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Chapter 244,732 words
Chapter 253,368 words
Chapter 263,995 words
Epilogue1,264 words

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Who's There?

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash traveled through Manehattan together; The latter stayed for the sake of comforting her friend and making sure she doesn't travel alone until her door was found. Rainbow Dash looked around at the many buildings in the area, although she had trouble trying to ignore the trailing blackness in the sky "Sheesh, Discord's having a ball with this place. I'd say we're lucky to spot the buildings." She said dryly.

Fluttershy huddled close towards the cyan pegasus while she tried to distinguish her surroundings herself "I know this is only the second challenge, but I just want to go home..."

Rainbow Dash stopped in her pace and finally decided to look up at the pitch black sky as if Celestia's sun could be seen "I don't blame you. Equestria's going to Tartarus thanks to Discord and his dumb tricks..."

"I heard that!"

After hearing Discord's disembodied voice, Rainbow Dash scrunched her nose before sticking her tongue out at the sky "Good! Just be lucky I'm not scoring some good hits on you!" She shouted. After noticing Fluttershy's heightened fear from the corner of her eye, Rainbow Dash turned to her friend with a smile "C'mon, Fluttershy, you're better than this. You were assertive before, right? Well, it's time to be assertive now! If you keep this up, Discord wins. Do you really want that?"

Fluttershy looked down, and her eyes slowly narrowed before she found the courage to face Rainbow Dash with a curt nod "You're right, Rainbow Dash. We need to keep going if we're going to put a stop to this chaos."

"Yeah, good luck with that. Now if you're done with your sentiments, I believe your doors are calling for you."

Rainbow Dash leered at the sky before turning to Fluttershy, the two ponies sharing a nod before trotting further into the city together. After their small trek, they were surprised to see that the two doors containing their numbers were found up ahead; Rainbow Dash's door was found at a building on the left, while Fluttershy's was found on the right.

Fluttershy was curious about the locations of their doors "Do you think there could be some meaning to this?"

Rainbow Dash scoffed "Like Discord would make any sense. I'm pretty sure the others could have their doors next to each other. Let's just get this stupid challenge over with..." She said as she went to her door on the left building. Fluttershy went towards the right and proceeded to open it until Rainbow Dash spoke up "Listen up, Fluttershy!" She called out, earning the timid mare's attention "Don't give up on this no matter what, okay? Can you do that for me?" The cyan pegasus asked with an expectant glance.

Fluttershy stared before she snapped a salute with a determined gaze "I'll do my best. Anything to save Equestria." After getting a satisfied smirk and a nod from her friend, Fluttershy turned to her door and took a deep breath before she opened it up and went inside of the room.

The room she entered happened to be a neon blue, featureless in all aspects except for the glowing pad up ahead and the glass wall containing four colorless dots in a square formation; The pad had a similar formation, but they contained dots with the colors red, yellow, green, and blue. She went further inside to examine the room, but she gasped when the door slammed shut behind her, then gasped again when she felt something leave her back.

After looking back, she confirmed what was lost by shrieking; Fluttershy had lost her wings once more.
_____

Rainbow Dash looked around with an unamused frown "Wow, and here I thought this would be interesting." The cyan pegasus stood from her opened door to take in the surroundings of her room: a featureless room coated in neon red; a glass wall with lifeless grey dots and a colored pad on the floor were up ahead. When she trotted further inside, the door slammed shut behind her, and her wings had disappeared, earning her attention "What the-!?"

"Welcome, Rainbow Dash, to your next challenge. This is very simple, so you won't have to complain so much about it."

Rainbow Dash looked around with narrowed eyes "Mind explaining why you took my wings?"

"Oh, that's easy..."
_____

"Simply put, it's a little rule for this little game: No wings. You'll see why as you start to play."

Fluttershy looked up at the ceiling, then looked down at the pad in front of her "Then what about this pad?" She switched her gaze to the dotted glass wall "And the wall?"

"That's your challenge."
_____

"All you have to do is show the glass wall in front of you who's boss with the help of your pad."

With a confident smirk, Rainbow Dash planted her hooves on the pad "Sounds easy enough."

"Good. And to show you how thoughtful I am, I'll let you press any color of choice to signal the start of this game."

Rainbow Dash observed the four colored dots around her and thought over what color would be fitting for her in starting out her challenge.
_____

"Now stay still and wait for the game to start."

Fluttershy gulped, already nervous over what twisted game Discord had planned for her. She flinched when a beep was heard, and she looked up at the glass wall to see the upper left dot briefly glow red before fading back to its lifeless grey. After mulling over the dot and the pad she stood under, she caught on and pressed the red dot under her left foreleg.

"Very good. Now press another color to end your turn."

Fluttershy wordlessly complied to Discord's request and pressed on the yellow pad under her right foreleg.
_____

Two flashes; One red and one yellow on the top row of dots. Rainbow Dash arched an eyebrow at the display before she pressed the two colors in the order presented to her. There was a moment of pause before there were three flashes in the order of red, yellow, green. She quickly mimicked the given pattern and waited for the next one with an extra flash to it, groaning impatiently "This is so boring. I never thought this challenge-"
_____

"-could be so easy." Fluttershy said with mild surprise. She thought about retracting her statement when she remembered who was orchestrating this very challenge. She watched how the wall had shown the pattern that she had made, then added another step after mimicking it with ease. Over time, Fluttershy was beginning to think that there was some kind of catch towards her actions.
_____

Applejack trotted along Manehattan and frowned upon what the city had been reduced to 'Land Sakes...Ah know Ah didn't really like this place so much, but now Ah feel bad for th' ponies inside o' this place.' Amidst the topic of the ponies in Manehattan, a thought had occured to Applejack.

There wasn't a single pony in sight.

She figured that there could be more ponies seen once she ventured deeper into the city, but there hasn't been a trace of any pony whatsoever. The very sight had disturbed Applejack as she trotted in silence. While she had done so, she noticed a horizontal road up ahead. When she came up towards the curb, a stop sign had quickly erupted from the ground in front of her "What in tarnation!?" Applejack blurted out in a startled tone. Shortly after her surprise, a honking sound was heard.

Coming from the left side of the road was what appeared to be a pony, or so Applejack thought. This pegasus mare had a grey coat with a prismatic pattern similar to Rainbow Dash along her lower midsection as well as her mane and tail; She even had her magenta eyes while wearing a pleasant smile. But what really threw Applejack off was the fact that instead of legs, the mare rolled in on wheels. Her confusion doubled when she saw the mare open her mouth to let out another honk as she rolled by nonchalantly until she was out of the farmpony's sights.

Afterwards, the stop sign instantly sunk back down and was replaced with a 'Go' sign rising up. Applejack froze in her position before she shook her head "This is all just too much fer me." She said to herself in a tired tone as she pressed on. A few blocks after the road she passed, Applejack finally came across the building containing her number. She took a deep breath and opened the door, moving inside to see what appeared to be an arena of sorts.

She trotted inside, though was slightly fazed by the door shutting itself, and looked at the corridor on the other side "What's goin' on here?"

"You're in for quite the treat, Applejack. You'll have to break the mold in order to best this challenge..."

The grave tone in Discord's voice had tensed Applejack up a few notches as she heard hoofsteps from the other corridor. Soon enough, she was met with what appeared to be a ponnequin decked out in battle armor. Applejack noticed and pawed at the ground with a fierce look in her eyes "Ah see where y'all 're comin' from now. Tryin' to wear me down through a battle, huh?"

"Not just any battle...You will be fighting not with brute force...but with a dance!"

Applejack froze with a blank stare "Beggin' yer pardon?"

A song began to play as the ponnequin was moving up and down to the beat. As the beat progressed, it broke out into a series of unique break dancing moves until it ended in a pose similar to laying down in boredom.

"Are you gonna take that, Applejack? Show this one how well you can dance! Or can you?"

The taunting question had given Applejack the drive to take on her challenge, although she was embarrassed by the style of it. She decided to tap into her knowledge of square dancing and matched her movement with the beat. After a small series of moves, she ended with a stalwart pose and a confident gaze.

No expression was seen on the opponent's face, but that didn't mean it was deterred. The ponnequin performed more moves, including a wave using its forelegs, followed by what appeared to be a move similar to a wriggling worm. It then ended with a pose on its hindlegs, its forelegs crossed as if trying to intimidate Applejack.

It did not succeed as Applejack turned away to spit before she opened with more square dancing moves. She knew this battle was going to be a tedious one 'This'll be a while...' The farmpony thought with mild tension.
______

Pinkie Pie pronked peacefully in the twisted city despite its current state and looked around for her number, humming a ditty as she passed by each building. While she was aware of Equestria's current state, she didn't let the foreboding scenery get to her. In no time at all, she finally reached her door. However, she had fought a losing battle with bursting out in laughter as she stared at the number on top of her door.

"Ah, Pinkie, your laughter is most endearing through this little ordeal you and your friends are going through."

Pinkie grinned up at the sky "I can't believe you even had that number in the box!" She said between laughs "Maybe your challenge is gonna be loads of fun." Pinkie proclaimed cheerfully.

"Oh, but it is! Step inside, won't you?"

Following Discord's request, Pinkie opened the door and looked inside to see what appeared to be a contraption similar to a merry-go-round, only there was a pod containing a seat behind glass; the pod was attached to a large rod leading towards the center of the room. Pinkie eyed it with wonder "Oooooh, shiny~..."

"Before you get in there, be sure to put on the suit to your right."

Pinkie blinked before glancing to her right to see a small statue of Discord holding a book and a torch; On the torch hung a baggy suit complete with a helmet. Pinkie approached the suit and fished it off of the statue and fussed with wearing it.

"The challenge is easy as your last name. It's nothing more than a little test on your durability. That little doodad will be spinning around faster than Rainbow Dash and all you have to do is hold out until the ride ends. Are you game?"

When Discord finished, Pinkie finally put on the helmet along with the rest of her suit and grinned confidently "Let's do this thang!" She quipped in determination as she pronked towards the pod, the glass opening up to let her get onto the seat. When she made herself comfortable, the glass had closed as the contraption slowly began to spin, gradually picking up speed as Pinkie jittered with excitement.

"Eustace, we have lift-off!"

Pinkie giggled as the contraption had reached a large amount of speed. But as time went by, it continued to speed up to the point where the manic mare was sucked into her seat, nearly stealing the voice from her mouth as her laughing had ceased. However, Pinkie wasn't scared of this challenge, especially since not only did it involved the fate of Equestria, but it was the most fun she had in a while.
_____

Spike waddled by himself as he shifted his eyes at the city around him. The more he took in his surroundings, the more he regretted going into Manehattan on his own "Aw, dammit, why didn't I go with Twilight or Greed?" He widened his eyes after his inadvertent profanity and quickly clamped his mouth shut with his claws, but then sighed in relief when he remembered he was alone.

While he had ventured by himself for some time at one point, it wasn't a fleeting experience to explore a vast city that had been turned upside down by a powerful creature that was as old as Celestia. Spike did not enjoy having to partake in being forced to play a twisted game of sorts, but he realized he had no choice when he was one of the only hopes left of stopping Discord.

Much to Spike's annoyance, he had already passed several numbers that weren't the one he had drawn "I know this part of the game is luck of the draw, but why make us go through the trouble of finding the doors on our own?"

"Because it builds character, cripples laziness, and it helps to get you all hyped up for what's yet to come while you're looking."

Spike shot an unamused glance at the pitch black sky above him "Oh, right. You're everywhere. Can't you at least cut me a break and show me where to go?"

"That depends...do you trust me in giving you directions, be it my own way or otherwise?"

Spike stared before pointing a claw upward "Good point. You win this round." He said in a cross tone as he carried on, trying to steel his defenses for the challenge ahead of him, wherever it laid in Manehattan. Or so he thought when he spotted his number from a stone's throw away.

Feeling invigorated to have his search come to an end, Spike broke into a sprint towards his door, catching his breath before he carefully opened it up.

The inside of the room was as pitch black as the sky outside, sending chills through Spike's body as he examined the unending darkness. When he inched further inside of the room, the door slammed shut behind him, eliciting a yelp as he went to pull at the knob. A click, followed by a trace of light out of the corner of his eye had stopped Spike from his futile struggle and turned to see a very important item in the middle of a lone spotlight.

An Element of Harmony. Pinkie's to be precise.

Spike's eyes widened as he laid his eyes on the golden necklace and he grinned "Alright! Luck really is on my side!" He cheered as he ran towards the element.

"Or is it?"

The element, along with the spotlight quickly flew away from Spike as he ran, snapping him out of his cheer as he came to a stop "Huh?" When it was at a far distance, several lights came on to see that Spike's room was what looked like a snazzy game show; The element rested in a glass case sitting on a pedestal and there was a large sign that said 'Not a chance!'. He was teleported in a flash of light and appeared behind a booth with his name on it "What's going on? I thought I could just take the element and leave!"

A few feet away from Spike, Discord appeared in a sky blue tuxedo as a mischievous smile was on his face "Oh, I said the element was in one of the buildings..." His eyes narrowed to slits as he held a toothy grin "I never said it was easy picking..." He uttered maliciously as he rubbed his paw and claw together.

End of Chapter 10

Author's Note:

So thus every single challenge is covered. Now all that's left is to post each of their trials, including their aftermaths. Joy