It was another beautiful day in Ponyville, Flash and Springer now marching through the town. It wasn't their patrol day, which was lucky since they weren't exactly in fighting fit shape. Both had droopy eyes and were letting out loud yawns as they arrived at Sugarcube Corner, soon finding the remaining members of the Mane Seven, minus Twilight, laughing together as they all enjoyed their own chosen beverage. When Pinkie spotted them, she waved her hoof, "Hey you two!" She then saw the looks on their faces. "Wow. You're both looking sleepy. Let me guess, a double large extra caffeinated beverage?"
"Make it a triple," Flash replied as they sat down. Pinkie nodded and ran into the kitchen while the others just stared at them.
"What's wrong with you two?" Rainbow asked before focusing on Flash, "You haven't looked this bad since before we redecorated the castle."
"Or when you discovered where you came from," Rarity added, "And that means only one thing. You haven't been getting any sleep."
"Great deductions Sherclop Pones," Springer moaned as his face hit the table.
"Oh dear," Fluttershy whispered. "Is everything okay?"
Applejack raised an eyebrow, "Ya'll boys haven't been spendin' all night playin video games again, have yah?" They shook their heads, "Then what's dah problem?"
"Twilight..." Flash moaned out.
"And Starlight," Springer added, "Not to mention Trixie."
The mares all raised an eyebrow. They knew Trixie had been spending the last few days visiting the castle, but then Pinkie arrived with their drinks and the pair gulped them down. After this, Flash spoke up, "Every night since Trixie got here, they've been working all night in Twilight's lab. They've been making so much noise that it keeps waking us up."
The mares nodded at this, knowing how loud Twilight's experiments could get when she was too focused on her work to think about the noise. Springer moaned at this as he took another swig of his drink. "We've tried to get them to put up a sound proofing spell, but they keep accidently dropping the spell when they work."
"That's rough," Rainbow grimaced, only to tap her hoof on the table, "Oh...that's why Scootaloo was barely moving when I saw her riding her scooter to school. Her wings were barely beating."
"Yeah," Flash nodded, "I wouldn't be surprised if Ms Cheerilee isn't chewing them out at this moment."
The school house...
"Now," the teacher pointed at the blackboard, "Who wants to try and solve this fraction?" She stared at her class, only to notice three of her students now slumped over on their desks. Heart, Soul and Scootaloo were all asleep, Heart drooling on his desk while Soul looked like she was about to roll off the chair.
Their friends besides them tried to quickly shake them awake, the trio stirring up with a yelp.
"Wha-wha-wha?!" Heart moaned, the three then seeing Cheerilee glaring at them.
"Have a nice nap?" She asked, the trio blushing. "Maybe one of these fractions will wake you up." She turned to the board, only to hear more snoring. She glanced back, only to see the three were still awake. "What the-" She spun around at the noise, following the sounds as she walked up to the room's door. The mare opened it up, only to find a sleeping Ace and Mira outside the school house.
"Ace and Mira needed to find someplace to get a good night...day's sleep away from the castle. Hopefully, they've found it."
"My word," Rarity sighed, "Whatever could those three be working on that would require so much work and so many loud noises?"
Flash and Springer both shrugged, "No idea. I just wish it was done already."
"You think we should go take a look?" Rainbow asked.
"Ooh," Pinkie jumped up and down, "I wanna see! I wanna see!"
"Ah guess it couldn't hurt ta ask 'em," Applejack added, "And who knows, maybe we can get 'em to take a break from whatever they're doin' so you two can get a couple winks."
Flash and Springer nodded before the seven left the bakery. The drinks had helped Flash and Springer to mostly stay awake, soon making their way through town. Flash and Springer appeared almost sleepwalking as they headed for the castle, only to for clouds of familiar looking smoke to appear in front of each of them, which swirled together until they formed small notes. "What's this?" Rainbow asked before they opened the envelopes.
Come to the castle.
"Wonder what this is for?" Springer asked as he threw the note into a nearby trashcan.
"If I know Twilight," Flash spoke up before yawning, "And at the moment, I hate to say I do, then she's probably finished the experiment and wants to show it off to us."
"Then let's go see it!" Rainbow added as they continued their way to the castle, only to spot Iron, Grand and Lightning approaching the building as well.
"Hey," Lightning waved, "You all get a message from Twilight too?"
"Yup," Flash nodded. "Whatever she wants to show us, she must be really excited if she had to summon all of us." He trotted up to the door and threw it open, stepping inside just as Spike came down the stairs.
"Just in time. If Twilight had to wait any longer, she was gonna explode."
"Wait for what?" Iron asked, "What's so great that she had to call use all here?"
"I wish I knew." Spike sighed, "Whatever it is better be worth it. I've lost too much important beauty sleep from all the banging and crashing they've been making." Flash and Springer nodded in agreement just as Twilight, Starlight and Trixie entered the hallway.
"Great!" the alicorn clapped, "You're all here!"
"What's this about?" Grand asked, "You wouldn't call us here if this wasn't important. What's going on?"
Trixie smiled as walked up first, "If you must know, I managed to find an old tome that had some interesting information in it. Information that was the key we needed to finally complete something we've been trying to figure out for quite a while."
"And that is?" Lightning replied before the magic users all sparked their horns, three beams coming out and making a flash of light that connected and summoned something in the center of the room: A crystal.
"That's it?!" Springer yelped, "I've been losing nights of sleep for a crystal?!"
"Twilight! You...wait..." Flash yelled before he squinted at the object and turned to Twilight, "Is this..."
Twilight shinnied big grin at this, "This my dear Flash, is the culmination of months of hard work and research! A fully working and ready to test replica of the training room's control crystal."
This woke Flash and Springer up while getting a shocked gasp from the others in the room. Ever since they first acquired the castle, one of the biggest mysteries was the training room the defenders used. And seeing that it could be replicated by Faust, the mares had become even more determined to do so.
"So...this thing can do what the training room can do?" Iron asked, the mares nodded. "Now that is something to get excited about."
"Just imagine what we can do with a bunch of these things," Grand chuckled, "If we had one at Canterlot, training new recruits would be a hundred times better. We could put them into any kind of environment or situation without running the risk of them getting hurt. Avalanches, rock slides, escaped convicts..."
"The Wonderbolts could use one too," Rainbow added, "We could practise cloud busting without needing to use up a bunch of clouds from the weather factory."
"And I could use one to make my gowns," Rarity whispered, the others turning to her with blinking stares, "Think about it! It's the perfect way to fit a dress! Simply have the customer step up to a mirror, and then use the crystal to create an illusion of the dress. Then I can make any changes and alterations to it and once that's done, all I'd need to do is make the actual dress without worry of the customer hating the final product."
"Huh...guess that's true." Flash commented.
"Yup," Twilight nodded, "This kind of technology has infinite uses. That's why we've been working so hard to complete."
"Well, I'll admit it," Flash sighed, "If this thing's the end product, I don't mind losing a bit of sleep." The others nodded in agreement. "So, you said it was ready to test out?"
"You know it," Starlight cheered, "We were able upload every single magical program the original crystal has ever used. Until we're sure it's working, we thought it best not to tax the crystal so it can't accept new ideas like the original yet."
"Still awesome. And I think I know the perfect training sim to test it with." Flash walked up to the crystal, then to Twilight. "May I?" Twilight nodded and Flash pressed his hoof to the crystal, which began to light up. In that moment, the flash of light occurred and the group found they were all standing atop of ship. They looked around the saw nothing but open ocean while the boat they were on was a fancy looking yacht.
"Pretty cool, right?" Flash asked as he moved over to the edge. "In this rescue sim, the boat's engines have stalled and you have to get it back to dry land."
"Wow," Springer walked over to the boat's wall and tapped it. "Feels like the real thing, just like the original."
"Does the water feel real?" Pinkie asked, "I'd love to go for a virtually simulated swim." She was about to jump over the side, but Flash stopped her.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he said as Rainbow Dash flew over the edge.
"Why not?" The pegasus added, only for something to suddenly leap out of the water. "WHOA!" She yelped, barely avoiding the shark that tried to take a bite out of her. She took several deep breaths. "Geez," she wiped her head, "that was...AWESOME!"
"Aw..." Fluttershy moved over to the side of the boat, smiling as she saw the shark poke its head out of the water, followed by several other great whites. "Hello there. Who's a nice little shark?" The sharks all growled, making Fluttershy tilt her head, "That's odd," she turned to Twilight. "I can't understand them."
"Probably because they're not real sharks," Twilight replied, only for one of the sharks to leap out of the ocean and fly over the deck of the boat before splashing down on the other side.
"This is nuts," Iron told Flash, "How are we supposed to complete this task if none of us know how to fix an engine or not get eaten by sharks?" He reached over and grabbed the crystal, placing his own hoof onto it. "I know the perfect sim to test this bad boy out. One involving a meteor shower." The crystal glowed and unleashed a flash, soon dying down to show the group now in a desert.
"Huh," Starlight glanced around, "Kind of...empty."
"The real action is much higher," Iron replied, everypony looking upward as they were greeted to the sight of meteors shooting down.
"Fabulous," Rarity whispered, "Absolutely gorgeous." But before she could say anything else, one of the meteors came crashing down and smashed into the ground next to Applejack
"WHOA!" She was thrown back, a large cloud of dust hitting her in the face. "Geez," she got up, "How the hay are we supposed to stop a bunch of meteors?"
"We don't," Iron replied before pointing at a nearby area, which was inhabited by a bunch of scared animals including rabbits, dears and squirrels. Most wanted to know why they were in a desert, but another meteor crashed down beside them. "Our mission is to get the animals safely out of harms way."
The ponies smiled, all thinking Fluttershy had rubbed off on him more than they thought. They began chasing after the animals, only to find anything but cooperation. "Come on little ones," Fluttershy tried to talk to them, but the fake animals weren't listening the way normal ones would.
"I get the point of this," Flash groaned, "But how is this better than the ship?"
Springer leapt at one of the animals, but the rabbit hopped out of the way and he ended up face-planting the ground. "Augh! Do these critters even want saving?!"
"The sailors on the boat did," Flash pointed out.
"Can we forget about the ship?!" Iron growled as he ran past them, only for another meteor to crash down next to Flash and Springer. As the ponies all tried to capture an animal and avoid another giant burning rock, Lightning stepped over to the crystal and placed his hoof on it. A moment later, the desert disappeared and was replaced by a farm.
"Hey!" Iron yelped, "What the heck?!"
"What?!" Lightning barked back, "How many times does saving little critters from meteors happen in every day life?! If we're gonna test this thing, we should use a sim that actually uses realistic events. For example:" He pointed at a part of the farm where they spotted a pony that was just a recolour of Big Mac, sitting besides a broken wheeled cart with what looked like a hurt leg. "This farmer has crashed his cart into a bunch of beehives and needs his leg bandaging before we can take him to hospital."
"Huh," Grand shrugged, "That is something that could actually happen." Lightning used his magic to pick up the first aid kit that had appeared beside them and moved over to the farmer with Rarity and Fluttershy.
"Oh my..." Rarity whispered when she saw the nasty cut on Fake Mac's leg, "That does look painful." She then smelled something, "Amazing. I can actually smell the blood."
"That's not all we can smell," Trixie moaned at the normal farm smells, only for Applejack to shine a big grin.
"Yee...HAA!" She exclaimed, "That doohickey's somethin' else. If ah close mah eyes, ah can almost believe ah'm actually at home!"
"This is all nice, but if this pony's cart hit a bunch of beehives, then where are-" Springer asked before hearing a loud buzzing sound, the group turning to see a large swarm of very angry looking insects.
"THE BEES!" Trixie screamed before they all began to run away, the giant swarm following. And as they did this, Lightning, Rarity and Fluttershy didn't notice as they focused on helping Fake Mac.
Hearing their screaming, Rarity looked up but kept her back to the commotion. "Do you mind keeping it down?!" she pulled a piece of bandage off the roll. "We are trying to work!" Lightning and Fluttershy then glanced up, the pair gasping at what they saw.
Several ponies ran into a nearby barn while others chose to dive into a pig pen, covering themselves in mud. Flash then noticed a nearby outhouse, diving into it seconds before a bee could sting him. But after smelling the place, he suddenly wished he was back with the bees. "Worst...hiding place...ever."
"There." Rarity smiled as she stared the now bandaged farm pony. "For neatness, I think I'd give myself an A."
"Bee," the farmer responded, making Rarity gasp.
"A B?! Please," she growled, "At worst it's an A minus."
"No..." he pointed at something behind her, "Bee." Rarity turned around and blinked as she saw a single buzzing insect float over to her.
"Oh, hello little darling. Planning on pollinating some beautiful flowers are we?" The bee buzzed around her without problem, "Are you all alone?" It was here she heard more buzzing, just in time to see the swarm flying toward her. "I guess that's a noooOOOO!" She began to run off, Lightning and Fluttershy beside her.
And as they distracted the bees, Grand stuck his head out the barn doors and spotted the crystal. He leapt out the building and raced to the gem, leaping at it as the bees prepared to sting his grandson. He managed to slide up to it and placed a hoof on the crystal, which glowed and unleashed a bright light that almost blinded everypony.
When the light faded, everypony opened their eyes and looked around to see they were now in some kind of underground tunnel. "What happened?" Rainbow asked as Grand picked himself up and dusted himself off.
"We're in my favorite sim. It's one I designed based off of something that actually happened to me in my younger days." He pointed to one of the walls and everypony spotted the front of a train sticking out of it.
"Where did that come from?" Twilight asked, Grand chuckling.
"When Equestria's rail network was first created, they never thought to do ground surveyance to make sure the area they placed the tracks was stable. This lead to them accidently placing them atop an area with natural caverns underneath. One day, the train was rolling over a weaken piece of ground and it broke through the surface, rolling into a tunnel and being buried alive. Luckily, a bunch of guards and I were stationed nearby and were able to save them all."
"That does sound interesting," Flash commented as Grand moved over to the train and used his hammer to smash away the rocks.
"We've got thirty minutes before they run out of air." The group got to work, breaking away the rubble and slowly uncovering more and more of the train. After about twenty minutes, the entire thing was freed from the rocks and they started uncovering the carriages. As soon as the door was freed, they opened them and looked inside to find a bunch of scared ponies waiting inside. "You're free now!"
The ponies all cheered and ran out, running as fast as they could before the rocks crashed down onto the train. And when the last pony was freed, there was a loud beeping to signify the sim was completed.
"Perfect," Grand chuckled, "Great work everypony." He glanced around at all the tired ponies, clearly exhausted from all the hard work. "I don't know about you, but I think this was a resounding success."
The others all nodded as Rainbow moved up to the crystal. "This thing is really awesome." She picked it up, "But what other sims does it have." The crystal glowed and the next thing everypony knew, they were on a snowy mountain. "Cool." Another flash and they were in a town made entirely of confectioneries and dessert, "Sweet." Another flash found them in a giant arena that had a bunch of different obstacles filling it. "AWESOME!"
The others were just as amazed, but Twilight ran up to the pegasi, "Rainbow, I don't think this is such a good idea. The crystal's still being tested, and too many quick changes could-" She stopped as the room transformed into a replica of Canterlot City.
Once it did this, the crystal suddenly began to spark and vibrate, making Rainbow gasp and drop it. Everypony went wide-eyed and tried to grab the gem, but it hit the floor before they could. And as it did this, the sparking and vibrating increased....and unleashed a blindingly powerful light.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Was the general response as the light filled the room, forcing them to cover their eyes.
After several moments, Flash's vision recovered and he slowly opened his eyes...only to find him, Twilight and Spike were now in a long corridor. "Twilight?" He moved over to them, "Spike. You okay?"
"I've been better," Spike moaned.
The princess shook her head before glancing around, "What is all this? What happened?"
"I don't know," Flash replied, "But I'm more worried about the others." Twilight's eyes shrunk as she now saw they were alone in the hallway, only for Flash to add, "Where do you think they-"
"Everypony!" yelled Springer's voice.
"Springer?" Flash looked around, only to realize they were talking to each other through his aura link. "Where are you? Are the others with you?"
"Not everypony. Just Rainbow and Pinkie. As for where we are..."
Springer stared at the area he, Pinkie and Rainbow were located in. It looked like the Everfree Forest, though it had a few additions such as trees that shot fire out of the holes in the bark and giant bubbles coming out of a nearby pool that exploded with deadly force.
"I think we're in a simulation, but it's not one I recognize."
"You're not the only one," Iron chimed in.
Iron, Grand, and Fluttershy were at some kind of old fashioned fort, standing on a wall while looking down at a large army that was attempting to breech the castle's defenses. "WHOA!" Iron yelped, ducking under a flying rock. "Too close."
"What's going on?" Fluttershy asked, the mare shrinking down to mouse size to avoid getting hit.
"We're not sure," Twilight replied, "But if I had to hazard a guess, the crystal must of glitched out and thrown us all into different sims. It's possible to entire castle has been transformed into different areas."
"Well that would explain our situation," Lightning's voice called out.
Lightning, Rarity, and Applejack were in a corridor like the one Flash and the others were in, but this one was full of doors. Applejack opened one, only to be thrown into the opposite wall by a large wave of water. She cried out as she was plastered against it, Rarity and Lightning running over to push the door closed. When the water vanished, doing so the minute the door closed, Applejack slid down to the floor before spitting out a load of water.
"Ah hate magic sometimes," she grumbled as Rarity opened another door, only to hear Himalayan music before she shutting it.
"Why is this happening?" She asked, Starlight being the one to reply.
"The Crystal malfunctioned. It overloaded and unleashed a burst that filled the entire castle with different illusions."
"Where are you?" Lightning responded back.
Starlight and Trixie were standing in a large cavern, both on a ledge with nowhere to go except forward, where a bridge was located between them and another ledge. The bridge was made out of stone squares and each square had a letter on it.
"I guess we're in some kind of puzzle room," Trixie said as she walked up to the bridge and found a stone platform that had a book on it.
They both stared at the book, then at the ledge on the other side of the chasm. It had a large wall on it that had some kind of door. "I think I've spotted our way out of here."
"Great..." Trixie sighed as she glanced down at the bridge, "And I assume we can't just walk over this bridge randomly."
"Who said anything about walking?" Starlight replied while pointing to her horn. She sparked the instrument and attempted to teleport, but all the spell did was make a bright flash. When it was over, Starlight was still there. "Huh?"
Trixie tried and got the same result. "Uh...I don't think we can teleport."
Twilight attempted as well, but she couldn't use the teleportation spell either. "Not good."
"How come we can't teleport?" Starlight asked.
"I think I might know." Lightning spoke up, the ponies frowning at his tone of voice. "Some of the simulations we designed don't allow teleportation. You know, so that you can't just warp from one end of the course to the other. Maybe when the crystal malfunctioned, it unleashed that same barrier throughout the entire castle."
"Just great," Flash moaned, "Now how the heck are we supposed to get out of here?"
"The crystals gotta be somewhere in here," Springer pointed out. "Maybe we can look around and find it, then switch if off."
Twilight sighed at this, "It's worth a shot. Let's go everypony!"
"Got it!"
Springer began leading Pinkie and Rainbow through the forest and quickly found the door out of there, but it was located on the other side of a large boggy lake. They stared at the wide lake and...they couldn't see the ends. "How big is this thing?" Pinkie asked, "It's like...really, really, really, really, really, really, really big."
"Clearly we're supposed to go over it," Springer grumbled as they glanced down at the lake and saw several rocks sticking out of it with vines hanging down between the rocks. "This could be tricky."
"For you maybe," Rainbow laughed before flying over the bog. But when she was halfway over, the vines suddenly came to life, "Whoa, whoa, WHOA!" Before she could do anything, she was suddenly wrapped up with everything except her head trapped. "Aaaaah! Get me out of here!"
Pinkie and Springer stared at one another before leaping onto the nearest rock, then leaping off the grab some vines to swing their way over to the next step. They kept doing this until they reached Rainbow, Springer managing to swing up and use his Steel Paw to slash through the vines.
"Yeah!" Rainbow cheered when she was free, "Thanks Springer!" She then grabbed a vine, "WAHOOOOO!" She exclaimed, swinging over the bog. "This is just like being Daring Do!" The three kept swinging, slowly increasing their momentum as they kept going before hitting the other side.
Springer was the first to land, doing a perfect gymnast pose as he did. "And he sticks the landing." Rainbow just flew down, the vines attempting to grab her, but she quickly got on land before they could reach. Pinkie just landed on the ground and rolled like a ball along it until she hit the door, laughing as she sprang back up.
"That was fun!"
"Maybe this won't be so bad after all," Rainbow added as Springer opened the door. And as he did this, they found themselves looking at a snowy field biome, the trio walking in before the door slammed shut behind them and vanished. As it did, a chilling wind struck the three, "Forget what I said. This sucks."
Over in the fort, Iron was ducking under another flying rock. "This is so not fair. Don't we have anything to fire at them?"
"Gyah!" Grand smacked a rock away with his hammer, then looked inside the fort. The place was a stone square with a bunch of different wooden pieces on the floor. "Maybe we're supposed to build something with those."
"I thought the four of you came up with all these sims?" The still small Fluttershy asked as a rock hit the wall behind her and made it shake. She cried out, flying away from the wall and to the wooden pieces while returning to normal size.
"We all made hundreds of sims," Grand replied, "And not all were made together."
"Any idea what we're supposed to make with this?" Iron asked, picking up a wooden gear.
"Nope," Grand then spotted another rock flying towards them. "But we've gotta figure it out before this place falls apart."
Back with Flash, Twilight and Spike, the three continued to make their way through the hallway and found a door at the end. "Finally," Spike moaned as he jumped off Twilight's back. "So what's through here?"
"No idea," Flash replied, "The crystal's turned the castle into a giant maze. Anything could be behind there."
But as they got closer, they found themselves hearing something coming from the other side of the door. "What's that?" Twilight asked, the three listening to what sounded like a filly's voice singing something. They glanced at each other before Twilight shrugged, "Only one way to find out." She opened the door and walked in, the three now finding themselves in a square room.
The floor was divided into multiple different colored squares and jumping on those squares was a little filly. She looked like Scootaloo, only she had white fur and brown hair. "Allamaraine, count to four. Allamaraine, then three more. Allamaraine, if you can see. Allamaraine, you'll come with me." She reached the other side of the room, where a door was waiting for them. Once she was at the other side, she spun around and repeated the rhyme as she hopped along.
"Hello," Twilight told the filly, "Who are you?" But the filly didn't respond, instead continuing to do the rhyme and skip pattern until she reached the door. She then spun around and repeated the process.
"Don't bother Twi," Flash chimed in, "She's just an NPC. She's not real."
"Well, this has been fun," Spike muttered as the filly turned around. "But let's get out of here."
"Spike, wait!" Flash yelped as Spike walked over to the door, only to hit something invisible before getting shocked.
"Gyah!" He cried, staggering back until Twilight caught him on her wing.
"What just happened?" Flash asked next.
"Some kind of protective barrier," Twilight responded before turning to the filly and seeing her skip past the spot that the barrier was located. "But she can go right through it."
Flash hummed, then looked down and watched her jump on the floor tiles in a certain order. "Look at where she's skipping. She always jumps on the same panels. Those much be what allows her to pass through the barrier."
Twilight nodded. "Allamaraine. It's old ponish for mirroring. If you see, you'll come with me." Flash moved over to where the filly was heading and waited. She reached him and spun around, then began the skipping sequence. He and the filly only needed two hooves, Flash using his wings to keep on his back legs.
He followed her hoofsteps exactly and eventually arrived in front of the barrier, taking the same pose as she had before leaping forward...and getting shocked for his efforts. "Augh!" He staggered back, Twilight and Spike catching him. "Wah?" He watched the filly jump through the barrier and return the way she had just come. "But...I did everything she did."
"No you didn't." Twilight instantly replied.
"But I followed her hoofsteps."
"But you didn't say the rhyme," she pointed out before moving over to the start. Once the filly turned around, she followed the sequence while singing. "Allamaraine, count to four. Allamaraine, then three more. Allamaraine, if you can see. Allamaraine, you'll come with me." On the last line, she leapt into the barrier and didn't get zapped. Flash and Spike smiled at this before moving over to follow her example, both singing and skipping behind the filly perfectly.
Once Spike was through the barrier, the door opened, the trio glancing inside...and finding another hallway.
"This is gonna take a bit, isn't it?"
Meanwhile...
Lightning, Rarity and Applejack were now in a corridor filled with doors. Aside from the doors they tried at the start, which all led to dead ends, they found these doors were locked. "Come on!" Applejack moaned as she shook a door, "Let us out!"
"There has to be one unlocked door," Rarity sighed, "How else are we supposed to move forward?"
"Who said we're supposed to move forward," Lightning chimed in, "For all we know, there is no way out of here."
"Thanks," Applejack grumbled, "That makes me feel so much better." But then, she pulled on one of the doors and it opened. "Hey!" The others walked over, glancing inside to see an entire universe inside the room. They stepped in, now findin themselves in a giant void. In front of the door was a small red metal ledge that was only a few feet long, which was floating in the void, which was red below the ledge, green at their level and blue above them. In front of them were a bunch of red shapes that were floating in midair, mainly floating rectangle platforms.
"This looks familiar," Lightning told the mares.
"Well I don't like it. The coloring is all wrong." Rarity huffed, "I think we should look for another door." She spun around at this, only for the door to slam shut and disappear. "Hey!" The next thing the three knew, music began to play and something appeared above them. Three white orbs.
"What the hay is going on?" Applejack asked as their ledge suddenly turned into another platform. And before they could do anything else, the platform slowly began to vanish. Within seconds, the rectangle disintegrated from the back.
The three all cried out as they leapt off the edge of the platform, landing on another block. "Why is this happening?" Rarity asked as Lightning's eyes went wide.
"Oh no..." the platform they had been on now completely vanished and the one they were one repeated the process. "I remember this sim, it's one of Springer's! We've entered the world of old school platform games." They began to run towards the end of platform and jumped onto the next one.
"And those games force you to run towards chaos?!" Rarity yelped, Lightning shrugging back.
"Well, it technically side scrolls towards chaos," Lightning replied as they kept running from one platform to the next. "There's rules to these games: Rule one, you can't go backwards." They leapt up to a platform hovering above them. "Rule two, everything speeds up the further you go."
He and Applejack leapt onto a platform below them, but Rarity fell short and almost missed it until the others grabbed her hooves and pulled her up. They then turned to the platform in front of their's, which had a strange looking monster that was a rock with feet who was jumping up and down.
"Three, all of the obstacles are pre-programmed so if you learn the timings you can avoid the danger." The rock jumped up twice before freezing for a moment, Lightning leaping over it with Rarity and Applejack doing the same thing. "But the most important thing to know is that if you die, we have to start over at the beginning."
"Wait," Rarity came to a stop, "What do you mean we start over at the-OUGH!" She screamed as a giant hammer came out of nowhere, knocking her into the void.
"Rarity!" Lightning gasped, only for him, Applejack and Rarity to disappear in a flash of light. And when the light faded, they were all back at the beginning of the course...and one of Rarity's dots vanished.
"Okay..." Rarity gulped, "I see what you mean."
Applejack looked at the obstacle course ahead of them. "We have ta do all that over again?" She asked, Lightning nodding.
"If we pay attention, we won't make the same mistakes twice." The platform vanished and they ran ahead, praying they could get through before they ran out of lives. They didn't want to know what would happen if that happened.
Starlight and Trixie were now staring at a bridge that was the only way to the door. They looked down at the stones that made up the bridge, each one emblazoned with a letter. The stones were arranged four by seven. The first row had a U, T, R and K. The second row had an A, C, H and E. The third row had an F, I, L and U. The fourth row had an O, Y, N and P. The fifth row had an S, I, D and B. The sixth row had a T, E, N and V and the final row had an O, M, R and W.
"It must be a riddle," Starlight commented, "I'm guessing that each row has a letter that makes up the answer."
"But what's the riddle?" Trixie asked, her gaze turning to the book in front of the bridge. She flipped it open, finding the book was actually two pieces of metal hinged together. When she opened it, she was met with the image of a pony's face staring back at her, making her flinch as it began to talk.
"Announced with a flash, but arrive with a boom. I may leave you awash and can sometimes spell doom. What am I?"
"Did you get any of that?" Trixie asked Starlight, the mare shaking her head. "Great...cuz I didn't get it either."
Starlight glanced back at the bridge, "Hmmm...well, I suppose we'll just have to think this one out. Here's hoping everypony else is okay."
Flash, Twilight and Spike were continuing to explore the corridor, looking for any sign of another doorway. However, this corridor had multiple splits and turns, so there were hundreds of directions to go.
"Anything?" Flash asked when they met back up.
"Not one door," Twilight sighed. "You?"
Spike shook his head. "Nothing." He let out a groan, "This is getting exhausting."
"There has to be a way out of here," Flash added before looking down another corridor. "Did you two check this one?" They glanced at each other before shrugging.
"I'm not sure. They all look the same." Flash took that as a cue to head down the hall, Twilight and Spike following. But as soon as they entered the corridor, a wall suddenly came down and blocked the entrance.
"HEY!" Spike yelped, "Why did it do that?!"
"I guess this is the way we go," Flash replied before moving down the corridor. The other two followed until they reached a corner, the three turning to find themselves looking down another hallway. And at the end of it, a door was waiting for them. "There it is." Flash trotted up, only to feel a tingle down his spine. Quickly shifting back, a green beam of light shot out of a hole in the wall. "Whoa!"
Multiple beams came next, soon covering the corridor and forming bars throughout the room. "Looks like something out of a spy comic," Spike commented as Twilight stared at them.
"Do you think they're dangerous?" Flash asked her.
"Well, normally they wouldn't be. But if the crystal's malfunctioning..." She stopped before turning to Flash, her horn glowing. He was about to ask what she was doing, but he got his answer when he felt one of his feathers get pulled out of his wing.
"Ow!" He yelped before Twilight floated the feather over to the first laser, the feather getting cut in half the second it touched it. "Well...that's not good." The others nodded. "But we gotta get through it if we wanna get to the other side."
Twilight nodded and glanced around to see if there were any buttons or anything that she could use to switch the lasers off. "Hmm...maybe I could-"
"Alright," Flash interrupted as he did a quick stretch. "Here goes."
"Wait, Flash-" She tried to say, only for the pegasus to jump over the first beam, then rolled under the second and squeezed between two more. Twilight and Spike watched Flash as he danced around the place, showing impressive gymnastic skills as he cartwheeled, tangoed and hoof-stood around the lasers. And eventually, he reached the last laser and slid under it with no more damage then a few lost mane hairs.
He then came to a stop, pumping his hoof as he did. "YES!" He turned to Twilight, "Now it's your turn. I know it looks hard, but you can do it." It was here he noticed Twilight's frown, "What?" Twilight responded by lifting Spike onto her back and sparking her horn, a magic bubble appearing around her. She stepped forward and the beams were no match for her magic defenses.
"Oh," Flash's ears went down as Twilight and Spike reached the other side with little effort and no injuries whatsoever. "Well...that just takes the fun out of it."
Twilight rolled her eyes and opened the door, stepping through with Flash following her.
Springer, Rainbow and Pinkie were still trudging through the snow, all shivering from the cold. "W-w-where is th-th-that d-d-door?" Rainbow asked through chattering teeth. Springer and Pinkie wanted to reply, but were just too cold to do so. "If-if-if w-w-we don't-t-t f-f-find it s-s-soon-" She stopped as she bit her tongue, making her cry out and cover her mouth.
"This sucks," Springer moaned, only for him and Pinkie to suddenly found themselves walking off the end of a hill hidden by the snow, "GYAH!" They both cried, falling down the slope and morphing into a giant snowball. Rainbow gasped and followed after them, but her wings kept still, the cold freezing her up.
The snowball soon reached the bottom of the slope, exploding on impact. It sent Springer and Pinkie flying, both crying out as they soared a good ten feet before crashing into another pile of snow. When Rainbow got there, she was worried the pair had frozen to death, only for their heads to poke out as they shivered like crazy.
"This is so not fun!" Pinkie cried before letting out a sneeze.
Iron and Fluttershy continued to mess with the wooden object they were constructing. As Grand was back on the fort wall deflecting the rocks, they were slowly putting it together piece by piece. "This would be so much easier with instructions," Fluttershy commented as she shrank down so she could more easily screw a bolt into place.
"Who needs instructions," Iron replied, now seeing they had built some kind some kind of platform with wheels and a few gears that slotted into the spaces. "But any idea what it is yet?"
Fluttershy let out a noise that told him she didn't know while Grand chanced looking back. And when he did, he was met with an image that looked familiar. He glanced back at the battlefield and spotted one of the catapults, realizing its base was the same as what they had built. "It's a catapult!"
Iron and Fluttershy pulled back and looked it over, both going wide-eyed at the image, "You're right!" Iron exclaimed, "Nice. With this, we can fire back."
"Look out!" Grand yelped as they glanced up just in time to see a rock that Grand had missed fly towards them. Seeing this, Fluttershy grew to elephant size and managed to catch it with her tail.
"Assuming it stays in one piece long enough for us to use it," Fluttershy added as she put the rock down. "Oh dear..."
Lightning, Applejack and Rarity were continuing to make their way through the video game challenge, still leaping from one platform to another, Applejack ahead of the pack. The three were now avoiding large red blocks that fell from the sky, Applejack managing to outrun three blocks and leap past three platforms. But when she arrived at another one, a large red wall suddenly appeared in front of her.
"Hey!" She yelped, trying to push through the wall, but it remained still. The platform she was on then started vanishing and she leapt upwards, but the wall was to high and she just ended up slamming into it before falling back down. "Oh-NOOOOOOO!" She cried before vanishing, only for her, Lightning, and Rarity to now be back at the start.
She looked up as one of her dots vanished, she and Lightning now having two while Rarity only had one. "Alright, ah'm getting tired of this." The others nodded and they ran off as the music started. They leapt platform to platform, jumping past the rock monster while avoiding the hammers and falling blocks. They reached a section where the platforms vanished, now showing a bunching of moving blocks. Applejack stopped for a moment and memorized the block's movements, then leapt and hopped from block to block. Rarity and Lightning were close behind, all making it across the platforms again.
The section where the wall appeared came next, the three now making sure to select high up platforms. And sure enough, when the wall appeared, they were able to jump over it before they could get caught. And when all three landed on the other side, the music suddenly stopped and the platform stopped disappearing.
"Huh," Applejack commented, "No more scrollin'." She turned to the others, "Did we beat dah level?" She got her answer when the music suddenly started again, only now it was going faster.
"Uh oh," Lightning gulped. "The music always gets faster when the game's about to get harder."
"How can in possibly get harder?" Rarity almost screamed, only for a bunch more platforms to appear in front of them. But instead of going forward like before, they went upward, and were so high that they couldn't see the top.
"Oh no..." Lightning sighed. "An infinity maze."
"Let's hope not," Rarity added, "Infinity means forever." In that moment, their platform began to dissolve and they ran into the maze. But climbing upwards quickly proved much harder than forward, the multiple different shapes making the climb almost impossible. And it didn't help that when Lightning leapt on one platform and stayed there to wait for the girls, the floor suddenly exploded into flames.
"Gyah!" He cried, feeling himself get burned before he vanished. The next thing everypony knew, they were back at the bottom of the infinity maze and Lightning was down to one life. "Blast it!"
At the same time, Starlight and Trixie were staring at the riddle bridge. "Announced with a flash, but arrive with a boom?" Starlight whispered as she stared at the first four letters. "U, T, R and K. One of these is the first letter. But which one?"
"Why not just guess," Trixie suggested, "I mean, what's the worst that could happen if you get it wrong?"
Starlight then placed a hoof on the R tile and waited...but nothing happened. "Huh. Maybe this is the right letter." She stepped fully onto the stone, the letter beginning to glow. "Now what?" The tile suddenly vanished at this, leaving a large hole where she had been standing. Starlight gasped as she fell, letting out a scream as she tried to grab the sides, only to feel a tug at her tail. "WHOA!" She looked up and saw Trixie had jumped forward and grabbed her tail in her mouth. "Trixie!"
The unicorn groaned as she did her best to pull Starlight back up, Starlight crying out until Trixie managed to get her high enough for the pink unicorn to grab the edge and pull herself up. Once she was back up, they both panted. "Alright," Trixie moaned, "Let's not guess."
"Sounds good to me."
Flash, Twilight and Spike had no idea what they were looking at. Once they had gotten through the laser grid, they walked in the door to find themselves in a room full of laughter. There were ponies in there that looked like they were at the Grand Galloping Gala, all dressed fancy, talking and laughing while taking food and drink off any plate that passed them by. Even the servers were laughing.
"What is this place?" Spike asked.
"Both Rarity and Pinkie's idea of heaven," Flash joked as they walked inside, "Hello?" He tried to get the NPC's attentions, but none would respond. "I guess they're not meant to give us any clues on how to escape."
"So where's the door?" Spike asked as they glanced around, seeing no door as the one they entered through had mysteriously vanished.
Twilight was also confused, but before she could think, her head started feeling light. She suddenly found herself feeling incredibly dizzy, about to fall over, the mare barely catching herself as she glanced around. Flash and Spike were also starting to act the same way, Twilight gasping, "There's some kind of gas filling the room!" She tried to put up a shield, but she found she couldn't focus.
"What do we do?" Spike asked, only to see the ponies that were laughing weren't affected. A part of his brain told him it was because they weren't real, only to see a mare eat a cucumber sandwich, his eyes went wide. "Eat!" He leapt up and grabbed the snack tray, Twilight and Flash realizing what he was doing. They grabbed a snack try as well, all starting to scarfing the food down. But no matter what they ate, they kept feeling dizzy and were inches from unconsciousness.
"There's gonna be something else," Flash added, closing his eyes. And as he tried to think, but all he was able to hear was the laughing. He opened his eyes and looked up at the ponies, who wouldn't stop laughing no matter what. And so, he started laughing. "Hahahahahaha!" He cried out at the top of his lungs, Twilight and Spike staring at him like he had gone insane. But he kept laughing, and as he did this, the dizziness started to go away. "Hahahahahahahahaha!" He picked himself up, eating as he did so, then turned to the others through a big smile. "Laugh! That's the key!"
Twilight and Spike glanced at one another and after a few seconds, they started laughing as well. Soon everypony in the room were laughing their heads off, Spike and Twilight both feeling themselves feeling less and less dizzy. Their cheeks started hurting, but they didn't care as they kept laughing like their lives depended on it.
And as they laughed, a door appeared on the other side of the wall. "Come on!" Flash yelled through his laughs, running to the door and opening it up. Twilight and Spike followed and they all made their way through the door. And once they were safe, they all sighed but couldn't stop themselves from chuckling, only to collapse as they let out sighs of relief.
Springer, Rainbow and Pinkie were still suffering through the snow, all feeling like their hooves/paws were gonna drop off at any moment. "Would it have killed whoever made this sim to put in warm clothing options?!" Rainbow yelped as they trudged through another pile of snow.
It was here that the three arrived at the top of a snowy hill, finding a large rock on top of it. It appeared almost completely hollow, forming a cave-like structure, and at the back of the cave, the door stood proudly. The only problem was getting into the cave.
"Seriously?!" Rainbow asked as they walked up to the cave entrance, which had been blocked off by a bunch of icicles. The ice spikes had grown out from the top and bottom of the cave, giving it an almost mouth-like appearance. The gap between the icicles were only a few inches, not enough to get through.
But that didn't stop Pinkie from trying, the mare blowing into her hoof and expanding herself up like a balloon. She then let go and her entire body shrank back down to normal and then went beyond that. By the end, she looked thin enough to lay on the ground and looked like a rug. She tried to get through the gaps and while her body could fit through, her head was still to big. "Oh...." She pulled herself out and inflated her body again, "Now what do we do?"
The others just blinked at her, only for Springer to glance up and saw something on the very top of the rock. "There!" They looked up and saw what he was staring at. A target. "Maybe if we hit that, the icicles will break."
"Ha!" Rainbow smirked, "I got this." She flew up to press the button, only to suddenly get blown back by a powerful gust of wind. "WHOA!" She yelped as she hit the snow, the wind vanishing as she pulled herself out. "Guess we can't fly."
It was here that Pinkie reached into her mane, pulling out some kind of hairdryer-shaped device with a funnel on the back. "What is that?" Springer asked as Pinkie shoveled some snow into the funnel, then pointed it at the target. She pressed the button and a ball-shaped blast of snow shot out. It flew up to target...but it missed.
"Oh," Pinkie sighed.
"Not a bad idea though," Springer added before he and Rainbow began making their own snowballs. "Let's try this again."
"Done," Iron exclaimed as he and Fluttershy put the final piece into the catapult in place. "At least...I think." he glanced around, "We didn't leave any spare parts lying around, did we?"
"I don't think so," Fluttershy nodded before looking up to see Grand, the stallion leaning on a wall, panting, "Are you okay?"
"I'll...I'll live. Please tell me you've got that thing built." They then showed off their creation, a perfect recreation of the catapults outside. "Alright," he jumped off the wall, "Let's load this thing up." He turned to see that the only ammo they had was the single rock Fluttershy had caught. "Great. We've got one shot."
"We can't take them down with just one shot," Iron replied, "What do we do?"
Fluttershy flew up and stared at the army before noticing something behind them: A large mountain covered in snow. She came back down with a smile on her face, "I think I have a plan."
Applejack ran ahead of the two in the infinity maze, the three feeling more and more exhausted by the second. When the earth pony leapt up onto one of the platforms, having just avoided a fire floor, she almost fell to the floor. But then she heard a clicking noise and looked ahead, just in time to see three spikes appear out of the wall in front of her. They shot at her as she tried to escape, and she wasn't able to get away in time and was impaled.
The next thing the three knew, they were back at the bottom and Applejack's dot vanished. Now, each of them only had one. "Dagnabit!" She yelped, "Ah'm down to mah last life."
"Me too," Rarity gulped.
"Same," Lightning sighed before turning to them. "No more mistakes!" They nodded and began to climb up the maze again, avoiding fire floors, dodging spikes and continuing to run as they kept ahead of the disappearing floor beneath them as they felt themselves getting more and more tired.
"Augh!" Lightning yelled as they reached a long platform with spikes falling to the ground from above before retracting. "I'll never make fun of old games again! This is so hard..."
"We've gotta be close to the top," Rarity added, "Right?"
"What if we're not?" Applejack asked, "What if it's really endless?"
The three sighed, only for Rarity to notice something beyond the spikes. "What's that?" She pointed to it and they turned to see a box on the floor.
"Is that...a loot box?" Lightning replied while raising an eyebrow. They all ran for it, Rarity jumping past the spikes first while Lightning and Applejack remained behind to wait for them to retract. She then reached the box, Lightning yelling, "Smash it!"
Rarity jumped onto the box, which shattered upon impact. And before she could ask what happens next, a light flew out and struck her back. And as Applejack and Lightning reached her, the light formed a pair of familiar looking butterfly wings with sparkles coming off them. "My word!" She exclaimed as she unconsciously took to the air. "I can fly..."
"Great!" Lightning smirked, "But it's only temporary. The sparkles are speeding up every second."
"Yah gotta fly to the top!" Applejack told her.
Rarity glanced down at this, "But what about you two?" Lightning and Applejack shared a glance, both nodding before turning back to Rarity.
"Just go! It's better that one of us make it instead of none of us."
Rarity frowned at this, only to hover down, "I've got a better idea." With that, she grabbed them both by the hoof. "Hold on tight!" She began to pull them upward, Lightning and Applejack wide-eyed at this before they saw Rarity's speed was greatly diminished by the extra weight.
They looked down and saw the platform vanishing behind them, but Rarity remained focused on getting as high as possible. Every second the sparkles on her wings grew more and more rapid, showing they were close to disappearing. But before they did, the three found themselves flying past the final level. The wings exploded and the trio dropped, a beeping noise filling the air and the platforms stopped disappearing. "Huh," Lightning laughed, "I guess it wasn't so infinite after all."
Rarity nodded. "Then they should call it the 'very long and annoying but eventually there's an end to it' maze."
Applejack laughed at this. "Just rolls off the tongue."
They glanced up to see a door appear, Rarity sighing in relief. "Finally free." They opened the door, only to find themselves back in a corridor. "Oh no..." she huffed, "All that work and we end up back here?!"
"Ya'll gotta be kiddin me!" Applejack groaned. But before they could say anything else, they heard voices coming from around a corner. "Yah here that?" They nodded and moved over to the corner, right as a pair of ponies and a dragon walked around it. "Twilight!"
"Spike!" Rarity exclaimed as they ran over to the three, the group soon hugging. "You're alright."
"Yeah," Spike nodded, "You?"
"We had a few close calls," Lightning moaned, "But we made it through."
Twilight sighed in relief, "Here's hoping the others are having just as much luck."
Back at the riddle bridge...
Starlight and Trixie were still staring at the crossing, the riddle rolling around in their heads. Starlight stared at the stones as she did this, only to go wide-eyed, "Wait...I think I might know what it is." She checked the second row, then the third, four fifth and so on. "I've got it!"
"Are you sure?" Trixie asked, "You barely survived last time." Starlight nodded and stepped up to the stone, Trixie using her magic to grab Starlight's tail. And after taking a deep breath, she put her hoof on the T stone. They waited a moment, only for the letter to start glowing.
"Get off it!" Trixie yelped, preparing to pull her back.
"Wait!" Starlight responded, raising her other hoof. They waited...and waited...and waited...but the stone didn't crumble. "I think this is right." She took another deep breath and leapt onto the H stone of the second, the letter glowing but not breaking. She then jumped onto the third row, onto a U, and it too didn't break apart. Slowly, she leapt from one stone to the next, spelling out the answer to the riddle: T, H, U, N, D, E, R.
"Thunder..." Trixie whispered as Starlight leapt off the final stone onto the opposite ledge. "Of course," she bonked herself on the head. "Now it makes sense."
"Get over here," Starlight chuckled, "We still got work to do."
"On it!"
Iron and Grand had loaded the catapult with their only piece of ammo while Fluttershy was staring at the still well armed army. "You ready?"
The two nodded, the rock now in place as they turned the crankshaft that pulled the spoon-like arm back. They spun it as quickly as they could, eventually getting it down. "Locked and loaded!" Iron yelled as Fluttershy flew down. She stared at the catapult, then at the snowy mountain behind the army.
"Turn it a few degrees to the right." The earth ponies used their strength to spin the catapult around, the wheels a big help with this, Fluttershy stopping them when they were in line with the mountain. "Alright...we're ready." The stallions nodded and Iron grabbed the firing lever.
"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" He yelled, pulling the lever back as the other two ducked. The arm released, flinging the rock right out of the spoon. The three rushed up the walls and watched as the rock sailed across the battlefield, over the enemy army until it slammed into the mountain. The entire structure shook, causing the snow to come loose and begin to fall towards the enemy. The ponies didn't seem to even notice as the avalanche came crashing down upon them. And within seconds, the enemy army was buried under ten feet of snow.
"Yeah!" Grand cheered, Iron pumping his hooves while Fluttershy frowned at the sight.
"I hope they're alright."
"They're NPCs," Iron replied, "They're not real." Grand nodded as a sound filled the air, making them all turn to see the catapult begin to shake. And suddenly, the entire thing fell apart and caused a large dust cloud...and when it faded, a door could be seen surrounded by wooden pieces.
"We passed!" Grand cheered, "perfect." He leapt down off the wall, the other two following as he opened the door.
"Raaah!" Rainbow yelled as she threw another snowball, only to miss again. "Oh, come on!" Pinkie fired her snow blaster and missed as well, Rainbow growling at the sight, "How is this possible?! My aim's never this bad!"
Springer nodded in agreement, "I've landed a thousand Aura Blasts at harder to hit targets, but I can't land one snowball. Something's off."
Pinkie hummed as she stopped firing, "Maybe this room is effecting our aim or something." The others turned to her with raised eyebrows, "Maybe we just think we're aiming at the target but actually we're not."
Springer put a paw to his chin, "Huh. I guess it's possible. But then how do we land the snowballs?" Pinkie replied by filling the snow blaster again and aiming at the target, firing three snowballs. But they all seemed to curve to the right and sail past it. She then pulled the gun a few inches to the left and fired, the three watching as the snowballs flew forward and-
Splat!
The snow struck the target with enough force to knock it down, causing the entire rock to shake. They cheered at this as the icicles began to crack and break apart, eventually crumbling to nothing.
"Way to go Pinkie!" Rainbow cheered.
"Great shot!" Springer added.
"Aw, thanks." She blew onto the blaster before spinning it around in her hooves, then shoving it back into her hair. They walked into the door, happy to finally be out of the refrigerator.
"And then Rarity hit this loot box and got herself a pair of wings," Lightning said as the six continued to search through the hallways. "That allowed her to fly us all the way to the top."
"Aw..." Spike sighed. "I wish we could have done that."
"We've barely survived the trials we ran into," Twilight added, "Right now, I just wanna get this whole thing over with."
As she said that, they turned a corner and found themselves in front of another door. "Hold that thought," Flash commented, "For all we know, this might be the toughest trial yet." They all tensed up, Twilight grabbing the handle in her magic. The group let out a roar as they charged through the door, only to find themselves in...a simple round room.
"Is this it?" Applejack asked, glancing around to see that the room's walls were covered in doors. "Oh no...don't tell me we have to find some random door."
"No idea. Maybe-"
"Hooray! Its warm!" exclaimed a voice as a door opened, revealing Pinkie, Springer and Rainbow.
"I think my hooves got frostbite," Rainbow moaned, "I don't wanna see another-"
"Flash!" Springer interrupted as he ran over to the group just as another door opened. This time, Iron, Grand and Fluttershy walked in, only for another door to open with Starlight and Trixie trotting out of it.
"We're all here!" Twilight cheered, the group sharing hugs and hoofshakes before they all grouped together. It was here that Fluttershy asked the one thing on everypony's mind.
"What do we do now?"
"We've got to find the crystal," Twilight replied, "Turning it off is the only way to get out of here."
"But it could be anywhere," Trixie added, only for a sudden bright light to explode above them. They all cried out as they looked away, giving their eyes time to adjust before glancing back up and see the source of the light was the very thing they had been searching for.
"The Crystal!" Twilight gasped.
"We gotta get it!" Flash continued as he, Rainbow and Twilight took to the air. They all charged at the gem, only for the light from the crystal began to take shape.
"What's happening?" Spike asked as the light's shape became something they all recognized, Flash, Trixie and Springer now seeing it change into a trio of quetzalcoatls like the ones Tempera had made during the war.
The winged serpents hissed before flying down at the flying ponies, "The crystal's trying to protect itself!" Twilight yelped as the crystal glowed again, the room starting to change again. The doors vanished, the walls opening up to allow large metal cables to slide out and try to constrict the ponies on the ground.
"Whoa!" Iron yelled as he dodged a tendril and used his Iron Saber to slice it up before it could get close to Fluttershy. Grand crushed another as Lightning zapped one more and Springer used Steel Paw to slice a third. Applejack bucked one next, Trixie and Starlight blasting two others as Spike jumped onto Rarity's back to melt some with his fire.
"This is crazy!" Flash growled as he pulled his tail away from a serpent's mouth, "How are we supposed to stop this thing if we can't even get close to it?!" As he said that, the gem glowed again and created a pony-sized wasp.
Twilight suddenly found herself cornered and tried to teleport, only to then remember she couldn't. "Not good!" The serpent thrust its head forward, opening its mouth to swallow her, only for Twilight to fire a laser into it and destroy the beast. But as soon as she did, the wasp flew down to tried and sting her. "Oh, come on!"
She flew away while Rainbow tried to use her super speed to avoid her snake and get close to the gem. But before she could pick up speed, the room started to change, large blocks of the wall extending to narrow her field of movement. "Whoa!" She yelped as she almost crashed into one, only for a snake to fly up to her with its jaws ready to devour her, "AAAAH! Make it stop!"
"There's gotta be a way to get passed these things!" Flash yelled as he cut down a beast with his sword before two more appeared, "Any ideas?" He then heard a scream and looked down to see Fluttershy had been wrapped up by a cable.
"Shrink!" Rarity told her, Fluttershy quickly shrinking down to mouse size. And before the cables could do anything, she flew out and flew over to grab onto Iron's head.
It was here that Starlight went wide-eyed and turned to Iron, "Fluttershy!" She called out, using her magic to put a shield around the mare. "At your size, you should easily be able to sneak to the crystal without it noticing. It's probably using our body heat to track us, but at your size, it might not notice."
"She's right," Twilight added, "We'll do our best to keep it occupied. You've got to turn off the crystal!"
Fluttershy nodded and turned to Iron. "Can you give me a boost?" Iron grinned as he knocked away another cable, then changed the end of his spear to a spoon-like shape. Fluttershy flew into it as everypony pushed the cables, serpents and wasp out of the way. And using the same motion the catapult used, Iron swung his weapon, launching the tiny pony flying.
Fluttershy shot up with a tiny scream, but a cable got loose and flew wildly at her. However, it bounced off Starlight's barrier, making sure the pony didn't lose any momentum. And by the time Iron's throw had lost its power, Fluttershy was able to keep her speed up with her own flight, only to tackle the gem as she returned to full size.
"TURN OFF!" She screamed, the crystal beginning to glow. And as the monsters and cables prepared to strike again, the crystal unleashed a brilliant light that filled the room and blinded everypony.
When the light faded, they opened their eyes and saw that they were back in the castle's entryway. Everything was back to normal. Fluttershy flew down with the crystal in hoof, everypony instantly falling over, some closing their eyes as they began to pant and wheeze.
As they did this, the doors of the castle opened and Heart, Soul, Mira, Ace and the CMC stepped inside. When they noticed the adults laid out on the ground, they raised an eyebrow at the sight as Heart said, "Uh...did we miss something?"
One hour later...
The ponies were now all in the throne room, Twilight putting the crystal in a case, "Clearly, it still needs some adjustments." She turned to the others, "But at least the illusion function worked. Once we've gotten it to safely handle the pressure needed, we can start mass producing them and handing them out to every place that could use them. Though we may need to limit its functions in terms of how many sims it can hold."
"I can't believe we missed such an awesome adventure," Heart complained, "That video game sounded fun to do."
"Not so much fun when you don't know what'll happen if you run out of lives," Lightning added.
"I'm just glad everypony's okay," Fluttershy sighed, "And I have to admit..." She giggled, "it was kind of fun."
The others chuckled, only for a loud yawn to right out, making them turn to see Flash stretching. "Well, I don't know about any of you, but today and the last few sleepless nights have left me with the need to sleep for the next month." Springer yawned as well as the defender hopped off his seat, "So if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a nap...so try not to get us into another life or death situation until I wake up."
Everypony laughed at this as Flash and Springer left to go to bed. As they did this, everypony agreed they were all tired, suggesting to go home and get a good sleep. After all, they would need to be in full fighting condition before the next insane event in Ponyville could occur.
Until that time, it was nighty-night for the heroes and sweet dreams.