September 17, 2547 - on board the Covenant cruiser Infuriating Sacrifice
Rarity observed her reflection in the highly-polished section of the wall that she often used as her personal mirror. Her once-beautiful violet mane was now just stubble. It was just as well, she figured. It would surely have clashed with the black and green armor she now wore. She had put up quite a fuss when the Sangheili tried to shave it. “If you don’t hold still, I may cut your hide. You wouldn’t want any scars on that beautiful skin of yours, would you?” the Elite had grunted at her slyly, invoking her sense of vanity. How ironic, she mused, as she glanced at her left cheek’s reflection. Not a month later, a human sniper’s bullet had grazed her there, leaving a hideous scar behind. In the past, such a blemish would surely have devastated the former fashionista, but now, she didn’t even care.
“I suppose I’d better finish getting ready,” she mumbled to herself. She glanced at the helmet that hung on its recharging post on her wall. It, like her armor, was mostly green, with black around the edges. It was meant to cover most of her head, except her muzzle, horn, and eyes, of course. A clear visor was positioned over the large hole for the eyes. The top of the helmet was equipped with a permanently-attached beam rifle. It was miniaturized to fit on the helmet without obscuring vision or being unwieldy, and it was slightly offset to the right to make room for her horn.
With a sigh, she concentrated her magic upon the helmet. It was enveloped in a pale blue glow as she undocked it from its post and levitated it to her head, lowering it carefully into place. The visor’s heads-up display flickered to life as it began its system diagnostics. When it displayed the “OK” symbol, Rarity smiled and headed for the door.
As a tone sounded and the portcullis opened, a familiar sight greeted her. It was one of her roommates, a rather annoyed-looking blue pegasus. Her armor was similar to Rarity’s; it was green and black specialist armor. Unlike hers, however, it was not meant for stealth. The torso was wrapped in a pair of ammunition belts, one on each end of the torso. These belts held glowing lime-green rods that fed into the fuel rod gun attached to her belly. “It’s about time! We’re going to be late,” she groaned.
“What are we doing today, again?” the unicorn asked.
“We got some new recruits from Equestria a few days ago. The Sangheili have selected the best of them to become special ops ponies like us. Now it’s our job to train them,” the pegasus explained.
They walked through several corridors until they reached a pair of doors, one on each side of the corridor. “Well, this is it. One on the left’s mine; you get the one on the right,” she said, motioning to the doors. “Good luck.”
Rarity nodded and entered the training arena. She tapped a display and began to read her trainee’s credentials. As she did so, she heard the tone of the door signaling its use, followed by the tapping of hooves against the floor. It was a stallion, by the sound of it. “You’re late,” she said as she turned around. “You really need to learn to show up on-” She paused as she took in the sight before her. There was no mistaking it. That pristine white coat, those blue eyes, that golden mane, and smug expression… there was no mistaking it.
“Blueblood?!”
“That’s Prince Blueblood to you. Need I remind you that I am royalty?” he corrected, his air of alleged superiority never wavering.
Even now, he still thought he was better than everypony! Rarity realized, though, that here, she was his superior. “Not here, you’re not!” Rarity countered, putting on the best trainer attitude she could. “Here, you are barely a Minor, the lowest of the low. I am your superior and you would do well to remember that!” She couldn’t help but enjoy the shocked expression he wore as she finally put him in his place.
Before he had a chance to say anything in reply, Rarity got down to business. “I see that your target practice score was three out of twenty. Not very impressive, but that’s three more than any of the other recruits had.”
“For your information, I took my time with those shots. If I must resort to such barbaric violence, I will not simply fire away hoping to hit something like some common hoof soldier,” he snubbed.
“Hmm… I don’t like the attitude, but that is the right mindset for a sniper. I see now why they chose you for this. There may be some hope for you yet.”
[h][/h]
After half an hour of basic tests to familiarize Blueblood with the new helmet weapons system, they began with target practice.
“Not bad,” Rarity commented. “You’re definitely getting the hang of this. But that was just targets standing still. Now we try out moving targets.” She trotted over to the supply case and pulled out two orbs with her magic. She pressed a button on each, then released them. The targets flew around the room in a blur of motion. Blueblood spun in place, trying to aim. Thinking he had a good lead on one, he fired. The target accelerated and the shot went wild.
Rarity stood watching, amused as the pompous pony made a fool of himself trying to hit the target. Finally, he stopped, slid his control bit out, and gasped for breath. “This isn’t fair!” he gasped.
“What’s the matter? I thought you so much better than everypony,” Rarity said half-mockingly.
“They’re moving too fast! Nopony could possibly hit those things! It’s almost like cheating,” he whined.
“Well then, if they can cheat, it’s only fair that you can cheat, too, isn’t it?” she suggested. Blueblood gave her a questioning look. She explained further: “You’re a unicorn. You have magic. If the targets won’t slow down, then make them slow down.”
“Okay, I suppose it’s worth a try…” Blueblood looked around. He gulped, slid his control bit back into place, and began to concentrate. His horn lit up a pale blue, and the silvery orbs began to show a slight aura of a similar color. He strained harder, and finally, the orbs began to slow. They were still sipping around at incredible speed, but at least now they were slow enough to be seen. Blueblood paused a moment, then fired. The shot flashed through the room, piercing both orbs and sending them flying apart in a shower of blue sparks. “I did it!” he gasped.
“Very good,” Rarity praised. “Now let’s try four drones.” She couldn’t help but widen her grin as her trainee groaned.
[h][/h]
“Oh, what a day,” Rainbow Dash groaned as she plopped down onto her bunk, her armor already laying on the floor after shaking it off the moment she entered the room.
“You said it,” Rarity agreed as she methodically removed her own armor. “Do you know who they gave me to train?”
“Nope,” her blue bunkmate replied.
“Blueblood. Prince Blueblood. That very same pompous fool I tried to date at the Gala. Can you believe it?!” Rarity griped.
Dash chuckled. “I bet you had fun running him through the ropes.”
“You bet your flank I did. It was almost worth putting up with his constant complaining,” Rarity replied. With a sigh, she added, “I suppose it could be worse. I could’ve had to train that gray mailmare form Ponyville!”
“Yeah, imagine that,” Dash groaned with more than a little sarcasm dripping from her voice.
“Rainbow Dash, what’s wrong?” the unicorn asked. “Don’t tell me you got the gray mailmare!”
“Yup,” Rainbow said simply. She rolled over to face her friend. “Did you know she’s the only soldier in the galaxy to have a negative target practice score?”
“How does one even get a negative score?” Rarity asked.
“By destroying everything except the targets,” Dash replied, and added, “That’s two Wraiths, five Banshees, three Ghosts, and even a Spirit drop-ship, all with just a single plasma pistol!”
“How is that even possible?!” her bunkmate gasped.
“I don’t know. She doesn’t know. Nobody knows! But for some reason, the Sangheili were impressed and thought it would be a good idea to strap a fuel rod gun to her belly. ‘If she can do this with a plasma pistol, imagine what she could do to the humans!’” the pegasus griped.
After a lengthy silence, Rarity finally finished putting her armor away and crawled into bed. “Well, we have planetside training with our new apprentices tomorrow,” she noted, “so I suggest we get some sleep. It sounds like we’re both going to need it.”