sponsored Rainbow Dash's Obstacle Course of Terror

[Mojo]

The soaking wet devil costumed Haywire now approached the Parasprite area. There were so many of them! She was already behind, so how would she be able to make that time up?

Once more, the determined filly decided to try something unusual. Noticing that she was approaching a small hill, the blank flank foal decided to try 'rolling' again, thinking she could zoom right past the parasprites and into the lead.

"Here I go agin'!" she shouted, once again curling herself up and starting to roll down the hill. Had Haywire looked further down the trail, she would've seen that the foot of the hill was nearby and the next rise was much higher. So, the laws of gravity worked against her this time as she rolled down, and then rolled 'up' the next hill until her momentum ceased and she came to a complete stop, now surrounded by parasprites.

"Uh oh," she muttered as the devil suited filly had to work even harder to dodge the remaining parasprites until she finally broke free of them and made a wild mad dash towards the cave.

[Blueblood]

Flying Brick nodded. "Ah, yes. Am acrobatic performer, much like gymnast, only in the street. And a well-trained body needs no magic to conquer odds!" She finished, giving a wink to Pyro. Really, ponies would always think that having no horn or wings gave you a disadvantage, somehow. But there were certain, hidden advantages that came with having an affinity for the ground....

And then it was time. Rainbow Dash called for the second group to line up, and the brick-red mare was the first to get there. In less than five seconds, 'Go' was called, and the Stalliongrad native shot off.

*First obstacle, the boulders. Ha, feast your eyes on this!* As she came to the lip of the hill, she could sense somepony toss a rock just behind her. In one smooth motion, she jumped straight up into the air and landed right on top of the fake boulder, maneuvering skillfully like a barrel or trashcan underneath her hooves, riding it all the way down the hill.

When she reached the bottom, she dismounted into a roll, barely losing momentum as she headed straight for the Manticore's tail. One thing unique about Earth Ponies is that they are very-surehooved, having had to climb over many obstacles that a pegasus could fly over. Without a second's hesitation, she went right towards the manticore, clambered up to the top of it's mane, and then leaped off, clear over the swinging tail.

"And that's how Earth Pony does it, comrades!"

[PyroBlaze]

Pyro nodded as the mare explained her costume. Then he chuckled at the mare's comment about not needing magic. "I probably don't need it, but it certainly helps." Pyro said with a smile before lining up at the start. Pyro nodded at Rainbow's question about them being ready, and took off like a shot when she said to go. The acrobat mare was ahead of him, but that didn't deter him. He was here for fun after all, it didn't really matter who won the race. Not that Pyro wasn't going to try to win, but it wouldn't matter if he didn't win. Pyro galloped right off the edge of the starting platform, launching himself over about half the hill. "Yeah!" Pyro yelled out as he flew through the air. Pyro crouched as he landed to absorb the impact, then stayed low as he slid the rest of the way down the hill. Pyro adjusted his hooves every now and then to avoid the outcroppings, and the rocks, which he was actually catching up to. Since Pyro was crouching low, he had less resistance then the rocks did. Pyro was also using a spell that practically eliminates his traction, effectively eliminating friction with the hill. Pyro kept sliding after he had passed the hill, causing him to approach the manticore at the same speed he had finished the hill with. Pyro got down as low as he could and slid underneath the tail as it swung down. Pyro deactivated his spell and dug in his hooves, bringing him to a stop near where the acrobat mare had landed. Pyro had been grinning the entire time, and his hood had been blown off by the winds created from his fast movement down the hill. "And that's how I do it." Pyro said to the mare.

[Duskfall]

Luckily, in a strange antisocial way, Nopony seemed to pay much attention to Duskfall after their first encounters. On the other hand though, it felt extremely lonely, but such was the life Duskfall subjected himself to (aside from interacting with his clients). As such, he didn't think much of it. Then Rainbow Dash called up the second group of ponies (plus one changeling), up to start. Without so much as a 10 second warning to start, she hollered at them to do so. Duskfall broke into a sprint. At the edge of the cliff, Duskfall lept forward an onto the descending slope. Just after Duskfall heard a grunt of somepony throwing something behind him, probably one of those foam rock, and probably right at him. Duskfall dove to his right and out of the way just as the aforementioned rock barreled past him. With another leap, Duskfall mounted himself into a rock and followed in sync with the Stalliongrad mare.

Also in sync, Duskfall lept from the rock near the ground and rolled on this front hoof and shoulder. With little loss to his momentum, Duskfall made for the Manticore. However, as his unofficial rival lept over the faux-manticore, Duskfall rolled onto his back and stopped in the spinning tail's path and braced himself. Instead of knocking him out of the area, the tail pushed him toward the exit, Duskfall's chitin protecting him from the scratches and scrapes a pony would have definitely gotten if they had attempted it. With sweater on the other hand was dirtied and almost shreded. Oh well, he could always buy a new one (or steal it if he's running low on cash and jobs). At the exit, Duskfall simply got to his hooves and cantered up, tossing his near-shredded sweater into a bush.

"That's how a runner does it."

[RarityDash]

((ooc: gonna just go through the whole course in one go to save time, I think. Hope this is cool.))

Soon, it was finally time for the second group to start the course!

"All right! It's time for this cute little storm cloud to unleash the thunder!" Cloudchaser said. It was meant to get her pumped up for the course, but even she had to admit it was a pretty inane and silly thing to say. Regardless, she just charged from the starting line.

Sooun her run had begun in earnest. The first obstacle to clear was rushing down a cliff as rocks fell from above. Now, just flying would be the easiest way for a pegasus to clear this task, but for a number of reasons that wasn't an option. For one, she was pretty sure it was against the rules and would be cheating--if not, if should be. For another, her fluffy costume made it very hard to move her wings--flight wasn't gonna be an option. Instead, she made a series of calculated jumps down the cliffside, dodging rocks as they came at her. There were a few close calls, but mostly Chaser managed it well. She was an agile mare after all; in her time as both a weather mare and a Wonderbolt cadet she had been trained by two of the best after all, Rainbow Dash and Captain Spitfire.

When she reached the second challenge, the spinning manticore tail, she had a lot of confidence. Perhaps too much, as her movements were becoming somewhat sloppy. The tail came closer to striking her each time she tried to move past it. Still, she made progress as best she could. She timed her movements right and with an agile jump, she made it past the tail, though it did swipe right into the fluff of her costume, bringing it a little too close for comfort. Chaser rolled to the ground off of her high jump and and then leapt up to get away. She managed it, but had poor hoofing as she came to the serpent's crossing. She caught herself between two platforms at just the last second and vaulted herself upward, much of the fluff around her belly getting drenched in the pool in the process. She came down on a solid landing and moved quickly from there. She knew not to linger on one platform as much as was possible.

The parasprites were next, and they were even trickier to dodge, small as they were. The colorful tennis balls zipped around all over the place and proved quite difficult to avoid entirely. The bulk of her costume fluff made it even harder, she was pretty sure a few of them touched it. She wonder if that would count against her? Regardless, she put her best effort to not lose too much momentum and kept her eyes wide open. It took a while, but in time she had cleared the parasprite area and made it into the cave. Most of her stamina was depleted, however, and she slowed down at this point.

"Whoa, Dashie, you really went all out with this stuff," she spoke aloud but mostly to herself as Dash was of course nowhere around, when she noticed the ponies dressed as changelings and the cage ahead. "Next time you got something like this planned ya gotta let me in on it! I'd love to dress up as a scary changeling. Sure beats a fluffy cloud..." she muttered before breaking into a gallop again, dodging the changelings that came at her.

"Okay, you evil changelings. You better let those ponies go, or else you'll have to answer to me, Cloudchaser the... uh... little storm cloud...!" Chaser decided to get into the act as she got closer to the cage. It was hard to pass up the chance to play the hero. While her costume made it hard to play cool exactly, she did kinda wish Flitter was around to see her at times like this. That was, at least, until a changeling finally managed to get the drop on her from a blind spot and jump her. She sighed as she was tackled to the floor. It had been an effective run, but she supposed it was over now.

​

[NeoExlucky]

Gadget found himself at the parasprite path next. Which didn't seem too bad since the parasprites looked adorable. What was so scary about them? He simply trotted his way through the path like it was nothing...or he'd like to say that. Instead Gadget got about 4 steps in when he thought a parasprite decided to nibble at a part of his costume, causing Gadget to run with fear coursing through his body as he thought he was going to get eaten. He found himself running past a small filly he had seen before rolling but he kept running, only to stop for a breath a few feet before the Changling cavern.

The cavern was dark, and seemed to make a dripping sound in the distance, or perhaps that was just Gadget's imagination. He trotted through the cave, trying to avoid any ponies he found in there. After all, any pony could be a changling, might be best to just ignore them all. Although it was hard to as one pony was dressed in a cloud costume and was poking around a cage. "What are you doing?" Gadget asked cautiously.

[Bramble Rose]

(( Good idea, MassRaridash! ))

The 'changeling' took a step back from Cloudchaser, actually a bit surprised. "I caught one?" he asked, startled. "Oh! Um... right! I caught you, and now you are trapped! Right through here!" He looked up at Gadget. "And you! right there here!" He led Cloudchaser and Gadget deeper into the cavern. "You weren't supposed to go for the cage! That's just ... you know ... atmosphere. You're supposed to run past it. There's the exit right here." There was a big sign that said "Exit" a little further in, and an arrow pointing down at a trap door. "it drops you into a hallway that leads into the cage, then exits you out into a nearby basement. The exit's closed just now, we'll open it shortly, but we need you to stand around in the cage crying out, "It's a trap, don't trust them!" and stuff like that, OK?"

​

[PyroBlaze]

(Guess I'll just do the rest now then.)

"I'll be seeing you. On to the next obstacle!" Pyro said before running towards the wobbly platforms known as the serpent's crossing. Pyro jumped from platform to platform across the serpent's crossing. He couldn't stay on them long, so he couldn't aim his jumps well, and they were landing him closer and closer to the edges every time. Pyro almost fell off the last platform, but he landed just on the edge and jumped off before heading to the parasprites. Pyro created a magic wall on both sides of the path as he galloped towards it, blocking the parasprites from swinging across the path. Pyro felt the parasprites impacting against his magic as he ran through, dropping the walls as soon as he had cleared the area. "Now the cave." Pyro said, grinning still due to the excitement of it all. Pyro ran through the cave, giving the ponies in the cage a sidelong glance before running past. "Obviously acting." Pyro said to himself as he jumped back and forth as he ran to avoid the changelings. Every time one would jump out towards him, he would shift away from them, keeping just out of their reach.

(Not sure what else to do, since the exit is apparently closed right now. I'll just stop there for now I guess.)

[Bellosh]

-TIMESKIP-

Many bumps and bruises later, the Bravado pony made it to the last challenge: the Cavern of Secrets. Intent on winning the course, Flash Sentry opted not to rush into the final room with the changeling-dressed actors. He instead hid behind a corner while another contestant, a cloud-wearing pegasus, made a run. Foolishly for the mare, she dared play the role of hero and got caught in the process.

Whoever designed this cavern did a very good job of enabling echoes to bounce all over the eerie cave walls, for he heard most of the conversation that transpired between Cloudchaser and the worker from quite a distance. Strangely enough, it seemed that no matter if ponies actually didn’t get caught by the ‘changelings’, the apparent winners would get directed into the cage anyway. That seemed… cheap, to say the least. Not providing victorious contestants with a separate exit was nothing short of bad attraction design. After all the trouble he went through on the obstacle course, he and everypony else had no choice but to partake in an anti-climatic ending?

At any rate, rather than verbally confront the employees over the issue, Flash Sentry chose to remain hidden in his position, not quite sure how to take things from here. Once the exit opened up, maybe then he’ll bother to make his final escape through the area. At least then, the Bravado pony wouldn’t be cooped up in a crowded cage before allowed to leave.....

[Bramble Rose]

(( Pyro - you could go into the cage and provide warnings and deliver Pyro's best stage-acting abilities! Ham it up! ))

[NeoExlucky]

Gadget didn't know what to do. This was one of the 'Changlings' weren't they meant to trick us? Maybe this was just a ploy to get him and the cloud pony in the cage. Gadget stepped back a bit. "Perhaps we should go find someone else from the group, Cloud...pony. This doesn't seem like a good idea. I don't trust them." He glared at the changling, not wanting to take his eye off of him. "This seems like a trick." Although maybe it wasn't a trick. Maybe this one was actually trying to help him. Didn't Aselia say that a changling once helped her? This could quite possibly be the honest truth. "Though whatever you do, I'll follow, best not to split up in here." He guess that the cloud pony wasn't a changling, who would want to be dressed as a cloud? Even if cloud here was a changling, Gadget could use the sheer power of embarrassment against him if he was going to get caught

[Lilia]

Shadowe ignored the ponies in the cage, stepping hoof inside before cocking his head to the side. His dog was whining outside the cave. He sighed.

"Fine, scardey dog. I'll do this alone! I won't walk into any traps or fall for any tricks! And I sure as the devil won't walk into any...oof! Walls!" He called behind him, walking into a wall as he said he wouldn't. He mentally cursed his blindness, backstepping and maneuvering around as best he could.

[Pretzelparty]

The young unicorn dressed as the night princess levitated her brush into her saddlebag as she entered the Changeling cave, determined to follow the rules laid out by the cyan vampony pegasus at the start. She had been using what little magic she did know to get this far but now she needed to rely of her fitness instead, which wasn't a big problem for her. This mare had spent a lot of time walking on the road, running and dodging the occasional danger and in her mind this wouldn't be too different; all she had to do was not get caught but make sure not to hurt her assailants.

While the mare ran past several of the changelings that pounced at her she took notice of the cage and waved at some of those "trapped" within. Even if they were really trapped chances are she couldn't save them alone and seeing as the ponies disguised as changelings were closing in on her from all angles it would have been better just to finish. this course may have been all in good fun but she sure didn't intend to let herself get caught easily. She kept on her guard and jumped and rolled and sidestepped her way out of her would be captors. If anything the unicorn had energy and good deal of determination, while she was slowly tiring herself out those who kept leaping at her seemed to be getting a bit on the tired side so as they began to slow down she galloped towards the exit until she reached the arrow and the trapdoor,"I guess this is the end fer now..."

With that she dropped down and followed the hall down until she reach the ways leading to the cage as well as the exit door which was yet to be unlocked, luckily on the still locked door she found a paper sign that seemingly was left for those who were not caught that brought her up to speed.

"Oooooooh... well at least I get a chance ta pretend I'm caught!"

Presteza walked into the cage along with her other pretend captives and joined in the cries of warning to her fellow contestants,"It's a trap! they're gonna turn ya inta more of 'em so they can take over ponyville! RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!" she cried holding upon the single vowel of the last word to emphasize the supposed urgency of the situation.

[Blueblood]

Good spirits were infectious, and Flying Brick was a potent carrier. "Ha! Is good you are not discouraged, comrades. Hate to lose competition halfway through!" Throwing back her head and laughing to the sky, she gave a wink to the changeling messenger before running up to the river platforms.

For this obstacle, the most important thing was maintaining forward momentum. As long as she traveled fast enough, she wouldn't be bearing down with much weight on the unstable platforms. Lighthooved running, that was the key for any who, like she, ran through a city's streets and skyline. True, the hoofholds falling behind her splashed somewhat, but she made good time across the stream and into the storm of parasprites.

There wasn't much finesse displayed here; Brick mostly relied on her hardiness to plow through these pesky things. "This is nothing; you try running through hailstones in Stalliongrad. Toughens you like bull!" Nevertheless, her gymnast costume had quite a few tears and tatters as she sprinted forth into the changeling cave.

By now, she knew she was in her element. The pegasi could not use wings here, nor the unicorns their magic, but she had full access to everything she had. Dodging protrusions, evading disguised changelings, even running up a wall to avoid a whole group of them, she grinned triumphantly as she knew that victory was hers!

And then there was the locked door. She saw it, of course, but did not slow down a bit. "Ha, you think you are catching me that easy? CHAAARRGE!"

*WHAM*

Okay, that had not been a good idea at all. The mare bounced back from the impact, and tumbled down the trapdoor into the cage. "Ooog.... They got me comrades. Go from this place, leave me!" It would have been good acting from the newly-caged earth pony, if she had in any way been pretending. That had really hurt.

[PyroBlaze]

(Hmmm, I guess so. Don't see anything else to do for now.)

Pyro kept dodging the changelings as he barreled through the cave. Pyro would've just made a shield and ran through, but Pyro wasn't one to break the rules unless somepony's life was in danger. Since this was just an obstacle course, Pyro figured they weren't in any real danger from the changelings. Pyro saw the end of the cave by now, and the trapdoor that was marked as an exit. Pyro scanned the walls as he approached the end of the tunnel, but he didn't see any other way out. Pyro shrugged internally as he dodged more changelings. "Well, here we go." Pyro said to himself as he came near to the trapdoor, which was open. A changeling jumped at him from in front of him, and there was no way to dodge by moving sideways. 'Can't go either side or up. He's too high for me to jump. Guess I'm going under.' Pyro thought, diving under the changeling and down the trapdoor. Pyro hit the ground at the bottom and rolled back onto his hooves before making his way down the tunnel. Pyro reached the end and looked at the note. "So I'm going into the cage? Fine, whatever." Pyro said before turning around and going up into one of the cages. Pyro re-hid the trapdoor in the floor of the cage before he paced around the cage. As soon as someone came in, Pyro would place his front hooves against the bars before calling out to whoever came in, saying, "They got me! Leave now! Save yourself!"

[Lilia]

Shadowe had no idea if he was close to the exit or not, only that the voices of the ponies that were caught sounded an awful lot like the ones from the beginning of this course. He nodded to himself, congratulations in his mind until he fell into a trap door. He gave an 'oomph' upon landing, righting himself and moving on until he hit the bars of a locked cage. He sighed. He was trapped.

"Rats! I'm caught! Get out now, while you still can! I couldn't see them coming!" He called out, hoping that somepony, anypony, would hear him and heed his words.

[Bramble Rose]

The ponies who dropped into the cage, and went near the end where ponies were calling warnings, would see one final creepy prop - behind the cage, behind more bars, was a green coccoon surrounding a replica of Rainbow Dash. It looked eerily real, and one could almost imagine it was breathing slowly, there in the green pod.

Outside, the quite awake Rainbow Dash floated down as the lats of the ponies went running into the opening of the fake mouth - especially waiting until that traitorous changeling went into the hive - a 'fake hive' which Duskfall would find eerily accurate. Rainbow Dash landed near the bottom of the cliff, and the ponies above slid down the cliff to join her as she walked along the obstacle course. More ponies left off cranking the fake manticore tail, falling in behind her, in the growing herd. A green glow from nowhere steadied the unsteady platforms, and the herd jumped across to the far side, from platform to platform, landing on the far side and into the parasprite fields.

One tennis ball parasprite came flying towards Dash and bounced off of her, and she yelled up at the ponies to each side, "NOT at ME you idiots!" They walked on, and several more parasprite balls came flying at her. There was a green glow at Dash's forehead, and the balls were surrounded in a green glow, stopping them dead in the air. "NOT at ME!"

The ponies with the tennis rackets dropped down and joined in behind her as they came up to the entrance of the Changeling cave, blocking it off, as Dash strode in. Ha! Already, there was a couple of ponies in the cage, having walked easily into it. What's the easiest way to get ponies into a cage? Why, to ask them politely, of course!

​

They approached the stragglers, and Dash had used the obstacle course to gauge their abilities, and figure out their strengths and weaknesses - and one weakness she was sure she wanted to take advantage of ... a green glow surrounded one pony's saddlebag, opening it up, and pulling out presteza's paintbrush, pulling it over to Rainbow Dash, whose forehead was glowing green. Dash planted one booted hoof on the paintbrush, holding it down to the floor, and then that green glow started to spread - a long, curved black horn sprouted from her forehead, and her wings started to flatten and tatter, huge holes appearing in them as they became a sickly green. Her fur darkened and turned black, as the green glow spread, until Dash was before them, a changeling revealed. The ponies who had been helping on the course underwent a similar transformation, and the 'changelings' in the cave tore off their fake wings and horns so that they could grow out real wings and real horns...

"GET IN THE CAGE!" cried Changeling Dash, "By the Queen, you lot are a fractious... this wasn't a race, you idiots! It's an obstacle course! And you're surrounded and outnumbered and in our very hive! Give us your love freely and maybe it'll be easier for you!" And with that, she lowered her head and spat out a big glob of green goo on the end of the paintbrush, sealing it to the floor.

​

[Blueblood]

Ugh... Flying Brick must have hit her head much harder than she thought. Had she knocked herself out, and was dreaming, or was it just dizziness from a head injury? Either way, the earth pony mare could have sworn that she saw their rainbow-maned hostess in a changeling pod in front of the cage. It looked so real...

She stopped groaning, and started to look at it. Yes, it looked very realistic; in fact-

No, there was Rainbow Dash, outside in the cave. But it didn't sound like her-

Oh, dear Celestia....

Like a sudden gust of winter air, the realization blasted all fuzziness from Flying Brick's mind. That was a real changeling, this was a real cage, and they were all in real trouble. As the villain began her monologue, the earth pony mare kept completely still, looking around in the cage for her fellow runners. That Bravado guy... he didn't seem to be in here, so at least one of their number was outside. That was good, very good.

Now for the cage... She looked closer at it, with a more critical eye. The obstacle course set up would have revealed a lot about her capabilities, but unless you actually knew her, you wouldn't know that she was a builder's daughter, and had worked on her daddy's projects with him as a younger filly. Thus, she'd picked up a few things about structural integrity, and she could spot a weak point in the cage: the hinges where the roof folded on top.

She tapped the ponies next to her and whispered. "On count of three, am going to strike corner where hinge is, hopefully will break cage. Ready? One... two... three!" Not raising her voice any, she pushed down on her front hooves and pushed upward with a mighty kick with her rear ones, striking just where the lid met the hinge.

[NeoExlucky]

Gadget looked around, not scared but surprised. "This is one great trick Rainbow! I had heard that you were a prankster but this is some of the best stuff I've ever seen."iHe was completely oblivious to the fact that the changlings were real. He even walked over to one and admired it's holes. ​"There is so much detail in this. I can't believe that somepony without a talent in art could do this? Did you get one of the princesses to help you? Surely Princess Sparkle had a hoof in this, No?"

[Duskfall]

Duskfall had opted to left the others go in front of him, as the obstacles ahead, as he understood, required smart movement, not quick movement. As Duskfall traverse the platforms across the river, he noticed that they were extremely sturdy, and not "wobbly and unstable" as advertised. It didn't quite bother Duskfall at first, but it kept nagging him at the back of his mind. The next area was the field of tennis ball parasprites. Compared to what Duskfall had experienced in the moments leading to the loss of his left wing (dodging arrows), the tennis balls were extremely tolerable. However, some tennis balls had rolled onto the ground and left for dead, as it were, forcing Duskfall to make some awkward, and less than professional motions.

Duskfall was about to make his way into the cavern, but the nagging in his head finally caught up to him. At first glance the cavern looked surprisingly authentic. Rainbow Dash must have done some research, or maybe saved some of that goop from the Invasion. Absentmindedly, Duskfall placed his hoof on the cavern walls, and it promptly sank into the dripping goop.

Duskfall jerked his hoof back and began flicking the gooey substance off of himself. "What in the hells?"

This stuff was real! More concerning was that this excrement was fresh, very fresh. Duskfall flashed back to the very beginning of the obstacle course, when Rainbow Dash had confronted him.

"You're not one of my changelings, are you?"

". . . not one of my changelings. . ."

". . . one of my changelings. . ."

". . . my changlings. . ."

Duskfall's eyes widened. In near panic, he ran up to the entrance of the cavern and called, "Anyone that's still in there, GET OUT! These changelings are real! Get out now!"

[Mojo]

Hayware had not quite made it to the mouth of the cave when she overheard the fake Rainbow Dash. This brought the devil costumed filly to a complete stop as she jumped behind a large boulder to hide. This was certainly one time the blank flank filly was glad NOT to be in the lead in a race!

"Dang it! If I'd only brought mah rockets with me," she muttered to herself. "I sure ain't gonna give these dumb critters any of MAH love! Gotta think of a way ta fight back."

For now, Haywire decided to remain hidden, hoping an opportunity would open itself up. She hated sitting still and not doing anything, but for now, that's all she could do.

[Lilia]

Shadowe heard the revelation that they were really trapped by changelings. He heard the ceiling crash down and the accented pony's command to escape. He shook his head, letting his horn glow silver as he focused his magical energies on himself. He wouldn't let anypony take his love, not for food or for any gross things like that. He trembled with the concentration of holding back the spell he had been preparing while he began to speak.

"No stupid changeling is gonna get my love! I now know why Colby didn't want to come in here...and what in the hay have you done with him? I should have heard him til I fell down, and I didn't, not once! Anypony stuck here....Get away! Get away now!" He called out, bucking the bars so they rang and gave him a general direction to aim in.

[PyroBlaze]

Pyro started pacing the cage again, waiting for more ponies to enter. Pyro glanced over at one of the pods that were nearby, and saw a familiar rainbow-maned Pegasus mare in it. "Can that be her? No, it has to be a prop. Rainbow's outside, isn't she?" Pyro said to himself, a little suspicious of this incredibly real looking cave. Then Rainbow came into the cave, somehow levitating the Luna pony's paintbrush over and stepping on it. "What? How is she doing that?" Pyro mumbled, his eyes widening as 'Rainbow' revealed herself to be a changeling, her helpers doing the same. Pyro glanced back at the pod with the real Rainbow in it. "So that is real. We need to get out of here." Pyro said to himself as the changeling talked. Pyro growled at the imposter before looking around at the others in cages. The acrobat-dressed one was kicking open her door, but nopony else seemed to be doing anything. Pyro looked at the door to his cage, trying to figure out where to use his magic to get the door open. Pyro realized that this course was used to determine their strengths and weaknesses, which were clearly demonstrated by the others. Pyro hadn't used all his strengths, since his more powerful magic wasn't suitable for obstacle courses or races. It was, however, very well suited to battles. Pyro smiled to himself before backing up from the cage door. "I suggest you get back from the door. It's about to disappear." Pyro said just loud enough for the other ponies in his cage to hear. When they were a safe distance away, Pyro blew the door of the cage off with a magical explosion.

[Bellosh]

Flash Sentry’s commanding officer was not going to like hearing about this. Not paying attention behind him, the Bravado pony ended up ambushed from behind by a clever costumed employee, who made sure to nab anypony who lingered behind. And so like the others, Flash let himself go through the trapdoor and into the cage, having lost the final challenge fair and square. As it grimly turned out, it was all an elaborate ruse, for the host of the Obstacle Course turned out to be a changeling all along, and the cage was in fact real!

Pandamonium ensued, as everypony trapped screamed in terror or barked this and that, and PFC. Sentry couldn’t make anything out due to all the noise. Flash knew he had to calm things down fast; in their blind panic to escape, most likely things would escalate out of control and more ponies would end up hurt from their own actions than saved from the changelings. His Army training kicking in, the light orange pegasus entered crowd control mode and tried to raise his voice above everyone else; “*AHEM* IF I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE… I’m Private Flash Sentry of the Royal Guard; everypony please lower your voices at this time and remain calm. We can’t escape from here unless we come up with an-”

*KABOOM* Some unicorn kid blew open the door without checking to make sure that Flash Sentry was a safe distance away from it. The force of the explosion sent the guard flying back with a great force, ensuring that a good number of other ponies got struck by PFC. Sentry’s flying ragdoll of a body. Hence, the importance of maintaining order even in a bleak situation.....

[RarityDash]

Following her mostly successful obstacle course run, Cloudchaser found herself in the cage with the others, play acting like she was a helpless captive. It was kinda good fun she supposed. She had to commend Dash for all she had put into the course. Lots of great effects and challenges and stuff. She was kinda stating to wonder who all these ponies helping her were though. Sure, they were all costumed, but between the changelings and the ponies working the props at the other obstacles there were a lot of them and Chaser hadn't recognized anypony. It was unusual, but Chaser didn't think to pay it much mind.

That was until the ruse was revealed to her. Dash showed up and then underwent a transformation, turning black and growing a horn an insect wings. "Whoa... Dashie, awesome! How'd you do tha--" Chaser started as she watched. She cut herself when she realized she was being stupid again. "Gah! No! This is real!" she proclaimed, eyes wide.

If changelings were here, real ones and not just ponies in costumes, that meant a number of things but most importantly it meant that, somewhere, Flitter was in danger and she might not even notice. This was a powerful and compelling thought for Cloudchaser, as with it in the front of her mind she was going to do absolutely everything to try and get out of this and make sure her love was good and safe.

"You listen here, you big ugly fake! You better not have hurt the real Dashie! She's somepony I respect and admire a lot and it's really low of you to pretend you're her" Chaser started, moving right up to the cage bars to confront the changeling while others looked for means to escape. "I'm gonna get out of here, I'm gonna make sure my Flitter's safe and I'm also gonna make sure you and your pals are sorry!" Of course she realized how foolish this was; she was just one pegasus and could hardly take on a hive of changeling, but all the same she wasn't about to show these changelings fear.

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