//------------------------------//
// Training 
// Story: The Pony Games 
// by Eternal Flame 
//------------------------------//

Everypony walked into the training centre. It was huge and black, lit with tiny white lights. Opposite them, there was a huge television screen, with the news of the hunger games blaring. Waiting for them, there was a gamemaker.

"This is the training centre," she said. "You will have two days to learn how to fight and learn survival skills. Good luck. After the time is up, you will show your chosen skill to the head gamemaker and his crew. You will get a score out of twelve, which will be on the television at 21:00."

They were toured around the centre. There were computers and fireplaces, ropes and climbing frames. There were lots of weapons. There was sword throwing (which caught Coldblood's eye), bow and arrows, spears and tridents. When they finished the tour, they all raced off to different stations.

"Hey! Rainbow Dash!"

It was Ember Blaze.

"Do you want to be allies? I know plants like the back of my hoof, and I can do anything with a sword."

"No. It'll make it harder for me."

"Okay. Think about it though." Ember Blaze said.

She turned away and headed towards the rock climbing.

"Wait!"

"Wha-"

"I accept your alliance."

"You want to be my ally? But you said-"

"Allies?" Rainbow said.

"Allies." Ember Blaze replied.

"Rainbow Dash, if we did different stations at different times, then we can tell each other all about it afterwards." 

"Sounds good."

Rainbow Dash saw a spear- throwing station, and flew over to it. Chicken Elephant had a go at throwing them, but as soon he saw Rainbow Dash, he toppled over and spilt all the spears from the rack.

"Here. I'll get that for you."

Rainbow dash picked up all the spears without hurting herself, leaving one for herself to throw.

She aimed at the still target. She lined up the spear with the heart of the target, and threw as hard as she could, and hit the middle of the heart. Right where she had aimed. That was pretty impressive as ponies throw spears in their mouths. She smiled and threw another spear at the moving targets. And she always got it in the heart, brain, eye or lung.

Applejack, seeing Rainbow Dash's success, decided she would have a try,

"Hay. Mind if ah have a go?"

"Sure. All you need to do is aim, and throw as hard as you can."

"Right. Ok, sounds easy enough."

Applejack focused at the target. Her aim was flawless, but her throw wasn't so good. She thrown it as hard as she could. Instead of hitting the the target, it sank fifteen cm into the floor.

"Oh well. I guess I'll keep moving, I'm obviously not gonna be able to throw spears that easily."

"Sure. I'll be here if you want another shot." Said Rainbow Dash.

Applejack decided that maybe rung rope would be easier for her. She listened to her instructions carefully, tying knots. Double knots. Snares and traps. Within five minutes, applejack had made a snare that could leave a pony hanging upside down. She smiled proudly at her handiwork.

"Oh applejack! You've made a snare! Can I try it, please please please?! Said pinkie, bouncing out of nowhere.

"Sure. Ah need to see if it works anyway. Go get a stick or twig or something like that from the camouflage station."

"Okey Dokey Lokey!" Beamed pinkie pie. Within twenty seconds, she was bouncing back again.

"Now. Lower it down carefully. Drop it when your close, and get out of the way."

Pinkie pie lowered the twig gently. When it was three centimetres from the bottom of the loop which held the hoof, or twig in this case, she dropped it. The reaction was immediate. The snare shot up into the air like a lightning bolt.

"Wow, applejack..!"

"Pinkie pie, ah was about to do some archery. Do ya wanna come?"

"Do I?! Of course I do!"

Applejack walked towards the archery station, grinning at the excited pinkie pie.

Applejack picked up a bow. So did Pinkie Pie.

"Try and get the bullseye."

Applejack loaded her arrow, and pulled it back, back until she couldn't pull it anymore. She lined up the arrow with the bullseye. She put all her focus on the aim and let go.

And it was a bullseye. Applejack stared at her shot with a mixture of surprise and wonder.

"Wow AJ! Are you sure you haven't done archery before?"

"Nope."

"Wow. I need to learn a skill like you. Stay here, you will be better off practising something you are better at rather than something you have no idea how to do."

So Applejack continued with her archery, hitting a bullseye in the targets every time. She made sure she chose a different target every now and then so she got used to shooting at different angles.

Pinkie Pie, however, went over to the station where you had to get food, and check what's poisonous or not. Pinkie went to see if you had to eat anything, but you had to check the food before you ate it.

Pinkie Pie was told how to check on different berries and what she should look for to make sure they wouldn't poison her. She was taught what fish she could catch, and what was edible. and how to extract water from trees and fruit.

She had learnt about almost 250 different sources of food in under ten minutes.

Rarity was at the camouflage station. She thought she wouldn't master any skill. She had thrown the spear backwards when Rainbow tried to teach her, and managed to shoot the ceiling rather than the target when she tried archery with Applejack. She even fell of the rock climbing wall. She was pathetic.

She listened to the instructions given. She had to use the twigs and muck to make herself look like her surroundings. There was a fake tree she was supposed to look like. She hated it when the mud first touched her skin, but she got used to it and with the help of her magic, made fine details that looked like bark. She blended in perfectly. She decided she would jump out at the next pony she saw. 

Pinkie hopped past. Her pinkie sense was telling her something, but before she knew what it was telling her... Rarity jumped out.

"AAAAA!!" Pinkie shouted, "I didn't see you there, Rarity!

Rarity was pleased. "Then it worked. I camouflaged myself as that tree over there."

"Yeah, I was gonna ask why you were covered in twigs and mud."

"Have you found a skill?"

" I'm a food expert. You know, knowing what you should eat and what you shouldn't, so you don't get poisoned."

Just then, the bell rang for lunch break.

The next two days were just the same. Wake up, eat breakfast, train. Lunch, then more training. Talk with mentors over dinner, followed by meetings. Sleep. Repeat.

On the third day, the head Game Maker, Giga Byte, and all the other game makers had to sit at a large table. They had to watch the tribiutes fighting or showing their skills. They would then give them a score from one to twelve- one being useless and stupid, twelve being absolutely spectacular.

Everypony had to have a short meeting after breakfast."Hello fillies and gentlecolts. I am Giga byte. I am the head gamemaker. If you don't already know, a gamemaker makes the game interesting for the audience. I am the head gamemaker, so I am in charge of all the normal gamemakers, and I make bigger choices like giving you your scores. Today, you will show your chosen skill to me. At 9:00 pm exactly, we will have made final decisions and we will televise them. It interrupts all the channels and programmes that will be happening at that moment, so you won't need to worry about getting to the right television channel. The ponies showing their talents to me have to be one at a time. The order you will be coming in is in alphabetical order. Listen closely so you know your order. 
Applejack, Aurora Star, Chicken Elephant, Cobalt Wind, Coldblood, Dumb-Bell, Ember Blaze, Hoops, Pickle Fluff, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and finally, Rarity. You will have to state your name and race before you start. Your scores will affect sponsoring. Those with higher scores will get more sponsors. Be happy with your score if it's more than six. Six is average."

Later that day, it was about to start. Applejack was ready to go to the enclosed space, with the gamemakers watching. She took deep breaths like she always did to calm down.

She walked in. "Applejack. Earth pony."

She walked straight to the ropes, and knot by knot, created the snare that could leave something upside down in four minutes. She hung it from the ceiling, so that it was hanging in front of the audience of gamemakers. She picked up a silver bow and loaded it. She breathed in deeply, and focused at her aim. She couldn't get this wrong. She couldn't. But this is what would impress them most. She fired an arrow at the audience so that it touched the bottom of the loop on the snare. It caught the end of the arrow, just before it hit anyone. All the gamemakers were stunned at Applejacks's skill and thought.

"Next Pony."

Aurora disappeared through the door just as Applejack came back in. She wondered what Chicken Elephant would do. Probably something stupid, because he hadn't mastered any useful skills that she had seen him do.

"Ch-Chicken Elephant. Unicorn." 

Chicken Elephant was out of ideas. All he could think of was Rainbow Dash, who he still had a bad crush on. As he walked onto the stage, he waited around for a minute, wondering what to do. He saw some buckets of paint. A very Idiotic idea sprung to his mind. He ran over them, and picked up the blue bucket of paint. He spilt it all over himself, turning himself blue all over. Then for the Rainbows for his mane. He tipped all the other colors onto his mane and tail, hoping for the best. The gamemakers apparently didn't approve dress-up as Rainbow Dash much.

He came back to find a lot if turned heads and hidden laughter, especially from Rainbow Dash.

Cobalt wind, the colt, scampered in, and came out wet all over for a strange reason. Maybe he was trying to show his swimming skills.

Coldblood came in expressionless. His evil, dark eyes were fixed on the knives

Dumb-Bell went in laughing thickly and shouting out very stupid words. He came out the same.

Ember Blaze walked in proudly, and came out like she was on the top of the world. Her smile was humungous. Which made Pinkie Pie smile.

Hoops flew in with a stupid grin on his face, and came out the same way. Like Dumb-Bell, there was no changing him, like he would forever be an unintelligent teenager.

Pickle Fluff went next, eyes on the weapons.

"Pinkie Pie, and I'm an earth pony."

Pinkie Pie dashed over to the food. She furiously opened all the berries, throwing all the berries with red or other unnatural colours inside away. She then ate the leftover ones. She stared at the cups of water. One had dirt in it, so she threw that to a side. She drank the water, adding any berry juice from the leftover berries to make it taste more pleasant. Next was the fish. There was a herring, a salmon and a shrimp. They were all cooked. She threw away the shrimp, it was too bony to eat, and didn't have enough meat on it. She checked if any of the fish had an unnatural colour. The cod was old, so she threw that aside too. She peeled the skin off the fish to reveal perfect, cooked meat. She ate it. There was nothing left on the table, apart from food waste. No gamemaker had seen a pony eat so fast, yet carefully. Pinkie pie hopped away.

"Rainbow Dash. Pegasus."

Rainbow Dash knew what to do... But she was scared that it wouldn't work. She threw a few spears at a target so that they knew that she was good at that. Then she flew up into the open air. She flew up so high that no one could see her. Then she came down as fast as she could, easily passing the sound barrier. She brought the rainbow trail into the room and circled it so hat it was full of color. The gamemakers didn't show any expression, they just took notes.

"Rarity. Unicorn." 

Rarity's turn. She found the brown paint, some moss and some leaves, and finding a few fake trees in the corner of the room, started to turn herself Into a tree herself. She painted herself brown, and added small details with her magic. She then added leaves and moss where the other trees had it. She blended in without anyone noticing. The gamemakers were wondering where she was, and only when she revealed herself she was seen. 

And after Rarity's part, it was finished. All they could do was wait as the gamemakers compared notes.

Everypony waited. It was fifteen minutes before nine o' clock. Not long until it showed them the results.

Suddenly the anthem played, and everypony's ears pricked up. It went on for dive minutes until it finally started showing the scores.

Ember Blaze... With a score of ten.
Rainbow dash... With a score of eleven.
Dumb-Bell... With a score of six.
Hoops... With a score of eight.
Aurora Star... With a score of five.
Rarity... With a score of ten.
Chicken Elephant... With a score of one.
Cobalt Wind... With a score of three.
Applejack... With the score of eleven.
Pinkie Pie... With the score of nine.

The screen suddenly blacked out.

"Ah got.. Eleven.. And so did you.. Rainbow." Said Applejack slowly.

"I don't know if I deserve a score like that." Said Rainbow Dash.

"I only ate food and I got a nine," Said Pinkie Pie, brightly. "Well, I guess I did sort out the poisonous stuff... And I did it super quickly, come to think of it..."

"I hope you are all happy with your scores!" Said a Canterlot voice behind them. It  was Winter Darling. "Because tomorrow is the Games, and you've got to be prepared!"