Pony Royale

Part Two

Mid Game

"Eternal Nature inexorably avenges the infringement of her commands."

-Adolf Hitler, Mein Kompf

Chapter 4

"What is love?"

Fluttershy and Discord were helping the squirrels build new homes in the trees.

"Love is a substance of upmost deviance."

It was a rather simple job, but Fluttershy enjoyed learning where all the squirrels would live for the upcoming season. It had almost become a tradition for her to help them settle in.

"What's that, Discord?" Fluttershy said. This was her first time bringing Discord along with her.

"Love. Have you ever felt it?" he asked, inspecting a small burrow in the side of a tree.

"Well, I don't know what you mean," Fluttershy said.

"You know. That thing between Princess Cadence and Shining Armor."

"Yes?"

"You know how they can't let each other out of their sight, how they finish each other's sentences all the time, how they never stop looking at each other?"

"Oh, Discord. I don't think I've ever felt like that before."

"Of course you haven't," Discord said, proving his point. "It's one of my creations. Celestia hated it when I showed it to her. Said it was 'too dangerous and unpredictable'. But I managed to disperse it throughout Equestria before she freezed-dried me for a thousand years. It wouldn't surprise me if Celestia's taking credit for it now, if only to cover her tracks."

"What's so special about it?" Fluttershy knew she shouldn't be asking this, but she had to know. What was wrong with the feeling Cadence and Shining Armor had towards each other?

"Well, the main concept of it is the fact that is captivates you. Cadence will never leave Shining Armor's thoughts, and Shining Armor will never leave Cadence's thoughts. It's a complete and utter obsession. It has the ability to drive one mad, but the potential to bring unprecedented joy.

"It also brings with it a great and powerful energy, a magic if you will. The more love you have for that pony, the stronger it gets, and the more clouded one's judgement gets. It can escalate to the point where ponies will kill and die for the ones they love."

"Kill and die?" Fluttershy gasped, "They would really kill other ponies for the ones they were in love with?"

"Or kill themselves," said Discord.

Fluttershy awoke with a start. What a strange dream. It was but a memory for her, why had she dreamed it?

She quickly analyzed her surroundings. She was in an unfamiliar forest, vacant of the sounds of any birds. Ah, yes. This place.

Though it was not yet midday, the sun had thankfully risen, illuminating the forest floor. Fluttershy had taken the shelter of a large willow tree, big enough to block the blunt of the rather unusual rain that came the night before. She sat up against it, and once again opened her pack. She removed the bread and water, and ate a small breakfast.

Then she removed the sniper rifle. It was only damp from the night before. The instructions in the manual weren't too complicated, and she was able to disassemble it, and dry each component off against her flank. After reassembling the gun, she set off back down the hill towards the town.

The continued onward through the forest until she came to another clearing. From this one she could see the whole town. It was tiny. It was also void of any inhabitants that had once lived there not too long ago. The important thing was that somepony would choose to go there, and she now had a clean shot at them.

She was going to follow Discord's instructions.

Twilight stirred as she felt the warmth of the sun on her face. She opened her eyes, and was once again found herself in the forest. She was slumped against a tree, and could hear the sounds of a wet forest around her. Caramel was sitting up against the tree across from Twilight, watching her intently. It made her smile, almost.

"Look who's awake," Caramel said, straitening his posture, just a little.

"And it looks like morning finally came?" said Twilight. Dammit! I missed the sunrise.

"It did. But not until several hours had passed. It was a long night. I think the princess enjoys messing with us." Caramel sat with his head tilted upward now, as if in acknowledgement of the god-like figure somewhere in the clouds above.

What a strange pony, thought Twilight. He sat there with a look of distance, waves of unrest rising and falling behind his eyes. What was once a theory was now proven to Twilight: this pony was different.

"Can I ask you something?" Twilight inquired, sitting up against her tree.

"Yeah. What is it?"

"Why did you save me?"

"Oh, I don't know," Caramel sighed, "you looked nice, I guess."

"I looked nice?"

"Yeah," Caramel said, as if confirming his statement, "I-I think. Look - truth is, I kind of like you."

"Oh," Twilight said, a little more than shocked.

"I'm sorry I said that," Caramel said, looking down.

"It's fine," said Twilight, "It's just, you were always talking to Pinkie Pie." She got a lump in her throat just thinking about the pink little pony.

"She was the only one that would talk to me when I first came to Ponyville. She was my only friend. She made me feel like a real pony again. But she never gave me the courage to talk to you." A tear rolled down his cheek, perhaps without him realizing it.

It took a moment for Twilight to realize that she herself was crying. She cautiously stood, and walked over to sit beside him. She opened her mouth to say something, perhaps a band-aid phrase to make them feel better.

"Twilight," muttered Caramel, silencing Twilight. "Sometimes, words are worth more when less are said."

So together they sat and cried together, against a tree, in the middle of the woods.

The sun had finally risen, but Big Macintosh had not budged from his spot at the clifftop vista. Many distant gunshots had sounded throughout the abnormal night, though through it all he still remained here.

The ocean had grown bright from the sun's reflections, but it still crashed against the rocks below. The forest still glared at him from behind, and a constant breeze still pestered his face. And the seat beside him was still empty.

Big Mac was beginning to doubt his message was clear enough. What was he going to do if Cheerilee never came? Would he have to play the game? Spend the remainder of his life in despair?

Suddenly, he heard rustling from behind, and turned around to see Cheerilee, in all her perfection.

Big Mac sighed with relief, "I thought you'd never come," he said.

"Neither did I," she replied. Her face was still wet from tears.

Together they looked at each other, perhaps for almost a minute.

"What should we do?" Cheerilee asked. Big Mac could tell that she was shaken beyond repair. Being the last one to leave did something to her.

"I'm not sure," he said. He was never one for words, and he almost always got by using just two.

"Should we end it?" she asked. An unspoken conversation. A verdict reached in half an instant.

"Eeyup," said Big Mac, and together they plummeted off the cliff and onto the rocks below.

Well, not much had happened. After the little run-in with Mr. Cake, him and Filthy Rich had spent the whole night looting the market place. They found clothing, they found jewelry, they even found a bakery filled with stale cakes (Carrot Cake claimed his stale cakes were far better), but nothing they found was a all what Filthy had hoped to find. The closest thing they found that fit the description "useful" was a set of large knives found in the back of the bakery, presumably for cutting cakes. Two of them, now exhausted, had made it through to the other side of town and were now sitting against a boulder on the beach, looking out at the ocean.

"This is hopeless," said Filthy, "the ponies in this town never did any hard work. I can't even imagine how they built it without any tools."

"Aww, cheer up Filthy. We're not dead yet. Were was that optimism you had back on the train?" assured Mr. Cake.

"I'm not sure if you've noticed, but these are quite different circumstances. I highly doubt that all the power tools are somehow eluding our discovery," said Filthy, rather annoyed.

"Well, what should we try next? I'm sure there are other ways of getting these things off," motioning towards his collar.

"But that's just the thing Carrot," said Filthy with upmost sincerity, "we don't know how they work. And we can't experiment without getting ourselves killed."

Then, in the distance, an accented voice rang out from the town center. It was amplified, as if by a megaphone of some sort.

"Listen up, y'all. We don't want to fight. Please, everypony just calm down, and we can talk this over." It must have been Applejack.

"Speaking of getting yourself killed," said Filthy, springing to his hooves, "there are many ways of avoiding death in this game, but yelling about peace is not one of them."

"Please," Applejack's voice continued, "we don't want to hurt anypony. If we can just meet up and figure things out, I'm sure we can come up with a plan."

"We need to get out of here," said Filthy. Though he was rather fond of the Apple family, he still had to look out for number one.

Caramel and Twilight rushed to the top of a hill to investigate what was going on. Once they had arrived at the top, they could see a majority of the town. And there, right at the center, the town hall itself, were Applejack and Rainbow Dash standing on the roof.

"We don't have to kill each other," continued Applejack, "Please, I know we can work this out."

Without even thinking twice, Caramel pointed his shotgun upwards, and unloaded two rounds into the sky. BAM! BAM!

"What are you doing?" Twilight shouted.

"We need to scare them off!" said Caramel, "they're going to get themselves killed up there."

"Now, c'mon y'all!" Applejack kept going, "Just put down your guns. Nopony has to die anymore." Applejack was loosing it. Rainbow Dash looked about ready to bolt, but didn't.

Loyalty can be a real bitch sometimes.

Fluttershy gazed down at the scene unfolding on the rooftop below her. Positioning herself behind her rifle, she moved her eye up to the scope and lined the cross-hairs up with Applejack's forehead. And hesitated. Perhaps this wasn't a good idea. Perhaps this was the worst idea possible.

"Why am I doing this?" she said to herself, "these are my friends."

Are they really your friends?

"Yes they are!" she screamed at herself. She was crying.

My dear Fluttershy. When will you ever learn? You have no friends here.

BAM! BAM! Two consecutive gunshots rang out. The situation on the roof was growing unstable.

You see? It's kill or be killed here. Not that it's any different from the real world. Don't you remember what I taught you? Don't you see this is it? I'm your friend, Fluttershy why won't you listen to me?

"B-because you're wrong," Fluttershy said "my friends care about me, and I care about them."

Why don't you understand? Why do you refuse to see what's right in front of you? You can't stop this Fluttershy. There are no Elements of Harmony. The princess has put you here, and your friends have abandoned you. You're alone.

"But it's not true!" Fluttershy was absolutely sobbing, "this can't be happening."

But it is, isn't it?

"It is." Fluttershy slumped down, absolutely broken.

Now tell me what you're going to do about it.

Fluttershy pulled herself together, and gazed back down the scope, "I'm going to do what's needed to be done."

Applejack was still yelling into the megaphone. What a strange weapon.

Fluttershy took a deep breath. Her heart rate slowed. She aimed at Applejack's head again. She could feel the tension in the gun, the bullet resting in the chamber, ready to spring foreword. As she concentrated on the image of Applejack in the scope, she experienced something she hadn't before. She was feeling something similar to what a personified electron must feel as it approaches the speed of light. Her vision expanded, and she was able to see the entire island, and out into the ocean. Applejack's face shrunk into a pinpoint at the center of her cross-hairs. She felt herself rushing foreword, strait towards the rooftop. The oncoming rooftop shifted colors to a deep red. And then, she fired.

Applejack's face instantaneously imploded as the bullet entered through the front of her forehead, and her head was jerked back as it exited through the back of her skull. Blood was sprayed across the rooftop, fanning out backwards from its source. Her hind legs collapsed, and she almost sat down for a moment before she toppled sideways onto the rooftop. Applejack's entire head had been ripped to shreds. Blood quickly flooded the rooftop, and was soon overflowing into the gutter, which was draining it onto the streets below.

Rainbow Dash still stood alongside Applejack's now inanimate body, shocked by what had just happened. She took a dazed step backwards, then tripped and fell, seemingly unaware of the blood that was quickly covering the roof. Finally, she came to her senses and in one swift leap, she flew for the sky, leaving a trail of Applejack's blood flying up behind her. Another gunshot sounded, and a bullet dove into the blood where Rainbow Dash just was, once more throwing a misty red column into the air.

She continued soar into the air until she was far above the island. She surveyed her surroundings and saw nothing but ocean in every direction. She then descended until she was a closer distance away, and navigated her way to a beach on the northern side of the island.

The first thing she did when she touched down was a full-on gallop into the water to wash Applejack's blood from her hooves and flank. The next thing she did was a miserable trudge out of the water, as she collapsed into the sand in a weeping mess. She had just seen yet another friend perish at the hands of this game. And how did she know that was it? The bodies of Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rarity could already be strewn across the island. The more Rainbow Dash thought about it, the more possible it sounded; all five of her best friends, each dispatched in their own disturbing way. Decapitation. Strangulation. Asphyxiation. Laceration. Head blown apart. It was something worth buying a nightlight over. Scary, death was.

She finally rolled herself over, and looked up at the sky. Her flank was now coated with sand, but at least it wasn't blood. She sat up, and tried to think of something to do. It then occurred to her that she had yet to even see what lay inside her pack. She sat it up, and unzipped it.

Stale bread, water, map, but where was her weapon? She dug her hooves down into the bottom of the pack until she came across a handle. It was leathery and easy to grip. As she pulled it out, she saw that it was longer than just a handle. The leathery material grew elastic and bendy, and got skinnier until it was just one knotted strand at the very end. As she laid it out on the sand, it snaked around, as if it had a life of its own.

She turned back to her pack, and removed the manual from the very bottom. The title read "Chainmail Bullwhip".

Twilight and Caramel were still watching the roof. Applejack was dead, and Rainbow Dash had just made a daring escape. Blood was now flowing out of the drainpipes at the bottom of the building, and was flooding the streets.

Why do they bleed so much? Twilight thought to herself, Why do they always bleed so much?

Looking back at Caramel, Twilight now saw a deep regret in his eyes. It was as if he had been reliving this event over and over again, and had finally failed when he had the chance to set things right. She wondered where he came from. Where did he live before he came to Ponyville? Why did he have so much more trouble fitting in than she did?

Then she thought about herself. What's happening to me? she thought. Why do I feel the way I do? And what do these feelings mean?

"We need to leave right now," said Caramel, "whoever just nailed Applejack through the skull won't be far away. They'll have heard my shotgun."

Not to worry, Twilight thought. The feelings were gone again as quickly as they had appeared.

8 ponies remaining.