Riddle for Power Ponies

by EnergeticRider

Digging Deeper

Machinery under the dome was a complete mess. Power Ponies spent half an hour helping the workers to clean it up. They also were asking if anypony suspicious was seen on the premises. But nopony remembered anything significant.

Power Ponies went to the main gate, arguing what they should do now. Marv pointed out that their only option was to wait for the Question Mare’s next move. But Zapp and Matter-Horn were impatient. The latter was really anticipating the next “test” and Zapp was just impatient by nature.

A tremor interrupted them in mid-conversation.

”W-what’s happening?” asked Saddle Rager anxiously. “Could it be the dome?”

“No, we checked it twice—” replied Marv, but before she finished Fili-Second darted off back inside as a gust of wind.

“Dome is fine,” reported Fili on returning a fraction of second later. “I’ll go check the rest of the city.”

It took a couple of minutes before she returned.

“Those tremors are all over the Maretropolis,” Filli said in a quicker manner than usual. “And the strongest ones were near the river in the western part of the city.”

“Then let’s not waste any time!” commanded Matter-Horn and spread her wings.

She took off and flew in the direction Filli showed. Zapp and Saddle Rager followed her and Radiance lingered a bit to let the rest gather on her flying carpet construct.

"The river, of course!" exclaimed Matter-Horn as Radiance’s construct caught up with her. "There is a tunnel construction under it. I saw it on the news. I don’t remember contractor’s name, but they use some new technology that is combined with magic.”

"What?" cried back Mistress Mare-velous, getting only half the words through the wind. "What did you say about the tunnel?”

"I’ll explain later," answered Horn. "It’s time to land.”

Matter-Horn flew down to the road leading towards the tunnel entrance. Filli-Second was already there, waiting.

As soon as alicorn touched the pavement, her hooves felt familiar, yet even stronger vibrations. Right beside her Radiance descended, stopping her carpet construct floating couple feet above the ground.

Marv and Saddle Rager jumped off the carpet. They too felt the vibrations and as they turned to the river, their ears perking at the rumbling coming from there. The tremors followed, so strong that it took everypony a bit of an effort to stand straight.

Zapp landed the last. The quake already passed and she was going to ask Matter-Horn what would be their next move, but in that very moment a flash of light broke out right in front of the Power Ponies. But instead of fading the light source curled into a ball and then transformed into a familiar silhouette.

"Welcome, Power Ponies, to my next test! This time I prepared a few puzzles for you. Do you like puzzles?”

"I don’t like puzzles!" Zapp dashed towards the Question Mare’s light projection. "Stop hiding behind your spells! Come out and fight fair.”

"Only numbskulls like you prefer brute force," replied the villainess arrogantly. "I use my intellect, my magic, and my tech. And if I wanted, I could leave you no clue how to stop the thunderstorm. See? You are only alive because I want you to experience my intellectual superiority.”

"Not a huge bargain," muttered Zapp, then added audibly, "So, what do you want from us now?”

"As your thoughtful leader probably guessed, the source of the tremors is a piece of machinery in this tunnel. To reach it you have to pass through three bulkheads. Each one is locked with a puzzle lock. Solve each puzzle and you will be able to reach the furthest section.” Question Mare made a pause and then added as if she forgot it at first.”Oh, and don’t try any magic. This test is for intellect only. My locks will repel any spell, except telekinesis. And if you use some stronger magics, they will explode, causing the tunnel to collapse." Question Mare giggled. "If I were you, I would be verycareful, especially since a few workers are locked in the tunnel.”

"Oh dear," whispered Saddle Rager.

Before anypony could say something more, the light went out and the silhouette of Question Mare faded. There was another strong tremor.

“So, what’s the plan?” Zapp asked after the quake passed.

“Go into the tunnel and solve this psycho’s puzzles,” answered Matter-Horn grudgingly. “There is nothing else we can do.”

With gloomy faces, Power Ponies trotted into the dark maw of the tunnel.

The first bulkhead was actually quite far from the entrance. Luckily the tunnel itself wasn’t so dark as it appeared from outside. A row of lamps snaked below the ceiling. They shone with a dim, but steady light that revealed the rough concrete blocks and metal rods under the hooves of the Power Ponies.

The bulkhead itself was made of metal and burrowed its sides deep in the walls, floor, and ceiling of the tunnel to make it completely waterproof. The gate for workers and equipment was about half the size of the whole bulkhead and was situated right in the middle of it. The gate leaves were hermetically shut, but also sealed with something the shape of a large square. That was undoubtedly the puzzle.

As Power Ponies came closer, they saw that the puzzle actually consisted of smaller squares. And those squares had notches and lugs that allowed them to move only along the vertical plane and only inside the puzzle’s metal frame.

"This… looks like a sliding puzzle," said Matter-Horn after examining it. "It’s nothing difficult.”

For two minutes she moved the pieces back and forth. And eventually, a pattern on them became a too familiar shadowy silhouette. As Matter-Horn shifted the last piece into place, the puzzle gave out a melodic chime and fell off the door, opening it.

"She should have known better than tease Matter-Horn with such easy puzzles!" blurted out Zapp.

The blue pegasus didn’t know how soon she would resent her words. The Power Ponies reached the next bulkhead quickly enough, but after that for the whole three minutes, Matter-Horn didn’t make any progress.

“What’s the holdup?” asked Zapp nervously.

“Shhh!” hushed Matter-Horn. “I need to find order those rings should be unlinked.”

The second puzzle was made of rings of different shapes that were locked together. Each time Matter-Horn thought that she found the right sequence, it appeared that one of the rings still got caught in the others. Several minutes slogged by, interrupted by a quake couple of times. With no result still, everypony felt more and more nervous.

"You know," sounded a familiar voice, this time seemingly coming from everywhere. "I’m bored. Maybe you should have something that will motivate you to work quicker?”

The vibrations below their hooves increased. Then there was an especially strong tremor.

"What have you done?!” cried Matter-Horn and Zapp almost in unison.

"Just disabled a safety guard. Now the drill is going into overdrive. You have ten, maybe fifteen minutes before the tunnel ceiling will fracture and collapse.”

"No! Stop. You trapped ponies inside, remember?!" Zapp cried her lungs out but had just silence for an answer. She turned to the purple alicorn.

"Matter-Horn, please hurry,” said Zapp, but Matter-Horn was totally consumed by solving the puzzle, relentlessly moving rings back and forth with telekinesis.

Zapp fell silent. She knew that talking would just be a distraction. A minute passed, then two.

Another tremor started, this time much stronger. Everypony except Matter-Horn pressed themselves to each other to keep balance and with growing unease eyed a pebble falling from the above. Horn, however, was still staring fixedly at the puzzle, wings spread wide to keep her balance.

And just as Power Ponies almost couldn’t bear the tension, Matter-Horn exclaimed, "Wait, this ring can shift outwards!”

She detached one ring moments later. Then another. The ponies exchanged glances, hesitant to release their breath. So far there were no more strong tremors, but how long that will last?

Less than two minutes passed and Matter-Horn took the last ring from the lock. A mechanism clicked and with a chime it fell off, opening the second bulkhead. Now everypony allowed themselves a sigh of relief.

But they already lost half the time that Question Mare said they had. If the next puzzle were to be equally hard… And as if Power Ponies weren’t agitated enough came another quake, a far more pieces of rubble than before fell from the ceiling.

A thought to turn back crossed everypony’s mind, but with innocents still trapped, they had no choice but to proceed. They dashed to the third puzzle and in a few seconds reached it. This one seemed to have a similar square field like the sliding one. However, there were no pieces in there to slide.

"So, what should we do?" Horn stared at the field.

"Look," Mistress Mare-velous pointed her hoof at a pile of strange metal pieces lying at the side. "Maybe those are parts of the puzzle.”

Matter-Horn took a few. They were also painted curiously. And she tried to put them into the square field. They stuck to it as if the were magnetized.

"Damn!" she exclaimed.

"What? It stuck to the board. That means it’s working.”

"Yes, Marv. But thispuzzle is different. All pieces have various peculiar shapes and must fit together very precisely. Do you see these?" Matter-Horn showed her friend a few especially tiny pieces. "There are so many, it will take me forever to place them properly. Certainly more than… four and a half minutes.”

"I think I can help you with this," exclaimed Fili-Second, and before Matter-Horn could say anything, the pink pony started to put various pieces on the board.

Fili’s movements became faster and faster. Soon she was a pink-and-white blur, her hooves moving so fast that they were not even seen.

"Done!" said Fili-Second and pointed at the puzzle filled with pieces forming, a bit unexpectedly, “I am impressed” inscription on them.

"Wow!" said Matter-Horn in a bit shocked voice. "Less than four minutes!”

"Ha, big deal," interrupted Zapp. "Four minutes is way too much for you, Fili.”

"But she had millions of variants to try.”

"I--" Fili had no chance to finish the answer.

The few remaining workers that were locked in the third section of the tunnel rushed through the opened door.

"Is anyone left in the last section with the drill?" asked Masked Matter-Horn.

"I don’t know," one of them called, clearly having his mind on getting out and nothing else.

Power Ponies entered the furthest part of the tunnel. It was shorter than the previous section, but wasn’t lit that well--some lamps were only far ahead, from where the rumbling from the drill was coming. Radiance quickly remedied that by making two large luminescent stick constructs.

The walls ponies saw around were mostly rock, barely cut at some rough edges. The floor was also uneven and cluttered with machinery and equipment. As little chance for somepony to be left here was, there was no way to say for sure in this clatter. Power Ponies cautiously went forward.

"You cheaters!" cried Question Mare, her voice coming from everywhere.

"It was you who changed rules first!" lashed out Matter-Horn. "You set a new time limit right in the middle of the test.

"And we already saved everyone!" added Zapp. "You have no hostages in the tunnel anymore.”

"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha," Question Mare’s laugh was almost hysterical. "No hostages. Say that there is nopony in this tunnel.”

"What? I’ll say…" and then Zapp fell silent, realizing her mistake.

The bulkhead the Power Ponies just unlocked, started to close again. However, Matter-Horn wasn’t caught by surprise. She used her freezing ray to stop the folds.

"Quick thinking," complimented Mistress Mare-velous.

"If only she had managed to stop the other two bulkheads from closing." the Question Mare sneered.

"So, was this your plan all along?" asked Marv. "To lure us underground and bury us alive? Because if it was, I warn you! You haven’t won…”

"Don’t speak nonsense!" interrupted the villainess. "As I’ve said, I could deal with you already. But I want to show my intellect being superior.”

"To whom?”

"To EVERYPONY!" screamed the Question Mare, almost silencing the noise from the drill. "I want everyone to know that it were my traps and riddles that were the instrument of your demise. That the smartest of you were unable to demonstrate ingenuity and cleverness, despite being given every single chance and every single hint! Even now, all you need is to say one “magic word” that I coded into the drill controls to stop it, but you wouldn't be able to do even that.”

"Why?

"Because instead of thinking, you are arguing with me. Ha!”

"And what was your hint about the “magic word” then?" asked Matter-Horn.

However, nopony answered her.

"Quickly!" cried Marv. "To the drill. We will figure something out!”

When Power Ponies approached the drill, it was already vibrating so loudly that they had to shout to be heard.

"Look around," commanded Matter-Horn. "She said that she has given us every single hint. I think she left something around. Search for it.”

"Stop!" cried Fili-Second right at the drill.

Immediately it produced a pleasant mare voice:

"Your magical word is incorrect.”

"Well," shrugged Fili-Second, "it was worth a try.”

"Now start searching!" cried Marv.

Matter-Horn stood in front of the drill, trying to figure out if there is another way to turn it off.

"You know, it’s a very advanced system," she said mostly to herself, though Mistress Mare-velous was close enough to hear her. "I’ve read about recent experiments to combine magic and technology, so apparently our ‘Question mare’ knows a lot about that.”

"That’s all well and good," answered Marv. "But let’s return to more pressing matters. How do you turn this advanced system off?”

"Fili!" cried Matter-Horn. "Have you found anything that resembles a hint?”

"Only some digging tools and stuff. Could it be the hint?”

"I don’t know." Matter-Horn turned to the machine, thinking what digging tool shouldn’t be around if you have a digging drill. "Shovel!”

"Your "magical word” is incorrect,” was an almost melodic answer.”

"Pick hammer.”

"Your magical word is incorrect.”

"What if we got it all wrong?" said Marv. "What if the hint is “magical word”? Like are there any standard spells to turn off such things?”

"Oh," Matter-Horn tried to remember the article, "I don’t think so.”

"Turn off, please," said Saddle Rager to the drill, trying to help, but the answer was still the same.

"Turn off this instant!" cried Zapp, but the answer again was incorrect.

"Of course!" Matter-Horn clapped her hoof at her face and then turned to the machine. "Incorrect!”

There was no answer, but a moment later the racket from the drill started to diminish.

"Wow! Who could have thought?" giggled Fili-Second.

"Now, let’s open the bulkheads and get out of here." Marv waved her hoof towards the exit.

However, they found out bulkheads already opened. Either their magic was tied to the drill “magic word” or Question Mare did that intentionally.

"Ha-ha! I knew you will find out the answer in the end," laughed the villainess, this time using a cloud of mist as her projection. "Why the long faces? That was fun. For me, at least.”

"You snarky bubble of hot air!" cried Zapp. "You could bury us and innocent workers in that tunnel just to have some fun.”

"Oh, you didn’t like that dark dump tunnel?" she asked, ignoring the pony. "My next test will happen in a totally different place. Happy, entertaining, amusing. For anypony. Ha-ha-ha.”

"Will you give us a hint again?" asked Marv. “Or should we search the whole Maretropolis for… a specific amusement park?”

"Oh, you’re getting the hang of it," answered the cloud. “Okay, since there are some thousand ponies’ lives on the line… I never was, yet always will be. Every day I come, yet never was seen.”

“Oh, a riddle again,” grunted Zapp. “Why wouldn’t you tell us your name outright? So we could come and kick...”

The voice inside the mist had burst into laughter all of a sudden. “Oh, sorry. That was just priceless. Totally. You will understand what I mean soon enough.”

And with the last word the cloud dissolved.

"So? Any Ideas?" asked Marv.”If we don’t find which of the amusement parks she targeted in time, there would be casualties for sure. I think Maretropolis has a dozen such parks or so.”

"Yes, but the riddle is probably about the park’s name," answered Matter-Horn. "Fili, what do you think?”

“Me? Why me?” replied pink pony trying to put on an offended face. “Do you think I’m the one that knows all entertainment in the city?”

She caught everypony’s glance.

“Okay, it’s probably “Land of Tomorrow” because ‘tomorrow’ is the answer to the riddle. Right?”

“Yes,” Matter-Horn said in a bit detached voice. “Wait. I remember ‘Land of Tomorrow’ being mentioned in a science magazine I read.”

"And let me guess," added Marv, "it also uses magic in conjunction with technology.”

Matter-Horn nodded.

"And I think it’s more than a coincidence. Fili, I want you to go to the city’s archives and look up something for me." Then Matter-Horn gave her quite a few instructions.

Good thing Fili-Second had a strong memory. But even for her with her speed, it would've taken a lot of time to search through the whole archives of Maretropolis. So the rest of the Power Ponies hurried to the “Land of Tomorrow”.