Author's Note

My apologies for taking so long with this. Been sorta bored with writing, but I'm back! Enjoy this chapter!

Two Keys, One Door

A small ‘Eep’ could be heard coming from Fluttershy as she ducked behind Rarity.

Rarity scoffed at her frightened friend. “Come now, Fluttershy! There isn’t any reason to be frightened by a gargoyle. They’re just stone statues.”

“B-but they l-look so scary! It’s like they could come to life and gobble me up!”

Upon closer inspection, Rarity noticed the demon-like faces of each gargoyle. Though draconic in nature, something about these unnerved her.

“Oh hush. I’ll admit, they do look rather ghastly, but that’s the point! They look like this to ward of evil spirits and omens. What better way to do that than to make them look… different. They are just statues though. Completely harmless.”

Twilight gave Rarity an inquisitive glance. “I didn’t know you knew about Ponthic architecture, Rarity?”

Rarity giggled. “I find much of my inspiration comes from the architecture of past eras. Why do you think my last line was titled ‘Of Xoalis’? Haysia has such a wonderful culture, darling.”

“You know, I have to agree with you on that. Did you know that dragons were revered as gods by ancient Haysians? Based on the most recent findings I read, some species of modern day dragons have the same magical abilities as their predecessors.”

“Really? I didn’t know that. I guess you learn something new everyday.”

Twilight nodded. “You’re absolutely right. Even in someplace scary and new, I’m still learning new things.”

One of the gargoyles began to crack and shift under a magical aura, snapping its limbs from within the stone prison and leaving a broken shell scattered on the ground. The process was similar to how Discord originally escaped his own statue.

“Oh zank ze godz, more new conteztanz!” the gargoyle exclaimed. “I can finally move again!”

Every pony aside from Pinkie Pie gasped at the sight of the moving statues. Fluttershy laid on the ground unconscious.

The second gargoyle also moved in a similar fashion. “Eh, I’d rate it a six out of ten. Not enough rumbling before the escape, if you ask me.” It examined its now pale forest green jester’s outfit. “Well fuck, my shirt still has some dust in it. That’ll take hours to clean off.”

“I know vhat you mean. I mean, my armor haz bucket loadz of duzt inzide it. Good sing ve get a break zis veek from all ze ztanding around.”

The jester gandered toward the frightened group, laughing a hearty and deep tone. “Brother, I think we’ve managed to scare everybody here! It’s been ages since we’ve given a good scare!”

Rainbow Dash blushed ever so slightly. “Stop laughing! You didn’t scare us!”

“Are you kidding me? I think I saw you change into a new hue of blue!”

The second gargoyle joined in on the laughter. “If zhe’s zis eazy to zcare, juzt imagine vhat Dragus vill be able to do vis ze information! Hyzterical! Hahahahah!”

“I’m warning you two, stop laughing!”

This just made both gargoyles laugh harder. Even Pinkie Pie joined in with her own snorting laughter.

“Vat are you going to do about it?”

Instead of letting her own ego be tarnished, Rainbow Dash rapidly hovered over to both laughing guardians and bucked them in their semi-stone snouts. Both immediately stopped laughing.

The jester rubbed his cheek gently, a small tear escaping his right eye. “Okay, first off OW. Like holy fuck, do you have any idea how bad it hurts to be struck when your skin is made of STONE? And secondly, can you not take a fucking joke?”

Pinkie jumped up onto the jester. “Yeah Dashie, lighten up! They obviously only meant it in good fun! We do this all the time in Ponyville. You know, pranks?”

Dash huffed in annoyance. “Yeah yeah yeah, I get that. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to let some random punk get away with laughing at me! I have an image to maintain!”

“Even if ze image iz only outzide ze dungeon? Little pony, zis place carez not for your reputation. It will zwallow you like a grape vineyard if zat is all you care for here,” warned the knight. “I apologize zat I hurt your feelingz.”

The second gargoyle nodded. “Yeah, not like we meant you any harm. We just wanted to have some fun. Kind of hard to do when you’re made of stone twenty-four seven, three sixty-five.”

“If I may interject,” Rarity started. “Am I to understand that you both are only able to move when there are ‘contestants’ in this ghastly place?” Both gargoyles looked at each other and nodded.

“That’s dreadful! Oh you poor things!” She walked over to the jester and began to pet his stone scales as a means of comforting. “It must get incredibly lonely, not to mention it must be absolute evil on your lovely scales.”

“Not really. When we’re made of stone, my brother and I are able to communicate telepathically. It’s not the best existence, but it was better than the alternative. I’m Misho, by the way.”

“I’m Rarity. It is very nice to meet you.”

Misho bent down and hugged Rarity, earning a gasp. “It’s nice to meet you too. I’m sorry if we got off on the wrong claw. As much as we enjoy being together, Ghoul and I hate it here.”

Ghoul frowned. “Zis iz true. Draguz gave uz no choice but to zerve or be Misho would be usednfor his own temporary ‘enjoyment’. Yes, ve are now ageless, but ve cannot move. It haz been such a long time.”

Both statues shed tears of granite, which shattered into dust upon hitting the ground.

Fluttershy made her way up as well to comfort Ghoul. “It’s okay. Nopony can blame you for trying to protect one another. Maybe if you help us get up on the next floor, we can try to set you free.”

“You’d do that for us?” Misho’s eyes glistened with a hope he’d thought was long gone.

“We’ll do our best. Can you two nice gargoyles tell us how to get to the next floor?”

Ghoul groaned. “Zat is ze thing ve hate about our job. The most ve can help is to give you hintz.”

“He’s right. We both stand guard over this locked door between us and we each have a key that unlocks it” Misho added.

“So, why don’tcha jus’ give us one of them there keys then?” Applejack asked.

“It does not vork zat vay. Though zey both work on ze door, ze keys are enchanted. One vill kill you inztantly and ze other vill open to a staircaze to ze next floor. After zat, we go back to stone until the next victems…”

Applejack thought long and hard. It seemed too major of a risk to choose a key randomly. “I don’t suppose we could just try them both at tha same time, right? It’d help us take down that there varmint and get you two outa here.”

“No. In order to get ze key, you must ask for it. Ask uz any question you vish. But be warned, one of us can only answer in liez vhen asked. Ze other can only speak ze truth vhen asked about ze keys.”

“I’ve got it!” Twilight smirked proudly at herself. “I’m sure I’ve come up with a sound question that will help us narrow down which key is the correct one.”

Ghoul was surprised at how quickly the alicorn responded to their riddle. “Vell, go ahead and ask. Be careful though, becauze you only have one shot. And I vould hate to see such nice creaturez meet zere doom.”

Sweat beaded down Twilights forehead. “Ghoul, would Misho say you guard the key to death?”

A glazed look over takes Ghoul and his body goes rigid. His voice became almost monotone. “Yes, he would.”

Twilight let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you. Misho, we would like your key please.”

Misho wept as he handed the Princess his key. “We wish you luck, sweet ponies.”

“Wait, Twilight. Do ya really think this key is tha right one? Not that I don’t trust you, but ah’m scared. I don’t think Equestria could bear losin’ us,” said Applejack.

“I do. And like Ghoul said, we only have one shot, so it isn’t like I can just give the key back.”

Twilight crept slowly over to the ornate wooden door. Inserting the key, she gave it a gentle turn and pushed it open, revealing a set of stone brick stairs.

Rainbow Dash’s collapsed onto the puddle of sweat underneath her. “Thank Celestia…”

Fluttershy gave Twilight an inquisitive look. “How did you figure out Misho had the right key, Twilight?”

“Dragus ripped this sort of puzzle straight out of a Daring Do novel. In Daring Do and the Howling Caves, she encountered two old zebras with two different brews, one poison and the other just plain soup. This riddle was sort of the same to it,” Twilight explained. “But to be honest? I had no clue. I just went with my gut and thought up my own question for the two zebras. Who knew I’d be right? Hehehe.”

Ghoul joined his brother in crying tears of joy. “Ve might finally be free! After all zis time! You poniez have given mein brother and me a hope ve thought vas dead. You’re sure you can help uz ezcape?”

In a blur of pink, Pinkie Pie zipped over to the knight, grabbing onto and hanging from his face. “You bet your cupcakes we will, buster! Nopony, and I mean NOPONY, takes away the smiles of somepony else! I thought Dragus was a meanie meaner-pants before, but now I think he’s an even biggerer meanie meaner-pants! Just you wait, we’ll bring smiles to those snouts.”

“Vell, continue onward. Ve shall be praying in our heartz for your victory.”

Each of the girls said their goodbyes to the gargoyles, Fluttershy taking especially long with a hug and kiss on each of their cheeks. They climbed up the stairway, the sound of their hooves clacking on the warm stone steps. The first of many trials were over. Now, it was on to the next floor to go and meet what may be death itself, even more so than the dungeon.