Hooves Cubed

Chapter 4: The Dome

[Setosorcerer]

I walked past the trees, anxiety spreading through me. I was invited to the first game in the new Hunger Games dome! I walked into the lobby, and looked around. The inner walls were stone, and the floor was made of stone slabs. I saw a few people crowded around the opposite wall, and one by one, they disappeared. The sign above where they were standing read 9/16. I walked over to the wall, and saw a button. I slapped it, and was teleported onto a platform. I recognised Mitch and Jerome right away; they were on the two platforms to my left. I tried to look at the other ten, but I couldn't see past the arch in the middle of the circle.

To my right, two more tributes joined the game. I recognised them as Adam and Ty. Past them, I saw Quentin join, and then Ant. I turned my attention to the arch in the middle. I focused on the chest closest to me, and couldn't stop myself from smiling. I knew it wasn't a great chance that I would win, but it was worth a shot. The final two tributes joined the arena.

"The games will begin in 10...9...8..." The countdown began, and I looked around again at who I was up against for getting a chest's loot. Mitch and Jerome were the biggest threats. Adam would probably run the opposite direction while screaming his head off, with Ty trying to catch up with him while putting on the boots he got from the chest. Ant was also a big threat, but I was far enough away to avoid him killing me, counting on him getting a stone sword right off the bat. I suspected Quentin to just avoid spawn until the rest of them cleared, and get the remaining loot.

"5...4...3..." The countdown continued. I tensed up, ready to sprint to the nearest chest and take whatever loot I could. That was when I noticed the arena getting darker. Confused, I looked up at the roof of the dome. There was some sort of black cloud-like substance quickly covering the top. I heard the sound of the dome creaking under pressure. This can't be good, I thought.

"I don't think that's supposed to happen," Ty said, caution in his voice. The countdown reached one.

"We haven't installed any-" Mitch began, but was drowned out by the harsh sound of shattering glass. Shards of the dome rained down. The black clouds sank, and seemed to form some sort of creature. It gained two glowing red eyes, and a wicked smile. Everyone else started to run in panic, most fleeing to the outskirts of the dome. I started backing up, off of my platform. The shadowy creature started laughing a very menacing laugh.

"Holy balls!" Someone exclaimed. Probably Bashur. I noticed Jerome and Mitch eyeing the creature while they looted some of the chests. If I wasn't frozen in fear, I'd have joined them by now. I heard someone running, and turned to see Adam sprinting away from his platform, mouth gaping in a silent scream. He coughed, and then I guess he regained the ability to speak.

"OHMYGOODGODSETOHOLDME!" Adam yelled, while throwing his arms around me, hugging me from the side. He was looking up at the shadow creature, breathing heavily. I couldn't stop myself from blushing a little bit. I don't know what impacted me more: the shadow creature, Adam hugging me, or Adam yelling "Oh my good god Seto hold me" in a shorter amount of time than what it took for me to blink.

"Adam, what are you doing?" Ty asked. Adam looked over his shoulder at the long-haired headphone-wearing man.

"SETOISHOLDINGMEBECAUSEJASONISGONE!" Adam yelled, and seemed to calm down a bit. "SETOIMSTARTLED!"

"May I suggest that we go before we die?" Ty asked, folding his arms.

"Oh, yeah, uh, right," I said, and then started walking towards Ty. Adam was still clinging onto me.

"Seto...don't let me go..." Adam whispered into my ear. I put my arm around him.

"Okay," I whispered back.

"Hey, hey, Setosky, lets get moving on, 'kay?" Ty asked, starting to back up into a fast walk. Adam made a face at Ty and reluctantly let go of me. We ran after Ty, dodging trees and structures through the shadowy darkness that had fallen across the arena. Soon, we came across a few blocks of jagged glass.

"The edge of the arena!" Ty said. No dip, Sherlox. We jumped over the glass, and continued running for out lives. The clouds started to clear as we ran, and I noticed that we were passing the lobby.

"Holy crap," Ty said, and slowed down. I followed his gaze to the sky, and stopped dead in my tracks.

"Looks like the portal got bigger," Adam said.

"Portal? Where's it lead?" I asked. Ty and Adam shrugged.

"Pony world?" Adam suggested. At first, I thought he failed at sarcasm, but then I saw a cartoony orange horse wearing a cowboy hat gaping at us.

"None of us have installed any mods," Ty said. "This is completely new to us."

"I'll say," I replied, trying to process this in my mind. The orange horse was joined by a white horse. "What kind of sorcery is this?" I asked. Adam laughed.

"Well, you should know. You are a sorcerer, right?" He said. I laughed.

"I guess I am, but-" I began, but I stopped when the ground shook. The ground was starting to rise in random places, and the grass we were standing on was one of those places. We got a better view of the horses. The orange one started backing up, but the white one stayed put. I noticed that she was a unicorn. She was looking beyond us, terror in her eyes. I turned around, and the sight was shocking. The shadows from the dome were approaching fast, and spreading across the plains. The shadow creature from before was at the front of the wave, and it looked like it was smiling. It started a low, rumbling laugh, and started to rise when it approached the portal.

"Finally," it growled, looking at the white horse. She looked like she was trying to turn and run, but was frozen in place.

"Welcome back," The night cloud said, and then a bunch of the shadows rose from the ground and surrounded the horse. She bent her head down, gritting her teeth. Her coat started to darken, and her curly purple mane grew. A purple horse with wings and a unicorn horn flew up, and stared at the huge creature with surprise.

"Larry?" She asked. The creature laughed.

"Larry's long gone. He was much too weak. Shadowfright lives on!" the creature said. The unicorn from before stood up straight. She was at least twice as tall as before. Her coat was now a dark grey, and her mane was wavy and somewhat like a partially translucent cloud, and her tail faded to black at the end. Her mane also had a silver streak in it. She started grinning, and then evilly laughing. I felt Adam start hugging me again.

"I'm back," she said, "and there's nothing you can do to stop me this time!"