Returning to the school’s now ruined gym, the game was sat back on the floor. The six young students sat around its Ocellus unfolded the lid to pick up the dice. “So, whose turn is it now?” She asked.
“That would be mine.” Smolder opened her claw. After she was handed the dice, she clenched her fist to shake them. But before she could roll it, a thought came to her. “Hey, do we have to play the game here?”
“What do you mean?” Twilight inquired.
“I was just thinking, so far we got safari ants, fast-growing plants that shoot poisonous darts and can eat you whole, wild monkeys, a tornado, and now a psychopathic hunter guy. Every time we roll these dice, it just unleashes something that wrecks the school even more. Don’t you think that it might be possible that the next roll of the dice could affect the town nearby? We don’t know where those monkeys went to, and those ants might be crawling half the school by now.”
All the teachers, including Zecora, looked at one another. “Ah suppose that’s a fair point…” Applejack admitted, “but where else? Isn’t the whole idea of doin’ it here is ta keep whatever’s gonna happen in one place?”
“There is one idea,” Ocellus raised a hoof. “We could go to the clubhouse in the Everfree. Worse case sicario is that even if that gets destroyed, we could try to rebuild it or the Tree of Harmony might protect us.”
“Huh…” Pinkie thought aloud, “You know, in a situation where most creatures might deal with this with horror movie logic, that is surprisingly smart.” Before anyone else could say make a reply, Pinkie suddenly sat upright, her ears flip-flop against her head and finished with an itchy hoof. “Woah! Heads up everyone! Something’s coming through the floor!”
Then, all around on the gym floor, they heard the ground crick and crack from beneath. Instinctively, Smolder picked up the game in case they would need to run. Whatever it was, something massive was sneaking around beneath the floorboards as they bulged and bent with audible groans coming from every direction.
While everyone was scrambling for whatever weapon they could get their hooves and claws on, Fluttershy had a thought. “Uh… Twilight? What’s beneath the gym?”
“Beneath? I think that would be the…” Twilight’s eyes widen when she realized they were on top of, “the library!”
Parts of the floor gave way as vines sprouted between the cracks and wiggled out.
“Oh crap!” Smolder cursed, “Nocreature touch anything! Stay away from the vines!”
With every passing second, more and more vines broke through the floor and the walls, twisting and clenching onto whatever surface it could find. Within moments, buds of purple flowers started to mature and blossom with poisonous darts ready to fire if any of them came near.
“Hey Zecora,” Rainbow pointed, “What do those flowers do?”
“Their barbs I advise everyone not to touch, they throw poison that I know much. If pierced their venom they made has the worse effects of nightshade.”
“And they’re really growing rapidly.” Rarity said, using her scissors to snap the vines that were nearest to them. “I don’t think I can keep up.”
“If we leave, this plant is gonna invade the town,” Twilight said, using her magic to cut some of the vines. “We must get rid of these and quick.”
“How do we do that?” Silverstream asked until she looked at the game her dragon friend was holding. “Wait a minute, Smolder, it’s your turn. Roll the dice.”
“What? Why?” Smolder flew up before a vine could grab her leg again.
“Maybe it might bring out something that could weaken the plant.”
“I hate to say this,” Sandbar said, stomping on some small vines. “It might make things way worse, but it’s the only one we got.”
Looking around, Smolder saw that the vicious plant was grown more out of control the longer they stay. Especially when that plant was crawling up the walls towards the open hole in the dome ceiling. “Okay, cover me.”
Sitting the game on the floor, she opened it up and picked up the dice to quickly roll.
It was a six.
The monkey piece moved forward a little further down the board before stopping. She eyed the green gem in the center swirl with yellow smoke that formed the words to the next rhyme.
Disaster begins with a tiny spark.
It will eat leaves, trees, and bark.
“Uh-oh.”
Yona turned to her, “Uh-oh? What uh-oh?”
Before she could respond, Smolder saw it. Over by the trophy cabinet, it started out as a tiny yellow light. But within moments, smoke was billowing out from behind the glass. The dragon realized what was about to happen.
“Guys!” She called out, “We need to get out of here right now!”
“Why?” Twilight asked, “What’s going-”
“FIRE!” Fluttershy screamed, her hoof pointing at the cabinet that has burst into flames.
“Anyone that can fly, grab someone that can’t!” Rainbow said, picking Applejack up and lifting her towards the hole in the ceiling.
So, with quick thinking, Smolder and Silverstream took hold of Yona. Twilight grabbed Sandbar who was nearby. Gallus picked up Zecora. Fluttershy picked up Pinkie while Ocellus took Rarity as they all hurried to make their escape from the vines and the growing flames that quickly spread throughout the gym’s floor. And just in time too as black smoke heaved out more and more, catching the plant in its ever-increasing inferno.
Though they were quick to react and managed to escape in time, all they could do was watch as the school was going up in flames. Much to the horror of the teachers, the school they had built, their future of Equestria, was going up in smoke before their very eyes. From the rooftops, inky black smoke poured out with white-hot flames licked and consumed anything there was to burn.
Of course, the fire didn’t go unnoticed by the townsponies. A fire bigrade was called to the scene along with an emergency of pegasi to push rainclouds towards the school to try to contain the burning destruction that was growing. In the end, it took about half an hour until they managed to put out the flames yet… it was nearly too late.
Twilight could do nothing but look on as half of the school was reduced to charcoal. Classrooms, offices, the student’s dorm rooms, even the library were reduced to cinders. The very sight of which nearly brought her to the edge of tears.
While the only consolation they had was that at least it seemed to destroy the carnivorous plant, this was cold comfort compared to the devastation it caused. Smolder, who rolled the dice to make this happen, went up to the Headmare. “Ms. Twilight… I… I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
Twilight didn’t say anything.
“This is my fault that this had happened. If I didn’t roll the dice-”
Twilight raised a wing. “Stop. I know what you’re trying to do but… no… I can’t blame you. I won’t.”
“But-”
“Smolder, I know. For the second time in my life, nearly everything is gone. I know you’re trying to take responsibility but please…” Her voice choked as she tried to withhold her emotions with tears forming in her eyes. “Not right now…” She then flew off towards her castle.
Watching their Headmare fly off, Yona went up to Smolder to give her a hug. “Not dragon’s fault.”
“But I rolled the dice.”
“No. It’s game’s fault. The game burned school, not Smolder.” Yona eyed the board game that was underneath’s the dragon’s arm. With a fire of anger growing inside her, of facing that she has lost not just the school but her second home, her emotions did the most reasonable thing at that moment. She took the game in her teeth.
“Yona!” Smolder said with alarm, “What are you doing!”
Tossing the board game on the ground, she did the only thing she could do. She raised her forehooves as high in the air as she could, yelling: “YAK SMASH!!” And proceeded to shatter the wooden box as much as her anger could. Her friends and teachers were powerless, even Zecora did nothing but watch with shock as the game was being turned to splinters and shattered ivory. Yona smashed and crushed, wacked, and hit with her might in hopes to reduce the very source of all this misery as little as possible with her bare hooves.
Several minutes later, Jumanji was reduced to bits and pieces.
“There!” Yona declared, heaving as her anger subsided, “Try ruin lives now!”
For a long, uncomfortable moment, no one said anything. Eventually, it was Ocellus that made the reply of: “Huh… How come none of us thought of that before?”
“Ah admit,” Applejack removed her hat. “Ah wished Ah’ve thought of that first.”
“Oh Yona, I see your feelings are true,” Zecora said with silent horror, “though I can’t say that was the best thing to do.”
“What Zebra mean?” Yona asked.
Her question was answered as they heard a crackling sound beneath her hooves. Looking down, she and everyone else saw that despite the game being broken into pieces, the wooden bits were moving. Forming and reassembling itself from its complicated puzzle to become whole again. Lines that were shattered sealed back up again. Pieces of wood and ivory flipped and snapped back into their proper place. Even the tokens were forced back to their positions on the board.
But most alarming of all, was the green centerpiece when it was put back had for one alarming moment had turned bright red. As though the game itself was enraged by Yona’s actions. Without the dice being thrown, words were already forming in its yellow mist.
To break Jumanji is a foolish dare
What comes next is quite a scare.
Yona looked to Zecora, “What does that mean?” She asked in alarm.
She shook her head. “I don’t know for sure, because I have never written that before.”
The gem returned to its original green color with a followed-up rhyme:
In the jungle you must wait
Until the dice read five or eight.
“In the jungle?” Yona asked aloud. “What Jungle?”
Her answer was answered as there was a wind that unexpectedly blew in, circling around Yona like a dust devil. Before Yona understood what was happening, she heard Sandbar scream, “Yona! Your horns!”
She tried to reach up to feel them, but to her horror, her hooves disintegrated right before her eyes like loose sand in a strong wind. Yona let out a terrified shriek as more and more of her was being blown away in the cyclone. Of course, her friends, especially Sandbar tried to reach her but the yak was falling apart.
“Help Yona!” Her voice was heard, distant like an echo as her dust swirled and swirled towards the center of the game. “Roll di…” her plea was cut short with a flash of green light from the centerpiece.
“Yona!” Sandbar leaped towards the game, trying to claw at the gem in a vain attempt to bring her back. Yet, all that he could see was his reflection of his desperation. “No… No, no no…” He turned to Zecora, grabbing her by the shoulders, “Bring her back!”
“Please young pony, I don’t know how. If I did, this wouldn’t be happening no-”
“I say bring her back now!” Sandbar yelled and his teachers pry him off, kicking and screaming in rage.
“Easy kid!” Rainbow Dash told him, holding him back with Applejack.
“I want Yona! Bring back Yon-” Sandbar was slapped in the face by Gallus.
“Dude, I know you’re upset but listen for at least two seconds,” Gallus told him, grabbing by the shoulders, staring in his eyes. “I get right now all you wanna do is scream and shout but take it from a griff that has spent most of his life homeless – being angry isn’t going to solve anything. And I know we’ve lost a lot already with the school and now Yona, but there is a way to fix it.”
“How!” Sandbar asked, still hurt.
“The game said that she will wait in the jungle until one of us rolls a five or an eight. Which means, like it or not, we must keep playing the game until one of us wins or roll those lucky numbers. I get that everything sucks right now, but we have to keep going.”
Sandbar took several movements to let that sink in, going from wrathful to being on the verge of tears. Gallus hugged him, which moved those there into a group embrace around the sea-green pony.
“I’m not giving up until we make this right,” Gallus told him.
“And so will I.” Smolder nodded.
“I’ll keep playing until we fix this,” Ocellus added.
“We’ll get her back,” Silverstream reassured, “you’ll see.”
Eventually, the hug was broken away to give Sandbar some space. Going up to the game, he looked at his reflection in the glassy green gem. “In the jungle you must wait…” He muttered to himself. “That means she’s been sent to where all of this craziness came from. I can’t imagine what she’s going through right now.”
Fluttershy coughed into her hoof. “Maybe we should still get Twilight.”
“And move the game to the clubhouse.” Ocellus added.
So folding up Jumanji, they want towards Twilight’s castle before heading down through the Everfree forest.
Unbeknownst to them, in the shadows of the forest, they were being stalked.