Shall we Play a Game?

by BlurredTheLines

Chapter Seven: Endgame/A Test of Friendship

The group huddles around Fluttershy “What happened?” Asks Rarity, her voice a bit shaken.

“What do you think? Part of this demented pony's 'games'” Rainbow Dash says, her eyes on Fluttershy's wounds.

“All right, stand back, I need to check a few things.” Twilight says, making a gesture to give her some space. They took a couple of steps back, and she begins inspecting her. The wound looks serious. A number of deep puncture wounds down the length of her leg, bone visible in a couple of them. She opens one of her eyelids to check her eye. Twilight then puts an ear to Fluttershy's chest, to check breathing and heartbeat. After this, she lightly pushes against her chest. She didn't stir.

She put her hoof to her chin, processing all the information she'd just collected. It all led to one conclusion, and she didn't like it. “Well,” Twilight said finally, “From what I can tell, she's beginning to exhibit the signs of shock.”

Pinkie gasps. “Is that serious?”

“Yes.” The rest of the ponies share a look of concern.

“Don't 'ya know some kinda healing spell or something?” Applejack asks.

“No, I don't... But if we could bandage her wounds, she would have better odds, but she will need medical treatment soon.”

“Say no more, Twilight, I have just the thing in mind.” Rarity says, stepping forward. “You wouldn't by any chance happen to know a spell that you could use to cut my tail, would you?”

“Well, I could try” she says. Rarity makes a gesture of where to cut, and Twilight readies a spell. She manages to cut off a section of her tail, which Rarity then uses to transform into a length of bandaging. Twilight then takes it, and casts a spell on it, and wraps it tightly around Fluttershy's leg

“The spell I cast should help stop the bleeding, but it's not a cure-all.” Twilight tells the rest of the ponies.

“My my, you've all made it to this point. Well, almost.” The now all too familiar voice returns.

“Y'all are headin' the right way for a flank kickin'!” Applejack shouts, feelings of rage fueling her actions.

“Make that a double!” Rainbow Dash adds, sharing Applejack's desire for violence.

“Heheh, I see you two haven't lost your spirit. Perhaps I should be disappointed.” They huff a sigh of indifference. The two remain unfazed, staring daggers at the display of the puppet. “Well, in any case, congratulations are in order. You've made it to the final round. For this game only one of you may play. I will give you a few minutes to decide amongst yourselves who goes.”

“Well, Fluttershy obviously can't go, I mean look at her, the poor dear.” Rarity says, gently stroking Fluttershy's mane.

“What about Applejack?” Pinkie suggests.

“This is the last 'game' of theirs, its no doubt worse than any of the games before it. we can't just arbitrarily decide this, we need to discuss it.” Twilight warned. They spent the next few minutes debating between themselves as to who should go. The debate proves futile however, as nopony could settle on who to send. One of them speaks up.

“I'll go.”

“Rainbow Dash, think about this. You don't know what they've got planned.” Applejack says, worried about her friend.

“Look, you've all had something bad happen to you, right? Nothing bad's happened to me, I'll go” she responds.

“Are you sure you wanna go through with this?”

Twilight notices the look in Rainbow Dash's eyes. She places a hoof to Applejack's shoulder. “Let her go.”

“But Twilight-”

She glances at Fluttershy, and returns her gaze to Applejack.

She sits down and sighs. “Just be safe, okay?”

Rainbow Dash looks over at her unconscious friend “I'll try...” she says, not as sure of herself as she had been earlier.

“Have you decided?” the voice asks.

“I'll do it” Rainbow Dash says, stepping forward.

“Very well, then,” A hole opens up in a wall, “on to the final challenge.”

“Good luck” Twilight says.

“Thanks, I'll need it.”

---

After walking down a long and narrow hallway, Rainbow Dash finds herself in another room. It is completely bare, save for a small platform in the middle of the room. The voice returns once more.

“Please step onto the platform, so we can begin the game.”

She makes her way over to the platform, and hesitantly steps onto it. As she does so, a band appears, binding her wings. “Hey, what gives?!” Rainbow Dash yells,struggling against her bindings.

“In order for you to properly play this game,you are disallowed the usage of your wings. It's the rules you see.”

“Then what's this 'game' of yours, anyway?” she retorts.

“Simple, see the two buttons in front of you?” She looks at the buttons, one is red, the other, green. “Press the red button and you will plummet to your death.”

“Why would I do something like that?!” Rainbow Dash asks, astonished that they would even suggest such a thing.

“If you want to save your friends you would. Press the green button, and you go free, but your friends might not be so lucky. So the choice is yours: either throw yourself into the pit, sacrificing your life for your friends, or turn your back on them to save yourself. Take as long as you need.”

Her heart ached as she stares at the buttons. A lump forms in her throat. How could she choose anything else? There was no way she could put herself before the needs of her friends. They were in a pinch, and she couldn't just leave them. Still, it didn't make it any less difficult a choice to make. its her life on the line, after all. Rainbow Dash takes a moment to find her resolve. She closes her eyes and presses the button.

The trapdoor opens under her hooves, and she falls into the hole. She holds out her front and back legs, hoping to stop her fall short. Her hooves touch the walls of the pit and she stops. Rainbow Dash takes look at the bottom of the pit. A number of spikes at the bottom, ready to skewer her should anything go amiss. I guess this is it, she thinks to herself. She could only hold on for so long, and Rainbow Dash knew it.

“R......ow Da...”

She thought she heard something. She listens closer.

“...inb... ..sh...”

she definitely heard something that time.

“Don't worry, Rainbow Dash, we're coming!”

Her heart leapt at those words.

“Twilight?!”

She smiles. Help is on the way, she just has to hold out until they get there. As time passes, so does her strength. Rainbow Dash finds it harder and harder to keep herself aloft. “Come on... Just a little more...” she says with effort, desperate to cling to the wall. But one of her legs buckle, and she falls further into the pit.

Rainbow Dash's heart lurches in her chest as her back leg gives out. She turns to her side as she falls, to give herself the best chances of survival. She returns her hooves to the walls in an attempt to slow her fall. She partially succeeds, but it isn't enough to stop her completely.

A number of spikes sink deep into her flank. Rainbow Dash lets out a cry of pain as she lands on the spikes. She uses her remaining three good legs to keep her as high off the spikes as she could. But with only three legs, it wasn't enough to keep her from slipping farther down. Even though she no longer had the momentum from her fall, the spikes are sharp enough that new ones found their way into her flesh with each bit of distance she lost.

“Rainbow Dash!” somepony calls out from above.

She looks up. “Twilight?”

Twilight levitated her out of the pit, laying her to rest on her uninjured side. “Are you okay?”

“Better now that you're here.”

“Looks like we'll need another bandage” Twilight says, assessing the injury. Twilight cuts her tail short and turns the cut section over to Rarity, who fashions it into another bandage. With Rainbow Dash's wounds tended to, the group heaved a collective sigh.

“Oh, Rainbow Dash, are you okay?” somepony asked.

She looked to see who it was. “Fluttershy! You're okay!” She was relieved to see her friend conscious. Enough to make her forget about her injury, if only for a moment.

“when y'all left, that pony put up a screen for us to see what went on in this room” Applejack says.

“We'd heard and seen everything that had happened” Rarity added.

“You were soo brave to risk your life for us like that” says Pinkie Pie, hugging her friend.

Twilight notices something off in the distance. “Look, a doorway” She says pointing to it. There was something strange about it. It was brightly lit, moreso than any room they'd previously been in.

“That wasn't there before...” Rainbow Dash says, confused.

“It must be the way out, come on” Twilight says.

“Uh, a little help?”

“I got'cha. Pinkie, you take Fluttershy.” Applejack says helping up Rainbow Dash. They leave the room, heading up the stairs. It leads into another room, but this one's different than all the others. It appears somepony was living in it. Applejack notices something sitting in a corner.

“That doll! That pony was here recently!”

“Applejack, calm down,” Twilight says placing a hoof to her shoulder, “Look around, they're long gone.” She took another look around the room. The place is in a state of disarray. Like somepony was in a rush to gather their important items and took off. She stomped at the floor with her hoof and let out a frustrated sigh.

“Here's the door out of here” Twilight says as she opens it. The bright light of the day shines in, and the ponies shield their eyes as they become adjusted to the sunlight. As they walk out, they see a pony laying in the grass. Applejack gasps at the sight.

“Apple Bloom?”

The pony's ears perk up, and they turn around.

“Applejack!”

Applejack left Rainbow Dash's side and runs toward Apple Bloom. The two embrace, and Applejack begins crying. “I'm sorry I did something so horrible to you...”

“It's okay, Applejack, you did it to save me, you had no choice.” Apple Bloom says, resting her head on one of Applejack's fore legs.

“Oh, Apple Bloom...” Applejack says, and strokes her mane. “But one thing I can't figure out, though, is how you got out here.”

“I don't know,” she replies, “after that door closed, everything stopped, so I ran to the door. But I don't remember making it there. Next thing I know, I'm out here, and I have this note.” She then holds out a letter.

“Let me see that” Twilight says, removing the letter from Apple Bloom's hoof. She takes a moment to read it. “Hey, there's directions to the nearest town.” she says, pointing off to a town on the horizon.

“Well, if for nothing else, that pony's good on their word.” Applejack says begrudgingly, staring off in the distance.

“We should get going” Rainbow Dash interjects.

Apple Bloom notices the bandaging on Fluttershy's and Rainbow Dash's legs. “What happened to you two?”

The two look at each other, then back at Apple Bloom, and say in unison “Its a long story...”

---

A few days later, the group meets at Twilight's house, to reflect on the recent events.

“I'm so glad that ordeal is behind us.” Rarity says, sitting on her chaise lounge.

“Hey, you got off easy, missy, all you had to do was wallow around in a pool of muck” Applejack retorts.

“Do you even know how many baths it took to get that horrendous stench out of my coat?”

Rainbow Dash interrupted the argument by saying “Well, at least its not my wing that's injured this time.”

“They did say you would have to watch your flying for a few days, lest you reopen your wounds.” Twilight reminded her, taking a moment to adjust her neck brace.

“I know. At least I'm not stuck in some boring old room for hours on end.”

“So Pinkie, how's the liquid diet?” Rarity asks.

“Fine” she responds, taking a sip of the milkshake in front of her. She had been put on a liquid diet for a few days to allow her mouth to heal.

“Oh, and Fluttershy, how's the help been with your animals?” Some of the residents had volunteered to assist Fluttershy with her care-taking when they'd heard what happened to her.

“It's been going okay.” she says. She thinks about something for a moment, then says, “What do you think happened to that pony who took us hostage?” They all turned to look at her. A good question, one they had no answer to.

Twilight considers this for a second and says, “Do you really think somepony could steal away a princess and get away with it? I'm sure the Royal Guard in Canterlot are forming a search for them as we speak.”

“I suppose so” Fluttershy responds, turning to the window to take a look at the moon.

Author's Note:

asdasdgafgasd so much text. this is the longest chapter I've ever written.

Comments

[BlurredTheLines]

And that's it. Story's done. Tomorrow (or is that later today) I will be doing final revisions before submitting it to the Nightmare Night contest. If there's anything you feel I should change, or add, or remove, please let me know.

[BlurredTheLines]

Whew, that's the revising done, now with 20% more consistency. Wow, a bit surprised at what all slipped under the cracks when I was first writing this.

EDIT: revised AGAIN. Wow, I'm glad I gave it another look before turning it in. Surprised at how much stuff got passed my attention. :/

[BlurredTheLines]

I don't like triple-posting, but...

Decided to pop back into Fimfiction for a bit, because I'd decided to write another story, and I notice this story got an influx of views recently. After seeing this, I decided to revise chapter three, since I'd considered it the most poorly written. Wonder what about season four's premier that caused so many views? Who knows? And with that comes my next point: Why does Test of Laughter have so many views? Seriously, it makes up about two-fifths of the story's total views. What did I do right? Horror is not my forte and I have little-to-no experience in writing it. That being said, however, I would like to improve it so that it's at least "good" to some degree. if you could give me some feedback on why that chapter is so popular compared to the others, I would very much appreciate it, as I would love to better myself as a writer.