//------------------------------// // Ambition // Story: Equine Royale // by MemoryLane //------------------------------// "I...almost got it..." Twilight Sparkle uttered, as she was turning the last few screws on her makeshift radio. She was very proud of herself, and she was glad that she was lucky that she got the weapon that she did, which was a coat hanger. If it wasn't for that, then this radio probably wouldn't even work! Doctor Whooves stood over her shoulder and carefully watched her. "So...what's this radio going to do for us?" Doctor Whooves asked, slightly confused. Twilight still hadn't told him what her plans were yet. Twilight scoffed slightly. "What do you mean! It's going to do everything!" Twilight exclaimed as she finished up her contraption, turning the final bolt. "There!" "You're all done?" Doctor Whooves asked her. Twilight Sparkle beamed as she picked up the radio and set it down on a nearby stump. "Yep!" "About time." Doctor Whooves deadpanned, seeming very unenthused. He was glad that he wasn't going to be running any more errands, at least he hoped so. "Oh hush." Twilight Sparkle said, before pressing the power button on the radio. "Let's see if this works..." At first, there was nothing but static. She tried to scroll through different frequencies, but to no avail. "Come on..." She told herself. Her hope began to fall with every passing second. "Hello...? Is someone trying to contact me?" A shaky voice said over the radio. Twilight Sparkle almost jumped in surprise. "HA! It's works!" They cheered, almost feeling like dancing. "Who is this?" The voice asked. "This is Twilight Sparkle, here with Doctor Whooves..." A gasp cut her off, followed by little sobs. Twilight Sparkle was a little confused at first. "Uhm, are you ok?" "You're alive..." The voice trembled. "Yes, but not for much longer!" Twilight got ready to explain. "The princess put us, and about 28 other ponies on this island for-" "-a battle to the death?" The voice finished. Both groups sat there in silence. Twilight thought to herself, how did they know that? "It's a Equestria wide thing. Everyone knows about it...it's broadcasted throughout all the newspapers..." The voice told them. Twilight's heart dropped, and the Doctor remained speechless. "How many are left?" Twilight Sparkle wasn't sure. She was sure that a few ponies have died since the last announcement, she could hear the screaming. She took a shot in the dark. "Uhm...five or six, including us..." "Oh..." Twilight knew that the voice was going to ask who exactly was left, but they knew that Twilight nor Whooves would know for sure. So the voice remained quiet. "She says that they're doing this every year..." "What!?" Twilight shrieked. Mass battles to the death every year!? What is that going to do? Or even prove? This didn't make sense. She knew it was because of the crime rate, but this can't really be putting a stop to it? This is not the way to solve problems! "It's true...it's...sad...my sister was in the arena, she just died recently, the newspaper say she was killed by that celebrity..." Twilight stopped for a moment, there was a celebrity in the game? "I'm..so sorry to hear that." This was all so unreal. Well, it seemed unreal from the beginning. Now this was going to be happening every year, for the next how long? Knowing Celestia, it would probably be 100 years! Twilight felt like sobbing. "But...can you help us?" The Doctor added. Instead of killing ponies and winning that way, why not just try to escape. Twilight quickly jumped on his bandwagon. "I was told no..." The voice squeaked. "That's what the papers say." "Can you give someone who might be able to help us the radio?" Twilight asked, there was a little static feedback, but she could hear the voice loud and clear. "I'll try. Just, give me a second." And with that, the voice was gone. Twilight and Doctor Whooves jumped for joy immediately afterwards. For once, since the game started, they felt safe. They felt like everything was going to be okay. They felt...invincible. "We're gonna get rescued!" Doctor Whooves announced loudly. Twilight shushed him. "Well, maybe. She's going to find someone who can possibly help us...so there's no telling." The Doctor just shrugged, to excited to care. He did realized that he did just make a lot of noise, and grabbed his spear just incase someone heard him. Twilight put her hooves up defensively as the Doctor unwittingly pointed it at her. "WHOA! Where did you get that!?" Twilight questioned. Whooves just chuckled at her. He wasn't going to hurt her and she knew it. "I...found Fluer De Lis. She killed herself, and this was her weapon..." Twilight's jaw dropped, and the Doctor tried to make it look better than it actually sounded. "She wasn't going to be needing it anymore!" That didn't help, and Whooves backpedaled. "I mean...look! I don't even have a proper weapon. It's the least I could do, since I'm walking in the woods on my own!" He shouted, before lowering his voice. Twilight Sparkle just rolled her eyes and looked back at her radio, self-satisfaction filling her mind. "Uh huh...I still can't believe that this worked!" She was ecstatic, and this time, it was the Doctor who rolled his eyes. About thirty minutes later, feedback was heard coming from the radio, and Whooves and Twilight both gathered around it anxiously. This time, a different voice came through. "Hello? This is Mayor Mare?" Whoa! Mayor Mare! Twilight furiously grabbed the radio, being sure to speak loud and clear. "Hello! This is Twilight Sparkle, along with Doctor Whooves. We are trapped on this island with no way off, is there any way you can help us?" There was clamoring going on the other end of the radio, eventually, Mayor Mare spoke up again. "No." Doctor Whooves' and Twilight's hearts simultaneously dropped in despair. The Doctor grabbed the radio from Twilight Sparkle angrily. "What do you mean! There has to be a way off! You can't just leave us here!" There was a long pause before the Mayor decided to speak. It was obvious she wasn't alone and many other ponies were with her. "If we so much as try, the Princess' will have us killed..." She explained. Twilight wanted to protest, but she knew she shouldn't. She's the Mayor, she can't put herself at risk like that. "Please! We need your help!" Twilight begged, desperate for help. They can't get off this island alive without...SOMEONE'S help. She could hear the Mayor sigh. The Doctor angrily picked up the radio before Twilight had a chance to react. "There's no way-" Whooves tossed the radio at a nearby rock, shattering it to a million pieces, infuriating the unicorn. "BUCK!" He swore, losing his composure. Twilight Sparkle angrily got up and shoved him, almost wanting to strike him, but Celestia knows what that would lead to. "Are you out of your mind!?" She screamed. The Doctor shook his head, and buried his face in one of is hooves. "We could have gotten out of here!" "Didn't you hear her!?" He screamed back. He felt like crying, the realization hit him way too hard. "It's impossible!" "There was still a chance!" "We're all bucking de-" Twilight flinched as the Doctor's neck seemed to suddenly explode, splattering his blood all over her face. Twilight screamed as the Doctor hit the ground, a fatal bullet wound through his neck. "Whooves!?" She screamed, dumbfounded. She looked behind the Doctor to find a very large, and muscular pony standing behind him. "Well, good to finally meet you Mrs. Smarty Pants." Snowflake grinned. Twilight levitated Whooves' spear and aimed it at him. The Doctors sudden death still fresh in the mare's mind. She felt her blood boiling angrily, and she started to see red. "What was that for!?" She screamed. Snowflake shrugged nonchalantly. "No reason. He was starting to annoy me..." Twilight couldn't believe what she was hearing. One of her friends was just killed for no REASON. Snowflake is playing the game. "You won't get away with this..." She seethed, causing Snowflake to laugh uproariously, he took out his crossbow, after dumping his now empty pistol on the ground. "Yes I will. I can kill you too. Come on Twilight. This has gotten boring." He spoke, every word piercing the air like a dagger. "Come on. Just for once, I'm hoping that some pony will give me a good fight." "I'm not fighting you!" "Yes you are!" Twilight turned tail, levitating her spear with her. Snowflake gladly gave chase, finally excited for some action. Twilight wasn't very good athletically, so she only ran for about 100 feet before she hid behind a tree. When Snowflake seemed to lose her trail, she slowed down to a walk and began to call out of her, in a sing songy voice. "Come out, Twiley...I know you're here..." She felt Snowflake get closer and closer to her location. Her eyes looked left and right, desperate for an escape plan. She silently sighed when she realized that she had no other choice but to fight. Twilight waited until Snowflake was right next to her, before she struck. She lifted up the spear with her magic and buried it in the stallion's chest, who refused to fall down. Twilight ripped out the spear, causing fresh blood to leak from the stallion's wound. "BRING IT!" He shouted, raising his crossbow, he didn't get a chance to fire as Twilight continuously used her magic to stab the stronger pegasus. She grunted every time the spear made contact with his flesh, until he finally fell to the ground. She wanted to make sure he was dead, so she continued to stab him repeatedly, adrenaline still coursing through her. After stabbing him a total of 15 times. She stopped, and plopped on the ground. "I did it...he's...dead..." Snowflake wasn't dead. With the last of his strength, he grabbed his grenade and pulled the pin. Before Twilight knew what had happened, Snowflake had her in a chokehold. Twilight felt the timer in the grenade slowly ticking. "NO!" "YEAAAAAAAH!" BOOM! #11 Snowflake, dead #13 Doctor Whooves, dead #15, Twilight Sparkle, dead 2 to go.