//------------------------------// // The Revoked Invitation // Story: Pretty In Pink, Bloody in Red // by Loyal Defender //------------------------------// I woke up a while later again….but this time, in another room, with four jail cells, multiple boxes, and a symbol resembling….Pinkamena, I was sure. When I sat up, Pinkamena herself was just coming into the room. Where was I? How did I get into this room? There were no other doors last time. “Welcome Loyal, it took a while to drag you here but I’m glad it all worked out in the end!” She was laughing at her own cruelty of forcing him to be there. “What do you want with me, Pinkamena? I’m not just some helpless victim like God knows how many ponies that have previously been here.” “What do I want from you?.. oh I don’t know..” Pinkamena went up to my face muzzle to muzzle. “I want you to play a little game with me!” The lights all around the room turned on, and I was able to see two of my friends in a jail cell with their backs facing me and crying. I looked around the room, seeing my friends, freaked out and seeming like they were terrified for their lives. “How the fuck...You tormented me and kidnapped my friends just to play a fucking game thousands of people play over all?!” "What better way then to bring all your friends together!!!!" she said. "Now I am not all that cruel as some may say about me... I am giving you options here - either you stay and play my game and try to survive and suffer with your friends FOREVER.. if you can that is, or leave now to return to your world all alone and never return here, that’s if you can escape my knife and I.. your choice!!" “What’s the catch?” "Catch is I get more friends to play with, if you can survive that is! So what will it be? Ditch your friends forever, or play?" Pinkamena was pulling out a watch and grinned looking at me, her head tilted to the right making a clockwise motion. "Time is ticking, Loyal…" “I’d rather support them and die with them than leave and let them be tormented by a scandalous bastard like you.” “Well I was about to say to watch the language, but the story rating isn’t for kids!” She said as she stopped making the clockwise motion with her head. “Alright, the time starts..now!! Good luck because you will need it!” She was laughing as she disappeared back into the shadows and left me alone once again. I gave a heavy sigh. Great….now I had to go through all this. Approaching one cage, I gently tapped on it. “Sabrina? You alright?” Sabrina still crying and sobs, ignoring what he was asking and says “She won’t let me... us go! She won’t stop until she gets what she wants from us!!” Sabrina rocks forward and back with a puddle of tears forming beneath her body. “Why did she kidnap you?” “She said she was lonely.. an.. and needed a friend!!” She stopped rocking back and forth, and was splayed out on the ground from exhaustion. “Don’t worry, Sabie, I’ll find a way to get you all out of here.” “Hurry,... please she isn’t that patient, but she will act like she has all the time..” Sabrina was cut off by a knife sound that clanked against the bar “Quiet! I will not have MY friends badmouth me behind my back!” Her voice was sounding like it was in the room but it wasn’t. ‘Her friends?’ She was sorely mistaken. Now, if I remembered how the game worked….there was a lever somewhere in the room. Going over to a nearby cage covered by boxes, I pulled them out of the way (human hands are easier to work with than unicorn magic, thankfully), and ducked under. I was tall enough to pull myself up into the small hole on an upper ‘floor’ in the cell, but I needed boxes to support my stance. I pulled a few small ones into the cell, and stacked them up carefully. I managed to pull myself up onto the floor, climbing inside. There was a lever inside, and once I pulled it, I heard the sounds of metal grinding. I climbed back out, carefully dropping down to see that the door, once covered in metal bars, was unlocked. “One step closer to you, Pinkamena..” I said aloud to no one. Heading down the hall, there were a few metal doors. Trying the one on the left, it was locked. Trying the one on the right, it opened, but revealed a room full of big boxes and small ones. Nothing of use in here. Walking further down the hall, there was a left turn and a door on the right wall. Taking the left turn, I went further down, finding another locked door. At the end of the hall, though, there was an unlocked door, leading to another hall. On one side was a barred gate or obstacle, but peering through the bars, a flight of stairs could be seen. On the other side of the hall was another locked door. “Dead end...” Going back, I went to the door I’d passed on the way here, and opened it up, revealing another hallway. How many hallways and doors did this place need? Well...as many as there were, I’d explore all of them if I could. Heading into the door on the left wall, I came across another room with boxes. But this time...I knew something was in here. “Hello?” I called out. Fluttershy had started to cry, her sound of crying was heard a bit through one of the boxes in front of him. Hearing the sounds of crying, I followed the muffled sound to a box. There was something hidden behind the box. Pulling it out of the way with all of my strength, I found a small vent, and pulled it open, crawling through. It led me into another room full of boxes. The ones with symbols on them wouldn’t move, but...the boxes without symbols would. I had to carefully push and pull the boxes around without crushing myself, until I made it into a small alcove, where the crying was clear now. Looking over, in a cell was the cream-coated Pegasus, Fluttershy. Walking over to her, I gently spoke. “H-Hey….are you alright in there?” I walked to the other side of the cell to face her, a fair distance away. “You alright?” She continued to sob while saying in a low whisper “She.. she wanted to make ponies... happy, but she wanted more..” a knife was heard through the air and sliced a part of Fluttershy’s shoulder, making her bleed from the wound. “Yeah you didn’t give me what I wanted you backstabber! All I asked you was one simple thing and that was one of your organs! But noo.. you wanted to keep them to yourself!” This was beginning to piss me off. “Rrrgh….there’s such a thing as DONATING, Pinkamena!” I didn’t care if she heard me or not, organ donations were safer. “I’ll get you out somehow...I promise.’ Getting up, I began heading back out, muttering, “When I find that pony, I’ll gladly give her her fill of blood…..her own blood...stupid bitch gonna drive me mad..” Heading back into the main room and back out into the hall, I went left again, only to find another barred gate. Was there ANYWHERE useful I could go aside from dead ended doors? I began to grow a little desperate when I opened the door in front of the intersection, only to find the familiar pony, Applejack, behind bars in the room. AppleJack stopped sobbing and turned around to face Loyal. Half of her face was scarred up and bloody with drops of blood dripping towards her neck. The hat was torn up with a chunk of it missing, and her pony tail was torn off leaving only her front mane intact. Her right ear looked like somepony bitten part of it off, and her right eye is blue and swollen. The left hind leg was broken and bended the wrong way, and her tail was cut in half. “What are ya doin’ here sugarcube?! Ya know she’s gonna get ya too as well!!” AppleJack said in a panic voice and was looking around in a rapid pace. Pinkamena appeared to the side for a bit and kicked the bars. “Quiet! I can’t have you moving and talking, otherwise you won’t make a good cupcake!!” She threw the knife so close to his ear, that it was like it touched his skin. She disappeared back into the shadows. “I….I don’t even know if I CAN die. This game...I know it has coding in it. I’m not part of the code to die.” “Jest leave! Go! Hurry and save ya’lls friends!“ She had turned around with her back facing me, and was sobbing once again. Looking around, I noticed an odd little object on top of one of the boxes in the room. Walking up to it, I saw that it was another lever. This could only mean one thing… I looked over at the box in the hallway blocking a vent. “Oh, God, no...” This was the one part of the game I never could beat. The maze. Pinkamena was laughing near the entrance of the maze. “You will never get out of this one! As I took lessons from Discord - the maze provides twists and turns..” Her laughter faded out as she stepped back into the shadows. This would be a recurring thing, I would assume. She would appear randomly only to taunt me. Sighing, I pulled the box away from the vent, crawling through. It led me to a small flight of stairs leading into an almost empty room, save for a few stacks of boxes on the left and right back corners in the room. I knew there was more to this room. I went over to the leftmost stack of boxes and pulled them out of the way one at a time to reveal another vent. Crawling through it, it lead to a series of more vents…..the maze itself. Sitting behind more bars outside the maze’s entrance was the cyan, rainbow-haired Pegasus, Rainbow Dash. “Dash?” I softly called out. “You alright in there? I mean, I’d assume not, but...you know, heroes would ask that to a lot of prisoners.” “Go away!!” She stopped crying for a bit and faced me with an angry expression. “You are nothing but an illusion!!!” The dim light revealed that Rainbow was scarred, far more than Applejack. Her right eye and part of her mouth was bruised up, and most of her teeth was on the floor. She had a large gash on her right foreleg and was showing a bit of bone sticking out of it. The worst of her injuries was what was supposed to be on her back, her wings was missing leaving only two little bones sticking out with dry blood. The tail was still there, though a large chunk of it was gone from the tail end. “Just leave me be here!! I hate you, Pinkamena, and your illusions! None of us are your friends anymore! We forgives you from party of one but you have gone too far! Just you wait until I get out of this!” She growled while lowering her head, and was still staring at him. "My God.....she really did a number on you.....it's like each pony or person I see, their injuries get worse…" “I know I’m going to sound like a liar, but I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to get us all out of here...if it’s even possible. She dragged me into this game, too, and my other friends....I'm not just going to let them suffer under her influence." Crawling into the vent, I found an empty spot on the wall where the switch I just picked up would go. Flipping it, a barred gate came down, opening up the maze. “Now….I need you to do something for me, and it’s somewhat important.” “What the hell do you want Loyal?” “I know what’s in this maze, and I know it’s going to suck like hell. I’ve lost to it countless times. So I’m going to call out to you when I get what’s in this maze. It’s like a lifesaving game of Marco Polo. Call back to me, and I can follow the sound of your voice out of the maze. I'll need what's in this maze if I want to progress and save you all. Can you do that for me? One loyal friend to another.” “Fine whatever, I don’t care anymore..” I took a deep breath, and crawled into the vent maze. “Alright, just keep cool, and your head clear..” I told myself, somewhat remembering where the item was. I took one right, and four lefts and a right….or was it one left, four rights, and a left? I went from turn to turn, crawling around until I came to a little corner made from cinder blocks, and the ceiling was higher. At the end was the bruised body of a pony. Its eyes were gouged out and bruised, covered in blood, with a wicked smile carved into its face. It was sitting upright, with something in between its hooves. A key to the next door. “Alright, Loyal, don’t screw up now..” I told myself. Then I did what I would do when I was afraid. I’d sound chipper and stupid both at once. Kind of like being sarcastically happy, but acting like you don’t know anything in here is scary. “If you don’t mind, then, I shall take a-THIS.” I said, grabbing the key. And now, for the sucky part.. Letting out a slight gasp (it’s still startling seeing it move), my mind momentarily went into panic mode. I backed out back into the vent, praying. “Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck-” Okay, now let’s hope Dashie would do her part. “Dashie, I got it! Where are you?” I noticed the maze drastically changed, too, which was why I asked her to call out to me. “I’m over heere..” I followed the voice through the maze, turning several corners, running into a few dead ends. I could backtrack before the maze pony caught up to me. “Where? This maze is almost infinite!” “Over here this way..” The voice was still far away, but he could pick up the sound coming from the right side. I headed around the maze, trying to get to the right side. “I hear you! I hear you!” “Go to the left... you are doing well..” Hearing her, I headed left, the maze pony’s laughter growing slightly more distant. I felt confident. I could do this. “Alright, took left! Where to now?” “Right... ugh, can’t we just hurry this up..?” “I’m hurrying as fast I can, damn it! This maze is twisty and confusing!” "You don't see it, but it changed when I went back!" “Now go to the le..right! Just around that teeny bit corner you can’t see it very well due to the dark corner! Ugh can’t you just buckin shut up already! It’s bad enough that you can’t stop! Want me to break your spine while I’m at it? Just wait I’ll get even with you.! Ok go to the right just ignore the other leading you to the wrong direction.” Wait, what? “Well, which way do I go?! I’m hearing left, then right, then left again!” “It’s right I promise you “ “Right!” I made a right turn, and then a left turn on the path, leading me straight into a dead end. “It’s a dead end!” Blood was dripping on the ceiling, and and a loud giggle came from behind you. I slowly turned around, instantly unsettled by the sudden change in laughter. “Hello there!! I see that you reached a dead end! Well, too bad for you that you didn’t have a chance to save yourself or your friends!” Said Pinkamena as she was twitching with excitement, holding her knife up. “You...you lured me into a dead end! That’s just cheating!” “What fun is it when you can’t enjoy it yourself?” “You gave me a CHANCE to win! You can’t just trick me into losing!” She trots towards him her knife was twirling in the air and she caught it. “It looks like it’s game over for you and your friends to escape!” She raised the hoof with the knife attached and was about to take a swing at him. In a moment of panic, I shut m eyes and braced myself...only to be almost blinded by a bright light moments later. Opening my eyes again, I found myself back at the start of the maze. “Wait, what….what just happened?!” “Oh come on! I almost had him!” A growl echoed through the maze. As I pondered what just happened, a voice spoke to me...in my head. ‘Go….go now. There’s still time to save them..’ It….it sounded a lot like Twilight from the show. I remembered that originally, SHE was the protagonist in this game. She must have helped me just now.. I quickly crawled out of the maze, key in hand, and turned to the cell. “I’ll get you out of there..all of you. I promise.” “Yeah right...dream on!” The voice was coming from the right side. “Look, you could be a little more appreciative that SOMEONE is making it through here to save you.” “Save nothing! You are going to suffer like all of them!” Pinkamena interjected. “I don’t care what happens to me, I don’t care what you do to me. I WILL get through this dungeon, and I WILL save everyone! “ I crawled out of the exit, looking at the cell one last time, before heading back out ‘She won’t stop me now.’ I thought, ‘She won’t stop any of us...just hold on, everyone...I’m almost through.’