The Equestria Games: First Blood

by 8_Bit


Chapter II: Reaping

“Welcome, welcome, everypony of District 12.”

Mayor Mare stood alone on a stage, two glass bowls sat on pedestals either side of her. One contained the names of all the eligible stallions for the reaping, and the other was for the mares. Behind her loomed city hall, an intimidating brick slab reaching 3 stories high with a projector screen taking up the majority of the wall facing the large crowd. The mayor stood before the entire population of District 12, all ponies whose names sat in the bowls in two partitioned areas immediately in front of the stage. As was done with the names on paper slips in the glass bowls, stallions and mares were divided between the two areas.

“We have gathered here to select two brave ponies, one stallion and one mare, for the honor of representing District 12 in the 1st annual Equestria Games!”

Twilight stood among her classmates, each as terrified as the other. She desperately scanned the surrounding crowd, looking for the most caring set of eyes she could find. There were faces of concerned ponies everywhere she looked, until she finally lay her eyes upon her brother. Shining Armor returned her gaze, as he had spotted her in the corral of mares from the moment he took his place in the sidelines. This area was strictly for those fortunate enough to be above the age of reaping, fortunate enough to never have to worry about being forced into the arena. She looked into his eyes, and even from the distance she could still hear him saying “It’s okay.” The words were as crystal clear as if he were speaking them right into her ear.

“Now, we are fortunate enough to have a brief film to see, straight from the Capitol, to mark this momentous occasion,” continued the grey haired Mayor. Her attitude was cheerful enough, but her eyes betrayed her true feelings about what was to occur in the days to come.

As soon as the film began to roll on the enormous projector screen, Twilight looked back to Shining. He too returned her gaze once again. The images being displayed on the screen were brutal reminders indeed, made infinitely more powerful by the memories still fresh in the minds of the pony audience. Many more had this same reaction and desperately averted their gaze, knowing that should they be selected, the Capitol audience would revel in their teary eyed television debut. Nopony wanted to give the Capitol ponies this satisfaction. Twilight and Shining maintained this gaze for the whole film, and any sound effects or voice-overs were blurred out, nothing more than simple background noise. The film was utterly meaningless as long as they could lock each other in eye contact for this brief span.

Mayor Mare seemed to follow suit with the crowd, and with a lot less confidence in her voice, took the stage again.

“Well, wasn’t that… nice,” she said, putting a fair amount of unwilling force into the last word. The film had clearly had the desired effect on the audience. “Now," she continued. "The time has come to select our tributes. We’ll start with the stallions.”

She walked slowly over to the bowl, clearly burdened by the knowledge of what she was doing. She reached into the bowl, and fished deep down to the bottom of it. After a long time shuffling her hoof through the pile, she finally came up holding a single piece of folded paper. She returned to center stage, each step resounding loudly over the microphone and made infinitely louder by the eerie silence of the audience. Finally reaching the mic, she fiddled with the paper, finally succeeding in opening it and taking a deep breath before she uttered the name written on it.

“Thunderlane.”

The stallion crowd stood silent, each one slowly turning and looking at the stony face of the pegasus pony whose name had been called.

“Thunderlane, please come up onto the stage,” the Mayor repeated, clearly holding back tears.

The dark grey pegasus walked slowly towards the stage, as the crowd parted around him. On a normal day he would have flew to the stage, but that didn’t account for the state of shock that he was in. Twilight watched him from a distance. She had never spoken to Thunderlane before, but she was in his class in school. She often thought of him as arrogant and loud-mouthed, but she still thought of him as being a fairly good looking pony. Now she looked at him, face in shock and completely pale as though all the blood had been drained from it. It was worlds away from the classroom. He slowly took the stage, and stood next to the mayor.

“Right,” spoke the mare, “Now for the mares.”

Twilight started breathing heavily, becoming more terrified with every moment. The mayor stepped towards the glass bowl, and reached into it. Moments passed by like hours before she pulled out another slip of paper, and resumed center stage. Thunderlane had given up the shocked expression, and tried to put on an emotionless one as an act of defiance to bow to the ways of the Capitol. But none of his efforts could disguise the tears running down his face.

Then the Mayor spoke.

“Twilight Sparkle”

And that’s when Twilight’s world turned black.

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Twilight awoke to a gentle humming. As she woke, her blurry eyes revealed a dark figure standing over her. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. She was in a bedroom, but this was the most beautifully decorated room she had ever seen; the carpet was a deep shag pile in a luxuriant purple, the bed she was lying on was a four poster bed with satin sheets, the walls were plain with what appeared to be a carbon-fiber finish. And the dark figure, who had walked out as she got up, came back in with a glass of water. Twilight grudgingly took the glass from Thunderlane.

“Thanks,” she said. “What happened?”

“We were chosen at the reaping," he explained, causing Twilight to facehoof as he recounted what she already knew. His eyes were clearly red from crying. "Basically, the Capitol just signed our death sentences. I’m sorry Twilight, for both of us.”

Twilight suddenly had a thought. “Shining Armor? Where is he? What happened?”

Without saying a word, Thunderlane picked up a remote from the table besides Twilight’s bed and aimed it at the wall. What appeared to be little more than wall started glowing as a screen appeared built within it. Twilight was greeted by an overview of the arena where the reaping had taken place. The camera focused on the Mayor with a stone faced looking Thunderlane stood next to her, as she read Twilight’s name off the paper. The camera stayed on the Mayor for a few seconds, before panning round to see an empty space where Twilight had been stood.

“You fainted,” Thunderlane pointed out. “Doctor says you were hyperventilating”.

Twilight’s eyes never left the screen as she was greeted with the images of Shining Armor pushing his way through the crowd, only to be stopped by white suited ponies who quickly restrain him. Then, to Twilight’s horror, he starts calling her name as a unicorn in a white suit levitates her limp body and carries her up to the stage and then into the town hall. Her eyes then filled with tears as Shining breaks free of the restraint and runs towards the stage. The remaining white suited ponies quickly converge on him, pinning him down before completely surrounding him and delivering what looked to be a brutal beating.

“They beat him up pretty bad,” Thunderlane said, putting his hoof on her shoulder. “But he still came to see you when you were unconscious. He’ll be fine, its just some bruising.”

Twilight pushed him away, and stood up, staring into space. Shining had made her a promise, one that ringed in her ears relentlessly: "I won't let them take you. No matter what happens."

“I didn’t even get to say goodbye…”

This was the final turn of the screw. Twilight broke down in tears. Thunderlane quickly walked over and hugged her. Twilight could hardly believe it. The Capitol had already caused her to lose her parents, and now, in the cruelest way imaginable, they had taken from her the most important thing left in her world. She was beyond words, beyond actions. She just stood there, crying beyond control as Thunderlane tried desperately to comfort her. But when somepony loses everything they love, it takes more than a hug to make anything better.

This was a luxury that Twilight could not afford.