A New Lord of Chaos

Fluttershy made her way down a plain looking hallway she had know idea where that rabbit had gotten off to. So she was forced to choose her own path.

“Just keep walking and play attention. Don’t get lost in your own head, that how we lost the rabbit in the first place.” She just kept moving forward as she quietly berated herself.

She kept going down the hallway for ten minutes never passing a door or window, before she reached a dead end. Turning around she began making her way back to the door she had taken intent on exiting and picking another.

It seemed like she made it to the other end of the hall quicker than before again she found a blank wall. Turning in a panic she shot off down the hall hoping she was being tricked some how. Not even two minutes later she was back in front of the dead end again. Turning around she say the other blank wall closer than it had been before she. Started hyperventilating and moaning to herself. “Oh no, oh no, oh no.” Tears forming in her eyes. She began walking a tight circle hoping that one of the walls would move backward and let her pass.

In the theater the guards were furious and scared. It looked like Fluttershy was going to be crushed between the two walls. The guards could only sit there in horror waiting for the Kindest mare in the kingdom to meet an unkind fate. It got worse.
They watched as spikes began to grow from the walls.
Then the screen Fluttershy was on then split. On side showed the horrible scene the poor mare about to be perforated. The other showed her just cowering in the middle of an empty hall over what was obviously a very crude trapdoor. They blinked and words began playing across the bottom of the screen.
‘Screen 1 shows what my magic is making her see. Screen 2 shows what is actually happening in the hall. Think she’ll quit?’

Fluttershy was crying. It had been bad enough when the walls were closing in but now they had spikes. “Why is this happening?” She was trying to curl into her mane again.

Barely over the sound of her crying and trembling she heard a voice.

“Two little words and it all ends.” The voice was just a teasing whisper. “Tell me you quit and it all ends. No more fighting. No dangerous maze. I’ll even bring you Angel to cheer you up.”

In the throne room I watched as my little message seemed to be eating away at the last of her strength. She would either quit here or some other part of the path she had ended up going down would. I made the walls slow down and added a very low grinding noise to the illusion. I had to keep it subtle to little or too much and she could see it for what it is.

The walls slowed down to a crawl and started make a grinding noise. Like he had never tested them extending the walls as far as they would go. The noise some how made it worse. It made Fluttershy feel as though she would be slowly pinned in place like one of those dead butterflies she had seen. Who would have known that the only pony she met with a cutie mark just like hers got it in lepidoptery. She shuddered at both the memory and the image she had of herself pinned between the spikes.

The grinding got a little louder and she watched as the spikes slowly began extending. Going from as long as her hoof to.. “Oh,my!” now some of them were as long as some of her primary feathers. She watched whimpering as the began extending from the top down moving row to row towards the center spikes.

Then the voice came again. Hauntingly, bitterly, sweet was the temptation of its offer. “Just quit. Quit and I will take you from there.”

The voice Fluttershy realized was speaking just like she would to coax a scared or injured animal to her when approaching would drive them away. She knew what the voice was trying to do but the sound of it. That gentle soothing rhythm, the kindness in it that promised shelter, safety, and warmth.

You could all but read the thoughts crossing behind her eyes. ‘Would it be so bad to just quit? What will happen to me if I don’t?’

The guards could hear everything said to the bearer of kindness. They could see the illusion being wrapped around her and hear the honeyed words offered to her as a life line. Several were gnashing their teeth watching and waiting to see what would happen as the mare was slowly being guided to stand directly over the trap door.

From what they could see She was either three steps off center or had a little over a minute before the spikes would reach her and the illusion would fail. Several of the guard had wondered why she had not tried to push against the wall if only out of desperation to see if she could prolong her life by even one more second. Others were amazed at how the poor caregiver could still be on her feet given that even the day guard had to fight to keep their eyes open.

They could all see the inevitable the poor pegasus was running on fumes.

What was shown on the other sections of the screen were better.

Princess Twilight and the remaining bearers still outside had the right idea they were sleeping in shifts, eating the fruits they could get at. They had chosen to make the tactically correct decision to rest and wait for the backup that was due to arrive soon. Given that they had filled a secondary report and a call for backup. With luck they would have the majority of the Equestrian military brought to bear against this den of chaos. They may even be able to bring in both remaining Princesses to help lay siege to the spells binding their magic.

What really shocked the guards especially the few earth ponies in the room was Rainbow Dash. As long as they had been watching the screens for the last few hours she had been running. While Fluttershy had needed some prodding to get started going through the halls, the sky blue mare had been running full tilt presumably from the moment they had heard the announcement that she had entered the game.

They watched as Fluttershy moved one more step towards the inevitable drop as more of the spikes extended slowly boxing her in.

I had been forced to extend the love seat into a full blown sofa when Luna passed out in my lap. When she was awake she was supporting most of her weight on her own, asleep most of that weight had settled on me. It wasn't a lot of weight she was just a bit boney and had nearly impaled me with her horn when she tried to roll over onto her back. I had been tempted to turn her human just to see what would happen, but part of me didn’t think I could restrain myself if a beautiful naked woman was nuzzling my crotch. So the love seat became a full sofa.

I sat there watching. Waiting for Fluttershy to make up her mind. To either surrender or from her perspective die. It was amusing in a very macabre way. Would her honor and pride as a bearer of an element of Harmony force her choice or would her timid nature and self preservation win out in the end?

Fluttershy was slowly backed to the center of the trapdoor. The illusion wrapped around the hall around her blinding her very senses to everything around her. She was really crying now not just tearing up, wracking heaving sobs escaped her chest. What little makeup she had worn to the gala was running down her face.

She knew that she had a choice to make. Death or surrender to the mercy of her foe?

A squealing screeching noise came from above her knocking her from her inner monolog. Looking up she watched in horror as several of the longer spikes began to meet in the middle. The began to slowly slide against each other making and that ear piercingly loud noise. The odd spark shot off from where they met and rubbed against it’s opposite.

She began crying harder seeming to be choking on her own voice but managing to speak just the same. “I just want to go home!” Then she took that last step and centered herself over the trapdoor. The noise the illusion was generating drowning out what would have been a hollow thudding noise. She swallowed her tears. “I’m sorry.” She said to no one in particular.

This was what I was waiting for either she was going to quit or the illusion was going to wash over her and dispel itself. Either way she was going to fall down that trap door. Her response just determined where she would end up. If she quit it would dump her in the throne room. If not she would descend further into the labyrinth I had made to test the kind mare before I had met her.

Some how I didn’t think she would survive mentally if she made it to the end of the path. I doubted she could stand to administer a final mercy to anything. Kindness wasn’t always kind to the giver. I was sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for her to make her choice. She had less than a minute before the decision would be out of her hands? hooves? which ever. I wanted her to quit here if only to do her a kindness.

I watched as she curled in on herself again crying trying to hide away from what would be a rather brutal and gruesome fate from her perspective. She was centered on the trap door, so the fall would go smoothly the look on her face would be priceless. I just had to…

Lines of text began scrolling along the bottom of the screen depicting Fluttershy and her ordeal.

‘I’m sorry. deep breathing. I’m sorry, I quit.’

With those two words I had won.

“Well that's disappointing.” I said. “Well I expected to win in the end just not this easily or quickly.”

Luna stirred when I broke the silence I had been keeping. I watched as she blinked sleepily at me and asked. “Is Tia here when did I doze off?”

She was rather adorable in her sleep befuddled state. As gently as I could I told her. “No your sister isn't here yet.” I tapped my cane stopping the illusion around Fluttershy.

“Then what is it?” She asked in a tone I knew all too well. It said then why did you wake me up?

I tapped my cane again and watched on the screen as the spiked walls disappeared. Fluttershy had just enough time to look around her in confusion before the trap door swung open. The look on her face reminded me so much of that coyote in the Looney Tunes. Standing up from the couch I made my way down the dais. “Nothing much. The element of kindness is mine to keep now.”

She blinked sleepily at this. Then I could see the gears turning behind her eyes as her brain seemed to stall. I slowly began counting down from ten in my head. Then when I reached four. “WHAT?”

With that statement Fluttershy materialized just above me. I threw my arms out and caught her. Once again I marveled at either how light ponies were or how strong my magic had made me. I began walking back up to my seat.

Luna gave me an angry look then asked. “What did you do to her?”
I gave the butter yellow mare a quick once over. While the tear stained trials down her face were a bit larger it took me a second to get what Luna meant.

Fluttershy’s eyes were wide open in terror unfocused and no longer seeing anything around her and I could feel her screaming silently in my arms.