The Crystal Caves of Confuzzlation (Iota Force Issue #6)

by The Iguana Man

Chapter Nine: Turning Tails and Tables (Part One)

“Alula!” Icy exclaimed, beaming at the new arrival. “What are you doing here?”

“Coming to help you,” Alula replied, looking down at the entangely Conundra. “Not that I suspect you needed it, but I thought you wouldn't object to a helping hoof.”

“Friend o' yers, Icy?” Caprice asked before shrugging. “'Preciate the assist an' all, but you don't think you coulda made your way down here sooner?”

“Nice to see you too, Caprice,” a new voice came from behind the other door, sounding quite genuine despite it feeling like something that should have been said ironically.

“Aura?” Moonwing turned towards the other newcomer's voice. “Good to see you, but Caprice’s got a point – musta been a long journey if you're only now finding us.”

As Moonwing spoke, Icy turned her head to regard the new figure, only to see that it was, in fact, the same filly who had pointed out the hatch back in the library that afternoon. Icy blinked for a moment, realizing just how long ago that felt despite being the same day before shaking her head, looking over the filly.

She was an off-white colour with a pale blue mane and tail, giving her a slightly ethereal look. This was aided by her outfit – a light grey bodysuit covered in intricate embroidery in a multitude of colours coming down in columns along the body of the suit and down the legs. The embroidery contained a number of strange symbols, a few geometric shapes and, repeated quite a lot, simplified images of eyes.

“Nah, we'd have been down sooner,” the filly said as she walked forward, her voice relaxed and a little dopey-sounding, “but we had to take care of a few things first. See, we figured th- whoa!” Even her exclamation of surprise sounded laid-back and nonchalant as she nearly tripped over Conundra's prone form.

The filly turned her head down to the masked filly, drawing Icy's attention to her face, where it solidly stayed.

“Sorry about that, didn't notice you there!” The filly – Aura, apparently – said with a slightly embarrassed shrug.

“What do you mean you didn't notice me?!” Conundra sneered, looking up at the filly's face. “What are you, blind?! I... oh.”

Unlike when she'd spoken up in the library, Aura wasn't wearing dark glasses, meaning that Icy could see her eyes. However, it seemed the reverse could not be said, as her irises were a pale blue around the edges and a milky white covered the rest of her inner eye – the filly was, indeed, blind.

There was an extraordinarily awkward pause before Conundra coughed. “I... dangit, I'm sorry, I didn't realize... Ngh!” Her shoulders slumped as she growled, annoyed by having unintentionally made such an inappropriate comment.

Aura, however, just shrugged. “Hey, it's not biggie – you didn't know. Besides, I can see you, I just didn't notice you – was talking to my friends, you know how it is.”

“You can see?” Icy asked before she could stop herself. When Aura's seemingly sightless gaze turned to her, she sighed at her own curiosity before continuing. “I, um... I hope you don't mind me asking, but how do you, well...?”

The filly waved Icy's concern off. “It's fine – see's the wrong word anyway.” She pointed to her horn, which had a faint glow around it that, Icy now realized, had been active all the time she'd seen this filly. “It's all magic, baby. Kind of a sonar thing, you know? Lets me see pretty well without seeing. Oh, yeah, shoulda said,” she turned back to Conundra, “that whole see-your-greatest-fear dealie ain't gonna work on me. I mean, it didn't work anyway, but you know, figured I oughta say.”

Conundra huffed as the slight glow around her horn faded. “Yes, thank you so much, I... wait, how did you know about that?”

Alula rolled her eyes, her own horn glowing. “It's really quite obvious – the lingering aura of dark magic around your horn matches that of the item in the pocket of your cloak, however the item's aura is stronger, meaning you used it to get the dark spell you cast and this is the first time you yourself have wielded it. And you have no other magical items on your body, meaning the spell source was the first and only thing you took, meaning you must have been after one of Sombra's spells.”

“But he had dozens of secret spells,” Conundra said, her horn-area glowing slightly as she examined her own aura, “how did you-”

“Getting to that!” Alula interrupted, rolling her eyes. “Now the illusion that covered the hatch in library was both well-crafted and permanent, meaning that whoever made it was very talented, however the size of the hole showed they were around our age, meaning the caster must have had a talent for either magic in general or specifically illusions and, if your talent was for magic, you would have used your magic instinctively when you felt something around your hooves. As such, we can deduce that your special talent is illusion and it therefore follows that you were after Sombra's most powerful illusion spell.”

There was a moment of silence to make sure Alula was finished before Truffle spoke up.

“How absurdly simple!” he said, a good-natured sarcasm suffusing his tone.

“Of course,” Alula replied, as expressionless as ever. “Every problem is absurdly simple when it is explained to you.”

Conundra sighed heavily, looking up at Aura. “And you really figured all that out?”

“Oh, no, not any of it!” Aura replied cheerily before waving a hoof towards Alula. “Figuring stuff out's her thing, seems like. I didn't know any of that cool detective-y stuff before she said it.”

“Then how did you know what had happened?” Archer spoke up, raising an eyebrow.

Aura shrugged. “Just had a feeling, y'know. Seemed like what had happened.”

“Ms Gaze, how many times must I tell you,” Alula said, glaring a little at the blind filly, who seemed either unknowing of or unbothered by the glower, “your ‘intuition’ cannot ascertain such intimate details of a situation without understanding the causes and logic behind it. On some level, you do know these things, even if you don't realize it.”

“Whatever you say, dude – you're the genius, after all,” Aura replied, not bothering to pretend to give Alula's assertion any consideration.

Caprice gave Alula a sympathetic look. “Just give in and accept it. Trust me, ain't no way it's worth yer time an' headaches tryin' to figure her hunches out.”

Archer shook her head. “No, I'm with Alula on this, there's gotta be a better explanation, but that can wait. How'd you get down here, anyway?” Archer asked, not giving away whether her topic shift was because she didn't care about the previous subject or wanted to move on from it quickly.

Alula sighed. “It's a long story.” She gave Aura another slight frown. “A long, irritating story...”

---

“Well, hey there, guys! Looking for something? Or someone?”

The group turned, weapons and magic ready. After losing three of their number to the pit-and-teleport trap, they were determined not to be caught off-guard again.

“Whoa, chill dudes!” the filly said, raising her hooves placatingly. The glow around her horn intensified for a moment, making the group tense for action before it faded and the filly gave an awkward smile. “Er, dude and dudettes. Dudoids?” She thought for a second before shrugging. “Anyway, I'm not here to hurt you.”

“Weird way of greeting us, then,” Scootaloo said, her wings moving slowly in readiness for a fight. “Sure sounded like you were the one responsible for us losing our- whoever you thought we lost.”

The filly's brow furrowed as she silently mouthed out the words she'd opened the conversation with. After a couple of seconds, she gave a breathy chuckle. “Oh yeah, guess I can see that. My bad. Reason I said that is we're in the same boat. We lost three of our guys too in another one of these tunnels.”

“We?” Alula asked, looking behind the filly and seeing no one.

“The two still with me... aren't exactly... well, when I saw someone else had used this entrance before us, I figured I should be the one to talk to you. They'd come charging in if you were 'gainst us, but no need – you lost three guys, we lost three guys, that makes us automatic buddies, right?

“How'd you know we lost three?” Scootaloo asked, not even giving acknowledgement to the last part of the filly's statement.

Alula rolled her eyes. “Because of the three distinct trails in the dust on the slope leading to the remnant aura of teleportation magic, obviously!”

“Huh?” The constant glow around the filly's horn intensified again for a second, though this time there was far less tension in the group. “Oh yeah, I see what you mean. Didn't see that – that makes a load of sense,” she said after a moment, giving a genuine smile to Alula.

“Then how did you know?” Dinky asked, tilting her head at this odd filly.

The filly shrugged. “Just kinda felt like that was how many you lost, you know?”

There was a pause before Alula responded.

“Riiight. Well, putting aside for the moment how ridiculous that statement was, I think we can deal with any suspicion – or confirm it, if needed – very simply. Your badge. It should have the seal of the night guard on it like ours.”

“Oh, yeah!” The filly reached for the badge on her chest, taking it off before Alula continued sharply.

“However, given that we have so far dealt with both illusions and traps, I'm going to have to ask you to place it on the floor in front of you and back away.”

“Can do!” the filly replied cheerfully, detaching the badge and tossing it casually onto the ground in front of her.

Alula's magic washed over it for a moment before solidifying and pulling it slowly and cautiously into the air.

It took a few seconds for the badge to reach Alula, who looked over it carefully. Sure enough, the seal of the night guard was printed around the badge's pin, though Alula didn't seem to pay it much attention as she probed the thing with her eyes and magic.

After nearly fifteen seconds of examination, she nodded firmly. “Okay, this seems to check out.” She floated the badge back to the filly, who took it in her own magic and reattached it to her chest.

“Cool,” she said, apparently having never been concerned with the suspicions of the other group. “I'm Aura Gaze, by the way, from Manehattan.”

Alula nodded. “Alula.” She then pointed to each of her teammates in turn. “This is Dinky, Scootaloo and Lance.”

Aura smiled. “From Ponyville, got it!”

Scootaloo's eyes narrowed. “Okay, how'd you know-”

“Because we had to be.” Alula raised an eyebrow as she cut Scootaloo off. “Ponyville's the only other town with a field trip here, so we must be from there, since the Crystal Empire wouldn't have their own such team yet.”

Aura's sightless eyes widened as she considered this. “Oh, yeah, they wouldn't, would they? Guess I didn't need to say it, huh?”

“You mean you didn't-” Alula cut herself off with a sigh. “Of course you didn't, you just ‘knew’ it.” It was hard to tell whether that was outright sarcasm or just resigned acknowledgement. Either way, it was clear she didn't think much of the idea. “I don't suppose you ‘just know’ how we might be able to help our teammates, do you?”

Aura thought for a moment before shaking her head. “Nah, not a clue.” She shrugged, only to hold a hoof up as she thought, her horn's aura brightening a little. “But you do!” She said, pointing to Scootaloo, who jerked back in shock as she was thrust into the strategic spotlight.

“Oh... well, I don't think I do. I mean, yeah, I had an idea, but I don't think it'd work.” She said, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. As much as Scootaloo liked putting on a show, it was clear that she wasn't comfortable being looked to for ideas rather than action.

“Oh, it would.” Aura gave her an encouraging smile.

“You don't even know what it is,” Scootaloo responded, still very skeptical.

Aura shook her head, her smile gaining a slightly enigmatic quality. “Nope. But I've got a real good feeling about it.”

---

“...but we can discuss that later.” Alula said as she relaxed her expression a little.

“So, are the others down here too?” Icy asked.

“Sure are – yours and mine.” Aura replied. “As you'll be seeing in just a moment.”

“What do you mean?” Alula turned to her, raising an eyebrow.

Aura shrugged. “Well, now that the little illusionist's worked her way free, sh- Ah!” She was interrupted when a weak bolt of magic struck her horn, knocking out the glow for the first time since Aura had arrived. Everyone else turned to Conundra just in time to be blinded by a flash.

“Nice try, losers, but I'll see you never!” the filly's voice echoed back from one of the corridors.

Icy blinked heavily, trying to get the spots out of her eyes as she heard Aura mutter to herself with a sigh. “Shoulda seen that coming.”

Icy frowned as she looked to Aura, taking a moment to focus her eyes on her. “It sounded like you did.”

Aura shook her head. “The freeing, yeah, not the zap and flash. Real dirty pool there.”

“Shouldn't we get after 'em, then?” Archer asked, tensing to sprint down the corridor they'd heard Conundra flee down.

“Not necessary,” Alula replied, putting a hoof on Archer's shoulder. “While it might have been better to intercept her before she ran,” she shot Aura a dirty look, “we did see an escape coming and planned for that. Scootaloo!” She pressed her badge as she called the name. “She's coming your way.” She released the badge and gave a thin smile. “There. We won't be able to see it, but...”

“Actually, we can!” Aura said as she approached the bank of crystal controls on the other side of the room. “Just need to figure out how this... ah, here we go!” With no further explanation of how she was divining the board's functions, her aura extended across it, focusing around a few of the glowing panels.

To Icy's astonishment, the reflective screen lit up a moment later, showing a view of another one of the crystal tunnels. Aura's magic flicked back and forth across one of the panels, making the screen change viewpoints about a dozen times before it found something different, showing Conundra running down towards the viewpoint.

“There we go!” Aura leant onto the panel casually as she waved the group over. “Let's watch!”

---

Conundra raced forward, her head down and her eyes squinting behind her illusory helmet. The beginnings of tears in her eyes – from the wind as she ran, of course, definitely not because she'd spent countless hours and resources, nearly gotten arrested and made her disguise known, all for a spell that had turned out to be completely useless – made the short distance she could see in front of her somewhat blurry. Fortunately, she didn't really need to see where she was going – she'd spent enough time exploring these caves that she could practically navigate them blindfolded and avoid the various traps while she did so.

She sniffed and shook the moisture out of her eyes at that comforting thought – this whole enterprise may have been a bust, but at least she knew she could lose her opponents in the tunnels without a problem, so she didn't need to worry about being caught.

A moment after she had that thought, however, her ears pricked up as she heard a strange buzzing noise from the tunnel in front of her. That was odd – she knew there weren't any traps nearby and she hadn't even come to a junction yet, so she couldn't have turned the wrong way. What's more, the buzzing didn't sound like any kind of trap she'd ever heard before and it seemed to be getting... louder...

Conundra raised her head just in time as a blur of orange, purple and blue zipped past her and something rammed her along her side. It didn't hurt her especially, but the glancing blow did knock her aside, whirling her around like a very uncoordinated spinning top.

After a few seconds, she managed to stumble to a halt, though she fell off her hooves in the process. She put a hoof to her head, shaking it hard to try and stop both the room and her eyes from spinning. After another ten seconds or so, she blinked heavily, regaining just enough of her senses to stand up again. As she heard the buzzing again, she swiped a hoof across her eyes to wipe off any remaining moisture, hoping that would make whatever hit her significantly less blurry.

As it turned out, it didn't in any noticeable way – before she'd even managed to turn around fully, the speeding mass was upon her again, this time sweeping something under her hooves to knock her onto her rump.

She heard a slight screeching to her side and a cessation to the buzzing, so she looked up to see an orange filly in a chaotic bodysuit of purples and blues standing over her, leaning on the handlebars of a sleek scooter and smirking at her. A strange pole was under her arm and her tiny wings were just coming to a halt.

“Can I help you?” Conundra grumbled, not bothering to inject her usual mocking smugness into her voice.

The filly grinned. “Yeah, you can, but since what I'm after is you getting taken in, I don't think you're going to.”

“You're right!” Conundra growled as she fired a bolt of light from her horn at the filly.

However, the filly immediately slammed a hindhoof against the ground next to her wheel, scooting herself back a foot and out of the spell's path. The bolt zipped past her before exploding on the wall behind her into a flash that would have blinded her had it hit.

Conundra didn't pause, however, using the filly's momentary distraction to leap to her hooves, dash to the left and cast another spell, this one creating two duplicates of her in the corridor, one in the place she'd just been and one to the right of it. With luck, the filly would attack the wrong one and give her time to create a few more images.

Indeed, the instant she turned back, the filly was almost on the centre image, ramming her pole into it and dashing past the evaporating image. However, Conundra didn't have time to cast anything before the filly slammed her pole into the ground, using it as a pivot to whirl around towards Conundra, sweeping her scooter into her hooves and knocking her down once more.

“There you are!” The filly said as she reversed into the other image, making it disintegrate too.

With an enraged grunt, Conundra lit her horn once more, but this time the magic didn't shoot off in a distinct bolt, but flew out of her horn in a rapidly expanding wave of black that enveloped the area, cutting off all light in a lengthy section of corridor.

Conundra smiled when she heard the filly's buzzing backing off out of the miasma, giving her a moment of breathing room. However, her smile soon faded when the buzzing didn't cease, instead staying constant and moving around, though the echoing of the tunnels meant she couldn't pin down exactly how.

Still, it scarcely seemed to matter as Conundra lit her horn – not that she could see it in the darkness – and created five more images of herself in the area around her. That done, she charged out of the darkness, trusting her duplicates to draw the filly's fire long enough to get past her.

Unfortunately, as it turned out, the way the filly was moving did matter, as she was doing donuts along the width of the corridor just beyond the field of darkness, meaning that, by the time Conundra had stepped her second hoof out of the field, the filly had already swept through the images and was colliding with her, knocking back into the miasma and off her hooves.

“You okay in there?” the filly called, obviously aware of the inconvenience and pain she'd just caused. “Cause I can do this all day!”

“Fine!” Conundra snapped, rising to her hooves with a groan. “So you can block me off here, good for you. But you'll have to stay here to do it. And did you really think this was the only way out?”

She sprinted back down the corridor, not looking behind her but using her ears to tell that the filly was continuing her patrol in that area.

“No, but good luck with that!” She heard the filly call.

---

“Wow,” Caprice said as the image of the confrontation faded from the screen. “Real little dynamo, ain't she?”

“That she is,” Truffle said with a smile. “Quick as a whip in a lot of ways.”

“Well, if nothing else,” Alula added, her face neutral, “she's excellent at getting from A to B directly...”

---

“I hope you know what you're doing,” Alula said, her head twitching to look around as the group ran through the corridors of the Crystal Palace. “Because we seem to be moving away from the tunnels we need to go deeper into.”

“Not a clue,” Scootaloo said, shrugging as her wings buzzed slowly, moving casually as quick as Alula could at a sprint. “But we can't go any further if both the entrances we know about are blocked, right? I mean, yeah, you and me-”

“You and I,” Alula corrected.

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Right, I and you could get over it,” she said with a straight face, not letting on if that mistake was deliberate or not – not that it mattered in terms of irritating Alula, “and maybe a couple of others, but the rest?”

“We could have figured something out,” Alula pointed out.

“And what about the next trap?” Aura asked with a gentle smile. “And the next one?”

“Right, so it'd probably be quicker to get someone who knows the tunnels better,” Scootaloo finished before grimacing slightly. “Don't get me wrong – I don't like running away to get help any more than you do, but...”

“Oh, I like the idea perfectly well,” Alula replied, eliciting a raised eyebrow from Scootaloo. “I just don't see how it's going to go any differently from when I went to get the guards last time.”

At that, Scootaloo gave a smile. “Simple: we're not getting the guards. We're going right to the top, filly – Princess Cadence herself.”

Ever the straight line thinker, Alula thought to herself before responding, “Well, I can't fault your ambition, but I hope you have more to your logic than simply wanting to tick another box in your princess-spotter's guide.”

“Wait, is that a thing?” Aura asked, tilting her head in an earnestly curious manner.

There was a pause before Alula sighed and growled out a quiet “No.”

“Besides, I've already met her,” Scootaloo replied with a smirk. “I was a flower filly at her wedding, don't you remember?”

“As it happens, no – I had very different things on my mind when I heard about that,” Alula gave Scootaloo a withering stare as she flexed the area on her back where her wings sometimes were meaningfully.

“It's okay,” Dinky said, placating Alula with a gentle smile, even as she was breathing heavily as she hurried to keep up with the others. “So, why did you decide to go to her, Scootaloo?”

“Well, the reason the guard didn't listen to you was cause they didn't know the seal of the Night Guard, right?” Scootaloo asked, not pausing before answering herself. “Right. So what we need's someone from Equestria and she and her coltfriend,” another eye roll suggested that Scootaloo either didn't understand the difference between coltfriend and husband or didn't care, “are the only ones I can think of who spent most of their lives in Equestria. Plus, she's the mare in charge, so she'll be able to get whatever we need to rescue the others and she'll probably be okay to come down if we need someone – she wasn't around when Sombra was... you know...” she trailed off, looking distinctly uncomfortable at the mention of Sombra's actions as emperor.

Alula hummed as she thought about what Scootaloo was suggesting. “Well, I can see the logic, certainly, but I'm not convinced it's watertight. Suppose she knows the seal, but doesn't believe that beings our age would be in legitimate possession of it.”

“Well, she might have heard about groups like ours,” Dinky replied, looking down to her badge. “Plus she could look at the magic on our badges and in our clothes, so she'll probably think it's possible.”

“Yeah, plus she'll probably have a direct line to Princess Luna or something, so she can run a check on us,” Scootaloo added.

“That was one “might” and two “probably”s,” Alula pointed out, her skeptical look not decreasing. “We don't know that she'll believe us and that's assuming we can even get in to see her. Suppose the guards refuse to let us in – as they almost certainly will – and simply haul us away to the guard station?”

Scootaloo shrugged. “Then we'll explain the trouble we're in to the guards and we won't have lost anything we'd have if we'd just gone to the guards in the first place.”

Alula sighed as she realized she didn't have an immediate counter to that argument.

“Don't worry so much, 'Lula!” Aura said, not asking or appearing to think before giving her that nickname. “We'll get in to see her, just you wait.”

Lance gave a look to the blind filly, with a distinct implication of I'll believe it when I see it.

Alula sighed. I won't, she thought bitterly to herself, there's no way you know that, even if you are right simply by coincidence.

Before she could say anything more, Aura's horn flared and created an arrow pointing down one corridor off an upcoming junction. “This way!” She said, turning down that corridor.

Alula nodded, perfectly happy to believe Aura's ability to tell something so simple as which direction to go in order to get to the Princess's chambers and avoid any guard patrols. That was a simple matter of getting detailed divinatory data from her sensing magic and analysing it, even if the process was largely subconscious. The ability to reliably tell the future, however – that was something she had an altogether harder time believing.

Still, she followed the filly's guidance for immediate matters – she had enough faith in Princess Luna to know that she wouldn't have allowed Aura to join the Manehattan team if her abilities were worthless or unreliable. She just hoped Princess Cadance was as worthy of faith.

---

“...and she's certainly rather effective when she's got her scooter beneath her.” Alula finished.

“No kiddin',” Carpice nodded. “She sorted the Crystal Creep real good.”

“Eh,” Archer shrugged, “I'd have preferred if she'd gotten smacked a couple more times, but that's just me.”

Icy opened her mouth to respond when the room suddenly flashed into complete darkness. Starting at the sudden shift, Icy looked around, hoping to find some small point of light to focus on, only to see absolutely nothing.

She did, however, hear something – hoofsteps galloping across the room. They lasted for only a few seconds, the pony they belonged to running at a dead sprint down another corridor.

A moment later, the darkness washed away on a wave of magic. Turning, Icy saw Alula's horn lit up, dispelling the illusion.

Aura, meanwhile, was smiling. “You might get your wish, Archer.” She pressed a hoof against her own badge. “Griz, she's heading your way now.”

---

Conundra dashed through the tunnel, her head turned over her shoulder to make absolutely sure nopony was following her.

It was unlikely, she knew, but she wasn't about to take chances. The ponies in the hub room wouldn't know which corridor she'd fled down, that was certain, but they could conceivably have split up, meaning she needed to be on guard for any pursuers.

Of course, I wouldn't need to worry about them if that scooter filly hadn't intercepted me, she thought bitterly to herself. Oh well, at least there are other escape routes t- “Ooph!”

Her thoughts were cut off as she ran into something massive and solid, knocking her down onto her rump. She shook her head, confused – she knew there wasn't a wall for another hundred metres at least.

Blinking the confusion out of her eyes, she looked in front of her and up... and up and up and up...

Standing in front of her was a very large griffon. Large, that was, compared to Conundra and, indeed, to the age this griffon looked. The general body proportions were that of a griffon about her age but the overall size was much, much bigger.

Unlike all the enemies Conundra had encountered thus far, the griffon wasn't wearing any kind of costume, the white, striped fur of its tiger body and the grey-brown feathers of its condor-like head making it look distinctive enough, even without considering its size. The only other thing it had with it other than its own body was an enormous hammer resting on its shoulder, the head covered in small, blunt spikes.

The griffon looked down at Conundra and gave a grim smile. “Hello, small pony.” She said, the timbre of her voice only just giving away her gender, even past the thick Yakyakistani accent that coated her words.

Conundra took a moment to find her voice when faced with this living, prepubescent wall. “H-h-hi.”

The griffon narrowed her large, dark yellow eyes. “You are pony who has been creating trouble for Griz friends?” She flicked the hammer off her shoulder, taking it in both her front talons and effortlessly balancing on her rear legs.

Conundra opened her mouth, only to find that her normal bravado had entirely deserted her. Instead, she could only stammer out a feeble denial. “Er, n-no, must be someone else!”

There was a long pause as the griffon stared at the crystal covered filly, her gaze searching. Conundra found herself entirely paralysed as the silence stretched on, her muscles clenching so hard she started vibrating a little.

After nearly twenty seconds of stillness, the griffon nodded. “Good.”

Conundra breathed a massive sigh of relief, the tension beginning to flow out of her body. However, the flow abruptly stopped when she noticed that the massive griffon had not relaxed her stance or lowered her hammer.

“U-um, so,” she began before shaking her head – clearly this “Griz” was not a hard opponent to fool. “So, what were you planning to do when you found this pony?”

Griz scowled. “When pony who hurt Griz friends come? GRIZ HAMMER!” Without warning, she suddenly went into a scream and slammed the hammer down in front of her, making a colossal noise and making Conundra jump back.

Then, with a smile, Griz picked the hammer up again and resumed her ready stance. “But you are not bad pony, so Griz not hammer.”

Conundra swallowed. “Right. Well, now we've got that settled, can I just get past?” She made to walk around Griz – not a short journey, by any means - when the huge griffon moved to block her.

“Is not allowed. Bad pony coming this way. Until does, none shall pass Griz!”

“O-oh...” Conundra trailed off, her head lowering for a moment before shaking it. What was she thinking? She was Conundra, the mare who'd mastered Sombra's maze, the mistress of illusion and plenty of other titles she hadn't thought of prior to being given a code name, but that now seemed only natural. She had nothing to fear from this lummox.

“Well,” she said, her normal smug tone beginning to return, “that's a shame. Still, you should be careful – you never know what tricks a bad pony might have up their tail.” Her horn lit up as her body began to fade from sight.

However, before her invisibility spell could even cover a third of her body, Griz lashed her hammer out with a speed that seemed surreal from her massive form and slammed it into Conundra's body, sending it flying back.

Conundra barely had time to think about what had just happened before she slammed back into the wall of the tunnel, sliding down a moment later with a pained groan. After that impact, she barely had the wherewithal to notice that it had knocked the spell out of her horn, interrupting her vanishing act and returning her to full visibility.

“You have tricks?” Griz growled, a sinister smile coming onto her beak. “Griz have tricks too. You want to fool Griz?” She stepped forward, looming over Conundra with her hammer raised. “Must also fool Griz hammer. Can fool Griz hammer, small pony?”

Conundra's eyes flared at the mockery, her rage briefly overpowering her pain and fear as her horn lit up, readying a blast of blinding light.

Unfortunately for her, both her magic and her determination were quickly disrupted as Griz's hammer swung at her. She ducked down with an “Eep!”, the huge head of the weapon grazing her horn and totally destroying her concentration.

“No?” Griz grinned. “Then GRIZ HAMMER!”

She slammed the weapon down in front of her once again, making Conundra scoot backwards before tumbling over her hooves into a run, deciding that discretion was the better part of valor and that there had to be far, far better escape routes than this one.

Griz watched her go, waiting until she was well out of earshot before she chuckled. “Should perhaps be concerned how easy is to convince ponies I am stupid.” She thought for a second before shrugging. “Will start worrying when becomes problem.”

---

“Is it ever a problem?” Archer asked as the picture faded from the screen.

Moonwing shrugged. “Well, makes things a little tricky sometimes if she needs to convince somepony of something if they think she's just a brute, but it's never proved dangerous or anything.”

Caprice laughed. “Plus, even if it was, I'd say the looks on the bad guys' faces're more than worth it. An' hey, she grew up in Yakyakistan, so it's not like it's a stretch for her.”

Alula nodded. “And besides that, there are situations where such directness and simplicity can prove beneficial.

---

“Look, I don't care where you kids came from or why you're running around the castle at night, but you're coming with me to the guard station and that's the end of it,” the guard outside the royal chambers informed the group, his face in a rigid scowl.

“But we need to get in to see the Princess!” Dinky said, training her most powerful puppydog eyes on the guard. “It's an emergency!”

The guard's stare softened at Dinky's expression, but he didn't waver. “Well, okay, but we can sort it out at the guard station, can't we?”

“We understand that you want to see the Princess,” the other guard said, standing a little further behind his larger comrade. “I'm sure that you think only she can help and even if you don't, you just want to see her, but we really can't let anyone into her chambers without exceptional cause even during the daytime. Letting you in while she's asleep? Yeah, that's not happening.”

The larger guard sighed, closing his eyes for a moment both in annoyance and, Alula suspected, to avoid Dinky's powerful gaze. “Look, tell you what – once we hear what the emergency is at the station, we'll decide whether it's worth involving the Princess. If it is, then we'll get her help – make it official, eh?”

“It already is official,” Alula said, taking off her badge and turning it around to show the seal on the back of it. “We're here as part of the Night Guard of Equestria and we require urgent help with a problem encountered during our investigation.

The larger guard snorted. “Okay, so one: we have no reason to think that seal is actually the seal of the Night Guard...”

“I think it is,” the smaller guard said before his bigger friend cut him off with a glare.

“Two: do you really expect us to believe it's more likely for Equestria's guard to hire a bunch of little kids in weird costumes than it is for said kids to get their hooves on their seal somehow and pretend to be part of it, and three: even if you're telling the truth, the Equestria Guard have no jurisdiction in the Crystal Empire – any “investigations” you're doing should be done through and subordinated to the Crystal Guard.”

Alula rolled her eyes. “Well, before anything else, I'd like it on the record that we tried to get your guards to look into the problem we found, but they didn't listen...”

“I wonder why,” the smaller guard interjected.

“So,” Alula continued, a little testily, “we were forced to take matters into our own hooves.”

“ARGH!” Griz, who had remained silent thus far, stomped a rear paw on the ground, making a slight vibration run through it. “We are getting to nowhere very fast! You!” She turned to Alula. “The game of blame is not being helping to our friends. And you!” She jabbed a talon at the larger guard who, to his credit, didn't even flinch. “You say Princess is in room, but to be not disturbed?”

The guard nodded, smiling a little. “Exactly, we're not going to wake her just because some children want to see her.”

Griz frowned, but nodded nonetheless. “Then solution is obvious, yes?” She took a deep breath in.

The smaller guard raised an eyebrow. “Well, I'm glad it's obvious to someone, but I don-”

“PRINCESS CADANCE!” Griz suddenly yelled at a volume loud enough to make Alula's ears hurt from several metres away and make both the guards ram their hooves over their helmets – not that that would help especially, but it was an instinctual thing. “THERE IS EMERGENCY THAT IS REQUIRING YOUR HELP!

Once Griz had finished her bellow, the larger guard let his hooves drop for a moment before taking the spear held in the crook of his knee and holding out towards Griz. “Right, little lady, I've had just about enough of this. This whole thing was cute at first, but you just pushed things too far."

Griz's talons briefly went towards the hammer strapped across her back before dropping. “At other time, would be happy to fight, would ask for you to be bringing it. But we have other problem to be worrying about.”

The larger guard was about to answer when the sound of the door opening behind him made the group turn.

“What's going on?” Princess Cadance asked, her head poking out of the door looking as thoroughly dishevelled as anypony who'd just been pulled out of bed.

Griz nodded firmly, satisfied with the results of her stratagem.

---

“In any case,” Alula said, turning to one of the corridors out of the hub room, “she should be coming through in a moment, so be ready t-”

She was cut off by a bolt of magic impacting the ground in front of the group and conjuring up the image of a huge brick wall, reaching from one side of the massive room to the other and cutting off a significant portion of it.

Alula sighed and lit her horn, extending her magic over the wall just as the group heard footsteps dashing across the room.

A few moments later, the wall disappeared, just in time for the group to see Conundra's tail retreating down another corridor.

“Ain't got much of a learnin' curve, does she?” Caprice asked with a smirk.

“She probably has hidden exits down most of these tunnels and she doesn't know how many reinforcements we have,” Alula pointed out. “Speaking of the first, Icy, perhaps you could block off the tunnel you initially came from and speaking of the second,” as Icy turned to start creating an ice wall to block off the one tunnel they knew went deeper into the caverns, she saw Alula press her badge, “Dinky, she's heading for you now.”

---

Conundra ran down the tunnel, though at less of a dead sprint than before – while it was improbable that there'd be someone waiting down every escape route, she didn't want to be caught unawares if there was someone here to block off her escape.

Sure enough, as she turned down a small bend in the corridor, she saw a truly tiny little filly standing in the centre of the tunnel, a short way ahead of her.

Smiling to herself, Conundra put on a burst of speed, intending to simply barge past her, not anticipating any trouble from such a physically unimposing pony. She locked gazes with the filly, calling up a quick flash from her eyes to show them through the helmet and intimidate her.

However, the filly didn't flinch. Instead, her big eyes met her glowing gaze and a tiny frown just edged itself onto the very top of them. She stood a little taller and planted her feet, declaring her intent to stop Conundra even if her size suggested she had no way of backing up that intent. It was, in all honesty, one of the most adorable things Conundra had ever seen.

In fact, before she even had time to register that she was doing so, she found her hooves slowing down, bringing her cantering to a stop. She blinked, a little confused at why she was doing so before the filly drew her attention back by relaxing.

There was a long, awkward silence as Conundra and the filly stood there, neither making any movement.

After a while, Conundra cleared her throat. “Er, aren't you going to... you know... try and stop me or... hold me or something?

The filly looked down, a touch abashed as she traced circles on the ground with a front hoof, drawing a slight endeared chuckle from Conundra. “Um...”

Conundra tilted her head sharply at the filly. “You... are here to stop me from escaping, right?”

The filly sighed. “Well, yes, if I have to,” she answered in a voice that tugged up at the corners of Conundra's mouth. “But I was hoping we could just talk, maybe?”

Conundra raised an eyebrow, not caring that the filly couldn't see it. “Talk?”

The filly nodded, a little more enthused at the idea. “Uh huh! I'm Dinky Doo, by the way!” She put a hoof forward to shake.

Conundra's hoof started moving to meet it. “Persi-” She jerked her outstretched hoof to the side, swinging it around to come clamping over her mouth to prevent her from unthinkingly giving her real name. Shaking her head, hoping that would dispel whatever was making her act like this, she lowered her hoof and straightened her posture. “You can call me Conundra!”

Dinky smiled, not seeming bothered by either the self-silencing or the pseudonym. “Okay, Conundra!”

There was another short silence before Conundra spoke again. “So, what did you want to... “talk” about?”

Dinky's gaze lowered again. “Well, I just wanted to ask why you were doing this?”

Conundra raised an eyebrow. “To... get Sombra's magic? Well, one of his spells, the illusion that...” she trailed off as Dinky shook her head.

“I know, but why would you want to learn such awful spells?” Dinky asked, the beginnings of tears in her eyes, apparently merely at the thought of such malice.

Conundra cleared her throat again, trying to dispel the slight lump she felt forming. “Why does everyone assume I want to use the spell – I don't, I just want to have it!”

Dinky flinched back, as if physically struck by the accusation, sending a sharp twinge of guilt slashing through Conundra's chest.

“I didn't think you wanted to use it – you don't seem like that kind of a horrible pony. But you must have a reason for wanting to have something so horrible!”

“I... uh...” Conundra stuttered as she thought about it, coming up with very little in the way of concrete explanation. “I... I just do! I just want it, isn't that enough?”

Dinky shook her head firmly. “No, it's not enough! You're a pony – a living, thinking, feeling being. You have a mind and you have a will – you must have a reason for wanting what you want. Everypony... everyone has a reason they do what they do – good reason, bad reason, logical reason, emotional reason... there's always a reason, so what's your reaso-”

“I DON'T KNOW!” Conundra yelled, squeezing her eyes shut both in anguish and to stop herself seeing Dinky react to her yell. “I just want it, so I'm going to have it and no one can tell me I can't – not you, not those other kids and definitely not my mo-”

Her eyes opened sharply as she clamped her mouth shut, realizing exactly what she had been about to say. For her part, Dinky didn't seem to be judging her with her gaze, just nodding in understanding.

Conundra blinked nearly hard enough to hurt. What was she doing? She was Conundra! She was the one who tricked ponies; why was she letting some little filly who seemed incapable of hurting a fly get into her head.

“Look, it doesn't matter!” She said, shaking her head and lighting her horn. “I'll be going now!” She dashed to the side and sent off two bolts of illusion magic that would, in a moment, form duplicates of her, allowing her to do a Three-Card Monte manoeuvre and, with any luck, get past the filly without hurting her.

However, the moment she started moving, the Dinky lit her horn too and things got weird – a golden sheen completely encompassed Conundra's vision and the other filly started moving ridiculously fast... or rather, not-moving, as she wasn't really doing anything physically, but the tiny movements of her chest as she breathed, her legs as she shifted around and the corona around her horn accelerated massively.

Still, Conundra didn't have time to consider this before her illusions came into being and she started moving amongst them, hoping to confuse Dinky.

However, after a few seconds, Dinky just sent off a couple of bolts from her horn. The bolt raced forward for most of the distance between the two, so fast that Conundra couldn't even register them fully, before suddenly stopping once they approached her.

Or, rather, the two duplicates of her. Once the bolts had slowed down, Conundra could see that they weren't really attacks – they were so small and weak that, if they hit her, they would barely amount to a light poke. However, they didn't hit her, but rather the two false images of her and, despite how small the force behind the bolts was, they were enough to fly through the illusions and disperse them.

Given what she'd just seen, Conundra was forced to conclude that the filly had known exactly which of the three was real and which ones weren't. But that was even more confusing to Conundra – her Multiplicity Manoeuvrer, as she had named it, was one of her favourite tricks and one she had gotten extremely good at. For anypony to be able to follow it and keep track of the real her, she'd have to be moving incredibly... slowly...

Conundra came to a stop and, a couple of seconds later – from her perspective, at least – the glow around her faded, bringing the slightly panting Dinky back to a regular speed.

“What the... what was that?” Conundra asked.

“Sorry, that's kind of my thing,” Dinky replied, looking sincerely apologetic. “I can kind of fiddle around with time a little. I'm still learning but...” she swallowed hard and straightened up, standing as tall as she was ever going to, as literally low a bar as that was, “but I think I can stop you... if I have to.”

Conundra frowned as she brought her magic to her horn, taking a moment beforehand to conceal the glow – if this filly could slow her down or speed herself up, the best hope Conundra had was to take her by surprise with a spell. Hiding herself wouldn't work – the filly could simply do as the scooter rider had and block off the whole corridor, so she'd need to blast her with a direct sensory assault.

“But I don't want to have to stop you!” Dinky interjected, seeming almost like she had sensed Conundra's intent. “I'm sure you're not a really evil pony, so please! You don't have to do this!” She stared at Conundra, her eyes somehow becoming even bigger and more soulful, captivating Conundra's gaze.

This was stupid – Conundra knew that. She needed to get away, this filly was in the way and it wouldn't be any kind of problem to get her out of the way. All she needed to do was blast her and run past her... as the filly squealed and whimpered... desperately trying to cover her eyes and ears from the painful lights and noises... squirming pitifully on the floor... begging Conundra to make them stop... or simply for her to think twice about her actions... the tears falling daintily to the floor, not for her own pain, but for the filly who had attacked her... she... she couldn't...

With a frustrated groan, Conundra let go of the spell and turned, dashing back down the corridor. Whatever was or wasn't waiting in the other tunnels, it had to be far less troublesome than this!

---

“Wow!” Caprice said, her gaze locked on the screen until the moment the image had fully disappeared. “Think I got a few cavities an' heart attacks jus' watchin' that!”

Archer nodded. “Yeah, Dinky'll do that to you.”

Truffle nodded before suddenly sniffing the air. “Can... can anyone else smell popcorn?”

Archer sighed. “Getting hungry already, Truff? Well, I...” she paused, taking a deep breath in herself. “Huh. You know, I think I can... weird. Must be some effect of the magic on the screen.” She smirked at her large friend. “That or Dinky was so cute there she gave us both brain damage. Wouldn't be surprised – she can have a heck of an the effect on ponies.”

Alula nodded. “That's putting it extremely mildly...”

---

“Princess!” The guards outside her door saluted sharply. “These children were trespassing and asking to see you! We were just about to take them back to the guard station!”

Princess Cadance blinked tiredly. “I... see. Well, I suppose...” She shook her head as she recognized one of the ponies present. “Scootaloo? Is that you?”

“Hey, how're you doing, Cadance?” Scootaloo said, giving a cheerful wave while leaning on her scooter's front handles.

The larger of the two guards glared at her. “Show some respect before Her Majesty!” he spat out with a sneer.

Scootaloo thought for a moment before shrugging. “Hey, how're you doing, Princess?”

The guard started taking a step towards the filly before Cadance gave a tired giggle. “You haven't changed a bit. Unfortunately, much as I'd love to talk, it's very late and I'd really rather do so in the morning. So, good nigh-”

“But we need your help – it's an emergency.” Dinky said, sounding immensely abashed to both say that and to interrupt the Princess.

Cadance turned to her. “Well, whatever it is, I'm sure that the guards... can... handle...” she trailed off, her restrained and humoring expression lasting approximately one tenth of a nanosecond against the force of Dinky's beseeching gaze.

The Princess swallowed. “What's the problem, little filly?” she asked, looking as if she was having to hold her hooves down to contain the sudden urge to rush forward, gather Dinky up in her forelegs and hug and stroke her until everything was right with the world again.

Dinky's horn lit up, floating her badge off her chest and towards Cadance, turning it around to show the seal on the back of it as she did.

“Well, earlier today we found this really suspicious hatch in the library and the gardens and we figured out someone our age had been going through it to the Caves of... Sombra,” she shuddered at the name, sending a sympathetic shiver through Cadance and, indeed, most of those present, “but when we told the guards, they didn't believe us, so we had to investigate ourselves, except there was this trap and our friends got teleported away and we didn't know what to do and...” She trailed off with a sniff, wiping a couple of stray tears from her eye.

This time, Cadance did rush forward and gather Dinky up in a hug. “Okay, okay, don't worry, it's fine – I'm here now and I'll do everything I can to help,” she cooed, comforting the little filly as both the Princess of Love and a former professional babysitter.

“Princess, you can't possibly believe...” the smaller guard began, raising an eyebrow at the slight moistness in his larger comrade's eye, “even if the seal on that badge is real, they could have got it anywhere!”

Cadance raised an eyebrow sharply at the guard, who flinched back at the mild reproach from his sovereign. “And even if they were lying about their authority, they still need our help – their friends are in danger and whether they have the authority to be in that danger or not, I still intend to get them out of it. Besides, the seal is genuine and, while the physical insignia could be replicated,” she levitated the badge up and back to Dinky, “the enchantments on it can't.”

“But...” the larger guard seemed to be coming out of his mild Dinky-induced haze, “but you can't seriously believe that the Royal Guard of Equestria would employ little kids as agents, can you?”

Cadance gave the guard a knowing smirk. “Well, no, as it happens, I don't believe it.” She looked over the group with a much more genuine smile. “I know it for a fact. Auntie Luna is very proud of her various specialist groups and has regaled me a number of times of her youngest operatives and how competent and effective they have proved themselves. In fact,” she turned back to the guards, raising a sardonic eyebrow, “if you did indeed disregard their warnings simply because of the age of those giving them, it may be prudent to form such a team for ourselves.”

“Well... I mean... I don't think...” the larger guard sputtered before stopping with a heavy sigh. “As you say, your majesty.”

Cadance nodded imperiously. “Right, well, now that that's settled, I suggest we address the problem these colts and fillies have and do our duties as we always should have.”

Looking down, she gave Dinky one final squeeze before releasing her. “Don't worry, we'll save your friends.”

Dinky looked down, visibly debating whether to speak up before looking Cadance in the eye. “Well, I'm sure they'll be alright without us, they're really good, but still... thank you!” She finished, giving her own hug to Cadance's leg before backing off. “You're really kind.”

Cadance beamed, the sheer sincerity behind Dinky's praise practically making her glow with pride.

---

“...and the strangest part,” Alula mused as she considered Dinky, “is that I'm ninety-nine percent sure it is completely unintentional and she has no idea she's doing it.”

Moonwing raised an eyebrow. “And the other one percent?”

“Terrifies me.”

“A horrifying prospect, there's no doubt,” Zatrathan said as he readied his blade, looking to the tunnel Conundra had gone down,
“but steel yourselves, she'll soon be coming out!”

Everyone turned to look at Zatrathan, just in time for the spell to impact the ground before him, creating a blinding flash of light. Unfortunately, the impetuous zebra had done a little too good a job getting everyone's attention, making them unprepared for the flare and giving Conundra time to dash down another tunnel while they were blinded.

All, that is, except for Aura, who gave a mellow laugh before saying, “Well, get ready for some mood whiplash.” Icy's sight was just beginning to come back by then, allowing her to see the blind filly press her badge. “Runt, you're up!”

Comments

[Scholarly-Cimmerian]

This was a lot of fun to read. Especially everything to do with Dinky.