(M6)^4

by A Fistful of Apples

Part One

Celestia opened her eyes. She felt incredibly groggy, and there was something hard poking her in the stomach. She lifted her head to look around, but her vision was fuzzy and only slowly coming into focus. She was on the ground somewhere, not in the comfortable bed she had fallen asleep in.

She moved to get up, but found it to be a bit more work than expected. Her head hurt greatly, and her body seemingly intent on staying down a bit longer. She pushed herself anyway, finally getting up on all four hooves. Her vision was clearing, and she could finally make out the fine details.

The room she was in was unlike anything she'd seen before. The walls were metal indented with glass panes from which light came through, although there was no obvious source of illumination. The metal was rusted, and slightly slick with globs of oil. If such a thing were possible, she'd say that this room was as old as herself.

Behind the glass panes Celestia could barely make out the images of tiny gears, meticulously grinding and turning into each other. In any other context they would be fascination, but here, with everything else, they  were unnerving. Celestia peered closer, hoping to see outside the room. It was not to be. There was yet another metal panel blocking her view so what lay beyond the room was still a mystery. She turned her attention elsewhere.

The room was a large cube, perfectly proportioned in length, width, and height. It was then that she noticed the doors. They were less like doors, and more like metal portholes. Square in shape, each had a large metal T-shape handle protruding from them that presumably could be turned like a valve. Across the walls surrounding and extending the doors, were indentations in the walls with bars forming  ladders in all directions. Celestia supposed this was so ponies without wings could reach the top door, and to maintain symmetry in the room.

Tentatively she approached the door on her left. Using her magic, she turned the handle and heard a louder grind of mechanical whirring as the door moved forward, and then down, revealing a crawlspace. On the other side was another room, exactly like the one she was in, except the glass panes were tinted blue. She turned around, and as she stepped away the door closed behind her. On the opposite side she opened the door. Yet another room, this time red. She closed the door, sliding it back up and pushing it into the wall, then moved to the door on the floor. Down below was a yellow room.

"Where am I?" she said out loud. Her throat was slightly dry, she realised. As well, her voice was not the only sound to be heard. A faint noise of grinding gears echoed through the walls. She probably didn't notice before as it had become like white noise, constant, and easily dismissible.

Now under the belief that all doors lead to another room, she closed the door and picked a wall. She would simply go straight until she reached the exit.

The room she chose was purple. She was too big to comfortably slide through the portal, and she suddenly had the realisation that it was a good size for her ponies. There were probably other ponies in here, and if she could find them she could help lead them out.

Landing on the other side she took a step forward before the door closed behind her, more violently than she had remembered happening before.

If she had been expecting it, she probably could have protected herself. If she had been a bit faster, or perhaps more wary of her surroundings, things would have turned out differently.

As it was, one step forward was the last movement Princess Celestia ever made, as a panel from the ceiling violently slammed its way down, crushing the pony and killing her instantly. It moved up again slowly, blood and bone dripping back down to the ground as the metal piston drove it back towards its place on the ceiling.

"Twilight," said a voice. She felt the frustrating tapping of hooves on her face as somepony tried to wake her up. She wanted to continue sleeping, though the uncomfortable bed and sweltering heat was making that difficult. She tried to kick off her blanket but realised she didn't have one.

"Twilight, get up!"

It was Applejack. She tapped Twilight a few more times before finally, the pony battered her away before leaning forward and opening her eyes.

There was a brief pause as Twilight took in the sight before her.

"Where are we?" was all she said.

Applejack looked around as she said, "I have no idea. There's doors on all the walls and stuff and I took a gander at what was through them. Just more rooms like this one, but I didn't go into them because you were still asleep."

Twilight finally managed to stand up, though she still felt a little wobbly.

"How did we get here? The last thing I remember doing was putting Spike in his bed. He'd fallen asleep when writing a letter again."

Applejack shook her head. "I don't know Twilight. The last thing I remember was—"

Applejack stopped speaking and, along with Twilight, looked up at the ceiling. The handle was turning. The door opened. Twilight was ready to case a force field and run, but when a rainbow maned blue Pegasus looked through the door she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Rainbow Dash!" said Applejack. "Come down here!"

Rainbow Dash wasted no time in diving down into the room, her wings allowing her to gracefully land on the rusty floor with a small clink.

"I'm so glad I found you guys," said Rainbow Dash, giving them both a quick nuzzle. "I thought I was alone in here. I thought—" She shook her head. "Well, it doesn't matter."

"You haven't seen anypony else then?" asked Twilight.

Rainbow Dash shook her head again. "No. I've only been through a few rooms though. They're all the same! And you've really got to be careful. Some of them are trapped. I almost got sliced in two when some guillotine thing came shooting out of the walls. If I didn't have wings, or was a little bit slower..." She let her sentence dangle. Neither Twilight nor Applejack needed her to elaborate.

"So... if there are other ponies in here," said Applejack. "Maybe our friends... they could end up not quite as lucky as you?"

Rainbow Dash nodded. She began pacing. She was feeling too confined. "It's why I haven't looked through many of these rooms. After that trapped one I just decided to stay put, but then I heard talking below me and so, here I am."

"In what you did see, were there any defining characteristics or differences that helped you figure out where you were?" asked Twilight.

"No," said Rainbow Dash. "They all look exactly the same, just different colours. I went through four rooms before this one, and all of them the glass on the walls, floors, and ceilings were coloured differently. This one's white though, like the one I woke up in."

"We were just talking about what the last thing we remembered before we woke up here," said Twilight. "What do you remember?"

Rainbow Dash stopped. She had to think.

Before too long, she said, "The last thing I can remember clearly was eating dinner. Well, potato chips. I was sitting down, hanging out with Tank and then... I woke up." She shrugged her shoulders.

Twilight recounted her memories for the second time, and then all eyes were on Applejack.

"Well it's just like ya'll," she said. "I had just woken up and was getting ready to go work in the orchards and the next thing I know I'm here with Twilight in this place!"

Twilight put a hoof to her chin in thought. Wherever they were, somepony must have done this to them, and somepony must be watching. It was just too big a coincidence that everypony here would be best friends. And they weren't taken at the same time, so probably it was just one pony.

Twilight began to move around, examining the walls, floors, and ceilings for any sort of surveillance device. Rainbow Dash and Applejack knew enough to keep quite while Twilight worked, and simply watched her walk around the room.

The walls were metal, rusty, slightly slick with oil. Since they were still rusted, they must be very old. Yet somehow they still kept getting oiled, so somepony must know how to navigate this place, or turn off the traps that Rainbow Dash had seen.

There were small gears all through the walls, and if you listened you could hear them all around in every direction. Perhaps they governed the traps and so somewhere there was a switch? They seemed too complicated to just open and close the doors.

There were no cameras of any kind. No obvious microphones. Everything that Twilight could see looked completely mechanical, not magical or electric in any way.

"Well," said Twilight. "Since we got in here, and probably it was a single pony who did this, there must be a way out. I think the easiest thing to do is to keep going in one direction until we reach the end. Then we can leave. The problem is the traps Rainbow Dash talked about."

Suddenly another door began to open. This time from Twilight's left. Twilight wasn't surprised when yet another one of her friends emerged from the doorway, her white coat smudged with black oil. Twilight suspected they all were covered faintly in it, it was just more obvious on Rarity.

"Oh thank heavens!" she said. She looked behind her. "Come along dears."

She pulled herself up and made her way through the portal, joining the others in the room. Twilight then heard the clip-clop of more hooves coming from the room Rarity came out of.  Fluttershy was now visible through the door, and simply flew up and crawled through, before landing next to Rarity. Still another pony could be heard, and Twilight silently congratulated herself on being correct about who it was.

Pinkie Pie wasn't as careful as the others, and just jumped through the door in one fluid motion, landing on her hind-hooves, smiling, looking as if nothing bad was happening at all.

"We've been hoping to bump into you," said Rarity. Twilight gave her a confused, mildly shocked look before Rarity elaborated. "Well, not hoping, I say it'd be much better if you weren't here. What I mean is, we were hoping to bump into you assuming you were here at all."

"Where were you all?" asked Twilight. "I woke up with Applejack, so apparently we were in the same room." She pointed a hoof at Rainbow Dash. "And Dash found us after travelling through a 'few' rooms."

"I was with Fluttershy," said Rarity. "We woke up at around the same time. We were talking, you know, trying to figure out where we were, when he heard a pony calling out, asking if anypony else was there. It was Pinkie in the room below us. So we dropped down, talked a bit more to see if any one of us knew what was happening, and then realised you three could be here and that if you were, we had to find you so we could get out."

"How many rooms did you travel through before you found us?"

Rarity sighed. "More than I'd like. We had to be very careful, some of the rooms are—"

"Trapped, we know," said Twilight, cutting her off. "Rainbow Dash told us she'd run into a trapped room before finding us."

"I see." There was an awkward pause.

"Um," said Fluttershy. "I think we should keep going. We're bound to get out eventually."

"Has anypony thought that if we just sit tight, somepony who knows more about this place will come find us?" said Applejack. "They have to feed us don't they?"

"There's no reason to assume that," said Twilight. "We were taken from our homes and put here. I think they're watching, and want to see if we'll get out or not on our own. But even if not and they are going to come in to feed us, they will find us regardless of where we are in here. Nopony would put us in here intending to feed us and then let us get lost."

"Twilight's right," said Rainbow Dash, hovering above their heads. "If whoever did this to us cared about how hungry we might get, they wouldn't be trying to kill us with traps."

"Right," said Twilight. "So I think our best course of action is to just pick a direction and go straight until we reach a face. Then we can leave and tell the Princess about what happened. If anypony can find out who did this to us, it'd be her."

"But what about the traps?" said Fluttershy. She held out a hoof and Twilight realised she was bleeding. A thin stream of blood had been oozing out of her foreleg onto the oily floor for some time and she hadn't even noticed. "I was lucky to come out with just this. If it hadn't been for Rarity..."

"Think nothing of it dear," said Rarity. "You would do the same for me in such a situation, and I would be very..." she paused for a moment and frowned. "...Sad if any one of us got caught in one of those ghastly things."

"Why don't we just toss something in each room before we go in?" said Pinkie Pie. "If something bad happens we won't go. Easy!"

Twilight quirked an eyebrow. "And what are we going to throw in Pinkie? None of us have anything!"

"We could um," said Fluttershy, seemingly trying to hide herself behind her hair. "Use our hair? If one of us cut it, and somepony used magic to throw it in a room so it wouldn't get separated..."

Everypony simply stared at her. Fluttershy felt even more self conscious at their gaze and tried to shrink away even further. "I'm sorry," she said. "It's not a good—"

"That's a great idea Fluttershy!" said Twilight. "After all, survival is more important than what we look like, and what else do we have? I can hardly ask you or Rainbow Dash to give up a bunch of feathers, you need those to fly! And anything beyond that?" Twilight shuddered. "No, our hair is a great idea. It's just, which one of us gives up their mane?"

"I'll do it," said Applejack, stepping forward. "Heck my tail here is too long as it is, always getting in the way of work. I'd been meaning to trim it."

"Nonsense Applejack," said Rarity, also stepping forward. "I've given my tail up for less if you recall, and I would be honoured to do it again."

"My tail's big and poofy!" said Pinkie Pie, bouncing forward with her apparently boundless energy.  "It'd probably work better!"

"Why don't we just all give up some of our tails?" asked Rainbow Dash. "That way none of us gets left out." She rolled her eyes.

Everypony agreed rather easily to that proposal, and so Twilight set about to snip off about a quarter of everyone's tail using her magic.

"If you braid it right, it will keep together," said Rarity. Twilight nodded, and tried to produce something that didn't fall apart, but it was no use.

"Allow me," Rarity said, taking over. She had it all put together in under thirty seconds. Now all that was left was to choose a direction.

"Well," said Twilight. "We know Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie came from that direction." She indicated the door they came through with her hoof. "Rainbow Dash, which way did you come from?"

"The opposite."

"Then we'll go this way," said Twilight, pointed directly in front of her, a direction neither had come from. Taking charge, she snatched the braid from Rarity and walked towards the door. She was scared about this, but pressed on. She had to set a good example for everone else.

Slowly, she turned the handle, and the door moved forward, then down. Twilight climbed up so she could see through. A blue room. She tossed the braid in.

Twilight watched in horror as suddenly fire erupted from the walls of the room, burning the bundle of hair completely before it even hit the ground. It was so hot, she closed the door as soon as she could.

"Well... that way's not safe." Twilight felt fear much greater than before. She had heard there were traps. She had seen the cut on Fluttershy's forehoof. But to actually see a trap? Twilight, her friends, they could actually die here.

"Does this mean we have to make another braid?" asked Applejack.

Twilight's eyes widened.

"Yes, it does," she said. "I didn't think about it before, but eventually we're going to run out of hair. Then what will we do?"

Rarity let out a gasp and instinctively reached towards her head. She definitely didn't want to walk around as a bald mare.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," said Applejack. She flicked her tail towards Twilight. "Right now, we just need to move."

They picked the final direction that hadn't been tried, that wasn't up or down. Each room really was identical except for colour, right down to the tiny gears that moved under the glass. The only thing Twilight could see as possibly identifiable was the rust patterns and grease. They were different in each room as such a thing was natural, not built or designed. But how could Twilight possibly take notice of all that?

Rarity noticed. The problem was that she couldn't remember it all. They passed so many untrapped rooms, over a dozen now, and her memory simply wasn't good enough to keep it all straight. She just hoped that if, somehow, they ever got turned around, that she would notice then.

They somehow got into the habit of taking turns. When it was their turn, they would throw the braid into a room, and if it was safe be the first to enter it.

Fluttershy stepped forward, braid in her mouth, leaned in, and threw the braid into the orange room. Nothing happened, and the braid dropped unharmed to the floor. She sighed, and then tried to spit out some of the grease that had accumulated onto the braid. It tasted terrible. At that moment she wished she was a unicorn.

Tentatively she climbed up and went through, her friends watching behind her. When she knelt down to pick the braid back of and tell her friends that it was alright, the doors closed.

Fluttershy dropped the braid again. Nothing was happening, but she could hear the sound of hooves banging on the door, and the shouts of her friends asking her if she was alright.

On the other side, Twilight had shooed everyone away from the door. Above her head was a magically conjured battering ram. As hard as she could, ignoring the headache she had from the smell, the heat, and the noise of the place, she slammed it into the door. A huge thunk echoed through the room, but it didn't budge. Twilight's head was absolutely splitting from the effort, and her spell evaporated. Whatever it was, the metal was extremely hard. Her attempt did more damage to her than it did to the wall, though the glass panes did crack.

Back in the orange room, Fluttershy had her eyes closed. It was getting bright. Too bright to see. She started to yell.

"Please!" she cried out as loud as her shyness would allow, even in such fear. "Open the door! Get me out of here!"

All she could hear was yet more clanging as her friends tried to get her out. But they couldn't open the door. She followed her ears back to their room and put a hoof on the ladder in the wall, but as soon as she did she pulled away in pain.

It was hot. It was then that she noticed it wasn't just getting brighter, it was getting hotter.

Fluttershy stopped screaming.

Sometimes, when a pony's death is eminent, they panic. They cry and scream and yell in fear of death, in unwillingness to finally stop living. Sometimes they think it could save them, and sometimes they're right. Fluttershy knew better.

If they could get the door open, they would have by now. There was no help for her now, so Fluttershy just stayed silent, tears streaming down her face.

"I'm so sorry I can't say goodbye," she said softly to herself. She could feel her skin burning painfully now. "I love you all."

With those last words, the room shone in searing light, so hot that no evidence was left that there had ever been anything living inside.

There was still a smell however, and when the door forced itself open after completing its function, the ponies on the other end recoiled in disgust. Then realisation dawned.

"It can't be," said Rarity, her voice barely a whisper.

"Is Fluttershy in there?" asked Rainbow Dash. She knew the answer. But crying or screaming or general mourning would give life to that knowledge. And she didn't want to know. So instead she just asked. "Fluttershy's in there right?" She didn't notice her own tears.

Applejack shook her head. She didn't want to think right now. If she sat down and thought about what just happened, she'd be too depressed to keep moving. And if that happened, she would die too. She couldn't do that too her friends, especially not now. She had to keep moving. They all did.

Twilight was mortified. She broke down, burring her face in her hooves.

"It's my fault," she said, her voice cracking from her sobs. "I should have seen it!"

Pinkie Pie was the only one who wasn't crying, but she had a very un-Pinkie-like look on her face. She walked over and put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder.

Twilight jerked away from the contact, but realising what it was, allowed herself to be comforted, at least in that much. But just that much.

"It's my fault," she said again.

"No it's not," said Pinkie Pie. She leaned down and hugged Twilight, as hard as she could. "It's whoever built this terrible place's fault."

Twilight wasn't going to allow this.

"No," she said. "I should have realised testing the rooms wasn't going to work all the time." Her speech was stuttered, broken from crying. "There are so many ways for sensors to be built!" she continued. "We were just testing for motion and pressure! But what about heat? Or sound? What about specific amounts of pressure? Or—"

She stopped as she felt another pair of hooves envelope her. Rarity had come up behind her to join the hug.

"None of us knew," she said slowly. "We didn't think about it."

Another pair of hooves as Rainbow Dash entered the hug.

"If one of us is to blame, all of us are," said Rainbow Dash.

Applejack joined at the same time Rainbow Dash did.

"It's not your fault," was all she said, after Rainbow Dash had spoken.

Twilight continued to cry though. She couldn't help but feel that they were wrong. It was so obvious that their trick wasn't going to work. It was so obvious, and yet she didn't see it. Even when their lives literally depended on it, she didn't think to think things through more.

She wouldn't make that mistake again.

It had been a long time since they began making their way to a face. Many hours had passed. They were both physically and emotionally exhausted. So finally, in a big pile of sadness and fatigue, they fell asleep.

A horrible screeching noise. The ponies woke up, jolted, literally away as the floor started to shift underneath them. The sound of mechanical gears grinding against each other was all encompassing, like some kind of horrible gigantic music box without music. They could barely hear their own screams.

They tumbled painfully across the floor as it tilted, until they finally hit what was previously a wall. Things slowed down and finally settled to a stop.

Twilight just didn't want this right now, but she forced herself out of the pile of ponies and looked around.

"Ugh," said Rainbow Dash, stumbling out from under Applejack. She flared her wings and then immediately folded them back.

"Ow!" she said. She slowly unfolded her left wing and worked it back and forth, wincing in pain as she did. "I think I twisted it."

"Let me take a look at that," said Rarity. "Ordinarily I think the best pony for this would be—"

She stopped abruptly. It seemed for a moment that she was staring off into space, but then her eyes snapped back into focus and she continued. "I know a little about first aid."

Rainbow Dash held a hoof out to stop her approach.

"There's no point," she said. "There's nothing to bind it with if it's broken. No ice to put on it to stop the swelling. I'll just have to deal until we get out of here."

"That should be our main focus," said Applejack. "We need to get out of here. I can't be the only one who's really thirsty. If ya'll are right, and I think ya'll are, and nopony's gonna feed us, we need to get out of here as fast as we can or we're going to die of thirst."

"But which way?" said Twilight. "Do we keep going the direction we were?" she pointed to the floor, which now housed the room Fluttershy went into. "Or do we keep going the relative direction?" she turned and pointed to her right.

"I think," said Pinkie Pie. "We need to find a way for what happened to Fluttershy to not happen again. Before we move anywhere."

Twilight was, deep down, saddened at Pinkie Pie's uncharacteristic seriousness. On the other hoof, it was a good thing nopony had to worry about Pinkie bouncing off into a potentially trapped room without checking just because she treated everything like a game. Well, almost everything.

 "I don't think there is a way," said Rarity softly. "I think the best we can do is just keep going and doing what we always did. At least some of the traps will be screened that way and that's just... the best we can do."

Twilight shook her head violently.

"No, no no!" she said. "There's got to be a way." She sat down, trying to think. "We've been put in here. We were taken at different times. We all know each other already and we're the elements of harmony. We were all put in relatively close proximity so they probably wanted us to find each other. So what do they want?

"Are we here until somepony comes and finds us?" A pause as the other ponies just stared at her. "No, a simple magical prison could keep us all in one place if that's what they wanted. They don't want a ransom, or use us as leverage, because we're not being kept safe. I think... I think we're here to get out."

"If they wanted us out, why would they put is in at all?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"Because they just want to watch us. Or maybe not 'watch' us, because I thought that before and it doesn't look like there's any surveillance equipment anywhere in the walls. Maybe they just want to see which of us can get out? Maybe they just thought it'd be fun to build this little maze and put us here to test it. If so, then there's got to be a way to get out!"

"Maybe there isn't a way out," said Applejack. She had a frightened look on her face. "Maybe there's no way out because we're dead, and we've gone to the bad place. Maybe we're just going to get picked off one by one until—"

"That's ridiculous!" said Twilight, cutting that line of thinking off right there. "If we're dead, why don't we remember dying? Why would we even be in 'the bad place'?" She said that last line mockingly, and Applejack glared in response. "We're good ponies, we all embody one of the elements of harmony! There aren't any ponies more good in Equestria besides the princesses!"

"We're like that!" said Applejack. "But what about you? You're just the element of magic, there's nothing harmonious about that! Maybe it's your fault, and you died and drug us all down here with you!"

"Applejack!" said Rarity. "How could you say something like that!?"

Applejack's ears folded back and she looked extremely guilty, as if she only now realised what she had said.
"I'm terribly sorry Twilight," she said, shying her eyes away from the purple pony. "I don't know what I was thinking, I just, I wasn't thinkin' at all! I shouldn't have said something like that, you're just as good as any of us, one of the best ponies I've had the pleasure to meet."

Twilight sighed. "It's alright Applejack. It's this place. It's horrible, and it's stressing us out. That's part of the reason I think we're supposed to get out, and there is a way out.  Plus... it does us no good to think there isn't one. If there isn't, and we don't think there is, we will all die. If there is, and we think there isn't, we die. If there is and we think there isn't, we still die. The only way we get out is if there is, and we act like there is. So our best option is to press on, assume there's a way out. We have to look, closely! There must be something we've missed!"

They spread out to search, but there didn't seem to be anything they could have possibly missed. Meticulously they searched, finding only thick grease stains that wiped away to reveal nothing at all. Behind the glass panels were still the little gears, grinding away, oblivious to the suffering they were causing along with light that illuminated from nothing. In fact, to Twilight, it didn't even seem like the lights were coming out of the walls. It was as if the rooms simply were lit, and the glass was just more reflective than the rusted metal of the room.

Twilight heard the sound of a door being opened. She turned around, and saw Pinkie Pie looking through the floor where Fluttershy had... gone.

"Pinkie Pie!" screamed Twilight, but Pinkie didn't reply, or acknowledge her at all. Was she crazy? Was she going to kill herself?!

"Get away from there!" called out Rainbow Dash. Still Pinkie Pie didn't move, neither to step into the portal, or step back from it. Finally she said, "Twilight, did we ever notice these numbers before?"

Twilight rushed over.

"Numbers?! What numbers?"

Pinkie pointed at the base of the room. There were numbers, facing the opposite direction, where the door would sit if it were closed. In the other room were numbers Twilight didn't have to turn in her head.

Twilight's brain began to whir in excitement and relief.

"Quick!" she said. "Everypony check the other doors. See if each one has a number!"

Twilight stayed looking at the bottom door while the remaining four split up to look at the other rooms.
They each called out their numbers.

"Well," said Twilight, after hearing them. "They look like coordinates. But if they are that would be... very bad."

"Why?" asked Pinkie Pie, closing her door and coming back to see what Twilight was doing.

"Because we don't want to deal with nine hundred and ninety-seven million, two thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine rooms." said Twilight deadpan.

" Luckily, If we assumed that many and judging from the size of a single room, the entire structure would be about four hundred and sixty-six million, two hundred and one thousand, three hundred and ninety-five feet cubed. That's over eighty-eight thousand miles which means if it sat on the ground it would not only crush Equestria but probably kill everyone on the planet as it collapsed on itself. Since that is currently not happening, we must assume there's something else going on with these numbers."

She tried to think, but it was just so hot and she was tired, and hungry, and thirsty and she stopped herself right there. She couldn't let herself get sidetracked. She would eat when she got out of this place. She would sleep, drink, and cool down then too. But right now, she had to think.

"Maybe they're in some kind of code?" offered Rarity. "If you add them up then you only get a possible twenty-seven by twenty-seven by twenty-seven structure. That's possible to build."

Twilight's eyes widened. She turned to look at Rarity, who suddenly looked very worried.

"I-it was just a suggestion Darling, I thought—"

"Rarity, you're a genius!" said Twilight. She would have grabbed Rarity and picked her up with her forelegs in excitement if she had the energy.

"That's it!" Twilight continued. If you add each three digit number up, then we get our actual coordinates!" she listed them off.

It's perfect! The numbers added up indicate coordinate on the X, Y, and Z axis. Which means we're already pretty close to the edge, we just need to go that way!"

She pointed with her hoof the door that indicated twenty on the y-axis.

"Well that gives us a direction to go in, but what about the traps?" said Rainbow Dash. Her wing was starting to look a bit swollen and Twilight was impressed at the mare's ability to ignore it.

"Give me a moment," said Twilight. She had honestly forgotten all about the traps, which in itself was horrible. It had only been a few moments ago that Fluttershy had gotten into one, and she could forget about it already, just because she got a little excited about solving a puzzle? What kind of friend was she? She tried to push that question out of her mind and get back to the numbers. If she was going to be a horrible pony, the least she could do is get her friends out of this.

Twilight rolled the numbers in her mind. There was only one known trapped room with a number. She'd have to do more testing.

"Girls, let's make one more braid. We need to check to see if any other room near us is trapped. I can't work with just one number."

They were running out of tail and were going to have to use their manes soon. Rainbow Dash had already run out and didn't have any spare hair to give.

The each took turns, throwing the braid into the rooms. Nopony bothered with the one on the ceiling, as Rainbow Dash could no longer fly and nopony wanted to climb.

Each room in turn was tested until...

"Yes!" said Twilight, as she looked over Rarity's shoulder as the walls sprayed the braid with some kind of corrosive material. The hair was gone, again, this time in a puddle of black goo. Twilight looked at the number of the room and a smile cracked across her face.

"I got it," she said. "I got it, it's real simple, we can be out of here like that!" She tried to snap her tail but now that it was so short, no crack sounded.

"Care to share with the rest of the class?" asked Rarity.

"Prime numbers," said Twilight. "If any of the numbers are prime then the room is trapped. If they're not, we're safe and we can just sail on through until we reach the edge! And the direction to the edge is safe, so let's go!"

"Wait a minute Twilight," said Rainbow Dash getting in the way of Twilight's walking. "So you know what the three numbers mean. What does the eight mean?"

Twilight clearly hadn't been expecting that, because she went over to the doors and began checking them again. Rainbow Dash waited, hoping she'd hurry so they could get out of there. Her wing was killing her.

Rainbow Dash was momentarily surprised when suddenly Twilight was engulfed in magic and teleported to the ceiling, her hooves grappling the bars that ran up the walls and to the door. She strained, groaning in effort as she tried to hold on as she magically opened the door.

"Let me help you," said Rarity, and Twilight's back legs glowed with blue magic as she let herself be carried slowly into the upper door.

"Okay, let me down," she said after a moment. Rarity did so.

"Well?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Got any ideas?" She didn't mean to sound accusatory but it seemed to come out that way when she heard her own voice.

"Honestly, Rainbow Dash," said Twilight. Dash had to voluntarily keep her ears from folding back at Twilight's tone. "I have a couple, but no way to tell. It could be there are at least eight of these structures, and we're just in the eighth one. It could be that the structure is divided into octants for convenience and we're in the eighth one but... " she put her hoof to her chin. "No, it can't be that one. There's a well known numbering convention for octants, and given our location in the cube we are not in the eighth. Then again... " Rainbow Dash suppressed the urge to groan.

"It doesn't matter," said Rainbow Dash. "If it's in all the rooms it's probably not important. Let's just hurry up and go."

Rainbow Dash was starting to feel kind of claustrophobic and wanted nothing more than to get out of this cube. She wanted to fix her wing, eat and drink, and time to... really, properly grieve over Fluttershy. Right now, it was starting to feel like there was nothing more to life than getting out of the cube. It was becoming her singular drive in existence, and everything else, even Fluttershy's death, was secondary to that. And she didn't like it.

Twilight and the others didn't object, and they made their way through to the next room, the one Twilight said was closer to the edge. Everypony followed her through, and they had to turn only three times to avoid trapped rooms. As they went, there was a sound of mechanical whirring, louder than the soft background gears in the walls, but much softer than the sound that accompanied the entire place turning.

"What's that?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"Vents, maybe?" said Rarity.

"No vents in this place," said Twilight as she pushed on, leading them through another door. "That's why it's so hot. There's no air circulation at all."

 Finally, after what must have been an hour of walking and climbing through holes, they made it to the edge.

"This should be it," said Twilight, stopping in front of what was apparently the last door. "Since we're high up this should open up high above the ground, and with Rainbow's wing in bad condition we'll have to work something else out so we can safely leave."

"Just open the door already!" said Applejack. "I can't take another minute in here, not when we're so close!" Rainbow Dash nodded her head in agreement, along with the rest of them.

Twilight leaned forward and got up to be the first to peer through the door. She was smiling as she turned the handle and finally, the door was open. Her smile faded and turned into a deep frown.

"What is it?" said Rainbow Dash. "Can we get out now?"

Twilight left the door open, but backed away, silently.

Now that Twilight was out of the way, what was through the door was clearly visible. Another room Blue this time.

 "You said this was the edge!" said Applejack.

"Be quiet!" said Twilight suddenly. Her voice sounded harsh. "I'm trying to think!"

Applejack grumbled a bit but then stayed quiet. So did everypony else. Twilight was a smart pony, no doubt about that. But Applejack was starting to think she shouldn't be in charge. She was erratic and unpredictable sometimes, especially if she couldn't understand something. And this... place. Applejack didn't think anypony could understand it. But on the other hoof, what else could they do? Twilight seemed to have been leading them safely so far. No braid, no deaths, all with Twilight going first into every room. Applejack felt bad at the thought. She'd been letting Twilight risk her life this entire time and didn't think nothing of it. She'd have to volunteer to go first next time.

"I... " began Twilight, finally. "Have no idea." She sighed. "Look at the number."

Pinkie Pie was the one who stepped up first. She tentatively made her way to the door, looking very disappointed. She climbed up enough to see, and called out the number.

"It's not eight," said Rainbow Dash. "So what does it mean?"

"I don't know!" said Twilight, holding the sides of her head in frustration. "I don't understand! According to the coordinates, both this room and that one are the end. So I guess they're built right next to each other. And we're going to have to keep going until we find the edge. I thought the coordinates would help us there, but I guess not."

"We can still avoid the traps," said Pinkie. "That's something, right?"

"Maybe instead of just going to one of the edges, we should go up," said Rarity. "It can't just keep going, there has to be an out up there or else the structure would collapse by its own weight."

Twilight sighed again. She was beginning to do a lot of that. "It's as good a direction as any."

She made her way to the door, moving past Pinkie Pie and climbing up through it. "We'll start here. At least it's not eight. That's some sense of movement. Maybe we can find a 'one.' If I had to guess I'd say 'one' sounds like it could have exit."

It made as much sense as anything else, so they followed her into the next room, and began their way up. This involved somepony having to climb up and open the door to read the letters. They took turns doing this, as it was very tiring and Twilight was beginning to feel fatigued with her spell work. The amount of effort needed to teleport to the ceiling, or just climb and open the door manually was beginning to be too taxing. Soon, Twilight was going to have to forego magic completely, outside of emergencies.

"Why don't you just teleport out of here?" asked Rainbow Dash while on the subject of teleportation. "Then you could just get help."

"I don't know where out of here is," said Twilight. "I can't teleport over great distances, and I can't teleport to places where I don't know where they are. If I tried now, at best nothing would happen, and at worst I'd teleport myself into a wall and die. So I'm afraid I'm hoofing it with the rest of you."

"You don't have to get so snippy," replied Dash.

The journey up was long and gruelling. Dash's wing was turning uncomfortable shades of purple, the shoulder of her injured wing swelling up to the size of a baseball. Deep in her mind, Rainbow Dash was aware she wasn't going to be able to fly again. It had been too long, and she'd be lucky if it would even sit right when she got out of here. But again, her desire to simply leave the cube outweighed her other concerns. Joining the Wonderbolts was so low on her list of priorities it hardly registered.

According to Twilight they were a little over halfway up the structure when nopony wanted to climb anymore.

"I'm dead tired," said Applejack. "I think if I tried to climb another rung my muscles would give out and I'd fall and hurt myself."

"But if we don't move, we'll be dead," replied Twilight, though she wasn't too keen on climbing anymore either.

"Maybe moving up wasn't such a good idea," said Rarity. "It's too much effort. We could have made it to the edge by now if we had just picked a side. Or even down."

"No, it was a good idea," replied Twilight. "Despite the difficulty, it's better than the alternatives. If we go down we might find a door that leads to the ground, and so we'd have to travel to a face anyway. And if we manage to make it to the top, we can get through and just leave. No navigating through these cubes. And I'd be very grateful for that. When we get out of here I hope to never do a mathematical problem ever again."

"Who do you think built this place anyway?" said Pinkie Pie. "It looks like it took a lot of time and money."

"It couldn't be the government," said Twilight. "No way Princess Celestia would allow something like this."

"The Princesses are not the entire government though," said Rarity, sitting down in a corner. She didn't care at all about her appearance anymore and let the greasy walls ruin her coat even further. "Perhaps some other ponies have gone behind her back, and use this as some form of punishment for ponies they don't like."

"How could that be if we're able to get out?" asked Twilight. "If it was a part of the government that somehow managed to move around Celestia, it must be very powerful. And if it wanted to just get rid of or punish ponies then there are simpler and cheaper ways." She sat down too, on a wall close to Rarity. "If that was the reason, it must also serve as entertainment of some kind."

"Maybe it is government, maybe not," said Rainbow Dash. "But it's gotta be rich ponies. And what do rich ponies like to do at lot of? Gambling." She laid down on her stomach, her back in too much pain to lean on.

"You think ponies put us in here to bet on us? To see who gets out, or who dies last?"

Dash nodded before stretching out and resting her head on her front hooves.

"You know," said Twilight. "Of all the suggestions so far, that's the one that makes the most sense. It fits everything we've seen so far. It's just... I can't imagine why ponies would bet on this." She moved her hooves around to indicate exactly what this was. "This is horrible. How could anyone watch ponies get killed for fun? And why build this to do it? Even if they wanted to bet on ponies dying, there's just got to be a cheaper way. And how could this have been built without anypony noticing? It's huge! Where is it!?"

"If it was the government, they could have found a way to build it without getting caught," said Rarity. "They're the ones who'd normally do the catching, right? So they just don't catch themselves."

"Maybe they're rich government ponies who like to bet?" asked Pinkie. She was the last to lay down, after Applejack. "And they invite other rich ponies to bet too."

"Maybe it wasn't built by ponies," said Applejack. "Or not Equestrians. Ya'll are forgettin' this place is old. Real old by the look of it. It must've been built long ago, and maybe those rich ponies found it and started throwing other ponies in."

"It must've been ponies," said Twilight. "The rooms and the corridors to each room are big enough for us to use... well, I hesitate to say the word 'comfortably', but you know what I mean."

"There were ponies before Equestria," said Rainbow Dash. "Maybe one of the old city-states did it. Or tribes."

"This structure is far too advanced for back then. For before Equestria at all."

"I got it!" said Rainbow Dash suddenly. "It wasn't built in the past. It was built in the future!" The other ponies stared at her, speechless. "And it somehow got transported far back in time, where it sat until some ponies found it. Maybe they don't even know what it is and they're just throwing ponies in to see what happens instead of going in themselves."

Rainbow Dash waited expectantly for somepony to tell her what a good idea that was again.

"Rainbow Dash," said Twilight. Rainbow began to preen at the expected praise. "That's the stupidest idea I've ever heard. Future ponies wouldn't want to build this, and if they did, why send it back in time? They can't observe through time without travelling themselves! If it was an accident why didn't they come back and get it!?"

She continued but everypony else stopped listening. This wasn't a time for arguing. This was a time for rest.

Rainbow Dash especially felt very tired, and her desire for sleep was magnified by the pain in her wing. You didn't feel pain in your sleep, or at least she didn't. She wanted to be able to forget, if only for just a little while.

Unfortunately it wasn't meant to be this time. The metal floor was in every way unlike a cloud, a bed, or a pile of friends after an emotionally taxing event. And if that wasn't bad enough, the pain in her wing was prevented her from relaxing at all. In fact, laying down made it worse as she no longer had anything to keep her mind off it. Still, she did her best to ignore it as her friends fell asleep around her. At least they would get some rest.

Twilight closed her eyes. She wasn't sleeping. She couldn't sleep, but she wasn't going to take rest away from her friends. It was this place. It was the singular greatest puzzle Twilight had ever seen, and she hated unsolved puzzles. Hated them more than almost anything. Despite the progress she'd made is finding a way around the traps, there was still so many questions left unanswered about the Cube they found themselves in. That it even existed and could turn was an amazing feat of engineering in itself, especially since it seemed to be entirely mechanical.

As Twilight grappled with these problems, Applejack actually managed to fall asleep. She knew she needed it. They all needed it. She just had to not think about the hunger, the fear, the heat, and most of all Fluttershy. Just have to keep your head down and only focus on what's immediately in front of you.

Pinkie Pie was not so lucky. She was kept up, thinking about her. Death was something that was far away and long in the future, not something that could happen anytime soon. It should be peaceful and you should go with all your friends by your side. Fluttershy didn't get any of that. She died a horrible death without her friends to comfort her or be there for her. Pinkie was afraid. She was afraid that was going to happen to her too. And she just couldn't bring herself to laugh it all away.

Rarity... was having a difficult time. She was a mess. Oh, she tried not to let it show, but inwardly she was freaking out. She was dirty, filthy even, and she couldn't stop thinking about this place and all its horrible details. She felt that any second now she would just be squished under plates, or stabbed by knives coming out of the floor. Anything could happen. Just because they seemed safe in this room didn't  make it so. They thought Fluttershy would be safe. But that just showed you had to constantly be on the lookout. And you couldn't be on the lookout while you were asleep, so Rarity kept her eyes open as the others rested, faced away from everypony else.

The walls churned with the noise of gears at regular intervals, and Twilight pondered their meaning. Was there a timer somewhere? Was the structure going to be purged if they didn't make it out in time. That probably wouldn't be good. But the noise appeared to sometimes be close by and other times to be far away, so whatever it was it wasn't implying they needed to go even faster than they already were. By Twilight's estimations they'd already been in the damn thing for around ten hours. It was impossible to tell though. There was no variation in light levels, nothing on their bodies that could be used to tell the time like a watch, and their exhaustion was artificially magnified due to physical and emotional stress. It could only have been three hours. Or maybe it had been sixteen.

When Twilight had decided they had rested long enough, she made a show of getting up, yawning and stretching as if she had had a good night's sleep. She had to set an example for the others.

Twilight noticed things were a bit off when Pinkie's  hair came up a bit flatter than normal. That wasn't a good sign. There were bags under Rarity's eyes, and Rainbow Dash's wing wasn't getting any better. She was now visibly gritting her teeth in pain, and Twilight wished there was something she could do about it.

They set to moving again. Their muscles still hurt but the rest had given them at least enough energy to keep climbing.

"What if this doesn't work?" said Pinkie Pie, as they went. "What if we get up there, and it's just more rooms forever?"

"Don't worry about that Pinkie Pie," said Applejack, who was now climbing through the door. The others helped her get up as she grit her teeth. She took a moment to let her breathing slow back down before continuing. "We just gotta keep moving. Just keep moving and we'll get out. Don't worry about anything else."

Rarity rolled her eyes but stayed silent.

"We'll get out," said Twilight. "It can't keep going."

They continued on, making several detours to avoid traps. So far, Twilight's Prime Number theory had worked like a charm.

"This is it," said Twilight as Rainbow Dash made it up through the door. She was the last, and now everypony was in the room. "Again. Through that door should be outside. But let's try not to get our hopes up. Rainbow Dash, it's your turn to climb first."

Rainbow Dash didn't complain. She didn't want to show weakness, especially in her injured state. She put her hooves on the runs in the wall and began climbing. She got to the top, and carefully opened the door. Rainbow Dash didn't need to look through to know it was just another room. Her friends all had terribly disappointed looks on their faces and she herself had to fight the urge to just give up. But that wasn't what Rainbow Dash did.

"Just... just tell me the numbers," said Twilight.

"That number doesn't make any sense!" said Twilight. "That implies it's at the edge! But it has to be on the bottom of that cube, unless the origins are inconsistent... But why would it be built like that?!"

"Are the numbers safe Twilight?" asked Applejack. "She can't hang up there all day."

"Oh, yeah," said Twilight, looking  up at Dash, who was straining to keep ahold of the bars. "It's safe. We'll just keep going."

Rainbow Dash managed to manoeuvre her way into the door and pulled herself up with her forehooves.

She suddenly felt an intense feeling of vertigo, and tried to speed up her climbing for fear that she'd fall.

"I'm going to be sick," she couldn't help but say as she made one final push up. As she went through however, her entire orientation seemed to change and she found herself flung through the door and shooting forward towards the floor, as if she had just thrown herself down. When she landed, she landed on her back and screamed. It was a bright explosion of pain, unlike anything she'd ever felt before. It felt like every bone and muscle in her back was screaming, and she continued to scream along with them.

"Get her out of there!" shouted Pinkie Pie. "Get her Twilight!"

Twilight took a second to realise what Pinkie was suggesting and concentrated, her eyes closed. When she popped into the upper room she suddenly found herself falling on her side onto the floor, her head in agony from the spellwork. She must have teleported herself badly.

Rainbow Dash was still screaming, but there was no trap. She was simply writhing in agony on the ground, and it didn't take long for Twilight to see why. Rainbow Dash's wing was ruined. She somehow fell on it, and fell on it hard too. It was not only twisted all around, but folded all the way back in a horribly unnatural position that made Twilight's stomach squirm. Twilight didn't know all that much about first aid, but she knew enough to know that there was no saving that wing. And they couldn't leave it that way. And so Twilight concentrated, trying to steel herself for the only thing she could think of to do.

"Please hold still Rainbow Dash, I'm going to help!"

Rainbow Dash stopped squirming but bit down on her own hoof instead, drawing blood.

"This is going to hurt," said Twilight, concentrating hard on creating a magical bone cutter construct. "A lot. And I'm so sorry, but I can't leave your wing like this. This has to be done."

"What's happening up there!" screamed Pinkie Pie. Twilight ignored her. She needed to concentrate. She constructed a pair of scissors and cut off a significant portion of her own mane.

Twilight did her best but this was outside her field. As fast as she could she moved the wing back and untwisted it, creating a barrage of muffled screams and cries from Rainbow Dash. Then Twilight used her cut hair to tie a knot around the wing, as close to the skin of Dash's back as possible. Her pair of magic scissors became a constructed bonesaw, and in one fluid, albeit long and drawn out motion, Twilight sawed Rainbow Dash's wing off.

Twilight had to magically restrain Dash from involuntarily resisting and causing even more damage. There was no antiseptic around. There was nothing to cauterise the wound or wrap it or patch it up. All Twilight had now was hair, feathers, skin, and her own magic. So she made do, trying her best to hold back the vomit that was threatening to jump out of her stomach despite not having eaten anything in several hours. First she tried to heat just the surface of Rainbow Dash's wound so she could cauterize it. It was hard to tell if she was going overboard or not. Dash screamed throughout just the same. She then cut some extra skin off Dash's wing, and used the skin to cover the now dark, bloody patch on Rainbow Dash's back, and attempted to tie the hair around it in a complicated fashion all the way around Dash's torso to hold the skin in place. She tried to tie it as tight as possible to help stop the bleeding.

Rainbow Dash had finally quit biting her hoof, and there were no screams coming out of her mouth anymore. When Twilight was done, they both looked awful. Covered in blood and missing a wing, Rainbow Dash was told to stay down for a while and rest. Twilight could only hope that the hair used to tie the skin in place wouldn't unravel immediately.

It was then Twilight could hear the sounds coming from the other room. Pinkie was crying. Rarity was calling out.

"Please answer us!" Twilight heard her say.

"We're all right now," said Twilight, loudly. "Please don't worry!" Twilight looked down but was shocked to find the open door was not on the floor, but on the far wall. She tentatively walked over, leaving Rainbow Dash sniffling on the floor, and looked through the open porthole.

Her friends where there. Looking up at her. Standing on the wall.

"Dear Celestia," she swore lightly under her breath. "What in Equestria is going on here?"

As everypony began to calm down, Twilight helped her friends come through the door and not lose their balance from the shifted gravity. Twilight understood what happened now. Somehow, without magic (for she didn't sense any at all anywhere in the structure), this room had a different "down" than the lower room. Once again, Twilight failed to comprehend the puzzle before her.

"Sweet Celestia," said Rarity as she stumbled into the room. She was the last to come in. "What happened to Rainbow Dash? I thought this room was safe!"

"It is," said Twilight. "Aside from the shifted gravity." She looked at Dash, who was now sitting in the corner looking awful as Applejack and Pinkie Pie tried to help her. "Rainbow Dash didn't expect it and propelled herself 'forward' into the room and landed on her back. Her wing was ruined and I had to cut it off. There was no saving it. Leaving it on wasn't an option since it was too badly damaged and would at best have just caused Rainbow Dash an incredible amount of pain. There was... I couldn't do anything else!" she shouted. Pinkie and Applejack stared for a moment, but Rainbow Dash looked like she hadn't heard.

Suddenly, Dash spoke. "It's okay," she said softly. Twilight could barely hear her. "I understand. And... honestly, it feels better. It doesn't hurt anywhere near as much as it used to, before... I just... " she bit her lower lip hard. "I just have to get out of here. We have to get out of here. So let's go."

"I'm with Dash," said Applejack. "Let's go."

"Which way do we go?!" shouted Twilight. "Do we go 'up' or do we go the direction that used to be up! This is worse than when the entire structure turned!"

"We keep moving up," said Rarity. "I don't know what kind of trick has been used on us, but it must be just to confuse our way. So let's continue to go up."

"It doesn't matter," said Applejack. "There has to be an end, somewhere. We'll go up now, and if that doesn't work we'll go the other way. There has to be an end!"

Twilight didn't want to argue, even though she thought this was a bad idea. They had already climbed up through half a cube. Doing a complete twenty-seven room climb would be far harder. Still, when Applejack began climbing she didn't object. And when she heard the numbers, she marked it as safe, and Applejack went in, followed by the rest of them.

"I need to go to the bathroom," said Pinkie as she was last to come up the third room.

"Well uh," said Twilight. "Wait until we leave this room. Then you can uh, go, and come up when you're finished."

They waited for her above, and when she opened the door to climb in Twilight was immensely grateful the door would close soon, as even through another door the heat carried the smell through. If it was anypony but Pinkie Pie, Twilight might have even been embarrassed.

They continued their climb for a long time, and Twilight thanked their lucky stars that they had only needed to make very few detours before it was Pinkie's turn to go first again. That was good progress, and it seemed like they were almost once more "to the top."