THE GAUNTLET
Twilight Sparkle
Twilight Sparkle opened her bruised eyes with painful, rapid blinks. "Ugh, where am I?" she moaned as she brought a hoof delicately to her head. "My entire body hurts... Where even am I?" The purple alicorn looked around. She was in a dark, concrete chamber with nothing but a single, rusted metal door on the other side. Standing up slowly, waves of pain shot through her legs. "Guh..." She quickly collapsed back down and sat there clenching her legs in misery. "Mmmmph!" Tears welled up in her eyes as she fought her burning appendages to stay conscious from a splitting headache caused from aches that had spread from her legs to her head. She had obviously been severely injured in some sort of struggle. She suddenly threw up as all her nerves shot to life and her whole body started throbbing. "Aieeee!" she wailed as her entire body felt like it was falling apart. Twilight was now crying very hard and was in minor shock, however, she suddenly saw a reflection in her pool of tears. It looked like a small object, no larger than a lunchbox. It had a metallic luster, though, making it easy to lock on to. She made the decision to muster any strength she had and crawl toward it.
After many agonizing minutes of painful limb movement, she finally reached her objective, a small silver case with a switch. Without hesitation, Twilight pressed it with a shaky hoof, in too much pain to think of the bad things that could be inside. Suddenly, the case swung open and inside was a clean syringe with a pointy needle filled with clear liquid. Next to it was a note, a clump of fresh hay, and a small canister of water. Twilight could barely read it with her blurry, pain-fogged vision.
Painkiller. Take it. Dreadfully sorry we had to restrain you to this extent. The door in front of you leads into your first test. Try not to die!
After reading, Twilight sighed a breath of relief and took the needle without thinking again. She injected herself with the medicine and the pain in her body immediately subsided. She moved her hooves, rotated them, and flapped her wings in astonishment. While they were stiff, there was absolutely no pain whatsoever. She stood up and shook herself dry from the damp floor she had been crawling on. "Wow, that really worked!" Then she realized the problem in her actions. "Wait... what if... That was bad. Why did I just take it! Who knows where this syringe has been!" She thought long and hard after that about what her next course of action should be. Finally, she sighed and collected herself. "Okay... okay Twilight. You don't know where you are, how you got here, or even why you are so beat up. It's too late to fret about the injection, you need to focus on moving forward. As much as I don't like this, I don't think I have any other choice besides move through the door or starve to death. This hay isn't going to last very long..."
As Twilight slowly approched the metal door, she kept running the contents of the note through her head. "The door in front of you leads the first test? What does that mean? I don't like the sound of it... whatever it means..." She sighed as she shook her head, unkempt, frizzy mane swishing wildly. "I wish I could at least remember an event before this... All I can remember is a few days back and beyond." She groaned. "If only I could remember something, then maybe it would help." she pouted. She then slammed into the door with a clink. "Ouch! I wasn't looking where I was going. Focus Twilight, focus. She breathed and focused on the door handle with her mind instictively. "Alright, first things first, let's get out of this room."
After a whole minute of nothing but veins popping, Twilight released her strained focus and breathed heavily. "Why isn't... my magic... working!" In frustration she bucked the door with her swollen hooves and was soon on the ground in minor pain. The buck, however, knocked the door down. The weakened hinges had given way. She shakily stood up. "Wow that door is old." Then she saw some writing on the front side of the door on the ground.
P.S. No magic! Sorry! We can't have any cheaters, now can we?
Twilight grunted. The wrting gave her a pretty good idea who was behind this. "DAMMIT DISCORD!"
***
A long hallway stretched before her. A single ray of light at the end urged Twilight forward. After about fifteen minutes of walking, Twilight reached a slightly less grungy room with a few lit torches scattered on the walls. For some reason though, the floor was completely dark. She stepped forward and felt something move. She jumped, then jumped again when she heard something scrape behind her. She turned to see it was a wall that slid into the place of the walkway she had taken to get into the room. She was trapped. Her jaw dropped and the case fell out of her muzzle. It then started sliding slowly on the floor. "Huh? Ah!" Twilight felt a sudden lurch and heard more loud scrapes, although this time they were numerous. The floor suddenly lit up and it was revealed she was standing on an accelerating conveyor belt. The worst part was when she looked behind her to find the source of the multiple, continuous noises. There, in the now broad light of the room, was a giant wall of rusty, sharp spikes. It was moving swiftly in her direction. Twilight knew where this was going now and screamed. "Oh shit!" She grabbed the case and bolted as fast as she could.
The galloping was not helping her condition. Twilight's hooves were severly bruised and swollen from something. The leg pain was starting to come back. She had to fight it though, as the conveyor belt and the death wall were both moving at full speed towards each other. She grunted heavily and was crying again, but she fought. Soon she saw a small hole in the opposite side of the room in the wall. Against the searing agony she was exerting on her limbs, she pushed forward, biting extremely hard on the metal handle of the case. Teleporting would have been nice, but her horn was disabled. Most of all, though, she was scared out of her life. If the wall made contact with her, she would be ripped apart and brutally skewered by the sharp needles. It was approaching quickly and was almost on top of her. Stopping once or falling would end her. The conveyor belt was purely to make this harder, and it was doing a damn good job of it.
She was almost to the hole. Pushing the physical limit of her soul, she galloped as hard as she could. Adrenaline kicked in as Twilight's life flashed before her eyes. She was panting and groaning in pain. Her eyes stung from the tears and her lungs and limbs burned. Only a few more feet. The wall was now a few centimeters from her tail. "Almosht!" She gagged. Then, in the last few seconds before she was slammed against the wall and killed, she dived into the hole. She felt the spikes prick her ass as a huge slam vibrated the surrounding walls. Meanwhile, Twilight fell. She fell into a dark void, a void of mystery, terror, and gore as far as the eye could see.
And she was not alone.
