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Sweeite Belle was not what one would consider a normal teenager. She was, in fact, more of an adult, due to her life up to this point. Most teenage girls worried about things like make-up, fashion, or even tomboy stuff. Not her. Her daily worries consisted of her armor being at peak functionality, her training, and the role of keeping over forty million people fed and supplied with basic goods. She wasn't normal, but she didn't mind one bit. She was, after all, super famous. It's not like she wanted to be famous, like her sister, but she didn't mind it. It came with many perks, including fans. Some fans were crazy, but she knew how to deal with them. Her friends seemed to hate being around them, but not her. She had learned some techniques for handling swarms of deranged, psychotic fans from Rarity, who seemed to live amongst the crowds while she wasn't in the field.

Sweetie tried to think back a few years, back before all of this had happened. Before the Draconis soldiers, before the frigates, before the Dark, before the anarchy. She tried to remember what it was like to feel the grass beneath her feet, or to see the sun rise from the ground, sailing through the sky in a graceful arch, only to settle back into the ground and make way for the moon. She tired to remember the smell of trees, or the feel of a warm, summer breeze on her skin.

Try as she might, her brain refused to think that far back. It was almost as if her brain had suppressed those memories, because she knew they were there, they just wouldn't come out. Maybe Nurse Redheart had some knowledge on that. Or the fleet therapist.

She was headed towards command right now, so she might meet Redheart there. She had a meeting to go too, mostly a briefing of tomorrow's mission. She usually just listened, asked a question or two, then left. Nothing big.

Maybe command had something fun going on too. She hadn't checked this week for the special challenge, amazingly, even though she was four days into the week. Every now and then there would be little events such as tournaments or challenges for the soldiers to complete. The prizes were small, of course, usually something like a little extra food all week, or even money at times, but Sweetie never competed for money or any prizes. She just enjoyed having fun with her friends, if you could call what she did having fun.

The walk to command was eventless. Amazingly, she ran into only two fans, whom were both reasonable enough to not hound her wherever she went. She didn't run into her friends either, which was odd. All soldiers had their own homeships, such as this one, the Purity, which was the home of the trio. However, most soldiers traveled to other ships to visit or train together all the time. But not her friends. They always stayed on their home ship unless they had to leave. There was a complete lack of her friends, and other soldiers, and even fans or just plain people. Where was everyone?

She arrived at command, when the thought suddenly hit her. She wasn't wearing her armor.

She looked down to her attire. A tight pair of rolled up jeans, a loose white t-shirt, and her sneakers, along with a pink and blue bracelet on her right arm and a watch on her right. Not exactly military grade apparel. Then again, she was pretty sure Command would forgive her not wearing her armor. She was, after all, super famous and super important, and a pretty valuable asset the entire community.

Stepping inside, to the heart and soul of the surviving Equestrians, the one place that functioned to keep them all alive, was something she never really cared to do. When she thought about it, the people working here had it harder then she did. All she did was travel to the surface every week and gather supplies while fighting off the Dark. The people here had to sort the supplies, organize their missions, keep the community running, and many other things. She almost felt bad for those who worked here. But they could be rather rude at times. And they seemed to hater her and her two friends, despite them being the best.

She passed through the halls to find they were likewise empty. It seemed as if everyone had just disappeared, except there were still a few workers around, managing the place. Had she missed something?

She found the briefing room, easy enough. She had been here more times then she wanted to count, so it wasn't like she could get lost. Inside was a large table, with many chairs around it. In those chairs sat none other then Luna, head of Military Command. She was in charge of anything that had to do with them, the soldiers, as well as the frigates.. Her sister, Celestia, oversaw basically everything else, including all the civilians. Beside Luna sat Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, while Rainbow Dash and Applejack sat across from them. Every single one of them was dressed in full battle armor, except Luna, who was dressed in her military attire.

And of course, behind them all, hanging up on the wall, was the scoreboard. A large, rectangular screen, about three feet up off the ground. It had twenty two numbers, though it used to hold fifty. Beside each number was a name, and besides those names was a colored symbol, depicting which group each soldier belonged to, and their numbers. Despite having seen this a thousand times before, she couldn't help but look once more.

DRACONIS SCOREBOARD
1. - Apple Bloom <> 039
2. - Scootaloo <> 041
3. - Sweetie Belle <> 040
4. - Rainbow Dash {} 005
5. - Applejack {} 011
6. - Twilight Sparkle + 016
7. - Pinkie Pie + 027
8. - Rarity + 029
9. - Spitfire \/ 001
10. - Big Mac () 013
11. - Readheart () 010
12. - Vinyl Scratch ||| 035
13. - Fleetfoot \/ 002
14. - Fluttershy {} 045
15. - Shining Armor >< 006
16. - Lyra Heartstrings ||| 034
17. - Soarin \/ 003
18. - Roseluck >< 047
19. - Braeburn () 014
20. - Ruby ^ 050
21. - Maud Pie V 022
22. - Octavia ||| 036

Sweetie Belle never knew what the scoreboard was for. What was the point of making this a competition? Was it so the soldiers would push themselves harder in an attempt to beat each other, ultimately leading to more goods? Or was it for some other unknown reason?

She took a quick glance at the clock, noting the time. Four twenty six. She was over five minutes late. She mentally chastised herself for her tardiness. She knew she'd get an earful from command now. They didn't tolerate tardiness of any kind, for any reason.

Everyone turned to look at the late comer, and most each of them raised a brow at her. She assumed they were just wondering at her lateness. She tried to ignore them as she sat down, but everyone persisted to stare at her. She shifted about uncomfortably for around seven seconds before she couldn't stand it anymore.

"What?! What's wrong?" She stood up suddenly, shoving her chair back, and causing it fall to the floor with a loud thud. She glared at each of them, searching their faces for some clue.

"Uh, Sweetie." Luna finally spoke. "Why aren't you dressed in your Draconis armor?"

Sweetie's face actually reddened a bit, embarrassed. "Oh, uh." She quickly straightened her chair, sitting back down. "I, forgot." She ducked meekly.

Luna pondered this for a moment, then stood up, grabbing a laser pointer. "Well, don't let it happen again, or I will be forced to punish you."

"It won't, I promise." Sweetie said, nearly whispering. She shouldn't have felt so embarrassed, but she did. She felt like she had screwed up big time and it was all over for her. Even though Luna clearly didn't mind all that much. Then again, she had a habit of over reacting to certain situations.

Luna herself walked over to the scoreboard. She pressed a button on the wall, and the screen changed to a map of the world down below. She pressed a few more buttons and the map zoomed in on several locations, getting closer and closer until it stopped at it's destination.

Ponyville.

Sweetie almost gasped when she saw the name come up on the map. She would have never guessed it, given how mutilated and scarred the land was, but it was Ponyville. Neither she nor her friends had been to there since they had gone on their first mission on the surface. That had been well over a year ago. Now they were going to go back home, it seemed.

"As you all know, last week, your two teams gained about fifty units of supplies. That's enough to supply our ships for a week." She looked at Sweetie and her friends, then to Rainbow Dash and Applejack. "That's not including the other teams contributions. We had an exceptional harvest last week."

She pointed at the map. "Ponyville has a some supplies we could gather, supplies that are needed. Last week gathered many, but missed crucial things like clean water. You three," she pointed at the three youngest soldiers, "will be going down tomorrow. If you can manage to gather enough water and a few other supplies, we may be able to give you all a week off from missions."

Sweetie Belle almost gasped. They had never been given a break since training had ended for them. Every week, they had gone down to the surface to retrieve supplies, and every week, they barely managed to get by. And that was back when there had been with fifty fresh soldiers. Now they only had twenty two battle scarred, weary souls. Though rumors had spread that Command was training a new batch of soldiers, Sweetie dismissed them .They didn't have the resources for that.

"I know it isn't much, and it certainly isn't mandatory, but if you do manage, then you all could very well get a break."

Luna cleared her throat before continuing, pointing with her laser pointer at, if Sweetie Belle remembered, was Carousel Boutique. "You will be dropping here." She pointed at another building, appearing to be Sugar Cube Corner. "Extraction is here. You will have exactly three hours to gather supplies. So be quick, and be quiet."

She looked at Rainbow and Applejack. "You two will be on stand bye, in case things go south, but I'm sure they won't."

"There's not much else to say. Scans reveal little to no Dark in the area, so you should have plenty of time to gather supplies. In the event you do encounter them, do not engage unless they threaten the mission. If you do engage, be quick and quiet. Understood?"

They all nodded.

"Good, then I'll see you later. Have a good night." With a wave, Luna dismissed them.

~O~O~O~O~O~

Sweetie Belle lay on the cold table. Her bare arms and legs shivered at the freezing touch it brought, but she didn't dare move. This was it. Her last steps to the ultimate finish of her training. She just needed to make it through this, finish training, then she was ready to be deployed into the field. It wasn't exactly that she wanted to be deployed, but at the same time, she wanted to help her people survive. Her and her friends would be the only thing standing between the Equestrian civilization's extinction. And that was a big responsibility.

She watched as a large machine with several mechanical arms extending from it's top approached her. Each arm was at least five feet in length, and about as round as paper towel roll. At the end of each arm was a long, vicious looking needle. She wasn't scared, of course. She was a soldier. She had all fears pounded out of her during training. Fear was an emotion the enemy used to weaken your mind. She wasn't weak.

A loud voice boomed through the speakers hanging off the walls, echoing of the walls for several seconds. "Soldier 040, are you ready to proceed with the physical stimulation phase of your training?"

Sweetie Belle gulped. For some reason, this was harder to go through with then it should have been. Then again, if she did this, there was no turning back. Her whole life would be devoted to protecting and supporting her people. She would never have a life as a normal teenager.

Of course, she had given that up when she and her friends and decided to enlist. She had chosen by will to lose it when she joined, and it was lost as she progressed through her training. There wasn't a back to go to anymore. Above all, she couldn't let her friends down. She took a deep breath and nodded her head, unable to form the words.

"Good. We'll begin the growth stimulant portion, now."

She felt a sudden, sharp pain as one of the needles jammed itself into her arm, injecting it's cold fluids into her body. She tensed up at the feeling of something foreign entering her body, but she didn't flinch. She was a soldier, a warrior.

"Next is the muscle stimulation."

Another sharp pain stabbed at her mind as another needle burrowed into her other arm. She still didn't flinch, but the pain was slightly more then the last one. She watched the needle in her first arm retract, leaving a small hole. But she didn't gag. She had a mind of gold and guts of solid steel.

"Bone stimulation."

This time she did cry out in pain as the next needle went a little to far, poking her bones in her legs. She tried to stifle her cry, but the pain had been sudden and unexpected, on top of very painful. The needle injected it's fluids into her leg, making her leg go cold. Almost as if it was numb, yet she could still feel. She didn't even mind. It was new, and it was exciting.

"Brain stimulation."

Sweetie Belle held her breath as the needle aligned itself with her head, moving closer until it penetrated her flesh, causing her cries to echo throughout the room for many, torturous minutes.

~O~O~O~O~O~

Sweetie Belle didn't have anything to do the rest of that day, so she settled for preparing for the mission the next day. There wasn't much to do, but she made a careful note of drawing out every task as long as she could, and being as meticulous as she could. She wasn't one for sitting around doing nothing, and didn't have anything else to do that day. Both of her friends were busy, she didn't really care for playing games alone, she had read all books she had, and she didn't like hanging out with the older soldiers. A Draconis' life could be very boring.

Luckily, she had enough tasks to keep her occupied until she went to sleep.

The first thing she had to get done was check her weapons and armor, to make sure they were all fully functional. If anything was not at one-hundred percent, she had to fix it. Most soldiers had taken to letting Command take care of those things, but not Sweetie. She had learned how to care for her own equipment. Mainly so she could add the tiny details and tweaks she wanted to, to make her gear suit her style more.

She grabbed her gun and sat down on her bed. It was still clean, having not been used, but she took it apart and examined it anyway. It was a seventy five caliber, semi-automatic sniper rifle, with a variable zoom, bipod, laser sight, and adjustable stock. She had added aver single attachment that was on the gun, except for the bipod, which came with it. However, accessories and attachments weren't free, or even cheap. After each successful mission, Command dolled out points, or 'credits', to the soldiers. These could be spent on attachments or even new guns.

Sweetie never understood why they didn't just give them the stuff they needed to fight. It would make things a hell of a lot easier, as opposed to having to fight with crappy gear, then slowly upgrade. Maybe it was so they didn't send all this good gear into the field, to have it lost when someone died? Maybe Command was just being stupid? It was almost as if they were trying to make this whole thing some game.

With these thoughts in mind, Sweetie set to slowly cleaning the weapon, and eventually the rest of her gear, until the clock turned to nine at night. She put all of her equipment away, clean and ready for the long day ahead of them. Maybe they'd get lucky and, like Luna said, gather enough supplies to give them a week off. They could only try their best. It was all anyone could do, right?

She lay her head down on her pillow, letting her thoughts drift away into another world, one where they didn't fight for survival every week, and one where peace and harmony were still in everyone's hearts.

Author's Note:

Soldier Name: Sweetie Belle
Age: 16
Class: Sniper
ID: 040
Rank: 3

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Gleaming

Gleaming #1 · Aug 16th, 2014 · · ·

It's here and it looks promising.

4L3KS4ND3R

4L3KS4ND3R #2 · Aug 16th, 2014 · · ·

I Will be keeping an eye on this story, most definetly!

Silver Melodies

Silver Melodies #3 · Aug 16th, 2014 · 1 · ·

4857870
4857688 Thanks! I'll do my best to update as frequently as possible!

Psycho Kid

Psycho Kid #4 · Aug 16th, 2014 · · ·

Huh, interesting, a trend of this sort of story is starting to appear and I like it. I can see elements from Halo and a few other games, and I might be wrong because I don't know when this was mad in relation but also of the fic Nightfall. Writing is well done and no obvious mistakes I see, hope this keeps up!

Silver Melodies