It was a fine sunny day in Equestria. All the ponies have been doing their day to day jobs peacefully. In Ponyville, everypony had been busy soaking in Celestia's warm sun. In Canterlot, everypony was busy socializing in the numerous cafes and shops, in Appleloosa, the ponies were in tandem with the buffaloes and in the Crystal Empire... You get the idea for all towns and cities of Equestria. Princess Celestia watched from above and saw that it was good... For Equestria. She may be like a goddess, but she was still pony and something was still lacking in her life.
"I feel so bored..." Celestia sighed to herself. "Guards!" She yelled, two unicorn guards ran over and bowed,
"Is there a problem Princess?"
"Call all the princesses to meet in Canterlot castle." Celestia replied,
"Understood."
"You called us my sister?" Luna asked as the 4 princesses gathered in the conference hall,
"Indeed, let this meeting begin." Celestia nodded,
"One thing Princess" Cadence spoke, "are you sure this is a good idea to speak of?"
"Forgive my selfishness, but I must say that it shall also involve nearly most of Equestria, should they choose to."
"Princess, whatever are you planning?" Twilight asked,
"Heh heh heh..." Celestia smiled "I hope you will all agree, that we shall turn the large path between Ponyville and Canterlot... Into a wacky obstacle course..."
"WHAT!?!?" The three blurted out with shock.
"Everypony praises us too much you see." Celestia explained "why don't we have a friendly bout with our own ponyfolk?"
"Princess, that can be misunderstood as tyranny... And do you know how long it will take to set up?" Twilight explained "there's no way we can start, and we may not have the resources or ponies..."
"Don't worry, I can easily draw up some ideas of obstacle challenges, and the Royal guard can have it easily built in no time!"
"But Sister, what if it may cause--" Luna tried to object until Celestia interrupted,
"Harm to the ponies? No it won't, but it may cause some hilarious humiliation that anypony can have a laugh at!"
"Auntie... Don't tell me that this 'friendly bout' is going to eventually turn out to become a 'game show' "
"Oh dear Cadence." Celestia laughed "how much cider did you drink that it caused you to come to this conclusion?"
"But Princess, most of the Royal Guard would never agree to this!" Twilight replied "and especially a certain somepony!"
"But just out of curiosity, how does it go?" Cadence asked,
"A large obstacle course game show!? Spanned between the path of Canterlot and Ponyville!?!?" An orange pegasus officer gawked.
"Princess Celestia's orders." The Royal Guard Captain replied to his pegasus lieutenant Flash Sentry "she wants some 'fun'."
"But that's going to be an abuse of power, and it will ridicule not only the Royal Guard, but everypony that fails these challenges! Laughed at for eternity!"
"Don't worry." Shining calmed "this is supposed to be fun comic relief."
"No, that's too much. We are guards, not bullies that abuse every pony contender in the worst way possible."
"Argh... What am I to do with you?" Shining grumbled, then thought of an idea. "Flash Sentry, there's also some other grim news that you might not like to hear."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Princess Twilight, my sister. It's really hard to put it simply but she uh... She's betrayed Equestria."
"WHAT!?!?" Flash gasped with horror,
"I know that you hold her in very high respect, I do too. She is my younger sister after all. Her motives are uncertain of why she decided to pull the plug and turn against us, but what we do know that Princess Celestia is in grave danger. A few days from now, she's going to launch a rebellion involving 100 civilian ponies, including her friends.
"No... This is outrageous! She plans to use the ponyfolk to storm the castle?"
"She defected, all the ponies she can get her hooves on is now forcing to fight against their will. The last thing we want is a civil war in Equestria itself."
"She... She..." From fear and sadness, the orange pegasus' solid demeanor spurred into an infuriating rage "Princess Twilight. I trusted her, and this is what she gives Equestria! I will not let anything happen Canterlot! Even if it costs me my life!"
"Good." Shining nodded "the princesses orders are as follows, we are to build some defensive fortifications around each clearing. She thought of some exuberant posts." And he tossed a few blueprints to Flash.
"A large tall wall, a slippery slope, a honeycomb maze with 2 to 3 guards, a wobbly bridge defended with a cannon."
"What do you think?"
"Well, if by any means necessary, I understand that the Princess does not wish to harm the civiliponies, but to send a clear warning not to do it again, is it okay that we could add a few ballistas or catapults or maybe even something that could cause casualties?"
"Flash Sentry!" Shining scolded "don't contradict your own words! You said it yourself, Princess Celestia does not want to harm the civiliponies. Besides, what else do you think they can do if they were to face the Princess and us full force?"
"Well..."
"These defensive fortifications are more of a... Trial." Shining explained "if you want to serve and defend Princess Celestia, you got to do that by her rules. She wants only the sturdiest, finest, strongest, swiftest, smartest and luckiest ponies of all to take her on."
"I see..." Flash analysed "their fine calibre against ours right?"
"Correct. Are you ready for this?"
"For the protection of the Princesses and Equestria, I shall bring Princess Twilight and her resistance of 100 ponies to justice!"
"Well spoken." Shining nodded "we shall now help out with building the defenses. Remember, failure for Equestria will not be tolerated. Is that understood?"
"Yes sir!"
"Wow" Twilight gulped back in Ponyville as she read her brother's letter of what's going on "he actually fell for it."
"That's the thing that ah don't get with them guards." Applejack sighed "always so loyal to their country."
"Why do you look so glum Twilight?" Pinkie asked,
"I think her 'coltfriend' is now mad that she's 'betraying' Equestria!" Rainbow laughed
"Cut it out!" Twilight snapped "he's not my coltfriend! However, I hold high respect for him! He is very stern with his job, he's supremely loyal to Equestria! And no matter how fearsome he is against the enemy, he has a very large heart of kindness for all the civiliponies! He's like you Rainbow, mixed with a little of Fluttershy."
"Oh... Thank you..." Fluttershy blushed,
"now he thinks I'm starting a civil war and forced 100 ponies to do my bidding. Do you know the consequences of betraying him, of all ponies?"
"What?"
"His methods of punishment are beyond the description of brutal, both physically and verbally. Until they spill the beans and say sorry, he will continue to torture any anypony who committed a very bad deed against Equestria mercilessly until they decide to pull their own plug."
"That's horrible!" Rarity gasped,
"Ooh! By torture and punishment," Pinkie asked "does he have different methods for mares?"
"Pinkie!!!" Twilight scolded "that is not funny at all! Nopony will ever dare to cross his path. They'd be signing their death certificate if they do!"
"Ahh!!!" Fluttershy fell scared as she realised that Equestria's lieutenant is a merciless soldier, and that they're up against him.
"Don't worry, I don't think he'll ever harm a normal civilipony." Rarity tried to comfort "I'm sure he'll follow Celestia's 'rules' "
"He'll eventually realise that all of this is just a game." Rainbow assured,
"okay then. I trust you. Now Spike, do you care to be the uh... Announcer?"
"Oh heck yes!!!" Spike raised his fist in the air "I'm ready to bring out some hilarious jokes and hijinks as I comment about the game!"
"Okay then... As that settles things, I think Celestia's Castle is ready to begin!"
When Celestia brought up the sun once again, everything was ready. All the courses, all the royal guards, all the Princesses, and especially all one-hundred pony kamikaze attacking contestants. When all the civiliponies realise that their Princess of the Sun is initiating a competition for everypony, they were so eager to join.
"Alright everypony!" Twilight announced to the 100 ponies wearing red helmets before her, her 5 friends included. "Welcome to Celestia's Castle! I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, your general and onlooker. We have one single goal, we are to storm Princess Celestia's castle and defeat her in a Show Down!"
"Hurrah!!!" The attackers cheered,
"Yeah!" Pinkie yelled, "you know, I really like these red helmets!"
"They so do not go with my hair..." Rarity sighed "can I have a purple one? With glitter too?"
"Hello Tia heads!" Spike announced over the Microphone "and welcome to the first ever competition of Celestia's Castle! Today, 100 crazy kamikaze attackers lead by Princess Twilight will try to storm the castle of Canterlot and survive against the oncoming obstacles and royal guards!"
"Well well well!" A loud voice boomed, all the ponies turned to the skies to see Flash Sentry flying in the sky.
"So this is the rebellion of the Princess of Friendship?" Flash taunted "I admire your courage for standing against Princess Celestia, but you won't get far, not on the Royal guard's watch."
"And that is Flash Sentry!" Spike announced "Equestria's most deadly royal guard!"
"You want to overthrow Celestia? Then show us what you're made of. The path that you will tread is filled with many traps and defenses. They will test all your traits. Your strength, your intelligence, your agility, and your luck. Only those with such skill can be allowed to face the Royal Guard's top calibre and the 3 Princesses! Can you handle it!?"
"Yeah!!!" The ponies screamed and cheered,
"Very well. It is too late to turn back now." Flash addressed, "your first challenge will be the Great Wall. I shall be addressing your instructions once you get there." And he flew away.
"Alright everypony! Charge!!!" Twilight commanded, swinging her large baton. And with a loud roar and warcry, the ponies galloped toward the first challenge.
"And there they go everypony!" Spike announced "as Flash said, not everypony will see it through to the end, who will slip? Who will wail? Who will miss? Who will fail? It's time to find out, in Celestia's Castle!"
