Author's Notes:

Ok to avoid any confusion the announcer in this chapter is Neo Metal Sonic, not GLaDOS

Jack's POV

We reached the top of the stairwell and were greeted by a group of five dark thin monsters with two large muscular monsters behind them. I was about to pull out my pistols when I huge wave of energy swept them away. We all turned to Luna who was burning with rage.

"No one is stopping me from getting my coltfriend back!" We all stepped out of her way and let her take the lead. Celestia looked at her sister in shock, while Rainbow Dash was in the same state as the Princess.

We all looked to each other with worried looks before pressing onwards. We came across a room with a sealed door. We were unable to blow a hole through it so we were forced to solve the puzzle in the room. We moved a bunch of pillars into slots in the floor and the door opened.

In the next room we had to find hidden codes to open different locks on the door by reading some manuscripts on the walls. Once that was done we moved into the next room where we had to destroy coloured enemies in a certain pattern.

The challenges were actually starting to become fun, I loved puzzle games, especially portal. To add icing to the cake there was even an anonymous announcer watching us and making comments as we solved certain puzzles.

"Well aren't you clever, congratulations, you moved a box across the room and put it into a slot, you must feel pretty smart now. Go on, enter the next room." The voice was deep and robotic, it sounded like something I had heard in a video game once, couldn't quite put my finger on it.

When we entered the next room the puzzle involved redirecting lasers into different power cells to power the door. When I moved one of the laser cores I accidentally grazed Rainbow Dash.

"Hey! Be careful!" We were all surprised by the announcers outburst. "Go back to solving the puzzle, and try not to hurt each other in the process. That's our job." I was starting to question this voices intent.

As we completed the next challenge the voice played again. "Let's see if any of you know your stuff. Here's a question, what does 'wubba lubba dub dub' mean?"

"It means 'I am in great pain,' it's from the franchise Rick and Morty." Answered Gamma.

"Correct tin man. As a reward take this," A red key floated down to us, "This will allow you to skip one challenge and one challenge only, use it wisely."

I grabbed the key and the door to the next room opened. As we entered we were greeted by a huge dragon-like monster made of a dark red liquid the emitted blood red mist.

"Congratulations, you've made it to the mini-boss. Say hi to Snuffles the Blood Dragon. Try not to die on this one yeah?"

The dragon roared and threw balls of blood red fire at us. We all dodged and those that weren't skilled in combat hid behind pillars. Omega looked to Gamma who nodded.

Omega walked in front of the group and held out his hands. His claws retracted and two mini guns took their place. "Eat lead you crime against nature!" The barrels started spinning and a huge wave of bullets swept across the room. As the bullets hit the dragon it flashed momentarily.

"Guys! It's like a boss from the Sonic games, as long as you land a hit it'll chip away at its health!" I pulled out my pistols and held one in front of the other, they combined and made a sniper rifle. I aimed towards the beast's forehead and began unloading as many bullets as I could into it.

The dragon roared again and collapsed into a puddle. It then started moving towards us and shot parts of itself at us. I managed to shoot a few pieces down but a few landed on the group. Gamma took notice and started targeting the blobs, he then shot multiple bullets out that hit them all.

The dragon reformed and swiped its tail at us, smacking me across the room. Gilda growled and shot towards it, she flew up to its eyes and sunk her claws into them. It flashed rapidly before disappearing into a small poof of smoke.

"Such a shame, I had grown attached to Snuffles, it'll take time to get over his death... and that's enough time,” said the voice before a loud buzzer rang out. “You can move on."

I wonder what else this being has planned for these twisted little games, I thought as I separated my sniper rifle back into pistols before moving into the next room, which was cut in half by a large pool of lava.

“I thought you might like to have a nice and easy puzzle after that oh-so-epic battle. Should anyone with wings wish to use them to cross the room, then you may do so,” said the voice.

“Pfft! You call this a puzzle?” said Rainbow Dash as she took to the air.

"Wait don't actually do it!"

“Rainbow, wait!” both Gilda and I called after her.

But it was too late. A hail of bullets flew at Rainbow Dash, who barely ducked out of the way in time, but was still nicked in the foreleg, sending her into a crash landing back on our side of the room.

What I can only describe as a canned robotic groan filled the room. “Did you really think the puzzle would be that easy? Honestly, I’d have thought it would be blatantly obvious that flying would only get you killed. However, there is a way to solve the puzzle,” said the robotic voice. "You see those ramps over there?" I looked to the walls and sure enough there was a few ramps in the walls that reached the other side. "Since I don't want any of you to actually get hurt during this test or have another close call with Rainbow Dash over here I'll give you some advice. Anyone that can fit on those ledges and has a ranged weapon should shoot the turrets on each side. There is a button that activates a bridge across the lava. Now get going."

We did as the voice instructed and we managed to get the puzzle finished. However, it seemed that Rainbow had suffered a broken hoof and wing from her crash.

"FUCK!!! Put her on the bed in the capsule, it'll take her to me where I can patch her up."

"And why should we trust what you say?" I asked with a hostile tone.

"Look, I'm only doing this to get something that is very valuable to me back from Mephiles, you can trust me, Rainbow will be in good hands."

Since we didn't really have any other choice we set Rainbow in the capsule and it shot off in a random direction.

"Good, she's arrived. Get on with the next chamber while I fix up Dashi-I mean Rainbow."

"Ok, who the hell are you?!" I got no response. "When we find this guy we're going to kick his ass for putting us through this." The group nodded and we continued on.