The Trials

by Zee

Ch 24: Fun House

"What do you suppose is down there?" Gloomie asked, the three of them standing at the entrance of the strange, stone structure.

In the middle of the blue-lit cave was what looked like a stone door frame embedded into the wall. Orange light poured outside from a pair of torches hanging just within the structure. The bat ponies stared into it, or rather, downwards, at a long descent of stone stairs. Pairs of torches hung on the green cobblestone walls every so often, bringing a green-orange hue to the surfaces of the rock.

"I'm... not entirely sure. It looks like we must go down, though," Mosina said, stepping forward. "I suppose I'll take the lead."

Gloomie uneasily shrugged and Night Watch gave a subtle nod, falling behind her with Gloomie in tow. The trio descended down the narrow passageway, the clinks of their armoured hooves on stone echoing against the uniformly built walls. They barely had enough room to walk single file, and the walls almost brushed up against their sides.

After several minutes of descending the stony steps, Mosina touched down on a flat floor. Extending several dozen feet ahead of her was a narrow hallway of the same fashion. She paused a moment, turning her head to glance at the others who merely nodded in response. Torches stopped lining the walls down the hallway several feet forwards, a wall of blackness just beyond the light's reach. Giving out a deep breath, Mosina began walking.

She crested the light of the torches, her light crystal pushing the darkness back. However, after only several feet, the white light fed into what looked like an empty, rectangular room. As the ponies all entered the room standing side-by-side, three dark entrances met them on each wall.

"Which way should we go?" Gloomie suddenly asked, her voice echoing off of the green brick walls.

Mosina swallowed. "I'm not sure. It looks like we could get lost, here."

"Do we have anything we could use to mark our path?" Night Watch asked, moving to search through her saddlebags.

"Hmm..." Mosina searched though her own saddlebags. After a moment of nosing around, she found a pouch. "Oh! We have this!" She brought it out with her mouth, showing it to the others.

Gloomie squinted. "What's that?"

"It's a pouch of some purple powder I found when we started. We could use this to mark our path." Mosina unfastened the string at the opening of the pouch, revealing the powder inside. She tilted it a little bit to the side, allowing a trickle of the powder to fall to the floor. "There. We can use this to mark the way we came from."

"So, which way should we go, first?" Gloomie asked, looking at all three entrances.

Mosina gave a small grin. "Whenever it comes to taking paths in forks, I always go right, first."

"It's settled, then," Night Watch affirmed, nudging Mosina's flank towards the right exit.

"H-hey! Alright!" Mosina stammered, jolting forward. "I ought to buck your face, one of these days."

Night Watch chuckled, walking alongside the left of Mosina while Gloomie walked along the right. However, after only a few steps, Mosina's front hoof stepped onto a tile that sunk into the floor.

Loud clicking noises sounded above them from the ceiling, followed by a stream of dozens of darts. Before she knew it, Mosina could feel the clinks against the back of her armour, knowing that the armour didn't cover her entire form. A gasp came from her right.

She leaped towards the voice, smashing into the leather-armoured Gloomie and shoving her out of the shower of darts. A small glance confirmed that Night Watch had leaped out of the way, just in time.

"Gah... are you all okay?" Mosina asked out loud, carefully stepping off of Gloomie. The trap had finished flinging darts, and holes could be seen in the ceiling where they had come from. A whimper came from beneath her.

"Gloomie!" she cried, kneeling down to the bloodied form. Seven sharp, metal darts protruded from her back, penetrating straight through the leather armour. Mosina quickly threw off her silver helmet and went into her saddlebags, fetching a healing flask. "Shit... Night Watch! Help!"

A quick set of hooves pounded against stone as Night Watch rushed her way over, kneeling down the other side of Gloomie.

"Nngh... guh..." Gloomie whimpered. She lay in a pool of her own blood, tears flowing from her eyes.

"Drink!" Mosina cried, bringing the open flask to Gloomie's mouth. She gestured to the darts in her back. "Night, pull those out as soon as she starts drinking."

Gloomie shakily opened her mouth and accepted the glass, and Mosina tilted it so the red liquid could flow. Several drops of the healing solution dripped from the sides of her mouth as she drank, messily.

"Here goes..." Night Watch said with a calm voice. A sickening squelch filled the air, and Gloomie's body went rigid.

"Aaugh!" she cried, her teeth crashing into the glass vial as her neck jolted forwards.

Night Watch threw the two darts in her mouth to the side. "Keep drinking, let it heal the wounds as I pull them out."

Gloomie whimpered in response, and Mosina lowered the vial to her mouth again.

Night Watch waited for several moments before saying, "I'm going to pull out another few. Get ready..."

Mosina pulled back the flask, and Gloomie clenched her eyes, nodding. Night Watch quickly bit down on the feathered backs of three darts, pulling them out in one motion.

"Gaah! Aagh!" Gloomie screamed, Mosina holding her twitching head in comfort before bringing the flask to her mouth, again.

"Just two more, Gloomie..." Mosina whispered. They waited another several moments while Gloomie drank, before Night Watch moved to remove the last two darts.

However, she was stopped by the sound of a loud thumping noise of metal on stone. It was so sudden that Mosina almost dropped the flask.

"W-what's that?" she asked while Night Watch looked down the left entrance of the room, where the sound was coming from.

"Screw it... we have to pull these last ones out," Night Watch asserted, immediately grabbing onto the final two darts.

"Nngh... aah!" Gloomie grunted as Night Watch pulled them out. She accepted the flask from Mosina again, becoming aware of the loudening, thumping noise.

"It sounds like... steps," Night Watch said under her breath, standing up and facing the entrance. Slowly, she pulled out her golden spear and began to walk towards the entrance, warily minding where she stepped. The thumping continued to louden as whatever made the noise got closer.

Passing by the sink in the floor, Night Watch made a glance to the step that had triggered the trap. A shudder ran down her normally stoic spine.

Carved into the surface of the tile was the familiar image of a cringing face, like the ones that were on the wooden keys. Except, now that it was larger... it looked like it wasn't cringing anymore. It was laughing.

A loud whoosh came from down the hallway, and Night Watch immediately dodged to the right. Embedded into the stone floor where she once stood was a large, sharp, double-headed axe. And it was made from shadows.

"Shit...!" Before she could do anything, the axe pried itself from the floor and flew back to the thumping figure in the dark hallway. "Get out of the way!" Night Watch cried at the other two.

Eyes wide, Mosina helped the groggy Gloomie onto her hooves and guided her to a safe corner of the room.

Night Watch nervously held her spear in front of her as the thumping sounded as though they were almost in the room. Her breath left her when a giant form crested the darkness.

A shadow pony with glowing, red eyes slowly stomped its way into the room. However, unlike the ones they had encountered before, it was completely covered from head to hooves in thick shadow armour. A menacing helmet with a curved, metal plume sat on top of its head. Attached to both sides of the shadow pony were large, spiked shields. It looked almost impenetrable.

"Fuck."

The shadow pony locked its head onto Night Watch, and accompanied by the loud clinking of its armour, it pivoted its entire body to face her. Like the previous shadow ponies, two arms protruded from its back, but instead of curved blades, it was tipped with large, double-headed axes.

From the entrance of the room, the shadow pony flung one if its axe-arms at Night Watch. Instinctively, she dodged, and a shadow axe barely sailed past her, embedding into the wall behind. The shadow pony pivoted to her new position and flung its second axe-arm, the axe detaching and flying across the room.

Unsure of what to do, Night Watch dodged again, watching as the first axe returned back to the shadow pony to attach itself to the back arm. It flung the axe at her again, forcing her to dodge while the other axe returned to the shadow pony. She continued to dodge axes as they were flung, slowly making her way towards the armoured figure. However, as soon as she got close enough to strike, the shadow pony returned both of its axes simultaneously and swung at her with them.

She ducked under the horizontal swing and thrust her spear forward, only to nick the thick shadow armour with a few pitiful sparks of gold. The shadow pony swung its entire body this time, its axes almost cutting her into three pieces. Night Watch leaped between the axes as they came over and under her, only for her face to meet an armoured tail. Like a club, it smashed against her head, throwing her to the floor.

Before she could even scream, the club-like tail swung down at her and slammed against her armoured back. The armour absorbed most of the blow, but she felt several cracks in her chest as she was pushed into the floor.

"Grrah!" Painfully, she rolled to the side, out of the way of another downward swing from the tail-bludgeon. It smashed against the floor, bringing up chunks of green brick on impact. Night Watch struggled to get up, limping away from the armoured pony while clutching her chest. She removed her helmet.

"G... guys... get out..." she sputtered, tasting blood as some of it trickled out of her mouth. She heard another whooshing noise behind her. Closing her eyes, she didn't bother to dodge—she was too weak.

However, a loud crash was heard, and in a flash of indigo light, Mosina went sailing past her, having blocked the axe with the Wind Ruler. Nimbly landing on her hooves, she twirled her spear and bolted forward with a gust of wind, past the limping Night Watch.

"Aaah!" Mosina cried, fanning out her wings and pushing herself off the ground with the wind. An axe sailed past her and she banked to the left, dodging it before she met the shadow pony with her spear.

With a powerful thrust, she stabbed the Wind Ruler straight into the chest of the shadow pony. In a display of indigo sparks, the purple blade pierced right through the chest armour.

"Grah!" she growled, landing her hooves on the ground and pushing forwards. The two smaller blades of the spear also penetrated through, stabbing into the shadowy flesh.

The shadow pony grunted, twisting itself and freeing the spear from its front. Mosina lurched to the side, tightly holding onto it before the axe arms of the shadow pony swung at her. Expertly, she parried them both, the shadowy metal of the axes unable to cut through the Wind Ruler. However, the clubbed tail of the shadow pony swung at her, forcing her to jump and dodge it.

As she came down, the tail came back for another swing, and this time, Mosina decided to slice at it. Miraculously, the blade of her spear sliced straight through the middle of the tail. The decapitated tail immediately melted into the air, the shadowy strands flowing into the darkness of the hallway beyond them.

With new confidence, Mosina twirled the spear above her head and brought it down for a powerful stab into the back of the shadow pony. It penetrated the thinner armour of its back, between the thick shields on its sides. Relentlessly, she hopped on top of the shadow pony's back and swung her spear in a wide slash. Both of the axe-arms sliced off cleanly, the giant weapons melting into the air.

She effortlessly brought her spear down for more stabs at the now-defenceless shadow pony, punching several holes into its armour. The shadow pony grunted and continued to try and shake her off, helplessly.

"Haah!" Mosina cried, leaping up and thrusting her spear at its head. The tip of the blade pierced straight through the armoured neck, just beneath the thicker helmet. She growled and put her entire weight into the stab, the spear digging deeper. "Die... die!"

The shadow pony tried to thrash its head, but it got weaker as she pushed harder. Finally, it went limp and its red eyes dimmed out, its body freezing in its position with the Wind Ruler protruding from the back of its head.

Beneath her hooves, the shadow pony melted into air, an ethereal sigh accompanying the release. Its strands of shadows retreated into the darkness. Before the corporeal form completely dispersed, Mosina leaped off, immediately running towards the others.

In the far corner of the room, a weak Gloomie leaned against the wall accompanied by Night Watch, who was drinking from a healing flask.

"Well... that's that, I suppose," Mosina breathed, stopping before the two.

"I'm impressed." Night Watch grinned. "You had that thing wrapped around your hoof."

Mosina blushed. "Yeah, well, it wasn't easy." She turned to Gloomie. "You okay?"

"Yeah... just a little out of it." Gloomie returned a smile. "I don't think I'll ever get used to getting so... hurt."

"Tell me about it," Night Watch chuckled. "I don't think Mosina's ever been—"

"Hey, look!" Gloomie cut her off, pointing to where the armoured shadow pony had been. A dim glowing pile of white objects sat on the stone floor.

"Huh..." Mosina shot a glance to Night Watch before trotting over to it. As she got closer, she made out the form of what seemed to be some sort of garments made out of white material, similar to what the light ponies looked like. "Hmm... it looks like some sort of armour." She kneeled down and picked it up, feeling it sag slightly into her hooves.

Night Watch came up from behind her. "That looks like some sort of leather armour."

"Yeah. Made out of white... lighty stuff."

"Hey, Gloomie!" Night Watch called back to Gloomie, who was slowly walking her way over. "I think we found you a new set of armour."

"Look!" Mosina said, putting the armour down and gesturing towards a set of white hoof-claws that was underneath the leather.

Night Watch's eyes widened. "Ooh..."

"What is it?" Gloomie fixed her eyes onto the white equipment in front of them. "Ooh..."

Comments

[Zee]

Sorry for the week+ long wait, guys. I kind of went into an impromptu hiatus, thanks to a mixture of wanting to refresh my mind, a ton of college work, friend stuff, the new Terraria update, and most of all, laziness.

Back in full power.

Also, I'd say (in regards to the events of Trials), we're about halfway through, maybe a little more than half. There is a potential sequel, as well.