Chapter Twenty Two: Drills and Thrills.

***

Pontefract Castle base, February 20th, 2030.

Twilight Sparkle screamed as she charged forward, the blade held in front of her by her telekinesis pointing straight downwards at the poor practice dummy she was charging. Her legs were aching from repeating the gallop over and over, but she kept pushing at her limits, determined to get past them and prove that she was ready and willing to help as much as she could.

Her blade stuck into the vulnerable throat area of the dummy, sand spilling out from the pony shaped thing. It was dressed in battered and scored Royal Guard armour, which had clearly seen previous use (and misuse), and Twilight had been charging at it, along with the rest of her training unit, for the last half hour.

"That's one dead pony!" Iron Gait's voice yelled. "We might make a killer out of you yet, Private Sparkle!"

"Sir, yes sir!" she yelled back, fighting down her gorge as her imagination replaced the spilling sands with spilling arterial blood. It didn't help that the armour the blasted dummy wore was so similar to Shining Armour's own, though less ornate. She went past the dummy, driving those thoughts from her mind as best she could, wheeled around and came back to the rear of the line, right behind Rarity.

"This is frankly barbaric," her friend said softly, her own blade held in front of her by telekinesis. "Can you honestly imagine killing ponies like this?"

"I don't think I want to imagine it," Lyra said from in front of her, her own blade held in a firm telekinetic grip.

"Mm," Applejack, who was further ahead in the line, murmured through the blade between her teeth. She looked ahead, her eyes steel, looking for all the world like she was concentrating on something else entirely.

"Mm?" Pinkie Pie mumbled through her own blade, looking at her friend. Applejack just shook her head, and Pinkie shrugged. True Grit, further in front still than these two, said nothing, though he looked more determined than sick.

"Remember!" Iron Gait yelled, as Desert Wind charged at the dummy with a muffled battle cry. "This dummy is your enemy! This dummy wants to brainwash you, rip your freedoms from you! This dummy is not your friend, never will be, never wants to be!"

"Sir, yes sir!" the ponies who didn't have blades held in their teeth yelled.

"On the battlefield, you can show no mercy," Gait continued, "for you will be shown none! At best, you can hope for a quick death. At worst, you might be dragged back to Astra Solamina's palace in time to get mind-bucked and turned into a slave! Death is preferable! Killing the enemy first better still!"

"Sir, yes sir!" the response came.

Desert Wind had reached the dummy. His blade sliced the dummy's cloth throat, the Earth Pony snarling slightly as he did so. He roared as he sliced again, spilling more of the sand onto the ground.

"That's enough, Private Wind," Iron Gait barked at him. "Move on!"

Breathing heavily, Desert Wind saluted. Moving away from the dummy, the pony turned and wheeled around, heading for the rear of the line.

Sapphire Steel charged after him, her blade embedding itself in the dummy's rounded out eye socket. Her eyes were slightly wide at that, and she retracted the blade quickly.

"Money shot!" Iron Gait yelled with a laugh, startling the already startled pony. "Not bad, Private Steel! Not bad at all!"

Laughing shakily, Sapphire Steel moved back to the rear of the line.

True Grit's charge was calm and professional, the blade piercing the heart of the dummy through the exposed chest area with little problem. Grit withdrew the blade and stabbed once more for good measure, before continuing on back to the rear of the line.

"Not bad," was all Iron Gait said to this display. Grit smiled softly: 'not bad' was better than the usual insults about being a former Royal Guard, which meant he had definitely impressed the stern Sergeant.

Next up was Applejack, who charged straight at the pony. She let herself feel the adrenaline rush as she galloped, before, upon reaching the pony, spinning and bucking faster than the eye could see. The dummy shook the front of it's armour crumpling under the power of the blow, and then Applejack span around and slashed her blade across the dummy's throat.

"Yes!" Iron Gait yelled. "Exactly like that! Looks like you might be an Apple after all, Private Applejack!"

"Sir, thank you sir!" Applejack said loudly, holding her blade in her hoof, a slightly pleased smile on her face as she walked back to the rear of the line.

Twilight watched the entire display with a slight frown. Applejack had seemed almost... eager, entirely unlike her. Twilight made a mental note to ask her friend about the charge at the mess hall later today.

Next up was Pinkie Pie, who held her blade in her mouth with something resembling a tiny bit of trepidation. She charged straight forward at the dummy - and then stopped.

"Private Pie!" Iron Gait yelled. "What's the bucking problem?! Stab your enemy!"

Without answering, Pinkie reached from somewhere, and suddenly produced her party cannon, the giant pink firing apparatus entirely incongruous in the muddy field surrounded by tired, muddy ponies. A moment later, the cannon fired, a loud bang sounding from the barrel. The force of the shot was incredible, knocking the dummy clean thirty feet across the yard, where it smashed into a sandstone wall, it's entire form covered in pastry.

"Waste of good cake," Pinkie muttered under her breath, looking vaguely unhappy at the poor usage of confectionary produce. The party cannon vanished into the ether.

"Private!" Iron Gait yelled. Pinkie turned, to see the Sergeant walking towards her. "You wanna tell me just what in the name of whatever deity watches over pony kind you think you were doing?!"

"Party cannon," Pinkie said simply, shrugging at him. "Worked better than the knife."

"Private, this is a knife charge!" Iron Gait yelled in her face. Pinkie grinned at him. "I don't care if you think the knife doesn't work as well as your party cannon. Hell, I don't care what weapon you've got - if I give you a sharp twig to use on the enemy, you use the darn sharp twig, and not anything else, am I clear?!"

Pinkie seemed to consider this logic for a moment, and then, impossibly, she smiled.

"There's a really clever thing somepony said once that I think might be appropriate sir," she said.

"And what's that, Private Pie?" Iron Gait asked tiredly.

"Never bring a knife to a gun fight," she said sagely, winking at him. Iron Gait, still not entirely used to Pinkie Pie randomness after a whole two and a bit weeks of it, sighed and facehoofed. He could probably have gotten away with yelling at her more... but honestly. He just wasn't in the bucking mood.

"Private Pie, next time, bring a knife to a knife fight and leave the cannon out of it," he said gruffly. "Direct order. Clear?"

"Sir, yes sir," she said, saluting with a chirpy smile. Iron Gait turned back to the rest of the troop.

"Looks like the enemy's dead, troops," he said to his recruits with a fair amount of sarcasm. "Hooray for Private Pie. Lunchtime, ponies!"

"Sir, yes sir!" the ponies snapped as one, before breaking ranks and heading for the mess hall, all of them very eager to have something to eat.

***

In the mess hall, which was a large tent that had been erected for the ponies some time ago near the castle, Pinkie, Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Lyra and True Grit sat with each other. Near them sat Dipstick, Desert Wind and Sapphire Steel.

"Applejack," Twilight asked her friend once they were all sat down. "Are you alright?"

"Whaddya mean, sugarcube?" Applejack asked as she munched on an apple, seemingly perfectly fine.

"I mean, you were pretty... enthusiastic about attacking that dummy," Twilight said, watching her friend's reaction closely. Applejack swallowed the bite of the apple she was eating and gave Twilight a look of confusion.

"I noticed that as well," Rarity said softly from across the table. "It was quite a shockingly violent display: I didn't think you were capable of anything like that, dear."

"Shucks, guys, it was only a dummy," Applejack said, looking somewhat shamefaced.

"I think you did well," True Grit put in, nodding approvingly. "We'll need to learn to be that kind of enthusiastic about killing, or at least have that kind of energy."

"I wasn't bucking enthusiastic!" Applejack snapped. Silence descended for a moment after her outburst and she coughed softly. "I wasn't enthusiastic about hurtin' anypony. I just... I thought about what might happen if one day one of you guys ever got hurt by one of Solamina's troops, how I might feel, and I... I got angry, and then I used that anger to motivate me into charging!"

"I think that's how it's meant to work," Lyra said softly. Her own charges had been routinely efficient, almost too much so. "I just imagined... the other me. You know. Lying there."

Twilight nodded once, expression downcast. The idea of seeing oneself dead was no doubt a powerful motivating force, and it can't have been particularly good for Lyra's mental state.

"All the same," Twilight said after a moment, "I'm not sure I'm comfortable with us all becoming so... used to the idea of killing."

The others shared glances filled with concern: clearly, they too were less than thrilled with the idea of killing anypony, and even less so with the idea that they might become used to doing so.

"Well," Applejack said softly after a long moment's thought, "I guess it's what we came here to do."

"I know," Twilight said, holding up a hoof to placate her friend. "I know. We came here to fight, we came here to kill. But... but I dunno. I just don't feel comfortable with it."

"Well shucks, Twi," Applejack said, "neither do I. Neither does anypony. But I reckon we don't have much of a choice."

"For what it's worth," Sapphire Steel put in, "sometimes there are causes that require you to stand up and fight, kill and even die. I think if ever there were a cause that demanded it, this is it."

Twilight nodded slowly. She couldn't deny that they were here for that precise purpose - and she also couldn't deny that she, too, had taken had sort of enthusiasm for stabbing the dummy with her own dagger. She didn't know where that rage, that sheer mind numbing rage that she had summoned had come from, but it was part of her, and she had been able to channel it.

"Yeah," she said. "I guess you're right."

A bell rang, signalling that dinner had ended, and Twilight sighed softly. Back to the grind of training with them: no doubt soon she would become all too comfortable with the killing side of it. She wondered briefly whether the Twilight Sparkle who went back to the sane Equestria would be anything like the one who had come to this crazy, damaged world.

***

Leeds, February 24th, 2030.

Rainbow Dash flew, along with the rest of Grey Squadron, in a loose formation over the city of Leeds. She was on the left side of True Blue, while Fluttershy remained on the right of the eager young pony. They were, all three of them, the fourth 'flight' of the squadron, a sort of mini group within the squadron headed by True Blue. Errant Flight, Dream Flyer and White Blossom were tapped as the first flight, Dark Wing, Bright Wonder and Silver Spire were the second and Swift Strike, Ditzy and Solid Hoof were the third. The four flights were, ostensibly, all operating as separate groups within the squadron, although they still followed the over-orders of Errant Flight as necessary.

They were all wearing their wooden training blades and grey flight shirts, as well as hi-a tech goggles that contained a transceiver array and Heads Up Display that allowed them to note the location of their allies in the sky at all times. Rainbow figured these would be useful, as they would allow the group to know where each other was at all times. This was, according to Errant Flight, one of the few bits of technological genius the human race had managed to come up with in the six years since the war had started, and it had saved a few lives in the Resistance Air Forces. Added to that the fact that the white straps took battle-graffiti very easily, and these were quickly very popular amongst Grey Squadron. Rainbow herself had drawn a small version of her cutie mark on the strap with a smile: a little personalisation never hurt.

"Alright ponies," Errant Flight's voice spoke through the little earpieces they all sported, bringing Rainbow's attention back to the present. "This here is a training mission: you pass this, we'll be pretty bucking golden. This is the situation: our colleagues in Eagle, Griffon and Lance Squadrons are flying around the city. Our job is to engage them in mock skirmish and to win with minimal casualties. If we lose more than half the squadron, I'm calling this mission aborted and failed. Clear?"

A chorus of affirmatives sounded from the rest of Grey, and Rainbow made her own noise of affirmation.

Just as they did so, a small series of dots appeared in their vision: the other squadrons, no doubt.

"Alright," Errant's voice spoke, sounding a tiny bit more urgent. "Let's do this: all flyers, sound off."

"Grey Two, aye," Dream Flyer's voice spoke calmly. As a veteran of several flights already, she was almost as calm as Errant Flight about the prospect of this skirmish test.

"Grey Three, check," White Blossom's soft voice buzzed in the microphone.

"Grey Four, ready and eager," Dark Wing's voice spoke, sounding tense but ready.

"Grey Five, aye," Bright Wonder said chirpily, sounding altogether too happy about the engagement to come.

"Grey Six, my wings are yours," said Silver Spire, surprising most of the ponies with his eloquence. He rarely spoke, like Solid Hoof, but where Solid Hoof was gruff, Silver Spire could be surprisingly grandiloquent.

"Grey Seven on station," Swift Strike spoke quickly, sounding eager as well. The young Pegasus was raring to fly his first action - even a training action - in Grey Squadron.

"Grey Eight, ready," Ditzy spoke softly, not sounding altogether enthusiastic, not that Rainbow Dash blamed her.

"Grey Nine, here," Solid Hoof said, his voice as gruff and grim as his personality.

"Grey Ten, check," True Blue said eagerly. His naive nature was endearing, though Rainbow had a horrible feeling he wouldn't feel so happy about this after he had seen real combat - she knew that all too well.

"Grey Eleven, standing by," Rainbow Dash sounded off, narrowing her eyes and keeping an eye out for hostile skirmishers.

"Grey Twelve standing by," Fluttershy added, echoing Rainbow Dash, her voice quiet but the mic picking it up nonetheless. She was, of all of them, the least happy about what was about to happen, and Rainbow Dash prayed her friend could do well here and not be too scared or even hurt.

"Alright," Errant Flight spoke. "Accelerate to faux attack speed. Remember, this is a training mission: no damage to our friendlies, and don't go full pelt."

"Roger that," Dark Wing said with a slight sneer in his voice, "we'll just have to show them whose best without roughing anypony up."

"Don't get cocky, Four," Errant admonished.

"Roger that," Dark Wing replied, sounding suitably chastised.

Now they were close enough to see their opponents from the other squadrons: the ponies of the various groups they were facing all wore white shirts with various symbols embroidered on the back, and were mimicking the traditional style of the Equestrian armies, at least for their initial run. Whether that was how they normally flew or whether it was just their decision for this flight, Rainbow didn't know, but she didn't want to think they normally flew like the enemy, given all she'd learned about the flaws of that style.

"Alright!" Errant said sharply, bringing her attention back to the now. "On my signal we'll break formation. One flight, on me. Two flight, take the left flank and try to draw some off. Three and four, up and under the bastards, let's try to frazzle their lines a bit!"

"Roger, Lead," Dark Wing said.

"Confirmed," Swift Strike added.

"Gotcha!" True Blue said eagerly.

The line of other Pegasi was getting closer and closer, so close that Rainbow could almost see e individual patterns on their uniforms...

"Grey Squadron, break ranks!" Errant Flight snapped.

"Got it!" True Blue said at once, as the other Flight leaders gave their responses. "Eleven, Twelve, on me!"

"With you, Bluey," Rainbow Dash replied quickly, using the affectionate nickname some of the team had come up with.

A moment later, the lines of Pegasi met. Errant's team went right through the centre, forcing ponies to scatter or be knocked aside. Ditzy's group went above the line, causing more Pegasi to splinter off. More ponies still went after True Blue and the others in four flight, who began a steady descent.

"Hostiles on our six!" True Blue said sounding slightly panicky.

"Don't sweat it, kid," Rainbow Dash said, looking behind her with a smirk to confirm that three ponies were on their tales. "I got this."

She banked suddenly, allowing a pony pursuing her to fly underneath her, before charging straight after him. She flipped out her wooden blade and lightly tapped his flank.

"You're dead!" she yelled at him. He turned at saw her, his eyes widening, before cursing and heading for the ground. She could have sworn she heard him mutter 'horsefeathers' as he did so. Rainbow Dash allowed herself a second to smile.

"Rainbow!" Fluttershy's voice spoke quickly into Rainbow's earpiece. Rainbow looked to see where her friend's identification dot was on her HUD, only to see a pony from one of their opponent squadrons chasing after her.

"On it!" Rainbow said quickly, charging straight at the pony, tackling him in the midsection right as he was about to catch Fluttershy. He whipped a blade out and tried to hit her, but she blocked it and moved her own to his throat.

"Gotcha," she said. He narrowed his eyes in annoyance before turning and heading for the ground.

"Three Flight needs support!" the voice of Swift Strike spoke quickly, catching Rainbow's ear. "Multiple hostiles closing on us!"

"Four Flight, form up!" True Blue's voice came urgently through her earpiece.

"Roger that!" Rainbow said. Fluttershy sounded an affirmative as well. A moment later, the three of them were flying towards the little dots that represented Three Flight.

"This one's really tight on me!" Swift Strike said, his voice tense. "I don't think - gah!"

"Grey Seven!" True Blue said frantically.

"Bucker got me!" Swift Strike said, getting annoyed. "Swift Strike, retuning to base."

"You're in charge of Three Flight now, Ditzy," the deep, gruff voice of Solid Hoof spoke.

"Four Flight? Are you on your way?" Ditzy asked, sounding quite calm.

"Should be there any second, Ditzy!" Rainbow confirmed.

"Oh good," Ditzy said simply, sounding surprisingly neutral given the grim situation she was in. "Solid Hoof, bank left, try to draw some off. I'll go right. Hopefully they'll split up, make Four Flight's job easier."

"Roger that, Eight," Solid Hoof replied. Rainbow saw him bank off, as Ditzy headed right.

"I'll cover Ditzy!" she said at once.

"Roger that," True Blue said. "Fluttershy, on me, let's keep those other guys off Solid Hoof."

"O-ok," Fluttershy said softly. She and True Blue headed off after the Pegasi chasing Solid Hoof, leaving Rainbow alone following the three on Ditzy. She sped up slightly, aiming for the three of them, then readied her blonde.

In a swift motion, she tapped all three of them on the sides as she passed them, giving them a mocking salute.

"Tag, tag, tag, you're dead!" she yelled back at them. They slowed down in surprise, and then, cursing, headed for the ground. "You're all clear Ditzy!"

"Roger that," Ditzy said, throwing a smile and a salute Rainbow Dash's way. "Thanks, Rainbow Dash."

"Don't mention it," Rainbow replied. "True Blue, what's your status?"

"We covered Solid Hoof," True Blue replied sharply, "but Fluttershy's got more on her tail now. She's banking back towards you now!"

"Gotcha," Rainbow Dash said, smiling slightly. "Come on, Ditzy, let's give our friends a big surprise!"

***

"Here's to Grey Squadron!" Bright Wonder laughed, raising a mug of Equestrian-Style Ale in the flyer's mess.

"Here, here!" everypony else said, tapping their tankards together.

The entirety of Grey Squadron was sat in the flyer's mess of the base, a spacious building with benches and a bar, celebrating a successful run. Though outnumbered, they had managed to reduce their enemy to half strength and force them to abort their mission, with only three faux casualties from the squadron.

True Blue was comforting a slightly morose Swift Strike, who was irritated at himself for being so easily taken out. Silver Spire seemed slightly less cheerful than the rest, having been taken out when Two Flight banked left and was briefly left with no support, but he was good natured about the whole thing, seeing it as a learning experience. To everypony's surprise, however, the third pony from the squadron who had been downed was Errant Flight himself, who was sheepishly grinning as he laughed with Dream Flyer and White Blossom.

"So what happened boss?" Dark Wing asked, a wry grin on his face.

"Well, we broke their centre lines, just like we were meant to," White Blossom said, sounding considerably more social with six pints of ale down her. "But there were a lot of them on our six and Three and Four's up and over plan didn't work nearly as well as he thought."

"To be fair, I should have known that they wouldn't fall for that," Errant said with a shrug. "They're not Royal Guard Pegasi Conscripts, after all. Some of these guys were Wonderbolt recruits, and even if they weren't, they're still pretty good flyers."

"So what happened?" Ditzy asked, sounding almost concerned.

"Well, when we realised so many were on our plots so to speak, Errant suggested splitting up," Dream Flyer said.

"It seemed the best bet," Errant added. "Break up the hostile squadron, make it so they were less concentrated."

"So why didn't it work?" Rainbow Dash asked, her own mug in her hand. White Blossom started sniggering and then burst out laughing, and Dream Flyer looked amused as well. Errant Flight gave Rainbow a dirty look, and her smile faltered slightly - he had yet to be so friendly or share the same camaraderie with her as he had with everypony else, even Fluttershy. She sighed, returning to her mug.

"Because they all followed him!" Blossom laughed, interrupting the dour moment. "Every last one of them!"

"Really?" Fluttershy asked, looking shocked. "Gosh. That must have been very scary!"

"A little," Errant shrugged, turning away from Rainbow Dash, "but I knew it was a test, and to be fair I flew rings around them for a good five minutes before they got me."

"I guess it's true what they say," Silver Spire said solemnly, the effect somewhat ruined by the fact that he was swaying in his seat. "Everypony meets their match eventually."

Errant laughed good-naturedly at the somewhat ominous comment, even as some members of the squad shared glances that made it clear that Silver Spire's comment had shaken them slightly.

"Maybe they do," he said softly, "but I haven't met mine proper yet." He raised a hand to get the bar pony's attention. "More drink!"

A cheer went up from the squadron, all of whom were happy to be here, happy to be with these ponies, even Rainbow Dash, who had been accepted by everypony but Errant Flight.

Just this once, before all the horrors that they all knew this war would throw their way, life was good, and each and every one of treasured that feeling.

***