The first thing you see is your own face, panicked, wide eyes staring back at you. It takes you a moment to realize you’re staring at the diamond you’d touched, and by extension your own reflection off the facet in front of you. Sombra is next to you, tear tracks running down his face as he looks around wildly.
“We… we’re out…?” he whispers, seemingly shocked. “WE’RE OUT!” he cheers a second later, wrapping two sturdy hooves around your midsection and hugging you with enough force to readjust your vertebrae, an echoing crack resounding through the cavern.
Sombra immediately lets go, arching his neck back to gaze at you in horror, but you just laugh and reach down to hug him back.
“We’re out,” you agree, pulling him back into a tight hug.
Sombra freezes for a moment as your arms make contact, but seems to relax a moment later, though he doesn’t attempt to hug you again.
“I… I suppose I owe you an apology,” he growled between clenched teeth. “You knew what you were doing, and I… I was being a fool and keeping us both trapped in there.”
You laugh amiably, holding up a fist for him to bump. He does so, looking at the offered hand curiously. “Don’t worry about it,” you dismiss.
Before you can say anything else, you’re tackled to the ground by Chrysalis, who leans over you, hissing ominously as her eyes glow a vivid green.
“Never, never do that again!” she screeches, grabbing you by the shoulders and shaking you vigorously, your head flopping back and forth as she manhandles you. “You absolute idiot, touching an unbreakable, bewitched gem! You could have died! I could have lost you, you insufferably, stupidly lucky… you… y-you…” Chrysalis trails off, clearly about to break down crying.
You hold an arm up, offering her an awkward laying-down hug, and after a moment she collapses into it.
“I’m sorry…” she mumbles, cringing slightly and letting go of your shoulders.
You wrap your arms around her belly, and sit up, rubbing her glossy, iridescent backplate comfortingly. “I’m glad you care about me so much… but… maybe don’t shake me like that,” you chastise as gently as you can. Chrysalis openly flinches even at this, and you redouble your soothing efforts. “Hey, hey! It’s okay. This is a learning experience. We all make mistakes, remember? And… you’re right. I shouldn’t have scared you like that, that was a mistake. I just… maybe I’m getting a little too used to my own dumb luck,” you admit with a small laugh.
Sombra looks between Chrysalis and you, eyes narrowed in thought. “…Are you two dating?” he asks shrewdly.
Both of you blush and look away. “I – I am not! He’s just a good source of food,” Chrysalis defends haughtily.
“Um… it’s a bit early to be thinking of that,” you agree, raising an eyebrow at the shadow unicorn.
Unconvinced, he looks at Nightmare Moon, who sternly shakes her head.
That done, she takes a seat in front of you and stares directly at you with her catlike pupils, the intensity of her gaze making you a little uncomfortable. “We command thee to repeat our words,” she orders, and her tone leaves little room for argument.
“We art not immortal,” she begins.
“I’m… not immortal,” you repeat, automatically translating it into modern speech.
She wrinkles her nose, but presses on. “We art very capable of dying at any time,” she stresses.
“I’m very capable of dying at any time,” you dutifully repeat, a little embarrassed.
“We shalt not commit such foalish acts again,” she finishes.
“I… I won’t do it again. I… sorry, Nightmare Moon,” you mutter, looking away.
She smiles, turning your head back to her with a wing. “Mayhap, in thine efforts to teach, thou hath forgotten a few crucial lessons,” she chides with a slight chuckle. You laugh embarrassedly, and get to your feet, pulling Chrysalis along with you.
“Okay, well… Looks like we’re a party of four now. Sombra, do you… do you have any means of possessing someone’s body?” you ask him.
Sombra raises an eyebrow at you. “…I’m sorry, of all the questions I expected you to ask me if we got out of that awful diamond, that was not one of them. Er… no?” he replies, perplexed.
You hum, disparaged. “The other two can, so our plan so far was for the two of them to hijack my weirdly magic-proof body and cross the Barrier that way. Hmm…” you trail off, thinking.
“Hold on. Barrier? What barrier?” Sombra demands.
“The… magical barrier that only a soul of pure intent and good character can cross? Didn’t they tell you this?” Chrysalis snarked, looking at him.
“No… they threw me in a cell and left me here to rot,” Sombra growled back.
Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “Strange. They told her," she noted, jerking a hoof at Nightmare Moon. "Not us, though. Especially not him," she snorts, this time pointing at you. "He… seems to have fallen in from the outside, as far as we can tell,” she adds, motioning to you.
Sombra looks at you, and his mouth briefly twitches up into a smile. “Y… you fell. Into Tartarus,” he clarifies, and you nod, slightly embarrassed. When he puts it that way…
A snort escapes Sombra, and before long he’s roaring in laughter. “How dumb are you?” he wheezes. “You fell! Into the Prison, the Pit of Suffering Eternal, and you tripped into it like a foal who forgot to walk! Bahahahaha!” he cackles, slamming a hoof down in mirth on the stone floor.
Chrysalis growls at him in fury, but is stopped by a chuckle from you. “It’s… kinda funny,” you admit, holding a hand to your mouth to hide your grin.
Chrysalis looks at you in open incredulity. “You… you’ll just let him laugh at you like that?” she asks.
You shrug. “Why not? I dunno how I actually got in, maybe I did trip and fall in like an idiot.” Chrysalis remains silent at this.
As Sombra’s guffaws die down, he finally musters the strength to sit up again, wiping tears from his eyes. “Alright… alright. So… you lot are getting around this ‘Barrier’ by possessing him,” he recaps, pointing at you, and you nod. “Why are you heading away from the exit, then?”
Nightmare Moon clears her throat. “The exit above us… is blocked. We knoweth not by what, but the iron door to the Canterlot dungeons hath been bespelled most powerfully. Therefore, we make for a rumored secret ‘elevator’, hidden deep in the Pit,” she explains.
Sombra strokes his chin with a hoof. “Can’t say I know about any of that, but I’ll follow you down there. At the very least, we can keep this one from getting into more trouble,” he snarks, jerking a hoof at you.
“Oh, give me a little credit. I broke an entire diamond today,” you airily retort, gesturing to the massive fracture running down the octahedral crystal to the group’s right.
Sombra snorts. “Dumb. Luck,” he dismisses. “Anyway, I think there’s a tunnel deeper into the Pit past my old cell. If the elevator’s anywhere, it’s past there.” With nothing else to do, the four of you make to exit the Diamond Room again.
Before he reaches the door, Sombra stops, and gives the room one last look, paying special attention to the crystals that could be barely glimpsed through the secret passages all around the room. He sighs. “Probably all bewitched, anyway,” he mutters, and makes to turn around again.
“I don’t think they are, actually. I also don’t think you can carry them out of here, but… we can go around and look at them, if you want,” you offer.
Sombra looks at you warily, and you give him a small smile.
“Oh… alright, fine. I suppose I can stand to look at this place a while longer,” he snorts, and makes for the Sapphire Room.
“We’ll wait here,” Nightmare Moon calls amiably, and lays down by the door, Chrysalis joining her after a short moment of hesitation.
The two of you try to look at the many blue gems in the room, but you’re a bit distracted by the giant blue laser that’s still emitting from every one of the large sapphires in the floor.
“A puzzle, then? You solved it wrong,” Sombra notices.
“What? We got the Key. How’d we solve it wrong?” you ask, perplexed and slightly insulted.
“You’re clearly supposed to line up the sapphires with where the kyanites below them are pointing. See?” Sombra points out. He rotates a sapphire with his magic, which you notice is a dark purple in color. The laser no longer points in the right direction, but the two of you hear a strange clicking noise.
“Huh,” you notice. “You might be on to something. Let’s get the rest of them, see what happens,” you decide.
The two of you make short work of rotating the sapphires, and as Sombra moves the last one into place, they all briefly light up cyan before returning to their normal color. You give one an experimental push to find that it doesn’t rotate anymore, and Sombra tries as well.
“They’re all locked in place. That was clearly the solution… but nothing happened,” he notices.
“Maybe there’s alternate solutions for all the other ones? Now I’m curious to see what happens when we re-solve the other five too,” you muse.
The two of you move over to the adjacent Emerald Room, and you glance at the maze. “How would one solve a maze in a different way…?” you wonder.
“Perhaps there’s a different exit?” Sombra answers, walking into the maze and looking around curiously at the spiky actinolites and radioactive-green peridots.
But after a few minutes of searching, neither of you find anything. “Maybe we’ll come back to this one later?” you suggest as you cross paths with Sombra for the fourth time.
Sombra grumbles, looking as though he’s about to argue, but sighs and nods. “The others are probably easier to ‘get,’” he acquiesces, leading you onward to the Citrine Room.
You glance up at the tiny hole leading into the room. “I can’t fit in that,” you admit, and Sombra glances between you and the hole, humming in thought.
He lights his horn purple again, and glares at the hole as though it had personally insulted his honor – a glare you’re quite familiar with by now. His magic seems to… solidify, into a rough cone shape, which he uses to drill through the stone, causing you to step back and cough a little at the onslaught of dust. Finally, Sombra’s horn dims, and he views the enlarged hole with satisfaction.
“My father taught me that. We used it to attempt to mine for iron…” Sombra trailed off.
“Well… it’s coming in pretty handy. Maybe we can use you to drill out of this prison, right through the Barrier,” you joke, trying to lighten the mood as Sombra scowls at the mention of his father.
Sombra snorts. “Maybe,” he mutters, sauntering into the Citrine Room.
To your utmost surprise, it actually does look like a dance party in here. Colored tiles cover the floor in front of you, and are lit up in what seems to be a circular pattern, though all except for the closest row are behind a waist-high wall. The pedestal that would normally contain a Key is one tile away from the closest one to you, and slightly tilted. It looks like the Key fell off the top of the pedestal onto somewhere Chrysalis could pick it up.
“For this one, I suppose you’d have to arrange the tiles. But in what configuration?” Sombra wonders.
“I saw a notice up where Nightmare Moon was, saying today’s password was ‘SUN’ for a similar puzzle to this. But Chrysalis already did that one… maybe a moon shape?” you wonder.
Sombra hums for a moment, then steps forward and presses a tile. A few of the tiles in the circle shift, and the lit ones reappear elsewhere, seemingly teleporting. “No…” Sombra mutters, and begins poking around the different tiles. After a while, he gives up. “Nothing doing,” he denies. “There’s no way to get this to make a ‘moon’ shape of any kind.”
You stroke your chin in thought. “Okay… how about… a heart?” you suggest.
Sombra looks at you in open disgust, and you shrug. “It was the first thing I thought of!” you defend, slightly embarrassed.
Sombra rolls his eyes. “Of course it was,” he mutters, and sets about rearranging the tiles again. You’ve learned the patterns from watching him work, so you join in and help, and a moment later the two of you have successfully made a heart shape.
The two of you hear that same click as in the Sapphire Room, and the tiles briefly flash pink. “Nice work!” you compliment, and Sombra scoffs.
“Easy,” he snorts.
The two of you return to the Diamond Room. “What’s taking so long?” Chrysalis complains from across the room, laying on her back.
“We found alternate solutions to all the puzzles, I want to see what happens!” you call back.
Chrysalis groans, and Nightmare Moon chuckles at her impatience. “Rest while thou canst, Queen. We may have to fight later, and a proper respite beforehoof could be vital,” she admonishes lazily, closing her eyes again. Chrysalis groans some more, but reluctantly lays her head back again.
“One would think stretching before a fight would be more appropriate,” Sombra calls over.
“Disturbeth not our royal slumber!” Nightmare Moon growls back, and you stifle a giggle at her indignant tone.
Sombra goes for the Topaz Room – another puzzle you’ve never seen. This one consists of six levers mounted on a wall, some of which have already been flipped to the ‘ON’ position. A series of six orange bars above them are all lit, and you reach out to pull a lever back to the ‘OFF’ position experimentally. Some of the bars decrease, and Sombra nods.
“Seems this one was solved by finding the right combination of levers. I’m willing to bet each one increases the counter by a certain amount, and overshooting or undershooting the right number wouldn’t do anything.”
A few more lever pulls confirm his theory, and he surveys the array curiously, pulling a few. You notice that the last two don’t seem to do anything on their own.
“What happens if you pull another lever, and then pull one of these?” you ask Sombra.
He tries it out, pulling the third lever from the left and watching the counter increase by four ‘bars’ before pulling the rightmost lever. To the surprise of both of you, the counter goes down by two, and is now at two units.
“Fascinating… so these ones could correct for an overshoot. That explains why they were pulled for the first solution, but how do we find the alternate one…?” Sombra wonders.
“Um. Well…” you trail off.
“Got an idea? Tell me,” Sombra demands.
“What if we tried to make it add up to negative six? Maybe the other lever is negative four?” you suggest.
Sombra tries it, but nothing happens. He pulls a few more levers, until all six of them are ‘ON.’ “That one's… negative five,” he figures out after a moment of thinking. “So then… this should be negative six,” he decides, flipping the leftmost three levers back ‘OFF.’ Another click resounds through the air, and Sombra triumphantly puffs his chest out.
“Nice! You’re good at puzzles,” you compliment.
“Back in my day, puzzles were a royal thing. Princess Amore’s castle was absolutely full of them, it took me ages to find her and…” Sombra trails off.
“And what?” you ask, confused.
“I assassinated her, and took over her kingdom,” Sombra growls, looking away from you.
“…Oh,” you trail off quietly.
The two of you walk over to the Aquamarine Room in silence, and you stare at the puzzle here, unsure what to say. The puzzle seems untouched, a row of tiles similar to the yellow ones in the Citrine Room but unlit and an icy blue. The pedestal lays at the very back, atop a ledge that’s too high for you to climb – maybe Chrysalis just flew over it?
“I… I did it on Father’s orders. He wanted me to become some sort of dictator, make every pony in the entire kingdom hate me as much as possible. I didn’t question it. I didn’t ever question the insane things he made me do,” Sombra growled quietly.
“…Do you regret it?” you ask.
Sombra nods. “I was a Guard, for a while, to her. Princess Amore. She didn’t speak much with me, but… somepony else did. I… I think I enjoyed that part of my life,” Sombra sighs.
“Nightmare Moon?” you wonder, thinking back to how she asked you to save him, and he confirms it with a nod.
“She called herself ‘Princess Luna’ back then. She’d visit occasionally, and while her sister was off talking with Amore about this and that, she’d strike up a conversation with me. I wonder how she got to be down here?” Sombra muses, looking up at you for answers.
“She’s… well, she’s only part of Princess Luna. Both of them exist separately, according to her, because she got something called ‘The Elements of Harmony’ used on her after she tried to overthrow her sister,” you remember.
Sombra whistles in amazement. “And the part of her that wasn’t in harmony with the world survived? Impressive,” he mutters.
“Is that what they do?” you ask, and he nods.
“They’re the most powerful magical artifacts known to ponykind – they tap directly into the force of Destiny. There’s no magic that can beat the six Elements together,” he explains. “I… When Celestia and Luna went after me, I knew they were going to use them. And I knew I couldn’t stop them from doing so. So, with the help of a few… friends, I put the whole Crystal Empire in magical stasis for a thousand years. I figured by then, they’d have forgotten about me… but I was stopped anyway. By a new Princess of Love, ‘Cadance,’ with the help of a purple mare named ‘Twilight’,” Sombra reminisces.
“Twilight Sparkle?” you ask, and Sombra looks at you sharply. “She was the one who used the Elements on Nightmare Moon. Weird…” you note.
Sombra shrugs. “Destiny’s like that. Put all the burdens on as few ponies as possible, and the rest can live their lives in peace. Or at least… that’s what Luna said, once,” he mumbles.
The two of you look at the puzzle again, an awkward silence stretching between you. With nothing else to do, you step cautiously onto a tile, and abruptly hop back as it cracks underneath you.
“Watch it!” Sombra growls, lunging forward in an attempt to catch you. You’re already on safe ground, so he mostly just pulls you towards him.
“So… if you step on a wrong tile, it breaks and you fall? Normally these puzzles don’t have such… fatal consequencs,” Sombra notes.
“Maybe it was designed by a pegasus?” you ask, and Sombra shakes his head.
“These puzzles were designed to be solved by any of the three tribes.” He places a hoof experimentally on the cracked tile, and after a moment walks onto it, to find that it holds his weight. He taps his front left hoof on it sharply. “There’s a solid surface underneath, probably more bedrock. Perhaps we have to arrange a pattern?” Sombra wonders.
You look out at the rest of the tile floor. “A heart pattern would fit,” you suggest.
Sombra glares at you. “What? It’s a theme, maybe,” you defend.
Sombra sighs. “You do it this time,” he growls, jumping out of the way. You take a step onto the broken tile, and to your surprise, it fixes itself, pieces resealing into a whole square of aquamarine crystal.
“Huh,” you note. “How come it didn’t do that for you?”
Sombra peers at it. “Perhaps it remembers who broke it? That is an odd touch,” he agrees.
After a bit of tricky walking and a few tries, you successfully make the same heart shape as you did in the Citrine Room, ending up a single tile to the right of where you started. You smile as you hear that satisfying click, and the broken tiles briefly flash pink.
“Pink, and hearts…” Sombra trails off, evidently mulling over things.
“Maybe… the ‘alternate’ theme is love?” you wonder.
“But the topaz and sapphire puzzles weren’t themed like that,” Sombra argues.
As if to prove your point, a crystal detaches from the wall and falls to the ground, and Sombra glances over at it. It’s heart-shaped and blue, and for a moment there’s an expression of utter shock on his face.
“The Crystal Heart…?” he breathes, moving over to it slowly, and you raise an eyebrow at him as he approaches it so carefully. Picking it up in his magic, he scrutinizes it as closely as a jeweler with a loupe, before tossing it behind him in disgust. “A fake,” he announces. “Likely meant to fool me.”
You shrug, and the two of you exit the Aquamarine Room.
The only room you haven’t entered yet is the Amethyst Room, and you’re dismayed to find it’s unlit, the room cast into complete shadow.
“How are we going to solve this? We can’t even see it,” you complain, edging forward and immediately smacking into something. The surface in front of you begins to glow purple, and you step away from it to find it’s a giant amethyst crystal, glowing and revealing its surroundings in a short radius.
“Clever,” Sombra notes, watching the glow slowly fade. “It seems we have to make our way forward using the light of each crystal in turn.” You tap the amethyst again, and it resumes glowing. You peer into the darkness, and spot another amethyst just a few feet away, the path walled off by a few slabs of purple crystal.
It doesn’t take long for the two of you to solve the dark maze, and you find a lever similar to the ones in the Topaz Room in the center, along with the pedestal that formerly displayed the Amethyst Key. You flip the lever, and a few lights on the ceiling come to life, flickering a bit as they light up the whole room. It looks… small, now that the lights are on.
“So what’s the alternate solution here?” you wonder.
“Try turning every single crystal on at once. If we run, we should be fast enough,” Sombra suggests.
“Ready, set… GO!” you call, and the two of you take off through two different paths, searching for amethysts to tap.
After a while of running around, you hear a click – Sombra must have gotten the last one.
“We did it!” you call.
“Good work! Now where are you?” Sombra calls back.
“Over here!” you call again, heading towards his voice. You find him around a corner.
“There you are. That just leaves the green puzzle,” Sombra declares, sounding oddly excited.
“It’ll be easy now. We’re puzzle veterans,” you scoff, and he actually laughs, a short bark of mirth that quickly dies.
As the two of you re-enter the Diamond Room, Sombra turns to you. “Stay here a moment, I have an idea,” he orders, and promptly turns around and re-enters the Amethyst Room. Raising an eyebrow, you watch him go.
“How art the two of thee faring?” Nightmare asks, still laying down next to the door to the Amethyst Room.
“Good… we’ve been talking about stuff. About… what he did, among other things,” you answer awkwardly.
Nightmare Moon sighs. “Mayhap he canst learn a few things of kindness from thee,” she murmurs. “He always didst seem so… uncertain about his actions. Why, even when he took over the kingdom, he sent us a letter saying… saying he regretted the whole attempt.”
You nod. “Seems his dad roped him into a lot of crazy stuff,” you murmur back.
The lights in the Amethyst Room flicker out again, and after a moment Sombra steps out of the darkness, too quickly to have traversed the maze. “Shadow-traveled,” he answers to your questioning gaze, and you nod in acknowledgement.
“Is that how you escaped your cell?” you ask, and he nods in reply.
“Nightmare Moon’s shadow fell over me, and I was able to travel through the bars with it. Doesn’t work on you, by the way, so I don’t think we can use that to get me through the Barrier,” he denies.
“Darn,” you mutter under your breath. You’d had your hopes up, for a moment there.
Sombra glances over at the Emerald Room, and grins. You follow his gaze to find that the room is now just as dark as the Amethyst Room.
“How’d you figure out that?” you ask incredulously.
“The spell powering that lever had another line leading over there. I noticed it when I was walking in, but thought it was just an ordinary light-powering line, so I didn’t think much of it,” Sombra explains. You digest this information with a frown. Invisible magic… wires? Weird. You just thought the wires for all those lights above you were hidden in the ceiling, or something.
In the darkness, you spot a lone crystal of the maze glowing green, just like the amethysts had glowed purple. More of the glow can be seen peeking around corners - clearly, a few crystals inside the maze are now glowing as well. Sombra walks over to it and touches it, and it dims before shutting off completely.
“It’s a reverse puzzle to the amethysts,” Sombra discovers. “We have to turn all these ones off.” He walks forward into the darkness, and you decide to let him do the work – he can apparently see just fine in the dark.
A moment later, there’s one last click, and Sombra reappears in front of you so instantaneously that you stumble backward. He laughs at your fright, and saunters past you. Chuckling good-naturedly, you follow, wondering what the two of you have won for your efforts.
To your surprise, a pedestal has appeared in the Diamond Room, featuring a red Key. You remember the red crystal you refused to take, what seems like a lifetime ago. Should you take this one? Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis are inspecting the Key, but you look further down, examining the pedestal in hopes of spying more carvings that might give you an idea of what this crystal is meant to do. To your surprise, there are only simple carvings of hearts. Seems this one’s alright, then? Chrysalis tentatively picks it up with her magic and hands it to you.
[ITEM: Ruby Key] [A key as red as a dying star. Unlocks a secret area below.]
Oh? A secret area? That sounds interesting. You put the seventh Key in your backpack, and shrug at the others. “Maybe it unlocks something else?” you wonder.
“There’s no other slot in the door… maybe it goes somewhere up above?” Chrysalis wonders, looking back towards the entrance to the Diamond Room.
“There weren’t any slots to put a Key up there… I think, anyway,” you mutter. “It’s probably unimportant, considering how hard it was to get. I don’t think even the people who designed these puzzles would have the time to retrieve this single Key if they needed it often.”
Sombra nods approvingly. “It’s likely a hidden area for higher-level Guards, or even the Princesses themselves. They usually put the new recruits up top, so it makes sense that this Key would go to some room deeper below us,” he agrees.
With that, the four of you leave the Diamond Room again, heading for Sombra’s old prison block. You can’t help but wonder about the friend you’ve just gained, as well as the ruby-red Key in your backpack. Sombra’s a murderer… but a reluctant murderer. Maybe he’s already good at heart, and just needs a push in the right direction? You’re unsure about befriending a murderer and tyrant, but… hey, you’ve already befriended an attempted murderer and a psychopath, and they seem to be making great progress. You’ll just have to keep at it, then. The torchlight stays constant this time as Sombra passes by, instead of flickering wildly, and the strange creature from before is long gone.
“So how come this place has so many different ‘themes,’ anyway? Nightmare Moon was kept in a cage at the topmost spires, Chrysalis was down a bit deeper in some sort of catacombs, and now you were in a standard prison cell. Why not just lump the three of you together to save space?” you wondered, glancing at Sombra.
“Isolated, we are powerless to resist the Guards,” Nightmare Moon immediately answers.
“That, and the wide-open spaces interspersed with deceptive tunnel layouts are probably meant to confuse and foil rescue attempts… like this one,” Chrysalis adds thoughtfully.
“Personally, I think Celestia put me in here just to humiliate me. A king, in a standard prison cell… just like the ones I put too many ponies in before,” Sombra concluded, glaring ahead with such intensity that you swore the path in front of you was looking a little darker in the torchlight.
“Isolation, deception and humiliation… wow. Those are some pretty dark themes for someone who’s supposed to be protecting others,” you remarked.
“If you ask me, I think Celestia’s… gone a bit overboard with that whole ‘protecting her little ponies’ thing. The prison was around in my time, but it was quite a bit different – ponies could freely visit, among other things. Now… now I think it’s become her own little pet project,” Sombra muses, wrenching open the door at the end of the prison block corridor with little effort.
Ahead, the four of you are met with two more of those strange, pearlescent, melting ponies. One looked like it had been a unicorn, once, as a spire still jutted from its head, a string of liquid connecting it to the bridge of the creature’s nose as it burbled at you, mouth opening in a surprisingly toothy smile. The other…
The other was different.
Despite apparently being made of the same material as the others, this one’s body wasn’t melting – rather, the substance composing it had improbably solidified into a pliable, rubbery substance. Its eyes were closed, eyelids pointing downward as its mouth remained a wide smile. Its general body resembled a normal pony’s – but with the exception that it had far too many legs. Legs were growing everywhere – in the place of wings, attached to other legs, a confusing, intersecting tangle of limbs that made it look less like a pony and more like a pony-shaped flower with a rather complicated root system.
“What in Harmony’s name are those?!” Sombra exclaimed, taking a step back.
“Dunno, but they’re not friendly,” you answer, feeling them watch you with unseeing eyes.
“Then we will destroy them,” Nightmare Moon snarled, a blue bolt of energy charging from her horn. With no reaction from the two monsters, she fired it at one, a direct hit causing chunks of gelatinous white material to fly everywhere before quickly melting back into liquid puddles.
As the four of you watched, however, the puddles rapidly traveled across the floor, merging back into the creature from before. It raised its head to look Nightmare Moon in the eyes, and she stepped back.
“Can we go around them?” you urgently asked.
“Nay, there be a door in the way,” Nightmare Moon spits back, apparently too distracted to be polite.
“You got rid of one of these things before – do what you did last time!” Chrysalis exclaims, shoving you forward through the door even as her eyes widen in panic. “WAIT, NO, I TAKE IT BACK-“ she screams fearfully, but it is too late. Both of the creatures have already seen you and dived forwards.
[A Melted and M̸̡̀̕͝E͏T͞҉͏̢̕Á̕̕͡ attack together!]
[35/50] [FIGHT] [RUN] [DO NOTHING] [FLIRT] [SPARE] [ITEM]
>>[DO NOTHING]
Unfortunately, your earlier tactic doesn’t appear to do much. The ‘regular’ Melted appears to be hacking and coughing, its stomach heaving as it eventually expels a massive wave of white goop at the bullet screen, your heart-shaped thing just barely dodging. The other one, strangely, remains still, gazing at you with those two pinprick eyes.
[A Melted and M̨̀È̴͢͠T̢̀͢͜͡A̧̢͟͞ attack together!]
[35/50] [FIGHT] [RUN] [DO NOTHING] [FLIRT] [SPARE] [ITEM]
>>[DO NOTHING]
Okay, so the Melted seems a bit slower this time? It’s hard to tell. It does the same thing again, too, and this time it’s a bit easier to dodge now that you know what’s coming. But why isn’t the other one attacking? It’s just… śt̨ar͜i͞n̨g at you. N̕͠ot̸̷h̨͝i͞͏͝ng̀͟͠’͝͞s̨̕ even h̵̶͜app͢͝e̛͘n͡i̡͡͡n̶g on the bullet screen. The three of you stand there awkwardly for a few moments, and you breathe a shallow sigh of relief as the box expands back outward into your options.
[A Melted and M̷͘E̷͝Ţ̛͜A̸̸͞ attack together!]
[35/50] [FIGHT] [RUN] [DO NOTHING] [FLIRT] [SPARE] [ITEM]
>>[DO NOTHING]
Okay, the Melted is definitely slowing down. Seems like that’s a general way to go for dealing with them, then. It’s also just using the same attack o͞ve͠r ͟an̨̧d҉͘ ̴͝͠ov͡e͟r̛, which makes it easy to dodge.
[A Melted and M͟͡͞E҉̧͏T̸̶̡̀A͡͠ attack together!]
[35/50] [FIGHT] [RUN] [DO NOTHING] [FLIRT] [SPARE] [ITEM]
You stare at the ‘special’ one, and it stares back. “What… are you?” you whisper, thinking it won’t h̨́ę̢̡͝á͝͠r̸̢̕͟ ̡y̵o͘͏͟ú͜. After all, t̷͢͠i̧ḿ̨ȩ̡̕ ̶̵͟s̀to̸p̵s̸̀ when you’re making your choices, right? To your h҉̨̀͠ó̀̕͢͟r̨̕ŗ̴̸̵́o҉̡̨r̷̕͠, it winks at you, before reaching out and t̸̴į͜͢͢l̵̵͘͜t̴̕͟͡i̴̵̵͢n͏̴̢̀͜ģ the bullet screen, just a little.
Nothing else has ever moved when you’re making a selection, much less touched ý͜o͜úr̶͘͏ ͢s̡ţ͝rà̡ǹ̷g̢͞e͞͡ ̢̧͘ĺ̸͢i̢͞t̴̨t͠l̶̵e͘ ̴͜ş͟͢cr̶̛̛ę̕e̸n͏͟͠. What was this thing? What kind of power did it possess to mess with even ỳ̡̨͘ǫ̢͟u̕͞r̨̕͟͡ ̵́͞͝r̡͟͜e̶͢͡a̷͏̀l̸̕ì̡ţ̡ỳ̨̛?
To your continuing horror, it’s not just the bullet screen that’s been tilted. This monster’s somehow tilted your entire field of vision – the cave beneath you is now at a very slight, sloping angle to the left. What the hell? How is it doing that? Realizing you haven’t pressed anything yet, you press the [DO NOTHING] button out of sheer reflex.
>>[DO NOTHING]
The Melted has stopped completely – if it’s f͡ó̸ll̕o̡w͜͜i͠͞ǹg̡͡ ͟t͞h̶͝e͘ s̵̕a͟͠m͘e̡͡͡ ̴̵͞r͜ųl̨҉̴e̢s as the other, now’s the time to spare it and get it to ǵ̡̧o̸ ́͠a̷̶w̡̕҉͡á̵̧̀͢ý̕. The one with a lot of legs still w͝á̷͜t͏͏̡ch̡̀͝e̕s̶̢͝ ̧͘yo͏͟u͢҉̛, with that unchanging, infuriating smile. As the bullet screen goes away, you reach out a finger to press the ‘SPARE’ button…
Only for the other creature to snatch it away.
You stare for a moment in openmouthed shock, watching it holding your SPARE button. H…how?? That’s ń̡͝o̶̸̷̕t even a physical object! “Wha – give that back! I need that!” you demand, reaching for it, but the creature’s legs are much longer than your arms could ever h̷͟͟͏o͢͏̡͡p̕͞è̸͞ to be. The other Melted, strangely, has vanished anyway, so you suppose that’s one thing that’s going your way – but you’re still rather overtaken by a v̡̨͡͡͠i͏͟ơ̸͟͟͠l̵̢͘͘͞é̷̶͟n͢͡t̵̕͘ feeling of what the hell is happening?! While you’re trying to get at it, the creature’s face begins to stretch in all the wrong places, and your stomach drops as you realize you’ve been looking at its face entirely w̡̕͝r̶̸̛o҉͞n̸̡g̴̨̕͟. What you thought were two eyes were actually two mouths smiling at you, as they’ve now opened to grin at your m͜i̢s͡f͘o̷͠r̶͞ţ̵unè and dismay. The larger mouth below, conversely, is a giant eye, which is now open and s̸͞t̨͡a̵͡͠ŕ̸̡͞͡ín͞g̸̵̢͡͝ ̶̵̧a̵̧͏̡t̶͟͝ ̴҉͢͞y͏͝o̴̢͘u̡̕͠҉͢ in a way that’s making your skin crawl.
[It’s really M̢̭̹͕̗̪͈̭̖̯̩͇̖̲͍̬̙̫͂͂̔̋ͮ͐͋͊͂̅̾ͭͥ̑ͯͧ́̚͘͢͝Ḙ̷̸̹̱̗̰̱̥ͥ̓̽̍̇͑ͯ͌̅͗̏͢T̂̔ͭ͗͜҉͈͉͙̱̬̪̦̦̮͔̬A̩̠̱̻͚̥͛̾̌̔̀͋ͯͣͮͥ͂̄́̂͂͒ͨ͠͡.]
[35/50] [FIGHT] [RUN] [DO NOTHING] [FLIRT] [SPARE] [ITEM]
You don’t want to press [RUN], as that might cause you to permanently lose your ability to SPARE during a fight. “Can I… have that back, please?” you ask, forcing yourself to be polite. The creature simply grins at you, and it finally attacks. The leg that’s closest to you reaches out to t̶̛҉̷͏ǫ̷̛̕͜u̸̡̕̕c͘͟h̛͡ the screen, before elongating, growing in spurts towards your little heart thing as you try to dodge. Each time it ‘grows,’ you hear a slight crackling, like the rustle of dry leaves, and once again you try your best not to feel queasy. Whatever this thing is, it’s m̶̴̧̕͜e̷s̴͢͠s͏͟͏̡i͢͡͝n̷͞͏́g̵͢ ̷͟͡ẃi̧̕t̵̶̵͟͞h̵̡ ́͝y̡̕͜͝o̴̷͝u͏͘ in all the worst ways.
[Y̸͎͕̠̯̲̬̱̗ͣ̇̊ͨͥͭ̚͝o͗̓ͪ̋ͬ̔̊̐̿͋̃̆͜͏̶͏̹̺͉̲̱̥͉ũ̧̒͋̎̅͛̈́ͨͯ͘҉̨̦̼̲͙̗̩̼̠̭̟̬̮̥́’̈̆̌͊ͦ̓̒̑ͦ̐͑͂̀̐͐̓͡҉̵̘͕̝͇̥̣̥͍̲͘v̵̦̰̰̗̠͓ͩ͌͂̈̑ͪ̐̄̉̿́ͯ̓̏́͡ȩ̶̼̙̥̺̺̬͈̤̫͖̞̝̉ͪ̑͂ͦͩ̊̑ͬͪ̆̐ͪ͂̆̔ͦ͊͟͝ ̾̈ͭ̑̓̚͏̣̭̗̺̲̦̼̳͝f̷̛̞̣̙̦̬̪̲̱̤̺͇̹̐̿͛ͫ͘ͅi̸̯͍̰͎̙̰̊ͬ̑͒ͮ͐ͯͨ̓̓ͪ̋̚̚͝͠ͅn̵̡̛͎̭͙̗̈́͌̎ͬͫ̅̃̄ͥͮͬ̋ͭ͂͐̓a̶͕͖͈̤͕̗̫̝͎̫͉̭̺̥͋ͣ͐ͭ͂̋͑̒̽̋̀̕͡ͅl̸̢̻̪̙̪͇͕͈̓͂ͨͫͪͭ̉͆̓͌̄̊ͅͅl̶̡̗͇̺͔̯̭͎̻̬̥̙̦̅ͣͤͬͣͦ͝y̶̠̟͙̖̏̓̓̉͛͟ ̷̧̦͈̖̬͋͋̾̆̎̓ͬͨͤ͗̒̅ͤ͟͜ͅf̨̡̛̮̼̺̬͍ͫͦ̈̽͋̐̕ǫ̡̆̋̑͆͒̊ͤ͏̗̺̙̤͚̣̯̰̫͎ư̵̴̸̸̻͕̠̯̼̥̲̰̤̦̹̜̺̮̠̲̜̟̄͆̽͊̽ͯ͛̃̿̐͆̾n̸̶͓̞̮̠͕̲̐̒ͩͬ̽̋ͩ͒ͣ̉͂ͧ̆̓ͤ͐̄͟d̐̌̋̈ͯͦ̑͌̓ͤ͏̛̹͔̯̥̼͚̠̳͕̠͇͍̯̠̟̟̠ ̶̸̸͈̭̦̞͉̲̻̹̳̳̟̝̟͚͇̘̤̖̭͛̈́̌ͧͩ͘h̵̡̪̼͈͇͙̫͔ͯ̒̿͂̚͠ë̶͚̘̻͔̞̗̼͎͉̭͖͙̝̓̊̐̿̊̾̇ͮͪ͆͐͘͡r͇̜̖͖̳̰̫͇̝͍ͧ̽ͥ͛ͯ̂ͧ̚͘.̺̫̘̖͓̯̤̙̺̹͓͍̻̳̖͓̣̭̜̇͑ͤ͌ͬ̋͂̇̑͘͡]
[35/50] [FIGHT] [RUN] [DO NOTHING] [FLIRT] [SPARE] [ITEM]
This thing… is a she? Okay, you guess you’re n̷̢͋ͭ̎͐ͮ̇͢͞ơ̷̎͗͗ͬ͆̊̿ͣ̓̄ͨ̀ͭ́t̋͌̄͗̿̀͟ ̸̡̢̛̛̆̒͐̐ͯ̾̂͛̅ͧ̉̓̿̓̉̚ą̴̔͛̌̂l̶ͮͮ̈́̿ͥͮ̉ͤ̔͐̌͊l̵̑ͧͮ̑͐̂̈́̅ͯ̀̎ͥ͡ȏ̵̈̃͊̅̍̎ͩ̑ͤ̈́ͥͤ̈́̂́w̐̄ͥ̇͗͜͏ě̸͒ͨ̚ḋͤ̀ͦ̈́͌͗̈̀͘ ̢̢̛̓̑ͦͨͧ͗̉ͬt̸̐͂̒ͪ̓̆ͣͦ̆ͯ̽̇͆ͦͣͪ͊ͥ́ŏ̷̧̡͒͊̈͠ ̛̆̍͋ͦ͌̈͡͏̷͝d̶̵ͬ͒ͦ̒ͬ̎ͬͣ͐̊̄̀̽ë̶ͧ̎̆͒ͧ̕͟c̛ͣ͂ͫ̿͋ͥͯ̀͟͟i̵̐ͫ̄̐̊͒̒̀̋̓ͦͩ͊͂͑͑҉̧͝ḋ͋ͯͯ̄̌ͪ̈́̾͏̷̛é̴ͭ͊̓͛̒͑ͪ̉̒͂̌ͥͥ͌̌͜ that for it. Still… You wonder what to do. Doing nothing is likely out, as whoever’s given you this ability probably wouldn’t make it that obvious. You d̛̹̤͚̻̦̪̮͍͖̰̰͈̠̩͢o̵̘͔̱̜̗͓̳̼͕̞̮n̸̵̵̡̥̪͙̯̳̱̞͙̻ͅ'̵̢̠̮̺̲̤̤͇̼̻t͘҉̨͉̻̩͔̟̠͚̮̻̭̖͠ͅͅ ̶̦̘̯̖̘̩͉͎̖̙͙̼͍͚̰͘ͅw̧̧͖̪̟̥̻̟̘͙̤̺͖͇͝á̴̘͙͈̲͍͚̞͇̜̤͔̪̯̳̗̜̠́ͅǹ̡̛̘͎̞͍̥̟̘̹̙̖͎̳̤͙̩̭͘ṯ͎̯͇̬͓̲͔̟̗̗̪̣͙̰̥͞͝ͅ ̷̨̮̦͔̀t̴̜̦͙̳̙̭̮́͠͞o҉̹͈̮̤̳͚̠̖͘ ̷̶̵̢̳̩̪͎͕͙̤̱͚̙̤̯͇̻̘ͅͅf̸͘҉̥͔̲̙͖̺̜͓͓͉į̲̰̠̹̖̖͖͉̣̹̥̤̭̩͎́͜͝g͡͏̸̥͔̗̱͉̗͍̮̥̫͇̬̟͕͓̤ͅh̹̖̺̲͈̬̪̺̰̦̬̮̱̗̜̬͇̹̀̕͞ṱ͍̯͚͍̬̲̭̰̻̯̭͈̳̲͡ or run, and you kind of doubt there’s an item you can use here, so…
>>[FLIRT]
Um. This is awkward. You’re going to try and flirt with a… well, you don’t quite know what it is, but you do know it’s n͟o̸̶t͞ ͟͜í͡n҉͢͞t̨e͜r̶̸e̵st̨͟ed in you like that. “Hey, sexy, wanna maybe call this a draw? I can make it worth your while…” you try, giving your best (an̛͝d t̵́ę̴̛r̢ri͜b͟ļ̸͞e͢) impression of a ‘purr’. The creature cocks its head, mouths frowning thoughtfully.
[If you can read this, please help me escape.]
[35/50] [FIGHT] [RUN] [DO NOTHING] [FLIRT] [SPARE] [ITEM]
…Is the little ‘blurb’ thing broken? Great. Just what you needed. Maybe the creature’s s͘t̕o̴l͢e̶͜n that, too. Hopefully you’re still allowed to ma͢͡ke͝͠ a̢ ͜͜ćh̢͘oi͜c̴̕e.
>>[FLIRT]
“Come on… surely you’re a little curious about what it’d be like,” you offer, giving your best ‘bedroom eyes.’ The creature seems unfazed, though it glances at the Ş̴P̨͘͜͠A͏̢́R̶̨͡É͘͢͜ button it’s still holding.
[Shiny?]
[35/50] [YES] [NO]
…What.
Okay, seriously, what? What do you even say to that? The creature is looking at you expectantly, tapping a hoof against the floor – it’s clearly awaiting an answer, and y͜ou’d be̵s͝t͠ ͞ńot ͘ho͡ld̴ it͠ up͘. “Um… no?” you decide, poking the appropriate button – something tells you pressing the other one wouldn’t do anything.
>>[N̢̧͘O̸̴̶͜͡]
The creature grins at you again, mouths opening in a silent laugh. As the screen expands to show your little pink heart thing, alone in the box, it reaches up with another creepily elongated leg to press the [SPARE] button it’s holding back into i͢͞t̢s̴͝ ̷͟p͘͜͝r̶̛op͟͝ȩ͘͜r͞ p̸l̡͢ac͟͠e.
And, just like that, it vanishes.
Immediately, you’re tackled from behind, and slam to the ground, a heavy weight pinning you to the floor. “I didn’t mean it, I’ll-!” Chrysalis yells above you, before stopping abruptly.
“Where’d they go?!” Sombra snarls from somewhere behind you.
“They’re gone,” you answer, groaning slightly as Chrysalis quickly gets off of you.
“You – you took care of them?” she asks, half incredulous and half hopeful.
“I… dunno,” you answer, looking around.
“I really don’t know.”