//------------------------------// // Sacrifices // Story: Eternal // by Path_of_cloud //------------------------------// “Morning, beautiful.” A claw brushed a lock of hair off of Rarity’s face. “Spikey, what time is it?” “Just before noon. Adamo came by just a minute ago to wake us. It seems our journey tired us out more than I thought.” He looked towards the door, as if staring at something far away. “We have an hour to get ready before our trial.” “You’re worried. I’m… I’m really afraid. What if we fail; we won’t be able to get married and I might never see Sweetie Belle, my parents, or the girls again, and neither will you.” Her head fell against his side, seeking warmth from her love. Spike wrapped his neck around her. “I know, I know,” great determination in his voice, “what we have is real and strong enough to take care of any obstacle in its way.” His tone softened, as he locked eyes with her. “Now that’s enough of that, how did you sleep?” Wiping a tear from her eyes, Rarity surprised the dragon with a kiss. “It was strange. I expected sleeping on a pile of gold coins to be hard and painful really, but the metal in the coins seemed to conduct heat from you. Then they spread around me, enveloping me, and it was so warm and comfortable. I think we might have to get a pile at home to sleep on those cold nights… I still love my bed though.” Trying and failing to stop his laughter, Spike rolled onto his back cracking up and dragging Rarity with him, so she was on his stomach wrapped in her dragon’s arms. “Nice to see some things never change. So… what do you want to do with the last of our hour?” Rarity slipped out of his hold. “Makeup!” Spike rolled over and watched her start on the process, a little disappointed, but still happy as he watched the mare he loved put on the makeup he never felt she needed. As for himself, his preparation involved grabbing a delivery from their room’s other visitor that morning and strapping it to his back over his sling. The Council watched as the young couple walked into the center of the large room. Arcanea smiled as she saw the sword hilted on Spike’s back. She had gone over the specifics with him and was interested to see how the drake would handle himself with the enchanted weapon. However, it was Fulcio who addressed them, “Spike, Rarity, todays challenge is mine. I won in it in a little friendly poker match with the others. I offered to trade it with Arcanea for a kiss, but she’s playing hard to-” A white crescent surge of energy narrowly avoided the dragon’s neck. “See. Anyways, Aduro will be assisting me with my trial. If you would be so kind?” Flames enveloped the room in deep crimson as the ground started to crack. Instinctively, Spike jumped in front of Rarity as skeletal ponies and dragons began to force their way out of the ground, fire burning in the their eyes. “Your test is to survive all those who have failed before you and lost their lives in the process.” Spike shouted above the roaring flames, old nightmares of zombie ponies resurfacing, “What purpose does this serve? How does this prove our love?” The elder looked upon the pair, fangs bared as if itching to jump in and join the melee. “It’s simple. Dragon emotions are very dangerous, especially sorrow and rage, and you two must prove your ability to survive as to prevent such catastrophe. Only by working together can you expect to clench victory. Now, show me your strength and the strength of your love. Oh, and you can forfeit at any time... as long as you’re okay with conceding your marriage that is. One final thing, these are simply animated bodies, they have no soul, like puppets; I suggest you don’t hold back.” The dragon roared signaling the start of the trial. Rarity peaked over Spike. “This seems a little uncouth.” Raising himself to two feet and with a swift movement, he drew the Dao Swords. “Just stay behind me; I got,” Rarity sprang from behind Spike, bucking the nearest pony skeleton in the jaw and sending its head flying, “this.” “Uncouth it may be, but a lady has to be able to protect herself and the things that matter to her. It’s not like I haven’t faced down a manticore, teenage dragons, changelings, and any other number of other enemies with force before.” Strangely, in this battlefield of undead, Spike couldn’t help but find her really sexy at that moment. “Right, together then.” Spike exhaled onto his blades, igniting them in emerald flames, one of the benefits of the new enchantments. With a roar, he unleashed a torrent of flames on the legion of undead and sprang into combat, blades slicing and dicing. Rarity was beside him, punching, kicking, bucking, and magically tearing apart anything that came within her reach. As Spike began pushing them further back, Rarity took to firing small rocks with deadly precision and aim. Together the two created an elegant, beautiful, and dangerous dance of steel, fur, emerald flames, and teal magic. Above them the council watched the display. Niveus seemed particularly interested in the style and technique shown. “Quite impressive. It seems that these young ones are no strangers to dangerous situations, rather rare in these peaceful times. Shame they’ll be overwhelmed any minute now.” The lone dragoness smiled deviously at the white dragon. “Care to make a wager on that, Niveus. The drake shows an impressive learning curve; it won’t be long until he unleashes more of the blades abilities. As for the unicorn,” Arcanea’s eyes glowed a bright white, “she has a large untapped amount of magical energy, and the drake’s source is quite impressive too. Odd Celestia never saw fit to nurture it. Even so, I suspect when they’re cornered that they will become quite whelmed.” “I’ll take that bet, but, if I win, I want a kiss.” Fulcio raised his eyebrow suggestively. “It’s like you want me to eviscerate you.” “Guess that’s a no. Shame, I would have treasured a kiss from such a beautiful and talented dragoness.” Arcanea hid her blush poorly. “I-I’ll kill you.” He smiled jubilantly, pleased with flustering her. “If you say so, probably for the best. Look at them go. The drake would fit well in my clan, with a little more muscle, but his prowess in combat speaks for itself. And that unicorn, I would have thought her as delicate as a flower, but she’s quite…” “Scrappy,” Backdraft offered. “Yes, but it’s more than that.” He watched as Rarity jumped into the air over Spike and kicked as she came down, shattering a nearby skeleton. “The style, technique, and precision, it seems she was trained in one of those martial arts the ponies created, quite the series student too. Aduro, make it more challenging, we’ll need to push this further than usual for these two.” The red dragon’s maw opened and the air in front of it wavered as a flame so hot that it was transparent descended into the frenzy. Spike had managed to cut through three at once, a pony and two dragons, with one fluid arching movement. “This is a little… morbid, and just a tad exhausting.” “I agree, darling. We need to find a way to end this before it becomes too much.” She looked around for something to aid them before looking back at Spike; that’s when it hit her. “Spike, we can fly up out of their reach and burn them from above with your fire breath.” “Brilliant, and Twilight thinks she’s the genius,” Spike chuckled at his own joke while Rarity contemplated smacking him over the head. Luckily for Spike, she had always found his quips cute. He hilted the swords back in their scabbard and created a wall of fire in front of him. Getting down on all four, he spread his wings and let Rarity get in position. Once she was secure he took the air, incinerating everything below him. The plan seemed to be working perfectly, until a giant skeletal dragon erupted from the ground and launched itself into the air. “Rarity, I don’t think I have enough firepower to take that thing out.” “Maybe I do.” Her horn glowed brightly as she focused on the abomination. Wither het teeth clenched an her eyes squeezed shut in concentration, the teal aura of her magic began to envelope it’s body. In a very unladylike scream, she ripped the beast apart, separating all the bones from each other in one move. In one final push of telekinetic power, she threw the large bones into the remaining undead, crushing them. Breathing heavily, she fell flat on Spike’s back. “I think… that will do it.” Pillars of flame and monstrous roars filled the cavern as five silhouetted dragons appeared from within the infernos. “Celestia, no.” With her energy pushed to its limit, Rarity slid from Spike’s back and fell. Tapping into the last of her reserves she pulled Applejack’s lasso from her pack and shot one end towards Spike, tying it around his waist. The other end she held in mouth as tightly as she could, as her consciousness started slipping away. He could not do it, he just could not do it! Rarity was barely hanging from the makeshift lifeline and five full grown bone dragons were about to attack them. There was nothing he could do; he had expended most of his power fighting and flying around. He swallowed his sorrow and did the only thing he could, to save Rarity. “We forfeit! Stop the trial! Do you hear me, STOP THE BUCKING TRIAL!?” In an instant everything was gone, even the holes the damned creatures had come from. He gently laid Rarity on the ground before sweeping her into his arms. “I’m sorry, Rarity.” His claw gently caressed her face. “I couldn’t let you die.” Rarity stirred in his arms, wrapping her hoof around his neck. “You saved us, Spike, don’t apologize.” A small trickle of tears rolled down her cheeks. “They can’t stop us from being together, even if we can’t get married. Now, put me back on my hooves.” Spike gently set her down as instructed, letting her lean on him. The large green dragon landed softly in front of them. “An impressive show, you two certainly have a lot of passion. I was worried you might not forfeit before things got out of hand.” “You sound happy,” Rarity’s voice dripped with venom. “I am.” The elder received two death glares, but before Rarity had a chance to reprimand him, loudly, he explained, “You have shown great strength, physical, magical, mental, and of heart. You fought together with everything you had and took it as far as could, and, in the end, you sacrificed why you came here to protect the one you love. You have passed the Trial of Strength, congratulations.” Clearing his throat, he shouted, “I, Fulcio, Elder of the Clan of Strength, give my blessing for Spike and Rarity to be wed.” A bright yellow flame shot from his mouth, igniting a previously un-seeable torch next to his platform. Spike and Rarity embraced one another, and Rarity saw fit to kiss Spike right there. “We did it!” Aduro smiled down at them. “Indeed, you did. And, I would like to add, that what you fought were not the dead but a simple illusion created by me using my flames to manipulate light around magically conjured ethereal of Arcanea’s. Raising the dead is not within our power; plus, it is just all kinds of creepy.” “Well, I owe you a lesson, Spike, but I think that today isn’t the best time to learn about dragon battle tactics and combat. You seem a bit exhausted, no idea why.” A blue fist landed squarely into his chest. “Don’t be an idiot.” Fulcio coughed, “Love you too” “What did I just say?” He put his claw to his mouth, blocking Arcanea, “She digs me.” This time he was slapped in the back of his head. “I can still hear you, idiot.” “Enough you two!” Niveus landed with a thump. “I’m sure our guests would like to go take a nap to recover. We’ll have dinner delivered to your room.” “Thank you.” Spike lifted Rarity onto his back and started his way to their bed. “I can walk!” She whined. “I know, but you’ve earned a ride. Can’t wait to tell Twilight about that little magical burst of yours; she’ll be so excited. You know how she is about magic.” “You’re going to embarrass me! It wasn’t that impressive.” She pouted; he could always tell, even when he could not see her. “If you say so.” They made it to their room and collapsed on the bed, choosing to escape the hardness of the coins for the moment.