I wake up to find the refreshment of my dreams gone, and instead there was humid and unpleasant air everywhere. I'm not going to enjoy foraging today in this heat. I stretch my stiff wings with a colossal yawn, and get out of the rough, hard mattress that I call a bed even though it's quite the opposite. I trot over to Cinder Sreak, my housemate, brother and best friend. He sleepily opens one eye, stretches, and continues to lie in bed for another minute before eventually sitting up on the bed and letting out a yawn even larger than mine, stretching out his arms as he does so.
Cinder streak is a sturdy, navy blue pony who has a jagged, black mane with white streaks. His dark, green eyes that like emeralds, and his cutie mark is a winged spear. He's rather like me when it comes to personality; He's very determined, and will do whatever he puts his mind to. He's also very stubborn sometimes, and very rarely makes friends, but when he does he puts full trust and loyalty towards you.
"Wake up, Cinder. We have to go and gather so we can eat tonight," I say. "It better be something good. It's reaping day. It's expected for everypony to have a feast tonight."
"Right. We'll go to the woods. Get your forage bag, and I'll get mine," he says with another tremendous yawn.
I grab my bag and swing open the door. My bag is large. It has to be, as I put all of the stuff I collect from the woods inside. "You coming, Cinder?" I joke. "All the birds will have flown away by the time you get out of bed!"
"Yes, yes, I'm coming," he says as he gets out of bed with yet another stretch, gets his bag and steps out of the door. "Let's go, we're wasting time."
We both take off with a beat of powerful wings, and fly over the scruffy fields. I can see our house, a while away now in the distance, with only one room and a leaky roof. We fly above the first few houses dotted around the town, then the quiet outskirts of town, which nopony really liked as the shops were unreliable and streets were dirty. Then there's the shopping streets, full of butchers, bakers, street sellers and all kinds of other ponies and shops, which we also soar over. Then we fly over the town square, probably the only pretty part of district twelve, maybe excluding some parts of the woodland. We fly over the streets that lead to the mines which were almost always full of ponies starting or ending their shifts, finally reaching the thousands of acres of woodlands and forest.
We speed over the electrified gate that keeps the wild animals back. I may not be brilliant at it, but I love flying. The freedom of it all is amazing. The wind in your ears, the flapping of your wings and the beating of your heart make you forget all worries and bring an overwhelming sense of exhilaration.
I dive down into the shadowy green forest, Cinder Streak right behind me. I land lightly on my hooves, recognizing my surroundings from the previous trip. Cinder lands beside me.
He fetches a razor-sharp spear and some thick rope out of a hollow log lying on the shadowed floor. He had once tried to teach me how to hunt with his weapons before, but I'm useless with a spear. I couldn't even get it to go two metres, and even then it always seemed to go the opposite direction I aimed for. I can't make traps either- the rope had got tangled before I even tied the second knot. I found it easier to gather plants, though. I can recall what the plant is, if it's edible, if it's poisonous or not and if it's filling.
Cinder, who only landed to see that I landed safely, takes flight again. I remain on the ground, and start examining some of the plants surrounding me. Where I am at the moment is overgrown with nightshade berries- very poisonous and even fatal if eaten. I don't think that there's anything edible around here, so I move on. For about thirty metres there's only nightshade berries, stinging nettles and mushrooms. I have no idea how to tell mushrooms apart, and as they can be extremely poisonous, I don't bother picking and checking them.
I soon spot a tree full of peach-like fruit. The fruit looks delicious with its plum-like surface, so I pick one, split it open is it's on half and look inside. Splitting it open helps me check if it's alright to eat. You can tell by the color of the juice. It's poisonous, as the juice is an unnatural color and smells horrible. I toss it away in disgust and carry on with a sigh. It is mainly nettles and thorn bushes in the forest, but there is also food if you know how to get it. Which is a pretty hard thing to learn, as my brother showed me.
I carry on wandering through the hot forest, avoiding the thorns and nettles as I go. I'm about to give up and return when I at last see a bush of raspberries- and perfectly ripe. And not only that, but to my delight, there's a patch of the reddest strawberries you've ever seen! Strawberries are rare and a delicacy in district twelve. I carefully strip the raspberry bush of its fruit one by one, checking them every now and then so that I'm sure there's no poisonous fruit being harvested and place them into my bag. I pick the strawberries and put them in too! After checking the first one. My bag is full to the brim of berries. With some luck, they will last a while. Or maybe Cinder would trade some of them at the black market for something else. Just maybe.
I start to head back to where we entered the woods, knowing that there won't be much time until we should start getting ready for the reaping. My forage bag is full, anyway, so there's no point continuing. I start to fly there as is faster, and fly upwards a little so I can see the land below me but I'm not too high. There's Cinder, with a not so full bag. It looked like it had something in it, maybe a squirrel or rabbit, but it certainly wasn't very large and would probably only last a night or two.
"Hey." he says disappointedly, "Looks like I wasn't very successful. All I caught was a squirrel."
"Look what I got!" I say, grinning widely as I show him the stacks of berries I collected.
"Wow! Looks like the odds are in your favour." He says, returning the grin and replacing his disappointed look. "We need to get home. Do you mind if I take some of those to the market?" He says, pointing his hoof at the berries.
"I don't care, as long as you only trade raspberries and I don't have to come." I say.
"Yeah, I'll do it later. Now seriously, we need to go. We've only got an hour left."
We fly back to the house, Cinder trying to get there as fast as possible while I just attempted loop-the-loops, barrel rolls and dives. We reach home before I know it, and we both land beside the front door.
"Come on. Let's get inside, we need to get ready," Says Cinder, walking inside. I follow him in. He goes over to the wardrobe in the corner of the single room in the house. He opens it, and inside are a huge variety of dresses and suits that my mother made before she died. I put my bag on the table, then I pull out a simple yet formal turquoise dress from the wardrobe and put it on. I undo my plait and re-do it in a more elaborate style, making it neater. I wash my face and hooves with soap, and then it's time to go.
We fly to the check-in, where a blood sample and a hoof print is taken, then we have to stand in groups sorted by age and gender. My brother is three years older than me, and in his last reaping, so we won't be very close together.
I stand in the long queue of fifteen-year-old mares. They have mixed emotions- some are crying, some are chatting nervously, some are trying to make themselves look brave and others just stood in an overwhelming state of desperation. I reach the front of the queue in about fifteen minutes, and I have to have my blood sample taken and my hoofprint stamped. The blood sample hurts a lot, but I grit my teeth and try to bear through it without showing that I'm in pain. I have my hoof stamped, then I'm through to the section of fifteen-year-old mares.
"Welcome, welcome, Everypony!" Says the Capitol pony, Golden Trinket, who hosts the reaping and pulls out the names from the vast, glass bowls for district twelve. She always acts happily, but you could tell that she wants to host a district that has a little more success in the games. "Welcome to the one-hundred and twenty-fourth reaping for district twelve!" She says. "Let's have a quick speech from the mayor, then we can carry on with finding out who the lucky mare and stallion is!"
The mayor takes to the stage, and mainly talks about king Sombra, the rebellions against him and the first games. It's all quite boring, in my opinion, so I don't pay attention and its over on what seemed like a year.
"Thank you for that lovely speech!" Says Golden Trinket with a massive smile. "And now, the drawing of names! As usual, Ladies first!" She walks over to the left bowl out of the two. Everypony holds their breath as Golden Trinket digs around the large glass bowl, swirling her hoof around and finding the most random name she can.
I wish it's not me. Please don't be me, please don't be me!
She walks to the front of the stage, unfolds the slip of paper and reads out the name.
"AUTUMN DUSK!"
No. This can't be happening. Even though the odds were in my favour- I've been chosen.
Author's Note
Special thanks to Polaris for editing.
I step forward at the call of my name. I'm scared out of my wits, but that doesn't mean I should show it. I take another step, and another. I slowly get up onto to the stage, next to Golden Trinket.
"Now for the boys!" She says with a bouncy voice.
She shuffles the names around until she finds one from the heap.
"And the lucky stallion is... Flynt Coal!"
A battered-looking gray earth pony steps up onto the stage, and stands next to me. He's got a light gray coat, gray eyes, a black mane and his cutie mark is a lump of coal and some flint. He looks as if he's had all the color sucked out of him. He's trying to hide it, but he's breathing really fast and shallow. He's obviously nervous.
"Thank you everypony! Happy hunger games!" And may the odds be ever in your favour!" Golden Trinket says, closing the reaping and travelling in a trot into the visiting rooms. We follow her, and we each end up in our own rooms.
I lean on the windowsill, panicking to myself and desperately trying to think of strategies.
Cinder Streak bursts in, and hugs me tight.
"You can do it." He says.
"No I can't!" I say.
"Yes, you can. You're fast, and you know your plants. And I bet there's some sort of weapon out there that you have talent for."
"You're hoping too much-"
"Just try, you'll see. I've seen you in that forest. You're a natural. Do it for me. Do it for district twelve."
I feel hot, salty tears run down my cheeks despite how hard I was trying to hold them back.
"I... I will." I stutter, tears and emotions hindering me from speaking properly, "I promise... I'll come back. I'll... Do my b-best, Cinder. I promise in... The name of.. E-Equestria.. That I'll come back f-for you."
"Remember that I love you, Autumn. I will always be your loving brother, no matter what."
At that point, the peacekeepers push open the door, saying it's time for Cinder to go.
I tighten our hug, but the peacekeepers break us apart. They Cinder out the room, leaving me alone and desparate in the small, unfurnished room.
_________________________
"Come on, come on! We don't have all day for your dilly-dallying!" Pesters a rather annoyed Golden Trinket.
"alright, alright! I'm coming!" I say.
I step onto the train, trying not to look down at its large wheels that could probably crush a pony in a matter of seconds as I step over the gap.
I look at the platform for the last time, memorising what were probably my final moments in district twelve. I only stop gazing out when the doors snap shut, and I'm ushered into the room inside the carriage by Golden Trinket.
I'm speechless as I see what luxuries are inside this one carriage. The walls are studded with black gems, the floor luxurious silky carpet. There's tables, right next to the window do you can see out draped in velvet tablecloths, on the tables plates upon plates of delicacies, almost all of them I have never seen before, the ones I have seen I have only seen them in books. Underneath the tables were comfy sofas. Antique paintings hung on the wall and a crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling.
I stand there with my mouth wide open. Flynt is doing the same.
"You both look like fish, your moths are so wide open!" Said Golden Trinket in amusement, "I mean, what do you expect? The Equestria Games is a festivity, is it not?"
It's so luxurious, I'm too stunned to speak. It's a few minutes before I can actually make a sound at all. "Wow, Golden Trinket, it's-"
"Just call me 'Trinket', darling," said Trinket, "and yes, it is rather marvellous, isn't it? The Capitol insists that the train should be well decorated."
I sit down at one of the sofas and stare out of the window. I notice that the train is moving- very fast.
"How come the train moves so fast, but I didn't notice?" I ask curiously,
"This can go two-hundred miles an hour, and you almost can't feel a thing." She says.
"Where's our mentor? Are they in the train?" Asks Flynt.
"Yes, your mentor is here. I will go and find her." Says Trinket.
_________________________
Trinket walks in with another pony behind her.
"This is Silver."
Silver is an intimidating pony. She's a Pegasus, with a silvery white mane that seemed to be blown back by the wind. Her icy blue eyes seemed to look right through you like an X-Ray. I try to take a look at her cutie mark to see what it is, but I daren't move (yes, she's that intimidating) so all I can see was her turquoise coat.
"What are your names?" Silver demands.
"Um... She's Autumn Dusk, and I'm Flynt Coal." Says Flynt.
"Got any useful talents?" Silver asks Flynt.
"Um.. I can make a fire with practically anything, and I'm good at camoflauge." Flynt answered.
"Any attacking skills at all?" Silver asks.
"Um... Anything sharp, or to do with fire." Came the reply.
Silver gave a nod, and then turned in me.
"Well? What about you?" She asks.
"I can gather food, Tend to illness and pain, and I'm agile and fast."
"Any good with weapons?" Asks Silver.
"We didn't really have many at home. We only have a spear at home, which I'm useless at aiming." I say, "Maybe if I had something that I could aim more precisely, I'd be more successful."
"Try using a sword, or a bow and arrows." Advises Silver, "But we can get to that when we get there. We have a whole hour before we get there."
_________________________
Silver has talked about tactics the whole way. I've got a headache, which doesn't help in the slightest.
"My head is so full of tips, it'll explode." I say after Silver has left the room. "What did she say about how to use a buzz axe safely again?" I ask.
My question never gets answered. We pull ontology the station. Flynt waves to the fashion-obsessed Capitol ponies through the window. Some of them even wave back.
I hear the train doors swing open. I get out of the carriage apartment door, then out of the train and into the Capitol.
