Welcome to Your Nightmare!
By Ganondorf8
October 25, 2015
Chapter 3: Game On!
" So, do we um, start playing the game, or what?" Fluttershy asked, not sure as to what we're meant to do next. I was surprised at how quickly she recovered from being scared out of her wits given the Gatekeeper did call her out specifically, but then Fluttershy isn't as shy and meek as people assume. She can be very brave whenever the situation demands it, and she's certainly being brave what with having to endure an hour of playing this kind of board game.
" We only have 60 minutes, so we need to play as fast as possible." Pinkie Pie answered.
" Okay, so someone hand me the dice, and I'll get this game started!" Rainbow Dash shouted, rubbing her hands together with glee as though she were super-excited about playing this game, and it was also ironic given a few moments ago she was scared when the Gatekeeper raised his voice, and berated both Fluttershy and Applejack. " Come on! Give me the dice! We've already wasted 30 seconds wondering what we're supposed to be doing!" The anger in her voice indicated that Rainbow was getting impatient, and I couldn't blame her as I wanted to get this game over with as soon as possible.
" Oh no-no-no Dashie!" Pinkie said, grabbing the dice and handing it over to Applejack. " The Gatekeeper said that the one with the highest number goes first, and that someone is Applejack who has the highest number which is six."
" Fine, so then let's get going!" Rainbow Dash shouted, getting more and more impatient, her legs stomping on the floor at a rapid pace. We all then checked the clock, and it showed that a minute had already passed, so already we were wasting time even though it was unintentional. Applejack then rolled the dice where she got a four, and moved her playing piece signalling the start of the game. " Uh, do we know who's supposed to go after Applejack?" Rainbow Dash asked, which prompted all of us to shrug our shoulders, and she smacked herself in the forehead with a loud smack while groaning. " We should have determined this before starting to play!"
" Not to mention writing down our deepest fears." Twilight added, our eyes opened wide when we looked at the center of the board, and the "Nightmare" cards weren't in the middle because we spent so much time on learning the rules, we completely forgot about them.
" Stop the game!" Rainbow Dash shouted.
" If we do that, the Gatekeeper wins by default!" Pinkie shouted.
" We're already struggling here Pinkie, so I agree with Rainbow Dash in that we should stop ta game for a moment, rewind it back to ta beginnin', and play from there as I reckon we jumped the gun a little too soon." Applejack said. All of our eyes turned to Pinkie, and she lowered her head in shame before pressing the stop button on the VCR before pressing the rewind button, and then pressing stop again a few seconds later. " Sorry if we forced ya to do somethin' you weren't comfortable with sugarcube, but we really needed to have done those extra things before gettin' started."
" But... but... the Gatekeeper--" Pinkie said.
" I promise ya Pinkie, once we figure out the rest of this here stuff, we won't be stopping ta tape no matter what unless one of us is about to win. You know that I'm telling ya ta truth, so y'all don't need to feel concerned that we're trying to weasel our way outta this game." Applejack said. I'm not sure why she had to say it like that, for we all agreed to play even if it meant some of us would be more uncomfortable than others, but I guess it was her way of reassuring Pinkie that things would be okay.
" Alright, why don't we go over those last details." Pinkie said, her voice a lot less bubbly than usual.
" Now, since I have ta highest number, I get to go first which we've already established, or rather that there Gatekeeper did, so the question is who is supposed to go after me, and go from there until it comes back to me again?" Applejack asked.
" The rules do say the order of play goes in a clockwise direction." Pinkie answered.
" And you didn't tell this before why?" Rainbow Dash asked, her mannerisms clearly showing her to be annoyed by this revelation, but she quickly calmed down when she realized that all of our eyes were trained on her again. However, she did make a valid point as Pinkie never did mention that part of the rules, or she did, and we didn't hear her due to our minds being preoccupied by something else.
" You never asked." Pinkie answered, her face beaming with a huge grin that caused all of us to gasp in sheer frustration. " Anyway, we need to have a proper seating arrangement otherwise if one of us, or several of us had to go somewhere, and then come back a few moments later, we may not remember where we're supposed to sit, and that could cause us quite a problem." Pinkie gasped before needing another sip of water as her explanation came without her having to pause even once.
" For example, Applejack sits here on seat A... get it?" We all rolled our eyes in response to her bad joke, but she didn't feel offended, for she blushed slightly, her shade of pink matching her skin tone. " Yeah, that wasn't a good joke, and I did just make it up on the spot. Anyway, Applejack sits here on seat A, and Fluttershy sits to her left on seat B. That means once Applejack has finished her turn, the dice is given to Fluttershy, and she has her turn. After that, whoever is sitting on seat C gets to go, and so on until we're back to Applejack again."
" That... makes sense... kinda." Applejack said, scratching her head after removing her hat.
" Why not go in numerical order?" Twilight asked.
" I'm with Twilight!" Rainbow Dash said, agreeing with her suggestion which did make a lot of sense.
" If we go in a numerical order starting from six because Applejack has the highest number, the next person would be who has one, then two, three, four, five, and back to six again before the order is repeated. That way, we won't need to memorize seating arrangements, and we can simply play by following the order of numbers." Twilight said, adjusting her glasses because they were sliding down her nose ever so slightly. The rest of the group began chiming in, agreeing with what Twilight had to say, yet Pinkie still thought her method sounded better, and in a way I actually agreed with her.
" I'm with Pinkie on this." I said.
" I had a feeling you'd say that." Twilight said, rolling her eyes which brought a smile on my face, for it meant she was bonding with her new friends. " You want to follow the rules like Pinkie, and even though I would usually follow the rules because it makes the most logical sense, my method actually prevents any kind of confusion. Plus, we can sit anywhere we want without having to be confined to one spot for the duration of the hour." Twilight then turned to face Pinkie who seemed a little hesitant about all of this. " Pinkie, we'll still go with your seating arrangement as I think that's only fair, but going in numerical order would make it easy."
" Yeah, that does make sense." Pinkie said.
" It's your sleepover, so the decision is up to you... and no one give her any pressure!" Twilight said, placing her hands on her hips as though she were a coach, and had just given out a direct order to her players that was to be followed no matter what. It only took Pinkie less than ten seconds to come to a decision, and she agreed while producing a big smile on her face.
" Well that was easy." I said.
" Now what?" Rainbow Dash asked.
" We write down our greatest fears on the back of the Nightmare cards, and one of us without looking at them, shuffles the pack, and places them on the Nightmare space in the center of the board. Oh, and we need to use this special pencil because the back of the cards are laminated, so as to remove the words for future use, and this pencil was made to work on any laminated surface." Pinkie said. She then grabbed the pencil in question which she brought to our attention by presenting it like she were a game show assistant, and then secretly wrote something down before handing the pencil to someone else. In the span of about two minutes, everyone had written down a fear with the exception of Twilight and myself because there was only one Nightmare card between us.
" Why don't you write something down." Twilight suggested.
" Are you sure?" I asked.
" I'm not particularly bothered by it given how I already went through my own personal nightmare, but I'm sure you want to write something." Twilight answered, handing me the pencil, and using her hands in a way to encourage me to go for it. In truth, I was hoping to have done this because there was one fear that continued eating away at me even though I'm better off now than I was long ago. My greatest fear... I could have just been silly, and write down something nonsensical, but I couldn't do that, for it would just be an excuse for me to not express my feelings on the matter. So, I wrote down the one fear which plagued me... I didn't want to lose my friends... all of them... even if it meant one day having to leave them.
" Everybody written down their fears?" Pinkie asked, and all of us nodded our heads in approval. " Okie dokie lokie, so now we need someone to shuffle them all into a pile without looking at them, and place them Nightmare side up in the center of the board. Hmmm... Twilight! You do it!" Pinkie then scooped up all of the cards, and thrusted them into the hands of Twilight who dropped them on the table due to being caught by surprise.
" Why me?" Twilight asked, scrambling to pick the cards up while blushing in sheer embarrassment.
" You didn't write down any kind of nightmare, so you should be the one who gets to shuffle the cards." Pinkie answered. While her logic may have sounded baffling, she was actually correct, for Twilight insisted that I write something down as opposed to herself. Turning my attention to her, Twilight shrugged her shoulders due to not really getting Pinkie's way of thinking, and shuffled the cards a few times before placing them in the center.
" Can we play now?" Rainbow Dash asked, more impatient sounding than ever before.
" We can now Rainbow, so you don't need to continue stomping your feet. I answered, prompting my friend to actually stop doing that as she began to do so again when Pinkie was figuring out who was to shuffle the Nightmare cards. With everything finally set up, we all sat back down in our chairs, and Pinkie pressed the play button on the VCR with a cruel smile on her face... her way of telling us that we can't stop the tape again under no circumstances. Since Applejack already had her turn prior to our sudden stop, the dice was handed over to Fluttershy, who rolled a six, and moved her piece before quickly giving the dice to Rarity because we needed to play as fast as possible given the one hour time limit.
" I must admit darling..." Rarity began. "... this game is simply divine once you get past all of the scary stuff associated with it."
" I'd rather there not be anything scary." Fluttershy said.
" So far it's pretty lame if you want my opinion, for I thought you said this game would be unlike anything we've played before." Rainbow Dash, feeling slightly disappointed because this was seen as boring in her eyes. To Rainbow, if it isn't as awesome as she is, then she will quickly get bored, but I have a feeling she is going to change her mind before we reach the end of the 60 minutes alloted to us. After Rarity finished her turn, and passed it over to me, I rolled a one which felt disheartening, but landed on a gravestone marked with the word "Time" on it.
" What does that mean?" I asked.
" You take a Time card from the pile right here." Pinkie answered, her hand moving across the board like a flash before stopping above the pile of cards with the top one saying Time on it. " On each Time card is a set time which is when the card has to be activated in order for it to work. If the time on the clock on the screen has exceeded what's written on the card, you just return it to the bottom of the pile, and do nothing else until you get another Time card." Pinkie started gasping for air due to having to explain all of that, so she took yet another sip of water. Upon giving the dice to Rainbow Dash, I picked up the top card of the Time pile, and read it to myself as I assume we're not supposed to let our opponents know what we got, but I can show it to Twilight as we are playing together.
" At 09:00, you immediately receive two free turns. Return this card to the bottom of the pile after use, or if time has expired." I said to myself. I then showed Twilight the same card, and she adjusted the rim on her glasses before clapping her hands with glee, and had to stop when the rest of the group looked at her. At least she's showing signs of improvement on the whole-opening-yourself-up-to-friends bit.
" Alright! It's my turn now!" Rainbow Dash shouted, her hand shaking the dice as she prepared to roll it.
" STOP!" The Gatekeeper shouted as he appeared on screen suddenly with the sound of lightning echoing his entrance, and causing Fluttershy to scream before she jumped out of her chair again. " WHOSE TURN IS IT NEXT... WHO IS JUST ABOUT TO ROLL THE DICE... ANSWER ME!" The Gatekeeper was once again being serious, and all eyes turned to Rainbow Dash as she was the one who had to answer. Our faces expressed worry that she wasn't going to answer because of her attitude about the game being lame, and our fears became a reality when she chose not to say anything.
" As if!" Rainbow Dash said, boldly and without a care in the world as she spun the dice on her finger as a show of arrogance.
" Time's up!" The Gatekeeper said. " If you failed, to answer yes my gatekeeper in time... YOU MUST ROLL... A SIX, before you can play again."
" What!?!?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed not realizing that she had just been dealt with a harsh blow right from the start, and we were only two minutes into the game which meant the Gatekeeper wasn't fooling around. Before Rainbow could protest, he disappeared from the screen, and was replaced by the timer which continued to count upwards. " I have to roll a six before I can play again? But, I haven't even had an actual turn yet!" Rainbow started to show signs of frustration before rolling the dice, and getting a six which was either a miracle... or just plain lucky on her part.
" Y'all gonna play the game seriously?" Applejack asked.
" Yeah, I'm definitely taking this seriously now!" Rainbow Dash answered, placing her hand onto her chest to make sure that her heart wasn't beating erractically because she almost had to do something that can be considered unbearable for some. Since her turn was now over because of having to fix her own blunder, Rainbow handed the dice over to Applejack, who proceeded to roll a three, and landed on a Time gravestone of her own.
" Yee-haw!" Applejack shouted before taking a card, and reading it to herself, but not before giving the dice to Rarity. " At 19:20, you and I are going to scare the living daylights out of the Chosen One! Here's how! When the Chosen One leaves its seat, and sits before me, you are to sneak up behind it. When you hear the words "... so that I may show you... my fury!", scream as loud as you can, and if you can frighten the Chosen One, you can take its key! Return this card to the bottom of the pile after use, or if time has expired." I could see a confused look on Applejack's face as she scratched her head, but then a cruel smile appeared on her face which indicated that she had something which could prove either beneficial to her, or a complete disaster for us.
" I've landed on a Fate gravestone!" Rarity said.
" Take a Fate card, and see if it applies to you." Pinkie said, prompting Rarity to do exactly that, and she read the card before keeping it by declaring that the card had the name of the character she was playing as, but she didn't say anything more than that.
" This little card is going to be helpful later." Rarity said.
" My turn now!" Pinkie said happily, grabbing the dice, and throwing it up into the air where it bounced off the ceiling before landing on the board which almost knocked everything over, but then the dice rolled along before stopping on a five. " Sorry about that everyone... guess I threw it a little too hard."
" You think!?!?" Rainbow Dash said sarcastically. Pinkie moved her playing piece, and landed on a gravestone marked with an X which made no sense, for why would there be something like that in a cemetery? Then again, there are other spaces with an X on them in addition to the ones that had Time, Fate, Chance, and the names of characters. Upon receiving the dice, I handed it over to Twilight as I felt she should roll it this time, and just when she was about to do so...
" STOP!" The Gatekeeper shouted, once again appearing on screen with the sound of lightning.
" Eep!" Fluttershy shouted, and almost jumping out of her chair again.
" Those of you on gravestones marked with an X... receive a free turn..." The Gatekeeper said, a smile appearing on his face as though he were proud of what he had just done, and then disappeared with the timer re-appearing again. Since Pinkie's playing piece was on a gravestone with an X on it, she got to have another turn, so Twilight handed the dice over to her without any kind of fuss, and I personally felt that was unfair. Pinkie then rolled the dice with more sense behind it as opposed to tossing it into the air like before, and she landed on a Time space where she proceeded to pick up the top card.
" At 15:30, roll the dice, and if you can roll your number, take a key! Return this card to the bottom of the pile after use, or if time has expired." Pinkie said to herself before making a giggling sound although considering none of us knew what she had just read, it could either be a good thing, or a bad thing. Pinkie then handed the dice over to Twilight, who finally got a chance to roll the dice, and got a six where she moved our piece until she stopped on a blank space which meant nothing.
" My turn again!" Rainbow Dash shouted, taking the dice, and rolling a four which landed her piece on a Time space as well, and she picked up a card before reading it to herself even though a part of her wanted to describe it out loud. " At 24:00, scream as loud as you can, and if you manage to frighten someone, you can take a key. Return this card to the bottom of the pile after use, or if time has expired... since I need six of these keys, this card practically guarantees me one seeing as everyone is already on edge, and I'm not referring to just Fluttershy on her own. This game is actually a lot more enjoyable than I give it credit for." Rainbow Dash said to herself.
" Guess I'm up again y'all." Applejack said.
" STOP!" The Gatekeeper shouted as he appeared again with his now usual entrance. " Those of you on gravestones marked chance... take the dice and roll it. ROLL IT NOW, and if you can roll your number... you can take a key..." He then disappeared which meant so far things were going pretty well even though no one was on a gravestone with the word Chance on it, so none of us could roll our number for a key according to what he said. I had a feeling this wasn't going to be as bad as Pinkie made it sound, but I was about to be proven wrong when the Gatekeeper would make his next appearance...