Me and Twilight stood in the dungeon, the ground was covered with a magical pentagram that slowly rotated beneath our feet....I backed up but noticed I couldn't move out of the circle. I stared at the mare with her horn aglow, a determined look on her face. I was about to get into a magical duel with Twilight Sparkle, the magic mare extrordinaire. Floating in front of her was a spell book, open wide and spread in front of her. I too, had one, but the pages were written in Equestrian...I couldn't understand the mysterious symbols. Finally, Pinkie threw a magical ball into the center of the pentagram, making a small shower of sparks.
"The magic duel is underway!! Twilight Sparkle! Versus! Austiiinnnn! BEGIN!"
Suddenly, a large panel appeared in front of me. Like a hologram. It showed a list of symbols and words, followed by a briefing about what the spell would do. It was like...an RPG...Very...Final Fantasy-esque. I hovered my hand over one of the spells. It highlighted itself and showed me the stats, followed by my own stats.
HP: 200
Attack: 150
Magic: 400
Defence: 100
Willpower: 50
I could only assume what they all meant. I decided that I would just use some of my magic. I selected a Dark spell from the list and my hands glowed in a purple and black light. I closed one hand part way. It wouldn't make a fist. It was like I was grabbing something. Suddenly, a magical orb appeared in my hand, then expanded into a spear-like shape. I aimed at Twilight.
Words flashed in front of me: "Dark Spell - Shadow Spear" I threw the spell at her, striking her with it, causing the spell to explode and do damage to her. A long bar appeared below her. The bar depleted from 250 to 190, doing about 60 damage in all. I now had a choice to use a potion from my kit or end my turn. I decided to open my bag. It led to a new screen, showing 3 coloured bottles. Red, blue and green. Red, for HP. Blue, for Magic. And Green, for Defence. A new potion appeared, I guess as a reward. It was purple. The name read "Bubble Shield". I decided to drink that one.
The bottle appeared in my hand and I downed the contents. I gagged violently. It was extremely bitter. Suddenly, a purple force field appeared around me in the shape of a protective bubble. The turn then switched to Twilight. Twilight looked through her spells, and finally settled on a blue one. Words flashed in front of her.
"Ice Spell - Frozen Fury"
The spell launched toward me and hit my shield, freezing it and shattering it like glass. The remaining spell managed to get me and do 20 damage, dropping my HP to about 180. Twilight passed on the potion and ended her turn. The menu appeared once more. I flipped the page. I had weapons too. Only 2 though. A sword and a magic staff. I went with the staff.
The staff materialized in my hands and I lunged at Twilight, striking her twice with my staff, sending magical bursts. Her HP dropped quickly, leaving her with a mere 50 HP. I passed on my potion as well.
Twilight then grinned and opened a new spell. Her spell flashed black, green, purple and red. I immediately recognized it, even having never seen it before. Her spell launched at me and I felt a piercing pain in my entire chest. My HP dropped to 10. She then used one last potion to end her turn. The potion launched toward me and hit me square in the face. HP 0.
"Twilight Sparkle wins!" The arena disappeared, and I dropped to my knees, feeling quite defeated. The mares cheered and smiled. I wasn't very happy. I finally understood. I finally got what was going on here. This box. This weird box is a portal to one's imagination. That means, whatever you think of can happen. So I snapped my fingers, and my attire flashed from mage's robes to ordinary clothes. I stood up and pushed the heavy wooden door open and left. The ponies looked at each other, then went after me.
"Austin, wait!" Twilight stopped in front of me. "We didn't mean to upset you!"
"Yeah well, next time let me fight someone who isn't any good at magic and maybe we can have an even match." I continued past her.
"But Austin, you have to be okay with losing...It's just a game!"
"Well a game isn't fun if you can't win."
"You could though!"
"You beat me with one straight shot when I had 180 HP...I hardly landed a blow on you..."
Pinkie corrected me. "well, actually, she had about 50 HP from 250...you did about 200 damage in 2 turns-"
"YEAH AND SHE DID 200 DAMAGE IN ONE TURN."
Pinkie's ears flattened against her head.
"I'm sorry, but when the odds are clearly out of my favour, you seem to think that I'll be okay with it all. I mean, if I don't even stand a chance of winning the very start of the game, then what's the point in playing?"
The ponies looked at each other, then back at me.
"Well...how can we make it up to you?"
"How about we play a game of MY creation?"
"Um...sure." They all agreed to that. It seemed pretty fair.
"Perfect..."
The area turned into a glass box with a wooden floor. 6 rubber balls appeared along the center line, dividing it into 2 halves. The ponies stood on one side, myself on the other.
"Eliminate your opponents. Hit them with a ball, they're eliminated. You catch a ball, the thrower is eliminated. Get a ball knocked away by an opponent, you're eliminated. Step across the center line, you're eliminated. You can only throw a ball. You can't kick, punch, headbutt, spit on or even step on ball. The game ends once one team has no available players left."
"What are the teams?" Twilight questioned.
"Me vs you 6."
"But the odds aren't in your-"
"No, suprisingly it's pretty even. Oh by the way. You can dodge the ball you know. You don't just stand in place and throw them, hoping they'll miss."
"Are you sure?" Pinkie asked.
"Positive."
3...2...1...GO!
The 6 ponies all ran and grabbed a ball. I stood there, non-chalant.
"Um..."
"Just go." I smiled at them.
The ponies looked at each other, then shrugged and all threw their balls at once. I slipped between the gaps quite easily, managing to catch Fluttershy's ball in the process. Fluttershy suddenly disappeared into a flurry of smoke, and reappeared outside the glass box. I grinned.
"My turn." I threw the ball with a backspin. Rainbow dodged it quite easily.
"Ha!" She taunted. Suddenly, the ball's backspin made it reverse direction in midair and hit her in the flank.
"What?!" Rainbow disappeared and appeared with Fluttershy, completely confused about how that worked. I picked up another ball and rubbed it against my hair, charging it with static. I fired the ball toward Twilight, who dodged it. But the ball turned around and chased her. She ran around her side of the court, the ball not letting her out of range. Suddenly, she ran into the glass wall, and the ball hit her. She appeared outside with Rainbow, rubbing her muzzle.
"Owww..." She moaned.
I threw another one, this one intended for Rarity. Applejack suddenly leapt in front and it hit her instead, making her appear outside. Rarity picked up the ball and threw it. I caught it and she disappeared too. Pinkie stood there, determined to win. I was too.
The physics-breaker vs the dodgeball player....the pink mare vs the brown hair.....the party girl vs the earth world....The final showdown.
2 players....1 ball....She suddenly wrapped her curly tail around the ball and threw it toward me. I dodged it and threw it back. Pinkie dodged it and threw it back. This continued for a while.
Finally, Pinkie picked it up and wound it up in her tail. Her tail coiled around it like a snake, then fired it at me. The ball spun so fast it created a sonic boom, and slammed into me. I hit the wall, and slid down. The girls watched in hushed anticipation. I slowly moved my arms away, revealing the ball sitting in my lap. Stalemate....
I had caught the ball, but dropped it...The room disappeared and we were sitting in a grassy field. The girls took a few steps back in case I burst into anger again. I smiled and started to laugh. The girls started to laugh too, but awkwardly. I just stood up and smiled at them.
"Thanks."
"For what?"
"For showing me a good time. This is the most fun I've had in a while."
They smiled and walked over, then I felt something weird. I opened my eyes and saw them in a group hug with me. Huh...The famous MLP group hug. I just smiled and put Pinkie into a headlock and playfully rustled her mane. She laughed and pushed against me.
=================
We crawled out of the box about another 2 hours later. We sat in the living room just relaxing after the fun we had inside that mysterious cardboard crate. Then I felt something flop onto my lap. I looked down and saw Pinkie laying there on her back, smiling at me. I playfully rubbed her belly and she laughed, obviously very ticklish. I sometimes question her behaviour. But I have to remember who I'm dealing with.
Finally, we went to bed, this time, I let all 6 ponies sleep in my bedroom. They all curled up either on or near my bed. I gave each one a blanket and pillow, and then passed out myself.