Rarity and Spike vs Fantasy RPG Tropes: The Sabre of Omens

by SS Nomad

Chapter 8: Toward the Pinacle

With a deep breath, Rarity looked up at the tall, volcanic peak, watching an eagle glide on the thermals above it. Spike put a claw on her shoulder to reassure her and she turned back to him with a smile and a nod. They both could sort of feel it. The conflict coming. Even without evidence, they knew this wouldn’t be simple. When they asked the sages to scry the location of the carriage they’d spotted, it led them here. Now, standing beside it, looking up at the snowless mountain peak that Rarity could unconsciously tell was the one she saw in her vision…

“Hey, look at this,” Spike called.

Rarity blinked back to awareness to find him climbing all over the mysterious carriage, going through its contents, “SPIKE! What in Equestria are you doing?”

Spike looked down at the bag he’d opened and back at Rarity, “Seeing what we can learn about them.”

Rarity’s expression hardened, “Spike, we don’t know they’ve done anything worth investigating, and even if we did, you’re going through somepony’s personal belongings.”

Spike wanted to argue, but he just sighed and nodded, closing the bag, “You’re right… sorry, I’m just so… wrapped up in the mindset.”

“Just get down from there,” Rarity replied with a sigh, shaking her head.

Setting the bag back down, Spike noticed something under it, “Hey… look at this.”

Rarity looked at what he was staring at, finding it had been sitting on an ornately decorated box, detailed in the same style of filigree and freework she’d been seeing around the region and on the sabre. She held the basket hilt up to it just to be sure.

“Well that,” Rarity explained, “was in plain view and we just happened to notice it.”

Spike grinned, “Actually, it was under the bag.”

“I can assure you it wasn’t,” Rarity said with a wink, “But that’s… odd. Perhaps it’s just a prolific artisan of old?”

There was a dull click and the case opened, Spike pulling his claw out of the keyhole. Rarity gaped at him, unable to form words.

“Ooops,” Spike faked concern as he opened the case.

“Come now, Spike,” she chided, “You need to stop it.”

“Looks like…” Spike sniffed the box, “Correction. Smells like magical components. Box is mostly empty, guessing they already took most of it up.”

Rarity furrowed her brow at Spike, waiting for him to close the box again and cover it, “I hope you understand I’ll be telling Twilight about this. How’d you even get that open?”

With an idle shrug, Spike dismounted the carriage, “Dunno, really. Must have been a cheap lock? Looked like they replaced it, like it wasn’t the original.”

Glancing at the detailed work of the filigree and hummed curiously, “Guess craftsmanship really is going downhill these days.”

Spike stared back up the pass to the top of the volcano, “So they’re… probably getting ready for some sort of ritual. Probably using the heat of the magma. Maybe the ice melt is incidental?”

Rarity huffed, “Negligence is not an excuse for what they’ve done.”

“Or they think it’s worth the cost,” Spike quietly pondered.

“Either way,” Rarity remarked, “We need to get up there.”

Spike groaned lightly, “This walk is gonna suuuuuck.”

---

After many hours and many breaks, Rarity and Spike found themselves much of the way to the summit. The path up had been… oddly well tread. They were certainly not the first to head to the top by this route. The whole affair left Rarity… on edge. She couldn’t come up with any good reason for there to be a well worn path up to the top of a volcano.

“Let’s take another break before we get there,” Spike decided, “We might need our energy.”

Rarity took the excuse to flop down on a larger rock, happy to get off her hooves, “Could I have another of those snack bars?”

Spike chuckled and rummaged through his bag to find one, setting it beside her, “No worries, I brought plenty.”

Rarity opened the little paper wrapper and started to munch on the granola. She gazed out over the mountaintops, just taking in the view while she let her hooves relax for a moment. All the slightly snowy caps were melting, but that was to be expected in the cool, but above freezing air they were in. It really stood out to her that the peak they were climbing had nearly no snow atop it, what little was left running down the side in rivulets. She pressed the back of her hoof to the ground, focusing, and eventually decided that the stone was warmer than the air, even in the shaded portions. Knowing that the mountain was a dormant volcano… this troubled her.

“Think that’s the cave?” Spike called out, pointing to a spot still quite far away.

Despite staring, Rarity just shook her head, “Spike, darling, you know you have better eyes than I.”

“Oh, heh,” Spike chuckled in embarrassment, “Sorry about that. But yeah, there’s a dark spot in the mountainside that looks about right nearish the peak. I think the trail ends there.”

Rarity closed her eyes and rubbed over them, trying to work out her exhaustion from the hike up. As she did so she felt… something. A sensation tugging at her magic. She focused and opened her eyes, trying to feel where the draw was coming from. It was strange, but she could certainly tell she was feeling connected to something, something up in the same direction Spike had gestured.

“We…” Rarity mumbled, “Are we sure… following the beckoning is a good idea?”

Spike turned to face her quickly, tilting his head, “What do you mean?”

“Somehow… this all feels too convenient,” she mused, “Like it was… laid out for us.”

“Fate, right?” Spike counterposed.

Rarity shook her head, “No… more like… bait.”

Spike blinked at her for a moment, but looked down and started to stroke his chin like a stallion with a beard, “But the sabre is leading you here, and it’s… not evil or anything, right?”

After a long pause, Rarity looked down at it, “Do we… know that?”

“I think it stands to reason?” Spike offered.

They both sat there for a moment, their sudden suspicions drawing their gaze to the blade in its makeshift sheath. All they knew about it, they’d been told by a party with an agenda. One that many suspected were truly at fault for the problems at hand. They shared a look between each other.

“Well,” Rarity continued quietly, “I think… the only answers we’re going to get are at the top of this mountain.”

Spike nodded seriously, “But I agree… we should assume it’s a trap.”

There was a long string of silence as the thoughts stewed in their minds, but Rarity finally saw fit to break the calm, “Spike… I think we should have a plan for what to do if it is and ambush.”

Spike sighed and nodded, “That’s… not a bad idea, I guess.”

“Well I was thinking about it,” Rarity started to explain, “considering we don’t know what we might run into up there, and we can’t plan around the terrain or anything like that, we’ll have to do something that we can guarantee will work regardless. That got me thi-”

Spike’s hand shot forward to cover her mouth, “Nope. Not while we’re sitting here.”

Rarity squeaked in surprise, but quickly used her magic to pull his claws away from her face, “What?”

“Not while we’re taking a break, let’s talk about it later when we’re doing something boring, like a bit after we start walking,” Spike explained.

With an awkward chuckle, Rarity asked, “You really that tired of the walk that you need a distraction?”

“Nah,” Spike waved his claw, “It’s a matter of not wanting to explain the plan during narrative time.”

Rarity just blinked at him.

Seeing her confusion, Spike elaborated, “A moment like this, downtime, a serious conversation… is exactly the moment you don’t want to go into details on your plan. Ever notice that a plan that gets explained on screen never works and a plan that’s formed off screen always does? It’s a matter of anticipation. If the viewer know what’s supposed to happen, it’s so that they understand what’s going wrong when it fails.”

Rarity’s stare grew yet more confused.

“Look, just…” Spike started to reply in an apologetic tone, “Would it hurt us in any way to talk about it in just a few moments?”

“N- no, I don’t suppose so,” Rarity mumbled in reply.

Spike chuckled and shrugged, “So can you… just roll with it? If you don’t think it’s worse and I think it’s better… let’s do it my way?”

With furrowed brow, Rarity muttered out a quiet, “Ooookayyy… so what do you want to talk about… now then?”

Spike stroked his chin as he pondered, “Something not very plot important, I guess. That or hypotheses about what might be about to go wrong. I mean… if we show we know it might happen, it likely won’t.”

“Or…” Rarity returned, “at the very least we have the thoughts in our head and are looking out for them, yes?”

“Sure, whatever,” Spike shrugged, “My biggest concern is that there’s more than the one carriage worth of them up there. This path looks-”

“Well travelled, yes,” Rarity agreed, “Either there are more of them up there, or it’s been used repeatedly for a long while.”

Spike nodded as he thought, “It could be that they’re doing something that takes a lot of long term planning and repeated action. That would account for them being seen going here over and over.”

With a sigh, Rarity admitted, “True… but we should be on the lookout either way.”

There was a pause for a moment as they pondered, trying to come up with things they hadn’t anticipated.

“Another centipede,” Rarity whispered with a shudder.

“Oh… y- yeah…” Spike replied, “If they had the magic to do it once… I mean, assuming we’re right and that was connected.”

“It had to have been,” Rarity nodded, “And… I’d hate to see more of it.”

“Probably not a centipede, though, since you showed you could down one,” Spike said plainly, before realizing.

Rarity shuddered, having pushed the memory out of her mind, and not relishing having it brought back, “Y- yes… if it comes down to it again… I can… barely.”

Spike stepped over to pat her on the shoulder, “But hey, it’ll probably not happen, right? They wouldn’t pull the same trick twice.”

Rarity shook one last time to get it out out of her system before looking up toward the peak again, watching that eagle from before circle. After a short pause, she sighed disappointedly, like she felt a fool for not already noticing it.

“They already know we’re coming,” she stated flatly, nodding up at the bird.

Spike turned to look, watching it as, the instant it was spotted, the eagle started to drift out of sight, “Shit.”

“Keep an eye out for it,” Rarity ordered, “Even if they know we’re coming, we don’t want them to have more information than that.”

With a nod, Spike adjusted his bag again, “Wait a little bit longer to throw off their timing info, then keep going?”

Rarity just quietly nodded, “I don’t think we can afford to turn back now…”

---

It was exactly as she’d seen. The cave entrance… was so familiar. The slightest hints of remaining snowcap were melting down, running off downhill, joining with every other drop of melt to swell the river far below. She stepped forth, sabre at her side, towards the circular volcanic tube, dark, extending off into the distance. Far away there was the dull glow of unicorn magic. It was all… just as she’d foreseen. She didn’t like it in the slightest.

“Look right?” Spike asked, reminding her that there was at least one thing different from her dream.

She smiled and patted him on the head, “Just like we planned, okay?”

Spike nodded, clutching the scrap of paper in his claws, “Yup.”

Rarity shot another quick glance skyward, trying to be certain the air was clear of that eagle from before. As best she could tell, it was long gone. Still, she could feel the strange draw of the other’s magic from within, and was more than a little concerned it didn’t only work one way.

With a deep breath each, they stepped into the cave, the warmth of the area hitting them quickly. Both of them knew without needing to confirm it with each other. This volcano wasn’t hardly as dormant as the maps suggested.

Rarity took point, with Spike carrying her blade behind her, not wanting to give away their position by the glow of her horn. As they neared the light in the distance, they could finally see what was ahead of them.

The daylight was shining down upon the caldera of the mountain, lighting up the scene. Two burly earth pony stallions were working with picks, carving something into the ground, like a massive arcane circle. More importantly than that, though, was the figure standing directly at the exit to the tunnel, her back turned to the two adventurers. A unicorn, horn aglow, overseeing them.

Rarity signalled for Spike to stop, glancing along the walls of the tunnel slowly. Perfectly smooth, volcanic stone, a dead lava tube, no chance of a pony hiding in the darkness. It looked like it was just these three. Despite the fact they were at a disadvantage in numbers, Rarity took solace in the fact that they were the only ones apparently armed. If her worst worries did come to pass, even those strong looking stallions would hesitate around a sword.

With a deep breath, Rarity tried to weigh her options, but was cut short. The unicorn before her turned around, a smug grin just barely visible on her face in the light scattering into the darkened tunnel. It wasn’t a face Rarity knew, oddly enough. There was a part of her surprised that the narrative had never introduced this pony. She blinked a bit as she realized what nonsense that thought was.

“‘Hero,’” came the mare’s cold voice, a layer of spite in her tone at saying the word, “I was expecting you. Thank you for bringing our sword.”

Comments

[RazDelacroix]

Fun question, do the villains know of Rarity (Representative of the Element of Generosity, Princess Twilight's friend, Fabulous owner of Carousel Boutique), or do they only know her as the HERO (as chosen by the Sabre of Omens)? TUNE IN NEXT UPDATE WHEN WE FIND OUT WHO THESE NPC VILLAINS MIGHT BE!!!

[TitaniumTao]

Now to see who is the most savvy. Any anyone who starts of calling someone a hero in that way might not be the best person in the world...