A Very Dangerous Game

The steady Beep Beep Beep of Cocoa's alarm clock shook her from her slumber, causing her to groan.

"Ugh - sometimes I wish these annoying things didn't exist," Cocoa groaned, as she switched the clock off. She wanted nothing more than to stay in bed a little longer. But as tired as she is, a hot shower is in order. The big Friendship Games competition against their rival school, Crystal Prep Academy, is set to begin later today, and she didn't want to go smelling like she hadn't showered in weeks.

Cocoa walked to the bathroom with her clothes and underwear in hand, set them on the counter, and then moved the curtain aside to turn the shower on so it could heat up. While she let the water warm up a bit, her thoughts drifted to when her childhood friend; Sunset "Sunnie" Shimmer, disappeared nearly three years ago, not long before the other Sunset showed up.

For as long as she could remember, Cocoa and Sunnie had hardly spent a moment apart growing up. Be it video games, watching a movie, or just simply hanging out, they did everything together. But then one day, Sunnie disappeared out of the blue, and was suddenly replaced by a girl that looks like her, sounds like her, but dressed differently, and was exceptionally rude to others.

At last she stepped into the shower, the warm water cascading over her moderately toned and voluptuous figure. Cocoa was quite beautiful for a young woman her age. Ample curves that seemed perfectly proportioned, perky D cup breasts with dark orange nipples that contrasted with her golden brown skin, a patch of freckles around her nose and cheeks, autumn orange eyes, and a gorgeous head of light blue hair. As she was about to wash the rest of her body, Cocoa heard a knock on the bathroom door.

"Hey Cocoa," Fudge said through the door, "I hope you're ready to eat my dust later."

"Oh no, you'll be eating MY dust later, Fudge," Cocoa shouted back.

Fudge was Cocoa's identical twin brother, and despite going to different schools, they remained quite close. Fudge attended Crystal Prep whereas Cocoa attended Canterlot High. They treated every competition as playful banter, and them competing in the Friendship Games earlier that day wouldn't be any different.

As the minutes passed, Cocoa turned the shower off as she stepped out to dry off and get dressed; today was a big day after all, and she didn't want to miss a second of it. Quickly drying off her body and hair, Cocoa swiftly put her clothes on, practically glided down the stairs, put her shoes on, and headed off to school. Since they didn't live that far from Canterlot High, only two blocks away, she could just jog there.

"Alright. 7:20. Just a few classes, the welcoming party for Crystal Prep, and then the Friendship Games will be underway," Cocoa said to herself, checking the time on her phone as she jogged on.

________Three hours later________

"Damn. If this is supposed to be a party, it's not a very good one," Cocoa said to herself as she sat down on one of the bleachers in the gymnasium. Before the games are to begin within the hour, any student could be in the gym for the welcoming party held for Crystal Prep Academy. Although, it didn't seem like an actual party at the moment. There was hardly any chatter, and the music was dead in the water. If it wasn't already dead silent, it grew somewhat more quiet as Principal Celestia walked out onto the stage.

"Hello students. I would like to take a moment to welcome our visitors from Crystal Prep Academy as we compete in the annual Friendship Games, and to also recognize the students CHS has chosen as its competitors. I wish you all the best of luck, and please do enjoy the party," Principal Celestia said as she walked off stage.

"Hey Cocoa," a familiar feminine voice spoke, taking her attention away from the stage as someone sat next to her. It was another of her good friends, Dazzleflash Moonlight, though she prefers to go by Dazzy. Dazzy is the daughter of Vice Principal Luna, and is Rainbow Dash's near identical half-sister. Unlike Dash, Dazzy prefers to wear blazers, isn't into that many sports, is a few inches taller, and is mildly less arrogant.

"Hey Dazzy," Cocoa responded, gently rubbing her friend's right thigh. Cocoa and Dazzy had also been friends since they were toddlers, much like with the other girls. And for the better part of several months, they have been in a ‘Friends with Benefits’ relationship, whether to relieve stress or simply just for the thrill of it. Although they were perfectly fine with not being full girlfriends, Cocoa had been thinking of settling into a full relationship for a few weeks now.

"Honestly, this party is rather boring. Unless Pinkie has a few tricks up her sleeve to lighten the mood, we may as well walk out of here and start the Games."

"Cocoa, it's Pinkie Pie, she always has something up her sleeve," Dazzy remarked.

And as if right on cue, the lights went off, and a nice upbeat song began playing not long after.

"Now that's more like it. She sure knows her stuff," Dazzy said, both of them now getting up from their seats as everyone began dancing on the gym floor. Having made their way down to join the other students, Dazzy and Cocoa joined in on the dancing when someone nudged Cocoa from behind.

"About time you girls came down here," Fudge said, continuing to dance. Cocoa shook her head and smirked as the trio began to dance in synchronized step. Everyone was enjoying themselves and having the best time until an awful screech sounded over the speakers and caused them all to cover their ears, putting the music to a stand still as the awful Principal Cinch made her presence in the gym known by tapping on the microphone.

"I...suppose I should thank Principal Celestia for this typical, unconventional welcome. I'm not surprised that things at Canterlot High haven't changed in four years, selecting their competitors through a mere popularity contest rather than selecting the top students like Crystal Prep. Alas, despite the misguided ideals that they follow, they remain committed to them. An admirable trait, I'll give you that. Now, despite the inevitable outcome, I do wish you all good luck," Cinch spoke, dimming the mood once more.

"Sheesh. What a buzzkill," Cocoa whispered.

"No kidding," Fudge whispered back. And with that, the party was wrapped up, and the games would soon begin.

"Welcome everyone, to the first event of the Friendship Games: the Academic Decathlon," Dean Cadence announced to everyone. "In this round, our competitors will be scored on chemistry skills, home ec, and everything else in between. Only the top six competitors from both teams will progress to the next round of the games. Good luck, everyone!"

And with that, the Games finally began. First up was Chemistry, where the competitors have to concoct chemical mixtures with the precise measurements in order to proceed. Derpy's mixture exploded and covered her face in a thin layer of ash, eliminating her right off the bat. The students whose mixtures were precise were granted ten points, and cleaned up their stations as they readied for the next leg of the decathlon.

Next up was Baking in the home ec room, where they are tasked to bake a cake within an hour. Flash and Bon Bon mistakenly baked a loaf of bread and attempted to pass it off as a cake, disqualifying them from the competition.

"Crap. Sorry, Bon Bon.." Flash remarked, saddened by their elimination.

"It's alright, Flash, it's not your fault. I should've paid more attention myself," Bon Bon replied, patting him on the back. Their sorrow was short lived when they heard that their team had won this leg of the competition with Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy delivering a masterpiece of a cake that had an image of the famed Mona Lisa on the inside of it, earning them another ten points.

The Woodshop was up next, where the competitors are tasked with designing a good quality birdhouse. While some were impressive, Sandalwood and Micro Chips' birdhouse were among the few that were not sturdy enough, and thus were disqualified from the games as were a few others.

"Hey, Cocoa. If we go up against each other when they bring out the equations to solve, I'm gonna kick your ass," Fudge chuckled, playfully fistbumping his sister on the shoulder.

"Oh I don't think so, Fudge. We'll be kicking you guys so hard you won't be able to sit down for a week," Cocoa replied, rolling her eyes with a cocky smirk.

After a seemingly fast round during the Spelling Bee, it's time for the final event of the Academic Decathlon: the Equation Race, where one selected competitor from both teams are to solve a complex equation in just three minutes. Although they were merely joking about it, Cocoa and Fudge were, to their surprise, chosen for both of their teams.

"Now. You both will have three minutes to solve the equation on the boards and not a second more. Are you ready to begin?" Cinch asked, a stopwatch in her hand.

"Yes ma'am," they replied in unison, turning to the boards with the chalk in their hands. And with the click of a button, Cocoa and Fudge lept to the task as Principal Cinch observed. The seconds felt like hours as they wrote on the boards, solving problem after problem, the only thing breaking the awkward silence is the sticks of chalk making contact with the chalk boards.

After what felt like a long time, the BEEP BEEP BEEP of the stopwatch caused Cocoa and Fudge to stop, thankfully both having just reached the bottom right corners of the boards. As they set the chalk down and stepped away from the boards to have them looked over, what Cinch discovered was something that hadn't happened during the first leg of the Games in years.

"I can't believe I'm about to say this, but…it looks like we have a tie," Cinch utterered, a hint of disappointment in her voice. This sparked some confusion as Cinch walked back down to the Judge's desk with Celestia, Luna, and Cadence to discuss what to do next.

"Hey Fudge, you got any ideas on how we could settle the tie?" Cocoa asked as she walked over to her brother, draping an arm over his shoulder.

"I mean, I do have one idea, but I don't know if the situation is right for that sort of thing," Fudge replied, hinting at the thing they were explicitly told to keep secret unless absolutely necessary.

"What do you mean? Ooh, right, yeah, I suppose so. But there's gotta be something we could do that's simple. How about-..."

Before Cocoa could finish her own response, she froze in place as she and Fudge both heard a faint but distinct voice call out.

"....Someone.. Anyone, please!.... Get me out of here!!.."

Cocoa's eyes widened as she recognized the voice in their heads and had a firm sense she knew where the voice was coming from and turned to depart and look for it.

"Let's go find out what that was," Fudge announced, following close behind his sister. In a quick blur, they both darted out of the gym, stirring up even more confusion than the revelation of their tie. Faster and faster they ran until they reached Celestia's office, and the voice seemed only to grow louder in their heads.

"...Help me, please help me!..."

"Cocoa, are you certain it's her?" Fudge asked as they finally stopped at what seemed to be where the voice was coming from.

"I've never been more certain about anything," Cocoa responded, raising her hand to unlock the door to Celestia's office, the lock making a Click and then slowly pushing it open. The two siblings stepped into the office, the voice only growing louder in their minds.

"...GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!..."

"It's close... Very close.. But where-.." Cocoa said, but stopped as she then walked behind Celestia's desk and knelt behind it. "It's in here." Pulling the bottom desk drawer open, Cocoa had discovered what they burst out of the gym to find.

"Ok, so what called out to us is a video game. Why would it wait until now?" Fudge asked, crossing his arms.

"I don't know, Fudge. But it has to mean something. And why Celestia has this in her desk is even more questionable," Cocoa responded. But once she placed a hand on the game's case to examine it, Cocoa was then given a vision showing a certain someone's whereabouts…

============***============

"Gasp!" In an instant Sunnie awoke only to find she was back in the same dimly lit room she always ended up in after every failed attempt to escape the hellish game she had been stuck in for so long. "Great. I'm fucking back in here again. I just wish there was a small clue that could at least help me out with this dumb game at least a LITTLE!"

"Oh now where's the fun in that?" A deep, hollow voice answered as she stepped into the room.

"Let me go home you crazy bitch!!" Sunnie barked, struggling at the restraints bound to her wrists holding her upright.

"I don't think so, Sunnie. At least, not yet. Rest while you can. It seems as though you'll be having visitors soon," the demon answered, then turned around and walked out of the room.

"Please…JUST LET ME GO HOME!!"

============***============

Cocoa stumbled back into a shelf and nearly knocked over a picture of Celestia and Sunnie once the vision had ceased.

"Cocoa, are you ok? What did you see?" Fudge asked, a hint of concern in his voice.

"Sunnie… I know where she is! She's in here!" Cocoa responded, holding the game up for Fudge to look at. "She's been in the game for the past two and a half years."

"Wait, Sunnie's been in here the whole time? But, how did she even end up there in the first place?"

"I've theorized for a while that it could have something to do with the other Sunset. But come on. We need to go tell Celestia about this." As quickly as they had departed, Fudge and Cocoa returned to the gym where everyone was still located.

"Cocoa, Fudge… What on earth was that all about?" Celestia asked, walking up onto the stage.

"Celestia, just hear me out. This may sound crazy and twisted, but me and Fudge just discovered where Sunnie has been since she disappeared," Cocoa responded. And just like that, Celestia's eyes widened immensely.

"W-What? You know where my baby girl is?!" Celestia remarked, a stunned expression spread across her face.

"I know it's a lot to process, but I swear to you, I'm not lying. Sunnie is in-fact trapped in there, and we're going in there to finally bring her home."

"I respect the fact that your daughter has been found and all, but I don't think stepping out of the Friendship Games is the best idea, unless you really Want to forfeit the competition," Cinch interrupted.

"Principal Cinch, just stop," Fudge intervened before Celestia could say another word. "This is a family matter, something you wouldn't understand. This is Celestia's daughter we're talking about, her only child, who has been missing for over two years. And now we have a chance to finally bring her home. Now, if you're done being an uptight bitch, I'm going with them to bring my friend home."

And for the first time in a long time, Cinch was speechless as Fudge walked back over to Cocoa and Celestia, as she herself walked back down to the Judge's desk.

"So. Are we doing this?" Cocoa asked them.

"Yes, let's bring my daughter home," Celestia replied, handing the game back to Cocoa.

"Alright. Let's do this." And without any further thought, Cocoa began to open the case. And with surprising effort, it opened, a glowing aura starting to emit from the inside. The case was then thrown to the stage floor as Cocoa's hands began to turn to dust being sucked into a now vacuum-esque portal. A few seconds later Fudge's hands also began to disintegrate as well as Celestia's, all of them shocked that this was actually happening.

"Ok, this is weird," Fudge exclaimed, half of his arms now gone.

"I know it is Fudge, but focus. We get in there, we get Sunnie, we get out," Cocoa responded before being completely consumed by the portal. Fudge was next to be sucked in, leaving Celestia for a few seconds.

"Sit tight, Sweetie, we're coming," Celestia thought to herself as she was finally sucked through the portal, with the portal sealing off and the game's case closing shortly after.

And so. Cocoa, Fudge, and Celestia are now on their way to finally bring Sunnie home after being gone for so long, but the game they've just entered would prove to be a lot more perilous than they initially expected….