A Heart with Heart

by BlackWater

5 - Give and Give

Gleaming Shield had been a bit "take-oriented" even if it made sense to get off of the dangerous space rock of torture and time-space experimentation. It didn't matter how rock-solid the reasoning was, the fact remained that she had certain demands for her husband and failure to comply would lead to serious relational issues. Wasn't that the nature of marriage?

The white mare didn't have to ponder that question because, quite frankly, she was tired of pondering questions in the first place. Yes, she loved Prince Tempo. Yes, she would give up anything that he asked her to. Yes, she would die for him. Case closed.

Those kind of issues were dealt with even before marriage. If they were not, then the relationship was not likely to last. So Gleaming Shield knew quite soundly in her heart and head that, as they raced almost recklessly through the tunnels, her relationship with Tempo was even more unbreakable than it had been when they exchanged "I do" with each other.

"Ever feel like you're being thrown for a loop by your own magic?" she kidded the alicorn racing ahead of her through the badly lit tunnel.

He gave a snort without looking back. "I'd say you have no idea, except that you do."

"Heh, no kidding..."

They reached the large underground hall that housed the horde of crystals. Here, Gleaming Shield stepped in front of her gawking stallion so she could lead him to the room's center pathway. He slowly followed her and closed his eyes in concentration when he finally got over the shear mass of wealth that the hall contained. He thought hard to remember the correct door - the correct tunnel - which held the spare room. A smidgeon of magic helped clarify the way but he wasn't sure it was by his doing or merely the mystery of the magic itself. For all that unicorns used it for, their understanding of it was surprisingly low (or narrow and biased as dictated by one's point of view).

"Maybe Oscura was betrayed by her own magic," Gleaming mused as Tempo took the first few steps in the right direction. He started for the far side of one of the smaller piles of red crystals. "Some of the high-level texts speak of magic that shouldn't be used or even sought out. Advanced time manipulation was one of the mentioned taboos."

It was a surprisingly far distance to the target door, as the limited visibility of his horn light failed to give a good sense of depth to the room. Or perhaps it was some magic about the room itself. Tempo didn't look back to regard the mare but answered her all the same as he picked up the pace. "We might never know. But unless either of us plans on fooling around with dangerous magic, I really don't think it matters."

Gleaming Shield "humphed" as she replied, "We get enough problems without making them ourselves."

Tempo stifled a laugh and the two of them reached the end of the small deep-red crystal stash. Now they could see a doorway that lead to another tunnel. It one of the twenty-something tunnels that Gleaming Shield had found but one that she hadn't passed through. The mare couldn't help making a remark as they entered the new hewn-in-rock corridor. "I don't think I'm a fan of big places any more."

Tempo didn't respond but resumed leading them down the, yet again, endlessly straight and long tunnel. It didn't take the unicorn long to remember that the pink alicorn in front of her had some serious underground trauma. He had cringed at the tunnel entrance top-side and had been less cheery than usual. Well, it would all be over soon so she knew she needn't worry.

A side passage appeared just as Gleaming was about to ask if time had somehow looped. The tunnels all looked alike and had no defining features to tell one whether or not they'd actually done any traveling in the first place. The side passage was only visible when they were nearly past it and it looked only a bit narrower than the other paths. It was short, however, and ended abruptly with a heavy iron door. Tempo attempted to push it open but was obviously struggling. He often did well to mask his lack of physical ability by avoiding situations in which he'd have to show it. Carrying her and flying downwards just might have been the limit of his strength.

Some mares only liked a stallion that could lift twice his own weight, but Gleaming Shield wasn't one of them. She liked Tempo for who he was - all of who he was. The couple was different to be sure. After all, they were practically the anti-typical pair. The stereotypical role of strong male and weaker female was reversed for them. Gleaming Shield, a strong Captain of the Guard. Prince Tempo, a pampered but gifted Royal of Canterlot.

After they escaped back to the Empire, Gleaming Shield would be the one in charge of pampering the stallion. After all, Tempo would be far more exhausted than her. She also owed him for giving up a unique vacation opportunity. The possibilities were not beyond the unicorn's ability to imagine. With their combined magic, the rock world could be made liveable and even enjoyable. And, in spite of past worries about stability, it could be made a very safe place. Perhaps that was something to consider when they got back home...assuming either of them still had the desire to mess with it. That was a very unlikely scenario. They would doubtlessly find many better and less traumatic places to relax.

Gleaming Shield stepped up alongside her husband and gave a determined shove against the iron door with both hooves. It flung open with zeal, as if it had merely been waiting for the mare to touch it. Tempo gave his mare a sheepish look. "It's been a long day..."

The white pony just grinned as she looked back into the room and took record of its contents. A series of desks with scattered scrolls and books on them. Only a single chair was present and it was set before the largest desk. The room was lit already with magical lamps and it was well lit indeed, as the contrast from the darkness brought a dull pain to her eyes. Light flooded the room to ensure nothing could hide in darkness. The same light bathed the bookshelves that rested against one of the walls. Probably a necessity for the subject being studied, Gleaming thought. There's only one thing that this room looks like. It's a study!

The pink alicorn stepped into the room and looked quickly over the scrolls that were laid open on the desks. "Aha. They're all on time-space theory and taboo applications."

Gleaming Shield tried to take inventory of what laid on the shelves, but the texts were far beyond her level. They might even prove hard reads for her younger brother.

"Gleam!" the stallions voice shocked her out of a troubled concentration. "Look at this."

He was pointing to a scroll that had been pinned rather harshly onto the stone wall. It was like a blueprint, only the item was familiar to her. "That looks like the cage in the main hall."

"The old symbols on this read 'portal' and 'protected.'" he read seriously. He really did have a handle on odd subjects. Old languages were just such an example but then Gleaming Shield figured those were the kind of things that a prince was made to learn. She couldn't call it useless knowledge in their current predicament.

"It just looked like a trap, though - like the other things on the surface," she commented.

"Hmm...maybe she wanted it to look that way so that no free-roaming prisoners would use it. They probably couldn't have read this thing even if they had access to the study. Which does remind me...it's odd I didn't see a lock on the door."

"Oscura was as arrogant as they come. She probably didn't lock anything at all because she thought she was unbeatable."

Tempo had to shrug. It was true enough from what they had seen of the evil queen. "Well this picture shows three crystals and labels them as the 'key.' It probably means that-"

"-we use those three crystals and it teleports us out." Gleaming Shield finished with a hopeful smile.

"Or we get it wrong and it flash fries us," the alicorn added as he read from the small print on the diagram.

The mare's face might have gone white if it was not a naturally pale color. She remembered what happened to that crystal that she had thrown into the cage. "Anything else?"

"Yes, unfortunately. There's a note that refers to a journal. We're going to have to find it."

The mess of books, scrolls, and journals in the room was not lacking in volume, so Gleaming Shield hoped for a lead of any kind to ease their search. "Anything that indicates which one?" she asked as she moved to look across the shelves.

"Crystal Engineering: R3M1."

Gleaming Shield shot the stallion a look. "Seriously?"

Tempo, however, didn't have the aura that indicated he was attempting humor. He was telling the truth as he moved over to one of the desks to look through its chaotic pile of paper material. "Yes. And I hope that doesn't mean there are a lot of journals just on crystal engineering..."

"Found it!" the mare shouted enthusiastically as she magically tore a beaten journal from one of the bookshelves.

Tempo jerked around to face his wife and stared open-mouthed in disbelief. Her luck was astounding.

She laid the somewhat thin book on the main desk of the room and cracked it open. The pages were yellow and made a crinkling noise as they resisted separating from each other. The journal was written in the same archaic language as the diagram, so Tempo had to read it. It took the stallion a few more seconds to walk over to her as he was still admiring the fact that he was, apparently, married to lucky number seven. He did, however, get over it and replaced Gleaming Shield's place in front of the book. She moved to the side, lacking the ability to make use of it herself. Leafing through one page and then five, he groaned. "Oscura sure loved her contraptions," he mumbled.

Gleaming let him read until she could take it no more. She wanted the escape that the journal tempted them with. "So what do we do?"

"Well..." he replied slowly as his eyes continued to read the lines of page thirty-something. "We need an emerald in the first slot and a sapphire in the third. Then we pull the fifth lever from the left in the control room and...insert a..."

He flipped back a few pages. "An opal in the second slot," he continued. "Then the fourth slot will open and we have to set the machine to accept an onyx - then insert one into the slot."

When he took his eyes from the book, he saw the unicorn sitting next to him with a face that screamed "I hate life."

"Hey, I didn't make this stupid thing! You can blame Oscura for inventing the portal as a Rue Goldberry device."

"Ugh," the mare groaned. "But I thought you said the 'key' was only three crystals."

"And it is," the alicorn countered. "But the 'key' is apparently just the primer. The fourth crystal is variable. It," he interrupted himself to look back at the journal and double-check what he read. Returning his attention forward to the other pony, he resumed, "It's the fuel for the portal that's specific to the item and destination."

"Alright," Gleaming breathed as she sat up. "Let's just get going. Where's this control room?"

Tempo turned back to the book, only to pick it up in his magical grip and take it with them. "It's more of an alcove, actually. It's half-hidden near the portal."

"Death cage," Gleaming corrected flatly. "But I won't argue if we can reset it and get out of here. By the way...what happens if those directions don't work?"

"We will be carbon scoring on the floor," Tempo answered happily.

"Right."

· · · · ·

The unicorn and alicorn were back in the main hall in short order and it was still as dark and dreary as when they last passed through it. In fact, it seemed even more foreboding somehow. It was that fact, in no small part, that quickened their pace to the upraised platform at the end of the hall. Rather than ascending the stairs, Prince Tempo lead the way around to the left side. He directed the light from his horn to a particular spot in the back wall to reveal a cleverly concealed alcove. The darkness hit it just right (in reaction to the illumination from the alicorn) so that it was hard to find. Tempo revealed it all the same and they took a few steps into it to see a wall of sockets, levers, and a single console-like stand that was home to a collection of knobs, dials, and buttons.

"Was any of this actually necessary?" Gleaming frowned.

Tempo hesitated a second and then grinned. "You know how crazy overlords are..." he nudged his wife.

She rolled her eyes and took note of the positions of the sockets and levers. Quickly she found the ones that concerned them. "Let's just do this. I'll get the crystals."

"I saw sapphire and emerald earlier but I don't know about the other two."

Gleaming Shield lit up her own horn to guide her through the darkness as she turned back out of the alcove. "I'll find them," she replied as she left.

Prince Tempo forcefully turned his attention away from the swaying hips of Gleaming Shield as she slowly faded into the darkness. By the time her light was no longer visible, he was studying the controls on the alcove's console. He figured out the obvious ones but had to refer to the journal he had taken for the others.