Millennia: Beginning

by Thunderblast

13. The Final, Final Test

Two days had passed since graduation. Other than receiving my official uniform, both Sunday and Monday were extremely slow with nothing to do but sit around the barrack. Great, right?

After lunch Tuesday afternoon, and bored out of my mind, I went to the gym to work out to pass the day. With nothing on my schedule, I was beginning to wonder just what the use of privates were.

At the gym, I started off with a half an hour of treadmill and another half hour with lifting smaller weights and working my way up gradually. My goal was to be able to lift heavier things so I would be able to in a time of need, whether it be lifting debris off of somepony, or something else related to lifting, whatever it would be.

After my workout, I returned to the barrack to find everyone was gone. I searched the barrack but found nopony at all. It concerned me a little, but what was I to do?

Just then, Solar Wave trotted in through the door and stopped beside it with a hardened look on his face.

"Ah, there you are. What's—"

"Star, come outside. We've been looking for you," he said flatly.

I blinked. "What for? What's going on?"

"I'll explain on the way. For now, get your uniform on. Meet me outside when you're done," Solar then turned away and trotted back out.

I stood there for a moment, before going to my hooflocker and getting my new uniform out and buttoning up the jacket almost all of the way. I took the patrol cap out as well and slid it onto my head, knowing that day was thankfully warm enough where I wouldn't need my beanie and gloves. It was much relief and it was nice to have one possibly last warm day before winter was to come in a couple of months. I walked out of the barrack to Solar and we began walking.

"So, Star. I've been needing to talk to you about something," he started.

"Yes?" I looked at him, fully curious as to what was going on.

"...Are you ready?"

"Ready for what?" I stopped and stared at him.

Just then, I was bum-rushed by two other ponies. They came seemingly out of nowhere and I didn't know who was tackling me. I yelped in surprise and spun onto my back, cap flying off of my head onto the ground. I delved my hinds into one of the ponies and kicking them off of me. The pony was a pegasus and stopped himself with his wings, and fell back down on top of me even harder than before, while the other still held on to me tightly, holding my wings to my sides.

Not much of an advantage to them, because even at the age of 19, I was still flightless. With my forehooves still free, I drove my left hoof into the muzzle of the earth pony holding my wings down. He barely budged and the hit he took left him with blood running from one of his nostrils. He growled and gripped me tighter and managed to squeeze some of the breath out of me, he was just that strong. I resumed trying to punch the pony off of me and went on to kick my hinds aimlessly and hitting the earth pony square in the stomach. Even with all of my resisting, I was unable to get free.

"Solar..." I grunted and squirmed around in their grasp. "Help!"

I laid my head back and stared upwards, watching Solar walk above me with a concerned look. He sighed. "I'm sorry it had to come to this Star," he said, levitating a rock and forcing it into my head.

Everything went black at that point.

***

"Wake up..."

...

"Star, wake up."

...

"Star, god damn it, wake up!"

My eyes shot open wide, met instantly with a blinding white light that shone in front of me into my face. I winced and squinted, waiting for my eyes to finally adjust to the sudden, bright light. I went to get up from the chair I was sitting in, only to look down and see my hooves bound to the armrests by tightened ropes. I pulled on them and squirmed about, also finding my torso tied tightly to the back of the chair.

"Argh...what the hell is this?" I kept struggling for a bit and finally gave up a few moments later when nothing happened.

I quickly glanced back up, my attention now away from the position I was in to what was going on. The bright light still shined onto me, a lamp sitting on a wooden table in the middle of a dark grey, windowless room. Standing against the wall in a line were Silver Edge and Solar Wave, as well as two others with corporal patches on their shoulders. In front of me stood sergeant Hardstaff, who stared at me with a hardened glare on his face.

I recoiled back slightly and tilted my head. "Sergeant? What's going on?"

"You know exactly what's going on, tell us everything, damn it!" He shouted, slamming his hoof on the table and nearly knocking the lamp over.

I jumped a little. "No, I don't!" I tugged on my hooves some more, still nothing happened.

Silver walked up beside the sergeant with an equally-hard glare that got to me a little. "For Luna's sake, Star. We're not that stupid, tell us why you're working for the griffons!"

"The...griffons?" I stared at the both of them, confused as ever.

"You heard us. Talk!" Silver stomped his hoof on the floor. "Or should we get it out of you ourselves?" He turned to one of the corporals standing behind him and nodded once. The pegasus trotted to a table on the edge of the room and unfolded a cloth, revealing many sorts of knives, syringes, and other weapons I presumed were for torture.

"Shit..." I thought to myself when I first saw the pegasus pick up a butcher knife, followed by a regular hunting knife. I relaxed a bit but was still nervous. "But, I'm not working for the griffons?"

"Bull. We know everything about you. You think we haven't been watching you from the start?" Sergeant Hardstaff stepped closer and leaned towards my face.

"Watching me...? But, sir, I—"

"Butts are for sitting on, talk already!" Silver levitated the knife from the corporal's hoof and held it aimed towards me.

I gulped at the sight and struggled a bit more. "I-I swear, I don't know anything about any of this, and for the love of Celestia, I am not working for the griffons!"

I was quickly met with sergeant Hardstaff's hoof that went directly into my cheek. I yelped in pain, and my head was thrown to the side and I was left with a swollen bruise on my left cheek. I snapped my head back to them and struggled against the bindings even more.

"The hell?!" I winced, my cheek still hurting from the punch.

Sergeant Hardstaff punched me in the same spot again, only adding to the amount of pain my cheek was feeling. I yelped again and this time very slowly turned my head back, blinking a few times. My cheek was a light shade of red from the bruise and I could feel it swelling up even more.

"I swear..." I started, panting a little. "I know nothing of this."

"Bull. Private, give it to him," sergeant Hardstaff turned to Silver, who still had the knife in his magical grasp.

My eyes went wide as Silver walked closer. The knife was levitated closer, the sharp part of the blade was pressed against my neck. I gulped, only to feel it press harder. I tried to pull my head back but it remained at my neck the entire time. My eyes moved back up to Silver, who now stood with his teeth clenched in front of me.

"I swear on my life, Silver, I am not working with any griffons. Griffons are not our enemies. And if they were, there is no way in Tartarus I would work for them, and sell every one of you out to be assassinated by mercenaries. I swear to all of you, I'm not a traitor!" I shut my eyes quickly afterwards when I felt the knife press further against my neck. Any further, and it would cut into the skin.

"Do you have anything you want to say before you go?" Asked Solar Wave.

"Uh..." I started nervously. "O-okay—uh...I-I just want to say, Silver, I'm so sorry for putting whipped cream in your hoof and tickling your nose with one of my feathers, that was completely immature of me...and Solar, I'm...so sorry I haven't been that good of a friend to you. I-I'm not a very sociable pony, and that's all my fault!" I was in a bit of a panic. "Please, make this quick..."

I shook gently in the chair I was tied to and expected my neck to be sliced open any moment now. I wasn't sure what any of them were talking about. I wasn't working for any griffons. I didn't even know any griffons! I was extremely nervous. Whatever I had done to tick them off, they were about to get the better of me and I was just going to be a blood stain on the floor—and no one would know. Then a question came to mind. Were my friends not really my friends?

After a few moments, the knife pulled away and the light shut off, allowing for other smaller ones on the ceiling to turn on. The others in the room then began chuckling. What did make me open my eyes, however, was the knife being set down.

"You actually thought we were going to kill you?" Laughed sergeant Hardstaff, who walked up to me with a big grin.

"Sir... I-I... I don't understand?" I shook in my chair still.

"Torture interrogation test, Star. Every Lunar Marine has to go through one or two in the event that they are captured on the front lines. And for your first go on it, I'd say you handled it pretty well. Buuut, I'll leave you to deal with Silver now that you admitted you did make him splatter cream all over himself."

My eyes widened and I looked around the sergeant at Silver. "S-sorry."

"Aye, don't worry about it. My face tasted pretty good," Silver chuckled.

Just then, I heard the snap of the ropes breaking, followed by my body lurching forward just slightly. I looked down and found the rope holding my chest to the back of the chair was broken, and the pegasus corporal was untying my hooves from the chair. Once he finished, he stepped back and I rubbed my hooves where the ropes squeezed against them.

"So...I passed?" I asked, ears pinned back.

Sergeant Hardstaff nodded. "Yes. But, over time, we will work on you. When you least expect it. Just like a real life situation."

"Yes sir..." I nodded slowly and got up out of the chair as the sergeant and everypony but Solar left, the yellow unicorn trotted up to me and nudged me with his elbow.

"I was scared shitless too, but don't worry, you ain't gonna die in our hooves."

All I could do was nod and smile weakly.

***

Later on that day, and after a quick visit to the on-base clinic, I walked up to the flag pole at the center of the base. At full staff flew the Equestrian flag, a blue flag with the royal sisters in a bit of a yin-yang position with the sun and moon in front of their respective princesses. A few others stood below the flag, their hooves raised to their foreheads. I looked at them briefly, then up to the flag. I raised my right hoof to my forehead and saluted, watching the flag wave in the calm, but cold breeze.

Just a few moments after, I lowered my hoof and cracked a smile up at the flag. My eyes moved back down to where the other soldiers were and found they were no longer there and nowhere to be seen. It was amazing how quickly everypony there moved.

I felt a hoof tap against my shoulder and I turned my head to the pony. Immediately I saw the rank patch and silver bar pins of a commanding officer on the stallion's uniform and I instantly stood at attention and saluted him. It was the same commanding officer as a few days ago.

"Sir," I said.

The greenish-grey pony saluted back, then removed his black shades. "Private Star Shooter."

"Yes, sir?" I lowered my hoof and remained at attention.

The earth pony grew a faint grin on his muzzle. "About time you got in. But, why for the love of Celestia did you choose the Marines and not the Navy?"

I tilted my head a little. "I didn't have the option."

"Ah," he nodded once. "Makes sense. Still, about time."

"...Shadow?" My eyes widened just a bit.

"You guessed it," he smirked. "Still interested in being a part of my crew?"

"I—yes, of course!" I smiled. "Unless the position is filled already?"

The pony, Shadow, shook his head. "I wouldn't offer somepony a job opportunity and have them accept just to let somepony else have it. I'm not one of those ponies."

"Aha, funny," I smiled. "Just return from a deployment?"

"Ooooh yeah, a long one," Shadow exhaled, his lips flapping a bit. "The desalination filter went out about two weeks in and we had to have bottled water airlifted from the eastern colonies for a hefty price."

"Why hefty? There's plenty of water everywhere."

"Not in Prance, they're in a drought right now."

My eyes widened. "Prance? In a drought?"

"Yeah, shocking, isn't it?"

"Very. They always get rain."

"Well, not recently. And they're inexperienced with manipulating the weather. So, they're just about screwed until the next rainstorm comes."

"Dang. So, was the filter fixed?"

"Took a while, but yes, it was. The last one was old and needed replaced anyways, so we should be good for the next deployment and the many ones after that," Shadow replied.

"Well, that's good. When do you expect your next deployment?" I asked.

"Mmm, in a month or so, I presume. I assume you will be joining us on our oceanic journey as well?" Shadow smiled.

"You bet I will. But, if I may ask, just what will be my position?"

"Well, you will need the extra training for it, which should last about a week, I am putting you in charge of the weather and traffic radars on the bridge," he stopped. "Do you drink coffee?"

I nodded. "Yes, why?"

"Better get used to it, your shifts are long. Which is why the last radar operator left, he couldn't take sitting in a chair for sixteen hours a day."

My eyes widened. "Sixteen...hours?"

Shadow nodded. "Think you can handle it?"

Some thoughts went through my mind, but after a few moments of silence, "Yes sir."

"Very good," Shadow smiled again. "I've also got somepony for you to meet, come our departure. A lieutenant in the Marines and a very good friend of mine. I think you'll like him. But, I should warn you as well, he's kind of...strange."

"Strange?"

"Well, maybe not strange, just...not that talkative."

"Neither are you really," I muttered quietly.

"Huh?"

"Nothing."

Shadow narrowed his eyes on me, then shrugged it off. "Alright then. I'd best be on my way. I will see you in a week or two, alright?"

"Yes sir."

"Remember, radar training. I won't be teaching the classes, but I can get you signed up for one."

"If you could, that would be great, sir," I smiled to him.

Shadow nodded once. "Alright, I will. See you around, private."