//------------------------------// // Change // Story: Aces High // by CrazedRambling //------------------------------// Aces High Chapter 1: A Change “We shall fight in the air, we shall fight on the ground, we shall fight on the seas and oceans,” came the shouted oaths of dozens of ponies. “We shall fight with great confidence and great strength in the air!” this part eliciting even grander shouts from the pegasi in attendance. “We shall defend our homes, whatever the cost may be.” As custom, this part of the oath was said more solemnly, in reverence of those who had died for Equestria in the past. “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on enemy grounds, we shall fight in the fields, and in the hills!” The volume was increasing rapidly in the confined space of the auditorium. Everypony bearing an honest and dedicated heart recalled the last part of the oath with clarity unlike anything before, and their excitement at finally being able to swear to it was plain to hear in the din filling the room. “We shall never surrender!” came the final part of the oath, with an earsplitting roar issuing forth from every pony’s mouth. The echo died out shortly after, leading to an unbearable silence in the room. Everypony stood tensely, unspeaking, simply staring at the pony on the single stage of the auditorium. The pony standing on the stage was everypony’s friend, their confidant, their mentor. Most importantly, he was their drill sergeant, Blindside. Blindside stood unflinching throughout the entire oath, glowering at every single recruit. He had conditioned them, trained them, fully preparing them by giving them the knowledge and expertise it would take to fulfill their roles. In a short three months, this pony had turned even the laziest and least disciplined, the most out of shape and weakest among them, into the soldiers they were now. Sure, some of them had slipped through the cracks and dropped out of the program, unable to handle the stress of being yelled at, working tirelessly on obstacle courses, and being abused both physically and verbally. Now, though, they were here at the final phase of development. All were ready, physically and mentally. This oath was all that had stood between these recruits and being full members of the Equestrian Royal Army. The road had been grueling, it always was with each new group, but the results could not be questioned in regards to success. Still, he stood facing the anxious audience before him, glaring at them all. Maintaining the harsh stare, he began to smile. To an onlooker, the appearance was terrifying, an angry looking pony suddenly beaming widely. A few ponies wondered what malicious intent their sergeant harbored for them now, once they finally seemed free. But Blindside’s expression softened as the troops began to visibly fidget, and through the devilish grin, laughter emerged, breaking the silence. At the unexpected noise, everypony loosened their joints and hard stares, instantly relieved. “Welcome to the Equestrian Royal Army fillies and colts. Your work has finally paid off.” The young ponies all began to file out of the auditorium, all eager to celebrate their success, and all even more eager to find out their new roles the next morning. With that in mind, Blindside was surprised to find one pony unmoving. A particular cyan pony with a rainbow colored mane. ********** I stayed in the room as everypony else began clearing out, soon to be celebrating their achievement back at the barracks. Still, I stood transfixed, pondering what had brought me to the point I was at now. Why had I given up on my Wonderbolt dream for this? And why, instead, had I joined the Royal Army? The thought was stupid I told myself, shaking my head slowly as I directed my gaze towards the ground. Kind of late to turn around now, I’ve graduated after all. The dream of being in the Wonderbolts had been a foalish dream, immature and self-centered. Now, older, I understood that there was far more to my life than coveting ponies with the profession of being glorified showoffs. When the revelation had stricken me, I felt an unrelenting guilt at having wasted my talents for so many years. I set off almost immediately from Ponyville, flying straight to Canterlot as quickly as I could. I barely said a word of farewell to all of my friends in Ponyville before leaving to sign up with the Equestrian Royal Army. I regretted not even having a decent chat with each before I left, and I truly wished I could have had some kind of keepsake, or at least guidance from each. I still maintained hope -and expectations- of being placed the Air Corps, since my skills would fit in perfectly there. Honestly, I had expected a bare minimum of special treatment for being a hero already. However, the ‘special treatment’ I was faced with wasn’t quite what my expectations led me to envision. Being the ‘Big Hero of Equestria’ already - to put it in Blindside’s words - made me a target for everypony. Blindside had yelled louder, pushed me harder, and gave me the most menial tasks. Seriously, I almost lost it after the third ‘dust the hoof-lockers with those pretty feathered wings of yours’. I had lost it when one of the other recruits joked that all I was good for was relieving everypony else with a cool breeze every so often. “PFC Rainbow! What are you doing standing here still!?” Blindside shouted as much as asked. The harshness of his voice was amplified by the echo of the now empty auditorium, startling me out of the self imposed revere. “Wha- what?” I began to say, but I quickly recovered. “I was just thinking about, you know what’s next.” I was lying right through my teeth, but a little white lie didn’t hurt anypony, and it was a reasonable enough excuse given the circumstances. “I would suggest you go join your squad in their celebration. Now I’m going to give you ten seconds before I buck your flank out of this room myself!” In retrospect, the move to join the Royal Army had mostly been spurred on by my guilt at the time, and I could have simply tried to help out in Ponyville more. You know, at least performing the job of keeping the skies clear more dutifully that I normally had. But nopony ever said that Rainbow Dash was a disloyal pony, and I refused to leave the boot camp once I had signed on. ********** True to a similar promise I made to Twilight years ago, I was out of the auditorium in ten seconds flat. I still hated being called ‘PFC Rainbow’, even though it was mostly my superiors saying it. Nevertheless, I preferred ‘Private Rainbow Dash’, or at the least ‘Private RD’. Anything but PFC Rainbow. The name just didn’t sound like it gave me the respect I deserved. I immediately took back the thought, considering it as wrong for the first time. “I don’t deserve anything yet. I have to prove myself to these ponies, and not by showing off.” I pondered aloud as I trotted back to the barracks for the last time. Everypony else was enjoying themselves in the barracks, somepony having snuck in a bottle of champagne. ‘Several’, I thought as a cork flashed before my eyes as it was popped off of a bottle. Despite the turmoil that had dominated my mind just moments ago, I could feel my spirits being lifted immediately by the forty-nine other ponies of the training squad. “Hey Dash, loosen up a bit, you look tense,” said an aqua colored pegasus pony off to my side. I had been surprised the day I had learned that the very same mare’s name was Marble. Honestly, despite the bag of spilled marbles as a cutie mark, I’m still amazed at how prophetic many pony’s names seemed to be. Regardless, there still stood the fact that marbles weren’t very… cool first off. The second reason to be surprised, directed more to the cutie mark, unless you have magical marbles, they’ll all fall through the clouds in Cloudsdale anyhow. “Come on, we brought a whole case of champagne.” Marble revealed. As if in response, another cork rocketed through the air, narrowly avoiding the peak of my mane. “Sorry Rainbow Dash!” came a shout from somewhere in the crowd, followed by a giggle. Somehow, somepony was already drunk and firing off the champagne bottles for fun. Off to the side, I could see a red plastic cup -classiness being of low concern- float up to eye level. “And this one is for you, Dashie.” A light grey unicorn with an odd red mane trotted up with a smirk, levitating the drink as he went. I let out a mental groan at the sight of the unicorn. Ugh… Firecracker. Really, Firecracker was a generally good and trustworthy pony, if a bit odd. However, his one fatal flaw was a habit of hitting on every mare he met. To make matters worse, he hardly ever means it, and despite the fact that he often winds up with a black eye from a swift hoof to the face, he continues to do it for some unknown, though probably immature reason. With that in mind, I gave him a scalding glare as he insisted on speaking to me at the moment. “Oh, the sweet smell of freedom!” he said, lifting his head up and deeply inhaling through his nostrils. “Yeah, well the only thing I smell is a burnt fuse. A dud.” I responded snidely. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to bring him down a peg. “Oh, harsh Dashie. Really, that one just hurts my feelings it does.” he said mockingly, crossing his hoof over his heart. Firecracker, true to his name, had plans to join the demolition squad of the Engineering Corps. “Really, try having a drink, lighten up a bit. This is our time to celebrate after all, seeing as how we’re all getting transferred to new squads tomorrow. Oh, and speaking of celebrating, how about joining me in my bunk tonight, I hear your barn door swings both w-” was all he managed to get out. I slapped both the cups out of the bastard’s levitation field, managing to splash champagne all over him. Comically, one of the cups remained hanging on his horn. Nopony really noticed, or at least they didn’t care since they all knew Firecracker’s reputation. “Really now, that’s just a waste of good champagne Dashie. See you tonight then?” the pony teased. I stomped away, fuming at the buck’s relentless lecherousness. For good measure, I made several rude gestures at Firecracker while I walked away to other parts of the party. If anything, it was still impressive to pull off the motions, considering the lack of fingers. Really, I had only managed to make a hoof-ful of new friends since joining the camp, and I attempted to mingle with the crowd until I could find them. Luckily, all four -yes, only four- of my friends were already together and chatting. I could see Marble, my only pegasus friend at the camp, bringing the other three drinks, using her wings as trays for the cups. The other three, two Earth ponies and a unicorn were named Ditch, Baluchi, and Cherry ‘Cherrynobyl’ Tresses respectively. I took a moment to observe these ponies whom I considered my friends. Ditch was a large dirt colored Earth pony, even bigger than Big Macintosh from back in Ponyville. As the name implied, Ditch and his family dug… well… ditches. In particular, his family had been the gravediggers of a little town outside of Fillydelphia for twelve generations, since roughly the time Nightmare Moon tried to overthrow Celestia. Fillydelphia only had space for families that reserved spots for their dead, and the town Ditch came from had sprung up from the surrounding graveyards. His former profession had left him with a cutie mark of a skull with two crossed shovels behind it, and the strength befitting of a pony who hauled around dead ponies, tombstones, and piles of dirt for a living. Ditch was an ideal soldier; he was strong, followed orders, and a crack shot with the specially modified Earth pony guns. And, to round it all off, he was rather nice to other ponies. More than likely, he was going to end up like the other grunts that would be on the front lines were a war break out, though his shooting skills had a chance of leading him to becoming a sharpshooter. Baluchi was a stone grey Earth pony with a slightly smaller than average build. It would be wise not to underestimate him though, as he could match any other pony in a fight, having higher hoof-to-hoof combat skills than anyone in the squad, or even any of the other squads training at the time. Ditch and Baluchi connected well with each other in matters of digging, Ditch for obvious reasons, while Baluchi had operated heavy construction machinery in Manehattan. His cutie mark happened to be a bulldozer, which he informed us was one of his favorite pieces of machinery. Baluchi also had a peculiar trait in that his mane and tail were the exact same color as the rest of his coat. With popular opinion being that his mane looked awkward when it was long; Baluchi usually had it shaved down to the same length as his coat, similar to warrior ponies of the past. However, that peculiar trait would likely help him when he was reassigned tomorrow, since it aided him in blending in with urban environments. More than likely, due to his high hoof-to-hoof combat marks and stealth capabilities, he would be reassigned to a scouting or infiltration squad. Cherry was perhaps the most interesting of my new friends. On the outside, she was a hot pink colored unicorn, with a cherry red mane giving her the name. Her cutie mark also appeared to appropriately be a cherry at first glance. However, once somepony looked a little closer, they could see that the ‘stem’ of the cherry was actually a burning fuse, making her cutie mark a cherry bomb. While Firecracker had gotten his bursting firecracker cutie mark from pranking his neighbors, Cherry had gotten hers from finding a box of dynamite and accidentally setting it off. Accident. Right. Not surprisingly, she was also somewhat of a pyromaniac. The other important difference between Firecracker and Cherry Tresses, aside from their cutie marks, was their respective expertise in explosive devices. Firecracker knew what went into explosives, how to make them bigger or smaller, and the most effective ways to use them, which is particularly useful when going into demolition. However, Firecracker was terrible at using his magic for such a purpose, and could barely ignite a small fire. Cherry on the other hand, just loved to see things go boom for the most part, and she was quite adept at using her magic to create the biggest explosion possible. Now, that’s not to say that Cherry was careless or without restraint, because that was hardly the case. She simply preferred to work… unhindered by the potential for collateral damage. With her given talents, Cherry would probably end up assigned to demolition or ordinance. Also to be noted, she had a quick temper, a ‘short fuse’, if you will. Marble got along with me the best, unsurprisingly. She seemed almost too nice to ever become a soldier pony; she was always bright and cheerful, supportive of the other ponies around her. It wasn’t until the drill sergeant would give her an order, or the squad was doing mock fights that Marble’s skills really shone. As soon as she is called upon to lead, or ordered to do something by a superior, she gets deadly serious, immediately taking command of a group of ponies around her and instilling courage and discipline in them. A natural leader, many ponies had overheard Blindside say to his superiors when they observed the squad during the mock fights. Whenever the squad was split into teams, whichever side had Marble was almost guaranteed to win, and do so decisively. When asked how she was so good at leading the other ponies, she never gave a satisfactory answer. Well, it may have been satisfactory if it wasn’t always the same thing; just “I was the leader for my marble team back at Cloudsdale.” she would say. Marbles in Cloudsdale still didn’t make sense to me. Either way, Marble was certainly slated to go down the path of an officer, perhaps someday becoming a drill sergeant herself. While these four new friends could never replace the five I had left behind in Ponyville, they had certainly made life more tolerable for me during the past three months of boot camp. It was suddenly overwhelmingly saddening to think that we would probably all go our separate ways the very next day. “Hey Rainbow Dash,” Marble said happily. “Have you finally managed to relax a little yet? You did stick around after the oath for a while didn’t you?” she asked, sounding concerned. “Yeah, I was doing fine until that jerk Firecracker made a pass at me.” Marble and Cherry both rolled their eyes at that, and Baluchi snickered a little, but Ditch gave him a light slap to the back of the head. “Man, I want to just go up and kick him right in the face. Just once. Could I get in trouble for only doing it once?” I inquired. I was dead serious. Really, I would feel a lot better. “Just don’t let Blindside see you do it and you’re fine,” Cherry said. “I’ve done it plenty of times. He just doesn’t let up” she added. “Yeah, you’ve ‘done it to him’ alright. Seriously, you’re as loud as those explosi-” Baluchi managed to get out before Ditch slapped him in the back of the head again, this time more forcefully. “Watch it big guy. I might start slapping back.” Baluchi threatened, only half seriously. In response, as soon as Baluchi turned away, Ditch wrapped him up and sat right on top of him, using his much larger size to crush the smaller pony to the floor. Baluchi squirmed and protested underneath the larger pony, only making Ditch laugh more. “I think I must have stepped on something on the way in ladies. I just can’t see what it is, but its making an awful racket.” the big pony rumbled as Baluchi began to wiggle his way out. All of them were laughing at Baluchi, even Cherry, whose embarrassment was overcome for the moment. Baluchi managed to extract himself after a few more moments. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up big guy. We’ll see who’s laughing when they have an ‘accident’ in the middle of the night.” Baluchi said with a huff. The festivities died a few hours later as Blindside declared lights out, and until the next day, we were obligated, not to mention terrified, of not doing what he ordered. ********** Despite the fact that it was the dead of night, and everypony else was asleep, I found myself unable to keep my eyes shut, and my brain off. I shuffled my wings around a bit underneath me, making them more comfortable to lie on as I rolled over to stare up at the ceiling. Sterile grey stone was all that greeted my gaze; aside from a small chip in the rock where a unicorn from the previous training group had been startled enough to leap high in the air and crash into the roof. I made the chip my focal point for the time being. There was nothing truly interesting about the chip, it was just there. It was just something different to see in the dead of night. Slowly, I forced myself to realize what had been troubling me since finishing the oath. “This is all useless.” I whispered aloud. A noise to my side drew my attention. Hoping I hadn’t awoken anypony while questioning the air, I glanced over, only to see Baluchi gingerly maneuvering Ditch’s hoof in to bowl of water. I rolled my eyes at the sight. Yeah, that’s an accident alright, warm water while you’re sleeping. I allowed myself to slip back into my thoughts. How could I see my new future any other way? Equestria hadn’t been at war for a long time. The last armed conflict was when Nightmare Moon took over Princess Luna over a thousand years ago. When Nightmare Moon took over Luna, she both recruited and indoctrinated parts of the pony population into her army, aiding in the coup to try and take over control of the powers of her sister, Princess Celestia. While Nightmare Moon hadn’t had the strength to take Celestia’s powers by herself, she did have impossibly strong indoctrination abilities, allowing her to drag thousands of Equestria’s citizens into armed conflict against Celestia. That conflict had been the most bloody ever seen in Equestrian history. The war to end all wars, the scholars says. Not that wars were very frequent before then either, but they did occur. So why did Equestria even have a standing military that was not only paid and armed, but allowed to research newer and more effective weapons and armor? Sure, when Spike had his little phase as a full grown dragon, the Wonderbolts couldn’t do anything to stop him, but Rarity had managed to bring Spike back to normal all by herself. While that particular example may not apply to all dragons, it was still a testament to the fact that a single pony could stop a dragon, and one as powerful as Celestia or Luna could probably do so even easier. Heck, even Fluttershy had managed to stop a dragon. Discord truly hadn’t been a threat to life either, since he didn’t want to physically harm anypony, all he wanted was to screw up the way things were. That might be terrible and all too, but then again, the Elements of Harmony had stopped him easily as well. Then the Changelings struck during the royal wedding. Nothing else had come as close to full blown war in the centuries since Nightmare Moon was banished as the Changeling’s assault on Canterlot. Truly, it had been by sheer luck that Chrysalis and her lackeys had been stopped. It wouldn’t be a stretch in logic to conclude that the continuation of the Royal Army could be seen as a response to the Changeling threat. Again though, the point must be made that they had still been stopped, and the Changelings were in no condition to attack again anytime soon after their losses at Canterlot. Not to mention that every city under Equestrian rule was having their security upgraded with a Changeling detection spell developed by Twilight herself. So really, why did Equestria continue to raise its military strength if all of it is unnecessary? Did the Princesses know something we didn’t? And if they did, why wouldn’t they tell everypony, or at least Twilight and the rest of us? Things just weren’t making much sense. I sighed and rolled over once more, proceeding to beat my head into the pillow several times, trying to physically shake my thoughts away, and perhaps tire myself at the same time so I could finally drift off to sleep. With a final smack, I rolled onto my back again to stare once more at the chip in the ceiling. There was nothing to worry about. Was there? ********** And here it was. The moment everypony had been waiting for, even beyond the oath of the previous day. Months of tireless training and preparation, aches and pains, grueling day to day tasks, heartbreak for those who didn’t have what it takes. And now the time had finally arrived. Assignment day. A single burlap sack sat on the stage next to the podium. So deceptively simple it seemed. But inside that bag lay the most important news of many ponies’ lives’ up to this point. Blindside stood at the podium, as he was responsible for personally giving out the decisions handed down by the powers that be in the military structure of Equestria. “Okay everypony. Settle down. It’s time to start reading these damn things.” he began. While Blindside went to open the sack, the five friends huddled together, wishing each other the best results possible, and readying to say farewell when the time came. Blindside finally got the first stack of letters out. “Oh, the hotshot himself gets to go first.” Blindside said as he opened the first envelope. “Firecracker, Engineering Corps. No surprise there.” Blindside stated. “I swear on Celestia herself, if something you have a hoof in building falls apart with me in it, or blows up with me in,” he paused. “I will haunt your ass until you’re dead yourself.” he threatened. Firecracker quickly trotted up to the podium to receive his official papers, winking at Cherry on his way back into the crowd. Cherry blushed as he trotted by and gave her a swat on the flank with his tail. “And you want to be in engineering with him Cherry?” I inquired, somewhat incredulously. “I wouldn’t-” Cherry began before being cut off. “Mister Trotski. Looks like you get to go with the Medical Corps. As for you, you damn well better patch me up when one of the new guys inevitably shoots me.” Blindside threatened once more. I directed my attention to Cherry again. “I… wouldn’t exactly… oppose it.” Cherry managed weakly before turning back to the stage. If Cherry could stand Firecracker, then more power to the mare, it might just do him some good to finally have a mare who actually likes him. Several more ponies were called up before Blindside announced any of my friends. “Miss Cherry Tresses. Ordinance Division. Try not to hurt anypony little filly. I’ve seen the shit you can pull off, and frankly it scares me.” Despite just admitting something he was afraid of, Blindside still managed to shout it in the gruff drill sergeant voice of his. Cherry trotted up to the stage and levitated the letter to her, carrying it back down. “No such luck for you I suppose, Cherry.” Baluchi whispered as she trotted back down. “Pfff. As if. Firecracker would be the lucky one to get Cherry to go with him.” I contributed, as much to encourage Cherry as to insult Firecracker. “PFC Rainbow, cut the chatter!” Blindside shouted out. “Now, back to what I was saying… Baluchi! Special Operations for you. Good luck private, with any luck, the officers will give you a day around the other operatives before bending you over the barrel themselves.” As Blindside shouted, Baluchi wiped the smirk off his face and trotted up. Baluchi had a blank expression on his face as he trotted back, clenching the orders in his mouth. “Well shit, I didn’t think you had it in ya’ to make Spec Ops.” I said flatly, sounding surprised for the first time that day. Recon was one thing, but Spec Ops was another thing entirely. A lot of ponies couldn’t handle the additional training in Spec Ops, with those that couldn’t usually being sent home as changed individuals… or in a body bag. Those that could handle it also emerged changed, but typically as unstoppable killing machines instead of whimpering shadows of the former pony. “Yeah, I thought they’d put me in the Recon Division, but this…” Baluchi said once he had taken the envelope out of his mouth. There was a hint of terror in his voice at the prospect of joining the Special Operations Group. A few more ponies were called up before anypony important (at least to me) was called up. “Ditch!” Blindside shout the name like the morning roll call. “Yes sir!?” Ditch shouted back, immediately at attention. “Now that’s the spirit. Sniper Division. You make me proud to be an Earth pony you do.” Blindside said with the closest thing to respect any of the recruits had heard. Ditch proudly trotted onto the stage to receive his envelope. Several ponies high-hoofed him on the way back down, knowing he had earned his place. “Of all the ponies called up today, that role made the most sense.” Marble said, speaking for the first time to any of the returning ponies. “Why thank you Marble. I worked real hard to make it. I’m sure you’ll get something good too.” Ditch said with a smile. “Sugar Bloom. R&D. You get to work on making me some armor that’ll stop an Ursa Major.” Blindside said to a bright looking young mare with a seafoam coat and platinum mane. Sugar Bloom had the best bet of anypony in the training squad of making it into R&D. She was probably the brightest pony I had met, not counting Twilight Sparkle that is. Time dragged on until only two ponies hadn’t gotten their orders: Marble, and myself. “Marble. Looks like you’re headed to Officer Training. You’re a damn good tactician, and you keep cool at all times. I respect that.” Blindside said with respect that was surprising, but entirely deserved. Marble was the best leader in the squad after all. She flew up onto the stage, but at Blindside’s ‘instruction’, simply trotted back down to the crowd. “And now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for…” Blindside said mockingly. “The one, the only, Rainbow Dash.” Blindside finished as he tore open the envelope. A puzzled expression struck his face as he looked upon the orders sent for me. “Alright, assignment day is over everypony. Rainbow Dash, meet me in my office.” ********** I was terrified. Blindside led me back to his office after dismissing the rest of the squad to retrieve their belongings from the barracks. He had kept a close eye on me, making sure I wasn’t caught up in the crowd. I wasn’t so concerned about Blindside dismissing everypony else back to the barracks. What did concern me was that Blindside hadn’t wanted anypony around to hear what he had to say, indicating that he wasn’t about to tease me in any manner. Now, I was opposite from him at the desk in the closet sized room he called his office as he talked on the phone with somepony. I sat there, and I was terrified. “…there’s no way this is right. I have the envelope right here, and I’m reading it right now but... I haven’t seen anything that could indicate she’s prepared for… But she can’t possibly… There’s no way she could be assigned to…. Yes sir. I understand sir. I’ll tell her now.” Blindside hung up the phone and turned to speak to me. He looked like he’d been… well… blindsided. “The hoof-lockers are going to miss those pretty wings of yours Rainbow Dash.” he said, unable to stop teasing me, even to the end. He was decidedly less gruff and snide than usual, but still not quite respectful. There was a silence between the both of us as Blindside still looked like he was trying to adjust to what he had been told. An awkward moment passed… and another… and another, until it became unbearable. “What the hell is going on right now Blindside? Why won’t you tell me what I’ve been assigned to?!” I both shouted and asked. I quickly stopped myself before saying anything else, knowing that if Blindside hadn’t been taken aback at the moment that I wouldn’t have gotten out of the office without a few hoof shaped bruises. Blindside suddenly broke out of his trance, the shouting being enough to get his attention. “Congratulations Rainbow Dash. You’ve either got some friends in high places that are breaking the rules right now, or the observers saw something in you that I didn’t.” Blindside said before another momentary pause, seeming to digest the words he was about to say. “You’ve been selected to be on the personal guard of the Princesses.”