//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: A game of chess // Story: Souls Apart // by GnollReader //------------------------------// Before Celestia could call them back, Luna, Twilight and the paladin had already stormed through the doors, leaving her behind outside. She gave a sigh, it seemed that the other ponies were eager to enter the tower as well but were waiting for her to enter before them. She shook her head, "I may as well." and stepped towards the large doors. The imp that stood in front of the doors did a quick salute and pulled one of the doors open, motioning for her to enter, "Thscha ka ma." it said with a polite bow. "Thank you..." Celestia replied with a bit of a amusement, the imps looked rather adorable, but their sharp eyes told her otherwise. With a deep breath, she stepped through the door... and found herself in a large living room. Countless books were stacked onto shelves and the room was decorated with carpets and furniture that strongly reminded her of her own... most probably because they were her own. "Ah... princess!" the necromancer stood up from a big armchair with a big smile on his face, "You are just in time. Would you care for some tea and biscuits?" he turned to an imp standing at a door, "Trabba zum mekka can tura." The imp nodded and dashed through the door, returning only a moment later in a maid gown and pushing a large wagon with tea pots, cups and diverse biscuits and cakes. "Where are the others?" Celestia asked with a firm voice. He went to the wagon and started to fill two cups with tea, smiling the whole time, "Enjoying their challenges of course, or at least trying to I'm sure... come, please be seated. Your challenge is about to begin." his voice carried excitement as he placed the cups on a small table between another armchair and a big cushion. "My challenge?" Celestia asked with surprise as she followed him to the small table. "Well of course, everyone gets their own, but I just thought... hell, I just had to give you a special one." he sat down in the armchair with a big grin, "So, we'll play a little game instead! Please, get comfortable so we can enjoy ourselves!" Reluctantly, Celestia sat down on the cushion, "Thank you." she said politely as he placed her cup of tea at her side of the table. "Now..." he started, "I was thinking, what better way to get to know one another than playing a good old-fashioned game of chess?" another imp approached, placing a huge and decoratively carved chess board on the table. "This is from my room." Celestia stated with a quiet voice. "It is? Sorry for that, the imps can be picky at times..." "You don't say..." "Heh... should we start? I suggest you take white and I black. It just seems so..." "Fitting?" she finished his sentence with a frown. He only replied with a big smile. --- "Damn buggers!" the paladin shouted as she threw off another baboon, "I'll tear him a new arsehole for this!" she bashed another baboon with a shield. If at least they were trying to bite or kill her, she would have had an excuse for killing them, but they didn't. Instead, the moment she had enter the large room, countless flying baboons armed with brushes and pens had latched onto her and had started to scribble profanities onto her armor. "How did he even teach you how to spell?!" she shouted as she kicked another one away. By now, her whole armor was covered in swear words, pictures of little flowers, donkeys and the occasional penis. She was certain, this time he had really snapped. --- Luna walked down the hallway with quick steps, expecting to find the necromancer after the next door. When she opened the door though, she found herself in a white room instead. A white room with her bed standing in the middle, and the hand on top of the bed nonetheless. "You." her voice carried the threat of death, but the hand didn't even flinch as she stepped up to the bed, "Get down from my bed this instant so I can blast you... you..." she was interrupted as the hand pointed a finger upwards, her head following the direction, "You..." she looked at the ceiling, and her mouth dropped. Up on the ceiling, hanging on and sitting there like countless spiders, there were hands. Hundreds of them, uncountable in their sheer mass, all of them trembling slightly as Luna's terrified gaze traveled over them. Her gaze returned to the hand on the bed as it snapped its fingers, looking down to see it hold up a letter for her to read. 'Welcome, princess Luna. The challenge of this room is simple, the safe word is uncle. Have fun! Regards, the necromancer. PS: The hands have terrible hearing, so you may have to shout it out several times, ' She looked back at the hand, it already had its fingers poised to snap again. Her eyes went wide in realization, "No... Please no... no..." Before she managed to finish another word, the hand snapped its fingers a final time, and a thousand hands jumped towards a screaming Luna. --- Twilight looked around herself in wonder, she was in what looked like a huge reception, stairs running up and down numerous levels and countless doors and counters with different numbers lined the walls. She stepped up to what she though was the main counter, an imp reading a newspaper sat behind it. "Hello?" she asked carefully. The imp looked up for a moment before passing her a letter, she read it. 'Welcome, Twilight Sparkle. To win this challenge and to claim your prize, you must succeed in obtaining form number three-two-five-A. Have fun! Regards, the necromancer. PS: No magic.' She looked up at the imp, "So where do I get form number three-two-five-A?" The imp only raised an eyebrow, set aside the newspaper and vanished behind the counter with a huff. After a moment, it reappeared, hoisting a humongous stack of paper onto the table. "Fill out forms two-one-five-B to one-six-three-C, hand them in at the designated counters and return to this counter with form six-two-zero-D." Twilight gulped, the tower of paper was as big as herself, she became aware of a problem, "I don't have anything to write. Could you..." The imp gave an annoyed huff and disappeared behind the table again, returning a moment later with an equally huge stack of papers and a short, gnarly pencil, "Fill out the forms required for lending internal property and office materials, hand them in at counter six to fifteen on levels three to five, obtain material outsourcing form three-yellow, and bring it here." Twilight's eye began to twitch involuntarily.