//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 - The Maze // Story: Two and a half years... // by Ephraim Blue //------------------------------// Chapter 6 - The Maze The Mirror Room June 3rd 1003 Rainbow Dash was not a very patient pony. She needed action, she needed adventure, and most of all, she needed Twilight to come back from the world on the other side of the mirror. "I'm tired of waiting," she said. "The portal will close in an hour, and Twilight and Spike haven't returned yet! What if something happened to her, what if she can't get back, what if..." "Stop your worrying Rainbow," Applejack said. "She will come back, she promised, and she isn't one to break promises easily." "That's right," said Fluttershy. "We can't think doubtful thoughts, we need to believe that she will come back no matter what." "Continue believing, but Twilight won't come back to this world anytime soon," said a new voice that came out of nowhere. Everyone in the room turned to see Discord standing in the doorway. "Where in tarnation did you come from?" Applejack asked accusingly. "Oh, I just came from a place far away from here, but a very quick trip through the mirror leads you strait there." "Are you saying that you came through the mirror?" asked Rainbow Dash. "I never said that," he said defending himself. "I just said that I came from the place on the other side of the mirror, there is more than one way across you know." "There is?!?" everyone said at the same time. "Oh, dear," Discord said. "I shouldn't have said that. No matter, Twilight still won't make it back in time, and none of you can tell her about the other passages." He snapped his fingers and made the mirror behind them shimmer with a golden aura. It glowed for a few seconds, and stopped. "What did you do to the mirror?" Rainbow asked. "You better not have made it so that Twilight couldn't come back at all." "Not at all, my dear Rainbow," he answered. "I just made it so that the mirror is one way, so you can't tell her about the other passages. In other words, I made it so that only things can only come from that side of the mirror. To make things even more interesting, I also made it so that the mirror will automatically close once something living comes through. That makes it so that both Twilight and Spike can't make it through, only one of them can." He started laughing maniacally and then disappeared to spread chaos around the land of Equestria. Leaving Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and the others in the room. Rainbow tried to open the door, but found that it was magically time locked, making it so that it wouldn't open until a certain time had come. She tried that while Pinkie Pie tried to go through the mirror. Both of their efforts were in vain. "Oh, bummer," said Pinkie Pie, who started to sit in front of the mirror, waiting for Twilight to come back through. That was the only thing they could do, really. All they could do was wait. Canterlot High June 3rd 2012 Twilight instantly remembered the maze that Discord sent her friends through before she got her wings. "Stay together," she said. "There could be various traps that will try to destroy our friendship. There might also be a hidden passage in here somewhere, so keep an eye out for-" "Found something!" shouted Pinkie Pie from across the hall. She was looking at a wall. "Pinkie, we can't be wasting time, we need to find a way out of here," Twilight said. She started walking over to her, and noticed that her hand was inside the wall. "I told you I found something," she replied. When they all caught up to her, she had already walked through the wall where a hidden passage was. "Good work Pinkie. We're one step closer to finding our way out," Twilight complimented. "Thank you." The 8 friends continued down the hall. They turned left, right, right, left, right, and left again before realizing they have been going down the same hall this entire time. "I don't like this," said Spike from Twilight's book bag. "We should try one of the doors, maybe we'll get somewhere." "Ah agree with Spike," said Applejack. "We've been going around in the same hallway ever sense Pinkie found the secret passageway." "I second that," said the other Twilight. "We wont get anywhere until we head through one of the doors." "Lets try one then," said Rainbow as she opened one of the doors on their left. Surprisingly enough, it did lead somewhere. Through the door was the cafeteria, which was also full of food that they all could feast on. "Now this is some occasion," said Rarity. "We get all of this to behold and no one else around to tell us otherwise." "Wait," said Twilight. "We shouldn't eat it until we know its safe, which we may never know for sure if it is just here for no reason." "I guess you're right," said Rarity as she started walking away from the food. "We need to get out of here," said Twilight. "Discord is trying to distract us from getting out of here. We need to find a clear way out." "How about we keep trying doors until we find our way out?" suggested the other Twilight. "Discord made this place a maze and anything could be anywhere. The best chance we have at getting out of here is to randomly try doors until we find a way out. If we ever come across a room we've been, we can just try a different door." "Well," said Twilight. "We've got nowhere else to go, lets try it." The group gathered together and went through another door, this time leading to gymnasium. They all decided to ignore it and continue onwards to another room. They went through many doors and eventually found themselves in the cafeteria over and over again. "This is getting us nowhere," said Rainbow Dash. "We already went through all of these doors, the only one we haven't tried is the one we used to come into this room. We continuously find ourselves in the same room, so I suggest that we try the door we came in. Who knows, maybe we will find a new route we can take." "Ah am starting to agree with Rainbow on this one," said Applejack. "We've been going around in circles for the last 50 minutes. If we don't get outside soon, you wont be able to stop Discord from terrorizing your world in chaos." "All right," said Twilight. "Lets get out of here." Those were the words that Twilight spoke before unexpectedly finding herself outside of the school. "Really?" she said. "It was that simple?" "Well, why don't you go and head on back now, and let us protect this place," said Rainbow Dash. "You need to get home as soon as possible." "Well you don't have to tell me twice," said Spike as he ran through the portal. Twilight waited another minute before answering. "I just didn't want to have to be forced to leave all of the sudden," she said. "I was glad that we finished changing everyone back to normal an entire hour early and I wanted to spend the last hour hanging out with you guys. I guess I'm just sad that Discord ruined everything again for all of us." She sighed before continuing. "I guess this is goodbye." "Nah" said Applejack. "We'll see you again someday, and Ah am sure that you will have at least one enjoyable day with us. Just don't forget us, okay?" "I won't," she said. "I promise you that." With that, she walked toward the portal. She was just about to head through, when she slammed into the statue that would lead her home. She was confused, the portal wasn't supposed to close for another 5 minutes, and yet it was closed. "What in the world is going on?!?"