Bind on Pickup

by David Silver

59 - Equivalent Exchange

Spike swung his feet off the side of his cot. All eyes were on him, waiting. "I know you all need to hear this. That isn't even… slightly in doubt."

Twilight approached on her strange cloven hooves, nuzzling the side of her lost little brother. "Aw, thanks." He patted the side of her snout, her meaning clear without words. "It's just… wow, we had some things wrong, a lot of things." He looked to Sandra. "First, an apology. This wasn't your fault, not even a tiny little bit."

Smolder hiked a brow. "I was done being upset at her like at the first floor." She shrugged expansively. "What even brought that on?"

"I'll double that." Garble thrust a finger at Spike. "Start spilling the details!"

“I just… it’s heavy stuff, and dangerous stuff, and maybe… I might have not talked with you guys about it but knew stuff about it for a while?” He winced down.

Smolder’s like, “Spike! We already had a thing where you did this and we hated it then! Why would you do it again?”

“I’ve been not talking about it since before that,” he said.

“Spike!” Smolder exclaimed.

“Stop,” Sandra said, sterner than her voice had been before. “It’s fine, Spike. You were trying to figure it all out before you said anything?”

Spike rubbed the back of his head. “Also it’s sorta weird, and I didn’t want people to think I was crazy.”

“Oh my god!” Garble exclaimed. “Get on with it! We all wanna hear it, just say it!”

There was a slight pause, and Spike finally said, “I’ve been talking with the tower.”

“... What?” Smolder said. “Like… talking to the walls?”

“No!” Spike looked back up at her. “Like a spirit guy, he said his name was Logue and I’m the only one that can see him and I’ve been asking him questions every ten floors.” He looked back down. “And I figured it was crazy and the answers wouldn’t be too important until the past ten floors or so.”

“After you asked me whether or not my parents were heroes,” Sandra said.

Spike nodded. “That’s… that’s right, you figured out something was up, huh?”

Sandra smiled at him. “It’s fine, I figured if you didn’t come clean sooner or later I’d have to pull it out of you, and here we are.”

Spike laughed halfheartedly. “That’s right…”

Smolder brought her hands together with a soft paff. "Alright, guy named Logue, mentioned something about Sandra, keep going."

"Yeah, we haven't gotten to the part you'd drag us out of the tower for." Garble rolled his shoulders, looking put out. "Ain't heard anything yet."

“Well, I was trying to figure out what to ask about the tower, and I wound up finding out that when you make a wish… it extracts a cost.”

“What kind of a cost?” Smolder piped in again. “Like, if we asked for a million bits what would the cost be.”

“I dunno, I didn’t have that many questions, I just know that some of them required the sacrifice of people… er… probably.” Spike shook his head. “Look I tried to get extra info by not asking questions but a lot of them were vague.”

Garble rolled his eyes. “So it’s nothing? You haven’t said much yet…”

“Garble,” Sandra said, casting an angry glance at him. “Let him finish. Interrupting all the time isn’t helping.”

“Th-thanks,” Spike said. “There are… multiple parts. I learned you have to sacrifice stuff to get wishes, then it was uh… implied and kind of stated that Sandra’s parents did that? And wished to be heroes.” He looked up, trying to gauge her reactions.

She reacted. “So… they’re not… really heroes? They’re not impressive or anything?”

Waving his hands in protest, Spike said, “No no! It’s not that it’s like… I don’t know why they asked for it, but whatever they did they made the wish and lived the life of heroes. And that means…” He looked around. “It means dying like heroes.”

Sandra seemed sobered by that, her expression falling a little.

“Hold up, how do you figure,” Smolder interrupted. “Why does heroism mean dying like a hero?”

“It’s a… it’s a story thing,” Spike said. “In stories, heroes die tragically, facing off against a villain, fighting something… saving something-”

“Like saving their children…” Sandra said. “From a monster that shows up out of nowhere.”

Spike nodded solemnly. “And if they asked to be heroes it wouldn’t just make them stronger it would make their lives into ones that fit heroism.”

Silence fell on the party, and Sandra eventually said, “So that’s it, then. My parents made it to the top and made a wish…”

“Ah uh… no that’s not all.”

Sandra blinked. “It’s… not?”

“Okay, so--” Spike hopped up, gesturing up. “So the guy in the tower was bound there or something, and he wants to leave, and he thinks you--” he pointed at Sandra. “Can release him by making it up the tower.”

“Me?! A-an adventurer who let down somebody who tried very hard to convince her to go? Someone who was too nervous and didn’t want to be an adventurer before this whole thing?”

“Well, he said he didn’t have a whole lot of control over stuff outside the tower unless it had links to something it affected. Like if a wish was trying to direct the course of someone’s life…”

Sandra blinked. “I’m… I didn’t make a wish, my parents made a wish.”

“Well, no, but the children of adventurers, who had their parents die in a tragic accident…” Spike grimaced. “I mean it sounds a lot like a hero…”

Sandra opened her mouth as if to respond, but sorta just… left it open, attempting to process what she heard.

“And um, here’s the last big one, because I asked him this one directly,” Spike said, a grave expression on his face. “I asked him what interest he had in me. And he said that… me, and Smolder and Garble--” he gestured to them “--were of interest because the tower likes dragons, and lets them up frequently, and he needed a new plan to get Sandra in the tower… and so a group of young dragons that needed Sandra’s help explicitly in the tower would be a good way to jump start her failing adventuring career.”

Smolder picked up this first. “Wait, what’s he saying? He’s not saying what I think he’s saying.”

“Saying what?” Garble said.

Spike nodded. “He admitted that the plan to bring dragons through from another world was his plan.” He looked down, kicking his feet. “He’s the reason why we were pulled from Equestria here.”

A sudden equine snort cut the tension. Twilight was frowning as she pawed at the ground with a soft clopping. "I thought… How dare it?! Tell them I'll find another way to get them home," her voice raged in Sandra's mind. "This game ends now."

Sandra looked between Twilight and Spike. "Twilight said she'd find another way, to… stop climbing."

Garble suddenly brought down a hand on Spike's shoulder. "And we're not doing that."

"We're not," echoed Spike, his voice sounding determined, even if his face was haunted. "We can't."

Smolder threw her arms wide, ."Woah, wait. Spike, you alright? This sounds like a great reason to stop climbing and every part of me says you should be agreeing with not climbing, but you're agreeing with Gar Gar. Fill me in?"

Twilight nickered, shaking her head and looking equally as ready to hear that answer.

"Twilight." Sandra smiled awkwardly. "I need to talk to your little brother a bit, call you later." Twilight's face became surprise as she vanished, dismissed without choice. "She's nice, really nice… But this is about us." She waved her fingers at each of her dragon friends. "We have to make this choice."

“Look,” Spike pointed at Smolder. “Think about what happened to Sandra before this? Firstoff she had a tragic past, probably made by this hero story stuff? And then finds Tabitha who was super driven and is definitely good enough to climb the tower? And that failed and a new plan which brought us all the way from Equestria here?” Spike lowered his eyes at her. “Sandra probably can’t escape this, and if she can’t, I’m not running away.”

“We don’t know that!” Smolder said. “What if the tower, knowing Sandra knows, gives up this time?”

Garble lifted his shoulders. "Which it won't do because we ain't giving up." All eyes turned on him. "What? I can put the pieces together," he huffed defensively. "We give up--" He pointed at Sandra. "It does something to give you a 'hero's end' right when you're not expecting it. Maybe you get to look great, or awful, the moment we're out of sight. Something dramatic, I bet."

Smolder snorted and rolled her eyes. “Well why am I the one wanting to bow out.” She smirked. “I’m in, I’m definitely gonna save a friend.”

All three of them then looked to Sandra, who kind of tried to match their looks, though was doing a poor job of it. "Look, you don't… have to." She threw her hands wide. "I'm in this for you in the first place. I… already put it aside, my wish…"

Spike hopped down to his feet, but never made it, his wings carrying him as he flew over to Sandra's side. "That part isn't fair either, but we appreciate you, you know, doing that."

Smolder gave an emphatic thumbs up. "You wanted to get your parents back, right? Man, I'd… I dunno… If someone I cared about went out like that, and I could get them back… It'd take a lot to get me to stop." She reached up, scratching her cheek with three fingers. "Just thinking about it…"

Garble suddenly elbowed his sister. "Who do you care about that much you'd go through all this trouble?"

"You, moron." She punched him swiftly in the side and turned away, huffing little bits of flame in her irritation.

"Either way." Spike crossed his arms. "We're pushing on, but we need a plan." He pointed to Sandra. "We get to the top, and we're going to be asked what we want."

"We already know what we want," huffed Sandra, tapping a shoe on the ground. "That isn't the question."

Smolder threw up her hands to shoulder height in a shrug. "And we know what the price will be, probably."

"I'll pay it," spoke Sandra without giving much chance for others to cut in.

Garble's brows went up together. "I'm still figuring this out, but you're ready to bite it for us?" He snapped the fingers of his right hand with a sharp crack. "Like that?"

Sandra took a slow breath. "Why not?" She ventured a little smile. "I don't have a lot waiting for me. You're all the best thing I have, and you're leaving… so.. Sure, then the stupid tower gets what it wants… All the heroes, handled…" She looked from one face to the next. "I'm glad I got to meet you."

Her moment of peaceful acceptance was interrupted by a scaled fist connecting with her cheek, forcing her face to deform to the side. She was sent spinning to the ground, Garble over her form with a heavy scowl. "That is… No, think harder. You're supposed to be one of the smart ones."

Spike raised a hand, staff held firmly as he got to soothing the hurt of the sudden friendly fire. "You alright?"

"No, but yeah…" Sandra sat up, glowing with Spike's healing magic as she gathered herself upright. "Look, we're not stopping. That much we all agree on."

Smolder turned to face Garble, watching him huff as she had just been doing. "That much," she murmured in agreement, walking to his side. The siblings marched out of the room together without any spoken words.

Author's Note:

The team talks it out like mature adults. Pfft, maybe not.

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Comments

[SpikeSmolder fan]

Glad Spike put it all out into the open for the party, course they really need a way to turn things around for this crummy tower (one that doesn't involve a sacrifice)

Her moment of peaceful acceptance was interrupted by a scaled fist connecting with her cheek, forcing her face to deform to the side. She was sent spinning to the ground, Garble over her form with a heavy scowl. "That is… No, think harder. You're supposed to be one of the smart ones."

I agree with Garble here, now more than ever I don't want that tower getting it's way!

[godofthunder4242]

It's time to RIOT! Burn the tower to the Hecking ground!

[Star Sage]

I think it's time for Twilight to ask Starswirl how to just make another mirror. She has an anchor, like the book, in her connection to Spike and Sandra now, so maybe she can just make another one, and the Tower won't be able to reach them there. Gods, this guy is a worse magical AI than Morgana Mode Gone. At least she was fighting for her life when she put people into comas and granted wishes.

[Booster Spice]

The spirit is the part of the Tower Spike can intercat with, but who, or what made the Tower in the first place? As somewhere with a means of killing off all the good adventuers, especially those good enough to make it to the reward, this thing should be on the Evil Overlords list of Ways To Make Keeping A Conquest Content?

[Frazzle2Dazzle]

Her moment of peaceful acceptance was interrupted by a scaled fist connecting with her cheek, forcing her face to deform to the side. She was sent spinning to the ground, Garble over her form with a heavy scowl. "That is… No, think harder. You're supposed to be one of the smart ones."

Wow, Garble’s going soft.

[EnderHooves]

As ever, the manifestation of The Tower just love playing with the story.
Awesome chapter, the stakes have been raised. What if they wished for a controllable gateway between the 2 worlds? The price would be higher than just sending them home. The price for sending them home would probably just be the emotional backlash and consequence of the action itself, but this tower feels greedy, so it'll probably be something more.
And what would the price for Sandra's wish be? Resurrection isn't a cheap thing, and there's probably hundreds of ways to screw someone over for making that wish, even if the wish granter grants it without a caveat like a genie.

[Always Breakfast]

Gotta say when I clicked on a silly MMO story I wasn't expecting a metafiction drama on the expectations of heroic tragedy.