Swift Light and the Chaos Conundrum

by Jest

Riddles

“It sounds like a riddle of some kind,” Viciz replied.

Swift Light recoiled as if struck, her hoof going to her head, and a groan spilling past her lips. “What the hell?” she murmured.

“Are you alright? Don't tell me the riddle was so hard that just thinking about it gave you an aneurysm,” joked the changeling.

Swift Light shook her head. “I just had a really strange vision of some kind.”

“What happened in it?” Viciz questioned.

“I’m not quite sure anymore. It's fuzzy,” Swift Light murmured, shaking her head. “It doesn't matter.”

“So, back to the riddle then?” Viciz remarked.

“I don't think it's a riddle in the traditional sense,” Swift Light exclaimed, trotting up to the door. “I think we have to make this room silent somehow.”

“That would make sense, as the answer to the riddle was-” Viciz began, only to be cut off when Swift Light stuffed a hoof in her mouth.

“Don't say that word. I’m fairly certain it sets off a trap of some kind,” Swift Light whispered.

The changeling rolled her eyes, and took a step back. “You could have just told me to shut up, you didn't have to put your dirty hoof in my mouth.”

Swift Light blushed. “It was the quickest way to make you stop.”

The changeling shrugged. “Alright then, so we should have to just stop the dripping then right?”

“Again, I’m not totally certain, but I think so,” Swift Light reiterated.

“That should be easy, you cast a small shield spell over those three and I’ll do the others,” Viciz declared.

The guard nodded and did as she was informed, casting three small shields over the openings of the pipes. After her partner did the same, Swift Light glanced over to the door, which sat there unmoving for several long seconds. Then a deep blue light illuminated the glowing script, and reduced it to nothing, before spreading out to the rest of the door.

“Well would you look at that,” Viciz remarked.

“Where do you think that long, spooky hallway leads?” Swift Light replied, cancelling her spell and walking over to said long spooky hallway.

Viciz shrugged. “I have no idea, but I do have a feeling that it's the right direction.”

Swift Light peered into the poorly lit gloom which was illuminated only by two glowing azure blue lines on the ceiling. “I think I can see stairs at the end of it.”

“The chamber must be somewhere below then,” Viciz replied.

“It must be. Well, we might as well see where it leads,” Swift Light exclaimed before taking a step.

The changeling nodded, followed close behind her. “There better not be snakes down here. I hate snakes.”

---

“Aaand there,” Viciz declared, the changeling standing back up and dusting off her hooves.

Swift Light peered out from around a nearby corner. “Are you sure it's shut off? That thing nearly took off my tail,” asked the guard, who glanced back at the lock of hair which had been removed from her behind.

The changeling chuckled. “If it wasn't, could I do this?”

She stuck her hoof out into the strange beam of blue light which bathed the area in front of another large stone door. Swift Light nearly grabbed the other mare with her magic before she realized that nothing was happening. Now no longer in any danger, the unicorn stepped out from her cover, and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Well that's great. Hopefully it's the last one. I’m getting sick and tired of all these traps,” Swift Light griped.

“It's a good thing I didn't bring my effeminate brother along with us then,” Viciz quipped.

Swift Light chuckled as she trotted up to the other mare. “You are on a roll this past hour. What's with all the jokes?”

Viciz shrugged. “I finally got used to you and realized that you werent about to bite my head off if I tried to lighten the mood. Now come on, we got another enormous door to open and I don't want to pull something trying to open it.”

“Heh, pull something,” Swift Light murmured giggling at the accidental pun.

Reaching forward, the guard gripped the handle tightly in her hooves and tugged several times. Continuing to do so until finally the ancient stone door opened with a deep grinding sound like two boulders rolling against one another. Though unpleasant to the ears, the sight before them was not, as they now stood before a far larger room then the one behind them.

One that quickly turned into what appeared to be a naturally formed cave of some kind, with long stalactites towering from above. Stepping out onto the landing, Swift Light and Viciz found that they were on some manner of observation post. The stone ground had been carefully cut and inlaid with an image of a large pearl being cupped in the paw of some enormous beast.

There were also guard rails which stopped them from falling off the nearly fifty foot ledge which went all the way down to the cave floor. Stairs could be seen emerging from the right side of the platform, and went all the way to the ground, which appeared to have been formed naturally save for a single large circle in the middle. Around which was a veritable ocean of deep azure water the same brilliant shade of blue as the pool they had seen outside.

The area was illuminated with strange blue bulbs around the wall in addition to an enormous hole in the ceiling, where a long series of ropes descended all the way to the center. Which happened to be near where the pearl itself was located, as well as what looked like a discarded compass, though how it had gotten inside of the shield defending the artifact was not known. They didn't initially notice that smaller detail however, as they were too busy staring in awe at the enormous ethereal sphinx pounding against a second shield.

The beast was enormous, and strangely ghostlike, making it hard to see unless the light struck it in just the right way. It was also repeatedly slamming its great paws down on a shield which had been conjured around the pearl’s shield. This secondary barrier held the sphinx out, and allowed a dozen ponies to repeatedly use pickaxes to hammer away at the other magical wall which kept them from their prize.

“Woah, that's crazy,” Viciz muttered. “I didn't know sphinxes could do that. Or even that they were real in the first place.”

“Down there, it's them,” Swift Light pointed, jabbing a hoof towards the dark figures.

The pair peered over the edge and towards the strange individuals were slowly removing chunks of the magical barrier. Despite their slow pace, they werent in a rush, and the two unicorns in their midst didn't seem to struggle against the sphinx’s attack. Though the majority of the ponies were fairly standard looking henchmen with menial labour cutie marks, one stood out from the rest.

His coat was white, his horn long, and his mere presence commanded both respect and fear in equal measure. Though it was his eyes that grabbed Swift Light’s attention as even from a great distance they looked off. Peering closer, Swift Light was surprised to find that they were black rectangles and resembled that of a goat’s.

“He's mutated too,” Swift Light murmured, touching her own sharp teeth absently.

“I wonder what happened to him,” Viciz whispered.

“I have no idea, but I have a feeling we are going to find out,” Swift Light replied. “Lets see if we can hear what they are saying.”

The pair leaned as far as they dared, straining their ears to pick up any snippets of conversation they could. They were surprised to find that they could indeed hear what was being said, the strange accousics of the room making it feel like they were standing only a few feet away.

“How much longer is this going to take?” whined one of the workers.

“Only a few minutes,” replied the white coated unicorn in their midst. “As soon as we punch through this last barrier the compass will be ours.”

“And that pearl,” added one of the other unicorns.

“How much do you think that will go for on the black market? Two, maybe three million bits?” asked the other unicorn.

“The boss didn't say anything about the pearl, though they also didn't say not to grab it,” muttered the guard, who chuckled darkly. “Hell I’d grab it just to piss off that stupid sphinx.”

“I can hear you!” shouted the sphinx.

“Goddamn that thing is annoying,” muttered one of the workers.

“At least we aren't getting teleported everywhere by the boss anymore. I swear I feel like that last jump left my insides all mixed up,” remarked another worker.

“We’ll have time to complain when we are sitting in Karakas and sipping on the finest wines that shit hole city has to offer,” barked the mutated guard, prompting a wave of chuckling from his men.

“Well that's no good,” murmured Viciz.

“Quite,” Swift Light murmured. “They must have a master of teleportation on their side if they have gotten here so quickly without having a corresponding rune already having been placed.”

“At least they don't have a shield master with them, otherwise we’d be outta luck,” Viciz added.

“Very true,” Swift Light agreed.

The guard peered down at the stairs, planning her attack and trying to figure out some way to take their enemies by surprise. She considered diving beneath the water and emerging next to them, but she didn't know what was in the blue liquid, or what it would do to her. Swift Light was about to ask Viciz her opinion when she saw the sphinx suddenly turn towards them, its ears standing on end.

“Swift Light, what do we do? It's looking right at us,” Viciz whispered, the changeling remaining perfectly still.

“Hope and pray that it's in a friendly mood?” Swift Light replied with a shrug.

The enormous creature leapt from the landing and onto the side of the cliff, its ethereal claws carrying it up the wall at a frightening pace. In seconds, it loomed over the pair, its dull grey eyes peering down intently on the frightened adventurers. From here the pair could at least see more of the sphinx’s features, like the golden circlet it wore upon its head which had what looked like a crescent moon on the front of it.

Its two toned seafoam green mane hung down around its shoulders, contained by a white cloth resembling a great wing with blue dots at the tip of each feather. It's tufted ears stood straight up, though its eyes remained narrowed, revealing that its lids were a dull teal color. Black eyeliner accented its already piercing gaze, and from its shoulders hung what appeared to be a shawl of silk.

Its fur was a light pink, its tail the same color as its mane and bound by more golden rings, giving it the air of royalty. A feeling that was slightly hindered by the four enormous fangs it had as well as the razor sharp teeth which filled its mouth. For a moment it said nothing, the ghostly sphinx studying the pair curiously, as if deciding what to do with them.

“You have passed the trials, and earned an audience with the last priest of the pearl. Though I must unfortunately delay such a meeting permanently as I have use for you two,” declared the sphinx.

“What exactly do you mean?” Swift Light pressed, her horn glowing brightly.

“You must do what I cannot,” stated the sphinx with a hint of sadness. “And you have my deepest apologies.”

Author's Note:

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Comments

[Courage Fire]

Uh oh.

[Neece]

I'm betting paws for the next permanent transformation.

[Steakthedog]

Oh boy, I really don’t like where this is going.