A soft hum grew into a roar, louder with each step as they emerged into the grand chamber. There, some ancient magic thrummed with the power to rip all they knew asunder. Rarity gaped at it, even her wings stilled in the moment.

"What in Equestria is that?" Sweetie finally managed. She glanced to her companions uneasily. "How do we stop it?"

"You don't." Ahouzotl stepped out from around the inferno. "This isn't yours to play with." He reared up, clapping his hands together. "Why you ponies think you can just wander in here and take what you want eludes me. It's a troubling habit."

What none of them had expected was for Bright to charge across the room. Ahouzotl was giving his sermon on how right he was, and how wrong the ponies were for even thinking of their plans. He didn't notice Bright until a balled fist slammed into his face, knocking him back. "What? Did you...?"

Bright rubbed his sore knuckles. "You had it coming. Bad! Bad!" He waved a finger with each exclamation. "You sit in the corner and think about what you did!"

Ahouzotl fell to all fours, glaring at Bright with near literal flames in his eyes. "How dare you! Just for that, I am unleashing it!"

"Please." Bright rolled his eyes. "If you could, you would have already. You're bluffing. Stop making yourself look bad."

Ahuizotl scowled, rubbing his snout where Bright's fist had struck. "You know nothing, newcomer. My reformation is precisely why I cannot let you endanger my realm."

He lifted the Truth Talisman, runes glinting. "This place exists in fragile balance - disrupt it, and untold chaos could be unleashed." He glanced uneasily at the caged Vortex, energies churning.

Rarity stepped forward, horn lit in cautious diplomacy. "Perhaps introductions are in order first. I am Lady Rarity, purveyor of fashionable enchantments." She smiled disarmingly, baring just a hint of fang. "Might we make amends and discuss matters over tea instead of magical blows?"

Ahuizotl blinked then chuckled wryly. "Still the same charm and guile, I see. Very well." The Talisman glowed as stone guardians withdrew into alcoves. "If nothing else, this encounter proves I still have much to learn about harmony."

He clapped his hands. "Come - let us take refreshment and speak sensibly." A table appeared laden with moonsweet tea and ruby mooncakes. Ahuizotl took his seat, tail-hand beckoning them over. "Now then, what truly brings you to my domain unbidden?"

Rarity took the seat opposite Ahuizotl with delighted poise. "Well, I must say I am delightfully surprised. To think we can just talk this over like civilized creatures." She folded her wings on her back. "Marvelous. Now, dear, tell us why we're in the wrong place? We just want to make sure ponies don't get hurt with such dangerous things."

Sweetie slid in next to Bright, whispering, "Rarity's keeping him distracted. So, what's the plan? You seem to know this perp. How do we get rid of him?"

"Cold." He ruffled the top of Sweetie's mane gently. "But he deserves it. Jerk." Not that he knew of their later reformation, even if it had been mentioned casually. "He's busy chatting with Rares. I say we grab it and run."

Sweetie raised a brow high. "Not sure that'll work... He seems to control the problems. He can control the golems. I bet he's in with the cats. We mess with him without taking care of him, and it's probably game over for us all."

Sweetie Drops' assessment gave Bright pause. As much as he disliked Ahuizotl, she raised fair points - his command of this domain's elemental forces made him too dangerous to simply steal from and flee. Any escape could be thwarted by the guardian beasts at his call.

Rarity kept Ahuizotl engaged, subtly angling for details between dainty sips of tea. "So this vortex was a chaotic byproduct you're harnessed to empower the basin, allowing the rainforests and temples to thrive for ages, yes? But mishandled, might it not wreak havoc?"

Ahuizotl inclined his head. "Just so. All realms hold seeds of both beauty and destruction within their genesis." His expression hardened. "Would your meddlesome princess-rulers grasp such duality?"

Meanwhile, Sweetie and Bright slipped stealthily around the chamber's shadowy perimeter toward the towering obsidian monolith at its heart - the vortex prison itself. Sweetie aimed scanning equipment at the whirling primordial chaos contained within.

"This is an insane amount of thaumic energy..." she muttered. "But it reads somehow...out of sync? Almost elastic in its volatility?" She met Bright's eyes. "If we strain its resonance envelope just enough, it might safely dissipate without blowback!"

Bright blinked slowly at the intensely technical explination. "Bons, no idea--"

She shoved a hoof over his mouth. "I don't know where you got my private identity, but do not use it while we're on duty, ever. Got it?" When he nodded, she drew her hoof back. "Good. That is a secret."

"Can you repeat that, the idea, in English?" He waved at the swirling, captive, energy. "How do we fix that?"

"I was saying." Sweetie sighed as she turned back. "If we strain what makes it stable, we might just break it apart, and then it'll be gone, and there's no problem anymore."

Sweetie Drops rubbed her chin thoughtfully as she studied the raging vortex. "The question is how to properly 'strain' these volatile forces. A surgical magical strike to stress its bindings? Or perhaps a realigned channeling to unbalance the thaumic symmetry sustaining it?"

She shook her head in frustration. "If only we understood more about this relic's origins, there may be clues on safely dissolving it."

Sweetie glanced back to where Rarity continued keeping Ahuizotl occupied with friendly chatter, though she noticed his responses becoming more guarded. Time was running short.

She turned to Bright with fresh urgency. "We need to directly access the vortex casing itself to scan its matrix for structural weaknesses. But reaching it requires distraction."

Sweetie met his eyes gravely. "I believe in your...bond with Rarity. See if you can unlock her true vampiric strengths - have her take Ahuizotl down non-lethally while I analyze the specific sequences. He may respect shows of power if not diplomacy."

Bright understood less than half of the muttering Sweetie was producing. "I have an idea." He walked right up to the portal, keeping the pillar between him and Ahuizotl. He reached up and around and shoved his hand between the gaps of the ancient apparatus designed to keep it safely contained.

It was a stupid idea, but also the best he had. He lit up with power as it surged through him, using his body as a grounding point to rush through his frail mortal form.

Ahuizotl started at the sudden loud crackle. "What's going on?" He abandoned the table he was sharing with Rarity, hopping up facing the pillar. "You fool! That will kill you! Or destroy all of us.... I couldn't say for sure. Take your hand back right now!"

Not that Bright could, caught in the power he was unleashing.

As chaotic energies poured into Bright's body, his form began to shift and transform in shocking ways. His proportions wavered, limbs and torso contorting as reality's boundaries unraveled.

Fur sprouted rapidly across Bright's skin, soft as angora but sleek like otter pelt. It flowed in lustrous waves down his altering frame as he shrank, bone and muscle reshaping. Hands fused into paws, dexterous yet furred for traction as his arms and legs morphed to suit altered needs.

Bright's torso compacted as ribs shortened. Powerful kangaroo tail erupted from above his changing rump, thick and prehensile to counterbalance massive hindleg muscles for tremendous hopping power.

His neck stretched up, face thrusting outwards into an elongated muzzle suited for nibbling. But deadly fangs curved within, wings unfurling from his shoulders. His ears grew long and turned like radar dishes attuned to dangers and interesting sounds.

The metamorphosis finished in moments, reality bending to randomness unleashed. Bright's clothing now hung loosely on the sinuous rabbit-roo frame. Crimson eyes glowed intensely, narrowed against the influx of raw power still flooding uncontrollably through paw and form.

Rarity fell back from her chair. "Bright! Darling... Are you... I hesitate to ask 'alright', but can you talk to us, please, dear?"

Ahuizotl threw his hands aside. "He destroyed it! You!" He stormed towards the small fuzzy thing that had once been Bright. "You've doomed the valley! You've ruined so much, and for what? For what?!"

Sweetie grabbed Bright, so much smaller since his sudden change, and fired a grappling hook across the room. She flew with its retracing, narrowly avoiding being grabbed on the way. "Mission accomplished, it's time to get out of here!"

Rarity galloped after Sweetie, at least in her direction. "We really should finish that chat later. It was quite engrossing."

Ahuizotl roared, no longer in any mood for idle conversations. "I will see you all destroyed. All of you!" He screamed and stomped, but the golems didn't move. They had no power, their source deactivated just moments before. "A thousand curses on you all!"

Bright blinked up at Sweetie in confusion, his shirt now slipping down his fuzzy torso. His voice was higher pitched and alien. "Woah, what happened?" Startled, he clasped tiny paws to his mouth. What had happened?!

Rarity glanced back worriedly even as she galloped. "I know that look - he's going into shock. We must get him warm and comforted posthaste!"

They raced for the exit, the chamber beginning to shake and crumble without the vortex's chaotic energies infusing it. Sweetie poured on more speed as living stone guardians rumbled to life, weakened but blocking their path.

"Rares, we could use one of your brilliant dress designs round about now!" She curled protectively around Bright as ominous shadows loomed.

Rarity skidded to a halt, eyes flashing. "But of course!" Her horn flared bright. "I have just the ticket..."

In a flash, Sweetie found herself clad neck to tail in gleaming armor that shifted hues like oil on water. An ornate jousting lance appeared strapped beside the intricate bell-shaped shield on her back.

Rarity smiled proudly through the rubble raining down around them. "I call it Midnight Chevalier! Now darling, let us make haste..." Winking slyly, she added, "We can arrange a private showing later, yes?"

Sweets was surprised for only a moment. It was time for action, and she hastened her gallop. She crashed into the first golem, the lance exploding with the force of the impact. Luckily, so did the golem, opening the way for them.

"I want to help!" Bright wriggled free of her grasp and bounded ahead. "Woah, cool." His new form of transport brought a smile to his face. "Boing!" He jumped powerfully, landing on the head of a swinging Golem and crushing it under his powerful landing.

With a firm kick, he sent the disabled construct crashing to the side. "I can get used to this."

Bright's cheerful acclimation to his new rabbit-roo hybrid form brought a smile even to serious Sweetie Drops' face. "Well aren't you just a fuzzy little dynamo now!" she laughed, shield-bashing another lumbering guardian into rubble.

"Do take care bouncing about so eagerly, dear heart!" Rarity called out, impaling one crumbling stone beast through an eye with a conjured crystal spear. "You've only just gotten the hang of those magnificent legs."

With armor, magic and fluffy overpowered bounces, they smashed their way through the weakened temple guardians until daylight shone ahead. One final coordinated charge and they burst back into sunshine and jungle freedom!

Rarity coalesced a floating umbrella above herself with a relieved sigh. "Well now, that was bracing!" She waved a hoof to dissipate Sweetie's new armor. "Welcome to the family, Sir Bright of Hopps. Shall we away back home for tea and a restoring bath?"

Brights chittered excitedly. The vortex was no more, Ahuizotl thwarted, this strange new adventure just beginning! He nodded eagerly at Rarity, chittering with glee as he experimentally ricocheted between trees ahead of his rescuers.

Author's Note

Naughty little agents today. They won... but at what price? Day 4/28

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