Author's Note

This chapter contains weird costumes, pointless nonsense, and humiliation.

The Rat Race

Celestia stepped into the next room with Luna on her heels, yet no sooner was she inside than she found herself standing alone. She was on a platform, looking down on a maze with a glass ceiling. A speaker sat next to her, with a microphone beside it.

Luna, meanwhile, also found herself alone, standing at the end of a featureless corridor, which stretched forward to a t-junction where she could go right or left.

"Celestia?" called out Luna.

"Luna." Celestia heard her sister's voice coming through the speaker. She looked out over the maze below and spotted a speck of dark blue at one edge.

"Celestia? Where are you?"

"I'm above you," she said into the microphone. "You're inside a maze."

"Ah. And you can see where I should go?"

"Yes." Celestia scanned the maze, looking for the exit. She soon found it. The maze was really fairly simple. It wouldn't take long for Luna to navigate it. "You should go ahead and then to your left."

"Ah, ah, ah, don't get ahead of yourselves," said Discord, popping into existence next to Luna. "This is a rat maze. Rats only!" He grinned broadly as he snapped his fingers. A rat costume appeared in one of his hands. He grabbed Luna with the other, and somehow instantly stuffed her into the rat costume, layers of fur and stuffing muffling her body, a hood with a rat's face going over her head, her muzzle sticking out of its mouth. A tail trailed behind, her own tail wadded up within, and her mane too was covered. Other than her face nothing of her was visible, everything wrapped in layers of padding and mangy fake fur. The rat's face looked out above her own, with huge, staring eyes. The head was big enough to cover her long horn, a stupid smile plastered across the costume's face.

The head's big bucked teeth hung down in front of her eyes, almost obscuring her vision. The padding around the rat costume's rear, that made it more or less rat-shaped, was so fat that she could only waddle slowly forward. The whole ridiculous contraption made navigating the maze a much more difficult prospect.

"Have fun!" said Discord, and vanished again.

"Fun, sure," muttered Luna. She began to waddle awkwardly forward. "Left, you said, sister?"

"Yes."

"Very well. I hope this does not take long." Luna headed down the corridor and turned left. Ahead the nearly featureless maze walls stretched out unbroken until a four-way junction.

"Take another left here," said Celestia.

"Right."

Celestia laughed, trying to keep a bit of humor in their annoying and humiliating situation. "No, left."

One corner of Luna's mouth quirked up and she chuckled a little as she walked along.

"What the..." Celestia's confused voice made Luna stop and look around, but she saw nothing but the boring walls of the maze.

Celestia, though, was looking down from above, and she could see that a large sort of inverted basket or birdcage top had appeared above Luna. It was bright red and slightly shiny, made of some sort of plastic or lacquer. It hovered above for a moment as Luna tried to figure out what it was and what she should do about it. Then it dropped suddenly, and Luna let out a yelp as it covered her. Matching red bars appeared under her costumed hooves and the whole thing lifted up into the air again, carrying Celestia with it. It floated back to the beginning of the maze and descended.

"Oh buck me," said Luna tiredly. The cage or basket or whatever it was vanished, and she was right back where she'd started.

"I guess you need to avoid those? I'll warn you if one appears again."

"Thanks. Though avoiding one may be easier said than done in this absurd... outfit." She started to waddle forward again. She'd taken the first left and actually reached the second before another cage appeared overhead.

"Cage, uh, thing," said Celestia warningly, and Luna lunged forward, running awkwardly in the rat suit. The cage dropped, but she'd gotten just clear of it. It touched the tip of the rat tail trailing behind her, but didn't catch her.

She breathed a sigh of relief and looked back at it. It rose into the air and vanished. "Very well then." She turned back to the corridor. "Where shall I go now?"

"Uh. After this left you'll go right next."

"Right then." Luna managed a small smile, and headed onward.

Celestia directed her through a few more turns, and to dodge a second falling cage. Luna waddled along, feeling the costume rub against her uncomfortably with every step. She wanted to run, but a real gallop would be impossible and even a trot would exhaust her in this horrible, awkward costume. So she waddled, making her way through each turn as Celestia directed her.

"Hmm. I see something up ahead, but from here I can't tell what it is," said Celestia. "Take the next right."

Luna turned right, and as soon as she was around the corner, she saw the object Celestia had no doubt spotted from above.

It was a giant mouse trap, completely with a wedge of cheese. It filled the corridor from one side to the other, so she couldn't simply go around it. The costume covered her wings, so she couldn't fly. And it was too long to leap over. She regarded it in puzzlement for a while.

"So what is it?" asked Celestia eventually.

"Oh, sorry. It's a giant mouse trap."

"Heh. Of course. So... you have to climb over it."

"Yes. To safely do so, I think I must spring it first. Well, let me put this aggravation to good use." She reached around her hindquarters and pulled the rat tail in front of her. It was long enough that she could hook a hoof around it and poke the tip of it at the trap, if she stood fairly close to it.

With a startlingly loud snap the trap closed on the fabric tail. Luna jumped, the bar of the trap had whipped down right in front of her muzzle. But her plan had worked. Only now the costume's tail was stuck in the trap. She tugged at it, hoping it would just slide free, but no such luck. She planted a hind hoof—clothed in a fake fabric rat paw—on the trap and grabbed the bar with her similarly clad front hooves. If she hadn't been in the costume it would have been simple, she was strong enough to lift the bar a little bit. As it was she had difficulty getting a grip, but eventually managed to yank the tail free.

That done, she couldn't help pausing to examine the cheese that had baited the trap. She sniffed it, then took a nibble, and found it was a rather decent white cheddar. If she hadn't still been stuffed full of cake she might have eaten the whole big wedge, she quite liked cheddar.

"Luna?" Celestia's voice made her jump, and she felt her cheeks flushing. Then she scowled. Why should she be embarrassed to be caught eating cheese? Ponies ate cheese too, it wasn't just because she was in a rat costume.

"Nothing, just seeing if it was really cheese. Where do I go next?"

"Go straight at the next junction, then turn right. Oops, cage, hurry!"

Luna ran as best she could, and thankfully managed to avoid being dragged back to the start of the maze.

"You're about half way now," said Celestia.

"Good." Luna wished she knew if they were halfway through Discord's whole "game." She was tired and frustrated and very much ready to be done. Of course she'd been ready to be done since the very first room. This was all very vulgar and far too sexual for her comfort. Even the things that didn't seem sexual still had strange overtones.

"There's something else up ahead, the floor is a different color. I can't tell what that is either."

"I shall investigate." Luna saw the patch of floor, it filled the hall side to side, though it wasn't terribly long. It was a sandy brown color rather than the light gray of the rest of the floor. She approached it cautiously. When she reached it, she tapped it with one fabric-clad front hoof. The fake paw sewn onto the costume's foot touched it and stuck. Luna had to pull hard to yank it free.

"It seems to be a glue trap."

"Hmm. And you still can't fly over it. Jump, perhaps?"

"Perhaps. Were it not so ridiculously clad I could clear it easily. As it is, though..." She looked at the stretch of glue-covered floor. It really wasn't that long. She might be able to make it. She took a step back, half-crouching, then ran forward as fast as the costume would let her, and jumped.

She almost made it.

Her front hooves came down well clear of the glue, but her paw-clad back hooves landed on it, and stuck firm. Luna flopped awkwardly forward as her hind legs stayed put and the rest of her tried to keep going. The suit was padded enough that she didn't hurt herself when she sprawled belly-down on the floor, but it was hardly dignified.

She tried to get up, but her hind legs were still stuck. "Horseapples," she muttered under her breath. With a lot of flailing about she got herself upright, but she was still stuck, quite firmly.

"Uhm, Luna?" Celestia's voice sounded worried.

"What," snapped Luna as she struggled to get free. Her actual hooves weren't stuck, it was just the costume. If she could manage to tear the fabric, she could get loose.

"You'd better get free soon, there's a giant cat loose in the maze now." Celestia had just seen a hidden door slide open in one of the maze's outer walls, and a huge cat bound through the opening and into the maze. It was an orange and white tomcat, sort of. It was not only bigger than any normal cat, but with a heavier, broader build, longer claws, and fangs that were practically saber teeth.

It was some distance away from Luna, so she couldn't see it, but she heard a roaring meow and began straining harder against the glue that bound the costume's rear paws to the floor.

Finally, with a sound of tearing fabric, she yanked herself free.

"Ahead and then left," said Celestia. "Quickly!"

Luna broke into an awkward run, moving as fast as the restricting outfit would let her. The cat monster paused and sniffed the floor at a corridor Luna had passed down earlier. It let out another roar and bounded forward, following Luna's trail. Luna, of course, couldn't see that, but Celestia could. She wanted to urge Luna to hurry, but knew her sister was already going as fast as she could. The end of the maze wasn't that far off, if she could just reach it, she would hopefully be safe.

"Turn right here," she called out into the microphone as Luna reached another junction. The cat was getting closer. It looked like Luna might not make it. "Hurry, it's almost to you!" cried Celestia, helplessly.

Luna didn't reply, she needed all her breath for running, though the awkward, waddling canter she managed could hardly be called a run. Celestia directed her around another corner and there, ahead, was the exit to the maze. But even as she glimpsed it a heavy blow spun her sideways into the maze wall. The costume softened it, but the impact was still stunning. The cat had caught her.

She scrabbled frantically, trying to get her hooves under her. At least having torn the hind feet out of the costume gave her slightly better traction than she'd had before. Her every instinct said get her wings open, get her horn pointed at the enemy, but the costume muffled her wings and the massive, stuffed head enclosed her horn. She faced down the cat all the same, but it simply batted at her once more, tossing her down the hall.

She rolled, and managed to come up on her hooves once more. The cat was using its claws, so the costume was getting a little bit the worse for wear. Luna shouted a wordless war-cry and leaped at the cat. It would have been horn-first, but of course her horn was still covered. Still, it was a valiant effort that proved entirely futile. The cat simply slapped her out of the air.

The monster batted her around for some time, and Luna was getting slower and slower to get back up after each blow. Suddenly Celestia said, "Luna! Play dead!"

The cat looked around at the sound of her voice, but seeing nothing, it went back to pawing at Luna.

"Oof!" Luna hit the wall again and lay there, but managed to say, "What was that?"

"Play dead! It's just toying with you. When you get up, you're giving it what it wants. If you lie still and be completely boring, it might go away."

Luna had gotten up again while Celestia was speaking, and the cat once again batted her into a wall with stunning force. She slid down and lay at its base. "That... sounds like... a good idea," she croaked out, and closed her eyes.

The cat crouched slightly, watching her, waiting for its toy to get up again. Luna held very still. The cat held still too, save for the lashing of its tail. At length the cat grew bored, but instead of leaving, it rose from its intense crouch and began grooming itself. Luna would have sighed, where she not concentrating on staying still and silent. Of course. It would be too easy if the monster simply left. Nothing could be easy, could it?

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the cat finished. It rose and came over to Luna. She held her breath. The cat sniffed her a few times, then prodded her with a paw. She kept still. The cat prodded her again, then apparently decided she really was dead and turned and stalked away, its tail waving nonchalantly behind it.

No sooner was it out of sight than Luna scrambled to her hooves. She waddled as swiftly as she could to the exit of the maze and practically dove out the door. Even as she left the maze a door opened up beside Celestia, and she too stepped through, headed on to the next challenge.