A grimdark/crossover written by Filleg. Proof-reading and editing by Brollyhero93.

It was as usual, a warm and sunny day. Birds have been tweeting, the fillies had been playing, and everything was right with the world. But things were about to change, something that nopony could ever imagine was in the making. Derpy Hooves had received an important mail order from her princess. Ten scrolls with the royal seal, bounding them all, one of which was for Derpy herself. She quickly delivered the rest of the scrolls. They all received the scrolls from Princess Celestia within minutes; Twilight with her friends, Lyra, Bon Bon, Derpy Hooves, and of course Dr. Whooves. The scroll kept an invitation, which said that Celestia requested them, to attend to a very important meeting. Obedient as they all were, they all went. They were also very excited, because a meeting with the princess was always a great honor.

The meeting was private, and only for the ten of them, plus the princess of course. The meeting took place in the old castle of the divine sisters. It had been tidied up since Nightmare Moon had been defeated here, but it still looked rather spooky. They were quite surprised that Celestia had chosen this location for their meeting, but who are they to question their Goddess? Everypony had walked there as a group, they were after all, great friends. They all entered simultaneously.

As soon as they all stood in the middle of the room, the lights went out and the entrance was closed shut. A small light glowed. The light grew brighter, and soon, Princess Celestia was illuminated from the shadows.

All Twilight could say was: “Princess Celestia, what's the meaning of this? What are you doing?”

The princess just grinned, and the light from her horn got stronger and stronger until a flash appeared. This caused everypony to pass out. She then brought back the light and opened the door. Three Diamond Dogs entered the building and grabbed all the ponies, and threw them into bags.

The princess watched as the Diamond Dogs ran back out of the building, now with bags full of ponies. She looked pleased and still kept that sick grin. She then teleported out of the castle, to an unknown location.

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“Ow... My head” Rainbow Dash mumbled. Her sight cleared. She noticed that she was sitting by a school bench, and so were everypony else.

Princess Celestia had a peaceful, but yet disturbing smile as she looked up from her book. “Hello, my dear subjects. Glad to see you awake.”

“What the hay is goin' on here?!” Screamed Applejack, eagerly watching her surroundings, seeing several of those filthy Diamond Dogs, packing various firearms.

“Let me just cut to the chase.” Celestia began. “Equestria is in a big financial crisis. Apples and friendship just isn't as requested on the market as before.” She said with a laugh. “So, I have made a deal with the dragons of Equestria... They will pay good money to watch some... Special, entertainment.” She wore that same despicable grin as before.

This made Fluttershy cry like she's never done before, and made Rainbow scared for the first time in a long, long time, though she didn't show it.

Even though terrified, Rainbow said: “What in Celes... Um, Luna's name are you talking about?! Why are we here?”

“You're all here because you are the special entertainment.” Celestia answered calmly.

“You will never get away with this!” Said Dr. Whooves.

“Oh, you couldn't be more wrong my dear doctor.” She began. “This will only be aired for dragons, so nopony will ever find out about this. All that will happen is that ponies after ponies will be brought into this project, after you've done with each other.”

“What... What do you mean princess?” Twilight sobbed.

“You're all going to kill each other. The last one alive will get his or her freedom.” She replied to her most prized pupil.

This made Rainbow Dash furious! “What makes you think we would do such a thing?!”

“Oh, haven't you noticed? You really need to pay more attention to your body. Take a look and see if you can figure out why you will do as I say.”

Rarity looked at her hooves for the first time since this “meeting” started. “Aren’t these horse shoes?” She asked. “But they seem to have mechanical stuff in them. And a light”

“Very good Rarity!” The princess praised. “Now, these are the latest in 'manner control'. And you'll be the first ones to test them! Isn't it exciting? But of course, we must try them right away, so that we know for sure that they work. And to demonstrate to you all how they work, Gentledogs, please.”

One of the Diamond Dogs pulled up a laptop and plugged it into a projector. What was seen on the screen was poor Big Macintosh, trapped in a cage. You could see that he was very frightened and tense. You could also see that he had the same horse shoes that everypony else had.

Celestia nodded to the Diamond Dog and he typed something on the laptop.

Suddenly, the horse shoes on Big Mac started to blink, and the inter walls between the blinks became shorter by time.

“What the hay... Big Macintosh! What are you doing to him?” Screamed Applejack.

“He-He, just you wait Applejack.” The princess said with a sly grin.

The beeping soon got up in several beeps per second. Now it's really fast, like a drum roll. Big Mac screamed, you could see that, but there was no sound on the video stream, so nopony could hear him.

The horse shoes were practically glowing at this point, Big Mac’s eyes were full of intense fear, and then it happened. The thing that everypony feared.

They exploded. There was no trace left of the huge pony Big Mac. He was all gone. All that was left was blood.

“NOOOOOOOOOOO! You bastard!” Applejack screamed, with tears in her eyes, and vomit in her mouth.

Fluttershy lost consciousness and hit the floor. Panic broke out among the ponies.

“Ha-Ha, good! Now we know that it works, and that it will be super effective. Alright, are you all done with your whining?”

The room went quieter, after one of the dogs flashed his weapon.

“Good.” The princess continued. “Let me explain to you the rules. Here is a map of the island that we are currently located on. (It was shown on the screen) It is divided into equal squares or zones. Each zone is marked out by numbers and letters in a coordinate system. Every two hours, a speaker will tell you which zones are death zones. If you are occupied in one of the death zones for more than 10 seconds, the timer on your horse shoes will start and you will surely die when the ticker is up on them. Just like our good friend Big Mac recently demonstrated for us.”

Everypony took a good look at her, full of hatred and a thirst for vengeance, but they also listened carefully. They all started to see the seriousness of the situation.

“We have drawn your names to pick the order of who shall gallop out of here first to last. You will all be given a saddle bag, each of them includes: water, a compass and a map, the map is just like this one on the screen. You will also get a weapon each. The weapon can be mainly anything from guns to... Well, you'll find out. Ha-Ha.”

“Oh, and if you try to leave the island, we will detonate your horse shoes, we are constantly tracking your every move. And if four hours pass without a kill, everypony dies. And if there is no winner after two days has passed, everypony dies.”

Pinkie could feel her heart turn into stone. Why bother being happy? Everything she's ever known was false. There was no happiness. Our Goddess is a tyrant, a sick meanie mean pants! Her hair flattened out.

And poor Twilight... She's spent all her life believing in her precious, beautiful princess. And it was all... A lie. That... Celestia, her best friend and idol, could ever do such a thing was just unimaginable. She couldn’t muster a word.

“Alrighty! Let's get to it, shall we?” Celestia said in a happy tune.

A Diamond Dog brought in a shelf on wheels that was full of military saddle bags.

“No... NO! I will not let you do this!” Screamed AJ, still furious about her brother. She charged towards Celestia for the kill. She was out of her mind, she didn't think, she just acted.

It happened really fast. She was already just a few feet away from the princess. But the princess did something that Applejack didn't count on. She bent her head and impaled the poor earth pony in the heart, killing her instantly.

She swung her head to shake the dead pony off from her now bloody horn.

“What a pathetic display. I thought you'd last longer than that, Applejack.” The Goddess said.

“NOOOO! DAMNIT! NOOO! Rainbow Dash cried. She wanted to storm her too, just like her brave friend AJ did, but she realized that all that it would do, would be that she would share the same fate AJ did. She just put her head against the bench and cried.

“Alright, so no more outbursts? Good!” The princess was screaming at this point, but she soon got calmer.

“Let's get this show on the road. When I call your name, GO!”

“Number one... Derpy Hooves!”

Derpy rose and took a last look at her friends. Twilight noticed she had a strange look on her face, other than her wall-eyed expression of course. It wasn't a look that said something like: “It's ok, we'll get out of this mess!“, but more of a: “I'm not dying for you...“ kind of look.

“Derpy...” Twilight said in a soft and concerned voice.

Derpy ran past everypony and quickly grabbed a saddle bag, and hardly put it on before bursting out through the door.

“The second pony is... Fluttershy!”

Fluttershy was hardly awake from all the exhaustion. She met Celestia’s eyes, Celestia made a confirming nod. Fluttershy gulped and took a look around. She saw her very best friends and began to cry again. She had also soiled herself all over the school bench.

One of the dogs yelled at her to come up, and she eventually did. She grabbed a saddle bag and put it on. She made a silent squeak and walked out through the door.

“God that took long... Anyhow! Let's see... Bon Bon, you're up! Number three.”

Bon Bon hugged her best friend Lyra before leaving. She took a good look at the saddle bags before deciding which one to take. She picked a lucrative looking one and ran out through the door.

“Number four.. Oh, silly me, that's Applejack. Let's move along then.”

“Next is Pinkie Pie, number five.”

Pinkie gave Twilight a reassuring look: “We'll meet up soon.”

She trotted to the bags and just grabbed one and left the room.

“Now we have... Lyra! Number six. Go and meet up with your friend. He-He...You still think she cares for you under these circumstances? You sad little foal!”

Lyra held back the tears enough as to, not show them that she was about to cry. Then obeyed, took her bag and ran out looking for her best friend. She knew that she would never forsake her.

“Number seven... Rainbow Dash, you're up!”

Rainbow looked up from her bench, still sobbing. She stood up and ran, she couldn't face her friends. She forgot to bring her saddle bag, a Diamond Dog reminded her with a fist to the face. She then took one and went outside.

“Rarity. Please choose your saddle bag. You're number eight”

Rarity tried to hold her tears back, but was unable too. She hardly even dared to walk past Celestia, whose horn was still dripping with Applejack‘s blood. AJ’s body was still lying there, all torn up and bloody. But she managed and quickly grabbed one of the saddle bags, and exited.

A faint scream was heard, but nopony made a remark about it. Celestia seemed eager to get the rest of the ponies out.

“Now it's my very own prized student, Miss Twilight Sparkle. You're number nine” The princess exclaimed.

Twilight had the hardest time to walk up to the princess. Her relationship with her had been so good... How could she have never seen that she was capable of such a horrible thing as in making ponies kill each other for her own amusement?

“Why are you giving me that look Twilight? I already explained to you why I do this. It's what's best for everypony.” The princess said.

“You know that this is messed up, this is not what any sane pony would ever do. You don't have to do this.” Twilight answered.

- “You're right, but this will amuse me more than anything else. I guess that's one thing that the dragons and I have in common. Ha-Ha.”

- “I swear... I will kill you for this.”

- “Ha-Ha, how cute. Now then, run out there and win if you want to survive.”

The princess was smiling.

Twilight took one of the three bags left and leaved.

“Alright, now we only have Dr. Whooves left to go. You're our final number ten”

Dr. Whooves took a bag and told the princess in a dark and nerve-wrecking voice: “I'll get you bitch.”

Princess Celestia did not reply. There was something about him that she just couldn't figure out, so she decided to keep her mouth shut.

After the brown time traveling pony left the room, Celestia asked the laptop: “There we go, you saw all that?” The laptop replied: “Yes. And here are our bets.” The princess replied: “Great! Now let's watch what they're up to. I thought I heard somepony scream before, we'll have to look at the replay.”

“He-He. We've already seen it. It was awesome. It upset Spike though” The laptop replied in a based tone.

“Oh you guys! No spoilers. Ha-Ha.” Come on dogs, let's hit the break room.

Celestia’s heart was full of anticipation, and her horn was soaked in blood.

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