Chapter two: Industrial Zone.
After reaching the top of the stairs, the maze master lead the eight girls down a stone wall hallway, which soon turned into metal, they arrived at the next zone, looking like an old industrial factory in the early 20th century, after going down some stairs, they stopped.
" Welcome team to zone number two, the industrial zone", said O'Brien.
" This place looks like an absolute dump", said Rainbow Dash.
" If it was a real factory, and I was a health inspector, I'd be putting yellow tape all over the place", said Pinkie Pie.
" That's how it was in the early 20th century, not much regard for health and safety in the workplace, even in the film industry, where they used asbestos for snow", said O'Brien.
" Okay recap: we've traveled through one zone, played four challenges, won zero crystals, will spend zero seconds in the dome, you originally had a crystal, but you had to relinquish it to get Twilight out", said the maze master.
" Now, who hasn't played a challenge yet, raise your hand", said O'Brien.
Pinkie Pie, Derpy, Fluttershy and Sunset then raised their hands.
" Okay then, perfect, now we know, so Sunset, what shall the next game be", said O'Brien.
" Well it was a skill game that got us a crystal, and I nominate Pinkie Pie", said Sunset.
" Very well then, follow me Pinkie", said O'Brien, leading Pinkie Pie to a nearby room.
" Nothing special really this game, just a two minute game, oh, and by the way, it's an automatic lock in", said O'Brien.
" Oh boy", said Pinkie Pie.
" You're allowed to make two mistakes in this challenge, make a third, and you're locked in", said O'Brien.
The door opens and Pinkie Pie enters the room, where she discovers a long metal wire, and a wand with a ring.
" Oh, so this is like a game of buzz wire, I love this kind of game", said Pinkie Pie.
" Remember, make three mistakes and you'll be locked in, and it's best you didn't get locked in, because the team has no collateral to save you at the moment", said O'Brien.
Pinkie Pie then picked up the wand, and began to move it along the wire.
Everyone kept quiet, so Pinkie Pie could concentrate, however, a buzzing sound was heard as she touched the wire.
" Okay first mistake", said O'Brien.
Not long after she did it again.
" Okay two mistakes, now there's a small tape half way one the wire, move the wand there, and the wire won't buzz even if you touch it, you can use it to rest the wand as you get out", said O'Brien.
Pinkie Pie then continued moving the wand, knowing if she made one more mistake, she's doomed.
" A minute and a half left", O'Brien said quietly.
Pinkie Pie then continued until she reached the halfway point, where the tape was, and she rested the wand there.
" Now, you can continue, or you can leave right away, and avoid the lock in", said O'Brien.
" I'm continuing", said Pinkie Pie.
She then moved the wand onward.
" A minute left", said O'Brien, everyone else began to feel anxious.
But Pinkie Pie kept going, each second she was getting closer to the end, she herself was feeling the most anxious, but she kept it together.
" 30 seconds left, and she's nearly there", said O'Brien.
Eventually, Pinkie Pie was able to get the wand to the other end of the wire, the wand also has a key connected to it, which she used to unlock a padlock nearby to open a box, which has the crystal inside, she grabbed the crystal, and left the room.
" Excellent, we're back to one again, now hopefully we can get more this time, and not have history repeat itself, anyway, Sunset, what shall we do next", said O'Brien.
" A Mystery, and...", It was then Derpy raised her hand.
" May I have a go", said Derpy.
" Are you sure", said Sunset, surprised that Derpy was volunteering.
" Might as well, you girls invited me here, I might as well take part, it was bound to happen right, otherwise why am I here", said Derpy.
" Okay then, Derpy, right this way", said O'Brien, leading Derpy into another room.
" Two minutes you have for this game", O'Brien then opens the door, and lets Derpy in.
Derpy find herself in front of her, a screen showing lights, and a panel with buttons.
On a sign it says, Extinguish all the lights to release the crystal, beware the reset buttons.
" There's two parts to this challenge, one is memorizing where the reset buttons are and avoiding them, after that she must switch off all the lights on the screen", said O'Brien.
And so, Derpy began pushing some of the buttons, and a few lights went off.
" There are 15 buttons in total, 5 of them are reset buttons", said O'Brien.
Derpy nearly extinguished half of the lights, however, she pushed a reset button, and all the lights she turned off are back on.
" Did you remember which button that was", said O'Brien.
" Yes", said Derpy.
" Okay good, there's still four more reset buttons, see if you can also remember the buttons you already pushed to extinguish the lights previously", said O'Brien.
And so, Derpy began pushing, more buttons, however, she found the second reset button way sooner than the first, but she memorized that one as well.
" You're doing good Derpy", said Rainbow Dash.
Derpy then continued pushing, three more reset buttons still hiding about.
" A minute and a half left", said O'Brien.
It wasn't long until Derpy pushed the third reset button, however unfortunately, she forgotten where the third button was.
Instead of crying over spilled milk, she continued pushing the buttons, eventually she was able to extinguish half the lights, which is the most she's done so far.
And it didn't stop there, she was getting closer to the end, only a couple more buttons to push and all the lights will be extinguished.
However, she pushed a reset button, but was able to remember which one.
" A minute left Derpy, you were so close", said O'Brien.
And so, Derpy tried again, and like last time, she got very close to extinguishing all of the lights.
" Okay Derpy, you only need to push one more button, and all the lights will be extinguished", said O'Brien.
Taking a chance, Derpy pushed a button, however, all the lights turned back one.
" 30 seconds left Derpy, this is your last chance", said O'Brien.
And so, Derpy continued, the pressure is starting to get to her, but by the time she pushed another reset button, she was able to memorize all of them.
" 20 seconds, if you're quick you can get it", said O'Brien.
And so, with the last of her time, Derpy began pushing all of the buttons, which she remembers switches off the lights.
" Ten seconds", said O'Brien.
Once all the lights were extinguished, the crystal was released.
" Five...Four..", O'Brien counted down.
Derpy then grabbed the crystal and ran out.
" Three...Two...One", O'Brien closed the door just after Derpy got out, in which she was able to do before O'Brien said 'One'.
" Well done Derpy, two crystals we now have, ten seconds in the dome", said O'Brien.
" Well done Derpy", said Sunset.
" That was brilliant", said Pinkie Pie.
" What next Sunset", said O'Brien.
" What's left", said Sunset.
" There's still a Physical game, and a mental game", said O'Brien.
Sunset looked at Fluttershy, and saw that she was getting nervous, she knew it was only a matter a time before she was up.
" I'll do the physical game, and after that, Fluttershy can do the mental game", said Sunset, deciding to go next, but knew after that, Fluttershy will be last.
" Alright, follow me Sunset", said O'Brien, leading Sunset to the next room.
" First off, health and safety", said O'Brien, giving Sunset a helmet, she then puts it on, along with some knee pads and elbow pads.
" Now, this is a three minute game, starting the second the door closes, just from seeing helmet and knee pads, should give you some clue to what the challenge is about", said O'Brien.
He opens the door, and Sunset enters, she notices a sign on the wall.
" Collect 100 or more power units to release the crystal".
" The power units are inside that maze", said O'Brien.
Sunset looked to see what looks like an indoor playground.
" Oh boy", she said.
She ran into the maze to look for the power units.
Eventually, she found one, a rectangular device with the number ten on it in LED.
" Ten power units inside that, but fair warning once you remove it the numbers go down every second, so for this one you'll only have ten seconds to plug it on the main power board to save the units", said O'Brien.
Now knowing what she has to do, Sunset removes the power plug, and the number starts going down, first nine, then eight.
Sunset ran back to the power board, and plugged in the power unit, saving 7 power units.
" 7 power units, you only need 93 more to win the crystal", said Twilight.
" This is easy", said Sunset as she ran back into the maze, picking up the speed.
Soon, she finds another plug, containing 15 power units, she removed it, and made her way back.
It wasn't long before she plugged the second power unit device into the motherboard, saving ten power units.
" That's now 17 power units, you only need 83 more", said Twilight.
" How much time do I have", said Sunset.
" You have two and a half minutes left, you're doing fine Sunset", said O'Brien.
Sunset ran back into the maze, in which her legs were starting to ache.
Approaching the next device, it shows 20 power units, she removes it, and makes her way back to the motherboard.
Once back, she plugs the device in, saving nine power units.
" Nine plus 17, that's 26, which means you only need 74 more power units", said Fluttershy.
" And to think you were worried about your next game", said Rainbow Dash.
Sunset then runs back into the maze for the fourth time, to look for the next power unit device.
" Two minutes left by the way", said O'Brien.
Sunset then approaches the fourth device, containing 30 power units, unplugging it, she begins to head back, however, she started to get a little tired.
Once at the motherboard, she plugged in the device, saving 11 power units.
" You now have 37 power units, and need 63 more", said Twilight.
" A minute and a half left", said O'Brien.
Sunset then ran back into the maze, and after a long search, she was able to find a unit device containing 50 power units.
" Okay, now you have a minute left, I don't think you'll have enough time, but if you hurry, you can try and get one more, there's a fireman's pole nearby, that's a shortcut back", said O'Brien.
Sunset was able to find the fireman's pole, and went down it, and once she plugged in the fifth power plug, she save 42 power units.
" 37 plus 42, that's 79, you only need 31 more power units and you win", said Twilight.
Sunset then went back into the maze, finally exhausted from the running.
She approaches another power unit containing 25.
She removes it, and makes her way back, plugging the device in the mother board, saving 14 power units.
" Alright, you only need 17 more power units", said Twilight.
" 30 seconds left, maybe listen to Uncle Remus, and use your head more than your feet, or at least your eyes, because you did go past some power units", said O'Brien.
Sunset then ran back into the maze, and after noticing a power device containing 15 power units, she grabbed it, and ran out.
However, on her way back, she was so tired, she almost collapsed, she made her way back, and plugged in the unit, only saving 4.
" Okay, you're still 13 short, better get out", said Twilight, knowing Sunset's finally had enough.
Sunset left the room, coughing and panting.
" That was a very tough challenge Sunset", said O'Brien.
" Tell me about it, I think I'm going to throw up", said Sunset.
" Don't worry, at least you didn't get locked in, now you can sit down for a bit until you've caught your breath, and even though you didn't win the crystal, you gave your team a guarantee that unlike the last zone, you won't leave this zone empty handed", said O'Brien.
" Meanwhile Fluttershy has her challenge to face", said O'Brien.
While Sunset relaxed, O'Brien lead Fluttershy to the final room of the zone.
" Now this is another 3 minute game, in you go", said O'Brien.
Fluttershy enters the room, where she finds a giant safe, with colored dials, red, blue, green, grey and white, she also notices equations on the wall.
She looks at the first one.
Red = 9 square, minus 4 cubed, plus one, divided by 3.
" Okay, 9 squared is 9 time 9, which is 81, and 4 cubed is 4 times 4 time 4, which is 64, 81 minus 64 is 17, plus 1 is 18, divided by 3 is 6", said Fluttershy, turning the red dial to 6.
" You've got the right idea Fluttershy, but maybe pick up the pace a little", said O'Brien.
" How much time do I have", said Fluttershy.
" Over two minutes", said O'Brien.
Fluttershy then reads the second equation.
Blue = (12 divided by 2) plus (9 minus 7).
" Brackets, okay, 12 divided by 2 is 6, 9 minus 7 is 2, 6 plus 2 is 8", said Fluttershy, moving the blue dial to 8.
" Now you've got under two minutes left", said O'Brien.
She then reads the third dial.
Green = 150 minus 75, divided by 5 minus 8.
" Okay, 150 minus 75, is 75, divide that by 5 is 15, minus 8 is 7", said Fluttershy, turning the green dial to 7.
" You've got under a minute and a half left", said O'Brien.
Moving on, Fluttershy turns to the fourth equation.
Grey = 84 divided by 12, minus 5.
" 84 divided by 12 is 7, subtract that by 5 is 2", said Fluttershy, turning the grey dial to 2.
" Excellent job Fluttershy, just one more", said Applejack.
" How much time have I got left", said Fluttershy.
" Under a minute left, 45 seconds to be precise", said O'Brien.
Fluttershy then looks at the final equation.
White = (Green times blue) divided by (Red minus Grey) minus 10.
" Brackets again, green is 7, blue is 8, 7 times eight is 56, and if red is 6, and grey is 2, 6 minus 2 is 4, 56 divided by 4 is 14, minus 10 is 4", Fluttershy said, she then turns the white dial to 5.
" 15 seconds left", said O'Brien.
Fluttershy then opened the safe, and took the crystal out, and left the room.
" Way to go Fluttershy", said Applejack.
" Excellent, that is now three crystals, 15 seconds in the dome, you girls really improved after the last zone, three crystals in the first two zones, if you kept up with that kind of average in the next two zones you'll have six, and if you did the same in the last zone you'll have nine", said O'Brien.
" We'll need to do better than that if we're to overtake Crystal Prep", said Rainbow Dash.
" There's still four more zones to explore, 16 more crystals available, you can still get up to 1:35 inside the dome", said the maze master, picking up a pair of gloves, and placing them on his hands.
" What's the gloves for", said Twilight.
" To get to the next zone, I hope you girls are good at crawling in small spaces, is anyone claustrophobic", said O'Brien.
" I sort of am", said Fluttershy.
" And that is such a clusterfu...", Rainbow Dash was cut off by a foot to the shin by Applejack.
" And I also hope you can manage underwater", said O'Brien.
And he leaves the Industrial Zone with the girls, climbing into a small airduct, crawling down a tunnel.
Next time: Ocean zone.