It was freezing outside. Dash could see her breath as her and Lavender trotted through the maze. Dash had been skeptical about going in but lavender assured her she had this place memorized like the back of her hoof. Besides... lavender hadn't gave her much choice. Before Dash could protest, Lavender ran ahead, deep into the maze. Luckily Dash managed to take the right path and find her.
"Don't worry, it's just a trot in the moonlight!" Lavender proclaimed. "Besides, no one else other than me comes here. It's super safe!" Lavender trotted along the multiple paths in her maze as if she had not a care in the world. Dash on the other hand was shivering. Partly from the cold but also from something else...
Suddenly, dash stopped. She looked up. Her eyes found the broken window from earlier. The one she destroyed to confuse Brute and escape.It was dark in that room. If not for the moonlight shining in it would have been pitch black.
There was something up there...
She could barely make it out but it appeared to be the silhouette of a pony... a mare from the size of the shape. The silhouette turned and then... it was gone.
"Lavender, was that mare in the window your sis-..." Rainbow began but stopped when she noticed Lavender was gone. She cursed herself, when she stopped to look at the window Lavender must've trotted ahead without noticing Rainbow was gone.
Dash was alone...
"How deep am I in?" Rainbow thought to herself. "Can I make it back? S-sure I can!" But despite her confidence on the outside the young wonderbolt had no idea how far she was into the maze. Nevertheless, Dash took off in a sprint back in the direction she thought was the entrance. She ran, looking at the hedge walls and ground to see if any of them looked familiar.
"I remember this wall! Y-Yeah! I'm almost out of here!!" Dash said excitedly... then she found herself at a dead end. "N-No! I was sure this was the right way... I remember... " Dash looked at the walls and ground... everything looked the same. "I got it! I'll just fly out! Yeah, great idea Rainbow Dash! You're the best!" Dash said to herself. She sat on her haunches and turned looking at her bad wing.
If she was going to even get off the ground she'd need to have use of that wing. She jerked her head back and grabbed hold of some of the bandages with her teeth. She jerked her head forward again tearing some of the bandages off. She repeated this until her cast was laying on the ground in many pieces.
She looked at her wing... there were multiple cuts, some small, little, scratches... others far deeper almost reaching the bone. Rainbow slow extended her wings until both were out and ready for flight. She knew which direction the entrance/exit was in. It was time to get out.
"You're the best flyer... you're the best flyer... you're the best flyer," Rainbow repeated to herself. All of a sudden she jumped up and flapped her wings in the direction of the way out. The first flap off the ground was painful enough but... it wasn't until she started to really "fly" the real pain set in.
"You're the best flyer... you're the best flyer..."
Her eyes were shut. But she knew she was heading the right way... she had to be!
Suddenly, she heard a loud, painful, cracking sound. Her eye jolted open and she let out a loud scream. She immediately fell, crashing into and through a hedge wall. The sharp branches cutting her skin and face. She stopped as her upper body slammed against the ground. Her back legs were inside the hedge wall, her upper body was outside it, in another part of the maze.
She couldn't move anything. Her cyan blue coat was now spotted with red from the numerious cuts across her face and body.
"Rainbow Dash?! Rainbow Dash, where are you?!" Lavender called. From the sound of her voice she was close.
Although... Dash wasn't going to last much longer... she couldn't stand... she couldn't even move.
Her vision faded... and the last thing she felt was something sharp but small poking into her neck... then everything went black.