CHAPTER TWO: Labyrinth of the Chaos King
Fluttershy saw that she was getting closer and closer, a large brick and stone wall covered in vines and moss was coming into view. She knew it had to be the start of the labyrinth, though she was unsure where exactly the door was.
She heard the sound of chuckling and spraying, that turned to coughing? At the same moment she saw a small light purple baby dragon with green spikes and eyes with a push sprayer in hand. “And that is 57,” he chuckled to himself, spraying something floating in the air.
“Excuse me?” Fluttershy asked in a voice that was softer than usual.
“Your excused,” the dragon snorted with a smile, spraying a small blue creature with large see through white wings. “58!” he leapt.
“Breezies?” Fluttershy’s eyes widened in curiosity and small joy. She had a few Breezies as stuffed animals and figures back in her room, though she despised it when Sapphire took it upon herself to take them and hand them to Dapper who used them as teething toys.
“59!” the dragon sprayed the Breezie, making it cough as it fell to the ground.
“Horrible!” Fluttershy gasped, running, carefully but concerned, to the fallen Breezie.
“No I’m not. I’m Spike,” the dragon stated, spraying yet another Breezie. “60!” he hooted, flapping his leg widely again.
Fluttershy carefully picked the Breezie up in her hooves. “Poor thing...” she murmured. She helped the Breezie clean the dust off its coat and out of her mane, tail, and wings. The Breezie dipped her head in acknowledgment and gratitude, flying away from the purple dragon that threatened to spray it again.
“Once again, I’m Spike, thanks for asking, who are you?” Spike asked, not paying attention to the Pegasus.
“Fluttershy,” she answered, her eyes wide with curiosity.
“That’s what I thought,” he crept upon another Breezie. “61!” he gloated, kicking dust onto the yellow Breezie.
“Excuse me, but I have have to get through this labyrinth. Can you help me?” she asked, hope in her teal orbs.
“Eh, maybe,” Spike shrugged, not caring either way.
“Do you know where the door is?” she asked.
“Maybe,” Spike repeated, spraying another Breezie in the process.
“Well where is it?” that time he did not answer.
“I said where is it?” she asked again.
“Where is what?”
“The door!”
“What door?”
“It’s hopeless asking!” Fluttershy slapped her forehead, irritated and flustered.
“Not, if you ask the right questions,” Spike retorted, spraying another Breezie, shouting out the number 63.
“How do I get into the labyrinth?” the cream mare sighed, she noticed that her question actually made the dragon stop in his tracks for a moment.
“Ah, now that’s more like it,” Spike turned and raised a hand. “Through... there...” he pointed. As if one cue two large stone double doors opened.
Fluttershy slowly crept forward and stood in front of the now open doorway. Inside the bricks were slightly moist and covered with a revolting green colored plant, it looked like the plant had hundreds of eyes. Not to mention the large tree branches, placed all around. It even looked like slime was dripping from the walls with more and more water. “Cozy isn’t it?” Spike snorted/chuckled from behind her, making Fluttershy feel like she jumped out of her fur.
“You’re really going in there?” he asked, his green eyes curious.
“I have too,” Fluttershy stated firmly.
“Now would you go left or right?” he asked, pointing both his hands to each direction.
“They both look the same...”
“Well you’re not going to get far,”
“Which way would you go?”
“Neither,”
“If you don’t want to help then you can leave, I don’t really mind,”
“I think you’re taking things for granted. Take this labyrinth. Even if you got to the center, you ain’t getting out,”
“That’s your opinion,”
“It’s a lot better than yours,”
“Thanks I guess Spike,” Fluttershy sighed softly, walking deeper to the opening.
“Yeah, yeah, but don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Spike added before flying to the doors, leaving a loud slam behind her.
The mare, now alone but not entirely, took a deep breath and went right. After a few moments she grew confused. After about five minutes she grew slight irritation. “What do they mean labyrinth? It just goes on and on,” she sat onto the ground for a moment. She perked her ears and lifted her head, moving her hair out of her face. “Maybe it doesn’t,” she whispered silently.
Fluttering slightly off the ground she began flying in the same direction. This went on and on for what felt like hours to Fluttershy, but was merely around fifteen minutes. Growing flustered and irritated, she slapped a hoof against the right wall, then slapped the left side, Fluttershy sat back onto the ground, propping a hoof on her knee and holding her head with her hoof.
“Ello?” a small high pitched voice lightly startled Fluttershy. Turning her head, looking down unto a cleft in the wall she saw a small worm with a gray head and brown body, it had a white beard and white eyebrows with red eyes and yellow whites.
“Did you say ‘hello’?” Fluttershy asked softly.
The worm shook his head. “No, I said ‘Ello’ but that’s close enough,” he nodded, a small smile on his face.
“You’re a worm aren’t you?” she asked.
“Yeah that’s right!” the worm smile stayed.
“You wouldn’t happen to know how to solve the labyrinth would you?” Fluttershy asked, hopeful.
“Me? Nah sorry, just a worm,” he shook his head. Fluttershy nodded softly. “You wanna come in for a bit? Meet the Missus?” he asked politely.
“I’m sorry but I have to solve this labyrinth but there are no twists or turns or anything it goes on and on,” the mare sighed, turning her head to look down the path.
“You aren’t looking right. You just ain’t seeing ‘em. Like over there, there’s one right in front of you,” he pointed with his head.
Fluttershy turned her head. “No there isn’t,” she stated, her eyes roaming the wall up and down.
“Come inside, have a cup of tea,” he offered.
“It’s just wall, there’s nothing there,”
“Well of course there is,” he chuckled. “Things are not always what they seem in this place, so fair warning, take nothing for granted, try walking through you’ll see what I mean,” the worm smiled, a large sharp tooth sticking out of his mouth.
Lightly flying from the ground, Fluttershy put her hooves in front of her feeling for wall. Nothing. “Hey, that was incredibly helpful!” she began going left.
“Hey, hang on!” the worm’s eyes widened. She came back upon hearing his words
“Thank you, that was incredibly helpful,” she smiled, about to go back left.
“Don’t go that way!” he spoke, she nearly missed it.
“What was that?”
“I said don’t go that way, never go that way,” he stated.
“Oh,” she looked right. “Thanks,” she smiled once more, going right.
As soon as the worm was sure she was out of hearing range, he shook his head softly. “To close a call. Had she kept going down that way, that pretty little mare would have ended up right in my castle,” he sighed, then confusion and shock plastered itself on his face. “Again?” he mentally slapped himself, disappearing in a flash of white.
Fluttershy found herself in a place filled with many twists and turns, blocks much higher than her blocking each path or creating a new one. She heard that familiar crying in the distance and immediately saw the distant castle. “Dapper...” she whispered softly, guilt flooding through her. “I’m coming Dapper...” she added, passing another block and walking up a small flight of stairs.
The mare sighed softly. “Difficult...” she spoke of the twists and turns to took, it seemed like she kept going in circles. Now she reached a dead end. Turning around she heard a voice behind her, followed by more voices.
“Difficult? That’s not even the worst of it!” a mare snickered, and what followed that was three male voices laughing.
Turning back around slowly she saw two doors that were guarded by four creatures. Two were pony like creatures, a black unicorn mare with dark teal hair that had holes in it with holes in her legs and dark green eyes with feline pupils and teal wings like a bug’s that also had holes in them, a dark gray unicorn stallion with red eyes and a jet black mane and tail wearing a red silk cape. It seemed like they were holding up a shield for one door, and it was orange, and that was only the left side. The right side had a blue Minotaur alongside a four-legged creature with red skin, small black horns, and a white beard. The things they all shared was holding up the shield to a door, even though the Minotaur and the other creature were holding a blue shield, and all having sharp teeth and dark amusement in their eyes.
“This was a dead end a moment ago,” Fluttershy stated softly, slowly flying to the four.
“Nope, that’s the dead end behind you. Sorry, I only mean to say what’s true,” the Minotaur stated, a rather large smirk on his face.
“It just keeps changing... What am I supposed to do?” Fluttershy’s eyes were pleading.
“Only wait out is through one of these doors,” the mare with the bug wings stated with a movement of her hoof.
“Which one?” Fluttershy asked.
“One leads to the castle in the center of the labyrinth, the other leads to...” the green eyed stallion flashed his fangs in a crooked smile. “Certain death...” all four said at once.
“Which one is which?” the mare questioned.
“We can’t tell you,” the four-legged creature said, though his yellow pupils in his black eyes seemed to say otherwise.
“Why not?” her shoulders drooped slightly, distress in her eyes as her hope was fading.
“It’s against the rules, you have to choose one or the other,” the green eyed stallion shrugged slightly. “But choosing which door to go through won’t be a piece of cake,” he added.
His words confused her for a moment. “Why’s that?” she inquired.
“Because you listen to all four of us, but think of us being two. Two people. Blue and Orange, and there’s another way of defining that. One of us always tells a falsehood uttered or acted for the purpose of deception; an intentional violation of truth; an untruth spoken with the intention to deceive, and the other always tells--” the mare began, but she was interrupted by the stallion.
“What Ms. Chrysallis the English teacher is trying say is that Blue and Orange. One is truth, other is lie,” he rolled his eyes and shook his head irritably.
The mare glared at him. “Yeah,” she shrugged. “That.”
“She always lies,” the stallion added.
His words snapped the mare, Chrysallis, out of her thoughts. “I do not, I tell the truth,” she stated firmly.
“Oh what a lie!” the stallion and the mare’s conflict made the Minotaur snicker and snort to where he had to cover his mouth, the red four-legged creature did the same.
Fluttershy felt like slapped a hoof on her head. “Okay... um...” she murmured, looking to the two doors. Red usually means bad. I think. Blue usually means good. Like the sky... So the Minotaur and the red Mr. or Chrysallis and the stallion? she thought.
“I guess I will go right?” it was more of a question. “Okie dokie lokie!” the Minotaur snorted as he and the four-legged creature moved the blue shield.
The mare began walking through the door as it opened, she thought it would turn out better, but then the floor beneath her hooves caved in and she fell through. Fluttershy was certain she heard the snickers and the hoots and hollers of Chrysallis, the Minotuar, the stallion, and the other guy.
She felt hands grabbing at her legs. “Stop!” she cried out as they carried her down. “Help!” she pleaded.
“What do you mean ‘help’?” a voice asked. “We are helping!” it added.
“Would you like us to let go?” another asked, laughing as the hands let her go.
“NO!” they grabbed her again, preventing her from falling any more.
More laughter and snickers were coming from the voices from the hands in the wall. “Well then, which way?” another asked.
“Which way?” she asked.
“Up...” the male voice began. “Or...” he continued. “Down?” he finished.
“I guess.... down...?” another question.
“She chose down...” She chose down?” more voices were laughing as they carried her down.
Her fear spiked wildly. “Was that wrong?”
“Too late now!” a voice snorted/snickered.
After a few minutes of hearing mocking laughter and the word down she was dropped through the floor, again, and fell into a sitting position. She looked up and saw they put a door like a cage’s on the hole in the ceiling, laughter still heard.
Through the sight of a crystal, many eyes were watching as she looked around the black space. “She’s in the oubliette,” the Chaos King sighed lightly. His Changelings and the Diamonds dogs began snickering and laughing. “Shut up! She couldn’t have gotten this far without giving up...” he muttered.
“She’ll never give up...” a Diamond dog, Rover, stated.
“The dragon is about the lead her back to the beginning of my labyrinth. She will soon give up when she realized she’ll have start all over again,” he chuckled through his words, but no other laughed.
“Well... laugh...” he said, and upon his words all the Changelings and dogs began laughing up a storm. The King shook his head, gazing into the mare’s fearful and curious teal eyes with wonder, as he too began laughing. He threw the crystal into the air as it turned to a medium sized bubble.
Fluttershy was still sitting in the oubliette looking around as the bubble faded, and though she dealt with a few of the King’s tricks, there were more to come with a side of dragon, Orthoros, and more.........................................................................................................................