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// Chapter 37--The Mareidian Party, Part 2 
// Story: What You Don't Know 
// by Flaming Pulsar 
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Chapter 37--The Mareidian Party, Part 2

The first thing I noticed when I entered the arena was that I was alone. It seemed that the delegations were split apart, That’s good, because it means I won’t have to fight two dragons at once, assuming I can find one of them before they find each other. I also noticed that along with the height, the maze was also given a ceiling, presumably so nobody could fly over it. I started off at a dead end that was about 20 feet wide, which I assumed was the width of the corridors throughout the maze. I saw what appeared to be some supplies along the wall that I assumed were provided for each of us. Among them were some basic weaponry and an enchanted quill that didn’t require an inkwell (so a pen) and some graph paper which I assumed was for map making. From the weapons, I went the usual route with a hand-crossbow with a hundred bolts and a few daggers for throwing and stabbing. Equipment in hand, I started making my way through the maze. My plan was to try to find Flagra. Since she was just here to show her stuff and wasn’t in it for the prize, I figured we could team up until the end. I was also gonna try to recruit any others who were willing to join me in order to take down the dragons as they would be the hardest to fight.
Marking my way with the graph paper, I decided to only make right turns to prevent getting too lost and to make it easier to make the map, After walking for a couple hundred feet, I was force to go right and so I went. I was hoping this maze wasn’t too huge so I would be able to find people quickly but after several more turns, I still hadn’t found anyone. And I had reached more than a few dead ends. I even tried cutting through the walls but it would seem that they were enchanted to grow back just as quickly as I was chopping them away. Suddenly a magical display appeared in front of me that simply read ‘Godric the Griffin was defeated by Draigoch the Dragon. 15 combatants remain.’ Well, that was fast. I better find someone before they all get destroyed by the dragons. Finally, after way more wandering than I care to admit, I found Flagra before anybody else.
“What’s with this maze?” I asked. “You’re the first person I’ve seen and I feel like it’s been at least an hour.”
She just shrugged with her typical silence.
“Well, I’m glad you’re the first one though. I was thinking we could team up since you were gonna give me the prize anyways.”
More shrugging.
“So, since you’re faster, do you think I could ride you?”
She gave me a look of incredulity.
“Not that kind of riding. You have a dirty mind.”
Another incredulous look.
“Yeah, I know I’m a bad influence but that’s no excuse.”
She rolled her eyes and gestured to my size and armor.
“Oh, you were just saying that I’d be too heavy. Y’know, we wouldn’t have had this problem if you just use words.”
She just rolled her eyes and casted some magic on me.
“What was that for?”
She motioned for me to get on her.
“Was that spell to make me weigh less so you could carry me?”
She nodded.
“Cool. Let’s ride!”
We started heading back the way she had come from to a fork that she had passed when another message popped up. ‘Ludo the Changeling was narrowly defeated by Sagittarius the Centaur. 14 combatants remain.’
“And another one bites the dust. We better hurry or there’s not gonna be anyone left.”
And so we continued until we crossed paths with Chrysalis.
“Hey Chrysy, how’s it going?”
“Hello, Síor and Flagra, was it?”
Flagra nodded.
“She doesn’t talk much, does she?”
“Only when she wants to. So you wanna join our little party or are we gonna have to fight you?”
“Well, under normal circumstances, I would likely join you but the prize this year is one that interests me. I believe it may be helpful in advancing my peoples culture.”
“Perhaps. It depends on how well it still works after all these years.”
“You speak as though you are familiar with the device.”
“Ha, you could say that. Let’s just say it’s something from my time and I’m quite surprised that it hasn’t disintegrated since then. I guess whatever this magical field was that was preserving it must have been pretty good. I’ll have to make a note to check that out later. Anyways, since it seems we both have interest in the prize, I believe that means we must fight. That said, Flagra, attack!”
After giving me a look that told me not to order her around, she summoned a giant ball of fire right on top of Chrysalis.  Before she could react to it, another message displayed for all of us, interrupting the battle. ‘The Chief of the Nagas was slain by Herensuge the Dragon. 13 combatants remain.’
“Well, it seems we have one less rival for that prize. Now then, where were we.” I dismounted Flagra while simultaneously loading my crossbow. I ran a little closer to Chrysalis and pulled out a dagger as well. In one quick move I threw the dagger and shot the crossbow directly at her.
After that hit, she finally got her act together and transformed into Flagra. She then shot an explosion of fire between us. After that, she transformed back into herself and flew out of range of Flagra’s giant ball of fire. Flagra responded by creating a wall of fire right where Chrysalis was essentially burning her alive. There was another message but I didn’t have time to read it as I had to act quickly while Chrysalis was incapacitated. I loaded my crossbow and took the first good shot I had hitting her directly in the eye. She got out of the fire and flew around the corner. Flagra ran after her and there was a lot of fire coming from that direction. Another message came up that I quickly scanned to see if it was Chrysalis. It was Gilda killed by Taurus. I ran after them to find to Flagras fighting at a dead end.
“Are we really gonna do this? This is such a cliché,” I said. I then added sarcastically, “Oh no, which one is the real one?” I readied two daggers and started for one of them.
Meanwhile, the other one egged me on by saying “Yes, Daddy, kill her.”
I turned on my heels and flung both daggers at the one that spoke up. She transformed back into Chrysalis and I had a moment before she finally died to say “You done fucked up. You forgot that my daughter doesn’t talk.” She died then and was teleported out of the maze.
I looked over to the real Flagra and saw the fear in her eyes. “You knew she was gonna say something right?” she asked.
“Well, look who’s talking now,” I teased. “Don’t worry, I had the situation completely under control. If she hadn’t said anything then I would have only pretended to kill you. If you had turned out to be her, then she would reveal herself at that point by trying to attack me at which point you could have finished her off.”
“That sounds more complicated than it needs to be.”
“Probably. So does this mean you’re over your vow of silence.”
“I suppose. I probably won’t be a chatterbox but giving verbal answers would certainly help in a lot of situations.”
“I’m glad I finally got that through to you. Now then, shall we continue?”
She nodded.
“I guess some things don’t change.”
I got back on her and we continued through the maze as the message popped up saying that Chrysalis had died to us and there were now 10 of us left. After a few more turns we came across Little Strongheart.
“Hey, LS. Fancy seeing you here,” I said when I saw her.
“No kidding. Six people are already out and you guys are the first ones I’ve found.”
“Well, what do you say about joining us? We could work together to take out the rest of the opposition then we can duke it out at the end to determine the winner.”
“That’s an intriguing proposition. Since Chief is already out, I’m the last chance we have of winning for our delegation and it would certainly be easier with some help. Sure, I’ll join you, just keep in mind that as soon as it’s down to just the three of us, the fight is on.”
“Of course. But until then, I’m glad to have you on board. Now, I wanna try something.”
“What kind of something?”
“Well, since you and Flagra are about the same size, I was wondering if I could try riding you both at the same time.”
“Wha-I, I’m not sure I want my first time to be a th-threesome. Let alone with another girl.”
“Not that kind of riding! Geez! What’s with you guys today? Flagra had the same confusion.”
“Actually, I wasn’t--”
“But no, I meant on your back. Like a passenger.”
“How would you even do that?”
“One foot on either of your backs and then you walk at the same pace. It’ll look really cool if we can pull it off.”
“I don’t know, you look kinda heavy, especially with that armor.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. Flagra cast a spell on me that made me and my armor light enough that she can carry me so I’m sure that the weight distributed between the two of you should be no problem.”
“I guess. It seems a little demeaning though.”
“Flagra doesn’t seem to have a problem with it.”
“I’m sure being your daughter has something to do with that. She agrees to carry you because she seeks your affection.”
“Is that true, Flagra? Are you just trying to please me?”
“Actually,” she said, “I don’t really care what you think of me. As long as you don’t try to hurt me.”
“I would never hurt you. You’re too cute.” I scratched her behind the ear when I said this which seemed to embarrass her a little.
“I am not cute,” she said defiantly.
“Anyways, we doin’ this, or what?”
“I suppose we could try,” LS said hesitantly.
“Sweet!” I positioned myself standing with one foot on each of their backs and we continued like that. It was a little hard balancing but Flagra gave me a balancing spell to help with that.
After a while we got another message saying that the Naga delegate had been double-teamed by both of the dogs bringing us down to 9. Shortly after, Another message came up: ‘Sagittarius the Centaur was slaughtered by Herensuge the Dragon. 8 combatants remain. As half of the combatants have been eliminated, the maze will now reset and shrink. Those of you who have made parties will be kept together. Please standby while the maze is reset.’
We all waited while the walls moved around us. We were then teleported into the newly formed maze. We were back in a dead end so the only way to go was out. As we walked we heard a rather angry and pained growl.
“What was that?” LS asked.
“If i had to guess, it was probably a dragon,” I answered. “And based on the sound, I would assume that he was hit by the other dragon.”
“That sounds like a dangerous fight.”
“Probably. The good news is that if they’re fighting each other, there will only be one of them left for us to fight and he’ll be weakened at that.”
“That’s true. Let’s hope we don’t run into them until their fight is over.”
“For sure. Let’s keep moving.” As we rounded the next corner, we came upon the dogs. “So, you’re the guys who defeated the Naga Delegate.” They just growled at us, clearly not interested in small talk. They also looked a little worse for wear after their fight. Bad for them; good for us. “Fine, straight to business then. Flagra, sick ‘em!”
Flagra bucked me off of her, clearly annoyed that I was ordering her around. Nonetheless, she did as I asked and shot a ball of fire in their direction. The one who I think was the leader responded by jumping forward and slicing at LS with his scimitar. I wasn’t fond of asshats slicing at my friends so I jumped onto LS and Flagra’s backs again and shot a crossbow bolt right at his face at point-blank range. It gruesomely shot right through his head, killing him one the spot. Sensing that LS was about to charge the other guy, I quickly shifted my weight onto Flagra. As LS charged, she knocked the poor guy into the wall which would have hurt a lot more if it wasn’t a hedge. Nevertheless, it still killed the guy and we were free to carry on.
As the relevant messages came up about our victory, I requested that we wait for a second.
“What’s up? Is something wrong?” LS asked.
“Let’s think about this for a second. All that’s left is us, the dragons, and Taurus. The dragons are currently fighting each other somewhere over that way. I say we turn back and see if Taurus is down that corridor that we passed a bit ago and let the dragons duke it out a bit longer.”
“I agree,” Flagra said.
“Sounds like a plan to me. The longer we can put off fighting a dragon, the better.”
"Alright. Let’s go then.”
Sure enough, as we rounded a couple of corners, so to did Taurus as we stood face to face. LS was the first to act as she bucked me down in order to get a good charge at him. I was getting a little tired of getting bucked around but at least it was effective in getting attacks out. He was certainly weakened from his previous fights but he wasn’t about to take that attack lying down. She hit him square in the gut but he caught her mid-charge and through her against the wall. She was hurt but not out of the fight. While LS recovered, Flagra bought her some time as an explosion of fire lit up around Taurus. He was burned pretty badly but still in the fight. I hoped to change that as I ran and jumped on him, stabbing a dagger right into his heart. He may have had thick skin but not thick enough to withstand a razor sharp blade. Unfortunately, I miscalculated and he threw me off against the other wall. My head was spinning and LS was still down so it was up to Flagra to finish him off. She charged right for him horn first and got him right in the stab wound that I had just created. Then, as if to add insult to injury, her horn started blazing with flames as the minotaur exploded violently.
“I think we got him,” I said as I got back up.
“Síor, your daughter scares me a little,” LS said.
“Yeah, she can do that sometimes. Don’t worry though, don’t do anything to piss her off and you won’t end up on the business end of that horn.”
“Noted.”
“What do you say we take a break? The dragons are still fighting and I personally don’t want to get caught in the crossfire.”
“Good point. We’ll rest her until we get a message about one of the dragons dying then we’ll go find the winner.”
After about an hour, we finally got a message: ‘After a thrilling battle, Draigoch the Dragon was finally brought down by his elder Herensuge the Dragon.’
“Well, I guess it’s time to move again.” As I got up, however, another message appeared: ‘As we are now down to 4 combatants and they have split themselves into 2 parties, the remainder of this tournament will be fought in an open field. Please stand by as we remove the walls.’ No sooner had I finished reading the message than the inner walls of the maze shrunk into the ground opening up a 150-by-150-foot area with us and a rather wounded Herensuge standing in it.
Flagra was the first to act as she shot huge blast of fire at him. He just shook it off like it was nothing. “Silly filly,” he said. “Don’t you know dragons are immune to fire?”
“I may be a bit useless in this fight,” Flagra said.
“What do you mean?” I asked. “If you learned what you know from watching my training then you should know other elements of magical attacks.”
“I was only interested in the fire lessons. I didn’t pay attention to any others.”
“Well, now you know why you need to diversify your arsenal of spells. Just stand back, I’ll take care of this.” I threw two daggers, praying they hit their mark. I watched as they sailed through the air and struck Herensuge in each of his eyes. “Bullseye! Or should I say dragon’s eye.”
“Ha,” Herensuge laughed. “Lucky shot. But I don’t need to see to beat you.” He reared back and blew fire all over the field. He didn’t get us directly but he still burned each of us pretty well.
LS wasn’t about to take that lying down so she charged directly at him.
“Did one of you just poke me?” he mocked.
It was Flagra’s turn. Not willing to just sit this one out, she, too, charged at him.
“Ooh, that one almost hurt.”
Not wanting to feel left out, I shot off a couple of crossbow bolts in quick succession.
“Now you’re just pissing me off,” he said as he swept his tail around hitting both LS and Flagra who were right next to him after charging him. They were both knocked across the field and killed in the process. “Just you and me now, Síor.”
He was strong but he looked pretty badly injured. I was sure I could finish him off, I just had to keep my distance and hope he doesn’t get lucky with his fire breath. I noticed that a few of his scales were missing right near his heart, presumably from his fight with Draigoch. I marked it as a weak point and shot a bolt right into it.
“Hitting me at a point of weakness. Clever. But I’m afraid this fight is over.” He grabbed me in his claw having guessed where I was from the angle of the shot. As he lifted me up to finish me off I saw my opportunity. The bolt had stuck in his skin and he was bleeding pretty badly where it stuck. I guessed it was mere inches from his heart. I managed to squeeze through his claw and jumped down to where the wound was, kicking it in just deep enough to pierce his heart. He let out a deafening roar as he fell to the ground.
“Yes,” I said. “It is over.” As I stood there covered in blood, the walls started shrinking down while the scoreboard flashed ‘Winner: Sir Síor of Equestria.’
The weapons vanished and Herensuge was regenerated. A few healers came over and healed me up as I walked back to claim my prize. As I walked back into the main hall, I was greeted with an applause as Celestia announced “Congratulations to our champion, Sir Síor. Step forward and claim your prize.”
I walked up to the stage where the computer was resting on the pedestal. It wasn’t exactly a top tier computer. It was a Dell desktop, similar to the kinds I would find in libraries or at high schools. It wasn’t amazing as far as computers go but it was certainly a prize worth having. Now I just had to figure out how to make it work. I stood there facing the crowd while resting my left arm on the computer. I raised my fist in the air in a sign of victory and the crowd cheered,
“Thus concludes the annual World Summit,” Celestia announced.
As the cheering died down, we all retired to our rooms for the night while the servants cleaned up. We boarded the train the next morning, headed back to Canterlot.