Apparently, when faced with a horrible situation, my recruits would eventually break and give up. In this case, I simply watched as all my recruits just were strewed across the field or dumped at a safe spot by the pegasi catching those sent flying. Even Starlight didn't made it that far, since I was cruel enough to included a second kind of magic mine that threw her off. As skilled as she was, a series of timed explosions wasn't something she was ready for as evident by the fact that she's still inside a smoking crater.
"Well, that went as expected," I commented, as Silver gave me a skeptical look.
"You expected something like this?" Silver asked.
"Yes. I had absolutely no hope of anyone making it," I answered, that caused some of my recruits to lift their heads and glare at me.
"If you expected that we were going to fail, why did you make us do this in the first place‽" Stalwart cried out.
"Simple, you lot needed to face a situation that you were doomed to fail. When war comes about, some of you might be faced missions where there may be no chance of success, and only degrees of failure. Where failure will probably mean death."
"Why would there be a mission like that in the first place‽" Windbag whined, causing me to wonder why I had to deal with two folk like them at the same time.
"Simple, sometimes there is a mission that, while you will neither win nor survive, still serves an important tactical purpose. For example, some of you may be assigned to delay the enemy as long as possible. That typically means you fight to the death to buy time for your planet," I explained. As Stalwart started to raise his hoof to object, I continued, "Don't whine about the thought of a suicide mission. I've been sent on many trips that are suicidal by nature, just so I could feed myself. Besides, those kinds of missions are common only when the war is going terrible for us. Which, I have to say is our job: to make sure that any war Equus may have with interdimensional forces never hits that point."
Seeing that no one was going to put up any more protest, or they were too worn out to do so, I announced, "Now, all of you, drag yourselves to the barracks to patch yourselves up. It's only noon, so we have more training to go through later." Windbag, like he was on some kind of cue, was about to open his mouth before I shoved a rock into it with my magic. "No more whining! I said I'm going to take things up a notch, so we're taking it up in as many aspects as we can. That includes increasing your workload. Now you have forty five minutes to clean up, eat, and rest before you get back here for the next session. Anyone that tries to ditch will be tied to a tree and be my personal punching bag for a hour."
As my troops groaned before dragging themselves onto their hooves, I trotted over to Starlight's smoking crater as I asked, "Hey Starlight, you're still alive in there?"
"...I really hate you so much right now," Starlight wearily shot back.
"Aw, I care about you too. Though I admit that I didn't expect anyone to get this far."
"Then why did you have different explosives here?" Starlight asked as she started to climbing out of her crater, her coat dirty and still smoking slightly. "There wouldn't be a reason if you honestly didn't expect anypony to get to this point."
"It's a part of my ‘better safe than sorry’ policy. Having a bit of insurance in making this scenario unbeatable on the first try doesn't hurt. Well, hurt me at least," I explained.
Raising an eyebrow, Starlight pressed on with her questioning by saying, "You have a ‘better safe than sorry' policy?"
"Yes, yes I do. Got a problem with that?"
"I say you're paranoid."
"Say that when you go to worlds filled with hostile life, hostile environments, or horrible situations. Having some preparations help increased my pathetically slim odds of surviving the missions I had to go through. I still remember a cocky idiot that thought he could handle anything. The last I saw of him, he was half eaten in a nest of giant avian lifeforms," I countered, causing Starlight to blanch a bit at the last part.
"Point... taken," Starlight muttered out.
"Good, now go along and get yourself ready for the next exercise. Remember, I still have high expectations of you, which was validated by your further progress," I said with a smile, causing Starlight to cock an eyebrow at me before she followed her fellow recruits.
After the rest of the recruits have left the fields, Silver commented, "You really shouldn't aggravate your recruits so much, madam. It's starting to look like you're a sadist."
"No, I don't take pleasure in their suffering," I answered, causing Silver to deadpan at me. "What? I'm telling the truth. I'm just acting this way in the hopes that they would try harder to succeed, all in the effort to spite me in some way."
"Spite you? Why in Equestria would you want that?"
"Why not? If they would actually go that far, that means they aren't a bunch of passive idiots that just follow the person that can scream the loudest. We really don't need that kind of folk in the military. Besides, if they try to spite me, then that means they are trying to be at least a bit creative. Which would be very important in an operation, cause being creative could mean the difference between accomplishing a mission or a horrible death."
"I see... so what do you have in mind for the next part of today's training, madam?" Silver asked, causing me to cock an eyebrow at him. "I'm just curious, since you did mention that you're going to change things."
"It's a rather simple one. I'm going to have them carry saddlebags that are filled with about fifty pounds of rock up a very steep hill. No flying or magic allowed."
"That sounds... rather simple. What's the catch?"
"The catch is I had Discord change the side of the hill to be extremely greasy," I explained with a grin as Silver just rolled his eyes at me.
"Another exercise where the recruits can't succeed in?"
"Buck no, that's just excessively cruel. I just want to see if they can come up with a way to succeed in the exercise. This exercise would also serve as a means to test their creativity and possibly their teamwork. I even have some junk and stuff placed discreetly around the bottom of the hill so I can see if they would do anything with it. Though... if they fail, I'm going to end up yelling at them for being a bunch of idiots since the junk should give them some ideas on what to do," I answered. "Now let's go get a snack at the Sugarcube Corner, before I have to whip the squad to the fields."
"Are you really going to whip them?"
"Once again, buck no. I'm just going to tase the stragglers. It's more effective and takes less work," I replied, causing Silver to facehoof as he responded with a groan.
Things proceeded along as well as one would expect, as weeks passed by once more with few significant developments. Some of the recruits complained at first at their hardships were taking such an huge increase, to where I finally got annoyed enough to taser Stalwart and later Windbag. After those two were zapped, all protest quickly died down. Apparently those two whiners serve as good examples of what I would do to insubordination, though I'm surprised that, despite the change to the training, no one left the squad. I guess that at this point, they put too much time and effort to give up now.
Four days after the change in training was when Nightmare Night finally came around. The recruits were shivering that morning of the thought of what horrors I could bring down on them, if I decided to join the festivities. Upon hearing that I wasn't going to do anything on that regard, they breathed a collective sigh of relief. Though a few of them were offended when I mentioned that if I did try anything, it would traumatize them so far that they might spend the rest of their lives holed up in their parents' house. After the training, the Crusaders came to me wondering what costume I had in mind for the day. I told them that I didn't really care for the holiday, since it's all about sweets and scaring one another. They were aghast at what I said, until I explained to them that I get plenty of chocolate treats from Pinkie and the Cakes that my sweet tooth is satisfied, and that thanks to my past life I doubt there would be anything here capable of scaring me. They were a bit downcast at me not joining them, though I mentioned that I volunteered to help the Cakes pass out candy tonight and that I would give them extra candy when I see them, and that quickly cheered them up.
It was eleven more days of calmness until another event occurred. This time it started with Pinkie, who was zipping around town in an unusual way as she tried to avoid everyone. It concerned me enough that I gave my recruits an hour break so I could confront her about this, though at first she was dodgy about what is causing her to act like this. Eventually she cracked a bit and she mentioned that she knew a secret that she was supposed to keep to herself, and that it was extremely hard for her to not reveal it to anyone. Upon hearing that, I simply advised her to not try to think about it, and instead focus on something completely different. That cheered her up a bit and caused her to give me a smile as a thank you before she bounced off with more of her usual cheer.
I later learned that the secret was that Cadence was pregnant, which I learned after the day's training was over, when Pinkie dragged me to the party the Cadence and Shining threw as a surprise for Twilight. I put a smile on my face throughout the rest of the party, though Cadence's pregnancy reminded me of that my own body was maturing. My first heat wasn't all that pleasant for me, or anyone, for that matter. Though the solution I found to keep my mind off my body's 'needs' was quite simple, but terrifying for anyone else. After my first heat, everyone now knows to avoid me or to not press any of my buttons, for my solution was just being angry in general. Though Stalwart was a bit late on that remark, after I broke some of his bones when he started to complain. It was a horrible experience overall for them, though after that I decided to make any training sessions in the future that occur during my 'cycles' just survival exercises that involve them fleeing from my wrath. At least that way they have a chance of avoiding my rage.
A couple more weeks passed by until I caught news that another holiday was coming up, which I found out about when Twilight approached me to tell me about it. She then informed me that I should give all the recruits a week off on the grounds that they would like to be able to spend the holiday with their families. I asked her why is this holiday is so important, only for her to be elusive, only telling me I would find out when I spend it with Pinkie Pie. That only caused me to be skeptical about it all till Twilight mention that Pinkie would love it if I would spend the week with her, and that Pinkie actually had some big plans for that upcoming holiday. That caused me to cave in, since I really do care about my new mother, though when I asked again about it, Twilight still wouldn't reveal it, on the grounds that only Pinkie should tell me, and it would be a pleasant surprise for me. I decided to not press it further and just wait it out for a pleasant surprise, since Pinkie now knows the things I wouldn't want to take part in. Maybe this Hearth's Warming Eve of theirs would be an enjoyable holiday for me... I hope.
Nice, and Astral indeed mentioned the rage inducing time.
COMPLETE AND UTTER YANDERE! THAT'S OUR AEGIS!
6756937 nope, it's a Kuudere
An anime/manga slang term for a character that is cold, blunt, cynical, and pretty much doesn't care if her beloved dies. That's what she is on the outside but she is actually caring and nice on the inside.
Differs from tsundere since tsundere is when the character frequently runs hot and cold between tsun and dere. Kuudere is when the character only occasionally shows her caring side.
Occasionally this is a trait of the true Emotionless Girl, added deliberately by writers or projected by fans.
Compared to yandere and tsundere, the kuudere has a higher chance of being either gender.
Screaming at Applejack, enjoying rock soup and asking for the recipe for her recruits, coming right up. As well as some bonding time with Pinkie and respect for Limestone.
6756970 OH MY GOD!
SO MANY DERES!
TSUNDERE!
YANDERER!
KUUDERE!
DERE! DERE! DERE! DERE! DERE! DERE! DERE!
Astral is now a teen, nice to see that Silvak keeps the passage of time in mind.
6757002 Dude, calm down
happy holidays everypony
Ship her, ship here with someone, maybe Silver!? Ship it to the point that the cargo ship goes full throttle through the harber, killing all in its path! Once it gets through the harbor, let it continue on into the city, cleaving a path though it like a hot knife through butter.
How to deal with minefields, the Aegis way:
Order everyone to march in a straight line, one behind the other 20 feet apart.
If there is a mission critical target on the other side, I'd estimate about half making it which given the nature of a minefield, is quite good!
6757023 hey look its Dabber hi Dabber
I really hope that at one point we'll see Aegis' training pay off, and the recruits thank her for all the preparations she has done.
Aww, I wanted to see them do the hill. Also a bit disappointed that you kinda glazed over her maturing physical issues, when you'd hinted at them with the story description.
Ah, the sunk-cost fallacy. One of the more common ways people don't think clearly. (Which means it's good that the recruits fall into it.)
6757311 She still look like a filly, give her some time to grow some more.
A rolling boulder collects no mines.
Todays exercise will be just what The Doctor ordered.
Run. run for your lives.
6756937 Aether is not a Yandere. Yandere is when a character becomes so in love that they become crazed and violent, often murderous as well. Aether is borderline sadistic, but not quite since she says that she doesn't actually take pleasure from her recruits' pain and suffering. Aether's training methods are harsh simply because she believes that will give her recruits the best chance of survival should an interdemnsional war occur. So, it's a kind of tough love for Equestria as a whole, and the harsh training methods are just how Aether expresses that.
So, when are they going to learn how to fight? All they've done was learn how to avoid getting splattered, but that doesn't mean anything if they can't fight back. Just shooting at a range won't be enough. They need to learn how to actually fight in the field, not just run away and shoot stationary targets.
When i say waste, i mean it is gone usually to no good purpose. While some defense is needed, the number of expensive weapons systems, ships, planes and missiles that are never used and the amount spent on the same is mind blowing. A civil defense, mass training of the public for military or public service and reliable weapons that are easy to service, use and maintain are sensible steps. I think training a small volunteer core of soldiers like in this story is a good way to start catching up militarily for an emerging power. You want to follow the china trajectory rather than the soviet union one long term. The US is somewhere between those two in my view.
Regardless, finding out you have brought a knife to a gun fight is no fun. Learning all your military is good for are target practice for the enemy is sobering. Equestria in this story is very far behind militarily. I just hope magic and help from Aether can help them turn this dangerous corner in time.
6757106
This is a genuinely good idea if the opportunity for the Goomba maneuver is there.
With how much Aether works together with Discord on this, you should maybe show off a few more actual interactions between them. He keeps coming up in these training scenes, but we never see them so much as talk. With how much chaotic shit Aether puts her recruits and everyone else through, they must be best friends by this point.
I feel sorry for the Pie family... and the Apple family...
Right in time for Christmas!
Lime Stone Pie vs Aether!
6758239
Thank you. I'm rather proud of that one.
6757106 Or they could just... you know... Have the Earth Ponies make an Earth Quake which will probably set them off. All the Unicorns press down on the ground and set them off. Or Levitate a boulder and use magic to roll it around and have it set them off.
You they can... You know... Have the Pegasi hover just above the ground. That works too.
And Aether says she doesn't take pleasure in their suffering.
I really enjoy this continuing story, but I have to say, that it feal like progress stopped a few months ago. Every thing since has been "fillerish" save a minor plot point or two every other chapter.
"Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth shattering kaboom!"
- Marvin the Martian
6758830 the counter-argument to that is, she's not only going through estrus then, which throws her hormones for a loop, and that it's her first heat, which is normally worse because the body has never encountered those hormones in such levels before, but also she's a male, reptilian alien lifeform mentally and biochemically, which is then reacting further to a female equinoid's hormonal imbalance. I'd say that's plenty enough justification for the additional physical aggression.
Plus, it's Aether. Need I say more?
You keep using that word that way. Deadpan isn't a transitive verb. Just say "stare at me" instead, or "stare flatly" if you really want to.
6759077 Yeah, no. First off, she's not biochemically an alien anymore, she's been a pony for what can be inferred to be at least a year now. Secondly, she may mentally be a male still, but it's something that hasn't been hinted to be a problem for her in ages anymore. Sure, it's her first heat, but every other female pony has a first heat too, and they haven't been shown to go around throwing chairs or what have you, and you try arguing that females (or males for that matter) are prepared when they hit puberty. Aether could have vented with more hardcore training exercises (which she then does later), but instead she straight-up broke a pony's bones. Again, not part of a training exercise, she just broke a pony's bones, who she was the superior officer of.
Well, I smell dating shenanigans.
6757450 Another guy came up with a better classification! THE RARELY SEEN KUUDERE!
6757187 Indeed! Better ways to make money than killing people though.
Except in simulations.
HALO FOR THE WIN!
6757047 You know me. I love me a good DERE!
Oh astral u always make smile
6760948
Ehh... She's more of a classic Tsundere. She's only Dere toward Pinkie.
That was fun, may I have another? Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Merry Christmas!
6761904 I don't think so. She's more cold to everypony(Body).
Hence Kuudere.
Wonder if Aether will hatch that dragon's egg?
I wouldn't have minded some progress in understanding Aether's mind from the inside, but apparently Aether (the narrator) doesn't bother to examine her own mind particularly well and thus things that really bother her don't rate a mention until they blow up. Meaning I expect that her going through estrus is likely to get emotionally uglier every time until she cracks and starts talking about it, or works through enough issues to get the gender disparity.
Unless she really does have an alien mindset instead of the same survivorship-first mindset I see in a lot of barely-adult homeless kids I've met in real life.
6765539 you have proof that treason in Equestria is a death penalty?
Seems rather bloodthirsty of you, honestly.
I guess that's why the season finale to season 5 has Starlight Glimmer being thrown in a jail, then later taken away to be executed.
6766116 The fact that Starlight was afraid of being turned to stone. And as peaceful as Equestria is I doubt that they don't have it on the table. And it isn't bloodthirsty. Treason is a BIG deal. Say Starlight actually killed the mane 6, what could have happened to Equestria as a result? The Cutie Remark showed the possible outcomes of the Rainboom not happening. Also imagine id Luna or Celestia were killed.
6765012 So you support Aether acting exactly like Trump! Blowing up wildly at every little thing, being a total jerk to everyone he doesn't like (and half the people he marginally approves of), and getting himself in trouble with what he says and then blaming everyone else for it after backtracking slightly!
(Trump 2016!)
6762312 I second the Kuudere movement.
6757002 You forgot deredere.
6782016
Dere to go where plot fears to tread!
Hahahaha, finally back to this! And its completed? Goodness, that's... wow...
READING AWAY!
LOL Aether, u so funny~
I'm starting to like the protagonist less and less. Remarks and actions like this are just piling up, and I'm starting to hope she gets hurt and I'm less invested in her and more on the ponies around her.
This is not a good sign at all.
Great. Why does everyone always cast them as basically human but with a terribly degrading near-compulsion to do unspeakable things they will massively regret shortly afterward? I see that as terribly disturbing.
And yes, I quoted that to be taken out of context so you don't know what she ended up doing. Muahahaha.
8835460
I really couldn't agree more and it's one of those things I really hate about this fandom. It's disgusting and fetishistic. Hell, real horses don't even go into heat, that's a dog thing. Mating season for horses lasts all the way from March to late November.
I think I would avoid Aether at all costs during her heat cycle too. Or just be locked up in a room until it’s over.