The Gladiation; A My Little Pony Fanstory

Little pony Cloud Tumble is in deep trouble, she's trapped in an international torture facility! Subjected to fight to death against her foes, how will she ever survive? And who exactly is Cataclysmic

This is a tale true as it is imperfect and impure, twisted and full of melancholy. We will start in a small village, and to a small filly, her name, was Cloud Tumble. The general description of the pegasi filly, in color, she was a sky blue, with a discolored ring of slight yellow mid leg of all of her hooves. Her mane was a blue and light cyan, styled naturally in a spikey manner. Her bright green eyes shone with her loyalty and sorrow, for now he was angry yet again. Her father. He was tall, thin legged and brownish yellow, with dark blue hair, fashioned in a thin ponytail. His eyes were also a deep green, little Cloud Tumble noticed as she stared up at her father.

“Again! You did it AGAIN!!” He bellowed, “My sweet darling daughter!”

What is was that Cloud had done, was simply play outside with her sister, a short and pretty green unicorn. Her hair was long and incredibly curly, colored different shades of red, pink, and coral, her eyes a light green. Cloud didn’t mean to splash her with the water on the ground, it was an accident, yet her sister, Wish Sparkle, still sat there bawling her eyes out.

“DAAAAAAAAADDY! SHE RUINED MY HAIIIIIIIR!!!”

“I-it was an accident!” the small filly tried to console her angry father, “I didn’t mean to!”

Her father just didn’t listen. He sent her off outside, yelling his head off. The small pony trekked outside, sighing. A soft light was seen in the distance, the yellow blaze easily seen in the dark night. The filly stopped to watch the light approach, only to see it was a group of pillagers. Frantic she ran to her ‘home’ shouting,

“Please! Let me in! They came back!” There was no response. She turned, the group of pillagers could be seen by her now, and they seemed to be collecting fillies. Their leader was definitely a unicorn, and a male, he was cloaked, she couldn’t see beyond the darkness of his hood.

Cloud ran. She ran and ran. They followed her, at least a few of them did, they kept on chanting, “New meat. New meat. New meat”, it was really getting to her. She couldn’t fly yet. Even though her wings were bigger than the other fillies, she didn’t know how to fly. Her breath came in short gasps as she raced away from the chanting mares whom chased her. She felt a tug on her tail, a rough tug that jerked her backwards, crashing into a dark hooded figure.

“IM SORRY, IM SO SORRY” the filly flinched, “IT WONT HAPPEN AGAIN!!!”

The hooded figure made a movement, leaning down to the small filly, and it spoke in a deep gravelly voice, as if someone poured honey on sandpaper.

“Quiet, thy hast been chosen.”

Cloud opened her mouth, but quickly closed it as the figure dragged her to her hooves, and pushed her forward to the group of fillies with his horn. Cloud bumped right into Wish Sparkle.

“This is your fault!” she hissed, “Its all YOUR FAULT”

“It’s not my fault!” Cloud sassed Wish right back.

A loud crack was heard whistling through the air, as a chain of barbed wire was brought down upon the fillies, tying their poor hooves to one another’s hoof with well-focused magic. The poor cries of those around her, Cloud panicked, running from the wire, though with little success. The herd of about seven fillies were led out of the village. As their hooves hit the ground as they marched out, they left a little trail.

Cloud watched the hooded figure the entire time. She was unsure of whether it was male or female now that she had gotten close to it. And its followers were unhooded, but she tried not to look at them, they had blank lifeless eyes, and were covered in scars. Some had missing wings, or broken horns. One of the followers, with orange skin and yellow hair, was missing an eye. Cloud was scared, so scared she shivered in the warm night air. Her hoof’s pain had started to dull, though it was clear some of the younger fillies were in a lot more pain. Cloud peered over her sister’s head, looking at the hooded figure again, trying to determine the skin color. It was much too dark. It was a light shade, but that’s all she could tell.

It has been two hours, at least, two hours ago is when Cloud had started counting. She was on the verge of tears, and collapsing. Her sister’s tail kept slapping her, keeping her awake. Her sister. She was breathing heavily, stomping. Cloud huffed, closing her eyes she focused on walking. As if on cue, the line of fillies stopped.

“We hath arrived to thy raft.” The hooded mare spoke, to no one that Cloud could see.

A pony came out of the darkness of a few tree’s, they were unhooded. It was male, tall and thin. His skin was a deep shade of crimson, his hair was long, white, and dirty. His eyes were a piercing blue, as he looked over us fillies.

“Good, this shipment shall do nicely”

The hooded pony nodded, turning to us,

“thou shall take these youths to the Gladiation, Tier 2”

The red pony nodded, as the hooded pony took a step back.

Unfortunately Wish had a question,

“Ahem, Excuse me!” she stomped, “Where are we going!?”

The hooded figure looked at the red pony, his eyes flashed a bit. The hooded pony walked over to Wish, towering over her,

“thou shalt not speak.”

A flash of dark purple magic tuned into the air, a flipping noise as the hooded unicorn drew strings of barbed wire from under its cloak. Wish crouched and shook in pure fear, her wide eyes strained upon the wire. Cloud’s eyes widened and she let a shrill shriek as the wire wrapped around Wish’s head, forcing her screaming maw to shut horribly.

The hooded unicorn walked away, the red pony leading the shaken fillies onto a small boat, pushing them away from the bank. The fillies were all shaking, keeping a distance from Wish and the hooded pony.

Until he spoke once more.

“Welcome to the Gladiation, thou will be in the training program.” He stood, and un-hooded himself, showing a mass of long purple-blue hair, light white skin, and dark orange eyes, “Thine name be Zero”

His eyes were deceiving. They looked as if he would care for us, his friendly looking face… Yet Cloud was brave.

“Excuse me, Zero,” She took a step towards him, “What is the Gladiation?”

The orange eyed unicorn smiled, “Why, it is a wonderland filled with thou blood”

Cloud said no more, taking a few steps back as the red pony returned,

“We have arrived”, he looked over the fillies, “Time to meet the boss.”

The two ponies led the fillies onto some hard ground, Zero put his hood back up. The trees parted to reveal a small opening in the forest floor, the red pony jumped down into it, landing on a small dirty elevator, nodding to Zero as to say ‘use your magic’.

Zero levitated Wish first, tossing her down to the nameless red pony, the levitated a small brown and black filly, then her, then a yellow pony… When cloud was relived from the magic, the red pony was quick to catch her, cloud’s ribs smashing onto his back. He grunted, and Cloud gasped, chocking on air. The red pony put her down gently, looking down at her.

“w-what is your name?” Cloud murmured

The red pony looked down at her, “My name is Liberty”, he helped her stand, Cloud sneaking a peek at his cutiemark, a white star, surrounded with a blue border.

“Liberty….” She whispered, “If you are Liberty…then….why?”

Liberty looked away from Cloud, catching a small orange filly, stealing a glance her way, his eyes weren’t blank like the others and Zero, they looked full, and sad. A small dark blue filly whooshed down, his green-yellow hair, and matching eyes reminded Cloud of a rubber duck she used to have. He landed on Liberty and rolled off of him, tapping his small horn on the dirty metal elevator floor.

“OW!” He yelled out, his voice was high pitched, and a little squeaky.

Liberty helped him to stand, apologizing for his mistake quietly. The last filly to be tossed down had a light shade of red skin-color, and brown hair that was pretty wavy. She landed on Liberty the same way Cloud had, making the same ‘oof’ noise. Liberty followed the procedure of helping her stand, and leaving her to watch as Zero lowered himself down into the elevator, the followers jumping down into the elevator just as Liberty had done. Zero walked over to a button pad, pressing a button with the number two on it, the elevator creaking, moaning, and starting to move slowly. The ride took about ten minutes of loud screeching of metal on metal, but eventually Cloud had tuned it out, staring right at Liberty. The group of ponies eventually made it to the underground floor labeled ‘Second Wing’, and dismounted the elevator. Cloud found herself lined up next to Wish and the duck-looking unicorn filly.

“Now then,” Liberty called, “we are headed to see the second wing’s boss,” He turned to Zero, “do you want to lead them?”

Zero shook his head, “We hath duties in the Fifth Sector”

Liberty nodded, turning to one of the followers, its hair was missing and it had a broken horn, “You. Make sure you’re all in line”

The pony with a broken horn and missing hair didn’t look the same as the others, Its grey skin and brown eyes, it looked female. She nodded, turning back to us fillies,

“Stay inh hhhhhh…. Stay in the line…hhh...” She looked over us, coughing a bit. Her eyes stopped on Wish, looking at the barbed wire surrounding the fillies skull, soft tears still ran along her green cheeks.

She and Liberty led us down the hallway, leaving Zero and a few of the followers behind, as they sank lower into this place, screeching metal slowly faded. That’s when Cloud smelled it. The horrid stench of rotting corpses, and blood polluted the air here. Her nose crinkled, and the duck-looking unicorn next to her looked queasy. They soon met with a large metal door, Liberty gulping before he hit it a few times with his hoof.

“COME IN”

Liberty opened the door, leading us inside with the help of the gray-follower. The room was well lit, ponies everywhere, a few even looked…dead… Liberty continued to walk past the rows of ponies, they all watched with dead lifeless eyes, it was weird. None of them cried, they all were silent. A rather tall pony stood at the end of the rows, his skin covered by metal plating, splashed with blood, his eyes were red, he was… An Alicorn…? No way…. Both of his wings were different colors… One red…. One grey. This pony had stitched other ponies’ parts to itself.

Cloud choked on air again, it felt like its red eyes were looking her over, evaluating her. It grinned. It spoke.

“Welcome. I am your second level Master; Cataclysmic.”

Its voice was loud, deep, Cloud could feel it vibrate among her ribcage. Wish was wavering on her hooves, falling back towards Cloud, knocking herself and the Duck-looking pony over. The metal of the barbs on the wire dug into cloud’s flank, causing the Pegasus to cry out.

“Agh!” the duck-pony said, “Oh my goodness! Is she alrght!?”

Cloud pushed her sister off of herself and the blue-yellow unicorn, which she was just going to call Ducky. Cataclysmic watched the ponies, a smile wiped from his face. He was angry.

Cloud refused to look in his eyes as he spoke,

“Blue fillies, drag the green one up here.”

Cloud looked at Ducky, his face was grim as he tried to summon his magic to scoot Wish forward, just able to move her with the help of Cloud pushing the unconscious pony. Cataclysmic waited patiently, watching her and Ducky drag the unconscious Wish to his feet.

“Leave her there, come up here.”

Ducky dropped his magic, panting. He and Cloud slowly walked up to the tall ‘Alicorn’.

“Blue fillies, State your names.”

“C-Cloud Tumble”

“Faint Gold…”

Gold and Cloud awaited the ‘Alicorn’s reaction. Cataclysmic signaled to a few of the standing silent ponies, they walked forward, as if they were mindless.

“Take these three to the chambers.”

Chambers? There wasn’t time to ask, as Gold and Cloud were whisked away by the followers. One of the followers picked up Wish by the barbed wire around her head, Cloud winced. The brisk pace of the followers was tiring, but Cloud and Gold were able to keep up. They came to a door, a hooded figure stood in front of it. Zero?

Gold gasped, “Hey, its Ze-“

The hooded figure turned, parts of its skin becoming visible. light sky blue. It was female, a female unicorn.

“Are these for the chambers? Bring them closer.”

Gold and Cloud took a few steps toward her, as she removed her hood, her hair was a light green and very spiked , eyes matching in color. Her eyes fixed on Cloud. The same eyes.

“M-Mother!?” Cloud’s jaw dropped.

“I am no mother. My name is Seven.”

Cloud took a few steps toward Seven, “I-I remember you! You cannot deny your daughter! Mom! Please!”

“She isn’t going to remember thine face”

Cloud turned to find Zero had arrived, his hood down. She frowned.

“But….Z-zero, she is my mother!”

Zero nodded, smiling, “We know. We are quite aware.”

Cloud frowned, “Why is my mother here?”

Zero made a ‘shoosh’ noise, walking in-between Gold and Cloud to where Seven was standing.

“Open the doors, Madame” Seven nodded to Zero’s command, opening the door. There was only darkness inside, and a foul stench of rot.

“Inside.” Zero turned to the two fillies, “Now.”

Cloud looked at her hooves as she slowly entered the door, stealing a glance at Seven. Could it really be her mother? Cloud hadn’t known her mother for that long, but she’d always remember that face.

The face of fear when they took her mother away.

They said she wasn’t right in the head.

They said she needed to be taken to the white room.

Cloud’s thoughts were interrupted as both her and Gold’s hooves splashed into lukewarm liquid.

“I can’t see what it is…” Gold’s voice wavered, as the sound of the door screeching shut after Wish was tossed inside rang in his ears.

Scuttling noises could be heard, as cloud removed her hoof from the lukewarm puddle, only to notice that the puddle was sticky, a few clumps of unidentified material stuck to her.

“G-gold? I-Im scared…”

“I-it will be okay, Cloud, I-Its not like they would purposefully put us in a place where we’d get hurt…right?”

As if whatever joined them in that dark corridor had no ounce of pity, The mangles unicorn finally lit the room with its broken magic. But lets take a step back, shall we?

How about we speak about a filly mentioned before. Do you remember her?

Fire Cast stood in the line as she watched those three get dragged off, the red filly flipped her wavy brown hair again behind her horn, it was getting annoying and irritating. ‘Whatever’ she thought as she watched Gold scamper behind that stupid Cloud Tumble. Fire hated Cloud Tumble. A lot of ponies hated Cloud Tumble. Fire’s eyes returned to Faint Gold’s slowly fading dark blue form again, watching his yellow-green tail sway. Fire loved Faint Gold. And she would not be having stupid ugly Cloud Tumble stealing him from her. Fire looked at the big cata-whatever pony. He looked straight at her,

“Fire Cast, is it.”

Fire glared up at cata-whatever, “Yeah, what do you want?”

“I don’t think you are properly evaluating this situation.”

Fire flipped her hair again, “So what am I missing?”

Cataclysmic opened one of his wings, actually showing the wing was stitched together of many different parts of wings. A few hooded figures waltzed out, Fire recognized Zero, and what looked like a grown up Cloud Tumble. There were about four of the hooded figures, all unicorns.

The first was Zero, he unhooded himself, “Zero”

The second unhooded himself, he had dark green hair and dull yellow skin, with bright green eyes, “One”

The third was the Cloud Tumble look alike, “Seven”

The fourth was female, with bright orange skin, grey hair, and black eyes. Fire shivered. “Twelve”

Fire watched as each hooded number used their magic to create a form in the air. It was a moving picture. Fire felt bile rise in her through. Ponies dying. Fillies were crying. Fire’s eyes burned staring upon this visage.

“S-STOP!” Fire closed her eyes, “NOOOO”

The four hooded ponies made a circle around Fire, using their well-rounded magic to create a place for the filly, putting her right in the ring. Her eyes were forced open to watch this terrible terrible funland. Fire was scared. Fire wanted to go home.