Fluttershy awoke to find her entire body radiating with pain. Every muscle was contracted and twisted in crippling agony. She let loose the loudest scream that she could muster, meaning she let out a hushed yelp. Trying to stand, Fluttershy gritted her teeth and looked around. She was standing in a large, perfectly cubic room. She gauged it at about fifteen hooves across. Each wall was made up of eight identical back-lit panels, held together by small bars that seemed to function as ladders. in the middle of each side, including the floor and ceiling, was a square hatch door with a big handle in the middle. Looking down, Fluttershy noticed that she was dressed in a baggy, grey button-up jumpsuit.
"H-h-h-hello?" Fluttershy squeaked, hoping to find that somepony else was nearby. There was no response for quite some time. Fluttershy was about to give up hope when she heard a loud CLANG come from the hatch in the roof of her room. Fluttershy yelped and scurried to the nearest corner. Cowering, she watched as the handle slowly turned and the hatched bulged out of the wall slightly and then slid sideways away from the opening. In through the hole came a familiar rainbow-maned Pegasus, who was dressed in the same rags as Fluttershy. "Oh, Rainbow Dash!" She cried, flapping into the air to meet her friend.
"Fluttershy!" Rainbow exclaimed. "You're in here too?"
"Yes," Whispered Fluttershy "what IS this place?"
"I dunno, but I don't like it." said Rainbow, looking around. "The rooms are all the same, and they just keep going and going."
"What do you mean?" asked Fluttershy, sounding worried.
"These doors just keep opening up to identical rooms with different colored lights." Said Rainbow Dash, glancing at the walls of the current room. "I've gone in every direction I can, and haven't found a way out."
Fluttershy hovered down to the ground and made her way over to one of the hatches. "should we get going? There has to be a way out. How did we get in here if there's no exit?" she asked, examining the handle on the door.
"I guess. Do you think anybody else is in here?" Asked Rainbow, leaning back in the air and staring at the hatch that she had entered through.
"Come on! I can't get the hatch open!" Cried Fluttershy, hauling on the handle.
"Alright, alright!" Rainbow Dash huffed ash she hovered over and wrenched the handle around. Looking through, Fluttershy saw that the room beyond looked just like the one that they were already in, only the wall panels glowed red instead of white. Fluttershy began to crawl through, only to feel her tail gripped between Rainbow's teeth. Rainbow Dash began to pull her out. "Don't! Are you crazy?!?!?!?!" Rainbow screamed through her gritted teeth.
"Wh-wh-what?" stammered Fluttershy, suddenly scared. Rainbow Dash pushed Fluttershy up against the wall next to the hatch and began vigorously gnawing at the buttons on Fluttershy's jumpsuit. "R-Rainbow!" blushed Fluttershy, obviously confused. Rainbow Dash pulled away, a button clenched firmly between her teeth. she approached the opening, and spat the button straight through. The next room was immediately engulfed in flames, sending Fluttershy sprinting to the furthest corner. "EEEEEK!"
"Rainbow Dash turned around, her eyes full of worry. "Aw, shit. I forgot to tell you about that, huh?" she said, looking genuinely concerned. "Some of the rooms are trapped like that, and that's the only way I know how to check them."
"Oh," said Fluttershy, quickly calming down. "That's okay, but what happens when we run out of buttons?"
"We start tossin' our suits and our boots." said Rainbow, indicating Fluttershy's feet. Fluttershy looked down to see four rugged boots on her hooves, surprised that she hadn't noticed them before. "I used up all mine," said Rainbow Dash. "You can pull 'em back with the laces from the fire rooms and stuff, but with the bomb rooms and acid rooms, you can still have them destroyed."
Upon hearing Rainbow list off the types of traps, Fluttershy once again receded back into the corner, looking even smaller than before. "Dash?" she said tentatively.
"Yeah?"
"Have you seen anybody else in here?"
"...Yes, I saw one other animal in here..."
"Where are they?"
"...........Dead....." said Rainbow Dash, turning away.
"Oh my, who were they?" Asked Fluttershy, leaning in.
Rainbow Dash sat quietly before letting out a pained whisper that caused Fluttershy's blood to freeze in her veins.
"Angel..."
Fluttershy staggered to the floor and began to cry. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she thought about her favorite pet. "How did he die?" she asked, looking up at Dash with tear-filled eyes.
"Acid room, sound-activated. hopped in through the hatch and just," Rainbow paused there, obviously hurt by the memory. "he just melted right in front of me."
Fluttershy balked at this, spewing a large pile of cream-colored vomit all over the floor of the chamber. She sat for a moment there, and then looked up at Rainbow. Dash was surprised to find that Fluttershy's eyes were not full of fear and sadness, but rather with flaming, liquid rage. "I am gonna find the bucker who did this, and kick his ass to the moon so that Nightmare can kick it right back to earth!" she screamed, jumping up and sprinting over to the hatch embedded in the floor. "I am getting the buck out of here."
Rainbow Dash was starting to feel uncomfortable, or at least more uncomfortable than she had been when she had first come to in another chamber. Seeing Fluttershy like this scared her, and she didn't scare easily. Watching Fluttershy tear away at the door's handle, Rainbow Dash felt as if she had endangered both of them. Allowing emotions to get in the way in this kind of situation was never a good thing, and always endangered the rest of the group. "Fluttershy, we ARE gonna get out of here, but we need to be calm about it."
"SHUT THE BUCK UP AND HELP ME!" screamed Fluttershy as she reefed on the door. Rainbow removed her last button and approached the door. She pressed her head against the handle, and it turned easily. Before Rainbow had a chance to ready the button to drop it, Fluttershy was already climbing through.
" 'Shy, wait!" screamed Rainbow, noticing the strange, metallic smell wafting up through the gateway. "I think that's a heat sensor!"
But it was too late. Rainbow Dash watched helplessly as one of her best friends was run through by dozens of razor-sharp blades that shot out of the walls.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
