//------------------------------// // A sick game of hide and seek // Story: We will catch you if we can // by proto-alpha //------------------------------// Fernando stared in disbelief at Discord. Ever since he was little he have made a lot of wishes, but the biggest one has been being inside a video game. Now he had his wish come true... In a twisted version that would haunt him for the remaining of his life. "My idea goes like this. " Discord started to explain his idea "I read your mind and I've found about every game you've played and every game you know about, and those six ponies" he pointed to the mane six, who where in the other side of the glass wall "are the antagonist" "Are you telling me that I'll have to go through games that I've never played, and that you expect me to beat them with a disadvantage of six against one?" Fernando thought, fearing that he might never be able to return to his home. "Yep, and even better, they will look a little like some characters that looked rather interesting" Discord responded, enjoying telling his master plan. "Do you know their names, or only what they look like?" Fernando asked, hoping that it wasn't anyone that could really be dangerous. Too bad that fate hates him, right? "Well..." Discord remembered one of them "one of them is a very tall human, really thin, without a face, wearing your version of a business suit and what I think are tentacles coming from his back". Fernando's face went white at that moment. "Slenderman! Slender. Freaking. Man!! "Is that what he is called? I hoped for a more intimidating name" Discord commented with disappointment. Fernando sighed "Okay. Who are the other five characters?" he asked again. Discord looked behind him where his other self was giving instructions to the ponies. "You'll know in a few seconds" he said knowing what was about to happen. Fernando turned his attention to the six ponies that Discord mentioned earlier. Each one of them had a glowing shapeless thing floating in front of them. Applejack said something that Fernando was unable to hear because of the wall and reached with her hoof the thing blob that was floating in front of her. The thing melted in her hoof, making her flinch, and then entered her body. They waited a few seconds and they watched as her hat started to cover her whole head, covering it completely after a few seconds and taking the form of a pyramid helmet. On the other side of the wall, some minutes earlier The Human Hunters Team looked around them, confused with the change of environment. Fluttershy got scared when she noticed the height. Discord cleared his throat to get the attention of the ponies. They looked at him and immediately struck a battle stance. "What are you planning, Discord?" demanded to know Twilight. "Well, since this is your last chance to catch him," Discord pointed to Fernando with his thumb "I'll make this special and do something unique". The ponies and dragon didn't like how that sounded, but remained silent. "But I must tell you the truth about Fernando before you start this" the draconequus said, while adding in his mind "Or what I want you to believe". "As you know, Fernando is not from here. You all think that I brought him, but that's not true. Even then, he is completely innocent and he doesn't deserve what is happening to him" the Human Hunters Team got surprised at this revelation, and started o fill a little guilty "He has been forced to sleep in the streets, away from his family and friends, and has been hunted by everypony who sees him" he grinned evilly at getting the expected reaction. The Human Hunters Team were now looking down in shame at what they heard. Twilight was the first one to look to Discord again. "Why do you do this if he's innocent?" she was glaring at him "Because this is fun" he answered with a smirk "What if we don't play along?" she said with her own smirk. This made her friends look to Discord expecting an answer "I'll give him most of my powers. With his mind he can be more chaotic than me, and he would never be caught. And with that amount of power, anypony can be corrupted. The hunters realized that he was right. Fernando could be an annoyance without any kind of power. If he got the chaotic powers of Discord and his mind did get corrupted, they could only expect the worse. "Okay. We will do whatever you have in mind" said Twilight, not finding another solution. Discord grinned and started to explain. "Now, here is what you will do. You have to touch these... things-that-I-forgot-how-they-were-called." he made six shapeless objects appear in front of the mane six "They will give you some kind of power or appearance from a video game from his world that might or might not help you. Using those powers you'll have to catch him, but there's a catch. Like in video games of this world, he has a life bar. If it reaches zero... he'll die" he finished dramatically, his face darkening and his voice going really deep. The ponies gasped and looked between themselves. Killing somepony wasn't in their to do list, Twilight mentally triple-checked hers and didn't found it. "If this timer reaches zero, you will lose, and he will get my powers" a digital timer appeared in their field of vision. They tried to look elsewhere, but the timer remained there, as if it was on a screen. The timer had a twenty and two sets of zeros, meaning that they had twenty hours of game. Nopony moved for some seconds, until Applejack said "Buck it. The sooner we start, the faster we deal with this" and after that she touched the shapeless thing with her hoof. In response the floating blob started to melt and merge with her hoof, making her flinch. They waited and soon after that her hat started to transform into a pyramid shaped helmet, that covered her entire head. No one made the slightest movement. Applejack just stood there, but she broke the silence by saying "How is this thing supposed to help me catch Fernando?". She was barely heard because the helmet muffled the sound of her voice. "You'll have to discover it on your own." he said "Besides, there is something else that comes with the helmet" he snapped his fingers and a giant knife appeared next to Applejack. She examined it and then turned to Discord "Aren't we supposed to not kill him?" she asked with sarcasm "Yes, you are" Discord answered ironically. "My turn! My turn!" exclaimed Pinkie before touching the blob that was in front of her. Unlike Applejack's shapeless thing, Pinkie's only started to transform, taking the form of scissors that were as big as her. "Oooooh... So now I'm allowed to run around with scissors!" she asked happily. Everypony's eyes widened at the idea of Pinkie and a sharp object, and all of the other Human Hunters glared at Discord, who grinned in response. They broke the glaring and returned their sight to the blobs that should help them with their problem. The next one that touched her 'Character Morphing Blob" was Rarity "Well, if I must do it..." she said as she extended her hoof. This time, her Character Morphing Blob covered her completely, leaving only the shape of a pony, and some seconds after, Rarity was inside a fully functional and fully upgraded power suit. "How do I look?" she asked after the effect finished. Twilight was about to answer, but she stopped when she saw Rarity's face, or more specifically, her eyes. "What? What happened to my face!?" Rarity asked when she saw how shocked Twilight was. Twilight pointed with her hoof to Rarity's face and managed to stutter "Y-y-your e-e-eyes" "What happened to my eyes?" Rarity asked, almost in a panic attack "You don't have your irises!" Twilight answered while creating a mirror with her magic. Rarity saw herself in the mirror and shrieked when she saw her iris-less face. While Rarity was freaking out, Rainbow Dash had already touched her blob with excitement about what she would get. This time, the Character Morphing Blob crept through her body until it rested on her face. Then, it slowly took the shape of a mask with an evil smile and stare. "What! Rarity gets a cool armor, Applejack gets an awesome helmet and Pinkie gets some jumbo scissors, but I, the most awesome mare in all of Equestria, only get a dumb mask?" the prismatic pegasus complained "What does it even do?" she asked Discord "Does it gives me something like super strength? Or makes me faster?", then she added with as much modesty as she could muster "If that's even possible" which wasn't a lot "If you must know, my dear Rainbow Dash," started Discord "that mask will let you fly through walls, doors, windows, ponies, mountains, etcetera, as long as you wear it". Discord's explanation changed Rainbow Dash's mood in an instant "Well, I suppose that this mask is cool" she said with a grin, that the mask manifested with a creepy red light coming from inside of it. Trying to ignore the red gleam coming from Rainbow's mask, Twilight said "I suppose there is no other way..." and touched her Character Morphing Blob. She mentally braced herself for anything that might shock her, but the only thing that happened is that she wore now a red dress. She looked at Discord with a quizzical look, expecting an explanation "Your magic abilities are enhanced, but only your illusion spells." he answered "They'll only affect Fernando, but the effects are unpredictable". After that, he added "Come on, try them" Twilight looked unsure, but she was even more curious, so she concentrated a little and tried to send Fernando a random image. The result? Fernando curled in fetal position and started to rock back and forth with a perturbed look, while the Discord on the other side of the glass wall laughed at him. What Fernando saw. Fernando's POV I was watching how six of the Human Hunters got the powers from video game characters that I knew very well, and half of them had been enough to keep me awake if I happened to wake up in the early morning, before the sun even rose. When it came Twilight's turn, I couldn't recognize the dress that she wore and, to my dismay, I was sure it was from a survival horror. She turned in my direction, and her horn glowed for some seconds before the most disturbing sight happened. First of all, everyone around us disappeared, giving me a sudden loneliness sensation. Then the sky turned blood red, and the light seemed to diminish. After that, I saw how Twilight was thrown from where she was like a rag doll, and smashing against the glass, and a creepy smile adorned her face, and to top it all an invisible finger started to draw me with what I hopped wasn't blood, only that there was a little mistake. My head should be attached to my body, right? "Happy place, happy place, happy place... Third Person POV Twilight, and the rest of the Human Hunters, stared at Fernando. "I suppose that didn't go as planned?" asked Rainbow. Twilight shook her head with a worried expression. While Twilight scolded herself for whatever she had done, four of her partners in the game stared at Fluttershy expectantly. "Now is your turn, Fluttershy" said Dash from behind her mask. "Do-do I have to?" Fluttershy answered, hiding her face behind her mane. "Don't worry, it doesn't hurt at all" reassured Rarity, trying to encourage her best friend. "Okay, I'll try and help" Fluttershy answered. She slowly and carefully approached her Character Morphing Blob and extended one of her wings. She touched it with the tip of her wing, and said appendage immediately absorbed the floating blob into it. Not too long after, Fluttershy's wings started to change. Some of her feathers began to enlarge and started to get a darker color, until they were completely black. Fluttershy didn't know what was happening, and all she could do was get a worried face... only that she couldn't even do that, because she no longer had a face. This didn't went unnoticed by the others, who gasped. "Fluttershy, what happened to your face?" asked Rarity, and if she still had her pupils, she would have been staring at Fluttershy faceless head. Fluttershy took her front hoofs to her face to inspect it, and she found that she still had the shape of her muzzle, but she didn't have any orifices where she could breath. At that moment she would have hyperventilated, but she couldn't since she didn't have a mouth, and couldn't cry in despair because she had no eyes, yet she could still see, she could feel herself breathing, and most of all, she could still talk. "Wh-why are you suddenly shorter?" she asked while looking down to her friends from new heights. That is when she noticed that she still had to return her front hoofs to the ground, but she wasn't able, because now she stood easily and comfortably on two legs. Discord looked at her for some seconds while muttering "You still need something more...", then he got a realization face. He snapped his fingers and Fluttershy was now wearing a black business suit. "There, now you five are ready" he finished. Back on the other side of the glass wall Discord managed to make Fernando react by slapping him across the face. "Thanks" he muttered while rubbing the sore spot. He sent one last glance to his six adversaries and mentally listed, "That makes... Pyramid Head, Scissorman, a Phanto, Sa-X, that girl from F.E.A.R., Alma I think, and Slenderman. Yep, I'm screwed" "Don't think that. You still can defend yourself!" commented Discord "Really, how?" Fernando asked surprised "You'll get your own Random Power UpDown!" he responded. "Random Power UpDown?" the human repeated incredously "Yes. You'll get the power and a mixed appearance of a hero from the video games, but you might just get something bad, and get only the appearance of an extra character, along with a penalization. While the effect lasts, you might have some extra armor or life, but don't expect a lot" Discord explained "Extra life..." Fernando looked up and saw his life bar. "What happens when my HP reaches zero? "You'll faint, and it's probable that they think that you're dead" Fernando thought for some minutes about what he meant by that, and after not getting the slightest idea, he turned his attention to the timer that appeared on his field of vision and asked "What do I need to do to win this game? And what is this clock supposed to mean?". Discord grinned "To win, you must survive this set time" and he pointed to the timer. "After that the game ends, the ponies regain their complete memories and then you can go back to your world" "Okay, then let's get this started!" Fernando exclaimed excited. "At last you cooperate" Discord commented before snapping his fingers. When he did that, Fernando appeared in the center of a now deserted Las Pegasus, and each one of the mane six appeared some hundred of meters away from each other.