As the giant doors swung closed, Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. Waving and smiling to the ponies who would most likely be watching her death for light entertainment was not her idea of a good evening. And the President was, well, a monster. In the most literal sense too, she had never seen a creature anything like this one. It made sense that such a creature would be the one to spread such misery across Equestria.
All the tributes disembarked their chariots as the stylists rushed over to congratulate them. Thunderlane took off his helmet and brushed a hoof through his mane, sending the coal dust flying out in small clouds.
“Ugh, just get me to the nearest shower,” he laughed as Lightning Dust flew over.
“You did great guys, just great. I think I’ll save hugs for later, looking at the state of you,” she said, looking over her shoulder as Hoity Toity and Photo Finish stepped up, each wearing ear-to-ear grins, compliments gushing out in an incomprehensible array of gibberish. Lightning took it upon herself to hush them, before continuing.
“Lets just say if anypony in the audience reacts like these two,” she said, looking to the starry eyed stylists, “Then you have a good chance of getting sponsors. How was it then?”
Thunderlane began to talk, but Twilight phased out, looking behind him towards the front of the line of chariots. A small group of the tributes had gathered at the front, and were chatting loudly. The general demeanor of the group was one she had seen before, in the school cafeteria. The popular table, where all the coolest ponies sat, joked, laughed, praised each other, and looked down on anyone not part of the clique. This same attitude was being shown here, the six ponies of the group laughing like they owned the place, not showing a single bit of fear for the upcoming events.
Lightning noticed Twilight’s absent gaze, and followed her eye line to the group.
“I think I see an alliance forming,” she said, snapping Twilight out of the trance.
The other three ponies turned to look. Thunderlane instantly felt what Twilight felt. After all, back in District 12, he was part of that clique.
“Districts 1, 2 and 4 are Capitol favorites,” Hoity Toity explained. “They were the first to submit near the end of the war, and with them the other Districts caved in. Since then, the Capitol has been generously assisting them with post-war clean up. It’s kind of understandable that they'd form an alliance, when you think about it.”
Twilight rapidly looked away as Rainbow Dash looked up, momentarily locking them in eye contact. She then said something to her fellow tributes, after which they all turned to look at the District 12 ponies. Rarity and Blueblood, Rainbow Dash and Nighteye, and Pinkie Pie and Fire Work. They all looked over with the same smug look Thunderlane had often adopted in school, when he was arrogant in class, or picking on some of the younger ponies. A look that, without words, said “What you gonna do?”
Lightning Dust broke the awkward silence as the groups exchanged stares across the hall.
“So, who’s hungry?”
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Twilight and Thunderlane stepped out of the elevator onto the top floor; the Penthouse. Both stood dumbfounded, as the room they saw made the train they had rode here in look like a run down outhouse strapped to a coal truck.
The ceiling rose three stories above them, supported by two rows of massive glass pillars. Lights hidden out of sight above and below the pillars rapidly made them glow brightly, slowly but constantly shifting colors to traverse the entire spectrum, only to come full circle and do it all again. Behind one row of pillars sat a mahogany dining table twice the size of the entire kitchen in Twilight s house. The whole thing sat as a smooth slab with a semi-circular underside, as if the tree had been cut down, carved, and placed straight there. The floor was made of marble tiles, with tiny strips of LED’s in the gaps between each tile. Behind the other row of pillars was a lounge, with futuristic looking sofas that seemed to have sunk into the floor. Covering the floor was a deep shag pile carpet of black fur, which looked like it cost more per yard than all of the food Twilight had consumed in the last year. The walls of the lounge had the same carbon fibre effect, and they held the biggest TV Twilight had ever seen in a room, rising above them and taking up at least half the height of the massive three storey wall.
Lightning Dust chuckled as she pushed past the motionless ponies, still stood still in awe of their surroundings.
“It’s something, ain’t it? Welcome to your home for the next few days.”
Still no response. Twilight and Thunderlane remained frozen on the spot, jaws wide open.
Lightning turned on the spot to face the zombies, smiling at the stunned expressions that didn’t seem to be fading.
Hoity Toity and Photo Finish stepped out of the elevator, laughing at the statues in front of them.
“Look, why don’t you both show them to their rooms?” Lightning suggested. “They can shower off before dinner. Oh feathers, make it quick as well. They’re getting dust all over the floor.”
As the stylists took the pair by the hooves, a pair of Avoxes appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and began sweeping up the mess. Lightning Dust crashed on the sofa, and switched on the TV.
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Twilight stepped out of the shower into her space age bathroom, still terrified by the control panel it had. Hoity Toity had shown her how to use the touch screen to change the temperature, before handing her some toiletries and leaving. Twilight had tried some of the controls while conditioner soaked gently into her mane, but had been greeted with deafening Dubstep that vibrated the whole room mercilessly. The small puddles at her hooves had danced around in the air as the wub-wubs granted them momentary weightlessness, before she finally managed to turn it off.
“DJ Pon-3…,” Twilight had muttered to herself. “And some ponies call that music?”
After that, she had avoided the controls altogether until she was completely clean, and reasoned that a large red button on the screen that read “OFF” wasn’t going to shatter her eardrums with a painful mishmash of computer generated noises that somepony had the nerve to class as music upon discovering it. Her reasoning was sound, and she breathed a sigh of relief as she closed the shower door behind her, ears still ringing.
“Why does anypony need a radio in the shower?” she asked herself rhetorically. “Let alone leave it on at full volume with DJ Pon-3 on?”
She wrapped a towel around her waist and walked through into her bedroom. The bathroom door was almost like a portal, as she stepped from the bathroom that was modern to the extent of a self flushing toilet (Twilight had nearly fallen down it when it flushed itself whilst she was still using it), into a Bedroom that looked like the inside of a royal palace. Her four poster bed was the size of her whole room back in District 12. This was classed, by Capitol standards, as a single bedroom, and Twilight simply could not fathom how anypony could need all this space just for themselves. As she walked over the wardrobe to get another towel to dry her mane, she heard a knock at the door, and a muffled Thunderlane calling.
“Are you decent in there?”
As she wrapped the towel around her head, she responded. “Sure, come on in.”
He opened the door slightly and leaned his head in.
“Lightning says that dinner's ready. Hey, what was all that commotion earlier?”
Twilight blushed, knowing he meant the radio in the shower. “Commotion?” she asked, feigning confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Dunno, but it came from here. Sounded like DJ Pon-3.”
“Ugh, Dubstep…,” Twilight said, walking to the door. “Can’t stand it, it just sounds like noise to me.”
“Err, what are you doing?” Thunderlane asked as Twilight reached the door.
“What do you mean?” she responded. “Going to dinner.”
“In a towel?”
“Yeah, in a towel. Get moving Romeo.”
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Twilight sat back in her chair, holding her stomach tightly as a large bulge continued to growl ceaselessly at her, interrupted every so often by a loud belch.
Photo Finish looked shocked at each release of gas, but Lightning Dust and Hoity Toity just smiled each time.
“Looks like you may need to go easy on in the future” laughed Hoity. “It seems you’ve eaten a bit more than you can handle.”
Twilight smiled uneasily. Her stomach was giving her pain, but this was the first time in her life she had eaten enough to become overfull. It was painful, but she was enjoying it. She had taken off her head towel earlier when her mane dried off, only for an Avox to quickly come and take it. The rapid fire service they provided was both impressive and creepy, and made Twilight feel uncomfortable every time they waited on her.
“So what happens tomorrow?” Thunderlane asked, in between spoons of strawberries and cream.
“Breakfast here at 7” Lightning responded. “Then you need to be at the Training Center floor at 8. You’ll be fully briefed down there, but from what I’ve gathered you’ll be spending most of the next few days down there. Listen to what Spitfire and Soarin' tell you, they’ve been assigned to keep an eye on you during training. You’ll train from 8 til 12, then lunch will be served in the cafeteria down there. After that, more training. In the mornings you’ll do the mandatory stuff, and afternoons you get free reign of all the various stands there. You finish at 5, then come back up here to relax, and dinner will be served at 9. I’d recommend heading to bed now. It’s been a long day, and you've got longer ones coming.”
Twilight and Thunderlane nodded, and walked out of the main hall and down the corridor together. They reached Twilights room first, and to her surprise, Thunderlane hugged her. The embrace lasted a few seconds, before he loosened his grasp, and smiled at her gently.
“Goodnight Twilight” he said, before heading off to his room, not looking back once.
“Goodnight…,” she almost whispered, before pushing the door open and stepping in, closing it tightly behind her. Almost in a daze, she took off the towel still wrapped tightly around her waist, and dropped it on the floor, before climbing onto the massive bed and getting underneath the thick, silken sheets. Had he hugged her as a sign of legitimate affection, or was he putting on an act to appeal to her sensitive side, knowing if it came to the two of them in the arena, she wouldn’t be able to bring herself to kill him?
These thoughts danced around Twilight's head, relentlessly forcing her to ask “What if?” to every plausible scenario. What if he was being sincere and she killed him in the arena? What if he really was tricking her, and she fell for it? What if he just hugged her so she would stay awake and ponder the potential outcomes all night, and be exhausted at training in the morning?
Twilight’s mind eventually tired, and the thoughts faded as her world entered into one of darkness and silence as the tight hold of sleepiness finally kicked in.