Let the Fools Who Stand Before Me
After a short trek, the trio found a huge room with a large dais in the center. Like everything else, it was made of crystal, though the pattern around the central point looked as if it were more of a stone pavement pattern, not unlike one that would be in the center of a town
Around the dais were runes of various sorts, and a field of magic surrounded the circle.
“What is this place?” Trixie asked.
“I don’t really know.” Lina replied. “But I bet this has to be what Xellos wanted us to find.”
“Why do you say that?” Trixie asked.
“Can’t you feel it?” Lina asked.
“That tingly feeling on Trixie’s skin?” she asked.
“Yeah, that.” Lina said. “Also, get a look at that one spot in the middle.” She pointed to a red crystal circle on the floor, dozens of yards away from the outer bands of the structure.
“Maybe there’s something wrong with it.” Trixie said.
“I don’t know Lina.” Gourry said.
“Don’t be ridiculous!” Lina said. “We didn’t come all this way to turn back. Sure, everything in this place has been trying to stop us, but we can’t let that scare us off.”
“So, even if it’s a trap, you want to go into it?” Trixie asked.
“I don’t see why not.” Lina replied. “At least we know there’s something waiting for us.”
The sorceress approached the barrier and put a hand to it. She moved further in and pulled it out. “Nothing to it!” she said.
Then the whole circle began to shift. The red center rose to the ceiling, and the various segments shifted in varying heights and rotated.
“Huh.” Lina said. She began to incant a spell. “Freeze arrow!” she brought out a large spear of ice and threw it into the field.
The spell didn’t explode, nor did it melt. It simply fizzled out of existence.
“Its just like the gear room.” Trixie said. “It ate the magic.”
“Great, more climbing and jumping.” Lina said. “Well, lets get this over with.”
“Come on Trixie.” Gourry approaching to climb.
The party waited for a platform to shift lower to the ground before they boarded.
There was a flash of light a second after they climbed on. Lina looked at her compatriots, who’s skin had taken to different shades of blue, while her own stayed the same.
“Is there something weird going on with the lighting here?” Lina asked.
Trixie can’t complain. Her skin reminds her of her coat color. She thought.
“Let’s keep going.” Lina said taking a step forward.
“It looks like some spots won’t fit all of us.” Gourry said.
“Then we’ll split up.” Lina replied slightly frustrated. “Come on, Gourry, get on this one with me.”
Trixie took an adjacent platform. There was another flash of light.
“What the heck happened to you Trixie?” Lina asked, pointing at her apprentice.
“What?” Trixie replied. She looked at herself, but nothing seemed to have changed. Her arms were still azure. “Trixie doesn’t know what you’re talking about.” And then she saw her feet, or rather hooves. Her legs had become like her Equestrian form, but she was still standing upright.
“What the hay is happening?” Trixie demanded.
“Uh…Lina?” Gourry said. "What’s happening with your face?”
“What do you mean?" Lina asked and turned to her compatriot before screaming. “What the heck happened to you!”
Gourry was covered in yellow feathers instead of his blonde hair, he had a beak to boot. Using his hand/wing, he unsheathed his sword and stated at his reflection.
“Whoa, I’m a bird-man!”
Lina caught her own reflection and reviled her appearance. “Why do I have a dog face!?” she yelled, angry for an explanation. “What is this stupid thing doing? I swear, not even Rezzo’s laboratory was this ridiculous!”
“Should we keep going?” Trixie asked.
“Of course we are!” Lina replied. “I’m not about to get scared off by some silly polymorph enchantments!” she then hopped onto another platform that had shifted in front of her.
There was another flash of light, and Lina had changed shape once more.
“Oh, you’re a pony again Lina!” Trixie exclaimed in delight.
Sure enough, the sorceress took on the unicorn form she’d been in when she first went to Equestria.
“Great, I thought I was done with this.” Lina said flatly.
“Trixie wants to be a pony again!” she said and hopped towards Lina’s spot.
After another flash of light, Trixie was in a bizarre state. Trixie is smaller now. She looked down. Still hooves for legs. She saw her reflection in the crystal. She was even more pony like, except her eyes were bigger and her hands somehow seemed larger.
“This thing is crazy!” Lina said. “Every single spot is going to change us!”
Another flash, this time, a large, bipedal yellow bird was on a tile sections away from Lina and Trixie.
“Wark!” the Gourry bird exclaimed. He flapped his wings, but was unable to fly. "Kweh."
Trixie looked on in confusion. Every single tile is another transformation. How are we going to make it to the center? She looked at the remaining circles of platforms she’d need to step on before getting to the center.
There were about five large outer rings, but so many segments that rose and fell among them.
Trixie jumped onto the next convenient space. A flash, and then she recognized an all to familiar orientation. Yes! Trixie is a pony again! She reared up and…neighed?
She looked at her reflection to note her appearance. She had her star patterned garb, but she looked like the horses in this world. No, not this one. Trixie does not want to be this one!
She heard Lina yell at Gourry to get onto another tile, only for a massive blue jellyfish to appear in the air. Lina put a hoof to her face and spoke. “Ugh, idiot.” She then jumped to another space as well.
After another flash, only a small beige mouse with a black and magenta outfit occupied the platform. Trixie heard her angrily yell in a squeaky voice, “Hey jellyfish brain, stop moving around. I can’t rescue you, if you keep moving!”
Trixie snorted and leapt to another platform, when the light dispersed she was still felt like a pony, but something was off. She looked at her hoof and saw that it was metallic. Trixie program undergoing form adaptation. Processes functional. Mana reserves high. Proceeding towards next platform. Conclude, execute.
She jumped again and found herself on the same platform with what she could only conclude was Lina. She had the same red hair and the same black cloak. With her mentor turned around, she could only see a figure that was rounder than the normal Lina.
Trixie tired to reach out, but noted that her own foreleg was a short blue arm this time. “What’s with this space?” she asked.
Lina took notice and turned around. Trixie’s eyes widened at her mentor’s appearance. Even more bizarre than before, Lina had a yellow reptilian, or birdlike face. But even more confusing was the round shell of belly she had. It was almost as if she were some strange turtle.
To complete the weirdness, Lina was wearing some sort of strange glasses that had a swirled pattern.
“Gah!” Lina said, recoiling. “What did you turn into Trixie?”
Trixie looked at a nearby platform that had shifted upward. She noted that she was an azure colored bipedal lizard of some sort. She had two short arms and purple boots that matched her performer’s outfit. More distressing was the big, round nose that made up the largest portion of her head.
“What is Trixie now?” she demanded. “She looks so weird; no pony will ever want to date her now!” she scrambled about the platform in a mild panic.
“Take it easy.” Lina said. “We’re not that far from our goal.” She pointed to the center with a yellow hand.
In the background Gourry could be seen confusedly going back and forth between platforms.
“Come on, let’s go so we can put an end to this stupidity.” Lina said.
Another series of platforms came rotating at level towards the pair.
Lina shimmied up the platform while Trixie tried to jump, except the apprentice sent herself sky high.
“Ahhh!” Trixie screamed as she gained much more altitude than Lina, her own legs seemed to naturally kick in the air, like she was flapping wings to go higher.
She descended, smack dab in the middle of another platform before another flash of light occurred and Trixie found herself staring at what looked like a terrifying dragon on the platform over.
The monster looked like it had the same shade as Lina’s fiery hair. She had two horns jutting out form the back of her head as well. It was the closest form to the actual Lina Inverse that Trixie had seen yet.
As crude as it was, it seemed to fit her mentor’s personality quite well. There was even a flame on Lina’s tail, as if to show of her fiery temperament.
Still, Trixie was not prepared for Lina’s reaction. The dragon that was Lina turned and cowered away from Trixie. Paralyzed with fear, Lina held her claws over her eyes and had her wings and tail pointed in the air out of fear.
What’s her deal? Trixie thought. Oh come on, Trixie isn’t that hideous, is she? She tried to speak those words, but only a gurgle came out of her mouth.
Oh for Luna’s sake, what has Trixie turned into? She thought and then tried to look for another platfrom or piece of crystal to see her reflection. First came a rather undignified reflection of her mentor cowering. She waited for her own image to come into view, that was when her vision suddenly jumbled.
Images shifted in Trixie’s vision. Ow. One image was of the chamber around her, and the other was looking down. Eyes aren’t supposed to do that.
She tried again, slower this time and saw an approaching platform. The crystalline surface revealed her reflection. Trixie came to realize why she was having vision problems.
A blue slug with googly eyes greeted the showmare. No! Not this! Trixie is hideous! Trixie tried to call out again, but only expelled a “gurgle”.
Lina the Dragon, before she took the time to realize that the creature that had made the weird noise was her apprentice shrieked in fear and stomped away from Trixie’s direction, right off the platform. She had wings, but didn’t use them in her escape, for her only one thing mattered, escape from the horrifying creature.
The red dragon leapt off of the edge and back onto the platform she’d jumped from before. She tumbled and landed on her back, just before another flash. Lina had become that turtle creature again.
Lina slowly recovered from her panic attack. “Ugh, slugs are the worst.” She said, and proceeded to stand up. “Oh come on!” The shell of her form would not unbalance as she lay on her back. Lina continued to struggle. “Come on! I was so close!” she said angrily. “Trixie, I’m stuck! You have to get to the center!”
Why does it always go down like this? Trixie asked herself. Just when she starts getting the hang of things, something goes wrong and she begins to regret all of her decisions. One of her eyes peeked at Lina, who was still struggling to get off of her round back.
But now, even if Trixie is this weak and hideous little creature, does it really matter now? Lina should have been able to do all of this on her own but she messes up and can’t be helped. Maybe all that matters is that Trixie tries.
The former showmare looked around. She was smack dab in the middle of the last platform leading to the center. There wasn’t else much to do other than make a break for the center. So she continued her infinite journey of distance and self-discovery.
For Trixie, it felt like an eternity. Can’t let up now. Trixie is so close.
Just then, a ruckus emanated from the entrance of the room. Trixie turned an eye to see Nepanox and his men barge in.
“I knew they’d lead us in if we just held back.” The pompous duke said. Nepanox pointed to the center of the active array. “There it is, the source of power!” His men then rushed the platforms.
Just as with Trixie’s party, Nepanox’s men succumbed to the same magic on the platforms. Despite their irregular forms, they continued their mad scramble for the center.
No! Trixie thought and attempted to slime her way faster.
Trixie could hear the clamoring soldiers getting closer to her general area. Every inch of distance was a marathon to get further. Hooves would be really good right about now. Trixie thought. She turned an eye to see all sorts of strange creatures attempting to adjust to their new forms.
The slug realized that the shifting platform she was on wasn’t going to be easy to overcome. There was no gap between her and her goal, but thought of the rise and fall became apparent as she neared the edge.
Better not try to climb up that platform. She thought. As soon as her own platform began to ascend, Trixie started to go over the edge. The height was great, but she kept going until she made it over. Now vertical, she was only seconds away.
Let go. Let go. Let go! And with a pop, Trixie dislodged herself from the platform and onto the center area. The magical hum ceased, as did all of the movement from the orbiting platforms’’ movement. The red, crystal center began to rise and formed a cone out of the other segments of the array.
Everyone else was tumbled straight off of the structure, leaving a solitary slug at the top. A brilliant flash encompassed the chamber.