The Edge of Madness

by SaltyJustice

Chapter 10

Reason, it was the tool I possessed that they did not. This trap, whatever it was, was their first inklings of it, but they were not its masters. I knew the rules, as they were, and the first among them was that no situation could never be escaped. What appeared to be was what was, and so long as there remained an exit, no matter how small, there was hope.

I would not let the jeering specters drag me quietly off, they would have to earn their catch today. I set off on, standing awkwardly on my hind legs, with the wrenched pipe in one hoof and the light shining from the other. Banking around the pipes I had navigated to enter in on, I could tell they were swarming about the maze around me. Their sniveling laughter filled the air, but at the same time, revealed their positions, or at least those who were closest to me. I ducked under another set of blockers and leaped over the ones after that, ambling along the piped corridors as the beasts prowled in search of their now-mobile prize. After a moment, I could sense a shift, the beasts suddenly realized their prey did not fear them. I steeled myself for what was to come after.

As expected, it was cold methodology. The laughter, though still present, quieted itself and organized, the creatures of darkness I could not see began to pick paths and cross them in the labyrinth of metal. I took a corner, and another, and I felt a great sweeping of the air in the passage next to me, blocked off by lead to all except the light wrapped round my hoof. Something was there, mere inches away, but the rules stated the maze could not be breached, and so it was not. The enemy was close, and yet, so far.

I could not remember exactly the path I had taken once I had entered, but there had been a U-turn somewhere along it that I remembered very distinctly. It was only one turn away from the entrance, and I saw it through a gap in the piping as I passed. I was close, safety was mere meters away, a left at the next intersection and all would be resolved.

It was not to be, I took the left and passed the turn. I saw a narrow block of slim light coming through the exit hatch above me, but beneath it stood... something.

It was not like the dark ones I had faced so many times before, though it took the same form. This one was that of a grasshopper, with six legs of the type they had, giant angular things each the size of my chest, all facing away from each other in a circle. The top half of the beast was more a tree trunk, with the branches growing out at angles to the body. I could see them slowly moving, as if smelling the air to await my presence. The beast seemed not to take notice of me, but I could be assured that its orders were to not let me pass. They had cleverly placed a guard at the exit, and the hunters behind me would gain with each moment I wasted.

Though my weaponry was insufficient, improvisation was still an asset. I closed my eyes and concentrated, I would need to see the beast's true body, not the one that it showed my primitive eyes. The realm beneath came to my vision, and I saw the creature as it truly was, except with one modification.

Inside its body, there was an object. I have seen many of these creatures before, but none like this. The object had two-dozen sides, exactly how many I cared not to count, made of triangular and square faces. Itself, it was black, just as the creature's body was here, but it had iridescent green runes written randomly all across it. Was it significant? What was its importance?

The creature noticed me, and extended one of its legs to push its trunk towards me. All at once, all of the branches merged together and stabbed towards me, a great spike protruding from the trunk aimed at my face.

I stepped quickly to the side, banging my foreleg into the pipes that formed a wall and letting out a hollow ringing that rippled all through the room. The laughter came again, a wild howl of hilarity, mocking the failure that I had just revealed my position to all the creatures seeking me. Time was now a precious commodity.

I recovered before the beast did, and brought the pipe down atop the extension with all my strength. It was not enough, the flimsy metal, if this really was metal and not a trick of imagination, bent upon contact and rendered itself useless. I dropped it, and it clanged on the floor as the creature stepped back and reset itself to attack again. I didn't think it would miss this time, and even if it did, I had no way to fight it. Or...

There was nothing left to lose, nothing left to try except the insane gamble that brewed in my head that moment. I stood in the middle of the narrow corridor again, and the creature's strike came again, faster and better angled, but still too slow. I dodged again, more nimbly this time to not hurt myself, and in one fluid motion, I shoved my hoof as hard as I could into the creature's body.

I slammed my chest up against it with all my strength, pushing my weight into the hoof that extended down into this things malformed structure. The consistency was much like a thick pudding, my leg stung like I had poured acid all over it as it entered with scarcely a splash. I reached as it went inside to try to grasp the green object buried within the body, gnashing my teeth and grunting as I fought for each centimeter I extended into the beast.

At last I felt the edge of the object and held as hard as I could. I placed my other three legs onto the creature and pushed them off it, trying to pull my leg out with the object attached. The creature did not fight back as I did this, in fact, it had stopped moving at all as soon as my hoof contacted it, slumping over slightly and lettings its legs rest against the ground.

With great effort, finally the object tore free of the blackened body, and I landed on my back with a thud as the creature dissociated entirely, turning into a pile of mush on the ground which pooled and ran under the piping into the layers beyond. No time to celebrate, no time to think, no time to do anything except stand back up and escape.

I did not discard the object, whatever it was, as it was my trophy now. I could see another creature coming towards me, and I could make out the outline of another object just like the one I held, somewhere inside its body as well. What the hell were these things?

The narrow exit point was above me now, I could see the light from the hallway far above bouncing on down to me. It was too small to flap my wings through, and I could not try to jump and climb through, not with another creature bearing down on me. The way out seemed so far out of reach, but hope was not to be lost yet.

I concentrated, this time on pushing down, with my magic, on the floor below me. Unlike my usual telekinesis, this one I was allowing to build up without releasing it. The force was not being applied, just built, and I let it build until I was sure the beast was within striking range. As I could hear it reforming some awful appendage to better crush my bones, I released the force all at once, and the floor beneath pushed back up on me, catapulting me upwards and through the trap door.

My wing caught the edge of the square and shuddered with pain as I launched through into the basement above. I flew too high, banging my head on the roof above and landing in a heap next to the trap door's wooden frame. Pain told me to lay still, but fear proved the stronger, and I limped away from the portal before anything could try to pull me through. Searing terror, screams of anger and laughter flowed through, not audible except in my mind, as I stumbled through the short path of piping back to the basement door. I emerged into the hallway beyond, bruised and exhausted, terrified, confused, angry. I fell down in front of the basement door, and the screams from below stopped. All was quiet.

Rainbow was nowhere to be found, the building was dark save for a distant candle that came slowly closer. I could hear somepony speaking in a panic, shouting something, the light became closer. Another voice joined the first, something poked at me. I didn't care, I was too exhausted to move.

"Call the doctors, we've got another victim," said a female voice above me.

"No," I said, opening my eyes to see two ponies standing above me. I recognized "Eddy" as one, and the other, I had never seen before. There was fear written on their faces.

I tried to stand up, but I was dizzy from the head injury I had suffered. I realized my horn was visible, except my mangled mane covered it from sight as I had lay there. I quickly and quietly cast the invisibility spell as I struggled to stand, the black and green object still in my hoof as I did so.

"The guard, call the guard. Seal the place off, nopony goes down into the sub-basement, you hear me?" I said. Eddy cleared his throat before speaking.

"Ma'am, there's no sub-basement in the building. What are you talking about? What were you doing down there?" he asked, his accent concealed completely. He must have cleared his throat whenever he needed to speak incognito.

"Thought a filly ran down there, went looking. Where's Rainbow? Blue filly, crazy mane?" I asked. Eddy looked confused.

"You're the only one that's in the building, except for the staff. Only cadets are allowed in the halls after dark," he said.

I was such an idiot. The whole thing had been a trap, tricks played with my eyes, on my ears. What had been real? Had Rainbow not even been here? Had I fallen for the same thing Gazzo had?

This was so much worse than ever before, so much more advanced. Never before had the creatures laid a trap, never before had they used hallucinations like this, never before had they come so close to eliminating me the way they had. I had a feeling that whatever was different, whatever had changed, had something to do with the black stone shape that I now held in my hoof.

"Oh, sorry, must be my eyes playing tricks on me. It's late, I better get home," I said. I could tell the two didn't believe me at all.

"Are you sure you don't need a doctor? This has been happening all summer," said the mare.

"No no, I'm sure she's fine if she says she is," Eddy said, though his face betrayed a concern. "We can't go blaming a mystery disease if a bump on the noggin will suffice."

"Oh yeah, banged my head on a pipe," I lied. I sat down and rubbed the sore spot on my head.

"At least put some ice on that, and see the school nurse tomorrow," the mare said.

"I'll be sure to -ow-," I said, as the bump started to hurt suddenly again, "I'll see the nurse tomorrow, thanks."

The two walked off, taking their candles with them. I could see them send a look back at me every few feet as I sat there, rubbing my head, illuminated by my flashlight.

I collected my things from where I had left them in a heap earlier, and flew back home. My wing had done much better than my head, forming only a bruise as I went and functioning as expected. I really had been tired, I would need to examine this... thing I had found, later, when I had rested.

Everypony was asleep when I got home, I took note of the two fillies sleeping on a bed in the living room. Rainbow and Fluttershy had probably been here the whole time, though it was no relief to me to see them. I should have known better.

I didn't have a bed in my room, we had given it to the fillies and replaced mine with a big cumulus cloud we had shoved in the corner. It did the job just fine, I left my coat in a heap, with the object underneath it. I was asleep within seconds of laying down.

I awoke with a jolt, sitting up before I was even aware of it. There was very little light in the room, all I could make out was a set of shadows at the door.

"Hello?" I said. They had pushed my door open, and were staring at me. How long had they been doing this?

I had neglected to take off my flashlight, so I clicked it on and pointed it at the doorway.

Standing there were my friends, Minty and Squeaky, as well as Fluttershy and Rainbow, except... they looked different. Their eyes were unfocused, like they hadn't gotten any sleep in days, weeks. Heavy bags beneath them, their expressions blank. Their coats, manes, tails... all were grey, like the color had been washed out by something. It made Rainbow look ridiculous, if you could still call her that, now she was a featureless grey color like an old pony.

"Give it back," Minty said, her expression unchanged, her voice monotone.

"Give what back? What's going on?" I asked.

"Give it back," Squeaky said.

I rolled off the cloud bed and stood in the middle of my room, my light still fixed on the four ponies at the entrance. I scarcely breathed as their gazes followed my movements.

With no warning, Minty leaped forward and arced through the air at me. Instinct took over, before I realized what I was doing, I had levitated my sword up from under my coat and gripped it with both forehooves. The light bounced off the cloud roof and scattered throughout the room, giving me just enough to see the silhouettes of my friends. I blocked Minty's attack with the flat of the blade and pushed her backwards with it, causing her to tumble backwards and hit the cloud wall next to the door. She kept going through it, tearing a hole open and giving my room a new interior window. She landed in a heap in the hall just outside.

Squeaky tried now, the same approach of leaping at me. I dropped the sword, not wanting to accidentally hurt her, and caught her body with my own, intercepting her in the air. We landed in a heap on the floor, and I stood up before she did.

A spell whirled out my subconscious, some telekinetic wind-spell, I think. Non-lethality was crucial, hurting my friends was not an option. I focused all my telekinetic force in one point in front of me, and as Squeaky stood back up, unleashed it on her, sending her flying forwards and knocking over the fillies who were still in the doorway. Rainbow recovered instantly, and looked about ready to charge herself, before her face took a pained expression and she slumped over of her own accord.

All four of them put their hooves on their ears, their faces reflecting a terrible agony as they writhed in the pale glow of my flashlight. They looked as if they were trying to pull their own heads off, and I stood in a baffled daze until -

I woke up suddenly, for real this time. It was morning, though I couldn't be sure of the time, as my room didn't have a window, interior or otherwise. I looked at the wall I had sent Minty through, but it was intact. A dream, though it had seemed so real, as dreams always do. I wondered what it could mean.

The sun pierced through the clouds of the house, illuminating the room from without as I ran outside to gauge the time. Roughly seven o' clock, I estimated, and stepped back inside. Everypony else was still asleep, and I wasn't late for classes. I decided to take it easy, and get some of my customary toast.

Except there was no bread present. I had definitely seen bread here yesterday, no doubt somepony devoured it before I had a chance to get to it. Cold cereal would have to suffice.

After a brief breakfast, I went back over to the object still wedged safely under my coat. Upon further inspection, it was more of a sphere, except an angular one. I turned it over and over a few times, trying to make sense of the strange runes written on it, though if it was a language I had never seen it before. Something truly exotic.

I didn't have the sort of resources and time to figure it out fully, especially if it meant trying to translate the writing. I turned it over again and noticed something unusual. The runes were different. Not that I had exactly memorized them, but I did notice they had changed since I had seen them a few seconds ago. When looking right at the object, everything held still, yet as soon as I turned the faces then turned them back, there were changes. Small changes, and more the longer I looked away.

I still had no idea what to even call this thing, what it was for, what I should do with it. It was as close to an enigma as the physical realm could possess. It was Tia's problem, I reasoned, and I would use a special bit of express mail to make it so.

I quickly wrote up a letter explaining where I had found the thing, and what I had learned about it. I then stuffed it in an envelope, and prepared to cast the exo-teleportation spell, which would have been impossible for a magical remedial case like me, except this was a two-way joint spell. So long as Celestia was awake and able to cast the receiving spell, it took very little effort for me to send it. If she had been asleep, I'd have been in trouble, but she rarely went back to bed after raising the sun.

The object and letter vanished with a pop. I hoped Tia would have better luck figuring the thing out than I had, because I had a much more dangerous encounter to handle today. A sparring match with Midnight.

Comments

[Sensual Endeavor]

(Phew...finally got through this chapter...not sure why it took so long for me to read it, but...)

Maybe it's just me, but that rune...sphere...block...polyhedron...thing and how it was inside the demon beast creatures kinda reminded me of the Chuchus in Majora's Mask and how you could see what they drop inside them (although it's not that helpful in determining which one you should go after based on what you need at any given time since they're color-coded anyway). I'm wondering, though, if it gave them super-demon-beast powers.

Also, am I right to be a bit...paranoid about Midnight (I mean, with her being one of the few sword-wielding ponies, with Cadance being another one, it seems pretty logical for Midnight to be a rival/arch-enemy character)?