Options. I needed options. More than one would be great.

To start, I removed the impossible. Namely, dealing with Four in a one-on-one fight. Both physically and magically I thought he had the advantage, having blasted away a third of one of his clan with little to no effort. But were there brains behind that thuggish face of his? Four seemed more brutish than smart. He could’ve sent Two-One-One away from the scene with any variety of excuses or by simply pulling rank.

Didn’t Four sound stronger than Two-One-One? I thought, curious just how their numbering system worked. Another thought came to mind:

Were changelings actually distracted by bright lights?

“Look! Over there!”

I pointed to an area above his head and shot out another burst of sparks an inch away from his face. After a single step though, I stopped my escape before it began.

As my sparks faded from the air, Four grunted again. He’d lifted a leg to shield his eyes from the worst of my magic. “You done?” he growled, blinking excessively.

My options were becoming scarce. Flying? Nope. Teleporting? Not unless Four wanted to give me a lesson out of the kindness of his heart. Climbing over the hedge before he could grab me? I’d never heard of a single pony telling me how great hooves were for climbing things.

So where did that leave me, exactly? Dying again?

Wait a second.

If I died right this second, at what point in time would that place me? Where had I been sixty seconds ago? I hadn’t been in the company of Four for what felt all that long, so there was still a chance I’d be conversing with Two-One-One. I could even warn the smaller changeling that Four was on his way and that he might die because of it. Would he believe me, though? Probably not. But even if he didn’t, I could try the sparks trick on him this time and have a better chance of slipping away.

Sixty seconds, I thought gloomily. Sixty seconds isn’t all that much time. If I didn’t restart soon, I’d be stuck in a never-ending loop cornered by Four. Or worse, trapped in a loop where half my bones had been broken before I was mercilessly finished off.

What a bleak future I’d found myself in.

“Hit me! Do it right now! I won’t tell you shit, so just get it over with and kill me!”

I bounced in front of him like an excited child. I probably looked ridiculous, shouting at him like I was tough while at the same time wincing away from him, expecting the finishing blow at any time.

“You’re a strange mare,” he told me earnestly, his brow furrowed slightly. “Maybe you really have lost your mind. That doesn’t matter to me, though; I have business with ponies you may be friends with.”

I shook my head adamantly. “Nope! Completely out of my mind! They don’t call me the Insane and Kooky Trixie for nothing! Who are ‘they,’ you ask? They’re in my head, of course! So why waste anymore time? One strike to the temple and I’ll be out of your mane for good!”

Four curled a hoof under my chin and lifted me off the ground. As he did, he beat his wings and propelled us forward until my back collided with the prickly hedge behind me. By this point, I was willing to admit my window of sixty seconds had probably expired by now.

Now what do I do? Hope he doesn’t kill me?

Pinned tightly against the hedge, Four used his horn to stretch out one of my forelegs away from me. I could feel his powerful aura wrapping around the lower part of my leg before moving to an area near the hoof. The magic painfully constricted and released around me.

“Pegasi are my favorite to break,” he told me bluntly, as if I’d be interested. “Beautiful wings—delicate wings. So many bones to break. Small, but sensitive.” He sighed, his breath warm on my skin. “I won’t touch your horn until last, so perhaps will we start with the legs.”

Sweat trickled down my face. My chin quivered. Even if I died right this second and restarted in the middle of our conversation, I’d still welcome it. If given a second chance I could try to lie. Make up some facts about resistance groups or the like—something he might be interested in to buy myself some time. Until he knows you’re full of shit, I reflected coldly.

Only Four had no interest in killing me fast.

The aura wrapped around my leg intensified until I could see my leg start to bend. I turned my head away and shut my eyes, waited for the snap. The sound never came.

“What in Tartarus do you think you’re doing, Four?” someone asked behind him.

Four’s all-black eyes went from my leg then to me, as if deliberating. Only when a second and third voice spoke behind him did he release me and let me drop. As slick as one of my own show tricks, he wheeled around and made himself sound breathless. “She killed… Two-One-One; blasted him when… when he wasn’t looking. I got here only a second ago—had to pin her so she wouldn’t try it again.”

I angled my head to the side to read the three changelings Four was speaking to. The closest one raised a brow. “She did this?” He motioned to the blasted changeling on the grass. “We got word she was just a magician.”

“And I got word she was a liar,” Four barked back. “She’s a lot worse than you think. Bringing her to the castle would be a mistake.”

The lead changeling thought on that, then shook his head. “That’s Chrysalis’ call, not yours. We’ll bring her back. There’re enough of us that she shouldn’t pose a threat.”

There was a moment when Four didn’t speak or move a muscle. What was he considering? If he could take out all three of them and actually get away with it? All so he could continue to interrogate me? If that was honestly on his mind, then how bad was this resistance group they kept mentioning?

“Four?” the lead one said sternly. “There’s no point in you being here anymore. If you want to talk to Chrysalis, she’ll be in her Garden. That’s where we’ll be taking the magician, too.”

Four turned to me and in an instant I knew he wasn’t done with me yet. Without a word, he flew up into the air and out of sight; I almost felt elated as he did. Then I was quickly reminded of the three changelings that still blocked my path.

Out of one fire and straight into another, I thought bitterly.

Following a brief discussion I was kept out of, it was decided that the frailest of the three changelings surrounding me would carry me. It wasn’t until she spoke that I realized she was a female. Her wings were longer and narrower than the other two and her muzzle was more curved; her legs and torso thin and almost brittle looking. Being a female didn’t mean she was any less unpleasant than her counterparts, though.

Before she roughly wrapped her forelegs around my middle, she hissed at me that if I tried anything with my horn, she’d squeeze my chest until I popped. Given her thin limbs, I sort of doubted it, but didn’t feel like testing it. I was in enough trouble as it was.

Alongside the other two we rose into the air and sailed over dozens of converging paths and badly destroyed walls of hedge. I thought I could make out a few darkened shapes scurrying along the paths, but couldn’t make out anything for sure. The shadows in the maze were too large and consuming. Maybe that was why they had such trouble finding me while they searched for me in the air.

“Any weak spots?” I anxiously asked the female changeling carrying me.

She ignored my question and redid her grip on me.

In every direction, changelings vacated the maze and lazily made their way back to where they’d come from. Only a couple stuck around, all heading for the same location—a rectangular length of maze that had been completely stripped of all crisscrossing walls. Even from a distance, I could glimpse Chrysalis strolling inside of it. Her “Garden,” I presumed.

Sounded nice, but I’d still rather skip the tour.

I lifted my hoof as gently as I could until it made contact with the changeling carrying me. Once I touched her hardened shell, I slid my hoof first up and down and then felt by her sides for any change in texture. Hopefully her task at hoof would occupy her until—

“What do you think you’re doing?” she growled down at me.

“Looking for a weak spot,” I said again, adding some lightness to my voice. “I couldn’t request you set me down somewhere else, could I?”

She exhaled noisily and painfully dug her hooves into my stomach. “You are so not worth all this trouble.”

“I would agree. But, remember, I did ask you to set me down nicely.”

I jabbed at her throat with a hoof—the only area on the changeling that didn’t feel solid to the touch. One of her legs let me go and went to her throat. She tried to counter the shift in weight, but I thrashed against her until she lost hold of me.

If we’d been flying at any respectful height, I wouldn’t have tried something so stupid. Thankfully, we were cruising pretty low.

I landed on the top of a hedge wall and slid down, scrapping up my back and upper thighs even worse than they’d been before. On the grass, I landed in a thud and dove for the shadows. Above me, the female changeling flew by, still clutching at her throat.

I surprised myself with a giggle. I’m not doing half-bad, I thought brightly. Would Twilight have even made it this far?

Yes. Most likely. Still no reason not to celebrate another victory, as small as it was.

One right turn and one trot down a narrow path and my tiny smirk dropped right off my face.

“Hello, again,” Chrysalis greeted me coolly. “You want to stop now? You’ve become more than a nuisance by this point and I really should be getting to bed soon.”

I whirled around and felt all four of my legs snap to my sides. A thin band of green aura had been pulled tight around me and it began dragging me across the lawn to her. I might’ve fumed about grass stains in my coat, but I was sure the rest of me looked like hell by that point anyways.

“What do you think of this one, Trixie?” Chrysalis asked when I came to a halt beside her. Before us was an eight-foot hedge statue that had been roughly sculpted into the figure of an alicorn, using various bits of hedge and dead plants. Whether it was meant to be Celestia or Luna, I couldn’t tell. This must’ve been the “Garden” I’d heard about.

“It’s… nice?” I told her meekly.

“I’ll admit, it’s not the best representation of my foes, but it does what it’s supposed to. A reminder of what I’ve done and what I have yet to do. I always welcome these nightly strolls in my garden. I’m sure I don’t need to stress the rigors of overseeing thousands upon thousands of my own children each and every day....”

I took a hurried glance at the remaining hedge figures. The Garden had eight in total, but I didn’t think any of them properly captured what they were supposed to. An alicorn. Another alicorn. A couple of stallions—one with a cape and crown. A taller one that might’ve been Discord with sharpened branches for arms.

I snapped back to focus the moment in dawned on me. Why was I sitting here and doing nothing? Sixty seconds ago I was free! Sixty seconds ago I had the chance to escape, alone and outside her garden!

“Kill me,” I told Chrysalis bluntly. “Just go ahead and do it! I don’t care anymore!”

She looked at me as if I was a child begging for ice cream five minutes before dinner time. “I used a good many drones chasing you down, my pet, so don’t think I’m about to turn your eyes into jelly just because you’ve become bothersome. You still have a show to do, remember?”

I shook my head. “I’d rather die than show you tricks!” I couldn’t help but wince at my poor choice of words. I was still getting the hang of this begging for death thing. “You can’t make me!”

“Yes, I can. And I will.” She glanced up at the statue again. “What makes you think death is the worst thing that can happen to you?”

I could sense my precious seconds tumbling away. “Kill me you gross, insect bitch!”

A moment later, I was knocked aside by a shot of magic that struck the side of my head. Across the lawn I rolled like a bouncing log, my legs still locked together. When I opened my eyes, I saw dots.

I hadn’t even drawn a breath before Chrysalis was overtop of me, her fangs on display.

“Don’t ever tell me what to do!” she growled, her breath hot on my nose. “I have been exceedingly polite this evening and if you do not wish to perform your act as only a torso on a stool, I’d keep your little trap shut starting now.” She narrowed her eyes at me. This up close, she reminded me a bit of Discord. Something was missing behind those eyes of hers. “Do you not fear death, pet? The great beyond?”

I turned my head so I didn’t need to see her anymore. “Somewhat,” I squeaked. “It’s a little complicated at the moment, though.”

She shook her head slowly. “You ponies. I’d don’t think I’ll ever understand your type.”

By that point, a half-dozen changelings had entered the garden and Chrysalis ordered one of the others to take control of the spell pinning my legs together. For only a second, I was free. I noted the second aura around me felt much flimsier than the first.

Two changelings stood out from the rest. The thinner female changeling I’d punched in the throat from before and the thick simpleton called Four. The two of them stood away from the rest and glared at me as if they both wanted to kill me. Which they probably did.

Only dying right this second would be a mistake. Sixty seconds ago I was still trapped in Chrysalis’ spell and inside her garden. This whole restart thing was feeling more and more useless as the night wore on.

As Chrysalis spoke with One-Five-One again (I could tell it was him by his crumpled scroll), the remainder of her changelings formed a loose half-circle in front of me. They really needn’t have bothered. I wasn't exactly planning on rolling away with my legs pinned to my sides.

“Darn it! I’ll never get the high score now!”

I looked to my left and found Discord turned away from me, his hands clamped to the sides of what looked like a colorful pinball machine. I could even hear the zap and ping noises as he hammered the buttons on the sides.

When the machine quieted down, Discord pulled out another bit from a pocket on his side. I angrily hissed at him, “You wanna help now? By doing anything, maybe?”

Discord fed the machine his bit. “One more round, then I’ll come straight over. Two seconds tops.”

“Anyone ever tell you how useless you are?”

He waved a hand at me, not bothering to turn. “You’ll be fine. Or you won’t. Either or, you’ll think of something, I’m sure.”

One of the changelings surrounding me nudged the one next to them. “Who’s she talking to? Does she always do this?”

The other one snickered. “Maybe the Queen scrambled her brains already. Might be better if she doesn’t know what’s going on.”

The other one chuckled at that, until he brought a hoof up to his ear. His eyes widened. “Ponies in the maze! There are ponies in the maze!”

“She was signaling someone?” gasped one of them. “Which group? Pegasi or—”

“I don’t know, only that—”

A heavily-dented ball of metal with a cork jammed in its top landed square in the center of everyone around. The changelings that took notice jolted back with a leg raised to shield their eyes. Near the entrance to the Garden, Four had shoved Chrysalis in back of him, shielding her with his body. One-Five-One had also been thrown to the ground when the ball dropped from the sky.

Every changeling held their breath. Myself included.

The lone female changeling dropped her leg along with a few others, chuckling dryly. “Another dud?”

I glanced at the tiny metal ball again. Was something supposed to—

With a thud, someone landed behind me and slapped a leg over my eyes.

“Nice job, Bolt!” the pony behind me shouted. Already the voice seemed familiar.

“Just give it another sec—”

That was when the metal ball exploded, blinding everyone.

The leg wrapped around my head had managed to block out the worst of the effect. Still, the small amount that somehow made it through left my sight blurry and white and my eyes dry and sore. With a metal on metal sound, the crumbled ball erupted outward and showered the scene with the brightest sparks I’d ever glimpsed. Through the bottom of the leg around my head, I saw a number of the changelings fall to the dirt with their hooves beating around their heads.

“Keep your eyes shut,” the pony behind me said, dragging me backward with their other leg. I didn’t do as I was told and instead blinked away the worst of the bomb’s damages. There had been no shrapnel to the blast—just the blinding, burning light. Four of the changelings sprawled on the ground had black smoke rising from their eye sockets. The eyes themselves were scorched and cracked. Only one of the injured changelings was still alive—the female changeling that had originally laughed at the bomb.

She clawed at her face, screaming out in both fury and pain as she writhed around.

“Don’t look at them, look at me,” ordered the pony dragging me away from them.

Whichever changeling had forced my limbs together must’ve been one of the deceased, because I got to my hooves without a problem. My savoir wheeled me around and I couldn’t stop myself from squealing like an idiot and wrapping my hooves around them without a second’s hesitation.

“Rainbow Dash!” I screamed. “Oh, thank Celestia! Oh, you have no idea how bad things are, I mean—”

She shoved me away from her, almost causing me to stumble. In just a glance I could see how much she had changed since my short stint in Ponyville weeks back. Her mane was cut short and her cheekbones were more visible on her face. Over her eyes was a pair of welder’s goggles—her legs and chest scraped and scratched. The rest of her torso was covered in a tattered jet-black cloth that hung loosely on her.

“Trixie?” She almost sounded disgusted. “You’re the reason they sent up the search light?”

I nodded hurriedly, oddly still desperate to touch her again, almost to prove to myself that she was real and not just a figment of my imagination. Or worse… something Discord conjured up just for kicks. Speaking of the snake dragon bastard thing…

I glanced over at Discord, still busy hunched over his pinball machine. “I found Rainbow Dash! Look! Look!”

“This was never a game of hide-and-seek, Trixie,” he replied absently. “But… congrats all the same, I guess.”

Rainbow Dash gripped my shoulders painfully. “I knew it was too weird—Trixie showing up outta nowhere. Why they used Trixie to lure us here I have no idea. You don’t even sound like her. Next time at least do your homework on the mare you’re trying to impersonate.”

I gasped, my insides suddenly splashed with ice water. “No. No! I’m not a changeling! Honest, Rainbow Dash! I’d be a terrible changeling! Just let me—”

“If you really are Trixie then I’ll apologize for this later.”

Before I could react, she wrapped a leg around my head and lowered one of my eyelids with a hoof, shoving her face so close to mine I could feel the warmth off her skin. Her other hoof went straight into my stomach, knocking the wind out of me. I gagged and tried to bend over, but she kept me held tight, never letting my eye close. Only after I dry heaved and a bit of spit fell from my lips did she let me go.

“Good enough for me,” she said flatly, as if she’d react close to the same whether I was a changeling or not. As I gasped for breath, she added, “Changelings can stay in character almost effortlessly. One good sucker punch in the gut while looking them straight in the eye tends to drive the weaker ones out. At least in the eyes.”

I inhaled noisily, trying to force air back into my lungs. There was still so much I wanted to ask. “Your friends… Twilight… are they… are they here too?”

“It’s really not safe to talk here.”

Rainbow Dash straightened out her welder’s goggles and pushed me to the side to take in the rest of the scene. In my joy at finding someone in this hell I somewhat knew, I’d entirely forgotten the predicament I had only seconds ago been dragged from.

I turned and found close to two dozen pegasi inside the Garden. Twenty or so of them kept to the air, never landing and making me nauseous just by watching them. The few changelings trailing them had next to no chance of keeping up, instead reverting to standing on the lawn and attempting to blast at them with their horns.

The sound of crying pulled me away from them, and I looked past the hurried frenzy to glimpse Chrysalis cradling the head of the female changeling that’d had her eyes destroyed. The smaller changeling had trails of blood on her cheeks and was whimpering something I couldn’t hear. Chrysalis murmured back to her and ran a hoof along her mane. It would’ve almost been touching… if Chrysalis didn’t appear as if fighting the urge to bite off her own tongue while she cradled her.

“I’ll make you scream for that one, mare.”

The sound of Four’s voice caused me to jump—his tone so loud and clear I’d thought he’d been speaking to me directly.

Up against a hedge to my left, Four clashed with another pegasus as she ran along the wall, keeping to the air with her wings. She had a red coat and a streaked yellow-and-white mane. Like her coat, one of her wings was red, while the other was a sparkling silver. The pegasus seemed to have trouble controlling her silver wing a lot more than her other one.

Keeping low to the grass, Four shot out wave after wave of green energy from his horn towards her, devouring large chunks of the hedge at a time. The moment he stopped, the pegasus whirled around and dove for him, snapping her wings next to her head as she moved. She hit him in the chest and neck as he tried to block the intense flurry of wings. When she kicked off of him a moment later to continue standing atop the hedge, Four was left bleeding from over a dozen shallow cuts on his cheeks, lips, and throat.

The pegasus’ silver wing must’ve been metal… and very, very sharp.

Four licked his gashed lips and spat out blood. “You’re gonna be needing a new metal throat by the time I’m done with you.”

The pegasus dove off the hedge again and sailed to the other side of the Garden. On her way over, her metal wing sliced the head off of one of the hedge statues and sent it tumbling onto Discord’s pinball machine. The glass shattered and the machine’s lights went dark.

Discord sighed and slumped over it. “So close. So damn close to a new record. You guys all suck! You know that? You couldn’t have your fight to the death anywhere else?”

I ignored the giant crybaby and focused my attention on what I thought was a large rock until it backed into me. It was so dark in the Garden I’d hardly noticed the lone Earth pony in the bunch. Like Rainbow Dash, he wore welding goggles over his eyes and around his torso and legs he had on what looked like several pieces of hardened fabrics, screwed or stapled or stuck together in a myriad of ways. Black, grey, dark green, brown—a collage of differing colors and textures that bounced around his body. It would’ve almost looked threatening to the unaware, if his costume didn’t also include a bright pink bicycle helmet that flattened the ears on his head.

“Could you back up, please?” the Earth pony asked me politely.

Rainbow Dash gave me a hard pat on the shoulder before she took to the air and joined her fellow pegasi. I wanted to shout something to her before she got too far, but the Earth pony bumped into me again. He was moving away from three changelings that were stalking him.

“You still behind me?” he said. “Don’t look at this thing. It’s sort of bright.”

Before I could respond, he awkwardly reached a hoof under his costume and brought out a second crumbled ball of metal with a cork in it. Once balanced on a hoof, he jammed the cork all the way inside and threw it towards the changelings. All three of them shrank to the ground, covering as much of themselves as they could with their hooves and legs.

Like the first ball of metal, this one took an odd amount of time to go off. Unlike the first one, this one exploded with more of a whimper than a bang. I probably could’ve kept my eyes open for that one, actually.

“Darn,” the Earth pony grumbled. “I knew the first one would work—”

The rest of his sentence was cut short as one of the changelings that had shied away from the explosion pounced onto his chest and forced him onto his back. The changeling clawed at him, then tried to clamp his sharp teeth at the exposed part of his face.

The Earth pony held the changeling at bay with one fabric-covered leg. He used his other foreleg to reach for something else clipped to his side, only to fumble for it. The changeling continued to drag its sharpened hooves along his thin armor, shredding some of it almost all the way through.

“Could you grab that for me?” the Earth pony asked me. “It’s that silver thing. Just don’t point the open end at yourself.”

How could he sound so calm in the middle of all this? His suit’s being slashed to ribbons right in front of him and he doesn’t care?

“Hello?” he spoke again, a tiny bit more urgent. “If it’s not too much trouble.”

I grimaced from my own idiocy and ran a hoof under his armor. While I did that, I took a few swipes at the changeling attacking him and nearly got my hoof bitten off for my troubles. Underneath the suit, I grabbed what felt like a short metal pipe and pulled it out. Sadly, it looked just how it felt.

“You were going to hit it with a pipe?” I said dourly, hoofing it to him. “I think a hoof would’ve worked fine.”

The Earth pony snapped his hoof around a twistable ring on the pipe, making it click. The next moment, a ray of light-blue magic the size of a coin erupted out of the other end of the pipe, piercing through the changeling’s chest as if there wasn’t anything there at all. The changeling backed away and coughed once, drawing up green blood, before falling to his side and remaining motionless.

I helped the Earth pony to his hooves.

“Thanks,” he told me breathlessly. “Everyone else in our group gets around so easily with wings; I tend to need a little extra protection on the ground. Slow, but safe. For the most part.” He paused when he noticed my horn. His eyes widened behind his welding goggles. “Oh, good, good, good, good!” he excitedly whispered to himself.

“What’s good?” I said, before a heavy arm fell to my shoulder. By instinct, I jerked away, only to realize it was only Discord. I glared up at him.

“Who’s your friend?” Discord asked happily. “Not going to introduce me or anything? That’s kind of rude, you know.”

I shook the hand from my shoulder and opened my mouth before shutting it with a snap. Discord wasn’t there. Or he was, but I was the only one that could see him. Sure, I could try explaining to the Earth pony where he was and why he was following me around, but I didn’t think here or now to be the best place or time to do so. Added to that thought, I idea of ignoring Discord sounded nice. He didn’t seem like the type that enjoyed being ignored all that much.

By that point the armored Earth pony had strolled away from me, focusing his simple pipe weapon at the remaining pair of changelings. They kept their distance from him, scurrying a few feet into the air before finding a new spot to land. The Earth pony twisted the sides of the pipe again and another blue beam shot out of it—a much fainter one than before. It caught one of the changelings in the leg and immediately grounded it. The Earth pony leveled his weapon at the injured changeling’s head and gave the pipe another twist. This time it clicked and did nothing else.

“Double darn,” the Earth pony spoke, as if he’d broken only a quill and not lost his best weapon in the middle of a fight. “Back to the drawing board with you, then.”

He clipped the pipe back under his suit as the remaining changeling carried off the wounded one, hissing at both of us with spit spraying from its lips.

Discord playfully nudged me in the ribs. “Look how well you’re doing, Trixie! So many friends to play with! Ms. Life of the Party over here, am I right?” He cocked my head forward with his hands. “Oh, but she looks kinda pissed, though.”

It was Chrysalis, still seated near the Garden’s entrance with the blinded changeling in her lap. The changeling wasn’t moving anymore. Now Chrysalis’ rage had intensified to such an extreme I thought she might shatter her teeth from clenching her jaw so tight.

I gulped as she pointed directly at me.

“You!” she shrieked. “You did this! You set this up!”

I could only shake my head and bring a hoof to my lips.

“I’ll kill you!” she continued, her voice becoming hoarse. “I’ll rip out your entrails and feed them to you!”

She might’ve said more, but my attention was filled by the sea of black that was quickly seeping in behind her. Dozens upon dozens of changeling drones had begun entering the Garden, flying upwards and dispersing themselves evenly. Through the swarm, I could glimpse a few of them carry off the blinded changeling’s body before helping Chrysalis to her hooves. She visibly shook from raw anger.

“Someone get me Funny Face…” Chrysalis muttered tiredly, before she slinked away, “I don’t care what state… just get them and bring them to me.”

Before the wash of new changelings became too much to bear, Rainbow Dash soared towards me and knocked me right off my hooves, making my ribs ache. As I looked over her shoulder and rippling mane, I saw two other pegasi hook two hooves under the Earth pony’s shoulders and carry him along. The remaining pegasi covered our retreat, forming a tight cyclone that swirled the gathered changelings horribly off-course.

The mare with the metal wing seemed almost hesitant to leave. Panting and bleeding from a multitude of cuts underneath her stood Four, still a long ways away from being beaten. With a huff out of her nostrils, the mare eventually gave her back to him and followed them along. Four watched her go with a blood-stained grin.

A moment later, I reentered the gloom of the maze.

A moment after that, all I could see was dark and all I could smell was dirt. Next Chapter: Chapter 4: Being Useful Estimated time remaining: 30 Minutes