After my little dream session with Luna, the next few days passed by without much to make mention of. Though I heard a story from Pinkie Pie about Fluttershy overcoming her shyness to sing, to a degree. Yesterday the Crusaders were released from their latest grounding. Since they were my friends, I told them about my training of recruits for the defense of Equestria. Being their natural Cutie-Mark-searching selves, they wanted to be a part of the program. Silver Shield denied them, of course. Though, to cheer them up, I told them that I had an idea on how they could help me train the recruits, at least on day one. They cheered instantly at the thought of another chance to get a Cutie Mark, which, sadly, Silver wasn't ready for. I think his ears were ringing for a whole hour afterwards, judging by him constantly rubbing a hoof against an ear.
Also, it turns out that my unique former life and my previous education was enough to warrant me skipping on most of my schooling, especially since I needed to focus on the recruits. I still had to practice my writing and learn about the history of Equus, but that quickly became home-school assignments that I could do at my own pace. Apparently I was trusted enough to keep on top of my necessary studies without oversight; beyond Cheerilee grading my work. The biggest plus to that set-up was that I didn't have to see Diamond's face anymore in the morning. As a parting gift, I snuck into her room during the middle of the night, a couple days ago, to stuff her personal bathroom's toilet and break its handle. I wonder how long it took before she noticed her room was flooding.
I was grateful that I was able to see Discord shortly after seeing Luna, though I suspected she might have contacted him. After hearing my plan, he laughed at the sheer amount of chaos it could wreak on my recruits: He was delighted to do me a favor. Before he disappeared, he patted me on the head for the mayhem that occurred on my cute-ceañera. Though, he left me a parting present in the form of some weird dress, which I later learned, from Pinkie was a maid's outfit. This caused me to look the word up before developing the sudden urge to find Discord's home to throw a brick at one of its windows.
On another note, I met with the pony that was going to lead the building of the barracks. He was first resistant to the idea of me giving him demands on how the barracks should be built, though Silver Shield convinced him to listen. Apparently, the pony thought I was going to want ridiculously grand building designs. He was only right on the ridiculous part, for I really wanted to put the recruits into cramped settings. Upon seeing what I considered cramped, Silver said that a small prison cell would be more roomy in comparison. Eventually we settled on somewhat smaller housing portions for the barracks than what the builder originally planned.
Moving on, today I finally got the news that my recruits would be arriving today shortly after noon. After getting permission to use the town hall as their meeting point, I went over and got Sweetie Belle to gather the Crusaders after I told her what I needed them to do. After that, I just waited for my recruits to arrive.
Maybe I should have given more requirements, I thought to myself as I watched Silver Shield lead the recruits into the room. It seemed like only the weird or bored ponies from all of Equestria signed up for this spot the moment the word got out. Of course there were unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi coming through the door, but I was surprised by the sight of a pony with bat wings coming in. Well, that is officially the weirdest pony, not counting Pinkie of course, I ever se—scratch that, she's the weirdest, I was thinking to myself before I saw a earth pony that was sparkling, literally sparkling. Seriously, it was like she was made of crystal or something.
While some of the ponies were a weird sight to me, I was probably wasn't what they expected; based on the looks they were giving me. In the end, there was roughly two dozen ponies sitting in front of me; from all sorts of backgrounds.
I was sitting on the stage in the town hall, with Silver to my right, where I was about to open my mouth when some unicorn in fancy clothing said, "Is this some kind of joke? What is a filly doing here?"
I gave the unicorn stallion, that was probably a member of nobility, a half-lidded stare as I replied, "This filly is going to be your trainer, your leader, and your boss."
"Preposterous! I demand to see whoever orchestrated this farce! In addition to our actual trainer!"
"Recruit, she is the pony you are looking for. Now I suggest that you pay her your pro—"
"Nonsense! I can't believe a member of the Royal Guard could be so easily convinced by a me—" was all the unicorn was able to say as I opened one of the room's windows and picked him up with my magic via his clothes. "How dare you, I demand that you unhoof me at once!"
Grunting, I tossed him as hard as I could out of the window. Thankfully, based on the sound of the crash shortly after I had thrown him, I think he may not be coming back. "Anypony else have a problem with me being a filly?"
Sadly, my shock and awe tactic failed miserably as a few of the recruits rushed to the window to see how that unicorn was doing as the rest were screaming at me, though I couldn't make out a single word due to them screaming different things at me.
Thankfully, I had Silver to help stop the situation from getting worse by yelling, "Silence! Everypony back to where they were!"
This cowed the recruits enough to return to their spots, while I was making a mental note to sent a thank you note to Celestia for Silver Shield. After anypony was seated, I leaned over to Silver, "Hey, mind making sure that they take me seriously?"
Nodding, Silver turned to the crowd as he said, "Now everypony, listen up. This filly here is Aether Aura, an alien turned pony that has volunteered to become an agent for Princess Celestia. You are all here for the same reason, to learn how to protect Equestria from a new threat. Currently, Aether is the only pony who knows what we may face, and how to best train ponies for it. Hence, Aether is in charge and you will follow every one of her orders, understood?" Everypony literally nodded, causing me to cock an eyebrow at how easily authority figures can impact the normal pony.
Coughing, I stepped forward to announce, "Yes, as Silver Shield said, I am in charge, placed by Princess Celestia herself. You all here could be the first ponies to serve as defense against... interdimensional threats." Before anypony could even get a word out, I raised a hoof for Silver to give all the recruits a quick look over. This silenced any potential interruptions as I continued, "Now I know that you find such a matter to be hard to believe. However, there is enough evidence to support the existence of this threat, even if you don't take myself to account. Now, I know many of you have many questions, or statements to declare. However, I will only address them after I weed out any ponies not meant for this role.
"But before we start that, how about we have a lunch break?" I declared, surprising everypony as the curtains behind Silver and me parted to reveal a buffet with various covered plates, complete with dining tables and chairs for the recruits to use. Right beside the buffet table, was the smiling faces of the Crusaders, though their smiles may have seemed a bit strained.
The recruits looked upon one another, some of them mumbling among themselves as they displayed mixed reactions to the announcement of lunch. Though there was one pegasi mare that just patted her belly, but that might be related to the fact that she did look to be a bit filthy, along with the fact that the recruits kept their distance away from her. Eventually one brave unicorn decided to take the lead, causing the others to follow as she ventured forward to one of the plates. Lifting the cover with her magic, she quickly brought the lid back down after getting a peek at the meal.
"Is this some kind of joke?" the mare asked with an annoyed expression, turning her head towards me. Cocking an eyebrow in a mock attempt to be confused, I strode over to the table to lift one of the lids with my own magic. As expected, it was a burnt... something. I proceeded to take off all the lids, seeing other types of food that were completely burnt as well, till I paused at a pitcher of some black gunk.
"...Okay, what is that?" I asked as I pointed at the gunk.
"That's orange juice!" Sweetie Belle squeaked as her cheeks start to redden, causing me to do a double take at the pitcher. For while I recruited the Crusaders to prepare the lunch due to stories about Sweetie Belle's cooking, I couldn't believe that she manage to burn the orange juice... or turn it into some horrible otherworldly goo.
As the recruits looked over the food, with one of them covering their mouth with a hoof at the pitcher, the unicorn mare asked, "You can't expect us to eat this..."
Turning my head to her, I smiled widely as I answered "Of course I expect you all to, I'll even join you!" Grabbing a plate, I took a sample from each of the dishes prepared by the Crusaders, along with a glass of 'orange juice'. Sitting down, I began to eat the 'meal', much to the horror of all the adults present. Except for the dirty mare who already filled up a plate for herself. Downing some of the juice, I paused to say, "Now, if a little filly like me can handle this, then you all should be able to do the same, right? Also, if you don't eat, then leave. There is a reason for this meal."
As the recruits all gave me a skeptical look, an earth pony stallion turned to Silver Shield, asking, "She can't be serious, right?"
Looking at me, Silver saw my irritated look before he replied, "I'm afraid Dame Aether is indeed serious."
"She's a noble‽" a couple of the recruits exclaimed, causing me to facehoof at Silver's slip.
"Thanks a lot," I mumbled to Silver, for I wanted to keep my new noble status under wraps for as long as possible. "Ignoring the, now revealed, fact that I'm a member of the nobility, I'm still expecting you all to have a meal. So get started before Silver or I have to kick you out."
"It's ain't as bad as you think," said the pegasus mare as she munched down on her meal. The recruits looked at one another for a moment before they started grabbing their own plates, with an exception of a few that decided to call it quits and left the room in a huff.
Taking their seats, the remaining ponies looked upon one another before reaching a silent decision to try the food at the same time. The first bite quickly turned into a race to the nearest trashcan, which I had the foresight to provide a few of them, on the far side of the room. The sight of them pushing each other out of the way was so hilarious that I had a hard time controlling myself, though the Crusaders, with the exception of Sweetie Belle, were laughing at the sight.
After the group was done expelling their stomach contents, they were all giving me agitated looks as I said, "Alright, everypony take a seat in front of the stage again for the second 'test'. But, I know you're all wondering why you had to go through that 'meal' deal. The answer is simple: if you can't stomach horrible food, you won't last long in situations where the only available food is something that horrible, or worse."
"Oh sweet Celestia, do you honestly think we would believe that!" one pony shouted out, a few other grumbling in agreement.
"Well, yeah.” I responded neutrally, “I managed to down each one of the meals myself. Besides, I lived off worse stuff than that for thirteen years. Even had to resort to garbage a hooffull of times."
Some of the recruits stared at me in shock, while others had to put their hooves to their mouths. "Anyways, like I said before you could always leave. For now though, I will be moving onto the second test, which will help determine those who will make the cut." I used my magic to pull over a small box, reaching my hoof in to pull out a small rubber ball while I indicated to the Crusaders with my other foreleg to put the lids back on the dishes.
"Okay, this is some kind of grand twisted joke! We're not going to play catch with you!" an irate pegasus stallion said as he took into the air in anger.
"Oh, you're not playing catch. You're going to be trying to not get hit by the ball instead," as I pulled my foreleg back a bit before I tossed the ball with all my might at the pony yelling at me. The stallion was certainly surprised when the ball zipped right across the room to bounce right off his face. As the pegasus was knocked backwards a few feet, the ball bounced around, not losing its momentum. This caused the entire group to scatter to avoid the bouncing ball of pain, though few were unlucky enough to be hit by it, making a very painful 'whamp' sound each time a pony got hit.
Meanwhile, the Crusaders ducked underneath a table while Silver spread his wings in shock. Rolling my eyes, I said, "Relax you guys, we won't get hit by the ball."
"What are you talkin' about? Don't you see that thin' hittin' ponies at random‽" Apple Bloom shrieked.
"That ball must be enchanted," Silver said as he kept his eyes on the ball as it knocked over a pony. "The question is, who provided the enchantment?"
"Simple, I went to Discord and asked him to make a ball that will bounce around like crazy, while it can't leave the room nor hurt anything or anypony that has been in Ponyville for at least a day," I said with a smirk.
"Why would Discord even agree to provide you something like that?" Silver incredulously asked, only for me to wave a foreleg at the sight of the recruits scrambling for cover, or dodging the ball. A unicorn tried to catch the ball with her magic, only for it to bounce off the side of her head, sending her to the ground. "Oh..." Silver dumbly replied.
After five more minutes of watching the ball, I decided the group had enough as I stopped the ball with my own magic. Looking over the group, I could see them lying down on the ground, nursing whatever parts of their body got hit as they groaned in pain. Putting the ball back in the box, I said, "Well, this test is to see if anypony get's knocked out by the ball, though looks like no pony failed." Instantly all the ponies glared at me with expressions of hatred, to which I simply continued, "Now now, I know you all are really angry at me, but this is another lesson for all of you. Odds are if you're going to stay in the team, you might as well have some experience in regards to dodging projectiles. Which is probably going to happen a lot if Equestria is ever threatened by interdimensional forces. Hence this was a practice of your reaction speeds and your ways of dealing with incoming projectiles. Now, if you don't want to deal with such things, which will be part of my training system, then I suggest you leave now."
Grumbling, a few more ponies left the room, as the remaining recruits gathered at the center of the room again. As they all looked at me with angry looks, I simply smiled as I said, "Well, I guess you all will be Equestria's first interdimensional trainees. Congratulations. The rest of today will be yours to spend, for we will begin the real training first thing tomorrow!"
One pony raised his hoof, as he asked, "Where are we going to be staying?"
"Oh, about that, the barracks isn't complete yet. So... you'll all be camping for a few days! Think of it as more training!"