A Game for the Entire Family
The Sun was shining and it was perfect day for people to enjoy the outdoors, but Tim didn’t have time to be enjoying the sunny weather. He was busy on his computer trying to finish his thesis. The curtains were closed, with only the lamps on his desk providing illumination. Tim stopped his typing for a second to take a look at his textbook and notes before he continued typing.
Tim was on a roll, if he continued at this rate and worked till late at night he should have the it done by tomorrow evening. Unfortunately his concentration was broken by the sound of the doorbell going off. He looked up from the screen and gave his eyes a rub, who would be visiting him? He didn’t really have any friends and he wasn’t expecting anyone till six o’clock. Almost instinctively Tim looked over to the clock hanging on the wall.
“Shit!” he cursed to himself as he saw that it had just hit six. He’d done it again, he had been so focused on his work that he had lost track of time. He quickly saved his work and shut the computer down, he probably wasn’t going to be able to work on it any more tonight anyways. As he started to make his way to the door, the person waiting outside had now started to ring the doorbell continuously. If he wasn’t certain who was waiting at the door this now confirmed it.
Tim opened the door and standing outside was his younger sister Sam and his younger brother Alex, who hadn’t noticed that he had opened the door and was still ringing the doorbell.
“Hey, Tim” Sam greeted as she elbowed Alex. ‘What’ he mouthed as he stopped ringing the bell and looked at her. She motion to Tim standing in the doorway.
“Oh, Hi Tim” he said with a cheeky grin on his face.
Tim smiled and waved for them to come in “Come in. It’s good to see you guys again.” As they entered Tim gave them each a hug to say hi. With the greeting over now came the part that Tim was nervous about “So guys I’m afraid I need to confess something to you” he said and he rubbed the back of his neck “I-”
Alex put his hand up and signaled for Tim to stop “Wait! Let me stop you there” he said “Let me guess, you were busy working on something, lost track of time and haven’t gotten anything ready for tonight….again”
“Uh, Yeah” Tim said with a sigh “I’m really sorry guys, I know it was my turn to host the game night but with my exams coming up and my thesis to finish I’ve been really focused on that.” Tim waited for the verbal lashing he was about to receive for not having prepared anything, but as he looked at his family they were both looking at each other with big grins on their faces.
“Well it’s a good thing we know you so well then” Sam said as she revealed a bag of Chinese food from behind her back.
“Thanks you guys,” Tim said with a smile on his face, they really did know him well, but he couldn’t help but feel a little bad for him being so forgetful being the norm for him. He quickly placed those thoughts to the back of his mind, “So let’s eat.”
Everyone sat around the table, enjoying the Chinese food, as they talked about what they had been up to recently.
“So Alex, what have you been up to” Tim asked
“Nothing much, but now that school holidays have started I’ve got two weeks off so I’m planning on catching up with my friends, but enough about me tell us more about your holiday to Africa coming up, you have to be excited”
“Well I wouldn’t exactly call it a holiday, considering I’ll be working during it, but I do have to admit I’m so excited. It will be good to put everything I’ve learned into practical use, don’t get me wrong I don’t mind working with Australian wildlife but it’ll be good to get some experience with some megafauna like zebras and rhinos. Personally I still can’t believe I got accepted to go on this conservation project though”
“You need to stop putting yourself down Tim you're a lot smarter than you give yourself credit for, you deserve to be a part of the project” said Sam
“So when do you leave?” asked Alex as he stuffed his face full of Honey chicken.
“I leave in about a month and a half, about two weeks after exams finish”
“I got to say going through uni once was tough enough, I still can’t believe you went back for round two after just finishing a six year course”
“Well you know me Alex I’m as mad as a March hare”
Alex and Sam couldn’t help but chuckle at that “Well now that we have had a good laugh at your expense Tim do you know what time it is!” asked Alex
Tim and Alex then both jumped out of their chairs in unison “It’s Game time!” they both cried.
Sam couldn’t help but groan to herself “It’s like living with teenagers”
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The pink puffball known as Kirby flew through the air his foot collided with Bowser's face causing him to fly off the platform, before Bowser could do anything to correct himself he disappears into the distance in a bright white light. Kirby’s victory over the king cooper is short lived as from nowhere Mr. Game & Watch come out and slams Kirby with his hammer causing the same thing that just happened to Bowser to happen to Kirby. The screen changes declaring Mr. Game & Watch the winner.
Alex being the ever gracious winner he jumps off the couch in celebration of his win “Oh yeah! Take that! I won again bitches”. Alex continued his little victory dance and his taunting of his siblings until the sound of the doorbell stops him in his tracks. Confused Alex looks over to Tim “Were you expecting anyone else?” he asks
Tim looking just as confused as Alex shakes his head “No, it was just you guys. I’ll go see who it is though” Tim gets up and starts to make his way to answer the door but before he leaves “You guys can keep pla-” he see’s that they have both already started the next round so he leaves it and goes to answer the door.
Tim opens the door and standing outside are three people, the first appears to be a guy in his mid thirties, he has shoulder length blond hair and a short well trimmed beard. He was wearing an old AC/DC shirt with a pair of jeans, when Tim looked at him he kind of reminded him of Chris Hemsworth. The next guy appeared around the same age but had black skin, he kind of had this George Lopez look to him. He was wearing a nice suit, Tim also noticed that he had golden earpieces in both his ears. The final person was a woman and when Tim laid eye on her he never wanted to look away again, she was the most beautiful person he had ever seen, she was wearing a little black dress and she looked stunning in it.
Tim continued to stare at the beauty until she gave a polite cough which snapped him out of the trance he didn’t realise he was in, the other two guys seemed to find this funny at both gave a small chuckle. Tim gave his head a quick shake to help himself focus “Sorry about that, how can I help you?”
The women was the first to speak “Oh sweetie, you can help us in so many ways but first I think it would be polite to welcome us all inside first”
Tim couldn’t believe it, these three people are expecting him to just invite them in, what did they think, he was stupid or something. What happened next took Tim completely by surprise “Of course, please come in” he had just invited them in./, why had he just invited them in, it was as if his body had responded on its own. Tim had to rectify this he had to tell them it was a mistake, a slip of the tongue but as he tried to speak or even block the path of the three strangers he found that he couldn’t control his body as if he had somehow been paralysed.
Once they were all inside the woman continued “Let’s take these talks to the living, if you please” Tim then found himself moving but he wasn’t the one in control, his body lead the strangers into the living room where Alex and Sam were currently still in a match. As the last of them entered the room both Alex and Sam still hadn't notice the arrival of the group. They stood there for about thirty seconds before the dark skinned guy started to get annoyed “This is taking too long” he loudly whispered to his friends and he stepped forward and snapped his fingers.
As he did the power to the TV cut out “Hey!” both Alex and Sam shouted, that’s when they noticed Tim and the strangers standing there “Oh” said Alex “Sorry didn’t see you guys over there, you must be friends of Tim?” he gets up to shake their hands but after a couple of steps he stops and just stands there
“Why don’t you all take a seat so we can get started.” the women announced. Tim and Alex both made their way back to the couch and sat down next to Sam. The Strangers then move over to the adjacent couch and take a seat. The women then looks over to the dark skinned guy “Now that everyone is settled in why don’t you tell us about these people you’ve picked out to be our pieces”
The gives a nod and starts talking “Ok let's start with the oldest” he point over to Tim.
“Name: Timothy Williams
Age: 26
Occupation: Veterinarian
Brony Level: Addict”
“Hold on” the blond guy interrupts “Did you just say Brony level? What the hell does that have to do with anything?”
“Well” the man responses a little annoyed at getting interrupted “Do you remember where the games are being held this year?”
“Yes”
“Well then by explaining how much my they enjoy the show tells us how much they will understand about where we are sending them to. Now if there are no more interruptions I’ll continue” the other man just sits back and lets the other man continue.
“Now as I was saying, Tim enjoys the pursuit of knowledge and the expanding of his understanding of things. Tim is currently completing his Masters in Veterinary wildlife and conservation medicine. Although Tim is ‘book’ smart he often lacks thing like common social skills. He doesn’t really have many friends and usually spends most of his time either studying, working, or keeping up to date with all the latest updates with My Little Pony. When he does go out he usually feels uncomfortable around strangers and will usually sit to the side avoiding people, but this all changes when he is with someone he know. When he is with his friends or family he almost is like a different person, he will talk, be more open and even has been know to do stupid things like start singing and dancing randomly. Overall he is an antisocial bookworm with a crazy side”
The others two whispered for a while between themselves, once finished they gave the guy a nod and he continued
“Now I’ll go onto the middle child” and he points toward Alex
"Name : Alexander Williams
Age: 22
Occupation: Teacher
Brony Level: Standard
Alex like Tim works hard and is quite smart but unlike Tim who has minimal social skills or life, Alex has no problems in this department. Alex has many close friends that he catches up with regularly, he not only hangs out with them at bars he also plays a lot of online games with them. When Alex first started university he would during semester breaks spend long hours playing DOTA 2 with his friends and even though he has finished university very little has changed as during his spare time he still plays the occasional game with his friends and he was even planning as school holidays had just started spending the entire weekend playing games with his friends before spending most of the rest of the holidays getting next semester's lessons ready. Even though Alex spends a lot of time with his friends Alex puts a lot of effort into his work. Alex can be a very stubborn person, once he has made up his mind it can be almost impossible to change it. So to sum Alex up he is a hard working, caring, game addict”
The man looked over to his friends, who give him a nod to continue, he nods back and points to Sam “Now I’ll finish with the youngest
Name: Samantha Williams
Age: 21
Occupation: Make up Artist
Brony Level: Minimal
Sam unlike her brothers never really enjoyed school or even the learning environment. She is like Alex a very social person, she enjoys spending time with all her friends. She enjoys shopping even though most of the time she lacks the funds to do so. Sam really cares about her appearance, she usually takes a couple of hours to get ready before going out, now this not to say she is shallow no she isn’t really a shallow person, she may spend a lot of times on her looks but she also like to help other people. Besides her normal job she also helps out her friends by doing their make up, she also has helped out at charity events by doing the make up for some of the people at the events. So to sum Sam up she is a caring person ”
The man happy with everything sits back with a smile on his face “So? What do you guys think, I reckon I’ve selected a nice little group to represent us”
“You’ve done good Quet” the other guy said while patting him on the back “I reckon you’ve selected a good group and the fact that their family will add extra motivation for them to try harder in the game”
Tim couldn’t believe it not only was he not in control off his body but these three strangers had come into his house summarised their lives as if they were character bios in a game and now they were talking about actually putting them in some game?
Tim finally managed to find his voice “Who are you people, why, how are you doing this to us”
The three of them smiled to each other, and gave a nod to the man called Quet “So you want to know who we are. That’s easy” he then snapped his fingers, there was a bright flash and Tim had to shut his eyes so that he wouldn’t be blinded. When he opened them again standing before him were the three strangers but know they were wearing different clothes. The woman was now wearing a white peplos with gold trimmings.
“I am Aphrodite, Goddess of Love” she announced
Quet is now wearing a large feathered cape made up of green, red and white feathers. He also has a large golden necklace and gold earrings. On his head is the skull of a large serpent.
“I am Quetzalcoatl, God of wind and dawn” he announced
The last guy was now wearing silver armor with heavy link chain mail underneath, the red cape on his back blew in a non-existent wind and in his hand he held a large hammer.
“And I am Thor, God of Thunder” he announced. “And the reason for us being here to welcome you to the games” he says this with a huge smile on his face
“What if we don’t want to be part of the games” Tim asks
This causes the three Gods to break out into laughter
Thor is the first to stop laughing and as he wipes a tear away from his eye he continues “I think you’ve misunderstood us we aren’t asking if you want to join the games, no, we have already decided that. We just wanted to let you know what was going to happen before we sent you.”
The other two Gods had now stopped laughing as well and Aphrodite looked over to Thor “Do you mind if we get things rolling along, I’ve got a date soon and I want to go before my husband finds out”
Thor gives a nod and raises his hammer. Electrical currents surrounds his hammer and three blasts shoot out towards the family striking all three at the same time causing their world to go black.
}{}{}{}{
Tim slowly started to regain consciousness, his head and his body felt sore as if he had gone a round with Mike Tyson. Tim slowly tried to open his eyes but was met with the blinding light of the sun causing him to have to shut his eyes again. Tim just lay there too sore to move going over everything that just happened. It all felt like a dream, it had to have been one Gods don't just come into your house. It it was then hit him it was now sunny, how long had he been out and more importantly where was he.
“You’re on the Zebrican Islands”
Tim recognised that voice, he opened his eyes this time ignoring the pain the light caused to his eyes and sat up. There standing in front of him was one of the Gods responsible for his current situation, Thor.
“What do you mean Zebrican Islands?” Tim asked, as he spoke Tim noticed that his voice sounded deeper, but he rubbed it off as a possible side effect from being struck by lightning.
“I mean that you’re on one of the Zebrican islands” Thor repeated
Tim looked around and saw that he definitely wasn’t in Perth anymore. As far as the eye could see was open savannah. There was tall yellow grass and the occasional tree but what caught Tim’s eye was that everything appeared brighter and had an outline, as if this world was a children's cartoon.
Being curious Tim brought his hand up and looked at them, but he regretted it immediately. What he saw wasn’t his normal hands, the things in front of his face were definitely hands but they looked like his hands had swollen to twice their size and his skin had turned grey. Tim looked down at the rest of his body worried at what he was about to see and what he saw was worse than he thought. The fact that the rest of his skin had also changed colour to the grey that his hands were wasn’t the most worrying thing he had expected that after seeing his hands, and the fact that his body appeared bigger and more muscular also wasn’t what freaked him out the most, no the thing that freaked him out the most was his feet. He no longer had feet in the traditional sense like a human, he no longer had a foot but three large toes on each foot like you would see on an elephant or rhino.
Tim started to panic and hyperventilate he had to see what he looked like. He looked around and saw a watering hole nearby, he stood up and started to run toward the water. If he was in his right mind he would have been asking questions about how he could move in this foreign body so easily but he wasn’t.
He arrived at the watering hole and knelt down and stared at his reflection in the water, what stared back wasn’t his normal human face, no it was the face of something alien something that to Tim’s knowledge didn’t go with the type of body he had, the face that stared back at him was that of a rhino.
As Tim continued to stare at his reflection trying to make sense of everything that was happening Thor walked up behind him. As he approached Tim’s ears flicked something he was going to have to get used to, he got up and turned to face Thor, anger burning in his eyes he slams him into a nearby tree and pins him against it.
“What have you done to me!” Tim shouted
Thor who seems completely unfazed by what happened clears his throat “If you calm down for a second I can explain what’s happened to you and your siblings”
With the mention of his brother and sister Tim grabs a hold of the Gods neck and slams him into the tree again, “What have you done to them,” Tim said with nothing by rage present “If anything has happened to them I’ll make you wish you were mortal”
“If you let me go I can finish explaining to you everything that’s happening” Thor said in a voice that seemed unusual calm for someone in his position.
Tim thought about this for a minute, even if he could somehow beat up this so called God it would leave him alone in this strange place with no answers. Tim didn’t like it but he was going to have to trust Thor for at least a little bit, at least until he had his answers.
“Ok I’ll start from the beginning, the others and I are gods and we are competing in a game against other gods and we have decided to select your family as our pieces in the game”
Tim goes to interrupt but Thor puts his hand up to stop him “before you ask I can’t tell you anything else about it other than that there are hundreds of other pieces competing in this game and that none of the pieces are allowed to remain human. This is the reason for why I’ve changed you. As for what I’ve changed you into it is called a Rhinotaur”
“A what-a-taur?’ Tim asked
“A rhinotaur, basically think of an anthropomorphic rhino, kind of like those Judoon characters from that Doctor Who show you like. Now as to where you are, as I said earlier, before your interruption you are on one of the Zebrican Islands which are a group of islands that surround Equestria on the planet Equis”
Tim couldn’t believe it did he just get told that he was now somehow in the world of Equestria. Suddenly he recognised how this world looked, it wasn’t just his eyes playing tricks on him, he really was in a cartoon world.
“So that explains why I look the way I do but it doesn’t explain where your two friends are and what happened to my family”
Thor just turns his head down in an apologetic way “I’m very sorry but we weren’t allowed to have you three start at the same place on the map, but there is nothing in the rules about organising a location for you all to meet up in. How does Ponyville sound to you.”
Tim didn’t know what to say he still wasn’t thinking clearly, he was angry about being ripped away from his life and family for some twisted game of the gods, but at the same time he was also excited he was in a whole new world and not only that he was in Equestria. Okay not Equestria but still the same world. “Are they safe?” Tim muttered
Thor nodded “They are safe at the moment and the others and I will do our best to prepare them and you for the challenges that lay ahead. Oh! I almost forgot, catch!” Thor then pulled out of his cape a large battle axe and tossed it to Tim “This is my gift to you to aid you in your journey”
Tim stared at the axe that had just been given to him, a little disappointed that he was summoned by a God to Equestria and all he got was a lousy axe.
“That axe is no simple mortals weapon it is a weapon forged by the gods. The blade is made from adamantium one of the strongest metals in the entire multiverse. It is sharp enough to cut through most things including most dragons scales. It will never blunt and and never break. The handle is made from something even more powerful, my brother thinks he is the only one who could obtain this for his piece but he is wrong the handle is made from the rare metal that my hammer is made from uru. Now uru is not only an indestructible metal but also highly magical one”
‘Magic!” Tim said bringing his new axe up to get a better look at it “So this will allow me to perform magic?”
“Yes”
“So how does it work” Tim asked now excited about the prospect of being able to perform magic.
“Eh, eh, eh” Thor said while wagging his finger “That’s something you’re going to figure out yourself. I can’t give you all the answers”
Thunder then sounded from the sky and Thor looked up and frowned “Yes, yes I’m coming” he shouted to the sky. “Well it looks like that is all the time I have. I must be leaving, unfortunately according to the rules of the game I will only be allowed minimal contact. So this is goodbye and good luck"
With that Thor disappeared in a flash of lightning leaving Tim alone. Tim stared at where the God had stood for awhile letting everything he had just been told sink in. After an some time Tim looked up and over to the horizon and smiled. He may be stuck in another dimension, with a new body, but he had a purpose. He knew where he could find his family, he had to go to Ponyville. It may be difficult but he had been given a new stronger body for the job and really there are worse possible places to be sent than Equestria. So Tim took his first step on his journey to find his family, he suddenly felt a sharp pain as if he had been hit in the back of the head. He slowly turned around to see who had thrown something as him, hidden in the grass Tim saw two figures. Tim didn’t get time to get a better look as another rock was thrown at him hitting him in the face. His vision started to blur and eventually faded to black as he blacked out from the attack. It was just his luck he had only been in this new world for 5 minutes and he was already being attacked.
Author's Note
I would like to thank Rainbowblitz for editing this story
