We passed through the large communal room without talking with one another, Cadance taking the lead into the side door to the sleeping quarters, Spritelight and myself following behind her, and Discord pulling up the rear.
Spritelight seemed to consider the differences between our two homeworlds as much as I had, or was otherwise lost in thought, and I was taking the chance to collect myself.
So much had happened, and I needed to ground myself in reality to try and not forget what it was we were fighting for; both worlds were at stake, and a lot of people on both sides relied on us stopping this nonsense.
There was my family, Rhonda / Patty Cannon, and our combined group of online and offline friends. There were the ponies in Equestria, whose antics we had followed first on the show we both watched, but then as part of a collective of actually existing beings on a world beside ours, just a dimension hop away.
There was a lot riding on my shoulders, not the least of which being the regal wings which were part of my new pony form. A lot of beings with their unique lives and needs and wants who would be negatively impacted if we failed to do this thing... whatever this thing ended up being.
Spritelight, Discord, and even Cadance put so much trust in my ability to figure it out once we got to the room the supposed crystal was in, it was honestly a bit too much pressure.
The door to the sleeping quarters opened up to a larger hallway than the entryway into the temple or both passages to the mausoleum and the room above it, more doors interspaced on either side of it.
With Cadance's light shining the way, I could see it reflect off a T-junction up ahead, making me consider just how far this reached through the supposed lowermost level of this pyramid-like structure.
Now was not the time for further exploration, considering we were on a schedule to prevent the end of the world, but perhaps once it was all over someone should map it all out.
Cadance walked up to the third door on the left and gave a gentle knock on it with her right forehoof. No answer was forthcoming, so she repeated the gesture, a little louder this time.
With no response from the room beyond, she turned to look back in our direction and chuckled. "I'm sure they are all fast asleep."
"I wish we could let them dream," I sighed, hoping their dreams were a lot more soothing than the reality of the situation we were in.
Cadance gave a solemn nod to my words but used her magic to open the door regardless. A loud snoring immediately washed out of the space and I felt my ears flop down and back to protect against it.
The other princess was undeterred and strode forward into the bedroom. I dared not follow since I didn't know how much room there was for all of us to potentially file in to.
The hallway offered a lot more space for us to spread out in than the rooms, I figured.
I did look in as Cadance took up position in the center of the room beyond, and noted the space beyond with its bunkbed arrangement on either side of the door and to the far wall, allowing for eight ponies to rest in it.
This was clearly not a bedroom meant for comfort, but a sparsely decorated one close to the entrance of the temple, most likely intended for guards to rest in between shifts.
A moment passed with Cadance looking around herself, the light she emitted from her horn protruding out through the doorway, but then suddenly her voice called out like a mother scorned;
"Rainbow Dash, wake up!" she exclaimed as if the pegasus had done something utterly despicable. I wondered why she chose that particular tone of voice, but it was very effective as the snoring stopped instantly.
Rainbow Dash's voice called out in a sudden panic, her sleep so rudely interrupted; "Huh? What? I'm up, I'm up! Where's the fire?"
"Oh damn, that was louder than Dash's snoring," Turkey's voice followed, the other pegasus shook in a similar fashion.
"That wasn't loud," Pinkie retorted, somehow her cheery self already even with the rude awakening.
"If you want loud, there's this..." Patty Cannon started in almost as cheerful a manner, but was interrupted by April.
"Oh God, no. Save me from these two," she decried, a slight slurring to her voice as if she had far more trouble waking.
"Calm down, all," Cadance interjected. "It would probably be unwise to shoot a cannon in this temple, Patty dear."
"Aww, you're right. I'll save it for when we're outside again. The hills here might create a nice echo," Patty Cannon agreed.
"Echo!" Pinkie giggled.
"Echo echo!" Patty Cannon laughed.
"That's enough, you two," Turkey grumbled. "We get the gist of it."
Their voices were crisp and clearly audible in the hallway we were standing in, the conversation easy to follow, and my mind was filling in the blanks of what I couldn't see myself.
It would be very Pinkie-like for Patty to pull a cannon out of whatever dimensional space her and Pinkie had access to and place it in the room with them, even if I had trouble making it out from where I stood.
My belly rumbled at the idea of a patty being shot out of such a cannon, perhaps covered in juicy salad, sauces, and placed between two parts of a sesame-seed covered bun, placed on a plate in front of me.
A vegetarian patty, that is. I was a pony now and I wasn't sure I could stomach meat as I was.
Cadance wrangled the waking group and filled them in about our findings, which led to the occasional outcry of surprise or anguish. I felt a shiver run through my form as I recalled the sight of the mausoleum.
I had been too occupied with the ferocity of the energy assaulting me from the center of the room, but it was still an eerie idea to have a room full of dead people like that.
When Cadance mentioned the room above it and the potential for a tuning crystal to be located there, Spritelight nudged me in the right foreleg.
"What's up, Spritelight?" I wondered as I turned my attention down to her.
"What I was trying to say earlier," she returned. "When we get to that crystal, be careful reaching out to it with your magic. If it is as old as this building and has been charging up with mana all that time, it might as well contain the energies of those ponies down in the room below it."
"The... energies of those ponies?" I repeated. "You mean their souls?"
"Not really their souls, but more the hopes and dreams they were unable to realise in their lifetimes. Echoes, not true souls," she explained. "I've read about such crystals and other magical items in Equestria reacting strangely, as if they had conflicting ideas about how they should be put to use."
"A little like the Tree of Harmony Twilight Sparkle and her friends had interactions with, then. There was a clear push from it to move the element bearers down a particular path so they would learn to use their innate powers," I mused. "I had wondered about that."
"I don't know about this tree," Spritelight stated defensively. "If it was a living tree, then it might have had its natural energies warped by the magic imbued in it. Our magic wants to flow out into the world around us, and it is up to us to guide it to do constructive things, or it will lead to... well, him."
Spritelight turned herself around to pointedly look at Discord, who suddenly had a deer-in-headlights look.
"What did I do now?" he warded off. "I swear, you ponies think I'm guilty even when I'm not plotting things."
"You do have a track record," I suggested to him. "Spritelight was just explaining how magic has a tendency to get chaotic when not constrained."
"Oh? Oh, yes. Not sure what that has to do with me, I'm the least chaotic person in our merry band of misfits," Discord replied, a halo appearing above his head to illustrate his point.
"Given Pinkie Pie and Patty Cannon seem to be two peas in a pod, I could see that. They might very well be able to outdo you," I agreed.
April walked out of the room before I had fully finished my sentence, her mane looking frazzled like anyone's hair would in the morning.
"Oh, Spritelight! I didn't see princess Luna this time, I don't think. I'm not even sure I had a dream, actually," she spoke as a complete non sequitur.
"Luna always checks in on our dreams, but she won't show herself unless she needs to intervene," Spritelight knew. "Come over here and let me comb your mane out, it's an absolute mess. I'm sure I'll have to do it for Turkey as well once she's good and ready to come out."
"Oh, how sweet of you to care for one of your pupils. It reminds me of when I had to clean you up after one of your magic spells went awry. Good times," Discord reminisced. "How far you have come since."
Spritelight grumbled and just focused on using her magic to smoothen out April's mane, ignoring Discord as he wiped away an imaginary tear like he was a proud parent witnessing their child achieving a milestone of sorts.
"So the plan is to get to some crystal and then what?" April asked of Spritelight.
She winced a bit a moment afer as some of her hairs were tugged at by the other unicorn's magic.
"Josey is going to have to do the brunt of the work; tapping into the tuning crystal and then letting us know what she expects of us," Spritelight explained matter-of-factly. "If there's a need for you to unleash your magic, just do what you're told by her. I'm sure we'll all need to put in some work to get through this."
"Ah, okay. Follow orders, then. That's not too different from things at the school you picked me up at," April chuckled wearily. "I'll try to listen better than I did there."
"Yes please," I asked of her. "I'm not sure what is going to happen, or how to describe it when it does come to that, so try to make sense of things from what little guidance I can give in the moment. I'll have to trust you're here with us for a reason, so you have it in you to jump in when needed."
"Yes ma'am," April agreed, turning her eyes upward in an attempt to see what Spritelight was doing with her mane.
"Hold still," Spritelight chided. "How did you get your mane so entangled? You've been asleep for only a short amount of time. How much have you been tossing and turning?"
"Fussy, fussy," Discord chuckled, but there was a glint of pride on his face at seeing how much effort the unicorn put in to help another out.
Given what I knew of Spritelight and her brusque behavior before, I could see how much the recent experiences had mellowed her down. I was sure Turkey had a hoof or two to do with that. They were very clearly an item in the same fashion Rhonda / Patty Cannon and myself were, even if they had only known one another for a short amount of time in comparison.
"Okay, that's your mane done," Spritelight finally decided, and I gave April an agreeing nod.
"Yeah, that looks a lot better. Have you ever considered doing that for a living, Spritelight? You know, once this is all over and done with you might want to open a hair salon?" I teased.
"No thanks, I just unentangled the hairs and let them fall into place. I wouldn't know how to do more than that," the unicorn replied.
She then turned for the door to the room as another pony exited and smiled broadly. "Turkey! Okay, your turn to get your mane sorted, get over here."
"Still, I'm getting this motherly vibe from how you're dealing with those two. You could work at a daycare or something?" I pressed.
"Oh please, she'd throw the foals in the nearest well if they got on her nerves," Turkey responded. "Spritelight's temper is-ack! Don't tug so hard!"
"Don't conspire against me then," Spritelight threw back, working her magic on the pegasus' mane.
"At least get out of her range before making a dig about her," I suggested to Turkey. "Although I feel like you might be a glutton for punishment seeing how you two interact with one another. You fell for her hook, line, and sinker didn't you?"
"It's not every day you get to become a pony and be part of a world-changing event," the other remarked. "My life as a human was pretty bland in comparison to what Spritelight has given me. I have no way to thank her for opening me to this reality besides sticking to her side whatever may come."
"Well, you better do your best when we get to the crystal. And be sure to not break a wing or something while doing so; I don't know how to mend those and I'm not sure when we can get you to a doctor," Spritelight grumbled. "Also, don't die on me. I have got to show you Equestria before this is all over."
"I'll do my best," the pegasus trusted to her.
"Are the rest of you ready to get going as well?" I called out into the bedroom, wondering what was keeping them.
Patty Cannon was beside me the moment after I stopped talking, instantly nuzzling into me. "I'm ready, Freddy!"
"Party cannon locked and loaded," Pinkie Pie offered while wearing a US army military helmet from the world war two era, saluting me from where she stood beside Patty Cannon.
I noticed how serious her facial expression was and instantly glanced at whether the hairs escaping from under the helmet were straight or curly. They were curly, and I sighed with some relief.
"It's high time to put this show back on track and put smiles on everypony's faces again," Pinkie continued. "We need to put our best hoof forward and give them the show of a lifetime."
I nodded at Pinkie Pie, but then turned my attention back to the room again. "What's the hold up, Rainbow Dash?"
"I'm coming, I'm coming, jeez," Rainbow Dash whined as she dragged herself out of the room as well, closely followed by Cadance.
"Knowing how fast you can be, it's a rare occurance to see you almost being the last one out, Rainbow Dash," I noted.
"I needed a moment to pat my mane down again," she tried. "Looking this cool takes work, you know?"
"You should've let Spritelight here do the honours," I chuckled.
"No thank you, I'm more than capable of doing it myself," Rainbow suggested.
"She slept so deep that she didn't even wake up when Pinkie and I joined them to rest up," Patty offered up.
"Deep, and loud," Cadance remarked from behind the blue pegasus mare. "That snoring earlier was pretty much all from her."
"I don't snore," Rainbow Dash protested with a huff. "I've never heard myself snore."
"Of course you haven't," I sighed. "If we're all here now, let's head over to the room we found so we can figure out how to stop this thing."