//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9 - The Labyrinth 
// Story: The Severed Dimension 
// by StarPrism 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 9: The Labyrinth
Regal & Edel





Edel and Daring descended the large hidden staircase as I watched Kael stare at Princess Luna. I focused my concentration on my body, as I discovered doing so allowed me to hear some of his thoughts. This princess creature… I must figure out how she has acquired her omnipotence. She might even know of my past. I need to tread carefully if I am to –

“Well you seem to be having a lot of fun with your discovered talent.” a voice suddenly rang in my ear. I looked to see Discord had a devilish smile on his face. I sighed as we began to float down the stairs with Kael, thanks to the invisible bonds that Discord had placed on us. Ever since leaving the strange ruins with Discord, we had not left Kael’s side, following unable to interact with anypony. Despite me appearing to be human, I found myself longing to be back in my alicorn body.

“Do you think I could ever get my body back?” I asked.

“Anything is possible, my dear Regal. You just need access to the right resources and the right motivation. This Kael character does seem to have a chaotic aura, but he’s being way too subtle. Well for the most part he is.” Discord responded.

“I can’t believe him. Didn’t you see the look on Rainbow Dash’s face? It was horrible!”

“Yes I did, an excellent way to ruin your name, as well as stir up some classic chaos. Now pay attention, we are just about at the bottom of this descent.”

I looked forward, noticing Kael, Edel and Daring were at a large door which had an abstract decorative design. Daring had a torch clutched in her good wing which lit up the small room; the walls and floor were made of stone, as well as the door for the most part, and the stairs behind us were made of a black material I wasn’t sure what. Daring hit the door with a hoof and to my surprise it made a metallic noise. I never did have an eye for detail. I noticed Edel approach the door get up on his hind legs and push his weight against the door.

“It won’t budge. How do we open this?” Edel said, as Daring was looking around.

“I don’t remember this door here. It must’ve been just constructed or closed after I explored this place.” Daring answered. “Look around, there might be a safe bet that this door was merely open when I was last here and that there is a hidden switch to open it.”

Edel and Kael began to look around. Kael looked at the stairs and then the door before eventually approaching the door and inspecting the designs. I focused but couldn’t hear his thoughts. It seemed I didn’t need to as Daring moved a loose piece of stone aside and located a lever. She looked around for a second before speaking.

“Everypony get back. This might be trapped.” She said, and Kael and Edel obeyed and went a little up the stairs. She pulled on the lever, and after a few seconds of the sound of cogs turning and metal grinding within the walls, the door sunk underneath the ground, revealing a narrow corridor.

Edel and Kael followed as Daring went through the door.

“This looks straightforward enough.” Kael said.

“This room might be; however through that door up ahead is where the labyrinth begins. It’s covered by a ceiling so flying is not an option, Regal.” Daring said as my name being said caught my attention again. I hadn’t met Daring Do yet personally, so it always made me look at her. She had a look of excitement and determination as she trotted forward, with a sly grin on her face.

They reached the door and Daring opened it. It opened into a larger room with 6 different corridors, peering down each, they seemed to twist and turn to different directions. I began to wonder the origins of this place.

“Mr. Discord.” I started.

“Just Discord, my boy. What is it?” He replied.

“Okay, Discord, I’m curious, do you know of the origins of this place?” I asked.

“I do. And I am assuming you want to know about it?” he asked. I nodded and he continued. “You see, this is known as the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. The titles currently go to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. It was built over a shrine of sorts, I’ll get to that later, and a few years after the two eventually imprisoned me in stone the first time around. I suppose they’d rather have harmony and order rather than disharmony and chaos, I don’t hold a grudge, I just don’t forget. Anyway, this place housed the sisters until roughly a thousand and some odd years ago, Luna became corrupted rather chaotically I might add,” he said with a smile “with bitterness. Apparently ponies sleeping during the night made her sad, and a very long time of this put her over the edge, and she harnessed the bitterness into power, which she started a war with Celestia. These ruins were ground zero, where it all started before Luna, or at the time, Nightmare Moon, was banished to the moon via the Elements of Harmony.” he finished with a gagged expression at the last three words.

“Elements of Harmony? I thought that Twilight and her friends were the spirits of the elements” I said, remembering what Twilight told us.

“Well yes, that is the case now. They seem to be the six elements incarnated. Though if they knew how close to the truth this was… Forget I said that. Now about this labyrinth; Nightmare Moon was the one who discovered the shrine underneath her throne room, shortly after the first battle ended here. She feared it and respected it at the same time, so she created this labyrinth as a test to see who was worthy of making it to the shrine.”

“What is this shrine? What is so special about it?” I asked.

“I could tell you now and spoil the surprise… Or we can pay attention to what’s going on right now.” Discord replied, and looked towards Daring who was facing Edel and Kael.

“Okay follow me.” She said, beginning to trot to the corridor second furthest on the right side of the room.

“How can you know which way is the right way?” Kael said as Edel and Daring trotted through the corridor.

“It’s my special talent. I can recall any path I’ve travelled and not get lost. Even if it has been many years since I’ve been here.” She said, and pointed at her cutie mark depicting a star with a circular background resembling a compass.

Kael merely grunted and continued along with them. Focusing I was able to read a thought. This better be worth the find. I’m sensing higher levels of chaotic energies the closer we get, I can only… and then it trailed off.

“Regal, are you going to explain what the princess meant?” Edel asked. My heart leapt, hoping he would avoid the topic.

“What? I don’t know how she knew so much about us, but I had no idea what she was talking about.” Kael said.

“It backs up why you’ve been acting so strange. Lorane agreed with me, you’ve been different ever since you went off of watch duty when we were camping. Next thing we notice when we find you, your horn is fixed and is freakishly large, and you know all of this stuff about magic that even has Lorane confused… So come on, out with it already.” Edel said forcefully. Daring slowed her trot and watched behind her as the two kept talking.

“What, out with what?!” Kael cried.

“Where the hell is Regal? You’re not Regal!” Edel bellowed, now crouched eyeing Kael with a furious gaze.

I quickly focused my concentration as Discord began to laugh hysterically. I know this stupid fool isn’t picking a fight. Do I have to banish him as well and force this pony to lead me to the shrine?

“Okay listen, I am Regal. I can explain later, but I merely took back my body. My soul and his body are now one, as well as our mind.” Kael said, his breathing becoming rapid.

“So you admit something did happen here after all!” Edel exclaimed.

“Yes yes. I will explain everything when we get out of here. Let’s hurry up to this shrine of yours.” Kael said, looking at Daring.

“Well if you’re not Regal, who are you?” Daring asked.

“You can keep calling me Regal… or Kabel.” Kael said. I remember he did say his name was Kabel, but he was better known as Kael in history. I would have to look that up when we got back home…

“Fine. Kabel. Let’s keep moving Daring.” Edel said grudgingly.

Daring nodded and they continued, going down different paths. The place was quiet, and uneventful save the torch’s fire crackling and the thumping from the hooves hitting the ground as they moved forward. Every now and then the corridor emptied into another branch of corridors, and each time Daring led them down a specific path. I kept trying to pry at Kael’s thoughts but I was unable to get in.

“So Daring, if I may ask, how old were you when you were first here?” Edel asked.
Daring giggled nervously before answering “Well I was still a filly, right after I got my cutie mark I decided to explore here. I was twelve; of course that was a long time ago…” She seemed to wait for another question but it didn’t come and she added “Well aren’t you the gentlecolt? Not asking a mare her age, but I really could care less about appearances. I am 42, it was almost 30 years ago that I came here.” And she glanced back to see Edel nodding.

“Well you don’t look like you’re 42, at least I wouldn’t have guessed.” Edel said, which got Daring to smile and blush.

“Thank you, Edel. Not many compliment me for things outside of adventures and books.” She said looking down. They walked into a larger room and Daring flinched. “What the… I don’t remember this large room at all.”

Kael stepped passed them and spoke “We are being watched.”

Edel stepped forward next to Kael and scanned the dark cavern. “I can’t see anything but I do feel a presence down here.” He said quietly.

I looked around unable to see anything. I turned to Discord who was doing midair backstrokes, realizing he was no longer bounded to Kael I asked “Discord, can you unbind me so I can see look around this place?”

“Oh Regal, what’s the fun in that? You seem to really love spoilers don’t you?”

“Please?” I groaned “Edel is still my friend, and if there is a way I want to somehow communicate with him.”

“That is something I cannot do… Well, for you at least, but if you want I suppose I could let you see through the eyes of your friend.” Discord said, and without hesitation he snapped his bear claw, and suddenly I was staring at a strange shape in the ground about 30 paces away. It looked like a thick, large cord that extended inwards.

Edel trotted forward with prudence, watching it for any movements. I realized I can hear his thoughts too as his voice came into my head It’s not moving, it could be a snake waiting for us. Hopefully nothing like a Basilisk but why would one such creature live all the way down here? As he got within 10 paces, we saw it was definitely not a snake, it was a sea-green-like color that seemed to be larger and round at the tip facing us. It finally moved. It’s alive! the movement was strange, another coating of what looked like the sea-green coating, skin, moved around the ball and back. We both realized at the same time what it was. It’s an eyeball? Oh jeeze! and Edel jumped backwards, turned towards Daring and Kael and yelled “There’s something down here, and it has definitely seen me!”

We looked back, the eye is more apparent as it looked at us with indigo eyes, and slited pupils. It blinked again before the tentacle retracted into the darkness and everypony heard a faint splashing sound followed by louder splashing, like something ascending out of water, for a second. Then another, Then 4 more.

“Is that water? What is it?!” Daring asked.

Before Edel could answer there were faint yellow lights in the distance outlining the source, a very tall tentacle about 35 paces from Edel, was in the air. More lights outlined an identical tentacle to the right of the first one facing us, and 2 smaller ones, and suddenly the light intensified and illuminated the entire cave. They were in a very large puddle of water; the cave itself was broken from the rest of the labyrinth that much was certain. None of the tentacles had eyes; the long ones were simple, a few shallow holes were emitting the same yellow lights that now illuminated the cave, while the smaller ones also emitted light but the ends had extensions that looked like blades curved upwards like a scimitar, surrounding each tentacle. There was a noise of rushing water, and a huge shape came out of the large gap in the center of the four tentacles. 

Before the shape was visible and the water had cleared from it, Daring screamed “Get back! It’s an aboleth!” 

I found my eyesight return to my own eyes as Discord was chuckling “Have fun? No more of that now, just enjoy the show.”

I didn’t answer, I was watching as Kael’s horn glowed and a dark cloud filled the cave. A large bolt of lightning hit the aboleth but had no effect. The aboleth was now completely visible. It looked like a very large fish; sea-green scales, it had 6 red eyes that glowed as bright as the light it emitted. It had a small slit for a mouth that didn’t look the least bit threatening. In face the only threat seemed to be its size.

“It likes lightning, you know!” Daring said as Kael’s mouth only gaped at the non-effective spell as the dark cloud vanished. 

Edel finally got back with Daring and Kael and asked “What do we do? How do we fight this thing?”

“Aboleths are usually found near the bottom of the sea. I’ve only encountered one ever, and I had to escape. I’ve never fought one, I just know it loves eating, and it loves using its powers to get into prey’s minds. We need to get out of here; maybe this shrine isn’t worth getting killed over.” Daring said, a look of hopelessness in her eyes.

“Well, Kabel why don’t you do what you did with Solem? Banish it!” Edel said.

Kael looked at him. “Doing that to something this large, I need to be at full strength, which I am not at the moment. If only I could find a leyline to this shrine and I can get us there in an instant. I agree with the pony, let’s just go back to the tower and think of another plan.”

Daring nodded, even ignoring being acknowledged as pony. Edel agreed, and they turned, only to see the entrance was now a pile of rocks.

“Impossible! When did the entrance collapse?!” Kael shouted.

Daring closed her eyes “It’s powers. The entrance isn’t there, it just looks like it was. It’s making us think the entrance is gone, but it’s hidden from our senses.” She looked at the aboleth. “It looks like we’re trapped.”

The tentacles reached to corner the three to keep from running, and their size tripled, virtually boxing them in. I watched in horror as the two smaller tentacles reached forward, the blade-like extensions opening and closing. Kael’s horn glowed again, and suddenly stopped glowing.

“I can’t - why can’t I concentrate?!”

“It’s the aboleth’s powers… once it’s in our head it has complete control of our senses, as well as our focusing ability.” Daring said, as she sat down. “I’m sorry, everypony. This is my fault. I should’ve never suggested coming down here. I’ve led us to our doom.”

Edel trotted over, and sat down next to her as the two tentacles grew closer. “It’s okay Daring. It was worth the adventure. I hoped we could become better friends before this was over –” Before Edel could finish, Daring locked lips with his, and his eyes reflected a shocked expression, as tears rolled down her face.

“Tough break. Looks like your friend, his new lover, and your body are all going to die.” Discord said with a smug smile.

I looked at him, my eyes filled with anger “No! NO! This isn’t happening!”

Discord looked taken aback and gaped for a split second before responding “Temper temper. Hey this isn’t my doing; I don’t kill ponies when I’m free.”

I looked at Kael. He was cowering under his hooves. My hooves. He’s in MY body. I want it back. I found myself sprinting at Kael. “GIVE ME BACK MY BODY!” I roared and before I dived into him, he looked up as if he had heard me. And then everything went black.	







As I found myself lip-locked with Daring, enjoying it, for it is probably the last affection we will both receive before being killed by this monster, a violent flash of cyan light came from where Kael was. Daring broke the connection and looked behind her as well, Kael was oddly floating in midair; eyes closed, wings outstretched but not moving, legs only dangling as his horn was now double the length it was, larger than Luna’s was, and he was surrounded by a cyan aura that even outshone the yellow light from the aboleth. Kael’s eyes opened and only more cyan light came from them, causing the aura to almost triple in size.

The aboleth’s tentacles began to move quickly towards Kael, possibly seeing him as a threat that needed to be extinguished as even the larger ones quickly moved towards him. However as the smaller tentacles met with the aura, there seemed to be an exchange of magic, as the tentacles recoiled and the aboleth let out a loud howl as its tentacles began to disintegrate into ashes. I watched as the aura; now almost quadruple the original size, began to form what looked like a long whip over Kael’s body, and lashed at the closer large tentacle. It cut through the tentacle like butter, severing it from its body. The aboleth let out another howl and began to dive into the puddle it was poking out from. 

I began to trot towards Kael, who was now hovering slightly above ground, the cyan light fading rapidly. There was another scratching noise as Daring lit another torch, when the light fully faded and Kael was on the ground unconscious. After waiting a few seconds, I lifted him onto my back.

“I usually end up carrying you after a battle, just like old times, eh Regal?” I found myself saying before remembering it was an imposter. I would’ve dropped him if he didn’t just save our lives. I looked at Daring. “Let’s keep going before the thing comes back.”

Daring nodded, and we both began to trot around the large puddle, which looked like it went very deep, probably into the sea. I began to wonder how that creature got here. I looked around the cave, some of the walls looked like they were carved. As we began to ascend a slope leading upwards toward another corridor from the labyrinth Daring commented “This cave was dug by something. More than likely diamond dogs were the source, looking for diamonds probably.”

“Diamond dogs? Are they hostile?” I asked.

“They are if you have jewels. Otherwise, it’s better to steer clear of them regardless.” She said and looked down slightly as we trotted up. “I’m sorry about that back there. I guess it seemed like the end, and you were close by, and I kind of like you…”

“It’s alright, Daring. I understand, and we can talk about that later if you really want to.” I said, trying to be supportive. I am a really understanding guy, and it did seem like the end for us. I started to think about Lorane, where was she right now?

“I’ve been in plenty of dangerous situations before, but that one did seem like the end. Those creatures are mighty predators and are seldom seen because of their only environment is under the sea. The one I escaped from was based on luck alone, as a nearby kraken just happened to be floating downwards, dead. Dead krakens sometimes expel a large amount of ink, clogging the water, so I used that to swim away, for aboleths have bad eyesight. So when I was out of vision, I was out of its mind altering powers…” she explained. “So you see, when you were telling me it was worth the adventure; a stallion actually telling me it was worth the adventure to spend time with me, and a stallion I happen to like, it just kind of melted over and I… reacted.”

In response I put a hoof around her as we reached the corridor. She blushed and looked at me. “It’s okay. You don’t need to explain so much. Relax okay?” I smiled, and she returned the smile.

We trotted down the corridor to a large door. The door had the same design as the first door before we entered the labyrinth, only it actually had handles on one side. I looked at Daring. “This is it. The shrine is behind this door. Now I finally get to see if there is something more!” she said, excitement raising in her voice. I opened the door.






End of Chapter 9