//------------------------------// // A Meeting With Chaos // Story: Corruption 2: Advent of Darkness // by LordLycaon //------------------------------// Spike stood at the side of Princess Celestia as Flash Sentry began pacing impatiently. The Princess of the Sun had only arrived a few minutes ago, and had instructed Twilight to gather the other Elements of Harmony. The white alicorn was silent, a contemplating look on her face. Neither Spike nor Flash could tell what she was thinking, but they had both agreed that it likely had something to do with the Etna Key, or, at the very least, the chimera's masters. She clearly knew something. Hopefully, she'd be able to explain what was going on. Soon, Twilight returned to the library, followed by her five friends. The purple unicorn immediately made her way to the princess and said, "I brought the others and told them all what happened, like you asked." Celestia nodded in acknowledgement. "Very good, Twilight," she said in a calm, yet worried, tone. "You all know about the attack on the library. On Flash Sentry. The chimera that had attacked was after something called the Etna Key." "Twilight told us 'bout that," Applejack replied. "What can ya tell us this Etna Key thing?" The princess put on yet another contemplating look before sighing rather heavily. "Unfortunately, I don't know much about it. All I know is that it is a key to an ancient seal that was formed long before I was born." "Do you have any idea where we might be able to find it?" Twilight inquired. "Yeah!" Rainbow Dahs said. "We need to find that thing before that chimera's bosses do! Whatever they're planning can't be good!" "I'm afraid that I haven't the slightest clue where it might be hidden," Celestia answered. "However… there is a rumor of a tome written by Starswirl the Bearded that contains information on every legendary artifact ever crafted in Equestria. It may have the information we seek." "Uh, with all due respect, Princess," Twilight spoke up, "I've studied all of Starswirl's texts. Not one of them had any mention of anything called the Etna Key." "That is because there is only one copy of this tome," the princess explained. "Unfortunately, it has been lost to the ages. Nopony has ever found it. Not even me." "Oh, oh, I have something to say!" Pinkie Pie shouted, jumping about excitedly. "Pinkie, darling, now really isn't the time for your nonsense," Rarity chastised the pink earth pony. Pinkie grinned almost mischievously. "You're right. Who cares about some silly old secret passageway in the library anyway?" "Wait," Twilight interrupted. "What? Secret passageway?" "Yep! I was checking out the burned up part of the library, and I guess I stepped on a switch or pulled a lever or something, because part of the wall opened up!" The pink mare pointed a hoof over at the wall by the burned area, where, sure enough, a door leading to a downward staircase was open. Twilight just stared at it, slack-jawed. She shook her head in disbelief. "How do I not notice these things!?" she asked to no one in particular. "Maybe you just don't look around enough?" Pinkie suggested, earning her a glare from the purple unicorn, to which she simply grinned. Celestia approached the door and looked down the stairway, her eyes narrowed. She looked around the inside of the doorway, and she gasped quietly when she spotted something. "Wait," she muttered to herself. "Twilight, come here for a moment." The young mare came over to her mentor's side, a curious look in her eyes. Celestia pointed to a strange mark on the wall beyond the doorway. It was simple star with spiral in the center. Twilight recognized it immediately. "Th-that's the mark of Starswirl the Bearded!" Twilight exclaimed in amazement. "I've seen it in all of his books! What's it doing here?" "Maybe this used to be his library?" Fluttershy suggested. "It has been said that this tree house has been around even longer than all of Canterlot." "Ah bet that book ya mentioned is down there!" Applejack theorized to the princess, who nodded. "There's only one way to find out," the alicorn replied as she took the first steps down the stairs. Twilight and the others followed, Spike on her back and Flash by her side. The stairway was a spiral staircase, and seemed to go down for quite a ways. Twilight immediately took notice of this. It was already going much further down than the basement where she usually kept her lab equipment and personal books. She noticed both Rainbow Dash and Flash Sentry seemed to be getting a tad fidgety as well. Fluttershy especially looked uncomfortable. That made sense, she assumed. Most pegasi don't like going so far underground. However, Flash seemed more distracted than uncomfortable, like he was lost in thought. Curious, she nudged him slightly. When he turned to her, she asked, "Is something wrong? You're quieter than usual." The orange pegasus shook his head. "I'm fine. I guess. I really don't know. I just…" He hesitated, then sighed in exasperation. "I don't know where it's coming from, but I'm getting a… weird feeling. Like something's just… off." Twilight gave him a questioning look. "Look, it's just… weird, all right? That's all." The unicorn mare eyed him worriedly, then looked over at Spike, who simply shrugged. It wasn't like Flash to be so tense. He was usually always chatting and making wisecracks. She had gotten used to his smart-alecky jokes and carefree demeanor. It had helped to deal with her… past actions. Seeing him so silent was… unsettling, to say the least. The ponies and dragon continued down the stairway, which was beginning to get darker and darker. Celestia, Twilight, and Rarity used their magic to light the way as they all headed down. Fluttershy was practically clinging onto a rather irritated-looking Rainbow Dash, who didn't make any complaints about it. Even the bravest of the eight ponies and one dragon were starting to get nervous because of this darkness. They eventually reached a pair of large double doors with a torch on either side, plus one above it. The doors had a plaque mounted on them, looking as though it had somehow been grafted into place by some powerful magical spell. On the plaque was written several lines of bizarre, stylized symbols. Celestia eyed the plaque analytically as Twilight approached her. The young unicorn studied the plaque's inscriptions, but couldn't make sense of it in any way. It looked like some kind of other language that she didn't know anything about. Was it foreign? Or was it some ancient, long-dead dialect from Equestrian history? She was just about to ask the princess about when Flash Sentry suddenly spoke up again. "'May this gate and lock prevent unknowing thieves,'" he said, "'who do not know what lies beyond. If victory the endless darkness achieves, then all the world that we know will be gone.' Well, that sounds kind of depressing." Twilight stared at the pegasus for a few disbelieving moments. "Flash, you can read that?" He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Of course I can. It's plain Equestrian, isn't it?" "It's not," Celestia spoke up, looking at Flash with narrowed, yet curious, eyes. "It's an ancient language known only to the alicorns of over two thousand years ago, long before my own time. Even I cannot read this." "Hold on a second!" Rainbow Dash shouted as she zipped into the conversation. "How can Flash read it if you of all ponies can't?" "I'm not sure," the sun princess admitted, not taking her gaze off of Flash. "Clearly, there is something more going on than any of us know." She was silent for a moment. "Flash, is there anything more on that plaque that you can read for us?" The pegasus hesitated for a moment, then studied the plaque again. "Ah, a lot of it is kind of hard to read. But… 'The Key will open the mountainous lock, and free…'" He trailed off, and sighed. "Sorry, Princess, but it's illegible after that." "'Free'?" Twilight inquired curiously. "Free what?" "Oh, maybe it's a free volley ball!" Pinkie Pie suggested. "Or maybe a giant cupcake! O-o-oh, even better! A cake the size of a mountain!" She was about to give more guesses as to what was going to be freed, but Applejack slapped her hoof over the pink mare's mouth. "Ah really doubt it's any o' those things," the farmer said in a serious and rather cynical tone. Twilight thought on it for several moments. "That part about a key must be referring to the Etna Key," she theorized. "Maybe this door is what the Key is meant to open?" "Perhaps," Celestia replied. "But I don't see any kind of lock anywhere on this door, magical or otherwise. And besides, the plaque mentions a 'mountainous lock.'" "Well, I say we try to open this thing anyway," Flash suggested. "It's better than just sitting here on our flanks and guessing what's what." "I'm with Flash on this!" Rainbow stated in complete agreement. "Let's just bust that door down and see what's behind it!" The cyan pegasus was just about to charge straight into the door when Rarity took hold of her tail with her magic. "Now, now, Rainbow, settle down," the fashionista said in a chastising tone. "We don't know what's beyond that door. For all we know, it could be some kind of devious trap. Didn't the plaque mention something about thieves?" "Yeah, it did," Flash answered as he walked closer to the door. "It probably has some kind of defense. Something that keeps unwanted visitors out." He reached up to the door with his hoof, planning to test it with a light shove. As soon as his hoof touched the door, however, the plaque suddenly glowed with a blinding white light. Everypony shouted in surprise and tried to shield their eyes from light until it died down just as quickly as it had come to life. When they looked again, the plaque was gone, and the doors were opened inwards very slightly. "Okay," Flash said with a dumbfounded look. "Didn't see that one coming." "Wh-wh-what just happened?" Fluttershy stammered out fearfully. Twilight looked back and forth between Flash and the now-opened door, completely dumbstruck as the princess spoke. "The door must've reacted when Flash touched it," Celestia said. "First his comprehension of a dead language, and now this?" The white alicorn looked at the shocked Flash Sentry with both curiosity and a very slight level of suspicion. "Clearly, you must have something to do with all of this." "What?" Flash responded with wide eyes. "No! I don't know what's going on! This is all just as new to me as it is to the rest of you!" "Calm down, Flash Sentry," the princess replied. "I'm not accusing you of anything." She turned away from him, facing the door again. "I suppose it's time we saw what this door is hiding." With that, she took point and pushed the doors open, using her horn to light the darkened chamber beyond. The others followed her into the room, where the princess brightened her horn a little more, creating a few small orbs of light that floated off towards the ceiling before stopping in midair, lighting the room. "Oh, man," Rainbow said in slack-jawed awe. "This place is HUGE!" It was true. It was likely the largest room any of them had ever seen. The walls were made from marble with gold lining along the edges of the floor, four massive, elegantly decorated pillars towering above to hold the ceiling in place. Rarity especially seemed awestruck by the grand chamber's beautiful design. "This place is…" Twilight began, trailing off. "It's absolutely fabulous!" Rarity proclaimed. "It's such a waste for it to sit in the dingy old dark like it must've been for whoever knows how long!" "What's that?" Spike spoke up, pointing over to a small podium in the center of the room. Just when Twilight was about to answer, a painfully familiar laugh echoed throughout the chamber. "I was wondering when you ponies would show up!" a recognized male voice spoke. There was bright flash for an instant. "I was getting so bored of waiting for you all! How have you all been?" The ponies and dragon all stared with wide eyes at the one who had appeared in front of them, lounging in the air with his mismatched wings flapping lightly. Before them was none other than the draconoquess Discord, a smug little grin planted firmly on his face.