My weightless claw plucked a knight off of the floating checkerboard and placed the piece on a mirrored board directly below it.
With a nod, I floated backward, letting me see the rest of the numerous floating boards.
Several of my duplicates, both large and small, darted around the various boards over which my current game spanned.
Clover swam through the air over the floating configuration of chessboards.
Her face was twisted into an expression of supreme concentration as she shifted a rook from a place near the top down to the bottom board.
I chuckled as I clapped my hands together.
“Well done Clover, well done indeed.”
The unicorn smirked at me as she lifted a hoof to her chest.
“Well, I am Starswirl’s prized pupil, why wouldn’t I learn fast?”
I tapped the edge of one of the boards as my copies zipped around.
“You actually managed to instate a bootstrap trap and caught a couple of Queens with it, too.”
Her grin deepened as she rubbed her hooves together.
“Yep, just a couple more turns and your prime King will be in checkmate.”
I raised a claw to respond before the room’s door slammed open.
“How far has- stars above, what in bloody Tartarus is going on here?”
I turned to face a slack-jawed Swirly standing in the doorway, just outside of the anti-gravity field that I’d set up.
I shrugged as I used my tail to move a Queen three boards up and to the right.
“5D chess, Swirly.”
I cocked an eyebrow as I turned back to witness the stunned face of Clover.
“Wasn’t it obvious?”
With a snap of my fingers, half of the floating boards went gray and fell to the floor before disintegrating.
My smirk reached from ear to ear, literally.
“And the Chaos Gambit pulls through.”
My eyes followed the glowing dust of the chess boards that floated up in front of Clover’s now crimson face.
I raised a claw as my smile strained.
“Uh, a-are you alright, Clover?”
I saw embers begin to rise from her mane and waved my hands in front of me in a warding gesture.
“Woah, woah, there! No need for anything drastic now, is there?”
I was sweating from the heat of Clover’s bonfire of a hairdo.
I spun in place, snatched Swirly from the ground, and booked it down the hallway.
“Put me down right this instant!”
We turned a corner and got to bear witness to a geyser of fire spray where we just were.
Swirly turned a wide-eyed stare on the angry black scorch mark while I wheezed for a moment before hopping into the air and zipping through the halls.
“Yo Swirly, got any fireproof bunkers?”
Swirly had a hoof on his hat when he turned to me.
“What the buck did you do?!”
I shrugged as my flight began to slow.
“I won.”
Swirly glared at me for a moment before sighing.
“Fine, take a right at the second to last door, then a left, go up the stairs, take another left, and put me down in front of the door.”
I saluted him with one hand while the other held him up in front of me.
“Sir, yes, sir!”
With that, I planted one foot on the ground before launching myself forward.
I blasted through the hall at a blistering pace and took the turns at breakneck speeds.
In a mere couple of seconds, a very twitchy Swirly and I found ourselves in front of a metal door taller than me.
There were symbols all over it, a big circle in the center with a pentagram in it, and it all looked so cool on that pitch-black metal!
With a grin I reached out to touch the glowing door… wait it wasn’t glowing-
Before I could even frown, a bolt of lightning shot through me.
The passage of the electricity burned like an angry fire before cooling to a cold static.
I couldn’t hear whatever Swirly was yelling at me while the sea of white noise enveloped my mind.
I could vaguely feel being pulled through the door while my mind began to fade back into consciousness.
My vision refocused as I found a gray hoof poking at my snout.
“What in Tartarus were you thinking, touching a ward like that, you blithering idiot!”
I grunted before sitting up and smiling at my now angry friend.
“Oh Swirly, I didn’t know you cared.”
I punctuated the statement by hugging the irate mage.
Wait… wrong mage.
I instantly teleported a few feet to the side to hug Swirly.
“Do not touch Hexane, you oaf!” and “My name’s not Swirly, now let go!” rang out through the room at the same time.
I chuckled as I let go of Swirly to float into the air.
A moment of silence passed by at the speed of a snail crossing a pit of molasses as I let Hexane’s glare slide off of me and Swirly’s exasperation fade
The room Swirly had led me to was chock full of science-y implements.
Lines of linked glass bottles held numerous machinations of evaporation, condensation, and a few other processes of that nature.
There was a wooden table absolutely covered in mortar and pestles, right next to a strange tub with a hole in the wall above it.
So many questions I had to ask!
What were they distilling?
What was that tub used for?
What kind of stuff were they grinding in the mortars?
What materials did they use to make the tub?
Were they conducting any experiments?
Seriously, why was that tub there?
My idle musings had consumed my thoughts as I mindlessly floated over to the strange, shiny metal box that hung off the stone brick wall.
I examined the tub’s exterior, I touched it, hell, I even licked the thing, tasted like fish, by the way, but I couldn’t figure it out.
I pouted as I turned back to my friends.
“Ok, I don’t get it, what’s the tub for?”
My cocked eyebrow and inquisitive tone were met by the flattest looks a three-dimensional being could possibly muster.
I honestly believed that Swirly and Hexane may have gone two-dimensional while staring at me.
Hexane turned to Swirly with those dead, huge, disk-like eyes that all these ponies seemed to possess.
Honestly, though, a black mane with black irises made her look more like an alien than a unicorn.
At least she wasn’t gray or an honest to God green, but a dark blue coat wasn’t that much better.
“Is he serious?”
Swirly sighed as he rubbed his forehead.
“From what I’ve experienced.”
He took another deep breath.
“Yes.”
Another moment of silence passed before Swirly answered my still viable question.
“That’s a sink, Typhon, we use it to hold water.”
I turned back to it to scrutinize the ‘sink’ once more: it looked nothing like the ones back home.
I mean, the ones I knew had a basin that held the water, a drain, and… a… faucet… the hole probably acted as a faucet and I just spotted the drain.
Did I really forget what a sink looks like?
I rolled my eyes and shook my head before turning back to my companions.
“So ya got any neat stuff?”
Swirly face-palm-er facehooved as Hexane pointed at something further into the room.
A stone pedestal with a glass dome that hovered above shined in the fluorescent light of the arcane fixtures in the ceiling.
My face lit up as I hopped onto the pedestal before spinning around, trying to examine every inch of the cool little structure.
My exploration was interrupted by a clack that made my teeth vibrate.
The muted voice of Swirly pierced the glass dome that now surrounded me.
“Just stay in there for a while so that we can siphon some of your mana into containers.”
I shouted back while glaring at the two.
“Why do you need my mana?”
“For further testing later. Now just stay still while Hexane monitors the machine.”
I stared at them for a moment longer before purple bolts of lightning began to arc from the top of the glass dome to a pair of tesla coils that hid in the shadowy back corners of the room.
I snapped up a chair, a cup, and some coffee.
I snorted before I taking a sip.
I mean, would it have killed them to at least ask beforehand? Rude.
I shook my head.
Then again I was really asking for it by jumping right on… whatever, we can chat afterward.
The lightning looked cool and I doubted that my friends would try to hurt me.
I mean, I’m a draconequus, what’s the worst they could do?