The Ultimate Element

by Akamaru01

Games Part 2

The Ultimate Element

Chapter 10

Games Part 2

Discord had reassembled all the ponies back to the arena. The mares had slept soundly, but they didn’t feel no more rested then they had the night before. The everlasting dusk seemed to be darker than usual, and Rainbow was the first who first noticed a serious issue. She had looked up to Discord, sitting on his throne, if only to make sure Lightning hadn’t been hurt. “Hey,” she exclaimed. “What happened to Lightning?” Her anger began to swell inside, ready to attack the draconequus.

“Oh, he wasn’t feeling quite, himself today.” Discord laughed a little, confusing the ponies. “Don’t worry though. He is safe and sound.”

Dash shook a hoof at Discord in anger. “He better be, or I’m gonna-”

“Rainbow, we have to focus. We can’t help him as things stand.”

“You’re right Twilight.” She sighed and allowed herself to calm down.

“Very good.” Discord brought out both the box and the sheet found the day previously, and floated them to Twilight. She matched the grooves on the diamond to the pattern of the sheet, taking mere minutes to piece them together. When she finished, the box began to glow a brilliant blue, blinding the ponies in the audience. When they looked back, the mares disappeared once again.

Twilight opened her eyes first. Looking around, she noticed that they had been transported to a large, open area. The very air seemed tinged with blue, and she walked forward. She soon came to a mirror, one that discolored her body sapphire. A quick look told her that she reached the wall, and the mirror spread all around. Regrouping with her friends, she told them of her discoveries.

“And, that means what, exactly?” Rainbow asked.

“It means-” Twilight started, before she got cut off by the distorted image of Discord.

“That you will all be forced to think inside the box, now.” He chuckled at his own joke, Pinkie Pie being the only pony to join in, but she stopped quickly when she saw the glares from the others.

“Wh-what are you going to do to us?” Fluttershy asked, hiding behind Rainbow Dash.

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about me,” Discord chuckled. “You should focus on worrying about them!” Bright, white lights shone in the center of the box, forming into a multitude of shapes. “Welcome, to the Box of Beasts!” he exclaimed, his image dissipating.

The light wove itself into all types of monsters. One of each. A four headed hydra, an angry manticore, an Ursa Minor and Major, a terrifying timberwolf, and even a small cockatrice. “Wow, that’s, a lot of monsters,” the blue pegasus said, eyes wide in shock.

“Come on girls,” Twilight said shakily. “I’m sure we can take them.”

“Um, I think I’ll just stay back here,” Fluttershy added, crouching behind the now battle ready group. Pinkie let out a low, unintimidating growl, and Dash snorted a puff of air from her nose. For a moment, only silence. Suddenly, the monsters roared all at once, barrelling towards the ponies. Or to them. Food.

Applejack jumped as one of the hydra heads slammed its maw in the air where she stood moments earlier. She landed on the head, and jumped onto its back as the other three heads collided trying to catch her. Pulling a rope from her hat, she tied a lasso and threw it around the necks of the monster. “Ah gotja naw!” she exclaimed through the rope.

A pink blur passed in front of the farm pony’s eyes, followed quickly by a wooden figure. “Come on, wolfy. You can’t be this bad a t tag!” Pinkie giggles, bouncing around the timberwolf’s claws. “Hey, Rainbow Dash! You wanna play too?”

“Kinda busy here, Pinkie!” the blue pegasus responded. Dodging a stab from the manticore’s tail, she flew and bucked the beast’s head, sending it flying off several feet. The beast roared in anger, pouncing toward the pegasus. An orange mass rammed its side, however, sprawling it yards away, dazed and surprised. “Thanks, Applejack.”

“No prahlem pahdna.”

Rainbow looked to where the Ursas were battling two much smaller figures. “Rarity! Twilight! How are you holding up?” she yelled.

“Well,” the white unicorn began, “we’re surviving. For now.” The fashionista’s blue magic attempted to move the smaller star monster, but succeeded in only shifting its finger. “Oh dear,” she exclaimed, the beast bringing down its massive paw down on her. A flash of purple and white, and Rarity reappeared behind the befuddled beast, a purple unicorn next to her. “Thank you, Twilight. Do we have a plan?”

“For now, ‘distract and survive.’ If we can do that, I might be able to think of a way to beat them.”

“So that’s a no?” The other unicorn nodded shakily. “Right then.” The unicorns heard a slam, and turned to see a rainbow maned pegasus hit the wall, hard. The manticore walked proud and strong toward her. A low growl returned the two unicorns back to the Ursas, the larger one ready to swipe a claw at them. “Not good.”

Picking up the surprised cockatrice from behind, she flew over the monsters, and floated in front of her friends. “Sorry about this, but no one hurts my friends.” She lifted the small creature, forcing it to look into the eyes of the monsters. They quickly changed into stone, falling over with a thud. She released the cockatrice with a gentle “Thank you,” and turned back to her friends.

“Wow, Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash said after a short, stunned silence. “That was great!” The yellow mare blushed, as the image of Discord returned, the monsters fading out.

“Well, well. That was quite the show.” The ponies glared angrily at the draconequus. “Oh, don’t look so miff. Why not celebrate? How about a vacation to a tropical island?” With a snap of his fingers, the ground vanished, and the mares fell through.

---

Applejack opened her eyes slowly, shaking her head to fix the blurriness. “What in tarnation?” she wondered, taking in her surroundings. A clear blue sea stretched out to the horizon, and the sand below melded to her form. The farm pony turned and saw a forest of the darkest green spread out behind her.

“Oh, maybe he really did send us on a vacation!” Pinkie suggested, her head popping out of the ground.

“I highly doubt that, Pinkie.” Twilight stood up slowly, rubbing her head with a hoof. “This is probably another one of his stupid games.”

“Right you are, Twilight Sparkle.” Discord faded into existence, body and all. Rainbow pounced on him instantly, attempting to strike him to the ground. She passed through his body, however, and took a mouthful of dirt. The part of Discord where the pegasus struck reformed itself out of mist. “Ooh, nice try, Rainbow Dash, but no dice. You see, this,” he raised his arms, showing off the surroundings, the sun perched directly between them, “is the Isle of Illusions. Nothing is as it seems.” He chuckled maliciously, his body breaking into mist, spreading out across the island.

“Ya know, ah’m gettin mighty tired o’all this.”

“I feel the same way, Applejack,” a white unicorn said, trotting next to the orange earth pony. “But we don’t have a choice. If we are going to retrieve the Elements and save Lightning, we must follow his rules, no matter how annoying.”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Rainbow Dash asked, energized by fresh anger as motivation. “Our only option now is to go into the forest.” The mares trekked in silence as they stepped into blindness.

After several minutes, Applejack spoke first. “Whoo-wee. I can’t see head nor flank of anythin here. Barely see the hoof in front of my face. How ya’ll girls holdin up?” No response. “What the hay! Where’d ya’ll go?” she asked, trying to see her friends.

She heard a filly’s giggle nearby, and saw a small shadow ahead of her. “Applebloom, is that you?” The shadow darted away, chuckling softly. “Wait. Come back!” The farm pony chased the sound through the mist, weaving around low hanging branches and mud pits, slowly catching up to the figure.

The orange pony soon found herself in a small clearing, even the mist did not enter the area. Across the small field stood a yellow filly, cloaked in shadows. “Stop followin me!” it yelled, surprising the mare. “I hate you and I never wanna see you again! You didn’t stop Discord from taking over Ponyville!” it rushed back into the mist, leaving Applejack staring forward.

“Applebloom? No. No! This can’t be real! I-I-” She could feel herself slipping into unconsciousness, darkness pouring into the sides of her vision. With her eyes half closed, she saw a shimmering tower ahead of her. The earth pony walked unsteadily towards the tall blue obelisk, which seemed to disappear when she opened her eyes, an engraved image of Discord laughing on the front. She stuck her hoof out and felt the smooth stone. In rage, she turned and bucked with all her might. The structure became visible as it crumbled away, the blackness vanishing from her vision.

Five mares dropped out the receding mist, each waking up slowly. “Ugh,”Twilight groaned, getting up shakily to her hooves. “What just happened?”

“Seems like ya’ll gals fell for those derned illusion thingys,” Applejack answered, helping Rarity stand.

“Well, I think that was quite cruel. I thought Sweetie Belle hated me for a minute. I mean-” Rarity stopped, staring beyond the orange mare.

“Rarity? What’s wrong?” she asked, looking behind her. “Woah.” A large mansion had suddenly appeared, the trees vanished without a sound, and a light fog blanketing the ground around it. The building stood 3 stories high, and painted a dull grey, strips of paint falling off and exposing the wood beneath. The black roof leaned precariously, a few shingles threatening to slide off. “I sure hope we ain’t supposed to go there next.”

A large, glowing arrow beamed in front of the mares, pointing toward the house, printed on it read ‘Manor of Madness’. “Come on ya’ll. Lets check it out,” she sighed, walking forward. She pushed open the large, wooden double doors, a chill falling down each ponies spine as they entered the eerie building. The foyer was adorned with faded paintings too far gone to identify on the walls, and an ancient suit of armor stood guard on each side. A creaky chandelier swung from overhead, letting out a ghostly screech. The ponies walked down the deep red carpet which led to the center stairs that raised to the second floor.

“Come on girls!” Pinkie yelled, surprising the others. “I know what’ll cheer you up. When I was a little filly and the sun was going doooowwwwn.”

“Pinkie, I don’t think we need the song again,” Twilight interrupted. Silence. “Pinkie?” The lavender unicorn turned, but the usually talkative mare was nowhere in sight.

“Where did she go!?” Dash asked to nopony in particular, hovering over where the pink earth pony had stood.

“I don’t know, but-” A few seconds passed without Rarity continuing her sentence.

“But what Rarity?” The blue pegasus turned and gasped. The white unicorn vanished as well. “Okay, this is officially getting creepy.”

Fluttershy trotted up to one of the suits of armor. “I feel like these suits are watching me.” She looked into the eye sockets, the darkness peering at her.

“Fluttershy, we need to stay together. Let’s check upstairs.” Twilight turned to look up the stairs, wondering what could await them, when the yellow pegasus let out a quick scream. The mares looked back, the pegasus gone, and no trace left behind. “Fluttershy!”

“Whoa, nelly. This ain’t lookin too good.” The ponies gathered together at the base of the steps, back to each other, keeping an eye on all angles. “Alright, we’re gonna walk up real slow like. See what’s up there.” Step by step, the three mares climbed the stairs, not making any sounds nor hearing any. They made their way to the top, hallways leading off to the sides and around the first floor. A pony could look down from all sides. Doors spread out along the halls on the sides, and empty wall prepared to greet anypony who climbs the stairs.

“Okay,” Rainbow started. “Looks like we made it up safe and sound. Right guys?” She looked around her. “Guys?” Twilight and Applejack both were both gone. “Uh oh.” The multi hued mare walked carefully, checking each door as she passed them. All of them were empty, deprived of any furniture or items of any type.

However, one room contained an odd picture. It seemed to be the only thing not rotting in the whole house. Rainbow Dash walked forward, and picked the picture off the wall. She saw Lightning sleeping on her couch, and her placing a blanket over his body.

She dropped the picture, a crack forming in the glass in the space between the two ponies. “Reminds you of a happier time, doesn’t it?” a stallions voice asked from nowhere.

“Who’s there?” Dash asked, looking all around.

“Too bad you can never go back to it.”

“What do you mean?” As much as she wanted to find her friends and chase down whatever this was, she felt compelled to ask.

“Why don’t you come and find out?” The voice seemed more solid, and Dash turned to see a white and black blur pass the door.

“Wait! Come back here!” She opened her wings and flew down the corridor, barely seeing a black tail move through another door. She followed and found a winding staircase. She flew straight through the center, and came out an opening on the third floor. The figure seemed to always be just turning a corner, as she saw it down the hall.

She soon came to a stone room, which seemed odd considering the house was made of wood. Her friends sat tied together with rope one corner, a cloth around their mouths to prevent them from speaking. “Are you guys alright?” she asked, walking closer. They pointed their heads behind her, and she turned to see a dark shadow standing in another corner. Without hesitating, she pounced on the figure, sprawling him into the light. She stood atop the pegasus stallion, and looked into his crimson eyes. His muzzle inches from her own.

“Looks like you caught me, Rainbow Dash,” Lightning said as he vanished in a puff of smoke.

End Chapter 10

Comments

[Menoshe]

I believe the next chapter begins the REALLY crazy shit?

[Akamaru01]

745079
Next chapter later today hopefully. You'll see how your ideas turn out soon