The King Of Nothing

While chatting about nothing in particular, Purple and Fluttershy kept glancing at the maze entrance in anticipation and a bit of anxiety that just kept increasing with each passing minute.

"Come on, guys. You're paranoid now," Pinkie tries to calm them down. I'm sure Amony is on his way."

"Are you sure, Pinkie?" Fluttershy looked back at her friend and then at her watch. "It has been almost 5 minutes and 30 seconds already."

Pinkie chuckled and rolled her eyes. "Okay, Shylight, come on! Of course, he would take less than five minutes, too. And this is all he wanted, isn't he? Just a moment to breathe before he opens up a bit. He really is trying. The least we could do is trust him," Pinkie told the two.

"Now come! Who wants a piece of lemon pie?" Pinkie tries to distract them with a piece of the dessert, which has whipped cream to entice both.

The guard and pegasus look at the plates before nodding and piling their eyes away from the maze. They are starting to enjoy their meal when a low growl alerts the three once again.

"Pinkie, please tell me that was your stomach," Purple pleaded before the ground trembled. Then, from it, weird creatures made of black miasma, ice, and snow emerged in all shapes and forms.

A giant snowball with rachitic long arms and claw-like fingers grabs hold of anypony nearby before rolling around. A snowman starts clawing his way on a rampage, injuring innocent people. The snow castle keeps grabbing and tossing kids inside as it walks like they were their meals, creating chaos in an instant.

"Everyone, stay close! These things are tougher than they look," Purple exclaimed in alarm before turning on his horn, sending an emergency signal into the sky, and confronting the creatures.

"And they are coming from the maze," Pinkie points out as she sees a centipede py train made of ice and snow capturing more ponies.

"Amon!" Fluttershy tries to fly into the maze, but she is blocked by flying blocks of snow angels with long arms trying to grab her.

"Don't separate!" Purple instructs them, blowing up a snowman as he raises a shield for three more, then emerges from the snow. "I called for backup already; we need to keep this thing busy and away from civilians until reinforcement arrives."

"But what about Amon? He was probably the first one they attacked and is probably facing a horde right now," Fluttershy complains.

"I'm aware, but there are so many civilians here. Some are already injured; we can't just abandon them or split up and risk getting injured ourselves or worse," Purple explains as he blasts a magic beam at the castle, destroying one of its towers only for the snowball to jump in and replace it, putting its victims as hostages.

"Damn it! These are more intelligent, and they are using hostages. I can't get a clear shot," Purple complained.

"Neither can I," Pinkie adds, blasting more confetti and cake at a snowman who looks primarily annoyed and confused about how a cake blasts one of his arms before another lands in his mouth and yet another until he falls.

"Eat fruit cake, you snowmen!" Pinkie yells as she keeps blasting at whatever she can aim. Having to change aim when they start using nearby civilians as meat shields. "Hey, no hostages, that is cheating!" Pinkie calls in annoyance as the monster breaks her party cannon and keeps advancing.

Eventually, the monsters began to overwhelm them, and the three soon found themselves trapped inside a ring made by the monstrous centipede. Purple was doing his best to keep a shield up to keep the monsters at bay, yet that, too, was beginning to crack.

"Just… a little… more." Purple tried to calm the two mares as he started to pant and had to kneel from exhaustion.

"Hold on!" A voice in the distance calls out, and the three look up in time to see a mysterious figure on the clock in a red jacket, blue jeans, and heavy black boots matching his black rubber gloves. He is wielding two flaming swords and descending on top of the monsters. His face is hidden inside a hood he is wearing.

Alerted by the mysterious individual, the monsters turned to look at him in time for the castle monster to have its face stabbed and then melted by the flaming swords. This slowed down the man's descent until he reached the door frame, at which point he jumped back and spun around, creating a ring of fire that split the door in two.

The monster weil in pain and falls to the ground as the flames keep spreading and melting the structure so the hostages don’t waste time and rush outside. The hero opens them up to escape.

"Honey muffins!" Pinkie claims in excitement as the hooded figure slashes away monster after monster, dodging and zig-zagging the creatures that tried to put hostages only for him to cut and melt the monsters away, starting to reduce their numbers.

More snowmen try to emerge from the snow, but the heat and fire keep turning the snow into puddles, making it impossible for the monsters to reform.

"Sorry to fall on you guys unexpectedly. I saw the party and how you seem to have your handful. I hope you don't mind if I take some of the uglies from you." The man calls in a cheerful tune as he jumps and dashes away, avoiding the creatures' attacks with ease. He almost seems to be playing.

"Not at all, Mr. Muffins. There is more than enough to dance with." Purple chuckles and joins in the fight, blasting away at the creatures and summoning purple flames to melt the snow around them once he notices how it was the clue to prevent more of the creatures from emerging.

The mares, seeing how the two seemed to have things under control, went and helped rescue the hostages, move them away from the fight, and prevent the monsters from using them as meat shields.

Soon, the only creature remaining was the centipede that seemed to be on his way to retrieve back into the maze while the hooded pony gave chase.

"Sorry, Thomas, this is your last stop," The mysterious pony quotes before spinning in the air with his swords outstretched, creating a fire saw that chops the final monster in half before it can reenter the maze. Once he reached the head. The pony stops spinning and holds his head, leaning against the doorframe while waiting for the world to stop spinning.

"Please tell me that is the last one because I need a moment now," The pony asked before being tackled by Pinkie, who smoothed him against her chest, pointing out that the mysterious individual was at least a head shorter than a standard adult pony.

"You were incredible, honey muffins! You were like, wham and zap and zoom. It was like you were a superhero." Pinkie kept praising him as she rubbed her face on top of the pony's hood, making him chuckle and return the hug.

"What can I say? When my sweet bum is in danger, I must jump into action," The hooded pony replied.

"So glad you did, Mr. Muffin; we appreciate your prompt intervention," Purple mentions as he and Fluttershy approach the two, the latter chuckling when Purple mentions his name.

"Yeah, about that, I know it happens a lot considering how you love to name everyone here, but I'm just letting you know, my name is not Honey Muffin," The pony confesses, separating from Pinkie and removing his hood to reveal a human tan face with long curly black hair. "It's Marcus. The honey muffin is just a cute nickname my marefriend loves to use," Marcus said while scratching Pinkie's chin, making her purr before he sheets his swords.

"Is everypony okay?" Marcus asked Purple and Fluttershy once he was done with Pinkie.

"Thank you, Celestia. They are," Fluttershy replies as she sees other guards finally approaching, handing an injured colt holding his arm to one of them.

"There are more injured, and some of them have frostbite. Be careful," Fluttershy told the guard, who nodded. Soon, they all spread out to tend to the injured ponies.

The pegasus returns with her group as Purple explains the situation to his superior and then addresses the group.

"It seems like they got this. Besides the ones injured, everyone is mostly just terrified, but thank Celestia, nobody lost their lives." Purple explains, looking at the scared family huddling together or trying to do something for those who got slashed, frostbitten, or hurt by the monsters as guards help them out.

Their brief moment of peace was unfortunately interrupted abruptly by Fluttershy. "Amon!" She exclaimed in horror.

"Who?" Marcus asks in confusion before watching Fluttershy dash inside the maze without saying anything else.

"That is right, he is probably still fighting." Pinkie nods as she follows Fluttershy.

"Okay, could somebody please tell me what's going on?" Marcus asks, slightly annoyed at being ignored.

"It's a long, complicated story, but the short version is that there was someone in the maze when the attack started and might have been injured. Let's go," Purple replies as he follows the mares with Marcus close by.

The pony in question was in the process of exiting said maze at that moment as he held his head with one hand and occasionally shook it, trying to forget the experience he had relived, to no avail.

To make matters worse, the experience keeps opening old wounds. Scars from his past, his experience when he first entered Equestria and why. The monsters that kept him captive and finally what he did to free himself at the cost of everyone else around him.

Why? Why now? That recurring nightmare has been plaguing my dreams ever since I escaped that lab; why is it showing like this now?

Amon keeps chastising himself as he leans on one of the maze's walls and sighs before looking up.

Could it be that Fluttershy was right? Am I starting to lose my mind?

"Amon!" The voice of Fluttershy alerted Amon and made him do a double-take before hiding behind a wall.

Crap! I forgot them. The five minutes must be up already. Everyone must be more than a little angry now. Better try and come up with an excuse and fast.

Looking around, Amon tries to come up with an excuse until he finds a field of flowers with a bench at one of the corners of the maze, which gives him an idea as he rushes there. Meanwhile, Fluttershy's voice is getting stronger and then getting weaker as she continues.

She got pass me? Well it IS a maze after all.

Amon turned around and could take a glimpse of the parting mare in the far distance, making him rethink his strategy.

Well, better go back. I can always tell them that I got lost.

With a new plan, Amon retraced his steps, all his time wandering aimlessly all over the world paying off as he could find his way back to the entrance with ease while his companions seemed to fall into the maze trap. Yet when he was reaching the final stretch back at the entrance, Amon was surprised when he was face to face with Marcus, who seemed to have gotten himself turned around.

Both stare at one another, frozen in surprise before Amon gets angry and rushes toward Marcus, lifting him into the air as Marcus is still recovering from the shock.

"Why did you look…? H… how is this possible? Who in Equestria are you?" Marcus asks all of a sudden while grabbing into Amon's hands.

"That is what I would like to know, buster. Care to explain why you are wearing MY face?" Amon demands in anger before they both hear steps approaching them. The wind starts to pick up force again. Marcus and Amon look to their right in time to see Pinkie and Purple appear from the other end of the maze, looking at Amon holding Marcus against the wall of the grass maze.