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Displacement

by hornethead

Chapter 15: Training Day

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Chapter 15: Training Day

The hospital staff had tried to stop James and Flash from leaving so soon, but reluctantly let them go when a guard informed them of the two's status' in the Royal Guard. After they made the walk back to the house -- which was thankfully uneventful -- James interrogated Feather Touch about his past a little bit.

"I grew up with just my dad, mom wasn't ever around. He was a locksmith back in Manehattan, one of the best. He taught me everything he knew. He said that one day he hoped I could take over the business and when I got my cutie mark, it looked like a sure thing." And indeed, his cutie mark was that of a torque wrench crossed with a snake rake. "But he went on a sketchy job one day that turned out to be some robbers trying to gain easy access to some rich guys house. When pops found out, he threatened to turn them all in. It turned out that these burglars worked for one of the mafia gangs that operated there. One day, he just didn't come home."

"Damn. So how did you get to be working for the same type of scum?"

"Well, word got out about the job he tried to stop, but everyone assumed he was involved with the burglars. Ponies stopped coming to the shop and eventually the bank took it back. I tried to get jobs elsewhere, but once they found out I was his son, I was rejected. I didn't know what else I could do."

"Remember when I said I could give you a choice? Well, here it is: you can go back to what you were doing, try to strike out on your own again. Alternatively, you can come join my team. Flash informed me that the guard paid no attention to you besides getting a statement. That means you have no arrests on the record, which means that you are VERY good at what you do. I need skill like that. The training will be hard, it will be a very painful stretch of time in your life, but if you complete it you can be part of something good. It will be honest work for a greater cause. So, what do you think?"

Feather Touch thought for a moment and stared out one of the windows. After a moment he turned back to the human.

"I'll do it."

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James looked himself over in the mirror. His face was a bit cut up in places and he had a few bruises, but thankfully that was all. His nose did hurt still, but it hadn't been broken. His jaw had taken a good hit, but the worst injury was his right side where he had gotten bucked. A large purple and yellow bruise covered a circular area about a foot in diameter. Miraculously, no ribs had been broken, but if he twisted or bent in certain ways, pain shot up his side. He would have to take it easy for a few days.

Other than that, he looked pretty good. Clean shaven, hair shorn close to his scalp in a regulation high and tight. The most impressive feature however, was the pressed dark camouflage uniform he was currently wearing. Rarity had done and amazing job on his uniform and had even thrown in a matching boonie hat that was modeled after his other one. His sleeves were rolled up just above his elbow and the cuffs of his pants were bloused smartly around the tops of his boots. He was ready.

James stepped out of the head and inspected the barracks room one more time. It now had seven beds, he had helped Sparks construct it to accommodate Feather Touch. Now all he had to do was greet the recruits and set them on schedule. They were due to arrive soon. He left the building and went to the briefing room. It now had a chalk board and several small desks. In the back was a smaller room that would serve as his on site office. Being an officer certainly had it's perks.

James had finally solved the meal situation by striking a deal with Applejack. Her farm would supply food every day for a monthly fee. They'd negotiated the price out so that the farm mare could hire an extra hoof for the job, leaving her free to continue running her business. He had even asked Fluttershy to remain on call, should any of his recruits need emergency medical attention during their ordeal. The hospital was quite a ways from the training grounds and her cottage was far closer.

Soon, he heard the unmistakable sound of many hooves striking the ground increasing in volume. When it sounded like they were almost in front of the building, James strode out to meet them. Sparks was leading the seven ponies in a small two columned formation. It consisted of two earth, unicorn and pegasi in armor correlating to their respective guard units. The Day Guard wore shiny golden armor with Trojan tops while the Night Guard wore armor in matching design, only with a dark purple color. James also noticed that the Day Guard ponies all had white coats and the Night Guard were all a dark charcoal color. Also, the Night Guard pegasus had the wings of a bat rather than the feathered ones of a regular pegasus. He wondered at that for a second, but decided to ask about it later. Bringing up the rear was Feather Touch.

"Welcome to your first day of training. I am Commander Kaughn and I will be you CO and instructor. You will be training along side three other ponies hand picked by me. Two of them have already started their training and will be leading you in PT every morning. You will show them the same respect that you will show me in these exercises. Is that understood?"

"Sir, yes sir!"

"Good. One of them is the one that brought you all here this morning, Lieutenant Sparks." The rusty colored unicorn came to attention and gave a quick salute. "The other is... where the hell did he go.... FLASH, FRONT AND CENTER!" The black pegasus flapped down from the watch tower were he had been watching and landed next to James. "This is Emrald Flash, so far he has the most experience out of all of you with my training so if you have questions or need help with anything, don't hesitate to approach him. The third is the earth pony standing behind you. His name is Feather Touch and he has zero experience with both this training and the military in general. That said, I ask you all to be patient and help him out where he struggles. There are very few of you, so no one can drop out. You're here until you pass. When you do graduate, you get to be a proud bearer of this patch."

He pointed to a circular patch sewn on to his left shoulder. It featured a phoenix, wings spread, clutching a crossed sword and spear. Arching over the fiery bird were the letters RSTG in bold. He and Rarity had based the design off of the emblem used be the SEALs.

"Now, do any one of you have any questions for me?"

The Night Guard pegasus raised a hoof.

"Yes?"

"How did that failure of a guard get in this program?"

"Excuse me?"

"That pegasus, Emrald Flash, was recently kicked out of the Night Guard a few months ago."

James looked at Flash and saw the embarrassed look on the pony's face.

"Well, he is one of the ones I hand picked, personally. He is in this program because he has the potential and drive. You wouldn't question somepony that Princess Luna or Princess Celestia hoof picked, would you?"

"Correct, but neither did, you did sir."

"I was hoof picked by Celestia to recruit and train this force, so if you have that much of a problem with it, you can write a letter to the princess. Now, enough of this time wasting. Sparks, have them all stow their armor, they won't need it any more, then get them settled in their new home. Flash, in my office."

James left the group to carry out his orders and ushered Flash into his back room office. He closed the door behind him and sat at the desk with Flash on the other side, looking worried.

"So what happened?"

"I, well.... I..."

"Take it slow, you're not in trouble here, I just want to know what happened."

The stallion took a deep breath and began, "I was a part of the Night Guard not too long ago. I didn't get in trouble with the law or anything, but one night I really screwed up. There was a break in at a shop in downtown Canterlot. I was on patrol and spotted it first. Instead of calling it in and getting back up, I just went in, trying to play the hero. Turned out there was a family living in the room above as they were the owners. When the intruders caught a sight of me, they panicked and tried to take one of their sons hostage. When they found out that I was the only guard there, they ganged up on me and beat me up pretty badly. Before they left, they robbed the family and set the place on fire. They got away before any of the other patrols showed up. When the investigation was over, I was discharged for incompetence."

"James sat there and stared a moment, making the silver maned pony even more nervous. Finally the human broke the silence.

"None of the family got hurt?"

"No, just some belongings taken and the massive property damage, but their insurance took care of it."

"Meh."

"Meh?"

"Meh."

"That's all?"

"What did you expect?"

"Well I expected... everypony else...."

"What happened, happened. You're here now, just go with it. I'm not gonna hold anything against ya."

"Wow, thanks."

"Just one question."

"What is it."

"If you were in the Night Guard, why don't you have the same coat and wings as the others?"

"Oh, that? It's just an illusion spell they put on the armor. Same with the Day Guard. You'll see when you see them with their armor off."

"Oh, that's it then."

"You worry about the weirdest things."

"It's the weird things that get you in the end."

"Can I ask you something now?"

"Shoot."

"Are you doing ok? I'm mean, you kind of gave me a scare the other day with what you did."

James was caught off guard by the question. He had hoped this wouldn't come up.

"I'm fine. Don't worry about it."

"No, you can't shrug it off this time. I'm your friend James. You can tell me if there's something wrong."

James got up to leave, "I really don't want--"

"You're not leaving until you tell me."

"You know you can't force me to stay and fighting me would be a bad idea."

"Yeah, but I also know that you won't hurt your friends."

James took a deep breath, "Fine. But you can't repeat this to anybody."

"You have my word."

"Well, I've been having these dreams....."

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For the next few weeks the new recruits were tortured with excessive exercise routines. Every morning before the sun even came up, the warrior-turned-drill-instructor would drag his two housemates to the training grounds, rouse the rest of the contingency and punish them with hours of running, push-ups, pull-ups, lifting, and running. They did A LOT of running. Afternoons were spent in the briefing room discussing tactics and strategies. Soon, they came to the topic James wished he never again had to bring up.

"There are numerous ways to stop a threat. You can beat them into submission, you can tie them up, you can disable their ability to fight, but the most permanent solution is of course: death of your target." He pointed to the chalkboard, which had two outlines upon it. One of a pony and one of a human. He went to the pony drawing first. "The most effective way to neutralize the threat it to damage or destroy a vital component of their anatomy. You can puncture or cut the main carotid arteries here in the neck, destroy the heart or lungs in the chest, take out the liver here or the kidneys here." He circled each location as he spoke. "On bipedal creatures such as myself, the lay out is very similar." He marked the same spots on the two legged drawing. "Any questions?"

One of the Day Guard ponies raised a hoof. "Sir, why are we learning about weak spots on humans?"

"Good question. That takes us to the next item." He took out a large piece of parchment that had a detailed picture of one of the creatures he had fought and killed many weeks ago. He had had Sparks create the image magically while he described it. "Because of this." He put it up on the wall next to the chalkboard and secured it with tape. "A group of these creatures ambushed me while I was out in the forest. I've designated them as Lotkin, call sign Lima. From what I experienced during the fight, their physiology is almost identical to mine. However, they are NOT easy to kill. The ones I encountered were skilled warriors. They were also savage, primal, and extremely violent, not to mention cunning. They fight to the last breath, so do not take any chances with them. I'm ordering that no one is authorized to engage them alone. If they are spotted, report their location and wait for back-up. Their kind have been sighted elsewhere, leaving only destruction where ever they are. This unit was created to combat this threat. Now, this concludes this portion of classroom time. Everypony form up outside for your next instruction."

They did as they were told and waited on their instructor as he went around to the back of the building. When he returned he was carrying a cage that held nine pigeons inside. They were a pain in the ass to catch and James hated what he was about to do to them. He had already clipped their wings, now he was going to give them to his recruits.

"These are your new pets. You will name them and care for them. They are unable to fly and you are not allowed to release them until I say so. Understood?"

"Yes sir!"

It was an exercise almost all special ops personnel participated in, only with chickens. The purpose was to cause the recruit to form an attachment to a living being with their emotions tied in. One that would eventually be broken...

Each pony picked a pigeon. James took the large cage back around to the back and returned with nine smaller ones and distributed them to his pupils. He hated what he would eventually force them to do, but it was necessary.

=================================================

The human sighted down the rifle scope, searching for his prey. The moon served as a ghostly source of illumination for the area. About seventy yards down range was a red flag planted in the soft earth of a forest clearing. The human was concealed in a home made ghillie suit he was laying prone on a small ridge, waiting patiently. Suddenly, he spotted movement in a bush near the flag. He calmly switched his fire selector from safe to semi. He soon could just see a small patch of fur through a tiny opening in a bush. The sniper took aim and slowly squeezed the trigger. A faint snap and a puff of smoke emerged from the barrel of the rifle.

"OW! SON OF A--"

James smiled as his target retreated back to base. It was an exercise in stealth and the objective was to capture the flag without being spotted and shot by the Commander. A few days ago, the supplies Sparks ordered to replicate the ammunition for James' rifle and pistol had arrived. The engineer had successfully recreated the rounds and made several boxes of blanks and FMJs. Then James got an idea and after acquiring some rubber, he had the unicorn make some with rubber bullets and weaker charges. That way who ever he shot would get a nasty sting and probably a welt, but nothing more than that.

That was his seventh victim. The only two left now were one of the unicorn from the Night Guard and Feather. The young earth pony was surprisingly good at eluding detection. James stood up and slung his rifle over his back. He took off the ghillie suit and drew his pistol from it's holster. It was time to get in close. Silently, he made his way towards the flag, sliding in and out of shadows while constantly scanning the area for movement, listening for any sounds that didn't match the natural background noise of the forest. When he had come within thirty yards of the flag, he stopped and listened. For a moment he heard nothing out of the ordinary. Then a twig snapped somewhere off to his right. Then the rustling of leaves, but closer. Thinking quickly, James pulled himself up into the branches of a nearby tree. Soon, the unicorn appeared underneath him, heading towards the flag. The pony stopped at the tree line and looked around suspiciously. Calmly and deliberately, James descended from his perch, careful not to make a sound and alert his quarry. Just when the Guardspony was about to take a chance and make a run for the flag, James slipped and arm around his neck and put a hand over his mouth and pulled him back into the shadows. The stallion struggled in his grasp briefly before giving up when he couldn't get free. James released him and the pony turned to face his attacker. James just smiled at the recruit and made a cutting motion across his neck with and index finger. The recruit got the point and begrudgingly made his way back to the compound. James turned his attention back to the object under his protection.

'Almost done, just one more--'

The flag was gone.

'The hell did it go?'

He hadn't heard a thing and he only had his eyes off it for about fifteen seconds. James went out and searched all around, but it was in vain. There was nothing here. Finding no reason to stick around, he went back to his training center. When he arrived, he found eight tired and grumpy ponies and one smug looking earth pony standing next to the red flag.

"Good job everypony. I may have gotten most of you, but it wasn't easy to do so. Feather, that was outstanding. If it were not for the flag disappearing, I would have thought you weren't even participating. Tell you guys what, you've all been doing such a great job that I'm gonna go ahead and give you all the weekend off. Go have fun, relax and unwind, but don't get into trouble and be sure to be here and ready to go at zero-four-hundred Monday morning. Now go get some sleep, you've earned it."

The group let out a cheer at hearing that and retired to the barracks. James sent Flash and Sparks ahead of him while he grabbed his ghillie suit from the forest. The past month and a half had been difficult and draining, but it would soon be over. James was about to start the next and final phase of training. Then there was Hell Week to look forward to. The human smiled as he remembered his own experience with it. Five days of running, swimming through the freezing surf, working out, doing the obstacle courses, all while the instructors were firing weapons over your head, screaming at you and setting off explosions in your face. They hadn't even been allowed to sleep the whole time. And now he got to subject others through that nightmare. It was going to be interesting.

Next Chapter: A Relaxing Day In The Clouds (After A Crazy Night On The Ground) Estimated time remaining: 11 Hours, 39 Minutes
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