Eventually, thanks to collaborative thinking and an extensive amount of reasoning, we eventually found a way out of that darn vase.
By eating it.
Yeah.
"So, now what?" Simon asked the million pound question right there.
"Well, we already came from one direction." I stated, waving my leg at said corridor, "So the only way to go is forward, really."
"Then we go! No time to waste!" Brian, removed from his usual quiet self exclaimed. I looked at him curiously, wondering where this sudden vigour had come from, before removing the thought from my head and reasoning that there were much more important things to focus on.
Like spying.
"We're just going in circles!" Jesus shouted, "There's nobody here! No-one!"
"Jesus, shut up!" We all hushed him in unison, "You never know what, or who, is around the corner." I continued the thought.
"But it's true! We've been going round for well over an hour and have found jack shit!"
"Shut up!"
"Yeah I get it! I-"
"No seriously, shut up!" we whispered. "And get down."
Around the corner, we saw them, two humanoid forms. The first was a rather shrimpy changeling looking guy, you know, holes in his legs and his wings, red eyes and two webbed appendages on his head. On his person he carried a guitar, sleek and black. I knew good craftsmanship when I saw it, and knew this must have been made by the finest luthier in Canterlot or something. This had to be the Knightmare that we were told of.
The second on the other hand was much taller. Dark scales, black but not as dark as Knightmare, were covering her person acting as a formidable shield, however it didn't hide the sleek and toned form of the person. The deep purple eyes gave away nothing, and the corners of it's mouth were curled into a wry grin. This, we worked out, was our unnamed destructive dragon, and it was female. Honestly wasn't expecting that one.
"Gentlesprites, we have found Chess Pie-"
"WHAT THE BLOODY FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE!?" Holy shit, what the fuck?!?
My mind seared from feeling Knightmare's anger as he screeched at the dragon and immediately began morphing. What was once a diminutive and weak form gave way to one of strength and power, easily standing a head over the dragon that had obviously angered him.
"What the actual..."
The dragon seemed unfazed by all of this. Facial expression didn't change or anything. There was no emotion to sense. She'd make a good poker player. All she did was step away from the wall she was leaning on and in the most composed of voices said, "I'm a guest here."
"But that makes no sense-"
"Then why-"
"A GUEST!?" Knightmare snarled with rage, reciprocating the thoughts of myself and the swarm. "A GUEST?! YOU ARE A GUEST NOW?! GUESTS DON'T GO BEATING THE HOST INTO A BLOODY PULP! NOR DO THEY UNLEASH ANCIENT EVIL DEMONS TO RUN AMOK! NOR DO THEY GO THREATENING OTHER GUESTS!"
Well, shit, looks like Filio and Storgia used the British understatement on what really went down here, holy crap. So, the release of the Nightmare was caused by Miss Dragon here as well as the whole 'beat the shit out of Luna' thing. Yeah, I'm not one to prejudge, but I'd still bet quite a bit on her causing the zoo outbreak as well. So why is she a guest?
"Do you even know why I beat Luna to a bloody pulp? Oh and if you're wondering, I did fix her up afterwards, not a scratch on her. Damn well took a lot of strength to do that." As she folded her arms, together as a swarm we started pooling ideas.
"Do you think she-"
"Plain hatred, calling it."
"Then why did she heal her?"
"...makes no sense."
"We're obviously missing information." I finished it right there. She obviously knows something we don't.
Knightmare was seething with rage and I could both feel it and see it. He obviously wanted nothing more to do with her and so turned around, slowly and deliberately, as if he was struggling to control himself.
The next thing I know, what was once Miss Dragon became a black and purple blur and dashed around Knightmare faster than he turned around.
"Whoa..." was the general thought of the swarm.
"Excuse me, um, Knightmare, was it? But you might not want to try and run or forget about someone who can move faster than wind, just saying." Her mouth curled into a smug smile and I could definitely feel the self-satisfaction coming off of her. Knightmare's rage meter on the other hand was just increasing more and more.
"I'll give you two seconds to leave me alone before I throw you through a wall. I'm a LOT stronger than you think, little miss Mary Sue."
"Pretty decent description, I'll give him that." I thought to myself. The rest of the swarm agreed. No seriously, first the poker face, then the Whirlwind Sprint. A bit OP, don't you think? Besides, she's a dragon, a black one at that. I researched some species in the library and found that black dragons have the hardest scales and are generally the highest rank. A bit too convenient that she's one of them, no? Obviously her Master must have had that in mind...
She unfolded her arms and tapped at her head before responding. "Two things. One, I have a weakness, and it's pretty damn big, and two, I'm not moving and I already know you could probably throw me through a wall. Thing is, unlike the 'Lunar Legend', that doesn't kill me or hurt too much." Okay, this girl is up herself too much, it has to be said. Being the Sue is bad enough, but knowing you're the Sue? Seriously? She grinned widely and that smug feeling was only amplified. "Come on."
"Don't care if it hurts, I just want you outta my way. I've had a LONG day and I don't feel like dealing with a smug-ass egomaniac right now... why do you think I'm avoiding Griffin?"
Next thing I know, Miss Dragon's choking Knightmare, pinning him to the wall, her eyes flashing between the original purple and a blood red and, get this, not one but TWO emotional wavelengths. The first was angry, enraged, whatever synonyms you have all fit here, but the other...
I can't really describe it all that well, but it was a lot more... primal. It was in sync with the first, but still, it felt so much more malevolent, like it wanted to do everything the first wanted but 100 times worse. I'm not even going to lie, that disturbed me somewhat.
"I'm not going to go into much detail," the dragon started with gritted teeth and restraint in her voice, "but I am not an egomaniac. Luna stole the life I hated, only to deliver me to a living hell. I've lost more here than I believe you have, mister 'Happy-Go-Lucky', and Griffin can go fuck himself for all I care, he's an asshole and I can't wait for the day someone takes him down a peg or two." The second frequency died down, the first cooled down a little and the black claw that was previously around Knightmare's neck fell back to her side.
"Luna's piece?"
"Luna's piece." I confirmed. That clears up one question I had and replaces it with a whole slew of others. This was happening quite a lot. Knighmare moved to speak.
"Honestly," he began, still gathering his breath, "I don't know what I lost... my only memories of Earth are working for an organisation called 'The SCP Foundation' and meeting Celestia."
Allow me to break away from Knightmare's monologue just to say HOLY SHIT SCP FUCK THE WHAT DON'T LET 173 GET ME.
But seriously, whaaaaaaat? SCP? On my Earth? No way. I don't believe it. Knightmare, I call your bluff. He continued.
"I've had most of my memories taken from me. I don't know if I lived a good life, wasted it away or went through hell and back. I don't KNOW what my life was like outside of working for a bunch of murderous lunatics who think that being smart gives them free reign to control the world from behind the scenes. I've been working on recovering my memories. So yeah. As far as I know, maybe you have lost more than me. I don't know, nor do I care, I've been here for less than a week and already I've nearly been killed FIVE TIMES, raped once and had to rebuild a town that was destroyed by someone who wanted to kill me... So yeah. You aren't the only one having a shitty time in Equestria."
...Wow. He was completely sincere. Not a single sense of any smugness or humour in his emotions, just sadness and anger. I suppose that means he was telling the truth, which only raises questions now that the SCP Foundation is confirmed to be a thing...
Then again, we're not in that universe anymore, are we? Trifling can come later.
Miss Dragon turned away from Knightmare, feeling remorse and deep sadness. She looked to the ground, shuddering slightly and...
Oh God, is she crying?
In whispers, she finally spoke. "I've lost my father and my brother, my sister is the only person I have left, and the FUCKER," She punctuated the word by slamming her fist into the wall, causing the stone to be crushed to dust. "That killed my father is walking free! Hell, he's a hero in everyone's goddamn opinion!"
Wait.
Did she just say that...?
...I know I don't have the full picture, but still. The fact that she had her father killed is just...
That's not right. That's not right at all. Fuck. I know what I'd do if that had happened to me. I'd chase the fuck down and... well, make him pay. Miss Dragon's a lot more violent than me, and if she's anything like me, which I suspect she is, Griffin better start running.
Knightmare curled and sat down on the ground, looking a lot more diminutive than normal.
"I know how you feel... When I heard of the mighty 'Griffin the Griffin', I expected some kind of awesome badass hero... What I got was a depraved nutcase who talks up and down about how he was bullied and how he hates them... but that's exactly what he is... a bully, a tormentor. He just doesn't care about anyone he's not close to. Even then, he still treats his 'friends' as nothing but tools to use."
Miss Dragon turned to Knightmare, blood red tears streaming down her face, and spoke. "It's nice to know I'm not the only one who sees him for what he truly is."
"We need more heroes. If Griffin's the best we've got... then it's up to those of us who see beyond the glory and glamour to take up the job... I don't know about you but... I'm not gonna let that bastard hog all of his unearned glory..." Here he stood back up and shifted into his normal, shrimpy changeling form. "I've got to get to a knighting ceremony... Knowing Griffin, he'll probably ditch it just to be a dick. Care to join me?"
Wiping her tears, Miss Dragon faced Knightmare and smiled a little. "Only if I get to be the understudy."
"I have no idea what you're talking about... no, literally. I'm missing all but a few years of an eighty year life, I have NEVER been to a knighting ceremony before."
She laughed a little. "It's not that common. What I was referring to was acting, and moreover my desire to stay in the background. A changeling is one thing, a dragon? That's stretching it."
"If Loony's okay with you, then I think I can handle. Just... don't break anything. And you hurt Celestia, and I break YOU. Got it?"
"I only hurt people who shatter my world, or threaten to do so, so Celestia is safe." She extended her hand towards Knightmare. "The name's Ember."
"I learned that much from Ritz." Knightmare responded before taking her hand and shaking it slightly. "The name's Knightmare. Truce?"
"Truce."
And with that, the two parted ways, Knightmare heading the way he intended and Miss Dragon, or rather Ember, came down the corridor that we were in. Luckily enough, she walked past the plinth we hid behind without any indication of knowing that we were there, so crisis averted.
"Well that was interesting." Alvin plainly stated.
"No kidding." Brian added.
"We got some answers..." Joseph said.
"And a fuckton of questions as well." Jesus ended the thought.
"We're missing a whole load of information," I explained. "We learned why Ember was here, but we didn't really work out who she is, besides the fact that she has a deceased father and brother. Ritz seems like her sister and is apparently in the castle, so we could eke some answers from her. But what the hell was that second emotion wavelength I felt? What was that? A second personality? Is she schizophrenic? And then there's the whole situation about her father and Griffin. We don't have the full picture on any of this and we need answers. We also need to find Cadence's piece too, can't forget about that."
Right then, I felt a voice in my head.
"Aniseed, are you there? the distinct voice of Prince Agapé rang out. "Meet me at the castle grounds in ten minutes, we'll teleport to the ceremony from there."
"Okay, will be there!" I responded before turning back to the swarm. "Later. We'll look for answers after this." Looking up at the wall, we found a window that was slightly open, and so we each jumped out in turn, ready to meet up with Agapé to attend the ceremony with one thought in our minds:
'What the actual fuck have we gotten ourselves into?'