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Post by Red Charge on Apr 10, 2013 12:47:56 GMT -5
It has been a staggering amount of time, a week? Two? How was one to know when every day seemed to last for eternity? From the moment they woke up to the moment they slept all the Slayer recruits did was either train hard, study hard, spar hard, or get their flanks beaten by their trainers.
Gleam's team had gotten the most special treatment Big Axe could have afforded. For every exercise the platoon did, they always had more objectives, always had more restrictions and failure to meet those always incurred much more negative treatment. Heck, for failing to beat an objective they were once drilled through weapon practice an entire night, without being allowed any sleep the day after. Naturally, this caused them to fail the next day, at which point they literally had to take a beating to "toughen them up" before being sent to bed with no dinner.
Nova, their new teammate was a very silent pony, he barely talked to anyone during the entire time they were there even when prompted, however he was entirely reliable, making sure to help everyone he could whenever he could. His attachment to their team however, brought upon the entire platoon's scorn.
Lightning Crackle, Gleam noticed, has been training extra hard since the decision was made and has been able to really stand out from the rest, often going on far after her body gave out on pure determination. Whenever she looked at Gleam he felt her rage on his skin as though it was a burning flame, she was even able to injure her trainer in combat, something even Gleam's team was unable to do. So far they had managed to get close enough for a hit several times, but they never managed to land it. Obviously theirs was the toughest in the group and his floating weapons turned out to be quite the trouble.
Even so, Gleam could feel the changes in his body, his muscles getting bigger, his confidence growing and his skill increasing. He was no longer a timid newbie, even two weeks in he felt ready to face the worst, he couldn't imagine what a monster he'd be if he survived to the end.
"Will you stop fantasizing about her and get back to me?" Lightning Dust asked, snapping Gleam straight in the face with one of her heavy steel shoes. "She hates us, you've got a better chance with a hydra than her. I'll be honest at this point she's scaring the hay out of even me. What did we do to her anyway? It's like every time she's looking at us she hopes some dragon chomps our flanks off."
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Post by Gleam Lucre on May 26, 2013 15:20:13 GMT -5
Nothing like a steel-plated hoof to the face to get one's attention. Although it said something about their training when that was all it was good for: Gleam felt the blow, but it barely bothered him except to disrupt his musings. Not the best thing, to be thinking so much during sparring practice, but Gleam couldn't help it.
And then he took a second kick to the face, which did hurt, and knew Lightning Dust was impatiently waiting for an answer to her question.
"She was on Nova's original team," Gleam said around the sword handle in his mouth.
He could use it with his hooves too, after all that drilling, but using his mouth left his hooves free to grapple. Ah, the face he'd gotten out of Lightning Dust when he'd grabbed her helmet that one time...pity she tended to stay out of reach now.
Without waiting for a reply, he lunged at Lightning Dust, swinging his sword. By now aiming for her wings was a regular part of their sparring, on Big Axe's 'insistence': Gleam wasn't supposed to hold back, and Lightning Dust had to keep herself from being maimed by somepony that didn't have her best interests at heart.
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Post by Red Charge on May 26, 2013 23:45:45 GMT -5
"Aight break it up you maggots." Big Axe called out, gathering the recruits to their positions orderly. "You're all probably expecting another fun day of training don't you? Maybe studying? Heck, you're all probably hoping for the obstacle course, aren't you? You lazy bastards. But no." He roared, "No today you're going to have to finally get off your flanks and kill something. That's right, kill something! We've unleashed a monster in the woods outside the base, for fun's sake, we're not even going to tell you what it is. Your job is to hunt the thing down and kill it. Each team fights SEPERATELY. That means the pony that lands the killing blow nets his team an OFFICER's dinner AND PILLOWS for the entire team."
The giant pony pointed at the slowly opening gates outside to the woods, "You're gonna go out there and use everything we've taught you to kill that monster. Remember, I don't care how many of you gang up on the monster, the pony delivering the killing blow WILL be the winner, even if all he did was drive another pony's spear an inch deeper, we clear?"
With a loud 'sir yes sir' the platoon replied.
"Good, oh and do us all a favor and don't die, it takes hours fishing in its guts to try and find pony bits, wouldn't want to send any of you to your parents without a leg." The massive stallion said irritably, "Aight grab your gear, you're moving in 30 minutes."
At that he released them all, Nova seemed as quiet and contemplative as always, Birhcbright and Sunspire were talking excitedly about the operation, which left Lightning Dust to sit on Gleam's back and yammer on. "I can't believe it FINALLY we get to do something real!" If almost getting killed daily by their trainers wasn't real enough for her... what was?
"What kind of monster do you think it is? I bet it's something epic!"
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Post by Gleam Lucre on May 27, 2013 11:30:56 GMT -5
Hearing that they were going to do something beyond the usual grueling routine had a definite impact on morale, Gleam noted. Even after sparring practice, everypony seemed much more alert and cheerful than normal. Though the fact that they were being promised the luxury of pillows and real food might have something else to do with the smiles appearing on everypony's faces...
Lightning Dust landed on his back heavily, like always, but Gleam barely felt the weight. She'd made a habit out of using him as a mobile chair whether she was able to walk or not, and as Gleam got to know her better his initial irritation with the situation had melted into amusement. Dust was oddly irrepressible despite everything their training from Pony Hay was putting them through.
"Big enough to eat a pony," Gleam mused aloud as he trotted them over to get their gear, "It might be another dragon."
It seemed like ages since their first day, seeing their new trainers effortlessly take down and kill that dragon. At this point, it wouldn't surprise Gleam if the Slayer trainers had a farm or something dedicated to raising the things - just to make sure they kept in practice, at least.
Odd, he was feeling rather cheerful himself. Gleam wondered if the high he was experiencing would last once they met the monster...eh, probably not. But it was nice while it lasted.
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Post by Red Charge on May 29, 2013 13:38:25 GMT -5
"Nah they wouldn't give us that, we'd be expecting that! I bet it's something rare, something we never get to see around our parts. Maybe something from the Barrens!" The Northern Barrens were known to host monsters of rather enormous sizes, from the smallest ape like yetis to the massive Sabretooth Ultralisks - mammoth like monsters with several tusks and insect like exoskeletons despite the fact they are obviously mammals. They are heavy, ferocious and dangerous.
"it's gonna be something big for sure, something we won't be able to kill with just one team. The trick is gonna be to get that killshot." At that point Lightning Crackle pushed past Gleam, shoving him rudely as she went.
"Why that filly! I should give her a good clobbering!" Lightning Dust smashed her metal hooves together.
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Post by Gleam Lucre on May 30, 2013 9:26:45 GMT -5
Monsters from the Northern Barrens, hmm? Gleam mulled over it. Judging by the weather around here, any cold-weather monster would most likely be at a disadvantage. Their lessons on monsters flickered to the forefront of Gleam's mind, and he nodded to himself: yes, definitely a disadvantage. Unless their trainers had the weatherponies here bring in a freak snow storm...
"Winter monsters wouldn't do well in this area," Gleam replied, "Maybe they imported something from the Zebra Territories -"
His words were cut off when Lightning Crackle jostled him. Vaguely surprised, he paused in mid-step to watch as she stormed on ahead of them. That mare...by now, she seemed to be a completely different pony from the smiling, optimistic Lightning Crackle that Gleam met on their first day of training. Back then, she'd said she wanted to succeed and make her brother proud, but Crackle was taking it to a ridiculous extreme now.
The chip on her shoulder the size of Luna's moon didn't really endear Lighting Crackle to anypony else either. Nopony else had liked seeing Nova Blast move to Gleam's team, but they'd at least recognized that they'd escaped the nightmare of 'extra special training'.
Lighting Dust, still riding on his back, was chomping at the bit immediately. At least she didn't immediately take to the air to chase Crackle: Gleam was certain he'd never be able to catch her if she had. Instead, he turned his head and looked her in the eye.
"Don't let her provoke you into anything," Gleam said, "It's what she wants."
Even after leaving the upper class life for the army, it was such a shame to have to see more of this. Although Crackle's utter lack of subtlety would have gotten her eaten alive years ago by Canterlot's nobility...and here he was standing around when they had to get their gear together, wasn't he? Blast it!
"Come on, let's not be late to the monster hunt," Gleam added, moving forward again.
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Post by Red Charge on May 30, 2013 11:57:35 GMT -5
Lightning Dust hopped off Gleam and the two set on to prepare. While they were alone in their room grabbing their gear, Nova spoke, a rare occurance.
"It's an undead." He said, "A big one, I don't think we've seen anything like it." He stated knowingly.
"And how in Equestria would you know that?" Asked Birch Bright condescendingly, "Unless you're an undead detector by any chance."
"It just so happens to be that I am." Nova Blast said venomously, reminding them all of his former rank, a major. Now he also gave them a hint to the unit he served in, an Everfree unit. Which means he was trained to detect undead, day and night they were always in tune. If the Undead ever mounted an assault, they would be the first and probably only heads up Equestria would have before they spilled unto their settlements.
Birch Bright was quiet after that statement, Sunspire cursed, "An undead? How are we supposed to kill it? I thought we weren't allowed to fool around with them, just keep them out of our borders?"
"An occasional undead going missing is nothing of note for the Necrolord, there are many monsters in the Everfree that do not check for the living status of their prey, but this one... this one's big, I could feel it since they brought it in this morning."
The team seemed extremely crestfallen with those news and for good reason. No one ever wanted to face an undead foe and worse yet, none of them, with the exception of Nova perhaps, were trained to do so.
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Post by Gleam Lucre on Jun 1, 2013 11:23:15 GMT -5
In less than a minute Gleam learned three useful things. One was that Nova Blast had previously been in an Everfree unit. That explained a lot about why he was so skilled: just because Nova Blast had been a major before taking Slayer training didn't necessarily mean he'd been promoted on merit alone. Monsters of all sorts would be old hat to a pony stationed in Everfree Forest if the stories Gleam had heard about the place were true.
The second thing Gleam learned was that Nova was an undead-detector. Very useful, if you were worried about undead creatures coming after you. Gleam...wasn't that worried about facing undead, but the idea of dead things coming back and trying to kill you...it unsettled him.
But the third thing, well...it was useful to know that they'd be fighting an undead. Since it was a big one, according to Nova, getting any forewarning on it at all was most likely a blessing. It failed to make the situation any more appealing, though.
Gleam ran over their lessons in his head as he gathered up the last pieces of his gear, trying to remember what (if anything) the trainers here had mentioned about undead, when something obvious occurred to him.
"So we're going after an undead," Gleam said, "Nova Blast, are there any basic rules to fighting them? We'll need every bit of help for this, I think."
Huh, looked like having Nova Blast around gave Gleam's team an advantage yet again. Now if only he could be confident that their trainers weren't planning some kind of surprise twist, Gleam would be content.
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Post by Red Charge on Jun 1, 2013 11:37:19 GMT -5
"There are no rules. Undead don't fear you, they don't die if you stab them or eviscerate them, they won't run and they won't hide. They won't stop until you are dead. In addition, they all have a dread aura. As soon as you're near one, you're all likely to freeze in fright or run away. Doesn't matter how brave you think you are. I've seen experienced ponies running in panic, losing control..." Nova Blast explained, "Undead aren't like your average monster, not even like those corrupted monsters you see nowadays. They're far worse. This one may be alone, but it will be powerful. From what we've learned the best way to kill one is to make it useless, sever every limb it has. Or so Field Marshal Starling reports."
"Field Marshal?" Asked Sunspire, "So it's true? He was on a mission against the undead?"
"That's what we hear, they didn't give us any details, only his findings on how to best tackle them. I'm the only one in this place from an Everfree unit, the rest of the teams will get themselves killed if we don't find it first. Unless of course, you guys want to give them a heads up?" No one in the room spoke up, no one wanted to let go of this advantage they had. Question was, could they guarantee they'd get to the monster first? Would someone fall to it in the meanwhile? Lightning Dust looked to Gleam.
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Post by Gleam Lucre on Jun 1, 2013 11:56:39 GMT -5
It was both worse and better than Gleam had imagined. And the only reason it was better was that Nova Blast was giving them this warning, because facing sounding as horrible-sounding as that without any advance notice would have been horrendous.
Right, they definitely had to find it before anypony else came across it. Could use Lightning Dust's speed for that, she was faster than any other pegasus here as far as Gleam knew. But what if the others stumbled across the undead anyway? The thing might hole up somewhere that Dust couldn't see it, and pop up on somepony completely unexpected.
An idea came to Gleam them: let the other ponies go first, let them find the undead monster on their own. Wouldn't they be a perfect distraction? The monster would never see their team coming while it focused on the others...
But Gleam remembered a hapless pony standing before a cannon, and himself not doing anything but averting his gaze from the scene. No! He wasn't going to sit back and let anypony die! Not because it was easier or convenient or for any other reason! Gleam had vowed to be better than the pony who'd turned his face away, and he'd be damned if he let that slip because an undead was making him nervous!
"We need to spread the word," Gleam said, stomping a hoof decisively, "Make sure everypony knows that it's an undead, and that they have to cut off all the limbs first."
Gleam felt a trickle of embarrassment when he saw that the others were all looking right at him now, but he concealed it and pressed on.
"If they all go and get themselves killed, it's going to be because they didn't listen to us. Not because we selfishly didn't warn anypony. Right?"
...And now he did duck his head a little bit, and felt the color rise to his face. That was a long speech for him, and here he was dictating orders like he outranked everypony, even Nova Blast, when it was just...Gleam was probably blushing crimson by now, hoof it all.
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Post by Red Charge on Jun 1, 2013 12:16:37 GMT -5
"Alright, Gleam, you and Dust split up and tell all the others, they'll probably be in their rooms. Sun Birch and I will get your gear packed." Nova nodded, and they resumed their work. Lightning Dust immediately took off to the far side of the barracks, leaving Gleam to do this side. It took him a bit to explain it all to the others, but finally there was only one room to go to, Lightning Crackle's team...
He opened the door tentatively and found the room completely empty. Lightning Crackle's team had already gone out in search of the monster, hoping to find it before everyone else. How long was she gone? He didn't see her leave, she must have had her gear ready the whole time and took off as soon as the others went to prepare themselves. Which means she had quite the distance by now. Drats.
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Post by Gleam Lucre on Jun 1, 2013 12:52:26 GMT -5
Gleam shut the door to the room carefully, controlling himself so as not to slam the thing and get anypony's attention.
Dang it! Lightning Crackle was long gone and had taken her team with her. Gleam had been bracing himself to talk to her, even though she'd no doubt refuse to accept his warning because of her insane drive to perform...but it was clear the whole team was long gone. And here he'd hoped that Crackle's teammates would be able to keep her from galloping into a fight she couldn't win...
...oh, who was he fooling? They hadn't been able or willing to restrain her in regular training: why would they hold her back for a monster hunt?
Gleam headed back to his own team as fast as he could without breaking into a full run - energy spent now was energy he wouldn't have to fight with - and without preamble informed them, "Lightning Crackle's team already left!"
Of course, now they could either try to track down Crackle's group to warn them in the field...or go after the undead and try to beat the others to the monster.
"We're going to have to beat them to the undead," Gleam continued after he gave it a moment's thought, "If we run into them first...maybe they'll listen to Nova Blast. I doubt Lightning Crackle would listen to anypony else."
Hopefully Nova Blast could lead them to the undead directly. It would save them a Hayload of time.
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Post by Red Charge on Jun 1, 2013 13:06:53 GMT -5
The others were already ready by the time Gleam came back and after helping him put on his gear, they galloped out of the barracks and to the yards, "I can't sense it now, when I will, I'll let you know, it shouldn't be hard to find once I get it locked. But be careful, I don't know if it can turn them into undead if it ran across them, if you see them and they look off just stay away!" Nova warned as the three of them ran out through the gates.
Now they knew they were not in Equestria, Even Whitetail Woods weren't this big, thick or tall. Where the heck were they? Why were there no animals there either?
"Okay let's move stick together and don't split up!" Nova guided as they began to run through the woods. Lightning Dust flew above Gleam, looking with concern at the young stallion. Somehow she got the feeling he felt responsible for this.
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Post by Gleam Lucre on Jun 1, 2013 13:48:08 GMT -5
Lightning Dust was right about one thing: Gleam felt like an imbecile for not seeing this was going to happen.
It was just so painfully obvious in hindsight, so much so that Gleam's head hurt just thinking about it. Lightning Crackle's insane drive had been a given the last few weeks! Nopony had been worried by the idea of going after a monster at all, including Gleam's own team! Everypony dreaming of pillows and food, when the important thing to remember here was that they were likely to get killed doing this. That fact was the whole point of Slayer training, wasn't it?!
Nova Blast took point as they ran, of course. Unicorns were chargers anyway, he and Sunspire had a little bit of a speed advantage over more solidly-built Earth Ponies like Gleam and Birch Bright. Keeping in tight formation, the group headed into the woods.
...Well, at least the good part about this clearly not being a place in Equestria was that if the undead killed everypony and escaped somehow, nopony would have to worry about it attacking anypony back home. Although that still bore the question of where this training area was. The far side of the world, maybe? Gleam had to put the question aside for now, there were more important things to worry about.
Right, so all they had to do was let Nova Blast track down the undead - or conversely, wait until they felt that unnatural dread sense he'd mentioned - and hopefully this would end without anything going wrong or getting messy.
Very hopefully.
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Post by Red Charge on Jun 1, 2013 14:05:49 GMT -5
They were searching around the woods aimlessly. Where did the undead go to? Was it dead already? So far Nova Blast seemed at a loss to where it is.
"We have to hurry!" Lightning Dust called out, "Nova come on, you can do this!"
"Shut up! I'm trying to concentrate!" Nova yelled, looking here and there, his horn glowing with effort. "I think we're lost, let's backtrack!"
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