//------------------------------//
// Twenty Five Minutes to Beat Five Dungeons 
// Story: The Games We Play 
// by Dedion 
//------------------------------//


"Two Minutes Remaining"


The disembodied voice overhead announced how much time had passed by. Spike could feel the sweat dripping down his face as he glanced at a deck of cards. There had to be, at least, twenty more cards to go through. How could they have been so behind already?! Shaking his head, he returned his attention back to the encounter at hand.

"I have a sword and a shield! Anyone got a scroll?!" Rainbow Dash placed down a red and a yellow card. An image of a sword and a shield were displayed in their respective cards. 

"I got it!" Twilight yelled, placing down a blue scroll card. Great, one less encounter. The next card from the encounter deck was revealed. It was a beast card that required two swords and a shield to defeat it. Spike quickly looked at his hand. He had two purple dash cards and a green arrow card. This was the same hand he had possessed for a while now and he considered that now would be a good time to get a fresh hand. 

"I use my ability," Spike declared. Thankfully, his class' ability let him defeat a beast encounter by discarding three cards. With this encounter defeated, Spike drew three more cards and a new encounter was revealed. This time it was an obstacle with a blue scroll, a purple dash, and a green arrow to defeat it. While Twilight had the blue scroll needed, no-one had the rest of the symbols required. Spike cursed himself under his breath for getting rid of his previous hand. 

"Action card!" Pinkie Pie declared. A short sigh of relief was heard as Pinkie's action card let the group defeat the obstacle and move on. The group continued to play through more of the encounters, their speed steadily increased. However, the last card before the boss of the dungeon was an event that caused everyone to discard their hand. While this meant that everyone would get a new hand, Spike had no more cards to draw into which meant that he was out of the game.

"Hold on, dearie. Action card!" said Rarity. Luck must have been on their side as Rarity had just pulled her class' action card. It allowed Spike to add his entire discard pile into his draw pile, bringing him back into the game. Drawing three more cards, Spike was ready to take on the final boss of the dungeon: The Grime Reaper. 

This boss needed a lot of blue scrolls to defeat as well as three shields. However, Twilight and Rarity were able to provide with most of them. Soon, a yellow shield was offered. Now all they needed as two more blue scrolls and two yellow shields and they beat the dungeon.


"Fifteen Seconds Remaining"


The disembodied voice once again chimed in. Everyone's blood ran cold as they realized how little time they had left. "Ability!" Twilight shouted. Everything was tinged a light blue as time seemed to crawl to a stop. Everyone could let go of the breath they had been holding as they now had time to think. As long as they didn't play a card, time was frozen. Twilight drew her three cards and everyone began to debate on their next move. Pinkie mostly had purple dashes in her hand and if she were to draw, with her deck, she would most likely draw into more purple cards. Twilight had one of her class' action cards: Magic Bomb. Using it counted as one card of any color. So, Twilight had one of the four symbols they needed.

Rarity was confident that she could be able to draw into a shield from her deck as it was the one with the most shields in it. Since Rainbow Dash didn't have any cards to use on the boss, she used her class' ability to make Rarity, Spike, and Twilight draw four cards. Using this ability three times made her hand and draw pile empty. Rainbow Dash was out of the game until someone played an action could that would replenish her draw pile or until the group defeated the dungeon.

Twilight was able to draw into another scroll and Rarity was able to get a shield. The party was only one symbol away from defeating the dungeon. One card stood in their way from moving on to the next one. Spike drew one card and revealed a red sword. He drew another card and found it to be another red sword. The tension in the air was thick. 

Another drawn card was revealed to be a green arrow. Spike drew his last card. The last hope for them completing this dungeon. He revealed it to find... a purple dash. With a sigh of frustration from the young dragon, the group knew what had happened. Having no cards that can be played to defeat the final boss, they had lost.

The world returned to its normal color as all the cards were magically shuffled back into their respective decks. A soft clapping could be heard emanating from a corner of the room. Each player turned their heads towards the clapping and found Discord sitting on a rather comfy looking chair. "My, my, that was certainly entertaining." He said, "Did everyone have fun?"

"That was so fast! It was like all blam, blam, and then blam! Before I knew it, it was all over!" Pinkie said excitedly.

"The concept of the game is quite interesting. Not only do you have to defeat multiple encounters by coordinating with your team to match the symbols, but all within five minutes," Rarity commented, "It does get the adrenaline pumping nicely without all the other dangerous implications."

"While I did enjoy myself, how is anyone suppose to beat all five dungeons? Especially with the number of encounters increasing with each cleared dungeon," Twilight asked.

"Oh, it's possible. You just got unlucky with your draws," answered Discord, "This game is all about luck and working against the clock. I've actually play-tested this with another group and after a while, you get used to your character and begin to blaze through the challenges. We actually defeated the last dungeon with only a second to spare!" 

"You guys want to go again?" asked Spike, "We have a couple of more hours to kill. I'm sure we can get through it this time!" All of the ponies at the table looked at each other for a brief moment. They then nodded in agreement. They were going to beat this game for sure this time!

"I'll continue being the wizard," said Twilight. A blue wizard's hat appeared in a white flash on her head as three cards from her deck were drawn. A few magic scrolls and tomes appeared in a pile next to her.

"Hey, Pinkie. You want to swap characters?" asked Dash.

"You bet!" replied an enthusiastic Pinkie Pie. As the two ponies swapped their characters, their appearances changed in a flash. Pinkie Pie had white tribal markings running up and down her body and a quiver of arrows appeared on her back. A black scarf wrapped it's way around Rainbow's muzzle, giving her the likeness of a ninja. Her rainbow colored hair was cut short and a small sheath sword rested by her side.

"Do you want to swap character's Rarity? Spike asked. Rarity shook her head.

"Thank you for the offer, Spike. But I already have what I want to do in mind," Rarity replied as she flipped her character over to reveal a new one: Valkyrie. Rarity's hair was magically tied into a ponytail as a pair of wings appeared on her back in a flash of light. A golden spear appeared as it now laid rested on the fashionista's shoulder while she looked over her cards.

Spike decided to follow Twilight's decision and remain as the character he first chose: Barbarian. Spike felt himself grow taller. Long gone was the baby fat as it was replaced with pure muscle. Multiple scars dotted Spike's new body. Some scars were light and barely noticeable while others were big and clearly caused by a battle with a large beast. Multiple swords of differing varieties appeared in a white light, strapped to Spike's body. The room they were playing in was no replaced by a dungeon room with torches as the only light source. Discord disappeared from view as the voice from earlier returned. 


"Welcome back to The Dungeon! I didn't think I'd be seeing you guys again. Get ready to start in...
5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Go!"