Sorry again for the long wait, but here's the next chapter, and I'd like to thank one of my reviewers for providing me with this idea for the second obstacle. First off, I just want to say that I don't own anything or anyone in the fanfic except Pam; everything and everyone else belongs to their proper owners. Second, I need some ideas for the third obstacle. So if you could provide any ideas at all in your reviews, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, and enjoy.

Dashing this way and that to dodge the Monsters attacking Celestia's troops, Shining Armor and Princess Cadence flew towards the force field covering all of Ponyville. When they got word that it's under attack, they teleported from the Crystal Empire to help, leaving Baby Flurry Heart with her nanny and hoping that their baby sister and her friends are all alright. Fortunately for them, they have their own force field bubbled around them for extra protection.

"Hang on, sweetheart," Cadence said to her husband. "We're almost there."

"Alright," Shining said to her. "When I lower the bubble and give the word, you know what to do." The pink Alicorn nodded in reply before taking a hold of his hoof. Seeing them getting closer to the force field, the white Unicorn stopped his own force field spell.

"Now!" At her husband's signal, Cadence activated her teleportation spell before they crashed into the pink/blue field, allowing them to appear inside of it. They then landed nimbly onto the ground and looked around.

"We made it through," Cadence stated, breathing out a sigh of relief.

"Yeah," Shining said. "Now all we've got to do now is find Twilight and the others."

"Prince Shining Armor! Princess Cadence!" The couple turned to see a blue Unicorn rushing towards them. It was Trixie, Starlight's friend.

"Trixie!" Shining said as the other Unicorn stopped before them and panted to catch her breath. "What happened? Do you know where Twilight is?"

"All I know is that these…Monsters were attacking the town until…Twilight and Starlight brought up the force field," she answered as she catches her breath. "I…I think they're at the castle."

"Alright. C'mon." And the three of them hurried over to Twilight's castle.

EDK*EDK*EDK*EDK*EDK*EDK*EDK*EDK*EDK*EDK*EDK*EDK*EDK*EDK*EDK

Back with our heroes, they had entered the next room, which is huge…huge enough to hold a fifty-square-foot maze! They saw that there are four entrances into the maze, and there's a cerulean pedestal before them with a plaque on it bearing writing.

"Aw, man," Jaden groaned. "How are we to figure out which path to take?"

"Maybe this plaque can give us some answers," Pam said, walking up to it. She then looked down at the plaque to read the writing on it out loud:

"All lead to the same goal,

But if you wish to go through there,

You are to learn about your partner

Which is why you must split into pairs."

"What's that suppose to mean?" Skrawl asked with an arched eyebrow.

"I think we split into pairs," Pam answered, "and each pair takes one of these four paths. And the maze will have each of us learn about our partner. I don't know what we're to do in the end, but it's worth a shot."

But then, Pam began to worry about this idea. What if her partner will find out about her being adopted and that she ran away to find out who she really is? Will they think less of her…after they had started to be like friends? She quickly shook her head to clear it.

It'll be okay, she tells herself. I just won't tell my partner about it. But if the maze tells them about it, I'll just have to trust him with the truth. Hopefully, he'll understand and not tell the others.

They then decided on pairs. Nos is to go with Chazz. Jaden is to go with Skrawl. Discord is to go with Goth. And Pam is to go with Pythor.

Pam and Pythor blushed at each other at this realization.

Oh ,man, Pam thought to herself. I'm going into one of the maze paths with a tall, white, and handsome snake…Wait, did I just think that?!

"Shall we then?" Pythor asked, snapping her out of her thoughts. She nodded before the two of them went down one path, and the other three pairs took the other three paths.

After walking through their path and making a few turns, Pythor decided to break the silence with Pam.

"So…you learned about me from a TV show in your world?" He knows it's a stupid question to ask to start up a conversation, but he's rather curious about that fact he learned from the human girl.

"Yeah, I did," she answered. "I bet it must be awful being the last of your kind alive…Your friends, your family…everyone you love dying from starvation or being victims of cannibalism."

"Y-Yes," Pythor admitted, hugging himself a bit. "That memory was traumatizing. Sometimes, I hear the screams of my tribe in my nightmares." Hearing this, Pam went up to him and hugged him.

"I'm sorry," she said to him as he looked down at her with surprise. "I didn't mean to bring it up." Pythor felt guilty before rubbing her back in comfort.

"You don't have to apologize," he explained. "I was able to cope. And thanks to the Ninja, the souls of my tribe can rest in peace forever." Pam then looked up at him with a smile before breaking the hug.

"Yeah, that's good to hear," she replied before the two of them walked down the maze path again.

"What about you?" Pythor then asked. "I'm certain your family at home must be worried about you too." Pam stopped at those words before looking down sadly.

"I'm not even sure myself," she replied softly.

"What do you mean?" the white snake asked, confusion obviously in his voice. "Are you saying you don't have family?"

"Don't get me wrong," Pam assured him quickly, holding her hands up in defense. "I do. It's just that." She hesitated before explaining. "Before coming here to Ponyville, I started to run away with little hope of coming home." Pythor cocked his head to the side rather curiously.

"Why would you do that? Did they forget your birthday or something?"

"No, nothing like that," she answered with a shake of her head. "I've found out that I've been lied to my whole life. I don't want to talk about it though." Pythor just placed his head upon her shoulder and nuzzled her gently, making her blush.

"I understand," he replied softly. "I've a feeling it's too painful to talk about." Pam smiled in reply before placing her hand upon his other cheek and nuzzling back.

"Thanks, Pythor…" They stood that way for about half a minute before realizing what they're doing and quickly pulled apart with blushes. Pam brushed back her hair nervously as Pythor cleared his throat.

"Uh…we should…probably keep going…" he said with a bit of a stutter.

"R…Right," Pam replied before she started to walk alongside him to get through the rest of the maze.

Oh, my gosh, she thought to herself. What did I just do? I couldn't help but get the feeling he was going to kiss me.

Sweet Ninjago, what was I doing back there? Pythor thought to himself. I came close to kissing her.

The two of them didn't say a word as they continued on their way. About five to ten minutes later, they reached the end of the maze were the others were standing in front of a door like the one from the last room.

"Hey, there," Discord said with a short wave. "Didn't run into any trouble, did you?"

"No, we got through just fine," Pam answered, not feeling like bringing up her and Pythor's nuzzling. "What about you guys?" They all stated that it was the same with them.

"Man," Jaden said, "I thought it was gonna be like the lava pit."

"Well, it's a good thing that it wasn't," Chazz replied before the group turned to the door. They saw that a giant white lock is blocking it. But this lock has no keyhole and no combination dial. All that's on it is a tan square tile. The others then turned to the plaque on the short pillar in front of the door as Discord went up to it to read it.

"According to the plaque, this lock will unlock when each—and every one—of us places his (or her, in Pam's opinion) hand on the tile, which will ask a question telepathically that you must answer truthfully. If you do, a portion of the lock will vanish. But if your answer's a lie or just plain wrong, you'll vanish."

"Aw, great," Skrawl replied with a face-palm. "We just jinxed it."

"Maybe not," Pam replied before going up to the tile and holding her hand up to it.

"Pamela, what are you doing?!" Pythor cried before she could place her hand on the tile.

"It's just a theory," she answered, "but if we had followed the advice of the first plaque, we may have a chance." She then pressed her hand against the tile before anyone could say anything.

"Pamela of the humans, hear my question and answer truthfully," a voice suddenly said in her head, her vision became a kaleidoscope of colors. "How greatly did the destruction of his tribe affect Pythor?" Pam immediately answered and without a second thought.

"He claims it was traumatizing and that he can sometimes here his tribe's screams in his nightmares."

Her vision immediately became normal again, bringing her back to the lock. She then saw a part of it vanish, like someone cut it into eight equal parts like a pizza and took away a slice.

"Looks like my theory was right," Pam said as she took her hand off the tile and turned to the guys gawking at her in awe.

"Pamela, what in the world were you thinking?!" Nos cried, sounding like a father scolding his daughter before grounding her. "You could've vanished!"

"But I didn't, did I?" Pam replied. Nos just rolled his head a bit as if to roll his eyes (hard to tell when he doesn't have any pupils).

"But…how did you do it, Pam?" Skrawl asked.

"When I touched the tile, a voice asked me a question about Pythor, and I answered it," she answered before a thought came to her. "Didn't you guys hear what I said?"

"No," Goth answered. "When you touched el azulejo, you just froze up for a moment."

Pam figured that she and the tile talked telepathically. If that's true, her secret will stay a secret. But what if the lock won't accept Pythor's answer about her?

"Well, I guess I can go next," the white snake said, slithering up to the lock. Pam turned to him as she stepped aside.

"Pythor, are…are you sure you want to do this?" The Serpentine immediately noted her concern about his turn and what she told him back in the maze.

"I'll have to sooner or later, Pamela," he explained. "It's the only way we'll get through."

"I know," Pam answered, a bit of a waver in her voice. "I'm just worried that…" She was suddenly cut off when Pythor kissed her on the forehead.

"Hola!" Goth exclaimed with wide eyes.

"You said it, G," Discord chuckled, despite his also surprised as well.

"Don't worry," he said, smiling as Pam looked up at him with a surprised blush. "I'll be okay."

Pam just smiled back before taking his head into her hands and gently pulling it down to her level. Seeing this, the others gawked with surprise. And yet, they're trying their best to conceal their excitement.

Oh, my gosh! Is she really gonna do it?! Oh, please, have her do it!

"Well…" she said to Pythor, "at least take this for luck." And she kissed him…right on his head gem.

"Oh, so close!" Discord cried, causing Pam and Pythor to turn to him and the others with surprise.

"What was that?" Pam asked.

"Nothing!" Discord answered quickly as the others looked away rather awkwardly. Pam just shook her head before stepping back to give Pythor some room.

Pythor then turned to the tile on the lock and placed his hand on it. When he did, Pam saw that the black-slit pupils in his eyes just vanish, leaving him with completely blank fuchsia eyeball. He stood frozen for about ten seconds before his eyes returned to normal and another eighth of the lock vanish. Sighing with relief, Pam went up and hugged Pythor.

"I was so worried," she whimpered into his chest. Pythor only hugged her back with a smile.

"Hey, I told you I'll be okay, didn't I?" he replied. "Then again, your good-luck kiss probably helped out as well."

"Although it would've been better if it were on the lips," Skrawl whispered to Nos before the two of them snickered.

"I heard that!" Pam and Pythor cried simultaneously, turning to the two sharply to make them shut up.

The others then went up to the lock one by one to give their answers about their partners. They each froze with eyes completely blank like fresh sheets of printing paper, and when they returned to normal, an eight of the lock would vanish.

Before long, the lock was completely gone, and the tile the last eight of the lock fell towards the floor. As it did, the tile started to glow green, like the kind of green you would find in a lapis lazuli. When the tile hit the floor, the new color seeped out and spread across the floor like juice when you drop your glass. The others then watched as the spill started to spread fast across the entire floor and under the maze. Then it gave off a bright flash to make the group shield their eyes.

When they opened their eyes again, they saw that the maze was gone, transforming the entire maze-room into a huge stadium area with floors and walls with swirls of green like a lapis lazuli. And the crimson sconces on the wall are holding red/green flames.

"Well, that was a bit too easy," Discord replied, "not like the first obstacle."

"Guys, I think I figured out what this obstacle's about," Pam replied. "It's supposed to be testing our trust in each other."

"Confianza?" Goth asked.

"Yeah," Pam explained. "When we paired up, we each told our partner something about ourselves, therefore trusting them with the truth. And the lock saw that we were trusted with the truth from our partner."

"That…makes sense," Nos replied with a bit of thought about it. "It makes me rather glad to have trusted Chazz."

"Yeah," Skrawl said as he ruffled Jaden's hair, "and Jay here really made me feel better when I told him about my rough life."

Pam just turned to Pythor with a smile. She was glad that she talked to him a little bit about what happened to her before she ended up in Ponyville. And she's extra glad that she didn't have to give him the specific details of her running away from home.

But what she doesn't understand is why. Why did the lock accept Pythor answer to its question the way he answered it? Could it want her to tell the others on her own?

Upon hearing the doors open, Pam decided to just leave it be for now. They have to hurry through the next three obstacle courses before it's too late.