//------------------------------// // 23| The Millenial Vault // Story: A Nightmare Come To Life // by Alcatraz //------------------------------// As Joseph walked through the rubble-strewn foyer, he couldn’t help but notice Vinyl’s expression, betwixt amazement and childlike wonder. He took it as a hint and began to look around the place more. Stone-carved pillars that once stood sentinel holding up the masonry were now shattered and flung all around the place like discarded toothpicks, and arched windows bore panes of half-broken coloured glass, their former designs unrecognisable. Some ways in was a pedestal with a giant stone orb, and four smaller arms attached to a ring that rotated between the platform and spheroid. As Joseph got closer, he felt faint traces of magic emanating from the spheres. It wasn’t just any magic, something about it made him feel agitated and on edge. Situated in the middle of the room, he gave it the widest possible berth and walked around it. The anxiousness weakened the further away he got from it. You felt it too, didn’t you? Nightmare said. ’It was almost as though it was… repelling me.’ It originally housed the Elements. It still has trace amounts of residual magic left in it. The Elements themselves are, in a way, designed to repel dark energy and black magic, so you’re feeling what I would have felt. ’What I wouldn’t have given for anti-theft technology like that on Earth.’ “This place is so cool!” Vinyl chorused as she and Joseph approached a large double door at the end of the foyer. Joseph opened one side to a large corridor with doors lining it up and down. Shadows grew thicker as it was long, so he looked to the walls inside of the door for wall-mounted torches. Empty holsters adorned the wall for quite a way, but, through the darkness, he spied one further down, barely lit by the ambient moonlight from behind. He levitated it over without actually having to venture into the inky abyss, smiling with satisfaction when it got to him. “Got a light?” Joseph joked to Vinyl. He was about to ask Nightmare to light the torch for him, but the tip of Vinyl’s horn beaded with magic and the torch burst to life with a vibrant flame. “How did you do that?” Joseph asked in surprise. “It’s a spell I learned when building my now-ruined soundstage.” Vinyl took a moment to justifiably glare at Joseph. “It was helpful soldering components together,” she amended. It is possible to fix that machine, Nightmare said. All I’d need to do is take out the magic we put in it, while she fixes any necessary physical damage. “I’ll tell you how to fix it if you tell me how to do that.” Vinyl carefully regarded Joseph as they walked down the hall. “As much as I want to not believe you for being deceitful in the beginning, there’s just… something about you that I can’t shake.” “Deceitful?” Joseph said with a snort. “Did you honestly expect me to be open and honest about everything from the beginning? I can picture it now: ‘Hi, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Joseph Merrick, and I’m a hairless ape from a planet called Earth.’ Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?” “I guess you have a point,” Vinyl meekly said. “Anyway, it’s a spell you need to know how to cast properly. It’s on the same vein of pyromancy, but doesn’t require as much magic or effort. Concentrate your aura in the tip of your horn and focus it on an object!” Nightmare told Joseph the throne room is in the east of the castle, so he and Vinyl took a right hand turn at the end of the wider corridor. “I’m beginning to think this place is just as much of a maze as the tunnels,” Joseph commented. Might I take a brief moment to address your companion? Nightmare asked. ’What for?’ There is something I need to tell her about where we’re headed. Joseph thought about it as they took the next left. ’You have fifteen seconds,’ he acquiesced. ’But, I’m going to tell her first so you don’t freak her out.’ “Hey, Nightmare wants to have a word with you.” That certainly piqued Vinyl’s curiosity. Her gaze spun to Joseph as she rubbed one of her ears. “I’m sorry, it sounds like you said; ‘Nightmare Moon wants to talk to me’?!” she exclaimed, aghast. ’Alright, you’re move. Remember, fifteen seconds and no funny business.’ Joseph cleared his throat in preparation for Nightmare’s takeover. “Oh how it feels good to speak freely once more,” she cooed unnervingly. “When we get to the throne room, you’ll need to use your magic to scan the walls for resonant frequencies. Several of the doors were designed to use unicorn magic so only they and the princesses could open them. You just need to tune your magic accordingly.” “I, uhm… Okay, I guess…” Joseph felt Nightmare’s presence slip back into his head, but the experience of his mouth moving without his control felt beyond weird. He flexed his jaw to ensure he had command of his mouth. He couldn’t help but wonder if that’s how Nightmare Moon felt. “Why can’t you do it, though?” Vinyl asked. “Part of her being trapped in my head means she can’t use her magic to its fullest extent. If I tried to, it’ll likely end up badly. Y’know, non-magic user plus a lot of power and not knowing how to use it equals a very bad time. That, and she’s trying to pool what magic she can manage into trying to reverse the damage Chrysalis’ magic has done.” Vinyl blinked and shook her head in relief. “I’m glad I don’t have an evil entity in my head.” “Technically speaking, I’m in her head, I just have control of her motor functions. Her fault, though.” Joseph finished by inwardly blowing a raspberry at Nightmare. They went through the door at the end of the corridor into the room beyond, even more broken glass windows still in their frames and all over the floor. Under the windows on their right lay a stone bench with the tattered remains of what Joseph thought to be pillows. To the left were three doors; one on the immediate left, another in the middle of the room, and lastly, one at the far end. At Nightmare’s direction, Joseph went to the middle door and opened it, this way leading to a large room at the end. Joseph levitated the torch into the room, the light barely illuminating the massive space. Only through a soft orange glow were he and Vinyl able to make out the confines of the room. Books. Lots of books. Some were on the floor and the tables lining the middle of the room and weathered beyond recognition, and others lay opened next to completely melted candles, over a millennium of dust and rot covering them. Joseph pulled a book at random from a shelf and opened it with awe, Vinyl’s expression matching his as she leaned over his shoulder. While still in better condition, legibility was at it’s minimum. It was like trying to read ink that had only partially dried and was then smudged. Then, Joseph felt a presence tug at him from off to his right. He turned his head to a seemingly random bookshelf, eyeing it with curiosity and trepidation. He fixed his gaze upon it, putting the book on a table and walking to the shelf as Vinyl followed out of confusion. “What are you doing?” she asked. “I felt… something from over there. Not like being watched, but like something’s there.” It’s one of the secret passages I mentioned; they can have magical signatures. Try having your friend open it. It’ll be good practice, Nightmare said. “Now’s your chance to open a secret door,” Joseph teased. Vinyl’s expression, along with her horn, lit up, encompassing the entire set of shelves, books and all. Several resonant thrums echoed throughout the library they stood in, until finally, Vinyl had that ‘Eureka!’ moment. She closed her eyes to focus, and two seconds later the door began to grind open. It stalled halfway, rumbling to a halt by an unforeseen jam. Joseph tentatively stepped forward to poke his head around the corner. He gasped in shock at what was causing the jam and stepped back as his heart rate spiked. “What is it?” Vinyl asked, also stepping forward. Joseph looked down to Vinyl, only to discover a colour paler than white from her expression. A skeleton, turned to face down the dark passage, had its hindquarters crushed by the opening mechanism. The tattered remains of what could be called clothes had caught in the slide rails and dragged it in. The skull bore no horn, nor any extra bones that would have otherwise suggested wings. “He must have gotten stuck down here…” “Poor guy,” Vinyl lamented. As Joseph stood at the entrance to the passage, he began to sense something from deeper within. “Do you feel that?” Vinyl’s horn lit up and a glowing pinprick of magic beaded, floating down the hall. A thin veil of magic radiated from it, washing over the masonry. Joseph looked on, perplexed, waiting to see what she did. “Hah! The exit to the throne room is at the other end!” Astounded, Joseph said; “How could you possibly know that!?” “Different magical signatures~” Vinyl sing-songed. “I’d venture that each door has varying signatures to help the castle unicorns themselves know where they are so they didn’t get lost.” “And what the hell was that light show?” “Spell I learned while building my soundstage. Designed to scan systems and find anomalies. Anyway, it’s a little ways down, and there’s a couple passages leading off, so just keep going straight.” The light of the torch had shrunk to half of what it was before, a dim orange glow being cast in the pitch black. Eventually, Joseph and Vinyl stopped before a stone wall at the end of the passage. The section of wall lit up with her magic, and eventually, slid open. The door opened to the throne room as expected, and to their right lay two large, stone chairs atop a platform. Old banners of blue and gold, mouldy and decrepit from time, adorned the various pillars, and some looked to have been burnt from the bottom up. Puzzling enough, a broken, tiny stone bridge connected the two platforms on which the royal seats were situated, a massive crack running up the back wall. As far as the rest of the decor went, there were niches evenly spaced up and down the walls either side, unlit and cobweb-infested torches on their mounts. Joseph stepped further into the room, lighting the torches either side of him, then levitating his torch around the room to light the rest, casting the room in a bright orange glow. He turned to face the thrones as Vinyl began looking for another door. “Did Nightmare tell you where the other door is?” “She know’s it’s around here somewhere, but she wasn’t able to get Luna to spill the beans to where it is, let alone open it.” Both of you have the means to find it, Nightmare quipped in annoyance. “Use your scan... thingy... to find it again,” Joseph said. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not picking up on any more signatures for the doors. Could be that, since this is a vault, it’s going to be well hidden.” Joseph walked about the room and took a closer look at the walls and ceiling while Vinyl did her own thing. The throne room seemed to be in better condition than the entrance did, although not by much. Holes in the roof ruled out anything hidden in the ceiling; the wall through which Vinyl and Joseph entered also ruled out that side of the wall; the broken window above the cracked wall leading outside suggested nothing too, so that left two choices, discounting the entrance to the throne room: the wall directly opposite the way they came, or the floor. “Scan the wall over there,” Joseph said, pointing to the left side of the room. Vinyl’s horn lit and a beam of magic washed over the wall from top to bottom and side to side. “Nothing over here.” A smirk appeared on Joseph’s face as he pointed to each wall. “We came from over there. Outside is behind that wall and the roof is pretty munted. You just scanned that wall and the doors to this room are wide open. What option does that leave us with?” “How can there be anymore places to look, then?” she said rather disappointedly. Vinyl craned her head towards the roof, her eyes looking over everything Joseph noted. In that moment, both to confuse Vinyl and drive home his point, he promptly lay on his back on the floor and folded his front legs behind his head. As Joseph guessed, she looked down to him with absurdity. “Why are you laying on the floor?” Joseph looked to her with an arched eyebrow. In that instant, Vinyl clicked to what she said. “The floor!” “Exactly!” Joseph exclaimed, promptly getting back up. “Try to find a void under the floor instead of a signature. Should be easier. I think.” “Well, let’s look at it like this: It’s a vault hidden by the princesses over a thousand years ago. Maybe over by the thrones?” “Hmm,” Joseph mused. “Keep it close at hand. Since it was a diarchy, Celestia and Luna would have been in here in split shifts, so-to-speak. Nobody could have entered or exited without them seeing or knowing.” I like the way you think… Nightmare Moon crooned. “Makes sense,” Vinyl said, cantering her way over to the seats. She checked both sides and between the set of steps leading up to either throne, coming up empty handed both times. Walking closer as Vinyl was doing this, Joseph stepped between the set of stairs to join her, looking over the block of stone too. He ran his hoof over the face of the stone, feeling for something. “Got something pointy and thin?” “You used too, apparently…” Joseph froze. His head, very slowly, gravitated to glare down at Vinyl through Nightmare Moon’s evil gaze. Vinyl was having none of it. She was too busy holding both hooves over her muzzle, trying and failing to stifle the laugh that was making her red in the face. Joseph swore he heard Nightmare laugh, also. Eventually, Vinyl’s joke got the better of Joseph and he deflated, laughing alongside her. “I gotta admire you for having the stones to make that joke,” Joseph said lightheartedly. Despite everything, he appreciated a good-natured joke. He extended a hoof to Vinyl and she met him in the middle with hers. “Hey, I’m just glad you didn’t send me to the moon!” Vinyl said, wiping some mirth from her eyes. “Wait… Can you do that?” Yes, Nightmare said. “No,” Joseph said a split second later. He didn’t want to give Vinyl cause for concern. “Whew! Anyway... “ She magicked something that resembled a leather pricking tool and passed it to Joseph. “Just be careful with it, please.” “If we make it out of this, I’ll buy you a new one.” “...New?” Vinyl said with confusion. Joseph then put the point on one end of the stone and pressed firmly, dragging it along the block higher up while keeping the tool straight. Half way down the block, the tip caught in something. “Put your hoof here. “Joseph grabbed Vinyl’s leg and put it on the spot where the tip caught. Wanting to confirm his theory, he did the same thing from the opposite end. The tool caught in the same vertical spot. “Take your hoof off, I think I found it.” Vinyl backed off as Joseph dug the tip of the tool into the stone and started dragging up with force. Over a millenia of crusted stone and dirt was lifted from the crack between the two blocks. “Right under their feet…” Vinyl idly murmured with realisation in her tone. “So how do we open it?” “Magic, presumably,” Joseph said nonchalantly. “Have a go at it and see if you can’t do something.” Vinyl’s horn lit and focused her magic on the stone for several seconds. “Yeah… No way I’m getting in there. While it doesn’t have a signature like the other doors to keep it from being found, the enchantment to keep it locked hasn’t worn away, even after all these years.” “There’s always another way in.” “Not in this case. My scan picked up that the entrance drops to a passage that runs the length of the throne room. There’s another door at the end and the room itself is…” Vinyl turned in the direction of the throne room’s entrance. “Further down that end, almost right under the corridor that leads to the main door.” “Then we make another door: right above the vault. Can you tell how far down the room is?” Vinyl stood just forward of the royal seats, lit her horn and furrowed her brow in concentration, and then stomped a rear hoof on the stone. “There’s four feet of stone between us and the passage.” She sighed. “So, what now? We can’t get into the vault!” Joseph pinched his brow in thought and said; ’Nightmare? Any ideas?’ Only one. The entrance is likely still keyed to Luna and Celestia’s magical signature. Since I once possessed Luna, I should be able to trick it into opening. “Here goes…” Joseph encompassed the stone blocks with his magic and told Nightmare to do her thing. Several seconds passed in silence as Vinyl watched on with intrigue, at which point a low grumbling noise could be heard. It grew louder, and the stones split apart with a sudden crack and shower of dust that made Joseph and Vinyl cough. Blinking a couple times, Joseph watched as the stone slowly split apart, revealing an inky pit below. Both Vinyl and he approached tentatively, peering into the abyss. “You first,” Joseph said. “How do we know it’s not booby trapped?” Vinyl asked. “I’d wager that, considering Celestia’s arrogance, she wouldn’t put any wards in place because she was too confident in her ability to keep everyone out.” “You’d think that nobody would notice the sound of the vault opening,” Vinyl said pointedly. “Stone lasts for eternity, time doesn’t do it any favours.” Joseph took point and flared his wings, standing on the edge of the hole. “I thought you didn’t know how to fly?” “Don’t need to; all I can hope is that I glide. I’m not going to jump all the way down there and risk a broken leg. Besides, there aren’t any stairs!” Just before he jumped, Joseph levitated over two torches from their respective niches and dropped them in the hole. Sure enough, they landed a little ways down. “You’re not going to make it down on your own. I’ll carry you.” Vinyl walked forward and looked deeper into the hole. Without warning, Joseph grabbed Vinyl around her barrel as she squeaked in surprise, flapped his wings once and then let gravity carry him down. “Hey, that wasn’t so bad,” Vinyl said once she had her hooves on the ground. “Are you saying that for your sake, or as a vote of confidence in me?” “...Both?” Vinyl promptly picked up a torch and peered around the nondescript walls. The torches were bright enough to shed enough light for them both to see all the way to the end of the passage. They walked in silence until they came to a featureless door carved out of a single block of stone. Vinyl did her thing where she lit her horn and stomped a hoof, then said; “It’s just on the other side of this.” “What the heck are you doing when you stomp, anyway.” “When you hit something, it makes a noise. I can use my magic and find out how far that sound carries. Contrary to what ponies may think, my special talent isn’t just music, it’s sound in general.” “Alright, so how do we open this door?” As if on queue, the slab began to descend with a jarring shudder. Caught off guard, Joseph and Vinyl stiffened in place as stone ground on stone. Eventually, it slid to a halt with a loud thunk. “I don’t like how that happened without an explanation.” “We’re the first ones to enter this room in over a thousand years…” Vinyl said rather distantly, ignoring Joseph’s concern. Joseph swallowed thickly and began to walk forward, tentatively entering the room’s second story balcony. Two staircases flanking his left and right, spread out like you were looking out over a room from the top of a grand staircase. The room itself was laid out like a large half-circle with desks and tables in the middle, and through the light of the torches, he saw scores upon scores of books lining the bookshelf that spanned almost the entirety of the back wall. Both Joseph and Vinyl lit the sconces that lined the wall with the descent of the stairs as they went down. “A thousand years…” Vinyl said again, her voice carrying throughout the vault. Joseph eyed the various artifacts situated on the top of the bookcase with a few on the tables in the middle of the room, then turned left to look at the small space directly beneath the balcony from which they entered. A large, decorated desk made from heavy wood faced directly opposite the books and artifacts, several stacked parchments, quills, and a long-since-dried pot of ink on top. “What is is we’re looking for exactly?” Vinyl questioned. Some of the books and artifacts on the shelves will aid us, Nightmare said. As Joseph went over to the desk, he said; “Let’s check the desk first. Maybe Celestia or Luna kept a record of what’s in here.” Pulling open a drawer, he saw stacks of paper bound with string like a hinge and wrapped in what looked like a leather envelope, wrapped again with string to keep everything from falling out. Joseph took the smallest of the five out of the drawer and opened it. Entry 741 of the Celestial Calendar 021. The attacker from two nights ago was apprehended and put in the castle dungeon. I still don’t know why it chose me of all ponies to assault, but I fear there is more to consider. Celestia was quick to deal with the situation by keeping the details out of the public eye, but the guards that came to my aid were of great service. She swore them to secrecy, with the threat of high treason no less. Princess Luna, for reasons that are beyond me, wasn’t told a word that I was assaulted. Why Celestia insists on keeping things secret defeats the pur— The rest of the sentence was cut off by a straight, sharp line that ran across the rest of the page, almost as though it was snatched from under the writer as they were in the middle of the entry. “Who do you think wrote that?” Vinyl asked from over Joseph’s shoulder. “Geezus!” Joseph exclaimed, startled by the sudden appearance of the mare. “How long have you been standing there?” “Long enough to read that. Flip back another page and see what else they wrote.” Entry 740 of the Celestial Calendar 021. I was attacked in my study last night by a creature I’d never seen before. I was working at my desk by candle light when I was struck. Had I not seen the flames of my candle flicker from the door being opened, I would have surely been killed. The blow only gave me a mild concussion, thankfully. I managed to buck it away from me, and it landed against the bookshelf. The contents of said shelves came crashing down around it, the noise startling it. I didn’t get a good look at the creature, but it’s eyes were otherworldly. Pools of swirling blue and turquoise stared me down in the darkness, unnerving me to no end. Those eyes were all I saw at the time. I couldn’t discern any other details, unfortunately, but that will change when Celestia calls upon me tomorrow. “So we know it was the same person that wrote the other one,” Joseph said pointedly. “What were they writing about?” “Consider everything that’s happened? Changelings. What gets me is these journal entries are in an envelope with Celestia’s category lists. Looks like she thought someone might find them.” Joseph fanned the other pages out on the desk from right to left to get a better look at them. ’Can you give me the slightest hint as to what we’re looking for?’ he asked Nightmare Moon. ’If we came all the way out here for nothing…’ I only knew of this vault. I assumed it’s where Celestia kept spellbooks she deemed illegal and things of that nature. Turns out I was right, but now you need to start looking for what’s going to help us. Mage spells, sigils, any artifact that will give us an edge against Chrysalis. “You’re being about as useful as a nun’s cunt right now!” Joseph screamed, much to the shock of Vinyl. She stammered back a little and tripped backwards over the corner of a protruding stone. “Shit, sorry,” Joseph said apologetically, using his magic to right Vinyl. “Nightmare Moon isn’t being very helpful right now.” “Yeah, I thought as much.” Joseph and Vinyl peered over the pieces of paper for several moments, both of them in awe. Spells for memory manipulation, mind control, high-level pyromancy, and even charms that forced others to tell the truth, among other dark magic were all indexed in the vault. “Complete invisibility, necromancy, osmosis,” Joseph rattled on. “Just being around all this stuff is making me increasingly uneasy the more I think about it.” “Yeah, you’re telling me,” Vinyl said. “Anyway, that last one seems helpful.” It doesn’t work how you think. That spell has you absorb the magic of another pony. The last time anyone did that, they ended up insane and in tartarus. Celestia only kept these books so she could reverse damage by anyone that managed to perform the magic. Look for the pyromancy if you’re so sure Chrysalis is vulnerable to fire, now you know about those spells. “Well that’s not a bad idea, actually. Right, pyromancy…” Joseph muttered, flicking back through the pages. He found three pages listed with pyromancy spell books, then he levitated the pages out in front of them, using the reference in the column to find their location. He pulled the first book from the top of each page and took them back to the table. “Can you read spell books?” he asked Vinyl. “Sure I can. These kinds of books are on a whole other level, though. Ones this ancient were made by ponies who were experimenting with avenues of magic, so they were highly skilled ponies. Let me see now…” Vinyl opened the book gingerly, idly letting the pages fall as her eyes briefly scanned the pages, looking for anything of interest. Halfway through, she fully opened the tome and pointed to a sigil that, while not ornately decorated like the rest of them have been, was simple in its design. “Try this one,” she said, tapping her hoof on the page. His eyes scanned the parchment. “Shooting fire... from my horn...” Joseph said, dumbfounded. The page showed a relatively simple-looking sigil decorated with a few strange symbols and scrawled lines of writing dotted around it. “That one’s easy, at least for what Nightmare Moon can do.” “I am not Nightmare Moon!” Joseph reminded Vinyl. He slumped back into the desk chair, shoving the spellbook away without any regard. “It’s because of her that I’m here in the first place!” he shouted. “And we’re burning time with our thumbs up our asses while she could have killed everyone by now! And you expect me to be able to shoot fucking fire from my horn like a baby could do it!?” To punctuate his dripping sarcasm, Joseph rolled his head and casually pointed his horn toward a wooden-looking statue sitting on a pedestal. Following the instructions on the page, Joseph funneled his magic into his horn and, to the surprise and shock of him and Vinyl, a narrow cone of fire erupted from the tip. The statue was promptly vaporized by the heat, leaving behind a pile of ash and scorched masonry. “Or… Y’know… It could be that easy?” he said, gawking at the smouldering walls. The rising anger from before quickly vanished, replaced by the shock of what he actually did. “Remind me to not make you angry again. Sorry about that… Look, if this idea helps, maybe since we’re here, we could find a book that’ll help you get back!” she said reassuringly Joseph suddenly sat forward in the chair, beaming a grim. “That’s it!” He pulled the book forward, rummaging around the index listings. “Nightmare Moon used a spell book from Twilight’s library to augment her teleportation spell. If the spells in here are as powerful as I’ve been lead to believe, then there’s got to be something we can use to get back to Ponyville in no time flat!” “What about what Nightmare Moon kept telling you about finding something that’ll help with Chrysalis?” “Dude, I just shot fire from my head! Changeling’s hate fire! That just solved all our problems!” “What about the teleportation spell?” Joseph ran the tip of his hoof down the page until he found what he was looking for. He levitated over two tomes from the shelves over to the desk. Giving one to Vinyl, he said; “Take one and look for a group teleportation spell.” Both of them did just that, several tense minutes passing by as each set of eyes hurriedly scanned the pages. “Here!” Vinyl almost screamed, leaping up from her seat with more enthusiasm than was necessary, much to her embarrassment. Joseph chuckled as she awkwardly coughed behind a hoof. Looking more intently at the page, she continued. “One sigil works on small groups, charges easily and quickly and, awwwww…” The disheartened way Vinyl said that concerned Joseph, but she continued on before he could say anything. “Made to be used outside.” “Are you kidding me?” Joseph exclaimed. “We just go back outside!” “...True. I was kind of hoping we could do one here and now to avoid going back outside.” “We can either walk and waste more time, or run to try and avoid wasting more time.” Vinyl dropped her stance and pawed at the ground with a hoof. “Running into a fight alongside Nightmare Moon? I’m terrified and thrilled at the same time!” If you go charging into a battle armed with only a simple pyromancy spell, you will die, Nightmare Moon interrupted. ’Don’t you worry, I’ve got a plan.’ And what would that be? ’Call her out. Make her a deal that if she faces off one-on-one with me, the winner decides the fate of the loser. Thing is, I plan on taking her down with me.’ Do you honestly expect that to work? Nightmare asked. ’Chrysalis likes audiences. She wouldn’t turn down an opportunity to prove her prowess in front of a crowd. Before we go, there is something we need. The glass case at the top of the middle section that has the blue gemstone in it. I need it to finish my spell. “Gimmie a sec here,” Joseph said to Vinyl. He looked over the cases and spied the gem, which he quickly levitated out from its case. This gem is one of many that are able to store magic, like what you’d call a battery. If you touch it to your horn, I can absorb the stored magic and use it as a catalyst for my spell. Without something to bolster the spell matrix, Chrysalis could dispel it with ease. ’You understand if something like this is setting off warning signs for me, right?’ “What’s this for?” Vinyl said. Joseph got an idea. “Try scanning this and tell me what it is.” He passed the gem over to Vinyl to let her scrutinise it. Vinyl’s eyes slowly widened, but Joseph wasn’t able to tell if it was the good or bad kind. “Oh wow,” Vinyl finally said, though the evenness to her tone didn’t help Joseph’s cause. “It’s some kind of… I don’t really know how to put it. The gem is a protective housing for an energy source. A big one. Very big, in fact.” I wasn’t lying when I told you it was like a battery, Nightmare said scornfully. “Here’s the thing,” Joseph truthfully began. “Nightmare Moon’s spell requires the energy in that gem so Chrysalis can’t counter it. She wants to absorb it.” “Absorb it!?” Vinyl’s shock was enough to tell Joseph doing so would be a bad idea. “This thing has more magical potential than the vast majority of unicorns I know, myself included!” “Probably ‘cause they all spend their time drinking and partying like you do,” Joseph said with a sly grin. “Aww come on!” Vinyl protested. “That’s not fair…” “Hey, you made a joke about my emasculation. Now we’re even. Regardless, is it safe to let Nightmare use the magic?” “I mean…” She turned the gem over a few more times, trying to decide on an answer. “She could just put her spell in here and it’d do the same job. I think. It’s only energy storage, so you’ll need to find a way to cast it.” “Riddle me this. If you cast a spell through this thing, what will happen?” “It doesn’t work like that. I can use the gem to cast a spell, but it’s a case of being directionally applied.” VInyl cleared her throat. “Just to get this straight; Nightmare Moon has been constructing a spell matrix to reverse Chrysalis’ magic? Specifically, the damage done to Oc—” she cut herself off. “Yeah. And so much more,” Joseph added sympathetically. “Don’t worry, I’ll get your friend back. I promise. It’s understandable to care about your friends, and if we can get this to work, we can take Chrysalis down. Let me have a quick word with Nightmare, then we’ll get out of here.” He took the gem back and turned away from Vinyl for a moment. ’I don’t trust you with this. For all I know, magic like this could very well be why I’m here. I’m going to bring this to my horn, but you’re only to put your spell inside it.’ You are in no position to bargain! ’And you are in no position to make demands when you’re entirely reliant on me for the survival of both you and the entire town, and potentially the rest of this country, world, whatever. We’ll get things done, but we’ll do it my way. Once we see this through to the end, then I’ll start trusting you a bit more.’ You’re ready to martyr Chrysalis at the cost of your own life! ’I just call that pragmatism. Don’t try any funny business…’ Joseph raised the gem up to the tip of his horn and let Nightmare do her thing. He felt the magic pass into the gem, confirming that Nightmare Moon did as she was told. How do you expect to cast the spell? she asked disdainfully. ’Oh, I don’t need to…’ “Hey,” Joseph called to Vinyl. “Grab whatever we need and let’s get out of here. We have a bug to squash.”