The Equestria Games

The Equestria Games, by Prismatics. Chapter 5

The air rushes past Azure as the chariot makes its way down the streets. The Capitol audience is cheering wildly at the choice of clothing Rarity had selected for them. The red aura is a bit distracting to her, but if it helps get sponsors, deal with it.

Still waving, Azure looks over at her partner. He's slumped down, glaring daggers at the audience, wishing with all his heart that they'd be cast into the fiery depths of Tartarus. Or, atleast, that's what she thinks he's thinking about. He glances back at her, tosses a weak smile in her direction, and gets back to giving the audience the death stare.

Azure rolls her eyes and concentrates on other things, such as the tributes in front of her. One of them appeared to be sort of... comforting the other. Azure racks her brains trying to figure out the mare's name from the reaping. Was it Heart...beat? No, it was Heartfelt. Ya, Heartfelt! Heartfelt seems like a nice pony, but it's those ones you gotta watch. And the strong ones. And the weak ones. So, pretty much everypony you gotta watch.

Story of my life... Azure thinks to herself, before chuckling a bit. Snowy looks over at the unexpected laughter, before realizing it wasn't at him and turning back around to face the crowd.

The carriages make their full course, stopping at the end of the main street in front of a massive marble palace. A large balcony juts out from the building, where a draconequus is sitting in a gold throne with a jeweled crown upon his head. He seems to notice the tributes for the first time, standing up and dusting himself off. Three Gamemakers move to stand behind him, flanking the President on all sides.

Discord motions towards the tributes, making a friendly, welcoming gesture at the 24 ponies all waiting for him to say his speech and be done with it. Except for a young purple colt, who seems to be on the edge of his seat, engrossed by every movement the President makes.

"Welcome, Tributes, to the Capitol! I welcome you all, to the Capitol. You are all..." He pauses, for dramatic effect, before lowering his voice so it can just barely be heard to the tributes. "...welcomed, in the Capitol." He laughs a bit. "My my, you all look absolutely stunning." He gazes over the chariots, studying each outfit. Upon reaching District 8, he frowns. "Except for 8. I don't know what happened there, but it's a disaster." The audience laughs as the two from 8 shamefully hide their head. Now. Let's get serious here for a moment." He casts his steely gaze over the gathered tributes. "This year, these Games, are going to have an interesting... rule change. You know how every night there is a death toll, where it shows a headshot of the fallen tribute, along with their District and name? Well, now, in addition to this simple head count, there will be a smaller picture in the corner, displaying the name, District, and another picture of the fallen contestants killer. Just to spice things up a bit! Won't it be fuuuun?" He laughs hysterically.

Azure stands shocked at the sudden rule change. So the players killer will be displayed to all, as well? That's not good...

Discord waits for the applause and initial shock to die down, before shouting the everyone gathered. "I, President Discord, of the grand nation of Panem, officially declare that the opening ceremonies for the 23rd annual Hunger Games, are officially open!" With that, he slams his fist down on a large red button, launching several fireworks into the air, much to the delight of everypony there.

The cheers of the crowd deafen Azure, and she clamps her hooves over her ears to attempt at reducing the headache-inducing noise the audience is producing. She shuts her eyes hard, cutting herself off from the cheering throngs of ponies.

Finally, her chariot lifts up and exits the streets to makes its way the gigantic Justice Building. Not that Azure is aware, of course.

* * *

"It's over Azure. We've left." Snowy puts his foreleg around her neck, providing comfort, and at the same time, causing her to panic.

As if sensing the surge of anxiety he withdraws, and finds something interesting to stare at on the walls of the tunnel. The atmosphere between the two thickens. and any words are left unspoken as the Justice Building grows nearer and nearer with each passing second.

The massive steel doors into the parking garage open, and the chariots scatter as they make their way to the individual gates. Each gate is marked with a large black circle and and a number from one to twelve. In front of the gate marked '12', four ponies are standing, all of them waiting for the pair to arrive in the carriage.

Rarity is the first to greet them, congratulating them on the reaction her outfits got. Twilight simply nods, not looking up from her most recent book. The other stylist, a stallion Azure doesn't know the name of, is smiling at them both, greatly pleased with the outfits. He has a bright white mane with golden streaks, and a light green coat. He wears a pair of dark blue sunglasses, and has a smile that would absolutely entrance her if she didn't know any better. Pinkie Pie is the fourth pony in the group, and bounces up and down as she hugs both of the tributes for no particular reason.

"You guys did so awesome! The waving! Ooh, Snowy, the glaring. That was simply amazing! You guys are definitely getting sponsors now!" Pinkie releases them from her choking bear hug, and bounces back as the two drop to the ground, gasping for air.

How can one pony be so strong? It felt like my lungs were gonna pop out of my mouth. She chuckles to herself. Death by affection... What a way to go.

"What's so funny, darling?" Rarity asks.

Azure looks up at her with a deadpan expression. "Death by affection."

Rarity appears flustered, and nods confusedly. "Alright then." She looks behind her at the elevator. "Well then, shall we be off?"

Snowy puts on an uncaring expression. "Lead the way, then." Rarity glares at him, then enters the glass elevator.

* * *

"Now, each District gets their own floor. Since you two are from Twelve, we get the penthouse suite!" She smiles brightly. "Been a while since I've been in a penthouse. I was the stylist for 6 last year."

Azure knows that 12 is usually an unwanted District for most stylists, so she can't help but wonder why Rarity was posted to 12. She decides to press her luck and ask. "Rarity?"

"Yes, darling?" She blinks gracefully, if such a thing is possible.

"I can't help but wonder, why were you posted in 12?"

She bites her lip. Apparently she doesn't like talking about it. "Well, I was... you know, I don't like talking about this, ok?"

Azure shrugs. She didn't want to know that bad. "It's fine. How fast does this elevator go, anyways?" Anything to change the subject now would be welcomed.

The stallion stylist appears slightly shocked for a moment, forgetting that he had to press the button for these lifts. In other buildings at the Capitol, you simply had to look at a screen to change levels. Technology in the Capitol is making ponies less and less active with each passing day.

The unnamed stylist presses the button marked '12' and the glass elevator shoots up. Despite the intense speed the elevator amasses, the passengers feel almost no movement at all. The short ride is exhilarating to Azure, the ground rapidly becoming smaller and smaller in seconds. They arrive at the top floor in no time and step out to indulge in the sight of the apartment they will be living in for the next 4 days.

It was extremely luxurious, atleast twice as grand as the train had been. The crystal chandeliers, the hoof-carved tables and chairs, The massive, digital projection screen in the corner of the room with snazzy couches filled with the softest substance known to ponies, also known as Cloud. The room is a sleek straight design, with one main room and a hallway leading to some bedrooms, each one containing a personal bathroom for each pony. Azure walks into her room and quickly scans it, before resting her gaze on the bed. Her eyes light up as the comfort level seems to radiate from the grey piece of furniture. She wastes no time jumping on to it, her body collapsing into the relaxing bedspread.

"Mmmmm..." She mumbles, sweeping her legs across the sheets, marveling in their softness and the pleasuring feel. I could use a nap, anyways... She starts dropping into sleep, before a voice snaps her out of her entranced state. Azure curses the voice, and curses what it says.

"Dinner!" Rarity calls from the main room. "I'm not going to call again, darlings!" Grumbling, Azure reluctantly drops off her bed, and angrily makes her way into the central room. Snowy leaves his room around the same time as her, and appears just as annoyed as she was, if not more. She rolls her eyes at him, gesturing with her head at the oblivious stylist in the next room. He nods silently in agreement, before dropping eye contact with her and speeding up a bit to the table.

Laid out on the table is more food than Azure has ever seen at one location ever in her life. Her eyes widen as she takes in the spread. There is a variety of breads and vegetables, with a selection of flowers that can only be found in the Capitol. There's several pitchers of different coloured liquids that she can only assume are drinks, and a tin with varied fruit-flavoured candies that makes Azure salivate in anticipation of eating them. Candies in District 12 are far and few between, and Azure has only had one on a single occasion, which was given to her by an old mare after her brother was reaped for the Games years ago. She feels a wave of sadness overcome her, so she shoves the memory into the back of her head. Returning her attention to the food, she feels the gazes of the other four ponies as they take in the pairs reactions to the food. Twilight shows understanding, while the two stylists express confusion at the overjoyed reaction to the large spread. They grew up always having enough to eat, so they don't understand the astonishment at having enough food for once. Pinkie Pie only appears indifferent, as the food is simply food to her. Pinkie Pie has already began eating, and is decimating the salad selection, much to Rarity's chagrin.

Twilight frowns at the pink pony, who is currently overfilling a wine glass with some orange fluid. "Perhaps we should eat before Pinkie here finishes off the whole layout."

Snowy's stomach growls at the mention of eating, and he grins. "I couldn't agree more. Let's eat."

* * *

The dinner was excellent, leaving nopony still hungry. A silent orange pony clears away the dishes and brings them each a small dish of orange sherbet, and delicacy Azure cannot even imagine. Everything here is so new here, it absolutely astounds her.

As they enjoy the fruity desert, Twilight begins talking about what to expect the following day.

"Now, tomorrow you guys are going to be sent to the training grounds. I need to know if you have any special talents. Don't try to exaggerate or downplay your skills, I need you to be honest with me, so I can use your strengths to get you more sponsors."

Azure thinks hard about her talents. She can't use weapons very well, she's not overly strong, she can't identify many plants, and she doesn't have any major survival skills such as building a fire or a lean-to or something like that. Than it hits her. A talent that kept her alive whenever she went into the woods.

"I'm stealthy." Azure says proudly.

Twilight still seems skeptical. "How stealthy? Like on a scale of 1 to 10, how do you think you'd stand? Obviously, I'll need to see you in action, but I need just a small bit of information. I can tell you two aren't in the mood for an interrogation"

"Uhh, probably a 7 and a half."

She nods, filing this piece of information for later. "I'm going to see an example later, but until then that will have to do." She looks towards Snowy, who is clutching at his forehead, fighting the pain of his brain freeze. An ironic affliction considering his name and talent. "And you?"

The excruciating sensation subsides, and Snowy happily points out he is a master of frost-based magic. He frowns when Twilight solemnly shakes her head.

"Snowy, magic is disabled in the arena. As is flying." he nearly spits his sherbet out upon hearing this.

"What?! How can they do that?" He sputters.

Twilight shrugs. "They're the Capitol. They can do whatever they want."

"Well, crap. I guess I can use a knife pretty well. Father taught me how to use it briefly when I was young." He says, clearly disheartened by the lack of magic.

"I'm surprised that you didn't know this. Didn't you feel the magic disabling spell when you exited the chariots?" He shakes his head. "I guess they made it go into silent mode this year. Usually they enjoy watching the tributes freak out upon feeling the spell. Oh, by the way Azure. Don't worry, Earth ponies aren't affected by the spell in any way."

That's a relief. But then again, what would they take away? We don't have any game-changing magic in our bodies. I've heard that we're naturally more hardy than the other races, but the pegasi are faster and the unicorns are generally more cunning. It's an even playing field, now.

The stylists have already left, and Pinkie has disappeared again, leaving the two tributes and their mentor alone in the room to discuss strategies for the games, training and the interviews. These discussions last long into the night. Snowy eventually heads to bed, after a misplaced comment embitters him, and he offers little more than a half-sarcastic goodnight before leaving.

Twilight finally heads off to her separate quarters away from the penthouse suite, leaving Azure alone in her thoughts. She ultimately decides to forget about pretty much everything for now, and head off to bed. She does spend a long time exploring her room. The closet is completely empty, as is the dressers and nightstands. Her bathroom contains dozens of different soaps and lotions, and the shower has about 40 buttons for various functions, everything from 'citrus shampoo' to 'dry with cold air'. Curious, Azure pushes wets her mane, and presses the last button. A gust of cold rushes through her mane, freezing the droplets of water and causing them to fall to the floor and shatter. Running a hoof through her hair, she is surprised to find it is completely dry. Chuckling, she leaves the bathroom and collapses on the amazingly soft bed, drifting off to sleep shortly after, with thoughts of combat fresh on her mind.

Her dreams are dark and hellish, and she cries in her sleep several times. But a somepony's touch causes her to stop and sleep soundly. His job done, the nameless stylist leaves the room smiling.