Destitute started to fumble about through debris, dust, and disastrous remains as he searched for whatever the object was, expecting it to be hidden here. After all, the Nothing did say that this was the next dimension it was hidden, and it couldn't touch that object unless it had been nearly activated. Either way, the stallion ignored everyone trying to ask about what he was doing, and why he was doing it. Even if they insisted, the flying eyeball on the stallion's head still snapped at everyone foolish enough to do such a thing, causing many to faint and several to run away screaming. What was the white changeling doing? It was entering the wall houses or trash shacks by erasing everything in its zone of effect. Somepony tried to kick it out, put that unfortunate soul got too close, and was erased from existence, knocking the heads of those who knew said pony.
Finally, after a few half-hours of searching, the unknown and Destitute met up. The white changeling started speaking with its typical clicketing:
"We have yet to find it. Perhaps, then, the key should be close? Or, are we to continue searching for the object?"
Destitute said nothing, but walked against a gryphon, who immediately became enraged and started to yell:
"What's yer problem, mate? Ya wantin' ta foyt meh? Commin' 'round 'n hitting gryphons fer no reason?"
"..."
"Not talking, huh? Fine. I'll bust up yer brains by me claws."
As the gryphon raised his claws up high to strike the stallion, he immediately noticed that he could no longer move. Much to the fear of everyone around, the white changeling came up and introduced itself in a peculiar manner:
"Have you seen a box of some sorts, or have you seen the key?"
"Wh-what?"
"A box, you feeble error of Nothing. It emits special tunes..."
"Y-you mean a music box?"
The changeling twisted its head, while Destitute continued to scratch the eyeball.
"Perhaps."
"Uhh. There are tons over there in that shop."
The gryphon pointed to an out-of-shape boutique that held many still working music boxes and clocks.
"Destitute, if you could."
The creepy stallion sent his eyeball first into the nearby shop, and slowly followed afterwards. It soon emerged, with the shop slowly desintegrating into nothing.Destitute walked back up to the unknown, and the yeball coughed up a cog. The white changeling twisted its head back to the hostage floating in the air.
"You lied."
"No! Whatever you're looking for, it should have been there."
"...Destitute. We shall begin destroying this city. The amount of living beings down here should be enough for you."
"Wh-what are you doing?! AAAH!"
The group continued their ways through the city, ignoring the surprised citizens and the mumblings some made when they saw Mond. Soon enough, they arrived at a weird looking dance parlor, who's beats were actually reaching outside pf the walls. Lining behind it were decorative bushes that, in actuality, surrounded the entirety of the gigantic beige townhall. Said building was enormous in width, height, and length. Windows of plain design provided light to all five floors of the building, while pillars placed both on the inside and the out gave way to lovely decorations.
"Wow." Box blandly cast out."I never got this far without the chief stopping us. I wonder where he is."
"Not important. We simply to get in here. Just a warning: even during the day, this place is full of ponies and other dance maniacs." the sapian said as he gently pushed on the two black doors leading inside the dance parlor.
Much to Mond's surprise, this place was enormous. It was built as such that it looked small from the outside, but it, in-fact, had a massive hole dug out so the building could go deeper. If one looked closely, each floor was limited by a single ring of stairs on which there were several fountains built into the walls with fake plants within these "glass walls". Others had jacuzis, while lower floors had restaurants. Finally, the main floor was so far down it looked very small. In reality, it was the biggest part of the dance parlor, and it was flooded with an insane amount of vibrant colors and dancing ponies. More plants and sumsuch were all around, and right above the dancing floor stood a balcony with some funky looking minotaur creating some "beats".
"That's him." Sapian said as he continued towards the bottom, scaring a few ponies in the process.
Mond felt like her head was about to pop. The music was way too loud and much dfferent than the style she was used to.
"Owowow!"
"Too loud?" Box mocked.
"Are you playing a farce? Of course this is too loud!."
"Haha! You've just gotta get used to it."
Mond shot the stallion an annoyed grin with a single opened eye. The stallion simply gave an innocent shrug. Once finally at the dance floor, the brown and white minotaur spoke on the high-speakers:
"Aha! There ya is. I've been waitin' fer ya, Sapi. C'mon back. I'm waitin'."
With a flick on the music system, the minotaur threw his hands in the air, extending both his index and pinkie finger, and yelled: "Rock on!", only to quickly disappear in the room behind the balcony on his sliding chair.
"He's annoying. Welp, let's climb up those velvety blue stairs." sapian sighed.
When the two ponies lift their hooves to shrug past the dancers, they found that the sapian had jumped on the ceiling and swinging on the cables, while Furrows jumped on the side of the wall lining the right side of the stairs and ran across the curving matter, leaving everyone in shock.
"Wow. I didn't know she could do that. Well, we might as well follow."
As much as it was annoying, the two ponies finally made it into the minotaur's room. He was constantly smiling, and wore some shades as well. This room was just as round as the dance floor, and it also had the same velvety carpet strung all over the place, although this one was purple. Ornating the walls were several golden sisks, pictures, frames, decorations, and things that reminded many of the disco era. The minotaur was sitting on a rotatable chair with his head on his hand, and was smiling widely.
"So what canna do for yaz? Want a drink?" the minotaur smiled as he rolled his "r".
"No. We need a way into the townhall, and you, supposedly, have a point of access." Mond stepped forward.
The minotaur just shrugged and left his arms up like that."I dunno whatcher talkin' about you pretty mare, but I do know that you seem to want ta dance!"
"Cut the crap, Fex. You have a passage right behind your chair. It leads directly into the mayor's room thanks to some of your screwy magic things." Sapian lashed out.
"Yes. I can hear it too. The wind blowing behind the wall. You not very discreet."
"Perhaps, but me am know how speak english."
The bone in the diamond dog's mouth snapped like a twig, causing the minotaur to flinch away, only to be compressed by the Sapian, and then by Furrows as well. They were one millimeter from the minotaur's face.
"Wow. Does she normally do this?" Mond asked Pencil Box.
"Only when she's really angry."
"I can see that. They're both beating on the minotaur."
"We can talk while they're doing that."
"Sure."
A few minutes later, the minotaur reluctantly hopped out of his chair, went to his desk, and pressed a red button underneath, revealing an opening passageway that looked like a small, wet, rocky tunnel. Fex was gasping in panic after what he went through, and only gasped more when Furrows gave him a side glare and ran into the tunnel.
"There we go. You two, get in. I need to tell our friend one last thing."
The ponies nodded and galopped after Furrows into the tunnels.
"Now then."
"Blahblah! Thats it! I don't owe you any more favors."
"On the contrary. You still owe me one. I'll see you around for it."
Once the sapian passed the doors, they slid shut, with a quiet poof noise. Fex looked around, regaining his calm. He stood up, fixed up his hair, and walked back out into the dance floor.
The tunnel really was dank, dark, and wet. There was water trickling everywhere, and everybody's feet were getting soggy. It was only thanks to Mond's magic that there was a semblance of light. Humorously enough, as she was up front, she kept encountering spider webs that would make her jump around in a fury of horror and disgust, much to the amusement of the other three. Finally, they reached the end of the tunnel. Mond didn't recognize the yellow crystals embedded around the tunnel itself, but they were even more numerous around the exit. Sapian stepped forward.
"Okay everybody. We'll have to fight through if we want to get that object."
The others nodded, and Furrows passed in front of the creature. "Three. Two. One. Go!"
The four slammed through the door, expecting to encounter a whole group behind the passage, only to find that there was nothing. Just a desk with some quills and ink, two red chairs standing in front of it, and a bookcase behind the desk.
"Alright. They aren't here yet. Let's go get that...thing. Whatever it is." Box proposed as he smacked his forehooves together.
It literally took an hour, and everything was overturned and flipped, yet nothing was found. Mond scratched her head as she rested on the floor.
"Ugh. How are we ever going to find it?"
"We not even know what it look like."
"Let's just take a small break. Apparently, the entire place is empty, so we should have some respite." Sapian proposed as he leaned against the desk.
"I dunno. I feel something behind the bookshelves themselves."
Box leaned closer to the wooden shelves, and started to punch the wall behind them. This lasted for a few minutes until a break was heard, attracting everyone's attention. After a few short moments, Box found a small wooden door with weird symbols etched on it. He opened it, and found a box. A music box, to be precise. He carefully placed it on the desk, and stared at it, as if tranced or under shock.
"Pencil, what's wrong?" Mond worried.
"It...it looks like his cutie mark."
"W-what?"
"So we do this quest just for music box?"
"Not JUST a music box, Furrows. It's the one my dad said our family possessed for an extremely long amount of time. I can't remember for how long. I-"
Pencil Box was interrupted by the sounds of screaming and explosions outside, followed by some weird vorping sounds too bizarre to properly describe. The group looked outside the window, and their eyes widened in disbelief and pure fear.