Tune of the Piper

by Bookpony579

Chapter 8

The trio made their way down a long, dark tunnel that obviously hadn't been opened since Aurella was here, with all the dust and spider webs to go by. Twilight used her magic to light the way down the tunnel.

They walked in silence for a few minutes before reaching a set of large wooden doors. Daring tugged on them, revealing them to be locked.

"Locked. Maybe there's a key somewhere around here, or maybe another puzzle-"

*Zapp!*

Flash and Daring stared at the empty hole on the door where the handles used to be, before turning to Twilight, whose hand still glowed from the blast.

"What?" She asked, noticing their looks. "Believe it or not I'm actually kind of tired of puzzles at this point."

Flash and Daring just stared at her for another minute before deciding to just continue. Daring, being careful of the still hot blasted part, carefully pulled the door open to reveal a dark room.

They stepped in, and suddenly torches hanging on the wall all around the room lit up, revealing the large, underground crypt.

"Guys..." Daring said, looking around. "I think we found it."

At the end of the crypt, raised on a couple of steps, was a large, stone grave. A plaque on the side of the coffin read:

Here lies Tui Pied, savior of the town of Hamelin.

"We've found it!" Daring exclaimed excitedly. "This is the resting place of the Pied Piper! Aurella must have hidden it with him! The Flute has to be here!"

"And I want to thank you ever so much for leading us to it, Miss Do."

Daring turned around sharply to find Caballeron standing there smirking while two of his goons had snuck up on Flash and Twilight and grabbed them.

"Caballeron!" Daring gasped.

"The one and only!" He gave a mock bow and nodded to someone just before Daring felt someone behind her grab her arms.

"You've been following us!"

"Indeed I have." He nodded again. "I admit you briefly escaped us at the museum, but we saw you as you were leaving the park. You see, we were also having trouble deciphering the puzzles Aurella left behind, that's why I wanted the journal. But when I saw that you and her granddaughter were reading it, I thought; 'Why not let them do the hard parts while I get the reward!'" He looked over at Flash and Twilight struggling against their captors. "And really Miss Do? Bringing in children to help you? I knew you were desperate but come on!"

"They have nothing to do with this!" Daring yelled, struggling. "Let them go! They won't tell anyone about this!"

"Oh but Daring..." A new voice echoed. "You wouldn't want your friends to miss the unveiling of The Piper's Flute, now would we?"

Daring turned her head in horror to the new figure at the doorway. He was one of the strangest creatures Twilight and Flash had ever seen (excluding Discord of course). He was a large creature with dark blue fur with light blue fur on his jaw and stomach. He had a giant, dog like head with ape like arms and wore a gold necklace along with a single earring and several bracelets. The most unusual feature about him though, was his tail, which seemed to be another hand on the end of it!

"Ahuizotl..."

He gave a cruel laugh as he entered the room. "Indeed Daring! It is so good to see you again! It feels like forever since that temple in Mareico. Now then...on to todays treasure!" He and Caballeron walked up to the coffin followed by two of Ahuizotl's goons. As they moved the coffin lid, Ahuizotl's smirk grew. "Finally, once I have the Piper's Flute, I can command anyone with a simple tune! There will be no one able to stop me!" He than gave the typical evil guy laugh as his goons finally got the stone lid off and let it hit the ground.

Ahuizotl and Caballeron looked in eagerly...before their expressions turned to one of confusion, then anger.

"What the-" Caballeron gasped.

"Where is the flute!?" Ahuizotl yelled out in anger.

Indeed, inside the coffin was the skeletal remains of the Pied Piper, along with the remaining strands of his clothing. He was holding a piece of paper, but there was no flute.

Caballeron picked up the note and read it out loud.

"'Sometimes the best place to hide something is right out in plain sight.'"

"What in the world is that supposed to mean!?"

"How am I supposed to know!? Aurella was the Master Detective, not me!"

Ahuizotl growled before pointing to Daring. "You! You've been solving her puzzles all day! What does this one mean!?"

Daring blinked. "I-I don't-"

Suddenly she felt her captor stumble into her before letting go. She turned and saw him unconscious on the floor, before noticing another goon had his feet frozen with ice to the floor while the other seemed to be sinking into it!

"Let's go!" A now freed Twilight yelled as she and Flash ran for the exit.

"After them!" Ahuizotl commanded as Daring took off running before realizing most of his goons were caught in magical traps of different sorts.

Quickly ,the trio ran past the door. Flash and Daring quickly closed it while Twilight fired another spell at it, covering it with a wall of ice. They could heat Ahiuzotl banging at it as they ran down the tunnel.

"Hurry!" Twilight yelled. "I don't know how long that's going to last!"

Soon, they made it back up the stairs and once they were safely on the ground, Daring took out the amulet, retracting the stair case.

"Okay..." She breathed. "That should buy us a little time, but not a lot."

"What now?" Flash said. "The crypt was a bust!"

"Not exactly, you both heard the last clue right? Do you have any idea what it could mean?" Daring asked Twilight.

Twilight tried mentally analyzing the riddle, but only coming up blank each time.

Come on brain! There must be something that we missed!

Quickly, she mentally recapped the day's adventure, from arriving to the city, the temple, the park, and finally here at the cemetery. Remembering each exact detail as best as she could and wondering if there was something she overlooked.

"I don't get it." Flash wondered. "How can you hide something in plain sight?"

Twilight's eyes widened as the last piece of the puzzle finally clicked into place.

"By putting it right where you'd expect to see it! Come on! I know where she put it!"

Comments

[Comickook]

Excellent job on this chapter once more. The exchanges, characterizations, action and climax set-up are all very well done in all the right places.

I particularly liked Twilight's actually showing even SHE gets tired of puzzles once in a while as well as Twilight, Daring and Flash escaping from Caballeron and Ahuizotl and how they were trying to think of the final clue before Twilight apparently flashed on the answer .

Indeed, I will definitely be looking forward to the next chapter (which, unless I miss my guess, will be either the last or second-to-last one).

[Machine]

Cool chapter!