Bind on Pickup

by David Silver

91 - Hurling Galaxies

The party rallied together as the jaws lashed out at them. Tabitha turned away a blow and Smolder bounded over her, taking the chance to stab at it’s flesh, retreating back to safety.

Sandra let her union pass, and called forth Crystal, who came out of the marbled ground in front of her, blocking another jaw from reaching her, countering with a punch. Garble lashed out, and Spike struck out his staff, vigilant for healing that needed to be done, and for threats.

After only a bit of attacks and counters, the man raised his hands again. “Look out!” Spike cried. “The acid’s coming again!”

A splash of acid was conjured directly above them, ready to rain down. The party split again, all diving in their respective directions, and the tentacles eagerly swarmed the now empty center, snapping at them.

Tabitha blocked a snap and shouted. “Don’t get split up, everyone gather at the back!”

But it was as if the boss knew their strength was at its highest when they were together. Which he did. He had watched them, those many floors, and he worked tirelessly to wear them down, focusing his attacks on whoever was furthest away from Spike's healing and Tabitha's guarding reach.

They were losing by inches, and they knew it. "Not like this." Garble brought down his blade, severing one meaty limb like a loaf of especially thick bread, but there were others behind it, surging to replace the lost without pause. "You're just cheatin', but I'm just beatin'." He swatted aside as one came for him, but another tagged him in the side in the same instant, knocking him aside.

Spike's staff twirled defensively as he glowed a fierce green. "I am not walking his path." He had met the divine lord. A good man, a stalwart fighter, but Spike's path… It was his own. "I will write it myself." They were at the top of the tower, fighting what was likely the last and worst enemy. If there was a time to make new rules, he figured there would be no better time. "Twilight, gonna use some of your smarts." Not that he lacked his own, but drawing on her example was a little inspiration, and he needed a little of that in the onslaught.

The motes were glowing, and he knew what that meant. Each of them blasted a lance of light straight at people in the party, and Spike raised his staff up in the air. Divine Lords could knock away magic with their shields, and Martyrs could absorb damage and throw it back. Spike intended to cut out the middleman, and he hopped up into the air, expanding his green magical glow, which the lances of magic struck and simply… disappeared in green sparks.

Spike raised up his staff, contracting the fierce green aura on it, becoming a white and green hot mote of power, and he swung it, throwing the magic he gathered at a nearby tentacle, the blast of hot magic seared and crackled, slamming the tentacle into the ground, it skidding several yards away, and it simply stopped.

Logue's roar shook the world around them. His efforts to keep them away from Spike, suddenly turned to waste as they rebounded and attacked with a new burst of energy. "That is against the rules!" he chastised like an angry judge, leveling a finger from on high at Spike.

Smolder drew out her cooking pot with a smarmy grin. "We're at the top. This is where the rules get made!" Without a word shared between them, the idea had spread from one to the next. "And I think a little calamari is right on the menu!" She did not carve him into the pot, instead gesturing it away, calling forth new pots to spring into being where his meaty limbs were in a convenient place to already be in them. She had been forbidden to use that technique once before, but…

The tentacles recoiled and screeched as they collided with the boiling water, and Logue trembled with rage. “No no no!” he nearly screeched, as he raised his own hands and splashed acid down on top of them, forcing them to scatter, and sent his tentacles straight after Spike and Smolder.

Tabitha darted forward, interspersing herself between a tentacle and Smolder. “You really pissed him off with that.”

Smolder cackled without a care, "His anger is a spice for my dish." Little gestures of her hands brought the boiling pots over to catch some of the splashing acid to mix with her cooking servings.

Tabitha just cracked an eyebrow up. “I have no idea what you two have done, but now is not the time to ask, is it?”

“Enjoy the ride.” Smolder smirked, summoning another cauldron right in front of her in time for a tentacle jaw to slam right into it.

Logue breathed haggard breaths, and put his hand to his forehead. “What… what…”

Garble joined Spike, slashing a nearby maw to clear a path back to gathering together.

Spike smiled self satisfiedly. “You gonna go with something, Gar Gar?”

He frowned. “Only one person gets to call me that name.” He raised his sword up ready for a slash. “But I’m already good to maim.” He brought it down with a crash of lightning. “I don’t need no extra skill, My style’s already good to kill.”

Spike watched him cleave through more tentacles, although only causing them to recoil, and shrugged, just in time to be slapped across the face with an oversized octopus tendril. "What the?"

"Snack time!" came Smolder's cry in the distance. "Gotta keep up your strength to bring this home!"

Sandra smiled at the gleeful laughter of the dragoness. "It's easy to forget this can be fun."

"May I join?"

The voice was internal, Twilight whispering in Sandra's mind, "Since we're putting the rules aside, and since we're at the top, maybe I can…"

"Oh, wow." Sandra's smile spread wide. "Try it!"

She felt a surge of magic, and Crystal popped away, back to wherever the mana spirits went to, and Sandra tugged on the magic, pulling on it as she felt resistance give way in fits and starts.

She expected a terrific burst of mana, an explosion of energy, or a tear in reality to suddenly appear, but what she did not expect was a sound like a soft balloon pop mixed with a crackling noise, disturbing nothing else. And then, Twilight was there.

She spread her wings to catch herself as gravity reminded her it was still there. "Let's do this!" she called in a battle-ready tone, matching hoof to Sandra's enthusiastic slap. They waded into battle, magic sizzling beams in seemingly all directions.

"One thing." Sandra peeked over her shoulder as she thrust her hands forward, firing a concentrated beam of magic that severed a hand coming for her. "Why can I use your magic even though you're obviously over there?" She had no signs of Twilight's presence. She had no bits of fur or equine snout and not even a swishy horsey tail. She was just Sandra, with magical unicorn magic, which was pretty great.

The magic was not as it was before, which used to be stars called from the heaven, but were direct applications of beams, mostly. Twilight blinked around the field, hyper mobile, shields and beams. Sandra was less adept at the magic, but the shields and beams were certainly useful, drawing from the very significant magic reserves they shared.

“Twilight!” Spike shouted, hopping into the air to dodge a blast. “You’re here. For real!”

“And she should not be!” Logue roared, magic concentrating at the floating motes, blasting at Twilight, which Spike eagerly jumped in front of, blasting the beams back at the tentacles, taking out two whole more.

Logue gripped his head as the giant maw underneath him roared. “Wrong wrong wrong this is wrong you should not be here.”

“Alright, something seriously seems off about him, now,” Tabitha said, repelling his attacks with aid from the cauldrons that all seemed to unsummon a few seconds after their job was done.

“He talked a lot about rules,” Spike said, dodging back. “So he’s tied to… magic's rules, somehow? And breaking them is doing something to him.”

“Well keep it up, his attacks are getting sloppy.”

The group cheered and continued their assault, carving their way through the tentacles, whose number clearly dwindled. With every redirected magical assault, with every summoned piece of food equipment, boiling and baking the enemy, with every magical princess power, Logue clearly struggled, yelling and screaming.

And soon, the tentacles were gone.

“No no no… no no no no no!” Logue shouted, magic gathering at the giant jaw. “Stop this now!”

“Behind me again!” Tabitha said, ready to split the magic, and the whole party gathered behind her as she readied her counter.

And Spike, from behind both, gathered his own magic, opening up his magic field.

The roar of energy blasted at the party, and the column of light split it, just as before, the torrent of magic blasting past them.

Well, mostly past them.

Spike’s green magic split out, grabbing the sides of the split energy, whirling and swirling them around his own staff. It was easy to work with… but too much, he grit his teeth, straining to hold it in.

“S-Spike!” Twilight called out.

“What the…” Garble said, looking up at the increasing ball of energy Spike was collecting.

“Wh-what’s going on,” Tabitha said, not looking back as the assault continued. The magic poured out, and she felt herself being pushed back.“He ain’t quitting on this end, guys, what the hell is going on back there?”

Twilight created a magical shield, attempting to encircle the magic, as more magic still yet poured into it. Sandra too, extended her staff, trying to help contain the magic.

Spike felt the whole of his body, all the magic he had gained and was absorbing, tugging and pulling at him. He couldn’t wait out all the attack, it had to go, and he flew up, the orb of magic larger than him, and swung his staff forward.

The orb of energy began to deform slowly at first, as if something was pulling itself out, but as if it were gaining purchase, the magic pulled forward more and more, until the orb snapped forward, blasting at Logue’s body. It collided with the blast of energy, pushing it out of the way with its density, and slammed into Logue’s under body, which roared with a tower-shaking roar.

When it was over, a giant hole was carved into the body, formless matter underneath it, all disintegrating into motes of light.

Logue fell to the ground. But he did not fade away, as many other monsters they had felled had done before him. He was instead limp on the ground, a still form.

Twilight perked up, though her eyes kept darting towards Spike. "We… won?"

"We won," emphasized Garble with a triumphant smirk. "Thanks for the assist, but we were handling it."

The group of five-well, six then, walked up to Logue, pulling himself up off the ground. “Is it over?” Tabitha nearly spat. “Are you going to rise up, grow wings, and throw galaxies at us or something?”

“You broke… the rules,” Logue said, his voice hoarse, picking himself up. Even now the hood kept his eyes in shade, but beneath them two glowing silver lights shone out, obscured by blinks sometimes.

“So what,” Smolder said. “We finished the fight.”

“So you did,” he glared daggers, wincing and craning his neck as he looked at her. “But there must be consequences. You being here is wrong, now.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Spike said, standing in his view. “You wanted us at the top, we’re getting to the top, we can do it.”

“It’s not that simple,” Logue spat, rising up to his full height. “I can barely look at you. Everything is screaming to me to stop. It-it…” he took a haggard breath, “I’m being stupid. You broke the rules, so I can enforce it with consequences.”

He looked at Spike, pinching his fingers together. “And I wanted you to see the top, too.”

He split his fingers apart, and with no sound or effects at all, Spike, Smolder, and Twilight all disappeared.

Author's Note:

Oops. Did you break the simulation?

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Comments

[SpikeSmolder fan]

Oh great, talk about a sore loser! What the hey did he do to them???!!!

This fight was epic on all terms though, he's hoping that whatever *he* just did backfires badly!

[Booster Spice]

They couldnt have broke the rules if they were acting within the Tower. They just used the rules the Tower allows them to beat the bosses with. After all, if the bosses knew All the possible actions and how to counteract them, how could they be beat? The final fight is a resource grind, and its whoever has most, wins, by attrition?.

I wonder where the powercore ended up. At the base of the Tower? Equestria? or just phased?

[Malandy]

Hmm... Why do the chains react to the tower?

The question likely is why this things happen, and why chains break when new skills are made "wrong" and stuff...

Hmm. They're also data collectors... Their Dragons wanted novelty, right? Is that what this all is?

And that line... "Oops. Did you break the simulation?" Hmm...

[keroko]

Can they truly be called broken rules if the tower enabled them to do this in the first place? These are all tower-based skills, after all. If the tower-granted skills weren't supposed to work this way, then they wouldn't. The tower wants its user to be creative, but punishes creativity that disadvantages it.

Really sounds like an annoyed game developer who resorts to banning players who use a game's existing system creatively rather than fixing something broken.

[The Great Derpsby]

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I wonder if he's so annoyed because back in the day, HE didn't consider breaking the rules, so them doing it now showed him this has always been an option. And he didn't take it when he had the chance.

Moreover, his words suggest that he's acting AGAINST the Tower right now. They won. But he doesn't want to accept the way they won, even if the Tower is urging him to go dormant like the other trapped guardians.

[Silentwoodfire]

he just went all Thanos on them all

[badninja]

Well they have six beings against the tower. I hope they prove themselves worthy, or at least those who haven’t yet, and the Elements of Harmony scrub this tower hard.

[Frazzle2Dazzle]

Hmm... I wonder if there would be a rush of air to fill the spots they were just in, or if it was like an instant replacement of air with bodies.

[Cragadilian]

He already broke the “rules” by summoning them there, or at least the tower did. They were brought to a world where anyone can learn skills as long as they choose. A place of monsters that disperse into items when defeated. Where a challenge is set that only a select few can complete. So tell me how rules were broken when they shouldn’t apply in the first place.

Just because they tried something new and it worked, doesn’t mean they crossed any boundaries Logue set. I want to see the Tower make him dormant since they did beat him. And if it’s supposed to be a battle simulation that’s adapted over decades... then he broke his own rules. Everyone can take on the tower as long as they are in a team. They do whatever challenge the particular floor has and get to move up. They had to beat him as a team so by all accounts he broke something. He broke his own fallacies.

[redmar]

THey did experiment with those techniques earlier. Logue never mentioned any rules other than those he had to abide because of the tower. That it was possible for the party to break any rules was never mentioned before so Logue's is breaking the rules himself.