Raven Hollow 2: The Riddles of Blackmoor

by Magic Step

Stone Cold

The first thing you need is the key. The puzzle says it involves numbers and that you hold the key in your hooves. It takes a lot of thinking, but then you finally realize that the key is probably the Dewey Decimal number of the book that you’re holding: 541.16.

Following the instructions on how to use the key, you start with the first letter, H, and count forward five letters, I, J, K, L, M. The first letter is M.

The second letter is e and the second number is 4, so you count forward 4 letters, f, g, h, i. The second letter is I.

After working your way through, you finally have the book’s title: Midnight Rose by Passionate Pages. Now you just need to find the romance books…

“Get away from that!”

The loud shout in the silent library makes you jump and whirl around. The bluish-purple unicorn from the restaurant is right behind you, his horn lit up with a red aura. A glowing red sword-shaped light is about a foot away from your face, the tip aimed directly at your eye.

“S-swordplay Study,” you say, swallowing your fear.

“You have no right to know that, or to read that book!” Swordplay Study says, punctuating each word by stabbing the air near your nose with his magical sword. You back up against the bookshelf, leaving you no room to go anywhere.

“I’m a private detective,” you say, trying to will your heartbeat to slow down. He’s not actually attacking you; that’s a good sign. “I’ve been looking for you. Your sister is worried--”

Faster than you can react, the red sword whacks you on the side of your head and stars explode in your vision. It feels more like you were hit with a club than a blade; these must be the magical equivalent of wooden practice swords.

“Ha, a likely story, scoundrel!” Swordplay says, making you wonder what time period he thinks he lives in. “My sister has nothing to worry about! Everything I’m doing is for her!”

Why isn’t anypony coming over to break up the fight? Or at least to shush Swordplay for yelling in a library?

Discretion being the better part of valor, you attempt to escape by darting underneath Sword Study’s weapon and running. You only make it a few steps before you hit what feels like an invisible wall; as you blink in surprise, you see the air ripple.

“As you can see, I’ve used a silencing shield spell to give us some privacy,” Swordplay says, before whacking you on the other side of the head.

You can’t even begin to fight an opponent that can attack you from such distance like this, so you crouch to the ground with your forelegs over your head to try and protect this critical region from any more concussive blows. Swordplay, undeterred, just starts whaling on your back, but his sword is apparently growing weaker because now it feels like being hit with a plastic bat. You still yelp loudly with every blow.

“I know who you are!” Swordplay shouts. “I recognize the pin! Hawkdive warned me you’d try to steal our treasure!”

“You’ve got it all wrong,” you say, closing your eyes to try to stop the throbbing in your head. “Hawkdive is just-”

The physical blows abruptly stop, and you feel cold metal under your chin. Startled, your eyes fly open, and you find your attacker is holding a very real sword right near your throat.

“Now,” Swordplay Study says, “I may be a gentlestallion, but don’t think I will hesitate to kill you if you make any sudden moves.”

You’re shaking so much you can barely think straight. This pony could slit your throat anytime he wanted to.

But he wasn’t taking his chance to kill you. So your odds were better with him than with the Court, not that that was saying much…

“Now just relax. I won’t kill you unless you make me. This won’t hurt a bit.” His aura flares brighter, and your vision clouds with red. Gradually, your limbs feel heavier, your brain fuzzier; by the time you realize it’s a sleep spell it’s much too late to do anything to resist…

***

You slowly regain consciousness, vaguely aware of a sound like ripping duct tape and something hot at your back. The air smells musty and moldy. Your hooves feel stuck together. So do your eyes, but hopefully that’s not from duct tape.

After a few seconds you manage to blink your eyes open, but the only light source is a dull orange glow coming from behind you somewhere and the red aura of your abductor. You can make out cardboard boxes and pipes along the walls, and the roll of duct tape Swordplay Study is holding.

“Wh-where…?” you drone sleepily.

Swordplay jumps, the tape falling from his grip. “Look, never mind where you are! Just sit tight and when I come back with Hawkdive, we’ll deal with you!” He backs away, illuminating a door by the far wall for just a moment before he ducks through it. The entire door glows red for a second, and then silence.

The pounding of your heart wakes up your whole body; sure, Swordplay may not be anxious to kill you, but Hawkdive certainly will be. You’ve got to get out of this, now.

Your front and back hooves are both bound together, and not very well either. Not to mention they aren’t bound to anything besides themselves, and Swordplay forgot to take care of your mouth. By wriggling your forehooves and biting at the tape, you manage to get them free. You’re shaking the whole time though; no telling when Hawkdive will come…

Your back legs follow shortly after your front ones, and you run to the door and push and pull on the doorknob. Nothing. It doesn’t even wiggle like a locked door would; the spell must have somehow sealed it in place.

“HELP!” you shout, pounding on the door. The sound of the thudding sounds vaguely muted; Sword Study must’ve put his silent shield spell on the door.

Turning, you find that the orange glow and heat you’d observed were part of a large heater; this must be the library’s boiler room. Or for all you know it’s the boiler room in an entirely different establishment.

Boxes. You have three boxes. There needs to be something in there. It can’t end this way. You rip the tape off one and look inside.

Books. Thin paperback books. They wouldn’t even be good for throwing at Hawkdive.

The other boxes are more of the same. Vaguely, you read a few titles by the light of the boiler, but it looks like they’re all cheap romance novels from the same author. You could really use a book about negating sealing spells but it looks like that’s not happening.

You circle the boiler as best as you can, hoping some repair pony left a toolbox there or that there’s a circuit breaker you can hack to attract help, but there’s nothing, nothing at all, no loose pipes to swing, no hot steam to point at an enemy, no windows to the outside, nothing, nothing, nothing.

Your ears swivel; hoofsteps. They’re coming. They’re coming, they’re coming, oh sweet Celestia this can’t be the end…!

Crouching to the floor, you curl up and shut your eyes, every fiber in your body trembling, your heart ready to leap out of your mouth…

“What the hay is wrong with you?” Fabric Study asks.

You lift your head and find the lavender unicorn staring down at you disapprovingly. “You normally lock yourself in closets to cry when you can’t solve puzzles?” she says.

Already, you’ve calmed down enough at the sight of rescue to feel insulted. “You think this was on me!?” You stand up and point at the torn up scraps of duct tape on the floor. “You think I taped myself up and broke myself out for fun!?”

Fabric Study looked down at the tape and gaped oddly at it. “Wh-who…?”

“No time, we have to leave,” you say. “Does the library have a back way out?”

“I mean… that’s the exit sign…” Fabric Study said, pointing down the hall. You lean out the door and spot an emergency exit.

“Great, let’s go; I’ll tell you on the way.” You race over to the door, checking briefly to make sure an alarm won’t sound when you open it, and push your way through into fresh air and warm sunshine. Relief makes you weak in the knees.

“Now start talking,” Fabric Study says, her tone whiny.

“Let’s get farther away first,” you say. You never found the book with the key in it, but likely Swordplay’s already been there by now. “Do you know where there’s a statue garden made by Sculpture Study?”

“Fine, we can start walking there,” Fabric Study says. “But if you’re just going to curl up and cry again…”

You whirl around and barely manage to restrain yourself from smacking her. “Will you cut that out!? If you had any idea what they are capable of…”

“...They…?” Fabric Study cocks her head, confused.

“Like I said, I’ll tell you on the way; now start walking.”

For the sake of safety in numbers, you walk together through major streets where you’re never outside shouting distance of the townsponies, not that that’ll help if Swordplay can get a silence shield around you again. You tell your story mostly in whispers, about Raven Hollow, the Court, the ponies they killed, and their obsession with riddles and immortality. You mention Hawkdive and the mine where he locked you in specifically.

And at the end of your story, Fabric Study responds with a disinterested “Mmm-hmm.”

“You think I’m making this up?” you say.

“It doesn’t make a lick of sense why they’d come here,” Fabric Study says, shrugging. “There’s nothing in Blackmoor that they could want.”

“What about your family treasure?” you say.

“The one hidden behind the riddles? It’s just a random rock our ancestor thought was cool and hid to make a fun treasure hunt.”

“What kind of rock?” you ask, your interest already spiking.

Fabric Study shrugs. “I don’t know.”

“Then how can you know it’s not valuable?”

“I don’t know, okay?” Fabric Study says, whirling around. “But more importantly, my brother would never work with such horrible ponies!”

“Even if they offered him a lot of money, and he didn’t know their true nature?” you say.

“He wouldn’t be so easily fooled!” Fabric Study said. “And anyway, he doesn’t need money. Our parents are rich!”

“About that,” you say. “He said he was doing it for your sake…”

Fabric Study’s expression doesn’t change, but she suddenly has nothing to say. You resist the temptation to rub it in.

“Listen,” you say, “your brother didn’t believe me when I said I was working for you, so we’re going to find him again, together, and you’re going to explain this to him and ask what’s up, because I’m not getting paid enough to get beat up twice.”

You expect Fabric Study to fly into a rant about how her brother would never attack anypony but instead she nods numbly.

Shortly after, you arrive at a small green hill; on the top is a tiled area filled with statues shaped like animals, from red lions and blue hippos twice the size of an adult pony to ducks and frogs the size of fillies. You’d somehow expected an outdoor museum-like exhibit of famous ponies that adult art critics came to observe and write papers about. This seems more like a playground.

And as you observe the odd dozen foals who run around the statue garden, it becomes apparent that this actually is a playground. Older and braver children slide down the backs of dragon statues while younger ones play The Ground is Lava by hopping around on stone ladybugs. Athletic children play freeze tag, weaving through and over statue legs, while artistically inclined children doodle with chalk on a green-painted pony in one corner. In the center, children splash and play in a shallow fountain with several child-high spouts. At the back of the fountain is a wall with a frieze of a landscape, and at the center of the fountain is a life sized pony standing on its hind legs looking through a telescope.

A signboard near the edge of the park announces:

“Animal Fantasy Garden, created by Sculpture Study to be enjoyed by children for generations to come. NOTICE: Being made decades ago, this park does not conform to modern safety standards for children’s playgrounds. The Study family and the Blackmoor Center for Parks and Recreation assume no responsibility for any injuries incurred. Play at your own risk. We especially do not recommend climbing on the Explorer statue, the largest dragon statue, or the elephant.”

“Hi Miss Study!” somepony shouts out. A few small foals converge on you and Fabric, all about elementary school age.

“Is this your special somepony?” a pink and red earth pony filly asks.

“No!” Fabric Study protests, her ears turning red. “We’re just here to… um…”

“I’m a tourist, an acquaintance of the Studies, and Fabric Study wanted to show me the park and introduce me to some of her friends,” you say quickly.

The foals squeal with excitement and introduce themselves in a rush.

“Want to play tag?” an older blue unicorn colt asks.

“Sure,” you say. Might be a good way to look all around the playground.

A tiny yellow unicorn filly runs up and pushes her nose against your foreleg. “You’re it!” she cries, dashing away again as fast as her tiny legs can carry her. The other children also scatter, including, to your surprise, Fabric Study. You give chase, leaping over stone lizards and ducking under dragon bellies. Finally, you run into the pink and red filly from before. You boop her nose, making her eep. “No tag backs,” you say, running off to hide.

Engaging in such a childish activity so soon after being afraid for your life is surreal. It makes all your troubles feel so far away.

Eventually, tired out, you join the other children taking a break near the fountain. A teal colt splashes you, so you put one hoof on a fountain jet to spray him back, making him squeak with delight.

“Hey, mister, have you tried the riddle yet?” the little yellow filly asks.

You look at her in surprise. “What riddle?”

She leads you to the frieze behind the fountain. There’s a small dish in the center of the picture with more than a dozen marbles in it; some are solid colors while others have pictures, like an eye, or a compass with the needle pointing east. Above the dish is written:

"When this courtyard was made, my friend Anna had just been let out of the hospital. She'd been there for a week, but there never was anything wrong with her: no illness, injury, or complaint from her during her entire stay. But they kept her in the hospital against her will for a full week, and while she was there, she was not allowed to do anything for herself, not even get up off the bed. And when she was finally released, she had to be carried from the hospital by her parents.

“Find five Annas and feed each one three marbles that go with their favorite element. If you do it right you’ll get a surprise! If you mess up or lose the marbles though, don’t worry; each night the marbles will teleport back to this dish and you can try again tomorrow!”

“You also need the poem down there,” the yellow filly says, pointing to the bottom of the picture.

You look down and see five poetic lines.

Wood is the sunrise and watching things grow.
Metal is the sunset and the perfume of gardenias.
Water is the din in the dark night and the most famous aurora.
Fire is hot peppers and summer in December.
Earth is your bare feet on the ground, golden no matter where you are.

Is this really Sculpture Study’s puzzle? Something out in the open that little children solve? Weren’t these supposed to be secret?

But on the other hand, it is a riddle in a statue garden, so you have nothing to lose if you try.

Author's Note:

I'm so sorry; I forgot to upload a chapter yesterday.

This puzzle is adapted from one in Nancy Drew: Resorting to Danger; it works better for a point-and-click adventure but I hope you all have fun with it too.

If you've solved Anna's riddle and aren't sure what to do next: Don't worry about what the five animals are or which goes with which element. Just figure out what marbles go with each element.