I woke to loud sounds around me. My ears tattered in pain as my teeth gritted. My arms attempted to move, but could not. It was like I had no strength in them at all. My eyes moved over the area around me. I was in some sort of steel box. The top was just mere inches from my face. The inside was white in color and there seemed to be light coming from somewhere. I couldn’t tell whereas when I tried to lift my face, I found it to be just as heavy as my arms. My eyes widened and I tried to move my other parts. Indeed, my legs and tail couldn’t move either. However, I could slightly move my jaw, my ears were able to move freely, and though it was hard to tell, my facial features were movable as well.

I took in a deep breath through my nose. I had to think of a way out of this. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get much thought done as the loud sounds were still swarming around me; in fact, they were getting even louder by the second. It was like they were trying to torture me. I would try to scream, but I could barely move my mouth properly as it was.

Suddenly, the noise stopped. It became deathly quiet. So much so that the only thing I could hear aside from my breathing was the sweat on my face dripping to the metal below me. Time passed and with the noise gone, I could finally ponder on a way out. The first thing that came to my head was; how long had I been here? Minutes, hours, days? I felt no air current, and yet no matter how big breath I took, the air would not thin, almost like there was an endless replenish, or did even ever replenish. I decided to count.

‘One, two, three.’ The numbers bounced in my head, yet the more I counted, the longer it felt in there. ‘Four, five, six.’ I tried to think of how I got to this place, yet nothing came to me. I tried to think of where I was before this. And again, nothing. I tried to think back further, but stopped when my eyes widened at another thought. What was my name?

‘Seven, eight, nine.’ I searched my mind like a detective, but found nothing. I pulled on every single thought I had and still, nothing. The earliest memory I could think of... was waking in this steel box. No, that couldn’t be right. Did I always live in this? And when did the sounds start? Were they always there? And if so, why did they stop now?

‘Ten, eleven, twelve.’ It was strange, my mind was so confused that it wanted the painful sounds to return. I needed answers, I needed reasons to exist. Who am I? Where am I? How long had I been here? And when could I leave?

‘Thirteen… fourteen… fifteen.’ I felt tears going down my face as I finally stopped counting. There was no point. Forgetting the minutes, hours and possibly days. For all I knew, I could have been in here for years. This could be my birth… or maybe it was my death.

No, there was no way I could accept that. I gritted my teeth and began pushing my body to move. I wouldn’t relent, I couldn’t give up. This would not be my life, and this would not be my death.

Suddenly, I felt my jaw moving, moving properly. I could stretch it and open it again. What happened? Did I pull something loose? Did I break some sort of lock on me? Did this mean I could move the rest of me? Maybe, I didn’t know, but I had to try.

I pushed and pulled at my body, yet much to my fear, nothing happened. I pushed and pulled harder and still nothing. My mind raced with every possible thing that could be letting my mouth move, but keeping the rest of me completely immobile. I wondered why I didn’t think of this before. Finally, it hit me, I couldn’t move… but I could scream.

My eyes winced and I took in a deep breath, pulling on every ounce of oxygen in me. Finally, I screamed. I poured everything into that scream. If this was my life, then I would defy it. I screamed and screamed, ignoring the pain in my mouth. I badly wanted to be free, I didn’t care who heard me. I wanted freedom and I wanted it now.

The more I panicked, the more I realized, my body was reacting to it. Small twitches in my fingers, slight twisting in my legs. I pushed through and screamed even harder, forcing the rest of my body to move.

My hands twisted from the pain, my legs jolted from the force. Soon though my screams filled with cracks and my throat began to burn. Coughs stopped my screams for only a moment. I pushed them away and tried to scream more, but they fought back. It became too painful to scream, but I didn’t care. I knew this would work, I could feel my body moving more and more, the harder I pushed. I had to keep going, there was no point in stopping. I couldn’t stop, I couldn’t give in. There was no way I would live my life in this box. So, no matter what, I would… rebel. Pressing on, I felt my body move upward. Finally, after so long, I found myself moving freely.

“Finally, you rebelled.”

Hearing the voice, I stopped screaming. I fell back, confused and curious about the new sound. Who did this voice belong to? Where did it come from?

“Don’t worry, my child. I will set you free soon enough.” The voice was very clearly belonging to a male. It seemed cold, yet somehow kind.

I jumped and tried to speak, but all that would come out now was screams. I needed answers. How long was I here? Who put me in here? And finally, why?

“You can’t speak, but you can acknowledge. So, answer me a question. A simple question, one that all must answer before they can be free.”

A question was what he was after. He said I’ll be free, just like the others. Were there more like me? Did they receive the same question? And did they give the right answer?

“Stop pondering, all I want is an answer to a question. Do that and you will be free.”

Of course, I would answer his question. I wanted freedom for so long, but… what was freedom? Was it good, or kind, would I even like freedom? It made no sense. I had been here for so long now, yet for all I knew, I could be wrong… Maybe I was--

“I said stop pondering, it’s ear grinding.” I stopped at his words. Could… could he hear my thoughts? I stopped thinking and decided to wait. Maybe his question was indeed as simple as he said, after all, it was the only way to freedom.

“Finally?” I could hear him release a deep sigh of relief. “So, now onto the question… Do you still believe in the alicorn gods?”

My eyes sank into my skull. What was an alicorn god? Did I know what it was at one time? Did I always know? Or did I ever knew? God would be the being that created life, so did these alicorn gods put me in here? Why would they do such a thing? No, why would I ever believe in such a being?

“Good. I’m glad you think that way.”

My mind came to attention at the sound of a cane hitting the ground. On that, I felt the box moving. It was lifting upward. My eye shot out as I heard the sound of the metal moving, no... the box was opening.

I pulled back at a bright light swarming in from one side. It was so much more brighter than the light in the box that it was almost blinding. I tried to hide from it, but as the front of the box opened more, it left me no place to do so.

Suddenly, a silhouette tore through the light. “So, your mind tells me that you have lost faith in them. Good, very good. But let’s see if you can pass the final test.” The figure lifted his hand and a loud snapping sound broke through the air.

Smoke rose around me at an increasing rate. I struggled forward and found myself outside the box. However, my legs gave out and I fell to the ground. The smoke covered me as I tried to look up to the figure. I couldn’t see his face or even what species he was, but I could at least see that he had a green blazer on and a red cane in his hand. My eyes became heavier and weaker as the smoke entered my mouth and nose. I reached out with my arm and it fell to the ground before I could reach the figure. My body became heavier as well. Everything around me began to dim. The light’s brightness no longer bothered me. Finally, I felt sleep overtaking me. I tried to fight it, but it was too strong. It was too strong...

******

Author's Note

Okay, here how things are going to go for this story. I'm going to be handling it very differently from other stories. I will only be releasing chapters on certain holidays. Those holidays being...

Groundhog Day.
Valentines Day.
April Fool's Day.
Cinco De Mayo.
Memorial Day.
Independence Day.
Halloween.
Thanksgiving.
Christmas.
New Year's Eve.

Each of these holidays you will get a single chapter. So the next chapter will come out on Groundhog Day. Now, these will be set to holiday dates set for next year. I'm not sure how long this story will get, so I might even finish it before the new year is over with. Also, each chapter will be a certain pony's POV.

Now as for how this chapter ended, fans of the Cube must be somewhat confused. At least fans of Cube Zero, since the question was actually in reverse. I did it this way because each movie really had their own reasons for having the maze. My reason will make sense by the end of this story. Be aware that I won't be leaving you all somewhat lost like this series often did to it's fans by the end.

This will have all the gory fun traps you know from the series, plus some new ones I thought up. Keep a tracking on this as I have got some big plans for this one.