//------------------------------// // Chapter 05: The Secret Sofa // Story: The Wrath of Ahuizotl // by MariusIoannesP //------------------------------// Once they had crossed the bridge, they entered the castle’s foyer. “Okay, this is a big castle,” Daring said to Twilight and Rainbow standing behind her. “We’ll have to concentrate our efforts where Princess Celestia most likely hid the Medallion.” “Well, according to one of Princess Luna’ diary entries,” Twilight explained, “Celestia’s favorite room in the castle was a secret room she had hidden in the library. That’s where I found their journal in the first place.” Daring stroked her chin in thought. “A room she loved to hide something she loved.” Daring turned to Twilight. “Sounds like the best place to start. Lead the way, Twilight.” Twilight led the assembled ponies to the castle library, where she found a table next to a particular set of bookshelves. She went to the chair at one end of the table and pulled it back, setting off a hidden lever that caused the bookshelves to slide open, revealing Celestia’s secret reading room. Once they had filed into the secret reading room, Daring addressed the group. “Alright, everypony,” Daring began, “the princess probably hid the Medallion or some further clue to its location somewhere in this room.” The rest of the ponies quickly scattered throughout the room, looking for secret hiding places. “Try looking for a hidden panel or a secret safe embedded in a wall.” “Or a secret sofa!” Pinkie Pie said. Daring looked to her side and saw Pinkie inexplicably standing right next to her. Daring had not heard her approach, and she had trained for years to always know when a pony was sneaking up on her. How’d she get there? Daring thought. But the answer to that would have to wait. There was another question bearing on Daring’s mind. “A secret sofa?” Daring asked Pinkie. “Yeah! You know how when you lose something in between the sofa cushions, you can never find it again?” Pinkie explained. “So, a sofa is the best place to hide your secrets. Because if you hide your secrets in a sofa, nopony will ever find them again.” Pinkie beamed brightly. “Secret sofa!” Daring just looked back at Pinkie, completely flabbergasted. Rainbow walked up to Daring. “Oh don’t mind her, Daring,” Rainbow said. “Pinkie sometimes can be a little weird. Check this out.” Rainbow cocked her head behind her. “I thought I heard this hollow spot behind this bookshelf when I was knocking on the wall.” Rainbow then put her wing around Daring and led her away from Pinkie. Once they had left Pinkie, Daring turned to Rainbow. “Is she always like that?” “Pretty much,” Rainbow answered. “But she kind of grows on you.” Meanwhile, Pinkie continued to stand there, befuddled as to why neither Daring nor Rainbow took her Secret Sofa suggestion seriously. “Well, I’m going to go check between the sofa cushions,” Pinkie announced to nopony in particular as she made her way towards a chaise lounge that stood to the right of a stained-glass window decorated with a crescent moon and stars. Once she made it to the sofa, she lifted up the cushions. She found nothing underneath them. “Nope. Nada,” Pinkie said. She put the cushions down and sat on the sofa. She began to rock back and forth, stroking her chin in thought. “If I was Princess Celestia, where would I hide the Blue Moon Medallion from Princess Luna?” Pinkie did have quite a bit of experience hiding things from her own sister. When she and her sister Maud were fillies playing Camouflage together, sometimes Pinkie would find Boulder first and then hide him in Maud’s pocket. Maud never seemed to notice though. She always thought Boulder was just hiding in her pocket. In the midst of these thoughts, Pinkie rocked back farther than she intended and sent the sofa tipping backwards. “Whoa!” Pinkie cried as the sofa leaned back. The sofa leaning back engaged a lever attached to its front leg and opened a secret passage in the wall behind it. Pinkie tumbled over the back of the sofa and onto the secret slide in the secret passage. “Ahhhhhhhh!” Pinkie screamed as she went down the slide. “Pinkie?” Rainbow asked as she turned towards the sofa. She saw the tipped-over sofa and the open wall behind it and quickly deduced what had happened. Rainbow swiftly took to the air. “Don’t worry, Pinkie! I’m coming for you!” Rainbow then flew down the secret tunnel. The rest of the ponies gathered around the opening of the secret tunnel. “Is that a secret passage behind a sofa?” Rarity asked. “Yep. I reckon that’s a secret sofa like Pinkie was saying,” Applejack replied. Daring was quite excited by this development. Things had just gotten interesting. “Well, adventure waits for nopony, fillies,” Daring stated. She took to the air and followed Rainbow down the tunnel. Twilight looked among her remaining friends. “We better go in after them.” “Darn tootin’,” Applejack replied. “Um, shouldn’t we just stay here and wait for them to come back?” Fluttershy asked worriedly. “And what? Let Rainbow get all the glory if she just so happens to find that Medallion on her own?” Applejack replied. “You know what that’ll do to Rainbow’s ego. Not a chance, missy.” Applejack reared up and kicked her forelegs in the air. “Yee haw!” she cried as she ran through the tunnel entrance and down the slide. “If it’s alright with you, I think I’ll just wait up here,” Fluttershy said to her remaining friends with a bit of fear. “Nonsense, Fluttershy,” Rarity replied. “We could really need you down there. What if Pinkie Pie or one of the others got hurt?” Fluttershy gasped in shock. “You’re right! They could have gotten hurt. I can’t leave my friends like that.” Fluttershy gingerly made her way to the tunnel entrance. She took off her hat and kerchief and put them on a nearby floor pillow. “Well,” she said with a gulp, “here I go.” Fluttershy hopped through the entrance and went down the slide. Rarity peered down the secret tunnel. “There could be mud or dirt down there,” she said with a hint of distaste. “I suppose I should remove these just to be safe.” She took off her hat and scarf and placed them on the nearby floor pillow with Fluttershy’s accessories. “Well, here I go as well.” She hopped through the tunnel entrance and down the slide. Twilight could not help but smile at such a display of devotion by her friends. But now it was her turn. Twilight likewise took to the air and flew down into the secret tunnel. Rainbow Dash landed just outside the tunnel’s exit once she had finally found it. Rainbow found herself in a dark and shadowy chamber. She could not make out anything about this chamber, how big it was, or if there was anything there. She could not see but for a few inches in front of her own face, at least until her eyes adjusted to the dark. Until then, the darkness would be all consuming. Rainbow Dash took a few steps from the tunnel’s end. Or it may have been many steps. She could not really tell in this darkness. She looked around, trying her best to make out anything in the pitch-black darkness. “Pinkie Pie!” she called out. “Pinkie Pie!” All she could hear was her own hoofsteps echoing throughout the chamber. “Hi!” Pinkie’s voice suddenly called through the darkness. It was right behind Rainbow. Rainbow turned around and found Pinkie Pie’s eyes immediately in front of her, staring back at her out of the all consuming darkness. “Gah!” Rainbow cried at suddenly finding Pinkie Pie so close to her personal space. Once her surprise had subsided, Rainbow turned to more important matters. “I’m so glad I found you. Are you okay, Pinkie?” “Of course I am,” Pinkie said happily. “That slide was fun! Can we do that again?” “Maybe later,” Rainbow answered. “Listen Pinkie, I’m sorry for doubting you before, you know upstairs with Daring,” Rainbow said. “Sometimes I forget how smart you can be.” “That’s okay,” Pinkie answered. “Sometimes I forget how smart I can be too.” “I wish it wasn’t so dark in here,” Rainbow said. “Ooh! I can fix that!” Pinkie replied excitedly. By this time, Rainbow’s eyes had adjusted to the dark enough to at least see Pinkie standing before her. Pinkie reached into her mane. The sound of random objects rattling emanated from Pinkie’s mane as she rifled through it. After a moment, Pinkie pulled out a small box from her mane. Rainbow had to squint to see that it was a box of matches. “Why do you happen to have a box of matches on you?” Rainbow asked. “For lighting birthday cakes, silly,” Pinkie replied. Rainbow could not help but grin. “Pinkie, you’re a lifesaver. Let’s see if I could find one of those torch holder things.” Rainbow looked around. She could still see very little in the all-encompassing darkness. She looked around where she thought the exit of the tunnel was and found what she had been hoping to find. Up high on the wall, she could just make out one of the disembodied hoof-sconces that dotted the walls throughout the castle. This must be a tall room, Rainbow thought. Rainbow flew up to the sconce with the box of matches in hoof. She opened it and found there was only one match left. “Why is there only one match left?” Rainbow asked, calling down to Pinkie below. “It was Mr. Waddle’s birthday this week,” Pinkie called up to Rainbow. “Did you know he’s like really, really old?” “Yeah, I always suspected that,” Rainbow replied wryly. Rainbow very carefully removed the match from the box and struck it on its side. It ignited immediately. Rainbow actually had to squint due the sudden onslaught of light, small though it may be. She had been in that dark too long. Very carefully, Rainbow moved the lit match forward and touched it to the torch within the sconce. The torch burst into flame. Now, Rainbow and Pinkie had at least a cone of light surrounding the end of the tunnel. “Now, we’re talking,” Rainbow said as she landed next to Pinkie Pie, who had been waiting for her below the torch. At that moment, Daring Do exited the tunnel and landed just outside its threshold right in front of Rainbow and Pinkie. “There’s no need to fear,” Daring began as she pointed to herself, “Daring Do is…” Daring was interrupted by Applejack suddenly sliding out the tunnel, knocking into Daring Do and sending them both crumpling to the ground. It did not take them long to both get back up, but then Fluttershy came sliding out and knocked them all back down to the ground again. Before any of them could try to get back up though, Rarity slid out and joined their crumpled, tangled mass on the floor. Somehow as she slid in, Rarity’s horn ended up poking Fluttershy in her flank. “Eep!” Fluttershy squeaked at having such a sensitive area poked by Rarity’s horn. Soon after, Twilight joined them, flying gracefully out of the tunnel’s end and alighting next to the crumpled mass of ponies. Twilight looked over her friends. “Are you guys okay?” “Um, I think we’re okay,” Fluttershy answered for the group as she slowly extricated herself from the tangled mass of ponies. She became the first of them stand up once more. Twilight then turned to Rainbow and Pinkie. “How about you guys? Are you okay?” Pinkie nodded. “Yep!” She pointed towards the slide. “I get first dibs on going down the slide again.” “Okay,” Twilight said, a bit befuddled. She looked up at the lit torch. “Hey, how did you get that torch lit?” Rainbow proudly put her foreleg around Pinkie’s withers. “Pinkie had some matches, and I flew up and lit it. Good thing, too. It was, like, really dark in here when I first arrived.” In the meantime, Daring, Rarity, and Applejack had finally managed to get untangled from each other and were straightening themselves up. Daring happened to look out into the darkness beyond their cone of light. “Hey, what’s that?” Daring said. The assembled ponies at Daring’s cue turned and looked out into the darkness. Just beyond the edge of their cone of light in what may have been the center of the chamber, everypony could just make out a silhouette of some kind of platform. “Huh, me and Pinkie must not have noticed it,” Rainbow said. “I wonder what that is.” “We’re going to need more light,” Daring said. “Leave that to me,” Twilight said. Twilight concentrated and her horn ignited with magic. A small spark flew off her horn and pierced the darkness above the shadowed platform. The spark then exploded like a flare into a ball of light that bathed the whole chamber in lavender light. The assembled ponies could now finally see the details of the chamber they had been standing in. The chamber was round, and its walls and domed ceiling were constructed of the same dark, golden-brown bricks as the rest of the walls of the castle. More of the disembodied hoof sconces also dotted the walls of the chamber. On the opposite side of the chamber from the tunnel they had just exited out of was another tunnel that led to literally only Celestia and Luna knew where. In the center right beneath Twilight’s magical flare stood a short dais with a small pedestal on top of it. The pedestal was crowned with a dark-blue sheet decorated with a crescent moon and stars that had a noticeable lump beneath it. A lump big enough to be a medallion worn around an alicorn’s neck. “That must be it!” Daring called out. “That must be the Blue Moon Medallion!” Daring ran up onto the dais towards the pedestal. She paused upon reaching the pedestal and looked behind her at Rainbow. “Hey Dash, can you come up here?” Rainbow did not need to be asked twice as she immediately flew up to Daring’s side. “What do you need?” Daring turned and faced Rainbow. “Rainbow Dash, you’ve been a huge help to me on this adventure. So, I think it’s only right for you to do the honors.” Daring indicated the sheet upon the pedestal with her foreleg. Rainbow’s eyes widened like saucers as she gasped. Rainbow shook her head. “No way, Daring. This is your adventure. I’m just along for the ride. You do it.” Rainbow likewise also indicated the sheet upon the pedestal with her foreleg. “But I wouldn’t be here without you,” Daring argued further. “So go ahead.” She cocked her head at the pedestal. “But you’re the professional adventurer,” Rainbow retorted. “After you.” She likewise cocked her head at the pedestal. Down at their place on the ground floor, Rainbow’s friends intently watched Rainbow and Daring go back and forth. “How long do you reckon they’re gonna keep going like this?” Applejack asked. “I hope they decide soon,” Rarity replied. “I’d like to see this Blue Moon Medallion. Can you imagine? A blue diamond that once belonged to Princess Luna!” Rarity danced in place in her excitement. “I can hardly wait!” “Hey guys!” Twilight called up to Daring and Rainbow. Daring and Rainbow turned to her. “Why don’t you just do it together?” “That’s a great idea,” Rainbow replied. Daring nodded in agreement. Rainbow and Daring then grabbed two corners of the sheet. “On three,” Rainbow declared, and Daring nodded. “One… Two… Three!” With one swift action, Rainbow and Daring pulled the sheet off the pedestal, revealing their prize. It was a pile of rocks. “Huh?” Rainbow grunted at the pile of rocks on the pedestal. Daring just looked at the rocks in confusion. “Hey, what gives?! Where’s the Blue Moon Medallion?!” “If you desired the Medallion of the princess lunar, you and your band should have arrived sooner,” a deep, menacing voice bellowed out of the darkness.