Diamond Tiara smiled as she turned the pages of her favorite photo album, filled with pictures of Silver Spoon. Silver Spoon and herself, Silver Spoon alone, Silver Spoon in the fine dress that she wore for her cutecenara. Silver, you are so pretty, you have no idea quite how pretty you are. But you're a lot more then just a pretty face. The best part of you is your mind and the way we lock together like the two parts of a zip. So many of your views are just like my own. And when I next see you I'm going to tell you just what I think of you. I wonder where you are though? Silver Spoon had been missing for days on end. She neither turned up at school, which was very unlike her, nor appeared at the Haughty Couture clothes shop, Rarity's Boutique or any of her other haunts. Diamond had got a little worried but had told herself that Silver must have been on some sort of family trip that she couldn't take Diamond on. But what sort of trip would Silver go on that I would not be allowed to go on with her? Maybe Princess Celestia has summoned her up to the Castle to offer her a post in the Equestrian Secret Service? She is certainly clever enough for that.
She decided to walk to Silver Spoon's mansion. If Spoony won't go to me, I will go to Spoony. After checking the weather calendar to make sure that she didn't step out in the middle of the latest scheduled rainstorm and get soaked, she walked the length of the two streets to the Spoon family mansion. It was a big place, as impressive as the mansion of the Diamond family, and unusual in that it had a family burial vault on it's grounds where generations of Spoons were laid after death to molder away. She knocked four times upon the door; it was a little secret code that the two had with each other, and a stallion servant opened the door and let her in. She trotted up to Silver Spoon's bedroom and opened the door.
Silver Spoon was sitting on her bed,and from the moment Diamond saw her it was clear that she was in a bad way. Her normally gleaming grey coat and silver braid was a matt gray, and her cutie mark, that silver spoon that Diamond had wished so many times to run her tongue over, had lost it's shine. Her eyes were full of tears as she sat there quietly sobbing.
"Hello Silver. Never fear, Diamond's here." Diamond smiled a big smile that Silver did not respond to. "How are things for you? I'll soon have you smiling again." And she thought quickly and launched into a song. When she had sung it last Hearth's Warming Eve for Silver, Silver had ended up rolling around on the floor in a giggle fit. Obviously it would not be as funny a second time, but it would surely make Silver smile. And Diamond wanted, no, needed, to see Silver smile again.
Luna won't be back on Hearth Warming Eve
It sounds strange I know, it's hard to believe
But the Guard Patrol's watchin' everybody these days
She was weavin' in the sky in her reindeer sleigh
So they radioed to every guard in the state
That it was only a matter of minutes to wait
When she landed on a housetop, there they were
Tellin' Luna to exhale in a breath-a-lizer
But Luna refused to take the breath-a-lizer test
"In that case Princess..., you're under arrest...!"
They frisked her where she landed on that little housetop
Found a miniature bottle of Peppermint Schnapps
Luna got a DWI
For weaving around in the sky
Believe me, I wouldn't lie
Oh..., Luna got a DWI
They took Luna down to the County Jail
Gave her one phone call to raise ten-thousand bail
By some strange note - Luna called me
Said she needed ten-grand just to set herself free
I told her I'd get on it and do what I could do
But I can't make anyone believe my story is true
Just trying to help Luna; I don't mean no harm
Now they're trying to put me in the funny farm
They impounded Luna's sleigh and her reindeer too
And they'll probably end up in the City Zoo
And there won't be any Luna next Hearth Warming Eve
I can't raise her bail..., no one will believe
There's a moral to the song, don't be mad at MADD*
If you have a few nippers, better catch a cab
Don't ever try to drive if you can't walk
Cuz even Princess Luna ain't above the law
Not a single smile, not even a little one, appeared upon Silver's face, nor did she give any sign that she enjoyed the song at the end of it. Diamond said to Silver "Cheer up a little, won't you? Maybe I can get Pinkie Pie to set up a party for you?"
Silver glared at Diamond. "How can I cheer up? Daddy died today and nothing can bring him back."
"Oh. How did he die? Can I see him?"
"A sudden heart attack; one moment he and I were talking together, the next moment he was dead on the floor. And yes, you can see him, he's in bed-tomorrow the servants will come and take him away and lock him in the family vault, and I'll never see him again." Silver led the way to where the body of her beloved father, Table Spoon, lay with Equestrian bits upon his eyes and Diamond bowed her head in respect. Then an idea came to her.
"Silver...since the Treaty of Canterlot a couple of years ago Changelings have been allowed into Equestria, provided they obey the laws and don't take the shapes of existing ponies without their consent. Why not get a Changeling to take your father's place? It'll be as if you had him back again."
Silver's grey cheeks turned a ruddy red under her fur to the point where it was visible to the naked eye, and she narrowed her eyes. "Diamond...do you really think that I loved my father so little that I could just stick a Changeling in his place and that would make me happy again? You have no idea how hurtful you are, all you think about is yourself. Get out, before I order the servants to throw you out."
As Diamond left the mansion, Silver went back to her father and pressed a kiss on his dead cold forehead. "Daddy, I don't want to live without you, but if I try and commit suicide and fail, then I might end up in a mental asylum or worse, paralysed. So I'm going to volunteer in this year's Equestrian Hunger Games so that the other tributes can kill me, and then I'll be with you in the afterlife."
The next day after a sleepless night thinking of her father she was in the main square of Ponyville when Rarity arrived for the reaping. Things had changed, she knew, from the original Hunger Games of long ago when forced reapings were common to punish the ponies for a rebellion against Celestia that happened centuries ago. But ponies were still asked to volunteer and every year a small number of them did. She noticed Diamond close by but ignored her and stuck her head in the air as if Diamond was a blank flank instead of her former best friend since kindergarten. Rarity said "This year there are a few places open for the three hundredth Equestrian Hunger Games. Does anypony wish to volunteer?"
Silver stuck her hoof up in the air and said. "I volunteer."
Diamond stared at her and her mouth dropped open. She won't last long out there in the arena unless I can be with her and protect her. "I volunteer!"
Rarity stared at them. It was unheard of for rich ponies who had everything to live for to volunteer for the deadly Hunger Games. Since compulsory reapings had become rare a hundred and fifty years ago, volunteers generally came from two sources; hard-core criminals, traitors and political dissidents who were given the choice of volunteering for the Hunger Games as an alternative to the living hell of an eternity frozen in stone but aware of it in the Canterlot Sculpture Garden; or the occasional dirt poor but free pony wanting the rewards for a Victor as an alternative to homelessness and eating grass to survive. The occasional troublesome beggar was reaped to get rid of them one way or the other. "Accepted, but once you get on the train there is no going back no matter who you are."
Diamond followed Silver to the train that would take them to where they would be smartened up, trained, and put into an arena a few days later to fight to the death. Once they were on board and had a whole carriage to themselves she asked her "Silver-by Celestia, why did you do such a thing? You don't have what it takes in you to win the Games-you'll die in the arena."
"That's the point," said Silver sourly. "My father has died and I no longer want to live without him. This way I will get to join my father in the afterlife, if indeed there is one."
"But think of your mother and me and everypony that would miss you if you died. I'm sure your father would not want you to join him in the vault." Silver looked at Diamond Tiara and thought for a long while.
"You're right, I was stupid to want to die. Somebody stop this train, I want to get off."
"I'm afraid that won't be possible," Rarity told them. "Once you volunteer and get on the train, there are only two ways out, as the Victor or dead in a box. Not even your rich families can save you now. And if you were thinking of jumping out of the train, it's going too fast and besides, it's passing through the Everfree Forest. Full of timberwolves, serpents, manticores and rogue changelings. If the fall does not kill you, they will."
Soon enough the train pulled into Canterlot, where a huge crowd of ponies, held back by barricades and Royal Guards, had come to see the tributes, and Diamond and Silver got their first look at their foes. There were two changelings with strange collars around their necks, two griffins and eighteen other ponies, most of them from Foalsom Prison. They were escorted into their training centre where a pony waited for them. "My name is Hoity Toity and I'm your stylist, in charge of making you look as good as possible for the sponsors. The more sponsors you have, the more likely you are to get help when it can make the difference between victory or death. Silver Spoon, you've really let yourself go." Silver Spoon gave an angry grunt in reply.
Soon enough they had been washed in warm water, dried throughly, combed until even Silver's coat shone and their cutie marks had been gilded with silver leaf to make them shine. She really looks beautiful now, although she still looks so sad Diamond thought.
She will come through this, I'll kill anybody who threatens her. But what if we make it to the final two? Will I let her kill me or will I end up giving in to my will to live and murdering the only mare I've ever loved?
Then it was time for the chariot ride so that the sponsors could see them. Diamond blew kisses to the crowd, looking for a way to escape and finding none, as there were too many guards and barricades present. Silver Spoon sat straight, gazing ahead of her.
Author's Note
MADD-Mares Against Drink Driving
Huge crowds of Canterlot unicorns, earth ponies and pegusai had flocked to see the chariot parade, and the looks on the faces of the condemned. Diamond stuck her head in the hair proudly as if such an event meant nothing to her, whilst Silver fought to hold back her tears, not wishing to publicly disgrace her family by crying like a newborn foal in front of everypony. After several minutes the chariots drew up in Alicorn Square, the central square at the heart of Canterlot, outside the main gate of Canterlot Castle. And there, her royal crown, breastplate and shoes burnished and shining, her white fur perfectly clean, was the living goddess Princess Celestia Equestris herself. Even though she came from such a wealthy family, Diamond Tiara had never come this close to the Princess before. I should hate her for setting up these Games and keeping them going for year after year. How many of her subjects has she sent to their deaths both inside and outside the Games? Or condemned to an even worse fate, an eternity of boredom frozen into living stone? But she's my Goddess, wise, beautiful, the deity that I've prayed to more then once. I can't hate her, I just can't.
The Princess mounted a pedestal and stared icily down at the tributes. "Most of you are the worst sort of criminals who rightly deserve an eternity trapped in my statue garden. One of you murdered her best friend and baked her body parts into cupcakes. Centuries ago you would have been executed for that offense. Others amongst you want political change. Not content with being able to elect your own local mayors, you want your head of government to be elected too. Has not Equestria avoided the horrors of civil war for a thousand years, and war with other countries for centuries?" She flexed her wings to their full extent, in annoyance at the very idea that somebody else should rule Equestria other then her. "Do you really think our country would be rich and prosperous if I was no good at ruling this country? Do you think that my experience of thousands of years of ruling is worth nothing? A few of you are so useless that you were sent here to dispose of you. And a very few of you have genuinely volunteered for this...I really don't know why. You will cleanse yourselves of your sins in battle, and the winner will receive a free pardon and enough bits to live comfortably on. Take them away and train them."
Diamond and Silver and the rest of them were escorted by Royal Guards into the Training Center, where a tall griffin with a scar upon his beak waited for them. "Tributes, my name is Oscar Dirlwanger. The names of griffins are very different then those of ponies. Twenty years ago I was found guilty of desertion from the griffin army and sent into the Games as my punishment. I survived against the odds and came out without being crippled or mentally destroyed. And took up a job training new tributes. I don't care why you have been sent here, that is not my concern, I am here to train all of you equally and teach you the basic rules of the Training Center and the arena. No direct sparring here with other tributes, you'll get plenty of time for that in the arena. Don't try and escape, it's impossible, you might as well try to break out of Foalsom Prison, that's how strong the security is here. Pay attention to your training, it could save your life. Out in the arena there is no prize for coming second. Out there in the arena the only rule is to kill." Diamond looked at Silver Spoon, who was now starting to shake with fear.
"The weapons will be those used a thousand years ago when Equestria was in a civil war...swords, spiked horseshoes, spears, daggers, bows and arrows, maces. They and various pieces of equipment will be scattered at a place called the Cornucopia, and at the start of the Games you will get the chance to race the others for them.There will be a clock counting down sixty seconds, and the pony who jumps off their podium before then will be blown to pieces. As you know, when they ended up in prison, the changelings, unicorns and pegusai amongst you were fitted with special collars. If during the Games a unicorn tries to teleport or a pegusai to fly more then seven feet off the ground; then the collar will explode automatically. That's to stop unicorns and pegusai from just teleporting out of the arena.There are no rules against alliances with each other, you are welcome to do that if you want to, just remember that only one pony will come out of this alive." Diamond looked at Silver Spoon that was now shaking with fear. "Of course there are other dangers in the arena to worry about," Oscar told them.
"Dangers like dying of thirst, starving to death, dying of exposure or falling victim to creatures such as carnivorous parasprites. Even normal parasprites can be a real hassle if they get into civilized areas, but these things eat flesh, including the flesh of ponies. Well, go to your stations and let's start training. In two days you all go into the arena, and may the odds be forever in your favour."
Diamond did her best at the weapons stations, despite the fact that as a rich and girly girl, she had never touched a weapon before. If I die early, Silver Spoon will not survive me for very long, I'm sure of it. If we end up being the last two...I will think about it when I come to it. She did surprisingly well for a total beginner, swiping away with the sword and dagger and thrusting away with the spear at imaginary enimies who were threatening her and Silver. What chance do we have of winning this? We are up against a mixture of hardened criminals who have committed dreadful crimes to end up here, and genuine volunteers who I assume know what they are doing. Once we go out there, our money cannot save us; it is just us against the world. And two of the tributes are changelings, meaning that I can't let Silver out of my sight whilst they are still around, in case one of them murders and replaces her and then feeds on my love before killing me too. How can we possibly survive this?
