Sweetie Belle sobbed. She didn’t remember much from what happened after Button’s death. A pair of strong hooves pulled her away from his body and forced her up. She wandered for some time barely seeing anything. Ponies were talking to her, but she didn’t hear what they were saying.
At least they finally found another door. The metal walls and floor disappeared, replaced by white, hospital-like tiles. There was also something written on the tiles, but Sweetie didn’t exactly remember what. The other foals also ignored the scribbling; yet another undecipherable string of strange symbols.
“Sweetie Belle?” Apple Bloom looked at her friend unsurely. Sweetie continued to walk, staring in the distance. “Sweetie!”
“What?” Sweetie blinked and looked at Apple Bloom.
“Umm...” Apple Bloom stared into Sweetie’s red, puffy eyes. “Are ya okay?”
“I’m not! Stop asking me that!” Sweetie exclaimed. “Don’t you get it? Somepony poisoned the food! What’d happen if more of us ate grapes?”
“Shut up, you two!” Diamond Tiara exclaimed.
“Her friend just died!” Apple Bloom shouted. “Don’t yell at her!”
“Diamond’s right, I think,” Tootsie Flute said. “You’re scarin’ Boysenberry...”
Snails shuddered. “What about scaring me? I’m not gonna eat anything in that maze again...”
“Great,” Ruby muttered. “Finally we’ll get rid of you.”
“Hey!” Snips shouted. He approached Ruby, but was stopped by Rumble.
“Chill out,” Rumble said. “We won’t get out of this place if we don’t stop arguing!”
“W-we will never get out...” Boysenberry cried. “We w-will all die...”
“Can I tell her to shut up or will you yell at me again?” Ruby asked, staring at the others. “One pony died and you’re already a bunch of paranoid morons.”
“Nopony will shout at anyone when I’m here,” Babs said. “Calm down, ponies. I feel we’re on a good way...”
“How do you know that?” Zippoorwhill asked.
“I just know, okay?” Without adding anything else, Babs trotted down the corridor. The rest of the foals followed her. Sweetie was walking slowly at the end of the group, together with Apple Bloom.
“You know...” Zipporwhill muttered. “I think we’re underwater...”
“What?” Shady Daze asked, looking at the wall. All the noises from behind it silenced, but somehow he felt that it was even worse; as if something was waiting for them to react.
“I don’t know,” Zipporwhill replied. “Just... A pegasus thing, I guess...”
“Maybe.” Shady Daze turned to Rumble who was flying behind him. “And how do you think, dude? Are we underwater?”
“No idea,” Rumble replied. “I don’t even know what would I feel if we were... You, Featherweight?”
“Maybe.” Featherweight shrugged. “But we can as well be in space... Miss Cheerilee said that there’s nothing in space, right? No air, no anything...”
“It’s called vacuum,” Truffle Shuffle said. “You can feel that?”
“Well, I can feel air currents and the changes of the weather...” Featherweight replied. “But here, I feel nothing. We may be in space, underwater, or deep underground... Somewhere where we can’t feel anything...”
“That’s strange, because I can feel something,” Scootaloo said, joining the group of pegasi. She looked at her right wing. “Like, just before the rainstorm...”
“That’s really weird...” Silver Spoon, who was walking before them, muttered. “Maybe your weather sense is as useless as your wings?”
“Somepony didn’t get enough beating recently...”
“Oh, so you’re now beating ponies with glasses, huh?” Diamond Tiara asked, turning to Scootaloo.
“I can start with you, if you like...” Scootaloo muttered, glaring at Diamond Tiara angrily.
“I can feel something too,” Tornado Bolt said, appearing above Diamond Tiara’s head. “Scoots may be right...”
“Get out of here!” Diamond Tiara groaned, trying to reach Tornado Bolt.
“Enough, girls...” Rumble said, running his hoof through his mane. “Really, we won’t get out of here, if you keep arguing...”
Boysenberry shuddered, panting heavily. She could barely see anything, except of walls getting closer to her, inch by inch. Her heart was pounding in her chest; she was resting herself against a pony guiding her. She wasn’t even sure who it was.
“Ya okay, Boysenberry?” Tootsie Flute asked.
Boysenberry said nothing, afraid that the smallest sound she’d made would be a beginning of a panic attack. Only a whimper escaped her lips.
“I take dat as ‘no’.” Tootsie Flute nodded. “Dinky, can ya help me wiff ‘er?”
“What?” Dinky asked, as if she just woke up from a slumber.
“I asked if ya could help me wiff ‘er.” Tootsie Flute sighed. “What’s goin’ on wiff ya?”
“I miss my mom,” Dinky said. “It’s just... I’m scared...”
“But still better than ‘er...” Tootsie Flute muttered. “Ya can help me as well...” She scratched her head. “My mom knows some spell to calm me down... I ain’t remember it...”
“I don’t know it either...” Dinky looked at Boysenberry and sighed. “My mom is a pegasus, you know... She used to sing me something when I had a bad dream or something...”
“Yeah... Still better dan Ruby... ‘Er mom throws bottles at ‘er, I guess... But dat’s ain’t a bad dream, I’m afraid...” Tootsie Flute said. “She keeps sayin’ we’re gonna be all brown bread...”
“What?” Dinky asked.
“Brown bread... dead,” Tootsie replied. “Okay, dat wasn’t funny... Wiff Button and all dat...” She looked at the ceiling.
“Brown bread?” Snips asked, joining them. “I’m hungry...”
Tootsie Flute groaned.
Babs stopped suddenly and raised her hoof, silencing all the talks. Before them, there was a large room. Babs thought that it looked like a hospital room, if somepony removed all the beds and equipment from it. The white tiles were so polished she could see her reflection in them. The room was spacious, warm, and, what was the most important, there was a table with food in the middle of it.
“I’m not going to eat that,” Diamond Tiara said. “Last time the grapes were poisoned. Who knows what is it this time?”
“I can’t see any grapes there.” Snails licked his lips. “No risk no fun...”
“Fun?” Sweetie Belle asked, shuddering. “This stopped to be fun when Button died!”
“It was never f-fun...” Pipsqueak muttered.
“It’s a trap, I’m tellin’ ya...” Tootsie Flute said to Dinky.
“I’m hungry, but...” Tornado Bolt sighed.
Ruby looked at her companions, rolled her eyes and shook her head. Before somepony could react, she walked forward, to the table. She methodically took a small bite of every food on the table and turned back to the rest of the foals, grinning maliciously.
“See, cunts?” Ruby said. “I’m still alive. You can stop shitting yourself and eat like normal ponies.”
“What if it starts to work later?” Apple Bloom asked.
“You can watch us eating and die of hunger, alone,” Ruby replied. Suddenly, she shuddered and collapsed on the floor, trying to catch her breath. Several foals screamed. Ruby rolled on her back, her eyes open wide. Dinky, Rumble, and Shady Daze ran to her. Boysenberry closed her eyes and sunk her face in Tootsie’s fur.
Suddenly, they heard laughter. Ruby stood up, cackling so hard tears were running down her face. “You should see yourselves now... That’s just too rich...”
Babs lowered her head and charged at Ruby. She pinned her to the ground and smacked her with her hoof. “What the fuck is wrong with ya?!” she shouted.
“Babs, stop it!” Apple Bloom exclaimed. She and Rumble grabbed Babs and pulled her away from Ruby, who stood up and wiped blood from her nose.
“Nice...” Ruby muttered. “All that talk about being reasonable? Bullshit, I’m telling you...” She shrugged and went back to the table, levitating a few apples from it. The rest of the foals followed her example. Sweetie Belle was standing still, staring at the food and shuddering.
“Oh, come on...” Apple Bloom muttered. “Ya won’t help Button by starvin’ herself to death...”
Sweetie nodded and sat with Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Babs, who was still glaring at Ruby angrily.
“I’m a crappy leader, don’t ya think?” Babs muttered. “Can’t spend a day without gettin’ into a fight...”
“If ya didn’t, Ah’d do that,” Apple Bloom replied. “She’s really gettin’ on mah nerves...”
“Yeah,” Scootaloo said. “I hope something kills her slowly and painfully...”
“Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom exclaimed.
“What?” Scootaloo shrugged and looked at Apple Bloom. “Honesty. That’s mah policy. And I hope Diamond and Silver will be next.”
“Ah know that they pissed ya off, but–” Apple Bloom paused, seeing that Scootaloo walked away to Rumble, who was sitting next to Dinky, Tootsie, and Boysenberry.
“She doesn’t want to eat,” Rumble said, pointing at Boysenberry. She was sitting on the floor, her eyes focused on the wall.
“C’mon...” Tootsie muttered. “We’ll soon get outta ‘ere...”
“I don’t get it,” Dinky said. “This room is quite spacious, why is she still like that?”
“You told her that we’re in space or underwater, no wonder she got scared...” Scootaloo gave Rumble a nasty glare.
“Me?” Rumble asked. “Zipporwhill started that...”
The light darkened a bit. Boysenberry raised her head and looked around. “It doesn’t like when we’re talking...” she said.
“What?” Dinky asked. “Who doesn’t like when we’re talking?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t wanna meet it...” Snails said in a higher voice than usual.
“Chill out, dude,” Snips said. “She’s nuts, that’s all...”
The light got darker again. They could barely see each other.
“The thing... Behind the wall...” Boysenberry muttered. “It is coming...”
Several ponies stood up, looking at the corridor entrances on both sides of the room. A gust of cold wind ruffled their manes. They moved out of its way, hiding behind the table. Dinky and Tootsie saw, to their horror, that Boysenberry stayed there, walking slowly into the dark corridor.
“We need to catch ‘er...” Tootsie said, shuddering.
“Not gonna do that...” Dinky replied. “W-what if it catches me too?”
“Oh, come on!” Tornado Bolt exclaimed, rolling her eyes. She spread her wings and flew across the room. Fighting against the wind, she tackled Boysenberry and pinned her to the floor. The earth filly didn’t resist when Tornado Bolt dragged her behind the table.
“See?” Tornado Bolt asked. “It’s just a wind and she’s nuts. Nothing supernatural here.”
At the same moment, the wind stopped blowing and the lights flickered and disappeared completely.
“I’m not gonna sleep tonight...” Truffle Shuffle muttered.
“Me neither...” Shady Daze said.
“I think we should go...” Diamond Tiara’s voice was barely recognisable. It was shaky and quiet; her self-confidence disappeared completely.
“Where?” Silver Spoon asked. “We’ll get lost in the darkness...”
Tootsie Flute woke up to realise that, despite their claims, everypony had fallen asleep. The light was on again. The foals were lying on the floor, rested against each other. Tootsie looked around and saw Dinky next to herself. She looked to the other side – Boysenberry wasn’t there.
“Boysenberry!” she called.
“I’m here...” Boysenberry replied, emerging from the corridor they’d arrived from. “I... I had to pee, so...” She blushed.
“Okay,” Tootsie muttered. “Y-ya went there alone?”
“Yeah,” Boysenberry said quietly. “I... I feel better now... What happened yesterday?”
“Dunno.” Tootsie shrugged. “Ya went totally marbles and conkers...”
Several other foals woke up, startled by Tootsie’s shout. They quickly counted themselves – nopony was missing. There were still nineteen of them, just like before.
“Let’s go,” Babs said when everypony awoke. “Everypony got some food?”
“Yes,” Apple Bloom replied.
“I don’t know why we bother,” Scootaloo said. “It’s not like this maze wants us to starve to death...”
“Who knows what spider-ducks and friends have in store for us...” Rumble replied. “It’s better to have some food, just in case...”
“Exactly,” Babs said. “Okay, everypony ready?” Hearing no protests, she guided the group through the new tunnel. It looked exactly the same as the room before – white tiles were covering the floor and the walls. There wasn’t a single scratch on them; Scootaloo was watching them, hoping for some scribbling or a message written on them, but she found none. She noticed that she wasn’t alone – Truffle Shuffle was also observing the walls and the ceiling.
“Looking for clues?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Truffle replied. “Something tells me that we weren’t the first ponies here...”
“Well, if there were others, somepony cleaned the whole facility after they got rid of them...” Scootaloo muttered.
“There were no others,” Ruby muttered, suddenly appearing behind Scootaloo. “It’s hard to find twenty morons like us in Equestria...”
“Shut up.” Scootaloo glared at Ruby angrily.
“Or what? You will beat me?” Ruby asked. “Wish me painful death?”
“Fuck off...”
“Shut up, all of ya!” Babs exclaimed. “Especially ya, Ruby...”
Ruby smirked and slowed down, hiding behind Shady Daze, Snips, and Snails.
Babs shook her head. She saw that the corridor before her was splitting into two. She stopped and turned to the rest of the group.
“Seems that we’ll have to decide again...” she said. “Unless ya have a better idea...”
Zippoorwhill flew into the right corridor and soon came back. “It ends with a wall, not far away from here,” she said.
Babs sighed with relief. One less occasion to argue. She turned to the left, leading the rest of the group there.
They didn’t even walk a hundred metres, when they saw that their path was blocked by a pair of massive metal doors. There were no symbols carved on them. Only a metallic surface and a black knob on each of the doors.
Babs approached them unsurely. “I hope it’s open,” she said. “It’s the only way anyway, if we don’t wanna go back...”
“I knew we should’ve chosen the other way...” Diamond Tiara muttered.
“Shut up, okay?” Babs said, putting her hoof on one of the knobs. “I don’t get ya, guys. Everytime somethin’ strange happens, ya all start to– Aaargh!” When she put her other hoof on the second knob, a sudden flash blinded all the foals temporarily. A loud snap could be heard, when Babs’ body was thrown back from the door and fell limply on the floor. The air smelled of ozone, faeces, and burnt flesh.
Apple Bloom stood there, her eyes wide, staring at the charred body of her cousin. Other foals joined her, speechless. Boysenberry started to cry. Pipsqueak threw up.
“W-what was that?” Silver Spoon asked, hyperventilating.
“Electricity...” Scootaloo muttered, her face pale. “The knobs were electrodes...”
“Stop staring at her, idiots!” Ruby exclaimed. “Look at the door!”
They listened to her. The doors were now open, but they were closing with every passing second.
“We need to go!” Ruby shouted.
“What about Babs?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Fuck her!” Ruby was already on the other side. “We need to go or somepony will have to open them again! Wanna be next?”
The foals rushed forward. One by one, they were passing through the door. Apple Bloom trotted behind them last. Before joining the rest, she looked back, catching the last glimpse of Babs’ lifeless body. The door closed with a metallic thud.
Apple Bloom turned back to see the new part of the maze: red, brick walls and lots of rusty pipes covering them. Several cogwheels were hanging here and there, but it seemed that they weren’t moved from ages. On the nearby wall, written in something that looked like soot, there was a new word; signs they’d learned to hate.
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