Spike's Days at G.E.A.R.S University

by Darth Severus

The Exam

After the dropship had crash landed, thanks to their inexperienced pilot, Spike and his friends had gone to the local hospital. Miraculously, they managed to walk away from the crash virtually unscathed. Spike walked towards the school with his friends and said, "Ace pilot my ass. Bastard nearly got us killed."

Twilight sighed, "As much as I hate to say it, you're right. That pilot was highly inexperienced."

Rainbow Dash chuckled, rubbing the back of her neck. "It wasn't that bad of a landing. I mean, there weren't any casualties."

Fluttershy nodded and said, "That is true, but we did a lot of damage to the school's courtyard. I hope there weren't any animals that got caught in the crash..."

Spike looked to Fluttershy and said, "I'm sure the animals got away long before we crashed. Animals seem to know when danger is coming, so they probably ran off before the ship even entered the stratosphere."

Fluttershy smiled and said, "Thanks for trying to cheer me up Spike."

As they got on the shuttle to the university, they talked about what House they would join. The three houses in G.E.A.R.S were WolfBlade, RuneHawk, and MystRaven. WolfBlade was all about honor, nobility, and the spirit of a warrior. RuneHawk was more studious and they are researching the disappearance of Dragons from the galaxy. Mystraven don't have a particular mold, they live life to the fullest.

Spike said, "I think we should all join the same House. WolfBlade and RuneHawk have a fierce rivalry. If some of us joined one and the others joined the other, our friendship wouldn't really work out.

Rainbow Dash scratched her head and said, "I kind of like WolfBlade, but knowing Twilight, she'd like to go to RuneHawk..."

Twilight rolled her eyes and said, "Don't make such rash assumptions. I personally think MystRaven would be the perfect house for us. They accept you for who you are."

After a bit of talking, they all agreed on MystRaven. But first, they had to pass the entrance exam.

Later on, Spike was sitting on one of the cushioned benches in what looked like some random hallway in the school's research wing with five of his six friends, waiting in near complete boredom until the last of the collective friends came out of the room labeled "Testing Room" beside them, jumping with joy, "I did it! I passed!"

"That's great Pinkie!" Twilight happily replied, greeting her with a hug.

"I knew you could do it," Rainbow remarked, slugging the bouncing girl's arm before joining the fray.

"Weren't a chance ya COULD fail, I reckon," Applejack announced, grasping the sugary gir, mostly to stop her bouncing.

"Congratulations, Pinkie. I guess that just leaves me. Wish me luck," Spike replied, only giving a short, brief hug before walking in.

"We know you got this!" Rainbow assured him, speaking on behalf of all of them as the door slid closed behind him.
The room was much bigger than he thought, spanning a good forty marks to the back-end, and its sole inhabitant was a burly, red-headed teen, not much older than himself, clad in a blue jump-suit with a few metals adjourned it, none that he could recognise, standing next to a mecha, much like the one he saw in the ship, holding a data-pad under his arm, watching him as he entered.

He didn't see anything else in the room, and assuming the teen was instructor, he approached him, ready to offer his hand, but the teen stopped him short with his pre-prepared speech. "Greetings, Cadet. I am your exam instructor, Corporal Starbuck. With this test, we'll be seeing if you're true GEARS material, and determine whether or not you will be placed in advanced or remedial classes, based on your performance today. Here I have the standard mecha used throughout the school. You will eventually learn every inch of this machine, inside and out, but for right now, all you need to do is show us your fighting potential with these suits. So gear up and get ready, your exam will start when you are," he stated with little true interest, having said that same line so many times before, just today, and lamenting how he was placed here, doing these tests, in his final year in the academy. As he watched the boy getting into his mecha, he couldn't help but think, "Looks like we've got another funeral here, but what can I expect, after those six girls, all of them getting advanced classes, how can someone so scrawny and meek even compete?"

Spike, for the most part, was just trying to steady himself as he entered the suit, after all, this was the test to say basically everything about him in this place. It was going to determine basically his whole life after this. No wonder he was nervous, but he couldn't let that stop him, so after he finally settled in, he turned the mecha and looked at his instructor.
"Ready?" Corporal Starbuck asked monotonously, readying the data-pad in his hands.

"Ready." Spike half nervously replied before Corporal Starbuck pressed the screen, causing another mecha to rise from the floor, apparently piloted by some sort of AI, as there was nothing in its driver seat, and readied itself for a fight.
He could feel it. He could feel the mecha in his grip as he lurched forward, almost in slow-motion. He could feel his heart racing, he could feel his sweat dripping, but more importantly, he could feel himself, and yet he couldn't, it was all a blur as he moved. He dove to the right, just as the other mecha launched a left hook right where he was heading, and launched forward with his hands, turning the roll into a spring and grasping his opponent's arm as he launched into the air, taking the mecha by its joints as he slammed down, violently turning the other mecha as he launched a vicious right, straight to its empty face-mask. The clear protection shattered from the fist, and the Mecha stumbled back from the blow, trying desperately to regain its balance, but Spike wouldn't allow that. He forced his mecha straight into his opponent, shoulder first as he readied his other hand for another blow, striking just as the mecha was trying to flail its hands in some sort of defense, but no matter what it did, they only turned more fierce, with numerous body-jabs aimed at its weakest and most sensitive points, hooks biting at every opening, kicks forcing at every joint to their limit, and shoves timed perfectly to throw off its sturdy balance. It was as if it wasn't even moving, and there was nothing it could do, but it still followed its orders and did everything it could do until the damage became too much, overheating its sensitive equipment and damaging its power-core to the point where it violently released all of its energy.

Corporal Starbuck looked on in awe, never having seen any fighting like that in his life. He could only stare as the cadet walked his mech back to him and reveal himself, asking, almost innocently, "So how'd I do?"

Those words snapped him out of his trance, forcing him back to his data-pad, and finally looking at the numbers and graphs that were displayed, "So... that's not possible. There must be something wrong with the readings." But before he could say or do any more, the com-link in his ear buzzed and spoke to him. "Y-yes, yes ma'am, I'm looking at the results right now, but I... Yes... I know, ma'am, much better than mine... What are... ... No... Well, yes... I see... Yes, Commander, I'll proceed immediately," he sighed, turning back to the waiting cadet, who was confused by the sudden turn of events. "Ok... Spike," he announced, looking back at his data-pad as he read the name. "You did great, but there are some things the Commander would like to look into a little further, and it requires more testing, so if you would re-enter the mech, we'll make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible."

"O-ok, Corporal," Spike replied, slightly embarrassed and ashamed, thinking he somehow did something wrong, mostly due to him not really remembering what happened when he fought, then thinking that the other mech might have had a malfunction and they need to re-test him, seeing what happened to the other mech. When he was finally back in his mech, Corporal Starbuck pressed a few more buttons this time and released three drones, which fired immediately, forcing him to dodge as quickly as he could.

Spike barely remembered anything about the fight after that, much like the previous fight, but what he does remember is that his mech exploded with him in it, and that he's apparently in the infirmary, just few hours later.

Spike got up after the nurse said he was good to go. He walked up to his friends and said, "What happened out there?"

Rarity smiled and said, "You broke a school record Spikey-wikey."

Rainbow Dash was so excited and burst out, "Broke it!? He demolished it! Good job squirt!"

Twilight adjusted her glasses and said, "We were just about to go back into town to get a bite to eat at Mecharoni's. Do you want to join us?"

Spike nodded and said, "Sure, being unconscious for the last few hours has burned a hole in my gut."

As they walked back to the shuttle back to the city, they talked about how excited they were for school. Even Rainbow Dash was excited. They stopped at Mecharoni's and ordered a pizza with the works. After they were finished, they split the check evenly between the seven of them.

Spike looked around the enormous Soluna City and said, "This sure is different than back home on Westion."

Applejack nodded and said, "It sure is... I hope Apple Bloom isn't stressing Granny out. But still, it ain't every day ya get a scholarship to G.E.A.R.S University."

Fluttershy said softly, "This place scares me a bit... I've never been good in crowds..."

After going around Soluna City to see what they could do when they're not in class, they headed back to their dorms. Before going to his dorm, Spike said to his friends, "I guess I'll see you tomorrow when we join MystRaven."

Comments

[TCBrony]

good job I like it keep up the good work

[OmniFox]

Perfect 100!!!

[AstralFlare42]

Spike is a NewType