The Equestrian Games

Darkness. Dark. Nothing. Blackness. Shadow.

Those were adjectives Cherrycloud could think to describe the place she was in. She stood on an invisible platform. Her wings fluttered anxiously. There was a deadly silence. Her ears flicked back and forth, desperately trying to find something, anything, to hear. To get out of the quiet. Her pleads were soon answered, as hoofsteps began to echo across the dark dimension. Three blurred shaped were soon visible, and approaching fast. She was quickly able to recognize them as fillies, a pegasus, unicorn, and earth pony. Their eyes were wide with panic, and they were running right toward Cherry.

Cherry wished to leap out of the way, before she was trampled, but it seemed her hooves were rooted to the ground, which she couldn't even feel. With her eyes the size of pinpricks, she saw the first filly a hoof away. It... disappeared. Right before it hit Cherry too. She looked up at the blue mist that used to be an orange pegasus. When she looked down she saw the unicorn approaching. Then, like the other, she dissolved into blue mist right before hitting Cherry. The earth pony soon followed suit.

Then, all the darkness was wiped out by an explosion. A ring of colors shone across the sky, and was expanding, leaving milky whiteness behind it. Soon, the ring reached Cherrycloud and she was blown off her hooves. She felt the world begin to shimmer, as if it were falling apart. The last thing Cherry remembered before the world faded to black, was a voice pleading.

"HELP!"

Cherry leaped out of the bed for the second time in two days. Unfortunately she missed the bed and landed with an oomph on the floor. Too tired to move or even get up, she lay there for a moment, letting the dream sink in. Then her eyes drooped a bit. "Dammit floors, why do you have to be so hard and uncomfortable." She muttered while slowly standing up. Once achieving the troubling task, she began to think about the dream more. "Second one since this trip... hmm." She tapped her chin then shrugged, once again too tired to ponder it more. She quickly flattened her hair, which the bed enjoyed turning into an afro, and trotted into the room connecting to hers. She poked her head in to see who was up. Apparently everypony was except for her... again.

"Hey!" She shouted. "How come nopony ever tries to wake me up in the morning?" Blaze looked at you with an annoyed expression.

"Well, we've definitely been trying." He muttered. Cherry just narrowed her eyes at him. Crystal saw this and spoke up.

"Well, its not our fault you sleep like a log. Trust me, we tried this morning and you were so deep, you called Blaze Mommy and snuggled his hoof." Cherry felt her cheeks beginning to burn a bright red.

"Okay! Okay! I get it!" She stuttered, wanting to drop the topic, "Are we going to start training today?"

Crystal nodded. "Yep, as soon as you get ready, we're out the door."

As Cherry exited through the door, she couldn't help but feel excited, yet, extremely nervous at the same time. Most of the ponies she had met yesterday seemed nice enough. But she couldn't help but feel that Moon Breeze and Ember Blaze would kill her when she turned her back. A shiver rippled down her spine. And the mare from district 5 seemed to be watching her every move too. She lowered her head. The only ponies that were looking good right now would be Pageturner and Sketch Pad.

Before she knew it, Cherry was entering a large black building, filled with all the other tributes and mentors. She squeezed in between a white mare with a blue, misty mane, and an orange stallion with a ginger mane, that had dark red streaks in it. And there, flying over a high ledge, was what Cherry thought was the general. He was a light brown pegasus, with golden, shining eyes. He obviously seemed excited about the batch of tributes this year. His mane was a dark brown, and blown back. His eyes panned over all of the ponies standing on the rugged carpet below, and cleared his throat. He was ready to start.

"Good morning tributes!" He announced in a loud, clear voice. "As you all probably know, you will be training here for the next two days so that you can be prepared for the games." His eyes burned with passion as he continued with his speech. "I am Commander Thunder, leader of her highnesses guard. I have been specially chosen for this year to train you all for the upcoming death battle." For a moment, Cherry thought she saw a flicker of pain in his eyes, before it vanished and he began to speak again.

"Now, we will try to get started right away!" He began pointing his hooves in different directions. "Over in that area to the right, you will find out how to make traps, tie knots, yadda yadda. In the section to the left of the door, you will be able to figure out different kinds of trees, fruits, berries, and other types of nature you may need to know." He pointed out a few more things, then said one more thing.

"Before you are dismissed, know that there will be guards blocking the door, sections, and anywhere else you may be, so escaping would be of no use but to harm yourself." He then looked at Cherrycloud for an uncomfortable amount of time, before saying, "Dismissed!"

Cherry immediately began to walk over to the weapons section, and saw Blaze heading toward the trap section. Once arriving, she looked at the different types of weapons, and the targets on the wall. She picked up a spear first and lifted her hoof up, trying to aim the spear.

Once she felt she had it right, she pulled her arm back, and then shoved it forward... only to have the spear totally miss. With a humph, she grabbed another and tried again, with the same results. She gritted her teeth and grabbed a knife instead. She tossed it gently around her hooves, getting the feel of it. She then held it, and threw, at least getting it on the edge of the target.

Suddenly, she heard hoofsteps behind her. She turned to see a young mare walked up next to her. "Here," she said, "Lemme show you." She grabbed one of the knives and looked at a nearby target. She then pulled her hoof back and threw the knife with much more force than Cherry would have originally thought she would have used. The knife impaled into the target one or two inches away from the center. Cherry could only gape in awe. The mare noticed this and smiled. "Its all in the wrist, though, I prefer a bow and arrows."

Cherry nodded awkwardly, "I'm Cherrycloud, district 8" She put her hoof out to shake.

The mare gladly gave a white hoof to shake back. "Sapphire Swirl, district 1" Cherry narrowed her eyes, and thought. How could such a sweet mare be from district one? She seemed to read her mind. "Y'know, not everypony from the career districts are mindless killers." With that she turned and began to trot away, swishing her sea blue tail. Cherry shrugged and turned away from the throwing weapons, and over to the dummies. She grabbed another knife, this one meant for close combat. She then went over to a tablet hanging on the wall, and tapped in a few settings for the dummy.

Soon, it came to life. It didn't have any weapons, yet jumped around, ready to defend itself from Cherrycloud's knife. She raised it up, along with her wings, and shot out. It jumped to the side quickly, but Cherry was quicker. Her wings whirled around and she shot back out, making the knife collide with the dummies side. It was knocked back, but recovered and began to charge toward Cherry. It held it's hoof out at the last moment to jab her in the stomach. Then Cherry jumped out of the way, and landed another blow with the knife on the other side of the dummy. It then fell down, lifeless. Cherry grinned at her accomplishment, and laid the knife down with the others. She sighed and headed over to the trap section, to figure out some of that stuff with Blaze, and for a moment she thought.

Maybe I do stand a chance.