Five minutes passed, and Twilight had not yet moved. She still stood just into the intersecting tunnels: just staring ahead as if she was paralyzed in unsure caution. The haunting clicking in the distance stopped, only to be replaced with an eerie scraping, as if a cat was clawing its way towards them. She sank back towards the group, and pulled her two companions towards her with her magic.

“The more we stick together, the more we have a chance to survive. So, we need to stay in our groups.” She stated. “Plus, I don’t think any of us want to try and walk this alone, do we?”

Everypony shook their heads collectively, and Twilight smiled grimly. Together, they stepped forward as one, and then split as many.

Twilight, Pinkie and Rainbow went straight ahead. The Stranger, Thorpe and Zecora took the left. And Rarity, Fluttershy and Applejack ventured to the right. Each hoping they wouldn't have to run into whatever Pinkie saw.

Mac looked around at the strange construction of the tunnel: from the rotting brick, linked by old cement, to the pipes running along either side of the upper corners of each corridor, and the occasional green-flamed torch that offered just enough illumination to make him uneasy. Each hoofstep echoed eerily down the passages, giving rise to a clicking sound in the distance. Mac walked further down the tunnel, fighting the urge to sulk towards the mysterious chittering. He stepped into a puddle in the dark, and retracted his hoof in disgust. He didn’t dare guess what the substance was, based off the smell alone, and tried to shake it off.

Warp wasn’t faring much better: as his eyes were used to the light of the summer sky, and he had little to no experience in the dark of the underworld. Even when he slept, a sky-blue nightlight had been lit by his bed, securing him in his home in the blue yonder. Now, however, he saw himself chained to the ground with no view of his home, or the beautiful Sun. He knew he would survive a dark maze in his head, but after seeing what they’re up against, his heart leaped at every click in the dark, and every whisper in his head. He felt the walls of the tunnels closing about him, and he was tempted to light his horn, as it was hard to see the black shape of the Stranger in the shadowy hall before him.

Zecora felt oddly comfortable, despite the dark atmosphere. She had grown up in a dark land where evils such as this were not only sought out, but worshipped, and now lived in a cursed forest that tried to blot out light. She knew the tricks of the Dark Power well, and refused to give into the same fears that took her people.

She studied the walls, and heard the whispers. With every step they took, the whispers seemed to morph into a strange chant that she couldn’t translate. She knew almost every tongue spoken across the lands, yet she never heard a cadence and tone like this before. The chants sounded strangely familiar, but she couldn’t place where she’d heard those voices before: was it back in Zegypt? Or… were they more recent?

The voices in them reminded her of a once beautiful singer, who had the power and soul removed from their very throats, turning them into a hoarse mess. They sounded like…

'Nightmares...'

Applejack winced as she stepped further into the tunnels after Rarity: she was supposed to help keep Fluttershy from running into the blackness in fear, but she was having a hard enough time keeping herself from doing the same. The voices whispered into her head, and she tried her best to ignore each word spoken:

“You could’ve stopped it…”

“You watched them fall…”

“Remember the thunder…?”

She tried to shake them out of her ears. It wasn’t her fault: she wouldn’t have been able to stop what happened if she tried, she was too young to stop it by herself. But the voices relentlessly whispered her doubts into her very mind, and wouldn’t let out. That infernal clicking in the distance didn’t help her to calm down, either. Just kept clattering and ticking like a sped-up clock, ready to sound the alarm.

Fluttershy’s eyes were darting all around them as both she and Applejack followed Rarity through the tunnel systems. She heard the scraping of hoof against brick, and she could swear she heard skittering in the halls behind them. Oh, how she hoped those were nice, big rats…

The rearranging maze did little to keep her from panicking, for as they took a right, she turned around to see the tunnel going straight behind them instead. It shook her, not knowing where to go, or where she was going. She trusted Rarity, sure, but she knew the Unicorn was only a little more wise to their whereabouts than she was.

And, indeed, it was true: Rarity was making pure guesses, wandering this way and that in the maze. She hoped one of the two mares behind her would question her leadership, and take charge, but she knew they were as lost as she was. She looked back, and saw something that made her wish she’d have just kept walking: Fluttershy was close to tears as she hovered slowly behind her, and Applejack was sweating feverishly from her nerves. She turned her focus back to the darkness before, and tried lighting her horn to see further in. But the darkness seemed to have a mind of its own: and blocked the light out three feet around her, so all that her horn did was make it more difficult to see in the darkness ahead.

“Ulch, this blackness is impossible!” She hissed. The clicking grew more intense as her voice echoed across the caverns.

“Rarity, don’t you think we should keep it down?” Fluttershy whispered in a shudder, keeping an eye out behind them.

“I am keeping it down, Fluttershy.” Rarity snipped in a harsh, tired whisper.

“We’re all doing our best to avoid screaming in here…” Applejack mused.

“Nevertheless, we should try not to talk, Pinkie did say that they--”

“--they listen… they listen... they listen...”

Twilight rolled her eyes as she dimmed her horn, finding the effort useless. “I don’t doubt that they do, Pinkie. But saying that over and over again doesn’t make it any harder for ‘them' to hear us, and whatever they are: they’re probably too distracted by that weird clicking to take notice of us.”

Pinkie extended her hoof, as her eyes deadly stared out from under her flat hair. “I-I-I wouldn’t be too sure about that, Twilight…”

“Well, I wouldn’t either, under normal circumstances.” Twilight shrugged. “But literally none of our past month has been even reminiscent of normal. Even the threatening stuff has been out of whack somehow.”

Pinkie scoffed, and rolled her eyes. “Well excuuuse me, Princess!” She spat in a venomous tone.

“Look, Twinkie!” Rainbow interrupted in a harsh whisper, shoving a forehoof into both of their mouths. “If those things really are listening for us, we’re not doing ourselves any favors by bickering! So, shut it!”

Once she was satisfied that they were effectively silenced: Rainbow redacted her hooves, and gestured silently for Twilight to lead on. Twilight nodded, and continued her tour of the Labyrinth.

Three lefts, one right, one left, five straight, two rights: she led them further and further into the tunnels, before they stopped short.

All three of them stared at the mark on the wall, gesturing to the right of the group, as another tunnel turned to the left…

“What do you suppose that leads to?” Warp asked, pawing a hoof at the arrow clumsily painted on the wall. Mac’s group had been similarly stopped at a four-way intersection, with another arrow painted on one of the corners.

“It could lead to the Pump, or perhaps to the beasts that wish to off us bump.” Zecora answered.

“Very helpful, there, stripes!” Warp snapped.

“If you think you can guess better, maybe you can lead us out of this fetter?”

“Find a rhyme for Thrackerzod, why don’t you?”

While the other two bickered by the arrow, Mac just focused on it, and pondered something.

Mac opened his eyes and looked back at where the man had been, but in his place he saw an old scarecrow with its hands tied behind its back. And an arrow was stuck between its eyes: quivering with unspent energy.

He refocused his attention down the hall where the arrow pointed, and saw two red, fiery orbs glowing through the blackness.

‘Bull’s-eye, Shadow…’ He thought, smiling.

“We need to follow it, guys.” Mac stated simply. The two arguing ponies ceased, and looked to him.

“Why?”

He slowly turned his head, and looked at them:

“Because it might lead us to the exit…”

“What do we do now, Twilight? Follow the arrow, or not?” Pinkie asked, pointing down the blackened tunnel.

“I’m not sure, but I think it might be a trap.” Twilight reasoned. “We need to ignore them, no matter how many there are, this Kietelethar is far too clever to just map out the exit for us.”

Rainbow and Pinkie exchanged unsure glances, but relented with a shrug, and followed the Alicorn without further question.

Rarity stumbled as her foot hit a loose brick on the floor, but Applejack caught her tail in her teeth before her face could meet the ground. Rarity steadied herself, and brushed the dust off her coat.

“Thank you, Applejack.” She sighed. “This infernal damp, dank darkness is beginning to muddle my mind.”

“Do you want me to take a shift leading the way?” The farm pony asked, straightening her hat, and wiping some muck off of Rarity’s mane.

“I wouldn’t object, darling, that’s for sure.” Rarity sighed with relief, quickly asserting her position on the back of the trio.

Fluttershy looked into the tunnel ahead while they talked, and froze. When the others saw her reaction, they turned forward, squinting into the black depths. What they saw stiffened them.

There, just outside of the reach of the light, lurked the dark silhouette of a pony-like being. It was hunched over, as if it were a cat in waiting for a mouse. They couldn’t see it in detail, but it looked like one of the shapes they’d seen entering the Labyrinth. But something about the darkness magnified its presence, and made it seem deadly as a lion.

Then, the peculiar clicking sounded ahead, and it seemed to emanate from the demon before them.

“Do you think it sees us, Applejack?” Rarity questioned in a whisper.

The thing cocked its head to the side, and one of its flopped ears twitched. The dents, where its eyes should have been, gleamed putridly in the darkness. The three ponies sat there, completely stilled by the movement.

The thing slowly rose onto its hooves, and showed its darkened form. The gangly creature let out some more clicks as it slowly approached them, and they all fought against the urge to start screaming. They could hear the thing sniffling as it approached them, and felt it clicking intensely. Fluttershy trembled with the impulse to run as the thing crept up to her, and the clicking stopped.

To the horror of both her and her friends, the beast leaned its ugly maw down to her face, and snuffled as its ears flicked. If she wasn't frozen in place before, she was certainly cold as ice now as she was able to pick out individual grooves in the demon’s throat. It hung its toothless top jaw directly above her eyes, and gave a long exhale: blasting her muzzle with the putrid scent of death.

All this time, Rarity and Applejack watched helplessly as their friend was being hunted right before them, unable to move for her own safety. Rarity held back vomit as the thing breathed on the Pegasus, and a small flap of skin dangling from its jawline brushed against Fluttershy’s face.

After the longest minute of their lives, the creature snorted, and stood back up. Slowly, it turned, and skulked back into the endless darkness. Applejack and Rarity immediately ran to their petrified friend as soon as the shape disappeared. They picked her up, and comforted her as she started to sob.

They didn’t have time to recover, though, as they heard a sharp hiss from behind them. All three looked over in time to see the demon reaching out to them with a hoof as it galloped awkwardly towards them: clocking a surprisingly brisk pace. In a panic, Rarity hauled Fluttershy onto her back, and took off with Applejack in tow. The monster huffed and hissed as it pursued them, but its stumbling run was no match for their quick hooves.

Several twists and turns were expediently ducked as the frightened ponies fled their own shadows, before they finally calmed down once they felt they lost the demon. It took them a second to catch their breaths, and they were sweating bullets as they stopped, despite the chilled warmth of the Labyrinth. They took heavy pants in place of where calm breaths would normally be after such a short jog.

“Did we… lose it?” Applejack heaved: her voice sounding off as if she were ready to toss her lunch.

“Too early to… be sure…” Rarity replied, gently letting Fluttershy off of her back, “we’ve only just stopped, and I feel as if… I just ran for miles.”

Applejack gave a blunt nod, rolling her eyes, and looked to their group Pegasus. “You alright there, Flutters?”

A minute passed, and the only response they got was a blink. It would have been more unnerving, if they weren’t fighting total breakdown themselves.

Applejack lowered her head, smiled into Fluttershy’s nervous, glazed eyes, and chuckled. “Sugarcube, you’re stronger than most.”

With that, she hoisted the broken mare onto her back, and gestured for Rarity to follow as she turned around.

“You want to go back the way we came?” Rarity gasped. “But, that creature--!”

“That creature is stuck in the same endless hell that we’re in, Rarity!” Applejack shouted, walking into the darkness ahead. “Let me show you, we took a left in this last turn, right?”

Rarity cocked a brow at her. “Yes?”

“The Tunnels rearrange whenever we turn, Rarity, remember?” Applejack sighed signaling again for Rarity to follow.

Rarity heeded, and sure enough, the tunnel had switched course behind them, separating them from the demon.

“So, that’s what a Stumbling is like,” Fluttershy mumbled, her face and body remaining utterly bland as her voice. “I think it would be best to avoid speaking too much, from now on…”

-

“… I tried to warn you guys!” Pinkie howled as she ran down the tunnel, Twilight and Rainbow in hot pursuit. “…They listen!”

Her hair had almost completely deflated at this point, and flew in the air as she ran.

“You’d think after her saying that a thousand times, we’d get it in our heads!” Rainbow griped as she started to tire.

Twilight now knew how diabolical the design of the Labyrinth was: for not only was it proven to change, but the stiff air made it hard for them to regain energy, and the darkness made it hard to see when the stumbling husks were in front, or behind. She hated the fact that it was unwise to speak, while also respecting Kietelethar for this design. Ponies were social by nature. and have a talent for chatting, singing, humming, and almost everything vocal. But they now faced the Stumbling: demons designed to hear everything, with sight and smell being practically useless in a constantly changing warren. The ingenuity and cunning the mad titan showed in using such simplicity was almost commendable, were it not utterly wicked of him.

Their group had run across a monster themselves a little earlier, but unlike Rarity’s group, they ran as soon as they saw it: for it had heard them beforehand, and had appeared when it was already giving chase.

Now, however, they walked the Labyrinth in an unnerving silence, knowing that it was now an unwise decision to speak too much.

*CLANK*

*HIISSSSSS*

Twilight leaped to the side with a scream as a pipe fell from the ceiling, skittering across the stone floor. Her panicked shriek echoed across the Labyrinth, alerting several ears to her presence.

“What was that?” Mac panicked, looking around for the source of the fearful cry.

“That was our dear friend Twilight! It sounds as if she’s run into a fright!” Zecora said, somehow managing to keep her calm demeanor, while also showing her concern.

Mac turned to the tunnel the cry came from, and gestured into it. “We need to get them out of there!”

“They can handle their own, Stranger, they have an Alicorn with them.” Warp scoffed. “Besides, if we chase down every scream we hear, we’ll be trapped in here even longer than if we just stayed on our own course.”

Mac was about to strike back, but he quickly decided that Warp was right. Begrudgingly, he conceded.

“Great, Twilight, just great.” Rainbow hissed. “Make it even easier for them to find us, why don’t you? Pinkie’s inches away from snapping already, and she’s only seen two of them! Who know how many are headed here now, thanks to your wimpy squeal!”

“Your endless grumbling isn’t making it any harder, either!” Twilight shot back, keeping her tone in a whisper. “Pardon me if I’m a little jumpy while walking through a dark abyss full of creatures that are trying to kill us!”

Pinkie shoved her hooves into both of her friends’ mouths, and gestured for both of them to shut it. This was going to be a long three days, indeed.

She stirred suddenly from her peaceful slumber, and looked around. Much to her confusion, she seemed to be trapped in a cage of some kind, if you could even call it that: the floor was carpeted, the space was incredible, and there was even a table in the center of the cell. She looked down, and found herself lying on a plush bed, with a tray of top-grade hay fries and spinach leaves in front of her. The bedding was a soft pink, and the pillows were an off-ivory color.

“Comfortable?”

She jumped when the familiar voice spoke, and turned to see Mac sitting patiently in a chair across from her. He lifted his head, and his fiery eyes seemed to try and pierce her mind. She shifted her gaze away from him, remembering the pain of being tugged across dimensions, and into this cell.

“I’m sorry for any inconvenience to you,” he said softly, “but you’ll be free once more, as soon as your friends make it out of the game in time.”

This made her lift her head, and she sat up.

“The games have started?”

His mood looked downcast as he smiled weakly. “Yes, and if they get here within the next sixty hours, you’ll be freed along with them.”

She hesitated at his answer. “And if they don’t get here on time?”

“They will, Myra.” Mac chuckled, obviously avoiding the topic.

“But what if they don’t?”

Silence. It grated on her. But she could tell everything she needed to know by how his expression darkened, and he avoided her gaze.

“They will.”

“What are you supposed to do, if they don’t get here in time?”

His silence was beginning to worry her, and she could tell he didn’t want her to know the answer.

“I’ll answer your question, once you answer mine. I asked first, so it’s only common courtesy.”

“What?”

“Answer my question, Whitelight, and I’ll answer yours.”

‘Whitelight?' She thought. ‘Nopony’s called me that since…’

Myra lifted her head, and stared into his eyes. Her own were full of fear and hope, and pleading.

“I’ll answer your question, if you let my friend speak.”

He cocked his head to the side, not understanding her demand. “I can’t, they’re all in the Labyrinth. Taking one out would mean--”

“Not what I mean,”

Whitelight flexed her wings, and glided over to him. Once she landed, she reached out a hoof, and set it on his chest: placing it directly above his heart.

“I want you to release my friend, and let him speak for himself. I don’t think you’d like it if I called him out myself, would you?”

She leaned a little closer, and her teary eyes shone in sincerity. “I want my friend back, whoever you are. I know him, he wouldn’t stand for this, he wouldn’t subject our friends to whatever torture they’re in. And he definitely wouldn’t keep me locked up like a caged bird! He would go in there with them, and fight alongside them all.”

Mac’s breaths were nervous, and erratic at this point. Sweat beaded on his brow, and his burning pupils shrank. He shook his head, and batted her hoof away with a scoff, trotting to the door.

“That mindless tool of a colt you called a ‘friend’ is long dead, logic and wisdom killed him.” He chided, opening the gate.

Before walking out, though, he stopped and turned back to her: a sad look in his eye. “And the fact that a small part of him remains is what keeps you alive, like a ‘caged bird’, as you put it.” He sighed. “That’s far truer than you think, Whitelight, for what is a caged bird… if not something to admire for its beauty, and rarity?”

With that, he turned, as closed the door behind him. Leaving Myra in stunned silence, with a little more color added to her face.

'W-where did that come from?'

Fluttershy had started to regain some control over her will, little by little, after about an hour had passed. And soon, she was finally able to move her eyes, and look around consciously.

She saw that she was set across Rarity’s back like a saddlebag, and lifted her head- with great effort- to see Applejack lathered with sweat, and determinedly leading the way through the maze. She could sense something in the air, an uneasy atmosphere that she always thought would only come from her...

Fear: fear of what lurked just outside of their sight, the growing dread of the unknown. The urge to fly rather than fight. Seeing her friends in such peril, without any ability to help them, it hurt her beyond words. She felt the dread as well, but it was more for her friends than for herself. She hung her head in shame, and uttered out three simple words:

“I’m sorry, girls…”

Applejack stopped in her tracks, prompting Rarity to do the same. Her ear flicked in the dim light, and she turned her head enough for Fluttershy to get a glimpse of the sadness in her eyes.

“None of this is your fault, sugarcube.” She sighed. “We’re fighting the very weapons of the devil himself, there’s no logical way for you to blame yourself for this mess.”

She turned back forward, and lowered her voice to a hoarse whisper. “Ah just wonder what dark corners Mac’s been poking int', allowin' himself to becom'n the vulnerable slave to the creature behind this devilry. He’s opened a box that’ll take forever to close… Ah just hope we all live through it.”

Her words delivered a harsh truth, and made it impossible for them to ignore the elephant in the room any further. They all knew one of them, if not all of them, would die in this maze. But, if there was any hope in a single one of them getting through, and rescuing Myra, then it would be worth it to them.

Applejack, however, was thinking differently. Oh, she still wanted to save their friend, but she was even more determined to win this than before once she remembered what was said outside the entrance:

“Make it there within three days, and you’ll get her back. And my master will leave this world, peacefully, and never return.”

Despite keeping a calm façade as she led her group, she was beyond desperate to find the exit, or anything that was going to help them reach the end of this maze, if it meant that that monster leaves their world for good.

First, though, they’d have to survive the games: and Applejack wasn’t too keen on her chances.

Twilight walked on through the darkness, working out each possible outcome of each tunnel they crossed to the nth degree. None were good, and each seemed to be lining them up for an even crueler fate than the last.

The silence: that damned endless, noiseless abyssal void sucked all the energy from her as she fell deeper into hopelessness. She looked to her left, and to her right, as the walls just seemed to keep closing in around her, as if preparing to swallow her into their eternal cold. Her wings ached like hell, despite her never using them to fly. Her knees cramped in the humidity, and her eyes were sore from trying to pierce the blackness ahead. She shivered in the cold, and flinched every time she stepped in a puddle. The occasional torches offered beacons of hope, warmth, and light. But their warmth was limited, and their light had started to flicker long ago.

“What’s that?”

Twilight and Rainbow both jumped with a shriek when Pinkie suddenly spoke. They looked at her as she pointed a hoof towards a shape in the distance: stuck to the brick wall.

Pinkie lowered her hoof, and walked up timidly. Her flattened hair blew stronger as she approached the silhouette.

“Pinkie!” Rainbow whispered worriedly. “Get back here!”

“Rainbow,” Twilight sighed unsurely, “maybe we should just follow her. Who knows what that is, it might even help us!”

The Pegasus rolled her eyes at her. “Right, we might even discover a magical green pipe that’ll transport us straight to the Pump! Get real, Twi, the only thing we’re going to find down here is de--”

“It’s a tunnel!” Pinkie whispered, gesturing for them to follow. Rainbow, now unsure of whether or not such a device would be beneficial, decided to tag along. If they were indeed marching to their deaths, the least she could do was die fighting.

They examined the hole in the wall, and tried to figure out what it was for. It obviously wasn’t there by design: Kietelethar wouldn’t be so kind as to give them shortcuts. But then, what made it? The Stumbling didn’t seem like efficient diggers, and none of the ponies could dig through solid brick that easily. Besides, this hole resembled a rattlesnake’s borrow more than the clumsy digging of a blind demon.

“Should we try it?” Rainbow inquired, leaning towards it cautiously.

“We might as well,” Twilight sighed, “we might get that much closer to finding our way out.”

“I’ll go first, making sure the coast is clear. We’ll bite each other’s tails, so we know we’re all here.” Twilight stated. “Ready?”

The other two saluted, and they slowly crept into the tunnel. It didn't, however, go over as quietly as they would've liked:

“Hey! Not so hard!”

“Sorry!”

“That’s good, right there.”

“Perfect, let’s move.”

“…”

“…”

“Ouch!”

“What was that?”

“Nothing, my head just hit a stupid brick, that’s all.”

“…”

“…”

“It got dark in here…”

“…”

“This isn’t your average everyday darkness… this is… advanced darkness!”

“Shut it, Pinkie.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“Hey: uh, Pinkie Pie?”

“Yes?”

“Am I biting your tail?”

“Uhh, Yeah?”

“And, you’re hanging on to Twilight’s tail, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Where are you going with this, Rainbow?”

“It’s just… if you’re at the front, and Pinkie’s in the middle, and I’m in the back… who’s biting my tail?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“Shit…”

“Should we scream?”

“What good would that do, it’s not attacking me… yet…”

“Can you see what it is?”

“I can’t even see my nose, birdbrain.”

“Don’t attack me, attack it!”

“That’s not a bad idea…”

*Thud*

*Clitter*

*Chonk*

“Did you get it?”

“…”

“…”

“Dashie?”

“Stupid brick…”

“Huh?”

“…”

“A Brick landed on my tail, alright?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

*Snicker*

*Pomf*

“Shut it, Pinkie.”

*Pop*

*Fizz*

After a while of pushing, pulling, scraping and shoving, they finally made it to the other side: popping out of the tunnel like rabbits. Rainbow immediately took to the air out of reflex, and smashed her head against the brick ceiling. She fell to the ground with an audible crack, and muttered something no decent mare should ever say under her breath.

“This maze is going to be the death of us, Twilight." Pinkie sighed. "There’s no use in denying it anymore.”

“She’s got a point, you know.” Rainbow muttered once again. “Bricks fall from the ceiling, and we panic. Pipes break while we walk by, and we scream. Hell, when a torch flickers, we’ll run like Cerberus is on our tails. Any hope we had of surviving this was gone as soon as we stepped in.”

“It hasn’t even been a day yet, and we’re already giving up hope?” Twilight scoffed, shaking her head. “I would’ve thought the element of Loyalty would have more in her.”

In a heartbeat, Rainbow Dash was off the ground, and hovering in Twilight’s face. The sheer speed of the reaction caused the Princess to cower.

“You think I regret coming in here?” The Pegasus barked, the look in her eyes a mix between pain and anger.

Twilight looked up in confusion. “But you just said--”

“I said there was no hope for us, I didn’t say it’s not worth it. I’d have charged down here even if I already knew I would die, Twilight, I had to make an effort to save Myra! That’s just what friends do!”

By the time she had finished shouting, a little tear had formed in the corner of her eye. She landed back on the ground, all but defeated. “Just because there’s no hope, doesn’t mean there’s no honor in it. I’d rather die in this cold hell, knowing I gave it my all, before I’d live out in the open, trying to cope with the fact I did nothing to save her.”

Twilight moved to speak, but found her voice silenced. It was as if her mind wanted to retort, but her heart held her tongue. She nodded, and opted to let Rainbow lead for the next few hours.

The Stranger had taken his turn leading the group, and run with it. He had successfully led them through fifteen intersections and seven dead ends without encountering even one of the monsters. In fact, they were the only group to not even have seen a single Stumbling yet. That changed, however, once they heard a familiar voice grunting up the tunnel they were headed through. Worried, they increased their speed, and were shocked to see Twilight limping along the passage all alone, and doing her best to keep her left foreleg off the ground.

“Twilight!” The Stranger called. “What happened to you?”

“Monsters… attacked…” Twilight muttered weakly. “… lost… Fluttershy… leg… hurts…”

“Which leg?”

Twilight eyed him as if he were an idiot, and held out her left foreleg. “The leg Mac bit, you foal!”

In a single swift movement, before anypony could react, the Stranger put one hoof under her belly, and another on the back of her head. Before she had a chance to react, he had already spun around with his firm grip still on her: and smashed her back into the wall. She collapsed in a dazed, painful heap.

Zecora and Warp stared on speechlessly as the Princess' unconscious form slumped to the ground. The Stranger simply grinned, and gestured for them to follow as he strode off. Warp rushed over to Twilight, but stopped when her colors darkened, her mane disappeared, and her lower jaw vanished completely.

“It was a demon?” He stammered in disbelief, looking up to the Stranger. “How did you know?”

The Stranger kept walking, and waited for them to catch up before he answered. “It was her right hoof that he bit, not the left.” He chuckled. “For a demon, he wasn’t very bright.”

They heard a collective hiss behind them, and turned to find five more of the lifeless husks stumbling after them.

Before a solitary thought could be crafted, Warp drew his sword with his magic and bucked his back legs, sending Zecora and the Stranger down the tunnel.

“Run!” He cried. The Stranger turned back, about to grab Warp, only to have the defiant pony shove him away once more.

“Go, find the exit, and help your friends!” He barked, barely looking over his shoulder.

“What about you?”

Warp gave a small smile, which the Stranger understood more than he knew.

“I’ll be alright.” He sighed, before his face became stern, and he barked once more. “Now get out of here!”

The Stranger and Zecora quickly obeyed, and flew into the darkness as the Captain turned back to face the Stumbling.

“Alright, earthworms…” he taunted, hanging the blade of his cutlass in front of his eyes as he stared down the approaching threat:

“… Let’s dance!”

“What got their tails in a twist?” Rainbow shouted as her group ran down the endless tunnels. Pinkie was running just ahead of them, and Twilight was desperately flapping her wings while running in hopes that it would give her a boost. They had heard a trample of dead hooves approaching them a few minutes past, and it didn’t take them two seconds to figure out what was causing it.

“I don’t know,” Twilight shuddered. Her pupils shrank at the sight of the dead end down their tunnel, “but unless we come across a miracle, we’re glue!”

Pinkie gritted her teeth, and her own eyes began to twitch as her hair managed to go even limper than ever before.

Rarity’s sweat flew off her brow as she ran, and she constantly checked to make sure Applejack and Fluttershy were by her side. When she was done with that, she’d look back on the shapes they were slowly outrunning, just to make sure they were getting farther instead of closer. Her hooves clipped on the cement floor as they fled, and their panting became heavier with each pull on their lungs. Their strength waned, and their hearts raced.

Soon enough, there was no left and no right for them, there was only straight ahead as they ran into the everlasting dark. They only had to make it further in before their hunters tracked them down.

Thromb bom bomba-dom, Thromb bom bomba-dom, Thromb bom bomba-dom…

“Oh, no…” Applejack panted as the familiar tune echoed through the Labyrinth, and called them down the halls.

Rarity lifted an eyebrow. “Do we follow it, or no?”

Applejack looked around for where it was coming from. “I don’t think that’s such a grand idea--”

“Follow it!”

“What?”

They both turned to Fluttershy, who soon took the lead with a beaming smile. “Trust me!”

They looked between themselves, and nodded firmly. She always knew best when they least expected it, and they knew it. Sure enough, she led them through the tunnels, and after the tribal beat: further and faster they went, until they stumbled into a large, dimly-lit room.

Inside was a large array of machinery, designed for the containment and output of some kind of fluid. What stood out beyond that were the numerous gashes, both deep and slight, across the walls.

“It’s the pump!” Rarity cried joyfully. “We found the pump!”

“Fantastic,” Applejack sighed, breathing a sigh of relief, “now we just need to figure out how to turn it on!”

Before any of them could investigate, a large knife stuck to the floor in front of Applejack, who immediately looked up to where it had come from. All she saw was a black tendril recoiling into a vent on the ceiling. Fluttershy walked up to the dagger, and noticed a paper was wrapped around the handle. Grabbing the note, she read it aloud.

“Three, Seven, and Four.”

Confused, she held it at arm’s length, and squinted at it.

“Is that all?”

“That’s all it says, Rarity.”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Well, nevermind, let’s see if we can figure out what it means.”

Fluttershy trotted over to a large cylinder while Applejack looked to a control panel, and Rarity approached the scars in the brick walls.

Applejack tampered with the control panel, but soon found that even though it looked like a futuristic module, it worked about as much as Prince Blueblood. Only it held thrice the charm. Fluttershy only found a single button on the large piece of machinery, but she knew better than to push it on impulse. They both turned to Rarity, who was fixated on the scratches in the brick.

“What are you expecting to find on that there wall, Rare?” Applejack groaned.

Rarity brightened, and looked back to the farm pony with a smug grin. “Exactly what I found, darling: a pattern!” She lifted a hoof, and set it on a rather small brick. “Third from the floor, seventh from the entrance. And…” she paused long enough to draw her hooves across the marring on the clay. “… It has four symmetrical scratches on the surface.”

“Rarity, that’s just--”

Before Applejack could finish, Rarity had pushed the brick inward, and the pump turned on with a great grinding of metal. “What was that, Applejack?” She tittered over the roar of the mechanism.

Myra sulked on the bed, wondering if she’d end up having to fight her own way out of this if her friends didn't make it in time. She jumped slightly when she heard the sound of loud machinery powering up somewhere beneath her cell, and looked up in just enough time time to see a pool of live ink pour out of the vent on her cell wall, and take the form of a familiar, fiery-eyed stallion.

“Mac?”

He turned to her, and nodded slowly. “You were right, Whitelight, I can’t let this just happen. But I can’t completely fight it, either. You only have thirty-one hours left in here, I had to do something.”

“Fool!”

They both flinched as a massive figure smashed his fist into the bars, and glared daggers at the poor colt. “What did you do?”

Mac stood his ground, despite his quailing. “I only gave them a small hint in the pump, oh Prophet, nothing more.”

Kietelethar ripped through the cell bars as if they were wet paper, and seized Mac by the neck with one of his great, armored claws. “None of the rules have been broken, and you still found a way to go crawling back to your little friends. I can't help but respect that. However, it appears that I've far underestimated your foolish cleverness, colt: and I can’t risk you slipping up again!”

He lifted Mac to the ceiling, and slowly reached up with his other hand as a small, tarlike ball formed in his palm.

“I should have done this sooner…”

Myra watched in terror as the Prophet put a vice grip on Mac’s face, and her old friend screamed in agony. Black tar shot into his mouth and eyes from along the Prophet’s arm, surging into him like a raging river. His soulful cries growing even more anguished as the stream thickened. After two solid minutes of the horrific display, Myra could take no more:

"DROP HIM, YOU MONSTER!" She boomed, startling herself at the power and volume of her own frightened voice. As if the command was successful: Kietelethar carelessly opened his fingers, and Mac limply dropped to the ground with the sound of a deflated football. He gave a small struggle to get to his hooves: his knees wobbling slightly before he stood firm as stone, his labored breaths hardened.

“Never forget that you are mine to command, little bird.” Kietelethar barked, stomping with a paw hard enough to crack the stone floor. “You sold yourself, and it’s time for me to collect. You wished to see truth, and I have shown you all I know. You are not to resist my orders again, no matter what! Am I understood?”

Mac slowly lifted his head, and the room was filled with the heat from his blazing eyes as they opened. They burned brighter than ever before now, and yet looking into them felt darker than the coldest night. He spoke in a tone that sent chills down Myra’s spine as his expression darkened.

“I am yours to command, my lord.”

Fresh air flowed into Twilight’s nostrils as she cowered, covering her head with her hooves. She felt herself grow stronger once the precious oxygen was pounding through her blood, and started to take courage once again. She lifted a hoof to peek at the encroaching threat, and was instantly mortified. Rainbow peeked as well, and froze at the sight that greeted the both of them:

Pinkie, standing alone in the middle of a four-way intersection, staring down a large troop of the Stumbling in the tunnel across from her. Both of the onlookers could tell from where they were sitting that she was grinning. Her cheeks barely contained the wide, unnatural grin she had gotten once before. Her flat hair blew slightly in the new breeze, and her darkened colors gave her a menacing look.

The demon at the front of the group spoke in a guttural tone, making his empty throat vibrate.

“Time hath come for to teach this mere mortal a lesson, my brethren!”

The Stumbling started laughing, and softly chanted as they slowly walked towards the intersection, stepping in tune to the foreign hum.

At that moment, Pinkie started giggling: her hollow tone halting a few of the creatures, and sending chilled shivers down her friends’ backs. She reached behind her, and pulled a small metal rod from her tail.

“A Tuning Fork?!” Twilight yelped in disbelief. “We should go get her!”

Rainbow shook her head violently, and shuddered. “No, whatever you do, don’t try and stop her when she’s like this… it only makes it worse.”

Pinkie held the instrument aloft like a great sword before smiting it on the ground, and aiming the shivering fork towards the ceiling, directly above the oncoming monsters. The tone of the tool steadily increased, cracking the walls, and making the floor tremble as if there were an earthquake. Dust and pebbles started to fall from the ceiling above the Stumbling, and several looked up in genuine fear.

Suddenly, with a deafening thunder of crumbled stone, the tunnel collapsed on top of the creatures: filling the caverns with dust as their leader stumbled forward, choking on the debris. Before he could cough out the brick lodged in his throat, he found himself face-to-face with a broken Pinkie, who he knew was staring into the face of death, and laughing it off.

Her pupils were sharp, and focused: no insane, unfocused glaze, though her unnatural grin had turned into a vicious snarl as her mane flapped loosely. She caught him by the neck, lifted him off his hooves, and looked into the dents were his eyes would’ve been:

“Lesson. Learned.”

All Twilight and Rainbow heard was a cruel snap before the smog cleared enough for them to see their friend standing over the limp form of the demon. She turned back to them with a sad look in her eyes, and started to cry, prompting her friends to rush to her side.

“I… I…” she choked, burying her head into Twilight’s shoulder as sobs wracked her being. “I hate this place! I hate what it’s making us do!”

“I know, Pinkie.” Rainbow said, laying a hoof across Pinkie’s shoulder in an effort to comfort her. “But sometimes, the only way out of hell, is through it.”

Pinkie looked up to her with wide, tearful eyes.

Rarity drank in the fresh air as eagerly as the others, and instantly felt invigorated once again: she glanced at the monsters waiting outside the room, and cast a cocky smile towards Applejack.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

Applejack gave a knowing smile as she looked out to the Stumbling. “Smackdown?”

Rarity nodded in satisfaction. “Smackdown,” she affirmed.

The two mares smiled at the encroaching demons, and charged.

Zecora inhaled deeply as the life-giving gas brought freshness back into her mind, and pumped life into her tired blood. “It seems our friends have found the pump, to aid us in escaping this dump!” She chuckled warmly.

Mac felt energy finally coursing through his veins, and his heart was filled with determination. He turned back, and ran the way they just came.

“Where are you going in such a hurry? The rearranged tunnels will make our navigation a worry.”

“We need to at least try and get Warp back! I’m not sure how long he’ll--”

Before Mac could finish, Warp stepped out of a hole in the wall, and smiled at them. “So, here you two are! I was beginning to think I’d find Twilight before I found you again.”

Mac’s jaw dropped. “You’re… completely unharmed?”

“Not completely, two of them managed to land blows to my stomach.” Warp shrugged. “But other than that, yeah. What about it?”

“The both of us are wondered how one eager for thrashing, you cleverly avoided a terrible bashing?” Zecora inquired.

“Well, in hoof-to-hoof, I don’t think I would’ve lasted that long. But I had Fernando here to help me out!” Warp beamed, drawing a black-stained sword.

“So, we have some means of fighting them off, it seems.” Mac though aloud, grinning to himself. “I think our chances in here just got a little better.”

Pinkie looked up from crying on Twilight’s shoulder, leaving damp, matted fur where her eyes had been. The look in her eyes was one of steel-heartedness, and persevering hatred.

“That’s it, Ki! No more games…”

Rarity drew her hoof back as she shoved another demon into the wall.

“We’ve spent too long hiding in the shadows…”

Warp swung his sword over his head, charging in as another Stumbling appeared around a corner.

“We won’t run from the darkness, my fellows, not anymore…”

The nine ponies looked into the would-be eyes of their enemies, and each called the same thing:

“… it’s time for us to own it!”

Twenty-Three hours left, and Myra was counting down the seconds. She had barely gotten any sleep, and she barely ate a thing. What made it worse, in fact, was that the same pony that had finally shown signs of still being the friend she knew so well now sat like a stone sentry in his chair. He was endlessly, wordlessly watching her with those creepy, burning eyes that seemed to stare through her soul.

Myra knew she had to get out of this somehow…

But… how could she?

An hour had passed since Pinkie made the tunnel collapse, and Twilight knew they were running out of time. They had to reach the end before all was lost. Their desperation to find the creatures intensified. Not so that they would run, but so that they would attack. She felt giddy at the change in pace: for the hunters were now the hunted, the dreadful were filled with dread, and the masters were now the rookies.

That was when she heard a faint, hopeful humming down the maze, and laughed in joy. She knew that could only be one thing…

“The Heart!”

Pinkie’s mane puffed out with a whiz as she cried out, and a broad smile was plastered onto her face. The sooner they shut down this mechanism, the easier it would be to get out of it. The easier to get out, the happier she was.

They spotted a larger demon sulking out towards them. And, before anypony could even think twice about it, Twilight’s eyes went red: and she had already pinned it to the wall.

Furious, Twilight smashed the demon's back against the brick barrier viciously, and repeatedly.

“Are you prepared to go back to Hell?” She growled, clenching her jaw as she fought.

“Have mercy!” The monster begged hoarsely. “Please, have mercy on me!”

Twilight lifted a hoof to the creature’s face, showing deep scars curved to match a pony's jaw.

“You made one of my closest friends… do this… to me...” she hissed in a guttural tone, drawing the hoof back across her face. “This thing called ’Mercy’ no longer applies to the likes of you!"

There was a loud crunch, and Twilight drew her black-stained hoof back in shock as the Stumbling fell lifeless to the floor. A large hole gaped through the back of its throat, and a dagger dropped from its hoof. Pinkie reached out a hoof in sympathy, as she knew Twilight would’ve lost her lunch had they eaten anything.

“You were right, Pinkie…” Twilight sighed. “You were right to hate this place for what it’s making us do… for what it’s making us sacrifice…”

Pinkie started tearing up again, and rushed over to embrace her friend.

Rainbow looked down, and then back the way they came.

“Something tells me we’ll all have to sacrifice something dear, Twilight, in order to save our friend…”

Twilight looked up with fear in her eyes, and nodded. Soon, they were desperately running down and around the tunnels once more. But before an hour had passed, they had stumbled across the Heart: and the many engines and gears within.

Rainbow Dash raced in, and immediately looked for something blunt to bash against the mechanism. Twilight looked for a control panel while Pinkie looked closely at the gears, an oddly sad gleam in her eye.

“How do we turn it off?” Twilight asked, finding nothing.

Pinkie’s eyes narrowed as she inspected further, and it wasn't long before a melancholy smile crept across her lips. “Twi, Dashie, please step outside…”

They both gave her confused glances, until they saw her reach into her tail again. They both blinked, and backed out.

“What exactly are you planning on doing, Pinkie?” Rainbow asked once she was outside.

Pinkie held the device high above her head, and looked back to them both with a strong, knowing smile.

“I'm sacrificing something dear, Dashie.”

With that, she gave a frightened yelp as she dove into the center of the massive gears, much to the dismay of the ponies watching. They were about to run in after her, but they had barely set hoof forward when they heard the loud twang echo through the passage again, and saw the gearbox start to shudder.

“Pinkie?” Rainbow shuddered slightly, stepping towards the large room.

The floor trembled, the walls cracked, and the ceiling shattered. And before Rainbow could set hoof inside: the entire room had collapsed into a solid wall of dust, brick, steel, and rubble.

“PINKIE!”

Rainbow’s cry of terror fell on deaf ears as Twilight was frozen in shock at the fearful scene.

‘She’s gone?’ She thought, tears forming in her eyes. ‘She... she can’t be gone… she lived on a rock farm, she could handle a few pebbles like… like…’

“PINKIE!”

The two grief-struck mares cried in unison as they charged the pile of rubble, pawing at it feebly as they desperately tried to dig their dear friend out of her dusty tomb.

Applejack snarled as the group of demons tried their best to haul her off, Rarity and Fluttershy stuck in similar predicaments as each of them was carried down a different tunnel. Soon enough, there was a massive clang that echoed through the Labyrinth, and the monsters scattered like roaches.

Whatever torches there were in the tunnels went out with a poof, and left all in complete darkness. The three immediately ran back towards the intersection, but only to find it gone, and even more turns than they remembered.

Fluttershy felt the walls closing in around her, and her breaths grew heavy as she looked into the darkness.

Rarity whirled about, and eyed the brick walls and tunnels in mistrust, knowing what possibly lurked behind each corner.

Applejack determinedly tried to get to her friends, ducking into every hole and alley she came across.

Pinkie opened her eyes, her ribs felt close to cracking as she lay pressed underneath a mountain of rock. She could feel what precious air she had dissipate into the debris above her, and her lungs filled with dust.

“O-o-oops…” She muttered weakly, choking on the cement leaking into her throat. “T-t-they’re even s-s-sc-carier in the dar-rk…"

Little did she know that they were all coming closer to the end…

... yet, they were still far farther than they'd like. Next Chapter: Chapter Eighteen: Renewal. Estimated time remaining: 28 Minutes