Dust stood at the entrance of the maze. There was no way back now, but he was sure that he would find a way out. The only thing that really worried him was this dark voice earlier. He didn’t know who or what it was, but it certainly didn’t seem very friendly or too welcoming. But the real cause of his worries was the fact that he couldn’t see it. With the lack of unicorns in the kingdom he never experienced magic.
Anyway, he knew that his only chance to eventually find an exit was to make it through this maze. He entered the maze of walls waiting ahead of him with the best hope he would make it through – and that he would find the others on his way out.
While Dust just walked into the maze, Twilight thought about how she could leave a track so she could always find back to her starting point. She tried to figure out a solution, but had no other choice as to go into the maze without leaving any trail for herself or anypony who would cross her path afterwards. She wasn’t sure about if it was such a good idea to enter the maze like this. But she had no other choice.
While Dust and Twilight went into the maze, Pinkie didn’t think much about getting out or leaving a trail behind her, she just walked ahead with her bouncy walk, straight into the system of dead ends and intertwined ways of the maze. The pink pony was quite confident that everything would work out fine as always.
Meanwhile, Rainbow flew high above the maze. It was an endless puzzle of different ways below her. It would have been easy for her to get to the exit. It was a real gift to have wings, but she could not just abandon her friends like this. But the problem was to find them first. In which direction she looked, she could only see more walls and ways, twisting and intertwine, suddenly stopping in dead ends. If she just could get a sign where she should look … this maze was even larger than she expected on the first view.
The cyan-colored pegasus knew that she had to find her friends and lead them to the exit, the spiral staircase in the center of the maze, since she could overlook a large part of the maze just by flying up high. But to lead anyone, she had to find them first. It was too bad that they ended up at different starting points in the maze. Even though she didn’t knew where the others were, she kept looking for them.
Rainbow thought that it would be the best if she kept an eye out for Pinkie at first, since the color of her fur would stand out from the grey and black of the maze. But instead of spotting the pink pony, she spotted a purple shape first. She didn’t think twice as she was diving down to the ground, into the direction of her friend.
While Rainbow dove down from above, Twilight was focused on not to get lost in the maze and didn’t look up to the sky, which lead to that she didn’t notice her winged friend diving down to her. And because of this, Twilight screamed up and jumped backwards as the cyan pegasus suddenly appeared in front of her without any warning. “Hey Twi, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Rainbow said as she landed next to her friend, who was still recovering from the shock she suffered.
“Rainbow! Don’t scare me like that! How did you find me in here anyway?” Before the pegasus answered, she stretched her wings. “You know, Twi, a lot of things are easier when you can fly. I can tell you that you got a good view if you can look at things from high above.” She bopped her friend on the shoulder and winked. “You should really try it. It’s awesome.”
Twilight just sighed as an answer. “Well … did you see Dust or Pinkie Pie?” The cyan colored mare just shook her head. “Nope. I guessed I would find Pinkie first, because of the bright color of her fur.” The lavender unicorn nodded, as it made sense to her. “Could you fly up again and look for the others?” She asked her friend, but she could tell by the look in her eyes that Rainbow wasn’t convinced that this was a good idea. “If I fly up again, I might lose you again. And I think nopony of us wants that. I don’t think that this is a good idea.”
Twilight thought a while about it, but she came to the same conclusion that her friend. “Still, we have to find Pinkie and Dust somehow … and then we still have to get out of this maze.” She said while she was starting to walk around the next corner. Rainbow was following her by hovering next to the unicorn. “How do you plan on finding them? This place is enormous! They could be anywhere around here!” Twilight just turned her head over to her friend. “Well, then we better start looking for them.” She said and kept on walking.
At the same time, on the other side of the maze, Dust was wandering alone through the corridors. He didn’t know how often he ended up in a dead end, but he didn’t care. The only thing he cared about was getting out of this place. He was thinking about jumping over the walls, but he quickly decided that they were too high to jump over them, as he heard a noise near him.
He didn’t move a single muscle and listened, if there are any other noises. He only could hear the sound of someponies hooves on the floor, but in an uncommon rhythm. It sounded more like jumping instead of walking. And he only knew this manner from one pony in the world: Pinkie Pie. And it sounded like she was coming towards him. He shrugged. He just wanted to get out here, so he moved on.
Just as Dust turned around a corner, he bumped into a certain pink pony and they ended up piled up on the ground. It wasn’t long before Pinkie jumped in circles around him. “I found you!” She continuously shouted, with such a happy look on her face that Dust had to think that it must hurt to smile like this. He tried to ignore the fact as he got on his hooves again. “I just want to get out of here.”
The pink pony stopped and looked at him in a silly manner. “You can’t be serious. What about Twilight and Rainbow? We have to find them!” Dust sighed. He could tell by the look of her face that she wouldn’t leave without her friends. “See, they could be anywhere in here. We have to get out of here. We need to find the exit first.” He tried to convince her, but she didn’t listen to him and his reasoning.
“You should remember what they did for you, and then it is too much just to go looking for them?” She shot an evil look at him. He suddenly felt bad about his plans to leave them in the maze. “Well … I guess it couldn’t be wrong to keep an eye out for them.” He tried to calm down the pink pony, and she actually seemed a little less mad at him. It would do for now, he thought.
He looked after her as she was walking ahead of him, deeper into the maze. Dust sighed and followed her. Maybe she would have more luck as he had and would actually find the correct way to the exit. For now, it was the only thing he could do – to follow the pink mare in the hope that she would lead him to the exit.
A little while later, Pinkie was smiling and walked with her bouncy walk again and even started singing. Dust tried his best to ignore the fact that it might lure everything that was lurking in this maze to them. But he had to admit that there was probably nothing around here than him and the three mares – wherever the other two were.
It turned out that Pinkies singing was heard. But not by something dangerous, no, Twilight was the one who heard her friend singing. “Wait. Do you hear this?” She said to Rainbow, who immediately perked her ears. “No, I can’t hear …” The pegasus began to say, but then she heard it too. “That’s Pinkie. I’m sure.” She said to the lavender unicorn. “Yes, that must be Pinkie. But it sounds so distant. How far do you think is she away from us?”
Rainbow shrugged. “I have no idea.” They walked towards they thought Pinkies singing came from. “I think we’re close to her now.” Twilight said after a while, as they could hear the song better with each step they made until it was obvious that their friends must be close to them. Rainbow hovered in front of Twilight to prevent her from moving forward any further. “Wait here for a second.”
She then flew up to the top of the wall to look over it. The singing was loud enough now that Pinkie could stand at the other side of the wall. As Rainbow looked over the top, she almost flew a few meters back, as a pink pony jumped almost into her face. “Hey Rainbow! I found you!” The pegasus was too confused to answer right away, but she quickly gathered herself again. “Hi Pinkie. I see you found Dust.”
Pinkie stopped jumping and stood still on the ground, looking back at the stallion who was following her since they met. He just looked up now; he didn’t really listen to what Pinkie said, as he was trying to ignore her singing. But the lack of melody in her words made him looking up now. “Can you believe that …” The pink pony began to say, but was cut off by Rainbow. “Not now, Pinkie. Wait a moment.”
Twilight was still standing down on the ground, looking up to her friend who was talking with pinkie, until she hovered down to her again. “Hey Twi, it’s time for a lift to the other side!” The athletic pegasus grabbed her friend at her mid-section and with some effort, she lifted the unicorn up and over the wall, to their friends.
As soon as her hooves touched the ground, Pinkie was jumping on her and hugging her. “Twi! We found you too!” Twilight, who was winding out of the hug of the pink pony, looked up to Rainbow, who was still hovering above their heads. “Rainbow, do you think you could find us a way out of this maze? It shouldn’t be hard if you fly high enough.” The cyan mare put a hoof on her chin. “I guess I could try. I just need to watch out that I won’t lose you again. I would hate to fly over this place and look for you.”
With those words, she began to fly up higher until she could overlook a good part of the maze. From the corridor on which her friends were lead an almost straight way to the exit. The sudden realization hit her hard and she felt dizzy for a moment. Actually, all those ways were leading to the exit. No matter how they walked, every single way ended up in the mid. There were four straight ways to the mid, only interrupted once by the sidewalls of the maze. And every single path lead to them in some way.
This entire thing was just a trick to let everypony who ended up in here think that he or she was lost. But they just had to walk long enough to reach the end. From up there, she navigated her friends towards the next straight way to the mid. It wasn’t as hard as Rainbow thought at the beginning, even as she had to fly down some times to tell them where Twilight and the others had to take a turn or to go straight ahead.
They finally reached the way to the mid, to the winded staircase towards the surface. Pinkie was jumping ahead of them and Twilight felt a relief that they would be out of this maze soon. Only Dust didn’t feel quite sure about this exit. What if it was just another trick …? Would this voice from earlier sent them here when the maze was that easy with a pegasus in the group?
He kept quiet about it and followed the others up the stairs, while Rainbow just hovered next to them as they climbed upwards. As they reached the top, Rainbow had to join them on the stairs since the stairs lead into the solid rock of the ceiling. But it didn’t lead to the surface like Twilight hoped. It lead to another room with a large gate in front of them.
The room was lightened up by some of the crystals from below which were embedded in the walls. But unlike before, their attention was drawn to something on the ground, and not even Dust, who was coming up the stairs as the last one and bumped into the mares in front of him, could distract them. And as soon as he could a glimpse at what they were staring, he understood why they stopped. In front of the gate was a body in a puddle of blood. But even now, that the robe was soaked in blood, he could still recognize the robe of the chancellor.