//------------------------------// // United We Stand // Story: Tricks and Traps // by Samey90 //------------------------------// “I killed her.” Zippoorwhill blinked, staring at Silver Spoon. “Who?” she asked. “Tootsie,” Silver Spoon replied, sobbing. “I... I opened the door... And then that needle poisoned her.” “It’s not your fault,” Zippoorwhill said, wrapping her wing around Silver Spoon. “This could be anypony. I could be standing there...” “But it was me who just had to open the door!” Silver Spoon shouted, shuddering and grabbing Zippoorwhill’s coat. “M-maybe if we came back instead of trying to get through it–” “Zip is right,” Diamond Tiara muttered, turning to her friend. “You didn’t kill her, Silver. It just happened...” “Everything in this place ‘just happens!’” Silver Spoon exclaimed, shaking Zippoorwhill’s wing off of her. “Button just got poisoned! Babs just got electrocuted! Tootsie...” She dropped on the ground, wailing. Zippoorwhill tried to help her up, but Diamond Tiara shook her head. “Give her some time,” Diamond Tiara said, sitting next to Silver Spoon and patting her mane. “I’ll stay with her...” Zippoorwhill nodded and looked at the others. They hadn’t walked much since Tootsie’s death. A few hours after they left her body in the tunnel, the lights went out and they had to stop. After they’d woken up, somehow none of them wanted to get up and walk further. Dinky was lying on her back next to Boysenberry, trails of tears visible on her face. Boysenberry herself seemed to be unconscious. She was looking at the wall with glassy eyes, and only her breathing and some occasional sounds she was making were indicating that she was alive. Zippoorwhill approached them and looked at Dinky. The unicorn stared back at her. “You were right,” Dinky said in an emotionless voice. “What do you mean?” Zippoorwhill asked. “We’re already dead,” Dinky replied. “This place... It’s Tartarus. We’ll stay here forever, tortured, having to watch everypony die...” Zippoorwhill sighed. She ran her hoof through Dinky’s mane, saying, “Don’t lose hope, Dinky. How would we even get there? We’re still alive and we can get out of here.” “Maybe we’re alive...” Dinky whimpered. “But for how long? You’ve heard what Tootsie said before she died... Somepony else will die soon.” “Don’t say that...” Zippoorwhill muttered. Suddenly, she realised how quiet her voice sounded – it faltered and died down, suffocated by the silence of the maze. She sat next to Dinky and sighed. Tornado Bolt stood up and flew to Zippoorhwill. “Oh, come on!” she exclaimed. “We’ll never get outta here if you all keep sitting on your flanks doing nothing. I don’t know how about you, but I’m leaving!” She flew up the corridor, above the heads of the rest. “Wait,” Rumble said, taking off. “I’m going with you.” “Me too.” Snips got up. Snails looked at the rest of the group unsurely and followed his friend. Silver Spoon poked Diamond Tiara. “Come on,” she muttered. “You have to lead them...” “Seems that Tornado already did,” Diamond Tiara replied, getting up reluctantly. One by one, the foals were forming the group and walking further into the dark tunnel. It led them up, the brick walls getting a bit closer to each other, as if they were trying to trap them. “You know what?” Scootaloo asked, stopping suddenly. “It doesn’t make sense... We walk all the time and this corridor still looks the same...” “What do you mean?” Apple Bloom asked. “All those walls look similar.” “But it’s even the dirt on the walls...” Scootaloo pointed at the pattern formed by dust and debris on the brick wall. “It seems like something kept teleporting us to the beginning...” “It’s impossible,” Sweetie Belle said. “We’d notice that...” “Did we notice when they teleported us in our sleep?” Scootaloo sighed. “This may be trying to kill us, you know...” Sweetie Belle shook her head. “You just said that. In our sleep... We were sleeping and that’s why we didn’t see it. If there were some kind of portal here, I’d see that. And if I didn’t, Dinky or Ruby would see that too. Even Snips and Snails...” “Notice what?” Snips asked, turning to them. “That we’re in a seemingly endless loop created by putting a magical portal somewhere in that corridor that, when we enter it, teleports us to the beginning of the tunnel, so it gives us the impression that this corridor is absurdly long,” Snails replied. Snips and the Cutie Mark Crusaders gave him a weird look. “Yeah, what he said,” Scootaloo muttered and looked at the wall. “Actually, nevermind. It hadn’t been so clean before...” Apple Bloom followed Scootaloo’s gaze and saw that indeed, the wall got cleaner. She turned back and saw something shining behind them. When she blinked, it disappeared in the darkness. “Ah think it may be trying to kill us...” Apple Bloom muttered. “You too?” Sweetie Belle sighed and rolled her eyes. “There’s nothing there.” “Shut up!” Tornado Bolt exclaimed. “There’s something written here...” “It’s just another of those weird worms...” Pipsqueak pointed at the “ܠܒܐ” written on the floor. It looked as if it was deeply carved in the bricks. Behind it, there was an entrance to a large room with a low ceiling. “Do you think we can go past it?” Zippoorwhill asked. So far, none of the foals went past the scribbling. “I’d rather not get killed.” “Am I going to be your guinea pig again?” Ruby gave Zippoorwhill and Tornado Bolt a nasty look. “Not really,” Tornado Bolt replied and flew behind the sign. Everypony held their breaths, waiting for something to happen. “See?” Tornado Bolt asked. “It’s safe. And there’s food in here.” The foals cheered loudly. Over the last few days they hadn’t found any food and their supplies were running low. They rushed into the room, got to the table and for a while they were devouring the food in silence. Even the sounds from behind the walls disappeared, or maybe they just tuned them out. Scootaloo’s ears perked up. She listened for any noise and realised that indeed the things behind the walls were now silent. She wasn’t sure what to think about it – did it mean that they were close to the exit, or were they being watched? She looked at the ceiling and saw a black line in the middle of it. The line was also painted on the walls and floor, dividing the room in two. “Have you seen this?” Scootaloo asked Truffle Shuffle, pointing at the line. “What do you think this is?” “I have no idea,” Truffle replied, staring at the line. “Maybe it’s just some decoration?” He stood in the middle of the room, his front legs on the left side of the line and his hind legs on the other. “Nothing,” he muttered. “It’s just a line...” Suddenly, the door to the room closed with a loud bang. Truffle looked at them, but before he could do something, the ceiling split along the line and another wall emerged from there, going down quickly. “No!” Scootaloo shouted when the wall hit Truffle’s back. He fell down, thrashing when the wall pinned him to the floor. Silver Spoon barely avoided the similar fate; she was also in the middle of the room, but she rushed to the left side of it before the wall could hit her. Truffle Shuffle screamed. The wall, meeting an unexpected resistance, pushed harder. Truffle tried to crawl from under it, but it was holding him firmly. He looked at the rest of the foals, his eyes bloodshot, and reach his hoof towards them. With a terrible snap, his spine gave up. Blood flowed from his mouth, staining the floor. He thrashed a few times before finally going limp when the wall crushed him, dividing the room into two. Scootaloo turned her gaze away from Truffle’s body and saw that about half of the group was missing. Apple Bloom was there, holding a crying Silver Spoon. Boysenberry and Dinky were sitting next to the wall, hugging each other and screaming. Rumble and Featherweight stood next to Scootaloo, silent, while Ruby was staring at Truffle, shuddering. “Sweetie Belle!” Scootaloo shouted. “Where are you?” “I’m here!” Sweetie replied from behind the wall. “Is Apple Bloom there?” “Yes,” Apple Bloom said. “Who’s there with ya?” “Zippoorwhill, Tornado, Pipsqueak, Snips, Snails, Shady...” “Diamond Tiara!” Silver Spoon exclaimed, freeing herself from Apple Bloom’s grasp. “I’m here,” Diamond Tiara’s voice could barely be heard from behind the wall. “Are... Are you okay, Silver?” “No,” Silver Spoon replied, shuddering. “I... I have enough...” She dropped on the floor. “I want to go...” “It’s okay, Silver,” Diamond Tiara said. “I’ll try to do something... Do you think this wall will rise?” “I don’t know,” Rumble said. “Maybe it’s an experiment.” Featherweight looked at the wall. “They split us and now we’re going to–” “Say something about ‘them’ one more time and I’ll beat the shit out of you...” Ruby muttered. Featherweight gave her a nasty glare. Suddenly, they heard some grating sound behind them. They looked there and saw that a part of the outer wall of the room moved to the side, revealing another corridor. “Some door opened on our side,” Sweetie Belle said. “Do you think we have to go there?” “Same here,” Apple Bloom replied. “Ah guess ‘they’ suggest that...” “Told you,” Featherweight muttered to Rumble and Ruby. “It’s an experiment...” Ruby only shook her head. “We’re going,” Diamond Tiara said. “Silver... I hope we’ll meet again, but... If we don’t make it, remember that I’ll always be your friend...” “Yeah, right,” Scootaloo muttered. “Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom hissed. She walked to the wall. “Sweetie Belle... Ah promise we’ll find ya...” One by one, the foals walked to the wall, muttering goodbyes to their friends on the other side. Finally, the time came. They turned to the opening of the new tunnel and disappeared in the darkness.