//------------------------------// // 9 - Bound and Tried // Story: Embracing the Fog // by SunnyDays //------------------------------// Three darts in, Soarin was really panicking. Not only was Stratus seemingly enjoying this; the onslaught of darts wasn’t slowing. On top of that, Soarin was beginning to lose feeling in the places that the darts had landed. Notably, in his left back hoof and his side. His wing was also refusing to respond in the way that Soarin needed it to. It was when a fourth dart made contact with his upper leg that Soarin’s left side froze up entirely. Like the flip of a switch, standing was made to suddenly be impossible. The frigid floor brushed against his left side as his body refused to continue moving any more. A shadow fell over Soarin as he struggled with his right front hoof to drag himself away. The stoic look on the older pegasus’s face convinced Soarin that Stratus might actually kill him then and there. Or worse, that he had failed his first day of training. “You would’ve been dead four times over already,” the gruff stallion said, “You’re lucky that this isn’t a more deadly poison.” “I-It’s actually poison?!” Soarin yelped, “Not ‘Haah, gotcha, it was just water’?!” Stratus’s cruel smile returned. “Processed hydra venom, actually.” He circled around Soarin as if he were looking for the weakest part of the flesh to tear apart first. “Has a nice little temporary paralysis effect that really makes the point clear.” He pulled his face closer to Soarin’s. “DEAD. MEAT.” Soarin scowled, trying to pull himself up again to no avail. His body was exhausted all over between the fear adrenaline, the sharp needlepoints of the darts still sticking out from his body, and the physical toll of fleeing for what felt like hours. “Th-that wasn’t a fair trial,” he argued, “I want another try.” “Fair?” Stratus threw back his head with a chuckle. “When there are arrows pointed at your neck when the job’s gone south, come back and tell me about fair.” As Stratus drew closer to Soarin’s face again, the stallion’s large, jagged scar truly became apparent. Soarin wasn’t sure if it was intentional, but the hole through Stratus’s upper lip suddenly helped Soarin understand the old stallion’s deal. “Let me tell you something, boy,” Stratus growled low in his throat, “Though you didn’t fail this little trial, it made some things apparent to me. You have some high endurance, but your dodging abilities are pitiful. You lope around like a tank, and your left side is a gaping target.” He pulled away from Soarin. “If that’s any sort of indication of your stealth ability, I don’t think any kind of training would be able to help your sorry ass.” Soarin’s ears swiveled back at that news. “We’ll be trying this kind of exercise again when I feel like you’ve earned it. But for now, that venom needs to wear off.” He swished his tail as he headed out of the room, leaving Soarin still frozen in place on the floor. “...What, am I supposed to drag myself?” Soarin muttered as he attempted to do just that. The stiffness was losing effect in his back leg, at least. He had dragged himself over to the door only to be met by a pair of grey hooves. Charger pointed down his snout at Soarin and simply stared at him for a moment. "Can I-?" Soarin was cut off as his stiff left side was suddenly supported by Charger. "If I have to drag you to this lesson, I will," Charger chuckled as he pulled Soarin back up to the bench. As they approached, Charger seemed to notice the very apparent jar of hydra venom that Stratus had left open. "Yeesh, he got you with the paralysis stuff, huh? Nasty." He swiftly closed the jar and put it aside. "Guess while you'll be feeling the stuff, I should give ya the rundown on the jars in here, huh?" Soarin leaned himself against the wall adjacent to the bench, "Not like I can do any other sort of training while I'm like this." Soarin closed his eyes, sighing quietly to himself. "You'll be out of it in, like... thirty minutes or so. Chill," Charger said as he sorted through the jars, “That’s the whole reason I processed the stuff. Easier for the no casualties sort of missions.” “Do you get those often?” Soarin asked, picking up his head slightly. “Ha.” Charger didn’t say more than that on the subject. Instead, he brought over the jar of hydra venom, allowing Soarin to see the three-headed silhouette on the front label. “Most of these are sort of self-explanatory. That’s why the labels and all are there.” He gestured a hoof at each, “My job is to keep stock of what we need and synthesize whatever we’re missing.” As if to prove his point, he put down the hydra venom and looked over another jar, this one with some sort of flower petal on it. “What’s that? Sap?” Charger’s head turned Soarin’s way. “Flowers don’t make sap, for one. It’s called nectar. And two, no. This is concentrated poison joke.” "What does it do?" Charger put the jar of poison joke on the shelf. "A variety of things, actually. It's literally a prank in a jar. We don't really use it for anything, but it's always good to leave around. Never know when Blitz'll start betting on things again." He adjusted his goggles, taking them off for a moment to scrub one of the lenses with his wing. To Soarin's surprise, Charger's eyes were shut entirely while he cleaned his goggles. "Uh, Charger...?" Charger chuckled to himself. "Sorry, there was a spot on the inside that was buggin' the crap outta me." There were very large circles around his eyes and on his snout where the goggles had made an imprint. Soarin stood from he was crouching by the wall, finding that only his front leg was still stiff and unusable. He leaned against the bench. "You know, this is the first time I've ever seen you take off your goggles." Charger looked in Soarin's general direction, eyes still closed. "I'm surprised you haven't asked before. Most do." He placed the goggles back onto his face. "You know photophobia, right? Light sensitivity and all?” Soarin nodded, but for a moment questioned whether Charger could actually see the motion. It wasn't apparent, considering the goggles were so dark Soarin couldn't see Charger's eyes. "Well... I have a more severe form of it than the average pony," Charger explained, "Most sources of light set me off, but my goggles are specifically designed to block most of it." "So, you can still see?" Soarin asked. Charger swished his tail. "About as well as the next 30-something year old. Colors are rough, though. Just looking at you or Stratus in the wrong way gives me a headache." "Huh," Soarin mused, "Uh, what happens if your goggles get ripped off?" "I have these things called ears! Ever heard of 'em?" Charger guffawed like he was waiting for that question. "But seriously, we've planned for that. I have extras of mine, but I can borrow any of them if I need to. I'll just have a splitting headache after we finish." "That... sucks." Soarin's mouth pulled into a thin line. "It can be unfortunate, but it's kinda my norm. It's hard to explain, but it's part of who I am." Charger stacked another jar with a picture of a chimera on top of one with a cockatrice. "So I'm not exactly sorry for it. Plus, the team knows about it. If I’m ever in a tight spot, they’ve got my back.” Soarin wasn’t entirely sure how to respond to something like that. Lucky though, he didn’t have to as Charger continued by pointing a feather toward the jar with the cockatrice label, “Back to what I was saying… This is actually a poison of my own creation. I call it ‘cockatrice blood’. It’s not actually the blood of a cockatrice, but it will petrify the insides of whatever it hits. A bit on the gruesome side, but sometimes an example’s gotta be made out of some poor soul. Funny how the overtly gruesome leaves an impression. We tested this out on a mobster’s goons once, and phew. Definitely not the way I want to go. Way too slow.” Soarin grimaced, quickly opting to change the subject, “And the other one’s chimera venom, right?” Charger nodded. “I take that you’ve heard of it?” “I’m pretty sure everyone in Equestria knows a chimera’s venom is the most deadly on the planet.” “And it’s only natural that I’ve synthesized it too. It’s incredibly effective.” Charger tapped the top of its lid. “If we need the job to look like an accident, we need only plop a single drop into a drink or soup for it to work.” “That’s lovely food for thought,” Soarin muttered. “But yeah, as far as deadly or annoying things go, that’s pretty much our arsenal. I’m always looking into making new concoctions, so it won’t be that way forever,” Charger said, “How’s that leg feeling now?” Soarin shook it, finding that it responded nicely. “Ahh, thank Celestia,” he breathed. “Better?” Charger snorted in amusement. “Come on, let’s get you some lunch before you pass out.” “Lunch?” Soarin asked disbelievingly. “Well, brunch. Whatever.” Charger slapped Soarin’s shoulder with his wing, “Whatever you want to call it. If you don’t get food, you’ll keel over. And nobody’s keeling on my watch.” “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Soarin chuckled as he followed. The two passed by right as Stratus came out of his bunk with a stack of papers, crossing over into Nightshade’s office. “Come in.” Once he was given clearance, Stratus immediately handed over the papers to Nightshade. She tried not to be too eager as she took them and eyed Stratus’ report over. “Huh.” Nightshade read over the report again to be sure she was right in what she was about to say. “...He’s more similar to you than I expected.” She looked up to see the small smirk on Stratus’s face. “Your brother wouldn’t make for a bad soldier,” Stratus agreed with a small nod, “However. A good soldier does not a Shadowbolt make. We’ll see how he does in his stealth test.” “Of course.” Nightshade nodded, “If he’s anything like me, he’ll do great.” Stratus quirked an eyebrow at Nightshade. “Captain. With all respect... Your brother is the absolute opposite of you so far. If that’s true, then we need to think seriously about what to do with him if he can’t be taught.” He scowled. “I know he’s your brother, but none of us can act like he’ll get in effortlessly.” Nightshade seemingly took that to heart, nodding slowly, “Then tell Starry that she’d better get to work on assessing his stealth.” Stratus saluted at the command, “Ma’am. Also, Soarin will be joining us on our high altitude training in the morning. I think he’s capable enough as is.” He saluted her one last time before taking his leave from Nightshade’s office. Looking over the report on Soarin again, Nightshade mused exactly how she could help him with his stealth skills if he needed it. She also considered how she’d get Stratus to tell him he didn’t make it in. Because Stratus was right. If Soarin couldn’t hide himself long enough to sneak by their enemies, there was absolutely no way she could allow him into the team. And she really didn’t want to be the one to turn him away. ‘Your brother breeds success. You only breed misery, you mistake.’ The whisper made Nightshade slam her hooves onto the armrests of her chair. Her head jerked left and right, searching the empty office for the voice. The absence of another pony didn’t slow down the rapid pace of her heart. Her teeth clenched, and she went to stand despite the tremor in her legs. ‘I don’t understand why you’ve become such a bitch all of a sudden, Shade! I thought we were wingmates until the end! ...Well fine. If you want this Captain’s spot so damn badly, you’ll have to pry it from me!’ Her legs only shook harder as she heard the second voice, and tears only flowed harder from her face. A sharp pain rose in her ribs. “Y-You…” She let out a weak hiss as she slunk back down into her seat, “You did this…” Her entire body shook as her head pressed against her desk, almost throwing aside Stratus’s report on Soarin. Not again, damn it. She wouldn’t pin it all on him. It wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t his fault. “You’d… better make it in… damn it.” Nightshade let out a small hiccup, curling tightly into herself.