Equestria: The Afterlife

by Timzocker201

CH69: National Infantry Competition Exercises

Markus walked through the small factory at the outskirts of Canterlot, with Flim and Flam by his sides. However, they weren`t moving into the factory, but out of it.

“Sir, if I may ask, where are we going?” Flim asked slightly nervously. After all, now that they’ve found such an extremely profitable job that they even mildly enjoyed, both were not keen on losing it again.

“Southward.” Markus answered shortly.

“Southward? Uhh, sir, may I ask why?” Flam asked with the same nervousness as his brother.

“It has come to my attention that a few key factors severely limit the effectiveness of production and I am going to fix these issues now.” Markus answered again.

“Issues? With all due respect sir, we haven’t noticed any issues.” Flim protested.

“Indeed and I didn’t expect you to. In fact, I would be surprised if you did.” Markus said.

“What does that mean?” Flim asked his brother, who only shook his head with a similarly confused look as him. They both waited for Markus to answer, but he didn’t. Instead, he entered a chariot, pulled by two Royal Pegasus Guards and signalled the two brothers to enter as well.

The chariot took off, once the two former con-artists were inside and after a few minutes of flight, the destination came into view.

“Ponyville?!” Flim and Flam both exclaimed.

“Sir, with utmost respect, you aren’t going to have us apologize to the townsfolk or anything like that, are you?” Flim asked in a tone that was technically beyond his permissions – even as head of R&D.

“While that would be, what Ponies called ‘the right thing to do’, it is not what we are here for. Like I said, there are a few things that directly affect production that need to be fixed.”

With that short answer given, Markus fell silent again, until the chariot descended, not directly into Ponyville, but a bit off towards the outskirts, where a whole new military base was now proudly standing.

The chariot set down in a large open area in the middle of the base, where Mystic was already awaiting the trio.

“Sir, welcome back to Ponyville. We have prepared everything as ordered and are ready for the first inspection!”

“Inspection? Sir, I have to say, this is getting weirder and weirder. What exactly do you want us to inspect?” Flam said, with more than just a hint of annoyance.

“That.” Markus said simply and pointed towards an absolute giant of a building. Not only that, but it also seemed drastically different from the others in that it didn’t seem to serve any military purpose. In fact, it looked more like…

“A factory?” Flam asked. “Sir, why is there a factory in this military base?”

“Like I said, I noticed a few issues. We were running out of production capacity, the supply lines from the factory to the base were too long and unreliable and I found that Canterlot as the cultural and political center of Equestria, where diplomats and tourists from different countries are roaming about, is not the best place to run a factory of this type. All of these issues could luckily be solved by simply building a factory within the base.” Markus explained.

“Ah… but sir, we were running far from capacity! In fact, we still had room to expand even after the production line for these ‘Trucks’ went online.” Flam said.

“I know, however there are only so many different production lines that such a small factory can run simultaneously, even if it runs fully automatic. That reminds me: here’s your next project.”

“Another one?!” Mystic, Flim and Flam exclaimed.

“Don’t worry.” Markus said with a chuckle. “This isn’t going to be as much of a leap as the previous one has been. I simply want you to take a few of the truck chassis and give them thicker steel plates, remove the flat bed and mount a machine gun in an armored turret instead.”

“Turret? Oh, you mean that steel can that can rotate that you wanted us to develop? Huh, I was already wondering, what you needed that for.” Flam noted.

“Exactly, that one. Before you can focus on that project, however, you will have to oversee the transport of all your equipment and supplies from Canterlot over here. The factory has its own entrance, so don’t worry about bothering or being bothered by the soldiers here.” Markus said.

“All of our equipment? Does that mean that we`re abandoning the factory in Canterlot completely? After all this talk about capacities, it would seem more logical to me if we would run both of them at the same time, not to mention the immense workload involved with moving an entire factory worth of equipment.” Flim argued.

“Indeed it would seem counterproductive, however I found that a fully automated factory running unsupervised can be a major security hazard, as a spy would only have to open the door and would already have everything he needs right in front of him without anypony there to stop him. As for the workload: now that we have trucks, transporting the equipment should not be an issue anymore.” Markus said.

“Yes… about that.” Mystic spoke up sheepishly. “I know you told me to form a separate logistics platoon and have them train on those trucks first, but… No matter how much effort we put into it, we just can’t seem to make progress. Even those who have previous experience in driving carriages or some even trains can only barely get the hang of it. Worst of all, I myself can’t drive them, so Twilight is helping out as a teacher, after she spent a whole night trying to grasp the manual that came with these things. On top of that, we already damaged ten of these Trucks during lessons and since the mechanics are also still in training, we have no way to fix them!”

While explaining her situation, Mystic worked herself up more and more, her voice growing in desperation, until a red hoof landed on her shoulder.

“Don’t be so frustrated about this, Mystic. All of this is a completely new era of technology. I wasn’t expecting you to immediately understand it all. Keep training and you will see that at some point, you will get the hang of it. As for the transport: gather those who have made the most progress up until now and have them do the transport as an additional exercise. Flim and Flam will help you train the mechanics, as they are the ones who know best, how the Trucks are meant to work and what they are meant to do.” Markus said, giving Flim and Flam a short look.

“Yes sir, of course, sir.” Flim and Flam agreed.

“Great. Now, you have your orders and I still have to plan an event. Dismissed.” Markus said and went back to the chariot.

---

The Competition was coming closer and closer with every passing day. Mystic and the Shadow Guard were well aware of that, which was why one could hardly find a day, where they weren’t going through drills and special exercises, the newly established Motorized Company ‘Charlie’ in particular.

Mystic sighed as she went through the drill plans she had come up with. It was a very… experimental idea to raise a new company with only so little room for training, so she was currently moving all formal duty exercises as far forward as she could. After all, Charlie wasn’t meant to partake in any of the combat disciplines, so having them not crash into one another during the parade was already sufficient. Unfortunately, even that seemed to still be far out of grasp.

Crash!

Mystic sighed as yet again, one truck collided with another. This time one of the drivers towards the front had hit the accel instead of the brakes and ran into the truck in front of him. The driver behind him didn’t manage to brake in time and thus three trucks were now stuck on one another. Fortunately they were built as military vehicles from the beginning and were therefore rather sturdy, so there was little more than scratched paint to repair. Mystic was contemplating to not even do that, as a few scratches here and there would make them look battleworn and certainly add to the aesthetic. She made a note to bring that up to Markus, before the tournament started.

“What did I tell you, sergeant? I told you these numbnuts can’t even parade properly!” A familiar voice said behind her, just as Mystic finished getting the formation back into order. Her face immediately portrayed her annoyance, even before she turned around, as she remembered this particular voice very well.

“And what do you want?” She asked the Solar Guard Captain that had technically trespassed into the base.

“Me? Oh, I just wanted to see how you are doing. Not all too good, it would seem.” The captain mocked.

Mystic took a deep breath and said, in an authoritive tone: “Firstly: You dare mock a superior? Secondly: You dare say that we aren’t doing well while you aren’t doing anything at all? And lastly: You do realize that you are currently trespassing on a class A security area? I order you to leave at once or I will have you jailed.”

“Aww, why so hostile, little Colonel? Aren’t we your comrades?” the captain asked mockingly.

“No, all that you are is a nuisance. I’m going to count to three and if you haven’t left by then, I will personally knock you out and throw you into a cell!” Mystic threatened.

“Oh really? Heh, I would like to see that.”

“One.”

“Oh, come on, Mysty, we are all friends, aren’t we?” The captain mocked further.

“Two.”

“Captain, she seems to be quite serious about this.” The sergeant cautioned.

“Oh, don’t be such a filly, sergeant. Do you really think—“

“Three!”

An electric blast shot from Mystic’s horn and hit the captain directly into his chest. He flew a few meters, rolled another few and then stopped on his back, with his chest still smoking from the impact. When Mystic saw him stop, she turned her aim at the sergeant, who frantically waved his forehooves around.

“W-What?! Me too?! But why?”

“’Why’? Did you forget that you are trespassing as well?” Mystic asked rethorically, before charging up her horn again.

“W-Wait, wait, don’t blast me! I’m cooperating!!” The sergeant shouted.

Mystic let the energy in her horn dissipate and gave a satisfied smile towards the sergeant. “Smart colt. Makes me wonder who should actually be the captain here. Now take these wannabe-elites to the cells. I`m dealing with them later.” Mystic ordered to the formation behind her, before turning around.

Everypony in the formation was watching with varying looks, but most of them looked more offended than unsettled and Mystic decided to use that to her advantage.

“You hear that? They think that we could never get to their level, no matter how hard we try and you know what? I think they’re right. We will never be equal to them, because we will SURPASS them in every single aspect! Back into formation, Charlie! We are gonna show them, how actual soldiers do things!” Mystic shouted, after which the whole Charlie Company responded with a loud “OOO-RAH!”

The rest of the exercise went almost flawless. No further collisions and no other accidents throughout the remainder of the day. By the end of it, Charlie had reached a point, where they could at least safely follow one another around a pre-determined course without breaking formation, which was the least they had to learn.

Seeing the results, Mystic smiled to herself.

“I’ve gotta give them that: these douchebags are very good material for motivating my troops.” She thought to herself, before finishing up her last bits of paperwork and going home for the day.

Author's Note:

Yes, the Title reads 'N.I.C.E.', you saw that right.

Comments

[Fireeaters]

Nice

[Booster Spice]

They might say it with a S.M.I.L.E

But N.I.C.E takes the biscuit.

[Wise2Fox]

[Moonlit_Stardust]

Yes, the Title reads 'N.I.C.E.', you saw that right.

Well I mean it’s better than G.O.A.T