//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: A Race but Hard to Finish // Story: Ready Player One (Multiverse Crossover) // by PlasmaBolt305 //------------------------------// The Curator faced them and said, “Good Luck!” before disappearing in a shower of gold. Everypony was confused as they stared at the word Ready that was displayed on the screen. “So does it want us to do something?” Rarity asked “Ah don’t know, sugarcube.” Applejack replied “Maybe we say something and this thing will show us what it can.” Princess Luna guessed “Ok so what do we ask?” Twilight said confusingly but beaten to the punch by Rainbow Dash as she flew up to the screen. “What is the first challenge?!” Rainbow Dash yelled at the screen and in response the screen began to hypnotise the ponies as it created a whirl of colors and then finally coming to rest on a scene where Maternal is shown. Rainbow Dash stumbled backwards and nearly knocked herself out against the ceiling. “What just happened?” Rainbow Dash asked in shock “It seems that you may have given us a hint for the first challenge.” Princess Celestia complimented her and she blushed a little at the comment. Princess Luna looked at the scene confusingly, “What is it?” “It look like a memory of the dear’s life.” Rarity said “Shhh, let’s hear what he is saying.” Twilight hushed them and they all listened and watched the memory. It displayed Maternal in his regular form strolling through a city of some sort with huge buildings that made them feel like ants, people were everywhere calling for cabs and everything. Maternal took a deep breath, “Ha, New York, a place big enough for people but never big enough for the future.” Maternal looked at a map that he had in his hand which showed New York City but it was edited with a red marker. Maternal continued drawing until it looked like a race track zooming through the city and he wrote START on Staten Island and FINISH in Central Park but something was missing. Maternal tapped the marker against his chin thoughtfully, “It would be good but something is missing...hmm.” He suddenly heard a loud roar to his left which made him look and see a movie theater headline that displayed Jurassic Park and King Kong on it. Maternal smiled at that and looked at his map and checked it off. “So how does this tells us what the first challenge is?” Applejack asked confused “Is the first challenge, a race perhaps?” Fluttershy suggested and Princess Celestia widened her eyes at that. “Fluttershy, you could be onto something.” Princess Celestia agreed “Yes, this must be the first challenge.” Princess Luna added “A race in New York City!” Twilight exclaimed and jumped up happily “YAY! How do we get there?” Pinkie Pie asked and the whole group fell silent on that because they now realised that New York City is not on Equestria. “Let’s figure this out tomorrow, we have royal duties to attend.” Princess Luna said “Yes.” Princess Celestia faced the Mane Six “You all need some sleep, goodnight my little ponies.” “Goodnight Princesses.” They said and they exited the Archives and went there separate ways for the night. In Mt Everhoof A deep cavern descends into a labyrinth of sharp and dangerous turns that led into the unknown. A figure moves in the darkness and he was carrying a statue of somesort, he set it down in an open area next to four summoning circles. The figure began chanting ancient words of power and the summoning circles and the statue began to glow with power before the glow died down to reveal the five deadliest villains in all of Equestria. They revealed to be Queen Chrysalis, Lord Tirek, King Sombra, Cozy Glow and Discord, the most powerful villains to Princess Celestia! They all looked at each other confusingly and wondered why they here because you could never get these five villains to meet no matter what and two, why would they meet in a dusty old cave? “Alright! Which one of you brought me here?!” King Sombra roared and glared at the others “I don’t know but it wasn’t me!” Queen Chrysalis shot back at King Sombra and the two began yelling at each other. Discord was playing with a rubber ball boringly as he looked at Tirek and Cozy Glow who were approaching him, “So it was you who brought me here!” Tirek accused him “Why would I bring you here? I was stuck as a statue.” Discord replied and nodded towards a broken pedestal on the ground next to him. Cozy Glow flew up to Tirek’s face, “What are we doing in this disgusting cave anyway?” she asked “Don’t ask me you puny insolent! I didn’t bring anyone here!” Tirek roared at her which caused her to be pushed back by how loud he shouted. “Now for real, who brought us here?” King Sombra asked “That would be me.” a voice replied from the darkness and all five villains looked to the source of the voice and saw a figure wearing a dark cloak that concealed his identity. “WHO ARE YOU!” Tirek shouted impatiently at the figure and the being removed his cloak to reveal a ram with massive horns and a blue coat along with yellow eyes. “I am Grogar, the ancient sorcerer of Equestria.” The ram replied “Why did you summon us?!” Queen Chrysalis demanded him and Grogar smiled “Well I am sure you all heard that the ruler of the universe is fading, correct?” Grogar said and they all nodded in agreement. “The blasted princesses and the little mane six are preventing each one of us from taking the throne but if we worked together, we will crush them and take it for ourselves!” Grogar said as he paced back and forth looking each of them in the eye. The five villains nodded at each other and looked back at Grogar but Cozy Glow asked the question that everyone else was wondering, “If we help you then who becomes the ruler of the universe?” Grogar smiled evilly, “Me because I summoned you here and if we win then you can choose your own planet to rule over and I will grant you the power to crush anyone that stands in your way.” “Sounds good to me.” King Sombra agreed then grinned like a maniac “I’ve been waiting for the fall of Equestria for too long.” “I will devour all magic and show them who stronger!” Tirek added with a crack of his knuckles “I will unleash my changelings upon other planets and feed off of their love.” Queen Chrysalis added hungrily “I will torture that puny Celestia and show her true magic!!!” Cozy Glow laughed evilly “I will throw Equestria into so much chaos, not even the Elements of Harmony can repair it.” Discord said with a grin “Now my friends, when the ponies figure out the first challenge, you five will enter it and win the first key and we continue like this until we find the egg.” Grogar ordered and the five of them nodded and went their separate ways until the call came. In Ponyville Jonas woke to the sound of a royal horn bellowing into the morning sky, and immediately shot out of bed and zoomed down stairs and out the door. Jonas looked outside and saw Princess Celestia and Princess Luna escorted by royal guards enter the town and were walking to the town’s square, everypony woke up and started gathering around them to hear the news. “Jonas? Honey, are you okay?” His Aunt called down from upstairs “Ya I’m okay, The Princesses are in town and they seem to have some news for us.” Jonas responded and his Aunt came downstairs to see what was happening. “Well, let’s go see what the news is shall we?” His Aunt replied with a smile and they both went outside to see what’s up. “My little ponies, gather around!” Princess Celestia said and everypony including the Mane Six listened to what The Princesses had to say. “We have made a discovery last night and this corresponds with Maternal’s challenge.” Princess Celestia announced and gestured for Princess Luna to step forward and speak. “Last night in Canterlot, I discovered a portal that led to another world, we sent a scout to see where the portal leads to and we have confirmed it led to New York City, Maternal’s first challenge.” Princess Luna announced and everypony cheered then began questioning what is the challenge before Princess Celestia calmed them down. “Calm down everypony! Yesterday afternoon, The Mane Six accompanied us into the Archives where we discovered that in order to achieve the first key, one of us must win the race in New York City to obtain it. We will all participate in the race including me and my sister and if you wish not to race then that is fine but may the fastest win!” Princess Celestia shouted and again everypony cheered happily and The Wonderbolts appeared led by Spitfire. “Alright, anypony who wants to participate in the race, follow me!” Spitfire ordered and began flying towards Canterlot followed by almost everypony in Ponyville. Jonas looked at the crowd heading to Canterlot and looked down sadly because he knew his Aunt wasn’t going to let him race, since he has blazing speed on his side. His Aunt must’ve saw his expression because she smiled and gave Jonas a hug and whispered in his ear softly, “Go.” Jonas widened his eyes and released the embrace and looked at his Aunt again and she nodded with a smile on her face. Jonas had tears in his eyes and he hugged his Aunt before following the crowd to Canterlot and his Aunt wishing him Good Luck. What nobody didn’t realize was that there was someone watching them in the darkness and the figure’s eyes glowed green before vanishing into the black. An hour later Jonas was one of the hundreds of racers standing before the portal that led to New York City, racers piled into the city so it was a tough time concentrating when they are ponies, griffons and dragons yelling and talking to one another even though they were right next to each other. “This is crazy.” Jonas mumbled to himself and saw everypony were in the groups that they chose, ponies teamed up with ponies, griffons teamed up with other griffons, dragons teamed up with other dragons. They were piling up front and pushing Jonas to the back which basically meant first come, first serve. Jonas flew and hung out in the back of the crowd and waited until they started going into the portal which since it was 50 feet long, that wouldn’t be long from now. Meanwhile The Mane Six were in the front of the crowd along with The Princesses, the girls were all excited especially Rainbow Dash. “This is so cool!” Rainbow Dash said as she looked over the crowd “I can’t believe I am going to be racing against everyone in Equestria!” “Ya but there are so many ponies here along with griffons and… dragons.” Fluttershy said with a shudder Applejack patted her back, “It’ll be fine partner, we got each others backs.” Twilight nodded and smiled, “As long as we stick together, we’ll be okay.” then she looked at Princess Celestia who was looking over the crowd “Princess Celestia, what made you want to race?” “I never got the chance to have fun, what better way to have fun then have some friendly competition?” Princess Celestia said with a smile “Best of luck Twilight Sparkle.” Princess Luna wished her “You too.” Twilight said and looked at Pinkie Pie who was super duper happy. “EVERYPONY IN ONE PLACE, THIS MEANS A PARTY!!!” Pinkie Pie screamed out loud in happiness “Well I hope we don’t get run over by anypony else.” Rarity said as she looked at the crowd “We won’t.” Twilight promised then looked at The Princesses who began speaking, “Citizens of Equestria, we would like to thank you for participating in Maternal’s challenge, may the best team win!!!” Princess Celestia shouted and everybody cheered until a voice said beside her, “Yes she wished everyone good luck, even us!” While the crowd was talking and everything, The Mane Six and The Princesses looked and saw Discord, Queen Chrysalis, Lord Tirek, King Sombra and Cozy Glow standing there in front of them as a group. “How… This is impossible! How were you released from your prisons?!” Princess Luna shouted Discord replied, “Well that is irrelevant, but don’t worry, we are not here for Equestria, we are here for the throne of course!” “Yes!” Cozy Glow said “Once we win this race, we will have the upper hand in this challenge!” “Like you said.” King Sombra said and walked a couple steps forward, “May the best team win.” he said with a smile and the villains turned to the portal and stepped through it without permission. Princess Celestia growled at this but she couldn’t do anything about this because there were too many innocents in the area. Rainbow Dash flew up Princess Celestia and said, “Don’t worry Princess! We will win this race!” she assured her “Yes! We won’t give up!” Twilight said and the girls had looks of determination on their faces and all began stepping through the portal. The crowd began to shrink as they entered the portal to New York City and Jonas was still hanging at the back of the crowd as they ventured through the portal and when the last of them disappeared Jonas looked back at Equestria before stepping through the portal. Jonas entered the other side and gasped, this New York City was massive! Even bigger than Manehattan and Canterlot combined! Jonas doesn’t know how a planet can build something like this but whoever built this, they are very good at what they do. Jonas looked in front of his and expected a crowd but instead he got 10 different portals in front of him which confused him. “Where did everyone go?” Jonas asked himself but when he looked above the portals, each had a fraction over it, 60/60 RACERS. “That must mean the amount of racers allowed in each race.” Jonas realised and looked through the line of portals until his eyes rested on the last one because it read 29/60 RACERS. “Might as well hurry up.” Jonas said and with his speed, he zoomed to the portal, slowed down and stepped through. Jonas reappeared on what looks to be an island just off of New York City, he looked around and saw that he was racing against some dragons and griffins but when Jonas looked to the front, he paled dramatically. In the front of the group was The Mane Six and The Princesses along with the five most POWERFULEST villains in all of Equestria. The villains were Discord, Queen Chrysalis, Lord Tirek, Cozy Glow and King Sombra all standing in the same spot just to play for the throne, Jonas did wonder if they played, who was going to come out on top. “I am up against some ponies way out of my league.” Jonas said and he heard a rumble in front of him that jarred him out of his thoughts and he saw a gigantic bridge constructing until it connecting with the starting line so hard, it shook the ground. In the Front of the Group The Mane SIx and The Princesses took their places while the villains took their places. Princess Celestia looked towards her student and her friends, “Remember what Maternal said, we will feel stronger and faster than usual and we cannot die here so do not fear of messing up, we are all in this together.” Twilight nodded and looked at Fluttershy who was shaking in fear and Applejack put a hoof on her back, “It will be fine partner, we are going to win.” Applejack said confidently “YA!! I’m gonna leave those bad guys in the dust!” Rainbow Dash said and looked at the Mean Five which made Cozy Glow look at her. “We’ll see about that losers!!!” She yelled back and before Rainbow Dash can shoot back a response, a countdown began to happen and all racers got ready. In the Back of the Racers Jonas saw the countdown 3...2...1… he waited for zero but it never came which confused Jonas until he heard something like a firework going off and looked up to see a green firecracker sail down to the large START sign in front of them and exploded in a shower of green sparkles which meant GO!!! Everyone took off with high speeds and Jonas had no choice but to use his super speed to help him out with the constant colliding of everyone else into each other. Jonas saw a gap appear between a griffon and a dragon and sped through it and continued maneuvering through the competitors until he came close to the front of the pack. It was until then the bridge had run out and immediately obstacles began hitting the racers, large metal machines on wheels began driving into the racers and they began falling, one long metal machine caught five racers. Jonas saw one of these monstrosities came rolling towards him but he saw a gap underneath it and slid underneath and kept going, focusing on his surroundings. The racers entered a dark part of the city where a giant beast lumbered out of nowhere, roared and began stomping and chomping on unfortunate racers, Jonas saw couple of racers get stomped but the most heartbreaking was that two of the Mane Six and two of the Mean Five got crushed by the massive animal. “NOO!!!” Jonas heard somepony say and he looked and saw that it was from a lavender unicorn also known as Twilight Sparkle but nonetheless all of them made it out alive, according to the racers left and the names that he knew, he saw the remaining 11 racers but Fluttershy, Applejack, Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, and Cozy Glow weren’t in there. From that encounter, the 11 racers including Jonas raced towards some buildings that were under construction but they weren’t out of the danger room yet. Giant wrecking balls began swinging and the first three swings caught three unfortunate racers who weren’t paying attention but Jonas quickly dodged all of them and looked behind him to see his blue energy trail and his wings glowing blue with speed. Jonas refocused on the racers in front of him and saw it had changed dramatically. The only racers that were left were Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Twilight Sparkle, Lord Tirek, Discord and himself which meant only six racers left out of the eleven that were just now here. “This is intense!” Jonas said to himself and sped up to the remaining racers who were intent on finishing this. As Jonas caught up to the others, he looked up at a large skyscraper that gleamed in the sun but there was a massive and muscular figure standing on it and it jumped from its position and began jumping from building to building and was gathering giant slabs of stone in its hands. The six racers made a right and saw the finish line that was about two miles away standing there in all its glory and the other racers went for it, pouring on speed and leaving Jonas behind. Before Jonas can increase his speed, he saw the massive creature throw his projectiles and it crushed the racers in front of him and Jonas cried out in sorrow for them but they were gone and Jonas was forced to fly around the wreckage and speed for the finish line. Jonas got closer until the massive primate appeared in front of him which forced him to stop, just in front of the Ape’s face which he reared up and roared in triumph.  “How is anyone supposed to win a race like this?” Jonas asked himself and he suddenly appeared back in Canterlot along with the hundreds of racers who were looking up which made him look up and saw a massive scoreboard has appeared but nobody got any points which meant nobody had won the race. “Oh well, better luck next time.” A pony said beside me and they all nodded and went back to their homes which meant in Ponyville, Appleloosa, right here in Canterlot or wherever they live. Jonas opened up his wings and headed towards Ponyville to see his Aunt and tell her what had happened during the race. With The Mane Six and The Princesses “I can’t believe we lost.” Twilight said in disbelief “Ya and I can’t believe you lasted longer than I did.” Rainbow Dash wailed and the girls laughed a little at the joke “Well at least we can try again tomorrow.” Rarity said hopefully “Yes and we will win tomorrow.” King Sombra said as he and the villains walked up to them Princess Celestia got her horn ready, “You won’t win, no matter what you try.” Lord Tirek smiled crookedly, “I have to admit this race is extremely difficult but no matter, we will prevail whether you like it or not.” Now Princess Luna decides to shoot back, “So! Even though the race is difficult doesn’t mean we can’t win it!”  Queen Chrysalis decided to make things more interesting, “Well then, how about we have a deal?” “What deal?” Rainbow Dash demanded “A competition between your group and our group, nobody else allowed. If you win the race then we will never enter The Creator’s challenge again but if we win, every citizen in Equestria will not be allowed to enter The Creator’s challenge and we will be the only ones to participate.” Queen Chrysalis offered “We will never agree to something like that!” Twilight yelled “You know Equestria could use some… dark chaos.” Discord said flexing his fingers and grinning at them while Lord Tirek cracked his knuckles to emphasize his point. “Fine.” Princess Celestia spat out venomously and before she continue the villains disappeared in a cloud of smoke. “Ah can’t believe we were forced to agree to something like that!” Applejack said in anger and the other girls nodded. “Yes, those ruffians will cheat to win!” Rarity yelled in anger “I don’t think you can cheat.” Princess Luna said which made The Mane Six and her sister look at her confused “What do you mean?” Twilight asked confused “When those wrecking balls came swinging down, I tried to teleport out of the way but it didn’t work and I got hit. Maternal must have put restrictions in his challenges to ensure everypony plays fairly.” Princess Luna explained “So that is why my rainbow speed didn’t work!” Rainbow Dash suddenly realised “So everypony is like earth ponies then?” Pinkie Pie said  “I guess so.” Fluttershy replied “I need to catch some sleep and put Spike to bed.” Twilight said as she let out a yawn  “You all should get your sleep, we will try again tomorrow.” Princess Celestia said and the girls went back to Ponyville while the Princesses flew back to the castle. Jonas’s Aunt’s House Jonas flew and landed at his front door and took a deep and long breath. “I hope she won’t be mad.” Jonas mumbled to himself and he opened the door to see his Aunt sweeping the house and it took her three seconds to acknowledge that the door had opened, her eyes met with her nephew’s. “How did it go, dear?” His Aunt asked “I lost and so did everybody else, nobody won today.” Jonas said sadly His Aunt stopped sweeping and looked at him confused, “What do you mean nobody won?” Jonas explained the race little by little and detail by detail with every little terrifying moment that scared the life out of him and also the group he was in. “So you raced against The Mane Six, The Princesses and the five worst villains in Equestria and you managed to make more progress than them?” Frosty Mane clarified “Ya but the stupid primate prevented me from finishing the race.” Jonas said “Well, what are you going to do?” Frosty Mane asked Jonas looked at the window which showed Maternal’s Archives, “I’m gonna go into the archives and see what I can find, nobody can beat that race no matter what they try.” His Aunt thought about this, “I suppose that won’t be a bad idea, but be back before dinner!” she called out as Jonas went to the door. “Okay!” Jonas replied and closed the door behind him and looked around, some ponies were walking around and picking up some last minute things, some were talking about the race and whining about how they were so close to winning even though they missed by a mile and the occasional gossip. “Okay, time to see how win this race.” Jonas said to himself as he entered the Archives to be greeted by an extraordinary structure and the amazing lobby that Maternal designed. “Hello there!” a voice said to his left which made him turn his head in that direction to see that the voice belonged to a robot of some sort that stood on two legs and had a stretchy stance to him, his skin was silver and had a proper suit, tie and pants to match his attire. “I am The Curator, Maternal assigned me here to lead beings around the Archives, I assume you are here to look for something?” He asked “Yes, where do I go?” Jonas asked “Oh no need to worry about that, I will show you around, follow me.” The Curator said and led Jonas through the mazes of hallways around this massive building until he stopped at a room with a giant screen on it that said READY. The Curator turned to him, “Good luck!” and disappeared in a shower of gold “WAIT! What am I supposed to do?” Jonas shouted but got no response, with a sigh he turned to the screen and wondered what he had to do. “Umm… Show me… uh… New York City?” Jonas stuttered and the screen responded and showed Maternal designing the race in New York City with a marker and paper. Jonas looked at this memory to see if he could get some information out of it but no luck and the memory ended. Jonas thought to himself, “If he didn’t give us a hint in the drawing, then he probably talked it over with himself.” Jonas looked at the screen, “Show me something in New York City that inspired his race.” he ordered and the screen revealed Maternal watching some television with some guy talking. “New York is fine just the way it is, no change is needed.” The guy on TV said which turned out to be the mayor of New York. Maternal grunted, “It needs a massive change.” He said but continued watching “As your mayor, I can assure you that I will lower the crime rate in this place by 30%” The mayor promised “The last mayor to say that didn’t make the crime rate decrease.” Maternal commented “Onto the buildings, there will be more schools, more jobs and more money made! We will be able to forward at a speed faster than the speed of light!” The mayor shouted and spread his arms out and the crowd cheered. Maternal turned the TV off, “More construction, that’s the last thing everybody wants, why can’t he be a dreamer and think of something that everyone will enjoy but you have to add more complications to my project.” he said and looked at the picture he created with the race “How do you beat the race?” Jonas asked silently and hoped for an answer “Hmm, Tyrannosaurus Rex is firmly in place, King Kong defends the end no matter what and nobody will get passed him so..” Maternal said before someone entered his room which turned out to be his friend, Alex. “Maternal, what are you doing?” Alex asked “I’m just looking at my race…” Maternal started to explain but Alex snapped “Why do you keep focusing on some stupid race! We created something Maternal, something more important than a race!” Alex shouted “Nothing is more important than what I am doing.” Maternal calmly replied “The world is gonna move forward with or without you, its up to you whether you accept it or not.” Alex said before leaving the room “You know what, forget it.” Jonas said and began walking back to the lobby to leave the building. Behind him Maternal spoke, “Why can’t we go backwards for once… backwards.” At that moment, Jonas stopped and looked back at the memory, “Really fast, really put the petal to the metal you know.” Maternal finished Jonas ran back to the screen, “Go back! Ten Seconds!” Jonas stopped and looked as the memory reversed back by ten seconds. “Why can’t we go backwards for once… backwards. Really fast, really put the pedal to the metal you know.” Maternal repeated for Jonas. Jonas widened his eyes and zoomed out of the Archives and stopped at the door to walk out, its nighttime and the moon shone brightly as Jonas ran back to his Aunt’s house. He opened the door to be greeted by Frosty Mane with an angry look on her face. “You said you’d be back before dinner.” His Aunt said angrily “I know, I’m sorry but I think I know how to beat the race.” Jonas said quietly Frosty Mane’s angry look disappeared and was replaced by curiosity, “How?” but Jonas shook his head. “I don’t know if I am right but I will have to find out tomorrow.” Jonas said and his Aunt nodded. “Well then, come eat you dinner and get some sleep, honey.” Frosty Mane said and Jonas ate his dinner and went to bed hoping his plan was right.