Author's Note

This is a little A.U story. NOT PART OF THE MAIN STORYLINE

Quarry Of Madness Part 1 of 3 A.U (Edited By NagaShark)

“…after that I was able to unravel the location of all 5 gems and send that brainless bull to go fetch them, happy?” Chrysalis finished her exposition to Discord and Starlight as part of her program with a sigh turning around from a chalkboard to see the two individuals in question.

“Impressive, and completely relatable to be honest.” Starlight smiles and claps at her exposition. “When I was still seeking ways to destroy Twilight’s legacy.”

“Yeah, yeah, you screw up and always destroy Equus, we all know the story,” Chrysalis mentions with a glare. “Listen, can we wrap this up already? Just because I agree, doesn’t mean I like this one bit, and I never agreed to her being here.” Chrysalis mentions.

“Ah, ah Chrysalis, play nice, you wouldn’t want to cause the wrong impression on dear Mark right?”

“For the last time I don’t…!” She sighs in exasperation before looking away “…I’m just doing this to prove to that human that I’m not afraid of anything! And to prove that pretentious herd of his that I don’t have to prove a single thing.” She says defensively.

“Sure.” Discord rolls his eyes sarcastically. “You can tell us how much he really doesn’t matter to you after he comes back from returning the relics.” He casually mentions, catching the changeling attention in the process.

“Excuse me where exactly did you say he went?”

“Oh a small trip to return the relics, you know cleaning up your mess and…”

“Did he actually take the necklace back to where I found it?!” She suddenly asks, getting more and more worried.

“What? Afraid someone would pick pocket it? It is useless without the gem which is as far away from it as possible?” Discord smirks only for Chrysalis to grab his goatee.

“You IDIOTS do you have any idea where you just sent him?!”

“What is the matter? Wasn’t the gauntlets the only relic enchanted?” Starlight question.

“Yes! But the zone where I got that necklace is chock full of dangerous gemstones! You just sent him blind into a minefield!” She chastises the both of them.

“Well really now? Do you think that could be a problem?” Discord questions, faking surprise, earning a glare from Chrysalis.

“You KNEW about the dangers didn’t you? You knew and still didn’t say a single thing!” She yells pointing accusing fingers at him.

“She has a point Discord, you should have said something.” Starlight mentions in concern

“Ladies, ladies you wound me, I honestly wasn’t aware of any of that, I’m just stating the facts after all I’m not the one that has been studying all about those relics.”

“Oh no, you better stop it Discord. I know what you are doing and it’s not gonna work. I’m not gonna play your stupid mind games!”

“But of course, you are more than smart enough to not fall for tricks like those.” Things get tense and no one says anything until Chrysalis looks at Starlight.

“Well what the heck are you waiting for! GO!” She dragged her out of the room. “Go tell the Princess and your annoying friends and just go fix things already! Preferably RIGHT NOW!” She tosses her out and lets out a breath while leaning her head on the door.

“THIS does not prove a single thing!” She tells Discord without looking. “I’m just playing along to save me a trip right into that muscle brain and living headache, that is all! I don’t care whatsoever what would happen to Mark, I mean him, I mean that human!”

“Sure, and I mean that is what would be expected of the Queen right? Oh my mistake, the Ex-Queen, so predictable and lazy, more than used to just sitting back and whining to others to do everything for her. Just like a very boring textbook.”

He turn around and pretend to read a book “…and 3, 2, 1”

“You know what Discord, despite how insufferable you are, I used to respect you. You had it all, the world, a throne and infinite power. But now, now you are just plain insufferable, that annoying concept of harmony and friendship just made you weak…and it robbed you of any dignity you had!”

She turn around and open the door

“And where exactly are you going?”

“……SHUT UP!”

She ram the door behind her as she goes chase after Starlight, as he chuckles. “Like a clock”

Making use of consecutive teleportation spells courtesy of Twilight, Starlight and surprisingly Chrysalis the group manage to reach a diamond quarry where they find the human in question standing in the middle of the pit, with a thousand mile stare, looking at a giant ruby colored crystals refracted into million pieces.

“Mark!” AJ, and Dash were the first to notice and were about to rush to him if not for Chrysalis grabbing their tails to stop them. “I can’t believe I’m doing this” She mumbles in irritation before tossing them back.

“What did I tell you? WHAT, were my exact words?!” She grabs a pebble and tosses it into the pit, only for it to be sliced into a million pieces by the reflection of the light bouncing back and forth between the crystals. “This place is not just a simple quarry! This right here is a death trap, ever changing each hour by the sun position” She points up at the sky. “You want to rescue Ma…that human? Then, you better shut up, do what I say and LISTEN to my warnings”

The girls look at one another unsure until Twilight steps forward “What do you know of this place Chrysalis?”

“I suppose that is the best I can get so I will take it.” She sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose before looking at the entrance in question. “The locals call this place the Quarry of madness, because of the nature of the crystals and how their magic reacts and manifests depending on in which direction lights hit their surface. Right now it’s noon so the place is currently in its maze of fire stage, the most basic of its traps.”

“So you are saying this quarry has a total of 12 different traps?” Twilight pounder humming and looking at crystals embedded on the walls

“24” The changeling was quick to correct “The night has light too, and it has its own effects under the moon too, plus a final trap in the center which unfortunately he tripped.” She points at the crystal in front of Mark.

“Ok thanks for the history lesson” Dash interrupts Chrysalis “But let's skip to the part on how we rescue Mark now?”

She grumbles before pointing at the gems

“Those gems are reflecting LIGHT you want to pass through? You need to reflect back at them.”

“Oh I see, it is like the mirror effect” Twilight snaps her fingers “I think I have the perfect spell for that.” She charges her horn and covers the group bodies so they resemble aluminium, going forward she pokes her finger forward and instead of being cut by the streams of light it just refracts it in 6 directions.

“There, that should do it! Now let go everypony!” She calls and everyone rush toward Mark minus Fluttershy who glares at Chrysalis

“This doesn’t change a thing”

“Good, I'm counting on it. The only reason I’m here is to shut up that insufferable lord of chaos and so you don’t pin YOUR blame on me when your patetic rescue fails!” She returns with a glare of her own as she advances too.

Thanks to her advice and Twilight's quick thinking, the group didn’t have to move around the maze and were able to reach Mark descending in a straight line.

The moment they reach the ground they go to Mark and discover how his body was translucent making Chrysalis sigh “Just as I feared, it trapped him.” She looks at the enormous crystal in front of them, where they gasp when noticing how the group had a reflection yet Mark seems to be gone.

“You mean to tell us that he is trapped inside that thing?” Applejack question.

“Good then…”

“You smash it, you kill him!” Chrysalis glared at Dash before she could even finish that sentence as she lowered her leg.

“Let me guess, we need to go inside and bring him back don’t we?” Twilight looks at Chrysalis with dread.

“Pretty much.” Chrysalis nods and taps the crystal showing seven different images all showing Mark reliving a moment of his past. “And we will have to explore more than one memory, luckily it doesn’t seems like anything has been erased yet” with a sigh before looking at them “Ok listen up, this right here is called a purge gem, and like the name implies once it catches you, it will slowly purge your existence completely, until you became that.”

Pointing behind the group everyone turns and goes pale when they see hollow pony, griffin, dragon and abissian shatter glass statue scattered all around them.

“A literal husk of what you were once, it will start slowly and make the victim feel at peace by searching their most painful memories and re-tell it to them with a new positive spin of things so the victim feels at peace, and then forget it all together as if it never existed, as well as every pony involved in said memory. To rescue him you have to dive right into the memory and remind him exactly how that memory actually plays out. That would snap him back to his body and break the hold the crystal has on him.”

“And what? You are just gonna stay here while we go fix your mess?” Applejack glares at the changeling.

“You are right I should go and help him remember all those times I was there to know how things actually happened, oh wait!” She looked at her with a glare.

“There is one memory you will have to do Chrysalis.” Fluttershy points out at one in particular she didn’t see at first, the night she kidnapped him.

“Of course there would be that one.”

“Don’t worry Chrysalis I will stay guard here and protect Mark’s body while you go save him” Starlight offers and as much as she wanted to argue, he didn’t seem to have any painful memory involving her so she didn’t have a choice but to relent.

“Anything else I should worry about, this quarry while you go inside?”

“Yes, stay in this circle” She pointed at the charcoal circle the sunbeams made “Don’t stare at any crystal and if you hear any humming cover your ears IMMEDIATELY!”

“Now we have to worry about sound too?” Dash ask incredusly

“Yes, because this one shuts down your vital organs until it passes, can you survive without your heart, lungs and brain for an hour?” She asks her sarcastically as Pinkie passes Starlight a pair of headphones at the proclamation.

“Listen normally I wouldn’t care but I highly doubt the human wouldn’t mind having a corpse in his brain so everyone stay together and don’t stray, I’m talking to you Pinkie!” She points at the pink earth pony.

“Once there the crystal will try to attack us and tighten the hold on the human weaponizing his nightmares, we die in there and we become figments of his mind, got it?”

They all nod. “Can we punch the crystal once inside?”

“Sure, if you don’t mind heating up a hornets nest, listen Dash I know how much you want to do it, but this time you can’t simply punch your way out of this.”

“But we shouldn’t be going blind either.” Twilight thinks about it and hands over the elements to each of them before turning to Chrysalis. “Just a precaution”

“Suit yourself, just pray using them doesn’t explode his head in a rainbow blast.” She rolls her eyes and takes lead, placing her palm on the center of the crystal she turns it into a liquid form allowing the group to enter without issue and right into Mark subconscious.
For a moment everything was pitch black but then as they advanced shapes and lights could be seen and before they knew it the group was in the middle of Applejack’s farm.

“What are we doing on my farm?” The farmer asks approaching Chrysalis.

“This isn’t your farm, it is the memory of it, the first memory the crystal tried to change from the look of things. Any particular reason as to why he would have a painful memory of this place?”

“No idea, there is no bad memory he could possibly have here.” Applejack defended herself.

“Maybe there is one.” Pinkie stepped forward, her grin completely gone as she remembered.

“Well, tell us Pinkie.” Dash looks at her. “What exactly happened here”

“I can’t tell you, I pinkie promised not to say a thing!” She shakes her head.

“Then say goodbye to the farm, Applejack and probably the entire Apple family because it will go very soon.” Chrysalis points out looking at how the place was starting to look translucent.

“What?! No! He can’t he can’t forget Applejack, that is too cruel!” Pinkie yells trying to touch the trees but she is starting to faze out of them.

“Please darling you need to hurry, tell us!” Rarity issues her, as Pinkie looks around for options before snapping her fingers.

“I can show you instead! This way!”

She rushes deeper into the farm with the rest close by, until they reach an improvised training area where Mark was cleaning some sweat while applejack was cleaning some dirt and standing up, wearing red shorts and a sports bra.

“What in the hay?” The farmer look at the scene play with confusion as the two seems to be laughing

“You got me good sugar cube, those punches aren’t something to sneeze at.”

“Nah, you really think so, Applejack?”

“Please call me AJ, and yeah you are. I haven’t had this much fun since Big Mac and I entered that double wrestling competition! Think you and Crystal would join us for the next one?”

“I will make sure to ask her” Mark nods and starts to leave, not seeing how everything behind him was burning away as if it was paper.

“Wait, that is not how it happens!” Applejack yells in realization and then sorrow as everyone is confused when Mark froze completely and the place seems void of colour.

“Now I get it but…I told him everything was fine and I apologize for snapping so harsh on him” She turn to Pinkie who shake her head

“It still hurt him and he was riddled with guilt for days, until you two finally talked.”

“What exactly happened?”

“Better tell it out loud too.” Chrysalis adds. “It is the only way to put this memory back in order.

With a sigh AJ looks back at the ring of hay. “The part of us wrestling is true, I invited him for a match after finding out about his strength and showing him how strong I could be myself.” A piece of memory of AJ breaking a boulder with her hoof is shown next to an impressed Mark before it disappears.

“But it didn’t exactly end well.”

“Wait, is this the time you had to have a cast on your arm for a month?” Dash interrupts. “Applebloom told me that it was a farm accident and that a big and loose tree branch fell on top of you.”

“Yeah, that was the lie she told you guys, but the truth was that at that time, Mark didn’t know how to control his own strength and I didn’t have any idea that he could be a match for Rockhoof yet. I kept telling him to stop holding back, and got carried away, myself.”

Another image shows this time of them fighting with Applejack sending him flying with a kick to the stomach.

“Things kept escalating and before I knew it I was already flying.”

The memory is playing back again, this time the ring was broken and AJ rammed into a tree, chopping it down in the process.

With a groan she stands up holding her right arm before realizing what happened and subsequently screams in horror.

“AJ!” Mark rushes to her side. “AJ are you ok, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to…”

“My apple tree!” With teary eyes she tries to cradle the falling log with her good arm. “He was still so young and full of energy and you killed him!”

“AJ I’m so sorry, it was an accident.” He tried to approach her but she only glared at him.

“Get out! OUT you freak of nature, get off of my farm! And if I see you again I will buck your teeth out, you hear me!” She keeps yelling obscenities as Mark keeps backing away and then turns around and leaves the farms as fast as he could ending the memory, and leaving them in the entrance of the farm which shines bright and then disappears into the distance.

“And there you go, that will restore things, one down, six more to go.” Chrysalis nods in approval.

“Ha, Applejack don’t you think you were a bit harsh with him?” Dash looked at the farmer with some sorrow.

“I apologized later, and I was pretty mad when it happened, ok? How would you feel if he had just used you to break your collection of trophies or something similar?”

“Who cares, you can tell each other how much you were terrible ponies AFTER we rescued the human, ok? Now let’s go, with this the crystal must likely notice us and would send nightmares any moment now.” Chrysalis pushes the two forward.

“Chrysalis is right, we don’t have time to waste girls.” Twilight motions as Fluttershy keeps glaring at her. “You are enjoying this right? Seeing our mistakes and forcing us to hurt Mark while you look good in his eyes don’t you?”

“Think whatever you like, I’m just repaying a favor.”

“A favor? What favor?” Rarity gets ahead, confused at the statement.

“I owe him one ok! Now let’s move on to our next memory.” The group sees how Chrysalis guides them toward a cabin in the forest, as they look around.