Amanar slowly fades back into consciousness and he could see the silhouette of his comrades despite his blurry vision. It was then that the pain from his previous encounter returns to his body, and he groans out loud.
"Awake, big guy?" Big Macintosh turns around and help the camel up.
"Yes, pain hurt much....."Amanar chuckled despite the pain. It has been ages since the camel chuckled, and for the other ponies it is their first time seeing this stoic warrior made a laughter of any kind.
"About time you opened your eyes. We are already at Djehuty's place." The nurse points her hoof ahead. As his vision improves, Amanar's eyes slowly absorbs the visual information surrounding the site.
A large stele is the first thing that greets the eyes of the camel, and surrounding the stele are countless skeletons and bones surround the site. Behind the stele is a large crevice leading down towards the sea of liquid metal that surrounds the White Tree. As Amanar turns his head around, he notice that there is a small path leading towards the center of the crevice where his eyes picks up a platform with two small stools and a table on said platform. Above the table, a glowing crystal floats gently but the harmlessness of the crystal makes it all the more suspicious.
"Apparently, Djehuty likes to write some poems, but the description on the stele is odd. Can you make any sense out of it, Amanar?" The nurse said to the camel, and Amanar notices the frown on her brow. Amanar, assisted by the red pony, moves slowly towards the stele. Amanar then reads the stele out aloud.
For every beginning there is an end,
For every end there is a beginning.
To pass, one need to use their head,
Less one joins the dead.
What is lost can be found,
What is found can be lost.
The sands of time waits for no one,
But you decide what you want.
History is written by the victors,
And victors are written by histories.
Such is the truth of this task,
What else there is to ask?
Amanar turns towards the others and notices that everyone is clueless to Classical Saddle Arabian. The pink-maned mare clops her hoof on her face, as if suddenly struck by a great realization.
"Ah.......the words have different meanings based upon its inflections and context. Just like Neighponese...." The mare groans as she realized that she was once sent over to Neighpon for a raw wasabi poisoning incident and have to learn Neighponese the hard way.
"Old Saddle Arabian not spoken by many, no filly today knows. No one speaks unless it for ancient rituals." The Janissary comforts the mare verbally. But indeed, the stele's content is definitely describing the nature of the challenge ahead.
"And now to understand what is this all about....."
After some time, all of them are stumped by the verses on the stele. Zephyr, being the elemental that it is, did not join in the group's frustration and instead flies around the area as it pleases.
"So Ah'm guessin' a brainy challenge of some kind. " Big Macintosh starts the conversation with perhaps the most obvious clue given their next gatekeeper.
" Secondly, if we mess up, we are as good as dead." Vinyl chimes in.
"Thirdly, it must involve magic, but the rest is enigmatic at best, and undecipherable at worst." Nurse Redheart finally adds in her thoughts to the conversation.
"We no time to think too much, unless we want to be bones." Everyone could understand the dire situation and the literal graveyard all around them.
"WHY U DO DIS?!?!?!!?!!?DAMN THESE WORDDSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!" Vinyl screams out. As everyone slumps down and wonder how to solve the conundrum before then,they all agreed with Vinyl that whoever it is that created the stele must have their head over the clouds when he created the challenge.
“Yeah, damn right you are Vinyl……..” As Redheart utters the words to Vinyl, the gear within her head starts to move and something moved in her head. Her wide-eyed relevation is also shared by Big Macintosh, Fatimah and Amanar.
“WORDS!” They exclaimed out loud. Vinyl jumped off her rump, and soon enough the others started to speak among each other.
“'History is written by the victors, the victors are written by histories'..... That phrase must be the winning condition of the game. The key is in the word 'written'. We need to write words to make history, and words is the way to win.” The pink-maned mare posits.
“That would also explain how we can decide what we want......we decide things by what we want to say. So at least it is some kind of word play.” Big Macintosh further elaborates upon the nurse’s theory.
“For every beginning there is an end, for every end there is a beginning; if we are going on with the word idea, this sounds exactly like Silsila!” The filly finishes, and the Equestrians all looked to the filly for an explanation.
“It is a child’s game, where players are required to say a word which begins with the final letter of the previous word. For example, when I said apple, the next person can use the word ‘elephant’ to continue on. Words may not be repeated, but only nouns are used.” Vinyl nods, understanding the concept.
“That makes sense…..but still…….what does the phrase‘ What is lost can be found, what is found can be lost’ means?” Vinyl’s piercing questions shuts the group, and now all of them are in deep thoughts. The atmonsphere of the group is now heavy with uncertainty. However it is Big Macintosh that broke the silence of the group.
“Djehuty really live messing with our minds huh? So our only choice is to actually just plough through ahead.” Big Macintosh sighed, but with a smile on his face. The other lightened up, and soon enough Amanar smiles at the red pony.
“Looks like it. Not me, too injured. Will slow down group. Get to top, later get me.” Amanar said. Before the rest could even protest, the old camel silenced them.
“Go. I face worse.” Silence soon descends upon the group, but before it truly takes a hold the unicorn turns and walks away.
“You better be here when we return, because you promised.” Despite trying to act all tough, Vinyl’s voice is trembling. Without turning back, the trots on towards the path, and soon enough all the others follow the unicorn towards their second challenge. Amanar watches as the group’s silhouette becomes smaller and smaller, until they are not visible.
They are a good bunch of kids…. It was then that he prepares his bladed weapon and speaks out loud in Saddle Arabian.
“I know you are there, show yourself. You will never get pass me.” Soon enough a hooded figure in tattered robes reveals itself from behind one of the piles of bones. The camel had a fleeting thought that perhaps he may be unable to fulfill his promise to everyone after all. However hesitation is not a luxury he can afford.
As the group arrives at the platform, a loud booming baritone voice greets them in Saddle Arabian.
"Welcome to my humble abode, it has been a while since anyone managed to get to the second trial. I trust you understood what is expected of you?" As each one of them steps upon the plaform, the crystal in the middle starts to glow with a bright light and several beams of light soon shine upon Nurse Redheart and Fatimah. Before anyone could even panic, the voice speaks once more but this time the voice started to speak in Equestrian.
“What the buck?!?!” Vinyl was as shocked as the rest. To further surprise the group, a cloud of purple mist have started to form right before them and solidying itself into a purple unicorn stallion with matching purple robes. His facial expression is in a perpetual state of ennui, and his green mane is rather messy. However, the appearance of Djehuty did not fool the other for one second, for they are facing against one of the strongest sorcerers in Saddle Arabian history. His piercing green eyes looked at the pink-maned mare and the little filly, and a smirk appears before his face.
“So it seems that only two of you are able to speak the tongue of the land. I usually will only speak in my tongue, but as it was ages since anyone came here I will do this game in your tongue. Nonetheless, I will need to know who among you will be the one taking the trial.”
“I will take the trial.” Nurse Redheart said.
“Very well, lets begin. Disappear.” Immediately to Redheart’s horror, everyone else disappeared before her eyes. Nurse Redheart was about to panic, and she noticed that the crystal has started to tilt. Within the crystal, she notices an item that looks like an hour glass and a bright purple liquid have started to flow downwards.
“REAPPEAR!” Nurse Redheart shouted, and soon enough everyone returned back to existence. The final piece of the puzzle is now solved, albeit in a rude fashion. Redheart’s heart is now beating like a jackhammer, and all she could do is to stare at the guardian with shock, awe, hate and fear.
“Good, good…..you are quick of mind. Took you three second to get an answer. My turn again; Ravens.” Before long a murder of Ravens appear from behind the sorcerer and start to envelop the platform, blocking out the lights. The stallion starts to chuckle, before he laughs out loud.
Redheart now understands the gravity of the trial, and she will have to be more sly and cunning that the Grand Magician Djehuty. It was then that she decided to try something out.
Before long, the battle of the words have started to go into full swing. The scenery changed from the humble platform to a seaside, and before long there is an elephant running around with an animal trainer on its back and a rainbow soon sprout out from across the horizon. The scene of the challenge soon turn to the rather bizarre, and before long Big Macintosh and the filly are now wondering how is it that they are able to retain their sanity over the whole situation, while Vinyl had literally lost it as she was laughing till she turned red.
“Dervish.” Djehuty muttered, sitting on a throne made out of cupcakes while drinking a cup of tea. Immediately a Saddle Arabian mystic appeared before them and started to spin around in circles singing praises to his religion.
“Headphone.” Redheart said as the items started to materialize over her head. She is now wearing what appears to be an intricately decorated metallic undergarment of some kind and her pony tail and mane are braided while she was chained to a humongous slug upon a dhow.
“Estrus.” The purple stallion said, with a devilish smile on his face. Immediately all the mares felt like they were in heat. Despite her bodily heart, Redheart counters back with her own comeback.
“Scrotum.” Immediately Big Macintosh and the sorcerer shouted out aloud, realizing that something important to them went missing. Nurse Redheart could not help but to give Djehuty a satisfied smile. The purple stallion’s cheek started to turn a dark shade of purple, and his expression turned into something much more sinister.
“I see that this is turning into something interesting; Manticore!” Suddenly a manticore materializes before them, and as the beast roared Redheart knew that Djehuty is now beginning to flex his muscle. She must think quickly to be able to get to her coup de grace.
“Erinyes!” Before long, a flock of winged spirits came from the skies above to strike at the Manticore, clawing at the manticore while screeching out loudly. Djehuty is now covering his ears, as the screech is unbrearable to any living thing, and unfortunately due to the choice of words that Redheart have used, her friends are also suffering from the consequences.
I am truly sorry guys, I will make it up to you all later…., she said to herself.
“YOU WITCH!!!!!!!!!!! EDIMMU!!!!!!!” The sorcerer howled at the mare, and the ground burst open to burst forward screaming incorporeal spirits of the dead. Their blood-chilling screams adds on to the screech of the howling Erinyes, and the chaotic cacophony of sound echoes throughoutthe place. The cacophony almost made Redheart missed the word that Djehuty howled, but she found an opportunity to reply.
“Underworld!” The scenery soon changes from the gentle beachside to a land of pure darkness.
“DEATH!” Suddenly everything went quiet, and immediately Redheart realized that the sorcerer had wished for one of the most primal forces on earth. A hooded figure appears from behind the sorcerer, and as it spreads its six pair of wings, As it wields its large scythe, the other apparitions that was summoned by their trial looked upon the mighting with otherworldly being with fear and trepidation. Redheart’s heart started to beat rapidly in fear. She wanted to cry, but she knows that if she stops now, all is lost. It was then that her mind came up with the next word.
“Any last words?”. As Death swings its scythe upon them, the mare started to chuckle, and then she started to laugh hysterically. The sorcerer was taken aback by this sudden scene, raising the eyebrow of the sorcerer to rise up for a split moment before it went back to his rather bored look. The corners of the mare’s mouth turned upwards as she noticed the split moment of surprise from the sorcerer. She looks at the sorcerer in the eye, the fire within her now alight.
“Hope.” Nurse Redheart muttered. Immediately the darkness turns into a bright light, blinding everything within its embrace.