The Equestrian Hunger Games - Act I: Reigning Darkness

A young magenta Unicorn mare, barely the age of fourteen, sat quietly on the hill that out looked District 12. Once, it was simply known as Ponyville. However, a certain Alicorn had changed that. Sparkler wasn’t around when that happened, though. In fact, she was born sixteen years after the whole Nightmare Moon fiasco.

She looked at her bow and quiver as her violet mane was blown by the gentle breeze. It was one of the few reminders of her father before he… disappeared. Yes, that was the word. Disappeared. Official sources say that he died in a mine explosion. Well, official sources didn’t say how his giant blue box also seemed to disappear after his death.

The Doctor, that’s what ponies called him. Nopony knows his real name, not even his own wife. Still, Sparkler managed to find out why he had the title after some scouring around and spying. He was The Doctor, the stallion that helps other ponies. The stallion who heals worlds. She didn’t understand what that meant, but it made her father sound a whole lot cooler.

The mare’s father worked as a miner, which is contrast to his cutie mark which is an hourglass. Shouldn’t that mean that his special talent be something that is related to time? Oh, she didn’t know anymore.

Another thing her father was amazing at was creating things. He made the bow himself, prizing it as an amazing contraption. Afterwards, the Unicorn learnt how to hunt and scavenge for food. Life was hard now living after Nightmare Moon’s early descent. Thirty years too early, how did she do it?

“Well, heya there, Sparky!” said a familiar Southern accent “How’re ya’ll doin t’day?”

“Same old, same old” the mare grumbled, not facing the stallion

Amethyst Star, that was her name. However, most ponies in town usually call her Sparkler due to some childhood incidences. She swore she would never think back on that event, but the name stuck ever since. The stallion she was talking to was the closest pony she had ever been to, Braeburn Apple. He was annoying, slightly crazy and impossible. Sparkler liked him for that. After all, she was ten times worse than the stallion.

“How’s the family doin’?” Braeburn asked as he tipped his Stetson hat like he always did to look cool “Spiffed up to all that there meat ya’ll been eatin’?”

“Mom’s doing okay, she’s been eating it for years anyway” Sparkler explained “As for Dinky… well, she’s still just a filly”

Meat, that was what Sparkler and The Doctor had hunted for. After Nightmare Moon’s early descent, known as The Descent to ominous ponies, plant life was just too scarce to find. That meant District Twelve had learnt to improvise. They started eating meat.  After a failed eternal night that made it all that much worse for ponies to grow food, Nightmare Moon found an alternative. She would allow the sun to rise and set as usual, but under one condition; that everypony must…

“Reap” Sparkler muttered

“Whazzat?” Braeburn asked since he did not hear her quite well

“Reaping Day, it’s today” Sparkler finished “Some ponies are gonna lose their best friends and family members”

“And yer sis just reached ten, amirite?” Braeburn said with a frown

Every year, two ponies between the ages of ten and sixteen must place their names inside a huge glass ball. One male and one female. The reaped names would then be sent to Canterlot, the heart of all the chaos and Nightmare Moon’s main headquarters, to be trained in the art of survival and thrown into an arena to the death with the other districts. District 12 was the underdog, only having two ponies as victors. One of them had already died of insanity, too. Poor guy.

“So, we’re all ready to go, right?” Sparkler said with her wry grin as she levitated up a few dead rabbits and a bunch of strawberries “Come on, I’m hungry!”

“Sure thang, Sparky” Braeburn chided as he too held up his prizes, fish and blueberries

Sparkler didn’t like that name at all. That meant Braeburn would use it more often than not. She earned it during her first meeting with Braeburn five years ago, after the mine explosion that may or may not have killed her father. She was busy hunting and met the stallion by accident. After a rough start and an arrow to Braeburn’s leg which almost cost him his walking, he asked for her name.

“Sparkler…” grumbled the mare through gritted teeth

“Sparky?” he asked back, making the mare snap at him

It didn’t do her anymore justice that she shocked herself on the electric fence that separated the Everfree Forest from District 12 later the same day. The forest had been declared off-limits by the Capitol ponies, but that didn’t stop Sparkler and Braeburn form hunting and the few members of the Apple Family, one of the largest family branches in Equestria, to plant and harvest apple trees.

Rules just weren’t Sparkler’s style.

Obviously, Sparkler was far from being ladylike. She was volatile, rough, violent, and had a long streak of hurting other ponies. However, she has toned down as she matured… slightly. Hey, she hasn’t broken any bones for the past few months, right? She cursed like a sailor pony and wasn’t afraid to get her hooves dirty.

She was a terrible example to her sister, Dinky. Well, stepsister actually. She didn’t like to admit to being adopted when she was just a filly since it held too many said emotions. That was when she toughened up, at the orphanage so other ponies won’t pick on her.

“Come on, let’s get to Sugar Cube Corner” Sparkler grinned and bolted towards the electrified fence, most probably turned off as it usually is.

After a short struggle through the fence (“Haha, you’re fat!” Sparkler laughed once Braeburn got through with a little difficulty), the two ponies headed to the aforementioned Sugar Cube Corner. Once a beautiful street that held the local confectionary, the place had died down when food became scarce. In the end, the place became a sort of black market which operated right beneath the mayor’s nose. Seriously, the mayor practically lives next door to that place.

They managed to trade the fish and squirrels for some green vegetables, chocolate chips and even flour. Obviously, Sparkler decided to take these things specifically to make sure her mother, Ditzy Doo or better known as Derpy, would make her prized muffins. Ditzy was amazing at baking those, and they were a delight for the magenta Unicorn. They stopped by Pinkamena Diane Pie, or better known as Pinkie Pie; party planner extraordinaire, next to trade the berries.

“Good luck, you two” Pinkie said with her euphoric grin as she used some of the strawberries and blueberries to make some cupcakes and gave it to them “I have a feeling you’re gonna need it. Especially you, Sparkler!”

Pinkie Pie was famous for two things: her mane and her Pinkie senses. Her mane, once bouncy and curly, now hung like curtains. Nightmare Moon’s coming was the cause of that, obviously. She even stopped bouncing around and left that to her children, Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake. Okay, not her children, but after their parents death, she took them in as her own. Her Pinkie senses were something else entirely, never being wrong even once.

Sparkler shuddered as she heard Pinkie Pie’s words. A Pinkie Sense that involved her? Not good. Not good at all. Before things could get awkward, Sparkler and Braeburn trotted away to the next pony on their list: the mayor herself.

When they reached the mayor’s house, Braeburn knocked four times. That was the code the ponies shared, knock four times. That meant that it was the two ponies selling their foodstuff. Before long, the door creaked open to reveal a young Unicorn filly, around twelve years of age. She smiled cheerfully as she greeted the two of them.

Sweetie Belle, younger sister to Rarity who was mayor of Ponyville and one of the most generous ponies around. Rarity had only become mayor recently, after the last mayor was taken away for speaking against Nightmare Moon. Still, she acted as if she were one of the townsponies and did not request for anything more from the ponies of District 12, even if they insisted.

“Hi!” she says simply “Come to wish each other luck?”

Sweetie Belle was wearing a cute dress, probably sewn by her own sister. Her reaping clothes, of course. Everypony was told to wear something nice for Reaping Day, so the Canterlot ponies could laugh as they watch you get chosen in beautiful dresses and suits to fight each other to the death. Go figure.

“Nice dress, ya got there” Braeburn commented coldly

A smile formed on Sweetie Belle’s lips as she thanked Braeburn for the compliment, missing the sarcasm. That was when Sparkler eyed something on Sweetie Belle’s dress, a small gold pin with a picture of a phoenix. It was beautiful and must have been pretty damn expensive. It must have been a family heirloom, thought Sparkler.

“So, how many entries ya got? Three?” Braeburn chided “Ah got about 18 when ah was yer age”

“Sorry” Sweetie Belle said, looking rather down

“It’s not your fault. In fact, it’s nopony’s fault” Sparkler said, she didn’t like to see the joyful filly sad eventhough they weren’t too close “Hey, we all have our names in there, right?”

“How many do you have?”

Sparkler paused for a while as she counted her number of entries. Every year, she would take tesserae for each of her family members. Since the Equestrian Hunger Games start reaping kids when they turn 10, that means that she has about 15 entries. She quietly sighed and gave the amount to the two ponies. Sweetie Belle didn’t say anything, since she didn’t need to take any tesserae.

They gave Sweetie Belle some berries which she paid for and the three ponies left their separate ways. Sparkler and Braeburn even separated the food and money they got so both their families could be well fed. After a few rocks almost breaking Braeburn’s skull and some sarcastic remarks from the stallion, they left for their houses. Typical way to send each other off.

Sparkler lived in a secluded section of former Ponyville, known as the Library. Once upon a time, the place had a giant tree which was transformed into a grand library. The librarian, a stallion by the name of Book Worm, was one of the casualties during the year where the sun never rose, known as Night Almost Eternal. After that, nopony had a special talent as a librarian and the tree was stripped down.

When Sparkler arrived home, she wasn’t surprised to see both her sister and mother prepared for Reaping Day. They both wore some worn out dresses since they had little to no money to use for themselves. Dinky was playing around with her magic to make things levitate. Sparkler sighed at the sight, she was terrible at magic an only knew simple levitation spells. Oh, how she wished she was better.

Ditzy Doo looked at her with her kind expression which was jumbled up with her wall-eyed stare. Ponies said her strange eyes had something to do with The Doctor, but it was hard to know how. Even Ditzy forgot how it happened.

“Goin’ for a bath, mom!” Sparkler said as she passed through, placing the groceries on the table.

“Your clothes are on the bed, my muffin!” Ditzy said back as she flew to the food, knowing just what to make for dinner.

Sparkler passed Opalescence on the way to the bathroom. Oh, how she hated that cat. Worse, it wasn’t even theirs. It just appears in the house every morning forcing Dinky, who loved the cat for some reason, to feed her. At first, Sparkler wanted to cook the cat but Dinky was against that idea.

“I still wanna cook you, you retarded excuse for a cat” Sparkler said as she levitated the cat and threw it out an open window.

Well, that felt much better.

After a nice cold bath (Sparkler had used up her supply of hot water for today to drown Opalescence earlier that morning), Sparkler looked at the clothes laid out on her table. No doubt, the faded blue dress once belonged to her mother. Just like everything else she owned. Oh, how she resented that. Still, she knew how little money she had to spend. After The Doctor’s death, they had no money to work with and Ditzy Doo wasn’t as happy as she used to be. In the end, Ditzy became a nurse after the post office fired her for burning down the building… twice… with a lemon. Sparkler too tried to help out with the family by hunting illegally, something that should have gotten her hung to death. Still, rules were long forgotten by the ponies of District 12, so she didn’t really know what the penalty for illegal hunting was, if there was one.

After putting the clothes on and receiving praises from her family member which Sparkler ignored, the family left to town square for the reaping. Two o’ clock sharp, or else there will be severe punishment. Of course, nopony knew what the punishment was. Perhaps it was being exiled, or being sent to jail. Maybe it was getting locked up in the place where you were exiled to. Meh, nopony remembered the rules, right?

After getting their DNA scanned by the bat-pony guards of Nightmare Moon, Sparkler and Dinky headed for their respective lines. Sparkler felt horrible when she saw the filly suddenly stop and cry, but she told her to move on. After all, she only had one name in the entire glass ball, what were the odds if her name coming up?

At the town centre, there was a building known only as the Harmon Building, built in each District as instructed by Nightmare Moon. There stood a large podium with a microphone flanked by two giant glass balls. Behind it were three chairs, with only one occupied. Rarity sat in the middle chair, feeling worrisome for the ponies down below who might be chosen to die. Worse, her younger sister was in the crowd as well.

The clock struck two, and Rarity came on stage to deliver her speech. She told of the history of Equestria, how it was once ruled by the kind Princess Celestia who was murdered in cold blood by her younger sister, Nightmare Moon, who had managed to escape from her thousand year imprisonment on the moon thirty years too quickly. She told of the revolution, which failed and resulted in the destruction of the thirteenth district. She spoke of the Games, a way of Nightmare Moon to make sure she still has power over the ponies despite giving them the warmth of the sun.

She spoke of District Twelve’s two victors. The first was a stallion by the name of Leeroy Wingkins, who won just because he was insane enough to jump into the fray holding a fried chicken leg. He was dead, now. The other… was Berry Punch.

Just as her name was said, Berry appeared on the stage drunk as hell. She attempted to wave at the audience but ended up hitting a chair, which caused a chain reaction causing half the stage to be destroyed, Berry Punch falling as well. She raised a triumphant hoof, and fell unconscious once more.

Rarity, giggling at Berry Punch’s uncouth behaviour, called in the next speaker. She then levitated her chair out of the rubble and placed it somewhere else, knowing what was to come. Just as she sat down, explosions and fireworks could be seen. A dazzling light show almost blinded the entire audience, if they weren’t already prepared with sunglasses each. In the heart of all the light was a blue mare wearing a purple hat and cape.

“Come one, come all! Come and witness THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE!” said the mare with pride

She waits for an applause, but of course none came. It gets pretty boring after seeing the same thing over and over again for more than five years. Still, that didn’t stop THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE from continuing her speech. She states how it was an honour to be there, all the while doing some magic tricks she was fond of. In truth, everypony knew that she could only do light shows. So much for “Great and Powerful”.

After a few moments of pointless rambling and spectacular lightshows, it was time to announce the tributes for this year. As always, the mares are chosen first. THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE’s horn glowed, and a random name was picked off from the huge glass ball. She levitates the slip of paper towards her and gets ready to read it out loud.

With a clear and loud (and rather obnoxious) voice, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE said the name written on the paper. Sparkler crossed her hooves, praying that it wasn’t her when she remembered Pinkie Pie’s warning. The good thing: It wasn’t her name.

“Dinky Doo!” THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE said out loud

“BUCK!” Sparkler screamed