Author's Note: Well, after a week long hiatus, I have finally returned. Hope you guys didn't miss this story too much. But now it is time for the treasure hunt to really begin for our group of players. Let's read the story to see to how it happens, shall we?
Did I mention I suck at riddles? Like, I'm not even kidding. I'm more of a jigsaw puzzle kind of guy when I feel like testing my mind. That involves actual brain power, right? ...Right?!
Well, I suppose the others can't be doing much better since we're all still stuck in the middle of town trying to figure it out, which is actually pretty surprising considering we have ponies like Rhino and Twilight.
Hmm. How did it go again?
Sturdy and proud I did once stand
Home to the greatest in the land
Once the scene of an important brawl
But now I'm rarely seen at all.
Hmm... Yeah, I've got nothin'. Right now is when I wish I paid more attention in history class. Or maybe at least when we were learning about the geography of Equestria.
I can think of tons of places where there were important fights. The earliest comes to mind of that fight club we took down back in Las Pegasus, which I'm sure was either taken down or remade into something else. But there's no way they'd go that far to hide a clue.
Ugh. Why do I suck so bad at riddles? Iron Shell's riddles were easier than this. Dash doesn't look like she's doing any better than I am.
I give her a bored look as I continue to think. "You have any ideas?"
She returns the look with a bit of a "what do you think?" look. "Blue, I'm an athlete, not an egghead. I suck at stuff like this."
"Yeah, I figured as much. I'm stumped too." I turn towards the direction of the others. "You guys have any clues?"
"If we did, do you think any of us would be sticking around here?" Vine asks in an annoyed tone. "Besides, this is a competition, numbskull. We wouldn't tell you even if we did have any ideas."
Dark groans loudly as he puts his hooves down at a table he's sitting at. "Come on, Twilight. You're the smart one. You're just gotta know this."
She rolls her eyes at him. "Just because I'm smart doesn't mean I'm a riddle machine. You gotta give me some time to think about it."
"Ooh, I think I've got an idea!" Pinkie announces. Everyone turns their heads to her and leans in closely to hear.
"Really? What is it, Pinkie?" Sunny asks her partner.
Pinkie takes a deep breath in preparation. "The moon!"
Everypony loses interest at the ridiculous sounding answer. Fern fachoofs. "Pinkie, did you drink from the cider taps while I wasn't looking again?"
"No no no. You guys just don't get it. The riddle says "Home to the proudest in the land", doesn't it?"
"Yeah, so?"
"Well, Princess Luna was on the moon for a thousand years. That means it was her home for a long time."
"But the riddle also said "rarely seen at all"." Graze points out. "The moon is out every night, so that definitely can't be it."
Pinkie's expression drops as she realizes that she left out basically the rest of the riddle. "Oh... yeah."
"But I do like where Pinkie's mind is." Rhino says. "Sturdy and proud and home to the proudest in the land... That makes me think of the royal castle in Canterlot, but that's up all the time."
Twilight, being the equine super computer she is, starts piecing together all of this new info as she tries to pinpoint the real location of the second clue.
Her eyes light up as she figures it out. "I know where the next clue is." Everypony perks their ears up as they get ready to listen.
Dark puts a hoof out to her. "Twilight, wait! Don't!"
Already beginning what she was gonna say, she ignores Dark's plea. "It's the Old Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters in the Everfree Forest that we fought Nightmare Moon in."
Everypony remains in silence for a moment before thinking about it. "Oh." Everypony says in complete unison.
Everything is very quiet as nopony makes any sound or movement. That silence is quickly broken as everypony tries to rush off immediately to the forest.
"AJ, hop on!" Atom says. She complies as she gets on his back and he charges his hooves. "So long, suckers!" he uses his hooves, now fully charged, to shoot up into the air to get more distance to get ahead.
Drax grabs him by the tail and slams him down to the ground. He smirks down at them. "Now who's the sucker?"
"You, that's who!" I shout as I run up behind him. I take a jump as I land on his back and jump again, this time landing on his head and using it as a springboard to jump up and over the crowd.
"Fat chance, Blue!" Vine shouts at me as she summons a vine that grabs me and throws me down just like Drax did to Atom. "Guess the saying is true. Pegasi of a feather fall together."
"Which is why I like being an earth pony." Ice says as he summons his ice slide and starts zooming through the air.
Dark glares up at Ice. "Like I'm gonna let Frosty take the lead in this." he summons a lightning shot in his hoof and shoots it at the base of the slide, making it collapse with Ice to the ground.
Ice gets back up and glares back at Dark as he grits his teeth. "Okay, that's it. You're going down, Sparky!"
"HOLD IT!" Fluttershy shouts in the middle of all the fighting, grabbing everypony's attention. She blushes as everypony looks at her. "Um, if you don't mind that is. I just think we shouldn't fight, at least out in the middle of the town. Maybe we can wait until the forest first? If that's alright with all of you."
"I agree with Ms. Fluttershy's idea." the mayor says. "I'd prefer you all not destroy my town during this competition. Now, all of you shall go down to the forest entrance in an organized group, and NO fighting allowed until you enter it."
"That's a load of bu-"
"Or would you rather be disqualified from the competition, Mr. Lightning?"
Feeling the threatening tone in that last statement, Dark shuts up and nods as we all start to neatly and calmly head to the forest to get the real competition started.
We are escorted there by the mayor's hired pegasus patrol to make sure that there's no funny business from any of us on the way. Once there, they stop us to give us a final send off.
"Okay, this is where we part ways." the leading pegasus says. "We'll be keeping a close eye on all of you to make sure there is no flying, breaking of your ropes, or teleporting. There will be no exceptions to these rules. Good luck to all of you."
With all that said, the group takes to the air above spreads out over the surrounding area.
Geez, it really does feel as if these guys have a stick up their rumps twenty four hours a day.
With us now at the entrance and the watch pegasi gone, everypony starts looking at each other, psyching themselves up for the game ahead.
Me and Dash, Rhino and Fluttershy, Ice and Vinyl, Zephyr and Octavia, Vine and Fleur, Drax and Spitfire, Orion and Rarity, Fern and Thunderlane, Atom and Applejack, Dark and Twilight, Graze and Ditzy, Sunny and Pinkie. Twelve teams, twenty four ponies. One team shall win, and the others shall taste bitter defeat.
Without another moment's hesitation, we all head into the forest, each team going their seperate ways with only one goal in mind: get the flag back to Ponyville and cease victory.
This is where it all gets real.
Author's Note: Oh, do you hate cliffhangers? I know you do. Give me your hate, I feed on it. Muhahahaha! As for anyone who's disappointed I didn't use them much, or even at all, don't worry, I promise that every team will get some time in the spotlight during the competition.