A Not so Perfect Childhood

by KRissCHu573

Chapter 4: Fighting is magic

The following morning was also a quiet one. Rain Sight woke up on her own, not feeling anyone drill in her head. She glanced at the clock on the wall across from her bed, and saw that it was a couple of minutes before the commander usually came in, with a ghost to wake her up. Then she noticed something disturbing, the door to her room was wide open, looking like something rammed it open. Next the scent of rotting flesh hit her nostrils. She looked down at the floor to see her father's corpse. It had multiple open wounds, cuts and there was a hole in his midsection, his guts, or at least what was left of them, showing out.

The sight made her gasp, but before she could, she instinctively brought a hoof over her mouth. After removing it, a moment later, she saw that there was blood on it, but that wasn't what shocked her the most. Some sort of dark purple carapace had grown over her hoof. She quickly got off the bed and rushed to the bathroom, standing in front of the mirror. In it she saw the reflection of a monster. Almost all of her body had carapace on it, her eyes were glowing green, he mouth filled with razor sharp teeth, and she also saw two spiked limbs coming out of her back. The very next moment she backed herself against the wall.

When a bit of the shock passed, she walked over to her father, dropping on her knees right in front of his head. She was about to cry, when a sudden realization hit her. She got up, walked over to the opened door, grabbed it with one hoof, and slammed it shut. She heard a loud 'OW!', followed by a thud, after which she glanced at her hooves, sighing in relief that the carapace was gone. Next she turned around and saw that her mauled dad was no longer in the room. Then she slowly opened the door, where she was met by a dumbstruck Moonraker, who held his tablet and pen. Down on the floor next to him was a cyan unicorn colt in ghost armor, rubbing his forehead. There was awkward silence for a moment, after which the commander groaned, started writing something down on his tablet, and saying.

"Ugh, this is what I get when I agree to use not fully trained recruits, who can't do things from a distance, just so they can practice. You on the other hand, I like your hustle. Perfect for today's training sequence."

"Sir, do you know what he made me see?" The filly asked.

"Eyup." The stallion casually replied.

At this point Rain had had it with this guy, and at this moment she wasn't feeling very restrained, so she right out told him something she had wanted to tell him ever since day one, but couldn't muster the courage to do so.

"Sir you are a big fat jerk, you know that?"

Moonraker gave her a questioning look, raising a brow, after which he asked with a stern tone.

"What did you call me?"

"A big fat jerk, sir." She replied.

The stallion continued his glare, but the filly did not even flinch. She just continued to stare at him with the 'no bucks given' look. The awkward stare down continued for a few seconds, before the commander did a fist pump and started yelling.

"YES! YES! YES!"

That changed Rain Sight's expression from one of indifference, into a mix of surprise and confusion.

"Did I miss something?" She simply asked.

The stallion handed his device to the colt, who had gotten up on his legs, then he grabbed the filly's head, getting is face uncomfortably close to hers, and saying.

"Don't you see? You were the biggest pushover from the entire class. Everyone pushed you around, pertty much using you as a door mat, always feeling guilt, because you acted in self defense! And now, you insulted high command without giving a rat's ass about it!" He let her go, getting back to his full height. "The operation was successful." He stated proudly, a grin coloring his face.

"What operation?" The still dumbstruck filly enquired.

"You know all those bad things that happened to you, which made everyone hostile towards you?" The stallion gave her a question of his own.

After receiving a nod, he continued.

"I was the one who arranged for those things to happen. And before you ask why, take a look at yourself. You adapted to the environment. You're no longer a door mat, but a trap door to a pit of spikes."

She stared at him, while letting out a questioning 'huh'.

"Yeah, probably not the best example, but the point stands. You changed, personality wise, from the quiet, beating taking, self pity, helpless little filly, into a determined, self aware, ready to fight...well..." He paused, his cheerful tone downing a bit. "...you're still a little filly, but time can take care of that." He finished.

Then he turned around, looked up and pointed a finger at the cieling, after which he yelled.

"And you said someone who is mentally unstable can't properly train recruits for an intelligence agency!"

Next he quieted down, taking back his tablet. He turned towards Rain Sight and poke in a calm tone.

"I was actually starting to lose hope that you wouldn't accept the change in time, but I was wrong. And it's a good thing you did. Your..." He made quote gestures. "...transformation timing couldn't have been more perfect."

"Why is that sir?" She questioned.

A mischievous smirk made its way on Moonraker's face, after which he replied.

"Because today...starts combat training."

__________________________________________________________________________

The first few hours of the day passed as per usual, the cadets going through their non physical classes. Following suit was chemistry class, but after it, instead of the course, the staff took everyone to a room, which was fitted like a dojo from the Earth era movies. In the room were commander Fleming, and four other ponies the cadets did not know.

"Good day cadets." The red stallion began. "As you have been informed, today we start with combat training."

The cadets were stationed in a line, and he started to slowly walk along them, his hands behind his back, and spoke.

"First of, we will start up hand to hand combat, and martial arts, which can help you out, even if you have forgotten your hands at home. Think of it as an endurance event, in which you have to bring pain to others. Easy to pass through. I will keep the training sequence after this one a secret. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised." He finished, giving the class a sly smile.

That immediately made most of them start to sweat from fear. The commander walked back in front of them and stated.

"By now you should have mastered the precision gloves and greaves do at least a base degree. And I am pretty sure the not so few fights some of you got into..." He gave them a scowl. "...have helped you get used to punching stuff. So, now me and my colleagues will show you all a few techniques, and you have to at least get close to doing them properly until the end of the class. Now, without any further delay, let's begin." He finished.

The commander and the other four ponies demonstrated various sparring techniques, the demonstration not turning out very well to the cadets called up front on which the teachers used the techniques. After which, the other cadets were assigned to each of the teachers, or amongst themselves, commander Fleming cruising between the couple and observing if they were doing the moves properly.

Rain Sight had both the good and bad luck of being put together with one of the teachers. Having the black pegasus mare to point out the flaws in her technique helped her improve faster than the majority of the class, but it came at the cost of a lot of bruises, and almost constantly being flat on her back on the floor. The filly took a left hook to the mare's face, but she leaned backwards, dodging it. At the end of her attack, Rain quickly changed directions, attempting to uppercut her with her right hand. But before she could land the hit, the mare took a step to her left, dodging, then squatted. Using the fact that the filly's midsection was open and unguarded, the mare elbowed her in the gut, sending her on the floor.

Many of the cadets did not hide their enjoyment from seeing the Confederate taking a beating, before their opponents beat the air out of them. Rain was panting from exhaustion, after the teacher had thrown her over her shoulder, and slammed her into the ground. As she was taking a momentary breather, Moonraker went next to them. He wrote something down on his tablet, after which he gave the filly a disappointed look and spoke.

"Come on Rain, you're letting down my expectations."

She just laid there, taking deep breaths, her eyes closed.

"I thought you got serious after this morning,..." He sighed. "...but it would seem it was only momentarily. Help her up." He instructed the mare, and she reached down, giving the filly a hand.

Rain took it, and just as the commander started to walk off, she grabbed the mare's arm with both of her hands, pulled her down to the ground, after which she spun around and sat on the mare's back, while putting her arm, which she still held, up in a tight grip, pinning the mare to the floor.

Everyone around stared with amazement at her, as she had mounted the teacher. At the time the filly had her sights set on her opponent, but her attention was caught by the sound of loud slow clapping.

"That's the stuff." Moonraker spoke as he clapped, a proud grin coloring his face. "I am very pleased with the results, unlike the rest of you." He addressed the other cadets.

Those who sparred with their classmates had manage to pin, or ground one another, but Rain was the first to bring down one of the teachers. The red pegasus's disappointed look at the others vanished, as he turned his attention once again at the filly and mare on the floor.

"Now up, and repeat." The commander said, after which he snapped his fingers.

At the very moment the black mare grabbed Rain Sight with her legs by the side and threw her off, before getting up.

'Man ghosts are useful, but these resocs are far more amusing to work with.' Moonraker thought as he quietly snickered.

__________________________________________________________________________

Several hours later, once the commander was sure every single one of the cadets was battered to the point of complete exhaustion, he announced the end of the class. Then they were led to a firing range. As always, the commander awaited them beforehand, and when they all arrived he explained how the classes would go.

"Okay, everyone in way worse than top physical condition?" He addressed the crowd.

As an answer he received multiple groans, moans and grumbles. Satisfied he continued.

"Good. When you are on the battlefield, or in a clutch situation you are probably not gonna be in tip-top shape, that's why I wanted to tire you out, before getting to this exercise. I hope your trigger fingers aren't too damaged, because now we begin our marksmanship lessons."

He stepped to the side, a bunch of lights turning on, revealing ten desks, with a gauss rifle on each of them, in front of which were long hallways, without walls, ending with a wall of red jelly.

"You will be training with various weapon types, going from pistols to sniper rifles, all state of the art. First you will have to disassemble and reassemble the weapon and score killing shots on the targets here in the range, under a specified time limit, but later on you will have to do it against 'moving' targets." He emphasized on moving. "Hence this is your first time, we will start with something standard." He picked up a rifle from a table, and turned towards the cadets. "This puppy here is a C-10 ALIC rifle AKA – the Butter Knife. It's the standard issue weapon used by non-armor troops. It’s about three times smaller than the gauss weapons the marine corps use, but its armor piercing rounds make it capable of eliminating light infantry and carapace."

A timer on the table from which he took the gun activated, and started to countdown to zero from thirty seconds.

"The average estimated time in which armor troops confirm visual on a target, load up and open fire is 31.6 seconds."

His hands, moving faster than the cadets could follow, dropped the ammo clip down on his foot, after which he pulled the upper front of the gun off and threw it into the air, then removed the charger plate on its back, splitting the two parts from the underbelly of the gun, where the trigger was. He stood there for a second, then attached the underbelly with the charger, caught the upper front of the gun as it fell right on his shoulder level, stuck it into the pack, then kicked the clip up with his foot, getting it to precisely fit in its slot.

During that, in front of the jelly wall appeared a holographic image of an armored pony, with its rifle pointed at the commander. Just when the clip let out the click, which meant it was properly attached in its casing, Moonraker whirled, holding the gun with one hand, and fired.

The cadets gaped in awe as they looked behind him, to see that there was a hole in the eye level of the holograph's visor. Then they looked up at the timer and saw that there were six seconds left. The commander then looked at it himself, a smirk creeping on his face.

'Beat my own record.' He thought, before turning back and addressing the cadets. "Essentially, you are supposed to do this and get similar results in under 30 seconds. For now the timers will go forward, to see what time will it take you to get it done. After that you will train to beat that time, until you go under 30 seconds. Now get to it." When he finished he left the gun back on the table.

Before they started firing, the cadets were given a few minutes to warm up in the dis and reassembling of the guns. After that, the timers started and everyone began the exercise, ten by ten. For convenience, the ones which had to wait their turn were not supplied with weapons with which to train.

The first ten managed to reassemble the gun for averagely 8 minutes, and when they opened fire, they either missed the enemy holograph, or hit it somewhere, where the shot was not lethal, nor crippling. What disturbed Rain Sight the most was that the holographs which appeared in front of her classmates, were of her. She turned around and looked at the commander with shocked eyes. He noticed her, and returned her a sly smile. After that gesture, her expression turned into a scowl. She turned around with a gruff, waiting for her turn, while the ones before her were actually doing better, now that they knew what their target was.

When it was her turn, Rain just focused on the weapon, shutting out all of the snickers and jokes directed towards her. Still she was feeling very angry because of everything.

'Freaking idiots, and that bucker the commander...Oh if I could just shoot the smugness off of his face.' She thought.

As if to answer her wish, as she reassembled the weapon, her holographic target appeared, and it was the commander, smiling at her. Everyone, not just her, was more than surprised about that. She processed everything for a moment, after which she input the ammo clip, and fired, leaving a hole right between the holograph's eyes. She stood in position to fire for a few moments, then slowly got up, and looked up at the timer to see she had made it in six minutes.

As she looked it, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around and saw Moonraker, giving her an approving smile.

"Told ya I'm a nice guy." He calmly said.

For some reason, now that she had the chance to lay out her feelings, she looked at the stallion with less spite and more awe. She slowly looked away as her mind swirled with realization. No matter what she wanted, she was stuck in this life. Her dad wouldn't be able to protect her forever, so if she didn't learn how to handle herself, she was a dead mare walking. And despite all of the shit the commander is putting her through, here she is still given a chance of survival, unlike out on a battlefield, and is getting properly prepared to survive on one. In a sick and twisted way, she started to feel 'thankful' towards that stallion.

Comments

[Not so New Brony]

Again,Moonraker is an asshole but an asshole that grows on you...however odd that sounded. I wonder how many more cadets will bite the dust by the end...

[KRissCHu573]

3168419 Yeah, this is where my problem lied. I killed cadets off too much. Also, where did I refernace Born of Sin?
cdn.gifbay.com/2013/03/mrw_i_wake_up_after_a_party_i_dont_remember_having-38957.gif

[Not so New Brony]

3168429 Well when Moonraker mentioned scientists using music to brainwash others. I thought of Stedson and his conditioning of the Iron Feathers...though technically speaking,that part was in The Koprulu Sector. So yeah

[KRissCHu573]

3168501 Actually he was just reffering to the multiple movies where he had seen that happen. In any way, victory for me making an unintentional referance!