Celestia's Game

The gate rolled open, filling Twilight's musty cell with white light. The bright daylight of the arena stung Twilight's eyes after being surrounded by darkness for so long. She stumbled out the gate on sore and tired legs, and as her eyes adjusted to the terrible light she surveyed her surroundings. She was in the arena, of course. Celestia's royal arena, all ponies knew of it but it seemed so unreal that she would actually be inside, down in the battle arena. It was like a horrible nightmare. It was a massive arena, a radius of about 200 feet, Twilight thought. It had a floor of white sand (so the blood is more visible), and was filled with various weapons, spears, axes, swords, what looked like hundreds of them, all designed to be held in the mouths or hooves of ponies. They were thrown haphazardly in the sand like old toys in a sandbox. The entire arena was encased in a dome force field about 100 feet high, so nopony in the audience gets hit by a flying weapon, and so no pegasus could escape. Surrounding the battle area were huge marble stands, currently filled with hundreds of ponies, cheering at the emergence of the contestants. And in her balcony surrounded by guards was Prince Celestia herself, watching over the event.

Looking around Twilight noticed that her friends too had emerged from their cells, all looking as tired, pathetic, and terrified as she was. Even Rainbow Dash looked petrified, she had hardly ever seen her frightened before, and certainly not as terrified as she looked now. Suddenly the gate behind Twilight slammed shut, as did the other five gates in the arena, causing all the ponies to jump, and causing Fluttershy to let out a short high pitched squeal. Then Celestia's voice echoed through the arena, amplified by some magic spell Twilight presumed.

"Fillies and gentlecolts, we all know why we are here…" the voice boomed "…We are here to see these ponies fight for their freedom, for only one of them may leave!"

Twilight filled with terror, she was actually going to have to kill her friends, the friends that she had gone on so many great adventures with, that had taught her everything she knew about friendship. But she wasn't going to die today; she was more frightened of that than she was of having to personally kill all of her best friends. And by the looks of it all of her friends shared the same thoughts. However brave they were before, their spirits were now broken (except for Pinkie, who looked around eagerly with a huge smile). After all that time trapped in their cells, without light, without even the simplest of company, all that they wanted now was freedom, no matter what the cost was. They all stood perfectly still, these horrible thoughts of what they must do going through their heads.

Finally Celestia broke this stillness by proclaiming "Now it is time ponies! The fight begins NOW!"

With that, all of the ponies bolted into action, Rainbow Dash took flight and began flying circles along the forcefeilds edge, slowly gaining speed. Applejack darted to the nearest battle axe and scooped it into her mouth, Rarity began using her telekinesis to pick up as many weapons as she could ,forming a giant swarm around her. Pinkie Pie, not seeming to notice the gravity of the situation, simply began to skip around with a huge grin. And Fluttershy simply cowered against her gate, whimpering and afraid to move. Twilight saw Fluttershy as the easiest opponent by far, and began to charge in her directon. Celestia would be so proud of her if she got the first kill!

Suddenly a blur of rainbow whizzed by inches in front of her face. It was Rainbow Dash! She was attempting to headbut her, and at the speed she was going it would certainly be fatal. Rainbow Dash turned and came speeding back, but this time Twilight saw her coming. Twilight threw herself back just as Dash ripped by and fired three lightning bolts from her horn as she passed. Out of sheer luck, one of them grazed her left wing, causing her to spiral out of control to the opposite side of the arena where Applejack was currently fighting for her life with Rarity's ever growing army of floating weapons. She slammed into the force field and landed on the ground, extremely dazed.

Twilight, now left alone with Fluttershy who was still cowering against her gate, began to charge up a lightning bolt to put Fluttershy out of her misery, but suddenly Fluttershy sprung up in self defense and began to glare into Twilights eyes, she was giving her The Stare. The world felt like it was cast in darkness for Twilight, the only thing that exsisted now was her and Fluttershy's horrible stare. It filled Twilight with a cold darkness she didn't even know was possible, she felt so weak and helpless. She tried to look away, or to close her eyes, but she could no longer do anything but stare into those evil eyes. No! She had to fight this! With the last of her willpower she tried to concentrate on firing another lightning bolt…at this point it was so hard to think of anything. And just when she thought her mind was gone, she heard a loud crack. She had done it! Fluttershy slammed into the metal gate behind her, splattering it with blood, and landed in a smoking heap in the sand. At this the crowd roared in joy.

Now Twilight had more time to survey the situation, luckily Rainbow Dash too had now become too focused on Rarity to be interested in her. In fact, currently all three of the other ponies were doing all they could to dodge the tornado of blades. Rainbow Dash flew wildly through the air, looping and rolling to avoid the onslaught of flying swords, axes and spears. Applejack, now looking exhausted, was jumping, rolling, and ducking around the swarm Rarity was sending at her, still holding her axe in mouth. Pinkie Pie on the other hand, skipped around giggling with a huge smile on her face, all of the blades just narrowly missing her. Rarity finally noticed Twilight at the edge of all this, and hurled a handful of terrifyingly sharp axes in Twilight's direction. Twilight's mind raced, trying to remember a spell that could block this, a force field, or some sort of- That's it! She conjured the first hard object that came to her mind, a wooden door, and threw herself against it seconds before the axes thudded against its surface. Meanwhile, Pinkie, without watching where she was going, ran into Applejack, sending them both tumbling to the ground. Now sitting on top of Applejack, she looked down and giggled.

"Hiya Applejack!" She cheerfully exclaimed, "Isn't this so much fun!"

"Gosh darn it Pinkie!" she yelled "I don' wanna hurt nopony but I sure as heck ain't gonna die here! So get off!"

She then brought the axe around, slicing through Pinkie Pie's neck. She stood up shoving Pinkie to the side, who began rolling around in the sand, blood pouring from her neck and mouth and laughing in a terrible, gargling way. Distracted by this grotesque sight, Applejack didn't see the axe coming as it flew in and stuck into her back leg, spraying blood. She screamed and fell to the ground just as the rest of the weaponry descended on her. Slashing at her until all that remained was a bloody pulp. At this Rarity chuckled.

"Applejack!" Rainbow Dash cried, her voice cracking, "Nobody hurts Applejack but me!"

She dived at Rarity at a fantastic speed, and drove her front hoof into Rarity's elegant face. The impact shattered Rarity's skull with a horrible wet crack. Her eyes flew out of their destroyed sockets, and her brain matter, now nothing but a mush, splattered against Rainbow Dash's face. All of the weapons under Rarity's control rained to the ground. Rainbow Dash turned to Twilight, wiping the blood off of her hoof.

"Well," she said in a shockingly calm voice, "now there is no one left but you and me…"

"I'm sorry Dash," Twilight replied, "but now I have to kill you…for Celestia"

"Yeah right," she chuckled "like you are going to hurt me with that sparkly little horn of yours! I always win, Twilight! And I can kill you in ten seconds flat."

"Prove it!" Twilight said, glaring straight into Rainbow Dash's eyes.

At that, Rainbow Dash began to fly around the stadium once more, gaining speed with each loop. Twilight picked an axe off of the arena floor, her horn began to glow, and she stood her ground. Rainbow Dash continued to circle the arena, faster and faster, so fast it was nearly impossible to tell where she was. And then she attacked, she turned sharply and began to dive towards Twilight at a blinding speed. Twilight's horn grew brighter than ever. In the last instant, when Twilight could feel the wind from Rainbow Dash's hoof, she was gone. Rainbow Dash, unable to change direction fast enough, slammed into the ground with an audible snap, Twilight had teleported no more than 3 feet to the right. And before Dash could even flinch Twilight was upon her, bringing the axe down on the back of her neck, it sliced almost three quarters of the way through in a spray of blood. She stepped aside and stood proudly as the crowd cheered.

"Celestia, I, Twilight Sparkle, am now the last pony stand-" Twilight began to say, but she heard deafening crack and felt a fiery punch in her right side that knocked her off her hooves. Lying on the ground, a warm feeling spreading from where she was hit, she examined the wound. There was a hole in her side about the size of a quarter. Her mind searched for an answer. What was that? What could have caused thi- A second shot was fired, this time hitting Twilight square in the temple. She flopped to the ground dead. In the middle of the arena sat Derpy Hooves, a very confused look on her face, and a .357 in her mouth. The crowd roared in cheer, for Derpy was their champion! Princess Celestia flew down from her balcony to congratulate the victor.

"Derpy Hooves, for valiantly battling in this arena and emerging victorious, I give you my honor and your freedom"

This seemed to confuse Derpy even further. She looked all around, not seeming to know where she was. After a few dozen seconds of awkward silence, she finally spoke. "Um, this is the post office, right?"