//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 - Capture 
// Story: Spectre Squad: Ghosts of the Past 
// by NPP6 
//------------------------------//

	Camp Pinemont had a relatively simple design. It was a large square – two miles on each side – that was walled all around. Fences bisected it both ways, dividing it into quadrants.
In the Southeast was the main camp, which consisted of six buildings. Four long log buildings running parallel to each other constituted the respective barracks of the unicorn, pegasus, earth pony, and bat pony recruits. Running perpendicular to these and capping one end was the primary administration building, which included the officers’ quarters, mess hall, and classrooms. On the other end of the barracks was the armory, which had half a dozen rooms for combat training, equipment storage, and the confinement cells that Dodge was a near permanent resident of. These buildings were surrounded by what was collectively referred to as the training fields; parade grounds, obstacle courses, rock walls, and so on.
In the Northwest was an airfield that had originally been both improvised and temporary. On the edge of this airfield was a museum that detailed much of Equestria’s military history (Specifically everything after the original Nightmare Moon event). It was this quarter that the schoolfoals visited on their field trips.
The Northeast quarter was a jumbled mess of structures that made absolutely no sense. This had originally been a reproduction of portions of three cities – Canterlot, Manehatten, and Cloudsdale – that only just came short of bordering each other. That was nearly two hundred years ago. Since then, all three graduating classes of each year (While the spring group outnumbered the summer and autumn groups combined, they were still determined to make their mark) had each added one building of their own to the growing pile – determined by the top squad of the group. Ziplines, rope trestles, rickety bridges, open walkways, and vaulting gaps were, if anything, encouraged. This quarter was used to train for indoor and urban skirmishes.
The Southwest quarter however was the only one that was populated at the moment. It was a section of forest that was deliberately allowed to grow wild so it could be used for rural and outdoor combat exercises. Scattered throughout it were small bunkers and squat towers. In two of the corners opposite each other were a pair of boxcars that had had their wheels removed. The other two corners held two of the only three maintained portions of the forest, a pair of clearings with flagpoles in their centers.
The third maintained area – also the third clearing – was currently host to the entire population of Camp Pinemont. The recruits had formed ranks in the middle of the clearing and were paying attention to Commander Sound. The instructors were standing in two lines on either side and paying attention to the recruits.
“Listen up! This is not Capture the Flag the way you played it back home. This is not a game, it is a training exercise and I expect you to treat it as such. Since we don’t want you lot trying to knock each other out, capture of enemy combatants will only occur upon surrender. There is no ‘Safety Line.’ Delivery of a clean hit will eject the struck combatant from the exercise. Those recruits ejected will receive an automatic fail for this exercise.
“We do this by the book. Surrendering enemy combatants are to be brought in without further harassment or injury. You will take them to the designated prisons. Captured combatants are welcome to attempt escape – your duty if this were real – but be warned, nopony has broken out in over a decade. The first team to successfully lay the other team’s flag at the base of their flagpole wins.
“Your instructors will be going around and ensuring that the rules are enforced. Are there any questions?” A stallion in the third row raised his hoof. “Yes Private Stream?”
“What do we get if we win sir?”
“You mean besides a passing grade? Well let’s see… for this exercise… How about the winning side gets their dessert rations this week?” There was a deafening silence as the implication sunk in. “Now then, the purpose of this particular exercise is working with different units and ponies. Each of you is going into a different part of the Guard, which will have its own setup, but you will at some point be required to work with ponies who have different qualifications than you. So, odd units, you are now the red team. Even units, you take blue.
“There is a crate of sashes with your flag. You are to make sure they are clearly displayed before the exercise begins, this constitutes your uniform. You had fifteen minutes when we got here. For those wondering, you now have ten. Anypony who is out of uniform at any point during the exercise automatically fails. Dismissed!”
There was an explosive scramble as the recruits scattered.



Kite Shield ducked as another training arrow bounced off the wall behind him and then the ledge they were on. Luckily the enemy only had one archer on this end and no unicorns nearby. “We’re going nowhere fast!”
“We can’t pull back!” A voice came from the back of the line, “They’ve got us cut off!”
“Can anypony teleport!?”
“What happened to our air support!?”
“I can give you the opening you need.”
Kite turned to the only calm pony on the ledge, even as he raised a shield to deflect another arrow. “What are you waiting for?”
Blade looked between a tower and bunker on the opposite embankment, silently calculating. “Doing this will drain me; I won’t be able to escape with the rest.”
“Okay, we’ll carry–”
“That’ll only mean whoever tries goes down with me. There’s not enough time, you have to leave me here. And make the others leave me.”
“But–”
“If this were a real mission my life would be worth its completion.”
“But your grade!”
Duty before all. “I’m here to be a guard, not get top marks. Besides, if I surrender I still pass.”
Blade took a deep breath, letting her horn blink a coded message to the instructor with the teleporting cutie mark on the opposite bank. Bringing down the embankment, stand ready.
The unicorn’s eyes widened as he received the message and scrambled back from the edge.
Blade closed her eyes as she gathered her energy. A spell circle formed around her horn, followed by a second and then a third. A sphere of energy gathered, centered with the middle circle. And then, with the sound of air being displaced by energy, she fired, a solid beam as wide around as her barrel that struck the other side of the canyon just below the foundations of a cement bunker before carving to one side and undercutting a wooden tower the same way.
The flow of magic cut off abruptly as Blade slumped. Meanwhile, the bunker and tower both fell, collapsing into the ravine while flashes inside indicated recruits being teleported away in acknowledgement of their removal from the test.
As he fled, Kite Shield spared a backward glance for his squadmate. She was leaned against the wall, looking like she was simply napping while she awaited her capture. When he reached the end of the ravine and more solid hoofing, he glanced again in time to see enemy pegasi airlifting her out.



If Blade had had the energy, she would have groaned. Of course she would be locked up with these idiots again.
Hawthorne smirked. “So I got picked up when our airdrop plan fell apart, what happened to you?”
After a moment Blade sighed. “I was buying time for the rest of the platoon to get away.”
Dodge glanced up at that, seeming to consider her for a moment. “Huh, wouldn’t have pegged you as the self-sacrificing type.”
“And I’m sure you know about self-sacrificing types.”
“Only reason the guard ever caught up to me.”
Blade blinked, unsure of how to respond. After another blink, she decided that changing the subject was her best option. “And you? How’d they get you in here?”
“Oh I surrendered two minutes in.”
“What? I would have expected that of lazy over there, but you don’t strike me as the type to just give up.”
Dodge shrugged. “It seemed like a good idea at the time, fastest way through their defenses and I even got an escort. Figured somepony with my skillset would be able to get out easy, not like your typical guard recruit knows much about breaking out of jails.”
Blade sighed. As much as it pained her to admit it, it was, “A reasonable and tactically sound assumption, if it weren’t for one thing.”
“They designed these things to hold the instructors, didn’t they?”
“Until four years ago, the instructors were combatants in these exercises too.”
“So what now?” Hawthorne rejoined the conversation.
“Now?” Dodge shook his head. “I already told you, there’s nothing. Doors, windows, roof hatch, emergency floor exit, all of its sealed tight. We’re trapped like rats unless somepony pulls of a daring rescue or the game ends.”
Hawthorne started pacing out the room. “Come on, there’s got to be something you haven’t considered yet.”
“There’s nothing! For crying out loud, I did this for years, it’s where my name comes from! I can dodge in and out of anywhere without being noticed!”
Hawthorne stopped at that, his head slowly rotating to face the bat pony. “What if we don’t need to go unnoticed?”
Blade blinked. “Dropping the requirements for covertness does usually increase options.”
Dodge was slowly starting to nod. “It could work… It’s entirely outside my expertise, but it could work.”
Hawthorne glanced around the room again before walking over to a wall and knocking on it. “Know any ways to put a hole in a wall?”
Dodge shook his head. “No… but I know somepony who does. What’ve you got Grayscale?”
Blade glanced up from where she was resting on the floor. “Nothing. If I had my magic, I could do it, but… I’m spent.”
“How long will it take you to recharge?”
“Given how slowly I made them walk me here? Maybe another two hours.”
“Guess we wait then.”



Blade sat up stiffly, taking a moment to stretch each of her legs. “How long was I out?”
“About an hour.” Hawthorne was gazing out a window. “Things started calming down a little while ago. Either that or the fronts moved. There haven’t been as many flashes of light showing over the trees.”
Dodge nodded from where he was perched over the door, obviously waiting for somepony to open it. “It’s starting to get dark; will they be calling this if nopony wins?”
Blade shook her head. “No. Then it simply becomes a night training exercise. Protocol prohibits the suspension or premature ending of a match unless a recruit requires medical attention and cannot simply be teleported out.”
Dodge smirked. “Maybe we should wait a bit longer for sunset then.”
Hawthorne bounced his head back and forth a few times before shaking it. “No. We don’t know if we’re about to lose this. I don’t know about you guys, but I like to win.”
Blade nodded. “That at least we can agree on. Shall we?”
“Wait a second, somepony’d better wake up our friend there.”



Two minutes later, the four ponies were running, a smoking hole in the building behind them.
“Why are we running?”
“Because eventually somepony’s gonna notice that and we need a head start before they do.”
The group began weaving through trees and underbrush, stealth a secondary concern at best. Unfortunately, so was navigation. They were nearly as surprised as the pegasus squad they ran into. “Nearly” being the operative term.
Dodge struck first, sliding between two of them as he relieved them of their knives. He then twisted as he used those same knifes to mark the throats of the pair behind them.
The pair Dodge had disarmed were quickly dropped by stunning spells from Blade.
The remaining recruit finally realized what was going on and shouted a battlecry as he charged… straight into Hawthorne’s buck. He was no Apple, but he could match just about anypony else, and he’d been in a few brawls.
In the distance, there were a few shouts and some flashes of light.
Dodge sighed as he slid his purloined knives into the sheathes on his armor (His own training knives having been taken). “And that was us, being noticed.”
The quartet resumed running.



The quartet burst into the clearing. “We’ve got maybe a full minute before they catch us, how are we gonna pull this off?”
Dodge smirked. “This time it’s my turn. Yo, Party Colt, fly up and get that flag while I unlock this crate!”



A red squad broke into the clearing to find the enemy at the base of their empty flagpole.
The bat pony swore. “Out of time, scatter!”
As the four ponies with blue sashes fled, there was a flash of red from one of them. “It’s the pegasus!” One of the blue recruits shouted, “Get him!”
Two more squads had broken into the clearing at that, and the group focused on their chosen target. He led them on a bit of a chase, diving through underbrush and barely swerving around trees. And then he made his fatal mistake, trying to get airborne.
He had tried to throw himself off a large butte to quick launch – few pegasi were capable of going straight from the ground to the air while maintaining speed – only for spellfire from a group of unicorns below to miss narrowly. As he backpedaled furiously, his wings rattled his armor and a piece of red fabric fluttered out.
And the sash Dodge had pilfered from the crate fell draped itself over the butte’s edge in view of all.
There was a pause before comprehension dawned. “It’s a decoy, get the others!”
As the area around him emptied, Lime blinked, shrugged, and then trotted off to find somepony on his team.



Dodge grit his teeth as he heard the shouts ringing through the forest change. He’d hoped Lime would be able to last longer. Oh well, it just fell to the others now.



Hawthorne grunted as he pulled himself over the edge. He turned to wave to the ponies below who had thought him cornered in the box canyon. “Sorry guys, not today!”
He spun on his hooves to resume running only to stop short as he found himself facing a row of unicorns with a pegasus squad behind them. Sighing, he reached back for his saddlebags and withdrew the red sash he’d been given.



Blade used the head of one opponent as a step so she could clear a fallen tree that had been wider than she was tall. “Thank you.” She twisted to land on her hooves on the other side, firing a few stunners blindly back as she did. She was rewarded by a startled cry and the sound of a pony hitting the ground.
She didn’t pause to take in her victory however; she still had several more after her. Drink and debauch all you want when the mission’s over, but never relax an iota on duty. She continued running, firing a stunner into one of the pegasi that was trying to corral her. By her calculations she had about six more shots before she was exhausted again…
And there was no way that would be enough to let her break away from the groups that had her surrounded. Fortunately, she was almost at her target destination.
And as she reached it, her heart sank.
She fired off all six of her shots into the crowd waiting outside the bunker she’d been planning to storm. Thinking as fast as she could and channeling that irritating thief, she managed to stall another five minutes before hoofing over the red sash she was carrying.



Dodge sighed internally, his cocky smirk never wavering. He had known it was over when he was forced into the air – he just wasn’t as maneuverable a flyer as most of the others. Still, he had wanted to make it back… he just hoped that the others hadn’t done too much better, they were smug enough as it was.
“So you’re the legendary Dodge Lighthoof… I’m from Manehatten, the guard were overpaying for information on you. Can’t even steal a flag, you aren’t very good at this whole thief thing, are you?”
Dodge’s smirk finally broke – as he laughed. Slowly, deliberately, he reached back, one eye on the airborne blues coming to save him. Shame he wouldn’t be able to draw this out long enough for an ambush… “You tell me.” The red fabric drew all eyes to it as it slowly slid from his saddlebags.
And then the red sash was released to flutter freely in the breeze.



Lime Gaze looked around the clearing, looking for any familiar faces. Ah-hah! There! The unicorn he’d met in the cooler, the nice one, not the mare. He walked up and tapped the pony on the shoulder, then sat back to patiently wait.
After a moment, the unicorn wrapped up his conversation – some conversation about tactics – and turned to the pegasus. “Please tell me you’ve got something to report about why the enemy’s pulling back from everywhere? We’re waiting for the bit to drop.”
Lime shook his head. “Sorry, no idea. I was actually hoping you could help me with something.”
The other stallion sighed, “Sure… Lime, right? What can I do for you?”
“Well… I was hoping you knew where I’m supposed to put this.”
Lime reached back and withdrew the red flag from his saddlebags.