WARNING

Mild Language

Soon, I was lying in the bed once again, only this time it was different, very different. I was in bed under the covered, and there were wires stuck to my head and chest and they were connected to a massive machine stationed next to me, whirling and beeping.

"Alright Allard, now just close your eyes and relax, get some sleep."

"Twilight, what's the point in all of this?"

"I'm going to monitor your brain activity as well as your heart rate. Once you enter the labyrinth again, I will be able to detect how you react out here while you explore it in there."

"That's nice and all, but how am I going to sleep? I just woke up not even a half hour ago and the whirling and beeping of this machine isn't going to make me any sleepier."

"Just close your eyes and relax. I know how to get you to sleep."

"Alright…"

I closed my eyes and calmed my mind. I was still wide awake, so it would take me a while to sleep on my own. I was unaware of exactly how she planned to get me to sleep, at least until the split second I felt it.

"Spike, now!" I heard her say

Suddenly, something hit my head hard and made a loud "Ding!" noise; I barely had enough time to feel it before I was knocked out, let alone time to figure out what it was that hit me.

I groaned in pain as I sat up, I rubbed the side of my head, still feeling the pain from whatever it was that hit me.

"Shit… what did you hit me with… huh?"

I opened my eyes and looked around, grassy hallway with marble walls, no ceiling. I was in the maze again.

"Oh… I guess it worked then… Damn, that felt like a frying pan or something."

I was more focused on the pain from the impact than I was on wondering how I'm still feeling it even while dreaming. I looked around again, seeing where I was. It looked like the same place where I last woke up. I then remembered that metallic beast that hit me and woke me up before. I took another look around me so make sure that it was no longer here, and it was not. With a sigh of relief, I picked myself up and stood. I thought for a moment, if what Twilight told me is true, then the Targawrath is in here somewhere, I just need to find him. I began to walk around, but more cautiously this time, that thing could be anywhere.

It felt like I was walking around in circles, just hallway after hallway and corridor after corridor. I was lost, and I stopped walking for a moment to catch my breath; I've been walking for a long time. After a moment of resting, I looked to the side, and there I saw and indentation in the wall, crushed as if something had been tossed against it.

"Wait…"

I was suspicious; I looked around the area. I saw a familiar placement of doorways and large footsteps from a massive, heavy creature running, this confirmed my position.

"I'm back where I started!" I shouted out.

I sighed, pressing my hand up against the wall and leaning against it. This was stressful, a life size maze and I'm going around in circles. My moments of stress and silence were broken when I heard a familiar sound. My head lifted itself and I looked over to the side. The armored beast was there again, and it was walking towards me.

"Shit!"

I ran the other way, but it was no use, the beast was running after me now, and gaining on me quickly. Unfortunately, I made a wrong turn and ended up in a dead end, and the beast was at the doorway on the other side of the hall. I turned to face it, its eyes glowed red and slowly walked towards me. I backed up until my back was pressed up against the wall behind me. I wasn't sure if I was going to die or just wake up again like I did before.

As it drew closer, I thought to myself. Twilight is counting on me to get through this labyrinth, she trusts me right now. I can't let her down, not again. I took a deep breath, and then stepped away from the wall. I built up courage and ran up to the beast. Right when I was in front of it, it swung its sword down hard. I lifted my arm; its sword bounced off a shield that suddenly appeared there.

"You will not stop me this time!"

I felt something appear in my other hand now. I was determined to face this monster, to get through this labyrinth. I swing my arm, and a sword similar to my shield slashed against the metallic beast, throwing it back even more. I took this opportunity to run past the beast, not curious about the sword and shield, just glad that they are there. I turned and swung my sword forward, striking the beast in the back. It roared in pain, and that's when I saw it fall to its knees painfully, and that's also when I drew back my sword and ran the other way. I continued down hall after hall, trying to find the exit without success. After maybe an hour of looking, I finally found it. At the end of a long hallway was a massive double door, decorated with many bright colors.

I recognized this as the door I had to go through, and so I began to walk towards it; however, my attempt was halted when I heard the roar again. I turned around and, when I saw the beast, began to run straight for the door. It chased after me, but I am so close to the door that I can't let it win. I ran and ran, it felt like I was running yet not getting any closer to the door. It was catching up quickly, but I was also almost there. I couldn't stop, not now. I could turn and face it, fight it to stop it from chasing me, but that would only delay me even more, I had to get through this door, and get through it now.

I kept on running, the creature now only a couple feet behind me. It now raised and swung down its blade; the blade was maybe an inch away from hitting me when I ran through the door. I literally ran through the door, it didn't even open, I just went through like it wasn't even there. I stopped all of a sudden and looked behind me to see if the armored beast was still chasing me, it was not. Behind me was the door I went through, a large double door that did not budge, like that creature couldn't pass through. I raised my hand and felt the solidity of the door, I wondered how I was able to pass through it like it was nothing, yet it was still a solid door.

Letting go of my curiosity over the door, seeing as this isn't much of a place for logic and reasoning, at least not my sense of logic and reasoning, I turned around towards the room I was now in. It was a large circular room; there were only two doors, the one I came through, and the one on the opposite end. It was by far the largest door, and most decorative. It was a massive double door, and each door had an image on it. They were both human shaped, if only slightly, and they faced each other. The one on the left side was the more human-like creature, but it could clearly be seen as anything but human. It had two pairs of feathered wings, but not like that of a bird or even an angel, they were shaped more like a parallelogram, two larger ones pointing upwards, two pointing downwards half the size of the others. The way they were shaped reminded me of a butterfly's wings, only they were pointed, not rounded, and they were also feathered. It didn't seem to have a pair of ears, or a nose or a mouth, its face just blank like that, but it did have eyes. And it also had two large, antenna-like feathers coming from its head, like the antenna of a moth. It looked like a calming creature, a gentle beast, and then I looked at the other door.

On the other door was a monstrous creature, only vaguely human-like. It had the face of what looked like a goblin with long pointed ears, yet it had two horns coming from its head, pointed behind it. It also had wings, but the wings and torso reminded me of a gargoyle. Its lower half was more dragon-like. It had a long tail, and its legs were that of a dragon's hind legs, its feet clawed as well as its hands. This creature didn't seem good at all. I somehow knew who was who. The one to the left was the Targawrath, and the one to the right was the Gargarath. I began to step forward, but then I stopped.

"Allard? Allard? Wake up."

I heard a voice, a familiar one. I slowly opened my eyes and turned to look at the source of the voice, there stood twilight, and behind her was her strange machine, shut off and put to the side. The floor was littered with various papers and those wires were off of my body. I sat up the best my pony body would allow me to and rubbed me head, still adjusting to the real world.

"Huh…? What… happened?" I said.

"Your breathing and heartbeat was going crazy as if you were running for your life! I thought you were going to have a heart attack or something! I've been trying to wake you up for the last five minutes, what happened in there?"

My hoof went back to the side of the bed, I looked up at twilight.

"I was… being chased…"

"By who or… what?"

"I don't know… some sort of massive, armored beast with a sword almost as tall as it is. I have no idea what it was, maybe a guard or something. Either way, it didn't want me there."

"So… what exactly happened?"

"Some sort of sword and shield appeared in my human arms. I was able to attack and fend it off for a bit. After a while I got to a hallway with a large door to the end. It chased me down the hall, but I managed to get through the door at the last second."

"And what did you see on the other side?"

"I don't remember… some sort of… big room… with another door… I saw some sort of mechanism on the door, but… I was too focused on the carvings on it to pay much attention to it."

"What carvings?"

"I… I don't know, people I think… my head still hurts…"

"Well… I think that's enough rest for you at the moment. Come on, lets regroup with the others."

"Yeah… okay…"