Chapter 15: The Game

“Leave your crystal where it lays. Now, all contestants please move to the path and then place your hooves on the center ring.” Sun Cloak’s voice boomed across the circular field even though his image was nowhere to be seen.

The group did as asked and moved themselves to the glowing path which surrounded the gigantic ring. Oddly, the glowing path did not feel solid. It shown yellow, as did the ring, but had no true substance. It was merely a mirage formed of pure light. The ponies, although clearly standing on the path, felt only the short grass beneath their hooves. They each reached out and touched the large, floating ring but all they felt was empty air.

“Excellent!” Sun Cloak remarked jovially, “The crystal has detected your team and will now create an opposing team.”

On the far side of the circular path, a faint glow hazed the air and began to expand and contract. A few blurry images slowly became clear as the glow condensed into a tangible form. Seven unique versions of Sun Cloak were to be the opposing team; however, each Sun Cloak had a different glow: cyan, pink, purple, white, yellow, orange, and green. The images stood absolutely still and gazed absently into the night.

“I will now explain the basics of this challenge,” echoed the old unicorn’s voice. “You are going to play a game of Merring. If you win, you will be able to continue on to the next riddle. If you lose, you must restart the game. Rules are fairly simple, you are to jump your team’s magic onto four of the five towers positioned on the outside of the path by channeling your magic through the central ring. You are not allowed to leave the path you are standing on or you will be disqualified and leave your team down one member. Before anypony asks: Yes, non-unicorns can play this game. I have specially designed the playing field so that anypony the crystal recognizes may focus their thoughts onto the ring and influence it. Go ahead; try it out…unless you’re all unicorns, in which case you should disregard my last statement.”

Rainbow Dash was the first to try. She closed her eyes and focused all her thought on the center ring. A small red glow lit the surface of the ring and throbbed with pulse and power. She barely dared to crack a peek through her left eye and then both of her eyes flew open at the sight. She started to laugh with glee. Focusing her mind, Dash moved the red glow right and then left along the ring.

Applejack was the next brave soul. With a few huffs and grunts from the farmer, another red glow sprung to life on the strange ring. She slowly moved her own glow around the golden circle and began to laugh with Rainbow Dash.

“Ooo! Ooo! My turn!” shouted Pinkie.

The pink mare never even closed her eyes. Another red glow appeared on the ring. She whipped it around and around the ring at hypersonic speeds.

“Pinkie! You’re going to give somepony a seizure!” cried Rarity as the white unicorn’s eyes attempted to stop spinning.

“Unicorns,” declared Sun Cloak suddenly.

All the red dots on the ring dissipated as those controlling them lost concentration.

“Your normal magic will not work on this ring, it is made only of light and focusing regular magic on it will do nothing for you. Instead, you must focus your mind just like the non-unicorns. Don’t worry; it’s quite easy to do.”

Rarity and Twilight looked at each other as the message ended. Of course, they both attempted their usual magic, but it did nothing except to blur the light-ring. Then, they focused on it using only their minds instead of their magic and two red dots lit upon the floating circle.

“How strange,” mused Twilight in awe.

“Contestants!” shouted Sun Cloak and the unicorns jumped and lost their concentration. “I hope that you are all ready to begin. To start, stand at one of the five towers. The opposing team will then choose their starting tower and the three side rings will be placed at the three empty towers. Remember, get your magic onto four towers and whatever you do, don’t leave the path.”

The Royal Treasure Seekers took their place at a tower which stood directly behind them. It looked just as good as any other tower. Then, they watched as the ghostly figures of Sun Cloak began to move. They walked in perfect synchronization to a tower at the opposite end of the field. Then, the three rings from the middle of the field were levitated toward the three open towers.

“I wish everypony the best,” Sun Cloak announced. “Play hard, good luck, and let the games begin!”

The next few moments seemed to be a blur as everything happened all at once. The opposing Sun Cloaks sprung into action. Three held their ground and began to create a magical blue aura on the center ring. The blue aura began to expand rapidly until the magic leaped onto a tower, turning the mirage-crystal at the top blue.

“Quick! Everypony concentrate on the ring!” shouted Twilight.

The Royal Treasure Seekers focused all their thoughts on the center ring and a beautiful red glow emerged on its shimmering yellow exterior.

But even as the Seekers focused, two pairs of Sun Cloaks were bounding around the path in opposite directions attempting to gain ground closer to the Royal Treasure Seekers.

“They’re trying to cut us off from their side of the ring!” Spike yelped and pointed at the charging figures.

Twilight’s eyes went wide. “Rainbow, stop the group on the right! Applejack, you get the one on the left!”

“On it!” yelled Rainbow.

She cut right and left a rainbow laced trail behind her.

“Yee-haw!” shouted Applejack as she charged.

The two took off on their respective routes to stop the opposing Sun Cloaks in their tracks. Rainbow Dash met her competitors first and she slid sideways so as to block the rest of the path off, Applejack did the same thing only a few seconds later. The two pairs of Sun Cloaks stopped in their tracks and then turned their attention on the center ring. Right where they stood, blue auras flashed into existence and made quick progress toward the other rapidly expanding blue magic. The Sun Cloak team’s magic combined which left them owning slightly over half of the main ring.  More blue magic reached out and claimed yet another tower for blue.

“AJ! Rainbow!” screamed Twilight. “Focus on the ring! Stop them from advancing any further!”

The two mares complied with quick nods and focused their minds on the ring. Two sparks of red blazed to life on the center ring and forcefully advanced toward the blue aura. The two toned auras collided and ground against each other with small sparks of red and blue flying off of the high energy impacts.

Meanwhile, Twilight and the others hadn’t been idle. They had focused their minds and their own red aura was zipping around their half of the ring. Now, the entire golden circle was plastered in either a shade of red or of blue. The Royal Treasure Seekers had also claimed a tower, making the match two for red and three for blue.

Across the field, Rainbow Dash could be heard grunting and struggling against the blue force that was forcing itself into her red one. She began to break a sweat as she fought back.

“I need some help down here!” roared Dash as she struggled and huffed under the strain.

“Fluttershy,” commanded Twilight, “you need to concentrate. You haven’t gotten any magic on the ring!”

The scared pegasus was trembling as she watched as the events unfold. She had begun to hyperventilate and she appeared frozen to the ground, as if in shock. Her eyes were dilated and her wings were snapped tightly by her side.

“Fluttershy, Daring, we could really use some help about now!” grunted Rarity.

Even the pristine unicorn was sweating and shaking from her intense efforts.

“Please Fluttershy, we need you,” begged Spike as a painful tear squeezed out of the dragon’s tightly closed eyes.

Fluttershy’s breath became slower and her eyes began to come back into focus. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and exhaled. The yellow pegasus grunted and more red magic surged onto the light-ring. Fluttershy sent her magic racing toward Rainbow Dash’s end. It collided with the Sun Cloaks’ blue magic and began to shove it in favor of the red side. There was no time for celebration, however.

“G-girls! Take a looky yonder!” warned Applejack from the left side of the playing field.

An enormous mass of blue energy was bounding toward Applejack’s side of the field. It was as if every Sun Cloak had put their combined focus into one massive ball of energy.

“No problem!” called Pinkie, as sprightly as ever.

The pink equine hopped over to her orange friend and put on her game face. An obscenely large quantity of red magic surged from the pink equine’s concentration to do battle with the blue monstrosity. The two magic surges collided and lit up the forest with a brilliant display of red and blue sparks. When the light finally faded, neither side was any closer to their goals. Applejack looked exhausted, but Pinkie, even after her large burst of power, seemed as chipper as ever.

“Tag in!” called Pinkie as she tagged her friend’s hat.

Applejack let out a small chuckle and huffed back to the main group as Pinkie took over.

“We can’t move an inch,” reported AJ as she reached her friends. “Them Sun Cloak doohickeys are jus’ too tough.”

The field was still teeming with blue and red sparking magic, which illuminated the entire playing field in a bizarre and wondrous discoloration of light. Twilight focused on sending another wave of energy to Rainbow’s side before responding.

“The closer you are to an object, the easier it is to focus on it. The Sun Cloak team has spread themselves out evenly so they can focus anywhere on their side, but we’ve been defending this tower with five of us. We need to spread out if we want to make any headway. AJ, Spike, and Rarity, go help Rainbow Dash. Me and Fluttershy will keep this tower and hold them off of Pinkie’s side.”

The three nodded their heads and took off to assist Rainbow Dash.

“Alright, finally some backup! Let’s give it to em’!” cheered Dash as her friends sidled up to her.

The group of four began to pound away at the defenses of the two Sun Cloaks and the effect was immediate. The four shoved aside a good portion of blue magic and came within range of another point tower, but the Sun Cloak team would not be taken easily. Soon a wave of blue came crashing upon the group and stopped them mere inches from tower range.

“One…Two…Three…PUSH!” commanded Rainbow Dash.

The foursome put all of their effort into an attempt for the tower, but was met by a solid wall of the blue magic. The field was almost totally even now. The blue magic of Sun Cloak’s team had mere centimeters more of the ring than the Royal Treasure Seekers.

“We’ve almost got another tower, Twilight!” Spike yelled over his shoulder.

“Keep at it! We just need to wear them down!” responded the purple unicorn.

Suddenly, Rarity gasped.

“I just got an idea.”

“What?” asked Applejack.

“Unicorn magic is stronger the closer you are to an object, if we could only move a little close to that tower then our magic would be able to overpower Sun Cloak’s.”

“That’s a great idea!” Spike shouted. “But what about the two Sun Cloaks blocking the path? We can’t move past them.”

A new burst of blue magic from the opposing team made the foursome cease discussion for a moment. The red and blue tug of war continued with brilliant flashes of light until the strong burst was subdued. Still, neither side could move their magic any further along the ring. Spike rose a hand up to rub his aching head. Applejack was sweating profusely and Rarity was panting heavily from her efforts. Even Rainbow Dash, athlete though she was, had begun to show signs of exhaustion.

“Alright,” Dash grunted out through clenched teeth, “we need to get past these two? Consider it done!”

The cyan athlete pulled back her hind legs and then unleashed a powerful kick against the Sun Cloaks in her way. But instead of shoving them out of the way, her legs whisked through them, as if pushing against air. The images blurred and shimmered as her legs passed through, but they soon returned to their normal appearance.

“There will be no physical contact against the opposing team or else you will be disqualified!” Sun Cloak’s voice boomed across the field.

Rainbow Dash frowned and stomped her hoof in the grass below her hooves.

“I don’t quite think that worked,” stated Rarity.

The white mare was now sweating freely and she didn’t seem to care. But Dash was not amused at her friend or at Sun Cloak’s rules.

“Yeah? Well I don’t need to touch them to get past them!” retorted Rainbow Dash.

She snapped her wings out and a smug grin formed on her face. The cyan pony needed only one quick push to take to the skies, but a pair of horrified eyes watched as Rainbow took off.

“RD! Don’t do it!” Applejack shouted.

It was too late; however, the pegasus was already in the sky and she easily flew over the heads of the glowing Sun Cloaks. She touched back down on the opposite side of her opponents and couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Ha! What’cha gonna do now Sun Cloak? Bet you never expected that!”

“Disqualified!” replied the voice of the old unicorn.

“What?!” protested Dash.

“You have left the path and are hereby disqualified. You shall no longer be able to use magic on the ring,” sentenced Sun Cloak.

Rainbow’s mouth hung open in disbelief. She focused her mind back on the ring, but nothing happened. She closed her eyes and grunted and gnashed her teeth in effort, but not even the faintest hint of red magic would spark to life. Her connection had surely been severed and she was helpless to do anything but watch her six remaining friends battle against seven Sun Cloak’s, a game that would surely not end well.

“No. No! NOOO!” she screamed desperately into the night.

“Cool it, RD!” Applejack shouted back.

The orange mare then grimaced as another blue pulse blasted into her defenses, which cut any further talk short.

“But I’m disqualified! I can’t help!” bemoaned Dash. “It’s now a six verses seven match! We can’t win against those odds!”

Dash hung her head in despair.

“No!” Twilight’s voice seemed so small coming across half the field, “We might not have as much magic, but you can still help! Fly above the playing field and tell us what they’re doing! We might still have a chance to win this!”

Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and gathered her resolve. She breathed in and out until her breathing became a calm and steady stream. Then, she opened her eyes. They were hard set, like one wounded but not willing to give in.

“Alright, we’re not done yet,” she spoke to herself.

One moment later she was in the air and hovering over the ring, watching every move from both sides.

“LET’S WIN THIS THING!” she roared with vigor.

Twilight smiled and the other’s resolve was bolstered, they were not done yet. Dash’s eyes darted left and right, searching for any weak points that could be exploited. Her eyes went wide as she perceived an incoming threat.

“Twi! Incoming left!” warned Rainbow as a wall of blue magic began to surge toward Pinkie.

Twilight and Fluttershy poured all of their minds into halting the blue beam that threatened to wash aside their red magic. They grunted as they strained against the opposing magic. The blue advanced a few inches before they were able to subdue it.

“We have to go on the offensive or else we’ll get too tired to do anything!” screamed Twilight with an exhausted voice.

“Aww…but I was having fun doing this,” pouted Pinkie Pie. “Oh well!”

She smiled and suddenly an obscene amount of red energy sprung up beside the party pony and rushed forward. It smashed through the blue and advanced forcefully upon the left side. Each one of the seven Sun Cloaks shot an alarmed glance at the mass of red that was tearing its way toward a point tower. The blue magic on the right side of the field became much weaker as the entire Sun Cloak team slung magic at Pinkie’s red orb.

“Quick! Hit the right! Hit right!” commanded Rainbow.

She flailed her hooves and pointed to the right to emphasize her point as she hovered over the playing field. They complied and sent a wave of red energy down the right side of the ring. A point tower was quickly claimed which forced the Sun Cloak team to revert their attention to the right.

“Now the left!” screamed Rainbow.

A wall of red smashed into the left side of the blue magic and dared to capture a tower. The blue magic was no match for the entire focus of the Royal Treasure Seekers. Sun Cloak’s team soon refocused again, only to have Rainbow Dash shout to switch sides and the red magic followed orders.

Back and forth, like a massive game of Ping-Pong, sparked and popped the colorful magic. Slowly but surely, the red overtook the blue. In only a few short minutes, the final tower had been captured. Final score: Red: 4 Blue: 1. The Royal Treasure Seekers had managed to pull victory from the jaws of defeat.

“Congratulations!” sang Sun Cloak, full of mirth. “You have bested yet another challenge and can now hear my next riddle whenever you wish. I sure hope you had fun! I know I always did.”

The Royal Treasure Seekers trotted back to Twilight where they all gathered together once more.

“I’m…not sure…‘fun’…is the right word,” panted Rarity.

In a mere few seconds later, the glowing path and ring melted into thin air, after all it was only an illusion made of light. Next, the Sun Cloak team bowed their heads in humble defeat from across the field and they too dissolved into the night sky. The glowing ruby in the center of the field became dull. The stars and moon shone their brilliant light into the center of the dark circle of trees like they had for countless years.

“I’ll get…the ruby,” wheezed Spike.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead as he stumbled over to grab his team’s crystal. He plucked it from the crevice and trundled back to his group when the sound of a slow applause came from the outer edges of the forest.

Clap! Clip! Clap! Clip!

The Royal Treasure Seekers looked all around as the sound bounced and echoed into the clearing.

“Well done! Well done!” shouted a voice from the trees. “Bravo!”

It was a voice that Twilight had heard before, but where?

Then a group of ponies, four unicorns to be exact, stepped from the cover of the forest. In the lead was a light brown colored stallion with yellow eyes, Sun Chaser!

“For your first game of Merring, that was quite spectacular,” praised the unicorn.

“Chaser, should I freeze them?” asked a pretty unicorn mare to his side.

The Royal Treasure Seekers tensed up at the notion, but were too worn out to resist.

“What?” asked Sun Chaser incredulously. “Of course not, Rose! Don’t you know who these ponies are? This group has been hoof picked by Princesses Celestia and Luna themselves. We shall not lay a hoof on them.”

The friends let out a collective sigh that they didn’t know they were holding.

“Instead, how about we show them how Merring is really played?” added Chaser, ending with a sly sort of smile.

“I’d say that we held our own just fine,” said Rainbow Dash, she didn’t quite like Sun Chaser’s smug little grin.

The stallion simply walked forward. His group followed behind him and the two teams officially met face to face for the first time.

“Ah, but you see Rainbow Dash, Sun Cloak was going easy on you,” stated Chaser.

Rainbow was shocked to hear this unicorn say her name when they had never before met, and it showed.

“Don’t give me that look.” Chaser chuckled. “I do research on everypony that I’m competing against. I know who all of you are: Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Spike, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight Sparkle.”

At the mention of each name, he would point at the correct pony. For all his composure when Pinkie giggled at the mention of her name, it threw him off guard. Still, he continued without more than a second of hesitation.

“And now, allow me to introduce myself and my group. I am Sun Chaser,” at this he winked inconspicuously at Twilight. “The tall one here is Sight Seer.”

“A pleasure.” The lanky stallion bowed his head to his competitors.

“The short one is Cumulus.”

“Hmph,” snorted Cumulus.

“Finally, this is Rose Shine.”

“Hello,” said the lone mare softly.

“Where’s the rest of your Society?” asked Rarity after the introductions had been made.

“Oh, but this is the Society. This is all of us,” replied Sun Chaser.

“All of you?” asked the white mare in surprise.

“You have no idea how ridiculously hard Sun Chaser here makes it to join,” Cumulus grumped.

“Is that so?” queried Rarity.

“Yes, well, only the best of best can join,” stated Chaser awkwardly, but he recovered quickly. “Now, I believe we have a game to win. You are free to watch if you want. It shouldn’t take long.”

With this, the unicorn leader brushed past the mares in front of him and walked directly to the center of the field. From his saddlebag he produced three rings and a sapphire. He placed them in their respective niches and the field rebirthed itself. The ring, the track, and the towers all came back to life. Sun Cloak’s voice once again echoed around the arena, but nopony was really listening. All were focused exclusively on the Society.

“Good!” said Chaser as he trotted back to the conglomerate of ponies. “Now that that’s out of the way we can begin. Um…your group may want to stand back. This will be quite intense for a few moments.”

Twilight nodded without uttering a word. The Royal Treasure Seekers took a few steps back. They continued to watch as each member of the Society placed a hoof into the floating light-ring.

“Who wants to bet it’ll take em’ ten minutes just to get three towers?” snickered Rainbow Dash.

“Ooo! I’ll take that bet!” Pinkie raised a hoof. “Three cupcakes?”

“You got yourself a deal, three cupcakes.”

Rainbow Dash stretched out a hoof and the two shook.

“I wish everypony the best. Play hard, good luck, and let the games begin!” Sun Cloak’s voice announced.

The Society had chosen to position themselves at the same tower that the Royal Treasure Seekers had done only a few minutes before. Standing across from the Society were four glowing versions of Sun Cloak: one brown, one red, another blue, and the last one grey.

The game began instantly. The Sun Cloak team and Society each sent ponies to either side of the glowing ring to block the other team and to grab as much ground as possible. Red and blue magic shot onto the glowing ring and spread much faster than the previous match. Within mere seconds, the two magic colors were fighting and shoving each other for dominance.

“Now!” roared Sun Chaser.

A very small, but powerful surge of red energy flowed through the ring and directly into the opposing Sun Cloaks’ side. It blazed through the blue magic and made the glowing visages shake their collective heads in shock as the magic swept cleanly and quickly through their side. The blue magic was down for only an instant, but that’s all the time it took. The two unicorns at both sides of the field shot forth their red magic and claimed up almost the entire golden ring. Soon, four towers were claimed for red and the match ended almost as quickly as it had begun. Sun Cloak echoed his congratulations and the Society picked up their sapphire as the field melted into nothingness once more.

Rainbow stood with her mouth agape, it threatened to hit the ground if she opened it any further. The other members stared at the Society in utter shock.

“But-but-but…” stammered the cyan pegasus.

Pinkie hopped around her group and sang, “Three cupcakes for me!”

Sun Chaser and company cantered slowly up to the mares, barely panting and with smug faces.

“And that, my dear Element wielders, is how one performs the ‘ol ring-a-round,” stated Sun Chaser.

The Royal Treasure Seekers remained motionless.

“It looks like you didn’t have to freeze them after all, Rose!” laughed Cumulus.

“Anyhow, we must be off,” Sun Chaser said. “Treasure to find and all that! Well, it was nice to officially meet you and perhaps we shall bump into each other again some day. Until then, so long!”

With a flourish of his hoof and a curt bow of his head, Sun Chaser led his group back into the forest and toward Hooverville.

“Um…Twilight…what jus’ happened?” asked Applejack after the group had left.

“I…Um…I……” stammered the purple mare. She shook her head to clear it. “Um…let’s just…get back to the chariot.”

The friends managed to find their way back to their chariot where they crashed for the night, exhausted, confused, and dumbstruck by the day’s activities.

Next Chapter: Chapter 16: The Ransom Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 60 Minutes