The cold forces them to walk deeper into the palace, and Vinyl lights up her horn for them to see the path ahead. The little filly is slowly recovering from her experience by reading the inscription on the wall. Now that the adrenaline rush is gone, the farmpony and the deejay are carrying the unconscious camel.
"FML this crap, carrying Ammy around is no walk 'round the park."Vinyl groans. She is definitely not used to lifting things, and even pushing her trust bass cannon is an astounding feat in itself. Speaking about her bass cannon, she really wished that she could have it with her right now. Would make short work of any evildoers that come their way. Of course, this is something a child would say when they watched their favourite hero with their gear pummeling the villain. Twilight Sparkle and her freinds really know how to make the job of defeating a great threat rather easy, and Vinyl is definitely jealous over their amazing powers.
"Eeyup." Big Macintosh said. If it were not for her vernacular speak, she would had been a rather attractive mare. Pleasing to the eyes, the farmpony's male instincts informs him that the best asset of the mare are her forelegs. They are lean in a way that is pleasing, and Big Macintosh posits that this is due to her occupation as a deejay. Turning the turntables for an entire night does take a lot of dexterity and stamina. Although this is no time for him to consider such trivial matters, but from all the events he is experiencing it is always good to take five and be a little bit immature.
"You know Mackie.....How does Red know what we are here for?
"Say what?" Big Macintosh was taken a little by surprise from Vinyl's question.
"That Loo-mee-nee-zhe thing. Is she keeping something from us or something?"
"Ah dunno Vinyl. Why doncha ask her yerself?" Big Macintosh replied.For her airhead nature, Vinyl can be a very observant pony. At least that is what Big Macintosh knows from the time they had spent together. Still, he does not know the answer to Vinyl's question.
"I would like to. But at the same time......I don't." The deejay turns her attention away from Big Macintosh, focusing her attention to the nursemare.
"Don't wanna?" The stallion tilts his head a little, curious to Vinyl's choice of words.
"I must say that the more we are in this blasted land, the more the crazy things are drawn to us." The pony looks at him and to further illustrate her point, she waves her arm around the corridor to show them where they are.
"It runs in the fam'ly fer me."The red stallion shrugs, despite having to agree to the electric blue-maned pony. From having to join the Sheikh to an unexpected journey to being here defeating folk heroes from Saddle Arabia's past while being targeted by some power-hungry ponies, he is experiencing them all in just the span of a few weeks. Now he knows how Applejack feels when she is saving Equestria from the forces of evil. Same goes for how Granny and her family founded Ponyville and the Zap Apples. It is a whole bunch of crazy things following them like a pack of timberwolves following some unsuspecting ponies. Oh how he wished that the Apple family are with him now to make him strong.....
Meanwhile, as Big Macintosh is reminiscing about his family, Vinyl is in her own train of thoughts. How did Redheart get ahold of the knowledge of the weird item? The only way she would know of it is if she get the knowledge from some book or someone. The former is not likely at all, but the latter is also rather unlikely. If what she notices about Saddle Arabia is what she knows, they do not tell any stranger anything. But that saying, she knows the Luminize from a certain mare and.......
No, it can't be....but it can be......, Vinyl realizes the implications of her flow of thoughts. Lily Petal must be the only one who tell Redheart, but this means that her dreams are in no way just a dream. But if that is the case, what on earth is Lily Petal? Is she a ghost? Is the Lily Petal in her dreams the real Lily Petal? That saying, the gigantic artifact detector that appears from her horn is something she could not possibly do. How did it all add up?
"Are you sayin' that mah mouth is makin' promises mah legs can't keep?" Applejack said to her brother suspiciously.
Big Macintosh is remembering the time when they had one of their largest apple harvests and how she had decided to take the responsibilities of harvesting all the apples by herself due to his injuries. He warned her that she could not handle all the apples by herself as it is too much of a burden for a single pony to do the job. Despite being the bearer of the Element of Honesty, Applejack is not known to have the virtue of being reasonable. So when he told her that she is taking too much upon herself, he got the reply that he was expecting.
"Why, of all the.....This is your sister Applejack, remember? The loyalest of friends, and the most dependable of ponies?" Applejack raised her voice, and confronts the stallion to the point that her forehead touches his snout.
"But still only one pony. And one pony plus hundreds of apple trees just doesn't add up." The red stallion replied, with much concern and thought.
It was then that the stallion remembered something from before that also does not add up as well.
"Y'know Vinyl, Ah just realized something. When that arrow thing came out from ya head, you said you turned into an artifact detector. How'd you know that that arrow is detecting an artifact?" Big Macintosh's piercing question broke the mare from her own line of thoughts.
"Wh-hw-whaaaaaaaa? Diiiiiiiid I saaaaaaaaayyyy that?" Vinyl tried to do her best impression of ignorance, but she is utterly failing at it. The panic on her face and the sweat on her brow is not helping her either.
"Ah'm sure Ah did hear that from yer mouth. Now you better tell the truth, 'cos ya look like AJ holding a lie." Big Macintosh raised an eyebrow and stares at the mare intently. For the truth of course.
"You must be kidding........right? You are not going to scare me." Vinyl takes a big gulp, and gives an very unconvincing grin. Big Macintosh is less than amused. Knowing when a pony is lying and extracting the truth out of them is a requisite for being an elder sibling. Since the mare is taking this the hard way, the stallion decided that he will have to do the "Silence of the Stares".
As the moment passed by , the red pony kept on staring at the mare intently and without breaking the stare while maintaining the pace of the walk. As the moments passed by, the mare felt a great presence despite her looking away from the stallion. The silence of the hallway and the clopping of their hooves only serves to make the environment more depressive. It does not help that Redheart and the filly are also walking silently, and before long the mare felt that she is truly alone. The only thing that is accompanying her is the stare of the sap green eyes of Big Macintosh.
The sweat on her brow have started to become wet from the perspiration, and her throat is now becoming dryer and dryer. As she notices the pounding of her heart, she could also hear the breathing of the stallion as if he was breathing down her neck. Before long, her mind started to play tricks upon herself, or at least she though it was playing tricks on her mind. Suddenly she could hear a voice saying something very creepy given the situation.
"The clock....IS......TICKING."
"I can't take it anymore." Big Macintosh heard Vinyl muttered under her breath.
"Can't take what anymore, Vinyl?"
"I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! LILY PETAL THE PEGASUS MADE ME DO IT! SHE PUT SOME WEIRD VOODOO ON MY HORN WHILE WE ARE AT A BLOODY BATTLEFIELD AND BAM! WE ARE HERE THANKS TO THE COMPASS ON MY HEAD! SHE SAID THAT THIS DECIDES OUR FATE BECAUSE THERE IS A BLOODPATH THINGIE AND IT IS A TIME OF GREAT CHANGE AND STUFF!!!!!!!" Vinyl screamed out loud, stunning the other equines and waking up the camel at the same time.
"Huh?!?! " Amanar was utterly dazed from being awakened from his state of unconsciousness, and the filly and the nursemare immediately turned their attention towards Vinyl. As soon as Vinyl finishes the shouting, Big Macintosh is now looking at Vinyl with incredulous eyes.
"What? Stop .....*puff* looking....*puff* at me .....like Lyra *puff*.....with her Human*puff*.... theories." Vinyl is now panting from her previous screaming of truths.
"No, Ah actually know whatcha talkin' about. Ah too have the same dreams." Now it is Big Macintosh's turn to speak the truth.
"Yeah you have the same dreams......wait....WHAT?" Vinyl's jaw is now hanging low as she listens to what the stallion has to say.
"Just that mine has a different thing going on in it. But the gray pegasus......yeah she's in mah dream too."
"Mackie, stop joking around......that ain't funny." Vinyl said. The other mare is also looking at Big Macintosh with disbelief.
"Ah'm not."
"The same goes for me too." Nurse Redheart finally speaks out, and the stallion and the mare are now looking at their fellow Equestrian. It was then that all their faces have the exact same message displayed on their faces; The turn of events definitely does not add up and they need to take some time to listen to each other.
"Haha, good one! Keep it up my friend!" The equine makes a spin on one leg and its arms over its head like a ballerina, while avoiding all the sharp stakes by an inch.
The condescending tone of the equine only serves to make the elemental even more agitated than before. The wind elemental bellows with anger as it attempts to nail or smash the many projectiles within the spinning vortex which is itself. Zephyr is now utterly furious that the 'thing' before it is not even affected by the force of will it is inflicting upon the 'thing'. The 'thing's supernatural nature is not lost onto Zephyr, for most living things would already have the air in their lungs being sucked out by the vacuum of its vortex. It does not help that the equine is dodging his attacks as if they were nothing, and sometimes even at impossible angles.
"It will take more than that to get me!" The bat-winged equine said with glee as it made a few skips over some of the crashing projectiles, barely avoiding the fate of being impaled or smashed to a pulp.
Something does not add up in Zephyr's thoughts. The elemental was wondering why is the 'thing' not doing anything to it and be content with such a passive and defensive stance, as it surely must have something up its sleeves. Then suddenly, a harsh realization flashes across its mind; Its intention is to stall it here, and let it be separated from the others. The sudden realization caused the storm to subside, and all the things that are sucked into the storm soon drops upon the marble floor.
"Oh, you found out what I was doing." The equine said as it looked around at the devastation brought upon the compound. Before it could focus its attention back at the elemental, the tempest tries to make a run for the palace; in particular it was aiming for one of the open windows of the palace . However as soon as it propelled itself into the opening, it bounced off something hard and the elemental is now wondering what is going on. It tried again and again, but to no avail.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. No entering into the palace without my permission, Majid." The bat-winged equine said to the elemental. It looks like the elemental had fallen for the trap laid by the equine. The elemental now wished that it had the foresight of this trickery, and now it is separated from its friends. As if to put more salt into the elemental's wounds, the equine chuckled. As the storm starts to brew again and slowly levitating all the objects around them once more, the equine known as Anput turned its attention away towards the steps where the group came from.
"I knew that I might trap someone here to face me, but surely I had caught a bigger fish. And you are definitely a more worthwhile one to be stuck here with me, as we have to deal with some unwanted guests soon enough. You will make a fine bedfellow, dear Majid." Suddenly, several cruel bloodthirsty howls could be heard, and immediately the elemental knew that things are about to get even worse.
"If you want to get mad at something Majid, get mad at the things that are coming for us."