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.