The Pony Games

Recurve saw that Rosie wasn't exactly a happy camper. She glared at him, and he could feel a bit of jealousy for already being sponsored. Oh well, free food is great. Recurve enjoyed it. There wasn't much fresh or free stuff to be found regularly. "Sure, I guess we'll camp out here." Recurve forgot to get food from the cornucopia. Luckily, he wasn't that hungry, so the apple pretty much filled him up. He also lacked basic supplies. He was planning to kill somepony and take the supplies from them. But Willow was pretty far off, and Brawny was guarding the cornucopia, and he looked like he was getting really violent and crazy. So he lied next to Rosie and relaxed. "You think we can win this? Because I sure as heck do"

Rosie didn't correct him when he said "we." Rosie had expected Recurve to maybe offer her a piece; after all, they both came from the same poor district, where fresh food was hard to come by and too expensive for either of them to buy. She ignored it and scaled a tree, sliding into the sleeping bag and tying it to her branch, so she wouldn't roll out. She clenched the knife tightly in her hooves and shut her eyes, praying that she would survive the night. Feeling a little smug, due to the fact that Recurve had indeed forgotten to grab anything at the Cornucopia, Rosie fell into a barely unconscious sleep, still slightly aware of the world. She didn't completely trust Recurve, still, but she trusted him enough to form an alliance, right? Now, how great of an alliance that would be...

Calla watched the filly run back into the forest. In a burst of guilt and pity, she had let the filly go; let some other pony take care of her. It was time to go back.

Taking the hat off the dead pony as proof that he was dead, Calla trotted back to the cornucopia as the hovercraft appeared to take the body away. She grabbed a cookie off the top of a crate and leaned against the metal of the cornucopia, taking a delicate bite from the sweet as she threw the hat at the other careers.

"My kill," she said cheerfully, "that cannon that just went off. The green pony from 7. Let's camp inside the cornucopia for shelter."

She glanced at all the boxes until she spotted the one labeled "Survival gear." She opened it and levitated a sleeping bag to each pony there.

"I'll take the first watch," she said cheerfully, twirling a knife in her hooves. "Rez, you can take the second. I'll start a fire. They all know where we are, anyways, and the night is cold out here. Sleep tight, ponies. I trust you not to kill each other tonight."

She used the extra sugar rush from the cookie to magic a small flame she wouldn't otherwise have been able to make, and shot it at an empty box once full of food. Greedy ponies. Calla sat next to the fire and kept herself awake by nicking her hoof and rubbing some salt in it. The pain would keep her sharp and alert.

Vastile was outside the chaos by some distance now... He had his materials and he was ready. He trotted quickly away from the frenzy and tried to find a ditch, cave, tunnel, or alcove.

Rez decided to jump up into a tree and look around. Most of what he saw were either dead pony's or careers. "I hate all this senceless killing but if this what it takes to survive then there is no other way." He thought to himself as he made sure its safe where he is. His idea was to let the others kill and just defend himself untill the time he needs to fight.

Sunny Days yawned.
What happened to the killing?
Before they got to expensive, she dropped in some night vision goggles and a couple more weapons.
It was a big expense on her part, even this early, but she hoped this would get the careers riled up to kill somepony.
Sunny crossed her fingers.

The parachutes dropped right in front of Calla. She dove and found six pairs of night vision goggles, a spear, and another full box of knives, and a belt holster. She stuck all 20 f her knives in her jacket and in the belt, handed the spear to Iris, and distributed the goggles, giving one to Iris, Rez, and Brawny.

"Change of plans," she said, a bloodthirsty glint in her eyes. "I trust you all are awake, because you three are coming with me to hunt. Lance and Prime, watch the cornucopia." She gazed lovingly at the tribute plates. "I want you to be here in the morning for my surprise."

She trotted towards the woods, using magic to silence her footsteps. She smiled up at the sky as a thank-you to her sponsor. Even if they weren't meant for her.

Brawny took his Nightvision Goggles. He couldn't see all that greatly, because he had to remove his glasses. But he could manage to find somepony and kill them. "This is gonna be so fun..." Brawny was feeling a bit psychotic. Before the Pony Games, he wasn't all that fond of hacking and slashing. He'd beat you up, no doubt. But murder was a different subject. After wounding Comical, he wanted more blood. And he wanted to be the one to spill it. He wielded his axe, following Calla. He'd kill anypony in this group if he had to, but her. He loved her too much to even lay a hoof violently on her. Let's hope it doesn't come down to those two. Because Brawny couldn't bring himself to attack Lily, even if it meant his life. But, he wont dwell on that now. It was murder time! But she was going silent, so he tread lightly, wearing an evil expression that just says Soon to be Homicidal Maniac

Iris took the night vision goggles but slipped back to the cornucopia to grab some shurikens, two retractable three-pronged Sais and some hoof arrows that she attached to her wrist guards, and ten special throwing knives that looked mich like Mai's in Avatar. She also slung a bow around her shoulders along with a sheath of arrows before following Calla and Brawny.

Primary took the spear and attached it to her back with a strap. She sat down to watch the treasure of supplies. She also had some hidden shurikens attached to the back of her ankles as last resorts, plus a sturdy sword tht was light but inflicted a lot of damage.

Gilded Lance had his lance... That was all he needed...

He ran in the direction, in which he saw Vastile run. "I will find him... We can win this... together."

I must find him... we must win... together! TOGETHER!

Calla led the ponies forward, until she saw Gilded Lance dash in the other direction. She stopped.

"It seems we lost two allies. Gilded and Vas have decided to leave us."

She led the march onward. There was a unicorn named Sweet Dreams who didn't seem a huge contender, and she seemed like an easy target. There was also Jim and the two crystal ponies from 12, and Tacha from 6, not to mention the two stallions who had just bolted.

"Who first?" she asked the other three. "The traitors, the crystal freaks, the unicorn, or the 6?"


.

Brawny didn't care who they were going after. He just wanted to kill. He wanted to go after the two who just ran off, but they seemed like a big threat to him. He also felt as though the blue Crystal Pony could mess him up, he didn't want to attack the unicorn, and the number 6 seemed too easy.

"I want to kill the traitors. Anypony who betrays us doesn't deserve to live."

He was ready to head off into their direction, but he wanted to wait for what the others had to say. Didn't want to mess things up already. He put his axe away and pulled out the machete. Seemed easier to kill with that than the axe. But the axe was more brutal and fun

"Who are you calling crystal freaks?" Prime snapped at Calla, offended at we nonchalant rudeness towards crystal ponies.

Calla turned and stared back at Prime, who had to be 50 yards away.

"How did you hear..."

She shook her head.

"The blue one is a sullen, sadistic introvert, and the green one is a high dunce who can't hit anything with her clumsy aim," she explained calmly. "Add the fact that she sparkles about five times more than you do and acts like a puppy all the time, you can see how I may label such a pony and her accomplice as a freak. It has nothing to do with your race."

Calla felt a little bad about talking about ponies in such a way, but something she had learned from all those years of training was that you can't win a game of life by complimenting people and never watching your back. Making these ponies seem weaker made it easier for the others to want to kill them. Such was the game. You act, or you die.

Vastile found a cave just as Gilded Lance found him.

"Vastile, it's me..."

Vastile didn't flinch or even acknowledge Lance, he heard him a few hundred feet back, Lance was quiet, but Vastile had good hearing.

"Come with me Lance. We can stick toogether... when the others fall... We'll think of something..." The were always good friends, The games would never change that.

The both moved inside and Vastile covered the caves entrance by moving brush with magic, hoof-prints, to clues...

Vastile used his magic to make fake trails, branching out into potentially dangerous areas.

Now, We wait to see what the others will do.

Vastile laid traps all around the encampment and Lance hunted during the night. They could make it for the long haul and they would.

If some passing pony didn't just walk by unaware, they would fall into a trap. Gilded Lance was being helped at night with Vastile's Illusion magic. Making it very hard to see or hear him, he got the food and came back. They ate and lived and waited for the sound... of cannons...

Recurve laid on the ground, without any worry of hunters or attackers. But he kept his bow and dagger handy, in case somepony dared try to attack him. It was pretty likely he would get jumped. But, he could take 'em. He couldn't sleep very well. Too busy waiting for somepony to try something. It wasn't really paranoia. With paranoia, you freak out. Recurve was being calm. He then saw a filly kill a bird, stuff the organs in a tree and eat it. The kid was learning the ways of The Pony Games, it seems. Instead of trying to kill her, like he would anypony else, he let her pass. Her mind would mess her up more later on, anyways. For now, he tried to rest. Can't kill when you're tired. He also saw a group of ponies looking around, and staring in his and Rosie's general direction. There was one that stood out, a green one with a long mane, he looked like he had an addiction to murder. But he wasn't moving towards him. He headed toward some ponies that ran off. Lucky for the green one. Would've gotten his head torn off of he made a move

Calla, with her night vision goggles, spotted a cloud of smoke in the air. She made a whining sound in her throat, as she was about to suggest moving in that direction, but she cut herself off when she saw the filly she had let go. It wasn't time for that. Not yet.


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Rosie woke to the subtle sound of a fire crackling. To her left, she could clearly see the career's fire, rising in smoke curls from the cornucopia. To her right, a filly was munching on some animal that made her stomach growl.

Stealthily, she extracted a slice of apple and ate it. It would calm the rumbling of her stomach.

When she realized it wasn't her stomach growling, Rosie bolted upright, untied herself, and had everything packed within a matter of moments. In her left hoof was the knife.

"Recurve," she hissed. "Do you hear that?"

Iris had to adjust to the night vision goggles, they were odd. She quickly followed Calla, but then decided to split off and go hunt somewhere else. it would be easier to find ponies if you were alone, it would be easier to sneak up on ponies.

Prime sat down at the cornucopia, muttering about "crystal freaks" she knew she probably shouldn't have spoken up about it, it revealed her hearing abilities, but she had to. Calla had been talking smash about her race, she had to defend herself.

Recurve sat up when Rosie said she heard something. He heard it too. Sounded like growling. Neither of them were hungry. Then he heard something about "Crystal Freaks" from another Crystal Pony sitting at the cornucopia. No way she could have said it first. Unless she was confused or hated herself. She would be an easy kill, but he'd rather investigate the growling. But he will go after her next. He pulled out his dagger and started looking.

"Where did you here it come from?"

Whatever was around, it would make a good meal, and it would give Recurve the satisfaction of killing something

Calla turned and blocked Iris.

"Don't leave," she said. "Group hunting's better. I can disguise all of your hoofsteps. If we're going after Vas and Lance..."

She motioned for them to keep silent as she pointed towards a cave. On the ground were ropes and holes covered with leaves, and snares waiting to catch somepony in their death grab.

"I want us to stay alive," she said in barely a whisper. "We can't walk to the cave. I was hoping you and Rez could get as high as possible for the kill."

She motioned to Iris's bow and cast a glamour on the two pegasi, causing them to fade to a dark navy color that was nearly invisible in the dark of the night.

"Can you two aim well in the dark?" she asked in a low whisper, panting with the effort of the spell. "I also want you to be aware of possible traps in the trees, but these trees are really short."

It was true. In the part of the forest where Vas and Lance had decided to camp, the trees barely rose five feet over Calla's head. Being tall for a pony, that was around ten feet high, the height the pegasi could fly in the arena.

"I can assure you that my district partner disguised the entrance and the areas around it with a glamour, much like the one I just put on you," she said. "It's a talent of ours, so we may hide from the fish we hunt. Your best bet is to catch one of them as they hunt for food. Look for a slight ripple in the movement of the ground. That's where a pony with an illusion spell is located."

She touched her bracelets with Iris's matching bands, a sign of their everlasting friendship, and nodded to Rez.

"Faust bless you," she whispered, bowing her head to the pegasi. "Good luck."