“So, Private. Care to tell me what went wrong?”
I’m standing at attention in front of the desk of Drill Sargent Loudmouth, a large green Earth pony with a megaphone for a cutie mark. He’s not shouting yet, so I might be able to defuse him before it comes to that.
“Sir! Once the simulation began, I made my way towards the objective, downing every enemy combatant I came across, and disarming or avoiding every trap.”
He raises an eyebrow. “Until?”
I sigh, “Until I slipped on a concealed tripwire, Sir. It set off a chain reaction of traps, which I narrowly avoided. I hid out in a shop until the coast was clear. Then, a deviation occurred.”
“Deviation, Private?”
“Sir, I heard a civilian in the area. The parameters of the simulation said there would be no innocents!”
“I see… and what, pray tell, makes you think she was an innocent?”
I take a step back. “Sir?”
“If you recall, Private, you failed the test because you let your guard down in hostile territory. The mare wasn’t a civilian, she was a combatant.”
“But, sir! There was nothing in the briefing—”
“Yes, I had Shimmer throw in a little extra.”
“What?”
He smirks. “I know all you maggots have been told by the big boys what the test is like. What they have sworn not to tell you is that each test is unique. Hell, the objective is the same, but the means are always different, carefully molded to test not only your training, but your mind, Private.”
I’m dumbstruck. “S-so what does the test say about me, Sir?”
He moves around from behind his desk and lays a hoof on my shoulder. “It means, son, that you let your conscience get in the way of the objective. You aren’t ready for real combat yet. Now, Star…” Wow, he almost never uses names. I look up.
“Yes, Sir?”
He slaps me across the face with his hoof. “GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY OFFICE UNTIL YOU GROW A BACKBONE, YOU PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR A SOLDIER!”
----------
Shit, he’s loud. I still can’t hear anything but a ringing in my ear. I’m walking through the tunnels of the main Warriors base, leaning against a wall every now and again for support. Some of the higher-ups say that Loudmouth is so loud, he could reduce a Hydra, Manticore, and Minotaur to almost nothing, all at the same time, using only his voice.
It doesn’t matter what he says though. Only one thing matters: I failed. I had wanted to join the ranks of the Warriors since I could remember, and now, that chance was gone.
I did, in fact, owe the Warriors my life. The way they tell it, I was found on the steps of a small orphanage in Manehattan a few years after The Fall. I guess my parents didn’t realize the orphanage was actually a cover for the Warriors. They took me in, and as I grew, I learned just how big our reach was. Manehattan, Fillydelphia, Las Pegasus, we even had a small outpost hidden under Canterlot at one point!
Then, the purge came. All of our outlying outposts were hit, with the main base here in Manehattan being the only one not found. We lost a lot of ponies then, and still haven’t restored our full numbers. We’ve grown big enough to branch out tentatively to cities like Fillydelphia, but they were quickly pulled back when that raid failed.
However, I have no more time for reminiscing the past as a flurry of clopping fills the tunnel, and I am bowled over by three small bundles of pure energy, sugar, and big puppy-dog eyes.
One of the bundles lands on top of the heap of pony limbs. “Owowow… sorry mister…hey, it’s Shining! Hi Shining!”
As my vision unblurs, I behold a very young Pegasus colt. “Hey, Squirt. What’re you guys doing running around down here? Shouldn’t you be up in the dorm level, with your parents?”
Another bundle recovers, revealing a white unicorn filly, Angel. “Yeah,” she says matter-of-factly, “But we heard you did the Test today. We wanna know how you did!”
The third is, of course, the red-furred Earth colt known as Brick. As thick as one in the head sometimes, but hits like one too. “Uh, yup. How’d you do, Shiny?”
I untangle myself, and stand before them, my head held low. “I…failed, guys.”
A cacophony of indignant cries fills the deserted tunnel, but I quiet them down. Squirt flaps his wings, and gains enough altitude to look me in the eye. “What happened?”
Now, I have to sugarcoat this a little; they may have been born into a world at war, but they don’t need to be exposed until the time is right to just how fucked the Warriors are. I pat him on the head. “Well, Loudy,” they giggle at the Drill Sargent’s nickname, “said I’ve got the skills, but not the heart.”
“But, Shiny! You’ve prob’ly got the biggerest heart here!” Brick mumbles.
But not the kind of heart that lets me look into a defenseless pony’s eyes and pull the trigger, my mind says. What my mouth says is “Yeah, but I let my heart rule what I did, not my mind.”
The three look deep in thought for about two seconds, enough time for a little more backstory. See, these three are part of a group called the Crusaders. The leadership saw all these little colts and fillies homeless, desperate, or born into our ranks, and took them in. The mission of the Crusaders is to find what each young pony is good at and how they can tune those skills into helping the war effort. Supposedly, the term originated from a trio called the Cutie Mark Crusaders, three fillies who were, get this, the sisters of three of the Queens! After the Fall, two of them, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, were conscripted into their sister’s ranks, becoming two of the worst abominations the Empress ever created. Scootaloo… nopony really knows what happened to her. She was in Cloudsdale when Queen Rainbow Dash overthrew it. She fought hard against the Queen’s changeling army, but she and all the other Pegasi warriors were defeated. She took a bad hit, scorching off most of her wings and sending her tumbling to the earth below. They never found a body.
However, abomination or dead, their legacy lives on. We have about ten Crusaders in the current group, including these three. Speaking of which…
Squirt’s eyes suddenly light up. “Ooh, Shining! Can you do the thing? You know, that thing you can do?”
Great. As if I could go one fucking day without the universe shitting on me. My mother must have slept around with Murphy while pregnant with me, because I’ve been cursed. I am a Hybreed.
----------
Grumbling.
What, C? Oh, that term isn’t used very much? Well, allow me to explain.
You see, when a mommy pony/changeling loves a daddy pony/changeling—
“Sir!”
Alright, alright, I’ll cut to the chase. *sigh* A Hybreed is what you get when a changeling and a pony mate, okay? If the conditions are right, the mare of the pairing becomes pregnant.
It’s not uncommon to see pony/changeling pairs nowadays. The trend started about FoC + five. Some ponies and changelings found they had a genuine attraction to the other species. Since changelings can become basically anypony they want, they filled in the other half of such relationships.
Anyways, the mare eventually gives birth to what looks like an average foal. However, the foal has a small amount of changeling power too. The foal is a Hybreed. It varies from pony to pony, but mostly it involves being able to shapeshift a certain part of our bodies. The lucky ones get almost full-coat transformation, allowing for near-changeling levels of infiltration. The unluckier ones get, at most, one part. They can change their mane and tails, maybe one part of their face, stuff like that.
Then, you get the Forsaken. These are the most twisted of the bunch. Instead of shapeshifting, they gain a changeling’s ability to feed off of emotion, but something about it got twisted with the pony DNA. They can suck literally anything. Emotion, magic, strength, stamina, you name it. This makes them very powerful, and very dangerous. I’ve only gone up against a Forsaken a couple of times, and man, you do not want anything like that, not even upon your worst enemies.
Thankfully, I was of the middling group, but with a bit of an added bonus. I could only change my hooves.
----------
“Okay,” I smile through strained teeth, “What do you want to see?”
Angel thinks for a moment, then blurts out, “I wanna see you walk on the ceiling!” The colts agree.
“Alright, I can do that.” I concentrate, and glimpse the familiar green flames around the bottoms of my legs. I will my hooves to become viscous and soft, like a slug’s body. I carefully step up to the wall, then stick one hoof to it. It sticks (this time), so I proceed with climbing the wall. I have a bit more trouble when I reach the junction of the wall and ceiling, since gravity wants to pull my hooves back down, but I eventually get right above the foal’s heads. I’m panting slightly. “Is this… good enough… for ya?”
A weight lands on my chest. “Cool!” Squirt has landed on me, his legs curled under him, his small wings fluttering with excitement. The unexpected weight breaks my focus, and my hooves become hard and ponylike again.
Shit shit shit! I plummet downwards, Angel and Brick moving out of the way just in time. We hit the ground, hard enough to knock the wind from me again. Squirt immediately jumps off, worried. “Sorry, Shining! Did I hurt you?”
“No, no I’m *cough* good,” I groan. “Jus…Just don’t try and break my concentration next time. I can’t hold the change if you distract me.”
“Oh, man, I’m really sorry Shining.”
“Hey,” I get to my hooves. I am ready to lay into them, but they all give me the sad dog eyes. Now, that’s just cheating. One, I could handle. But bringing out all three, complete with pout? That’s bordering on WMD territory. My heart melts.
“Hey, it’s no problem. You guys should probably be heading home, right? You don’t wanna miss time with the other Crusaders. Maybe some of them got their Marks while you’ve been down here.” The hall is now empty, except for me and three dust clouds strangely resembling the foals who were in front of me not a moment before.
I chuckle. Kids, right? They can’t ever pay enough attention. They just run and run and run and run until they drop from exhaustion, only to get back up the next day and repeat. Speaking of exhaustion, I’m sure feeling it now. The test might’ve been nothing but an illusion, but your mind believes it’s real, through and through. So, I can feel the pain in my snout when I faceplanted after the tripwire, the singe of my coat avoiding fire traps, and several other aches and bruises, even though nothing shows on my body. I slowly make my way to the dorm level, find my room, and drop into bed. I think I’m out before I hit the pillow.
----------
I’m in a castle.
Oh shit. It’s not just any castle; it’s the Canterlot Fortress, the HQ of Empress Twilight and the seat of power for the Equestrian Empire. I recognize the grand hall I’m in from the many State of the Empire speeches the Empress gives from time to time on the television; the throne room. Seated at the throne is The Menace her royal self, Empress Twilight, regal in all her bitchy glory. Tall holey horn, half-bug half-pony wings, flowing purple hair, lightish purple body, crown with the blackened Element of Magic, and piercing eyes staring right at me. Arrayed around the foot of the dais are her Queens, the other Elements. They’re poised to protect their Empress, their horns charging, pointed right at me.
Suddenly, I feel movement to my sides. I look around, and six other beings step forward, moving easily into point-blank spell casting range. Their forms are fuzzy, but I can make out a few details. One is very short, another with a twisted horn and a very dark form, and a couple with wings. The one at the front speaks; I can’t tell what he’s saying (sounds like a he), but whatever it is, it is causing confusion amongst the Queens. Suddenly, the Elements around the Queen’s necks burst apart, and the shards begin circling the six. An even greater crash is heard, and I look up to see Empress Twilight’s crown break, and the pieces join the veritable tornado surrounding the six.
Six beams of light erupt from the maelstrom, and strike at the former Bearers. It isn’t like the fabled rainbow of the Friendship Cannon, as it was called when the Bearers summoned the power. This is more like a positive-negative correlation: three vibrant colors, and then three that could only be described as the polar opposite of those colors. Whatever it is, the Queens and Empress try to strike back, answering with their own magical energy, and as the beams collide, the room is bathed in white.
----------
I bolt up, trying to block out the blinding light. I lower my hooves when I realize there is no light, I’m not about to die, and I’m in my room at the Warriors base.
“Holy shit, what a dream. Okay, Shiny, no more forgetting to eat before bed.” I glance at the clock; meh, close enough to my normal wake-up time. I get up, and make my way to the mess hall, the crazy dream fading into the back of my mind.