Hi everypony! Your favorite Lord of Doom here, to Wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving! During this story, you might find some references to my favorite games, or not, if you know where to look. I was going to wait until tomorrow for this, but I figured "Why not give 'em all a chapter early!". To all my fans with love (And tolerance)...

-Doomlord1234

P.S. As always...

Keep On Rockin'!~

Chapter 10: The Trial of Kindness and Cooperation...

Graham returned to the first room which he had since dubbed as merely "the lobby". He looked at the first portal as it closed. He gave a fist pump and cheered for himself. "Alright, first one down." He said proudly as he looked at the portal next to it. "I better get this one out of the way." He said as he jumped in. The Ponies watched.

"What do you suppose this one will represent..?" Rarity asked.

"Nopony has a clue, Rarity. All we can do is watch..." Twilight watched without moving her head to face Rarity.

Graham soon found himself in a dungeon. He looked around and saw a door, so he opened it and ran. He heard screams of pain and stopped. "What was that?" He asked himself as he heard it was close. He kept running towards the noise until he stopped. He saw a man in robes. He couldn't even see his face, but he was in a bear trap, trying to get it off, but the pain was too much.

"Oh, man...I'm coming! Hold on a sec!" Graham said as he rushed right over. He got the Trap off and looked at the wound. "Jeez, that's deep. I think I can give you something..."

He was about to grab a cloth, but the man stood up with a wrapping on the wound already. the man snorted.

"Get offa me, you grease-drippin' pork pie!"

"Hey, whoa! I just helped you out, and you're gonna thank me like that?"

"I didn't need your help, or anyone's for that matter. I'm outta here."

"The man disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Graham coughed and frowned. "At least I helped. I ain't angry. I don't regret it." He said as he started walking.

After about a half an hour, he spotted a exit. He smiled. "Alright! My ticket out of here!" He said as he then hit a wall. "What the..." Was all he said as he saw the portal gone. "B-but...it was right here! I swear it was right here!" He said trying to feel for a button or something that might bring the portal back. He heard growls and looked behind him slowly. There were creatures in front of him that could have come straight out of his nightmares. He looked at them, and they looked at him, with glowing red eyes. They looked almost shadowy in appearance and their numbers seemed endless. The flames on his shirt once more turned white.

"Oh, crap..." He said as they screamed and ran towards him. He then put up his fist and started knocking the shadows away. He sat the for at least ten minutes until he was out of breath from punching. The creatures grew in numbers as they all attacked him with claws as a group.

About two minutes later, Graham was on the floor bleeding. The other Ponies watched in horror.

"Come on, get up!" Rainbow Dash said with worry in her voice.

"This cant end like this!" Rarity added.

"Come on, cowboy...you can do it..." Applejack murmured to herself as Graham looked up to see the shadows surrounding him.

"It looks like the end for me..." He said with fear in his voice. He closed his eyes when he heard a yell. He shot his eyes open to see the mysterious man returned, fighting the creatures with a dagger. The shadows each fell and started to get back up, as the man got to Graham's Aid.

"Get up you baby."

"You came back...?"

"I figured I shouldn't have left ya. My pride got in my way." The man said as he pulled him up and got wrappings on the cuts that were deep enough. He felt a little bit better.

"Thanks, I owe you." Graham said to the man.

"Well, you can start by helping me kill that!"

They looked as the shadows formed up to be about 12 feet tall. The combined shadows then fused together to create what looked to be a giant shadow-like yeti. It roared and ran towards them. Both dodged as the monster came after Graham.

"How do we stop this thing!" Graham yelled as he kept running.

"We gotta go for the eyes and ears!"

"Wait, What?"

"Keep running, and I'll get him off your back!"

Then the man jumped on the back of the beast, and stabbed it in the left eye, it howled in pain as it knocked the man off with a shake and clawed his face. Graham ran up to it and jumped up on its back, grabbing the dagger that was stuck in its eye, and stabbed once more, dodging its arms. He continued this until he nearly torn off both its ears as it stopped in its tracks. The man then ran over, panting and with a glare in his eyes.

"Alright, we gotta put a hard enough punch to separate them all. You ready?"

"Ready when you are." Graham replied.

They soon got up to speed with each other and with one combined force, the monster howled and fell down, exploding into the shadows once more. they all ran off whimpering. Outside, the ponies cheered.

"That was so cool!" Rainbow Dash said.

"Way to go, Graham! Way to go!" Josh added.

Twilight sighed with relief as the other cheered on. "I'm glad he's safe."

Back in the dungeon, the man's robe covering his mask fell off, revealing his true face. It was another Graham, only this one's hair was red.

"I gotta say, for a wimp, you can sure kick ass."

"Why thank you-hey!"

The both laughed for a bit. The red Graham soon stopped laughing.

"I'm guessing we both learned a little lesson, eh?"

Graham smiled. "Yeah, and I think I know what it is." He stopped and looked at him.

"Ahem...I think this lesson was this: Stopping to help someone in need might not always give you a response you wanted, but to help them out anyways is a good thing. Even if you both didn't see eye to eye, helping each other solve a problem can even lead to learning something about each other that you didn't know before. You might even end up having one more friend you never knew you'd make."

The red one smiled a bit. "You're on the right track, now here's one thing you need to know. To be a True Hero, You need to stop and help out someone who needs you, when you do, they will thank you for it. It might not be in the way you would expect it. Showing Kindness isn't a weakness, it's a strength. Always be there for people who need help, as well as friends and family members. They'll thank you for it, and it'll help you grow, to become a better person..."

The Portal from earlier opened up again as the two looked over.

"Looks like your ride is here, pal."

"What about you?"

"I gotta stay here, it's kinda my job to be stuck down here. I've taken a liking to beating up those little guys, anyways."

"Well, red me. take care of yourself."

"No worries about me, mate. I got myself taken care of. Now of to your next trial. The rest ain't gonna be easy, ya know."

Graham nodded as he headed towards the portal.

"Thanks for the aid, red me."

"Thanks for stopping to help me, chum."

Graham smiled and headed off towards the lobby. The other ponies cheered once more for him, hoping that their cries of joy could be heard...

What will the Next trial be? Was what the red one said true? will they be that hard? Tune in next time as Graham travels deeper down to the third trial...

TO BE CONTINUED...