A/N: Before reading this chapter, it's best if you're acquainted with the song "Magic Dance" from Labyrinth.

...

110. The Pen Is Mightier

With twin screams, Applejack and Richard tumbled further down into the tunnel. Their fall was slowed and then stopped as they were both made aware of a strange sensation: what felt like several hands protruding from the walls grabbing onto both of them in order to halt their progress. When they finally came to a stop, they realized they literally were being held by a myriad of hands: greenish-gray, poking out of the wall, perhaps a hundred strong.

Applejack went silent, but Richard's scream just got louder and longer.

Several of the hands came together so that their fingers formed an impromptu face; they waggled to make the lips of the "mouth" move, and a voice came from it, saying, "This one's a loud one!"

Another face formed itself at the opposite side of the wall, asking, "Should we just drop them?"

"NO!" Applejack said hastily. "Richard, ya might wanna…I dunno…"

Richard finally ran out of scream, forcing himself to be calm and breathe deeply. "I'm…okay. I'm okay. The hands are just a little freaky. Actually…they look like something straight out of a horror story." That thought comforted him a little. Horror stories and gothic novels had been his favorite since he had begun his love affair with books, and this was certainly a sight that would have been at home in a Lovecraft nightmare or perhaps one of the stranger Poes.

"Well, that's not very nice!" the first face huffed. "We were only trying to be helpful! After all, we are Helping Hands!"

"Then could ya help us get outta here?" Applejack asked.

"We could!" the face affirmed. "Up or down?"

"Up sounds great!" Applejack sighed. "We'll get back on track with Twilight in no – "

"Now HOLD ON JUST A MINUTE!" Hoggle's voice pierced the tunnel as he too was caught in the Helping Hands' grip just above Applejack and Richard. "You lot know as well as I do that the entrance up top sealed itself over! There's no 'up' to go to!"

"We thought at least we'd offer," the Helping Hands pointed out. "Giving them the choice was helpful."

"No," Hoggle scolded, "being HELPFUL would be if you were careful not to drop us on the way down to the Oubliette! None of that 'put us down' business! You're going to CARRY us down!"

"If ya please," Applejack added quickly. "We'd be real thankful."

"If that's where you want to go!" the Helping Hands said cheerfully.

They passed the trio gently down the tunnel, gripping at arms and ankles, until they ran out of Hands, at which point they just let them drop. Now the three were in a circular stone room that seemed to have no entry or exit besides the tunnel from which they'd come, and even that was too high up to access at that point.

"Well, this looks promising," Richard huffed.

"Hold your horses, will you?" Hoggle barked. He then turned to Applejack somewhat nervously; "Erm…if you'll pardon the expression."

"No offense taken," Applejack reassured him.

Hoggle glanced around the room until he saw it: a stone slab lying on the floor. One of his doors. "I'll have us out of here in no time!" He hoisted up the slab, affixing it to the wall. He very nearly opened it, but realized it was on backward. "Ohhh, no, you won't get me THIS time!" He waggled his finger at the door before prying it away from the wall and reattaching it. When he opened it, a passage into another long and rocky hallway studded with dark stalactites was revealed. He beckoned to Applejack and Richard; "Now get a move on!"

"This really is starting to feel like a Poe story," Richard said with satisfaction as he followed Applejack into the cavern beyond.

...

THE FORESTS OF THE LABYRINTH

"So what now?" Twilight asked Sarah as the two of them, Bastian, Helena, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash progressed further into the woods.

"I don't know," Sarah admitted. "When I came through the first time, I fell into the Oubliette and went from there. This is new to me."

"Perhaps it will be faster," Helena suggested.

"It better be," Rarity mourned. "Only six hours! And with no way to warn the others!"

Soon, they became aware of another presence visible through the trees. A great furry animal stood on its hind legs at the edge of a running creek, bowing every now and again to quickly dip a paw into the water. When one paw came out with something wriggling in it, it became apparent that the creature was fishing. A few steps closer, and all could see that it was a bear with a tawny coat.

"Should we say hi?" Twilight whispered.

"I want to try and talk to him," Fluttershy suggested. "Or her."

"Is that safe?" Helena asked in a similarly hushed tone. "Bears eat ponies."

Fluttershy shook her head. "Not my bear friend back home."

"She has a way with animals," Rainbow Dash explained.

"Just remember to call for us if you need assistance," Rarity advised.

Fluttershy cautiously approached the bear. "Um…excuse me? Hello?"

The bear turned to look at Fluttershy, giving her a welcoming smile. "Hello," he replied.

Sarah gasped. There was a red ribbon around the bear's neck. The sight was all too familiar.

"Can I help you?" the bear went on.

"Are we going the right way to the Goblin City?" Fluttershy inquired. "I know it's not a place it seems like ponies want to go, but we really need to get there."

The bear nodded. "I know a way. It runs through my village. Follow me, and I will show you."

"Oh, thank you!" Fluttershy gushed. She turned back to her traveling companions. "He's going to show us the way!"

"GREAT!" Twilight eagerly trotted up to Fluttershy and the bear. The others followed. Sarah was last, still in awe.

The bear put his latest catch into a wicker basket, folding it up into cloth. Once he'd hoisted his basket up over his paw, he began to walk. "The village isn't very far," he said, "and after that, I will show you the road that leads to Goblin City. It's not a direct road, though. It runs through a hedge maze."

"I'm sorry," Sarah broke in. "Do you…know me?"

The bear turned to get a better look. "You seem…familiar," he admitted. "But I don't believe we've met."

"My name is Sarah," she insisted. "Sarah Williams."

The bear thought that over. "I like that name," he decided. "I do feel as though I've heard it somewhere before. But I'm not quite sure where."

"Your name's Lancelot, isn't it?"

The bear halted in his tracks. "Well, that's peculiar. That is my name. How did you know?"

"Because I remember you," Sarah told him. "You were my bear who lived in my room when I was a kid. You were just a toy, though. I got so mad when my parents gave you to my brother, even though I wasn't even playing with you."

"Me, a toy?" Lancelot mulled it over as he resumed his walk. "An interesting thought. I suppose it's possible. After all, my fellow bears and I are missing a rather large and important piece of our history."

"What's THAT supposed to mean?" Twilight questioned.

"One day, when several of us were gathered at the market," the bear explained, "we talked about our lives and what we remembered. The farthest back we could remember was one day in our village in the Labyrinth, and we assumed it had always been there, but as it turns out, none of us can ever remember having moved there, or having built it, or having been told stories about it from any ancestors. We don't even remember having ancestors. We have wondered ever since then what led us to that place. Where do we come from? Who are we? Do you suppose we were all toy bears, once?"

"Not literally," Sarah told him. "The toy Lancelot is still in Toby's room with the rest of my old bears. But I do think Jareth could have put you here because of me."

Lancelot nodded. "He does change the Labyrinth because of outsiders that come to it. So have the goblin kings and queens before him, though none of us remember there being one before him."

"I don't know that we've ever heard your whole story, anyway," Twilight pointed out. "What happened all those years ago? I know it was something to do with your brother."

Sarah nodded. "One night, I was angry at my parents. I didn't think they cared about me at all. I thought my life was horrible. It really wasn't…" She trailed off. "Should I wait for Richard to tell this story?"

"We've been telling our stories for a while," Bastian told her. "We're just going to have to tell some of them over again."

Sarah nodded. "Okay. Well, that night, I wished the Goblin King would take my brother Toby away. He was only a baby then. He doesn't remember any of it now. I thought I wanted him gone, but at the same time, I didn't think goblins were real. When I found out they really did take him away, I realized I'd made a terrible mistake. Jareth came to me to tell me that I had thirteen hours to make it to the center, or Toby would belong to him forever. So I started out. I met Hoggle, and at first, he just tried to get me lost for Jareth. I met some other friends, too." She paused to wonder: would she run into Ludo or Didymus again on this quest? "After a while, I noticed that Jareth was strangely obsessed with me. Parts of the Labyrinth would look like things right out of my daydreams. When I finally faced him on my own – "

"Wait, why on your own?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I thought you said you were with a bunch of friends."

Sarah nodded. "I was. But…that's just how these things are done. The hero always has to confront the villain on her own to decide who wins."

"That isn't how we go about it at all," Rarity told her. "We always face our biggest threats together."

"Strength in numbers!" Rainbow Dash added. "Am I right?"

"Discord, Nightmare Moon, Jafar, Loki…every time, all six of us and even more have come together to stop them from doing terrible things," Twilight confirmed.

"But we didn't mean to interrupt your story," Fluttershy said in an attempt to get back on track. "What happened then?"

"Well, Jareth said then that everything he'd done in the Labyrinth was for me," Sarah explained. "I didn't really get it at the time, but…I think he thought he loved me. I'm not really sure."

"It's quite romantic to think about," Rarity sighed. "Somepony building an entire world around you in order to impress you!"

"Half of it tried to kill me, though," Sarah reminded her.

"Rarity…" Rainbow Dash sighed. "Don't tell me you're falling for the bad guy too."

"I thought you were going to stop teasing about that," Twilight muttered.

"Oh, not at all!" Rarity attempted to clarify. "I simply think there's somewhat of a romantic aspect to it!"

"I think Jareth brought your village here because of me," Sarah told Lancelot. "Because you were my bear. He probably made you to be just like that toy, and I never found you because of the paths I took."

"Hold on," Twilight interrupted. "Even the Goblin King can't just MAKE life out of nothing. He may have some strangely godlike abilities, but he's not a god. I think he must have gotten the bears from somewhere else and given them new names and memories in order to create that part of the Labyrinth."

"I do wonder where we are from, then," Lancelot mused. "It's difficult to miss a home you can't remember having, but I feel as though it would be nice to know."

"For all we know, Jareth got you and your friends from all different worlds," Twilight theorized.

"Maybe there's a record of it in Goblin City!" Helena suggested. "We could find out where you came from!"

"We should look while we're there," Bastian added, "and remember to come back and tell you what we found." Though inwardly, he worried this was going to be yet another story he was about to start and never finish, and this time, there might not be someone to finish it in his name.

"That would be nice," Lancelot told the group. "I would appreciate it. Look; we're getting close to the village."

It slowly became more visible through the trees as they approached. The architecture was square with arched doors, wooden, and brown: the structure of the shelves Sarah used to keep her collection of bears on at home. The village itself was rather small: a few houses surrounding a central courtyard, where some tables were laid out. Other bears were laying out goods on these tables – berries, wickerwork, ribbons – and setting up the market.

"I know them!" Sarah gasped. "There's Ariadne, and Siegfried, and Bilbo…they're all here."

"Shouldn't you drop off that fish before you do anything?" Twilight asked Lancelot. "It might spoil."

"If no one minds a detour," Lancelot decided. "Actually, I think I want to introduce Sarah to the others. I wonder if they remember her too. Sarah, you hold an important part of our history."

"I think I do, anyway," Sarah said gingerly.

Nobody objected, so Lancelot led them all to a particular table, situated in front of a small brown cabinet. When Lancelot opened up the cabinet, it turned out to be an icebox where he stored all sorts of fish. Fluttershy fought back a slight gag at the sight of so many dead fish.

Another bear, this one pure white, walked over to Lancelot's table. "Is that a new fish?" she asked. "I was hoping you'd catch a salmon today!"

"Hello, Ariadne," Lancelot greeted calmly. "It is a salmon. But I'm not opening up shop just yet."

"Why not?" Ariadne asked.

"I promised these travelers I would show them the way to Goblin City," Lancelot explained.

"Why?" Ariadne was flabbergasted. "Why would anyone want to go THERE?"

"Our friend is there," Fluttershy told Ariadne, and the bear understood, giving a nod; she knew well of the machinations of Jareth.

"And we're going to help get that friend back!" Bastian insisted.

"Then I wish you well," Ariadne said, looking over the assortment of humans and ponies who stood before her.

"There is one more piece of their quest that I wanted to talk about," Lancelot brought up. "Could I ask you to gather the others?"

"All of them?" Sarah flinched.

"What for?" Ariadne asked.

"We will explain," Lancelot promised.

"To ALL of them?" Sarah repeated.

"Yes, to all of them, Sarah!" Helena told her. "You're the last person I thought would be afraid of a crowd!"

"It's different," Sarah whispered. "They're all here because of me. I took them away from their homeworld."

Twilight shook her head. "Jareth did that. All you're doing is explaining."

Ariadne moved from stall to stall at the market before knocking on a few of the doors, and soon, a small crowd of bears had surrounded Lancelot's table. All were just as tall as he, seemingly intimidating, but they all wore expressions either of contentment or mild confusion, negating the imposing figure they cut. Some wore ribbons almost identical to Lancelot's. And all of them were familiar to Sarah. There wasn't a one she didn't recognize from her old shelf.

"What's all this about, Lancelot?" a bear Sarah knew as Fionn (short for "Fionn mac Cumhaill") asked.

"I met these travelers in the forest today," Lancelot explained. "They know something about our missing past."

All the bears spoke up at once: "Well, what do they KNOW?" "How did you figure THAT out?" "What's going on?" "Who is SHE? She looks familiar!"

"CALM DOWN!" Ariadne's voice cut through all the chatter. This shut everyone up. She looked back to Lancelot. "Well, go on! Don't keep us in suspense!"

Lancelot looked to Sarah. "It's better if you tell it," he told her.

"Oh…o-okay…" Sarah looked over the crowd of bears.

"You're on," Twilight whispered.

"You've got this!" Helena added quietly.

"You see, it's…" Sarah took a moment to figure out how to word it. "When you came here…that was when I was here. Jareth was mixing up this entire Labyrinth for me, and taking things out of my dreams and things I kept in my room and making them bigger and real. Back home, I had a collection of toy bears. They all looked exactly like you, and they had your names, and I kept them on a shelf that looks like your village. Jareth must have brought you here to…well, to mess with me. I don't know where you came from in the first place. The toy bears are still all there at my house. I thought maybe Jareth made you, but Twilight said he couldn't just…create people. Or bears. He must have brought you here from somewhere and erased your memories of your home and your old lives. I just…don't know where he found you."

She waited for a response. The bears all stared as one, letting it sink in.

Then Ariadne said, "I guess that makes sense. I wish someone actually did know where we came from, though."

"Well, we're gonna find out!" Rainbow Dash promised, hovering in the air. "When we get to Goblin City, we're gonna demand that Jareth tells us where you came from!" She slammed one forehoof into the other for effect.

"Could it be true?" Siegfried asked Fionn. "Could we finally know?"

"Yeah!" Rainbow Dash insisted. "Or my name isn't Rainbow Dash!"

After a pause, Ariadne asked, "Your name is Rainbow Dash, right?"

"You bet your ribbon it is!" Rainbow Dash said proudly.

"We're going to do our best to get the truth back to you," Twilight promised.

"Thank you," Lancelot told her. "All these years, we've been too afraid to go near Goblin City for answers."

"Afraid?" Bastian was taken aback. "But Sarah named you all after such great heroes! Lancelot! Bilbo Baggins! Ariadne!"

"Fionn mac Cumhaill," Sarah added. "Vivian."

"She must be speaking the truth!" Vivian whispered. "She knows my name!"

Bastian, on the other hand, felt himself slightly undermined, since "Vivian" wasn't really a heroic name, but he kept at his point: "This is more your story than anyone else's. Why don't you finish it?"

"Because we knew the Goblin King was powerful even before we knew he erased our pasts," Ariadne told him. "Imagine what he could do to us if we came to him with a complaint."

"Well, Sarah did exactly that all those years ago, didn't we?" Helena said sternly. "And she's in one piece!"

"I wonder if they have a point," Lancelot murmured. "If one of us went with them…there would be safety in numbers."

"And who exactly are you volunteering?" Ariadne asked. "Yourself?"

Lancelot nodded. "I think I am. Maybe it's time to stop wondering where we came from. Maybe it's time to find out." He looked to Sarah. "You still feel familiar. It must be because we were designed to be like something in your dreams. But it makes me feel like I'm safe traveling with you."

"You could always turn back," Sarah told him.

Lancelot shook his head. "If I go, I cannot turn back. I won't let the others down."

"We wouldn't blame you, though," Ariadne told him, and the other bears all shook their heads in agreement. "I know I would turn back if I tried."

"Sarah and her friends said things that made me think," Lancelot told her. "Sarah said she thought she had to face the Goblin King alone because that's how these things are done. Her friends said they often face things that frightening together. If Sarah is right, then we can't just wait for someone else to bring us back the answer we want. But if her friends are right, then that means all the more that there is a better chance of finding something out if I go now, with them, than if I go on my own."

"You really just want to go, don't you," Ariadne realized.

"I think I do," Lancelot confirmed. "If no one else minds."

The bears looked to each other. They were all afraid for their comrade, but they had all wanted to know the secrets of their past for a while. They knew it had finally become too much for Lancelot to wait around for an answer for anymore. His heart was pushing him to finally find out.

"I don't mind," Fionn said at last. "I think you should go."

"But please be careful!" Vivian added.

"You'd better come back in one piece," Ariadne insisted.

Lancelot nodded. "I shall be careful," he promised.

...

And so it was that Lancelot the bear ended up not only showing Sarah, Bastian, Helena, Rarity, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash the road onward to the Goblin City, but taking it himself, walking alongside them.

"From here, it is a short while to the hedge maze," Lancelot explained. "I know it is the path to Goblin City, but I do not know the way through."

"That's all right," Sarah reassured him. "I remember that maze. I'll get us through it."

...

THE TUNNELS, THE LABYRINTH

Hoggle, Applejack, and Richard were well on their way through the dark stone tunnels that ran beneath the surface of the maze world, making a direct course for the surface. Of course, it was hard to feel optimistic about that when the stone faces carved on the wall wouldn't stop issuing warnings in their booming baritones.

"TURN BACK," one demanded.

"GO NO FURTHER!" another chimed in.

"YOU ARE HEADED DOWN THE WRONG PATH!" commented a third.

"That ain't very reassurin'," Applejack muttered. "You sure we're goin' the right way?"

"Positive," Hoggle told her. "They're only false alarms."

"WE MOST CERTAINLY ARE NOT!" one of the stone faces huffed. "AND WE ARE DEFINITELY NOT TRYING TO TRICK YOU INTO THINKING YOU ARE GOING THE WRONG WAY!"

"That denial sounded suspiciously specific," Richard told the face.

"You're getting rusty!" Hoggle jeered.

"WE DON'T GET MANY TRAVELERS DOWN THIS PATH ANYMORE," the face lamented. "I DON'T HAVE MANY CHANCES TO PRACTICE."

"PERHAPS WE GET NO TRAVELERS BECAUSE THIS IS NOT THE WAY!" another attempted to pick up.

"It's A way if nothing else," Hoggle assured Applejack and Richard. "It's all in Sarah's notes here, not to mention I led her this way myself! Though…last time, we were interrupted."

"Interrupted?" Applejack repeated.

"Jareth," Hoggle spat. "He came down here to taunt us. Sarah made the mistake of telling him we were having an easy time of it, and he put the clock forward by several hours!"

"Let's try to AVOID doing that," Richard suggested, blissfully ignorant. "Y'know, it's creepy down here, but it's kinda cool. Reminds me of a place you'd find a vampire in a book." He then shuddered. "There are…no vampires down here, are there?"

"Might well be," Hoggle said casually. "I don't know every single thing that lives down here."

"We can take care of vampires," Applejack reassured Richard. "Trust me. I faced worse."

"How do you know?" Richard babbled worriedly. "Have you ever MET a vampire? Have you fought one? Do you carry any of the traditional tools of lore on you? You know, garlic, a wooden stake? I was going to ask about the cross, but I got the feeling Christianity isn't big where you come from."

"Uh…" In a flash of light, Applejack's weapon appeared, the grip of it in her mouth. She lay it down on the floor, explaining, "I got this."

"A whip," Richard sighed. "That's going to be useless against vampires."

"And how are YOU so sure?" Hoggle rebutted. "Have YOU ever fought a vampire?"

"Good point," Richard conceded as Applejack dismissed the whip. "Maybe the whip will work."

By this time, they'd turned a great many corners and wandered down several twisting paths. Hoggle insisted he knew where he was going, but even he didn't seem completely sure of himself. The truth was that while he did know the general layout of the tunnels, he didn't have an exact layout of them memorized. He knew how to get to the exit, roughly, but not what lay between them and that point. He halted when he became aware of a low, continuous sound coming from up ahead: a mechanical whirring and clicking.

"What's that?" Applejack asked as she and Richard stopped short right beside him.

"Don't know," Hoggle whispered. "Go carefully. It could be one of Jareth's death machines!"

The trio gingerly sidled closer and closer to the sound until they reached the end of the hall, where they turned the corner and found themselves in an enormous subterranean room. There was the source of the whirring and clicking, now at full volume. Rather than a death machine, the sounds actually emitted from a complex series of machines that resembled printing presses and a more primitive version of a fax machine. These boxes whirred, and sheets of beige parchment came out of them with words and designs printed on before bronze fingers clickety-clacked toward the machines to pick up the papers and bring them to another corner of the room. Other machines were busy with the papers, doing all sorts of things to them: framing them in metal rectangles, binding them in books, simply setting them out on a table in a stack. As Hoggle, Applejack, and Richard watched, an entire book was sewn together by mechanical hands before being placed on a nearby shelf that was about half full. The walls were bedecked with pictures in brightly inked colors, depicting, in a stained-glass style, vast landscapes and storybook images of unicorns, knights, crowned royals, gods, dragons, and unusual beasts of every sort against backdrops of any of the four seasons. There was not a living soul in the room aside from the three travelers; it was entirely automated.

"It's just a place for makin' books," Applejack observed.

Richard was unable to help himself, gravitating to the shelf and taking one of the books down. "Not just any books," he pointed out, turning it to show Applejack how the lines were formatted. "This one's a play." He leafed through a few pages, marveling at the words as he skimmed them. While he couldn't gather much of the story from that brief of a look, the play offered hints of strange events and unique characters that made him want to stop and read more. He had to force himself to put the book back on the shelf before he became distracted by it. He considered taking it along, but figured picking things up at random wasn't a good idea; not only could it be stealing, but it could be stealing from Jareth himself. Looking over the spines of the already bound books, Richard remarked, "Bastian would LOVE this place."

"So would Sarah," Applejack pointed out. "After all, I'm pretty sure she's kiiiiinda the reason this place is here to begin with."

Richard nodded. "Right. Her too. All of us would, actually."

"And so would Twilight and Rainbow Dash," Applejack contributed. "Well, it's all real nice lookin', but we gotta keep a move on."

The room was quite long, and the machines forced the path through it into many twists, but there was indeed enough room to walk between them. On the way, the trio got a better look at the pictures on the walls, which seemed to grow more vibrant and fantastic as they walked. Hoggle shook his head. "There's something about those pictures I just don't like."

"What about 'em?" Applejack asked.

"Now that you mention it…" Richard looked around with unease. "They're too pretty. After all those false alarms telling us to go back, why would this stuff just be here for decoration?"

A paper shot out of one of the machines, falling to the floor. On it was an illustration of a bright green dragon with triple heads. Hoggle, Applejack, and Richard were all easily able to walk right around it.

"That's the first time I've seen one of those machines lose one," Richard observed, his feeling of dread increasing.

"What's wrong with that?" Applejack asked him.

"They're too perfect," Richard answered. "It almost felt like they threw that page at us on purpose."

"Don't be silly," Applejack told him. "It was just an accident. They're just machines. 'Sides, what kinda obstacle is a sheet of paper, anyways?"

Another page, this one depicting a massive tentacled beast rising from the depths of an ocean, threw itself onto the floor. Applejack stepped on it by accident, and her hoof sank into it as though it were a hole in the ground. As she tried to pull her hoof away, the page took on a gluey consistency, attempting to draw her leg further in. She was mostly distracted by the panic of trying to free herself from the page, which had also stuck itself to the floor, but at the extremity of her leg, she could feel the spritz of water rising from the lapping waves of an ocean.

Hoggle and Richard immediately seized Applejack's leg and yanked her free of the page. "What's goin' on?" she asked in horror, eyes wide, staring at the page. The illustration had changed, and the beast, a great squid, was now mostly surfaced. As Applejack kept staring, the page animated, and the squid actually moved, stretching its tentacles out toward the viewers of the ink.

"Those pages are trying to pull us into their story!" Hoggle cried. "RUN!"

"WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME?" Richard moaned as he, Hoggle, and Applejack broke into a bolt.

The presses responded in kind, shooting out pages into their path madly. Through a mad impromptu game of hopscotch, the trio managed to avoid all of them. The exit, an arched doorway, was in sight.

A sheet of parchment depicting the entrance to a thick forest was flung from the press nearest the door, and as the page soared through the air, it grew until it was as big as the wall, covering the door up. Now, where once there was an exit, there was an ink drawing of tall, imposing trees that seemed still at first until one noticed the scurrying of small animals in the background and the rustling of the branches and leaves in a breeze.

"We're trapped!" Applejack cried in dismay.

"At least this one looks less dangerous than the others!" Hoggle told her. "We've got to go in! It's our only way out!"

"Seriously, this ONLY ever happens to me!" Richard groaned.

Applejack took a look behind her to see the room filling up with pictures of fanged monsters with sharp claws. The forest was probably hiding something terrible, but it was better to chance it than to risk charging one of those other creatures head-on (at least without Fluttershy around to try and talk to it). Applejack decisively ran full speed at the picture that covered the door, absorbing into it. Hoggle made a fervent beckoning gesture, and Richard leapt into the illustration after Applejack before Hoggle darted into the drawing as well.

Once they were inside, there was no way back out to the printing room or any of the other tunnels. It was as if they'd entered a whole other world. They stood at the tree line of the forest; behind them, instead of the way they'd come, there was a great grassy plain spread out, and several farms and farmhouses studding it. Some ways down the tree line, a pack of armored knights readied themselves for an unknown challenge, polishing weapons and saddling horses. Everything still looked as though it were cut out of stained glass, now including Hoggle, Applejack, and Richard, who were considerably brighter and more angular than before.

"We kinda look like crystal ponies," Applejack observed. "Sorta."

"I've been an illustration before," Richard remarked, "but not in this style." He waved his arms, testing his mobility. "Huh. I was afraid moving around would be clunkier."

"What a stew we're in now!" Hoggle moaned. "Knowing Jareth, there's a way out, but Heaven help us in finding it!"

"Is this even still part of the Labyrinth?" Applejack asked.

"That it is," Hoggle answered. "Jareth's an expert at coming up with all sorts of tricks and daydreams and storing them away in pockets for others to find."

"Well, maybe they know somethin' about this place." Applejack nodded toward the knights. "We should ask 'em what's up."

She trotted down toward the group – two women, three men, all in silvery armor and bearing shields with brightly colored crests, sitting astride horses of snow white, jet black, and nut brown - with Richard and Hoggle in tow. "'Scuse me!" she called out. "Sorry to bother y'all, but can we ask y'all a little question?"

The knights all looked to the trio, then to each other. They gestured with their arms, looking at each other's movements before turning back to the three travelers. Then one nodded. It was clear that none could speak, at least not in any language that could be heard by those who came in from outside the page.

"What is this place?" Applejack asked. "An' what're y'all gettin' all armored up for? Is somethin' in there?"

The knights tried their best to convey an answer via gestures, but they simply couldn't communicate beyond indicating that there was in fact something in the woods: something they couldn't accurately describe across their limited communication.

"I see." Applejack nodded. "Well…thanks. Good luck with yer…uh…whatcher doin'."

The knights all nodded before taking up their weapons as well of the reins of their horses; the five steeds and riders galloped into the woods.

"Well, that was a whole lot of nothing helpful," Hoggle snorted, putting his hands on his hips indignantly.

"C'mon," Applejack beckoned, nodding toward the woods.

"Wouldn't it be safer to go that way?" Richard pointed back at the farmhouses, which it was safe to assume were the homes of the armored knights.

Applejack shook her head. "Jareth ain't gonna put the way out down the safe road."

"She's right," Hoggle sighed.

"C'mon." Applejack trotted into the woods, and Hoggle and a reluctant Richard followed her.

The forest was nearly silent, the leaves overhead blocking out almost all sunlight. While the surrounding trees and other plants still had the angular style of the illustration, the bright colors were blocked out by darkness. The only sound for a while was the crackling of leaves and twigs beneath Applejack's hooves and Richard and Hoggle's feet.

"Heh…wonder where those knights rode off to," Applejack said to break the silence. "Haven't seen hide nor hair of 'em."

"That's…not a good sign," Richard pointed out.

"It's not a sign of anything," Hoggle huffed. "For all we know, they disappeared to make us think they were destroyed by some monster. I wouldn't put anything past Jareth."

"And if there is a monster in these woods?" Richard asked.

"Well, I still got that whip," Applejack reminded him. "An' trust me, it's more than meets the eye."

"It's better than what I have," Richard joked. "They might SAY the pen is mightier than the sword – " He took his spare pen out of his pocket, then took a better look at it. "Huh."

"What's wrong?" Applejack asked.

Richard swiftly moved forward until he found a shaft of light that poured down from a crack in the forest canopy. He held the pen up in it, confirming his suspicions when the view became more clear. "Does this look weird to you?"

"It looks real," Hoggle pointed out, somewhat astonished.

"It doesn't fit in here," Applejack confirmed.

The pen looked exactly as it had outside of the illustration. Its colors were subdued, and there was nothing angular about its design. It was jarring to look at against everything else. "Why this pen?" Richard wondered out loud.

"I dunno," Applejack told him, "but I bet that's somethin' important."

"Hold onto that," Hoggle advised. "Somehow, the magic isn't working on it. That makes it more than useful to us."

"But it's just a pen!" Richard argued. All the same, when he put it back in his pocket, he clenched a hand around it protectively to make sure it wouldn't get lost.

"Y'know," Applejack said, changing the subject, "Pinkie Pie had this song she'd sing when we were in a frightenin' place. This one time, we all got turned around in the woods on the way to an abandoned castle. Actually, it was our very first adventure together as friends. Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, an' I were scared out of our coats, but all Pinkie Pie was doin' was laughin'. She started singin' this song about not bein' scared, an' it made all the rest of us feel a little better. Times like this, I wish she was around to do that again, but if she was here, we wouldn't be doin' this, now, would we?"

"Ohhhhhh no," Richard said suddenly. "I see where this is going. You're not getting me to sing anything."

"The day I go romping through the woods singing is the day I sprout wings and fly!" Hoggle added indignantly.

"All right," Applejack relented.

But after a few more minutes of walking in ominous silence, she asked, "Would y'all mind if I just…sang it for myself?"

"I suppose there's no harm in that," Hoggle sighed, figuring Applejack wasn't going to let it go.

Richard shrugged. "Go ahead."

Applejack nodded, trying to remember the words. "Let's see now…when I was a little filly, and the sun was goin' down, the darkness an' the shadows, they would always make me frown." She felt her spirits lift from so much as starting the song. "I'd hide under my pillow from what I thought I saw. But Granny said that wasn't the way to deal with fears at all! She said, 'AJ, you gotta stand up tall, learn to face your fears! You'll see that they can't hurt you; just laugh an' make 'em disappear!" In completely good cheer, she belted out, "So giggle at the ghostly! Guffaw at the grossly! Crack up at the creepy! Whoop it up with the weepy! Chortle at the kooky! Snortle at the spooky!..."

Her enthusiasm was infectious. After some time, Richard found himself singing along after catching the lyrical drift, and his voice rang through the woods along with Applejack's: "Giggle at the ghostly! Guffaw at the grossly! Crack up at the creepy! Whoop it up with the weepy!"

Hoggle still outright refused to sing, but all in all, he was rather glad the other two were doing it. It was comforting to have a sound in the forest that wasn't crackling or the whistling of wind, and his companions were putting their all into it. It made him feel more confident as well.

"CHORTLE AT THE KOOKY!" Applejack and Richard sang out. "SNORTLE AT THE SPOOKY – "

They were interrupted by a loud and echoing sound. It was a low moan, undercut with a rasp; one might have mistaken it for an incredibly loud stomach growl. It put all three travelers into a stunned silence.

"Please tell me that was just the wind," Richard nearly squeaked.

Applejack shook her head. "I know that sound. That was a lot louder and a lot…meaner…than they usually come, but that was some kinda pig. Not the wind."

"It must have been what those useless knights were hunting!" Hoggle realized. "Hurry up, hurry up! Before it finds us!"

He broke into a run, and Applejack followed him at a gallop. Richard wasn't far behind. They raced through the trees, dodging trunks to create a path. The loud call sounded again, and this time, it was most certainly closer. A third time, and they knew that whatever had sounded it was gaining on them. Applejack summoned her whip, clenching the grip hard in her teeth.

Then it skidded into view in front of them, cutting them off and forcing them to halt. It was an enormous wild boar, one that was just taller than one of the knights would have been on horseback. Its hide was jet black, covered in bristly fur. Its eyes glowed as two orange lights in the darkness of the forest. Two sword-sharp tusks protruded from its face. It pawed the ground, signaling that it was ready to charge, as it let out another menacing squeal.

Applejack tossed the whip up into the air, freeing up her mouth just long enough to yell "GET OUTTA THE WAY!" Hoggle ran one way and Richard the other; Applejack caught the whip on its descent and faced the monstrous boar down.

The beast snorted; plumes of smoke and the beginnings of orange flames rose from its nostrils. It broke into a run directly at Applejack.

This boar was bigger than any pig that Applejack had ever wrangled, as well as much more violent. But it was a pig nonetheless, and Applejack was used to pigs. She held her ground, sidestepping the charge at the last minute and flicking the whip. The rope magically tied itself around the boar's neck, tight enough to hold it but loose enough not to choke it. Applejack then yanked on the rope, hoping to bring the boar off its path. The boar dug its hooves into the ground, and so did Applejack. They were locked in a tug-of-war for half a minute before the boar turned sharply, expelling a burst of flame from its mouth in an attempt to sever its leash. Applejack's reflexes were quick; when the boar turned, she changed position, taking the rope out of the way of the flames' path. Here they seemed locked in a stalemate.

Richard watched in a state of desperation, wishing there was something he could do. Applejack obviously had the boar caught, but they weren't getting anywhere. And all Richard could do was watch. After all, the only thing he had was a strangely realistic looking pen. Though it had to be that realistic looking for a reason, did it not? Though it wasn't anything special, as far as Richard knew. It was just an ordinary ink pen.

An ink pen.

Richard clicked out the pen's nib, drawing a stroke through the air. A line appeared before him, hovering in front of his eyes. He tapped it with a finger; it was solid. Inside of an illustration, the pen could change everything. He rushed toward Applejack and the boar; the pen stayed dormant for the time being, waiting for the will of an illustrator. When Richard skidded to a halt before the boar, he began to draw a solid metal fence in the middle of the air, making thick bars that reached high above his head.

"DRAW FASTER!" Hoggle screeched when he figured out what Richard was doing. "DRAW FASTER!"

Applejack kept hold on her end of the rope, making sure to step quickly away whenever the boar was close to breaking it with the flame. The fence sprang up around her and her opponent, bursting into metallic color as Richard filled it in. In almost no time, a Gothic metalwork almost completely encircled Applejack and the boar, with space left open for a gate. Richard then filled in that gate, drawing it open, swinging outside.

"I GOT IT!" he yelled. "COME ON!"

Applejack gave the whip a crack, and it disentangled from the boar. She rocketed out of the open gate; Richard slammed it shut as the boar tried to follow. The boar shoved against the heavy bars, but Richard was able to hold the gate shut just long enough to draw a large padlock. When he stepped back from it, he admired his work: a circular pen that hindered the boar at every opportunity. The boar angrily breathed an inferno onto the bars, heating them up to a brilliant red-orange but unable to destroy them.

"That's one fancy fence!" Applejack remarked. "'Specially for somethin' ya drew on the spot."

"Thanks," Richard told her. "Y'know, I was wondering if maybe I should be an illustrator for books. I could give the classics a little extra punch that way."

"Don't suppose you could draw us a way out," Hoggle grunted.

"I…" Richard paused. "Maybe I can." He lifted the pen up into the air, above his head, and drew a letter E in the air, followed by an X, I, T.

"How is that – " Hoggle began.

The EXIT sign glowed bright green, and a door appeared out of nowhere, small and wooden, nondescript. Richard grasped the handle, turning it. On the other side was the rest of the tunnel beneath the Labyrinth, free at last from the drawing. A visible stairway led upward.

"I bet that's the way out of the whole tunnel!" Applejack realized.

"Well, I'll be," Hoggle remarked in astonishment.

They quickly moved through the exit, leaving the boar behind; once the door closed, it was as though that page had never been.

...

GOBLIN CITY, THE LABYRINTH

Pinkie Pie found herself having fun amongst goblin company yet again, and she and several goblins were entertaining themselves with racing metal toy boats across a pond in one of the courtyards.

Another goblin rushed into the courtyard in order to blow a trumpet and give an announcement: "Only six hours remaining for the questers to find their friend! Six hours remaining!"

Pinkie lost all focus on the race. Her boat crossed the finish line first, and the other goblins cheered her raucously, but she was frozen in horror, staring dead ahead. "Six…hours?" she repeated. "I already spent SEVEN HOURS here? But I…I couldn't! Then again, I've been having so much fun exploring the rooms and playing these games that I have no IDEA how long I've been here! But the others would have found me by now! It wouldn't take them seven whole hours! What if…what if they're really NOT looking for me?"

The other goblins watched in dismay as Pinkie's curls undid themselves, her mane lying down flat against her neck. She willed herself not to cry, for she was among company, and company who was allied with her captor at that, but all the same, she couldn't stop her eyes from watering, and some of that water welled up just enough that a single tear escaped, hitting the courtyard pond with a plop.

"She's crying!" one of the goblins observed.

Pinkie blinked hard, shaking her head. "Am NOT!" she barked. "I'm just…maybe they ran into problems!" This was followed by an intense twitch.

"Or maybe they forgot all about you!" another goblin suggested. "But it's okay. You fit in better with us goblins anyway! We like you, and we're going to ask Jareth if we can keep you!"

"You are NOT GOING TO KEEP ME!" Pinkie screeched. "I KNOW I'm loud and annoying and my friends probably don't want to be friends with me anymore or else they'd have been here an hour ago, but THAT DOESN'T MEAN I WANT TO BE HERE!"

After another violent twitch had passed, the pink pony barreled out of the courtyard, eager to be anywhere but there.

...

One room had absolutely nothing in it. No furniture, no treasure, no keepsakes. It was perfect for pacing back and forth and saying one's worries out loud to oneself, so Pinkie did just that:

"No. They didn't give up on me, and they didn't forget me. That's just stupid to even think. I know they're my friends. And this Labyrinth is full of stuff that could have slowed them down. There's absolutely no WAY that Twilight decided she really wanted Jareth to keep me after all and that she turned around and went back home, and it's even LESS likely that all four of the others agreed with her and followed! Right? Right.

"Except I don't really feel better. I thought I knew Twilight better than this, but she did make that wish in the first place. Maybe that's just how she felt about me all along. It's not the first time I've interrupted her reading. And come to think of it, she always gets really mad when I do that. I should've known better. This is all my fault! She never would have wished me away if I hadn't bothered her!

"Or IS it her fault for making that wish? Ohhhh, if only I knew what the others were saying and thinking! They probably wanted to come get me right away…unless…unless they didn't. What if they didn't? What if one of them had to talk everypony else into it?

"But even if they didn't like me, they'd come and get me anyway. I have one of the Elements! They need it! Except they're all way too good to just use me as an Element. If they just wanted me to be magic for them, they wouldn't bother. I'd have to mean more than that. And that just puts me where I was before.

"Well, maybe I don't need them! The goblins like me! And I'm starting to really like the goblins! They know how to party! This place is loud and doesn't make sense, just like me! I really don't make sense, do I? It's no wonder…and Discord still changed me anyway when he was let out, so he doesn't think I'm senseless ENOUGH. What happens when you don't make enough sense for harmony but you make too much sense to be chaos? What are you THEN? Especially when harmony and chaos are going to war? Are you harmony? Or are you with the Old Ones? But I could NEVER be with the Old Ones! Well, they can't all be bad, can they? Thor said they just didn't know the difference between good and bad. Wait…did THOR like me? I already know Loki probably didn't. But what about everypony else? What about (gasp) Rapunzel? I thought she and I were really really REALLY good friends! But what if she…"

"Miss Pinkie Pie?"

Pinkie halted in her tracks, looking up at the goblin that had grunted her name. "The Goblin King wants to see you in the throne room," the goblin announced.

"And what if I don't want to see HIM?" Pinkie snapped.

"Uh…" The goblin thought about it. "I don't think he'll be happy."

Pinkie decided not to chance figuring out what that meant. "Fine," she resolved, holding her head high, her flat mane still flowing around her shoulders. "I'll go see what he wants. But it better be something good."

As she made her way down the hallway to the throne room, the goblin scurried ahead of her. He'd actually heard most of what she'd said to herself, and he felt there were some components of it very much worth reporting to Jareth.

...

As Pinkie Pie entered the throne room, Jareth wore a smug smirk. It was then that she knew that he knew. They'd told him about the teardrop. Though he was able to see all the same that her mane had deflated.

"Your hair," he commented. "It's lost its usual…bounce."

"So what?" Pinkie snapped. "Maybe I wanted to change it!"

"Maybe you did," Jareth said cryptically. "I've received an interesting report, you know. That you heard about how long your friends have left to find you. As I heard it…you didn't take it well."

"I don't see how that's any of YOUR business," Pinkie said indignantly.

"Moreover," Jareth continued, "I have also heard reports that you consider yourself nonsensical and loud. That makes it all the more surprising that you don't appreciate this city. It's practically nothing but loud nonsense." He gave a dramatic huff. "My domain."

Why did he consider it his business that Pinkie Pie had been crying? He did enjoy a good taunt, and that had been handed to him on a golden plate. And yet he did find her one of the more entertaining guests to have around. The cakes, the way she meshed so well with his court and army…seeing her deflated as she was struck him as a bit of a disappointment. He rather wanted her energy to return. After all, he was counting on being able to keep her as part of his world. It would be easier for everyone, he thought, if she could be happy about it.

"Is it true?" he asked at last. "Are you loud and nonsensical?"

"I don't even know anymore," Pinkie sighed. "I feel like all the party's gone out of me." She hung her head.

"Well, perhaps some reparations are in order," Jareth suggested, rising from his throne.

"What's THAT mean?" Pinkie asked, looking up at him curiously.

The other goblins were practically on the edges of their toes; they knew what was coming. They could feel it in the air.

"Simply this," Jareth told her. And his next words were delivered in song: "I heard of Pinkie, cryin' hard as she could cry!

What could I do?

That pony's friends had gone

And turned her pink to blue!

Nobody knew!"

He raised his arms to the crowd of goblins, and they all joined in with him, singing as one, everyone beginning to bounce to the beat: "What kind of magic spell to use?"

"Slime and snails?" one suggested.

"Or curly pony tails!" another added.

"Thunder and lightning," said a third, thinking that such a spell would be far more applicable to Pinkie Pie than anyone else the song had ever been about.

"But then I said…" Jareth then belted:

"DANCE MAGIC DANCE!

DANCE MAGIC DANCE!"

"Put that magic spell on me!" the goblins chorused. "Slap that pony; make her free!"

By now, Pinkie Pie was getting quite the tapping in her toes as she heard Jareth take the next chorus: "JUMP MAGIC JUMP!

JUMP MAGIC JUMP!"

And again, the goblins: "Put that magic jump on me!

Slap that pony; make her free!"

"So you DO know how to party!" Pinkie observed. "And here I thought you were just a stuffy boring king who just sat around and made fun of people. Well, I'm still not happy that you captured me, but…if it's a party you want, I'm gonna show you how it's done! And without any slapping involved, thank you very much!" She trotted out to the center of what was now the dance floor, taking over the song:

"I guess it's true that

I had reason enough to cry.

We all know why.

But I can make the best of this

If I just try!

To let it fly!"

The goblins then joined her in asking: "What kind of magic should I choose?"

"Burning fire?" one suggested.

"Or something quite dire?" threw in another.

"I still think lightning…" one reiterated.

"Well, I think it's…" Pinkie was now fully grinning. She was enjoying herself, despite herself. If her friends weren't going to show up, this was going to be her new home, and it would be easier for everypony, she thought, if she was just happy about it. She just had to prove that she was as loud and nonsensical as it took to fit in here. "DANCE MAGIC DANCE!

DANCE MAGIC DANCE!"

"Put that magic spell on you!" the goblins chorused. "Sing it out and dance it through!"

Jareth felt it was time to make things a little more interesting. He cast out his hands, letting a rush of magic and glitter pour forth from them and wash over Pinkie Pie. When it cleared, she had changed form into that of a human, clothed in a sparkling pink gown with ballooning sleeves and a flouncy skirt. Her hair was also redone into its usual bounce, though that was not due to Jareth's magic. Pinkie was stunned for a moment before kicking back into the rhythm on her new legs.

Jareth stepped closer to dance next to her: "JUMP MAGIC JUMP!"

She shimmied alongside him: "JUMP MAGIC JUMP!"

"Put that magic spell on you!" the goblins sang.

"SING IT OUT AND DANCE IT THROUGH!" Pinkie and Jareth harmonized.

This went on for quite some more time until most of the goblins were at last tired. As the dancers slowly, one by one, backed off from the floor, only Pinkie Pie and Jareth were left.

The Goblin King extended a hand, and Pinkie Pie took it, using it as leverage to pull off a twirl. She then spun him in return. Their eyes met for a second.

Pinkie immediately ripped her gaze away. "You might be good at dancing and parties," she snapped, "but DON'T THINK THIS MAKES YOU MY FRIEND!"

She rushed away, into the twisting hallways of the castle. What had she done? She'd resolved not to get close to her captor, and they'd just been dancing together. Though at the very least, she'd had fun. Her hair was still curled up; she felt a lot better than she had when the news of six hours had been delivered. If nothing else…she'd proven that she fit in well in Goblin City.

Meanwhile, Jareth watched her run away, unsure quite how to sort out his opinion on the matter. He had enjoyed watching her smile and dance, and as she left, he felt disappointment, though he wasn't quite sure why. She wasn't Sarah, after all, and even his feelings for her were nonsense, or so he chose to label them as of late.

He simply hoped he could get the chance to dance with Pinkie Pie again.

...

Chapter 110:

· I actually had this chapter written and ready to go for a while. Then I heard the news about David Bowie's death. It's really weird. I was never really into his music outside of "Space Oddity" and "Under Pressure" (though there's no time like the present to start), but with this whole Labyrinth storylet, he came to the forefront of my mind. He really did play my first villain in one of my first fandoms, and now he's gone. I'm still not sure how I quite feel about it or what to do. After all, Bowie may be gone, but his art will live on.

· The idea of Lancelot came about because I remembered that most of the things in the Labyrinth came from Sarah's room and were visible in some decoration or another. (Which might actually point to the entire world only being in her head, but that's kind of a gray line here anyway: in this 'verse, sometimes, magical worlds exist purely because someone equally fictional from our point of view made them up.) However, for her teddy bear Lancelot being the thing that spurs the bulk of her hatred for Toby, Lancelot is SURPRISINGLY nowhere to be found in the actual Laybrinth. So I put him there, as well as the other bears. What I'm going for is that Jareth got the bears from another world and put them there with new names and memories to reflect Sarah's toy shelf. And yes, I have it figured out which world they came from, and will be revealing it this storylet. That being said, I did NOT plan on an OC joining the party at this stage and now have to figure out how to handle him! Why does this keep happening to me…

· And because he was named "Lancelot," I figured Sarah would name the rest of the bears after mythology/literature.

· On the other hand, I want to disclaim right here: I know full well that Sir Didymus is also visible as a toy/decoration in Sarah's room, but I have a backstory planned for him that spans the time from before Jareth kidnapped Toby, so I'm kind of going to be a hypocrite on my own logic at this point because I really want to use that backstory instead of having Jareth bring Didymus there for Sarah.

· I do love contrasting how Sarah SPECIFICALLY faced Jareth on her own because "That's how these things are done" (which is the case for most fantasy fiction) but the Mane Six are SO used to facing danger together (which makes MLPFIM rather a unique show in that aspect).

· I got the idea of the illustration with the pocket dimension before realizing the person I was sending to it is the one person in the whole party and probably one of the few in fiction who has actually dealt with becoming an illustration. Whoops. To that end, I actually originally was going to have the monster of the dimension be a dragon, but that was just TOO close to The Pagemaster, so I actually drew some inspiration from the Hunt of the Calydonian Boar for this.

· Also, Richard was just gonna draw a door until I remembered how he probably has logged the concept of an "exit" permanently in his mind.

· I actually have been wondering if, as she is portrayed in canon, Pinkie Pie has OCD. She demonstrates a few of the symptoms. "Party of One" has her overanalyzing an intrusive thought until it becomes a destructive fear, and "Wonderbolts Academy" has her performing a compulsive ritual of checking the mailbox over and over to see if Rainbow Dash wrote home yet. I actually think this would be kinda cool. We need more positive portrayal of OCDers in fiction. Anyway, I drew from that headcanon when writing out Pinkie's speech of "Why my friends probably didn't abandon me, but let's face it, I'm pretty sure they did."

· Progress report: I have three pages of "map" where I sketched out the locations in Labyrinth, wrote in where I'd have to fill in gaps by making new locales, and decided who should go where when. We are now done with the first page of map's worth of story!