//------------------------------// // The Hidden Room // Story: The Forgotten Prophecy // by flutterderp sparkle //------------------------------// It was a dark and stormy day in Ponyville.The clouds were blocking most of the sky, leaving little light shining through. The storm was causing so much gloom that even Pinkie Pie was depressed and in Sugar Cube Corner stuffing her face with cupcakes to make herself feel better. Rainbow Dash was up above the clouds in Cloudsdale, not even affected by the storm. Fluttershy was in her cottage having some form of indoor picnic with all her forest critters. Rarity was over dramatizing how she got a little wet from her way back from Sugar Cube Corner to Sweetie Belle. Applejack was in Sweet Apple Acres' barn, trying to judge how much damage this storm will do, if any, to the farm. Twilight Sparkle was busying herself by sorting the books in the library, since they were knocked onto the floor so many times. "All right Spike, time to sort the "j"s now," said Twilight, finishing putting the last "i" on the correct shelf. "Okay, Twilight. Here are the "j"s, said Spike, wheeling out the cart with all the books whose author's name started with a "j". He was having a little trouble wheeling out the cart since it had hundreds of books on it. He never realized, before today, how many authors had a name starting with "j". "Here, let me help you with those," said Twilight, helping Spike wheel the cart out with her magic. "There, now you can take a break for a while. After the I'm done with the "j"s, it'll be lunchtime." But then, a loud crack of a lightning bolt boomed right outside the library. Twilight and Spike were thrown from where they were standing, books that Twilight was holding with her magic were flying everywhere, after being released from her spell. They both landed with a thud, Twilight landing on her side and Spike landing on his face. The books had landed randomly on the floor creating a bunch of noise. After Twilight landed on the floor, the books coming after her, she heard that her and the books' thud had echoed down under the floorboards. At first, she thought this was just a natural wood echo, but when it lasted longer than ten seconds, she started to wonder whether it was natural or not. Curious, she had Spike help her break and lift the floorboards up off the spot. This revealed a deep, dark hole that was only as wide as her and ended farther than she could see. "Come on, Spike, let's go down and explore," said Twilight, eager to see what was at the bottom of this hole and to enhance her knowledge about the library. "Okay, whatever you say. But it doesn't seem very safe down there." "What, is the baby dragon too afraid to climb down the hole and have an adventure?" asked Twilight. "Or is he just using this as a ploy to get out of going on an adventure and to take a nap instead of having fun in exploring this hole?" "No, but we've never seen this part of the library before. Who knows what could be down there." "Just stay close to me and I'll make sure nothing bad will happen to you. I guarantee it." "Okay, fine, I'll go with you," said Spike, reluctantly getting on Twilight's back as she started to go down the hole. A few minutes later, the smell of water that had been sitting around in the same place for thousands of years, tainted from years of rodents and other pests living and dying in it. It seemed like the hole would go on forever when Twilight put her hoof down on a mossy rock, wet from the tainted water. Once she got her footing, Twilight used her magic to illuminate the hole. She found herself standing in a non-moving stream of greenish-brown water. Then she looked up and saw a path ending in a turn. With Spike clutching onto her back harder than normal since he didn't want to fall off in the hole, Twilight started to venture down the hallway. At the end, she went with the turn and saw a rectangular room with six doors at the opposite side of the entrance. Each door had a symbol on it that Twilight couldn't out what each one represented. Then she saw a message inscribed on the wall to the right of her. "Do you know what it says, Twilight? I can't make out any of the letters of it," asked Spike. "That's no surprise. This was inscribed in an ancient pony writing. Nopony's used it for around one thousand years. Luckily, I studied it early on in my training, when you were only a few weeks old. It says, 'Go through your destiny's door. Now.' There are a few words scratched off so badly that I can't read them. I wonder what this means. Do you have any clue?" asked Twilight. "I don't know," said Spike, then he started to look for clues with Twilight. After a minute or two, he thought he found something. "Hey, Twi. Look at the symbols on the doors. The one on the far left looks like your Cutie Mark. Maybe that's what it means by 'destiny's door'," said Spike, pointing at the door on the far left with a symbol on it that looked like Twilight's Cutie Mark. "Spike, you're a genius!" exclaimed Twilight with enough enthusiasm to rival Pinkie Pie's. Twilight galloped to the door with Spike still on her back. She opened the door with her magic once she got near it. What came out was a shock to her. Blazing candles illuminated this room, blinding her momentarily. She didn't expect this after the previous rooms were pitch black. This room was a hexagonal shape with a ceiling that Twilight guessed was about the same height as the hole she entered in. The length of the room was impressive, Twilight judging that it would take Rainbow Dash around five seconds to cover the distance, however it wasn't as impressive as the height of the room. In the very center of the room, she saw a wooden podium about the same size as her. "Let's go check out that podium, Spike," said Twilight, wanting to find out what was so special about this room. "Okay, but let's be careful, Twilight. Remember, there were a few etched out words in the note. They could've made the note a warning" "Yes, I remember. I'll be careful," said Twilight as she started to gallop to the podium.