A small compartment opened up in the room, and a small, sharp dart shot out of it. The dart landed in Fluttershy's flank, shooting the substance inside her. Her vision started to fade, as did her balance. Through her fading, and failing vision she could see guards enter the room, but she was powerless against them.
She threw her hoof out mentally, but it didn't move, instead it knocked her off balance and she fell onto the floor, unconscious. The guards grabbed her and dragged her towards the royal throne.
Fluttershy awoke, she knew immediately where she was, she could see Nightmare looking at her, and she could see the rest of the room, but she couldn't move or hear. Nightmare's horn stopped glowing and Fluttershy could hear again.
"So the youngest is the most brutal, fitting." Nightmare chucked, she approached Fluttershy.
"What do you want me to do..." Fluttershy paused, "Queen Nightmare."
Nightmare reared up as she laughed, lightning shot around her and she slammed back to the ground. "I will train you."
"In what? Queen Nightmare?" Fluttershy said, she had no choice to bow.
"You will be trained harshly, weapons, stealth, camouflage, targeting, and loyalty to your country." Nightmare snarled.
"When do I start?" Fluttershy asked.
"Tomorrow, but tonight, you live." Nightmare said.
"What is that representing?" Fluttershy asked.
"Go outside of the castle grounds tonight, it will be the last time for one year."
"No, I don't need to."
"As you wish then." Nightmare turned and walked away.
Fluttershy didn't know where to go, she was about to ask Nightmare when two Shadow Guards walked up to her.
"Follow us." They said sternly, then walked up the staircase.
As the three of them were walking to Fluttershy's room, she had a few good looks around the castle itself, she saw the labyrinth, the royal gardens, and even the ball room, which for some reason, was still bright with stained glass of Celestia. As they were passing the stone garden, she saw stone dust around most of the statues. The only tatues that remained were the ones of Discord and of Victory.
"Over here." one of the guards said as they neared dormitories in the highest tower of the castle.
Fluttershy obeyed, she walked up to the guard and he used a long, black key to open the room. Once the room opened, it was revealed to have a bed, a desk, many windows, and a single closet.
"The further you advance in training, the more comfortable your room will become." the guard, she was guessing the leader, said.
She simply nodded as they walked off, this would be her last night before training, who knew when she would sleep again. The one thing she need and wanted most of all, was sleep. She etched her way over to the bed and laid down, not long after, she was asleep.
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"Swwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" A whistle shot her out of bed, she landed against the wall and looked around her, her room was filled with Equestrian National forces, they were carrying some sort of weapon that she'd never seen before.
She launched off the wall and landed beside the commander, who was standing in front, he was dressed in camouflage, his rank of Captain was clearly displayed with a gold pin on his shoulder.
"Welcome to boot camp!" he said loudly.
"Where do I go?" she asked.
"Follow my forces down to the training grounds!" he commanded, and his next in line walked up to him.
"Lieutenant Shining Armor sir, permission to take command of squad 43 for now." he asked, his gold pin read Sergeant Major
"Permission granted, take this one with you." he said, and his soldier nodded.
"Private Fluttershy, follow us." he said, and turned around, his men, about a dozen or so,
As they rushed out of the tower, she noticed how alive the castle was, at the castle and the surrounding areas, hundreds of thousands of stallions were drilling, she heard loud pops, explosions, screaming, metal clanking, and hooves marching.
The sky was still dark, but the grounds could be seen, in the distance, she saw chariots that had motors and a large tube attached to them. They fired a huge flaming ball out of the tube, as it flew through the air, it seemed to get brighter, right up until t hit the ground. When they hit, the ground around them exploded into flames, the air around the impact seemed to disappear for a split second.
When the were almost to the bottom of the steps, a group of four hundred soldier marched by, followed by another and another. The ponies around her were starting to jog in place, so she followed along. She made sure to stay in step with them.
Once the platoons of soldiers completely passed, they started out on a run, the sun started to show, which made the burning in her legs more intense. They ran for what seemed like hours, but was really only 10 miles, which took about 75 minutes.
"Alright, now, there are three sets of six routines," he listed them off;
1. 50 push ups
2.100 sit ups
3.25 over hoof wide grip pull ups
4. 30 Dive Bomber push ups
5. 5 minutes of backflies
6. Cool Down stretches
Repeat three times for an average time of 1 1/2 hours.
"Are you clear?" he asked, then put his hoof to his ear.
"Crystal, sir!" the stallions around her said in response.
They started the training, day after day it was the same for 7 weeks. By the end of those seven weeks, Fluttershy was outperforming almost everypony in the squad. The training was intense, so intense that two ponies died during it. One died during the final ten mile run on the first day, he collapsed alongside of the trail, and the trainers just left him. The second died when he fell off of the bridge during the 10 mile run.
At the end of week 7, the ten or so soldiers who remained in the squad.were sent to different parts of the camp for different fields of training, everypony was sent in a group of two, everypony except Fluttershy.
"Private! Follow Sergeant Scratch across that field!" Shining Armor called out.
She did as she was told and followed him over to a station that had a rather large weapon laid out on a white table.
"Nightmare has requested special training for you, I am currently the only other pony who has the skill and knowledge that you need." Sergeant Scratch said.
"Yes sir." she said, saluting.