The Maze

Chapter 4: The Exit

Apple Bloom stopped and leaned against one of the nearby trees, sticking her hoof in front of Sweetie Belle while gasping for air. “Alright. That was... That was bad. We ain’t ever goin’ into any buildings here again!” She looked back in the boutique’s direction and, even though she couldn’t possibly see it past the vegetation anymore, couldn’t help but shudder.

“You got a bandage out of it; you have no right to complain.” Sweetie Belle took a few deep breaths as well and shook her head. “You know what’s really strange, though?”

“So far? Everythin’.”

“Yes, but what’s really, really strange?”

“Uh...” Apple Bloom scratched her head. “It all looks really, really strange to me.”

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. “The weird thing is how the maze places familiar stuff everywhere. How could it know about Rarity or what my house looks like? We didn’t even talk about it. Can it read our minds? Did the book say anything about it?”

“You saw it yourself – that book was just plain useless. It didn’t say anythin’ about all of this! Just where the ruin is and that we shouldn’t go in.”

“Maybe that’s why Twilight gave it to us so easily,” Sweetie Belle said, tapping her chin. “She knew how useless it was and forgot that one place had its position marked in there. Come to think of it, it was the only ruin there with its position written down. All the others were way too vague about it – ‘Somewhere in Saddle Arabia’ or ‘North of Crystal Empire.’”

“So?”

“It’s just weird, that’s all. I mean why take the time to write down the exact location of the least described place in the entire book?” Sweetie Belle shook her head and sighed, kicking into a nearby root. “Stupid maze! Nothing about it makes any sense.”

“Maybe it knows stuff about us from Scoots. You said she acted weird after drinkin’ that water.”

“Maybe,” Sweetie Belle said, furrowing her brow. “I still don’t like it. I hope the entrance is near.”

“It better be. I mean, we’ve been walkin’ forever! We should’ve reached it ten times over already.”

Sweetie Belle nodded and walked forth. “We’ve got to hurry. If we don’t find it soon, it might be too late for Scootaloo.”

The path was a bit wider than before and could be traversed without getting scratched. It could mean they were going in the right direction. Or that the maze was subtly guiding them towards some sort of a trap. It mattered little – it seemed like the maze got them wherever it wanted to anyway.

Sweetie Belle turned a corner and staggered to a halt. “Oh, come on. No way! Again?”

“What?” Apple Bloom lifted her gaze from the ground. “Are you kiddin’ me? We don’t have to go in, do we?”

Ahead stood another building, its windows dark, that looked curiously similar to the Ponyville spa. Except the town would have had to be hit by a hurricane for it to look like this. The door was wide open, holding onto one last hinge, the sign was torn off, the windows were broken, and the walls were splattered by dirt and filth.

Sweetie Belle gulped and pulled out the compass. She knew the answer even before she looked at it – there were no other paths leading from the clearing, nor was there a way around the building. “Sorry.”

Apple Bloom slouched and hung her head low as she shuffled towards the door. “There’s goin’ to be somethin’ terrible there.”

“The spa isn’t big. The back door should be just a few steps away from the entrance,” Sweetie Belle said, looking at the mud-stained walls again with her legs wobbling. In this maze, ‘should’ rarely equalled ‘is’. Not to mention distance didn’t matter that much if there was a big, ravenous monster in between them and the exit.

Maybe it’ll be a nice, proper, empty ruin for once.

She didn’t believe it herself.

The door creaked as they walked past it. The moment their hooves crossed the sill, it slammed shut.

“I knew goin’ in was a bad idea!” Apple Bloom said, her voice trembling about as much as her legs.

Sweetie Belle spun and, with her teeth gritted and eyes closed, rammed into the door with all the strength she could muster.

The door didn’t open. The remaining hinge gave way, and the door collapsed with Sweetie Belle falling on top of it.

“Oh.” Apple Bloom cleared her throat and looked away. “I... guess it must have been the wind. Anyway, where’s the exit?”

Sweetie Belle got up, her heart pounding like a hammer, and turned around.

The spa’s inside looked just like its outside – everything was covered by filth and thick layers of dust, as if nopony had set a hoof in there for several months. Or at least she hoped that was the case – she didn’t fancy meeting whatever perverted version of Aloe and Lotus the maze might’ve prepared for them to meet.

As for the layout, the spa was a circular building with a large, wooden tub to Sweetie Belle’s left and the mineral and mud baths to her right, along with the hooficure stand. They had seen better days – the remains of deck-chairs and rugs lay all around in varying states of decay and destruction. The back door was right ahead, a few steps away, just like she said it would be.

If the maze thinks a destroyed spa is going to horrify me, it must be mistaking me for Rarity.

Sweetie Belle chuckled and strode ahead, grabbing the back door’s handle. Her smile froze on her lips. “It’s locked.”

“What?”

“It’s locked,” Sweetie Belle said, turning around with a frown. “We’ve got to find a key. The forest was too thick to go through.”

“Can’t we just buck it open or somethin’? The other door went down just fine.”

Sweetie Belle measured the back door with her eyes. Unlike the entrance, this one rested securely on its hinges and showed no sign of rot or other weakness. How perfect. “I... don’t think that’s going to work. Maybe the key’s somewhere around here. I mean, if the maze wanted to stop us, it could’ve done it a thousand times already.”

“Or maybe it was just playin’ with us and finally got bored.”

Sweetie Belle frowned. “Let’s hope it didn’t. I’ll take the right, you take the left.” She trotted towards the hooficure section and rifled through the remains.

Broken combs, bent clippers, spilled oil and scent bottles... it was as if something took extra effort to damage every single thing. Or maybe those clippers were supposed to be bent that way; Sweetie Belle wasn’t sure. She’d never had a hooficure. Be that as it may, there was no key among the refuse.

“Have anythin’?”

“No. Keep searching.”

Next were the mineral baths. Sweetie Belle usually liked those – she wasn’t sure what all the things Aloe and Lotus poured in there were, but it smelled nice, the water was warm, and the massages afterwards were great too. These baths, however, smelled like somepony filled them with unwashed clothes and let them float in there for a few weeks. At least it was still relatively clear, and she could see that the key wasn’t there.

The spa echoed with a loud splash.

“Apple Bloom?” Sweetie Belle turned around just in time to see Apple Bloom’s soaked head emerge over the tub’s edge.

“I-it’s s-so c-c-cold.” Her teeth rattled as if they were about to fall out.

“What are you doing in there?”

“S-s-searchin’.” She took a deep breath and dived.

Sweetie Belle shook her head, rolled her eyes, and turned to the mud baths – easily her most disliked part of the spa visits. The mud was slimy and weird to the touch – it was like having plaster applied to her face – and the cucumber slices covering her eyes only made the experience worse. If only it didn’t take so long! She could talk Rarity out of making her take a hooficure, she couldn’t talk her out of making her lay in the mud.

She scrunched her muzzle and plunged her hoof into the slimy depths. It was cold and unpleasant, running her hoof through the sludge, and Sweetie Belle was becoming more and more convinced she was just wasting time – why in Equestria would anypony ever put a key inside a pool of mud? Then again, she didn’t see it anywhere else either.

Her hoof touched something solid. It barely brushed against her fur, but it was certainly there somewhere. In a rush of adrenaline, Sweetie Belle leaned further over the edge and stuck her other front leg inside. She kept bumping into it, but the slippery nature of the mud made it as difficult as trying to grasp a wet bar of soap.

“Come here,” Sweetie Belle said through her clenched teeth, chasing the object by the edge of the bath. She could never get a good grasp, but as far as she could tell, it was rather big and circular for a key – somepony must have put it into a tube of some sort to keep it from getting damaged.

With another loud splash and a gasp, Apple Bloom emerged from the water. “S-Sweetie Belle!”

“Come over here, I think I ha—”

“I’ve g-g-got it!” She raised a big, metal key above her head.

“What?” Sweetie Belle looked back at the mud. “But then—”

The ‘tube’ grabbed her hoof and pulled her in.

The brown sludge was cold and bitter, as Sweetie Belle found out when it filled her mouth, muffling her screams. Before she could as much as spit it out, something strong pushed her under the mud level and pressed her against the basin’s bottom. Or was it the bottom? It wasn’t as hard as it should be, nor did it feel as cold as she would expect... Using as much strength as she could muster, she wriggled out of the thing’s grasp, her head breaking through the surface, and managed to suck in a bit of air before being dragged down again.

Then, everything began to rise, and she was brought onto her haunches. She managed to swipe some mud away from her eyes and look, but all she saw was a tall, dripping figure of liquid dirt. The mud-monster clutched her tightly to its chest – so tightly, in fact, that it was getting hard to breathe.

She coughed out some of the sludge. “N... No. I... I can’t...”

The monster opened its eyes, and Sweetie Belle stiffened. They were pitch-black.

Once again, she couldn’t avert her gaze. She couldn’t move at all, actually. She wasn’t paralysed; she just didn’t want to move, even though she knew she had to. It was like staring into two dark pools of swirling energy that constantly promised that if she kept looking for just a fraction of a second longer, she’d see something amazing.

Sweetie Belle recognised Apple Bloom shouting something, but it sounded weak, muffled. As if they were far apart. She stared into those midnight orbs, watched as the mud trickled down the monster’s formerly purple mane, and felt herself get smaller, or perhaps the eyes getting bigger. They filled her view more and more, their surroundings growing dim, until she couldn’t recognise where they ended and where the rest of the mare’s face began. As if they formed a world of their own, which desperately tried to drag Sweetie Belle into itself. And it did.

Apple Bloom’s shouts and the splashing of mud were muted in a matter of seconds. All she could hear were her heartbeat and... tinkling. As if somepony broke a window, and the shards now fell to the ground like a waterfall, giving off a cold, sharp jingle as they flew.

She had no body. She was nothing but consciousness floating through the void, listening to the strange ‘music’. Even the heartbeat dampened, making the other sound even clearer. No song Sweetie Belle had ever heard could equal to this simple yet beautiful ruckus.

She thought she heard something else too, however. Something hidden behind the jingle. Some voice. Had Sweetie Belle had any ears, she’d strain them to hear more. It was louder and louder, but still not quite intelligible. She almost couldn’t hear the heartbeat interference anymore, but it wasn’t enough. Just a bit less noise, a bit more volume to the voice...

Pain. It took her a second to realise it, but a new sensation added itself to this world and quickly outmatched everything else: a dull ache that shook with her entire existence and dragged her back to reality. The world faded, and the eyes returned to their original size.

No... I need to hear...

Sweetie Belle took in some air with a wheeze. Her lungs hurt like somepony squeezed them with his hooves, and her face as if it got hit by a rock. Everything felt so cold. The mare’s coat felt almost warm in comparison to the mud they were bathing in, and Sweetie Belle pressed herself against it.

“...swear that I’ll do it again if you don’t stop huggin’ it!”

Hearing returned, and sanity with it. Something flung a hoof-worth of mud into Sweetie Belle’s eyes, stinging her eyes and breaking the eye contact with the mare. With another gasp, Sweetie Belle put her back hooves on the mare’s thighs and sprang up, slipping out of the deadly embrace. She sprawled on the floor, banging both her knees and her chin. She started getting up, but her legs buckled under her.

“Hurry up!” Apple Bloom shouted, grabbing her by the hoof and dragging her across the floor to the now open back door.

Sweetie Belle managed to stand up this time and made a few wobbly steps forward before collapsing on the path outside, clutching her stomach.

Apple Bloom slammed the door shut behind them and turned the key, spun around, and bit her lip as she stared at Sweetie Belle.

Sweetie Belle tried to speak, but all that came out was a gurgle. The taste of mud returned to her mouth as she got on her knees and gagged. Then she gagged again. And then she vomited. The brownish, half-solid liquid came out of her in litres. It seemed that while none of it got into her lungs, thankfully, she instead managed to drink half the mud bath.

A loud bang shook with the door.

“Finish it up!” Apple Bloom switched glances between Sweetie Belle and the spa’s exit. “We ain’t got much time!”

“Wha... Wha... Wha...” Sweetie Belle threw up again and gasped. “What happened? W-why does my face hurt?” She wiped her mouth and sniffed. Her stomach seemed to have calmed down for the moment, but it was as if her strength left along with the mud. Her muscles were sore, like she’d been running all day without breaks, and walking alone suddenly sounded like a serious challenge.

“There’s no time for that! Run!” Apple Bloom limped forward with surprising speed, grabbing Sweetie Belle’s hoof and pulling her forward.

A loud explosion shook the ground as they turned the second corner, accompanied by cracking of wood.

Apple Bloom looked at Sweetie Belle, her face as pale as a piece of paper. “Check the compass!”

Sweetie Belle let go of her, maintaining her gallop, reached to her mane, and nearly fell down again. While her hair proved to have remarkable properties for item storage, it couldn’t possibly defeat a mud bath. “I... I don’t have it!”

“Don’t have it?” This time, it was Apple Bloom who tripped and fell to the ground. Despite her injury, however, she soon caught up to Sweetie Belle. “You don’t have it?” She shook her head, her lips stretching into a smile while her eyes flooded with tears. “She ain’t got it.” She sniffed and let out something in-between a laugh and a sob. “We’re goin’ to die here because she ain’t got it.”

“We... We must have been close!” Sweetie Belle said, slowing down and taking a few breaths. Looking back, the mare’s white silhouette was already looming a short distance behind them.

Apple Bloom waited for nothing and ran onwards, with or without her friend.

“Wait up!” Sweetie Belle galloped after her, some of her strength coming back. “There were no crossroads so far. Just... just turns. Maybe we’ll be lucky and—”

A small clearing opened up just behind the next corner, a lone torch burning in the middle of it.

“The entrance!” they shouted in unison and sped up.

Finally! Even if the mare pursued them outside, it would just be a matter of calling for help. Ponyville would make quick work of this creature.

Sweetie Belle couldn’t help but grin. They’d bring a whole army here to search for Scootaloo! Dozens of guards chopping down this cursed forest, bringing an end to this place. And who knows? They could even get those cutie marks – if this adventure wasn’t worth them, nothing was.

They ran past the torch and into the dark corridor ahead. The smell of mould and stale air filled her nostrils and, upon peeking back, the mare wasn’t even past the torch yet! They could make it. They would make it. Sweetie Belle was certain of it. They passed this maze’s trials; they fought the evil of this place and won. The escape was their reward.

When Sweetie Belle looked left, she could see the exact same grin on Apple Bloom’s face. It was time to end this. She sent a little, bright flare of victory into the darkness ahead as she galloped. The exit couldn’t be further than half a minute away.

The flare hit a tree trunk and split into dozens of little sparks. Both fillies skidded to a halt, staring with their jaws dropped and eyes widened. The path was plugged by a monolithic wall of wood, as if a dozen trees merged together. The left and right sides were blocked by the regular amount of foliage, but the organic barrier stretched even there, cutting off any possible route to the entrance.

Tears burst into Sweetie Belle’s eyes, and a large, bitter lump formed in her throat. “What do we do?” Her voice was as thin as a hair.

Apple Bloom kept staring at the wall, slowly shaking her head. “No... No, this ain’t true. It can’t. No...”

Sweetie Belle threw a peek behind, already knowing what she’d see. The mare actually moved this time. One hoof after another, as if she knew they had nowhere to run to and found some sort of sadistic pleasure in putting off their inevitable demise.

They could try running among the trees to their left and right, but it would only be a matter of minutes before either of them got tangled in the thorny vines and chased down. Seconds, in Apple Bloom’s case. Sweetie Belle couldn’t imagine her making it further than a few meters in her state. It was true that she could still try, but... what was the point? The exit was blocked, and if there was any other way to escape, they had no way to find it without the compass.

Sweetie Belle pressed herself against her friend and watched as the mare neared. It was rather ironic that she’d be killed by something that looked almost exactly like her sister, the very pony she always ran to for protection.

At least it won’t hurt. It was... pleasant before.

“Don’t look her in the eyes!” Apple Bloom dug her head into Sweetie Belle’s coat, as if looking away could save her.

Sweetie Belle looked ahead expressionless. The mare even moved like Rarity, raising her hooves high and delicately putting them down afterwards. The maze made its monster well.

The mare’s horn glowed and Apple Bloom yanked her head up, her eyelids magically forced to open.

With a sigh and a little, almost invisible smile she didn’t even know she’d made, Sweetie Belle met the mare’s gaze. Apple Bloom kept twisting and turning at first, but even she fell limp after a while. The eyes grew bigger.

Sweetie Belle was just about to plunge into their depths again when their power was rudely interrupted by a rock the size of a hoof hitting the mare’s right temple.

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom stiffened, looking at each other, at the mare, and then at the source of the disturbance. The vegetation to their left was dry and decayed, turning into small, withered husks before their very eyes. In the middle of it stood...

“Scootaloo?” Sweetie Belle did a double take.

Scootaloo nodded, grabbed her hoof, and started dragging her away.

“Wuh... Wait up!” Apple Bloom climbed to her hooves and limped towards them, shedding the provisory, now soaked and filthy, bandage and using her injured leg. She was still nowhere fast enough to keep up with Scootaloo’s tempo, however.

The mare lost no time either and went after them, using her strange distance-compressing skills again. Sweetie Belle couldn’t be sure, but she thought she saw her lips droop by a miniscule amount, the stitches pulling at her skin and opening the wounds. No blood came out, however.

Scootaloo still held Sweetie Belle’s hoof tightly in her grasp, pulling her ahead at such a speed that it was a wonder she hadn’t tripped yet.

“Wait for Apple Bloom!” Sweetie Belle shouted, trying to slow down, but it was like trying to slow down a carriage rolling down a hill.

“Can’t. The mare’s moving in for the kill.” Scootaloo dragged her around the corner of one of the crossroads and pushed her onto her butt. Then she lifted herself on her hind legs, and fell down with a loud stomp. As if on command, numerous saplings and vines sprang from the ground, growing at an impossible speed, and before Sweetie Belle knew it, the passage was blocked.

“But... But...” Sweetie Belle shook her head, and her face reddened. “You can’t just leave her there!”

“She’d slow us down – her leg was ill.”

Sweetie Belle gaped at her. Then she sprang up and tackled Scootaloo to the ground. “Destroy those trees! Clear that path again! Do it! We’ve got to—”

Scootaloo stuck her hoof in Sweetie Belle’s mouth and pushed her off. “If we take her, our chances are nil.”

“You’re rhyming again,” Sweetie Belle said, taking a long look at her. Scootaloo looked strangely... normal. Just like when they entered the maze – a bit of ruffled fur here and there, but no injuries, no scrapes, no twigs... nothing to indicate she went through the same, if not worse, ordeal as them. Upon closer inspection, however, Scootaloo’s eyes betrayed a faint glow.

Sweetie Belle shook her head. She didn’t have time for another argument about this. “Open up the way. We’ve got to help her, no matter our chances! We can’t just abandon her.”

Scootaloo stared at her, her face as still as a mask. “We can and we will. I thought you wanted to escape, or do you like this sort of thrill?”

Sweetie Belle grit her teeth. “I want to escape, but with both of you! I don’t know what that water did to you, and I don’t care. Save Apple Bloom, or you’ll have to go home alone.” Through the small gaps in between the trees, she could see the filly in question limp past them. “And hurry up!”

Scootaloo scowled and grabbed Sweetie Belle by the leg.

Sweetie Belle jerked her hoof away before Scootaloo could tighten her grip. “Oh, no. I’m not being dragged away again! Help Apple Bloom or I’m staying right here, in this spot!”

Scootaloo stayed silent for about ten seconds staring at Sweetie Belle with narrowed eyes. Then, she pulled something from her mane and threw it to her. “You disappoint me – I will have to use some of my skill. Follow this – don’t lose it again – and your purpose you will fulfill.”

It was the compass – it was even still covered by mud stains. Sweetie Belle looked at the needle, which pointed somewhere behind Scootaloo. “How did you get this? And what do you mean ‘fulfill’. Like escape?”

Scootaloo smirked and, after a moment, gave her a quick nod. “See me at the exit. Perhaps Apple Bloom will be with you still.”

The plants she created earlier withered and died like the ones before, and she strode away, hopefully to distract the mare again. Sweetie Belle waited a while, peeked out, and when she saw no apparent danger, continued the way Apple Bloom took.

She found her only a minute’s walk ahead, curled into a little ball and squeezing her eyes shut.

“Apple Bloom?” Sweetie Belle prodded her with the tip of her hoof.

“Sweetie Belle?” One of her eyes peeked from under the eyelid, looked Sweetie Belle over, and then opened all the way. “Where did you go? I... I was tryin’ to keep up, I swear! But then I lost you and... and there was no light and...” She sniffed and wiped her eyes. “Thanks for coming back for me. Where’s Scootaloo?”

“Taking care of the monster. She’ll meet us later.” Sweetie Belle smiled and pulled her up. “Of course I came back for you. Are you okay?”

Apple Bloom looked at her injured leg, which was downright bloated now, and shook her head. “It ain’t lookin’ good. Should’ve kept it bandaged. B–but I can still walk!” She made a few steps forward, keeping the leg above ground at all times. “See? I ain’t fast, but I can move.” She frowned. “Please don’t leave me behind. I know I’ll be slowin’ you down, but... but...” She stared at her for a while, opening her mouth and closing it again, and sighed. “There ain’t no ‘but’. I’m just baggage.”

Sweetie Belle hugged her around the neck and giggled. “You might be a slowcoach, but you’re still my friend. I wouldn’t leave you behind if there were twenty monsters chasing us!” She levitated the compass in front of Apple Bloom. “And look what I have. Scootaloo was acting weird again, but she said it’ll lead us to a proper exit. Plus, I think we’ll be safe.”

For the moment, at least.

A smile appeared on Apple Bloom’s face as she nodded and began limping to where the compass was pointing them.