One week. For one entire week I was under strict watch. I was allowed an hour of sleep for every ten hours that I trained. Each day, each hour, each minute two thoughts persisted in my mind. One I was going to enjoying being back in my bed at home and two that I was going to kill that bitch Spitfire.

“Good. Now just give me another two hundred and you can be done.” She yelled up to me.

Like I had done so many times over the past week I hurled a fireball at her as I passed. She avoided it. She always avoided it.

“Not going to work you little shit. All you’re doing is digging yourself into a deeper pile of shit. Make it three hundred laps. Unless you think you can beat me in a race.” She grinned smugly.

I had trained for a week on less than twenty hours of sleep. I was in no shape to attempt a race with her. Against my better judgement I landed in front of her.

“Oh. Feeling bold are we?” She grinned.

“Might as well hear you out. Not like I’ve got anything better to do.” I sat down.

“Well then. The race is around the outside of this training camp. I’ll go over the course with you once. After that you are on your own to beat me.” She looked me over.

“Alright.” I brought myself to my hooves.

She turned her back to me and for a split second I considered trying to attack her. A smug little grin passed over her face.

“Don’t even try it. I won’t hesitate to make you clean the latrines for the next month with your tongue. Now move it.” She jumped into the air.

I lagged behind her by a few seconds but for the most part was able to keep up with her. As we exited the training grounds everything in my sight changed. This world wasn’t a wasteland. In fact it was the farthest from a wasteland that you could be. Spitfire had stopped just on the outskirts of the base.

“Yeah. Yeah. How about you take a picture it’ll last longer.” She smirked. “Now get your flank over here. I am only going over this once so if you fail out here then it’s back to the track.” She continued flying.

I didn’t hesitate. I was not going to let myself get beat because I didn’t know the course. The course was about two or three miles long. I knew that I would be able to make my way through this course easily enough. I was unsure whether or not I would be able to beat Spitfire.

“So that’s the course. You have twelve hours to prepare yourself. If you are late to the starting line then the race is off and you go back to the track. Understood.” She landed back in the base.

I saluted her. It hurt me to do it but everytime I failed to I got a strong kick to the face. The first thing I did was head to my bed. I was going to tell Rose about everything that had happened.

I woke up in my bed at home. Rose was sitting in her usual chair watching over my bed. Her face filled with delight. She nearly killed me once she got her hooves on me. She had dragged me into a hug and I could barely breath. After she released me she smacked my flank a few times before hugging me again.

“It’s nice to see you.” She held up a note.

‘Where in tartarus have you been. I have been worried sick about you.’

“I was in another world. Somepony took me over there because they had been contracted to make sure I got trained in a safe environment. It’s a long story but I have been allowed to come back here for a few hours so I can be rested up for a race.”

A look of confusion and fear was spread across her face.

“So here is the short version. For the last week this bitch.” She gave me the death stare. “Sorry. This mare named Spitfire has been training me to fly and control my empatha. She didn’t let me come back here so that’s why I’ve been gone this entire time.”

She set me down. ‘You know I’m not happy about this right. For all I knew you were dead somewhere in the wasteland.’

I looked at her. A tear rolled down my cheek.

She quickly wrote up another note. ‘I’m not mad just disappointed. Now rest up and go win that race.’

“Thank you.”

I went back to sleep. Instead of being teleported back to the other world I had a pleasant eight hour nap.

When I woke back up Spitfire was standing over me.

“Welcome back. Now prepare yourself because here in about one hour I am going to whoop your flank into submission.” She stepped over me.

“Good luck with that you.. You.” I was trying to think up a new insult.

“You what? I’ve heard worse than you can come up with kid.”

“Go get bucked by a boar. I’m not going to take your shit any longer. So good luck and maybe don’t buck with me.” I stood up.

“Or what?” She smiled at me. Her eyes dared me to do something.

I smiled for a few seconds before the tip of my wing came to rest at the base of Spitfire’s throat. I gave her a wicked grin and then slasher her face with my wing. I small stream of blood started to drip down her face.

“Or you’ll get another one of those. Now leave before I make you regret being here.” My horn started to charge magic.

Spitfire didn’t let any fear show in her face. She simply flew out the door.

“Thought so.” I released the magic I was preparing.

Crimson Skull stomped on the ground a few times. “Well well well. Excellent work. You just made yourself a powerful enemy.” He trotted over.

“Oh so you’re here to. Thought you might stop in to tell me I couldn’t do it before I went out.” I glared at him angrily.

“Oh, no no no. I heard a commotion and walk in to see you give her a good smack across the face. I thought I’d congratulate you.” He smiled.

“Why?” I was confused as to why I would be congratulated for something like that.

“Because if you lose I get to watch her beat you into the ground. That is going to be fun.” A devilish smile crossed his face.

I looked at him for a second before walking out the door. I walked towards the track. Ace was flying around. He spotted me as I walked up.

“Hey Silver how are you doing?” He landed next to me.

“How do you think? I have to beat Spitfire in a race or else she’ll be riding my ass forever.” I kicked the ground a few times.

“So you would rather be riding her ass?” He smirked.

“What?” These ponies never really made sense to me.

“Nothing. Let me tell you something. She isn’t the best pony in the world but she gets the job done. I bet if you can beat her she might actually respect you. Maybe she’ll give you a celebration prize.” He winked.

“Like what?” I had no clue what he was trying to do.

“You are hopeless kid. I might explain it to you one day.” He shook his head,

Spitfire landed next to me. I was expecting a hoof to strike me. Nothing of the sort happened.

“I tell you what kid. I respect you for standing up for yourself. If you beat me then we ease up on the training. If you lose it’s five hundred laps a day. At least for the first few weeks. Then it will be one thousand. And after two or three months I might let you try again. Might.” She took off again.

The speakers across camp came to life with noise. “Attention to all soldiers. We are having a race in less than an hour. If you want to place bets come to HQ and place your bet.”

A group of stallions passed by. “Like anypony is going to bet that kid will win.”

“I bet you fifty bits that he doesn’t.”

“Agreed.”

“Hey Silver.” Ace snapped his talons to draw my attention back.

“What Ace?” I was really uncertain about this race.

“You got this and you know why.” He put a claw on my shoulder.

“No.” I put it in the simplest manner I could.

“With the amount of training you’ve done you’ll be able to win easily.” He took his claw off me and sat it back on the ground.

“Well it is just a straight race to the finish nothing too complex.” I shrugged.

“Wait did she not tell you?” His voice was somewhere in between anger and confusion.

“Tell me what?” I stared into his eyes.

“You will have to use your empatha a few times. I suppose she wouldn’t tell you. She is afraid of you after all. Watch out though you’ll need to use fire to light a few targets on fire and Spitfire is one of the best fire empaths.” He was giving me as many tips as he could.

“Ten minutes until the race. This is the last call for bet placing.” The speakers were really annoying. I considered blowing it up with a fireball.

I took to the air and headed towards the starting line.

“Anypony at all want to place a bet that the kid will win?” The stallion behind the counter was getting ready to shut the cage.

“Yes actually.” Violet dragged Blaze along.

“Violet, Blaze what are you doing here?” The stallion was surprised about the appearance of Violet and Blaze.

“We are placing our bets.” Violet grabbed a bag full of bits.

“Alright how much?” The stallion looked over his charts.

“100 bits on Silver winning.” Violet dropped the bag on the counter.

“Well that is your choice. Let me tell you the odds of him winning are a million to one. But I guess if you are willing to lose 100 bits then I suppose that's your choice.” He slid the bits under the counter.

“He’ll win. We believe in him.” Blaze looked up at the screen that was capturing the race.

I stood at the starting line. I was reassuring myself that I could beat Spitfire and rub it in everypony's face. Spitfire landed next to me.

“Ready for this kid?” In response I simply called upon on my rage and lit my wing on fire.

“Well seems Ace told you about that then didn’t he?” I nodded. “Choosing to stay quiet huh? Good choice. Bragging isn’t really a good thing to be doing before a race.”

“Then why are you talking?” I put my wing as close to her as possible.

“Intimidation you little shit. Now shut up.” She was tempted to smack me.

“Is everypony ready?” We both nodded. “Three. Two. One.” A whistle sounded.

As I took to the air a hoof struck me in the chest. “Good luck winning now kid.” Spitfire shot off into the distance.

“Did she just do that?” The mare with the whistle looked at me.

“Seems she did.” Ace was standing there waiting for me to get up.

I took off in a flash. Each ring that I passed went by in a blur. Every ten or so hoops a target was stationed next to it. Without a second thought my empatha kicked in and took the target down.

I had just finished the first lap and Spitfire was starting to lose her lead. Something told me she wasn’t really trying. I was slowly catching up to her but I wasn’t sure that I could even clear the distance between the two of us.

Time seemed to stop before me. Rose stood in front of me. Her smile was as bright as I had ever seen it.

Her note was there in front of me. ‘You can do it Silver. Beat her.’ A grin overtook my face as I found speed that I didn’t know I had. A bolt of lightning shot out from my hooves and I was almost upon Spitfire.

Her head twisted around to see me speeding towards her. I saw her mouth ‘what the buck’ just before I flew past her.

I didn’t dare to look back to see what she was doing. I completed the second lap and was over a quarter of a lap in front of Spitfire. She must have snapped out of her shock and started flying faster than she had been. She was slowly catching up to me.

I was on the last lap of this race. I looked back to see that Spitfire was trying to catch me so she could throw me to the ground.

“Come here. I will not be beat by a little piece of horse shit like you.” Her hooves reached for me menacingly.

I again kicked my back legs and unleashed a little bit of lightning. The action tired me out a bit.

“Get back here so I can snap your pathetic little neck.” She dodged and pulled back a small bit.

“How about no.” I kicked my back legs again but no lightning accompanied my motion.

I flipped over so I could look into her eyes. “Hey I hear you are into some weird things. You like the taste of things that most ponies don’t. So tell me after the race how this tastes.”

I hit the last hoop and landed. Spitfire landed just barely out of reach a few seconds later. She spat a few times before speaking.

“I am going to kill you I hope you know that.” She was drying her face off with a towel somepony had tossed her.

“Bite me.” I spat at her hooves.

“Is that a challenge?” She spun towards me.

“I thought you didn’t swing that way Spitfire.” Ace stepped forward putting a wing over me.

“Shut up Ace. Did you see what that kid do to me?” She was grinding her teeth.

“What you mean release his bowels because you were trying to kill him? Oh yeah. Nice job by the way Silver.” Ace held out a claw. I hoof bumped him.

Spitfire was nearly out of control of her emotions. One of her wings glew a bright orange and the other was covered in ice.

“It could have been worse you know.” Ace drew his wing down a bit lower.

“How?” Her wings both erupted in flame.

“Well I could call you shithead instead of pissface.” I knew he wanted to stick his tongue out at her but was afraid to. So I did it for him.

“Well it seems that Silver has won this race. That means that he is free from your tyranny as a teacher.” Ace was gloating.

“I would have won if he hadn’t pissed in my face.” Spitfire spun towards him.

Crimson was being brought up in a balloon. “That is debatable. I do however agree with Ace. Silver did win and has therefore passed through his flight training.”

Crimson Skull landed on the platform.

“From here on he has earned the title of Private. He is to be treated accordingly.” He grabbed a small badge and levitated it to me.

“But he is just a child.” Spitfire was speaking in a low voice.

“Yes and he beat one of our best fliers in a race. That and he has officially received the base training we give to any other pegasus who wants to join our corp.” Crimson was done with this conversation.

Spitfire did not take him seriously. “Are you serious?”

“Yes I am Lieutenant. Dismissed.” He tapped a hoof on the ground.

“But.” Spitfire was searching for her words.

“Did I stutter Lieutenant!?” Crimson got right up into Spitfire’s face.

“No Sir.” She saluted him.

“You may take your leave now. You too Ace. I need to talk to Silver here. Alone.” He waved them off.

“Understood Sir.” Ace saluted and took to the air.

Both of them left us alone. I started giggling at Spitfire. Her face and uniform were drenched. Crimson caught me giggling.

“Something funny?” His voice had taken a much less authoritative tone.

“Um. Um.” I didn’t want to say why I was laughing.

“Let me guess you have something to do with why Spitfire is angry don’t you?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Ye- Yes Sir.” I saluted.

“What did you do?” He pushed my hoof to the ground.

“I kind of pissed in her face.” I shrunk down.

“That’s what happened?” He broke out into a full blown laugh.

“Uhm.” I was certain I would be punished.

“Oh sorry. She needed to be taken down a peg or two. I just never thought that somepony would have chosen that as the way for it to happen.” He laughed a little bit more before stopping.

I was very confused at what was currently happening.

“So I’m not in trouble.” I was super confused. If I had done something like that when Rose was present I would have been punished.

“Son you are now a member of our army. You are a Private here and must start acting like it. I will give you some time to adjust seeing as you have been a civilian up to this point.” He was very to the point.

“Ok.” I was still confused but went with it.

“Now come with me. I have something to show you.” Crimson hopped into the balloon and descended.

We went back to HQ. Outside Blaze and Violet were kissing.

“I knew he could do it. I just knew it.” Violet wrapped her hooves around Blaze.

“And did you see that last little bit. Spitfire had to have swallowed some of that. That was hilarious.” They both started laughing.

We trotted over to them. “Oh hi Silver. Excellently done. You beat Spitfire that is a major accomplishment. Nopony has been able to do that to date. Well nopony who is still alive.” Blaze pushed Violet away.

“Also nice little trick with the golden shower.” Violet was giggling again.

“What?” I was getting really tired of not knowing what was going on most of the time.

“We’ll explain when you’re older.” Blaze waved his hoof.

“Why does everypony keep saying that?” I was getting really annoyed.

They both looked at each other smiling. Blaze turned around to grab something. When he turned back around a large bag was dragged in tow.

“What is this?” The bag tipped over.

“Just a little something you earned since you beat Spitfire.” Blaze turned back to Violet.

I cut open the bag with the tip of my wing. Little golden coins spilled out. “Uhm.” I was unsure what I was being given.

“Oh you must not use bits where you come from. Well these are bits here they act as our currency and that is about half a million bits right there. We won big betting on you.”

Crimson gave them both a disapproving look. “You two bet on this kid?” He shook his head.

“Had to keep it interesting somehow. Besides no harm would have come from it.” Blaze waved his hoof at Crimson.

All I could do was stare in awe at all the money that was before me. “What do I do with all of this?” The question had been meant to stay to me but apparently I was talking louder than I thought.

“Well kid you can do anything you want with it. Personally if you were a bit older I would take you to a” A hoof hit him in the side. “Ow what was that for Violet?” He clutched his side.

“I know what you were going to say and I don’t approve.” She gave him the death glare.

“It was just a joke. Lighten up.” He laughed a little bit bringing himself pain every time he did.

“He doesn’t understand some of the stuff we say so don’t you think you should explain stuff to him before you even go suggesting stuff like that?” Violet’s voice calmed down a small bit.

“Fine. So Silver when two ponies love each other very much they.” He would have gone on but Violet tackled him.

“Shut up.” Violet punched him again.

“But I want to know what he was going to say.” I was intrigued.

They both spoke in unison. “Ask Rose.” Blaze continued to grasp his side.

“Ok.” I made a mental not to ask Rose about this once I got home. The sun was still pretty high in the sky.

“Hey Violet.” I tapped on Violet’s leg staying away from her just in case.

“Yes Silver.” She reached out and drew me closer.

“Can we do some magic training. In my time here I haven’t gotten to train any of my alicorn magic.” I hoofed at the ground.

“Well I suppose we could do a few things today.” She tilted my head up to look at her.

“Can you get off of me?” Blaze was trying desperately to get out from under her.

“Oh you know you love it.” She stood a little bit and then dropped back down onto him.

“Dammit.” He growled.

“Let’s go Silver. We have some magical training to do.” Violet was eager to get me away from Blaze.

We walked for a few minutes before we reached a building where unicorns were practicing their magic.

“Ok let’s start out simple. Try and levitate this rock.”

The rock was about half my size. I knew that with my strength I could lift it easily. I tried once to lift the rock but to no avail. I tried again and again before I eventually just had to stop.

“Thought so. That rock absorbs magic. It seems to be almost overloaded. That is a good sign. Most unicorns can’t even get to this point. A few extremely well trained unicorns can but they are rare.” She tapped the rock.

“Can you do it?” I looked at the rock.

“I am one of the few who can overload it. Now then try to lift this rock.” The rock was of similar size but was gray instead of black.

The rock lifted off the ground with almost no resistance. I held the rock in midair for a few seconds before putting it back down. Violet pointed to another rock and I lifted it. We eventually made it to rocks that were about the size of most of the ponies around here. That rock had proved to be my match.

“Well. Most unicorns your age might have been able to lift that second or third rock by themselves but after that well.” She shrugged.

“So what that means I did good right?” I was excited.

“Well we don’t have any accurate data on the limits of alicorns but given what I have been I would say yes you have.” She smiled and patted my head.

I looked at the horizon. The sun was setting and I wanted to go home.

“Go ahead Silver. I bet Rose will be beyond happy to see you.” She pushed me towards the barracks.

“Thank you.” I galloped off in the direction of the barracks. I couldn’t wait to go home.