Mischief Makers

“Can somepony remove their hoof from my face?” Rainbow Dash groaned.

“Sorry Dashie,” Pinkie said before moving her back hoof from her friend’s cheek.

“Thanks,” Rainbow said, lifting her head up to observe the surroundings. The six of them were laying at the base of town hall, which for some reason was now flying several bright green banners from the upper levels. There was some form of image on them, but the pegasus couldn’t see from her position. Instead she turned her attention to her five friends, who were just beginning to make their ways to their hooves. Rainbow followed suit, feeling slightly woozy as she got to her hooves - which, to her dismay, were still rainbow colored.

“Ugh... What happened?” Twilight asked, bringing a hoof to her head. When she noticed it was properly aligned her eyes then widened with amazement. Quickly she looked herself over quickly. “I’m back to normal!”

“Really?” Pinkie asked before swerving her head to look at her tail. “Hey, so am I!”

“Oh, come on,” Rainbow groaned. “You both get fixed but I’m still stuck with a mismatched coat?”

“Well, that all depends on the nature of the game, you see,” Everypony turned their heads skywards to see Games Master fly down, a hearty smile dominating her face. “By the way, this is for you.” She flicked her hoof effortlessly and a card with Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark appeared in her hoof. She handed it to Rainbow, who eyed it suspiciously.

“Don’t worry, it’s not a trick. You beat my sisters game so now you get the card.” Games said. Her words seemed to come across as genuine to Rainbow, who - despite herself - took the card.

“Five cards out of seven, you girls are doing really well,but can you beat my last two challenges?” Games flew around and giggled gleefully. :”Oh, and you might want to duck.”

“Now why would we-” Applejack began before being cut off by a loud explosion from one of the upper windows of the town hall building.

Grinning, Games Master pulled out her chessboard and make a tossing motion with it, causing a large roll of chess patterned paper to fly out between her and the nearest building and catch a small, black projectile. Games rolled the paper back up and held the object in her other hoof. At first the girls were perplexed by this, until the object let out a cough followed by a giggle.

“I’ll get you for that, Gamesy!”

“Sure you will, but not now. Your big sis is working.” Games then flew over to the closest building and placed her ash covered sister, as well as Freddy - who was still around her body, down before flying back to the six ponies. “Alright, now that we have that out, who wants to play for the last two cards? Don’t worry, this game won’t be as... extreme as my sisters.”

Rainbow Dash eyed the pegasus angrily. “Oh, I’ll show you extreme!” Fortunately her friends were there to prevent her from doing something she’d regret.

Games smiled and brought forth a knight. “I was hoping you’d say that,” With a single fluid motion she slid the knight across the board, though still keeping to its “L” pattern movements. When she finished a stack of three blocks - one black, one green, and one blue, formed between her and the six friends.

“Keep a watchful eye on these blocks, because you’re going to need to put them back in their proper arrangement.” Games said, gesturing with a hoof. “Do I have a volunteer?Except for Rainbow Dash, you lost already.”

“What?!” The rainbow mare cried.

“Sorry, but dem’s the rules round these parts.” Games said, suddenly wearing a farmers hat and chewing a piece of straw. “Now Ah’ll ask again, is there any volunteers amongst this here group?”

“Ah’ll try mah hoof at it.” Applejack said before the others had a chance to. She stepped towards Games and the block with a determined look on her face.

Games smiled and tossed her ensemble to the side. “Excellent. Now take a good long look at the blocks Applejack, and put them back once they’re all jumbled up.”

Applejack wasted no time, and immediately after the pegasus finished talking she locked her eyes onto the blocks, taking into account the symbols and colours on the box. After a few moments the blocks began to shake rapidly. The sudden movement caught her off guard, and she jumped back as they tumbled around. The entire ordeal was over in a moment, and the blocks lay on the ground, completely still.

“Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor!” Games giggled before she vanished in another flash of green.

Applejack blinked from the bright light and looked to the blocks. She tried to visualize the order the blocks were stacked in her mind, and after a few seconds she had a pretty clear image. Carefully she began stacking the blocks on top of each other while simultaneously rotating them to their proper symbols. Though she was fully aware that there was most likely a hidden trick somewhere in this, so she decided to look over the block with the memory she had her mind fixed onto. Sure enough, one of the diamonds was pointed horizontally when she was fairly sure it was a vertical. So she quickly remedied the mistake and took a step back.

“Alright, ah’m done.” she said to the sky.

There was a moments pause, and the five spectator ponies looked around expectantly. Finally there wa a small click and the boxes opened up to reveal Games Master. She was standing upright on her back hooves and had a very mischievous look about her.

“Aww, so close, Applejack, but the blocks aren’t quite in the right spots.”

Grinning, she held her chessboard up and began sliding two rooks across it. Applejack didn’t have any time to react before she was encased in green light. Her friends tried to rush to her aid, but more green magic pushed them away. All they could do was watch as the magic intensified, before finally fizzling away.

“What’s yah do t’ me?!” Applejack cried. Looking herself over she couldn’t see anything different, but she knew the pegasus had done something.

“Dishing out the cost of losing.” Games said, calmly waving a hoof over her board and causing the blocks to vanish and be replaced with a full body mirror. Looking back at Applejack was her own reflection, but her green eyes now looked like those of a cat.

Startled, Applejack stepped backwards and blinked her eyes rapidly. This failed to return them to normal, and instead resulted in her becoming slightly dazed. Her friends came to her side, glaring at Games Master.

“Hey, that wasn’t nice,” Pinkie Pie said. “You make Applejack’s eyes normal, now.”

“No can do, my little pink pony.” Games said, calmly flying above them with a pawn in her hoof. She places it on her board and a wooden rectangle appeared. On it was a miniature maze filled with small holes in the floor. The rectangle also had two small metal pieces that looked rotatable coming from its horizontal and vertical sides.

“Alright, because you ponies are such fun, I’ma give you all another chance to get a card.” She reached behind a bush and pulled forth a small silver sphere. “So here’s the game; this ball needs to get to the other side of the maze. You do this by rotating the board with those metal pieces, but if it falls into any of the holes, you lose. Unless it’s the one marked ‘end’ that is.” She gave heartfelt smile. “Twilight, you haven’t played a solo game yet, you want to try a hoof at this?”

“What’ll you do to me if I lose?” She replied irately.

“If I told you then it wouldn’t be a surprise, now would it?” Games said before she handed the ball to Twilight. “Oh, and please, no using magic on this game. We need to have some form of challenge.”

Twilight looked back to Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Festivities had said if they won then they’d fix her friends, and this game looked like one that required basic physical skills to accomplish. That, and they weren’t getting out of this situation without complying. So she turned back to Games Master and nodded.

Games smiled and passed the maze towards Twilight. “Take as long as you need, and good luck.” With that she flew over to a nearby tree and watched from its branches. The other five ponies - particularly Rainbow Dash and Applejack - watched her carefully, to which she waved at them.

Fluttershy was the first to look away and turn back to Twilight. “You can do this,”

“Yeah, go get those eye snatchers!” Pinkie added. She was then succeeded by an encouraging smile from Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow.

Twilight nodded back to them and then turned to the maze, carefully she rotated the board horizontally to get the ball rolling down the path. From then it was a matter of adjustments and timing to make sure she avoided the holes. There were, however, a few little tricks she came across, like some of the holes closing and opening at random points or the walls lowering and raising in new spots. These were the challenging parts, though the lavender unicorn did her best to steer the ball onward.

~~~

From her tree, Games Master watched the lavender unicorn’s progress. Twilight was making good progress, and at this rate she was going to succeed in no time. Which meant that the final challenge was around the corner as well. This notion caused Games to clap her hooves together excitedly.

“Gamesy,” Her sister called, snapping Games’s attention from her opponents. Looking to her left she spied Festivities cuddling with Freddy in one of the upper branches.

“Fest, how did you get over here?”

“Magic.”

Games nodded her head. “Yeah, seems legit. Anyway, you need something?”

“Yes, Freddy was telling me about some ponies he saw looking around town earlier,” Fest replied, petting her eel affectionately. “He said they were looking for some ponies.”

Games’s smile was replaced by a flat line. “Is that so? Well then, we’re gonna have to speed things along for the finale.”

“Awwwww,” Fest whined. “But rushed endings suuuck!”

“I knoooooooow,” Games replied. The two of them looked at eachother then and rolled back laughing. “Y-you honestly think I’d ruin this fun?”

“No, but it’s fun to see what you’ll do when I suggest it.” Fest giggled.

“Evidently,” Games replied. “At any rate, we’ll be done and out before they get here. So ifen you’ll pardon me, Ahz gotz a finale to pull off!”

With that, the blue eyed pegasus returned to watching Twilight as she finished up her challenge, leaving her sister to giggle and Freddy to question the reasoning behind that odd accent at the end. These things didn’t matter to Games Master, for not a moment later there was the unmistakable sound of metal hitting wood as Twilight guided the ball into the end hole.

“Showtime,” Games whispered before flying over to Twilight, who was receiving congratulations from her friends. “Congrats, Twilight, I’d say you earned this.” With a wave of her hoof Games brought forth the final card and handed it to the unicorn. She accepted it, which caused it and the other five to all hover in the air above the ponies whose cutie marks they bore.

Games let out an excited giggle. “Alright, girls, this be it. All or nothing. One final game for the chance to win those prizes we promised.”

“But let me guess,” Rainbow Dash interrupted. “If we lose there’s no going back?”

The corners of Games’s mouth curved into a challenging grin. “You could say that. But enough talking, it’s time for action!”

With that, the green pegasus tossed her chessboard onto the ground, as well as all the pieces. Somehow they landed perfectly in place, and the entire board began to glow a bright green. Soon the glow encompassed the entire area, even going to the tree Festivities and Freddy were sitting in.

When it dimmed, everyone was gone.