//------------------------------// // Chapter 32: The Maze // Story: New Beginnings // by Black Alicorn //------------------------------// The gentle night breeze beat mercilessly against the side of a hill. Under the light of the moon, he lay there, sound asleep. An eerie howl echoed across the steep incline. The wind was getting stronger. Yet another gust caused him to turn, trying desperately to stay out the wind's path. The next gust, stronger than ever, sent a loose branch from the top of the tree plummeting to the ground, onto his face. - - - - - His eyes opened suddenly as a large draft suddenly made contact with his skin. He opened them just in time to glimpse the large gray silhoutte passing over him. "Look out!" A sudden explosion rocked the ground where he was sleeping. Something came over his face. He shot up off the ground immediatley and saw the severed arm launching from his forehead onto the ground next to him. With sheer dread, he watched as a large insect-like foot stomped on the arm, breaking in in two with absolutely no effort. He was cast back down as a large fist knocked him out cold. - - - - - He woke up, almost screaming, cold sweat dripping down his face. He sighed, placing his head firmly in his hands. Anoother gust of wind, followed by another sound. Shivering. He looked down to his left side and saw Twilight and Nyx curled up together into a ball, trying to stay warm in this veritable windstorm. He gave off a weak smile. It was over, everything was over, the war, his old life, everything. Just relics of the past. He looked up to the top of the hill and glimpsed a patch of plaid ground. He walked up there to investigate further. It was the towel left over from the picnic. The only reason it hadn't blown away was because of the plates, bowls and other dishes weighing it down. He grabbed the towel and as many of the dirty dishes he could carry. When he got back down the hill, he gently laid the towel over the two. It wouldn't stay on long thanks to the wind. That's what the dishes were for. He put them in four separate piles,each on the corner of the towel, making sure it wouldn't blow away. He waited a few moments, and their shivering subsided. He fell back to the ground with a light thud, once again placing his head in his hands. He ran his fingers through his dark brown hair, feeling unusually tired. A sudden jolt sent him into overdrive. He let off a series of pained grunts as an array images from his past burned it's way into his head. Weaver. The training facillity. Hawk. Cougar. Steven. Places where he had been, things he had done, and things that had been done to him. They continued to shift randomly until they remained on one image. A Wasp. One Wasp in particular. In immense pain, he muttered one sentence. "Get out of my head..." It only laughed at his futile attempts to block it from his thoughts. A wall of flame appeared behind the Wasp's face, and engulfed it, and him as well. - - - - - Wolf gasped as he was left alone in the dark. He turned back and forth, desperately trying to see something, anything. An orange light appeared behind him. He turned, to be met with the sight of the Wasp, laughing at his plight. Acting on insticnt and training, he threw his arms forward, trying to punch the intruder in his own thoughts. It dissapeared, darkness replacing it. More orange flashes appeared all around him, and the same laugh, that same evil laugh over and over again...He closed his eyes as tightly as possible and let out a loud yell. A few seconds later, out of breath, he opened his eyes. Darkness in front of him, and nothing more. He let out a sigh as a tear fell from his eye. That was painful. An eerie blue glow began to rise from the blackness, until he could see his surroundings. A massive steppe, and he was right in the middle of it. A couple old trees moved with the wind in the distance. The wind howled in his ears, and rustled his hair. He took a step forward. A low rumble emitted from the ground. He looked down to the ground, and took weary steps in all directions. The ground began to crack in some places. All of a sudden a wall of green shot out of the ground. Another one behind him. He dove to the right as yet another came from below him. And more of these geysers of dark green all over the vast steppe. They swirled with each other in the air, forming beautiful patterns, before tearing away and beggining anew. They eventually came together in an array of lines joined together far away in the sky. Then they began to fall. He jumped back as it came crashing down to the ground. He closed his eyes as bits of dirt and rocks fell all around him. When the dust finally settled, he looked up to see what fell from the sky. Leaves. A massive bush, soaring nearly fifty feet in the air. "A bush?" He then thought back to the shape in the sky. A wave of dread washed over him as the realization came crashing down. A maze. A massive maze. And he was stuck right in the middle of it. Seeing no other option, he began to walk through the maze. Silence ruled over it. All he could hear was his own heavy breathing. The leaves began rustling. Loudly. Fear began to set in. At one point, the rustling turned to whispers. They were coming from behind him and growing louder and louder. Fear took complete control as he began to run. (Two Steps From Hell: Run Like Hell) He couldn't hear what they were saying, but he didn't care. He just ran faster and faster. He shifted through the maze like a shadow. He looked behind him. The bushes from where the whispers were coming from closed behind him. He turned back in front of him. He saw the root, but he didn't have time to react. He tripped on it. As he was falling to the ground, his training kicked in. He rolled as he hit the ground and came up back on his feet. He got away with a mistake this time. All of a sudden, the bushes in front of him began to close. He was out of time, it was now or never. He fell to the ground and slid under the closing bushes, brances mere milliemeters from his face. As he came out from under them, he jumped back to his feet and turned around the corner in front of him. As he turned around the corner, silence reclaimed it's rule over the maze. He turned around to see that the bushes had stopped with the whispers. He turned around. He let out a scream of terror at what he saw there. He calmed down as he realized it was a mirror. He laughed at himself for being so jumpy. He looked into the eyes of his reflection. "Nothing to be afraid of..." The eyes suddenly turned black, and the arm reached out of the mirror and grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground. "Well, I wouldn't be so sure of that!" his reflection replied to him in a deep, raspy voice. His relfection laughed as it tried to squeeze the life out of him. As he was almost out of breath, he kicked with all his might, shattering the mirror, and the relfection with it. Free of it's grip, he fell back to the ground. He gasped and wheezed for breath, that damn thing had almost crushed his windpipe. He shook it off and walked off into the maze. He soon came upon a pond. He fell to his knees and began to drink. As he drank his fill, he fell on his back and rested for a few minutes. He then got back up. As he had his back turned to the pond, he heard a splash. He turned back around to look at it. The water was completely still. Nothing was there. Not even his reflection. He turned around to stare right into the black eyes of his reflection. It lifted him off the ground by the throat for a second time. "Miss me?" It grinned from ear to ear as it once again tried to kill him. "No mirrors to kick this time..." It laughed as it realized it was invincible. Wolf kicked it square in the stomach. It dropped him as it itself fell to it's knees to retch. Wolf took no chances and ran off again. "I'll get you yet, boy!" It screamed into the air. Wolf had no idea how much he ran. He just stopped when he was too tired to continue. He was in a large clearing, decorated with statues, and a number of benches all around it. He sat on one and placed his head in his hands again. A couple seconds later, he heard rustling in the bushes in front of him. He looked up. All of a sudden they tore open and it came out to look at him, grinning yet again. "Heeeeere's Wolfy!" Wolf jumped to his feet, and looked for a place to run. Nowhere. It had closed around them. There was no way out. He would have to fight it. It climbed out of the open bushes and broke off a sword from a statue of a knight. Wolf did the same. They regarded each other, then begam to circle. They lunged forward, swords ready to inflict terrible damage. They clashed with a loud clang. The duel lasted for only minutes, yet it seemed like hours. It was obvious however that it was in it's final stage. From his position, Wolf turned, sword behind him, trying to hit the reflection. It parried his blow, then launched it's own. Wolf blocked it. He launched his counterattack and his sword met with the reflections. It grabbed his hand as it was gripping the sword and kicked him away. Wolf flew back. The kick felt like it broke one of his ribs. The reflection held on to his sword. Wolf looked up to see it laughing, holding his sword from the blade. It tossed it to the ground and lunged at him. With it's free arm, it grabbed him by the neck again and lifted him off the ground. His other arm, still holding his sword, positioned itself manacingly below him. "Goodnight..." It told him. It's arm lunged forward. Wolf grabbed it in midair, and redirected the blade onto the arm that was holding his throat. It sliced through it with ease. The reflection scrreched in pain as it's dark red blood poured onto the ground below, permanently staining it. The pain simply too much, it dropped the sword and with it's remaing arm gripped what was left of the other. On his knees, Wolf managed to get back up and grab the reflections sword from the ground. With all his strength, he plunged it into his foe, dooming it to oblivion. It's death rattle echoed through the clearing. With a heavy thud, the reflection fell dead to the ground, before fading away completely, as if it never existed. Wolf sighed, and sat on another bench. A moment of peace. A short lived moment of peace. An evil laugh echoed through the clearing. He knew it all too well. He turned immediately to face the giant Wasp standing before him. Before he had time to react, it gave a good hard punch to the face, sending him flying three feet away. He spat out blood before getting up again. He tried to punch the Wasp, only to have it grab his fist in midair, before kicking him in the stomach. As he fell to the ground coughing and gasping for breath, the Wasp walked over to him, grabbed the back of his neck and lifted his head up to face it. It grinned madly before slamming it's knee into Wolf's face. Wolf was knocked back a few more feet. He landed square on his back. A voice rang through his ears as a piercing white light appeared out of nowhere. "Wolf? Wake up!" He looked into the light, where the voice was coming from. Right in the middle of it, Twilight seemed to bestanding over him. This being his last hope, he rolled on his stomach and tried to crawl to her. A huge force exerted on his back sent him back to the ground. "Where are you going?" It grabbed the back of his neck and lifted him up again. Wolf's buried his fist in the ground, picking some of the dirt up. "I want to look at your face when you die worm..." As it was turning him around, Wolf's arm shot up, releasing the dirt he was holding directly into the Wasp's face, temporarily blinding it. Wolf seized his chance and ran like hell towards the light. A roar of anger echoed through the clearing as all the bushes bore down on him. Adrenaline surging, he ran as fast as he could. He could fell the bushes behind him. Roots started shooting out from the mass of leaves and tried to grab him. He just pulled them off. He was getting closer, but so where they. He had no choice. With his last ounce of strength, he jumped into the light screaming as he soared through the air. - - - - - Wolf shot up from the ground where he was laying. He looked frantically around him. "Calm down, calm down! You're okay!" Wolf looked to the source of the voice. It was Twilight. He made it. "Oh thank God..." He began laughing as he realized his trip through hell was over. The sun was rising, and another beuatiful day was waiting for him. Deep within Everfree Forest... A lone Pegasus bowed before a Unicorn recovering after a newly cast spell had sapped his energy. "Did you succeed my Lord?" "No...he escaped this time..." "That is unfortunate..." The Unicorn turned to face the bowing Pegasus, a large grin on his face. "Hardly. Now we have an effective weapon to use against him, one he cannot counter." He turned back around to face the rising sun, laughing at his newfound 'entertainment'. "I'm going to enjoy the next few weeks..." End Chapter 32.