Chapter 15: Ready Up
The sun shone in through the lone window in the room. Sandman slowly opened his eyes and looked around the room. Truck and Grinch were still asleep, while Frost and Andrei were wide awake. Frost was over at the table writing down something on paper and Andrei was looking through some sort of handbook. Sandman sat up on the couch and wiped his eyes.
“What are you doing over there Frost? Sandman asked.
“Oh, just writing down stuff I remember from basic. If we are going to be training these ponies, we need to remember as much stuff as we can.” Frost responded.
“YA ne mogu poveritʹ, na samom dele my postaraemsya perekhoda etikh poni…” Andrei mumbled to himself.
“You know, you really need to learn to speak up Andrei, or at least speak in English. What is the problem now?”
“I said that I can’t believe we are going to try and train these ponies.”
“Well, we voted, and it was two to three. I am not liking it that much either, so it looks like we have something in common.” Sandman responded. Andrei did nothing but give a shrug in return. Sandman turned back to Frost. “But I don’t think it will be impossible, but it will be a challenge for sure.”
“Heh, trying to train ponies how to defend themselves and kill those who try and harm them. Happens all the time. These things are peace loving. I don’t think we can just, you know, whip them into shape like you would with a person.” Frost reasoned.
“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I think that it won’t be hard because of Cloudsdale. Having that happen to any country would create patriots who want to get back at whoever did it.”
“Raw anger won’t win battles for them. They need to be skilled and trained. They need to be able to hone in that anger and control it.”
“Jesus, when did you become a philosopher, Frost? Last I remember, you barely talked at all.” Sandman said, causing both to laugh a bit.
“Yeah…” Frost responded with a sigh.
At that moment, Grinch was starting to wake up along with Truck.
“Rise and shine.” Sandman said to them in a cheery tone.
“Ugh, what time is it?” Grinch asked, still trying to fully wake up.
“I don’t know, there aren’t any clocks in here.”
“It is 9:37AM.” Someone from behind them said, causing all of them to turn around with a start. They found that Haybrun was standing in the doorway. “At 8:00, the announcements were given in each town about Cloudsdale and the need for recruits. The lists, along with those who enlisted, will be here around 2:00PM. At that time, I will introduce you to them and you will begin training.”
“Damn, no time to get acquainted then. Where are we exactly going to train them, sir?”
“You don’t have to call me ‘sir’ anymore. The Princesses saw it fit to appoint you all Captains of the ESDF for now. So, we are both the same rank for the time being.”
This caused all the soldiers in the room to glance at each other.
“So, what does this mean?”
“You will have access to more restricted areas of the castle, as well as the armory and Canterlot storage. The Princesses are putting a lot of trust in you. Don’t waste it.”
“What’s in Canterlot storage?”
“I don’t really know. It holds many strange artifacts and tools that we have found throughout history. I have only been down there twice, both times accompanied by the Princesses.”
“Interesting… but anyway, back to my original question, where are we going to train them?”
“Inside the castle, there is a giant training room filled with any equipment you would need. It is used when we train royal guards.”
“May we go see it? We need to know what we are going to be working with before the recruits get here. You know, set up some form of training course.”
“Certainly, follow me.”
“Hang on, I am coming too.” Truck said as he slowly got up off the bed.
“No, Truck. You aren’t in any condition to be moving around.”
“Hell, I wouldn’t miss this for the world. I am coming with you. I just won’t exert myself too much.”
“Ugh, fine. What about you Andrei?” Sandman asked, turning to the Russian on the couch.
“Nu ... shtrafa. I guess I shall go see how much of a failure this is going to be first hand.” He said with a chuckle, even though their was evident pain across his face as he stood up.
“Well, glad to know you’re confident.”
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“Twilight, wake up! The Princess has summoned us to the main chamber!” Rarity said, trying to awaken the lavender mare. Slowly, Twilight opened her eyes.
“Ugh, wait… what?”
“The Princess summoned us to the main chamber. We need to go.”
“What? Where is everypony else?”
“They are already on their way. We are going to be late, come on!”
Twilight was up in an instant and started to brush out her mane to the best of her ability. After a rather quick and shoddy job, they left the room and trotted off down the hallway. After a few twists and turns, they ended up in the main chamber. Twilight's other friends were already there conversing with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, well, except for Rainbow Dash. She was standing behind the others, not talking and staring at the ground.
“Ah, well it looks as though everypony is here. I have some good news and bad news to share with you. Which would you like to hear first?”
After a quick discussion between the group, Twilight spoke.
“We will have the good news first, Princess.”
“Very well. The good news is that we are setting up a force to help find out who has caused this terrible event. This morning, each mayor addressed their town with what we know so far, and asked for recruits to join a force that we haven’t used in quite some time, the ESDF. We have already picked its leaders and those who have chosen to enlist are on their way here. Plus, we already have plans for rebuilding Cloudsdale after the problem has been solved.”
This caused everypony in the group to let out a sigh of relief or give a smile. It even brightened Rainbow’s mood a little bit.
“Now… the bad news...” Princess Celestia began, but Luna interrupted.
“I don’t really see how this is bad news, Tia.”
“To them, it might be.”
“What do you mean ‘to us’?” Twilight asked.
“We had no ponies we knew of with the skills required to lead such a force. After some consideration, we saw that we only had one choice.”
”I don’t see where this is going.” Rarity said in confusion.
“We asked the humans if they would be willing to help us, and they agreed. They will be the leaders of the ESDF and train the new recruits.”
Everypony in the room stood there in shock, staring at the Princesses.
“But… but why? Why the humans? Why not Haybrun or somepony else?” Twilight asked in a distressed tone.
“Because even though Haybrun is Captain of the Royal Guard, he doesn’t have much combat experience, and it is quite a stressful job to have. The most anypony got was during the Changeling invasion, and you all saw how bad that went. The humans have experience. Their planet is at war almost all the time and they were a part of one. They know how to fight, so they are going to help train our recruits on how to do the same.”
“Do ya think it was the Changelings that did this?” Applejack asked.
“I don’t know, but it is always a possibility. We believe it was either them or the Griffins.”
“The Griffins? Why would the Griffins do something like this?”
“Well, the Griffins and us don’t have the best history together. During Discord’s reign, we asked them for help and they refused. After we were victorious and me and Luna took the crown, we found out that the Griffins actually had a pact with Discord. It said that if Discord was victorious, he would give them full amnesty and they would be able to take us as slaves for whatever purpose they saw fit. After we found that out, we demolished their trade and government, labeling them traitors to the free world. Of course, this was a very long time ago and since then, things have gone back to normal, but there is still much hate between the two of us.”
“Why haven’t we ever heard of this? I don’t remember reading that in any books…” Twilight asked while she scanned her brain for anything she remembered about the subject.
“Because this happened a very long time ago. It has faded out of the knowledge of many. Only some records and books have information regarding the reign of Discord.”
“Rainbow, you have been awfully quiet, what’s your take on…” Twilight began, but turned around to see Rainbow Dash nowhere in sight. “Where did Rainbow go?”
Everyone looked around, but she was nowhere to be seen.
“Oh dear…”
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“Wow…” Was all that was said from anyone when they entered the training facility. It was absolutely GIANT.
“How big is this thing?” Sandman asked Haybrun.
“The ceiling extends up around four hunred yards, while the distance end to end is around one thousand yards."
“Damn... well, we got room. That’s for sure. Let’s go look at this equipment of yours.”
They approached one side of the room to see a bunch of weights on racks and other items spread across the floor and walls.
“Can you explain to us what some of these things do?” Sandman asked, causing Haybrun to look at him odd.
“Do you not have these items in your world?” He asked.
“Well, we have some of these, but others look completely new to me.”
“Why would you have a three thousand pound weight?” Grinch asked from behind the group. They turned to see him standing next to a giant metal ball sitting in the corner of the room.
“We use that for Unicorns. They have to levitate it up in the air as high as they can and hold it there for as long as possible. Helps build magical endurance.”
“Hell, what if they drop it? It would leave a giant ass hole in the floor.” Frost asked.
“You would be surprised. This room is enchanted with a magical force field. If somepony was to drop it, it wouldn’t even dent the floor, or the weight. It would just make a really loud noise.”
“Well, we are used to loud noises, so that won’t be a problem.”
“What is this here?” Andrei asked while he picked up an odd fan looking mechanism.
“Oh, please be careful with that. It is an Anemometer, the only one of its kind. Twilight Sparkle created that to measure a pegasi’s wing power.”
“Wing power? What does that mean?”
“It tells you how fast they are flying and how strong their wings are.”
“Ok, well that will come in handy. How about normal ponies? Do you have anything that is used to measure their strength?” Sandman asked.
“Yes, it is rather simple.” Haybrun said as he pulled out what appeared to be a giant tackling dummy used in American Football. It was connected to a metal bar and had an inflatable bag on the bottom. A pressure gauge stuck out on the back, much like on the Anemometer.
“How do you use it?”
“Well, I will show you.” Haybrun said while he walked in front on the contraption. “You have somepony walk in front of it and buck it as hard as they can.” He demonstrated by turning around and raising his back hoofs and bucking it violently. The inflatable bag on the bottom filled up with air. Sandman went behind and looked at the pressure gauge. It read 27 even. “The force exerted inflates the bag. The more force, the more air is pushed in, and it reads how powerful the buck was.”
“What is this measured in?” Sandman asked. “It said you got a 27 even.”
“That is a little above average. The standard for bucking is around 25, while wing power is averaged around 8.”
“But what is this measurement?”
“Buck-power.”
Sandman stood there staring at him for a moment.
“…That’s what the measurement is called?”
“Yes, why?”
“Well… oh nevermind. It’s just different than what I am used to.”
“Okay, well, anything else that I should explain to you?”
“No, I think that is about it, but it looks like the rest is just your average weight room stuff. Nothing here that we can really use for a makeshift boot camp, but it will have to do.”
“Heh, I got an idea.” Andrei said mischievously
“Oh, I don’t like the sound of that.” Haybrun said cautiously.
“Oh don’t worry, it’s nothing THAT bad, but it is something that happened to me when I enlisted. The instructors wanted to see new recruits react under pressure when they were not expecting it. They would see who were brave and who were cowards.”
“Sounds interesting, so what is it?” Sandman asked with a raised eyebrow.
"However, we may need to do this outside..."
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Rainbow Dash walked down the hallways in silence, occasionally having fits of anger or sadness. She didn’t care where she was going. She only wanted to be alone. As she walked, she began to make out voices nearby. Not wanting to see anypony, she tried to avoid whoever it was and turned down a different hallway, only to run into Haybrun head first.
“Ah, sorry… I wasn’t looking where I was going…” Rainbow mumbled out.
“Oh, it’s fine. What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with the Princess right now?”
“Yes, but…” She began, but cut herself off when she saw the humans standing behind Haybrun. “Oh for Celestia’s sake… LEAVE ME ALONE!” She yelled at them, then turned away and galloped off down another hallway. Sandman let out a long sigh.
“You must have really screwed her up when you shot her boss…” Grinch whispered to him.
“That’s probably only part of it. She lost her parents in Cloudsdale, so more than likely she is a train wreck of emotions. Best to leave her be considering we are the last people she wants to see.”
“I will have some guards go find her, but in the meantime, we best be getting ourselves prepared. It is 1:30PM, so the recruits will be here soon.”
The group set back off down the hallway towards the entranceway. As they walked, something dawned on Sandman.
“You know, I have a question…”
“Ok, what is it?” Haybrun asked.
“While the Princess was talking to us about their troops, she mentioned the names of the cities. I don’t know why it took me this long to realize this, but why are almost all the names of your cities similar to the names of cities on our planet?”
The group slowed down while Haybrun pondered the question.
“I don’t know. Why? Is there a Manehatten or a Fillydelphia on your world?”
“No, we have a Manhattan and a Philadelphia, as well as a Las Vegas and a Baltimore, matching you’re Las Pegasus and Baltimare. Why are they so similar to one another?”
Haybrun did nothing but return a shrug.
“Oh well, it doesn’t matter. It just seems really weird.”
“Maybe we are not so different after all.” Haybrun responded without much emotion.
“Wait, what do you mean by that?” Sandman asked. By this point, the entire group had stopped and was waiting on an answer.
“I don’t know, I am just saying. It seems the longer I spend time with you, the more resemblances I see between you and us.”
“Well, the Princess did say there were many humans before us. Perhaps some of our culture seeped into yours.”
“Yeah… perhaps…”