Cubed, Twilights descent

by Gone with the wind

Labyrinth

Twilight racked her brain to keep her sanity in check. Who was she? Where was she? Those question raced through her mind while traversing the technological maze she called home. Her parents had never brought her here she thought. Whoever they were they couldn't be heartless. She had been there for the last 15 years of her life, she was what? 20? 21? She didn't even know anymore. She had almost memorized it by now, her predicament was quite odd in a way. She had been told by it that her task was very simple. There is a grid, 32 by 32 cubes with each cube being 15 by 15 feet. She was supposed to traverse the grid and solve a puzzle in each one. She had been here since she was a filly. She knew her way around this place. Every once and a while she got to take a break, eat and mentally prepare for the trials ahead. All the while it was encouraging her to finish the giant test. This being was the only somewhat sentient thing she could talk to and it was not very good company. The voice was feminine and taunting.

"This giant test has to be completed, you know this. It's only preparation, the performance of any form of knowledge gaining procedures are a beautiful thing. You will see, they would be proud of you. If only they weren't dead. But don't worry, the only one you need to know is me. Yourself not included as you already know that." As she completed cube after cube she got to one she hadn't seen before.

"We'll isn't this a surprise." She said to herself, "Yah know its not too hard just listen to me." She snapped out of it, this disease was getting worse by the day. Or week? Hour? It didn't matter, she had to her own horror start succumbing to schizophrenia. She was seeing herself, as she would enter a room new ones especially she would see herself exiting. Even hearing herself. Looking around this new puzzle she saw one wall with the exit, and a table in the center. Around the dull grey room were horrible pictures. All of them showed a figure in the dark smiling a large smile. She was trying to look at the other things like her friends sitting in the corner and the bottle on the table. Preferring her friends she walked over to the pile of dolls resembling some ponies. She didn't know them, but they were her only non aggressive or taunting company. After a quick chat with, "Wait? Chat? No no no no she was losing it. She had to keep this in, on the table was the same bottle but inside it was an assortment of brightly colored pills. On the side it said, "Take the right one and keep your sanity!" Oh she had gone over the edge now.

"Is this just a game!" She screamed, "Am I your personal lab rat! What if I wan't to leave! My sanity is draining so now I'm as much use as a shattered element of." Wait what? She clearly hasn't thought that one through. But something seemed familiar. What was she going to say? That one thing had for her questioning herself. How long have I been here? Her train of thought interrupted by an all to familiar voice.

"Nothing is wrong in this place, don't think of elements err no think of testing. Testing is what you have been doing for the past 15 years. What a shame if." Twilight hastily interrupted,

" How long have I really been doing this! I'm starting to wonder if you've been lying to me! It's starting to come together now!" She seriously didn't think an outburst would help but she just couldn't hold it in. Elements Elements Elements of, something. Remember Twilight! That's one of your talents. Remembering things! She was thinking these in silence while staring at the bottle. And why not, cracked it open, all of them were labeled with random phrases and concepts. Origin, Control, laughter. Laughter, she thought elements of laughter? Elements of, element of laughter! Got it! She had no idea why but the pink colored pill seemed the most likely as of now except for one thing. She'd save it, not now not now she was thinking. Out of the blue she ended up taking the one labeled Origin. She suddenly saw things as if she were much much younger as she looked around and saw a table taller than what she could see. "Either I'm younger, or shorter." She told herself. She was overlooking a large circular room with a pod in the center hooked up to who knows how many machines.

"This" an unseen stallion said, "will keep this place running long after we are gone. All if our work will not be for nothing. Now this machine only operates with the assistance of a sentient being. Ponies have free thought. Machines don't, so our researchers thought combining them would work outstandingly. The hard part is finding a suitable pony to be in control. They must be incredibly mentally secure. Due to the fact that the goal set as of now has a chance if causing insanity as of doing the same thing over and over and over. Now." As that word was said Twilight was back in her normal self pondering over what she had seen. It was obviously its creation. But who was controlling it? She thought that it would have to be a very mentally in control pony with outstanding information processing and the ability to perform monotonous tasks without going insane. Going to the next cube she was greeted with something new. The puzzle was the same but according to her memory, 27371. That was an odd figure but that was irrelevant. She had done this before, yeah. Every time she somehow took the same path. A cycle, she thought. That's why I'm going insane! No sense of progress! Its probably behind all this. It's all probably just a big messed up game. She would put a stop to this, in the
dull grey space if cube 172 she devised a plan. The cycle must

be broken.