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Post by Gleam Lucre on Jan 1, 2013 19:37:09 GMT -5
For a second, Gleam thought a second cannon had fired right beside him, because something whooshed right there! It took him a bit longer to realize that it had been Lightning Dust rocketing out to rescue the pony from the cannon. Holy Horseshoes of Celestia, she was FAST!
...And that business with the cannon had been a test of character, which everypony aside from Lightning Dust had failed completely. Shame and humiliation began roiling around in Gleam's stomach as Big Axe ordered the rest of them to run laps in punishment. It was icing on the unhappy cake when he saw her going to assist that poor mare as well.
Not even the discovery that she was a Private as well - and she called Gleam the newbie, when she wasn't any higher ranked than he was! - could distract him from his shame-filled thoughts. Gleam had known intellectually that that pony would've died if that had been real, and yet...he'd stood there and let it happen! Why hadn't he acted? Lightning Dust was a blisteringly fast pegasus, so of course she was able to pull the other pony clear before either of them were hurt, but Gleam could've at least shoved him out of harm's way! And Gleam hadn't done a bucking thing!
'All my thoughts of saving ponies, and I was about to let one die in front of me...what's WRONG with me?!' [/color] It...didn't really help that it had been Lightning Dust who'd done the saving either. Now Gleam felt even worse about those nasty wing-slicing thoughts earlier than he already had. She was a good pony, and he...he was not. By the time the ponies had finished their laps, Gleam was wondering if he'd made the right choice by enlisting after all. No...no, he was just a stupid, airhead, egotistical, snotty, and self-absorbed upperclass Canterlot pony after all - he should just go back to that tiny, sheltered world of glitz and parties and high-society and be a shallow non-achiever like the rest of them.[/center]
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Post by Red Charge on Jan 2, 2013 13:12:09 GMT -5
"Incompetent leadership," Big Axe called as they ran, "Will put you all in life or death situation, regulars and slayers alike. It's your job to make sure you and the other people in your unit get out of those situations alive. Disobeying an order is a crime! Letting a squad-mate die? That is a cardinal galloping sin! Ponies forgive insubordination, they don't forgive death."
As they finally finished the laps, all of them beat, Big Axe looked to Lightning Dust, now returned to the ranks, "Remember, you are there for your team, not the other way around. During the course of this unit, besides your sparring partners, you will also be divided into small teams. These teams will compete and these teams will fight it out. After they've fought hoof and teeth, after they've bled each other dry these teams will drink and celebrate together. From now on you are all brothers, you will fight each other and hurt each other, but at the end of the day you will love each other. To death if need be. Am I clear?"
The entire troop yelled the famous lines, "Sir, yes sir!"
"Outstanding. Alright get into teams, five ponies each, get a move on." He said, leaving them be and leaving the area, possibly to cook up some even more horrible test for them.
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Post by Gleam Lucre on Jan 2, 2013 20:29:10 GMT -5
Gleam was still feeling like a total mule as he listened to Big Axe's lecture. Obeying the chain of command had been pounded into all of these ponies' heads during training, himself included. But common sense and basic pony decency were important - Gleam knew that even without Big Axe shouting it at him.
He took a deep breath, held it, and let it back out after another moment. No, Gleam didn't want to go back Canterlot. And he never wanted to stand there and let a pony potentially die in front of him ever again! ...Whether or not it was only a test.
Resolve strengthened, Gleam glanced around covertly as Big Axe explained the team system. He could see other ponies doing the same, trying to decide who they wanted on their team - and a lot of those other ponies were glancing in Lightning Dust's direction.
And so, when Big Axe told them to pick their teammates and walked off, Gleam immediately turned to Lightning Dust, held out a hoof to her, and flatly asked, "Teammates?"
He didn't really like her that much, but if he wanted to surpass the useless Canterlot pony he could have been, then he'd have to learn how to surpass the pegasus pony in front of him first.
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Post by Red Charge on Jan 5, 2013 15:42:41 GMT -5
"Hah, you got it little buddy!" Lightning Dust said, punching his shoulder roughly. Besides Gleam, Lighting had picked three more teammates: A unicorn female named Starspear, formerly a healer for the Royal Guard, another earth pony male named Birch Bright, just a grunt in the army and the last was another buff unicorn called Sunspire, an unusually physical oriented unicorn, new to the army but former Rainlock Security specialist.
With their team assembled they began to talk to get to know each other. Lightning Dust and Starspear already began assigning roles to each member, with Starspear naturally being combat healer, Gleam being flanker, Sunspire being point-pony, Birch Bright being rear guard and Lightning Dust being air support.
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Post by Gleam Lucre on Jan 8, 2013 20:55:39 GMT -5
For the second time in as many days, Gleam staggered from a 'friendly' punch to the shoulder. He managed to recover faster this time, but it was extremely embarrassing nonetheless. At least Lightning Dust was more preoccupied with picking out their other teammates than laughing at Gleam's awkward cross-legged pose.
Once their team was actually assembled, Gleam had to admit that it was fairly well-balanced. Two unicorns, two earth ponies (including himself), and one pegasus. One of the unicorns, Starspear, was even already trained as a healer - that was going to be an enormous boon for them. The only really awkward thing was when it turned out that Starspear, Birch Bright, and Sunspire all had more combat experience than Gleam did. Birch Bright especially made no secret of how unimpressed he was with Gleam's nonexistent track record.
...Well, to hoof with Birch Bright's opinions. Gleam would just have to prove him wrong, that was all. The more pressing matter was wondering what sort of diabolical test Big Axe had in store for all these newly-formed teams. If the sparring situation was any guide, they'd probably have to battle another team right away.
Gleam's thoughts kept drifting in that melancholy direction as he continued eavesdropping shamelessly on the conversations his other teammates were having. A lot of reminiscing about their various hometowns, by the sound of things.
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Post by Red Charge on Jan 9, 2013 4:23:02 GMT -5
They were all silenced when Big Axe returned, followed by several other ponies, all in full gear. Lightning whispered in Gleam's ear as they came, "Count them they brought one for each team. I think they're going to be training us."
"These, are your teams sparring opponents." Big Axe introduced the other ponies, each of them had a variety of weapons and very intimidating armor. Big Axe wasn't serious right?
"We're all, well most of us, are combat veterans. You really expect our teams to spar with just one pony each time?" Asked a pony from one of the farther teams. Apparently Big Axe was waiting for that call-out, because he smiled widely.
"No, I expect you to lose to them." Said Big Axe, the ponies approached each team, leading them far along the grounds. Lightning Dust wondered aloud why they needed to be so far away from each other. Gleam's team opponent was a heavily armored unicorn, carrying several weapons and looking very calm considering he would have to test his mettle against 5 ponies.
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Post by Gleam Lucre on Jan 11, 2013 20:38:29 GMT -5
Gleam listened to Lightning Dust's comment on the new ponies coming over toward them, and dipped his head shallowly in agreement. He was starting to see a bit of a pattern here: whenever Big Axe had to pick what sort of training came next, the gigantic pony was most likely to go for the least pleasant option on the table. At least Gleam had been wrong about their new teams being set against each other. Each team only had to fight...one clearly very, very experienced pony. Lovely.
While Lightning Dust wondered about each team being pulled so far away from the others, Gleam could only sigh, loud and heavy.
'The space is probably so we don't crash into the other teams when we get our tails kicked across the field and back,' Gleam thought morosely, 'This is going to be impossible enough without having to dodge flying ponies.
...Groaning about it wasn't going to be any help, though. Gleam took a deep breath, held it for a moment, then let it out. And just as he was bracing himself for this, a new problem occurred to him. Who exactly was the leader of their little team? They'd decided positions, certainly, but somepony had to plan things out and decide which pony went which way, didn't they? He seriously doubted Big Axe cared enough to micromanage each team.
Like a lightbulb going off over his head, a plan occurred to Gleam right at that very moment. It was a very strange feeling - plans usually took him hours of thinking before he got one he was happy with - and Gleam almost felt a bit giddy. But since there was basically zero chance of winning against this unicorn anyway, why not do the first thing that popped into his head?
"...Let's rush him from all sides."
Of course it wasn't one of Gleam's cleverer plans. For once, it didn't have to be!
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Post by Red Charge on Jan 12, 2013 7:57:47 GMT -5
They finally reached their side of the field, at which point their trainer stopped, grinning past his mask. Lightning Dust and the others nodded at Gleam's plan, beginning to surround the pony, he couldn't possibly fight so many at once right?
Wrong.
As all of the unicorn's weapons began to draw themselves out of their holsters and started floating around in a circle around him, it became clear that this fight was not going to be easy. Above them in the sky a large orblike object appeared, like a large eye in the sky looking down on the battlefield. Their opponent braced himself, waiting for Big Axe's whistle.
And then it came, a sharp whistled followed by the weapons launching with lightning speeds at all ponies, attacking mercilessly. How do you fight a floating weapon that's always on the offense? Birch Bright was the first to get struck, a thin splash of blood decorated the grass as the rapier attacking him connected with his flesh, proceeding to hilt-smack him in the face and sending him tumbling over the grass.
"We need a plan!" Lightning Dust said, trying to streak past the double-edged sword the unicorn sent after her, but being blocked at every turn.
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Post by Gleam Lucre on Jan 15, 2013 18:31:06 GMT -5
Things were going poorly...exactly as Gleam expected. Their opponent was a whirling telekinetic storm of weapons, and it seemed like there was nothing they could do besides dodging the flying implements of doom - and even that was barely doable. Gleam had to jump to avoid being tripped up by Birch Bright when he was sent rolling tail-over-nose.
Lightning Dust's demand for a less useless plan made Gleam grit his teeth around the handle of his sword. Think up a new, flawless, brilliant plan in this mess? Of course, because he kept his brains in his hooves and all this exercise was sure to boost Gleam's intelligence! Unfortunately, Gleam had been the only pony here to realize that they had no chance of winning and that the current plan was a joke at best - Lightning Dust, Starspear, Sunspire, and even Birch Bright had all assumed that it was a winning plan and gone into battle confidently!
...It was kind of alarming. Just one little bad plan, and the others were on it like parasprites? What would happen if Gleam came up with a good plan?
'We can always find out!' [/color] Gleam decided - ducking just in time to only lose the top of his mane to a flying hatchet. Of course, it would be easier to think of a good plan if there wasn't a tornado of flying sharp objects to deal with! At least whichever pegasi were in charge of the weather in whatever corner of Equestria the training field was located had made the day sunny and clear: just think how much worse this would be in a thunderstorm! Wait. Pegasi? Weather? Tornado?A flash of something popped into Gleam's head. No time for a better idea, especially since Gleam was still convinced that this was a losing battle anyway. Might as well be completely crazy if the outcome was inevitable! Transferring his sword from his mouth to his front hooves - parrying the hatchet with jarring force, and being shoved backwards as the unicorn's telekinesis easily overpowered his physical strength - Gleam yelled up at Lightning Dust. "Make a tornado!"Gleam's vague, crazy idea ran thusly: if Lightning could make a tornado, it would suck up all the unicorn's weapons - or at least force him to focus on holding them in place instead of fighting with them. While that distracted him, Gleam and the other three could jump right on top of the unicorn! And then...well, what might happen next was anypony's guess. Hopefully this crazy plan was crazy enough to work. If it wasn't crazy enough, Gleam was certain that the unicorn would see it come a mile away.[/center]
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Post by Red Charge on Jan 16, 2013 1:10:22 GMT -5
Lightning Dust heard Gleam's shouts while desperately trying to dodge the whirling double edged sword the slayer unicorn kept throwing at her... but unfortunately, so did he. Before Lightning Dust could even as much as roger that suggestion the unicorn launched a force beam straight at her from his horn, the instantaneous and surprising attack knocked her out of the air and completely out of the fight as she crashed heavily into the ground, one of her hooves bent unnaturaly and slumped unconscious.
Birch Bright, who had recovered in the meanwhile tried to use the distraction to his advantage, but instead ended up finding himself with an axe in the shoulder, screaming loudly and dropping to the ground. Starspear was helpless, she rushed over to Lightning Dust, trying to set her hoof, but then noticing Birch Bright get severly injured she burst into tears, yelling, "This is training! Why are you hurting them so bad!"
A quick look around would reveal to Gleam that the other teams were not faring any better, about two thirds of the ponies who were moments ago standing proudly and scoffing at their targets were either knocked down or incapacitated by pain as whoever remained tried desperately to fend off their trainers.
"Alright enough is enough." Called Big Axe raising his hoof, causing all the trainers to stand down. The trainer unicorn who was facing Gleam's team returned his weapons to his back fluidly and took a bow and a group of healers immediately rushed into the field to take care of the wounded.
"None of you managed to land a single hit, with the exception of Private Nova Blast." He indicated a single unicorn among the masses, probably the oldest pony in the entire platoon and obviously the former major who forfeit his rank. His was the only team without severe injuries. He, however looked worse for wear, but he was more than able to give the mare training him a black eye, which seemed to impress her, greatly, judging by those eyelash batting she gave him.
"I heard one of you scream, 'this is training', yes, this is. Dragons won't care that you're hurt, they won't care that you're inexperienced. They will hit you and they will hit you hard and if they can kill you instantly they will. Get used to the pain, get used to the broken bones. By the time we're done, they'll feel like small scrapes in the big run."
"I saw some of you panic, I saw some of you charge helplessly and some formulate good plans, but then shout them out for their enemy to hear." At the last one he was looking at Gleam, "Naturally if the enemy knows your plan they WILL sabotage it." He said, it was common knowledge after all.
"Now all report to the sickbay for healing so we can continue to weapon drills. Get back here when theyr'e done piecing you together."
The sickbay line consisted of pretty much every pony who was present, besides Nova Blast that is. Gleam had no idea where Nova had gone, nor why but he did not see him back on the field when he came back either. Then again, he did not see a lot of other ponies there as well. Half of their number had quit, including their own healer. Even Birch Bright seemed to titter totter at the edge.
"Unfortunately, it seems most of you decided to quit in shame. I wonder how many will last through the entire course." Big Axe said, "If you're wondering about Nova Blast, he was sent to the worst training of all... Kitchen Duty." Only one pony laughed and it was a meek laugh that died instantly.
"Any questions?" Big Axe asked, a malicious grin on his face.
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Post by Gleam Lucre on Jan 16, 2013 16:21:24 GMT -5
Gleam winced as he heard Lightning Dust slam into the ground. How had he forgotten that the unicorn might try something like that? ...Oh, right, he hadn't thought about it because there'd been no time, this was why Gleam hoofing HATED trying to improvise! He always missed something patently OBVIOUS when he didn't take the time to think things through! Ponies were getting seriously injured because of his failure! Starspire's sudden hysteria wasn't any much comforting.
After Big Axe finally gave the all-clear, Gleam rushed over to the fallen Lightning Dust. One of the medic ponies quickly set and splinted up her poor hoof, before moving on to check on Birch Bright's shoulder.
While the public berating of all their failures was just what he'd expected, Big Axe's comment about his plan being good caught Gleam off-guard: he'd been certain it was a bad plan, and definitely a crazy plan. But it was actually good? Huh. Still, Gleam's whole body sagged at the bit about shouting it being an obvious mistake. What, was Gleam supposed to be telepathic now? Or maybe they should have come up with a super secret code in the two minutes before the fight started!
Since Lightning Dust was still unconscious when they were ordered to sickbay, Gleam gingerly eased her up onto his back and carried her there himself. It was his own fault she was hurt...helping her was the least he could do to make it up to her. He couldn't really make himself look her in the eye after she eventually limped out of sickbay, now awake and more or less back in one piece. Somehow Gleam had managed to avoid any serious wounds - nothing worse than massive bruises and an ugly new manestyle for him.
Gleam was surprised despite himself to discover that many of the ponies had quit outright. Starspear was one of the ones who'd left, which was bad...so much for their advantage of having a medic pony around. The rest of the team wasn't much better off. Nova Blast, the former major who'd done better than anypony in that last session, was stuck in 'Kitchen Duty'. But mess duty was punishment detail, wasn't it? Was Nova Blast being punished for his effectiveness? Or was it to keep him from accidentally letting through ponies that had no business being Slayers...Gleam had no idea anymore.
By the time Big Axe asked if there were any questions, Gleam was tired, sore, confused, and being surrounded by very nervous ponies like this was really getting agitating. That probably explained what happened next.
"When does the real training start?"
It took Gleam a second to realize that he'd actually said that out loud instead of thinking it. Oh donkeyapples...
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Post by Red Charge on Jan 17, 2013 1:21:09 GMT -5
The training field looked rather peaceful in the breeze, had it not been for the occasional splatters of blood that were the remains of the previous battle taking place there, it might have even be a good scene for a pastoral painting. An odd thing to notice was that there were no birds chirping at all, an absence that categorized the area since the moment Gleam was teleported there. It was just the occasional whistle of the wind and the odd cough or shiver of a pony.
Big Axe stared at the group for a while, "No questions? Good." He said finally, completely disregarding Gleam's question. "Now you divide yourselves into weapon categories for weapon drills. You will all begin to exercise proper weapon discipline as of this moment. Means your weapons will always be sharp, clean and treated. You will also never leave your weapon behind. Anypony whose weapon will be found deserted will have their weapon taken from them and they will be thrown out of the course. If I wasn't clear on it before, if you are kicked out of this course, regardless of former rank, you remain a private. So for all you officers, you will not be reinstated." At that several ponies visibly gulped, some hugging their weapons tighter.
The healers had done a marvelous job however, all of the ponies who were previously broken or severely wounded had been completely mended, although with a major case of headache and fatigue. Lightning Dust's hoof was fixed completely, though it still stung terribly, but it didn't seem to slow her down none. She just wished they had one of those heavy sets of armor the others got.
The group finally divided into weapon categories, splitting up the teams again. At which point weapon-masters were brought in. These exercises were nothing like Gleam was used to in basic training however, each move they practiced was long, complicated, usually involved fighting either several imaginary enemies or having to take extra momentum to strike a larger one. By the time it ended, after what seemed like days to Gleam, but was actually only several hours, few ponies had been able to do a single move properly. The weapon masters were very harsh in their corrections, clubbing and attackin any pony who botched up, forcing them to continuously repeat the moves they botched upon the threat of being hit again.
Lightning Dust's group had it far worse than his though, every mistaken move upon the hoof-to-hoof weaponry resulted with an armored hoof to the face or gut. Several ponies had already lost their breakfast due to this. But Gleam started to find that whatever blows he recieved weren't as intimidating as before. Maybe his body reached a threshold of pain where it couldn't go any higher, or maybe getting beat so much simply made him expect it more rather than fear it.
But at last it was over and finally they got a real break, a whole hour for lunch! Sadly however, lunch was not too appetizing, lean and high protein... gunk. Whatever it was that was poured into his bowl seemed more like prison gruel than actual food. But Big Axe had made it clear it was the only food they'll be getting.
He sat down with Lightning Dust and his team, who were all rather quiet, maybe due to the fact they all had painful headaches.
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Post by Gleam Lucre on Jan 17, 2013 9:20:48 GMT -5
As they sat down for their lunch, Gleam ran his tongue over his teeth to make sure they were all still there. It was a reasonable concern - Sunspire had chipped a tooth - but somehow Gleam only felt like his teeth were about to fall out of his head if he chewed too hard. Maybe it was fortunate that all they were getting for lunch was this mushy glop.
By some miracle, his flippant remark earlier hadn't gotten Gleam in hot water with Big Axe. ...At least, not yet. Gleam had a sneaking suspicion that it was going to bite him in the flank as soon as he let down his guard.
Everypony else remained very quiet as they ate their gruel. For the normally quiet Gleam, being surrounded by other quiet ponies was really odd. Despite the fact that he felt like a living pony-shaped bruise than an Earth Pony at the moment, Gleam wished it were more lively around here. Should he say something? But...nopony here looked like they were interested in doing anything but eat their gruel and enjoy the break from their thus-far brutal training session.
With a sigh, Gleam went back to licking his bowl clean of the goop. Nova Blast had been ordered into the kitchens here, he vaguely recalled. Were they eating goop that had been prepared by a former major? You'd think they'd teach the officers to cook better than this slop...Gleam chuckled a little under his breath.
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Post by Red Charge on Jan 19, 2013 14:12:05 GMT -5
After their small break, the ponies were herded away again by Big Axe, this time into however into a large construct. Were they going to be shown to their quarters? They were led down a long corridor into a large room with a board. A classroom? They all received notebooks and pencils to write with and Birch Bright was put in charge of collecting those notebooks and pencils from them at the end of whatever it was they were going to do. Were they going to be tested? Quizzed?
"Alright, maggots," He started, "Time for some schooling. We can't expect you to start killing vicious monsters left and right without knowing anything about them. So we're going to teach you about them. Their habits, their weaknesses, their behavior. Pretty much a university degree in how these things act, think and what makes them tick."
"Now I know you're all already exhausted, but if I see you so much as blink during these classes I will personally kick your flanks all the way into the Northern Barrens. Now open your notebooks and be ready to take notes. There WILL be a test, if you get less than a perfect score on that test, you will be kicked out of Heavy Support Unit training."
At that, without waiting another moment, he began lecturing, drawing diagrams dictating and pretty much teaching them as much as he could cram about manticores. Not the baby ones they most likely have seen around, but the full, angry adult ones. They could barely get anything into their already sore heads, not to mention that the information given to them was insanely complicated as it was. Heavy biology, chemistry, psychology and zoology and they barely even scratched the surface. This was an introduction class to Manticores, and they would sit through many more hours to learn, they knew... but they were soldiers, not scholars. How could they be expected to remember all of that?
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Post by Gleam Lucre on Jan 20, 2013 9:31:39 GMT -5
Of all the possible things that were going to happen next, Gleam hadn't expected book learning to be even a remote possibility. And yet here he was at a desk, taking notes as Big Axe lectured at them regarding everything you could possibly know about Manticores. Everypony here except for Big Axe himself was sore and bruised and getting very, very tired...and the setting was almost like Gleam was back in his colthood school in Canterlot!
'This is just getting surreal now,' [/color] Gleam thought, even as he diligently took notes. Around him, he could hear vague sounds of distress as ponies struggled to force all this new information into their bruised and battered brains. Gleam, however, found himself warming up to the situation. It was all extremely complicated, but all-in-all this was really useful stuff to know! He'd have to write down some of this information and give it to his mother, Twinkle Lucre, and to the rest of the management down at the Lucre Mine proper - they could use it to update all their emergency drills![/center]
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