//------------------------------// // Chapter Five Round One is Coming to a Close // Story: Celestia's Insane Game // by Sanquil //------------------------------// Chapter 5 Round One of C I G Four matches. Eight ponies. Three Rings. How does Celestia plan on pulling off these last matches together? “Ladies and Gentleponies!” Celestia’s voice rang true and clear. “Due to the number of matches left, my architects and I have designed a temporary fourth arena so that the four matches can be done quickly and effectively. The last monitor should scroll down in a minute.” True to her word, the monitor slid down from an empty slit in the ceiling. “Well, enough dilly-dallying. Let the final matches of round one commence!” Everypony watched as the remaining ponies trotted up to the guards stationed around the three doors. Pinkie Pie, Time Turner, Shoe Shine, Raindrops, Sea Swirl, Wind Whistler, Parasol, and Noteworthy waited to see if Celestia would announce who fought who. Finally, Princess Luna, in a soft voice, used the intercom. “Excuse me.” She said. “My sister seemed to have gotten ahead of herself. As much as I would love to just leave this unsaid, ponies will be punished if I don’t say this. Pinkie Pie will face Shoeshine, Parasol with face Noteworthy, Sea Swirl and Raindrops will fight, and finally Wind Whistler verses Time Turner.” Then, adding after the guards had left, she said, “Please, hold on. I have an idea that might save the rest of you. I’m sorry that so many of you had to die, and that I can’t save four more, but it isn’t ready.” The guards ordered the ponies to pair up with their partner and go through the doors. In the hallway to the far left, it split, opening up to the fourth arena, an exact duplicate of the others. Pinkie and Shoeshine will fight in this temporary arena whilst the others fight in the other three. Pinkie surveyed the arena, so did her opponent. Shoeshine thought carefully about each of the boxes, wondering which would be worth a grab, and which were to be left. Pinkie’s plan wasn’t like Shoeshine’s. She planned to grab a box, open it, and use it’s contents to quickly end this. She really didn’t want to kill another pony, but there wasn’t any other way out of it. Suddenly, the bell rang, signaling the start of the matches. Sea Swirl dove behind the cover of a large box, prying open the small one in her hooves. As she got it open, the box that was her cover suddenly exploded without warning. Raindrops stood there, holding what looked like a rocket launcher. “Oh yes.” Celestia’s voice came from the intercom, “I forgot to mention, I added new weaponry. Now things will really ‘light up’” Inside Sea Swirl’s box was a stack of grenades, but not like those that she’s seen in the earlier matches. These were sticks instead of balls. Without thinking, she pulled the pin, throwing it towards Raindrops, hoping for the best. As she did this, Raindrops fired another rocket at her. Time Turner ran frantically around the arena knocking open random small boxes with his hooves, smashing the wooden frames to bits. He didn’t have time to catch his breath, because his enemy, Wind Whistler, was throwing javelins at him constantly, trotting to retrieve them. After all the seemingly random running, Time Turner stopped, turned, and faced his attacker. Wind Whistler threw another javelin his way, Time Turner sidestepped with relative easy. The javelin struck a grenade, causing it to explode. The explosion it set off caused a chain reaction with all the “randomly” smashed boxes, arranged oh so carefully so it would launch the javelin into the air to be blown up again. This explosion made the flying stick a flipping projectile of death, aimed directly for Wind Whistler. As Wind Whistler turned to run, she found herself trapped, unable to move. Looking down, she had activated a shock trap, paralyzing her. She turned her head, pleading with her eyes to Celestia’s camera for mercy. “I’m sorry, but I can’t die here.” Time Turner said to her, just before the javelin came down on her, splattering the wall ahead with blood. Time Turner left the arena without a scratch. Pinkie bounced around the arena, dodging all of her opponent, Shoeshine’s attacks with relative ease. Her pinkie sense allowed the ability to avoid all incoming projectiles directed her way. She stomped a box in front of her, and to her luck, it contained a bag of poison joke. Taking the bag of herbs, she quickly dashed forward to Shoeshine, throwing the bag on his head. It opened and instantly, he became something he was not. The poison joke worked perfectly. As long as he is like he is, he will be unable to attack Pinkie while she works to find something to finish this. The rocket missed, but it’s shrapnel soon found a home inside Sea Swirl’s flank. Searing pain spread across her in an instant. She only hoped her grenade helped. She looked over, stunned by what she saw. A large flash of light had taken the place of Raindrops. The flash of light quickly faded, leaving a dizzied Raindrops behind. This gave Sea Swirl an idea. Noteworthy ran headfirst, charging with the only weapon she could find, a trident. Parasol stood there, unable to think. She was still too stunned by the actuality of this entire tournament happening to pay attention to the pony looking to impale her. Parasol snapped out of it just in time to jump, landing right on top of the end of the trident, keeping Noteworthy from using it. Parasol threw her hoof at Noteworthy, hitting her square in the side of the face, knocking out a few teeth. Noteworthy responded with a buck in the lower jaw, shattering the jaw bone from the shear force delivered, making Parasol stumble backwards into the wall, and get electrocuted by it. Parasol’s charred body lay still on the ground. The door out opened, allowing exit for Noteworthy, but she didn’t budge. Collapsing, reality crashed down upon her. She had just murdered another one of her kind in cold blood. What was wrong with her. The guards came in to carry her out shortly after that. Pinkie had found exactly what she was looking for. Of course Celestia would include this in her tournament of death. It was perfect for it. The party cannon lay inside the largest box, which now was open. She rolled the party cannon out of the box, and checked it. No ammo for it, of course. That was okay, because she had planned for that. Pinkie Pie rolled the party cannon at crazy speeds towards Shoeshine, the end facing him. She scooped Shoeshine up once he was close enough. Lighting the fuse of the cannon, she felt herself falling. Not falling through the ground, but falling apart. She was about to kill a pony for her own gain. How could she do this? In a quick change of plans, Pinkie turned the party cannon 90 degrees upward, facing the ceiling. The party cannon doesn’t have enough power to launch him that high. The cannon shot Shoeshine straight up. He flailed around, trying to get his bearing straight. Falling, Pinkie realized something. Shoeshine would land on his head, breaking his neck, killing him. She scrambled around to find something soft for him to land on, but she was too late. Shoeshine hit the ground hard. His skull shattered, and as Pinkie predicted, his neck broke, killing him instantly. The door to the exit opened, and Pinkie Pie turned to it. She zoned out for a minute. When she returned to reality, her mane and tail flattened out. She exited to the concerned look of her friends. Limping heavily, Sea Swirl headed towards a box. This box was rather large, but not too absurdly so. Inside was an exact version of Raindrops’ rocket launcher. As she got everything together, another rocket whizzed past her ear, hitting the far wall. Sea Swirl took out her second flash bang, and pulled the pin. She then proceeded to load it into the launcher. She only had a short time. Shooting off her flash bang, it hit a rocket fired by Raindrops in mid-flight. It still stunned Raindrops like planned, so it worked out in her favor. Loading up the actual rocket, she took aim, and fired. The rocket stayed on course, hitting Raindrops in the chest, blowing her to pieces. The scene was gory, and Celestia loved it. “Bravo!” Celestia rang out once again over the intercom, “Bravo! This was something I never expected to happen. I love it!” away from the microphone, everypony heard, “Looks like I owe you 20 bits.” As she said this, Sea Swirl left the blood covered arena, shaken, and heavily injured. “Well,” Celestia said, returning to the mike, “It looks as if this first round of our little tournament has come to a close. Sleep well everypony, we will have a big celebration for you survivors. I congratulate you all.”