The Equestrian Hunger Games - Act I: Reigning Darkness

“Okay, hotshots!” Berry Punch said during the morning, strangely five hours earlier than the time they usually find the drunk mare staggering about District Twelve “You two have one of two options to do during training today and I could probably guess which one you’re gonna take”

The two Tributes, Sparkler and Caramel were sitting at the table, groggily eating their breakfast as they tried their best to keep awake. They were woken up from their slumber at five o’ clock in the morning, which was two less than Sparkler’s usual wake up time. She gave out a hefty sigh as she tried to imagine a session talking with Berry that didn’t involve any alcoholic beverages being chugged down the Earth pony’s throat like it was her last.

She couldn’t

Oh, how she wished she could talk with Octavia again. At least it made her feel more enthralled. For some reason, she had an air of elegance which only somepony like Rarity could attain. She went out of her way to explain the Afonos to the mare and even risked getting killed by writing down her name. Sparkler liked that about the mare, still keeping her composure while proving to be a strong mare on her own.

“Now then, Hawkeye. Which one do you want?” Berry asked as she slammed a hoof on the dining table

“Beg your pardon?” answered the mare without as much as batting an eyelid “I wasn’t giving a damn shit on what you were saying”

“Oh, I knew that” laughed the plum mare “Anyway, you either get to hide your true potential until the final day, in about a week, or you could just go crazy and fuck everything up just for the hell of it and hope you could scare those Gamemakers enough to give you a ten out of ten…”

“One”

“… Obviously, you’re gonna choose option two and – a homo say what now?!” Berry exclaimed in shock when she heard the answer

“Pfft, get real. I’ve seen the past years’ Games, and I’m gonna get a flat out ten this time. Still, I’m a great hunter but I still need to learn some survival skills. That’s what my dad would have wanted me to do. Heck, even my mom would tell me to learn how to cook without burning up the entire forest first”

“I guess I’m with her” Caramel spoke up “I’m not that good with weapons anyway, probably should get prepared”

“Go for a knife” advised Berry as she took a swig out of her beer can “They’re small and simple enough to use without much trouble. If you plan on going down in style, I suggest a dagger”

The Earth pony then finished her can and plopped onto the floor, presumably dead. Still, it was too much to hope for. Trixie who was receiving multiple praises from Fancy Pants and Fleur by showing off her magic noticed the time and told the two ponies to get ready. Their training session was about to begin, and they needed to be early.

After the usual death threats from Sparkler about training at six thirty in the morning, the two ponies went back to their rooms and got ready to change. It was in her room that she saw Octavia once more, sitting by the untameable bed and admiring the beautiful phoenix pin owned by Sparkler. Still slightly grumpy from waking up too early, Sparkler jumped on the bed just to laugh at Octavia’s bewildered face and looked at the grey former musician.

“So, how’s it hangin’?” she asked with a slight smile on her face

“So-so” answered Octavia “Listen, you need to be careful from here on, okay?”

“Why’s that?”

“They’ve got hidden cameras around the whole place, and I don’t think they like us conversing as if we are friends”

“But we are, right?”

“Of course, but my food rations have dropped dramatically this morning and I am sure the Canterlot ponies have something to do with this”

She then handed out a black shirt and pants with red lines running down the sides. It was most probably the training suit, and Sparkler couldn’t help but to think about how strange she’ll look in that. Magenta doesn’t really work well with black, she guessed. Still, she took it and hastily put it on. When she was done, she looked into a mirror and sighed.

“Has anypony ever told you that you are one beautiful mare?” Octavia asked with a warm smile, placing the phoenix pin back onto the table.

“I don’t think about it much” was all Sparkler said

Bidding farewell to the Afonos, promising to loosen their friendship, Sparkler trotted to the main lobby where Caramel and Trixie were standing, with the latter talking away about her many goals and achievements (“In your dreams, Trixie” Sparkler muttered). Sparkler was wearing a similar suit while Trixie was sporting her usual cape and hat. Together, they rode the elevator to the basement where the training was supposed to be held.

Reaching the basement level, the three ponies entered a pair of giant metal doors, built in to probably stop some poor twat from killing himself by accident in a mad dash for the toilet. Sparkler noted that all the ponies there were extremely fresh and ready to beat the crap out of each other, besides her. Did everypony really wake up that early? Hey, even District Twelve was just starting to hear the faint sounds of people yawning at this hour. Of course, that was what she thought. Doing a head count, Sparkler noticed one mare was missing: Lyra.

Giving out a loud sigh, Sparkler thought that it was obvious that there was a mare that was even more uncouth than she was. They waited for a good ten minutes before Lyra suddenly popped out through the air vents, her coat and mane smeared with dust and dirt. She landed on the floor with a loud thud and stood up, giving a slightly insane grin in the process.

The ponies all looked at her with eyes full of anger and resentment, but that didn’t change Lyra’s euphoric attitude. She apologised rather daftly about being late and said that she got lost, so she decided to go Splinter Cell and make a grand entry. Before somepony could remark on that, the head Gamemaker appeared and told them to get inside the training grounds, leaving Trixie and the rest of the escorts outside the metal doors.

Inside, there was a huge array of weapons and devices, all scattered around the area strategically. Sparkler gazed at all the weapons joyously and tried her best to memorise the exact location of everything. There were four separate sections: melee, ranged, support and advanced.

Melee was probably short-ranged weapons, ranging from knives to swords to brutal battle-axes that could chop off all the heads of a Hydra in one fatal swoop that you’d still be wiping off the blood stain off your axe until you’re in your late eighties.

Ranged was, of course, Sparkler’s specialty. Bows, arrows, darts, and all that whatnot besides guns because according to the universal law, killing each other for entertainment is completely fine and dandy but cock a gun at somepony’s head and you could get sued, or hanged, or forced to listen to endless repeats of Justin Beaver until your ears bleed out.

And then there were the support class. Sparkler knew that must be the place she should start out, learning how to give yourself a bandage and not accidentally dismember your legs in an attempt to stop blood from gushing out your finger like a fountain on summer. She should probably learn how to cook and tie knots, but she was a master of the latter thanks to her illegal hunting expedition with Braeburn.

And finally, the advanced weaponry. Weapons so confusing that it could probably take a few days just to understand that the super attack pea is actually lethal (an accident made by some arse a few years back involving said pea thought Sparkler to steer clear of the items). There were weapons of many shapes and sizes, but usually only one would get chosen to be thrown off into the arena to claim its first victim, most likely the one who found the weapon in the first place.

Ignoring most of the long, drabbling speech, Sparkler was relieved to hear that the Gamemaker was done and had trotted off, leaving the twenty four soon-to-be murderers in the care of each other. She said goodbye to Caramel who worked his way to the melee department as she trotted over to the support class department.

Surprisingly, the place was empty. Apparently, everypony with half the brain of an ostrich thought that they wanted to lay their hooves on the nearest crowbar or dual bladed sword of justice. Sure, Caramel went there as well, but he had a plausible explanation. To her disdain, Lyra came there as well.

“Hey, Sparkler!” Lyra said, remembering that she wasn’t a fan of the Hawkeye nickname “Funny thing you came here as well, eh?”

“Are you stalking me?” Sparkler asked bluntly

“What?! As if! I just thought you’d be cool to hang out with, make some friends and have a laugh or two and all that crap”

“Until we have to fuck each other up senselessly…”

“Especially until we have to fuck each other up senselessly!”

The mare kept on talking an talking as they learnt how to cook, camouflage, heal and do a tap dance (in case of a tap dancing emergency). Surprisingly, Sparkler didn’t once scream at the mint Unicorn. Maybe hanging around Berry Punch for too long made her feel that a motor mouth like Lyra is actually manageable.

“… So anyway, what do you think of the Gamemakers?” Lyra asked, snapping Sparkler for her daydream of slitting Lyra’s throat open

“What about ‘em?”

“Think you found anypony that might give us a high score?”

Sparkler looked at the multiple ponies scattered around the area in formal clothing. They were all stuck up jerks and Sparkler was positive of that. However, one of them managed to catch the Unicorn’s attention. He was a light brown stallion with a somewhat spiky darker brown mane. She knew she must have seen that Earth pony before, but she couldn’t get a clear view of the stallion. He was too far away, after all.

“Seems impossible unless you’re in the Alpha Team, but we’ll manage” Sparkler said “You know, why don’t you try out the advanced weapons? Those look like fun”

“Good idea! I’ve been setting my sights on this thing over there! I think they were called chakrams or something but they were real cool!” Lyra then trotted off but looked back and waved a hoof, shouting “May the force be with you!”

Confused as to what that was even supposed to mean, Sparkler decided to end her support class lessons and go for a few weapons handling courses. She met Caramel in the melee section, practicing the uses of a knife.

“Hey, what’s up?” she asked, grabbing a butterfly knife and started to play around with it.

“Nothing much, I see you’ve made a friend” Caramel chided but was instantaneously met with a powerful uppercut to his jaw by Sparkler’s free hoof

“She’s not a friend, she just likes hanging around with me” Sparkler corrected as her mind absent-mindedly fiddled with the butterfly knife.

“You know, you should probably be careful with that. Lots of ponies got hurt with that and gave up”

Sparkler looked at the item in her hoof once more, expecting it to b on the verge of being chopped off. Instead, she found that the weapon was still being fiddled around as if she was using it her whole life. Caramel, who was astounded by the feat, quickly asked if she had ever wielded one before.

“I- I dunno! It’s the first time I’ve even seen this thing!” Sparkler retorted

She looked around and saw a Gamemaker watching her with amused eyes. It was the same one, the brown stallion with the darker brown mane. The stallion gave a wink and trotted away, showing his arse to be emblazoned with the mysterious image of…

“… An hourglass…” Sparkler mused

“Whassat?” Caramel looked at her questioningly

“That Gamemaker, he looks just like my dad! Even has the same Cutie Mark as him”

“Impossible. He’s supposed to be in District Twelve, or at least somewhere close since he was involved in that… explosion… Anyway, you’re probably just imagining things again. Seriously, first with the Nightmare Moon thin and now this? You should probably try and get yourself cured from your paranoia”

“I am NOT paranoid!” scoffed Sparkler, tossing the butterfly at the Caramel-coated equine and missing by only an inch “I’m just worried, okay? Ass hat…”

“Anyway, I’d better go and practice over at the support department” Caramel said quickly when he noticed things were starting to get a little out of hand “See you back on the twelfth floor?”

“Whatever, you lousy prick” Sparkler grunted and reached for a spear

Caramel slowly backed off into the support area, leaving the amethyst mare on her own with a pile of dangerous weaponry. Sparkler took the opportunity to try out all the weapons there. What happened surprised her greatly.

The spear felt natural in her hooves , as if she was born to use it. She quickly threw it away and grabbed a war hammer. Same results, of course. She tried spiked hoof-gloves, knives, even a bayonet, she was good at everything. Feeling scared for some reason, she ran to the ranged weaponry section and tried the same thing. Crossbows, throwing knives, boomerangs, she mastered them all.

She had the ability to wield any weapon she wishes to.