping for a higher average rating. Which will pay off?!"

"Aw, c'mon!" Smolder threw up her hands, knives still held. "Anycreature has to taste my stuff's better even if it isn't their specific thing."

"We'll let the audience decide that. Return to your seat and place your judgments!" Beside each chair, on each armrest, sprang a dial to rate the tastiness of each chef's cooking. "There can only be one winner, and you all get to help pick it!"

Smolder snorted and shut up as the crowd returned to their seats and started fiddling with their knobs. Dammit almost all of them were giving the Witchhazel decent scores, because of course they were. And not all of them gave her good scores, usually the stranger the beast the worse the score. No, a plant monster might not like a meal that has butter on everything. But more than a few were rating her well, and some gave her max scores.

She grit her teeth, waiting for them to finish.

“Alright, here it is, the final judgement…” There was a drum roll coming from somewhere. “The winner iiis… The challenger!” Smolder exhaled a breath of relief. “It seems her gambit of putting flavors on everything did indeed pay off, tune in next…” The announcer’s voice trailed off, and even the roar of the crowd faded as they did. The Witchhazel turned to Smolder, bowing and shimmering away, leaving a floating shining gem where she used to be.

Smolder wasted no time launching forward and up to grab the jewel with a triumphant cry. "Yes! Oh, wow, she is going to be so proud." Visions of her mentor in her mind, wide-eyed as she told the story of the day. "Yeah!" With a pump of a fist, she looked around. There, a little exit sign with an arrow, as one might expect in a television studio. "Coming on out," she called, assuming the others were watching her do her victory strut.

Author's Note

Smolder could get me to watch some cooking TV.

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64 - Lotta Nothing

Garble shifted his shoulders, cracking his neck as he stepped into his trial, ever determined to put right what had gone wrong. Sure, he had to do it a second time, but he knew what he was doing now. He had to do what his class wanted, and what his class wanted, the best thing was… well...

“I step into the ring, I’ll tell you my tale.” Garble brought his sword up to his side. “These shades I’m gonna wring, and they are gonna wail.”

The first pair of shades appeared, and Garble spun and slashed them, clearing both. He tapped his sword on the ground, energy rhythmically pulsing. “The first are the worst but more will come. I’ll beat them all like I’d beat a drum!”

The next larger one appeared, right on schedule, and Garble brought his sword down, a pillar of light blasting it apart. "Gonna trip me up, gonna slow me down," he intoned, stepping and carving at the oncoming enemies as he went. "But I'll show them I ain't the clown."

He sidestepped as he spoke, "Not twice." He brought his sword in a vicious arc that broke apart the creature into a fine mist. "Ask nice." Each move along with the beat seemed to build a tension, a good tension, like he was working towards something. He was gonna win, he felt sure of it.

Garble leaped to the side, allowing a heavy club that burst into splinters on contact with the stone floor. "Trying so hard. But you I discard." He cut his blade into the wrist of the huge creature, disarming it more literally then usually. "Ain't a soul that can stop me."

Light filled the area, strobing at the slow purposeful pace of his advancing dance. Even the dungeon could feel the beat of his assault. Even it knew how great he was! He smirked with victory as he thrust his sword out at a smaller creature about to run past him. "Try to be fast." He swung in a great arc, sending the creature flying to crash against several others, all three of them exploding into a mist. It seemed monsters in that test did not drop loot. The test was its own reward. "I'm going right past."

"Taking the task." He brought down the hilt of his sword into head of one, already stepping over it to plunge his sword with both hands in a firm stab. "Nothing to ask." He twirled down off the back of the smaller, proceeding forward, his entire body bouncing, moving to the beat that surrounded him. "Made me trip before."

"Didn't give you what you asked for." He slid just in time for a sword to come down in the place he was in. "Not that I care. Do you dare? I'll wipe the smile off your--" He did a twirling uppercut with his blade, driving it into the chin of the much larger beast. "--face."

Outside the test area, his friends cheered him on, not that he could hear them. All three were thrusting their hands in the air and calling out as they watched him advance like an unstoppable wave.

Smolder grinned, her fists clenched with excitement. "See, that's my bro! He has this! Go on, Gar Gar!"

With a great roar, the creature before him was not what he had expected. It was a dragon, a huge dragon, fire of a strange dark-purple licking at its great teeth. "Dragon to dragon, you think that's enough?" He jumped under a great paw swipe to nick the passing limb with a great heave of his sword. "You ain't so tough."

The flame came. Garble expected it and did not fear it. What was fire to a dragon but a mild annoyance at best? But it didn't burn. It froze. He could feel the sting instantly and howled in agony. "What kinda dragon is this? Sends out ice with their hiss. Lousy cheat, Prepare to be beat." The tension he had been feeling was hitting a fever pitch, the only bit of warmth in his chilled form.

He brought his blade up, cutting the incoming torrent in half, a beam of his shout curse slicing through it, wind created by the swipe itself parting the tide of pain before him. "They got magic, what's the deal? I have strength, backed by hard steel."

The dragon lunged for him, teeth coming like an array of swords turned against him. "Coming fast, what to do? Time to get past." He sliced not to meet the teeth head on, but barreling into them from the side. They cracked and began to give away. "Time to get through." The energy in him exploded as his sword pressed with strength beyond him, shattering those teeth. The line of power went right through the dragon, a brilliant plane of power.

The dragon was silent a moment, the two staring at one another. With a great rushing explosion of destroyed monster smoke, the dragon evaporated, allowing Garble to stride forward at his musical pace. "You tried you best, died with the rest, time for me to take it home. You were big, Your doom you dig, time for me to go on and roam." He twirled his blade and hung it on his back.

The battle was done. He was the victor. They rushed to meet him as he came out, high-fives in copious abundance, shared around with more than enough smiles.

Smolder hiked a thumb. "We all passed. Time to go tag past sixty!"

The others looked ready to cheer, but they were mid-motion. They were still.

Spike turned in place, the only one not frozen. "Time to talk."

"It is that." There he was, sitting next to Spike. "You think I'm a monster."

"You've given me a lot of reason to," countered Spike. "You're welcome to give a reason I shouldn't think that."

"You are young." He raised a brow. "In the way of dragons I know, you are barely born, let alone to know the truth of things that persist too long. There is nothing in your short life that has reached an end that you don't wish could persist at least a moment longer…"

Spike stared at him half lidded. “I know more than one creature thousands of years old and none of them felt like lectures about how things have to end are a good idea.”

"What a charmed world you come from." He steepled his finger, a tired sigh on his lips. "And you deserve to return to it. This can be done, will be done. You're drawing closer."

"To you killing," cut in Spike with a scowl. "I'm not going with that."

"And yet, you remain." He spread his hands slowly. "You walk the road even as you curse it."

“I don’t think that it would stop you if we did leave.” Spike grumbled.

The man broke out into a smile. “You do understand.”

“That’s no-” Spike growled. “That’s not the response I’m looking for.”

“I doubt it is, but we do have an understanding, if a reluctant one. You understand you cannot stop, and I understand you’ll get what you want. Everyone will get what they want.”

“Except Sandra.” Spike glared at the man.

The man said nothing but his smile continued. “But, enough. I believe you understand well enough, but our deal is retained, and whether or not you’re happy with me, I intend to make a good show of it.” He put a hand to his chest melodramatically. “Untrusted as I may be, I shall keep my word.”

"You're taking the easy way out." Spike fixed himself in a firm position, glaring.

"Easy? I spent untold years overseeing this place. You don't know me, or us. Don't assume you can place yourself in my position so easily." He waved it away. "Enough, ask your question."

"Alright, fine." He threw up his hands. "One question, but I want an answer, a real answer."

"I have only given such, proceed."

"Let's see how you feel after hearing it. If there was another way, a better way, would you accept that, even if it wasn't as dramatic as you'd like it?" He leveled a finger at the man. "Think before answering."

The man stood very still, unbreathing. The only sense he was still alive was the mirth draining from his face. Finally he spoke. “There is no other answer. I am bound by this tower, which is older and more powerful than I. I serve as it’s will, in a fashion, but I also serve it’s will. A will I do not entirely understand.” He grew closer to Spike, now looming over him. “Sometimes I am fantastically powerful and able to assert my desire, other times I am entirely helpless.”

“You… you orchestrated all of this, though!” Spike pointed a finger at the man.

“Yes, but if I could have done what I wanted without it I would have. This is the only option available. And, like I said, the outcome we are working toward is one everyone can accept. It will give you what you want, it will give me what I want, and it will give the girl what she wants.”

“No, it won’t give me what I want, because what I want is all of my friends to come out of this safe and sound.” Spike regripped his staff, slamming it into the ground. “And I, no, we’ll all fight to change this outcome.

The man shook his head. “Again, you must live a charmed life.” He actually floated up into the air. “Events are already in motion, if you think you can change the inevitability and reality of this, you are welcome to try, but my outcome is the only option that doesn’t simply prolong the circumstances we find ourselves caught in.”

"You'll accept it?"

The two's eyes were locked, the question heavy in the air. "Impossible." A faint smile curled at his lips. "Go ahead and prove me wrong. I doubt it."

"Spike? Comin'?" Smolder was looking over her shoulder at Spike, the others already moving towards the teleport point beyond their test. "Do they throw parties for 60 like they do at 20?"

Garble huffed as he tromped with the others. "Did that jerk come to visit you again? What's up with that? Not fair. I want a chance to yell at him."

Sandra shook her head. "Ever think maybe that's why he doesn't visit you?"

Even as he swatted at Sandra, Garble was smirking viciously. "I think she has a point there, but hey, Spike, what'd he say? Anything we need to know?"

“Well,” Spike rubbed the back of his head. “I kinda tried to get him to back down off of his plan, telling him we’ll figure out another plan, but he was caught up in it being impossible to change.” He rubbed his eyes in frustration. “And said something about how he can’t actually change what is going to happen, even if he planned it… part of it? He said that the tower had its own mind and he had to follow that too.”

Garble rolled his eyes. “Sounds like a whole lotta nothing, then.”

"But." Smolder raised a finger even as she raised the same hand to the teleport point, it flaring with recognition. "He didn't say 'no' exactly either."

Author's Note

You passed 60, abandon all hope.

But they persisted.

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65 - Suddenly Real

The party walked up a flight of stairs to a common room, the lounge that was occasionally around the sixtieth floor. It was opulent, and in fact had a spread of food even, a clear reward for reaching so high, and Garble went straight for it, stuffing his mouth with thinly sliced meat on crackers. Sandra, though, went to the window, looking down upon the town below.

They were very high up. It had been a while since they were above the city and could see all of it, but by now the entire city and the surrounding area were completely visible, and Sandra stared over it. “Look at it all.”

“What?” Garble said, his mouth full. “It’s just a high view.” He swallowed. “You always make a big deal about it.”

Smolder rolled her eyes. “Well she can’t go out there all the time, or even have a mountain to look out from nearby like we do like, everywhere in Equestria or the Dragonlands.”

"Hey." Spike hopped up beside Sandra. "I only got my wings a little while ago. I know how you feel."

Sandra set her hand on his shoulder. "I see why Twilight likes you so much."

Spike grinned with pride, only to be prodded from behind. He turned with a scowl to see Smolder smirking at him with a wicked little smile.

"They like having a 'good boy' to make them feel better. I get it. I wouldn't mind a little someone to perk me up on command." She shrugged as a giggle escaped her in almost a guffaw.

Spike huffed with a little spurt of smoke. "I'm only telling the truth."

"I know you are." She shoved him lightly. "Messing with you. We're cool."

"We've come so far," breathed out Sandra. "And it's… inviting us to keep going." She gestured at the next set of stairs heading upwards. "Here, or near here, we will be hurt… a lot." She swallowed thickly. "The rules are changing."

"So tell us more and warn us less." Garble shoved a drumstick in her face as if that was the cure to her woes. "What are the new rules?"

She pushed away the meat, sticking out her tongue a little. "Once it starts, the biggest difference, you can get hurt, really hurt, to being dead hurt. Second, recalling, It's faster. Before you think that's a great thing, it's a trap. The tower wants you to be hurt, to give up." She swallowed thickly. "And if it goes wrong, well, you're dead… Oh! We can recall separately now, which is good, and bad."

Smolder raised a finger. "What's the bad part?"

"Three of us recall and leave the fourth behind who doesn't know it's happening," She counted on her fingers. "Or can't do it because they're knocked out." She put out another finger. "Or they're paralyzed, or anything. We leave, they're behind, and probably they die."

Spike grimaced, thinking back to those early fights where they were flailing and half knocked out and fleeing.

“We’re not what we once were,” Garble said, echoing Spike’s thoughts in a different way. “When was the last time we really had to flee. It’s been a while, and even if we did, we knew what we were doing and got out before everyone was destroyed.” He shifted his sword around, doing what he no doubt thought was a great pose. “We’ve gotten this far without any more, and I think we’re ready to go further.”

“Yeah… yeah!” Sandra said. “We’re going to take everything we knew and we’re gonna go further than this. Just… don’t be reckless, guys.”

“Psh.” Garble rolled his eyes. “When am I ever reckless?”

Smolder and Spike looked at each other warily. “She’s not joking, bro,” Smolder said. “We don’t know how soon things are going to get serious, so when we go forward, we gotta be careful.”

Garble pursed his lips and tried not to roll his eyes. “Sure, fine. Careful. I can do that.”

Sandra spent one more moment looking out over the city. “Alright… let’s go.”

“Yess,” Garble pumped his fist and resituated his sword on his shoulder, and the four of them headed to the door upward.

They stopped at the door upward, which was an unusually ornate door, with beautiful colored floral scrawls, and what seemed to be four necklaces ensconced in the walls, but as they approached, the four sconces closed off and instead in the center handles folded out.

“Yep… we’re definitely going up,” Sandra said.

“We knew we were,” Garble said, moving forward to the doors. “So let’s get going,” he said as he shoved the doors open, which both moved as one, slowly creeping open to the next floor.

They came out into a small room with a hallway leading out, and at the end of the hallway, the floor going up. Spike leaned over and peered down it. “Is that… it?”

The hallway seemed only remarkable in that it was incredibly smooth. The stones were polished down and it was hard to tell where the seams between them are. Otherwise it was an unremarkable hallway, straight and simple.

“This is what they were talking about,” Sandra said. “The quick move upward, be carefulI.”

Garble did actually roll his eyes and stepped out, gripping his sword, ready to draw it whenever something happened, if something did happen. He stepped once, twice, three times, nothing so far, and stepped his fourth time, and felt his foot sink, just a little bit. He looked down, only in time for a splitting pain to his side as three spears hit him from the side, and he cried out.

Spike's staff was already lifted, a green glow diminishing the sting of the mistake. "Careful!" he whispered harshly to go with his soft magic. "I bet that's not the last one we'll see."

"About that." Smolder spun her daggers to face backwards. "I'm still, you know, what I started with, and we have an eye for traps. I think I should be in front for a bit."

Sandra stepped only where others had already put their feet down, careful to not be the one to trigger a trap. "That sounds like a great idea, go ahead."

Smolder stepped forward, creeping slowly on the balls of her feet, feeling forward, cautiously putting weight on her feet. In only a few more steps, another panel sunk down, and Smolder leapt back, only to curse as darts spat up from both in front of and behind the trap.

Smolder twisted her body, only getting grazed by a dart, still cursing. “Are you kidding?” she shouted. “What did it guess I’d dodge back?”

Spike sent a heal her way. “You were barely grazed, though, you got out of the way.”

Smolder sighed. “Yeah… yeah.”

They were moving forward slowly, Smolder detecting the traps, sometimes effectively, sometimes not, until they were nearly halfway there.

“This is the worst hallway I’ve ever been in,” Garble groused. “Dragons don’t need hallways, just big chambers to put our hoards, stupid ponies had to invent hallways and then invent darts and spears.”

Sandra softly laughed at that. "I don't think we can blame this on ponies." Far be it from her to deny the idea that alien magic horses were the source of the idea of hallways, but it seemed unlikely. "Pretty sure the first people who built things wanted to walk inside it."

"Fascinating." Smolder took a slow long step over a tile she didn't trust. "Keep your eyes on me. We're getting past this. It's slow, but this won't stop us."

She was not, ultimately, incorrect. The trapped hallway slowed them, and stung them, but none of its traps hit hard enough all at once that they couldn't get past, until it did. A little sound, barely audible, metal parting scales and flesh. Two blades had come together just behind Smolder and she went still.

Spike's magic was on her in an instant, but… "You alright?"

"No," she squeaked out. The initial pain was abating under Spike's treatment, but… "Tell me I'm imagining it. Tell me I'm not. Just… tell me. What happened?"

Garble drew a slow breath, even he was not quick to blurt at that moment. "On the bright side, sis, you still have a tail."

"Hirrah," she almost squeaked, daring to look over her shoulder. There was her tail, its tip, removed. She could see it, the tip laying on the ground, removed, dead. "Why isn't your healing fixing that?"

“I don’t… I don’t…” Spike bit his lip, focusing.

Her tail was healing over… but the tip wasn’t coming back. The tip wasn’t coming back. “What is this? What is this?!” She reached over, haltingly, failing to actually reach out and pick up the bit of her tail. It was her spade. Her spade. Her claw started to tremble.

Garble's hand came down with a loud slap on her shoulder. "Get it together. They warned us. I'm gonna tear them in half, but they warned us." His teeth were set, his eyes narrowed, his body trembling with fury. "Does it hurt?" he asked, a crack of sympathy, breaking through his bravado.

Spike lowered his staff. All the injuries that could be healed, already were. Smolder had all of her hit points. The tail's lack didn't count towards that, apparently. "This is my fault."

Smolder blinked, caught off guard. "I'm… not at 100% right now, but… what? How is this… your fault?" She turned towards Spike slowly, as if any movement could cause the rest of her tail to be removed. "What did you do?"

Spike forced a faint smile, though it died almost instantly. "Way back, I could have been a healer, just a straight healer… Maybe then I could have done something about this, maybe…" His hands flexed, grasping his staff. "I had to be a fighter, to not be a weakling…"

Sandra spoke up, “I don’t think that there is necessarily something a full healer can do. But if they can…” She stared down at the spade on the ground. “M-make sure to keep it,” she said, finally. “If something can be done, we might be able to find a healer for it. M-maybe.”

Seeing that Smolder wasn't rushing for it, Spike took the task of gingerly picking up the part and tucking it away. "The moment we get back."

"Which is now?" Smolder reached back to hold the remaining length of her tail. "We're going back now, right? We haven't gotten that far in." She pointed with one hand at the length of the hallway they'd made it through. "Just have to redo this part…"

Spike made an uneasy grimace. He hadn’t planned on stopping, they would have to redo this part…

“Yes,” Sandra said, with uncommon firmness. “We’re leaving now. We’ve been in here for a while. Time to go back. We’ve got things to do.”

Sandra held up her staff, stepping closer to Smolder and the recall magic enveloped herself, Spike, and Smolder, who were all close up, and it came very quickly, then disappearing. Garble’s eyes widened, and he cursed, now that he was alone in the evil hallway, quickly scrambling to fiddle with his guildchain, scrolling through his list of abilities, finally finding “Tower Recall” which he hit and shouted at the top of his lungs, the white magic enveloping him too, finally.

"It's official," noted Sandra as she moved to exit the tower. "The real test begins now. If we stopped, we'd be seen as competent and tested. We could get a job, easily, and never want for the rest of our lives." She glanced over at her draconic friends. "But this isn't the life you wanted to have."

"I mean, it was fun, don't get me wrong." Spike chuckled nervously. "But not where I want to stay, sorry. No offense…"

"Less talking, more get-a-healer, like, now!" Smolder hurried ahead, walking in rapid, if stiff, march towards the guild.

"That's dangerous." Garble had caught up with them, walking along. "We have to make a keyword for 'everyone get out!'. Something easy to hear…"

Author's Note

Welcome to New Game +!

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66 - Medic!

A man dressed in clean white robes with blue and gold trim shook his head, setting a clipboard aside. "It's like this."

"Can you fix it or not?" cut in Smoulder, her arms crossed over her chest, glaring at the healer.

"We can grow a new arm, or a leg, or even an entire tail…"

"But not the little bit I need, for some reason?" she questioned, a brow raised high.

"Two things." He raised two fingers up. "One, this took place above 60. The tower has rules. What it takes, it keeps." Even as Smoulder winced, he went on, "Two, it's not an actual limb. It doesn't impact your performance. This is, ultimately, a cosmetic fix, and those are more difficult."

"Why?!" she shouted, hands reaching for him, but resisting grabbing the human in her claws. "What kinda sense does that make?!"

The man’s eyes widened, and he stepped back, although he quickly hardened his countenance. “Magic is inexact. I’m sure you’ve noticed that guildchains all have themes. We have some minor control over these things, but the healing powers granted from them are… all entirely based around regaining combat effectiveness.” He smoothed out his robes. “Usually this means bringing you up back to normal, but for cosmetic injuries… well they stick.”

Smolder whipped her tail over. “Tell me again this is just a cosmetic injury.”

The man sniffed defiantly. “I don’t make the rules, ma’am. I don’t even enforce the rules. This is just how things are.”

Smolder glared at him. “You said more difficult but not impossible. Explain.”

“Well, guildchains aren’t the only source of magic. Healing scars, replacing ears or the like have been known to happen with significant boons from magical creatures, as a reward usually for service.” He counted off on his fingers. “I’ve heard of ancient celestial creatures healing someone scars, or demons returning youth, or temples allowing restoration if you hold rank with them and curry favor with service or goods... nothing is easy when it comes to this.”

She threw up her hands, turning for the door. "Right, yeah, get it. If we run into another genie, I know what our wish should be, otherwise, forget it." She grabbed the handle of the door and paused. "Thanks…" she managed, the most etiquette she could manage, leaving the healer behind and not slamming the door in his face.

Outside, the two other dragons held a near identical pose, holding their tail spades, their eyes searching for hers, but she had none.

Garble threw his tail down, though it swung itself back behind him. "They didn't fix it!"

"They can't," miserably confirmed Smolder.

"I'm… so sorry." Spike wrung his fingers on his own tail. "I can barely imagine, and I don't like it… Is there anything we can do?"

"No." She suddenly thrust up a hand to even with Spike's chest, her fingers balled tightly. "There really isn't. We have to finish this, and it isn't a game. Not anymore."

Sandra was quiet, her hands clasped before her, eyes on Smolder. She swallowed softly and nodded. "If there's anything… Let us know."

Sandra plodded alone through some of the shops. She had to buy more gear, they had to be better prepared for the tower. She sighed. Everything was looking up, but now the harsh reminder that the hardest part is next… and she already cost someone here part of her actual body. If she hadn’t started… all of this, if she hadn’t been involved, then all three of them would be safe.

And… she already needed to use her wish to send them back, she couldn’t possibly also restore Smolder to being complete, could she?

She turned the corner, face to face with a familiar face.

Tabitha looked back at her, standing directly in her way.

“Oh… Hi, Tabitha.” She shuffled uncomfortably to the side, trying to get past Tabitha. “Look, I don’t have anything for you yet, we are in the process of getting some better gear, and I’ll get the floor sixty item.”

“You went past floor sixty, didn’t you.” Tabitha stood back in her way. “You weren’t lying that somehow you knew that the tower would let you past, and you made it.”

"It's not like that," she demurred, trying to slip around Tabitha, but tanks did not allow that easily, Tabitha easily blocking the path.

"What is it like. This isn't a game," she hissed in echo of words spoken elsewhere. "What do you know?" She suddenly stepped forward, looking like she might grab Sandra, but the attack didn't come. "Look, you did it. You're better, congratulations. For all your failures. For all your false starts and timid steps… You made it. You're past me."

"Um… Thank you?" ventured Sandra, genuinely unsure how to answer that. "Tabitha, I'm not here to make fun of you or gloat, promise."

"I never said you were." Tabitha leaned forward. "But you proved I was wrong. I thought they were serious. I thought they were ready to be heroes, but they just wanted a nice comfortable life, not to write history. Not like you." She leveled a finger. "I figured it out, you know."

"What did you figure out?" Sandra relaxed a little, shifting from nervous to a little curious. "About the tower?"

"Yes, exactly that. It makes sense now, why we were stopped in our tracks." She put her hands on her hips. "The tower gives you, in the end, what you want, and what you're willing to reach for. I was the only one in my party ready to reach for what came next, so it stopped us. It seems so obvious, looking back. They didn't want to see what was on floor 61, so it gave them an easy way to quit, and they did."

Sandra made a face. “I’m pretty sure we’ve both heard stories of people disappointed to not go further.”

“Wanting and wanting aren’t the same thing, Sandra. Somewhere you became a person that wanted to go to the top. You wanted to be a real hero.”

Sandra cringed a little at that. “That’s not… quite… exactly. I have to make it to the top. I owe it to the rest of my party.”

“And the tower knew you did! So you’re heading up.” Tabitha smirked down at her.

Sandra avoided her gaze, but looked back to her, more resolute. “Look, Tabitha, I’m pretty sure you’re leading up to something, so out with it.”

Tabitha’s grin widened. “I want in.”

“No,” Sandra said, flatly, attempting to walk past again.

“You haven’t even thought about it!” Tabitha protested.

“You were right when you said it wasn’t a game,” Sandra said, turning back to Tabitha. “It’s not just something that I ‘let you in on’ on a whim. It’s going to be legitimately dangerous, in a way the rest of the tower is not.”

“You don’t think I know that? You don’t think I’m excited for that?” Tabitha’s voice rose. “I got into this expecting to risk my life for glory, and now you’re telling me I should be worried about risking my life for glory? Come on.”

"You don't owe them anything," she hissed. "Why are you that eager to risk it all for them?"

"Them who, the dragons? What do they have to do with it?" Tabitha asked with genuine confusion on her face. "We get to the top, we're heroes, we get what we want, right?"

"No!" blurted Sandra, louder, looking angry with a balled up hand trembling. "We don't all get something. We get one thing, and me? I don't plan to get anything." Possibly a lot less than nothing, she mused with a twinge of fearful acceptance. "I'm letting them get what they want. One thing. That's it." She threw her hands wide at the last word. "One."

"One?" She frowned, that not quite… "What about your parents?" She prodded Sandra dead center in the chest. "They both got something. Your entire life is proof of that. They were both heroes. They lived it, they died it, but they were it, all of it."

Sandra stepped back out of the prodding. “They got the same thing though, and they…” She hesitated. Should she tell Tabitha about the cost. Would she try to stop her? No… “Look, what I’m using my wish on is sending them back to where they came from. They’re here and that’s my fault, and they need to go back.”

Tabitha blinked. “Sandra… they’re summons. They were created when they came out of the summoning egg, even if they’re extra special person-summons, there is no place to send them back to.”

“They’re no--” She shook her head. “No. Just no.”

Sandra finally about-faced and started to walk away, when Tabitha’s voice stopped her. “I heard you were at the healers earlier, and one of your teammates had come in asking for a cosmetic fix. That she was upset about it.”

Sandra swallowed hard, but didn’t look back.

“That’s how I knew you got past sixty. Your team got hurt already.” She walked back past Sandra, so they were facing each other. “Spike is a good healer and a good martyr, but he doesn’t have the shield power I have.” She gestured to her own shield. “Do you even have the best gear you have? If you’re shopping here you’re not getting the best gear you could have.”

“We have a smith, who we use--”

“And how many cores has their forge been fed? Is it enough that you can get as strong of gear you could be getting?” Tabitha flipped her hair, short as it was. “I’ve done a lot of looking into what we could be doing to prepare, what gear someone would need, how to get strong enough to go there.” She looked at Sandra, an intense glare piercing her. “I could help with all of that, and I could supply more shields in combat. I’d supplement Spike really well.”

Sandra stopped. These were… things she hadn’t thought of too hard. She figured a quick refresh would be good but…

“I can help you, Sandra. And I don’t even need a wish at the top, I just need to go there. To get to the top, to be able to come down and tell everyone I did it.”

"And just saying you did isn't an option?" Sandra asked, already knowing the answer.

Tabitha smirked at that. "You know the answer to that. Look, this is your party, that's why I said I admit you beat me. Your party, not mine. I'll follow the rules." She raised a hand to her chest. "I'll just help you, all of you, do better, so we can all get to the top. That's what we all want, isn't it?"

"Tabby…" Sandra turned slowly. "Tabby."

"Sandra, why are you using that kid name?" She shook her head. "Are you worried for me? Stop that! My team might have given up, but me? I'm still in this. I'm ready. I will push forward. With you! I'm not asking for a ride, just a chance, and I'll earn my keep."

"Tabby, seriously. I am worried for you, but not the way you think." What terrible price would the tower demand of Tabitha, were she to come along? The tower would not let her just come and go like that. Sandra couldn't envision that without doubt and fear gnawing at her. "How badly do you want to get to the top?"

"More than anything," she said, each word with a full stop, spoken with firm confidence. "If I die trying, at least I'll know I didn't give up. You do remember that's why I was… so angry with you, right? I put you in the 'gave up' category. I don't want to be there. I'm not ready to give up."

"Then your friends just walked off," sighed out Sandra, re-imagining how much that had likely torn Tabitha apart, to know she had been adventuring aside a bunch of people who, in the end, did give up. "I… need to talk with my party mates. We make decisions together. I can't just… say yes or no."

"You said no a few times," reminded Tabitha with a little smile. "Go on, ask… Tell them I'm sorry for the mean things I said. I'll make up for it, in action, in the tower. We will be a team, living or dying as one."

As Sandra finally walked off without Tabitha in her way, she really hoped that dying as one was not what they had coming.

Author's Note

Healing has rules! What is this world and its rules! Tabitha makes a new plea to join the party. What do you think?

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67 - Get it Right

"Really?" Of the dragons, Spike looked the least wary, even interested in the idea. "She understands how dangerous this is, right?"

"This dangerous." Smolder grabbed her tail, waving the blunted tip at Sandra. "And she wants that? She's nuts! What does she actually want?"

"Not a bad question, sis." Garble lifted his shoulders in a grand shrug. "Is she just here to ride along and take the goods? With that bad attitude of hers…"

"That's not like her." All eyes turned on Spike. "Look, I get it, she's been a bit of a jerk." He shrugged softly. "But she has a code, and she hasn't broken it. Divine Lord is more than a class for her. It's what she is. And a Divine Lord will never betray their team."

Sandra rubbed an arm lightly. "I know that feeling… Me and summoner have gotten pretty tight."

"Pretty sure I'm going to keep cooking when I get home." Smolder smirked at the thought of it. "The other dragons are gonna be so confused, then get in line to have a taste!" She was suddenly holding her knife, though her hand had been nowhere nearby. "No cutting in line, or you're next."

Garble huffed at that, smoke escaping him. "Right, well, I already was that. My class just let me be me, so not that much difference there." He shrugged. "Whatever. Look, if she's not getting in the way, great, whatever. She ain't getting in the way of us goin' home though. She knows that, we don't have any problems."

“Put me down for yes!” Spike added, thrusting a finger into the air.

Sandra and Spike looked over at Smolder. “What?” She said, looking around. “I’m pretty sure even if I said no I’m outvoted.”

“It’s not like that,” Sandra said. “If one of us doesn’t want to work with her this won’t work, so we all have to be sure.”

“Sure, then, everyone else thinks it’s good,” Smolder said, squirming a little under the attention.

“Do you really mean that, or are you just saying that?” Sandra narrowed her eyes.

Spike suddenly grabbed one of Smolder's worrying hands. "I get it."

"You do?" Smolder hiked a brow at the smaller dragon. "Do share."

"You're not sure, but you're willing to give it a try. You don't like her, but you like us enough to see where it goes. You're not really--"

Smolder placed a finger on his lips, silencing him. "We get the idea. Yeah.. that's about right." She smirked past Spike, towards Sandra. "We'll give your friend a try, see if she's changed her spots."

“I think that’s good,” Spike said, nodding. “Maybe we can do other stuff before we go into the tower? Or something?”

“Probably will need to,” Sandra replied, then clasped her hands together. “It’s settled, then, we’ll give Tabitha a try.”

"So the first thing we're going to do is not go right back to the top of the tower."

Garble hiked a brow at the idea. "Yeah, see, I thought you were super ready to rush to the top. Why wouldn't we, you know, get back to it?"

Tabitha waggled a finger. "I hear you all run by an equal say thing here, so this is an idea, not a command." She looked to Sandra. "I know who's in charge." Her gaze slid back to the dragons. "Here's the thing. You all have been running up as fast as you can, doing a great job at it, I'll give."

"Darn right," grunted Garble, looking proud.

"But…?" Spike peered at Tabitha, waiting for the rest of the statement.

"But you aren't ready." She waved a hand in a flat direction. "This isn't me telling you to give up. We're on the same team, I want us all going to the top. We need to farm. You know what farming is?"

“Isn’t that the thing ponies do when they want to get food and stuff? They farm them?” Garble said.

Tabitha furrowed her brow and mouthed ‘ponies?’ but discarded it and was about to speak, but Spike spoke up first. “It’s when you go out and deliberately collect stuff from monsters. Calling it a farm is ‘cause, like, you set up fights you know you can do and just do them over and over.”

Garble puffed in annoyance. “Sounds boring.”

“Well we’ll have to do some tough stuff,” Tabitha said. “The best tower gear won’t be earned by just running easy fights over and over, we’ll have to do some of the tough floors over and over.”

Sandra nodded with growing understanding. "I know what you mean. The end-of-segment bosses have the best stuff, like at all the tenth floors."

"Exactly." Tabitha nodded, looking pleased that her words were being understood. "Besides, it gives us a chance to see how everyone else works. I haven't fought with any of you except Spike." She fired a thumbs up without warning. "I know he has what it takes. You don't know me, I don't know the rest of you. Let's fix that, and get our equipment in shape. Good equipment makes things possible. Good teamwork seals the deal. We'll be handling both of those."

“Oh, I guess that might be cool,” Garble scratched his chin. “We haven’t redone any of the tower floors, not unless we had to go back to one of them, which we haven’t really done in a while.”

Tabitha blinked. “Wait… you haven’t done that at all?”

The other four people blinked back at her. “Well… no,” Sandra said. “We’ve been either buying, crafting, or taking just the stuff from the tower on the first pass.”

“But… but…” Tabitha grimaced. “What if you needed like, a better weapon with more appropriate stats?”

“With what?” Garble tilted his head.

“Like… I dunno like better attacks, better elements!” Tabitha gnarled up her hands in frustration. “Like… synergies.”

Garble held his sword out. “I have a sword that has fire on it. It’s kinda redundant because I can breathe it, and Smolder uses fire, but it’s cool at least.”

“But what element would be best,” Tabitha said. “What works the best for how you fight?”

“I dunno, probably lightning.” Garble shrugged. “If it’s crackling I can keep the beat better and it works really well with whatever the one is when I call down the big strike from the sky.” He put his sword back. “I haven’t found a nice one in the fifties though, I think this one was from around forty something, I don’t remember.”

Tabitha applied her palm liberally to her face. "Let's talk to your smith. I bet he--"

"--she," corrected Sandra.

"She's really tweaked with how you're doing this."

Spike started in that direction. "She never complained before?"

"She always seemed pretty happy." Smolder fell in line, the entire party headed towards their smith. "But don't you have your own smith?"

"About that…" Tabitha reached into a pocket, drawing a glowing chunk of some strange metal. "Smiths belong to parties. My party is gone, and I joined a new one, so this is it." She held it securely, gripping tightly between her hands. "When we get there, I'll give it to your smith, that should make them really happy."

"I heard of that," noted Sandra in uncertain tones. "Our smith didn't have anything, you know, when I… stopped being in it." She coughed softly into a hand. "But you'll recognize her!"

"Wait, it isn't?--"

They had arrived, Tabitha gawking at the sign and the door in equal shock. "You fell in with her?"

"Most of the other ones kept being weird about the whole dragon thing," sheepishly explained Sandra. "Whereas she got to work, so we went with her."

"You're back!" The door swung open, a mechanical hand withdrawing. Their eager smith was at the forge, a manic grin on her face. "And you brought a new friend! Ooo, come on in. Don't let the heat out."

Garble hiked a thumb as he went inside. "She likes it hot. I like that. Most of you humans are so busy hiding just when it gets comfortable."

Smolder stomped in, something new in her eyes. "Hey! Can you replace something I lost?"

"Oh, sure! Was it a knife?" Her eyes scanned over Smolder. "Your armor seems to… Oh no!" She hopped down to the ground and ran at full speed at Smolder, grabbing her by the shoulders. "What have they done to my precious little dragon girl!" Her eyes were past her, to her tail, its tip missing. "Give me their name!"

“I don’t think a trap has a name,” Smolder said. “But I need something for it. I ain’t taking it’s removal lightly.”

Tammy nodded. “Yeah… yeah I can whip up something. Let’s do it. Hop up I need to measure.”

Tabitha cleared her throat. “Ahem, I also have a thing? For you, that is.” She held out the sparkling metal.

Tammy leaned over. “Oh.. oh wow.” She looked up at Tabitha. “This is a forge fragment… it’s strong too, someone spent a lot of time upgrading their forge… who lost out on that?”

“Wait, it’s stronger than yours?” Sandra asked.

“Oh yeah. I mean, I have a great time working with you, but we’ve upgraded your forge like… three or four times? Max?” She pointed at the flame. “Not that dragonfire was not a good upgrade. But no other parties work with me, I just spend most of my time using normal forges for the markets, so it’s not like I’ve got another forge built up...”

Tabitha almost bounced the ball, stopped only by its prodigious weight and inertia. "And this is what we start fixing. Tammy, your days of neglect are at an end. We are going to farm the fifties like they're going out of style and bury you in the good stuff."

Tammy clapped her hands, eyes shining at the promised reward. "Well! I won't say no to that. Speaking of." She reached out a hand, accepting the great metal jagged ball. "Let's get this in there and crank it up a few notches, hmm? Hey, my dragon friends. Why don't you help? A little dragon flame to melt it down feels right." A sudden underhanded lob and a great thunk as the metal landed in her forge, sending molten bits splattering upwards briefly. "Do it!"

All three of the dragons, in sync, all breathed in, and their three different colors of fire struck the orb. Tabitha looked on, the completely unexpected three different colors of fire stunning her as the flames all mixed, heating the orb to white hot, the flames mixing with the forge briefly, lighting it up with green, deep red, and bright orange.

Tammy moved over, cracking her knuckles and neck, bringing up her hammer, hammering the metal into her forge, which caused the whole thing to glow, not with heat but with a different magic, until the metal was incorporated, and the flames died down. “Whoo, good times.”

She twirled her hammer even as she sent it in an arc to land a its resting place. "And now I can make better stuff, like… say something for my poor little dragon girl." She punched in her fists against her own hips, glaring at the injury on Smolder. "Step on up and let's get you measured. I'm gonna make something good, just for you."

Garble watched his sister mount up into position to be fussed over. "Yeah, I like the tip I have, thanks."

"I, uh, hope you like it," allowed Spike more supportively. He turned to Tabitha. "Alright, so we put in yours, so we're closer to ready now, right?"

"Closer, sure." Tabitha shrugged softly. "But we could do better, and we will! Some farming in the fifties, learn each others moves, and give Tammy here plenty to work with. When we set our feet down past sixty--"

"Sixty?!" Tammy looked over, forgetting what she was doing a moment. "You got past sixty?! You didn't tell me?!" She slapped her hands down on Smolder's shoulders. "Congratulations! Oh, wow, that explains that… Stupid tower, hurting you like that…" She grumbled as she got back to work.

Author's Note

Hey Tammy! Missed you. I thought Tabitha was also coming into her own here. What think you of her?

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68 - Nose to the Grind

With the satisfying sound of metal parting flesh, Smolder spun away, blood running in an arc in the air from the razor sharpened blade that had replaced her spade. "It's like I'm holding three knives." Not that she slowed, cutting, piercing, and cooking her way through the enemies.

"Funny thing." Garble smashed a larger enemy aside into range of Smolder's cooking fury. "These aren't the same guys we smashed last time we went up from fifty. What's up?

"Different party." With a stoutly held shield, Tabitha blocked a blow that had been coming for Garble's exposed head. "You added me, so things shuffle. Lose someone, it shuffles too. Works out fine, a little less chance to get bored, hmm?"

Spike's staff glowed bright green as he soothed the scrapes and bruises of his teammates. "Wow, this is… really a lot easier with five people."

"Don't get lazy." Tabitha shoved the set of armor trying to get past her, forcing it back. "Once we're back on sixty, it will get very real."

Twilight landed beside Tabitha, her glowing horn causing the suit of animated armor to explode into various smoking pieces. "She's looking at me oddly again." Of course, only Sandra heard her mental whisper, only her soft whicker heard otherwise. "What did you tell her about me?"

“Nothing,” Sandra reflected, making sure to project mentally. “I haven’t said anything to Tabitha about other worlds or you being from them.” She pointed outward, and Twilight sent another blast forward to the next armor in the distance. “She still believes Spike and the others are like normal summons. You too, I guess, although Garble has groused about ponies already.”

“Then why did--”

“How did that particular summon’s form get chosen?” Tabitha said, interrupting the conversation she couldn’t hear. “You haven’t really explained a lot about the new class you have…”

“Oh, uh…” They were mid-fight, but as Garble sliced across another armor, things weren’t… really very hard at all. “I find monsters… well, certain monsters. I’m pretty sure I can’t use any of them. Anyway I ask them to come along and bind them to the class.”

“And where did you find this one… Twilight was what you called it?” Tabitha smacked an armor with her shield. “I don’t know about any like… star unicorns or whatever. Certainly not so small.”

“Her name, yes,” she corrected Tabitha, before pausing a moment. “Here in the tower, actually.”

“Oh.” Tabitha said, moving onward.

Spike hurried to keep up. "They're not always monsters. I mean, the first one she got was basically the spirit of a big forest fire! And he became a firebird, which is kinda neat. Reminds me of a firebird I used to know." He let out a wistful sigh of long ago even as he bashed an ogre aside, staff connecting with the monster's cheek. "I wonder how he's doing."

Garble snorted with the finesse only a dragon could have. "She's not a monster, that would be like saying she was big and tough, which she aint."

Smolder hiked a brow at that. "Twilight's punched more demigods than you even know about and she's still around."

Tabitha's mental train was gently derailed. "I'm sorry. You… two know that one?" She waggled a finger from the sibling dragons towards Twilight. "How does that even work?"

“Because, we’re all from the same place?” Smolder said. “She ran the school I went to… Spike was her assistant… Garble hated Spike over some thing during the dragon migration… Garble’s my brother… we all knew each other.” She shrugged. “It’s just a thing.”

Tabitha went from confused to pursing her lips. “Oh. It’s that thing.”

Smolder turned back from the fight. “What thing?”

“Ah…” Tabitha stopped a little, her mouth open. “Aaa thing that Sandra had said. About you two being siblings! That thing.”

“See,” Sandra’s mental voice projected. “I don’t think she believes it.”

Twilight visibly frowned, but her voice was still only in Sandra’s head. “That’s not any good.”

Smolder didn't hear that mental whispering. "Well, yeah, we're sibs." She shrugged. "Two dragons, two eggs, same mom. Kinda how that works. Spike isn't related." She shot Spike a smile. "Even if he's a bro."

Spike chuckled nervously as he hopped up onto, then down off the body of a defeated enemy. "Aw, thanks. You, uh… It's hard to put into words, but you're like a big sis sometimes. I mean, not the same way as Twilight. It's, uh, different, but… appreciated."

"Come here you!" Smolder grabbed Spike, hugging him with laughter as her tail swayed dangerously, nicking a monster that was trying to take advantage of the tender moment.

Garble rolled his eyes at the exchange, taking out his annoyance in a terrific swing that cut a monster clean in half, the two parts flying off to strike two other monsters that had wandered too close. "This floor is for babies, no wonder Spike loves it so much." With a smile, self-satisfied with his barb, he moved forward all the faster. "Let's get on to the next one."

“No,” Tabitha interjected firmly. “We have to make sure we find all the treasure chests and kill all the monsters on this floor. We don’t know what the most valuable stuff is on these floors so we have to scour the whole place before moving on. We can take shortcuts next time.”

Garble groaned. “I’m sure it’ll be nothing.”

“But we don’t know until we check,” Sandra said, and pointed in another direction. “We haven’t been down this hallway yet, so let’s go.”

Garble plodded to the next floor. “That was so boring. Please let this next floor at least have a good fight. Maybe a small floor, too?”

The floor opened up to a divided hallway, darkness beyond.

It was not a small floor.

Garble and the party plodded up to the next floor.

Smolder smirked and prodded Garble with her elbow. “You gonna hope this floor is small too?”

“Hmph,” Garble shook his head. “I ain’t gonna say it. Bad luck.”

They opened the door to the next floor to one large large room, with dilapidated columns. A huge biped stood in it, four muscular arms, with four fists with bony spikes sticking out of them.

Garble stared up at the huge monster-man, and he started chuckling. The chuckling broke into laughter, increasing in manicness, and he wrenched his sword from his scabbard. “Yes yes yesss.” He broke into a sprint directly at the monster.

“No don’--” Tabitha reached for her own weapons, but not before Garble was batted away by a giant spiked fist, landing on his back. Tabitha darted up, her shield glowing with protective energies as she intercepted the followup attack. “Is this guy always such an idiot?” she groused.

Three slashes appeared on the monster’s fist as Smolder flipped in, getting the strikes where she could. “Yeah, he kinda is.”

“I have to get close so I can cut him!” Garble said, standing himself up as Spike patched his wounds. “I can’t cut him unless I get up close!”

Tabitha made a tch noise, but started chuckling as she repelled the next blow by blasting the giant fist back with her shield. “That stuff isn’t gonna fly past sixty, you know?”

"We're on your side," assured Spike. "Let us set it up so you can knock it down. We're working with you, Garble."

Garble stroked his chin a moment. Phrased that way, it made so much more sense. "Huh…"

"We all have to be looking--" Tabby paused, battered back several inches as the great monster smashed into her shield. "--for ways to maximize each other. We're a team. When one of us shines, we all do."

"Twilight." Sandra gestured forward strongly. "Time for a dazzler. Garble, your chance is coming up, be ready to do your best, I mean worst. Mess it up!"

"Now you are talking my language… The best or the worst, the tide will be reversed. Gonna pound your face, gone without a trace." He stepped in a wide circle, not coming closer, more setting himself up for the perfect spot, droning on as he waited. "Gonna smash hard, gonna move fast--"

The monster’s fist came straight down on Tabitha, who batted it aside instead of absorbing the hit, the monster stumbling down, stopping it’s fall with one of it’s other arms, with its face directly down where Garble was standing.

“--Cause my blade is what you’ll feel last!” Garble cried and he brought his sword up from the ground, a flaming swell blasting upward through its face, knocking the monster up with a cry of its own.

The battle was far from won, but a powerful blow was hit, and the monster roared, putting up its dukes again. Despite it only being one good blow, the tide had changed. The team starting to look for ways to help each other to act at just the right time. "Here!" Smolder tossed a wrapped snack at Spike.

"Huh? We haven't…" They hadn't killed anything in a while. Where had the food come from? Still, chewing it chased away the fatigue he had felt, his magic replenishing. "Awesome, great! We got this guys!"

Smolder had the cokiest grin on her face. "There was a skill I just wasn't even using." She waggled a finger. "You can preserve things, so they last a little while. Just for such emergencies. I thought it was stupid as all get out, but the only stupid one was me." She rolled her eyes at the stupidity of her past self. "I'm over it!"

Garble roared as he knocked the great multi-armed thing back, staggering it into position for others to surge in. "If you can do that. Why don't you always do it?"

"Fresher is better, duh." She smirked at her brother's lack of awareness on food properties. "They have less kick if I preserve them, and I have to make that call when I make them on the spot. No take backs."

Twilight thumped against its chest, magic flaring brightly as she bounced away off of it, leaving hoofprints on its chest. "We should focus on what we're doing here," she sent towards Sandra, curling for a good angle to blast the giant.

“But them getting along is good! Very good!” Sandra accidentally said aloud.

“That is true…” Twilight reflected, while hopping back from an errant swing. “I just… maybe we should take the fight more seriously?”

Smolder and Garble double team slashed at the legs of the giant, who flailed at them and clapped its hands together. Spike glowed with his martyr damage absorb ability, taking the hits from the wave of damage, and he followed up by himself smacking the giant in the shin with his martyr-smite, causing it to fall over in pain. Garble and Smolder both laughed as they went in for more hits.

Tabitha joined in the laughter. "This is more like it. We're a team." She drove her shield down into the face of the giant as she brought her mace around in a cruel arc to bash it across the face. "And as long as we never forget that, the tower doesn't have a chance." She sprang back as the giant picked itself up painfully. "Even if we have to keep reminding it."

With a rough communal cry, they didn't let up, battering the giant back to the ground and not letting it rise again. It exploded in bits of loot and scrap, waiting to be claimed. Tabitha clapped her hands together, her shield and weapon vanishing. "Fantastic! Grab it all up. Our smith will love getting her hands on it all. This is why we came here."

Smolder nudged against Garble. "We bring back all the loot we find getting back up to sixty, then we turn it in, and we're all more powerful." She raised a knife to tap the flat of it against her head. "Up here, and with better swords and stuff."

"Yeah, yeah…" He licked his lips as he collected his earned findings. "I get it. Next time, we're knocking that guy down just twice and he stays down."

"That's the spirit!” Tabitha beamed. “We might need to do some special stuff to get upgrade materials for the furnace, but mostly the mats from these monsters will be enough.”

The team continued up, looking for more loot from the tower.

Author's Note

Nothing like a good grinding session to get things in order. What's your favorite grinding game?

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69 - Never Again

Tammy wiped sweat from her brow. "Okay, well… shoot. You all have been really at it." She tapped the side of her humming bellows. "The next step up would take what you just last did… like five more times. Or, you can let me work with what we have. Pretty sure that'll make what you were using before your new friend got a hold of you look like you were wearing tissue paper and dreams."

Smolder fired an emphatic thumbs up. "I think we're all ready to push forward a bit." She glanced towards Tabby for confirmation.

Tabitha nodded hesitantly. "While a part of me would rather go for the next level, I do understand that… this is a team, and I'm not the leader. You're all… ready to push forward. At least, now, I think we're ready for the first set of levels. Expect more grinding after we hit the next ten, warning you now."

"No thanks." Garble huffed and leaned in to see the fiery magic of the furnace. "Looks mostly the same from here. You can really do better stuff now?"

"Sure can!" Tammy clapped her hands together as she hopped up onto a chair and sank down. "Gonna make better versions of everything. You all brought me more than enough materials to get it done." She began to giggle, a silly smile on her face.

Sandra started to share the expression. "You look eager to start."

"Am I that predictable?" She pulled on a heavy chain. "Go on, get lost. I'll send a letter to your room when it's all set, then you can come by, marvel at my work, then go kick that tower in the shin for what it did!"

Spike slapped the back of their newest team member. "Hey, thanks."

"You're welcome, but what are you thanking me for?" She lifted her shoulders, hands spreading. "We just turned in what we had, nothing on my part there."

"I disagree." He wagged a finger at Tabitha as they headed out of the smithy. "You're why we did all that farming, and why we'll be ready when we try again."

"I don't… mean this in a, what, cold, way? But I take my teams seriously." She crossed her arms. "You all being unprepared will get me killed. This is after 60 we're talking about here. We're all ready, or dead."

Spike frowned. It was hard not to take in a “cold” way, wasn’t it?

“It’s a compliment,” Smolder chimed in. “Take it as one!”

Tabitha pursed her lips.

Ater a moment, Sandra said, “Well, we have some time.”

“Probably a lotta time,” Garble also said. “We gave her a heckuva list.”

“So, what are we going to do with it?”

“Well,” Spike scratched his chin. “We haven’t really done anything for getting to sixty. There was no big party, because I guess sixty is a mixed bag? But it’s a milestone, so we should do something nice. I mean,” he pulled up his bag, hefty with gold. “We have all of this money from loot we’re not using on better loot so… why not?”

“Did your party do anything at sixty?” Sandra said, leaning over to Tabitha.

“We all had a drink or something, before everyone went off to do their own thing. They were pretty happy, I tried to be happy for them.” She shrugged. “I’m onto better things now.”

Garble grabbed the new girl's closest hand. "Well, that settles it. They've dragged me to a buncha stuff I didn't want to go to. It's your turn now!"

Smolder began to snicker, following along and letting Garble choose the destination. Spike veered closer to Sandra. "Did we pull him around?"

"No." Sandra was smiling, looking pleased in much the same way as Smolder. "But I could tell he didn't always want to be there. This'll be fun, team building, outside of battling to the death."

She looked at Tabitha being drug around by Garble, with her annoyed but resigned face. “I hope.”

"Sorry to visit you like this." Twilight inclined her head, all her Equestrian self. "You deserve all your rest, but something's come up over here...and they need me." She let out a suffering sigh. "I'll try to make it as fast as I can, but the work of a hero is never done, it seems."

"Wait, you're a hero?" Sandra looked around, but couldn't make out much. There really wasn't much there, in that half-formed dream place they met to talk. "Really?"

"Like it or not." Twilight smiled gently. "I prefer not, really… But Celestia is counting on me, with Equestria behind her. I can't say no…" She rubbed behind her head with a hoof. "I just want you to know I'm rooting for you all, but you won't be able to call on me a few days at the least. I'll stop by again when that changes. Use your other summons for now." An ear perked. "Actually, you may even want to keep your eyes open."

"For?"

"What else?" Twilight closed to set a hof on Sandra's shoulder. "I feel confident I'm not the last spirit you'll meet, even if I don't really see me as a 'spirit'. You may find something worth talking to. Keep an open mind."

“Things have been working out pretty well with just the three…” Sandra said. “And, if I’ll be honest, you’ve got a whole lot of oomph. And even more honest… it’s nice to know I can count on you when time goes by. I know you’re not ‘in the party’, but you’re kinda in the party…”

Twilight chirped up and smiled. “I’m going to miss you too, Sandra. And of course, Spike, but I have enough faith that you guys will come through.”

Sandra took a soft breath, despite having no air to breathe in that dream. "I will not let you down," she promised, the dream ending for them both, one to go on to dream of other things, the other to awaken to things in need of them.

"So, she won't be coming?" Spike looked a little unsettled at the news that Twilight would not be with them.

Smolder nudged against him from the side. "We managed before her, we can handle a day or two without her. You're ready to stand on your own feet, right? You don't want her thinking you need her for everything, do you?"

Garble chuckled softly as they walked into the tower. "I dunno, he does like his pony princess taking care of him."

“Who won’t be doin’ what?” Tabitha said as the party approached her. “Pony… the summon?”

“Twilight won’t be able to come,” Spike said. “Busy saving the word, I guess.”

Tabitha looked down at the little dragon incredulously. “She… is busy doing something else?” She turned her head slowly back up to stare at Sandra. “Your summons can… just tell you they’re busy? At random?”

“I don’t think it’s at random…” Sandra said.

“Yeah…” Spike said, kind of frowning. “Twilight has been on call for months now. We don’t always go out but… she’s always on call.” He looked down. “How long has she dedicated her life to helping us like this… She has responsibilities, but she’s still put down so much for us... “

“Probably for you, champ,” Smolder nudged him.

This only deepened Spike’s frown. “I hadn’t even thought about it like that!”

While Spike descended into unease, Tabitha gave Sandra a look. “And you… buy this? That your summon, which you need for your adventuring, can just up and leave?”

Sandra’s expression hardened. “Yes. Spike is right, Twilight has been doing a lot of work for us, but she has her own life.”

“She’s a summon, Sandra,” Tabitha said in a low voice. “She didn’t exist until you picked her up.”

“She did,” Sandra said, looking harder at Tabitha’s eyes. “She’s Spike’s family and she came to help us, and has been a big help.”

Smolder raised two fingers to pinch the bridge of her nose. "Look, this is getting old. We all have histories. Garble there." She hiked a thumb at her bother. "He barely knew Twilight, but even he knows she was a thing before we came tripping over to this world or whatever." She threw both her hands wide. "Now we plan to go home. That's why we're in this tail-cutting tower, so put your hand on that thing and let's hop up, alright?"

Tabitha peered as Smolder vanished, taking the teleport point to recall up to floor 60. "She is very… agitated."

"How would you like it if some alien kept telling you that you're just a fake?" Sandra reached out, vanishing a moment later towards the top of the tower.

Garble didn't bother joining the conversation, vanishing along with the others with but a snort to add to things.

Tabitha looked to Spike, the one remaining. "You ready to take a shot?"

"Huh? No… I mean, I get it." He shrugged his shoulders. "We really don't fit the, uh… narrative? If I was reading the story of your world, I'd be really confused about us too, so, yeah, I get it." He rubbed his arm with the opposing hand. "But we are real. You tested me. Didn't I pass?"

Tabitha paused for a moment, and wrinkled her nose. “That’s not… what I’m saying. Whatever your origin is, you here are an excellent Divine Lord.” She gestured up towards the tower. “And Garble and Smolder are both good at what they do too.”

“But you don’t believe me when I say I’m from another world,” Spike looked up at her with a stern expression.

“I’m not sure I need to. I can work with you whether or not I believe that.” Tabitha took this moment to woosh herself up the tower.

Spike glared at the space that Tabitha used to be at, and finally sighed. “But you’re not going to be a very good friend unless you do.”

He appeared with the others, a line formed, heading towards the stairs that led up to the next floor. "Now, bear in mind." Tabby lifted her shoulders. "I'm not afraid to admit we're entering new territory. My tips, my advice, great, but I can't tell you what's ahead of us. We have to work together, trust in each other, so we can get through this in one piece."

"Yeah, trust each other." Smolder snorted softly, kicking aside a small rock that marred the mostly clean floor. "Do you trust your friend's summons? I wouldn't."

"Hey, in her defense." Garble hiked a thumb back towards Sandra. "Her summons are pretty cool. Not dragon cool, but pretty alright."

Sandra waved it away as she went. "Let's focus on what's right here. We can argue once we're back safely in town, or you're all home, whichever comes first, alright?"

"You're coming with us, by the way," noted Smolder as if it was a forgone conclusion.

"She is?" Garble squinted.

"She is?" asked Spike more astonishedly.

"She is?" joined Tabby. "You are?!"

Sandra stomped a foot. "Probably not, but if I did, what then? Did I just go off to wherever summons come from? Is that a good or a bad thing?"

“It’s not ‘where summons come from’, it’s our home,” Smolder said. “And what else do you have here?”

“When she’s done she’s going to be one of the most storied heroes on the planet,” Tabitha walked up closer to Smolder. “She would have everything. Besides, if she does get her actual wish she’ll have her whole family.”

"About that…" Spike hurried to catch up with the others, rushing to the side of Tabitha. "She didn't plan to spend her wish on that. I, uh, shoot. I can't even say how grateful I am that she's--"

"I dragged them here," interrupted Sandra. "I will get them home. I will not mess this up. This is something I will not give up on." She stomped ahead with the clop of her shoes. "Never again."

Author's Note

Boundaries are set, but do all involved understand them?

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70 - Pushing Up

It was a different experience. Not a game, as it was promised. Every hit made bones creak and viscera groan with pain. Even the healing, though keeping death away, felt sluggish in rebounding them from bad hits. It became all the more important to fight smart, to not take such hits in the first place.

Though they had two combatants that could, and did, dispense healing green glows, Spike's martyrish sharing of the pain proved much more immediately useful to avoid being knocked aside in the first place. The way they fought changed, it had to, but they pushed through it. The monsters did not charge blindly at them, instead attacking with their own cunning. No longer were they satisfied with being a road bump, instead trying their hardest to find the weaknesses of the team, to make them fail.

To kill them.

Despite this, the party pushed higher. Each floor was a small victory, but also a reason to grit their teeth. "If we lose," reminded Garble. "We have to do it all again. 70. We need 70."

"Yeah!" Smolder clapped her hands together, advancing with a dangerously swaying tail-dagger. "We got this."

The foes ahead of them, in a row, were small bulbous headed hoplites. Each held a large circular shield, wider than they were, and had a spear they thrusted with. Their little inarticulate cries were kinda cute, they were kinda ugly too, but the problem is those damn shields made them hard to hit.

And they moved with unerring teamwork, defending each other and striking. More than a few were already gone, but without easy openings making progress was exhausting.

Sandra sent Aiden above to pelt down flames from above, and Smolder lashed forward at the little monster that raised it’s shield up, slashing at it from as far as it can, and it shrieked and collapsed.

The opening was short lived as more flowed around the lost soldier, stabbing at Smolder with vicious thrusts of its spear. She ducked around the strike, her leather sparking as the spear got close enough to strike a stud. She hit the ground on all fours, scurrying back. It had not been in vain, the replacement warrior falling with an arc of red across his chest, delivered with a smart whip of her tail.

"I said no," commanded Sandra, waving forward into that weakened spot of their formation, flame rushing as if both falling and rising, forcing the hole in their formation a little wider.

A pity Tabitha wasn't nearly as fireproof, but she charged anyway with a wild cry, bashing her shield against theirs as if accepting the challenge. She would not be denied so easily.

"They're, oof--" Garble brought down his great sword on the spear that had nicked him, shattering it, but there were plenty more behind it. "We gotta move!" So move they did, against the enemy that seemed without number. It wasn't the first endurance floor they had run into, and likely not even the last.

But they would press through it, even if the enemy seemed stronger than the others they had faced before, rebounding without a pause, even a moment. There was no more room for mistakes.

Another floor had a large puzzle. Large blocks of stone floated in a tangle, with some controls on each that must be pressed. The dragons had a clear advantage, being able to fly up, but the blocks moved surprisingly quickly, threatening to crush someone operating their movements.
"Huh, that's really useful." Tabby watched the dragon trio working vigorously to puzzle through the trap. "The closest I heard someone getting to flying was… basically short bursts." She made a sound of rushing flames, the imagined jets on someone's feet. "Nothing like actual wings."

"Summoners can fly too," noted Sandra with some bit of pride. "Merging with Twilight was the easiest, but Aiden will do in a pinch."

"You are doing everything so weird." She slugged Sandra in the shoulder, but the energy between them seemed light at that moment, absent of friction. "I can't argue how well it's working."

As the dragon trio reached the conclusion, only one or two more movements, the wall began to grind with stone noises, and flying monsters came out of hidden panels on the walls, one immediately hitting one of the switches, sending the puzzle pieces crashing down onto the ground.

“Hey!” Garble shouted. “That’s not fair!” He flew after the imp, who laughed and made rude gestures. “You put that back you piece of crap!”

“Uh oh,” Sandra said, pulling Aiden out. “We’re gonna have to get a bit more serious to finish.” She raised her staff up, fusing with Aiden and flew upward.

Tabitha pursed her lips and put away her sword, pulling out her scepter. “I guess I’ll do what I can from here,” she said, more to herself, as she flung a bit of magic from the scepter to produce a shield around one of her flying party.

"That way!" Spike pointed the way, joining Sandra in a wing, accepting her as part of the offensive without any spoken hesitation. Tabitha kept the magic going, but her eyes were not quite focused on the same spot, watching as they worked as a little machine, trapping and attacking the little thief.

"It's… like they're part of her," she muttered to herself, considering things. "Is that why?"

"Is that why what?" Smolder landed next to Tabitha, arms folded. "What? They got this handled." She waved up at the three others beating the tar out of the would-be thief. "Thought I'd check in with you. No fun being left behind, and you don't have wings."

"I was… just thinking,” She looked away from the flying party, “About Sandra."

"Yeah?" Smolder looked at Tabitha, bidding her continue without a word.

"She's really close to you all." She brought her hands together. "Putting aside how… impossible your backstories are, you are really important to her, and I was thinking about that, and it kinda makes sense, really."

"Really?" Smolder adjusted from one hip to the other, watching Tabitha. "Alright, lay it on me, in your words. Why?"

"You changed her life." Tabitha lifted her shoulders. "You took her from zero to hero, literally. You gave her a chance for success, then gave her something worth sacrificing everything for. I… am actually a little jealous, I'll admit."

Smolder looked thoughtful for a moment. “You know she totally blamed herself for falling out with you, right?”

Tabitha opened her mouth, but was temporarily at a loss.

“Yeah, she felt like she didn’t live up to your expectations, and that you gave her tons of chances and she squandered it.”

Pursing her lips, Tabitha retorted, “I did give her a ton of chances. I went through nearly half a dozen groups with her.”

“And how do ya think that made her feel?” Smolder raised an eyebrow.

“I… I dunno.” Tabitha held out her hands in exasperation.

“Like, do you think you were able to bully her in public like that because she was just too helpless to stop you? That she said nothing about it and just let you do it? She felt guilty.”

Tabitha looked back up at Sandra. “Well she doesn’t have a big problem with standing up to me now.”

Smolder looked up too, watching Sandra help out her brother and Spike beat up some imps. “No… I don’t think she’s noticed how much she changed, either.”

“How much she changed... “ Tabitha said, mulling over what’s been said. “Has she, though?”

Smolder's eyes followed as the fight wound down. "It wasn't all easy. We didn't just solve everything. She had to train us. We messed up, a lot. We had to retry floors, a lot. You think she's just been coasting up the tower with us?"

"I didn't mean that!" huffed Tabitha, starting forward. "I think they're done. We should meet up."

They proceeded together, even if Smolder looked unconvinced. Tabitha didn't try to change her mind, focusing instead on resuming their trek. "Good job everyone. Sorry I couldn't help much with this one."

Garble laughed as he headed for the pad that'd take them up. "Hey, we can't all be as awesome, Tabby."

Spike hopped into position. "We had enough help for what we had to do. You did fine, and I bet we'll need you to do your thing right on the next floor."

He wasn't wrong, facing great insectoid creatures with huge mandibles and slicing scythes for arms. "Hey, next floor's the boss," noted Tabitha as she deflected a blow that still send her sliding back from the impact of it. "We can port back and turn in what we've gotten, or make a sprint for it."

Garble grinned a toothy grin, thrusting his sword out at the enemy still reeling from it’s own attack. “We always try the boss first time we come up.”

“But we won’t be doing so this time,” Sandra butted in, directing Crystal to bring up the rear defense . “We’re already at risk, it’s time to go back, see what we can do for new gear, maybe even try some more.”

Garble rolled his eyes. “I shoulda known.”

“You should have, yes.” Spike winced from the martyr damage share. “We’ve gotta be careful.”

“And we were!” Garble pressed forward. “ This wasn’t that bad.”

“Do not say that,” Spike said through grit teeth. “We do not want to tempt fate like that.”

"If…" Sandra paused as she directed her golem to keep one of the great behemoths busy. "If what you said is true… fate isn't some… abstract thing. We could literally be tempting something. Let's just… play it safe. We know the… tricks up to here. If we can grind up to here, we're… ready."

Garble groaned piteously, imagining going right back up the floors they had just finished. "Fine, but we're whipping the floor with these guys first." He brought down his great sword in an arc that severed one of the legs of the beast, sending it crashing to the ground with his great whoop of triumph. "Besides, they could have sweet stuff."

"That's the spirit." Smolder grabbed the fallen leg, determined to make a quick snack of it. "We're all in this, together!"

They finished toppling this enemy, and almost without waiting a second group pressed down on them, a big shielded knight monster with a wizard behind, who was also overly large. A giant magical blast was shot at the party, Spike absorbing the blast, which thankfully seemed to follow all the old rules of damage they were used to. Easy to absorb, easy to heal.

Which was worrying. "We're being set up, or this is a break before the boss."

"Past sixty doesn't do breaks. If it seems too easy, it's because it's preparing for a real shin kicker to follow." Tabitha glanced aside at Garble even as the dragon stampeded against the insects. "I know you're eager, but it sounds like we are definitely not pushing past this floor.

"Yeah, whatever." He leaped back, saving Spike some trouble by avoiding a hit instead of taking it. "You already said that. I want to mash these guys to paste. Hey, how's lunch coming?"

"Served hot!" She sent food flying to restore the vigor of her brother. They were on point, even if they knew they'd be facing it all at least one more time. "She better get us some sweet stuff though," grumbled Smolder, imagining all their catches melting in the great machine of creation.

Author's Note

I don't trust this dungeon much, just saying.

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71 - Measure of a Hero

Spike hoisted his brand new staff, now with this very artful orb with an asymmetrical wing design on it as the party stood in front of the door to the floor seventy boss. He tried not to sweat too hard, because he knew he was nervous. Everyone seemed to have their game face on that day, standing ready to go, because nobody knew what exactly a boss past floor sixty was like.

In fact, there wasn’t even a boss on floor sixty, just those personal trials on floor 59, which they never had to repass on the next runs.

But they were there, with new equipment, ready to challenge the next tier.

The doors opened, and in front of them stood two figures, each at least eight feet tall.

They looked like… almost like beast tribes, but like most monsters (other than the fake adventurers they fought) they were not quite beast tribes. Specifically both of these had long serpentine tails ending in spades.

Which looked an awful lot like dragon tails…

They stood in reflection of each other, both wielding a scimitar in opposite hands, and the other hands had what appeared to be short magical staves, although with different designs. Attached to their belts were something distinct: guildchains. Including unfamiliar class gems.

"Son of a!" burst out Smolder as she drew her knives in a readying twirl. "You did this on purpose, damn dungeon. You're making fun of what you took from me!"

"We'll crush them to paste." Garble slammed his hands together. "That'll teach 'em." For once, no argument came in reply, the two siblings in complete agreement in that precious moment.

Spike edged forward, staff in one hand, shield attached to the opposing arm. "I don't like it. They could do anything. Expect them to be tricky."

"Complete agreement." Tabby raised her shield high, her heavy mace off to the side. "Divinity watch over us and smile on our efforts this day."

When the party advanced into the room proper, the doors slammed shut, and the two figures literally lept into action, shooting a shower of sparks in midair from their staves, and coming crashing down, and the battle had begun.

Blocks and absorption came down from the two divine lords in the party, protecting their members as the scimitars sliced furiously at the party, a flurry of blows that Spike struggled to keep up with, and might only have because of the attacker’s size making the attacks slower and easier to notice.

From beside him, Garble rushed in, “This attack will be turned back, and this time I’ll show you mine,” cutting a wide swath of energy, which struck the attacker but they were already busy backflipping out of it, alongside it’s twin.

Out of the corner of his eye, Spike saw a similar situation with Tabitha and Smolder, with the defended attacks and the barely striking attacks.

The twins however, seemed to cast a magic spell and rebound off of the air itself back to the party, bearing down on Tabitha, who instead of parrying with her shield sent up magic to withstand the flurry of blows.

“A-Aiden!” Sandra’s somewhat startled call came, pelting fire magic on the twins as well, who seemed unphased, however the scorch marks told a different story.

One of them pressed the attack while the other started pelting the party with magic. It seemed to be some kind of magical bullets, not elementally charged, as darts kept striking the party, Spike doing his best to bat them away, but they came too frequently and too quickly to easy deflect to the side.

"Rock Defense," uttered Tabitha towards Spike, who nodded in solidarity, the two moving more in lockstep to form a barrier with no back, their fronts facing away from one another to create a sphere of protection.

The battle continued, the sometimes concentrated and sometimes multifaceted assault bearing down on their tanks, while the attackers did their best to match the attacks. They had to pitch in at the peak of their form. A single mistake would--

Garble landed with his heavy blade on the ground, just a second too slow. The enemy was already twirling to lash out at him. "Cheese it!" He called, vanishing a moment later.

An instant later, the rest joined him at floor 60s teleport point.

Smolder swatted him on the shoulder. "What was what?! You didn't even get hit!"

"It was, you know, a hunch." He rubbed one arm with the other. "They were just about to do something. Something big. I could… feel it in the beat. They moved back and were ready for the crescendo. We were too slow. We had to have already beat them by then, or we lost."

"I admit I am impressed." Tabitha nodded slowly, her arms crossed. Her mace was hung at her belt and her shield strapped on her back. "You saw and recognized a boss' signs before being hit the first time. You might have saved us today."

Sandra tucked her staff away, letting out a soft breath. "Seriously?" She was looking at Tabitha. "You mean that?"

"Why would I kid? I know Garble would not have fled if he didn't mean it. We head back, melt down what we got, and we try again. We have to crush them, fast. I've seen bosses like that. You do it in time, or they win."

“How do you know about stuff like that?” Smolder cocked an eyebrow. “We didn’t see any of those on the way up.”

Tabitha folded her arms. “The tower is not the only kind of adventuring there is. Monsters building up mana over the course of a fight to end it quickly is something that happens in monsters in the wild.” She rolled her hand around. “And I’ve heard some stories about the higher levels.”

Garble butted in with. “And you didn’t think to share them?”

“I didn’t know which were true!” Tabitha protested. “I can’t tell you which is which. Are stories of people being turned into animals true or exaggerations? What about finding a tribe of friendly goblins? It could happen but it sounds real sketchy.”

Sandra scratched a cheek, a musing look on her face. "If it was like Twilight, I suppose it wouldn't be all bad." The others began to look at her. "What? She managed pretty well as a horse with all kinds of magic. Not the worst fate in the world."

Spike lifted his shoulders. "Somehow, I doubt that's what would happen, so let's not let any of us get turned into animals." He fixed Tabitha with a look. "And no, dragons are not animals."

"I wasn't going to say anything!" And she vanished.

The others poofed after her, hopping down to the first floor to turn in what they had gotten. Smolder took point through the town, striding with purpose. "I'm still surprised, Gargar. I figured you'd be really mad about doing the whole ten floors again."

"You kidding." He snorted with obvious irritation. "I'm furious! But… better that than not doing anything, right? It's not a game anymore, so we have to, you know, assume the worst. I don't like it, but we have to get past it."

Smolder danced around, hopping backwards so she could smile at her brother. "That's way mature, Bro. Let's see if we can't squeeze a little out of what we did get."

“So what did we get?” he said.

Smolder blinked. “Well… we learned how hard it was to hit them?”

Garble snarled in agreement. “I can’t count the number of times I tried to score a good hit and I grazed them instead.”

“Experience will help,” Tabitha chimed in. “I’m sure of it. Those enemies move in strange ways, and I’m sure we missed opportunities to counterattack. The pace was… much faster and stronger than before.”

Punching his fist into his palm, Garble nodded. “I’ll have to pick up the beat faster. I can do it, just a faster tempo.”

Spike gestured towards Tabby. "We did pick up material stuff, on the way." He turned the same hand towards their smithing friend's shop. "Let's turn it in, and think about where we did well, and where we could do better."

The party strategized and got their smith to craft for them until late at night, resolving to return another day. "We can do this," swore Spike.

"Without your princess' help." Garble stuck out his tongue, but was soon up in his bunk. It was sleep time.

Day two, second attempt. The party strode in, with a few new glittering pieces of gear, ready to assault the twins yet again. The way up? They knew those tricks, and they were equipped. Even the advanced savagery of the new levels were no match for them.

"We beat these two, we get a checkpoint," noted Tabby as she swung her heavy weapon testingly. "Everyone ready?"

Sandra nodded as she pat the side of her golem companion. "I think trying to rely on Aiden was a mistake. We need another person in melee to throw them off balance and let us get some good hits in, and Aiden wasn't dealing nearly enough damage."

Smolder whistled softly, twirling her daggers. "I like the way you're thinking. Whichever one's focused on the golem, I'll be on their back. Let's make this the last try on these guys."

With a communal cry of certainty, they advanced to battle.

"She's learning."

There, standing atop the defeated form of the boss, was the true enemy. The one who was the tower. "We meet again," noted Spike, avoiding a question. "I was wondering if you were going to come again, after our last chat."

He stepped down off one of the two twins, eyes on Spike. "The closer you draw, the less I can look away. The tower is focused on you, and so too must I be. Those are the rules. We must abide by them, even you, dragon of another world."

“So you’ve said,” Spike looked at the cloaked man. “You took some pride in keeping agreements.”

“One thing the tower is excellent at is keeping agreements.” The man’s smile broadened. “Even agreements you didn’t quite agree to. The things that will haunt a whole life to come.”

“Right…” Spike said, warily, letting the silence hang in the air.

“Fine then, I can be sociable. I see you picked up another member, one from Sandra’s storied past.” He looked aside at the frozen face of Tabby, caught in mid cheer, most of the rest of the party looking equally jubilant in their victory. "I thought she had left the story."

"She wouldn't take no for an answer." Spike chuckled a little, thinking about it. "Really, we tried to get her to not come, but she wasn't having it. Look, I know you like being shady, but we're this close, why… let's just set the cards on the table." He had almost asked a question, but caught himself.

"You draw close." He leaned in towards Spike. "I can feel the freedom."

"Freedom of victory," stated Spike.

"Ask your questions. The time for timidness is long past. Freedom of the life I chose without knowing."

Spike was quiet a moment, pacing left and right before the man. "Alright… So, cool, we talk, like normal people." Not that there was much normal about the guy that Spike could tell. "I don't want her… killed, or hurt. We're all making it through this."

“That’s not a question.” The man folded his arms. “If you want to get on with it, ask your question.”

"Wait, we were just talking, like normal people." He frowned at the man, mistrust blossoming quickly. "Look, you want a hero. You want a big heroic… thing." A little smile appeared as the thought grew even as he said it. "What could be more heroic than coming through this, against all the odds? Against every sign that all was doomed? That sounds pretty heroic to me."

Author's Note

The cards are placed on the table?

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72 - A Mark of Triumph

The man sighed. “You’re really pressing this angle aren’t you. Heroism is all about sacrifice, all about putting yourself at risk so others do not have to. All about taking that punishment yourself.” He pointed at Spike, prodding his armor. “Isn’t that right, Martyr.”

Spike stepped back, rubbing his armor as if it might hurt. “That’s not… I just picked this.”

“Did you?” The man seemed amused. “The heroic divine knight, saving his allies from wounds by taking them on himself. Does this divine knight really believe that his heroism is not about that? Did you never take a burden on yourself so another did not.”

Spike gripped his staff and wrung his hands, trying to think. He couldn’t exactly argue, he’s done that more than a few times, but… “That’s not… that’s not the goal of heroism. It’s to save everyone. To come through.”

The man snarled at this, finally. “That’s not how things work. Perhaps in stories, but this is the real world. Beyond that,” he stepped back, composing himself. “The tower is, in a way, a place of sacrifice. Adventurers come up, they risk their lives and their well being for a reward at the top. Glory for most, but the special few that make it to the top ask for more.”

Spike suddenly smiled. "Asking for more is what heroes do." He pointed at the man. "Like asking we all make it, for instance. Like looking for that 'story' ending. That sounds pretty heroic to me. You call that unrealistic? Fine. Heroes do that."

The man let out a little sigh, but the touch of a smile was on his lips. "You will fail, but I will watch. I don't have a choice, really… I had many, before, but we're past that point. Maybe you are too? Let's find out."

Sandra's hand came down on Spike's shoulder. "Was he here?"

"Wha huh?" he looked to the others, all watching him. Apparently they'd noticed. "Yeah." Of course, he wasn't there anymore when looked for. "I… think I learned something, sort of."

"Can someone bring me up to speed?" asked Tabby, hiking a thumb. "Also let's get all this loot! Check for things we want to keep, and let's melt the rest of it."

They gathered their winnings, Smolder keeping one of the daggers. "Look at this thing!" It crackled with a combination of utter darkness and sparks of lightning in an intimidating blend. "So keeping this."

The rest, bound for their smith. They held out their hands, attuning to the teleport beyond the boss, the official point at which they knew they'd never have to run up those floors, unless they were grinding on purpose. Tabby pumped an arm in victory. "We can handle this. We've pushed up into the real game. There isn't a soul in the city that can tell us we're not amazing, because we are. Oh!"

She fished out her guild chain and plunged her hand, the chain dangling from it, into the teleporter stream. When she pulled it free, it had been stained purple and other colors like an oil spill. "There we go. That marks us as officially past 60. Not just to 60."

“Oh yeah,” Garble pushed his way in front, immediately plunging his hand in it. Pulling it out his guildchain was also stained with the same colors. “Hah, imagine how jealous chumps will be if I whip out this baby.” He chuckled to himself, admiring the pearlescent color change.

"It changes our rank too," noted Tabitha, looking quite satisfied with herself. "You can just forget those stones and metals, well, unless we're dealing with another set that's been this far, then that can break ties."

Garble looked closely at his guildchain. “Rank… what was our rank?”

“Oh… it goes up naturally, right?” Spike said, pulling up the guildchain’s menu to check.

“Well… no,” Tabitha replied. “You have to build it up by doing tasks, getting better classes, proving you have an upgraded forge and such, wait,” she turned her head slowly. “You lot did almost nothing for your forge… so your rank--”

“Here it is,” Spike said. “Rank quartz.”

Tabitha pinched the bridge of her nose. “That’s the lowest rank you need to enter the tower.”

Spike’s eyes wandered as he thought. “Yes, that’s probably the last time we did anything about rank, yes.”

Tabitha pulled up her own guildchain to check it. "Mine hasn't changed."

Smolder shrugged softly. "So we're all the lowest ranking badasses in the world?"

"Well, no. I didn't drop levels, but didn't get any either." She held up her chain for examination. There she was, three ranks above them, just as the guild had set them just before entering the tower. "We haven't been asking, and they didn't just give them either."

Tabby snickered softly. "You realize that makes me the highest ranked of you lot. You have to listen to me. Just kidding. I owe you all so much, and I didn't forget. Thank you for taking me with you. I can't believe I almost missed out on this. We're going to smash it."

Garble slapped Tabby's back, though his great swat rang out against her armor and she barely wavered. "I was ready to hit you one." He laughed, apparently finding the almost-violence to be amusing. "Alright, let's get out of here. I got an idea."

Spike looked skeptical, his arms crossing. "An idea, huh?" Garble ideas were not known to be the best ideas.

"Two." He thrust up two fingers. "One, we rub in our achievements at the guild. May not matter, but I want to see the looks on their faces when we show off all we did, and we earned those ranks!"

Smolder hopped up, hanging off Garble's right side. "With you so far. What's number two?"

"We party." He slammed his hands together. "We did what everyone else said not to even bother with. I think we earned that too."

The extremely unamused waiter raised his eyebrow. “And you want… what exactly?”

“We want the full spread," demanded Garble with such a satisfied smirk on his face. "And be sure to have the gem dust shakers fully loaded. We will be using them."

The waiter frowned at the three that appeared to be demi humans, even if they had two humans with them. Taking the female humans for a better target, he faced Sandra. "Madame, this is a high class eat--"

Tabitha thrust her guild chain between the waiter and Sandra. Garble's soon joined her, Smolder's coming a moment later. "Stop talking, start sitting us," she barked, looking almost as satisfied as the dragons. "Or do you want us spreading the word this is how you treat customers?"

All of their guild chains sparkled in that oily way that spoke of breaking the limits of the tower, true seekers, summit approachers, star touchers. Few were those who had such things. Their gems also shone, each higher than before. The dragons had sapphires. The humans, emeralds. They were close to the top, the humans higher, of course.

“Of-of course, ma’am.” The waiter put on a grimace of a smile and stepped back, welcoming them in with a flourish. “We wouldn’t want to… show bad service, would we?”

Smolder charged past him, hopping over the back of a chair and landing on the cushioned seat, her bladed tail swaying eagerly behind her. "Now we're talking. Everyone sit down, because we are enjoying ourselves tonight!"

Sandra sank down next to Smolder. "Let's have a nice round of drinks while they work on the food. Something to loosen things up. We… We earned this." She smiled, looking genuinely happy. "Thank you all, for coming this far, with me."

“Hell yeah,” Garble roared, eagerly waving over someone with drinks. “I’ve never beaten up this many chumps in my life. It’s been great.”

Smolder laughed in response. “It is pretty great.” She leaned herself back, smiling self satisfied. “The whole process is pretty awesome, beating up stuff just to earn stuff to beat up more stuff.”

“It’s ascending that tower!” Tabitha said. “Both in and out of the actual tower. Ascending to more and more heights.”

Spike looked towards Smolder, behind her really, to what was missing. "It isn't free, even if it feels that way sometimes."

"Hey, staring is rude." Smolder grabbed her tail to hide it from Spike's eyes. "Look, as soon as we get to the top, we're going home. I'm not making this like a lifelong thing, promise."

Their talk was interrupted with a rather fancy golden carafe loaded with deep burgundy red fluid poured carefully into each of their mugs that shone with studded jewelry. "I will leave this here," promised a new waiter, setting it down in easy reach. "They're working on your dinner."

Drinking the red drink, burning their throats as the liquid went down, the night continued in earnest, their minds eased, and the food began to come. Airy spread on light puffs, small portions of glazed charcuterie, fine soup, eventually melding into rich sauce covered meats.

The dragons stomachs were like endless pits. Devouring everything ahead of them and asking for more. The humans, more reserved, wanted to save room for the inevitable next course.

“How has your--” The waiter sniffed, maybe stifling a sneer. “--Meal been?”

Spike, despite being a dragon, erred a bit towards his human friends in his appetite. "It's really great. Nice blend on the gems."

Sandra perked at that. "Yeah! I didn't expect you guys would know what really tasted good."

Tabby peered at her strange dragon partners. "Wait, gems have a taste? Besides rock, I mean. I tried some of it, expensive, made me feel like a king for eating it, but it didn't really add anything to the food."

The waiter seemed surprised at the exchange. "Only true drag…" he trailed off.

Garble paused his eating, watching the waiter run aground. "True… what?"

"Excuse me! I should get your food." He hurried away in quite the rush.

Strangely, a different waiter, a female, came back with a tray of dessert-like puffs that she set in the center of the table with a smile. "Sorry about that. He was called away. I'll be your waiter for the rest of the meal." Lacking some of the innate sense of sneer that the first one had, she seemed genuinely happy for them. "You made it up that high?"

“That’s right!” The now wine-filled garble declared with a mix of satisfaction and smug gloating, “We are bona fide badasses.”

"Can I see your chains?" she asked, not in an accusing way, but more of an eager fangirl wanting to see something amazing. When Smolder's chain emerged first, her eyes were on it. "Wow…" Then out came Sandra and Tabitha's. "Are those emeralds?!"

“Damn straight,” Tabitha said. “It ain’t the highest, but getting up to floor 70 means a lot. And we were prepared. Setting up the forge, getting the connections ready, figuring out what classes to use. I’m surprised we aren’t a higher rank, even.”

“Yeah…” Sandra said, an obvious hint of doubt creeping in. “Like my parents…”

“Like people who get to the top,” Tabitha said, leaning in. “Which is what we’re doing, remember?”

The waitress made a little gasp. “You really think you can make it? So many adventurers have tried to get to the top but nobody has actually reached it!”

Sandra gave her a look.

“Well they haven’t, trust me--” she put her hand to her chest “--I would know. I’ve been looking at all the greats. Either they get turned away at the last second, or the tower eventually claims them on their way up.” She pulled up the wine carafe and put it on a plate. “Let me just refill this for you.”

Sandra looked back down, now being lost in her thoughts, talking aloud “If so many adventurers might have made it to the top… and the tower extracts a price. How many adventurers reached the top and lied about it? How many reached the top and never came back because the price involved them never leaving?”

“Woah,” Tabitha said, shaking her a bit. “Hang on, tonight isn’t about worrying about that.” She gave a smile. “Tonight’s about the celebration. We’re already doing things that a tiny fraction of adventurers have done. And if there’s more seriousness to come later, we’ll face that. But later.”

Spike smiled too, not having said anything and gave a clumsy hug to Sandra from their sitting positions. “That’s right, we won’t let anyone hurt you. We’re all coming back down from there, and everything will be alright then.”

“A, uh…” Tabitha stumbled on her words. “Not exactly what I was saying, but sure, we’re definitely going to all be the heroes, and that involves coming back.”

The dinner went on, the mood lifting back up from that dark point under a deluge of well-earned luxury food.

Author's Note

Meeting with The Man of the Tower complete, and some grub! A good chappy I think.

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73 - Done, but not Gone

Smolder set out onto the streets of the city. She was done with the niceties of the human district, and her belly warm with drink, she set out to the part of the city she really liked: the demihuman district.

It was late and things weren’t rowdy anymore, but the warm lights and warm temperatures of the open restaurants were much more friendly than the closed off little palaces the humans preferred.

Then there was Pella's shop! Smolder smiled brightly as she approached her friend and mentor. "Hey!" They met, palm against palm in a high four both could enjoy. "How's business?"

Pella suddenly had a knife pointed at Smolder. "So, when were you going to tell me?"

Smolder put up her hands placatingly. "Woah, easy there. What didn't I tell you?"

Pella rolled her eyes. "The eyes of the entire district are on you, friend. You came down from 70." Her tongue seemed to curl as she said it again with emphasis, "Seventy." She rubbed two fingers together softly. "You are pushing into the stuff of legends, and you ask me what you haven't said. Chica, I am ready to slap you, then hug you. And maybe a slap afterwards."

“Oh.” Smolder laughed. “I’m sorry, we’ve been real busy with actually getting up the tower. Lots of prepwork. And, well, you know the value of that, right?”

Pella sighed with half lidded eyes and a smile. “Yes, you want all the ingredients ready before you start.”

“That’s right, if anything it’s great I ran into you tonight, as we used the prestige of getting past sixty to get into one of those hoity toity human places.” Smolder leaned over, waggling her eyebrows.

An eyebrow was raised. “Scandalous. Did you ruffle some feathers?”

“There were a lot of forced smiles.” Smolder’s smile was anything but forced as she described the culinary delights found in the extremely high class restaurant they just ate at.

“About halfway through, though, they swapped waiters? The new waiter’s smiles were a lot less forced.” Smolder turned her eyes up in thought. “She was actually kind of like… too excited?”

An ear and head cocked as Pella blinked. “I guess they decided to be nice?”

“Well, it was right after we mentioned how good the gems in the salad tasted, and they were all surprised we could taste them.”

There was a moment of pause, then Pella sucked air through her teeth. "So, it's true then."

"What is?" Smolder reached for a kebab. Not that she needed it, but it was a familiar and comforting food. "That we got to 70? Heck yeah!"

"Not that." Pella reached to tap her student on the nose. "You really are dragons."

Smolder blinked blankly. "I'm sorry? I thought that was a given at this point."

"You don't understand." Pella leaned forward, resting her arms on her cart. "Dragons are not demis."

Smolder struggled to assemble that properly. "Demis is a dumb term anyway. You're all way different from each other. It's the humans that lumped that on you. So, yeah. I'm not you, and you're not me." She waggled a finger between herself and Pella. "I knew that."

"I knew that… But there is some connection between us demis." She smirked faintly, inclining her head faintly. "A connection you don't have. You've thrown off the demi weight and taken on a whole new batch of dragon weight. Girl, you're still mine."

"Good!" blurted Smolder. "You were starting to sound like you were about to chase me off."

"What do you think I am, a human?" She chuckled softly at the idea. "We're cool."

"Great." Smolder chomped the rest of the meat off the stick and dropped it where it could be cleaned and re-used. "Seriously, this changes nothing. I was a dragon from day one. You were awesome from day, uh, before that." She leveled a finger at Pella. "I'll never forget you."

Pella suddenly dropped a hand on Smolder's head, grabbing her. "This ain't about us." She drew Smolder in closer. "There are some people, watching you, your group. They were hoping, praying… You were a symbol, that we could do it. Everything humans said we couldn't, you were doing…"

Smolder swallowed heavily, the last of her meal gone. It seemed to dawn on her, slowly clicking into place. "They thought we were demis, and they thought if we could be that awesome, so could they?"

Pella shoved her back. "I knew you'd get it." She crossed her arms under her chest. "That human will not be quiet. You're a dragon. You're all dragons. The city will know in days. Everyone will know. Your life will get easier. The idea that a dragon could go that high? Not so hard to imagine. Demis? Trash, always were. Silly us, thinking different."

Smolder furrowed her brow. “That’s… that’s nowhere near what we’re trying to do, Pella. You-you know that, right?”

“That doesn’t make it wrong, Smolder,” Pella said with a sigh. “I love ya, and I know that you weren’t doing anything to try to show us up, and the humans were hardly nice, but…” She looked down to her student. “Things’re gonna change.”

“They don’t have to,” Smolder said. “Things absolutely don’t have to change. I prefer it here. The human stuff was fancy but boy was it stuffy and even the excited waiter made me feel uncomfortable. I’m comfortable here.”

Pella looked to the side. “There’s another thing… They say this was all really telegraphed because of how you were hanging around with that human, too.”

“What, Sandra?” Smolder gestured her best dismissive gesture. “She’s super harmless. Like, she’s way better than before, but she’s mostly following our lead, not the other way around.”

“That doesn’t matter and maybe makes it worse.”

Smolder could but apply her palm to her face. "Look… I need to talk, to the others." She suddenly reached forward to grab Pella's less guarded hand. "I'm not ending this."

"They're gonna end it for you, girl," Pella warned, but a little smile grew despite it. "Still, thanks for being you."

"What else would I be?" With a lopsided smirk, she continued on her way, hurriedly marching towards her room, where the others could be found.

Attuned to it, she could hear people talking around her. Word was already traveling. They weren't calling her a demi anymore. She was a dragon. People ducked out of the way without asking. Humans just assumed she was worth making room for. It was like her situation had reversed. Dragons were greater than humans.

She did not expect the sharp point of a rapier to be leveled with her chest. "Pardon?" The guy holding it was familiar. A fencer, that fencer! "Hey! Been a while."

"It has been some time." He waggled the rapier at her. "I thought you were making noise, a reptile demi with grand dreams."

Smolder rolled her eyes. "I never once said I was something other than a dragon and you know it."

Tomás raised his rapier. "This is true, Senorita, but it is also true that were I to prevail against you, I could increase my standing by quite a bit."

Smolder hiked a brow up at the man. "You coulda just kept going up the tower." She waved at the great monolithic thing that could be seen all through the city. "I thought you quit caring about that."

Tomás let his weapon dance left and right slowly. "I am done with the tower, but we are not in the tower, are we? A fight, fair. Me against a dragon that cleared to 70? It seems agreeable to me. I challenge you!"

Smolder looked back and forth. People were already taking interest, she looked back at the fencer, ready to fight. It couldn’t hurt, right, doing something impressive? She pulled out her twin daggers, spinning them around into a battle stance. “Fine, let’s do this.”

Tomás cracked a smile, and his rapier went up and his whole body stance changed, as he moved up with a thin line exposed, his rapier thrusting lightning quick at Smolder. She contorted her body so this was more of a graze, but it hit her nonetheless. She took a hop back, but pressed her own attack, only to find his rapier was there to meet her and she backed off again.

She held her daggers up in a ready position as she tried to circle him. She was pretty sure she was out of his range, but that was a fairly long range. She tried to clandestinely reach back into her pouch for some food to recover, and he exploded into action, both moving forward and lunging his body at her. She could only barely avoid the attack, but the pouch itself was hit, magic jerky spilling out onto the floor. She stuffed the bit of jerky in her hand into her mouth, chewing, rolling away again as he reoriented himself.

He pressed his attack with no pause, moving forward without putting himself off balance, allowing his rapier to become an unceasing flurry of attacks, none of which cleanly hit, but he was too far away for her to strike, and she backed up with every attack, even as she bat away his rapier time and time again.

As she continued to dodge and bat away, she felt a terrible issue, as she heard a faint tink noise, and she couldn’t move her tail backwards. She cursed under her breath, that was a wall behind her, wasn’t it?

There was a gleam in Tomás’s eye as he pulled his rapier up again. Smolder dodged backward again, the presence of the wall behind her keen in her mind. It was terrible luck… if it was luck at all. This fight was showing her just how difficult it was to get hits in against an opponent without her team creating openings for her. Without her team being fed and nourished by her. Her class was fundamentally a teamwork class, where she created items, exploited openings created by them, and it was becoming very clear that his class was a duelist.

But, as he lashed out with a fierce lunge, she had no intention of actually giving up. She pushed her legs off of the wall, her daggers batting away his rapier as she got inside of his range, slashing at him in broad swipes from opposing directions.

Though he had worked hard to get her to the dire point, his eagerness to pin her meant he had let her get close to him. He was forced back in surprise only for her to dance backwards in a new direction, away from the wall.

"What's going on here?" Guards had arrived, shoving people aside to get to the fight. The one in charge seemed to look between their chains. "You should both know matches are done at the arena, not in the middle of the street!" But he didn't move to arrest either of them, perhaps deferring to the high ranks of the two he was dealing with. "Take it there, kindly."

The two combatants looked at the guards, then to each other, and simultaneously resheathed their weapons. Tomás looked to Smolder and gestured in the direction of the arena. “Shall we?”

Smolder raised an eyebrow, but decided to go with it, and made the same gesture. “After you.”

Tomás’ laughter rang out as the two of them moved in the direction of the arena, a crowd still following them.

Author's Note

Oops, new prickles in our path.

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74 - Not Us

Smolder situated her gear, stashing the few remaining good pieces of magic jerky in different pockets instead of an easy to slice pouch, and she looked across the waiting area. Tomás was also looking over his weapon, keeping himself limber.

They were alone, waiting in the room for someone to call them ahead for it, and after Tomás seemed satisfied with his blade, putting it away, he made his way over to Smolder. “A word, if you’d oblige?”

“I ain’t going easy on ya, if that’s what you want,” Smolder said, smirking.

“Heaven forbid,” Tomás said. “I wanted to ask if Tabitha is doing well. She has joined up with your ascent, has she not?”

“That’s right…” Smolder gave Tomás a side glance, and raised an eyebrow in a bit of a plan. “Why do you care? I thought you and the rest of her team ditched her when you finished with the tower.”

"That is cruel." He tossed something in a small locker, a gesture causing a bright rune to flare atop it, likely locking it. "We are done with the tower, this is true. You have been up there, you know it is no joke. I am not afraid to admit when my limit is reached."

He turned towards her, hand resting on the hilt of his blade. "Now, a duel against an opponent that will fight honorably? This I can manage. Win or lose, you have my respect for making it that far."

Smolder considered that, what they had faced and why. "She's serious."

"She always is." A little smile touched his face. "Good to hear her fire has not gone out. Come, let us meet, blade to blade in a clash between two warriors, hm?"

“Sure,” Smolder said, waving her claw. The door to the arena began to grind it’s way open.

“Ah, it’s time!” Tomás turned to the arena and headed out himself.

Smolder followed suit, but took a moment to wonder what exactly she was doing here. Why did she follow Tomás? She liked a good fight, but she also fought… well mostly because she was angry, or because she had to. Tomás had different ideas about what fighting was, and she wasn’t sure what, exactly.

The two of them squared off. They had collected a pretty good crowd on the way, but compared to the number of seats in the arena, it looked somewhat small. Like the fight was mostly just them.

The two of them squared off, drawing their respective weapons, and Tomás struck first, closing the gap and thrusting his rapier at Smolder.
She danced to the side, her tail curling in an arc, but not for show. The blade at the end struck his rapier just as it was coming in, knocking it aside for the precious moment as she came in with her knives.

But he had one too, proven when he drew it in a flash, driving her back. The battle had properly begun. "The dragon's fighting," came from the witnesses, more coming in to see the event. The spectacle of seeing what was confirmed to be a true dragon locking blades with a knight starting to draw more and more of the crowd as if warming up along with the ringing steel of their flirting contacts.

They came and separated in fast motions, testing one another. "You're not awful," she allowed. She could feel he hadn't pushed 60, but it was a respectable showing.

"You're going easy on me? Shameful." He punctuated the last word with a lunge, forcing her to leap out of the way. "I want a fair fight, my friend. Come at me."

She said, “Fine,” and dove in for an attack, intending to fiercely slash her blades, when an unexpected move stopped her. Well, stopped her with a punch to the face, far inside of the blade’s range.

A followup kick pushed her away and slashed at her, stinging as it was done, but she had scored a hit. A shallow one, but a hit nonetheless.

She continued forward, striking with conviction instead of testing him, but more times than she hit him, he hit her. More times than she felt like she had the upper hand, he had the upper hand. She grit her teeth, staring him down. He was good at this, but something was wrong. She was sliced up, but was largely fine, and he was also sliced up, but his movements were becoming sluggish and he winced.

She waited for him to thrust at her, and attacked his blade with force, batting it out of his hand, and she leapt not forward, but back, charging forward, her blades glowing with heat.

Tomás scrambled at his belt, drawing a dagger with a very sizable cross guard, but too slow for Smolder’s searing strike, which crisscrossed at him spectacularly.

Tomás cried and fell to the ground, laughing to himself. “So… that resilience. Is that what you need to persist beyond the sixtieth floor?”

"One of…" She was pretty sure there was more to it than just that, but… "You do need it." She flicked each of her knives clean of the battle and thrust out an empty hand. "Good match."

"Fairly fought." He reached to accept it, and they couldn't hear each other anymore, the crowd roading in cheers and jeers, but the cheers seem to have the majority of it, celebrating the grand battle between the dragon and the human, even if the human hadn't won that day.

It was still a fight worth watching, they had seemed to decide.

Garble strode the daylit streets, having rested up. A few days without heading to the tower meant arena time. There were more people to impress.

And he seemed to already be impressing, as every once in a while the humans in the world would take notice. They’d stare, they’d whisper with each other. He beamed, his big sharp teeth being on sight for all to see. Some people would cringe, but he was pretty sure at least a few of them seemed excited.

It musta been the effect of him having that shining guildchain at the side. They knew what it meant and who it was, as he marched his way into the secret underground arena with eyes on him.

The guards at the door narrowed their eyes when he approached. “Halt.”

Garble stopped and raised an eyebrow. “Halt?” He chuckled to himself. “I’m not sure you’re… aware of who I am?” He gestured to his fancy chromatic guildchain. “Not that it should be too surprising, I’ve been coming here for a while now.”

“I’m not sure this one should be let in,” one said to the other, staring at Garble but apparently ignoring his words.

“I’m not either.”

“Alright what gives?” Garble spat. “Don’t talk past me, I’ve been in here dozens of times, what’s changed?”

“Only what we know, dragon,” one of the guards said, finally to Garble.

“Yeah.” Garble gestured to himself, speaking slowly. “I am a dragon. I have always said I am a dragon.”

“That doesn’t mean we believed you,” the guard replied. “Dragonkin and dragon are two different things.”

“Well that’s your problem not mine!” Garble shouted.

“Let him enter,” commanded a voice from inside.

The two guards shared an uncertain look, and then parted so Garble could enter, him making a rude gesture as he passed them.

"Welcome back, student. You do not return the same." There was his teacher, watching him and seated in a calm position. "A new wind blows through."

"You telling me?" Garble gestured back at the guards he had just passed. "They tried to tell me I couldn't go where I always went. Buncha jerks."

"The same in body. A new face looks upon them. The sun rises… now." He rose with the last word, his hand moving towards his blade. "I must apologize."

"What fer? I've been using your techniques." He made the motion of cutting forward. "I walk with my song, teach people the mistake of crossing me. It's working great. 70, we hit it!"

"Congratulations are in order." He brought his hands together, but no clap sounded, instead just meeting and clasping gently. "But you can no longer compete here."

“What, because we got to 70?”

“Because the humans are aware you are a true dragon.”

Garble blinked, trying to wrap his mind around it. “What.”

“This place is for the demi humans, or” the man pointed up with his finger. “For persons whom the humans who run this town do not accept.” He then pointed at Garble. “A group which no longer includes you.”

Garble furrowed his brow. “Huh?”

“They have learned of both your feat, and that you are not a ‘normal’ demihuman.” The man elaborated. “They have decided, collectively, the reason you can succeed is that, as a dragon, you are special, and do not belong in the same category as the beast tribes.”

Garble paused as the gears turned in his head. “So what?”

His teacher gave a smile, a patient one, perhaps a knowing one. "So they, rightly or not, are casting you out. You are not them. They thought you were, despite your words. Words are easy, truth, more difficult." He let out a slow deep noise, a rolling sigh from his depths. "You were rising so well, perhaps I should have known myself that a demi would not have--"

"--can that," cut in Garble. "I'm winning because I decided to, not 'because I'm a dragon'. Not that being a dragon's a bad thing." He pffted at that particular idea. "Look, demis go up the stupid tower too, don't they?"

"Not so high, not so fast," he warned, putting a hand out flat. "Not with so little training. Like a new blossom, The truth of your future, bright, We were blind to it."

“Who cares! So I did a good job going up the tower, why would that change anything with this? I don’t even like the humans.”

“If you haven’t seen, and you definitely will, they will soon like you.”

“And who cares! Liking someone because the humans had the wrong idea and have another also wrong idea about whether or not I’m gonna be chummy with them is super dumb! It’s basically letting the humans make the decision for you.”

The entire tone of the room changed at that. Garble saw his mentor’s already somewhat grim expression harden. “You know not what you say. I am not making this decision with satisfaction, the reality of this situation is simply different.”

“Tell me I’m wrong,” Garble growled.

"We dared to hope," he admitted, his voice taking a downturn. "We ignored your words, saw in you, ourselves. You are not us. We were wrong. You spoke the truth, and still we were deceived. This is our failing, but still, at your feet rest the consequences."

"And you think I'm going to go with that?" He threw the idea aside. "Forget that. Look." He turned away. "Right now… Gonna go think, but I'll be right back to bash some heads until people start talking sense." There was exactly one person he could think of that he needed to see at that instant.

There were things to plan.

Author's Note

That could have gone better.

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75 - What We Can Do

"Harsh." Spike had his hands together, his arms crossing over his lap to meet in the middle as he looked over his two dragon friends. "What do you want to do about it?"

Smolder hiked a brow. "That didn't sound like 'this isn't our problem'."

"Let me help." Tabby dusted herself off softly. "This is not our problem."

"Tabitha!" Sandra swatted at the side of her friend. "Please, this is obviously important to them."

"I can see that, I can… I don't get it. You don't owe them anything, and they don't want it, so…" She rolled a hand softly. "You're officially not demis, good! That takes a lot of problems off our plate and lets us focus on that tower."

Sandra stomped softly, getting a reply from below where the barkeep made their displeasure known. "Sorry… Anyway, No! It wasn't fair when they were treated badly. It wasn't fair when I treated demis badly… It was wrong. I was wrong!" She threw her hands up in the air. "And if they want to help make a wrong right, I am there for them."

Spike chuckled softly as he sat up. "You've really changed your tune, Sandra. I thought getting us home was all you thought about."

"It still is," she squeaked. "Look… I took away everything from you. I'm here for you. If you want to go up that tower, that's where we're going. If it's something else, well, that's still true, alright?"

Tabitha put her fingers on her temples, massaging them. “What do you suggest we even do? I wouldn’t even know how to start approaching this. Besides, they're demis." She shrugged softly. "This is their thing."

“They’re my team, and I’m responsible for it!” Sandra protested. “I have to help them.”

Tabitha snorted but said nothing in response, and the room fell silent, Tabitha looking between the dragons as if to ask them to provide the next step.

“Well… what if we make the humans hate us again!” Garble said. “I mean, this whole problem is that the beast tribes don’t think we’re on their side, and we are, so we just gotta make it clear to the humans that’s true.”

“That’s even more counter productive!” Tabitha exclaimed.

"Gotta be on her side on that." Spike gently brushed aside the idea literally with a motion. "Look, people, humans specifically, have been down on demis since we got here. They used to think we were one of those."

"And now they don't," continued Smolder. "Which means our winning? Well that's just dragons being awesome, we can keep right on hating the demis."

"I don't hate demis," huffed Tabitha. "They're alright." She shrugged softly.

"Sure, they're 'alright'," mocked Garble. "So long as they do demi things, which ain't human things, right? Not that they're wrong, dragons are awesome by design."

“Why wouldn’t they do ‘demi things’,” Tabitha made air quotes. “They have all those open air areas, and the other stuff like that. I don’t like it, but I’m fine with it, why wouldn’t I be?” She rested her back on the wall, probably more roughly than she intended to do. “I know some humans are awful to demis, I just don’t see what it has to do with me.”

“And why would anything change if you didn’t do anything?” Smolder said, now nearly glaring at Tabitha. “If everyone just thinks ‘some people are bad but I can’t do anything’ then how is stuff supposed to be fixed.”

“Well what’m I supposed to do?” Tabitha started raising her voice. “You literally want to do something but I haven’t seen any ideas yet!”

“Stop!” shouted Spike, probably louder than he wanted. “Arguing here doesn’t help us figure it out” he wheeled around and pointed at Tabitha. “Are you in or not?”

Tabitha snorted again. “I’m in, I guess. As long as it’s a good idea.”

“Okay then what do we do,” Spike said.

“... Maybe Garble had the right idea,” Sandra looked around somewhat nervously. Before anyone could interrupt she continued, “Not in like, making enemies of the humans, but the whole problem here is that our allegiances, between humans and demis, were made for us. You two hung out with the demis because the humans treated you badly, and now that they aren’t anymore the demis are worrying that you’ll start acting like humans and being with them. So what if you… simply didn’t let that happen? Simply didn’t stop treating demis like your friends, even if humans aren’t treating you badly?”

“I don’t think that just trying to pretend that things are the same as before is gonna really work.” Smolder rolled her eyes. “If it were we wouldn’t have to do this.”

“Then maybe there’s something that can be done to make it clear in some way?”

"It's larger than that." Only Sandra could hear the voice. Twilight had returned. Sandra reached out to that presence as she gestured with her hands, drawing the circle and lines that allowed Twilight to exist more fully. "I heard some of that." Though only Sandra could hear her outside of a little equine snort.

"Twilight!" Spike hugged her, not minding how odd she looked as a summoned magic unicorn.

Twilight turned towards Sandra, ears erect. "What you're dealing with… it's the biggest enemy you've ever faced. I'm not even sure you all could do it… I'm not even sure I could face it."

"It can't be that bad." Sandra recoiled a little at how harshly Twilight was warning. "You seem to get what we mean. Give ideas, not… this."

"To fix this… would be to change society, itself, from near the bottom." Twilight inclined her head. "The best you could do… would be to push things in the right direction."

"What is she saying?" Spike was looking to Sandra. "I can't speak, uh, whatever noises she's making."

Garble smirked viciously at that. "What? She sounds about normal." Spike and Twilight rolled their eyes as he laughed. "Seriously though, what's she saying?"

“She’s saying uh… the only way to fix this really is to… completely change society?”

“Well we’re definitely not doing that,” Tabitha groused.

Sandra shot her a brief glare. “So the best we can do is push it in the right direction.”

“So what if we did something to kinda,” Smolder made a pressing together motion with her hands. “Like… force the humans and the demis to interact? Like, the humans will be all interested in us, being awesome dragons as we are, but if we made it clear that like, we were hanging out with the demis and they had to come around and play nice…”

“Yeah but most humans just hate the demis,” Garble said. “How would forcing them to hang around each other fix that?”

“Well, supposedly Tabitha here doesn’t hate em!” Smolder gestured to their currently grumpiest party member. “She might hang around the demis and maybe she’d get to like some.”

“Like a friendship thing!” Spike sprang up. “Not everybody would become friends, but there would be some friends.”

"They don't hate them…" Sandra worked her fingers together. "They just assume they can't do… what they do. Like I did, when I had three summons, who I expected to do… summon things… Not because I hated them, but because they were summons, and summons did summon things…"

The mood dimmed, taking in what was said.

Tabitha was the least affected. "Well, yeah?"

Smolder threw her hands up. "We have to show the world, at least some people, they're more than… what people think they are." She hiked a thumb at herself. "We didn't win because we're dragons."

"We didn't?" Garble raised a scaled brow at the idea.

"Not entirely." Smolder smirked at her brother. "We won because we." She danced a finger between herself and Garble. "--had great teachers, and they were demis. We need to, you know, put them up. Make it… really big, that they did this. A demi trained the tower breakers."

"So what you're saying is… We need to not take the credit?" His voice dripping with uncertainty.

"Well, yeah?" Smolder shrugged with a cocky grin. "Basically that. We need to step back, make this about them. We didn't win because we're awesome dragons, which we are. We won because we had great teachers. I mean, all of us do, make it about them."

“But what about… friendship between the races?” Spike piped up.

“Yeah, we’ve got this other plan right here that doesn’t involve us giving up credit!” Garble gestured to Spike.

“Are you guys gonna be around enough to really maintain some kind of friendship between the demis and humans?” Tabitha raised an eyebrow. “Like, using your star power to start some kind of demi human social club is cool and all, but your other plan is to leave, and pretty soon. When you suddenly disappear, then what happens? The humans lose interest.” She nodded her head at Smolder. “With this plan, once we succeed and Sandra and I come down from the tower with tales of our success, the interest in the demis persist. And even if it doesn’t do anything like friendship, it’s respect.”

“And you’re okay with giving some of the glory to the the people that trained us?”

Tabitha shrugged. “Everyone’s gotta be trained by someone. If you guys wanna hype your teachers for being instrumental to your success, go for it. Coming down from floor 100 will be all the glory no matter who trained us.”

Sandra laughed a little, considering. "My teacher wants me to give him some attention. All he talks about lately. It'll make his day, not that he needs it. Still… Yeah, let's put some of the light on us over on our teachers, really blow their whistles, especially the demis. They took care of you when the humans wouldn't. They showed you how to be awesome."

Twilight looked content, her initial worry faded, but she said nothing.

Tabitha turned for the exit. "Gonna catch some sleep. This sounds better than where you were going before, so, yeah, I'm in! Ha, bet my teacher barely remembers me." And off she went, the door slapping shut behind her as she headed off for sleep.

Spike kind of looked around. “Well uh… the closest thing to my teacher just walked out. Do you guys need help? Your teacher isn’t letting you back in the arena, right Garble?”

Garble made a sour face. “I guess not. I’ll need something else to lure him out.” He sat himself down with a look of intense concentration on his face.

Smolder laughed. “Don’t sprain anything, bro,” she said, but she furrowed her brow when he didn’t rise to the tease. "Mine will be easier, she… cares. She's a friend." She hiked a thumb at herself. "She won't run if I come walking up, I'm pretty sure."

"Hey, mine cares too," huffed Garble, squinting at his sister.

"I'm sure he does, bro, but mine's more open about it." She leaned back against the wall, hands behind her head. "She's like a big rabbit momma, and that isn't changing, even if she's a bit bummed out right now. We'll fix that."

Spike nodded softly. "Well, seeing as my teacher is… already getting fame, I mean…" He rubbed behind his head. "No. We have to send a unified message. I can't be waffling out. We dedicate our, you know, success to the people who helped us get here, even if one of them's a teammate now."

Twilight touched her nose to Spike's cheek, getting a smile from him. "And you?" came her unheard voice.

"I'll reach out to mine." Sandra huffed softly. "He gave me the first step, even if I think he rates a B- overall as mentors go."

Author's Note

Remember this thread? Time we did something about it, I say.

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76 - Sharing Words

Bright light was cast in their faces, lighting their features distinctly as they spoke. Tabitha was apparently first, "My teacher taught me the wonders of the Divine Lord, and instilled on me respect for it and everything it stands for. Without him, I would not be here, and I'm big enough to admit that."

Soft murmurs and a few claps came as notes were taken furiously. They had invited the local press, who had showed up. Level 70 tower reachers were rare enough to command attention when they did anything, let alone asking to give a press briefing.

Spike stepped forward as Tabitha withdrew. "My teacher, well, you know her." He waved back at Tabitha. "She taught me just as she was taught, reminding me of what makes my class tick, and my place in the team. Her training helped push past a few limits, getting the party past parts we would have been stuck on. I know people are giving us a lot of credit for being dragons, which we are, but we would have been stopped cold without the guidance of those who went before us, and maybe travel with us, in this case."

Sandra went next, stepping up. “My teacher… well, I found him looking for students, and took a risk on a class nobody knew about.” She could see him from the back, smiling a big smile as he tried to gesture to get a bit more attention. “The summoner is an unusual class, where you need to broker deals with different elemental spirits, and then they lend you their power, and you lend them yours to help fight for you. Your relationship with the spirits are as important as your relationships with your teammates, even if only one can be used at once.” The summoner master gestured up even more, like asking Sandra to pump him up. “My teacher gave me the basics and the advanced tools to succeed with a completely new class, both advising me on obtaining new spirits and using the ones that I already had. I couldn’t have even begun to master this class without his direction.”

The press were furiously taking notes, and the teacher from the back pumped his fist at the positive attention. No doubt that would mean more students and more summoners, and while he wasn’t able to get up to the crowd he was obviously pleased.

"I want to tell you a story." Smolder had stepped up, facing the press, almost daring them to try to speak over her. "About a lady. She had a group of friends, you know how that goes. Her party. They went into the tower, and they laughed at her. They told her they'd never even reach 10…" She drew a ragged breath, her tongue clicking on her teeth. "Not because she was dumb, or weak, or a coward, but because she had the nerve to be born with a cotton tail and big ears." She extended two fingers upwards, not for peace, but as a crude imitation of a rabbit's ears.

"Despite that, they tried their best… And they died, but we're not here to talk about the dead… She, in her pain, everyone already casting her out, saw me. I was clueless and desperate, but she took me under her wing, treated me like one of her children." A haunted smile spread on her face. "That's what I am… My teacher showed me how to be a culinarian, and how to be the best at it. She didn't walk up as high as I did, but she did, she walks right there, right next to me. Without her, I wouldn't be there. Pella made me what I am, not being a dragon, as cool as that is. And if you're hungry, look her up, she'll fill you up and teach you something. She's the best teacher I ever had, sorry Twilight." Not that Twilight was there. "She is a demi, and she reached 70, through me."

While the reporters went more fervently at their notes, the rest of the crowd began to have murmurs. The unusual nature of this statement was not lost on them, but before anything could happen, the last member of their party stepped up.

“I didn’t know how to swing a sword!” Garble basically roared, forcing it out over his internal cries to claim all the glory himself. “I mean I knew how, sword goes in monster, but I didn’t know how. I just flailed around, smashing more than slicing. And I met him, he did poetry while he was fighting! Right in the middle! It was the coolest thing that I had ever seen. He told me to stand tall as who I am, he admired that in me. He did poetry. He kicked ass!” Garble huffed, out of breath in his outburst, his voice lowering. “He agreed to teach me how. I trained with him, in poetry during combat, in building the power during it, in what equipment to look for, in how to survive.” Garble slammed his hands on the podium. “He was a demi too! I spent all my time learning with him, and he had to hide how awesome he was the whole time. And now that the humans realized how awesome I am, none of them know how awesome he is.” He raised his hands. “So I’m calling him out! Him versus me, in the big arena. The one in the center of the town. I’ll show everyone how great you are or I’ll kick your ass trying!”

"I'm not sure…" Spike's complaint was quickly drowned out with raised questions.

"Being dragons," one reporter asked that seemed to have some amount of deferral from the others, a standing member of the community. "You had to have known you were a step above the rest."

Smolder raised a hand quickly to field that. "We did, that's why we marched into the tower in the first place. We were sure… we had a chance." She smirked, thinking of her older self. "I was such an idiot. Pella reminded me of that a few times, kept me on the right path."

Another raised a quill. "Don't you think you could have done even better had you accredited tutors?"

That got a scowl from Tabitha. "Who are you calling a hack?"

"I didn't say--"

"--I was already on my way up the tower." She jerked a thumb upward. "And we're past 60, hit 70, and we aren't stopping until 100. So when you ask 'could you have done better', bullock on that! You're implying we have a better to be."

Spike hopped up onto a stool for some height. "Tabitha has a great point. When we reach 100, which we will, there can't be arguments of 'could have been better'. We're going to reach it, and you'll know who to thank."

Garble hiked a thumb. "And if there's any justice, you'll beg him for a lesson! He might not say yes, he's picky, but there should be a line of people asking!"

“Who is the name of this fantastic teacher, then?” One of the reporters didn’t even look up from her notes. “Where can we find this demi?”

Garble smirked. “He’s…” Garble stopped mid sentence, and realized that he never actually learned his name. He used titles, but… he continued. “You can find him in…” He clamped his mouth shut again. He couldn’t tell the humans about the underground arena either. That’d be awful, especially if this thing they were doing, which was going to work… didn’t work. “Naturally you’ll find him in the arena fighting me!”

“What if he doesn’t show? Can you get the message to him?”

Garble almost glowered into the distance. “He’ll know.”

Smolder leaned towards the others. "I'm not sure bro ever asked for it."

"Can it!" He pointed at Smolder. "You'll learn his face, in the meanwhile, you know hers. Pella right?"

"Pella," agreed Smolder with a big grin. "Best chef in the city, deserves a big place to cook, but what does she get? A rolling oven. Whatever, you can argue about that, but you can't argue results. She gave me what I need to win." She crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at the reporters. "And she's going to the top with me. Anyone want to be next? They may want to stop discounting the demis."

Another person piped up. “So, she is going to be joining your party?”

“It’s a metaphor!” Smolder said, and this was followed with more writing. "Seriously, she is the reason someone, anyone, is reaching for 100 right now." She waved a hand aside. "Consider that."

Spike patted her shoulder as Smolder returned in agreement. "Hey, uh, Tabitha. I never really told you, but thanks. Having you as a teacher really brought my game to the next level."

They shared a look, no further words, but the meaning seemed clear between them.

The newsies all had what they wanted, and the announcement had been made. Would it fix everything overnight? Of course not, that is not how things tended to work outside of faerie tales.

It did mean young adventurers at least considered the words of demis who came before them, which was a step, a chink in the armor of the long standing racism. That monster would not be defeated by them, not that evening, but at least they knew they had given it a good punch and hadn't ignored its fell presence.

Garble slapped his hands together, fist to palm. "I have to kind of tell him I called him out, and maybe ask his name while I'm at it."

Tabitha inclined her head faintly, moving for the exit. "How do you train with a teacher for, what, months, and never get their name?"

"He's mysterious, alright! He's got this… peaceful way of beating things up, and I got lost learning how to bring my own pain." He looked to Smolder for support. "You get where I'm going, right?"

"Sure do, Gar Gar. He sounds like a cool guy." She fired a thumbs up. "Who you're going to introduce us to."

"Wait, what?"

Spike perked up. "Yeah, I'd love to meet both of the creatures that brought you two this far. I mean, they sound important enough to both of you they're practically family, I should meet them. That goes for Pella too. She sounds cute!"

Smolder laughed at that. "Do not let her hear you call her that. She may be a rabbit, but she is a trained momma and she will box you across the head if you talk down to her."

Garble rubbed the back of his head. “Look, you guys already met him. He’s that uh… the cat tribe that showed up like when we were first here? All impressed at my pride? That guy.”

“I’m… uh…” Spike frowned. “I don’t know if I remember him. We met an awful lot of people.”

“What?! Out of all the people who met us he was totally notable!” He threw his hands up in front of him. “And he was at the party at sixty.”

“I mean sure he was there,” Smolder said, smirking. “But that doesn’t mean we met him. We’ll have to meet him again, lead the way.”

“Look, I already told you he isn’t talking to me right now, I can’t get into the arena, and so like, even getting him the message is… well I mean he’ll know, but I’m definitely gonna bring it to him.”

Sandra clapped her hands, doing a little spin as she walked. "Don't worry about it. Every paper is going to be yammering about us, and that challenge you made. He'll want to talk to you. Whether it's about good things or not, couldn't say, but there's no way he'll just ignore it."

Spike chuckled softly, thinking on it. "Yeah… I bet he'll want to share a… few words with you at least. That was kinda big, calling him out like that, in front of the entire city."

"Good!" Garble threw up his hands. "About time he got in the lime light, where it counts. Let's go." And he led the way with sullen grumbling.

Author's Note

Think it went well? The crew feels confident they helped! Garble promised a fight!

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77 - Windshadow

Garble twisted his neck left and right with soft pops as his hands worked a rag over his blade, shining it in preparation. He could hear the cheers outside, roaring in approval of the battle to come. But, on some level, he had already won the day.

His master had accepted the challenge, given little choice as he had been. The humans would see the awesome skill hiding in front of their stupid eyes. Win or lose, it would be a fight worth seeing, and it'd be a demi fighting it out in the real arena, in front of everyone, against someone they knew was worth the time.

Not that it meant he intended to lose.

He heard Smolder’s story from the guy she fought, more experienced than she was, Tabitha’s old teammate that Garble remembered fighting when he and Tabitha fought him and Spike. He was good but he couldn’t beat someone who had hit floor 70. So his teacher would go the same way. Garble had been hit by his sword before, it was good, but you couldn’t get floor 70 good without going to floor 70.

The gate began to grind open and Garble returned his sword to his long sheath, picking it up. He was going to discard it almost immediately, but drawing the sword was important, dangit!

He went out into the arena to the renewed cheers of the crowd, and he smirked holding a fist above his head, the crowd cheering wildly.

After a moment, the crowd died down, and finally Garble’s mentor, the Felisurra poet slicer he learned all his moves from, walked through. There were not cheers, but in fact the whole area fell quiet, as if they were waiting for something to be said.

So, the felisurra obliged. “A bold challenge, this. The sprout challenges an oak, to expose its strength.”

“That’s right! I was worried you wouldn’t come, but we’re here and we’re finally ready to fight for real, master.” Garble said, using the term that while accurate he had never actually used to refer to the felisurra.

A smile appeared on the felisurra’s face. “At this last moment? Flattery doesn’t suit you, prideful little sprout.”

Garble frowned, remembering how he usually addressed his teacher. “Y-yeah, well maybe I shoulda been using it a little more!” Garble gripped his own sword. “But I’m here now, and I’m gonna school you this time.”

“You, educate me?” The felisurra scoffed lightly, and put his hand to his own sword, with his eyes closed. “Your training is not yet done.” He opened his eyes. “I would teach you now.” His hand went to the hilt of one of his swords, having donned two like usual, but this particular sword is one Garble had never seen him drawn.

Garble drew his own sword, discarding his oversized sheath. “Bring it!”

“Little fingerling.” The man walked to the side slowly. “Are you swimming up the stream, or plummeting down.” With that his hand gripped his sword strongly, drawing it with a clean slice, which produced a white swash buffeted with wind, which Garble brought his own sword across, trying to destroy the energy wave.

The blast of wind, even with the energy cut through, still pressed at Garble and he grit his teeth and planted his feet to stop himself from falling over, and as his master began his advance, the battle was begun.

Despite not being a 70 challenger, or even a tower breaker at all, Garble found his swings were met, even worse, predicted more often than not as he worked with the song playing in his mind. He was sure he was working his dance right, to the tune, working higher and higher, working towards a great crescendo, but his teacher was keeping up, calm and collected.

Garble grit his teeth. “You’re not so tough, and I’ll show you my skill’s enough!” He bat away his master’s sword, attacking it instead of him, then brought it up high, bringing it down in a pillar of electricity, scoring his first direct hit of the fight.

With a bellowed laugh, Garble pressed the attack, “Weren’t you supposed to school me? I strode the tower, I showed my might, I gained my power, I’ll win the fight!” He pressed onward, striking fiercely, scoring another hit or two.

“Fierce assaults, your power. It suits your sword and manner--”

Garble interrupted his master’s poem. “Where’s this new technique, You promised to teach? Your poetry’s antique, my rhymes have reach.” He said as he swang one more time, a broad stroke that his master had to back out of.

Garble leapt into the air, ready to crash down on his master, only to notice a moment too late his master had sheathed his sword. As if he hung in the air, his master finished his own poem. “But I am the wind.” He drew his sword, striking upward, a blast of wind and energy struck Garble straight on midair. There was no bracing, there was no defense, he only went sprawling back, rolling on the ground as he hit it hard.

“I was an outcast.” His master turned back to him, leveling his sword, battered a little from the strikes but not broken. “Less of a person to them, I carved my own path.” He rushed in brandishing his blade. Garble rolled out of the way just as a cycling pillar of wind and energy crashed down where he was only moments ago, grabbing his blade and wrenching his own bruised body up.

“I strode not the heights, I gained nothing in the guild, I would be unbound.” His master continued his assault, trading blows with Garble even as they exchanged words.

“When I met you you were already in charge of a whole group!” Garble protested. “That’s a shackle forged by you! Which is the real you, and which is the dupe?

"There is the question. Which is the spread blossom and--" He paused to twist his sword around just as Garble struck, cruelly yanking it to the side almost free of the dragon's grasp. "Which is the true plant?"

"What's what I asked," complained Garble with a scowl, regaining his grip as he shoved himself against his teacher. "I don't even know your name. With all the things amassed--" He grabbed for his master's collar, missing by inches. "And still not that? A shame."

The crowd roared with approval at the showdown, deafening cheers greeting their each move as two warriors clearly trained in their profession met as equals there for their enjoyment. Hands came together, furred or bare, in clear admiration for what they were seeing.

The felisurra smiled. “Why don’t you earn it? A flower grows strong in thorns.” He sliced across, a spinning blast of wind buffeting him, pushing Garble back, and his master gave him a very cocky look. “Push me to the brink.”

"Talking smack, Coming attack, you can't feal the heat? Prepare for defeat," he roared, his cadence increasing as he pressed all the harder. "You taught me to feel the tempo, these skills you bestow. I reach ever higher. What's wrong with my supplier." He danced back out of the way of a narrow miss. "You speak of thorns, but it's just a bad smell. Keeping people away, so they can't tell!"

The battle raged on, the two of them trading barbs, but also, astonishingly, trading blows. A blast of energy here, a slice there, a knockback, a body check. As the two warriors continued to fight, Garble realized he was understanding his master’s movements better. Where he’d strike, where the blows would come from, even sometimes whether or not he’d block. His master clearly had this understanding already, and Garble was impressed, despite himself.

But he wasn’t about to give up, and he continued his fierce assault, verbally and with his blade. Ferocity was his strength, his master knew, and he understood. His master was restraint, was careful choice, was calm power, but power nonetheless. He came at his master with hot ferocity, unrelenting rhymes, the things he cultivated in his art.

Finally, the two of them stood across from each other, and his master visibly sheathed his sword, still standing in his ready position, and Garble tensed himself.

“High noon is long past, The battle concludes anon.” And he threw himself forward. Garble could see it, where the blade would go, and put his own sword in the way, parrying the powerful strike. But something was wrong, as he tried to look back, the energy remained, and he struggled against it.

His master replaced his sword, finishing his poem. “One final sunray.” And clinked his blade together, and the energy Garble was struggling with burst open, a torrent of wind and slashes slamming into him, breaking his guard as he went flying once more, rolling on the ground, bleeding and battered.

The crowd first erupted into wild cheers at this flamboyant display of power, and Garble could hear them as he tried to pull himself up, each breath was painful now. He pulled himself up slowly, painfully, bracing himself on his sword, and the crowd grew silent.

Garble did not fall, and he struggled to raise his sword in the ready position, never giving up.

But his master stood there, straight up, no longer bracing himself, no longer ready for a fight, although he clearly was also bruised and battered, and raised his voice. “I am Arlien, of the Windshadow clan of the Felisurra.”

It was, in the end, just an arena match, like many others. But there were several key differences that would not leave the minds of those who had seen it, even lurking there in the deeps of their thoughts. A demi had stood up to a dragon, where a human had failed. A person who has not even challenged the tower had stood up to someone who had reached 70. These things could never be forgotten, not entirely.

The world would not change on a dime, but the seeds had been planted. Perhaps, eventually, things would move in the right direction.

Author's Note

Big things are accomplished, I dare say. What do you think?

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78 - Cannot Be Recovered

The sun crested the horizon early in the morning as the party made their way to the tower. Early in the morning they weren’t getting attention, something they had to be worried about with their fresh celebrity status. Spike tugged at his new breastplate, their new upgrades after their week of farming the tower, just to be sure they had the best gear they could have. Besides, getting out early was the best, as it was time to tackle the new floors.

Smolder rolled out of the way as the beam shot where she just was, the cobblestone floor exploding in her wake. The eyeball in the middle of the room narrowed itself and continued to track her. She exited her roll onto her feet and sprinted, barely diving behind cover as the next beam struck that wall, blowing a hole in it, but protecting her.

“We’re running out of cover!” Smolder shouted to her party, hiding behind different little chest-high walls. “We have to make it to it, we gotta go two at once.”

“Are you sure you should be yelling that?” Spike shouted. “What if it hears us?”

“It’s an eye not an ear!” Smolder shouted. “Just do it!”

“Fine!” Garble shouted, getting ready to go. “On three.”

“Three!” his sister shouted immediately, and the two of them sprinted out from behind their cover.

"When you start, there are six letters. When you take one away, there are twelve," spoke a rotund feline with a cheshire grin to match. "What am I?"

Spike fired two finger guns at the beast. "Ha! Twilight got me this one for my birthday." In a lower voice, he added, "She always gets me a book." But, in that case, it had paid off! "Dozens! Take away one, Dozen, twelve." He snapped his fingers with pride as the cat evaporated, defeated by his knowledge of riddles.

Twilight trotted warily, the entire party slumbering on her back. She whickered softly, but there wasn't a person around to hear her thoughts. That floor had been made for them, relying on a summon to carry them when anycreature holding a chain was put fast to sleep. She would bring them to victory, or death.

She ducked as a great blade came swinging at her from the wall, slicing through the space between where she had been and where her passengers hovered a moment before gravity caught up with them and brought them back to her. She squealed in an equine way and dashed forward past the trap. The sooner she was done with that floor, the happier she'd be.

The entire party danced as one. "Step left, clap, step right, turn," called out Garble who had taken the lead, following the prompts that only came in music and colors. They were all sweating, having worked for what felt like an hour to get it right.

And it hadn't been their first time through, forced to flee every time even one of them missed a step. Only complete perfection would let them advance.

Smolder's piercing curse was the hint, and they all vanished to try again.

The five of them, without even a summon now, all panted as they stepped into the lobby floor, Spike collapsing into a pile on the floor.

“Huff… are we here?” Sandra said, looking out. “Did we actually make it?”

Garble panted, trying to hold it together. “Yeah… ten floors.”

“Nine floors,” Spike said, from on the floor himself. “We still have to do the boss.”

“Tomorrow,” Garble said. “It’s…” He looked outside the windows to the night sky. Lights dotted the sky and the town below, with a handful of lights seen out on the plains surrounding the town, in the safe zones established. “It’s not even sunset.”

Spike pulled himself up. “Not tomorrow, either.”

“What, you got plans?”

“Gear farming,” Tabitha said, finally composing herself. “We found new stuff on the way, which means we need new stuff to fight the next boss.”

“Yeah,” Spike said, still out of breath.

“At least we don’t need to go up nine floors again, we got some of the shiny stuff on the first few, we could just do them over and over.”

Garble growled. “Guh. Can’t we skip it?”

“Maybe if we want the boss to kill us, no, we gotta go back down to go up,” Tabitha went to the teleporter beam, attuning herself to it. “But for now, sleep.”

Everyone sighed, resigning themselves to the task ahead of them.

The whole party turned left again, stepping back, shaking their hands again for what felt like the twentieth time in a row, all bored looks on their faces, and then everyone stepped back one more, except Sandra stepped forward, and all of them popped away, back to the starting room.

“Dangit!” Garble tossed his sword down. “It’s turn clap backstep shake hands backstep.”

“I’m sorry! I lost focus.”

“I can’t work with this!” Garble shouted. “Can’t we go back to beating up stuff?”

Tabitha stood in between the two, trying to stop the hostilities. “This is less dangerous and more profitable than spending time on the huge hp sinks in the earlier floors. We all agreed, try to do the floors that we could do more easily. This floor resets loot even though it’s a puzzle, so we do it over and over. Besides--” She changed tactics, standing back just a little. “--You’re the one good at this one, right? You can go back to calling it out.”

Garble snorted out a puff of smoke and flame. “Fine.”

"You are learning the patterns. You are becoming what you set to be."

Spike turned from the frozen figure of the boss, caught in time just as it began to fall. "I'm learning and practicing. We all are. You know that."

"As we must." He set his fingers together. "You're almost close enough to touch. Freedom, after so long."

"Real talk." Spike frowned just a touch at his 'friend'. "The door is right over there." He gestured downward. "You can reach it, I know you can. Walk out. I don't see anything stopping you."

"It is rarely as simple as it looks, as you well know. How many times did you ascend those stairs?" The man nodded towards the flight that took them to the very boss they had just won against. "This is hardly your first attempt. Why didn't you win the first time? You had the ability, did you not?"

“We didn’t know how! We had to learn how to beat the boss… especially that part where he started throwing out the fire tornados where we were standing that didn’t go away for like… a full minute.”

"Rarely as simple as it looks," he repeated, looking vindicated in his stance.

"So get to work." Spike threw up a hand. "Do what we did. Figure it out, a thousand times if you have to until you get it--"

"--That is a kindness," interrupted the man. "One not extended to elements of the tower itself, which I am. There are no take backs. There is no recall. If I step over that line, that is the end."

Spike stared at him. “You’ll… die?”

“No, I’ll find myself back at the top. Like usual.” The man had a wry grimace on his face. “If there was a way I knew to end it, even if it were grisly, there are times when I might have taken that deal.” He shook his head. “No, there is no escape, even the most basic mortal escape.”

"But it is worse. There are those, within the tower, that have rebelled, and the punishment is dire. If the tower cannot have you willingly, it will by force. If it can't have you with the light of free will, it will accept a puppet." He spread his hands slowly. "And that is what you suggest for me?"

"No! No… Look. I'm not letting Sandra go." He thrust a pointing finger at him. "Not you, or the tower, can have her. The tower likes heroes, so listen up." He stomped a foot down. "I'm not letting you have her, and we're getting our happy ending. What do you say to that?"

“I think you sound like a broken record.”

"A thousand times, if I have to." Spike smiled at that. "We're just going to keep on repeating until we get where we want, so accept that. We haven't shown any signs of changing that."

"The journey from 90 to 100," spoke the man as if just abandoning the topic. "They will break you. You will lose things, things you can't get back. Your very essence will be tested. You wish to reach the top? You may curse the fact that you didn't give up before then. Come. Come forward. You want your wishes made reality? Show it."

"Spike? Was he here?" Tabitha laid a hand on his shoulder even as the ground rumbled, the boss striking it. "That was… more than a little odd. You just froze up for a split second, and I happened to be looking in the right direction."

The boss began to shine and fade away, it’s magic distilling into various magic baubles, and Tabitha turned to see if anything nice dropped for her. “Wait,” Spike’s voice stopped her.

She turned back with a raised eyebrow. “What?”

“He, the tower, he told me that the floors over ninety will… uh… he said that it will be harder than anything else.”

“... Yes, that’s how all the tower floors work.”

“No! I mean like… he was really grave about it. Talking about how it will test our very essence, about how it will break us.”

Spike took a pause, and Tabitha swooped in. “Hah, that’s what every floor would say to us, if they had the chance. I’m in this to win it, and that won’t stop me.”

“No, he said that we will lose things, things I can’t get back.” Spike looked over at the rest of his party, who hadn't quite noticed they were talking yet. “Look, he… he didn’t even really warn me of level seventy, when we had that big difficulty jump.” He stared at Tabitha. “He means business when he says it.”

Tabitha snorted. “So, what? We grind more to start? We ascend more carefully? What’re we supposed to do that’s different?”

“I mean, he warned me for a reason. He must have.” He threw a hand aside even as he noticed a good bit of gear, but didn't feel motivated to scurry for it. "He said, basically, we will pay. I'm not saying to change what we do… We're going, but just… to be ready." He reached out and grabbed, getting a squeak from Smolder.

"Let go of that." She snarled at him, his hand on her tail.

"Things we lose that can't be gotten back," repeated Spike with firming conviction. "Sorry, just talking about the warning I just got."

Smolder yanked her tail away with an angry snort. "I get the idea. The tower did it to me once, I'm nice and familiar."

"Ain't letting it touch her again," angrily promised Garble as he grabbed a sword he saw laying there, looking it over. "Eh…" Destined for the furnace, that one.

Tabitha lifted both her hands. "This? Right here? This is what makes a hero what they are. I am… I can't even say how proud I am to be here, to make these choices, and to have friends who will make them with me."

Sandra reached to pat her friend on the back. "Welcome aboard. Let's be careful, but we can't stop."

"Exactly!" Tabitha brought down both hands clenched together in a sudden fist pump combo. "I'm ready for this!"

Spike shook his head at the eager human, hoping she wouldn't have her hopes dashed in some cruel way. "That's it. Be, you know, careful, but we can't stop." Too many things were reliant on them, including the jerk that was 'in charge'.

Author's Note

Dire Warnings! The best kind!

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79 - What Next

"Let's mix things up." The feline that smiled at them was familiar, the one that gave them the riddles once before. "Too much of the same thing becomes a bit of a drag, don't you think?"

Garble hefted his sword high. "Get to the point or you'll get to mine."

"Oh, your tongue is as sharp as your blade," laughed the cat, seeming to find no threat in the swordsdragon. "It's already decided, so you could hurt me, if you like. I didn't do anything."

Sandra slipped an arm in front of Garble. "Sorry, we're on edge, and I think you know why."

"Of course, of course," murmured the cat with the deepest of sympathies. "Poor things. Why, we'll make it easier, because you've been working so hard."

Spike raised a brow at that. "And now I know we'll hate it, but go ahead, tell us how it'll be 'easier'." He made big air quotes to emphasize his doubt. "This'll be good."

"Fantastic," assured the cat, wiggling its back end in a typically feline way just before considering a pounce. "One floor for each of you, alone. Prove you really want what you say you want, if you're even sure what that is. Oh, this should be so much fun!"

Smolder threw up her hands. "What's the easy part?!"

"Only one floor per person means less floors, silly dragon," laughed the cat, seemingly quite amused by the whole thing. "In fact, as soon as each person finishes theirs, they'll get a chance to set a return after it, where you will all gather for the last big struggle before these ten are finished, even if it's less than ten."

Sandra looked pensive. “Maybe we should decline, guys. If we’re all together we can watch each other’s backs, but if we’re not… we could all run into fights as hard as ones for all of us, but alone.”

The group murmured amongst each other trying to weigh the pros and cons.

The cat tilted her head. “I’m sorry, perhaps I was unclear.” It clapped it’s paws in a distinctly uncatlike way, and behind them the wall faded away, showing five doors labeled with glyph like representations of the five adventurers. “Enjoy your change of pace.”

“... Oh,” Sandra said, crestfallen.

Garble scowled as he walked past the cat, the rest of the group following, and all going to their respective doors.

“Alright then,” Tabitha announced. “Don’t be afraid to use those recalls, either, guys. We are on our own, but we can save ourselves. And see you all on the other side.” And she opened her door, stepping through.

One by one the rest of the party stepped through their respective doors, and the cat smiled from the other side, their smile the last thing visible before the party was sealed inside.

Great cheering exploded from around her. Flower petals rained down all around as excited cries came at such volume that her ears hurt, but she could but smile in response, because they were all cheering for her, and she knew it.

Tabitha pumped a fist in the air, directing the cheering as she strode with confidence. A man hurried in from the left. "You are the latest of a vanishingly tiny number of people that have reached the very top," he shouted. "You must be so proud!"

"I am," she hollered in return, smiling all the wider. She had done it. Her dreams were coming true.

"What now?"

The cheering was gone. The crowds, gone.

She was alone in the dark, only that man left. "What now?" he asked again, his voice more of a sad witness of a terrible event rather than the ecstatic attempt to get a news story a moment before.

“Now I… I do whatever I want?"

"What now?" he asked, his words feeling like weightless but deadly sharp blades cutting into her chest. Two words, spoken so clearly there was no defense against them. Such a simple question. Why was she crying?

Rocky terrain with magma pools surrounded him, as he strode out. He hopped on his feet a little, his gear fading like it wasn’t even there, and he took to the skies. In short order he saw his old crew.

“Guys!” He yelled out, too exuberant.

“Oh, hey, it’s Garble,” said Fizzle. “It’s been a while, where’ve you been?”

“Probably out doing some namby pamby poetry,” Clump started to laugh.

“Hey! That stuff was really cool!”

His crew erupted into laughter, falling into a pile over each other. “Sh-shuttup!” Garble shouted, his voice cracking, and they just laughed harder.

Stomping away, Garble came across Ember, the dragon lord now. “Oh, Garble, you’re back.”

“Yeah,” Garble spat. “I’m back, did you miss me?”

“I thought things were less trouble around here, you come back to cause some?” Ember folded her arms.

“W-what? No, I’m part of…” Garble shook his head. “I thought we were cool!”

“So? You still cause trouble. Fortunately your sister is back in the pony lands, so we don’t have to worry.”

“You barely even noticed I was gone, didn’t you? I… I… I…”

He looked down at the ground, staring at it. The so-called friends who treated him like crap. The dragon lord he kinda hated but was… better. Smolder back off in the pony lands, far from him…

"You're back!" Twilight hugged Spike firmly, arms wrapped around, hooves just above one another on his back. "Thank Celestia. Now we can get back to normal."

Spike blinked softly. Normal? He thought back to where normal had been, where he could never quite reach again. "Twilight? I… I've been through a lot."

"And I'm very sorry, for all of it." She reached out past him and a book flew over to her extended hoof. "I've been a bad sister, but that changes now! You're going to be treated like the little brother you are."

Some part of him liked the sound of that, but so much also didn't. "Twilight, I… we… We went through a lot."

"It was terrible," agreed Twilight, setting the book down and flipping it open. "Not at all suitable to a dragon just going through puberty! I can't say sorry enough times. But it's behind us now."

Was that what he wanted, to forget all that ever happened?

Twilight woke with a start, blinking. She hadn't even been with the party, but she felt the same back-of-the-head detachment that came with her journeys to the other world. However, she had her usual body. And she was home. But that couldn't be true… "Spike?"

"Twilight." There stood Spike, he looked sad. "I'm glad you're here. We have something to talk about."

"Are you alright? What's going on?" She looked around that not-home, frowning with thought.

"We made it back… but… I can't be here. I can't be your #1 assistant anymore. I… I need to go do my own things. I'm sorry." He set a hand on her shoulder, reaching up to do so. "Thank you, for being there."

"Spike, what are you… talking about?" She shook her head vigorously. "We're…" But they were home, the reality insisted. "Even if… you grew up, I'd love you even harder!" She had gotten what she wanted, Spike safely home, but it was going wrong, going so very wrong.

Smolder walked out onto the school of friendship grounds. It was empty, for some reason, but she found Sandbar quickly enough. “Yo! Sandbar! Look who's back!” She took off to the sky.

“Oh,” Sandbar said listlessly. “Hi, Smolder.”

She landed next to him. “You seem less than excited to see me. I’ve been missing for like… months? At least?”

“Oh, I guess,” Sandbar said. “But school’s over. Everyone else went back home.” He glanced up at Smolder. “I just figured you did it sooner.”

“So? Why don’t we go hang out?”

“We all went home Smolder!” Sandbar said. “They’re all gone! The whole friendship thing is caput!”

Smolder frowned and tilted her head.

Sandra crashed into a desk she was certain hadn't been there a moment before. "Excuse me."

"We'll keep this short," replied a man sitting behind that desk. "No drama, no theatrics. Just the way you like it." He smiled, but it was devoid of warmth. "Name?"

"Sandra?" she answered as if she wasn't entirely sure, her eyes darting. "What is this?"

"I'll ask the questions, kindly." He penciled something down. The name? "Why are you here?"

"I don't know where here is," she admitted. "The tower? That's… changed."

"Has it?" Another scratch on the paper. "What was it, and what is it, more importantly?"

"I thought it was the answer." She spread her hands wide. "To everything. Just get to the top, and it'd all work out, make a reason… for me, for everything. That was dumb, but so was… I."

"I see…" He kept right on writing calmly. "But that changed, you said?"

"A lot." She pulled the chair on her side of the desk forward and sat on it, facing the man. "Now I'm doing it for something specific, and not about me."

"Selfless, that's considered noble." Not that he was speaking in any admiring way as he wrote it down. "Even if it costs you more than you'd want to pay?"

"He already told me." She crossed her arms. "There's a good chance I will pay… everything."

"And you still want it?" He looked up from his writing. "Do you have a reason, or is it just a stubborn decision? There is no wrong answer there." The writing resumed. "Both make for great heroes."

Sandra paused, and chose her words carefully. “Because… I’m responsible for it.”

The man scribbled something in his notepad. “And why is that?”

“Because… it was confirmed? The only reason Spike, Garble, and Smolder are here is because of some… heroism thing passed down from my parents.” She made a sour face. “Which I thought was my fault… for a long time?”

“And do you think that you still carry that?” He stopped writing momentarily to look at her. “Do you blame yourself for it?”

“I… I dunno. I did for a long time. But apparently it’s probably the tower’s fault?” She looked at the man, and upward. “And it’s a curse that was passed on to me. And the only way I’ll have the real answers, and a chance at fixing anything, is at the top of the tower.” She rose from her seat and stepped away from the desk. “How do I get up? I need to.”

The man gestured to a door that appeared behind him. “You only need to step through.”

Sandra immediately made her way to the door, throwing it open and stepping through it, stepping out into the room beyond, with its familiar recall point.

The door closed, and the man flipped his notepad closed, the nondescript features of his form becoming a cloaked man that Spike would find familiar. “See you at the top.”

Author's Note

Time to peer at their motivations a bit, and what comes next. The tower strikes for the mind, taking what can't easily be gotten back.

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80 - Why?

“Whaddya mean gone?” Smolder said.

“Without all of us here, the whole friendship thing is over.” Sandbar stared at the ground. “If you think about it, it was gonna happen sooner or later. Everyone drifts apart sooner or later.”

"Yeah… no." Smolder stomped up towards Sandbar. "We covered that. I could sorta get you guys losing track of me, seeing as I wasn't here or dropping any letters, but there's no way you guys wouldn't be keeping in touch even if you were a world apart." She spread her hands wide. "Get real."

“It’s not--”

“And what’s this crap about you not being excited to see me anyway?” Smolder frowned at her friend. “Even if everyone else was gone, where’s the relief that I am here?” She looked down at her friend, who was dumbstruck, but then up, as if expecting there to be someone looking down on her from above. “I’m coming back and soon, and not only will you guys not have split up, you’ll be the happiest to see me ever.”

With a burst of light, a door appeared in the middle of nowhere, and Smolder went straight for it.

"You can't treat me the same way anymore." Two Spikes in two places said the same thing.

Twilight's ears turned about against her head. "Spike, you've been through a lot… I understand. But I still love you."

"And I… love you, but I can't be your little brother."

Twilight smiled at that. "When I go home, do you know what my mother does? You've been there before. Me, savior of Equestria, future princess of the entire land, defeater of great and terrible monsters."

Spike smirked a bit, remembering the last time. "She grabs you around the neck, hugs you, and none of that matters."

"None of that matters," repreats Twilight. "Because no matter how big I get, she is still my mom, and I wouldn't want it any other way."

Spike rubbed behind his head. "But you're not going to be at home, you'll be busy becoming a princess."

"And you'll be busy becoming an amazing dragon," she returned fire. "And I want to be there, to see it, as part of your life. If you'll have me…"

“Of course,” Spike said, protesting. “Why would I change that just because I went through a thing like that?”

“Hmmhmm,” Twilight said, almost a smirk on her face. “Why would you?”

“Why would--oh,” Spike said, looking sheepish. “And why would you, right?”

“That’s right,” Twilight said, smiling back at him. “Why would I not be a part of your life because of this.”

Spike flushed red. “I guess it’s pretty silly of me to worry.”

“It’s not silly to worry,” Twilight said. “But it’s also not something you need to worry about.”

“Yeah, I’m getting outta here… and I’m getting back,” Spike said.

The glowing door appeared, and both Twilight and Spike saw it, and when Spike reached for it, Twilight found herself back in her room, out of the illusion she was in. She pulled out her notes on the other world, which she started writing the new observations in.

Garble sat on a rock, frowning, fuming.

"You shoulda stayed wherever you were," taunted a passing dragon.

That was an option, sure. He was a hero, a superstar. Everyone wanted what he had. He had money, sweet stuff… like his sword! He had everything…

But not his home. He growled and pushed to his feet in an angry motion. "And I ain't giving it up," he muttered to nothing at all.

"You starting another poet thing?" asked a dragon, laughing at the idea.

"And what if I am? I'm going to keep right on doing it until you idiots get how dumb you are." He smirked at the dragon. He had been dumb. However moronic the world. However stupid the people in it… He wouldn't give up! He was going to knock their heads together until it clicked, however long it took. "You guys are just another tower."

"Wha?" asked the dragon, not getting the reference at all.

"I'm going to climb the tower." To Garble, this made complete sense, an epiphany that only he understood. "And ain't nothing going to stop me!"

The light appeared and the door was there, and he reached out for it.

Garble walked through his door, finding himself in a room with a binding reset point. But also the rest of his party was there, with Spike and Smolder off on the side, talking about something.

Smolder flapped over, “Hey Gar Gar, you got through.”

He looked back and forth. “Wait am I the last one?”

Spike shook his head. “No, Tabitha is still in there.”

“Yeah, I got out second,” Smolder said, grinning cockily. “Guess I just got the tower better.”

“Shut up!” Garble spat. “So what, did the runt get out first?”

“Well--”

Smolder grabbed him by the neck, giving him a noogie. “He came out after me, actually.” She laughed. “I’m ready to tackle the tower more than he is, I guess.”

Garble looked over, and Sandra was looking at her own guildchain, somewhat pensively. He leaned down and whispered, “What’s up with her?”

“Beats me.” Smolder shrugged. “I came out ready to clear this tower and she was uh… well she keeps looking up, I guess.”

“I’m worried,” Spike said, also quietly. “She didn’t want to talk about what she saw… and I guess I’m worried about Tabitha, now. You and her are taking a lot longer.”

“I had a lot to think about!” Garble protested, which caused Smolder to erupt into laughter.

The three of them looked to the last door with Tabitha’s rune on top…

Tabitha threw her hands wide. "I'm a hero!"

"And what will you do, as a hero?" asked that lone questioning person.

"Heroic things… Save people. Save… everything." Her words lacked punch, uncertainty thick.

"What would you save? What do you care to save? Would you save your friends?" Her old group faded into being briefly, fading almost as quickly. "You had your chance to walk with them."

"Just because I went to the top doesn't mean I can't help them!" She half-shrieked, a panicked edge to her voice. "Heroes don't play favorites, or only save other heroes. That's a pretty lousy hero."

"Are you better? What do you want?"

"I want to--"

"Be a hero, yes."

"Yeah…" It was fizzled and weak. "Look, Sandra, who I thought was everything not a hero, is in this to the end, to the very end… I can't let her be the hero." He raised a brow. "What?"

"You plan to take her heroism?"

"No! Just… I have to be there, to walk with her. I'm the only one there that's been part of her… from the start. She loves her dragon friends, but they don't have that." She leveled a finger at the man that had become the source of the great internal struggle. "I will be her hero, then I'll figure out the rest."

“And the glory you wanted?” The voice echoed, stopping Tabitha. After a moment of pause the voice continued. “Isn’t that the real reason you didn’t want to go with your friends? You are focused on your glory.”

“I’m also helping Sandra, and the dragons. I can be a hero,” Tabitha said weakly.

“But are you willing to sacrifice for it?”

Tabitha’s mouth went dry, and she struggled out the words, “Is that what a hero really is?”

“Isn’t it? What else could it be?”

Tabitha stared at the man, and lowered her brow. “It doesn’t matter what it is, really.” She stepped up closer to him. “I’m going to the top. I’ll be there for Sandra, and I'll get the glory too. Then I’ll leave it and do whatever I want.”

“And if you can’t?” The man smiled.

“I can.”

Her door appeared in the darkness, the man stepping aside. “Well, we’ll see, won’t we?”

He allowed her to depart, shaking his head only after the door closed. "Loose ends."

"There she is." Garble huffed a little fire. "What took you so long? Was it trying to rag on you too?"

Spike nodded quickly. "It did that for all of us, so why wouldn't it?"

Sandra laughed nervously, the one that didn't get 'ragged' on. She did not rush to correct them.

That didn't stop Smolder from noticing her reaction. "Hey, what'd you see?"

Sandra looked back and forth. “Well, you know, trying to get me to… say why I needed to go up the tower?”

Smolder glared at her for a moment. “Sure. We all had that, I guess.” She continued as if she was oblivious to Sandra’s evasive answer. “Like, I saw one of my friends at Twilight’s school, trying to tell me that nobody was looking forward to me coming back and everything would be a disaster. Which was an obvious lie, and I walked past it real fast.” She took a step closer. “But you got out before me, so what did you see?”

“It was just trying to get out of me why I wanted to go up,” Sandra said, still a little evasive. “But I already knew what it was, there is no way this doesn’t end without me seeing the top of the tower and figuring it out, so I was upfront about that. I got through.”

"Wait," came in Spike, joining that conversation with a quizzical expression. "You were asked? Like, my thing didn't really ask me anything… It was… kinda just personal stuff between Twilight and I…" He rubbed one arm with the opposing hand. "It was… awkward, but, you know, looking back, I'm actually kinda glad we got that worked out."

It was Garble's turn. "Wait, you actually talked to her? Everything I saw in mine was acting annoying and weird, like Smolder's! And you get to just chat with someone you know?" He crossed his arms, a big frown on his face as he considered the preferential treatment Spike had received.

“Well she started out acting weird!” Spike protested. “She was telling me about how I had to leave, but sooner or later something uh… changed? And I’m pretty sure at least I was talking to Twilight for real.”

“That still doesn’t count, I had to deal with Ember being a jerk to me, alright. You get to talk with someone you see all the time!”

“Well I can’t hear her,” Spike continued, the two of them squabbling as Sandra sighed a breath of relief, the attention turned thankfully away from her. As she stepped back, though, Tabitha, who was also being ignored, was giving her a look, but looked away as Sandra met her view.

Smolder suddenly slapped down a hand on either of their shoulders. "Let the boys argue, but, c'mon, between us girls, spill it." She hiked a thumb where Garble's angry voice came from. "We all saw stuff that bothered us, I get that. I do. We're here, together. A team! Right?"

Tabitha nodded firmly at that. "A team! Yes, exactly." She returned the favor, hand on shoulder with Smolder, squeezing. "Look, sorry, again… I was treating you like a random… well, dang, thinking back at it, I thought you were a summon at first, which is even less." She shook her head slowly. "You proved me wrong, so wrong, and I'm not too big to admit that."

"Were they picking on you about that?" asked Smolder with a raised brow. "It's cool, past us." She slicked back the hair she didn't have. "We're a team."

"A team." A little of her spirit didn't make it into the agreement.

Sandra reached out, not placing her hand on a shoulder, but Tabitha's arm instead. The two shared a look, somehow understanding one another just a touch more.

Author's Note

We all have our reasons for pushing forward.

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81 - Always the Answer

Spike pushed open the door to the boss, only for a great punch to come forth. It didn't strike him, as much a surprise as anything else, though he felt the drag of his martyr's stance drawing some of the pain that had resulted.

Garble slid backwards, decked across the face and sent sprawling and stunned. The fight had already begun, and with that, the tower had sent a clear message. The time for niceties had ended. The boss of that tenth floor was ready to end them.

They rushed into the room around the withdrawing fist. Their challenge was a great six armed gorilla that howled in fury, eyes alight with malignant red energy. "You are almost to the top." It eradicated the floor where Smolder had been standing moments before. "Pathetic. They let anyone up here, I see." With a renewed simian cry, it swept a hand along the floor, knocking Spike and Tabitha aside as if they were nothing but paper dolls.

Smolder ran to their side, serving up some rejuvenating snacks, while Garble pressed the offense, “You think you’ll put us in fear? You won’t stop us here!” He slashed a crackling crescent, smashing into the ape. It didn’t do nothing, but it also didn’t stop the ape, who thrust out an open palm at Garble, crashing into him, sending him back.

“Fear is not my goal,” the ape replied, moving his arms almost hypnotically, covering the attack approaches. “Only the reality of your futility.”

Garble pulled himself up, feeling the familiar pulse of healing from Spike’s heal, as he popped his neck. “So are you just sayin words to hear yourself say them?”

The gorilla charged, three punches coming in quick succession, the last of which was intercepted by a shining shield. “Nah. He’s definitely trying to get in our heads.”

A star lanced down from the heavens, slamming into the ape, once again not causing a flinch, but Sandra and Twilight were far out of range, preparing another starshot. Tabitha let out a cry as she waded back into battle, but how far it had become slanted seemed clear to her. They had went from well-equipped to comically under prepared. The ten floors they had skipped?

They had been a trap. They couldn't farm them, nothing there to farm. They were in a losing fight, but it wasn't one they could lose. They had to reach the top. Her thoughts fizzled as she was bowled over, not by a clenched fist, but the back of a finger, just clipping her as it reared back with the rest of its hand.

"Cheese it," called not Spike or Sandra, but Garble. "Recall!"

They vanished almost instantly, popping away in abject failure.

"Damn it." He punched the wall next to the recall point. "We were nothing compared to that thing. How do we catch up to that?"

The five of them (six, with their quiet unicorn) sat for a moment, before eventually Spike piped up. “There must be… something else we can do to power up our equipment. Tabitha, you’re the one who probably knows the best, what can we do?”

“I’ve been trying to think of it. Problem is I don’t have a good… idea of how to do that. Most of the highest level adventurers who don’t go into a tower spend a lot of time building reputation with organizations, or going into the most dangerous places in the world. None of which are here. Like, there are some decent areas around, but nothing that I think would be that dangerous.”

Smolder was mulling it over. “Do you think that we could just… learn the fight better? Recall repeatedly and treat it like the dance floor where we just figure out exactly how to not take damage?”

“Then what would we do on the next floor?” Sandra piped up. “We’d be up against normal monsters that expect us to be tough enough to beat the boss with only a little difficulty.”

Spike put his hands on either side of his head as if trying to squeeze a migraine before it got too bad. "Alright, alright! Let's calm down… We aren't giving up."

"No way!" barked Garble in agreement. "If we have to go cross-country to find one of those places, we will. This tower ain't winning!" He turned away from the recall point. "Ain't giving it that satisfaction."

“What about Arlien?” Smolder said. “He had some really good gear that could stand up to and then beat Gar Gar here, but he never went up the tower. Unless he had a big adventuring career or went out regularly, he must know something about getting good gear here. And he probably doesn’t hate us anymore…”

Tabitha considered that, but her eyes were on the recall point. "He doesn't hate us. I don't think he ever did? We were teammates… before… Maybe it's time we stopped by and had a chat. Just because he didn't get to the top doesn't mean he can't have some answers."

Sandra nudged her friend. "Arlien," she reminded. "You're thinking of the wrong person we had a fight with recently."

"Huh, did I?" Tabitha seemed a bit distracted. "Either way, yes, let's go back and talk with people who have power, but aren't climbing the tower. We aren't giving up… We can't."

The felisurra man scratched his chin. “I hadn’t talked much to tower climbers. Are the materials really that different?”

“Different how?” Garble asked, talking to his master, or former master, or whatever, on his own.

“Well you are using nothing but tower materials and that is… not quite what kind of materials I use. Materials outside of that can be bartered for, and sometimes I need rare ores, mined and extracted from the mana of the mountains themselves… or wood or herbs.” He turned around. “This is in addition to the materials of powerful monsters, which really sets the power level of the gear.”

“Yeah, but the strong monsters are the problem.” Garble said. “I don’t know if there are any monsters around here that tough. But you have gear at least as good as mine is. Where do you find them?”

The man smiled. “There’s a way to find extremely powerful monsters, and the drops they provide are even stronger than is implied. It is guaranteed something that can do amazing things for your equipment, it is…”

"So…" Sandra walked along with the others, outside of the city, headed away from the tower. "The dragons experienced this once before. You kill enough monsters, close together, quickly, the fleeing energy can get all tangled up, recombine… manamerge." Sandra twirled to face her party, going backwards. "We never finished a fight against a manamerge, but, if Garble's mentor is a good word, it could be the source of even more amazing equipment."

Spike thrust up a finger. "We won against the fire monkey thing, remember? We can handle it!"

"A catch, a big catch," warned Tabitha. "We're not in the tower. There is no recall. We win, or we lose, big time. Keep that in mind, fight like your life depends on it. It does." She hiked a thumb back at the city shrinking behind them. "Good news, all that effort we put in with our smithy will pay off. We bring her better materials, she's ready to work her part of things."

Smolder nudged Tabitha, an elbowing. "Your friend went this way, right? Why are we following them again?"

"Tomás is with a group working to weed out monsters before they become too big a problem." Tabitha pointed ahead in the direction they were going. "But that means they have a lot of monsters in one place, enough to think of bringing it down. We get in there, manamerge them, we get his job done, and get our supplies, at once."

The party ventured onward, into the rocky crevasse ahead, where the monsters were naturally going to be funnelled into a small area, and they looked down and saw them.

It wasn’t so much a group of monsters as a moving mass of magical monster boars, most of which had aquatic features, finned ears, swordfish nose horns, as well as a few overtly throwing some form of water magic around. “Those do not look like they belong here.” Smolder raised an eyebrow.

“Tomás said that these were roaming around. Maybe they all came out of a river or something someday and started tearing up the countryside, and his pick up group was gonna cull them a bit as they went through, and keep at it.”

Garble slammed his fist into his other palm. “But we get to knock em all out at once, then knock em out again.”

The party made their way to the front of the pack, all taking high points above the point of the herd. While the herd was impressively large, the point was not too many monsters. Tabitha looked to Sandra, giving her a nod, and Sandra shouted, “Aiden!” summoning her firebird, which then pelted one of the monsters with a blast of fire, blasting it into steam pretty quickly.

The individual monsters were not difficult. Compared to tower beasts they were, at best, maybe floor 30? Nothing compared to them. But Spike and Smolder had a more important job as the rest destroyed them like angry gods.

Spike waved a tasty dumpling on a stick. "This way!" He danced and capered, leading the herd along towards the waiting ambushers. "Right here!" The less they moved, the easier it would be to make sure all their magic got all gelled together, to start the chain reaction that would result in a manamerge.

Smolder wiped her forehead with an arm, slaving over a big fire as she reduced monsters into more tasty bits for Spike to use in his job. "We got this!"

"What are you doing, chica?" Tomás landed beside Smolder, quiet until then. "It is considered ill sport to steal another adventurer's task from them."

"You can keep the money," assured Smolder. "We're not here for that, promise. We're just making it easier for you."

"Now you are taking pity on me." He looked more curious than outraged. "Tell me, what are you doing?"

“D-did she not tell you about anything about what we’re doing?” Spike looked aghast as he ran by. “Tabitha what the hell!”

“Hey!” Tabitha protested, as she shield bashed a water boar into another. “We didn’t have time to tell him. I can tell him now! Tomás!” She turned around. “We need a huge manamerge monster so we can improve some gear, and a large group of monsters like this is perfect for it.”

Tomás made a flat face. “Tabitha… we were going to whittle down the monster because it would be dangerously strong with all that power.”

“Sure! But we’re at floor 89 and, remember how I said we were struggling for gear.” She dodged out of the way of a swordfish boar. “So uh… there was a good solution! Sorry!”

Smolder lifted her shoulders with a sheepish grin. "Hey, we owe you. You can take all the credit for these things getting bashed to pieces."

"Not enough," he stated simply. "You are making wealth right now, and not offering any?"

Smolder looked towards Tabitha a bit helplessly.

Tabitha threw up her hands, spinning in place to narrowly avoid a thrusting horn. "Do you even have a smithy ready to go? You defaulted the last one to me, remember!"

"I do remember," he assured. "But you obviously have one, or you wouldn't be here, Tabitha. Don't play dumb, I know you are not that, chica. Rude, perhaps at times, but dumb… no."

Tabitha blocked a strike, only for Garble to come in with a spinning strike, taking out a whole group of enemies at once, eliciting a whistle from Tomás. Tabitha grit her teeth. “Fine, but we really need stuff to increase our gear power, we cannot make progress without it.” She slashed at the next monster coming at her. “We can work something out later.”

Tomás grinned the grin of someone who knew exactly what he was doing. “Alright then, chica. I’ll hold you to that.” And he backed up to watch the fireworks from a distance.

Above the party, in between the rocks of the crevasse, monstrous water mana gathered, collecting more stone mana from the environment, growing in size and power…

Author's Note

You know what time it is? Farming time! You can't run a MMO fiction without farming!

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82 - Stuck in the Mud

The coalescing mana pulsed up above, the water eroding away the earth mana below, as the whole mass became heavier and stronger, a small crystalline core, filled with fluid was created at the center, pulsing itself with magic.

Garble spun around, a tremendous lightning arc as he felled boars. “More and more! I won’t be beat by any boar” Another slice straight through as he picked up momentum. “This fight isn’t a chore, get ready for me en--” He brought his sword up, looking up… and spying a quickly darkening orb of fluid, interrupting his rhyme.

The mana finally coalesced into a monster, the orb erupting into a tremendous mass of mud hanging above the crevasse, and as it descended, a roar echoed in a great bellow, all manner of hooved quadrupeds, horses, boars, deer, and other beasts appearing out of it.

Garble stared wide eyed up, terrified as hundreds of pounds of a moving mud mass plummeted toward him. It came closer and closer, and then he felt a magical grip, and he felt his legs and body locked in place as he was dragged out of place, and found himself standing right next to Spike, who was up on a rock, watching as the mud stampede crashed into the ground where he once stood, engulfing the remaining boars.

The mass of mud pulled up, a part of it lashing forward as a terrible mass of undulating beast parts could be seen in the mass, a deer head here, hooves trampling there, as if the beasts were inside the mud trying to get out.

And, of course, trying to kill the party.

"This is bigger than the last one," quickly blurted out Spike as he clutched his shield and staff, knuckles paling with that force as subtle green energy spread outwards, preparing to heal and absorb the damage his teammates received. "Remember, there is no recall!"

The mud charged at Smolder, an antler lashing at her, and she ducked under it, only to spin and twirl between three sets of gnashing teeth. Mud arced where her tail blade caught the mass, punishing it for getting so close. "I didn't forget, I promise."

Twilight dove for the mass, only to vanish, unwoven mid-charge. Crystal erupted from the ground with a screech of stone grinding against stone, providing a bulwark against the oncoming wave of angry mud, giving a precious moment for the party to charge around it into battle.

The mud slammed into Crystal, a mess of hooves and horns bending around its solid might, but began to flow around the elemental. Tabitha cut an errant hoof, whose mud landed on the ground, which was slurped up by the mass as it moved forward.

Smolder did much the same, slashing at the mud beasts, splattering the limbs and horns and antlers, but the wall of mud was unabated. “Um, are we actually doing anything?”

“It’s gotta take magic to reform after we cut them,” Spike said, healing after some of the many strikes that made it through their defenses.

Tabitha grunted as she deflected another hit. “But it’s clearly not very weak to getting smacked with weapons.” The entire party had to back up as the mess of mud creatures advanced. “Maybe we need a different kind of element.”

“We can’t crack! Now eat my attack!” Garble brought down a column of lightning onto a whole wildebeest torso, the crackling lightning spreading a little, causing the wildebeest to solidify and crack. “Gotcha,” Garble cried, leaning over to leer at the now solid wildebeest, just before the cracked skin of the wildebeest burst open, a smaller but still quite large pair of horns smacking into him.

Spike immediately lept into action, sending a healing pulse to Garble. “So that stopped it… for a moment?”

Smolder licked her lips. “Oh really? Well what about…” She leapt into the air, puffing fire into it and spinning her blades in the flame, bringing the hot blades down onto the mass, immediately drying another section, which she pushed off of. This time it took even longer to reform. “Bingo.”

“Aiden!” Sandra shouted, summoning what was apparently the actual most defensive option of her firebird. “Spread the flames!” she shouted, and Aiden pelted the mass with fire, solidifying full sections.

The mud would burst free from the dried sections sporadically, splattering out dangerously, or even flowing around it, subsuming the cracked earth into itself, but a strategy was found.

A tiring strategy, as the dragons did their best to breathe all their fire. Spike gasped for breath. “I don’t know if I’ve blown as much fire as this before,” he took another breath and shot flame at the wall, which clearly had a lesser effect than the magic-class enhanced attacks his teammates had. “I didn’t realize I could get this tired of breathing fire.”

Tabitha lept in front of a charging buffalo head, the mud splattering against her shield and knocking her down. “I’m not sure if we’re making good progress…” But as soon as she said that, they caught a glimpse, a bare glimpse, of the world behind the mud creature. It was getting smaller. "Keep it up!" Tabitha rebounded without a beat between, driving against the mud with renewed energy.

However, it had not lost the will to survive, to win. With a great undulation that reached them and past, the mud became part of the ground, upheaving them as the tortured forms of countless animals started to surge up, trying to rip them and beat them where they had stood.

Spike and Garble took flight with equally startled noises. Smolder was left behind, cutting and hacking in a desperate bid to provide enough space to work in. "Snacks up!" She threw a great handful of goodies into the air, unable to look up long enough to aim the shot, just hurling them.

No longer helpful, Sandra let Crystal come apart, rocks falling and fading, allowing the mud past in a wave that threatened to wash her away, but it never reached her. She soared straight up to join the two dragons, her wings wide and flapping powerfully, united with Twilight's essence. Sorry for sending you away.

Is there really no way to warn me? Came Twilight's chastisement, but she was still ready to fight, flowing with Sandra to keep them aloft.

Smolder kept closer to the ground, but swooped up away from the mud as it struck.

But Tabitha was in a much worse position. Her feet sunk another few inches into the mud as she desperately used her sword and shield to beat away its attacks, but it was no use. With no allies and in the epicenter of the mudslide, the creature swirled and flowed it’s way closer and closer, and she took herself a deep breath just as the mud finally engulfed her head.

She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to move. The mud was heavy and pressing onto her. She concentrated on her shield magic, because no doubt it would try to crush or attack her from the inside, and she felt herself swept up in the flow of the mud. But there was a presence, a glow that could be seen from behind her eyelids, and she forced them open. Inside the blurry mud she could see a blue and amber outline, something not quite a sphere but definitely a ball.

And then something else seized her. She recognized the magic immediately and focused her own magic on it, and the loose grip became a firm one, and she felt her whole body lock in place and rip upwards. Soon she was soaring full speed into the air, seeing the mud monster and indeed the walls of the ravine rush past her frozen form, and she suddenly stopped in midair, floating right next to the flying Spike, who reached out to grab her as quickly as possible.

He got his arms around hers, having a hard time with her weight, until Smolder and Tabitha came to the rescue, grabbing other of her limbs, as she hung awkwardly in the air. She exhaled loudly, her eyes burning from the mud and panting from lack of breath.

“Oh oh, we got you,” Spike said. “Sorry, I didn’t even think of that, are you alright? You didn’t swallow any--”

“No,” Tabitha managed to blurt out between deep breaths. But it wasn’t time for apologies or even thanks, as she looked down the mud began climbing the walls, and while it was slowly, it’s churn was going faster and faster. So instead what she said was, “I saw a core in the mud.”

“What?” Spike said.

“A-a magic core, a weak spot.” She gasped another breath. “It’s gotta be near the center, and it might be the actual body of the monster, everything else is just a fancy magical attack.”

“So what, have all the attacks we’ve been using are useless?” Garble groused.

“I mean, we could have carved our way to the orb probably with time,” Tabitha said. “But no, we’ve just been getting rid of it’s ammunition.”

“Which it has a lot extra of from the walls,” Spike said, grimacing.

“What is that?” Garble held his hands out in exasperation. “How were we supposed to beat a monster like that?”

In a moment of insight, the unity of Twilight and Sandra said, “We’re not in the tower, this isn’t a fight created to allow us to finish, it’s a fight that we made by overdosing mana. We could have created a monster nobody could beat…”

Spike cursed, but then caught himself. “Wait, could have?”

The two in unity smiled, and said with two voices, “We’re pretty sure we can blast away the mud, so the core can be attacked directly.”

The moment hung in the air, and Garble thumbed his sword. “If you can get me a clear shot, I can hit em with the big one. I have been itching to use it since Arlien showed me it.”

The churn of mud reached up, creating a pillar that approached them all too quickly. They broke into two parts, Tabitha held up by Smolder and Spike under an arm each. Twilight/Sandra brought their hands together, magic forming brightly. "Time to bring on the heat," they called out in that strange unified voice of theirs.

They focused magic into their hands charging up the starshot, while Garble started his own preparation, flying up higher, swaying back and forth while flying, “Your power is tough, but get ready for ending.”

The unity raised their hands, rune after rune appearing above the battlefield, a tremendous shining purple light above her.

Garble raised his sword too, not stopping his rhyming. “This battle’s been rough, but no one’s pretending that we’re the one’s bending.” He looked down, his sword at the ready as the mud monsters extended further up off of the walls, stampeding straight up off of it.

“Starshot!” Shouted Twilght and Sandra, sending their magic blasting down from the sky with a tremendous crack of magic, blasting into the mud monster with terrific force, blasting Smolder, Spike and Tabitha on their backs from the edge of the ravine, and lancing into the mud monster, driving away most of the mud, leaving a floating amber and blue orb uncovered by the mud.

Garble dove at full speed as magic whorled around the orb, reaching out of it to the mud, grasping at it and desperately pulling toward it, and Garble continued. “We’ll pierce through this foe, it’s you we’re transcending!”

The mud had barely reached the orb by the time Garble’s blade did, as he crashed through it, only small bits of mud clinging to his blade, as he stopped himself, swiping the blood off of the sword dramatically. “So here’s the last blow!”

A crackle of lightning burst at the orb, a peal of thunder exploding out from it.

Author's Note

They did it! Now imagine the loot, because that's what this is all for. And for all we complain about the tower, it makes fights that can be won, however difficult or painful.

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83 - 90

Spike was pretty sure Tammy was salivating as she stared at the amber and blue crystal. “And… and I get to use all of it?”

“That’s right,” Sandra said. “We need gear to tackle the next boss badly. We lost an entire ten floors of stuff. Can you hook us up?”

“Course.” Tammy leaned up and rotated her arm. “I’m pretty sure I can make some nice stuff for each of you with this.” She rubbed the end of her hammer against her face, pacing before her foundry. "I'll just turn that… And…"

Spike tugged at Tammy's pants lightly. "Sorry, but you mean you can get us all ten floors, right now?"

"Huh? No, but if you keep hunting like this, no problem! Just think of it like--"

"--Farming," finished Tabitha. "We're tower farming, outside the tower. Get us the best you can, Tammy. The better it is, the easier it'll be to get more, faster. We all want to get to the top of that tower."

Garble let out a weary sigh. "Figures, more farming." Still, he didn't argue the basic idea. "Hey, Tammy."

"Yeah?"

"Can you tell when we have enough stuff to be worth ten floors? That'd be kinda good."

Tammy threw her hammer where it landed on a hook in an expert toss. "I've gotten better at it! You all keep bringing me so much amazing material… I know you all feel like you're coming a long way and you are don't get me wrong." She turned her hands towards herself, fanning imagined heat. "But I am too! I feel like way more of a smith than I was before you all showed up."

The party and smith prepared for their own departure, when Tammy leaned over to Sandra. “Don’t look, but there’s a lurker. What’s he waiting for?” Sandra turned to look, and at the edge of the smithy lurked Tomás.

Sandra waved her hand. “No no, he’s with us. He uh… inadvertently gave us the hook up for this round of monsters. Oh and uh… well we have to ask you if you are willing to work for him a little too, as compensation.”

Tomás entered the conversation, completely sensing that discussion had turned to him. “Hopefully if it’s not too much trouble, that is.” He gave a glance over the work that Tammy had been doing. “It probably isn’t cheap, getting work from a smith like you, now.”

Tammy giggled. “Now, it’s much better but I still have a way to go.”

Tomás’s smile broadened. “Now, even if you can put down your own skill, you have to admit your forge has definitely come a long way.” He then leaned over and said in a lower tone. “Although I would not put down your own skill, if I were you.”

Tammy laughed again, this time more nervous. “I’ll keep that in mind, I suppose I can do a little work on the side, but I’m pretty sure my team comes first.”

“Of course, of course, and in fact,” He turned to the rest of the party. “I think they have some more work to do for me.”

Tabitha, who had been only observing the conversation, took notice. “Huh?”

“Come now, chica, how do you think you’ll be finding more monsters of that caliber?” He wagged his finger. “You can’t just wander around and find it. Now I, on the other hand, have both the information and the connections to the people who know where more are. You can keep wandering, or you can take bounties I use, for a… modest finder’s fee.”

“Well,” Tabitha looked around, a little bit of shock coming down. “I mean uh… I guess” she looked to her party for help, all of which seemed to be looking fine, with Spike from the back giving her a thumbs up. “I mean… if everyone else is good with it… yeah, I guess we can work together again.”

Tomás smiled like this was the plan all along.

A delay, just a delay… "We can do this." It wasn't Spike, but his sister. Twilight pumped a hoof for good measure, not that anyone but Sandra could hear her.

Sandra smiled at the enthusiasm. "Twilight says we should try again."

Spike wobbled a hand. "Tammy says we're just on the edge, like we farmed normally, but you felt that. Maybe we should edge on the safe side for this one. We're so close to the top." Warnings danced in his mind. "Let's not take chances we don't have to."

Garble shook Spike's shoulder from above. "As interesting as some of these, whatever, manamerges get? I want to finish this."

Smolder shook her head, patting her front as if to get rid of dust. "Besides, that Thom guy's doing his part, but I still hate that he's basically mooching off our skills. If we're gonna farm more, I say we find another way to do it that isn't hooked on him."

“We could stop whenever we want, I think,” Tabitha said. “He’s good to work with, holds up his ends of the bargain and such.” She looked back and forth. “I think whomever he works with with whatever organization knows he isn’t doing the work himself.”

“So do you want to keep going up or not?” Spike said.

“I think we should give it a try,” Tabitha said. “If we’re as tough as we think we are, we can all escape from the fight, and if we are tougher, we beat him.”

The little dragon sighed. “I guess I’m the only one who thinks we should stay back.”

Garble slapped him on the back a little too hard. “Don’t worry about it, we can waste more time out here later.”

Smolder was caught in a giggle, and the party in general started up.

Tabitha opened the door this time, catching the huge fist with her shield as the fight immediately began basically in the summoning room itself.

“You kept me waiting,” the ape said as he lunged forward, a disciplined punch being shot at several nearby party members. “I had thought you had some sense and gave up.”

“We don’t have sense!” Garble said.

The ape didn’t stop, but did chuckle. “Is that so?”

“Garble!” Smolder yelled, barely dodging another punch.

The difference of their new equipment became rapidly known. The ape's strikes, while powerful, couldn't put them to the ground in one strike. Their own attacks, as annoyingly untelling, had become more than angry gnats against the skin.

The fight had become tough, but not impossible. And that was all the difference they needed, turning the battle slowly towards their side as they chipped away at their opponent's resolve.

"I knew this wouldn't work," groused the ape as it clapped two hands together to catch Garble's blade, even if Smolder was already rushing in to carve open a line in the opening created. "But I'm just the first. Not the worst."

"Leave the rhymes alone," called Garble, wrenching his blade back with an arc of red from where it cut across the palm of the creature. "Ain't got time for a moan. Sit down and die."

When they landed the last blow, Spike with a charged blast of holy magic, the ape grunted more with annoyance than death, and it evaporated into bits of gear and supplies to take back. Tabitha was already nodding at it. "Good… job everyone. Grab it!" And so the looting began, the party needing no further prompting to clean the floor of everything they could get their hands on.

What came next was a surprise. A recall point. Smolder squinted at it suspiciously. "Too nice." She hiked a thumb at the door leading to stairs that went upwards. "Bet the next one's even harder?"

Garble lifted his shoulder with a wry smirk. "I bet the next one ain't even a monster."

Sandra gasped with alarm, her hands coming together to cling to one another. "You're probably right! We're past playtime. It's time for more than tests of combat readiness. We passed that, with the ten floor skip."

Spike, however, just looked around. Where was the man that would be here, what did he call himself? Logos? Last time he showed up the moment they cleared the boss, but on this boss he did not. Well, he wasn’t quite sure if more conversations were going to help. Spike had run out of things to ask him a while ago.

He continued to move too, picking up what seemed to be a very nice healer staff, nice that they don’t have to melt it down either, and the party headed to the next room.

Where a big cheesy banner saying “Happy 90th Floor!” was draped across the portal, and the robed man stood underneath it, with a party hat on and a popper in his hand, which he pulled, sprinkling confetti with a pop. “Congratulations.”

“Oh,” Spike said, very unsurprised. “There you are.” Everyone else was frozen, staring at the man.

Right until they moved. “Wait, Spike,” Sandra said. “Is this… the man you’ve been talking to?”

The rest of the party murmured and gaped at the man, who responded instead, “Indeed I am, you’ve finally ascended high enough that I can project myself to all of you, instead of just the small one.”

"I'm not small," he got out in a low grumble, arms crossed across his chest.

Smolder advanced on the man. "So you're the guy behind all this!"

Garble cracked his knuckles, a look of cocky violence spreading as he considered what was the best possible way to start. "Good on ya fer comin' to us."

"And this is why I spoke to him." His eyes went not to Spike, but to Sandra. "You've come such a long way. To think you struggled so long to even gain access to the tower, and now you race towards the finish line."

“Yeah.” Garble reached for his sword. “But we can take a detour to beat your ass.”

“Now now” The man seemed unphased, looking to Garble briefly. “I’m not here to fight, I’m here to talk.”

“So what?” Garble made good on unsheathing his sword. “You’re the source of all of this, aren’t ya?” He positioned his sword, and started moving forward. “It’ll be easier like this!” He slashed at the man, his blade going straight through. There wasn’t even a swoosh of interrupting some ethereal form.

The man paused, watching for Garble’s reaction, and continued, “As I was saying, You have all done such a wonderful job, and there’s only ten more floors and to go, and you’ll all be able to do what you want!” He gestured to Garble, “Go home.” To Tabitha. “Get glory.” And to Sandra. “To fix everything.” He backed up and held his hands up at his sides. “You’re all so close, and I’m looking forward to it so much.”

Smolder snarled. “But this is your fault.”

“I am compelled by rules that all of us have to follow, little miss orange dragon.” The man walked up closer. “Decades ago somebody made a wish that drew in their family, this is just the consequences of that.”

“But you brought us here.” Spike said, not being able to help himself. “That wasn’t in any rule. And I bet it’s not in the rules per se that Sandra has to suffer for what her parents did.”

The man’s faint smile didn’t waver. “Well, perhaps there were things that could have been changed.”

“So then what’s your plan?” Sandra said. “You answer a question every ten floors, right? So just ask it right out, what are you going to do with us at the top?”

The man put on a mock pout. “You want to give away the plot right before the end? That’s no fun.” He began to float up into the air and the smile came back. “Well, I’m sorry if you’re going to be disappointed in the answer, but it will be vague. I can’t just give away all the plans, but I can tell you the basic gist of it.”

He pointed down at Sandra. “I will tell you what to wish for, and you will wish for it, giving everyone here what they want.”

Author's Note

Ah, you again. No, I don't want what you're selling.

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84 - May Be Closer Than They Appear

"We could do it." Sandra rocked on her feet, her hands clasped behind her back. "This could be time. It might not be… We may find a recall every floor, and need to use it a lot." She laughed nervously, glancing aside at Tammy. "But it could be it. We may not come back."

"Of course you'll come back." Tammy pulled a heavy chain that caused her furnace to roar with renewed life. "You just might be different. Oh, I guess dead's possible, but you won't do that." She leaned in over the edge, peering into the crucible of creation. "I did want to say something though."

"Yeah?" She swiveled more towards the great smithing engine. "Thanks, for being our smith."

"You stop that." She began pumping her left foot up and down on a bellow, causing air and fire to mix, encouraging both. "You've transformed my life, in a good way. Even if you go off and do something else, right now, I'll never be the same. I'll never go back. You… Your team, I went with you. It doesn't feel that way, you know, with me not doing the fighting and stuff…"

"I get it," Sandra weakly agreed, barely a whisper.

"Not sure you do." Tammy left her instruments alone to grab Sandra suddenly, hugging her. "Thank you. Whatever happens, I am glad our lives got all tangled up. I'm glad we're friends. I'm just… glad, alright?"

Sandra returned the hug, if a bit awkwardly. "That goes for me too." But fear prevented her from saying much more. "I should meet with the others. We have to finish this."

"You'll be back." But Sandra did not agree with Tammy's confidence, leaving without another word.

The next boss was, on some levels, very basic. They had modes and times where sufficient damage had to be done, quickly, or they would unleash hell upon the party. They never felt it. They were cautious enough to recall when it began flashing, which was clue enough. They didn't even know how long they had. A moment? A minute? They didn't hang around to find out.

Properly pummeled, the flashing wouldn't come. But the prompts came faster and faster, and the needed intensity of their motions climbed with it.

Smolder leaned up against a wall. "I really hate this one, and all the 'one boss' floors, really. They mess with my thing!" She threw up a hand. "And I get the impression the tower knows that. This isn't a coincidence. It's messing with me!"

There were no chances to gather food from weaker enemies before the fight, since the fight was the entirety of the floor, meaning-- "You're good with your knives." Spike pointed at the two dangling from Smolder's hips. "Even your tail. Um… How does that… feel?"

Smolder hiked a scaled brow. "Feel? Oh… Well, I'd rather have the original." She shrugged softly. "But what I have works, and if I'm angry enough, I can take it out on the next monster with it, and that makes it a bit more even." she wagged her tail, the deadly tip-ornament flashing in the light.

Tabitha clapped her gloved hands sharply. "Alright, enough of a break. Let's try again. The pattern seems to be seconds, one less second per rotation. I think we're past it, or at least to the part where it has to start a different cycle."

They groaned as one, but headed towards the lift heading up to the boss. They weren't giving up.

Garble threw himself at the boss, his unleash blasting it with a crack of thunder, releasing his ultimate strike.

The boss stopped glowing once more, their floating chimes sagging from it, and they rose their hands, one golden blast from them hitting Garble, which Spike did his best to absorb with his martyr pain share.

And then it immediately started glowing and flashing again.

“Last rotation my ass,” Smolder said as she moved forward.

Sandra was out of summons, each burnt successively to clear the rapid rage emanating from the boss. Smolder was doing her best, but without buffs she mostly just sliced. Tabitha wasn’t enough of an assaulter.

So this run was a bust too, then. “Time to g--” Tabitha was interrupted.

“One more!” Spike called, and darted forward with all his might. His staff collided with the figure’s unarmored abdomen, unleashing the entire fight’s worth of stored up martyr energy into their figure, shocking them.

They convulsed and shook, ultimately falling down, disappearing and the loot popping out.

The team let out a collective sigh.

"Quite a battle." The old man of the tower sat on a rock, watching them as they entered the next room. "You deserve a reprieve." As if he summoned it, which perhaps he had, a recall point twinkled into being. "This is the last chapter of many things."

"We don't need any favors," scoffed Smolder, her arms crossed. "You're just enjoying watching us struggle."

"If you'd rather." The recall point shrank and fizzled, fading away. "Then you can do without. I was honest. We simply hasten things, in the end. There is no recall, there are no points."

Garble elbowed his sister. "The guy's a jerk, but I kinda wanted that recall."

Spike and Twilight both sagged, Spike speaking up, "Really? You know we're on edge, for good reason. Don't be mean about it."

"Mean?" He stood up, dusting himself off. "You're coming with visions of my death, but you call me cruel? That is exactly the sort of attitude I should expect from a dragon, I suppose."

“Don’t give me that! You wanted us to come! You wouldn’t want us to not come!”

The man shrugged. “I don’t want any ill for you, not really. I have something I want, you have something you want, and we can all work it out. I’ve heard whiffs of your conversations, don’t you love friendship over there? I just want to be friends. Really.”

“That sounds even more like you’re making fun of us,” Smolder said flatly.

The man chuckled, gesturing his hand. The recall point appeared again, and he was gone.

Garble immediately made a beeline for it, plunging his guildchain into it.

They entered into the next floor, only to feel the whipping of wind and the sunlight on their faces.

Above them the tower looked like it was torn apart, bits of it were floating on the way up. And what appeared to be a myriad of traps, flamethrowers, magic baubles, spikes and arrows and spears all dotted the areas way up.

And the first other place to land was at least twenty feet up.

Smolder raised an eyebrow. “So what, like an aerial acrobatic stage?” She stretched out her arms and wings. “I think we can handle that.” The three dragons took to the skies, only to be stopped by a clearing of throats.

Sandra and Tabitha stood still down on the landing, neither with wings at all.

“... Oh.”

Sandra made a come hither gesture with her finger as a rune formed in the air, Twilight stepping free. "I have a workaround, but we can't just forget Tabby like that, c'mon!"

Even as Sandra became part horse, the two larger dragons swooped in to grab their non-flying partner. "This is gonna be a problem." Garble squinted. "We have to go fast, and we could be attacked while carrying you around."

Spike rubbed behind his head. "Kinda annoying, but are you saying you aren't up for it, Garble? I thought you were a good flyer."

"Shove off!" He took off, only to not get very far and almost falling back where he came from.

"Warn a sister." Smolder rolled her eyes and lifted, allowing Garble movement. "We have to work together, or we're all gonna pay the price."

Spike flew up, pulling out his shield. “If you need some extra space, I can set up shields to make sure you have it.”

Tabitha made a sour face. “I’m better at that stuff than you.”

Spike flew to her. “But you don’t have your hands free.”

“I can still put my shield up if I need to.”

“Sure you can,” Spike said, flying languidly around the group. “Probably pretty awkward there.”

Tabitha groaned. “Let’s just go.”

And go they did, but it was slow. Short frantic moments of flying were punctuated by time watching traps and testing.

But they did make it forward.

The group collapsed onto a shallow place to stand in the middle, Garble and Smolder both gasping for breath.

“You two alright?” Sandra’s union said. She was still filled with energy.

“I got it… I just gotta… wait for these stars to disappear,” Garble said.

Smolder fished into her pack, pulling out little balls of congealed sugar. “Here, we need this.”

“I thought you didn’t have any left?”

“All these do is make you less tired, and I got some on the outside, and uh… we need it.”

A new voice boomed from just above, "I once flew this very course, with nothing but my own wit." A human slammed down onto the platform beside them, rising up from their three point landing with sword already in hand. "And now you imitate it, as a group, winded. Pathetic. You don't deserve what I suffered for."

Tabitha's eyes widened. "By the stars above, you're--"

"Sir Turro. Saint, now, as I hear it. That is no matter." He leveled the sword at Tabitha. "At least meet me and die with some scrap of honor."

"That's the divine lord," squealed Tabitha, shaking like a leaf. "I learned everything of your teachings. I live it!"

“And now you will di--”

“What is he doing here?” Spike said. “I never heard of him.”

The man scoffed. “The gall, I was--”

“He disappeared into the tower, never to be heard from again,” Tabitha explained, stars in her eyes. “Everyone thought you failed.. but…”

“I ascended the tower and paid the price at the top!”

Tabitha squealed again. “A secret success that the world never heard of! Of course! Almost nobody probably knows that you have to sacrifice something when at the top. I should have guessed!”

"Shouldn't he have like a mace or something?" Spike raised a brow at the archetypal Divine Lord that was brandishing a very sharp sword instead of what he'd learned fit the model. "What's up with that?"

“Oh, well,” Tabitha turned away for a moment. “Saint Turro used a sword when he invented the art, but most people use maces because the value of knocking your enemies around is usually better crowd control than the sword uses. So most serious Divine Lords shifted to that.”

“Wh-what? My art has been adulterated? During my time it was my duty to defend with sword and shield!” Turro grit his teeth. “The only weapon that can defend against an enemy’s sword is another sword!”

“Oh yeah!” Tabitha turned back. “It was great, it’s just that, usually, the utility of the mace is better. I’m not going to do as much damage as Garble will, no matter how good I am with the sword, but if I clobber someone on his head Garble might just hit him more easily.”

“And the small one is also a Divine Lord, is he not?” Turro furrowed his brow. “Why would he choose to use a staff over a melee weapon of any sort?”

“Oh, he uses the martyr build.” Tabitha waved a hand dismissively. “It absorbs the damage you and your party takes and reflects it back upon the enemy. Basically more of a magic build than a melee build, good for healing and stopping damage in general.” She shrugged. “Not my choice, but we do need a healer, and he does good.”

"I… see…" His fury, fizzled with confusion and a touch of their overwhelming response. "I did that, set it all aside... It's how it ended, placed it all down, so others may live, know peace…" His sword fell from numb fingers. "And someone remembers."

Author's Note

This chapter came out really well for both of us. We finished it a day early even. I hope you enjoy it too!

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85 - Same Ol' Same Ol'

Tabitha sweat a lot on the next floor.

The place was a furnace, forges belched flame, which wasn’t a particularly large problem for most of the team.

But Tabitha had mixed feelings about the thick padding underneath her plates right then.

She definitely still needed them, though, as she braced herself, physically and with magic, to stop the blow directed at her. The tremendous forged metal elemental monster pushed her back several feet, but at least she was still up. It hit with a lot of weight, but there wasn’t anything more to it, just a blow.

Garble sprang up over her. “I won’t balk to hit you with my shock!” He brought his sword down onto the monster, a crash of lighting too, and the scraping of metal was heard. The lightning flowed down the monster’s form into the ground, and the sword left… a scratch. It definitely scored the exterior. Somewhat.

"Elemental mismatch," called Tabitha, standing her ground despite her dire warning. "Recall, regroup."

It was just how fights that high went. They had to gear up for each battle with the right tools, or risk everything trying to win by skill alone.

Tammy clapped her hands eagerly. "Wow, that sounds like something you'd want--"

"--cold," finished Tabitha, rolling a hand as if that were obvious. "Load us up with cold damage and fire resistance. We're going back in, today preferably."

Spike lifted his shoulders with an unsure expression. "That's just one monster. There's no assurance it'll be the last. It may not even be the boss. The monster after it could be something else."

"Then we come back," huffed out Tabby, rolling her eyes. "We'll keep what we have, so we'll have two sets to switch between."

Sandra yelped as she was nudged. Twilight had thumped against her and she pushed back at her equine summon's snout. "Yes, I can hear you."

"But you don't seem to be listening," came the voice only Sandra could hear. "That 'saint'. Why did you leave him so quickly?"

"Huh?" Sandra shook her head, shoulders lifting in a grand expression. "I don't know him, and he let us past. Why would we stick around?"

"He lives in the tower." Twilight looked in the direction of the tower, hidden by the wall of the forge they were in. "He must know about it, how it works, where it came from. We should be asking him. Besides, he seemed… friendly enough after we consoled him." She nervously laugh-snorted, thinking back to the crying mess they had reduced the Divine Lord to.

“I’m not sure if he exactly ‘lives there’.” Sandra looked uncertain as she considered. “Like he did say he was taken by the tower as he went to the top, but would the tower like… leave him just to wander around it for the hundreds of years?”

“We don’t know because we didn’t ask.” Twilight threw her forehooves up, limited in movement as they were as proper horse limbs instead of pony ones.

“Well, if he’s still there when we go back up then we can ask him,” Sandra said, then stopped herself. “Oh… oh no. G-guys,” she said, getting everyone’s attention. “We didn’t see a recall point after that other floor, right?”

Garble raised an eyebrow. “No, so what?”

But Smolder figured it out immediately. “Oh no, we’re gonna have to go through the flying trap floor again.”

There were groans all around.

A long exhausting climb later, he glared down at the group, panting and tired. "You've come to give me a fresh new reason to question my life?" On the plus side, he hadn't immediately attacked them. "You." He leveled his sword at Spike. "What made you take the martyr's path?"

Spike pointed at himself. When the saint nodded, Spike returned the gesture. "Oh, yeah! I hated seeing my friends get hurt. Um, and… I kinda… Well, I can take a hit. Ask Twilight." He hiked a thumb at the Twilight/Sandra fusion. "So I figured if I could get a hit instead of them, that's a net win, and even if it hurt, I could do something about it." He hefted his staff up, the tip glowing with warm green light. "So I take it, then I get rid of it."

Smolder smiled deviously. “You’re not gonna mention that you wanted to do spellcasting, but we already had one and nobody else was gearing up to heal us?”

“... I wasn’t going to, no.”

The saint’s eyes narrowed. “And you bear resentment for having to choose my path?”

“What? No!” Spike exclaimed. “Divine Lord has been great! I get to cast, and I get to protect my friends and I get to get up close and smack things around sometimes.” He held up his staff. “And specifically the martyr powers can change the whole flow of a fight. Protect from things that would stop us in our tracks, and turn it around into damage immediately.”

Turro grumbled something as he scratched his chin. “Your words don’t stink of lies.”

Tabitha grinned brightly. "You're looking better than last time." That got her a look. "It's a compliment, promise. Still a huge fan, by the way."

"You look closer to what I would expect." Turro looked from one disciple to the other. Neither were exactly what he was. "You are here. Did you fail? Not hard enough, your presence proves this. Is the tower playing cruel jests? That is like it. I suppose it would be my duty to challenge you again, but how can I do something again without doing it the first time?"

“We were up against something that absorbed all the elements we had,” Tabitha said. “Also only three of us could basically stand in the area. So we needed some gear changes.”

Turro pursed his lips. “The tower attacks your weaknesses at this level. It cannot create a challenge that is unconquerable, but it aims to make it difficult in clever ways, instead of by simply throwing more power at you.”

“Yeah, we figured that one out,” Smolder added with a wicked smirk.

Sandra stepped forward, before anyone else could say anything. “What about you, Sir? Do you… live in the tower?”

The pursed lips became a wry smile. “Live is a very generous way of putting it. I exist, asleep, in the tower most of the time, and am occasionally allowed to display my combat prowess. There is nothing else for me. This is the price of my sacrifice.”

Spike curled one arm across his front, the fingers of that hand at his chin. "So… Basically us showing up woke you up, and when we leave, you go back to sleep?"

"Do you dream?" Tabitha's eyes shined with wonder. "Do you dream of your amazing adventures?!"

Sandra raised a hand suddenly. "I don't mean to interrupt." Despite that being exactly what she was doing. "But I have a more serious question." When the others didn't order her to be quiet, she pressed on, "The tower has a purpose, for us, a specific one."

"It always does." His tone was tired, but a little smile conflicted with it. "Every comer thinks they are the master of their fate, but the tower is pulling those strings."

“But does it normally mean the man at the top has literally made a plan about it?” Spike piped up.

“I... “ Turro seemed genuinely surprised. “How do you know about the jailer?”

“He’s been talking to me since I got here...” Spike lifted his hands in a helpless shrug. “Apparently he arranged for--” He stopped, blinking and shaking his head. “Wait, the jailer?”

“I know not else what he might be. He was not here when I first arrived at the tower, but one day he was, and he would allow me to go to certain floors to fight the adventurers that made their way up, instead of me simply finding myself there.”

“And he sent you here… today?”

Turro nodded. “Yes.”

Sandra suddenly looked smugly satisfied. "Of course he would. There are rules and even he has to follow them. You're on this floor, for us. You can't stop being on this floor, for us. He put you there, but he can't undo that."

Tabitha slapped her friend on the shoulder with a hearty thwack. "You are so right! How did I not see that?!" Her jubilant expression faded. "But what do we do with that knowledge?"

Turro looked on languidly. “It is up to you whether knowledge of your opponent can be used in conflict with them. I could not fight him any more than I could fight the house that I am living in, than my own body. If he has influence over the tower it is certainly more than I.”

Sandra stepped forward. “By remembering the rules. The tower's in charge."

Garble huffed softly. "Yeah? So?"

Smolder brought her hands together balled, fist to fist. "So we play the tower's game, even if that means he loses, even if that means he wins."

Spike inclined his head at the idea. "Not sure I'm following."

Smolder crouched down, putting her head equal with Spike's. "Your guy's lost it." She twirled a finger. "Nothing against him, but he's stuck in a rut he's been in for… How long has he been here?" She looked to Turro, who shrugged. "That many years. He's stuck. We aren't. We give the tower what it wants, nice and dramatic, but our way. I think it'll let us."

“So… you think the tower has a different plan than the man in the tower?” Spike furrowed his brow.

“Yes, if the tower has a plan at all, and isn’t just like a big dumb animal that loves spectacle and fighting and sacrifice or somethin.” Smolder held her finger up. “So we do that stuff, and the tower will totally let us.”

“But what plan is that!” Spike exclaimed. “We don’t know what his plan exactly is anyway!”

Turro gave Spike a sideline look, and looked up to Tabitha, apparently waiting for something.

Tabitha set to thinking. “If we understand that now… then when we do learn his plan, we can respond accordingly. Especially if it’s something the tower doesn't like.”

Turro said nothing, but nodded approvingly.

Spike suddenly clapped the edge of a balled fist into an open palm. "Yeah! Yeah!" Everyone looked towards him. "Oh, I just mean he's told me, sorta." He pointed up for lack of better direction to work with. "He's been stuck here for a long long time. I think he wants to end it, all of it."

Sandra looked off to Twilight, whose voice was echoing in her mind, "That sounds possible. If he wants to end it in a way the tower would not approve of, say… destroying the tower. It shouldn't be hard to get the tower on our side."

"It wouldn't be that simple." Not that anyone could hear what she was responding to exactly. "You're giving him too much credit."

Garble lifted his shoulders with a disdainful grunt. "How so?"

"He doesn't care about… the whole tower." She waggled her fingers and gestured up and down in a circle. "He just wants to get out of it."

Spike looked to Turro as if magnetically drawn. "Before him, what was it like?"

“Less personal. I found myself on a floor, and there were adventurers. I understood my role, even though it was not explained to me. I would also appear on lower floors, but after the man came up, I believe I’ve been summoned less frequently, and only for higher floors. Often the floors have much more elaborate designs.”

“So… he… made it more… complicated?” Spike tilted his head.

“He used to go on and on about the goal of the floor, but lately he has simply sent me on my way,” Turro looked up. “His excitement for this has drained, like all of us, really. Once upon a time I widely valued news from the world, but now I simply do things.”

“But… you’re talking with us now, aren’t you?” Spike smiled a small smile.

It was reflected on Turro’s face. “Perhaps you are right, but there is not much else for me.”

Author's Note

A day late, but we're here! Enjoy your adventure!

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86 - What They Came For

The forged metal golem’s frosted shell’s cracks leaked the hot forged material inside, but this seemed to do nothing about the frosted exterior of the golem. Tabitha deflected a punch of the golem, it’s fist slamming into the ground beside her, and she swung her mace at the crack then exposed, a terrific golden blast of energy blasting the golem alongside her strike.

The cracked exterior of the golem caved in and cascaded along the rest of it’s form, cracking and falling apart. Tabitha left back as the molten metal poured out of the golem, sizzling on the floor, and the loot drops from the golem remained as it evaporated into magic.

Nearby a wall began to grind and rumble as a door began to open, and Tabitha felt a little elation at her actually finishing the enemy for once, since nobody else really specialized in blunt weapons. “I’m leaving, it’s hot here,” she said, not even waiting to inspect the loot.

The three dragons all shrugged, none of them bored, but Tabitha, even covered in rock, darted to follow.

There he stood, the 'master' of the tower. Beside him, a recall point. Behind him, a simple door that could have led to a bathroom as easily as anything else. "You made it. Good. I've been saving this one especially for you."

Smolder approached with folded arms. "Well, nice to see you instead of hearing Spike describing it, but what kind of sick joke are you about to spring on us this time?"

"Not a joke." He brought his hands together slowly, folding his fingers across one another. "I heard you, talking… I used to take such pride in the art of a carefully planned floor, from the top to the bottom, each and every step tailored to those who would dare them."

Tabitha raised her mace high. "Bring it on!"

"What fire. Are the dragons having an effect on you?" A joking smile on his face, his eyes were on Sandra. "You seem less concerned."

“You want us to ascend,” Sandra stared at him with a cold expression. “You won’t put anything in the way that would stop that.”

The man’s smile widened. “Of course not. I’m not putting this in your way to stop you, but to compel you. Art does not destroy.”

“If you were so into those things, why do you want to stop? What changed?” Spike decided it was time to cut through the chaff.

The man's smile soured. “Nothing changed. That’s the problem. Nothing changes. Even the adventurers, theoretically each unique in their own way, blur into each other.” He stepped forward, gesturing. “This group has two spellcasters and three melee, but I can use the same tactics I used against three spellcasters and two melee. This group has a rare class, but to be honest I’ve still seen this rare class a dozen times.”

"With an extraplanar pony?" All eyes turned to Twilight, who was just as surprised as they were. "Oh, I can talk?"

"For the moment." He waggled a finger softly in a figure eight. "Don't get used to it. That is a… relatively rare trick. I've only seen it twice before, which counts as almost unique."

Sandra thrust her clenched fists against her hips. "You're kidding. If we're so boring, why do you care?"

The man sighed. “I didn’t say you weren’t boring. Only that I was bored in general.” He gestured at the dragons. “I literally made this happen, of course I took an interest.”

“Why don’t you do this more, then?” Spike said.

“Yes, why don’t I do this thing that took two generations and, given your antagonism, is a widely hated thing that I did,” the man said flatly, then sighed. “Enjoy your floor.” And he was gone.

Spike blinked at the place the man used to be in. “Oh uh… I guess we’re going…”

Twilight neighed, a loud noise entirely appropriate for a horse. She clopped the ground, pawing out it with clear agitation, her communication removed.

"Nice while it lasted." Sandra patted Twilight in sympathy. "We better get going then. We won't get much done here, but…" She moved to tag the recall point.

They entered the simple door, only to find themselves in what seemed to be an entirely different world. Garble slumped back against a fresh door, heaving for breath. "Is that how dragons in this world do things?!"

Sandra sank against her own door, each of them seeming to emerge from their own personal journey. "I could hear every single voice. All the spirits, all of them. Even my parts had voices!" She thrust up her hand into view. "Each fingernail, urgently trying to get my attention."

Spike inclined his head. "I don't get it." The others looked to him. "What? I was just… a person." He pointed vaguely downwards towards the city. "I wasn't a special dragon tower breaker, just a normal person. Nobody thought I was special. It was kinda boring, but not the end of the world or anything."

"Lucky." Smolder glared at the door she had come through. "That bastard made me feed all the monsters. And I do mean all of them." The threw her hands wide as if to encompass the enormity of the task. "The supplies kept coming, but so did the requests and shouts and they wouldn't shut up!" She let her hands fall limply. "Sorry I ever got mad at you guys."

Tabitha had been quiet until then, fiddling with her mace, twirling it clockwise, then counterclockwise, held ramrod straight in her grip, her gaze somewhere distant.

Smolder peered at Tabitha. "Was it that bad?"

"Worse." Tabitha let the mace tip downward, but not hit the ground. "He showed me the truth."

Spike sat up a little, pushing up to stand. "The truth?"

"The heroes." Her grip tightened, fists trembling. "Each of them that made it this far. Groups that came, the ones where there was only one 'survivor'." She paused to make finger quotes. "The ones that made it together, or alone. Each of them… And there was always a thread, a little thread that connected them, all--"

Garble slammed down a hand on Tabitha's shoulder. "Alright! At least one of us got some intel."

Smolder elbowed him roughly in the side. "She's still wrestling with it, Gar Gar. Let her… recover, alright?"

"Perspective." The others looked towards Spike. "That's what we got." He hiked a thumb at himself. "The average person, dull, uninteresting, at least from this angle." He turned a claw on Smolder and Sandra, pointing at them both. "And from his side, watching over this whole tower, with all the people in it, needing his attention, always needing things."

Garble lifted his shoulders with a great rolling of his eyes. "And mine?"

Smolder snorted with a puff of smoke. "The dragon view, duh. This world's take on dragons, but the dragon view still. So, how was it? Are dragons just as cool around here or not? We've only seen the monsters. Are they like that?"

“They uh… were different,” Garble said. “There were some similarities, I guess. They were still really proud and like… better than other races. But they also like… they’d do all this planning? They spend all this time trying to change other races. Making them fight other stuff, gathering magic. They can turn into other races, too?” He puffed out some smoke. “And they only focus on magic stuff to hoard. Regular stuff means nothing to them. Which I guess I get.”

Smolder inclined her head with thought. "Different cool. Still kinda cool. They're big magic hoarding changeling dragons? That's pretty cool. And they're so sure they're the best, they spend their time trying to get everycreature else in line, I can respect that." She thumped her chest with a confident smirk. "Ponies could learn a few things from us."

"Is that why you learn at their school?" Garble grinned at his sister. "Seems to me some creature is teaching another, but it ain't a dragon giving the lessons."

“That doesn’t sound like an insult directed at ponies.” Spike smirked.

“It’s directed at Smolder!” Garble whirled around to glare at the smaller dragon. “The rest of the dragons are just fine!”

“Except that Ember is taking the ‘pony way’ herself.” Spike smugly faced the larger dragon.

“Shut up!”

Smolder started laughing, and the three of them started to walk to the next floor, not tired enough.

In the recall room, Tabitha and Sandra remained, Tabitha’s “intel” forgotten in their mirth.

At least, mostly forgotten. “So, what did you see?” Sandra said.

"There were, was… always… someone, sometimes more than someone." She stopped her failed attempts, just breathing a moment. "Each story has a star." She held up one finger. "Your parents, they were the star. Their story, about them. The others who came in with them, cast aside." She made a rough toss of a motion. "When are they even mentioned?"

"Are you worried about being left out?" Sandra shook her head slowly. "You insisted. We--"

"--I'm not trying to get attention." Her words sounded lame in her ears. "I was! But that isn't what this is about. The dragons are a set piece, brought here to get a specific thing done, which they are doing. They won't leave the tower when it's done."

"They'll go home."

"They don't have to. It doesn't matter." She brought her hands together, fingers enmeshing tightly. "It doesn't matter, just that they're done, and the tower will not let them go out the front door when it's done. The tales will be legendary, but they aren't leaving."

“My parents went out the front door,” Sandra said. “They got out of the tower.”

“Right, and then spent the rest of their lives telling everyone they were so close but just couldn’t make it, and did they mention the two others that are probably still in the tower like Turro is?” Tabitha looked up to the top. “They didn’t. And I can’t name a single person who has gotten to the top. Others no doubt must have made it and then never told anyone.”

“So what?” Sandra tilted her head. “It doesn’t seem that hard to believe that people might decide to hide it.”

“Not over the entire life of the tower,” Tabitha said. “Someone would want to say, someone would have to confide or reveal. But other than being sure someone got to the top, we have no idea who they are or… or what they wished for at the top.”

"My parents were heroes." Sandra rocked forwards and back a little. "It's what they wanted."

"Like me." Tabitha spoke as if haunted. "They wanted it just as bad… And they got it."

"They got it…" Sandra ran a dry tongue over her lips. "They got to the top."

"They got to the top," echoed Tabitha in grim agreement.

"You coming?!" Garble's head was poking back into the room. "We're so close, what are you two waiting for?"

Author's Note

At least one of us didn't shower today to get this done, for you! The sacrifices we writers make for our readers.

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87 - Protagonists and Antagonists

Spike sprinted across the floor he was on. The top and bottom were metal grates, with wrought iron stairs up, and he slammed the cork into the red vial he had, tossing it up to Smolder who waited one floor up. “Got it, which color you need?”

“Purple!” Spike said, looking down nervously.

The giant wurm monster snapped at another floor below them, slowly chewing up the lower iron floor.

Smolder poured the red vial into a blue flask, shaking it a little, and tossed back down to Spike. “Got it!”

Spike leaned out of the torn iron floor, pouring the purple stuff into the wyrm’s mouth as it was open, causing it to shudder and recoil, and it’s eyes turning green. “It’s green next!”

“What? We just used up the last blue!” Sandra shouted from above.

“What?!”

The wyrm continued to move upward as the whole party tore apart the various floors, trying to find anything to solve the puzzle. “Look, I think we have to start over,” Tabitha said.

Spike sighed. “You’re right.” He held up his guildchain, blinking out, and the rest did too.

Garble stomped on the ground. “This is another one of the tower’s ‘special’ ones, isn’t it? Some kinda dumb boss-that’s-a-timed-puzzle crap?”

Spike lifted his hands. "I dunno, these are kinda interesting. Better than 'beat the big monster' ones. We know how those work by now."

Smolder swatted the back of both of her dragon friends. "You two sound like you're both old people complaining about the 'good ole days'. Whatever, let's get back in there and beat it!"

Sandra tapped Tabitha on the side. When the other girl looked over, she smiled a little nervously. "Been thinking."

"Bad habit."

"Stop!" Though Tabitha's expression implied she wasn't being super serious. "For real. He's underestimating how important you are, to the story. To my story." She took a slow breath. "If it wasn't for you, I'd already have given up. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have gotten this far. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be here, inching towards the top."

“Yeah but… you’d want to,” Sandra replied. “You convinced us to take you. Well, you and Spike.”

Tabitha furrowed her brow. “Hey, I’m trying to bear my soul, here.”

“You are…” Sandra said. “I guess I just… what makes this different from before? From your other party? From when we parted ways first?” She looked at the rest of their party, who seemed if anything more eager to get to the top. “They dragged me up, and my life was going to change either way, but you were here to help?”

“Well… it is different,” Tabitha turned her head away. “I was real frustrated when we left. And maybe I should have talked to you about it, and I definitely shouldn’t have picked on you like I did." She gave Sandra a sudden glare. "I knew you had more in you!"

Sandra laughed awkwardly. "And you got to see it, in a roundabout sort of way, but we're getting off topic."

"So what's the topic?" Tabitha rolled a hand as they walked along. "You started it."

"I did… The tower, it has one thing going for it that it had before and after this guy. It likes a good story." She waved a finger between herself and Tabitha. "We are that story. We are the story that's going to emerge from this place. It can't be the dragons, they won't be there."

“Just the supporting characters, huh.” Tabitha smirked.

“That’s right.” Sandra smiled, wistfully. “What I’m saying is, whatever happens at the top, we are the ones who are going to have to deal with it, I’m sure.”

Tabitha stopped smirking. “It doesn’t have to be that way. I’m sure we can find another way to send the dragons back, and we can do the minimum at the top. He has some kind of… curse thing on you, from your parents, right?”

“It likes a good story, Tabitha.” Sandra's hands animated, pantomiming her thoughts. “If we try to just say ‘this isn’t the end’ and do the boring practical thing, I don’t think it’d like that, besides.” She looked back at the dragons. Garble was looking on with glassy eyes as Spike talked to Smolder about how to conserve the colors so they could get further. “They were sent up by the tower. This might literally be the only way to send them back. If not this then some other life altering quest that one in a million people get to do. This is the only chance.”

“It’s also the only chance for the curse thing to be cleared,” Tabitha said. “You can’t just leave that on the table.”

"And I'm not." She took a slow breath, extending her hands away from her as it came free. "I'm facing it. It's time to be a grown up."

"Weren't we already doing that?"

"I mean for real." She set a hand on her hips. "I'm taking my future in my hands. I'm ready to write my story." Tabitha didn't seem to be getting it. "He had his chance. All he wants is an end. I don't think he cares if he gets the ending he wants, just an ending, so, whatever, I'm writing it."

Tabitha elbowed her friend. "And you're alright with your story ending with them gone forever?" She could see the flash of sadness. "They're your best friends, me excluded."

“And I am the reason they’re having to go through this,” Sandra hissed. “I won’t let it go forward.”

“What does writing your own ending mean? What do you plan to do?”

Sandra hesitated. “It… doesn’t matter what I plan to do. When we get up there I’ll know what it is.” She smiled, one of serenity. "It's just… hard to explain, but it's mine, and I… for once… accept that. This isn't a roll of the dice. I thought it was." She snorted loudly, hurrying to catch up. "The one roll that changed everything and got this going, was rigged. It always was."

Tabitha shook her head with a soft grumbling, clearly not getting whatever was putting that smile on Sandra's face. "You used to chase me." When had they flipped so completely? She hurried to catch up with the party. "Let's do this!" None of that changed what she planned to do. She was gonna be a hero!

Garble’s platform flew through the tunnel with him in it alone, the tracks clacking below it, and another two beasts leapt onto his platform, him immediately turning his blade on them. “Even alone, I am strong! You’ll be cut down to my song!” The leapt to him as he slashed at them. His hit was solid, but their claws dug into him, before he spun around, clearing them.

“Gah,” he winced. The monsters here were not pushovers. Easy to beat, but they hit pretty hard. And the rest of the party were in… some other tunnels.

And just as suddenly as that, the side walls opened up, and Tabitha’s cart slid up to his, bumping into it lightly. She was surrounded by three flying monsters, bashing them back with her shield to no avail.

Garble immediately lept into action, leaping across the gap. “These monsters need to take a hike, and they will when they eat my dynamic strike!”

His first blast cleared half, followed by the others, and he hoisted his sword on his shoulder, smirking at Tabitha. She was panting, but still up. “Yo, I know I just saved your bacon and all, and this ain’t your specialty, but maybe you got a heal before our carts split up again?”

Tabitha raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t we pack some potions just for this occasion?”

Garble kind of stared at her for a moment, immediately opening up his pack, pulling out a potion. “Oh… I mean…” He immediately gulped down two of them.

His partner on the platform chuckled to herself.

“Shut it!” Garble tossed the flasks aside, them disappearing before they could shatter. “You even said it yourself when we were talking about uh… whatsit. Optimisation. It’s my job to beat up things, not heal. I forgot I had it.”

“You’re right, you’re right, but when you’re alone you gotta switch strategies, dude.”

He snorted and looked away. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

The two of them continued to travel on the rails at high speeds. “How the hay is this much space inside the tower, anyway?” Garble peered back from where they came, it fading into darkness. “We’ve been traveling for a while…”

“I dunno, there’s gotta be a trick to it, which is probably why we never saw anything like this before in the tower, that guy at the top probably made it.”

“What a pr--” The platforms began to flash red. “Oop, time to split up again.” Garble hopped to his platform, both of them splitting up shortly after, and Garble was alone again.

"No." He slowly waved his upheld hands back and forth. "No no no. This is going too smoothly. You're making it look as if I'm barely even trying."

Smolder gusted fire at the idea. "You're kidding, right? Each floor is more insane than the one before it!" She threw up her hands in obvious frustration. "You're trying to get us to give up, but that ain't happening!"

"Oh, stop that." He looked… embarrassed. "You're just saying that."

Spike crossed his arms with a smug smile. "You picked us, put us together for a reason. We're not going to fail now, but that was your work, wasn't it? You're beating you."

The tower master frowned with obvious thought. "You… are… not entirely wrong…" Not that he seemed to enjoy that. "Still, we're so close, and you aren't being really tested?"

Garble slammed his sword down point first, embedding the thing that was more like a club than a sharp sword, proving with enough effort, anything was sharp enough. "What would a 'real' test look like?"

“Something that is only ended hanging by a thread, something you have to perfect to continue through, something with specific requirements,” The man rattled off. “There are multiple different ways to challenge people.”

“Well we cleared the last one without any of that,” Spike said. “We only did it once, and really it wasn’t that hard. We just had to think a little differently.”

The man floated back and forth, tapping his chin. “No, that floor was definitely one for pre-sixty. To give the climbers a different kind of challenge, something exciting they won’t see outside of this.”

“You want us to ascend,” Sandra said, in an accusing tone. “Why do you mind at all?”

The man looked back, and smirked. “Why, Sandra, you should sort of know. Unless I give you a real challenge, how will the story be complete?”

Sandra’s hard countenance bled into one tinged with fear.

The man floated up again. “In many stories, I’d say the person driving the story isn’t the protagonist, but the antagonist, wouldn’t you agree? They set the story in motion, after all, and the protagonist only resolves it once what the antagonist set in motion is ended.”

“But… the protagonist is the one who decides how it ends.” Sandra steeled her gaze again.

“You’d be surprised how often that isn’t true,” The man said, not flinching.

There was a tense silence, until Garble began shouting, “What the flame is going on?!”

Sandra was startled out of her glare.

“Why the hay are you talking about stories and antagonists and challenges?” Spike shrugged at their opponent. "We're coming up there, like it or not. Then we got some things to discuss."

Author's Note

The tower is running out of floors to delay with. The end, in sight.

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88 - The End In Sight

With the man disappeared, and all the guildchains registered, they marched onto the next floor.

They stood on a war torn battlefield, no walls, no apparent ceiling, the battlefield tinted red through the dark thunderous clouds.

“What the--” Garble sputtered, looking at the vast rocky expanse that spread out before them, seeming to be literally outside.

“We’re not outside,” Spike said, looking around. “But this is pretty impressive, right?”

“You can see around us where the walls wouldn’t let us get past, too far to jump,” Tabitha said, pointing to the distance. “So above that must be, I dunno, a special kind of wall? Something like that.

“I don’t think we should be worrying about that,” Smolder said, pointing ahead.

And ahead there were… ponies. But they also really weren’t ponies. They were ponies if someone had never seen a pony, and decided monsters were cooler too. They were a variety of slightly-less-pastel colors, with sharpened features, and sharpened lances mounted on their sides.

One of them held up a bugle, blowing on it, which caused the ponies in the front to charge forward.

"This is what Twilight looks like normally?!" Tabitha waved wildly at the oncoming horde for just an instant, drawing her shield high. "Hope she doesn't take it personally, but we have to fight."

Spike flexed his fingers around his staff. "Those aren't ponies, and even if they were, they'd be, uh, tower ponies. Magic, you know?"

Garble suddenly dissolved into laughter, slamming his blade down, lengthwise along the turf. "I get to cut up ponies? Maybe this tower isn't so bad!"

"Not cool." Smolder elbowed him lightly. "But we aren't gonna lose this!"

The head of the notpony army slammed into Tabitha’s shield lance first, pressing her back, and the rest washed around her, aiming to trample the rest of her party, who all began their own assault.

The chaotic battle commenced against the horde, a host of ponies with all manner of weapons came in a relentless assault. Axe wielding ponies, wizards, healers, there were all sorts. But each themselves was not a threat, as dangerous as they seemed, but together they exhausted the party.

And then the good ones came. A pony with sharp pointy bits on her hooves came in, red flowing mane, who fought both with skill and resilience that the other ponies lacked. The other ponies were single minded, but she would dart in and out. She would attack a flank, and after the counter she would be gone.

Tabitha panted as she parried another blow. “This does not seem to be ending anytime soon,” she managed between blows. “Are we doing it wrong? What are we missing?”

Spike’s eye caught another unusual pony. It was an older pony, white beard, who was casting a fireball at Spike, who let it hit him, and countered with a martyr powered smite. The stallion flew back, and as soon as he hit the ground, turned tail and ran. “I saw another guy who ran away!” Spike shouted. “What if they’re like… commanders or something?”

“The red mare keeps leaving though,” Garble complained. “How’re we gonna be able to do it!”

As if summoned by calling her out, the mare with the red mane came in fresh, flipping and trying to smack Smolder with her hooves, to which Smolder blocked both with her own daggers. “Well, we get another crack at ‘er.”

Garble and Sandra turned to the mare in a unified front, sword and staff raised in readiness. "Aiden, your fire is badly needed." The ponies did not seem fireproof, and that was her area of specialty summon. There was no lack of area to effect!

With a grand screech, the fire bird emerged from the air with wings folded tightly in, allowing it to fly like an arrow, just to throw out hot bits of flame and embers in a grand carpet of heat beneath it as it soared over the army.

"Focus fire," grunted Garble, meeting the fiery red maned warrior, spiked horseshoe connecting with the heavy blade, neither party willing to surrender. Until she did, falling against him.

Smolder wrenched free her dagger and knife. "She was setting me up. Thanks." Though she had gone far in the ways of culinarinism, she still was quite capable of a good backstab when the situation was right.

The battle never became easy. Each inch won was a victory well earned, but they had learned the most important part, to look for the champions of that army and to not allow them a chance to recover, a trick they couldn't always get off on the first… or sometimes third try… but they weren't giving up.

They fell in an almost heap of sore muscles. Spike could dismiss the injuries of battle, but becoming tired was just a fact, and that battle… "Ugh!" groaned Smolder. "I thought that'd never end…"

"It was like the early horde floors, turned up to a hellish new level." Sandra sagged against a wall, heaving. "But… we did it…"

“Did you like it?” the voice of the man rang out unannounced.

Spike huffed. “I liked it better when there were gimme floors.”

“It sounds like we’re looking better, then,” his voice rang out with mirth. “Good, good.”

“This doesn’t change anything,” Garble yelled, looking up to the disembodied voice. “We’re coming for you.”

“Two more floors,” the man said in a singsong voice. “Then you can get what you want.”

Another checkpoint appeared before them, none of the party moving to claim it just quite yet.

Wind roared against them. Flying, an impossibility. The air was frigid and cold, almost as if they were actually a hundred plus stories in the air. They could feel the snow-touched ground beneath them, but above them, no ceiling. Not that they could see very fair in the blizzard that pushed at them with every step.

"So… less monsters." Garble took a slow step forward. "Us against some snow and wind and stuff?"

"Don't…" Smolder drew tighter on herself for warmth. "Don't act like this is suddenly easier. Part of me wishes I had something to stab instead. Are we even close?"

"Not a lot of ways to tell," admitted Spike. They had been pressing on into that endless blizzard for what felt like an eternity. "There has to be an end to it."

“A-a-ll the other floors like this had a trick to them,” Sandra said, shivering more than the dragons. “What’s the trick to this one?”

“There is no trick to surviving in a storm like this,” Tabitha said. “You just get to shelter.”

“We’d need to find shelter,” Spike said. “And we can’t actually see anything.”

They pressed on, the wind roaring, about until Sandra stumbled.

“Are you alright? You’re the worst dressed for this,” Smolder stood up over her, pulling her up.

Tabitha said nothing, breathing into her hands.

“I c-c…can go on. We have to get through this.” Sandra tried to stand up. “If-if we go back we just have to come back…”

“This isn’t good she does not look good, guys,” Smolder said, looking down at Sandra as she seemed a little more blue.

“No it’s fine.. Just… just need some more heat.” Sandra pulled herself up. “I can… I should... “ She whispered something, and the warmth bled into her core, and got hotter… and hotter.

Tabitha backed up, glad for the heat but… “Sandra! Aiden wasn’t doing hot and that’s why you sent him back. What if.”

Sandra turned and smiled, her clouded mind feeling much more clear. “Not if we go very, very quickly.” And she pulled herself up, gathering the flame mana, blasting fire forward, clearing the area directly ahead of her, heading into the area, now steaming.

The rest of the party picked up their pace, trying to follow and add any fire they could to the forward movement. "Snacks!" Smolder threw up a bundle of jerky she had for such occasions, landing in ready hands to chew on as quickly as they could, replenishing their magic supplies to keep the attack on the cold itself going.

Garble pointed with his great sword. "That way!" A smudge in the carpet of white, barely visible in the storm. "C'mon!"

Spike drew a sharp breath, recovering from the great breath he had just finished. "I'm… liking the heat, but this is not easy. That… better…" He paused to let out a new carpet of flame to clear the way and keep the temperature up.

"Just keep goin','' urged Smolder, sorting her supplies with one hand as she fanned out her flames in a grand arc to keep away the chill for just a moment longer. "No time fer thinking right now."

Sandra kept ahead of them, eventually settling on an aura of flames and heat, pressing straight through the storm best she could, with the Dragons trailing, and Tabitha trailing even further, as they pressed on. The smudge became a square which became what seemed to be a cottage in the distance. No light was on, but the party pressed on.

As it was in sight, Sandra’s light flickered. “I’m… I think I’m running out, guys.” And then abruptly, the flame magic was gone, and the walls of wind closed in on the party again.

Sandra hit the ground, the water and ice from the storm slamming into her, out of breath and weak, but not freezing yet.

Tabitha sprinted up from behind, immediately grabbing Sandra, hoisting her over her shoulder. “C’mon, it’s the last leg.”

The rest of the party panted and groaned, but pulled themselves onward. It was slow going again, but shortly the cottage was in view again, and the five of them stumbled into the structure.

Spike scurried ahead of the others, leaping at the door handle and hitting it with his entire body, the momentum carrying him around, twisting it as it began to fall outwards. "Woah!" He flopped from the ajar door, flopping into the snow.

"Thanks!" Tabitha rushed past him into the darkness. Dryer, quieter, and just a little warmer. "Perfect. C'mon, girl." She set Sandra's still form down, dusting off the snow that had already begun to gather. "Everyone in!"

The door slammed, knocked shut by Garble's anger kick, his sword coming down to keep the door closed, in case anyone tried to open it from the outside. "You know the worst part?"

Smolder hiked a brow. "What's the worst part?"

"We aren't done. We recall now, we gotta do all that again." He threw up his hands high. "This isn't a challenge I wanna keep trying."

Spike staggered with a big log, barely throwing it into the fireplace. It hit the guard and tumbled the rest of the way inside. "Alright, let's get some heat." He drew a sharp breath, but flames rushed over both his shoulders, the siblings setting fire to the log from both directions. "Uh, that works."

The party sat in mostly silence, all appreciating the warmth of the cabin. Spike idly mused laying on the ground, “What are we missing? The only thing we could see for… however far this places, is the cottage here. We were heading straight into the wind and everything.”

Smolder sat up. “Wait, why were we heading into the wind again?”

“Because the man at the top was making it hard for us,” Tabitha said. “We started with that hole in the ground, and we figured we had to go forward, not backwards.”

“Yeah but… what if there’s an actual source of the storm here?”

“If it were a big snow monster blowing wind we would have found it going straight into it.”

“But that’s not how all storms work, lots of storms have the magic at the center,” Smolder held up one finger.

“What, so we’ve been literally going in circles,” Garble cried.

“Well we haven’t been going anywhere productive,” Spike said, pulling himself up. “There were a lot of directions we could have gone, but we just kinda… went into the storm, not thinking about it. If the wind was circling around something it would be easy to feel like we didn’t know where we were going.”

“We have a landmark now,” Sandra said. “We could easily scout out which direction seems more promising.”

“I have more stuff to recover magic,” Smolder said, pulling out her traveling sack. “We just have to be able to wait it out, like in here?”

There were murmurs of approval from the rest of the party. “We rest up a little longer, then,” Tabitha said. “And we get ready to go out as a scouting party.”

"Ha, knew it!" came Garble's triumphant cry. His head poked in as he hefted a bag into view. "There's a pantry in here."

Smolder clapped her hands as she bounced to her feet. "The culinarian just got a recharge," she promised with all the threat of a sniper being given a fresh magazine. "Good lookin' out, Gar Gar."

"You need to stop callin' me that." Despite that, the two seemed in good spirits.

Author's Note

One and a half floors down. The end is so close!

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89 - Got It!

Garble stumbled in the snow, catching himself with his arms.

“You alright?!” Smolder rushed to his side.

“Yeah there was a rock or something,” Garble said, kicking snow at the part. “I’m fine.”

“... Maybe we should go back now,” Smolder said. “We haven’t seen anything.”

“I’m fine,” Garble repeated. “I’m not tired, I hit a rock.”

“Yeah but if we’re tired when we go back we won’t be able to get back.” She pulled at his arm, helping him up. “C’mo-- Wait, what rock?”

She bent down and unearthed a… thing, which Garble had tripped on. Grabbing it, she repeated, “Yes, let’s definitely get back.”

Pulling himself up and patting himself off, he just made a “tch” noise and followed as she moved.

“You see anything?” Came Tabitha’s response as soon as they half-stumbled into their little hideaway from the snow. "Tell me you saw something."

"Actually, yeah." Smolder tossed up something and caught it with her other hand, thrusting it forward. "Bro found it by tripping over it."

Spike lifted on his wings, peering at it. "That's a funny thing." With a funny symbol engraved on the stone. "What's it mean?"

"You don't know?" Eyes turned to Tabitha. "What? It's an old timey rune."

Sandra nodded. "I recognize that, but learning what each rune meant wasn't… a thing my parents went over."

"Your parents, maybe." Tabitha hiked a thumb at the floating rock. "That's a border rune. Tell me you know where you found it?"

"Wasn't far from here." Smolder pointed back outside. "Like a few minutes that way?"

"If we can find another one like it…" Tabitha folded her arms. "They're protecting it, hiding it. We go between them, we find it. C'mon, time to get moving!"

“Wait, you’re saying we were going the right way?” Garble groused. “And we just came back?”

“We’d have to come back here for everyone else anyway.” Smolder grabbed more food from the back. “So, cmon.”

Sandra stood up. “Okay, should we make a beeline to start, or what?”

“Hold off on it,” Tabitha said. “We might need you with Aiden if a fight starts.”

“I won’t let it go as far as it did last time,” Sandra said. “I’m no good to anyone like that.”

Tabitha smirked and cocked an eyebrow. “Good.”

They headed out into the storm, trying to find any sign of the second rune, in the same direction. Sandra jogged in place as the dragons thumbed through the snow, shuffling around trying to find anything. “Isn’t there a… better way to do this?” Sandra said, trying to keep her heat up.

“I mean, is there?” Tabitha said, shuffling around herself. “I don’t know of any way other than this.”

Sandra looked down at Tabitha’s pouch, and thought a thought. “Can I… see the rune?”

Tabitha pulled it out, and almost threw it, before thinking better of it and handing it over. “Knock yourself out, if you think you can figure something out.”

Sandra looked at the rune. She knew the shape, and knew vaguely that the magic of it would be linked to other runes. Surely they would, wouldn’t they?

She closed her eyes, and reached out the same magic sense she used to link up with Aiden… feeling around. The magic in the rune had no life, no will of its own. It didn’t speak to her. But it did… tug at her. “Guys! I think I have something.”

It was a subtle thing, but still a thing. "This way." She marched into the blizzard, just a bit more confident than when she had started. "I think it wants to be with its friend."

Spike jogged to keep up with her energetic pace. "It's still a rock, but alright, if we can find the other, then we can get things mo--ving!" He flopped forward, scrunching the snow under him.

"Found it." Smolder squatted down where Spike had tripped, plucking up another stone from the snow. "So… That way?" She pointed in the direction between where the two had been.

Tabitha bobbed her head. "Let's go, and expect a fight."

A fight was exactly what they didn't get, coming on a camp, fire blazing and holding back the storm. Around it, a gathering of four people suited for adventure. A warrior of some sort, a rogue twirling a dagger, and two spellcasters. A classic combination. Spike approached with a little shrug. "Uh… I'm going to guess you're not just another group up this high." They hadn't heard of anyone being that high at the moment, and news of that would have spread.

One of the spellcasters cocked his head. “Well, no--”

“Arguably,” the rogue interrupted. “We are indeed a group of adventurers that got this high.” He waggled his eyebrows.

“So… you reached the top, then?” Sandra said.

“That’s right,” the rogue rocked himself back and forth and popped up on his feet. “We lot were sent here to end your ascent. Or not end your ascent and be a speedbump. Something like that.”

“Could you show a little respect,” the warrior groused.

“Why? Ain’t like either of us is in a pickle. We lose, they go up, we go back to sleep or whatever it is. Easy.”

Spike glanced between the mighty warriors of yore. "Pretty bored of it, huh?"

Sandra frowned with thought. "A common trend. This tower… makes things so much more organized, for the good…"

"And the ill," completed the mage. "We are a small price that protects this city from far worse, were magic allowed to have its way unchecked."

"Are you a divine lord?" asked the other spellcaster, lifting an ankh into view. "I'm a vitawizard!" An advanced form of vitamancer. "I don't like getting all up and personal, but it's nice to see another healer. Two of you in one party?"

“I focus on healing!” Spike said, holding up his staff. “And spreading damage and redirecting it. And er,” he coughed. “Taking the damage myself.”

“Hm?” the spellcaster scratched his chin. “I’m afraid putting myself directly in harms way is not quite what I am looking for.”

The fighter flicked a finger towards Garble. "You. You crush things, smash them under your weapons. My position hasn't changed, standing the test of time."

"Yeah, mostly?"

"Mostly?"

Smolder snickered softly. "He lays down wicked rhymes as he pounds the beats into their backs. It's great!"

"I… see." He did not see. He did not see at all. He went quiet instead.

The wizard shook his head. "I will spare my feelings. There is no ded... " He didn't finish, sighing. "I will tempt it. You, young lady." He was looking to Sandra. "You are dressed as one of mine, but I am not fool enough to imagine this is true. What path do you walk?"

Sandra looked back and forth, flicking her finger to bring out her firebird. “I summon monster spirits… and other things I have bound to me.”

The wizard furrowed his brow. “So you do not actually wield the arcane might… but command something else to wield it for you?”

Sandra offered an apologetic smile. “Not exactly, but that’s kind of what attracted me to it in the first place, so yes.”

He stepped back with a groan.

A pause held in the air, and the foreign party all looked to their dagger wielder. “Wot?” he said, looking around. “I don’t care.” The stares continued. “Fiine.” He stepped up. “Oim the rogue!” he said, playing far into an accent that wasn’t quite his. “I do the stabbin and the sneakin' and sometimes I steal real strange things, and you,” he looks down at the orange dragon, whose armor had a bandoleer of spices. “Probably do something like cook the enemies and eat them.”

Smolder nodded. “Got it in one.”

“I--what…” he was knocked out of his accent, and shook his head. “Your classes are weird.”

Spike suddenly clapped his hands. "Got it!" All eyes turned on him at his outburst. "Uh, sorry, but I get what's wrong. The tower, it keeps you all alive and well and that's good, great even on some angles." He had his hands out flat and parallel as he mapped the directions. "But isolated. Super isolated. So the world changes outside, and you don't know. You can't know. So you end up, you know… Splitting from it. I bet it happens to everything in here."

Tabitha's eyes widened. "Like the original divine lord… It was… discouraging to see him so crushed by time. But what would they, or us, do about it?"

The fighter nodded towards Tabitha. "She's asking the right question. From where I'm sitting, you may as well be from another tower, alien and a complete puzzle. I hate puzzles…"

“You guys ain’t lookin at this right,” the rogue said. “I’m fine with a little culture shock. Life moves on, y’know… except ours ain’t. We ain’t got no life, tower ain’t even got the decency to let us die. We live and live and nothin’ happens and we’re probably some kinda damned battery for the tower or somethin, elsewise the tower gets off on seeing us suffer!” He stepped back almost immediately, closing his eyes and brushing himself off. His daggers were in his hands lightning fast. “Let’s get this goin, alright? I’m tired of this.”

“We don’t have to fight,” Sandra offered. “We can just move on forward. All of us, not just… us." She gestured at her own party. "This isn't right. No wonder the guy at the top is… miserable. It all makes sense now. I get it. I know what my wish is."

The air grew tense around her. A palpable sense that all could feel, though none could name. "You heard me! I know what to ask for."

Spike turned a finger on himself. "Not to be selfish or nothing, but it gets us home, right?"

"Well…" It would fix a lot of things, but would it also get them home…? "I won't do it without your permission. I got you all into this, with some help. I made my promises."

Garble grunted, flame licking between his teeth. "Enough hinting, get on with it. What's yer big idea?"

"I agree with my future warrior copy." The old-fashioned warrior rose to his feet, grabbing his axe from where it had been embedded in the ground. "Speak your idea, so we get can get on with it."

"Okay okay!" She thrust her hands placatingly. "The tower is important. We can't not have the tower, or the city becomes way more dangerous and people die. We don't want that, so that's out." She made a motion of tossing something over her shoulder. "But the tower isn't really the problem. The problem is not that it wants to hurt anyone involved, it just doesn't care. It doesn't think about about you, any of you." She waved at the old party. "You're just pieces of it, like… my finger. I don't ask my finger how it's doing today, it just is."

Tabitha scowled a moment, but it cleared, understanding replacing it. "Wait… You want… You want to make the tower care about them?"

"Anything smart enough to want to be cared about," agreed Sandra with a little smile. "And, once it does, I bet it'll stop being mean, which means… They get a life."

“Don’t you want anything from the top?” the wizard asked. “Don’t you have your own desires, your own need to change the world.”

“There are two things I need, one of which is personal, the other of which is…” Sandra stopped smiling, looking back at the dragons a moment, and grimaced. “Well I guess I’m not sure. That… crap…” She looked crestfallen, her brilliant plan drug down to reality, but shook her head. “I’ll figure it out. There isn’t just one way to word things, nor just one way to do it.”

“That’s the spirit, and you’ve got a whole floor left to figure it out,” The rogue said, flipping his knives. “My blades’re itchy, so I’m starting. Don’t get lost in thought, lass.” He tossed one of them directly at Sandra.

Tabitha leapt in front of it, the dagger clanging off of her shield, and the battle was begun.

Author's Note

Is she onto something?

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90 - Plan Q

Garble spun in the air, shouting, “reach!” finishing his rhyme, his arc of lightning going straight through the warrior’s axe, then the warrior himself.

The muscular man turned back with a half chuckle as the magic composing his body melted away upwards, like the rest of his already-felled party.

The party all breathed a sigh of relief. As expected, any party that could make it this far was a helluva fight, but there was no stopping them, and with a gleam of light the door upward appeared in the middle of the snow, the party heading through.

The next area was simple. A stair upward, and a binding point. The man was nowhere to be seen.

“Oh good.” Smolder plodded over to it, registering her guildchain. “I think I need about two weeks of sleep after that.”

“I dunno if waiting that long is a good idea,” Sandra said, but also registering her guildchain.

“It’s hyperbole,” Smolder groused, stretching. “I don’t even know how long we’ve been in here, but between freezing our tails off and fighting for our lives, I need a nap.”

The party winked back out, one by one.

"So…" Spike rocked forward and back as they went along. "This is it."

"This is it," repeated Tabitha, with more conviction. "It's time to end this."

Smolder hiked a thumb across at Sandra. "We got the physical stuff down. I'm not even worried. But there's more to it. You got it worked out?"

"Mostly, I think." Sandra put her palms up on either side of her head, compressing a bit on her temples. "He wants out, and he deserves that option. If he gets out, he wins. The rest? Noise. He thinks it's important noise, but it's still just noise. If he gets out, he wins, and he won't even be upset."

Spike inclined his head. "You're going to try to set everyone in the tower free? That's a lot of people." He could imagine a new army of super powered people flooding out of the tower into town. "That could get messy."

"Not all at once, and not by force." Sandra smiled a bit. "But, like a fair and just employer, they would have a chance to be themselves, and to retire. Both will, in the, uh, end, make for a better tower."

“Hey, eyes on the prize,” Tabitha interrupted. “We got one more floor, and I don’t think the tower’s going easy on us.”

“Right, right,” Sandra said, looking forward.

They all exited the stairway up, walking onto a rounded marble platform, apparently floating in the middle of space, with only the man in the tower standing in the center. “Welcome!” He spread his arms wide.

Spike eyed him. “Don’t we have another floor to get through before we find you.”

“You have another floor before you reach the top.” The man smiled. “But before the top, well, you need a final boss.”

Garble pulled out his sword. “Not that I’m complaining, I wanted to beat the crap outta you for a while now, but we just beat a whole party, and I don’t think you’re anything more special than that.”

“Hangon,” Sandra held out a hand. “But I thought you were gonna be at the top, and not here.”

“Please.” The man raised a hand up. “I have obviously been your antagonist, and who would deny the story a good climax.” And with that, what appeared to be a bolt of magic came down and struck his hand, it pulsing around him into the ground, and he began to grow.

Spike twirled his staff into readiness. "We will fight you. We will win, but we're taking victory our way."

"Ah yeah!" Garble circled towards their enemy, glaring at the man. "I don't always agree with Spike, but he's talking sense right now."

"Pattern 4," advised Tabitha, advancing with shield raised high, mace at the ready. "Focus P." She was telling them to learn the pattern of the boss. There was always a pattern, a trick. It meant don't go in for damage. Assume the first run would be a loss. Learn.

"I'm sorry, did you not understand?" With a snap of his fingers that reminded Spike of his other godling friend, the rules of reality were casually shifted. "You get one chance. One. Really… You had 98 floors to practice. You're done with that."

At this moment he was nearly twice the size of a normal man, and the ground rose up around him and his legs, changing from marbled floor to armored carapace. Tentacled arms with chomping jaws wormed their way out of the sides of the armored form, and floating orbs crackling with magic hovered up above him.

The middle of the armored form cracked open to form its own jaw, and the man, now sitting atop an armored monster full of teeth and claws, roared, and the entire area shook. The pinpoints of light in the dark space began to move and glow different colors.

From the motes floating around the boss, magical blasts flew at the party, who all dodged to the side, the blasts striking the floor and dissipating.

“Great,” Tabitha groused. “One shot, huh?”

“One shot at the manamerge monsters too!” Spike shouted, shooting a slight lance at a magical mote, which wobbled at the strike. “This is the same thing.”

Garble cracked a smile. “Fine by me, I hate having to learn a boss.” A hydra arm snapped at him, blasting straight past him as he rolled out of the way. “This is gonna be this big guy’s loss!” He brought his lighting sword down on the fleshy tentacle arm, causing the maw at the end to roar in pain.

The mis-shapen limb coiled despite the cut, grabbing Garble and flinging him powerfully back, the roar turning into a laugh that echoed queerly with all the others. "Are you looking for that?" asked the belly maw. "I think they are," agreed the one mouth in the right place. "Shame. I expected better."

The man raised his hands, and with a sudden wave of acid pouring free in all directions, the group was forced to scatter, Tabitha wrenched into the sky in the arms of a Twilight-fused Sandra.

"It's time for friendship," spoke Twilight/Sandra, though it was clear which of them had actually chosen those words.

Spike hiked a scaled brow. "Uh, no elements, and I don't think it works like this on this world." He twisted in a dodge of a thrown sharp spine that missed him by inches. "Keep up the enthusiasm!"

The motes produced beams, lancing at Tabitha and Sandra in midair, and Sandra lost grip on Tabitha through her dodging, leaving Tabitha to fall straight down into a waiting tentacle maw. She flipped herself upward, planting her legs on one set of teeth, and her shield into the other, holding it open with one arm, she sliced at its mouth with her other arm.

Sandra/Twilight cursed as she watched the limb flail around with her friend in it, but from ahead of her the motes continued to blast away, and she grit her teeth, and began to shoot stars at it.

Spike's staff glowed a vibrant green, drawing in the hurt of his allies and banishing it in two channels of life energy pulsing along the staff. "It's not fair, to you," he called out despite the battle. "The tower really hasn't been fair, to any of you."

"Focus on the battle," grunted one mouth of many, a hand produced from the mass, reaching for the dragon, but Spike was too quick to easily dodge, twirling around it. "Prove you want the wish."

“But doesn’t that bother you?” Spike pressed while backing himself up, dodging another lunge.

“We got what we asked for,” the same mouth said. “And if you don’t focus, how can you?”

Spike raised his staff back, ready to bring it down on the tentacle, when another blindsided him from the side, sending him sprawling. “Ow,” he moaned, and looked back and forth. His friends were above him, away from him, and he grit his teeth. “This is bad, we’re--”

“--split!” Garble finished his unrelated rhyme, bringing his sword down on another tentacle maw, which did roar but from behind him another tentacle thrust a glancing blow. Garble spun around, lashing out at it, but it went away, him being hit by another blow from the first.

Smolder flapped into the air, the occasional blast of magic being shot at her, trying to contend with one of the heads herself, which lashed out in sweeping blows, hoping to catch her like a whip might.

"Friendship," insisted Twilight mentally despite their shared mouth, though that spoke a moment later, "Together we can do this, which we aren't. This isn't about any--" They dropped almost a foot, allowing a terrific beam of power to fire over their heads. "--magic other than teamwork, which is a kind of magic. A good one I will have you know!"

Tabitha caught a flailing limb against her shield, shoved back several feet but holding her footing. "Pattern… Q! Q!" she shouted to her scattered friend. "Don't forget what we've learned!"

"Q." Spike dove between two lines of crackling electricity, rushing towards the voice. "Q!" Memory, rising from the chaos of the battle. "On it!"

He made it to Tabitha’s back, and quickly scanned for the others. Sandra and Twilight were bobbing and weaving, but had made it back down, and they looked both up to Smolder, wrapped up with a maw snapping at her. The unity nodded and blasted at the tentacle, and Spike turned his attention to Garble, surrounded by assailants, and waited for just the right moment.

He pulled Garble with magic away just as he was trying to guard an attack, and Smolder swopped down.

“What?!” He nearly shouted, as the tentacles began to close in on the group.

“We’re doing Q!” Spike said.

“Great, we’re all here, that ain’t a winning strategy,” Garble spat. A tentacle came for him and he blocked it. “And I don’t really have space to swing.”

“We were split up,” Sandra/Twilight said. “We would not get anything done like that. We must be united.”

“Blah blah, but Q is where we come up with a plan, right? What’s the plan?”

“Well, now that you’re all in one spot, I was thinking of blasting you at once,” A voice resounded, and the party all turned to the man.

His gaping maw had opened, the motes and the tentacles all formed around it, and beams of energy connected in the center, spinning around. “You’re not the only one who is strategizing.”

Tabitha shouted. “Behind me!”

“You better have a plan,” Smolder shouted.

Tabitha raised her shield and sword up high, a column of light being sent straight up in preparation, and the boss’s megabeam blasted out in front of it, a cacophony of blues and green energy swirling around itself, lancing directly at the party.

Tabitha brought her shield and sword down, the pillar of light coming down with it, forming a wedge that parted the blast neatly around the party, the energy lashing out to the right and the left, the pressure of it pushing her back.

“Th-that’s new,” Spike said as the roar of energy subsided. “For how long… did you know that?”

Tabitha grit her teeth into a smirk. “Gotta keep at least a few cards up your sleeve.”

The man panted, his entire form heaving with energy expenditure, a chuckle coming from him.

“We clear up the tentacles and magic bits,” Twilight/Sandra said. “Each is boosting his power, they were even being used during this big attack. Without them he probably can’t do this, he can’t divide us up. Focus fire.”

Garble smirked. “Now you’re talking my language.”

With a rough cry through the team, they lunged to attack as one. Despite the rough start, they had come back together to present a unified cutting edge against the monstrosity that stood in the way of the ending they were set on getting.

Author's Note

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91 - Hurling Galaxies

The party rallied together as the jaws lashed out at them. Tabitha turned away a blow and Smolder bounded over her, taking the chance to stab at it’s flesh, retreating back to safety.

Sandra let her union pass, and called forth Crystal, who came out of the marbled ground in front of her, blocking another jaw from reaching her, countering with a punch. Garble lashed out, and Spike struck out his staff, vigilant for healing that needed to be done, and for threats.

After only a bit of attacks and counters, the man raised his hands again. “Look out!” Spike cried. “The acid’s coming again!”

A splash of acid was conjured directly above them, ready to rain down. The party split again, all diving in their respective directions, and the tentacles eagerly swarmed the now empty center, snapping at them.

Tabitha blocked a snap and shouted. “Don’t get split up, everyone gather at the back!”

But it was as if the boss knew their strength was at its highest when they were together. Which he did. He had watched them, those many floors, and he worked tirelessly to wear them down, focusing his attacks on whoever was furthest away from Spike's healing and Tabitha's guarding reach.

They were losing by inches, and they knew it. "Not like this." Garble brought down his blade, severing one meaty limb like a loaf of especially thick bread, but there were others behind it, surging to replace the lost without pause. "You're just cheatin', but I'm just beatin'." He swatted aside as one came for him, but another tagged him in the side in the same instant, knocking him aside.

Spike's staff twirled defensively as he glowed a fierce green. "I am not walking his path." He had met the divine lord. A good man, a stalwart fighter, but Spike's path… It was his own. "I will write it myself." They were at the top of the tower, fighting what was likely the last and worst enemy. If there was a time to make new rules, he figured there would be no better time. "Twilight, gonna use some of your smarts." Not that he lacked his own, but drawing on her example was a little inspiration, and he needed a little of that in the onslaught.

The motes were glowing, and he knew what that meant. Each of them blasted a lance of light straight at people in the party, and Spike raised his staff up in the air. Divine Lords could knock away magic with their shields, and Martyrs could absorb damage and throw it back. Spike intended to cut out the middleman, and he hopped up into the air, expanding his green magical glow, which the lances of magic struck and simply… disappeared in green sparks.

Spike raised up his staff, contracting the fierce green aura on it, becoming a white and green hot mote of power, and he swung it, throwing the magic he gathered at a nearby tentacle, the blast of hot magic seared and crackled, slamming the tentacle into the ground, it skidding several yards away, and it simply stopped.

Logue's roar shook the world around them. His efforts to keep them away from Spike, suddenly turned to waste as they rebounded and attacked with a new burst of energy. "That is against the rules!" he chastised like an angry judge, leveling a finger from on high at Spike.

Smolder drew out her cooking pot with a smarmy grin. "We're at the top. This is where the rules get made!" Without a word shared between them, the idea had spread from one to the next. "And I think a little calamari is right on the menu!" She did not carve him into the pot, instead gesturing it away, calling forth new pots to spring into being where his meaty limbs were in a convenient place to already be in them. She had been forbidden to use that technique once before, but…

The tentacles recoiled and screeched as they collided with the boiling water, and Logue trembled with rage. “No no no!” he nearly screeched, as he raised his own hands and splashed acid down on top of them, forcing them to scatter, and sent his tentacles straight after Spike and Smolder.

Tabitha darted forward, interspersing herself between a tentacle and Smolder. “You really pissed him off with that.”

Smolder cackled without a care, "His anger is a spice for my dish." Little gestures of her hands brought the boiling pots over to catch some of the splashing acid to mix with her cooking servings.

Tabitha just cracked an eyebrow up. “I have no idea what you two have done, but now is not the time to ask, is it?”

“Enjoy the ride.” Smolder smirked, summoning another cauldron right in front of her in time for a tentacle jaw to slam right into it.

Logue breathed haggard breaths, and put his hand to his forehead. “What… what…”

Garble joined Spike, slashing a nearby maw to clear a path back to gathering together.

Spike smiled self satisfiedly. “You gonna go with something, Gar Gar?”

He frowned. “Only one person gets to call me that name.” He raised his sword up ready for a slash. “But I’m already good to maim.” He brought it down with a crash of lightning. “I don’t need no extra skill, My style’s already good to kill.”

Spike watched him cleave through more tentacles, although only causing them to recoil, and shrugged, just in time to be slapped across the face with an oversized octopus tendril. "What the?"

"Snack time!" came Smolder's cry in the distance. "Gotta keep up your strength to bring this home!"

Sandra smiled at the gleeful laughter of the dragoness. "It's easy to forget this can be fun."

"May I join?"

The voice was internal, Twilight whispering in Sandra's mind, "Since we're putting the rules aside, and since we're at the top, maybe I can…"

"Oh, wow." Sandra's smile spread wide. "Try it!"

She felt a surge of magic, and Crystal popped away, back to wherever the mana spirits went to, and Sandra tugged on the magic, pulling on it as she felt resistance give way in fits and starts.

She expected a terrific burst of mana, an explosion of energy, or a tear in reality to suddenly appear, but what she did not expect was a sound like a soft balloon pop mixed with a crackling noise, disturbing nothing else. And then, Twilight was there.

She spread her wings to catch herself as gravity reminded her it was still there. "Let's do this!" she called in a battle-ready tone, matching hoof to Sandra's enthusiastic slap. They waded into battle, magic sizzling beams in seemingly all directions.

"One thing." Sandra peeked over her shoulder as she thrust her hands forward, firing a concentrated beam of magic that severed a hand coming for her. "Why can I use your magic even though you're obviously over there?" She had no signs of Twilight's presence. She had no bits of fur or equine snout and not even a swishy horsey tail. She was just Sandra, with magical unicorn magic, which was pretty great.

The magic was not as it was before, which used to be stars called from the heaven, but were direct applications of beams, mostly. Twilight blinked around the field, hyper mobile, shields and beams. Sandra was less adept at the magic, but the shields and beams were certainly useful, drawing from the very significant magic reserves they shared.

“Twilight!” Spike shouted, hopping into the air to dodge a blast. “You’re here. For real!”

“And she should not be!” Logue roared, magic concentrating at the floating motes, blasting at Twilight, which Spike eagerly jumped in front of, blasting the beams back at the tentacles, taking out two whole more.

Logue gripped his head as the giant maw underneath him roared. “Wrong wrong wrong this is wrong you should not be here.”

“Alright, something seriously seems off about him, now,” Tabitha said, repelling his attacks with aid from the cauldrons that all seemed to unsummon a few seconds after their job was done.

“He talked a lot about rules,” Spike said, dodging back. “So he’s tied to… magic's rules, somehow? And breaking them is doing something to him.”

“Well keep it up, his attacks are getting sloppy.”

The group cheered and continued their assault, carving their way through the tentacles, whose number clearly dwindled. With every redirected magical assault, with every summoned piece of food equipment, boiling and baking the enemy, with every magical princess power, Logue clearly struggled, yelling and screaming.

And soon, the tentacles were gone.

“No no no… no no no no no!” Logue shouted, magic gathering at the giant jaw. “Stop this now!”

“Behind me again!” Tabitha said, ready to split the magic, and the whole party gathered behind her as she readied her counter.

And Spike, from behind both, gathered his own magic, opening up his magic field.

The roar of energy blasted at the party, and the column of light split it, just as before, the torrent of magic blasting past them.

Well, mostly past them.

Spike’s green magic split out, grabbing the sides of the split energy, whirling and swirling them around his own staff. It was easy to work with… but too much, he grit his teeth, straining to hold it in.

“S-Spike!” Twilight called out.

“What the…” Garble said, looking up at the increasing ball of energy Spike was collecting.

“Wh-what’s going on,” Tabitha said, not looking back as the assault continued. The magic poured out, and she felt herself being pushed back.“He ain’t quitting on this end, guys, what the hell is going on back there?”

Twilight created a magical shield, attempting to encircle the magic, as more magic still yet poured into it. Sandra too, extended her staff, trying to help contain the magic.

Spike felt the whole of his body, all the magic he had gained and was absorbing, tugging and pulling at him. He couldn’t wait out all the attack, it had to go, and he flew up, the orb of magic larger than him, and swung his staff forward.

The orb of energy began to deform slowly at first, as if something was pulling itself out, but as if it were gaining purchase, the magic pulled forward more and more, until the orb snapped forward, blasting at Logue’s body. It collided with the blast of energy, pushing it out of the way with its density, and slammed into Logue’s under body, which roared with a tower-shaking roar.

When it was over, a giant hole was carved into the body, formless matter underneath it, all disintegrating into motes of light.

Logue fell to the ground. But he did not fade away, as many other monsters they had felled had done before him. He was instead limp on the ground, a still form.

Twilight perked up, though her eyes kept darting towards Spike. "We… won?"

"We won," emphasized Garble with a triumphant smirk. "Thanks for the assist, but we were handling it."

The group of five-well, six then, walked up to Logue, pulling himself up off the ground. “Is it over?” Tabitha nearly spat. “Are you going to rise up, grow wings, and throw galaxies at us or something?”

“You broke… the rules,” Logue said, his voice hoarse, picking himself up. Even now the hood kept his eyes in shade, but beneath them two glowing silver lights shone out, obscured by blinks sometimes.

“So what,” Smolder said. “We finished the fight.”

“So you did,” he glared daggers, wincing and craning his neck as he looked at her. “But there must be consequences. You being here is wrong, now.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Spike said, standing in his view. “You wanted us at the top, we’re getting to the top, we can do it.”

“It’s not that simple,” Logue spat, rising up to his full height. “I can barely look at you. Everything is screaming to me to stop. It-it…” he took a haggard breath, “I’m being stupid. You broke the rules, so I can enforce it with consequences.”

He looked at Spike, pinching his fingers together. “And I wanted you to see the top, too.”

He split his fingers apart, and with no sound or effects at all, Spike, Smolder, and Twilight all disappeared.

Author's Note

Oops. Did you break the simulation?

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92 - LFG

Sandra opened her eyes to blinding white. All was white. Holding up a hand, she could see that, at least. She could feel herself, feel her breaths. She was alive, but the place she was in had no form, just white. She did not stand there. She just… was there. Floating would have implied some amount of bobbing or motion. She just was there, suspended in the white.

"Hello?" she called out into the nothing. "Am I dead?" She could feel her breath, but she had seen undead things that seemed convinced they were yet living. "Did we lose?"

There were no words, but an impression that was impossible to ignore. She was, in that instant, aware of the totality of the tower and its many byzantine rules that guided its function and purpose. They were dizzying and overwhelming.

But they also had a spot, right at the end. It was an itch, and urge. She could put what she wanted there. She could imprint her will on the tower, and it would be. It simply would be. The tower would follow her whim, and it would be so, forever. At least until or unless some future person came and did what she was doing, possibly invalidating it with some new desire.

"Wait…"

She was at the top. She was being given a wish. She could have anything! "What… Where is he? Where is everyone else?" But she could not know that. They weren't there. She knew everything in maddening clarity, how the tower worked, all the rules it followed, but she did not know a single thing about where her friends were, or her enemy.

She had won? She had won! She laughed a delirious little laugh, hand slapping against her head, overwhelmed by the measure of what was before her. "Does there need to be?" She sent her mind through the maze of impulses. There was once not a guiding force. It was one of the last wishes that made it otherwise, placed the lord of the tower they had met in his place. It had elevated the tower, changed it. It had gained a will, even if that will soured with time, regretting its place.

But the tower itself had no will, only instructions. It followed the instructions with a devotion that would embarrass any priest of any level of zealotry. The tower knew nothing but to follow its directives.

But how had she arrived there? They were being punished, denied a victory. There, a rule, a firm rule. Defeating the last guardian meant it was time for the next rule to be placed. That was not negotiable. That was unchangeable. That simply was. Even if one wanted to place a rule in opposition to it, she could feel a mountain of resistance against the notion. That rule was old. Very old. Maybe one of the first? It would not be brushed aside.

Even by the sapient will of the tower. Not that he had been the tower itself. He was simply a part of it. Bound by the rules…

She wasn’t alone. A presence was with her, almost immediately, and the masked man was there. His presence, sometimes mysterious, sometimes overpowering, was greatly diminished. He groaned and popped his neck. “You’re really intent on making this hard for me, huh?”

But it was a posture, an empty one. The tower was waiting for her to make her will known, to imprint on it. She had won. There was no taking that back. "It doesn't have to be hard," she noted, looking at him, watching him. It was comforting, in a way, to not be lost in blinding white.

“You are not in the position to tell me what is hard or not,” the man nearly growled. “I spent a lot of time and to be honest more than a few failures to get you here, right now. I’m not going to be denied this here just because you ran ahead.”

“Ran… ahead?”

The man raised an eyebrow. It didn’t matter she couldn’t see his eyebrows, she knew he was there, and he chuckled. “You really don’t remember? Well, that’s fine, your mind’s a little occupied at the moment.”

“That’s right… I understand everything about the tower, now,” Sandra said, casting an even stare at him.

“No you don’t,” the man replied flatly.

“I-what?”

“You think if I really knew all the ways the tower works I’d trap myself here forever? Knowing what it was? No, you know a lot, but everything? It’s hard enough to keep track of the damn rules, much less figure out what they all mean when they intersect.”

Almost instantly, she saw wish after wish of people who didn’t want to make a sacrifice, or the sacrifice was too much, or they never understood eternity here. Even people who simply wished for the wrong thing. Except… “It’s been a long time since you made your wish, Logue.”

“That it has.” He sighed. “A lot of time to think, a lot of time to plan.”

"You made things better." Logue jerked, surprised perhaps? "I'm not kidding. In a lot of ways, the tower was… better, for you coming, for doing… all you've done." She rolled her hands, trying to pantomime her scattered thoughts. "You did a lot. Not… all good." She could vouch for that. "But a lot of the rest?"

Logue snorted. “Well I’m glad somebody appreciates my art, but I’m done with it. Eternal slavery, a thousand parties and a thousand boring wishes.” He looked straight at Sandra. “So it’s time for it to end.” He pointed at her. “You’re going to wish I’m not here anymore. Knock me off the tower, end me, whatever. I’m the one holding all the strands of fate here, and when I’m gone, it’s all gone.”

In an instant she knew it was true. The dragons held there in that world, the curse of ‘heroism’. All tied to him, and when he was gone, all of it would be over. Nothing left to tether them, nothing left to guide it. The tower didn’t know what heroism was, only the will of the tower.

He even made wishes more interesting.

The tower would return to its unthinking state, doing because it was there to be done and nothing further than that. "It doesn't have to be that way." That wasn't the ending Spike had wanted. That wasn't the ending Smolder had wanted. Alright, so Garble didn't much care on that front, still, two out of three dragons disapproved!

"You deserve freedom." Almost a whisper, her hands coming together. "They all do, even the freedom of an ending, if that's what you want."

“I don’t know what ideas you have in your head,” Logue said. “You’ve been muttering about it for floors now, and I’ve been listening, but you don’t have to go out on some limb to save everyone.” He stepped back from her. “All you need to do to get everything you want is deal with me.”

Sandra stared at him, brought back to her original goal for a moment. “What did you do with Spike and Smolder? And for that matter, Twilight.”

“Time out.” He gestured, creating an image of them asleep in bubbles, cradled in his hands. “Waiting for your wish, when I’m gone they will be restored to where you want them to be.”

“Gone…” Sandra felt a pang of regret. “That’s the end of this in every case, isn’t it.”

He shrugged. “They don’t really belong here, the tower connected them, as you no doubt have surmised by now. The tower was not happy when it’s power was used to piggyback Twilight in that way.” He put his hands down, the image fading. “Once you are rid of me it will be over.”

Sandra stared at his cloaked face. “And what do you think is going to happen to me if that happens?”

The man had a sad smile on his face. “If it’s direct? The tower likes life for a life. You can boot me off and take my place, if you’d like, but you’ve seen how it is being in the tower. I wanted to stay here and all I want now is it over.”

“You’ve been priming me for this,” Sandra said, her voice stern. “You’ve been planning to make someone sacrifice themselves for your freedom.”

He waggled his unseen eyebrows. “Maybe you can wish for a weapon capable of destroying me and in one final climactic moment end me, maybe the tower will let you do that and you won’t have to be gone.”

"Enough." She waved the thought aside, the one syllable coming with an unseen but certainly felt force. "This cycle ends, but a new cycle begins." To destroy without replacement was how all the worst parts of her life had come to be. "They're going. I wish them the best." A faint tickle. "No that isn't an order." She had to smile. The tower was really kinda dumb in some ways. "They can make their own happy ending without me, back in their home."

Her heart stung. She had grown close to them. They were… They were family, but they had a place they needed to be so much more than at her side. "Tabitha. She is vital to the law. I must speak to her."

Her will made clear, Tabitha took a half step as if coming in from somewhere else, groggy and confused. "You won't jus--" her half phrased denial fading out, taking in the great whiteness around her. "What… Sandra, what's going on?"

Sandra took her hand. "Tabby, this is it. This is the top. You made it."

Tabitha craned her neck left and right, taking in the formless white that engulfed them. "I… imagined more than this."

"We get our wish," firmly assured Sandra. "And I think I know what I want. What we want."

"Besides helping your friends?" Tabitha's fingers clenched around Sandra's hand. "I was ready for that."

Sandra returned the grip. "So was I, but they're going without a wish. So we--"

"--still have ours," finished Tabitha, realization dawning. "Holy wow! We could have anything! We could be--"

Sandra clapped a hand over Tabitha's mouth. "We're already heroes. We're already famous. We're already rich if we wanted to be. I am not spending this wish on anything stupid and selfish."

Tabitha brushed Sandra's arm away. "Right right, I get it." She folded her arms, taking measure of her friend, eyes darting to Logue watching silently. "What's up with him?"

"This involves him, and me, and you." Sandra smiled gently. "Tabitha, this tower needs a mind, and a heart. Tabitha… Will you help me? I've already asked so much of you. You were there, when I was a scared child. You were there to help me make the last steps. Here, at the top, will you help me one more time, until you get bored of it?"

Tabitha furrowed her brow. “What exactly are you suggesting, Sandra? We have been vividly shown how awful the tower is for the people ‘living’ here.” She gestured with air quotes. “I’m not sure either of us should be chomping at the bit for it.”

Logue took the opportunity to interject. “And it’s not her responsibility. If I’m gone all of the things I did are gone, and I already proposed a solution that would allow you two,” he glanced over at Tabitha. “To avoid the consequence of eternal slavery.”

Sandra wheeled around to him. “You got me involved with this by making me a hero, and having that magic work on me for years and years. I don’t even know what my life would be like if this were gone, maybe I’d be happy with a family still, but instead here I am, at the top, being the hero.”

“But that’s not what I wa--”

“What you want is irrelevant,” Sandra cut him off. “It is our wish and our ability to choose.”

“But even then it’s too ri--” Logue protested but was cut off again.

“And your input is no longer necessary,” Sandra said, her words echoing with power.

Logue felt his very being gripped, threatening to tear him out of the magicscape they all found themselves in, but he focused with all the power he had, staying rooted in place. He opened his eyes to exhort her again, only to find that he couldn’t even open his mouth, much less make any noise.

Sandra looked back to Tabitha, who stood there with a mixture of astonishment and pride. “I’m going to change the rules. Logue put himself as the top slave in the pen, but remained a slave. I’m going to put us on top of that.” She squeezed that hand, looking into Tabitha's eyes. "This is a brave new adventure. It could go wrong, or so very right. Tabitha, will you join my party, one last time?"

Author's Note

This chapter felt really good for both of us. I hope you all feel the emotion in it.

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93 - To Future Adventures

Spike sat up with a grunt, his head spinning. "Are we…?" They were not at the bottom of the tower. They were not in the tower. They were not in the town. "The castle?"

Twilight sat down beside him, smiling brightly. "All three of you." She gestured with two hooves and a wing at the awakening dragons. "Welcome back, Spike."

"We… But what about Sandra?" He scrambled to his feet. "And where's our stuff?" He wasn't holding his staff or wearing his robes, nor were any of the others visibly equipped. "What happened?!"

Smolder brought her tail around and suddenly hugged it tight, snuggling the limb a bit wantonly. Garble was standing up, looking ready to complain when he noticed Smolder's actions and it clicked. His fury became a little smile, content. "Good," he said at last, all complaints dying away.

Smolder had her tail back, restored to its original state.

“Is Sandra still in trouble, though!” Spike said. “Logue did that finger thing and we all disappeared.”

“Oh, yeah you two were gone, right,” Garble looked around the room. It looked delicious.

“What?” Spike flew up to his eye level. “Wait, the same thing didn’t happen to you?”

“Oh uh, like…” Garble scratched the back of his head. “So you two disappeared. I was pissed, but the guy did the same disappearance thing when I attacked him, like before, and he said like ‘come to the top’ and this big glowy door opened in the middle of nowhere. We went up the stairs, the top was really cool, pictures of people who’d reached the top, yada yada yada. There was this big crystal that the guy said was what we’d use when we’re ready for the wish, and told us to wait, and Sandra walked right up to it and touched it. She disappeared, the man cursed and disappeared too. Then like in five minutes Tabitha disappeared… and… then I was here.” Garble shrugged. “Not that I could do anything, but he didn’t lie when he said you were okay.”

Spike stood slack jawed. “I… feel like you skipped past some of the important stuff.”

“I ain’t a storyteller!” Garble shouted. “You wanted a story, ask someone else.”

Smolder set a hand on both of them, a shoulder each. "We did it."

Spike turned on Smolder. "What did we do? Are they alright? I mean, we got home, yay, but what about the rest of it?" He waved a hand a bit aimlessly. "Did we get anything done?"

Twilight set a wing on Spike's back. "You did so much. And I missed you quite a bit, and so did the others."

"The girls?"

Twilight smiled at that. "Well, them too, but I more meant your friends, your friends. Big Mac and Discord were quite upset to have you be gone."

Spike raised a finger, just for it to curl. "Wait… Wait wait… Discord knew I was gone but he didn't go pick me up? Pretty sure he could."

"And ruin your adventure?" There he was, head poking from the air. "I was only a smidge upset I wasn't a part of it. It looked like quite the tale."

“You could have fixed it at any time?!” Spike exclaimed, sinking to the floor.

“Well there might have been consequences if I did,” Discord rolled his eyes. “Magical rules and I don’t get along super well, if you hadn’t noticed.” His eyebrows waggled. "Besides, like I said, it looked like quite a fun little jaunt. Did you really want to skip it?"

“No…” Spike looked down. “And we helped Sandra and… and did we?!” He shot back up.

“Did we what?” Garble's shoulders shrugged at the question.

“Did we actually save Sandra?”

Twilight was glaring at Discord. "You specifically said you couldn't help Spike."

"That wasn't a lie, my dear princess." Discord tapped her on the nose. "I couldn't ruin what looked like a story he'll never forget. Why, he'd never forgive me."

“Who cares!” Spike hopped up. “Did Sandra have to give up her life or not! It-it’s the whole thing about the top! It takes a sacrifice, and the tower sometimes kills people, sometimes enslaves them. What happened to her?”

Twilight looked back away and pursed her lips. “I… well…” Twilight lit her horn, searching magically… and sighed after failing to do anything. “As I thought, the connection is gone now. I think I could still feel it before you showed up a few minutes ago, but now…”

Spike sank back down again, crestfallen. “So we can’t… we can’t even tell what happened?”

They had arrived home safely. Spike was pleased, and also annoyed, to discover that he could still conjure bits of magic green, but only a little. Enough to see by, enough to make a scratch fade with effort, but not much more than that.

Twilight was much more pleased to be able to run experiments using it, even though it could only do a little bit, it was a very significant little bit, and she spent a lot of time looking into the things that it could do.

Smolder slammed into a wall of friends she missed, eager to make up for lost time, and spent the day sharing food and time with the friends. Well, and relearning what preparing food was like using normal non magical means, which she dove into happily, grilling and sauteing to her heart's desire.

Garble spent his days wondering if it was a “real dragon” thing to wield a sword, even if it was big and large. It wasn’t, was it? Weapons are what the namby pamby ponies used, dragons had claws, dragons were naturally strong. But he couldn’t just… throw it away, could he? And someday he’d grow, and he’d need a bigger sword too, he bet. His friends barely noticed him missing, wandering away for months or even years is just a dragon thing to do, after all.

….

Sandra floated high above the city, in the area still technically claimed by the tower. Logue was right, being able to do stuff like this was kind of cool. “Make the best to enjoy the power you have,” he had said. “Someday it’ll be rote and boring, but you’re at the exciting part.”

Something tugged at her hand and she turned to see, far below, a smith step out of her shop and stretch before turning to squint up at the tower. "Aw." It was her friend, her loyal crafter.

Tabitha smiled in kind. "I thought you'd like seeing her. She's doing good." She pointed at a small line of people waiting to get into a smithy that had seen a party to the very top. "But as much as I love town peeking, the bug swarms are getting old." She crossed her arms. "Yes, yes, bugs are creepy, but we can do more interesting swarms." She wriggled her fingers.

Sandra raised an eyebrow. “We could let Logue come up with something, again.”

“No! Why are you so cool with him not opting to actually leave?” She snorted. “All he wanted to do was die but instead he’s staying around to, what, annoy us?”

“It’s everyone’s choice to do what they want after their time is up,” Sandra said. “What kind of a just ruler… well… tower-rule-changer-and-power-wielder would I be if I denied him that? Besides, with more people afforded more time awake, instead of just… sleeping between tasks, you know life in the tower isn’t like it was before.”

"Won't argue that." Tabitha allowed with a huff, clapped her mailed hands together. "I am not complaining about being able to chat with the original divine lord whenever he's up for it." She wiggled a few fingers down at the town. "He's a hit with the ladies." She waggled her brows suggestively, but it turned quickly into laughter.

Sandra laughed along, before she became more somber. “Tabitha… thank you for coming with me, here. I… neither of us knew what to expect, or exactly how much we’d be able to actually change things. But…” She smiled kind of embarrassedly. “That day I felt a lot like I was putting up a brave front. After what happened… before… in my life, I was all alone for a while there. I was losing Spike and Smolder and even Garble… and I’m not sure I’d either be able to handle being alone again…”

Tabitha play punched Sandra in the shoulder. “You were going to do a real cool thing with a big new adventure. I love going down onto the low floors to school some weakass adventurers not ready to go up. Even in disguise I love it.” She looked down at the tower. “I didn’t really want to leave you alone either, though.”

The two of them stood in silence for a minute, before Tabitha broke it. “You still miss them, right?”

“How could I not? They changed everything in my life. I’m not sure I would have ever clawed my way out of where I was without them.” Sandra smiled. “And even if somehow I did make it to the top anyway, I wouldn’t have made the decisions I did. I’d be a thrall to the tower or just dead or something.” She looked back at Tabitha. “Without you, either.”

Tabitha shoved Sandra with both hands. "You're getting mushy." But she pulled Sandra back almost as quickly. "There's a plucky young thing down on floor 3 that I think could use a hand, a gentle hand." She gestured down, that part of the tower glowing in their vision. "She's come up a few times, just to get beaten. No party, just her, kinda unusual, that. But she keeps trying and trying… Gotta give her points for guts."

Sandra sighed. “The tower is usually pretty nice in scaling down for smaller parties, but we can’t actually scale down to a one person party, I think. Not usually, anyway.”

"Oh, gee, if only there was some kind soul that could empathize with a little hopeless girl that kept trying on her lonesome." Tabitha batted her lashes dramatically. "Now where could I find one of those…"

Sandra smiled. “Alright, we’ll come up with something to nudge her to try to come back with a party.”

“Great! I’ve got some ideas, so I’ll get those up and we can look.” And Tabitha flew herself back into the tower.

Sandra smiled, ready to fly back in herself, when she felt a strange feeling. It was vaguely familiar, but at the same time unfamiliar. Like looking at something from a different angle you could not see before… A tug of magic.

The tower didn’t seem to object, so she tugged. Not lightly either, she grabbed the magic and pulled it strongly to her, and in front of her, a spirit appeared, exactly as one might during summoning.

A spirit that was too familiar, and his eyes lit up as he saw her.

“Sandra!” Spike exclaimed. “We finally got it working!”

"Spike!" She tried to grab the image, but Spike wasn't properly summoned, and there was nothing to hug. An easy fix! "Do you want to make a pact, so I can summon you?"

"Honestly… no, but I do want to know how you're doing." He chuckled softly. "No offense or anything, but if you summon me, you'll get your kind of dragon, and those aren't me, just like Twilight wasn't herself. You're alright through!" He threw up both of his hands with a jubilant smile. "Tell me everything!"

"I still have a link with her, Twilight I mean." Sandra could feel the tickle, thinking of Twilight. "I stopped calling her, with you back home… Figured it'd be rude."

"She thought you couldn't anymore." Spike rubbed behind his head. "If you asked first, I bet she wouldn't always say no, but really, what's going on?"

Sandra reached out for Twilight, along those well formed paths, but where she expected to place her next metaphorical foot, she hit the forest between worlds, nothing. There was no path after a point, and she had to turn back around, focusing on Spike. "Oh…"

"Oh?" Spike inclined his head faintly. "Oh what? Are you alright?!"

‘Yes, I just… overestimated how much connection we had. I can still feel her, but it’s… harder to connect. I can’t find her.”

“That’s why Twilight and I used the guildchain to find you!” Spike held his hand up. “I’d hold it up but it’s kind of in the helmet that I’m using to talk to you.” He put his hand down and pointed. “But that’s not important! You’re okay! What have you been doing?”

“A lot!” And she began to describe the entire process of living in the tower, and all the changes made. "And it's thanks to you."

Though neither could touch one another, a hug was shared. "I have to go."

Sandra perked. "Some horrible monster in your world?"

"Hardly." Spike waved it away with a smile. "Well, technically? I'm the one making the monsters." He rubbed his hands together. "They won't be expecting tonight's O&O." He laughed the dark chortle of an experienced GM.

"It seems we're both making exciting adventures." She set a hand on his head. "Let's compare notes. Maybe we'll give each other ideas."

"Yeah! Great idea." He hopped back in the air. "I'm so glad you're doing alright. I'll be back, promise." And he vanished without a sound.

"We both have a life to lead." Sandra pivoted in the air back towards the tower that had become her home.

But not her prison.

Author's Note

And... fin. What did you think? To remind, this was a collab story told between me and RadicalDishonesty, who is a patron.