Silver Spoon rubbed her stomach, but it didn’t stop it from rumbling. She groaned and stretched her aching muscles. Her nostrils were filled with the smell of Diamond Tiara’s fur and she realised that she’d spent the night using her best friend as a pillow, while Tootsie Flute was resting herself against her.
Silver Spoon straightened her glasses and looked around. The fluorescent lichen was enlightening the corridor dimly; several other foals were also awake, trying to get their bearings. Zippoorwhill yawned, rubbing her eyes, while Sweetie Belle was trying to comb her mane with her hooves.
“How long are ya gonna lie here?” Babs’ voice startled Silver Spoon. “We need to go.”
“Chill out, Babs,” Apple Bloom muttered, approaching her cousin. “We’re hungry...”
“Well, I don’t see any food here, y’know?” Babs said, blowing her mane from her eyes. “And none of it will fall from the sky if we stay here. We need to go.”
“Just a few minutes...” Dinky groaned.
Ruby Pinch walked to Babs, wincing when her numb leg touched the floor. “Let’s go,” she said, moving it to regain sensation. “I’m sick of staying with you all. The sooner we get outta here, the better.”
“And why are you two telling us what to do?” Diamond Tiara asked, getting up, causing Silver Spoon’s head to slid off her flank and almost hit against the floor. “Did we, like, choose you to command us?”
“Shut up,” Babs spat, glaring at Diamond Tiara angrily. “Or I’ll tell ‘em about–”
“Enough!” Apple Bloom exclaimed. Her voice echoed through the corridor, causing everypony to cower. It seemed to them that it was still ringing in the air, along with some scratches behind the wall and something resembling rats pacing under the floor.
“Let’s go,” Scootaloo said in an emotionless voice when the echo finally ceased. “I really hate this place...”
“Whoa...” Babs muttered, raising her head. “That’s something new...”
They’d walked for about an hour. Until that moment, the corridor was leading them in only one direction. Now, however, there was a concrete wall in front of them. Babs looked around and saw two side tunnels with lower ceilings, both smelling faintly of stale air, disinfectants, and something barely noticeable which Babs associated with a dentist’s office. Above the left entrance, there was ܐܣܛܘܡܟܐ written in large, black symbols. The right entrance was similarly marked as ܡܘܚܐ.
“What are we going to do now?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Split up?”
“That’d be the worst thing to do,” Button Mash said. Everypony looked at him. “At least that’s what happens in games...”
“I don’t want to split up...” Boysenberry’s voice was only a bit louder than a whisper.
“Yeah, we should stick together...” Babs muttered. “But that means we’ll have to choose one...”
Apple Bloom walked to the left entrance and sniffed the air; then she did the same with the other one. “Ah’d go there,” she said, pointing at the left corridor. “It smells of apples, while the other one...” She looked at Babs. “Kinda like Manehattan on a sunny day...”
“That’s strange because for me they both smell the same,” Babs said. “How ‘bout ya?” She looked at the others.
Tootsie Flute winced when she looked into the darkness. “Dead cat.” She shuddered. “Da ovver one too...”
“I don’t get it.” Scootaloo also sniffed the air. “I can’t smell anything, but look at the walls there. Those on the right look like that room we woke up in. You know, plastic everywhere and so on... Those on the left and different. It’s made of metal, I think...”
Ruby sighed. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but does it mean that we’ll have to choose between going who the fuck knows where and going back where we started?”
“It seems so,” Button Mash said. “Unless it’s a coincidence...”
“I don’t know,” Sweetie Belle muttered. “Maybe we should go back?”
Babs smacked her hoof against her forehead. “Go back? What for? There’s nothin’ to eat there. Hell, there’s nothin’ there, but a spider-duck...” She chuckled bitterly. “I don’t know...”
“Oh...” Diamond Tiara clicked her tongue. “So you don’t know everything? What a surprise...”
“I think we should vote,” Pipsqueak said.
Babs glared at Diamond angrily, but quickly regained her composure. “I trust Apple Bloom. We should go to the left.”
“No way,” Diamond Tiara said. “We should go to the right.”
Silver Spoon nodded, agreeing with her. Ruby gave them a long look, then she stared at the Cutie Mark Crusaders as if they were something gross she’d stepped into. Finally, she spoke, “Let’s go to the left. I hate you less, guys.”
“I hate you less,” Diamond Tiara whispered theatrically. “Is that what your dad said to your mom when he had to choose between her and an old goat?”
Ruby’s face became bright red. She darted forward and was about to tackle Diamond Tiara when Rumble and Button caught her, pulling her away.
“Truth hurts, huh?” Diamond Tiara muttered through gritted teeth. Silver Spoon poked her and shook her head when Diamond Tiara looked at her. Diamond immediately stopped smirking.
“We should go to the left,” Button said, letting Ruby go and looking at Sweetie Belle.
Babs started to count the votes. Except Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, only Snips, Snails, and Featherweight wanted to go to the right. Babs nodded and took a step forward, leading the group into the left tunnel.
Just like Scootaloo had seen, the concrete floor and walls quickly changed into large sheets of metal covering all the surfaces. Pipsqueak trotted to one of the walls and knocked at it three times. A resonating clang told them that there was an empty space behind it.
Pipsqueak was just going to join the rest of the group, when he suddenly heard something knocking at the metal sheet from the other side – three times, exactly in the same rhythm as he did. “Was it any of you?” he asked, looking at the walls, his pupils shrunk.
“No,” Truffle Shuffle replied. He also looked at the wall and shuddered. “What could it be?”
“Our old friend, spider-duck,” Rumble replied. His chuckle quickly died down in a grave silence.
Ruby approached Pipsqueak and grabbed his ear with her magic. “Don’t do that anymore, runt,” she muttered through gritted teeth. “Ever.”
“Y-yes.” When Ruby let him go, Pipsqueak quickly ran forward to hide between Dinky and Boysenberry.
The metallic corridor was going slightly upwards. Their hooves were making lots of noise against the floor, but in spite of that they quickly realised that a new noise was filling their ears – a droning buzz and some clicks, as if there was some transmission with broken gears working nearby. The corridor wasn’t as straight as before; from time to time they had to choose between two or even three directions.
“I’m done,” Scootaloo muttered and collapsed on the ground. The corridor turned out to be a dead end. She couldn’t ignore rumbling in her stomach anymore. “I’m not gonna go back there again...”
“Chill out,” Babs said. “There has to be some exit here...”
“Where?” Zipporwhill asked. She wasn’t flying anymore; she lay on the ground next to Scootaloo, her wings twitching. “To another part of this dungeon?”
“You know, if you go along one of the walls of a labyrinth, sooner or later you get to the exit,” Truffle Shuffle said.
“And ya’re tellin’ me about it now, fat idiot?” Babs sighed. “We’d have to walk through all the maze anyway...”
“I knew that we should’ve gone to the right,” Diamond Tiara said. “Why did we even trust you?”
“Exactly!” Dinky exclaimed. “Maybe we’d already be home if–”
“Oh really?” Ruby muttered, putting her hoof on Dinky’s shoulder. “Because I don’t remember you protesting against going to the left...”
Dinky blushed and said nothing.
“Anyway.” Diamond Tiara glared at Babs. “I think we need to go and find some other way. Follow me.”
The foals slowly got up and walked behind Diamond. Scootaloo rolled on her back, cold metal numbing her wings. Lying there, she heard something strange, as if small claws were scratching at the floor. She looked around and saw Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, waiting for her. She got up and joined them.
“Just great,” Apple Bloom muttered. “Now everypony will listen to Diamond Tiara...”
“Not for long,” Sweetie Belle said. “If we don’t find food, they’ll start to argue again...”
“What will it change?” Scootaloo asked. “We argue anyway...” She looked at the ceiling. “It’s just... Is it that place which does that to us?”
“Ah don’t think so,” Apple Bloom replied. “Diamond, Silver, Ruby...”
Babs, who was walking slowly before them turned back to them, hearing Apple Bloom’s voice. “What’s wrong with that... Ruby?” she asked.
“Her mother,” Scootaloo replied quickly. “You know, if I had to listen to my drunk mother yelling at me almost every day, I’d be like that too...”
“Yeah...” Babs muttered. “Well, Diamond wasn’t exactly subtle with the clues...”
“But still, Ruby shouldn’t yell at everyone,” Apple Bloom said. “We need to stay together...” She looked at the ceiling. Scratching stopped for a moment and resumed when Apple Bloom moved her gaze off the ceiling.
Tootsie Flute looked back at Apple Bloom. “Y’know, it ain’t gonna do,” she said. “Dere are already groups formin’... If we ain’t get out soon, it’ll all be pony and trap...”
“I still wonder why somepony put us here.” Sweetie Belle sighed. “To imprison us or save us?”
“Use yer loaf,” Tootsie Flute muttered. “If dey wanted to save us, dey’d explain summfin’ to us, huh?”
“Maybe they died before they managed to?” Sweetie Belle asked and shuddered. “I hope somepony survived to save us...”
“My mom,” Button said. “She’s indestructible... And she always knows when I do something I shouldn’t. She’ll dig us from here in no time!”
“She’d better hurry,” said Tornado Bolt, who just landed next to them. “I’m hungry...”
“Who isn’t?” Scootaloo asked, glaring at Tornado Bolt’s wings and sighing. “I feel I could–”
“Ha!” They heard Diamond Tiara’s voice coming from the front of the group. “I knew where to go!”
“What’s goin’ on?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Silver Spoon found food!” Pipsqueak exclaimed. Apple Bloom trotted faster and saw that the corridor led to the large room, which, just like the rest of the maze, had metal-clad walls and floor. In the middle of it stood a large table full of apples, hay, bread, daffodils, cakes, and bottles of water and orange juice. Everypony ran to it, trying to catch as much food as they could. The pegasi took off, grabbing apples from the top of the stack.
Snails screamed. He levitated a piece of cake from under Featherweight’s nose and the pegasus colt tackled him, trying to get it back. Tornado Bolt shook her head and, together with Rumble, they pulled Featherweight away. Shady Daze, on the other hoof, was calm. She simply made a daffodil sandwich and sat next to Dinky to eat it. When Apple Bloom ate her first apple, she immediately stopped worrying. She didn’t even care about the fact that Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were sitting next to her. They didn’t care about her either, too busy munching something.
“We’re saved,” Dinky said. “Somepony really put us here to protect us...”
“Or they need us alive,” Shady Daze observed. “Maybe we were foalnapped...”
“Then why’d they let us wander around here?” Zippoorwhill looked around. She could still hear some strange sounds coming from the walls, but she didn’t pay attention to them. It was much easier to ignore them with a full stomach.
“Maybe they have a weird sense of humour,” Button Mash said, eating a grape.
Suddenly, the rest of the grapes fell out of his hoof. His eyes widened. He coughed, struggling to catch a breath.
“Button!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed, trotting to him. “I told you to not eat so fast or you will choke... Aaargh!” She screamed, when Button coughed again. A few drops of blood landed on her white coat. Button’s body twitched; he fell down on the floor, his face blue. Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Babs ran to him, trying to help him. Sweetie Belle was still sitting in front of him, motionless, watching as he was struggling to catch a breath.
“What to do?” Scootaloo asked, looking at the rest of the ponies, her eyes wide.
“Ah have no idea!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, grabbing Button’s hoof and realising that it was getting colder. “What’s happenin’ to him?”
“It’s...” Babs shuddered. “Did anypony else had grapes?”
Tootsie Flute, who was holding some grapes in her magic field, dropped them immediately. Babs turned her gaze back to Button, who twitched once again before his body went limp, spilt grapes still lying on the floor next to him.
“Is he...” Silver Spoon paused, breathing heavily. The whole room was silent; even the noises from behind the walls disappeared. Everypony was looking at Sweetie Belle, who didn’t move an inch, her coat still covered in Button’s blood, and Apple Bloom, who held Button’s hoof, trying to find the pulse.
“He... he’s dead...” Apple Bloom said, lowering her head.
“What are we gonna do now?” Boysenberry asked, swallowing her tears.
Babs stood up, trying not to look at Button’s body, and walked slowly to Boysenberry. “We’ll go...” she said. “We can’t stay here...” She looked at the table with food. “We need to gather some of it,” she added.
Nopony moved.
“Yes, I know ya ain’t hungry...” Babs muttered. “But if we don’t wanna join him...” She looked at Scootaloo and Apple Bloom trying to help Sweetie Belle up and sighed.
Diamond Tiara stood up, forcing herself to stop shivering. “B-babs is right...” she whispered. “Let’s get out of here...”