//------------------------------//
// A Game of Mirrors 
// Story: Appledashery 
// by Just Essay 
//------------------------------//

	"A weighty choice is yours to make, the right selection or a big mistake.  If a wrong choice you choose to pursue, the foundations of home will crumble without you..."

"Mrmmfff... guh..." Rainbow Dash whimpered, nuzzling her forelimbs while sweat rolled down her neck.  "I don't..."  She gulped hard.  "Don't remember that one..."

"Shhhhh... are you back now, Sparky?"

"Epcot?"  Rainbow forced her eyes open.  She squinted across a dark, dark domain.  "Epcot... wh-where are we?"

"Pffft!  'Epcot?!'  You would confuse me with that bubbly abstract freeloader?"

"Huh?" Rainbow shuddered.

A pair of tiny stone talons placed a ruby jewel in her hooves.  The Wind Chalice stone lit up, illuminating Lancie's granite grin in an eerie red light.  "And here I thought we had gotten so close..."

"Lancie..." Rainbow shuddered.  She sat up, wincing from her aching head.  A puddle of vomit lingered on the floor beside her, and she still tasted bile in the back of her throat.  "Mrmmmff... how... how long was I...?"

"Long enough for our neighboring queen and her young ones to trample on past us," Lancie said.  "Though I wouldn't suggest we pitch a tent here.  She's bound to be on the prowl."

Rainbow looked back at her leg, shining some light on it.  The wound was still laced with dried blood, but most of the green venom was gone.

"I'm actually surprised that your fever dream ended as swiftly as it did," Lancie said.  "That wasn't a mosquito that grazed you."  Lancie craned his neck.  "Feeling any better on the inside?"

"I... I don't know..." Rainbow winced, rubbing her jaw.  "My chin still hurts."

"Oh?  From what?"

"From where Listing... Listing..."  She shuddered, ears drooping.  "Nevermind."

"I did a bit of scurrying around while you were under," Lancie said.  "I think I found a path that leads out from here."

"A... path..."

"Now, I'm not promising an exit, but with an eight-legged prima donna hungry for pony flesh, I think it's the next best thing."

"Right..."

"If you just follow me, Sparky, I'll get us out."

"Just... get us out..." Rainbow squinted down at him.

"What?"  He rubbed his scalp, blinking.  "Am I chipped somewhere?"

"How do I even know any of this is real?"  She gulped.  "Or that this didn't happen a long... long time ago and I'm just now remembering it in pieces?"

"What... does that even mean?"

"A statue that talks..." Rainbow exhaled in sharp gunbursts.  She scoured the ceiling with twitching eyes.  "Giant spiders.  Apple Bloom and a magic snake."  She ran a shaking hoof through her mane.  "My life can't be this crazy.  Nopony's life can be this crazy."

"The spider must have bit you harder than I thought.  Hallucinations are one thing, Sparky, but complete delusional rewrites of reality?"

"I just... j-just need to get back to Ponyville," Rainbow murmured.  "Yeah.  Twilight needs me."  She stumbled about.  "The whole gang needs me—"

"And what of Applejack?"

Rainbow froze, her pupils shrinking.  Something skittered past her, then hid itself deep in the wall.  She looked down at Lancie, then slowly shook her head.  "I... shouldn't be the mare that loves her.  I can't be."  She sniffled.  "It's crazy... just too crazy..."

"And would you be any more awesome if you weren't?"

Rainbow gnawed on her teeth, trembling.

"Sparky..." Lancie scurried up to a stalacmite so that they were eye level.  "You're here for a reason.  If you can't get your head clear, then open your earholes, listen to my breath... and pretend it's the breath of... of a d-dear friend."  His stone eyes hardened even further.  "Follow me.  Let me get you out of here.  Let me show you the way."

"Show... me the way..."  Rainbow Dash shuddered, running a hoof over her face.  "...caves... tunnels..."

"That's right."

She gnashed her teeth, quivering where she sat.  "Twists... and turns..."  She fought the bile down her throat.  "...are his master plan."

Lancie's limbs went slack.  He leaned his head back, fanged mouth agape.  "Where... did you hear that...?"

"Nnnngh... so... so tired..." She whimpered.  "Apple Bloom..."

"Just..."  Lancie motioned along, slithering ahead of her.  "Just follow along, Sparky.  We need to move... you always need to be moving."

"Right..."  Rainbow nodded, glancing briefly behind her as she shuffled after the living effigy.  The walls shook and quivered, and eyes peered out through the darkness.  "...always need to be moving..."