The Maze

Chapter 3: Two Sisters

“...and that’s pretty much all that’s happened,” Sweetie Belle said, pushing away a branch and waiting for her friend to walk past.

Apple Bloom’s coat was covered with grime and scratches, and her mane was ruffled, like she forgot to comb it in the morning. Combined with the torch illuminating her bloodshot eyes, she looked like she just crawled out of a grave. She even lost her bow. Despite all that, however, her tone remained steady, and unlike Sweetie Belle, she still seemed full of energy.

“So... you found Scoots back at the fountain, she was rhymin’ more than Zecora, and then you just went and asked her to stop? And she did?” Apple Bloom furrowed her brow. “That sounds a bit too easy.”

“She said she took just a small sip,” Sweetie Belle said, waving her hoof. “Besides, she acted pretty normal afterwards.”

“Okay. So then she knew everythin’ about where to go, sayin’ she’s got this weird hunch, right?” Apple Bloom shook her head. “Sweetie Belle, that’s definitely that water actin’ up!”

Sweetie Belle shrugged and hung her head low. “Does it even matter anymore? That monster got her.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Of course I know that!” Sweetie Belle said, her head shooting up and her eyes digging into Apple Bloom’s. “What else could happen? You think Scootaloo just flew away? Or how else would she escape?”

Apple Bloom shook her head. “All I’m sayin’ is that Scoots ain’t a pony to give up so easily. Plus, if that water gave her a map, who knows what else she got? We shouldn’t lose hope yet.”

“I guess…” Sweetie Belle took a deep breath and managed a small smile. “So, how do we rescue her?”

“First thing first,” Apple Bloom said. She pointed at Sweetie Belle’s mane. “Can I see that compass of yours?”

“Nuh-uh.” Sweetie Belle shook her head and grinned. “First you’ve got to tell me what happened to you, or you’ll just start tinkering with it, and I’ll never know.”

“Fiiine,” Apple Bloom said, rolling her eyes. “It’s not even interestin’. Long story short, I went for a walk, looked around, tried to get back, and found out that the way I came just ain’t there anymore. Then I was just stumblin’ around, saw some weird stuff an—”

“What stuff?”

“Nothin’ important. It was just… bad and kinda scary.”

“For example?”

“There was a pile of it. Like once, I saw somethin’ that looked an awful lot like our barn back home, but it was all dark and broken.” Her head drooped. “I didn’t go in, but I still saw stuff through the window. I saw... shadows.”

“Shadows?” Sweetie Belle asked, wrinkling her brow. “What shadows?”

“Well... just one shadow, really. It looked like a pony with a stetson hat that... kinda swung in the air a little. While bein’ held by a rope. ‘Round the neck.

“Oh.” Sweetie Belle bowed her head as well. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah.” Apple Bloom looked back up. “But I reckon it’s just some kind of nonsense. I mean I also saw a clearing where there was just a puddle of somethin’ red with large pieces of your mane around it.”

Sweetie Belle’s eyes shot wide open. “What?”

“It was pretty creepy,” Apple Bloom said, shrugging. “It’s obvious it was just somethin’ playin’ tricks on me now. No big deal.”

Sweetie Belle cocked her brow and looked at Apple Bloom’s reddish eyes. “No big deal, huh?” She chuckled as her friend scowled and turned away. “So, is that all you’ve seen?”

“Yeah. We weren’t apart for that long anyway.”

“But what did you hear when you left the fountain clearing? Did you figure that out?”

“What I heard...” Apple Bloom furrowed her brow. “Oh. Oh! That’s what I told Scoots, right?”

“Uh... Told?” Sweetie Belle tilted her head.

“I didn’t really hear anythin’. I just needed a while to cool down.”

“Cool down why?”

“She didn’t tell you?” Apple Bloom licked her lips. “You see... me and Scoots had this argument. We were both gettin’ all angry, so I figured it’ll be better if I went somewhere alone for a minute.”

“Explains why she was so irritable the whole time. What were you arguing about?”

“I ain’t tellin’ you. It was nasty, and we have better stuff to worry about. You promised me a compass, remember?” She extended her hoof.

“I suppose you can tell me later. Here,” Sweetie Belle said and levitated it towards her. “It’s kind of odd.”

Apple Bloom looked at it, moved it around, and smiled. “It’s pointin’ at me. When I move, it moves too.”

Sweetie Belle nodded. “That’s what I’ve thought. I can use it to track you down if we split apart again.” She frowned and her shoulders slouched. “Pretty useless now, though. Do you think we could find another one that would point to Scootaloo?”

“I’m not sure,” Apple Bloom said. She scratched her head. “I mean why would anypony ever make a compass that keeps pointin’ to me, of all ponies?”

Sweetie Belle shrugged. “I’ve seen weirder stuff here than that.”

“But you said it was just spinnin’ at the start.” She flipped it over several times. “There ain’t no buttons or anythin’. Why did it start pointin’ at me all of a sudden?”

Sweetie Belle shrugged again. “I haven’t the foggiest. It was pretty convenient, though. Too bad it doesn’t point at Scootaloo now. Or at least at the exit.”

Apple Bloom looked at the compass, then at Sweetie Belle, then at the compass again. She rubbed her chin and tapped on its metal frame. “What did you do?”

“What?”

“Look.” Apple Bloom pointed at the magnetic needle. It spun around, but rather than circling the dial like when Sweetie Belle found it, it moved on a small arc.

“I just said...” Sweetie Belle furrowed her brow and snatched the compass from Apple Bloom’s hooves, levitating it in front of herself. “Show us where Scootaloo is!”

The needle changed direction.

Sweetie Belle smiled. “Well, that’s one mys—Hold on.” The needle moved. Slowly, but surely. “She’s on the move.” Her eyes widened. “She must still be running from that monster!”

Apple Bloom winced. “Uh... Sweetie Belle?”

“We’ve got to move fast,” Sweetie Belle said and started pacing around. “When did we split up? About... fifteen minutes ago? She can’t keep this up for much longer.”

“Sweetie.”

“I mean I know she’s fast and everything, but this is too long, even for her! It’s a miracle she didn’t fall from exh—“

“Sweetie!” Apple Bloom stuck her hoof in front of Sweetie Belle’s mouth. “You said you saw her torch next to the fountain, right?”

“So?”

“Well, I’m just wonderin’ how she’s runnin’ if she can’t see anythin’.”

Blood drained from Sweetie Belle’s face. “But you said she wouldn’t give up. That the water...”

“I was just tryin’ to calm you down. I mean, it could happen, but it’s just a guess.”

“So you mean she’s…”

Apple Bloom nodded, her ears folding back. “Maybe she’s just been captured, though. I-I mean not every monster likes eatin’ ponies, right? M-maybe it ain’t even hungry.”

“Right!” Sweetie Belle gave her a sharp nod and looked back at the compass.

“What do we do?” Apple Bloom asked. “Follow it?”

“No,” Sweetie Belle said. She cleared her throat. “Show us where the entrance is!”

The needle changed directions again.

“Hey!” Apple Bloom snatched the compass away from Sweetie Belle and scowled. “Are you bein’ serious? We ain’t leavin’ her here!”

“Then what should we do?” Sweetie scowled back. “Gallop right to the monster’s front door? We’d just get captured too!”

“No, nothin’ like that. But that doesn’t mean we should just walk away! There’s got to be somethin’ we can do.”

“Oh? Like what? I say we get out, tell Rarity and the others all about this place, go back, and free Scootaloo. If you have a better idea, I’m all ears.”

Apple Bloom stared Sweetie Belle in the eyes a while longer before looking away. “I... guess that’s a good plan.”

“Sure it is.” Sweetie Belle smiled and reached for the compass. “Now, where to...”

———

“Show us some other way!”

“Show us the path that goes ‘round this thing!”

“Show us a different way to the entrance!”

“Start workin’ or I swear I’ll...!” Apple Bloom held her hoof above the compass as if she was about to punch it.

She and Sweetie Belle stood in front of a gigantic stone door set in a huge, gray wall. A stone door that refused to budge.

“I give up.” Sweetie Belle shook her head and sat down on a nearby rock, one of the many strewn about, leaving the compass with Apple Bloom. It kept pointing towards the gate, no matter how they phrased their request.

“There’s got to be more than just one way through! I mean, we didn’t go through no door on the way here, so why do we have to pass it on the way back?” Apple Bloom asked, shooting one last glare at the compass and throwing it to Sweetie Belle.

She caught it with her magic. “I’m pretty sure the maze changes as we go. You said that the path back disappeared after you left Scootaloo.”

“Figures,” Apple Bloom said, kicking a pebble. “Guess we’ll have to find a way through, then. Which means solvin’ that stupid thing.” She sighed and trotted to the door.

There were no handles or any other obvious way of opening it, but there was a message carved in the stone. “‘Two sisters are like...’” Apple Bloom frowned and turned to Sweetie Belle. “I ain’t good at riddles. Any suggestions?”

“A bit too many.” Sweetie Belle hopped off the boulder and joined her friend by the gate. “Do we even know how to answer it? Is there some way to write the answer there, or...?”

Apple Bloom shrugged. “We can try sayin’ it. But what?”

Sweetie Belle rubbed her chin. “There are dozens of things that could go there. Two halves of the whole, sleeves on a shirt, peas in a pod...”

An ear-splitting crack echoed throughout the maze. They both spun to its source and saw one of the stones there crumble to dust, revealing a pit underneath. They silently looked at each other and crept to its edge.

The pit was about three metres in diameter and was secured by a rusty, metal grate. The gaps between bars were so wide, however, that should either of them be careless, they could easily fall through.

Sweetie Belle stuck her horn as low as she could and squinted into the darkness. “I think I see another grate there. It must be really deep.”

Apple Bloom took a pebble and threw it in. They heard a few clangs, each of them quieter and quieter. They waited for a rattle, thud, or splash. It didn’t come.

Sweetie Belle scratched her head. “Why would anypony build something like this?”

“No idea, but...” Apple Bloom bit her lip. “I have a bad feelin’ about it. We should go back and keep on riddlin’.”

“Maybe we already guessed it right and this is a—”

A deafening roar reverberated from inside the hole, shaking the ground, followed by the putrid stench of rotten meat and creaking of metal.

Sweetie Belle turned and met Apple Bloom’s wide-eyed gaze with her own.

“This definitely ain’t no reward for solvin’ the question!” Apple Bloom galloped towards the clearing’s entrance, only to stop a second later. The entrance was no longer there, and the forest around them seemed thicker than ever. “We’re trapped!” She ran back to Sweetie Belle, yanked her up, and dragged her back to the door. “I already said I ain’t good at this stuff! So guess!”

“Uh... Umm...” Sweetie Belle winced when another roar assaulted her ears, this time much louder. “Two sisters are like... Like best friends!” She looked at the door then at Apple Bloom. “Did that wo—”

“Watch out!” Apple Bloom pushed her away moments before a large, flying rock would’ve smashed Sweetie Belle’s head. Instead, it hit Apple Bloom. She screamed, the torch falling out of her hooves, and collapsed to the ground, clutching her left hindleg.

“Apple Bloom!” Sweetie Belle rushed to her, glancing around for any other airborne boulders. Fortunately, there were none, and the leg seemed relatively undamaged. “Apple Bloom, are you alright?”

“Do I look alright to you?” Apple Bloom gritted her teeth, tears falling from her eyes. “Help me up.”

Sweetie Belle pulled her to her hooves, only for her to fall back down again when yet another roar made the ground tremble. It was louder, and so was the screeching of metal.

Sweetie Belle lifted her back up again. “Can you walk? Where did that rock even come from?”

Apple Bloom slowly lowered her injured leg, let it touch the ground, started shifting her weight, winced, and jerked it back up with a hiss. “I’ll manage,” she said, glaring at the stone that hit her. “I saw it, alright. It started flyin’, all this blue shine around it, right after you guessed. You must’ve been wrong since it aimed for you.”

“For me?” Sweetie Belle’s gaze shifted to Apple Bloom’s leg. “I’m so sorry!” She hugged and pressed her tightly to her chest.

“It’s fine.” Apple Bloom pushed her away and smiled. “But now we really oughta solve that riddle!”

As if to confirm her words, the thing in the pit roared again. Worse yet, the sound of breaking metal couldn’t have been further than a few meters from the surface.

Sweetie Belle nodded and tottered to the door. “Two sisters are like... like...” She checked the plethora of boulders surrounding them and gulped. “Like... I don’t know!” She turned to Apple Bloom, tears in her eyes. “It could be so many things! How should I know what they compared it with? And if I start guessing, we’ll just get pummelled by rocks!”

“If you don’t, that monster there will have us for dinner!” Apple Bloom turned her head to the hole and shuddered. “Just think!”

“Alright.” Sweetie Belle turned back to the door, shivering. “Two sisters are like... like... Help me out!” She said, looking at her friend again. “You’ve got to have some kind of an idea!”

“I—”

The ground shook again as something heavy hit the metallic grate securing the top of the hole.

“I don’t know! You’re the one with a fancy-speakin’ sister! You’ve got a better vocabulary than me.”

“Alright, alright!” Sweetie Belle turned back to the door. “Two sisters are like...”

The metal bars were giving way, several of them flying broken out of the pit and landing nearby.

“Like... like a salad made of carrots and—”

“Like an apple pie!” Apple Bloom shouted. The door opened with a click.

“How did—”

Apple Bloom pushed Sweetie Belle through the door, limping right behind her while constantly turning her head towards the hole. Something long and enormous penetrated the last grate and shot high in the air.

The gate closed without a sound before Sweetie Belle could get a better look, and the roars of the monster ceased.

She staggered to a stop and turned around. “How did you know that was the answer?”

“I didn’t.” Apple Bloom took a deep breath and frowned at her injured leg. “But Applejack keeps sayin’ this stuff, and I was sure that whatever you were goin’ to say would just send more rocks at us. Two sisters are like a salad? Really?”

“I was under pressure,” Sweetie Belle said, blushing. “How’s your leg?”

“Terrible.” Apple Bloom drew another deep breath, letting it out with a hiss as she tried to touch the injured area. “Somethin’s wrong with the knee. I can barely move it, and it hurts when I do.”

“Maybe we’ll find something to help you here.” Sweetie Belle frowned as she looked around, at the forest that once again pressed at them from both sides.

Apple Bloom forced out a chuckle. “I kinda doubt we’ll find a hospital ‘round here.”

“Just some cloth to tie the leg would help,” Sweetie Belle said, shining her horn’s light onto the path ahead. “Back to walking, I guess.”

“I guess not.” Apple Bloom pointed ahead. “I see somethin’ there.”

Sweetie Belle squinted and saw it too – a group of rectangular lights, as of windows on a house. Oddly, there was something familiar about their arrangement.

“Another clearing this soon? Maybe we shouldn’t go in there. So far, these places have been nothing but trouble.”

“Sure, but...” Apple Bloom looked left and right. “There ain’t no other way to go.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Sweetie Belle sighed and marched forth, slouching. This was going to end badly; she just knew it.

As they neared, the lights grew bigger and the structure’s outline more defined. In fact, they could already make out which building the light belonged to.

“The boutique?” Sweetie Belle did a double take. “That makes no sense at all!”

“I told you I saw somethin’ that looked a lot like our barn.” Apple Bloom brushed past Sweetie Belle and walked all the way to the shop, peeking inside a window. “It was in ruins, though. This one’s lookin’ just fine. And I don’t see any scary stuff inside either. Do we have to go in?”

Sweetie Belle reached for the compass. It pointed to a path on their left. “I don’t think so.” She looked back at the boutique. “But... No scary stuff, you say?”

“Weren’t you just sayin’ it could be dangerous?”

“I know,” Sweetie Belle said, wrinkling her brow. “But if there’s going to be some fabric anywhere in this maze, it’ll be there.”

“What would we— Right.” Apple Bloom scowled at her knee. “Stupid leg!”

“We’ll be quick.” Sweetie Belle pulled the door handle and slipped inside.

The Carousel Boutique was... well, the Carousel Boutique. It looked exactly as it should – the stand with mirrors, the thick velvet curtains, the mannequins with finished and half-finished dresses... It was as if somepony teleported it there from Ponyville. The only thing missing was its owner.

“Rarity?” Sweetie Belle said, turning her head left and right as if expecting her sister to walk out from behind one of the curtains. No such luck.

“Did you really think she’d be here? Maybe waitin’ with a hot bath and a cup of tea?” Apple Bloom giggled before hissing as her hoof touched the ground, and took a piece of green cloth from one of the mannequins.

“It was worth a try,” Sweetie Belle said, leaning under Apple Bloom and supporting her as she tied the leg to her body. Not much of a treatment, but enough to keep the leg from getting in the way and bumping into rocks and such. Plus, she now didn’t have to strain herself keeping it up.

“What’s that?” Apple Bloom asked in a muffled voice as she made the final knot on the improvised bandage.

“What?” Sweetie Belle followed her gaze. “Oh. No idea.”

A neatly wrapped present with a big, blue ribbon rested on top of the sewing machine. A tag dangled from its side.

“Well, go take a look then. It could be important.” Apple Bloom leaned off of Sweetie Belle and pushed her towards the package.

“I’m going; I’m going!” Sweetie Belle threw her an ugly look and walked to the sewing machine, lifting the paper to her eyes. “‘From Rarity to Sweetie Belle.’ Huh... It’s her hornwriting. She always makes these curls on the letters.”

“Wait, you mean she actually could be hidin’ in here?” Apple Bloom shot a long look at the curtains. “Okay, probably not. But somethin’ else could be, waitin’ for the right moment to ambush us!” She spun around, measuring the mannequins with her gaze.

“Wouldn’t it have jumped us by now? I mean the perfect moment would have been when you were bandaging yourself,” Sweetie Belle said. She waved at her. “Come here. I’m going to open it.” She slowly undid the bow and raised the lid. Inside was a photo of her sister.

Rarity struck a pose in the picture, showcasing one of her best dresses from a few months ago. Sweetie Belle flipped the photo over.

“I am the escape.” Sweetie Belle looked at Apple Bloom with cocked brow. “That’s what it says on the back. What’s it supposed to mean?”

“Give it here.” Apple Bloom grabbed it, looked at it, and jumped away as if she’d just got hold of a snake. “T-that was a really bad joke, Sweetie Belle!”

“What?” Sweetie Belle picked it off the ground and jerked away as well. ‘Rarity’s’ face filled the entirety of photo, and her vast, obsidian-coloured eyes stared directly into the lens. Fortunately, even though she could feel her legs go stiff for a moment, it was relatively easy to look away.

“S-Sweetie Belle... I have a really bad feelin’ about this.”

Apple Bloom kept turning around, as if seeing the boutique for the first time.

Sweetie Belle looked up. “What the...”

The heavy curtains had turned into crude cardboard drawings, the doors to other rooms were obviously mere paintings, and even the walls looked more like a foal coloured them with a crayon. It was as if they’d stepped into the backstage of a school theatre.

“Let’s get outta here.” Apple Bloom limped out of the boutique, Sweetie Belle right behind her. Then they turned towards the forest path and galloped until the last lights of the ‘boutique’ vanished.