Trophy Room

by 4428Gamer

The Hallway

Chapter 2: The Hallway

Sweetie Belle's POV

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"I can't imagine how anypony in the Crystal Empire can go down stairs like these," I spoke out as Applebloom and I took our time going down the steps. The only time we were ever near anything made of crystals was that one trip to the Crystal Empire. And the stadium didn’t have crystal stairs with where we had to go. Not only that, but it didn't help that our small legs didn't help too much either as we had to carefully bend down to reach the next step.

Meanwhile, Spike had no problem with the steps at all. He calmly dropped from one step to the next, not even looking down towards the steps. It was as if he had no fear whatsoever. Though, that was probably just because he had been in the Crystal Empire more than just the one time.

The steps may have been far from steep, but that didn't make any difference. The light from the candles was reflecting off the light blue crystals, which made the whole thing look like it had been iced. I was already clumsy enough as it was whether there was ice or not. So by this point I didn’t know whether to be more scared of the basement or the staircase.

I looked over towards Applebloom to see if she was having a better time than I was, but as it turned out, she was as cautious as I was, if not more. Slowly moving her hooves one step at a time as if she were about to slip and fall to the bottom at any moment.

"I know. It took me a while to get used to them. The trick is not to look at the steps." Spike explained as he kept going at his own pace. Not noticing us getting left behind. Which wasn't too good seeing as how he was the one holding the green flamed candle.

"How can we not look at the steps were goin' down?!" Applebloom asked as she checked to make sure she wasn’t about to slide down the steps, nearly making me fall on top of her as a result. "Besides, these stairs look like they've been iced more than a snow cone in winter! I feel like I'm about ta trip down 'em any second!"

"Be glad they go straight down instead of going in a spiral. I remember when me and Twilight had to go up this staircase to get the Crystal Heart, I nearly fell off the side," Spike told us before stopping in place. Giving us the chance to catch up to him. "Hey… Have the walls been made of stone the whole time?"

"No? Why?" I asked, now only about ten steps away from Spike.

"Well...They are now."

Stopping in place, I looked away from the stairs and focused my attention towards the walls. The light was still with Spike, so I couldn't see everything too clearly, but I was sure of it. The walls weren't made of crystals anymore. Instead, what was supposed to be clear smooth blue crystally walls were now jagged old-looking stones all set in place with crusty cement.

They weren't perfectly flat bricks or cut to be matching shapes either. They were all different shapes and each stone looked about as big as our heads. Some looking like badly drawn circles while others were oddly shaped squares.

Wanting to see it more clearly for myself, I used my magic as best I could and lit up my horn. Sure I could levitate a broom around like a witch was flying around on it, but light spells were still a little hard. Thankfully that was one thing that Snails was actually good at with magic, and he was nice enough to teach it to me.

With my own light source, I began turning around to look towards the walls above us. I took my time since the light made the stairs look even more like blocks of ice. And at just a few steps above us, I saw where the rocks met the crystal walls. And just like the rocks, the line that divided the two things was jagged.

It almost looked as if the stone had rammed itself into place. But just by looking at the crystals, I could tell that wasn't true. None of it was cracked or fell out of place or anything. It was almost as if the crystals knew that the stone was here and just stopped where it was.

"Spike, can you see the bottom of the stairs yet?" I asked him, my voice cracking in worry.

Suddenly everything Applebloom assured me about the basement being proved wrong.

"Uh-huh. It's only a few more steps. Well, for me at least." I didn't look over at him, but I knew that he was going down those last steps since his light was bouncing downwards.

"Come on Sweetie," Applebloom told me before she began trying to make her way down. Spike was already starting to head onwards himself. Probably thinking that we wouldn't mind since I was making a light of my own.

"Wait, what?" I snapped my attention down towards her as she made her way down the last few steps. With me following quickly after her, knowing that I couldn't just stand where I was and expect Applebloom to just see in the dark like a bat.

"Why are we still coming down here?" I called out to her.

"Because we all decided ta come down here and look around," Applebloom said, not turning around as she kept walking while Spike was just getting off the last step. Spike was a few feet ahead of us.

Once we finally got to the floor of the basement, I quickly started looking around the bottom of the staircase. There wasn't too much to take note of however, as the basement wasn't even a basement really. It was more of a hallway than anything.

Taking a step forward, I could already tell that there was a difference between the floor and the steps. It wasn’t flat and smooth, but instead grainy and unlevel as if it were a more solid dirt road.

Lowered my head towards the ground to get a better view, I discovered that the basement floor was no longer crystal. Instead it was rock, just like the walls. But while the wall was made of larger material, the floor looked as if it was made out of stepping stones.

"I didn't decide that..." I muttered under my breath quiet enough for Applebloom not to hear.

Actually, the more I think about it...

"I think I'm gonna just head on back up," I called out, turning halfway towards the stairs and the hallway they were about to walk down.

"Huh?"

"Yeah. I mean, if you two want to look around, then why should I try and stop you guys?" I tried to reason, taking one step back towards the stairs. I figured that if I could try and ease myself towards the stairs then it'd be easier to talk my way out of the basement.

"Woah..."

"Aw come on Sweetie Belle," Applebloom whined. "Why can't ya just stay down here fer a few minutes? It ain't like somepony's gonna come jumpin' out at us."

"Why do you want to keep walking around in here so bad?" I asked her, genuinely confused. "It's not like we're getting our Cutie Marks from this."

"Well, I don't really think there's much else we can do." She shrugged. "Nopony needs our help right now."

She did have a point there. With everypony working on their own houses, there was nothing we could do to help. And with all those stores closed, they wouldn't let us come in to try and earn our Cutie Marks. Not to mention, if we had any ideas like taking care of ponies' houses or delivering their mail, we wouldn't have anypony to test it on.

...Wait a second, we haven't tried being mailmares yet. I need to remember that one.

"Okay, I guess you have a point..." I admitted. "But what do you think's even down here? I mean, if all of this really did grow into the ground then wouldn't it just be completely empty anyways?"

"Well...Well, maybe there's...Maybe, uh..." Applebloom wasn't quite so sure herself. Apparently, the thrill of ‘going where nopony has ever dared to go’ had overtaken her thoughts. So much so, she never realized that there might be nothing to find in the first place. "Huh. I didn't think a that."

"Then why did you want to come down here?"

"...I guess I didn't really have a reason." She sighed. "Sorry I forced ya down 'ere Sweetie Belle. Let's go ahead and go back up." She started walking back over to where I was so she was in the light.

I sighed in relief. "Thanks Applebloom.” Glad to finally see Applebloom on my side, I looked behind her and spotted the candlelight further down the hallway. “Come on Spike! We’re going back up!"

But as a few seconds past, the light didn't move. Instead, it stayed exactly where it was. "Spike?!" I called out, walking around Applebloom so that I was standing beside her.

"Hey, you two have to come see this!" he shouted back to us, sounding completely overjoyed.

"What, what is it?!" Applebloom wasted no time as she took off to join him down further into the hallway.

"Applebloom, wait!" I tried to figure out a way to stop her, but it was too late. She was already running down the hallway, forgetting everything we said completely once she heard Spike inviting us over.

I growled in frustration before running off behind her, knowing that I couldn’t leave the two of them down here now. Of course, I couldn't really be angry at either of them. They were just here to look around and hopefully find something to do for the day.

But what did Spike even find down here anyway? This basement was brand new. It wasn't like Twilight already had everything fully stocked down here without anypony knowing. After all, they haven't even unpacked upstairs yet.

"Wow! Sweetie, ya gotta come see this!" Applebloom gestured for me to come over with her hoof as she stood beside Spike with full interest. Both she and Spike were looking at something that was up against the wall. And as I approached them, I saw just what they were talking about.

Standing almost as tall as one of the Princesses was a set of wooden double doors that looked so foreign compared to the rest of the hallway. The doors were a dark-brown, almost dusty looking color surrounded by a square dark-maroon colored wooden frame. And when compared to the walls and floor, it was like somepony just propped a door up against the side of the hallway.

As we all stared at the towering doorway, I couldn’t help but try to study every aspect of it. Never had I seen a door look so bland, but so creepy at the same time. From my time at Canterlot Castle, I had seen a few large doors like these. But all of those had color or some kind of design or something on it. It’d might’ve been my sister rubbing off on me, but seeing the other’s expressions I knew I wasn’t the only one a little afraid of this door.

The only bit of decoration, if you could even call it that, were the two vertical handles. One on each door. And even then, those two just looked like they were slapped on carelessly. None of the castle looked anything like this. Those doors looked pretty, colorful, and welcoming. This just looked...Sinister. Bland and sinister.

Spike decided to act first and stepped towards the doors, letting the both of us just stand off to the sides. Once he walked up to the door, Spike reached up and tried gripping the left door's handle as best he could. But sadly, it was just barely out of his reach, and he only managed to catch the bottom of the handle.

He started pulling on the door, but it didn't open. Even after getting a better grasp on the door and putting all his strength into it, it still didn't budge.

"Here, let me give it a shot." Applebloom walked over next while Spike stepped out of the way. She then looked up and down the door, possibly scanning around for some kind of weak spot. But instead of try to find a chink in its armour, she turned around and balanced herself on her front two hooves before bucking the door with as much strength as she could manage.

And just like with Spike, it didn't do anything.

"Shucks, I thought that was gonna work."

"Well it can't be locked. There isn't even a keyhole anywhere," Spike noted.

"Maybe it rusted shut er somethin'?"

"Nah, that can't be right. The door's brand new. What if it's jammed?"

"Er maybe ya gotta open both a tha doors!" Both of them then went up to the doors again. Applebloom grabbing hold of the left handle as best she could while Spike took the one on the right. And after a quick count down from three, they tried pulling the doors again. Only for it to fail just like last time.

"Dang! These doors really ain't movin'..." Applebloom let go of the handle and took a few steps back. Catching her breath as she had really struggled to pull the handle. But looking over the whole doorway again, her face lit up with a new idea. "I got it! Spike! Burn tha door down!"

"W-What?! I'm not gonna burn the door!" Spike yelled out, eyes darting between Applebloom and the door. Or more precisely, a rock and a hard place.

"Ah, come on! What's tha worst that can 'appen?!"

"Uh...Fire?!" Spike threw his claws up into the air for emphasis.

"Really? A dragon afraid of his own fire?" Applebloom questioned, giving Spike a very unimpressed look.

As the two of them tried thinking of ideas about what to try next, I looked away from the door and around the rest of the area. But the only other thing I could notice aside from the door itself was a stone hanging out of the wall more than the others. Compared to the rest of the wall, this one stone looked a bit more polished and taken care of.

But what stood out the most was that it was hanging off the wall just a few inches above my head. Right above my horn to be exact. I’ve never been hit directly on the horn before, but I had bumped it into a wall or walked right into a door with it. And what resulted left me so confused and wounded that I ended up shaking in place for minutes from a simple mistake.

What usually happens is that when something makes contact with it, it messes with a unicorn’s senses. Lights may get brighter or you may go blind entirely depending on the color. Sometimes even both at the same time if there’s different colors. Sound would be too loud to bear, whether there was actually something around you or not. So the sound of nothing would be too unbearable. You’d smell everything whether it’s in front of you or a mile away. Usually more bad smells than good too.

And the worst part about it is that it all happens at once. All in the course of only a few seconds, everything happens and leaves you too confused and scared to even look in front of you. And it’s even worse if you’re using magic at the time.

Rarity always tells me that it’s something every unicorn gets used to, but I wasn’t about to test that out for myself right now.

So, being careful not to end up knocking the rock out myself, I slowly raised my hoof up to it and carefully tried to nudge it. Moving off to the side so it at least wouldn’t connect with my horn.

Only, to my surprise, the rock wasn't too hard to move. Instead, it sunk back into the wall like a spider in its nest. So seeing that it was already that easy to move, I went on and pushed it further into the wall until it was back in its place.

"You'd think that hoofmade walls would be constructed a lot better than this," I muttered before turning back towards the door. "Woah!”

Before I could manage to catch myself, I tripped and fell into the wall. My temple connecting against the wall with a dull “Thud.” The edge of the stone I hit wasn’t jagged enough to do some serious damage, but the hit numbed the entire side of my head as it kept ringing violently in pain.

The glow I was creating with my magic quickly diminished until all that was left to light the hallway was the candle that lay on the ground next to the door. The hit didn’t come close to my horn. My instincts made sure of that. But whether or not it got hit didn’t really matter. If a unicorn was in pain, they couldn’t focus on making any spells.

With my head still laying against the wall, I tried pushing myself off with my front hooves. But in doing so, I only managed to get my left hoof to help prop me up. So making do with just the single hoof, I balanced myself on my back hooves and leaned on the wall for support.

“Sweetie Belle! You okay?!” Applebloom and Spike ended their feud and ran over to my side. Both checking to see if I was still awake as I was struggling to keep my eyes open.

I drew in a breath but all that came was a hiss in pain. “Yea...Yeah. Yeah, I think so…” I tried putting a hoof to my head to help comfort it, but my hoof didn’t move. Instead, as I tried moving my right hoof, the rest of me was pulled towards it. “Wha?” I questioned.

I propped myself up against the wall and balanced myself on my hind legs so I could see just what had happened to my hoof. The moment I saw it, I noticed how it was still pressed up to the stone I had moved into place.

Seeing this, I tried to move my hoof away from the rock, but I couldn’t. My leg could move around just fine, but my hoof lay flat against it, inseparable from its position.

Still, I kept trying to pull my hoof away. Fear getting the better of me as I didn’t give up. Instead, the more I tried prying my hoof away, the more terrified I got. There wasn’t anything that had stuck me to the wall, but it felt as if something or somepony was forcing my hoof to stay in place.

“What happened?” Spike asked me, watching as I kept trying to get my hoof free.

“I-I don’t know.” I shook my head. My head still numb from slamming against the wall. “I saw that this rock was about to fall, so I pushed it back in. But now I’m stuck to it.”

The stone was no bigger than my hoof, so none of us could really see it. From what I remember though, there wasn’t anything that looked from the others. From what I could remember, it was flat and maybe a little greyer than the rest. But that was it. There was nothing on the stone before, so there was no reason for me to be stuck to it.

That’s when I remembered. It may not’ve been only the stone I had messed around with. Ever since I mastered, or at least got close enough to mastering, levitation, Twilight decided to let me pick the next magic lesson for me to try.

So, since I was allowed to pick, I went ahead and chose the thing I expected to be the most useful: Object Enchanting. When Twilight asked me why, I told her that if I were to learn Object Enchanting, then Rarity might let me help out a bit more with her work instead of just going across the room to fetch her a piece of ribbon that she never even used.

It may not have looked like it, but Rarity used tons of spells on her more fancier dresses. Such as “Stationary”, “Float”, and “Locking”. Those three I could list off especially, considering that she always bragged about it to whomever came in looking for a dress or suit.

Stationery was probably the most integral spell of them all. In fact, she even used it for the girls’ Gala dresses. It kept the dress, usually the trail of it, in whatever position it was in when you used the spell. With this, ponies could walk across entire mudslides and still not get dirt on their dresses.

Then there was Float. I remember one year that Rarity wanted to dress up as an angel for Nightmare Night, and this was the ‘Pièce de résistance’ of the whole thing. She used Float to make the halo float above her head the whole night. And apparently, it was so convincing that Spike and a few ponies actually thought she was an angel!

And finally, there was Lock. This was the one that Rarity used every chance she got. Since she could never get gems to stay perfectly in place, she used Lock to attach them to the dresses without having to try and sew them into place.

Of course, Lock was used for tons of other stuff. In Canterlot, some of the older houses didn’t have locks on the doors or windows. This was because Canterlot was mostly made up of unicorn families and they all knew a Lock spell so nopony but them could go in and out. Only, instead of being used on a door or window, it was put onto this rock.

“That must be what happened!” I concluded, turning towards the others. “Somepony enchanted the rock with a spell!”

“Enchanted?” Applebloom looked unsure.

“I don’t think so Sweetie Belle. Twilight hasn’t come down here before.”

“I know it’s enchanted! That’s the only way I could be stuck to it.” No symbols on, to glue or tree sap, and I know I wasn’t doing this on purpose. Magic’s the only. Possible. Way.

“Well if you know that it was magic, then why’d ya mess wit’ it anyhow?” Applebloom checked out the wall herself. Taking a step back so she wouldn’t accidentally get stuck to it herself.

“Well, I didn’t know it was magic then,” I rolled my eyes. “The stone almost fell on my head, so I tried pushing it back.”

“Pushed it back?” Spike looked back towards the rock. “Well, if it could be pushed back then shouldn’t it just come right back out?”

“It should, but it’s not.” I huffed. I was pretty sure that my hoof didn’t get stuck to it right away. It must’ve happened after the stone was back in place.

“Huh...Well...Maybe it’s like a jar?” Applebloom offered with a confused glance.

“A jar?”

“Yeah. Ya know how some jar lids can snap right back inta place, but can’t come off just as easy? Well, maybe that’s what’s goin’ on ‘ere.” She explained.

“O-kay…” I nodded slowly. “Thennn...How are you supposed to open the jar?” I asked even slower. Where was she was going with this?

“Hey, I’m tryin’ ta help ya here. Ya don’t gotta be lookin’ at me like I’m a Hydra growin’ a new head.” Applebloom deadpanned.

“Right, sorry.” I caught myself in the act, shook away the uncertainty, and nodded.

“It’s fine.” She waved the apology aside. “But yeah, whenever ya gotta jar like that, ya always gotta twist it before takin’ the lid off. So...Maybe that rock’s like a jar.” Applebloom pointed towards it.

“Like a jar?” I repeated before thinking it over. Well, pulling on it again and again obviously wasn’t the plan. So maybe Applebloom had a point. It could’ve been like some kind of lid. After all, I had to put this small stone over a small space in the wall. In a way, that was kind of like a lid and a jar. Meaning that if I only had to turn it…

Author's Note:

Sorry for the abrupt ending, but I needed to find a way to lead it into the next chapter without drawing it out too long. Hopefully none of you are too mad at me. Either way, feel free to leave a comment. If you have any questions, that don't force me to give anything away, feel free to ask!

Until next chapter every Brony!

Comments

[Shadow_Wolf]

You have my attention