//------------------------------//
// The Wizard's Tower 
// Story: Majesty: Queen of the Castle 
// by Paradise Oasis 
//------------------------------//

"I'm telling you guys, that kid is leading us into a trap!"

Through the twisting and turning corridors of the tower they followed Lucky, Trying to ignore the Colts continuous stream of chatter, while looking around at the cobweb-covered walls and praying this whole thing wasn't one giant mistake. 

"Would you please knock it off, Thundercloud?" An exasperated Majesty snorted, rolling her eyes in annoyance. "We've already got enough problems here, without your paranoia making it worse."

"I just wish this tunnel would  come out somewhere soon." Ice Crystal complained. "Because I'm gonna go nuts if we have to keep stumbling around in the dark down here."

"It won't be much longer, guys, I promise." Lucky reassured the others. "And Don't worry about being discovered, Wantall has forgotten most of these tunnels are down here."

"You really seem to know a lot about the wizard and his tower, Lucky." Hollywood told the colt. "How long were you the Wizard's prisoner, and how did you escape?"

"Oh, he kept me locked up an awful long time, but I didn't escape." Lucky just shrugged. "I just kept getting loose, but since I didn't cause any trouble he just gave up, and let me run around. After awhile, I think he just kind of forgot about me."

"Poor thing, his parents must've been killed by Wantall, and now he has nowhere to go."  Majesty said sympathetically. "We"'ll have to take him back with us when we leave here, and I can make arrangements to send him back to Dream Castle."

"Yay, I'm going to a castle of dreams!" Lucky exclaimed proudly, bouncing around the tunnel like a red rubber ball.  The colt's enthusiasm charmed the two mares of the group, as it contrasted with the grim and dark surroundings of the current location they were in. More than ever, Majesty was determined to get this boy out of this horrible place, and back among civilized ponies again. 

"Whoah, looks like we made it." Ice Crystal noted, as the five of them emerged in the tower's great center hall. "But from the look of this place, I sure wish we hadn't."

"Ewww, looks like Wizard Wantall is really into creepy decor!" Hollywood added, sticking her tongue out at the dreary cobweb-filled chamber. "This place looks more like a tomb than a living space."

"And it'll be our tomb, if we end up hanging around here for too long." Thundercloud added, already looking around for another door or passage. "Now, we just have to figure out where A.J and Windy are, so we can get out of here!"

"I'm afraid you won't be going anywhere, my good ponies!" Rugmatot's voice called out, as he stepped into the chamber from a set of stairs above them. "After I make duplicates of your reflections, you shall join your friends in the dungeons below!"

"Aieeee! It's the wizard!" Holly shrieked, before hiding behind Thundercloud. "Everybody hide, before he casts a spell on you!" 

"So, wizard Wantall, I presume!" Ice crystal snapped, as he jumped in front of the others to face the warlock down. "You better let our friends go, mister, or you'll really regret it!"

"No! Watch out, Icy!" Thundercloud warned his friend. "He could hit you with a lighting bolt, or something!" 

"No he won't! Rugmatot can't do anything like that." Majesty told them, trotting up to stand beside the stallion in the front. "I read my mother's royal intelligence reports on this guy, and he's an enchanter, not a battle mage." The unicorn glared at him smugly. "He couldn't even hit us with a fireball the size of a walnut."

"Maybe not, your royal highness- and yes, I know who you are, Majesty of Dream Valley." The warlock sneered back. "-but my mirror clones are just dying to make your acquaintance." 

Confused by the villain's words, the five ponies looked all around them. To their horror, the equines found themselves surrounded by an entire army of Applejacks and Wind Whistlers. The mirror clones sported hungry looks on their faces, as if they were eager to devour the five ponies. 

"You're not going anywhere...." the clones stated in unison, inching ever closer to the ponies.

"Uh, oh... looks like there are too many of them." Majesty took a step back, before taking off in a gallop. "Everybody, RUN!"

What followed was an insane chase all through the fortress, with five screaming ponies running up and down stairways, through open doors, and in and out of secret passages. Being that this was a wizard's tower, things often didn't make much sense; Thundercloud would run through a spinning bookcase, and would find himself galloping on an upside-down staircase on the ceiling. 

"Thunder, how the heck are you doing that?!" Ice Crystal asked, glancing up at him quickly as two Wind Whistlers chased him. "You're not a Pegasus!"

"Hey don't ask me how I'm breaking the laws of gravity!" The other stallion replied in bewilderment, running away from three Applejacks. "This whole place is like some freaky M. C. Escher painting!"

Hollywood raced away from several mirror copies, before realizing she was zooming straight into a wall.

"Aieeeee!" The frighted mare cried out. "I'm going to crash!" 

But as the mare collided with the wall, she flew straight into a painting on an open roadway. The bewildered clones stared at the painting for a few minutes, before Holly came out of a similar painting on the other side of the room, surprising the mirror duplicates with a back-leg kick that sent them flying.

"Hah, that's the trick!" The flutter grinned with a smile. "Use Wantall's own magic lair against him!" 

The ponies continued to race all through the labyrinth-like halls of the tower, occasionally attacking the pursuing clones whenever they got the chance, and causing the duplicates to vanish in large puffs of smoke. Majesty had just blasted a few Appljacks with her horn, before she had Lucky took off running again from the swarm of clones after them. 

"Stay close to me, little one." The princess warned the colt. "I don't want those impostors getting their hooves on you." 

"Sure thing! This game is fun!" Lucky cried out, almost outrunning the unicorn in his enthusiasm. "Wheeee!" 

Majesty was surprised by how much the little colt was not taking this whole thing seriously, when Lucky accidentally ran into the edge of a table, cutting his shoulder on a sharp edge.

"Ouch!" The little colt cried out, as blood tricked out of the cut on his coat. "That really hurt!"

"Argh!" Rugmatot cried out in pain, clutching his arm at that exact moment Lucky had accidentally cut himself. "You stupid ponies! I'll kill you all for this insolence!"

Majesty risked a brief glance at the wizard as she galloped by, and she was shocked to see a cut of the exact same shape and size on the exact same spot on his shoulder.

"Now that doesn't make any sense..." She muttered to herself, as she and the colt continued to run. "Unless..."

Suddenly, a look of horror spread across her face, as the pieces fell together in her mind. She remembered the stories of Rugmatot having a mare he had been friends with long ago, that enchanted mirror, and a young colt whose injuries appeared on the wizard at the same time....

...and Princess Majesty suddenly realized just how horrible this whole situation actually was.

Finally the clones were abler to chase four of the five ponies into a circle at the base of the tower's grand staircase, and corral them just as the wizard came down the steps. The fiend greeted them with a cackling laugh, rubbing his cold and clammy hands together.

"Well well well, it  looks like this merry chase is over!" Wantall smiled evilly. "It has been a fun little game, ponies. But I'm afraid it's all over!"

"Where's Hollywood?" Ice Crystal whispered to his friend. "I last saw her flying around upstairs."

"Wherever she is, she better off out of the wizard's clutches!" Thundercloud whispered back, glaring up at Rugmatot in anger. 

"You fools thought you could actually get away from me?" Rugmatot gloated. "Don't you fools know that I always win?"

At the wizard's cruel words, a look of rage spread across Majesty's face. She stood up trotting defiantly over to face the wizard defiantly.

"No, foul villain, you shall not win." Majesty snorted at him. "You shall never harm another pony ever again."

"What is this?!" Rugmatot demanded angrily. "You dare to defy me, even in defeat?"  

"No, Wantall, you did not win this game." The princess announced, he voice a mixture of sadness and anger. "In fact, you lost your battle a long time ago."

And in an upstairs chamber, Hollywood was still flying around excitedly, even though she was no longer being pursued. Once again not paying attention, she smashed through an old wooden door, and tumbled into a chamber that had clearly long gone unused. After pulling herself up onto her hooves again, the confused flutter began taking in her surroundings.

"Where am I? What happened to all of the duplicates?" She asked aloud, looking around at the furniture and books long collecting dust. "How did I get in.... oh my horsemaster..." Holly could only stare in horror at what met here gaze.

There on a chair in the corner, was the skeleton of a human male who had obviously been long dead for many, many years. For a moment, the flutter assumed it was some long-forgotten prisoner who had died in Wantall's captivity. But as she studied the jewelry and clothing scraps, Hollywood realized she had just seem them on a figure who had been moving and talking downstairs.

...for this skeleton was the dead body of the wizard Wantall himself.