Dusk yawned as she got up, glad that the previous two days had gone smoothly. She then quickly changed into her cloths that she had washed before going to bed and grabbed all her materials before leaving her room and checking her schedule to see where to go. To say she was worried would be an understatement when she realized they had to return to Briefing Room B for whatever they were doing today.
After maneuvering through the headquarters and arriving at Briefing Room B she quickly sat in the same seat as last time before the rest of the applicants groggily filed in before taking random seats, giving her a sense of deja vu.
Adding to the dejavu, Edge Case was on the stage. Once everyone was settled, he began to speak, “I’m glad to see that so many of you managed to survive to the last day. Before I reveal what the final exam will be, a word of warning. The tests you’ve done the last few days, they were pulled straight out of SPD Trooper conditioning training, so expect to do them again and again during your time with us, but not all at once, we’re tough, not sadists.” After a round of chuckles, Edge continued, “Now, for your final exam, you’ll all be going in the simulator for a round of capture the flag. The rules are simple: each team will have a colored backpack somewhere within their base, those are your flags. If one of your team manages to secure the other team’s pack while your’s is in its cubby, you score a point. First team to 3 points wins. You will each start out with a standard blaster, and additional weapons will be scattered within the arena. In addition, any other techniques you can use are allowed. If you’re hit, you will be teleported to a waiting room for 30 seconds before being sent back to your team’s spawn room. Any questions?” When no one said anything, Edge grinned, “glad to hear it, the commander himself will be watching, so give it everything you’ve got, DISMISSED!”
Dusk went into a silent panic, if the commander was watching she was going to have to be extra carefull should she use her ‘secret’. Luckily Tome Guard spotted her and snapped her out of her panic before she got left behind.
“You doing ok?” Tome asked.
“Oh, um… Sorry, I was just thinking of something…” Dusk said nervously as she got out of her seat and followed Tome out of the room.
“Well, at least I think I can do well in the game,” Tome said, “it’s capture the flag, I can protect my team’s flag with my wards. You give any thought on what you’re gonna do?”
“W-well, I’m probably going to focus on capturing my opponent's flag. Seeing as I’m more suited to sneaking around than defending something other than myself.” Dusk replied, rubbing her arm nervously.
“I hope we’re on the same team,” Tome said.
“Yeah, I don't think I would want to be on the team opposing you… You're my only friend here so far and I don't want to do something that would jeopardise that…” Dusk admitted.
“Come on,” Tome said, “it’s just training, it’d take more than that to break a friendship, probably.”
“Lets hope so…” Dusk muttered as they got on an elevator.
After a quick elevator ride and a little guiding through the halls they eventually arrived at the simulator room they were going to use for the capture the flag test.
Waiting for them was, of all things, a Changling. “My name is Princess Heart, don’t bow, and I’ll be overseeing this round. Now, to start, we need to choose teams, so let’s get started.” A mass of blue circles and red Xs appeared in the center in the room, which then shot towards everyone except Heart, hovering over their heads. Dusk had a circle, as did Tome. “I don’t think I need to tell you, but the color above your head is the color of your team. Now for the fun bit, which map?” A screen appeared in thin air, which then started flashing various images. Eventually, it stopped on an industrial complex. “The map is Factory,” Heart said, “one of the smaller maps, so expect to run into fights a lot. Time to begin.”
With that, the simulator generated the map, and Tome and Dusk, as well as the rest of Blue team, found themselves in a large room with a supply cabinet, blasters at their hips. Out of nowhere sounded a voice, “Mission begins in 60 seconds.”
“So what do we do? Set up teams to deal with certain tasks or do stuff individually?” Dusk asked.
“No time,” Tome said as she and a few others rooted around in the supply cabinet, “but here, you should find these useful.” With that, she tossed Dusk a headset and another blaster.
“Fine, individuals it is… See you in a bit.” Dusk said as she put on the headset and held the second blaster at a ready position before stepping up to the door.
“Mission begins in 30 seconds”
Around her other cadets were prepping in their own way, some were panicking, not sure what to do, others were going over what they knew. Most had gotten a headset, and those who didn’t were clustered around the supply cabinet to grab one.
“Mission begins in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.”
With that, the doors opened, and everyone exited enmass. Tome went down a set of stairs towards the flag room, while Dusk and almost everyone else headed for the exit.
Dusk had managed to make it to the exit first and stepped aside to let the others swarm out. After they had all exited she watched to see which directions people hadn't gone and took one of those paths. Aftera bit of wandering and not encountering anyone she found a spot where no one could see her before sighing.
‘I hope that changeling doesn't try reading my emotions… She would suspect me almost immediately if she did…’ She thought with a shudder before scanning around to make sure noone was looking still. Once she was certain that no one would see her she began to draw on her powers as her mane and tail turned pitch black and her eyes began to glow. “Now… Lets get that flag.” She said as she then dissolved into a shadowy mist and floated into the air vents.
Upon exiting, she found herself in what appeared to be a sewer area. Also there was a unicorn who either had the same idea about being stealthy, or was guarding against anyone else who did.
‘Rookie, he probably won’t be expecting me…’ Dusk thought with a chuckle as she floated back into the vent before reforming her body. “Now, Let's give him a little surprise.” She muttered before she burst through the air vent and started firing her blaster at the unicorn when his back was turned. Before he could turn around, several blast hit him, causing him to vanish.
“Ok… Where to next?” Dusk wondered as she started walking through the sewers, looking for any clues as to where the enemy flag room may be. relying on her night vision to alert her if anyone was nearby she wandered down the sewers for a bit until she spotted a door, out of curiosity she snuck over to it and began to crack it open. Inside was a few materials, bleach and the like, but two things caught her attention. One was a pulse blaster, a magic shotgun that fired a pulse of energy instead of a spread of pellets. The other was a grappling gun, which would make scaling walls easy, even without her powers.
Shrugging Dusk grabbed the grappling gun and the pulse blaster before hooking them to her hip alongside her main blaster, she then strapped the shotgun to her back before closing the door. “This should be fun.” She purred as she turned around to see flashlight beams heading in her direction. She smiled as she readied her backup blaster that was in her hand before grabbing the pulse blaster and cocking it, hoping to get a decent amount of exercise out of whoever was coming if they were on the opposing team.
“Are you sure there's someone down here?” Said one of them.
“Positive,” said another, “Iron Hide was down here, and he says someone got him.”
“But are they still here?” asked the first.
“Hello~” Dusk called, making sure to stay out of the light produced by the flashlights the trio were carrying. She then allowed her eyes to glow as she opened fire on them. She managed to hit two of them in the first volley, but the third managed to duck out of the way before she could get tagged, and fired a wild shot.
Dusk jumped out of the way of the shot before grabbing the magic shotgun off her back and firing multiple rounds at the remaining pony, making sure not to lose track of her other weapons.
She managed to dodge most of the rounds, but one managed to clip her, sending her to the waiting room. Then, a message came over Dusk’s headset.
“Alert: The enemy has taken our intelligence.”
“Someone got past Tome?” Dusk wondered as she quickly reverted to her Earth pony disguise, turning her hair dark blue and negating the glow from her eyes before anyone could see her. “Tome! Are you there?” Dusk asked as she turned on her headset.
“I’m here,” Tome said over the headset, “sorry, they had a sniper, my wards failed the moment he tagged me.”
“Thats ok, its not your fault… Which direction did they go?” Dusk asked.
“I don’t know, but you should keep going,” Tome said, “remember, if they don’t have their pack, they can’t score. Besides, others are already on it.”
“Roger that.” Dusk chuckled as she turned off her headset before recollecting her weapons. “Looks like I’m going to get a tad serious.” She muttered to herself as she put on a poker face and ran in the direction that the three ponies she had just defeated came from. At the end of the sewer she found herself at the bottom of a large pipe, which she was able to ascend easily with her grappling gun. At the top she looked around, but noone was there.
“Rookies…” Dusk muttered to herself as she climbed out of the pipe before putting the grappling hook away. She then looked around before spotting a door leading to the back of the enemy base. Being a silent as she could she snuck up to the door before cracking it open to see if there was anyone there.
She managed to see the red pack, as well as a guard who had managed to find a riot shield. His back was to the wall, and unless she used her powers, there was no way to sneak by.
“Dang it… It's times like these that I wish I was a unicorn like my dad instead of a shadow pony…” Dusk silently cursed before an idea came to her, it was risky but it should work… Hopefuly.
Crack Horn stood watch over his team’s pack. He was one of the few non-ponies in this class of cadets, a minotaur to be exact, and proud of his position. He had already managed to stop an attempt on the pack, a bunch of amateurs who used swarm tactics, but they didn’t come close.
There was then a loud clang sound near the main entrance, making Crack Horn look towards the doorway for a split second, but that's all it took. Dusk used the distraction to run up to him before vaulting over the shield and shooting him in the face.
As he appeared in the waiting room, Crack Horn couldn’t help but think to himself, ‘whoever that was, she’s good.’
Dusk sighed as she wiped the nervous sweat from her forehead before she grabbed the red backpack and ran back the way she came.
While she was running, she was hit by two more messages, one expected, one not so much, but welcomed all the more.
“You have taken the enemy intelligence.”
“We have recovered our intelligence.”
Dusk broke her pokerface and smirked to herself before she jumped down the pipe she had come from and started running through the sewers back to her base. Luckily she didn't encounter any opposing team members along the way to the air vent and strapped the red backpack to her back. Scanning around to double check she wouldn't be seen she activated her powers again and turned back into her true form before dissolving into mist with her new equipment and quickly traveled through the air vent.
After exiting the vent and rematerializing she deactivated her powers once more and ran to the base, making sure her eyes weren't glowing as she moved some of her blue hair out of the way of her sight. As she entered her team's base she threw the red backpack into the room where theirs was kept and collapsed on the floor. “One down… Two to go…” She gasped.
“Success, we have captured the enemy intelligence.”
Up in the observation booth, various eyes watched the progress of the game.
“What’d I tell ya boss,” said Rainbow Dash, “that Dusk’s got some potential.”
“That she does,” Cruger said, “looks like stealth’s in her blood.”
Dusk sighed as she sat in the waiting room, sweat drenching her fur. “Keeping from being shot once is harder than I thought…” She chuckled .
“At least it’s over,” Tome said.
“I wonder how those ponies I mowed down when they tried swarming me feel? I unleashed a bullet hell on their flanks…” Dusk wondered as she grabbed a nearby towel and started to dry herself off.
The round had been close, but it ended 3 to 2, Blue team’s win. All that was left was waiting for the observers to catalog the data and a little speech at the end.
“So where do we go for the final results and speech thing?” Dusk asked as she and Tome Guard joined the rest of the applicants, after she finished drying off.
“Back at the main hall,” Tome said, “by Celestia, I’m nervous.”
“You're not the only one.” Dusk chuckled as she, Tome Guard the other applicants started heading for the main hall.
Upon entering, Dusk saw several people at the front. Various trainers she saw during the past few days, what she assumed was the head of each division, Rainbow Dash, and Cruger. Once everyone had settled in, Cruger stepped forward and gave his speech.
“Welcome Cadets, to your last day of being called a cadet. Once you walk out those doors when I’m finished speaking, your assignment will be posted outside the door, so you don’t have to worry about whether or not you made it, and can skip straight to the drunken celebrations. Now, once you put on your uniform and take the oath, you are no longer your own pony. Your life belongs to Equestria, and its allies. Some of you might be thinking, SPD is an Equestrian organization, and looks after Equestrian interests only, you’d be wrong. We take care of those outside of Equestrian borders, and I’m not just talking about the Crystal Empire. Any member of of any race has a right to the protection of SPD. And this is not just lip service, I’m an alien from another dimension, miss Heart is a changeling, and more than a few of you aren’t ponies. At SPD, you don’t differentiate between race, the only categories you put people in are the following I’m giving you right now: the civilians you are sworn to protect, the criminals you are charged to put behind bars, and your brothers and sisters who serve beside you, no matter what country they serve. No matter what your race, or past. from this day forward, you are, first and foremost, a proud member of Space Patrol Delta.”
“Wha…” Dusk said smartly as she stared at Cruger, not expecting him to claim to be an alien from another dimension. “Is he seriously an alien!?” She whispered to Tome Guard.
“That would explain a few things,” Tome whispered back.
“I wonder if it would be safe to… No that's ridiculous.” Dusk sighed as she and the other applicants began to get up.
They all filed out of the chamber to 4 large sheets of paper posted on the walls. Each one had every cadet’s name printed on it as well as their assignment, the reason there were 4 was so that not everyone had to crowd around one.
“Let’s see, here we are,” Tome said, “looks like I’m in C Squad. Well, I guess I could see that one coming. How about you?”
“I’m... on B-squad…” Dusk said as she read the board before groaning, “Oh joy…”
“What’s the matter?” Tome asked, “I thought you were aiming for that.”
“I was hoping you would be in the same squad as me is all…” Dusk sighed, “Welp, at least it's not flooded with other ponies… I don't work well with large groups of ponies I don't know.”
“It’s not like it’ll be too bad,” Tome said, “we’ll see each other in the gym, plus there's weekends.”
“True… So it won't be as lonely.” Dusk chuckled as her mood improved.
“Come on then,” Tome said, “we said we were going to explore this place after training, or we could get started on that drunken celebration Cruger talked about.”
“I dont drink…” Dusk said. “So where should we go first? R&D? I can think of a couple Pranks we could leave for them.” She then suggested as she started making her way towards the nearest elevator while pulling out her map and chuckling like a madmare.