(M6)^4

by A Fistful of Apples

Part Two

Pinkie called up the numbers for the next room.

7 - 729, 799, 989

"It's safe Pinkie," said Twilight. Pinkie climbed up through the door. And then the door shut.

"Pinkie?" asked Twilight.

"Why'd she shut the door?" asked Applejack.

Pinkie turned around, startled by the door closing. Her eyes widened. Quickly she reached for the door handle and tried to turn it, but it wouldn't budge. How could this have happened. Twilight said it was safe!

"No, no, no! Please Celestia, no!" Her cries were cut mercifully short as the walls whirred into life, small holes appearing from the metal walls, and then, loud shots rang out. Pinkie Pie didn't have time to register what happened as her body was riddled with bullet holes, instantly kill her. Her body slumped down onto the door she was trying desperately to open.

Down below Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash had stopped calling for their friend. It was obvious what had happened and were now shocked into silence. Until the ceiling door opened up again. For a moment their eyes gleamed in happy surprised, but that happiness turned to horror when the dead body of their friend fell back down into the room.

Rarity couldn't stop herself and immediately turned around, making horrible retching sounds as her stomach was completely empty. Everypony else remained silent, staring. Until Applejack spoke.

"You said it was safe," she said.

"It was," Twilight whispered back. "None of the numbers were Prime. It should have been safe." Twilight put her hooves to her head and let herself fall down. "I don't know! It was safe! This has worked for us up until now, how could this have happened!?"

"How could you?" asked Rarity suddenly, from the corner. She turned back around. "You said it was safe! She trusted you! We all did! I could have—" She stopped.

Twilight looked at Rarity. "You could have what? What exactly could you have done Rarity?"

"N-nevermind," she said. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it."

Twilight closed her eyes for a moment to blink away the tears. "Don't you think I feel bad enough already? Don't you understand that I know all of your lives are in my hooves, that if I mess up this will happen!" Rarity flinched as Twilight pointed her hoof accusingly at Pinkie Pie's body.

"I'm—" Twilight's words were interrupted by a sob. "I'm doing my best," she said. The next words were very low, lower than a whisper, but everypony could still hear them. "And if you think you can do better you can just go rut yourself."

She wiped her face free of tears and stood back up. "I'm done feeling sorry for myself. We have to get out and I know I'm the only one that can lead us out. So you three are just going to sit here and wait for me to figure this out."

She sat turned around, went to a far corner, and sat down.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked nervously at Rarity, who was still taken aback by Twilight's words.

"We should do something about the body," she said finally.

Applejack shrugged and opened the lower door.

"Can ya'll think of anything else?" she said, before gritting her teeth and putting her fore-hooves in such a way that it was obvious she was going to push the body down.

Slowly they shook her heads, and Applejack, with great effort, shoved Pinkie's corpse through the door and quickly shut it. She was panting afterwards, though not from physical exertion. It wasn't difficult. Yet it was now the single hardest thing she'd ever done in her life.

After the body was gone, they all grouped together in the opposite corner to give Twilight more space. When they spoke, they kept their voices down.

"I'm worried about Twilight," said Rarity.

"You think she's going to lead us all to our death?" asked Rainbow Dash, sounding annoyed.

"No," said Rarity. "Well... no. That's not my primary concern. I'm more worried that she's putting too much pressure on herself. You all know what happens when she does that, and we don't need that right now."

"But she's right," said Applejack. "I know I couldn't have gotten us this far."

"Be that as it may, we need to help her somehow. For her sake, and for ours."

"For ours?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Well... do you really want to be stuck in here with Twilight if she became psychologically unstable?

Rainbow Dash didn't hesitate to say, "I don't want to be stuck in here at all."

"But you see my point?" said Rarity. "So let's go over to Twilight and offer to help her. Surely there must be something we can do."

They walked over to where she was, huddled in her corner. She got up and turned around to face them as they approached. She didn't look too happy with them.

"I heard you," she said. "I'm not going to go crazy. And I don't need your help! If you want to help me, just shut up and leave me alone while I think!"

"But Twilight, there's got to be—"

"No, there isn't. Not unless you're better at mathematics than I am. Are you better at math than I am Rarity?"

Rarity opened her mouth to answer but Twilight didn't give her a chance.

"No, you're not," she said. "And you two?" She looked at Rainbow Dash and Applejack. "You couldn't do math to save your life. So I have to do math to save your life. So let me do it!"

"Now wait just a minute!" said Applejack. Rainbow Dash put a hoof to her chest and shook her head. Applejack looked at Rainbow's pleading face, sighed, and turned around.

"We'll be here if you need us," said Rainbow Dash. "Always."

Rarity followed the Pegasus's lead and left Twilight alone with her thoughts.

They remained silent. There was no point in talking about Twilight because if they wanted to do that they couldn't do it privately. But there was no point in talking at all because Twilight wanted them to be quiet. If that really was all they could do for their friend, then they were going to do it.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash laid down as they waited, though Rarity stayed sitting. Dash was the first to fall asleep, followed shortly after by Applejack. Rarity still couldn't sleep. It was like she was keeping watch, but for what, she didn't know. Not anymore. She still had the feeling that if she just kept account of everything as much as possible, she could help her friends. But that hadn't worked out that well so far.

Rarity estimated it had been at least two hours before Twilight moved out of her corner. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were still asleep as she walked over. Rarity noticed that the metal walls around where Twilight was sitting were scratched with numbers and mathematical operators. She must have used her magic to write into the metal. One of the nearby glass panes was also cracked, probably Twilight had attempted to write in the glass first.

"I think I've figured it out," she said, once she had made it over.

Both Dash and Applejack immediately opened their eyes and looked in Twilight's direction. Noticing that she was staring right at them, they sat up.

"What I said first was Prime Numbers indicated trapped rooms. But this is only part of the answer. A room is trapped if it is prime, but it's not the only thing that indicates trapped rooms. I've tried everything I can think of, and the only thing that seems to work is this. First, we have to take the number of Prime Factors in all the numbers. If any of those numbers are not a Prime Power, then it's trapped. Remember the first number of the room Pinkie died in? Seven Twenty-Nine. That has six prime factors, three to the power of six. Or six threes. Six is not a prime power. The reason Prime Numbers worked so well for us was because every Prime Number only has a single Prime Factor, which is itself. And one is not a Prime Power. So from now on, I'm going to have to calculate the number of Prime Factors in each set that isn't a Prime Number, just to make sure we won't die. This means it's going to take us longer to navigate the rooms, so let's just get started as soon as possible." Twilight looked at them expectantly.

"I have no idea what you just said," said Applejack. "But you did say you figured it out. Are you sure this time?"

"It's the only thing that makes sense with the data I have," replied Twilight. "So we'll see. If anypony else dies with this new system, then we'll worry about it then."

"Maybe," said Rainbow Dash. "Twilight shouldn't go first, ever. What if she's wrong again, but we find out because a trap killed her? Then nopony will be around to figure this out!"

"No!" said Twilight. "We'll continue to take turns."

She said it so emphatically nopony tried to argue with her. They began to read out numbers so they could find a safe detour, and they began their journey again. Rarity was still worried about Twilight. Heavy bags were forming under her eyes, and she kept holding her head. Twilight had mentioned a headache before, but if it got too much worse... how long could Twilight continue to do math in her head? Rarity wanted to help. She was no slouch at math either, though certainly not as good as Twilight. But she knew what Prime Numbers were! Yet she stayed quiet. She was worried Twilight would yell at her if she offered.

They moved on. Things were quiet, and a bit tense. Applejack and Twilight especially seemed to want to do nothing but focus on moving. So that's all they did.

Twilight's new system seemed to be working as once again no traps were met. When they reached the top for the third time, nopony expected it to be the end. Rarity personally was beginning to doubt there was an end, even though it was her who suggested there had to be if they just went up. Twilight was the one to check on the numbers, and when she climbed back down everypony simple assumed it wasn't safe, and so divided themselves among the doors to read off numbers.

"Wait," said Twilight, interrupting them in midstride. "We need to take a break."

"Again?" asked Applejack. "Why? What's wrong? Aren't we close?"

"The number up there," she said, pointing. She recited the number, her eyes closed.

8 - 357, 879, 100

"What about it?" asked Applejack. "Is it unsafe or not?"

"The first number is eight again," said Rarity. "We've gone in a circle."

"How is that possible?" asked Rainbow Dash. "We went up from where eight was!"

"Could it be a teleportation spell of some kind?" asked Rarity. Twilight shook her head.

"No, there's no magic at all in this place. If we went through something magical, I would have felt it. But it doesn't make any sense! Even the shifted gravity didn't make any sense without magic!"

"Then where do we go!?" said Applejack, stomping her hoof on the floor. "Or maybe I was right all along! Maybe there is no way out."

"We got in, there has to be a way out!"

"Then find it!"

"I'm trying!" shouted Twilight. The walls seemed to ring from her voice, and Rarity wondered if Twilight had magically enhanced it. She took a deep breath.

"I just need to... think this through logically." She started pacing again.

"If up there is eight, then if we go up there and go further along the y-axis we will end up in three. We're really close to the end now that we're here in seven, so let's go check right now where we end up if we leave this number."

Applejack scoffed, but didn't argue as they followed Twilight. She ran through the rooms, panting heavily, sweat dripping from her horribly butchered mane. She only stopped to look at numbers. Finally she must have found what she was looking for, because instead of going through a door again she turned around, closed the door behind her, and began speaking.

"I've forgotten," she said. "Let's make it to a corner before we jump to any conclusions. That way we'll have three other cubes to compare with. We're still pretty close, we only have to move halfway through the cube on the x-axis."

Nopony said anything, or gave any indication that this was an intolerable course of action. Instead they followed Twilight. It was easier too, as they didn't have to do any climbing. In the back of her mind, Rarity hoped Twilight knew what she was doing. She was completely leading the group now. If she made a mistake and fell into a trap, that would be it. As they went, sometimes Twilight would shake her head at one the coordinates but still move through, and they would follow. Their speed was much faster than it had been before now that they weren't climbing.

As they entered one of the rooms, Twilight held her hoof out to stop them. She did not run to the next door. Instead, she walked towards it slowly. She opened it, and looked inside. Poking her head in further, Applejack was surprised to find her hind hooves leave the ladder rungs without effort. In fact, her entire body had left the ground except her hooves.

"Girls!" she shouted as her rate of entering the next room increased. Rarity was the first to react, and used her magic to grab on to Twilight's hind legs. Twilight was now somehow suspended in the air, as if she was trying to fly into the next room but Rarity was stopping her. Rarity pulled her back and once Twilight was brought in sufficiently into the room she fell flat on her stomach with a painful sounding ooph.

"Oh I'm so sorry!" said Rarity, but Twilight just nodded in acknowledgement and clutched her stomach.

"It had different gravity didn't it?" said Rainbow Dash. "You were falling down!"

"Yeah," Twilight croaked as she picked herself up. She was using slow, controlled breaths as she was still in pain from having the wind knocked out of her. "I wanted to make sure, but I guess I got a little overzealous."

"What was the number?" asked Rarity.

"That was structure five," she said. "We've never been there before at least. But on the way, I noticed something else.

"The numbers aren't moving like proper coordinates anymore. They probably haven't this whole time and I just never noticed. Sometimes rooms would be skipped, or it would seem like we were going backwards. There's still a general trend towards movement along the axis though, so there's only one conclusion I can come up with."

"Which is?" asked Applejack expectantly.

"The rooms are moving."

There was silence as the other ponies let that sink in.

"So... we haven't gone in a circle?" asked Rainbow Dash. "The rooms have just moved?"

"Well..." began Twilight. "The rooms are moving. I'm sure of it now. That's that sound we keep hearing at regular intervals, the rooms shifting about. And we know the entire structure is rotating, that was how Rainbow Dash first injured her wing. So the coordinates will be wrong the next time it rotates. But I've yet to see any room be in a cube it shouldn't be. No sevens when we should have been in three, or vice-verse. I haven't seen any fives on the way either. So no, I'm afraid to say we didn't move in a circle."

"So what's the other number?" asked Rarity. "If above us is eight, and the number you went through just now is five, what's the other one? The one where you mentioned you forgot something?"

"Three!" said Rainbow Dash suddenly. "We haven't moved very far from three!"

"Yes," said Twilight. "We have five, three, and eight. Eight is also connected to three in the same direction, but the gravity didn't shift when we moved there. I suggest we move up and check what the other cube it connects to is. I'd also like to check the actual coordinates."

Once Twilight confirmed that the upper room was safe, they moved in. It was still an eight. When Twilight checked what other cube should be connected, she made sure to keep her hooves cleanly on the rung of the latter. She didn't want to fall in again. However this time, the gravity wasn't shifted. Her eyes widened suddenly.

"It's also five," she said. "I think... I have a theory. Don't follow me. I'll be right back."

"What?" asked Rarity, but Twilight had already left the room. She moved to follow but Rainbow Dash got in front of her.

"Twilight wanted us to wait. Let's just trust her."

They didn't wait long. However when Twilight came back in it was through another door.

"What happened?" asked Applejack. "Did you find out anything?"

"Yes," she said. She didn't sound happy. "Though I hope I'm wrong."

"What?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Why? If you've figured something out it can only be good, right?"

Twilight looked away.

"Well," she began. "I went through the door over there, and entered cube five. I then moved at a right angle, and found myself in cube three. Another right angle and here I am. But it wasn't the same right angle. To get from three to here, I went at the opposite right angle, I did not move in a circle. More of a zig-zag."

"But that's impossible," said Rarity. "If you did not move in a circle you couldn't have made it back here."

"Ordinarily that'd be true," said Twilight. "But I think I've figured out where we are. And why the gravity shifts sometimes. And why rooms move only in their own cube, and never into other cubes." She took a deep breath.

"We're in a Tesseract," she said.

"A what?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"A Tesseract," said Twilight again. "A hypercube, though that's not an accurate name as all dimensional cube equivalents are referred to as hypercubes broadly, specified either by their unique name, the number of dimensions they inhabit, or the number of cells. More names for what we're in are a 4-cube, and an 8-cell."

"I'm afraid you're not making any sense," said Rarity, worried. "Can you please..." She sighed and looked down, before looking back up. "Explain it to us as if you were talking to a foal. Because I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about, and if I don't know, these two certainly don't!"

"You know I'm tired of my intelligence getting insulted every damn time we talk about math. I can do math just—"

"Nobody cares Applejack," said Twilight. Applejack looked shocked. "Just let me try to explain this simply then."

Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack waited for Twilight to explain, but she said nothing. She just stood there, nervously tapping a hoof on the floor.

"Oh don't worry Twilight," said Rainbow Dash. "You can take your time, it's not like we're going to die or anything if we stay here."

"I'm trying to think!" she said, moving towards Rainbow Dash. Dash stepped back in suit. "This isn't a really easy concept, and you apparently all have the brains of foals, so give me a second to gather my thoughts!"

Rainbow Dash swallowed hard in nervousness, though her mouth was dry and her swallow simply produced a mild amount of pain. Twilight backed away but Rainbow Dash didn't move forward to get back in line with the others.

"Okay, I think I got it," said Twilight. She sighed before saying, "This is going to hurt."

Her horn glowed dimly, and a point of light appeared right in front of them.

"This is a point," she said. Applejack and Rainbow Dash both couldn't help but groan. "It's zero-dimensional, or at least, an actual point would be, this is just a representation." The point lengthened and became a line. "This is a line. It has one dimension and extends on what we can call the x-axis. It has two end-points which we call vertices." The line slowly extended into another direction and turned into a square. "And this is a square," said Twilight.

It was about here that Applejack was really starting to get annoyed. She knew her basic shapes. She didn't want to get into another argument though, or be outright insulted again, so she kept her mouth shut.

"It has length and width, or exists on the x and y-axis. It's two dimensional and consists of four lines which we now call edges, and four vertices." The square now extended in another direction and formed a cube.

"And this is a cube," continued Twilight. "It exists in three dimensions, has eight vertices, twelve edges, and consists of six squares, now called faces."

Applejack blinked as finally she couldn't figure out what Twilight could possibly say next.

The cube seemed to grow another cube, which moved inside of it joined by eight lines connecting all the corners of the smaller cube to the adjacent corners of the inner cube.

"This is a Tesseract. Or a non-rotating projection of one without hidden volume elimination. It has four dimensions, length, width, height, and another one. It has sixteen vertices, thirty-two edges, twenty-four faces, and is made from eight cubes, which are called cells. This is what we're in. Or at least the cells of it since we can't move in a fourth dimension."

Twilight's projection cut out. She rubbed her with a hoof for a moment before bringing it back. It was the same cube-in-a-cube as before.

"It's like..." she said, as the projection changed. It was not a cube again, except this time the three ponies could see all the faces. It began to rotate. "Imagine you saw this on film. It'd be projected onto a two-dimensional plane but you, as three dimensional creatures can make sense of it. Even though if you focus on a square and don't try to turn it into a cube in your mind, it looks like squares are changing shape and moving through each other. If you face the cube head on, it looks like a square in a square, the smaller one the face of the cube that is furthest away." The "Tesseract" came back.

"Likewise this is just a three dimensional projection. There is no cube in the cube, it's further away in the fourth dimension and we just can't see it that way." The object because to twist and contort, turning on its side and appearing as if the cube inside was moving out, growing, and devouring the formally big, outer cube. Suddenly different parts of it began flashing colour slowly.

"These are the cells. They are in fact cubes, but again, they're distorted and the only time any of them look like cubes is when we see them head on. They're connected through the fourth dimension." The Tesseract stopped spinning and returned to its former cube-in-a-cube shape. Then it looked like it was growing. The inner cube expanding outward, distorting the others. It grew into what looked like a cross, except two more extensions.

"This is a Tesseract if we took all the cells and unfolded them and put them into three dimensions." A cube appeared next to the weird cross thing and began to unfold, a process that Applejack actually understood from when she was a filly and made a paper cube in geometry class. "This is likewise a cube, unfolded into two dimensions. We see its squares. In the Tesseract, we see its cells."

The faces of the cubes on the unfolded Tesseract changed colours. Some of them looked like they were the same colours.

"Here are the faces of the cubes that must meet in order to fold the Tesseract back together. THIS is more or less the best way of representing where we are. We are in one of these cubes, at the corner. And going through any of the faces puts us in the corresponding face."

Numbers appeared in the cubes, numbered one through eight.

"This is the standard way of numbers cells. Each is numbered in such a way that opposite cells add up to nine. We are at the bottom cell here, labelled eight. Keep in mind this is just a net, we're not really at the bottom of anything. Anyway we're in a corner so that we can go down and reach seven, or move to three or five. Notice they all match up in the sense of subjective direction. Unlike how cell seven matches up with cell three. Notice that it's the top of cell seven that matches up to a side of three. This is why the gravity shifted. Each cell has the same 'down' as all the others, but when we move between them sometimes they don't match up."

"Now the reason I wish I was wrong, though now I'm sure I'm not, is that if you look you'll notice that no matter which direction we go we'll end up back where we started. We can't move in the fourth dimension. The rooms move in their cells, the entire Tesseract rotates, but we can't move with it to get out. There... is no out. We're trapped, like an ant trying to walk his way off a floating sphere." Her diagrams disappeared and her horn stopped glowing. She fell to the floor and Rarity went to help her back up. Twilight just sat back down and held her head in pain, clenching her teeth. If Rarity wasn't so concerned about what Twilight was saying she might have thought to worry about Twilight herself. As it was, the matter at hoof was the cube, or Tesseract or whatever crazy thing it is.

"There has to be a way out," said Rarity. "Because we got in. If there's no way out there's no way in."

Twilight scoffed. "Not if we were just put here by some fourth-dimensional creature. That's why they don't have cameras! They can see us just fine from where they are, like how we can see everything that could be drawn inside a square, though a two-dimensional creature would have to go inside. That's why there's no light bulbs or candles or anything! The light's shining down from wherever, illuminating the entire structure! If we were just plucked out of our homes and put here, there's no way out unless they decided to put us back! The only way we could get out is if—" Twilight stopped rubbing her head. Her mouth twitched upwards and began to form a smile. It was the first smile she'd had in what seemed like a very long time.

"We may be able to get out," she said.

"Well how!?" asked Applejack. "How do we get out if we're just going to go in circles?"

"The rooms move right?" asked Twilight. She didn't wait for an answer before continuing. "And the Tesseract rotates? Well, assume we were ants on a cube, and the cube was on a vertex just about the ground where we wanted to go. There's no way out! But, if the cube moves and rotates, maybe it'll move in such a way that a face is flush with the ground. So instead of going on another face, the ant could just leave. Maybe it's like that with us! Maybe there's a position the Tesseract will go in where either an entire cell, or a face will intersect with normal three-dimensional space! That would be the way out, and that would justify us being watched at all! Like we agreed on before, we're supposed to get out! We just have to figure out which cell or room will get us there!"

She slowly got up and moved towards a door. She opened it, and looked at the numbers.

One number to indicate the cell. Three numbers for coordinates within the cell. But the coordinates changed. So how can you plot a point that keeps moving?

She closed the door and tried to think. There was technically an infinite number of possible permutations that would show how the rooms moved.

But there was everything else involved in a map, and once you figured it out it was pretty simple to decipher. So whatever was used to map the movement of the rooms must equally be simple. But what could it be?

Rainbow Dash simply stood there with her remaining friends, watching Twilight think. Dash herself certainly had nothing to contribute to this. She didn't even really understand what Twilight was talking about with cubes and squares and 'Tesseracts' or whatever. She just knew that Twilight knew what she was talking about, and if it meant there was now a definitive way to get out then she was all for it.

As Rarity waited she noticed the sounds of scratching on metal. Moving herself to get a closer look, she found that she was correct, as a faint glow was emanating from her horn, scratching numbers into the side panels. Twilight's face looked a bit redder than normal and was scrunched up in what liked extreme concentration. As Rarity watched Twilight, she noticed too that the glow of her horn was growing dimmer. She also seemed to be straining more to write into the metal. Rarity realised what was happened only moments before it did.

The light on Twilight's horn fizzled, and went out. Rarity was astonished when Twilight merely rubbed her head and began attempting to scratch numbers in with her hoof. Unfortunately this didn't do anything, and for once, Rarity ignored her apprehension and interrupted Twilight.

"Tell me what to write down," she said, moving right next to Twilight. Twilight merely looked at her oddly, before nodding.

"I'm testing out a few ideas I have trying to see if they work," she said. "So just write the numbers down, don't worry about what they mean or anything, I just need you to dictate like Spike would."

Rarity nodded in agreement and Twilight began. She tried her best to shut her brain off and just write, knowing that if she spent time trying to understand what Twilight was saying she might mess up. And mess up she did.

"Rarity, you're going to run out of room!" yelled Twilight as she crossed out yet another number, wasting space. She muttered her apologies and they continued.

Finally Twilight smiled and said she was done, asking for a particular set of numbers to be circled. Rarity did so, wiping her brow with a hoof and pressing firmly, as her head was beginning to hurt. She was unused to using magic in such a way, and it was then that she really appreciated Twilight's magical and mathematical abilities. To have gone this far without much rest was nothing short of miraculous.

"Applejack!" said Rainbow Dash, nudging her awake. Her eyes opened and she saw everypony staring at her.

"Is Twilight done?" she asked, before getting up. She blinked a few times and stumbled on her way, holding her head briefly.

"Sorry," she said. "Feeling a might dizzy."

"Yeah, so am I," said Rainbow Dash. "Actually, I feel like I want to throw up. Like I have a really bad hangover."

"Honestly I'm surprised you're alive," said Twilight grimly. "You lost a lot of blood when I cut your wing off, and I'm especially surprised my makeshift bandage actually helped to stop any bleeding. Coupled with our inability to eat, sleep affectively, or drink... well. You're one tough pony Dash."

Rainbow Dash smiled weakly. "Yeah, it's no big deal. We all have it hard, I mean just look at all this thinking you have to put up with. I could never have done it."

Twilight returned Dash's smile, if only for a moment.

"Anyway," she said. "I think I've got this figured out completely now. It took me a while but I realised whatever ways these rooms move, they must return to their original position at some point. And a really simple obvious way for this is by calculating the moves based on subtracting the three digits of each number from each other, in turn. The first number subtracted from the second, then the second subtracted from the third, and finally the third subtracted from the first. I realised that while this worked with my first assumptions, it didn't provide a way out. No room would leave the Tesseract, and there's no obvious marker that would show any of the cells to intersect normal space. But then I thought of something.

"There must be a way to get out. That's our assumption. And these permutations allow a simple explanation and pattern for us to see where the rooms move. And with them, there is a way to assume that some rooms will leave! If we assume that in between every movement a room returns to its starting position before moving again! This explains why it took so long to notice rooms were moving at all! So as an example, a room that leaves would be any room marked as follows."

100, 100, 100

100, 100, 999

100, 999, 999

999, 100, 100

999, 999, 100

999, 100, 999

"A room marked so will leave the Tesseract at some point. I can only imagine that means that exits have been staring us in the face all this time! We just have to find a room on the edge of a cell that will leave and just sit tight. And every corner room will leave the Tesseract except for those marked with all nines. So it should be easy!"

Twilight couldn't blame her friends from actually breathing a sigh of relief at her words. Even though it was possible she was wrong. She had to make a lot of assumptions to get to that conclusion. But it was the best idea she could come up with given the observations they'd made.

"So let's go," said Twilight. She led the way, the first to go through the corridor followed by Rainbow Dash. Applejack was just about to climb through when it happened.

Twilight had to cover her ears as hard as she could to keep her head from seemingly exploding, the noise was so deafening. She closed her eyes and so couldn't see what was happening. She could still hear the screeching coming all around her, as well as her friends screams though she couldn't make out what they were saying. She felt herself fall lose her footing and fall down, and simply laid there clasping her ears down until the noise stopped.

Finally, silence. Twilight tentatively opened her eyes and let go of her ears, thankful to be alive. She had been afraid she'd fallen into a trap and led Rainbow Dash into it too.

"What happened?" asked Twilight. She noticed the door had closed at some point, though it was just her and Rainbow Dash.

Dash looked at Twilight. She looked abnormally shocked over what just happened, her eyes looking particularly wide.

"We moved," said Rainbow Dash trying her best not to panic. It felt like some sort of sick joke, to have moved when freedom for all her still-alive friends was so close. Now they were separated and they'd have to work to find them again.

"What do you mean?" asked Twilight.

Without warning Twilight suddenly coughed, before vomiting. She didn't even aim down, and Rainbow Dash had to take a step back to prevent getting anything on her. It stank, and looked gross, but honestly Rainbow Dash didn't have it in her to get mad or complain. In some way it was comforting to know that Twilight was just as affected by this ordeal as Rainbow herself was.

Rainbow saw Twilight blush before wiping her mouth clean with her right hoof.

"Sorry," she said. "I don't know what happened. I don't even feel nauseous. I feel pretty good considering. My head is killing me and my back hurts, but I get the feeling you, Rarity, and Applejack are having a harder time. Especially you..." She let that hang in the air before continuing. "Anyway, what happened? We moved?"

Rainbow Dash took another step back away from the pool of vomit on the ground. "Yeah," she said. "The room. Applejack was about to come through when the room moved."

Twilight blinked. Calmly she said, "Do you know what directions?"

Rainbow Dash shook her head sadly.

Twilight sighed.

"Well then, I'll have to look at this room's number, see it's movements, and extrapolate to all possible positions it could have gone to. So long as Applejack and Rarity stay where they are we'll be able to find them."

Rainbow Dash breathed another sigh of relief. "That's great news Twilight."

Twilight smiled slightly. She took one step before collapsing onto the floor. It looked like she had fainted. Rainbow Dash called out her name and ran to her. She turned her over and nudged her, noticing a tiny bit more vomit dribbling from her mouth. Rainbow Dash wiped it clean and tried to shake Twilight awake.

"Twilight!" shouted Rainbow Dash. Twilight didn't move.

"Twilight! Wake up! We don't have time to sleep!"

She laid Twilight on the ground flat.

"Our friends are waiting for us," said Rainbow Dash slowly. Rainbow Dash was about to try to wake her up again when she noticed something. Twilight wasn't breathing.

"Oh no," said Rainbow Dash. "Please no." Rainbow put her ear up to Twilight's chest. She heard nothing but the gears in the walls. There was no heart beat. Rainbow Dash had absolutely no idea what to do in this sort of situation. But Twilight had basically saved her life in this thing, and there was no way she was going to let her die!

She crossed her hooves on Twilight's chest and began to push rhythmically. She didn't know if this would do anything, but she had to try.

"Please Twilight," she said. "Please don't die!"

Twilight just laid there motionless, her heart refusing to beat. Rainbow Dash knew there were little metal pads doctors had that could start a heart back up. Or at least she thought that's what they did. But she didn't have one of those. She didn't have anything.

"You have to be okay, I can't get out of here by myself!" Rainbow cried.

She kept trying. She kept it up until her forelegs ached, until she was crying and panicked with desperation. She heard a small snap as she felt one of Twilight's ribs break. It was only then that she stopped. She buried her head in her friend's torso and cried. She had failed. There was nothing she could do, not for Twilight, and not for herself. She was going to die in here.

"We should just stay here," said Rarity.

"We can't just wait around and hope that Rainbow and Twilight can come find us. You saw where the room went, our best bet is to find them!"

Rarity scoffed. "I only saw the first direction it went, I have no idea where it actually ended up. Besides, navigating this place safely is a daunting task. I could not hope to match Twilight in that regard, and most certainly you couldn't be expected to help out in that area at all."

"Just shut up with that," said Applejack loudly. "I'm not stupid."

Rarity grumbled something to herself. "Look, it doesn't matter. It's not safe to leave this room and Twilight and Rainbow are probably already on their way back. If we move, what's going to happen when they come to find us missing?"

"We have no way of knowing if they'll come back," said Applejack, raising her voice. "We don't know if they'll find us, or if they'll decide to keep pressing on because they assume we're gonna press on."

"They would never leave us! Not if they didn't know we were safe!"

"What if they can't make it?" asked Applejack. She had suddenly become quiet and it took a moment for that question to really sneak in.

"What exactly do you mean?"

"Maybe they didn't see where they went and can't find us? Maybe one of them got hurt when the room shifted? Maybe—"

Applejack was suddenly interrupted by another horrible screeching sound. This one however, was more familiar. Applejack steeled herself for what was coming, and Rarity immediately dropped down and put her hooves in through the rungs in the floor.

The room turned, or "rotated" or whatever Twilight would say. Applejack regretted her lack of forethought to hold onto something as she tumbled to the side hard. Trying to keep herself positioned properly she orientated herself as she fell so that she would land on her hooves, and in this regard she was successful. She landed as she wanted to, though her joints bended involuntarily from the force of impact and two of her hooves broke through the glass pane of what was now the floor. Applejack felt a sharp pain in her hooves as the gears crushed underneath her, broken bits and axels spinning their ways into Applejack's hooves. There were sounds, unfamiliar, and Applejack watched as she pulled her hooves free as the gears and cogs in the walls snapped and broke all around them. The room stopped moving, not quite aligned flat as it should have been. The sounds stopped. It was quiet. Unusually quiet considering what Applejack had become used to.

Rarity let go of the rungs and dropped down to the floor. She stumbled as she landed but soon righted herself. Taking a look at the broken glass on the floor and the gears in the walls which were now either piled on the floor in pieces, or attempting to move despite being lodged in place by broken pieces, she said simply, "I think you broke it."

Applejack looked down at her hooves which were now bleeding. She sat down and was about to tend to them when blue magic enveloped her hooves and the broken glass shards levitated themselves out of her skin.

"Thanks Rarity," said Applejack.

"Maybe you're right," said Rarity as she got the last of the glass out. "It's pretty confusing in here, even for somepony as smart as Twilight Sparkle." She gasped, in that annoying way she sometimes did when she had an idea. "We'll leave a note!" she continued. "So if they come back they know where we went. And if they don't... we'll try to meet them outside. She did give us a pretty good guide before we got separated after all. We know exactly where we need to go."

Applejack got back to her hooves and said, "You think you can get us through here? I 'shouldn't be expected to help in that area,' remember?" Her voice was cold, as if she were offended. Though Applejack was such a brute Rarity couldn't tell one way or the other.

Rarity, unphased, said "I think I could do it. But I'll be a lot slower than Twilight was. I know how to get through by what she said, but it's just so... out of step with what I normally do with making dresses."

"But can you do it?" said Applejack again. Applejack wasn't sure she could do this herself. She said she wasn't an idiot, that she could do math just fine, but what Twilight was talking about was a bit beyond her. She could only do so much on her own and this was no time to be prideful.

"Yes," said Rarity finally. "I can do it. Let's go."

Rainbow Dash was panicking. She needed to get out of this horrible yellow room! Twilight's body was just lying there, reminding Rainbow Dash of what would eventually become of her if she stayed here and she couldn't take it any longer. It was made all the worse because Twilight had apparently died of nothing! Plus the room had rotated or whatever and ever since it had settled down it had begun to make creepy noises. She had to leave.

But if she left she'd die. She wasn't even sure she knew what Prime Numbers even were, much less power primes or factors or whatever it was that Twilight said was the real thing that showed trapped rooms!

She ran towards a door and opened it. She looked at the number. It wasn't what she was told to look for, and she had no idea how to check if it was safe or not. So she stepped through.

She walked forward and stopped, and waited. The doors didn't close behind her. No metal spikes or anything. She sighed in relief, happy that she was alive and out of that horrible room.

She didn't waste any time in trying her luck a second time. Going straight to the door in front of her she opened it, looked at the number, and climbed through.

As soon as she got to the centre of the room the doors violently shut behind her, making a strange twang sound as they did so. She could feel her hair stand up behind her back.

Applejack read the number to Rarity, who, after about a minute marked the room as safe. Applejack climbed through, followed by Rarity.

"I can't believe Twilight was able to do this so fast for so long," she said as she made it through. The room was white, the gears inside the walls spinning happily, the broken room far away now.

"Well, that's Twilight for ya," said Applejack. "I bet her and Rainbow Dash are already on their way to an exit."

She chuckled as she opened the next door. "We'll meet up and get out of here in no time."

As she read Rarity the numbers there was yet another loud sound indicating a room was moving nearby. The sound was different this time. Louder, much more harsh and gritty. Applejack turned her head back at Rarity, whose eyes were darting back and forth looking for something.

Applejack was about to move back down with Rarity when the sound got louder. The panes of glass began to crack.

"Oh dear," said Applejack as she suddenly realised what was happening. "Rarity we gotta go!" Without thinking she jumped through the portal into the purple room, eyes closed, hoping that it wasn't trapped. A few moments passed and it seemed safe. Applejack turned around to call Rarity but before she could open her mouth she noticed the glass was broken in this room too, and the walls were vibrating. She didn't get another thought in before the far wall shattered, pieces of broken glass and metal flying everywhere. Applejack ran to the door she left open, hoping it was safe back in that room and Rarity wasn't currently also trying to flee, but she didn't get far before the wall collapsed in on itself, blocking the open exit. She moved her head from left to right, hoping to find a possible way out only to realise there was nowhere to go, all the doors had collapsed and another cube was closing in. Something had gone wrong and one room had crashed into the room she was in. There was no way out. She ran to the side away from the approaching room, the loud screeching and grinding of an un-oiled machine breaking around her drowning out her own thoughts.

She dropped down and tried to make herself small, hoping that any falling debris wouldn't hit her and that the room would stop short of where she was, sparing her. It didn't.

Rarity likewise was cowering in the corner. Nothing had crashed through her room, but the walls were buckling and the glass along the ceiling and the wall holding the door Applejack had gone through had broken. After what seemed like an eternity, the sound and shaking of the room stopped. Rarity looked around. Bits of glass littered the floor all around her, a few covered in blood as they had cut her slightly as they fell. She took a look at herself. She looked alright, all things considered, though now that the adrenaline was wearing off she could feel the stinging pain of oil and rust seeping into her cuts. She was going to have to get a shot once she got out of here.

She pulled herself back up on her hooves and tentatively stepped towards the door Applejack had jumped through. The door was closed again, so she climbed up and opened it.

"Applejack?" she asked as the door opened. It was a pink room, and there was no solid floor. Instead, the floor dropped into what was clearly another room. All the panes were broken as well as most of the gears inside. There was no sign of Applejack below, and no way to tell if she made it into another room, as there was now no way to get across.

She was about to turn around and find another way across when something caught her eye. A large smattering of red, much darker than the rust that was typical of the rooms. She squinted, looking closer. Her eyes widened before she pushed away from the door and fell back to the floor.

Rarity couldn't take it anymore. She screamed, loud and hard, her throat wracked with pain as she did so. She didn't care. She had now seen three of her best friends die, and for all she knew Rainbow Dash and Twilight were gone too and she was the last one left. What was the point of living without her friends?

She stopped screaming only when she ran out of breath and instead began to cry, dropping to the ground and burying her face in her hooves, content to die there and see her friends again.

Rainbow Dash braced herself for a trap. For buzz saws to fly out of the walls or the room to fill with acid or something. There was no way she was going to avoid whatever it was like she'd done before now that she couldn't fly, but there was no way she was going to give up and let whatever it was take her by surprise.

Then she saw it. The gears in the walls were turning faster and little spouts pushed their way outside of hidden holes in the walls. She looked around as fast as she could. She didn't know what was about to come out of those spouts, but she didn't want to be directly in their path when it did.

Unfortunately there was no obvious place of safety. Every inch of the room was covered. So she did the only thing she could think of and ran towards a corner, thinking it was better than standing in the middle of the room.

Finally it happened. The gears spun faster and some kind of liquid began pouring out of the spouts. Then it stopped. Rainbow Dash jumped from her corner to keep her back from touching a spout, afraid of getting anything on her. Luckily nothing had. Nothing was coming out of anything anymore. The gears inside the walls began to snap and break, the pieces falling on to working gears which then broke as they were hit. The noise was loud, but Rainbow Dash breathed a sigh of relief when she realised what was going on. The trap was broken. Even though the room was trapped she wouldn't be killed in it. She just had to stay away from whatever it was that already had oozed its way out of the spouts.

Finally the whirring died down, the room clearly thinking it had done its job. A smattering of the spouts went back inside the walls but most only jiggled or didn't move at all. Rainbow Dash couldn't believe her luck.

Her happiness quickly drained though when she remembered her friends who weren't so lucky.

Rainbow Dash dropped those thoughts out of her head as fast as she could. She didn't want to get all depressed again. She needed to keep going.

Opening another door and emboldened by the idea that the traps weren't working anymore she quickly dropped into another room. She continued in this manner for some time, and indeed, the few times it looked like a trap was going to trigger, instead of horrible death greeting her, the gears in the walls broke, or wound down, or got locked in place, stopping what was happening and keeping her safe. For once it seemed something was going Rainbow Dash's way in here.

The only thing that still worried her was the noise. The regular sounds of shifting rooms were replaced with something much louder and ominous. Rainbow Dash didn't know exactly what was going on, but figured that somewhere, something had broke. But so far, if that was true, that fact had done nothing but good for Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash opened another door and checked the number. It still wasn't what she was looking for and she was about to step through when she realised something.

She was only going in a straight line, as if there was an edge to get to. But Twilight said that would just mean she'd go in a circle. Plus, there were three other easily accessible doors to go through and check, any one of which could lead to the room she needed. Since she had no idea how to navigate she really should be checking every door, even if she only went through one of them.

Leaving the door she opened, she made her way to the other doors to look at the numbers. Nothing interesting was through them. Until Rainbow Checked the door on the floor.

Through the door was a conspicuously absent room, as Dash knew the rooms were supposed to look like anyway. Instead, a solid, featureless metal box was all that greeted her. There was also no number. Rainbow tried to think what this could mean when suddenly her ears were once again assaulted by loud screeching. It was so loud, it sounded like it was coming from the room she was in. She opened her eyes, looked around, and saw that no, it wasn't coming from inside the room, but right next to it. She saw one of the walls of the all-metal room close in, and it was then that Rainbow Dash realised that it was an empty slot for a room to slide into as it moved. The room Dash was in began to wobble underneath her hooves and Rainbow closed the door, thinking that would solve the problem. It didn't, and the glass on the floor began to crack, some of the panes shattering. Rainbow moved to one of the metal frames, not wanting to fall through the glass and get hurt.

Suddenly, the screeching stopped. Carefully, trying not to break through the floor, Rainbow opened the door and looked through.

Rainbow blinked in confusion at the sight. The room that was moving had stopped less than halfway into the empty slot.

It suddenly occurred to her that the traps might all be broken, but it still wasn't safe. If a room could fail to move where it was supposed to, what if it moved where it shouldn't? What if that kept happening and the entire place began to fall apart around her? Then it wouldn't matter that the traps weren't working. In fact, if it continued, it could be that even if she got to an exit the machines wouldn't work right and it wouldn't move her outside.

She turned back around and re-opened the door she was going to go through before she started exploring. She had to move as fast as she could. This was now a race. And luckily, Rainbow Dash was good at races.

Rarity had long since stopped crying. She didn't feel sad anymore. Instead she felt numb. Hollow inside. She opened the door in front of her, checked to make sure it was safe, and went through, directing herself to what she thought was an exit.

Three of her best friends were gone. But two might still be alive. And even if not, there was still her family. Escaping also meant she could warn the Princesses and maybe help stop this from ever happening again to somepony else.

She knew these things on an intellectual level but didn't feel them anymore. She didn't feel determined. Or pained. Or fearful. She just knew she had to leave.

She supposed, merely intellectually, that she just didn't have anything left to feel. In the relatively short amount of time she'd been in the Tesseract, she'd gone through a myriad of different emotional states for varying lengths of time. There must come a point when you just get tired and can't feel anything anymore.

She didn't feel sad at the loss of feeling, of course, because that would be a feeling. But she did think it was bad and so still hoped that when she found Twilight and Rainbow Dash, or escaped, that she'd feel an accompanying happiness.

That was a worry for the future though.

She opened the next door and immediately looked down to check the numbers. It took her longer than it used to, to determine if it was safe or not. She was too tired, and it wouldn't be long before she made a mistake.

After a few minutes she regarded the room as safe and looked up, preparing to walk through. She stopped in mid-stride through the portal as she looked inside the room.

This one was different.

The glass was tinted black, a colour Rarity had never seen before in the tesseract. But beyond that there was a large floating metal sphere in the centre of the room. It didn't seem to be spinning or moving at all. There was no sound coming from it.

The numbers indicated the room was safe and so Rarity went inside to get a closer look.

The sphere was rather remarkable, its smoothness and circular perfection nothing like what Rarity had seen before. Tentatively Rarity got on her hind hooves and tried to reach up to touch it. It was just a tiny bit too high, and so she tried to jump up and touch it. She was successful, but jumped with too much force and hit her hoof harder on the cold sphere than she meant to. It was unlike anything she'd ever felt before, hard like metal, seemingly stationary but feeling as if it was actually vibrating.

When her fore-hooves hit the ground again, Rarity turned around in a flash as one of the doors opened.

She relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief as Rainbow Dash ran through, panting heavily. The door closed behind her.
When Rainbow Dash realised where she was and who was with her, her eyes went wide and a small smile appeared on her face.

"Rarity!" she said. "I'm glad to see you! Where's Applejack?"

"Where's Twilight?" replied Rarity in monotone. She didn't need an answer to know.

Rainbow Dash's ears folded back and her small smile disappeared.

"At least you're still okay," said Rainbow Dash slowly. She looked up, as if noticing the floating metal sphere for the first time.

"What is that?" she asked.

"I have no idea," said Rarity. "But it doesn't look important. We just need to get out of here."

"Maybe it's a way out?" asked Rainbow Dash. Her fore-hooves left the ground slightly before falling back down. It seemed Rainbow didn't have the energy to balance herself on only two hooves. Or possibly her injuries made it hurt too much.

"It's not any such thing because we know how to get out and this is not a room that leaves."

Rainbow Dash looked slightly taken a back and Rarity sighed.

"I'm sorry," she said because that was the correct thing to say. "Can we just get going please?"

Rainbow Dash's mood changed to one of determination. "Right. And we need to move as fast as we can, this place is falling apart."

"I know, Applejack broke it."

"Applejack was the one who caused it?" said Rainbow Dash.

Rarity nodded.

"Well that doesn't matter, we just have to go!"

"Just give me a few moments to find the safe rooms," said Rarity as she walked over to the far door, the floating sphere forgotten.

"No we don't need to worry about that!" Rarity turned around, a blank look still on her face. Rainbow Dash ignored it and continued. "I've gone through several trapped rooms, they always break before anything dangerous happens. That's why we have to move. If we wait too long this whole place will fall apart!"

Rainbow Dash took a small breath before continuing. "I've just been running randomly trying to find a room that leaves. I can't find my way around here. Do you think you could figure out where to go?"

"I can," said Rarity. "Now that I know the traps don't work it won't take long. So let's be on our way."

Rarity was just about to turn around when once again the room echoed with a short, sharp screech and the room suddenly tilted towards the right as if it was a room where half of it has sunk into the ground. Rarity who had better luck keeping her balance noticed as well that the floating sphere changed shape. As the screech sounded and the room dropped, the sphere had morphed quickly from perfectly round, to a odd looking sliced cone.

As Rainbow Dash got her bearings back, Rarity began to hear more sounds echoing from far off into the tesseract.

"I think this means our time for chat is up," she said.

Rainbow Dash followed Rarity as they made their way through the structure. The entire place had somehow "fallen" down or "sunken" into... wherever it was suspended in, as every room was tilted in the same way. It was really strange. The direction they tended to go made it seem like they were constantly moving downward, but nothing ever changed.

The only times there was any difference was when somewhere along the line a room had failed to move, either stopping when it wasn't supposed to or crashing halfway into another room. There was a lot of that, and Rainbow Dash considered herself lucky they hadn't had to deal with it happening to the room they were in.

"It should be somewhere around here," said Rarity. "The rooms are completely out of order, but the numbers say we're in the right area. We just have to keep looking."

And they kept looking, though Rainbow was once again beginning to feel disheartened as she knew time was running out.

The sounds around them were getting louder, more common, and less regular. Rainbow could feel her adrenaline once again pumping as she realised it meant more and more of the place was falling apart.

Rarity was starting to feel something again, and that feeling was hopelessness. It should be here, she thought to herself, but no amount of thinking seemed to bring her any close to a proper room. It seemed Rainbow Dash had the right idea all along, and so Rarity began moving through rooms randomly. She found herself involuntarily slowing down the pace as she was beginning to feel like they were already dead. They just didn't know it yet.

In some ways, death would be preferable. They would see their friends again. They wouldn't be in any pain. Their suffering would finally end.

Rarity opened a door and with it came a loud screech as the door opened only half way, not wide enough for a pony to get through. Reflexively she looked at the numbers.

5 - 100, 999, 999

Her eyes widened and she stood still. Slowly she moved her eyes to look at the door, defiantly refusing the open all the way and thus blocking their escape. Rarity had had enough. She sat down.

"What is it?" said Rainbow Dash. "What are you doing?"

Rarity just leaned back against the wall.

"It's over Rainbow," she said.

"What are you talking about?!" said Rainbow Dash. She gently shoved Rarity out of the way and climbed up to see the room number. Her eyes widened.

"Rarity, it's right here!" she said. She put her hooves on both sides of the door and tried to pull them apart. She could hear and feel the doors open slowly, but before too long they stopped, still too little to get through. Rainbow continued to try but she wasn't strong enough.

"Rarity, help me!" she shouted. Rarity just sat there.

"What's the point?" she asked. "Even if we get through something else is going to happen. Twilight will turn out to have been wrong. Or maybe the room's broken and we'll just sit there until we're crushed by a falling ceiling." She slouched even more as if she was trying to get comfortable. "Just sit down Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow Dash had to close her mouth since she hadn't realised she was holding it open.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" said Rainbow Dash. Rarity didn't reply. She didn't even look up. Rainbow Dash dropped down and pushed Rarity over. Rarity simply let it happen like she was a ragdoll.

"We can't give up!" said Rainbow Dash. "The exit's right there. Just help me get it open!"

"Why?" asked Rarity. "What's out there to live for? All our friends are dead."

"I'm still alive," said Rainbow Dash, pushing her face up to Rarity's. "And I want to keep it that way! We still have friends who are alive! Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Twilight, and Applejack, they died because this rutting place is evil, and they died so that in the end somepony will get out of here! Are you just going to throw away their sacrifice?"

Rarity didn't respond, but she at least had the decency to look away.

"I'm not going to do that to them, and I'm not going to do that to the ponies out there who still care about me. Or you! I won't let you do that to yourself, or to your family and friends. So get up and help me get this open!"

Rarity didn't know what to say, as Rainbow Dash turned back towards the door, climbed up, and began straining to open it. She continued to have no luck, and Rarity simply sat back up and watched her.

Did it really matter? Rainbow was one of her dear friends, but that just meant she'd condemn the last remaining element of harmony besides herself to suffer. She had family, but Sweetie Belle always talked about how frustrating she was, and she was never a very good sister anyway. And then there were her parents... they'd still have sweetie.

Any other friends just didn't seem important either. The really important ones, besides Rainbow, were gone now. And even Rainbow, of the six of them, Rainbow was the one she cared about the least.

A small gasp escaped her lips as she realised what she just thought. As Rainbow Dash strained to open the door, Rarity buried her head in her hooves once more. Now there was one more reason to die. She was a horrible pony.

But that didn't mean Rainbow had to die too. Standing back up, Rarity looked at the door and closed her eyes in concentration.

Rainbow Dash hadn't noticed anything Rarity was doing and was surprised when a blue aura enveloped the door and the sounds of straining were heard behind her. Understanding, Rainbow redoubled her efforts. Without warning there was a loud crash as the door finally slammed open, and Rainbow Dash flung herself inside without hesitation.

Rarity opened her eyes and found the door open, Rainbow gone and presumably on the other side. She also heard more sounds. And they were getting closer.

Rarity, simply to spite herself for wanting death, forced herself up and through the door with Rainbow Dash. The door didn't close behind them, and when she laid down to rest Rainbow Dash did the same.

The sounds were getting louder. They were already so loud that Rarity wanted to hold her hooves over her ears like Rainbow Dash was doing. But she didn't deserve to not feel pain. She had given up, more than once. She thought something terrible of her last real best friend, and was willing to abandon her family. She didn't deserve to not suffer. She didn't deserve to die either. Those who cared for her did deserve her continued presence however. She wasn't going to give up again.

The sound was deafening. Rainbow Dash could hardly stand it and couldn't fathom how Rarity seemed to not mind it. She just laid there with a small smile on her face. Rainbow could see the edges of the room warp slightly. The room began to move, and the sound got even louder, in spite of what Rainbow Dash thought was possible.

This was it. Either it would lead them out, or they would die. She closed her eyes and hoped.

The floor buckled under her, and the room began to tilt. She felt herself slide down across the moving floor and she opened her eyes to try and keep a footing. What she saw scared her. The room was torn in half, and there was nothing outside of it. Just white. Rarity was nowhere to be found. Still the horrible sounds would not stop and the room continued to tumble through whatever white aether she was in.

She curled into a ball and closed her eyes again. As she continued to tumble she occasionally hit her back which caused her to yell out screams of pain. More than anything she just wanted it to end.

Silence. She was still. No longer falling.

It was abrupt, without any warning. Before opening her eyes she began to listen for the gears she'd grown so accustomed to. She didn't hear them. No screeching or crashing. There was something else. It sounded familiar. She had heard it before.

She opened her eyes. In front of her was a beach. The sun was setting, the orange and purples of the sky a wonderfully welcome sight. She looked around in front of her.

She was sitting on a piece of debris. The floor under her had broken apart, along with the rest of the room. Pieces of all shapes and sizes were scattered, shards of broken glass, a variety of colours, littered the sand. The debris was from multiple rooms.

She couldn't see Rarity. But in the chaos she could have been anywhere. Or... maybe she didn't make it. Rainbow didn't see any blood, but that didn't mean anything.

Sighing, Rainbow succumbed to the thought that Rarity was gone. She felt she should be used to it now, but she wasn't. Not at all. But now wasn't the time. She wasn't completely out of the woods yet.

She turned around and knelt down, ready to take to the air before she realised she couldn't. It had happened so instinctively, so without thought. She closed her eyes trying not to cry, trying not to remember the things that had happened to her and her friends.

Instead she took note of her surroundings. Her heart sank.

Behind her was ocean, waves slowly moving their way to shore. Water as far as the eye could see. In front of her was sand. Nothing but tiny dunes of sand, endless, all the way around. Not a sign of civilisation could be found anywhere in the distance.

It wasn't getting darker, Rainbow Dash noticed. She sighed briefly. She wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball and die. But she couldn't. She would die on her own soon, she knew. She was so thirsty, so tired, in so much pain, and felt so light headed. But until then she had to keep going. For her friends.

She started walking.

Comments

[mines5]

Not entirely sure about this, the title definitely pulls interest considering its an equation.
and muhahahaha first.

[Midnight_Splendor]

Wow never thought I would ever see a pony version of cube it's done amazingly.

[anon_corps]

Wirklich, jetzt? Sie ruinieren meine Meinung über Sie schreiben eine ekelhafte Geschichte von Inzest und jetzt schreiben Sie etwas, das fällt unter das Genre die ich Exel, spezialisiert, und massiv genießen. Du bist auf jeden Fall eine seltsame ein.

[anon_corps]

Ich heiße Shadow, und Ich stimme dieser Geschichte!!!!
Gute Arbeit.

[cloudranger]

Good old tesseract. Just to clarify and get a few things straight, when twilight made that conclusion basically, it became a waiting game of seeing which rooms would pop up when they go into another room? Despite neglecting to consider the timing of the rooms movement that is. So, it would be a waiting game of all the rooms changing (barring the timing of the room changes, how would they know when the room changes, when would the room change? That's what I'm getting so far, please explain a bit more in detail, because I'd like to fully understand before moving on, thanks for the fic and your time.

[Shock Jock]

Very well written. I've seen Hypercube (Cube 2) and Cube Zero, and this story hits manyof the points that were in the films. The only bad time about this story is that you ended on a cliff hanger. Good job.

[A Fistful of Apples]

Spoiler warning I guess:

1272567

There's no way to know when the rooms change, only that they do. Twilight figured out too how the rooms would move, but this became a moot point by the time they all got separated.Had things gone a bit differently for her things would have been easier for everyone and it would have been less of a random walk-about.

1272793

Well, so did Cube. I tried to take influence from Cube, Cube Zero, and the original Cube 2 script which is publicly available online. It's much different than the movie that actually became Cube 2, and in my view significantly better. This entire fic was written because I think Cube 2 had a lot of wasted potential.

[Shock Jock]

1272889

I agree about Cube 2. The ending really dropped the ball. Still been meaning to see the original Cube.

[A Fistful of Apples]

1299907

A movie made in 1997. It's awesome.

[Catyusha]

Dammit, this story is fucking underrated.

[Dark-Aii]

Well, isn't that something.
A story where logic get's f*cked up in the a** so hard, Discord himself is never mentioned. At All.
XD You sir, are a gold-digger, and your idea seems to be nothing more but gold itself.
You deserve my approval.