Zero Escape: Nine Hours Nine Ponies Nine Doors

Cadence and Shining ran to catch up with the others, but not before Shining shoved the rather ominous note into his coat pocket. The two took their time walking down the eerie, spiraling staircase. The only thing that lit the blackened staircase were but a few dimly-lit torches.

"Hey, Cadence, you read that note too, right?" Shining said, holding onto the railing as he walked.

"Well yeah, I have eyes." Cadence remarked, rolling her eyes.

"I'm guessing you know a lot about Equestria's history, am I right? What was up with that note?" Shining asked, although the note had a certain creepiness to it, he had to satisfy his own curiosity.

"Well, it sounded pretty gloomy, so I can assume it was written in the Era of Disharmony." Cadence said, her voice sounded intelligent and calm, in sharp contrast to before.

"'The Era of Disharmony'? What are you talking about?" Shining asked, who had never heard of such a time. Cadence give him an amused look.

"C'mon, they didn't teach you that at Peasant school? It's basic history, Shining." She said, her voice had a mix of bafflement and snark. Shining scratched his head and tried to think of a comeback.

"Oh sweet Celestia, you really are that dumb." Cadence sighed, before beginning to explain. "The Era of Disharmony was when everyone got screwed over by Discord. There." She said bluntly.

"Uh.... A little more explanation?" Shining said, he couldn't possibly feel more embarrassed at the moment. Cadence groaned.

"Alright, whatever. Basically, it all started with this... Thing called Discord." She said, unable to find the proper words to describe it.

"Discord was, for lack of a better term, a jackass. A pretty big one, actually." She said, strangely enough, it sounded like she herself had some personal grudge for Discord, as her nose twisted as she spoke.

"I mean, he doesn't sound that bad. What'd he do, steal the Magic of Friendship or something?" Shining asked with curiosity. History had never been a fun subject, especially when Twilight was spouting random facts about a bunch of long-gone civilizations all the time when they were kids.

"Eh, kinda. He only made the entire country, no, the world, plunge into a state of complete chaos. Hence, the 'disharmony' part." Cadence explained, it almost sounded as if she was reciting an essay from memory. "There were crazies everywhere, some people had little-to-no grasp on reality, while the survivors grew depressed and even suicidal from seeing former friends being turned into nutcases by Discord."

"So... Uh, what happened?" Shining asked. The suspense was practically killing him.

"You really are hopeless, aren't you?" Cadence said, looking rather baffled. "Princess Celestia and Princess Luna used their combined power to turn him to a stone statue."

"Oooooooh, I think I saw that once. I was with my little sister on a field trip, or something like that, and I saw it on display... I just thought it was an abstract piece of art." Shining said, suddenly remembering what he had seen.

"Well, the more you know." Cadence said sarcastically. Shining took a breath and closed his eyes. He actually enjoyed himself for a few moments, that is, until he remembered where he was.

"Oh crap!" Shining took off without warning, focused on catching up with the rest of the group.

""But, there is a catch. You unfortunately, won't have all the time in the world. In nine hours, this palace will be submerged into the ground completely, straight to Tartarus."" The very thought chilled Shining to the bone. He had a deadline, no time to screw around. And if he didn't.... No, that wasn't an option. He was getting out, away from this nightmare. The spiraling stairs seemed to go on forever. Meanwhile, a very pissed-off Cadence ran after him, wondering why he ran off on her.

Eventually, Shining reached the bottom of the stairs after a long, tedious run.  He could hear Cadence's footsteps drawing closer, but he continued on his way. At the bottom of the stairs, Shining found a branching path splitting three ways into separate corridors. After nervously looking around, he turned to his left and carefully walked down the path. Eventually, Shining found himself at a dead end. There was a foreboding steel door with a red 'X' painted onto it.

"Uh, no." Shining turned around, not wanting to risk stepping into Zero's death trap. Zero, Zero, Zero, the facilitator of this facility. It was then that Shining began to think, who is Zero? And for that matter, why was he playing the Nonary Game? He wasn't special, his magic was average, he was a normal Joe in every sense of the word. So then, why? The more he thought about it, the more his head began to hurt. He let out an annoyed groan, and shifted subjects to his original question. Who is Zero?

Braeburn, owner of the number [1] bracelet. The answer seemed relatively obvious for multiple reasons. He couldn't be Zero. Although he was a nice guy, he seemed far too naive and plain nice to be Zero.

Octavia, owner of the number [2] bracelet. A strange girl, who seemed to know more than she let on. She could very well be Zero, judging by the way she acted. She looked so... Uninterested. Although Shining did have her doubts about the girl, he didn't have enough leads to go off of. He groaned out of frustration.

Fluttershy, owner of the number [3] bracelet. She couldn't be Zero... Right? Now that he thought of it, Fluttershy did seem, at the very least, a little suspicious. She seemed distant from the other players at the beginning, possibly because she was hiding something? Shining shook his head. Once again, he didn't have any solid facts to back up his reasoning. Before he could move on to the next participant, he heard thundering footsteps that could be heard from miles away. Shining looked down from the ceiling, and looked straight ahead of him. Cadence, who was understandably irritated at him running off earlier.

"Hey! What was that?" Cadence scowled, she was trying to catch her breath from running after Shining.

"We've kind of got a deadline. I figured we should keep moving." Shining retorted.

"You don't seem in a hurry now." Cadence said, crossing her arms.

"Well, I uh-"

"Whatever, I can have the guards beat you up after we've gotten out of here. C'mon, let's go. " Cadance said, leading the way at a jogging pace, holding her dress up slightly to ensure she didn't trip over it. Once again, the two reached the same branching path from earlier, but this time, Cadence made a left, going down a path Shining had yet to explore.

The two were mostly silent as they ran, consumed in their own thoughts. The hallway had a tiled floor, checkered with black and white squares. The walls were far from tidy, and the paint was cracking. The floor was tiled with dusty white squares that felt like they hadn't been walked on in ages. The walls were a simple beige color, although it looked as if the paint was cracking off little-by-little. The hallway went straight, and as Shining's legs began to tire, a fine door stood in front of him.

The door was at least three times Shining and Candace's size. It was divided into two, with a handle on each half. Shining and Cadance both grabbed hold of a handle, and pulled with all their might. The door let out an ominous moan, and the two entered carefully. It appeared to be a large chapel, with rows of seats lined up neatly, one grand stained glass portrait lay on the wall at the very back of the room, while a podium stood tall upon a small stage. This didn't exactly catch Shining's attention, no, he was surprised to see five others had already arrived.

On the stage, five other ponies stood, discussing among themselves before noticing Cadance and Shining. Spitfire, Soarin', Sigma, Octavia, and Zecora. They must have escaped faster than Shining's group. "I guess there is power in numbers." Shining thought.

"Hey, you two. Glad to see you made it back in one piece." Soarin' said. He looked genuinely relieved to see that they were okay.

"If I recall correctly, you had a group of four. What happened to Braeburn and Fluttershy?" Octavia asked, crossing her arms. Although her voice was calm and collected, Shining could see a bead of sweat on her forehead.

"Good question, kid. What did happen to those kids, huh, you two?" Spitfire said, accusingly. Suddenly all eyes were on Shining and Cadance. Shining opened his mouth as his cheeks reddened, wanting to explain.

"Well I uh... I wanted to inspect something really quick, so I stayed behind for a minute." Shining said, hoping that would keep them from tearing him to shreds. "Could I be any more screwed right now?" Shining thought.

"What's your excuse, pretty-face?" Spitfire scowled.

"M-me? I was watching those two when they ran off, I don't know where they went!" Cadance said, trying to sound distressed. "You can do better than that, Princess..." Shining thought. Nobody was gonna buy that excuse. Spitfire's eyes narrowed, and she walked down from the stage to Shining and Cadance.

"The hell, guys?! You left two kids who don't know what they're doing alone? You may as well have killed them!" It was then that the true seriousness of the Nonary Game struck Shining. He and Cadance left Fluttershy and Braeburn unattended, alone, to die.

"Nonononono, what did I do?!" Shining staggered over to one of the chapel's seats and sat down, contemplating his possibly fatal decision towards the two others in his group. Cadance merely stared down at him, showing little-to-no remorse for her actions. Her indifference on the subject wanted to make Shining wipe that constant smirk off her face. He facepalmed, regretting his curiosity that influenced him to stay behind. Spitfire walked over to him and bent down to his level and decided to take a different approach.

"Look Shining, you screwed up, but there's still a good chance they're both hanging in there. So why don't you and I look around a bit until they pop up?" Spitfire suggested. Shining felt reassured, they could be alive. Spitfire offered him her hand and he gladly took it, regaining his confidence. Shining turned to look at the others. Soarin' looked visibly embarrassed, Sigma rolled his eyes, unamused. Zecora merely smiled at the two, and Octavia yawned, looking disengaged from the situation at hand.

"Well, I think that settles it. I'm gonna go out for a stroll, anybody mind?" Cadence said, looking at everyone in the room. Nobody objected, well save for one person.

"Perhaps this isn't my business, but a stroll seems awfully casual for a life-or-death situation, don't you think?" Octavia questioned, she brought up a valid point. She cocked an eyebrow, waiting patiently for Cadance's response.

"Yeah, you're right. This isn't your business, Pajama Girl. So stay out of it." Cadance said, in a spiteful tone. Octavia opened her mouth to retaliate, but she closed her eyes, and sighed, holding back an immature response. She seemed to show maturity far beyond her age, despite being roughly the same age as Fluttershy and Braeburn.

"Hey! I'm comin' with." Sigma said, Cadance didn't seem to mind nor care that the dragon was accompanying her, as they walked out of the leftmost door of the chapel without a word.

"Hmph. Leave her be. Hey, Shining let's get moving!" Spitfire barked. Her tone quickly shifted back to her normal, angry drill-sergeant act. Spitfire power-walked towards the right exit of the room, as she was about to walk through the exit, she looked at Shining and gestured for him to come on. Shining blinked, and shook his head, once again contemplating the sheer absurdity of his current situation. Determinedly, he followed Spitfire at a brisk running pace, eager to right what went wrong.

In stark contrast to the barren, confined hallways that Shining had been to only minutes ago, he stood in a wide-open, circular room with many doors, the only decorations being a few pillars spread out far across the room. A ginormous round light lit the room. Shining shifted his eyes from place-to-place across the room, to ensure he wasn't being spied on.

"Where... Where... Where... Where..." Spitfire repeated the words to herself as she stood in the center of the room, pacing back and forth, looking clearly distraught. Shining felt uneasy walking towards an angry lieutenant, but did so anyways out of concern.

"Spitfire?" Shining said, once he had gotten closer. She showed no signs of registering his presence. She continued to pace, muttering to herself. "Spitfire."He said, once more. She shook her head, and paced even faster, almost as if she was sleepwalking.

"Spitfire!" He cried, one last time. Spitfire stopped, and looked up, with weary eyes. She looked calmer now, well, about as calm as you can get with the Nonary Game. "Are you alright? You looked kinda..." Shining said, searching for the right word.

"Like a zombie? Yeah, sorry about that. My bad." Her tone was tired and low-key, as if she wasn't the same Spitfire. This made Shining a bit nervous, wondering if she had been replaced.

"No, no, it's fine. I guess this kind of situation can drive people crazy. Just try to relax a little, Braeburn and Fluttershy are going to be okay..." Shining said, awkwardly trying to reassure her.

"Relax? Relax?!" Spitfire's voice slowly rose. "They're in danger! I have to help them!" Spitfire quickly turned around and made a mad dash for one of the doors.

"N-no! Hold on a second-!" Before she could outrun him, Shining grabbed hold of one of her arms to restrain her.

"What now? We're on a deadline, Shining!" Spitfire reared her head towards Shining as she struggled in his grasp, who was using every ounce of his strength to hold her back.

"We can look for them, that's fine! Stay cool! Be cool..." Shining instructed, losing his grip on Spitfire little-by-little. Slowly, to his relief, he felt Spitfire's struggling come to an end. He let go of her arm, and she turned to face Shining.

"Alright, fine. I'll relax. But there's a bajillion doors here. How are we supposed to know where they are?"

"Uh..." Shining searched his mind for a rational answer to the question, yet he could find none.

"I'm waiting." Spitfire crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently.

"Well, maybe we should just go through all of them and see which ones lead us to them?" Shining saw no other option than trial-and-error.

"Alright, no time to waste. Let's get moving, private!" Spitfire said, walking towards one of the many doors in the room.

"Private?" Shining questioned, following closely behind. Spitfire stopped at one of the doors, and cupped her hands against her ear, and leaned on the door, presumably listening for any noise. She then grabbed hold of the knob, twisted it and pulled as hard as she could.

"Locked." She simply commented, she went over to the nearest door and did the same process once more. Shining grew increasingly bored with each 'check' of the doors. Eventually, however...

"Shining, come here, quick!" Spitfire was standing at one of the doors, placing her ear against it. Nodding his head, Shining ran to her location, and placed his own ear upon the door.

"Heh heh... Mmhmmh... Haha..."Shining's eyes widened as he realized what he was hearing.  Laughter. Earlier he had criticized Spitfire for acting on impulse, but now? There was no stopping him. He looked back at Spitfire, who's eyes looked like a reflection of his at the moment. They both rammed the door with their shoulders continuously as it slowly began to falter and collapse.

"Graaaaaaaah!" Shining let loose a triumphant cry as the door fell down with a dramatic 'CRASH'. The two of them ran down a long hallway, hoping their search would quickly come to an end. As the noise seemed to become closer and closer, Shining forced his legs to sprint even faster. At the end of the hallway there stood a lone wooden door. Shining grabbed hold of the doorknob, twisted it and cautiously opened it, praying that they were still there.

Shining immediately felt a sense of déjà vu overcome him as he entered the corridor. In front of him was a set of spiraling stairs that led upwards. He walked forward to see the same three-way path from before. "What the..." Shining uttered.

"What's the problem?" Spitfire questioned.

"I-I've been here before. Only about twenty minutes ago, I think. If we go straight forward in this path, we'll be back at the chapel. I must've missed this when I was in a hurry." Shining explained.

"Good. At least that means they're nearby." Spitfire ran down the corridor to the right, Shining followed, he felt his heart toss and turn as the suspense began to rise within him.

"Hmph." Spitfire stood in front of one of the steel doors Shining had seen earlier. It was identical to the other door in all senses of the door. It even had the same 'X' painted on in red paint. Spitfire grabbed hold of the handle and-

"Wait!" Shining cried. Something about the door... It bothered him.

"What is it?" Spitfire questioned, unamused. Her hand was still tightly grasped on the handle.

"That door, it looks kinda suspicious. Maybe we shouldn't open it?" Shining said, his argument not sounding very convincing. Spitfire gave him a look and began to pull on the lever-

Something grabbed Shining, he opened his mouth to scream, but his breath was all gone. He quickly spun around to see his possible murderer.

"Hahahahha! Gotcha, Mr. Shining! That was a good one, right guys!" Shining turned to see none other than Braeburn and Fluttershy, the former seemed to take great amusement in Shining's horror. Even Fluttershy was trying her best not to giggle. "Are they serious...?" Shining's nose twitched as he tried his best to hold back his anger. Spitfire however, looked absolutely livid.

"Is this a joke to you?" She scowled at Braeburn, too caught up in his own 'hilarious' prank to notice Spitfire walking over to him. "You disgust me.." What Shining saw next was something that he couldn't possibly prepare for.

Braeburn's body flew back as Spitfire's fist made contact with his face. A stream of blood dripped from his nose as he lay on the cold floor, writhing in pain as he rolled, covering up his nose with his hands. Shining stood, paralyzed by fear.

Spitfire picked Braeburn by his collar, staring directly into Braeburn's now tear-stained face, looking petrified and scared as Spitfire yelled at him.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry! I'M SORRY!" Braeburn cried as he struggled within Spitfire's grip. His voice was far different. The liveliness was gone. All that remained was despair and fear. Spitfire's eyes were cold and unforgiving. Fluttershy buried her face in her hands, sobbing.

"Listen to me, dammit!" Spitfire yelled. "If you treat this fucked-up 'experiment' like a game, you are going to die! And if we don't escape in time because you and Fluttershy decided to go screw around, we are ALL going to die! So quit acting like a goddamn kid and grow up!" With that, Spitfire dropped Braeburn, and his body sunk to the floor, Fluttershy crumpled to the ground, shaking her head and hysterically sobbing.

"Let's go, Shining." Spitfire said.

"But-" Shining questioned. This was wrong. He couldn't leave them, not like this.

"I said, let's go." She said. She walked back towards the entrance to the chapel, Shining turned to look one last time at the two, and followed Spitfire.