Twenty. Twenty mares and stallions, each with a recent birthday marking them as a legal adult in equestrian society. But to Celestia and Luna, as the two stared all of them down, they looked like children.
Celestia and Luna had taken a stand at the desks they were seated at, both adorning their usual golden and silver regalia over their formal royal attire. Frilly chested blouses, long, slender pants. Their manes never cease to flow in the nonexistent winds.
Celestia cleared her throat. "There are twenty of you. And to you twenty individuals, my sister and I give an offer. This offer is of the highest offer available to anyone on this planet. Not of wealth, or fame. What you do with the reward is your choice. Gain infamy if you desire, drive yourself into debt, I don't much care."
Luna took a breath. "Here, you will not be treated like a guest. Here, my sister and I will give you an acquaintance's respect. You are new to us, and we are not being generous or nice to you, as we usually do our newer acquaintances."
"And I will add, this is dangerous."
"Oh, indeed.", Luna added.
"You are all being offered, not money, not fame, but to become a god. Like me. Like my sister.", Celestia levitated a glass of ice water to her hand. She took a swallow.
"These trials, this training you will endure, all of fit was made for gods. Not mortals. They are extremely dangerous. Take that as you will. If you are too scared to continue on from this point, step out of line, and exit the court room."
One of them budged. He stepped forward, bowed to the princesses, and left without a word or expression.
"Respectable.", Luna remarked.
"Alright then, to business.", she snapped her fingers. Everything around them distorted into a flash of white light, being replaced by a second scene. A hallway. Lined with identical doors. "These are your rooms.", she levitated a stack of papers into her hand. Thin stack. "And these are your papers. To put on the outside of your door. Sign your name, birth date, if you happen to perish during training, your date and time of death will be recorded and written there. As well as the reason why you died. We also ask that, at the bottom, you sign in blood."
Luna conjured a black box into her hands, and opened it to the remaining nineteen. "In here are specially made fountain pens. Each of these is made to work one way, by the blood of the wielder. It is expected that you will need to use them only once, but you keep them anyway. and it is recommended you keep them clean for any chance that you may need to sign somethign else in blood." Luna walked to each indivdual, distributing a pen to them each. She returned to Celestia's side.
"Today is sunday.", Celestia began. "You have on challenge to complete today that only a god should be able to complete. You will have a challenge to complete every day that only gods can complete. Until you are the only one left, or until you, as a group, have made it to the end of week two. If you have not completed the challenge before the day is over, you will be given one mercy. This mercy ensures you will not be removed from training. However, this mercy has conditions. You must complete the assignments of both days before the end of the second day. Any questions?"
None. No one even sighed.
"Good. Here are actual pens to fill out these papers. And congratulations, you will have completed your first task by the time you have signed your name."
"What abotu who gets what room?", one of the mares asked.
"You all decide that. Not me."
"I'll take this one."
"This one's mine."
"I call the one on the end."
"Good.", Luna sighed. "Tea, sister?"
"Yes, I would like that."
Both disappeared in a flash of white light.
"Alright.", one of the stallions piped first. "What do we have here today?", he asked.
Indeed, they were all strangers to one another, but a few, obviously, rich individuals formed an immediate group of four, exchanging hand shakes and names. They then joined the larger group. Only a few others were going to their rooms, or paying attention to something else.
"Hello~!", one rather large, black stallion turned his attention towards the smaller, abnormally short dark grey bat mare. He had to look down at her.
"Hello.", she responded in kind. Wore a black gym shirt, a pair of fitting, tight, black jeans, and a set of stylish sneakers.
"What's your name?"
"Not being told to you, that's for sure. You look more brawn than brain. I want you to prove me wrong. Maybe you'll have a chance."
The black stallion immediately gave his remark. "Hey! I did well in school!"
"Well in school isn't enough. Anyone can pay attention for a week and pass a test. Do you remember any of it? Math, algrebra, geometry, trigonometry, english, grammar, french, spanish, german, latin. I'm waiting."
"Not worth it.", he turned away. Brought his business tot eh second, slightly larger group of collected individuals.
The bat mare immediately turned her attention to one of the few stallions actually paying attention to said conversation, and zeroed in ont he light grey pegasus. Three unicorns, one pegasus. "Hello there.", she smiled, approaching him. "My name's Night Rose. What's yours?"
"Cloud Waltz."
"Dancer?"
"Incredibly dextrous. At flying and with my hands.", he answered. She were a full head height smaller than him. His wings were massive.
"I'm good at stealth. And theft. Getting away. Trickery. Interested?"
Waltz looked at the other three stallions, as if they had the answers. They didn't say anything. None of them know one another. "Interested??", Waltz asked.
"Yeah. You. Me. That room.", she pointed to the door beside them.
"That's..."
"Not what you were thinking? Well, it's definitely not what you're thinking. Your high dexterity is very valuable for survival. If these challenges are harsh, and my stealth and skill cannot get the job done, I'm partnering with you. I'm sure we would make a great team. Bleh. That was disgusting to say."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"Sure. Sounds smart enough to work."
"Cool.", she opened the door, shutting it behind her.
"Did that jsut happen?", one of the unicorns asked another.
"Yeah. It did.", Waltz answered. He entered the room himself. Rose were at the onyl desk in room, filling out the paper she'd been given, and turned to Waltz just as she got to the last part.
"Waltz, think it's a trick?"
"A...trick?", he asked, closing the door.
"Signing our names at the end."
"Elaborate."
"Each challenge that we will be given is meant for gods, not mortals. I've onyl ever heard of contracts written in blood being used for offering souls."
"I have, too. In story books, though."
Rose turned the paper over and stood up. She turned to Waltz. "You have nothing to say to such a sudden request from a mare?"
"I'm interested in finding out why, yes, but I don't know what to expect. I'll simply let this event take me where it decides to. We are all in some kind of training for people to become gods, I don't know what to expect. You could be working with Celestia and Luna for all I know."
"I am eighteen young, have never held a job, mostly because I never needed to, and I have no mercy left in me. If the sisters came to me to employ me, I'd deny them."
"The word that comes to mind is thief."
"And you'd be right in thinking that. I am wanted. No one knows who has stolen these unnamed objects, or how, only that they are still trying to find out who it is."
"So you're good at stealing."
"Indeed I am."
"And you, out of the blue, asked me to partner with you."
"For a few reasons yes. I'm a bat mare. I can fly, I can see very well in the dark. But that's it. I put my abilities to good use. Then there is you. Massive wings, incredible, amazing dexterity. Or at least I'd hope you have such good dexterity. Dexterity can say a lot of things. In battle, it is how well you handle a weapon. In survival, it can get you anywhere in the field that you want to be. In flight, you can wingsprint through a forest and not hit a single tree."
"I've experienced each. Fighting, survival, and flight in every way you just explained."
"Even better."
"And you really think that it'd make things easier for us?"
"Yes and no. It's challenges meant for a god. I'm going to need all of the help I can get. And....My attention is elsewhere right now."
"Distracted."
"Yes."
"Is that going to be a problem?"
"Indeed it will.", she approached Waltz. Grabbing him by the arms, she jerked him onto the bed, though with tons more strength than Waltz thought were possible, especially with her size. She slinked out from under him before he hit the mattress and had pulled her shirt off by the time he'd rolled over.
"Is this the real reason why you wanted to partner up?"
"No, it's the secodn reason.", she unclipped her bra, pulling it off as well. Next came her pants, and they drop so effortlessly. She wore no panties. Only a pair of black laced thigh high socks. Rose crawled on top of Waltz, staring him in the eye with a set of bedroom eyes. "Interested?"
"Yes."
It was far past sunset, and the light of the day were nearly gone by the time Waltz finished his contract. But same as Rose, he stopped at the line where he'd sign his name in blood. He grabbed his pen, but paused. He held the pen just so the blade were cresting his thumb. Then he turned it over, and set it on the desk beside them. Celestia asked that they sign in blood. And they'd all finish as soon as they signed their name. Waltz signed his name in pen. Then grabbed Rose's nudging the bat mare awake.
"Huh?", she picked her head up. "What?"
"Contract. Sign your name to finish the first task. Sign it in pen, not blood."
"Didn't she say sign it in blood?"
"She asked that we sign it in blood. Sign it in ink."
Night turned over, then grabbed the paper, focusing on it as her vision blinked away the blurriness. Then she grabbed the pen Waltz offered, and set it on the headboard, signing her name as is required. When she finished, she clicked the pen closed, and handed both to Waltz, turning over and going back to sleep.
"Good call. We could have signed our lives away."
"We did the moment we signed at the end, regardless."
