Trailblazer sat down in a slumped manner against the door. He watched as the other three closed in on him a little bit, glaring at him. He knew that they were furious.
"Way to go, Trailblazer!" yelled Rainbow Dash. "Not only did you treat Fluttershy like dirt, she ended up dying feeling that way!"
"You ought to be ASHAMED of yourself!" Twilight Sparkle said. "I thought I made it clear that you should've at LEAST tried to get along, but you didn't. Instead, you did the opposite. How would you like it if some other pony did the same to you, and you ended up dying feeling that way?!"
Trailblazer shut his eyes tight, grimaced, and shook his head.
"Yeah, you wouldn't like it either, would you?" Twilight swiped her head to look away from him, held it there, then turned right back to face him. "That's a new low for you, Trailblazer! You're despicable!" She turned around again and walked away to head deeper into the castle.
"All that business you had back there, was NOT cool." Rainbow Dash turned away from him too.
Trailblazer had his head hung for a few moments. He then looked up at AppleJack, who also was giving him a halfway-mean look.
"Trailblazer..." she said, as she started to glare. "Ah thought you were better than that."
Trailblazer's expression showed a small amount of shock, and then became one of grief again. Once AppleJack walked away from him, he looked back on the ground, ashamed at himself, and drooped his ears.
"Fluttershy..." he said softly. "All those things I said..." He sniffled.
"Git over here already!" AppleJack yelled at him.
Trailblazer jumped and got back on his feet without thinking, and then trotted towards the other three mares, keeping his head low.
"Keep up with us or we WILL leave you behind," warned Twilight.
He let out an unhappy sigh and said nothing else. Twilight began to lead the way deeper into the castle. The others followed her, with Trailblazer staying behind.
"Hey, Rainbow Dash?" Twilight asked. "How are your wings now?"
Rainbow Dash tried to flap them. Little by little, she was able to lift herself off the floor for a couple feet, then fell back down.
"They're coming back," said Dash. "I'll should be back at 100% soon enough."
"Okay, because we need you to get all of us across this chasm."
The three mares stood a few feet away from a gap that spanned the width of the room.
"Look at these edges here," Rainbow commented. "They're not chipped away or anything. They're all flat."
"So, this must've been intentional." Twilight said as she examined the edges. "Still, we don't know how much time we have left before this Sario Hole destroys us all..."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm working on feeling my wings again." Rainbow Dash flapped and flapped her wings to get herself able to fly again. After around 15 seconds, she could fly just like new. "The numbness is gone!"
"Great! Now carry us over to the other side."
She started with Twilight Sparkle, carried her across the chasm, and dropped her off on the other side. She did the same thing with AppleJack. After dropping her off, she turned around and flew back, but stopped. As she hovered in mid-air, she saw Trailblazer, with his head hung low and turned to his right side.
"C'mon, Rainbow Dash," said Twilight, a bit haughty.
Rainbow Dash groaned. "Do I HAVE to?" she pouted.
Twilight let out a huffy sigh, used her magic, and lifted him off the floor of the other side, levitated him over the gap, and dropped him off next to all of them.
"I guess we're keeping you then," Dash told Trailblazer. She forced his head to make eye contact with herself, and suffixed her last statement with "...For now."
As they walked through the next corridor, the three mares led the way, while Trailblazer continued to follow them from a distance like a lost puppy. He then caught up to them to try to talk.
"AppleJack, I know you're mad at me..." he began to say.
"Ah really, don' wanna hear it," came her reply.
"AppleJack, the four of us are all that matters now."
"Trailblazer. You really crossed the line with your attitude against Fluttershy."
"What is it going to take..."
"Oh, ya REALLY wanna know?" AppleJack spun around and faced him. "Ya wanna know what'll make it all better?"
"What."
"Drop DEAD."
Trailblazer recoiled, shocked at what she just said, then hung his head in his recent usual manner. "I guess I deserved that..."
Twilight turned her head to look at the two, and bit her lip. She saw that Trailblazer was remorseful, and he wanted to make things right. But the damage has already been done. She shook her head and continued forward.
Once they reached the end of the hallway, they went through the next door. What lay ahead of them in the next room was another long hallway, but what looked like exhaust pipes were sticking out from the walls, pointing around in the room at various degrees. They stopped and waited for anything to happen. After a few seconds, embers spewed from all of the pipes simultaneously, and then flames erupted towards the room. They observed the flames lasting for around five seconds, and then quickly stopped.
"I'm not sure if there's another pattern here," said Twilight as she observed the flames from the pipes. "I guess when those flames are let loose, you just have to find a place that they're NOT aiming at."
"Step slow, an' watch yerselves now, y'all," AppleJack reminded them all.
They took a few paces through the room, keeping themselves close to the walls. As soon as some sparks came, all of them dodged or ducked for space that was not going to get incinerated, and shielded themselves from the heat that radiated from the flames that threatened to burn them all. On the first run through the hallway, AppleJack had to dive to the ground, lying flat on it, and held her hat down on her head for cover. Trailblazer seemed to not put too much effort into his evasion; his pursuit for cover seemed to be taken absentmindedly. After the flames died down, they got back up and headed for the exit again. Just like before, the pipes sparked again, and they dove for areas that weren't in the torch's way. Rainbow Dash stood on her hind legs and pressed her back against the wall to avoid the next wave they were in. After they extinguished themselves again, the three mares sprinted for the next doorway in the hall. Trailblazer lazily jogged behind them, just barely passing the area where the flames engulfed.
"We all made it back in one piece?" AppleJack asked.
"It looks like it." Twilight looked amongst them all for a moment, then abruptly raised her voice. "Trailblazer, were you WANTING to get burned in there??"
"What's the use..." he replied in his gloomy manner. "It feels like I got rid of Fluttershy myself... I've gone against my own orders, and my own self..."
She groaned, then whispered to herself, "It's like talking to a brick wall..."
They opened the next door and saw a staircase that resembled a strata, leading upwards in one direction, leveled, and went upwards in the opposite direction for the same amount of steps.
"Jeez... I know this is a castle, but, wouldn't this guy know better than to have constant stairs. I wouldn't mind a steady slope, or an escalator of some sort," pondered Twilight as they worked their way up the stairs.
"It's a good workout. Twi'," AppleJack said. "Those hindquarters ain't gonna stretch themselves, y'know."
"Nor are these wings," Rainbow Dash piped up.
"An', here we go again... Y'know. Rainbow, ya got legs. Use them!"
"I have wings, so, I'm using THEM."
"Somehow, Ah feel like Ah liked you better then your wings WERE numb."
Trailazer let out an unhappy sigh. 'Look at them,' he thought. 'They're turning on each other. If this keeps up, it'll have the magnitude of a pack of wolves.' He looked down at the floor they first walked on and thought some more. 'Fluttershy...' he thought some more. 'Why was I so hard on you...?'
It took a full minute to climb up all of them, where they reached the next door. In the next room, they saw a room in the same size as the last two rooms where they lost Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy. Only here, the chasm was already present, and a rope bridge with wooden planks connected the two sides.
"Oh, no, not this again..." said Twilight. "Okay, just... Watch your backs. We don't need any more casualties."
"Mmm hmm hmmm, you arrived after all," came a familiar voice.
"That sounds like Hat Trick!" Twilight yelled.
As predicted, Hat Trick appeared in a flash in his usual manner, standing on the midpoint of the bridge.
"You get out of our way!" Twilight warned, crouching as if she was ready to pounce.
"You'll get pummeled if you stay in it!" AppleJack said.
"Now, step aside!" added Rainbow Dash.
Trailblazer remained silent.
"Well, aren't we hot-blooded now? I suppose that's something to admire... Anyways, as you wish, I will get out of your way."
Twilight Sparkle raised an eyebrow at him, but, just as she was about to speak, he disappeared in his star-shaped flash. He reappeared on the other side of the bridge, readying his next spell.
"Let's see if you can get over here on THIS side! That is, if the rocks will let you!"
With his horn glowing, the ceiling started to crumble, and debris began to fall on them. Some were making impact with the bridge, threatening to tear it down. With the ceiling falling on them, Hat Trick disappeared.
"Oh, God! Run run RUN!" Twilight demanded.
All four of them began to run across the bridge, but some rocks fell on the bridge itself, cutting parts of the rope. One of the edges was about to get loose, which would cause the bridge to tip over on it's side.
"Oh, this is bad!" said Rainbow Dash. "What are we gonna do??"
Twilight stammered, fearful for their lives. "Just hang on to something!"
A boulder fell and damaged the bridge. The mares stuck their hooves between gaps in the planks, bracing themselves for it to break and leave them hanging on vertically. Twilight shut her eyes tight, anticipating them to sway to the next side into the face of the edge. But nothing happened. She opened one of her eyes to see what went on, then looked around. The bridge didn't sway to it's side as expected, but stayed in it's place. She wondered why this was so. Then, she turned around to look at the side they came from.
Trailblazer held a supporting rope in his mouth.
"Trailblazer, what are you doing?!" she shouted.
"Go, just GO!" he yelled back through his clenched teeth. It was clear that he struggled to support their weight on the bridge, but he stopped it from swaying and sending all of them plummeting to their deaths. Then, he mumbled to himself, "Oh, God, I'm an idiot."
The mares looked at each other for a second, then headed back for the door on the other end of the room.
"What about YOU??" AppleJack called to him.
"What ABOUT me??" he mouthed back.
A sense of guilt swept her at that response.
"The ceiling! It's collapsing!" Twilight pointed at the ceiling, seeing that several boulders were falling.
One of the big rocks was falling towards Trailblazer. He looked up at it, then dove out of the way before it could crush him. With the rock in place, it held the supporting rope in place. The bridge still swayed on it's side, but Trailblazer could get across. Without thinking, he started to run across it.
Twilight and AppleJack were in the next room, with Rainbow Dash walking into it next. She turned around to observe Trailblazer running across the bridge. Then, a boulder fell on the bridge, separating it in two. The bridge was split between him and their destination, leaving it to collapse.
"OH SHIT!" yelped Trailblazer as he began to fall. Rainbow Dash gasped at the sight, and saw as he fell down the chasm. Then, she ran back to the edge, jumped, and dove for him.
"Rainbow Dash, where are you going?!" screamed Twilight.
As Dash flew down to retrieve him, the entire ceiling along with even more boulders fell down on the room. The two that made it through closed the door right before the rocks could fill the room. Many more sounds of rocks colliding with each other were heard for another 12 seconds. Fear gripped both of the survivors.
"Trailblazer! Rainbow Dash! Answer us!" Twilight yelled at the door.
"Holler back at me, Trailblazer! You too, Rainbow Dash!" mimicked AppleJack. "Answer back if you can hear me!"
Neither one of them responded.
AppleJack walked back to the door to open it back up, but it was locked.
"Rainbow Dash!"
"Trailblazer!"
No reply from either of them came.
Twilight Sparkle wobbled, stepped backwards, and had to sit down to keep herself from fainting. "Tell me it isn't so... We lost them..."
"Trailblazer..." AppleJack's eyes began to water. "Oh, God, what have Ah done to ya..."