//------------------------------// // Chapter L: Expectations // Story: Astral Aegis // by Silvak //------------------------------// Apparently, when faced with a horrible situation, my recruits would eventually break and give up. In this case, I simply watched as all my recruits just were strewed across the field or dumped at a safe spot by the pegasi catching those sent flying. Even Starlight didn't made it that far, since I was cruel enough to included a second kind of magic mine that threw her off. As skilled as she was, a series of timed explosions wasn't something she was ready for as evident by the fact that she's still inside a smoking crater. "Well, that went as expected," I commented, as Silver gave me a skeptical look. "You expected something like this?" Silver asked. "Yes. I had absolutely no hope of anyone making it," I answered, that caused some of my recruits to lift their heads and glare at me. "If you expected that we were going to fail, why did you make us do this in the first place‽" Stalwart cried out. "Simple, you lot needed to face a situation that you were doomed to fail. When war comes about, some of you might be faced missions where there may be no chance of success, and only degrees of failure. Where failure will probably mean death." "Why would there be a mission like that in the first place‽" Windbag whined, causing me to wonder why I had to deal with two folk like them at the same time. "Simple, sometimes there is a mission that, while you will neither win nor survive, still serves an important tactical purpose. For example, some of you may be assigned to delay the enemy as long as possible. That typically means you fight to the death to buy time for your planet," I explained. As Stalwart started to raise his hoof to object, I continued, "Don't whine about the thought of a suicide mission. I've been sent on many trips that are suicidal by nature, just so I could feed myself. Besides, those kinds of missions are common only when the war is going terrible for us. Which, I have to say is our job: to make sure that any war Equus may have with interdimensional forces never hits that point." Seeing that no one was going to put up any more protest, or they were too worn out to do so, I announced, "Now, all of you, drag yourselves to the barracks to patch yourselves up. It's only noon, so we have more training to go through later." Windbag, like he was on some kind of cue, was about to open his mouth before I shoved a rock into it with my magic. "No more whining! I said I'm going to take things up a notch, so we're taking it up in as many aspects as we can. That includes increasing your workload. Now you have forty five minutes to clean up, eat, and rest before you get back here for the next session. Anyone that tries to ditch will be tied to a tree and be my personal punching bag for a hour." As my troops groaned before dragging themselves onto their hooves, I trotted over to Starlight's smoking crater as I asked, "Hey Starlight, you're still alive in there?" "...I really hate you so much right now," Starlight wearily shot back. "Aw, I care about you too. Though I admit that I didn't expect anyone to get this far." "Then why did you have different explosives here?" Starlight asked as she started to climbing out of her crater, her coat dirty and still smoking slightly. "There wouldn't be a reason if you honestly didn't expect anypony to get to this point." "It's a part of my ‘better safe than sorry’ policy. Having a bit of insurance in making this scenario unbeatable on the first try doesn't hurt. Well, hurt me at least," I explained. Raising an eyebrow, Starlight pressed on with her questioning by saying, "You have a ‘better safe than sorry' policy?" "Yes, yes I do. Got a problem with that?" "I say you're paranoid." "Say that when you go to worlds filled with hostile life, hostile environments, or horrible situations. Having some preparations help increased my pathetically slim odds of surviving the missions I had to go through. I still remember a cocky idiot that thought he could handle anything. The last I saw of him, he was half eaten in a nest of giant avian lifeforms," I countered, causing Starlight to blanch a bit at the last part. "Point... taken," Starlight muttered out. "Good, now go along and get yourself ready for the next exercise. Remember, I still have high expectations of you, which was validated by your further progress," I said with a smile, causing Starlight to cock an eyebrow at me before she followed her fellow recruits. After the rest of the recruits have left the fields, Silver commented, "You really shouldn't aggravate your recruits so much, madam. It's starting to look like you're a sadist." "No, I don't take pleasure in their suffering," I answered, causing Silver to deadpan at me. "What? I'm telling the truth. I'm just acting this way in the hopes that they would try harder to succeed, all in the effort to spite me in some way." "Spite you? Why in Equestria would you want that?" "Why not? If they would actually go that far, that means they aren't a bunch of passive idiots that just follow the person that can scream the loudest. We really don't need that kind of folk in the military. Besides, if they try to spite me, then that means they are trying to be at least a bit creative. Which would be very important in an operation, cause being creative could mean the difference between accomplishing a mission or a horrible death." "I see... so what do you have in mind for the next part of today's training, madam?" Silver asked, causing me to cock an eyebrow at him. "I'm just curious, since you did mention that you're going to change things." "It's a rather simple one. I'm going to have them carry saddlebags that are filled with about fifty pounds of rock up a very steep hill. No flying or magic allowed." "That sounds... rather simple. What's the catch?" "The catch is I had Discord change the side of the hill to be extremely greasy," I explained with a grin as Silver just rolled his eyes at me. "Another exercise where the recruits can't succeed in?" "Buck no, that's just excessively cruel. I just want to see if they can come up with a way to succeed in the exercise. This exercise would also serve as a means to test their creativity and possibly their teamwork. I even have some junk and stuff placed discreetly around the bottom of the hill so I can see if they would do anything with it. Though... if they fail, I'm going to end up yelling at them for being a bunch of idiots since the junk should give them some ideas on what to do," I answered. "Now let's go get a snack at the Sugarcube Corner, before I have to whip the squad to the fields." "Are you really going to whip them?" "Once again, buck no. I'm just going to tase the stragglers. It's more effective and takes less work," I replied, causing Silver to facehoof as he responded with a groan. Things proceeded along as well as one would expect, as weeks passed by once more with few significant developments. Some of the recruits complained at first at their hardships were taking such an huge increase, to where I finally got annoyed enough to taser Stalwart and later Windbag. After those two were zapped, all protest quickly died down. Apparently those two whiners serve as good examples of what I would do to insubordination, though I'm surprised that, despite the change to the training, no one left the squad. I guess that at this point, they put too much time and effort to give up now. Four days after the change in training was when Nightmare Night finally came around. The recruits were shivering that morning of the thought of what horrors I could bring down on them, if I decided to join the festivities. Upon hearing that I wasn't going to do anything on that regard, they breathed a collective sigh of relief. Though a few of them were offended when I mentioned that if I did try anything, it would traumatize them so far that they might spend the rest of their lives holed up in their parents' house. After the training, the Crusaders came to me wondering what costume I had in mind for the day. I told them that I didn't really care for the holiday, since it's all about sweets and scaring one another. They were aghast at what I said, until I explained to them that I get plenty of chocolate treats from Pinkie and the Cakes that my sweet tooth is satisfied, and that thanks to my past life I doubt there would be anything here capable of scaring me. They were a bit downcast at me not joining them, though I mentioned that I volunteered to help the Cakes pass out candy tonight and that I would give them extra candy when I see them, and that quickly cheered them up. It was eleven more days of calmness until another event occurred. This time it started with Pinkie, who was zipping around town in an unusual way as she tried to avoid everyone. It concerned me enough that I gave my recruits an hour break so I could confront her about this, though at first she was dodgy about what is causing her to act like this. Eventually she cracked a bit and she mentioned that she knew a secret that she was supposed to keep to herself, and that it was extremely hard for her to not reveal it to anyone. Upon hearing that, I simply advised her to not try to think about it, and instead focus on something completely different. That cheered her up a bit and caused her to give me a smile as a thank you before she bounced off with more of her usual cheer. I later learned that the secret was that Cadence was pregnant, which I learned after the day's training was over, when Pinkie dragged me to the party the Cadence and Shining threw as a surprise for Twilight. I put a smile on my face throughout the rest of the party, though Cadence's pregnancy reminded me of that my own body was maturing. My first heat wasn't all that pleasant for me, or anyone, for that matter. Though the solution I found to keep my mind off my body's 'needs' was quite simple, but terrifying for anyone else. After my first heat, everyone now knows to avoid me or to not press any of my buttons, for my solution was just being angry in general. Though Stalwart was a bit late on that remark, after I broke some of his bones when he started to complain. It was a horrible experience overall for them, though after that I decided to make any training sessions in the future that occur during my 'cycles' just survival exercises that involve them fleeing from my wrath. At least that way they have a chance of avoiding my rage. A couple more weeks passed by until I caught news that another holiday was coming up, which I found out about when Twilight approached me to tell me about it. She then informed me that I should give all the recruits a week off on the grounds that they would like to be able to spend the holiday with their families. I asked her why is this holiday is so important, only for her to be elusive, only telling me I would find out when I spend it with Pinkie Pie. That only caused me to be skeptical about it all till Twilight mention that Pinkie would love it if I would spend the week with her, and that Pinkie actually had some big plans for that upcoming holiday. That caused me to cave in, since I really do care about my new mother, though when I asked again about it, Twilight still wouldn't reveal it, on the grounds that only Pinkie should tell me, and it would be a pleasant surprise for me. I decided to not press it further and just wait it out for a pleasant surprise, since Pinkie now knows the things I wouldn't want to take part in. Maybe this Hearth's Warming Eve of theirs would be an enjoyable holiday for me... I hope.