What is that video game all the kids are playing these days? Steel Grind Solid, or something? The one where that stallion is always sneaking around?
That's kind of what you felt like right now.
After having evaded being caught by that mare a good twenty minutes ago, you found yourself in a sort of palace within the Fair Field at the moment. With your back against a stone pillar, your heart beats feverishly as you wait. You opted not to fly, as the beating of your wings would give away your position. You could hear the patrolling of ponies on the other side of your pillar.
The colt that the mare eliminated while chasing you must work quickly. There were already numerous ponies missing flags after that, including the two in this room. You could only wonder how many others have been eliminated already.
Cautiously, you peek your head around the column to get a grasp on the situation. Two ponies were looking around, trying to find anyone who may be sneaking around the area. You felt like a spy avoiding security guards, or something. Like a criminal on the run.
As far as they're concerned, that's not far from the truth. Those ponies over there are Hell-bent on eliminating anyone they find with a flag. With that knowledge, you opted to take great care in avoiding them. The less you make your presence known, the less running away you have to do.
You pull your head back behind the pillar as one of the ponies begins to approach your direction. The only exit happens to be in the direction that the pony is coming from. Wonderful. Looking around, you look for anything you could use to escape. Looking down to the ground, you spot a small pebble. You pick it up in your hoof. You have an idea, but this was a bit of a long-shot.
Very carefully, you wind your foreleg back, the pebble in the grip of your hoof. You wait for just a second. The flapping of the approaching pony's wings grows louder by the moment. After a short period, you sling your hoof forward and toss the pebble down the corridor. You pray that the pony didn't see the pebble fly.
The pebble makes an audible 'click' as it hits the ground. You hold your breath and rotate around the pillar slightly. Within seconds, the pony speeds to the pillar's side, and looks towards the noise.
"Who's there!?" He yells, oblivious to the trick.
You take the opportunity and sneak around the pillar. You try to find a balance between moving fast and staying quiet. You gently flap your wings to put yourself into a gentle hover as you float towards the door. The stallion doesn't seem to even notice you escaping.
Once you reach the exit, you kick it up a notch and fly away at full speed. That was too close. You make a mental note to not end up trapping yourself like that again.
You heart rate gradually returns to normal. Even if you were dragged into this game somewhat unwillingly, it was actually quite fun. There was a certain thrill factor it was igniting within you, and you were slowly getting more and more into it.
Scanning the sky, you look for a place to rest and recuperate. You had still not seen hide nor hair of Rainbow since the competition started, nor had you run into Thunderlane. You figured Rainbow would be using her knowledge of the Multicolor Maze to its fullest, but had no idea where Thunderlane would be. You wondered if either of them had been eliminated yet.
After a few minutes of flying, searching, and keeping a sharp eye out for any members of 'the horde,' you find a lone cloud. It looked rather misshapen, and it was somewhat secluded from the rest of the clouds. You didn't care. It was out of sight from most of the playing field and it was a place to catch your breath, even if only for a moment. Flying up to it, you plant yourself right on top of it.
You shake your head slightly to rid yourself of the 'willies' you attained after having just played the role of spy. You breath deep in an attempt to relax yourself. You can't get too relaxed though. You never know who's watching.
You shift your legs slightly, and place one of your hooves on another portion of the cloud. Strange...this part of the cloud feels different. Almost like flesh.
Wait....did the cloud just move?
You're suddenly thrown into the air in an explosion of feathers and cloud vapor. Disoriented from the sudden lift-off, you shake your head and look back to what was once your resting position, only find a massive ball of muscle flying at you.
You pulse your wings and narrowly dodge being tackled by the incoming projectile, letting out a yelp as you do so. The mass falters in midair before turning to you, giving you a look of pure blood-lust with his blood-red eyes. Atop his head is a short-cut brown mane, and his entire body is nothing but muscle with white fur draped over it. Oh, and he has no flag.
You knew this guy all too well. It's hard to forget his face.
"R-Roid Rage!?" You squeal.
"YEEEAAHH!" He yells.
Oh, Celestia. You roll your eyes and immediately turn around, booking it from the beast. You had no idea where you would go to lose him, but you needed to do something.
Looking back, you see him keeping up with you, steam billowing from his nostrils. He resembled a freight train, and probably would hurt like one too. His wings were small, but they managed to keep him at a speed matching yours. They buzzed like a hummingbird's wings as he chased you. You shudder to think how fast he would be able to move if they were average size...
You keep flying forward, pushing your wings to their full potential. You dip downward into a more congested area, hoping to lose him in the midst of the clouds. Approaching a cloud-infested flight space, you veer left and right, trying to lose him, or at least confuse him slightly as to your direction.
Apparently, your plan backfires. All your dodging around clouds does nothing to deter him. He just plows right through them, not slowing down in the slightest! Every cloud in his path bursts into a mist of vapor, and he tears through them like wet tissue paper.
You've got to be kidding me... Your veering allowed him to close the distance slightly. You needed a new plan, and fast.
You continue your mad flight. You look around you to notice the cloud congestion was being replaced with rainbows. Looking around, you see that there were numerous rainbow falls all around. You deduce that you have officially entered the Falls Field.
"YEEEAAHH!" Oh yeah, so has he.
You notice something following you from your left. Looking over, you see one of those CloudCams that Cirrus was talking about. It was keeping up with you rather nicely, and its lens was staring at you. Knowing that hundreds of ponies were probably watching you running like a little filly right now didn't help ease your nerves.
You look forward just in time to see you're about to run into a fall. You try to barrel roll out of its way, but it was just too late. Your suddenly swallowed up in numerous colors. Suddenly, your white coat has been made to look like a lollipop.
Not only is your coat a fashionista's nightmare, but the rainbow liquid is slowing you down. The extra weight is just enough to allow Roid Rage to slowly gain on you. Thinking quick, you throw yourself into a barrel roll. Most ponies actually can't perform a proper barrel roll. They can spin in midair, sure, but a true barrel roll forces ponies into a desired direction. It was a maneuver you had perfected years ago. Something you were patting yourself on the back for now.
You throw yourself downward and to your left, slinging off most of the rainbow matter. Looking back, you see Rage hadn't anticipated your sudden change in movement, and lost some of the distance he had gained on you. You doubted you could fool him with that again though.
You fly around incoming rainbow falls and avoiding tainting your coat any more than you had already. As you fly, that wall-eyed pegasus flies out in front of you. Like the colt earlier, you pulse your wings downward and fly over her. Looking back, you see Roid tear her flag from her back with his bare teeth. She has no idea what went wrong.
You watch as the flag disintegrates in his teeth. "YEEAAAHH!"
Of everypony possible, I get the craziest one chasing me. Of course, right. You think to yourself. Your wings were steadily growing more and more weary. You needed to lose him. Fast.
You notice the CloudCam has strangely disappeared. Looking forward again, you find yourself being swallowed up by rainbows again. Only this time, the rainbow wasn't in liquid form. It was solid, and formed a tunnel around you. Was this the Multicolor Maze?
You didn't care, if it was a possible escape, that was fine by you. The tunnel branched off into multiple paths. You had no idea where any of them led, but they were all viable options as far as you were concerned.
You randomly turn down a tunnel to your right. The buzzing of tiny wings behind you confirmed that 'Mr. Muscle' was still in hot pursuit of you. All the colors of the light spectrum flashed around you. It was almost like you were having an attack of epilepsy, what with all of these colors.
Up ahead, the tunnel veers to the left. You quickly turn down the path, only to stop immediately in midflight. You were nose to nose with Rainbow Dash! And she still has her flag!
"Uh, hi!"
"Uh, hi!"
"Are you being chased too?"
"Are you being chased too?"
"Oh crap!"
"Oh crap!"
Rainbow Dash looks around. To either side of you are paths branching away. "Um...follow me!"
She quickly flies down the one to her left, and you follow suit. Looking back, you see she was being pursued by two mares. You don't look at them for long before they are slammed into by Roid and promptly knocked away.
"YEEAAHHH!" He yells. Is that the only word he knows?
"Oh Celestia, you got him chasing you!?" Rainbow asks sharply.
"I-It's not my fault, he tricked me!" You defend.
She looks at you incredulously. She groans and rolls her eyes before continuing. "Whatever, let's get out of here first! We can't lose him in here!"
"And why's that!?" You yell. Your voice echos in the rainbow cavity.
"He may look stupid, but he won't ever let up if he's chasing you. His wings are small, but he can fly forever. He's like a big, muscly bear that hates ponies!" You simply look at her with confusion. She glances at you and rolls her eyes again. "When he's not all crazy like that, he's actually pretty cool to hang around with, alright?"
"Whatever, so what's the plan?" You ask.
"Just follow me, we'll figure something out!" She takes the lead, and you follow close behind.
The two of you twist and turn, trying to not smash into the walls of the maze. Roid Rage follows close, mimicking your every turn. The two of you whisk past the turns and graze the walls, never letting your speed falter. For you, it was both out of fear of losing, and fear of getting near that thing.
You hoped Rainbow Dash was as familiar with this maze as she claimed. The two of you had been cruising through it for the better part of two minutes. And that was flying at high speed! You can't imagine just taking a gentle stroll through it. How expansive was this maze anyway?
You take great care to not bump Dash as you fly. You can only imagine her frustration if you caused her to fall out of the game. Because of your reluctance to fly next to her, you had to fly right behind her, giving you a perfect view of...well, her backside. You try not to glance at her, but you don't have much of a choice. It was either stare uncomfortably, or lose her and be left in the clutches of the beast following you.
After about another minute of flying, you spot the light of the sky outside. You breathe a slight sigh of relief, knowing that she hadn't steered you wrong. The two of you exit the maze, and bolt away from the rainbow tunnel. Unfortunately, Roid was still right behind you, yelling all the way.
"Any ideas, Dash!?" You yell to her.
"Still thinking on it!" She replies.
"Not exactly inspiring confidence here, Dash!" You call out. You look to her to see she's examining the surrounding area, looking for a way to shake the crazed stallion.
At last, her gaze settles on something that evokes a bit of fear in you. A large, slow spinning whirlwind on the edge of the Foul Field.
"Uh, Dash?" You ask tentatively. That gleam in her eyes was scaring you.
"Follow me! I've got an idea!" You were afraid she would say that.
She immediately turns towards the swirling vortex and you reluctantly follow. Though you were genuinely curious as to what her plan entailed, you still knew this wasn't a good idea. For whatever reason, you trusted her though.
The two of you enter the mouth of the whirlwind, and are immediately blasted by its powerful gusts. Both of you keep your flight path in check though, and continue down the vortex. Luckily, this wasn't a lightning infested one, so the only real danger was being thrown out of it. The tunnel of wind is quite long, and its 'walls' are pretty expansive.
"YEEEAAAHH!" At least he's kind enough to let you know he hasn't given in. Looking back you see Roid has followed you right into the abyss.
"So what's the plan!?" You are forced to yell to keep your voice audible over the gale.
"Go to the edge and fly with the current!" She yells back.
"Wait, you want us to speed up the tornado!?"
"Yeah! Trust me!"
And with that, she flies away from you to the edge. Despite how much you loathed this idea, you didn't have many other options. You fly to the opposite wall, and begin flying with the current. The two of you kept your flight paths parallel to one another as you began to circle round and round.
Though your flight path was skewed slightly, the speed of the vortex kept you moving ahead of Rage. You give it your all, trying to speed up the current. You can slowly feel your speed building, if not because of your wings. The added speed of two ponies was causing the tornado to close tighter and tighter.
The space between you and Dash slowly grew smaller and smaller. Tears were beginning to form at the edges of your eyes as the wind speed picked up. Your wings were aching from the insane amount of force you were taking, and you hoped that whatever Dash had planned was going to work.
You and Dash had caused the tornado to grow incredibly tight, and there was very little space between the two of you at this point. Out of the corner of your eye, you see Roid Rage was actually struggling to fight the current. Though the two of you were making your way deeper into the tornado, the force of your flying and the current was pushing him back. Dash's plan was working!
Looking forward, you see yourself growing close to the exit. "Dash! Are you sure this will work!?" You yell, barely audible over the winds.
"I have no idea!" She yells, tears flowing from her eyes. You notice something in forming in front of her. It almost looked like a cone.
And what's that forming in front of you!?
"Dash!?" You yell again, even more frantic this time.
"Just a little more..." She yells back. The two of you were mere inches apart, and the exit was rapidly approaching. Suddenly, the cones in front of the both of you change shape. "Quick! Take my hooves!"
Without a second thought, you throw your hooves towards hers and interlock them. The two of you are sent into a spinning frenzy, like a mad corkscrew. You weren't even sure if your wings were making a difference at this point, but you kept flapping. The cones in front of you had merged into one, and grew tighter by the second.
You can barely keep your eyes open at this point. The exit is right there! Flapping your wings in unison, the two of you make a beeline for the exit.
Right as you hit the exit, you feel a shift. It felt like you had just smashed through a brick wall. Accompanying the feeling was an ear-shattering explosion. Looking back, you see a massive trail of all the colors of the rainbow spiraling behind you. Mixed in with the colors was a streak of white.
Rainbow's eyes are glued shut as the two of you are launched away from the vortex. The two of you are spiraling incredibly fast, but not so much that you lose control. After a few moments, you can feel your inertia gradually slowing. Rainbow Dash opens her eyes and looks back with you.
After a few seconds, the two of you slow to a stop in midair, your rainbow trail stopping with you. The two of you shake your heads in unison, and look to the explosion of colors you had just created. She simply looks at you with a dumbfounded expression.
Before she gets the chance to speak, you hear a thud. Looking back to the vortex, you see it's now spinning out of control. It was far more tight-knit than it was when you first entered, and it was spinning ridiculously fast. The exit had been sealed off thanks to your efforts.
Suddenly, a small white speck is launched out the end from which you entered.
"NOOOOOOooooo...." Is all you can hear as the speck flies out of view. All that was missing was a 'ding' sound effect from the cartoons.
You and Rainbow Dash look at what you had just accomplished in awe. Not only did you lose Roid Rage, but the two of you managed to cause a Sonic Rainboom in the process. A Sonic Rainboom, which was accompanied with an additional white streak.
She looks right at you, disbelief in her features.
"That...
was...
AWESOME!"
She suddenly throws her forelegs around you and brings you into a hug. "We did it! We totally did it!"
With newly warm cheeks, you raise a hoof to her back. "Er, yeah...I guess we did." You breathe a sigh of relief.
"And look at that! A Sonic Rainboom! No, it's like...a spiral, with white in it! We totally gotta call that somethin' else! Something that's like, at least twenty percent cooler!" She's absolutely lost in her excitement, like a foal on Hearth's Warming, about the feat you had just managed. You were just relieved to be alive.
"Er, Dash?" You ask. She looks to you, excitement clear as day in her face. "Maybe we should find somewhere to hide before we start discussing names. Ponies are probably gonna be coming here soon."
"Oh, heheheh...right." She nervously rubs the back of her neck, a blush present on her face. The two of you take off to find somewhere to rest and recharge.
Back to playing spy...