Up ahead, a blue aura hovered over the central dais where the flame of Yaerfaerda hung frozen in ice. The light grew more and more intense, shining off the metallic surfaces of every machine part lingering dormant around the chamber.
Rainbow gnashed her teeth. She wrenched her eyes off the blue beams, choosing instead to throw her gaze left and right. “Twilight... Rarity...” The mare gulped, and her panicked voice took on a sobbing tone. “Please... say something... anything...”
“What in tarnation is goin' on here?” Bard stammered. He heard loud pounding, then turned to snarl at the griffon struggling with the shut door behind them. “Dubya-Cee! Quit it! T'ain't no use!” He swiveled yet again, eyes darting towards the dark recesses in the ceiling. “We're dealin' with somethang far... far beyond us right now. Ain't that right, Rainbow?” Silence. The stallion looked aside. “Rainbow...?”
“If you guys are still here, then just listen...” Rainbow panted and panted. “...it's... it's the chaos metal. Yes... yes it has to be blocking us from each other somehow!” She shivered, trying her best not to whimper and bawl foalishly. “How it got here is another matter. But I smell Verlax. In everything, I friggin' smell her!” The mare growled. “She could track Chrysalis... so what's to stop her from tracking me?”
“Rainbow, darlin', talk to us!” Bard insisted, marching in front of her. “You've dealt with this sort of thang before, haven't ya?” He gulped. “How do we get out of this mess?”
Rainbow paced past him, stumbling, her gaze jolting in every direction. “What would it benefit her to kill me? To kill us? If she knows as much as Axan does... then wouldn't she realize what a horribly bad idea that would be?” She froze in place, her hooves scuffling over the metal floor, slick with condensation. The mare winced, her eyes briefly flashing red-on-yellow. “Or... or maybe that's what she wants...”
“Rainbow...” Bard placed his hooves on the mare's shoulders. “...if this place... if this whoever wants you, then nothin' is gonna happen if ya just pace in circles, spillin' yer collective thoughts all over the floor.” He struggled to speak firmly through chattering teeth. The temperature of the room was dropping even more than when they first entered. “Try'n'focus, darlin'. What have ya done to get out of a place like this before?”
“That's just it...” Rainbow shook, legs buckling. “There's never been anything like this waiting for me inside the Machine World before.”
“Then it's a trap?”
“It's... it's...” Rainbow suddenly quivered, her eyes flickering brighter than ever. The pendant around her neck pulsed, and she gazed thinly past Bard. “...something's coming.”
“Huh?” Bard turned around.
Beak clattering, Wildcard turned from the chamber door. His goggles reflected blue light, growing brighter and brighter.
Liquid poured down from a frozen alcove in the chamber's ceiling. At first, it was just a trickle. Then, it came in a deluge. At long last—as the entire niche above melted—
Cl-cl-cl-clangggg! Several strips of bone-white metal fell to the floor, forming a pile above a puddle of frozen ice.
Bard, Wildcard, and Rainbow Dash stared, dumbfounded.
Then—with the grace of marionette strings—several blue bands slowly fountained out of the block of ice in the center dais of the room. They all roped their way into the metal strips littering the floor before the trio. One by one, the metal plates shook, rattled, then lifted up.
Startled, Bard extended his metal staff and Wildcard unsheathed his nightsticks. They stood side by side, muscles tight as they fidgeted in place. The two mercenaries exchanged silent glances, then faced the phenomenon straight ahead.
Rainbow peered through the bounty hunters, her lips pursed.
Encumbered by the blue aura, the plates rose off the floor, levitating, coming together to form an equine shape. Soon, the three infiltrators bore witness to a lumbering suit of armor. The joints were fused together with thin seams of glowing blue ice. A tail of frost billowed out the rear, flicking with eerie ease. At last, a plume of vapor came out of an enormous hollow situated at the front of the armor's helm. The mist coalesced with loud crackling noises, until the frozen effigy of a horse muzzle took shape, occupying the space within the exposed headpiece. A translucent nose and a hollow set of eyes loomed before the group, and at last the black-armored golem was complete.
Rainbow and her two companions could only gawk.
Silence...
Suddenly, the thing's hollow eyes glowed with two fixed points of blue light. Snow materialized overhead, forming a trail between them and the armored anomaly.
“Guhhh!” Rainbow Dash clenched her teeth, nearly falling over.
“What?!” Bard panted, struggling to not wrench his eyes from the sight in front of them. “What's the matter?”
“This... this much chaos...” Rainbow hissed. “I... I-I should be collapsing by now...” She looked up, sweating heavily despite the intense cold. “Unless... unless it wants...”
The icy muzzle of the beast opened wide.
Wildcard took a deep breath. Thwissssssh! He sailed straight forward on murking wings.
“Dubya—NO!” Bard hollered.
It was too late. A reverberating voice billowed from the golem's muzzle, carried by a snow-white breath. “Be still.”
In a flash, Wildcard dropped to the golden floor like a statue, every feather frozen blue and solid.
“Dammit!” Bard twirled his staff and galloped forward, snarling. “Dammit to Hell—!”
“Wait!” Rainbow's voice cracked.
The golem's head pivoted towards him. “Humble.” FLASH! Bard's body locked in mid-charge. He rattled to an icy stop beside Wildcard, just as dead-still and frozen.
“No... no!” Rainbow scampered over to the two mercenaries. She crouched low, reaching for Bard's shoulders. “Guys! Dude, speak to me—” As soon as she touched his icy flesh, she regretted it. The contact could just as well have been scalding. She drew back with a stifled shriek, wincing all over. Before she could savor the pain, her eyes flickered again, and she looked straight forward, tearing.
One thudding horseshoe after another, the golem marched towards her. It came to a stop, its black metal plates grinding and scraping against one another. Exhaling vapors, the thing braced itself against the Machine World's floor. It hunched back, paused, then jerked forward—its frozen muzzle gaping wide.
Rainbow flinched, expecting to turn into a block of pony icicles. Instead, a chilly mist of powdery snow flew past her, coating every square inch of her body before tapering off towards the far walls of the place. Just as quickly as the breath was made, it drew back, yanking the frost and vapors along with it. Rainbow leaned forward, gasping, feeling the air shifting... as if carrying her essence back with it... and straight into the automaton's frozen nostrils.
The suit of armor stood in place while the translucent muzzle sniffed, flexed, and relaxed. The blue points of light blinked. After an eerie pause, the thing spoke yet again in its ethereal voice, monotone and metallic. “Austraeoh.”
Rainbow stared at the thing, breathing and breathing. “... … ...Verlax?”
The frozen nostrils flared. The suit leaned back, like a foal sitting casually on its haunches. “She proposes a game.”
“... … ….” Rainbow's ears drooped. “A game.”
Armored plates scraping, the golem nodded. “A game of riddles.”
Rainbow's eyes darted between the walls of the place and the automaton itself. She gulped hard. “The prize...?”
The frozen head pivoted aside, and for once the voice took on a slightly melodic tone. “The wind.” The blue forehead flexed, crackling. “Your friends.” Vapors and vapors. “Urohringr.”
Rainbow Dash panted and panted. “And...” She gulped. “...if I lose?”
The suit of armor slowly shook its head. “She does not believe that you will want to lose.”