//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: Ogres and Oubliettes Part 3 // Story: Sweetie Belle Plays Games // by IndigoMoon //------------------------------// Quick key: -Spike = Garbunkle -Big Mac = Sir McBiggun -Discord = Captain Wuzz -Rainbow Dash = Desmond Miles -Pinkie Pie = Shakespony -Sweetie Belle = (Mistress) Shamrock -Princess Luna = Eclipse As the group continued their trek through the dark forest, Sweetie Belle, or Shamrock rather, trotted up to Spike. "Um... Spi- er, Garbunkle? Where are we going?" She asked. "Well, we are headed to the East Docks to get ship, so we can get to the Squizard's Palace and defeat him once and for all," replied Garbunkle. "And where is the Squizard's palace?" "Underwater," replied Garbunkle, before running up to Sir McBiggun and Captain Wuzz. Mistress Shamrock wasn't really sure how to respond, but attempted to anyways: "Huh-buh-wuh? U-underwater?!" She cried. Shakespony, Desmond, and Eclipse all trotted up to Shamrock. "What's underwater?" Desmond asked. "The Squizard's Palace, apparently," replied Shamrock. Eclipse shrugged. "Makes sense," she said. "The Squizard is a squid after all, so why wouldn't his palace be underwater?" Shamrock shook her head," No, I got that, but once we get to the dock, how are we supposed to get to the Squizard's Palace by boat? I mean, unless there's a boat that goes underwater or something, but even then, how are we supposed to breathe down there? I don't think anyone has a magic level high enough to turn us all into seaponies." Shakespony nodded. "That's a good point, Shamrock. But we'll just cross that bridge when we get there." Suddenly, a tall green creature wearing a suit walked out of the trees in front of them. It was holding a chainsaw, and had no face where Shamrock could only assume was where its face should've been. It raised an arm, with the weird green noodles spread wide, and waved it back and forth. "What's up?" Anon asked. Everybody was very confused. The tall green thing with the chainsaw wasn't attacking them, but had instead proposed a greeting commonly associated with compatriotism. The green creature continued: "My name is Anon. I, uh..., I was supposed to, uh... ya know, try and kill you with this," he said, as he hoisted up the chainsaw. Everyone flinched as he did so, bu he raised the 5-noodle-thing on the end of his arm again. "But, don't worry. I'm not going to do that. You guys haven't done anything that would make we want to kill you, so yeah. But, I do need to offer a challenge of some sort, so I challenge one of you to and arm wrestle. I pick...," Anon's head swiveled back and forth as if he was sizing up each member of the team. "I pick you!" he said, pointing at Eclipse. Two words came tumbling out of Eclipse's mouth before she could stop them. "Oh s**t." Everyone, excluding Anon, gasped. Shakespony ran over and covered Shamrock's ears, who was struggling to hold back laughter. Captain Wuzz marched over and waved a claw at Eclipse chastisingly. "No swearing! Naughty pony. Naughty!" He bopped Eclipse on the nose once and walked away. Anon raised one of the green claw-noodles, and rubbed where his nose might've been. "You guys done?" he asked. Eclipse nodded, and walked over to Anon. "Where shall we begin the hoof-wrestling?" she asked. Anon pointed to a tall stump with a large toadstool set on either side. Eclipse walked over and sat on one mushroom, while Anon sat on the other. Anon put his right arm on the stump with his elbow resting on it. Eclipse mimicked the motion. Discord appeared overhead, in his cloud form, and said, in a cheesy 1920's announcer voice: "A good day for a swell battle! And begin!" Eclipse and Anon immediately began pushing against the other's arm. The others settle around the stump and watched the match unfold. Withing a few minutes of the battle's start, Anon had managed to gain the upper hand, literally. Luna's upper leg was at a 45-degree angle and slowly sinking closer to the stump. Eclipse called out, "I cast a strength spell on myself!" Both Anon's and Eclipse's arm froze, and everyone looked up at Discord expectantly. Still using the weird announcer voice, which reminded Sweetie of Applebloom's impression of Flim and Flam, said, "Oh-ho, folks. Looks like Eclipse is tryin' to swing the match in her favor. Let's she if she succeeds, shall we?" A dice appeared on the stump underneath the pair of frozen arms. "Listen up folks, if the dice gets a 3 or lower, she's got the spell, and her strength increases five-fold, anything higher than a four, and you could push her arm with a feather!" As the dice slowed down, everyone leaned in, a tense drum-roll playing from somewhere, and... then... "SHE'S GOOD!!!!" yelled Discord. Eclipse's horn flared up as their arms unfroze. Anon pushed harder than before, but just before Eclipse's arm hit the stump, energy rushed through her, and she swung her arm up, flinging Anon's arm down onto the stump. Discord yelled, "A knockout!" as everyone cheered and Eclipse grinned. Anon's face flushed red, and said, "Well... since you cheated, now you've given me a reason to use this." And to everyone's horror, Anon picked up the chainsaw, turned it on, and barreled down on them. Everyone turned and ran down the path. Garbunkle raised his staff and pointed. "Look! there's the docks!" And he was right. Through the trees, Shamrock could see the ocean and wooden ports branching from the beach into the sea like the arms of a tree. As soon as she thought of the analogy, she had an idea, she ran ahead of the group, with Desmond and Sir McBiggun right behind her. She stopped by a tree and began kneeling in front of it. "What are you doing? We have a psychopath with a chainsaw chasing us! Stopping praying to the tree and run!" cried Desmond. "Eeyup!" agreed McBiggun. But Shamrock payed them no heed. Instead, in the language of the trees, she said, "O great tree, please assist us by stopping the chainsaw-wielding psychopath so we may continue our quest to rid this land of the evil Squizard." The tree was silent for a few moments before it replied, "Very well, kind druid. May luck shine upon your quest." Sweetie smiled. "Thank you, kind sir." She got up just as the others darted by. She was grabbed by Sir McBiggun and carried away as Anon drew closer to the tree. As soon as he got with 5 feet of it, roots shot up out of the ground and ensnared Anon, causing him to drop the chainsaw. The tree then dragged Anon underground, leaving the chainsaw as the only sign Anon was ever chasing them to begin with. The others had stopped to watch the spectacle. As Sir McBiggun set Shamrock down, Desmond asked, "What was THAT?!" Shamrock shrugged. "I just asked the tree to stop Anon. I didn't think it would work." Captain Wuzz walked over and poked Shamrock on the shoulder and said, "Look." In his claw was the dice, with the number 20 facing up. Captain Wuzz continued, "That 20 is the only reason the tree agreed to help you. No one noticed in the middle of the chase, but I stopped to roll the dice for you, with the odds being 19 or less, and the tree would have trapped you instead of Anon. You got extremely lucky, and I highly doubt it'll happen again." The group reached the edge of the woods a short time later. Garbunkle, Captain Wuzz, and Desmond all went to go purchase a boat, while the others waited nearby. Sir McBiggun and Shakespony both went to the nearby market to purchase some last minute supplies before they went to fight the Squizard. As Eclipse leaned against a wooden fence post, Shamrock looked up at her. "Having fun yet, Prin-, uh, Luna?" Luna looked down at the small filly, then quickly look away. "Eh, I guess." Sweetie Belle smiled, "Yes you are," she said teasingly while poking Luna. "You just don't want to admit it." Luna scoffed. "Pssh. Yeah right." Sweetie was about to tease Luna some more when Shakespony and Sir McBiggun walked back, each with a sack across their backs. The group met up with Captain Wuzz and Garbunkle on the farthest pier. "We've got ourselves a ride," said Captain Wuzz. Shakespony looked around. "Where is it?" she asked. As if on cue, a loud horn sounded as a large something breached the water next to the dock. A hatch on the top opened a moment later to reveal Desmond grinning like and idiot. "We got a submarine!" she yelled.