The group made their way down the corridor, passing by the four-way junction to where they had seen Conundra's beam originate from. Still, they did not move hastily, constantly scanning the walls, floor and ceiling ahead of them for any more traps or surprises that Sombra may have left and he or Conundra may have hidden.
Still, they soon turned to the corner at the end of the corridor, only to find a rough Y-junction a short distance away.
“So which way do we-” Icy began before being cut off.
“Right. That beam would have come from the right,” Archer declared, not even pausing as she continued.
Icy turned to her, her hooves already moving; it seemed her body trusted Archer's eye implicitly even as her mind and mouth questioned her. “How did you... oh, right, you saw how the beam bounced, right?”
Archer nodded. “Yeah, but I didn't get a good look at it, 'fraid. It's pretty obvious it must have gone right, but after that, I can't really say.”
“Your skill continues beggaring belief,
so one great marvel less is not a pity,” Zatrathan assured her.
You saw a path amid a glance so brief.
Your eyes are quite prodigious...” he paused, turning his head away before muttering, “and quite pretty.”
“What was that?” Archer said, her ears twitching as she tried to pick up what Zatrathan had said under his breath. It was hard to tell whether she had genuinely missed it or was being coy, having either heard him or figured it out from the rhyme. However, though Icy could have imagined it, she thought she could just make out a faint blush on Archer's dark fur.
“We still have need to figure out directions,” Zatrathan blurted out, not even trying to disguise his attempt to distract from what he was saying,
“in navigating further intersections!”
“Well, I've got an idea about that,” Moonwing said after a moment, her voice slow but confident. “As long as all these corridors stay this rough, it shouldn't be a problem.”
Icy tilted her head, but said nothing. It was certainly true that none of the corridors were particularly straight – if Icy had to guess, she'd say that the cave system was natural and Sombra simply built the crystal walls into it – but she couldn't see what relevance that could have. Still, she followed along, hoping that either Moonwing's idea would work or that it would fail in a way that was obvious rather than leading them the wrong way.
It didn't take long before they came to a place where it would need to be tested – another four way junction. They were coming onto it at an acute angle that roughly continued on the other side, while two relatively straight corridors went out to their left and right.
“Right, give me a minute or two,” Moonwing declared as she let her shields drop to the ground with a loud, metallic clunk. She walked forward towards the intersection and spread out her featherless wings.
For any other pegasus, it would look as if she was about to take flight. However, even if it wasn't already obvious that that wasn't an option for Moonwing, the lack of the flat-ish surface that most wings formed meant it looked nothing like a take-off position. Instead, it was similar to if she was holding her hooves out to balance on her hindlegs. As she walked forward, slowly and carefully, she held them steady, as if balancing on a tightrope.
She walked out into the centre of the junction and stopped, closing her eyes, becoming completely still. She stayed like this for nearly a minute, to the point that Icy genuinely wondered if she had fallen asleep. It was unlikely, admittedly, that she'd have done so while standing up and holding out her wings, but considering how sedate she tended to act whenever they stopped moving, Icy wouldn't have put it past her. However, eventually she opened her eyes again and trotted down the left path before stopping again. Icy looked down that path, but could see nothing distinctive.
Her head turned as she scanned around the junction. Assuming the direction they were facing was north – which Icy had no reason to suspect or assume, nor did she particularly care about which way was north beyond it being a handy reference point for other directions – the corridor Moonwing was standing in came in fairly straight to the west and continued to the east before turning south. Meanwhile, the corridor they had come down jutted down to the south-west and the opposite path went off to the north east. This gave further credence to Icy's assumption that the caves were naturally formed before being crystallized. Icy opened her mouth to speak before she heard a scratching sound.
Turning, she saw Caprice rubbing the metal tip of her violin bow on the wall, just before the junction. Looking closer, Icy saw she was scratching a rough arrow into the crystal. The purpose was obvious – a marker in case they got turned around – but she still gave Caprice a mildly disapproving look. She wasn't sure whether it was because of her lacking faith in her teammate's plan, whatever it was, or because she was kind of defacing a historic, if macabre, monument.
Looking up, Caprice caught her look and just gave her a disdainful shrug.
After another minute or so, Moonwing turned around and trotted down the eastern path, pausing there but relaxing a little less, as if she didn't expect to stay as long there.
Indeed, after only thirty seconds, she turned again and headed back to the junction, turning around sharply and heading up the north-eastern path. She waited about ten seconds before nodding and returning to the group.
“Well, assuming that she's between us and the exit...” she began as she picked up her shields.
“She is,” Caprice interrupted. “She'd wanna have a quick escape if she needed it. 'Sides, Sombra'd wanna make sure anyone who wanted to escape had to get past him, so I figure his control room'd be where the ways out meet the ways further in, sound about right?”
Moonwing nodded. “Makes sense. In that case, we go left – that's the way to the way out.”
The group turned and made their way to the left, the assurance in Moonwing's tone the only incentive their hooves apparently needed to start moving.
Still, Icy did feel the need to ask, “How could you tell?”
“Yeah, I was thinkin' the same thing,” Caprice added.
Moonwing looked to the side, a touch of worry on her face. “Well, I'd tell you but...” she scanned along the cystalline walls that stretched out before them, “I don't want a certain somepony to overhear it.”
Icy raised an eyebrow, her curiosity only further piqued, but didn't have a chance to say anything before Caprice scoffed.
“Okay, so here's an idea: just whisper it to us. One at a time, if you gotta. We know the pony behind the curtain ain't all-seein'. Or, least, all-hearin'.”
“Fair enough,” Moonwing nodded and turned her movements towards Icy, eliciting a sigh from Caprice.
After a moment, Moonwing was close enough to whisper in Icy's ear, “Where there's a wind, there's a way.”
Icy turned, opening her mouth and weighing whether to ask Moonwing what she meant. She could tell that she was proud of the phrase, but Icy still didn't really understand. “Huh?”
To her credit, Moonwing didn't seem annoyed at having to explain further. “I just felt how the wind was flowing down the corridors. It was strongest down this one, pretty strong down the right one, a little down the top one and there was barely any down the one we came from. So, since it'd come from the exit eventually, that means it's coming from here and going back and forth to the right ones, you see?”
Icy hummed for a moment – her own abilities meant she knew a fair bit about how wind worked, so she understood what she was saying. However, she held out her own wing for a moment before pointing out, “Well, I didn't feel any real wind.”
Moonwing snickered as she began to trot towards Caprice. Still, she managed to whisper to her, “I'm not surprised, with all those feathers in the way.”
Icy ruffled her wings, a little surprised at how much that made sense. It wasn't exactly a moment of ‘mind blown’, but it did give her a new appreciation of her own wings – their construction, their advantages and, now, their slight disadvantages.
That said, she didn't exactly dwell on it long. And while she did wish that was because she was reminded of how serious a situation she and the rest of the group was in, it was actually because she was now consciously aware of her own feathers. It was like being aware of her own breathing – surreal and, now that she'd thought of it, she couldn't really dismiss the feeling.
Fortunately, she was brought out of it a moment later when the group came to another junction, this time a Y-junction that they were coming at from one of the split paths.
Again, Moonwing dropped her shields and trotted out into the junction. However, this time she didn't stay still, instead moving slowly but erratically around the area for about a minute and a half before returning and pointing down the other split in the fork.
Icy nodded – if the exit was down the (from them) more northern path, it'd split down both other paths, but if it didn't, it must be coming from the other path.
As they moved down that path, she held her wing out again and paused for a second. She tried to focus on the feeling of the wind moving across and between her feathers, but could barely feel anything and certainly couldn't feel any difference from the area they'd just come from.
She sighed as she moved on, thankful that at least one of them was able to tell where they were supposed to be going. Still, she was a little worried about what would happen if something happened, either in general that stopped her being able to navigate via air currents or specifically to Moonwing.
This worry only increased when she began hearing a strange noise from around the corner they were approaching.
At first, it was difficult to tell exactly what the noise was or, at least, what it was composed of, because it was a chaotic pile of sounds so clustered and thick as to form one formless mass. However, as the group got closer to the source of it, Icy was able to just about tell that it was composed of one sound repeated and overlapped upon itself – a deep, long whooshing noise.
The group came up to a corner and gathered around it. They could all clearly hear that, whatever was making the sounds, it was around that corner and, though it could well have been a trick, it seemed they were all experienced enough to halt and prepare themselves before they faced it.
Well, admittedly Zatrathan did require a hoof in front of him to stop him leaping around the corner but, to his credit, he didn't require any particular convincing.
The makeshift team quickly arranged themselves in the best order of advancement. Truffle and Moonwing were in the vanguard, ready to take any hits and block any attempts to get past them to the others, with Zatrathan following closely behind and Archer a short way behind him so they could both attack at their respective ideal distances. Meanwhile, Icy and Caprice were in the rear, ready to lend whatever support they could.
After a short, silent countdown from Truffle, the frontmost ponies whirled around the corner, only to relax somewhat immediately afterwards. They didn't look especially relieved, though, so the others soon joined them to see what was in front of them.
A short distance in front of them was a curious sight. Stretching out through the corridor was a series of massive pendulums swinging back and forth along the width of the corridors, going into deep grooves in the walls at the end of each swing. At the top of each wooden pole was the lower half of what looked like a large cog and at the bottom was a massive, wickedly sharp-looking axe blade.
Now, while this on its own would be an intimidating sight, it would not, Icy suspected, be that surprising. They'd all read enough Daring Do to recognize this style of trap and, though her mother insisted that it was not an especially effective obstacle, it had at least some historical basis, as this seemed to show.
However, making things a lot more complicated was the fact that the pendulums were not alone in their arcs – each one had nearly a dozen copies swinging in the same area, the many blades continually swinging through each other in a chaotic, desynchronized jumble of wood and steel. The fact that all but one of these copies were obviously illusions did little to diminish the imposing sight, as there was no obvious way to tell which were real and which were false by looking at or listening to them.
Conundra's image looked down at the group from one of the walls in front of the first pendulum. “What the- How'd you get here so f-” she spluttered before cutting herself off. “Well, I guess even a blind squirrel can find a nut. Doesn't matter anyway – how do you like my little blade barricades?” she asked with a smirk Icy could practically hear.
Caprice looked over the gauntlet in front of her with a slightly pursed mouth. “Hmm... six outta ten, if you ask me... which you did.”
Conundra snorted. “Yeah, right. You just keep telling yourself that, little filly.”
Caprice shrugged. “Hey, the illusions are a nice touch, I'll give ye that, but it don't change the fact that swingin' blades're ain't too effective at killin' ponies, since, y'know, we can just slip between 'em.”
“Hmph!” Conundra flinched back slightly, as if offended by Caprice's words. “Who said anything about killing you? I don't want you dead.” She gave a haughty chuckle. “Even if I was that bloodthirsty, which I'm not, by the way, but even if I was, what makes you think I'd care enough about you jumped-up noponies to want you dead. No, no, no,” she waggled a hoof to the side to emphasize her denial, “I don't want to kill you, I just want to stop you. And I think even you'll be smart enough to know not to try and go through these blades if it could get you killed.”
Icy tilted her head at the giant image of the helmeted filly. “But if you don't wanna kill us... you sent those golems after us...”
“And they weren't gonna kill you either, just knock you out or keep you occupied for a while,” Conundra interjected dismissively, having clearly thought out that answer ahead of time.
“Yeah, but you also made us all think the other group were monsters who were trying to kill us,” Icy pointed out. “You sure seemed like you were trying to make us kill each other.”
“No I... see, I...” Conundra started speaking rapidly, tripping over her words before collecting herself. “I knew you wouldn't kill anyon- anything, you'd just take them down, which suited me just fine.
There was a pause as everyone looked at each other. After a moment, Zatrathan spoke up.
“You'd think a mare adept at fooling eyes
would be a lot more skilled at telling lies.”
Caprice smirked up at Conundra. “You just hadn't thought that one through, had you?”
“Shut up!” Conundra barked. “You still can't get past this one. And I wasn't the one who made this trap either, I'm just using it and improving it.”
“Yeah, about that,” Archer spoke up, glancing briefly at Conundra before returning her gaze to the pendulums, “I woulda thought Sombra'd have some way more effective deathtraps than this one. Like, from everything I've read about the guy, he was pretty efficient when it came to getting what he wants.”
“Pft, don't you know anything?” Conundra shook her covered head at Archer.
“Hey, we're not crystal ponies,” Archer shrugged, not seeming bothered by the insult, “we didn't live through his reign, what do you expect?”
Conundra scoffed again. “So what? All you need to do is read up a bit on your history like Iiiiiii lived through,” she amended quickly.
Another knowing glance went around the group at her having outed herself as not being a crystal pony. Not that it was that likely – crystal unicorns were extremely rare – but it was useful to have confirmation, as it would narrow down the search for her identity if they didn't catch her before she escaped.
Still, no one said anything this time, so Conundra soon continued. “If Sombra wanted to kill someone, he didn't need traps to do it. Heck, he'd probably think them getting killed without him watching would be a waste of a good show.” To her credit, Conundra sounded just as unnerved by the sadism she was describing as Icy was. “If he wanted you dead, he'd just blast you himself or, if he wasn't there, just send in some of his... slaves to do it.” Again, she sounded quite disturbed at having to say that.
Icy thought for a moment. “But then, why make traps that could kill you if he didn't want to?”
At this, however, Conundra seemed to lighten up a little. “To scare you. He got his power from fear, and I mean both how he ruled and his magic. At least, I think that's how it worked.” She put a hoof through her helmet to her chin before waving the question off. “Anyway, the point was to make anyone trying to get through these tunnels as scared as he could before he... did whatever he did to them. And if they got a few wounds, then that'd just be a bonus for him.” She sighed before drawing herself up. “Of course, I'm not that horrible. I'm not interested in scaring you, just in stopping you.”
Icy opened her mouth to inform her that she was trying to stop them by making them afraid to continue, but was pre-empted by Truffle. “Yes, I'm sure that the filly who's going through all this trouble to get a spell to show ponies their greatest fear,” Icy noticed a slight shudder going through him, though he hid it well and didn't pause in his speech, “doesn't want to scare anypony at all.”
Conundra gave a slightly growling sigh. “Look, I told you, I don't want the spell so I can cast it. I mean, it's a pretty nasty spell, I wouldn't want to use it on anypony, would I? I just wanna learn it.”
“But...” Icy trailed off, squeezing her eyes shut in an attempt to figure out Conundra's logic. “But then why do you want it? What's the point in knowing a spell if you don't ever want to use it?”
“Because shut up, that's why!” Conundra snapped. “I just want it, okay, and you can't stop me from having it!”
Icy raised an eyebrow, beginning to get a clearer picture of who Conundra reminded her of, but said nothing.
After a moment, Conundra once again drew herself up. “So, are you gonna be good little colts and fillies, sit down and not get sliced into thin little strips?
“Yeah, that's not how this'd work,” Moonwing spoke up. While everyone else had been busy talking to Conundra, she had walked up the first set of swinging blades and was standing there, holding a wing out near them.
She turned her head back towards the group, pulling her wing back a little. “Not all of these... groups? Like most of the points where stuff looks like it's swinging don't actually have any real blades in them. Most of the sets are all illusions.”
“Wh- Are you so sure?” Conundra asked, almost but not quite masking her initial surprise at Moonwing figuring it out.
Moonwing just nodded. “Yep, I'm sure. You can fool me but,” she swished a wing in front of her, “you can't fool the air.”
“What are you...” Conundra tilted her head, causing her illusory helmet to briefly be set at a strange angle. “Well, it doesn't matter anyway if you can't tell which ones are the real ones, does it?”
Caprice sighed. “Yeah, how'll we ever tell if there's somethin' in front of us or not. Truly, an impossible challenge, your deviosity is staggerin'.” As she was talking, she shoved a hoof into Archer's quiver, eliciting a raised eyebrow from the fellow earth pony. After a moment, she pulled out an arrow and strolled up to the first pendulum. “It's not as if we can, I dunno, just throwin' ideas out here...” she stuck the arrow into the path of the pendulum and held it there for a couple of seconds until one of the blades connected to it physically and smashed it, “test it or nothin'!”
Conundra growled a little, but kept her tone mostly steady. “Okay, so you can tell which are real when you're right next to them. Congratulations, but that won't help you if you're in the middle of it, will it?”
Caprice turned around, looking up at Conundra. “You always assume ponies yer up against are stupid or do ye just wanna put us down to tell yerself y'ain't scared?”
Conundra gave a chuckling harrumph. “I guess you're jus-”
“Rhetorical question!” Caprice interrupted cheerfully, eliciting a splutter from Conundra that she totally ignored. She looked over her group for a few moments before her eyes settled on Icy.
“Hey, you reckon you could freeze us, like, an ice column along here?” She gestured in a straight line towards the area in front of them.
Icy trotted up to her, her wings whipping out and beginning to gather energy even as she asked, “I think so, but it won't be strong enough to hold any of the blades, I don't think.”
“Ddin't think it would,” Caprice clapped her on the back as she joined her, nearly startling Icy into sending the energy out prematurely. “but what it'll do is tell us which sets have real blades in 'em. All we's gotta do is look where the ice gets smashed.”
Icy nodded as she saw what Caprice meant. After another moment of gathering energy, Icy flapped her wings hard, keeping the angle tight to focus the resulting gust into a thin column in front of her.
As the gust swept along the ground, Icy once again silently gave thanks for the Guard hiring À La Mode and her amazing skill with clothes and costumes. A couple of months ago, she would have had to flap hard and repeatedly to get the long, thick pillar of ice that formed before her. However, thanks to her suit focusing her energy and stopping it diffusing into the air, it only took three flaps to get a column that rose up to the height of her belly.
Of course, she didn't have long to appreciate this as, less than a second later, a series of massive cracking noises sprang out down the corridor as the blades of the real pendulums smashed through the ice.
“Looks like there are... eleven of 'em,” Archer said from her position on the floor, her head pressed into the corner of the wall and floor so she could get a clear view all the way along the gauntlet. “Space between 'em too. It'd be tight for a grown up, but we could fit in there fine.”
“Oh, for...” Conundra piped up again, having briefly turned away from the group, facing something that presumably wasn't being transmitted in the image. “I'm trying to concentrate on getting through the last bits of security, could you please not distract me with your fantasies? You'd have to get through without risking getting yourselves cut in half first.” She nodded firmly and began turning away again.
Icy briefly considered pointing out the irony in an illusionist complaining about fantasies, but didn't get the chance before Zatrathan stomped out towards the pendulums, an angry sneer on his face as he drew his sword.
“Then maybe if we break your trap instead,
it might convince your mouth, at last, to shut.” He glared up at Conundra's image for a second before holding his sword, edge down, in the path of the pendulums' poles. After a second, the real one knocked it aside, making him lock his eyes on it.
“A wooden shaft, though fine to hold a head,
is nothing for a magic blade to cut!”
He swung his sword to meet the pole, white energy flashing along the metal an instant before it made contact. However, rather than the sound of splintering metal that Icy expected, there was a sound somewhere between that of wood being hit but not broken and that of an expulsion of magic similar to a blast spell. At the same time, there was a flash of light from the meeting point, briefly blinding Icy. However, through it, she could just about make out Zatrathan's blade flying up and out of his hooves, landing a short way down the corridor, past many of the swinging blades.
Conundra snorted. “Oh, yeah, probably should have mentioned – most of the stuff down here has got loads of protection spells on them. Except the golems – would have interfered with the stuff animating them – but everything else got protected by Sombra. And I could be wrong, but I'm guessing his magic is a little stronger than yours, blade-for-brains. But if you want me to stop talking, that's fine – I'll leave you to stew in your failure.” And, with that, she turned away again, her horn-area lighting up as the sound of her hoofsteps abruptly cut off.
“Huh, looks like she cut the sound,” Icy observed.
“Well, one way to find out,” Caprice smirked. “Hey, poor mare's Jack Pot! You wearin' that crystal golf ball helmet to hide yer ugly mug, to stop yerself signallin' every lie ye tell like a siren or do ya just like lookin' like a cheap souvenir snow globe somepony dropped?”
There was a lengthy pause before Caprice nodded. “Yep, she ain't hearin' us.”
Zatrathan stomped a hoof on the ground.
“That filly's really getting on my nerves.” He sighed, the annoyance dropping from his expression.
“And, yet, it's only she my rashness serves.”
Icy, Truffle and Caprice all opened their mouths to reply, but Archer held a hoof up sharply, cutting them off. She mouthed quickly for a few seconds as she approached Zatrathan before smiling.
She bumped him in the shoulder and said, “Don't worry, she'll soon get what she deserves.”
Despite the rhythm of her line sounding a little off, even to Icy, Zatrathan smiled back at her, a small chuckle escaping him as he nodded.
“Yeah,” Caprice said as she looked up at the torrent of blades before her, “least this time you didn't get cut off mid-rhyme. I know you hate that.”
Zatrathan sighed. “You're right, of course – that helps a tiny bit.
But still...”
“Yeah, no interruptions this time!” Caprice shot out with an impudent smirk.
Zatrathan glared at her. “I think it best for you to quit,” he finished, unamused by the joke.
Caprice held her hooves up. “Sorry, sorry, couldn't resist.”
Truffle sighed loudly, though with a hint of a smile on his face. “Well, in any case, we need to figure out how to tell where the real blade is for all the ones that have them.”
Caprice turned to him, a little confused. “Huh? We just stick somethin' in to test 'em – I just showed how...”
“Yes, I saw,” Truffle replied, his eyebrow sharply raised at the idea that he hadn't thought of that, “but not all of us as sharp eyed as Archer or a sharp... rhythmed as you. I don't know about anyone else, but I'd prefer not to have to rely on touch and timing alone to avoid getting killed.
“I could maybe freeze it,” Icy suggested, spreading her wings for emphasis. “So we could keep track of the one with ice on it?”
Caprice shook her head. “Nah, if these things are protected, the magic'd either bounce off or get absorbed. Still, markin' the real one ain't a bad idea. Say, Archer, ye got any more o' those dye arrows o' yours?”
“A few,” Archer replied, reaching in and pulling out a green-tipped arrow. “Got a couple in a few different colours, but not a whole quiver. I mean, I try to be prepared and all, but there aren't too many situations where I need to make a target blue, green or yellow, so I don't have a whole crayon-box's worth or anything.”
She nocked the arrow and began to pull back on the string, but relaxed after a moment. “Actually, probably better not to shoot the real one when we find it – I know I don't have enough for all of 'em, let alone anything else we could need 'em for.”
“Wasn't thinkin' ye would,” Caprice informed her as she snatched the arrow out of the bow, not seeming to notice Archer's reflexive movement towards pulling out another arrow and shooting her. Instead, she simply trotted up to the first set of blade images and shoved the arrow's tip just into the illusions.
For a few seconds, nothing happened but, just as Icy was understanding her reasoning, the real blade swung through the arrow's tip, bursting it open and smearing green dye along its surface. Caprice quickly pulled the arrow back and tipped it up so some of the dye stayed in the remains of the bulb and looked up, watching the now-marked physical blade swing away.
She turned back towards the others, her eyes briefly flicking to the hoof holding the arrow, also now covered in green dye.
“Well, my hoof's gonna look like I was painting while gettin' electrocuted by the time we're done, but we got our answer. Let's go!”
She turned back to the blades and waited a moment for the marked one to pass by before stepping through, quickly followed by Truffle and Archer. The other three followed a moment later, after the marked blade swung by once more.
Once she was through, Icy kept an eye on the column of Ice she'd created, looking for where the next real blade had broken through and trying to ignore the many, many false blades that were passing in front of, behind and through her. It was an intensely surreal feeling – both her senses of sight and hearing told her she was about to get sliced into tiny pieces and, no matter how much she told herself that it wasn't real, the reflex to duck when you see anything flying towards you, let alone a deadly weapon, was incredibly hard to suppress.
However, even weirder was how it continued – when her instinctive responses told her both that she was about to die and that she had already been killed. On the one hoof, the disconnect and the continual nature of it made it easier to stop herself reacting physically to it, but on the other, the discomfort was only exacerbated by the apparent danger not coming to an end when it should. It was like the sensory equivalent of running a fever – feeling hot and cold at the same time despite knowing perfectly well that the room is neither.
Fortunately, the one thing this feeling did that was beneficial was to keep her alert and aware of her surroundings, something Icy knew she sometimes had trouble with, and she soon found the next point in the corridor where a real pendulum had passed through her ice. Looking up, she saw through the illusions passing in front of her that Caprice was already holding the arrow up for the next blade to pass through.
A moment later, a slight scraping sound let them all know that the blade had been marked. However, this time the green smear was somewhat fainter, a problem made worse by the fact that the set of holographic blades in front of it made keeping track of the marked blade more difficult.
“Looks like we can get two blades per arrow,” Caprice said, tossing the now-spent arrow aside and holding a hoof out to Archer for the next one. It took only a split second, as Archer had already retrieved one, and after a moment to let the real blade pass by, they stepped through.
Icy gulped as she put her head through the arc of illusory blades, unable to dismiss the image of getting her head chopped off. This wasn't helped by the fact that there was only about half a metre between that set and the one containing the real blade, making it difficult to see it as it swung off to the side. The faintness of the marking didn't help, making it difficult to tell apart from the mirages until it got uncomfortably close.
However, soon enough, the green streak passed in front of her face and she dashed through, just about keeping in a whimper as she passed through.
A moment later, she closed her eyes and exhaled, taking a second to centre herself before she opened them again and continued forward. It probably wasn't good for her stress levels, but it seemed they had found a way through.
The process continued for another three blades, using two more dye arrows and, by her estimation, giving Icy ten different heart attacks. Admittedly, two of them were from when Zatrathan went aside to retrieve his sword, but that didn't make her feel much better. However, as they were coming up to the sixth area of smashed ice, they heard something behind them.
“-tria's going on down there?!” Conundra's voice rang out down the corridor, the start sounding unnaturally cut off – presumably, she'd started the sentence a moment before she turned the sound in the projection spell back on. “Can't I leave you alone for...” she trailed off. Icy knew she wouldn't be able to get a clear picture of her if she looked behind her and wasn't inclined to try, but she guessed she was looking at the markings they'd left in their trail.
After a moment, though, Conundra stopped. “Well, look at the big brain on you. Too bad for you,” the sound of her horn lighting up could be heard over her voice and the swinging of the pendulums, “you're not just dealing with a trap. You've got a pony with their own brain to contend with. And ponies can adapt. For example...”
“Quickly, get over here!” Truffle called out from the other side of the sixth blade. Icy didn't need any more encouragement as she and Moonwing hopped through, following close behind the others as they moved to the next one. However, through the chaotic mass of images, Icy could just make out the targeting beam that proceeded a spell being sent towards them. A few seconds later, just as before Caprice could retrieve another arrow, the coloured beam of a spell came flying around the corner towards them. Moonwing dashed to the front of the group, her shield raised in readiness, only to lower it when the spell impacted the very front of the section of blades, once again creating a blinding flash.
Fortunately, it seemed they were all used to this, enough to close their eyes when the spell hit. Opening hers, Icy saw a shifting mass of bright colours mixed into the swinging blades. It took a moment to parse what she was seeing, but after a couple of heavy blinks, she managed to resolve things enough to make out the streaks of colour that now adorned all of the illusory blades. They were in a wealth of different colours, all as bright and eye-catching as the marks that Archer's arrows had made. Looking closely, Icy suspected that each of these streaks had the same pattern, but it was nearly impossible to say for certain because of how they were moving and intersecting one another and it would be actually impossible to use that to judge which was real.
Fortunately, that wasn't immediately necessary, as there was one blade that conspicuously lacked a marking – presumably the real one. As an earlier conversation with Conundra had seemed to imply, the spell to alter an existing, free-standing illusion was obviously different from the spell to add one to an object.
“Quick, everyone, the blank one's real!” Truffle barked out as he hopped past the blade in question. “We can use that.”
It seemed everyone else was just as quick on the uptake as they followed, all in the time between his speaking and the real blade swinging back down. They ran forwards, Icy presuming that they too had anticipated that Conundra would soon nullify that method.
Indeed, they had barely started running before she called out, “Not for long you can't, fatso!”
Icy's head twisted slightly, her eyes flicking behind her for a moment before she realized that the plethora of blades behind them made that pointless. She was just turning back when another white flash edged onto her peripheral vision, briefly making her close one eye before she fully looked forward again.
However, by the time she did, she had run into Truffle's thick, outstretched hoof and come to a stop, jerking her head down for a moment from the momentum. Looking, she tried to find the next blank blade, only to see that, as she had suspected, Conundra had added streaks of colour to the real blades too.
“Dangit!” Caprice scuffed the ground in irritation. “Did anyone get a good look at the real one?”
“I think so.” Archer took out an ordinary arrow and jabbed it into the blades in front of them. “Should be this one... now!” There was a pause, before she lowered her shoulders. “Guess no-” The arrow was shattered, making her head whip round in an attempt to keep the blade that had done it in sight. However, after a second, she shook her head. “Nope!”
“I could maybe get the rhythm if we keep puttin' stuff in there!” Caprice called over the cacophony of whooshes. “Though might take a while, these other noises are kinda messin' wit' me! 'Part from that, maybe if we had somethin' she couldn’t just make a knock-off of?”
Truffle stomped, the sound loud enough to be heard over the ambient noise – an impressive feat in itself. “Like what? If she can just make an image of something, we'd need something she can't see or can't... predict...” he trailed off for a moment before a familiar grin poked its way onto his face. “Something or...”
Whirling around to his side, he hopped onto his hind legs and brought his hooves down hard onto the short block of ice they'd used to test where the real blades were. The impact chipped away a small pair of craters in the ice, which he then used as stepping-stones to try and pull himself up on top of it. “Little boost, anyone?” he called out as his rear hooves scrabbled for purchase on the slippery surface.
As Moonwing and Zatrahan rushed over to push him up, Icy looked over from the other side of the block. “I could come over and make a step if you want.”
“Not here, we're done, but at the next array,” Zatrathan said as he and Moonwing managed to get Truffle fully onto the block before exhaling heavily.
“I might avoid a hernia that way!”
“Sorry, being heavy's sort of my thing!” Truffle shrugged as he stomped a few stable hoofholds into the ice beneath him. Once he was sure of his grounding, he carefully put a hoof out towards where the poles of the pendulums were swinging past.
“What are you doing?!” Icy's eyes widened – his hoof was above the area that the blade would pass through, but not by much.
“Just testing which direction it's... there!” Truffle nodded as his hoof was knocked aside for a moment. “Get ready!” He called out before darting forwards.
At first, it looked like he was going to simply run past that section – it was certainly one way to tell when to go, but didn't help the rest of them much – they'd need to get up onto the ice simply to get the height needed to test without getting their hooves sliced off. However, he suddenly stopped halfway through, rearing up slightly and twisting his body to the left.
Icy cocked her head to the side, her mouth already opening to ask what exactly he was doing. However, before she had even thought the first word of her question, he was knocked to the right, straight off of the ice.
Or, at least, it seemed that that was what was happening for a moment, before it became clear that he was actually swinging up along the arc of the blade, his hooves wrapped around the pole of the real one.
A smile blossomed onto Icy's face as he reached the top of the pendulum's arc and started swinging down again and she realized what he was doing – using himself as the marker for the others to use.
It seemed she was among the last to realize this as, by the time she’d coiled herself up to leap past him when he next swung by, most of the others had already hopped through. Only Moonwing remained behind with her, looking as if she'd just finished the split-second transformation from near-inanimate to hyper-kinetic.
As soon as Truffle went past them, the pair darted through, quickly followed by Truffle leaping off the blade and landing with a slight bounce on the crystal floor, the momentum carrying him forward into a run.
As Icy flapped her wings to send a gust forward, freezing a short step next to the next area of smashed ice, she heard Conundra sputtering a little behind her.
“That... you... I can just make copies of you, moron! See how well you can show the way when I fill the room with an army of you!”
“Go right ahead!” Truffle called back as he hopped up the step and onto the larger ice block, sticking his hoof up again and getting it immediately pushed to the right. “That just means they can look for the one holding his hoof up.” As he leapt into the swinging pole, he indeed kept one of his hoof pointed straight up. “Or maybe down?” He lowered his forehoof and dangled a rear hoof down along the flat of the blade. “Oh, or how about...” Pulling his hoof back up, he hooked one forehoof around the pole before pointing them both diagonally up, “doing the YMCA? Can your mirages copy everything I do?”
As Icy jumped past Truffle again, she briefly considered how the Young Mare's Celestial Association felt about their main claim to fame being that song and dance before Truffle landing beside her and Conundra calling from behind her refocused her mind.
“Maybe, maybe not, but even they can't, that doesn't mean you're safe.”
“Er, yeah,” Caprice called out, her face and tone making clear how obvious she thought that was, “we're in the middle of a mincin' machine, ain't nobody thinkin' we're safe.” As Icy froze another step and Truffle hopped on, Caprice sent a smirk back at Conundra, even though it was clear she wouldn't be able to see it. “But that don't mean we ain't got a way through.”
Conundra gave a nasty, smug little chuckle. “Only as long as you can see it. Sorry to do this to you, Fatty!”
A blue guidance beam shot through the pendulums, bouncing around the top corners of the corridor, where the subsequent blades didn't reach, before intersecting the path Truffle and the blade was moving along. A second after he passed by it, a ray of spell energy shot past him before holding in place. However, rather than the coloured beams her illusions had been carried along before, this one consisted of a heavy distortion in the air – entirely transparent, but still clearly visible, like thick glass.
For a moment, Icy wasn't sure what to make of it, but fortunately, it seemed the others were a bit quicker in their understanding, at least that it wasn't something they wanted to hit Truffle.
“Oh no you don't!” Moonwing cried, rushing forward as Truffle was swinging towards the beam. For a split second, Icy was sure she was going to get hit by the blade, but she pulled her hindlegs in towards her just as the slicing edge came within an inch of her. Not resting for a moment, she threw her shield into the air, spinning it so it hovered for a moment and caught the beam while Truffle crossed the area it had been a moment ago.
As soon as the shield cut through the beam, the area struck began to disappear from sight. However, once it reached the still-polished area in the centre, the beam was immediately bounced off the reflective surface. Without the ice that had coated it before, it didn't act as a complete mirror, bouncing the ray back along the path it had come from, but instead diffused it into a wide, weak area of slight wibbliness before it dissolved completely a short distance from the shield.
“Good work!” Truffle yelled down as passed Moonwing by, thankfully bringing Icy out of her impressed reverie. “Everyone through!”
Icy's hooves, as they often did, proved more attentive than her mind as she leapt with Caprice and Archer across the threshold. A moment later, Truffle hopped down from the pendulum a moment before it intersected with the invisibility spell once again.
“Wassa matter, ya glass goon?” Caprice shouted out as the group raced for the final blade. “Can't hide us as easy as you can yer own ugly mug?”
“You little... gah!” Conundra roared as Moonwing gave Truffle her now-partially-invisible shield while Icy froze him a final step. “Fine, enjoy your tiny little victory while you can! There are still plenty of twists and turns and traps before you even get close to me. And I'm making good time on the last of Sombra's security, even with you distracting me, so good luck getting to me before I'm gone.” She swept a hoof to the side, her image fading in the same direction until she was totally gone.
A moment later, the beam of the spell cut off, just as Moonwing was preparing to throw her shield to deflect it once again. Before she had a chance to lower her wing, however, Archer suddenly leapt on top of the raised shield, planting her hooves firmly before jumping off and over the short ice wall.
“Sorry!” she shouted down to Moonwing as she sailed over the ice, a rear hoof catching the edge of it and propelling herself up a little further, whereupon she fired an arrow past the final set of blades. Icy couldn't see what happened to it past then, nor could she hear its impact, but she had faith that Archer had achieved... whatever she was trying to.
“No problem... I guess?” Moonwing replied, shrugging.
Shaking her head to refocus herself after whatever that was, Icy looked up just in time to see Truffle swing by. Waiting a moment until he was fully past, she hopped through, letting her momentum carry her into a short little dance of happiness. Regardless of the intent behind it, she was going to take Conundra's advice to enjoy their victory entirely sincerely.
It seemed most of the others were of the same mind, as they were all looking varying degrees of pleased with themselves and, for that matter, each other. Moonwing was settling down for a short, satisfied rest, Archer was rolling her neck casually as she looked back through the mass of coloured blades with a smirk and Zatrathan was pressing a hoof against Moonwing's shield, dismissing the invisibility effect with contemptuous ease.
The only one who looked in any way uneasy was Caprice, who was looking up at the final blade with a concerned expression. However, when her gaze lowered at the exact time that a heavy thud came from behind them, it was clear what, or rather who, she was looking at.
“Right, now that's over, let's head on, shall we?” Truffle said as he strode forward past Icy, only to be stopped by Caprice's outstretched hoof.
“Not till we deal with them hits you just took, we ain't,” she declared, her voice making it clear that she would brook no argument.
Not that that stopped Truffle from trying. “What are you talking about?” He scoffed, looking both puzzled and a little offended. “I didn't touch the blades' edges once, I'm-”
“Yeah, you stayed on the blunt bits,” Caprice interrupted him, rolling her eyes, “which means you only got whacked in the gut by a wooden pole the size of a small lamp post. Four times. You're gettin' a healin'!”
“Look, I'm feeling perfectly fine,” Truffle strode past her, his face hard and determined, “so let's just get on wit- ng!” He groaned and winced as Caprice flicked his belly with a hoof, his reaction saying far more that his protestations ever could.
After a moment of everyone staring at him, he sat down with a scowl. “We really don't have time to wait around,” he said, a touch petulantly.
“Y’ain't wrong, but this won't take more than half a minute, tops.” Caprice shook her head as she raised her violin and began playing a gentle tune, her blue waves of healing flowing out over Truffle's side.
While this was happening, Icy took a moment to study his face. Considering how hard it was to read the emotions of some of her teammates, one would think someone like Truffle Shuffle, who rarely seemed to have a thought or reaction he wasn't happy to give his foghorn of a voice to, would be far easier to understand. However, as she watched his expression shift, his eyes occasionally darting up towards the corridor ahead of them, she got the distinct impression there was more going on in his head than he was letting on. His usual bluster was still entirely genuine, but there was something going on behind it. She couldn't say for sure, but it certainly felt like he was a little rattled.
As Caprice's song came to an end and everyone picked themselves up to continue down the corridor, she hung back a little. Admittedly, this was far from an uncommon occurrence if she was off on one of her trademark mental tangents – Can you trademark the way your mind works? she briefly wondered before shaking the thought off – but this time, her delaying was intentional.
She strolled up to Truffle, offering her hoof to help him get to his hooves. As he took it and nearly pulled her down with him, she spoke, “So, Truffle, are you okay?”
“Perfectly!” Truffle assured her as he stood up. “Was fine before and after that bit of melodic medicine, I'm double fine!”
“Well, I believe you, but...” Icy trailed off, lowering her voice a little so the others wouldn't overhear. “I know your body's all okay, but are you feeling okay?”
Truffle cocked an eyebrow as the two began following the others. “What makes you think there's a problem?”
Icy shrugged. “I don't know, you just seem a little... bothered by this whole thing is all.”
Truffle smirked. “And what do you suppose Dinky would say if she knew you were trying to take over her position as our resident pony-reader?”
Icy didn't even have to think before she replied. “She'd be happy to have the help, thank me a whole bunch and give me a great big hug and you know it. Don't change the subject.”
Truffle chuckled, his smile spreading into something more sincere. “Touché! I... I'm sorry if I've been causing problems...”
“You haven't,” Icy assured him. “I was just... I thought I could help, maybe.”
Truffle nodded. “Appreciated. I just... you remember what this filly's after?”
Icy nodded. “Sombra's fear-illusion spell.”
Truffle swallowed noisily. “Yes, well, I'm afraid when she described it to us, I sort of... got ahead of it. I saw t...” He inhaled sharply as he squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. “I just have a horrible feeling I know exactly what that spell would show me. And once I'd thought of it, I... I couldn't get it out of my mind.”
Icy sighed in realization, her head nodding slowly. “Ah, right. Well, if it helps, you weren't the only one – I kind of imagined my own phobia too.” She gave Truffle a weak smile.
However, this only seemed to make Truffle grimace, a tiny, frustrated growl coming from his mouth. “Actually, that... really doesn't help. Kind of makes it worse, but that's not your fault. It could have worked, it's just... it's all to do with what the thing I imagined was.”
Icy gulped, unable to stop a little guilt worming its way into her mind despite believing Truffle's assurances. “Well, would it help if you told me? I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to but... well, I think you know what mine was and that does help me a little.” She'd never made a secret of her aquaphobia and her teammates had all been extremely understanding about it, which she'd always appreciated.
Truffle gave a mirthless laugh. “Oh, I'm sure it would, but the trouble is... well, a big part of it's... not really my place to tell you.” He raised his head, a trace of his normal confidence returning. “Tell you what, once this is all over, I'll talk with h- I'll talk it over and hopefully I'll be able to tell you.”
“Only if you want to,” Icy said, though she couldn't keep a gentle smile off her face at the trust he was showing.
“I think it'll help. Both of us, as a matter of fact.” Cracking his neck a couple of times, he increased his pace, beginning to catch up to the others. “In the meantime, I'll be happy to work through my issues by smashing the schemes of a certain shifty someone!”
Icy grinned as she sped up to join the group. “Amen to that!”
“Which way to the Tourmaline Hotel?” the cloaked figure asked a nearby guard as they walked down the platform of the station.
As the guard pointed the way to their quarry, they smiled. Soon, they and Icy Flight would meet once more.