The 34th Equestrian Hunger Games

My mom left me alone in my room as she went to go and tidy up my brother, I walked over to the mirror, when a bad feeling sank deep into my stomach. The feeling made me want tho through up, and I didn't like it at all.  I stared at myself through that thin panel of glass, and sighed. Something important was going to happen at this reaping, and I didn't know what. I don't know if By some chance I'll end up going to the games, or that someone I know will.

I slowly grabbed the small make up bag sitting on my dresser and, pulling at my mascara, gently dabbed it onto my eye lashes. If for some reason I might be on Tv, then I deserved to look decent.

I slowly blinked at the golden mare that was staring back at me with purple eyes, and then walked out of my room and down the stairs. I could hear both my mom and my brother fussing about something farther down the hallway, and I knew that Flashlight was probably just moving around to the point where my mother wasn't able to make him look nice.

I had reached the bottom of the staircaise when my brother practically flew from the top of the stair and almost crashed into me. I had no choice but to grab him with my magic so that I could make sure he was okay. He gave me a shy smile just as I put him down, and then I looked up at my mother as she walked down the staircase.

"You both look beautiful...I just hope that-" She began in a soft and gentle tone. I shook my head.

"We won't. Our names are only in the bowl once, versus the some ponies that have their names in several times." I looked down at my brother, and smiled. "Not to mention district six is probably the biggest district. The odds are at least one in ten thousand."

She smiled. "Well, it' still a mother's job to worry about her children."

She had reached the bottom of the staircase, and I could see that she had little beads of tears in the corner of her eyes. In all honesty, she was acting like I was getting married or something. Even when my eldest brother had his final reaping last year, she never cried, and yet she cried for me. Seriously? I have two more years of this stupid reaping thing and she chooses this year out of all of them to cry.

"Well, we should get going soon. Being late for the reaping isn't a good thing," I said quickly before my mom could start pouring her eyes out onto the floor. The two nodded, and then we walked out of the house together.

The streets of our district were filled with ponies moving through the city, most of which who were rushing to get to the town square in front of the capital hall. The many heads that I saw made the street look like a flowing river of skittles, a type of candy that I remember my dad used to sneak us when we were kids. I joined the crowd quickly and silently, and made sure that my brother was right next to me and my mother hot on my tail the entire time. I would prefer not to lose them.

We had reached the long line of mares and colts in front of a very long table where they would take a blood sample. The only reason they did this was to make sure that every pony of age was there.

I pulled my brother aside and explained things to him, and told him that he needed to do what the peacekeeper told of him to do. He nodded, and I watched him as I walked into my own line for us older mare. He made a face when they pricked they inside of his hoof like that, where as I barely even flinched.

Seeing his reaction only made me sad. There were some ponies that couldn't even bear a hoof prick, and they had their lives at risk. If they couldn't handle the simplest thing like getting their hoof pricked, then they would never even get close surviving the blasted games.

I followed my line and spotted my mother standing in the section with the parents. I gave her a little reassuring smile, and the smile she gave me was a very thankful one. I spotted my older brother next to him, and we exchanged a nod, making me so thankful that he had aged out of the reaping last year.

Because I was not watching where I was going, I naturally walked into the rear end of a bright green stallion, who was stopped in the road and looking over the crowd.

"Really? You have to just stop in the middle of the Road?" I said sharply.

He frowned at me, and gave a little hair flip to push his slightly-longer-than-usual silver mane out of his face. "I apologize, I had only moved to this district a few months ago and this is my first reaping here in district six. Things are done a little differently here..." He said, sounding sincerely apologetic.

I scoffed, and scrunched my nose as I did so. "The stallion and colt group is over there," I gestured with my head to the colt section that was apposing to the mare section. "And just be careful not to get too lost," I added with what I thought was was a devious smile.

He nodded and quickly replied, "Thank you!" and then he trotted off towards his section.

I rolled my eyes at him, and then found my way into the sixteen year old mare section. I could look at all the ages in front of me, seeing the young fillies that still had to deal with four, five, even six years of being reaped. Yes, the odds of them getting reaped were next to none, but there was a chance. There always was a chance.

I directed my eyes towards a bright pink mare who walked out from the side of the stage that had been set up, and I laughed. She was wearing a black tutu thing and a white sparkling shirt that had her entire forelegs covered. Her purple hair was in such an absurd design that it actually made me wonder how much hair gel and hairspray she actually used to keep it that way. Her lashes were white this time, and her eyelids were covered in a purple shimmery eye shadow. I knew that I would have to practically be strapped down before I even wanted to wear something that fancy, if it was even considered to be fancy.

She walked daintily up to the microphone, and started speaking into it. Her first two words she spoke was far too close to the microphone,  so naturally most of the audience winced. "Welcome everypony! Mares and Gentlecolts, Fillies and stallions of all ages to the district six reaping of the Twenty-fourth annual Equestrian Hunger Games!" Her voice was too high for my taste, and if I had to choose one word to describe it, it would surely be prissy. "First, we have a little presentation to watch, sent to us from the capital! If you would all please turn your heads towards the screen over here," She gestured to the only visible and large screen there was, "You shall see this video."

I of course chose not to look. I knew what the video was about because I had seen it for so many years. It talked about how the Crystal Empire, or the thirteenth district, revolted with the four princesses as their leader, they were no match for the capitol, as they say, and Discord naturally claimed that he had defeated them all. The video did not state the fact that the reason the ponies had revolted in the first place was because Discord was so chaotic and unharmonized. After the battle he promised to be 'calm and collected' as long as the Equestrian Hunger Games existed every year, though no pony knew exactly why he called them the 'Hunger Games', even though the video explained the basic rules of the games.

I looked over to the colts section, and after a few moments I was able to pinpoint Circuit. He had actually turned around and looked at me. He had mouthed something that I couldn't understand, and then he winked. I rolled my eyes as I silently laughed at him and then I saw him laughing too. However, we were disrupting with the music of the video ending.

After the video had ended, the mare on the stage had clapped her hooves on the ground beneath her hooves. Her audience partially joined her, but it was not very enthusiastic at all. She then smiled, and walked back up to the microphone.

"Such a lovely video, isn't it?" She sighed happily, and then she nodded. "Now it's time for the best part of all - let us select the tributes! Of course it is simply proper to picky that lucky lady first, so that's what we will do!"

She smiled, almost in a Sombra-like way, and then she walked over to the large bowl of mare names. She shoved her hoof into the jar, and rummaged around a good plenty of times, totally mixing the bowl around. She then used her bright orange magic to levitate a small, folded piece of paper from the bowl. She walked back over to the microphone, and slowly opened the paper. I always held my breath as she did so, and the fact that she paused for dramatic effect didn't help.

She had spoken a name, but her lips were so close to the microphone that no one was able to detect what she had said, other than the fact that there was a 't' in their name. This made me even more anxious, she I closed my eyes, and took in a deep breath as I waited for her to repeat the name. "Terra North!"

My eyes shot open, and I immediately turned to look at Circuit. But he wasn't looking at me, though I could see that his hair was standing on edge. Reluctantly and slowly, I walked forwards into the row. I could feel all of the eyes watching me as I took my steps as I was led by two peacekeepers up to the stage. While my head was high and proud looking, my pupils were probably small with fear. They led me up to the stage, but I kept looking over at Circuit the entire time, waiting for him to volunteer or something.

But he didn't. He was even trying to avoid all eye contact with me. I walked up onto the stage, and had only glanced over the crowd when my fear had turned to anger. He had lied to me. He had betrayed me. He broke his promise, and I might never see him again. My eyes were only fixed on Circuit, as the ponies around me clapped their hooves. They had more enthusiasm for me than they did for the video, which made me feel a little better.

But I was so fixated on Circuit that I didn't even notice when the male stallion had been selected. Only when that pink mare had called my name again did I snap out of it.

I had to shake hooves with the other tribute, and when we did so did I realize that it was the same stallion that I had bumped into a little earlier. I could clearly see now that he was a unicorn, and that his eyes were also blue. I held eye contact with him for a moment, before the two of us were pulled into the capital house.

They put us in separate rooms, and I was surprised to see that there wasn't a peacekeeper in the room with us. I sighed and looked around the room that had furniture that was just entirely shades of brown. This wasn't the best of places to say goodbye, but they did had a box of tissues and a couch in case there were ponies that needed it. The only thing that really bugged me, other than the colors, was the fact that this room alone held so many 'goodbyes' of fallen tributes. All I could do was just hope that I would not join them.

I stared at the door until my family had walked through that door. My mother was crying and she instantly flew towards me and rapped herself around me in a tight hug that made me feel like my eyes were going to fly out of my head. My younger brother had a blank expression, from what I saw, and my elder brother just looked sorry as he slowly shook his head.

"I won't let my baby go off into that hell-hole of an arena!" My mother cried. I gave her a thankful but also shocked expression. She had practically just sworn in front of my younger brother, something that I thought I would never see her do.

"Mom, I'll be-" I began to defend myself, but my older brother had cut me off.

"She will be fine. She has raw, natural abilities, and she knows how to protect herself. She knows how to find food, since she can't really create it, and she knows a lot about the environment. The only ones who might be more suited than her to win are the ponies in the career districts."

I smiled, because I knew that he was probably right. I was different than most of the unicorns I knew, and I could do all the things that he said. While we were limited in the arena, there were still things that I knew how to do.

I carefully let go of my mother and then quickly embraced my older brother into a very heartfelt hug. He was so much bigger than I, which made this hug a little awkward. I stretched my neck to put my muzzle next to his ear, and told him, "Take care of them. Please, they will need you even more if I don't come back." He nodded, and then backed away. I then turned to Flashlight, and smiled at him. I quickly but carefully thought out in my mind what I could say to him, and then I shifted my head down to his face level.

"Flashlight, could you do me a favor?"

He nodded proudly.

"I need you to take care of mom for me, can you do that?"

He looked at me, confused. "But, how can I do that?"

"You must be strong. Do what your mom and brother tell you what to do." I paused, and smiled. "Conceal, don't feel. Don't let any bad feelings show."

He nodded, and then jumped and hugged me. "I will, I promise you that, but you have to promise to win, too!"

I let my ears drop, and I sighed. "While I can't promise that I can win, I will promise that I will try to do everything I can to win."  I gave my brother a soft smile. "Is that okay?"

He shrugged. "Well, I guess it will have to do."

Just as my mother had opened her mouth to say something else, another guard in white had walked through the door. I gave him a quick mean glance, and then hugged all of my family members in a welcoming group hug. The stallion had proceeded to take the three ponies out of the room, and then he rather rudely slammed the wooden door behind them.

I let out a soft yelp, and collapsed onto the floor. No matter how much I wanted to stay strong, it was just so difficult. So much more difficult than I had imagined it could be. I hung my head, and let the braid sweep in front of my face. My throat was closing up and I knew that I was going to start crying. I probably would have if my stupid colt friend hadn't walked in.

He stopped and stared at me, and for a moment he made eye contact with me. I closed my eyes, and stood up quickly and sharply. He was going to get a hoof in the face, I swear, depending on what he said.

"Terra, I'm sorry, I was going to volunteer, I was, really, I just-" he started. I shook my head at him.

"But why didn't you!?" I shouted, making Circuit take a few steps back and them look at the door behind him. I knew that if I got too loud then the guards would quickly take him out of the room.

"I-I got scared." He stammered. Really? That was his excuse? You can't say 'no thank you' when you're reaped just because you're scared.

"Really! You promised Circuit! Promised!" I turned away from him, I was somewhere between heartbroken and downright furious, and I didn't want him to see.

"I never said the word 'promise'. I only said yes." He said flatly. And that was it.

I had snapped just a little at that point, but it was enough for me to react. I had turned and slapped him with the back of my hoof so fast that he had absolutely no time to react. I watched as he looked up to me, his expression a mixture of sadness, confusion, and a little bit of anger. He had opened his mouth to respond, but the stallion in white had walked in the room and grabbed him.

"Goodbye Circuit. I hope I never see you again, because we're through." I said in such a cold tone that I even gave myself little goosebumps. I sighed as the door closed yet again.

I sat in that room for several more minuets, until a unicorn mare I didn't recognize walked through the door. She looked gentle, and there were marks on her cheeks that showed that she had been crying. If she didn't have a silver mane, I probably wouldn't have even guessed that she was the mother of the other tribute. She greeted me without words, and then she held my hoof for a moment.

"I need to ask you something very important, Terra, and you should not tell my son."

I looked at her with serene eyes, and swallowed hard.

"If you can, can you protect my boy?" She asked. It was so humble, and I didn't know what to say at first.

"I can try, but I cannot assure you that your son will win."

"I understand that," She smiled. "But we used to live in another district, and therefore it feels as if he is representing two districts as he competes this year."

"Yes but-" I was going to object, until I realized that I didn't really know what my objection was, so I gave an awkward gasp thing. I don't know what kind of noise I made.

She gave a little silent laugh at me, and then responded to my noise. "You have a good chance of you winning, and I don't believe my son doe-"

I quickly cut her off. "Everyone has a chance of winning, it's just that some have a greater chance than others."

She smiled yet again, but only for a moment. "Please Terra. Don't just do it for me, do it for yourself, too."

I stared into her deep eyes, and searched somewhere for a strong meaning to what she had just said. But alas, I had found only nothing as the mother was gently removed from the room. I stared after her, and held my breath. I shall not cry, not in these games. I must be strong. There is but no other option.