36 - Into Darkness we Tread, Know no Fear
Mustering their strength, the party looked around the new room they had hard won access to. There were three tables across the room and no other doors save the one they had entered through. Spike stepped forward first, using his sharp gaze in search of traps before he shook his head, gesturing for the others to follow.
The tables each held one item. On one, a book with a blank cover. On the next, a curved blade. On the last, a pair of boots.
On seeing the boots, Spike pointed down to the new pair he had already been wearing, "Say, Twi. What do these do?"
"They cover your feet," said Twilight skeptically.
Spike shook his head, "I know that, but Soft's mom gave them to me."
Soft volunteered the information as she moved up to Spike, pointing down at them. "Those are dad's shoes. He called them 'jaunt shoes'. If you shuffle carefully with them, you can hop, pop! And you jump to some other place a little bit away without walking."
Spike frowned with thought, but was eager to try. He got into a mild crouch and circled around Soft and edged around her while concentrating on them. Suddenly he was across the room from her, surprised but unharmed. "Awesome! Uh, are you sure it's ok that I'm wearing your dad's boots?"
Soft bobbed her head, her eyes wandering over the tables and their contents, "Of course. He would want an good-hearted adventurer to have them if anyone. Mom just kept them polished and hidden away." There was some pain in her words, but she kept it away from her face and posture.
Twilight, who hadn't stopped looking around the tables and wall, raised a hoof as she located what she was looking for. "More writing." She began to mouth the words as she translated slowly to herself. "On the first hand, I protected my family, on the next, I provided for them, and on the last, I protected myself. I did all of this for love, and so should you."
Long Road shook his head, "They're in the wrong order for that I think?"
Dawn agreed, "If they were already in the right order, our way would cease to be barred, and yet here we are."
Spike came over to join the others in peering at the table, "What if it's not the order?"
Overcome with curiosity, Twilight grabbed the book and flipped it open even as several of the others hissed with concern. "This book is filled with weather information." she said as she flipped through it, "And good harvest and planting times. It's a farmer's almanac." She continued flipping through it, then put a hoof on the page, "Look." The page had a picture of the blade. A hand sickle.
Soft quickly chimed in, "The wheat farmers use those to cut down the crops when they were ready."
Twilight set the book down gently, "This is all about a farmer. He used the book to protect his family by planting at the right time, using good methods, and harvesting at the right time to make sure they had food. He provided for them at harvest with the sickle, reaping the food he had cared for, and he protected his feet with the boots. He did it out of love for them, as it says."
With a soft grinding part of the wall slid away to reveal an ongoing passage. Spike hiked a brow, "How did you know it was a he?"
Twilight pointed at the shoes, "Lucky guess, but there are only two of them, and most biped races seem to be patriarchal around here, unlike pony matriarchy."
"Three down," announced Long. "That one wasn't too bad with a clever scholar like you around, Miss Sparkle."
Twilight smiled with pride as she trotted towards the next hallway, only to find that it barely came up to her shoulders after a few feet of the ceiling sharply slanting downwards. The light that had suffused the place also seemed to not follow into the tunnel. She willed her horn to light and saw more writing on the ground. "Love lays the mightiest low. Crawl forward in its throes. Why is everything about love?"
Dawn answered this, "It is the tome of Love. It must be quite valuable if it can be used to bring Luminace back so swiftly. The instructions here are clear, at least, we crawl."
Everyone went down to knees and shuffled forward through the tunnel, but it continued to narrow and began to grow warm as well. It was a strange warmth that penetrated them, leaving them panting and dizzy. Truly it was as terrible as being in the deep grip of an intense unrequited love. Spike's thoughts wandered to his Rarity, lost to him on another world entirely. Soft daydreamed of Spike, her knight in shining scales that would scoop her off her hooves and whisk her away from the frowns, scowls, and mocking terms that followed her. The others had no specific love, instead just lost in the feeling as they struggled forward against it.
Spike and Soft emerged into a small dark room. Soft groped around blindly, but Spike could see and took her hand. She asked, "Where are the others? I was following Twilight's horn a second ago." Her hand felt a little sweaty in his grip. Her heart thudded loudly in her ears as she realized who in the group that scaly hand could belong to. Acting on impulse and the lingering warmth in her, she pulled a surprised Spike closer and hugged him.
Spike stammered a moment before he let out a loud breath, "They're not here, and we won't find them hugging. Um, Soft... I want to be honest with you, like I wish a certain somepony would be with me." He shuffled awkwardly in the darkness of the room, "I don't think it can work out. I'm a dragon. By the time I even get to being an adult..." He trailed off and looked towards the floor, "You'll be dead. I have nothing but time, and, uh, you don't have enough."
She squeezed him all the harder, "I don't care. . I'm not asking you to get married or something, stupid brave dragon. Just be with me and protect me. Be my knight." She planted a soft kiss on his nearest cheek, an effort that took two tries in the darkness, "Will you do that? Will you be my protector for that little time?"
Spike turned colors, not that she could see it. This was a new question, one never asked of him before. "We just met," he argued, "How do you know you'll want anything to do with me in a month, let alone decades from now? You're..." His heart wrenched even as he said it, "Just a foal in love." Tears began to spill unseen from his snout.
She brushed away his tears with her fingers, feeling over his face entirely as if she could memorize it without seeing it. "Then I'll... get over it I guess? But until then, will you? Will you be my knight?"
Spike held her close, breathing in somewhat shaky gasps before he nodded, "Until you get tired of me and send me away. I will protect you."
Suddenly the darkness fell away. The two were embracing on a podium with the rest of the party watching them. Dawn watched with his passive gaze. Twilight's mouth was open with shock and eyes as wide as saucers. Long Road was smiling gently while Pinkie was clapping her fore-hooves together excitedly, "Oooo, I never held a knight party before. This will be fun! Congratulations!" She launched confetti she had been storing in her backpack over the stunned couple.
Twilight shook her head and cleared her throat, "As I was saying... We have to surrender to love's power to continue. Check." She pointed past them, where a metal door had swung open, just visible at the edge of Twilight's glowing horn.
Spike stepped down from the podium. A soft clearing of a throat brought his attention back to it to see Soft was holding out a hand. With a soft grunt of immature annoyance he turned back to her, offering a claw, "Would m'lady care for some assistance?"
Soft giggled as she stepped down with Spike's assistance, looking entirely delighted.
Long Road perked an ear, "So far all we've seen is traps to test our understanding of love. Do you think there might not be any guardians?"
Dawn moved across the room, approaching the now opened door. He spoke a word, making the cross on his helmet glow before he replied, "We know not how far this goes. There could be many guardians between us and our goal, let us not assume safety."
The next hallway was interrupted by a pit some thirty feet in length. Peering down into the pit revealed only darkness as far as anyone could see. The tunnel progressed some thirty feet away. Spike grinned, "Pass me some rope and I'll get us past this without a hitch!" he proclaimed, but then his face fell, "I can't fly." He hopped up and down, but his flight refused to obey his call, leaving him at the mercy of gravity's impassive judgement.
Twilight was already translating more writing on the left side of the wall. "If you trust in Love's power, step without fear into its embrace and it will become your wings." Twilight hiked a brow, "I'm not sure if I trust love that much..."
Long pointed out with a raised hoof, "The writings haven't lied to us so far."
"Sure," said Twilight, "But what if you have to be in love to do it?"
Dawn frowned, "I gather divine love continues to not count." He did poorly at masking his annoyance at the fact.
Pinkie Pie bounced to the ledge, "Love is a lot of things," she said, "Love is a warm muffin on a sour day. Love is knowing your true friends have your back always. I love you guys, and the girls back home, and the cakes. Misses Cake is waiting for meeeeeee!" She said the last as she bounced into the hole without fear, vanishing from sight. All eyes locked on the trail continuing, but Pinkie did not appear there. She was gone.
"Uh..." said Spike, "Did... that work?"
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Good Chapter!
I was wondering what Spike's new boots did.
5499942 The ability to turn a 5' step into a 15 foot dimensional hop is pretty swanky, even for a flyer.
5500045 Pretty neat ability for a beginner's magic item, so is there a limit to how many times per day they can be used.
5500213 3/day.
5500219 Oh to bad! (And incase your curious I mean to bad the boots hop ability is not infinite.)
Still pretty neat ability for a beginner's magic item. I've read about worse magic boots. Of course I've also read about better magic boots. But it's unrealistic that they would find anything better then you described this early in there journey. Makes me wonder though, what will become of those boots when they reach higher levels and Spike gets access to something better, My guess is he will return them to Soft, or her Mom with his thanks.
5500277 http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/a-b/boots-jaunt
Over 7000 gold worth of boots, not bad as a gift. You can get out of a lot of bad situations by being able to make 15' steps without provoking. Though on second reading it's not as dimensional as I thought. Still, awesome.
Any favorite parts/least favorite parts of the chapter?
5500291 I think it's supposed to be a dimensional hop, since you need a short-range teleport spell to create them. But it won't go through walls or enemies, I guess?
5500277 Or he could have Twilight upgrade them. It's only +50% cost to add more abilities to an existing item, right? And once the other abilities got more expensive than the jaunt it'd just be the jaunt that was +50%.
The riddle... never been a fan of riddles. Mostly because I always come up with the wrong answer.
"Okay, he protected his family with the boots, keeping their feet warm in the winter. Then, he provided for them by joining the weather team and scheduling the weather for nearby farmers. Finally, he protected himself with the sickle after his inexperience ruined their crops. It's obvious!"
5500358 Truly a skilled farmer is he, that protects his family with one pair of boots. Riddles always have that risk of being open to interpretation. Heck, the first thought they had was that they had to be re-ordered to get past.
5500376 It still makes more sense than Twilight's explanation about the almanac. That was a truly epic-level leap of logic.
5500045
Jaunt boots are a command word item, and therefor require a standard action to use. I know, it makes the item basically worthless to have.
5500668 Behold, as I conveniently ignore that which makes no sense.
5500676
Can't say the same for my GM.
5500696 It is up to each GM to decide what they want or do not want. I can't speak for your GM, only myself. The item is a bit odd anyway, since its construction appears to be illegal, being based on a 3rd level bard spell that would require caster level 7, and yet somehow caster level 3? I get the idea they were just tossing darts on a board. The pricing doesn't work as a command word or a constant, even with the 3/day limit(too cheap), but it is a weakened version of the effect of the spell it is based on?
I HAVE MADE MY JUDGEMENT.
Spike kind of neglected to mention that he was eventually going to return to his home world.
Also, she's probably going to need to borrow his Amulet of Natural Armor if they ever make out.
5501092 As if Spike needed more reasons to lament. His choice to return to Equestria gets more complicated by the day.
5501096
They could always take Softie and her mum back with 'em! It could be the genesis of a new race of dragon pony satyrs!
What the hell would the LA adjustment on that even be?
5501099 Satyr would likely be its own race. Add half-dragon and you win!
5500291 True! True I guess I was thinking high level when I should have been thinking low to mid level.
As for favorite parts I felt the Spike/Soft Mane Challenge was pretty touching. But as far as these challenges go I can't help but feel they are not as terrible as the ten years lost one. Usually in dungeons the big bad trap is not right at the beginning and I found it a little odd.
5501341 It was a pleasure writing it. It doesn't make Future Spike's choices any easier.
I am enjoying the tests so far, can't wait to see how this all plays out and what love has in store for them
5513095 Love can be a harsh mistress. Stay tuned!
Huh. I expected he would have protected his family with the blade (I thought it was a sword, not a sickle) and provided for them with the knowledge in the book...
5545558 Darn you riddles, so many ways to answer them! It becomes a little more clear as more is learned of the god involved.
This really confused me. Saying the hallway 'cut off' makes me think it came to a dead end, but then it progresses further down with darkness in between. I was just picturing a hallway with a dark patch because I couldn't figure out what you were talking about.
Then I figured out it there was a pit in the hallway when Spike got upset he couldn't fly etc.
I recommend you change it to something a little clearer, like
...
I believe the word is actually 'Missus'.
6175541 Adjusted!
5501355 Pffft. That's Future Spike's problem.