Rainbow Dash and Braeburn were roughly herded into the Justice Building for their last visitations. Rainbow almost broke down the minute she came inside. A memory tore at her:

She was eleven years old, and had just gotten her cutie mark. She wished Daddy was around to see it…

"Miss Rainbow Dash," Filthy Rich, the mayor, had said. "I award you this medal of valor for-" The rest of his words blurred into a mix of blah, blah, blah and mmmmmmmpfff.

"I miss you, Daddy," Rainbow whispered when the medal was placed around her neck.

XXX

Rainbow shook her head. She was in a small, luxurious room. Velvet couches and plush pillows and thick carpeting. She lay down one the carpet and buried her face in it, breathing in the powdery smell. It smelled great.

"Rainbow?" came a squeaky voice. "Are you… crying?"

The blue pony's head shot up. "I… no," she chuckled. "I was sniffing the carpet." There was an awkward pause. "Smells good." She studied Sweetie Belle's face. Her eyes were shiny and red from sobbing, and there was snot smeared all over her muzzle from where she had hurriedly wiped her face to hide her tears. She was trying to be brave for me, Rainbow realized sadly. Rainbow wrapped her front legs around her sister and held her, murmuring positive things into her mane. She angled her eyes towards her mother and stopped reassuring Belle. "You can't leave again," she said in a steely voice. "When Daddy… er, Dad died, you left. You were despondent. I had to take head of the family at eleven. You can't do that again!"

"I know," Firefly said quietly. She looked down at the plush carpeting. "I won't. I promise. I won't."

"You'd better not. Promise me that Belle won't hunt. Don't let her put her tesserae. Promise me you'll keep her safe." She grabbed her mother's front leg and squeezed. "I won't be able to be the head of family anymore! Take care of her! Don't let her starve! DO YOU HEAR ME?!" Her voice was getting shriller and angrier.

Firefly wrenched her leg from her daughter's grip. "I was sick! I could've… fixed myself if I'd been into healing the way I am now."

"Then take your God damn medicine!" Rainbow roared; she still had one foreleg wrenched protectively around her sister. "And take care of Belle!"

Sweetie Belle looked up, sniffling. "She won't need to," she said quietly.

"Yes she will. She will because you're not hunting. You're not putting in tesserae either."

"No, she won't," Belle insisted. "Because you're coming back. You can win, I bet you can. You're super fast and brave. And you can fly, too." She pulled away from her sister's embrace and placed her small white hooves on Dash's bright blue shoulders. "You can win."

"Oh, Belle," Rainbow whispered, wanting to be strong in front of her adopted sister. "My mane is rainbow. My pelt is bright blue. I'll stick out like a sore hoof." Rainbow's bright colors were unusual for District Twelve. A natural rainbow mane was unheard of. In the Capitol, though, ponies could dye their manes any color.

She knew she wouldn't win. The ponies from other Districts were five… ten times stronger than her. Ponies that could lift hundred pound weights with just their wings. Ponies that could flick a knife and, without even glancing, hit another pony straight in the head. Ponies who could cast spells that were full of torture and death. Ponies who could… kill her.

"But you will try to win… won't you? For me?"

Those words penetrated her heart. She knew she had to try. "I promise, Belle."

The door came open with a harsh smack. "Time's up," a peacekeeper growled. "Out."

Rainbow Dash hugged Belle and her mother as hard as she could, simply saying, "I love you. I love you both." And suddenly, they were ushered out the room. She buried her head in one of the pillows and tried not to cry. The door opened softly. She looked up quickly.

It was Braeburn's father.

Rainbow wondered why he'd come to visit. After all, she might be killing his son. Who knew? She had never done anything for him. Sometimes he traded bread for Applejack's squirrels, but she'd never had a conversation with him other than polite chit-chat.

"Howdy, Miss Dash," the gruff stallion said.

"Um... hi?" Rainbow asked.

From his saddle bags, he produced a little bag of cookies. "It's fer ya."

Rainbow was touched. "Th-thank you," the tough pony stammered. "You know Applejack, right? She got some bread from you this morning. Traded it, I guess. Um… thanks again. Yeah…"

"Yer a good, girlie, Rainbow," the big stallion said, giving her an awkward pat on the shoulder. "Ah'll make sure the little one gets fed. She's a good kid." He trotted out of the room. Rainbow clutched the cookies to her chest and sniffled. She gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut until the tears passed. She wasn't sure she could handle any more visitors.

The door opened softly again, and Diamond Tiara came in, her soft pink fur perfectly combed as usual. "Hi, Rainbow," she said quietly.

"Hey there, DT."

Diamond Tiara's eyes flashed with something. Urgency, desperation, sadness? Maybe all three. "They let you take a token from your District to the arena. Have you thought about what you're going to wear?" the twelve-year-old pony said urgently.

"Diamond, I haven't even thought that far. I'm still in shock, I guess. All I'm thinking about is how to keep Belle safe."

"Then would you take this?" Diamond asked, handing Rainbow a golden pen. It was circular with a golden pony stretching across it, her dainty front hooves barley scraping on end of the circle, and her back hooves straddling the other side of it. The pony was an alicorn with beautiful feathery wings and a long horn. Her cutie mark was a crescent moon in a night sky.

Rainbow gasped. "Is this… Princess Luna?" she whispered, fretful of video cameras in the room.

"You bet it is," Diamond said malevolently with a wicked grin.

Cookies, a very fancy, very forbidden gold pin, I'm getting a lot of gifts, Rainbow thought. Diamond kissed her on the cheek and walked out of the room.

Rainbow held the pin in her hooves and thought about how two sisters had once ruled in harmony. One the sun and one the moon. The sister of the moon had gotten jealous of the sister of the sun, because ponies shunned her beautiful night, and frolicked in her sister's hot daytime. Her envy had turned her into a horrible creature, and she had gotten banished to the moon for one thousand years by the sister of the sun. When she came back, the sister of the moon was still evil, but was soon defeated by six courageous ponies. They were brave stallions, decedents of a few residents of Ponyville, including AJ, herself, and Belle. The rest of the descendents were scattered around Equestria.

Anyway, the sisters of the sun and moon had lived in harmony for about two hundred more years. But the sister of the sun began to get jealous of the sister of the moon, this time. She plotted to have the sister of the moon killed, and then took over Equestria. She divided towns and cities into "Districts." When ponies rebelled, she wiped them out and made something called The Hunger Games. Just to show the ponies she was boss. The pin had the sister of the moon on it, which was a big no-no.

"Hey Rainbow Crash," a gentle voice said. Rainbow Dash fell into the forelegs of her best friend and let the tears finally flow. The old, comfortable nickname had broken her. "Listen, Crashie," Applejack drawled, "gettin' yer hooves on a knife shouldn't be too hard. But ya gotta get those same hooves on a bow. That'll be yer best chance, hear me?"

"They… they might not have bows," Rainbow sniffled, and leaned into Applejack. She heard her best friend's heartbeat chugging in her ear, and it gave her hope. Applejack smelled of smoke, apples, and sweat. Like hard work.

"Make one," AJ answered simply.

They argued back and forth about three minutes about wood to make bows, when a peacekeeper opened the door and said, "No more visitors. Leave now."

Rainbow clung to Applejack's hoof, screaming, "Don't let her starve, AJ!"

"I won't!"

And that was the last of Applejack Rainbow ever thought she would see.