Crown Attack

The blood flowed out onto the grass around her. She collapsed, revealing a blocky figure bolting for the woods. Dash was the first to react, she races after the blocky figure, taking my personal sledgehammer with her. All I was able to do was watch the blood slowly trickle out from Fluttershy's body... Applejack was crying so many tears, I don't think her eyes will ever be dry again. Suddenly, from right behind us, I heard that chest open. Someone was rummaging through the items in it. Spinning around, I see the blocky body of Skyscreamer, digging into the chest.

"Hi Theo- I noticed you had a bit of a .... bloody situation," he calls, pulling out a glass vial filled with some pink liquid from the chest. He then waves it in the air for me to see, "this look useful to you?" He asks, already beginning to throw it to me.

I catch the healing potion in one hand and flip the cork right off. Slowly and steadily, I pull the sword out from Fluttershy's body and pour the healing potion into her mouth. Applejack stops sobbing, but her tears continue flowing like a river. I turn my head and notice Rainbow Dash returning from the woods with a bloodied sledgehammer, meaning she obviously reached and annihilated her target. She returned, her eyes glazed over in tears.

It was until that moment that I had forgotten that Skyscreamer was even there in the first place, "Thats a bloody sledgehammer... I think 3vil learned to never kill ponies again..!" Skyscreamer chuckles as he notches an arrow in his bow as he heads to the other side of the clearing, towards a jungle-looking area. Rainbow Dash turns towards his voice, then begins to ignore it. I stand there, holding the sword that used to be in Fluttershy's body... which did not have a wound for it anymore. The wound had completely vanished from Fluttershy's body. Shortly afterward, she coughed. Again. She spit out some blood, before her eyes shot open.

She sat up, looking around to see if she was in that place dead ponies go... where ever that is. "No, no," I begin, chuckling a small amount, "you're alive, right with the rest of us."

She paused for a minute, a confused look overcoming her face. her hooves shot to her lower chest, where the wound used to be. When her hooves felt the smooth surface of her body, she started to stand up. As her eyes looked down, she yelped and jumped out of the crimson red puddle, "D-d-did I do all of that?" She asks, the blood on her hooves slowly dripping off...

Rainbow Dash was already hugging her friend before I could respond. Applejack joined in on the hug a moment later... I still just stood there, hugs... aren't my thing. Even with three adorable creatures giving me that look, i still prefer to not participate in hugs... atleast, not in public. Anyways, with Fluttershy revived, we decided to continue.

"So, that means that theres at least one combatant dead?" I ask, motioning towards my bloodied sledgehammer. Rainbow Dash nods, explaining that unless he can regrew a head, he's dead. "Thats harsh," I mumble, "so he became the filling between a sledgehammer and a tree..?" I ask. Rainbow Dash nods. "Fantastic! A cute looking creature enjoys making heads explode!"

Fluttershy looks at me, partly horrified by my comment, while Rainbow Dash and Applejack look at me as if I'm crazy... which I am. "What?" I ask them, "No humor allowed in the darkest of moments?" After a moment of silence, I say, "Or atleast after the darkest of moments...?" Yet again, there was more silence. "Okay, come on. Just crack a damn smile."

Still, none of them react to it. Apparently, my reaction to common events, such as murder, does not support humor in this... arena. Suddenly, Fluttershy breaks into a blatantly forced smile, but it has this noise sort of like a squee that forces me to laugh.

"Alright then, we should probably try to survive for the rest of the time..." I remark, beginning to head off of the clearing into the surrounding jungle. Then, the one thought I had from before returns to my mind...

You just saved one of their lives... but you also just put yours in jeopardy. Finding the crown won't matter if only 3 people can return alive.

I knew this would haunt me until I eventually die in this cursed arena. But, I had another plan... I was not focused on dieing, coming out of this alive would surely get me more friends... right? We'll just have to kill one of them at the end... then convince the others that she died of... natural purposes... Yes, that's the ticket.

"Ya know," the orange pony, Applejack, began, "I don' think that we planned this out al' well."

I knew what she was talking about, but Rainbow apparently didn't. "What do you mean?" She asks, her voice a mixture of confusion and... worry...?

"Ya know," Applejack continues, "Theres four of us left, but only three get to live if we ever find th' crown."

I sighed, apparently loud enough for Rainbow to hear me. "You do got this planned out, right?" She questions. My reply is a very slow shake of my head. "W-What do you mean?"

"Look, I don't think that it is reasonable to just start bombarding me with questions. I didn't have to use that healing potion on your friend there. Don't make me regret giving you something if you are just going to annoy me to hell." I barely even noticed the words come out of my mouth. Nice job, moron. I think to myself, They'll totally just let you live with that one, insulting the shy one in front of all of their faces.

Rainbow glared at me. It gave me a feeling that if one of us would end up dieing at the end, it would be either me or her. But that thought dropped once i saw the look on Fluttershy's face... the amount of guilt that passed through my body was indescribable. Perhaps even incomparable. Her eyes were round, glazed in tears that slowly dropped down on to the grass, drifting over the impossible to be ignored gigantic frown her mouth was making. I looked away and kept walking. But my heart was seared over with something I would never forget until I fix it... but that will have to wait.

In the mean-time, Rainbow was saying something that I did not catch, my guilt was sabotaging my hearing, but I caught part of it, "... bucking no-good, greed-filled, incompetent...." Just that was enough to slice my heart into a fifth piece, and it made me remember who I am. I am Theodore from Earth, I have no friends, and no one cares about me- at least, until now.