“Good Evening Equestria!”
Fancy Pants sat upon the stage, facing the cheering Capitol audience of thousands upon thousands of ponies. The live footage blared on large screens inside the foyer of the training center, where a rudimentary lounge area had been set up for the tributes. All 24 of them sat around the large room on various sofas, dressed to impress, chatting in small groups. The clique ponies had pushed together some of the larger sofas so they could face each other, shutting out everypony else, whilst the other tributes sat in various smaller groups.
Twilight and Thunderlane found themselves chatting to Fluttershy, Applejack, Scootaloo and Lyra. Fluttershy wore a green dress in a leaf pattern, whilst Applejack wore what looked like a cowgirl outfit, only with added frills. Lyra wore an elegant purple evening dress, and Scootaloo wore a light pink tutu. Twilight thought she looked simply adorable in it, but the filly wore an expression that screamed of “I’m going to kill my stylist”, so it was more than likely a subject that was best to be avoided.
Considering it was a little more than twelve hours before they’d all be killing each other, the mood was surprisingly jolly. The group looked expectantly at Applejack, who was thinking over a math joke Twilight had told to try to lighten the mood. Everyone had got the joke, but Applejack was a bit less mathematically minded than the rest of them.
“Ah’m mighty sorry Twilight. Ah’ just don’t get the joke. Yer’ fancy mathematics are wasted on a country pony like me. Ah’ just don’t see why you need 3.14 apples to make apple pie. Ah’d use 6 apples personally, but it all depends on the size of the pie.”
The rest of the ponies simultaneously facehoofed as one of the stagehands walked over to the clique, and walked away followed by Rarity and Blueblood. Rarity wore an elegant purple dress, with a tiered skirt that juxtaposed different shades of purple as it traversed through different tiers. Blueblood wore a cream colored suit, and a black undershirt. They looked at each other with confidence as they were led out the front door of the training center to the back stage.
Everypony in the atrium turned to look at the nearest screen, as Fancy Pants introduced Blueblood, who walked out onto the stage with a self-assured swagger. He sat down in his seat and the interview began. Fancy Pants was surprisingly good at the interviews. Whilst Twilight had expected him to be quite uppity, and unsympathetic to the situation, he was actually being quite friendly. Sure, Blueblood was full of himself, but Fancy Pants just seemed to roll with it. When Rarity took her turn on the stage, her confidence was washed away by the thousands of eyes observing her every move. Fancy Pants was quick to pick up on this, and spoke to her with a comforting tone that soon had her back to her boastful self.
By the time Rainbow Dash had walked off the stage from her interview, where she had assured everypony that her victory was in the bag, all the remaining tributes had lost interest in the interviews, and had gone back about their various conversations.
Twilight and Thunderlane had started off by talking about home, which caught the attention of everypony in the group. It turned out that everypony was curious about what the other Districts were like. From this sparked a ten minute Q&A regarding every tiny detail of District 12.
“So Scootaloo,” Thunderlane said, now starting to feel homesick. “What about District 5? What’s it like there?”
Scootaloo shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “It’s not exactly paradise. The power stations are massive, and the generators are steam powered. So we need a lot of coal, and that makes the air really dirty and horrible.”
Twilight and Thunderlane were used to coal dust. It was a common thing in District 12, but almost all the coal mined there was shipped away on the day of mining by the Capitol trains. It never stuck around on a large scale, and it was never burned in an industrious way.
“The whole District is just one city, with these giant factories right in the center of it. You can see the chimneys from miles away. The smoke and coal dust goes into the air, so we always have this thick black smog that sits just below cloud level. When I rode the train here, it was the first time I’ve seen the sky in years.”
“In years?” Fluttershy said with a gasp. “Oh my, that sounds terrible!”
Everypony nodded in agreement. Twilight pictured the clearing in the Everfree Forest, only with the sky clouded by ash. In such gritty darkness, there was no way the rainbow in the mist would ever be graced with an opportunity to let its beauty show.
Scootaloo just shrugged it off. “It’s dingy and dusty, but it’s still home.”
As Fire Work came back into the atrium from his interview, a stage hand approached the small group, sending Scootaloo to wait backstage. She headed towards the door, meeting up with Clockwork Dawn along the way.
“So what about you, Applejack?” inquired Fluttershy. “What’s District 11 like?”
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The mood was tense between Twilight and Thunderlane as they sat backstage, waiting for Applejack to finish her interview. The conversation about their respective homes made the time fly for everypony involved. Before too long, Scootaloo, Lyra and Fluttershy had returned from their respective interviews, Fluttershy still in a nervous fit of shaking that the audience had found simply adorable.
The comments Lyra had made about the audience rang through Twilight’s ears as she began to sweat nervously. “I’ve never seen so many Ponies in one place before” she’d said. Fluttershy hadn’t made things any better, stating “There must be thousands of Ponies out there.” The screens in the atrium never turned to face the audience, focusing solely on the stage, but given the terrified expression Fluttershy had, it was extremely unlikely that she’d been exaggerating.
“Now everypony, we reach the last of the interviews by welcoming our Tributes from District 12!”
Thunderlane took a deep breath.
“You ready?” Twilight asked.
He shrugged indifferently. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Everypony put your hooves together, for Thunderlane!”
He took another deep breath, and walked out onto the stage, immediately being greeted with loud applause. He smiled and waved to the crowd, before shaking hooves with Fancy Pants, and taking his seat.
“So Thunderlane,” Fancy Pants began, as the applause dispersed into silence. “Tell us a little about District 12.”
“Well, it’s not quite as fancy as the place you’ve got here.”
Twilight was marveled at his confidence. He wasn’t even breaking a sweat, and she could already feel her mouth going dry.
“Can you give an example?”
“Hmm, Wardrobes.”
Fancy Pants looked confused. “Wardrobes?”
“Well, my wardrobe at home isn’t that big, you see. The one I’ve been using since I got here, well, let’s just say I nearly got lost in it yesterday.”
A wave of laughter erupted throughout the audience. Fancy Pants was similarly amused, sitting back with a smile, waiting for the viewers to finish laughter.
“So, how did you get out again?”
“Ah, you see I was smart about it. I left a trail of breadcrumbs.”
A fresh bout of laughter spread through the audience. Thunderlane was a delight to them, his friendliness with a touch of sarcasm being something new entirely. Even though the joke wasn’t overly funny, they absolutely loved him.
“Breadcrumbs, smart,” Fancy Pants noted as the laughter died down once more. “Now, on to the Games. How do you feel about them? Nervous?”
“Not really. After the wardrobe ordeal, I’d say I’m pretty prepared.”
“I dunno. Being lost in a wardrobe doesn’t strike me as being a sufficient preparation for going into the arena.”
Thunderlane leaned forward, adopting a slightly more serious tone. “Any stallion who gets trapped in a wardrobe, and finds himself surrounded by racks of dresses has every right to claim he’s been through a hellish experience.”
That was the final straw that left most of the audience in uncontrollable laughter. Twilight smiled at this, as her wardrobe contained dresses and suits, as did Thunderlane's. Lightning Dust had explained when they'd first arrived that both rooms were kitted out to suit both a male and a female tribute. The Capitol was swimming in money, and could afford to do this. When the Tributes arrive, they just get given a room at random. The Training Center had originally been a residential block for the most prestigious Capitol families, so every floor was essentially the equivalent of a mansion, with about ten bedrooms each.
“Now, we’re almost out of time here,” Fancy Pants said, catching his breath from expressing his amusement. “So before we make like winter and wrap it up, let’s talk about your training score. You only got a 6, but how do you feel about your chances when you actually get into the arena.”
Thunderlane gave one of his indifferent shrugs. “It’s out of my hooves. The score is low, yeah, but anypony can show a massive difference in how they act in training, and how they do when they’re actually in the arena. I’m just gonna go out there, do my very best. If I survive, then all the better, but if I die, I’m going down fighting.”
Fancy Pants nodded. “Well said, very well said. It’s been a pleasure.” He then stood up, and turned to the audience. “Everypony, from District 12, let’s have a round of applause, for Thunderlane!”
The crowd screamed their approval as he walked off the stage, waving as he went. When he had walked off, he turned around, looking back to Twilight, who was waiting for her cue at the opposite end of the stage. He gave her a friendly wink and an encouraging smile, before making his way back into the atrium, presumably to watch her interview on the screens.
“And now,” Fancy Pants began. “We come to the last interview tonight, our lovely mare from District 12. Everypony please give a big round of applause, for Twilight Sparkle!”
Twilight took a deep breath, and shakily walked onto the stage, waving to the cheering crowd. She almost panicked and fled the moment her eyes adjusted to the spotlights aimed at her. The comments Lyra and Fluttershy had made about the crowd didn’t even come close to covering it. The birds eye view she’d had of the stands had been obscured by the sheer height she was at. The stands stretched back for hundreds of rows, all semi-circled around a densely packed VIP area on the floor. Right in the front row, surrounded by guards, was President Discord himself. Her body was on autopilot as she surveyed the crowd, slowly walking towards the seats in center stage. She was relieved to see some friendly faces in the front row, catching eyes with Lightning Dust, as well as Hoity Toity and Photo Finish.
After what felt like an eternity, she came face to face with Fancy Pants, who happily shook her hoof, and gestured for her to sit down, before he took his place in the seat next to her.
“So Twilight,” he began. “We all saw how you reacted at the Reaping. I think everypony here wants to know what happened.”
Her mind flashed back to her talk with Hoity Toity as the prep team went to work on her outfit. “Flatter them,” he had told her. “Act like it’s an honor to be here.”
“I guess I was just so amazed to think I’d get to come here. I guess the excitement was a bit overwhelming.”
The crowd gave some appreciative chuckles at this.
“And has it met up to what you expected?” Fancy Pants asked.
Twilight took a moment to think. “Flatter them.”
“No. It’s been so much more amazing than I could ever have expected,” she said, forcing a schoolfilly grin onto her face.
The flattery had the desired effect. The crowd gave her a round of applause for this. She realised she had them firmly in her hoof, and began to relax.
“Well I’m very pleased to hear that,” Fancy Pants said, being a lot nicer than Twilight expected. He was very good at helping nervous ponies through interviews, as she’d seen with Fluttershy’s interview. “Now, let’s talk about your training score. I think you surprised everypony with that 10. How do you feel about your chances of winning, given a score like that?”
“Well I definitely feel a lot more confident about my chances.”
“That’s good. Hold on to that confidence, you’ll be a lot more focused in the arena if you do.”
Twilight nodded appreciatively. The interview was going well, she felt a lot more comfortable, and she had managed to flatter the Capitol ponies. Things were beginning to look up.
“Now before we finish, I have one more thing I want to ask you.” Fancy Pants said, before giving a signal to a pony off stage, and the wall behind them flashed into life as a hidden projector shone a giant picture onto it.
Twilight turned to look, stunned to see a screenshot from the Reaping footage. It was Shining Armor, right as the camera had panned to him following her fainting. He had just made it out of the crowd of spectators, and was beginning to push his way through the crowd of mares. Peacekeepers could be seen on the edge of the shot, beginning to charge towards him to restrain him.
“This pony,” Fancy Pants began. “I take it the two of you are related?”
Twilight could barely breathe. She had been starting to relax, maybe even enjoy the interview, but the wave of emotions the screenshot had sent barrelling towards her had left her in a state of near paralysis. Fancy Pants picked up on this in a matter of seconds, and leaned over, taking her hoof in his, rubbing it supportively.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it. I know it must be tough being here, away from everything you know and love.”
The support he was providing gave Twilight a momentary burst of confidence that allowed her to force herself to speak.
“That’s my older brother,” she said in an almost whisper. Luckily, the Capitol had extra powerful boom microphones set up above her, and her voice came through the speakers, quiet, but crystal clear.
Fancy Pants nodded understandingly. “Are the two of you close?”
Twilight managed to force herself to speak again, this time able to get a bit more volume to her words. “He’s the most important pony in the world to me.”
The whole audience awww’ed at this. Without meaning to, Twilight had managed to reach them on the deepest emotional level. Fancy Pants gave another one of his understanding nods. He was very good at this.
“I’ll tell you what. With that 10 you got, you have a good chance of winning. So you hold on to the thoughts of your brother in that arena, and I have confidence that you will go home to him, alive and well.”
“Thank you,” she responded almost silently.
Fancy Pants gave her one more nod, before standing up to address the audience. “From District 12, Twilight Sparkle!”
The audience gave their loudest applause yet, as Twilight began to walk off stage. As she walked, she once again took on the act of waving to the audience. As she reached the edge of the stage, while taking her final cursory glance of the screaming Capitol ponies, something strange caught her eye.
Thunderlane was backstage to greet her, giving her a tight hug, and repetitive bouts of “well done”, but her mind was elsewhere. She stared into space as she replayed the images in her mind over and over again. As she had surveyed the audience, her gaze had passed over the President. For that one brief moment, as if he knew exactly when she was looking at her, he had done something. Something so odd, so strange, that Twilight was chilled to the bone just thinking about it.
President Discord had winked at her.