My PipBuck told me that we had been at this for three hours now, though it felt like days. Tia had a seemingly endless supply of obstacle courses, mind games, and logic puzzles. Every room was the exact same save for the challenge we were to complete.

Tia appeared to finally be getting bored of us as we struggled through her maze of tests. Until decided to put us in an actual maze.

Let’s try something new! One of you will remain at the start while the other attempts the maze. After five minutes have passed and every two minutes afterwards, a randomly selected section of wall will either be added or removed. Have fun and try not to become trapped inside. Remember, one subject may not offer verbal, physical, or magical assistance while the other is testing. Once one of you has reached the end, the maze will be reset and the second test subject may attempt the course.

“Damn it all, it had to be a fucking maze,” Shadow said irritability. He had dealt with the endless tests for hours now with more patience than I’ve ever seen from him, but this seemed to be the last straw for the irate unicorn.

“I’ll go first, you can take a break. Hopefully, she’ll get bored with us soon.“

“The second that sadistic bitch of a robot gives Ashaa back we’re blasting our way out of here.” He replied, sitting down by the entrance to the maze. “Go on then, I’ll stay here and twiddle my hooves for the foreseeable future.”

I waved my talon dismissively, quite sure that I would complete the labyrinth in less than an hour.

“Don’t worry Shadow, I’m pretty good at mazes. This won’t take long.” He laughed as I walked inside.

“Famous last words kid.”

*One hour later*

Another two minutes has passed, a wall has been removed.

“WHERE?! I HAVEN’T SEEN ONE FUCKING WALL MOVE IN A WHOLE HALF HOUR!” Shadow laughed and then continued to be obnoxiously silent. I was one more wrong turn away from snapping and busting out through the plexiglass ceiling of the enclosure and shoot out the screen that displayed Tia’s smug robotic face.

You’re almost there little hippogryph, just continue forward and you will be out in no time

She had been repeating that sentence for the last fifteen minutes, and it was getting old. I turned a corner and found an intersection, which way to go? I guess it didn’t really matter, all three paths were probably wrong. Just as I was about to pick a path the left doorway began to close as a wall rose out of the floor.

Another two minutes has passed, a wall has been added.

It wasn’t the sudden barrier that surprised me, but the words written upon it in what I could only assume was blood.

FREEDOM IS ONLY FOUND IN DEATH.

“Ooooh shit,” I said, realizing what this probably meant for Shadow and me.

“Oh shit indeed, hit another dead end?”

I couldn’t tell him what I was seeing with Tia watching. If she knew that the game was up, she’d kill us immediately.

“Yup, I guess I gotta go another way.”

Another hour and I had finally made it out of that hell-maze. Tia gave me access to the camera that overlooked the maze so I could watch his progress. He was doing way better than I had, he was taking his time and carefully choosing his path. It was still going to take him a while, so I decided that now was a good time to talk to the voice in my head.

Hey, you still here?

“Yes, I am, what do you need?”

I think Tia is planning to kill us once she’s done with all these tests.

“Probably, if the writing on that wall is anything to go by. Hold on, I’m going to try something. Don’t freak out, and don’t physically talk to me, we don’t want Tia to suspect anything. Okay?”

Okay, what are you gonna do?

“Just watch.”

Suddenly I couldn’t feel her presence, the voice was gone. Then it was back, this time in a more physical manner.

“Behind you Blitz, don’t react.”

I turned to find a strangely familiar cerulean Pegasus that was a few shades darker than my sister with a vibrant rainbow coloured mane. It took me a hot minute to remember where I had seen her before, but once I did, everything kinda clicked into place!

“Wait, you’re the little statuette I found at the radio tower!” The mare made a shushing motion with her wing, looking around anxiously.

“Quiet! Nopony else can see me, so it’ll look like you’re talking to yourself. Just watch the screen and don’t talk out loud.”

Oh, right. Sorry.

“It’s alright this is my first time doing something like this as well.” she replied as I returned my gaze to the screen displaying Shadow’s progress, which hadn’t increased much since the last time I checked. I just had to hope he would see the writing as well.

“So let’s start off with some introductions. My name is Rainbow Dash, the fastest Pegasus in Equestria and the head of the M.O.A!”

What’s the M.O.A? And how did you end up in a statuette?
“That’s a very long story that even I don’t know the whole of it. Right now we gotta figure out how to get the hell out of here without dying.”

For the next hour Dash and I brainstormed while Shadow made his way through the maze. By the time he made it out we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to do, the biggest problem was how to convey that information to Shadow.

“You were right Blitz, that is one tough maze. So many blank, empty walls.”
I nodded knowingly, he had seen the writing as well.

“Yeah, almost thought I would die before I would be free of that maze.”

Step one of our plan was complete now that Shadow and I were on the same page, now we just had to find a way to tell him steps two through ten without alerting Tia.

Another couple of hours passed as our tormentor got more creative with her tests. Soon we were dodging pitfall traps and avoiding tripwires that activated who knows what. Tia appeared to be more intent on killing us than running tests and got sloppier at hiding it the further we progressed.

Finally, she gave up and decided to take a break. Giving us time to rest and have some food and water. We had been placed in a relatively small room compared to other parts of the facility. It contained nothing but three small beds on the far end, a table in the centre with three plates of bland looking food and three glasses of water on its surface. The walls were an almost blinding white, which settled into a tolerable brightness as my eyes adjusted.

A panel in the wall to my left opened, allowing another one of Tia’s screens to replace it.

Your hippogryph friend has made quite the recovery and will be joining you two shortly. You may remain here and recuperate for the time being while I prepare one final test for the three of you. Afterwards, you will be free to go.

A hidden door below the massive screen opened and two familiar drones escorted Ashaa into our room. The second she spotted me, her whole face lit up as she raced across the remaining distance between us and gave me one of her spine-shattering hugs.

“Ohmygoshyou’restillalivei’msogladtoseebothofyou!”

Shadow chuckled slightly, allowing the smallest of grins to appear on his face.

“Yeah, missed you too. Just never get shot again, I’m not going to carry you for almost two days straight a second time.”

Ashaa returned the chuckle as she hugged the irate unicorn as well.

“Thank you Shadow, I’ll do my best!”

She then took a look around the room, apparently quite confused.

“By the way, where are we?”

Shadow and I explained our situation while we ate the bland, blocky food set out on the table. It tasted like someone had tried to cook a wagon wheel in valve oil, but it filled our stomachs. We obviously left out a few important things in our explanation due to the fact that there was a camera in each corner of the room. But unlike with Shadow, I had an idea on how to tell her what was really going on without making Tia suspicious.

“O cho soilleir sa tha e an-diugh!”

“Oh how bright it is today!” I said in gryphik, an old language that both Gryphons and Hippogryphs used to speak before converting to ponish about five to six hundred years ago. After the megaspells hit Queen Novo decided that regaining a piece of our heritage would boost morale among her people, so she had schools begin to teach gryphik as a second language.

Due to how old it was I doubted that Tia could understand me, but I was still cautious.

“Tha an seòmar seo soilleir gu dearbh, dè a th ’ann?”

” This room is bright indeed, what of it?” Ashaa replied, concerned. I waited a few seconds to see if Tia would respond, but she was either preoccupied or didn’t understand as the speakers embedded in her screen made no noise.

“ Tha mi a ’creidsinn gu bheil ar beatha ann an cunnart, bi faiceallach agus na bi earbsa san inneal-fuadain.”

”I believe our lives are in danger, be careful and don’t trust the robot.”

Ashaa nodded casually as if we were discussing the weather.

“ ciamar a tha fios agad gu cinnteach? a bheil fios aig sgàil mu dheidhinn seo uile?”

“ how do you know for sure? Does Shadow know about all this?”

We both glanced towards him to find Shadow listening intently to our conversation, when he noticed that we had turned to him, he hopped off his chair and walked over to us.

“ Tha, tha fios agam air a h-uile càil a tha a ’tachairt, chunnaic sinn sgrìobhadh sgrìobhte ann am fuil.” He said in perfect gryphik, surprising both of us.

“ Yes, I know everything that is happening, we saw writing written in blood.”

“How do you know our language?” I asked in ponish. Shadow only shrugged, shaking his head.

“I’m a lot older than I look. By the way, using Gryphik was a good idea, but we should speak it sparingly. If we give Tia enough words she’ll be able to translate it.”

Ashaa and I nodded in agreement. We now had an advantage over Tia, and it would be quite stupid to waste it.

You now have one hour of rest time remaining, I suggest you use it wisely.

All three of us used that hour to sleep, but we took shifts staying awake. That way Tia couldn’t get the jump on us. Each shift was only supposed to last twenty minutes, but Shadow took the first watch and woke me up forty-five minutes later instead. And even though I told him to sleep, I could tell he was faking. This whole time he hadn’t slept a wink in our presence. And probably when we weren’t watching him either.

First Shadow randomly shows up to help me kill that witch, then he has no heartbeat, and now he never sleeps. Not to mention all the other crazy shit he'd done, like killing those vampires.

Once again, I had to remind myself that this issue would have to wait until we got out of here.

Your resting period has expired, please exit the chamber and complete your final test.

Tia's sudden exclamation woke Ashaa from her sleep and me from my thoughts, as a white panel opened into a testing room triple the size of any other part of the building we had seen so far.

Our final test was a serious gauntlet. It looked like every parkour course, logic puzzle, and mind game thrust together into one massive deathtrap.

This was going to be so. much. fun.

Footnote:

New perk Unlocked! Lab Rat: You've been a test subject for quite some time now! You now take 15% less damage from hazardous chemicals.

Author's Note

Sorry for the wait, but it's out now!

(yay!)

I hope as always that ya'll are enjoying this story and that you continue to enjoy it as I pump out more chapters. A big thank you to Kkat for inspiring me and to all of you for your support!

-ABloodthirstyUnicorn.