The Pony Games

Twilight stepped into the shower and stared at it. She was used to her tiny shower, one with two knobs and one head. A standard appliance.

What she saw before her confounded her. Three heads, five nozzles, and twenty knobs. She turned the largest, and sighed when it let out a stream of hot water. Experimenting, she jabbed a button, and was suddenly covered in a layer of rose-smelling, thick foam. She glanced around trying to find a way to get it off, and grabbed a brush, exfoliating her skin and leaving it raw and pinkish. Twilight rolled her eyes and pressed another button, which let in a steam bath that left her coughing and gasping for breath. Deciding that she was done, she turned off the water and stood, panting, staring at her reflection in the mirror.

A princess would never have such problems. Twilight was sure Celestia never had to deal with raw skin and pink bubbles when she didn't intend to use them.

Groaning, Twilight toweled off and trotted off to find breakfast.

Her jaw hung open as she stared at the food laden table before her. Lucky waved her over, but she just stared until Rosella cleared her throat.

Trotting next to Lucky, she sat down, and noticed his sudden blush as their hooves brushed against each other. She smiled wanly at the stallion before filling her plate with daisy pancakes, tiny roasted birds, and a light hay soup.

"Today starts training," Rosella started. "You have three days of training before the Games. I advise you to examine the survival skills; those are the most important if you are offensively gifted. Do not showcase your skills until your private sessions: leave some things to the mind."

Twilight wanted to protest that all of her friends and most of Celestial Equestria knew her talents, but she didn't want to send Rosella over the edge and make Rose appear, so she kept her mouth shut. It might be wise, to hide from Calla how she had grown...

Lucky stood abruptly and looked down at the two of them.

"Let's get started, then," he said, nodding. "We'll be prepared. We'll be there first. We'll learn as much as our brains can hold before we have to apply ourselves. Now let's go!"

Rosella rolled her eyes before standing and beckoning to Twilight, who had only just started to eat her breakfast. She protested, but the two were already out the door, and the unicorn scrambled to follow.

***

"Greetings, Tributes," the blue pegasus said, looking each of them in the eye. "I'm Cloud Dancer, your trainer for these games. You can call me Dancer."

Twilight glanced nervously around at the room. Spears and swords hung from racks; bows and silver arrows lined the far left wall; a full corner was dedicated to the art of knife throwing. She shuddered and returned her attention to Dancer.

"In a few weeks, twenty-three of you will be dead, and one of you will be alive. You have three days to prepare for the games. Afterwards, you will showcase your talents to the gamekeepers. While you are here, I would like to give you a bit of advice: do not ignore the survival skills. Everypony wants to pick up a sword, but most of you will die from exposure. Ten percent from infection, and twenty percent from dehydration."

Twilight shuddered after realizing that her healing spells would be blocked. Time to go look at those survival stations...

As she was learning to tie knots, Twilight looked up as thuds sounded from the other side of the room. She watched with morbid interest as Calla used a levitation spell to throw knives at moving targets, hitting each one in the center every single time. Trying to keep herself from getting hopeless, Twilight returned to her knot-tying.

A giggle sounded to her right, and Twilight looked up again to see Pinkie dangling from the ceiling by a rope.

"Look, Twilight!" she squealed.

Twilight couldn't help the laughter from escaping her as she discarded her knot and looked around for her friends. Rarity was learning to camouflage in the next station, wincing as she got her pristinely white coat dirty. Applejack was learning where to kick a pony to incapacitate them, a knife in her mouth, and Rainbow was urging Fluttershy to try and learn to cook meat.

"C'mon, Fluttershy!" Rainbow said, gesturing to the fire and the defeathered bird laying on the synthetic grass. "Ya gotta learn how to eat if ya want to make it back home to your animals."

"Why would I want to go back if it means killing some of them?" the yellow pegasus cried, tears flowing down her face as she stared at the dead bird. "Oh, the poor thing! All to teach a pony how to kill more of her own feathered friends!"

Twilight stretched out a hoof to Fluttershy as she collapsed in a shivering mass of pink hair and yellow fur, sobbing uncontrollably, but Rarity got to her faster, streaking paint across the floor as she started rubbing her shoulders and comforting the timid mare. Rainbow smiled wanly at Twilight and shook her head, indicating that the two of them would be able to handle it.

"Hey," Twilight said anyways, kneeling next to her friend. "We're together 'till the end. If it's too hard, I'm sure we can do the hunting for you. You don't even have to eat our catches. We'll surely find edible plants, or something. Maybe we'll get sponsor meals!"

Twilight heard a snicker from behind her, but didn't give Calla the satisfaction of seeing her frown. Instead, a yelp emitted from the blue unicorn, and Twilight turned to see Lucky bent over Calla, who had fallen to the ground.

"You picked the wrong enemy, Lucky Clover," she muttered, picking herself up and leaning into his face. "You better watch your back."

With that, the unicorn and the two ponies from Dodge City trotted off to the bow station. As if to show exactly what she could do, Calla picked up a bow with her bare hands and shot an earth-stallion dummy clean through the forehead, the arrow hitting the wall behind it.

"What are you doing?" Twilight scolded Lucky as he smugly made his way towards the mares. "You may have just guaranteed your own demise."

"It was worth it to best Calla," he said, kneeling next to the mares. "You never introduced me to-"

He fell over as Futtershy wailed and hugged Twilight in a sudden movement, smiling through her tears.

"Th-th-thank you!" she said as loudly as was expected of the quiet pegasus, which was barely audible.

"Um, this is Fluttershy," Twilight said, gently setting Fluttershy on the ground.

"H-hi," she said, peeking through the lock of hair obscuring her face.

"This is Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie," Twilight continued, pointing to the first three in order and gesturing at the whole room for Pinkie.

"Pinkie?" Lucky asked, seeing nopony until the mare in question appeared on her rope inches from the stallion's face, this time clothed in a tight black spy suit. Lucky jumped back in surprise, nodding in answer to his question.

"Hi!" Pinkie squealed, dropping to the floor in a ninja roll. The rest of the elements stared at the stallion until Twilight sighed.

"Girls, this is Lucky Clover," she introduced. "He's my district partner, and he'll be joining our group while in the arena."

"It's a pleasure to meet you all," Lucky said, bowing his head in a gentlecoltly fashion. "I've heard a lot about you from Twilight."

Rarity winked at Twilight, who rolled her eyes. In response, the white unicorn giggled and made an amorous face, to which Fluttershy managed a small giggle. Rainbow eyed Lucky before nodding and turning to the bird, and Applejack stared stonily at the floor.

"Well, then," Twilight said uncomfortably, nudging Lucky. "I think we should get back to training. Any station seem particularly important to you ponies?"

"The sneaky station!" Pinkie suggested, grabbing her rope. Twilight watched with the unsurprised curiosity everypony who knew Pinkie had as the rope suddenly started disappearing into the ceiling, taking the pink pony with it.

"A word, Twilight?" Applejack asked abruptly, grabbing the unicorn and dragging her away without waiting for an answer.

"Applejaaaack!" Twilight exclaimed, the a carried out as she was suddenly pulled away, helpless to the grip of the strong earth pony. "What is it?" she asked as they stopped in a corner.

"Are ya sure ya wanna let Lucky join us?" Applejack asked in a quiet whisper.

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked, frowning at her friend. "Of course I would. I promised I would stay with him in the arena, and friends don't abandon other friends."

Applejack flinched.

"It's just that there are already six of us, and Ah don't know if he's trustworthy, see?" she explained quickly. "Ah don't know if it's a good ahdea, that's all. He'd have to end up dead, anyways, for any of us to win. Why dontcha leave it to somepony else?"

"Friends don't lie to their friends," Twilight argued. "I'd be lying to him if I abandoned him. He's my friend, Applejack."

Applejack snorted.

"Seems like more than a friend to mah eyes," she muttered, too quiet for the unicorn to hear. A little louder, she smiled and said, "Ahlright. If it seems like a good ahdeea to you. Ah trust your judgement."