//------------------------------// // Extra 2, Part 1: The Labyrinth of Norr // Story: To Save Equestria // by KalaAWild //------------------------------// "Why in the name of Celestia did you get me into this mess?!" Silvershot yelled at Digger as he ran from the collapsing walls. "I don't remember!" Digger cried out to Silvershot as he ran behind him. "Let me refresh your memory on how we got into this labyrinth to begin with!" ...Two Hours Earlier... Silvershot carried his table utensils and plates off of the kitchen table and put them in the sink. He was enjoying his new home in Ponyville with his wife Fortress. As Silvershot washed the dishes, Fortress sat uncomfortably on the couch, listening to classical music. No matter how much she insisted, he did all the chores of the house for a special reason. He added the dishes into the sink and washed them by hoof. He only wanted the best for Fortress, and he promised to do everything for her. He did not know that everything would be so hard. He took the washing cloth from a hook on the cabinet and soaped it up. He rinsed the plates with a circular movement while staring out the window. Birds flew elegantly past the window, with sunshine warming the skin. Silvershot loved the peacefulness, until it got interrupted. The front door of his house slammed open, making Fortress and him jump. In the doorway of his house was Pinkie Pie, who was a friend of theirs, and she was furious about something. The pink pony galloped through Silvershot's house and stopped right in front of him. "What have you done?" Pinkie Pie asked Silvershot with a beady blue eye. "I didn't do it," Silvershot joked around since Pinkie Pie has always been the jokester type. "Wait, what are you talking about?" "The party you're hosting tonight! You didn't invite me!" Pinkie Pie smothered him in the face with a flyer which couldn’t be seen that close. He ripped the paper off his face and read the flyer. He recognized it clearly and smacked his forehead with his hoof. He rubbed his eyes to give himself a second of thought. "Pinkie," Silvershot began, "this is not a party. This is a baby shower flyer for Fortress." "She is pregnant!" Pinkie Pie gasped. "Yeah, has been for about two months." "Oh! Am I invited? I can totally get her a cool gift for the baby!" "Yeah, all the mares in Ponyville are invited." "Yes! Then I am invited, and so are Twilight and Applejack and Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy and Rarity, to come to the shower then! I think I will go look for some soap!" Pinkie Pie disappeared in a cloud of dirt, and she was nowhere to be seen. She had mistaken the baby shower as an actually shower. Besides that, Fortress was pregnant and Silvershot had been taking care of her and the incoming baby very carefully. He fed her with nutritional and vitamin rich meals every day, and she took yoga classes so she could stay fit. Silvershot put away the plates and tended to Fortress. He knelt down to her level and rubbed his hoof on her shoulder to make her feel comfortable on Equestria's lumpiest couch. "You okay, sweetie?" Silvershot politely asked. "Yeah, I am fine," Fortress replied. With her feathered wing, she turned down the volume of the radio. "You don't have to check up on me once every five minutes. You need to find yourself some time alone. Maybe you need to find another adventure." "I don't need another adventure. I am done with that. The only thing I need to do is take care of you." Silvershot rubbed his cheek against hers and gave her a quick kiss before turning the radio back up so Fortress could fall asleep. He could hear the soothing sounds of Octavia's cello playing with the beautiful harp playing by Lyra Heartstrings. The two were amazing musicians, and it made Silvershot jealous. Silvershot never found the time to learn an instrument, but all of his other friends had. Digger knew how to play the drums, Fortress knew how to play the flute, and Pinkie Pie knew those two and twenty other instruments. Maybe while he had some free time, he could learn to play the violin or the saxophone. Silvershot thought about buying an instrument until he forgot to close the front door. Digger Stonefinder, this time, barged into his house. He was completely covered in dust and dirt, and it looked like he had never seen the light of day since he was so pale. "Silvershot! You have to see this!" Digger huffed. "As best friends to each other, you have to believe me when I say it this time." "Alright, I didn't say no-" "Good. Let's go!" Digger bit his tail and dragged him out of his house. As Silvershot was forced out of the house, he reached out to Fortress with a hoof. Fortress laughed and waved goodbye. "Go have fun, Silvershot!" Fortress screamed in joy to him. Silvershot planted his hooves into the dirt beneath him, but Digger’s sheer strength stopped him from stopping. He ate dirt, and eventually watched Ponyville disappear in the distance. Wherever Digger was taking him, it was far and remote. Trees of the Everfree Forest moved past him and the smell of clean air followed it. The old forest haunted him with the terrible memories of fighting off forty hoof long snakes and heat waves that dry you out like paper. He did not like traveling to the Everfree Forest unless it was to visit Zecora for medicine. Digger stopped dragging him after about five minutes, stopping at a hole in the ground. Silvershot got up from the ground, dusted himself off, and started nagging to Digger about how much his stomach had suffered from dirt burn. "Look, I am sorry for that," Digger apologized. "Remember when I was digging in Venturia Reign last year?" "Yeah, I remember," Silvershot said. "I had to fill that hole after you were done! That took me a week to do." "This time, my digging wasn't wasted. Follow me down the hole." Without another second to spare, Digger jumped into the hole and vanished from Silvershot's view. Silvershot looked down the hole, but saw nothing but darkness. He looked deeper into the hole and already had thoughts of regret in the back in his mind. As he got closer to the hole, the mud of the swamps of the Everfree Forest made him slip inside. With a thud, he landed on top of Digger who had waited patiently for him to come. He got off of Digger and looked around at where he is. He was in an underground room, created with four smooth walls that had been delicately engineered to withstand any possible earthquake. Along with the four walls, four tunnels on each wall led to different paths deeper underground. Silvershot looked back up from where he fell from and saw the hole in the ceiling close up. The room went pitch black until the torches on the walls lit up the underground room. "Digger, where are we?" Silvershot questioned Digger, who was behind him. "I don't know its name, but I know it is a maze of some sort," Digger replied. "I never found my way out. I always got trapped in circles." "How did you get out today?" "I waited one night underground until the hole above me opened up." "I don't have one night! In a couple hours, I have to host Fortress's baby shower." "That did not sound like a stallion talking," Digger snickered. "Shut up." ...Back in the Present... "Oh, so that's what happened." Digger blushed as he continued to run away from the collapsing wall with Silvershot. "No, that is how we got here!" Silvershot screamed at him. "This is how we got into the falling labyrinth! ...One Hour and Fifty Minutes Earlier... "We have to get out of here," Silvershot sounded anxious. "I cannot stand small spaces..." For the gallant Silvershot, who was able to travel through the Everfree Forest alone, who saved Equestria from the biggest terrorist attack in history, and who also stole the heart of the girl he loved in marriage, tight spaces were his weakness. In his state of fear, he knelt down to the ground and curled up into a ball in fright. "This is what I wanted you to see," Digger walked over to a wall and pointed to something on it. He completely ignored Silvershot's protests to get out. Silvershot got back up with shaky legs, got closer to the wall, and had a closer look at what Digger was pointing at. None of the words would make sense to a normal pony. Silvershot, though, knew what the words meant. The words were written in the ancient language of the Venturian people. The natives of Equestria had their own unique language to them and called it the Venturian Code. He read the words out loud, but Digger had no idea what the translation was. Silvershot forced his unicorn horn to appear on his forehead, and wrote down the translation next to the inscription with magic. "Il Norr Labirinto, più grande labirinto di Venturia mai progettato. Solo i puri di cuore può passare attraverso il labirinto. Per coloro che non possono, che tu possa riposare in pace nel Tartaro," Silvershot repeated the words on the wall and followed it with its translation. "The Labyrinth of Norr, the largest labyrinth ever designed. Only the purest of hearts can go through the maze. For those who cannot, may you rest in peace in Tartarus." "How do you know the translation?" Digger asked. "I studied the Venturian ancient language at home. Our archives were written in it," Silvershot answered. "The archives mentioned something about a rare jewel hidden in a place far away from the world." "Dude! Let's go find that jewel. We could become rich!" Before Digger could run into the maze, Silvershot blocked his path by making a wall of throwing stars. "What?" "We can't go in. In the archives, the jewel's hiding place was filled with traps. We could get injured or killed with a false move, and I don't want to risk it." "With your fast ninja reflexes and my keen hearing for vibrations in rocks, we can overcome any obstacles in our way..." ...Back in the Present Again... "I can't believe you still tricked me into doing this!" Silvershot kept screaming at Digger. "Come on, you know you still love me," Digger admitted Silvershot’s friendly love. Even though he was right, Silvershot still hated him for getting him away from Fortress. "Let's take a right here." The End of Part 1 A/N: For anypony interested, the Venturian ancient language is actually Italian. I used Google translate and I am not a 100% sure if it is accurate or not. If you speak Italian, it would be great if you could leave a more accurate translation down below