Zero Escape: Chambers of Nightmares

"Eight hours left." I look over just in time to see Gallus shaking. "That sound is chilling."

"Ha! If all rooms that easy, we be out of here in no time!" Glad to see Yona's confident.

"Let's get going." I lead the others out of the room... only to stop when I realize someone's not following. "Ocellus?"

She's staring at the TV.

"Come on, Ocellus. We're done here."

She's not responding.

"Is changeling confused by puzzle?"

"It's not that." She finally turns around. "Where did we see a TV before?"

Really? That's what's bothering her? "We see them all the time."

"Well, let me put it this way; where was the first TV we saw?"

Easy. It was at... wait.

...

Where... huh? They're so common, it should be obvious, but... when did they first appear? I don't remember seeing one ever.

"Yak... confused."

I look at Yona. "So I'm not the only one."

"That's my point. We are so used to seeing them that we don't give it a second thought. We think, "Oh, look! A TV!" And go on our way. We never stop to think about when we first saw something so common. But my last memory, when we went into the cave under the school, must have been before we first saw TVs. You know what that means, right?"

Yona and I look at each other.

"It means two things. First, we didn't just step into the cave and get thrown into this nightmarish situation, so we probably aren't in the cave below the school. Second, we had lives after that moment, enough to see the TV invented, and forgot all of it. It's hard to imagine that it was pure coincidence."

Did... did the room get cooler all of a sudden? "Are you saying... someone erased our memories?"

"That's good to know, but isn't there something else we should be worried about?"

"Wha- Gallus?" Isn't he fazed by this at all?

"We can worry about our missing memories once we're out of here. Let's meet with the others and figure out what to do next."

I look at the other girls.

"I hate to say it, but he's got a point."

I sigh. There's really only one thing to do now. "Let's get going."

We leave the rec room. There's a hallway here with a staircase on the other side of it.

"Let's try the doors on the side."

"Let's not. We should look for our friends or the other doors. We can search for other stuff later."

I look at the dejected changeling. "Gallus, is there a reason you're putting Ocellus down?"

"I'm just trying to stay focused. I understand being curious, but we're not in a situation where that will help us."

"What if we find everyone else and they want to look around?"

"Then we'll look around. I'd be outnumbered in that situation."

"You outnumbered now!" Uh oh. Yona doesn't look happy. You don't want to be on the wrong end of an upset yak.

"Uh... Well..." Gallus knows that all too well.

I think that's my cue. "I agree with looking around, but we should only look in rooms that look significant."

That got Ocellus' attention. "What do you mean?"

"Well, look." I point at the doors we just passed. "Do any of those doors look different? Out of place?"

"... No."

"Then we shouldn't waste our time with them yet. If one of them was open, then I would suggest checking it out. But none of the doors here stand out for any reason. So we should just ignore them for the time being."

Ocellus is looking at the doors. "I guess that's fair."

"Now come on. We should keep moving." Eh? Gallus is already down the stairs.

"Hey! Wait up!" I rush after him.

At the bottom of the stairs is a big room. There are a few hallways branching off of it, and a double door labeled "Infirmary."

Gallus looks over his shoulder at us. "So our agreement means that we check out the infirmary, right?"

I look at my hind leg. "Even if we didn't make that agreement, I would have wanted to go in there. I got cut by the glass door."

"So did I." Oh? Ocellus has a cut on her front leg. "Come on. Let's go."

I head over to the doors and open them. "Uh, guys? I found the next set of doors."

"R-really?" Hey! Gallus really needs to be more patient!

But yeah. On the other side of the room are three doors. 1, 3, and 5. "They add up to 9 again?"

"Well, that makes sense. If you add the digits 1 through 9 together, you get 45, which adds up to 9. So if you split all of those numbers into two or three groups, the Digital Root of those numbers adds up to 9. If the doors had a Digital Root of 7, for example, then one, two, or three of us will have to stay behind with a Digital Root of 2. Moving forward with less than our whole group would put us at an unfair disadvantage."

... Ocellus was talking too fast.

"So if doors not equal to 9, then we have to leave friends behind?"

"Because we won't be able to add our numbers up to the numbers on the door otherwise."

"Yeah, that's what it sounded like to me." I'm glad they cleared up what she said because I am not letting them know I couldn't keep up with what Ocellus said.

"Really? You kept up with what I said?"

"There's no way. This is Silver we're talking about."

Don't see the sweat. Don't see the sweat. "Of course I-"

"Hippogriff can't keep up with uphill cart of bricks!"

"FOR THE LOVE OF JUPITER! LAY OFF OF ME!"

They're laughing at me again!

"I'm glad you doofuses are enjoying yourselves." Ow. That hurt my teeth.

"Okay, okay. Let's get you two bandaged up." I don't know if I want Gallus touching me right now.

Well, Ocellus headed over to the cabinets on the side, still giggling, and is now looking through them. I pick up a small set of post-it notes and a pen from one of the tables. Maybe I can doodle something to distract myself.

"Who's Jupiter?"

I look over at Yona. "Oh, he's-"

"Hey. How about we ditch Ocellus and go through door 3?"

Wha- Gallus?

"Why?"

"We're on a time limit here. If we take too long, then we'll be stuck here forever. And it's not like she'll be stuck here forever. The other group will pick her up."

Maybe he doesn't realize how bad of an idea that is. "Then how do we get through the next set of doors? The doors require at least three of us to go through, so we would have to wait on the rest of them in order to go through the next set of doors ourselves, and if we ditch Ocellus, they might not trust us enough to bring us along."

"Yak not think griffon think this through."

"Think what through?" There's the angry changeling voice. And there's the angry changeling.

"Oh, nothing. Just making sure you three don't ditch me to go through door 1." If she buys that, I'm taking him gambling for every day for the rest of my life.

"You're a terrible liar."

"I'm being honest! I swear!" He says with a dishonest smile.

"I'm a changeling. We're born to deceive. I know a liar when I see one."

He's in trouble and he knows it.

"Do I need to use Soporil beta on you?"

"No no. That won't be necessary."

I don't want to save him from her wrath, but I have to know. "Soporil beta?"

Ocellus turns towards me, then puts her hoof to her chin. She's either trying to figure out how to explain it, or...

"I think it's something else from our lost memories."

Thought so.

"Soporil beta is a powerful anesthetic, able to knock even yaks and dragons out in mere moments, regardless of how it's applied."

Gallus looks at me specifically. "You know what that means, right?"

I nod. "It means breathing it in is as effective as getting injected with it or drinking it."

Ocellus wraps her leg in a bandage. "I also think I remember reading that taking too much Soporil beta can cause memory loss. That might explain why we lost our memories, even if it wasn't used to kidnap us."

"Memory loss?"

I turn to the door. The rest of our group is standing in the doorway, looking either shocked or confused.

"Good timing. Gallus was about to ditch you guys."

"N-no I, I wasn't." Mhm. Good lie there Gallus.

"Okay, yeah." Smolder walks up to Gallus and lightly hits him on the head. "Gallus is a jerk. What was that about memory loss?"

Ocellus is explaining things that I heard earlier, so I can just look around a bit. There's another door near the numbered doors. It's not marked or anything.

*Rattle rattle!*

And it's not opening. I can't help but feel like this will be important. Gallus is watching me for some reason. He does trust me... Right?

"That's pretty observant of you, Ocellus." And there's Sandbar, jumping at the chance to praise Ocellus.

"Yeah, really interesting." And there's Smolder, jumping at the chance to ignore what she was just taught.

Bramble looks a little red in the face. "Miss Smolder!"

Smolder puts a finger on Bramble's muzzle. "Don't we have more pressing issues? Like, you know, looking around?"

AH! Oh, that's Gallus' wing that nearly smacked me in the face. "Hey! What-"

Smolder's hands are way above her head. "I don't want to either, but the others want to, so I'm not getting much of a say in it."

Sandbar nods. "We'll meet here at the next chime. Until then, we'll split up and look for anything useful or significant."

I watch as the others head back through the door, leaving Gallus, Smolder, and me standing in the room with the next set of numbered doors.

"Why don't we go through one of the doors right now?"

I look at Smolder and catch Gallus shaking his head out of the corner of my eye.

"We can't. 5, 6, and 7 make 18, which is 9. We'd need one of the others, and the only one we could reasonably convince is Cozy Glow."

I guess we should just look around for now. "Why don't you two look around in here? I'm going to check on everyone else."

"Fair enough."

Gallus heads over to the drugs while Smolder is checking around the beds. I head back through the door to the main room.

I hear buzzing... Oh. Cozy Glow is checking the ceiling. I float up beside her.

She looks at me. "Hi, there! I can check this room by myself."

"I know, but I wanted to ask you about a couple of things."

She tilts her head. "Like what?"

"Why do you think you were given the number 9 bracelet?"

"Dunno. But it does feel like it's going to be a bit of a crutch from now on."

"Huh? Why?"

"There are three doors in the next group, and there are only three more doors before the 9 door. If all of us are going through the doors, then I have to go through a door with two creatures that make the number of the door. Best way to do that is to wait for the others to choose their doors and go through the last door with whoever is left."

That... does sound restricting. "Any idea why we were kidnapped?"

"I have no idea why you guys would be kidnapped by someone that would kidnap me."

... Huh? Something about that sounded weird. "What do you mean?"

"Well, seven of you are non-ponies, and Sandbar strongly associates with non-ponies. So if that's what it was about, why would they kidnap me? If there's anyone that I'm the most distant from at the school, it's you six."

"Maybe they were trying to hurt the school's reputation."

"If that were the case, why kidnap two creatures that aren't from the school? If there were plans to send them to the school, then it would make sense."

I think she's forgetting something. "We are missing some of our memories."

"Did you really believe Ocellus when she said that?"

"She used me to prove it."

"Well, changelings are professional liars. I don't get why you would trust any changeling, let alone her."

... Really? I can't let that slide. "That's the last thing. Something about you is wrong."

"What makes you think that?" The fact she hasn't stopped smiling this whole time is frustrating.

"It feels like you say and do things no normal filly would even know how to say or do."

"Well, we're in a life or death situation." Gah! "It would be a shame if you suffered an "accident" in one of the later rooms we went through together."

No normal filly should ever make that expression! I think that's my cue to get away from her! "O-okay! I think I should check on the others now!"

"Hehehe. You really should."

I head off down one of the halls. Not a particular one. I just want to get away from the potentially psychopathic filly. Oof! "S-sorry!"

"Yak fine."

Eh? Oh, it's Yona. And... Bramble? "I though Yona would be looking around alone."

"W-well, Yona's so big and strong. So I figured that, if something happened, I would rather be around her."

"Yak also not too good at searching. Deer able to find things Yak miss!"

"Well, I'm just going around and asking everyone a few questions."

"Huh? Not looking?"

"Well, that should be fine." Bramble is trying one of the doors. "Ocellus, Sandbar, and Rain are all looking in different hallways, so every location is covered."

First thing's first, Bramble himself. "Was there any sort of interest in the Deer uniting with the other races?"

"It has been a topic of debate among some of our elders, but I don't think anything decisive was reached. Come to think of it, everyone agreed that if we did take that step, I would have to be there. I am the one with the most experience with non-deer. Well, ponies, specifically."

"Really? You?"

"Why's that?" There is a reason, right?

"Well, we caused an incident due to some creatures tearing down our forest. It's kind of a long story, but it led to me meeting a group of six ponies."

"Let Yona guess. Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack?"

He's blinking. "Huh? How did you-"

"If something big is happening, they usually get involved somehow. And they're our teachers!" I probably shouldn't mention that time we caused an incident.

"Wow! I might want to attend regardless. Miss Fluttershy was really nice."

"Yak found something!"

Bramble and I rush over to Yona. Sure enough, the door at the very end of the hall has three symbols. "Have either of you seen something like this before?"

"The other deer found similar text, but we have no idea what it means."

"Yak never seen text like this."

... It doesn't look like text to me. It just looks like three symbols. Then again, text is basically a bunch of symbols. "I wonder if this stuff appears anywhere else."

"Maybe through next doors?"

"I think Yona's right. There could be something through the next set of doors."

Easy solution. "Then we should split up for the next set. That way-"

Did something- Oh. Bramble is touching my wing. "But Smolder gets to pick for the next set. She didn't get to go through the door she wanted to last time, so we have to do what she wants."

Right! If she wants to go with two of us through a door... Wait. "I don't think she can go through with more than one of us."

"Yeah, but she could go through with none of us."

Wait. Was that Yona? Can she stomp and not break something? "Why we not show others?" Apparently, she can.

... I didn't want to bring this up. "I don't trust Cozy Glow."

"You too, huh?" Bramble? "Something seemed off about her the whole time I was with her in the 2 door. So I'd rather not let her know about this either."

... Oh yeah! I pull out that set of post-it notes I grabbed from the infirmary and trace the symbols.

"Huh? Where did you-"

"I grabbed them from the infirmary." I fold up the first note and do some quick math on the second.

2+6+7=6
2+6+9=8
2+7+9=9
6+7+9=4

Yona is tilting her head. "Why those four?"

"Because I trust Sandbar and Ocellus the most right now. Well, aside from you two. We already talked about Cozy Glow, Smolder and Gallus already talked about ditching others, and I sort of trust Rain Kiss, but I can't be too cautious right now."

"So by showing it to Sandbar and Ocellus, every door will have someone that knows about these symbols going through them no matter what Smolder picks. That's smart." Bramble seems to get it.

Yona doesn't. "Why not tell everyone?"

"We have to be careful about who we tell this to."

"But if we need go through this door, they find out anyway."

"Well, uh... um..."

I can only assume my face is as red as Bramble's. "Miss Silver? I think we jumped the gun a bit."

"Well, let's not tell them for now. There's a chance they don't need to know about it. If you don't mind, I'm going to go find Sandbar and Ocellus now."

"And if we do need to go through them?" Great. That tone means Sandbar thinks I'm being stupid.

"Well, they'll learn when we go through them. Or if they find the symbols themselves."

"Um... Well, I guess there's the chance we don't all need to go through the door with the symbols on it. Besides, Gallus tried to ditch me earlier, Cozy Glow said those off-color things about us, and we really don't know who Rain Kiss is at all."

Sandbar is looking at Ocellus. "What about Smolder?"

"She tried to ditch you guys as soon as you were out of the room."

"Okay, screw her. But Smolder's picking which door she goes with this time, right? What's stopping her from making a team of the ones that don't know?"

"I already did the math. If you two know about this, there's no way for her to make a combination without someone that knows."

"I still don't think you thought this through, but I'll go with it." Thanks for the confidence, Sandbar.

Ocellus is waving her hoof like she's trying to get rid of me. "You can go back to looking around now, Silver."

"Oh, I wasn't looking around. I was asking the others some questions."

Ocellus takes her hooves off the handle of the door she tried. "Oh? Well, go ahead and ask."

First things first. "What do you two think of Cozy Glow?"

"Well, she's Cozy Glow." Thanks, Ocellus.

"Did Bramble vent to you too?" So Bramble talked to Sandbar about it?

"Well, not until I brought it up myself."

Sandbar is rolling his eyes. "I don't get what his problem is. There's nothing wrong with Cozy Glow."

"Aside from the fact she threatened to kill me?"

3... 2... 1... "Wait, what?" There's his reaction.

I tell them about what Cozy said to me. How she called Ocellus a liar, and how she threatened my life.

Sandbar has a far-off look in his eyes. "I still find it hard to believe that she's going to be a problem."

"I think she was just trying to scare you." Ocellus puts her hoof on my shoulder. "What she said is concerning, but I really doubt she could be that much of a threat."

"That's fair. She is the youngest of us. Aside from perhaps Bramble." I probably am overthinking things right now. "Who do you guys think Zero is?"

"If they're smart, they're nowhere near us right now. If they're giving us a chance to get out, they'd be caught pretty quickly if we got out."

That's true, but... "How would they keep track of us? They don't have any cameras around here."

"Cameras can get pretty small. Just because we can't see any cameras doesn't mean there aren't any cameras around here."

Sandbar can sigh pretty heavily. "I have to agree with Silver on this one. Why bother hiding the cameras if the creatures you kidnapped know someone is watching them anyway?"

Ocellus is tapping her chin. "Uh, they used some spares they had lying around? That is pretty flimsy, huh?"

... Wait, what did I ask them again? "Back on subject, who do you think Zero is?"

"Probably someone not happy with the School of Friendship, possibly Neighsay."

"But Bramble and Rain-" Get your hoof off of my beak, Ocellus!

"If they're racist enough, they probably just grabbed them to make nine of us, to make a point, or maybe just because they were easy to grab."

I'm suddenly not sure what's worse. There being some kind of connection between the nine of us we don't know about, or some of us getting caught up in something we shouldn't have just because we were easy targets.

"Thinking about it, they might be one of us."

Ocellus makes some noises that I can't even describe. "Sandbar? You don't seriously think-" Okay, that voice crack was cute.

"Think about it. There are no cameras, none of us would suspect each other, and the "danger" in the first rooms could easily have been faked. I can't help but feel like we'll run out of time only for Rain Kiss or Yona to reveal it was all a joke."

Is he going into his own reality? "Sandbar, I appreciate that you're looking for the best in others, but isn't that a bit far-fetched in this situation?"

"I agree with Silver. I mean, the two of us nearly got crushed."

"It was probably just... foam or something."

Well, I see Sandbar's completely gone into his own reality at this point. Time to change the subject.

"Sandbar. You can't be serious."

"What? Do you really think one of our friends would hurt us?"

Or not.

"That's assuming that one of our friends is the one behind this. I'm saying it isn't."

"Well, you can't prove that."

"We can't prove anything at this point!"

This is going nowhere fast. "Hey, have you guys met a Kirin before?"

"Huh?"

"Um... I read that they live in the Peaks of Peril. They also have a natural enemy in the Nirik."

Good. They stopped arguing.

"Speaking of Kirin, Rain seems very... absent-minded. She was constantly staring off into space while we were working together."

"It seems like she's a bit shocked by everything. As far as we know, Kirin are completely isolated from the rest of society, so she probably never saw a pony before. Or any other kind of creature, for that matter."

Hmm... "That may have changed during the time we forgot about though, right?"

Ocellus pulls at another door. "Yeah. Assuming that we did forget something."

Huh? "That was your theory!"

She's blushing. "It is, but I still have to be ready to say I was wrong."

*DING DING DING*

"There's the chime."

"Right. Let's get back to the infirmary."

Huh? Smolder and Gallus are here, as well as Yona and Bramble. But... "Where are Cozy and Rain?"

Smolder shrugs. "Your guess is as good as mine."

Gallus is staring at the doors. "That's not good. They should have come back right away."

"Miss Silver?" Hm? Oh, Bramble's whispering. "Did you tell Ocellus and Sandbar?"

I just nod.

Smolder's grunt draws my attention to her as she rolls her eyes. "Rain isn't here, so I'm not going anywhere. I'll go ahead and say-"

*SLAM!*

We all look at the door to the hallways we came from. Rain is standing there, looking like she saw a ghost.

"Guys! You have to see this!"

"Rain, where were you?" From the sound of it, Gallus isn't amused. "We agreed-"

"Screw the agreement! You have to see this right now!"

"When did you start..." I see Ocellus shake her head out of the corner of my eye. "No. You won't tell us until we see whatever it is you want us to."

"Come on! This way!"

Rain took off. The others reacted faster than me, leaving me at the back. I follow them down the hall to the 7 room. Even at a distance, I can see one of the doors is open.

Rain skids to a stop right in front of said door. "Oh no!"

Ocellus and Sandbar reach it right after her. Whatever's inside, it can't be good. Ocellus is screaming pretty loudly.

I don't have time to see the other's reactions as I reach the door.

"Wh-what?"

The floor is covered with glass shards. In the corner...

"Cozy Glow?"