Cipher

by Alfoals Trottenbauer

III - Secrecy

Dipper, Twilight, and Ace hid away in the shed, waiting for the eyeballs to pass. Ace trotted to the other side of the shed, one of the tiles beneath his hooves pushed in. A door identical to the wall in aesthetics opened slowly. A case of stairs led beneath the ground.

"Twi, Dipper, I found something." He motioned to the doorway.

The three went, the stairs took them to some sort of lab with three books on a shelf. The books were numbered four, five and six, a hand imprint behind the number of each. The hand on the sixth had seven fingers, the middle finger aligning with the number six. The center of the palm had an eye imprinted, fitting perfectly in the loop of the number. Ace levitated the book off the shelf, flipping through the pages.

"This one seems dedicated to Bill." He observed.

"I thought there were only three journals." Dipper remarked, confused.

A childlike voice with a drawl called from the top of the stairs.

"Dipper Pahnes, ah should've known." He said, resting his chubby hand on the door without a handle, barely halfway tall as it.

"Gideon! Don't do it!" Dipper shouted.

"Oh, what, this?" He asked rhetorically as he slammed the heavy steel, trapping them inside.

An audible laugh was heard behind. Dipper ran over to the entry and knocked furiously. Ace trotted over, his horn glowing dark red in the almost pitch darkness. He used a kindling spell on the steel door, fire licking at the edges for a few moments, to no avail. He tried bucking it, using the strength he gained from helping harvest apple trees. With a loud thud, the door remained in place. Twilight's horn glowed a lavender, within seconds, she had disappeared from the room. The door opened as the mare was on the other side. It was now night outside, a chill settled in the room from the breeze. Ace and Dipper left the room, Dipper carrying the three journals.