Deep in the ancient pyramid, hidden in the jungle of an impossible sky island, Azure Feather stared at the oncoming swarm. 'Spiders with inside: lovely', she thought. Opponents both numerous and deadly: if the puzzle they'd solved to gain entrance could be believed, she was especially weak to fire. The pegasus's fragile confidence began to drain away as she imagined stomping one, only to go up in flames. She could only hope her air magic would suffice to deal with them from a distance.
Nearby had been a grey hippogriff stallion, but with his concentration broken Reef Skimmer's form shifted and separated, transformed into the bizarre beast he'd been trying to keep hidden. Trying to ignore his legs and tail reverting to bundles of tentacles, he called out "Social arachnids are rare, to be sure, but- gah!" One of the creatures leapt straight at him; he reflexively blasted it back with a jet of water, punching a hole through several layers of webs. Energy sparked and crackled as the thing's bright blue abdomen disintegrated in the stream, causing Reef to spasm in shock. "Damned things have some sort of... defence mechanism!" he shouted, shaking his tentacle to try and dismiss the stinging sensation.
"That was lightning!" Sprocket shouted from the rear of the group, "What element's lightning?"
"Whaa! They shoot fire? And lightning??" Summer Scribe's jaw dropped with alarm. This place had a greater concentration of weird beasts than even the Everfree Forest. The unicorn let fly with the rock she'd been levitating, pelting a spider that had gotten uncomfortably close. She was really starting to envy Reef and Azure: those two basically had super powers, all she had was her horn and her wits! The panicked projectile struck off centre, but still knocked the advancing spider's legs out from under it, sending it skittering across the floor on its back.
"Chalk that up to the Wind element!" Azure called back. "I can bring thunderstorms as well as tornados!" Outdoors at least; she wasn't so sure about underground. For now she took aim at a spider with green markings on its abdomen, her wings moving swiftly to conjure an air blade. Her practice paid off: she nailed one of the creatures dead on and splattered it into a puddle of goo and broken chitin - goo that hissed and bubbled as it ate into the floor.
"Green ones have an acidic mixture!" she warned, "that could be Earth... no, it eats through it... Magic?" ...Her other weakness? Why did they have to come to this cursed place...
Summer Scribe huffed in displeasure, focusing her magical efforts into a gentle glow around the fallen spider, sending it hurtling away before it could attack again. "Alright, if they're made of volatile elemental explosions, then they can just explode each other!" she shouted. "Azure, got any cool windy things to show off today? It's only a problem if you let them bite you, right?"
"They're even colour-coded!" Sprocket said in excitement from the pathway her companions tore through the webs, "Watch this!" The creamy furred unicorn lit up her horn's amber glow and took aim as it brightened, until a hot little fireball shot forth, soaring across the room and slamming into a red one, who immediately exploded among its companions in a burst of heat and flames. "Awesome!"
"The brown ones are normal!" Grenelda announced, while using one held in a foreclaw to beat the other to a pulp. The griffon screeched in pain as a third got her on the thigh, but her hind legs made swift work of slashing it open. Then she charged after more, her spread wings slicing webs left and right.
Despite their successes the bulk of the swarm was still advancing, seconds from overrunning the Equestrians. "Azure... we have to push them!" Reef called out, as he blasted multiple jets of water at the floor in front of him. The resulting tidal wave swept the spiders back and sent them scuttling for the pillars, crawling upwards to look for an alternate attack route.
Azure nodded in approval. The doctor had bought them some time but she needed to deal a lot more damage to these critters. "Let's see if this works, then..." she muttered, flapping her wings with far more force than before. The blast of wind blew away the majority of the spiders, ripping away their webs and leaving the remainder struggling for purchase. The two unicorns made good use of the opening, splatting several of the creatures as they scrabbled and chittered in confusion.
Then with a sudden twang followed by a squelch Reef Skimmer found himself with an obsidian-tipped arrow embedded in his chest. The hippogriff gasped in pain, recoiling then just staring in shock at the protruding tail of the shaft. Grenelda's quick reactions saved her from a similar fate; already in motion, she twisted around to look for the source of the attack, and in doing so dodged the bolt of purple magic streaked out of the gloom. The brightly glowing blob whistled past her head and splattering hot energy over the wall behind her.
Time seemed to slow as Azure Feather scanned for the source of the attack - there, rendered visible by all the webbing they'd cleared away. Two arachnid shapes the size of griffons, with spindly green torsos rising from where the spider's head should be. One was nooking another arrow to its bow, while the other continued to gesture wildly, shaping a fresh bolt of magic. "Heads up! Archer, mage, far side!" Seeing the mage getting ready to fire again and knowing all too well her weakness to magic, she dove for cover behind the nearest column.
Summer followed in turn, her ears twitching in anticipation of further shots. The little unicorn tried to slow her breathing as she peeked out from behind her cover. "What on Equestria? Who's shooting at us now?" It was too co-ordinated to be mere traps... sure enough, there was something moving at the far end of the room... Oh no. She shrank back: giant spiders? With something on top... "Seriously? Drow-spider-taurs? This day can't get any worse..."
Grenelda's comprehension of the situation was much more vague. Blasts of magic narrowly missing her - it was the botched heist in Baltimare all over again. "Oh shit, it's the fuzz!" the griffon screamed, as she grabbed the nearest brown furry body in her beak and booked it for the exit.
With the others behind cover or retreating, the stunned Reef Skimmer was left to take a bolt of magic in the flank. The hit burned away his fur and produced a steaming patch of dark blue. A deafening screech filled the air as the mutated griff lunged forward, casting about with murderous eyes for his tormenters.
"That wasn't very nice!" Sprocket shouted from her hiding spot behind one of the sphinx statues. She stuck her head out long enough to take aim at the spidery mage and toss her own little magic trick at the creature. The flaming sphere punched smouldering, smoking holes through the webs between her and her target, then hit the creature's abdomen and burst into a miniature firestorm. The spider-drow hissed and scrambled for cover, abandoning the spell she'd been preparing.
"Yeah, you leave Reef alone!" Summer Scribe shouted as well, casting about with her magic and finding the carcass of a blue-striped spider to launch at their attackers. It only made it half way across the huge chamber, but the resulting spray of electric sparks temporarily blinded their ambushers. "Reef, you're way more durable than you were before!" Summer called out in encouragement. "Which makes sense, if you're a water creature now! You don't have to fear their arrows: show them what you're made of, literally!"
Azure knew she should be giving covering fire - even if the doctor was immune to arrows, those magic bolts were bad news. Yet for once her limbs wouldn't co-operate. All she could do was hide behind her pillar, mind fixated on the elemental puzzle. Air was vulnerable to magic? Would a single hit from the enemy mage slay her instantly? Seeing Summer and Sprocket brave the danger jolted her out of her paralysis. The pegasus forced herself into the open, spreading her wings... only to see Reef Skimmer already in motion.
The hippogriff shook his head, trying to clear his mind and process Summer's words. His eyes followed the arc of Sprocket's shot to fixate on the target: the spider-creature that kept casting that damned spell. The now-enraged tentacle-beast surged forward, pounded across the space and closing inexorably on the spider-drow. Distracted by the searing pain in her abdomen, the spider-mage was unable to form a proper spell. Instead she released raw energy as a gout of purple flame, only for it to be lost in the torrent of water Reef sprayed in front of him. Her companion loosed another arrow, but it too was deflected to clatter harmlessly against a column.
Then the water elemental was upon them, blue tentacles wrapping around the spider-drow and bearing her to the ground. The creature screamed in pain as legs snapped and carapace dissolved, but that only gave Reef an opening to stuff another tentacle into her mouth. The blast of water down the poor drow's throat instantly destroyed her lungs, leaving the creature a twitching corpse.
Reef Skimmer dropped the limp form and turned his rage on the remaining spider-drow, who skittered away in full retreat from the ferocity of the nightmare beast's assault. The creature disappeared into the mouth of a shaft, taking one final blast of water to the abdomen before he could flee to safety somewhere deep below. The griff watched it go, eyes still wild and tail-tentacles thrashing back and forth.
Azure Feather had seen her share of combat in the Lavender Blades, but the sudden, brutal ending of the conflict gave her pause. Were all hippogriffs like that, or was it something to do with Reef's transformation? A part of her didn't want to be the first to speak up - after all, with that look in his eyes, would the doctor attack their own squad next? She shook her head - no, no more cowering in cover. Somepony had to take the risk, and she was the professional guard. She trotted slowly across the gloomy chamber, saying hesitantly: "I'll admit, doctor... that was quite effective, but... you took an arrow to the chest, is that what proved... this?"
Summer Scribe trotted close behind, cheering "Yeah! Show them, Reef!", then stopping and gawking at the full-scale tentacle-monster bloodbath on display. She had to look away from the mangled remains: "...Goodness! Reef really knows how to kick tail now. Hard to say they didn't deserve it, though!"
Reef Skimmer was shaking and panting through his gaping beak, still staring around the chamber as if another attack might come at any moment. "What were... What... Good grief. What have I done?" he murmured.
Summer quickly scanned their surroundings - no more of the large creatures, smaller (though still dinner plate sized) spiders scuttling for their lives... she breathed a sigh of relief. The biggest risk now was standing right in front of her. Summer cautiously approached the griff, waving and smiling. "OK, that'll do. You did it - those drow-spiders are done for. Nice work!
Sprocket didn't head forward so much as lay there against the column she'd been hiding behind. She couldn't stop shivering. Why couldn't she stop shivering? The noise that creature had made, it sounded like pain. Agony. She hadn't thought it would... she just thought they were going to... its body had just crumpled, and then melted. It didn't even look like a creature anymore. She should look again, just to make sure it was...she didn't want to look again. She couldn't look again.
A feathered and furred shape passed near: - Grenelda, padding back into the main chamber with a look of rage and alarm in her eyes. The griffon's expression turned to confusion and disbelief as she returned to what was no longer any semblance of a battlefield, the opposition routed and the surviving vermin fleeing into every crack and crevice they could find.
Not even noticing the orange haired unicorn mare lying quietly over there, Grenelda walked in the relative silence, her front claws clacking on stone as the griffon ventured deeper, walking all along the length of this great room to reach the others. She stopped at the many-limbed corpse, an uncontrollable shiver going down her entire spine as her leered back from that... thing. Then on to her companions. "You... defeated them?" she asked in disbelief, "The heck are you doing over here?"
Finally the explorers could catch their breath and get a good look at the far wall of the chamber. There stood the distinctive curved columns and enormous metal disc of an elemental gate, this one bronze in colour and bearing the stylised mountain symbolic of the Earth element. Summer, Azure and Reef had seen such gates before, yet there was something different about this one, something that shouldn't be there: a mass of pulsing veins that snaked up one of the supports and spread out over the central disc.
The disc itself was incomplete, translucent and flickering in places as if slowly being drained of its solidity. Summer's eye followed the mass of veins down to a cluster of rounded black structures tucked away against the wall, like a clutch of enormous slimy eggs each big enough to hold a pony. The glistening structures glowed with a sickly purple light, which pulsed in the same rhythm as the veins draining the gate. Summer had the sudden notion - not that she took much convincing, but the force of it was surprising - that these things had to be destroyed.
Summer Scribe, with an appraising gaze, looks upon the door with wonder. "Coool..." And then as though compelled, her eyes wander to the throbbing black sacs. "...Yet gross." She suddenly recoiled as a thick distaste filled her mouth. Blinking, she looks from them to the elemental door - "They're doing something weird to the door. They're as unwelcome here as those spiders were. Let's destroy them." Firmly convinced by this shaky rationalisation, she picked up a rock in her field, building up energy for a moment before launching it at one of the sacs.
Azure Feather's words had finally got through to Reef Skimmer. The tentacle-griff stared at the pegasus, then at his own chest. Sure enough, the tail of the shaft was still hanging there... before it dropped off and clattered to the ground, the stub melted away where Reef's body had dissolved the rest of the arrow. Ear-tufts flicking, he opened his beak to reply, but before he could say a word the blast wave hit.
Every creature was stunned and deafened as the sacs exploded, the light blinding in the dark space while the noise reverberated off the stone walls. Summer yelped as she was thrown onto her side, skidding back a few steps on the polished sandstone. Azure winced and assumed a combat stance, trying to shake her head clear. Thinking they were under attack again she looked around in vain for more of the spider-creatures.
Once everyone's night vision returned it became clear that there were no further foes, only Summer's handiwork. The sacs were gone, leaving only a huge scorch mark and deep cracks in the walls - along with the seal, leaving only the empty pillars of the earth gate. In the chamber beyond, something large and golden glistened.
"Siren's taint Summer, what in Tartarus are you doing!" Reef bellowed, wings spread to loom over Summer. "Must you poke every damned magical tumour with a bloody stick? Couldn't give us a moment's peace first?"
The blue unicorn was wincing with pain as she got back onto her hooves. "Wait... the gate opened from that?! ...I have no idea why I didn't take more precautions before doing that." She hung her head in guilt... but it was like she was compelled to do it? Or at least, she acted without thinking... Still it certainly had an interesting consequence: instead of repairing the seal, it blew it to high heaven!
Dismissing the other's objections with a vague wave of her hoof, Summer lit her horn and trotted up to the gate. Beyond was another short tunnel ending in a third chamber, much smaller and covered in rich mosaics similar to the puzzle room. Summer paid them no heed, for the object in the centre dominated her attention. Another reclining sphinx, this time cast in pure gold, with sapphire eyes that seemed to stare into her own.
"Oh... That's shiny..." she muttered, captivated. A promise, of knowledge, secrets, power... did she want to get into the northern pyramid? Defeat the drow? Truly unlock the mysteries of Skylands? How else could she save her friends? All she had to do was... become the Oracle. Enraptured, the unicorn stared into the glittering sapphires with twinkling eyes of her own. "Yes, Oracle... I can help my friends if I know everything." With absolute self-confidence, she trotted closer, stretching out a hoof to touch the golden face...
The sphinx's commands rang in Azure's ears: do not disturb anything inside. Especially the 'Oracle's Grave', whatever that was. Now Summer Scribe had that look in her eyes, waltzing through the gate as if she's completely disregarded Ne'kuno's warnings. Reef had gone through one of those gates, and gone through a horrible transformation. She'd been the second, and while her experience had been... less chaotic, that had been with the aid of the Air spirits.
As for heading through an elemental gate to investigate an unknown artefact, one the guardians of the place had explicitly told them to stay away from... No. Not this, not now. Azure dashed forward, following Summer through the gate to try and stop her from doing something crazy. Even if she was ready for the consequences, how would the sphinxes react to the betrayal? They could hardly afford another enemy!
Azure galloped into the final chamber with Reef not far behind... just in time to see Summer's hoof touch the statue's not-quite-pony face. The researcher's form began to twinkle with a thousand tiny lights, mane and tail the first to dissolve into sparkling energy. Summer Scribe looked back over her shoulder at her companions, flashing one final smile before her form disintegrated entirely, scattering into a cloud of blue fireflies. The glowing motes hang in place for a moment, before being sucked into the gemstone eyes of the golden sphinx. With that, she was gone, leaving Azure and Reef alone in the chamber.
"What the blazes... Summer? Summer!?" Reef turned wildly to Azure. "Was that a spell? Did she teleport? Tell me that was a teleport?!"
Do not disturb the Oracle's Grave... do not disturb the Oracle's Grave... do not disturb anything, couldn't anything have been more clear than that?! Azure's frustration boiled over as she pounded a hoof against the floor. "Luna's stars, Summer, for once, couldn't you respect what you were told, for Celestia's sake?!"
Hearing raised voices, Grenelda padded in to join them. "What are you doing in here? Hey... nice statue! Is that solid gold?"
"Keep away from that thing!" Reef shouted, moving to block her path.
Azure just stared at the thing, sitting serenely there as if nothing had happened. Finally she turned to Reef: "How are we going to explain this?!" Seeing him holding back the avaricious griffon, she ordered "Nobody else in here!! No need for more casualties!!"
"The what? Statue? Dammit!" Grenelda swore, skittering back and letting the others out of the little room.
"Trapped! It was a trap." Reef told the griffon, wincing - aside from his fear for Summer, his side was still burning from the drider's attack. "It didn't just... disintegrate her, surely?" he said, still hoping for reassurance from Azure.
"Disintegrate her? Summer you mean?" Grenelda asked, looking around in confusion - no unicorn to be seen, on either side of the gate. "Oh no... did it get Sprocket too?!"
Azure could only sigh, looking sadly at the doctor. "I honestly couldn't say for sure. One of us is going to have to bring the bad news to the Sphinxes. Firstly that one of us was crazy enough to disturb the Oracle's grave - even after we were specifically told not to. Second, that the same creature is... is now not with us." She shook her head heavily before pounding her hoof against the ground again. "Damn it. Do you want to go or should I?"
Reef collapsed to the floor, too shaken to even worry about hiding his tentacles again. "One supposes... they might know what happened? What that thing did to Summer? I mean, where she is..." he said, pushing away the possibility that the unicorn had been vaporised for now. "Though they might not be in the mood to tell us." Dangerous magical predators or not, right then he was more concerned about telling Set Sail than the sphinxes.
"So it was Summer?!" Grenelda asked in increasing agitation, "She probably deserved it! She probably... she just started messing with the damn thing, didn't she!"
"Would you rather I go tell them, then?" Azure Feather asked, looking back towards the Oracle as she sighed wordlessly. Grenelda took the words right out of her mouth. She was ready to do what she had to. Reef Skimmer nodded back; he didn't feel in any shape for a confrontation, yet... the longer they delayed... Summer could be trapped in a hidden chamber filling with sand or some such.
Grenelda was still confused: "What are we gonna do about Sprocket?? How did it get her? It was just sitting there! Does it target unicorns specifically and like zapped them both?"
Reef's ear fins perked up. "Sprocket? No, she wasn't... Sprocket?!" the griff called out. "Oh no, not her too..."
"Go look for her, Reef... I'll stay here, in case... ugh, I don't know, there's got to be more to this!" Azure declared in frustration. "She can't just have... damn it, Summer..." Her attention turned back to the gate and the statue beyond, as she waited as if hoping her squad-mate would just magically reappear.
A disorienting blur of colour, a vortex of incoherent vertigo, all of her senses feeling scrambled and dislocated. When Summer Scribe regained consciousness, she was looking out at the open gate through the facets of sapphire eyes, like some kind of compound... oh no. She'd touched the statue, and now she was in the statue. Inside the statue? "Hey! I'm in here!" she tried to call out... only to realise her voice was echoing nowhere but inside her own mind. She could see, she could hear... the others were arguing about her disappearance out in the main chamber... but she couldn't move or talk!
'Damnit, why'd I have to go and touch that?' she thought, 'I mean, it was a compelling offer, but of all ponies I should know this stuff always has a catch!?' A mental sigh. From the outside, there was no hint of her continued existence: the Oracle gazed on in silence. On the inside, the unicorn (or at least her mind) was metaphorically throwing up her hooves.
'Wait, wait! No one needs to tell anyone any bad news! I'm still in here! Just a bit incapacitated... I can figure this out! I've dealt with worse!' Well, maybe not worse as such, but there must be upsides to this! She was the Oracle now. Or at least in the Oracle. It should have an answer to her problem - surely she just needed to ask the right question?
Summer tried to take deep breaths, only to panic as she realised she wasn't breathing at all. Eventually she calmed down and projected the thought: 'Oracle, what can I do to give my friends a sign of life? I don't know the first thing about where I am now, but I'm sure I can figure it out with a bit of direction...' Yet as before, her mental voice simply echoed back. It seemed there was nopony else... or at least nosphinx else here.
Another mental sigh as she realised she was the only conscious being present: 'Hello? Damnit, I got tricked by something with about as much force of will as a rock.' If she could've hung her head, she would have. Yet... there were memories here, strange and foreign. Desires, emotions as well, or the echoes of them... unending, burning curiosity the most prominent. Greater even than her own, like an emotion detached from an emoter, it pervaded her like a mental atmosphere and encouraged her to dig deeper, to search through this strange new world she was immersed in.
The matter at hand... how could she interact with the pilgrims? Fragments of information that swim freely into her waking mind as her mental focus shifts to and fro. She remembered many coming to seek her knowledge, cats and other creatures too... so many that they blurred together into an endless stream. To reply, she had only to manifest the necessary shell, then possess it. Well, do as the Oracle does, Summer supposed...
She gathered the full force of her will, alert and anxious, and attempted to summon a vessel into existence. With a shimmer, then with a distinct pop of displaced air, a perfect effigy of Summer Scribe stood motionless in the sanctum, a frozen smile plastered on its ceramic face. Summer's consciousness found herself staring through crystal eyes at her own tail, glazed in blue and white. Not quite what she was hoping for, but... it was a start.
Again she tried to wave her hooves in frustration, only for the statue's golden paws to remain motionless. 'Okay, great, that's me!' she thought, 'but also... not me!' Suddenly she felt claustrophobic, as if she would be trapped in lifeless gold for all eternity with no escape, no way to even tell her friends... She shook it off. No sense panicking. Summer turned her thoughts to the 'library' around her, teasing out the answer to her next question: 'Ok, now what? How do I 'possess' it? I'm kind of stuck in this statue right now, but you still remember how to do it, right?"
Summer had never quite cracked teleportation, but she'd done the exercises; you were here, you imagined yourself there, enfold yourself in energy like so, and... Summer blinked as her perspective suddenly shifted. She blinked again as she realised she now had actual eyelids to blink with. As she understood what she was actually asking, it was already over! Like things were happening at the speed of recall.
She took a moment to drink in her new sensory feel: glazed eyes of ceramic that view the surrounding world with a magical sensory charm, tinting things with colours that normally don't see the light of day. A full-body 'hearing' from the vibrations that ring through her ceramic. A strangely rocky, earthy body-feel, like every move she made was of grinding hardened ceramic, hooves clicking and clacking solidly against the ground, her skin feeling so impeccably smooth: no fur to speak of, her mane and tail now static set-pieces.
It was certainly strange, but... surprisingly normal at the same time! Summer looked back at her own body; glossy, but yeah there was her cutie mark, her horn... huh, kinda muffled, but it was doing something. Maybe this wasn't so bad? She turned to face the golden sphinx, wow, now that was a chill... that was her in there, yet here she was looking back at herself.
"Woaaah..." There was her voice, echoing as if emanating from a deep cave within. She lifted a hoof to examine the way the light bounced off of its laminated finish, then her gaze went back to the sphinx statue. It seemed that was her 'real' body, even if she was possessing the effigy - she'd better keep it safe. Instinctually, she lit her horn, trying lift it with her field... it didn't budge. To be fair, a golden statue bigger than a pony would be a difficult ask for Summer on her best day, but now... perhaps it was the difficulty of projecting magic through that ceramic horn, but... no she managed to lift a pebble. She just wasn't getting a grip on that statue at all.
Beyond the elemental gate, Azure Feather was still waiting patiently, watching closely for some sign of life. Her ears perked up at the glow of blue magic from the inner sanctum. She cautiously approached the entrance, looking for the source. Summer Scribe was right there! Whole and healthy and... shiny. Featured painted on, as if she was a varnished statue. A moving statue?!
Summer pulled a face. Something was up with her magic; at least she hadn't lost it altogether, like poor Azure.... Oh! Her eyes locked with the approaching pegasus. "Azure! Thank goodness. Can you hear me?" She pointed a hoof at herself, making a 'this is me' gesture.
"W-What the..." Azure stumbled back, beyond confused. Was this Summer?! Was this... a construct of her? What in Celestia's name...?!
"...I can hear you, but... what in Equestria..." The pegasus couldn't make heads or tails of this, but... "What... but you..." She pointed weakly to the 'Oracle's Grave', unable to get another word out, and her eyes wide as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing.
Summer Scribe nodded eagerly, so happy to be reunited with her friend that Azure's confusion barely registered. "Yes, I'm in there now. Well, I'm in here too. Like I'm possessing it? I only just figured this out so I'm still putting the pieces back together." She trotted over to tap her hoof on the golden sphinx: click click click. "So unfortunately..." her brow fell "...that means we're going to have to disobey the wishes of the sphinxes and smuggle this out. ... Smuggle me out." She tapped her hooves together, giving Azure an imploring look. They wouldn't just leave her in there out of cultural sensitivity, surely...?
Azure Feather just stood there, stunned. Her friend was stuck in a blasted statue, the very one she was warned not to touch, then turned into... or possessed... or Celestia knows what happened with this... look-alike. As for the idea of smuggling out this enormous, dangerous magical artefact, no doubt precious to its sphinx guardians... Azure grunted in frustration, clearly torn between concern for her friend and fear of what would happen if they defied the sphinxes.
Summer Scribe leaned in to Azure, the light glinting off her glazed-ceramic muzzle while her shifting body made soft grinding sounds. "C'mon! It's my body, we have to be able to get it out of here, right?" she pleaded, "What good's an Oracle that just stays deep in some tomb day in and day out?" She gestured at her true body again. "I don't know if it's because I haven't figured things out yet or not, but I don't feel strong enough to lift it, but maybe you can?"
As her thoughts settled a bit, she began to appreciate the source of Azure's reluctance: the feline guardians, still waiting out in the jungle. "...Ok, yes, we might need to come up with a good cover story so the Sphinxes agree to let me, err, I mean The Oracle pass. Maybe if The Oracle decreed it they'd have no choice but to agree? Hmm, I need to think..."
Reef Skimmer lumbered around the central chamber of the ancient pyramid, still in his awkward tentacle-limbed form. He searched through the vast gloomy hall, peering around the thick stone columns and yelling "Sprocket? Sprocket?! Grenelda, make yourself useful and help me find that pony."
"Make myself useful??" Grenelda squawked in an offended tone, as she flapped in the air nearby. "Like I haven't been useful already?! Two of ours are dead, and you're going to give me a hard time about not being useful now? Really?!"
"I'm ...over here!" Sprocket's voice called out with difficulty, from behind one of the regular sphinx statues lining the walls of the chamber. She'd retreated to her former hiding spot; too bad nopony had remembered where she'd hurled the fireball from. She spoke as if she's tried to call out a few times already, but this was the first time she'd had enough control of her voice to even make a sound. "Not dead! I'm just... I'm just..." Not in pain, exactly... at least, not physically.
"Ah Sprocket, there you are... ah, that is to say, are you injured?" Reef Skimmer suddenly became conscious of his wiggling hideousness and looked away from the creamy unicorn, trying to squeeze his tentacles back into proper feet.
"I'm—!" Sprocket yelped, stumbling to her hooves. Seeing the griffs approach had pushed her to pull herself together, so she was able to do that at least. Looking away from the doctor, she said: "Ha ha just a little... just a little shook that was... gonna just gonna go outside." The flustered unicorn stumbled drunkenly forward, heading out of the belly of the dark temple, seeking the puzzle room and the comforting glow of its pool.
Reef easily bounded ahead of the shocked unicorn, blocking her exit. "Sprocket! Nasty business, to be sure, but listen to me!" he exhorted. "Summer is gone! And those sphinxes probably heard the blast." Sure enough, looking down the tunnel they saw a trio of leonine shapes silhouetted against the sunlit entrance, cautiously advancing towards the puzzle room. "We have to get our story straight before they come in here."
Sprocket shrank back, eyes darting left and right as she looked for a way around the deadly tentacle creature blocking her escape route. Reef clicked his beak in frustration; he still looked pretty monstrous and grabbing the mare would likely result in total panic, and she had magic... he looked to Grenelda hoping for support. The hen frowned but stepped forward, putting a claw on the pony's shoulder and hauling her along as they returned to the sanctum. Sprocket looked distant, dazed even, as she, the lady griffon, and the once-hippogriff reached the gate. There they found a ceramic pony arguing a case for her freedom.
"What the blazes..." Reef squawked. He stared in disbelief, head cocking one way then the other, relief mixing with annoyance. "Is that you Summer? You do realise you look like... is it some sort of curse?"
Summer Scribe looked down at her hoof. "I guess you could call it a curse? Could be worse though: I can think and I've got a body I can talk and walk with - I don't need any kind of medical or magical attention. Not to mention I have the whoooole of the Oracle's extensive library of knowledge to peruse at my leisure! So as curses go, I couldn't hope for a better one..." She bowed and grinned, still giddy at the possibilities.
"I thought you were disintegrated!" Grenelda complained, pointing a claw at the imitation unicorn. "So we've all been worried over two ponies, for nothing?"
"Not exactly nothing..." Azure Feather started, shaking her head. "Look, it seems Summer's stuck in that golden statue, but can... create and control a look-alike of herself?" In truth she was still confused. "So now the question is: how do we get the statue out of here?"
"Yeah, uhh, just this teeensy tiny problem..." - Summer squished the air between her forehooves together they were virtually touching - "...that my 'real' body is now a heavy golden statue with incredible cultural significance to a civilization we're on shaky-at-best diplomatic terms with. But, I have a plan, if you're all willing to hear it out..." A stony cough, then: "And sorry for the fright, Grenelda. I was figuring it out as fast as I could!"
"Uh... seems easy enough," Grenelda said, walking up to Summer Scribe with a quizzical look, before heaving the clay figure bodily up into the air. "You're really light actually!" the griffon declared in surprise, "But what's this got to do with that gold statue back there?"
"So... so what happened?" Sprocket asked in a wavery voice, with tilting her head at Grenelda and Summer, "Why are you all like a... a doll? We have to get our story straight, or... something? The sphinxes are in the other room headed this way."
"Oh, you have a plan now do you?!" Reef hissed, relief giving way to anger at the crazy unicorn who'd gone poking dangerous magical mysteries she should've kept her beak well clear of, again (though confusion was still present and in no danger of leaving any time soon). "Does this plan involve getting things back to normal in the next-" he glanced over his shoulder at the entrance tunnel "...thirty seconds? As Sprocket said, company is imminent..."
"Wait," Azure started, "...thirty seconds?" She paused to smack one of her front hooves squarely on her forehead. "The sphinxes... ugh, we don't need this, not now...!" Her wings flared out as she prepared to fight again... oh, this really wouldn't be pretty, would it...
Golem-Summer's head tilted at Reef's outburst: she looked confused for a moment, squirming in the griffon's grasp and trying to peer past the hippogriff, as if to assess the threat. "Err, thirty seconds? Well, um, basically the idea is that we need to play it up like The Oracle in its own inscrutable wisdom has instructed you and the rest of the team to carry it, that is to say me, out. I'll need some time to construct a good excuse and maybe make myself look like a sphinx and umm... yeah. We don't have time for that do we?"
"Uhh, uhh..." She was starting to panic again. "...someone break this body quickly!" Summer gestures with a hoof at her glazed blue self. "Don't worry, it's safe! I'm not really in this body. I just need to hide and pretend nothing happened, quick!"
Grenelda shrugged and dropped the ceramic Summer. The effigy fell a metre or so to the floor, landing with a clack and a wobble. Hairline cracks appeared her legs, but she seemed to be intact "...Harder!" she pleaded.
Reef glared at the unicorn effigy, before scooping it up in his tentacles and, in one smooth motion, pitching it into the hole the spider-drow had crawled down. Summer's final wail faded away as she descended the shaft, ended in a distant shattering sound followed by a shriek, as an unfortunate lookout got a faceful of ceramic shrapnel. Deed done, the hippogriff looked around at his companions. "Monstrous arachnids attacked, we fought back, they abducted our companion. Agreed?"
"Well, she did go down the hole," Sprocket observed, wide-eyed.
"They're probably abducting her pieces, as we speak," Grenelda pointed out.
"To be fair, they were trying to open the way here anyway. We just sped up the process, but we can just forget to say that part." Azure agreed, turning to watch the trio of felines approach. She knew she'd have to do the talking this time.
Summer Scribe found herself inside the Oracle once more. Bereft of her avatar, she couldn't talk, emote or do anything further. Instead of trying to summon another, she just watched to see how the sphinxes would react, how her allies would fare. At least Reef seemed to be on the ball - it would take hours at least, to go through all these memories and make a convincing play at being the Oracle - possibly even days or weeks.
By then the sphinxes had entered the main chamber: Ne'kuno broke into a run as she saw the open elemental gate. Her two subordinates fanned out, stalking through the columns to get into flanking positions. The four explorers stood quietly near the gate, trying to look as innocent as possible. "What is the meaning of this?!" came the sphinx leader's shrill shout. The gem on her golden mask glowed brightly, and it seemed as if she was about to attack. Then the sphinx's gaze fell on the broken remains of the spider-drow, and she came to an abrupt stop, staring warily at it then at the intruders.
"We were attacked by those creatures." Azure began, trying her best at damage control. "They broke into here, and we lost... we lost one of our companions. As..." She sighed: of all the ponies on the crew, Summer was one she'd hoped to call friend. "...As you can see. They took her down that shaft." She nodded firmly, then looked to the rest of the group, checking if any creature wanted to add anything. Best not to mention the statue if she could - they been warned not to interfere with it.
"I only killed... spiders," Sprocket said haltingly, "The big spiders, I d-didn't mean to—j-just the small ones. T-they didn't..." She didn't seem to have much to contribute to the conversation.
"They dare enter our sacred grounds..." Ne'kuno hissed, glancing in disgust at the slain spider-taur. Then her eyes were boring into Azure again, even through the jewels of her mask. "And the gate? How did you open it?" she pressed.
"As I said, we didn't open the gate," Azure explained, holding her ground. "The spider-creatures did, using some kind of device. I've never seen their kind before - I know even less about what their devices can accomplish." Azure knew she was getting dangerously close to the truth - she could only pray to Celestia that the sphinxes would accept their story...
"I didn't see it open," Grenelda said cautiously, "I just heard it uh, explode."
"I'd wager some kind of organic growth, tendrils connecting the gate to eggs or pods of some sort." Reef added. "Damn things took a hit in the crossfire, quite a bang I must say. That's when the gate opened."
"Oh Celestia, what if those were spider eggs?" Sprocket said, horrified, "Were they spider babies with an earth affinity? We didn't just b-blow up earth spider babies did we??"
Ne'kuno looked like she was about to answer, then shook her head; now was no time to get distracted by a secret trade. "Don't move!" she commanded, her voice sounding shaken and uncertain for the first time. When the newcomers made no objection, she hurried over to confer with Te'kepan near the gate, leaving the third sphinx to watch the others. A brief whispered conference, then Ne'kuno placed a paw on one of the gate's pylons. A translucent image of the central disc flashed and flickered into existence for a few seconds before fading back into nonexistence.
Turning to Azure again, she pronounced "The gate has been drained... and that corpse is fresh. It seems you are telling the truth. You say the beasts had not yet reached the Oracle's Grave?"
"To our knowledge, they hadn't." Azure answered, trying her best to stay calm through it all. That part was true at least. Ne'kuno's piercing stare was getting to her - it was an intense challenge trying to keep any hint of duplicity from her face, knowing the felines would likely attack if they realised the truth.
Meanwhile the immobile Summer could only watch as a male sphinx padded into her chamber and began to check for signs of theft or damage. She gulped, mentally at least - her hoof barely made contact before she was dematerialized, so hopefully there were no blemishes or hoofprints to pick up on... if only she'd checked while she had an avatar, but this wasn't exactly an eventuality she'd anticipated. Azure's story was alternate history fanfiction for sure, but so far it seemed to be holding up to scrutiny. She thanked her lucky stars that the drow weren't around to challenge it!
"So you bury your oracles under that statue in there?" Grenelda asked curiously.
Ne'kuno nodded to her companion; he flapped into the air, hovering over the hole in the corner of the chamber and peering down the shaft. Then she glared at the griffon; secret or not, the sphinx couldn't help but snap back: "The oracle sacrificed themselves, preventing the doom of Fellis! The greatest of us all, fifty lifetimes of knowledge lost just to push back the trollspawn rabble! And for what..."
Ne'kuno's voice cracked with regret and trailed off. Then with a sudden blood-curdling scream, she loosed a beam of energy from the glowing gem on her mask, exploding the remains of the spider-creature. "And now the spidrow would make a mockery of our sacrifice. They gnaw at the heart of our island like worms in an apple!" she screamed. The already shaken Sprocket recoiled from the sight of that pony face showing such predatory rage.
"Accursed creatures, all of them," Azure nodded. She seemed like she wanted to say more, but she left it at that. Further words just risked enraging the sphinx further or risk tearing her story apart.
Te'kepan glided down to land quietly next to his superior. The male sphinx placed a paw on her trembling shoulder. "Ne'kuno. The seal has been broken. We must restore it." He gave the explorers a sympathetic look. "The blue unicorn is nowhere to be found. They lost one of their own, fighting the abominations."
"They got what they deserved, attacking ponies without warning..." Azure muttered, shaking her head. "How goes the campaign against the beasts?" she inquired - it seemed like the sphinxes were in their own private war with the spider creatures.
Trapped in the Oracle, Summer Scribe was beginning to panic again. Everything was going so well: it seemed like hatred for the drow-spiders - spidrow? - was perfect as something to bond over, but wait-a-sec. If the gate went back up, that was kind of it for her! She flailed her mental hooves, hoping someone gets enough sense in them to make sure she's not sealed away forever!
"I heard a story once," Grenelda said, eyeing the sphinx's lashing tail, "Said my grandfather's grandfather fought and died over a fancy piece of gold. Sacrificed themselves to save us all from this hideous beast who was after it. They said we lost everything, but to see griffons strut about these days, you wouldn't know it. Because we didn't lose everything. You still have..." she pointed at Te'kuno, "Him. And him, and him, and... yourself. Long as you can count on your friends, you don't need to worry about what you lost, only about... how to stop the spider monsters. And... I dunno how to stop 'em, sorry."
Ne'kuno turned away, taking a moment to regain her composure. When she faced them again, her voice was confident and commanding again... if not quite as much as before. "The spidrow and their pets don't dare show themselves on the surface. Yet... the molekin tunnels go on for many kilometres, an endless dark to set traps and ambushes. Even the power of Earth would not suffice, in the enemy's spawning grounds." She snorted, then hung her head.
"So you came to our halls for knowledge, yet lost one of your own, fighting the abominations. I... thought you would face only the spiders, not their masters. We owe you a debt, for if you had not come, the remains of the Oracle would be lost to the darkness." The sphinx frowned, pacing nervously back and forth; she had to focus on securing the pyramid, the strangers weren't foe, but not friend either... "Now is not the time for talk. Come to us again in a moon and we will speak further."
"You speak of the next sunrise?" Azure spoke, tilting her head. A short time spent around Princess Twilight had given her a little taste of the archaic language, as used by Princess Luna after her return. She simply wanted to confirm that they wanted to see the group tomorrow and not in a month...
"Do you unicorns not known of the cycles of the moons!" Ne'kuno hissed, getting agitated again. She wanted to claw something, hunt something, until she calmed down. Then deal with the intrusion, secure the temple, come up with a strategy... only then would she be in the mood to trade secrets with groups of strange elementals turning up out of nowhere. "Twenty seven days for the Eriene, the greater, to rise and set. Yet if you are still eager... let us say a fortnight, ten and four days to our next meeting. We will be ready for you then." the sphinx said, in a tone that suggested she wasn't in the mood to argue.
"Quite so! Next fortnight, will do our best to drop by, swap a few more tales what?" Reef sputtered, "Will be sure to bring some tea next time." The doctor was keen to get what remained of the group out of the oppressive place without any more combat or casualties. Too much like being buried alive, he thought - all the more after Summer's confinement.
"We only sought confirmation, and I apologise," Azure bowed her head. "A fortnight, fourteen days. Understood." She nodded. "We will be prepared to speak then. May health and safety be with you all." A final bow, deeper this time as she showed the sphinxes respect.
Te'kepan returned Azure's bow, dipping low and giving a little flourish of his wings. Ne'kuno stared at him, startled and suddenly unsure if she was playing her role correctly; she compromised with a curt nods to Azure, Reef and Grenelda in turn (Sprocket seemed to have escaped her notice). "Ze'noath, escort our guests out of the territory," she told the other guardian.
"We can take the spiders, right?" Grenelda called over, holding up one of the brown bodies, "I know a killer recipe for roasting 'em!"
A hoarse chuckle from the other male. "By all means griffon, help us cleanse the pyramid." he rumbled. He waited patiently as Grenelda gathered spiders and Reef squeezed his body back into one piece, then padded behind as the four visitors made their way out of the pyramid. Two more sphinxes were guarding the entrance; they tensed at the sight of the griffs, only moving aside at a reassuring node from Ze'noath.
Azure sagged a little with relief as they headed out into open air. She'd got them out; she could only hope Summer knew what she was doing.
In truth Summer was struggling to stay calm and get to grips with her new situation. Ok, so if the real problem was getting stuck in this room, she just needs a solution to that. Think, Summer think! ... Or better yet, remember. She had all the memories of the past Oracles on tap, after all... ah, of course - she was basically an Earth Elemental now, with corresponding powers! A seal designed to keep out those without the blessings of the Earth won't be any problem for her.
She sighed (mentally) with relief - not that getting out of the pyramid would be easy, particular since Azure's cover story clashed with explaining that she'd become the Oracle, but... at least she wasn't trapped. Surely she could find the answer! Though the mention of 'in a moon' does worry her; that was a long time to wait.
Movement in the main chamber... oh, they were leaving now. ...Without her, of course. Well, it wasn't the worst prison cell. Maybe she could figure her own way out, but... she should probably wait to see if her friends could find a solution, before trying anything crazy on her own. All she could do was prepare as well as she could for their triumphant return!
The party winged their way back to the camp, approaching from the south. As they glided over where the Second Chance was stashed, a pebble smacked into Reef Skimmer's belly (he was by far the largest target, after all). Craned his neck, he spotted a familiar-looking red-maned green-furred pony crouching in the bushes, about to sling another rock. She ceased her assault as she got the party's attention, sitting on her haunches and waving her arms over her head.
The grey roc wheeled around and came down for a landing near the copter; Reef had refined his technique enough to need only a brief blast of water jets. Following closely behind came Azure Feather and Grenelda, the latter carrying Sprocket in her claws. "Blaze! What a relief to see you safe." Reef said, as he began to squeeze himself back into hippogriff shape. "You won't believe what happened to Summer Scribe..."
Azure Feather sighed as she trotted over. "And I couldn't blame you... it's pretty unbelievable. We found another elemental gate... which, if you've looked at Reef and myself, kinda tells you what kind of craziness to expect..."
"Now see here Azure," Reef said in a vaguely offended tone, "that water park was perfectly safe. Kept the bipedal fish safe from the drow even! The magical waste came from somewhere else entirely. One can't speak for the air gate, though my understanding was that participation in all that champion business was your choice?"
Azure paused and shrugged a little before replying: "Guess I did make a misstep there, but what I meant is that passing through these gates resulted in some things you'd never see in Equestria."
Blaze Trails was a mess. Her tail was all tangled up in sticks, her fur was matted and she was missing a saddle bag and her leg brace, giving her a noticeable limp. "Oh I don't doubt it," she says wearily, as her companions surrounded her, "but you're not gonna believe what happened to the tent! Didn't think we were dealing with super paranoid bush hunters. They managed to sniff it out, either by following our scent or just because they didn't like a broken branch here and there. I'd give 'em credit, but it's theirs now, and I don't got another one."
"That's okay though. I don't think anypony could stay the night at any of these islands. You would not believe how much trouble they gave me after you went and stirred up the hornet's nest! The forest was just crawling with those two-legged cougars. So I've had myself a fun day don't you know, but I didn't expect I'd be getting back to the copter first, what with how I had to creep along and double back so much to confuse the kitties. I don't think they expected a pony could climb trees. So... what's happened to Summer now?"
"Good grief," the mostly-hippogriff exclaimed, looking at Blaze in a new light. "One imagines it must've taken considerable skill to evade an all-out search. This is their home territory after all. Hmm. Climb trees you say?" Reef shook his head; it was no time to be planning experiments.
"So... ah yes Summer, well, you see there were these sphinxes, rather smaller than one might expect, and a pyramid, and some very interesting and sadly, very hostile drow-arachnid-hybrids. No sooner had we dispatched those blighters, than Summer blew up an elemental gateway and went and prodded a golden idol. Which disintegrated her. But she's still alive somehow, inside the statue. Don't quite understand it myself, but... well, the sphinxes are terribly fond of the thing and we had to leave her there. For the time being..."