//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Secret of the Pies // by Player 4 //------------------------------// Pinkie and Maud's cuddly night was so. The full night through, they laid in the honeymoon hug position, spending deep sleep in embrace with each other. Upon waking up and realizing this, Pinkie mutters out, in tiredness but not enough to suppress this thought, "That felt soooo good..." Maud, for her part, was being attacked by embarrassment and the "uncharacteristic" label, but in reality, she finds herself thinking the same thing. She doesn't want to tell Pinkie yet, but now she's interested in doing more cuddling. Possibly with ponies other than Pinkie. Pinkie jumps out of bed, partially because of excitement about hopefully finding their biological parents today, but also for a hotel special. "You know what's a good thing about being in hotels? Free breakfast!", she exclaims to her sister. Maud smiles. "That sounds wonderful, Pinkie. Let's go ahead down there." They open their door from the room to the beautiful hotel halls; this place sure knew how to be a good hotel. At the bottom floor, as opposed to in the night, the place was vibrant with Kirin and some other species too, including one of Pinkie and Maud's kind. "Huh. Based on what we saw last night, I thought we were like the only ones here.", Pinkie says. "The nights do portray that", the same front desk worker of yesterday chimed in with. "This village goes to bed early, so the hotel always looks empty in the early night." Fun fact learned! The breakfast was as great as it could be, and perfectly accommodating for both ponies. Pinkie was able to dive into her Sugarcube Corner-style breakfast habits of frosted waffles, pastries, and colored cereals all she wanted, whereas Maud was able to keep her contentment with the basics. As a thank you, the two ponies wanted to tip all the Kirin who worked in this buffet, but wait... the Kirin village uses a different currency than Ponyville! Where are they going to find it? "I don't think we can tip them. We don't have the money they use.", Maud says. "Hmm. Well, let's see.", Pinkie says as she runs her hoof through her mane. "Ah! There we go!" Pinkie finds the perfect amount right there and hands the Kirin the tip. Yep, Pinkie being Pinkie again. Suddenly, she just has it. Today though, it was more than that, with everything that's going on. Maud, who, along with Pinkie, had just finished breakfast, remembered what they were abroad for in the first place. "Neither of us know why you can do such things with your mane.", Maud says. "Would you say we're on a mission to discover that as well?" Pinkie's thinking of this topic, having been interrupted by the parents thing, finally gets to jump out. "Oh, you're right! Yeah, why can I do all this crazy stuff? I don't know! Sure would be nice to find out!", she says. Maud catches herself possibly drifting into a new, shocking topic. "I could be wrong, but I'm wondering if it's because of our biological parents. They have these powers and passed them down onto us." "Ooh, you might be right!", Pinkie says. "Well, another reason to go on this adventure more!" Maud nods. After their daily showers, Pinkie and Maud set back off into the outlands, following their map-powered cutie marks to this "temple of portals" place. So another topic has taken up reigns in Pinkie's mind. She does seriously consider the possibility that she and Maud's abilities come from one or both of their biological parents. So then, who could they be? Well, I know someone who has these abilities too. Discord. Are my parents... the same species as Discord, maybe? But we've never seen evidence of any other draconeqqus. Well, this place is called the temple of portals, so maybe behind one of those portals are other draconequi? We shall see... This walking journey wasn't nearly as long as the last one; Pinkie and Maud don't feel tired. Still with much energy in the ponies, their glowing cutie marks rise from their flanks and circle around their destination. That means this is the temple of portals. It's a somewhat pyramid-shaped temple made out of bricks, and all black in color. And it was large. Very large. There were quite a few rows of windows stacked on top; how many portals did this place have? Heading inside, this place really was a temple of portals. The first sight to be seen upon entering the doors is a dark black hallway, lined with multi-colored swirling spirals on the sides. In fact, every single portal is a different color. Look around and around, and you will find no repeats. Pinkie and Maud, having realized that the encirclement is where the Cutie Map guide ceases, and now wondering which portal they must go into, have those thoughts interrupted by a sudden, loud slam-shut of the temple's front doors that made them jump, even Maud. Then, a double-scare happens. "Hello?", an echoing female voice calls. Pinkie and Maud have no idea who this is, but the fairly tales their adoptive parents would read to them as children are bringing back their old fears of spirits, and they sure didn't want to upset a potential spirit, so Pinkie responds. "Um... hi?" "Hi there.", the voice says. "I am here to tell you what to do in order to get to your destination. I know what you are here for." What? She knows? This random being they can't see and have never heard of before... has access to their lives, desires, everything? Pinkie wants to sprint out of this terrifying temple, but it's no use. The doors are firmly sealed. All she can ask, in perpetual fear, is "Ho-o-ow?" The voice tries to reassure. "Don't be scared. I promise you I am friendly. I am the leading member of our city's new friendship project. And there is a very good reason for me knowing who you are. But I want to wait to tell you until you complete the task I have laid out. Again, I am directing you to your destination." "First, look on the ground in front of you." Knowing the personality behind someone who runs a friendship project, and them really, really wanting to accomplish the goal of finding their biological parents, they decide to oblige the voice's instructions, looking down by their front hooves. Step 1 Go through the ocean blue portal. Location; door #5 on the left of this floor. "To find the other steps, you will have to go to the location of the current one. I have left all the pages containing the steps in their appropriate places. There are five in total, and once you have collected them all, you will unlock the portal that will transport you to your destination." They're still wary of this being, whoever it is, but again, the thing about the friendship project, and they really want to see their bio parents. Pinkie and Maud believe the benefits outweigh the risks. Pinkie stores the first journal page in her mane and walks with her sister to the correct portal. Following the numbers on top of the colored areas, they reach the ocean-colored spiral under the number 5. Pinkie takes a deep breath. "I guess we're going in, Maud." Maud lets the sight of this portal, this crazy whirl she's about to jump right into, fully cement its status in her mind. But again, it's part of their goal. "Yep. Let's do it.", Maud says. The sisters bring out their bravery and take the leap of faith right into that portal. The anticipation of finding out where the heck they're going runs through their minds as they ride through the blue area. Who knows. Who knows what's about to happen.