The Maze Galloper

by Sumiye

New Secrets

Twilight leaned uncomfortably against the tree as she waited for Fluttershy to return. She scanned the Glade, this new place of buried nightmares where she was destined to live. The shadows from the walls had lengthened considerably, sliding up the ivy-covered stone faces on the other side.

At least this helps with organizing everything. Twilight solemnly thought-the wooden building crouched in the northwest corner, wedged in a pure black shadow, the groves of trees in the southwest. The farm area, where a few earth ponies were still ripping their way through the fields, spread across the entire northeast of the Glade. The animals were in the southeast, their strained yelps almost like a cry for help.

In the exact middle of the courtyard, the disturbing hole of the box lay open, as if inviting her to climb back in and take all her worries away, like her own memories...

Twilight chocked back a sob, tears threatening to fall as she remembered the horrible fate everypony here suffered when they arrived. She tried to think of something else, but her mind just kept bringing more questions up. Only when she turned her head to a new sight did Twilight finally stop panicking.

A squat building made of rough concrete blocks stood tall about twenty feet away, a menacing steel door its only entrance-there were no windows. A large round handle resembling a sun marked the only way to open the door, just like something in a guarded chamber. Despite what she'd just experienced, Twilight couldn't decide which she felt more strongly: curiosity for what was inside, or dread at finding out.

Twilight had just spread her attention to the still-openings in the middle of the main walls surrounding all sides when Fluttershy arrived, daisy sandwiches balanced on her wings, along with two apples and metal cups of water balanced on her head. Watching Fluttershy grin at her and almost trip sent a surprising amount of relief though the young mare-maybe she wasn't completely alone in this place.

"BonBon wasn't too happy about me invading her kitchen and politely asking for food before suppertime." Fluttershy squeaked, carefully setting their dinner down before motioning for Twilight to come closer. She obliged, but groaned as she tried-and ultimately failed-to pick up the sandwich with her hooves. And after many attempts, even Fluttershy couldn't hide her small giggles.

"I think I have a better idea," Fluttershy slowly moved her hoof up, tapping on Twilight's horn before pulling back swiftly. "Sorry, I just meant to say that...if you, um...need to pick it up it would be better, uh...to try to use magic. Since you're a unicorn and all."

Am I? Or is this horn just another lie and I'm something else? Twilight quickly shook he question off, and lowered her head as Fluttershy placed the sandwich in front of her. Her eyes shut tight as Twilight desperately tried to grasp whatever magic she had left, and suddenly gasped as she felt a light shock go through her, flowing up to the tip of her horn and then abruptly stropping, vanishing like it was never there.

"Oh, Twilight! You did it!" Fluttershy's excited-but-quiet cheers brought Twilight back to her senses, and she opened her violet eyes, smiling when she saw the daisy sandwich now encased by a magenta aura. She lifted the sandwich up eagerly, but stopped when her mind suddenly was overloaded by a new memory.

****

"Oh my," Fluttershy finally said, and Twilight absentmindedly nodded towards one bluebird who had been singing out of tune for a while now. "Um...stop please, everyone." The birds finished their line and were silent as the soft-toned mare moved over to the bird, who had kept singing even though they had stopped.

"Excuse me, sir?" The bird fluttered back as he saw the pony behind him, and quickly chirped in response. "No offense but...your rhythm is just the teeniest tiniest bit off." A nod answered her saying, and Fluttershy smiled and returned to her place, not noticing Twilight finally moving from her spot.

"Now, follow me please. A-one, a-two, a-one two-"

"Hello!"

Twilight winced as the pony she knew gasped, all the birds springing from their spots and into nearby trees.

"I'm so sorry," Twilight tried again, her tone a bit softer now. "I didn't mean to frighten your birds." Fluttershy still just stared at her confusingly. "I'm just here to check up on the music and it sounded beautiful."

An expected answer didn't come as Fluttershy just lowered herself to the ground, once there staring away and scraping her hoof against the dirt. Twilight forced a smile to the awkward situation, her eyes nervously darting back and fourth.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle," Still no response. "What's your name?"

"I'm...I-I'm Fluttershy..."

****

Twilight's hunger shook her back awake, and she smiled warmly at Fluttershy to mask her confusion before taking huge bite of the small treat. The wonderful taste of mayonnaise and daisy filled her mouth.

"Oh, wow," Twilight mumbled through a mouthful. "I was starving!" She expected to be a little hungry, but she was not prepared for her to be starving like she hadn't had food for days.

"Told ya." Fluttershy grinned as she bit down on her own sandwich, Twilight watching in envy as her hooves picked up the dinner with ease. After a couple more savory bites, Twilight finally fished up the courage to ask her friend a question that had been bothering her most of the day.

"What's actually wrong with that Granny Smith mare? She barely even looks alive-mostly dead and hanging on to whatever she can find." Fluttershy stopping eating, her pink mane floating over the side of her face as her eyes clouded over.

"Don't actually know..." She finally answered, absent-minded. "They never let me go in to see those kind of victims. Say I'm too fragile and I'll...break."

"Well, you don't want to see her, trust me." Twilight comforted, watching as Fluttershy slowly gained emotion again. But the mare was hiding something from her, something like a dark secret that could cause a great disruption if revealed.

Twilight decided not to press on.

She continued to eat, lifting up a small apple and munching on it as she studied the towered walls to each side of her. Something was definitely weird about them: no one just places stones around a place and then sends ponies there.

"What's out there?" She finally asked, breaking the long stretch of silence. "Is it part of a huge castle or something?"

Fluttershy hesitated once again, her wings latching even harder against her sides. Looked uncomfortable. "Uh...I-I've never been outside the Glade."

Twilight paused. "You're hiding something," She finished her last bite, then took a large swig of water before slamming it down. The blind answers from everypony was starting to get on her nerves. The tips of her mane started to burn, flickering and bouncing again and again against her cloak. And it frustrated Twilight more as she thought for even when she got actual answers, she would never know if it was the truth.

"Why are you all so secretive?"

"It's just the way it is. Things are weird around here. Most of us barely know anything. Half of anything." It bothered Twilight that Fluttershy didn't seem to care about what she just said. That she seemed indifferent about having her life ripped away from her.

What is wrong with these ponies?!

Twilight stood up and headed for the eastern pair of walls. "Well, no one said I couldn't look around." If she didn't learn something soon she was going to lose her mind-more than she already had.

"W-Wait!" Fluttershy galloped forward, blocking in front of Twilight before sinking back, mumbling a quiet sorry. "You can't go. They're about to close."

"Close?" Twilight repeated slowly, if she hadn't heard right. "What are about to close?"

"The Doors, you shank. Oh, sorry I called you that..."

"Doors? I don't see any doors." Twilight knew Fluttershy was telling the truth-she was missing something obvious. She grew uneasy and realized she'd slowed her pace, not eager to reach the walls anymore. Fluttershy's sigh of relief reached her ears, but that only seemed to build to Twilight's discomfort.

"Well, what do you call these being openings?" The mare pointed out. The walls were only twenty feet away.

"I call them big openings." Twilight countered, trying to make her discomfort with sarcasm and getting very disappointed that it wasn't working.

"They're doors. That, um, close up every night."

Twilight stopped, thinking Fluttershy may have said something wrong. She looked up, side to side with, and examined the massive slabs of stone towering before her. "What do you mean, they close?"

"Just see for yourself in a minute. The Gallopers'll be back soon; then those walls will move until the entire gap has trapped us inside...which, you know, isn't that bad." Twilight couldn't comprehend how those mammoth walls somehow close in. She felt so sure it wasn't true she relaxed, thinking Fluttershy was playing a trick on her.

They reached the plait that led down to more stone pathways. Twilight gaped as she finally got a full view of what she had been wondering about.

"This is called the East Door." Fluttershy said, as if she was revealing a work of art she created.

Twilight barely heard her friend, still fascinated by how the walls looked up close. At least twenty feet across, the large crack went all the way to the top, then far above. The edges that bordered the vast opening were smooth, except for one odd, repeating pattern on both sides. On the left side of the East Door, deep holes several inches in diameter and spaced a foot apart were bored into the ground, going from the bottom all the way to the top.

"Are you joking!?!?" Twilight yelled as the dread slammed back into her, causing Fluttershy to jump back to protect herself. "You weren't kidding me! Those walls actually move!?"

"What else would I have meant?" Fluttershy's voice was once again small and wavering, and Twilight grimaced as she remembered the weird memory that happened only a little while ago.

Twilight still had a hard time wrapping her mind around this new information, though. "I-I don't know. I figured there was a door that swung shut or a smaller wall the came from the big one." And the idea of those giant walls closing in and trapping her inside the Glade was absolutely terrifying. "How do the doors close, anyway?"

She instantly regretted her question and she watched something in Fluttershy snap. The timid pegasus steadily slided herself back up, breathing heavily from slight anger and from running to catch her friend.

"I don't know," Fluttershy started, clearly frustrated. "They just move. Makes one heck of a sound when it crashes together. Same thing happens in the Maze-the walls shift and grind around every night."

Twilight snapped her head around by this new detail, and stared at the younger mare. "What did you say?"

"Huh?"

"You just called it a maze-you said 'same thing happens in the maze'."

Fluttershy's face reddened considerably, and all the poor mare could do was stutter and desperately try to change her slip-up. Twilight ignored her once more, interested than ever in the outside of the Glade.

A maze? I front of me?

In front of her, through the East Door, she could make out passages leading to the right, to the left, and straight ahead. The walls were similar to the ones surrounding the Glade, Twilight noticed. In the distance, more breaks in the walls led to other paths, and father down, maybe a hundred yards or so away, the straight passage came to a dead end.

"Looks almost like a maze." Twilight whispered, almost laughing to herself without noticing as parts of her mane unexpectedly pointed all over the place. As if things couldn't have gotten any stranger. They'd wiped her memory and put her in a gigantic maze. It was all so crazy it really did seem hilarious.

Her heart skipped a couple beats when a mare suddenly appeared around the corner up ahead, entering the main passage from one of the off-shots to the left, galloping toward her and the Glade. Her white coat was matted with sweat, and her mane, which was curled all around, had a large amount of twigs and leafs stuffed in it. The mare-who Twilight now noticed was a unicorn-didn't slow, hardly glancing at Twilight as she sped past. She headed straight for the squat concrete building near the Box.

"That's Rarity," Fluttershy's voice shook Twilight awake. "They told me she used to be one of those ponies who was obsessed with fashion and looking good."

"Then why would somepony send her out into...there? I know mares like that wouldn't be very helpful."

"Rarity's the only pony who is still alive after she was picked to be part of the first group to search the outside. All her other comrades died while they were out there. The traces of fashion loving and perfection are gone. She wants to only get every out, now."

Twilight didn't really know how to answer to that, so she quietly shut her mouth and watched as other mares came galloping through the remaining Glade openings, all of them speeding and looking as rugged as Rarity when she whizzed by her. There couldn't be much good about the.....maze if these girls came back looking so weary and worn out.

Fluttershy had said something about the Gallopers earlier. What had they been doing out there?

Before Twilight had a chance to think, questions were rushing out of her mouth.

"Who are those mares? What are they doing? What's in that building?" She spun around and pointed toward the East Door. "And why. Do you live. Inside a Maze?" She felt a rattling pressure of uncertainty, making her head-and horn-splinter with pain.

"I...I'm not saying another word." Fluttershy replied, a new authority filling her voice. "I think you should get to bed early-you'll need your slee-!" She stopped, her right ear pricking up. "It's about to happen."

"What?" Twilight asked, thinking it was kind of strange that Fluttershy was acting like a full-grown mare instead of a little filly desperate for a friend she'd had been only moments before.

A loud boom sliced through the air, making Twilight jump. It was followed by a horrible crunching, splintering sound. She stumbled backward in fright, falling to the ground.

The walls are closing. She finally realized. The walls are really closing. Trapping me inside the Glade. An alarming amount of panic stifled her, compressing her lungs.

"Calm down, Twilight Sparkle!" Fluttershy yelled over the noise. "It's just the walls!"

The enormous stone slab to the right of her seemed to defy every known law as it slid along the ground, throwing sparks and dust as it moved, rock against rock, heading for it's neighbor on the left, which stood completely still. Twilight looked around at the other openings. It felt like her head was spinning faster then her body, and her stomach flipped over with dizziness. On all four sides of the Glade, only the right walls were moving, toward the left, trying to close the gap of the doors.

Utterly impossible. She thought. She fought the urge to gallop out there, slip past the moving slabs of rock before they shut like Fluttershy almost did. Flee the Glade. Common sense won this battle-the Maze held even more mystery than in here. She watched as the right wall reached the end of it's journey, it's connecting rods finding their mark and entering without a problem. An echoing boom sounded the doors being shut for the night. Twilight felt one final moment of trepidation, a quick slice of fear through her body, and then it vanished.

"Wow." She finally said, feeling dumb with the understatement.

"Ain't nothin', as AJ would say," Fluttershy murmured. "You'll get used to it after a while. Not me."

Twilight looked around one more time, the feel of the place completely altered now that there was no way out of the Glade. She tried to imagine the purpose of such a thing, but she didn't know which guess was worse: That they were being sealed in or that they were being protected from something out there.

"Come on," Fluttershy tried again. "Trust me, when nighttime strikes, you'll want to be in bed."

Twilight knew she had no other choice. She did her best to suppress everything she was feeling and followed.

Comments

[Twilight978]

Yes update I like how your making the girls fit into the story.

[Sumiye]

5561912
You are correct, my friend It just seemed easier to do since most characters in MLP: FIM are mares and not stallions.

[Sumiye]

5565094
Glad I could help!