“Thank you everypony for being here.” Twilight Sparkle smiled as she addressed her friends.
“Silly Twilight!" Pinkie pie chirped happily. "Like we’d be anywhere else, after you asked us so nicely!”
“Exactly, Twilight. We wouldn’t be anywhere else right about now.” Applejack nodded. “That’s the honest truth.”
“We always have your back darling.” Rarity chimed in, flipping back her coiffure for emphasis. “That’s just what friends do.”
“And we’ve got the best friends around!” Spike added, looking around the table at all their friends. Though he did pause to stare a little longer at Rarity.
“Mmm, yes. Definitely.” Fluttershy agreed softly.
“Right right. Enough with the mushy stuff. ” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Why is it you called us all here Twi? To do something awesome I hope!” Rainbow Dash flew up from her seat, raring to go.
Looking around the table, Twilight took in each of their shining faces smiling back at her. It reminded the alicorn princess just how lucky she was to have each of them in her life. “Well, I’ve called you all here today for a very important reason. It...”
A cracking noise erupted from all around them, causing Twilight to stutter in her prepared speech. The map’s table began to glow and the chairs they were seated in started to shake violently.
Rarity shrieked as she clung to her chair for dear life, before feinting dead away.
Calling out the unconscious unicorn's name, Spike jumped from his chair onto the table. He ran over to make sure she was alright.
Rainbow Dash, still in the air from her earlier excitement, asked the obvious, “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know!” Twilight yelled above the noise, trying desperately to fire a spell at the chairs and table to make it stop.
Fluttershy was attempting to hide under her own hooves, but to no avail. The tremors of the chair kept causing her to hit her head on the edge of the table.
Applejack, who’d been sitting next to Fluttershy managed to pull herself up on top of the map. Once there she pulled the scared pegasus up beside her. Once on the table, Fluttershy buried her face in AJ’s mane.
Pinkie pie was unfazed by the chaos that had erupted around them. She just laughed and jumped up and down in her chair, saying, “Wheeee! Th-ii-i-iss-ss ii-i-is-s-s f-fu-u-uh-uhn-nn-‘nnn.” The shaking of the chair caused her voice to reverberate.
“Twilight!” Applejack called out over the commotion, “we need to stop this?”
“I’m trying!” The alicorn princess wracked her brain for spells or ideas as she too hopped onto the table.
Looking around at her friends, she saw that Spike and Rainbow Dash had worked together to pull Rarity’s prone form up on top of the map. Pinkie pie had hopped up beside them and was nuzzling Rarity in an effort to wake her up. Applejack held a protective hoof around Fluttershy, who was peaking out from under the earth pony's mane.
The empty chairs around the table suddenly sprouted up into the air, creating a wall around the ponies. A mist descended from above them and a bright light shot out from the center of the table, momentarily blinding the group.
Then, just as suddenly as it had started, everything ceased. There was no movement and no sound, save the rapid breathing of seven very scared friends.
As her eyes re-adjusted after that brilliant flash of light, Twilight realized they were no longer in the castle. Instead, they appeared to be on a flat circle suspended in midair.
At first, she guessed that maybe they were in Cloudsdale. It certainly felt like they were up in the clouds somewhere. A light fog blocked her ability to see very far in any direction, including down. The sky around them was painted in shades of pastel blue, pink and purple, like a sunset.
The walls that had sprouted from the chairs were no more. Instead, the map table had transformed into a large flat circle with weird triangular sections, of alternating red and black colors, pointing and tapering toward the center. There was something familiar about the pattern, but Twilight just couldn’t place it. She wracked her brain, frustrated that she just couldn’t recall...
“A roulette wheel?” Rainbow dash asked incredulously.
“That’s it!” Twilight happily stated with momentary relief, followed quickly by confusion as she voiced the obvious question. “Why are we on a roulette wheel?”
“Oooooohhh! You know, I‘ve always wanted to be the ball? Now I can!” Pinkie pie screamed bouncing around the edge of the circle from one color to the next.
“Maybe not so close to the edge Pinkie!” Rainbow cautioned as she took off after the pink pony. Worried Pinkie Pie might just fall off the edge accidentally, Rainbow flew at her side while the crazy party planner pretended to be a roulette ball.
“Boing! Boing! Boing...” the bouncing mare sang.
“I don’t think roulette balls say ‘boing’ Pinkie!” The fastest flier in Equestria huffed.
“Well this one does!” The pink pony was unfettered in her fun continued to say ‘boing’ as she jumped onto each triangle.
“I don’t like this Twilight.” Applejack’s tone relayed her concern as she shared a look with the alicorn princess. “This ain’t normal.”
As if in response a deep laugh boomed around them, causing them all to jump. Even Pinkie Pie momentarily paused her antics. The laughter was followed by a familiar sounding voice. Once again, Twilight was frustrated. She knew that voice but couldn’t place it. Something about it she recognized, thought it sounded louder, harsher, and deeper than what her memory recalled.
“Time is running out.” The voice boomed.
“Time for what?” Twilight demanded.
The voice didn’t answer. Instead the wheel underneath them began to spin.
Rarity having woken up at the sound of the voice, flattened herself onto the moving wheel.
Spike who had been standing above the unicorn fanning her with his hands, fell over and rolled a bit before grabbing onto the wheel with his claws.
Twilight, Applejack and Fluttershy braced themselves against the spin and attempted to keep their balance.
Rainbow dash was still flying after Pinkie Pie, who had resumed her bouncing, seemingly oblivious to the movement of the wheel.
“Choose!” The voice bellowed.
“Choose what?” Applejack called back frustration evident in her tone.
“Choose ... your partner.”
“What’s this all about Twilight?” Applejack demanded of the alicorn.
But Twilight just shook her head, “I have no idea.”
“CHOOSE!” The voice boomed.
The non-moving ponies jumped at the sound. Rarity shrieked. The speed of the wheel increased.
Hearing Rarity's fear, Twilight tried to move toward the fallen unicorn. The increased speed created an updraft causing Twilight's wings to flare and sending her momentarily airborne. Before she could self-correct, she knocked into Fluttershy, who flared her own wings to compensate. This caused the wind to send her tumbling into Applejack.
“Eeep!” The muted cry rang out as Fluttershy careened into the earth pony.
“Fluttershy!” Came the scared cry as both the timid Pegasus and Applejack were knocked over the side of the spinning wheel.
“Applejack! Fluttershy!” The other ponies cried out, watching in horror as their friends vanished into the abyss.
To their immense relief, seconds later, Fluttershy’s head and wings resurfaced above the edge of the circle. As she rose, they could see she held Applejack with her forelegs.
Flying up above the moving roulette wheel, Twilight saw that Fluttershy had even wrapped her hind legs around the earth pony’s rear ones for added balance. Seeing they were safe for the moment, Twilight reached Rarity's side and tried to help the unicorn up.
“Pair one has been chosen!” The voice bellowed.
“What in tarnation are you... whoa!” A glowing orb began to form around Applejack and Fluttershy.
The glowing orb continued to solidify around them in translucent yellow, orange, and pale pink. Inside Twilight could see the two ponies moving their mouths, but she could hear no sound. The orb began to solidify making it harder and harder to see their friends until finally the orb solidified completely. Crackling lighting sparkled and snapped around the ball.
Having just helped Rarity to stand upright, When the glowing orb encircled their friends, Twilight let go of the alabaster unicorn and stumbled forward, lighting her horn, in an attempt to stop whatever was happening to their encircled friends. In doing so, however, she inadvertently knocked into Rarity.
“Choose!” Another bellowed reminder that jolted the stunned friends out of their shock.
So focused on her friends' safety, the repeated command caught Rarity by surprise making her jump just as Twilight knocked into her. The combination of forces caused the unicorn to lose her footing and slide toward the edge of the spinning wheel. Frantically trying to grab onto something for purchase, her rear end dangled dangerously over the side of the still turning wheel.
Spike watching her slip over the side, cried out, “Rarity I’ll save you!” Letting go of his own grip on the wheel, he took flight and lifted Rarity from under her forelegs before she could fall over the edge.
“Oh, Spike thank goodness! You’ve saved me!” Rarity’s relief was evident in her voice. “You’re so brave...!”
The rest of her words were lost in the sound of the booming voice again. “Pair two has been chosen!”
An orb formed even faster around Spike and Rarity. This time in purples, white and green. The ball solidified, blocking Twilight’s view of her friends! Once again lightning crackled and snapped around the orb.
“Spike! Rarity!” Twilight called out in anguish. But she was quickly distracted by Rainbow Dash’s scream.
“Pinkie Pie watch out!” RD called out trying to catch the pink pony before she smacked into the glowing orb that now encompassed Spike and Rarity.
“Huh?” Pinkie Pie asked looking back over her shoulder and completely missing the giant glowing ball in front of her. One moment she was there and the next the curly pink hair bounced off the orb and plummeted into oblivion.
“Pinkie!!!!” Rainbow Dash screamed and zoomed down after her.
Twilight screamed both their names in succession. Holding her breath, she didn’t release it until she saw the rainbow hair and pink curls finally emerge above the hole. “Oh, thank Celestia!”
The bellow that followed made Twilight jump, “The final pair has been chosen.”
An orb formed even faster around Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, in shades of pink and blue with flecks of all colors of the rainbow sparkling through it. The crackle of lightning snapped around the orb.
All three orbs rose high above Twilight’s head. “The pairs have been chosen.”
Twilight looked around she was all alone. “No...”
“Only one left. Only you, Princess Twilight. Alone.”
“No!” Twilight screamed at the voice.
The wheel below her began to crumble apart and the pieces fell into oblivion.
The orbs with all of her friends inside rose higher and higher.
Twilight lifted up on her wings and flew toward the glowing balls, desperate to get to her friends. But as fast as she flew, the orbs rose higher and higher moving further and further out of her reach.
Tears streamed down her face. She had to get to those orbs, had to get to her friends. But no matter how fast she flew they moved faster. It seemed they were gaining speed, as she was tiring.
Still she kept fighting. Even as the horribly familiar voice repeated over and over in her head.
“Alone! Alone! Alone! Alone! Alone! Alone!”