Angle sighed as he wandered around the castle. He hadn’t come across anypony, any doors, or anything of significance. Just hallways, locked doors that didn’t have numbers on them, and a few ponylike statues that gave him more frights than he would care to admit to.

He wasn’t sure how long it had been; not more than an hour. He contemplated going back, but now he was so deep into the castle he had no clue how to retrace his steps. Maybe going so far wasn’t a good idea…

He almost didn’t notice when he bumped into somepony.

“Ow!” He rubbed his nose, then looked forward and blinked. He smiled in relief. “Oh, it’s just you. How’d you get-”

“It looped around, that’s all. Come on, I found a door I need you for.”

Angle blinked. “A door? You mean one of those scanner doors?”

“Yes.”

With a shrug, Angle followed the pony. “So...where are the others?”

“They’re waiting at the door.”

“How’d you find me?”

“Pure luck.”

“...you’re being pretty laconic.”

Silence.

Finally, they came to a door. Angle noticed that there was no number painted on it, but there was a scanner beside it nonetheless. He looked around while his companion scanned their hoof.

“Where are the others?” he asked.

“They probably wandered off to get the other group. It’s fine. Our bracelets alone our enough to open this door.”

Angle narrowed his eyes. “...there’s no number here. How do you know that?”

He was answered by having his hoof grabbed and shoved onto the scanner. His companion pulled the lever, and the door opened. With a yelp, Angle pulled away and glared.

“What’s going on here?!” he demanded.

“Get in.”

He was pushed.

I jolted up from where I was lying on the bed. Looking over, I saw Hooves and Uno chatting with one another. Yawning, I rubbed my eyes, surprised that I managed to fall asleep at a time like this.

“What happened…?” I asked groggily.

“We found a way out of the room,” Uno answered. “You were asleep, so we agreed to split up and go searching for the others for a half hour or so, then come back and get you.”

“You were still asleep when we got back, and he insisted we let you be for a while,” Hooves finished. “Now that you’re awake, let’s go.”

I stood up, stretching. “How...how do we get out?”

Hooves walked over to the closet containing the secret passage we had come out of a while ago. He opened it, then turned the handle upwards. A hidden door on the wall of the passage swung open.

“...how did you two even find that?” I asked, trotting over.

“Always test every available option, ridiculous or not,” Hooves told me in a lecturing tone. “Now come on.”

“I told you splitting up was a dumb idea,” Coin grumbled to the others.

“At least it was quicker than going down each hallway as a group,” Thursday replied. “But really, did nobody find anything?”

There were shrugs all around.

“My path just led to some bedrooms,” Dawn said. This was followed up with a chorus of voices from the rest of the team, talking about what little they found.

“I just found a kitchen.”

“A couple bathrooms.”

“A hallway that went in a circle.”

“I think I found a way out...”

Everypony instantly turned their attention to Element. “What?!” Thursday exclaimed.

“There was a hallway...and there was a window really high up in the wall,” he told them. “I think it might lead somewhere, but it was too high for me to see. It might be barred up or something.”

“Why didn’t you fly up and check?” Coin asked, annoyed.

“I didn’t think of it...”

There were a few groans. “Alright, Element. Which path did you take?”

The stallion motioned for them to follow him down the path on the far right. “There’s nothing at the end of the hall aside from an empty dining room. The window’s somewhere near the middle...keep an eye out...”

The balloon landed in Cloudsdale. With a cloud walking spell courtesy of Risk, the three remaining members of the Winter Solstice (as well as R) were walking along, following the single-letter-named stallion’s directions.

When he stopped talking, they realized why.

The house he had led them to was completely torn apart. None of it stood the way it had before. Every wall had toppled and snapped, and the roof was on the ground broken into six pieces. The remains of pieces of cloud furniture were strewn around, littering the area around where the house once stood for a good twenty feet in every direction.

R stood there, shaking. “N-No...”

Risk and False looked at each other. Their faces were pale. Nimble, meanwhile, had walked ahead of them and was poking through the rubble in a way that made it hard to tell if he was actively looking for something, or just being curious.

“...R...” Risk began, turning to the wingless pegasus. “...I’m sorry.”

“...I thought we had more time...” He looked down at the ground, slowly sinking into a sitting position. “...I didn’t think-”

“They’re alive.”

Three heads snapped up to see Nimble now only a few feet away, looking at them.

“No blood and no bodies. They weren’t here when this happened.”

beep

beep

beep beep

“No! Don’t do this to me!”

BEEP BEEP

“Let me out of here!”

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

“No! I don’t want to end up like Clo-”

BOOM!

The sentence went unfinished.