"So, other than that, how have you been?"
Dark Srake lifted his head to look at Deceit. He narrowed his eyes, "Are you kidding me?"
Deceit turned away from the Machine which he had been working on to face Srake. "You would think so..." Deceit, absently minded, looked back at the Machine. "I'd just like to thank you, my little darkling." Deceit looked into Srake's glowing red eyes. "You delivered this powerful artifact to me." He took the gauntlet that served as the center piece of the Machine and held it in his ambiguous shadow hands. "After all, I never would have been able to obtain this. As I have been restricted to this dimension by such arbitrary circumstances. But it is of no matter now. This is no more than a game now that you have returned to me."
Srake gave a slight grin at the shadow only a few inches away. "Right. Returned... Of my own free will. Because it was your will. No need to keep me bound in your infinite enigmaty."
"Enigmaty?" Deceit questioned.
"It's a word..."
"Of course it is..." Deceit continued to stare Srake in the eyes. "Such a good little darkling. You take after your master so well." He said as he tousled Srake's hair. Malice clearly showed in Srake's eyes. Deceit smirked, "But you've become too powerful... You could actually be a threat if I let you go. But you can still serve me as a battery to kick start the machine which will, unfortunately, consume you." Deceit chuckled slightly, rolling his eyes. "Besides you're a terrible liar."
"Actions speak louder than words..." Srake grumbled, lowering his head again.
"And you can't preform any actions. So, who's speaking louder right now?" Srake kept quiet, trying not to give Deceit the satisfaction. "Your silence speaks for itself." Deceit chuckled at the parallelism that had been created. He stopped suddenly. "What am I even doing? You're just stalling for time..." Deceit glared, accusingly. He turned around in a huff to continue work on the machine that would at the very least cause an inconvenience to the universe upon it's completion.
----////!\\\\\----
"Is about to break!" Hehvee shouted as he braced a door that was splintering from countless impacts. A thin layer of pulverized bone covered his armor.
Archer looked back at Hehvee, "Jus keep it closed for a few more minutes!" Archer helped to ransack the room which they had barricaded themselves in while Twilight somewhat causally perused the ancient books upon the many shelves.
The journey to the dungeon had been relatively easy. With two highly skilled warriors alongside her, Twilight barely had to lift a hoof to help them. The two relished combat as if it were there only purpose. But surely these two guardians couldn't be as an automaton. There must be something else that drives their character.
Archer let out a cry of joy as he broke through a rogue table. He preceded to tear through a bookcase with wild abandon.
"Perhaps not." Twilight noted silently as she pulled another book off the shelf. Twilight had changed since her death. Now that she knew that not even death could drive her from her goals, danger seemed trivial and she became lax. Granted she still searched for the artifact quite urgently.
A loud crash pulled her from her concentration. Twilight's ears flicked in acknowledgement but she continued searching diligently.
Without missing a single second, Archer seamlessly drew his long bow and fired rapidly into the doorway. Arrows ricocheted off the bones of the skeletons and caused massive collateral damage as if guided by an unseen hand. "Jus keep em at arm's reach and I'll keep takin' em out!" Archer yelled as he slung his bow back over his shoulder and wielded his repeating crossbow and let loose a flurry of bolts.
Hehvee held his sword with both hands to act as a bar to the countless skeletons, miraculously untouched by the onslaught of bolts. Skulls shattered and necks were pierced through before Hehvee gave a shove to sweep the skeletons over. He looked over his pauldren. "I think is time to go soon." He hummed though his helmet. He cleaved the few remaining skeletons in one fell blow of his massive sword. Hehvee lowered his blade to rest on the floor. A hollow panting could be heard emanating from within the metal suit.
"They stopped."
Archer pocketed an empty magazine and slotted another into his crossbow. "Have ya found what wer looking for, yet?" He holstered his repeater back onto his pack and walked back over to Twilight. 'Cuz, I only brought so much ammo..." Twilight kept scanning the shelf in front of her. Her eyes finally rested upon a wide green cover that matched the one on the note. Same nonsensical scribbles that all the other books sported. Twilight sighed inwardly that she couldn't even read it. The book was highlighted in a lavender glow as it levitated off the shelf into Twilight's possession.
"Is that it?' Archer questioned as he stalked over to Twilight. "Let me have a look at it." Archer grabbed the book out of Twilight's aura. As his hand clasped around it, a ghastly wailing resounded from the walls.
Twilight shot a glare at Archer. "Why even." She deadpanned.
Archer tossed the book back to Twilight. "Okay, you can hold on to it..."
The wailing intensified as the source flowed for the wall. It floated passively around the room. Archer examined the creature. "What? It's just a big dumb floating skull!" Archer laughed off the encounter. "Should be easy for a master ranger like me." Archer grinned as he reached for his longbow. The floating skull fixated on him as his hand touched the bow. It careened toward him and pierced through his body. Archer recoiled in shock as the ethereal enemy flew through him leaving him noticeably unharmed. Archer recovered his footing and locked eyes with the skull. "Why you little-" The skull cackled wildly as it bounced around jovially.
Fire flickered under Archer's hood, casting visible light onto the dungeon floor. "I can't stand a skeleton that cackles... Body-less or not." Archer's hands slowly fell to his sides as he assumed a duelist stance. He slowly paced around never breaking... eye contact with the skull. "Do you feel lucky, punk?"
The skull cackled.
----////!\\\\\----
Oh Celestia. This is dumb.
All sense of danger had been totally lost to Twilight when the skull cackled.
These people are all crazy. Why am I even bothering to help them? Honestly Twilight. Look at this fool. He is having an old west showdown in the middle of a treacherous dungeon with a floating skull. I miss Equestria. Dumb things may have happened there too, but at least it made sense to me. I don't know what I'm even looking at.
Twilight's thoughts drifted to the book in her telekinetic grasp.
Why is this book so important... It's strange. A locked book. Like a diary or something. I have the time right now, while all of this craziness is happening. But I can't even open it, much less read it. But why this book. A book so nondescript... Does it hold some dark terrible secret? Or maybe something the opposite of that? Ugh. I need to get home. Away from all of... this.
Twilight focused back on her surroundings. Archer was still in a stand off against the skull. Twilight looked to Hehvee for help.
He was watching the showdown with, what Twilight assumed was, mild disinterest. Hehvee noticed the unicorn's questioning gaze and merely clunked out a shrug. He lift his gauntlet up to his helmet and rapped a clear clang.
----////!\\\\\----
With a flash of movement, Archer's hands shot to the akimbo pistols that had inconspicuously appeared around his waist. He wielded them with excellent dexterity, spinning the skillfully to accent his performance. It would have been quite impressive had they not immediately flew from his hands bouncing harmlessly across the floor. "Wait. WHAT." Archer exclaimed incredulously as he desperately examined his hands. The skull once again... cackled. "That's it! I can't handle this no more!" Archer swung the repeating crossbow from his backpack and shouldered it taking careful aim at the skull. The crossbow melted through Archer's grip as his hands went numb.
And it cackled.
"Hehvee!" Archer shouted at his armored companion. "Shut his stupid face up!"
Hehvee pushed himself off the wall he had been leaning against and took up his sword. The skull once again locked onto the knight and flew through him before he could swing. His sword clattered to the floor as his fingers refused to cooperate. Hehvee let loose a hollow groan and attempted to pick it back up. "Huh... It is a no go." Hehvee sighed as his gauntlet refused to close around the hilt.
"Well I don't know! Just try punching it!" Archer 'suggested' rather loudly as he frantically tried to rub the feeling back into his hands.
Hehvee swung his massive arms at the skull, but to no avail. The skull simply floated around his blows and hovered out of reach. It cackled even louder at this display of helplessness. All the while, Twilight watched; Her eyes lowered in embarrassment.
Twilight gathered her energy and cast a spinning blade of pure darkness at the skull. Well, it was a demon scythe. As Twilight's vision washed out from the loss of mana, the Cursed Skull was cleaved in twain by the unholy blade. Both guardians looked to Twilight in surprise.
"Wow, uh. Good job I guess." Archer shrugged as he sheepishly picked up his belongings.
"Can we just go before anything else dumb happens? This dungeon is more annoying then threatening." Twilight asked impatiently. "Also, Srake is dying as we speak."
"Eh, whatever. From what I've heard, that guy's supposed to be some big hero. He can probably take care of himself."
"We should go before more skeletons show up." Twilight advised, trying to motivate him.
"Let em' come." Archer stood heroically. "I need to even the score"
"Okay, now you're just trying to be difficult." Twilight reprimanded. "We're leaving now."
A familiar ghastly wailing emanated from the walls. Archer swallowed hard and chuckled nervously. "Heh, yeah. Let's go save the hero guy."
----////!\\\\\----
"I've been meaning to ask you two someting..."
At the foot of a cliff, Twilight sat by a bonfire with the two guardians. Hehvee sat close to the fire letting his armor heat up to stave off the cold of the night. Archer sat at the edge of the fire's light keeping watch out for any corrupted beings. Both of them looked to Twilight in response.
"Yeah?"
Twilight looked over to archer. "What is this place? Who are you guys? Why are you all here?"
Archer cocked an eyebrow at the strange questions. "What do ya mean? This place is Terraria. I'm Archer and he's Hehvee. We've always been here."
Twilight shook her head. "It may seem simple to you but unlike you, I haven't always been here... Whatever that means. So, what is Terraria?"
Archer gave it a moments thought before shrugging.
"Great." Twilight put her head down in silence.
"Is like a big box of sand."
Twilight looked at Hehvee questioningly. "You mean like a sandbox?"
Hehvee nodded. "The Travelers come here to build. We come when we are needed."
"Who are the Travelers?"
"People who come to this land to save it and stuff." Archer chimed in. "We haven't met the current Traveler yet."
Hehvee hummed in agreement. "Dah, is probably that Dark Srake."
"Yeah, and I already don't like im." The ranger said begrudgingly.
"So Srake is a Traveler? Are there more of them? Maybe they could help us rescue him!" Twilight emoted, excited at the prospect of making this journey easier.
"No. Is only one Traveler this go." Clanked the knight.
"This go? That seems to imply a cycle. Were the other Travelers able to help Terraria?" Asked Twilight.
Archer shrugged once again. "Couldn't tell ya. We've been away for a long time. Can't even remember the name of the last Traveler, much less what they'd accomplished." Archer turned back to the dark, scanning the landscape for danger. Twilight turned to Hehvee wanting to ask further questions but saw that his helmet was bent forward, resting on his hauberk. Quiet breathing echoed from within him.
Twilight sighed inwardly and closed her eyes to think. I hope Spike's okay...
"Okay, up an at em, guys. We gotta go."
Twilight opened her eyes to be blinded by the morning sun. Confusion swirled inside of her, but decided that it didn't really matter at this point. Twilight stood up with the mysterious locked green tome in tow and set out after the guardians.
----////!\\\\\----
The group crested a hill of green grass and came to the 'west' wall of the green brick bastion. Archer looked around expectantly. "What, no red carpet?" Archer peered up to parapets of the wall. "HEY, LET US IN!" He shouted, causing his lavender companion to jump. "I hate this place. Why isn't there just a door..." The ranger pouted.
Twilight rolled her eyes. "I've seen Srake open up a passage in the walls before from the ground." Twilight scanned the face of the walls. "There it is." Twilight's horn glowed as her telekinetic aura pressed a against a brick with a power rune on it. "I supposed it was designed to keep the undead out."
Archer crossed his arms and walked through the passage silently.
----////!\\\\\----
"Hey, we're back!" Shouted Archer as he pushed open the door to Elric's room. The bound tome followed behind him along with Twilight and Hehvee.
"Yes, here's the book we need." Twilight said, floating the book over to Elric.
Elric caught the book and produced a key and went about unlocking it.
"So, what is this book?" Twilight asked. "Is is some sort of powerful spell? Will it really help us save Srake?"
"I stashed this book in the Dungeon many a year ago, knowing full well that the contents of this book would prove pivotal to the fate of this world." The last lock clinked open and the book rested unfettered. Elric held the book firmly. "To answer your question. It is a dues ex machina."
Archer cocked an eye at this. "A what now?"
"What indeed." Twilight conferred. "How will this book solve all our problems?"
"Fools!" Elric shouted dramatically. "Tis not the book which shall fix all but what is inside the book." He opened the book and withdrew a relic. An orb split down the middle: One half white, the other black. From each side, a spike fractal-ed off: One smooth, the other jagged.
Twilight sighed inwardly. Another ancient powerful relic hidden within a book.
"This is Balance." The relic glowed with power. "As you can observe, the relic is reacting quite strongly. There is a large imbalance of chaos and order in this world. Quickly, you must go before the imbalance and invoke Balance." Elric walked over to Twilight. Kneeling in front of her, he held out Balance. "I will entrust this with you, Twilight. No doubt you have proven yourself worthy of wielding such artifacts before." Elric said, eyes twinkling.
"Yeah, you could say that..." Twilight smiled awkwardly.
"Go now. Save your friend!"
"Right, friend..." Twilight turned and rushed out the door.
Elric smiled warmly. Memories of his adventures flooding back to him. He turned to walk back to his desk but stumbled into Archer. Archer had a rather blank look on his face. "What are you two still doing here?"
Archer shrugged. "iunno."
"Fine. A new quest! Chase after Twilight. Make sure she saves Srake!"
Archer looked over to Hehvee who also clanked out a shrug.
"FLY YOU FOOLS!"
Both guardians ran after Twilight.
Elric rolled his eyes and settled back to his readings. He cleared his throat and began to read aloud. "Chapter ten..."