The Game

Beyond the reaches of space and time sat three beings of great power. The first was a sizeable radiant crystal that radiated a feeling of calm. This creature could be mistaken as another with great power whose affinity is Light. The second being is a creature of Darkness that spreads mayhem and destruction whatever it goes. Its form was a single eye that just floated there unblinking. Oddly enough, it follows strict guidelines and will punish those who overstep their station. Respectively these two creatures are called Elria god of Light, and Henir, the god of Darkness.

The final creature sat there with a scowl on her face. Unlike the other two, she took the form of a living creature. It was a white alabaster alicorn with a disheveled dark red mane. Her Cutie mark took the form of an inkwell with a quill sticking out of it. While not the strongest out there, she is respected for her ingenuity and ability to think outside the box. She is better known as Faust, the god of Creativity.

Out of the three, Faust was the first to break the silence. "I suppose I was too hasty with my decision?" When she didn't receive an answer, she continued. "But you must understand, the world was dying and beyond saving."

Elria finally spoke up, and she wasn't amused. "It doesn't matter; I created that world." The goddess's voice could only be described as a chorus with a feminine undertone. "And if you had checked, you would have found that there was still a single human being and an El shard."

The Alicorn's scowl deepened at the Giant Crystal's words. "Yet, you let it fall to such disarray!" Faust took a calming breath, not wanting to lose her temper. "No, it's not your fault; it's Human nature, after all."

If she could, Elria would be sneering at Faust right now. Instead, she kept the same flat, monotone voice. "It's none of my business what choice my children make; all I can do is guide them best as I can and lead them to a better tomorrow. And you shouldn't talk so highly of your ponies." Elria's voices took a certain edge to it as she continued. "I know of your earlier failures with Equestria." Faust audibly gulped; she thought she hid those worlds well enough. "The most well-known of them was the psychotic pink pony making cupcakes out of her friends. And the Equestria that had fallen into war and became an irradiated wasteland."

"I GET IT!" Faust slammed her hooves on the table the three sat around. "Okay, I get it!" She closed her eyes and took another calming breath. "I was too hasty when I made those worlds if I could have gone back and fixed my mistakes." But she couldn't, and there were rules she had to follow. Still, even if she could erase a world, the Alicorn didn't have the heart for it. Using her magic, Faust tried fixing her messy mane. " We're getting off track." She looked to her fellow gods and narrowed her eyes. "Seeing how I meddled with a dying world, and the two of you aren't willing to relinquish your hold over it."

"..."

"..."

The two simply stayed silent, causing Faust to give an exasperated sigh. "We're still stuck playing this stupid game." Rules were Rules, after all. As callous it would be, she hoped the raven-haired Human died in that pod. She had nothing against the poor man... That was a lie; the mare had a lot of things against him, one of them being his cruelty. Still, Faust had to give the mortal some credit; he hadn't killed one of her little ponies yet. If anything, he has gone out of his way to help them.

Truthfully, she didn't care if she won or lost this stupid game; as long as her little ponies survived the coming storm, she would be satisfied. While the mare found the floating crystal stubborn, she was reasonable, unlike her dark counterpart. Henir had earned the Alicorn's ire with his corruption of Twilight Sparkle and the near corruption of the tree of Harmony. Worst of all, the god of darkness was an enigma, refusing to speak with anyone.

If this game wasn't bad enough, they had spectators. To the side were the various deities and otherworldly creatures from all over looking for entertainment.

"Another foolish Human, this will be fun." Said a yellow two-dimensional triangular creature with a single eye. For some reason, it wore a tophat.

"I wonder what his willing to exchange for his end goal?" Said creature with a vaguely humanoid shape. The only visible feature was its grinning mouth.

"Elria is lucky to have such an obedient mortal servant." This came from a stunning woman who could make any man weak in the knees. She looked like a stereotypical goddess with her blond hair, blue eyes, angel wings, curvy body, and robes that didn't cover enough of her body. The goddess covered her mouth with a single hand to stifle a laugh. "Reminds me of a certain fake hero."

"Where the hell is the booze at!?" The others didn't pay attention to the goddess with aqua blue hair and a mini skirt. No one wanted to waste their words on the useless goddess.

"It seems he has another self, A shame I couldn't be there so it could manifest." These words came from a man wearing a white coat and mask with a butterfly pattern on it.

"Hmph! At least this one shows respect to a higher being, unlike a certain atheist I know," said a man that looked like a stereotypical depiction of God. He had white hair and a full beard and everything. Everyone ignored the arrogant, full who managed to get in trouble with the higher-ups.

"Such extreme grief; if only he were female, he would have made an excellent witch." The voice came from a cat-like creature with snow-white fur. While cute, others around it considered it a parasite, but the tiny animal didn't care.

"Even though his soul is stained, his hope burns bright."The goddess who said this clasped her hands together and prayed for Raven. A human turned magical girl turned goddess was praying for a Human; it was a strange sight. Maybe Raven reminded her of another particular raven-haired Human.

"Let's see if this Human can impress." Said a white-haired female demon with horns; she wore a fancy black suit and was drinking red wine out of a glass. Her name was lucy, and she is one of the many lucifers across space and time.

There were many more like them, angels, demons, eldritch abomination, and more. Any creature that could cross the boundary was here. They all came here with one thing on their mind, entertainment.

Faust's scowl returned with a vengeance as she saw how many came to watch this game. "Why are there so many people here?" Maybe 'people' was a strong word considering what some of them are. The alicorn couldn't help but notice that some of these deities had messed with her worlds at some point. Before the alicorn goddess voiced her disdain, someone interrupted her.

"Because it's such a rare occurrence!" Everyone's attention was brought to Glave, who looked rather roughed up if his clothes were any indication. "Sorry for the wait, everyone; I was dealing with a pesky draconequus." With a snap of his fingers, his clothes were repaired, and he was holding a deck of cards. "I wanted to kill him, but that would be against the rules, so you'll see the annoying welp soon enough."

The former Human started shuffling the deck and gave Faust an eye smile. "To fully answer your question, this world has been flung off its timeline, and its future is uncertain." Excited murmurs broke in the crowd. "No redos, resets, going back in time, or going into the future. Truly a rare occurrence."

"Twilight Sparkle has already used the time-traveling spell," Faust said in confusion.

"While true, that was before the game started; now, if someone uses said spell, they'll receive a very harsh penalty." Glave made his way towards the table and started passing out cards.

Faust bit her lower lip in frustration. "This game started because you gave that foal that cube! If you hadn't, Raven would have died in peace."

Glave snorted in amusement. "I got my orders from the big man upstairs, and I'm not talking about Henir." Normally the man would be busy to- testing snot nose brats to do anything else, but he received orders to prepare the game for a dying world. " If Raven hadn't woken up, Eve would have eventually gotten free and killed everyo- Whoops. I mean EVERYPONY." This caused the alicorn's scowl to deepen even further, somehow.

"The elements could have taken care of her," Faust said indignantly.

"Ah yes, six colorful ponies with little to no battle experience taking on an insane machine." Glave deadpanned. "It would have been a bloodbath. And before you start flapping, Nightmare Moon was a fool and underestimated them." The man's single eye narrowed. "You've seen the other versions of Equestria where the fool took the six seriously."

A pit formed in the Alicorn goddess's stomach as she remembered what happened in those scenarios. In the best case scenario, the mares were shown mercy and enslaved; worst case, they were executed.

With all the cards passed out, Glave started explaining the game's rules. "As you already know, these three are fighting for control over this world. The rules are simple each player is given a certain amount of champions." The table had thirty-four cards on it.

Eight of these cards belonged to Faust, and these cards were; AppleJack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Princess Cadance, Princess Luna, and Princess Celestia.

Twenty of these Cards belonged to Henir, and these cards were; Twilight Sparkle and the rest of our town.

Elria only had one card, and it was Raven Maxwell.

From the looks of it, the Crystal shaped goddess was at a disadvantage.

"These Champions need to defeat the wild card!" Glave threw a card shrouded in shadows onto the table. "The Champion who gets the final hit is deemed the winner!" The usual calm and collected man pumped his fist into the air. Being chained up and watching children fight gets boring after a while; him hosting the game is a breath of fresh air. After a few seconds, Glave coughed into his hand and recomposed himself. "But that's not all; there's another wild card!" Glave threw another wild card onto the table. Like the card before it, it was shrouded in shadows, but it glowed ominously. Everyone could feel the pure insanity coming from that card.

Faust gulped in nervousness. it wouldn't be the first time a creature like that popped up in one of her worlds. "I-is that a-"

Again Glave interups her. "Thankfully, no, but give it another year; it'll become one. It was the main reason why the game started." He brought his attention to the crowd. "If this wild card isn't defeated within a year, it's an automatic loss for three at the table, and the poor saps stuck on that world. And these three can't interfere directly with the game; they can give their champions or the opposing player's champions boons." Raven has already received a boon from Henir and Elria, respectively, while Twilight Sparkle received a boon from Henir.

"But enough with the heavy stuff, let's enjoy ourselves." Glave raised his hand. "For the entertainment?" He snapped his fingers, causing multiple screens to appear from thin air. These screens showed what the mortals were doing.

"FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT!" The audience screamed back, causing the masked man to chuckle.

Faust gave a tired sigh and looked at her cards. Her little ponies would need to step up their game if they were going to survive this ordeal. She looked across the table and stared at Raven's picture on the card. What she would give to tell her little ponies to work with him and not fight. But she had faith because...

Friendship is Magic!

[Monarch]

[Art by rockin_candies]

Author's Note

I'M BACK! You guys are wondering where I've been right? Well, I've been busy with both work and school. Mostly work since our store isn't doing so good and we need the extra hands. But yeah, I ain't dead; most of the time I've been chilling after work.

And let me tell you, I've been reading other fanfics, seeing where I could improve. Also, I'm sorry for not saying anything in the meantime. Life got in the way, also amazing artwork by Rockin candies!

Also, I'm going to try to get back to my once-a-week updates! Thank you for reading!

Also if worried about this becoming some kind of mass crossover, don't because all I just did was add multiple references to this chapter. Also credit to anyone who gets all of the references right!