At the dawn of the century, the nation collapsed.
Exiting the great war of Equestria brought relief, but it instilled a fear amongst the youth. Many rebelled against the government for the lies. For the deaths. For the hope of a fair government. 800,000 students boycotted schools, ignored the rules, did their own thing. Running amock the streets of Equestria's nations, the youths themselves forced the adults into a paranoia. Years later, the terror remains only in adults.
Many quit their jobs due to this paranoia. The fear that the youth will strike in various ways, either by vandalism, disturbing the peace, ignoring the rules of society. Some fear murder. The youth of the nation was out of control and the adults, fearing the youth, approved of multiple laws.
One banned the ability to linger in one area more than an hour. No big deal, us youths never stayed in one place. Another law banned the ability to speak freely. This one went down with loads of controversy, but nopony... or dragon, dared to say otherwise to the Equestrian Government. One that really pissed us off... well, if ya wanted to rock out, better grow eyes in the back of your head, if you know what I mean. After these failed to control the youth, the adults grew tired. Having enough of this fear of the youth, they passed one final law.
It is a law permitting population control of the most extreme kind. The law that prevents the youth from getting out of control. A law that reignites the fear in the youth. Fear of the adults. Fear of what will happen for disobeying the laws. They called it the Millenium Educational Reform Act.
Also known as the Battle Royale act.
11 YEARS AGO...
"'Winner of Battle Royale #1329: Girl #16, Moondancer.'" was the newspaper's headline. Looking up to the caretaker who just walked in with wonder in my eyes, I asked a question.
"Miss Cheerilee, what is 'Battle Royale'? And why is the girl in this photo smiling? Did she win a prize?" I asked as my friends in the room all thought the same question.
The purple mare stopped as I asked this and stared at me with sadness in her face, although I didn't know why. She looked almost like she was about to burst into tears. I don't know why she was sad, but later in life, I had discovered.
"She is smiling, but she is not happy. She had won a terrible lottery." Miss Cheerilee told us.
We all stared back wondering the same thing; how could somepony smile without being happy? I immediately wanted an answer.
"What do yo-" I said only to have the caretaker's hoof placed over my mouth preventing me from asking.
The other kids looked and said nothing, wondering if they would get into trouble for insisting on an answer. Miss Cheerilee removed her hoof from my mouth and I didn't continue my question and then, Miss Cheerilee cried. Her face only displayed great sorrow then and I still didn't know until later.
"Let's hope you never find out, Spike."
TWO YEARS AGO...
One day, we all decided to just skip class. Just for the heck of it. Not like the teacher really cared. She only had the job of teaching us. The only one who actually went to class that day, late or not, was that egghead, Twilight Sparkle. She had hatched me as an egg and due to my maturity rate, I wound up taking most of my classes together with her and others her age. It was for some Carnival Game that nopony was really supposed to win, but she did and here I am. I do know her, and we say "hi"... nothing more than classmates.
When she arrived, she discovered the teacher sitting on her desk, staring at the nice little note we left on the chalkboard;
"TAKING THE DAY OFF 'CAUSE WE WANT TO – CLASS B"
"I'm sorry, I..." Twilight spoke out when she first walked in to the classroom, stopping only when she discovered it empty. She wracked her brain for an answer that was obvious but not the one she wanted. The teacher turned her head, her flowing mane seemingly drooping somehow regardless of it's oddly magical nature.
"I'm sorry, I'm late and..." Twilight began to say. "... and I don't know what's going on...?" she only watched as the teacher stood up slowly and magically lifted the eraser and wiped our message clean off of the chalkboard.
"No class today, my faithful student." the mare said as she smiled at Twilight with sadness in her eyes too.
Twilight trotted back to her locker, sad that her joyous day of learnign had been ruined by her ignorant classmates. After she finished up putting her books back, she closed the locker and sighed before the teacher walked out of the classroom. One that was the eye of most people's envy for her looks but also the most strict teacher known.
Miss Celestia, but we often used her full name of "Princess Celestia". Not Twilight though. She has some sort of special connection with Miss Celestia so she always called her "Princess" or "Celestia"; real teachers pet. Often doing extra credit work for the teacher such as reports on the magic of friendship or witchcraft or some bullshit like that... but I didn't judge her. Maybe Twilight enjoyed this. Maybe she would have her future ensured. After all, Miss Celestia is a respected, well known teacher. Maybe Twilight would go on to cure all diseases, or discover a way to colonize the moon. Who knows? I always thought that Twilight was an egghead and at this rate, that may never change, but I'll be damned if I didn't admit she is cute.
Then it happened. As Celestia passed the bathrooms, somepony shot out of the boys bathroom and blade in mouth, stabbed Miss Celestia directly in the centre of her sun cutie mark. She let out a yelp and fell to the floor and the attacker turned immediately and ran the opposite way down the hall, running directly into Twilight and the blade fell out of his mouth. He stumbled to the floor along with Twilight. Twilight, in a panic, picked up the blade used to stab their teacher and stood up, quickly levitating the blade into her saddlebags and stood next to her locker, watching as Miss Celestia stumbled to her feet. Down the hall, the student who assaulted Miss Celestia, who I later learned to be my best friend, Pipsqueak, ran into several girls and stopped to see what Miss Celestia did. She only looked at her wound and stumbled over to a sink to wash her hooves from the blood that flowed out of her knife wound. As she did, she looked over at Twilight, both meeting each other's gaze. Many students speculated what this meant. A wordless declaration of hatred was the most popular theory but we disregarded most of them.
After that, Miss Celestia resigned from school and we got stuck with this real ditz of a pony. Popular with the fillies, hated by the boys; he was a real jerkass. Prissy mane, always wore some stupid vest thing and had a rose on his pony at all times. Some nephew of Miss Celestia known as "Prince Blueblood". He taught us nothing and we still passed his "class" with ease. Eventually, our compulsory education was coming to an end and quite frankly, we were glad to be rid of the ass.
NOW...
We're taking a field trip to Manehatten for our graduation trip. I personally have been very excited for this trip for a long time, so naturally... I sat in my train booth keeping to myself. What the hell, excitement? Now I just feel odd. Almost like I'm going to regret this trip. Not often I get that feeling, but I often don't listen to my gut for the sake of not pissing off the Government more than they are 24/7. So instead, I just sat next to my pal, Pipsqueak as he rambled on. His accent is hilarious so that's the only reason I'm listening at the moment, but I am catching now and then "Twilight" and "got me back to school" or something. I'm nodding and laughing. I'm not a terrible friend, but it's just so hard to not giggle it.
"Hey Twilight, lets go!" a pink mare named Pinkamina, better known as Pinkie, said, nudging Twilight as both ponies sat at the back of the train car.
Twilight looked over at Pinkie with wide eyes. "Are you insane? No! I can't do that it's..." Twilight hid her face behind her hooves, a small bag of sweets in her hand.
"C'mon, I didn't teach you how to make sweets just so you can hide them from your special pony..." Pinkie Pie nudged Twilight's shoulder.
"But, I..." Twilight couldn't finish as Pinkie snatched the bag in her mouth and cantered through the train car towards where Spike and Pipsqueak sat.
Twilight is chasing the pink mare full swing with a blush creeping across her lavender face, almost panicking at Pinkie's choice. All around, chatter goes about as the entire class excitedly conversed about what they will do on the trip, how much fun it will be, Pipsqueak went on about how happy he is, and Pinkie and Twilight are the only ones not indulging in excited chatter. Pinkie zipped by the ponies as she dashes into the next train car with Twilight dead on her tail. She practically stops dead in her tracks, Twilight slamming into her from behind as if Pinkie were a brick wall.
"Hi, boys! Twilight made this for you, Spike-wikey and Pippysqueaky!" Pinkie said, tossing the bag of sweets onto my lap lap.
Twilight recollects herself before actually realizing she is in it. Stepping forward as Pinkie's stepping aside, she walks up as both Pipsqueak and I looked at the lavender mare.
"Um, yes, I did... but Pinkie told me what to do! I can't cook at all!" Twilight covered her face as she kicked the floor.
I couldn't stop the smile from appearing on my face. Twilight never was good at social-related ventures and surely, handing out cookies to ponies... and a dragon she barely knows couldn't help. Well, I guess she knows me but...
"For real! Thanks!" Pipsqueak exclaimed as he snatched the bag up and opened it, gobbling down a cookie.
Pinkie Pie giggled as they sat in the booth opposite to us. In front of us on the other bench in the booth is basketball champ Scootaloo; widely known for being a legendary badass. Next to Scootaloo sits colt-killer Sweetie Belle; widely known for her good looks and amazing voice... and finally, one-of-the-colts, Applebloom; widely known for... having an "applebooty". All the colts gave her this name but we all knew the price for saying this to Applebloom herself... well, we guessed. The consensus was this: violent death. Why am I mentioning this? Well, those three fillies snickered at the display going on, Scootaloo pinning straight for the "Twilight loves Pipsqueak" phrase. Sweetie Belle opted more for the "watch and laugh at the outcome" while Applebloom only continued trying to stop from bursting out into laughter.
"Alrighty my little Spikey, it's time for a pho~oto~o!" Pinkie said, pulling a camera seemingly out of a void in existence. "Twilight, hustle together with Spikey and Pippy!" she positioned the camera, also on a tripod pulled from nothing.
Twilight had no time to respond as Pinkie lifted Twilight up and practically sat her down on my lap. Twilight only giggled before staring at the camera. The three fillies, often dubbed different names such as the "Power Trio", "Powerpuff Ponies", and most popular, "Cutie Mark Crusaders" due to their lacks of a Cutie Mark, only watched to see the reaction on our faces. I looked at the camera and smiled while Pipsqueak stood up on the bench and laid against the back of the seat and atop my shoulders. I smiled at the antics.
"Say 'chimmy-chonga'!" Pinkie said.
"Chimmy chon... ga..." we all said, realizing we had no idea what a "chimmy conga" is. We all let out a giggle and laughed, smiling as the camera flashed and took the photo.
"Wait one second for it to develop! It'll be gold!" Pinkie said, rubbing her hooves in anticipation.
Twilight looked over nervously at me, blushing at our close contact. I can only smile back, unsure of what to say. This is an awkward situation, one could say. Pipsqueak sat back down and reached into the bag of cookies once more, stopping. He looked over at me the same instant I looked at him.
"Here, you have one, mate!" he held the bag out to me.
I smiled, but shook my head. "No thank you, go ahead." I replied.
Sweetie Belle gasped. "Spike, don't you think it's rude to refuse a gift generously not just given, but made for you?" Sweetie Belle scolded me as I put on a sheepish grin.
"Yah can' jus' refuse a gift like that, Spike. Never look a gift horse in th' mouth, 'n all that jazz." Applebloom nudged me under the table with a back hoof.
Scootaloo only gave me a hard kick to my shin, laughing as she did so. I instinctively reached down to rub my shin, only to meet the table top with my face. Now in twice the pain, I let out a laugh at my misfortune while the CMC's, Pipsqueak, Twilight and Pinkie all did too. I snorted, unable to control the giddy feeling radiating through my body.
"No, it's... hah, not that guys. I'm just not hungry." I said, calming down.
"Spoilspo~ort!" Scootaloo chortled as she folded her arms and kicked her hind legs onto the table.
We all laughed and finally, we could hear the sound of the camera printing out a photo. Pinkie almost tore it in half in anticipation as it came out.
"It's do~one!" Pinkie shouted, practically shoving the photo down our throats.
We took a look at it Pipsqueak let out a gasp while Twilight and I snorted, holding back a fit of giggles.
"Augh! I'm hardly in it, mates!" Pipsqueak said with forced anger in his voice, his laughter breaking through.
Another fit of laughter errupted from the seven of us which continued for the next few minutes. After we managed to calm down, I slid over on the bench allowing Twilight to sit on it properly. She has her forehooves on the table, poking them together as she continues to refuse eye contact with others. Pipsqueak leaned forward and looked at Twilight.
"Thanks for getting me to come back to school, Twilight." he said with a smile that could rival one of Pinkie Pie's smiles.
Twilight smiled back. "It's no problem. I'm sure you had your reasons for not going, though." Twilight replied. "I just want my fellow classmates to enjoy learning like I do." she replied, trying to hide embarassment.
"I bet, I mean, who else just enjoys learning that five times five equals twenty?" Scootaloo said sarcastically.
Applebloom nudged Scootaloo's shoulder. "Five time's five equals twenty five, Scooters. Maybe y'all shoul' try learnin'." Scootaloo's face proceeded to grow bright red with more embarassment than Twilight has right now.
"Hahaha!"
I shot up in my seat, looking around. It's currently very dark inside the train car we're in. Looking out the window, the moon is high in the sky. My head is rather dazed... Looking around the train car, I see my fellow classmates are all asleep. Pipsqueak, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Pinkie Pie, Twilight... wait, we fell asleep? When...? I don't even remember. What is going on? I smell something weird in the air and I feel... very light headed. I stumbled over Twilight's sleeping body, too dizzy to care. It's rude, but I can't help it. I set my feet down on the ground and adjusted what I'm wearing; my school uniform with a red and black design. I stumbled around the train car, heading to the front. I looked at the door, dreading the very thought of just touching it, let alone opening it. Gulping down my fear, I gently touch the door handle and slide it open as fast as possible, looking to see a car full of... Royal Guards? Why? I didn't even know Royal Guards supervised class trips. I don't even think I've seen these many Royal Guards over the course of a month, and here are about 30 just sitting around and on their faces... are those gas masks? Why?
One looks in my direction to investigate the opened door. Unable to notice, I attempt to not fall down to the ground. My eyes are begging me to close and my mouth desperately wants to just open up, unable to keep itself closed. My entire body feels numb, it feels light, almost like I'm not in my own body. Hearing several hoofsteps, I'm now drawn to the guard who spotted me, mennacingly trotting towards me at a murderously slow pace. The anticipation almost snaps me out of my haze, but no luck. The most it does is make me stumble backwards like a drunken fool. After a few steps, I finally trip on the friction of the ground unable to keep sliding backwards. I fall back down on the ground, slightly more awake from the impact. I look down at my feet, letting a slight groan... or what I think is a groan, out of my mouth and notice a pair of shiny horseshoes standing directly in front of me. I look up the legs, passed the golden armour, and to the face of the stallion guard in front of me. We meet eyes, and then nothing. We stared at each other for an eternity, each of us refusing to move as if time itself has stopped.
Almost too fast, he raises a hoof, my brain unable to process from the haze swirling around up top and the shiny, golden hoof slammed down, hitting me square on the forehead sending the first reminder that yes, I am not in a dream, and yes, I can feel pain. I fall backwards, my consciousness slipping from me as the entire world went dark.
Was going on this trip a bad idea? I don't know, but one thing's for sure; when I wake up, I will know... and I will not like the answer.
Notes: Please PM/comment on who you think should be who based on the original novel, Battle Royale if you have read it or hell, even seen the movie or read the manga. This is a mixture of the movie, book, and manga's plots as you can tell by the intro of both the movie and book being used.
I've actually had three ideas; making the entire class full of fillies and colts from the show,my current idea where Spike and Twilight take Shuuya Nanahara and Noriko Nakagawa's place in Battle Royale, or one where I bump the Mane 6 into the Lighthouse Girls and using original characters instead of Shuya and Noriko.
My Little Pony is owned by Hasbro including the My Little Pony logo. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is owned by Lauren Faust and the HUB American TV Network, including the HUB logo and the My Little Pony logo.
Battle Royale the novel is owned by the writer Koushun Takami/Battle Royale the movie is owned by Kinji Fukasaku and Toei/Battle Royale the manga is owned by the writer Koushun Takami, the artist Masayuki Taguchi, and the publishers, Akita shoten (JPN) and Tokyopop (USA, CDN, UK).
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