[Misplaced]

by awesomesauce4

Chapter 4 - This Night Aria

As the three of you round a bend in the tunnel, Nightmare Moon holds out a long hoof, stopping you and Chrysalis in your tracks as she abruptly stops.

“Dare not move,” she commands, looking around.

You take a moment to follow her gaze, wondering what this is about. The walls seem oddly smooth around here, looking like carefully-shaped concrete rather than the faceted, dark gray stone or purple-white crystal that Tartarus is usually comprised of. Is that the cause of her concern? Surely not. Nightmare Moon might have oddly specific tastes in decoration, but knowing her, she would simply complain while continuing to walk. What, then, is the reason for her stopping your progression?

“There be an ancient magick at work here,” Nightmare Moon murmurs.

“What kind of ancient magic?” Chrysalis snaps, clearly worried.

“A memory spell,” Nightmare breathes, looking worried herself. “These are extraordinarily difficult to cast. Not even sis – not even Princess Celestia couldst manage the feat. Whom, then, is responsible…?” she wonders, looking around. You continue to look around as well, wondering where this ‘memory spell’ is. You don’t notice much of anything different.

“What does a memory spell do?” Chrysalis asks.

“Verily, when one is sprung, the target shalt experience a memory of theirs. In our case, it is presumably designed to be a memory which they shalt never leave. Either by choice… or by force.” Chrysalis shivers, and abruptly the walls around the three of you shift.

It’s like the world disappeared around you. Everything, even the floor, goes black, leaving the three of you in a formless, shapeless dark void. Chrysalis is shivering, tears threatening to spill from her eyes, and you reach out a hand to comfort her. Before you can touch her, she vanishes, causing you to jerk your hand back in surprise as the ground begins to shake.

“Chrysalis?” you call out, officially worried.

“Tis’ too late,” Nightmare Moon whispers, as horrified as you are at her sudden disappearance. “She hath activated the spell.”

You look at her frantically. “How do we deactivate it, then?!” you demand.

“We doth not know, we hath never seen such a spell in our quite long living memory, much less encountered one!” Nightmare Moon shouts back, panicked and a little sarcastic. There’s a blinding white flash of light, and you fall to the floor, dazed.

When you get to your feet, you’re somewhere completely different. Green pustules were stuck to the black ceiling at irregular intervals, lighting the place up a familiar shade of emerald. Wispy black strands of something made up the walls, ceiling, and floor, some having torn off and some hanging off the walls and ceiling, brushing at your face and feeling oddly silky. Is this Chrysalis’ home? Or… her memory of her home, rather? Nightmare Moon is nowhere to be found, nor Chrysalis herself. You pause a moment, listening hard to try and discern if they are nearby. Nothing. Though, you do hear some kind of thumping noise coming from up ahead, the wisps of black, thread-like substance quivering slightly each time one echoes through the walls. With nothing else to do, you decide to head for the source of that noise, and set forward. You reach for your backpack, wondering if you should update your map, only to freeze when you realize you’re not wearing your backpack. It’s vanished along with your friends! This is not good.

You set off at a light jog, unwilling to run into danger headlong but unable to move any slower out of fear for your friends. While you do, you wonder why this memory spell is affecting you. Aren’t you immune to magic? This whole ‘immunity’ thing seems to be oddly picky about what it does and doesn’t affect. A wispy strand catches at your foot like a tripwire, and you stumble forward before hopping over it and continuing to run after your friends.

Finally, after some minutes of huffing and puffing and being generally out of shape, you arrive at a massive door. It’s made of a solid black stone, oddly glossy and with weird conchoidal patterns etched into its surface.

Obsidian. A mineral created by rapidly-cooling, silica-rich magma, you remember, identifying the stone.

Why… do you remember that, of all things? Odd. Anyway, a teal coat of arms is emblazoned upon both halves of the door, looking like a heart whose neatly split right half was being eaten away by something. It kind of reminds you of the holes in Chrysalis’ legs, to be honest. You cautiously push open the doors, stepping into the room beyond.

The first thing you see is Chrysalis, on the ground and badly bruised, in front of a small, unassuming throne that has the same insignia on it as the doors. You rush forward, all other thoughts ignored as you focus on ensuring her safety. “How bad are you hurt?” you ask, forgoing the usual question in favor of a more specific variant.

“Stop…” she croaks, tears running down her single unswollen eye, the only undamaged part of her left.

“What? Is it a trap?” you ask urgently.

“Stop… caring… I’m… not… worth it…” she gets out, sounding as though every word is causing her unendurable pain.

You look at her in shock. “Wh… what?” you ask, unsure of what else to say.

Suddenly, the feeling of a mountain hitting you square in the torso erupts through your chest, and you fly sideways off of Chrysalis to hit the wall with a thump. Sliding to the floor, you look up, gritting your teeth through the pain.

Your initial, mountainous estimate was not far off. What you had thought was the back wall of the cavern you’re in is actually a single, gargantuan changeling, bigger than two houses stacked on top of one another. The hoof it used to swipe you aside is easily the size of an 18-wheeler truck. You have no idea what that really is, but you distinctly remember that it was big and heavy, so that seems about right. Its compound eyes, which you thought were more of those green globules that lit up the place until you looked closely, gaze down at you.

“So this is the one who’s been telling you such lies,” it rumbles. You feel like it was meant to be a hiss, but the sheer size of the thing’s vocal cords must be lowering the pitch. Is that how that works? You’re not sure.

You bravely get to your feet. “Telling her to believe in herself is not lying!” you challenge. The giant changeling merely laughs, and reaches out a lazy hoof to crush you with.

[King Cocoonus attacks!]

[24/50] [FIGHT] [RUN] [DO NOTHING] [FLIRT] [SPARE] [ITEM]

Well… this is just a memory, right? This isn’t really King Cocoonus, just Chrysalis’ memory of him. Which means… you can fight back.

>>[FIGHT]

You jump upward, using one of the holes in his legs as a gap to avoid being smashed to a paste against the cavern wall. Grabbing on, you begin to run up his leg like they did in some movie or other, jumping up to punch him in his massive, compound eye. He roars in pain, and you fall some twenty feet to the ground, landing on all fours and grunting from the impact. Shouldn’t that have broken something? Ah, well, no time to question that now.

The King’s getting ready for another attack, and he doesn’t look so amused this time. “Insolent insect! I’ll crush you!” he roars, slamming down a hoof. But you’re already gone, having rolled to the side just in time.

“You’ll die trying!” you taunt back, picking up Chrysalis and slinging her over your shoulder.

“Why…?” she moans, clearly still in great pain.

“Because I care about you and I will not let your memories hurt you anymore!” you passionately declare, holding her close as you sprint across the cavern to avoid getting stomped on. The next time you glance down at her, some of her bruises seem to have receded, the splotchy green having faded to a healthier black.

Unfortunately, you’re not exactly as much of an action hero as you’re trying to be right now. Cocoonus hits you with another, sweeping hoof, and you drop Chrysalis in surprise as you go skidding across the floor, the scrapes across your torso and back burning with the fury of a thousand sunburns.

“Hah!” King Cocoonus laughs. “So much for your pathetic attempt at heroics. Is this the hero you summon to save you, Chrysalis? He barely lasted a minute against me!” He stalks forward, each step like a miniature earthquake. “Now, back to what we were doing earlier…” he leers, taking on a demented grin.

“Not… this time!” Chrysalis asserts, standing up. She quivers in place, whether from fear or exhaustion you cannot tell. But she stands all the same, refusing to give in despite everything she’s been through. Though you can hardly move for pain, you smile at her.

“You can do it! He’s got nothing on you!” you call to her.

She looks back at you, smiling slightly. “…I can do it…” she tentatively agrees, and something hardens in her expression. She looks back at Cocoonus, a green glow emanating from her eyes, and for the first time, the massive changeling looks afraid.

“I can do it, because I am your friend! And I will protect you!” Chrysalis shouts back to you, before charging up her horn. A laser beam the size of a building erupts from her horn, the massive blast physically pushing her back.

For a moment, you’re perplexed – if it took her so much energy just to give light to her surroundings, where was she getting the energy to power this awesome, primal fury? It was painful to even look at, the green glow being suffused by a bright white light as she kept pouring out energy. You notice Cocoonus screaming in the background, but the sound is fading just as the world is slowly fading to white.

You return to consciousness to find Chrysalis and Nightmare Moon worriedly looking down at you.

“You’re awake!” Chrysalis shouts as soon as she catches your eyes opening, and you wince at how loud she is. “Sorry!” she whispers.

“Art thou alright?” Nightmare Moon murmurs, gazing down at you in utmost concern.

“I’m okay,” you croakily answer, feeling your torso. It feels… a lot better than it should.

“It was just a memory,” Chrysalis explains. “All that pain… it wasn’t real, or permanent.” To your shock, she hugs you, wrapping her hooves around your torso as tightly as she can. “Thank you…” she whispers hoarsely. “Thank you for believing in me.”

You return the hug, pleasantly surprised to find your arms aren’t exhausted and damaged. “I knew you had it in you,” you whisper back. She smiles wanly at you, closing her eyes and snuggling into your chest. “I never did get your name…” she murmurs.

“Nor did we,” Nightmare Moon notes curiously.

You briefly introduce yourself, and Nightmare Moon snorts with laughter.

“What a strange name!” she remarks.

“Can’t think of any species with names like that,” Chrysalis agrees.

“I thought it was pretty normal,” you note quietly, unsure if you should be insulted that they’re calling your name weird.

“Well… I like it,” Chrysalis decides after a moment.

Despite the unimaginable pain you’d endured in that strange memory having vanished, you’re still quite tired, so you make no attempt to move. Your stomach rumbles, and Chrysalis looks at you in concern.

“When’s the last time you ate?” she asks.

“Um…” you trail off. When was the last time you ate? Definitely not since you woke up. “I… don’t remember eating… so… before I got amnesia, I guess?” you answer.

Nightmare Moon looks at you in surprise. “But it hath been hours for thee!” she exclaims.

You shrug, even as your stomach rumbles some more. “There’s no food for me around here…” you point out.

“That’s no excuse! We’re magic, we can conjure food,” Chrysalis insists. She gently pushes you with a hoof, moving to sit next to you. “Eating’s important, okay? Take it from someone who knows: Starving isn’t fun,” she lectures you.

“Now that the memory spell hath been defeated, we canst use its magic to our own ends, including creating food for thee. What dost thou consumeth for victuals?” Nightmare Moon asks.

“Um…” you answer intelligently, as a variety of indescribable and unnameable foodstuffs flash before your mind’s eye.

“Hrm. Thou canst not answer, can thee? What if…” Nightmare Moon trails off, lighting her horn. A beam of light connects to your forehead, and a moment later one of the foods from earlier lands in your lap.

“What is that?” Chrysalis asks, poking at it curiously.

“I think… it was my favorite food?” you answer, looking at it.

“Good! That is what we were hoping to create,” Nightmare Moon confirms, smiling at you.

It certainly seems to be very important to you, as you salivate with hunger just looking at it. You gently pick it up and put it in your mouth, and smile as a familiar flavor greets your tongue, like an old friend you’ve just run into after many years. You take a moment to rest and eat, the other two watching you as carefully as though you were their beloved child.

After you’ve rested, you take a moment to stretch out your body, hopping to your feet a moment later. “So how deep is this Elevator?” you ask Nightmare Moon.

“Tis’ at the very bottom, or so we were told. We art about halfway down now,” Nightmare Moon answers.

“Elevator?” Chrysalis asks, confused.

“There’s apparently a secret exit elevator at the bottom of Tartarus that we can use to escape,” you explain.

“Forsooth, we shalt have to cross the Barrier through it, though. There art no shortcuts there,” Nightmare Moon warns her.

“What ‘Barrier?’” Chrysalis asks, still sounding lost.

“Some kind of magical force field that keeps only villains and those with evil souls trapped down here. Neutral or good souls can enter and exit as they please,” you explain, and Nightmare Moon nods in approval.

“So… how do you expect me to get out?” she asks skeptically, and Nightmare looks at you expectantly.

“Aye, creature, how dost thee aim to secure her escape?” she asks pointedly.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” you dismiss.

“Wait. He can probably leave just fine. What about you? You’re in the same boat as me, last I checked,” Chrysalis notices, pointing at Nightmare Moon accusatorily.

“We canst possess his soul and body, sharing his talent for magical immunity,” Nightmare Moon explains proudly.

Chrysalis raises an eyebrow. “Is that so?” she muses, and green flame washes over her body as she transforms.

A moment later, you gape in disbelief as two Nightmare Moons stand to either side of you, identical in appearance. “Then we shalt also possess his soul, verily and forsooth!” the Nightmare to your left announces, holding a hoof to her chest like she were master of ceremonies at some event.

“You’ll need to work on your speech first, if you want to be a passable Nightmare,” you tease Chrysalis, recovering quickly from your surprise. She transforms back, disappointed.

“Thought I had it…” she grumbles.

Nightmare Moon chuckles. “Mayhap tis’ thee who needeth lessons,” she ribs.

The three of you find the next elevator to be exactly identical to the first, right down to Nightmare Moon’s snort of disgust at the color choices. You reach out by instinct and call the elevator, pressing the down button before taking a seat by the wall.

“What is this thing?” Chrysalis wonders.

“An elevator. They move people up and down between different floors,” you explain.

“Hmm. Must be nice, not having to fly,” Chrysalis mutters. With nothing else to do, the three of you wait for the elevator to arrive.

“So… how’d you shoot a giant laser from your horn, anyway?” you ask Chrysalis, recalling your time shared in the memory.

“Well… you fed me so much love, back there, that I was able to just blast it back out again like that…” Chrysalis answers sheepishly.

“Changelings become more magically powerful the more love they have inside them,” Nightmare Moon adds, inspecting an armored hoof regally.

“Speaking of that awful memory, where were you?” Chrysalis asks her, and Nightmare frowns.

“We art made of naught but memory, foal. We were integrated into the spell itself.” She shivers slightly.

“Are you okay?” you ask her softly, and Nightmare Moon shakes her head vigorously.

“We shalt be alright. Prithee, we shouldst be asking thee. Memory or not, we felt thee suffer considerable injury.”

You sigh. “Well, it was painful at the time, sure. But I feel fine now.” You pause for a moment as her words hit you. “You… felt what we were feeling?” you ask.

Nightmare Moon looks away. “Aye. We were part of the spell, we felt everything. We felt the courage in thy heart as thou protected the Queen despite being on the brink of death, and we felt her l-… her appreciation for thine efforts in turn as she protected thee.” Chrysalis glances sharply at her, but says nothing, and you wonder what that’s about.

“So, you get stronger with more love?” you ask Chrysalis, getting back on topic as she nods after a moment.

“Well, logically speaking, then, we should make sure you’re as strong as possible. Who knows what giant laser beams you might need to shoot in the future, after all,” you quip. She laughs, a surprised, genuine laugh instead of her usual dry, snarky chuckles.

“Well, if you insist,” she replies deviously, sidling up to you and giving you a seductive look. Chuckling, you punch her lightly in the stomach and then sweep her up into a close hug. She opens her mouth, hissing slightly, and your vision turns slightly pink again. You can see a pink something being sucked out of your forehead, almost like Nightmare Moon possessing you in reverse, and you feel tired again as she happily feeds off of your love. After a moment, she pulls away, licking her lips and sighing wistfully.

“I’d better stop for now… Wouldn’t want you getting too drained,” she teases.

“Think you’re strong enough now for whatever’s ahead?” you ask curiously.

Chrysalis snorts. “With how much love is in you? I feel like I could level a mountain.”

You grin at her. “That’s the spirit!” you encourage, and she laughs.

“Incidentally, we also became stronger recently,” Nightmare Moon jumps in.

“Oh?” you wonder, looking over at her.

“We were able to subvert the power of the memory spell, absorbing it into ourselves. Verily, the amount of magick we possesseth now dwarfs what little we had before,” she announced proudly.

“Nice!” you compliment enthusiastically.

Nightmare Moon giggles demurely. “Oh, tis’ nothing. Somepony must be strong enough to protect thee, after all,” she declares regally.

“Wha-“ Chrysalis begins indignantly, but at that moment the elevator arrives with another ding, and Nightmare Moon hops up.

“Our elevator hath arrived!” she proclaims, before gesturing to the doors.

“After thee,” she beckons to you politely, shooting a smug grin at Chrysalis when she thinks you’re not looking.

“What if it’s broken and he falls down? Somebody should go ahead of him, to make sure it’s safe,” Chrysalis sneers, pushing you aside and sauntering into the elevator.

“Could you two knock it off? I can survive on my own, thank you,” you answer both of them, irritated as you follow Chrysalis into the elevator. Once Nightmare Moon has entered, you pull the lever with a bit more force than necessary, and they give you identical, sheepish frowns.

“We apologize,” Nightmare Moon speaks up. “We thought thee alright with banter.”

Chrysalis glumly looks away. “We’re still friends, right? You’re not going to leave us behind… right?” she pleads.

You sigh, before hugging the two of them. “We’re still friends, I’m not going to leave you over something small and dumb like that. Just… don’t do that, okay? For me.”

They nod mutely, and you let them go before taking a seat by the side of the elevator, waiting for the long ride down.

To your surprise, it doesn’t take nearly as long as last time. Looking to your left, the level you’re on now is simply called ‘Level 02 – Prison.’ The elevator doors click open with a ding, and as you step out, you’re surprised to find that the comfy heat of the elevator has followed you out this time.

“Is it me, or is it getting warmer…?” Chrysalis mutters, confirming your suspicions.

“Tartarus was once an active volcano. Verily, the mountain we call today ‘Canterlot’ was its caldera, many centuries ago. Today, it is mostly empty – but slowly filling with magma once more. T’was a lively subject of debate among Guards and Researchers alike how to prevent the chambers from filling further,” Nightmare Moon explains.

“Who builds their capital city atop an active volcano?” Chrysalis wonders incredulously.

“The same people who build a prison inside one, presumably,” you grumble, and all three of you stifle snorts of laughter.

The path ahead is long, straight, and wide, most unlike the confusing maze of passages in Chrysalis’ area or even the narrow, crystalline bridges that Nightmare Moon’s area was dominated by. It gives you a sense of unease, reminding you slightly of the tunnel with the memory spell in it, and you wonder if something else will attack the three of you. With nothing else to do while the three of you walk, you concentrate on getting that strange menu you found earlier to open again. Almost instantly, it appears.

[What would you like to do?]

[TALK] [RESET] [SAVE] [QUIT]

You select [SAVE] again. You’re not sure if this really ‘saves’ anything, let alone your progress, but it’s nice to make sure.

>[SAVE]

[Game saved!]

[TALK] [RESET] [SAVE] [QUIT]

That done, you press the arrow in the upper corner to change the ‘page’ of the menu, and new options appear.

[ITEM] [OPTIONS] [STATS]

These, at least, make a good deal more sense to you. You press ‘Stats,’ wondering what it will list as your statistics.

>[STATS]

Health: 50/50
Magic: 2/50
Spared: 3
Killed: 0
Flirted: 0
Ran: 0
Pet: 1
Path Summary: PACIFIST
Secrets found: 0/???

Huh. You wonder what increases your ‘magic.’ Nightmare Moon mentioned that you were immune to magical attacks – maybe if that number goes up, that’ll change? At any rate, you’re dismayed that there’s a statistic for how many you’ve murdered, and confused that there’s a statistic for how many you’ve flirted with. You briefly wonder what things would be like if you’d flirted with everyone so far. A lot more complicated, presumably. You resolve to stick with being their friend, and save the romantic stuff for later. Also, no secrets found? You immediately decide to look around harder from now on.

The three of you traverse the passageway in a nervous silence, the other two perhaps feeling the same way as you do about the wide tunnel and what might lie at the end of it. Eventually, you come across a giant set of doors, rather like the pair Nightmare couldn’t get through two floors above, but made of stone instead of metal and well-maintained instead of rusted. The edges are gilded, and the door itself is adorned with a strange pattern – six odd, twisting shapes in a circle around the handles. You take a handle and pull, and the heavy stone door slowly swings open, revealing the room beyond.

The first thing you’re greeted with is a wall of white, impossibly large, with a sharp edge in the middle of it. The floor below is a light brown, much more inviting and warm-colored than the cold gray of Tartarus’ upper floors. Looking closer, you see the wall is transparent, slight ridges set parallel to the edge in front of you. This reminds you oddly of the giant changeling from inside the memory, and you look up, wondering if this thing is really a wall. The giant entrance door closes and clicks, locking behind you, but you’re too busy examining the strange, reflective wall to care.

To your shock, it’s revealed to be a crystal – a massive diamond. The whole thing is easily the size of a small building, and perfectly octahedral and white. The sharp edge you were seeing was merely an edge between two enormous facets of the flawless octahedron.

“What a crystal!” Nightmare Moon breathes, evidently as impressed as you are.

Chrysalis, however, seems less impressed. “It’s a rock,” she decides. “Come on, you two, no sense getting distracted.” She saunters forward, and you follow after a moment, still staring at the giant, priceless diamond. That thing would be worth a planet’s fortune if it could ever be sold.

“Do not touch it,” Nightmare Moon warns as soon as you reach your hand out to it. “Tis’ enchanted with something, yet we cannot discern what.”

You quickly withdraw your hand sheepishly.

The three of you slowly make your way around the house-sized gem, finding the door on the other side to be largely identical to the first – except now, the circling shapes from earlier have been replaced by holes of approximately the same shape.

“Why won’t it open?” Chrysalis hisses, attempting to pull on one of the handles.

“Tis’ locked, obviously. Hast thee never used a door?” Nightmare Moon quips.

“No. My home doesn’t have doors,” Chrysalis bluntly answers, and Nightmare Moon falls silent.

“They look like… keyholes…” you mutter, staring at the six odd shapes.

“Then we shalt find the keys!” Nightmare Moon proclaims.

“I’ve no idea what a key is, but whatever, let’s do that,” Chrysalis agrees.

The three of you begin to look for keys. The room you’re in is incredibly large, so you split up, circling the diamond as you look for something appropriately-shaped to fit into those keyholes. As you travel along the northeast section of the massive room, you notice a section of the wall that has a different texture than the rest. Curious, you tap at it, and stumble back as the section of wall crumbles to dust, revealing a small passageway. It’s lined with a blue-gray stone that contrasts heavily with the surrounding, dusty russet-colored room. “I found something!” you call, and the other two rush over. “A secret passage!” Nightmare Moon exclaims excitedly. “What fun!” Chrysalis smirks at her. “Oh, please, those are everywhere back at my place. After you, then?” she offers, looking at you. Rolling your eyes, you smile and step into the blue passageway.

You emerge into a brightly lit room that is literally covered in blue gemstones. Deep blue, faceted sapphires, soft blue fluorites, perfectly hexagonal blue quartz crystals, prismatic chalcanthites, and many more gems are embedded into the walls, twinkling and glittering all around you. On the floor, six gigantic sapphire crystals, each as tall as you are, are embedded into the ground, a circular indent surrounding their elongated, hexagonal dipyramidal forms.

“What riches…” Nightmare Moon murmurs, looking around. “Whomever createth this room hadst excellent taste.”

Chrysalis snorts. “Who knew that you liked blue?” she joked, and you laugh, taken by surprise at her rhyming prowess.

“It looks like a puzzle, but… how to solve it?” you wonder, walking over to one of the giant sapphires and examining it. The circular indent in the floor extends all the way down to the bottom of the sapphire, and perfectly touches each vertex of the hexagon once. You get an idea, and wrap your arms around the gem tightly before stepping to the side. The immensely heavy gem slowly rotates, confirming your suspicions. After you’ve made a quarter turn, you stop and wipe your brow.

“Okay, we need to turn these things somehow, and maybe that will get us the key?” you wonder.

“Anon! We hath discovered an additional component of this puzzle!” Nightmare Moon exclaims, pointing at the wall by the door you came in from.

You follow her gaze, and spy a large, blue lever just by the wall. “Warning – LASER – Do Not Cross Beam,” you read aloud. “Okay, you two stand by me, I don’t know where this thing is aimed at,” you warn as you take the lever in hand.

Chrysalis and Nightmare obediently move back into the safety of the passageway, and you pull the lever, grunting with exertion at the stiff mechanism. There’s a low hum, and a cyan-colored laser shoots from a gem just over the doorway, aimed directly at the sapphire you just turned. The blue gem refracts the laser through itself, changing the direction and now pointing it at a wall. To your surprise, the many gems on the wall don’t reflect the beam further, as it seems to stop short and vanish a few centimeters before touching them.

“So you have to reflect the beam somewhere?” Chrysalis wonders.

“Probably have to make it hit all of these sapphires,” you mutter, looking around.

The remaining sapphires in the room are strategically placed around corners, behind walls and in alcoves, making them impossible to hit from the starting point – but not from one of the other sapphires. A half-formed plan in your mind, you begin turning the sapphire the beam is hitting.

Half an hour later, you’re exhausted, but you’ve made a lot of progress. The beam now leaps back and forth between five separate sapphires, and you’re about to aim it towards the sixth and last one. As you do so, and the cyan beam touches the gem, it fails to refract, instead getting absorbed by the blue dipyramid. The center of the room opens up like a camera aperture, and a white pedestal slowly rises out of a hidden hole in the floor, a blue, oddly-shaped crystal laying on the pedestal.

“Thou hast done it!” Nightmare Moon cheers, and you give her an exhausted smile.

“Nice work,” Chrysalis compliments, picking up and inspecting the gem.

“This is one of the keys, alright – it’s got one of those patterns on the back,” she reveals, flipping it over for you to see the raised pattern on the back of the stone. Looking back at the pedestal, you can see the same pattern in inverse set into the top.

The three of you return to the central room with the diamond in it, which you decide to name the Diamond Room on your map. The small offshoot room to the northeast is named the Sapphire Room, in keeping with the theme. You take a seat against the wall while you update your map, while the other two resume searching the room, this time keeping to the walls to try and find more hidden passageways. When you finish drawing, you place the Sapphire Key in your backpack.

[ITEM: Sapphire Key] [A key as blue as the tropical ocean. One of six keys needed.]

Now that you’re resting, you take a moment to think about things. You’re miles underground, helping a shapeshifting, insectoid emotion-eater and the dark half of a magic, soul-possessing immortal pony princess escape from a hellish, magic prison. On top of this, you can’t remember where or who you are, nor how you got here, and seem to have strange abilities that you also don’t remember getting. Was your life always this weird, and you just forgot about it? Or is this all new and unsettling and the old you probably would have turned and ran? Hard to say. You think you’d be a bit better off than that, but you don’t know for certain.

And then there’s the uncertain matter of whether what you’re doing is right. What if these two really are the worst of the worst, and they deserve what they got? You don’t think so, listening to their explanations and watching how they act, but maybe they’re trying to trick you into thinking they’re normal. Maybe they’re actually serial killers from the world above, or something. Or maybe the world above is evil, and these are the only good ones left. Wait, no, that doesn’t make any sense. If the entire world above was evil, and this was the last good haven left, why would these two want to leave? No, you think it’s more on a case-by-case basis than that. For example, this ‘Princess Celestia’ seems like kind of a jerk. She locked up these two here, and didn’t even care or do anything when Chrysalis began to show clear signs of starving and going insane. In addition, both Chrysalis and Nightmare Moon have mentioned something about a ‘Tirek’ being experimented on, something that makes you think of sterile hospital rooms and bloodstained surgical tools. You shudder slightly.

“You okay?” Chrysalis calls over.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” you answer, startled out of your reverie. It takes you a moment to realize that since Chrysalis can eat emotions, she can probably sense them too.

“We found another entrance. Want to come look?” she offers, trotting over.

“Sure,” you agree, getting up and slinging your backpack over your shoulder.

The next room’s gems are green in coloration, ranging from an acidic, darker green to a deep emerald color to a radioactive, neon green. Hexagonal emeralds, jagged peridots, sword-like actinolites, smooth jades, octahedral fluorites, prismatic tourmalines, round chrysoprases, mossy aventurines and sharply faceted garnets are embedded into the wall this time, with what appears to be a maze of gemstones set into the center of the room.

“Great, a maze,” Chrysalis mutters. Briefly, an image of what appears to be a field of corn with passages mowed through it flashes through your head, and you wonder what that’s about.

“Maybe one of you could fly over it?” you suggest.

“Tis’ no flight magic here, remember?” Nightmare Moon reminds you.

“Who needs flight magic?” Chrysalis scoffs, buzzing her wings as a high-pitched vibration begins to sound from them. To Nightmare Moon’s astonishment, she lifts into the air as effortlessly as a helicopter, daintily hovering over the two of you like the insects she resembles so much.

“Thou canst fly without pegasus magic?” Nightmare Moon inquires.

“All changelings can. We never grew up with it, so we never needed it,” Chrysalis explains over the buzzing of her own wings. She flies over the maze, looking every which way, and finally her expression brightens and she darts down, vanishing from sight behind the tall rows of stacked gems before returning into the air, clutching a deep green, transparent Key in her hooves.

“Nicely done!” you cheer as she lands, and she gives you a smug grin.

“Who needs pegasus magic when you have me?” she boasts, handing over the green Key to you as you bump her hoof with your fist and put it in your backpack.

[ITEM: Emerald Key] [A key as green as the forest. One of six keys needed.]

“Seems like we’re a third of the way there,” you brightly remark as the three of you return to the Diamond Room.

“Why do they have so many puzzles for this one room, anyway?” Chrysalis wonders.

Nightmare Moon shrugs. “Verily, we art uncertain. Mayhap to confuse prisoners below?” Nightmare Moon theorizes.

“The gems might be to distract them and make them waste time trying to rob the place,” you add, and Nightmare Moon nods approvingly.

“Aye, tis’ possible,” she agrees. With not much else to say, the three of you resume searching for the next room.

Unfortunately, the Diamond Room doesn’t seem to yield any further passageways, and after a while, you revisit the Emerald Room, wondering if you missed something. Also, you’re not quite sure why, but you really like mazes. They’re fun! You explore around the maze, only to find that it actually has a very simple solution. Probably because the room is so small. Still… that’s mildly disappointing. The pedestal Chrysalis lifted the Emerald Key off of is standing there… wait. This one seems… off. You look closer, where the images of a person with the crystal attacking a ‘pony’ had been on the one you encountered earlier. This pedestal, however, depicts something quite different. Front and center appears to be a drawing of the Diamond Room outside, with a third branching path visibly carved just south of the room you’re standing in. But how to get to it…?

You return to the Diamond Room to find Chrysalis and Nightmare still searching.

“I think it’s over here,” you call, leading them over to where you’re pretty sure the next room is.

“Wherefore art thee so certain?” Nightmare Moon questions bemusedly, a lopsided frown on her face.

“There was a carving on the pedestal the green Key was on, it showed a third tunnel right around here,” you explain, still poking around to try and find the entrance.

Chrysalis winces. “Should’ve looked around more…” she mutters to herself.

“You did fine! Anyone could have missed that, it wasn’t exactly obvious,” you comfort. “Now, how do we get this door open…?” you wonder, looking at the blank stretch of wall.

“Mayhap it requireth a spell?” Nightmare Moon muses, running her horn along the wall carefully as she apparently ‘probes’ for an entry point.

Chrysalis puts an ear up to the stone, flicking it as she taps at the rock wall with a hoof. “It’s solid here, as far as I can tell,” she mutters.

You reach out and inspect the wall yourself. It appears to be red sandstone, slightly crumbly but mostly solid. You sigh in frustration. “There has to be a way to open this… they wouldn’t make an unsolvable puzzle!” you exclaim, thumping a fist gently against the unyielding stone.

“They might. It’s a useful distraction,” Chrysalis points out. You grumble, but can’t find any counterargument.

“Were the Guards present, twouldst surely result in our reimprisonment. But given they hath vanished improbably into the aether, tis’ more of a mockery of our progression,” Nightmare Moon grumbles.

“Hold on. That gives me an idea. How would a Guard get past this?” you ask, examining the wall. “They don’t have crazy shapeshifting and starry powers, do they?”

Chrysalis raises an eyebrow, intrigued. “They don’t… they’re just regular pegasi, unicorns and earth ponies. Interesting… I’d never considered who the puzzle was made for as part of itself.”

You smile at her. “Any puzzle can be solved if you can think like the person who made it. So, unicorns, pegasi, and… earth ponies? What’s an ‘earth pony’?” you wonder, thinking of ponies made of dirt or even gems.

“They art the third of five classes of pony in Equestria. Though they lacketh in the flight magick of pegasi, and doth not possesseth the magical prowess of the unicorn, they art tied to the land, more in tune with nature and growth than the other two primary tribes. In addition, they art physically much stronger than unicorns or pegasi couldst ever be. Hence, they art mostly farmers and craftsmares,” Nightmare Moon explains.

“Wait, five? I thought it was just the main three and alicorns,” Chrysalis argues.

Nightmare Moon tosses her head angrily. “Thou thought wrong! We shalt not have our precious thestrals be ignored, nor ‘lumped in’ with those foalish pegasi!”

You look at her in concern. “Political issues?” you guess, and Nightmare Moon growls.

“Those thrice-blasted taxonomists! When we returned from our imprisonment on yon moon, we found the foals had lumped them in as an ‘offshoot’ of pegasi! Tis’ infuriatingly wrong!” she ranted. Noticing your and Chrysalis’ concerned and mildly frightened expressions, she quickly calms herself. “They… they art our children. The blood of the Night flows through their veins, and… twould be an insult to our long-ago beloved to let them be so forgotten,” she muttered.

“…They aren’t crazy cultists trying to resurrect you, are they? Only, I’ve heard some strange rumors…” Chrysalis mentions, but quickly wilts under the alicorn’s piercing gaze.

“Our children knoweth well the terrible price of such magicks. They wouldst not dare attempteth such a foalish ritual.”

Chrysalis hurriedly nods, clearly unwilling to pursue the issue any further. “Right, right…” she murmurs, quickly returning her attention to the wall.

You continue inspecting it as well. Nightmare Moon’s talk of thestrals and pegasi has you thinking about pegasi now. Nightmare Moon mentioned something about ‘flight magic’ when the two of you were traversing the upper levels, if you remember.

“Nightmare Moon, can you fly in this room?” you ask.

“We doth not think so…” Nightmare Moon denies.

“Try?” you insist.

Raising an eyebrow, she complies, and one flap of her impressive, inky wingspan later, she’s shocked to find herself hovering in the air, gently beating her wings at a speed far too slow for a creature of her size to sustain lift.

“How odd!” she notes, landing without so much as a sound.

“I think…” you trail off, reaching up instead of at eye level. Your suspicions are confirmed when your hand goes straight through a section of the upper wall, the stone crumbling to dust around your fingers as a tiny passageway is revealed.

“That’s the hidden door? It’s miniscule. None of us can fit in there,” Chrysalis grumbles.

“Can you shapeshift into something smaller and try to get through?” you ask, and she stiffens.

“I, um… right. I… forgot… I could do that,” she mumbles, giving you a sheepish grin.

She grits her teeth, lighting her horn as green fire washes over her. Blinded, you stumble back, bumping into Nightmare Moon before rubbing your eyes.

Before you is the most adorable thing you’ve ever seen. It’s like a tiny version of Nightmare Moon, with a fluffy pinkish-white coat and curly purple hair with a streak of blue running through it. The wings are a bit oddly proportioned to the rest of the body, looking almost oversized, but you suppose it might just be how tiny alicorns look. Her big, expressive cyan eyes look up at you, and you can’t help but melt a little at the sight, scooping her up into a hug.

“Who is this?” you ask, in a tone best reserved for babies and puppies.

“Dis is Fwurr-“ the baby begins in a high-pitched coo, before clearing her throat in a much deeper tone. “This is Flurry Heart, daughter to Princess Cadance. I foalnapped her once.”

You’re tempted to hold her and cuddle the everlasting heck out of her, but an impatient cough from Nightmare Moon reminds you of your mission. Sighing with regret, you boost the fake Flurry up into the small passageway, where she scuffles around a little before dropping out of sight.

“You okay?” you call up into the small tunnel, and a green light begins shining from somewhere within the darkness.

“I’m fine. This room’s completely dark – looks like the gems here are… yellow? Hard to tell,” she calls back.

“Try using white light in your spell,” Nightmare Moon calls back.

“Really? Why didn’t I think of that before?” Chrysalis calls back sarcastically as a multitude of flashing colors strobe from the dark vent, evidently mocking Nightmare Moon.

“Is the trap in there a dance party? Because if so, I’m disappointed I can’t come,” you call back, deciding to try out this whole ‘banter’ thing for yourself.

Chrysalis’ delighted peals of laughter make you grin with triumph. “Yes. It’s the best dance party you could possibly imagine in here,” she taunts.

“Dance… party? We doth not understand,” Nightmare Moon puzzles.

“It’s exactly what the name implies,” you assure her.

She shrugs. “Foals are into some strange things these days…”

Chrysalis’ laughter increases, before abruptly cutting off as she gives a grunt of pain.

“You okay?” you ask, all mirth forgotten.

“Bumped into something and tripped,” she calls back. There’s a moment more of scuffling, and she emerges out the door with a large, yellow Key clutched in her mouth. She spits it out in disgust, transforming back and shuddering.

“What was in there?” you wonder.

“Some kind of maze like the last one, except it kept moving around. It was annoying,” Chrysalis grumbles.

“Any clues as to where the next door is?” you ask, leaning against the wall.

“I checked the pedestal, nothing was written onto it,” Chrysalis denies, tossing the newest Key to you.

“Hrmm,” you trail off in thought as you catch it.

[ITEM: Citrine Key] [A key as yellow as the sun. One of six keys needed.]

Isn’t the sun white, though? Weird. You toss the Key into your backpack, where it comes to rest with a clink on top of the Sapphire Key. You take a moment to update your map, drawing a circle with a question mark inside it for the Citrine Room.

“Here, I’ll do it,” Chrysalis offers, seeing your lack of cartographic information, and you obediently hand the map and pencil over to her.

She erases your work, and begins to scribble, only to grit her teeth in frustration. Looking over, you see she’s attempting to draw everything out perfectly, but is having issues with the scale. You smirk, recalling your similar problems with your first attempt at a map of this place.

“Something funny?” she spits, noticing your expression and glaring fiercely at you.

“No, I’m just remembering my first attempts at mapping this place. It’s hard,” you defend.

Chrysalis growls something inaudibly, still glaring at you intently, but a moment later her expression softens. “This is hard,” she agrees, giving up and levitating the map and pencil back to you. “I thought art was easy. Easier than keeping one’s hive alive and well, at any rate,” she grumbles.

“Art’s like… like fighting. You start out bad, but you get better with a lot of practice,” you muse aloud.

“Were you an artist, perhaps, back before you lost your memory?” she wonders.

You shrug. “If I was, I’ve lost whatever skill I had. My first drawings of this place… Well, here, let me show you.” You dig through your backpack, pulling out the crumpled first attempt you’d made of drawing the Isolation Wing.

Chrysalis stares at it for a moment. “Wow,” she comments. “It’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen.”

Part of you can’t help but feel insulted, and she quickly backpedals as she notices your expression. “That is, compared to your recent works! Every artist starts out somewhere… right?” she attempts to repeat, grinning nervously at you.

You roll your eyes, grinning despite yourself. “Right,” you agree, balling up the old map and tossing it away.

With nothing much to do, you settle for resting against the cavern wall again. Chrysalis, after a moment of hesitation, curls up beside you as you lazily hold out an arm in invitation. Wrapping it around her barrel, you close your eyes, drifting off for a moment. She’s still learning… both of them are. But they’re already good friends.

Comments

[Razzy]

Bug waifu love cannon get!

[Adjier]

EEEEEEEE! *dances in place*

I love this story!

Can't wait for more.

[tybluelight]

i love it