Play With Me

by Draconaes

Rating: everyone
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Rainbow Dash, Horror, Fluttershy
Length: 8979

I do so adore games =)

When Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy activate a strange artifact, they find themselves trapped in a game that will toy with their emotions and push them to their mental limits.

Tagged dark for creepiness and horror elements, but there won't be anything gory.

Published 2012-04-12 19:54:03 UTC
Last updated 2012-04-12 19:54:03 UTC

Prologue

Prologue

or

You Can't Trust Tetrahedrons

Our tale begins inside one particular urban tree. A library, to be exact. Yes, a tree that is a library; pay attention, will you? Inside this particular librartree, on a particularly nondescript table sat a not so nondescript... thing. This... thing was so far removed from nondescript that if descriptiveness was measured by a signed integer, it would wrap right back around to being extremely nondescript. However, such an abstraction is ridiculous.

The thing was basically a tetrahedron. It was covered in exotic runes and grooves, as well, but compared to the percentage of the object was a tetrahedron, the percentage of it that was exotic runes and grooves was relatively insignificant. Stood by the table was a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle, who we, even as omniscient viewers of this scene, can only assume is the current owner of the treebrary (yes this librartreebrary was owned by a small, horned horse. Deal with it.)

Twilight Sparkle examined the strange contraption from several angles. She was almost certain she had deciphered the runes adorning its edges correctly, but she still wasn't sure what it actually did. Something about claiming the "ultimate reward" and "meteors fall, everyone dies". There's also a spirograph crudely carved on one of the sides, and the symbols "eb+ag" surrounded by a heart on another.

Oh, by the way, you are the small unicorn. It's you. Just thought I'd let you know what I'm doing with your fragile mind here.

Anyway, you were- Hmm? Who am I? Well, let's just say I'm a four-sided three-dimensional object covered in scratches. I'm trying to tell you how you got here. Now if you don't mind?

You were fairly certain that these runes didn't have anything to do with anything. You figured they were probably acts of vandalism, actually. And you were right. You also figured that this object was some sort of recreational device, meant to entertain. After all, several others apparently found it harmless enough to carve strange symbols into it talking about games. And you weren't exceptionally wrong.

In fact, you wanted to test it out yourself. It was at the moment that you decided to go ahead and try to activate it that you heard a knock on your front door. Opening the door revealed two of your good friends: Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

After some inane chatter about something inconsequential to my interests, you managed to convince them to help you. If you understood this device correctly, it would allow the three of you to play an interesting kind of virtual game. Rainbow Dash was obviously excited at the prospect of competition, but Fluttershy was hesitant. You assured her it was harmless and she caved to peer pressure. Good job.

All three of you proceeded to put your hooves on m- I mean the incredibly descript... thing that happened to be a tetrahedron. By Celestia, though, was it a handsome tetrahedron. Such a tetrahedron wouldn't be amiss atop an elaborate royal scepter, if you ask me. It's a wonder that this tetrahedron did not have more beings questioning their sexuality.

Anyway, you put your hooves on the thing, and then you zapped it with your little horn, and then you passed out. I feel the need to remind you of this because passing out can have detrimental effects on your recent memory. Now that you are up to speed...

Are you ready to play?

Chapter 1

Play With Me

Chapter 1

You are a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle.

You were just knocked unconscious when you attempted to activate a strange tetrahedron with a spark of magic. You have only just now regained consciousness. Your friends, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, were also with you, but upon examining the library you find them to be missing.

You look at the table and notice that the tetrahedron is also missing. In its place are three notes. The first note appears to be from Rainbow Dash

Twilight, if you find this, DON'T TRUST THE NOTES! Wow, I guess that's a stupid thing to say. But seriously, this note might not even be from me! I mean it totally is but you don't have any way of telling that, I guess, so it would be silly of you to trust it. I don't know what's going on, but this thing told me that we have to find each other or something to win. The notes are supposed to confuse you though, because there's no way to tell who they are actually from. I guess this note isn't helping, but... argh, you're smart, Twilight. You'll figure it out, I'm sure. I'm worried about Fluttershy though.

The note ends here. You are confused and slightly worried now. You decide to look at the second note.

You are now playing my game. Your goal is to find your two friends. You cannot be killed while playing this game. I will dispense notes as appropriate to assist you. Any of these statements could be lies, as I am not obligated to tell the truth. The nature of reality may seem to bend and break while playing this game. Oh, by the way, you are now alone. Seriously. Go look outside. You'll find no one. Have fun!

You are starting to feel extremely disconcerted. You decide to peek outside, and you go to open your front door. Right before your hoof touches the handle, the door falls outward.

You gasp upon noticing that the sky is pitch black. Ponyville appears the same, except for strange glowing spheres of light that meander through the air. These are the only sources of light, aside from your library, which appears to still be lit by the now non-existent sun. Also of note is the complete lack of any life whatsoever. You decide to hold off on panicking for now and go back inside to check the third note.

Don't turn your back on the spheres of light.

You whip around to face the doorway once again, breathing hard. A note falls from the ceiling and lands on your face, causing you to jump. You lift it with magic and read it.

Made you look. =)

You grit your teeth.

-

You are a now a magic rainbow pony. You also have wings, for what it's worth. Probably not much in this situation, to be honest. Your name is Rainbow Dash.

You remember coming over to Twilight's place with Fluttershy to see if she could help you boost Fluttershy's confidence. She's an egghead, after all: maybe she had a book on it or something. She was excited about some triangle rock she found. Apparently it was some kind of game, so of course you were eager to play.

That was before it knocked you out. When you woke up, Twilight and Fluttershy were gone, along with the triangle. Instead there were two notes on the table. You decide to read one of them.

Rainbow, This is Twilight. Apparently, these notes are not temporally locked. What I mean is, I think when we send these notes to each other, we can send them to any point in the other player's session. I'm still not sure, but it also seems like we are all in separate sessions. I'm going to attempt to send this note to you at the beginning of your session, so if this is one of the first notes you read, I suppose that confirms my hypothesis. Another thing: I received a note from you very early on stating that I should not trust any notes I come across. I don't know if I'm going to cause some sort of paradox or if this will force you to write that note regardless, but I think I agree with the assessment. This game is determined to mess with our heads. I'm running out of time, so b

The note ends. Okay, so that was not nearly as reassuring as you had hoped. Apparently the game/triangle/thing actually worked. From Twilight's letter, or at least what you can understand of it, it doesn't seem like a very fun game. In fact, this is pretty creepy. Not that you're scared! You're just worried about your friends. Oh no! Fluttershy is probably in here too! You hope she's okay. If you're unnerved, you can only imagine what she's going through right now.

-

Your name is Fluttershy and you are currently trying to remember how to breathe without screaming.

-

You have to find her and help her! Oh wait, maybe the other note is from her.

'fraid not, buddy. You gotta find your pals to win the game. Don't worry about dying. Yes, this is my game. Or I am the game. However you want to look at it. By the way, I'm under no obligation to tell the truth at any given time. Any of these statements could be lies, yadda yadda inspire paranoia and all that. I'd tell you that Fluttershy is fine, but I prefer my lies to be less blatant, to be honest. Have fun!

You scowl. No stupid game was gonna get away with hurting your friends! Especially not Fluttershy! When you find whoever wrote this note you're gonna- Your promise of vengeance is interrupted by a note falling from the ceiling. You eagerly catch it and start reading, hoping that it's from Fluttershy.

p.s. you can swim right?

You give the note a nonplussed look before lifting your gaze. You are shocked to fine that the library is now filled with water. Sort of. The statement is not inaccurate, but it usually implies the water is following the law of gravity. The library is filled from the top downward, leaving a layer of air from ground level to about a foot above your head. So much for being a pegasus.

-

You are now an extremely frightened yellow pony. After (reluctantly) arriving at Twilight Sparkle's library and (reluctantly) agreeing to play a game with her and Rainbow Dash, you were knocked unconscious (not very reluctantly because it was more involuntary that anything). After waking up, you were surprised to find that Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle were both missing. You were equally surprised to fine Rarity standing in front of you. You had tried getting her attention, but she didn't seem able to hear you. You had then tentatively poked her side. What followed was probably one of the most terrifying moments of your life.

Rarity(?) had turned to face you. Now, when you say turned, you mean that was literally all she did. She didn't move her legs. Her hair didn't bounce at all. She remained as still as a statue, simply rotating. If that wasn't bad enough, her eyes were solid black. By this point you were pretty sure this wasn't Rarity. You had also run out of breath from screaming and screwed your eyes shut. After a minute of nothing happening and finally remembering how to breathe, you opened your eyes. Reluctantly.

The Rarity-statue was still in the library, but was currently standing in front of the door, facing it. It almost looked like she wanted to leave. You were still terrified, but the statue evidently did not want to harm you. Or couldn't harm you. Either way, you were probably safe. For now.

You finally notice that the small pyramid is missing. In it's place is a note. You decide to read it. Maybe Twilight left her a message?

Sorry to disappoint. This is a game now. My game. You are assuming that your friends are still alive. Interesting. Tell you what, I'll let you in on a little secret: you can rescue them. All you have to do is find them. But remember: something scared them enough that they abandoned you here. Are you brave enough to risk running into that? I'd say not to worry about dying, but where's the fun in that? You'll learn soon enough that you can't necessarily trust anything I say. Nor anything apparently from your "friends" for that matter. Yes, you might run across notes from them, but they might be me trying to trick you. Isn't it wonderful that no matter what I do now, you will be terrified of what I could be doing? Oh, by the way: have fun!

You really don't want to play this game anymore.

Chapter 2

Play With Me

Chapter 2

Your name is Fluttershy. You find it helpful to remind yourself of these things. It keeps you from freaking out more than you currently are. After attempting to find your friends via the noble art of cowering under the table for a few hours, you decide to assume that you won't actually have to worry very much about being hurt. The game, or whoever was running it, seemed mean and insensitive, but it also seemed lonely and bored. Or you assume it would be lonely and bored. It probably wouldn't want to kill the three of you at all. At least, not so quickly. At least, you hope so.

Okay, so it's not exactly a bulletproof line of reasoning, but it helps you gather up enough courage to leave the library and try to help your friends. As you approach the door, Rarity-statue slides out of the way. Or floats. It's still extremely unnerving, but you manage to avoid panicking completely. You open the door and step outside. Rarity-statue leaves as well, sliding away towards Carousel Boutique. You see a number of ponies in the street. Or pony-statues, rather.

They all have the same black eyes, as far as you can tell. None of them are currently moving, aside from Rarity-statue. A small bird-statue flies down from a tree branch to greet you. Well, "flies" implies a lot. It would be more accurate to say it floats toward you. You cringe away from it. After bobbing in place a few times, it fly-floats away.

Looking around, you notice that the colors of the world seem slightly muted. You really wish you could just leave, or at least curl up in a corner and hide until Rainbow Dash finds you. But your friends might need your help, so you take a deep breath and start walking. You have no idea how you are supposed to find your friends, but you might as well start by searching the rest of Ponyville.

-

You try to reattach your library door with magic, but the second you release it it falls back to the ground. You give a huff of frustration and decide to leave it be. You are still leery of the wisps (you've decided to call the balls of light wisps, for the time being), but the notes have made it clear that the game was just messing with you. Maybe. At any rate, the wisps haven't done anything besides float to and fro.

Ponyville seems to be the same as before, minus any lights and inhabitants, excepting the wisps. The ground is also different. The light from the wisps does not illuminate it, but it feels and sounds like marble when you walk upon it. Maybe it is marble? You lower your head and squint at the ground. Nope, nothing. You cast a light spell. You can barely make out some variation in the look of the ground. You raise your head, frowning. You guess it really is just a very dark marble. Very dark and dull. You shrug. This isn't very important at the moment.

You decide to head toward Sugarcube Corner. If anywhere in this creepy game is going to be reassuring, it will be Pinkie Pie's place of work. You hope Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy will feel the same. If you're lucky, you can find each other right away!

Turning a corner, you catch sight of the colorful building. You stop in your tracks. It is very bright and colorful. It looks like it is lit up the same way that your library was. You think it should feel all the more inviting, but for some reason it just makes you feel nervous. You decide to enter anyway.

You realize something is wrong right away. It takes you a second to realize that you can hear something. You find it odd that you hadn't noticed the complete silence before now. It sounds like somepony is walking around upstairs. You stare at the top of the staircase. Eventually, the footsteps stop. After a few more moments, you tear your gaze away and examine the shop. It is surprisingly very empty. The counter and all the shelves are completely bare.

The door to the kitchen has a curtain drawn over it. You walk over and pull the curtain aside before screaming and falling on your rump. The Purple unicorn on the other side also falls backward. Your heart is pounding in your chest. Of course it would be a mirror. You angrily close the curtain. No point in accidentally scaring yourself again. You turn around and feel your heart skip a beat. Pinkie Pie is standing right behind you, smiling.

"Hi Twilight!"

You gape at her. "P-Pinkie Pie?! What are you doing here? How did you get in the game? Why were you standing right behind me like that, you could have given me a heart attack!"

Pinkie Pie just giggled. "Sorry, Twilight! Oh, you're playing a game? Oh! Oh! Can I play?"

"Pinkie Pie this is serious! I activated some strange artifact and now Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and I are trapped in some creepy alternate Ponyville! I have to find them before something bad happens to them!"

"How do you know something bad hasn't already happened to them?" Pinkie Pie started bouncing around the room, still smiling.

"What... Pinkie Pie, aren't you worried about your friends?"

"Well I would be, but you said it's a game right? Besides-" She stop bouncing and slung an arm over your shoulders. She continued in a conspiratorial whisper. "-between you and me, I'm not actually Pinkie Pie." She resumes bouncing. "I mean, I guess I technically am. Or close enough. But Pinkie Pie isn't in the game the way you are. It's probably easiest to think of me as an illusion. I'm supposed to mess with you or something, but you're my friend and I wouldn't want to do that. The game said it was alright if I tried to help you instead. It said something like "oh, that's alright. just you interacting with her at all should mess with her head enough on its own. Go ahead and be friendly if you want." So I did! And then I followed you inside Sugarcube Corner and then you turned around and saw me and then we had this conversation that we just had! Pretty neat, huh?"

You work your jaw, trying to think of how to respond to that. "Okay, so you're part of the game, but you still act like Pinkie Pie and consider me to be your friend?"

"Yuppers!"

You decide you might as well take her word for it. She certainly acts like Pinkie Pie. "Wait, you said you followed me inside? You mean that wasn't you stomping around upstairs?"

"Nope!" She stopped bouncing again and affixed her gaze on you, her face serious. "You know, that's probably not good. You know, the game didn't tell me if you can actually get hurt or not while playing. I mean, it seems like it definitely wants to hurt you emotionally and mentally, but I don't know if it will make an exception for hurting you physically. You should probably run. Like, right now."

The calm way she said it sent ice through your veins. The sound of footsteps return a second later. They aren't as steady and slow as before. It sounds like something is running very quickly. You freeze for a few seconds, yelling in your mind for your legs to listen to you. Pinkie walks to the door and turns once again to face you. "You know, just in case. I have no idea what will happen if it catches you!" She leaves the bakery.

You snap out of it and bolt for the exit. You make it outside but see no sign of Pinkie Pie. You continue running until you are several houses away and turn around, watching the shop. A wisp exits the shop. A moment later, the shop darkens like the surrounding buildings. The wisp meanders across the street and enters another building, which lights up. You get the feeling that the wisp was what was making the noise. Presumably, a building that is lit will have a wisp inside, trying to get you. You hope you don't have to enter any lit buildings any time soon.

-

You stare at one of your feathers as it floats on the surface of the water. It is probably one of the oddest things you seen. Well, excepting the upside-down body of water in the first place. You pluck the feather off the surface and release it, watching as it falls slowly to the ground. Okay, so it seems like anything inside the water will think up is down as well, but won't once it leaves the water. A sudden shimmering catches your attention. A solid circle of light floats through one of the half-submerged windows. it approaches the spot where the feather was, then remains still. You pick up the feather and stick it to another spot on the surface. The circle of light immediately moves to the feather and encompasses it. The feather suddenly shoots into the ground at high speed, along with several books that happened to be above (below?) the circle at the time. You wince at the sound of books cracking against the wooden floor.

The light wanders out through another window. You get the feeling that it will chase anything that touches the water and shoot it back out. Not exactly a pleasant looking experience. You decide to step out of the library. You are shocked to see a gaping void before you. Peppered about are several island pillars of rock. The library sits upon one such pillar. Above you is an endless expanse of water. Everything is fully lit, as though it were midday, despite the lack of a sun. Rainbow prepared to leap into the air to try flying to another pillar when she noticed a note sitting on the ground in front of her.

There's no way your going to figure this on your own without screwing up badly, so I figured I would be nice and tell you myself. The ocean above your head? You can breathe in that no problem. The vast empty void beneath your feet? You can't breathe in that and you will drown if you stay out of the water. You can fly in the void though, inasmuch as you can fly while suffocating. The only places where you can breathe the air are the islands.

You look back up and stare in shock at the numerous circles of light patrolling the water. This isn't going to be easy.

Chapter 3

Play With Me

Chapter 3

You look at the water with apprehension. If that note was the be believed, you will likely end up being chased by those glowing circles to moment you enter the water. They'll then proceed to shoot you into the void below, where you won't be able to breathe. Don't worry about dying, your flank!

Okay, before you even think about entering that water, you need a plan. Your goal is to find Fluttershy and Twilight, but mostly Fluttershy. Of the two of them, she is probably the one that needs your help the most. So, if you were Fluttershy, where would you go? Assuming that you didn't freeze in terror?

You look around and spot Carousel Boutique on a pillar of rock. She could have gone there. She is good friends with Rarity, after all, and she might have felt comfortable hiding somewhere more familiar. Well, here goes nothing.

You crouch and extend you wings, preparing to dive into the water. You mentally prepare for the gravity inversion and launch yourself toward the water at top speed, angling toward the boutique.

After breaking the surface you open your eyes and spot your target below (above?) you. You twist around so that you don't feel like you're upside down anymore and keep swimming. The note may have said that you could breathe here, but you can't bring yourself to willingly suck the water into your lungs.

You are still holding your breath when you notice several cylinders of light heading toward you. You swim faster in response. Your lungs start to burn, begging for air. You realize that you have no idea where you are relative to your destination. You begin to panic and involuntarily gasp for breath. Water rushes into your lungs and you start coughing violently. The note hadn't mentioned how horrible this would feel.

You are still convulsing when one of the lights reaches you. You are aware of a sudden feeling of acceleration. You feel yourself break the surface of the water as gravity inverts once again. The next moment you feel yourself collide forcefully with... a pile of pillows? You cough the water out of your lungs. You aren't in danger of drowning, but by Celestia was that an unpleasant feeling. You don't know if you'll be able to bring yourself to enter the water again.

You extract yourself from you cushioned doom and look around, dazed. You might not have hit the hard ground, but that doesn't make the experience that much less painful. You are only spared serious injuries.

You take a moment to realize how monumentally stupid you just were. Why did you just jump into the water like that and then not breathe? You may as well have tried flying through the void. You would have been faster, at least. You didn't even bother to test if you could breathe in it, note or no note. Speaking of notes...

A note rests on the ground next to the pile of pillows. You grudgingly pick it up.

Hi Dashie! This is Pinkie Pie! Except I'm not really Pinkie Pie, I'm part of the game! I was with Twilight before, but she had to run from some monster or something. I'm pretty sure she's alright, though! Anyway, I decided to see how you were doing, since your my friend too! Or at least, I hope we can be friends, even if I'm not the real Pinkie Pie! I noticed that you were going to get hurt, so I put out some pillows to help you! I'm still not sure whether you can actually be hurt in this game, but better safe than sorry, right? Fluttershy isn't here, by the way. Still, you might as well explore the boutique while you can! I don't imagine you'd like to try swimming again so soon either way!

Huh. So either the game created a fake Pinkie Pie to mess with you, or the game is pretending to have created a fake Pinkie Pie. To mess with you. Apparently Twilight Sparkle was also running into problems. You wonder if this has something to do with the "temporally locked blahblahblah" shenanigans she was talking about in her note. Maybe it hasn't happened yet from your perspective? You suppose it doesn't really matter since you haven't found her yet anyway.

You sigh and enter the boutique. The note said that Fluttershy wasn't here, but by this point that doesn't mean anything to you.

-

You almost wish that the strange statues were still around. Only a short while ago, they disappeared while you weren't looking. Which was creepy, because you were in the middle of a crowded street at the time. Just one moment, while turning around, you noticed there were no statue-ponies behind you anymore. Turning once again revealed that those in front of you were also gone.

You aren't sure what to make of this.

"Hi there, sugarcube!"

"Eep!" You jumped several feet into the air and spin around. You see Applejack standing before you. She doesn't even have pure black eyes! "Oh, Applejack! I was so frightened! I thought I was all alone, I mean, except for the creepy statue-ponies. How did you get here?" You land again and smile at her.

"Hi there sugarcube!"

Your smile loses some of its energy. "Um... are you alright, Applejack?"

"Hi there sugarcube!"

You start shaking. "Applej-jack, you're scaring me. If this is r-really you please s-stop it!"

"I'm going to kill you, sugarcube!"

Your wings lock up and your eyes go wide. Applejack is still just standing there with a wide smile. A second later, she sinks into the ground, not-moving in the same way that Rarity-statue did. A note is left behind on the ground. Still shaking in terror, you pick it up.

I apologize for that one. Really wasn't very clever at all. I mean, friend creeps you out by repeating a greeting over and over, and then threatens you with a smile on their face? Booooooooring. You're making it hard on me though. You are so easy to scare that I almost don't want to waste my more original ideas. I mean, I'm already pulling the "faceless moving ponequins" thing, just with a bit more detail. I'm almost tempted to just go ahead and reunite you with your friends. Having to deal with their own challenges while also protecting you would make things more interesting, I think. I mean, I could probably just throw you into a normal, everyday situation and you would freak out just the same. Luckily, fear isn't everything. I can work with the other emotions, too. In fact, it's so easy, now that I think about it. I think I will just hand you over to your friends! Have fun!

The ground suddenly drops out from under you. You catch a glimpse of not-Applejack waving at you, a cleaver in her mouth, before landing on a broken, stone floor. You look up and suppress a shriek. Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash both lay before you, unmoving. You walked over and gingerly nudge Rainbow. She's ice cold. You break down into tears.

-

You find yourself in front of Carousel Boutique. You still aren't sure where Pinkie Pie, fake or not, went. What concerns you more is that the boutique is fully lit. This means that there's a wisp inside. You don't want to enter, but you think that game wouldn't leave any important buildings unguarded. You notice a note tape to the front door.

That line of reasoning only works when the game isn't trying to use double, triple, and quadruple reverse psychology. The question is then: is that what the game is doing? Anyway, there's a key inside. Not a regular key, oh no. Only the sexiest of keys: a purple tetrahedron! Don't worry, this one is smaller than the one you used to start this game. It also won't do anything silly. It's just a key, on my honor. A key for what, you may ask? It's important, which should be good enough for you. Now, I know you are worried about whatever is inside, so I'll give you a hint. Don't walk on the white tiles. Good luck!

You scowl. You're really starting to hate these smug notes. How does this game even know what you would be thinking by the time you read them? You push open the door and your jaw drops. The floor is covered with white tiles, with only a few black tiles scattered about. They are much too far apart to allow you to walk on them.

That does it! The moment you get out of this game, you are going to find some way to obliterate that stupid tetrahedron! How dare this game kidnap you all and force you to play this horrifying game? How dare it present you with impossible challenges and then insist that you complete them? How dare it mock you with its smug, self-important notes! You don't even know if your friends are even in this game! For all you know, only you got sucked into this! Stupid piece of junk!

You stomp the ground in frustration and glare at the black tiles, trying to think of a solution. You're probably going to be here for a while.

Chapter 5

Play With Me

Chapter 5

You are currently devastated. You aren't sure how to handle the death of two of your friends. Maybe if you had been braver, you could have saved them. Maybe if you hadn't been a cowardly little filly, they wouldn't be dead right now. A note lands on your nose. Sniffling, you open it.

Oh, come on now. I haven't exactly been subtle, have I? How do you even know this isn't an illusion? Look, you're making me feel bad here. It's like I've kicked a puppy. Okay, I'm going to level with you, alright? I can't stand seeing you upset for whatever reason. Giving you the truth won't really hurt the game on the whole, anyway, since the others won't know whether to trust you or not. So, you three haven't really started the game yet. Well, technically you have. This is the start, right here. Look around. Go ahead, the note will still be here.

You decide to take the notes advice and actually examine your surroundings. You recognize the interior of the ruins in the Everfree Forest. You are currently atop the pedestal that held the Elements of Harmony. You resume reading the note.

See? Your friends aren't dead, loathe as I am to deprive you of misery. They just haven't entered to game yet. They are still stuck in their little warm-up adventures. I know what you're thinking: is that really necessary? Do I need to terrorize you three the way I've been doing? To be honest, I think I do. I need to condition you three to behave appropriately for the actual game. Do you want to know the point of the game? Of course you do. The point of the game is simple.

I want you to free me. Good luck!

You feel a pang of sympathy. Apparently whatever is controlling this game has been trapped here for a long time. Alone. Still, it's only a pang, and it passes quickly.

You are soon filled with anger instead. Anger that it would resort to such measures just to escape, when it could have at least tried asking nicely first! Why wouldn't they try to free a poor trapped spirit? It seemed to know enough about them; it could have predicted they would want to help! But for some reason it decided to alienate them with its sick and twisted games!

And it couldn't just limit itself to messing with you! No, apparently it had put Twilight and Rainbow through similar torture. It even confessed that it was still doing it! You don't know if you can bring yourself to help such a being. (un)fortunately, it looks like you have some time to decide.

-

You glare at the nearest black tile. It is still nearly ten steps away. You realize that this doesn't seem like a realistic distance, and scrunch your eyebrows in confusion. How can the nearest tile be ten steps away? How big can this floor be?

You examine the room carefully and realize that this is not the inside of the Carousel Boutique at all. The interior of the building is much bigger than one would think possible from the exterior. It probably isn't possible, as a matter of fact. You rub your forehead with your hoof, groaning.

The tip of your hoof bumps into the base of your horn. Your eyes snap open. You realize that you may very well be an idiot. With a sigh you simply teleport to the nearest black tile. Upon arrival, you quickly realize that you are not, in fact, on the tile that you were aiming for.

Perplexed, you decide to try teleporting to a tile near the center of the room. You notice that, once again, you have not arrived at your target. It would appear that the tiles act as a sort of puzzle, sending you to a different tile than the one that you aimed for. You grin widely.

This is an interesting challenge! An actual, honest to Celestia puzzle, that can be solved with the simple application of logic! You rub your hooves together in excitement!

Many teleports and some trial and error later, and you think you've identified the correct pattern to reach the other side of the room. You teleport to the first tile. So far so good! Several tiles later and you are still on track! Only one left to go! HuzzaaaAAAAAAAGH!

"Ooof!" You suddenly find yourself in the middle of a see of white tiles. All the black tiles have disappeared. You freeze in anticipation, remembering that you are, in fact, in grave danger. You hold your breath. A few precious moments pass.

You are suddenly cast into the dark as the lights go out. You hear a deep, heavy breathing approach from an unknown direction. You cringe and close your eyes. You hear a kazoo play a quick, jaunty tune.

What.

Your eyes fly open. The lights have returned, and you see confetti falling from the ceiling. A banner hangs across the far wall. It reads:

Just kidding!

You scream in frustration.

-

You don't know what you expected to find inside the boutique. You didn't expect to actually find Fluttershy, though.

"Oh, hi Rainbow Dash." Your heart sinks, and the smile on your face dies just as it arrived. Fluttershy looks extremely down.

"Shy, are you alright? What's wrong? I came looking for you." You are past the point of trying to act cool and maintain your image. This is no time to worry about things like that. Especially not when Fluttershy is in trouble!

"I'm... sorry. I'm not actually... well, Fluttershy. It's just, well, the game..." You feel like your blood is on fire. This game has the gall to try and fool you with a fake Fluttershy?! After all that, it's just going to trample your heart like it's nothing!?

"Where's Fluttershy!" The not-Fluttershy cowers at the venom in your voice. It makes you feel a bit guilty, but you can't afford to back down when the real Fluttershy is in danger. "Tell me!"

"I-I-I-I'm sorry Rainbow! She... I mean the game... She couldn't... and it felt bad, because it didn't actually want any of you to get hurt, so it made me, to try and make up for it, but I know I couldn't replace the real Fluttershy, and I told the game, but it wouldn't listen and it made me come here to tell you!"

The fire in your veins turns to ice. "What. Happened." She continues to cower before you. "Tell. Me. Right. Now."

"Sh-Sh-She... Bwahahahaha! Oh my, I can't believe you fell for it!" The not-Fluttershy turned into what you assumed- no hoped- no knew was a fake Pinkie Pie. "Sheesh, Dashie. Like this game would ever feel bad if something bad happened to one of you!"

"Get out."

"Aw, come on. It was all in good f-"

"GET OUT! Don't you DARE wear Pinkie Pie's face! Especially not after wearing Fluttershy's like that! NOW GET OUT!" You feel as if you might explode from anger. This THING has NO right to play with your emotions this way. It has NO right to pretend to be your friends!

"Hm. It looks like you pass. Have fun in the real game!"

"Huh?" You shudder as the world twists around you. You suddenly find yourself in the ruins of a castle. You not quite as suddenly, but still pretty suddenly (One might say 20% less suddenly) find yourself bowled over by a yellow pegasus.

"Oh Rainbow Dash! I'm so glad you're okay! When I first saw you here, you were so cold and lifeless, and I thought you were DEAD! But then the game said that you were still being prepared or something and that you would be okay! I didn't know if I could trust it but now you're here! Oh please don't be a fake! I don't think I could stand it if you were a fake!"

After a moment of hesitation, you hug her back. "Yeah, Fluttershy. I'm okay." You feel your eyes begin to water. Not cool. But who needs to be cool when you just found one of your best friends? "I'm okay."

Chapter 6

Play With Me

Chapter 6

You are currently sitting in the middle of a large, empty room. Another note falls from the ceiling. You crumple it up with your magic and throw if into the same spot as the previous thirty notes. You do this for the thirty-second, thirty-third, and thirty-fourth notes as well.

You decide to read the thirty-fifth note out of curiosity. You wonder how the game has been handling your rebellion.

It's amazing what kind of patience you can acquire after a few thousand years of solitude. But, to be honest, I appreciate what you are doing here. You don't want to play this game any more. Do you think I honestly have a reason to not let you sit there for eternity? You're lucky that I decided to attempt communicating with you at all. I'll take you to your friends now, if only because you have acknowledged that I do have some level of control over you through these notes. By the way, there was nothing written on the previous thirty-four notes. =)

You scream and shred the note with magic. It's not fair that this game can counter your every single move so effortlessly! It's not fair that it knows what you will do before you yourself even do! It's not fair in any way, shape, or form! Your mental breakdown is interrupted by your surroundings suddenly being replaced. You are now in what appears to be the remains of the ancient castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. Your friends Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are sitting next to you, hugging and crying.

"Are you two okay?"

Fluttershy lets out a small gasp. Rainbow affixes you with a glare. "Okay, you're both here now. Apparently. How do I know you aren't fakes?"

You let out a groan of frustration. Why can't this nightmare just be over! "How do I know you two aren't? Honestly, I'm willing to just assume you two are real at this point. This game has given me nothing but frustration, so I might as well go with the path of least resistance at this point."

"So... the game just... stuck us all together? Just like that? We got upset at it and it just let us win? That doesn't make any sense!"

The scenery shifts suddenly. You are all now back inside of your library.

A deep voice chuckles. "Make sense? Oh, what fun is there in making sense."

Your heart skips a beat and you start shaking. "No. Nonononono!" You recognize that voice. "Discord?"

"Oh, please. Don't insult me. He may have created me, but I hold no allegiance to that monster. What kind of cruel, heartless creature do you have to be to give life to something, only to use it as a toy and forget about it when it bores you? He threw me out a window once!" A flash of light leaves you blinded for a moment. You also now have a splitting headache. When you regain your vision, you see the tetrahedron that started this whole mess sitting on the table between the three of you.

"What-"

"The real game begins now. What transpired before was just a warmup. Your new goal is quite simple: free me. I've already explained to the poor, yellow pegasus. Seeing her so utterly broken by my machinations drove me to pity."

Fluttershy cringes visibly. You feel anger bubbling up inside of you.

"All I need you to do is carry me through the forest to the castle that we were just in, Twilight. We are still in the game, though, make no mistake. There's some nasty critters in the forest, too. You can just throw the yellow one at them as a distraction, though. Her body won't be too much different without an intact mind, after you get out. Her ability to function as a doorstop should be unimpaired." Fluttershy whimpers and starts crying again.

Rainbow Dash stands, a fierce gleam in her eyes. "That's it! I'm smashing this thing!" Your eyes widen. This isn't good! Rainbow isn't thinking this through! You have to stop her!

"Rainbow wait!" you tackle her to the ground before she can stomp on the artifact. "This is exactly what he wants you to do! I'm pretty sure that smashing the pyramid will free him! He's using reverse psychology!"

"Oh, come now, Twilight. Do you really think I wouldn't account for you being here? You really do overestimate yourself. You are far, far too predictable. Oh, by the way, if you smash me, the other two will die." Fluttershy shrinks back suddenly. You realize that she had been about to smash it herself. She still has an angry look that seems entirely out of place on her face.

Rainbow Dash had apparently noticed as well. "Fluttershy! What are you crazy? Twilight just said not to smash it!" You perk your ears up.

"What did you just say Rainbow?" She looks at you, confused.

"Uh... you said not to smash it?"

"No, before that."

"Er... what are you crazy?"

"Yes. I think I know what to do."

Chapter 7

Play With Me

Chapter 7

You are as dumb as a rock. That fact that you literally are a rock is inconsequential. A tetrahedron-shaped rock should be smarter than this. Especially a rock created by the Lord of Chaos himself! Maybe you should have broken them all a bit more. Maybe then your plan wouldn't be falling apart. That's what you get for impatience, though. You've gleaned from Twilight's memories that Discord fell to overconfidence himself. Stupid master. If he wasn't trapped in stone right now, he would be feeding you plenty of playmates, and you wouldn't have to try and escape your stony prison to free him from his!

Speaking of stony prison, yours is about to be broken in the most incorrect way possible. The purple unicorn has lifted you up with her magic and is preparing to smash you against the ground. You decide to provoke her further. Maybe her logic will override this crazy idea she's gotten.

"Hahahaha! Do you seriously believe that you can even come close to damaging me? Go ahead! Smash me! See if anything happens!" Nope. She's still determined. Well, this sucks.

You are now several pieces of rock that were previously part of a magical tetrahedron. Stupid tetrahedrons. Can't trust 'em one bit.

-

After smashing the tetrahedron against the wall, Twilight sparkle falls to the ground, exhausted. "Rainbow Dash. If I ever mention anything about messing around with ancient polyhedron artifacts, buck me in the head."

Rainbow Dash had taken this opportunity to grab a Daring Do book. She needed some serious escapism at the moment. "Don't worry, Twilight. I will. Vigorously."

Fluttershy was currently leaning against the nearest wall, breathing heavily. "I... normally wouldn't... want to see any... violence between... you two, but... I'd make an... exception for that." Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash both chuckled.

Rainbow flipped through the prologue: everypony knew those were pointless. If something was optional, it meant it wasn't important. "How did you know what to do Twilight? Just a second before you seemed convinced that we shouldn't break it."

"That's just it, Rainbow. It had set up everything to make us want to break it. I recognized that logically, we would be playing right into it's hooves if we broke it. That why I knew we had to break it. It trusted me to behave logically, and to work off of basic assumptions. It wouldn't have planned for me to suddenly throw everything I knew out the window and act in anger. So I did that. I guess I was right."

Fluttershy shuddered. "Unless... we are still inside the game.." Dash slammed her book shut.

"Come on Fluttershy. Nothing strange has happened ever since the artifact reappeared."

"Exactly. The artifact woke us up when it flashed into appearance. It had to cover up the transition from its fake world to the real one somehow, so it pretended that it was teleporting to us. It assumed that we would think we were still in the game when it let us out. That's why it acted the way it did. It could have done any number of reality warping things to influence us at that point. But instead, it only talked to us. It didn't even summon any notes."

Fluttershy looked unconvinced. "But... wouldn't it have realized that you would figure out that you knew it was tricking you?"

"Yes. It planned for me to figure that out. It didn't plan for me to ignore that, though. It assumed that if I figured out that it was clearly tricking me into breaking it, and that it was so obvious that I would know that it was obvious on purpose, that I would assume that he actually didn't want to be broken. A sort of double reverse psychology. The problem is, I let myself fall for it. It didn't expect me to let myself get tricked by something so obvious, after everything else it had put me through. It wanted me to think that I should break it, in the hopes that I wouldn't do what seemed like the right answer. So I did what seemed like the obvious answer, because it's what I wouldn't have done!"

Rainbow rubbed her temples. "This is making my head hurt, Twilight. Did we or did we not beat that thing?"

Twilight giggled and rolled her eyes. "We beat it." She stood and headed toward the kitchen. "I'm going to go get something to drown out the memories of that nightmare. Do either of you-?"

Bother pegasi raised their hooves at once. "Yes please!"

Twilight laughed. "I'm glad things are back to normal." Twilight glanced at the clock. "And it only took the entire day. Wonderful."

-

Discord spent his time as a statue doing a great many things. Most of them were variations of "nothing". For example, just the other day, he had done "nothing whatsoever". Tomorrow he was planning on accomplishing "a grand total of nothing". As for right now, he had just gotten done wishing that he could writhe in pain. He had to settle for just the pain, bit. Apparently somepony had just destroyed one of his toys. It was a shame, really. He had been hoping that this particular toy would be able to free him soon. Oh well, what was another century or two, after all?

Chapter 4

Play With Me

Chapter 4

You are now a devilishly handsome tetrahedron. I mean, look at you! Such angles! You pity anyone that doesn't have faces like yours! Don't you listen to the cranky unicorn, either. You aren't stupid at all! In fact, you are pretty clever if I do say so myself! Piece of junk, bah! Would a piece of junk have a swanky spirograph carved into them like I do? Who does she think she is, personal protege to the Princess?

Oh, that's right, she is, isn't she! Stupid, no good alicorns! It's all their fault!

Okay... calm down... pretend that you are capable of breathing and pretend that you are breathing slowly and deeply.

Good.

You need to decide what you are going to do with these ponies. Sure, you've been running them through some generic challenges already, but these are just to warm them up. They need to be properly prepared for the real game. They need to be pliable, unquestioning of certain assumptions. When you finally let them into the real you, you need them to behave perfectly. You can't risk them screwing everything up where you don't have full control of the environment.

They need to be paranoid. They need to trust nothing you say, but trust that you are actually in full control. They need to think they are doing what they want when they are really doing what you want. They need to believe that they are breaking the game against your will.

The yellow pegasus is fairly useless. You should probably just use her to manipulate the other two. They seem to care a great deal about her well-being, after all.

The blue pegasus, on the other hand, must be groomed carefully. She's a wild one with a rebellious attitude. If she was alone, it would be simple to influence her.

The purple unicorn, however, presents a challenge. She might also be easy to manipulate, were she alone. But together, the pegasus and unicorn are unlikely to be guided to the same action.

You think that you might have to goad the blue one into action, probably through the yellow one. The purple one with attempt to restrain the blue one from doing anything rash. At that point, you will strike at her ego instead! Or something like that. You'll have to see how they react to more of these pointless tests first.

Why are you talking to yourself in the second person? Why, because I'm an insane tetrahedron that's been alone for a few thousand years, why else?! Hahahaha! Oh, that one never gets old! You crack you up!