A/N: Not dead. Neither me nor this story. All the rest also have continuations, but I dunno when I'm able to update them.
After a quick flight backwards - as if the "participants" (who had no choice) were in the video winded to the beginning - the Turners' house was gone. Or no, this was not a flight. The future players stood still, but the space around them was in motion until it changed to an enormous football pitch soaring in the middle of the sky - so high that the land wasn't seen. No tribunes were around, and only a human height see-through fence was surrounding it.
Then it was clear that they weren't going to play football here - there were no goals. Instead, the opposite sides of the pitch were equipped with ten high pipes, five on each side - straight, but curved at the ends, so their holes were in front.
Now it was about teams. Salamander remained alone against ten - Derpy, Time, Hobo, Dandy, Victorian, Tricky, Glimmer, Octavia, Vinyl and - that was totally unexpected - Space.
"You meant playing literally, didn't you?" Dandy asked, arms crossed.
"Yes. A game of Pentaball, where there cannot be a draw".
No one quite caught when there was another team against them. Now it was ten versus ten, and not just so. Every player of Salamander's team - including himself - was a copy of someone from the Turners' team. An evil, distorted, crooked copy. First of all, they all were winged, and their extra bat-like limbs were pale, greasy and with patches of hair there and here. Second, their skin was of dull greyish brown color, while their eyes were red - Salamander looked eerily correct at such background.
"See those pipes? There will be two rounds and a battle then. Five of you and five of us will take part in each of those rounds. The aim is to get the ball into those pipes by anyway, with magic or with legs, but listen carefully. Each of them will be labelled with your name, and only the required player is to get the ball into his or her pipe, otherwise - an automatic loss. Each pipe should get one and only one ball. When one team scores two points, the players change places, and the team which scores four leaves only one player against the losing team".
"Worse than any rodeo", Vinyl mentioned.
"Almost forgot. If you're weak, we are strong. If you're strong, we're weak. But we all get the same injuries", Salamander reminded, showing the wound on the back of his hand. "Who will play first?"
The first team consisted of Derpy, Victorian, Dandy, Octavia and Hobo (the latest walked to the center of the field).
"Remember to keep an extra stash of energy, all of you", Dandy whispered. "Clear?"
"Clear". A collective nod followed.
The five pipes in front of them were now labelled with letters: crooked D, normal D, H, O and V. More than clear...
"I will try first", Hobo announced. "Mine's in the middle".
Obviously no one here - except for, maybe, Dandy - had ever taken part in a football match, and no words about this. Besides, the "evil doubles" lost no time in using their opportunities - for instance, Salamander was in the air until Hobo decided to use his third pair of limbs.
After some minutes of running and soaring it became understandable that something was not right. Octavia and Dandy attempted to help Hobo get the ball to its aim safely, passing it to each other, but it didn't work. The duo seemingly stayed at the same place, while Hobo had to tear through the protection (ironically or intentionally consisting of Octavia's and Dandy's evil doubles) all alone.
"Don't stop! If you stand still, evil you will charge up!" Victorian announced when Derpy and Octavia understood they could not get closer to the pipes.
"Wish I was a mage!" Octavia groaned. "I would've paralysed them all!"
"And got the mirrored result". Victorian stopped and narrowed his eyes to see what was going on closer to the pipes. "Come on, do it, old Hobo... Don't sleep!"
As soon as the doubles rushed to poor Hobo in order to prevent his action, Dandy gestured everybody to stay still, and then suddenly jerked his hand up, like an orchestra conductor. There was kind of a spark in everyone's mind, and they all darted to the sides and upwards, forcing themselves to use all power available, no matter if it was physical or magical.
"Did it work?" Derpy opened her eyes - she hadn't realized that she had squinted while dashing up - and flopped onto the ground.
"Old Hobster, he's the least exact guy I know, but he did it", Dandy muttered and rolled his eyes. "My turn. At least I know how to fight, unlike him".
He did, indeed. While dribbling the ball towards the pipes, using merely his feet, he somehow managed to keep his magic on, so his evil twin couldn't activate his own magic.
And you won't let me try, Derpy thought and didn't feel offended - she knew she was a horrid football (or any sports) player, so she would spoil everything. She considered that the best thing she could do was preventing her evil twin from flying, so she was attempting to combine being relaxed (for the wings to unfurl) with concentration. One wing obeyed perfectly, but the other didn't want to: it flapped, twisted and made her scamper around the field in trials not to become a living aim. Thank goodness it did have some influence on her evil twin (it wasn't seen if she was cross-eyed or not - her eyes were angrily narrowed).
It was going on until the score reached 2:1 in 'good' team's favour (Salamander and Dandy both managed to score), and there was the replacement. The first team members found themselves in some kind of a glass cube over the field, from which they could see everything taking place underneath.
To be honest, Derpy had never felt so helpless. On the field she could've messed the opposite team up (if not her team), but now it was useless.
"And who's going to finish?" Dandy asked. The score was 4:3 in 'good' team's favour, and it was time to choose someone for a battle against all the 'evil' players.
"Allow me". Hobo pushed his way to the center. All ten now were in that 'glass cube', while Salamander's team was eying them. "I began this, I will finish".
"Saying strictly, Glimmer and Quote did", Vinyl put in. "But there's only Glimmer here".
"No one's blind, Vinyl", Octavia elbowed her.
"And those were my portals!" Victorian put in. "So I will end this mayhem!"
Space crossed his arms, making it clear that he was not going to be left behind. So did Time.
"There's no doubt who will finish this bedlam", Tricky put in. "I will".
"I don't wanna interfere, but there are only nine of us."
Eight pairs of non-crossed eyes stared at Derpy, who shrunk under them.
"This wasn't me who told him to do so," she shrugged. Space shook his head, as if saying 'don't look at me'.
No matter what had taken place, the smallest one from the gang was already gone.
"Glimmer! You bonehead! If you die there, I'll kill you!" Hobo groaned.
Now the only opportunity was watching out and guarding the little daredevil. Octavia occupied the place where everything was seen the best and began ordering to those who were to act. The winged prisoners did their best to stay away from the floor for as long as possible for their dark counterparts not to be able to fly, for Glimmer was a mage and this could be his weak point.
"Magic, Dandy, magic!"
Dandy, who always controlled his powers when in calm state, almost let it all out from the very first time.
"Whoa, not only me is nervous". Even here Hobo didn't lose his chance to prick his eternal 'frenemy'.
"Don't stay still, Hobster! Salamander is on the attack!"
Wing-flapping.
"Hold it, old Hobby Horse... Hold it!"
"WHO'S HOBBY HORSE TO YA?! I'LL SHOW YOU HOBBY HORSE!"
"Only Dandy calls him this way," Time whispered.
"Heyaaaa!" Vinyl silenced Hobo and Octavia with this yelp and decided to use the opportunity. "What did you just do, Hobo?"
"Lost balance," Hobo confessed without need: feathers in his right wing were scruffier than in the left.
"Then lose it, all of you!" Vinyl exclaimed. "Glimmer will get more time to dribble the ball to the pipes!"
To show what was to be done, she used her magic on her feet and almost flopped onto the floor. Space was the first to approve that her hypothesis was correct: he soared to the watching point and showed two thumbs up.
"All of you! Ready! Glimmer's almost at his pipe!" Octavia shouted. "DOWN!"
Everybody present flopped onto the floor, and Derpy in addition covered her head with her hands.
For some moments tense silence was the only option to listen to. Then Octavia stood up and took a pose of noble tragedy, but her legs gave up immediately.
"Whewhewhewhewhewhe..."
"Wherewherewherewherewhere..."
"WHAT?!"
Dandy was the first to jump up and pull Hobo upwards as well. The wound on the black-haired one's hand was gone for good, even no scar was left.
"This means our little Glimmer finally did something extraordinary," he summed up. "Where's he?"
"Me here, Dandy," a little voice called out from somewhere above. "Did I win?"
"You didn't understand from the first time?" Dandy climbed up the bunk bed (which responded with creaking) and pulled Glimmer from under the pile of blankets and pillows. "Glimmer, you can't be changed."
"This is what I love about my little bro," sounded from the box out of which a couple of legs in baggy pants was sticking. "If he could be changed, everything would get BORING."
"Thankee, Hobby!" Glimmer beamed. "Hee hee, Hobby Horse!"
"Hobby Pegasus maybe? Winged Horse, Hobby Pony, hehe!" Vinyl sat up from the floor where she landed.
"Dark Horse!" Glimmer hopped off the shelf onto which he had landed and began bouncing around the room, chanting 'yesyesyesyesyes' without end. this went on until Hobo caught him by the legs. "What, Hobby? You were a horse once! A pony!"
Hobo dropped him onto the bed and examined his right hand. No tracks of damages were there. Not even a scar.
"I could've believed that it was a bad dream, but Salamander is not a mage. And dream-creating is a rare talent anyway, just like Skyfall's. I bet he found a mage powerful enough to do it. Maybe one of the Masters."
"Bet one of them. The kindest one," Dandy snapped. "I promise I will find this out, but not before I teach Hobby Horse a lesson he'll remember. FOREVER."