Chapter 5
Colgate fumed. She tossed to her left, then right, then left again. Finally, she rolled on her back, sticking all fours up into the air. She held them there for a moment, then let them fall to her sides. She turned her head to look at Berry. Colgate had no idea anypony could snore so loudly. Not to mention the fact that she could see the putrid fumes of his-her-whatever's breath filling the room. It was a sickly green color. Near Berry's head the miasma was thickest. When s/he would snore out, Colgate would loose sight of that massive, but oh so strong, head. After a moment, the fog would dissipate and fill the rest of the room, (which was slowly turning more and more green with each passing moment) allowing his/her head to be visible once more. No wonder Bon-Bon and Lyra had decided to stay in a separate part of the castle she thought. Colgate began to wonder if she should join them. It would certainly be easier to get some shut-eye wherever they went.
Rolling over to her side (facing away from Berry), she began to reflect on the day. She hoped that it might help take her mind off of the terrible noise and the awful smell...
She remembered waking up at the bottom of a massive chasm. Well, more like coming to her senses at the bottom of a massive chasm. She had hit her head on a lot of steps. Thinking about it, she realized that her poor noggin has been subject to an awful lot of punishment as of late. That however, was beside the point. The chasm had been surprisingly deep. And it struck her as rather odd that there was a set of stairs leading to the bottom of it. She had remembered that when she had taken a look around, she saw that the chasm had simply ran to both her left and right. There was nothing interesting down there. So why had there been a set of stairs that ran down into it?
“Colgate? Colgate!” Berry had shouted down, his voice reverberating off the walls. “You ok?”
“I'm fine!” she had shouted back.
“We're commin' down!” Lyra had shouted back.
“No, I'm fine! I'll be right up! There's nothing down here anyway!” and with one last glance around, she had headed back up the stairs.
Once she had gotten back to the top, she was greeted by six eyes full of worry and confusion. Two of those eyes were infuriatingly charming.
“How did you not see that?” Bon-Bon asked.
Colgate had no answer. “Um...the fog?” She had ventured, turning around hoping to see some fog to giver her claim some credit. Sadly, it was clear, or at least as clear as things got in the Everfree.
“Uh huh...” Bon-Bon's face adopted a look of disbelief.
“Anyway, let's head in there. The book we need is there and we can sleep there for the night.” Colgate said as she turned to head for the bridge. She was followed shortly by the others....
Rolling onto her hooves, she stood up; right into the horrid fog. Little had she realized that being as close to the ground as she had been, she had only been getting the residue of the smell. Now that she stood, she had accidentally put her head right into the thick of it. And it was thick. She gasped and reflexively inhaled sharply. That only made things worse. She felt her poor stomach twist and bend in ways it was never meant to. And the fact that her mouth suddenly felt slimy was the putrid icing on the rotten cake.
Desperate to get out, she bolted.
Into a wall.
Stumbling back a step or two, she blinked her eyes a few times. That had hurt. But, it made her realized that she had ran without even looking where she was going. Fortunately, she had rammed the wall next to the door, which suddenly, and quite magically, flew open with tremendous speed and power as she bolted her way out of that unholy place.
“Fresh, Air!” She gasped as she made her way along the hallway. Looking behind her, she swore she could see the foul green gas spill into the hallway behind her, and begin racing after her. Picking up her pace, she rounded a corner at a rather dangerous speed. This time however, she remembered to keep her eyes ahead of her, that way she could avo-
Slamming into a hoof-rail, she tumbled over and fell to the ground below with a hard smack. Her vision doubled and the stars in the sky nearly tripled in number. She watched as they swirled about. They were so pretty. They danced so nicely in the sky. Danced like little parasprites with glittery wings.
Then the pain set in.
She couldn't much recall the several moments after that. Only that her world was a world of hurt for what seemed like forever. At least until she could finally focus enough to use the painkilling spell she used on her patients. And, like magic, her pain simply melted away. Though her mind still felt a bit numb.
She stood, slowly. Looking around her, she saw that she was now in the main area of the ruins, or at least what she figured was the main audience chamber. There was little to be found here. She imagined what it must have been like back in the day. Had it been like Canterlot? Had it been more humble? Or perhaps even more grand? Did the ponies of that day have a problem with not brushing their teeth as well? She paused, Did they even brush back then?
She shook her head. She just didn't get it. Why did so few ponies brush regularly? Don't they know how important good dental hygiene is? She thought of Berry, and she shuttered. Looking up at where she fell from, she saw that the part of the rail she had ran into had broken off and had fallen down with her. Oops. Still, she was relieved that the horrid gas of rotting death hadn't chased her into the main hall. She wondered how it was she had manged to run into it like that. She was paying attention to where she was going. Then it dawned on her. She recalled, quite suddenly, that she hadn't seen the rail because it had been too dark. Had she lit up her horn, she most likely would had seen it coming. Well, at least she was out of the room. Though she hoped that the smell wouldn't damage the books in there.
She began walking in the direction she thought Lyra and Bon-Bon went. She figured that Berry would be fine. After all, if anything could take that smell, odds were that his/her legs...those powerful, muscular legs...could kick anything from here to the Crystal Empire. She shook her head. She needed to stop thinking of Berry that way! But blast it all! Berry was simply GOURGOUS as a stallion. She was sure it had something to do with that blasted brew! Sure, it changed her to a him. But it's not like she was an especially pretty mare. So why did it change her into such a dreamy stallion? Did perhaps the brew affect not only Berry, but ponies who looked at Berry?
She thought of Zecora. Granted, she didn't know Zecora all that well, but when the town finally stopped hiding every time she came to town, they got to know her a little. She had once stopped by Colgate's clinic to offer her a kind of mint plant that was a bit stronger and lasted longer then the normal kind. She had struck her as a no-nonsense kind of personality. So why on earth had she listened to Berry? She thought back to that moment. Berry had suddenly shown a charm that really she had only seen Flim and Flam have. She was sure that he could have sold Zecroa almost anything with a smile like that. It actually kinda bothered her now that she thought about it. Perhaps the joke was not only on Berry, but...
She heard giggling down the hallway she had begun to wonder down. Stopping she lifted her head and looked around. She couldn't tell where it had come from. Nor could she tell who had made it. Strange. She paused. Tilting her head, she waited to see if it would come again. Nothing. Placing a hoof to her chin she thought for a moment. She could have sworn she had heard that. Squinting, she peered down the hallway, but saw nothing. It was too dark. Focusing a bit of magic into her horn, she lit it. Now that could see a bit better, she looked once more down the hallway. She could see it went straight for a respectable distance before it ended in a door. On the right side of the hall she could see it had three doors, and the left side had two.
Why were there so many doors? Well, there was no way to know for sure which one they were behind without taking a look, so she began at the closest one. As she did, her thoughts drifted back...
“You know, you'd think for royal princess, they'd be a bit more organized!” Colgate said, hefting another book out of the way.
“Well, it has been a long time since they've lived here. Not to mention Twilight's been coming here, and you know how things get when she's been reading. Plus, you know, this kinda was their bedroom.” Berry said, looking through a few more books. “Are you sure we should even be in here?”
“Look, the only thing in Equestria strong enough to kill that nightmarish breath of yours is that toothbrush. And by the Princesses, we're going to find it and make you brush your teeth with it!” She said slamming both a hoof and book to the ground, causing another one to flip up and smack her in the face. Berry stifled a giggle. Colgate was not as amused. Not only had they not found anything in their personal library about the brush, but the seemingly endless string of cranial abuse the universe heaped upon her manged to continue uninterrupted. What was it about her head that seemed to cause everything to hit it?! Or, for it to hit everything for that matter.
Hours later, and they still had not found anything. Finally, Colgate tossed one final book to the side. Lyra and Bon-Bon had gone off on their own when the whole group had arrived at the castle. Or rather, Lyra had wanted to go exploring, and Bon-Bon had refused to let her split off from the group. Pity that meant little to Lyra, for she split off as if poor Bon-Bon had said nothing at all. Needless to say, she chased after her shouting at her to slow down and come back. Thus they had left Colgate and Berry alone to investigate the libraries.
The two of them had come upon the Royal Sister's room first. Since it was somewhat small, and the sun had finally set, they figured that it was a good place to crash for the night; after they did a little looking around of course. Though really the only thing they had accomplished was making beds out of books for themselves by the time Colgate had decided to quit for the night.
No, not this door either. She shut the 5th door she had opened. All of the doors thus far had lead to what looked like storage rooms. She had been working her way up the hall, opening the doors as she went along. That left the door at the end. Trotting up to it, she put her hoof on the knob.
Then the giggling came again.
She darted her head around. Where had it come from? It sounded close, but she couldn't easily tell where it came from. Dismissing it, she turned the knob and opened the door. What she saw, she did not expect.
*******
It was a very unamused pair of eyes.
They were Bon-Bon's to be exact. “Do you hear it too?” she asked, mildly irritated.
Colgate blinked. “Uh, yeah. Do you know what it is?”
“Yes.” She said. She was clearly tired, and annoyed. “It's Lyra. I lost her, and ever since then, I've been hearing her giggling ever since then.”
“You sure it's her?” Colgate asked. She didn't recognize it, and she was unsure it belonged to a fully grown mare.
“I don't know who else it could be. And it seems like the kind of thing she would do.” came the flat response.
“I guess so...” Colgate was unsure, but she was more then happy to have compony at this point. “Mind if I help find her?”
“Sure.”
“Where should we start?”
“I have no idea...” Bon-Bon raised a hoof and massaged her forehead. “But I lost her a little ways down the hall behind me. There's what seems like a bunch of hallways with a bunch of doors leading to who knows where. I tired to follow her, but she went down one hallway, then another, then through a door I think, and then I lost her.”
“Alright, let's go. I'm sure we'll find her.” Colgate responded. Bon-Bon turned around, and the two of them headed down the hall.
*********
“Oh...jeese Berry! I knew you had bad breath, but this is ridiculous! Still, if that little drink of yours can give a Zebra wings and a horn, I can only imagine what it would do to me!”
A quiet figure made its way to his side. Stepping carefully over his massive frame, the figure began looking around. Where did he keep it? Looking about the figure didn't see any satchels or saddle bags. How could that be possible? Berry wasn't a unicorn, so he couldn't have teleported it or something like that. Sitting down, the figure began to ponder. If only they could figure out where it was hiding. They really wanted to take a sip, just a small one. Or perhaps a big one. But mostly the figure just wanted to see what would happen.
Then, they felt a heavy weight lean against them. Smiling, they looked down. It was the bottle...