Testing

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.