//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: Perquisition // by Diexna //------------------------------// Perquisition Chapter 7 The three stood in front of a very dark cave entrance. This had been one of the spots that Pledgeword's team had scouted out in the plains to the east before returning back to town, where they had met Kickbolt and Sketch before their venture into the tower. Crimson cautiously stared into the dark, shivering slightly. "We're going in t-there? I-It's so... dark." Kickbolt looked at him curiously, shrugging his wings to get the attached harness comfortable. "You're not afraid of the dark, are you?" "Not really..." His eyes rolled back as he thought about it. "I d-don't think so at least. I suppose I just expected more of those emeralds that illuminated the tower." As she made some final scribbles in her book, Sketch chuckled. "Those emeralds were unique to that tower; chances are we won't see anything like them again, meaning we'll be going blind from here on out." She closed the book and smiled directly at Crimson. "But you said you'd been training your light spell, right?" He smiled back, blushing slightly as his horn flared a bright orange colour, though it was barely visible in the sunny morning light. "R-Right, I have. And just in case, I've some illumination stones with me." He nodded to his saddlebag. Kickbolt pulled out a lantern with his mouth and spoke through clenched teeth, "Or we'll jusht haf to go retro shtyle!" He posed adventurously, spreading his wings. Sketch rolled her eyes, as usual. Crimson let the light from his horn fade. "I think I can manage to keep the light g-going for an entire day. I don't really know any m-magic yet besides that and telekinesis, so..." his voice trailed off as he looked down at his hooves. He felt a pat on his back, and looked back up to see Kickbolt beaming at him with pearly white teeth. "Don't worry about it, Crimson. We still think you're awesome." "I don't want to say this, but..." Sketch hesitated. "Many unicorns don't learn more magic than that, especially if their special talent turns out to be something really mundane, like books, or pretty rocks." As she saw Crimson's mood drop she was quick to add, "But I'm sure your special talent involves magic in some way! I mean, you learned the basics of magic in less than a day!" The unicorn smiled weakly. "Thanks." Kickbolt started walking into the cave, towards the darkness. "I'm just happy I won't have to keep that lantern in my mouth an entire day again."  He rubbed his teeth with his tongue, and spat. "Tastes like rust." The green earth pony walked in after him, humming to herself as she stepped hoof into unknown territory, eager to put her special talent to use again. She turned around to glance at Crimson. “You’re okay with this, aren’t you? I know you already went over this with Master and everything, but you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.” Crimson who had been shuffling his hooves up until this point looked back at her. “Yeah, I w-want to help you two, since you h-helped me when you found me. I’ll just s-stay behind you guys and try not to g-get in the way too much...” Sketch turned back and looked at the blue pony in front of her, then back to Crimson behind her. “Actually, I was thinking that you would be walking between me and Kickbolt, so you could light up the way. If you’d be walking behind me, the light may not reach far enough.” Kickbolt yelled from a short bit into the cave, “Let’s try it his way first, if he’s comfortable with it. Come on already, we’re wasting time!” Sketch yelled back, walking in after him. “Since when did you get so eager to explore new areas?” She trotted into the darkness, leaving Crimson behind her. “Since we finally got a new team member, making things more exciting!” he answered. Crimson slowly started walking in after them, flaring his horn as he did. The burning orange light lit the way all the way past both Sketch and Kickbolt. The blue stallion could be seen beaming down from the damp cave, surrounded by moss growing on the cave walls. “Wow! This is a lot better than I expected!” The orange light was easily glowing over Sketch and past Kickbolt, further into the cave. “And this orange is a really nice change, I’m sort of sick of green by now.” He stuck out his tongue to portray his disgust. “Hey!” Sketch threw a small pebble in the pegasus’ direction. “Although... it is sort of a nice color,” she agreed, turning to look at light coming from Crimson’s horn. “Are you sure you’ll be able to keep this light up?” Crimson was flushing from the praise, but due to his normal coat color and the orange glow, it went almost unnoticeable. “Y-yeah, don’t w-worry. I’ll let you k-know if I need a break.” Sketch brought up her notebook and opened it. The light coming from behind her made it much easier to see. Taking notes would be a lot easier now. She flipped a few pages and cleared her throat. “So, a quick recap on what we know about this place. Pledgeword’s team only found this cave a week ago or so, just before we found you, Crimson.” She nodded in Crimson’s direction while flipping another page. “Due to this being a cave system instead of a hoof-made structure, we should expect little to no traps, but instead, greater chances of monsters.” This time she nodded to Kickbolt, who was stretching his wings to full extent.         He smirked, fluttering his armed wings. “I’ll take care of that.”         “But!” Sketch continued. “That doesn’t mean there won’t be any traps, so remember to be on the lookout for anything.”         Kickbolt blew a raspberry. “I know what I’m doing, Sketch!” he said before continuing down. The cave gave no sign of being either inhabited or filled with traps, but both Sketch and Kickbolt knew that is not always the case. The three of them continued down further, with the pegasus at the front to spot for any traps or enemies. Sketch was behind him, in the middle, to take notes of their surroundings. Finally, Crimson was in the rear and was somehow able to keep the passage lit for all three of them with his magic. Their hooves scarcely made a sound as they made their way in, the moss and mud muffling most of the noise with the exception of Crimson accidentally stepping into smaller pools of grime, his hoof occasionally getting stuck in the mire. He had to on multiple occasions pull himself free with a wet 'splotch' that echoed disgustingly against the tunnel walls, which more than once sent Kickbolt into a panicked frenzy, yelling about 'muddlers'. The pegasus shivered at the thought of them. "Muddlers are disgusting goops of mud that seem to be alive!" He scooped up a hoofful of sludge and threw it against the wall. "Imagine dozens of those crawling after you." He pointed to the ball of mud dripping down, slowly making its way to a large fungus. Crimson managed to step into far fewer piles of mud after the brief but effective explanation, until he decided to ask, "But w-what do they do? Do they have fangs or anything?" "They gang up on you and choke you to death, after which they sit on your corpse for a few days to suck up your nutrients," Sketch briefly mumbled while scribbling into her book. The large unicorn started avoiding mud as if it was acid, jittering at the sight of it. They passed a few stalagmites and stalactites, along with the odd steam of water coming out from small holes about the right size to be fit for a mouse, crossing their path and pouring into another hole. After almost an hour with nothing but overgrown mushrooms and wet moss in one single long passage, the trio finally managed to spot something different. As the cave apparently ended, the surroundings changed to hoof-made blocks that made up the walls and ceiling, their hooves started to clop as they got off from the moss and onto hard rock instead. “Heads up, Kickbolt. This could actually mean more traps...” Sketch said, trying to draw a picture of the pattern the blocks were forming. The pegasus sighed. “Right...” he muttered, slowing his movement just to be sure. “I hate traps...” His ears perked up as he looked ahead of them. “Hey, what’s that?” Not long before them the passage abruptly ended, leaving an altar between them and the wall. Kickbolt had just barely made out the shape of it from Crimson’s orange light in the distance. It stood about as tall as Sketch, which compared to the walls made it feel almost insignificant if it weren’t the only thing there. The three gathered around it and just stared at it, trying to see if anything could be done. The small altar was covered in odd symbols, none which seemed recognizable. Sketch was furiously at work trying to copy them all into her book, muttering about ‘yet another set of indecipherable runes’. Crimson’s ears perked up. “W-what do you mean another set of indecipherable r-runes? There’re more?” the unicorn asked, switching between looking over Sketch’s shoulder and at her drawings, and back to the motive. Sketch was filling out the lines for some of the odd symbols, and mumbled with the pen between her teeth, “All over the world, ponies have been finding these weird texts that nopony can read. Ponies have been trying to decipher them for a century, but all they’ve ever been able to figure out is that none of them makes any sense! There doesn’t seem to be a connection between ones you find here, or in any other ruins at all!” Kickbolt was slowly walking around, scanning for anything else that stuck out. “Aside from the obvious thing here, I’m not finding anything.” He pointed a wing at the shrine. “I’m not even spotting anything that could resemble a trap... wait,” he said, suddenly slowing to a crawl as he approached the wall directly behind the altar. “There’s something here,” he said, pointing his other wing towards a thin line barely visible behind the dust. After a few flaps of his wings in that direction, it became clearly visible. Sketch had just finished copying the runes and walked up to see for herself, and after only a second she nodded cheerfully. “I think this might lead further in! Look at the way they’re placed, it’s like a hidden door.” She followed the lines with her hoof, revealing the shape of an entrance further in. “But... how do we open it?” she slowly asked nopony in particular, as she turned back to glance at the shrine behind them, at which Crimson was staring with great intensity. Kickbolt and Sketch traded a quick look with each other. “Uh... did you find anything, Crimson?” the pegasus quietly asked while moving closer to him to try and see things from the same viewpoint. “Hello? Kickbolt to Crimson, are you there?” he tried again after the first question yielded no reaction. Finally he decided to simply prod him lightly. “W-W-What?” he stuttered while stumbling back a few steps, as if taken by surprise, and the light from his horn seemed to dim. “I-I’m sorry... did you a-ask something?” He shuffled his hooves uncomfortably. Sketch slowly walked up to him with a concerned look on her face. “Well, you sort of spaced out for a moment there, are you alright?” she asked. “N-no! I mean, yes! I’m fine... I was just... e-examining the podium...” he blurted out, continuing his hoof shuffling as he nodded towards the object in the room. The light spell he was keeping alive seemed to flicker back to full strength again. “Why, w-what happened?” Sketch sighed loudly. “Well, if you say so.” She turned back around to point at the lines with a hoof. “I think we can continue down further if we can get this door open. But the only thing in this room that could possibly do anything like that is that,” she said, motioning towards the still untouched shrine, the flat surface of it still dusty. “I’m not really seeing any indication as to how we’re supposed to do anything...” she muttered. “Kickbolt, you said you couldn’t spot any traps around here?” The navy blue pegasus shook his head firmly. “That altar and those lines in the walls are just about it, and I’m not seeing anything directly on the altar either.” Sketch rubbed her templates while thinking. “Okay, so bear with me. What if we’re supposed to put something on it? To activate it, that is.” “U-Umm...” Kickbolt nodded. “Okay, so what? I see what you’re thinking... but literally, what do we put on it? Should we just guess and toss anything on it and see what happens?” He shrugged his wings. “Uh... guys?” Sketch took out her notebook again and stared at her copies of the runes covering it. “Those things must mean something... maybe if they’re not meant to be read, what if they’re just pictures showing us what to do. You know, like in the tower?” “I think we need a m-mushroom.” Crimson said loudly, trying to get some attention. Both Sketch and Kickbolt slowly turned to look at the deep red unicorn. “What?” they asked in unison. “W-Well... I just think we need a mushroom to get it open...” he mumbled, shuffling his hooves again now that both of them were looking at him as if he’d grown another head. Sketch quickly started to look at the runes covering the podium again, and then glanced back at her notebook. “Why... why would you think that? I can’t find something anything here that even resembles a mushroom, and there are like ten different types of symbols here!” she exclaimed in confusion. “I don’t k-know... I just think it’ll work. It w-wont hurt to try, will it?” he nervously replied, turning around to the passage behind them that had led them there. “I saw s-some mushrooms just a short w-way back. I’ll get one, don’t worry,” Crimson said while briskly moving back into the tunnel. Kickbolt shrugged. “Well, we’re out of ideas anyway,” he said as Crimson trotted away from them, leaving them in the dark as his magic light only became a shining ball dancing in the distance. “Do you think we should have gone with him?” he whispered to the mare next to him. “I’m pretty sure he’ll be fine, we just covered the passage on our way here,” she whispered back. “This darkness doesn’t make me feel very safe, though.” She put up a hoof in front of her face, but was unable to see it. “Maybe we should have gone with him just to avoid being in the dark.” A minute later he came back with a pale turquoise fungus floating next to him, wrapped in an orange aura. His face however seemed slightly pale as well. Kickbolt quickly trotted into the orange light again when Crimson got close enough. “Everything alright, Crimson? You didn’t space out again or anything?” he asked. Crimson gulped loud enough for the two others to hear. “N-N-No... but...” He gulped again. “Do you r-recall that last water stream we passed?” he asked, nervously looking over his own shoulder, as if expecting something. Sketch slowly nodded, and started leaning to the side to watch behind Crimson. “Yes, and?” “I’m not sure it m-means what I think it does... but...” He turned around to look behind him. “There was no water. It was all mud when I p-passed it again.” As if on queue, a wet ‘splotch’ could be heard from behind him. Kickbolt facehoofed. “Of course...” he muttered. “Whatever you do, don’t let them get to your face,” he said, flaring his wings to get his wing harness ready. Blorp. As the three of them looked into the dark passage, they could make out something on ground level slowly making its way towards them. At first it almost looked like one big mass bobbing up and down, parts of the mass began to break off from the main body, covering the entire path. Each separate blob of mud started climbing up the walls, covering any surface available that was yet to be dirtied. Some of the closest muddlers started glowing orange. Crimson was using his magic to grab them before they got too close. Using his telekinesis, he started tossing them back further away again, although this only seemed to delay their approach ever so slightly, seeing how he was only able to do so with a few at a time out of the dozens that were getting alarmingly close. As soon as they got within range of his hooves, Kickbolt gave them a quick stomp, sending mud splattering in every direction, only giving him a brief moment to shake some of the dirt off before almost getting swarmed. “What were you going to do with the mushroom?!” Sketch demanded, shaking off a glob that was somehow making its way up one of her legs. It finally lost its ‘grip’ and was sent into the wall with a splat. “Place it on the podium, right?” she asked Crimson again, having moved up close to him as if she was already standing right next to him. Crimson briefly turned to answer her, still hovering the mushroom next to him. “Ye-MMFFGHH!” A muddler had made it across the ceiling and landed perfectly on Crimson’s face. The only visible feature left of his head was the horn, sticking up out of the mud. His concentration broken, the light from his horn died out, and he began a desperate attempt of scraping the muddler off. The amorphous ball refused to let go, only yielding small pieces to the unicorn’s frantic gestures. Crimson could only hear muffled yelling through the muck as Sketch had a similar encounter on her back, which was now proving itself difficult to shake off as it crawled towards her head, along with two other muddlers grasping at her hooves. Even in the dark, Kickbolt was doing an admirable job of cutting off the muddlers’ approach. Running around, stomping like mad and slicing wildly left no chance for the muddlers to grab him, but gave him plenty of chances to stomp them into oblivion before they managed to get to his struggling companions. The muddler covering Crimson’s head suddenly  glowed orange, and then burst, pieces flying in every direction as the unicorn gasped for air, coughing out wet dirt from his mouth. After a moment to recollect himself, he was able to get his magic light going again. With a little force he managed to lift off the muddlers that were climbing up his legs. “Get it off me! Get if off!” Sketch burst out. The muddler was sitting on top of her mane now, dripping into her face. Her legs were too occupied with shaking off others attempting to climb up her, leaving her no free limb to get rid of the one assaulting her hair. “These things are so gross!” she managed to screech before it slumped down over her muzzle. Kickbolt hadn’t heard her; he was too busy fending off the muddlers near him with a flurry of chops. The muddlers started ignoring him and just tried to pass him if they got the chance, rolling past him with relative ease as the blue stallion was busy sending chunks of the more immediate threat - the massive body of mud that took up most of the space in the passage - flying in different directions, to little effect. Bloploplorb. Splotch. Grglgrglug. The smaller bodies were mostly soundless, but all the pockets of air in the massive one seemed to imitate the sounds of hunger. Disgustingly so. As it slowly crept its way across the floor, Kickbolt got forced back unless he wanted to wade inside the very creature attempting to consume him. As Crimson managed to lift off the some of the muddlers that had made their way up to his body, his attention turned to Sketch. The green earth pony was just barely visible by now under all the brown sludge. With some forced magic, he managed to lift off the ones covering her face, the suction releasing yet another ‘splotch’ sound as Sketch gasped for air, tears rolling down her eyes. As she continued to try and shake off the blobs climbing on her, Crimson managed to assist her by pulling the ones she’d almost shaken off, away. The entire floor was by now covered with muddlers, all rolling in different directions while looking for something to assault. The floor was nearly covered, and the ponies had to almost dance their way across the room to avoid them, occasionally dodging to the side to avoid the ones falling from the ceiling. Now that both Sketch and Crimson had managed to free themselves from most of the mud, and Kickbolt was somehow still managing to keep the mass of them away without getting attacked himself, they moved up to the altar as a last resort. Crimson lifted up the mushroom he had dropped earlier, and with a little determination he shook off a muddler who was apparently under the belief that the mushroom hat was the head of somepony. He swiftly brought up the mushroom to the podium and placed it in the center, while kicking away a mudball that was climbing its way up towards them. Sketch was busying herself stomping them to pieces as if they were cockroaches, refusing to die. The wall behind them let out a tired groan as the aged mechanisms got to work to open the way further in. Part of the wall started sinking into the floor, revealing an intricate, and larger,  room behind it. Kickbolt had nearly been forced back to the altar by now. All of the smaller muddlers were now fusing back to the main body again, causing it to grow into one massive shapeless mire that was completely blocking the way they had entered. Sketch and Crimson had already ran into the new room, with only a few stray muddlers rolling around after them. “Kickbolt, in here!” Sketch called, getting rid of a mudball stuck to her flank with a precise tailwhip as Crimson was busy flinging out the ones that had followed them into the newly opened room with his magic. The pegasus was finally getting overwhelmed as he attempted to abscond, and with a few strong beats of his wings he managed to lift up from the muck trying to grasp his hooves. The low ceiling only barely let him stay above the ground as he managed to glide into the opening where Sketch and Crimson were waiting. The very moment he got past the new portal, Crimson picked up the mushroom resting on the shrine, and tossed it aside, causing the door to close again with only the ponies and a few isolated muddlers on this side of it. Sketch immediately jumped to assault the last remaining ones with a banshee like screech. “I hate you!” She furiously stomped one of the last muddlers over and over until all that was left was splattered around the ground she stood on. After which she slumped to the ground with a long heavy sigh. Her normally light green coat was now covered by the dirty substance, her saddlebags as well, but had miraculously saved the contents within from any befoulment. Crimson had fared better, his larger body seemingly much harder to cover with the same amount gave the blobs less cause to target him. Kickbolt’s early aggressive behaviour had made him less appealing to the muddlers as well. The two stallions tried to rub out what little mud there was in their coats. The unicorn swiped off the brown substance from his saddlebag and carefully hovered out a magic stone with his telekinesis. “Umm... I c-can make some water if you want,” he mentioned, slowly approaching the now very brown mare. She quickly tossed her dirty saddlebags aside and nodded eagerly. “Yes! Please! I really want to get off all...” She looked at herself with disgust. “This.” Crimson floated up the water stone to eye level and looked at a spot above Sketch. “Wait, what are you doing?” she queried, unsure what he was looking at. Only a second later a small waterfall started pouring down from the air above her, slamming her into the ground. Crimson grinned sheepishly. “T-Too much?” he asked, quickly throttling the water funnel - out of thin air - into a more manageable amount. “Sorry... I’m still g-getting used to these,” he apologized. Sketch crawled back up on her hooves, letting her wet ponytail fall down over her back as she quickly rid it of any remaining mud. “Thanks. That’s much better.” After the ‘shower’, she shook most of the excess water off. “So how exactly did you know that the mushroom would work?” she asked. “I’m seriously having problems understanding how it did. While I’m glad we managed to get away thanks to it, it doesn’t make sense.” The earth pony mare stared down on the ground, pondering about it while awaiting an answer that hopefully would please her piqued curiosity. Crimson had just finished squirting water over himself with the aid of the magic stone, and was in the process of doing the same with Kickbolt. His blades easily washed off, bringing back their natural golden shine again. “T-That won’t rust, will it?” the red unicorn asked. Kickbolt shook his head. “Don’t worry about it.” He tapped one of the blades with his hoof. “Rust-free metal.” Following the same motions Sketch just did, he shook off the excess water after most of the mud was taken care of. “So, feel free to answer Sketch’s question... how did you know about the mushroom?” he asked, fanning himself by lazily flapping his wings. Crimson shook off most of the water from himself as well, and proceeded to stare at the almost gray magic stone with focus as he started to refill its magic potential again. “I... I’m not s-sure...” he mumbled. “I know it d-doesn’t make any sense at all, I m-mean, a mushroom? You’d assume it’d b-be something of great importance, or some sort of k-k-key. Something relevant.” He sighed. “All I know i-is that when I saw the podium, the thought ‘place a mushroom on it’ entered my mind. I wish I c-could say more. I wish I knew more... but that’s it.” Sketch was wiping off the mud from her saddlebag with a piece of cloth. She wiped the cloth with her hoof before putting it back in. “I get what you’re thinking, and I’m still confused about it. But I’m also happy it worked. I mean, if it hadn’t, we’d still be stuck on the other side of that wall with that thing.” She fixed her half-dried mane into a ponytail again and pulled out her book to make some quick scribbles in it. “I’d rather not like an answer and be confused about it than dead.” Kickbolt harrumphed. “Sorry, but we have another problem now, you know?” Sketch lifted her head from her book. “Mwhat?” She spoke through her pen while lifting an eyebrow. “We got away, we can continue with what we came here for.” The navy blue pegasus sighed and pointed back at the closed door they had just come through with a wing. “Do you see any way to open it from here? I’ve already looked around, but I’m not finding anything. Not to mention even if we did get it open again, well...” He rolled his eyes.  “Ah. I see.” Sketch blinked slowly as she turned around to look at the unexplored hallway before them, Crimson’s orange light only able to dig so far into the dark. A glint in her eye slowly revealed itself as she chuckled. “I suppose that means we have no choice but to find another way out.” Kickbolt walked up to Crimson and laid a leg over his back, smiling. “I’m actually impressed, you know. Usually most ponies panic when something like this happens for the first time, but you handled yourself pretty well!” He pulled his leg back, now damp again since Crimson had yet to dry himself properly. Crimson didn’t immediately reply. He frowned and started shuffling his hooves again after putting the now half-full water stone back into his saddlebag. “What if t-that was my fault? I’m the one that w-w-walked away by myself, how do I know I wasn’t the one that lured them to you? What if I’d just waited for you to come with me? We might not have gotten stuck here now....” He slumped down on the ground and covered his eyes with his hooves, sobbing lightly. “I’m the one that l-lured those things to you...” Sketch and Kickbolt traded a glance and started respectively chuckling and laughing loudly. “Well, that was early!” Sketch said over her giggling, only to soothe her snickering to continue. “I’m pretty sure every explorer at some point goes through a self-accusation phase for no reason.” She trotted up to the unicorn and looked right into his eyes. “I guarantee you that what just happened is not your fault.” Kickbolt nodded. “Muddlers are clever like that, although I’m still not sure if they actually have brains...” He brought a hoof to his chin to think for a moment. Sketch gave an eye-roll. “Anyway, they like to sneak up on ponies. You didn’t lure them to us, we had already walked into their trap.” Crimson traded momentary looks with his two mentors, only to slump his head back to the ground heavily. “Is it w-wrong of me to assume you’re lying just to m-m-make me feel better?” he moaned. “B-Because I predicted you two attempting to cheer me up before I s-said anything...” The green mare sighed lightly. “There’s a difference between being reckless and walking into a trap, or actually falling into the trap in the first place.” This warranted a quick glare from Kickbolt, thinking back to their earlier encounter with a golem only a few days ago. “Know when it’s your fault, and deal with it then. But this wasn’t your fault.” Sketch comforted the unicorn. “You might remember that the two of us were already trapped behind that thing in the first place?” “B-But...”         Sketch lightly tapped his head. “Hey! Listen to your mentor! It wasn’t your fault.”         He wiped a small tear from one of his eyes, it might have been some leftover water from the ‘shower’, but he wasn’t sure. Thanks, Sketch. I’m cert-”         “Uh, guys. I don’t mean to interrupt, but we have a problem!” Kickbolt stood on his hind legs, waving his two forelegs in the air to get their attention. “You know the door that closed and is keeping that giant pile of mud from eating all of us? Well...” He pointed towards the rims of it, mud was beginning to slowly seep through, and a slight gurgling noise could be heard. “We need to find another way out of here... now.” ö~ö~Ö~ö~ö         They were picking up the pace. Inside the actual ruins - instead of the cave as up until now - they still kept their formation with Kickbolt in the front, Sketch middle and Crimson in the rear, the red unicorn easily being able to light the way with his magic way past both ponies in front of him. Kickbolt stopped in front of another fork in the road, stepping his hooves up and down to keep the pace. “Sketch, left or right?” The mare was feverishly flipping pages in her book, looking at the already done parts of the layout she’d mapped. “Give me a second...” she muttered. Blorp. The muddler’s echoing noises could be heard from far behind them. “Sketch, now!” Kickbolt demanded. She made a final note in the corner of the page before lifting up her head. “Left!” she exclaimed. As they slowly started trotting down the path, Crimson placed a red ribbon neatly behind a loose block, almost hiding it out of sight, except that they knew where to expect it. Glurgl. They were moving a lot faster than they usually would, and the giant muddler was still after them from somewhere behind them. They had yet to see it again, but the constant noises indicating some sort of hunger were always a short way behind them. The pegasus snorted. “We’d be able to outrun that thing if we didn’t have to worry about traps!” Kickbolt complained. “But nooo, that would be too easy.” “Less complaining, more checking for traps,” Sketch muttered while copying the three blocks fallen from the ceiling they passed, considering them a landmark. The pegasus suddenly slowed to a crawl, and pointed in front of them. “Something up ahead,” he quietly said. Sketch stretched to peek past the pegasus, almost falling over from altering her balance, barley able to catch her notebook with her teeth before it touched the ground.  "Whad ish et?" she asked, unable to see now that she was almost crouching. "Ah, uh, a wall. With something on it," Kickbolt mumbled. "Also, a dead end." "As informative as always," Sketch grumbled, regaining her balance again. Crimson looked at them both expectantly, having half turned around to walk back again, until noticing his his two mentors weren't moving in the direction he thought they would. "Didn't you say it was a d-dead end? Should we not return before we're trapped?"  He nervously asked, conflicted between running back from where they just came or following his mentors. "You heard the pegasus, there's a something on the wall! We can't just overlook it, for all we know it's our way out! We need to make sure we’ve covered as much as we can that could mean anything while we still can,” Sketch educated the unicorn. Kickbolt continued where she left off, “And that giant muddler is slow. Really slow. If we hurry and check this out we should be able to head back and run into another corridor before it catches up!” “I-I-I... Uhh... O-Okay,” Crimson meekly stuttered. Sketch had now joined Kickbolt next to the ‘something’ on the wall, which actually gave her reason to scratch her head. “I give. You win, Kickbolt. This actually is a... ‘something’,” she muttered, staring at the round yellow entity hanging out from the wall. “It looks like an...” She moved close enough to touch it. “... an egg?” The pegasus tried looking around it, but the tip of it was hooked to strings which led directly into the wall, tilting the entire ‘egg.’ “Okay, so. Since we’re on a time limit right now...” He perked his ears up, listening for any resemblance to hunger sounds. “... we really need to get this over with quick. So! Any ideas?” He turned around to look at a bewildered Sketch staring at him and Crimson eyeing every detail about the object on the wall. “No mushrooms this time?” “While I’m all for hurrying up, this isn’t like you, Kickbolt! Normally you try and force me to look into every possible single thing that could lead to us avoiding stuff like this. Not jump right into testing phase!” Sketch exclaimed, pulling down her own face as if in disbelief of what she just heard. Kickbolt snorted. “Well, normally we’re not chased by giant piles of mud. One which I might add will be close enough to cut us off soon.” He turned around to look into the darkness behind them, listening intently again for a second. “I think we only have a few minutes, since this entire corridor is cleared of traps - besides this thing - we could gallop our way back.” He turned back to the bright yellow egg-shaped object. “So. Ideas! Now!” He stomped his hoof for effect, making Crimson flinch slightly. Glorp. Sketch quickly mumbled to herself for a moment before repeating what she just said to the others. “Get it down and bring it with us? We might need it later.” Kickbolt crossed his wings. “No. It’s too big. I mean, look at it! It’s the size of him!” He exclaimed, pointing at Crimson. “S-Sorry...” he muttered in response. Kickbolt spoke up again. “Should we just smash it? Maybe there’s something in it.” Sketch was quick to show her opinion about breaking a possible long-lost artifact. “Are you kidding?! You have no idea what this thing actually is! It’s one thing to press a button and see if something happens, but to actually break things?” she almost cried out. She facehoofed while sighing. “Just... no.” “M-Maybe...” Crimson started, “... we should just g-go back? We might not be able to d-do anything with it as of now. At the very least, we don’t know what we’re s-supposed to do.” He turned, looking back into the dark behind them, the light mote flickering at the tip of his horn. “Do you think there’s any c-c-chance we would be able to double-back to this location at a later point? When we maybe will know more about this object? Then again, we m-might just get cornered again in any other direction we go...” Kickbolt stared at Crimson, and then looked at Sketch who shrugged. “I... I didn’t think of that.” Crimson continued, “You said t-that we should inspect things when we have a chance to do so. As I s-see it, we’ve already examined this as much as we can. B-B-Besides, if we’re supposed to break it, wouldn’t somepony have already done so in the past? And what about the future? If we broke it now then somepony in the future may not be a-able to do so when they need to. It wouldn’t make sense to place an object just to have it broken. It could only be d-done once.” Sketch probably would have knocked him over if not for the sheer size difference between her and Crimson, but it did give him quite a scare as she tackle-hugged him. “Thank you! You have no idea how much I’ve needed somepony to say something like that!” She let go of him and took a step back. “You’re really quite brilliant, aren’t you?” Luckily for Crimson, being a dark red pony helped mask the vast amounts of blushing from compliments. His head dived towards the ground as he mumbled something resembling a ‘Thank you’ after a long stutter. After a quick head scratch, Kickbolt just nodded slightly before opening his mouth to say something. “Okay then, I guess this means we’ll be hurrying back, so come on!” he said, turning around to the front again, away from the ‘egg’. “We’ll need to hurry.” He started galloping down into the dark passage again, gradually getting darker until he almost couldn’t see. He turned around to see Crimson struggling to keep up, Sketch was right next to him, trying to help him move quicker by instructing him how to move his legs. It only took a few seconds before the unicorn fell over, not used to running at full speed.  “Oh... great,” Kickbolt mumbled to himself. Crimson tried to pick himself up, having more experience with that made it easier than galloping. “I-I-I-I’m s-sorry...” he croaked, “I’m apparently s-still not used to all the ways of m-moving my body...” Kickbolt moved back to them, keeping his pace even when standing still. “Sorry, but we really need to get moving now or we’re in trouble again.” Blorp. Sketch finally got him back on his hooves again. “Just... try and move as quickly as you can, without falling over, okay? We can’t afford to lose any more time here,” she said. He nodded meekly. They hurried back down the corridor they had chosen in the fork earlier. They had to make it back to the fork and take the other hallway before it was too late. Sketch and Kickbolt moved as fast as they could, without leaving Crimson behind, who was struggling to maintain the same speed as the others. The echoing of the giant muddler could be heard getting louder as they moved in its direction, but the sound of their hooves hitting the hard floor easily muffled it. “It’s just around the corner, hurry!” As they finally reached the crossing paths, all three of them came to an immediate stop as they came face to... blob, with the massive muddler. It wasn’t the same size as when they initially encountered it, but it easily had twice the mass this time. But it was alone. No smaller muddlers crawling over the walls to reach them were in sight, but that didn’t make the one giant muddler stop from clogging up almost the entire passage. Glolplurg. “What happened to that thing?” Sketch gasped, hiding behind Kickbolt’s outstreched wings. Kickbolt ushered Sketch and Crimson back with his wings, his golden blades plinking upon the touch of each others from his movements. “They must have fused together into one. I’ve heard about some monsters doing that.” He continued to wave his two companions into the second passage that they had originally not gone into.         Bubbling, almost frothing, the monstrosity kept inching closer, leaving no space to get by in any direction.         Just as Kickbolt was about to turn around and follow his comrades, the muddler gave out a disgusting - more so than usual - sound, giving the pegasus reason to glance back towards it, just in time to see a smaller ball of mud speeding towards him through the air. Thanks to pure reflex, the dark blue stallion managed to shield his face with his wing. The projectile bounced off his knives with such speed, it was sent ricocheting down behind the other two ponies behind him, sending them jumping for cover - if there had been any - before it finally came to a stop, just before Sketch.         “A pebble?!” she cried out. “That was a pebble?! That thing could have killed us!” she exclaimed, almost trembling.         Luckily, the projectiles didn’t come without warning. The muddler started popping large gas bubbles which released a nauseating stench, coupled with a repeated loud gurgling sound as a huge bubble suddenly popped, firing another rock at high speed against Kickbolt.         Being ready this time, Kickbolt could deflect the pebble with ease.         Except it wasn’t a pebble this time.         He tumbled down to his two teammates from the impact, his wing nearly crushed. The boulder that had been flung at him easily broke his guard and made him lose his balance. While Kickbolt was still recovering from the attack, the bubbling sound had already started again.         “Come on, get up!” Sketch yelled at the pegasus, trying to help him get up on his hooves again before it was too late. She tugged on his mane to try and pull him up to no avail - Kickbolt was still light-headed and could barely keep his balance, and every time he got halfway up he just fell right back down. “Up!” she cried again.         Crimson stared at the huge muddler. Even though they were in the right tunnel this time, the mere sight of the gigantic muddler was enough to freeze them all in fear. “I-I-It’s not moving! Not since it started firing projectiles. We should run while we still can!” he yelled, but the current frothing from the monster muffled almost all of it. Sketch and Kickbolt only caught snatches.         By the time Kickbolt got back on his hooves, another boulder was already moving toward them. It was only a wingspan away  from his face as he tried to get his wings up to block the incoming attack. Sketch gasped and tried to look away, unable to see what would happen.         Klink. Thump.         Kickbolt blinked. “What... what just happened?”         The rock that had been a split second from crushing his face was now lying flat on the ground before him. Even the muddler seemed to give a confused ‘blorp?’ before it started frothing in apparent anger as it tried to fling out more rocks from its body.         It was figuring out how to do it better every time, the very first shot had been more of an experimental attack, but only after a few times it was firing deadly projectiles with ease.         Now knowing and prepared again, Kickbolt dodged the incoming rock by jumping to the side, leaving it bouncing further into the passage past Sketch and Crimson. He glanced back to see the other two looking at him with worry, wondering if he’s still okay. “Run already!” he commanded.         The muddler had been decreasing the delay between every shot, as well as increasing the force it put behind them. As Kickbolt turned to face it again, it had already sent a second projectile towards him without any warning, catching the pegasus off-guard.         “Oh horseapp-”         Klink.         Thump.         This time, the giant mud monster almost began boiling. It started sucking in stone blocks from the floor and the walls that it prepared as ammunition. It may have been because it was already busy steaming in anger, but the next few shots came without any warning whatsoever. With deadly aim and speed, it once again flung a giant stone block the size of Kickbolt himself. He only barely dodged by diving against the wall, unable to block such a large attack. Unfortunately, the stone block was still moving towards Sketch, who had been in the line of fire by accident.         “Watch out!” Kickbolt cried out, trying to reach out as if he could move her out of the way.         Sketch just stood frozen, unable to move as the reflection of the boulder grew in her eyes.         Klink.         Thump.         Having been staring at her impending doom only an instant ago, she could see how an orange field had popped into existence just in front of her just for a split second. The stone block bounced right off of it.         Kickbolt blinked for a moment before turning towards the muddler again, dodging another stone block sent his way, which due to the angle it was fired at left it crashing into the wall. “What’s going on?!” he demanded. “And why aren’t you running already?” he growled, wings flaring as he’s preparing himself for the next projectile. “I wish we could just flush this thing away!”         Sketch composed herself upon hearing that last part. “Flush...” she mumbled for herself. “Crimson! Where’s the water stone you used earlier?!” she asked, turning towards Crimson. However, he seemed to be in a trance of some sort, his eyes being fixated on every movement of the muddler. “Crimson? Auugh!” She ran up to him and started rummaging in his saddlebag herself, looking for the turquoise stone. She found it and pulled her head out of the bag, just in time to hear Kickbolt shout another warning at them. “Move!” He’d dodged another stone block, but this time it was sent tumbling towards Crimson’s location, which incidentally was where Sketch stood as well. Klink.         This time, when she stood from the side, she could see Crimson’s horn flashing brightly as the orange barrier popped into existence again - just for a split second - and blocked the boulder, knocking it into the wall instead.         Crimson began staggering. His head, his horn, his mind started aching. The orange glow from his horn quickly started to fade away as he struggled to keep his balance.         Sketch bit down on the water stone with her teeth and focused, hard. Just as the muddy monstrosity was giving off warnings - disgusting bubbling noises - that it had had enough and was about to end this, a waterfall formed out of nowhere just above it - in the little space there was between it and the ceiling - and started gushing down water with such intensity that the muddler started dissolving.         Mud and dirty water started running all over the ground as the mud monster started to lose cohesion. The little that was left of it by now wasn’t mud, just a watery, goopy clump of dirt, pebbles, rocks, boulders and stone blocks pulled out from the interior were left all around where its body had just been.         Kickbolt walked up to it and - with a great deal of anger - squashed the final manifestation of the muddler, sending it splattering into the dirty water running down into the cracks of the ground. He shook off the last bit of mud left over on his hoof and turned around to check on the other two. “Are you guys okay?”         Sketch spit the gray cracked rock out of her mouth, having drained all of its power now rendered it completely useless. “I’m fine, but Crimson...” She looked at the unicorn who was now down on his front knees. “I think he’s the one who shielded us from those rocks it threw, but it really took it out of him.”         “I-I-I’m f-fine...” Crimson gasped. “Just a b-bit... tired.” The magic from his horn quickly started fading out as his concentration began to waver. “I don’t t-think I can m-manage any magic for a w-while now... my head feels so... h-heavy.”         Kickbolt pulled out the backup lantern, urging for Sketch to light it. “You made those shields?! You saved my life several times! Not to mention Sketch’s, and your own! That was amazing!” The pegasus stared at Crimson, grinning uncontrollably.         Sketch went back to Crimson’s saddlebag, rummaging for another magic stone to light the lantern before his magic completely left them in the dark, mumbling ‘Sorry’ as she had to dive back in a few times as she picked the wrong stones. After finally getting the fire stone, using it to light the lantern - giving them a light source again - and placing it back into his saddlebag, she hugged him. “You saved us,” she said softly with a smile.         Unable to keep himself from blushing in his mentally exhausted state, Crimson’s face almost turned pink. His horn finally ceased glowing, and his face expressed relief as he sighed.         Kickbolt walked up to them, the lantern dangling between his teeth as he spoke. “Rooks rike you got shomefing dere,” he mumbled through the lantern, pointing his right wing towards Crimson’s behind.         Crimson and Sketch both followed his wing and stopped when their looks met his flank. An single orange sphere adorned it.         Sketch hugged Crimson even harder. “You got your cutie mark!” she laughed, almost climbing over him in glee. “You saved us and got your cutie mark for it!” ö~ö~Ö~ö~ö After having rejoiced for a while, they continued down the second hallway, being guided by the lantern Kickbolt held with his mouth. “How do you feel, Crimson?” Sketch asked, leaning her head back to look at him. He looked tired, his eyes were dropping to the ground as if he’s about to fall asleep, and his legs were almost being dragged. “B-Better, thanks... and sort of... happy,” he answered, looking at his own cutie mark, giving a weak smile. “Being different... not r-remembering anything... I was beginning to worry if I maybe wasn’t an actual p-pony. Getting my cutie mark helped erase a lot of those feelings.” “Sho what exactly ish your special talent? Making shields?” Kickbolt asked from the front, the light from the lantern flickering as it dangled in his mouth.         “I guess. T-The thought just entered my mind back there, ‘what if I c-could block that with my m-magic?’, and before I knew it... I’d already done it!” He rubbed his head for a moment before continuing. “But... it’s really quite taxing, I’ve never felt like this before. It’s l-like my head... my horn is in pain. I h-hope it’ll wear off...”         “I’ve heard using new magic can be tiring for unicorns, but after letting your mind rest for a while it gets better. I wouldn’t know for sure, though...” Sketch mentioned.         Kickbolt cleared his throat to get their attention again. “Don’t rook now, ‘ut there’s anoder dead end,” he mumbled through the lantern.         Sketch quickly became flustered, pulled out her book and looked at the map in progress. The long passages they’d been walking had snaked their way a long distance into the ruins, but aside from the corridor with the egg, and where they currently where, there was nothing left. “There can’t be a dead end here! We need still need to find out what to do with that stupid egg!” she exclaimed.         “Maybe we can find a clue, at least? About what t-to do with it.” Crimson muttered.         Sketch sighed. “I hope so...”         Kickbolt who got up first to the wall, said, “Rooks rike deres runes.” He placed the lantern on the ground, only to spit a few times to get the dirt out of his mouth. “Ugh, I hate the taste of that thing.” He browsed the runes to see if he could deduce anything. “Oh come on! It’s like this place is literally messing with us!” “What? Why?” Sketch quickly asked. She’d been busy bringing up her book again to prepare to copy whatever was marked on the wall. “What is it?” They weren’t so much runes as they were pictures. A picture of an egg. Then an arrow pointing from the egg towards the right, to an egg split in half. A broken egg. “Oh come on!” (Author’s note: I’d like to thank ARBPW and LysanderasD for helping me with editing and making my story readable. If you liked it, please leave a comment, they’re probably the biggest source of encouragement I’ve yet to encounter. Don’t forget to rate!)