//------------------------------// // Let The Games Begin // Story: The Pony Games // by Eternal Flame //------------------------------// Everypony was led downstairs and under the ground to an empty room with nothing in there but a glass platform with a sliding door large enough to fit a pony on. It was explained that the glass doors would open, and you would have to go straight onto the platform within a minute of the doors opening, or you were tortured to death by machines that stretch you hard so you can't move, and you were beaten so that your bones were either broken apart or fractured. Rarity could feel her pulse going through her body. So could everybody. All they could hear was their hearts beating. Rarity tried to breathe normally, but she couldn't. She was breathing faster. It made her heart beat faster. Which made her more scared every minute. Rainbow dash felt sick, but was hiding it. So was Applejack. And Pinkie Pie's hair had gone straight, and her irises small with fright. The glass doors slid open with next to no noise. One step. And another. And another. One at a time. They were forced, as this was a battle between mind and heart, your heart screaming to turn around and go back, your mind screaming to go forward, or face a worse fate than the hunger games. It was hard for some, but everypony was on their platforms within a minute. For a few seconds, they were suspended in a small claustrophobic space, but the platforms slowly moved upwards, like lifts. when they got to the top, they were in the arena. It was very tempting to run, teleport or fly somewhere, but if you do, you get blown to smithereens. The arena was large, at least five kilometres wide. A river ran through the middle of the arena.There was a dark forest on the left, quite similar to the everfree forest, and then a steep mountain behind it. On the right, there was a lake, that took up a lot of space. Beyond that were hills and swampland. Everything behind them was forest and marsh. There were the singing of birds. And if you listened extremely carefully and blocked out the birds, you could hear a distant but angry roar. In the centre of all the tributes was the cornucopia, a dome shaped building with curved roof that started low, but curved up higher than what you would expect. The whole building was made out of gold and encrusted with diamonds. The Capitol certainly didn't hesitate when it came to decoration. There were twelve archways which were spaced equally around the building, each archway facing the pony so that they could run straight in. The gold shone like the sun. The countdown had started. 30... 29... 28... 27... Pinkie pie peered inside the building. There was nothing she could see that she wanted, so she decided she would run away into the forest behind her as soon as she could move. The careers would try and kill her otherwise. 22... 21... 20... Applejack looked frantically in the cornucopia for a bow and arrows and a backpack which would hopefully be full of supplies. She spotted her targets. A black bow with what looked like twenty eight arrows, and a small light blue backpack. She would grab it and run for the mountain. She would at least have the forest to hide her on the way there. 16... 15... 14... 13... Rarity scanned her surroundings. She was going to go to the forest, but she didn't know if she should get supplies or not. She wasn't a fast runner, but she needed supplies, and supplies came from those little rucksacks. She spotted a white one. It was risky, but worth a try. She focused her mind. She was going to attempt a teleport. 8... 7... 6... 5... Rainbow Dash made eye contact with Ember Blaze. Rainbow nodded her head towards the supplies, indicating she was going to go there first. Ember Blaze nodded. She signalled towards the forest. That's where she was going. Meanwhile, Rainbow was getting ready... Ready to take off... 3... 2... 1... "LET THE 81ST ANNUAL HUNGER GAMES BEGIN."