If it was any other day, Somnambula would be fine about playing with children. But today, she knew that Fwynxie was going to put her through the wringer. If it wasn’t for her massive size and overplayful nature, it was how committed she was to keeping her trapped in the pyramid.

“Som-Mama? Fwynxie watched as Somnambula struggled to get back onto her feet. “Why yoo wike dat?”

“I don’t know... maybe it’s the fact that I keep on being flattened by that infernal lump of rubber in your paws.” She finally popped back out of the ground, wobbling on her hooves as she tried to reclaim her balance.

“Well, yoo tiny, Som-Mama.” Fwynxie patted Somnambula gently back into the ground. “Me big sphinxy.”

“If we must play a game, can we play one that isn’t so... dangerous?” She asked, tilting her head to the side as she looked around at the oversized toys.

“What yoo mean, Som-Mama?” Fwynxie lifted a brow. “Toys no dangewous. They fun!”

"To you, maybe. But a little pony such as myself finds these to be more destructive than fun..." Somnambula rubbed her back and groaned, wincing at all the times the ball had run her over and crushed her from head to toe. "I never thought I would ever say that about toys for foals, but here I am."

"Well, what yoo wanna pway, Som-Mama?" Fwynxie asked, leaning down towards her. "Me no want yoo to feew bad. Mama no feew bad."

"A bit too late to say that after all I've been through..." Somnambula grumbled to herself, rolling her eyes at the giant infant. "Why don't we just play a game that doesn't involve any of these objects?"

"Wike tag?" Fwynxie's eyes lit up.

Somnambula's eyes shrunk down to pinpricks before she lunged a hoof towards the sphinx like a large, rounded spear. "NO! No. Not after the last time I played that game. My lungs were about to ignite."

"Weww, why don't yoo choose the game, Som-Mama?" Fwynxie smiled and nuzzled her tenderly. "Me no picky. Any fun is good."

"Me choose the game?" Somnambula parroted, taking another look around the room. "Well, how about hide and seek? That's a fun game, and there's no need to worry about throwing the toys around and causing a mess." Her smile returned. "Do you like hide and seek, Fwynxie?"

She nodded vigorously. "Me lub hide and seek!" She squealed and threw her paws out to the side. If it wasn't for the notion of the game, she would be charging up another one of her death-hugs. "And me know just where to pway it!"

"Uh, I don't like to burst your bubble, little one, but we're kinda stuck here." She batted a hoof to the door she had come in from, mildly paranoid that the gap between the slabs had disappeared with how little she had been able to plan her escape. "Unless you know how to break down walls, I don't think there's anywhere we can play the game except here."

"Nuh-uh. Baby sphinxes hab magic too!" Her tail began to swish back and forth as the sides of Fwynxie's tiara glowed dimly. "Not as stwong as big, queen magic, but still good. Perfect for pwaying hide-and-seek!"

"You have magic, little one?" Somnambula asked, looking up at the crown.

"Mmhmm! Wook! me show yoo!" Fwynxie closed her eyes and clamped her front paws together, focusing long and hard on the magic she wanted to conjure up. As she concentrated more and more, the lights on her tiara got brighter, until finally, there were two golden orbs at each of the ends, which coiled light pink entrails of lightning between each other and the tip of the headpiece.

Somnambula just began to step backwards as Fwynxie's magic got stronger and stronger, creating a big ball of tesla right above her head. Fearing the worst, she began to run away, only to slam face-first into the wall of the pyramid and stumble backwards towards the baby sphinx, who burst the orb above her head, filling the room in a brilliant and regal cascade of light.

She tried to fight against it, but with Fwynxie's laughter in the background and all of the physical damage she had taken throughout her stay, she eventually crumbled and let the light envelop her.

When Somnambula finally came too, she was in a room unlike any she had ever seen before in her life. It was a maze, but she was used to those at this point. Instead, this maze's walls were entirely made of padding and a soft, squishy inflatable substance. Bright colours and arrows lined the place, with no indication on which arrow led where or if there was any way out at all.

Fwynxie giggled and sat down in the middle of the room. "Now we can pway hide-and-seek!" She giggled, her tail still brushing the ground beneath her. "Special woom. Onwy me and queen can wet tings weave."

"So, it's basically the same as your room back in the pyramid, only a lot more colourful..." Somnambula started to look around, trying to get her bearings. "Can I at least fly in this labyrinth?" She unfurled her wings to try, but was met with the same result as when she was back in the nursery room. "No, I can't. At least there aren't any huge toys in here."

"Oh, there no toys, but we stiww have fun. Dis place booby-trapped!" Fwynxie blurted out,

"Booby-trapped?!" Somnambula lurched backwards and toppled onto her back. "Fwynxie? Why did you take us to a maze full of dangerous traps? Isn't this a bit risky?"

"Nope! These booby-traps are aww Fwynxie-fwiendly! Dey no hurt yoo. Instead, they make you giggle and cheer!" She clapped on the spot. "You'll lub dem, Som-Mama!"

"Maybe if I were a few years younger, I would, but are you sure that this is really a good idea?" Somnambula finally rolled back onto her front and stood back up again. "I mean, if this really is a maze, then who's to say that we'll ever find each other? Or if you can get us back to the room we were in?"

"Silly Som-Mama! Me sphinx! Magic no wast forever." She sandwiched Somnambula with both of her paws and rubbed her cheeks softly. "We go back to my woom soon. Until then, we can pway hide-and-seek aww we want!"

"Whoopee..." Somnambula deadpanned as Fwynxie's smiled shone down on her. It was all the same for her, but just in a different room. That was all. "So, who should seek first? You or me?"

"Yoo first, Som-Mama." Fwynxie nodded and pointed to her. "Yoo new, and mama, so yoo start."

"Well, thank you for that, Fwynxie, but I'm really—"

"Close your eyes and count! Me gonna hide!" Fwynxie turned around and forcibly lifted Somnambula's hooves to her eyes using her tail. Then, she darted off down the path and deep into the depths of the candy-coated maze.

"Just what in the stars have I gotten myself into this time?" Somnambula asked, though this was the first time that she had questioned it out loud, given that all the other times, she had tried not to upset Fwynxie with her lack of commitment to the games or activities in her room. "Well, nothing that I can do about it now except to try and find her, I suppose."

Somnambula was about to step forward, when she felt her legs turn stiff. She tried to move them, but she wouldn't budge no matter how hard she tried.

"Count, Som-Mama!" Fwynxie's voice echoed. "Yoo no allowed to move until yoo count!"

Muttering to herself, Somnambula obliged, and covered her eyes with her hooves as she counted upwards from one to ten. Once she was finished, she was able to move her legs again. Dashing forward, she set out on her quest to find Fwynxie in the twisted construct of bouncy walls and floor. At the very least, she didn't need to worry about triggering any traps and suffering more and more for it. She knew that there would be no such thing in a place like this.

"Where is Fwynxie?" Somnambula asked as she came to the first crossroad in the maze. The arrows were all brightly-coloured and very cartoon-like, giving the illusion that this would be something entertaining for children. She tried to read the signs, but couldn't make out where any of them led, and so darted off down the middle path. "Surely, she can't be that hard to find. She's too easily distracted..."

As Somnambula charged down one of the corridors, she ended up stepping on a pressure plate beneath her feet, though she barely even noticed it given how it blended in with the rest of the environment. Only when the "trap" was actually sprung did she take notice. And it was less of a trap, and more of a spell materializing around her sides, with mystical fingers that tickled her under her hooves. Sent into a fit of laughter, Somnambula ended up tripping forward and rolling ahead, her headdress tumbling off of her head during the fall.

As she finally got back onto her feet and stopped laughing, the spell dissipated and vanished into thin air, leaving nothing more than its' victim still slightly chuckling and sighing as she tried to recompose herself.

"Was that one of Fwynxie's traps?" Somnambula asked as she picked her headdress up and slipped it back over her mane. "Because if that's the case, my worries are null and void. Finding her should be one of the least aggravating things on the list..." Taking a deep breath and steeling herself for any future traps, Somnambula began to walk off, leaving the pressed switch behind her as she turned down another passageway.

Giggling to herself, Fwynxie pounced down another path, stepping on all of the pressure-plates that she could find and watching the chaos unfurl before her eyes. Food was hurled, the ground made ocean-like waves, the floor became more and more bouncy, and the walls even stretched in a manner of different ways. For her, it was all just one big game and special effect show, and she was loving every second of it. She even stopped moving at times just to admire all of the madness happening around her.

"Whee!" Fwynxie cheered and ran through all of the traps, narrowly missing all of the lobbed foodstuffs and magical energies, which shot past her body and blew her fur all around the place as she made it to the other end. Skidding to a halt, she watched as all of the effects came to an end and the hallway returned to normal. Then, using a slightly less powerful spell, she reset all of the traps in that area.

"Som-Mama gonna be super-surprised if she comes dis way." Fwynxie snickered to herself and sneaked off down another path. "She's gonna have so much fun..."

As Somnambula ran to the path Fwynxie had just travelled, she just had to take one look around at the mess that had been made. With all the smashed fruit and melting butter, she could only assume that Fwynxie had been down that path. A small grin came onto her face as she knew that she was making some progress on her little "game." Stepping forward, she triggered another panel on the ground, but again, didn't notice with how malleable the floor was beneath her.

"Little one? Where are you?" She asked, as the trap primed itself and aimed towards her. She got no verbal response, and instead felt a watermelon collide and disintegrate to pieces against her head, followed by shots of more and more foodstuffs. "Oh dear..." Her eyes shrunk down to little dots as she was bombarded with food, almost buried within an edible mountain.

Fwynxie's laughter echoed in the distance, and Somnambula scrambled out of the food and pricked up her ears. She got back onto the ground, but slipped and slid all over the place with the food stuck to her hooves. Slimy juices kept her from having any traction as she slid over another trap and activated it, stretching the walls and crushing her with them.

"This is not a game anymore..." Somnambula sighed as she padded walls finally let her go. Muttering to herself and slapping her face, she finally darted forward, not caring about any of the traps in her way. More and more of them were set off, but she didn't even wait for them to fully activate and just barreled forward. "Where are you, Fwynxie?"

"Me hiding!" Fwynxie called out, her voice bouncing off of the walls. "Yoo never gonna find me!"

"We'll see about that, little one." Somnambula ran ahead once more, leaving the carnage of the traps behind her as she tried to follow Fwynxie's voice. "But I'm only doing this for your benefit. I would never be seen doing this in the real world."

"This is da weal world, silly!" Fwynxie chuckled again. "Just a widdle something me made."

"Real or not real, I know that you're here somewhere, Fwynxie." Somnambula was determined; though that was really second nature for her, given all of the trouble she had faced in her life. "And before the sun sets on this day, I will find you and we will go back to your room together!"

Little did Somnambula know that she activated yet another of the maze's many traps as she charged forward, and the ground below her feet became so bouncy that she launched and somersaulted with so much torque that she flew into the wall and bounced backwards, ricocheting off of all corners of the room like an over-sized pinball machine. It seemed like there was no end to the pandemonium until she ended up landing straight on her face back on the button she had pushed, sliding forward a few inches before coming to a gentle halt in the middle of the passage.

"Isn't this super-duper fun, Som-Mama?" Fwynxie asked, her position still masked by the echo of the room. "Yoo sound wike you're having lots of fun!"

"Please... almighty gods above... be merciful on my soul." Somnambula moaned and inched forward as she got back onto her feet. "Fwynxie, I swear, I will NEVER enjoy this madness you've put upon me!" Stomping her hoof down, she activated yet another one of the traps in the maze, sending a giant, rubber-coated boxing glove towards her, which smashed her into the wall and launched her straight at the one on the other side, where she slid down and fell onto her back. "There is no pyramid in Equestria that is worse than this. I wish there were treasure deep inside of it, like all the rest..."