Chapter 1: Prologue and Medieval Zone.
It has been months since the girls had their journey in Fort Boyard, months since their returned home with their fortune.
After they returned, all they could think about was the adventure, and then soon, after their episode aired on TV, they moved on afterwards, occasionally thinking about that day every once and a while.
One day, on an early afternoon, the girls arrived at their local mall, where they would meet up occasionally at the food court, so they could have lunch.
The girls sat down after getting their lunch, and while they were eating, they started chatting.
"...I'm just saying, if he doesn't get his act together, he won't win", said Applejack.
" The results aren't for another five months, anything can change then", said Twilight.
" At this rate it's clear how it's going to go down, that guy needs to retire", said Applejack.
" Do you recon we should change the subject", said Fluttershy.
" Yeah, let's talk about Fort Boyard, that game show we did months ago", said Pinkie Pie.
" Well I hoped none of us spent all of our earnings at once", said Twilight.
" Not me, I've been at the arcade most of the time, and buying video games, the rest I still have", said Rainbow Dash.
" I donated my share to the animal shelter", said Fluttershy.
" I gave my share to my family at the rock farm", said Pinkie Pie.
" I spent a bit of my share on repairs at the farm, and with the rest of my money, enough to keep me and my family from going into debt", said Applejack.
" I was planning on opening a boutique in Manehatten, maybe I'll use my share to help invest in a property", said Rarity.
" I've used my share to help get me into Evertron", said Twilight.
" I've used mine to help get my own house, instead of having to live in that apartment", said Sunset.
While they were talking about Fort Boyard, Twilight was looking at her phone, and then noticed something.
" Hmm, interesting", said Twilight.
" What is it Twilight", said Sunset.
" Just as we were talking about Fort Boyard, I was looking at something interesting", said Twilight.
" What is it darling", said Rarity.
" Another gameshow, similar to Fort Boyard, it's called the Crystal Maze", said Twilight.
" Is it a giant maze made of crystals", said Pinkie Pie.
" No, it's a maze filled with different themed areas, basically, a group of people will travel through four different themed zones, playing challenges and winning crystals", said Twilight.
" What type of zones", said Pinkie Pie.
" Originally, Aztec, Industrial, Medieval and Futuristic, but overtime some of the zones have changed, and replaced with zones like Ocean and Eastern", said Twilight.
" Anyway, what interested me about this was, Canter Zoom, Juniper Montages uncle, has been involved with the company of the crystal maze, and with their permission, is going to produce their own series in his studio, using sets from his previous films as the zones, and they're looking for applicants to take part in the show", said Twilight.
" Are you interested in taking part in another game show, even though we just did one last year", said Applejack.
" We're allowed to be in more than one game show if we wanted to", said Twilight.
" Can I borrow your phone", said Applejack.
Twilight gave Applejack her phone, who looked through the site.
" I thought you said they were doing four zones, not six", said Applejack.
" Wait what", said Twilight, taking her phone back and noticed the diagram of the maze has six zones, each color coded, green for medieval, purple for industrial, blue for ocean, red for eastern, grey for futuristic, yellow for Aztec, and white for the dome.
" I said the original show had four zones, apparently Canter Zoom is doing six zones, constructing the maze into a giant hexagon", said Twilight.
" Canter's going all out is he", said Rainbow Dash.
" Okay, and since there's going to be six zones, instead of four, that means more games", said Twilight.
" How many games exactly", said Rarity.
" In a regular four zone journey, somewhere between 10-16 games, but in this journey, 24", said Twilight.
" I also noticed on the site, each team needs eight players, and there's seven of us, supposing we all agree to do this, we're going to be at least one team member short", said Applejack.
" I'm down with this", said Pinkie Pie.
" Count me in as well", said Rainbow Dash.
" I'm sure I'll make time for it", said Rarity.
" I suppose I'll tag along since most of you are interested in going", said Fluttershy.
" Why not, count me in", said Sunset.
" So I guess that's all of us, wait, what about you Applejack", said Twilight.
" I'll come along as well, but like I said earlier, we're still one team member short", said Applejack.
" Who do we bring", said Twilight.
" I'd bring Maud along, but she's busy with her studies in rocks", said Pinkie Pie.
" I'd ask Treehugger, but she's also busy", said Fluttershy.
" Trixie's booked with her stage performances, and Starlight's busy with the school of friendship, and the Twilight in Equestria, Princess Twilight is preoccupied with her duties", said Sunset.
" If we invited one of the three CMC's, who would be, and which of the other two miss out", said Rainbow Dash.
" What about Wallflower", said Pinkie Pie.
" I almost suggested that, when I remembered she's out for a few weeks, and by the times she get's back we'd have already applied", said Sunset.
" Is there anyone else we can think of, anyone", said Rarity.
A month has gone by, and the girls arrived at Canter's studio, after having applied just after finding their eighth player.
" I can't thank you enough for bringing me along", said the eighth girl they have chosen.
" It's all good Derpy", said Sunset.
They were escorted into the locker room, where they stored their belongings, and they put on these jackets that showed a picture of a crystal in the back, each has a different color, Sunset wore a black jacket, Twilight wore a blue jacket, Rarity wore a purple jacket, Fluttershy wore a green jacket, Rainbow Dash wore a red jacket, Applejack wore a dark orange jacket, Pinkie Pie wore a dark pink jacket, and Derpy wore a dark grey jacket.
" Now before we leave, might I give a last minute pep talk, I've been looking into the episodes of this game show, and the one thing they always have in common is how everyone's always yelling at the same time, if we're going to do great today, we're going to have to try and avoid talking over one another, because it always makes the player taking part in the challenge lose their focus", said Twilight.
" Okay then, so one of us talks at a time", said Sunset.
" Yes, and also, as this is like Fort Boyard, basically each challenge we face, the player who faces that challenge will risk getting locked in, so when we say get out, you get out", said Twilight.
" Also who's the team captain", said Fluttershy.
" Oh that's right, I forgot, each team is required to have a team captain, and a vice captain", said Twilight.
" Any nominations", said Applejack.
" How about Twilight, I mean, it's her idea for us to be here", said Derpy.
" Oh, um, I'm not sure", said Twilight.
" How about you become vice leader instead, why do we need a vice leader anyway", said Pinkie Pie.
" Like I said before, the challenges take place in small rooms, fail to get out, we get locked in, even the team leader is liable to getting locked in, and if that's the case, the vice leader takes over", said Twilight.
" What does the team leader do in this game", said Derpy.
" They decide what games to play, and who plays them", said Twilight.
" If it's just that then any of us could be in charge", said Rainbow Dash.
" Why don't we put it to a vote", said Fluttershy.
" Good idea, does anyone have a note pad or pens", said Rarity.
" All of our belongings are in the locker room, we won't be able to determine through secret ballot", said Applejack.
" I have a idea, let's spread out in a circle", said Pinkie Pie.
Once they did she continued.
" On the count of three, we point at who we want as team leader, most votes it team leader, second most is vice leader", said Pinkie Pie.
" Okay then, one, two, THREE", shouted Pinkie Pie, as soon as she shouted 'Three', everyone pointed at somebody.
After that, they counted at who pointed at who, it was revealed Derpy, Pinkie Pie and Twilight voted for Sunset, while Rarity voted for Applejack, while both Sunset and Applejack voted for Twilight, and Fluttershy voted for Rainbow Dash, while Rainbow Dash voted for herself.
" Well, Sunset has the most votes, so therefore I guess she wins", said Pinkie Pie.
" And it's a tie for second place between Twilight and Rainbow Dash", said Fluttershy.
" Should we even count Rainbow Dashes vote, since she voted for herself", said Rarity.
" Nobody said I couldn't", said Rainbow Dash.
" That's true", said Rarity.
" Now we do a tie breaker, another vote between Rainbow Dash and Twilight, who's second in command, the two candidates will abstain from voting, so it'll just be the six of us voting, four votes to make a majority, three, two, one, NOW", shouted Pinkie Pie.
And in a split second, Applejack, Rarity and Sunset voted for Twilight, while Derpy, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy voted for Rainbow Dash.
" Looks like we're at another tie, 3 to 3", said Pinkie Pie.
" Can we make this quick, everyone's waiting for us", said Twilight.
" How about we do rock, paper, scissors, get it over and done with, winner is vice leader", said Sunset.
And so, they played rock, paper, scissors, and paper beats rock, Twilight won.
Twilight was chosen to be vice captain.
Once they were ready, they were then escorted to one of the stages.
Inside a small room, a man was shown standing in front of a giant glass dome, which has fans underneath blowing gold and silver token around, he introduced himself to the audience.
" Hello, and welcome to the crystal maze, I am your host Professor O'Brien, and once again, I will be leading a team of eight into the maze where they will play fiendish challenges to win crystals, the more they win, the more time they will spend in the dome, where they will try and win some fabulous, or not so fabulous prizes, so, who are these eight", said O'Brien.
" Well first we have Derpy Hooves, aged 17 from Canterlot, and she's a part time mail deliverer".
" Next we have Rainbow Dash, aged 17 from Canterlot, and she's an athlete".
" Contestant number three is Miss Fluttershy, aged 18 from Canterlot, and she's an animal caretaker".
" Number four is Miss Pinkamena Dianne Pie, or as she likes to be known as Pinkie Pie, aged 17 from Canterlot, and she's a party planner".
" Next we have Applejack, aged 18 from Canterlot, and she's a farmer".
" Then we have Miss Rarity, aged 18 from Canterlot, and she's a seamstress".
" Next we have Twilight Sparkle, aged 17 from Canterlot, transferred from Crystal Prep academy".
" And last but not least, Miss Sunset Shimmer, aged 18 from Canterlot, and she's a part time waitress at a sushi resturant, as well as a game streamer, and also the team captain".
Sunset, Applejack, Rarity, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Derpy, waited outside an old Medieval castle, they didn't wait long, when their maze master approached them.
" Welcome to the crystal maze, I'm the maze master, and also your guide, Professor O'Brien, but you may call me O'Brien, now Sunset, you're the team captain, and Twilight, you're the vice-captain, so if we lose Sunset on our journey through the maze, you'll take over in charge and will make all the decisions", said O'Brien.
" This is our first zone, the Medieval zone, where the first four crystals are kept, we'll spend roughly 10-15 minutes in each zone, so therefore in total we should spend somewhere between and hour to an hour and a half in the maze, but we need to get in first", said O'Brien, he then pointed out a variety of key scattered around the place, looked to be about 20-30 keys in total.
" There's a bunch of keys here, one of them opens the door, the rest don't, start searching", said O'Brien.
The team scattered to search for the keys, they searched through plant pots, milk bottles even looked near the window ledges to find the keys, and each key they found, they tried to use, and eventually, after nearly a dozen attempts, they found the correct key, and unlocked the door, and they all went into the castle, they approached a table, which has apples and they sat down.
" Welcome to the first zone, Medieval, now in each zone you'll be playing a set of challenges, for each challenge you complete you'll earn a crystal, and for every crystal won you'll spend five seconds inside the crystal dome, which is where we'll be going to at the end of the journey, now these games have a time limit between 2-3 minutes, and will take place in separate rooms, and if you are not out of the room when the time limit is up, you'll be locked in, and the team will have to sacrifice one of their earned crystals to get you out", said O'Brien.
" Now, 24 crystals, the maximum time you can get in the dome is two minutes, and also to let you all know, the current record is held by a team in Crystal Prep who attended the maze last week, and they collected 12 crystals", said O'Brien.
" So, Sunset, where shall we begin", said O'Brien.
" I think we'll start with a skill game, and I choose Rainbow Dash for the challenge", said Sunset.
" Alright Rainbow, I have a game for you, a simple game, two minutes", said O'Brien, leading Rainbow Dash towards one of the rooms.
" The time will start the second the door closes, you'll become apparent to what you need to do once you're in", said O'Brien, Rainbow Dash enters the room, and the time begins.
She sees targets away from her, and she holds a bow, and twelve arrows.
" Okay, so I have to fire these arrows at the target", said Rainbow Dash.
Knowing what she needs to do, she grabs her first arrow.
" Okay, the first target is easy to hit, absolutely no way can you miss it", said O'Brien.
Rainbow Dash aimed at the target, before she let go, she heard an "ACHOO", which let her guard down.
" I was wrong", said O'Brien.
" Not my fault, someone sneezed and distracted me", said Rainbow Dash.
" Sorry", said Pinkie Pie.
Rainbow Dash then took her second shot, and it hit the target.
" Excellent Rainbow, but do pick up the pace, you've wasted 25 seconds on that target, only four to go, and they're more difficult to hit", said O'Brien.
Rainbow Dash then took another shot, and successfully hit the target.
" Well done, two in a row", said Derpy.
" A minute and a half left", said O'Brien.
Rainbow Dash then fires her fourth arrow, and hit the third target, causing the team to cheer.
" Three in a row, well done, now fair warning, the next two targets are more difficult", said O'Brien.
Rainbow Dash aims arrow number five at the second small target, and missed, she also missed at her sixth attempt.
" Under a minute left", said O'Brien.
Rainbow Dash missed on her seventh attempt, she successfully got the fourth target after her eight attempt.
" Well done now, you only have 45 seconds left, one more target to hit, and only four arrows left, you can afford to make three mistakes", said O'Brien.
Rainbow Dash then aims her ninth arrow at the final target, fires, but misses.
" It's okay, take a breather, you've got this", said O'Brien.
Rainbow Dash then fires her tenth arrow, and it hit the target, causing the crystal to be released.
Rainbow Dash grabs the crystal, and gets out of the room.
" Outstanding Rainbow, and with 20 seconds to spare, and two arrows, team, we've got our first crystal, five seconds inside the crystal dome, and we begin with a 100% success rate", said O'Brien.
" Who's up next Sunset", said O'Brien.
" Rarity, would you like to have a go", said Sunset.
" Sure", said Rarity.
" What games are left again", said Sunset.
" Physical, Mental and Mystery", said O'Brien.
" Well I take it the physical game you probably don't want to do", said Sunset.
" I like to give mystery a go, reading plenty of detective stories, I'm certain to give it my all", said Rarity.
" Okay then, a mystery game", said Sunset.
" I have just the game", said O'Brien, leading Rarity across the hall, to the other side.
" This next game is a two and a half minute game, and I'll give you a hint, take everything Arthur is holding in his hands", said O'Brien.
Opening the door, he let Rarity in, and the two and a half minutes began.
She finds herself in a room with a giant circular table, around them are skeletons dressed up as knights, and in front of each knight is a casket.
" The knights of the round table, so that means, King Arthur", said Rarity, approaching king Arthurs chair, who's the only skeleton who has a crown.
" That one is King Arthur Rarity", said Rainbow Dash.
" Was it not that obvious, he's the only one with a crown", said Twilight.
" He's the only one who hasn't got crap all over him", said Rainbow Dash.
Rarity approached Arthur, and picked up the items he held, a scroll, and a key.
Opening the scroll, she read the clue.
" Find the crystal, you may or may not, the key belongs to Sir...".
" Lancelot, the clues are telling Rhymes", said Rarity.
" Clever Rarity, figured it out already", said O'Brien.
She approached Lancelot's casket, and with the key, she unlocked it, revealing another key and another clue.
She reads the second clue.
" Will you succeed, or will you fall, the next key belongs to sir...".
" Sir Percival", said Rarity.
" Two minutes left by the way", said O'Brien.
Rarity found Sir Percival's casket, and she unlocked it, revealing a third key, and a third clue.
" Don't worry, you don't have to open all the caskets, I'd say only about six, and you've opened two already, so, you only need to open four more", said O'Brien.
Rarity then read's the third clue.
" You're either doing good or doing bad, this key belongs to sir...".
" Sir Galahad", said Rarity.
" A minute and a half left", said O'Brien.
Rarity approached Galahad's casket, and unlocked it, revealing a fourth key and a fourth clue.
" Alright you're halfway there now, three more caskets to open", said Applejack.
Rarity then reads the fourth clue.
" Glad to see you're not in pain, this key belongs to sir...".
" Sir Gawain", said Rarity, searching for Gawain's chair.
" You've got a minute left by the way, it's better that you pick up the pace now", said O'Brien.
Rarity found Gawain's casket, and unlocked it, revealing the fifth key, and fifth clue.
" Okay, two more caskets to open", said Twilight.
Rarity then reads the second to last clue.
" Find the crystal, try you may, this key belongs to sir...".
" Kay, Sir Kay", said Rarity.
" 45 seconds left, if you hurry, you'll have enough time to open the final casket", said O'Brien.
Rarity searched for Kay's casket, and once she did, she unlocked it, revealing the final key and the final clue.
" Under thirty seconds left, I think you got this", said O'Brien.
Rarity then reads the final clue.
" It's about time I give you some slack, the crystal is in the casket of sir...".
" Sir Lamorack", said Rarity, looking around to find Sir Lamorack.
" Ten seconds".
By the time she found sir Lamorack, she unlocked his casket, grabbed the crystal.
" Quick, get out Rarity", said Applejack.
" Five seconds".
Rarity ran out of the room, in an absolute hurry, and she accidently dropped the crystal out of her hand as she made it out the room.
" Oh no, she dropped the crystal", said O'Brien.
" But she won the challenge, she can go back and get it right", said Rainbow Dash.
" I'm afraid not, to win the crystal, you must leave the room with it, those are the rules I'm afraid", said O'Brien.
" I'm sorry girls", said Rarity.
" It's all good Rarity, you were so close, just didn't have enough time to get that last case opened", said O'Brien.
" Maybe if I had gotten an extra 30 seconds it would've helped", said Rarity.
" Now, there's only two more challenges to face in this zone, Physical and Mental, Sunset, any takers", said O'Brien.
" Well, Applejack is the strongest of the group, while Twilight is the more intellectual, they'll play the next two challenges", said Sunset.
" So Applejack for a physical, and Twilight for a mental, which one first", said O'Brien.
" Rock, paper, scissors", said Sunset.
" Okay then", said Applejack, she and Twilight then did a round of rock paper scissors, in which Applejack got rock, and Twilight got scissors.
" Rock beats scissors, Applejack will do hers, Twilight, you'll do your challenge afterwards", said O'Brien.
" Okay then, Applejack, I have a very simple challenge for you, this way", said O'Brien, leading Applejack to another room.
" It was meant to be a simple challenge, the crystal is in the other side of the room, but the room has become infested with giant spider webs, with bells attached to them, this challenge is what we call an Automatic lock in, or as Richard Ayoade will call it, an ALIS, which stands for Automatic lock in situation", said O'Brien.
" Should you ring the bells more than twice, you'll be locked in, two minutes this challenge, also if you win the crystal, then it's a guarantee that we'll not leave this zone empty handed", said O'Brien.
He opens the door, and Applejack goes in, where she sees the room filled with white strings, threads, and bells attached.
Being as careful as she can, she began to walk through the webs, without touching them, already she touched a bell early on, and it rung.
" Okay, strike one Applejack, two more chances", said O'Brien.
Applejack continued onward, however, she's not even halfway, and she hit a bell a second time.
" Strike two, okay, one more and you're locked in", said O'Brien.
" Maybe it's better you got out, don't risk it", said Sunset.
And so, Applejack began to carefully make her way back, without touching the threads, once she got out, she looked really embarrassed.
" I'm sorry ya'll", said Applejack.
" It's perfectly fine, it's better not to risk that lock in, as you were barely halfway to getting the crystal, and you had to come back the same way too, no matter, one more challenge before we leave this zone, and Twilight, it's your time to shine, I'll give you a fairly simple game, because I'm really hoping to leave this zone with two crystals", said O'Brien.
He leads Twilight to a nearby room.
" It's going to be a two minute game, in you go", said O'Brien.
The door then opens, and Twilight enters, she finds herself in a small room, with an organ.
She reads the message, Play and identify four tunes.
" The first one should be easy", said O'Brien.
Twilight then plays the first tune.
" Durade Sandstorm", Rainbow Dash said jokingly.
" Shut up Rainbow", said Twilight.
" Twinkle Twinkle little star", said Fluttershy.
" Correct, although I would've also accepted the alphabet song, or baa baa black sheep", said O'Brien.
" Alright, song number two", said Twilight, as she continued playing on the organ.
" A minute and a half left", said O'Brien.
However, Twilight struggled a bit.
" Maybe play the song a bit quicker, you're going a bit slow", said Rarity.
Twilight then did play quicker, and came to realize the song.
" Happy birthday to you", she said.
" Excellent, halfway there", said O'Brien.
She then plays the third song.
" A minute left", said O'Brien.
After a few more seconds, she came to realize the song.
" What's that song, I know how it's used, some people sing it other than happy birthday", said Twilight.
" For she's a jolly good fellow, for she's a jolly good fellow, for she's a jolly good fellooww", sang Pinkie Pie.
" Who nobody gives a damn", sang Rainbow Dash.
" Who nobody gives a damn, who nobody gives a damn", Pinkie Pie sang.
" Yeah, that, she's a jolly good fellow the song is, or he's a jolly good fellow", said Twilight.
" Correct, okay Twilight, only one song to go, and thirty seconds remain", said O'Brien.
Twilight played the music, but couldn't identify it.
She was so focused on getting the song right, that she didn't hear O'Brien do the countdown.
" Ten, nine, eight, seven...", he called.
" Quick get out", Sunset called.
" Five, four, three...", O'Brien counted down.
Twilight realized she was running out of time, but by the time she realized, it was too late, she tried to get out, but O'Brien locked the door before Twilight could get through, she was trapped in the room.
" Time's up I'm afraid, Twilight, you're locked in, and in case you were wondering, the final song was Ode to joy, now, Sunset, you have a bit of a dilemma to make, we're about to leave this zone, and you only have one crystal, we can use it to bail Twilight out now, and start again from scratch, or we can wait it out, continue the next zone without her, and play more games, and then buy her out afterwards", said O'Brien.
" Well, this is our first zone, we can still try and redeem ourselves, and start over, we'll buy her out", said Sunset.
" Are you sure", said O'Brien.
" Positive", said Sunset.
" Okay, Twilight, we're going to buy you out", said O'Brien.
" Thank you", said Twilight.
And so, O'Brien unlocked the door, placed the crystal on the floor, and Twilight came out.
" Never mind, a bit of a dodgy start, but we can still pick up from this, it's only the beginning, there's still five more zones to travel, 20 more crystals to grab, you can still get up to one minute forty in the dome, and that's a lot, if you guys were successful in all the remaining games, then you should have no reason to fell bad about the bad start here", said the maze master.
" As we've played enough games in this zone, it's time for us to move on to our next zone, I don't know about you girls, but I'm getting tired of using candle light, or torches, a bit of electricity to spark up the journey", said O'Brien.
" There's electricity from the stage lights above u...", Pinkie Pie was cut off.
" Let's make our way to our second zone, just up those stairs", said O'Brien.
And so, they made their way towards a spiral staircase, leaving the medieval zone behind.
Chapter two coming soon.