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Forty

“Sorry Sweetie Belle,” you shake your head at the disappointed young filly. “I have a mission to complete! Lead the way Honey Trap!” You follow the mysterious pony out of the town hall, leaving behind a room of disappointed ponies pining for your presence.

“It’s this way, we must hurry!” Honey Trap starts to run, faster and faster; you start to wheeze as you struggle to keep up with her. Your journey takes you outside Ponyville, past fields and trees until finally as the sun starts to set, you arrive in a small forest clearing in which seems to be a mound of hay.

“What is it?” You squint into the darkness as you try to make out the shape. It seems to be a crude statue of a pony made out of sticks, towering above you at over thirty feet. “It’s… a pony?”

“Yes!” Honey Trap nods, pointing to a hole in one of the hooves. “The Time Orb’s in there, but it’s hidden by Templar riddles! I know you are an expert on such things Mr Cage, only you have the intelligence to enter the wicker pony and retrieve the Time Orb!”

You crack your knuckles, striding up to the giant pony. “Well, I am pretty amazing!” you smile, crouching down to clamber inside the hoof. It’s a tight fit, and you can feel twigs scratching your sides as you slowly climb up the leg and into the belly, looking around. “I can’t see any Templar clues!” you shout through a tiny crack in the side.

“Keep looking!” Honey Trap calls back, and from the outside you can see that she’s lit a torch so she can see better in the dark. What a lovely pony. “Try the roof!”

You fumble around in the dark belly of the wicker pony, your hands moving along the ceiling, feeling along the roughly woven wooden top for any hints. It feels strangely sticky, and smells so sweet. “Honey?” you mutter to yourself, licking your fingers. It is honey. As you taste it, more and more honey starts to ooze from the roof, covering your body. “Ugh!” you mutter, as you continue to feel above your head.

In triumph, your hands hit a round structure. “The Time Orb!” you shout. “I’ve got it!” With a hard yank, you pull it free.

Your ears fill with a buzzling noise, as from the ‘Time Orb’ emerges a swarm of bees, which proceed to flood over your body. Instantly you feel your body swelling into a thousand welts as the bees sting you, causing you to scream out. “OH GOD NO, BEES!” you cry, scrambling for the exit. You can’t find it, the door seems to have been closed, and you flounder, trapped in the darkness, trying desperately to scrape bees away from your face. “HONEY TRAP, HELP!”

“The drone must die!” Through the mist of bees covering your vision, you glimpse a flash of flame outside. Honey Trap is coming closer to the wicker pony, holding her flaming torch aloft. “The drone must die so the honey harvest will prosper!” She places the torch on one of the pony’s feet, and the entire structure starts to burst into flames.

You fall to the wicker floor, trapped and covered in bees as fire starts to consume everything. You groan. You can’t believe you’ve fallen for the old ‘wicker-pony-full-of-bees’ trick.

BAD END

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