//------------------------------//
// Levers 
// Story: Pull The Lever, Misty! 
// by Piemaster128 
//------------------------------//

Misty knew she was in trouble. The latest plan to try and get dragonfire from Sparky had failed, again, and in the process, Misty had accidentally created a popular Nightmare Night attraction that had kept her busy for the rest of the night. That at least had let her make a nice sum of bits to buy supplies for future plots (or popcorn if she was feeling hungry), but she still hadn’t grabbed any dragon fire. 
And Opaline, being as obsessed with it as she was, was not happy about that. Especially given how CLOSE they had been. But how was Misty supposed to know that baby dragons could fart blobs of fire strong enough to melt doors? And how the heck was the police station and the Brighthouse still in one piece if that was a thing!?
She would need to sneak a smoothie when she got back into town to make herself feel better. 
“These failures are becoming tiresome, Misty,” Opaline proclaimed, pacing around the viewing pool in the center of the throne room. The room was dark, more so than usual, but that didn’t help Misty hide any more than normal. “This is the second time when you practically had the dragon in your grasp, yet he still managed to slip away. How is it so difficult to kidnap one little baby?!”
Misty wanted to say that this baby could breath fire, set up elaborate traps, turn her tools into random useless objects, pull a full-grown stallion around town while attached to a foal leash, and disintegrate doors just by farting, but she knew better than to say such things. She had failed regardless, and that was unacceptable. 
“Maybe if I had something from your lab that could absorb his fire from a distance, I wouldn’t even need to capture him?” she asked, trying not to flinch too badly as Opaline turned to glare at her. 
“If we are to get enough dragon fire to restore my powers, then we NEED the dragon itself,” Opaline declared, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. 
“Y-Yes, Miss Opaline,” Misty almost squeaked out, trying to shrink herself as much as possible. How she wished she could just have a cutie mark already… 
“However,” Opaline continued, sounding calmer now. “You are right that you may require additional assistance from me to succeed. Thankfully, I am a generous alicorn, and am more than willing to lend you my assistance.” 
The alicorn smiled in a manner that Misty wasn’t sure was SUPPOSED to be unsettling, but it definitely, definitely was. She gulped, but nodded and slowly stood up. She had a feeling she knew where this was going. 
“To the secret lab!” Opaline boldly and elegantly declared, marching out of the throne room with a panicked Misty trying to keep pace with her long strides. After about a minute of walking/galloping down the familiar evil hallways of the castle, the two ponies arrived at a conspicuous monster statue with two large fangs pointing towards the ceiling. 
Misty, not wanting to be in any more trouble than she already was, quickly took up position next to the statue’s right fang, while Opaline took up position on one of the large tiles that formed a semi-circle around the statue. Hopefully this trip to the lab wouldn’t be accompanied by another hour-long rant about the dragon fire.
“Pull the lever, Misty!” Opaline ordered, posing dramatically. 
Misty, being a good minion, pulled the lever.
THUMP!
Both ponies had just enough time to blink as a gaping hole opened up directly below Opaline.
“WRONG LEEEVVEEERRRRRRR!” Opaline screamed as she fell down the hole, her echoing scream of rage ending only with a faint splash of water. 
Misty could only stare at the hole in shock.
“Oops.” 
Some part of her wanted to go run and hide in her room, or to go back to Maretime Bay and try and hide there, but Misty knew that would only make things worse. 
Why did that happen!? I know it was this lever! I just used it two weeks ago to get to the lab!
Misty jumped in fright as the wall near the side of the room flew open with a loud bang, revealing the fake door and a very annoyed Opaline with a very large crocodile clinging happily to her tail.
“Why do we even HAVE that lever?!” Opaline angrily groaned, smacking the crocodile on the nose, causing it to squeak in fight and scurry back down the way they had come. “We will discuss this latest failure later,” she growled at Misty, prompting the already terrified unicorn to scurry out of the way as the larger, more intimidating alicorn approached the levers herself. “If you want something done right, do it YOURSELF!”
Opaline pulled the lever.
SPROOOOING!
“EEEEEEEKKKKK!” Misty screamed as she was launched into the air by a giant spring, her hooves flailing as she flew clumsily through the air and directly towards Opaline! 
The alicorn attempted to scramble out of the way, but in her panic ran the completely wrong direction and crashed face-first into the wall. Staggering back and clearly seeing stars, Opaline could do nothing before Misty crashed down on top of her. 
“Misty…” Opaline growled at the unicorn currently sitting on her back, the large alicorn angrily tapping her hoof as she laid sprawled on the floor. The blue and purple unicorn squeaked and immediately scrambled off her.
“I’m sorry! I don’t even know how that happened!” Misty babbled, hoping that she wouldn’t be in even more trouble than before. “I thought that trap was at the other entrance!”
“It WAS,” Opaline spat, before sighing and standing up. “It seems that your failures distracted me when I was re-shuffling the traps last week.” She huffed, raising her nose as Misty felt the familiar pang of her Queen’s disappointment. “Now I need to go and fix the traps. Meanwhile, you will just have to make do without my lab’s equipment. Go back to Maretime Bay and get me that dragon. Understood?”
“Y-Yes, Miss Opaline,” Misty stammered, nodding quickly before turning and running back down the hallway, thankful for any excuse to leave and go back to Maretime Bay. Maybe she could get some popcorn while she was there—
 CLICK!
  SPROOOING!
Misty felt the tile under her hooves click, something which was followed by a familiar sound, a scream of panic, and a sharp crack. Whipping her head around, Misty saw that another spring trap had triggered below Opaline, sending her flying into the ceiling with such force that her horn was now embedded in the ceiling. This left the terrifying alicorn quite literally hanging around, her face becoming red from anger as she glared down at Misty. 
“OhlookatthetimeI’llgogetthatdragonfirebebacklaterBYE!” Misty half-rambled, half-screamed as she turned and ran as fast as her legs could carry her!
The only thing that remained was the angry shout of “MISTY!!!” that echoed down the halls after her.