Pony Royale

Chapter 5

"What is wrong with Equestria?"

"What?"

"I said, what's wrong with Equestria?" Discord was slumped back lavishly upon one of Fluttershy's couches. Since the whole reform incident, he had taken to eating tufts of fabric as a replacement for his usual paper-with-reform-spells dish. Fluttershy had once asked Discord about these strange eating habits and had gotten the response: "My dear Fluttershy, I am a god! You can't possibly expect me to eat normal things. Look at Celestia and Luna for chaos's sake. I don't believe I've ever seen them eat more than a few mouthfuls of normal food!"

"Why Discord, that is such a strange question to ask," said Fluttershy.

"How so? There must be something wrong with it. Nothing is perfect, you know." He continued to shovel wads of fabric into his mouth by the end of a magnificent fork.

"I've never thought about it that way before," Fluttershy said, a little confused, "I don't know what is wrong with it."

"But there must be something wrong," said Discord, leading Fluttershy though his train of thought, "how else would those unsightly blemishes of evil like Queen Chrysalis, and King Sombra, and perhaps even myself, blossom in a place like this?"

"Well, um," Fluttershy thought long and hard, "it all must come from the Equestrians themselves. Instead of being happy with what they've been given, they do things to try and change their path in life. To try and change their destiny."

"Exactly!" said Discord, now sitting up from his relaxed position, "these Equestrians, they feel they want more than their share of life, and they will do more than just good deeds to get there."

"Well who are they?" Fluttershy asked, "is it Cadence and Shining Armor? Are they being controlled by love's spell?"

"Fluttershy," Discord was fully upright and looking her straight in the eye, "Cadence and Shining Armor are not at all offenders of these accusations. They are perhaps the most innocent of us all. It's the love that makes them content with life. But it's those other urges in each of us that makes sinners of us all."

"All of us sinners?" Fluttershy was aghast, "what about me and my friends? We're perfectly happy. If anything, my friends are the source of good in this world."

"Oh really?" Discord said, leaning forward and finally standing up, "what about Rarity? Look at her little boutique. Look at how she slaves away every day, with a deep longing to be like the Canterlot elite. This envy that she possesses is so deep that she will put it before her very friends until she becomes the noblest of nobles."

"But Discord--"

"Oh but it's true isn't it? And what about your dearest friend Rainbow Dash? Has she ever done anything without thinking of herself? She sleeps for hours on end, gets up to clear the weather, and goes back to sleep again. She barely accomplishes much more than the bare minimum of survival before she tufts up her cloud again. She just sits there on her high pedestal, thinking little about nothing in particular, wallowing in her sloth.

"Oh, and who could forget Pinkie Pie? She might go somewhere in life, if she wasn't always stuffing her face with cupcakes. Dear Celestia, she could be throwing parties for a living, but I guess Mr. and Mrs. Cake's is just too tempting, and gluttony got the better of her. I swear, I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't put some gruesome secret ingredient in them so they taste better.

"How about Appplejack? What kind of job does she have? The most boring job in the world if you ask me. She turned down a life in the city to work on a farm! But she is too much like the rest of her family, and is too caught up with taking pride in--in my opinion--selling the world's most boring fruit. Really? Apples?

"What about Twilight Sparkle? To start, Twilight's always checking out the stallions of Ponyville. Just because she's the new pony, she thinks everypony will love her. She's always sneaking out at night, and in the morning I can see it in her eyes. But let me tell you Fluttershy, there is a big difference between love and lust.

"And that little dragon of hers, Spike, isn't any less guilty. Does he really do work all day? Can you imagine writing letters, checking checklists, and sleeping all day, and then being rewarded with mounds of jewels? His greed is now the master of him, whether he knows it or not."

"Alright fine," said Fluttershy. She was deeply offended by Discord's criticism of her friends. "What sin am I guilty of, Discord? Huh? Or do you not want to hurt my feelings?"

"Fluttershy," Discord said, sitting back down again, "you are extremely well-composed, kind, and respectful to everypony I've ever seen you talk to. Except on occasion, when you burst. You have a kind of, snap, and you end up chasing animals around Canterlot Gardens or bullying your friends. You, my dear, are guilty of wrath."

Fluttershy snapped back to her senses. She was still on the hilltop, and the rooftop below still had Applejack's mutilated body strewn across it, though Rainbow Dash's was missing.

That was another memory. That time it had snuck up on her in the middle of the day. What did they mean? So far they were of her and Discord.

"You, my dear, are guilty of wrath."

Did that mean something more now? Could it be true? Of course not! It couldn't be. The kind and compassionate Fluttershy was never cruel to anypony, and certainly never got angry. Right?

Less than a minute had passed since she'd discharged the second round at Rainbow Dash. She now recalled hearing two gunshots right before she had fired upon Applejack. They sounded close too.

Well, Trixie was now traipsing around the wilderness in complete bewilderment. Rarity had given her quite the ass-beating right up until her dying breath, which certainly wasn't the classiest thing to do. And of course, The Great and Powerful Trixie had to come out on top. She wasn't going to be killed by somepony as worthless as Rarity.

Being dead, Rarity had been quite the mess to clean up (or at least that's what Trixie called it). Angered by the whole fight, Trixie had taken her scythe and hacked the hair off Rarity's head. Call it messed up, but it was the most satisfying experience of her life. How do you like your hair now, Rarity? Huh? Purple definitely goes with the color of your vomit. Fucking bitch. And if that wasn't fantastic enough, Trixie then looked through Rarity's backpack, and found the mother of all machine guns waiting for her right on the surface. That alone almost made the fight worth it. Almost.

Also, in the events leading up to where she was now, there had been quite the kerfuffle with Ponyville's best and brightest, involving a megaphone and the stupider half of one's brain. Speaking of brains, it sounded as though this pointless plea for peace had ended with Applejack's cascading across the town hall rooftop. Well, good. Applejack was one less pony to worry about sneaking up stabbing Trixie while she slept. Not that she was planning on doing that much sleeping.

After seeing the moronic demonstration taking place on the roof of the town hall, Trixie made sure to put the largest distance possible between herself and the town. After about a minute of Applejack's worthless monologuing, her speech was cut short by a definite gunshot. It was quickly followed by one more, and Trixie saw Rainbow Dash shooting up towards the sky, trailed by an arc of blood-mist. Trixie then bore witness as Rainbow dash descended towards the north side of the island.

Having been shocked by Applejack's early departure and stunned by her own brush with death, Rainbow Dash would be easy pickings. Later on in the game, a player like her could stand a chance at winning. If Trixie wanted to secure her survival, she had to nip this in the bud. And so she began a quest to kill Rainbow Dash as soon as possible.

One thing was certain: Rainbow Dash was clearly the fastest flyer on the island, if not in ponyville, so if she wanted to find her, she had to anticipate her movements. Where would a pony like her go in a situation like this? Actually it didn't matter. It was clear that she was an idiot about flying too high, so Trixie just had to wait for her to land within range of her walking distance. Another thing, she had to make sure to get the drop on Rainbow Dash. Trixie couldn't imagine anything worse than another hoof-to-hoof fight, especially with Rainbow Dash.

Unfortunately the map she'd been given was a total joke, as it had nothing that resembled contour lines. How in Equestria was she supposed to navigate this Celestia-forsaken(literally) island without any knowledge of the terrain? The beaches being to only open land, the entire rest of the island seemed to be covered in this thick, dank, forest. If she was going to find Rainbow Dash in a timely manner, Trixie was going to have to find a road. And fast.

Filthy Rich and Carrot Cake were in the woods once more. They were currently on a hike back up the hill from whence they came. The point being nopony was going to want to be anywhere near the school.

Filthy came to a stop in a clearing and sat down on a rock. Mr. Cake arrived along side him, breathing heavily.

"Maybe I should have eaten," he panted, "less of the cakes I baked. What are," he panted again, "we going to do now?"

"Well, the town is the only place I know of that could be of use to us, and there is no way we're going back there now," said Filthy, "I suppose the best plan of action is to wait it out. When there are less ponies left, we'll have to return to the town to resume our search. We'll be more thorough, and we just might find something of use to us."

"What do you think happened to Applejack and Rainbow Dash?" asked Mr. Cake.

"Don't tell me you didn't hear those shots. I can assure you they're both dead by now."

"I wouldn't be so sure," said Mr. Cake, "the second shot could have been fired by Applejack or Rainbow Dash."

"But the fact that there were only two gunshots, and two ponies on the roof doesn't seem overwhelmingly convincing to you?"

"I suppose. But consider this: Applejack is for sure dead - she stopped talking right after the first shot - but Rainbow Dash could still be alive. She could have flown off, and the second gunshot could have been a miss."

"Good point," said Filthy, "though I hope it's not true."

Mr. Cake was suddenly taken aback. "Why is that?" he asked.

"Well, Rainbow Dash is very... loyal, you see. In fact her loyalty is the only thing that counteracts her constant laziness. But after having seen one of her best friends Applejack killed right in front of her, I can't imagine her being in the most stable emotional state."

"So you're saying that she should be dead because she would be otherwise crazy?"

"Um, yes. That and her natural athletic ability make her a loose cannon in this game when left alive."

"All the more reason to retreat into the woods to wait it out, I suppose," Mr. Cake said, looking down.

Caramel and Twilight finally came to a stop next to a creek at the bottom of a small canyon. The creek cut straight up the mountainside as far as Twilight could see. The water looked fresh, and Caramel used it to top off his water bottle.

"I've been wanting to ask you something," said Twilight hesitantly. Does he really think I...?

"What's up?" asked Caramel, looking up from the creek.

Does he really think I look nice? "How are you so good at this game? I mean, how do you know Celestia makes the nights long? And how do you already know how to use that gun?"

"It's because I've been in this game before," said Caramel.

Twilight gasped. "And you... won?"

"Yeah," said Caramel, "you see, I used to live in Las Pegasus. I was living a good life. I had my own group of friends, you know? I had found what I wanted to do with my talent, and I was normal. Everything was normal.

"Then one day we get a letter from the princess. It came with train tickets to Manehatan for the Equestria games. Me and my friends were ecstatic. We had never received special treatment from Princess Celestia before. None of us ever expected a trap.

"Next thing we knew, we all woke up in a classroom with that sadistic 'teacher'. My friends were quieter, and nopony died before we started. That may seem like a good thing, but that only meant all fifteen of them had to die at a friend's hand. And we really were all friends too. There weren't any egomaniacs or outcasts like Trixie or Flim and Flam. The worst part was that we had to see who was broken first. Who would be the first among us to loose it, and kill their own friends.

"The first one to break was a stallion named Fire Dust. The second night I was taking shelter in an old condemned boutique, and he snuck up from behind me. He tried to slit my throat, but I caught his knife just before it reached my neck. I wrestled it out of his hooves, and it was flung across the room. I ended up strangling him to death."

Twilight was shocked. How long has he kept this bottled up inside him? "How do you know he was the first?" she asked out loud.

"They tell you when you win the game," Caramel said, "somehow they see everything we do. So when you win the game, they tell you how and when each and every pony died."

"It must have been horrible," said Twilight.

"It was. Fire Dust was my best friend. After that, killing another eight ponies wasn't as hard."

"Eight?" Twilight said aghast, "you killed eight of your friends?"

"The others found out quickly after I killed the first one." His voice was shaking. Twilight could tell it was easier for him to refer to his friends as "the others". "They thought I was the one who started it. Our island was smaller, you see. Small enough to the point where you could pass messages by yelling. And so they swore revenge. They came at me one by one, and I killed them all. I did it without even leaving the building. By the end there were nine bodies distributed around my shelter. They were in the halls, where I slept, splayed across the stairs, everywhere. I couldn't go outside because a mare named Phoenix Flight had me pinned down with a sniper rifle. The game ended when she threw herself from atop the building she had used to get a shot at me."

Twilight had no idea he'd been through so much. She had no idea what she was going to go through. Who wrote this story of fall and rise? For far too soon will I meet with my demise, and fall upon my heart's reprise? More eloquent thinking for an emotional situation. Feeling a little impulsive, I guess.

Caramel continued, "After I won the game, they gave me a royal pension, and told me never to speak of the game again. They said I could go anywhere in Equestria, but Las Pegasus was off limits. So that's when I came to Ponyville. I came here hoping to get a fresh start. Hoping to find somepony who would forgive me for what I've done." He was crying again, whether he knew it or not.

Twilight leaned over and kissed Caramel, and without hesitation, he kissed her back. His lips were still wet from the creek. After almost ten seconds they finally stopped. Twilight leaned back and looked deep into his eyes.

"I forgive you," she said. She leaned forward to straddle him, and put her tongue in his mouth once more. These feelings...

After careful consideration, Rainbow Dash made the decision to head inland. It didn't take long, she was Rainbow Dash after all. She soared above the trees once more, and gazed down at the terrain below her. She saw the town at the south end of the island. Farther inland was the school, near the summit of a small mountain. She flew to an area in the forest that was several hundred meters below the school. When she landed, she once more found herself in the concealment of the trees.

Rainbow Dash collapsed against a tree. She was exhausted. She realized that she hadn't slept since that non-consensual slumber that started on the train and ended in the school. Her back slid down the bark of the tree and she began to drift to sleep.

Somepony somewhere made a yawning sound. "How long has it been since we last slept?"

"Couldn't tell ya," mumbled Rainbow Dash.

"Can't be that long," a voice answered back, "the sun just rose a little over an our ago."

Filthy Rich and Mr. Cake were nearly on top of her by the time Rainbow Dash came to her senses. She jolted awake, retreated behind a rock, and began to uncoil the bullwhip.

"Can we take another break?" whined Mr. Cake.

"Well of course not," answered Filthy Rich, "in order for us to take a break, the effects of the previous break have to have completely worn off. Otherwise you're just wasting time."

Rainbow Dash silently cursed herself. It looked as though somepony else had the same idea. If they were going to get this close to the school, then they weren't in the mood to get some killing done. She decided to take a risk. She came out from behind her cover, and approached the two other ponies.

When she came into view, they stopped in their tracks.

"There she is!" screamed Mr. Cake, as he lifted his AK-47 and unloaded and entire magazine in Rainbow Dash's direction.

"Wait stop!" yelled Filthy, but the damage had already been done. , but Rainbow Dash was nowhere in sight. "You idiot!" he said, exasperated, "if there was ever a pony in Equestria who could dodge a bullet, it would be Rainbow Dash. And now look at what you've done!"

The two earthponies went flank to flank, slowly rotating in circles and scanning forest.

Then suddenly Rainbow Dash thundered to the ground in front of Mr. Cake, her whip in her mouth, fully unwound in all it's twisted glory. It hovered out behind her in midair, glistening in the sun, and before Mr. Cake could react, Rainbow Dash thrashed her head down, sending the stock of the whip rushing forward. As it neared its destination, a shockwave was sent down it, getting bigger and bigger until the very tip finally came around in an earsplitting crack, while at the same time cutting through Mr, Cake's throat and upper chest. The whip then snaked back around Rainbow Dash's body and lined up behind her, as if ready to strike again.

Mr. Cake collapsed to the ground, a tidal wave of blood erupting from his neck. He looked back up at Rainbow Dash, shocked to see how such a strange weapon had gotten the better of him. When the blood loss finally became too much, his eyes drifted away from Rainbow Dash, and into space. Blood continued to fountain from his neck and chest and began to form a small stream, flowing down the mountainside. Rainbow Dash staggered back, once again shocked by what was happening. Had she just killed Mr. Cake? She turned around, and clumsily took off.

At the same time Filthy, who was still reeling from what had just happened, turned and withdrew his Desert Eagle. He aimed at the fleeing Rainbow Dash and fired. The kick was immense and unexpected, and the gun flew out of Filthy's hoof, preventing him from taking another shot.

Rainbow Dash was several hundred feet from the ground when began to feel rather weak. She looked down, and realized that she actually had been shot. Blood was running down her right hind leg and dripping down into the forest below. Not a moment too soon had she realized this, for as she began to look back up, she nearly lost consciousness. She began an uncontrolled descent back down to Earth, and she tried to extent her remaining hooves to soften her landing. As she was forced to fall through the treetops, her left wing snagged on a branch, stopping any remaining flight ability in its tracks. She hung from the branch for a moment, and then it broke. Falling a full fifteen feet, she landed back-first on the forest floor with a thud, followed by her bullwhip, which landed on her stomach.

The wind having been knocked out of her, Rainbow Dash coughed and sputtered for a full minute. She sat up, and inspected her leg. The bullet went in just bellow her cutie mark. She winced in agony. The pain was just now beginning to sink in. She looked inside her pack for something that could stop the bleeding, and ended up removing her bullwhip manual. Without thinking twice, she pressed the manual firmly against her leg, and tied it down with the end of her whip. Then finally she collapsed back onto the ground, exhausted.

7 ponies remaining.