//------------------------------// // THE BICH KING RETURNS {2} // Story: When Life Lemons You.... // by Normalguy //------------------------------// Pickax and I walk through the empire towards the castle to look for clues. I always like a good mystery murder, but there's no murder or a mystery for any part. We we've through the buildings going through alleyways and streets. " Right now he's outside. The barrier that is placed prevents him from coming in. But it won't work, it's just not the same." He looks away and downward. Why you do dis to me Pickax, why you so pessimistic? "Tell me the why it won't work." Always learn because knowledge is power and if book is thrown at you it's going to hurt. That's what happens when you don't knowledge. " You seem to know about it." We stop at what seems like an area with a pedestal, wonder what goes on it? " Yeah I do." He said with confidence. " The barrier now is a nothing but a proxy. Before this there was a crystal king and queen. Each of them were both kind and understanding of the ponies." Dang, sounds like good people." But their chancellor betrayed them with Dark arts. He wanted progress and expansion, he thought that we were stalling and killed the king and queen." Pickax grits his teeth almost hard enough to bleed. With some notice to this he stops. " Gaining power with Dark arts he became the ruler he wanted. He soon enslaved all and hid the crystal." That's some info alright. " Crystal? What crystal?" " Oh, sorry didn't notice there. The crystal i'm talking about is called the crystal heart. It's a magical artifact from past times. I don't know much but with the help of the locals ponies and the hierarchy of the king and queen it would erect a barrier strong enough to stop all weather from the outside affecting the inside. It's pretty powerful for what it is." " So where is it? "I wonder if there is some kind of system to these magical artifacts? This heart crystal seems like one of a legendary class. "We don't know." Well shit. " Sombra hid it somewhere here." He gestures to the castle. "Let's go find it." We walk into the castle entering uninvited. The castle is pretty cool. it looks like it was made from a single crystal then it was sculptured to what it is. Pretty neat. "So do you know your way around this castle?" I ask Pickax."Cause I sure as hell don't." I may be Megaman, but that doesn't mean a minimap in my vision. That would be cool though. We pass through halls and more halls each looking the same as the last one. That map thing would be nice now. "Yes, I do know my way around."Huh, pretty neat." This way." He points his hoof towards a double door. The pair of doors are different from the rest maybe this is the throne room? "Is this the throne room?" I ask in question. "Yes sir. How did you know?" He looked at me with a slightly surprised face. "Cause I do?" I say in a questioning tone. Would it be alright to walk in? The six ponies down there seem to not be from here. Their coats are much cleaner and brighter then the other ponies in that regard. maybe they were more up to date. maybe there's some new ponies in here too. "Wait." I hold back Pickax. "Do you think there are ponies in there?" I ask him. Make this shit tactical. "Yes. Two new rulers came in as soon as we could recognize." He replies. This is so tactical, talking outside a door. " Do you now them?" Maybe there with the new ponies. "No sir. But they are not an enemy sir." That kinda makes it easier. "Mmmmk. Let's go." I walk closer to the door and put both my palms against it. I take a breath. And push the doors as hard as I can. Mistake number one. The doors fly open at a fast speed making a loud crash against the walls they slam into. cracks form along both the wall and the door. Oops. I stare at my hands dumbfounded at what has happened. Did I always have this strength? Did Megaman have this strength? I guess being a robot is pretty cool. after staring at my new and destructive strength, I walk in without looking at my surroundings. Mistake number two. Not giving a shit about the surroundings I walk in towards the throne. Pickax comes up by me as i walk towards the throne trying to ignore my mistakes. "Umm, sir?" He asks cautiously." Shouldn't you meet the new ponies?" He sates as he points a lazy hoof towards the ponies in the corner. One off the ponies with a toothpaste mane and a white coat stands guard staring near me menacingly. Not cool brah. He seems to be standing in front of a wobbling pony as if he was guarding her. The wobbling pony on the other hand staggers and looks absolutely ragged as if it became drunk and decided to go for a jog to sober up, only for it to fail and barf on the side of the road she was jogging on. And I think she has wings? Can't see shit with that guy in front of her. "Are you friend? Or are you foe?" The tooth paste stallion asks. He points his horn hoping to do something. It looks like its covered in crystals or something. "I don't know." I state bluntly. The reply shocks the male horse. Yes that's what it is." I mean would you call us friends?" I follow up. I just met the guy. You can't be friends with someone unless you encounter them four times at least. " Are you with Sombra!" He shouts. He pants in anticipation of my answer. "Not really!" I shout back." He kinda tried to kill me or something. I don't know what do you think?" I finish with a shrug and a question as I turn to Pickax. "No sir you are not." Damn right i'm not. "And the spell that he cast on you indeed was supposed to kill you." Oh... Good to know. I make a face as if I was looking for an explanation. Pickax caught on to this. "The crystal was supposed to suffocate you until you had a eternal sleep, not to mention the chains." He quietly explains to me. " Gotcha." I finger gun him and turn back to the guard horse. Now he seems less tense but still on guard. " Change my answer! We are definitely against Sombra!" His less tense body turns into a sigh of relief. I walk towards him. to have a conversation. Like normal people, except that we are a robot and a pony with a horn. At least we can talk to each other though. " So what's going on?" I start. At this he looks at me with an 'are you fucking dumb?' face. It kind pissed me off, but hey, who am I to know pony expressions. He could be making the 'I'm-a-so happy to see ya' face. But it still looks like the first face I mentioned. "Have you not seen what's going on!?" He gets closer to my face as he speaks." Sombra is out there, The shield is barley holding on and my wife..." He points a hoof at her. "..Is on the verge of exhaustion. How do you think it's going?" He finished speaking his stress stopping really close o my face. "Dude, don't be an ass." I push him away from me. I mean who wouldn't? " We'er here to find a something what was it?"I forgot. Whoops. "Its the crystal sir." Pickax answers. "Points to this guy." I point at him with a smile, and then I turn back to the other guy to continue. "That's the thing we'er here for." "Then why are you here?" The guard, that's the temporary name for this toothpaste guy is. "What makes you think that it would be here?" "Cause its the throne room. Why wouldn't it be here?" He looks at me as if i'm stupid." This is the throne room, right?" I whisper to Pickax. He points to the obvious throne as an answer. "More points to ya bud." I tell the guard are intentions, kinda. He doesn't, really need to know. " Now if you excuse me we gotta save the world. Maybe." I turn around and walk away towards the throne. "Wait!" A different voice appears! A much higher pitched one then everyone else's. not to mention it sounded like lady. It was probably that wibble wobble pony, no one expects the wibble wobble. I turn around to be greeted to the ragged girl horse. She leans on the guard horse to catch her breath and starts to speak. "You are here to help. Aren't you?" She puts on a depressed face mixed with a big eyes. A weakness appeared, I sigh as I contemplate my choices. I mean I could help them no repercussions but then it would be of no use to me. Or I could just say 'Fuck it!' and do my own thing. but then I would have like no one on my side. But I have to respond soon. I guess I'll go with the neutral thing I can think of. "Kinda." This just baffles her. As well as the guard pony. I tap the side of Pickax to get his attention and point towards the throne. "Time to investigate!" I say out loud. "Let's go! I point towards the throne. Pickax and I walk over to the crystal throne. Oh oooo. The throne itself looks fabulous as the whole thing is made out of crystals. More crystals spike our the back and around giving a badass feel along with grace, not to mention the color harmonizes with me. FABULOUS! But one thing that caught my attention is the object jutting out more on the top of the throne. It seems some kind of gem balances on the tip as if it was a crowning piece making it come together. I point at it from where we are. "That's the thing." The crystal that's on top is not only different but its also chipped in various places. I aint no puzzler but this is kinda obvious. I look towards the ceiling to see if there's a window making the light go through the crystal, and then it would pinpoint it, then it would be happily ever after. Except there's no window. " Now what?" I ask to anybody in particular. "What do you mean sir?" Pickax questions back. "What I mean is that this thing here..." I point a hand at it. "...Is the key to getting to the thing." I mean I have an Idea, if nothing happens but we can see if we can do it the puzzley way. Or physical force, cause that fixes everything, and always will. "So who know what to do with it?" I ask to the three other ponies. The others look like they want to help but they can't in their own way. The toothpaste one has crystals over his horn. The girly one looks absolutely exhausted, and Pickax looks like he was about to explain something. "I'm sorry sir but I can't help you in this situation." I ask why he couldn't help. "Sombra is a unicorn, and as you can see, I have no horn." he explains. "So that means we need something with a horny thing." Everyone looks at me weirdly. I'm not exactly wrong, right? " So what did Sombra do with his magic to hide it away then?" "None of us know sir. He had no guards to stay in the throne room while doing personal business. Even when some would sneak in after, all report that he has disappeared." Mysterious. " Absolutely riveting my dear Watson." I say in a shitty accent. Do I even need to tell you which one it was? Bohemian. I continue in the same accent, confusing all of them. "Now look here." I say walking towards the front of the throne."Now you say all of your sources say he disappeared after. Am I right?" Pickax nods. "That could mean many things here. But I can only see three things that are possible. I hold up my hand readying my fingers. I put the first one up. "Numbah one. Sombra has an illusion for his personal business." Which could be nasty if that's the case. I extend my second finger. "Numbah twoooo..." Yeah I extended the pronunciation of 'two'. "His throne..." I point to it to explain. "...Has a secret entrance from there." I turn back to the crowd of three and extend a third and final finger. " And finally, Sombra does some magic thing to that crystal making the entrance appear to the secret hideaway thingy." I finish explaining all of it. I look to the ponies to see their faces. They seems to have faces of dumbfounded-ness. " So which one do you think works?" I question in my 'normal' voice. "Sir! Number two has to be incorrect!" He states as a fact. "Explain why!" I say while giving him the old fire bird point. "YES SIR! Before you came there was a small rebellion hoping to overthrow Sombra before it was to late. As you have mentioned that number two being a possibility, but we have had spies inspect the throne to find nothing out of the ordinary leaving the conclusion that the throne has no mechanical mechanism as of notice. But I believe number three to be a possibility, sir!" Good testimony right there it is. "Good Job explaining. Now that we have succeeded in removing the possibility that what was one of them. ” Then it has to be magic to get to the place of the thingy. Right?" Pickax nods, and the couple looks skeptical. "Now that is out who can do magic?" I look to the couple as Pickax already told me that he is no magic. The two of them whisper to each other, and it look like that the pink one is talking more then toothpaste guard. The guard talks back with a slightly higher tone. As if he is getting angry over something. Suddenly the pink one speaks up. Though still out of breath. " I can help out with the first possibility." She says just loud enough so I can hear it. "EXPLAIN! GO!" I point a finger of justice looking for the answer. "Using my magic I could detect the use of magic last used. Sombra's magic should be pretty distinguishable for it to find here." She explained the process well. Use magic to solve magic, genius! "Okay then. Do it." She nods and puts magic, I assume, into her horn. The magic erupts in a pulse spreading a shimmering wave throughout the room eventually fading as it reaches farther out. I assumed she finished her detection. Her face turns into confusion. Before I could ask, she already started to explain. "Magic was used here, but it's not illusion magic." I ask why it wouldn't be. "Magic has different wave lengths for different spell simply. And this wave I feel is not illusionary." She reasons. "I see that means it could only be one thing. Right?" All of them nod. "Now where would it be?" I fake question. " It can't be up as the ceiling reaches to far. you would need stairs to go that high. Now what do you think about here?" I ask as I stand at the bottom of the step way infront of the throne. "YOu know that he use magic, I assume, to get there right?" The girl nods to confirm. "But none of us can use his magic, right?" All three nod. "Now what would you think is the best way to solve it?" Before anyone could ask I answer it myself. "Brute force." The couple's eyes widen at this. like they never heard of raw strength being used to solve a problem. "Right here is a good spot right?" I ask, but not really. " Now let's just..." I prepare to punch the ground, but something happens first. "SMASH!" I throw the anticipated fist hoping to crack the floor. But I didn't see a fist. The arm turned into a gun. Though not as blunt as a fist, the nozzle of the gun makes a point stabbing the crystal floor. Cracks appear in the crystal underneath it but what happens next no one expected. A small flame sparkles underneath the cracks. At first I thought it was a malfunction, but then I remembered something: Smash bros. Not to mention that I also said the best word to smash something. And you know what that means? A pillar of flame erupts from the cracks burning anything inside of it. I feel the heat around me but I pay it no mind. The heat itself feels more like a comforting warm draft of wind, except my vision is covered in flame. The flames disappear leaving a scene of burnt crystal that is half destroyed. It look like I weakened it but its still not enough. Then again it's not a good thing for fire to be used against stone. And then again it wouldn't be a good idea to use fire even if accidental. I look back to the charred spot. I touch it to see how brittle it is. As I touch the crystal it crumbles in my hand. It's not completely ashes but it still crumbles apart. The crystal feels a little bit warm. Sot if the fire was a warm breeze and this burned stone is warm. I guess I'm heat resistant? Should of thoght of that back when I used a sword of pure flame. Hey, who am I to think to deep into something. I think back to anything that could help smash through this. I could physics it by heating up the crystal and then cooling it down at a fast rate making it eventually crumble, cause it's a crystal it is possible to do it. I think. Don't quote me on that. I keep thinking back and nothing really pops into my mind. I think to the battle I had with sombra. And then suddenly a new idea forms into my mind. =M= The main six were in a predicament. The being has escaped. The test still continues. Twilight has madness. And now they talk to each other. " Uh hey girls?" Rainbow asks. " Where's the thing?" She says hovering above the rest of them. "Cause I don't see him anywhere around." She says while scouting the crowd of crystal ponies surrounding them. The six ponies stop talking for a moment and take a look around looking towards the crowd. Rainbow takes initiative as she takes a quick flight scouting the crowd looking for the metal bot. She flies back to her group to report. "He's not anywhere around here." She aid while checking once over again. "WHAT! Where could he have gone? Why would he have gone?" Twilight says with worry. Im sure here grade is in trouble. "Well maybe we should ask some of these ponies around if they saw him dear." Rarity interjects. Twilight gives a compliment in reply to Rarity's Idea. "HAS ANYPONY SEEN THE BEING THAT WAS IN THE CRYSTAL?" Twilight says to the crowd. The crowd's attention was slightly focused on them, but it wasnt their full attention. The crowd stayed silent in return. "Uhh. where they always like this?" Applejack asks to Twilight. "Cause I don't think they were like this." "Why are they not saying anything?" She asks to no one in particular. "I saw him." A crystal pony asks. Crystal Shard steps out of the crowd. The crowd of ponies separate leaving her alone. She quickly takes notice as this happens and starts to fluster about it. "You did? Where?" Twilight asks her as she trots lightly to her. Twilight stares intensely at Crystal making her fluster more. " Uh, um, That way!" She points away from the castle and towards the barrier boundary. " That way? But that's outside. Why would he go that way?" She says. " Now wait just one minuet here." Applejack interjects." Are you lying here? Cause we wouldn't like that." She says giving a disappointing look at Crystal. Under Applejack's gaze she starts to sweat almost breaking down. "NO!" Crystal said this in a out of tone voice. She quickly covers her mouth in embarrassment and then recomposes herself. "I mean, no. why would i do that." She finishes with a smile. Applejack just continues to look at her. "Is that what he told you to do?" "Yeah why would you-" Crystal covers her mouth as she let it slip. "I see. So that means you were lying. I guess he's not out there." "Then where Applejack?" Twilight ask. "Pshh why are you asking Applejack like she knows Twilight?" A wild Pinkie appeared. Twilight looks at pinkie slightly annoyed at the fact that her grade is at stake. " Does that mean you know Pinkie?" Twilight counters back. "Yeah, he went that way." She points to the castle." I saw him as he left." Twilight didn't even ask about it. "Come on girls let's go to the castle." Twilight gallops off ant the girls follow in tandem orientation leaving the crystal ponies behind. Crystal stood there alone among the group. "It's not like I mind being left alone." She thought as she sheds a single tear. The ponies around started to wonder what would happen next. Crystal stayed there alone. Poor crystal. Suddenly the sky darkened. The attention of the crystal ponies were brought to the barrier as they saw. Sombra's cloud of darkness encompassed half of the barrier. A shock went through the barrier making it flicker. The crystal group scattered while screaming in terror. The barrier fell.