Void Palette

by Valuable Ashes

Chapter 4

"What is this?"

"It looks like a wall"

A tall obstacle obstructs the path forward. It did not look like there was a top, structure's height rose to the sky and out of view. Unlike the course in the orange path, there were no grips to hold on to. Near the base of the wall, there were two white outlined squares on opposite sides of the pathway. They stood out the most out of the yellow traced barrier.

"Why's this one white unlike the rest of this thing?" Orange thought out loud, gazing over to Red.

"I don't know" Red felt the shape all around, "but they do seem out of place"

Red put some force into their hoof and the white block unexpectedly went in the wall further. The ruby colored pony immediately caught themselves before they could crash to the structure in front of them. Orange was alerted for a moment then relaxed. She trotted up to Red.

"Are you alright?"

"I just fell. I'm okay," Red shook off the shock and cleared their throat. "Well then... we know what those things are now"

Red came up to the second white button and pushed it in the wall. The tall yellow gate phased off ahead of them until there was nothing colored in their path. The two continued walking forward. Awaiting for the next puzzle to obstruct their way.

---

The path was split into three. To their left, a red switch was behind a portcullis but it was unreachable by any means. What was probably a complete bridge, were now these huge blocks of red that floated above and below that was impossible to grab onto by the mountain climber and impossible to climb back out of. To their right, an orange switch was behind another portcullis but instead of an obstacle in between switch and starting point, there was a straight white path with spaced out chalky blocks jutting out the road.

To their middle, a different yellow gate stood. It was a puzzle and the two ponies knew it.

Without speaking, Orange moved to the weird milky blocks sticking out the white path. She inspected it first before pushing a hoof down on the block. The block moved downwards but it wasn't the only thing that moved. A neon red floating block shifted upwards next to Red.

The two gazed at the red block moving higher and leveled itself to the broken off path. Red looked at Orange from the middle path then trotted up to the broken pathway. Red went up to the edge to survey the small gap in the middle of the two blocks before leaping to the levitating red shape.

The mare stepped on the switch on her right and the floating polygon in front of Red shifted upwards. The rose pony watched the hovering piece of pavement moved to connect to the main road. Red hopped over to the new part and studied the next few blocks around them. There was only three levitating shapes in their near vicinity.

Orange turned to the next switch and hit the button. She intensely stared at the third platform lift up to meet with the rest of main pathway but now the second platform was nowhere near the main path. Confusion hit her until she saw Red fell off from the sky and onto the third part of the path.

Up above, she saw it, the second block was somehow sent upwards along with the fourth block. Knowing that each switch can move not only one block but up to three- maybe four more, she became more alert and made a mental note of what switch moves what. She had gotten too focused on seeing the rectangles across the void that she wasn't able to see the effects of the past buttons.

She pressed the first switch again, now making sure she could see every block. The first and third moved up and last block moved down. She pressed the second switch again and the second and last polygon moved up. The third switch moved the second, third, and fourth upwards or at least tried to move the second and fourth. The two shapes vibrated but stayed in the same place.

The orange pony stepped on the fourth button and then the first and fourth moved downwards while the last pathway went up but instead vibrated. For the last switch, almost everything moved with the first block moving up and the second, third, and last moved down. Orange sat down on the floor, overseeing the five buttons.

The mare put a hoof under her chin, thinking of a way to solve this clearly and efficiently. The orange mare went on to push the first button again but hesitated. She moved to the third then retracted again. The amount of information that the mare tried to cram into her mind was all over the place and she wasn't sure what to do. Finally, she stood up and walked over to press the fifth button but her eyes caught Red already inspecting the portcullis on the other side and pressing switches.

The path was already straight when she looked back at the five floating blocks again. The platforms were too high for Orange to monitor where Red was.

"They must have jumped down when I was thinking," Orange said then slapped a hoof on her forehead "Oh... I feel stupid"

The gate beside her opened with a clank and the button behind it was now fully in the open. Orange walked up to it and pushed the button, disregarding her feeling of stupidity for a moment.

The yellow gate in the middle of the two ponies opened with a rumble before fading away into the darkness. Not only that, a new path formed from their position to the gate for an easy shortcut. Once to two ponies reunited, Red spoke up.

"That was awesome! How did you know what buttons to press?"

"I uh... I didn't. I just pressed random buttons and guessed" Orange scratched the back of her head.

"You must have some crazy intuition for guessing" Red smiled and patted her shoulders. "Come on, the gate's open"

"Thank you..." Orange trailed off when she saw the pony already way ahead of her. She ran off after them in glee from the compliment.

---

The next puzzle was intimidating to say the least. They entered a boxy room with no roof and saw a yellow gate in the far side of the room. They needed another button to press to open the gate, they assumed. However, the only problem with that is all the four walls that surrounded them are filled with switches.

In the middle of the room, the two can see a parkour course with moving platforms. Yet, none of any of those platforms move up to a switch. For any switches above their reach, they'll have to climb the course and jump to the wall to push then dropping back to the floor. The amount of buttons above their reach is thankfully only one-third of the whole room. Nonetheless, it would be tedious to climb, push, fall, and repeat over and over.

Wasting little time, Orange began pressing the bottom parts of the switches. Red went to assist in button pushing with her but decided against it. They were the only pony here that can climb and nopony but him can press the top buttons. Bracing themselves, they grabbed onto a nearby ladder and began climbing.

...

Orange was already finished with the lower part of the room when Red only has pushed a quarter of the buttons upwards. The citrus colored mare was already winded by the time she pressed the final button. Retreating to the center of the room to rest. The mountain climber continued on. Beginning to create his own landing techniques to break their fall better.

...

The scarlet neon pony was halfway through the monotonous repeat of climbing and falling but was determined to press every button up here before they can rest. Orange watched them climb and vault off shapes like its nothing but even she can see the pony getting tired. She stood up, ready to press the rest of the buttons, having thought that she had enough rest already.

...

After an indescribable amount of time of dull pushing and strenuous climbing, the ponies look at the last button with tired eyes. Red put a hoof over the rectangular slab and pushed. When the rectangular block didn't budge, the weary pony retracted their hoof a bit then pushed harder. The mare swooped in to assist and finally, the yellow door creaked open and the walls surrounding them faded away. All that was left was the yellow floor. The mountain climber staggered.

"You could have rested, you know?"

"Huff... I just had this feeling of sudden... responsibility" Red wheezed between words.

"To who? Me?" Orange pointed at herself.

"No, it feels like to somepony else. To Yellow perhaps?" Red stood on shaky legs. "Let's... keep going"

"But you need to rest!" Orange protested.

"I- I want to but... the feeling is getting really stronger now. The only thing holding me back from bolting is my legs. Please. Let's just go"

Orange looked at Red. Part of her wanting to hold them down and not letting go until the pony has gotten an ample amount of relaxation on their tired muscles but she relented anyways.

The two walked slowly across the lit up yellow pathway. Red having an occasional limp but determined to travel into the dark with Orange worried about her friend's safety.

---

The moment Red could see a tiny yellow pony sized dot in the distance, they tried to quicken their pace, only to trip on the roadway. The citrus mare helped the fallen pony up and this time, held them back from running to the pony in the distance. Orange was confused for the second time, what is Red so restless about with Yellow?

Red struggled against the mare's grip but calmed down to a walk. When they were both near the lone pony, Orange let go of her grip and saw the scarlet red pony scoop up the yellow pony. Smaller muzzle, eyelashes, shorter stature, a spiral horn. Yellow was a unicorn mare.

With haste, Red started checking Yellow's body in different spots. Forelegs, hindlegs, and head before relaxing completely. The pony began cradling the yellow mare. This got Orange's complete attention.

"What are you doing?" Orange asked and suddenly, Red became self-aware of their actions.

"I don't- I don't know. It was compulsory. I didn't know what came over me"

"Do you think she's your foal?"

"It's plausible with the memory wipe but I have the feeling that she's only a very dear friend to me" Red hugged the sleeping mare tightly. The pony let out a long drawn out yawn.

"I think I'm going to take a nap here. All that button pushing and running..." Red trailed off. The pony laid Yellow on the floor and took a spot beside her. Within seconds, they were asleep.

"What's a nap here anyway? Not like we have got anywhere else to go" The orange mare shrugged and laid on the opposite side of Yellow. It took a while but the trio of ponies slept away.

Author's Note:

For anyone who was confused with the second puzzle section. I'm sorry but it had to be done for the story. I made a visual for me (because I got confused too) and for you.

Here's the visual:
https://derpibooru.org/images/3005928

Comments

[Valuable Ashes]

11564858
I've been thinking of branching out lately. Some thing and someplace non-pony-ish. Yet, I have some ideas I want to finish before I move forward, you know?