//------------------------------// // The struggle. // Story: Exploration turns out to be much longer than expected. // by Totito30 //------------------------------// J´zar rose to his feet quicker than what it seemed possible. “We have to get the hell out of this place” he signaled “Lest you wish to become some monster’s lunch.” He and the mares walked over to the lever very quickly and soon they were on the other side. J´zar pulled the lever, but the only thing that opened was another door at the very end of the long hallway. “Come on! Follow me!” J´zar said, running already towards the opened stone door. Save for Applejack, who was growing suspicious on him, none of the mares doubted even for a second before galloping behind J´zar. The sounds of claws scratching stone were louder now, and when Rainbow Dash looked over her shoulder, she saw what was making that sound. What could be best described as an army of monsters was just turning around the corner to chase them. Groups of monstrous birds with gnarling snakes instead of claws, wolfs with rooster legs, women with the lower part of their bodies turned into serpentine tails, huge insects and so many other creatures it would be impossible to describe them. J´zar wasn’t slowing down because of this. He did exactly the opposite running much faster and quickly reaching the opposite end of the hallway. He grabbed what seemed to be another lever and waited for them to cross the door. Just as Pinkie Pie crossed the door, a huge fly with beaver-like teeth bit her tail and dragged her away from the door. J´zar, however, was faster. He threw a knife at the fly and grabbed Pinkie by the tail and dragged her back into the room just before pulling the lever and making the door slam with fury over the monsters, killing a few who were in the first line. The six ponies and the man dropped to the floor, breathing heavily due to the exhaustion. “That was…close…” Rarity said “Why are they so obsessed with you?” “They probably still remember the battle where we killed hundreds of those things” J´zar theorized. “So, ¿are ya telling me they’re chasing us because of ya?” Applejack asked “¿Ya led us here with all those things out there an’ never warned?” “ ¿How could I guess they were still here?” J´zar defended himself “Anyways, we have no time. We need to find a way out.” “¿Maybe that door?” Twilight Sparkle suggested. Indeed, a tall stone door was guarding the other wall of the room. Besides that, there was nothing else that could serve as an escape route. “Hmmm” J´zar mumbled “I see no switch, no lever, anything. We should look at the door itself.” He approached the door. It was engraved with strange runes, which J´zar found loosely familiar but couldn’t understand. “This door doesn’t say anything I understand” He explained “But maybe there are hidden locks or keys” The mares helped him check the walls, the doors and the floor, but didn’t find anything that could open the door or signal the way to do so. In fury, J´zar punched the door, but it did not even drop dust. “¿Have you tried asking kindly?” Fluttershy wondered. “¡Hello there, mister giant!” J´zar said mockingly, beating the door three time “¿Would you please open the door?” He snorted in annoyance. “Now what?” Fluttershy asked. “¡I’ll ram it with your thick skull, and if that doesn’t open it, at least I’ll have some peace and quiet to think without disturbances!” J´zar furiously yelled “¡Next time you open your snout, try not to ask stupid questions!” Fluttershy blushed and backed off, hiding behind her mane. J´zar immediately felt guilt stabbing his heart like a knife. Fluttershy had a self-esteem low enough without him pushing her even lower. “I’m sorry Fluttershy” He said kneeling to stand the same height as the pegasus “I did not pretend to make you feel bad. It’s not your fault I can’t open a door” She raised her head and looked at J´zar. A few tears were coming off her eyes. “You mean it?” she said blowing her nose. “Yes” the warrior answered, his heart slightly softer “I mean it” Fluttershy gave him a dim smile. “Sorry to interrupt you lovebirds, but we have a door to open” Rainbow Dash remembered them. “Yes, indeed we do” J´zar accepted, rising to his feet. He examined the gate yet again. But this time, he noticed something special. One of the signs looked exactly like a reversed “A”. “¿Any of you has a mirror?” he asked. “Why yes, dear, I always carry one in case my mane gets all ruined and needs to be fixed” Rarity said, pulling a mirror made of purple plastic out of her saddlebag. J´zar grabbed the mirror and used it on the door. He managed to read a few words etched into the stone, written reversed: “Search in the belly of the bronze horse and rub the iron nail in it” “¿What?” J´zar exclaimed “¿That’s all?” He told the mares what the door said. “¡I see no nail in here!” Pinkie Pie said laying on the floor looking at her stomach. “It was obviously not speaking about a living pony” Twilight reasoned “Nopony could survive such a wound” “¿But what horse then?” Fluttershy asked. “¡I was such a fool!” J´zar said, slapping his own forehead “¡A horse!” “¿What did you find?” inquired Twilight Sparkle. “In geology, a “horse” is a chunk of rock separated from the rest” J´zar explained “¡The message was speaking about a loose stone around here!” “¿Like the one I’m laying over?” Pinkie asked. She stood up and revealed that below her there was a metallic rock below her. In the middle of it there was a small stud, like a button. J´zar pressed it and the door creaked open, moving on its rusty hinges, like a monstrous machine opening its maw. The room behind the door was hexagonal, with a ramp in the middle leading to another hexagonal platform. In the platform there was a throne made of yew, and sitting in it there was Ix, the Arch-Traitor. “¡J´zar, my companion! ¡Long time no see!” Ix greeted the party “¿May I ask why are you here, brother?” “I am no longer your brother, Ix. You lost your place in the brotherhood when you betrayed us.” J´zar calmly answered. “You know very well why your wardens come when you leave your cell. To put you back in it” “¡Ah, J´zar, if you knew how ignorant you are being, you would act in other ways!” Ix said, laughing “It was not me who betrayed the Order. It was the Order who betrayed me” “¿How can a master bite his dog’s paw?” J´zar launched “No Ix, I know the tale of your felonies far too well how to be fooled by them” “¡¿Are you so blind you still believe the lies of the Order, even when someone tells you otherwise?!” Ix exclaimed. “¡The dead man scares the slain!” J´zar yelled back at him “¿How could I believe the man who betrayed many of my brothers?” “I see there is no use in this speech” Ix said resigned “There is a small line between loyalty and zealotry, J´zar. And you crossed it” Ix stood up from his throne and showed his full height. He was wearing a white robe of thick silk and a white mask with only two horns which made it look like a three-sticked “H”. From behind his throne he pulled out a long, double-bladed axe. He had to hold it in two hands, for he could not even lift it with one. As answer, J´zar drew both of his swords and walked up the first steps in the ramp. “¿Can’t we solve this talking?” Twilight asked. J´zar pointed at Ix with one of his swords. “¡Go back to the Maw!” he said firmly. “¡No! ¡I shall never return!” Ix answered. “Don’t say I didn’t try.” J´zar warned before charging at Ix. The warriors clashed with fury. J´zar feinted and stabbed at Ix, but he parried the blows with ease. Ix kept swinging his axe at J´zar, but he was too fast for the cumbersome weapon, and rolled under it or moved it away using it as joint to swing around Ix and attack his back. But still, Ix and J´zar seemed to be equally skillful and could not find any weaknesses in the other’s defenses. J´zar attempted a stab at Ix’s chest, but the traitor deflected the blow and set his axe on the floor, using it as pivot to smash his fist in J´zar’s face. J´zar fell to the floor from the shock of the impact. Ix had paid a price too: his knuckles were bleeding due to the punch to the warrior’s iron mask. As J´zar tried to stand up, Ix stomped on his chest and raised his axe with both hands. “¡It seems I am the deadliest warrior!” Ix said, not taking any hurry now that his enemy was helpless “¡How fitting you die in my trophy room!” In the middle of Ix’s laughter, J´zar noticed the dozens of human skins hanged on the walls, all of different sizes and colors. “¿Want to pronounce your epitaph?” Ix mocked lifting his axe. “¡Raise ravens and they will gouge out your eyes!” J´zar screamed. Just then, Twilight figured a way to help. Using her magic, she ripped off one of the skins from the walls and threw it at Ix. The traitor, entangled in one of his trophies, tried to rip it off his face, but in the attempt he only achieved to get even more tangled. He managed to pull it off, but by then J´zar was already up. He had lost both swords because of the punch. Ix swung his axe, but he had been slowed down, and J´zar blocked the handle with his vambrace. “¡If you detest your brothers so much…!” he said punching Ix in the face. Ix freed himself from J´zar’s grasp and ran back to his throne. He raised his arms and invoked some sort of spell. Another white gateway opened in the middle of the throne and long tentacles started to spawn from it “¡…Nobody forces you to share a world with them!” J´zar pushed Ix to the portal. The tentacles reacted and grabbed him by the legs, shoulders, waist and neck. He tried to scream but the tentacles constricted his neck and dragged him back into the portal. The last thing the mares and J´zar saw of him was his left hand, marked with the Nameless Rune reaching out of the portal and trying to hold into something.