Prologue- A New Game
It had been many years since the events at Corona’s mansion. She mysteriously disappeared, leaving no trace behind, other than a completely empty mansion…
“What’s going on?” a brown Earth Pony with a white mane asked.
“Sir, somepony’s tapped into our video crystal feed… they’ve taken over our broadcast signal and they’ve replaced it with… something else.” The white Pegasus, with a light pink mane frowned, tapping the broadcast pillar.
The video crystals were used to send live recordings and asynchronous videos to the homes of everypony. It was modeled after what the human world called ‘televisions’, but operated on magic entirely.
“What do you mean?”
“Well… take a look.”
--
Lights shone down on a stage, a silhouette of a pony, their voice distorted, behind a curtain. The stage was surrounded by a massive amount of ponies, all covered in the shadows of a dark room. “Welcome, everypony! Stallions and mares! Colts and fillies! And all you foals out there! Welcome, to one of the most unique game shows of all time! Welcome… to Foal Games!”
The stage lights shone in all directions, a few roving over the audience, revealing assorted ponies of assorted races and colors, before centering on the stage again.
“We have five lucky contestants joining us today. Each have their own skill set, strengths, and weaknesses. Should make for an interesting competition. Mental and physical challenges await our contestants. Who will win? Who will be eliminated? There can only be one winner... but there will most certainly be four losers! However, losing isn't necessarily bad. Maybe some ponies will want to lose. But of course, we won't find out until the games begin."
--
“Can’t you stop it?” the Earth Pony asked, annoyed. Things like this happened all the time, and it was often pranks.
“Hold up.” A voice from behind them sounded, and a small gray unicorn, with two crossed swords as his cutie mark, trotted up. “Leave it on.” He moved up to the display panel, watching closely.
“Hey, who are you?” the Earth Pony asked rather aggressively.
“The name’s Storm. Dust Storm.” The Unicorn didn’t turn away from the display.
“Dust… Dust Storm? We did a special on you and your partner, Flash Rain!” the Pegasus took her headset off. “They said that you… vanished.”
“If I vanished, would I be here?” he turned to face them. After getting no reply, he changed his attention to the display. “Interesting… so that’s what she was doing…”
The Earth Pony pulled the Pegasus to the side. “You think he’s the real deal?”
“I think so, sir.”
“We could get our ratings way up if we interview him!”
But as they turned back to talk to the grey Unicorn, he was gone.
