Even Harmony has an Opposite

The Trials

Applejack landed on her face in a small room. She looked up. It was a very empty room. The only thing noticeable was a large statue against the wall. She trotted up to the large statue. All of the sudden it started to move.

Rarity could only think about how she should have brought a comb and a hairdryer. The water had completely ruined her mane. She looked around. A small sparkle caught her eye. It was a heavy key, crafted from gold and studded a stunning pattern of obsidian and diamond. Rarity picked it up and continued down the corridor.

Fluttershy could not move for a whole minute. She was panic stricken and could not stop shuddering. When finally regained mobility, she looked around. It was a small room, no larger then her own living room. She looked over to see a door way in between two pegasus statues.

Pinkie Pie was in a dark room. She was feeling the wall until she bumped into an unlit torch. She was happy for a moment, until she realized she had nothing to light it with. She thought for a little bit, then had a brilliant idea. She cleared a bit of the floor away, and holding the torch like a match, struck the ground and successfully lit the torch. She nearly dropped it from what the torch revealed in the shadows.

Rainbow Dash was already speeding around the large expanse. The room was not really a room, more like an abandoned town. There were buildings made from stone, and each was complete with its own bathroom. Rainbow Dash was confused. Who would have the time to construct an entire establishment, not to mention underground? Then she heard the sound of crying, and flew off in that direction.

Twilight suddenly landed on a brightly lit platform. The liquid previously surrounding her had released itself and splashed outward. She looked around. It was a curved room. Not so much a room in the shape of a circle, but more like part of a larger circle. She looked around. There was a golden scale. It was off balance. On one side of the scale, there was a weight, and on the other, three rocks. On the pedestal beneath the scale there were strange carvings. “Balance the scale for five seconds, and the path will reveal itself.” Twilight looked at the scale. With an easy going look, she put all the rocks on one side of the scale. The rock side was still lighter then the weight side. Twilight was confused. “This can’t be possible...” and she began to examine the rocks one by one.

“I AM THE GUARDIAN OF THE PASSAGE.” Applejack jumped back a few feet. “TELL ME ONE STATEMENT. IF IT IS TRUE, I WILL BEHEAD YOU. IF IT IS FALSE, I WILL BLUDGEON YOU TO DEATH.” The statue promptly held up a blade and a club. Applejack began to sweat. Ah shoot. What kinda choices are those?

Rarity could hear the sound of arguing down the corridor. When she turned the corner, she saw a young colt and a young filly. The filly was crying, while the colt was talking to the filly. Rarity trotted up to the pair. “What is going on here?” The filly looked up to her. “He took my key. It opens my lunch box.” She promptly pointed to a small box at her side. “But I need this key to complete my collection.” and the colt promptly showcased to her a box filled with keys. There was a large array of keys, simple to complex, no design to keys that focused on design rather then purpose. “And besides, it might open that big door over there.” and pointed to a large door at the back of the hall.

Fluttershy walked up to the passage way. The wings of the statues instantly spread out, blocking her path, and she had a weird sense of deja-vu. The eyes of the statue turned to Fluttershy. “STATE YOUR BUSINESS.” Fluttershy went wide-eyed in fear. “Um..I was just...trying to um...meet up with some friends?” Fluttershy smiled an unsure smile. “WE ARE NOT AFFECTED BY YOUR CHARMS, GOOD MISS.” Fluttershy was confused for a little bit.

Pinkie Pie found herself staring back at four pairs of eyes. It was a large stone spider, larger then her own tub. It looked at her hungrily, if stone beings could do that. Pinkie Pie just stared. Then she fell over. The spider began to close in on her.

Rainbow Dash found a small filly crying in the corner of a house. She walked up to her. “What seems to be the problem?” The filly looked up to Rainbow Dash, and suddenly hugged her leg. “Oh it’s bad! The black guards took my mother to the king in the castle!” Rainbow Dash was shocked. “Let’s get your mother back!” and with that she set the filly onto her back and flew off.

Applejack could not figure out this puzzle. She had to say something and not DIE at the same time. Never been one for smarts, shoulda listened to Twilight. Coulda learned a thing or two from her... Maybe if ah... GOT IT! She looked to the statue with a semi-self-confident grin. Gotta get this right. Let one word slip up, and ah could be dead. She gulped, and spoke steadily.

“You will bludgeon me to death.” She immediately flinched, holding her hoof up between the statue and her. After a while she put her hoof down. The statue had shifted to one side of the room. Its eyes had stopped glowing, leaving a long hallway in front of her. With a sigh of relief, she started down the corridor.

Rarity looked at the colt with a confused look. “The poor child needs to eat! How could you be so selfish?” She reached for the key, only to have the colt pull back from her. “No way. I’m keeping it.” The filly let out a loud wail. Rarity thought for a moment, then started a slight smile. “There’s nothing I can do to get that key back now.” The colt nodded. ”It’s not leaving my hoof.” Rarity sighed a fake sigh. “So I suppose you don’t want my key. I mean, it’s nothing compared to yours.” and promptly pulled out the glittering key she had found earlier. The colt turned his eyes to the golden key, and the radiance of it reflected off his eyes. “But, I suppose it’s all for the better, that’s a heavy looking collection, don’t you think?” The colt shook his head. “That key will probably complete my collection,” and swiped at it. Rarity held it away from him. “Give the poor child her key back; everypony needs to eat.” The colt promptly dropped the wooden key and grabbed the golden key. Rarity nudged the wooden key back to the filly. “Here little one. Eat up!” The fillys face lit up, and using the key, opened her lunchbox. Rarity smiled, and turned to the door. How was she going to open it? When Rarity turned her head back to ask though, both the colt and the filly had disappeared, with wooden key lying on the floor. Rarity picked up the key, and tried it in the door. It fit like a hoof in a sock, and the door swung open.

Fluttershy was having trouble with the guards. She had tried everything. Begging, pleading, even tickling. She wasn’t sure why she thought that last one would work. Fluttershy was studying the guard pegasus. Then she notice their concentration was on a small portion of the back wall. There was a tiny glinting in it. Fluttershy looked at it. She began picking away at the wall. After a while she was able to gather a variety of valuable gems. The guards were looking directly at Fluttershy. She walked closer to them, and realized they were looking at the gems. Fluttershy was a little confused, and then it hit her. “How long have you been standing here?” “ The guard replied ”AS LONG AS REQUIRED”. Fluttershy covered her ears. “Are you allowed to move, other then to talk?” The statue spoke again, with a slight sigh to its voice. “NOT EVEN TO NOD.” Fluttershy winced. “I noticed you were looking at these gems. I was never one for gems...You want them?” The guard replied “YES, I WOULD APPRECIATE THAT.” Fluttershy flew up to each of the guards, and put one gem in their mouth. The statues removed their wings, and spoke again. “THANK YOU. WE WILL ALLOW YOUR PASSAGE.” Fluttershy walked along the long corridor, thinking only that she’d have trouble hearing her friends.

The spider was on top of Pinkie Pie when suddenly she burst into laughter. “Oh you look so silly I literally forgot how to laugh!” And fell to the floor in a roaring fit of laughter. The stone spider was confused and backed up from the strange sound that was coming from the pony. It hit the back wall. Pinkie Pie was laughing so hard, she did not even notice the room starting to shake. The wall behind the spider began to crack. The spider looked back in time to see the wall crash upon it. Pinkie Pie got up, wiping tears from her eyes when she saw the hole in the wall, with the long corridor behind it. “Oh? Thanks spidey!” and she hopped around the rubble and down the corridor, humming to herself.

Rainbow Dash followed the points of the young filly as she flew towards a large building in the center of town. Rainbow Dash burst through the doorway of the hall, attracting the attention of about twenty black ponies and two ponies on a high stand. The filly cried out. “MOMMY!”, but Rainbow Dash held her back. She spoke in a menacingly calm tone. “Release her mother.” The tall one with the crown laughed. “Who do you think you are, challenging MY authority? I do whatever I want in this town!” And promptly shoved the mare backward. “One last chance, tough guy.” Another laugh. “YOU AND WHAT ARMY?” Rainbow Dash extended her wings and nodded at them. “This army.” She disappeared for a second. The ruler was confused for a while. Then Rainbow Dash reappeared. Another fit of laughter. “What was THAT supposed to...” He stopped mid-sentence when he saw all of his pony guards fall on their sides. Rainbow Dash flew up to the ruler and looked him right in the face. He started sweating. “Hey, hey, hey. I’m sure we could negotiate something.” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. ”I could give you my gold! uh...have some of my jewelry! You could even have my throne!” Rainbow Dash slapped the stallion with her hoof. “All I want is for you to release her.” She pointed to the mare in the hoof cuffs. He promptly unlocked the cuffs and ran screaming from the hall. The filly ran up to her mother, and they embraced each other in open arms and running tears. Rainbow Dash smiled. She turned to see that the throne had shifted to the side and had an opening where it was. She looked back to see the filly and her mother leave the hall. Satisfied, she went down into the darkness.

Twilight was still having trouble with the rocks and scale. “This is simply not possible. They told me to balance the scale. I have three rocks whose combined weight cannot compare to the weight on the other end! Hmm...” She thought long and hard. She looked at the weight. It was solid gold. She thought about gold, which led to her thinking about chemistry, which led her to think about alchemy and...

“The Alchemist Stone! Of course!” She was excited. “The Alchemist’s Stone is said to be able to turn normal rock into gold! Of course that’s not possible, but with the right materials...” Her horn lit up on her command, and the three stones levitated. “I could replicate such a prospect!” She took some bricks out from the wall and mixed it with the existing rocks. As she concentrated, the rocks spun faster and faster, turning a bright red and orange, spraying sparks everywhere. Twilight was still in the midst of concentration even when the rocks disappeared from view, leaving a faint red glow. Her face contorted in concentration while slowly, but gradually, a small speck of glittering dust appeared. It grew larger and larger until it was the same size and shape of the weight on the scale. Twilight promptly collapsed in exhaustion. She weakly got up, and picked up the new, glittering gold weight with her mouth, and dropped it on the scale. The scale balanced. Twilight waited, and right on time, the far wall fell into the floor. Twilight laughed weakly, and slowly trotted down the corridor.

They all entered at the same time. It was a large expanse of a room, which was not so much mossy, more dusty. Rarity was having trouble getting to the center of the room. Twilight was the first to speak. “You would not BELIEVE what I just did!” Applejack countered with a shaky voice. “Bet it wasn’t life threatening.” Pinkie Pie was too busy giggling at the memory of the giant spider. Rainbow Dash was smiling a proud smile. “I dropped those guys harder then anything I ever dropped! And I dropped a LOT of things!” After telling each other of their trials, they looked up to the center of the room. On a high pedestal, rested the Elements of Harmony. They all raced up to grab them. They were smiling up until the point where the Elements turned a dark gray. “Huh?” The girls said in unison. Sudden a black flame jumped off of Elements, quickly wrapping the girls in a twister of fire as they screamed their lungs out.