Amanar, Big Macintosh and Nurse Redheart are silent due to the darkness of the hallway. Without a source of light it is very hard for anyone of them to see each other, let alone their surroundings. However, the lack of sensation of their vision is overloaded by the sounds of the harsh gales of wind blowing outside the confines of the palace. It appears that whatever is happening, it is a really fierce battle outside.
"This has gone on for a long time." Nurse Redheart said to herself. It has been close to twenty minutes since the sounds of the wind became worse, and it shows no sign of stopping. If this goes on, she swears that she will go mad.
"Eeyup." Big Macintosh replied. If it were any other situation, being in a dark place with an attractive mare is something to be happy about. But alas, they are in a situation where the fate of a nation lies in the balance, and they have an injured camel with them. If only there is something to keep the conversation going, it would help alleviate the situation and allow them to focus on something.
"Do you think they will be alright Big Mac?" Redheart asked the red stalllion.
"Ah'd be honest Redheart and say Ah wouldn't know, but Ah want to believe that they'll be alright." Macintosh smiled faintly, but his expressions are shrouded by the surrounding darkness.
"I hope so too Big Mac."
Redheart's wish for everyone to be coming out from this place in one piece is getting slimmer by the moment, and if if goes as thin as the staff that Djehuty gave her it would certainly be grim. She took out the staff and started to look at it, and she is reminded that the staff looks more like a magic staff. But as an Earth Pony, magic is as far away a concept as fingers on hooves. If this is a magic staff, it would be more effectively wielded by Vinyl than herself. Alas, it was given to her, not the unicorn. The reasons for Dhejuty giving her the staff is something she will need to find out somehow. As she swings the staff around, she is reminded of the memories of her favorite cartoon, Magical Moon Nurse Serena.
"Magical Moon Prism Power Makeup!" She whispered, and she chuckled a little. That lightened her heart a little, and she really needed the chuckle.
"Redheart, what in tarnation did ya just said?" Big Macintosh asked the mare. She looked at the general location of his voice, and wanted to explain herself when she noticed a silver glimmer of light slowly emanating from the staff. Before she could even fathom the reason, the staff started to illuminate the entire room and soon enough they are all surrounded by kaleidoscopic colors.
The staff appears to unravel itself into whitish ribbons and started to envelope the mare's arms and body. Big Macintosh could only watch as the whitish ribbons slowly wrapped around the mare's torso and solidifies itself into some form of clothing, white and pure. The same process is also happening to the parts of her legs that are being wrapped by whitish ribbons turning itself into rich reddish-pink gloves, and a pink long skirt slowly around her hips as well. Her hair bun slowly unravels and a mark of a crescent moon was emblazoned upon her forehead. The remaining ribbons slowly forms itself into silver rod-like baton, with a blue jewel and gold wings and topped with a blue sphere inside a gold crescent moon, above which sat a small crown.
When the whole transformation is completed, Big Macintosh and Amanar stared at the mare, who in turn is staring back at them. She wondered what is going on until she looked at herself and realized the ridiculous outfit she is in. Amanar wanted to say something, but his warrior senses is tingling and warning him to keep silent. Big Macintosh however was much less wiser, and a snort can be heard from the stallion.
"Not. A. Single. Word." Redheart's cheeks became a light tinge of pink, and her voice filled with embarrassment and a tinge of anger and wounded pride. Big Macintosh's attempt to be respectful is dashed by how adorable Nurse Redheart looks in the outfit, and as an Apple it is not his nature to keep things inside when it comes to humour. Big Macintosh burst out in a hearty laughter and guffawed, and started pointing at the mare. Of course, this does not help with Redheart's embarrassment one single bit.
"Ya look like Appblebloom in one of them cartoon conventions! And you, you REALLY look the part!" Big Macintosh continued on laughing, despite Amanar's attempt to enlighten Big Macintosh of the situation. Alas, Big Macintosh will soon learn why you never laugh at an embarrassed mare when she is fuming with indignation. The mare punched the stallion hard at the jaw, and to everyone's surprise Big Macintosh slumps down from the punch. Redheart looked at her own hooves, and somehow she was proud of herself.
"Huh, I guess I didn't know my own strength." Redheart said uneasily, but with a slight pride behind the voice.
"That's...new." Big Macintosh said to himself. It is a rare occurrence that Big Macintosh goes down from being hit by anything, let alone a mare like Redheart. It was also this moment that Big Macintosh realized that the illumination of the hallway is still present. Or to be exact, the words on the wall are now glowing a faint silver white.
"Words glow. Must be due to Redheart changing." Amanar also realized the illuminated hallway.
"Redheart, can ya interpret all of these? Could give us a clue 'bout our situation."
It seems that the words on the wall is the same kinds of words that they found during the first trial and the second trial, but this time the words are about the trials themselves.
"Let's see here...it says here that each heir to Asar's line must go through the Trinity of Truths, which will judge the true worth of the heir to the throne. The three stages are known respectively as the Leash of Life, the Words of the World and the Weighing of the Heart. Each trial was meant to test the eligibility of the heir of the line of Asar, but it appears that certain special considerations can be taken if the heir is too young to take the trials by themselves... " Nurse Redheart reads on a little, and walks down the hallway to further interpret the information.
Even though Big Macintosh did laugh at the mare earlier for her outfit, but upon closer examination he sure did not expect Redheart to have such fine and long, wavy amarantish-coloured mane. It really accentuates her femininity and her sapphire eyes. Also, truth to be told, Big Macintosh does have a thing for mares with long wavy manes. As he glances down from her mane to her rather fine rump, the mare turned around to speak to him, causing him to lose his composure a little.
"Eeyup?" Big Macintosh asked, disguising his surprise and his eyes ogling on her rump.
"Well, it seems that the first of the trials, the Leash of Life is based on the challenge where the knights of Saddle Arabia's past in which both warriors are trapped each in one neck brace connected to the ceiling through a chain, each collar with one key that opens the other one. The only way to free oneself is to kill the opponent or decapitate him in order to pick the key to his own collar. To prevent escape in the middle of the fight, the steel door to the room is locked when both fighters have their necklaces. The only way to open the door was to pull a lever present inside. This also prevented others outside from interrupting the death match, as the door was strong enough to withstand several attacks. This trial tests the heir's resolve in making decisive actions in the heat of combat, and also to test the martial prowess of the heir apparent."
"And second challenge is World of the Words. Heir plays magic version of Silsila, test knowledge and outside thinking of heir. Will give staff of Asar to prove to third test that is one true heir. Staff is magic power, make pony strong and magic strong." Amanar's voice echoes through the hallway, as he proceeded ahead to interpret the information written on the wall. The stallion recalled the Leash of Life where they fought against the brass statue of Horakthy, while Redheart looks upon the rod that was given to her in the Worlds of the Words. After a few moments, everyone is gathered at the writings where the details of the third challenge is inscribed upon the wall.
"The Weighting of the Hearts is for the heirs to see the truth and be pure of heart. Huh...the writings went on about some philosophical things, but does not really say what it is exactly." Nurse Redheart ponders upon the writing on the wall, and she wonder what is going on with Vinyl and Fatimah...
******************
Anput groans as he attempts to stand up before the electric-blue maned mare and the little whitish-silver filly, and after a few moments the stallion recomposed himself.
"It looks like we can move on to the trial proper." Anput smiled.
"Wait...you mean the trial have not even started?" Vinyl questions the guardian.
"The trial has already started, but now that we are done with the appetizers, we will move on to the exact trial itself." Suddenly, the bright white surroundings turned into pitch black darkness, but with Vinyl and Fatimah being able to see everything around them as if the room was never dark. Before long mirrors started to materialize like galaxies upon the the seas of space, and they can both see events from the space-time continuum.
"Have you ever wondered about the truths that you could not see? What about the truths you are about see? Or truths you are seeing now? Or even truth that you had already seen? Such is the complexity of truths but the truth remains that they are different truths." Anput walks towards one of the mirrors, in which shows the events of Vinyl's last moments with her mother. Fatimah watches as the Vinyl in the mirror sobs upon her mother's body.
"Truths that have come and pass can always be forgotten. Look." Anput pushes the mirror away, only for another mirror showcasing the memories of a young filly Vinyl, her mother and her father carrying the littler filly behind his back walks towards the Ponyville farmer's market. The tranquil moments of peace and happiness is obvious to everyone to see, and Vinyl watches as the happier moments of those times plays in the portal. Vinyl reaches for the mirror with her hooves and caresses the window with a sad smile on her face. Suddenly the windows splits up into several smaller mirrors, and suddenly Vinyl realized that something is missing and is now in shock. Fatimah noticed the change of Vinyl's expressions and she turned towards the stallion for some explanation.
"Ah, you noticed it already. The truths have distorted itself, as the truth of the matter is that you could not see what that are already laid before you. They are lying in plain sight, but different truths that are equally real but can never interact with each other. This is the true trial, for now you both will have to find your true selves in this impossible labyrinth of truths. Those that are lost in this reflections of the truth will wander for eternity, their minds shattered and their dreams broken upon the wheel of their own failed conceptions. Illuminations of the truths is the only way you will succeed."
Fatimah watches as the web of mirrors reflects events that are of other events transpiring throughout Saddle Arabia. On several of the mirrors, the Lord Eternal leads the warriors of his legions to war only to be trapped once more by their own reflections of possibilities. A planar sheen buckles under the gaze of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna before throwing back the image of a burning Equestria. A Saddle Saddle Arabian rebel to the Sheikhdom plants a bomb towards the governing office of Western Saddle Arabia, little knowing that in doing so he will be the catalyst for his family's demise to the bomb as they shopped to get him a gift. These and a million other glimpses of reality flicker like flames in the wind, their energy making the labyrinth glow with possibility.
"Is...is this all happening in Saddle Arabia?" Fatimah asked the stallion. The stallion smiled bitterly and opens his arm as if to celebrate the matter at hand.
"Is, was, is not, was not, about to, and could be. Also, I believe that it is time to bring in the second scale out as well. Good luck, and I need to be elsewhere for the moment." Anput bows down and dissappears, and in its place another large scale soon appears from the darkness. An orb escapes from Vinyl's chest to land itself at the second scale with another feather materializes on the other end of the second scale. Fatimah looks at the mare, but realizes that the mare is still in her own world. Realizing what is going on, Fatimah immediately rushes towards Vinyl and attempts to snap her out of her state.
"Vinny, snap out of it. You need to..." Before Fatimah could finish her words, Vinyl's eyes is now flowing with tears.
"I didn't know...I didn't know." Vinyl's voice is filled with sadness, and Fatimah looked upon the scale to notice that the orb that represents Vinyl's heart is becoming dimmer. The filly decided that she will need to do something about this situation, and she wondered what she will do if she was Vinyl. A sudden though flashes in her mind, and she knew that somehow that is what she must do to snap Vinyl out of her dejected state.
"I am sorry Vinny, but I need to do this. Really sorry." Fatimah closes her eyes, and she opens her mouth and takes a deep breath before biting as hard as she could into Vinyl's forelegs. Fatimah wondered if she did not bite hard enough, but suddenly she can hear a loud yelp of pain that is unmistakably Vinyl's. She lets go of Vinyl's foreleg and looked up with anticipation.
"What on Equestria?!?" Vinyl looks down upon the filly and sees that the filly is looking at her with relieved eyes and a pouting lips. Before she could further ask the filly what happened, the fiilly hugged the mare in a big hug. Vinyl wanted to scold the filly for biting her, but it seems that the little one had just saved her from something she is not aware of. Vinyl pats the head of the filly before she looks around and notices a second scale.
"What, pray tell, is that?" The snooty way in which Vinyl said the comment is not in character with her usual way of speaking, but this is of course her way of trying to understand the second scale before her. Deep inside her, she knows the truth of the matter, but if possible she wants to try and hold back the truth as long as possible.
"While you are in your own world, Anput took your heart out and put it on the scale. We are now stuck here until we prove ourselves." Fatimah attempts to explain the situation in the simplest way possible. Of course, Fatimah knows what is coming next, as her short time with the unicorn have shown her the general response to this situation at hand.
"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Vinyl cries out in great lamentations.