The Equestrian Hunger Games - Act I: Reigning Darkness

Sparkler rode on the elevator, hoping to finally achieve peace and quiet from all the idiots in the outside world. Sure, not all of them are idiots, but Sparkler hates everypony. End of story. Sadly, Luck was never on Sparkler’s side to begin with, so somepony still managed to get on with her. It was the mare from Four, Mjolna.

“…”

“…”

“…”

The conversation carried on for a few seconds when the elevator stopped on the fourth floor. As quickly as she came in, Mjolna left the elevator. She seemed to turn back for a second, staring at Sparkler with electrifying yellow eyes. Her glare was undecipherable, mysterious to all.

“I am honoured to have partaken in this conversation with you” Mjolna said casually as the door closed.

Sparkler, who was pretty much confused by that, simply let it go as she looked at the numbers on the elevator rise higher and higher. It was new technology, so it was still rising up rather slowly. It was at these few silent moments that Sparkler tried to collect her thoughts.

She was suspicious of Nightmare Moon; that was obvious enough. For some reason, her coat had become a dark blue hue. She even accidentally called herself “we”. Honestly, even a five year old wouldn’t have made that mistake! There was also the fact that she seemed to be hesitating. Hesitating… for what? She was supreme ruler of Equestria, why would she be scared?

The floor dinged as the elevator reached the twelfth floor. Instantly, she was greeted by a gasping Fleur and Caramel.

“Sparkler, what are you DOING?!” Caramel asked with wild eyes looking at her.

Not really understanding what Caramel was saying, she looked at her body. True, the fire was still raging as hot as ever. It was starting to look like a suit of armour made of the inferno of Tartarus. What made the mare herself truly surprised was the fact that she was playing with the fire. A fireball, being tossed casually by the mare as if it was the most natural thing in the world. The suit was starting to tear as well from over stretching. She should have been burnt to a crisp.

But the fire was synthetic…

It should have only been able to be used on the suit. Anywhere else, it would just flicker off and die. That way, nothing too terrifying would happen if the tributes (read: Sparkler) were to do something disastrous. It didn’t even have that far of a range.

“Nothing, duh!” Sparkler tried to cover up her own shock, making the fireball extinguish as she threw it behind her.

“You should probably put out that fire, before you scare some other pathetic buffoon” she heard a familiar, annoying mare say

“Get lost, Berry”

“Dinner’s after the recap, Hawkeye! Hotshot here’s been waiting to watch it with you!” Berry shouted some more despite Sparkler being in the same room. Drunk, probably.

“Don’t call me that!” Sparkler said before quickly adding “And stop telling everypony else to call me that!”

She then stormed off into a room, positive that it was hers. She was met with a suitcase that looked like it belonged to another mare. Not willing to leave the room and looking weak, she levitated the suitcase and threw it into the adjacent room, which was met with the sound of a stallion holding his breath in pain and a blue unicorn asking what her stuff was doing in somepony else’s room.

She needed peace and quiet, but she also needed to see the recap. Who knows if there are more clues to be found in that mysterious speech made just now by the Ruler of The Night. Quickly taking off the suit, turning off the flames in the process, she dashed into a room with a TV, positive that it was the room she needed to be in.

Luckily for her, it was.

“Glad you could make it” Caramel said, still worried about Sparkler “Come on, Trixie’s gonna start it right now”

“Yeah, whatever” Sparkler muttered

The video started easy enough, with all the Tributes coming out on their chariots, each with their own unique design and look. She started to realise just how boastful she looked, shaping the flames into wings and smiling her proud smile before shying out when the chariot ride ended. The others may have noticed this as well, as it was a drastic change from the usual Sparkler who insulted others and cursed just for the fun of it and was a deemed psychopath.

Then it was the time she was waiting for, Nightmare Moon’s speech. She listened carefully to all of her words, her actions. Her heightened senses made things much easier to detect such changes. It was early on in the speech when she saw the first sign, Nightmare Moon shuddering before the coat started brightening up. It was dark at that time, and almost impossible to see. Still, she managed to notice it. Whoo, go Sparkler!

A few more minutes in, and Nightmare Moon looked at the Tributes. However, those eyes that looked at the twenty four suicide victims weren’t of a tyrant, they were of somepony pleading for help. Worse, she was sure those eyes were staring right at her.

“Now wasn’t that rejuvenating?” Fancy Pants said happily when the video ended “You both did marvellously, and I could not have done it better myself!”

“It was good, I suppose for some newcomers” Trixie chided, looking at the two Tributes with bored eyes “Well, time for dinner!”

Caramel looked at Sparkler once more, knowing just what the mare was thinking. It was obvious she was still worried about Nightmare Moon, but Caramel thought it was the least of their problems. They still had to die in a free-for-all death match and he still needed to find a way to distribute Canterlot’s money to the poorer districts.

He stood up and trotted away, followed closely behind by Fleur and Berry Punch. Sparkler, determination showing on her face, stifled a laugh as she trotted off as well, closing the door with a loud SLAM.

Dinner was simply sublime. All around the Tributes were food they never even dreamed of having. They both started stuffing food into their mouths as much as they could, positive that they would puke it all out later. Still, that didn’t stop them! They finished all the pastries and green food, Sparkler even managed to see some meat which she ate despite receiving disturbed glances form the Canterlot ponies.

“What? It’s good” Sparkler said “Sure, it ain’t that good for your health, but it makes a fine side meal”

Caramel took one and joined the fun.

After another hectic feeding, Trixie told them of tomorrow’s schedule; training, training and even more training. Sparkler, who was actually anticipating that part of the Games, trotted off into Trixie’s former room (“So it was YOU!” Trixie yelled before the door slammed into her face). She was quite shocked to see a grey mare sitting on her bed, apparently attempting to fix the covers up after Sparkler decided to jump on the bed before watching the rerun.

“Who are you and what are you doing in my room, bitch?” Sparkler said, adding the curse word for added measure

The mare in question, finally giving up on Sparkler’s piece of work, turned and looked at her. They just stood there… staring into each other’s eyes… for quite a while… Sweet Celestia, this is boring.

“Look, are you mute or something?” Sparkler finally asked, playing with the lamp on the bedside by now “Because if you are, I need to go and get some shut eye, so get the fuck outta my-”

“On the contrary, I am NOT mute” the mare said with an accent, one which the author could only describe as a ponified version of British “And as for who I am, have you not seen any other ponies in bowties running around doing all your work for you?”

“Nope, don’t give a shit, really” Sparkler approved

“We are known as the Afonos, condemned criminals forced to work as slaves for the rest of our lives” the grey mare started to explain without caring much about the rude mare “We are all here for some reason or another, I was given the job for speaking out against the Canterlot officials after my orchestral arrangement”

“Wow…” Sparkler said speechlessly “But… can’t you guys just, run away or some shit?”

“Unless we want to be instantly killed off by the magic deadlock that surrounds us, no” the mare sighed once more “I shall leave now, it was nice talking to you. Idon’t really have anypony else to go to nowadays”

“Just hold on one fucking second!” Sparkler cut off “You haven’t even told me your name!”

“Afonos’ are not allowed to speak our names…” the mare started to say before she was handed a pencil and paper, Sparkler grinning her malicious grin “Well, haven’t tried that before”

“Do it!” Sparkler yelled as she grinned happily

The mare picked up the pencil with her mouth slowly, hoping to not die a slow and excruciating death. She was utterly surprised when she actually didn’t! She wrote one letter, then the next, and so on. Apparently, writing wasn’t involved in the Afonos’ punishment. Of course, others have thought of this but were too worried of death to try it out. In the end, she stopped writing and handed the piece of paper back. On it was written one word, with fancy cursive writing that looked beautiful.

Octavia.

Sparkler wanted to say something else, but Octavia had vanished. Sparkler, considering it rude by her standards, flopped off onto her bed and stared at the ceiling. Tomorrow she was going to fight off some dummies and watch as others chop off dummies, and she was looking forward to it! Oh, this is going to be good.

Before she dozed off, she remembered something that she had received from Bon-Bon earlier on during her short meeting with her. Bon-Bon’s sweets. She found it on the nightstand, no doubt taken out of the train by some other Afonos while they were busy riding chariots while trying to burn everypony else with prosthetic flame.

She took one out one ate it, savouring the flavour. Bon-Bon always made good, delicious, mouth-watering sweets that could make Rarity do a belly roll just to get another one. Still, it was nothing compared to Pinkie Pie’s pastries or her mom’s muffins. She regretted not giving one to Octavia and continued eating, thinking about her own paranoid thoughts about Nightmare Moon and the training session tomorrow.