The 58th Annual Pony Games

Prime sat back in her comfy chair and turned on her television. The screen blared and Prime saw the place the gamekeepers picked for the arena, Saddle Arabia. this should be interesting. Shame I missed the first part. The camera switched to an underground view of a large scorpion that looked poisonous, it change again. It was now three ponies, Stargazer, and two others Prime didn't recognize. She had overheard that the gamekeeper Onyx was selling the antidote to the scorpions venom. Prime left her house to go but a gift for a tribute.

Iris continue drinking the delicious oasis water, but froze when she heard something to her left. Realizing the danger, she quickly climbed quietly up one of the oasis palms.
Health:100
Water:3
Food:30

Cliffhanger went over to the big rock, and sat with Star under it, inspecting his cactus weapon. Suddenly, the ground started shaking. "Wha-what was that?"

Burning Heart was starving. She needed more food, or she would starve. She had to beg for the food at this point. If she didn't eat, she couldn't protect. Then the ground began to shake

"I... need... food..."

Food 10
Water 3
Health 100

Brawny's tummy began to growl again. He needed more food. He ate the other hay bars he had stuffed away in his saddlebags. He could feel the presence of some creature hiding around the desert. He payed no mind, and snacked away on another hay bar

Food 43
Water 3
Health 52

Star felt the ground shake, and she climbed on top of the rock to look. She saw something rising out of the ground. Her heart sped up with fear.
Health:100
Water:3
Food:45


The palm tree Iris had climbed began to shake and she observed the desert for the source of the shaking, all while desperately clinging to the tree. "Broken Heart, climb a tree. NOW!" she ordered.
Health:100
Water:3
Food:30

~~Covin Si'hal~~

"So, what's your plan? To stalk other ponies before killing them, or to just kill them?"

Covin shrugged nonchalantly, which was not an easy thing to do while trotting. "Dunno. Probably best to use the element of surprise, so you don't get hurt too much throughout the course of the games. I'd want to outlast the other tributes if I can't defeat them all. But I don't really think I'll end up winning. You got any bright ideas as to what we should do next?"

As the Earth Pony awaited the mare's answer, he noticed the sand shifting slightly a few feet away from the corner of his eye. He looked over at the spot, but saw nothing. Huh. Maybe just the wind. Or something. Covin faced the mare again.

Health: 100
Water: 2
Food: 75


~~Logik~~

"Hey, why the long face?"

Logik was about to respond to the mare's question when he heard the chattering of other nearby ponies. The Unicorn turned his head to the direction of the sound, and saw a small group of tributes not far from their location.

"Hmm... It appears we aren't the only people to be making alliances."

"As expected..."

The two ponies continued to walk, making sure not to stray too close to another group, until Amy suddenly stopped and dropped the package that she had gained at the cornucopia. Logik also stopped and approached her, observing the supplies that she had been able to obtain as she rolled them out onto the desert sand. The contents of her package consisted of five daggers, seemingly designed to be thrown rather than used for melee combat, and a container filled with water, all connected by a leather strap that was seemingly made to be worn by a pony.

"Hey! Neato! Logik, did you happen to get anything?"

"Yes...I did..."

Logik hadn't really forgotten about the supplies that he had been able to grab, but their existence had been pretty much pushed to the back of his mind. The stallion levitated his own bag off of himself and floated it in the air in front of him, unzipping the one pocket that could be found on its exterior. He took out all of the contents and observed each one in turn as they hovered a few feet above the ground. From what he could see, he had been able to gain 1 ripe apple, a bag of crackers and a small bag of berries, along with about 15 feet of rope and an axe. He winced slightly at the sight of the axe: he had never liked weapons or anything relating to them.

Seeing the food caused the Unicorn to feel a pang of hunger, but he refrained from eating anything. He knew that ponies could survive at least 4 days without food, so there was really no point in eating on the first day if he didn't have to. Survival was key. A few moments of observing his new possessions and then Logik placed them all back into his bag, making sure that Amy saw what he had obtained.

"Shall we...proceed, Amy?"

Health: 100
Water: 2
Food: 75

Star gasped a a gigantic scorpion rose out of the sand right in front of her. "Cliff!" She screamed, hoping he had a weapon. Star was helpless right now, she hasn't grabbed anything from the cornucopia.
Health:100
Water:3
Food:30


Iris stared in shock as an extremely large scorpion rose out of the hot sand behind her. She held back a scream and glanced at Broken Heart. He was defenseless right now, no weapons and an injury. Iris wasn't sure if she would be able to save both of them. She reached into her saddle bag and pulled out three throwing knives, she took one in each hand and took aim at the large beast, waiting for any sign of movement.
Health:100
Water:2
Food:35

"I'd say we should... Maybe try to find some water? I didn't get any, other than the water from my berries. Anyway, we should probably kill ponies to try to kill us." Leafy shrugged, and continued, looking around. "Did you get anything from the Cornuco - Did that sand just move, or was it the wind?" She looked at Covin, wondering if he'd seen it too.

Health:100
Food: 20
Water: 1

Brawny was doing fine for the moment. Then he could feel something come behind him. He hoped it was a pony, so he could slaughter it. He swung around, sword in hoof, ready to strike. He looked and saw it was a giant scorpion. Aw crap...

Fun fact, Brawny has terrible Arachnophobia. Once he saw that scorpion his heart almost stopped. Then he high tailed it the other way and sprinted from the scorpion. No way was he going back to that thing. Scorpions are terrifying!

Iris turned around and saw the shape of a pony galloping towards her. great. she thought, yet another threat. as the pony approached she saw that it was Brawny. Iris readied and aimed one of her throwing knives, and let three daggers go in the direction of the scorpion before assessing the situation with Brawny. She listened as the knives punctured the horrible beast's head with a satisfying crunch one after the other. She waited for Brawny to come closer, knives in hoof. She hid herself among the palm leaves, lowering her head till he couldn't see her but she could see still him.
Health:100
Water:2
Food:20

Cliffhanger feels something rumble underneath him. Before he knew it, he was face to face with a giant scorpion-like monster. Cactus in hand, Cliff lunges at it, aiming for the eye. He succeeds, and the beast couldn't quite see where he was. Cliff proceeded to take out the other eye, and run while he still could. Once safe, he ate a bite of his apple and then gave the rest to Burning Heart.

Health:88
Water: 3
Food: 34

Broken Heart watches in horror as a giant scorpion stands right next to him. He had no weapons, and couldn't attack it. He looks around, seeing a giant rock. He gallops into the tiny space between the rock and the ground, hoping the scorpion couldn't reach him.

Burning looked at Cliff generously giving her the apple. She took it quickly and ate the remains of it, not paying attention to the scorpion. She was starving. Her hunger finally fixed to a degree, she got up and kept watch for more threats
Food 32
Water 3
Health 100


Brawny kept running and running from the scorpion. He ended up by some palm leaves. It seemed as though he outran it. He was out of breath from sprinting. He sat down and ate an apple he had stashed in his saddlebag. Refreshing
Food 55
Water 3
Health 52

"Wait for me!" screeched Star as Cliff and Burnig Heart ran from the scorpion. She caught up with them and gasped for air.
Health:100
Water:2
Food:20

Iris readied an knives and aimed it at Brawny, but stopped and instead asked him "Hey there Brawns. 'Member me?" She kept a knife ready in case the lunatic attacked.
Health:100
Water:2
Food:25

Brawny heard a familiar voice. It was Iris. To be honest, he couldn't remember her for squat. She was really threatening. She had knives ready to be thrown at him. He stepped back a bit, hoping she wouldn't try anything. He was still injured.

"I really don't remember you. Mind refreshing my memory? And make it quick? I'm still scared that giant scorpion knows where I am or not."

Iris rolled her eyes. "Brawny, it's me, Iris. Calla's best mare friend. Good to know I have such an easy-to-forget face." she replied, peering down from the palm tree.
Health:100
Water:2
Food:30

Brawny rubbed his head, then it came to him. Calla's best friend. It was hard to recognize her when she was going to murder him

"Oh, my bad Iris. It's kind of hard to remember a friendly face when they're staring you down with knives that could easily kill you."

Brawny chuckled a bit. He loved joking with serious situations. A fun way to relieve the tension. But it didn't always work for both parties. Oh well, at least he met a pony he knew.

"I hope you weren't planning to kill me. Speaking of which, got any meds on you? My side is killing me. Some flying jerk made a huge gash in me, and I just barely bandaged it up."
Food 30
Water 3
Health 52

Burning Heart was getting hungry again, If she didn't eat soon, she would die. Why was sh eso needy? She almost wanted to die now. She tried to keep everything together and kept with Cliff and Star. She looked deeper in her saddlebag and found berries. YES! She quickly devoured them. Now she was out of food. She had to find something to kill... The other two had saddlebags full of stuff... She raised her knife and snuck behind Cliff. She hated to do it, but she needed to survive. She brought the knife crashing down into his back
Food 27
Water 3
Health 100

~~Onyx~~

Onyx watched the arena intently as his newest creations went to work. One scorpion had appeared to assault five different groups throughout the arena, and most of the tributes handled it well. The only real surprise was when the District 12 Tribute, Brawny Hooves, ran from the scorpion sent to him as fast as he could. The way the stallion had already hunted and killed other ponies throughout the game, the gamekeeper had not expected him to be afraid of a simple arachnid, no matter how large.

Most of the other tributes had responded to the new creatures as expected, by either fighting or simply attempting to hide or run. One appeared to be temporarily unable to do anything from shock, two had been able to either kill or temporarily disable the scorpions with a somewhat exceptional amount of skill, and one had decided to try and fight off the scorpion with no weapons, which was also a slight surprise. Onyx was slightly disappointed that only one pony had been stung in the initial attack, but there was still time for the other tributes to come in contact with the scorpions' most dangerous feature.


~~Covin Si'hal~~

"I'd say we should... Maybe try to find some water? I didn't get any, other than the water from my berries. Anyway, we should probably kill ponies to try to kill us."

Covin nodded. "Yep. I'm pretty sure that's the best way to deal with the other tributes. And as for water, I might have some in my bag, though I'll have to check when we stop somewhere. If anything, an oasis would be the best place to find water, unless you'd like to take your chances with cactus juice. Unfortunately, most of the other tributes will likely try and camp out in an oasis as well."

"Did that sand just move, or was it the wind?"

Covin looked over to where the other mare was looking, and saw the nearby sand from before still shifting slightly. Well, I don't think that that's normal... The Earth Pony shrugged and was about to respond to the mare, but before he could the sand that they were looking at suddenly exploded, and a giant shape lifted itself out from under the ground. Before the sand that had been tossed up could even settle down, a large stinger launched itself from the figure straight towards Leafy, pricking the tribute's leg and then recoiling.

Once he could clearly see the figure, Covin saw that this new arrival was in fact a scorpion. A very large scorpion, which was now seemingly preparing to lunge at him. Oh look. That's not very good at all. The creature lunged at the tribute, and he instantly dropped to the ground, the scorpion's pincers snapping at the location at which he had been a moment ago. As he did so, 4 options came to the pony's mind: Either run away and leave Leaf to fend for herself, distract the scorpion and let Leaf run away, try to do something to allow both of them to run, or simply fight the new enemy. In a split second decision, he picked option four. The only problem was that he didn't have any weapons.

The scorpion's pincers recoiled back to its body, and Covin got back up, jumping backwards to get away from the large arachnid. Then he remembered something. Oh wait. Weapons can be found at the cornucopia. So... As the scorpion approached him once again, the Earth Pony quickly took his bag off of his back and ripped it open, not wasting any time with zippers and pockets. He quickly felt through its contents, and pulled out two daggers by their handles. He quickly glanced at the blades with a frown. Really? Well, they'll have to do.

The large scorpion lunged at him again, this time managing to hit him with one of its claws, but luckily not getting a good grip on him. Covin dropped his bag and flew a few feet across the sand, getting back up within moments. The pony called out to his fellow tribute before putting a dagger in his mouth and holding the other one in his hoof, prepared for the scorpion's next move.

"Leaf! Do something or get away!"

Health: 85
Water: 2
Food: 75


~~Logik~~

((Remember that there were only five scorpions, Kirby, so we don't get to be assaulted and/or killed by one, sadly.))

"Oh, of course."

Logik nodded once, and the two ponies began walking towards their undefined destination once again. Within barely a minute of traveling, though, Amy stopped for a moment and spoke.

"Hey! What's that?"

Looking towards the direction that the young mare was looking, Logik could see a small but quite visible bulge in the sand nearby. Amy began to excitedly run towards the bulge, but then stopped about halfway towards it, most likely out of caution. The Unicorn caught up to her with a few steps and then spoke to address her earlier comment.

"I can't tell...but...well, most likely an...animal...of some sort... I would leave it alone..."

Logik looked out in the distance towards the direction that the two ponies had been previously headed after a few moments of observing the bulge, and saw a dark shape located in the desert fairly far away from them. He couldn't make out what the object was from that distance, but chances were that it would be worth investigating. The Unicorn's horn glowed for a second, and he cast a spell to magnify his vision slightly. With the new spell affecting him, the stallion could see that the distant shape was actually an oasis. He couldn't see any ponies there, but it was possible that some of the other tributes were hiding there, or were simply not visible from his location. Ending the spell, Logik spoke to Amy again.

"Amy, I see an oasis in...that direction. There might be other...ponies there, though. Do you want to...head that way?"

Health: 100
Water: 2
Food: 75

Broken Heart heard Iris talking to a familiar voice...now he remembered, it was that Brawny tribute who nearly killed him. He was still stuck under the overhanging rock, and was happy about it. He didn't want to dwell on what Brawny would do to him if he saw him. Right now, he was safe.

Iris laughed at Brawny's stupid joke. "I'm not going to attack you unless you attack me first. I was actually wondering if you might want to join in an alliance with me." she replied sweetly, she dug around in her bag a little mee scrupulously and found a bottle of pain killers. She tossed the bottle and roll of bandages to Brawny.
Health:100
Water:2
Food:20

Star gasped in shock and horror as Burning slashed at Cliff's back. "You know you could have just asked him!" she cried. "You're not going to kill me are you?" she asked nervously, "I don't have anything, I didn't grab anything from the cornucopia. I'm no threat."
Health:100
Water:2
Food:20

Leafy gasped in fear and pain. Wasting no time, she grabbed her ninja stars and tossed one at the monster, hoping that it would help kill it. The stars hit the scorpion, and it seemed to be bleeding, but it didn't give up. She threw another two, then examined her leg quickly. Seemed to be fine. Hopefully the scorpion didn't have poison, just a sharp sting. But that was just her hope. It may or may not be reality.

((Teehee! Don't get the wrong idea! I was hoping we could avoid the scorpions honestly. And When I said bulge, I was going to let you decide what it was, i.e. rock, animal, buried something, whatever. ^^))

Amy looked back at Logik, who appeared to be studying where she had pointed. For some reason, this made her happy. Maybe it was because a pony was finally listening to her! In a way, she supposed.

"I can't tell...but...well, most likely an...animal...of some sort... I would leave it alone..."

"Aww! But I wanna know what it is~! she whined like a filly, a smile spreading across he face even as she attempted to keep a straight one. Giving up, she let her face split into a grin, and she laughed a little before composing herself. She was about to speak when she noticed Logik was paying attention to some far off object that appeared only as a black blobby haze to her. It was obvious he was concentrating very hard, but how he could see it Amy had no idea. That was when she noticed the glow of magic that appeared around Logik's horn before it vanished just as fast. She had no idea what was going on exactly, but she assumed he had used some spell to help him see what it was exactly that he was staring at. He soon answered that though.

"Amy, I see an oasis in...that direction. There might be other...ponies there, though. Do you want to...head that way?"

Amy's ears perked at Logik's words, and her eyes glistened with hope and happiness. "Oasis? So there's water and life and other things than us and water and no sand and stuff?!" she exclaimed excitedly, even though she already knew the answer. "Well? What are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Brawny took the bandages and painkillers with glee. He may have been becoming a lunatic, but at least somepony was on his side. Even it was because he was dating her best friend. Maybe he found a pony he could be an ally with, and not kill off so quickly. Brawny bandaged his side properly and devoured the painkillers. Mmmmmm....

"Sounds great. And I'm glad we can together. Thanks for medicating me. Probably would have become a pushover if I didn't heal up."

Brawny heard screaming of a mare coming off in the distance. He was debating whether or not to investigate. He looked to Iris and pointed to the direction he heard screaming and pulle dout his poison dart gun

"You wanna check that out with me or ignore it?"
Food 30
Water 3
Health 100


Burning Heart back stabbed Cliff. Literally. Just to survive. This is what the Pony Games did. They turn you against your friends and loved ones. Just to entertain. She quickly looted the saddlebag and found only one apple. She didn't care what it was. She ate it instantly.

Burning looked over to Star. True, she was no threat. But she could become one... After stabbing Cliff, she walked towards her, wielding the knife. She stood over her and rose it, ready to impale her. The bloodlust was beginning to overcome Burning Heart. Closing her eyes, she brought the knife down into Star's skull
Food 29
Water 3
Health 100

Cliff- Wound 1-50 Kill 51-100
Star- Dodge 1-10 Wound 11-60 Kill 61-100