XV - What a Glorious Feast
We had walked for about half of a day after we left the mountains. We had walked through the valley of the hills, but even then it was a long trip. We walked until the moon was just touching the horizon, then decided to take a few hours to sleep. Cherry, in particular, was so tired that she was practically sleepwalking. Jockey acted in a similar manner, managing to walk himself straight into the base of a tree.
I myself was not just deprived of sleep, but I was sore and anxious. There was an odd, aching feeling in my foreleg from having the tracker removed. It made me a little anxious to walk. I knew that I should be taking it easy since I did lose some blood, and I needed to let the wound heal a little. But at the same time, I understood that there was no time for that. Gaelan was injured far worse than I was, and he was still part of these games. Still, the thought of the tracker also left me with a ball of guilt sitting at the bottom of my stomach. I had stretched the rules to the limit, and Discord actually decided not to punish me at all. I couldn't help but wonder why. My mentor even said that there were ponies who had been punished for breaking the rules, so why not me? Surely I at least deserved to be...don't I? So why wasn't I being punished?
We had needed our rest so much, we had managed to sleep until about midday. Being awake again, we continued to walk for another day, taking a break every now and then to eat and drink. We arrived on the beach of the cornucopia just a little while before sundown.
The four of us walked towards the cornucopia warily, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. From what we could see, Moon Breeze, Gaelan and Candor were already there. Gaelan was sitting near the back of cornucopia, Candor at his side. He was doing better, clearly, as he was making visible chatter with her. Still, his whole side was bandaged to the point where most of his body had been wrapped in bandages. Moon Breeze, on the other hand, was sitting on top of the cornucopia, staring out at the ocean and the slowly setting sun. She reminded me of Cherry, sitting up there, exactly like the green pegasus had done before she joined our side. I did not see Mousha, but I figured that she was with them.
Terrain Tactical was nowhere in sight. I wondered where he was - if he was hiding in the forest or if he was roaming the hills searching for someone to attack. Scale as well was nowhere to be seen. Was he scared to show his face after everything that had happened? Still, I really hoped that they would show up soon. I didn't want to wait too long for them to show up; I just so we could all get whatever Discord wants to give us.
We approached the cornucopia, walking into the mouth with both confidence and fear. How that was possible, I wasn't sure. I had a feeling in my chest that this event would be the last one of this arena. I didn't know if all but one would die here by fighting or if Discord was planning something. I could just feel that something was up.
Candor noticed us first, and she looked at us with a wide, happy smile. She ran towards us and threw her forelegs around me in a welcoming hug. "I'm so glad to see that you're all okay!" She let go of me and proceeded to give everyone else next to me a hug.
As she was hugging the other ponies, I looked at her appearance. Her silver mane was surprisingly well kept and wasn't at all messy. She clearly knew how to take care of herself, or maybe she was just lucky. Her blue-green eyes still burned with a passionate fire that was there when I first met her, and it was proof that she would surely fight to her last breath.
I looked past her at Gaelan, who was now standing. He still had a bandage wrapped around his torso, but he had no signs of pain on his face. Instead, there was a wide, almost cheesy smile. His expression was almost begging me to hug him, so of course, I couldn't resist. I trotted towards him and wrapped my forelegs around his neck in a welcoming hug. He returned the action, hugging me so tightly I thought my eyes might just pop out of my head for a few seconds. I wheezed a little painfully, and he loosened the hug but didn't release the embrace. Instead, he began to speak.
"I wanted to thank you, Terra, for saving my life," He whispered loudly. His warm breath hit my cheek in a comforting way.
"I-I just did what felt right," I responded.
"You could have just let me fall, let me die and there would be one less pony in this arena. But you saved me. And I will always be grateful for that. Even if it was just prolonging the inevitable by a few days. Thank you." His voice sounded tight, almost as if he was trying not to cry.
"You're welcome..." We pulled away from each other, and he winced. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"
"No, No, It's fine. I'm still recovering from losing my wing. It just hurts every now and then. I'm sure it will go away," He explained, "I just can't move around too much."
"Yes, I wanted to apologize to you, Gaelan," came Cherry's voice from behind me. The pale-blue griffon' ears moved up and down and twisted in different directions as if he wasn't sure how to feel about her being there. I didn't blame him for his mixed emotions.
"Well, um, okay..." He mumbled.
"No, truly, I'm sorry. Because of me, you probably won't fly again, even if you win the games. I almost killed you and I feel really bad about that, even if these are the Hunger games," She confessed, "If there was a way to make it up to you I would-"
"No, it's fine. Even if you injured me, at least you didn't kill me," He said.
"But you still could have died from what I did!" She added, her voice rising in volume.
He gave her a smile. "Just so long as you don't try to kill me again, I think you and I could get along."
I smiled as Cherry spoke, "So, are we good then?"
He thought for a moment before giving his answer. "Yeah."
She smiled thankfully at him.
My ears turned towards the sound behind me of Candor's voice calling up to Moon Breeze sitting atop the Cornucopia. There was a faint clinging above us and shortly afterward Moon Breeze was seen walking into the mouth of the cornucopia, her head raised up proudly, but it felt a little like she was trying to intimidate us. She stood tall and proudly, almost like she was the one who had won these game already. Why?
She nodded at all of us, and then her eyes fell upon me. She let out a barely audible exhale from her nose, and without blinking, spoke my name. "Terra."
She made her way over to me quickly and raised up her hoof. I knew it was coming. Whether it was a punch or a slap, She was going to probably hurt me for taking part of the group away a few days ago. I tried to brace myself.
Her hoof swept across my face in one fluid motion, causing me to turn my face away from her. I cringed for a few seconds as my cheek began to sting. I shifted my jaw around, partially out of anger but also to check if there was any damage. Candor ran to Moon Breeze's side and Cherry ran to mine. Everypony else circled around us protectively, as if they were ready to prevent any fighting. My ears turned backward, away from the yelling unicorn, trying to lower the volume of Moon's shouting.
"How DARE you leave us! You take some of our things and then just disappear with half of our team in the night! We had an alliance and you practically left us to die!" She yelled.
I sighed and turned my head back to face her, my eyes fluttering. "You do realize what would have happened if we stayed together, right?"
Her mouthed opened and closed as she stuttered, trying to come up with something to say. Nothing came out except for a few odd vocal noises.
"If our group managed to be the last one standing - if us eight were the only ones left, we would have eventually had to turn on each other." I paused and glared at her. "And I don't know about you, but I don't want to be the first pony to strike down a friend."
She lowered her ears, but the expression on her face was still very stern. She glanced around at the other ponies in the cornucopia. "We might be friends, and no matter how much we don't want to turn on each other, we may not have a choice. Other ponies have been put in the same position before and they had no choice but to turn on their friends. Why would this time be any different?"
"Well surely if we resist that temptation for long enough, the game makers would be in a bit of a dilemma," Code Red added, taking my side. I glanced at him briefly, thankful for him doing so.
"Discord is a master of Games. He can drive us all mad if we don't do anything for long enough, and it will only drive us to our own death!" The blue unicorn countered.
"Well, then we would just have to prove that our bond of friendship is stronger than his mind games!" I shouted at her.
"He can change this arena, force us to die from the environment, or lack of supplies!" She was determined to keep her point of view. However, I was equally determined to keep my own: if we do not wish to kill, then we will not.
"Then we will survive together! Teamwork has allowed us to get through many things! Heat and cold, hunger and fatigue, injuries and death, surely it can get us through any other challenge that is thrown at us!" Cherry threw in, holding up her head proudly.
The dark blue unicorn rolled her eyes and moaned in anger. "Fine! Go ahead and die together then! Last I checked you were no Twilight Sparkle!"
Her mouth slammed shut after she spoke the old alicorn's name. We all looked around as if we were ashamed, but I don't think we all really knew why. Her name had not been spoken aloud in many years, and yet her name had just been spoken aloud for the entire nation to hear on live television.
We were silent for quite a few moments, and I quickly noticed that the sun was now set and the only light came from the moon and the few lanterns that were bolted to the walls inside of the cornucopia.
Candor was the first to break the silence. "You are right. Not a single one of us is Twilight Sparkle." Code Red, Gaelan, and Cherry gave the blonde colored pony a startled look as she spoke her name. "I am not afraid to speak her name. She is a part of history that the nation deserves to know about. Everything in history teaches us a lesson." She looked up at me, then at Moon Breeze. "We are not the bearer of the element of magic, nor are we any of her friends. We are ourselves. We don't have to do what they did, we can do what we want. We can-"
She gasped and gave a strange look of confusion. She looked straight in front of her, which happened to be Code Red. Her back was facing the exit of the cornucopia so I wondered if she had been startled by a sudden cold breeze or something. She coughed and blood came to her lips.
"C-Candor?" Gaelan asked, his voice shaking.
She looked over at him, and her eyelids fluttered. She then proceeded to fall onto the ground with a thud. We all tried to rush forward to catch her or see if she was alright, but just after we moved, something stopped us from moving any further. A slender, black arrow was lodged just at the nape of her neck. Blood was staining her fur, and how she didn't die instantly, I wasn't sure.
"Candor! No!" Was all I heard.
Gaelan pushed his way through the group and sat down next to the silver-maned pony. A cannon echoed in the distance, telling us that her death was certain. He moved her body so that her face was facing up, and he cradled her in his forelegs as best as he could. He sobbed, grieving over his best friend in this arena. He held his face over hers protectively and small tears began to roll over his cheeks and onto her face.
He was whispering to her, but I couldn't hear what. I tuned out his cries and looked towards the opening of the cornucopia, where one particular dark green stallion stood. He was holding a bow at his side with a devious smirk on his face.
"That is what happens when you take my dearest Cherry Cloud away from me..." Terrain Tactical said with a chilling voice as his eye twitched.
I growled and leaped for him in anger. Moon Breeze and Cherry did the same.
I was knocked down by their movements and rolled to the side. The wind was knocked out of my lungs, making me take a large gasp for breath. I lifted my head up to watch the fight that the two mares were creating.
Cherry swung her hooves at his face. He attempted to dodge, but he was met with a good punch from Moon Breeze's. The green pegasus elbowed him in the stomach after Moon pulled her hoof away. The unicorn pulled on his mane, yanking as hard as she could. He tried to let out a yell, but he was only silenced by another blow to his stomach by the green pegasus. The stallion tried desperately to use his bow as some form of defense against the raging mares, but it was of little use. He could not defend himself against both of them.
I got to my feet as the ponies continued to wrestle just beyond the entrance to the cornucopia. Jockey walked up next to me, making sure that I was alright.
"You okay?" He asked.
I nodded. "Yeah...I don't think he will be though."
The green unicorn shrugged. "Well, I guess I have learned to never make a mare angry."
I gave a tiny smile at his little joke. I don't know if it was as the best time for it, but it was a little funny.
A sudden rumble of thunder made me pull my gaze up to the sky. The moon was only barely visible anymore, and instead all I could see were clouds. No stars were viewable in the night sky and there were visible clouds that drifted over the moon. I sighed as another rumble came from somewhere among the sky, and knew that a storm was near.
I was so caught up by the thunder that I just missed the cannon that sounded. It sounded so much like the thunder that for a moment I thought it was actually thunder. However, I looked down at the angry mares and saw them pulling away from the limp stallion. Their hooves were slightly bloodied, but they didn't really care.
They looked at me with angry eyes, but I knew that they were mad at him and not me. They were still terrifying in the dim light of the moon, despite the fact that I knew this.
"That...felt weird," Cherry muttered. I figured that it did. She killed someone whom she once trusted, someone who would do almost anything to protect her. Even if her act was assisted, she still killed someone she once knew.
The green pegasus shuddered and walked back towards the cornucopia as the first few raindrops began to fall. Moon Breeze shot me a stern look, then followed her. Jockey turned to face me.
"Well, now that he's dead, we put our words to the test." He blinked at me. "If what you said is true and that our friendship can truly prevail over Discord's challenges, then we are in for one hell of a crazy ride."
I smiled at him. "Well, we cannot lose hope. The minute we lose hope in our words is the very minute where we seal our fate to our death in this arena."
"But how can you be so sure that we will prevail?" he asked.
Raindrops began to collide with our pelts and mane, and bounced off of the grass at our hooves. I blinked at him. "Sometimes we don't know why we believe in something, Jockey. But sometimes we just believe in something because it feels right." I sighed as a raindrop bounced off my nose. "I can't explain to you why I believe what I said, I just do."
He took a step closer to me, leaving his face inches from mine. "Well in that case then I admire your passion."
I lowered my eyebrows, confused by what he meant. "What do you mean?"
"Ever since the beginning you knew exactly who you were and it seemed like you knew exactly what your purpose was going to be in this games." He smiled at me. "From the first moment I saw you when you bumped into me in our district, I saw a flame in you that I had never seen out of the thousands of ponies I had met. At first, I wasn't very sure about it, but as we were thrown into these games and have experienced so much here, I have noticed it so much more."
I sighed, the rain now quite heavy and drowsing our manes.
"I have wanted to tell you this for a while now, but I just didn't know when or how. But know that we might be soon meeting our death by the blade of a friend, I see no better time to tell you what I have been wanting to say."
I looked up at him, searching for what he might say. I honestly hoped that it wasn't a love confession or something like that. I didn't know how I would have responded if it was. I watched anxiously as he told me what he had been meaning to tell me for so long.
"You are the fire, Terra."
"What?" I asked.
"You are the fire. The fire that burns inside all of us and keeps us fighting. The fire that inspires us to do what we do and to push us to our limits." I smiled at his words. "You have affected all of us with your flames. Without you, we would surely all be nothing..."
I sighed happily and reached forwards to wrap my forelegs around him in a hug. We were soaking wet now, but I really didn't care and I don't think he did either "The flames wouldn't be so large if you all didn't supply some fuel to make it grow, you know."
He chuckled. "Thank you, Terra. For everything."
"I was just doing what felt natural," I said as we pulled away from the hug.
"Well, then you must have very good natural instincts then," He laughed, and then we began to make our way towards the cornucopia in the rain.
Once we were inside and protected from the rain, I shook myself to try and remove as much of the moisture as I could. It didn't help too much, but it was better than nothing. Jockey did the same.
"It's about time you came in," Code Red started as he gave us a towel. "I swear I thought you two were going to start kissing or something."
I blushed and looked away from Jockey, and I had a feeling he was doing the same. He and I were close, yes, but I hardly thought of him in a romantic way. He was almost like another brother to me, after what we had been through. I sort of hoped that he felt the same. And even if he didn't, well unfortunately I didn't have a desire to be in a relationship for a while. Not with Circuit still looming on my mind as well.
Taking the towel I ran it over my mane, trying to extract as much liquid as I could. Water droplets flew as I did so, scattering around and landing on the others around me. Cherry let out an innocent and playful giggle. I let the towel release from my levitation spell and allowed it to fall down around my neck.
Jockey began to speak. "By the way, whatever happened to the other mare that was with you before? Wasn't her name Mousha or something?"
Moon Breeze turned to look at him. "Oh, um... She got sick. She's alive but she is sleeping in the back." She flicked her ear, and sighed. "I don't even know what it is either. It's worse than the flu and it is something I have never even seen or heard of."
I looked at her. "Well, now that we are all here and we aren't fighting, maybe we can get the gifts that Discord promised us. And if we are lucky, Mousha's gift will be medicine."
She shrugged. "You can never tell. For all, we know he could give us a can of peas that explodes into confetti. Besides, aren't we still missing Scale?"
I blushed violently. Everyone one of the group was avoiding his name. Not only did he kill Silver Streak, but he left after having kissed me. Er; I also let him go. I still didn't know if the others knew about everything that had happened, but I didn't want to ask if they saw it. I personally wanted to forget that it had happened. I hadn't seen him since he left. What would happen when he saw me?
Code Red spoke, thankfully. "He's missing, yeah, but for all, we know he could be standing just outside, hiding from us. We aren't exactly on the best terms with him."
"Still, Discord asked for all of us, not most of us. He needs Scale to be here," Gaelan responded.
"Well, he hasn't been following the rules word for word though. He might start without him," Cherry added.
"Well, you certainly know me well then, eh Cherry Cloud?" Discord's voice was suddenly all around us. "Well, you all have caught me by surprise with your strong words about friendship. Really touching, you know, and it brings me back memories from years ago. Memories I never thought I would see again." His tone was somewhere between cheerful and angry. It was quite intimidating. "Because you have inspired me so and seem very certain that your friendship will prevail over any challenge, I have decided to put your words to the test. That means I won't be giving any of you your gifts!" He chuckled.
"Hey! We deserve what you were were going to give us! Cherry called out to Discord. I agreed with her, for the most part. I guess it depended on what he was planning to give us.
"And I am sure that you do! But if you want your gifts that badly then I will do this: The prize for whoever wins will be doubled this year! Twice as many bits, twice as much food, twice as nice of a victor house. It will all be better in the end." There was a faint clamor in the distance, and I figured that it was something from where Discord was. "Well, that will be all for now. Enjoy your final moments." He sounded annoyed with his last phrase. It led me to wonder what had happened.
After his voice faded away, Code Red was the one to speak. "Well, that's just wonderful. He's trying to bribe us to motivate us to fight each other."
"You think so?" Cherry asked.
"It's a typical trick. He thinks our desire to win will be stronger than our friendship," the grey pegasus explained, "The villain in movies and books do it all the time."
"So what should we do now?" Jockey wondered.
"Well, someone is going to have to wake up Mousha and try to explain to her what happened. She doesn't know a lot of equestrian, so whoever talks to her will have a hard time," said Moon Breeze.
"I guess I can try," Gaelan threw in, his voice still tight. "I don't really want to look at Candor anymore..." He let go of the blonde colored earth pony and placed her gently on the ground. He sighed and stood up. He wiped his talons across his face, trying to hide his tears. He made his way farther back into the cornucopia silently.
"Well, I think we should try to sleep. I think we can trust each other that no one has to keep watch. And I think that if Scale hasn't shown up by now, he won't show up at all. We might just get the best sleep we've had in a while," Jockey said as he began to go through a bag to find a sleeping bag.
"Yeah, I agree with you," Cherry replied, yawning. She copied his actions and began to search through her bag for something to sleep on.
"Yeah, let's just get some sleep. It's the least we can do right now," I agreed.
I got out my sleeping bag and lay it down next to Cherry's. The rain was pounding against the cornucopia, creating a noise that echoed around the black cave. It was bearable, but it would surely take some time to fall asleep with it. Though I knew that my desire to sleep was probably stronger than my annoyance over the noise.
We all lay down and closed our eyes, trying our best to sleep with the banging of the rain against the sides of the cornucopia.
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Candor
RIP in peace.
YUS UPDATE!
This was a beautifully written chapter, save for a bit of grammar and spelling mistakes. By the way, Mousha's kind of a beast. She isn't going to die of... something like a sickness, right? She's too tough for that! Go my baby!
I'm waiting for the next chapter. EEEEEE~
-Cyneryk
5071326 Hmmmm I have two Idea's for her death. One involves her dying from sickness, and the other results in her dying from ~ well, I'll leave that idea as a mystery.
And I figured about the spelling and Grammar. ThatPoemGuy is going to get back to me since he is at work right now. Editing will come soon ~
5071380
SHE DIES!?
WHY? WHY SKETCH WHY U DO DIS?
-Cyneryk
5071423 Don't blame me!! It's not my fault She got put in the Hunger games where all but one pony dies!
5071465
Oh, right.
Damn.
-Cyneryk
5073309 Candor was my ex-gf's tribute.
Yeeeesss....
This was a good chapter to read. I would say it was well paced. A nice "setting up" chapter, if you will. It will be interesting to see where it goes from here, as the seven ponies left in the Arena are all determined not to kill each other.
I will say this, though. When writing a character that you intend to be semi-main, or at least to reappear, you need to make sure they're remembered. I bring this up because before this chapter, I had very little recollection of Moon Breeze. She hadn't really done anything memorable, and so I was going "Okay, who is this mare, again?" Now, though, she's the one who slapped Terra. Just as Sketch is the one with one wing, and Aphrodite was the bizarrely pretty one. If a character is going to return, you need to make sure that they have a moment of uniqueness.
Also, calling it now.
Jockey said to Terra, "You are the fire." I reckon that has something to do with the spark required for the Elements of Harmony.
5115058 Oh yeah, thank you ~
And as for the elements of harmony?
I cannot confirm if what you suspect is true, close, or wrong, mainly because I also have to figure that out myself. I will admit that I have considered the idea, but nothing has really been confirmed. I have to figure everything out soon because I am getting close to the "Grand Finale" as you could put it and I want to make sure it is memorable and sets up the sequel.
Not all of the ponies left will make it out of the arena, and because of that reason I have to figure out how to place things correctly as well.
~Sketch
Cough, cough....
-Cyneryk
5250344 lol I'm getting to the next chapter in due time. I do have school and activities you know ~ And it's not like you do much better . . . chaw haw haw
5339763
Something, something, Recently Kill The Lights update, something~
;D
And take your time. ^^
-Cyneryk