Twilight sighed wearily and leaned against the wall, she was running out of gas, Starlight nudged her "come on boss, we can't keel over yet, There's bound to be another puzzle roundWaaag!" The Unicorn reared up in alarm, Twilight turned to come face to face with Chaos who grinned and said "boo!"
Twilight, desensitized to Discord's shenanigans just grinned and bopped the floating head "Discord you old goat how did you get here? I've never been happier to see your weird face!"
The Lord of Chaos winked conspiratorially "oh you know me; always sticking my neck out for ponies these days. I was just dropping by to see if you need anything but as you're inside a book it must be a dream come true",
The Alicorn of Friendship gave Discord a dirty look "Have you met the author? He's like a child playing in daddy's shoes and your daddy. Anyway I assume you've been sent to fetch us out?"
The Draconequus shook his head "What and spoil the fun? In any case your welded into this place, I'd have to unravel you like an old jumper and try and knit you back together. However what every you have been doing is weakening your shackles so I'm here for comic relief, to cheerlead and see if you need anything".
Starlight had managed to put a lid on her shock and pull herself back together, "Well a point towards the next puzzle wouldn't go amiss"
Discord rubbed his chin before a lightbulb appeared above his head before flickering out and smashing in the floor "I have just the thing replacement goldfish..." the Draconequus pulled his head back into nothingness before a talon slid into existence holding a newspaper opened to the book review page, the talon then adjusted into a shadow puppet dog and said "...that's everything I know about the book, the Princesses send hugs and kisses, oh and Pinkie is planning another 'welcome back from another dimension' party, I'll check in this evening" the Lord of Chaos gave a thumbs up and withdrew his craw.
"I don't know how you put up with him, he's impossible" stated Starlight.
Twilight fished up the newspaper and buried her face in the article "You just need to know how to handle him and how he thinks. Pranks and jibes are signs of endearment, if he really didn't like you he'd ignore you as 'boring', he thinks it's his duty to mess with people for the greater chaos and the fact he's being so directly helpful worries me."
The fuchsia unicorn peered into the newspaper "you always told me he takes chaos seriously, if he takes anything seriously, this two star rating he gave the book would suggest he doesn't approve". Twilight hummed obliviously with the paper held in her magic in front of her, Starlight rolled her eyes and curled up at her side.
After a reading break Twilight felt re-energised and was strolling along the arid hallways of crumbling brown stone, if the last three levels had been uninspiring generic this level was just lazy, the less said about the counterweight puzzle at the end of Neighgyptian level the better. Starlight was reading Discord's review; she had to give him credit, it was insightful and humorous, though she was wondering what he meant by 'be sure to check out the Aztec archway'. As fate would have it she lowered the Daily Chaos to ask for Twilight's assessment at the perfect time to spot a oddly out of place Brown stone corridor with a curved ceiling and pictographs carved into the arch "Look! The Aztec archway!"
She leapt forward only to find herself suspended in purple light "I see it Starlight, but just because Discord can be trusted doesn't mean you should trust him blindly, he values independent thought and has a rather cruel teaching style".
Starlight raised an eyebrow "So he'd lead you into a trap? That doesn't sound friendly to me"
The Princess of Friendship gave a weak smile "Just because he's good doesn't make him nice, besides is it any different then what Celestia does; point me at a problem, wait for me to solve it and hopefully grow a little along the way?" This left the fuchsia unicorn in a state of deep thought as her mentor started scanning the unlit hall way and strode off into the darkness.
The writing on the wall was gibberish as far as either of them could tell and was purely for decoration, at the far end was a heavy double door of embossed brass secured with a slide bolt, Twilight nodded at her apprentice who readied a force lance and nodded back bracing for combat. With a flare of her horn the Twilight Alicorn threw open the door; within was a small cell constructed of the same generic brown stone blocks, brass chains snaked out of the walls coiling round a dull green lump on the floor that expanded and shrunk with panicked breath. It was a foal, too old for primary school but still blank flanked, curled tightly it's stubby horn poking out revealed it had its back to the door.
"Oh, hello there I'm Twilight Sparkle, the princess of friendship, are you ok?" Her grin lost some wattage as the foal continued to ignore her.
The former dictator strode in "Hey kid!? Didn't you hear, this is a jail break, up and at 'em!"
Her teacher grabbed her shoulder scowling "Starlight that was rude!..." the fuchsia unicorn shrugged off the hoof kept walking "... Starlight what are you doing, get back here!"
Her student strolled in front of the foal and sat down "Hey in there!" the colt, she assumed, looked straight through her muttering to himself "...it's not real...it's not real....it's not real..."
Genuine pity danced in the eyes of Starlight Glimmer but she kept her iron composure "it's no use Twilight, Meen probably locked him in here and tormented him with illusions, so he retreated inwards."
The young Alicorn came and joined her student "can't we help him?"
The former dictator shook her head sorrowfully "It has to be his choice to rejoin reality, though if we give him something he can't ignore..." her horn lit up enveloping the colt in lime green light. His stony face twitched, creased and fought off a smile then suddenly broke into a enraged frown before swinging a hook punch at Starlight who dropped her spell and dodged the attack.
The colt collapsed back into a pile of sniveling tears "Leave me alone Meen!" The princess of friendship lurched forward but was blocked by a fore arm and a shake of her pupil's head.
She cleared her throat "Meen is an incompetent clown and a fool, if you let him break you what does that make you?"
A pair of wild eyes peered up "I...I don't know....what your game is..."
Starlight snorted "surprised? Yes I assume Meen's fragile ego couldn't let him insult himself even if he needed to. Well I'm not a too good to be true vision promising escape, I'm a grouchy former dictator telling you unless you pull yourself together I'll leave you here to rot forever" Twilight was shocked at how roughly she was handling this poor colt but was more shocked when he responded and shakily stood.
His voice croaked out "who are you?"
Starlight smirked and jerked her head to her teacher "pay attention, she's Twilight Sparkle the Princess of Friendship and I'm a former dictator on community service called Starlight Glimmer, we're imprisoned intellectuals like you. If you come with us we can try to escape and hopefully knock Meen's teeth out of that goofy grin".
The colt looked between them before his features solidified into a determined scowl "This doesn't seem like any trick Meen has pulled before or like him at all. I don't trust you but I can't risk that your telling the truth, here take this orb..." the colts horn lit up with cherry light and a small sapphire globe levitated out from behind him. Twilight caught it in her wings and rolled it about, the colt stood shakily "I'm Noble Reason by the way, hold the orb up to your eye."
With a ring of magic Twilight levitated the orb up and peered through; a smile formed on her face as she cooed in wonder, Starlight raised an eyebrow "So?"
The Alicorn hefted the object over to her "I guess it's a repair tool, it lets you see the scripting behind this artificial environment" her apprentice nodded "I agree but I don't recognise the language"
Nobel shook his head "You won't, it's written in a long dead dragon dialect that Meen uses for his chaos magic. However his knowledge of it is superficial at best: textures, doors, traps and puzzles are still scripted in Equis. Usually the spelling and grammar is so poor that only minor changes are needed to alter the environment, I used to go round sabotaging this place until he chained me up."
Starlight tilted her head "So it's just been you vs Meen this whole time?"
The colt looked crushed and rubbed his leg "Mostly, I wasn't his first victim; he tried to snare my friend Crystal Clarity first but...she didn't make to transfer. Her...well...ghost pops up now and again, she still thinks we're reading in the Library..." his head drooped.
The former dictator placed a hoof on his shoulder "Stay strong, together we have a real chance of escape..."
Twilight strode up and pressed against him on the opposite side "I'm so sorry for your loss, I swear Crystal Clarity won't be forgotten".
Noble collapsed a little into the long forgotten comfort of a hug but still refused to let down his walls entirely, with a sniff be detached himself and turned to face his two new companions "So, I take it we're looking for this floors puzzle door?"