The group dashed down the winding tunnels, Archer the only one who stopped to check their direction and even then, she only did so after a brief sprint to pull ahead.
As it turned out, however, she needn't have bothered, as there were no more split junctions and, after only a couple more corners, they saw the corridor lead into a much larger room.
The assembled colts and fillies came to a halt just before the end of the corridor – though their opponent had told them they'd passed the final trap between them and her, none of them were exactly keen on taking a chance by trusting the filly whose entire interactions with them consisted of trickery, illusion, deception and confusion.
However, after a few moments scanning the exit, both visually and, from Zatrathan and Caprice, magically, there was a general nodding amongst them before Truffle charged over the threshold, tensing himself to bear the brunt of whatever they may have missed. However, nothing happened and the others followed him soon afterwards, looking around the massive cavern.
The size of the room was nearly staggering after spending so much time in the admittedly wide but still enclosed corridors of the main labyrinth. It was easily as big as Ponyville's town hall, possibly a little larger, and, though the ceiling was still relatively low, it nevertheless felt a lot more open. Unlike the sharp, seemingly random angles, protrusions and craters that made up the walls of the tunnels, all the surfaces in this hall were smooth and pristine, the walls curving round in a gentle arc, both around the edge of the room and into a domed ceiling. A lot more exits were spread around the room, with the only large section that didn't have a tunnel leading off from it being to their immediate right, where a huge apparatus lay.
At first glance, it looked like a cross between a crystal sculpture, a work desk and the controls of a starship from one of Icy's sci-fi comics – a long, curved surface, its top slanted down to make it easier to look at the many glowing panels and coloured, button-like bulges. None of these sections looked like they could be physically moved or altered, but the glow suggested that they interacted with a pony's magic; possibly only a unicorn's, given who had created it and who had been recently using it.
The bank of controls curved around the wall for a short distance before coming to an end, leaving a wide gap after it before a second array began, its controls in a very different arrangement. Between the two was the only flat surface anywhere on the room's walls – a large sheet of crystal that dully reflected the light, much less intensely than any of the crystal walls the group had seen thus far. It reminded Icy a lot of a switched-off screen for a video game machine and she guessed that it was the screen that Conundra had been using to communicate with them.
“Which way did sh- ah!” Icy heard Archer say, the slight whooshing of wind indicating that she was whipping her head around, searching for their adversary. Turning to Archer, Icy opened her mouth to ask what she'd found, only to see what she meant.
The various exits to this central hub were laid out in a regular pattern throughout the room, further suggesting that this cavern was artificially made rather than adapted from something natural. Including the tunnel they'd come through, there were seven exits by Icy's counting and, if this complex had been built or used by someone who understood the concept of subtlety, it might have been difficult to ascertain which of these passages led to the “inner sanctum” and, thus, which one Conundra had gone into.
However, this was a structure created by King Sombra, so the huge, shiny black doors covered in rubies, amethysts and obsidian was a bit of a giveaway, as was the massive dome atop a crystalline body that now turned to them.
“Gotcha!” Archer smiled, raising her bow and pulling out an arrow.
Icy couldn't see Conundra's expression past the illusionary crystal bubble, but she got the distinct impression from her posture that there was a touch of panic in it as the horn-area of the helmet lit up, sending out a beam of bright magical energy.
The blast bounced off the angular walls of the tunnel, almost instantly forming a chain of ricochets that went in a rough circle around the walls before impacting the ground just beyond the open door, bringing up the image of a brick wall.
Snorting in annoyed amusement, Zatrathan rushed forward, his hoof going to his scabbard to draw his sword.
Archer smiled, shaking her head slightly as she nocked the arrow, firing it just as Zatrathan began speaking.
“Enough!” he roared at Conundra. “Whate'er illusions you may make,
you rest assured, we'l-”
He stopped as he saw Archer's arrow impact the wall, splintering and bouncing off it as if it were, in fact, a real barrier.
His eyes widening, Zatrathan brought his hooves to halt, skidding along the crystal floor and almost, but not quite, arresting his movement before he too impacted the wall with an extremely solid-sounding smack.
“Oh, for goodness' sake!”
“Oh, yeah, should have mentioned that!” Conundra's voice called back to them with affected surprise and contrition. “In the inner sanctum, the walls' effect is increased massively. With the power boost from that, I can actually make my images solid! Have fun out there!”
“So, you're saying,” Truffle said as he approached Zatrathan's position, speaking just as her sentence finished, “that this is basically a real brick wall.”
“You bet your fat flank it is,” Conundra called back, making Truffle smile – Icy guessed his immediate question was at least partially an attempt to delay her a little. “Good luck getting through it any time soon!”
“Oh, I think we'll manage.” Truffle walked up the wall before turning around, his back to it. “You see, there's one thing you seem to be forgetting.”
“And what's that?” Conundra's sneer was clear even behind two opaque surfaces.
Truffle whirled around and raised his back legs before giving the wall a powerful buck. A massive, deep sound rang out from the collision, nothing like brick being struck but just as loud, and Icy could feel the vibrations from the impact running through the ground. Furthermore, a slightly liquid shudder ran through the wall, rippling out from Truffle's hooves.
Truffle grunted, a smile on his face. “Even brick can crumble!”
It seemed no one in the vicinity needed any further cause to act, as Icy heard Conundra's hooves running deeper into the tunnels as the group lined up in front of the wall. With a sweeping note and a wave of energy from Caprice's violin, they began their assault upon the wall in earnest.
Rather than continue bucking it, Truffle had turned to face the wall and was pummelling it with his front hooves, for the most part treating it like a punching bag while occasionally bringing both his hooves down in an overhead strike or ramming into it with his shoulder. Meanwhile, Moonwing was pounding it with her shields, alternating between hitting it with the rim of the discs and slamming their surfaces against the barrier, putting her full weight behind them.
Zatrathan, on the other hand, didn't strike it multiple times, instead rearing up on his hindhooves and plunging his sword down against the wall, trying to use his weight, his strength and the magic flowing along the blade to push it through. Just above him, a rapid stream of arrows was being fired into the wall, Archer's fire being concentrated into one precise spot.
In the face of this assault, the rippling in the walls surface was increasing and the barrier was quickly becoming unstable. However, it struck Icy that her previous evaluation wasn't quite accurate – there was one pony present who wasn't doing anything and it was the one who had just thought that.
That said, she didn't see that there was much she could do – freezing the wall wouldn't really accomplish anything and she didn't think she had any means at her disposal to directly damage it. Still, she frowned in thought as she tried to come up with something. Characters like Icemare or Misty Freeze made it look so easy, they could both freeze things and shoot ice, but she didn't see how...
Actually, now that she thought of it, it may have been possible for her to shoot solid ice as well, she just wasn't sure how. She knew that she could use her energy to form ice on solid surfaces, but making it in the air? That was trickier.
After a moment of flexing her wings, she decided to try it out, sending a pair of freezing gusts out at a sharp angle, bringing the two streams of energy together just in front of her so they impacted one another. To her elation, the instant they did, they formed a solid, sharp lump of ice in the air in front of her.
To her disappointment, however, the wind from her wings pushed the lump about a foot before it plummeted to the ground, fracturing as it landed.
Huffing to herself, Icy picked the block of ice up. Well, guess I'll just have to work on that... as well as on freezing actual stuff, general fitness, ice skating, if I can even bring myself to go out on a frozen lake again... Sighing, Icy chucked the block at the wall, where it shattered on impact.
Fortunately, Icy was saved from listing the truly gargantuan list of ways she felt she needed to improve in order to be an effective hero when the wall, with a final magical groan, at last shattered, the pieces immediately dissolving into multicoloured ether before fading out of existence.
The group's vanguard didn't waste a second, rushing forward as soon as the barricade was gone and the others didn't wait much longer, stowing their tools quickly before following.
They weren't running long, however, before they skidded to a halt before the next obstacle – a small formation of grey, blank-faced ponies, standing to attention and blocking their path.
“Like them?” Conundra's voice called back, magically amplified to carry all the way back from her position well ahead of them. “Can't just walk through these ones – they're solid enough to take you down.” A beam of magic sped down the corridor towards them before impacting the centre of the group, making them all start walking forward in unison, their eyeless faces locked onto the group in front of them.
There was a moment of silence from the group before Archer gave a small chuckle.
“Oh, no, what are we gonna do? We've never had to take down actual ponies before. Oh wait!”
She raised her bow and fired an arrow into the head of the pony at the head of the herd, burying the arrow in its featureless head and knocking it to the side, breaking the formation and sending the other effigies scattering slightly.
With a smirk, Caprice raised her violin. She swept her bow down, sending out a pulse of energy and signalling for the others to advance. “Let's do this!”
They started doing this.
As usual, Truffle took the lead, with Moonwing and Zatrathan close behind him. However, spurred on by Caprice's introduction, Icy found herself moving to act much quicker than normal, sending a wave of energy over the arrow-marked construct, encasing his legs in thick ice. This not only had the effect of halting him in place, it also made the figures behind him collide with his backside. They didn't fall on their haunches as Icy had hoped they might, instead just continuing to walk forward against him until their angle pushed them around him, like a video game sprite walking against a wall.
However, Icy didn't get much of a chance to appreciate this as Truffle made contact with the horde, leaping into a punch to one of the frontmost enemies and drawing Icy's attention. The impact was loud and sent a ripple through the blank-faced ponies, larger than the one that went through the image of the brick wall. This seemed to suggest that these illusions, if one could call them that when they were solid, weren't as tough as the barrier they'd just faced, though they were obviously more mobile and numerous.
Still, the strike didn't disperse the recipient, though it did knock it back quite a distance, allowing two more to approach Truffle and take a synchronized swing at him. Fortunately, the movement was telegraphed well in advance, allowing him to slip underneath one and brace himself for the other, taking the hit with little more than a quiet grunt.
Meanwhile, Moonwing was wading into the fray on the other side of the frozen pony. Icy didn't know if this was a conscious choice for her and Truffle, since they didn't know each other's fighting styles as well as they did for their own teammates and didn't want to get in each other's way, or just good sense to cover more ground. Either way, though, Moonwing seemed to be just fine on her own, dashing, ducking and whirling around to intercept any strikes around her with her shields. She was focusing her movements much more on defense than Truffle was, but was still able to get in quite a few slams with one or both shields.
It helped that these solid illusions were all moving in such unison and broadcasting their strikes seconds before making them, allowing her to keep her movements and deflections finely synchronized to the attacks. Also helping was the fact that, unlike the previous fight with the golems and their incorporeal duplicates, the various opponents weren't moving through each other and obscuring which one was where, nor was there any doubt that any given attack was real and would need to be avoided.
A crackle of electricity and a bright light drew Icy's attention to the centre of the fight, where Zatrathan's sword was crackling with white lightning as he thrust it forward into the chest of the frozen pony. There was a moment's pause as the blade collided with the construct's chest, the tip gradually pushing down into its heart-area even as the electricity went ahead and coursed through its body. Then, all at once, the image exploded into a fading, diffused light.
To his credit, Zatrathan didn't quite topple forward when this happened, managing to put a hoof on the now-empty block of ice and push himself back into a reared-up position. He drew his sword back, twirling it around before vaulting over the ice at two of the forms behind it.
Seeing this got Icy to shake her head and refocus on her own role in the fight. She flapped her wings against the ground in front of her, sending a low wave of energy along the ground. She had to keep it tightly focused so it wouldn't accidentally catch Truffle by accident, but it seemed he was attentive enough to move to the side, just in case. The energy coursed along the ground, creating a thin sheet of ice that reached the hooves of the two Zatrathan was going for, coming to an end just before Zatrathan landed.
Landing on the ice, Zatrathan surged forward, slamming his sword into the neck of one of the rear constructs, a white energy flashing along the edge and into the pony, blowing a chunk out of its neck and allowing Zatrathan's blade to penetrate all the way through, detaching its head completely and making it too vanish a moment later.
However, it seemed the momentum behind Zatrathan's thrust wasn't entirely under his control, as he continued forward once the illusion was gone, sliding forward on the ice and onto his belly.
He quickly leapt to his hooves and turned around, only to see the other rear image pulling one of its front hooves free from the ice, bringing it up to either smash the remainder of the ice or smack the still off-balance zebra.
Before it could, though, an arrow thudded into its hoof, wrenching it off to the side and around the construct's other hooves, tangling them up and bringing it to a twisted halt.
While that was happening, Truffle looked up from the pony he was focusing on, who was now looking extremely unstable. Smiling, he leapt up, grabbing hold of the false pony's chest and clambering up its body. A second enemy thrust a hoof at him, evidently not caring about the possibility of hitting an ally, but Truffle saw this and angled his haunch towards the strike, taking the brunt of it but allowing it to push him up to his perch's head.
Turning to catch Zatrathan's eye, he jerked his head towards the frozen, off-balance construct. For his part, Zatrathan may or may not have noticed, as he was busy getting his own balance back, but either way, he was soon pulling his sword up for another strike.
Smiling, Truffle hopped off the blank pony's head, twisting around for a second before ramming his hooves out behind him, impacting the construct's lack-of-a-face with what should have been a sickening crunch, but instead was a deep magical chime and, a moment later, the sound of an illusion dissipating.
There wasn't much time to appreciate this, however, as Truffle's strike also propelled him forward, flying towards the pony who was only now getting into a position to break the rest of the ice at its hooves. Seeing this, Zatrathan swung his sword at the pony's side, not seeming to bother to put more than a tiny bit of magic into the strike. However, it was fairly obvious it wasn't needed, as Truffle impacted its other side and pushed it into the sword's edge, driving it deep into the pony's body and carving it nearly in two. In fact, it looked like the only reason it wasn't completely bisected was because it exploded before it could be.
“Nice one,” Moonwing called out as she threw a shield into the side of one of her opponents, which proved the final impact needed to disperse it. “Looks like we're getting in sync!” She sent out her recall beam, drawing the shield back just in time to block another attack against her.
Icy couldn't help but agree, as they had now taken out half of the illusory enemies – they weren't even outnumbered anymore. “Only five left!” she called out.
“Four in a second,” Archer added as she fired another shot. Darting her eyes along the arrow's path, Icy saw that, while the hoof-to-hoof fighters had been drawing her attention, Icy had been quietly filling one of the constructs on the periphery with arrows, with half a dozen sticking out of various points on its featureless hide.
The latest arrow impacted it right in the temple, penetrating deep into its holographic flesh. For a moment, it looked like, had the thing been capable of feeling pain, it would have hurt horribly. However, while the theoretical pain didn't vanish by itself after a second, the construct did, exploding into light and making the arrows embedded in it fall to the ground. Icy wasn't sure whether this was because of the position of the arrow, how deep it had gone into it or simply the result of the repeated impacts. That said, there was another question that felt a little more pressing.
“How did you know that would be the last one?” she asked Archer, who simply shrugged.
“I didn't, just figured it probably would be. They were going deeper every time and the temple's a weak spot anyway.”
Icy turned back to the fray, absent-mindedly sending a blast to freeze the legs of one going for Zatrathan. “So, you think we need to pierce them deeply to take them out?”
“Maybe,” Archer smirked, loading a metal arrow into her bow. “How about we find out. Hey, Wing!” she called out as she fired the arrow into the side of the nearest enemy. “Try driving that one in!”
Moonwing nodded as Icy focused on that image, flapping her wings to freeze its hooves to the ground, allowing Moonwing to dart around it and ram her shield into the metallic shaft of the arrow, planting her hooves against the ground and pushing it deeper.
Seeing the ice starting to crack a little from the force, Icy flapped again, thickening the construct’s bonds, hopefully enough to keep it contained.
It was probably a good thing she did so as soon as she noticed, too, as a moment later Zatrathan darted across her field of vision, scampering up the paralyzed foe and running along its back before leaping off, bringing his sword down as he fell and striking the image Icy had frozen previously. The blade sunk deep into the false pony's head, splitting it in two before the image dispersed.
Icy shook her head, refocusing on the pony Moonwing was dealing with, just in time to see her give one final shove, driving the arrow much deeper into the mirage's form before pulling away slightly, ready to ram it again. However, a split second later, the arrow fell away as that pony too exploded into fading light.
“'Kay, looks like we just need to pierce 'em to take 'em out,” Archer concluded, raising her voice a little so everyone could hear her.
“Good... to... know!” Truffle replied, clearly struggling with something. Looking over to his side of the corridor, Icy saw that he had clambered onto the back of one of the two remaining enemies and wrapped his hooves around its neck and chin, trying his hardest to pull its head off completely. The other illusory pony was swatting at him as best it could with its inelegant, clunky movements, but couldn't get the height necessary to get much force behind the blows.
Still, Icy thought it was probably best to make sure it didn't get the chance, so she sent a wave of energy over it, encasing its entire lower half in ice and hopefully giving Truffle enough respite to finish his current opponent off.
It seemed that he was getting somewhere, too, as his hooves jerked upwards, a crack appearing in the featureless pony's neck that was steadily growing wider as he pulled.
Icy wasn't sure how long it would take him to completely remove the head, but, as it turned out, it didn't matter as Zatrathan ran over and leapt towards the larger enemy, driving his sword into the crack Truffle had made and nearly completely splitting the head from the body.
Fortunately, Truffle was alert enough to let go and leap off the pony's back before it vanished, landing right beside Zatrathan.
Zatrathan gave him an awkward smile. “I'm sorry, I just saw that he was still.
I really didn't mean to steal your kill.”
“Don't be ridiculous!” Truffle replied, slapping the zebra on the back nearly hard enough to knock him to the floor. “Beating these things is what really matters and teamwork's a pretty good way to do it. Speaking of which,” he turned to the final construct, which was still struggling to escape its icy bonds, “Moonwing, why don't we make ourselves a sword-and-arrow sandwich?”
He ran around the back of the enemy and grabbed hold of its amorphous tail. Yanking hard, he leapt up, climbing the grey mass until he was on the pony's back.
Moonwing nodded as she understood what he meant, waving a hoof to direct Zatrathan to its right side, opposite to the side Icy was looking at it from. As he did, Moonwing held a shield before her and started running at the immobilized enemy, her shoulder against the shield to strengthen the impact.
Truffle, meanwhile, hopped across the pony's back until he was next to the back of its head, whereupon he leapt up and, with a “Banzai!”, he slammed his belly onto its scalp, driving its head down into Moonwing's charge.
The two ponies smashed into the illusions head from either side with a low, unnerving magical ring sharply ringing out before settling into a continual tone as the pressure kept being applied. However, this sound didn't last long as Zatrathan rammed his sword into the side of the pony's head, its edge turned down towards Moonwing's shield, using the pressure to increasing the cutting power.
Just as the blade was getting deep into the image, two arrows, both fired simultaneously, thudded into the opposite side, knocking the head into the sword slightly.
The tableau stayed still for a moment before this final enemy disintegrated too, making Zatrathan stumble forward a little and Truffle fall down, though thankfully the two didn't meet in the middle. Nor did they seem especially bothered as Zatrathan quickly regained his balance and Truffle simply bounced on his belly high enough to get his hooves under him.
The group looked among each other for a moment, checking that everyone was okay before turning back down the corridor. However, before they could start moving again, they heard a clapping sound from in front of them.
“Oh, very good, very good, well done you!” Conundra's patronizing voice came from in front of them. Icy looked around, seeing nothing in front of them despite the voice seeming to come from there. “Too bad for you, you're too late, I've got the spell!”
Icy's ears swivelled as she listened. It was fairly obvious that Conundra was invisible, so she tried to pinpoint her location using the sound of her voice. Unfortunately, the echo of the corridor made that nearly impossible. She flared her wings to freeze the floor before them before reconsidering – that might just get her to blast them with the illusion spell sooner and wouldn't immobilize her for long enough for them to break out of it, even if they could.
Of course, she could simply stroll right past them right now without being spotted unless there was something...
Icy's eyes widened for a moment before she schooled her expression, lest she give away that she had an idea. “Keep her talking,” she muttered to the others before she started gathering energy to her wings.
She saw Truffle nod in her peripheral vision. “So... so you expect us to believe you could have mastered the spell in the minute since you found it?” he asked, a near-imperceptible hitch in his voice suggesting to Icy that he was more worried about that possibility than he was willing to let on.
“Oh, of course not,” Conundra replied, her voice brimming with smug confidence, “but I don't need to. See, old Sombra was kinda big on backup plans, so he made sure the spell was usable even if he was taken out and his slaves had to do it. Made a gem that held it that any unicorn can use. Like s-”
“So,” Caprice interrupted, “yer gonna blast us wit' it in a room where you just said ye can make yer illusions solid... so they'll block your way out too?”
“I... don't be dumb!” Conundra said, clearly stumbling over a comeback for a moment before clearing her throat. “I know it's hard for you, but try. I don't have to make solid images and the spell makes phantasms, so I couldn't anyway. All I need to do is blast you like thi-”
“Probably a good thing for you you can't,” Archer replied with a smirk, eliciting a growl from Conundra. “Dunno if you'd noticed, but you were doing a heck of a lot better with tricks and illusions than you were making things real. Took us, what, a quarter of the time to get through those goons than, say, the flamethrowers or the swinging blades, if that? What do you call it when somepony's better with making you think stuff's there than actually using stuff that is?”
“A special talent?” Conundra replied without even pausing. “But it doesn't matter anyway with this spell. Now, are you going to let me through without a fuss or am I going to have to get nasty and get past you while you're scared out of your feeble wits?”
Icy gave the empty-looking corridor in front of her a pleasant smile. “Actually, neither.” Not leaving a second for Conundra to think or ask for clarification, she whirled around and flapped her wings, sending a gust sweeping across the corridor behind them and making a thick, high wall of ice behind them, blocking it off completely. Turning back around, she saw Truffle standing in front of her protectively, giving her an encouraging grin over her shoulder.
Conundra snorted. “Oh, very clever, congratulations, you've delayed me a little. Unfortunately for you, this little hocus pocus'll be delaying you for a lot longer.” She gave a heavy sigh. “I'm sorry – I really didn't want to do this,” she continued, suddenly sounding quite genuine in her contrition. “You've been annoying, sure, but I didn't wanna do something this nasty to you. Still, looks like it's you or me, so...”
The air in front of them started wibbling rapidly as the crystal-masked filly faded into view, the horn area of her helmet glowing in a coruscating rainbow of colours.
No sooner had this happened than an arrow and a small bolt of lightning flew from Archer and Zatrathan towards the filly. However, both attacks flew straight through the filly a fraction of a second before another one appeared just beside it, this one's horn-area glowing too, though this time a deep green.
“Sorry!” the presumably real Conundra said, her voice a combination of her usual smug superiority and genuine regret. Before Icy could think further on this or Archer could reload, however, a ray of energy shot from her helmet, coloured that same dark, sickly green with flickering streaks of dark grey and the deep red of congealed blood.
Icy squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself as the spell impacted. She felt its energy wash over her, making her skin feel like it was being coated in wriggling filth. After a second, she felt a force ram itself between her eyelids and expand, levering her eyes open against her will. Clearly, the spell would not be deterred by such countermeasures.
For a moment, nothing happened. Icy might have almost been tempted to let her guard down had she not thought so much about this spell. Still, it was hard to keep braced for something if you didn't know if it had already happened.
Then, there was an almighty crash and the sound of rushing waves, sending Icy's wings flaring and limbs juddering in terror. From behind Conundra, cracks started appearing in the crystal floor and wall, growing rapidly before falling away to reveal deep, roiling water. Icy flicked her eyes behind her as she heard the cracking coming from behind her as well, seeing more water at the edge of her peripheral vision.
The disintegration of the floor quickly rushed past Conundra, whereupon she tumbled down into the water and out of sight. Icy backed up a couple of steps, stopped only by the knowledge that it was coming from behind her as well.
It's not real, it's not real, she screamed in her mind, trying desperately to get her eyes and body to believe it. It's not real, it's not real, it's not reeeeeeeEEEEEEEEE! Her thoughts lost all coherence, surrendering to blind panic.
Around her, her friends and teammates quickly fell, one by one, into the dark, whirling depths of the water that was swallowing up the room. Only a small platform remained solid and that was rapidly shrinking.
She turned to Truffle, the closest to her and the last ally she could still see, desperately hoping he could say or do something to stop what was happening or bring her out of her terror. However, before he could, the cracks reached him and he too began plummeting. Icy tried to close her eyes, but whatever had forced them open remained, making sure she saw every second of her nightmare.
Icy saw Truffle's mouth open as he fell and braced herself for his scream. However, instead he started speaking. There was only a moment for him to do so, but he got out four words before he did:
“Wait, is that it?”
Icy jerked back slightly, the sheer incongruity of Truffle's question doing a fair job of pulling her out of her spiralling panic, even if it didn't do anything to disrupt what she was seeing. It was natural to instinctively disbelieve that anyone could see what she was seeing, let alone succumb to it as he had appeared to, and be unmoved. Furthermore, while she just as instinctively corrected herself a moment later, reminding herself that her phobia was hers and hers alone, it took only another moment to remember that he would be seeing something just as terrifying to him.
Still, the fact that she was capable of having thoughts as coherent as that was a good sign, as was the fact that she recognized that. Swallowing hard, she looked around at the endless expanse of water that stretched from horizon to horizon and the small platform beneath her – still shrinking, but slower than it had been, presumably to draw out the terror. Icy wished she could say it was no longer working, but the ramrod-stiff tension in her legs and juddering shivers wracking her body suggested otherwise.
Nevertheless, she flared her wings out, trying to calm herself, hoping that she could get herself to focus enough to gather her energy. If she could freeze herself a platform, that might either disrupt the fantasy or, at the very least, give her enough of a visible lifeline to reduce the terror and give her an opportunity to figure some other way out. Still, it was hard to think her way past the horrifying images that were being forced into her eyes and she wasn't sure if...
“ICY!”
Icy blinked as she heard Truffle's voice from just next to her. She shook her head, turning her head to where she'd heard it, only to see nothing but the watery expanse. Still, she knew she couldn't have imagined it, so what...
She jumped as she felt a hoof land heavily on her shoulder. Looking down, her eyes briefly hurt as she blinked, a hoof in yellow fabric coming into focus.
Following the hoof up to its owner, Icy saw Truffle standing there, giving her a smile. “Come on, Icy, you can break out of it!”
Looking down, Icy saw that Truffle was standing on the surface of the water, not seeming bothered by the impossibility of that. Furthermore, the water beneath him was flowing normally under and around his hooves, so he couldn't be...
Her eyes lost focus for a second as she blinked heavily, the image of the water losing coherence as the reality of the crystal corridor reasserted itself into her senses.
Icy shook her head, continuing to blink as her mind tried to adjust to the sensory dissonance. “Oh, wow, that was... okay, I think I'm good now, thanks for...” she trailed off, looking at Truffle confused. “Hey, how did you break out of... whatever you were seeing so quick? Are you... Did you just shrug off your greatest fear?”
Truffle gave a roaring laugh. “Of course not, cause that's not what it showed me!”
Icy frowned, both in puzzlement and in annoyance that Truffle had apparently got off easy somehow. “It didn't?”
Truffle shrugged. “Well, I mean – I really don't like enclosed spaces – comes with being the size I am,” he gave a slap to his belly, “but I wouldn't say they're my “greatest fear” or anything. Plus, it's pretty simple to dispel – just needed to push past the fake enclosure and boom!”
“Indeed, it seems this spell's a minor threat,” Zatrathan piped up, his voice measured and slightly quavering as he looked over his body.
“Though being steeped in snakes makes me afraid,
I'm not so numbed with fear that I'd forget,” he slashed his sword across his left side, then changed hooves to sweep his right before finally falling to all fours, breathing a sigh of relief,
“that in a contest, fang will lose to blade.”
“Yeah, and I mean... Really?” Moonwing added, slamming her shield into the ground in front of her. “I mean, don't get me wrong, clowns are all kinds of creepy and being surrounded made my skin crawl, but it's not like I'm gonna have a panic attack and forget where I am. Looks like the spell's kind of a dud – just shows a fear, not one that you can't get past.”
“Speak for yourself!” Archer called up from the floor. She was lying on her belly with her legs splayed limply around her. Her eyes were far different from Archer's normal light plum, instead being a deep red with slitted pupils and glowing green sclerae. “Losing all my limbs's a pretty big no-no for me! Could someone give me a whack on the hoof, maybe that'd...”
She was cut off when Zatrathan brought a hoof sharply down on hers, making her shake her head and seemingly blink her eyes back to normal. “Thanks! Anyone else still...”
“Caprice is!” Truffle called over, not taking his eyes off the frozen filly. “Talk to me, Caprice, what are you seeing?”
“Bees.” Caprice grunted through her teeth, clearly trying to open and move her mouth as little as possible. “All over me... all over you... can't...”
Truffle thought for a moment. “Right, how do we show the bees aren't real. What's something that could happen if... something we could... Ah!” he clopped a hoof on the ground in realization. “Got it!”
Without further warning, he leapt at Caprice, his mouth wide open. Icy was about to run forward, worried that he might still be under some kind of spell or, at the very least, messed up by one, when he came to a stop and gave a massive chomp to the air in front of Caprice's face.
He chewed the empty air, obviously and noisily, before swallowing hard and giving another slap to his stomach. “Mmm, tastes like not being stung!”
Caprice blinked, the glow to her eyes fading as her eyes lost focus for a second. Shaking her head, Caprice grunted. “Well, if the inconsistency o' that didn't snap me out of it, the stupidity would have.”
“Nice to have you back with us,” Truffle smirked before turning to the others. “Right, now that's all done with, we can go afte-”
“You have got to be KIDDING ME!” A scream from behind the group rang out. Turning towards it, Icy saw that Conundra was standing there, seemingly as frozen as they had been while under her illusion. She was standing on top of a small staircase made of grey, featureless material – presumably having been conjured up by the chamber's boosting of her illusions – with one hoof on the ice wall and, though Icy couldn't see her face, she got the impression that she'd been standing there with her mouth hanging open in sheer disbelief.
“Months of planning!” the helmeted filly screeched in outrage. “Weeks of work! Two groups of pests to deal with! And all for a spell that doesn't even do the one thing it was supposed to!” She smacked a hoof on the ice, chipping a small amount of and eliciting a yelp of pain. “Typical – how stupid was Sombra if he couldn't even get one of his most famous spells right?”
“Oh, I dunno,” Archer replied, a sinister grin spreading onto her face as she pulled out her bow. “About as stupid as standing around saying that?”
Conundra's posture stiffened as she realized how long she'd lingered, making Archer's smile widen as she drew back an impact arrow.
“I'd start running now.”
Evidently not needing the encouragement, Conundra scrambled to her feet, though not fast enough to avoid the arrow thumping right into her rear end and knocking her tumbling over the ice wall.
“Let's go!” Caprice barked as she led the charge, the group piling up the staircase and over the ice.
Icy was one of the first over, having used her wings to give her a boost up, leaping down just in time to see Conundra light up her helmet's horn-area and landing just in time to see a bolt from Zatrathan hit the glowing spot and knock out her magic.
The group raced after the whimpering filly, who was rapidly nearing the doorway back into the caverns proper.
“Well, it was nice seeing you in person!” Conundra called back to them, trying and failing to regain the smarmy confidence she'd had only a few minutes previously. “But I've got some caverns to get lost in. Have fun with thaAAAAH!”
She lurched forward, tripping over something before skidding out into the hub room and tumbling to a stop, her eyes spinning and her legs twisted around each other.
The group came to a stop in the doorway, taking a moment to both appreciate the undignified pose and examine what had caused it: a thin wire that was now tangled around her legs, presumably having been stretched across the entryway.
“What the... where in Equestria did this come from?!” Conundra screamed, giving voice to the question Icy had been wondering, though admittedly with a lot more disapproval.
The question was almost immediately answered as a small, green-coloured form strolled out from behind the open door, walking over to Conundra's prone form with a neutral expression.
“Oh, please!” Alula said as she stood over the immobilized filly. “You're not the only one who appreciates a good trap!”