Author's Notes:

Done reading this and Motor Mind's fight? Decide who wins right here!

The entrance door vanished behind them, leaving them in a dark, featureless room. Immediately after it disappeared, a doorway appeared that led to an area with a dirt floor and a single spot of light. Past that, a black wall went on beyond where they could see. With a breath and a nod to each other for confidence, they stepped through to meet their opponent.

What they found upon stepping in, however, was that they were alone. The air was cool with a breeze, coming from a hole in the ceiling that let in a single ray of light, which provided no warmth. The floor was cool dirt, and around them the walls were stone. The darkness ahead of them belonged to a tunnel, and only a crack in the walls provided light beyond.

Behind them, the doorway sank into the floor, leaving them alone…and trapped.

They looked around, but couldn’t see anything else. Trailblazer looked at the tunnel in front of her.

“Are you ready?” she asked her sister. Surefooted nodded, taking a deep breath and adjusting the slingshot by her side. Trailblazer took one of her own, and then began walking down the darker one. Surefooted remained silent as they proceeded. The walls were made of a red-grey rock, and were hewn smoothly. Surefooted wondered at its smoothness; there was no wind or traces of a river that could’ve rubbed it smooth.

Suddenly, she heard something. She turned around and saw that there was a wall behind them. She gasped.

Trailblazer whipped their body around, ready to face her adversary. Once she saw the wall, however, she bolted up. “What in Equestria?”

They both turned to their front, but where there was endless tunnel there was now an open area. They trotted to its edge and peered out at both sides. Looking to the right revealed that the area wasn’t empty. A portion of a building stuck out the ground, while a pile of broken green glass and a broken candle were scattered around it. For the building, only one window stuck out of view, enough to show enough space to use as a room, although only broken and faded objects littered where they could see. Another tunnel to their left was present.

“Should we look inside to see if we can use anything?” Trailblazer asked. “Or should we move on to try and find our opponent?”

Surefooted was about to answer when her ears flicked and her eyes widened. Then she lowered her head and growled at the window. Trailblazer took the hint and nudged her to their right, next to the building and out of sight of the window. Trailblazer kept Surefooted back and peeked around the corner.

What emerged was a pallid, maneless pony, whose skin sagged around it, whose ribs threatened to rip the skin around it, whose legs quivered under it, whose pupil-less eyes shifted. It was a stallion, one without a cutie mark. It looked around frantically, looking for them.

“That’s not our opponent,” Trailblazer said. Surefooted nodded in agreement. “Still, I think we should avoid it.” She disappeared from its view and leaned into her sister. “Alright, let’s shoot a stone at the opposite wall, wait for it to either go over there or hide, and then make our move for the tunnel. Okay?”

Surefooted nodded.

“Alright.” Trailblazer nuzzled her for comfort, and then turned—

—right into the pupil-less face of the stallion.

“Yah!” They both stumbled back and faced the stallion, who shrieked in reply and stumbled back. He fell on his back and cowered, crying. Trailblazer and Surefooted watched him for a while, waiting to see what he would do. He didn’t stop cowering.

“I don’t think we need to worry about him,” Trailblazer whispered. “Let’s just go around him and be on our way.”

Surefooted nodded and looked up, and her brow furrowed. Trailblazer looked as well and saw the source of the confusion: the tunnels around them had vanished.

“What in Equestria?” Trailblazer looked around, finding a tunnel behind the house—where one wasn’t before. “Let’s go before it changes up again.”

They both cantered for the passage. Surefooted looked back one last time at the stallion, who scrambled to his hooves and galloped to the far end of the opening. He sniffed around the edges until they were out of his sight.

Surefooted looked back and followed the small beams of light coming from the walls. A beam occasionally emerged from the floor, iridescent unlike the pale beams from the cracks and gaps. There were no noises for some time.

Then, ahead of them, just as they were coming to another opening, they caught sight of a figure. It was a fleeting figure, and it sped past the opening and disappeared to the right. What was odd was that a cloudy rainbow trail was left in its wake. The colors shifted and expanded into a thin, transparent cloud of rainbow before disappearing, leaving only a lit grey wall ahead of them.

“Do you think that’s our opponent?” Trailblazer asked. Surefooted shrugged and pulled towards the wall to their right. Trailblazer followed, and they pressed up against the wall. They inched forward bit by bit when, suddenly, a shrill sound could be heard. And then a cacophony. And then a primal roar.

“Down with you all!” And suddenly, an explosion could be heard, and a cloud of rainbow smoke came into view. Soon, two large ponies flew into their view, both half covered in rainbow and half pallid grey. One was a large, brutish stallion; the other was a large, brutish mare.

And both pairs of eyes locked on to the sisters.

“Get ready to run,” Trailblazer whispered. Surefooted nodded, whimpering. Then, suddenly, the stallion sprang after the two; the mare followed right behind. “Now!”

They turned and dashed, only to hit a jagged rock wall. They recovered just in time to rolled out of the way of the stallion, who slammed so hard into the wall that it cracked upon impact. The mare perhaps would’ve left a similar mark had she crashed into it as well, but she barreled right into the stallion. Once both pallid ponies recovered, they rose on their hindlegs and began batting and biting at each other.

“Now’s our chance!” Trailblazer and Surefooted turned tail and galloped away from the two pallid ponies, who didn’t take any sort of notice. They broke into the opening and looked to their right. What they saw was a pony with a burgundy coat, a dull-gold tail and a helmet that resembled ponies working in radioactive matters. It was black with bright green eyes that glowed as it stared at other pallid ponies around him. Surrounding where he stood was a burst of rainbow color that oozed down from the walls and pooled around him.

They saw him reach for something and dove behind a rock to hide.Trailblazer looked around the right and Surefooted from their left. He had pulled out a shotgun and aimed it at one of the moaning stallions around him. The sisters had seen a gun a few times, and Trailblazer remembered Surefooted’s reaction to it; she immediately pulled her sister back and covered their ears. A boom echoed through the open area and the cave network, and their cover did little to shield them from the reverberating sound.

When Trailblazer looked back up, she saw the pallid pony covered in coruscating gem fragments embedded in its hide. It lay motionless. The rest of the pallid ponies saw this and shrieked; a few even tried to scramble away, but had difficulty walking. She wouldn’t let Surefooted watch what was going on and still kept her ears covered with her hoof and neck. Then she heard another noise: speech.

“It had to be done,” a deep voice said. “It had to be done. There can be no mercy in a competition like this. Everything that gets in my way has to die.” The voice suddenly switched from deep to nasally. “I know they weren’t my opponent, but a few of them did come after me, and I can’t spare the time to aim at the few that are out to get me and spare the rest.” Deep voice again. “Besides, look at them. Cold, lonely and lost. They’re probably too dumb and withdrawn to be of any sort of use to the world, and it’d probably be better if I put them out of their misery.” Nasal voice. “B-but they have no lives here.” A moment of silence. “Because look at them!” He gestured to the cowering and scattering ponies. “They have no cutie marks. They don’t have coat colors. They don’t even have pupils or irises! They can’t talk or beg for their lives! How can they be alive if they can’t express themselves in any way?” Another silent moment. “Crying doesn’t count!” He swirled around again—

—and then stopped his eyes looking straight at Trailblazer.

He began floating in the air, with a stream of rainbow steam behind him. “Jackpot.”

Suddenly, he sped towards them, not with the wings of a pegasus, but with two blades of metal and a backpack that produced rainbow steam.

Finally, she uncupped Surefooted’s ears. “Get ready, because here he comes!”

Surefooted understood immediately and raised herself to stand. In a split second, she grabbed a few stones on the ground and unlatched their slingshot. This was all well and good, too, because the pony had just passed over them and tossed something down at them. They didn’t know what it was, but seeing what he had done to the pallid ponies, they didn’t want to find out.

“Come on!” Trailblazer yelled. She leaped forward, and Surefooted gained control of their left legs just fast enough to begin galloping away. The masked stallion above them pointed his gun at them and fired, sending bits of gems raining down. The shot, however, was too far away to do any damage, so shards of sapphires and jasper bounced off their flanks as they galloped away. From behind them, another explosion happened, and they looked back to see a burst of rainbow spread out to the outer walls of the opening.

“Neither of you can escape!” the stallion cried as he flew after them. On the ground, Trailblazer and Surefooted were very fast, but the stallion was able to catch up to them easily. Now that he was closer, he could fire at them with more result. Larger bits of gemstones bounced off their back, a few off their heads, the occasional one almost getting into their eyes. And yet they galloped on.

The shots came closer, and soon the gems were beginning to cut their hides. At this point, something had to be done. Surefooted brought the slingshot to her mouth and tossed a stone into it. At that moment, they were galloping with Trailblazer leading and Surefooted with a slingshot and stone in her mouth. Trailblazer saw her prepared, and panted, “You ready?” Surefooted nodded. “He’s right above us, and getting closer.”

They could hear the cocking of the shotgun right behind them. Surefooted nodded; it was now or never. Trailblazer nodded, looked back to see the stallion take aim, and then stopped running. Her side of their body turned to face the stallion, who was getting ready to slam his hoof on a button on top. She ducked her head to reveal Surefooted, who fired the stone at him. The stone struck the bottom of the shotgun’s barrel, throwing its aim straight up and smashing the button into the masked pony’s face. Shards of diamonds clanked against the ceiling before coming down; the stallion regained control just fast enough to bank left out of their way. Trailblazer and Surefooted banked right, and the ponies found themselves along separate paths.

The path Trailblazer and Surefooted were going down was lighter than the others, with not only pockets and cracks of light pouring in, but also glowing mushrooms scattered along the walls. For the first time since coming here, they saw foliage lining the walls, moss and vines, a few roots that seemed to twitch upon their arrival. A trail of water was falling from a hole in the ceiling, and it flowed ahead of them into the dark path.

They heard the whirring of the stallion’s flight mechanism, and it was fast approaching. They looked around. “We can’t run from him, and our chances of hiding aren’t much good. Any ideas?”

Surefooted looked around, then nodded enthusiastically. She pointed up to a vine hanging close to a ledge to their right. Trailblazer thought about it, but then Surefooted wrapped her left hoof around her neck and imitated being choked. Then Trailblazer understood.

“You’re a genius!” she cried before the whirring became extra loud. “We better hurry!” They cantered forward and hopped onto the ledge. Surefooted grabbed the vine and held it close to her. They lowered their body on the floor of the ledge—even though there was no way it would protect them from the stallion’s view—and waited.

It wasn’t a moment too soon, either, because the stallion was on his way. He was scanning the tunnel ahead for any signs of life. He came up to them quicker than they had expected, and they saw his gaze lock onto theirs, and another shorter gun was pointed at them, when they leapt at him. The vine they had in Surefooted’s mouth was low enough to reach the stallion’s neck, and he jerked to a stop. They wrapped around him once and then landed on his back. Surefooted kept her grip on the vine, while Trailblazer grabbed his muzzle and pulled it back.

The stallion reached his hooves for the vine, trying to bat away Trailblazer. His flight device had kept going, thrashing the trio about and clouding the air with rainbow. The vine held, however, and the stallion kept on beating at them.

For a moment, his fighting died down, and Trailblazer thought they had knocked him out. But then she saw something that made her panic. In a last-ditch effort, he had grabbed his shotgun and had been slowly guiding it towards Surefooted. She was so focused on the vine in her mouth that she hadn’t seen the barrel staring her in the face. She knew that there wouldn’t be enough time for her to tell her to move, so she acted.

Dislodging herself from him, she bit Surefooted on the ear as hard as she could. Surefooted yelped and the vine flew out of her mouth. The stallion sped off as the shotgun was fired, sending a burst of rainbow cloud past them. The two fell to the ground while the stallion flew straight up, hitting the ceiling. It took a while for either of them to recover, but once Trailblazer did, she tried to speed off down whichever path the tunnel went, but found she was struggling. She looked over to her left to see Surefooted wobbling, completely disoriented.

“Surefooted! Come on!” she yelled, pulling her. Surefooted stumbled, and fell. Trailblazer looked back to see the pony stop his device for a moment while hanging on to the vine that had almost killed him.

“Come on, Motor Mind,” he said in his nasally voice. “Don’t let that happen again. Watch out for environmental threats from now on.” He then began messing with his backpack, and the flight mechanism began whirring again.

“We need to go!” Trailblazer yelled, wrapping Surefooted with her neck and sprinting. Surefooted was just conscious enough to push her legs forward, but her coordination was off. So they were hobbling away from the now-flying pony. Fortunately, there were many rocks to hide behind on their way down the path, or else the shotgun-gem blasts would’ve skewered them.

That’s when Trailblazer remembered the slingshot they had. She plucked it off of Surefooted’s side and pulled a rock from the ground. She clumsily placed it in her mouth and pulled back; it just barely fit. Motor Mind came back at them with his shotgun poised and ready to fire. Trailblazer let go.

It hit the wing, and the stallion lost control and fell to the ground. He skidded a bit and crashed into the wall in front of him. By now, Surefooted had gained enough consciousness to canter and keep focus. Trailblazer still held her around the neck.

A light at the end of the tunnel gave them hope. “Don’t worry, Sure,” Trailblazer said. “We’re almost out of here!” They barreled their way through the tunnel, with a cursing Motor Mind behind, and were almost there before something odd happened: the ceiling began to close down on them. “Hurry!”

Seeing the sight of the tunnel closing in on them finally got Surefooted out of her stupor completely. and she galloped with Trailblazer as the lights in the cracks disappeared. They were soon running with only glowing fungal light to guide them. It was just reaching the tops of their manes when they broke through the clearing.

They turned back to see Motor Mind’s fate. Soon the chasm was growing dim, and not even the mushrooms could light it up. At first it looked like all was lost for Motor Mind. Then, in the distance, a terrific rainbow explosion burst, and he zoomed right past them, so low that they had to duck to avoid decapitation from the blade-wings. He didn’t get far, though, when he crashed into something tall. He spun out of control and landed somewhere in the distance. The chasm closed, leaving them there.

Now that they were temporarily safe, Trailblazer hugged her sister. “Are you alright?” Surefooted, almost teary-eyed, hugged back and nodded. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I thought we were goners for sure.” Surefooted sniffled, but a quick nuzzle from Trailblazer set her right. “Now where are we?”

They looked around. All around them, glistening stalagmites and stalactites stood and hung crowded. Pools and streams of water lined the floors, and a single spotlight in the center cast a coruscating light off of them. The place glistened with white-and-silver light. The area was surprisingly warm, even humid, and darkness from many different tunnels surrounded them. What was more, troops of pallid ponies milled about, some drinking water, others gnawing on stalagmites, and still others trying to find a barred-off area to weep. They saw no signs of Motor Mind, though.

“Keep your ears and eyes open, okay?” Trailblazer said. Surefooted nodded, and they both crouched down. Slowly, they made their way around the stalagmites and kept their eyes open.

As they made their way around, the pallid ponies moved out of their way or skittered off entirely, or shrieked and neighed at them until they went a different direction. In another direction, they heard neighing and some sort of deep voice telling them to back off. At one point, they came across a shade that was lying on the ground, a dart in its neck. They had seen this before and had been a victim of them once. They were now doubly on their guard.

Suddenly, they came across a few splotches of rainbow and shards of glass. This must’ve come from the vials of rainbow, they thought to themselves. Surefooted followed the trail and led Trailblazer along, who kept watch all the while. She kept her ears perked up, doing her best to find a viscous rainbow drip among the clear drips of water.

That distinguishing sound came soon, in the form of a hollow breathing. It was muffled like somepony’s mouth was muzzled with something. That told Surefooted that Motor Mind was close by; his mask had a mouthpiece on it for some reason, perhaps to protect from chemicals. It certainly wasn’t quiet; but she couldn’t tell where it was.

Then the hoofsteps came, a few of them frantic scraping, and they came on the other side of the stalagmites to their right. Surefooted crouched, and Trailblazer followed. They lay there, and from the spaces between the stalagmites they could see a masked pony looking around, shaking ,with a smaller gun by his side. Surprisingly, a pallid stallion hobbled up behind him, scowling and twitching. Motor Mind didn’t notice until the stallion gave a roar and raised a foreleg to strike; he turned and shot a dart into the stallion’s neck. The stallion went berserk and destroyed a few stalagmites around him until he calmed down and lay down. Soon, he was asleep.

Motor Mind looked around more, then went on his way. Trailblazer looked at the debris of the stallion’s rampage and found a few sharp rock formations. She picked one up and gave it to Surefooted. She understood. She grabbed it and pulled out their slingshot. She placed it in her mouth, placed the rock in it with the tip facing Motor Mind, and pulled back.

Motor Mind continued looking around until Surefooted fired. It struck right in the lens of his helmet, eliciting a shriek from him. The pallid ponies around him all shrieked as well, and they all hid from Motor Mind who was looking around madly. Surefooted scrambled for another rock fragment, but Motor Mind’s brown eye found them, and he leapt over the broken stalagmites and was upon them. He aimed his tranquilizer at Surefooted, but was not expecting a buck from Trailblazer. He grunted and stumbled back, the heavy armor around him protecting him mostly from the blow. They scrambled up to their hooves, and Motor Mind aimed his tranquilizer at Trailblazer. Surefooted, for her part, fired another rock, smacking the tranquilizer out of his grasp.

But he wasn’t done yet. He threw a hoof at the two and smacked Surefooted with the steel horseshoe at the end. Surefooted screamed and stumbled back. He threw another hoof, but Trailblazer threw herself in the way. She was more accustomed to taking hard blows and absorbed it, although she did stumble. He didn’t possess monumental strength, but it was enough to affect the two. They stumbled backwards, and he began fiddling with his shotgun. Trailblazer saw this, and she threw herself over the stalagmite wall and began bounding through the maze. Surefooted followed suit, letting Trailblazer lead the way. In truth, she had no idea where she was going, but they had to get away.

“It’s no use running!” Motor Mind cried in his deep voice. “Sooner or later, you’re going to run out of energy, and then I’ll be there!” There was whirring, and they knew they were up for a chase.

Surefooted, while being led, grabbed as many pointy rocks as possible and stored them in the pouch of their slingshot. A few pallid ponies skirted back from them as she grabbed, and a few tried reaching for them from behind the stalagmites. Still, they made their way around the maze and dove into the darkness.

There was no way to know where they were going except seeing the light behind them. They ran into a few stalagmites and stalactites along the way, and once or twice tripped over a pallid pony, but they still kept going. Occasionally Surefooted would look behind to see the silhouette of Motor Mind coming straight after them, following them even though they were in the dark. She thought he must’ve been able to see in the dark, even though they couldn’t.

Suddenly, they both fell and slid downwards. They were sliding along water, which hurt a lot less than if they were skidding on rock, but it was almost impossible to control where they were going. Each of their heads slammed against a wall, and they curled up and rested their heads on one another to protect themselves.

Down, down, down they went, until they finally landed in a pool of water. It was deep, and the water was black. One single light shone through, illuminating the upper portion of the cave, but that was it. They wondered for a moment if there was no way out, if Motor Mind would come for them, if he, too, would get lost, or if they would starve to death down here.

Then they heard a whirring and constant scraping, and they knew he was coming. “You still have your rocks?” Surefooted nodded. “There’s nowhere to hide here. It looks like it’s all or nothing.”

Surefooted nodded and cocked one of the rocks into the slingshot, letting Trailblazer hold the others in her mouth. They waited at the entrance for the stallion.

The whirring stopped becoming louder, and a clinking was heard. They waited until they saw an egg-shaped thing. Instantly Trailblazer recognized it, and she took Surefooted underwater just as it exploded. A cloud was above the pool, though it was too dark to tell if it was rainbow or not. They came back up and found their entire vision clouded.

The whirring suddenly reverberated in the chamber.

“Nrr!”

Surefooted let go of the slingshot, and the stone flew into the entrance. There was a howl, and multiple items fell into the water. Trailblazer felt around to get them before they sank and found an egg-shaped thing. She looked at it and found a wind-up key. She had seen this type of gear on foals’ toys and wound it up and threw it into the air. It ticked away.

“It’s over!” Motor Mind’s deep voice said. “You’ve lost. There’s nowhere for you to run. You can’t see from below or above. But I can see you just fine.” A shot was fired. Trailblazer moved her head in front of Surefooted and was hit with a dart. Now she began to panic, and their heartbeat quickened. Surefooted whimpered, not being able to see anything. The ticking continued.

“Sooner or later, you will fall.” The whirring came from behind them, and Trailblazer moved her head again as a dart lodged itself into her muzzle. She dropped the stones from her mouth, and Surefooted caught all but one. The ticking continued.

“It doesn’t matter if you protect her, you know.” Another dart, this one hitting Trailblazer in the neck. She was beginning to feel the numbing effect. Surefooted whimpered, putting the stone in her mouth and not knowing what was going on. The ticking continued.

“Fine, then. You want to take all the shots?” The gun cocked. “This one will go right between the eyes.” Still Trailblazer held firm. “Good bye—“

An explosion came, and it sprayed gems this time. Trailblazer and Surefooted were both pierced, and they gave a cry—dropping the stone in the process. A bloodcurdling cry, however, told Trailblazer her plan had worked, but she wasn’t expecting something large to fall from the sky. Soon the figure swam up. She heard the muffled breathing and knew it was Motor Mind.

This was it: it was now or never. She hadn’t planned on this, but it had to be done. “Surefooted, try and get to the entrance and pull us up!” Before her sister could protest, Trailblazer held her breath and tackled Motor Mind, dragging him under.

Surefooted now began to panic; their lungs were working overtime to supply oxygen for them. She looked around and began swimming for the entrance in the dark. She couldn’t see it, but she could hear where the water was falling. She also had to take Trailblazer and Motor Mind with her, and this put more strain on her breathing. Her progress was slow.

Meanwhile, underneath the surface, Trailblazer held Motor Mind down. He thrashed and tried to bat her away, but by now she was so numb she couldn’t feel his hits. His armor, besides, was heavy, and weighing him down. In his desperate state, he had wasted a good deal of effort on trying to bat her away. Now tried to take his armor off. His hooves were clumsy, even though he could see in the dark. He thrashed, but Trailblazer held firm; by now, she couldn’t let go even if she tried.

Surefooted reached up and placed her left hoof on the ledge where the water was coming from. It was a stretch, but she got it. By now, she began feeling the numbing effect of the tranquilizer darts her sister took. She tried pulling up, but found that it was too heavy. She continued to pull, but to no effect. She scrambled, unsuccessfully. She began whining, calling for Trailblazer to come up.

Trailblazer heard her. Just a little more, she thought as she continued holding him. By now the fight to abandon the armor was done, and Motor Mind just tried pulling her off of him. She was almost unconscious and hoped this would be enough. Her vision clouded, and she began feeling heavy. She didn’t feel the few tugs around her neck that grew weaker and weaker. She did hear bubbles from Motor Mind. And then she felt nothing.

Surefooted saw bubbles and then felt the weight lift significantly. She was able to pull her sister out of the water, swinging their body until her sister’s head was on the entrance. She pulled harder and harder, scrambling up the rock face until Trailblazer’s hoof was on the ledge. Her sister used the last of her strength to pull her side up. Surefooted, now beginning to grow numb, threw their front over it, and kicked her hindleg until their side had shimmied over.

She used the last of her strength to roll them out of the way of the rushing water. She lifted her head to look at the lake—which she could now see. She waited for Motor Mind to reappear for a minute before collapsing.

“He’s not coming back up,” Trailblazer grumbled through a numbed muzzle. Surefooted nuzzled her, trying to comfort her. The numbness was beginning to hit her. “Relax,” Trailblazer moaned. “We need to sleep.” Surefooted grunted in confusion. “Don’t worry. It’s over. He’s not coming back.”

The realization hit Surefooted, and for a moment she was still.

“C’mere.” Surefooted dug her muzzle under Trailblazer’s and let her head rest under hers. “We did good.” Surefooted didn’t smile—she was too tired for that—but closed her eyes. By now the tranquilizing effect had completely taken Trailblazer, and soon it took Surefooted. For a while, their limp bodies lay there on a ledge, while water rushed past them into a pool that held their first opponent in its icy depths.

They awoke some time later and found themselves in a new part of the cave. This part had multiple dilapidated structures around them and a myriad of pallid ponies of all ages. Some surrounded them in a circle, but most were hiding in their homes. Two were chained up and thrashing about.

Before they could process what was going on, something emerged from the floor. Once it was done rising, they saw that it was a doorway similar to the one they had arrived here in.

“I guess this is where we go,” Trailblazer said. Surefooted nodded and took a deep breath. They held their head up high as they walked through the door, leaving the caves behind.