A Not so Perfect Childhood

by KRissCHu573

Chapter 3: A new beginning

Rain Sight woke up with a scream, her eyes snapping open as she began to hyperventilate. She frantically looked around, taking in her surroundings, as a mixture of fear and disbelief colored her face. She was back home in their house on Meinhoff. She laid on the couch in the living room, covered with her favorite blanket.

"What's going on here?" She said under her breath, as her breathing began to calm down.

The thing which scared her even more, was Rust rushing in the room.

"Rain what's wrong?!" He exclaimed. "I heard you screaming and came as fast as possible."

He only received a confused look in return.

"Rust..." She quietly uttered, slowly reaching a hoof forward, touching his face.

She intensely stroked it, convincing herself that what was happening was real, as her brother put on a deadpan expression.

"Look, this is weird, not to mention VERY uncomfortable." He said as he took her hoof and removed it from his face. "Seriously sis, what's wrong with you?"

"Sorry, I just...had a bad dream." She said.

"What about?" Rust asked.

The filly let out a sigh, before replying.

"In it, you, mom and grandma had died. The police found out that dad was a dark templar, and we moved to Korhal. There DI snuffed dad out, so they made him agree on the two of us becoming their agents, and I was in this academy. It was all just awful!" She finished, burying her face in her hooves, and began to quietly sob.

"Shh, shh, shh." The colt comforted her, as he wrapped his hooves around her. "It's alright sis. You've been watching way too much movies that are unappropriate for you." He joked.

The filly stopped her sobs, and looked up at him with a smile, before saying.

"Yeah, I guess I have."

However, something still bothered her a bit.

"Where is everyone?" She enquired.

"Oh they're outside in the yard." He casually replied.

Rain Sight sighed in relief, after which Rust finished his statement.

"At least their ashes are."

"What?!" She exclaimed, horror making its way on her face.

"As for me, well, hehe, you just couldn't open your mouth and say something about what was happening to me, could you?" Rust said.

She then felt that sensation of her brain being mashed like dough. Despite the realization that a ghost was bringing her darkest thoughts to light, it still felt very real, compelling her to reply to her brother's question.

"You told me not to!"

"Yeah, it's my fault. And if you had told them, they would have probably found a way to fix me, but no, you decided to let my condition develop!" He shouted.

The startled filly pushed herself out of his grasp and jumped behind the sofa, taking several steps back. The colt looked at her from behind the back of the sofa.

"Or maybe you didn't say anything, because you wanted me to have a more appropriate look for the thing you had me to be?" He retored.

"NO! I LOVED YOU RUST! I NEVER THOUGHT ANYTHING BAD ABOUT YOU!" She yelled in protest, tears pouring out of her eyes.

"That so?" He began. "Then why did you leave me to become a nightmare come to life? Why did you let me become..." He paused. "...a monster?"

After those words, something underneath his skin began to move, changing the shape of his body. At that point, Rain Sight did the only thing a frightened filly could think of - run to her parents' room. When she entered, the room was empty. She shut and locked the door. In a moment something started to slam itself against the door. She leaned on the door and started pushing in the opposite direction, in order to keep Rust outside.

The barrage ended in what seemed like a minute. Everything got quiet. The only sound that could be heard were Rain's quickened breaths. She stayed in her position against the door for a while, after which she wiped the sweat from her forehead as she sighed in relief. The very next moment the door got ripped from its hinges and the filly fell on the floor, bombarded by splinters. She was about to get up, when her brother pinned her to the ground. It wasn't the Rust she knew, it was the beast he had become. He stared in her horror filled eyes.

"Farewell...sister." He said coldly, after which he bit down on her throat.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" She yelled in her last moments, closing her eyes so she wouldn't see it coming.

"TIME!" Someone yelled.

Then she opened her eyes, to be greeted by the commander and his brother.

"Wow, minute-thirty. You are improving way better than the others in building up a mental defense. But you're too rough on yourself, gotta work on that." Moonraker said, as he wrote something down on his tablet.

Her breathing had began to calm and her expression turned into a scowl, which she directed at him. The stallion gave her a quick glance, then pointed his pen at her and stated.

"Look kid, others have tried it, and I appreciate the effort, shows that you pay attention in seduction classes, but I am not into under-aged fillies."

'What is this guy talking about?' She thought, after which she noticed her position.

She was on her back, with her legs spread, the spandex suit giving her a slightly slutty look. Her scowl turned into a mix of surprise and embarrassment, as her cheeks became crimson. She let out a loud 'eeep' as she rolled under the bed to hide her shame.

"Aww, hiding under the bed. That's so adorable. You do know we have cameras there too." Moonraker said.

The next moment another 'eep' was heard, followed by a loud 'thud' and an 'OH!', indicating that the filly had hit her head. The commander quietly chuckled, after which spoke in a reassuring tone.

"Come on now, be a mare and get out from under there with some dignity." 'If you still have any left.' He thought.

Slowly the filly crawled out from underneath the bed, her cheeks still red, and stared at the floor.

The stallion walked up to her, picked her head up so that she could look him in the eye, and said.

"Listen, the first day won't be the only bad day you have here. You are currently in a pretty big stream of crap, and you are not getting out any time soon, so quit with the little helpless girl act. Daddy is not coming to save you. You better buck up and get a grip asap, or you will end up on the fail wall. And I am pretty sure you don't want to be there."

He then let her go. She stared at the ground for a moment longer, before asking.

"What happened to that other filly, whose brother died?"

Moonraker gave her a questioning look and enquired.

"Whose what died where?"

"That yellow filly, whose brother fell asleep yesterday." She clarified.

"Oooh." The commanded let out, before shaking his head lightly, and saying with a chuckle. "He isn't dead. Neither is that guy jammed in the wall."

"What?!" The dumbstruck filly exclaimed.

"That's right, you passed out and missed my speech on how the whole parasite thing was just me having a good laugh while seeing how long you guys can stay awake." He causaly said.

Rain just stared at him with her mouth agape. The commander turned around and said.

"Eat up, classes start in ten minutes."

Then both he and Skyfall exited the room. Rain just went to her bed and laid for a couple of minutes, trying to come to terms with what her childhood had turned into, and where it was headed.

__________________________________________________________________________

For the next few months the training had been pretty much the same. All of the non physical related classes, minus the seduction ones, a quick "double exam" in the chemistry lab, a marathon, or other lots of exercises and toping everything off with an endurance round event.

Through the classes before the lab exams, Rain Sight just sat quietly, writing down everything she was supposed to, and speaking only if asked. Despite that, she had grown apart from the other cadets, but not in a frightful sort of way, but a colder state, courtesy of commander Fleming's "nudges" towards improvement. Everyone's resentment towards her had not deflated, but actually increased, but she started to pay close to no attention to it, simply letting the threats and insults fly by her.

Now that they had more experience with moving on two legs, the cadets managed to outrun Rain Sight. Also pushing or tripping her so she would remain at back, but she was pretty fast on her feet, and quickly managed to get back right in front. After the first month, the others stopped bothering her during that event, both because she was faster and more agile than all of them, and because the theory that she had hacked the commanders controls over the bracelets was still alive. The latter combined with the filly being associated with the death of the two colts which were the most hostile towards her, and her cold demeanor added a slight amount of fear in the other cadets, which served her as protection from other bullies.

She had also managed to figure out a way to make the exams during chemistry a lot safer. Whatever lethal concoction they were told to make, Rain Sight finished with it, but made an antidote, before calling in 'time' on her first mixture. After she was injected with the poison, she waited a little bit, before using the antidote, so it wouldn't seem she did things too fast.

However she had some difficulties regarding the mental defense build up. Her resistance time had increased to ten minutes flat, but after every time a ghost drilled though her brain, she felt very traumatized, mainly because of the fact that the psychs brought up her greatest fears and made them real, even for a little. But after two weeks, she started to experiment on ways how to decrease the emotional pain these "sessions" caused her. Multiple attempts led her to discover, that if she aggressively lunged at the illusion, it was easier to fight it.

__________________________________________________________________________

*three months and five days after day one*

Moonraker sat in the observation room, looking through a screen at the cadets as they were undergoing their chemistry class. Everything went as per usual, when the door to the room opened, and entered Goldeneye.

"How are you doing big bro?" The black stallion enquired.

"Goldy?" The red pegasus said in disbelief, before continuing. "I'm doing fine. Can't really say the same about the cadets, but anyhow. What sorcery brought you here?"

"Nothing major, just came to check on how things are doing. Hawkens likes to be well updated you know." The earth pony replied.

He then walked up and saw how the staff members injected the cadets with their creations. He slightly winced, making sure his elder brother didn't see him, after which he asked.

"Run by me again, how poisoning them, and after that making them cook up antidotes is good for them?"

Moonraker groaned, after which he began his explanation.

"It's kinda like "building-mental-defenses training". The more poisons they are exposed to, the more their immune system strengthens against similar effects. And if they can make antidotes in the time limit said poisons work, they can actually make it on a mission. Plus, since they are in this academy, they just have to learn how to make proper poisons."

"If I recall correctly, there were two other reasons." Goldeneye added casually.

"It also builds character, and is lots of fun to watch." His brother snickered.

"Eyup, there's the guy I call brother." The black stallion sighed.

"Meh, what evs." The red stallion said, after which he returned to watch the unlucky children's suffering.

His brother also turned his attention in the same direction, his gaze focusing on a certain purple filly.

"So, she's still alive. That's good news." He stated, before addressing his sibling. "How are you doing on getting through to her?"

"The process is tough I admit. She's one tough cracker. But progress is made nonetheless!" The pegasus returned.

"Really? I honestly don't see much difference from the day I left her here." The earth pony said questioningly.

His brother chuckled sinisterly, before answering.

"When you brought her, she was so scared of everyone, cuss they found out she was Confederate, and they beat her and what not, but since then, she has pretty much been the cause of two deaths, one not an actual death, but still. She's adept in most of the classes, for some reason she's not doing oh so great in the seduction area. She's also the fastest one of the bunch, and her poison making skills are simply amazing. The staff often ask themselves if she isn't just pouring water in the syringes and after injection pretends to have any symptoms, because her zerg dna somehow helps her outlast the time to poison takes to work. And best of all, she pretty much no longer gives a buck about the threats and insults she receives on a daily basis. I call that 'GREAT SUCCESS!' on my part." He finished, by putting on a proud grin.

The younger sibling just stared at him with a dumbstruck expression. Suddenly Moonraker's enthusiasm vanished, as he spoke with a serious tone.

"Sadly, she only got that for in front of people, but she is still way too hard on herself, not motivating herself to improve more, and I don't approve of that! But I have a plan on how to change the situation."

"And how would you do that?" Goldeneye enquired.

"You told the dark temp he can come visit her, right?" The red stallion asked.

"Yes." His brother replied.

"And you told him the things I permit to be given as gifts, right?" The pegasus questioned again.

"Yes." The earth pony repeated.

"Then just wait until tomorrow dear brother, and you shall see." The elder said with a cheerful tone.

"Is it really a good idea to bring him to see her?" The black stallion questioned, before continuing. "I mean, the guy will be pretty pissed after he learns what is being done to his daughter here. And I'm pretty sure you saw the file for that one job where he had a bad day."

"Don't sweat it bro. I've got everything covered." Moonraker reassured, as he once again turned his attention towards the cadets.

__________________________________________________________________________

When the last event for the evening was over, Rain Sight headed for her room, to take a shower. Before entering the bathroom she took off her suit, and left it on her bed, knowing that by the time she was out, it would be replaced with a new one by the staff. As she washed herself, she felt some strange sensation on her lower body, but dismissed it as nothing important. After she was done, she got dressed and went to sleep, unaware of what was going to happen tomorrow.

__________________________________________________________________________

*the next morning*

Rain Sight was in the middle of a nice dream, where her family were still alive, she had found herself a handsome and sweet coltfriend, and everything was pretty much sunshine, lollipops and rainbows. Everyone was at their farmhouse having dinner, when something began to seem out of place to her. She then realized that she didn't feel her brain even itch. The dream had been going for a while, and no one had accused her of ruining their life and then attacking her. Everything was perfect. It really bothered her.

All of a sudden she felt something poking her from the side. The dream seized and she once again felt herself lay on her bed in the academy. Now the pokes felt more like gentle nudges than actually pokes. She slowly opened her eyes to be greeted by her father's face.

"Good morning princess." He said with a warm smile on his face.

What followed next was something he did not expect. Suddenly the filly lunged at him, taking him off guard and tackling him on the floor. She took several swings at his face, which he blocked, after which she yelled.

"You can stop with this bull shit! I know this isn't real and I would really like to wake up now!"

"Um...Rain...I don't know how to break this to you...but this isn't a simulation." Commander Flemming said, standing at the door.

"W-w-what?" She stuttered as she turned her gaze towards him.

Next to him stood the black stallion, who brought her in.

"Yeah..." Moonraker rubbed the back of his head. "That's actually your real dad."

Rain Sight slowly turned her head and looked down, with frightened eyes, at her father, who now bore a scowl.

"D-dad?" She quietly let out.

"Young lady we'll talk about your potty mouth later. Now..." He turned his head towards the two stallions. "What the buck is this supposed to be?"

'Oh the irony.' The two thought in union, before the pegasus replied.

"Nothing. The mornings begin with simulations for developing mental defenses. Completely standart. Every cadet goes through them. Now I recon you two would like some alone time, so we'll be taking our leave." He finished, after which he and his brother turned around to walk away, but stopped as the filly shot them a question of her own.

"What's going on?"

"Well..." Moonraker began. "Do you remember how some of the cadets did not show up for a full day, but came back on the next and weren't on the fail wall?"

The filly nodded, after which he continued.

"Those days were their birthdays. Did I forget to mention that if you make it to your birthday you get the day off, no training, no nothing. In your case you get to spend the whole day with your dad."

"But why would you allow that?" She enquired, with obvious disbelief in her tone.

"Because I'm a nice guy." He offendedly said. "Why doesn't anyone believe that?"

"Do you want the full version, or the short one?" Goldeneye deadpanned.

The pegasus glared t his sibling, before addressing the two.

"Any way, it's very nice that you get two presents for your birthday."

"Two?" Rain Sight and Karn said in union.

"What? You did shower yesterday, right?" The commander questioned.

"Yeah, so?" The filly returned, a light blush coloring her face.

That made the stallion facepalm.

"Just, give yourself a good check under the suit, I'm not going to ruin the surprise. " He said.

After which he walked off, along with his brother, as he stated.

"Happy birthday."

When they left, they closed the door.

'You getting anything out of there?' Moonraker asked mentally.

'Just from the girl sir. The guy has built up quite a defense on himself. We'll on;y be able to get hlaf of the conversation, the rest will be just video footage from the cameras.' A stallion replied to him.

'Damn it!' The pegasus cursed as he gritted his teeth.

"What's the matter bro?" Goldeneye enquired with a smirk on his face.

"We can't get any audio on what our buddy in the shadows is saying. Man I really hate it to be in the dark!" Moonraker returned.

"Why don't you dismiss my suggestion of adding more than just video, but also audio recorders in the rooms." The black stallion proudly said.

"Well SOO-H-RY for not wanting to waste money on that, given the fact that I have an entire facility crawling with ghosts at my beck and call!" The pegasus snapped back.

"Sheesh man, no need to get violent, I was just teasing." Goldeneye stated defensively.

His brother just groaned, before giving another mental message to the psych on the other end.

'Keep monitoring them. If anything comes up, inform me immediately.'

'Copy that sir.'

In the meantime, Rain Sight had gotten off of her dad, and tightly hugged him, burring her face in his chest.

"I missed you daddy!" She cried out.

"I know honey. I missed you too." Karn replied, returning the embrace.

Without his daughter's knowledge, he went into her mind to see what has been going for the past months. She did not feel anything, because unlike the ghosts who drilled deep in her brain, he gently stood on the top layer, simply observing that which surfaced. Probably because of his arrival, almost everything she had been through came to light.

"I'm so sorry I couldn't come sooner, or more often, but..." He began, but did not know how to continue.

"It's okay daddy." The filly finished for him. "I know that if you didn't do what they said, bad things would happen."

'Oh my darling...You have no idea how sorry I am that you had to ever gain that knowledge.' He thought, before changing the subject. "What did that guy mean by 'giving yourself a good check'?"

"I don't know." Rain Sight returned.

Then she pulled up her suit, her eyes widening in awe, after which she yelled with joy.

"YES! YES!"

"I can't believe I lived up to see that!" Karn said with a cheerful tone, as he hugged her with one hoof, and ruffled her mane with the other, after which he finished. "My little girl got her cutiemark!"

On the filly's flank could be seen the image of a horseshoe, surrounded by a puddle of rain drops.

"Best. Present. EVER!" She shouted with glee.

"So...you won't want this?" The stallion asked, pulling a medium sized present box from underneath his cloak.

"Whaa?" She asked, barely keeping her joy contained.

"It's your birthday, and you'd think I wouldn't get you anything for it?" Her dad enquired, before hoofing her the box, and saying. "Come on, open it up."

With a smile on her face, the filly did just that. Inside she found a music player, along with a set of headphones. She was speechless as she looked up at her father.

"I couldn't remember all of your favorite songs, so I asked the person at the store to input the ones I remembered and the most popular songs from the same genre." Karn said as he rubbed the back of his head.

What he received in return was his daughter hugging him across the neck. She had calmed down, and he could feel her tears making contact with his skin.

"I take that back." She slowly spoke. "The chance to see you again daddy is the best present ever."

"It's the same for me too sweetie." He said as he returned the embrace.

__________________________________________________________________________

Even though they couldn't exit the facility, the two took a stroll through it, catching up on what had happened in the past time. Rain Sight was both surprised and astonished to find out that her dad was going after the record for most dark templar caught in the time of service. She also tried out her new player, feeling pretty well that her dad had managed to input songs she actually liked.

When they went back to her room, they found a small vanilla cake with nine candles on top. Next to it was a note, which showed that it was courtesy of commander Flemming. Despite that the two enjoyed the pastry.

Rain Sight couldn't hide that she was saddened when her dad had to leave. But she couldn't do anything about that, so she just shared one last hug with him, and tried to keep her cool. When she was once again alone in her room she put on the headphones, leaving the device to play the full playlist of songs until she felt like sleeping. Along with that she buried her face in her pillow and started to quietly sob.

__________________________________________________________________________

Moonraker sat in the observation room, looking at the filly, his eyes narrowed in disapproval, as he twisted the pen for his tablet in his mouth. Next to him stood Goldeneye, who shot him with a question.

"I thought your idea was to cheer her up, not make thing worse. Seriously, why do you even allow people to bring them presents?"

"You know Goldy, I don't allow presents which can hack into the battlenet, but I really approve of presents which can be hacked with it." The pegasus stated, as he took the pen in his hand, and started to press various button combinations on his tablet.

"What are you doing?" The earth pony questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Dear brother, songs can have a pretty decent impact on someone's mind." Moonraker began. "That's why them crazy scientists out there use them for brain washing. There is something similar I like to do, but not that extreme as brain washing." He finished, pressing one final button.

"What do you plan on doing?" The black stallion enquired.

"Calm her down." His brother replied.

__________________________________________________________________________

The song Rain was listening to ended, and the next one began.

Carry on my wayward son!
There'll be piece when you're done.
Lay your weary head to rest.
Don't you cry no more.

Her tears stopped as the song went on. It calmed her down, making her think over everything that had happened so far. The memory of the promise she made to her dad when she was brought here stuck in her head.

__________________________________________________________________________

The red stallion smiled. Then he pressed another button, before continuing.

"Build up some motivation for survival and improvement."

__________________________________________________________________________

The song ended, and the next one in line started up.

(I) I am the one
(The one) Who lost control
(Control) But in the end I'd be the
Last Man Standing!

(I) I am the one
(The one) Who sold his soul
(His soul) Forever gone to be the
Last Man Standing tall!

That one made her feel strange. She remembered everyone who had ever looked down upon her, and did her wrong, just because of her name. Dark thoughts crept themselves in her mind, bound by the desire to prove all of them wrong. That she wasn't some worthless piece of flesh, but someone, who if they should treat with proper respect.

__________________________________________________________________________

"And for the grand finale, to cement that motivation." The commander stated, pressing another button.

__________________________________________________________________________

The song ended, and was replaced with a new one.

There was no singing, just instrumental. But despite that, it made every doubt Rain Sight had about her wish, to be accepted and respected, vanish from her mind. She wiped the dried tears from underneath her eyes, and a determined expression made its way on her face. When the music ended, she took off the headphones, turned off the player and went to sleep.

__________________________________________________________________________

Moonraker slowly turned towards his brother, bearing a proud sly smile, and said.

"That, dear brother, is what I plan on doing."

Author's Note:

Comment, rate, favorite and follow. Hope you enjoyed and have a nice day!

Comments

[Not so New Brony]

Moonraker sounds like a guy you would love to hate and kill but still want to join him for a drink at the bar. I like how you made subtle reference to Born of Sin, though it makes me wonder if other scientists use this method of conditioning in the Dominion.

[Exidee]

What's the last song? The link to it is dead. Also, so it seems that Terran music survived as well, and Rain Sight likes rock and metal. Nice!