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Rainbow Game, Room 2
Checkerboard
The other fluffies were already spreading out as Viola entered the next room, but at once she had a sinking feeling. Because, to be frank, most of the floor just wasn’t there. They had a decent area to walk on, made of grates and tight wire mesh, but about three Duffle-lengths ahead the floor just stopped existing.
Duffle entered behind her and, noticing the issue his size may cause, moved to a corner of the platform. After him came Lolo, followed by Bunny and finally - cautiously trailing behind as if he’d rather stay unnoticed - Ghost.
Blue was wandering around erratically as if he could find a path onward by moving long enough, carefully watched by Snaggle to ensure he didn’t drop himself and Toy Boat off the edge, and …
“Daddeh? How Indigo pway gamesies?” Indigo called, searching the walls for any kind of speakers until she finally found a monitor on their right, a chute set outside her reach. “What dat…?”
As if on cue the monitor lit up, that same Rainbow Game logo with its little mascot plastered across it. As the mascot did a little animation, the text faded to show a fluffy and a ball with the same color, the buzzing sound of Daddy’s speakers making Bunny flinch.
“Each fluffy will receive a ball matching its color,” Daddy’s voice rang out. “You will only receive one ball. Do not lose it.”
With a loud ker-chunk sound, the chute below the monitor shook and then a red ball fell out, bouncing across the grated floor until Snaggle intercepted it. Viola tried to decide between apprehension and excitement - getting a toy ball in her own color was a fun concept she’d always associated with kindness, but if Rule One had been any indication, this ball held a much graver and more frightening importance.
There was another thunk as a second ball fell from the chute, this one a purple color Viola almost went for before realizing it belonged to Indigo, and the third ball was a white that forced Ghost out of his preferred spot on the sidelines.
The fourth ball was gray.
Viola found herself reminded that Silver hadn’t just been a warning but another player, and the other fluffies seemed equally stunned as the ball bounced past them. But as it rolled toward the edge Snaggle suddenly lunged, catching the ball in her hooves at the cost of nearly falling off herself.
“Snaggwe!” Lolo gasped, rushing over to pull the red mare from the edge. “What awe yu doing?!”
“Weww… Snaggwe jus’…” Snaggle replied half-heartedly as she glanced from Lolo to the gray ball with a growing shame. She tried to find her words, but not many were coming out. “Awweady wose Smawty, jus’… jus’ nu wan …”
Lolo sighed and shook her head. “Wowo undewstands. But be mowe cawefuw; yu wife am mowe impowtant than yu Smawty’s memowy. Otay?”
Snaggle nodded softly, hugging the gray ball to herself as she picked her own, red ball back up. “Sowwy. Snaggwe wiww be cawefuw. But, bewow metaw fwoow, thewe’s…”
Her warning was cut short by another ball dropping from the chute, this one blue, and how Blue’s lack of attention required Toy Boat to call it out. “… Wiww say aftew fwuffies haf bawws.”
Before long, everyone had their balls. Bunny’s ball barely had time to touch the ground before the bunnyfluff had pounced on it, and even now he curled around it so tight you’d think it was his heart. Blue tried to stash both his own and Toy Boat’s balls on his back, failing due to Toy Boat himself being there, and then stuffed both balls in his cheeks - causing them to poof out like those of a chipmunk and leaving him unable to close his mouth - until finally Toy Boat offered to hold them. Indigo played naively with her ball, too small to hold it securely and thus just rolling it about with a little giggle.
As for Viola herself, she was turning her ball over and around in her hooves. It had the exact same color as her fur, made out of carefully painted wood, and less heavy than she may have anticipated. It wasn’t something she would get tired carrying, just a slightly awkward size to balance on her back.
Snaggle’s warning, however, never had a chance to come out. As soon as the last fluffy, Duffle, had picked up and secured his ball … the platform beneath them fell away, dropping into a ramp so steep it may as well have been a wall. All Viola could hear was the startled cries of her new friends and her own terrified screech, then she hit the ground and tumbled onto her belly.
“Ooof…” she whined, heaving herself off of the violet ball she lay on. Only her instinctive reaction to hug whatever was in her hooves had kept the item in her grasp, a stroke of luck that she had no time to think about before the lights overhead brightened into a sharp white.
Viola gasped at the room now ahead of the group; the floor was checkered, alternating between colored platforms and square pits, providing an obstacle course to the doorway on the other side.
At least that the others seemed fairly unhurt. Some, like Snaggle and Duffle, had managed to land on their hooves but the others had landed badly just like herself. Ghost was curled up and whimpering in pain, partially from the lights, but also from having broken off half a tooth on his ball upon impact with the ground. Toy Boat had fallen off Blue from the rough landing, tumbling at least two full loops before coming to a stop at the edge of a pit, dazed but still keeping hold of the duo’s balls as his tail hung over the edge. Nobody asked if the others were okay, everyone too busy recovering or looking around.
“Owwie… Oh, nuuu!” Indigo whined, stumbling to her hooves and hurrying to the pit directly in front of her. With a jolt Viola realized the filly was too small to carry her ball, much less hold onto it during a sudden fall, and her heart got caught in her throat.
As Indigo peered into the pit with a hurt look, Viola followed suit and confirmed her fears; the pit was shallow and lined with spikes, not long enough to impale a fluffy but certainly enough to stab through their legs up into the belly, and wedged between them lay an indigo ball.
What… were they meant to do in that situation…? There was no way to reach it without grave injury. As Lolo and Snaggle approached the pit as well, Viola backing off to give them space, Indigo sat on her haunches and looked up at the ceiling.
“Daddeh? Can Indigo haf nyu bawwie?” she asked hopefully, earning no reply from the loudspeakers. “Indigo wost owd bawwie…” After trying and failing miserably to reach her ball, then asking again to no avail, the filly faltered. “Indigo wiked bawwie… Was suu pwetty an’ wooked wike fwuff…”
“It otay,” Snaggle tried to comfort her. “Snaggwe haf gway baww, mabbeh dat am just as gud?”
“NU!” Bunny cut in with a loud yell, startling everyone. He was staring at the group from a distance, trembling and almost as pale as Ghost. “If nu haf baww, nu can weave woom!”
Without their specific ball, they couldn’t leave? How had she missed that part of the instructions? A ripple of horror ran through Viola’s fur, while Lolo gave the bunnyfluff a look of suspicion. “Su Indigo needs indigo baww, nu gway ow yewwow?”
Barely paying attention to Bunny’s nod, the old mare turned back to the pit. “Then, need tu get baww back. What do…” She held a hoof to her mouth for a good few seconds, considering her options, before looking to the others. “Viowa, Duffew, come hewe.”
Huh? Did Lolo need her help? Although Viola walked to the old mare with Duffle in tow, as small as she was, just what could she do? She certainly couldn’t reach…
“Viowa, yu am de smawwest othew dan Indigo,” Lolo explained, confirming the young mare’s thoughts. “Yu hooves am smaww enough tu gwab baww.”
Viola gasped. “Bu’ Viowa am tuu smaww! Nu can weach baww!”
“Pweaaase, Vio’a?” asked Indigo from where she sat in Snaggle’s forelegs, her eyes huge and puppy-like. “Indigo nu wan stay hewe! Wan keep going an’ pway gamesies an’ meet Daddeh!”
“But…”
“Duffew can howd yu,” continued Lolo, cutting the two youngsters short. “If Duffew howds yu an’ moves yu into howe, yu can weach tu gwab baww.”
“Oh…” Viola glanced up to Duffle, who nodded understandingly. “O… Otay.”
Duffle set down his ball, having held it in his mouth, and grabbed hold of Viola’s tail - then she was hoisted into the air, shrieking in pain. It hurt! Her poor tail wasn’t meant to carry that much weight and it felt like it would fall off! “Owwie! Owwie owwie STAHP PWEASE WET VIOWA DOWN!! HUWTIES!!”
The black fluffalo dropped her at once, startled at his unintended harm and letting Viola nurse her sore tailbone. “S… sowwy.”
For the second try he instead held Viola by the fluff on her back, but in doing so the indigo ball proved just a tiny bit too far for her to grab. Thus came the decision that they needed another fluffy, to serve as a middleman.
Lolo didn’t trust her forelegs to have the strength for carrying another fluffy, and Snaggle was too worried about losing her balls or Indigo to the spikes. Bunny shook his head before he could even be suggested, keeping his distance, while Blue and Toy Boat had already begun to traverse the obstacle course, the unicorn’s jumps and hops so clumsy that its friend was nearly jostled off each time. And Indigo, of course, was too small to make a difference.
Thus, this responsibility fell to Ghost, who was still lying by the ramp and nursing his pains. Viola walked up to the white fluffy and begun to speak, but paused as she noticed something - the piece of tooth that Ghost had lost, lying on the floor by his ball, looked awfully sharp.
“Ghost haf fangies…?” she found herself asking, Ghost glancing up from his hooves with a slight wince.
“Onwy a widdwe…” he replied quietly, opening his mouth to show; true enough, he only had two fangs, or … one, now that the other was broken.
Shaking off her awe, Viola explained the situation and despite looking uncertain, Ghost agreed to help. He took the white ball with him as they returned to the others, not daring to leave it in case he wouldn’t find it again, so Lolo got to hold onto it as the trio got ready once more.
Ghost hugged onto Viola’s belly, and then Duffle pulled him aloft by the back, causing a noticable cringe and distraught whimper as the fluffalo’s grip dug into the scars on Ghost’s back. Viola felt his legs trembling, gripping her too hard in reaction to the pain, but dared not complain in case he’d drop her the way Duffle had.
At least this time she could reach the ball and then finally they were back safely on the floor, indigo ball included. Viola took a few long seconds to catch her breath while Ghost just sobbed to himself, dots of dark red staining where Duffle’s teeth had re-opened a scar.
“Sowwy,” Duffle whispered awkwardly. “Am yu otay?”
“Nuu,” whined Ghost, huddling together a bit. “Nu am otay. Bwight wighties, huwties, fangy huwtie, miss wingies, nu wan be hewe, wan be back in pwetty dawk pwace …”
Duffle glanced to the obstacle course in front of them, then back to Ghost. “… Do yu wan Duffwe tu cawwy yu?”
The white fluffy sniffled. “Couwd yu…?”
“Nu fowget bawws,” Lolo called, sitting with both Ghost’s and Duffle’s balls under her hooves. “Nu think any of yu wan do dis again.”
That they could at least agree on. As Viola ran back to fetch her ball Lolo and Snaggle started traversing the obstacle course - Lolo carried Indigo’s ball on her back, while Snaggle carried Indigo herself by the scruff.
Bunny, still struggling with how to carry his ball, realized that the others were moving and came to a decision. With a fretful murmur to himself not to gnaw on the ball he shoved it in his mouth and then leapt into the obstacle course, bouncing between platforms recklessly to reach the other end as fast as he could.
By the time Viola had fetched her ball she was dead last; ahead of her Duffle had moved four platforms ahead, Ghost carried atop his back. Viola trembled a bit at the idea of having to jump over the spiky pits to catch up; her legs were so small compared to Duffle’s… Or to anyone else’s. She couldn’t carry two balls on her back, she couldn’t leap across like Bunny, she didn’t even have Blue’s brainless confidence.
Although she stashed her ball as securely as she could on her back, just jumping over the narrow gap where two platforms met made the object jostle roughly as if it’d drop off. Viola huddled down and used her tail to help ensure the ball would stay in place, but this made her pace agonizingly slow. She was falling behind! Everyone was leaving!
“Pw-pwease wait!” she whimpered, seeing how Blue and Bunny had already reached the other side. What if there was a time limit and she would die from being too slow? Was she really gonna have to risk losing her ball to get there in time?
Duffle paused and looked back, seemingly realizing that someone was missing, then walked back to Viola’s platform. His big frame and thick hooves made it easy, letting him simply walk across the obstacles, so he was in front of Viola in no time at all and gently put down the black ball in his mouth.
“Do yu wan Duffew tu cawwy yu, too?” he asked softly, and Viola felt her eyes fill with tears.
“… Y-Yus, pwease!”
Duffle helped her onto his back and carried her ball alongside his own. With both Viola and Ghost on there it felt a little cramped, so she huddled up close to the white stallion and hugged onto him. She tried to ignore the red staining his back but kept glancing to it again and again until she couldn’t help but ask.
“Why Ghost nu say Duffwe gif huwties?” she whispered so that Duffle wouldn’t hear. If she had been hurt bad enough to leak boo-boo juice, she would have screamed and screeched so the whole room heard. Ghost, however, just squirmed uncomfortably.
“… Nu wan be cowawd,” the white fluffy finally answered. “Being quiet am bettew… Nu get teased ow huwt as much.”
Hearing that, Viola tightened her grip on Ghost as if she could give him a double-hug. Teased and hurt for making noise! When it was so natural for fluffies to be loud and noisy! That was a terrible fate, and the follow-up thought made Viola tear up. Was that how he lost his wingies?
She wanted to ask, but didn’t know how to do so and before she figured it out, the trio had reached their destination. Duffle let the two off his back, and Viola looked around to find everyone there. Bunny sat with his ball hugged close, anxiously checking for missing fluffies, while Snaggle and Lolo had only just set Indigo down.
“Evewyone safe? Evewyone acwoss?” Bunny asked anxiously, eyes darting across the group.
“Seems so,” Lolo replied, doing a head count as she gave Indigo her ball. “But what now?”
What now? Didn’t they just have to go through the … closed door … oh. Viola frowned and around for any alternate solution, but there was no obvious button or lever, just a red light and the picture from before depicting a fluffy and a ball. The only two that seemed to have explored properly were Blue and Toy Boat, who were looking at a small round hole in the wall.
“Oh!” Blue suddenly chirped, lighting up with some kind of bright idea. “Fwen, gib fwuffy toysies!”
Without waiting for Toy Boat to do so he managed to snag the orange ball from the sea fluffy on his back, eliciting a startled yelp, and promptly stuffed it through the hole in the wall. It was a perfect fit and within moments the ball had rolled through, far out of reach and sight.
Blue beamed, looking concerningly proud of the way it had just lost its friend’s sole chance at progressing. Toy Boat was horrified: “Why nyu fwen do dat!?”
“Toysie am gud fit fow howe!” chimed Blue. “Hewe, gif othew toysie!”
Toy Boat refused, clinging to the blue ball so that Blue wouldn’t doom itself as well, but his floppy legs proved a detriment and before anyone could intervene, Blue had yanked the ball and Toy Boat himself off its back, the sea fluffy hitting the ground with a thud as he lost his grip and Blue promptly shoved the blue ball into the hole.
“Nu!” Toy Boat gasped breathlessly. “Bwue, why…!”
“D-Dat’s otay,” Bunny assured, trying to ease the chaos before it could kick off. “Dat’s how yu open doow! Bawws gu in doow howe an’ den doow opens!!”
Lolo turned to glare at Bunny, while Snaggle hesitantly voiced the question on everyone’s minds. “Am it dat easy…?”
“It am!” Bunny hurriedly nodded. “When baww in doow howe, doow opens fow dat cowow fwuffy! It twue!”
Even Viola had her doubts, while Toy Boat had to cling to hope and Blue cluelessly hugged the upset sea fluffy. Only Indigo took Bunny at his word, rolling her ball toward the hole until Duffle blocked her path.
“… Bwue,” Lolo muttered through grit teeth. “Twy tu go thwu doow.”
“Otay,” Blue said and pushed Toy Boat onto its back, casually toddling over to the door. To everyone’s surprise the door’s light turned green and it rose to allow them through, and the blue fluffy disappeared to the other side. Viola tried to follow but the moment she got close the door slammed shut with a beep and its light turned red, making her jump back from fear.
Bunny, carefully rolling his green ball along, decided to lead by example; he moved to the door, which remained locked, then pushed his ball through the hole. When he returned to the door it lit up in green, and opened to let him through. “… See?”
Lolo walked up to Bunny’s side, at which point the light turned red and the door slammed shut once more despite Bunny’s presence. She muttered something to him that Viola couldn’t hear.
“W-Wiww teww watew,” the bunnyfluff assured. “Aftew! Once evewyone am safe!”
It clearly wasn’t an answer Lolo was satisfied with, but she was too wise to start an argument over it then and there. So instead she pushed Bunny back, allowing him to enter only after Snaggle - who debated whether to put her smarty’s gray ball in the hole but ended up deciding against it - had gone through. Viola didn’t quiet understand it, but she did as the others and put her ball into the hole, then went through the door.
On the other side was a short hallway, which opened into a square room with a spotlight in the middle. Circled around it were colored panels on the floor, each lit up in a different color, with a small wall in front of each.
“This is the Voting Room,” Daddy’s voice boomed over the static of the loudspeakers once everyone had entered. “To retrieve your ball, stand on the panel in your color.”
Her ball… So that was how this worked. Viola sought out her color on the floor and sat there, looking around as all the others did the same. Even Blue needed no further instructions to figure out that to get both balls, it and Toy Boat needed to be on two different panels, though it picked the wrong panel at first.
Once the fluffies were all in place, leaving only Silver’s gray panel empty, something happened - but it wasn’t the return of their colored balls. Instead, little fences rose around them, trapping each fluffy within its panel. Gasps and yelps rang out, but were overpowered by Daddy’s voice speaking once more.
“On the podium in front of you is a screen,” he said, and Viola guessed that this ‘podium’ was the little wall in front of her. Just as he’d said there was a little screen on it, the Rainbow Game logo at its top. But more than that, on the screen sat little pictures - Bunny was there, and Lolo, and Indigo and Toy Boat and everyone else too. The only one missing was Viola herself. Daddy continued: “You will now vote. Press the picture of the fluffy you want to vote for. The fluffy that gets the most votes will be removed from the game, then your ball will be returned.”
Removed… What did it mean to remove someone? How could she pick someone to remove? Viola glanced around at all the others, hoping for some kind of clue, but they seemed equally uncertain … Other than Bunny who seemed closer to grief.
How was she supposed to decide …? What was she to do? Viola looked back at the screen, rubbing her eyes to get rid of any emerging tears.
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