To many, a kitchen was nothing special. But to us, it was a relief.

I had gone through the wooden door expecting some kind of trap. Maybe our bracelets would be reactivated all of a sudden, with us too far away from the DEAD to get them shut off. Instead, nothing happened.

Hooves had begun scouring the room, throwing open cupboards and drawers. Judging by the look on his face, he wasn’t finding anything useful. Uno and I exchanged a look, wondering what exactly he was hoping to find.

“You two gonna stand around all day, or are you going to help?” Hooves finally called.

We snapped our attention over to him. “Help with what?” I asked.

“Finding things. You never know what can be useful.”

Uno blinked. “There hasn’t exactly been anything lying around in any of the other rooms. I don’t think that trend would suddenly change now.”

“Then if you want to just stand around and not contribute, be my guest. I’ll be working towards helping us get out of this blasted place.”

With a sigh, Uno walked over and started helping Hooves rummage through the area. Since they had the place covered pretty well, I wasn’t too sure how I could help, so I just stood there awkwardly for a few minutes and let them handle it.

Eventually, they came back, their search having turned up nothing aside from Uno finding a knife in one of the drawers. As soon as I saw it, I backed away and wouldn’t get near him until he put it on a nearby counter. I liked the guy, but for now, I knew it was too early to trust anypony.

“Should we go back?” I asked. “There aren’t any doors or windows in here, aside from the door we came through.”

Hooves sighed. “Perhaps.” He shook his head in disappointment and put his hoof on the door handle, only to find it wouldn’t budge. He grumbled. “...locked. Of course.”

“Locked?!” I yelped, pushing past him to try the door myself. Sure enough, it wouldn’t open. “No no no no no...”

“Asy- er, Note...calm down, will you?” Uno stepped up beside me, putting a hoof on my shoulder that I flinched away from. “It’s just a wooden door. We can buck it down.”

Hooves shook his head. “While that is possible, we were locked in for a reason. There must be another way out that Zero wants us to find.”

“And the fact that he wants us to find it makes us want to find it?” Uno pointed out. “He’s trying to kill us, in case you haven’t noticed.”

“No, he isn’t. He’s trying to play with us. If he wanted us dead, he would’ve activated the bombs in our stomachs already, or just killed us after he knocked us out when kidnapping us. As much as I hate to play his game, it’s the only way out.” He turned back to the rest of the room. “Let’s get back to searching.”

“Two,” Coin said out loud. The others looked at him weirdly before they saw the door he was looking at. It was like the door with a four on it, but...well, it had a two instead.

“Think we should go through?” Thursday suggested.

Element shrugged. “I...can we go through?” He looked around at them all. “There’s five of us, sure...that’s the maximum amount that can go through...”

Angle shook his head. “Our digital root isn’t right. I calculated it after we left the other three. Our digital root is five, but this door says two on it.”

Thursday sighed. “Should we split up again, then? Send some of us through and leave some behind?”

“Who could go through?” asked Coin. “I can’t go alone. If...um...Dawn and Angle went with me, we could...”

“Hey, I-I wanna go too!” Element cried. He winced. “I mean...um...I want to get through this too.”

Coin groaned. “Then it’d be eight. Hooves isn’t here to make it two.”

“I’ll stay behind,” Angle offered. “Without me, your digital root is two. You can all go through.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? This isn’t a very nice place,” Dawn observed.

“I’ll be fine. Maybe I’ll go back and wait for the others to come out, assuming they use the same door. If not, I’ll just wander.” He chuckled. “This castle may be big, but it’s not infinite. I’ll come across either you or them eventually.”

Thursday sighed. “I don’t think this is a good idea...”

“We all have to split up sooner or later. That’s how this game seems to work. We just have to live with it.”

Coin sighed. “Alright, man...your call.” He motioned to the others. “Come on, let’s go.”

As they scanned their hooves, Angle turned and walked off, heading back the way they came. He hated being alone, but hopefully it wouldn’t be for long.

Author's Notes:

For those who didn't clue in on the update and, as such, are confused about the low word count for this chapter: I am no longer aiming for a thousand words minimum each chapter. I will just write until the scene seems to reach a good ending point and then publishing. However, I will make sure each chapter is at least 500 words, and the shorter chapters will usually contain some sort of important plot point so it doesn't seem like filler.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm about to get "One Mind" in Cookie Clicker, so I'm gonna be busy for a while.