Labyrinth

Fluttershy gulped as she cautiously stepped toward the labyrinth.  It loomed above her, seeming so much more intimidating up close than it did from the hill where she could look down on it.  She held fast to her determination to rescue Angel and continued forward.

Outside the front wall, she spotted a pink pony with hair that fell down in straight locks, as though it were eternally drenched in an unknown weight.  The pony trudged forward on her hind legs, her front ones raised in an offensive posture.  In one hoof, she held a spray can.

"Um, excuse me?"  Fluttershy squeaked.  She was almost surprised at the weakness of her own voice... almost.

"Huh?"  The pony turned her head to peer at her with suspicion all over her face.  "Oh, it's you."  She looked back away and stepped forward.

Fluttershy followed her gaze and lit up at the sight of little breezies fluttering about in the air.  "Oh, how sweet!"

As she tried to reach out to touch the delicate little equine fairy moving toward her, the pink pony released a gas from the spray can that knocked it to the ground.

"Hah!"  She cackled.  "57!"

Fluttershy's eyes were wide with horror.  She leaned down to look at the breezie as it squirmed in agony on the ground.  "How... how could you!"  She looked up at the pony in dismay.  "It was just a poor, innocent little creature!  You poor thing..."  She had hardly scooped the breezie into her hoof before she had to drop it in surprise when it bit her.  "Ow!  It-it bit me!"

The other pony looked at her.  "Well, duh!"  She turned away, waving her hoof in a small circle near her head.  "Are you crazy?  What did you expect it to do?"

She sniffed and looked at the breezie, which stuck out its little tongue, gave a rude gesture, and zipped away.  "I thought they would do nice things."

"Shows what you know, doesn't it?"  Just as another breezie flew past her, the pony whirled on one hoof and sprayed it.  "58!"

Despite having been bit, Fluttershy still respected and cherished all creatures.  "You're horrible!"

"Who?  Of course I'm not!"  She looked at her with a somewhat deranged, lopsided grin.  "I'm Pinkamena.  Who are you?"

The pegasus paused.  She felt a pang of recognition, but it was distant and in the back of her mind.  She looked at the pony with confusion on her face that she had to shake away.  Her mind felt cloudy and heavy as she tried to remember where she had heard the name before.  "Fluttershy," she finally said.

The grin turned into a solemn line and she nodded seriously.  "That's what I thought. Ah!  Haha!  59!"

Not wanting to witness more mean-but-innocent breezies crumple to the ground, Fluttershy took a step backwards and inclined her head to the menacing labyrinth walls.  "Do you know where the door to the labyrinth is?"

"Maybe."

After a moment of staring at one another silently, Fluttershy started, "Well...?"  More silence.  "Where is it?"

A breezie slammed into Pinkamena's rump and tugged on her tail.  She chased after it, spraying indiscriminately.  "Oh, you little-!  Get back here!  Gotchya, number 60!"

Fluttershy cleared her throat.  "Um, excuse me, but where is it?"

Pinakmena looked over her shoulder, one eyebrow raised.  "Where is what?"

At this point, the pegasus was starting to grow weary of having not even started on her journey and a little nauseated by the smell of whatever the other pony was spraying in the air.  "The door!"

"What door?"

She sighed heavily, her head dropping down.  "Oh, it's hopeless to ask you anything..."

"Not if you ask the right questions,"  Pinkamena said slowly, as if she were talking to a young foal.  She started at the other expectantly.

The pegasus thought for a moment, drawing a small circle in the ground with her hoof, before she looked up at her.  "Um...  how do I get into the labyrinth?"

Suddenly, Pinkamena's face was right in hers, that startlingly crooked grin back on her lips.  "Now that's more like it!  You get in..."  She pushed her out of the way to trot over to a door set against the wall, as plain as day, though Fluttershy was sure it wasn't there before.  "Here!"  The door swung open on its own.  She turned, the grin gone, replaced by a suspicious frown.  "You're not really going in there, are you?"

"I'm afraid I have to, yes."  She started walking toward the entrance.  Reaching it, she froze, intimidated by the towering walls, creeping shadows, and overall appearance of doom and gloom.

"Cozy, isn't it?"  The pink pony leaned against the doorway, laughing.  Her laughter stopped and she snapped back to seriousness.  "Now, would you go left or right?"

After looking in both directions, she looked back at her.  "Um, they both look the same to me..."

"Well, you're not going to get very far."  She rolled her eyes and slapped a hoof to her forehead.

"Oh, then, which way would you go?"

"Me?"  She lowered her hoof to place it on her chest.  "Me?!  I wouldn't go either way!"

Her patience wearing thin again, Fluttershy started forward.  "If that's all the help you're going to be, then...  Then you can just go back to whatever horrible activities you have to do."

She was startled to see Pinkamena in front of her again out of nowhere.  She glanced back just to make sure that it wasn't a twin and the other pony was still at the doorway, but there was no one else.

"You know your problem?"  She leaned in close, pressing her forehead to Fluttershy's as she stared at her, hard and serious.  "You take too much for granted!  Take this labyrinth!"  She pulled back and gestured wildly with her hooves.  "Even if you reach the center, you'll never get out again!"

"That's your opinion."  She tried to walk past the rambling pony.

"Well, it's a lot better than yours!"

Fluttershy gritted her teeth.  "Thanks for nothing, Pinkie."

"Ohhh!"  She bunched up her shoulders and stomped back out of the labyrinth.  "It's Pinkamena, and don't say I didn't warn you!"  With a frustrated kick of her back legs, she slammed the doors shut.

When Fluttershy looked behind her to apologize, she was faced with a blank wall.  "Oh, my..."  She looked back ahead of her.

The path seemed to be endless, going in a straight line with none of the twists or turns she had spied from the hilltop.  It felt like a dream, where she was trapped running in place with the light at the end never growing nearer, but she trudged forward with determination.

In the distance, she heard the tick of a clock weighing down on her, so she hurried her pace.  The corridor continued on, perfectly straight and perfectly endless.

"How can he call this a labyrinth?"  She sighed.  "It just goes on and on..."  She paused, scrunching up her nose.  "Or maybe I'm just taking for granted that it does?"  The pink pony's voice resounded in her ears, so she shook her head to try to chase it away, then broke out into a full run.

After a while, as she was growing tired of running, she skidded to a halt and knocked her hoof against her forehead.  "Oh, silly me!"  She spread her delicate wings.  "It's not cheating if I just take a peek, right?"  She looked around for anyone to question on the matter, but, of course, she was alone.  "I mean, he let me see it from the hill, so it's not that much different from what he let me do..."

She gave her wings a few flaps, but found that her hooves were planted firmly on the ground, as if stuck.  She flapped harder but still couldn't lift off even an inch.  "Oh..."  Her wings tucked back against her sides.  "I suppose he thinks it is cheating..."  With a heavy sigh, she continued her run down the corridor.

Her legs gave out and she had to stop and lean against a wall, panting to try to catch her breath.  "It...  It's hopeless..."  Her eyes grew glossy with fresh tears and she stomped a hoof.  "It's hopeless!"

"'Ello."

Fluttershy jerked her head up and to the side.  Leaning against the wall opposite of her was a zebra sitting with her legs crossed and sipping a cup of tea.

"Oh, my, did you just say hello?"

The zebra smiled.  "No, I said 'ello, but I'll let it go."

"You're a zebra, aren't you?"  She blushed, not having intended to be so blunt, but it was so rare to see a zebra in Ponyville.  Of course, they weren't in Ponyville, so perhaps it wasn't so rare here in the labyrinth.

"What you've said is right, but to point it out like that isn't polite."

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry..."  She smiled shyly.  "Do you know the way through this Labyrinth?"

The zebra choked and set down her tea.  "Me?  That is something I wouldn't know.  It's a place ponies like you don't want to go."

"Oh..."  Her smile faded.

"Why don't you come inside and let this silly journey subside?"

"No, thank you, I have to solve this labyrinth."  She looked up and down the corridor they were in.  "There aren't any turns or openings, it just goes on and on..."

"Openings there are a ton, it is just that you haven't looked for one."

"What?  Where are they?"

"Why, I'll give you a clue."  The zebra pointed at the wall beside her.  "There's one right in front of you."

"Huh?"  Fluttershy stared hard at the wall, but saw only a wall.  "No, there isn't.  It's just a wall."

"Come with me and have a nice cup of tea."

Determined, she stepped toward the wall, not taking her eyes off it.  "But there isn't an opening here!"

"Of course there is, no need to make a scene.  Try walking through it and you'll see what I mean."

"What?  But...  you can't get through a wall."

"Things aren't always what they seem when enchanted, so you can't take anything for granted."

Her eyes lit up at the phrase, understanding now.  "Oh!"  She held her breath and closed her eyes as she walked toward, into, and through the wall.  When she opened her eyes, she was excited to see new corridors going in all directions.  "Oh, my!"  She turned and called through the wall,  "Thank you, that was incredibly helpful!"

The zebra nearly dropped her tea as she got up to her feet.  "Now hold on little pony, if I may...  You don't want to go that way!"

Fluttershy leaned through the wall to look at her.  "What was that?"

"Don't go that way or you'll go astray!"

"Oh!"  She stepped back through the wall, tested a different wall, and walked through it instead.  "Thanks!"

After Fluttershy was gone and the zebra settled back down to resume drinking her tea, she muttered to herself, "Giving advice can be such a hassle.  If she had kept going, she'd have gone straight to that castle..."