The 34th Equestrian Hunger Games

It was a Saturday morning as I walked around my town's square. The chatter of the ponies around me filled my ears as every step I took rattled my hooves on the brick ground. I smiled at the beautiful quilt stand that I passed, remembering a time when I had begged the maker to teach me how to make one, just because I was so desperate to find my talent for a while. I had learned the skill, yes, but It wasn't my forte.

I heard my name come up from behind me, and I felt a kiss on the right corner of my jaw. I turned my head to see My coltfriend, Circuit.

He was a very tall pegasus, with a pale grey coat and  a sharply cut red and black mane. He had a black, circular tattoo on his shoulder, one that he had gotten for his seventeenth birthday two months ago. He had been my Coltfriend for almost a year and a half now, and we were very close.

I smiled and nuzzled his nose with mine, and then I felt his tail wrap around mine.

"So, you up to anything?" He asked, with a smile on his face

"What I usually do when I come to this part of town," I said teasingly, "I buy stuff"

He laughed, which always sounded something between a scoff and a chuckle. "Well, yes, but what are you looking for?"

I gave him the 'oh really' look. I knew he was just teasing me, so I knew I knew that i could play along. We had been friends for years before we had started dating, so we knew each other as well as the back of our own hooves.

"Okay, mom my is trying to see if I can buy some new clothing for the reaping today at noon,"

His wings opened halfway and he rolled his eyes. "You don't need to get anything to dress up, Terra, you're so beautiful already."

I blushed and him, and gave him another little nuzzle. "While I happily accept your compliment, you know my mom. If she asks you to do something, you had better do it."

He cringed for a moment, sucking in air through his teeth and making a little hissing noise. "Yeah, I kinda learned that one the hard way." He shrugged, and then stopped to look at an accessory booth. "I can help you look for something if you would like."

I nodded. "Sure."

We roamed around the booth and we had picked out a beautiful, pullover purple scarf, one that Circuit said matched my eyes, as well as a matching hair clip. I slipped the into the small satchel that was hanging around my shoulder,and decided that was all I needed for later today. Just as we were about to leave, I had spotted a little gold necklace hanging off of a table. I went to levitate it with my magic, but the pegasus pony at the booth had already noticed that i was looking at it, so she had picked it up first. She beckoned me over and held the metal in the palm of her hoof, giving me a good look at it.

It was of a six pointed star, with a smaller, bronze colored star behind it. I recognized this symbol, but as far as I knew, Discord had done all he could to try and get rid of any trace of it.  I looked up at the old mare who was holding it and smiled. "It's beautiful, but isn't this-"

She shushed me. "Yes, I know what it is of Dearie. It was my granddaughter's, but she was reaped last year and she had not come home to receive it. It has been passed down through my family for several years on the female side." She gave me a gentle and humbling smile. "I see bold and life changing thing a head of you, dearie, and I think you should take it."

I pushed my eyebrows together at her, and gave a little frown. "Well, thank you, but I don't think I can take this-"

She leaned towards me, and grabbed my hoof, She placed it into my hoof, and looked at me strait in the eye. "Please, I insist." She let go, and nodded.

Circuit pulled me away from the mare, and whispered, "Geeze, that was a little creepy..."

I nodded. "Yeah..." The way she talked, just how she said what she said, had given me goosebumps on the back of my neck. It felt like she knew something important was going to happen to me, though i didn't even know what could happen. Unless she some how knew that I was going to be reaped today, but we wouldn't know who was going to be reaped until it happened.

"Well, I can walk you home, and then I have to go get ready for the reaping," He said, lightening the mood a little bit.

"Thanks," I replied back to him.

And so he did. He walked me back to the little blue house that my family stayed in. It was two storied, yes, but it wasn't the nicest house in the district. District six, my district, while not the poorest, was typically a low-middle classed district. We were not at all as poor as district twelve or eleven, but still. for being the district that makes transportation, you would think that we would be a slightly wealthier district.

I stepped onto the porch of my house, and I looked at him, now that we were at eye level. "I hope neither of us a reaped today, because I would like to have a little party afterwards, to celebrate not being reaped."

I smiled and kissed him on his forehead. "Don't worry, I'm sure we'll be fine."

He lifted his hoof and caressed my chin. "If I was reaped though, what would you do?" He asked, looking into my eyes. His eyes were such a beautiful green, glistening with so many emotions.

In an instance, I knew that I would volunteer to take the other mare's place, and be there to protect him. I had good magical abilities, especially things that have to do with nature. This was unusual, especially for my district, to be so naturally gifted with magic. Most unicorns knew basic magic, like how to levitate things, or how to create a little light, and there were some who knew how to start a fire. But not for me, apparently. I've cracked the earth when I've gotten mad, and I once made it rain out of sadness in my friends house after her mom had died. I don't know how I did either of those things, but I knew that if I was able to do those things, then I might be able to do things like that again.

But getting back to his question, I had to answer him. "I would volunteer, and take the place of the mare. I would do what I can to protect you, and fight by your side. And so be it, if we die in the arena, then we should die together."

He smiled and kissed me. After he pulled away, he was still smiling. "Im glad to see that you would risk your life for me."

Our foreheads were touching, and I was looking at him, and I could see that his eyes were closed. He was very clearly thinking about something, and I needed to know what.

"You would do the same for me, right?" I asked him.

He opened his eyes and looked at me. There was something different in his eyes, and I didn't like it. Why did he have to look at me like that? They were always filled with emotion, but there was something in his eyes that I have never seen in his eyes before. In all my years of knowing him, I had never seen that look before. And I hated it.

"Yes, Of course I would. You know I would." He said, kissing me again. He looked behind me, and I knew that someone in my family was definitely peeping through the window. "I should probably get going. I'll see you at the Reaping." And with that, he turned and left.

I watched him walk away down the gravel road, and sighed when he turned a corner. I've known him forever and i knew that he usually kept his promises, but for once I doubted him. I shook my head gently, and turned the doornob, swinging the door open and letting it hit the wall behind it. I walked into my house, and close the door behind me. I had only taken a few steps whan I was attacked by something small and pale-yellow. "TERRRAAA!!!" was all I heard as it had jumped onto my back. My eyes were covered, and I fell onto the ground.

"WHAT IS GOING ON!?" I yelled. I levitated the small thing off of my back, and held him in front of me, a smirk on my face. "Really Flashlight? We do have the reaping later today. I don't need to get dirty for that." I scolded my brother as I sat upright.

My brother was a young, very energetic colt with a pale-yellow pelt and a pale green mane. He hadn't gotten his cutie mark at all, but that was alright. He had just turned twelve, and this would be his first reaping. He had been excited about it for the last month, and it made every pony he knew crazy. He acted like he was prepared to face his death or something, I don't know.

"TERRA, TERRA THE PLANT THAT I PLANTED LAST WEEK HAS BUDS!!! IT HAS BUDS TERRA, BUDS!!!" He yelled, I flattened my ears against my head, and carefully put my hoof over his mouth.

"Flashlight, you're screaming again. If you keep doing that, I'll be deaf by my next birthday."

I carefully removed my hoof from his mouth. "Yeah, sorry. It's just it's never happened before! NEVER! Out of the five I've planted, none of them have grown! NONE!"

I sighed, one that was mixed of both happiness and frustration. My mom walked into the room, laughing.

"He did the exact same thing when he told me." She walked over to me and gave me a hug. "Come on, Let's go get you dressed up for the reaping today," She said as she let me go out of the embrace.

I then followed her down the hallway and up the stairs, and took the first right at the top of the stairs into my room. She had gotten there before me, so I naturally laughed at her when she picked up a brush.

I sat on my bed as she weaved by blue and green mane into a braid. She did it so delicately and precisely, making sure a single strand didn't get left out. After she was done,  She let it go and I felt the braid bounce against the side of my neck. She kissed my forehead, and then proceeded to rummage through my satchel. She had located the purple scarf, and she looked at it with an approving glance. With a smile,  care fully slid it over my head,  making sure not to disrupt my mane. When she was adjusting it, she blinked a few times when something small and gold popped out of the folds of the purple fabric.

"What's this?" She said, picking it up with her blue-hued magic. "Is this from Circuit?" She asked, a little smirk on her face.

"No, it actually came from a lady at the shops. She gave it to me," I answered.

"Well, It's a very pretty necklace. I'm just surprised to see that it's of Princess Twi-"

I shushed her, almost in the exact same way that the shopkeeper had done to me. We weren't supposed to talk about it at all, since for all we knew, there were ears everywhere, even among the walls in our own house. I nodded, and simple told her,  "I know mom, I was too."

I grabbed the necklace from her, and quickly placed the trinket over my head, and let it blend into the folds of the scarf. I knew that if I was to wear this necklace, then I would have to be careful. I knew where it came from and I knew that if I was caught with it I could get it trouble, just because this necklace was of the great Princess Twilight's cutiemark.

I sighed and watched my mom pull out the little barrette from the small pocket in my bag, and  then smile at it again. My mom fastened the barrette to the end of my braid, and I spotted small tears in her eyes. I knew what she she was thinking. She was thinking about how beautiful I was, since I rarely would let her, or anyone, dress me up. I was never into the showy stuff like that. She ran her hoof over the braid, and sighed.

I really wish this was just another ordinary day, and I knew she did too. It wasn't all that bad, dressing up for occasions like this, but the type of occasion wasn't one that most ponies wanted to dress up for in the first place. But there wasn't anything I, Or anyone for that matter, could do about it, no matter how much we might want to. This was the reaping, my second to last one at that, and I would have to find a way to deal with it yet again. And if I survived this reaping, then I would have a party to look forwards to. But that was next. I was ready. All that was next was to watch that same unicorn pluck a name from that giant bowl full of so many names.