//------------------------------// // Judgement // Story: Soul Recovery // by Conglomerate //------------------------------// "My goodness..." Rarity trailed off, gawking at the interior of the building, "It's even more dazzling than the outside!" The rest were speechless, simply oohing and ahing as they took in the detailed architecture around them. The floors were tiled with solid gold, which glittered slightly with every step they took. The walls were made of the same light grey stone as the outside, however it was polished and chiseled beautifully. Every few spaces in the wall there were pillars that were both decorative and supportive. In each gap between them there was a masterfully carved stone plant pot that held the very same vines that were seen on the outside. This time however, they appeared to be supporting their own weight and were clipped into varying shapes, ranging from simple, lively designs to ones that seemed oddly morbid. There was no obvious source of light, yet the whole interior was well lit. The ponies continued down the central corridor, their skeletal hooves making unsettling clacking sounds as they walked. It stretched far ahead of them, much farther than they expected, and much farther than the outside building could even contain. Every so often a doorway would branch off into another hallway, but they quickly disappeared around a corner with no indication as to where it led. "It's like a maze in here." Rainbow Dash commented. "Where are we supposed to go?" They all stopped. "Yeah! Where do we go?" Pinkie Pie asked. "Oh of all the times to not have a guide..." Rarity sighed. "Can we not ask for directions again?" Applejack asked. It was at this point that the group looked around more closely at their surroundings, only to notice one thing. There were no sentinels, no skeletons, no souls at all in the hallways. They were completely alone. "Guess not." Applejack concluded. "Where is everypony?" Fluttershy murmured. "Yeah... wouldn't there be more sentinels inside?" Rainbow Dash wondered while checking out the potted vines. "I'm not an expert on tactics, but it does seem odd that there isn't anypony here." Rarity said, she looked down one of the branching hallways. "Hold on a minute, I'm going to go check something..." She walked through a doorway and into a separate hallway. Then she turned a corner and disappeared from view. "Um..." Fluttershy whispered. It was only a moment later that Rarity reemerged from another doorway further up the hallway. The only problem was that she came out on the opposite side of the corridor. She looked both ways before spotting the group again and quickly trotting back towards them. "I didn't just imagine that, did I?" She asked worriedly as she arrived back at the group. "WOAH! Rarity! How did you do that?! First you were over there..." Pinkie Pie gestured towards the original entrance, "Then you came out over there!" She shouted, "Did you learn to teleport and not tell us?" "What? No Pinkie, I didn't do anything besides walk through the other hallway." Rarity said. "Yet you ended up over there. Just what in tarnation is going on here?" Applejack demanded, "Well did it look any different?" Rainbow Dash asked, "I mean, the hallway was a bit smaller and there were less decorations, but there was nowhere else to go but forward, and it was the same marvelous design the whole way through." Rarity detailed. “So do we just keep going then?” Rainbow Dash wondered, she leaned forward, staring down the ridiculously long hall. “That’s going to be a really long walk.” “Well, we either start walking, or we figure this out,” Applejack grumbled, “I hate dealing with this mystical stuff.” “Hmmm,” Rarity brought a hoof to her chin, “This is like a court right? Mr. Germ said something like that. Maybe we need to request a trial or something?” The others shrugged, “Uh… Hello?” Rarity tried, looking up at the ceiling, “We’re here to see our friend, Twilight Sparkle.” A click echoed down the hallway, causing them all to flinch. “Twilight Sparkle is being judged, please wait until your number is called.” A monotone voice answered back, Rarity turned to look at the others for a moment before looking back up. “What is…?” She began, “What is my number?” “Rarity Belle: Number two billion, three hundred sixty five million, seven hundred three thousand, one hundred eighteen.” “Oh-” “Fluttershy: Number two billion, three hundred sixty five million, seven hundred three thousand, one hundred nineteen. Pinkamena Diane Pie: Number two billion, three hundred sixty five million, seven hundred three thousand, one hundred twenty. Rainbow Dash: Number two billion, three hundred sixty five-” “Alright enough! We get it.” Rainbow Dash called out, “What number is being judged next, after Twilight?” “Manuel Calavera: Number two billion, three hundred sixty five million, six hundred ninety eight thousand, six hundred fifty two.” “Oh dear. That’s a lot.” Rarity said, “How long does it take for somepony to get judged?” Fluttershy asked, After a moment of no response, they looked at each other again. “Wheat Germ said it would only take a few days for us to get judged, so I imagine not too long.” Rarity recounted, “Still though.” “A few days?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, “We don’t have time for that!” “I know, darling. Just…” Rarity thought for another moment. She then looked up at the ceiling again, “I would like to request priority judgement.” “Priority what now?” Applejack asked, “I don’t know!” Rarity whispered back, “I mean Twilight’s getting judged right now, I’m just looking for something to help speed this up.” The click sounded out again, “Reason for request?” “Um… There’s a state of emergency outside, and we need to secure the alicorn soul?” Rarity tried, Silence. “We have permission from Princess Luna.” She added on, turning her hoof up to show the mark. There were another few seconds of silence, and they all looked at each other worriedly. “Priority granted. Processing.” The voice announced. “Oh, good! Then what should we-” Rarity was interrupted as the floor shifted beneath her. The golden tiles began to slide against each other, moving like a conveyor belt. She was jolted forward, carried down the corridor as the rest of her friends were also picked up. “Ooh! Fun!” Pinkie Pie said, “Eh, it’s kinda slow.” Rainbow Dash said, “Oh hush.” Rarity chastised, beginning to walk with the movement, “We already have priority, let’s just go-woah!” The tile’s abruptly increased in speed, knocking them all off balance as they continued to accelerate. Pretty soon the walls and decorations were a blur, and they struggled to stay together as the air rushed past. “Weeee!” Pinkie Pie screamed, “Now this is more like it!” “I wish there was something to hold on to!” Rarity shouted, The end of the hallway came into view, then began to rapidly approach as the golden tiles streaked forward. They weren’t slowing down in the slightest, and only seemed to keep picking up speed. Just as they were about to cross the divide, they stopped, in an instant. They were all catapulted forward, skidding across the floor and coming to a stop in a jumbled mess on the opposite side of the room. “Ow?” Rarity said, “I think that hurt.” “I didn’t feel anything,” Rainbow Dash’s voice came from behind her. She looked around, but found she couldn’t turn her head; it was separated from the rest of her body again. The beginning of a pile of bones lay at the edge of her vision, so she concentrated, feeling the tip of a hoof coming together. It then connected to her forearm, which slotted into her knee, and then attached to her shoulder. The beginnings of her spine and ribs came next, but she soon found something pulling against them. “Uh oh.” Rarity pulled harder, only for the force to match it, “I think I’m caught on something.” “Yeah, me.” Rainbow Dash replied, She pulled much harder, undoing a lot of Rarity’s work. “Oof! Hey!” “That wasn’t me.” “Sorry Rarity,” Applejack’s voice came from off to the side, “Just trying to pull myself together.” “So am I, darling. I think we all are. That was unpleasant, let’s just… figure this out.” What remained of her foreleg crawled into view, and by flailing it around a bit she was able to turn her skull slightly, allowing a better view of the pile. Several skeletons were assembling themselves from it, though without much success. Bones knocked against each other, joints tangled, and the lack of sight from most of them certainly didn’t help. “Watch it!” “Sorry.” “I’m over here.” “Oof.” “Ah!” “I need that one!” “This one?” “No, that one!” “Who’s hitting me?” “I’m not!” “That tickles!” “Stop pulling!” “I’m missing a rib.” “That’s my humerus, I think.” “What’s humorous?” “How do you know what bone is called what?” Slowly but surely, the pile diminished as they assembled themselves again. The five ponies stood in a small circle, trading bones and sorting through each other as they completed themselves. “There we go.” Rarity finished with a sigh of relief, “Good as new.” “Wait, hold on.” Pinkie Pie interrupted, she plucked a vertebrae from her neck and switched it out with one from Applejack, “Now we’re good.” “Thanks, partner.” “Alright,” Rarity nodded, “Well now that that’s taken care of, where are we?” A booming voice echoed from above. “Twilight Sparkle, your actions have been judged, are you ready for the final verdict?”  “Y-Yes,” A familiar voice whispered down. They all gasped, and looked up. They were underneath the plate of a gigantic balance scale. It took up nearly the whole room, with the golden base akin to the size of a fountain in the center. It stretched up and up, the solid gold carved into the shapes of a spine, with the same shifting vines wrapping around it. A complex mechanism of gears rested at the top, with two thick arms branching outwards, shaped like bones. The ends held skeletal claws, each grasping three chains, which were taught to the plates below. From their position, only the tip of a horned skull was visible on the plate, a familiar purple mane attached to it. “Twili-!” Rarity quickly clamped her hooves down on Pinkie Pie’s mouth, causing her teeth to clack loudly. “It’s probably best not to interrupt. We can probably talk to her afterwards.” “Are you sure?” Applejack asked, “No.” Rarity answered, “But does this look like something that should be interrupted? It’s Twilight’s final verdict!” “It shouldn’t be.” Rainbow Dash argued, “If she can come back, then why is she even getting judged in the first place?” Rarity paused at that, and she looked back up at the platform. The whole scale jolted, the mechanism in the middle clicking as the gears turned. Twilight’s plate lowered slightly, then it began ratcheting upwards like the hand of a clock. On the opposite side, the other plate lowered to the point where it was almost touching the ground, and a large stone statue of a feather could be seen atop it. “Due to your exemplary actions in the mortal world, you are granted passage to the fields of Elysium.” The voice announced, “Elysium?” Fluttershy whispered, “Is that the good place?” “Good to know we don’t have to worry about that.” Rarity said, “Okay.” Was all Twilight responded with, her voice sounded a bit heavy “That just leaves one more question.” The voice began, “Do you wish to remain in Limbo, and return to the souls outside?” The others all tensed up, and they all looked upwards with baited breath, not that they even needed to breathe to begin with. “No.” And in a beacon of burning light, Twilight’s skeleton was gone, and the gigantic scale slowly started resetting itself. To Be Continued…