Celestia opened her eyes. She felt incredibly groggy, and there was something hard poking her in the stomach. She lifted her head to look around, but her vision was fuzzy and only slowly coming into focus. She was on the ground somewhere, not in the comfortable bed she had fallen asleep in.
She moved to get up, but found it to be a bit more work than expected. Her head hurt greatly, and her body seemingly intent on staying down a bit longer. She pushed herself anyway, finally getting up on all four hooves. Her vision was clearing, and she could finally make out the fine details.
The room she was in was unlike anything she'd seen before. The walls were metal indented with glass panes from which light came through, although there was no obvious source of illumination. The metal was rusted, and slightly slick with globs of oil. If such a thing were possible, she'd say that this room was as old as herself.
Behind the glass panes Celestia could barely make out the images of tiny gears, meticulously grinding and turning into each other. In any other context they would be fascination, but here, with everything else, they were unnerving. Celestia peered closer, hoping to see outside the room. It was not to be. There was yet another metal panel blocking her view so what lay beyond the room was still a mystery. She turned her attention elsewhere.
The room was a large cube, perfectly proportioned in length, width, and height. It was then that she noticed the doors. They were less like doors, and more like metal portholes. Square in shape, each had a large metal T-shape handle protruding from them that presumably could be turned like a valve. Across the walls surrounding and extending the doors, were indentations in the walls with bars forming ladders in all directions. Celestia supposed this was so ponies without wings could reach the top door, and to maintain symmetry in the room.
Tentatively she approached the door on her left. Using her magic, she turned the handle and heard a louder grind of mechanical whirring as the door moved forward, and then down, revealing a crawlspace. On the other side was another room, exactly like the one she was in, except the glass panes were tinted blue. She turned around, and as she stepped away the door closed behind her. On the opposite side she opened the door. Yet another room, this time red. She closed the door, sliding it back up and pushing it into the wall, then moved to the door on the floor. Down below was a yellow room.
"Where am I?" she said out loud. Her throat was slightly dry, she realised. As well, her voice was not the only sound to be heard. A faint noise of grinding gears echoed through the walls. She probably didn't notice before as it had become like white noise, constant, and easily dismissible.
Now under the belief that all doors lead to another room, she closed the door and picked a wall. She would simply go straight until she reached the exit.
The room she chose was purple. She was too big to comfortably slide through the portal, and she suddenly had the realisation that it was a good size for her ponies. There were probably other ponies in here, and if she could find them she could help lead them out.
Landing on the other side she took a step forward before the door closed behind her, more violently than she had remembered happening before.
If she had been expecting it, she probably could have protected herself. If she had been a bit faster, or perhaps more wary of her surroundings, things would have turned out differently.
As it was, one step forward was the last movement Princess Celestia ever made, as a panel from the ceiling violently slammed its way down, crushing the pony and killing her instantly. It moved up again slowly, blood and bone dripping back down to the ground as the metal piston drove it back towards its place on the ceiling.
(M6)^4
A My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction by,
A Fistful of Apples
"Twilight," said a voice. She felt the frustrating tapping of hooves on her face as somepony tried to wake her up. She wanted to continue sleeping, though the uncomfortable bed and sweltering heat was making that difficult. She tried to kick off her blanket but realised she didn't have one.
"Twilight, get up!"
It was Applejack. She tapped Twilight a few more times before finally, the pony battered her away before leaning forward and opening her eyes.
There was a brief pause as Twilight took in the sight before her.
"Where are we?" was all she said.
Applejack looked around as she said, "I have no idea. There's doors on all the walls and stuff and I took a gander at what was through them. Just more rooms like this one, but I didn't go into them because you were still asleep."
Twilight finally managed to stand up, though she still felt a little wobbly.
"How did we get here? The last thing I remember doing was putting Spike in his bed. He'd fallen asleep when writing a letter again."
Applejack shook her head. "I don't know Twilight. The last thing I remember was—"
Applejack stopped speaking and, along with Twilight, looked up at the ceiling. The handle was turning. The door opened. Twilight was ready to case a force field and run, but when a rainbow maned blue Pegasus looked through the door she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Rainbow Dash!" said Applejack. "Come down here!"
Rainbow Dash wasted no time in diving down into the room, her wings allowing her to gracefully land on the rusty floor with a small clink.
"I'm so glad I found you guys," said Rainbow Dash, giving them both a quick nuzzle. "I thought I was alone in here. I thought—" She shook her head. "Well, it doesn't matter."
"You haven't seen anypony else then?" asked Twilight.
Rainbow Dash shook her head again. "No. I've only been through a few rooms though. They're all the same! And you've really got to be careful. Some of them are trapped. I almost got sliced in two when some guillotine thing came shooting out of the walls. If I didn't have wings, or was a little bit slower..." She let her sentence dangle. Neither Twilight nor Applejack needed her to elaborate.
"So... if there are other ponies in here," said Applejack. "Maybe our friends... they could end up not quite as lucky as you?"
Rainbow Dash nodded. She began pacing. She was feeling too confined. "It's why I haven't looked through many of these rooms. After that trapped one I just decided to stay put, but then I heard talking below me and so, here I am."
"In what you did see, were there any defining characteristics or differences that helped you figure out where you were?" asked Twilight.
"No," said Rainbow Dash. "They all look exactly the same, just different colours. I went through four rooms before this one, and all of them the glass on the walls, floors, and ceilings were coloured differently. This one's white though, like the one I woke up in."
"We were just talking about what the last thing we remembered before we woke up here," said Twilight. "What do you remember?"
Rainbow Dash stopped. She had to think.
Before too long, she said, "The last thing I can remember clearly was eating dinner. Well, potato chips. I was sitting down, hanging out with Tank and then... I woke up." She shrugged her shoulders.
Twilight recounted her memories for the second time, and then all eyes were on Applejack.
"Well it's just like ya'll," she said. "I had just woken up and was getting ready to go work in the orchards and the next thing I know I'm here with Twilight in this place!"
Twilight put a hoof to her chin in thought. Wherever they were, somepony must have done this to them, and somepony must be watching. It was just too big a coincidence that everypony here would be best friends. And they weren't taken at the same time, so probably it was just one pony.
Twilight began to move around, examining the walls, floors, and ceilings for any sort of surveillance device. Rainbow Dash and Applejack knew enough to keep quite while Twilight worked, and simply watched her walk around the room.
The walls were metal, rusty, slightly slick with oil. Since they were still rusted, they must be very old. Yet somehow they still kept getting oiled, so somepony must know how to navigate this place, or turn off the traps that Rainbow Dash had seen.
There were small gears all through the walls, and if you listened you could hear them all around in every direction. Perhaps they governed the traps and so somewhere there was a switch? They seemed too complicated to just open and close the doors.
There were no cameras of any kind. No obvious microphones. Everything that Twilight could see looked completely mechanical, not magical or electric in any way.
"Well," said Twilight. "Since we got in here, and probably it was a single pony who did this, there must be a way out. I think the easiest thing to do is to keep going in one direction until we reach the end. Then we can leave. The problem is the traps Rainbow Dash talked about."
Suddenly another door began to open. This time from Twilight's left. Twilight wasn't surprised when yet another one of her friends emerged from the doorway, her white coat smudged with black oil. Twilight suspected they all were covered faintly in it, it was just more obvious on Rarity.
"Oh thank heavens!" she said. She looked behind her. "Come along dears."
She pulled herself up and made her way through the portal, joining the others in the room. Twilight then heard the clip-clop of more hooves coming from the room Rarity came out of. Fluttershy was now visible through the door, and simply flew up and crawled through, before landing next to Rarity. Still another pony could be heard, and Twilight silently congratulated herself on being correct about who it was.
Pinkie Pie wasn't as careful as the others, and just jumped through the door in one fluid motion, landing on her hind-hooves, smiling, looking as if nothing bad was happening at all.
"We've been hoping to bump into you," said Rarity. Twilight gave her a confused, mildly shocked look before Rarity elaborated. "Well, not hoping, I say it'd be much better if you weren't here. What I mean is, we were hoping to bump into you assuming you were here at all."
"Where were you all?" asked Twilight. "I woke up with Applejack, so apparently we were in the same room." She pointed a hoof at Rainbow Dash. "And Dash found us after travelling through a 'few' rooms."
"I was with Fluttershy," said Rarity. "We woke up at around the same time. We were talking, you know, trying to figure out where we were, when he heard a pony calling out, asking if anypony else was there. It was Pinkie in the room below us. So we dropped down, talked a bit more to see if any one of us knew what was happening, and then realised you three could be here and that if you were, we had to find you so we could get out."
"How many rooms did you travel through before you found us?"
Rarity sighed. "More than I'd like. We had to be very careful, some of the rooms are—"
"Trapped, we know," said Twilight, cutting her off. "Rainbow Dash told us she'd run into a trapped room before finding us."
"I see." There was an awkward pause.
"Um," said Fluttershy. "I think we should keep going. We're bound to get out eventually."
"Has anypony thought that if we just sit tight, somepony who knows more about this place will come find us?" said Applejack. "They have to feed us don't they?"
"There's no reason to assume that," said Twilight. "We were taken from our homes and put here. I think they're watching, and want to see if we'll get out or not on our own. But even if not and they are going to come in to feed us, they will find us regardless of where we are in here. Nopony would put us in here intending to feed us and then let us get lost."
"Twilight's right," said Rainbow Dash, hovering above their heads. "If whoever did this to us cared about how hungry we might get, they wouldn't be trying to kill us with traps."
"Right," said Twilight. "So I think our best course of action is to just pick a direction and go straight until we reach a face. Then we can leave and tell the Princess about what happened. If anypony can find out who did this to us, it'd be her."
"But what about the traps?" said Fluttershy. She held out a hoof and Twilight realised she was bleeding. A thin stream of blood had been oozing out of her foreleg onto the oily floor for some time and she hadn't even noticed. "I was lucky to come out with just this. If it hadn't been for Rarity..."
"Think nothing of it dear," said Rarity. "You would do the same for me in such a situation, and I would be very..." she paused for a moment and frowned. "...Sad if any one of us got caught in one of those ghastly things."
"Why don't we just toss something in each room before we go in?" said Pinkie Pie. "If something bad happens we won't go. Easy!"
Twilight quirked an eyebrow. "And what are we going to throw in Pinkie? None of us have anything!"
"We could um," said Fluttershy, seemingly trying to hide herself behind her hair. "Use our hair? If one of us cut it, and somepony used magic to throw it in a room so it wouldn't get separated..."
Everypony simply stared at her. Fluttershy felt even more self conscious at their gaze and tried to shrink away even further. "I'm sorry," she said. "It's not a good—"
"That's a great idea Fluttershy!" said Twilight. "After all, survival is more important than what we look like, and what else do we have? I can hardly ask you or Rainbow Dash to give up a bunch of feathers, you need those to fly! And anything beyond that?" Twilight shuddered. "No, our hair is a great idea. It's just, which one of us gives up their mane?"
"I'll do it," said Applejack, stepping forward. "Heck my tail here is too long as it is, always getting in the way of work. I'd been meaning to trim it."
"Nonsense Applejack," said Rarity, also stepping forward. "I've given my tail up for less if you recall, and I would be honoured to do it again."
"My tail's big and poofy!" said Pinkie Pie, bouncing forward with her apparently boundless energy. "It'd probably work better!"
"Why don't we just all give up some of our tails?" asked Rainbow Dash. "That way none of us gets left out." She rolled her eyes.
Everypony agreed rather easily to that proposal, and so Twilight set about to snip off about a quarter of everyone's tail using her magic.
"If you braid it right, it will keep together," said Rarity. Twilight nodded, and tried to produce something that didn't fall apart, but it was no use.
"Allow me," Rarity said, taking over. She had it all put together in under thirty seconds. Now all that was left was to choose a direction.
"Well," said Twilight. "We know Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie came from that direction." She indicated the door they came through with her hoof. "Rainbow Dash, which way did you come from?"
"The opposite."
"Then we'll go this way," said Twilight, pointed directly in front of her, a direction neither had come from. Taking charge, she snatched the braid from Rarity and walked towards the door. She was scared about this, but pressed on. She had to set a good example for everone else.
Slowly, she turned the handle, and the door moved forward, then down. Twilight climbed up so she could see through. A blue room. She tossed the braid in.
Twilight watched in horror as suddenly fire erupted from the walls of the room, burning the bundle of hair completely before it even hit the ground. It was so hot, she closed the door as soon as she could.
"Well... that way's not safe." Twilight felt fear much greater than before. She had heard there were traps. She had seen the cut on Fluttershy's forehoof. But to actually see a trap? Twilight, her friends, they could actually die here.
"Does this mean we have to make another braid?" asked Applejack.
Twilight's eyes widened.
"Yes, it does," she said. "I didn't think about it before, but eventually we're going to run out of hair. Then what will we do?"
Rarity let out a gasp and instinctively reached towards her head. She definitely didn't want to walk around as a bald mare.
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," said Applejack. She flicked her tail towards Twilight. "Right now, we just need to move."
They picked the final direction that hadn't been tried, that wasn't up or down. Each room really was identical except for colour, right down to the tiny gears that moved under the glass. The only thing Twilight could see as possibly identifiable was the rust patterns and grease. They were different in each room as such a thing was natural, not built or designed. But how could Twilight possibly take notice of all that?
Rarity noticed. The problem was that she couldn't remember it all. They passed so many untrapped rooms, over a dozen now, and her memory simply wasn't good enough to keep it all straight. She just hoped that if, somehow, they ever got turned around, that she would notice then.
They somehow got into the habit of taking turns. When it was their turn, they would throw the braid into a room, and if it was safe be the first to enter it.
Fluttershy stepped forward, braid in her mouth, leaned in, and threw the braid into the orange room. Nothing happened, and the braid dropped unharmed to the floor. She sighed, and then tried to spit out some of the grease that had accumulated onto the braid. It tasted terrible. At that moment she wished she was a unicorn.
Tentatively she climbed up and went through, her friends watching behind her. When she knelt down to pick the braid back of and tell her friends that it was alright, the doors closed.
Fluttershy dropped the braid again. Nothing was happening, but she could hear the sound of hooves banging on the door, and the shouts of her friends asking her if she was alright.
On the other side, Twilight had shooed everyone away from the door. Above her head was a magically conjured battering ram. As hard as she could, ignoring the headache she had from the smell, the heat, and the noise of the place, she slammed it into the door. A huge thunk echoed through the room, but it didn't budge. Twilight's head was absolutely splitting from the effort, and her spell evaporated. Whatever it was, the metal was extremely hard. Her attempt did more damage to her than it did to the wall, though the glass panes did crack.
Back in the orange room, Fluttershy had her eyes closed. It was getting bright. Too bright to see. She started to yell.
"Please!" she cried out as loud as her shyness would allow, even in such fear. "Open the door! Get me out of here!"
All she could hear was yet more clanging as her friends tried to get her out. But they couldn't open the door. She followed her ears back to their room and put a hoof on the ladder in the wall, but as soon as she did she pulled away in pain.
It was hot. It was then that she noticed it wasn't just getting brighter, it was getting hotter.
Fluttershy stopped screaming.
Sometimes, when a pony's death is eminent, they panic. They cry and scream and yell in fear of death, in unwillingness to finally stop living. Sometimes they think it could save them, and sometimes they're right. Fluttershy knew better.
If they could get the door open, they would have by now. There was no help for her now, so Fluttershy just stayed silent, tears streaming down her face.
"I'm so sorry I can't say goodbye," she said softly to herself. She could feel her skin burning painfully now. "I love you all."
With those last words, the room shone in searing light, so hot that no evidence was left that there had ever been anything living inside.
There was still a smell however, and when the door forced itself open after completing its function, the ponies on the other end recoiled in disgust. Then realisation dawned.
"It can't be," said Rarity, her voice barely a whisper.
"Is Fluttershy in there?" asked Rainbow Dash. She knew the answer. But crying or screaming or general mourning would give life to that knowledge. And she didn't want to know. So instead she just asked. "Fluttershy's in there right?" She didn't notice her own tears.
Applejack shook her head. She didn't want to think right now. If she sat down and thought about what just happened, she'd be too depressed to keep moving. And if that happened, she would die too. She couldn't do that too her friends, especially not now. She had to keep moving. They all did.
Twilight was mortified. She broke down, burring her face in her hooves.
"It's my fault," she said, her voice cracking from her sobs. "I should have seen it!"
Pinkie Pie was the only one who wasn't crying, but she had a very un-Pinkie-like look on her face. She walked over and put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder.
Twilight jerked away from the contact, but realising what it was, allowed herself to be comforted, at least in that much. But just that much.
"It's my fault," she said again.
"No it's not," said Pinkie Pie. She leaned down and hugged Twilight, as hard as she could. "It's whoever built this terrible place's fault."
Twilight wasn't going to allow this.
"No," she said. "I should have realised testing the rooms wasn't going to work all the time." Her speech was stuttered, broken from crying. "There are so many ways for sensors to be built!" she continued. "We were just testing for motion and pressure! But what about heat? Or sound? What about specific amounts of pressure? Or—"
She stopped as she felt another pair of hooves envelope her. Rarity had come up behind her to join the hug.
"None of us knew," she said slowly. "We didn't think about it."
Another pair of hooves as Rainbow Dash entered the hug.
"If one of us is to blame, all of us are," said Rainbow Dash.
Applejack joined at the same time Rainbow Dash did.
"It's not your fault," was all she said, after Rainbow Dash had spoken.
Twilight continued to cry though. She couldn't help but feel that they were wrong. It was so obvious that their trick wasn't going to work. It was so obvious, and yet she didn't see it. Even when their lives literally depended on it, she didn't think to think things through more.
She wouldn't make that mistake again.
It had been a long time since they began making their way to a face. Many hours had passed. They were both physically and emotionally exhausted. So finally, in a big pile of sadness and fatigue, they fell asleep.
A horrible screeching noise. The ponies woke up, jolted, literally away as the floor started to shift underneath them. The sound of mechanical gears grinding against each other was all encompassing, like some kind of horrible gigantic music box without music. They could barely hear their own screams.
They tumbled painfully across the floor as it tilted, until they finally hit what was previously a wall. Things slowed down and finally settled to a stop.
Twilight just didn't want this right now, but she forced herself out of the pile of ponies and looked around.
"Ugh," said Rainbow Dash, stumbling out from under Applejack. She flared her wings and then immediately folded them back.
"Ow!" she said. She slowly unfolded her left wing and worked it back and forth, wincing in pain as she did. "I think I twisted it."
"Let me take a look at that," said Rarity. "Ordinarily I think the best pony for this would be—"
She stopped abruptly. It seemed for a moment that she was staring off into space, but then her eyes snapped back into focus and she continued. "I know a little about first aid."
Rainbow Dash held a hoof out to stop her approach.
"There's no point," she said. "There's nothing to bind it with if it's broken. No ice to put on it to stop the swelling. I'll just have to deal until we get out of here."
"That should be our main focus," said Applejack. "We need to get out of here. I can't be the only one who's really thirsty. If ya'll are right, and I think ya'll are, and nopony's gonna feed us, we need to get out of here as fast as we can or we're going to die of thirst."
"But which way?" said Twilight. "Do we keep going the direction we were?" she pointed to the floor, which now housed the room Fluttershy went into. "Or do we keep going the relative direction?" she turned and pointed to her right.
"I think," said Pinkie Pie. "We need to find a way for what happened to Fluttershy to not happen again. Before we move anywhere."
Twilight was, deep down, saddened at Pinkie Pie's uncharacteristic seriousness. On the other hoof, it was a good thing nopony had to worry about Pinkie bouncing off into a potentially trapped room without checking just because she treated everything like a game. Well, almost everything.
"I don't think there is a way," said Rarity softly. "I think the best we can do is just keep going and doing what we always did. At least some of the traps will be screened that way and that's just... the best we can do."
Twilight shook her head violently.
"No, no no!" she said. "There's got to be a way." She sat down, trying to think. "We've been put in here. We were taken at different times. We all know each other already and we're the elements of harmony. We were all put in relatively close proximity so they probably wanted us to find each other. So what do they want?
"Are we here until somepony comes and finds us?" A pause as the other ponies just stared at her. "No, a simple magical prison could keep us all in one place if that's what they wanted. They don't want a ransom, or use us as leverage, because we're not being kept safe. I think... I think we're here to get out."
"If they wanted us out, why would they put is in at all?" asked Pinkie Pie.
"Because they just want to watch us. Or maybe not 'watch' us, because I thought that before and it doesn't look like there's any surveillance equipment anywhere in the walls. Maybe they just want to see which of us can get out? Maybe they just thought it'd be fun to build this little maze and put us here to test it. If so, then there's got to be a way to get out!"
"Maybe there isn't a way out," said Applejack. She had a frightened look on her face. "Maybe there's no way out because we're dead, and we've gone to the bad place. Maybe we're just going to get picked off one by one until—"
"That's ridiculous!" said Twilight, cutting that line of thinking off right there. "If we're dead, why don't we remember dying? Why would we even be in 'the bad place'?" She said that last line mockingly, and Applejack glared in response. "We're good ponies, we all embody one of the elements of harmony! There aren't any ponies more good in Equestria besides the princesses!"
"We're like that!" said Applejack. "But what about you? You're just the element of magic, there's nothing harmonious about that! Maybe it's your fault, and you died and drug us all down here with you!"
"Applejack!" said Rarity. "How could you say something like that!?"
Applejack's ears folded back and she looked extremely guilty, as if she only now realised what she had said.
"I'm terribly sorry Twilight," she said, shying her eyes away from the purple pony. "I don't know what I was thinking, I just, I wasn't thinkin' at all! I shouldn't have said something like that, you're just as good as any of us, one of the best ponies I've had the pleasure to meet."
Twilight sighed. "It's alright Applejack. It's this place. It's horrible, and it's stressing us out. That's part of the reason I think we're supposed to get out, and there is a way out. Plus... it does us no good to think there isn't one. If there isn't, and we don't think there is, we will all die. If there is, and we think there isn't, we die. If there is and we think there isn't, we still die. The only way we get out is if there is, and we act like there is. So our best option is to press on, assume there's a way out. We have to look, closely! There must be something we've missed!"
They spread out to search, but there didn't seem to be anything they could have possibly missed. Meticulously they searched, finding only thick grease stains that wiped away to reveal nothing at all. Behind the glass panels were still the little gears, grinding away, oblivious to the suffering they were causing along with light that illuminated from nothing. In fact, to Twilight, it didn't even seem like the lights were coming out of the walls. It was as if the rooms simply were lit, and the glass was just more reflective than the rusted metal of the room.
Twilight heard the sound of a door being opened. She turned around, and saw Pinkie Pie looking through the floor where Fluttershy had... gone.
"Pinkie Pie!" screamed Twilight, but Pinkie didn't reply, or acknowledge her at all. Was she crazy? Was she going to kill herself?!
"Get away from there!" called out Rainbow Dash. Still Pinkie Pie didn't move, neither to step into the portal, or step back from it. Finally she said, "Twilight, did we ever notice these numbers before?"
Twilight rushed over.
"Numbers?! What numbers?"
Pinkie pointed at the base of the room. There were numbers, facing the opposite direction, where the door would sit if it were closed. In the other room were numbers Twilight didn't have to turn in her head.
8 - 304 397 424
Twilight's brain began to whir in excitement and relief.
"Quick!" she said. "Everypony check the other doors. See if each one has a number!"
Twilight stayed looking at the bottom door while the remaining four split up to look at the other rooms.
They each called out their numbers.
8 - 321, 388, 542
8 - 410, 974, 119
8 - 202, 766, 641
8 - 221, 657, 443
"Well," said Twilight, after hearing them. "They look like coordinates. But if they are that would be... very bad."
"Why?" asked Pinkie Pie, closing her door and coming back to see what Twilight was doing.
"Because we don't want to deal with nine hundred and ninety-seven million, two thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine rooms." said Twilight deadpan.
" Luckily, If we assumed that many and judging from the size of a single room, the entire structure would be about four hundred and sixty-six million, two hundred and one thousand, three hundred and ninety-five feet cubed. That's over eighty-eight thousand miles which means if it sat on the ground it would not only crush Equestria but probably kill everyone on the planet as it collapsed on itself. Since that is currently not happening, we must assume there's something else going on with these numbers."
She tried to think, but it was just so hot and she was tired, and hungry, and thirsty and she stopped herself right there. She couldn't let herself get sidetracked. She would eat when she got out of this place. She would sleep, drink, and cool down then too. But right now, she had to think.
"Maybe they're in some kind of code?" offered Rarity. "If you add them up then you only get a possible twenty-seven by twenty-seven by twenty-seven structure. That's possible to build."
Twilight's eyes widened. She turned to look at Rarity, who suddenly looked very worried.
"I-it was just a suggestion Darling, I thought—"
"Rarity, you're a genius!" said Twilight. She would have grabbed Rarity and picked her up with her forelegs in excitement if she had the energy.
"That's it!" Twilight continued. If you add each three digit number up, then we get our actual coordinates!" she listed them off.
8 - 6, 19, 11
8 - 5, 20, 11
8 - 4, 19, 11
8 - 5, 18, 11
It's perfect! The numbers added up indicate coordinate on the X, Y, and Z axis. Which means we're already pretty close to the edge, we just need to go that way!"
She pointed with her hoof the door that indicated twenty on the y-axis.
"Well that gives us a direction to go in, but what about the traps?" said Rainbow Dash. Her wing was starting to look a bit swollen and Twilight was impressed at the mare's ability to ignore it.
"Give me a moment," said Twilight. She had honestly forgotten all about the traps, which in itself was horrible. It had only been a few moments ago that Fluttershy had gotten into one, and she could forget about it already, just because she got a little excited about solving a puzzle? What kind of friend was she? She tried to push that question out of her mind and get back to the numbers. If she was going to be a horrible pony, the least she could do is get her friends out of this.
Twilight rolled the numbers in her mind. There was only one known trapped room with a number. She'd have to do more testing.
"Girls, let's make one more braid. We need to check to see if any other room near us is trapped. I can't work with just one number."
They were running out of tail and were going to have to use their manes soon. Rainbow Dash had already run out and didn't have any spare hair to give.
The each took turns, throwing the braid into the rooms. Nopony bothered with the one on the ceiling, as Rainbow Dash could no longer fly and nopony wanted to climb.
Each room in turn was tested until...
"Yes!" said Twilight, as she looked over Rarity's shoulder as the walls sprayed the braid with some kind of corrosive material. The hair was gone, again, this time in a puddle of black goo. Twilight looked at the number of the room and a smile cracked across her face.
"I got it," she said. "I got it, it's real simple, we can be out of here like that!" She tried to snap her tail but now that it was so short, no crack sounded.
"Care to share with the rest of the class?" asked Rarity.
"Prime numbers," said Twilight. "If any of the numbers are prime then the room is trapped. If they're not, we're safe and we can just sail on through until we reach the edge! And the direction to the edge is safe, so let's go!"
"Wait a minute Twilight," said Rainbow Dash getting in the way of Twilight's walking. "So you know what the three numbers mean. What does the eight mean?"
Twilight clearly hadn't been expecting that, because she went over to the doors and began checking them again. Rainbow Dash waited, hoping she'd hurry so they could get out of there. Her wing was killing her.
Rainbow Dash was momentarily surprised when suddenly Twilight was engulfed in magic and teleported to the ceiling, her hooves grappling the bars that ran up the walls and to the door. She strained, groaning in effort as she tried to hold on as she magically opened the door.
"Let me help you," said Rarity, and Twilight's back legs glowed with blue magic as she let herself be carried slowly into the upper door.
"Okay, let me down," she said after a moment. Rarity did so.
"Well?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Got any ideas?" She didn't mean to sound accusatory but it seemed to come out that way when she heard her own voice.
"Honestly, Rainbow Dash," said Twilight. Dash had to voluntarily keep her ears from folding back at Twilight's tone. "I have a couple, but no way to tell. It could be there are at least eight of these structures, and we're just in the eighth one. It could be that the structure is divided into octants for convenience and we're in the eighth one but... " she put her hoof to her chin. "No, it can't be that one. There's a well known numbering convention for octants, and given our location in the cube we are not in the eighth. Then again... " Rainbow Dash suppressed the urge to groan.
"It doesn't matter," said Rainbow Dash. "If it's in all the rooms it's probably not important. Let's just hurry up and go."
Rainbow Dash was starting to feel kind of claustrophobic and wanted nothing more than to get out of this cube. She wanted to fix her wing, eat and drink, and time to... really, properly grieve over Fluttershy. Right now, it was starting to feel like there was nothing more to life than getting out of the cube. It was becoming her singular drive in existence, and everything else, even Fluttershy's death, was secondary to that. And she didn't like it.
Twilight and the others didn't object, and they made their way through to the next room, the one Twilight said was closer to the edge. Everypony followed her through, and they had to turn only three times to avoid trapped rooms. As they went, there was a sound of mechanical whirring, louder than the soft background gears in the walls, but much softer than the sound that accompanied the entire place turning.
"What's that?" asked Pinkie Pie.
"Vents, maybe?" said Rarity.
"No vents in this place," said Twilight as she pushed on, leading them through another door. "That's why it's so hot. There's no air circulation at all."
Finally, after what must have been an hour of walking and climbing through holes, they made it to the edge.
"This should be it," said Twilight, stopping in front of what was apparently the last door. "Since we're high up this should open up high above the ground, and with Rainbow's wing in bad condition we'll have to work something else out so we can safely leave."
"Just open the door already!" said Applejack. "I can't take another minute in here, not when we're so close!" Rainbow Dash nodded her head in agreement, along with the rest of them.
Twilight leaned forward and got up to be the first to peer through the door. She was smiling as she turned the handle and finally, the door was open. Her smile faded and turned into a deep frown.
"What is it?" said Rainbow Dash. "Can we get out now?"
Twilight left the door open, but backed away, silently.
Now that Twilight was out of the way, what was through the door was clearly visible. Another room Blue this time.
"You said this was the edge!" said Applejack.
"Be quiet!" said Twilight suddenly. Her voice sounded harsh. "I'm trying to think!"
Applejack grumbled a bit but then stayed quiet. So did everypony else. Twilight was a smart pony, no doubt about that. But Applejack was starting to think she shouldn't be in charge. She was erratic and unpredictable sometimes, especially if she couldn't understand something. And this... place. Applejack didn't think anypony could understand it. But on the other hoof, what else could they do? Twilight seemed to have been leading them safely so far. No braid, no deaths, all with Twilight going first into every room. Applejack felt bad at the thought. She'd been letting Twilight risk her life this entire time and didn't think nothing of it. She'd have to volunteer to go first next time.
"I... " began Twilight, finally. "Have no idea." She sighed. "Look at the number."
Pinkie Pie was the one who stepped up first. She tentatively made her way to the door, looking very disappointed. She climbed up enough to see, and called out the number.
3 - 345 999 456
"It's not eight," said Rainbow Dash. "So what does it mean?"
"I don't know!" said Twilight, holding the sides of her head in frustration. "I don't understand! According to the coordinates, both this room and that one are the end. So I guess they're built right next to each other. And we're going to have to keep going until we find the edge. I thought the coordinates would help us there, but I guess not."
"We can still avoid the traps," said Pinkie. "That's something, right?"
"Maybe instead of just going to one of the edges, we should go up," said Rarity. "It can't just keep going, there has to be an out up there or else the structure would collapse by its own weight."
Twilight sighed again. She was beginning to do a lot of that. "It's as good a direction as any."
She made her way to the door, moving past Pinkie Pie and climbing up through it. "We'll start here. At least it's not eight. That's some sense of movement. Maybe we can find a 'one.' If I had to guess I'd say 'one' sounds like it could have exit."
It made as much sense as anything else, so they followed her into the next room, and began their way up. This involved somepony having to climb up and open the door to read the letters. They took turns doing this, as it was very tiring and Twilight was beginning to feel fatigued with her spell work. The amount of effort needed to teleport to the ceiling, or just climb and open the door manually was beginning to be too taxing. Soon, Twilight was going to have to forego magic completely, outside of emergencies.
"Why don't you just teleport out of here?" asked Rainbow Dash while on the subject of teleportation. "Then you could just get help."
"I don't know where out of here is," said Twilight. "I can't teleport over great distances, and I can't teleport to places where I don't know where they are. If I tried now, at best nothing would happen, and at worst I'd teleport myself into a wall and die. So I'm afraid I'm hoofing it with the rest of you."
"You don't have to get so snippy," replied Dash.
The journey up was long and gruelling. Dash's wing was turning uncomfortable shades of purple, the shoulder of her injured wing swelling up to the size of a baseball. Deep in her mind, Rainbow Dash was aware she wasn't going to be able to fly again. It had been too long, and she'd be lucky if it would even sit right when she got out of here. But again, her desire to simply leave the cube outweighed her other concerns. Joining the Wonderbolts was so low on her list of priorities it hardly registered.
According to Twilight they were a little over halfway up the structure when nopony wanted to climb anymore.
"I'm dead tired," said Applejack. "I think if I tried to climb another rung my muscles would give out and I'd fall and hurt myself."
"But if we don't move, we'll be dead," replied Twilight, though she wasn't too keen on climbing anymore either.
"Maybe moving up wasn't such a good idea," said Rarity. "It's too much effort. We could have made it to the edge by now if we had just picked a side. Or even down."
"No, it was a good idea," replied Twilight. "Despite the difficulty, it's better than the alternatives. If we go down we might find a door that leads to the ground, and so we'd have to travel to a face anyway. And if we manage to make it to the top, we can get through and just leave. No navigating through these cubes. And I'd be very grateful for that. When we get out of here I hope to never do a mathematical problem ever again."
"Who do you think built this place anyway?" said Pinkie Pie. "It looks like it took a lot of time and money."
"It couldn't be the government," said Twilight. "No way Princess Celestia would allow something like this."
"The Princesses are not the entire government though," said Rarity, sitting down in a corner. She didn't care at all about her appearance anymore and let the greasy walls ruin her coat even further. "Perhaps some other ponies have gone behind her back, and use this as some form of punishment for ponies they don't like."
"How could that be if we're able to get out?" asked Twilight. "If it was a part of the government that somehow managed to move around Celestia, it must be very powerful. And if it wanted to just get rid of or punish ponies then there are simpler and cheaper ways." She sat down too, on a wall close to Rarity. "If that was the reason, it must also serve as entertainment of some kind."
"Maybe it is government, maybe not," said Rainbow Dash. "But it's gotta be rich ponies. And what do rich ponies like to do at lot of? Gambling." She laid down on her stomach, her back in too much pain to lean on.
"You think ponies put us in here to bet on us? To see who gets out, or who dies last?"
Dash nodded before stretching out and resting her head on her front hooves.
"You know," said Twilight. "Of all the suggestions so far, that's the one that makes the most sense. It fits everything we've seen so far. It's just... I can't imagine why ponies would bet on this." She moved her hooves around to indicate exactly what this was. "This is horrible. How could anyone watch ponies get killed for fun? And why build this to do it? Even if they wanted to bet on ponies dying, there's just got to be a cheaper way. And how could this have been built without anypony noticing? It's huge! Where is it!?"
"If it was the government, they could have found a way to build it without getting caught," said Rarity. "They're the ones who'd normally do the catching, right? So they just don't catch themselves."
"Maybe they're rich government ponies who like to bet?" asked Pinkie. She was the last to lay down, after Applejack. "And they invite other rich ponies to bet too."
"Maybe it wasn't built by ponies," said Applejack. "Or not Equestrians. Ya'll are forgettin' this place is old. Real old by the look of it. It must've been built long ago, and maybe those rich ponies found it and started throwing other ponies in."
"It must've been ponies," said Twilight. "The rooms and the corridors to each room are big enough for us to use... well, I hesitate to say the word 'comfortably', but you know what I mean."
"There were ponies before Equestria," said Rainbow Dash. "Maybe one of the old city-states did it. Or tribes."
"This structure is far too advanced for back then. For before Equestria at all."
"I got it!" said Rainbow Dash suddenly. "It wasn't built in the past. It was built in the future!" The other ponies stared at her, speechless. "And it somehow got transported far back in time, where it sat until some ponies found it. Maybe they don't even know what it is and they're just throwing ponies in to see what happens instead of going in themselves."
Rainbow Dash waited expectantly for somepony to tell her what a good idea that was again.
"Rainbow Dash," said Twilight. Rainbow began to preen at the expected praise. "That's the stupidest idea I've ever heard. Future ponies wouldn't want to build this, and if they did, why send it back in time? They can't observe through time without travelling themselves! If it was an accident why didn't they come back and get it!?"
She continued but everypony else stopped listening. This wasn't a time for arguing. This was a time for rest.
Rainbow Dash especially felt very tired, and her desire for sleep was magnified by the pain in her wing. You didn't feel pain in your sleep, or at least she didn't. She wanted to be able to forget, if only for just a little while.
Unfortunately it wasn't meant to be this time. The metal floor was in every way unlike a cloud, a bed, or a pile of friends after an emotionally taxing event. And if that wasn't bad enough, the pain in her wing was prevented her from relaxing at all. In fact, laying down made it worse as she no longer had anything to keep her mind off it. Still, she did her best to ignore it as her friends fell asleep around her. At least they would get some rest.
Twilight closed her eyes. She wasn't sleeping. She couldn't sleep, but she wasn't going to take rest away from her friends. It was this place. It was the singular greatest puzzle Twilight had ever seen, and she hated unsolved puzzles. Hated them more than almost anything. Despite the progress she'd made is finding a way around the traps, there was still so many questions left unanswered about the Cube they found themselves in. That it even existed and could turn was an amazing feat of engineering in itself, especially since it seemed to be entirely mechanical.
As Twilight grappled with these problems, Applejack actually managed to fall asleep. She knew she needed it. They all needed it. She just had to not think about the hunger, the fear, the heat, and most of all Fluttershy. Just have to keep your head down and only focus on what's immediately in front of you.
Pinkie Pie was not so lucky. She was kept up, thinking about her. Death was something that was far away and long in the future, not something that could happen anytime soon. It should be peaceful and you should go with all your friends by your side. Fluttershy didn't get any of that. She died a horrible death without her friends to comfort her or be there for her. Pinkie was afraid. She was afraid that was going to happen to her too. And she just couldn't bring herself to laugh it all away.
Rarity... was having a difficult time. She was a mess. Oh, she tried not to let it show, but inwardly she was freaking out. She was dirty, filthy even, and she couldn't stop thinking about this place and all its horrible details. She felt that any second now she would just be squished under plates, or stabbed by knives coming out of the floor. Anything could happen. Just because they seemed safe in this room didn't make it so. They thought Fluttershy would be safe. But that just showed you had to constantly be on the lookout. And you couldn't be on the lookout while you were asleep, so Rarity kept her eyes open as the others rested, faced away from everypony else.
The walls churned with the noise of gears at regular intervals, and Twilight pondered their meaning. Was there a timer somewhere? Was the structure going to be purged if they didn't make it out in time. That probably wouldn't be good. But the noise appeared to sometimes be close by and other times to be far away, so whatever it was it wasn't implying they needed to go even faster than they already were. By Twilight's estimations they'd already been in the damn thing for around ten hours. It was impossible to tell though. There was no variation in light levels, nothing on their bodies that could be used to tell the time like a watch, and their exhaustion was artificially magnified due to physical and emotional stress. It could only have been three hours. Or maybe it had been sixteen.
When Twilight had decided they had rested long enough, she made a show of getting up, yawning and stretching as if she had had a good night's sleep. She had to set an example for the others.
Twilight noticed things were a bit off when Pinkie's hair came up a bit flatter than normal. That wasn't a good sign. There were bags under Rarity's eyes, and Rainbow Dash's wing wasn't getting any better. She was now visibly gritting her teeth in pain, and Twilight wished there was something she could do about it.
They set to moving again. Their muscles still hurt but the rest had given them at least enough energy to keep climbing.
"What if this doesn't work?" said Pinkie Pie, as they went. "What if we get up there, and it's just more rooms forever?"
"Don't worry about that Pinkie Pie," said Applejack, who was now climbing through the door. The others helped her get up as she grit her teeth. She took a moment to let her breathing slow back down before continuing. "We just gotta keep moving. Just keep moving and we'll get out. Don't worry about anything else."
Rarity rolled her eyes but stayed silent.
"We'll get out," said Twilight. "It can't keep going."
They continued on, making several detours to avoid traps. So far, Twilight's Prime Number theory had worked like a charm.
"This is it," said Twilight as Rainbow Dash made it up through the door. She was the last, and now everypony was in the room. "Again. Through that door should be outside. But let's try not to get our hopes up. Rainbow Dash, it's your turn to climb first."
Rainbow Dash didn't complain. She didn't want to show weakness, especially in her injured state. She put her hooves on the runs in the wall and began climbing. She got to the top, and carefully opened the door. Rainbow Dash didn't need to look through to know it was just another room. Her friends all had terribly disappointed looks on their faces and she herself had to fight the urge to just give up. But that wasn't what Rainbow Dash did.
"Just... just tell me the numbers," said Twilight.
7 - 375, 999, 189
"That number doesn't make any sense!" said Twilight. "That implies it's at the edge! But it has to be on the bottom of that cube, unless the origins are inconsistent... But why would it be built like that?!"
"Are the numbers safe Twilight?" asked Applejack. "She can't hang up there all day."
"Oh, yeah," said Twilight, looking up at Dash, who was straining to keep ahold of the bars. "It's safe. We'll just keep going."
Rainbow Dash managed to manoeuvre her way into the door and pulled herself up with her forehooves.
She suddenly felt an intense feeling of vertigo, and tried to speed up her climbing for fear that she'd fall.
"I'm going to be sick," she couldn't help but say as she made one final push up. As she went through however, her entire orientation seemed to change and she found herself flung through the door and shooting forward towards the floor, as if she had just thrown herself down. When she landed, she landed on her back and screamed. It was a bright explosion of pain, unlike anything she'd ever felt before. It felt like every bone and muscle in her back was screaming, and she continued to scream along with them.
"Get her out of there!" shouted Pinkie Pie. "Get her Twilight!"
Twilight took a second to realise what Pinkie was suggesting and concentrated, her eyes closed. When she popped into the upper room she suddenly found herself falling on her side onto the floor, her head in agony from the spellwork. She must have teleported herself badly.
Rainbow Dash was still screaming, but there was no trap. She was simply writhing in agony on the ground, and it didn't take long for Twilight to see why. Rainbow Dash's wing was ruined. She somehow fell on it, and fell on it hard too. It was not only twisted all around, but folded all the way back in a horribly unnatural position that made Twilight's stomach squirm. Twilight didn't know all that much about first aid, but she knew enough to know that there was no saving that wing. And they couldn't leave it that way. And so Twilight concentrated, trying to steel herself for the only thing she could think of to do.
"Please hold still Rainbow Dash, I'm going to help!"
Rainbow Dash stopped squirming but bit down on her own hoof instead, drawing blood.
"This is going to hurt," said Twilight, concentrating hard on creating a magical bone cutter construct. "A lot. And I'm so sorry, but I can't leave your wing like this. This has to be done."
"What's happening up there!" screamed Pinkie Pie. Twilight ignored her. She needed to concentrate. She constructed a pair of scissors and cut off a significant portion of her own mane.
Twilight did her best but this was outside her field. As fast as she could she moved the wing back and untwisted it, creating a barrage of muffled screams and cries from Rainbow Dash. Then Twilight used her cut hair to tie a knot around the wing, as close to the skin of Dash's back as possible. Her pair of magic scissors became a constructed bonesaw, and in one fluid, albeit long and drawn out motion, Twilight sawed Rainbow Dash's wing off.
Twilight had to magically restrain Dash from involuntarily resisting and causing even more damage. There was no antiseptic around. There was nothing to cauterise the wound or wrap it or patch it up. All Twilight had now was hair, feathers, skin, and her own magic. So she made do, trying her best to hold back the vomit that was threatening to jump out of her stomach despite not having eaten anything in several hours. First she tried to heat just the surface of Rainbow Dash's wound so she could cauterize it. It was hard to tell if she was going overboard or not. Dash screamed throughout just the same. She then cut some extra skin off Dash's wing, and used the skin to cover the now dark, bloody patch on Rainbow Dash's back, and attempted to tie the hair around it in a complicated fashion all the way around Dash's torso to hold the skin in place. She tried to tie it as tight as possible to help stop the bleeding.
Rainbow Dash had finally quit biting her hoof, and there were no screams coming out of her mouth anymore. When Twilight was done, they both looked awful. Covered in blood and missing a wing, Rainbow Dash was told to stay down for a while and rest. Twilight could only hope that the hair used to tie the skin in place wouldn't unravel immediately.
It was then Twilight could hear the sounds coming from the other room. Pinkie was crying. Rarity was calling out.
"Please answer us!" Twilight heard her say.
"We're all right now," said Twilight, loudly. "Please don't worry!" Twilight looked down but was shocked to find the open door was not on the floor, but on the far wall. She tentatively walked over, leaving Rainbow Dash sniffling on the floor, and looked through the open porthole.
Her friends where there. Looking up at her. Standing on the wall.
"Dear Celestia," she swore lightly under her breath. "What in Equestria is going on here?"
As everypony began to calm down, Twilight helped her friends come through the door and not lose their balance from the shifted gravity. Twilight understood what happened now. Somehow, without magic (for she didn't sense any at all anywhere in the structure), this room had a different "down" than the lower room. Once again, Twilight failed to comprehend the puzzle before her.
"Sweet Celestia," said Rarity as she stumbled into the room. She was the last to come in. "What happened to Rainbow Dash? I thought this room was safe!"
"It is," said Twilight. "Aside from the shifted gravity." She looked at Dash, who was now sitting in the corner looking awful as Applejack and Pinkie Pie tried to help her. "Rainbow Dash didn't expect it and propelled herself 'forward' into the room and landed on her back. Her wing was ruined and I had to cut it off. There was no saving it. Leaving it on wasn't an option since it was too badly damaged and would at best have just caused Rainbow Dash an incredible amount of pain. There was... I couldn't do anything else!" she shouted. Pinkie and Applejack stared for a moment, but Rainbow Dash looked like she hadn't heard.
Suddenly, Dash spoke. "It's okay," she said softly. Twilight could barely hear her. "I understand. And... honestly, it feels better. It doesn't hurt anywhere near as much as it used to, before... I just... " she bit her lower lip hard. "I just have to get out of here. We have to get out of here. So let's go."
"I'm with Dash," said Applejack. "Let's go."
"Which way do we go?!" shouted Twilight. "Do we go 'up' or do we go the direction that used to be up! This is worse than when the entire structure turned!"
"We keep moving up," said Rarity. "I don't know what kind of trick has been used on us, but it must be just to confuse our way. So let's continue to go up."
"It doesn't matter," said Applejack. "There has to be an end, somewhere. We'll go up now, and if that doesn't work we'll go the other way. There has to be an end!"
Twilight didn't want to argue, even though she thought this was a bad idea. They had already climbed up through half a cube. Doing a complete twenty-seven room climb would be far harder. Still, when Applejack began climbing she didn't object. And when she heard the numbers, she marked it as safe, and Applejack went in, followed by the rest of them.
"I need to go to the bathroom," said Pinkie as she was last to come up the third room.
"Well uh," said Twilight. "Wait until we leave this room. Then you can uh, go, and come up when you're finished."
They waited for her above, and when she opened the door to climb in Twilight was immensely grateful the door would close soon, as even through another door the heat carried the smell through. If it was anypony but Pinkie Pie, Twilight might have even been embarrassed.
They continued their climb for a long time, and Twilight thanked their lucky stars that they had only needed to make very few detours before it was Pinkie's turn to go first again. That was good progress, and it seemed like they were almost once more "to the top."
Pinkie called up the numbers for the next room.
7 - 729, 799, 989
"It's safe Pinkie," said Twilight. Pinkie climbed up through the door. And then the door shut.
"Pinkie?" asked Twilight.
"Why'd she shut the door?" asked Applejack.
Pinkie turned around, startled by the door closing. Her eyes widened. Quickly she reached for the door handle and tried to turn it, but it wouldn't budge. How could this have happened. Twilight said it was safe!
"No, no, no! Please Celestia, no!" Her cries were cut mercifully short as the walls whirred into life, small holes appearing from the metal walls, and then, loud shots rang out. Pinkie Pie didn't have time to register what happened as her body was riddled with bullet holes, instantly kill her. Her body slumped down onto the door she was trying desperately to open.
Down below Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash had stopped calling for their friend. It was obvious what had happened and were now shocked into silence. Until the ceiling door opened up again. For a moment their eyes gleamed in happy surprised, but that happiness turned to horror when the dead body of their friend fell back down into the room.
Rarity couldn't stop herself and immediately turned around, making horrible retching sounds as her stomach was completely empty. Everypony else remained silent, staring. Until Applejack spoke.
"You said it was safe," she said.
"It was," Twilight whispered back. "None of the numbers were Prime. It should have been safe." Twilight put her hooves to her head and let herself fall down. "I don't know! It was safe! This has worked for us up until now, how could this have happened!?"
"How could you?" asked Rarity suddenly, from the corner. She turned back around. "You said it was safe! She trusted you! We all did! I could have—" She stopped.
Twilight looked at Rarity. "You could have what? What exactly could you have done Rarity?"
"N-nevermind," she said. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it."
Twilight closed her eyes for a moment to blink away the tears. "Don't you think I feel bad enough already? Don't you understand that I know all of your lives are in my hooves, that if I mess up this will happen!" Rarity flinched as Twilight pointed her hoof accusingly at Pinkie Pie's body.
"I'm—" Twilight's words were interrupted by a sob. "I'm doing my best," she said. The next words were very low, lower than a whisper, but everypony could still hear them. "And if you think you can do better you can just go rut yourself."
She wiped her face free of tears and stood back up. "I'm done feeling sorry for myself. We have to get out and I know I'm the only one that can lead us out. So you three are just going to sit here and wait for me to figure this out."
She sat turned around, went to a far corner, and sat down.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked nervously at Rarity, who was still taken aback by Twilight's words.
"We should do something about the body," she said finally.
Applejack shrugged and opened the lower door.
"Can ya'll think of anything else?" she said, before gritting her teeth and putting her fore-hooves in such a way that it was obvious she was going to push the body down.
Slowly they shook her heads, and Applejack, with great effort, shoved Pinkie's corpse through the door and quickly shut it. She was panting afterwards, though not from physical exertion. It wasn't difficult. Yet it was now the single hardest thing she'd ever done in her life.
After the body was gone, they all grouped together in the opposite corner to give Twilight more space. When they spoke, they kept their voices down.
"I'm worried about Twilight," said Rarity.
"You think she's going to lead us all to our death?" asked Rainbow Dash, sounding annoyed.
"No," said Rarity. "Well... no. That's not my primary concern. I'm more worried that she's putting too much pressure on herself. You all know what happens when she does that, and we don't need that right now."
"But she's right," said Applejack. "I know I couldn't have gotten us this far."
"Be that as it may, we need to help her somehow. For her sake, and for ours."
"For ours?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"Well... do you really want to be stuck in here with Twilight if she became psychologically unstable?
Rainbow Dash didn't hesitate to say, "I don't want to be stuck in here at all."
"But you see my point?" said Rarity. "So let's go over to Twilight and offer to help her. Surely there must be something we can do."
They walked over to where she was, huddled in her corner. She got up and turned around to face them as they approached. She didn't look too happy with them.
"I heard you," she said. "I'm not going to go crazy. And I don't need your help! If you want to help me, just shut up and leave me alone while I think!"
"But Twilight, there's got to be—"
"No, there isn't. Not unless you're better at mathematics than I am. Are you better at math than I am Rarity?"
Rarity opened her mouth to answer but Twilight didn't give her a chance.
"No, you're not," she said. "And you two?" She looked at Rainbow Dash and Applejack. "You couldn't do math to save your life. So I have to do math to save your life. So let me do it!"
"Now wait just a minute!" said Applejack. Rainbow Dash put a hoof to her chest and shook her head. Applejack looked at Rainbow's pleading face, sighed, and turned around.
"We'll be here if you need us," said Rainbow Dash. "Always."
Rarity followed the Pegasus's lead and left Twilight alone with her thoughts.
They remained silent. There was no point in talking about Twilight because if they wanted to do that they couldn't do it privately. But there was no point in talking at all because Twilight wanted them to be quiet. If that really was all they could do for their friend, then they were going to do it.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash laid down as they waited, though Rarity stayed sitting. Dash was the first to fall asleep, followed shortly after by Applejack. Rarity still couldn't sleep. It was like she was keeping watch, but for what, she didn't know. Not anymore. She still had the feeling that if she just kept account of everything as much as possible, she could help her friends. But that hadn't worked out that well so far.
Rarity estimated it had been at least two hours before Twilight moved out of her corner. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were still asleep as she walked over. Rarity noticed that the metal walls around where Twilight was sitting were scratched with numbers and mathematical operators. She must have used her magic to write into the metal. One of the nearby glass panes was also cracked, probably Twilight had attempted to write in the glass first.
"I think I've figured it out," she said, once she had made it over.
Both Dash and Applejack immediately opened their eyes and looked in Twilight's direction. Noticing that she was staring right at them, they sat up.
"What I said first was Prime Numbers indicated trapped rooms. But this is only part of the answer. A room is trapped if it is prime, but it's not the only thing that indicates trapped rooms. I've tried everything I can think of, and the only thing that seems to work is this. First, we have to take the number of Prime Factors in all the numbers. If any of those numbers are not a Prime Power, then it's trapped. Remember the first number of the room Pinkie died in? Seven Twenty-Nine. That has six prime factors, three to the power of six. Or six threes. Six is not a prime power. The reason Prime Numbers worked so well for us was because every Prime Number only has a single Prime Factor, which is itself. And one is not a Prime Power. So from now on, I'm going to have to calculate the number of Prime Factors in each set that isn't a Prime Number, just to make sure we won't die. This means it's going to take us longer to navigate the rooms, so let's just get started as soon as possible." Twilight looked at them expectantly.
"I have no idea what you just said," said Applejack. "But you did say you figured it out. Are you sure this time?"
"It's the only thing that makes sense with the data I have," replied Twilight. "So we'll see. If anypony else dies with this new system, then we'll worry about it then."
"Maybe," said Rainbow Dash. "Twilight shouldn't go first, ever. What if she's wrong again, but we find out because a trap killed her? Then nopony will be around to figure this out!"
"No!" said Twilight. "We'll continue to take turns."
She said it so emphatically nopony tried to argue with her. They began to read out numbers so they could find a safe detour, and they began their journey again. Rarity was still worried about Twilight. Heavy bags were forming under her eyes, and she kept holding her head. Twilight had mentioned a headache before, but if it got too much worse... how long could Twilight continue to do math in her head? Rarity wanted to help. She was no slouch at math either, though certainly not as good as Twilight. But she knew what Prime Numbers were! Yet she stayed quiet. She was worried Twilight would yell at her if she offered.
They moved on. Things were quiet, and a bit tense. Applejack and Twilight especially seemed to want to do nothing but focus on moving. So that's all they did.
Twilight's new system seemed to be working as once again no traps were met. When they reached the top for the third time, nopony expected it to be the end. Rarity personally was beginning to doubt there was an end, even though it was her who suggested there had to be if they just went up. Twilight was the one to check on the numbers, and when she climbed back down everypony simple assumed it wasn't safe, and so divided themselves among the doors to read off numbers.
"Wait," said Twilight, interrupting them in midstride. "We need to take a break."
"Again?" asked Applejack. "Why? What's wrong? Aren't we close?"
"The number up there," she said, pointing. She recited the number, her eyes closed.
8 - 357, 879, 100
"What about it?" asked Applejack. "Is it unsafe or not?"
"The first number is eight again," said Rarity. "We've gone in a circle."
"How is that possible?" asked Rainbow Dash. "We went up from where eight was!"
"Could it be a teleportation spell of some kind?" asked Rarity. Twilight shook her head.
"No, there's no magic at all in this place. If we went through something magical, I would have felt it. But it doesn't make any sense! Even the shifted gravity didn't make any sense without magic!"
"Then where do we go!?" said Applejack, stomping her hoof on the floor. "Or maybe I was right all along! Maybe there is no way out."
"We got in, there has to be a way out!"
"Then find it!"
"I'm trying!" shouted Twilight. The walls seemed to ring from her voice, and Rarity wondered if Twilight had magically enhanced it. She took a deep breath.
"I just need to... think this through logically." She started pacing again.
"If up there is eight, then if we go up there and go further along the y-axis we will end up in three. We're really close to the end now that we're here in seven, so let's go check right now where we end up if we leave this number."
Applejack scoffed, but didn't argue as they followed Twilight. She ran through the rooms, panting heavily, sweat dripping from her horribly butchered mane. She only stopped to look at numbers. Finally she must have found what she was looking for, because instead of going through a door again she turned around, closed the door behind her, and began speaking.
"I've forgotten," she said. "Let's make it to a corner before we jump to any conclusions. That way we'll have three other cubes to compare with. We're still pretty close, we only have to move halfway through the cube on the x-axis."
Nopony said anything, or gave any indication that this was an intolerable course of action. Instead they followed Twilight. It was easier too, as they didn't have to do any climbing. In the back of her mind, Rarity hoped Twilight knew what she was doing. She was completely leading the group now. If she made a mistake and fell into a trap, that would be it. As they went, sometimes Twilight would shake her head at one the coordinates but still move through, and they would follow. Their speed was much faster than it had been before now that they weren't climbing.
As they entered one of the rooms, Twilight held her hoof out to stop them. She did not run to the next door. Instead, she walked towards it slowly. She opened it, and looked inside. Poking her head in further, Applejack was surprised to find her hind hooves leave the ladder rungs without effort. In fact, her entire body had left the ground except her hooves.
"Girls!" she shouted as her rate of entering the next room increased. Rarity was the first to react, and used her magic to grab on to Twilight's hind legs. Twilight was now somehow suspended in the air, as if she was trying to fly into the next room but Rarity was stopping her. Rarity pulled her back and once Twilight was brought in sufficiently into the room she fell flat on her stomach with a painful sounding ooph.
"Oh I'm so sorry!" said Rarity, but Twilight just nodded in acknowledgement and clutched her stomach.
"It had different gravity didn't it?" said Rainbow Dash. "You were falling down!"
"Yeah," Twilight croaked as she picked herself up. She was using slow, controlled breaths as she was still in pain from having the wind knocked out of her. "I wanted to make sure, but I guess I got a little overzealous."
"What was the number?" asked Rarity.
"That was structure five," she said. "We've never been there before at least. But on the way, I noticed something else.
"The numbers aren't moving like proper coordinates anymore. They probably haven't this whole time and I just never noticed. Sometimes rooms would be skipped, or it would seem like we were going backwards. There's still a general trend towards movement along the axis though, so there's only one conclusion I can come up with."
"Which is?" asked Applejack expectantly.
"The rooms are moving."
There was silence as the other ponies let that sink in.
"So... we haven't gone in a circle?" asked Rainbow Dash. "The rooms have just moved?"
"Well..." began Twilight. "The rooms are moving. I'm sure of it now. That's that sound we keep hearing at regular intervals, the rooms shifting about. And we know the entire structure is rotating, that was how Rainbow Dash first injured her wing. So the coordinates will be wrong the next time it rotates. But I've yet to see any room be in a cube it shouldn't be. No sevens when we should have been in three, or vice-verse. I haven't seen any fives on the way either. So no, I'm afraid to say we didn't move in a circle."
"So what's the other number?" asked Rarity. "If above us is eight, and the number you went through just now is five, what's the other one? The one where you mentioned you forgot something?"
"Three!" said Rainbow Dash suddenly. "We haven't moved very far from three!"
"Yes," said Twilight. "We have five, three, and eight. Eight is also connected to three in the same direction, but the gravity didn't shift when we moved there. I suggest we move up and check what the other cube it connects to is. I'd also like to check the actual coordinates."
Once Twilight confirmed that the upper room was safe, they moved in. It was still an eight. When Twilight checked what other cube should be connected, she made sure to keep her hooves cleanly on the rung of the latter. She didn't want to fall in again. However this time, the gravity wasn't shifted. Her eyes widened suddenly.
"It's also five," she said. "I think... I have a theory. Don't follow me. I'll be right back."
"What?" asked Rarity, but Twilight had already left the room. She moved to follow but Rainbow Dash got in front of her.
"Twilight wanted us to wait. Let's just trust her."
They didn't wait long. However when Twilight came back in it was through another door.
"What happened?" asked Applejack. "Did you find out anything?"
"Yes," she said. She didn't sound happy. "Though I hope I'm wrong."
"What?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Why? If you've figured something out it can only be good, right?"
Twilight looked away.
"Well," she began. "I went through the door over there, and entered cube five. I then moved at a right angle, and found myself in cube three. Another right angle and here I am. But it wasn't the same right angle. To get from three to here, I went at the opposite right angle, I did not move in a circle. More of a zig-zag."
"But that's impossible," said Rarity. "If you did not move in a circle you couldn't have made it back here."
"Ordinarily that'd be true," said Twilight. "But I think I've figured out where we are. And why the gravity shifts sometimes. And why rooms move only in their own cube, and never into other cubes." She took a deep breath.
"We're in a Tesseract," she said.
"A what?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"A Tesseract," said Twilight again. "A hypercube, though that's not an accurate name as all dimensional cube equivalents are referred to as hypercubes broadly, specified either by their unique name, the number of dimensions they inhabit, or the number of cells. More names for what we're in are a 4-cube, and an 8-cell."
"I'm afraid you're not making any sense," said Rarity, worried. "Can you please..." She sighed and looked down, before looking back up. "Explain it to us as if you were talking to a foal. Because I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about, and if I don't know, these two certainly don't!"
"You know I'm tired of my intelligence getting insulted every damn time we talk about math. I can do math just—"
"Nobody cares Applejack," said Twilight. Applejack looked shocked. "Just let me try to explain this simply then."
Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack waited for Twilight to explain, but she said nothing. She just stood there, nervously tapping a hoof on the floor.
"Oh don't worry Twilight," said Rainbow Dash. "You can take your time, it's not like we're going to die or anything if we stay here."
"I'm trying to think!" she said, moving towards Rainbow Dash. Dash stepped back in suit. "This isn't a really easy concept, and you apparently all have the brains of foals, so give me a second to gather my thoughts!"
Rainbow Dash swallowed hard in nervousness, though her mouth was dry and her swallow simply produced a mild amount of pain. Twilight backed away but Rainbow Dash didn't move forward to get back in line with the others.
"Okay, I think I got it," said Twilight. She sighed before saying, "This is going to hurt."
Her horn glowed dimly, and a point of light appeared right in front of them.
"This is a point," she said. Applejack and Rainbow Dash both couldn't help but groan. "It's zero-dimensional, or at least, an actual point would be, this is just a representation." The point lengthened and became a line. "This is a line. It has one dimension and extends on what we can call the x-axis. It has two end-points which we call vertices." The line slowly extended into another direction and turned into a square. "And this is a square," said Twilight.
It was about here that Applejack was really starting to get annoyed. She knew her basic shapes. She didn't want to get into another argument though, or be outright insulted again, so she kept her mouth shut.
"It has length and width, or exists on the x and y-axis. It's two dimensional and consists of four lines which we now call edges, and four vertices." The square now extended in another direction and formed a cube.
"And this is a cube," continued Twilight. "It exists in three dimensions, has eight vertices, twelve edges, and consists of six squares, now called faces."
Applejack blinked as finally she couldn't figure out what Twilight could possibly say next.
The cube seemed to grow another cube, which moved inside of it joined by eight lines connecting all the corners of the smaller cube to the adjacent corners of the inner cube.
"This is a Tesseract. Or a non-rotating projection of one without hidden volume elimination. It has four dimensions, length, width, height, and another one. It has sixteen vertices, thirty-two edges, twenty-four faces, and is made from eight cubes, which are called cells. This is what we're in. Or at least the cells of it since we can't move in a fourth dimension."
Twilight's projection cut out. She rubbed her with a hoof for a moment before bringing it back. It was the same cube-in-a-cube as before.
"It's like..." she said, as the projection changed. It was not a cube again, except this time the three ponies could see all the faces. It began to rotate. "Imagine you saw this on film. It'd be projected onto a two-dimensional plane but you, as three dimensional creatures can make sense of it. Even though if you focus on a square and don't try to turn it into a cube in your mind, it looks like squares are changing shape and moving through each other. If you face the cube head on, it looks like a square in a square, the smaller one the face of the cube that is furthest away." The "Tesseract" came back.
"Likewise this is just a three dimensional projection. There is no cube in the cube, it's further away in the fourth dimension and we just can't see it that way." The object because to twist and contort, turning on its side and appearing as if the cube inside was moving out, growing, and devouring the formally big, outer cube. Suddenly different parts of it began flashing colour slowly.
"These are the cells. They are in fact cubes, but again, they're distorted and the only time any of them look like cubes is when we see them head on. They're connected through the fourth dimension." The Tesseract stopped spinning and returned to its former cube-in-a-cube shape. Then it looked like it was growing. The inner cube expanding outward, distorting the others. It grew into what looked like a cross, except two more extensions.
"This is a Tesseract if we took all the cells and unfolded them and put them into three dimensions." A cube appeared next to the weird cross thing and began to unfold, a process that Applejack actually understood from when she was a filly and made a paper cube in geometry class. "This is likewise a cube, unfolded into two dimensions. We see its squares. In the Tesseract, we see its cells."
The faces of the cubes on the unfolded Tesseract changed colours. Some of them looked like they were the same colours.
"Here are the faces of the cubes that must meet in order to fold the Tesseract back together. THIS is more or less the best way of representing where we are. We are in one of these cubes, at the corner. And going through any of the faces puts us in the corresponding face."
Numbers appeared in the cubes, numbered one through eight.
"This is the standard way of numbers cells. Each is numbered in such a way that opposite cells add up to nine. We are at the bottom cell here, labelled eight. Keep in mind this is just a net, we're not really at the bottom of anything. Anyway we're in a corner so that we can go down and reach seven, or move to three or five. Notice they all match up in the sense of subjective direction. Unlike how cell seven matches up with cell three. Notice that it's the top of cell seven that matches up to a side of three. This is why the gravity shifted. Each cell has the same 'down' as all the others, but when we move between them sometimes they don't match up."
"Now the reason I wish I was wrong, though now I'm sure I'm not, is that if you look you'll notice that no matter which direction we go we'll end up back where we started. We can't move in the fourth dimension. The rooms move in their cells, the entire Tesseract rotates, but we can't move with it to get out. There... is no out. We're trapped, like an ant trying to walk his way off a floating sphere." Her diagrams disappeared and her horn stopped glowing. She fell to the floor and Rarity went to help her back up. Twilight just sat back down and held her head in pain, clenching her teeth. If Rarity wasn't so concerned about what Twilight was saying she might have thought to worry about Twilight herself. As it was, the matter at hoof was the cube, or Tesseract or whatever crazy thing it is.
"There has to be a way out," said Rarity. "Because we got in. If there's no way out there's no way in."
Twilight scoffed. "Not if we were just put here by some fourth-dimensional creature. That's why they don't have cameras! They can see us just fine from where they are, like how we can see everything that could be drawn inside a square, though a two-dimensional creature would have to go inside. That's why there's no light bulbs or candles or anything! The light's shining down from wherever, illuminating the entire structure! If we were just plucked out of our homes and put here, there's no way out unless they decided to put us back! The only way we could get out is if—" Twilight stopped rubbing her head. Her mouth twitched upwards and began to form a smile. It was the first smile she'd had in what seemed like a very long time.
"We may be able to get out," she said.
"Well how!?" asked Applejack. "How do we get out if we're just going to go in circles?"
"The rooms move right?" asked Twilight. She didn't wait for an answer before continuing. "And the Tesseract rotates? Well, assume we were ants on a cube, and the cube was on a vertex just about the ground where we wanted to go. There's no way out! But, if the cube moves and rotates, maybe it'll move in such a way that a face is flush with the ground. So instead of going on another face, the ant could just leave. Maybe it's like that with us! Maybe there's a position the Tesseract will go in where either an entire cell, or a face will intersect with normal three-dimensional space! That would be the way out, and that would justify us being watched at all! Like we agreed on before, we're supposed to get out! We just have to figure out which cell or room will get us there!"
She slowly got up and moved towards a door. She opened it, and looked at the numbers.
One number to indicate the cell. Three numbers for coordinates within the cell. But the coordinates changed. So how can you plot a point that keeps moving?
She closed the door and tried to think. There was technically an infinite number of possible permutations that would show how the rooms moved.
But there was everything else involved in a map, and once you figured it out it was pretty simple to decipher. So whatever was used to map the movement of the rooms must equally be simple. But what could it be?
Rainbow Dash simply stood there with her remaining friends, watching Twilight think. Dash herself certainly had nothing to contribute to this. She didn't even really understand what Twilight was talking about with cubes and squares and 'Tesseracts' or whatever. She just knew that Twilight knew what she was talking about, and if it meant there was now a definitive way to get out then she was all for it.
As Rarity waited she noticed the sounds of scratching on metal. Moving herself to get a closer look, she found that she was correct, as a faint glow was emanating from her horn, scratching numbers into the side panels. Twilight's face looked a bit redder than normal and was scrunched up in what liked extreme concentration. As Rarity watched Twilight, she noticed too that the glow of her horn was growing dimmer. She also seemed to be straining more to write into the metal. Rarity realised what was happened only moments before it did.
The light on Twilight's horn fizzled, and went out. Rarity was astonished when Twilight merely rubbed her head and began attempting to scratch numbers in with her hoof. Unfortunately this didn't do anything, and for once, Rarity ignored her apprehension and interrupted Twilight.
"Tell me what to write down," she said, moving right next to Twilight. Twilight merely looked at her oddly, before nodding.
"I'm testing out a few ideas I have trying to see if they work," she said. "So just write the numbers down, don't worry about what they mean or anything, I just need you to dictate like Spike would."
Rarity nodded in agreement and Twilight began. She tried her best to shut her brain off and just write, knowing that if she spent time trying to understand what Twilight was saying she might mess up. And mess up she did.
"Rarity, you're going to run out of room!" yelled Twilight as she crossed out yet another number, wasting space. She muttered her apologies and they continued.
Finally Twilight smiled and said she was done, asking for a particular set of numbers to be circled. Rarity did so, wiping her brow with a hoof and pressing firmly, as her head was beginning to hurt. She was unused to using magic in such a way, and it was then that she really appreciated Twilight's magical and mathematical abilities. To have gone this far without much rest was nothing short of miraculous.
"Applejack!" said Rainbow Dash, nudging her awake. Her eyes opened and she saw everypony staring at her.
"Is Twilight done?" she asked, before getting up. She blinked a few times and stumbled on her way, holding her head briefly.
"Sorry," she said. "Feeling a might dizzy."
"Yeah, so am I," said Rainbow Dash. "Actually, I feel like I want to throw up. Like I have a really bad hangover."
"Honestly I'm surprised you're alive," said Twilight grimly. "You lost a lot of blood when I cut your wing off, and I'm especially surprised my makeshift bandage actually helped to stop any bleeding. Coupled with our inability to eat, sleep affectively, or drink... well. You're one tough pony Dash."
Rainbow Dash smiled weakly. "Yeah, it's no big deal. We all have it hard, I mean just look at all this thinking you have to put up with. I could never have done it."
Twilight returned Dash's smile, if only for a moment.
"Anyway," she said. "I think I've got this figured out completely now. It took me a while but I realised whatever ways these rooms move, they must return to their original position at some point. And a really simple obvious way for this is by calculating the moves based on subtracting the three digits of each number from each other, in turn. The first number subtracted from the second, then the second subtracted from the third, and finally the third subtracted from the first. I realised that while this worked with my first assumptions, it didn't provide a way out. No room would leave the Tesseract, and there's no obvious marker that would show any of the cells to intersect normal space. But then I thought of something.
"There must be a way to get out. That's our assumption. And these permutations allow a simple explanation and pattern for us to see where the rooms move. And with them, there is a way to assume that some rooms will leave! If we assume that in between every movement a room returns to its starting position before moving again! This explains why it took so long to notice rooms were moving at all! So as an example, a room that leaves would be any room marked as follows."
100, 100, 100
100, 100, 999
100, 999, 999
999, 100, 100
999, 999, 100
999, 100, 999
"A room marked so will leave the Tesseract at some point. I can only imagine that means that exits have been staring us in the face all this time! We just have to find a room on the edge of a cell that will leave and just sit tight. And every corner room will leave the Tesseract except for those marked with all nines. So it should be easy!"
Twilight couldn't blame her friends from actually breathing a sigh of relief at her words. Even though it was possible she was wrong. She had to make a lot of assumptions to get to that conclusion. But it was the best idea she could come up with given the observations they'd made.
"So let's go," said Twilight. She led the way, the first to go through the corridor followed by Rainbow Dash. Applejack was just about to climb through when it happened.
Twilight had to cover her ears as hard as she could to keep her head from seemingly exploding, the noise was so deafening. She closed her eyes and so couldn't see what was happening. She could still hear the screeching coming all around her, as well as her friends screams though she couldn't make out what they were saying. She felt herself fall lose her footing and fall down, and simply laid there clasping her ears down until the noise stopped.
Finally, silence. Twilight tentatively opened her eyes and let go of her ears, thankful to be alive. She had been afraid she'd fallen into a trap and led Rainbow Dash into it too.
"What happened?" asked Twilight. She noticed the door had closed at some point, though it was just her and Rainbow Dash.
Dash looked at Twilight. She looked abnormally shocked over what just happened, her eyes looking particularly wide.
"We moved," said Rainbow Dash trying her best not to panic. It felt like some sort of sick joke, to have moved when freedom for all her still-alive friends was so close. Now they were separated and they'd have to work to find them again.
"What do you mean?" asked Twilight.
Without warning Twilight suddenly coughed, before vomiting. She didn't even aim down, and Rainbow Dash had to take a step back to prevent getting anything on her. It stank, and looked gross, but honestly Rainbow Dash didn't have it in her to get mad or complain. In some way it was comforting to know that Twilight was just as affected by this ordeal as Rainbow herself was.
Rainbow saw Twilight blush before wiping her mouth clean with her right hoof.
"Sorry," she said. "I don't know what happened. I don't even feel nauseous. I feel pretty good considering. My head is killing me and my back hurts, but I get the feeling you, Rarity, and Applejack are having a harder time. Especially you..." She let that hang in the air before continuing. "Anyway, what happened? We moved?"
Rainbow Dash took another step back away from the pool of vomit on the ground. "Yeah," she said. "The room. Applejack was about to come through when the room moved."
Twilight blinked. Calmly she said, "Do you know what directions?"
Rainbow Dash shook her head sadly.
Twilight sighed.
"Well then, I'll have to look at this room's number, see it's movements, and extrapolate to all possible positions it could have gone to. So long as Applejack and Rarity stay where they are we'll be able to find them."
Rainbow Dash breathed another sigh of relief. "That's great news Twilight."
Twilight smiled slightly. She took one step before collapsing onto the floor. It looked like she had fainted. Rainbow Dash called out her name and ran to her. She turned her over and nudged her, noticing a tiny bit more vomit dribbling from her mouth. Rainbow Dash wiped it clean and tried to shake Twilight awake.
"Twilight!" shouted Rainbow Dash. Twilight didn't move.
"Twilight! Wake up! We don't have time to sleep!"
She laid Twilight on the ground flat.
"Our friends are waiting for us," said Rainbow Dash slowly. Rainbow Dash was about to try to wake her up again when she noticed something. Twilight wasn't breathing.
"Oh no," said Rainbow Dash. "Please no." Rainbow put her ear up to Twilight's chest. She heard nothing but the gears in the walls. There was no heart beat. Rainbow Dash had absolutely no idea what to do in this sort of situation. But Twilight had basically saved her life in this thing, and there was no way she was going to let her die!
She crossed her hooves on Twilight's chest and began to push rhythmically. She didn't know if this would do anything, but she had to try.
"Please Twilight," she said. "Please don't die!"
Twilight just laid there motionless, her heart refusing to beat. Rainbow Dash knew there were little metal pads doctors had that could start a heart back up. Or at least she thought that's what they did. But she didn't have one of those. She didn't have anything.
"You have to be okay, I can't get out of here by myself!" Rainbow cried.
She kept trying. She kept it up until her forelegs ached, until she was crying and panicked with desperation. She heard a small snap as she felt one of Twilight's ribs break. It was only then that she stopped. She buried her head in her friend's torso and cried. She had failed. There was nothing she could do, not for Twilight, and not for herself. She was going to die in here.
"We should just stay here," said Rarity.
"We can't just wait around and hope that Rainbow and Twilight can come find us. You saw where the room went, our best bet is to find them!"
Rarity scoffed. "I only saw the first direction it went, I have no idea where it actually ended up. Besides, navigating this place safely is a daunting task. I could not hope to match Twilight in that regard, and most certainly you couldn't be expected to help out in that area at all."
"Just shut up with that," said Applejack loudly. "I'm not stupid."
Rarity grumbled something to herself. "Look, it doesn't matter. It's not safe to leave this room and Twilight and Rainbow are probably already on their way back. If we move, what's going to happen when they come to find us missing?"
"We have no way of knowing if they'll come back," said Applejack, raising her voice. "We don't know if they'll find us, or if they'll decide to keep pressing on because they assume we're gonna press on."
"They would never leave us! Not if they didn't know we were safe!"
"What if they can't make it?" asked Applejack. She had suddenly become quiet and it took a moment for that question to really sneak in.
"What exactly do you mean?"
"Maybe they didn't see where they went and can't find us? Maybe one of them got hurt when the room shifted? Maybe—"
Applejack was suddenly interrupted by another horrible screeching sound. This one however, was more familiar. Applejack steeled herself for what was coming, and Rarity immediately dropped down and put her hooves in through the rungs in the floor.
The room turned, or "rotated" or whatever Twilight would say. Applejack regretted her lack of forethought to hold onto something as she tumbled to the side hard. Trying to keep herself positioned properly she orientated herself as she fell so that she would land on her hooves, and in this regard she was successful. She landed as she wanted to, though her joints bended involuntarily from the force of impact and two of her hooves broke through the glass pane of what was now the floor. Applejack felt a sharp pain in her hooves as the gears crushed underneath her, broken bits and axels spinning their ways into Applejack's hooves. There were sounds, unfamiliar, and Applejack watched as she pulled her hooves free as the gears and cogs in the walls snapped and broke all around them. The room stopped moving, not quite aligned flat as it should have been. The sounds stopped. It was quiet. Unusually quiet considering what Applejack had become used to.
Rarity let go of the rungs and dropped down to the floor. She stumbled as she landed but soon righted herself. Taking a look at the broken glass on the floor and the gears in the walls which were now either piled on the floor in pieces, or attempting to move despite being lodged in place by broken pieces, she said simply, "I think you broke it."
Applejack looked down at her hooves which were now bleeding. She sat down and was about to tend to them when blue magic enveloped her hooves and the broken glass shards levitated themselves out of her skin.
"Thanks Rarity," said Applejack.
"Maybe you're right," said Rarity as she got the last of the glass out. "It's pretty confusing in here, even for somepony as smart as Twilight Sparkle." She gasped, in that annoying way she sometimes did when she had an idea. "We'll leave a note!" she continued. "So if they come back they know where we went. And if they don't... we'll try to meet them outside. She did give us a pretty good guide before we got separated after all. We know exactly where we need to go."
Applejack got back to her hooves and said, "You think you can get us through here? I 'shouldn't be expected to help in that area,' remember?" Her voice was cold, as if she were offended. Though Applejack was such a brute Rarity couldn't tell one way or the other.
Rarity, unphased, said "I think I could do it. But I'll be a lot slower than Twilight was. I know how to get through by what she said, but it's just so... out of step with what I normally do with making dresses."
"But can you do it?" said Applejack again. Applejack wasn't sure she could do this herself. She said she wasn't an idiot, that she could do math just fine, but what Twilight was talking about was a bit beyond her. She could only do so much on her own and this was no time to be prideful.
"Yes," said Rarity finally. "I can do it. Let's go."
Rainbow Dash was panicking. She needed to get out of this horrible yellow room! Twilight's body was just lying there, reminding Rainbow Dash of what would eventually become of her if she stayed here and she couldn't take it any longer. It was made all the worse because Twilight had apparently died of nothing! Plus the room had rotated or whatever and ever since it had settled down it had begun to make creepy noises. She had to leave.
But if she left she'd die. She wasn't even sure she knew what Prime Numbers even were, much less power primes or factors or whatever it was that Twilight said was the real thing that showed trapped rooms!
She ran towards a door and opened it. She looked at the number. It wasn't what she was told to look for, and she had no idea how to check if it was safe or not. So she stepped through.
She walked forward and stopped, and waited. The doors didn't close behind her. No metal spikes or anything. She sighed in relief, happy that she was alive and out of that horrible room.
She didn't waste any time in trying her luck a second time. Going straight to the door in front of her she opened it, looked at the number, and climbed through.
As soon as she got to the centre of the room the doors violently shut behind her, making a strange twang sound as they did so. She could feel her hair stand up behind her back.
Applejack read the number to Rarity, who, after about a minute marked the room as safe. Applejack climbed through, followed by Rarity.
"I can't believe Twilight was able to do this so fast for so long," she said as she made it through. The room was white, the gears inside the walls spinning happily, the broken room far away now.
"Well, that's Twilight for ya," said Applejack. "I bet her and Rainbow Dash are already on their way to an exit."
She chuckled as she opened the next door. "We'll meet up and get out of here in no time."
As she read Rarity the numbers there was yet another loud sound indicating a room was moving nearby. The sound was different this time. Louder, much more harsh and gritty. Applejack turned her head back at Rarity, whose eyes were darting back and forth looking for something.
Applejack was about to move back down with Rarity when the sound got louder. The panes of glass began to crack.
"Oh dear," said Applejack as she suddenly realised what was happening. "Rarity we gotta go!" Without thinking she jumped through the portal into the purple room, eyes closed, hoping that it wasn't trapped. A few moments passed and it seemed safe. Applejack turned around to call Rarity but before she could open her mouth she noticed the glass was broken in this room too, and the walls were vibrating. She didn't get another thought in before the far wall shattered, pieces of broken glass and metal flying everywhere. Applejack ran to the door she left open, hoping it was safe back in that room and Rarity wasn't currently also trying to flee, but she didn't get far before the wall collapsed in on itself, blocking the open exit. She moved her head from left to right, hoping to find a possible way out only to realise there was nowhere to go, all the doors had collapsed and another cube was closing in. Something had gone wrong and one room had crashed into the room she was in. There was no way out. She ran to the side away from the approaching room, the loud screeching and grinding of an un-oiled machine breaking around her drowning out her own thoughts.
She dropped down and tried to make herself small, hoping that any falling debris wouldn't hit her and that the room would stop short of where she was, sparing her. It didn't.
Rarity likewise was cowering in the corner. Nothing had crashed through her room, but the walls were buckling and the glass along the ceiling and the wall holding the door Applejack had gone through had broken. After what seemed like an eternity, the sound and shaking of the room stopped. Rarity looked around. Bits of glass littered the floor all around her, a few covered in blood as they had cut her slightly as they fell. She took a look at herself. She looked alright, all things considered, though now that the adrenaline was wearing off she could feel the stinging pain of oil and rust seeping into her cuts. She was going to have to get a shot once she got out of here.
She pulled herself back up on her hooves and tentatively stepped towards the door Applejack had jumped through. The door was closed again, so she climbed up and opened it.
"Applejack?" she asked as the door opened. It was a pink room, and there was no solid floor. Instead, the floor dropped into what was clearly another room. All the panes were broken as well as most of the gears inside. There was no sign of Applejack below, and no way to tell if she made it into another room, as there was now no way to get across.
She was about to turn around and find another way across when something caught her eye. A large smattering of red, much darker than the rust that was typical of the rooms. She squinted, looking closer. Her eyes widened before she pushed away from the door and fell back to the floor.
Rarity couldn't take it anymore. She screamed, loud and hard, her throat wracked with pain as she did so. She didn't care. She had now seen three of her best friends die, and for all she knew Rainbow Dash and Twilight were gone too and she was the last one left. What was the point of living without her friends?
She stopped screaming only when she ran out of breath and instead began to cry, dropping to the ground and burying her face in her hooves, content to die there and see her friends again.
Rainbow Dash braced herself for a trap. For buzz saws to fly out of the walls or the room to fill with acid or something. There was no way she was going to avoid whatever it was like she'd done before now that she couldn't fly, but there was no way she was going to give up and let whatever it was take her by surprise.
Then she saw it. The gears in the walls were turning faster and little spouts pushed their way outside of hidden holes in the walls. She looked around as fast as she could. She didn't know what was about to come out of those spouts, but she didn't want to be directly in their path when it did.
Unfortunately there was no obvious place of safety. Every inch of the room was covered. So she did the only thing she could think of and ran towards a corner, thinking it was better than standing in the middle of the room.
Finally it happened. The gears spun faster and some kind of liquid began pouring out of the spouts. Then it stopped. Rainbow Dash jumped from her corner to keep her back from touching a spout, afraid of getting anything on her. Luckily nothing had. Nothing was coming out of anything anymore. The gears inside the walls began to snap and break, the pieces falling on to working gears which then broke as they were hit. The noise was loud, but Rainbow Dash breathed a sigh of relief when she realised what was going on. The trap was broken. Even though the room was trapped she wouldn't be killed in it. She just had to stay away from whatever it was that already had oozed its way out of the spouts.
Finally the whirring died down, the room clearly thinking it had done its job. A smattering of the spouts went back inside the walls but most only jiggled or didn't move at all. Rainbow Dash couldn't believe her luck.
Her happiness quickly drained though when she remembered her friends who weren't so lucky.
Rainbow Dash dropped those thoughts out of her head as fast as she could. She didn't want to get all depressed again. She needed to keep going.
Opening another door and emboldened by the idea that the traps weren't working anymore she quickly dropped into another room. She continued in this manner for some time, and indeed, the few times it looked like a trap was going to trigger, instead of horrible death greeting her, the gears in the walls broke, or wound down, or got locked in place, stopping what was happening and keeping her safe. For once it seemed something was going Rainbow Dash's way in here.
The only thing that still worried her was the noise. The regular sounds of shifting rooms were replaced with something much louder and ominous. Rainbow Dash didn't know exactly what was going on, but figured that somewhere, something had broke. But so far, if that was true, that fact had done nothing but good for Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash opened another door and checked the number. It still wasn't what she was looking for and she was about to step through when she realised something.
She was only going in a straight line, as if there was an edge to get to. But Twilight said that would just mean she'd go in a circle. Plus, there were three other easily accessible doors to go through and check, any one of which could lead to the room she needed. Since she had no idea how to navigate she really should be checking every door, even if she only went through one of them.
Leaving the door she opened, she made her way to the other doors to look at the numbers. Nothing interesting was through them. Until Rainbow Checked the door on the floor.
Through the door was a conspicuously absent room, as Dash knew the rooms were supposed to look like anyway. Instead, a solid, featureless metal box was all that greeted her. There was also no number. Rainbow tried to think what this could mean when suddenly her ears were once again assaulted by loud screeching. It was so loud, it sounded like it was coming from the room she was in. She opened her eyes, looked around, and saw that no, it wasn't coming from inside the room, but right next to it. She saw one of the walls of the all-metal room close in, and it was then that Rainbow Dash realised that it was an empty slot for a room to slide into as it moved. The room Dash was in began to wobble underneath her hooves and Rainbow closed the door, thinking that would solve the problem. It didn't, and the glass on the floor began to crack, some of the panes shattering. Rainbow moved to one of the metal frames, not wanting to fall through the glass and get hurt.
Suddenly, the screeching stopped. Carefully, trying not to break through the floor, Rainbow opened the door and looked through.
Rainbow blinked in confusion at the sight. The room that was moving had stopped less than halfway into the empty slot.
It suddenly occurred to her that the traps might all be broken, but it still wasn't safe. If a room could fail to move where it was supposed to, what if it moved where it shouldn't? What if that kept happening and the entire place began to fall apart around her? Then it wouldn't matter that the traps weren't working. In fact, if it continued, it could be that even if she got to an exit the machines wouldn't work right and it wouldn't move her outside.
She turned back around and re-opened the door she was going to go through before she started exploring. She had to move as fast as she could. This was now a race. And luckily, Rainbow Dash was good at races.
Rarity had long since stopped crying. She didn't feel sad anymore. Instead she felt numb. Hollow inside. She opened the door in front of her, checked to make sure it was safe, and went through, directing herself to what she thought was an exit.
Three of her best friends were gone. But two might still be alive. And even if not, there was still her family. Escaping also meant she could warn the Princesses and maybe help stop this from ever happening again to somepony else.
She knew these things on an intellectual level but didn't feel them anymore. She didn't feel determined. Or pained. Or fearful. She just knew she had to leave.
She supposed, merely intellectually, that she just didn't have anything left to feel. In the relatively short amount of time she'd been in the Tesseract, she'd gone through a myriad of different emotional states for varying lengths of time. There must come a point when you just get tired and can't feel anything anymore.
She didn't feel sad at the loss of feeling, of course, because that would be a feeling. But she did think it was bad and so still hoped that when she found Twilight and Rainbow Dash, or escaped, that she'd feel an accompanying happiness.
That was a worry for the future though.
She opened the next door and immediately looked down to check the numbers. It took her longer than it used to, to determine if it was safe or not. She was too tired, and it wouldn't be long before she made a mistake.
After a few minutes she regarded the room as safe and looked up, preparing to walk through. She stopped in mid-stride through the portal as she looked inside the room.
This one was different.
The glass was tinted black, a colour Rarity had never seen before in the tesseract. But beyond that there was a large floating metal sphere in the centre of the room. It didn't seem to be spinning or moving at all. There was no sound coming from it.
The numbers indicated the room was safe and so Rarity went inside to get a closer look.
The sphere was rather remarkable, its smoothness and circular perfection nothing like what Rarity had seen before. Tentatively Rarity got on her hind hooves and tried to reach up to touch it. It was just a tiny bit too high, and so she tried to jump up and touch it. She was successful, but jumped with too much force and hit her hoof harder on the cold sphere than she meant to. It was unlike anything she'd ever felt before, hard like metal, seemingly stationary but feeling as if it was actually vibrating.
When her fore-hooves hit the ground again, Rarity turned around in a flash as one of the doors opened.
She relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief as Rainbow Dash ran through, panting heavily. The door closed behind her.
When Rainbow Dash realised where she was and who was with her, her eyes went wide and a small smile appeared on her face.
"Rarity!" she said. "I'm glad to see you! Where's Applejack?"
"Where's Twilight?" replied Rarity in monotone. She didn't need an answer to know.
Rainbow Dash's ears folded back and her small smile disappeared.
"At least you're still okay," said Rainbow Dash slowly. She looked up, as if noticing the floating metal sphere for the first time.
"What is that?" she asked.
"I have no idea," said Rarity. "But it doesn't look important. We just need to get out of here."
"Maybe it's a way out?" asked Rainbow Dash. Her fore-hooves left the ground slightly before falling back down. It seemed Rainbow didn't have the energy to balance herself on only two hooves. Or possibly her injuries made it hurt too much.
"It's not any such thing because we know how to get out and this is not a room that leaves."
Rainbow Dash looked slightly taken a back and Rarity sighed.
"I'm sorry," she said because that was the correct thing to say. "Can we just get going please?"
Rainbow Dash's mood changed to one of determination. "Right. And we need to move as fast as we can, this place is falling apart."
"I know, Applejack broke it."
"Applejack was the one who caused it?" said Rainbow Dash.
Rarity nodded.
"Well that doesn't matter, we just have to go!"
"Just give me a few moments to find the safe rooms," said Rarity as she walked over to the far door, the floating sphere forgotten.
"No we don't need to worry about that!" Rarity turned around, a blank look still on her face. Rainbow Dash ignored it and continued. "I've gone through several trapped rooms, they always break before anything dangerous happens. That's why we have to move. If we wait too long this whole place will fall apart!"
Rainbow Dash took a small breath before continuing. "I've just been running randomly trying to find a room that leaves. I can't find my way around here. Do you think you could figure out where to go?"
"I can," said Rarity. "Now that I know the traps don't work it won't take long. So let's be on our way."
Rarity was just about to turn around when once again the room echoed with a short, sharp screech and the room suddenly tilted towards the right as if it was a room where half of it has sunk into the ground. Rarity who had better luck keeping her balance noticed as well that the floating sphere changed shape. As the screech sounded and the room dropped, the sphere had morphed quickly from perfectly round, to a odd looking sliced cone.
As Rainbow Dash got her bearings back, Rarity began to hear more sounds echoing from far off into the tesseract.
"I think this means our time for chat is up," she said.
Rainbow Dash followed Rarity as they made their way through the structure. The entire place had somehow "fallen" down or "sunken" into... wherever it was suspended in, as every room was tilted in the same way. It was really strange. The direction they tended to go made it seem like they were constantly moving downward, but nothing ever changed.
The only times there was any difference was when somewhere along the line a room had failed to move, either stopping when it wasn't supposed to or crashing halfway into another room. There was a lot of that, and Rainbow Dash considered herself lucky they hadn't had to deal with it happening to the room they were in.
"It should be somewhere around here," said Rarity. "The rooms are completely out of order, but the numbers say we're in the right area. We just have to keep looking."
And they kept looking, though Rainbow was once again beginning to feel disheartened as she knew time was running out.
The sounds around them were getting louder, more common, and less regular. Rainbow could feel her adrenaline once again pumping as she realised it meant more and more of the place was falling apart.
Rarity was starting to feel something again, and that feeling was hopelessness. It should be here, she thought to herself, but no amount of thinking seemed to bring her any close to a proper room. It seemed Rainbow Dash had the right idea all along, and so Rarity began moving through rooms randomly. She found herself involuntarily slowing down the pace as she was beginning to feel like they were already dead. They just didn't know it yet.
In some ways, death would be preferable. They would see their friends again. They wouldn't be in any pain. Their suffering would finally end.
Rarity opened a door and with it came a loud screech as the door opened only half way, not wide enough for a pony to get through. Reflexively she looked at the numbers.
5 - 100, 999, 999
Her eyes widened and she stood still. Slowly she moved her eyes to look at the door, defiantly refusing the open all the way and thus blocking their escape. Rarity had had enough. She sat down.
"What is it?" said Rainbow Dash. "What are you doing?"
Rarity just leaned back against the wall.
"It's over Rainbow," she said.
"What are you talking about?!" said Rainbow Dash. She gently shoved Rarity out of the way and climbed up to see the room number. Her eyes widened.
"Rarity, it's right here!" she said. She put her hooves on both sides of the door and tried to pull them apart. She could hear and feel the doors open slowly, but before too long they stopped, still too little to get through. Rainbow continued to try but she wasn't strong enough.
"Rarity, help me!" she shouted. Rarity just sat there.
"What's the point?" she asked. "Even if we get through something else is going to happen. Twilight will turn out to have been wrong. Or maybe the room's broken and we'll just sit there until we're crushed by a falling ceiling." She slouched even more as if she was trying to get comfortable. "Just sit down Rainbow Dash."
Rainbow Dash had to close her mouth since she hadn't realised she was holding it open.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" said Rainbow Dash. Rarity didn't reply. She didn't even look up. Rainbow Dash dropped down and pushed Rarity over. Rarity simply let it happen like she was a ragdoll.
"We can't give up!" said Rainbow Dash. "The exit's right there. Just help me get it open!"
"Why?" asked Rarity. "What's out there to live for? All our friends are dead."
"I'm still alive," said Rainbow Dash, pushing her face up to Rarity's. "And I want to keep it that way! We still have friends who are alive! Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Twilight, and Applejack, they died because this rutting place is evil, and they died so that in the end somepony will get out of here! Are you just going to throw away their sacrifice?"
Rarity didn't respond, but she at least had the decency to look away.
"I'm not going to do that to them, and I'm not going to do that to the ponies out there who still care about me. Or you! I won't let you do that to yourself, or to your family and friends. So get up and help me get this open!"
Rarity didn't know what to say, as Rainbow Dash turned back towards the door, climbed up, and began straining to open it. She continued to have no luck, and Rarity simply sat back up and watched her.
Did it really matter? Rainbow was one of her dear friends, but that just meant she'd condemn the last remaining element of harmony besides herself to suffer. She had family, but Sweetie Belle always talked about how frustrating she was, and she was never a very good sister anyway. And then there were her parents... they'd still have sweetie.
Any other friends just didn't seem important either. The really important ones, besides Rainbow, were gone now. And even Rainbow, of the six of them, Rainbow was the one she cared about the least.
A small gasp escaped her lips as she realised what she just thought. As Rainbow Dash strained to open the door, Rarity buried her head in her hooves once more. Now there was one more reason to die. She was a horrible pony.
But that didn't mean Rainbow had to die too. Standing back up, Rarity looked at the door and closed her eyes in concentration.
Rainbow Dash hadn't noticed anything Rarity was doing and was surprised when a blue aura enveloped the door and the sounds of straining were heard behind her. Understanding, Rainbow redoubled her efforts. Without warning there was a loud crash as the door finally slammed open, and Rainbow Dash flung herself inside without hesitation.
Rarity opened her eyes and found the door open, Rainbow gone and presumably on the other side. She also heard more sounds. And they were getting closer.
Rarity, simply to spite herself for wanting death, forced herself up and through the door with Rainbow Dash. The door didn't close behind them, and when she laid down to rest Rainbow Dash did the same.
The sounds were getting louder. They were already so loud that Rarity wanted to hold her hooves over her ears like Rainbow Dash was doing. But she didn't deserve to not feel pain. She had given up, more than once. She thought something terrible of her last real best friend, and was willing to abandon her family. She didn't deserve to not suffer. She didn't deserve to die either. Those who cared for her did deserve her continued presence however. She wasn't going to give up again.
The sound was deafening. Rainbow Dash could hardly stand it and couldn't fathom how Rarity seemed to not mind it. She just laid there with a small smile on her face. Rainbow could see the edges of the room warp slightly. The room began to move, and the sound got even louder, in spite of what Rainbow Dash thought was possible.
This was it. Either it would lead them out, or they would die. She closed her eyes and hoped.
The floor buckled under her, and the room began to tilt. She felt herself slide down across the moving floor and she opened her eyes to try and keep a footing. What she saw scared her. The room was torn in half, and there was nothing outside of it. Just white. Rarity was nowhere to be found. Still the horrible sounds would not stop and the room continued to tumble through whatever white aether she was in.
She curled into a ball and closed her eyes again. As she continued to tumble she occasionally hit her back which caused her to yell out screams of pain. More than anything she just wanted it to end.
Silence. She was still. No longer falling.
It was abrupt, without any warning. Before opening her eyes she began to listen for the gears she'd grown so accustomed to. She didn't hear them. No screeching or crashing. There was something else. It sounded familiar. She had heard it before.
She opened her eyes. In front of her was a beach. The sun was setting, the orange and purples of the sky a wonderfully welcome sight. She looked around in front of her.
She was sitting on a piece of debris. The floor under her had broken apart, along with the rest of the room. Pieces of all shapes and sizes were scattered, shards of broken glass, a variety of colours, littered the sand. The debris was from multiple rooms.
She couldn't see Rarity. But in the chaos she could have been anywhere. Or... maybe she didn't make it. Rainbow didn't see any blood, but that didn't mean anything.
Sighing, Rainbow succumbed to the thought that Rarity was gone. She felt she should be used to it now, but she wasn't. Not at all. But now wasn't the time. She wasn't completely out of the woods yet.
She turned around and knelt down, ready to take to the air before she realised she couldn't. It had happened so instinctively, so without thought. She closed her eyes trying not to cry, trying not to remember the things that had happened to her and her friends.
Instead she took note of her surroundings. Her heart sank.
Behind her was ocean, waves slowly moving their way to shore. Water as far as the eye could see. In front of her was sand. Nothing but tiny dunes of sand, endless, all the way around. Not a sign of civilisation could be found anywhere in the distance.
It wasn't getting darker, Rainbow Dash noticed. She sighed briefly. She wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball and die. But she couldn't. She would die on her own soon, she knew. She was so thirsty, so tired, in so much pain, and felt so light headed. But until then she had to keep going. For her friends.
She started walking.
