20,000 Legumes Under The Sea

“Wow,” Twilight said as she walked through the short hallway in between escape rooms. “I never expected learning about the ethics of Jean-Paul Sartre in high school would ever actually be relevant to anything. Just goes to show you, huh?”

Sunset ignored her and kept pushing forward. She threw open the door to the twentieth and final escape room. A laboratory greeted her, complete with all sorts of expensive looking lab equipment, along with beakers and test tubes everywhere.

Twilight floated behind her, her expression pained. “Come on, Sunset. This is fun, right? You and me, working together, putting our intellects together. Just like old times.”

The ropes of Sunset’s patience frayed a little farther. She whirled on Twilight, sucking in a breath through her nose. “The first room was kind of fun. Hell, the first five were alright. But this was twenty in a row. It gets old, Twilight! That’s your problem. You never know when to stop!”

Her words hung like daggers in the air, and Twilight shrunk in on herself. “Oh. Of course, right.”

Somehow it felt like kicking a puppy. Sunset rubbed at her forehead and sighed. “Let’s just get this over with. Go start looking for clues.”

Sunset moved forward, and started inspecting all of the beakers they had available. Something told her she’d have to remember her basic chemistry for this one. She turned, and found Twilight still floating in the corner, not doing anything. “Well?”

Twilight twiddled her fingers together. “The thing is… while I subcontracted all of the other rooms, I actually did design this one myself.”

“Great, so you know the answer then. What is it?”

Silence.

“Twilight,” Sunset growled, taking a step forward.

Twilight held up her hands. “Come on, Sunset. I worked really hard on this! It’s sort of the culmination of everything we’ve done so far already, putting all those skills to the test. And nobody ever—nobody will ever get a chance to actually solve it. Please? For me?”

Sunset clenched her fist, then whirled, stomping towards the exit door. She lifted the panel, and found a small keyboard, and room for a six digit password. She started punching in letters.

B-E-A-N-I-S

*ERROR*

“Come on, Sunset, do you really think the answer would be so easy? Give me at least a little credit, I—”

S-U-N-S-E-T

*ACCEPTED*

The door slid open.

Twilight’s gaze bored into Sunset’s back.

Sunset left.