The door to the empowerment challenge clanged shut behind Aquapony. A bright blue glow shone around the edges of the door for a brief moment and when the light faded the door had been welded shut. "I guess there's no turning back then," Aquapony muttered to himself.
"Nope!" Ner'Ghalad's cheerful voice rang out from the walls. "Your only way out is through that door."
Aquapony glanced around. He was in a circular room with solid stone walls and no other doors. "What door?"
"Oh!" Aquapony couldn't see it, but Ner' blushed. "My bad. Here, let me just..." Ner's voice trailed off. A fancy golden door with a single large keyhole slid from the floor and inserted itself into the opposite wall. "There! Now you just need to beat a single one of my empowered minions to get the key. And I think I've got just the opponent for you!"
"Uh, alright then," Aquapony said. He slowly walked into the center of the room, wary of a sneak attack. His eyes darted right and left, he wondered what kind of enemy Ner'Ghalad would make him fight.
"Whoa, whoa, hold up," Ner' said. "I thought we could have a little talk first. I've only ever really talked with our mutual 'friend' so far and I want to be able to get to know the rest of you too."
Aquapony relaxed a bit, but he remained somewhat wary in case of treachery. "Well, I guess that's OK. What did you want to talk about?"
"Well, uh..." the sound of Ner'Ghalad flipping though a notebook could be heard. "Ah! I've always been curious about the group dynamics for adventuring parties, specifically what it's like to be a newcomer in an already-established group."
Aquapony blinked twice at the flood of words flowing from the walls. Then he blinked once more as he processed the question. "Well," he said, "After I left the Justice Ponies-"
"Wait, you left the Justice Ponies? How did that happen?" Ner interrupted, "I was under the impression that you were a respected member of their team."
A slight grimace passed onto Aquapony's face as he remembered. "We got into a bit of an argument after Superguy died. It turns out that they only kept me around so they could feel smugly superior whenever we got into a fight that wasn't next to water since I'm all but useless on dry land. I mean, I've been practicing my kung-fu to help make up for it, but I haven't been able to fight at my full potential for quite a long while."
"Hm," Ner' said, "I think I'd like to see you go all-out at least once. If I gave you a theoretically limitless supply of water around the edge of this room would you be able to work with it?"
"Yeah," Aquapony nodded, "probably."
"Very good, I'll get right on that." A strip of floor about a meter wide around the edge of the room slowly sank down and out of sight. A slight burbling sound preceded a rush of water flowing into the newly-formed ring. Almost as an afterthought a small wooden drawbridge extended over the water in front of the exit. "Please, continue talking, I'll do my best to not interrupt you again."
Aquapony tore his gaze away from the ring of water. A slightly goofy smile could be seen on his face. "Like I was saying, after I left the Justice Ponies I spent a bit of time wandering the woods around your castle looking for a lake or a stream when who do I stumble across but Unique Blend and the Courier." Aquapony walked over to the water and dipped a hoof under its surface, seeming to relish the feel of the cool liquid.
"Unique and I used to be, well, I wouldn't say friends, but definitely on friendly terms back when he ran the bar in town so he was all for inviting me to join their little group. The Courier wanted to abandon me and even threatened to shoot me if I followed them, but luckily Unique talked some sense into him. He said some things I don't really remember like, 'potentially semi-valuable asset,' and, 'needing all the help they could get,' but the Courier wasn't convinced until he mentioned that I would be another person besides Fphantom to play cards with. After that the Courier was practically begging for me to come along.
"They led me back to their hideout, where Fphantom and the Sorceress were holding down the fort. Fphantom accepted me with virtually no comment and the Sorceress was fine with keeping me around provided I did the dishes for her."
"Can't she just, I don't know, magic the dishes clean?" Ner asked.
Aquapony threw his hooves up in exasperation. "That's what I said! But she was adamant and I didn't really want to piss her off. Did you know she's vivisected ponies for fun before? Because she has. She calls it 'science' but I think she just likes cutting ponies apart.
"Once I'd been hanging around for a couple of days they got used to me, and I'd gladly call each of them my friend." Aquapony glared at the wall next to him. "And I'm super mad at you for killing and enslaving two of my friends."
"And what about the intrepid leader of your group?" Ner'Ghalad asked smugly. "The one by whose hoof both Unique and the Sorceress were killed? The one who is even now leading you all to your deaths. Are you mad at him too?"
Aquapony snorted with disdain at Ner'Ghalad's attempt to rile him up. "I'm not stupid, I know that you're the only one actually responsible for their deaths. And getting back on topic," Aquapony flashed a smirk as Ner'Ghalad fumed silently, "Our 'intrepid leader,' as you called him, accepted my addition to the group without batting an eye. I honestly think that absolutely nothing could possibly surprise that pony."
"Yeah, probably," Ner'Ghalad agreed.
Several seconds of silence passed.
"Do you think he's psychic?" Ner' asked.
"Huh?"
"The reason he's not surprised by anything," Ner'Ghalad elaborated. "Do you think he's psychic?"
"No, I think he's just slightly too crazy to let anything faze him. He just takes it all in stride."
Aquapony splashed the water a bit. Ner' flipped through his notebook again.
"So, do you want to start the challenge now?" Ner' asked.
"Eh, why not." Aquapony stretched out his forehooves and sank down into a ready crouch.
A circular hole opened up in the center of the floor. A small platform slowly raised up out of the new hole, but before Aquapony could make out the figure standing on the platform a couple of cheap fog machines whirred to life and belched out an obscuring mist. Vaguely catchy but incredibly annoying music started playing from an unseen phonograph. Several spotlights flickered to life and began waving around wildly. The stone walls of the arena faded away and were replaced by massive stadium seats filled to the brim with thousands of fuzzy, indistinct, faintly cheering, ghostly ponies.
"Over the top much?" Aquapony asked.
"Nope. That was just the right amount of flair," Ner' said. The smoke surrounding the mysterious figure in the center of the arena started to thin out. "Your opponent is waiting for you right over thataway!"