Author's Notes:

Done reading this and Trailblazer/Surefooted's fight? Decide who wins right here!

Motor Mind closed the door behind him laughing. He was told to win a fight against somepony or other. He didn’t exactly see who the competition was, but it was probably some unicorn mage.

“Ya, I’m sure I saw a couple of unicorns in the group. I think. Kinda wish I was paying more attention to the other contenders than wondering exactly how a creature like that was made.” As he made his way into the new room the door behind him fell flat and melted into a puddle with only a doorknob floating around.

“Well that’s something you don’t see every day,” he said as he inspected where the door once was, poking a hoof at the remaining puddle. Bright white lights shone on his burgundy coat, making him very hot. He tried waving his dull gold tail in an attempt to cool himself off. His helmet’s green lenses began to fog up, so he failed to notice the puddle evaporate, until only the doorknob was left. As suddenly as the heat had arrived, it left, cooling him off instantly. The doorknob rolled to the other side of the room and jumped up forming a new door.

Motor Mind hesitantly walked through the new door to find himself inside a cave. It was dark and smelled of death and rusting metal. As his night vision activated he heard some shrieking cries in the distance.

Discord’s voice announced from seemingly nowhere: “Welcome, friends, to round one. By now you’re probably wondering where your opponents are. Well, look around! Somewhere within the Arena your obstacle to victory is thinking the same thing. So keep on your guard! You never know where they might be or what they might be capable of.” There was a pause before he added, “Oh, and by the way. Once one of you has proven to be a clear victor, the exit will appear at the center of the battlefield. Good luck finding it! Ta!”

As Motor Mind walked down the tunnels, he started to speak to himself. “Well this cave blows. I mean honestly, where are the creepy creatures? The magical mage fighting me? The dangerous traps?” As he spoke, he was looking around the dark room with his night vision. Without warning, he stopped in front of a small, flat rock.

“Primitive,” he said as he stepped over the obvious trap and found a pile of dead bodies. A closer inspection of the bodies revealed them to have been shot in the neck with some sort of poison dart.

“Probably walked right into that trap, the poor souls. Let us have a moment of silence for those who lost their lives.“ After about five seconds he broke the silence.

“Well, enough of that, I have a dangerous rival to fight.” He continued to walk past the dead bodies, making sure not to step on any of them, when the tunnel opened up into a sort of underground military complex. The floor changed from a rocky, cave floor to a dusty metal one. There were all sorts of crates and boxes labeled ‘Danger’, filling up the room, making it hard to navigate. The ceiling had a few stalactites hanging low, threatening to fall if they were so much as looked at the wrong way.

Loud clangs rang out every time he took a step; his steel horseshoes banging against the metal floor. But even his hoofsteps, echoing as they did down the hallways, were not the only noise. A loud mass of moans and the sound of hooves were heard coming his way. As the sound got closer Motor Mind prepared himself for whatever opponent he might face. He had seen a number of unicorns among the other contestants; maybe one of them knew a spell to duplicate itself, or summon others.

“Those dirty magical cheaters!” He took the most menacing stance he could take and prepared his Rainbow Shotgun (patent pending), a boom-stick powered by rainbows to fire gem shrapnel. He expected his enemy to come in spells blazing, possibly with an army of whatever was moaning, but what came surprised him instead.

At the front of the pack was a two-headed pony. It (They?) appeared to be in its teens, had a sienna-colored coat, and forest green manes and tail. Each head had a different hair style; the first cut to loose uneven lengths, and the other was straight and even. Their tail had been braided and was flapping away, a few feet in front of the other ponies chasing them. The mob itself was made up of about seven ponies, but they looked different. They all had greyish coats, no cutie marks, and their eyes lacked any irises.

“Well fancy that! A two-headed pony!” he said. “And creepy monster zombie ponies! This is starting to look more and more like a real cave after all.”

He noticed that the two in the front seemed to be running away from the monsters and started to wonder. “How did those foals get here? It must be another of Discord’s prisoners! That monster, how dare he put children in danger?”

Motor Mind prepared himself as the mob of creatures came at him.

“Insert badass one liner here later.”

Trailblazer and Surefooted had just finished their mental preparations and passed through a door, when they ended up in a cave. The cave was full of dripping stalactites forming a large pool of water, which the twins were currently standing in. The cave was also full of tiny sounds, such as dripping water and noisy crickets, making the creepiness of dead silence, when it happened, even creepier.

Then Discord broke the silence with his distinct amused indifference, giving his little announcement.

“Yuck,” Trailblazer said as she tried to climb out of the water and onto a rock in the middle of the water. “Where are we anyway? It’s so dark in here I can’t see a thing!”

Surefooted surveyed the surroundings with her superior eyesight and hearing. Despite the fact that there was little light in the cave, Surefooted was able to see well enough to take note of everything around them.

Surefooted started swatting her hoof in front of her and moaning, while making a drooling face. “You hear some sort of threat deeper in the cave?” Trailblazer asked her sister in response. The twin responded by vigorously shaking her head yes.

“Well, we will want to avoid that, do you see a way around?”

Surefooted started to analyze the walls, trying to find some sort of switch or a torch to help light the way. Trailblazer understood what her sister was doing and started doing the same. Trailblazer was about to give up, when her hoof sunk into the wall, activating a secret button.

“Hey, I think I found something,” she told her sister. The room started to shake and a gurgling noise was heard as the water level began to lower. “It’s draining the water!” Trailblazer said.

As the water finished draining, the floor was revealed to be made of metal, having some sort of hatch that the water was hiding. The sisters approached it cautiously and debated opening it.

“Should we go down there?” Trailblazer asked. Her sister gave her a look that said, “Really?”and pointed to where the threatening noise was heard. “Point taken,” she said as they started to open the hatch.

Dim light started to pour into the room as they opened the hatch. Trailblazer looked inside to see that the other side was some sort of artificial tunnel made of metal. The only way down the hatch was a rusty ladder built into the tunnel.

“That doesn’t look safe,” Trailblazer said snarkily. Surefooted responded by making a creaking noise and a long whistle before a squishing sound. “Couldn’t agree more,” Trailblazer said.

The two went down the hatch and noticed the change of ambiance. While the previous room had an eerie silence to it, this one had an echoing hum where the smell of rusting metal and collecting dust were welcomed.

Right before they reached the bottom, the hatch that led them in closed and made a loud clang that echoed through the tight interior. The artificial lights got brighter as they came closer to the bottom until they reached their destination.

The bottom of the tunnel had a room with a pond that had a swirling magical energy to it, with many candles mounted on skulls burning away. But what stood out the most was a big chair facing the pond with only a big hat with a feather being seen over the top.

Trailblazer looked at her sister and pointed at the hat with her eyes. Surefooted understood the message and quietly pulled the slingshot off their back. Trailblazer scanned the floor and picked up a big enough rock that would be able to knock the creature in the chair unconscious.

They positioned the rock on the slingshot and pulled back, Surefooted giving her sister one last look for confirmation before letting go. The rock went flying and hit the hat right where the creature’s skull should be.

The hat fell off the creature and it fell forward to reveal it was only a skeleton with a hat. The skeleton was thrown into the pond which began to bubble. The pond suddenly started flashing with a swirling green color as many messages flashed in the water, and an alarm started sounding.

Trailblazer and Surefooted tried to make sense of the confusing messages, and they came to one conclusion: something was coming for them. They quickly gathered their slingshot and some more rocks and started to find their way out.

“Look, another door!” Trailblazer shouted. The two quickly made their way through the door into a rocky tunnel, and what they saw on the other side scared them. Surefooted gave out a shriek of terror.

It was a group of about twenty mindless creatures. They were mostly just lying around, but when the alarm started to go off they moaned loudly and became agitated. They charged at the siblings, started to try and strike them, and even each other with the occasional snapping of their jaws.

Surefooted pointed at a group of rocks that would act as a ladder to higher ground and hopefully away from these creatures. Trailblazer quickly started running with her up the rocks and said, “How do we get rid of those things?”

Surefooted looked ahead and saw a few raised plates that she hoped were some traps. She made some pew, pew noises and pointed at the obvious ones. Trailblazer understood and jumped over the traps as the creatures behind them chased close behind.

The first of the creatures managed to avoid the trap, but the others weren’t so lucky. As one of the creatures stepped on the plate, it sunk into the ground and spears flew out of the walls and hit a few of them in vital spots, ending their lives.

The rest kept chasing the twins as they came to some more traps. This time they accidentally stepped on one and a pit opened up with crocodiles swimming around at the bottom. Trailblazer managed to stop them quickly enough and went around the huge pit, but the creatures behind them had no such luck. They kept running and most fell in to be eaten by the hungry beasts below.

The twins started to get tired and looked back to see if they were still being followed. Sure enough, there was still about a half dozen, and they showed no signs of slowing down, unlike the twins whose lungs were burning and legs were ready to give out.

The environment around them soon started to change yet again as the tunnel they were in gave way to an artificial complex filled with crates and narrow paths. “I’m not sure how much longer we can go on,” said Trailblazer. “Wait, what’s that?!”

Both ponies looked ahead to see a single pony with a burgundy coat, some sort of helmet on its head with a backpack-type thing on its back. The pony pulled a strange object that looked similar to a small canon from its backpack and prepared a stance before shouting at them.

“Insert badass one liner here later.”

The two-headed pony ran past him, its two heads talking amongst themselves worriedly. Motor Mind was able to hear one them call the other by name, Surefooted. He had little time to dwell on this as the mob rushed at him.

He changed the setting of his gun from stun to kill. These were clearly no longer ponies, as they attacked even each other. He thought it only fair to put them out of their misery. Charging the first, he thrust the butt of his shotgun to crack its skull, then, turning it around, he fired the weapon at the second one. Shrapnel flew and a rainbow-colored smoke belched from the gun. As they went down, the others moaned louder and started to jump at him. Motor Mind turned around and placed all his weight on his front hooves and bucked one of the creatures. Ordinarily that would not have done much, but that’s why he wore steel horseshoes. The stallion was met with the sickening sound of ribs cracking. The creature was pushed back and fell on top of another of its comrades.

That meant three were down, one was momentarily stalled under another, and three more were starting to flank him. Two of them managed to get around him, to his frustration, but seemed to settle for just circling. If anything it appeared that they were about to run away. Motor Mind prepared his shotgun once more, but paused when he heard a creaking sound from above. He looked up and saw it was the two-headed pony from before—they were pushing on one of the crates that was positioned above him. He put his gun away, lured the creatures closer to him and started to taunt them.

“Hey, you’re so ugly you make onions cry!” The ponies just continued moaning, completely ignoring the comment. “Can I borrow your brain for an hour? I’m building an idiot!” Again the ponies ignored the comment, but this time they drew closer.

Finally the creatures had come close enough and the two-headed pony above dropped the crate. "Hey, dummy, what has four hooves, a genius mind, and is about to do a sick barrel roll?" At the last possible moment, Motor Mind rolled out of the way and the ponies were crushed, killing them on impact. "This guy." He said as he was getting up, failing to notice the other pony that was trapped under the corpse of his friend. During the battle he must have gotten up and was now standing above him ready to strike.

As the creature brought down its front hooves to strike, the two-headed pony yelled from above, “Look out!” They landed right on the creature about to strike him and it let out a moan of pain.

Motor Mind took the chance and brought his steel-clad hooves down on the creature, ending its misery. The ponies started to talk among themselves again.

“So what are you doing here?” Motor Mind asked the ponies. One head appeared to be angry, while the other one seemed to be scared.

“Our names are Trailblazer and Surefooted,” the head on his left, Trailblazer, spoke. “We are trying to get out of here.” They were panting and clearly tired from running. The left head, Surefooted, gave her sister a look of confusion and pointed at Motor Mind with her eyes, signaling that this was their opponent, but he didn’t seem to know it himself.

Trailblazer understood and quickly added, “We got in this cave and are trying to get home.”

Motor Mind gave them a quick once over and said, “The name is Motor Mind, and I am trying to get to the middle of this area. I’ve heard that there is a way out of here there.” Motor Mind took another quick scan and looked down at the dead creatures.

“We should travel together, and I think you could use some rest. I suggest we find cover and do so,” suggested Motor Mind. Trailblazer and Surefooted, pleased that he bought the lie, accepted and started following him.

The group decided to go deeper in the complex in search of food and drink. They walked for hours in the complex in relative silence, the twins being too tired to talk and Motor Mind mostly mumbling to himself.

“We have been walking for hours!” Trailblazer shouted. “And quite possibly walking around in circles! We’ve passed that same stalagmite like fifteen times already.”

“Shhhhhhhhhhhh!” Surefooted said.

“She is right,” Motor Mind said. “We don’t want to fight more of those things, that’s for sure.”

That made all three to look around for any of the strange creatures. Surefooted noticed some markings on the floor and brought it to the attention of her companions, Trailblazer interpreting for Motor Mind.

“She said that some of those creatures have been here.” Another burst of faint noises and gestures. Trailblazer nodded and said, “She says there must have been at least fifty.”

“We have to keep moving,” replied Motor Mind. “We don’t want a horde of those things coming after us.”

Surefooted noticed a large, open freight crate and wondered if they could use it as shelter. “What’s wrong?” Trailblazer asked. She told her about the open crate and if it could be used a shelter.

“Good idea, kid, let’s go check it out,” Motor Mind said. They made their way to the open crate and saw three hay beds, smaller crates marked Provisions, and a makeshift fireplace in the middle.

“Does this strike anyone else as odd?” Trailblazer asked. “I mean what are the chances of this being a trap?” Motor Mind agreed and started inspecting the room for any sort of dangers, but none were found.

“It’s clean,” he announced. “Get some rest—you two look exhausted from having those things chase you. How did you get lost here anyway?”

Surefooted gave her sister a look that said to be careful with what she said, disguising it under a few coughs. “You’ll have to excuse her,” Trailblazer said quickly. “She is a mute. She can only speak by replicating noises, and she can’t form words.” Surefooted silently nodded with a sad expression on her face.

“Our parents left us at an orphanage when we were little, we aren’t sure if it was because of economic reasons, or maybe our deformity.” They started raiding the crates and pulled out anything edible, dividing it among them.

“That’s terrible!” Motor Mind said as he lit the fire with his steel shoes. He knew it was a good idea to make them with a blend of titanium. “I know what it’s like to be orphaned at a young age.”

Both twins looked surprised to find out that he had it just as bad as they did. “But I don’t let it get to me. I use that experience to grow stronger."

The fire was now burning strong and the twins had finished eating their share of food. "You two get some rest; I'll take the first watch."

The twins looked at each other with a knowing face and lay down on one of the makeshift beds. Soon, they were sound asleep and the fire had grown dim.

Not long after, Motor Mind, bored and getting tired from seeing the children sleep, started snoozing as well.

A few hours passed and Trailblazer quietly woke up her sister. Surefooted quietly moaned as her sister gently nudged her awake.

Surefooted started shooing her away with her hoof, when she realized where she was. They looked over to a still sleeping Motor Mind, who was still wearing his equipment.

They quietly made their way over to him unsure if he was asleep under the helmet. Trailblazer waved a hoof in front of the helmet to try and see if he was awake, but nothing happened.

Realizing he wasn't waking up anytime soon, the twins decided to make their strike. They set up their slingshot and prepared a large and heavy shot that was a sure kill if they aimed correctly.They pulled back on the sling, and, as they were lining up the shot, Motor Mind gave a particularly loud snore that made Surefooted flinch in surprise, causing her to release early.

That almost gave me a heart attack! Trailblazer thought to herself, trying to calm down her fast-beating heart. Her sister was no better, only she was focused on the rock, terribly misaimed, as it slammed into Motor Mind’s leg.

"Gaaa daammm, freegggnnn sshhhaa! What's going on!" Motor Mind shouted in pain, clutching his rear leg. He looked up to see the twins with a slingshot in their hooves, quickly preparing another shot.

They released another shot, but he was able to duck out of the way, sending it whizzing over his head. Surefooted looked at Trailblazer who was yanking their body and pointed to the exit.

"Couldn't agree more. Run!" Trailblazer said, reiterating what her sister said. They ran out of the freight, leaving behind Motor Mind struggling to get up and run on three legs.

"Damn, I think they tore a few ligaments," he grumbled, collapsing to the floor again. He started laughing. "I have to say I should have seen this coming.” He stopped and his voice took on a low growl as he said, “Playtime is over, then.”

Trailblazer and Surefooted started running towards the center of the arena which was conveniently labeled by road signs. Probably Discord's doing. They arrived at a cavern with many stalagmites and stalactites that gave it a maze-like feel.

"See if you can find any traps we can use to our advantage," Trailblazer suggested. "I'll try and navigate us to the center.” It didn’t take long for Surefooted to find several traps. As Trailblazer took them to the center, one step at a time, she made a mental note of where each was located. When they made it to the center, Surefooted explaining in her own way what she had seen, Trailblazer flashed a large smile. "Well that could come in handy.”

Motor Mind had managed to balance on three legs long enough to make a makeshift crutch with wood from the crates and tying some hay together. All the while, laughs, chuckles, giggles continually escaped his throat. He slowly made his way out of the freight and followed the road signs to the center of the arena and started complaining to himself.

“You spend your whole life creating armor that can stop even the strongest magic attacks, yet it was unable to stop a rock!” He said, his voice growing higher in pitch near the end, before dropping again. “This is clearly why the Equestrian patent office laughed at you, because you're a failure. How can they expect to take your creations seriously, when you can't make a simple set of armor!”

On his way there, one of the creatures from earlier wandered toward him. Motor Mind, without even looking at it, passed by it and shot it in the face with his shotgun. It hit the floor with a thud, him still laughing his head off like the mad pony he was. Unaware to the giggling inventor, another one of the creatures had seen what had happened and retreated back into the darkness from whence it came.

Trailblazer and Surefooted were now standing on top of a natural spire with a large amount of ammo for their slingshot and a view in all possible directions their opponent could come in. It was the best angle to take him down. "We’ve got this in the bag," Trailblazer said to her sister. Surefooted agreed by making a continuous blowing sound with her breath.

"Well, look who it is?" Trailblazer said pointing out at their opponent trying to navigate the maze. "Lets give him a little gift, shall we?" The twins prepared a shot and quickly locked on to him. The shot went flying and hit Motor Mind. They grimaced as they saw his armor absorb most of the impact, and he began to act more carefully.

"Another," Trailblazer said, loading up the slingshot again. This time the shot missed him completely, but hit a raised plate activating the trap it was hiding.

The walls around Motor Mind started shooting poison darts. Despite his injury throbbing, he avoided them, barely. Seeing the trap did give him an idea though. He swapped his shotgun for his sidearm and loaded them with his own little surprise.

"Keep firing!" Trailblazer told her sister. One by one shots flew through the air, landing all around him. It was clear they were growing desperate, trading slower, accurate shots for rapid fire misses. He got a general idea of where they were; he pointed the sidearm in that direction and fired.

The sidearm launched a single dart that flew through the air and struck the twin-headed pony on the left shoulder. Trailblazer grabbed the dart and removed it from her shoulder to inspect it. It wasn't poisonous, and it clearly wasn't meant to penetrate more than skin. Before they had time to question anymore, they saw a sight they had hoped never to see. Coming from all directions were hordes of the creatures from earlier.

They heard loud bangs of what was Motor Mind probably trying to fend them off but only eight were heard before the noise stopped completely. She struggled to look over her shoulder where she saw Motor Mind getting cornered by a few of the creatures.

Surefooted suddenly felt numb and started to lose her balance. "Woah, you OK there?" her sister asked, but got no reply. She tried to move, tried to get away from the incoming creatures, but found herself unable to. Sudden realization hit her. “Tranquilizer dart—!" Trailblazer looked towards her sister, now dangerously close to the edge. "So this is it?" she said as they teetered over. "Eaten by a pack of ravenous ponies?"

The two sisters were now looking each other in the eye as the creatures started to surround them. Surefooted crying out in terror, her wordless, soundless cries reduced to a croak thanks to the chemicals in their system.

"Good bye, sis," Trailblazer said. Her sister only replied with equally teary eyes as a creature bit into her neck. Then, there was a loud flash, and everything turned different colors.

Motor Mind hoped that the dart had hit its intended target. Judging from the fact that they were no longer returning fire, he felt his luck had held true. As he continued to navigate to the center, he came across another of the creatures from earlier, flashing its teeth and snarling. "You again!" he shouted. “How many times to I have to kill you things before you realize I'm not on the menu!" He holstered his sidearm and prepared his shotgun once more. He fired at the creature's head, killing it instantly, its head blowing off its body in a mutilated mess.

As it hit the floor, two more of the creatures appeared behind him. Motor Mind quickly shot them both dead with another two shots. Much to his dismay, however, four more appeared out of nowhere. It was as if for every one he killed two more took its place. They started to gather together, making it possible to kill more than one per shot, but he stopped when he realized he only had one shot left before he had to reload. And it didn't look like he was going to get that chance anytime soon.

Motor Mind heard a scream then remembered his opponents. "I forgot I tranqed them." Despite himself, he felt guilty. "Even they don't deserve to die like this." His mind made up, he tried to get to the girls but was going nowhere on his bum leg, not to mention the creatures that were starting to corner him. His backpack hit the wall telling him he was at the end of his rope and had nowhere to run. He suddenly realized what had just happened and carefully smacked his hoof on his face for being so stupid.

He had forgotten what it was that made him different, the special talent symbolized by his rainbow engine cutie mark. He had forgotten he had been lugging around this thing and hadn't used it yet. He forgot he could fly!

"Rainbow-powered engine!" he shouted as his tail turned a crank on his back, spreading his armor and turning it into two large wings. The engine suddenly came to life, flapping the wings for him as he started to lift off the ground. The creatures stared at him, motionless, as they had no way of reaching him, and started to disperse. He laughed that he had forgotten literally the best part of his arsenal before he remembered the twins still had to be taken care of. "Time to wrap this up,” he said as he took to the air, a smoggy, dull rainbow trailing him, leaving the creatures in a coughing fit.

Motor Mind took two of his grenades off his belt, one stun, one frag, and tossed them in different directions. The frag grenade landed near the creatures that were previously cornering him. They all stared at it with dull expression as it ticked away before exploding, taking most of the creatures surrounding the explosive with it. The stun grenade flew into the group surrounding the twins and let out a gas that made them all start coughing and rubbing their eyes. He then dove into the cloud, hoping it wasn't too late.

As the colors cleared up, Surefooted's ears were still ringing as the room spun around. She was able to make out the creatures who had stopped attacking and were now on the floor holding their heads. Her sister was also alive, though bleeding some from a bite wound on her neck. Surefooted looked up to see Motor Mind flying with the contraption on his back. As her ears and the vertigo cleared up, he picked them up in his forehooves and took them away from the horde of creatures who were beginning to approach again as they recovered.

They landed on an empty cliff with none of the creatures in sight, and Motor Mind spoke up. "I'm sorry I overreacted. I understand why you did what you did and forgive you."

Surefooted looked down at her sister who was coughing up blood. "With that said, it makes this next part all the harder." He brought up his shotgun once more and pointed it at Trailblazer. Surefooted responded by covering her sister protectively and giving a worried look.

"She is in bad shape and isn't going to make it; we can at least give her the pleasure of a swift death instead of just bleeding out."

Surefooted debated the logic and understood. She didn't want her sister to suffer anymore. With the swiftest of nods, she gave her consent, then turned away, her ears folded down and tears streaming from her close eyed. Motor Mind carefully shot at only Trailblazer's head, knocking it off of her body and into the ground.

"I really don't like hurting children and hate the thought that this was the best solution, but sometimes dying is better than living in a miserable world."

As he spoke, a shimmering light pierced their vision. Not ten feet away a vertical line appeared in thin air. It cut through the air and widened, obscuring their vision as it turned into a dark tunnel. Faintly, in the center of the opening, a bright light called to them.

Surefooted hugged her sister's head as Motor Mind carried her into the bright light in the middle of the arena.