Equestria Girls: The Children of Chaos

by Time Agent pony

Chapter 6

Team One.

Twilight and her team had finally boarded their chosen ride.

As they floated on down the predetermined path of the ride, all the animatronic characters sang a terrible tinkly tune.

"This place is unsettling," Magik said, as they continued on their way.

Unbeknown to Twilight or her teammates they were being watched, not by the twins, but by a humanoid shape with the features of animal.

As the ride carried on, Midnight caught a glimpse a shadow moving from behind the animatronics but when she turned her head towards it, the shadow had vanished.

"Does anyone get the feeling we're being watched?" Midnight asked, in a lower tone of voice so she didn't alert whoever or whatever was watching them.

"Now that you mention it," Wanda replied, "I do have a sense of..."

Before Wanda could finish, a creature with the body of a human and the features of a Great Horned Owl descended upon the group.

It was Owl-Man, one of the members of the supervillain team called the Ani-Men, a group mutated animals.

The other Ani-Men members appeared along the edges of the ride, these being: Rabbit-Woman, Giraffe-Man and Pig-Man.

"If only Fluttershy was here," Twilight said, as the mutant animal supervillains closed in on them.

---

Team Two.

Rainbow Dash and her team had made it past the hordes of video game enemies and were now inside the arcade.

The inside of the arcade were just as chaotic as the entrance, some of the arcade cabinet were still spewing out of enemies and enemies running for the exit, finally freed from their digital prisons.

"Spread out," Rainbow Dash instructed, "our powers and equipment could anywhere in here."

With that, the team dispersed, Applejack and Miss America going one way and Rainbow Dash and Kate Bishop going another.

Both groups walked down the isles of cabinets, all of them old games, originating from far off eras.

"All this stuff is seriously retro," Kate Bishop remarked.

As the two continued on their search, they passed a cabinet, that had the name Polybius on it.

As Kate passed the cabinet she thought she saw the cabinet light up and some text appear on the screen:

'Hello Kate, lose something?'

Kate Bishop stopped and retraced she steps back the way she had come, back towards the Polybius cabinet.

The text appeared again:

'Hello Kate, lose something?'

"What the what?" Kate murmured to herself.

More text appear on the screen.

'You and your friends seem to be in a real pickle'

Kate was taken aback, a video game know about her and her friends.

"Guys," she called, alerting Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Miss America to her location.

The others all join her in front of the cabinet.

"So," Rainbow Dash said, "you're saying that this arcade machine started talking to you?"

"That what I'm saying," Kate Bishop replied.

"Strange," Applejack remarked, "I don't remember seeing this cabinet the last time me and my friends were here."

"Hmmm," Miss America mused, "Polybius...that name, I've heard that name before on the internet."

Before anyone could go any further, some more text appeared on the screen.

A quest you must undertake
To find what is at stake
If these items are close to your heart
Then you must simply press START.

After the text, the start button on the cabinet started flashing.

"So," Kate Bishop said, "what's the plan?"

"If this thing knows where our powers and equipment are," Rainbow Dash replied, "then what choice do we have?"

"I'm not going near that thing," Applejack insisted, "not even with a ten foot pole."

"I'm with Applejack," Miss America nodded, "that thing this is suspicious and creepy."

"It's just a video game," Rainbow Dash answered, "what could be possibly happen by playing a video game?"

And before anyone could stop her, Rainbow Dash pressed the start button on the cabinet.

For moment, nothing happened.

"Huh," Rainbow Dash remarked, "guess it was a dead end."

She was about walk away when the Polybius cabinet began to shake and spark violently.

"What the hay, did you do Rainbow?!" Applejack asked.

"I don't know!" Rainbow Dash replied, "I think the cabinet is glitching out!"

She quickly started to look for the plug, if the cabinet was like the others it must have a plug, she searched frantically for a plug to turn the cabinet off, only to find that the cabinet had no plug.

The cabinet continued to shake and spark, after a few more minutes, the cabinet fell silent.

Then suddenly, a serge of energy erupted from the cabinet, enveloping the four heroes.

"What was that abou...?" Rainbow Dash began, only to notice that she and her comrades were starting to fade away as their very beings were broken down and, in a flash, the four were zapped into the cabinet.

---

Team Three.

Fluttershy and her team had managed to make it past monstrous exterior of the haunted house.

The inside was surprisingly bigger than the outside, an entire labyrinth squeezed inside a smaller house.

"This place is massive," Raven remarked, "it's also impossible."

"How is this place even possible?" Captain Marvel Jr. wondered, aloud.

"I think it's based on British science fiction technology," Pinkie Pie said.

Everyone looked at her in stunned surprise.

"How did you...?" Raven asked.

"Just a hunch," Pinkie Pie replied, smiled innocently.

"Right," Raven said, "anyway, we need to search every inch of this place."

"That's going to take a long time," Fluttershy stated, "given how big it is."

"We should split up," Captain Marvel Jr. suggested, "cover more ground that way."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Pinkie Pie exclaimed, "we don't know whats out there, have any of you seen a horror movie?! When you split up the monster hunts you down one by one, starting with the funny nice comic relief character."

Pinkie pointed at herself, to emphasise her point.

"Alright," Captain Marvel Jr. said, "then we'll split into two teams."

"Right," Raven nodded, "that way, we can watch each others backs while we search."

Fluttershy wanted to protest, but she knew what had to be done.

Remembering what Pinkie had said, about standing tall and laughing at fear, she took a deep breath and put on the bravest face she could make.

"OK," Fluttershy said, "let's do this."

"That's the spirit," Pinkie Pie smiled, seeing her friend being brave in face fear.

With that, the group separated into two teams and began their journey into the labyrinth inside the haunted house.

---

Team Four.

Sunset and her team had made it passed the supervillains and were now waiting ride to arrive.

"I think we're on the right track," Sunset said.

"How'd you arrive at that?" Rarity asked.

"Well," Sunset explained, "why would there supervillains guarding this place? If there wasn't anything important to guard."

"Indeed," agreed Amethyst, "why go to the trouble of extra security?"

"Unless," Wiccan finished, "there was something valuable or something you wanted to keep hidden."

"Exactly," Sunset nodded.

She was saved from having to explain any further, as the ride arrived, it was designed to resemble a western style locomotive.

The driver of train was Phillip "Phil" Cobb a.k.a. Signalman, but wearing a train conductor's uniform over his supervillain costume.

"All aboard!" he declared.

Not seeing any other choice, Sunset and her team boarded the train.

The train departed and ride began.

"Please keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times," Signalman advised.

"There's no turning back now," Sunset thought, as the train slowly moved out of the station.

---

Back with Desmond and Christine.

"Looks like the fun continues," Christine said, "and I've got some surprises in store for our little lab rats."

"What kind of surprises?" Desmond asked, his voice had a hint of uncertainty in it.

He was trying not to show it but, Desmond was worried about what his sister was implying.

"You'll see," Christine replied, a mischievous grin on her face.

Desmond tried to put on the same smile as his sister but, he had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Still smiling, both brother and sister turned back to their view-screens showing the four teams.

Comments

[Comickook]

Thanks immensely for getting the next chapter up. I really appreciate you going to the effort. Definitely appreciate the effort going into the exchanges, characterizations, action set-up and future chapter set-up in all the right places. VERY much appreciated the looks at how the four teams are doing and hints at what they're likely going to encounter soon. And, yeah, the reasoning on Sunset's team concerning how the extra security could be a clue that they are on the right track (though that is very likely what Christine/Cosmos WANTS them to think). And also liked Desmond/Discord's brief show of regret concerning how far this is going.

Here is something for later on, probably very close to the end:

Christine: Desmond! What do you think you're doing?

Desmond: I could ask YOU the same thing! Fun is fun, but this is going WAY too far! Yeah, mess with the mortals a bit, but don't hurt them.

Christine: Don't hurt them? I think you are just a little too attracted to that Fluttershy girl.

Desmond: No, that's not it. Well, not COMPLETELY it. It's just that, if we go too far with our antics, they won't survive. And, if we make too much of a habit of taking our shenanigans too far, we'll eventually run out of people to mess with!


This is, of course, assuming you don't already have something better planned (which, admittedly, is possible and I will certainly respect it if you do).

Anyway, most certainly looking forward to more of this.

[Time Agent pony]

11128930
Once again, thank you for the comment, the ideas and the support

[Comickook]

11129665

Once again, you're quite welcome.

[Comickook]

Another possible dialogue idea for the very end:

Desmond: Just because I helped you guys against my sister in the end, don't make the mistake of assuming I'm going to be on your side. There are just lines I don't cross, is all.

Sunset: Fair enough.

Desmond: However, I WILL want to play some more games with all of you from time to time - especially Fluttershy.

Twilight: Games have rules.

Desmond: Of which I am quite aware. Because of this, I will agree to three rules and only three. The first rule will be nothing from any of us that causes any lasting physical or mental harm to anybody.

Fluttershy: Seems reasonable.

Desmond: The second will be that I will give all of you a fair chance to win if you do the same with me.

Pinkie: Another agreeable rule.

Desmond: Third and final (I will admit I got the idea for this one from an occasional 5th Dimension pen pal that likes to mess with your Superman. If you get me to say, write or otherwise reveal my name backwards within 24 hours of the games starting, I'll leave you alone for 90 days. If you fail, Fluttershy has to go out with me - just dinner, dancing and a movie, though. As I said, I DO have standards.

Rarity: Well, I must admit that those rules DO sound good. And if we play by ALL THREE of those rules every time we play, you can play as many games with us as you want - providing we take a 90-day break after each game.

Desmond: That's the general idea. Oh, and another thing - call me Discord.

Again, that is for the very end of the story. I figure it might make for some good material for later set-up. Of course, I will completely understand if you don't wish to use it.

[Time Agent pony]

11131763
Thanks for the idea, I'll see what happens

[Comickook]

11133197
You're very welcome and I appreciate you at least considering it.