Chapter 2: Peace

“Peace in all its aspects, peace among ponykind, peace between nations, peace between social classes, peace between individuals - all are equally important,"

A flash of blue light signaled my return to the entrance. For the third time, of course.

“Sisters, dammit!” I swore, stomping my hoof into the stones. Either the maze was getting harder, or we were getting stupider. Honestly, It was probably the latter. The sensation of a pony falling on top of me signaled the return of Eclipse. He let out a gasp as he nearly crushed me, the teleportation spell literally throwing him atop my back.

He let out a squeak as I kicked him off, and stood up.

“We were so close! I swear I could see it.," I sighed, pacing in front of the gate. My magic picked up every small rock and stick in the area, throwing them into the maze angrily. If anything, I’d break my way through these over sized shrubs!

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down! you tried this last time you got pissed, remember!?” he whinnied nervously, grabbing me and smacking my horn with his hoof, effectively breaking my focus.

“God damnit Eclipse… Was that really necessary?” I sighed, pulling away from him and walking away. “Why can’t we do this!? We’ve been into this fucking maze at least a hundred times! Why is it so hard? Are we just complete idiots or something?” I growled, stomping my hooves into the flagstones, thoroughly pissed at just about everything.

“Let’s just go home Rose... There’s no point in throwing a fit about it," Eclipse sighed, rubbing the back of his head with a forehoof.

“Oh, a point. For living is not point enough when the truth is on the line," Muttered a wistful voice behind us.

“Holy shit!” I nearly squeaked, my hooves clearing the ground as I jumped. Eclipse and I turned (after I made a safe landing) and looked back, seeing a small blue colt behind us. “Hello Velvet, nice to see you again, next time don’t scare the shit out of me!” I groaned slightly, flicking my tail absently. “Also, how long have you been stalking us this time?”

“Oh... Since you two went into the maze and made fools of yourself," He smirked, trotting up to us and sitting down. He looked at me with those strange, emotionless yellow eyes of his, and said, “So, no luck this time either, seeming by that tantrum you had?”

“We made it farther than we usually do Velvet... This maze is just stupid. It’s probably impossible to do," I sighed, looking at the sidewalk, and stomping my hoof again. My mind once again wandered to the past, as I thought about how Velvet, Eclipse, Bell, and I all grew up here together. Honestly I can’t imagine living in another place, though, that might be because I can’t remember what it’s like in other towns.

According to my mother I was in the hospital for a month before I finally even woke up. Pretty much everything I got out of the conversation was that I hit my head really hard and was out for a month. Oh, and that I needed to shut up and go do something useful. I got the sneaking suspicion that I was annoying my mother.

Other than the memory loss I feel just fine. I used to get chronic headaches, and strange feelings of dizziness. Those are mostly gone now, thanks to Doctor Gauze. He gave me the prescription I take every day that stops most of the Headaches and everything I get. Apparently it makes me Irritable. I just don’t see it.

Apparently all of my friends were on some sort of medication. Velvet was on antidepressants, Eclipse was on antipsychotics and Belle was on extremely strong antibiotics. Velvet and Belle definitely need something like that, but I don’t see Eclipse being insane. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s kinda cute. In a brotherly way.

Sometimes I feel like I’m the only normal one in this whole place. Then I remember that I’m obsessed with a maze. The only pony that seems legitimately normal is a colt about my age that I only met once. I met him in the library, in the non-fiction section.

“Coldfeather,” he said, when I asked him his name,

“Well, Coldfeather... Where do you live?” I asked nicely, only to be answered with a laugh, and him walking away. I was a bit shellshocked after that, mainly because his laugh was creepy. He was always extremely strange though. Nopony else seemed to have heard of him. I was once again rudely ripped from my inner monologue, when my hooves left my control, and I fell face first onto the sidewalk.

The first thing I did was put my hooves up to my mane, checking if it was out of place. Of course, my mane was completely out of place, though, it was constantly messy as Tartarus. My short, ashen coat was perfect as always, though it really wasn’t hard when my fur was so stubby.

With a sigh, I stood, ignoring the snickers my friends gave, and giving Eclipse a soft kick to the chest, knocking him onto his ass. “Sorry man, didn’t mean to hit you that hard,” I sighed, giving him a soft nudge with my nose. He smiled, and simply let out a snort of amusement and continued walking.

“You know, we really don’t need to continue trying that maze. It probably isn’t that important, whatever’s at the end of it," Eclipse said, smirking at me. Instead of the expected explosion of fury, I simply lowered my head, and sighed, as if deep in thought.

“You know, it is a thought... All this effort that we’re putting into something that we don’t even know will give us a reward. What if we get there and it’s just another park? Or a pool or something? There’s no point in trying this hard for something like that," I sighed, throwing a rock at a tree, leaving a dent in the wood.

“Hey, What happened to the big, strong Burntrose everypony knows? Who never gave up, and always kept going at that maze? All I see now is a big wimp," Eclipse grinned, poking me in the nose and giggling. “Boop."

I groaned, smacking his hoof away.

“Stop with your stupid boops Eclipse, we told you not to do that anymore," I blinked, and pushed him a little. Eclipse had a lot of little quirks that he kept around from our foalhood. It’s kinda strange, like that weird colt who liked watching shows for little girls.

“Hey guys, we should go to our clubhouse,” Velvet whinnied, “We haven’t been there for a long time," The clubhouse was something our parents made for us. It’s a small-ish house in the middle of the park, that only my friends and I are allowed into. I fondly remember the first time we went there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Come on everyone! We’re almost there!” Velvet’s mom, Starlight said with a smile. The adults had been leaving us into the park for about fifteen minutes now, most of us were getting tired of the secrecy.

“What are we even doing here? This is lame.” I whinnied, rolling my eyes and sighing.

“We’re going to see something cool.” My mother fixed me with a glare that could melt steel, and pushed me forwards. Through the parting trees up ahead the group and I could see a clearing, with some kind of building in it.

“Whatsh that? Some kind of house?” Snow sniffled, sneezing slightly. Her voice was always slightly lispy because she was constantly stuffed up. The antibiotics never helped her at all.

“Suprise! It’s your very new clubhouse!” Starlight smiled, throwing some confetti in the air. Of course, foals will be foals, so we immediately ignored our parents and ran to the clubhouse. Except for Velvet. He never ran anywhere.

By the time Velvet got into the clubhouse we had already claimed it for our own, and were assigning guards to keep the ‘evil invaders’ away from the clubhouse. He fixed us with a cold stare and sighed, sitting in the corner.

It was dusk when we finally left that clubhouse, and we were back first thing in the morning. We stayed there for the majority of our free time, at least until I grew out of it. Some of my best memories came from that clubhouse, it’s a shame that we don’t use it anymore. I was roused from my trip down memory lane by a hoof shaking my shoulder gently.

“What’s going on over there?” Velvet muttered, looking at the town square, noticing a large gathering of ponies. Through the sea of fur and manes I could see the mayor giving a sort of speech. The mayor, Lightfinder, never used a microphone so her voice didn’t carry all the way over to us.

“I don’t know... But it looks important. We should go check it out," I whinnied, turning and trotting towards the town square. As we got closer, I began to make out the words to her speech.

“ ...fillies and gentlecolts! We have an urgent matter in the estate, that threatens all of us! We cannot continue to ignore this danger! There are traitors in our midst! Ponies that would open their doors for the zebra menace!” Lightfinder growled, nearly shaking with rage.

“The accused, are the colts Brightrose, Eclipse, and Coldfeather, along with the filly SnowBelle! These foals must be brought to justice! Bring them here for their trial!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Footnote: No experience gained.

Author's Note

Quote at the beginning is a ponified version of Theodore Roosevelt's Nobel prize acceptance speech.