//------------------------------//
// Terrestrial shenanigans 
// Story: Escalation of everything 
// by Elidjz 
//------------------------------//

"I am very down to earth. Unlike her."





Twilight stared at the strange being in front of her. It stood on two legs with six arms. Its body was lithe with six and wearing Purple cloth around its waist and shoulders alongside some golden jewelry. Its head had around a dozen horns on its back alongside some more cloth. Its eyes were pitchblack except for the iris which was a burning yellow.

And it was busy chewing on a bush made out of chocolate. "Who areth thee?" Luna asked while taking a defensive stance. "I'm Nebula... No wait, that's my cousin's name. I go by... uuuhhh... Cosmo." The ethereal creature spoke. "And while watching you fail over and over again is entertaining, with each attempt more convoluted than the previous, after the 83 attempts it does get boring."

"Excuse thee, this is a serious  matter not for your entertainment." Luna scolded Cosmo. "Doesn't change the fact that it is." He retorted. This got him a glare from Luna, though that did not bother him. Twilight keeps analyzings his body. She could see what looked like unrecognizable constellations on his body. The strange glow he emminated and his eyes that looked strange celestial bodies were fascinating to her.

Which he noticed. "Like what you see?" He asked teasingly while putting on a riske pose. This caused Twilight to blush a bit, but she still couldn't keep her eyes of him due to his strange and fascinating appearance. The strange amalgamation of horns were dark but somehow still glowed, which were but one of the many reasons that he was so fascinating to her.

"So what dot thee, insult to thee night sky, desire? We arth busy with a strange and complicated task." Luna made her disdain for him and his night-sky like appearance. "Just pull the lever." Cosmo answered like if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "We already did thee idiot! If thee had been paying attention then thee would know!" Cosmo then pointed a finger towards the ceiling of this unnaturally big room.

A lever was nailed to the ceiling. "How did we not notice this?" Luna asked aloud. "All the exploding trolleys and carts were quite distracting." Twilight pointed out. "And quite beautiful." Cosmo added unhelpfully. "Lets just flip it now." Twilight said before being interrupted by Cosmo. "You first need to restart by going through the door.

So the alicorns left through the door, with Cosmo staying behind. Twilight was once again tied to tracks. And Cosmo was there once again lying on some strangely comfortable looking rocks. Luna quickly pulled the lever with her magic. Instantly a trolly wagon fell directly onto Twilight. "NO!" Both ponies shouted aloud before the trolley fell. Luna quickly rushed to help her friend.

She lifted the trolley up effortlessly and it crumbled in the grip of her magic. It was made out of confetti. Somehow. Twilight spat some out of her mouth. "I hate this place." She grumbled, her face covered in trolley colored confetti. Luna cut her out of her bindings while some chuckling could be heard from somewhere. Cosmo was just watching and clearly taking a lot of pleasure out of the ponies misfortune.

This got him a glare from both ponies. That did not bother him, especially Twilight's, as she was still too fascinated by his strange appearance and physiology. 

Focusing on the important thing, the alicorn of the night dragged the purple alicorn out of the room. This time the door did not lead to the same room and Twilight wasn't tied to some tracks. 

This time the room contained a massive jigsaw puzzle, like alicorn sized jigsaw pieces. On a wall stood a picture and the number 1395. Twilight looked at a pile of puzzle pieces analyzing them. "It seems that that's a picture on the puzzle and the amount of pieces." She pointed out while pointing at the picture and number on the wall.

This caused Luna to sigh in frustration. Twilight tried not to sound too excited at the prospect of working on such a massive puzzle.

Except for the puzzle itself and two doors,the room was bare.





"No, it has to be somewhere. We need to find it." Twilight shouted desperately searching every nook and cranny of the bare room. Cosmo had left after the twentieth piece, to Luna's not so silent relief. Both ponies had assembled the 1395 pieces together way too quickly. Twilight had worked extremely fast and efficiently to assemble the 1395 pieces basically on her own, leaving Luna on the sideline. Also it was actually a 1396 piece puzzle.

So Twilight was desperately searching the missing piece to fill the hole directly in the center of the puzzle. "Please calm do..." The night alicorn started saying calmy, but was interrupted by the purple blur that was her companion. "We need to find that piece to finish this puzzle, because if we don't we will be stuck in this room." Twilight blurted half mindedly.

A door then opened. It was the door out of this room. Cosmo walked in non-chanantly holding a big cup of blue juice and a plate of cooked meat. Cosmo then leaned onto a wall and started eating and drinking without a care in the world. He gave the bear some meat which it happily chewed on.

"How?" Luna asked in disbelief. "It was never closed." He answered before taking a bite out of some roasted meat. This only caused Luna more frustration and mild disgust. She grabbed her by the neck and dragged her through the door. Twilight tried to protest and remain to find the final piece, but they all fell on deaf ears.

The door led to a courtyard which contained multiple foodstands. There however was nopony manning them. There also were multiple statues and even more doors of different sizes leading in and out of the courtyard. Cosmo went and just sat against a statue with the bear laying close to him. Twilight tried to drown her frustration at the unfinished puzzle by analyzing and getting a better understanding of what Cosmo was. The statue looked like it had been made out of a dozen different statues. Torment then appeared again in the middle of the courtyard. "Hello m..." Luna pounced on the strange chimera. Their fragile bodies fell into pieces.

"What ar..." Luna slapped the bodiless head. "How do we get out of here?!" Luna asked. "That's n..." Luna slapped them again. "How do we get out?!!" She half-screamed through clenched teeth.

The bodiless chimera cowered mildly. "Just ask politely." Luna looked baffled at the answer. She was tempted to slap them again. But decided not to. So instead she decided to actually asked aloud.

The second she did, the biggest door in the courtyard opened up. It looked like it actually led to the outside. So she grabbed the bear and Twilight in her magic before trying to leave.

"Not so fast!" A loud voice shouted behind her as they were half-way out of the door. Luna turned around. "What is i..." Luna saw that a massive figure had appeared behind them. Torment had put herself back together and had a wide smile on their face. The other creature was an abominable amalgamation of bodies and limbs. Luna felt a mild sensation of wanting to puke. Twilight was stuttering. "Tha-t-th-at sho-ouldn-n't be po-possible. Illogic-cal...." Cosmo was still sitting near the strange statue and chewing on meat. Actually the statue and the new abominable creature looked the same.

Luna tried to quickly rush through the door, but it had simply disappeared.

The abominable abomination opened one of its many mouths to speak. "Leaving already without saying hi. Also I love company just so you know."

Twilight and Luna both gagged.

The abomination moved towards them.

And then they ran.