Three years of this lonely life.
It was a life I'd grown accustomed to, admittedly. True, I had to watch my own back, I didn't have any friends to spend time with or anything of the sort. I discarded the thought of fun and friends as a waste of time years ago, it was pushed home when those bastards decided to kill Uncle Chuck right in front of my face!
I remember when I still had my parents with me, I sure was a happy kid, but that was years ago, I'm fifteen now, only barely old enough to do what I've been dreaming of all these years. I can join the kingdom's military force and especially make it into the elites, commanded by none other than Grand Commander Shining Armor.
The screams. I remember them vividly, the tone, the pitch...the blood. Sometimes I'd like to think of anything else, something other than my own damn nightmares, guess it can't be helped, it's the whole reason I'm about to jump straight into a war that's been raging on for a good seven years, that's one hella long war right? Yeah, seven years of the innocent living in fear, needless deaths, and soldiers out there fighting to protect those who can't protect themselves.
One other thing that war caused for me, I'd get relapses every so often and I couldn't stop myself before the water works started. Usually, I find a nice, secluded spot in the forest when these occur, I don't need others seeing my moments of weakness.
Well, whatever, I can see the branch castle. It was hard to miss with its humongous size, wasn't as large as the main castle, but it was still pretty damn big! No use wasting time, let's go!
Even the double doors at the front of the place are huge, they're twice my height! Taking one last second to take the huge size of the place in, I exhale and prepare myself for what will definitely change my life forever. I push open the double doors and take the place in entirely, the immediate area was freakin' huge! The place sure wasn't bland like I it would be.
Beige and Green lined the walls in stripes, the flag of the country of Equestria was proudly pinned to the wall. The twin alicorns of sun and moon wrapping around one of another in heart shape, their wings flared out behind them and their horns crossed. I always feel a little more determined whenever I see that, it had an underlying feeling of hope to it.
In truth, I never knew why our country's animal was the pony and I never questioned it either. That's just how it is.
I rip my eyes from the flag and turn to see a large group of people in some kinda waiting area. I take another look at said people, they're all in everyday clothing, so obviously they aren't soldiers...were they cadet hopefuls?
I slowly walk towards the seating area, the damn place was full! People took up a seat every direction I looked in! I barely notice the empty seat next to a mop of...rainbow hair? How much hair dye does one need for hair to be so many different colors?
I walk over and plop myself down on the seat next to the person, I let my bag rest in my lap as I let my eyes wander over to the person next to me. I'm met with a female face and a set of magenta eyes looking back at me, she averts her gaze when I turn to her. Okay...so definitely female, a pretty one at that.
I look her over once more. The first thing I took notice of was the pair of wings folded against her back, so she was a Pegasus-type...Next, I take notice of her lean build, with a glance I can tell she works out often, even with the long sleeves of her hoodie hiding her arms.
I take a look at her outfit, she definitely liked covering herself up. With her long-sleeved blue hoodie, skinny jeans, sneakers and fingerless gloves. Every last part of her body lay beneath the security of clothing, perhaps she was self-conscious? I don't know. I also take notice of her...well-endowed assets, it's obvious she works out, so why are her boobs so big?
Noticing my stare could perhaps be coming off as rude, if not creepy, I decide to actually introduce myself.
"Hey there, my name's Maurice." Yeah, I go with my real name, most people don't know why I'm called Sonic anyway. I extend a hand to go along with my greeting, manners and all that...
She grabs my hand with her own and I see a small smile on her face, "My name's Rainbow. Rainbow Dash." Rainbow Dash? Is that her real name? I'll assume, many people in Equestria had bizzare names. Also, with the knowledge of her name, her hair makes a bit more sense, it's still just a bunch of dye anyway, hair can't come like that naturally.
...
...
Yes, I'm aware that my hair is fucking blue, but that's not the point here.
Now for the million dollar question, "Are you here to sign up for the military?" She gives me a nod, her long hair swishing with the movement. "Me too. How old are you, by the way?" That question does not have to be creepy, it's a simple question stemmed from curiousity...
She either doesn't notice how stalker-like the statement sounded or decided to overlook it, "I'm fifteen. You?" So she's my age, huh? Alright then, someone I can at least relate to in some way...
"Same. Seems like you didn't wanna waste time, fifteen is the minimum age to sign without a guardian." I remark, feeling like a huge hypocrite all the while. I hear her giggle, it sounds light and just a tad boyish, I'll admit that it was kinda cute.
"Like you're one to talk Maurice." Wow, she called me out on my hypocrisy, not that I wasn't asking for it anyway...
I smirk over at her, "Guess you got a point there." I rest my hands behind my head and lean back on my seat, by no means was the damn thing comfortable, but it'll do. The two of us settle into a calm silence as Rainbow passes her time by staring up at the ceiling, I use my own time to analyze some of the other hopefuls, I notice a blonde kid and a redhead who looked a bit older than me. The blondie was definitely no older than thirteen, so he must've had a guardian sign for him and the redhead looked like something crawled up his ass and died.
Turning my attention away from the two, I notice the armored man walk into the room. Nothing about the guy really stands out, he was a standard soldier, meaning he was merely sent to get us.
"Hello, aspiring cadets," His tone makes this sound monotonous and rehearsed on his end, "I am here to welcome you to your new way of life, the way of a proud and brave soldier." He says this while doing the country's salute, a fist over the heart in sworn allegiance to the Princesses.
All the other hopefuls reciprocate the gesture and I simply follow suit, not wanting to show disrespect, I steal a glance at Rainbow and see that she has her wings flared, her expression matches her actions. She's...her eyes, I never noticed how much they looked...like mine.
She's alone, her eyes are filled with hatred...something I'm all too familiar with at this point.
I return my gaze to the soldier as he lowers the salute and turns his back to them, "Follow me please." He begins walking into the hallway he emerged from, we all follow without question. "As you all can probably guess, we cannot take every last one of you into training. Your number is too great." I narrow my eyes at him, I can guess where this is going...
He snaps his fingers as the lights in the hallway fall to the hands of darkness, I narrow my eyes at the darkness, my vision adjusting quickly and I make out several silhouettes coming into sight. And...were they armed?!
With another snap, the lights burst to life again and I hear the other occupants of the room gasp, this included Rainbow, who took a step back out of fear. I level our little guide with a glare, I take a step forward, something that seems to catch the bastard off guard. Heh, am I supposed to be scared of this? A situation that I'm more familiar with than I should be? No way, not after I was in it already.
"Let me guess. A little test, right? To separate the weak from the strong? The cowards from the heroes? The idiots from the geniuses?" I felt my face scrunch up from the glare I was using to stare into their souls, I could also feel the group of hopefuls staring at me as if I'd grown a second head, hell, I could see Rainbow doing it.
"I'm gonna take a shot in the dark and guess this is some kind of test to see how we respond under pressure, right? If we lose our heads or react calmly. That's why you haven't already shot at me to shut me up." I cross my arms, preparing to drop another load of analysis on their heads. "Let's not forget that first thing you said, about being unable to train all of us. That was complete bullshit, in the middle of a damn war and not accepting every soldier you can fucking get? Not ideal." The soldiers stared at me now and I could spy the curving of the first soldier's lips going upward.
"One last thing. Not everyone here is trying to join the combat ranks. There are definitely more than a few engineer, tactician, and medic hopefuls. So, that means everyone isn't going to the same district of training and that means you'd be more than capable of accomadating all present!"
I'm panting slightly, desperately trying to regain lost oxygen from my little rant. I hear clapping and I look to see the man who led us in, his helmet off and his spiky brown hair flaring outwards.
"Nice eye you got there kid. Saw right through our little act." He walks up to me and I have to tilt my head slightly to meet the taller man's eyes. "Cadet Christopher Thorndyke. A pleasure to meet such a sharp mind." I grab his hand and give it a firm shake, guy's got a strong grip...
Deciding not to be rude, I respond. "Maurice Hedges." He nods at my introduction and smirks, he waves on the rest of the hopefuls, most staring at me in awe or fear as they pass, I shrug at them when they do.
Rainbow rushed up to me, pure awe in her eyes. "Oh my god, Maurice! That was amazing! How'd you know?" I smirk at her, shrugging.
"Take enough time to think about what he said and it's simple to figure out." I can see her beaming at me out of the corner of my eye, I wish she'd stop that, makes me feel awkward.
"Alright. Let's go then, before we get left behind." I nod at her as we make our way too where the large group went. Once we caught up to the rest, my eyes widened, what the hell was this? In front of us was a large field of rolling green, I would've called it flat if not for the many cliffs I saw scattered about the place.
Chris sweeps his hand over the large area in front of us, he was smirking, that didn't look good... "Welcome to Gaur Plains, our very own personal training field!" This was just a damn training field?! "Seems big doesn't it? Well, it's about to seem a whole lot bigger." I sure didn't like the sound of that... "You see, our main training facility is somewhere in these fields. It's up to you all to find it." I was about to drop a load of questions on this cryptic asshole's head, but the sly bastard teleported him and his buddies to Celestia knows where. I let out a growl, a little animalistic sounding sure, but that's how it's sounded since I was twelve.
"Dammit! They've left another friggin' test for us!" From the corner of my eye, I notice a girl in the corner of the room with a hand under her chin, I can tell she's thinking about something. I watch as she lifts her head and I can practically see the light bulb dancing above her head.
"I understand!" I give her a slightly curious look, where was she going with this? "They want us to find the way ourselves, right?" Please, common sense tells you that, what the hell was her point? "I think I know how to get to the facility!" I raise a brow, does she really? Guess, I'll have to hear her out then.
"What's your name?" I hear Rainbow ask from beside me, the girl beams at her. "My name's Twilight Sparkle. I wanna sign as a tactician!" Now that makes sense, I can see why she could probably lead us to our destination... "I'm Rainbow Dash!" Rainbow replies and I see the two of them beam at one another. This exchange of smiles and the like is making me sick...
"Nice to meet you! Anyway, we all need to work together on this! Now, do we have any engineer hopefuls?" I see the blonde kid from before raise a tentative hand. He was here as an engineer? Something tells me that he's not what he seems, I'll keep an eye on him.
Sparkle smiles at the kid and I swear I see his face go red, great, he's got a little crush. Little shit better make sure it doesn't distract him... "What's your name?" She asks him, what the fuck is with all these introductions? Does everyone wanna make goddamn friends here or something? This is the military, not some meet and greet to find new friends. It'll be worse when they have to watch those same friends get decapitated or fucking blown to smithereens. I myself didn't want to get attached to any of them here, but that Dash girl had just decided to stick with me...
"Miles, but please call me Tails." Why the fuck would we call you that? You're clearly human and in turn, tail-less, let alone making that plural. I roll my eyes as Sparkle points to a pile of scrap next to the near wall. "Can you make us a compass out of this?" He nods and gets to work, like that kid could finish that in less than an...
What the fuck?!
He already finished it! How the hell did he manage to do that?! That's freaking impossible! No human being can finish something like that so damn fast!
"I'm done! It should be working just fine!" I had to admit, that was really damn impressive. This kid had a future in engineering, a bright one at that. He was a genius.
"Alright kid," I started, stepping up to him and watching him slightly recoil. Poor kid must've looked straight into my eyes, don't blame him, who knows what scary default look I have? "Lead the way." He nodded and turned around, leading the entire group of us hopefuls in the right direction. This kid could prove to be useful in the future, might keep a close eye on him...
We walked through the thick fog coating the deeper area of Gaur Plain, putting our complete trust into Miles. Yes, Miles, because Tails sounds idiotic. It felt like hours while we walked through the fog, I couldn't see my own hand in front of my face, but I could feel Dash at my side. I didn't like it.
Finally, I could see again as we stepped out of the fog, I smirk as I see a building off in the distance. The kid actually did it! He's gotten a few respect points from me!
I was just about ready to blaze off towards the base, screw these guys! I've got training to do. And I would've, if not for the fucking dinosaur in my way. Okay, so it was a Triceratops...not the point, there's a freakin' dino in front of me! I look back at my fellow hopefuls, I'm sure a few have pissed themselves by now. Dash seems to be shaking uncontrollably, she was paralyzed...
Worst part? The damn thing was charging at us now. Why am I so calm? Simple, it's not targeting me, rather, it was after the spectrum top I was looking at before.
...
...
Shit! It's after Dash!
Pushing my legs to their fastest, I flash by and yank Dash out of the way of its jaws coming down on her. I wasn't sure why I bolted like that, my body moved on its own, I already told myself that I wasn't going to get attached to anyone here.
Was Dash...growing on me? I sure hope not.
I didn't really care how the others were probably staring at me, I wasn't concerned about it. We needed to get out of here!
"Alright! We need to move, now! If we can get to the base just ahead, we'll be fine!" I paid little attention to the redhead who glared at me as I gave the orders, like I cared if he didn't agree. Let the fucker become dino fodder for all I care.
We all ran for our lives from the creature looking to eat us for lunch. Damn thing almost took a chunk out of someone in the back, was this a part of the tests they were giving us? This was insane!
The base was close now, just one last push and-
I looked back in time to see the damn thing lose its fucking head, blood spewed from the empty stub on its neck. I stared at it, speechless, not the only one either. The rest of the hopefuls mirrored my reaction, someone landed down before me, sheathing his sword at the the same time the dino's head hit the ground.
I saw black hair, accompanied by red streaks running through it. As they stood from their crouch, I noticed they were a little taller than me, he turned around to meet my gaze. I felt his red eyes gaze at my soul, I felt some kind of...bad vibe from this guy, weird...
"Are you all alright? I apologize for this, Christopher hadn't taken into account the monsters on the plains." His voice was empty, chillingly cold, a little like mine, only without the cynical sarcasm and general unpleasantness. He resembled an empty shell, hollow, heartless.
Devoid of life.
He nodded, even as we all simply stared back at him. "Follow me, I will take you to the base for your final test." He didn't dawdle either, he cut straight to the point.
Wordlessly, we all followed after him, too shocked at what had happened but minutes before. It hit me like a truck. This guy...this guy was...he was an elite! He was what I was aspiring to become...a true warrior.
I felt a tug on my sleeve and I turn around to see Dash smiling at me. It was that damn smile that made me feel awkward! By no means was the smile itself ugly or anything of the sort. In fact, it made her face all the more beautiful admittedly, but I just felt odd around it.
"Thank you so much...for saving me. I would've been dino lunch if you hadn't saved me there." I hoped she didn't hug me or some crap, human contact isn't pleasant as all those hopeless romantic fuckers seem to believe.
"Don't mention it," Seriously, don't. "I couldn't stand there and watch you get swallowed." She smiled at me again, I simply turned away, she might kill me with it. I noticed that we had arrived at the base, the sun long down behind the horizon and the moon coming into its place. Did I forget to mention our princesses did that? Oh. Well, it's an important detail, by the way.
"Yes. We have arrived," He began as he turned to the entire group, a hand on his sword. That...didn't look good. "I would like for all those who intend to sign as tacticians, medics or engineers to enter the building. Soldiers..." He seemed to reach into the base quickly, as if reaching through a hole and tossed out a good number of weapons, swords, bows, hammers, scythes, axes, etc. "You will be facing me." I didn't know my eyes could open that wide, was this guy crazy?! "I am your final test. Those who truly have a passion for joining our ranks will step forward and..." He drew his blade out in a flourish. "Face me!"
I glared at him as I stepped forward, along with the redhead from before. Many of the other hopefuls stared at us as if we'd grown second heads, like I cared, I know I am going to join the military ranks, the elites! I drew a double-edged broadsword as the redhead drew a war hammer, I checked behind us.
Most, if not all of the other hopefuls quit after seeing the final test, those cowards...But, there was one left.
Rainbow Dash.
At first, she seemed a little hesitant. That wasn't my problem though...
So why did I flash her a smile to reassure her? I'm losing control of myself...
She smiles back at me and rushes forward, grabbing a bow from the ground in front of us and that was it, only the three of us remained. The elite who stood in front of us gave the tiniest of smirks. "Glad to see some who have true passion to join. Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Shadow Robotnik." I feel like I've heard that name before...but where?
Whatever, now's not the time to dwell. "Maurice Hedges." I introduce myself and settle into the best stance I can create on the spot. Rainbow Dash nocks one of her arrows and began taking aim at Shadow, I hope she knows how to use that thing...
"My name is Rainbow Dash." That only leaves crimson locks with the hammer. "Knuckles Echids." Shadow smirks and settles into his own stance.
"Good. Now, let the examination begin!"
(Music Insert: Kingdom Hearts-Night of Fate)
I didn't waste any time charging at him, I knew what I looked like swinging the blade. Like a kid with a stick, but that's the only experience I've ever had, Knuckles and Rainbow seemed to be in the same boat. Knuckles swung the hammer to and fro, Dash's shots missed by a good freaking mile or two and my own slashes barely passed as attacks.
Shadow remained silent throughout the entire thing, he was on the defense and seemed to be evaluating us. I growled, here I was, a rookie fighting an elite, a top-rank. How was I hoping to win? I went in for a swing and what happened next was a flash, all I knew was that I was suddenly tumbling across the ground from a nasty kick from Shadow. Knuckles suffered a similar fate when Shadow decked him in the chin and sent him flying upwards, as in HIGH! What kind of insane physical strength did this guy have?! Knuckles crashed down as his back the same time that Shadow tripped Dash off of her feet and grabbed a handful of her hood and launched her at us. On instinct, I caught her before setting her down, Knuckles picked himself off of the ground and held his jaw.
"That bastard can sure hit hard." Tell me about it... "Any plans?" He asked me, I grunt and steady myself on my feet.
"I'm no tactician, but I think our best shot is to work together." They both nod at me, Rainbow picks up her bow and gets ready once again as the three of us line up together as Shadow simply watches us, I can't read this guy at all...
I nod at Knuckles, he nods back. We both charge Shadow simultaneously, Knuckles tries to bring his hammer down first as I zip around to Shadow's back with my speed, I thought we had him trapped.
Oh how wrong I was...
He sidestepped Knuckles' swing and fucking backflipped my horizontal slash, he landed behind me and kneed me in the back, sending me flying forward until I flipped onto my feet and I barely had time to sidestep Knuckles flying at me from Shadow's elbow. I see an arrow go flying at Shadow's shoulder, which slashes in two. He zips over to Dash once more and slams the butt of the sword onto her head.
She was out cold after that.
I glance back to see Knuckles unconscious as well, his hammer resting next to him and his head laying against a tree. Looks like he slammed right into it. Damn! I was alone, it was over, I'd never join! It's hopeless!
...
Wait, what the fuck am I saying! I've dreamed of the day I join since I lost all that was taken from me! I have to join! For my parents! For Uncle Chuck! No way was this bastard getting in my way!
I stood on my shaky legs and gripped my sword until my knuckles were white, I look up through my bangs and glare holes into Shadow. "Listen here..." My voice was low, barely audible. "Your in the way. I'm not letting anybody stand in the way of my goal! Not you! Not the fucking Crystal Empire! Not even the damn princesses! I'm gonna take you down here and reach my dream!" Shadow seems unfazed, he remains silent and stays in stance.
I try a different stance, one that feels a lot more free than the other rigid one I was in before. I bent my knees and held my sword tightly at my side in both hands, with one last glare I charge at him and see black afterwards...
