Bind on Pickup

by David Silver

62 - You Got This

Sandra stood in her test chamber, standing right in front of a caged area. In it there was a dais with a raised panel with two footprints and another raised panel with a crossed out circle in it, ahead a hallway with a channel headed to it where the caged dias was.

The implication seemed clear, she was to enter the cage and ride it to the end… where only her summons were allowed to fight the monsters and protect her in the cage. She stepped into the cage, alone as none of her summons fit in it, and gripped her staff, trying not to show her nervousness.

Sandra called out, “Aiden!” and with a flourish the flaming bird appeared outside of the cage, ready to fight, and she stepped onto the panel in the center of the cage, causing it to sink with a heavy stone clunk. The cage began to stir beneath her, moving with a rough grinding that spoke of its mineral origins.

The monsters came for her with hungry cries. Great swarms along the ground Aiden could set ablaze, huge monstrosities Crystal had to hold back long enough for her to slide by, and flying enemies that were too strong for Aiden to deal with individually that Twilight could handle better.

It was all about using the right tool for the job, but it felt… easy, almost too easy. She only had three summons, so there wasn't a lot of room to try the wrong one, and there hadn't been any curveballs thrown at her yet. The cage ground to a halt next to a huge circular disk over inky blackness and it swung open without a word.

The next part of the test?

She stepped onto the new disk, the meager protection offered by the cage gone, and so was her own helplessness of being trapped. Not that she could do very much to fight on her own. It began to rise upward, and she looked up to find that toward the top was the gem, inside it’s own cage, the roar of monsters brought her back to reality. A large group of apparitions, the sort that’d be set ablaze, but larger and more numerous.

She was close, close enough that she had to exhaust her summons. And she was able to act, so there was just one power that hadn’t been tested yet, called out, “Union!”

Wreathing herself in flames, she spread her arm-wings wide, sending fans of flames as she began to dance around the enemy strikes. Their teeth and claws, while she did her best, could not all be avoided, slashes and marks allowing thin red lines across her form. Despite this, the dance of fire did not abate. "I can do this," she quietly reminded herself, teeth clenched against the pain as her enemies dwindled by the moment.

Not that the challenge would be the last. As she felt the flames leave her, her form returning to normal, if a bit ragged, a great slam made the ground beneath her lurch, a statue composed of perfect circles raising a fist of stone at her. "Union!"
Her fist covered itself in stone as she raised her own fist up, feeling the rock swell beneath her, the unbroken chain of energy channeled into her own fist as the statue brought it’s fist down onto hers, a terrific clash of energy and rock that stung far more than she wanted to admit. The statue pulled it’s fist up, ready to slam down again, and something inside Sandra knew she shouldn’t try to out sturdy it. She put her hands to the ground, and as it brought its fist down, shifted the floor under its feet, turning the massive swing into a stumble, landing fist first, it’s own head available for pummeling.

Which the union of Sandra and Crystal absolutely obliged, channeling all of that stone energy into her punches.

The rocks fell away from Sandra and she fell down to her knees. Crystal didn’t have the magic left for her to sustain her form, and she wondered if the same thing was happening to her own magic. What was the line between her magic and her summon’s, anyway? But if there was any pattern to this…

A sparkle appeared in the air in front of her, and a gigantic moth with sparkling angry violet bands on black fuzzy wings.

Sandra couldn’t pull herself up in time, but still shouted. “Union!”

The surge of energy was much stronger than with her other summons, which another thought inside her chimed in “Of course, Twilight Sparkle brings her own font of magic beyond what the other summons would.”

The moth’s bands were glowing and a beam of energy lanced at Sandra’s new union, which she raised a force field to block, and pulled herself to her feet. "Let me take a turn," gently whispered Twilight in her head. "Recover." Twilight spun away from the gnashing mandibles, keeping her and Sandra aloft on their shared wings. "I got this."

Sandra felt comforted, safe, despite being immensely unsafe just before the presence of the hungry beast. She let go, surrendering to Twilight. Fur exploded over her form, purple as her hair took on Twilight's preferred mane look. "You're going down," announced Twi-Sandra, though Twilight was in charge.

Sandra lost track of it though, fading off into a little nap. She would never see the battle between Twilight and the moth, but she felt it was in good hands, er hooves.

She woke on the ground. How much time had passed? She sat up and scrambled to her feet, looking around in a panic, but nothing was attacking her. Nothing was lunging for her. There was nothing but a simple pedestal with footprints in front of it. It was the next step of the challenge? She assumed it was. Twilight had let her recover. She wasn't batting at 100%, maybe a good sixty? More than she had to start, and she whispered a thanks as she approached, reaching out her hands. "Hope I'm near the end."

She placed a hand on the middle of it, easily able to reach it. It glowed softly, a pulse of power that ran down to the base. She vanished, appearing an instant later next to the others who were cheering. Garble rolled his eyes. "We were wondering if you were just going to sleep forever."

"Great job," Smolder bursted with a double thumbs up. "You used all your summons like they were a part of you."

Sandra laughed at that. "They… kind of are, even your friend, my friend too now…" She looked to Spike. "You're it. I know you have this under control. Shoot… you got advice from Tabitha, how can you go wrong?"

Spike chuckled at that, though perhaps not entirely echoing the sentiment. "You two alright?"

"Go on." She gave him a shove forward. "Can't let me take all the glory."

Spike stepped into his chamber, breathing deep to steady himself. As he stepped in, the room had another hallway, like he saw Sandra in, and inside it there was a small baby dragon statue with glowing rings on its hands, feet, and one around it’s forehead, on a rail. At the end was his goal, with a place for the statue to slot into.

As Spike examined the statue, with a grinding and clunking noise it began to move of its own accord, and an archer shade materialized, drawing back her bow, pointing at the statue, and Spike sprung into action, managing to bat away the magical arrow as it flew at the statue.

Another archer appeared, this time on the other side of the statue, nocking her own magical arrow. Spike hopped to the other side of the statue in time to deflect the new hit, the arrow hitting the wall behind him.

The two archers walked down the hallway with him, firing the arrows one by one. Spike hopped back and forth, batting them away best he could with his staff, but one or two struck the statue, the red rings absorbing the hits, but glowing a bit less brightly for it.

Spike grit his teeth. They’d finish the statue by a thousand cuts at that rate, and no doubt there were more monsters on the way. He lit up his staff, shooting a bolt at one of the shades, which was knocked back, fumbling. He wheeled around, ready to intercept the other just to find its arrow already coming at him. He stepped into it, taking the shot himself with a low grunt. "That all," he muttered, his shield gleaming as he advanced with his statue.

A crack from the ceiling came just before two heavy stone slabs shattered against the ground, two knights riding them with swords raised. They sliced not at Spike but for his statue. The first was met with his staff, turning it aside even as his shield bashed the other away. An arrow thudded into the statue. "That isn't even fair." Still, if it counted as something to defend… A tether of bright green reached from his staff, attaching him to the statue in a volley of sympathetic magic. "We're getting through this, together."

The warriors gave no quarter, pressing the attack despite his efforts. The lancing spike of pain that came with the martyr's magic at least told him the spell was working, even if the statue wasn't, technically, alive. "Get away." He thrust his staff forward, the tip flaring in a swirling nova of angry green magic at the instant of impact, knocking that fighter back. "We're coming through."

Another arrow lanced at the target, spike intercepting it with his shield, tongue stuck out in focus. The bolt bounced off his shield, deflected into one of the two warriors, blasting apart a fair bit of it’s armor. Spike halted for just a moment. That was much more effective than his normal attacks. So was his martyr attack, now that he had thought of it.

Okay. New plan.

A warrior came bearing down on his charge, and Spike deflected the sword, attempting to hit the other warrior. A scuff on the leg wasn’t very good, but it was something.

The fight began again, Spike trying to find every opportunity to turn the enemy’s attacks against them. Bit by bit they were taken apart instead, until finally he lanced the last archer with a blast, destroying the rest.

There was still a bit of hallway to go, though, and directly in the path a robed figure spawned, looming over the track. It raised its hands up, gathering power above him, and Spike shot first, trying to block the attack, but his magic shot, normally at least a decent hit, seemed to do nothing.

There was a distinctly voiced roar, the figure threw its arms wide to its side in a dramatic gesture, and the chaotic spinning energy began to expand, becoming a field of deadly bolts engulfing the entire hallway.

Spike grit his teeth, and immediately started the heals on himself, and tried healing the various red rings, their glow replenishing. Quickly he used every regeneration and shielding spell he knew, which admittedly was more shields than regeneration, and threw up his martyr bond.

He stepped nervously forward, watching the statue inch toward the zone of energy, and stepped in only when it did, the assault of both the bolts hitting him and also the bolts hitting the statue causing him to cry out in pain.

But he had to absorb as much as he could, as he stepped closer and closer through the roaring storm of magic to the sorcerer, the attacks assaulting him, his own healing staunching as much as he could, as his staff glowed brighter and brighter.

Closer he came, step by step, until finally he touched the tip of his staff, shining so bright it was hard to see to the sorcerer, a tremendous crack rang out and the sorcerer was blown all the way to the end of the hallway, leaving a crack in the stone, and Spike fell to his knees.

Nocreature had implied the tests would be easy.

Author's Note:

Late in the day but still on time!

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

The Tower has a very good idea of just how much power Twilight could channel if the bond was allowed to form completely, neve mind other forms of energies, so has essentially come to an agreement with the various fields etc?

At the moment, the Tower is running Drill Sargent level tests and training, definitly stressing them but nothing beyond which they have the capacity to handle or at least learn and ajust to handle?

[SpikeSmolder fan]

Oh wow, talk about been put though the wringer for both Sandra & Spike during their own tests! It sure was intense & hardly leaving any room for error!

Looking forward to see how Smolder does on her turn, hopefully Garble will take what the others have gone though during their trails & apply it on his second try at his test.

[Frazzle2Dazzle]

Nocreature had implied the tests would be easy.

If it were easy, would it be worth doing?

[Snowkitsune]

ok this story is Awesome and makes me want to play dnd even more. i has story ready but no ponies to play with lol

[David Silver]

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