The 34th Equestrian Hunger Games

After I had finished saying my goodbyes, I was rushed away with the other tribute towards the train center. I wasn't particularly  fond of traveling in any form, despite the fact that my district was the one who made all of the air crafts and trains. I guessed that I would have to find a way to deal with it.

We were guided onto the train by several peace keepers and the pink mare, and placed into a lounging compartment. While the room was rather cozy, there was a lot of metallic things, maybe even too much. Everything was shiny and created in such a strange shape that they almost defied the laws of gravity. I watched the dainty pink mare walk towards a door and enter another compartment, and have the door close behind her..

I watched as the other tribute had sat down in a lounge chair, and was looking out the window as the train began to leave the station. I stared at him for a moment, admiring how he sat and how collected he had seemed. His mane was rather long for a colt, as I had recalled from earlier. He was pretty attractive of a stallion, at least from what I saw. I shook my head from that absurd thought, telling myself that I had a colt friend. Only when I had told myself that did I realize that I no longer had one, but the only reasons I shouldn't 'shoot' for him was because only one pony would be returning from the arena.

I sat down across from him, and decided I should try my best to make some kind of conversation any way. If he and I were ever going to be allies, or at least partners, then we would have to get a long, or at least understand each other and be able to cooperate with the other tribute.

"So, I'm Terra North, or Terra." I said, trying to make my voice sound at least a little bit excited.

He gave me a little sideways glance, then sighed. "Name's Jockey."

"It's nice to meet you, Jockey." I cleared my throat. I couldn't tell if he was purposefully trying to avoid me, or if he was actually just upset with the whole situation he had been put in I know that I was, so it would be natural for him to be two. Being reaped is not an easy things to cope with. I thought for a moment about what I could say next to keep the conversation going.  "I remember you saying that you had moved to district six from another district recently. Would it be alright if I asked which one?"

He finally turned to look at me, and I was actually happy to see him smile, even though I could fairly see in his eyes that he was worried. "I moved offer from District Four. I used to have a radio show over there, and I was listened to by many. We even had a few celebrities on to talk with me," He said, somewhat confidently.

"Why did you guys move?" I asked, curiously. He was looking a little more comfortable, so I kind of figured that I would keep talking to him until we were interrupted by somepony or something, or until the conversation died.

"The Capitol thought that my family's - mine mostly - talent would be put to better use in a different district."

I smiled at him, "Well tha-"

I was cut off by several hoofsteps and a small amount of laughter behind me, and I had turned around to see several adults standing behind my chair. I knew almost instantly that this group of ponies was our mentors. They were a god set of ponies, from what I could see, and they looked rather proud to be assisting their district yet again. The only thing that really bothered me about the group though was that there was only one mare standing among the group of four. There were two unicorn stallions, as well as an earth pony that was also a colt. But the mare was a small, pure white pegasus with a blue mane.

"Well, well. It's good to see that you two are bonding a little bit," A tall unicorn had said almost jokingly in the back, though there was a twist of a foreign accent in his voice. "Don't get any bright ideas before you guys head off to face your possible deaths."

"Oh Silver Jet, stop teasing them! It's good for them to practice social skills. That's the first skill they will need in the arena," The mare said sharply at him. I blinked and smiled a little bit as I saw him roll his eyes

"Well anyways, us three colts are your mentor, Jockey, so you should come with us. We have a lot to talk about," Silver Jet said mockingly.

I wasn't able to see that stallion until now, and I was a little shaken when I saw him. He had half of his black mane shaved off, and the one side that wasn't was rather lazily styled. His hooves were poorly cared for, and in fact they looked as if hadn't even looked at them. But his eyes were what caught me. His eye color was a bright orange, but his eyes looked like he had gone without blinking them for days. And from what I could tell, he had a foul smell too, which made me to believe that this pony might be doing drugs. While it wasn't my business, it did make me a little nervous for Jockey. Though the other two stallions looked much more put together that Silver Jet, so I knew that he would probably be okay.

I watched Jockey Get up from his seat wand walk over to the group of stallions that had openly welcomed him. They walked back towards a door, and I watched the four of them leave the room, and the door slide closed behind them.

The white pegasus that was left smiled at me and had taken Jockey's seat. She looked eager and excited, like she hadn't looked so hopeful before with any other tribute.

"So, Terra North, tell me what you can do," she said, while her face did not move, all of the emotions in her eyes portrayed that she was excited to hear what ever I had to say.

I thought for a moment, knowing that she probably wanted to know my strengths and weaknesses.

"Well, I am very good with my magic. I'm one of those unicorns who can create fire fairly easily, mainly with magic. I'm also good at locating water by using a few spells as well. " I paused and looked at her, but she hadn't reacted at all, so I kept going. "I've been able to move and break small pieces of rocks, but none of significant size. But my greatest element would probably be plants. I know them like the back of my hoof, and I can create most of them with ease. Foods and poisonous plants are harder to create, and usually drain me of significant amounts of energy." After this was when she reacted and I was pretty glad that she had.

"Well, as far as creating foods, you are not technically allowed to create them as far as the rules go, which we will go over later. However, it sounds like you are pretty adaptable to most situations, which is something that will definitely be needed." She blinked at me with her golden eyes, and sighed. "What about weapons? Do have any experience with anything that could be used as a weapon?"

I thought for yet another moment. I remember when I was younger I used to play fight with my older brother, and for a while i told myself that I was good with close-hoof combat. But that was about seven years ago, and I didn't think that my play-skills would be good enough to survive in the games. However, I have also have been known to kick things pretty hardly, but that probably went under the skill of close-hoof combat.

I looked back up at her and flatly told her, "If anything, it would be close-hoof combat."

She shrugged, and she shifted her position in her seat. "Well, I guess that it's better than nothing. How much have you used that fighting technique?"

"Well, I used to play fight with my brother for several years when I was younger. That was a while ago, but I've been known to sometimes get a little violent with my hooves when I'm angry."

"Give an example." She said quickly.

I paused, and sighed. The only thing that quickly came to my mind was that I slapped my colt-friend today, so that's the example I gave her. "I slapped my colt, er, ex-colt-friend this morning."

She laughed at me, which I wasn't exactly intending.

"Brilliant! I think that in individual training we need to work on your fighting skills, and figuring out how broad your magical abilities are. Does that sound good?"

I nodded.

"Good. Then let's go get ourselves something to eat."

I hesitated as I watched her get up from her seat. My stomach wasn't all that hungry, even though I was a a little hungry before I had gotten onto the train. I had figured that it was probably because I was getting a little motion sick from the tiny movements of the train. I usually prefer to have my hooves planted firmly on unmoving ground.

She looked at me with concerned eyes, and I gave an awkward smile. "I've lost my appetite since I got on this train," I said mildly.

She gave me a smile, but didn't show her teeth, unlike the other smiles she had given earlier. "I used to have the same thing happen to me every time I got on this train, but after several years you get used to it." I gave her the 'oh really' look. "Well, You might not be hungry, but you should still eat something. Dinner is usually a little late when we get to the capitol, so it would be good to not try to starve yourself."

I slightly rolled my eyes, and then let out a puff of air. I had little interest to defy her right now, and after all, she was probably right. Even if I wasn't hungry, it would probably serve me best if I had a little bit of food. I got up out of my seat and followed my mentor, and then I realized something. And this something was probably more on the important side. I didn't know my mentor's name. I watched the sliding door open in front her her, and then cleared my throat to get her attention. She turned and looked at me over her shoulder.

"Yes?" She asked.

"What's your name?" I asked, almost hesitantly for a moment.

"Oh, right." She blinked her eyes, and I guessed that she was just realizing that she had forgotten to tell me. "It's Wind Pipe."

She then turned and continued walking on her previous path. I didn't know what to think of her name. I knew that a wind pipe was an organ that was located in our throat, but I also knew that one's mind could be taken towards music. Finding musical ponies was pretty rare, so I didn't think that she was at all a musical pony. And if she was named after an organ, well, then I would probably end up feeling sorry for her for a while. However, the most logical place her name came from was probably from an air tunnel that was used for air conditioning. It was the only things that made sense, but I decided that I would call her Wind.

The dining room we had walked into was much more sparkly and colorful than I could have imagined. The chairs were bright, neon green, and the tables were a weird purple glass that looked like it was moving. There was a crystal chandelier hanging over the three tables that were set up. There was a bar that I saw Silver Jet was sitting at, sipping at a blue drink. There was several dishes of foods set up on one table, and at that table I saw Jockey as well as the two other tributes.

I watched Wind walk over to the table, and take a seat next to the red earth pony. I slightly raised my eyebrow as she had given him a kiss on the cheek, and then he proceeded to smile. If they were a couple, then I wouldn't be happy at all.

I walked over and sat down next to Jockey, who had smiled when he saw me. I naturally smiled back, but I couldn't figure out if I meant it or not.

"So, how do you like little Windy?" The red earthpony asked, a small amount of some type of cake in his mouth. Wind rolled her eyes and playfully but carefully punched him in the shoulder, and he laughed.

"She seems like a good mentor, and I'm excited to see what she can teach me," I said nodding.

"You think she's good, then you gotta try these Cakes!" The red stallion said, jokingly, shoving a small round pink cake into his mouth.

I turned to look at Jockey, who was actually eating his food on the more civil side, with a knife and a fork. Actually, seeing the male mentors, it made me happy that I wasn't Jockey. You had the slob earthpony, and the druggie Silver Jet. The only male who could even be slightly decent was the yellow one sitting in the corner silently eating his food. He wasn't even looking at the others, now that I had noticed him.

I looked away from him, and had grabbed an apple from a bowl, and began to munch on it. The red stallion kept giving me weird glances, which only made me uncomfortable. I took another bite of the sweet apple, and stood up from my seat. The three of them watched as I got up, and they were a little confused. I picked up one of the little cakes, and turned and walked back towards the caboose of the train.

I walked through the first compartment, still eating my apple as I went, when I noticed a small room that was opened just a tad. I knew that I probably shouldn't look through the door, but I did anyways. There was a peace keeper lounging in a chair in front of a large screen. On this screen there were 12 screens, each one from a different district, as said in the upper right corner. The districts looked comfortable and content, though some were more so than others. The ponies in district one, two, three and looked excited and proud of their tributes. most of the other districts looked content, like this was just another day and they didn't care too much about what could happen to their tributes. Then again, those who smiled could be smiling for other reasons.

The stallion lounging in the chair stood up, and stretched his wings, filling up a good amount of space as he did so. He looked like he was going to turn around, so with a little skip I went back to the path that I was on.

I kept walking down the small hallway, and finally came to the back of the train. I stared out the back window for a moment, and held my breath, counted to ten, and then opened them back up. I could see the metal train tracks jetting out from underneath the plane as I looked through the window, but other than that, everything else was a blur. The green trees, the gray rocks, all faded together. I knew we were traveling at around one-hundred and eighty miles per hour, and at most it could have been two-hundred and twenty. It was far too fast for my liking.

I silently laughed at myself as I gazed out the window. Earlier I had done so because I was a pony from a technology district who didn't like technology, but now I was laughing at myself because I was a pony from the district of transportation who didn't like transportation at all. Most ponies said that they barely felt a bump on this train, but ponies from my district usually feel everything wrong on a transport. For example, they will notice if an aircraft isn't perfectly even, or hear the gear that's just every so slightly out of place. While I'm not entirely that detailed oriented, I will notice slightly bigger things.

I sat down on the couch and finished eating my apple, and then proceeded to eat the small cake that I was told was delicious. As I took a small bite of it, I did agree that it was of a different flavor, and the texture itself was moist and thick, which was very perfect. There was a type of filling in the middle, which only added an extra burst of flavor. The top of it was dusted with powdered sugar, though from what I could tell didn't have a big effect on the taste. It might have been the best dessert I've had.

As I looked out the window of the train yet again, I sighed. I really wished that I could go back, and change the events of what had happened. But I couldn't. All I could do was look back and go blindly forwards on the terrifying path that I was on.