Testing

Chapters

Process of Elimination
It's A Trap!
Welcome Wagon
The Sound of Madness
Wake Up and Smell the Insanity
Qualifying Round (Part One)
And Now A Word From Our Sponsors

Process of Elimination

"No, No, No!" Photographs, Dossiers, and manila folders flew across the small circular room. The room itself was very claustrophobic, filing cabinets lined the walls and a large circular table dominated most of the room. Around the table sat a number of equines, most wore black jumpsuits and green smiling masks that hid their faces. One of them was different however: He was wearing an outlandish bright purple top hat, and a matching jacket. "You just don't get it!" His orange eyes darted from masked figure to masked figure. "I want ponies who show their stuff on a daily basis! I want ponies who are the epitomy of toughness! I want....I want...."

His eyes were drawn to a newspaper that one of his subordinates was holding. The front page story had a picture of six mares, all being given medals by Princess Celestia. The headline was "Elements of Harmony defeat changeling army." The colt in charge took off his hat, set it on the table and ran his hoof through his greasy slicked back mane. "I want them.." His dark green hoof pointed at the paper. He quickly grabbed the paper with magic and held it up for everypony to see. That earned gasps from all of the masked ponies.

"But...Game Master...They're national heroes.." Game Master stood up, looked at the dissenting voice, and pushed a button on top of the table. Everypony in the room tensed, waiting for the clone to disappear through a hole in the floor, or get squashed by spikes from the ceiling, but nothing happened....well, until a bolt of orange magic struck the pony and he disappeared.

"Okay...now. Anypony else wanna say something?" All of the other masked workers shook their heads and offered words of agreement. "Good. Now, get me those mares. I want them here in time for the next show." Game Master spun on his hooves and marched out of the planning room.

He had spent years raising enough money to build this whole facility. It was all completely underground and cost him more than he would like to admit. Each hall was the same cold emotionless gray, each room(sans the planning room) was done up in greens, purples, and yellows....he liked those colors, but he wasn't quite sure why.

"Game Master, may I talk to you?" His orange eyes turned to the voice, it was his personal assistant Harlequin. They had been close friends since their foalhood, even when he supposedly 'went off of the deep-end.' He smiled, not because he was happy to see her, but because she had his hat.

"Oh, hello sweetie!" The unicorn grabbed the hat with his telekinetic powers and brought it over to him. "Did Daddy forget you? Oh, Daddy is so sorry!" The hat received a quick kiss, then placement upon his head. It's rightful place. "What do you want, Harls?"

Harlequin's coat was alternating black and red, just as her name insisted, her eyes were framed by a black and white mask that was imprinted on her coat. Her eyes were bright blue, and her mane was blonde, just like his own. He considered her his own personal court jester...even if she wouldn't tell any jokes. Not even his threats to put her in the game made her more jester-ish.

"We got those contestants you wanted for the next game." She was holding a clipboard up with her magic, which he quickly snatched away with his own.

"Already?! That was like...five minutes ago!" Harlequin quite quickly stole it back.

"No, not those contestants. The other ones. Y'know, the other eight." Right, those contestants.

"Oh! Good, good! You're always surprising me, you know that?" He smiled and put his hoof over her shoulder.

"Yes, I know GM." She rolled her eyes and shrugged him off.

"Now, what else have you got for me?" As they walked down the hall towards the Testing Area Observation Booth, Game Master saw his microphone cane, which had been specially made for him by none other than Photo Finish....under threats of violence, of course. He picked it up between his teeth and gave it a twirl. Perfect.

"Well, the um...special creature just came in for Round 7, I still don't know what it is....." She flipped through her clipboard, looking for the shipping manifest, but not finding it. "I swear, one of these days I'm going to kill those idiots in receiving.."

The slightly delusional unicorn stallion spit his cane out, caught it with his magic, and twirled it as he walked. "Some things, you're not meant to know my dear. What we received is a...surprise, and I wouldn't want to spoil a surprise~!" He gave a maniacal giggle as he slapped his cane against a button on the wall. The door in front of them opened: The room was curved towards the front, and was completely made out of glass so he could watch over every testing chamber as the games ran on. Perfection.

"Twilight my dear, I don't think we should worry." Rarity looked at her hoof to make sure none of the glass shards around them ruined her brand new hooficure. "The scoundrel had two marefriends...who were sisters...I think it's quite obvious why he disappeared." The lavender unicorn was studying a few choice things around the apartment. The PVPD had called her in to help solve this disappearance, and so far, everything looked suspicious.

"Maybe that's what they want you to think..." She had been using that exact line for any objections the diva brought up, it had been working so far...but Twilight wasn't sure that it would hold up any longer. Twilight, while expecting, shifted uncomfortably where she stood. The unicorn was in heat and it was absolutely killing her.

"Who are 'they' and why do they not want us to find out what happened to Thunderlane?" Twilight picked up a lamp that had been shattered and studied it closely. She needed to find out what happened to the headstrong pegasus and why. If not for justice, then just for the sense of safety for Ponyville.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out Rarity...first Charmer, then two of the Wonderbolts...these are connected. I know it." Her mind was connecting the dots, there had been a string of disappearances and kidnappings throughout the last year, all happening in clusters. Something was going on.

"What does it matter, Twilight? It's not like we're in any danger."

It's A Trap!

Fluttershy hovered through the forest that stretched between her house and Ponyville proper. She had gotten a tip that a deer was wounded somewhere in the forest and it was really sick. Being the bleeding heart that she is, Fluttershy had to make sure the poor deer was okay..and help it if it wasn't. She wasn't even told where it was, just that some ponies had seen it and that it looked hurt.

She weaved through the healthy vibrant trees. Their leaves were bright green, their trunks were solid and thick. Much like the animals, Fluttershy also looked over the plants of the forest. She didn't love them as much as the animals, but she would never let them know that.

She was looking the trees over when she saw a streak of blood on the ground...then another...then yet another. This deer was hurt, badly. Worse than that, this blood was fresh and bright red, not dark and crusty. The mare quickened her pace, flying through the maze just as quickly. Her heart thumped in her chest with worry, her mind raced with the possibilities. She rounded a particularly large tree when she saw it.

There in the clearing was a dead deer...but it wasn't just dead. It was eviscerated. The chest cavity was cracked open, the ribs broken off and thrown around, fresh warm blood flowed freely from it, staining the grass, and its intestines hung from the branches like twisted party streamers. The scene almost made Fluttershy faint. Almost. Instead of fleeing the scene wildly like any rational mare would do, the fear stricken pegasus inched closer: not out of stupidity, but out of disbelief that this was actually happening.

She stared into its cold dead eyes, the black spheres just stared back. It made Fluttershy stiffen up. This was real. This was happening....and she was in the middle of a crime scene.

A crunch of leaves came from behind her

She spun, only to come face to face with a mask. The mask was pure white, and no features other than a sick green smile. "EEP!" Fluttershy stumbled backwards, only to fall into the chest cavity of the dead deer. Blood coated most of her body, she started hyperventilating. A maniacal green smile looked down at her, then her world went dark.

"DINNER!" Applejack picked up a small metal baton in her teeth and beat the metal triangle next to her furiously. The ringing stretched out all across Sweet Apple Acres, it permeated every orchard, every barn, and every outhouse. It could even be heard in some parts of Ponyville.

As soon as it rang, the Apple family all converged on the old farmhouse. They knew better than to keep the Applejack waiting, as honest as she was, she was impatient as the come. She tapped her hoof and waited...and waited...and waited. After what seemed like hours, though was barely five minutes, neither of her two siblings showed up. With an annoyed grunt, she went back inside, grabbed her lasso and decided she would do some sibling wranglin'.

She trotted through the orchards, lasso at the ready. After several minutes, hours in AJ time, she found her little sister Applebloom sitting on a log. The little crusader looked bored out of her noggin', so AJ decided that maybe some tact was needed in this particular situation, she lowered her lasso.

"AB? What's the matter, sugarcube? Ah rang the dinner bell, didn't y'all hear it?" Applebloom looked up.

"Hmm? Yeah, ah heard it, but Big Mac said ah wasn't a'sposed to move from this here stump until he came back..." The filly rested her head on her hoof. "Now ah'm bored..."Applejack briefly pondered asking her little sister what Big Mac was doing, but she decided that worryin' the little thing wouldn't do any good, so she told her to go wash up then get some dinner back at the house. Being the obedient filly she is, Applebloom nodded and went off to the house.

"Now where'n the hay is Big Mac? Ain't like him to go that hard on Applebloom.." It was true for the most part, out of the two of them, Big Mac was the one that let the Crusader and her friends get away with things the most. Ever since herself and him had been declared AB's legal guardians it had been like that. Applejack didn't like this, not one bit.

The country mare trotted through orchard after orchard without seeing her brother. Shoot, nothing even seemed off about the orchards...well, until she saw a cut down apple tree.

"Sweet Apple Massacre! What happened here?!" She rushed over, somepony had obviously chopped it down with an axe, so probably a unicorn. This was a staple of the Apple Family's profit, if they had somepony cutting down their trees, it needed to be dealt with ASAP. With a furrow of her brow and a tip of her hat, she silently promised that she would find whoever did this and make sure they paid.

Something tapped her on her shoulder. The country mare turned around, expecting Big Mac, but instead was greeted by the flat side of an axe smacking her across the face. The mare stumbled, then fell to the ground. As her vision began to go dark, she thought she saw a green smile.

"Okay...okay, so there I was, right? So there I was, bouncing right along the road, when all of a sudden, Poof! Right there on the ground was this free candy!" Pinkie held a piece of candy up to her speedster friend: It was in a white wrapper and had a green smile on it. "And I was like 'Free candy?! You know it!' So I took it!" Rainbow Dash simply rolled her eyes at her crazy friend.

"Fascinating story, Pinks....but I got bigger problems. Y'know, like two of the Wonderbolts have gone missing in the past week, remember?" Dash had heard about the disappearances and immediately worried. What was the flying team going to do without its captain and second-in-command? An even better question: Could she audition for one of those parts? The Best Young Flier knew that sounded terrible and conceited, but she was adamant in her belief that she could lead the flying team in this, their hour of crisis. Then something hit her, Pinkie had found a piece of candy, and not eaten it. "Say, why haven't you devoured that thing yet?" her blue hoof pointed at the candy.

"Remember Nightmare Night?" Dash nodded. "Well I had to make sure this wasn't another of Twilight's traps!" Right. The pink mare had been duped by the egghead into going into a dark alley just to prove a point...which had failed. Dash guessed Pinkie had sound logic, but who was she to say what was logical?

"Mhm, of course....I'll give you five bits if you split it with me..." Dash had a craving for candy, in fact she often did. But she rarely indulged that craving. Athletes couldn't fill up on candy after all, and Rainbow Dash was one heck of an athlete. Right now though, she could use a little candy.

"Deal." Pinkie unwrapped the candy, the candy itself was a hard orange, probably the same flavor too. Dash was okay with orange, but she preferred something sweeter. "Buuuut.." Oh boy, here comes the but. "In order to get it," Pinkie put the candy between two hooves and pushed until it cracked into two pieces. "In order to get it, you gotta kiss me~!" Pinkie smiled and popped both halves into her mouth.

"Clever mare..." Dash smiled and winked at Pinkie. The two had been going at it for some time now, she wouldn't call Pinkie her marefriend though....buck-buddy was the more apt term. With a flap of her powerful wings, she was launched at the party pony. As soon as she made contact, her lips captured Pinkie's. The earth pony, always greedy, opened her own mouth and forced her tongue into Dash's mouth. Dash would usually allow this and let Pinkie have her fun, but the other's mare mouth held a treasure that Dash wanted oh so badly, so Dash took the offensive and struggled with Pinkie's tongue for dominance.

In the end of the objective-based make-out session, Dash won and was proudly chomping down on an orange candy. It was good alright, but something about it seemed.....off. As she was crushing the sweet morsel into small bits, she started to feel sleepy, she noticed Pinkie's eyes were already starting to droop. That was enough cause for alarm, the pink pony was never sleepy, not even after that 96-hour awake-a-thon!

The pegasus tried to stand, but found her legs to be jello. She tried to spread her wings, but only found that they wouldn't respond. A thump came from beside her, Pinkie was out cold. She could feel the sweet embrace of sleep creeping up on her too. She fell over, her ears catching words before she went.

"Two for the price of one, the boss'll be happy about this."

"Twilight, can we please go? We've been here for hours, and it's getting late...I don't want Sweetie to worry." Despite what most ponies thought, Rarity loved her little sister dearly. The little squeakycorn, or Squeaky-unicorn. It's a little pet name Rarity used as a joke for her sister's constantly cracking voice. Anyways, the little squeakycorn held a special place in her heart...and in some cases, her pocketbook. The little filly and her friends caused such heavy damages, that Applejack, herself, and Cheerilee all had to chip in to pay for it.

Twilight sighed and nodded. She had found no evidence over who did this. As far as she was concerned, Thunderlane got in a fight with Flitter and Cloudchaser, then simply left for his own safety. It was possible and would explain the various broken objects around the house....angry mares tended to throw things at the object of their anger.

"Finally!" Rarity exclaimed gleefully. "Perhaps I can even get some work in before the day is all said and done!" The pearl white unicorn pranced to the door and swung it open with magic. She was met by two ponies, both wearing black jumpsuits and white, featureless masks with a crudely drawn green smile on them. "Ah!" Rarity jumped, then gave a nervous laugh. "Oh, my apologies...you startled me." The two faceless ponies stood silent. "Umm...hello?"

Twilight turned and saw the scene. Just the masks didn't sit right with the ponies. She trotted over to Rarity. "May we help you...urm....gentlecolts?" She wasn't quite sure if they were male or female.

"Twilight Sparkle?" Okay, male. She nodded hesitantly. "We have a letter for you.." The other masked pony produced a scroll from seemingly nowhere. The pony turned it towards her and opened it.

Twilight didn't understand, the words on the page were just gibberish. Plain and simply gibberish. To help herself, she pronounced the words out loud. "Elkraps Thgiliwt?" Before she realized that it was her own name spelled backwards, she froze in place.

See, the funny thing about unicorns is that there is a safeguard for them. Back in the early days of magic, names held power, more power than they do now anyways. Whenever a wizard said his name backwards, by force or willingly, it set them in a magic lockdown. All of the magic in their bodies would suddenly stop, their leylines would quit receiving the life-magic that ran through everything. While this made them completely still, it had the added benefit of also making them nearly impervious to damage. The only way to unlock a unicorn is to either wait it out, or perform the correct counter-spell.....which had been lost for a couple thousand years. So nowadays, you just had to wait three days and the magic lockdown would lift.

"Can't believe that actually worked..." Said the figure that carried the letter. "Hey, get that other one, I'll bag miss Elkraps, here." The other one advanced on Rarity.

"S-s-stay back! Do you hear me?"The kidnapper kept coming. "I-I'm warning you..." A black covered hoof reached out to Rarity, then promptly messed up her mane. Needless to say, the unicorn fainted.

Welcome Wagon

"Wake up..." The voice was far away, muffled, and distant. "Wake up..." Magenta eyes fluttered open. She expected to see open skies, or at least the ceiling of Sugarcube Corner like usual. Instead of those things, she saw a bright green ceiling and purple walls. It hurt her eyes.

The pegasus sat up slowly, the after effects of the candy still wearing on her body. She looked around, looking for the source of the voice. The answer was found in the form of a magic orb in the corner of the room.

"Good, you're awake." The voice was definitely female, but it was stern and harsh. Dash didn't quite like that tone, and when she didn't like something, she let it be known.

"Hey! You better tell me where I am, right now!" The mare's hoof came down on the floor with force. "If you don't tell me and let me go, I'll rip this place apart!" The orb just laughed.

"You got some fight in you, good.....you'll need that..." The orb disappeared in a flash of blue light. As soon as Dash was about to yell and threaten, one of the walls split apart, then fell into giant slots in the floor. Expecting to come face to face with the voice itself, Dash took an offensive stance and attempted to spread her wings, only to find that she couldn't. Her neck craned to look at her wings, plastic bindings held them to her body...now she vowed whoever did this was going to pay.

Behind the other wall was not the female she was expecting. Instead, a very familiar looking yellow mare with a fiery mane sat on the other side, her wings in the same plastic bindings. Dash immediately recognized her as the mare from all of her pictures, and from a very special Wonderbolt edition of PlayColt she had hidden away. It was the raging inferno herself, Spitfire.

The immediate thought in the forefront of the speedster's mind was to rush over and ask for an autograph, but something stopped her. Perhaps it was the sorry state the Wonderbolt was in: She looked like she lost a good amount of weight, her plumage was ruffled all to hell, and it looked like her last shower was a couple of days away. She looked terrible.

"Spitfire..?" The Wonderbolt looked up, her eyes were cold and emotionless. "Spitfire...i-is that you?" She knew it was, but she had some doubt when she saw her eyes. RD trotted slowly over to her and sat next to her.

"You're Rainbow Dash..." The star's voice was hoarse and weak. "What....what are you doing here...?" The blue mare sat down next to her idol. She really had nothing to say, she didn't even know what to say. "We're dead....I hope you know that..."

Rarity cursed at the orb as it disappeared. It was quite unladylike, but these ruffians had ruined her mane and they deserved such words. Her poor mane was out of place, it lost its curls, and worst of all, there was not a hair care product in sight. The diva was extremely mad, but she could still keep a stoic outer appearance. Her annoyance was also due to the fact that she had a magic blocker over her horn. The metal device hindered her ability to fix her mane with magic, which made her temperament that much worse.

The tacky orange and purple wall to her left opened up and disappeared, she loathed the color scheme and thought only a madpony would design something like this. As she sneered at the walls, a voice came from where the wall disappeared.

"Rarity?" She turned her head, Golden eyes met her own. She knew that pony, he was the one Twilight and herself were looking for when those....masked ponies showed up and took them away.

"Thunderlane...." The unicorn practically growled at him. She stood and stalked over to him, his usual mohawk was laying down, his wings were strapped to his body, and he had burn marks over his body. She didn't care for his appearance, he was the one that caused this...predicament. His disappearance caused this. "How dare you...How dare you get kidnapped and make my mane get ruined!" A pearl white hoof slapped across his stormy gray face.

"Ow!" He rubbed his cheek. What....what was that for?!" He stood up straight and glared at the unicorn. "I was taken from my house a couple of nights ago! Don't blame this on me!" He glared right back at her with equal anger.

"Now, now, calm down you two. We don't want you getting hurt before the games start~!" An orange orb sprang to life in front of them, pulsating with every word said. It floated around them. "I want both of you to kiss and make-up~" The voice was rather high-pitched, but was definitely male. It held a hint of madness. "If you want to survive, you better listen to me~" The two ponies just looked at each other, eyebrows raised.

C'mon you dumb unicorn! Say something!" The grayish blue pegasus kicked the still pony. Soarin, the wonderbolt, had been woken up in the middle of the night by this pony being placed in his room. She was a lavender colored unicorn, her mane and tail were a darker shade of purple with a streak of pink and dark blue. The pegasus knew her from somewhere, he had seen her before...but from where.

He kicked her again and looked in her eyes. They just stared straight ahead, not moving, unblinking. Frankly, it was pissing him off, and driving him mad. Sure he had been alone for the past couple of weeks, and just another body in the room was welcome...and perhaps an unmoving mare could be of some use for company....

Hyperventilating, that's all Fluttershy had been doing for the past few hours. Hyperventilating. She had woken up in this strange multicolored room, most of her body caked in dry blood. Her wings were so dried from the blood that the feathers wouldn't even part, they were of no use. A voice had come on earlier, but she hadn't heard a word it said. She had been too busy hyperventilating.

A loud whirring sound filled the room,it caused the yellow pegasus to jump. The wall she had plastered herself against was opening up, the shy pony ran to the other side of the room in a flash and made herself as small as possible. There was absolutely no place to hide in this barren, color clashing room.

"H-Hello...?" The voice was quiet this time, it sounded a lot like her own, but deeper. She peeked over her own hoof, on the opposite side of the now double sized room was a large blue earth stallion, doing the same thing that she was: Cowering in fear. In complete sync, the two stood up and leaned forward. "A-Are you friendly...?" He had soft blue eyes, they screamed innocence.

"Y-Yes...I-I-I'm Fluttershy."

"I'm...umm....I'm Flowers...but my friends all call me Butch.." Butch gave a slight smile and moved his lightish red mane out of his eyes. "You...You can call me Butch if you like.." Fluttershy smiled back lightly, she noticed the bright red flower on his flank.

"Umm..w-where are we..?" Butch's hazel eyes darkened, he closed the distance between himself and the pegasus quickly, pulling her close. He leaned in, his hot breath on her ear.

"A terrible....terrible place..."

Applejack poked her swollen eye, it still hurt like the dickens. She had woken up some time ago in this place, with a pony standing over her. At first, she assumed him to be the lumberjack who chopped down her tree, only after extreme calming down was she convinced that he wasn't the one who did it. His name was Jazz Crescendo, and he was a musician from Canterlot. Go figure, his golden colored coat and sapphire blue mane attested to that, as did the sunglasses that covered his eyes.

As it turned out, both of them had lost something dear to them when they were taken from their homes. Applejack had lost her hat that her pappy gave her when she was just a little filly, and Jazz had lost his lucky trumpet that the famous blues artist 'Louis Hoofstrong' had given him. Needless to say, both were quite sore about that.

"It still hurts..." Applejack complained. She had been expecting it to quit hurting and for the swelling to go down any time soon, she was a quick healer.

"It'll do that for a while, kitty-cat." Jazz's voice was raspy, yet smooth, probably from spending too much time in smoke filled jazz clubs, and AJ was trying to get used to his funny way of talking. "You gotta give it time, just like a sweet tune. Just sit back and relax." He seemed aloof about all of this, too aloof. AJ had called him on it a couple of times and he always responded with 'Take the good with the bad, baby-doll.'

"Ah usually heal faster than this." Applejack sat beside her cell mate, then sighed. "Ah jus' wanna go home..." Jazz tipped his glasses down and gave her a look.

"What kinda crazy cat would want to 86 this joint? This is the life." Jazz kicked back, crossing one of his hind legs over the other. "The only reason I'd want to blow this Popsicle stand is to get my trumpet then skedaddle right on back." he gave a wry smile, thinking of a carefree life.

"Are y'all insane? Ah got a farm to run, ah got responsibilities, unlike you, ya lousy lowlife." Applejack glared at the musician with her one not swollen eye. Jazz just smiled back.

"Difference in opinion, kitty-cat....difference in opinion..." AJ could tell that him and her were going to go 'round and 'round.

"Step off Dweeb, or else I'll gut you like a fish!" Gilda brandished her talons to the annoying pony that seemed to be everywhere at once. Ever since she had woken up in this place a few days ago with this equine beside her, the annoying thing had been bugging her nonstop. 'Blah, Blah, Blah, I'm hyper, Blah, Blah, Blah.' Nothing could stop the ball of happy from annoying her to no end.

"Oh, come on Gildie~ You know you wanna play truth or dare~!" The bouncing, happy pegasus pony, named Ember smiled widely and poked Gilda's chest plumage repeated times. After several pokes, Gilda got mad and swatted her away. The white coated, red maned pony hit the wall with a squeak and simply bounced back. Both beings had ties around their wings, and Gilda had the added measure of her claws being filed down.

"I hate you.....so much....." Gilda glared at the pony, Surprise reminded her of a certain somepony from Ponyville. A certain pink somepony.

That certain pink somepony was in the next room over. Her cell was different from the rest, it was soundproofed to the highest degree. Every sound in the room was coming from Pinkie, her heavy breathing, the contents of her stomach sloshing around, and it was all driving her mad. She tried getting out, she tried closing her ears, but that only made the silence louder. It only made her thoughts louder, and the madness quicken

The Sound of Madness

All at once, the doors opened, save one. The occupants looked out suspiciously...well...except Twilight, she was still paralyzed. When they saw it was safe, they all stepped out. The four Elements of Harmony, upon seeing each other, rushed out and entered a group hug. After several minutes of tight hugs and a lot of crying, even from RD even though she would never admit it, the group finally split up.

"Hold on, where is Twilight? Her and I were....taken together." Rarity looked around for their fearless leader, but saw no sign of her.

"Yeah, and I was with Pinkie..." Rainbow Dash added, sure she didn't say what they were doing when they were captured...but her friends didn't need to know that.

"Maybe she didn't come out...? You know Twilight." Good ol' Honest Applejack. She had a valid point, and they all knew it. So they went from room to room searching, then they came across the room with their friend inside. There she stood, stiff as a board, a shocked expression on her face.

"What's wrong with her..." The speedster of the group trotted over to their stiff friend and took a long look at her.

"Well, if I remember correctly, if you make a unicorn say their true name backwards, they seize up like this." Rarity circled her friend, when she spotted something on the floor and her friend's flank. "I say...what is this....?" The unicorn leaned down and sniffed the thick substance. "O-oh......oh my Celestia..." Rarity backed away, covering her mouth and threatening to throw up. The others, one by one, all looked to see what their friend was so grossed out by. When they saw it, they all joined their friend.

"Wh-who was sharing a cell with her...?" The mares looked out into the main room, there were only four males out there, so it had to be one of them. "It wasn't Thunderlane...I was with him." Rarity vouched for the pegasus who made her blood boil.

"I-it wasn't Butch, he's the big guy with the flower cutie mark..." The butter yellow pegasus spoke in favor of the shy stallion who shared the room with her.

"Ah was with Jazz, he's the smooth talker with the shades." Applejack pointed to the musician who was flirting with Spitfire in the center of the room. Their eyes all turned to Soarin, who was nowhere near anypony else, his eyes were cast downwards.

"No...he wouldn't.." Dash looked at her friends. "He wouldn't do that! H-He's Soarin! He would....never...do.....that." Dash knew her argument was futile. Her friends had the evidence and now they wanted blood. They stalked to their target, well Rarity and Applejack stalked, Fluttershy followed quietly. Right as they were a few feet away from the Wonderbolt second-in-commend, an orange orb formed in the middle of the room.

"Contestants! Gather 'round!" Rarity knew that voice, but the others didn't recognize it. It was the madpony's voice. All of the ponies did as they were told and gathered around the talking ball of magic. "Hello, Hello, Hello you lucky ponies....and Griffon." Gilda grunted. "I am Game Master, Master of Games. You all are contestants in my popular gameshow...." A drum roll came out of nowhere. "THE TESTING GROUNDS!" Nopony said anything, nopony even moved. Well, except for Gilda, who had her front claw balled up in a fist.

"What?!" Gilda half-roared, half-shrieked. "You aren't supposed to have Griffons on here! We're your customers!" The Testing Grounds was magically broadcast in Zebra territory, The Griffon Kingdoms, and in some parts of The Badlands. "This is unacceptable!" The orange orb in the middle zapped Gilda with a ball of lightning, the Griffon shrieked and fell to the ground, her body smoking. The other contestants just stared silently.

"Any other objections? No? Good." The voice was haughty and talked as though it was superior to them. "This is how this works, the games start in two days. Until then you will stay in this area, and each night you'll go to your little rooms with your little roommates." The four Elements looked at each other, already forming plans in their heads about protecting Twilight. "But of course, you have to stay in the room we placed you in. Sorry, it's a cautionary thing, wouldn't want you fraternizing with others where we can't hear you." Everypony in the room already hated this orb. He was mean, crazy, and self-centered. "So....any questions?" The voice just chirped happily.

"Yeah, where's Pinkie Pie?" Rainbow Dash spoke up.

"Who? Oh, the pink one. Yeeaah...sorry, can't let you see her. She's very special in these little games!"

"Can't one of us visit her? Just one..?" Rainbow Dash was truly worried about her friend and lover. Pinkie Pie didn't do well alone.

"Hmmm....very well. Just one, and since you said something, you volunteered!" A door opened on the far side of the room. "Go on now, get!" Rainbow Dash nodded to her friends then trotted to the door. She stepped in. She was in a hallway, a bright light above her. The door behind her closed and sounded like it pressurized. The room was silent, too silent. She could hear her own breath, her own heart thumping loudly in her ears. Finally, the door opened in front of her.

In the middle of the bright green room was Pinkie Pie. She was facing away from the door, but she turned when it opened. Her mane was half-curly, Half-straight. One side of her face was smiling, the other crying.

"Sh-She's so loud...." Dash quickly made her way over to her friend. "W-Why won't she be quiet? W-why...?"

See, Pinkie was one of the original candidates for this episode of the show due to her extreme psychosis. Split personality disorder. Isolation with such a thing would cause one to go mad, maybe even murderously psychotic.

"Pinkie....Pinkie..it's me, Rainbow Dash..." The blue mare wrapped her hooves around her lover. "I-I'm here, it's okay...It's okay." A hoof stroked the pink one's mane lovingly.

"GM, are you sure this is a good idea?" Harlequin opposed of this to the utmost degree, but Game Master just wouldn't listen. "What if they refuse to fight?"

"They won't. You see, this love story is so marvelously sappy!" The insane unicorn hoisted his cane high. "When they're the last two, which they will be, we'll lock them in a room, and either they kill each other...or..." His microphone cane tapped his chin.

"Or what? They'll refuse to fight." Harlequin saw no point in this.

"Or we'll simply kill their child...."

"They don't have a child-"

"-yet! They don't have a child yet. Get me R&D up here, PRONTO!" Game Master cackled gleefully as he watched a magical projection of the two lovers in the sound-proof cell.

Wake Up and Smell the Insanity

Rainbow had stayed up all night, helping to bring her friend down from her....severe mental state. Pinkie had eventually quit crying about halfway through the night, and had started to become coherent and responsive just a few minutes ago. Now, she had her head buried in Rainbow's mane, taking deep breaths.

'It's alright Pinkie...it's alright...I'm here." Words of comfort had been flowing from her mouth and into Pinkie's ear all night, soft tones and good intentions whispered from her lips.

"I....I...R-Rainbow Dash.....don't...don't leave me with her again..." Pinkie was clinging to her like a life-raft on stormy waters. She didn't want to let go, and she wasn't going to anytime soon. "Don't let her get me..."

"Shh...I won't let her get you. I won't....y'know why...? Because I love you..." Her lips met Pinkie's forehead in a soft, gentle kiss. "And I promise that I won't let anything ever hurt you..." A promise to Pinkie was a promise for life...Rainbow just wished that it wouldn't cost one of them a life.

The door opened with a soft hissing sound. Both mares turned and looked at it, the chamber was empty and as barren as they came.

"Out. Now. You two need your exercise just as much as the others." This voice, instead of being the maniacal male from yesterday, was a stern female. Rainbow Dash stood and Pinkie stood with her, still hanging on for dear life. The pink mare's eyes were dangerously wide, taking in every detail in case some of the voices decided to talk to her again from out of nowhere

"Hey...it'll be fine. All of our friends are out there.." Rainbow Dash nuzzled her smaller friend's mane and pulled her into the chamber between doors. When the door behind them hissed closed, Pinkie started freaking out. Her breaths became shallow and rapid, her pupils dilated, and she began to sweat. "Pinkie...Calm down...please." After a few words of encouragement, the mare stabilized. Then the door opened.

Jazz had been leaning against the door before it opened. He hit the floor in front of them with a thud, which made Pinkie cling to Dash tighter. The gold and blue unicorn just looked up at them from behind his sunglasses...a moment passed, then he smiled.

"Two mares gettin' close in a closet? I can dig that." Dash glared down at him and simply stepped over him, making sure to land a strong hoof right in his stomach. Pinkie practically levitated over him, which caused the colt to give a whistle. "Damn..."

"Pinkie! Rainbow!" The three mares that were in the main room rushed over and hugged them. Pinkie tried to avoid the hugs, pushing away what she could and avoiding the rest.

"Are y'all okay...?" Applejack hugged Pinkie close and stroked the pink mare's mane, trying to get her to calm down. "They didn't hurt'cha did they?" Pinkie relaxed and leaned into her country friend.

"It was really quiet in there." Rainbow commented. "I could hear my stomach...It was crazy. No wonder she's like this." Rainbow sat down, then Pinkie let go of AJ and sat beside her, nuzzling her rainbow friend. "Aaand...she's still clingy..."

A loud whirring sound filled the room, every prisoner turned to the center of the room. A circular platform lowered from the ceiling, on it two figures stood. One in a purple vest and a matching hat, the other was a pony with a red and black coat. The one in tacky purple get-up, tapped a cane on the platform with magic. The crowd just watched.

"Hello, Hello, Hello My Little Ponies!" They all know the voice, it was the one from the orange orb. Maddeningly gleeful, insane. 11 pairs of eyes turned into glares, Pinkie was too busy whispering sweet nothings into Rainbow's ear. "Awww, you're not happy to see me? Well you've never actually seen me, but you could still be happy to see me for the first time!" Once the platform was close enough to the ground, the mad unicorn hopped off and stepped forward. "Game Master's the name! This lovely lady behind me is Harlequin!" His cane pointed to the red, black, and blonde unicorn who didn't look happy at all. "Speaking of...Harls, will you please go fetch our last guest?" The mare rolled her eyes and went to go fetch Twilight. She came out of the room, Twilight held aloft by magic. "Faaaantastic!"

"Alright, y'all got some questions to answer!" Twilight was sat down right beside Applejack. "Like why are we here?"

"Well paint me blue and call me baby!" Game Master did a really bad southern accent, clearly poking fun at AJ. The mare just furrowed her brow. "Ah reckon that we all are wonderin' what we're doin' here!" He trotted right over to Applejack and tapped her head with his cane. "How about you be a dear and keep that freckled trap shut...that accent is going to drive me mad......er."

"Ah ain't got no accent....everypony else has an accent..." The farmer grumbled under her breath and kicked the ground idly.

"Right! Now that everyone is gathered here....Harls, if you would be so kind as to use our newly acquired spell to free Ms.Sparkle." The mare, Harlequin, closed her eyes. Her red horn glowed a brilliant yellow, the glow then engulfed Twilight. After a bright flash and the other contestants complaining about the flash being too bright, Twilight's eyes and mouth moved. First the Element of magic took a deep breath, then fell to her front knees. In the next moment, something frightening happened: Twilight got up, bolted over to Soarin, headbutted him to the ground, then placed her hoof right on the sack beneath his sheathe.

"Y-You...you....I will destroy you..." The mare's eyes were akin to the fires of Tartarus, her gaze could penetrate solid concrete, her nostrils flared with every breath. "You're lucky this thing is on my horn......or else you wouldn't have a thing. Do I make myself clear...?" The stallion, his sexual future beneath the hoof of an angry mare, nodded rapidly. "And if you ever touch me again, I'll make sure you never fly...are we clear?" He nodded again and she raised her hoof, then quickly and quietly made her way over to her friends.

"So much drama! Absolutely delicious!" The madpony cackled gleefully. "This is a good batch. I can sense it already!" After a minute straight of his insane laughing, he calmed down. "Right-o. Onto business. Tomorrow the Preliminary Round begins! 'What's that?' you may ask.....well, shut up. You ask a lot of questions. You will all wake up tomorrow in a different place, and you must.....survive in that place. Are we clear?" Several contestants opened their minds as though to speak, but Game Master cut them off. "Good!" The tacky pony stepped back onto the circular platform and tipped his hat to them all. "Good night~!" Harlequin followed them, and soon the platform raised back into the ceiling. Leaving the ponies(and griffon) to talk about the encounter.

Qualifying Round (Part One)

All around the Griffin and Changeling Kingdoms families gathered around the crystal balls in their living rooms. Everyone's favorite game show was starting soon and no one wanted to miss it. As soon as the clock struck noon the crystal balls would pick up the magical signal that was spread throughout the world via amplifiers and unicorns who duplicated the signal and re-sent it. It was a complex system that cost a lot of money, but if you wanted to see The Testing Grounds then you would pay for it.

"Hello and welcome to the third annual Testing Grounds!" The sound came before the visuals, a fanfare played as the picture came through. "I am, as always, Game Master!" The unicorn lofted his cane high and gave a toothy grin to the audience. "With me I have my co-commentator, the amazing, the great, the powerful, the Trixie!" The image panned to a blue unicorn with a silver mane. She had a cocky grin on her face, probably from the compliments.

"Trixie thanks you Game Master, and welcomes all of you out there to this year's games." The Game Master put a hoof around Trixie's shoulder.

"I hear that you have a bit of an ax to grind with one of the contestants?" Trixie frowned, which only made the unicorn in the top hat smile even wider.

"Yes. Trixie's worst enemy Twilight Sparkle is in this year's games...her and her friends....the Elements of Harmony." All throughout the various kingdoms, families cheered or booed at the mention of the heroes, both were acceptable responses seeing as how Equestria wasn't much liked around the world. After all, if one country had power over the thing that made life possible, not many countries would be happy.

"That is correct Trixie...we also have another special contestant. The Griffin pony-lover herself, the traitor of the Griffin Kingdom..." His voice became deeper and darker. "Gilda..." That caused many Griffins to screech with victory, their retribution was here. The Griffin who had sold state secrets to the Equestrians was being brought to...well not justice, but killed in cold blood. That was just as good. "How about we get onto our first contestant? As always, we will first do the qualifying round where they will face their worst fears." Trixie nodded along. "Who do we have first?"

"His name is Jazz Crescendo, a musician from the seedier parts of Canterlot." The image cut to a gold and blue unicorn sitting in the middle of a fake jazz club. The unicorn was simply sitting on the stage, a trumpet to his lips. A lively tune spilled from the bell of the brass instrument, it made most people watching start idly tapping their hooves or claws. "Shall we see what he fears?" The tune turned sour, each note he hit went either flat or sharp, sweat started forming on his brow and the trumpet's keys started to stick. Then a pony materialized in the empty seats in front of the stage, the pony was the same color as Jazz's mane, her mane was a dull pastel pink.

"Why do you put so much time into this poppycock, Starfall? You'll never be a famous musician, just give up and become a farmer like your father!" The older mare shook her hoof at the colt on stage. He was clearly nervous now, the trumpet wasn't even touching his lips anymore, it was merely hovering in front of him. "You're terrible! I told you so!" Other figures started appearing in the crowd, booing the musician on-stage. Jazz was clearly shaking now.

In the world of The Testing Grounds, Jazz was called a 'ratings net' He wasn't chosen to win, he wasn't chosen to be brutal. He was chosen to make the audience laugh and come back for more.

"N-n-no! I swear I'm good...! I-I know I am!" Jazz collapsed on the ground, visibly shaking and sobbing. The camera cut back to the commentators.

"Disgraceful, just disgraceful." Game Master shook his head in disappointment. "I expected more from him, perhaps something murderous and terrifying. Not hilarious and pitiful." Trixie nodded as he spoke.

"Yes, Trixie wishes to see at least one death in this qualifier to start the games off right. Speaking of, shall we refresh the viewers on how we obtain the fears?" The showmare smiled at her co-commentator.

"Of course! Right after the break from our sponsors!" Harlequin gave a yell from across the room that the break had started. Both Game Master and Trixie sneered at each other. "You are insufferable..."

"Trixie thinks that you are the insufferable one!" The mare stuck her nose up.

"Hey, it's called a pronoun, ever heard of it?" Trixie simply glared harder, as if she were a cockatrice and he was her prey. In other words, murderously. "Start usin' them, or else I'm throwing you in there, got it?" An orange glow could be seen through the worn fabric of his purple top hat. That made Trixie back down from the hat.

"Fine...I will quit referring to myself in third pony...but only if you take off that ridiculous hat!" She pointed at the fashion disaster that sat upon his head.

"No."

"Fine..." Trixie had nothing to hang over him to make him agree to anything, so she always caved in negotiations.

"We're back in ten." Game Master's assistant called out. The commentators both put on the best smiles they could. Game Master's was maniacal, Trixie's was insincere. "And go!"

"Hello all! We're back! Now, Trixie, you asked me to refresh the viewers on our methods of creating the qualifier?" The blue unicorn responded in the affirmative. "Well right after we acquire them, and when they're still knocked out, we bring in myself, or another powerful unicorn to do a little mind reading spell. We search until we can find their most deep-seeded fears, then we make it all happen with a little magic~!" He gave his hooves a little flourish, causing sparkles to appear in front of him, even Trixie thought it was cheesy.

"Up next we have none other than the Captain of the Wonderbolts, Spitfire!" The camera cut to a sleeping orange pony in the middle of a black room. "What? She's sleeping? Well, we'll just have to fix that..." A spotlight shone down on the pegasus, she slowly woke up and shielded her eyes from the offending light with a dirty hoof. "She doesn't look too good, does she Game Master?"

"No, No she does not. Kind of like you Trixie..." That earned him a quick glare, then a fake chuckle.

"Yes, of course..." The camera cut back to Spitfire, who was now back up on her hooves. She looked frail, her eyes were sunken and dark, her once fiery mane was nothing but dying embers now. She had been fed properly and given enough sleep just like her partner, except one thing was different. She had given up hope. "Let's see what we have in store for her."

The rest of the lights turned on in the room, now Spitfire was standing on a pedestal and the floor was covered in snakes of all shapes, sizes, and species. As soon as the once proud pegasus saw the slithering serpents, she screamed.

"S-S-S-SNAKES! W-Why'd it have to be snakes?!" She was shaking, her pupils dilated in fear. The devils in disguise started try and get up on the platform, one made it fairly close to her hoof. That caused her to shriek and kick it off. More and more of them were starting to work their way up to her. The mare, seeing how deep she was in, froze. Her eyes sparked with a realization, some viewers may have said it was her regaining hope, others may have said it was her realizing that she was going to die. Truth be told? It was the latter. Spitfire stood up on her hind legs, spread her front ones out, then fell into the pit of her worst nightmare.

As the snakes slithered across her, bit her, and constricted her, the faint voice of Game Master could be heard over the PA system.

"Remember, it's just a magical illusion. It can only hurt you if you believe it's real~" By that time however it was too late. The snakes flickered away and a severely bitten and blue Spitfire lay in the middle of the floor. "Oh dear! It seems like dear Spitfire is injured! Quick, someone fetch a medic!" That elicited a snort and laugh from Game Master, and most likely the whole audience. "Right, NEXT!" His cane rose up from the ground and tapped a button on the wall, causing the floor to swallow the body of the fallen Wonderbolt.

"Well, the first death of the games. You know what this calls for?" All of the viewers across the lands all shouted at the same time with Trixie. "AUCTION TIME!" Trixie gave the widest grin she could. "That's right, over the commercial break we'll be offering the fallen contestant's possessions up to you as souvenirs! You know how to buy!" Harlequin yelled cut once again and GM straightened his hat.

"Knew she would die. How in the hell did she become a soldier, by the way? Such a weak thing. I could make a better soldier." The maniacal unicorn removed his vest and hat, setting them on the table.

"You wouldn't have passed the psych eval..."

"Oh Trixie, I have before~" He gave that familiar toothy grin, which caused Trixie to question her own state of mind. She was sitting next to possibly the most powerful and dangerous stallion in the whole world, she did this each year, but why? Was it out of fear? No, it was something more. She wasn't afraid of these silly games, she could win them in a hoofbeat. Was it out of pride? No, she regained that some time ago. It was out of attraction. His power, his insanity, his dominating nature. They all made Trixie quiver in her cape with pleasure.

"Okay, it's all gone." The red and black unicorn called from the other side of the room. Most items went quick, but apparently this Wonderbolt gear sold like hotcakes at quite a high price. "Places." GM put his hat and vest back on, he even made sure to tip his hat slightly off balance to make him look more endearing.

"Helooooo once again audience! Coming up next we have a very special contestant for you. One you all know and despise. Can we bring her out?" The camera cut to yet another room down on the floor, this one had a lone griffin in it, she was yelling and cussing, Her dulled talons clacked against the hard floor with every step she took.

"Let me out of here you psychos!" She yelled at the blank walls, perhaps thinking that the ponies running the games cared. "C'mon! I was a customer for years!"

"What this contestant forgets Trixie, is that I don't care..." Game Master whispered it into the microphone, then raised his cane and tapped it once on the ground. In almost an instant, the room below changed. Fires erupted from the floor and spirit like entities came out of the wall. Gilda just stood there, clearly unimpressed.

"I know how your games work, maniac. None of this scares me!" For the first time in a long time, Game Master was speechless. Most contestants who knew the stuff was fake would still be afraid, after all it's pony nature....then it hit him. Gilda wasn't a pony, this wasn't the right way to scare a predator....this was also a way to keep the Griffin viewers hooked. Don't let her die early, drag her appearance out.

"Hmm...Looks like Ms. Gilda is now in first place for the qualifier! You know what that means?" Game Master poked Trixie with his cane, making sure to get her slightly pudgy stomach just to annoy her further.

"No, No I don't..."

"Neither do I! This is truly the first time one of our contestants hasn't been struck with some form of fear, I'm sure that whatever she gets for doing this one-time thing will probably not be as good as she hoped!" Game Master held his grin, but on the inside his rage was boiling. He hated when something didn't go as planned. With a tap of his cane, the lights in the room dimmed, the camera cut back to him and Trixie, and Gilda was quickly removed from the arena. "COMMERCIAL!" Halequin nodded and did as he yelled.

As soon as she signaled that he was clear, the colt threw his hat down on the ground, and jumped on it several times. He was yelling, but his words were intelligible. His face turned a bright red and his teeth were grinding together so hard that both mares in the room thought that might turn into a fine powder right there. After a straight minute of this, he finally calmed down, popped his tattered hat back into it's original position, and placed it back on his head.

"Better?" Trixie knew it was probably not wise to talk with him at the moment, but she couldn't stop her condescending nature.

"No." He replied through clenched teeth. "Harlequin, don't even cut to us. Straight to the contestant, go it?" His assistant nodded and instructed the 'camera crew' on what to do.

When the program came back from commercial, the camera was already on the floor. The room was in the shape of a schoolroom now, little fillies and colts sat in the desks, all unicorns. The fake foals were all chatting idly, but one thing was out of place in the room. In the middle desk was a full grown mare. Her lavender head was on the desk, she was sleeping.

Back up in the booth, Harlequin pointed at Trixie. That was her cue. The showmare vanished in a puff of sparkly blue smoke. She then appeared behind the teacher's desk in the classroom below, she was also now wearing a pair of stylish glasses with her mane done up in a bun.

"MS.SPARKLE!"

The Element of Magic shot up in her seat, drool trailing from her mouth to the desk. Her bright purple eyes looked around and took in every detail of the room. She recognized it immediately, it was her worst nightmare, it was the one thing she never wanted to happen.

"M-M-Magic kindergarten...?" She asked hesitantly, then she saw the teacher. "No..." Trixie smiled at her.

"Oh yes, Twilight Sparkle. And now it's time to give back the tests." Twilight closed her eyes tightly and wished she wasn't there. It's all just a dream is what she was hoping and thinking, but her anxiety was still getting the best of her. She cracked an eye open: Trixie was giving the tests back to the students, as she went Twilight's breathing got deeper and more labored. Then the teacher stopped in front of her.

"I'm very disappointed in you, Twilight Sparkle...." The piece of paper landed on her desk, she didn't want to look at, but she had to. She glanced at it.

B+

Now to most ponies, a B Plus was a good thing, but to Twilight Sparkle it was the worst possible thing. She was the personal protege of Princess Celestia herself, she was the future of Equestria, she couldn't afford a B plus! She couldn't even afford an A minus!

"No...No...." She was getting that involuntary nervous tick in her neck again. Her hooves started stroking her mane, another nervous habit. "This can't be happening....this ISN'T happening.."

"Sparkle, would you like to show us a simple levitation spell? If you can do this, I'll bump your grade up to an A plus~" Trixie gave a malicious grin, she knew that Twilight still had the magic inhibitor on her horn, but Twilight's mind was too cluttered and worried to remember that little tidbit.

"Levitation? I can do levitation, I can do levitation in my sleep, which I'm about to do." A nervous chuckle followed. Twilight closed her eyes and focused on her horn, all of her magical energy focused on a singular point...and nothing happened. "W-What..?" She tried again. Nothing. Then again. Nope. Once more. No dice. "No...I know I can do this! I-I know I can!" Trixie shook her head in disappointment.

"I'm sorry Twilight Sparkle, but it looks like you'll have to repeat Magic Kindergarten."

"NOOOOOOO!" The unicorn collapsed on her desk and started to sob loudly. With that, the room darkened and the camera cut back to Game Master.

"Well well, the egghead who is no good in school. That's new." There was a slight pause. "NEXT CONTESTANT!" he gave the camera a grin. "This next pony is a personal favorite of mine, I got her out of an asylum in Baltimare. Diagnosis: Pyromania. That's right, this pony wants to burn the world down....but want to know the catch? She's a pegasus. Can't even strike a match or use a lighter without damn near setting herself on fire.....onto the nutjob!" Trixie appeared next to him in another flamboyant show of magic, she let her mane out of the bun and let it drape down to her shoulders.

The hyper-active pegasus was already awake, wide eyed, and bushy tailed. Quite literally. Her tail was unkempt and frizzy, just like her mane. Her bright yellow eyes took in every detail in the room with extreme interest. One thing the other ponies hadn't seen on the pony was that around her hooves and snout, a black soot had formed from years of smoke and burns. It was so bad that not even the strongest or longest baths could get rid of them.

"Ooh! Is this part of the games? I like games. I like fire too! Does this game involve fire? I hope so! I love fire. It's all" Her voice deepened. "Rawr i'm fire! I'm mean and hurtful!" Her voice went into an unusually high falsetto for a mare. "I'm also beautiful and I love you Ember!" She bounced a little and tried to flap her bound wings. "Wanna know how I know that fire loves me? It's right here on my flank see?" She pointed to her cutie mark, which was a single flame. The lights all turned on around her and revealed that she was on a platform in a huge pond. "W-W-Water!" The mare bounced from hoof to hoof, her pupils were extremely dilated and she started to breathe heavily. "DON'T LET IT TOUCH ME! I'LL GO OUT!"

Every single audience member laughed at the neurotic pegasus.

As if she could hear them, she glared at the 'camera' and yelled. "DON'T LAUGH AT ME!" Some water sloshed up on the platform and touched her hoof. She screamed and her hoof seemed to smoke. The platform moved again, which caused a wave of water to hit Ember straight on. As it did, her mane sent off a plume of white smoke and it turned a charcoal black. "AHHHHH! I-I'M OUT!" Of course, this was all a trick. her mane was still bright red, and there was no smoke. Just another illusion meant to bring out the extreme psychosis of the mare. "SWEET CELESTIA I ACTUALLY WENT OUT!" She was freaking out now, her hooves ran through her mane, her wings tried to break free, and the audience could basically hear her heart thump in her chest. Then something happened.

She fell over, clutching her chest.

"Diagnosis Dr.Game Master?" Trixie asked. The camera cut to the creator of the games, he was now wearing surgeon scrubs, an operating mask and had rubber gloves on his hooves.

"Cardiac arrest. As always when this happens, we will pull her out and see if she survives. You can pay a little extra and catch a live feed of our psychotic friend after the show to see if she makes it or not! After all, if you're not watching when she dies, you wont get to participate in the auction!" The fake surgeon exclaimed joyfully. "And boy, she has some interesting stuff." At that point, most of the audience members agreed to buy the additional footage so they could catch the auction. "As always, now we have our-" He was cut off by Trixie.

"NEXT CONTESTANT!" The colt glared at the obnoxious showmare, then the camera cut away from them. A circular platform raised up from the ground, on it was the fastest filly in Equestria. Rainbow Dash. Her magenta eyes were strong, resilient. She held an air of confidence and poise.

"Alright, give me your best shot!" She growled up at the ceiling. She hated being away from Pinkie Pie for even a second, and Dash hadn't seen her pink friend all day. Was she okay? Was she freaking out? Was she all alone in that room again? Every single worry flowed through the mare's mind freely.

"Oh...we'll give you our very best..." GM's voice came from the PA system again. "In fact, thanks to our good friends at 'Game Master Genetics LLC', we have something very special for you. Grown in a day, made from the spliced DNA of you and another special somepony." Across the room a box was illuminated, in it was the most perfect foal that Rainbow Dash had ever seen.

The little foal had a poofy mane with a few rainbow stripes through it, her coat was a light magenta color and two like colored wings were folded against her back. Dash immediately connected the dots. It was hers...and Pinkie's. She fell on her haunches and just stared. She was dumbfounded, on one hoof she wanted to hug the little thing because of how cute she was, on the other...she was created in a lab....and should be regarded as such.

"But that's not all!" On the opposite side of the room another box lit up. Inside it sat Pinkie Pie. She looked scared, lonely, and confused. That hurt Dash's heart, right down to the core. "Now, you can only have one. Choose wisely....because the one you don't choose....well, lets just say their end will be shocking." Dash could practically hear his malicious grin.

The rainbow mare looked between the two captives. She knew the foal was manufactured, but she was still just a little filly, letting her die would be wrong....but Pinkie...Dash loved Pinkie. She couldn't let her die. She had to choose: loyalty to her morals, or loyalty to her love.

"I....I..." She closed her eyes tightly in thought, a single tear escaped. "I'm sorry Pinkie...." The speedster stood, and trotted over to the box with the filly. Her hoof pushed the little door open and pulled the little filly out by her poofy tail. Dash looked right in her eyes. "H-Hi there...." Screaming erupted from behind her, she knew the scream, she'd heard it before. That was also the reason she couldn't look. Just the idea, the thought of her love dying made her hug the little filly harder. "O-Oh Celestia...what have I done....?"

"Well, there you have it folks. Join us next week for the conclusion of the qualifying round." The broadcast cut off and went to the monitoring screen for Ember.

And Now A Word From Our Sponsors

The floor beneath Rainbow dash started to lower, as it did the foal in her grasp dissolved into orange magic. Her eyes went wide, once the realization hit her, fear and sadness turned into rage and anguish. She had been tricked, at least by the foal...she still wasn't sure about Pinkie. So that hurt.

"I....I'll kill that maniac!" Her eyes burned with the fury of a mare scorned. She had never been betrayed so badly! The platform she was standing on touched solid ground. After a quick glance, she realized that she was back in the room with all of the holding cells. Some of the other contestants were there as well....but one important pony was missing.

Gilda was sitting in a corner, looking down on the fallen form of a white pegasus. Dash didn't know who that pegasus was, and right now...she didn't care. Twilight Sparkle was curled up in a corner, stroking her tail and calling herself a good pony, Jazz was simply leaning against a wall, not talking.

Rainbow simply strode past them all and looked in her room, no Spitfire, no Pinkie Pie. One place down...another to go. She backed out then went to Pinkie's door, it was locked. She pressed her hoof against it, nothing. She hated that room, so quiet. So ridiculously quiet.

Dash, deciding that it was a lost cause for now, went over to Twilight. She sat beside the unicorn and stroked her mane idly, it seemed to calm down the egghead just a little. Her purple eyes connected with Dash's magenta ones.

"R-Rainbow...?" Dash just nodded and gave a kind smile. "N-No magic kindergarten...?" The pegasus responded with a shake of her head.

"No Twilight...just...consider it a bad dream..." She look towards the hole she came down from. "That's all this place is, one big nightmare..."

"You're despicable...you know that?" Game Master had Trixie pinned to a wall in the hallway. He snarled at her between clenched teeth. "You're so annoying...so obnoxious...so....damn beautiful..." This happened every year, the two would bicker and fight, and eventually give in to each other.

"Says the ego-maniacal, insane, sociopath...who happens to have the best damn smile I've ever seen..." The mare responded with a sneer.....a moment of silent occurred, then Game Master captured Trixie's mouth in a passionate kiss. The two battled for dominance over the lip lock, several times the colt slammed Trixie into the wall in order to gain her subservience. These acts continued for a few minutes before he finally pulled her away with magic.

"My room...5 minutes. Be there or else..." Game Master skulked off to his room, leaving Trixie to stare at him, biting her lip in anticipation.

Harlequin was down in the holding cells with the contestant, it was her job to check up on them all and to make sure they were fit enough to continue...and if they weren't...well, a quick bolt of magic to the head works wonders. She was currently inspecting the one in the worst condition, Ember, the pony had suffered a minor heart attack. She was breathing and seemed fine, but she had now developed a slight arrhythmia that had not been there before. She would be fine, she would also be easier to kill now.

"Right, she's fine. The hyper little thing will be back up in no time." She stood and glanced at the ponies around her. They didn't seem hostile towards her, which was a good thing. Harlequin may be the only one down there that had her full abilities, but they had numbers...no matter how shaken up some of them were. "Are you alright? You took a bad spill." The red and black mare addressed the purple unicorn.

"Yeah...I'll be fine. I have had worse...episodes. Trust me." The mare trotted away, clearly dejected. That always happened, they didn't trust her just because she worked here. She didn't want to...hell, nopony did. it was just the luck of the draw.

"I'm surprised only one of you died..." Harlequin noted aloud, she didn't think anypony would care, but one contestant took notice and blocked her path to the elevator. She recognized this one, the lesbian who had been caught making out with the pink one.

"Who died...?"

"I need to get back upstairs, move." The assistant tried to step around the pegasus, but she was blocked once more.

"Who. Died?"

"Spitfire, the Wonderbolt captain. Snake bites." Everypony was silent for a minute, then the rainbow one spoke up again.

"That means she's still alive."

Harlequin disregarded the statement and made her way to the platform, but surprise surprise, she was stopped again. This time by the musician.

"Hold up right there kitty cat...I think we deserve a little explanation." He lowered his glasses, his colbalt eyes stared at her intently. "Now I'm not sure who you think you are, or who your crazy pal upstairs thinks he is, but we aren't playthings." He didn't talk in the slang she had studied so she could understand him properly.

"No, you're not playthings in the real world. Here, everypony is his plaything. Here, rules don't apply. He makes the rules, and much like Las Pegasus, the house always wins." She sighed and sat down, the others, sans Gilda, gathered around. "I was in the games once...I was in the very first one actually, ten years ago. I won...and he let me go...I kinda told the cops on him, he got arrested....and sent to a psychiatric ward. Three years ago he busted out and kidnapped me. he planned on killing me, but instead, he decided that I would help him with this...monstrosity." She furrowed her brow at the many innocent ponies she had to kill over the years, their blood still stained her coat.

"Can't you just...leave?" The purple one, Twilight Sparkle, asked.

"No. After he kidnapped me he performed a binding spell....and a transformation spell." A deep sigh escaped her mouth, years of work and repressed feelings coming up. "He made me look like this, his Joker in a sick deck of cards...even covered my cutie mark in the process." She gave a bitter chuckle. "Funny, I don't even remember what it was anymore...years of working with a madpony will do that to you..."

"Can't you break the binding spell? It should be simple, just isolate yourself from the leylines so the connection can't reach you." Oh, what a brilliant young unicorn. But foolhardy as well.

"No. I've tried, trust me.The only way is death...and I'm going to see my family before I die. That's the sad part, I'm...a villain to every contestant who comes here, I'm a bad guy. When really..I'm a prisoner, just like them."