//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: Accepting the Call 
// Story: Rarity and Spike vs Fantasy RPG Tropes: The Sabre of Omens 
// by SS Nomad 
//------------------------------//

	Rarity snapped awake, a familiar scaly claw tapping at her shoulder.  She rubbed her eyes, barely having the time to grumble in confusion before she noticed that Spike was pointing at something.  As her eyes adjusted, she started to realize she must have nodded off during their ride north, and looked around to get her bearings.  The scenery had clearly changed, once distant mountains now beginning to tower up from the horizon.  As she finally took the moment to follow Spike’s stare, she saw a beautiful carriage, done up in a Victorian style, drawn by two bulky stallions.
It only took her a moment to remember, “What, do you think that’s the one she mentioned?  I mean, it could be just any other carriage.”
“True,” Spike admitted, “but it’s a bit too much of a coincidence, no?  Just… make sure you remember what it looks like.  I think we’ll be seeing more of it.”
Rarity shook her head, contemplating laying back and trying to rest again, but realizing that she hadn’t intended to fall asleep in the first place, it still being the late afternoon.  Instead, she moved her way to the front of the cart, leaning over the railing to look at their driver.
After a short pause, she decided to address the mare as normal instead of… whatever it was Spike did, “Miss, I’m not sure I ever got your name.  I know it’s silly to realize that just now, but…”
The mare faltered in her stride, but kept going, seeming a bit confused by the statement, “I’m… Lilac.  I just… you know, do trade… stuff.”
Something about that response felt out of place to Rarity, so she decided to continue, “Well, Miss Lilac, what got you into trading?  I mean, not to promote roles or anything, but this isn’t exactly a job you commonly see mares filling.”
There was a bit of a pause like Lilac didn’t really have an answer, but she eventually said, “It’s just… a family thing.  We’ve been doing it for generations.  My dad always wanted me to take up the mantle.”
Rarity smiled, content in that answer, “Charming.  A bit of a… traditional arrangement for my tastes, but if it makes you happy then who am I to judge, yes?”
With a light chuckle, Lilac nodded, “Yeah, I know taking up the family business isn’t exactly normal these days, but… well, old earth pony traditions die hard, as I’m sure you know.”
Rarity blinked.  Somehow… she hadn’t yet noticed that the mare was an earth pony.  I mean, it made sense.  Still, she was rather surprised with herself that it hadn’t occurred to her to… look.  Shaking off her moment’s confusion, she excused herself and shuffled back toward Spike.
“I mean…” Spike started, “I know you’re still seeing things differently than me, but I hope you realized you just made her a real character with a backstory.”
Rarity’s confusion returned, tilting her head at the small dragon beside her, “What… do you mean by that?”
“You’re invested in her now,” Spike explained, “She’s not just some passing caravan leader, she’s Lilac the earth pony, and she has a family tradition to uphold.”
“I mean, she was always that, I just didn’t know it yet,” Rarity retorted, a little lost.
Spike sighed and shrugged, sitting back into his seat, “Well… it shouldn’t do any harm.  Just try to avoid it in the future, I say.”
Rarity exhaled frustratedly, “Look, Spike… just because we’re on an ‘adventure’ doesn’t mean we need to cast aside the basics of equine decency.  She’s doing us a wonderful favor, I don’t want to treat her like some… background character.”
After a short pause to consider, Spike acknowledged, “Maybe that’ll work in our favor in the long run.  I guess we’ll just have to see.”
Rarity just sighed.  She could only hope that, by the end of this, she would have any idea what Spike was on about.





The wagon ground to a halt just outside a small, walled town.  Rarity looked up at the palisades with curiosity and concern.  If such a defence was necessary… no, she wouldn’t think about it.  She shuffled her way up to the front to check on Lilac.  As she got there, the mare was unhitching herself and trotting up to the front gate.  Rarity just watched.  A short exchange occurred, after which Lilac bowed and trotted back.
Smiling up at Rarity, she reported, “All’s well.  They just need a moment to open the gate.”
“Wonderful,” Rarity replied, but after a moment she questioned, “...where are we?”
“Garriston,” Lilac replied, “Last town before the river.  We should be pretty close to the place Spike said you two were heading.”
Rarity looked back up at the easily ten foot wooden walls, a pegasus staring back down at her from above the gate with a bow on her back.  Rarity waved awkwardly.  The mare acknowledged her existence.  Well… that’s not a bad sign, at least.
“Hey,” Spike called out quietly, “Anyone else hear that?”
Rarity turned back to him with a confused look, focusing on her hearing for a moment, before replying, “Wind in the plains, the river in the distance, what?”
“Skittering,” Spike answered quietly.
A chill when up Rarity’s spine, “Sk-skittering?”
Spike turned to look back at her, “Oh, wait yeah, probably too high pitched for you to pick up.  I’m guessing it’s a random encounter.”
“A what?” Rarity asked back in ever mounting confusion, “What does that even mean?”
“Yeah, I don’t know,” Spike continued, “There was no leadup or introduction… maybe that’s what this is.  The leadup.  So when the fight actually happens it doesn’t come out of nowhere.”
“Spike,” Rarity demanded clarity, “What the heavens are you talking about?”
“Just keep an eye out for… I’m gonna say giant insects,” he explained, “Maybe when we try to leave this town.”
A shudder went through Rarity, the idea of large bugs forcing her to hold back a retch.  She really, really wanted to believe Spike was wrong on this one.
There was a loud thump from the gate, likely some sort of lock or bar being removed, but before anything further there was a call from atop the wall.  The guard Rarity had spotted was pointing into the distance.  Following the gesture, Rarity saw the carriage from before, heading north.
“Huh,” Rarity muttered, brain trying to legitimize that of course they’re still nearby.  Then again, the carriage had been going the other way.
“They’re headed toward the river,” Spike announced, “Maybe somewhere beyond it?”
She wanted to just say it could be unrelated, but… Spike was slowly managing to convince her, “Which would you think, the old temple place or the river’s head?”
“We need to follow them,” Spike stated plainly, “Otherwise we’ll never know.”
Rarity hesitated, turning to see the doors to the city slowly opening, desperate for a return to civilization, “I mean… even if we wanted to, how would we?  They’re going so much faster than we could on hoof.  I’m not sure following them is really an option.”
“Following who?” Lilac chimed in, clearly having only picked up at that sentence of the conversation as she was getting ready to re-harness herself.
“That carriage,” Spike quickly replied, despite Rarity’s obvious embarrassment at being overheard.
Lilac looked over toward the spot moving in the distance, “Oh, yeah, I’ve seen that one around.  I think it belongs to one of the wealthy landowners.”
Rarity picked up on the hint and turned slowly to Spike, who was already nodding confidently.  Turning back to Lilac, Rarity decided to go with what seemed to be working so far, “What do you know about the Wheatfield family?”
Lilac tilted her head, caught a little off guard by the bluntness of the question, “They’re, um… a wealthy family, right?  I think they own some of the land that the road we took passes through.  Why?”
Spike gently tapped Rarity on the shoulder, explaining, “Yo, you made her a named character, you have to talk to her like normal now.”
“What?” Rarity hissed back, “How does that even make sense?”
“Just roll with it,” Spike answered, putting on a charming smile and turning back to speak to Lilac, “Yeah, we kind of wanted to speak to them about something, but I guess they’re not stopping here.”
Lilac stared back suspiciously, the strange flow of the conversation obvious to her, “Well… we should be able to head in now.  Are you coming?”
Spike found Rarity staring at him pleadingly, so Spike replied with a smile, “Yeah, we’ll figure out what to do next after we get inside.”
Lilac looked them over, clearly growing curiouser by the second, but finished hitching herself to the wagon and carted the three of them inside.





Rarity slumped down onto the cafe table, staring at her cup of tea, trying to make excuses, “It probably wasn’t even them.”
“You know you don’t believe that,” Spike replied, sitting back with his hot chocolate.
Sitting up, levitating the teacup to her mouth, Rarity grumbled out, “Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter now anyway.”
Spike shrugged back, “I mean, we could try scrying them.”
“What?” Rarity replied in confusion.
“It’s a specialized magic, but it’s around,” Spike explained.
Rarity was intrigued, but doubtful, “I… well I want to say that scrying is a myth, but… I have to admit I’d trust your knowledge of such things before mine, as I know Twilight is prone to rambling.”
“Heh, yeah, tell me about it.  Well, we just have to find a seer-” Spike’s words stopped abruptly.  Jumping upright, Spike spun around to face northward, “The sages?  What do you bet…”
Rarity was hit with the same thought, “I believe they were described as unicorns, yes? That sounds like just the place.”
Spike turned back to her with a toothy grin, “Now we just need to find a ride there.  I’d say Lilac, but… she’d take some convincing.”
“What makes you say that?” Rarity asked, “She was perfectly helpful on the way here.”
“She was coming here anyway,” Spike retorted, “And… to be honest, I think you kind of scared her off.  Getting questioned like that hit her wrong.”
Rarity rolled her eyes, “First you tell me that’s how you talk to ponies, now you chide me for it.”
“It’s how you talk to NPCs,” Spike replied, sipping the last of his drink, “not named characters.  You went and made her named.”
“I asked her name, Spike.  It’s not like she didn’t have one previously,” Rarity shot back.
Spike waved off the difference, “Well, it’s not like it’ll do any harm to ask her.  Come on.”
Rarity lifted her still partly full teacup, “After.”
“I’ll go find her then,” Spike offered, wandering off.
Sitting back, Rarity sipped her tea.  What an odd turn of events this was winding up.  As she sat and slowly drank, a memory came to her.  Twilight’s voice, making her promise to take care of Spike.  Spinning around to see where he’d gone, she nearly burnt her tongue trying to down the last of her tea and set a pile of bits on the table to pay before rushing off to find him.





“I just…” Lilac paused awkwardly looking over her shoulder to make sure her wagon was being unloaded properly, “I know there’s something you’re not telling me, and I don’t like it.”
Rarity and Spike stood in the storehouse of a major trade guild, ponies wandering around loading, unloading, and categorizing countless trade goods.  Rarity looked to Spike concernedly, hoping that his string of ‘knowing what to do’ was still going.
“It’s uh…” Spike sputtered, “I mean, well… It’s complicated, I guess.”
Rarity sighed, took a moment to steady herself, and put on as charming an expression as she could manage, “Lilac, dear… We’re investigating something, let’s say, sensitive at the moment.  I’d be willing to give you more detail, but perhaps not somewhere so… public?”
Spike nudged Rarity in complaint, but she refused to acknowledge it.
Lilac looked around the room, noting all of her fellow traders and laborers milling about, before looking back to Rarity suspiciously, “There’s… a meeting room.  This way.”
Rarity turned to follow Lilac off, but was interrupted by Spike grabbing her by the hoof.  His stare of disapproval was enough to get his point across.  Rarity shook her head at him and turned to follow Lilac.  Nothing would get anywhere with perfect secrecy.
The meeting room was a small one, barely larger than a normal office, a table in the center with two chairs on each side, and Lilac had just stopped on the far side to face them, “Well?  What… what are you investigating?”
Rarity ushered a disappointed Spike inside before closing the door and looking seriously into Lilac’s eyes, “The flooding.  We’re almost certain that it’s not natural, and we have leads on who may be responsible.”
Lilac staggered backwards, caught off guard by the weight of her words, “Wait, what?  You… you asked me about the Wheatfields?  Do you thin-”
“Possible, but not certain,” Rarity replied as tactfully as possible, “They have a plausible motive, is all.  We’re pursuing as many avenues as possible, and they’re one of them.  Right now… we’re trying to make our way to the Sages’ Temple.  I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors that they’re involved somehow…”
“Yeah, I have,” Lilac nodded, clearly being drawn in, “You think they might be true?”
“It’s far too early to rule them out,” Rarity answered, “We’ll need to get there and see.  Also, we have other business we might be able to get done there, so it just makes the most sense to check there next.”
Lilac touched her chin as she pondered, “Well… I’m sure there are carriages for rent here in town.  I’m sure the guild has some contacts, I can see about getting you a name or something.”
“That would be much appreciated, dear,” Rarity replied with a smile, “I’m very sorry for how secretive we’re being, but… I hope you can understand that we don’t want to seem too… accusatory before we know more.”
Nodding along, Lilac agreed, “Yeah, I get it now.  And yeah, I’ll see what I can do.  It’d help out everypony to know what is going on there.”
Relieved, Rarity stepped forward and offered a polite hug to the mare, “Thank you, I’m not sure what we’d have been able to do without all of your help.”
“No problem,” Lilac replied with a chuckle and wide grin, “I mean, hey, it’s all business on my end, right?”
Rarity bowed her head lightly, “Well, we’ll be finding a place to stay the night here, will you be here at the guildhall in the morning?”
“Yeah,” Lilac curtly confirmed, patting the desk, “I’ve got all kinds of deals to work on while I’m here, but I’ll be sure to find out about a carriage for you tonight.”
Rarity smiled wide and opened the door, ushering Spike out, “Thank you again.”
As Spike stepped out, he turned back to Rarity, confronting her quietly as she closed the door, “W… how did you do that?”
Rarity chuckled back in her amusement, patting the little dragon on the head, “Darling, you might be better at talking to the… ‘npcs,’ but I’m nothing if not a master of formal conversation.  Now come on, we should rest up.  There’s much to do tomorrow.”
After a pause to process, Spike smiled back, “You’re getting into this, aren’t you?”
Rarity just shrugged, not particularly wanting to admit he was right.