//------------------------------// // Chapter Five: A Game of Find the Lady // Story: The Crystal Caves of Confuzzlation (Iota Force Issue #6) // by The Iguana Man //------------------------------// The group piled out of the cell door into a crystal corridor, nearly indistinguishable from the one at the entrance that Archer, Icy and Truffle had been initially teleported from. The corridor went a short way forward before splitting off into a four-way junction. Icy opened her mouth when a voice echoed out from the room they had just left. “What in Equestria was... where have you gone... oh.” There was the sound of a magical bolt being fired and, as they turned around, they saw the illusory wall behind them disappear and, behind it, the image of Conundra on the wall of the cell. “So, you figured it out. Bet you think you're really smart, don't you?” she asked, though she spoke again before anyone had a chance to answer. “Well, too bad for you I'm still connected to this room. That means I can still talk to you and I can still do thi-” Archer slammed the door shut, cutting off what she was about to say and do to them. “What was that?” she called over the sound of the lock engaging before turning away with a smirk. “Couldn't quite hear it over how predictable you were.” The group turned away from the door, only to see a faint beam of blue light crossing the corridor a short distance in front of them. They hesitated, not knowing exactly what it was or what would happen if they broke it. Looking up, Icy saw that it bounced off a number of walls before going off, or possibly coming from, around a corner on the other side of the next junction. After a moment, there was a faint sound of something travelling rapidly down the corridors towards them. The group backed up warily, only to see a bolt of magic travelling along the path of the beam, hitting the wall a second or two later and causing the image of Conundra to appear on it. “Cute. Real cute,” She said and Icy could tell she was scowling behind her helmet. “Only trouble is, I didn't need to use that connection to mess with you, it was just a little more convenient.” Zatrathan snorted. “You'll “mess with us” with tricks we won't believe? Annoying us is all you can achieve.” At that, Conundra gave a long, nasty chuckle. “Oh, I can do a lot more than that, dumbass. Didn't you think it was a little weird that someone as young as me could cast such powerful illusion spells?” Caprice nodded. “Actually, yeah, we knew that was weird, figured there must be someth-” “In these caves,” Conundra continued, not seeming to have noticed Caprice was talking, “I'm more powerful than you can imagine. See, Sombra designed these caves to make himself, and whoever was in the centre of them, way more powerful. The crystal in the walls reflects, empowers and concentrates unicorn magic, so any spell I cast gets amplified, like, a million times, like this.” Icy frowned, a little confused at how the filly's imperious bearing kept briefly fading to something a lot more real and somewhat familiar. However, she didn't have much time to contemplate this, as another faint beam appeared, pointing right into the centre of the group. As one, they looked behind them, seeing only the locked door behind them cutting off any movement back. Meanwhile, moving forward would just put them into the path of the spell they could just about hear coming towards them. “Get ready,” Moonwing called, raising her shields in preparation for whatever was about to come. The group collectively prepared themselves, both to defend themselves from real attacks and to deal with illusory ones. The magical bolt fired from round the corner rushed towards them, impacted the ground beneath them... and then the world exploded. At least, that's how it seemed to Icy and she was too overwhelmed to consider it much. All around her were blinding, dizzying colours that stabbed into her eyes and seared her brain, while her ears were in agony from a hideous, discordant screeching so loud she felt it shaking her insides. She slammed her eyes shut, only to find little respite as the lights invaded the minuscule space between her eyelids and her eyes, still blasting her eyes with pain. She screamed, only to find that she couldn't even hear herself over the noise all around her. She tried to move forward, only to trip over her own hooves, both from being unable to see them and from having her concentration and thoughts shredded by the sensory assault. She held a leg over her eyes, trying to press her eyes and remove as much space for the lights to invade as possible. It worked somewhat, so now her eyes merely hurt, but it left only one hoof to try and block her ears from the sounds, which she wasn't sure she could do with both. She could feel herself beginning to fade, the relentless sensory overload causing her thoughts to lose coherence and edge into the nothing of unconsciousness. And she didn't know how long she could stop herself from... Another sound, this one far more pleasant, rose up from next to her, gradually gaining strength over the course of a few seconds. As it did, the sounds seemed to diminish in their hideousness, as if the new noise was somehow harmonizing the dissonance. Icy wasn't sure if that made any sense, but wasn't in much of a position to analyze it. However, she did manage to pin down the sound as that of a violin. “Okay, I think I got a handle on a counter-magic melody,” she heard Caprice call, raising her voice massively to be heard, “but I don't know how long I can keep it up with these lights in my eyes.” “Try pressing your hoof against them!” Icy yelled, realizing a little too late the problem with that. “I'm usin' 'em both, genius!” Caprice replied testily, either not knowing or not caring that Icy had already realized that. “I mean, if you want me to stop, I can let-” “Don't worry,” Truffle interjected, only having to raise his voice a little more than usual, “I've got you covered. Literally!” There was a swooshing noise before Icy heard Caprice give a muffled “Thmnk ymm!”, leading Icy to conclude that he had wrapped his cape around her head. “Ooh, how clever!” Conundra's voice called over the maelstrom, dripping with sarcastic adulation. “Trouble is, I can keep this going for as long as I need to. And even if you can too, I'm not being messed up by my illusion. So, hmm...” she pretended to think for a moment, “yeah, I'm pretty sure I can go longer that you can.” “That's what you think,” Moonwing replied before lowering her voice a little, so that the others could just about hear, but Conundra wouldn't be able to. “Guys, I've got an idea, but I'll need your help. Zat, can you take my shield?” “A moment, let me find it through this blitz.” There was a pause before Zatrathan continued. “I have it! Now, I hope your plan's th-” he stopped himself short, pausing before rephrasing himself, “...it fits,” he finished lamely. Icy wasn't sure what he was originally going to say, but didn't have much time to think about it before Moonwing replied. “I need you to use your magic to polish the front of it. Icy, when he's done, do you think you can make clear ice over it. Like, as totally transparent as possible.” Icy frowned as much as she could with her hoof over her eyes. “I... I don't know. I can try, maybe. Why?” Despite the pain, Icy could almost hear Moonwing smirk. “She can go longer because she's not getting her senses blasted by this spell. I'm planning to change that. Archer, don't suppose you got a good enough look at where that beam was pointing?” “Course I did, but... ooh, nice!” Archer replied, the pain in her voice not seeming to create any strain in it. “You wanna send it right back at her! I like it and I can do it!” “Brilliant!” Moonwing replied, waiting a moment before continuing, “Icy! Zat's done, can you find my shield?” “Yeah, hold on!” Icy called, fumbling around with a wing. It took a few seconds for it to find the cold, flat metal of the shield's centre, during which she heard Conundra's taunting voice call out to them. “Had enough, losers? Please yell if you have – can't quite see you for some reason!” “Then you won't see this coming,” Moonwing replied, still maintaining a volume only the ponies close to her would hear. “Icy, you got it?” “Yeah, hold on a bit,” Icy said as she focused, trying to call up her freezing energy as carefully as she could. She'd never really considered how to create different types of ice, but fortunately she knew that you got clearer ice for things freezing from the inside out rather than the outside in and also that it had something to do with trapped air and other stuff. So, as she gradually poured her energy onto the surface of the shield, she tried to keep it slow and even enough that the ice would be as clear as she could make it. It was hard to tell how well she was doing, but as she moved her wing over the surface, it certainly felt smooth enough, though she had no idea if that meant anything. After a short while, she nodded to herself, as she knew no one else could see it. “Okay, I think I've got it!” “Awesome!” Moonwing called back, now not bothering with whether Conundra could hear her. “Archer, would you do the honours?” “My pleasure!” Archer replied as Icy felt the shield being taken away from her wing. “What are you talking about?” Conundra called, her confusion mirroring Icy's. “What are you idiots planning to... huh?” In an instant, the flicks of colours and the harmonized sounds of the attack vanished. Icy's eyes flew open, the sudden lack of stimulus knocking her briefly off balance. However, she was able to see what Archer was doing and what Moonwing's plan was. In fact, she felt a little embarrassed she hadn't figured it out earlier. Archer was holding the shield in the path of the beam that was projecting the illusion. This normally might not have done much, but with clear ice covering the polished surface of the shield's centre, it was now forming a makeshift mirror that reflected the beam carrying the illusion right back along the path it came. Unfortunately for Conundra, it seemed she wasn't quite as quick on the uptake. “What the...? How did yo- GAH!” She screamed as those same lights and sounds overtook the image being projected to them, though extremely dampened by the connection. However, from the sounds of things, Conundra herself had no such protection. After a few seconds, the beam cut off, the attack on Conundra lasting about as long again before it faded. The group shared a chuckle as Conundra put a hoof to her forehead through the illusionary helmet and wobbled. After a moment, though, she growled. “Oh, you think you're clever, do you?” Moonwing hummed for a moment before nodding. “Well, we did just figure out a way to turn your whole attack around that'd work if you ever tried that again so... yeah, kinda do.” “Well, you're not!” Conundra screamed, momentarily losing all composure before she cleared her throat. “It doesn't matter, you'll never reach me. I've got all kinds of tricks and traps to stop you. In fact,” the area of her helmet around her horn lit up, “why don't I show you?” The group heard a stomping sound from further down the corridor, coming from one of the offshoots of the junction. Fortunately, they had just about recovered enough from the sensory attack to ready themselves for whatever came. Around the corner came three figures, each the size and shape of an adult pony. However, that was where the similarities ended, because each one was made entirely out of wood. Each looked nearly identical to the others - their faces and haunches were completely blank and only the tiny variations in the grain of the wood set them apart from one another. Their movements were jerky, almost entirely robotic, and though they didn't move in the exact same way, each one of their motions was completely synchronized with the others to create a very definite rhythm. They stopped about five metres away from the group, lining up to bar their path. “A cool little defense, huh?” Conundra said, the glow around her horn-area fading. “They may not look like much now, but... wait, what are you doing?” Looking back, Icy saw that Zatrathan was striding up to the figures, a smirk on his face and his hooves not even near his scabbard. “You think us all so dim and cowardly we'll cower at any mention of a foe?” He walked right up the three figures. “We know illusions are your specialty and so, we've naught to fear, as this should...” He flicked a hoof out towards the image, clearly expecting it to pass through. However, instead it impacted with the solid thunk of a hoof on wood. Zatrathan looked up, his eyes widening. He started reaching for his sword as he opened his mouth to say something, but he never got the chance to do either. Seemingly in reaction to the strike, the figure lashed a hoof out, impacting him solidly in the ribs and sending him flying back towards the rest of the group. He landed a short distance in front of them and skidded to a halt at their hooves. “Ooooooh.” He said woozily, before passing out. Icy looked to the others, only to see that Caprice and Moonwing didn't seem especially shocked by this occurrence, Moonwing gently moving him to the side. She backed off a couple of steps and whispered, “Does he do that kinda thing a lot?” Caprice rolled her eyes. “Like you wouldn't believe. It'd be almost adorable if it didn't get him into so much trouble” Archer chuckled as she drew her bow. “You say that like both can't be true.” “As you can see,” Conundra announced smugly, not hearing their quiet conversation, “not everything down here is an illusion. King Sombra left all kinds of traps and defences in these caves for if someone got out.” “Well, if this is the best you've got, I'm not impressed,” Truffle called out, his volume reverberating around the crystal walls. “They'll be tough, sure, but if you think the six...” he looked down at Zatrathan's prone form, “the five of us'll have problems taking down three golems.” “Yeah,” Icy added, buoyed up by Truffle's confidence... and a little bit by Zatrathan's, despite what had happened. “If everything we'll find is an illusion or a few guards, we won't have any trouble.” At this, Conundra gave a high, genuine-sounding laugh, unnerving Icy and making her doubt her confidence of a moment ago. “Ooohehehe, my dear little dimbulbs,” Her horn-area lit up again and another guidance beam shot out of it, “who said anything about “or”?” A fraction of a second later, the beam came flying around the far corner and down the corridor. The group readied themselves, Moonwing bringing her shield up to deflect it. However, it quickly became clear that it wasn't aimed directly at them, instead pointing at the ground in the centre of the three constructs.  The actual spell came around the corner and hit a moment after that, making a bright white light envelop the whole area and forcing Icy and the others to squint a little from its brightness. However, she was able to keep her eyes open enough to see Conundra light her horn-area again a second before the light started to fade. She refocused herself on where she'd seen the three automatons, only to now have to catch her breath at the huge crowd of them that were in front of her. Intellectually, of course, she knew that only three were real, but the sheer number of images was enough to startle her a little. There must have been around twenty of them, though she couldn't tell an exact number, as they were all moving around to the side – trotting around and through each other like an ridiculously complex, ethereal Three-Card Monte. This not only made it hard to count how many there were, it also made it quite impossible for her to tell who had been the original three. She doubted even Archer could and, glancing to her side, she indeed saw the young sharpshooter's eyes darting around the roiling mass of ponies, trying to find some kind of clue. The distinct, regimented rhythm of the three lone figures had completely vanished, replaced by a chaotic clamor of movements and hoofsteps. “Now,” Conundra said after she had given the group a few seconds to appreciate her efforts, “are you gonna be good little colts and fillies and stay where you are or are we gonna have to get violent?” Truffle harrumphed as he rolled his shoulders, preparing himself. “Why not? There are only three real ones, aren't there?” Conundra shook her head. “That's not the point, fatty. Sure, the real ones are the dangerous ones... but you don't know which ones they ar-are~!” she sing-songed, waving a hoof at the horde as she lit her horn, bringing them to a halt before they all turned towards the group. “That means even if you find them, you won't be able to keep track of them all and you won't know where the attacks are coming from, so good luck stopping them.” She laughed in self-satisfaction. “Illusions and traps are great on their own, but together? They're unbeatable.” Truffle and Moonwing both stepped forward, catching each other's eye, momentarily surprised someone was joining them. However, after a moment, they nodded to each other and continued, coming out well in front of the group. Moonwing snorted, raising her shields. “Yeah? Bring it!” Conundra lit her horn behind her helmet again and the golems surged forward, several of them throwing punches as soon as they got there while others worked on surrounding the pair. It quickly became near-impossible to keep track of how many attacks seemed to be coming at them and where they were coming from. For Truffle, this was undoubtedly a problem, but he was still doing alright – his suit and bulk provided mostly full coverage of his body, protecting him from the worst of the strikes. It helped that he kept moving, avoiding many of the blows. He obviously knew he couldn't avoid all of them, so he didn't try to, but he was able to reduce the number that hit him, and particularly any that were aimed at his head. Not that his head was lacking in protective padding either, but it was best to be careful. Sadly, Moonwing didn't fare quite so well. This was through no fault of hers, as she was making an excellent showing for herself, darting nimbly around and keeping her shields in constant motion, blocking many of the attacks that came for her, either resulting in the hoof passing through or a clonk of a successful block. However, her shields weren't able to cover her all the way around and a lot of the strikes thrown were able to come from a direction she wasn't blocking. For the most part, these strikes would pass through her, but occasionally she would grunt as one of the real enemies scored a hit. It didn't help that the two, though both clearly skilled in their own right, didn't have much of a sense of each other's fighting styles. They weren't getting in each other's ways, but neither were they able to fully work together as a whole, remaining merely the sum of their parts. Fortunately, after a few seconds, Caprice began playing a lively tune and her energy started flowing out towards the battle, washing over the pair of them and invigorating their movements, making them quicker, stronger and more precise. This helped them synchronize their timing, if not their actions. Meanwhile, Archer was firing a steady stream of arrows into the melee, though most of them never impacted anything solid and those that did usually did so through being intercepted on their way to their destination. Icy shook her head, trying to shake off the disorientation the group of illusory opponents was filling her with. She opened her wings, only to hesitate – she couldn't send a freezing gust over the whole area without hitting Moonwing and Truffle, and freezing only part of the area would just hinder their movements. She tried sending a few focused gusts at select enemies, such that they would either freeze those specific golems or just come out the other side of the melee, but like Archer, they all failed to have any noticeable effect. A stifled yelp drew her attention as one of Moonwing's shields nearly dropped from her grasp, one of the golems having managed to strike her under the wing that was holding it. “Moonwing, get back!” Truffle called. “They might try and ng! get to the others!” It was a transparent cover for the fact that the nature of the fight made her less effective as a fighter, but it was theoretically true, even if Conundra didn't seem to think it was worth her time. Still, Moonwing shook her head. “I'm not leaving you to fight this all by yourself!” Truffle laughed, clearly forcing himself to but just as clearly able to. “Relax, I've got this nmph! covered! You'll be more use over there.” Moonwing grunted, but after ducking under a strike that visibly skimmed her hair, she sighed and threw her shield towards the back of the fight, waiting for it to pass out of the brawl before following it, thrusting a wing forward and activating her retrieval beam to pull it back towards her. She met it on the way, leaping over a strike that may or may not have been real and landing outside the fight. She whirled around, throwing her other shield into the melee. The shield passed through several of the illusions before audibly hitting one. However, it was impossible to tell which one as the general chaos of the fight blocked the sight of the hit and the shield quickly ricocheted off before Moonwing sent a beam to retrieve it.  “This is stupid!” Icy called out. “How are we supposed to take them down if we don't know which ones they are?” “Exactly,” Conundra replied cheerfully. “You can't find them and, sooner or later, they'll wear you down, husky.” “Okay, one, I'm not mph! husky, I'm fat!” Truffle bellowed. “And two, good luck with that, I'm fine. Actually, Caprice, could you stop with the music?” Caprice's playing did indeed come to a sudden halt, but it seemed less out of obedience and more out of surprise and mild offence. “Wait, what? You don't want my...” “It's not that!” Truffle called as he hopped over three strikes. “But there's a rhythm to these attacks... the real ones I think ng! I've almost got.” There was a pause before he seemed to realize the obvious. “Wait, hold a moment, Caprice! I'll get you the rhythm, see if you can...” “Course I can!” Caprice interrupted, a grin coming onto her muzzle. “You reckon you can take it?” “With pleasure!” Truffle answered as he slammed his hooves to the ground with massive thumps, planting them firmly and tensing his muscles for the incoming attacks. It seemed to take a second for the golems to register what had happened, but after that, the strikes started coming in thick and fast.  “There!” Truffle called out as an impact was heard. A second and a half later, “There!” it happened again. Then, after less than a second, “There!” Another, slightly longer pause. “There!” At this point, Icy was beginning to doubt that there actually was a rhythm to it, as it seemed totally irregular. However, by the look on Caprice's face, there might have been something to it, as her hoof was beginning to move quickly and sharply to a rhythm she was apparently seeing. The next time Truffle called out, it was indeed at the same time as one of her beats and, though the next strike took a different amount of time to come, it too landed on a beat. After that, Caprice put her bow to the strings and began playing again, a slightly slower tune but one that perfectly fit the given rhythm, each strike landing on one of the beats. Again, her energy washed over Truffle but, this time, Icy could feel it permeating her own muscles as well, making her feel stronger and more energetic than she could remember feeling for a long time. “Now, look for one o' them that's followin' the rhythm!” Caprice said, raising her voice a little. Conundra scoffed, the amplification and distortion to her voice giving the vocalization an odd tone. “Yeah, right! As if you'd be able t-” “Got one!” Archer called. “Lemme mark it for you!” She drew out an arrow with a bold blue tip and fired. It flew through the horde of illusions before exploding over the head of an evidently-solid golem, covering it in blue dye. “There you are!” Truffle bellowed as he leapt over one of the dye-covered pony's strikes and latched onto its neck. “What?! But that...” Conundra shook her head. “It doesn't matter, I'll just give my illusions blue heads as well!” “Go ahead!” Archer grinned as she fired an impact arrow at the marked one's hooves, keeping it off-balance enough for Truffle to start clambering up it. “Then we can go for the ones that don't!” “Well, I'll...” Conundra growled, clearly not used to being out-tricked. “I'll hit the real ones with a blue-head image!” “Okay!” Caprice called, smirking. “Which ones were those again?” “Well... they're...” Conundra stared at the fight for a few seconds – it seemed even she couldn't tell which of the other ponies were real. After a moment, she stamped her hoof. “Shut up! One of you... some of you... get the others!” She commanded as her helmet lit up once again. After a moment, five of the golems broke off and began charging towards the group, forming a line across the corridor's width as they did. “Oh no, you don't!” Moonwing said, darting to the side and winding up for a throw. After a moment, she flicked her wing out, sending her shield out at the other side of the corridor. The disc bounced off the wall, flying back across the front of the line before ricocheting again. This time, however, it went right through the line, passing through the rightmost three and impacting the fourth one, knocking it to the side, through the final image and into the wall. Not wasting a second now she had a clear target, Icy flapped her wings, sending a massive bolt of energy over the golem and freezing it to the wall. It started struggling against its icy bonds, tiny cracking sounds just about audible. However, Icy kept flapping, thickening the ice and keeping it firmly in place. “Nice one, Icy!” Archer said, scampering forward towards the fight. “Truffle, I've got eyes on the last one, I'll keep him off you!” She fired another arrow out into the scuffle, hitting the hoof of one that was about to strike at Truffle and knocking it aside. It quickly became lost among the moving images to all but Archer, whose eyes kept tracking it and whose hoof was already readying another arrow. “Excellent!” Truffle said as he managed to steady himself on the back of the marked golem. “So I guess,” he smashed a hoof into the back of its head, “that means,” he pulled his hoof back before raising it again, “it's just a matter,” he slammed his hoof over its scalp, “of whittling them,” he pulled himself firmly down onto his unwilling mount's back, throwing his hoof downwards against its head, “down!” Meanwhile, Icy had encased nearly the entire lower half of her target in ice, totally immobilizing it. Resting her wings, she saw Moonwing dart to the side once again. Turning to look, she saw her rush to the right side of the corridor before throwing a shield at the trapped golem. However, this time she followed close behind it, so that when it impacted the golem's neck and carved a shallow gash into it, she was able to thrust her other shield in front of it and keep the thrown one within that gash. The shield's edge wasn't especially sharp, but it was narrow enough that the force behind her throw had penetrated the wood's surface slightly. With her shield now having a rut to stay in, Moonwing slammed her back hooves into the ground and pushed against her held shield, driving the other one deeper and deeper into the golem's neck. Its wooden limbs twitched as it tried to break free and stop her, but Icy's snare was too strong and, after about ten seconds of struggling, Moonwing finally broke through the neck with a colossal snap and the golem fell still. “Well, who'da thunk it?” Caprice called over her music. “That's their weakness – you take off the head an' they die!” She laughed as she kept playing. “Good! To! Know!” Truffle cried in sync with his strikes. The marked golem's head was nearly flattened by now and its movements had slowed to a crawl. Truffle reared up on his hind hooves, bringing his forehooves together for one final strike. “That means down... you... go!” He brought his hooves slamming down, totally caving in the golem's head and making its knees buckle inwards. “Last one's got an arrow in him!” Archer called out, firing a sharp arrow that, indeed, lodged in the head of the last solid golem. “Got it!” Truffle leapt off the now-inanimate marked golem just as it began to fall, landing with his forehooves on the back of the last one and scrabbling to climb up fully. As he got his hooves under him, Moonwing turned and called out, “Go for a slam!” Not waiting for an answer, she hurled her shield at this last enemy's hooves, the shield skimming along the ground before slamming into them, knocking it to the floor just as Truffle leapt up off its back. The golem's body came to the floor, but it instantly began moving to try and right itself. However, it never got a chance as with a “Banzai!”, Truffle fell right down onto its head. His elbows landed firmly on its scalp, allowing his considerable weight to drive it down into the floor hard, shattering its blank face into splinters and bringing its movements to a halt. The instant it stopped moving, the illusory enemies stopped, fading away over a couple of seconds. Icy frowned, a little confused. “Huh? Why'd they all vanish?” “She prob'ly anchored the mirage to the real golems,” Caprice said as she brought her tune to a halt. “Meant they could follow 'em a little better, same reason a bunch of 'em came when one broke off. Course, that means no more golems, no more mirages, no more worries, know what I mean?” She grinned as she started trotting towards Truffle. “Grrrragh!” Conundra growled from her image on the wall. “You kids got lucky this time, but even when you're all better from your beating, you'll still never reach me! This place is a maze with more traps than you've got feathers! By the time you get out, I'll be long gone. Have fun with your bruises, losers!” And, with that, her image faded away. Moonwing paused, looking at her featherless wings. “Huh, you think she was being ableist on purpose or was she just being stupid?” Archer shrugged. “Again, you say that like both ain't an option.” Icy opened her mouth to speak when another guidance beam shot back at the wall, a spell following a moment later to bring her image back. “Crap! I was talking to the ice-filly, not… I didn’t think… I wasn’t making a joke about your wings, I was just… gah!” And with that, her image vanished again. Icy hummed, her eyes still fixed on where Conundra had appeared. “You know, she seems kinda... I dunno, feels kinda familiar. Like something I know and wish I didn't.” “I know what you mean,” Truffle said as he rejoined the main group. “Still, she was right about one thing – I did get a couple of bruises back there. Those things were not pulling their punches.” Caprice rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I get the message. Just gimme a moment, need to call up the energy.” Truffle blinked, confused for a moment before he remembered what he'd seen back in the cell. “Well, I wasn't actually thinking of that; certainly wasn't demanding it, but if you can soothe things a bit, I'd appreciate it.” “Yeah, we both took a couple of hits,” Moonwing added, sitting down and lowering her shields. She flexed a wing, getting a slight grimace for a second before fidgeting into a more comfortable resting position. “And that's not even mentioning...” She jerked her head behind her towards the still-slumped figure of Zatrathan. Caprice sighed and nodded as she plucked her strings, adjusting the tuning pegs. “Guess I better make it an area-healin'. T'riffic, that's always so fun!” Icy winced in sympathy. “Do you want me and Archer to back away, then? Will us being here make it harder... or be dangerous to us?” she added after a moment's thought – who knew what over-exposure to this healing energy could do to a healthy body. Caprice shook her head, a breathy chuckle escaping her. “Nah, it's a size thing, not a number o' targets one. Should be fine... long as you don't mind a few tumors.” Icy reared back in surprise. “T-tumors?! Why didn't you...” she trailed off as she noticed Archer remaining where she was, giving her a look of incredulity that went weirdly well with Caprice's stifled laughter. She relaxed into a slight pout. “Very funny!” “I sure thought so,” Caprice grinned before she began to play. As she did, the blue-green energy that had previously healed Archer started drifting off of her, much lighter and more gradual than the last time. In a few seconds, it expanded like a gas over the small area around Caprice, washing over the other five present. It was a very strange feeling to Icy. It was a little tingly, but not in a jarring way. Instead, it was like a low, gentle rumble was passing through her body. It reminded her of the moment after a shiver passed through her body – after the sharp, unpleasant judder, there was usually a moment when the vibration slowed down as it faded, becoming rather pleasant for a fraction of a second before the feeling disappeared entirely. It was like that, but extended and without the surrounding shiver. More than just being pleasant, it was also relaxing – she could feel the tension of the previous battle leaving her, her muscles loosening slightly. It was, overall, an immensely enjoyable feeling. Briefly, Icy wondered, if it felt this nice to someone who hadn't been hurt and, in general, wasn't especially used to pain, how great must it feel to Truffle? Or maybe it would feel worse since it was actually trying to heal his wounds. Either way, Icy wasn't exactly eager to get hurt so she could find out. After about thirty seconds, the song faded. There was a second of silence before a groan was heard. Zatrathan rose to his feet, blinking rapidly as his eyes focused before squeezing them shut. He pressed a hoof to his temple, exhaling slowly. After a second, though, his eyes flew open and he whipped his sword out. “I'll draw your wooden hides from neck to croup! Iaaaaaahhh!” he trailed off as he looked around, seeing the others gathered around him and, a short distance away, the splintered remains of the three golems. He lowered his sword with a sigh. “The battle's over, isn't it?” Everyone gave a slow nod. Zatrathan sheathed his sword with frustrated growl. “Well, poop!” There was a long, awkward silence. “No matter, we must cease to linger here.” Zatrathan eventually began, turning down the corridor. We have a filly's dark desires to sink. We can't allow her Sombra's spell of fear. Such power, in hooves like hers... one dreads to think.” Truffle's eyes widened as he too turned to hurry off. “You're right, we can't let her... let's go!” He started down the corridor and Icy took a moment to find her feet before following. However, she was brought to a halt when she heard a throat-clearing from behind them. “Oh, sure, yeah, no problem!” Caprice huffed as she sat down. “I only just used a massive load of energy healin' ye after keepin' ye boosted through a whole fight, course I'm okay to just go runnin' off after that!” Truffle paused, looking briefly torn between rushing off and hanging back before he relaxed with a sigh. “I... suppose you're right. Sorry, I just...” Caprice's frown softened. “Hey, don't worry 'bout it, I get it. I wanna stop her as much as you do, y'know.” Icy's ears twitched as she just about heard Truffle say something under his breath– she couldn't say for certain, but she could have sworn he'd said, “I doubt it.” “I ain't no wuss,” Caprice continued, neither she nor any of the others having heard or noticed Truffle's muttering, “I just need a couple o' minutes to catch my breath, know what I'm sayin'?” Truffle wilted slightly as he trotted back to the group. “Well, if you're sure.” “Relax, she just needs a little recharge,” Moonwing assured him as she closed her eyes contentedly. “Actually, I think we could all use one.” Zatrathan nodded. “Caprice needs little time to rest her hooves and to renew her music's magic source. For every day I've seen her play, she proves she's tough as leather boots,” he grinned, “and twice as coarse.” Caprice smirked. “All the better for when I stick the boot up-” “I get the point!” Truffle interrupted with an amused eye roll. “By the way,” Archer spoke up, “Zatrathan... actually, can I call you Zat?” Zatrathan smiled at her, bowing his head slightly. “We're comrades now, so how could I refuse? I think that you can call me what you choose.” Caprice snorted in amusement. “Cos that worked out so well for Cap'n Fartypants.” Zatrathan paused, his hoof raised. He thought for a second before opening his mouth to speak, but Archer pre-empted him. “Relax, Zat's fine by me. I just wanted to ask about your...” she vaguely indicated her mouth, “the whole rhyming thing.” “A zebra thing – it's how our words arrange. To me, your random speech is just as strange.” Archer shook her head. “No, I get that – we've got a zebra living in... well, near Ponyville and we're all used to her rhyming. It's just that the way she does it is... different. Hard to really say how, but it's to do with the lines, I think?” Zatrathan tilted his head slightly. “That's not enough to really get the gist. Perhaps a small example would assist?” Archer put a hoof to her chin as she thought. “Okay, well, I remember she said to me one time...” she trailed off for a moment before sighing, “And I'm not gonna try and imitate her voice, that'd probably be... not okay. Anyway, she said: ‘I thank you for your offer, child, but I'm no slouch against the wild,’ after I suggested I protect her one time.” Zatrathan nodded as understanding dawned on his face. “Our speeches both have different rhythmic veins, for she, from Southern Zebricana, hails, while I'm from Zebricana's eastern plains and have the verbal difference that entails.” “Well, there is one big difference,” Archer added. “Zecora doesn't even have four-line rhyming... set... things...” she frowned slightly, perturbed at lacking the vocabulary to describe it. “But it's more than that – the actual lines are different. It's... kinda hard to pin down how, though.” Zatrathan chuckled. “No doubt it is, to one with speech so terse, whereas, to me, the variance is clear. For her speech forms in tetrametric verse, while mine is pentametric, as you hear. Of course, both forms are equally correct.” He shrugged. “In all, it's just a different dialect.” Archer thought for a little while, clearly not quite getting the details of what he was saying before shrugging it off. “Well, if you say so. Though, if I'm honest, I think yours is a little cuter,” she finished with an impish grin. Zatrathan's next words caught in his throat as another blush rose to his cheeks. Fortunately, he was saved from further embarrassment by Caprice getting to her feet. “Not that I'm keen on stoppin' ye before Zat explodes, but I'm all rested up, so I think we oughta be goin'.” Truffle nodded and began leading the way down the corridor, the others all following a moment later. All, that is, except for Zatrathan, who remained frozen for a good five seconds before shaking his head and sprinting to catch up with the others. “Tickets please!” the train conductor called as he walked down the carriage. The moment he reached the cloaked figure, he began talking, only for the figure to flash its hooves out, depositing the ticket in his hooves so fast he couldn't even see the colour of their coat. As he looked at the ticket, the figure looked out of the window. “Get ready, Icy Flight. I'm coming.”