Deep underground in the dungeon of Keeper Valinars, the lord of this underground fortress could be found leaning over the map in his war room. Thin like a stick the dark elf man looked like he wouldn't even be able to support his own weight with his six and a half feet of height and skin that hugged his bones with no sign of muscle to move them. His white hair was long and hanging behind his head in a ponytail. As one would expect from such a man he wore black and purple spider silk robes woven expertly with elaborate patterns and gold trimmings.

Across from him sat Mary, a woman that was a vision of beauty in a lavish dress and an expertly crafted golden mask. A human woman who was once known as the fairest in the overworld, but time started catching up to her and insecurities began to grow in her heart. One day her spiteful sister mocked her by asking if that was a wrinkle she saw on Mary's face. Terrified by the thought of losing her looks, she made a deal. For a dungeon heart, she sold out her entire kingdom. Still, even with the clock no longer having any grasp on her she is still paranoid of that nonexistent wrinkle to this day and hides behind a mask made in the likeness of her own face when she was twenty.

The woman was a subordinate keeper that Valinars had defeated awhile ago. He was planning to set her up in this world to carry out his will while he continued his campaign against the light. However, the confrontation he had with this mystery keeper convinced him that it would be a good idea to bring in an extra army or three.

Normally he would try to make an alliance with a keeper of his opponent's level but finding out that his dungeon was now surrounded by water, preventing him from expanding outwards, it has been made clear that this other keeper has no plans on sharing. And this world was too valuable to abandon. Training minions is expensive to do in mass, but his first dungeon in this world already had fifty-seven gem seams being mined around the clock by level ten imps. Most of his dungeon here was training rooms currently filled with more imps training up to max level.

Even without using this dungeon as a training post to get fresh minions up to level four quickly the imps alone will be a game-changer in his war. fully trained imps can claim land almost as fast as their hasted feet can run. Normally the time and cost to make an army of fully trained imps would be too great to make it worth it. But hear? He can already imagine it. Thousands of fully trained imps washing over the overworld. Too many for the light to stop, and in time the inhabitance of the overworld will be unable to go anywhere without walking over his land. He could destroy armies alone by hitting them with spells from the comfort of his own throne! He can drop his trained armies anywhere in the land! And as demonstrated by the impressive trap he found his dungeon in, the ability to quickly mold the land to his desire like clay.

As the two were working a large mirror on the wall started glowing while giving off a low hum. Drawing the attention of the two keepers Valinars waved his bony hand to allow whoever was trying to contact him to speak. Though they both hid it well they were surprised to see a unicorn with a white coat and a rainbow mane looking back at them. She was wearing a brown shirt with what looks like a name tag but neither keepers could read the local writing.

"Who are you?" Valinars asked. The blue unicorn could talk after all, so why not this one?

"My name is of no concern to you." The unicorn stated.

"Then my time is of no concern to you," Valinars replied with a sneer. He turned back to the map while slowly raising a hand towards the mirror to cancel the spell.

"Harmony! My name is Harmony." The unicorn said with haste and irritation. That irritation grew when she saw a condescending smirk grow on Valinars's face. She knew he was doing this as a way of gaining dominance in this conversation.

Valinars, however, wasn't feeling as good as he normally would when he shows others who is in charge. It was that name, Harmony! The very sound of it made him want to vomit blood. But he became a master of the poker face years ago and showed none of it.

"Verry well, Harmony." Valinars had to pause there to keep himself from dry-heaving at such a pure sounding name. "What business do you have with me?"

Harmony had opened her mouth to speak but was quickly interrupted from her side.

"I know right? And have you seen his flanks? You can crack a walnut on those things. Yummy!" The new voice that suddenly came in was followed by a knock on the door.

"Occupied!" Harmony shouted.

"What is going on?" Valinars asked his caller.

"Was that a stallion's voice?! What's going on in there?" The new female voice called out as there was more knocking.

"Nothing! Go away!" Harmony called back.

"This is the mare's restroom! Get him out of here!" The outsider shouted.

"Restroom?" Valinars said in a questioning tone before it turned to an incredulous one. "Are you calling me from a toilet!?"

"No, I'm not!" Harmony quickly denied.

"Yes, she is!" The voice of the outsider called out. Her voice had changed from angry to amused quickly when she heard that the male wasn't actually in there.

"Who uses a toilet to cast scrying magic?" The female keeper taunted.

"Seriously!? Wait, if she's using the water in the toilet to talk through scrying then does that mean she has her face in the-" The words of whoever was behind the stall door was cut off when Harmony cast a spell to stop any sound from getting in or out of the stall. Her white coat turning bright pink at this point. There was a pregnant silence filling the air on both sides before Harmony regained her composure and cleared her throat.

"Anyways, as I was about to say, I know you are going to battle against the dungeon keeper Rin and I have collected valuable information on her over the years that can serve you well in the coming conflict." Harmony offered.

"And what would you want in exchange for this information?" Valinars asked.

"...I want to know how dungeon hearts are made."

"Oh? I'm sure we can come to an agreement then. Once this world has been conquered I will need subordinates to rule over each continent for me. I can give you the power you crave." Though we'll have to do something about that name. Valinars thought.

"I'm offering information in exchange for information. I'm not on the table." Harmony rejected.

"You fail to recognize the value of what I'm offering. You will have immortality, power beyond anything you can attain on your own as well as your own continent to rule over. I'm being generous." Valinars stated with a scowl.

"I just want to know how dungeon hearts work. That's all I want. I think I'm the one being generous here." Harmony replied with a sneer.

"I already have a means of getting this information. This deal would just get it faster. What you want, however, is a well-kept secret that I'm not just going to give out so easily. The only reason I'm even considering this is because you being able to contact me at all with the wards I have up shows that you are a skilled spell caster and therefore could be a useful subordinate." Valinars stated.

"...So you won't trade the knowledge I want unless I swear my loyalty to you?" Harmony asked with a deadpan.

"With a magically binding contract yes," Valinars confirmed with a toothy smile. Harmony just gave him a flat look for a moment before reaching for something out of sight. He frowned when he heard the sound of flushing and the image in the mirror began to twist like a whirlpool before the spell broke, leaving only the room's reflection. Valinars growled in anger before turning to Mary.

"Have any of those heroes cracked yet?" Valinars asked.

"I'm sorry my lord, but despite the clear animosity that they have expressed about the local Keeper, they all remain stubbornly quiet about her. It doesn't look like they will be breaking any time soon either." Marry replied with worry.

"And Billy?" Valinars asked as he leaned onto the map table while taping on it with his right hand.

"Dead my lord. By the time that the warlocks were able to identify his infliction as a curse called mummy rot, he had already turned into sand." Marry promptly explained.

"A shame. He got off too easy for his failure and the damage to my armor." Valinars lamented. The dark elf just stood there for a moment, his fingers drumming on the map table before he glanced back over to the mirror. He found those heroes odd. He had expected them to spill everything they knew about this Rin. But for some reason, they take everything his best interrogators have to offer and still they hold strong. Scrunching his face up like he had bitten into something sour, Valinars traced the last scrying spell that had touched the mirror.

"Now are there any questions?" A brown earth pony with an hourglass cutie mark asked his science class. There were no hooves in the air so he just let the bell ring, unleashing the students from his class. Once the room was cleared a grey pegasus with googly eyes walked into the room.

"Hey, doc? You know how we're supposed to keep an eye on the janitor and I'm supposed to tell you if I see anything strange?" The pegasus asked.

"Yes Derpy, did you find anything?" The earth pony asked his companion.

"Well... I was going to the bathroom when all of a sudden the toilet started screaming at me." Derpy said as her ears folded back. "And it was saying some very mean things."

"Oh, no that's normal. Happened to me three times since we've started here." The earth pony dismissed.

"Oh... Should I flush an apology muffin?" Derpy asked in uncertainty. "I was surprised and I kind of broke its jaw."

"That would be a nice gesture." The earth pony said with an approving nod.

With a loud 'crash' Harmony slammed her apartment door close before giving a tired sigh. She was really starting to hate her life. No aspect, stuck in high school, stuck with probation officers, one of which Harmony was sure was deliberately trying to make her punishment even more of a cesspit than it already is. Earlier today that pegasus not only made a large crack in a toilet in the mare's bathroom, but she also clogged it with a muffin then pulled the handle hard enough to break it, causing the water to flow out without stopping!

Harmony gave a content sigh as she felt the hot flow of water from her shower head. Just, letting her pent up frustrations of the day wash away... they'll wash away any moment now... Any moment... Harmony gave a frustrated shout as she started scrubbing her own coat raw.

Once she was sure she had gotten all of the toilet water off she just sat there with the water beating down against her back as she got back to work on her little art project. a replica of her own head was pulled out from under the bathroom sink and levitated on the other side of the glass door as she starts painting the thing. Yes, Harmony was down, but she was far from out. She may be mortal now but she still had a few trump cards left to play. She just needed to escape this little slice of Tartarus to get to any of them, and the old pillows under the covers trick is, unfortunately, her best way to fool the ponies keeping watch over her apartment long enough to do so. They are making the occasional sweep for her magic at night so illusion spells wouldn't work.

As she worked music one would hear from an orchestra began to play.

"You think that I am buried, a trophy in your case. But I still live to make your plans all blow up in your face!

"Oh, my power may be faded, under lock and key. But like the phoenix I will rise, just you wait and see."

Deep in a dungeon war room, Rin leaned over the map with her Epics and her Pinkamena collection. Turns out there were a few in Alexandria that was all too eager to jump at having a body.

"They think that they can just march in, do as they desire? Soon they will see their action's fee when they're burning in a fire."

"You can't imagine what they've done with their vile game, the man, the woman, the child, and dog, to them they're all the same."

"Evil!"

"Wikid!"

"Vile!"

"Depraved!"

"The time as come as I finish my art!"

"Now rally the troops it's time to start!"

"I'm, going, to, break, her, heart!"

Suddenly the music stopped with the sound of a record scratching when there was a knocking on her closed window. with a surprised squeak, Harmony quickly hid the fake head back in its hiding spot.

"Harmony are you singing a revenge song in there!?" One of the guards asked in a warning tone.

"No!" Harmony shouted back angrily.

"Then what were you singing about just now?" The guard demanded.

"I, um, puppies?" Harmony facehooved at the stupidity of her answer to the question.

"That music sounded awfully ominous for a song about puppies." The voice replied.

"Well I'm sorry it wasn't to your tastes but even with my freedom restricted I still have my right to sing! And if I want to sing about puppies in an action scene then I'll bucking sing about puppies in an action scene!" Harmony shouted back angrily.

"Just don't get any funny ideas." The guard said before flying off.

"Oh, Harmony thank you so much for helping cure princess Luna and stopping discord from covering the world in chaos." Harmony said in a mock tone before slumping. "Ingrate."

"Hey, boss, you okay?" Vinyl asked me as she waved a hoof in my face.

"Yes, it's just that the music has stopped. It was cutting in and out there so I'm guessing there was someone ells singing to the same tune and it got interrupted on the other side." I say as I cock my head to the side. "I wonder who I was singing with."