//------------------------------// // Episode 10: Dungeon Crawling, as a Pony // Story: My New Life as a Pony // by Banshee531 //------------------------------// Flash could hardly believe it. Though it had only been a couple of days since he had started his expedition with his friends, so much had happened that it felt like weeks. And now, they were drawing closer to their goal. The area that Luna had hidden the omni spellbook a thousand years ago. Currently, they were splashing through the marshland they had had to traverse in order to get to it. Thanks to the truck he had created and the mapping system it had, they had been able to find a way through the marshland that didn't end with them getting trapped in deep puddles the vehicle couldn't overcome. "There it is!" Luna cried, pointing straight ahead. They stared out the window and saw a lone mountain, which wasn't very large but still stood out in the distance. "That's where you hid the book?" Trixie asked, Luna nodding. "Yes. It is in an underground labyrinth I created. Anypony that found their way inside would have had to face a bunch of different traps and even a few monsters, not that anypony should have gotten inside." Team Relic all gulped. "So we're gonna have to get passed all those traps and monsters?" Soarin asked. "Do not worry," Luna told him. "I designed the labyrinth and installed a way to retrieve the book should I ever need it. A single path leads to the book that has no defenses, hidden within all the other paths that have them. Once we get there, I'll cast a spell that will illuminate that path and allow us to make our way safely through it." "Sweet," Springer smirked as the truck flew through the last puddle and was officially out of the marshlands. They flew across the landscape with each passing second, eventually arriving at the base of the mountain. Luna had Flash drive around it, since she wasn't exactly sure where the entrance was. But after a half-hour, they came to an area Luna recognised. "There it is." They looked out the window and saw a large flat piece of the cliff, which they now knew had a door hidden within it. Flash drove up to the cliff and as they did, the others grabbed their bags and gear. Once he pulled to a stop, Flash dispelled the truck and they all stepped up to the wall. Luna placed her hand on it, sighing as she felt the magic flowing through it. "This is it," she nodded. "The book is in here." She stepped back and held up her staff, which began to glow before unleashing a beam of light. The light struck the wall and sure enough, markings lit up on it that formed a doorway. The markings solidified and as they did, the wall began to retract into the mountain before splitting in half and sliding open. Doing so revealed a stone staircase, which led all the way down into the darkness. Flash stared down it and frowned before taking off his bag. "What are you doing?" Soarin asked, as he placed the bag down. "There's nothing in here that'll be of much use down there," Flash pointed out. "At this point, it's probably just going to slow me down or get damaged." He stood up and activated his belt, using it to create a large chest that Flash opened to put his bag inside. He then turned to the others, "you guys can put your stuff in here as well if you want." Everypony thought for a moment, Wallflower, Trixie and Soarin taking off their bags. Luna seemed to be considering it, then eventually nodded before taking off hers. Once the bags were inside, Flash locked it as Luna used her earth magic to make a hole in the ground. They dropped the chest inside and covered it up, then turned back to the cave. Luna tapped her staff on the ground and the crescent moon glowed, allowing them to see as they made their way down the stairs. It was a long walk and they did not look forward to climbing up the stairs on the way back. Eventually, they reached the bottom and came out into a large round chamber. This chamber had a bunch of passageways lining the wall, reminding the ponies of the contest Luna had set up that led them to joining her on this quest. Now they realised where she got the idea for it. "Alright," Luna nodded, "shouldn't be a problem. Just have to activate the spell and the pathway will appear." They all nodded but as they did, Springer heard something. "What's that?" "What's what?" Flash asked, Springer slowly looking up. As he did, his eyes went wide and his ears drooped. The others looked up and Luna raised her staff, the light from it hitting the ceiling and what was clinging to the ceiling. It was a bunch of bats that were a mixture of purple and black, with large round ears that appeared to be connected together. "Ah," Luna gulped, "that could be a problem." "What are those things?" Wallflower asked, as the bats looked down at them and did not look happy. "Sonic Bats," Luna replied before the creatures shot off the ceiling and flew down towards them. "Everypony, get ready for a fight!" Flash quickly slotted two cards into his belt and summoned his lightning sword and fire shield, whilst Wallflower decided to give her new weapons a test run. She chose the black version of her gauntlets, which she called her Sting Strikers. Springer leapt up, as Flash unleashed the power. "Esprit...EVOLUTION!" In a flash, Springer transformed into his adult form and quickly launched an Aura Blast at the bats in front of him. The bats flew down and tried to bite them, but Soarin, Luna and Trixie fired at them and destroyed many. Some got close to Wallflower and she prepared to attack. The spike on the front of the gauntlet's tube glowed purple before the light extended forwards, creating a lance-like stinger that was almost a foot long.  She thrust it forwards and impaled a bat through the chest, making it scream as it exploded. She then thrust her other stinger through another one, whilst Flash and Springer slashed at the bats with their sword and claws. The others kept firing at the ones in the air, allowing Flash and Wallflower to protect them from the ones that attempted to bite them. "These things aren't so tough!" Soarin laughed as he blew up another bat, "so why are they called Sonic Bats?" He got his answer when one of the bats flew in place, then unleashed a high pitched sound from its ears. The lot of them froze when the sound hit him, it sounding like nails on a chalkboard. "AUGH!" They all cried, making them open season for the bats that were about to feast on them. But before they could, Wallflower's gauntlets changed. "Paralysis Cannon!" She screamed as the arm blaster appeared, which she held up before unleashing a stream of yellow green mist out it. The mist hit the bats that tried to bite them and caused them to fall to the ground, Wallflower then pointing it at the one unleashing the sound. The mist hit it right in the face, causing it to stop making the sound and allowing the others to recover. As they did, Wallflower kept blasting the mist at the bats around them. "This is great!" Trixie smirked, seeing the rest of the bats fall to the ground. "Gotta love that upgrade you got." Wallflower smiled and returned her gauntlets to the Sting Strikers, the lot of them using their blades and claws to destroy the remainder of the bats. Once the last of them exploded, they sighed and panted from the effort they had had to put in. "That...was tough," Flash sighed. Trixie turned to Luna, "I thought you said we wouldn't need to fight any monsters?" "We shouldn't have," Luna sighed. "But...it has been a thousand years. It's possible the defences I've put up have broken down. Who knows what monsters we'll find here." She then noticed something on the ground and picked it up, finding it was a clear crystal that was vibrating. "Well well, guess the fight wasn't a total loss." She threw the gem towards Wallflower. "Monster drop." "What is it?" Wallflower asked. "Best guess. It's a crystalised version of those bat's sonic attack. Smash it on the ground and it'll unleashed a high pitched sound. But if you feed it to your gauntlet..." Wallflower smiled and placed it on her glove's gemstone. When she did, the glove sucked it inside. A moment later, the glove transformed into a something that looked like her Paralysis Cannon. Only it was entirely black and the end was flat with something that look like the speaker on a stereo. The side had something sticking out of it, which bent at the end to point towards Wallflower. "What is-" That was all she could say before her voice echoed out of the device about ten times loud, the lot of them covering their ears. "Guess it's some kind of megaphone," Flash guessed. "I bet if you scream into it, it'll unleash a super loud sound blast that'll disorientate your opponents." Wallflower looked impressed and reverted the weapon back to normal, as Luna moved over to the centre of the room. There, a circle was located that had lines running off of it and reaching each of the passageways. "Alright, let's find this path." She raised her staff and started chanting, her staff glowing as she did so. The others watched in amazement, as the light grew brighter and brighter. Then, Luna slammed her staff into the ground. "Show us the way!" Everypony watched, as the light flew off the staff and into the circle. The entire thing glowed for several seconds before the light flew into one of the lines, the others following it to the passageway it led to. The line continued down the passageway, illuminating the way they had to go to safely get to the spellbook. Luna pulled the staff off the ground and joined them at the entryway. "This is it. Let's go." They nodded and headed inside, following the glowing trail through the twisting and turning labyrinth. They travelled down the path for about a mile, using the pathway to tell them when to take a turn and which fork to take every time they came to one. So far, there didn't appear to be any boobytraps or hidden monsters to fight. "Huh," Trixie looked around, "this is just weird. Given all the insane stuff we had to overcome to get here, I kind of expected actually getting the book was gonna be the hard part." "Just be glad I decided to add this path," Luna told her. "I doubt any of you could make it to the very end if we had to face what's lurking in here." The others frowned and Luna could sense this. "I'm not saying you're not good. I doubt even Shining Armor and other S-ranked Adventurers could survive. Even me and my sister might have a hard time getting passed some of these obstacles." But as she said this, they came to a fork and a problem emerged. The lights from the spell were gone. The corridors were all dark and there was no way to tell which way was the safe direction. "What?" Luna asked, crouching down and placing her hand where the light stopped. "What happened?" Wallflower asked. "Where's the light?" Springer inquired "I don't know," Luna frowned before sighing. "It's been a thousand years. I guess the magic I used to make the path faded." She didn't like this. The only reason she had agreed to bring students was because she was absolutely sure she could get them through the labyrinth without putting them in danger. But now... "We need to leave." "What?" Flash asked, "why?" "I don't know which direction we need to go in to avoid the danger," she started walking back the way she came. "I'm not risking our lives to-" She stopped when the tunnel started shaking. "What is that?" Trixie asked, as the shaking increased. It was then that Luna remembered. "Oh no. We weren't supposed to go back this way." "Huh?" The others asked. "I designed the path to lead us to the book, then curve around to return on a different path. I thought it would be a good idea to only make the path safe if you're going one way." Before she could say anything else, something slammed down from a hole in the tunnel roof. It was a giant wave, which flew down the tunnel towards them. Luna tried to get to the others, but the water slammed into her back before she could. Trixie tried to freeze it, but couldn't even utter a word before she to was knocked down. The six of them were each knocked backwards and sent flying down a different tunnel. They were rolled around so much, they had no idea which way was up. Flash found himself completely alone, as he was being thrown from one corridor to another. Eventually, the water flow lessened and Flash was slammed into the ground. He moaned as he pushed himself to his feet, his body soaked as he looked around and found he was in the middle of a small round intersection with six passageways. Seeing he was completely alone, the avian began to worry. "Great." He wasn't even sure which passageway he had come from. "I hope the others are okay." He flew down one of the passageways and summoned his weapons again, being ready for anything that might come his way. "It's been a thousand years, so what are the chances any monster she placed down here is still alive?" However, ten minutes into his search, he found the ground in front of him ripping apart. Something then leapt out of it, revealing itself to be a black cat monster with metal blades sticking out of its legs and back. "WOW!" He raised his shield the cat's claws ground against them, Flash quickly unleashing a burst of fire from it that hit the beast head on. It roared as it was pushed back and burnt, Flash swinging his sword around and slicing through it. As the creature exploded, Flash looked back at where the tiger had sprung from and saw the hole was repairing itself. It appeared the labyrinth was able to generate the monsters it would use to attack them. "Nightmare Moon might have been an evil sociopath, but she could sure make one heck of a dungeon. And it's still working this well after a thousand years." As he said that, several areas of the floor began to crack apart. Flash knew more monsters were coming and quickly flew passed them, wanting to get as far away from the cat creatures as possible before they could outnumber him. "I hope the others are doing okay." Soarin and Springer were making their way through the labyrinth themselves, both having been washed down the same passageway. "Sense anypony?" Soarin asked, Springer placing his paw on the wall and focusing. He frowned, then shook his head. "Are they too far away, or is it something to do with whatever magic is flowing through here?" "I don't know," Springer shrugged. "Could be both, or something else. I just can't seem to sense their aura." He headed forward, "guess we'll just have to keep going and hope we run into them." Soarin nodded, but was also worried. "What'll happen to you, if you pop?" Springer looked at him in confusion. "You have to return to your amulet if you run out of magic or take too much damage. But who knows how far away from Flash and your amulet you are. Are you still gonna be able to return to your amulet if you're this far away?" Now it was Springer who was looking worried, not having any idea whether that was the case or not. However, they didn't have time to think about it. The walls of the labyrinth broke apart and as they did, humanoid lizards carrying swords and shields flew out. "Not good," Springer gulped as Soarin aimed his bow. He fired and managed to hit one of the lizards in the chest, destroying it. But the others raised their shields, guarding against the wind and lightning arrows as they charged forward. Springer formed an Aura Blast and launched it at the ground, causing an explosion that the lizards ran through. They were blinded, so they weren't able to see Springer and Soarin as the pair prepared for a counter. Springer created another sphere of aura, but this time it morphed into bone-shape that was almost as long as him. He and Soarin used these to slammed the lizards in the chests as soon as they ran out of the smoke, making them go poof. The pair remained on high alert, as they continued to run down the the hallways and hope they could outrun the monsters before they spawned. But as they did, a spot in the floor broke apart before a large crab monsters pulled itself out and blocked the tunnel. The two prepared their attacks, Soarin beginning to fire air bullets at the creature whilst Springer charged forward. His attacks hit the creature's shell, but whatever it was made of out was too strong to penetrate. Springer then reached it and used his Steel Paw attack to try and break through. But the crab used its claws to block and Springer's didn't even scratch them. The pair frowned, hoping they could find a way to overcome this creature's defenses. If they couldn't, they were gonna be in serious trouble. Trixie and Wallflower were also together, the pair making their way through the labyrinth after being washed away by the others. "Flash!" Wallflower cried out, but nopony answered. "I guess we're too far away to hear or be heard." She looked back in the direction they had come from, but further up was a fork and she couldn't tell which one they had come from. "What do we do?" "Keep going?" Trixie sighed, "I guess that's our only option." Wallflower nodded as they began to walk down the hallway, hoping they might run into their friends along the way. But as they did, the ground broke apart and a giant four-armed bear appeared in front of them. The pair stepped back as the beast pushed itself onto its hind legs and held up all four clawed limbs, Wallflower preparing to fight only for Trixie to activate her staff. "Illusion!" In a flash of light, the pair of them vanished. The bear stood in shock, as Wallflower held up her gauntlet and decided to try out her new weapon. "Testing, testing," she spoke into the microphone. "One, two, three." She took a deep breath and screamed at the top of her lungs, the soundwaves being amplified as they shot towards bear. The beast's eyes went wide as it covered its ears in agony, Wallflower and Trixie smirking as the magi dropped her illusion and they charged forward. Staff blade and Sting Strikers primed, the pair impaled the bear's back and made it scream in agony before exploding. They smirked as they fell to the ground, both quickly getting up and rushing forward. As they did, more monsters began to form in front of them and Trixie quickly activated her illusion magic again. Those monsters didn't know what hit 'em. Seriously, they didn't know if it was Trixie's magic, Wallflower's weapons or a combo of both. The invisible girls were a force to be reckoned with. Meanwhile, Luna was also walking through the labyrinth. She was all alone and as she walked through one section, holes in the wall fired arrows at her. The omni's horn and staff glowed, as a shield appeared around her that blocked the arrows. She then jumped up, using her wings to fly over a spike pit that instantly opened beneath her. All the while, she was lost in her own thoughts. 'I can't believe I led those children down here. I was trying to make up for my mistake and now, I've just made another one and possibly led them to their deaths. I should have just come on my own.' But as she thought that, she remembered all the fun she had had along the way. She also remembered the town they had saved, along with the lively young jakhowl who might have never been found if she hadn't brought those young equestrians with her. 'No, I shouldn't have come alone. I should have brought them with me and left them outside.' She sighed, "but they would have followed me in eventually." She reached a fork in the road and glanced back and forth, trying to decide which way would lead her to the book. She finally picked one and flew down it, continuing to effortlessly block all the traps laid out for her. "Lightning Slash!" Flash swung his sword around, cutting a white monkey monster in half. Flash sighed, having fought his way through several monsters already. He was starting to see what Luna had been saying about this place being hard, even for the most experienced Adventurers. If Flash couldn't find his way through maze, he would become so exhausted he would be easy pickings for any monster. However, as he flew along the corridor he noticed an archway along the right wall. This wasn't another corridor, which made Flash raise an eyebrow. Reaching the arch, he looked inside to find a small square room. And inside that room, a stone podium was sitting in the middle with something inside of it. A metal box. "What the?" Flash tilted his head whilst looking around the room, not daring to enter. He had a feeling that if he picked up that box, he was gonna suddenly be trapped with spikes or something flying at him. Curiosity got the better of him, as he wanted to see what that box was. But not enough to make him walk in and take it. Instead, he used his belt a created a device on his arm. Said device was a tube-like weapon, similar to Wallflower's Paralysis Cannon. But on the end of it was a grasping claw like the ones he used to see at arcades. Lifting the weapon, the top opened up to transform into a sight for him. Taking aim, he locked on and pulled the trigger. The claw shot off, still connected to the blaster by a cable. It flew into the room and hit the box, the claws closing around it before Flash hit the recoil. As the claw returned, pulling the box with it, a metal gate flew down. The claw reached Flash before the gate shut, the avian watching as the wall grew spikes and started moving closer. "Nice try." He smirked as he cancelled his weapon and looked the box over, seeing it was some kind of ancient form of a rubix cube. "Weird. Maybe Luna will know what it is." He pocket the device and flew down the hallway, not running into any more monsters as he reached the end. There, he stepped out into a square room with two doors. One was blue and one was red, each one closed and having a coloured skull atop the door frame. "What the?" He stepped forward and as he did, he noticed writing on the ground. One door leads to your goal, the other to certain doom. To find the path you seek, enquire with the guardians of the doors they keep. But beware of what they say to you, for only one speaks words that are true. "Oh, great. A riddle." he looked up at the skulls, assuming they were the guardians the words talked about. "So one door leads to the book and the others leads to certain doom. And the only way to tell which is which is to figure out which of these skulls tells the truth and which one lies." He frowned, feeling like he had heard of something like this before. But how did it go and what was the answer? "Aura Blast!" Springer fired the orb towards the grab, but the shellfish simply bounced it away with its claws. Springer and Soarin both panted, having been fighting this thing for a while. Soarin fired another lightning arrow, but the electricity simply reflected off the shell and did nothing to its body. "Come on Soarin. You've studied crab monsters in school. What's their weakness?" Springer rushed forward and as he did, the crab tried to crush him under its claw. "Bone Breaker!" He formed the bone weapon and used it to catch the claw, the impact making his whole body shake. But he wasn't gonna let this be his end. With a roar, he managed to throw the claw upwards and this made the crab's body fly up so it was only on its back legs. As it did, Soarin saw a spot in the centre of its stomach that had no shell. "That's it!" He remembered the weakness for crab monsters and fired an Aero Shot towards it. But before it could hit the spot, the crab fell back down and the air bullet struck its claw instead. "Springer, you've gotta aim for the spot on its stomach. That's its weakness!" Springer nodded at this and quickly ran forward, dodging the claw attacks befores leaping forward and sliding along the ground. As he did, he formed an Aura Blast and thrust it forward as soon as he was directly beneath the crab. The orb flew into the opening and as Springer slide out from under the crab, it exploded and the beast let out a mighty roar of pain. It exploded, Soarin and Springer both sighing at their opponent's defeat. They were tired, but they knew they had to keep going. So, Soarin flew over to Springer and pulled him back to his feet. The two then headed down the corridor, managing to get through it without any more monsters being generated. They eventually came to an opening and stepped out into a large corridor that was wider then the others. It was straight and narrow and on the other side of the room, a button of some kind was on the wall. "What do you think this is all about?" Soarin asked, Springer unsure. But then he looked up and spotted something in the roof. Holes. They were flat long holes that went from one corner of the ceiling to the other. There were five in total, each one equally spaced out. And Springer had a feeling he knew what they did. "Fire an air shot across the room." Soarin was confused, but did as his friend suggested. As soon as he fired, something shot out of the holes. Five large metal blades, which flew down and slammed into the ground. They were so big, they completely filled the corridor. One by one, they retracted back into the ceiling. But they were likely ready to fall again at a moment's notice. The pair gulped as they thought about overcoming this obstacle. "Paralysis Blast!" Wallflower screamed, as she fired the paralysing mist forward. Despite their opponent's being walking skeletons, this mist caused them all to start freezing up and falling to the ground. This made them easy targets for Trixie, who fired blasts of light, ware and ice at the skeletons. Once the bones were shattered to pieces, the girls walked passed them as the mist faded away. As they did, they came to the end of a hallway and found themselves looking down a staircase. "Does this place have another level?" Trixie asked. "I hope this wasn't just the first floor," Wallflower gulped. "Luna never said anything about this maze having multiple levels." The pair began to walk down the stairs, being ready for anything to attack if it did. But nothing happened and the pair found themselves reaching another hallway. As they walked through it, they came to a folk in the road and decided to take the left one. After few more minutes and an attack by a bunch of fire rats, which Trixie flash froze, the pair arrived at the entrance to a large square room that didn't appear to have any kind of obstacle for them to overcome. "Huh?" Trixie looked around, "wonder what this is meant to be?" But as soon as they stepped out of the tunnel, a stone wall flew down and sealed it off. They both jumped as they spun around, Trixie staggering back only to find herself over an edge. "WOW!" Wallflower spun around and gasped when she saw Trixie fall and quickly looked around, allowing her to see that the floor of the room had vanished. Trixie fell through the air and looked down, gulping when she saw the floor was about ten meters down and covered in spikes. It was times like this that she wished she could cast a floating spell or something. Luckily, she had Wallflower to save her flank. "Web Slingers!" She cried, as her gauntlets transformed into the web patterned gloves. She swung them down and as she did, white silk shot out of the metal ports between her knuckles. The silk flew faster then Trixie and caught her by the hoof, barely managing to stop her before she hit the spikes. Trixie had her eyes closed and when she opened them, she sighed seeing she was alive. "Thanks Wallflower." She smiled and started pulling her up. As she did, something appeared. It was a large stone column, its top at the same height the floor should be. It remained there for about ten seconds, then vanished as another one appeared. Luna was getting close, she just knew it. She found herself at the top of her own staircase and flew down, arriving at the bottom and putting up a barrier as several spears shot out of the wall. They all shattered upon hitting her magic bubble, whilst she flew down it and came out in another long corridor full of many other hallway exits. The ground in front of her suddenly cracked apart, as a giant snake appeared from out of it. It charged at her, but Luna simply thrust her staff forward and unleashed a blast of water into its mouth. This pushed it backwards and allowed her to fly passed it, slicing its head off as she did. "I'm almost there," she announced. "Nothing's going to stop me now." And sure enough, she flew out of the corridor and found herself in a giant domed room. Intricate patterns covered the floor and ceiling, with twelve round columns evenly dotted around the room holding it up. She smiled as she realised she was there. "This is it." She looked around and gasped when she saw something on the opposite side of the room from where she had entered. Between two of the columns was an opening, which had a stone podium inside of it. And atop that podium, was a large leather bound book, which had the image of four horses on it. One normal horse, one with wings and one with a horn. These three were gathered around a larger horse with wings and a horn. "Yes!" She rushed forward, "maybe I can find a spell that'll let me teleport the others to me." But as she said that, the ground around her started shaking. She gasped and looked around, worried she might have set off a self destruct booby trap or something. But then, part of the floor opened up and something flew out from below it. She jumped back and saw it was a bunch of strange liquids that were many different colours, Luna's mind thinking desperately to try and remember what trap she had laid out. Then, the liquids began to swirl together and take shape. As it did, Luna's eyes went wide. "I remember now." The liquids formed a humanoid shape and as it did, the outer sections of the form solidified into metals of multiple different colours. "A golem." This golem was over seven meters tall and the most humanoid golem ever created. It's main body was a round hulking form, covered in an armor that was a mixture of blue, purple and black on the chest. Its thin stomach was black with purple lines, whilst its waist was blue. A yellow section was located between its shoulders and body, spikes sticking out the top of them. Its shoulders and arms were covered in blue armor, with purple spikes sticking out the backs, whilst its legs and feet were black with purple lines running down them. Its head was a large blue metal tube connected to a black neck, with yellow horns on the side and a single red round gem on the front for an eye. The same gems could be seen in the centre of its chest along with being on the backs of its hands and on each of its knees. Luna stepped backwards, preparing for a fight, whilst the golem's head looked down towards her. Its red eyes flashed and Luna could tell it was scanning her, likely wanting to figure out her weakness. "Master." Luna's eyes went wide when she heard this, unable to believe it could talk. Slowly, she began to remember that she was the one who had forged this creature using magic Nightmare Moon had learned from the omni spellbook. She frowned, but then realised this was perfect. "Yes, I am your master. You cannot harm me. Now let me pass and retrieve the spellbook." But the golem didn't move, the beast apparently still scanning her. "Master...corrupted." "What?" Luna didn't like the sound of that. "Master...corrupted. Must...save...master." It stepped forward and Luna stepped back, trying to figure out what it was talking about. But then, she slowly put the pieces together. "Oh no." Nightmare Moon had been the one to create this creature. Whilst she might have been the same as her, they were still very different. 'It thinks Nightmare Moon is me in my pure form and the real me is the corruption. But what does it mean by save?' The golem continued to move forward and held out a hand, Luna trying to blast it with her magic. "Must...save...master. Restore." Luna gasped. "No," she fired again and the magic did nothing to the creature, "you can't." The hand got closer. "DON'T TURN ME BACK INTO HER!" Flash continued to look between the two doors, trying to figure out what question to ask in order to figure out which way he should go. The floor didn't say how many questions he was allowed, but Flash had a feeling Nightmare Moon would have made a limit and left that out of the instructions to trip him up. He had to think of the perfect question, but what could he ask. "Alright," Flash took a deep breath, "what would they answer if they were lying or telling the truth?" His brain was starting to fry, but he couldn't let himself be overwhelmed. He just had to keep a clear head and figure out what to say. Then, an idea popped into his head. "That could work." He stepped over to the blue door, "answer yes or no." He pointed at the red door, "would he tell me that your door leads to the book?" The skulls looked at one another, Flash wondering if they were having a conversation. Then, the blue skull looked down at him. "Yes." Flash smirked. "Then the red door leads to the book and this door leads to certain death." he moved over to it, making the skull share a look. "But what what if he's telling the truth?" The blue skull asked. "But then you wouldn't be," Flash smirked. "If you're telling the truth, then that would make him the liar which means him saying yes that your door lead to the book would be a lie. And if you're the liar, it means he wouldn't have said yes to the blue door. Either way, the red door leads to the book." The skulls looked impressed, as Flash stepped up to the door and took a deep breath. He opened it up and stepped inside, taking several steps only to find the red door lead to a dead end. "Huh? Where's the PATH!" He screamed as he ground suddenly gave way, making him fall into a sliding shoot. His screams continued to echo through the labyrinth, eventually fading away. The door then slammed shut, the skulls waiting for their next challenger to arrive. Back with Soarin and Springer, the pair of them continued to stare at the hallway designed to slice whoever stepped hoof into it in half. "The blades all fall at exactly the same time," Springer stated. "Which means the only way to survive is to be faster then the very last one." He turned to Soarin, "I don't think I can move that fast." Soarin smirked, since speed was his speciality. "Alright," he handed Springer his weapon and stepped back several feet. He the got into a runners pose, his wings spreading as he focused on the far side of the room. "I can make it." He took several deep breaths before channeling his magic, "I can make it." Springer stepped aside, not wanting to get in Soarin's way. "I can make it. ACCEL!" He exploded forward and into the room, causing the blades to fall at an incredible speed. He shot through the room and managed to get passed the first, second and third blades before they were halfway down. Springer covered his eyes, not wanting to watch in case Soarin ended up sliced down the middle. All he could do was hope he didn't hear Soarin's screams of agony. Soarin flew close to the ground, managing to get under the forth but the last was getting dangerously close to the ground. He closed his eyes and flew as fast as he could, he heard the sound of the metal hitting the ground and wondered if he was gonna feel a delayed burst of agony. But then he felt he was about to hit something and came to a stop. He opened his eyes and found he was now in front of the far wall, the pegasus patting himself all over and sighing when he saw he was alive. He heard the metal beginning to slide upwards and looked back around, seeing something on the other side of the last blade. Strands of dark blue hair, which made him looked down at his tail and find the last inch of it had been cut off. Springer was revealed when the blades retracted and he sighed in relief seeing him alive, but then looked up. "How am I supposed to get through?" Soarin frowned, then noticed a button on the wall and pressed it. A clicking sound filled the air and the pair wondered if the blades had been locked up. Springer decided to risk it and ran across, amazed when the blades didn't drop. Once he reached the other side, Soarin released the button and the blades all dropped. The pair jumped back, hugging one another before turning towards the exit. There they saw a stone staircase, leading downwards to some unknown place. They were worried it would lead to another trap, then heard a scream coming from it. Back with Trixie and Wallflower, the magi had finally been pulled up and the girls looked around. Different columns continued to appear and disappear throughout the room, Wallflower humming as she tried to figure it out. One column appeared near the opposite ledge, where the exit was, then disappeared as the first column she saw reappeared. She then realised each column that appeared was within jumping distance of the last column. "I think the columns appear in a pattern," she explained. "We're supposed to remember the pattern and jump from column to column in order to make it to the other side. But, forget the pattern or get the timing wrong and..." She looked down at the stone spikes. "It had to be the two flightless ponies." Trixie laughed, "we don't need wings. And we don't need to remember a pattern." She held out her staff, "Super Freeze!" The blue lightning struck the edge of their ledge and formed a path of ice, which went out and eventually touched the ledge opposite. "Use your webs and try to hit the spot in the very centre of the ceiling." Wallflower smiled, realising what Trixie was getting at. She fired a pair of web lines and hit the roof, directly in the middle of the room. She then handed Trixie a webline and the pair tied them around their waists, Trixie pulling on it to be sure it wouldn't come off the roof or snap halfway across. The webs were pretty strong and Trixie began to make her way across the ice path, the constantly changing columns completely forgotten about. Wallflower also headed across, being sure to keep a careful grip on the webs in case the slipped on the ice. But luckily, she didn't and the pair found themselves on the other side without trouble. "Yeah!" They both cheered, high fiving only for Wallflower's glove to shot out some webbing. It shot straight up and formed a parachute-like net that fell down and trapped the pair beneath it. "Awkward," Trixie stated before they heard a sound coming from the doorway they were now in front of. A scream. In a circular hallway, three corridors could been see lining the walls. Part of said wall then opened up, revealing a round hole that was giving off a noise. The noise was a scream, originating from the avian teen that it spat out. Flash let out a yelp as he was thrown to the ground, sliding along it for several moment until he came to a stop. "Ow." He looked around and saw where he was, then slowly picked himself up and rubbed his burning flank. As he did, he heard hoofsteps coming from one of the hallways, the avian looking down it and seeing Trixie and Wallflower heading towards him. "Flash!" They cried, smiling at the sight of him. "Hey girls," Flash waved as they reached him. "Is Luna with you?" Trixie asked, "we thought we heard a girl screaming." Flash frowned at this, whilst more hoofsteps made him turn to the other corridor and see it was a staircase. Springer and Soarin arrived, the pair smirking at the sight of them. "Guys!" Springer rushed up to Flash, happy the team was back together and glad he was near his amulet again. "What happened?" Soarin asked, "why'd you girls scream?" "We didn't scream," Trixie and Wallflower stated, as Flash began to walk towards the final corridor. "Let's focus," he stated. "We must be getting close to the book. Hopefully, Luna's already found it." They nodded and headed down the corridor, which had several hallways that seemed to bleed into it as they walked. Then, finally, they reached the end of the hallway and came out into the domed room. They looked around, amazed by what they saw, then noticed the book at the far end. "Yes!" Soarin smirked, "we've found it." "But where's Luna?" Trixie asked, only for Springer to sense something. "LOOK OUT!" He tackled the lot of them away from where they were, as a blast of energy flew out and struck that spot. The lot quickly recovered and got back to their hooves, readying their weapons as they turned to the shadowy section of the room where the blast had come from. And when their attacker stepped outside, they were all surprised to see the golem walk towards them. "What the heck is that thing?" Soarin asked. "Who cares what it is," Wallflower pointed at its chest. "Luna!" They focused on the gem in its chest and when they did, they realised somepony was inside it. Princess Luna was trapped inside the gem, though they couldn't see all of her. Only her body was visible whilst her arms, legs and wings were all trapped inside some kind of horrible slime. Her head was also half-ways trapped inside, as everything except her mouth and snout were covered by the slime. She appeared unconscious and was glowing, her friends guessing what was happening. "Luna's being used as a power source," Flash growled. "We've gotta save her." He charged and summoned his Lightning Blade, which he slashed at the golem. But it quickly raised its arm in defence, blocking the sword before knocking Flash backwards. As he slide to a stop, the golem glared at them. "Intruders must be destroyed. Protect master until purification is complete." "Protect master?" Trixie asked. "Purification?" Springer tilted his head, "what is this thing talking about?" But Wallflower figured it out, making her gasp in horror. "It thinks Luna's been corrupted. Nightmare Moon was the one who made all this, so this golem must see her as what Luna's supposed to be." They suddenly heard a scream and looked back, seeing Luna being electrocuted by some kind of dark energy. As they did, they realised what Wallflower was getting at. "It's gonna try and turn her back into Nightmare Moon," Soarin stated. Flash stared at the princess currently trapped, as his mind replayed everything they had been through with her. The image of Luna laughing filled Flash with joy, whilst the thought of her never doing that again and once again being turned into a monster filled him with dread. "We're not gonna let that happen." The others nodded, determination masking their faces as they reach prepared their weapons. Flash summoned his fire shield along with his sword, whilst Wallflower changed her gauntlets to the Sting Strikers. Springer's paw spikes turned into claws, as Soarin and Trixie readied their weapons as well. "Don't worry, Luna!" Flash cried out, the five getting into a battle stance. "We're going to save you!" With that, they charged forward and the golem prepared for a fight. Team Relic's first expedition was coming to a close. And now, they faced a challenge greater then they could ever imagine. It was up to them to save Luna and prevent her from being corrupted once again. If they didn't, not only would Equestria once again have to face Nightmare Moon, they would lose their friend. They weren't gonna let that happen.