Quest For Harmony

by destinedjagold

Chapter 101 - Doors

Spike stood tall, his eyes locked tightly at the crystal statues meters in front of him. He disregarded the double doors that were slowly closing in front of him. He concentrated his eyes outside, until the two doors closed, blocking his gaze from the outside world.

Spike blinked and sighed in ease, while Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo gasped in relief as they slid from the door to the crystal floor, panting for breath.

“Man...” Scootaloo coughed, “...heavy doors...”

“You can...say that...again... Phew...” Apple Bloom said in between her breathing as she stood back up and wiped the sweat on her forehead.

“No thanks to mister dragon here,” Scootaloo shot Spike a glare as she stood up.

“Hey—” Spike was about to defend himself when he was cut off.

“It's because of Spike that we figured out about those statues in the first place,” Sweetie Belle said as she got on all four. She ignored her pegasus friend's frown.

“You've been siding with him for quite a while now,” Scootaloo thought out loud, “and I've been wanting to ask about that.”

“Well, I uh...” Sweetie Belle began as she darted her eyes left and right, trying to find a way out of it. Thankfully, she did. “Look! The throne room!” She pointed a hoof towards the opposite end of the majestic hallway, where another set of double doors were slightly opened, revealing a raised platform far beyond the other end of the room, with a majestic crystal chair standing tall. “No use standing around here doing nothing, right? Right! Let's go!” She then marched towards her destination, leaving her three friends by the door with arching eyebrows.

“Is she feeling okay?” Spike asked as he spun to face the other two crusaders, who only shrugged in response.

The three of them soon followed the unicorn filly, while darting their eyes around the hallway.

The hallway was wide. The walls were a lighter shade of crystal blue than the ground. Almost leaning to the walls were different kinds of statues, which were not ponies, the group were thankful about that fact. There were tall windows on each wall, almost reaching the ceiling, which was way too high that the ones back in Unicornia. A single yet large chandelier hung in the ceiling, it's size almost covering the entire ceiling.

Spike let out a low whistle of awe while Sweetie Belle, meters ahead of her friends, leaned her head beyond the doors, carefully looking at the throne room.

The throne room was pretty much like the hallway, except that the room was even more spacious, and two large chandeliers hung from the ceiling.

Sweetie Belle shrieked, stumbling back as crystalized bodies were marching to and fro inside the throne room. Each crystal hooves stomped forcefully, yet strangely, quietly, on the crystal ground. Crystal ponies were marching from one wall to another, somehow failing to notice four sets of eyes staring at them from the opened door.

“Okay...” Scootaloo gulped. “S-so they really are moving!” She quickly slapped a hoof over her mouth for how loud her voice was, but calmed down after, somehow, even her loud voice didn't stop the marching crystal ponies.

“Why are they still moving, anyway?” Apple Bloom asked to no one in particular as she and the others eyed the marching crystal ponies.

“And why haven't we noticed them when we just came inside?” Scootaloo added.

“M-maybe it's because they almost blend with the background when we look at them from a distance?” Spike answered in a doubtful manner.

The three fillies considered this, and studied the crystal ponies and the walls. The crystal ponies are almost blending with the background, they admitted.

“Good point,” Apple Bloom said as she and the others walked a few steps back from the door and stared at each other. “So...what now?”

Sweetie Belle brought a hoof to her chin, deep in thought. “Well, why don't we ask that Kronz guy?”

“Oh yeah,” Scootaloo nodded. “He seemed to know a lot about this stuff.”

Spike and Apple Bloom nodded. The purple dragon then breathed out a scroll and flipped it over to write on after he charred a fingertip.

“Kinda stuck here. Living crystal pony statues are marching in the throne room, and we can't get through without them noticing us.”

He then took a breath and covered the entire papyrus with green fumes of flame, turning it into dust and magically floating away from them, floating out through the tall windows. A full minute later and he breathed out another scroll.

“Wow,” Apple Bloom said as Spike grabbed the scroll. “That was fast.”

“Well,” Spike said, unrolling the scroll as Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo walked towards him to have a look at the contents. “I remember one time that Jay mentioned that the time in his world is slow compared to ours here.”

“Living crystal pony statues? You mean crystal ponies, right? Sorry Spike, but I don't get it. I don't see why they could be a problem. Can I ask what is wrong?”

“I take it back,” Scootaloo said as Spike rolled the scroll and puts it inside Apple Bloom's saddlebag. “This Kronz guy doesn't know a lot about these kinda stuffs.”

“Well, he's the only one we got for answers right now,” Sweetie Belle said as Spike materialized another scroll.

“I hope you gals don't mind me changin' the subject, but,” Apple Bloom interrupted as Spike began writing, “I'm mighty confused about our time here is goin' faster than Gold's world.”

Sweetie Belle nodded. “I think it means that, maybe, a minute here is an hour there.”

Apple Bloom blinked. “Oh. Well, that's easier to understand.” She nodded. “Thanks.” But after a few seconds, she blinked in thought. “W-wait...” she shook her head. “Oh, never mind...” She still didn't get it, but she decided not to bother about it for a while.

“We're inside the castle now. But before we got in, we had some trouble with those ‘crystal ponies’. They seem to be moving, but if we look at them, they don't move at all. We think they only move if we're not looking at them, which we proved after a little experiment. But the crystal statues inside the throne room are different! They're still moving even if we look at them! They can't seem to hear us though, but we're not sure if we want to just waltz inside and find this hidden switch.”

Spike then breathed out green fumes of flame, turning the scroll into dust and flew towards the window. Another minute and Spike materialized another scroll. He picked it up, unrolled it, and began reading with the three fillies.

“Huh, that's an interesting information. I need more time to research about that matter. In the mean time, here's a map of the crystal castle. I'm not sure if it matches the castle there, but it's something to start. It's attached to this email I've sent you.”

Right below the last sentence were three small maps of the castle. On the left was the ground floor. On the middle was the secret room, and the one on the right was the outside tower where the crystal heart was supposed to be.

“What's an ‘email’?” Scootaloo asked.

“We'll bother with that later,” Apple Bloom said as she and the others analyzed the map of the ground floor.

“So there's a hidden staircase right underneath the platform?” Sweetie Belle asked as she tore her gaze from the map and went to the throne room, eyeing the elevated platform on the opposite corner of the wall from the door.

“There doesn't seem to be any other way to get inside the throne room...” Scootaloo said.

“Hm... Maybe there is...” Apple Bloom said, pointing with a hoof at the map where a door to their left would lead them to a small crescent hallway, leading to the left part of the throne room, its door right in front of the elevated platform.

Blinking, Scootaloo looked to her left. Sure enough, there was a smaller and closed double door on the wall. Scootaloo then walked beside Sweetie Belle, who was peaking through the open double doors to the throne room. She dared taking a peak through the door, and studied the left wall. Sure enough, there was a slightly opened door there, just a few meters from the elevated platform.