I found myself in some dark room until a bright light flashed in my eyes. I put a hoof over my eyes then moved it away once my eyes had adjusted. I was in a room filled with various contraptions, there looked to be a stone table about the length of a pony that had straps in the corners and a small grated hole in the center. In the corner there was an iron mare that was open so you could see the spikes within, they were already stained with blood. Hanging from the ceiling were various rusted hooks, some contained chunks of dripping meat and flesh. A door towards the back of the room slowly opened. CC walked through the door and smiled at me. It's good to see her, hopefully she can tell me where I am and how to get out of here. She giggled slightly and began to walk next to the iron mare, and through no action of my own I followed her. My hoof reached out and opened the mare then shoved CC in impaling her on the spikes in the back of it, some of her blood and brain matter landing on me. The metallic spikes were sticking out all over her body with a few coming out through her head, with one knocking her eye out. Somehow she still wasn't dead and her face stared at me in horror and disbelief. Why am I doing this? Whats making me do this to her? I'm not this kind of pony. CC screamed out as my hooves reached out and slowly closed the mare on her, her screams now becoming quieter due to the blood pooling in her neck. I backed away from the maiden and watched her blood leak from it and onto the floor staining it a dark crimson.

I jolted up in my bead covered in a cold sweat. The hell was that? Hopefully it's just stress getting the better of me. I turned the gem in my room on with the switch on the wall then looked at the clock, it was four in the morning. I might as well get something to eat then head over to the training grounds. I went into the bathroom and took care of business. Just before flushing I looked down into the toilet to see it was completely filled with blood, it bubbled slightly then an eye rose from the bottom and looked up at me making me jump back. I shook my head and rubbed my eyes then looked back into the toilet to find it to be completely the normal. "The buck is going on.... get it together Damian, your just tired is all, yea." I flushed the toilet then washed my hooves and left my room. I walked down the hall rubbing my head, what the hell was that all about? When I got into the cafeteria I found it fairly empty. Kinda expected at the time, there were only a few creatures in right now, including that one pony I saw when I first got here. He was still completely covered in clothes from head to hoof. He wasn't glowing like last time, I guess today is another good day. I got a tray and went up to the lunch mare.

"Meat or veggies?"

"Veggies." She threw some fried hay onto my tray so I went and took a seat. I ate slowly mainly due to wondering what the specifics of the training would be, and who would be my special instructor. I would love if CC could be, but I don't really see myself as somepony that can stay in the back of a fight. For some reason if I ever picture myself in a hardcore battle i see myself charging the line with some form of blade while screaming like an idiot, and maybe yelling something cool like THIS IS EQUESTRIA! Although CC did mention something about going through some training to see if we could fulfill some other role as well, I wonder what she meant by that. I shrugged then finished my food. I left the mess hall and headed towards the room I was supposed to receive training in, it took about twenty minutes for me to get to it. It was another pair of double doors and above them was a picture of a pair of weights. I walked through the doors and saw that it was the same room me and Hammer fought all those recruits in.

TWANG

THUNK

I guess somepony is practicing their archery. I went under the catwalk and found an opening in the room that lead to the target range. I looked around the room and found CC shooting at an archery target on the far left, her target was at least twenty yards away. She was standing while holding a slightly transparent blue bow, and for some reason she had on a pair of goggles. As she drew the string back an arrow materialized in the bow. She let go of the string which sent the arrow flying through the air and into the bulls eye of the target. I trotted up behind her as she continued to hit her mark again and again. As I got a few feet from her she stopped firing but kept staring at the target "Announce yourself or take one to the knee."

"Geez that's a little harsh when I was coming over here to be all like HOLY CRAP YOU CAN SHOOT and stuff"

She turned around with a small smile on her face and made the bow disappear "Oh, hey Damian, what are you doing up so early?"

"I.." I began to say until her face had gaping holes in it and she was missing her eye. I shook my head and blinked my eyes a few times then looked back at her. She was perfectly fine.. weird "I couldn't sleep..."

"That's too bad, luckily today is your first day so they are gonna try to break you in slow."

"That's good to hear, so willing to give me the basic rundown for what's going to happen today?"

"Well..." I stared at her with big puppy dog eyes "fiiine, your gonna mainly do some conditioning, then they are gonna teach you the basics of turning your energy into a weapon or shield"

"Cool, are they not going to go over the process of using you energy to null some pain or anything that's more of an internal application of spiritual power?"

"No, that's actually a fairly advanced step. It takes most people a really long time to use their energy on themselves like that, seems your ahead of the curve."

I blushed a bit then kicked some of the dirt on the floor "Aww its nothing, plus I owe it all to Max. Speaking of which I haven't seen him since I got here, any reason for that?"

"Well our compound here is heavily fortified with spells and enchantments to keep any and everything out that isn't supposed to be here."

"Compound? The hell I've been in the same building these past two months, your telling me there's more?"

She nodded while giggling slightly, covering her hoof with her mouth. GAH the cuteness. "There's quite a number of buildings similar to this one and bigger."

"Bigger? Jesus, how can they build a place that's bigger?"

"With enough space."

"Do you guys own like a quarter of the planet?"She giggled again, placing her hoof over her mouth once more. So cute.

She shook her head a bit then smiled as she looked over her shoulder "Hey Patches" She waved a hoof to somepony behind me. I turned around to see that pony covered in black clothing. He took all the clothes off of himself and placed them next to the door. He was about as big as me with an odd colored coat that was a combination of various colors, all of which where kinda lighter as if they were parts of a corpse. He had a short black messy mane and tail to match. He walked towards us and as he got closer I noticed all the stitches on his body connecting all the color together. His cutie mark was that of a needle and thread. "So did you come in to say Hi or just to practice."

He smiled at her and spoke with a deep voice "A bit of both, today's been good so I'm hoping to force some of it out so it lasts longer."

She nodded "That's good to hear, well your spot is set up for you, add more if you want but you have to replace them yourself once you start." She pointed to an area down the range that was secluded and covered in scorch marks. There was a group of what I could best call small ogre targets set up as if they were surrounding somepony. Patches walked into the middle of the targets and took a readied stance. He suddenly began to glow a bright blue then his body exploded sending piece of him and the targets everywhere.

"THE HELL!? HE JUST BLEW HIMSELF UP!"

"Calm down Damian, just watch." My mouth hung open in astonishment, he just killed himself and shes telling me to calm down. She grabbed my head and forced me to look at where he exploded. I watched the area as his body parts began to roll or crawl back to that area and put themselves back together. I fell over onto the floor staring at patches who is now perfectly fine.

"I do not have the words to describe how confused I am, nor how messed up that looks. He just killed himself, then put himself back together."

CC giggled and helped me get back up "That's just Patches, he kinda does that." She leaned in and whispered in my ear "He is able to do that because of the amount of spiritual power he has. It's too much for his body to bear so it explodes, he has been getting better about when it explodes but he can't control it all the time. His body is dead, and most of the pieces aren't his, so after he explodes he uses his power to bring the pieces back together. If his spirit ever becomes aware that he is no longer alive he will die."

"Oh..." I looked down at the floor. That really sucks, I wonder how long hes been here, or if he even realizes any of that. I suppose he has to kinda stay in a blissful ignorance to stay alive. I back up and sit against the wall to watch Patches explode and put himself back together for the next two hours. I hear ponies enter the other room so I get up and go into the room. I see a large group of ponies gather in front of the old pony that played the video for me and Hammer. I go into the middle of the group and look around for Hammer. I found him towards the front and we gave a brohoof before looking to the old stallion.

"LISTEN UP MAGGOTS! I AM YOUR BASIC TRAINING INSTRUCTOR! THE NEXT FEW WEEKS MY WORD IS LAW! YOU WILL BE PUSHED TO YOUR LIMITS, I WILL BREAK YOU! I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND AND I AM NOT HERE TO HELP YOU! MY JOB IS TO SEE IF YOU HAVE THE PHYSICAL CAPABILITIES TO BE PART OF STATERA!" Everypony stomps their hooves and takes an upright position including Hammer and myself. He walks up and down the rows of ponies inspecting everypony he walks past until he comes up to me and Hammer. "HOLY CRAP LOOKS LIKE THE GAY LOVERS DECIDED TO JOIN US TODAY!" I sighed and lowered my head as Hammer kept his head up and grew a smile on his face. "AM I GOING TO HAVE TO SEPARATE YOU TWO BUTT RUTTERS SO YOU CAN ACTUALLY TRAIN?!"

"*sigh* No" I raise my head back up.

"THAT'S NO SIR!" He smacked me in the back of the legs making me fall over. I attempt to stand back up as he places his hoof on my back pushing me back down. "DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"

"Sir Yes Sir!" He gets off of me and lets me get back up.

"Good, now then FOR THE REST OF YOU MAGGOTS, IF YOU CANNOT GET THROUGH MY TRAINING YOU WILL BE SENT HOME WITH NO MEMORY OF THIS! IF YOU SOMEHOW PASS, WHICH VERY FEW OF YOU ARE EXPECTED TO DO, AND THEN FAIL, YOU SHALL BE KILLED!" He walked back up and down the rows with a small smirk on his face. "IF YOU WORRIED YOU MAY NOT LIVE LEAVE NOW!" After this a small group of ponies left the training area. We looked back to the old stallion "PUSSIES! ALRIGHT FAGGOTS RUN LAPS!" With that we all started to run for the next few hours then he had us all do various workout exercises, some with weights, others with him sitting on our backs or stomachs. We spent the rest of the day doing basically the same routine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One Week Later

I walked into the training grounds about ten minutes late to see a group of unconscious ponies. I raise an eyebrow as I see the old stallion wearing a pair of glasses while watching Hammer and some other pony fighting in the middle of a large circle. He looked over to me then yelled out "CATCHER! YOUR GETTING SENT TO THE NEXT INSTRUCTOR, ESPECIALLY SINCE YOU CAN'T TURN OFF YOUR DAMN POWER!" I nodded and headed into the room that he pointed to. Inside the room is a small group of ponies sitting in a circle meditating and making small balls of energy form between their extended hooves. The instructor walks around the circle starring at all of them then sees me. She is a light brown pony with a blonde mane and tail wearing a pair of glasses. She had a cutie mark of a black and white circle with a small white circle in the black part and a small black circle in the white part.

She got close to me and spoke softly "Hi, you must be Damian, my name is Patience, right now everyone is focusing on energy control so they make manipulate it later." I nodded slightly

"I see that, Max had me do a lot of that while I was in Detrot."

"I heard, we normally hear stories of titulari having the dead of their kind teach them."

"Well I didn't get much of a choice he kinda forced himself into my life ever since I can remember."

"He probably showed up when you were young so he could protect you from various demons, soul eaters, and spirits."

"Oh... never thought about that." She had a small smile on her face and nodded slightly.

"Well come back here tomorrow we'll be making weapons."

"Alright, thanks Patience." I left the room and training grounds then headed for my room. I opened the room then immediately collapsed on my bed and passed out.

I found myself back in that torture room that I had dreamed about before, but this time on one of the metal hooks was CC's head. The spike jutted out of her forehead and her eyes seemed to follow me around the room. Why am I back in this nightmare? My body moved towards the table to find Hammer tied down to it. Next to the table was a small metal tray on wheels with various knives and saws on it. I picked up a scalpel then ran it's blade down Hammer's stomach and chest causing him to scream out in pain. I set the scalpel down then pulled open and stretched out his wound, tearing his flesh in the process. Hammer just kept screaming and screaming as he wriggled around trying to break free. With each scream more blood poured from his body. I reached inside him and pulled out his organs letting them then hang from his sides. Once I came across his heart I pulled it out and watched it beat in my hooves. It stopped quickly as I then pushed it into Hammer's mouth and down his throat.I jolted awake in a cold sweat. I looked around to see I was in my room so I checked the clock, six a.m. I got up and went to the bathroom and took care of business. I left my room and shook my head trying to get that nightmare out. Seriously, why am I have such messed up dreams lately? Maybe it was something I ate. I headed to the training grounds then into the meditation room to find Patience there meditating.

"Hello Damian, class doesn't start for another hour."

"Yea, I know, just couldn't sleep so I thought I might get some meditation in."

"It's good to see a young pupil who understands the importance of having ones mind and soul be at peace." She said as she smiled.

"You say that as if your some old pony" I gave a small chuckle and took a seat next to her then began to mediate.

"Well I am thirty two."

"You don't look a day over nineteen Patience."

"That's very sweet of you Damian, but I'm not going to give you any special treatment for it."

"Damn and here I thought by being nice I could just skip all this training." We both laughed slightly then went back to meditating. As we continued for the rest of the hour a few ponies came into the room and joined us. Once the room was filled with all the ponies from yesterday Patience got up and cleared her throat.

"Alright class, today we are going to learn how to turn our spiritual essence into weapons. Now as you might imagine this is going to be building on what we have been doing for the past week. So to start you need to focus your energy out and into your hand like so" She raised her hoof to show a light blue glowing ball in her hand. "Then you take it and stretch it out and feed your energy into it. Once done it will turn into the weapon best suited for you." She stretched out her ball and it turned into a rapier. She then pointed the thing blade at me and smiled "Your turn Damian."

"Alright" I took a deep breath as everyone stared at me. I stood up and made a ball of energy form in between my hooves then stretched it out while feeding energy into it. I grasped the handle and found it to be a longsword. I smiled and stared at it while turning it in my hand. It was just a transparent light blue sword. "I was always fond of the look of swords over other blades."

"Well that's good looks like from today on Swift Blade is going to be teaching you from today on. Now everyone else try and make your weapon form. Come with me Damian." I nodded and followed her out of the room. "I'm going to send you to Swift early. I'm going to be holding the rest of the class for the next few weeks that way they can get more accustomed to bringing out their spiritual power and using it, you seem to have a natural grasp for it."

"Ok" I followed her through the training grounds to a room with various logs a few hanging, and some dummies holding swords and shields. There was the pony who knocked me out the first day I woke up here. He looked at me then raised his eyebrow.

"So your weapon is a sword?" I nodded as he stared me down. "Show me" I stood up and made the sword appear in my hoof. Just as it appeared he lunged at me with a sword in his hooves. I was barely able to move my blade in the way of his making me stumble and fall on my back. He placed the tip of his blade at my throat. "Are you prepared to die?"

"I am prepared, but not willing" I smacked his sword away with mine making his cut up my neck and chin. I jumped up and charged at him swinging my sword down towards his head. He blocked my attack and smiled at me.

"Alright, I'll train you, Patience, take him to the infirmary to get him fixed up." I followed her off as I continued to bleed. I began to feel dizzy and fell over blacking out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My training has been going well so far, Swift has taught me a lot. I'm now one of the best swordsmen in all of Statera. That first day with Swift has left a scar on my neck and chin, but just the other day I was able to repay him with one just over his eye. I walked into his training room when all of a sudden I was hit in the back of the head and I blacked out. I woke up later finding myself in a dimly light room while tied to a chair. An ogre stepped into view. He was tall, at least eight feet. His body was green and seemed slimey, he also had a short lizard-esk tail. He had a small piece or armor on each of his upper arms and then around his wrists. He had a piece of chain mail over his chest while holding a rather large metal hammer in both hands.

"Welcome small one" He smirked at me revealing yellow cracked and jagged teeth. His voice was very deep and had a thick accent to it.

"Who the hell said I was small?" He swung the back of his hand at me smacking me across the face.

"Your pony, thus you small"

"Ow, why did you smack me?" He punched me square in the face causing my nose to bleed."BUCK!" He punched me in the stomach knocking the wind out of me. I gasped for air as he smirked and swung his hammer at me hitting me in the side of the head with a loud crack. Then everything went black. Water splashed on my face waking me up. My entire body was sore and my head was throbbing. I could feel the bruises and cuts left from his blows. My left eye was swollen making it hard to see, I looked down to see that he had pounded on the rest of my body while I was out. I was covered in bruises and bleeding slightly from various places. I looked up to see him smiling at me again. He held his hammer in his hand proudly.

"Looks like Bertha put you out for while small one. She always do me proud. Now prepare for this one have power to it." He took a readied stance and began to make his hammer glow with a light blue tint. Awww buck, he can empower his stuff, this is really gonna hurt. He swung it at me nailing me right in the stomach. My eyes bulged out of my head as I coughed up blood while trying to scream out in pain but couldn't. The little vision I had went fuzzy as he stared at me with a smile then continued his onslaught. "PONY!" I jolted awake still tied down to the chair. My eye was still swollen as I looked to see him holding a pair of hoof cuffs. "Today is fun day, today Vlad get toys." What the hell does he mean by toys? He swung the handcuffs and caught me across my face. They left a rather large bruise on my already swollen head. He brought it back around to hit me in the jaw. He began to laugh as he picked up a wooden stool and broke it over my shoulder knocking it out of its socket. I screamed out in pain only to make him laugh a bit more. "Sorry small one, let me fix that." He shoved it back into the socket making me scream out more. He slapped me across the face a few times to see if I was awake. I tried to move my head away from him which made him chuckle. He picked up a small knife then began cutting the swollen parts of my body. They began to bleed profusely as he started to slap parts of my face with the blade. He caught me above my eye that I could still see out of causing me to keep my eye closed. He continued to beat me with very objects for the next few hours. This treatment continued for what felt like the next few days. I awoke to find myself in a hospital gown and in a hospital room. I tried to move my legs but found I was still tied down. I tried to force my way out of the bindings but was too weak.

"Calm down or else they'll have to knock your out with a shot." I turned my head to see CC in the doorway.

"Why the hell did they knock me out and torture me?" She wouldn't look directly at me and held her head fairly low.

"It's part of entering Statera, every member had to do it, including me and Patches." I sighed and looked down relaxing back onto the bed. "Just rest and wait for Hammer to have his share, once he recovers you both will start being assigned missions."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I stood in Bonzu's office with CC waiting for Hammer to show up so we could be assigned our mission. Hammer walked into the office with bruises across all his body. "Hey, how did it go?"

"He decided to go a little easy on me since I was training with him, I got my cutie mark now since I found out I use hammers, but you'll have to wait for the bruises to fade."

"That's awesome, can't wait to see what it looks like."

"Its probably like mine just with a Hammer in front. Now let's get started." Bonzu commented and moved around some papers on his desk. "First off, CC, your being moved from alpha group to theirs as punishment for allowing the two of them to hospitalize those trainees."

"Awww, but that imp got loose in sector..." CC lowered her ears while frowning.

"I don't care, they took out twenty ponys, besides they need an old hand to show them the ropes. Also Patches will be helping you out." She perked up a bit at that. "Now the second matter is getting Damian and Hammer out of here, don't worry it'll be quick and CC will inform you on the mission while your in route."

"What do you mean she'll...." I was stopped short as something hit me in the back of the head knocking me out.

Author's note: Damn I took far too long with this chapter. I blame anime expo and comic con. Well shit is finally started so hopefully I'll be faster. Shout out to atomiczoo for having Damian get beat with hoof cuffs. With that May the Cheese be with you!