Equestria: Agents of S.C.A.L.E

by Insanecrusader

Chapter One: Beginings

"All right the goal is simple. Just hit every target within the given time, and you're good..." the pegasus turned away from his clipboard to look in his direction. "Got it?"

There was a tone of seriousness in his question. A marine blue unicorn stepped into the light, his ruffled brown mane shone in spite of its dullness. He had a smirk on his face as he spoke;

"Pffffft, easy as making cupcakes."

The pegasus rolled his eyes and nodded to the controller in the adjacent room. The controller was located in a large box room that overlooked the training area. A metal door slid upwards to allow access to the training area, as the unicorn passed through the doorway he felt his horn go numb. The room had been enchanted to prevent unicorns from using magic to their advantage.

“Hooves only” the pegasus said from behind him.

The metal door slammed shut separating the two of them and the unicorn looked forward. The room was filled with boxes of various sizes and shapes some were high up, while others were low to the ground. The room was rectangular in shape, it was long; maybe sixty metres in length by twenty wide. A buzzer sounded and suddenly the room filled with wooden cut-outs of Changeling drones.

"Commence" the controller said through a speaker.

The unicorn jumped into action, striking each and every one of the cut-outs down in quick succession, he darted around the room aiming to chain most of his strikes like he was composing music. He knew he had to be quick if he was going to get in; this was no run-of-the-mill military drill. This was just one of the many rigorous trials to gain membership into the S.C.A.L.E organization; it all came down to this. When he saw he only had one cut-out left the unicorn headbutted the final target, it splintered as he struck it. There was another buzz the controller had called time. A scoreboard lit up on the side of the box room the controller was in;

STORMCLOUD,
RACE: UNICORN
REQUIRED TIME: 5.45.100
TIME RECORDED: 5.43.99

Stormcloud stared at the board, he had beaten the clock by mere seconds.

“Would seconds be enough” he thought.

The metal door at the other end of the room opened up, he looked at the pegasus instructor hoping he'd be gracious. To get into S.C.A.L.E was harder than getting into the Wonderbolts. This was one of the final tests for admission and if he failed, it would make all the platform-jumping and long distance teleportations for nothing. Stormcloud entered the room he'd been waiting in, the pegasus remained silent and continued to read the clipboard. The pegasus indicated for Stormcloud to sit. He waited and waited, soon enough he began to sweat.

“Oh, Celestia please, make this my day.” Stormcloud prayed.

The pegasus got a call on his com' device attached to his ear;

"Yes...right...I see, thank you."

Most of the conversation was inaudible, except small words. Stormcloud got even more nervous at this.

“Did I not pass? What was that call for? Who was on the other side? Did it have anything to do with his performance?” All these questions swirled around in his head, but it always returned to a single thought; "Did I pass?"

Stormcloud sat in the waiting room anxious to hear the results. He flicked through a newspaper on the table in front of him. His mind was preoccupied he only glanced at the headlines.

“Bright Spark CEO of Spark Industries still missing” dominated the front page, Stormcloud flicked the page over.

“Silver Pegasus saves filly in distress”, “Party food at Grand Galloping Gala mysteriously disappears. Fillysecond to blame?” Stormcloud took no notice of the headlines and returned to his thoughts.

He had come so far, receiving the invitation only a week ago. S.C.A.L.E only recruited those of the most talented pedigree and it was so secretive that even Celestias' or Lunas' knowledge was limited. Stormcloud had been sent to a discrete location only to be drugged and a bag placed on his head so as to not compromise S.C.A.L.Es training facility. Only the direct friends and family of Princess Twilight Sparkle could control S.C.A.L.Es' activities and personnel. Stormcloud was very lucky he passed his magic exams at a level close to Twilight Sparkle herself or he may never have gotten the call.

He heard a door open and turned to see Captain Shining Armour and Princess Twilight Sparkle herself entering. He stood up and saluted to both of them, they always shrugged it off; after all he was good friends with the Princess. Before she had became an alicorn, he had met her in magic kindergarten, this was before she became Celestias private pupil. They kept in touch through letters afterwards.

"So, Stormcloud, how did you do?" asked Shining.

Stormcloud sighed in frustration, "I don't know, that's the problem"

Stormcloud paced around the room becoming more and more impatient. Twilight put a hoof on his shoulder and gave him a comforting smile.

"Don't worry Storm, I'm sure you passed with flying colours." she spoke softly but firmly, "We saw your time, even that is still fast for most unicorns."

“I thought that time was for all ponies?” Stromcloud asked confused.

Shining Armour laughed. “The times change for each race, pegasi have to complete the course even faster and they're not allowed to use their wings, they have to carry a winglock.”

Twilight walked up to Stormcloud. "You're going to get in, I Pinkie-promise"

Stormcloud smiled as she even did the motions, for a Princess she hadn't changed one bit since her Coronation. He had been to Ponyville often enough to know her friends, including the super party pony.

"Mister Cirrus Stormcloud?" A gold furred earth pony mare spoke from the door that led to the controllers' room. "We're ready for you." She spoke in a cold monotone compared to Twilight.

He looked back at them and gave them a weak smile "Wish me luck you guys." With that he disappeared into the controllers box room;

"Lets see if that promise holds any truth" Stormcloud thought to himself.

Stormcloud entered the controllers' room, it was filled with television screens and computers, a single desk was in the centre of the room and two ponies sat behind it.

"Stormcloud, allow me to introduce myself and my colleague" said the pegasus instructor from earlier, "my name is Rapid Fire." He gestured to the muscular earth pony beside him "And this is Falcon" the pony glared back at Rapid Fire, "THAT'S CAPTAIN FALCON!" his voice was as powerful as he looked.

The name sounded oddly familiar, but Stormcloud dismissed this. Falcon stepped forward;

"We've watched your performances, and after MUCH careful consideration, we've come to a conclusion." Captain Falcon said

His words held a tone of regret almost as if he was doubting his decision. He glanced over at Rapid Fire who threw a steely look in return, Falcon took sighed in defeat.

"Cirrus Stormcloud it is our honour to admit you into the ranks of S.C.A.L.E." he growled through his gritted teeth.

Stormcloud stood there for a moment trying to process what he just heard.

"Congrats' kid, you've earned it." said Rapid Fire, who looked a lot more pleased than the earth pony next to him.

He trotted up to the befuddled unicorn, Rapid Fire handed Stormcloud a badge with his wing.

Stormclouds' mouth was agape, "I passed?.."

He was having trouble speaking, he was so shocked and surprised.

"I'm an agent of S.C.A.L.E?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stormcloud galloped outside the room into the waiting area and started to jump. "YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES!!!" He shouted triumphantly.

Shining Armour and Twilight Sparkle looked at the excited unicorn. Twilight smiled.

"What did I say, you passed without a hitch" they both looked at her.

"I was real close to failing Twilight, way too close." Stormcloud grimaced at his next thought, "if I had gone any slower, it would've been the complete opposite."

Twilight came around and draped a wing around him.

"But yet here we are, you're finally in!” she took Stormclouds' badge and examined it, “The admission tests are over!"

Suddenly the door to the controllers room swung open and Captain Falcon came stomping out.

"OVER?!" he bellowed, "I'D SAY FAR FROM!"

He was so loud the whole facility could hear him.

"This rookie was almost eliminated by mere seconds!"

Stormclouds' first impression was that he was short tempered. The current actions of the earth pony confirmed that thought. The pony ignored the other two ponies in the room and focussed on Stormcloud, he walked up and lowered his voice by an octave.

"If it wasn't for Rapids' spot in the Royal Guard, you'd most certainly be out!"

Falcons' words shook everypony. Everypony except the Princess, who was thoroughly ticked by this ponys' behaviour. Twilight rounded on the bulky pony.

"Mr Falcon is it?" she rhetorically asked.

"That's Cap..." he looked at her, and then realized who he was looking at.

Twilight knew of Captain Falcons reputation all too well.

"I WILL NOT TOLERATE THIS NEGATIVITY TO MY FRIENDS" Twilight was not shouting but using the voice that was reserved for courtrooms.

The Royal Canterlot Voice made Falcons voice sound like that of a mouse. Stormcloud could almost feel the air started to heat up. Twilight outstretched her wings and rose off the ground slightly.

"YOUR JOB WAS TO JUDGE STORMCLOUDS' PERFORMANCE, OBVIOUSLY YOU WANTED HIM TO PASS, OR ELSE HE WOULDN'T BE HERE!" Twilight reasoned.

At this point, it seemed Captain Falcon had become frightened by her outburst and started to shrink into a ball.

"I'm sorry P-Princ-cess, it's just as a Captain, it's my duty to-" he was cut off by Twilight again.

"THY DUTY IS TO ACCESS WHO IS FIT TO JOIN THE RANKS OF S.C.A.LE" she said.
Falcon was almost to the point of running away when Twilights' brother stepped in.

"Okay Princess, calm down I think he gets it," he then gave a smirk “Captain Falcon you're dismissed.”

The lavender Princess returned to the ground. Twilight recomposed herself as if the outburst had never occurred. Captain Falcon scrambled to his hooves and retreated to the controllers' room.

"Whewww...Sorry everypony, got a little carried away there" she gave Stormcloud a comforting smile.

"Now, it's time to get packing. You may have passed the admission tests but now the real testing begins.” Shining Armour said.

Shining Armour held out a black bag with his hoof.

“I'm afraid you'll need to put this back on, we'll take you home where you'll have one day to pack everything you might need” Shining continued.

“But how will I know what I...” Stormcloud began.

“I made a checklist” Twilight announced happily.

“That's so Twilight” Stormcloud thought.

He felt a prick in his back leg like before when he was waiting to come to the facility, and soon the world around him descended into darkness.

Author's Note:

Edited by Ward282

All elements go to their respective owners
Hasbro and Marvel

If it's not completely insane, it's not worth reading!

Comments

[Insanecrusader]

its been edited so please comment. i need your input!

[Iroh Legoman]

Defiantly different than what i remember, although many parts are the same.

Too early to tell

[Infinite Evil]

Again, this has potential. The editing helped radically compared to last time. Only time will tell where this goes.

Hail Hydra

[ward282]

I'm already giddy with anticipation and I know roughly what happens. For a while anyway...

[Insanecrusader]

for those of you reading this comment or anybody that's interested. i have important message being posted tomorrow! it is vital all of you read my blog when its posted!

[ward282]

4499056
4500639

Hold on to your hats because there are four chapters just sitting waiting to be posted. So check back in a few days!

[Insanecrusader]

gosh, this chapter is going to hard to live up to, its editing is pretty good and it sets the tone quite well, i might just keep this and start from here, erasing the other chapters.