I sent out a radar pulse that covered the approximate area of the temple and found them nowhere nearby. Most likely Twilight had teleported them back to Ponyville while Church was glowing.
“Oh hell no.” Church teleported away and a primal scream of rage could be heard from Ponyville before he teleported back holding the datapad.
“Ouch,” I said, cringing inwardly. “Don’t you think that’s a bit harsh?”
“No. She hit me with a spell that could melt bedrock from Minecraft. So actually that was pretty fair.”
“Yeah, but you kinda made her break,” I replied.
“You get used to it.” I suddenly realized where he was going with this. Did he actually have the memories of being tortured…?
“I understand the whole Alpha fragmenting thing,” I said, “but that doesn’t give you the right to do that to other people. Especially when they’re already having a pretty shitty week.”
“...” Church completely disregarded what I said and entered a dark room.
Not knowing what else to do, Lilium and I followed.
We were greeted by more forest-y decor. Roots supporting the ceiling like pillars, moss all over the place, more streams of purple piss, et cetera.
“Et Not Undia,” Church said.
“Wha-?” I started, but then I thought better. “Forget it,” I finished.
“It means…Don't lose your reasons.”
“Oooookay then,” I said, not sure what else I could say in response to such a thing.
“That is what the glyph means anyway.”
“Um, sorry, which glyph would that be again?” I asked.
Church pointed to a glyph that was marked in the purple piss pool. Creepy.
“That’s not weird at all…” I said sarcastically to myself.
Church looked at me and for once there was no jokes or humor at all. I don't know if I like this more or less. “We need to keep going.” He said in a resigned tone.
“Uh, yeah,” I said. “Let’s do that.”
As we moved through this room, we found ourselves greeted by the local flora and fauna, in the form of Deku Babas and Keese.
“I made another displaced hate me. Fuck.” Church mumbled.
“Hey, whoa, whoa!” I shouted as I let loose salvos of dark magic at the beasts. “I never said I hated you!”
“Well she obviously does.” He said as he lazily fired a plasma cutter at anything hostile.
“Just give her some time,” I said as I used my airbending to disorient the Keese.
Church just walked up to a Keese and shot it point-blank. It was very effective, considering all that remained of the evil bat was black mist. He repeated this process until all the evil things in the room had been killed. Brutally. Not to mention lazily.
“Fucking Keese,” I muttered.
“Shit. I never told her goodbye,” Church muttered.
“Never told who goodbye?” I asked.
“My um...daughter.”
“Oh.” It was all I could think of to say. The shock of that kind of bombshell was more than a bit difficult to recover from.
“We're getting close. I'm detecting the one we came here for a few rooms away.”
“Maybe,” I said, “But given the nature of this temple thusfar, I wouldn’t get my hopes up.”
“Of course you wouldn't…”
This room only had one other door in it, so we proceeded onward.
The next room was much more interesting. It was clearly some kind of crossroads, with four paths creating an intersection.
“Whoever built these places has some serious issues.”
“Either that or some kind of maze fetish,” I said sarcastically.
“Do you guys have any cheats?”
“Depends on your definition of cheat,” I replied.
“Get past this stupid maze unfairly instead of playing along and potentially walking into another trap.”
“Well,” I said hesitantly, “that's just the thing. I've only been here a little under a month, and Lilium doesn't have much besides her vectors, sooo…”
“...” Church facepalmed. “I meant do you see any way we can exploit this? Fly over it or something. That would involve a lot of cutting. Something.”
“Ah, now that, THAT is doable!” I exclaimed. “If I'm correct then one behind one of these doors is the path that takes us to our missing mare. The other two have some sort of collectible. Important documents or cash, perhaps. Shit we can come back to, usually. So in theory all we need to do is have a quick look inside each room.”
“Our mission is more important. We don't need money. Documents might be irrelevant. Not going to dismiss them entirely though.”
“Quick look it is then!” I said as we each chose a door. Church took the one directly across from where we’d entered, Lilium took the one to his right, and I went to the left.
I pushed open the heavy-duty wooden door and poked my head through. There wasn't much to see, just some Bulblins guarding some shit. I was about to disregard it, but my instincts got the better of me and I used my augmented vision to sneak a peek inside the chest they were guarding. I struck metaphorical gold.
I leaned back through the door and shouted, “Got a key in here! A big one!”
I heard gunshots coming from where Church went. After a minute, the gunshots stopped and Church stepped out of his chosen door covered in blood.
“What happened to you?” I asked.
“I don't want to talk about it.”
“If you say so,” I replied. “Find anything?
“...Previous victims. Let's just say I'm the last one.”
“The Cult of Nightmare’s work?”
“Uh no. There was a basilisk in there.”
“Shit,” I thought to myself. I didn't remember exactly what Basilisk did to you, but I knew it wasn’t good. “Deadly neurotoxin?”
“No. Petrification.”
“I thought that was a cockatrice…”
“It isn't their exclusive power.”
“Huh.” I then turned to Lilium. “You find anything?” I asked her.
“Um...I think we're supposed to go this way…” she said, pointing towards her door.
“After I discover what Zant…Wow those are some ugly guards.”
“Annoying too. Kill them quick,” I advised.
Church casually shot them in the head before they even knew what hit them. By the time he’d gotten to the center of the room, where the chest was, there was almost no sign of the Bulblin guards, save a bit of black mist.
“I hate to be morbid but…If you were killed would that black mist happen with you as well?”
“I honestly have no idea,” I answered. “Anyway…”
I went to the middle of the room and kicked the chest open. Inside was a large, metallic grey, vaguely demonic-looking key with accents the same shade of purple as the piss streams.
“Is this…Does this mean...I mean I know it seemed obvious but...this confirms that our mare isn't here of her own volition right?”
“Yeah pretty much,” I said. Lilium nodded.
“Wow. That is the first time you haven't glared at me or just plain ignored me.”
“Time is all it takes,” I said.
“That reminds me. Her name is Amor,” Church said as he picked up the key and tested its weight.
“Your daughter?” I asked.
“Yeah. She's an alicorn,” he said bluntly.
“Daaaaaamn dude,” I said, surprised. “How’d ya swing that?
“What?” he asked as he took the path Lilium mentioned.
As we followed him, I said, “Well, ya know, A.I. with an alicorn daughter, what happened? Did hell freeze over?”
“In a way, the reverse happened. ‘Tis a sad story.”
“Maybe later then,” I said, trying to focus on the task at hand.
“She isn't far away. One room away now. Albeit a large room. That room. You remember that large throne-room-shaped room?”
“A bit, yeah,” I answered l. “And who, Desert Gem?”
“Yes. Her.”
I sent out a pulse to confirm this, and sure enough, she was just next door to us. But I noticed something strange.
She was being moved. By two other sentient lifeforms.
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