Starlight Glimmer stepped off the train and onto the platform at the Crystal Empire railway station, shivering in the brisk northern wind as she scanned her surroundings. She smiled as she spotted the orange and white mottled coat of her friend even before he managed to call her name.
“Starlight!” Sunburst cried as he galloped over to her.
“Sunburst, it’s good to see you!”
The two of them shared a brief hug as she levitated her luggage and began trotting alongside him as they began making their way into the city proper.
“So, you said you had a ‘magical favor’ you wanted to ask of me?” she asked.
He nodded, loosening his glasses enough that he had to push them back up his muzzle. “And I promise it’s a small one. After that, we can spend the whole weekend just hanging around, talking magical spells, and playing Dragon Pit.”
“No age reversion spells this time,” Starlight said with a smirk. “Promise.”
Sunburst chuckled. “Sure thing. I actually have a few more adult games we can try too!”
Starlight froze.
“I’m sure you’ll love them!” he continued, not noticing Starlight’s uneasy expression. “We could try ‘Settlers of Catrot’ or ‘Agricolta’ or ‘Terra Mysticanter.’ They’re really fun!”
“Ah, right,” Starlight said, heaving a sigh of relief. “So, what exactly did you need me to do?”
“Well, I was antiquing right here in the Empire, and I came across this amazing chest that—”
Starlight slowed her pace, her smile fading.
Sunburst noticed this and turned around. “Uh, something wrong, Starlight?”
“You know, if this was going to involve antiquing, you could have just asked Twilight to come instead, right? I’m sure she would have jumped at the chance.”
Sunburst blinked. “Oh,” he said. And then he rushed forward and took her by the hoof. “Starlight, I know I neglected you and geeked out with Twilight that one time, but I know it’s not your thing. I want to be sure to spend time with you this time; that’s why I didn’t ask Twilight - I know you can do this just as well as she can and then we can forget about the dumb old thing I bought and just, well, hang out!”
She smiled. “Well, when you put it that way, how could I refuse? Besides, your hobby did help us save the Pillars of Old Equestria, so I guess I can indulge in a little antiquing.”
Sunburst grinned. “That’s great! And the best part is, you just have to look at one thing with me, and we’ll pretty much be finished!”
“So, where is this thing you’ve bought?”
As it turned out, Sunburst hadn’t actually bought it yet. And the item in question turned out to be a large, wooden coffer with silver accents in the dusty backroom of a certain antique shop in the Crystal Empire.
Starlight raised an eyebrow as she looked over the old coffer. “This is it?” she asked. “It looks like somepony’s luggage.”
“It could be!” Sunburst said, his enthusiasm not remotely dampened. “It could be old artifacts from a bygone age, it could be jewels and gold, or it could be magical tomes written by the mages of the Akhal-Teke Empire!”
"Or it could be a pile of thousand-year-old underwear," Starlight muttered.
"Oh my gosh, do you really think so?!"
Then the shop owner coughed behind them, practically startling both of them out of their hooves. “As I told the young stallion, miss,” he said, “this treasure coffer was found in the catacombs under Hollow Shades a few years ago. And several past owners have vanished without a trace under mysterious circumstances.”
“I already agreed to buy it,” Sunburst huffed, “just as soon as my friend verifies there’s no magical curse on it! You don’t have to hype it up any more than you already have!”
The shopkeep rolled his eyes. “Typical collector. You tell them you’re selling an item associated with the probable deaths of a previous owner - or several of them - and they think you’re just being a salespony.” He looked over to Starlight. “You look like a smart mare, Miss. I’ve got no concrete reason not to sell this coffer, but I’ve never tried to pry it open. Your friend is the only pony brave or stupid enough try, so I’m selling it at a steep discount. You tell me it’s cursed, I’ll have it chucked into the nearest fissure in the ice fields and forget about it. You say it’s not, and you can have it for the price I quoted him earlier.”
Starlight glanced back at Sunburst, whose eyes had glazed over. “Ohhh, can you imagine finding an item like this at the bottom of an icy chasm… the mind boggles!”
The shopkeep sighed. “Please, spare us the suspense, Miss. Is the item cursed or are its previous owners just profoundly unlucky?”
Starlight took a deep breath as her horn lit up. She tried to concentrate, though it wasn’t easy between the exasperation of the shopkeep and Sunburst’s giddy anticipation.
“Let’s see… I’m picking up a small amount of magical energy, though it’s mostly dormant… but dark magic or hexes or curses? Hmmm…”
Sunburst bit his lip, watching as she held her horn over the ancient chest.
“...hmmm… nope!” she exclaimed suddenly, raising her head. “No, no curses here! Not a hint of dark magic at all!”
“That’s fantastic!” Sunburst exclaimed.
“So, you’ll take it?” the shopkeep asked.
“Absolutely!”
The shopkeep heaved a sigh of relief. “Great. If you’ve got the bits now, you can haul it away. Right after you sign a waiver. No refunds, by the way. For you or your next of kin.”
The coffer was heavy, to be sure, but Starlight couldn’t help but notice that it didn’t really seem to rattle much when they finally hoisted it into Sunburst’s attic. His hypothesis was that it was so full of artifacts that there was no room for it to move. Her own hypothesis was that it was probably just filled with dirt and rocks that some long-dead jerk had left there to troll future adventurers. (In fairness, it did actually sound like a pretty good gag.)
Strangely, though, she felt defensive at the thought and wanted to tell the ghostly jerks that Sunburst could probably make his money back by selling the chest itself as an antique or just for scrap. So there, you ethereal bastards!
“All right, Sunburst,” Starlight grunted as she released her magic and set down the chest with a heavy thud. “I did you your magical favor. Can we maybe get some lunch and then maybe you can show me around town or—”
“Oh, the anticipation is killing me!” Sunburst bubbled, practically dancing on the tips of his hooves. “I can’t wait! I have to see what’s inside!”
Starlight narrowed her eyes. “Sunburst. You promised.”
Sunburst bit his lip. “I… I did, yes…” He glanced longingly at the chest. “We’ll just go get some lunch over at the Thunder Crash Diner and… and…”
Starlight watched him as he trailed off, his eyes glazing over once again. She groaned. “Fine, let’s just open it and you can rant about what an amazing find it is for 15 minutes and THEN we can get lunch. Deal?”
Sunburst beamed and instantly swept her up in a tight embrace. “Ohhh, Starlight, thank you! I promise, just 15 minutes, that’s it!”
Starlight chuckled as she patted him on the back. “I’m holding you to that,” she said.
He brought out a set of lock-picking tools from a nearby drawer, levitating them over to the chest as he started to fiddle with the lock. “Hmm… this is a tricky one. Starlight, could you go down to the library and look up a spell of unlocking for me? It’ll be under ‘U.’”
“Why would it be under me?”
He gave her a withering look.
“Oh!” she exclaimed, blushing. “R-right, the letter U. For ‘Unlocking.’ Got it.”
Starlight trotted hurriedly down the stairs from the attic and made her way to Sunburst’s library. It was far less expansive than Twilight’s, but still big enough that she needed to scan the shelves closely to find the book Sunburst needed. She had nearly found the tome in question when she heard a guttural roar followed by a blood-curdling scream from the attic above.
“Starlight, help!!”
She instantly teleported back to the attic.
When she got there, however, the room was silent and Sunburst was nowhere to be seen. She looked around in a panic and shouted his name, but was greeted only with silence.
The chest they’d bought still stood in the corner. But she couldn’t help but notice that it was in a slightly different position from where she’d left it. Not only that, the wooden planks of the floor around it were covered with a thin layer of green slime.
“Sunburst?!” she called again.
Then she noticed a slight, almost imperceptible rattling from the chest, and her expression darkened. A trap!
Her horn lit up as she bellowed, “Let him go!” and blasted the chest’s lock with a magical bolt.
The chest suddenly popped open and Sunburst reached out from within. He was covered with green slime and the lid of the chest, she realized, was lined with sharp teeth like the serrated edges of a saw.
Starlight seized Sunburst in her magic and yanked him free as the chest emitted a roar and began bouncing loudly after him with a roar.
The chest’s lid chomped up and down ravenously, revealing its meaty, organic insides as arm-like appendages - most likely arms - sprang from the wooden sides.
Starlight froze for just a moment in utter horror and disbelief at the sight bounding toward her. The chest then horked up a veritable wave of disgusting green slime that almost instantly glued them both to the floorboards. Now that the two ponies were rendered immobile, the monster licked its toothy mouth with a lolling purple tongue in anticipation of its impending meal.
But then Starlight’s instincts took over and she blasted the chest with another massive bolt of magical energy, sending it hurtling back against the wall with a clatter.
The roars subsided and the creature gurgled as slime slowly leaked from its “mouth,” the lid agape as it fell backward.
“What in Equestria is that thing?!” Starlight shouted as she tried to pry herself free of the floorboards. “That treasure chest almost ate you!”
Sunburst was still panting as he stared at the monster that had swallowed him a moment ago. Then he began to laugh.
“Sunburst?” Starlight asked. “What in the name of Celestia are you laughing at?!”
“A mimic, Starlight!” Sunburst exclaimed, shaking her by the shoulders. “It’s not a treasure chest, it’s a mimic! I thought they were just a legend! Quick, Starlight, we have to get Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor! And have them message Twilight! This is the find of the century!”
Starlight heaved another long sigh. So, she wearily concluded, there goes my cozy weekend of board games and magic study.
“Fine,” she said aloud. “Let me see if I can teleport us out of this glue. It’ll be tricky, but—”
“No time!” Sunburst cried. “Besides, I think I can just pull myself free if I—”
“No, Sunburst, wait!”
There was a loud RRRRIP sound and Sunburst sprang to his hooves triumphantly. He then collapsed to the floor in a decidedly untriumphant manner as he howled in pain.
“...Right. So once I get myself free and notify Cadance, I’ll find a doctor and see if we can find you some pain killers and hopefully a potion to regrow your hair and tail.”